"Flare!" Evan shouted.
There was a brief whistle as the flare speared up towards the sky. As if in response, one of the beasts perched in a window frame spat a glob of caustic goo at them.
Shane went down screaming, smoke pouring off him as his suit was consumed and the acid reached his flesh.
They couldn't afford to stop. Evan fired a single bullet through Shane's skull without slowing his run. Holler got the thing in the window. It exploded violently, globs of acid spraying through the area to steadily eat away at the surrounding architecture.
Evan reloaded, all too aware of how quickly he was going through clips. Lady was covering their retreat with foam, but the foam would run out.
One of the helicopters had approached, laying down additional foam to help. There were no safe places here, no places to find cover. The best they could hope for was to get to a spot they could evacuate from. There wasn't a living soul left in the city, nobody to save.
The sound of the explosions had drawn the attention of others. They were pouring from nearby buildings. Concentrated rifle fire tore through their ranks, but did little to stem the overall tide.
"Captain!" Lady shouted.
He turned to see that she was all right, then saw what she was pointing at. One of the things, a pear-shaped woman with thick legs and no arms, was standing with her legs shaking from strain as she virtually spewed a mess of creatures out onto the ground. They clawed and bit their way free of the sacs that held them and wasted no time in starting to crawl, lurch and run towards his squad.
Holler gunned the mother-thing down before she could finish or spew more abominations from between her loins.
Things were clicking into place. It made sense, now, how the situation had gotten out of control so quickly. How Rinke had seized the city so totally and absolutely. It wasn't just that he was a master-class cape who could make monsters with abilities of their own. He could make monsters that bred, monsters that gave birth to more monsters.
"Flare!"
Holler fired another flare into the sky.
Evan reached for his radio, shouting at the top of his lungs to be heard over the gunfire, even his own gunfire. "Squad two needs an evac, stat! We just sent a flare up! Where are those capes!?"
"Helicopters one and two down, squad two. Your capes vacated the scene."
"Incorrect," came a voice over the comms. Male, it was a scratchy, echoey tone, marked by electronic interference. Evan didn't know it.
"They were ordered out."
"What do you mean they were ordered out!?" Evan cried back as he gunned winged beast that was trying to swoop down on them from overhead.
"Helicopter three is your best bet for extraction," the voice continued. "They are currently providing support to squad three north of your position; YOU SHOULD GET TO THEM QUICKLY... My Operator should be there to assist momentarily."
"You heard the man. Move!" Questions could be asked later, Evan realized. He had his team to worry about now.
They didn't get to move before the ground rumbled. A clawed hand speared up through the pavement, nearly catching Tieu by the leg. The pavement strained and cracked as whatever was beneath tried to break the surface, the hand grasping at the surface and leaving groves as it did so.
They bypassed it, Tieu waiting a moment before launching a grenade back at it.
A second grenade round cleared away one more crowd, and they hurried through the gap.
Four of us left.
Without Coldiron, they only had a single grenade launcher, limiting how fast they could deal with the massed crowds.
"Holler, need ammo!"
Lady directed a stream at the nearest crowd, aiming the spray at their heads, so any spray that missed would catch the ones who stood behind them. When one tipped forward, the expanding foam served to create a barrier that caught others.
Holler pulled off his bag, handing out clips. Evan tucked away the ammunition as fast as it entered his hand, pausing only to reload and shoot down the creatures closest to them.
He turned his head as he heard a voice.
"-Eat! Eat!"
"Go!"
They'd defaulted to a four-man squad, bounding tactics, but fast and loose in the execution.
Lady was the center point; the foam would block off areas or cover the rear. From there Evans would lead getting to a spot that Lady would move up to without getting slowed down. He alternated with Holler and Tieu, covering each other to cover Lady.
The voice…
A laugh. Not the gibbering noise of the creatures, but all too human.
He spotted the culprit. A man, potbellied and hunchbacked. The style of dress was similar to the patchwork brute they'd fought first, with bright, contrasting colors that he couldn't quite make out in the gloom. There were jarring patterns with stripes here and checkers there. He wore a cloth crown, and his cloth mask featured beads for eyes and a perpetual leer of a smile.
Rinke.
"Rinke!" he screamed the word. He took aim and fired.
He hit his mark. The man went down, and the creatures wheeled on him, screaming, squealing. If he'd had any doubt about his target, the reaction dispelled it.
Then he saw Rinke stand.
"You would shoot me!?" Rinke roared. If anything, his voice was all the more terrifying because it sounded so small, so human. "I create life! I am a go…"
Rinke was cut short as dozens of rounds poured into him. A cape, all but flying as they launched themselves off of a nearby building, rifle blazing at Rinke.
Pure white armor, which faded to green at the ends of its arms and puffed up feet. Some kind of gold design lined the figure's arms and was in place at the hips, sticking out like a kind of knob on those last two parts. her neck was extended by golden rings, reminding Evans of some pictures of women in Africa. On its shoulders and shins, three wing-like extensions stuck out to the sides and back, colored a mix of white and green. Bit of golden energy flowed from the two circler positions on the back of the near featureless curved helmet, replicated by the two vent-like protrusions on its upper back.
Golden orbs floated all around it, dozens of them, and one of them suddenly shot off to peg one of the creatures in the face. It died in an explosion that took most of its upper body with it.
Rinke fell, and dozens of his creations threw themselves on top of him blocking the shots. Some of the ones even attaching Evans squad turned and ran back, making all the easier to target the ones that were a threat.
The new cape landed in the midst of a mass of the creatures. and suddenly dozens of them died, limbs, torsos and even heads flying everywhere as the cape craved a path through them.
Evan caught a glimpse of a blade, thin, black, nearly transparent, as it sliced effortlessly though a creature, and then three more in a single strike.
"Watch your eyes."
The voice held a radio-type tilt to it, staticky, and utterly calm. The newcomer launched themselves high into the air as it and flicked out a hand, gold lining the back of its fingers reflecting from the fading flare.
An orb appeared, blue, swirling like fast running water, a trail of blue-white motes floating after it. It spun and traveled down, the capes gun pouring fire down upon it as it flew towards the mass that covered Rinke.
The female voice spoke again, six words, calm, measured.
"No such thing as gods."
Then the orb hit.
The shockwave knocked Evan to the ground, one of his squad hitting him on the way.
Ears ringing, Evan pulled himself up. There was nothing left where Rinke was but a crater.
At first, he thought the ringing wasn't going away as he took aim once more, but then it realized that it was something else. Something far more worrying that hearing damage.
Every one of the creatures was yelling, crying, keening, shouting, moaning. They mixed into a racket that drew a shiver down Evans's spine. Then they charged.
It was different, less contained, if one could say that. They no longer cared about what was in their way as they came at the squad, some even striking at their own in their haste to get to them.
Lady did what she could to suppress the enemy's approach, laying down the foam, but there were too many, and their irregular sizes and shapes made it impossible to cover all of them with the foam. If she aimed high, she missed the little ones. If she aimed low the bigger ones leaped over and others walked on top of the ones who'd become stuck.
A spine caught him in the midsection. Before he could react, another struck home. They penetrated his armor to stab into his stomach like hot knives. He caught a glimpse at one of the bastards that was spitting the things at him, gunned it down from his spot on the ground before it could shoot again.
He could hear the helicopter's approach, knew it was too late. They were too on top of the squad, the helicopter would face the fate of the others if they set down.
"Ring!" he gasped out the word. He could barely breathe, couldn't move. Felt like a weight was sitting on his chest, every word he uttered came out thinner than the last. "Circle us, make it hig-"
One of the winged flyers, unseen by the simple fact they had forgotten to look up, dropped down on Lady. She screamed as the beast drove her down to the ground face first, pinning her as it tried to cut through her armor with vicious looking claws and get around the tank she wore.
Holler rushed past, bypassing Evan on the ground. He understood. Without the sprayer, they would be overrun.
Evan dropped a clip as he tried to reload, and reached for another. He glanced over in time to see Holler go down, but it took him a moment to see why. The flyer had brought smaller ones, most no bigger than a handspan, carrying them on itself no doubt. They swarmed over Holler, picking at the gaps in his armor, the joints. Sharp claws digging past the armor and finding flesh underneath.
Suddenly dozens of the creatures surrounding them died in moments, cut down by the flash of rounds. The new cape slid into the middle of the group, the last few orbs spinning off into the crowd, grasping Holler by the back of his neck and tossed him aside. He hit the ground and rolled, no doubt painfully, but it dislodged most of the creatures on the man.
Several more of the horde died to Even's fire, but it was hard to breathe at this point. Even harder to reload.
He was having a hard time breathing at all. Had one of the spines caught him in the diaphragm?
They were relentless, never-ending, single-mindedly moving forward. A hoard of eyes and misshapen bodies.
Then they would get cut down by the figure, its reloads so fast that all he saw was the blurring of its oddly shaped gun as it twisted in place to hit every target and any target. Not the spray of panic fire, no.
This was measured, precise. Bigger ones were targeted to block the littler ones with the bodies. Flyers plucked out of the air with but three rounds, falling to the ground with missing heads and torsos.
During one reload, the top-mounted drum flicking into the night, one creature leapt onto its back as it turned, biting down on the shoulder with a mouth lined with needle-like teeth.
The cape calmly reached over and popped its now toothless head like a grape in a single hand, never letting up the fire with the other.
It was female, Evan noted suddenly. The curves on her chest faint, but there, just under a glowing symbol.
She was single-handedly keeping the squad alive.
"No, stop and hold there. Twist thirty degrees to the right and prepare to receive wounded."
Her voice came in over the radio, and Evan realized that the helicopter was hovering nearby.
"Just do it, all four need medical attention now and you have no time to land. You might be able to save three if you fly fast afterwards. I'll get them to you."
The helicopter stopped and twisted in place. The cape spun, her hand flicking out once more.
It was like being on a drug trip. A rectangle, red and rippling, frayed at the edges, appeared in place in front of the cape. It swirled inwards, giving the appearance of it being 3d on the inside. From it, a wavering flickering string of light lead up, to the hovering helicopter.
There was a dull Twam-upoo as Lady was thrown through by the cape, her tank removed and embedded into the attacking flyers face with force. The cape put several rounds into the tank as it crashed into a crowd, and it exploded into a mass of foam.
Lady vanished and Evan could hear shouts of surprise coming over the comms.
Holler staggered over, holding up Tieu, who wasn't moving, gun in his other hand belting out fire.
One second, they were standing there, in front of the portal, the next they were gone.
Then the cape was beside him, reaching forward with one hand to just snap the spears off where they entered the armor.
He must have yelled because the cape spoke.
"You still feel pain, good. You might still live. Brace."
Then he was airborne, flying through the air towards the portal. He expected a transition, a feeling of movement.
Instead, one second he was in the middle of a fight on the ground, dozens, if not hundreds of creatures closing in. The next? He was landing painfully on the floor of the helicopter, grunting.
There was seven of them inside. One of them must have been the gunner that stayed behind with the helicopter. Three of the others were his team. He didn't know about the last two, survivors of another team?
Two of them were giving medical assistance, and they dragged Evan away from the door, past the sitting Holler, to where Lady was lying face down.
The helicopter moved, and just in time. One of the creatures popped into existence from the portal, slamming into the side of the helicopter. It fell away to the ground below. The second one was luckier.
It grabbed on the helicopter, its overly long arms scrambling for a grip. Claws hooked around the edge of the door, and it swung in, howling with inhuman chitters.
Holler was the closest and it reached for him. He gave the three-foot-tall creature a boot to its face and it wrapped a claw around his ankle and kicked back towards the door.
Sharp claws tore into flesh and the creature yanked its way back inside. It dragged its way up Holler and the man staggered to his feet, fighting the creature as it tore into him.
There was shouting from the pilot, and the helicopter shuttered from another impact. A spear of bone shot through the side of the heil. One of the uninjured troopers calmly grabbed a rifle and emptied the clip into the wall next to and around the spear.
Holler was being helped by the other, both of them struggling to get the creature off of the man.
Evan realized that he didn't have his gun. Their armor would have taken the impacts.
The second trooper staggered back from a blow to the face, scratches forming on the faceplate, then hitting the floor hard from a misstep. They didn't get up, but they still moved. Alive, but out of the fight.
Holler slammed the splitting beast against the wall, twice, before twisting around and trying it on the other side with a run. The pilot was yelling something again and Holler staggered in another direction. Evan noted detachedly that the creature having a hand all but embedded into his side.
Towards the open door.
They both vanished as they tumbled outside.
Then it was quiet. The trooper that had grabbed the gun staggered over to help the other up and then they got to work on the others.
A bandage was pressed into his gut, and his hand was forced on top of it.
"What about the cape?" Evan found himself asking.
"She told us to go. We left."
The trooper turned away to help with Lady, the back portions of her armor ripped open and both of them working hard to stem the bleeding.
Three teams of six, reduced to just six total. Seven, if you counted the pilot. All from what? Less than an hour-long mission?
Evan realized that he should feel something more about this, but he was just… numb.
"Whoa! Hold on."
Now what?
"Helicopter three to perimeter teams, be advised. My instruments just went haywire, and the stick is sluggish. I'll try to keep her in the air but be ready for an emergency lan-"
A thunderous explosion sounded outside, rattling the airframe. The helicopter jumped and shifted, and Evan found himself sliding towards the front of the helicopter.
Very fast in fac-
Darkness.
The room only held three people, four if you counted the teleconference from Watchdog.
"How are the six recovering?" this, from Chief-Director Costa-Brown. The one that requested, demanded, this meeting. In front of her, a scattering of reports lay, all focused on what happened in Ellisburg just two days previous.
"Two are still in surgery, last I heard," This was from the PRT officer. He stood at attention, leftover from his time as an army captain.
"One of them wasn't expected to make it. Thomas Calvert will be facing charges after we've gotten everything in order. Another is in a coma, and one is going to be wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life. The last is doing well, but will have scars on her face unless she goes for the plastic surgery."
"And Ellisburg?"
"We're still picking through what little remains." This one wasn't PRT, but part of the civilian support teams. The background workers, as it were. They gave extra hands wherever they were needed, freeing up the PRT troopers to do the dangerous work.
"But… there isn't much left of the town."
"People are concerned," spoke the PR rep for this meeting. Not Costa-Browns usual choice, she was out sick with food poisoning. Her subordinate would have to do.
"The shockwave was detected internationally, through seismometers. At first, it was worry that Behemoth was coming to the surface, but as more information started to come in, things started to get better. And worse."
"We'll focus on that later, for now we need to understand exactly what happened there. Is this report accurate on the trooper's testimonies?"
"Yes ma'am."
"It states that the cape that showed up told the troopers that the Protectorate capes were ordered to leave the area. But no such order was given."
There was a pause in the room and Rebecca looked up to glance around the room.
"If it was, it would have had to come from either the Director PRT at Toronto or the Protectorate. As far as I am aware, neither give that order, and we need to find out what really happened."
"Director… two of the capes there were trained under Argonaut; they won't have just ran."
"Which is all the more reason to find out what happened there. So find out what did. If it was a communications problem, or if one of the capes faked a transmission, then find out about it."
"… yes ma'am."
Rebecca knew this was necessary, even if it caused guilt to drip into her gut. It had been Doctor Mothers idea; she had used the Observant and had stumbled across Rinke and what he could do. Having an easily assembled army for the End Fight would be useful, but they needed to see what they could really do.
Finding out from Contessa that they could Trigger as well made the decision easier. And every time Rebecca said those things to herself, she believed it just that little bit more.
"It would be best to keep this all quiet," Rebecca continued after a moment. "It will be one thing for the world to learn of Ellisburg, another to learn of the situation around it. The fact that an unknown cape stepped in, using weapons that defied the Unwritten Rules in every way and destroyed the town after single handily rescuing the assault team there. Especially for a cape that wears the mark of the Clan. As for the cape herself… do we still have nothing about the explosive she used on the town?"
"Nothing concrete," said the Watchdog rep. "Though… there was a… theory, that was passed around."
"Which would be?"
The man on the screen hesitated. "It has to do with the reports leading up to the explosion. The pilot reported having electrical instrument malfunctions, the same thing was reported with the perimeter teams. The field was reportedly detected all the way to Toronto, partly at least. Such a field strength, coupled with the explosions size and lack of remaining residue… well, it's just a theory."
"And this theory," Rebecca pressed. "Would be?"
"… Antimatter."
HunterSeeker: What were you thinking!?
GrandMaster: That Rinke needed to be stopped, and that the PRT wasn't going to do it. Not with the rot they have within.
PathFormer: You can't keep doing this, we took Oaths.
GrandMaster: Not all the same Oaths.
BuildPlaner: Does it matter? Some of them were Unspoken.
HunterSeeker: It does.
GrandMaster: I'm sorry? Who is the Grand Master of this Clan?
DataFinder: As such you should know better. How long have you been at one place?
GrandMaster: Oh that's rich, considering that HK is right here.
HunterSeeker: I do good work for the Clan in the PRT! Half of what you do comes from that work!
GrandMaster: And you don't need everyone else permission to do it! Yet I go out and take care of a few things, and everyone freaks!
BuildPlaner: It would be better if you bought one of us with you…
GrandMaster: Fine, you want to come to the next mission?
DataFinder: You going on another one?!
GrandMaster: Sure, I do them in bursts, helps keep the world guessing on our strength. I Hot Swap sometimes even.
DataFinder: That's extremely bad for your health! You know about the Void Feedback!
GrandMaster: I'm not a child! And I would apprec-
BoneBeast: Alert! I've detected a Void Ripple occurring! Location is Peru, Ordis will try to narrow down the location.
DataFinder: I have the location, working with Ordis.
GrandMaster: I'm going.
HunterSeeker: Not alone you're not.
BuildPlaner: No, none of us are close enough to help and Void Ripples happen fast. This one is building quickly and needs to be contained. Go.
GrandMaster: Already en route.
HunterSeeker: Fine, just be safe. Not every Parahuman is a pushover compared to a Warframe.
GrandMaster: When am I never not safe sister? This is just another Tuesday for me.
