Madison wasn't entirely sure what to expect when she arrived at the meeting location for her teams raid. She wasn't worried, at least not for herself, but she wasn't sure what to think of her teammates for the night except for Grue. She knew him, knew she could work with him no problem. She hadn't talked to Ballistic, so didn't know much about him except what Tattletale had told her and that was only that he was gruff and tended to be rough around the edges but was generally tolerable. The Nazi's, however… She wasn't sure she could trust them to not be racist long enough to get this night over and done with.
She counted herself lucky it was only Victor, Rune, and Othala. She felt bad Purity and Samael had to deal with Krieg, Hookwolf, and Cricket, but she wasn't going to trade. No sir, she was not the one to deal with that powder keg. She'd probably do something that would get whole group into trouble. Samael might have had the most destructive powers, but it was a lot harder for him to blow someone up than it was for her to pop their head with a bubble. In fact, she'd gotten so used to using her bubbles she started doing so almost unconsciously at times. She'd be at school or at home and just find a bubble floating in her field of view. She almost annihilated one of her favorite stuffed animals once when she'd made some without thinking.
Taylor had said it was from getting used to her powers. She explained that she'd done the same thing with phasing for a while after mastering it, just casually walking through walls or grabbing thing out of the fridge without opening the door. All it meant was they had to be conscious of when they used their powers so they wouldn't out themselves. It was annoying, but she'd get used to it.
She stepped through the other side of the Garganta to her teams designated meeting spot, an empty building across the street from their target. The building looked more like it was in the middle of construction than abandoned, though she guessed both could be true at the same time.
Ballistic was sitting on the unfinished staircase while Grue was keeping an eye out on activity from their target. Rune was walking around touching chunks of brick, concrete, or any sheet of metal she could find while Victor and Othala sat on the floor on the opposite side of the room.
"Nihilus, glad you could make it. You're the heaviest hitter we have." Grue said, glancing back at her before looking back at the target building.
"What can you do?" Ballistic asked.
"Shaker with some Trump stuff. I can make bubbles filled with pressurized air and create a domain field that lets me set the terms." She explained. "Also have a brute rating."
Ballistic grunted but nodded.
"You can fly right?" Victor asked, getting up.
"Kinda. Why?"
"I want you in the sky with Rune while we breach. Make sure no one leaves and nothing can get the drop on us from the outside. You'll watch the West end where Grue and Ballistic will be infiltrating while Rune will watch me and Othala on the east end." He explained.
"Wait, Othala is coming with you?" She asked, confusion evident even through her masks warble.
"Yes. You have a problem with that?" He stood a bit straighter, trying to intimidate her.
Madison raised her hands in surrender.
"No, no problem. Just surprised. She doesn't have the type of powers you'd want on the front lines."
"Her powers work best on contact. I can protect my wife from whatever we face."
"I never said you couldn't. Anything more to that plan?"
"Not particularly. Deal with threats as needed, avoid lethal force, don't get bombed. That's all there is to this."
"Fair enough."
"We move out in ten. Get ready if you aren't." He ordered before going back to Othala.
Madison watched the others idly at first, not really bothering to engage anyone. Until she noticed that Rune had run out of things to touch.
"You're a tactile telekinetic right?" Madison asked.
"Why?" Rune asked, her voice harsh.
"You should get some rebar." She suggested.
"What?"
"Rebar. You know, those metal poles inside walls and stuff? It could be like a spear or something when you throw it with your power. And since rebar is thing and it's night, whoever you hit with it probably won't see it coming."
"And where do you propose I get rebar in here? It's not like I can take a walk to the hardware store."
"Well," Madison started, floating a bubble up to one of the thick pillars around the room and popping it, revealing the thin metal bars beneath the concrete and plaster, "I did say it was in walls."
"That still doesn't help—." Rune stopped talking as she watched Madison rip a strip of rebar from the pillar like it was made from plastic and straighten it out.
"So, how many do you think you'll need?" Madison asked, holding the fifteen inch pole out to Rune.
"Can I have thirty?"
"Sure."
—
The building they were targeting wasn't all that large. It was a single floor factory or production facility or something like that, Madison didn't know which. It was on the edge of the docks leading into the Trainyard, so chances were it was a place for storing shipping containers to prep them for transport by train. She knew that places like this tended to have large open spaces and ling lines of sight. If Bakuda was here she would have the time of her life firing off bombs at range. She might not be able to move well in Grue's darkness, but that didn't really matter when you had bombs that could do the things hers could. She and Ballistic would be the only ones who could actually do damage in that case, and Ballistic might just end up killing her.
She gave the thumbs up and Rune did the same. Ballistic touched the door and sent it flying off its hinges into the building while Victor used a blast charge. Why he didn't just have Rune throw something through the door was beyond her, but she wasn't going to think about that. She and Rune examined the area around the building for a minute, explicitly ignoring the sounds of fighting from inside like Victor told them before going in.
It was immediately a cluster fuck. Grue and Ballistic were trying to deal with Oni Lee while Victor took on Newter and Spitfire. Othala was staying back to offer support, touching him whenever he seemed to need it or moving behind him when she was about to get attacked. The building was littered with shipping containers and broken machinery but there was still a clear path to the opposite side.
Patches of darkness were scattered around the area, limiting where Oni Lee could teleport to. The problem was it also blocked Ballistic's line of sight. Madison summoned bubbles to try to help block Oni Lee, only to palm her face when he teleported past them. They were clear, so of course they didn't block his sight enough for that to work.
She heard a click behind her and moved. She felt the heat from the massive explosion, but didn't bother to see what it did.
"This is ridiculous!" Grue shouted, rolling away from one of the grenades. "We need to stop him. I can't blanket the area or he starts tossing grenades everywhere." He said.
"He's too fast for me to hit. By the time I can fire he's already moved." Ballistic said.
"I can keep up with him." Madison said. She didn't necessarily need to, but the chances of hitting him with her bubbles were low when he could teleport from place to place instantly with a look. She heard another click and dashed away. "Now if only I could find him." She growled.
"Here!" Grue called. Madison was on him in a second, kicking at him only for the black clad man to explode into dust.
Her eyes scanned the area and she spotted him, getting in front of him before he could blink. She punched and he exploded into dust again.
It was like the most intense game of cat and mouse the world had ever seen. Oni Lee would teleport only to be accosted by Madison a second later, even destroying his clones before they could pull the pin on whatever bomb he had. With Grue limited where he could teleport and Ballistic firing off shots of ball bearings to keep him in, Oni Lee had to get more creative. He started dropping bombs the second he landed, hoping to get Madison off guard. He got her, once, with a fire bomb. It did no damage to her and actually spooked him enough he seemed to consider running.
"One down!" Victor called.
She looked to see Spitfire on the ground, arms tied with twisted rebar.
Thinking Oni Lee was distracted, Madison lunged at him. He turned to dust as her foot met his head and Rune screamed.
"Othala!"
The looked to see the young woman dropping to the floor behind her husband.
"You'll pay for that you—." Victor wound up for a punch only to have a grenade stuck to his chest. He tried to pull it off but his top half was gone before he could touch it.
"Of fuck!" Newter shouted, backing away from the bodies.
"You'll pay for that!" Rune shouted, all of the rebar pieces she had shot towards Oni Lee, who turned to dust.
Grue and Ballistic were running over to help in some way.
Rune was going crazy, the debris she had spinning around and shoot at ever place she even thought she spotted Oni Lee, who was teleporting around the room like mad. He couldn't get close enough to Rune to stab her and none of his clones survived long enough to suicide bomb her.
Ballistic joined in trying to hit Oni Lee while Grue put up some clouds to limit his teleporting. It was chaos, everyone except herself, Newter, and Spitfire throwing their powers around.
"Enough!" Madison shouted, throwing down a Negative Zone large enough to cover the building. Grue's Darkness disappeared and Rune fell from the sky.
Oni Lee apparently saw this as his chance. He dropped two grenades to distract Madison and tried to teleport to Rune only to find himself still in place. The realization didn't last long before he was blown to bits, air and fire grenades sending him up in an instant inferno that left nothing left when it was over.
The room was quiet for a moment before muffled sobbing could be heard from Rune.
"Fuck." Grue sighed.
"Newter." Madison called, startling him out of his shock and awe.
"Y-yes ma'am?" He asked, backing away slightly.
"Where's Bakuda?"
"I-I don't know. Only Boss knows right now. We split up earlier tonight and were told to come here."
"You know what happens if I find out you're lying, right?" She asked sweetly, bubbles floated down and annihilating the ground next to him.
"I'm not!" He shouted in panic. "I swear to God I'm not lying, please!"
"What do we do now?" Ballistic asked.
"I guess we go to our next spot." Grue sighed.
"What do we do about her?" He pointed to Rune, who had calmed down a bit.
"No idea." Madison said. "Rune! You can go if you want. No one will make you stay after losing teammates."
Rune didn't say anything, didn't move. The others shrugged, unsure of how to help her. They didn't like her, how could they considering the gang she was in, but they did feel a bit bad for her losing her teammates and, if her reaction was anything to go by, close ones.
"W-what are you going to do with is?" Newter asked.
"Not sure. What do you think we should do?" Madison asked.
"L-listen, we didn't want it to go this far! Bakuda hired us for security and started making threats when we wanted to back out."
"Well, I don't really care what you do or why. But you should probably leave before Rune decides she wants you dead as conspirators."
Newter nodded, grabbing Spitfire and taking off for the back door.
"We're really gonna let them leave?" Ballistic asked.
"They aren't our objective. Let's get—." Madison's phone buzzed and she pulled it from her dress. "Never mind. Sacrosanct said they caught Bakuda. We're good to go."
The others nodded and Madison dropped her field, letting powers come back. The whole fight had lasted maybe twenty minutes and she felt exhausted. The after action report was going to suck.
AN: So this was supposed to be 3.5, and I hadn't originally planned for interludes here, but I needed more time for that and decided showing these bits instead of telling after the fact would be better. I actually expected this to be longer than it was, but I think it ended up fine without too much fluff.