Things had gotten extremely out of hand incredibly quickly. What started as just a few Capes raging over leaked identities had turned into the whole of the Empire going wild all over the city. Several fires had been set as well as a few car bombs. Kaiser wasn't participating in the carnage, but Fenja and Menja apparently were being allowed to run wild across the Docks.
And I was still here dealing with Hookwolf.
He was taking hits like it was his job, which I guess it was, and just got back up. Granted, I wasn't actually going very hard on him. I didn't want to get lucky and accidentally kill him despite his deserving it. Krieg and Rune had been locked down somehow thanks to Rhapsody and Wraith, meaning Nihilus and I were the only ones still fighting, and that was partially only because Alabaster just kept getting up.
"Sacrosanct, What do we do with these two?" Rhapsody shouted as I grabbed Hookwolf's face and introduced him to the ground.
"Tie them up with something!" I shouted back, stomping Hookwolf's face down to make sure his new relationship was intimate. "You can drop them off with the PRT then deal with whatever else comes up!"
"Right, later boss!" Wraith said as they took off for the Oil Rig with Rune and Krieg in hand.
"Ow, Fuck!" I shouted, jumping back from Hookwolf when I felt a blade shoot through my foot.
"You're a lot stronger than you look, girl," Hookwolf growled as he stood up. "Maybe you'd actually be a good fit for the Empire if you weren't a race Traitor. Or a dirty Jew."
"Why does everyone think I'm Jewish?" I asked in exasperation. "It's super fucking annoying being mistaken for something I'm not."
"Huh, could've fooled me. I almost thought you were a boy first time I saw you in action. Never would've guessed without that hair."
I was largely over my body issues, having come to accept myself. But that was a low blow. I felt my fists ball in anger at the comment.
"Oh, did that hit a nerve?" He laughed.
I was in front of him before he could even begin to react, leg cocked back to kick him. I let loose with far more power than usual and punted him into the air. A shockwave rocked the nearby cars and sent the debris on the ground flying.
I stopped, staring as the silver wolf flew into the sky for several seconds before sighing.
"Okay, maybe I'm not as over it as I thought I was," I said, running a hand through my hair.
"Wow, that was an amazing kick, Sacrosanct," Nihilus said, ducking under a stab from Alabaster.
"How are you not done with him yet?"
"He just keeps getting up and I don't have anything to tie him up with."
I sighed and scratched my head. No wonder the Empire was so hard to get rid of when they had so many Capes who could just tank hits like nothing.
"Rip the window part off a car and tie him up with it. We need to get after Hookwolf soon."
"Okay!" Nihilus said, ripping the door off a flipped car and slicing the window frame from the rest of the door. She sliced Alabasters legs off and quickly wrapped the metal around his arms as tight as she could.
"Great. Now, let's drop him off at the PRT and get after the rest of the Empire."
We were standing over the deck of the Oil Rig in an instant, Rhapsody and Wraith apparently held up by the Heroes. New Wave specifically.
"— Your group is the cause of all this!" Brandish said heatedly.
"We didn't do anything. Whoever outed them, it wasn't us. We wouldn't know where to start," Wraith said.
"Liar!"
"New Wave," I said as Nihilus dropped Alabaster to the ground below. "Fancy seeing you here. I actually had some legal questions for you, Brandish. You're the one that's a lawyer, right?"
"Why?" Lady Photon asked.
"I don't represent criminals," She spat.
"So hostile. We're not criminals. How much are your consultation fees? Do you work with property or should I go to someone else?"
"I wouldn't take a consultation fee from villains. You think you can erase breaking someone out of PRT custody by fixing your mess?"
"Well, first off all, this isn't our mess. No idea who caused it, but it wasn't us. Second, Canary didn't deserve to go to the Birdcage."
"That's not for you to decide! She was tried and she deserves the punishment she was given."
"So you think all Capes deserve to be sent to the Birdcage for an accidental misuse of their powers? That's quite a bold statement considering what your daughter gets up to."
"Are you accusing one of my team members of committing crimes?" Lady Photon asked.
"What did Amelia do?" Brandish seethed.
"Quite telling you think it's Panacea that did something wrong. No, it's Glory Girl."
"How dare you accuse my daughter of—,"
"Brandish, calm down," Lady Photon held her sister back. "What are you implying?"
"Just that if she thinks Capes should go to the Birdcage for a single accidental misuse of their powers, she shouldn't be the one making that choice when her golden child fucks up regularly. A few weeks ago, just after we took down Lung, Nihilus and I were patrolling the edge of Downtown and we stumbled on an interesting situation. Glory Girl trying desperately to get her sister to heal a skinhead she'd nearly killed. What was it she did?"
"Kicked a dumpster at him," Nihilus said.
"My daughter would never—,"
"That's right! She lost her temper and kicked a dumpster, nearly killing an unpowered member of the Empire. Then she tried to emotionally manipulate Amy into fixing her mistake for the, what was it?"
"Sixth time."
"Sixth time," I repeat. "Not that I particularly care what fate befalls those fuck face Nazi's but I think nearly killing six people because she can't keep control of her powers or temper is quite a problem, don't you? I believe I recall Panacea threatening not to heal him despite the trouble it would cause specifically because Glory Girl needed to learn a lesson in… What is it New Wave is all about?"
"Accountability," Lady Photon ground out, glaring at her sister.
"Accountability!" I parrot. "Indeed." I landed and started walking toward Brandish. "We're working to make this city a safer place for everyone. I don't need some washed up hero who can't even be bothered to teach her daughter proper control telling me how to operate."
"How dare you—."
"We're leaving," I said to the others, turning away from Brandish. We started to take off and I stopped to look back at Brandish. "Maybe get your own shit together before you start casting stones," I said before taking off after the others.
"That was intense," Rhapsody said.
"I almost thought we would have to fight New Wave right there," Wraith said. "Where's Hookwolf by the way?"
"He touched a nerve I thought was scabbed over and I accidentally kicked him into the Stratosphere. We'll have to find him soon. You guys take off to handle anything you can. I'll go deal with the Twins in my area."
"Right."
Everyone splits off and I head for the Twins. Fenja and Menja are stomping across the boardwalk, like Kaiju. I charge up a Cero and blast Fenja in the leg, knocking her down. Menja rushed at me after seeing her sister drop, swinging her sword at me, which I dodged effortlessly by dropping down a few feet. I shot forward, throwing as much force into my blow as I thought would hurt but not kill her. I felt a bone give a bit and she screamed, leaning forward. That was probably a fracture.
I blast her in the knee and she topples over. I hear Fenja try to hit me from behind and start to phase through the blade when I feel someone else appear and stop the blade. I take the moment to kick Menja in the jaw before turning to see who helped me.
I'm surprised to see it's not any of the others, but Missy instead. She looked different, dressed in slightly loose white pants and a long sleeved martial arts shirt with the front and back ends extended down to her knees. She was taller, too, by maybe four or five inches, and she had horns sticking up from either side of her head that jutted outward slightly then came back in and went straight up, Those alone added another eight inches to her height. She also had extra arms, three bone white arms on either side, half of which were being used to hold Fenja's sword.
"I take it you're done with whatever you had to do?"
"Yeah," She nodded.
Fenja took advantage of her distraction and tried to shield bash her, but the attack was stopped cold by her real arm.
"Got a name?"
"Gorgon."
AN: Heyo. So, sorry about missing Monday. School caught up with me and I didn't have time to work on the chapter. More than that, I've got some other stuff going on that's lowered both the amount of time I have to write and my general motivation. So I'm moving chapters to Saturdays since it gives me more time to get things the way I like instead of twice a week. If I have enough time I might end up doing doubles, but for the time being I'm switching over to once a week.
Also, for those wondering about Missy's outfit, she's dressed like Zommari Rureaux just without a super deep V cut.