With Gorgon fighting Fenja that left me to focus all of my attention on Menja. Without having to worry about being tossed half way across the city from not paying attention to one of them, I can afford to go a little harder. Her sword slashes are fast for her size, but still significantly faster than they look like they should be. Which would be a problem if I actually had to worry about her surprising speed.
I sped forward and kicked her in the face with enough force that she stumbled back, then hit her again hard enough that she fell over. For good measure I charged a Cero and blasted her in the stomach before she could get back up. I start to charge another for good measure when a shadow covers part of the board walk.
"Watch out!" Gorgon shouted.
I turn to see Fenja in the air, obviously uppercut or kicked in the chin so hard it knocked her up there, and Gorgon holding the back of the giants costume with all of her arms. I dash out of the way as Fenja is flying suplexed right onto her sister, putting both of them out and causing them to shrink.
"Huh. Good shit, Gorgon."
"Yeah, thanks," She says. She's facing me, giving me a good look at her mask, which is very demonic. The horns aren't even part of her mask like I initially thought, they're just sticking from her head.
"You have anything we can use to tie them up?" I ask.
"No. We can use a lamp pole I guess."
"Seems excessive. How about…" I look around before spotting a metal bench. I dash over and tear one of the long metal plates off the back. "This," I say, holding it up.
"Works," She shrugs moving to help me sit them up and tie the thick metal plate around them.
When we're done with that I look around the destruction cause to the Boardwalk. The place is a mess, shattered concrete everywhere and smashed in store fronts.
"I'd make them pay for this if they weren't already tied up," I grumble. It wasn't a hassle to fix, but it still pissed me off to no end they would do this just to get us to attack them or because they thought we were the ones who outed them.
"I'm sure we'll be able to help with the clean up once we finish with the Empire," Gorgon offered.
"No need," I snapped my fingers, fixing the area, "It just pisses me off they'd do this for something so… petty, I guess."
"Do you even need to snap for that to work?" She asked.
"No, but I find tying things like this to an action lets me better control it and doesn't freak people out as much if they know it's a power. Just like how I snap to open a portal even though I don't need to."
"Speaking of, there's an injured woman in there."
"Las Noches?"
"Yeah," She said.
"God dammit." I snapped, opening a portal and stepped through. "Drop these two off with the heroes if you can, then try to find one of the others. They split off to find the rest of the members."
"Got it," She nodded, taking off into the sky.
I step into Las Noches to find Kayden sitting on the floor with Aster in her arms. She was huddled over her protectively and there was blood on her back.
"Kayden, what happened?" I asked, walking up to her.
She jumped at the sound of my voice. It was weird seeing her so jumpy. She was wary of me after the first incident, but she always carried herself with some sense of confidence. This was like… It was almost like looking at myself a few months ago.
"Taylor," She sighs. "I… Cricket and Stormtiger attacked me at home. They tried to take Aster. Tried to kill me." Her voice didn't waver, but it was haunted. Like she was still stuck in the moment. I touch her back, healing her, and the relief is immediately visible. "Thanks," She smiles.
"What happened to Cricket and Stormtiger?" I ask.
"Dead. Theo…"
"He killed them?" I asked flatly.
"Not on purpose," She said quickly. "They… They were about to hang me and he showed up. He was mad. It was more a heat of the moment thing. He felt bad about it… Feels bad about it."
I'd only known Theo for a little over a month and I knew he felt bad about it. I'd have to talk to him when this was over to make sure he came out of it okay. Kayden clearly wasn't in the right space of mind to talk about it with him at the moment.
"Listen, Kayden," I said putting a hand on her shoulder which she flinched away from for a moment, "I'm still iffy about you joining because of your former affiliation. But you're making an effort to change and I can appreciate that. So whatever you need to do to get yourself right, take some time and get right. I'll talk to Theo and we'll move from there. I won't say this is a learning moment, you probably already know that, so just relax for a while. We'll finish with the Empire and things should quiet down for a while."
She nodded and I stood and left. One I was back on the boardwalk I felt the urge to smoke. It was so fucked up that I, of all people, was going to be the one trying to council people in emotional turmoil. A few months ago I could barely take a compliment without assuming it was a dig at me and now I was running a Cape group and trying to help people I had no business trying to help.
"The worlds a fucked up place like that, I guess," I said to myself before taking off to help the others.
—
The normal member of the Empire weren't behaving any better than their Capes. In fact, I think they took it as an invitation to go nuts because they were setting buildings on fire and trying to Lynch people in the streets. I stopped what I could but… The idea that this was happening all over the city and I wouldn't be able to help everyone weighed on me.
The fact we'd catch the ultimate blame for this while that slippery bastard Coil sat safe in his base somewhere lit a rage inside me I hadn't felt so strongly in years. Once the city was recovered I was tightening the deadline on his death.
I paused for a moment. I hadn't actually been considering killing Coil, just putting him away. But now, with all this… He'd be one of the few people I'd be comfortable putting in a grave.
I stopped to smack down another mob of Empire members chasing a black family down the street with rope and made quick work of them. I'd probably gone a little too hard, if the guy coughing up blood was anything to go by, but I wasn't really worried about them. I started to take off again when a chain wrapped around my neck and slammed me to the ground.
"There you are," The gruff voice of Hookwolf sounded behind me. "That was a hell of a kick, girly. I probably would've died, even changed, if I hadn't come so close to a few skyscrapers to latch onto." He starts to pull me towards him and I phase through his chain and stand.
"I wish you'd died," I sneered.
"Don't wish," A new voice said from above. I turned to see Rhapsody land beside me. "Wishing's all well and good, but you have to be the change you want to see in the world, Sacrosanct."
"What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be cleaning up the coast?" I ask.
"I did. You'd be surprised how easy people go down when you can control all their senses."
"Fair enough. But there's still a lot of people to save."
"And I just happened to be passing by. So, you want some help?"
"Stay out of this, boy," Hookwolf growled.
"Boy? What are we in fuckin' Georgia?" He asked.
"I'll handle him, Rhapsody, you take off," I said.
"That's right, listen to the woman, boy. We've got unfinished business," Hookwolf said.
"Seriously, I'm not even black and this feels racist," Rhapsody said.
"Hookwolf," Gorgon said, stopping between us. "Oh how I've been waiting for a day where I can actually fight you back."
"New member?" Rhapsody asked.
"New Member. Gorgon," I confirm.
"Sick. She looks super metal."
"But she's human."
"Your sense of humor will be the death of me one day," He sighs.
"Sacrosanct, other guy—,"
"It's Rhapsody!"
"Rhapsody then, I want Hookwolf. I owe him for something from a few years back."
"Yeah?" Hookwolf asked. "Ill humor you then. Wolfmother and I can finish once I'm done with you."
"You won't be fighting anyone else today."
"We'll see about—," Hookwolf was cut off as she hit him. Even I barely registered her moving, which was a hell of a feat of speed. There was a blast of wind as Hookwolf was sent tumbling down the street, shooting out hooks to try and catch buildings to slow his speed.
"Rhapsody, go drop any and all Empire goons you find," I order.
"Gotcha boss." He takes off with a wave.
I'm tempted to leave, feeling I've wasted enough time here, but I want to make sure she doesn't do anything too reckless.
Hookwolf slams into a car, making it flip and slam into the side of a building. Gorgon appears over the car, with a Cero charging between all of her hands.
Yup. Reckless.
I appear next to her and spin her around, sending the blast off into the sky.
"What the he—,"
"Never," I interrupt her harshly, "Fire one of those at the ground. You'll blast a hole a mile deep. Unless you're trying to bring Behemoth down on our heads?"
"Sorry," She said, looking down.
"Don't worry about it. You're learning. Just be careful not to aim blasts at the ground like that."
"You'll pay for that you bitch!" Hookwolf screamed as he tore his way out of the car.
"You got him?" I ask.
"Yeah," She nods.
I start to take off and make it maybe a block before a Cero shoots past me, black as night. My eyes widen and I look back to find Gorgon and a mess of metal that probably used to be Hookwolf. Her eyes are wide and she's frozen solid looking at what she's done.
I'm wasn't exactly torn up about Hookwolf dying, in fact I'd say he deserved it, but this still wasn't the best way this could have gone. That gives us a collective kill count of three… Maybe four if one of the others took something a tad too far.
"God fucking dammit, this is not how this day was supposed to go," I groan.
AN: Yup, Missy just killed Hookwolf. Shot a Cero straight through his torso. It's no big loss, but it's still not necessarily good for their reputation.