Prowl 2.5

I didn't send my minions directly after the villains. Distracted as they were, they'd still notice a head-on attack, and that wasn't a fight I could win. The distraction and sneak attack had worked on Trainwreck last time, but he'd be wise to it now. But he clearly wasn't allied with Squealer. If I threw the distraction at him while actually targeting her, I'd have a chance of quickly taking down at least one of them.

But that depended on what I had to work with. At my disposal I had a savage and three beetleings, but I was close enough to be worried that summoning a fifth minion would alert them by the sound. So I'd work with this for now until I was ready to make my move. The savage's weapons had proved crucial last time, so I sent my beetleing out to scout for suitable items or tools they could wield.

As they scavenged, I could hear the argument between Trainwreck and Squealer getting louder and more pointed. At this rate, I wasn't certain that they wouldn't just attack each other before I made my move. Though thinking about it, that might actually have been a good thing. It would certainly be easier to come in at the end of their fight and take down one weakened villain rather than fighting both of them.

But that felt kind of scummy. Sure, my whole plan was to beat up one or both of them, but attacking an already weakened opponent felt like cheating. A hero wouldn't do that, right? Or was the end result more important than the steps taken to achieve it…

I shook my head. I didn't have time for a philosophy debate with myself, I just needed to decide. My beetleings were already returning with their salvage, crawling low to the ground to avoid attention. One had a foot-long length of pipe, another had a jagged piece of metal that looked like it had been torn from a car frame, and the last had a length of chain.

I took stock while listening to the argument with one ear. By now it had regressed into nothing but insults. They sounded on the verge of coming to blows, so if I wanted to do something, I had to choose now. Idealism or pragmatism, immediate action or preying on the weak?

The decision was surprisingly easy to make. Trainwreck had been enough trouble on his own, I didn't want to get in a fight with two villains at once. Besides, I had basically attacked Trainwreck in his home. I wasn't about to feel bad about it, it wasn't like cops never arrested anyone just because they were in their house, but it still made it a bit too late to start claiming the moral high ground.

Getting two villains in jail and off the streets was the important part. How I did it, short of crossing lines that would get me labelled as a villain, wasn't important.

I settled down and prepared to wait when the argument was suddenly interrupted by some noises that were definitely not more cursing. The roar of an engine, the rattle of some mechanism starting to life, and a loud bang was all the warning I got before a much louder crash. I was nearly thrown to the ground as dust filled the air, the bandanna over my face thankfully filtering it enough that I wasn't sent into a coughing fit.

Trainwreck lay in front of me, groaning and trying to right himself. I froze. He wasn't supposed to be here, he was supposed to be with…

My gaze was drawn to the side. The corner of the brick shed I was hiding behind had been smashed apart, presumably by the impromptu projectile of Trainwreck. I could hear the roar of multiple engines as Squealer approached from the other side of the shed, cackling like a maniac.

But she was a secondary problem. The main issue was Trainwreck, whose was now on the same side of the shed as me and with a clear view of my minions. I could practically pinpoint the moment he glimpsed them as he struggled to rise. Even through a mechanical suit, he managed to stiffen.

I couldn't tell if he saw me, or just my minions. I also couldn't afford to care. The option of sitting this out had been taken from me, and I needed to act or I'd lose the initiative in this budding fight too.

I sent my savage lunging forward, snatching the chain from my beetleing's hands. Trainwreck's limbs were long, and that had the most reach out of the various retrieved implements. Maybe it wouldn't do much against the metal plating, but if I could tangle the limbs, it seemed spindly enough that it might not be strong enough to break free.

I heard Squealer let out a surprised curse as the savage moved out from behind the shed into her view, followed by the three beetleings. I tried not to pay her any mind, crouching down and flattening myself against the shed. If I was lucky, the dust from the shed and the distraction of my minions meant Trainwreck hadn't noticed me. If he had, things would definitely be bad, but I could do without Squealer seeing me too.

Trainwreck's ungainly limbs couldn't get him upright before my minions got to him. He seemed to realize this and thrust out the arm with the extra attachment. It had expanded since I'd first glimpsed it, but only as it spun to life did I realize what I was looking at.

It was something like a helicopter rotor crossed with machetes, a whirling set of blades arranged in a crude buzzsaw. He held it out like a shield and I only just managed to command my savage to stop before it ran headlong into it. I had my minions back off and spread out to try and circle around him as he finally managed to push himself up.

Trainwreck looked from the savage and beetleings to the direction I knew Squealer to be in, waving his saw around at my minions like someone would use a torch to ward off wolves. "Damn it, Squealer!" he yelled. "Are these your fucking freaks?"

Unwittingly, he soothed my nerves. He hadn't spotted me after all. In that moment, I was more thankful for making my costume camouflage than I had ever been before.

"Not mine." Squealer said in a confused voice before shifting to a mocking tone. "What's the matter? Itty bitty Trainwreck can't handle some itty bitty monsters?"

"Fuck off!" Trainwreck yelled, thrusting the saw at a beetleing I'd been about to send at him. "If they ain't yours, there's someone else here!"

"Hmmm." Squealer made an exaggerated thinking noise, loud enough to be heard over the engines and saw. "Nah."

Trainwreck's acne-scarred face flushed with anger. "The fuck you mean-" I sent some of my minions at him before he could finish, forcing him to slide to the side to avoid a beetleing while also swinging the saw to ward off the savage. I didn't want him cluing Squealer in to my presence, and I certainly wasn't above taking advantage of his distraction in the conversation.

"I mean nah, I don't really give a shit." Squealer said. "I don't give a shit about you, and I don't give half a shit about any other two-bit fuckface who feels like picking a fight. As far as I care, you two can beat the shit out of each other and I'll make roadkill out of whoever's left if they aren't smart enough to get the fuck out of here."

Trainwreck's face twisted with anger and he lunged towards Squealer, the wheels in his feet letting him shoot forward. "You bi-"

I heard the loud bang again. Loose bricks were torn free from the damaged side of the shed as some force ripped outward from Squealer, or more likely her vehicle, and sent Trainwreck crashing to the ground once more. The spinning blades on his arm sparked and shrieked as the mechanism was slammed into the ground, sending loose dirt and gravel spraying into the air.

Squealer's laughter was nearly drowned out by the roar of her vehicle's engine before both began to fade. It sounded like she was making good on her promise and bailing on the whole fight. Once more I was faced with a choice. If I let her go now, I be faced with the same situation now as I had when Trainwreck ran. Chasing her would probably be futile, which meant either hoping she would actually come back and I could ambush her or letting her go and counting it as a loss.

I was already moving my minions in as I considered it. I had my savage throw its chain into the whirling blades on Trainwreck's arm, which had slowed as he tried to get back up with such an unwieldy attachment that basically made the limb useless. The chain was caught on and spun with the rotor, sending sparks off of Trainwreck's body as it struck him on each rotation. He held the offending arm as far away from himself as he could to keep the chain from hitting his exposed face, making his attempt to get back up even harder and in turn making him more vulnerable to the beetleings I was setting on him.

The thought of letting Squealer get away pissed me off more than it had when it applied to Trainwreck. Trainwreck was a violent thief, but he was on his own. Squealer might not have been as directly criminal, but she was connected to the Merchants. I'd chosen them for a reason on my first night, besides the relative safety to be found in targeting them over the ABB or E88. They were the primary drug producer and distributer in the city. I'd seen firsthand what happened to kids who got caught up with that, the ones at Winslow whose habits had brought them so low even I was considered above them on the totem pole. Just thinking about the things she'd contributed to and enabled incited a visceral response of anger in my gut. I didn't want her to get away.

My power surged to life. I felt by energy pool decrease fractionally, less even than it took to summon a beetleing. The air shattered in front of my face, a tiny patch no bigger than my fist. Unthinkingly I held up my hand to catch whatever formed out of it.

What formed was… disgusting. It looked like an eyeball with a greenish-yellow pupil, slitted like a cat's for a moment before it expanded wide to adjust to the darkness. Trailing from the back of it were long strings of nerves, some webbed together by smaller strands to form a pair of fins or flaps. The eye was wet, liquid already starting to pool on my gloves.

But none of that was my focus. My focus was that I could see. Even as I looked at it, I could see myself. I held up a thumb to cover it and saw my new sight get covered by the same thumb. I dropped the thumb away, amazed and a little disoriented to have an entirely new perspective.

I cast a glance toward Trainwreck to see if he noticed the sound of its appearance. He hadn't, being too busy using the now-stopped propeller blade to ward off my savage while he grabbed at my beetleings to tear them from his body. To be safe I edged around the side of the shed, out of his line of sight. I sent a few commands to my beetleings to ensure they went after the more vital targets, then turned my attention back towards my new creature as the one with the jagged shard of metal used it to gouge one of the tires on his feet.

I turned my attention back towards the eye sitting in my gloved hand. I moved it around and saw my new field of vision move in return. It was incredible, though the sight wasn't exactly like mine. For one I needed glasses, while the vision from it was perfectly clear. More prominently, I could see through it as if there was no darkness. Instead of squinting to make things out by moonlight and distant streetlights, I could see myself as clearly as if it was day. The colors were washed out though, rendering everything a greyish tint, and the lack of shadows made for an eerie loss of depth to what I was seeing. But I wasn't about to complain.

Now I just had to use it. My theories about my power came to mind as I considered the eye, or rather, minion, in my hand. I'd first summoned beetleings when in needed to get out of my locker, and they had the ability to break down mechanical things. I'd first summoned savages when being attacked, and they were skilled at and equipped for violence. This appeared when I didn't want Squealer to get away and it gave me a way to see remotely.

No, I first needed to figure out how to use it. It could help me track her, but first it needed to get to her and then not lose the trail, but I wasn't sure how to do that. I shook that thought out of my head. I hadn't known what my beetleings could do while I was in the locker either, but they'd done what I needed them to do. I had to trust it could serve its role.

I gave the eye its command. "Follow Squealer."

Immediately its fins of nerves snapped out and down, launching it away from my hand. Another few quick movements and I realized the "fins" were actually frayed and tattered wings, bearing it aloft as the remaining nerves twined together to form a tail. It rose into the air, the flapping of its wings shaking loose fat drops of liquid from its eye-body as it went higher and higher. I felt a thrill as my new point of vision gained altitude. I could see myself, the fight with Trainwreck, parts of the Trainyard and the streets, all from high above. It wasn't quite flying, but it was good enough.

The eye began to fly off in the direction Squealer had been moving. I had to force myself to try and ignore its input as I turned my attention back to Trainwreck. It was a struggle to try and ignore what was almost an entirely new sense and to ignore the thrill of pseudo-flying, but I focused on the fight at hand as best I could.

I'd been distracted by my new creature and hadn't been paying much attention to the fight, but Trainwreck still wasn't doing very well. This suit had clearly been designed for speed rather than durability, leaving wires, pipes, tubes, and hydraulics on the outside rather than bulking up the body by making them internal. By now a good portion of those had been ripped free or broken, leaving him moving distinctly slower than he had been. His speed and maneuverability had been further reduced by the tire I'd directed them to rip out, and outright negated by the fact that the beetleings were already on him. I could almost thank Squealer for knocking him down and making him an easier target if I didn't hate her and her whole gang.

Still, however good my minions had been in my absence, they still weren't very good at taking initiative. I commanded the beetleing still holding the length of pipe to stop whacking Trainwreck in the back and instead throw it to the savage, who was still unarmed after using up its chain to tangle the rotor blade. Now with its hands free, I directed it and the others to focus specifically on Trainwreck's right leg rather than just attacking whatever happened to catch their eye.

They quickly crawled down his body, finding footholds in the seams of metal and assorted wires to set upon the limb. Two clustered around the hip joint, prying at the paneling to get at the internal mechanisms. The third, still holding the sharp piece of metal, crawled lower to go for the wheel set into his knee.

Trainwreck didn't miss their sudden coordination. "No, get off you fuckers!" he yelled.

He grabbed for them, managing to seize one in his spindly hand. I took advantage of his distraction with a quick order to my savage. It ducked low and moved closer, dodging past the bladed arm as it grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground and immediately threw it in Trainwreck's face.

"Damn it!" He took a step back, waving the propeller arm to drive the savage back. I already had it retreat, circling around to his left side where his guard was weaker. The dirt didn't get into his eyes thanks to the goggles, but he was spitting to clear his mouth and some still settled on the lenses. With his hands buried in his suit, he wouldn't be able to wipe them clean to see.

Any chance he had to try and counter-attack promptly vanish as the beetleing finished tearing through the tire in his knee. Apparently the wheel had been pulling double duty as part of the knee joint, because it caused the entire joint to buckle under him. He dropped to one knee and tried to catch himself with his hands, only for the propeller on his right arm to hit the ground and throw him even more off balance. He let go of the beetleing in his other hand as he caught himself with that arm, leaving him precariously balanced and barely avoiding falling for a third time.

Both hands occupied holding him up, off balance, I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that. I sent my savage forward and it punched Trainwreck in the face. I was careful about the command to make sure it only punched instead of using its claws or pipe, but it worked well. He fell onto one shoulder instead of awkwardly holding himself up as he tried to move with the blow while his actual body was trapped within the body of his suit, leaving him even more vulnerable.

With good news on both fronts, my flying eye had found Squealer. Surprisingly she hadn't gone far, only to the buildings at the edge of the Trainyard. Her wheel vehicle was no longer a wheel, now resembling some ungodly combination of motorcycle, monster truck, train, and centipede. A dozen wheeled segments each linked to one another to form a long vehicle, with Squealer standing on the from segment holding onto a chain like a leash.

It headed full speed towards a building without slowing or turning. Just before it hit, the front segments curved up so it struck the side of the building at a curve and rolled upward thanks to its momentum and the continued force from the rear segments still on the ground. It was losing momentum just before it got to the top and the first segment bent over to settle onto the roof. The mechanism quickly reversed, with the parts on the roof moving forward to pull the whole thing up.

Once the entire thing was on the roof and the wall of the building defaced with tire tracks, it turned back towards the Trainyard. The vehicle shuddered and the front rose up, the back sliding forward to compensate until the whole thing was reared up like a precarious mechanical cobra, with Squealer standing on top. She seemed focused on looking at something, so I sent a mental command to my flying eye to move around so it could look from behind her and see what she was looking at.

Her position made sense with the new perspective. She was overlooking the Trainyard, trying to watch the area where Trainwreck and I were, no doubt trying to keep an eye on the fight. I grinned under my bandanna. She really was planning to come fight whoever won as soon as she could tell the fight was over. That was fine by me. By doing this, she basically negated all her advantages of speed and limited range for my minions, making her an easy target to get to once I finished with Trainwreck.

Though I did still have to finish that fight before moving to the next. My beetleings had stripped apart the plating surrounding the hip joint of the limb and had moved on to ripping out the wires and tubes that ran through it. Trainwreck had seemingly given up on standing, using the wheels in his working knee, foot, and free hand to slide away from the savage.

His escape was abruptly stopped as the beetleings finally got through the crucial parts of the hip, causing the entire limb to spasm and go limp. Already holding his right arm off the ground to keep the propeller's bent blades from interfering with his movement, the loss of his right leg caused him to collapse again.

Cursing loudly, he tried to reach down and grab them, but I already sent them their next commands. They crawled up over his back to the shoulder of his left arm, setting to work immediately.

Trainwreck tried to reach over his shoulder for them, but they were too small and quick for him to get a hold of. Seeming to realize he wouldn't be able to get them that way, he tucked his arm to his body and dropped to the ground, rolling onto his back to try and crush them. They managed to scamper out of the way, running around to his front or dropping to the ground before jumping back on. But now Trainwreck was on his back, forcing them to work in front of him where he could see them and more easily retaliate.

Or at least that was his idea. He tried to swat at them, only to jerk to a stop as he nearly hit himself with the propeller arrangement on his arm. He pulled it back and stuck to hitting them with his left arm, with the soon apparent flaw that their work on it made it too jerky to actually hit them. Realizing this, he reached for the propeller on his other arm. Whether it was to unwind the chain from its mechanism or detach it entirely, I didn't know, but I still wasn't going to let him do it.

I sent my savage in again from where it had been standing back in reserve. He didn't see it before it was on him, punching him across the face again. He abandoned his work at the propeller to try and swing it at the savage, but I already had it moving. Rather than retreat, this time I had it leap up and onto the chest of his suit. Its fanged and horrifying face was just above him as it crouched atop him, raising the hand with the pipe up above his head, but not striking, in an obviously threatening gesture.

He spat at it before trying to reach for it. "Screw you, you-"

I had it punch him with the hand with the pipe. The pipe itself didn't hit him, but clenched in its fist, the metal rod made the punch hit harder than it would have otherwise. He clearly felt it as his flinch carried over to the limbs of his suit. A second later, his left arm spasmed and fell limp, leaving him with only two limbs, both with faulty mechanisms.

The savage raised the pipe again, reiterating its threat. Those his eyes were hidden by goggles, I could tell Trainwreck was looking between it and the beetleings. He raised his remaining hand again, but this time not in an attack.

"I give up!" he said.

I hesitated, a bit surprised. From what I'd heard about villains, they fought tooth and nail until they couldn't fight anymore. Surrendering was genuinely something I hadn't expected from him. My hesitation carried over to the savage, which remained frozen as it waited for its next command. Not so much for the beetleings, who though they had already disabled the limb I'd directed them to, still hadn't been ordered to stop. The left arm of Trainwreck's suit fell completely off as they finally demolished the entirety of the joint.

"Hey!" he yelled, his temporary compliance giving way to anger again. "Stop that! Do you know how long it takes to build a new arm?"

I had my savage bring the pipe down to strike the armor beside his head as a warning. He flinched away from it, shutting up for now. I gave the beetleings new orders, causing them to move down to his left leg, his most functional remaining limb. A surrender was well and good, but I didn't want to leave the Tinker with his armored suit in case he had some hidden trick to pull out before the PRT arrived.

"Hey, look, let's not be hasty." he said quickly as the beetleings moved in. "You're looking to strongarm me into being your pet Tinker, right? Fine, I'll do it, just leave me my fucking limbs!"

The sudden urgency in his voice made me hesitate. It felt like there was something here I wasn't seeing, but I couldn't ask him about it without revealing myself and I wasn't ready to do that just yet. Still, I could at least address his concerns about being made into someone's Tinker slave.

I had my savage shake its head.

Even peeking around the corner of a shed in the dark, I could see Trainwreck get pissed at that. "Why the hell not?!" he yelled. "What's so hard about-"

I already had my savage shaking its head again, making a looping motion with its pipe to try and indicate 'before that.'

"What?" Trainwreck said, more confused than angry now.

I had the savage repeat the gesture.

"The other thing?"

I had it nod.

"What, the part about you strongarming me?"

I had it nod again.

He snorted through his nose. "Real talkative asshole, you are. So you're not looking to 'recruit' me?" he said, making motion with his remaining arm that might have been air quotes on the word 'recruit.'

I had it shake its head, then issued a series of more complicated commands. Using the pipe, it traced out letters in the air, 'PRT.' Trainwreck didn't seem to understand the first time, so I had it repeat the process twice more before he caught on.

"P-R-" Trainwreck said aloud as he watched it. "PRT? You're a hero?"

I nodded through the savage.

He was silent for a moment, then burst out into laughter. "You're a hero? Oh, fuck me, I can't believe this! You're a goddamned nightmare is what you are! If you stuck a sheriff's badge on Lung, I'd believe he's a hero more than you!"

He was laughing so hard he didn't even notice as his left leg finally fell apart. I'd stopped focusing on the beetleings while trying to communicate through the savage, leaving them to continue working on his leg. By now there were no two pieces left together, so I sent them to disassemble the arm with the propeller. It probably wasn't totally necessary given that his suit was already sitting at three ruined limbs, but I was annoyed.

I'd known that with this power, being a hero would be tricky. The beetleings, the savages, and now the flying eyes, nothing I could make would look good in front of a camera even with a full PR team backing me. But hearing it from someone else so bluntly hurt. It was uncomfortably close to the feelings I'd had when I realized Tattletale though I'd make a good villain.

His laugher died off as he realized the beetleings were setting onto his one remaining limb. He tried to move away, seemed confused that he didn't have a leg left to respond, then tried to pull the arm away from them. I had the savage smack the pipe down next to his head again and he begrudgingly put his arm down on the ground for them to work on.

"You want to take my arms and legs, fine," Trainwreck said in a tone that made it clear it wasn't. "But can you at least leave me sealed in the body? It's tricky enough to disconnect myself from it, I don't want you to rip my spine out when you try and pry it open. You've got chains and stuff, just pile it on me or something. I promise I won't try and make a break for it."

I wasn't wholly certain, but there was a note of pleading in his voice that convinced me. One of the most commonly repeated things about Tinkertech was that only the original Tinker really understood it, and I was inclined to trust his knowledge of his own work. As my beetleings detached his final limb at the elbow, I had my savage go to the propeller and untangle the chain from it. With Trainwreck de-limbed, I had the savage start wrapping the chain around the body of Trainwreck's suit while sending the beetleings out to look for more. I stopped trying to tune out the extra eye's worth of vision long enough to confirm that Squealer was still at her perch, though she seemed pretty antsy. I had to wrap this up soon before she decided to come back or leave.

The beetleings returned with some more chain, helping to wrap it around Trainwreck to seal shut any hatch he might try to escape through or reveal yet another suit, tangling it around the portions of his remaining limbs and hooking it directly to the other empty sockets.

Trainwreck remained bitterly silent as they worked, his face a mask of anger and some other emotion I couldn't place. After a few minutes they were done, leaving him bound in an improvised cocoon of chains. I had my savage point at him, then at the ground. 'Stay here.'

"Oh yeah, I'll make sure not to run away." Trainwreck said sarcastically. He wiggled the remainder of his right arm, the only limb he had left with even that much mobility.

I had my beetleings scatter into the surrounding area until they were far enough away I could dismiss them without alerting him by the noise and light. With that done, I summoned another flying eye and sent it up to watch him from above. It was disorienting seeing from three perspectives at once, two of which being entirely unconnected from my body, but it was too useful not to do.

I circled around to the other side of the shed and fished out the cellphone. Consulting the list of numbers, I dialed the one for the PRT.

"Parahuman Response Team emergency dispatch, what's the situation?" A man's voice answered at the other end.

I hesitated for a moment, not sure how to really talk to them as a cape, particularly one without a name, before deciding to just dump the info on them. "Trainwreck has been subdued," I said into the phone, quietly enough that my voice wouldn't carry to Trainwreck. "He's in the Trainyard about two minutes in from the intersection of Mason and Hayden."

There was a moment of silence from the other end. "Roger, the location is noted. A PRT squad is on its way now. Who is this?"

I hung up without answering. That was one problem down. Trainwreck was down and the PRT was on their way to collect him, a total victory for what I'd set out to do tonight. But now with Squealer, I was presented an opportunity to go beyond that. I had a chance to bring down two villains in one night, and a PRT squad already on its way nearby.

I moved towards the other villain.

New Summon: Isitoq (NE diminutive undead, CR 1/2)