Step 6.2

When you have a dozen things to do, multitasking becomes a really important skill.

With one hand I doodled through some equations, while the other held my phone.

The gangs kept probing one another, but at least from the ABB I got the sense the capes tried to stay uninvolved. Or rather, they held back. The ABB didn't have numbers, and they worried that if Lung or Bakuda pushed on the Merchants then the Empire would hit ABB territory from behind. Even without Othala, Victor, or Alabaster, the Empire still held a strong numerical advantage.

Not sure how they felt about that. The Empire cut all their phones a day after I turned Othala over to the PRT. They even retreated most social media conversations into private chat rooms and messaging groups. I still managed to track their movements by keeping a Haro over Downtown and Captain's hill to watch the places I already knew about, but I no longer got to hear all the insider information I used to.

Disappointing, but oh well.

No Othala for them. Injuries would stick, and they didn't have the opportunity to leverage numbers like before. That's a win well worth the lost information, especially since the Empire didn't just worry about me. Not one of them matched Lung in power, and the ability to quickly heal from any encounters with the raging dragon man played a big role in how the Empire ran their territory.

"What about that wall?" Dad asked behind me.

I kept doodling and tapping on my phone screen. Just a teenager getting driven around while her dad works. Completely normal.

"We're patching it up," Kurt said. "Rick and the boys are putting a tarp over it for now, and I'll get Moore down here tomorrow to replace the brick. We've still got some brick laying around from that job last year."

"Right, I remember," Dad said. "And the windows?"

I raised my head at that questions. Lots of windows in the old warehouse were shattered when Veda bought it. I didn't feel like replacing them immediately. That seemed to invite people to come along and break them again. For now, I simply covered them with tarps. Probably for the best. I didn't need any light slipping from the building.

"Put tarps over all of them like the client asked," Kurt answered. "Where'd this contract come from, Danny?"

"The client said no names," Dad said. "They're worried about ABB shakedowns before security is in place."

"They picked the wrong place to build anything," Kurt said. "Not that I'm complaining for the work. Got to hire a few of the guys back on, you know? Hate to hand them pink slips again when we finish."

"Yeah," Dad mumbled.

I quietly hoped he wasn't looking at me, but didn't dare to turn around. I did not need anyone in the Dockworkers finding out Newtype put out the contract for the warehouse while Taylor Hebert happened to be sitting in the building.

"What about the power shed?" Dad asked. "Is it cleared out?"

"Yeah, though I'm not sure how they plan to run any electricity through here without a circuit breaker."

"They said they planned to do their own work, so they wanted it cleared and just that."

"Well, it's cleared."

I eyed the shed from the corner of my eye. A sort of lean-to set against the wall by one of the doors. A good place to plug in the power core from the workshop, and to start digging under the warehouse and clear out a larger space for my new workshop.

"The boys doing okay?" Dad asked. "It's not the best part of the neighborhood."

"It's not the worst either," Kurt said. "We're fine. Punk kids know better than to fuck with us, and we know better than to fuck with them."

"I don't want anyone getting hurt, Kurt."

"I know, I know. We all know, Danny. We're on it. Worry about yourself some more. How's it going with those blood suckers down town?"

"Blue Cosmos?" Dad asked. "Not really the place, Kurt."

"No one can hear us but Taylor," he said. "You doing okay by the way?"

I turned my head toward him. He looked down at me with a sympathetic smile. Zoe Barnes was mom's oldest friend, but Kurt was Dad's. I'd known him all my life.

Still, I didn't particularly like learning dad talked to Kurt about things. I understood it. Mom was dead. The Barnes'… they weren't family friends anymore. Dad didn't have anyone to talk to about his frustrations, or his fears other than Kurt. I trusted Kurt. He'd never purposefully try to hurt me, but conveying anything about what happened to me, even if Dad didn't say exactly how the PRT was involved, risked breaking some laws.

"I'm okay," I said with a straight face. I'd finally learned how to not feel nervous lying. Kind of sad, that. "Just want it to be over."

Though, ironically, I now wanted to drag it out a bit. Taylor Hebert might be able to learn something from Blue Cosmos that Newtype couldn't. I needed to know more about the group's internal politics in Brockton. Who might have known Sam Stansfield planned to publicly go against Blue Cosmos? Dean obviously, but I honestly didn't think he played any role. A master or stranger effect may fudge that, but the original plan included his death. Obviously, the conspirator didn't intend to keep him around.

Just another thing to keep an eye on.

"We're going in later this week," Dad said. "Sign the papers. Make it official."

"Good," Kurt said. "Take 'em for all their worth. Lacy and I are pulling for you. So would any of the boys if they knew."

"They can't know, Kurt."

"I know, Dan. Don't worry. Lips sealed and everything."

Dad did one last walk around, talking with some of the other union guys and shaking hands. He might only be head of hiring, but the position somehow became de facto Union leadership a few years ago. While not technically the Union head, everyone seemed to trust Dad more than any of the lawyers or the spokesmen. Maybe because he'd been a Dockworker his whole life, rather than someone hired by the Union for a specific job from outside.

I turned back to my phone, directing Pink and Navy over a cluster of ABB moving south parallel to the board walk.

sys.h[rd]/ bombs away
sys.h[rd]/ bombs away

They both dropped my new and improved stun grenades, the ones that didn't cause mind splitting pain, directly onto the group. The blast rippled, and all five men stumbled over to the ground. Veda reported their position to the police and we moved on.

The Haros flew constant flights over the Docks, Downtown, and Shanty Town, watching for any group of hoods or thugs who might be looking to fight. Easy to have the cops keep them in cells for a few days. Every group inevitably including an ex-con with a fire arm or drugs. A simple call to the police tied them up for a few days in legal problems.

The longer I kept the fighting from escalating, the better.

Sigh.

Escalation seemed inevitable though. Sooner or later, a cape would act. I doubted all three gangs wanted to keep staring at one another in endless stalemate.

It seemed like the ABB might break first. Veda kept tracking movements closer to the edges of gang territory. Guns mostly, and people. Lots of people. At a few places entire trucks moved in and never left. I didn't like it, especially with Bakuda around. Surely, she could build something nasty from a car bomb if she wanted.

On the bright side, I saw the over confidence. I didn't have a suit, and everyone 'knew' it. All the gangs spent the last week being a bit bolder with their movements. They put more guards on everything sure, but that didn't really deter me. If anything, the data Veda got to gather on the gangs watching them deterred me.

I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. They all just kept showing me things, as if I posed only a minor annoyance without a suit.

Idiots.

"Ready to go, Kiddo?"

I nodded and stuffed my stuff into my backpack. We walked out, passing the Union trucks and the newly put up chain link fence. I'd probably electrify that, and by electrify I meant land mines that arched a non-lethal lightning bolt into the air.

I liked the idea of setting up some automated defenses around the perimeter. Once the factory opened, the gangs would move. They'd come on suspicion I'd build my workshop there, or they'd just want to hurt me.

I needed to turn the factory into a fortress. The kind of place no one in their right mind willingly walked into and that kicked the ass of anyone not in their right mind.

I'd devised plenty of designs for the purpose, including weapon turrets that slid out of the ground and fired GN particles, and mortars to launch stun grenades. I'd even started building a second GN drive just to power the building and the workshop underneath.

And of course, anyone who tried to hit the factory would need to deal with Lafter and me, and the Haros. I'd be able to keep the gangs from trying very hard for a time if I showed the appropriate amount of force.

After we left the grounds, I turned to Dad and said, "I'll see you for dinner. Gonna go to the library."

Dad frowned, but nodded. "Be safe."

"I am," I said.

We parted ways and I got on the bus. I did actually go to the library, before slipping out a back exit and getting onto another bus and going south. I changed in an alley after getting off and let green fly my backpack away. Purple flew down after him, delivering a different bag.

I took out the beam sabers and the stun grenades inside. Along with a few new toys I'd thrown together in my free time. New particle pistol, a few incendiary grenades, and a basic baton. Seemed prudent to have something low tech on me, just in case I ever met anyone who tried to disrupt my tech and succeeded.

Slipping all my tools on, I rose to my feet and proceeded through the alleys.

Gunfire and explosions greeted me as I found Lafter.

"Ha," she said. "Got you."

"My finger slipped," a voice said from the device in her hands.

"Is that Valiant?" I asked.

"Sup," he said. "Want to get in on this? We can invite Kid Win. Make it a foursome."

I gawked slightly.

"Is she embarrassed?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah," Lafter said with a smile.

"You weren't kidding," he said.

"I know, right?"

I frowned.

This is what I get for sharing the reward for Ali's capture with Lafter and Dinah. Dinah just put all the money into a hedge fund, one I'm sure she'd noticed in her visions. Lafter didn't want to save money for college or anything, but she also didn't seem to have much use for the money besides having it. She bought a handheld and a few video games and seemed perfectly content with that.

"I win," Lafter said happily.

"Best three out of five," Valiant said.

"Sore loser," Lafter replied. "Another time. Got some bad guys to beat up."

"I'll make sure to snap a pic of Armsie's face when he finds out."

"Put cat ears on it," Lafter said. She turned the machine over, pushed a button and slipped it into her backpack. "Ready?"

Shifting gears just like that?

"Yeah," I said. "Green, Purple, Orange, and Navy are the only Haros with us. Don't get too crazy."

"Cheerio not coming?"

I frowned. "No."

I didn't know what to make of Trevor. He'd been quiet since Othala's capture. The PRT didn't publically say anything about his involvement, but they must know. He implied his mom might be furious with him for getting involved.

Dinah said he'd be fine, so I left it be. Still.

He knew my identity, which left me with no small amount of frustration people kept figuring it out. At least Vicky and her family seemed the type to keep a secret, New Wave's ideologies aside. Charlotte and Mrs. Knott supported me out of mutual concern and responsibility, Ramius thus far kept her word in everything she did, and Lafter and Dinah joined my team. I felt confident they'd all keep their mouths shut.

Trevor though?

If someone grabbed his mom and threatened her, would he tell? I couldn't exactly kidnap him or anything, but I'd feel a lot better if he just made up his damn mind. Even joining the Wards looked preferable to his continual inaction. That he'd helped me capture Othala just confused the whole thing. Dinah said a few words to him, so he offers to help me catch a bad guy, but two days later he's silent and nowhere to be seen.

I considered approaching him myself for another candid talk, but I didn't want to agitate him. He must have a reason, good or bad.

"I just want to know what's in the trucks," I said, refocusing on the task at hand. I'd deal with Trevor later. "I'm worried they're packing something really dangerous to deal with Squealer's mini-tanks." Which she kept making more of.

"And you are free to look," Lafter said, "while I punch bad guys in the balls."

"Stealth, Lafter. We're going to try and do this without being seen."

Lafter frowned. "Well that doesn't sound very fun."

"It's not about fun," I said. "It's about not starting a major fight with the ABB on the same block as a daycare center."

"So… We're thinking of the children?"

"Yes," I said with a stern look.

"Well, I can't really complain about that without being a bitch so…" She shrugged and turned on her heel. "This way?"

"Yes."

I quietly wondered why I kept running into people who prefaced 'I can't do x without being a bitch.' Odd question, but it occurred to me. Claire said it, Lafter said it, even Count sort of said it.

"You do get it, right?" I asked. "There's kids over there. I don't want any stray bullets hitting them."

"I get it," Lafter said. "I just think it's a bit dumb. I mean, we've done this kind of thing before and we didn't take great care to prevent adults from getting hit by stray bullets. Seems kind of like giving in to me."

"Giving in?" Veda asked over the com.

Lafter came up to the street and hung around the corner. Leaning around the corner just a little, down the street and to the left we saw the daycare center, complete with a playground out front filled with kids and two adult women watching them. A building further down, an abandoned store front sat boarded up. Two trucks sat in front on the street. Two men in nondescript clothes leaned against them.

Another sat in the back according to Purple's cameras. That's the one I wanted.

"Well, they obviously picked that spot on purpose," Lafter said. "They're doing it because they want us to play nicer."

"Probably," I said. "But all the same."

"I said I get it," Lafter repeated. She frowned, a hint of anger appearing in her eyes. "I just don't particularly like it."

I mapped out the alleys around the block, charting a path to get us in behind the ABB's little staging area. Someone stood on a roof at a corner further up the street, maybe a sentry. I'd need a Haro to distract him briefly. Shouldn't be too hard.

"So, what do you think they're packing?" Lafter asked.

"We're here to find out."

Scans of the trucks just showed amorphous blobs. I'd seen the same in the past with Bakuda, hence my worry she'd rigged something up. She might only be obscuring the vehicles contents. She might be able to guess I could see through walls being a tinker herself. I wanted to be sure though.

"We could just ask Dinah," Lafter said.

"We're in public," I corrected.

I didn't say Forecast, if only because we'd already said one name aloud. No reason to link it to another. Not that I expected anyone to overhear us in a dingy alley, but habits needed to be developed before they mattered.

Lafter nodded. "Right, right. Point still stands."

"I don't want to burn a question on this," I said. "It's easy enough to poke around, come back and blow it up after the daycare closes if necessary." I needed to save questions for Dinah for important things. Things that might be more directly related to mass life and death.

"There's a large truck coming," I said. "We'll let it pass and slip across the street while it's blocking line of sight."

"Just say when," Lafter said.

"Forty seconds," Veda said.

We waited, ducking back as the truck approached from the opposite direction. Orange flew into position, a small rock in hand.

Right as the truck passed us, he threw. My Haro zipped back up into the sky, but the potential ABB watcher jumped up and spun around. His eyes searched the roof, and when he didn't see anyone he stalked away from the edge to the other side where the AC units sat.

"Now," Veda said

Lafter and I broke into a sprint, dashing across the street into another alley while the truck and a few parked cars obscured us. I started following my path at a slow pace, Lafter right behind me. Footsteps do kind of echo in the city, and the watcher might still spot us if he leaned over the back end of the roof. Orange kept an eye on him, the other three Haros directly over Lafter and I as we stalked through the filthy alleys.

I drew my pistol and a saber, while Lafter used two of the latter.

A soft breath caused me to stop mid-step as we got closer to our target. Turning to my left, my eyes trailed down to the small boy looking at us. Behind him, the crowd of kids kept playing on the playground and I quickly stepped forward and out of sight. Lafter followed, and we both stared at the boy for a second as he stared at us.

"Secret, secret."

I looked up, Orange hovering in the alley behind us, one hand over the lines of his casing that looked kind of like a mouth.

The boy nodded, his jaw agape. He stepped back, picked up a ball off the ground, and returned to the other children.

I don't think any of the others saw us.

"We need to hurry," I said. I started running.

"Who knew Veda was so good with kids," Lafter said as she ran after me.

"StarGazer," Orange chirped. "StarGazer."

"See, this is why my cape name and my real name are the same name," Lafter said.

The alley didn't run in a straight line. In some places as much as thirty feet of space rested between the buildings, and in others as little as fifteen. We kept to the left side as we went, stopping once the truck and two guards came into sight.

It was a faded color, older model like the other's Veda watched. Big pickup truck, with one of those cab covers on top of the bed. Made it look more like an SUV, I guess.

I crouched down, keeping myself as hidden as possible. They seemed more interested in watching someone on their phones and sitting by the truck than anything, which helped.

Green flew a circle above, but I still didn't get anything from the truck. More of that interference on the sonic cameras, and the darkness of the alley made it impossible to see through the windows.

Except for the passenger side window, which someone left open.

Perfect.

"We'll wait here," I whispered. "Be ready to move if we need to."

"We can still just punch them," Lafter said.

"I don't want them to know we were here if I can help it," I said. "Stealth, remember?"

Lafter frowned. "It's cooler when Sam Fisher does it."

Who?

I directed Green to land nearby, and with both the guards not doing a good job guarding, helped him slip closer to the truck. Enough dumpsters and trash cans littered the area to offer decent cover, right up until he got to the home stretch. I worried someone might see him from the corner of their eye, so I let Orange toss another pebble in the opposite direction.

It hit a dumpster and send an echoing ding through the air. Both guards turned, and Green rolled over the ground and got on the other side of the truck. They both stood on the driver's side, so he only needed to hop up and into the window.

One guard walked off to look around, while the other started swiveling his head back and forth. Green sat and waited on the other side of the truck, and I ducked back around the corner. After a few minutes both men seemed content that nothing looked amiss and went back to their phones.

"Go," I whispered.

Green rolled back a foot, calculated the angle, and popped his feet out. His ball soared into the air and went right through the window. He silently landed on the seat beneath, then pushed himself between the seats into the back.

"Just be quiet," I said.

sys.h[gr]/ stealth mode
sys.h[gr]/ stealth mode

Green leaped over the back seats to land in the trunk. I kept my eye on the guards in case they showed interest but nothing.

In the back green found a collection of duffle bags. I knew what lay within before Green started opening them. Guns. Lots of guns. Shot guns, and a lot of hand guns. Some little Uzi looking things too. Mac-10s, Veda called them. Enough for twenty or thirty guys, and quite a bit of ammo. Serious firepower for a street gang. A lot of firepower even for the ABB.

They managed to slip a few shipments past me into the city without my suit to stop them, but it all looked fairly cheap. A rush order, to take advantage of me apparent absence maybe.

Didn't explain why the vehicles threw off my sonic cameras though.

Green dug deeper, pushing some bags aside until he found a large plastic case buried under the bags. More guns? Must be nice ones, cause they bothered to put a lock on the case.

Well…

"Saber," I said. "Carefully."

Green's fingers splayed out, a small pink beam shooting from inside his palm. I didn't see any light from the outside. Tinted windows? Green cut the bars on the lock and gently set it down. Popping the lid up, he found packing peanuts inside. He brushed the top layer aside, spotting a few pieces of metal sticking out. Brushing a few more aside, I saw what looked like a robotic leg.

Robots?

Definitely Bakuda.

Green lifted one of the machines very carefully, because bomb tinker, and started looking it over.

Roughly made, and about half the size of a Haro. I didn't see any eyes or sensors, but all four legs seemed like they provided movement in any direction. No obvious power buttons, and the one hole that looked like a port, but not a standard one. Custom and triangular, with three rings inside.

Or maybe a spot for an arming key?

"I'm just going to assume it walks and explodes," I said before directing Green to put it down.

"What is it?" Lafter asked.

"Bomb bots," I said.

Bomb bots, just what I needed. And tiny ones at that. Small enough to get under cars or to hide in small nooks. A good way to swarm the Merchants, and cause mountains of collateral damage. I didn't find any other cases in the truck, but probably a safe bet all the trucks carried at least one case.

I counted four of them in the case in front of me. Multiply by all the trucks Veda knew about and that made thirty-two. Maybe just assume forty to be safe.

Is Lung ready to cause that much damage?

Even the PRT couldn't possibly let that kind of threat slide. Lung might have beaten the Protectorate when he first got into town, but Stratos wasn't stationed in Brockton back then. Even then, Lung might be able to win, but the ABB without him only had Bakuda, and maybe Oni Lee if he got accustomed to a peg leg. They wouldn't be able to hold the line against concerted effort with just the three of them.

Consider motivations later. I can't let Lung just sit a bunch of bombs all over the city. They need to go.

Pulling out my phone, I started typing.

sys.t/ how many locations are the ABB parking these trucks in?

sys.v/ four other locations

Veda marked them on my map. Dinah didn't see anything about bombings in our last "next week's news" Q&A, but she might have missed it. Or I destroyed all their bomb bots and none of them ever went off.

I think I liked that last possibility.

Only problem being, I didn't know how big a boom they made, and they set their fucking bombs down right next to a damn daycare. Plus I didn't know how many other people lived in the surrounding buildings.

Got rid of Toybox and I'm still dealing with a tinker spreading weapons around the city.

Disappointing.

Lafter was right, this is bullshit.

Options? Obviously, call the PRT. They surely kept bomb squad guys around, right? If nothing else Armsmaster probably knew something about getting rid of explosives. But that meant calling Armsmaster for help… Which I didn't like.

But trying to do it myself risked a serious fuck up, and the ABB parked their weapon trucks in places with people. I didn't have a clue how big a boom the robots might make. They might even do something exotic for all I knew. Surely a bomb tinker could do more than just make a big explosion.

Decisions, decisions.

"Lafter," I whispered.

"Yup?"

"Wait here. I'm going to smash their shit, and when I do I don't want anyone getting near those whatever-they-ares."

"Oooh." She grinned. "Debut time?"

"Yeah. Debut time."

I pushed off the wall and snuck my way back the way we came. Instead of going back across the street like before, I crossed through the alleys to the other side and started a long march to the Boardwalk. In that time, Green managed to exfiltrate himself from the truck and got back into his cradle. He hovered behind Lafter waiting.

Veda used the time to plot out a route, and I dialed up Dinah.

"Hey," she said. "What's up?"

"I need to smash some trucks."

"Did you build a monster truck without telling me?"

"No."

"Can I drive it?"

"I don't have one."

"Worth a shot. What's the question?"

I waited till I got onto a stretch of street where no one could hear me. People already guessed Forecast was a precog, but there are a lot of ways to see the future. I didn't want anyone to know exactly how her power worked or its limitations.

"Does Newtype fight any capes if she goes out today?"

I waited a few minutes, phone to my ear. I kept walking, ignoring onlookers and crowds. The gangs might catch word, but by the time they knew I'd already be out of reach. So, I didn't care.

"No," Dinah said. "I don't see any possibilities where that happens."

"If Newtype attacks the ABB, are there any explosions throughout the city?"

"Two out of nineteen," she said.

"Thanks. Can you stick close to your phone?"

"Just doing summer school stuff," she said.

Checking the skies showed Glory Girl and Laserdream south of the city center, and Aegis and Dauntless flying over the coastline. They'd probably see me, but being seen might not be such a bad thing.

Birds and stones.

"Red, get ready to take a picture."

"Okay, okay," he said from my phone.

I sent him a location and told him to wait there.

If the Empire didn't want to hand me information, I always had the option of giving them information. Just a matter of letting it sink in from the right source in the right way.

I stepped onto the Boardwalk and began weaving through the crowd. The Enforcers started following, but they kept their distance. Toward the end of the Boardwalk, just south of the Boat Graveyard, a long line of old shipping containers sat and rusted. Ever since the gangs found out about my van I worried someone might narrow down and follow it specifically to my workshop.

I didn't want that to happen till I fully prepared the new one to replace it.

So, it occurred to me, why keep the van at the workshop? Regular maintenance and support didn't need any heavy equipment. Veda parked the van between the containers. It sported the paint job that gave it the look of a rusted wreck. It fit right in, tucked out in a corner where you needed to go out of your way to even notice it.

Veda pulled it forward as I approached, a few onlookers turning their heads. I approached at a brisk pace and climbed inside.

"Is everything ready?" I asked.

"Final system checks are complete."

"Let's go then."

I took my seat. After strapping myself in, I wrapped my hands around the controls. Pulling back on the sticks, the seat slid back and armor closed around me. The van began to open, people taking the chance to snap some pics while I got myself adjusted.

Keeping my arms in the chest might be better in terms of safety, but it didn't help the ergonomics. Kind of cramped having them stuck at my side, and the back of the chest plate rubbed against my knuckles a bit. Eh, I'd get used to it.

Veda finished the start-up sequence, and I began to stand with my armored legs. I flexed the mechanical fingers at the end of my other set of arms, and took in the near three-hundred-sixty degree view provided by the cameras. Green light spilled into the air, spreading across the ground and swirling before snapping back in a sudden surge.

The GN field took shape, starting in a wide sphere around me before drawing back and snapping into place. In a five foot radius around my suit. A second field spread over the armor, pulling a thin layer of GN particles into place just a centimeter off the plates.

My suit's weight dropped rapidly as the particles infused the materials, and Astraea's toes slid off the ground.

She looked slicker than O Gundam. Smoother and less bulky. I removed the yellow from the paint scheme, and most of the red, while cutting back on the armor in a few places I no longer needed it. Unlike the cone that hung off O's back, Astrea instead bore a trio of vents for better speed and maneuvering.

The van's arms lifted the weapons up and I took them.

A shield for my left, smaller and more compact than O Gundam's old shield. On the right, a long and narrow beam of E-Carbon almost as tall as I was clung to the back of Astraea's forearm. Vices hooked both attachments to Astraea's exterior armor, but both handles contained built in GN pistols. Under the shield I mounted two tubes containing GN missiles. My bazooka hung off my back, along with an auto-loading arm with a pair of spare magazines.

I cycled through the cameras. Raised both arms together and flexed the fingers individually and as a group. The thrusters along the legs, back, and chest all fired off steam to clear any debris from them.

"Everything looks good on my end," I said.

"Systems are nominal," Veda replied.

Right.

I raised my head, Astraea's eyes lighting as the crowd around me snapped pictures and pointed.

"Let's smash."