Step 8.2
Sometimes it really feels like there's just too much going on.
Green turned at my request. She sat atop a nice comfy looking chair, in the middle of a fairly "okay" apartment. Spacious, with a kitchen, full bath, and two bedrooms. Decent space on the whole.
The building reflected it being one of the less run down structures in the central area of the Docks. It sat just off the market street south of my factory. Good location, secure doors, and filled with identical apartments like the one around Green.
Lafter stood by the door, her game in her hands while she chatted away with Valiant.
They'd turned game time into a thing.
While she waited in the apartment, I sat at my new workstation. Well, my old workstation in its new location.
I busied myself running the numbers on the GN drive. Again.
It didn't make sense.
How does a closed system suddenly triple its output? That should be literally impossible, and none of the data I gathered on the drive or GN particles indicated it. The small variance in output Veda and I recorded when we plugged two GN drives together did trend toward the high end, but it fell within the margin of error on the sensors.
At least, I thought it did.
It didn't make any sense.
"Where are the GN drives now?" Doctor J asked.
I looked over my shoulder toward the ceiling. I built six lockers into the ceiling, one for each GN drive I intended to build in the immediate future. Only three currently glowed with green light; two contained my completed GN drives, and the third contained the incomplete third.
I'd rewired the device the Foundation gave me to funnel the faux-Jovian environment into the locker, allowing me to work on building the drive in a more easily accessed environment.
"Secured," I said. "We've been running tests on them while using the particles to power my factory."
One hundred percent green. Kati wanted me to put up a sign.
"We have replicated the effect," Veda said. "It was not a fluke, or a product of the Leviathan battle."
"Curious," J said.
He sat in the Foundation's lab in who-knew-where. Honestly I didn't know if the five men ever left their shared space. They seemed rather content to remain there. G stood directly behind him, looking at the same monitor as they examined the data I sent over.
"It only lasted a fraction of a second the first time," I said. "When we executed the process in a controlled environment we pushed it to nearly twenty seconds."
"GN field collapse?" J asked.
I shook my head. "More like a rubber band effect. The GN field held, but it recoiled and output dropped the half its norm afterward."
Confusing impossibility aside, triple the output.
The amount of energy I could put out with that would obliterate a building, not just knock it down. With the right weapon anyway. The potential there, and the power if I managed to harness it? Why be afraid of any cape in the city? Did Lung's raged-up body possess the ability to withstand that kind of force?
On the other hand, if I tried using it in Astraea's current configuration I'd snap every bone in my body. The inertia neutralizers simply didn't compensate for that.
"I just don't get how it's possible," I mused. "It shouldn't be."
"Clearly there is more about the particles produced by the furnace that we don't understand," G said. "The coloration changed?"
"Yes," Veda said. "I observed a shift in the color spectrum from 548 nm to 632 nm."
"Green to red," J said.
"Prior data suggested red GN particles were hazardous," G said.
"We've tested it already," I said. "The color does change to red, but the particles are different from the state we found in earlier tests. I don't think these particles were dangerous like that."
No more than we could possibly determine from highly experimental, and new, tinker tech. I suppose technically the GN particles could cause cancer for all I knew. Really it's impossible to fully predict what an exotic particle might do to its surroundings over the course of fifty years. You can only guess and draw inferences from what you know.
The door in the apartment across town opened.
"One second," I said. "I need to take care of something."
"Take your time," J said. "We're still looking through this data."
The door opened slowly, and Lafter tucked her game into her costume pocket. The door opened just a crack at first, a shadow on the other side fumbling with something.
I inhaled and put my 'mask' on. Not my literal mask, but the mask of Newtype the intimidating hero, as opposed to Taylor Hebert the baffled but intrigued tinker. Took me a moment. I didn't mind him struggling to get his key out of the door.
I didn't particularly like this.
It felt too much like what Emma did to me.
In a superficial sense, at least.
Objectively, I knew the difference in situations. The lives that hung in the balance. I needed to walk the line very carefully. Not so much for my peace of mind, but for the sake of what I needed to build in Brockton Bay.
The hinges on the door squeaked and swung all the way.
The Asian man walked into the room, pausing at the sight of Green on his chair.
"Hello!" Lafter announced from beside him.
She kicked him in the back of the leg and slammed the door shut.
The man sprawled across the floor, his groceries spilling out. The cap on his milk jug popped and spewed the cream across the carpet.
"I'd make some comment about spilled milk," I said through Green, "but that's beneath me."
The man scrambled, hand reaching back while he pushed himself up. Lafter kicked him in the side and Purple rolled in from the side and swiped the small hand gun from – I checked the file Veda prepared - 'Terry's' waistline.
"None of that," I said. "We're just here to have a chat."
The man said something in words I didn't understand.
He sat on his knees, glancing at Green and Purple, and then at Lafter.
"I know you speak English," I said. "Rosetta Stone. Good to know the commercials aren't all talk."
The man shifted his attention to Green and glared. "Lung will-"
"Lung will do as Lung does," I said. "Let me bounce an idea off you Terry, can I call you Terry?"
"Yes," Lafter said with a grin.
"I will," I said. Nothing sets a criminal off kilter like having absolutely zero control. "So Terry, here's the deal. The Empire and the ABB are going to go to war in," - I checked the clock - "one hour fourteen minutes and eight seconds. That's when the PRT will conclude the memorial ceremony in Boston and effectively end the Endbringer truce."
I adjusted myself in my seat. Terry couldn't see me, but I guess I still felt like setting my posture to match my disposition. Confident, proud, and determined.
"So my problem is that I don't want another gang war. Unfortunately, it's not Christmas and I'm not going to get what I want. That leaves me with two options Ter, can I call you Ter?"
Lafter chuckled.
"I can either, A, attack the gangs first and get them more focused on me than each other. Has the pleasant advantage of keeping the fighting somewhat directed and away from civilians. Unfortunately, it means fighting all you assholes at once. I can do it, it's just not much fun."
"B, on the other hand, is that I let the gangs pick a fight and then intervene to shut things down. Which means battles throughout the city, probably spiraling out of my ability to control, and blood spilling all over the place."
I shook my head.
"I don't like B, Ter. B fucking sucks. B gets lots of people seriously hurt and killed and that's unacceptable. Which leaves me with A. Do you see how you fit into this problem, Ter?"
"I didn't do anything!" He professed.
"And Lung is a saint," I said. I looked over at the paper. "Lets see. Assault and battery times five, one kidnapping – very naughty – and a suspect in three murders. You're a real asshole, Ter."
I set the letter down.
"You're also a captain in the ABB, and run most of the territory around my new factory."
Terry looked stone faced.
"I'm going to make this simple for you."
I inhaled audibly.
"I'm evicting you. And all the other ABB who live here. Both figuratively, and very literally."
Lafter opened the door to the apartment.
"You're not welcome in my building," I said.
"And I'll be enforcing the eviction," Lafter said, happily. "I'd really like if you picked the hard way."
Terry's eyes widened, not really looking at or acknowledging Lafter.
"Yours?" He asked.
"As of five hours ago," I said.
It's a wonderful thing having money.
I needed to double the number of fabricators at my disposal to meet demand for my model kits. Larry and JP were selling the things so fast I actually checked to be sure drugs weren't inside the cases. In the past month since I'd started making them I'd sold over three thousand kits to their shop.
I'd blown most of that buying Terry's building. Even with an owner very eager to sell it to avoid any money laundering accusations the price came in steep. But I got the building, and while my long term plans tied it into my factory and keeping the workers safe, I didn't want to call attention to that at the moment.
"I hereby declare that my factory and three blocks in all direction around it are mine," I said. "If we're going to put it in words you understand."
"Lung will-"
"Lung cares about results, Ter. Tell me, what's his patience for excuses?"
I think I knew. The police found the body of one Arkay Maruba a few days ago. Known ABB captain, and formerly the man running the territory now operated by Orga Itsuka. Cause of death? Someone turned him into an owl and twisted his neck a full one-hundred-eighty degrees.
The paling on Terry's still hardened face told me he knew exactly how Lung treated failure.
"He'll come after me," I said, "but what else is new? Really, the question to be asking, is what happens to you when I dedicate my every waking moment to dismantling your operations?"
My threat delivered, I leaned back to let my words sink in.
I didn't want to make a deal with someone like Terry. The guy lost both his kids four years ago in a messy custody dispute with his wife. She turned up dead, and everyone knew Terry did it, lack of evidence be damned. The kids then got to sit through another custody battle between Terry and his dead wife's parents in Providence.
The worst kind of criminal. The kind who thought he could do what he wanted.
But I saw the fear on his face.
Terry's a coward.
And I could intimidate him into being a nice neighbor, for now. I'd remove him later, after shoring up my position a bit more.
The ABB's division is their weakness. They operated their own cells and operations. It made them resilient to being dismantled by law enforcement. Fear of Lung kept all the cells in line.
I could use that for now, and it only cost me the potential of ire from capes who already wanted me dead.
I expected the ABB and the Empire to come after my factory. I'd prepared as best I could. I set up some defenses, and I got Astraea and Queen back up to full. He might go after the guys I hired if I left things be, and I didn't want that.
I'd rather piss on his yard and draw his attention to myself.
"Here's the deal, Ter. You leave my blocks alone, and I mean alone. No drugs. No robberies. No assaults. No brothels. No gambling parlors. Nothing. You back off, and I will leave you be. So long as you keep things relatively peaceful and don't commit any rapes or murders. And I'm including your brothels in that. The girls go free, or I free them myself."
Another pause for effect.
"Do that," I said, "and I'll find other parts of the ABB to dismantle. You might even come out ahead a bit while they suffer. And get the fuck off my property."
Green rolled around Terry and left the building.
"This gun lacks a serial number," Veda said through Purple, holding up Terry's weapon. "I am sure you did not notice. We will be turning it into the police in accordance with state and federal laws on firearms."
Purple handed the weapon off to Lafter and followed Green. Lafter gave the man a mock salute before strutting out and shutting the door behind her.
Lafter and my Haros went down the hall to the stairs. They descended together, Navy flying overhead outside and watching the back alleys. Lafter fished the master key for the building from her pocket and opened the rear exit.
I'd chosen option A. I'd rather fight the gangs myself, with two Gundams, Veda, six Haros, Lafter, and Dinah, than leave the city to fall into another gang war.
First though, I needed to direct any anger toward myself, fully. The guys I hired needed to be carefully curated bystanders.
I'd resolved myself to making that up as I went along.
"One hour six minutes," I said. "Can you handle the rest?"
"I got it," Lafter said, pulling her game out of her pocket to wait.
I picked up my phone and dialed a number.
I turned back to the monitor with the Foundation.
"Sorry about that," I said. "Dealing with some unwanted residents."
"I can imagine," J said. "We've finished our review of the data. I'm not sure how much we can say without more."
"I'm saying it doesn't make sense," I said. Might have said that already.
"Most things don't until you understand them," Doctor J replied. He rubbed his chin with his prosthetic hand, eyes fixed on the computer monitor at his side. "Data can be presented to mislead, but it cannot lie."
G nodded. "This is not an error of the recorders. It isn't conceivable for all of them to report the same false readings."
"We'll need to run more tests," J said. "This could change things significantly."
"If it's possible for the solar furnace to produce triple our recorded output, then the entire economy we've been examining changes," G agreed.
I hoped so.
I basically stopped researching the GN particles, and the drives, after I got the GN field working. I figured I'd gotten everything out of them I ever would and needed to start looking at applications for the science rather than the science itself.
Now I needed to restart my entire understanding.
Somehow that didn't disappoint me. If anything, I felt excited. I so rarely got to indulge my tinker-given fascination with discovery for discovery's sake.
"We can start looking at some things on our end," G said. "However, without a solar furnace of our own we're dependent on you to provide the data."
I sighed. "I told you. I'm not against giving you one, but the fastest I can churn them out is one every three months. I don't think I can build them faster than that."
If anything, I wanted more non-tinker tech development. I spent four hours a day, minimum to keep all my tech running smoothly. That marked my limit on how much time I wanted to spend on maintenance. It frustrated me a lot, because I really wanted to keep expanding, but time rather than money now stood out as the principle bottleneck for my efforts.
"And you have two suits now," G said. "Surely you can-"
"Let's not be greedy," J said. "It is her tech. We're just helping. Though my colleague is correct. Having a solar furnace here would allow us to do much more."
I nodded.
I still wanted to get Lafter a functioning suit. Right now I'd have a third furnace ready before Behemoth's attack. I doubted Lafter wanted to go anywhere near that thing though, so maybe the next furnace? I definitely needed the help from a research perspective.
"Like I said," I mumbled. "It's mostly a time thing. Brockton Bay is going to be really hot pretty soon here."
I glanced at the clock.
Less than an hour.
"There's also the question of Leviathan's sudden departure," G said. "Did it simply not want to risk a vital point, or did it specifically fear the GN particles?"
"Unable to determine," Veda said. "I am certain that Leviathan is far more capable than he has shown. His attack patterns appeared mechanical."
Did Veda recognize that as an AI? She functioned on processes, however complex they may be. She didn't extrapolate like a human brain often did. She'd said a few times now she found Leviathan's movements and behaviors abnormal. She compared them to fighting a machine rather than a monster.
Is Leviathan just a machine then? The product of some biotinker maybe, or something else? Did that apply to all three of the Endbringers?
"The prediction engine failed though," I said.
"It did," Veda replied. "The error occurred because Leviathan's movements suddenly shifted. I did not expect them to and did not code the engine to adapt to such a sudden change."
"The PRT has discussed the possibility in the past," J said. He turned away from the monitor and looked at the camera. "What StarGazer witnessed could be taken as confirmation that the Endbringers are not fighting as hard as they could."
And that just didn't make sense.
Why destroy cities and kill millions with half effort? Why did Leviathan ever bother coming out of the water? Surely he didn't need to be on land to send tidal waves into a city. Behemoth and the ground too. Why not bury himself deep and upset a tectonic plate somewhere? The Simurgh's ability to manipulate technology was well documented, yet she didn't really disrupt the network of low orbiting satellites used by cellular phones or GPS.
Why the hell are they sandbagging?
Did they find it funny or something?
"It's something to look at," G said. "Armsmaster and Dragon predicted the attack in Boston more than an hour to spare. It'll be very informative if it works twice."
"Indeed," J said. "And if StarGazer can perfect the combat engine, then it could be extremely valuable. Half of the casualties in Endbringer attacks are the result of surprise. Predicting a melee with the enemy is a misapplication, I think."
I saw that myself pretty well.
"I had not considered that," Veda said. "Queen was designed as a command and control unit."
"Something to prepare for next time," I said.
Could I get the Tierens up and running before Behemoth?
And the Gungnirs?
The mythology appealed, Nazi's be damned. Odin's mystic lance that - once thrown - never missed. Obviously the railguns could miss, but with the real design I'd put together over the past week? Well, if nothing else I had a ready solution for Lung and Hookwolf. Even if they survived the blow, a three meter lance of GN particle infused E-Carbon is the ultimate pin needle to hold someone down.
A Lung who can't move because he's literally nailed to the road is as dealt with as a Lung defeated in a fight.
I just needed to solve the charging problem. I didn't normally pump so many GN particles into one place and it played hell with the lance I'd experimented on. Might need to adjust the materials.
A group of Tierens, three or four, all armed with such a weapon? Could the Simurgh even react to a weapon that fired projectiles with near instant time to target? Seeing the future or not, the body needed to react.
Could Veda out-predict her with enough processing power?
Leviathan and Behemoth might be destroying the Earth, but it's the Simurgh that completely halted all progress.
Sphere, a Swiss tinker, planned to build a moon base and orbital colonies. Unprecedented forward thinking for a cape in his time, and the Simurgh appeared almost like she targeted him. Like she wanted to strike back at even the notion that humanity might be able to keep progressing under the onslaught.
I think I took some personal affront to that.
"I should get going," I said. "Tell O I said thank you. We finally have a design for the Helpers that I think will work."
"He's quite excited," J said. "Unfortunately the dentist insisted on fixing those cavities. My dear colleague likes his sweets too much."
"I'd have waited till he got back if I knew."
"It's quite alright. We'll keep analyzing this data."
"We go from powering single buildings to entire blocks," G said. "If the technology can scale up, planetary based plants become much more feasible."
I nodded and said goodbye.
I pushed my seat back and stood. Took a moment to stretch a little. Still feeling something of a kink in my leg. Can you have phantom pain in a leg?
Getting the factory up and running along with my hero activities left me with precious little time.
The new workshop put the old one to shame, though my nostalgia for O'Neil's old garage remained. Guess you never forget your first secret lab, even after building a newer and better one with four times as much space, much improved security, and a way better layout. I set a small space aside off in the corner for Trevor. We used the same workshop, but only in terms of space. I did my thing and he did his.
We occasionally helped each other out when a second tinker become useful.
I'd arranged the bulk of my tinkering supplies against the north wall. Shelves and storage boxes full of spare parts, and core materials. Circuits, assorted lengths of wire, bags of carbon, metals, and everything else. I'd cannibalized Toybox's fabricators. After pissing the rogue tinkers off I didn't want to run the risk they could track their own tech.
I'd replaced them with twice as many of my own. Much better efficiency, self-cleaning, and while a little slower to work I had twice as many of them. It made building replacement parts and armor a lot easier.
Astraea and Queen knelt in their alcoves near the lab's center, with spaces set aside for six more suits. I kept the GN drives secured in lockers fitted to the ceiling. When not used in my suits I spun them to channel power into compressors in the factory above.
My new van, basically the same as my old van but a different make and model by appearance, parked behind the alcoves, a single large garage door on the east wall leading into my factory's loading dock area.
I figured now every villain probably guessed I'd be building and operating out of my factory. Hiding my movements didn't matter so much anymore, but the van could still be useful. I might even rebuild a bigger one when I got the chance to carry multiple suits.
I set up a sitting area in the corner. Couch, and a TV. Mostly Dinah and Lafter used it while hanging around.
Thinking of Dinah, I pulled up some of my research on state laws concerning 'child labor.' The Dock Workers worked in Newtype's factory. If I could get Dinah hired as an 'intern' for the union, or maybe as a volunteer – easy when your dad is head of hiring – it would get a lot easier to explain her presence around the factory.
Of course, the easiest way would be for Dinah to tell her parents the truth, but I suspected she didn't have it in her to get into a fight with them about it like I did.
She desperately wanted to stay out of the Wards at any cost. The 'snake man' she said.
Coil.
I motionlessly stared for a moment.
The time went by so quickly.
The truce ended today.
The monument in Boston went up in under an hour and once it did I expected the Empire and the ABB to start fighting with what little remained of the Merchants.
What remained didn't amount to much. They'd split into a few different groups, with Trainwreck's faction being the biggest. I didn't expect that to last. Trainwreck didn't stand a chance against the army of capes set to push in on him.
The Protectorate patrolled the border blocks pretty heavily the past few days. They clearly expected violence to break out, but their presence wouldn't prevent it.
Kaiser and Lung needed wins.
I'd hurt them too much, and the sudden removal of the Merchants far ahead of my plans would force their hands. The Empire still held numbers, and Lung is Lung. Oni Lee back on his feet, and Bakuda? Of course, all of them stood as threats to me, especially if they decided to set aside their differences.
Unlikely, but possible. I didn't know what to expect from Coil, or the Undersiders. Faultline stayed out of Brockton Bay affairs for the most part.
I'd entered a precarious situation. Wish I'd been able to prepare for it better, but as I said to Terry.
It's not Christmas and I'm not getting what I want.
Not without firing a bunch of lasers and breaking some stuff, anyway.
Choices, choices.
"Veda," I said. "Is everyone cleared out from the factory?"
"Trevor Medina is the only employee still on the grounds."
Of course he was.
He really did want nothing more than to tinker. The moment I handed him my rough design for laying out the factory, he took it up as his own personal mission.
Honestly, the best hiring decision of my brief business career.
"Prep Astraea and Queen," I said.
"Understood," Veda said. The lockers began opening, mechanical arms pulling the GN Drives from their berths. "Should I inform the PRT?"
"Go ahead," I said. "A little leak might wave some of the street troops off."
And for once the Protectorate and PRT might be useful as organizations.
I walked over to one of the three doors on the west wall. The first led to a dorm area. Lafter made one of the rooms her own and seemed content with it. Trevor sometimes used one of the others, and sometimes I still didn't want to be around my dad.
Hurt takes time to fully heal, life and death situations be damned.
The second door led to Veda's new server room. While I let Trevor into the lab, I didn't let him in there. Oh, he knew I kept servers there. I just didn't tell him it was 'StarGazer's' room.
The third door led up to my factory. The stairs rose up to a one way door that could only be seen through on my side. Let me time my exits to obscure when and how I came and went from the building.
Since no one was around, I need not worry.
Lights illuminated the factory interior.
The basics of the line existed. An S-shaped conveyor system that snaked through the top half of the warehouse. Thirty five separate machines needed to get assembled before we could start production, and those machines all took a fair amount of time.
I didn't expect the first prototype helpers to come off the line for another three weeks. At least. The gang war could slow our progress.
Dockworkers and ex-Merchants pulled double shifts to assemble the line and learn how to use it. By now everyone knew what I'd done. The guys all said they knew the risks, but my experience was 'knowing the risks' is very different from experiencing them.
Trevor zipped back and forth around the room.
We did a lot of the tinker work when the guys weren't around. Let us prep things for them and go about our own business while they put it together. Tinker tech needs tinkers, but only to an extent.
Trevor moved parts about, assembled components, and arranged the materials for the next day's work. The line ended up being pretty complicated. Probably simpler to build a line to make tinker tech Haros than non-tinker tech Helpers.
I approached him casually, taking a moment to look over the pieces.
He stopped for just a second.
"Oh. Hey, Newtype." He zipped away and started moving some parts. "Something up?"
"You're still here," I said.
"Yep." He zipped to my right. "Wanted to try and get the assembler all ready to, ah, assemble."
"I noticed," I said. "Trevor. I told everyone to take the day off."
"Yeah, but I'm almost done."
"Trevor. The Endbinger truce ends today. The gang war is going to start up, and this building is a giant target."
"I know."
"I can defend it but I can't promise it won't get ugly."
"I know."
I sighed.
"Trevor. Go. Home."
He stopped, a large cylinder in his arms.
"Go home to your mom," I said. "If Lung comes and tries to knock the building over, it'll be easier for me to know it's empty."
He glanced around the room.
"But… We haven't even started."
"That's the risk," I said. "And the point. Someone needs to stand up and show the gangs can be beaten and new business can thrive. But I can fail, Trevor. I've failed a lot. Go home."
I turned and started walking to the exit.
The van met me outside, rolling out of the ramp leading into the "basement." I climbed inside and climbed into Astraea.
I dialed dad's number as Veda drove out.
"Taylor?" He asked.
"Hey," I said. I felt that familiar bitterness and anger. It felt more distant than before Leviathan.
"You didn't come home for dinner."
"I was busy. I told you I would be." I sighed. "It's starting, Dad."
He didn't answer for a few seconds.
"Right."
"Stay inside," I said. "I don't know how ugly it's going to get. I'm going to try and stomp the fire out before it really gets going."
I gave Charlotte the same warning. She'd been a bit reclusive since the memorial two days ago. Fortunately, she didn't blame me for anything. She just wanted her space.
I got that.
Finally I called Dinah.
"You safe?" I asked.
"Family movie night," she said.
I nodded and ended the call.
That kept everyone safely indoors.
"Lafter," I called. "You ready?"
"Yep. Got three of the munchkins with me."
"Rascals, rascals," Purple replied.
"Alright. You're okay with this? StarGazer and I will get bogged down fast, and if this works we'll both need to pull back and defend the factory."
"You worry too much," Lafter said. "It'll be like a rousing round of Splinter Cell."
I didn't know what that meant, but I assumed it meant 'fine.' Dinah did give us more successes than failures with her power, but the failures she saw went badly.
"You know," Lafter said, "after this we should take some time and go-"
"No," I said firmly.
"It'll be fun," Lafter said.
"It'll be annoying," I replied.
"You need something to wear that isn't your costume."
"I have clothes, Lafter."
"It's still sweet you think that."
"And how do I go out in public with you?"
"With GG," she said. "You go to the same school."
I did not think that qualified as sufficient cover. Taylor Hebert and Victoria Dallon in one place? Fine. Nothing really that weird. Taylor Hebert, Victoria Dallon, and Lafter Frankland? Might as well go on TV and unmask.
"We can dye your hair," she said.
I frowned. "No one touches my hair."
"Oh, red flag."
I rolled my eyes.
The clock clicked down. Veda pulled the van into position, and I closed Astraea's armor around me.
"I'm ready," I said.
Veda brought up the city map and marked all the gang elements we knew about. Navy, Pink, and Orange flew in the sky and watched everything.
Back at the workshop, Queen stepped out of the basement into the parking lot. Trevor zipped by as Veda put the suit in position, flashing out of the factory grounds and down the street.
Frictionless acceleration is very useful.
Lafter walked along some back alleys elsewhere in the city, Green and Purple with her. I kept Red near me to watch my position. My old van meanwhile, drove out in the open, drawing a few eyes toward it. Mostly Empire eyes, but it at least provided confusion about where I was.
I inhaled deeply.
I didn't much like plan B anymore than plan A, but I faced Leviathan.
I can face Brockton Bay.
Fifteen minutes.
"Get me out," I said.
The van opened, folding back in the same way the old one did. The arms lifted Astraea into a standing position, and began loading my weapons. Without the Full Armor kit I fell back on the first load out I developed.
Probably a better fit for everyday heroing anyway.
"Take the van and pick up Lafter after I deploy," I said.
My eyes set on one group of ABB. They'd gotten into cars about thirty minutes ago, and now traveled slowly south through the city.
Ramius called me, saying, "The Protectorate is already deploying in anticipation. What are you planning to do?"
I watched the cars approach on my map, and raised Astraea's GN pistols. I raised the output.
"I tried to keep everyone in their own lanes last time," I said. "Didn't work out so well."
"Taylor, no!"
"I haven't even said what I'm going to do yet."
"I know you!"
Eh, that's fair.
The clock ticked. The memorial ceremony in Boston ended.
No more truce.
As the lead car crossed the street ahead of me, I fired.
The beam of concentrated particles impacted the front of the vehicle and blew through the engine block. I shot forward as it came to a halt, flying over the vehicle and opening fire. I hit each car in its engine, halting their march.
The doors swung open and gangsters spilled out while pedestrians started moving for cover.
The guns raised and then fell as stun bombs detonated around the men.
"Bombs away," Red said, "bombs away!"
Thirty thugs down in five seconds.
"I've got thirty ABB stunned on forty-first and fifty-second," I said. "Five vehicles are blocking the road."
Ramius sighed.
Astraea shot through the sky.
"Go Laughter," I said.
"Gladly!"
She pressed a button on her wrist, and every cell phone signal within fifty feet cut out. A little trick I cooked up thanks to Squealer's reactor and the similar properties of GN particles.
She kicked down the door and went inside.
The brothel girls all turned toward her, and Lafter smiled.
"Who wants a free bus ride out of town?" She asked. "Gettings good while the assholes are busy outside."
She turned on the bouncers coming toward her and flicked on a beam saber.
I left her to work, catching Queen's launch a few blocks away. I moved east while Veda went south-west.
The gangs wanted to fight, fine.
I hit the ground hard, sliding through the intersection and turning my pistols. I fired into the black SUV's destroying their engines. I spotted Krieg stepping out of one of the cars and fired. Guess his power works on particle beams, cause they didn't do more than slow him down.
Powers are bullshit.
Red's bombs dropped and I shot back into the air.
No time to get bogged down in a cape fight. Knocking some thugs out and putting Krieg on foot met my goals.
In the distance, Queen deployed its Fangs. I saw the myriad stream of beams cut into the air, followed by an explosion.
"The last two of Squealer's tanks have been destroyed," Veda said.
"Tell the Merchants we'll leave them alone if they stay quiet," I said. "I'd rather focus on the ABB and the Empire."
"Relaying. Moving on to next target."
"They're going to come after you," Ramius said.
"That's the idea."
What else is new?
I'm not alone anymore.
I shifted course, the two vehicle-bound bands of criminals now stuck on foot. I drove Astraea through a wall, turning on a pair of ABB guards and firing. At nearly the same time, across the city, Queen Gundam smashed through a roof. The Fangs flew, and every shot we fired knocked out the thinned guard protecting the gang's businesses.
Honestly, I didn't have the best eyes on what was valuable and what wasn't anymore. My building, for example, ended up being guarded by two guys with a small stash of cash. No matter. I'd keep hitting places I knew the ABB and Empire owned.
Playing defense didn't get me anywhere when I tried it.
So attack it is.
I burned the cash and left the guards sprawled on the ground.
They could either get trashed by my Gundams, or fall back to protect their own territory.
I glanced to my factory on the map.
They'd go for it. I'd given them a target after all.
And when they did I'd make them suffer.
A light flashed on Astraea's left shoulder.
Not this time asshole!
I spun about, grabbing Oni Lee's head with one hand. He'd covered his eyes when my suit blinded him. A little 'point defense' system I came up with after our last encounter. I pinned one of his arms with the head grab, holding his forearm against his mask in my grip. I took hold of the other with my other hand.
My suit landed hard on a rooftop and fell to one knee. The loading arm on Astraea's back unfurled and grabbed a beam saber.
"Sorry, Lee."
I aimed the arm at the leg shaped bomb Bakuda attached to Lee's knee.
"Forecast saw you coming."
