A Waken 11.W
Chris grimaced.
The system was a mess. The repulsors in the right leg weren't keeping pace with the left. Something kept catching in the right arm, slowing his movements. The HUD didn't display right. Rushed OS caused that last problem. He'd have to check for the other two.
He never had to balance two different repulsor systems on his hoverboard.
Chris blinked at the HUD, commanding the system with his eyes. Wheels in the corners of his eyes spun, prepping gear from his lab for teleport.
ARMS
Spark Pistol [5]
P. Rifle [4]
Shield [2] [e]
Sword [1]
Saber [3]
Trident [2] [error]
F. Launcher [1]
Strike-pack [error] [override]
Buster-pack [1]
Aile-pack [error] [override]
Thruster-Pack [e]
He got errors from half of what he queried, though most of it was still usable. So much equipment to keep track of.
The GM was smaller than Taylor's suits, her Gundams. It didn't compare in terms of speed, defense, or mobility. It couldn't fly.
Fine.
He was done comparing himself to others by his own inadequacies. It didn't save Carlos. It didn't save Dennis. It didn't save himself.
Someone who frets over what they can't do doesn't do anything.
He couldn't match Taylor. Fine. Quality worked against his specialization anyway. He'd never match quality using it. No. His focus needed to be quantity, and make that a quality in its own.
The whole is more than the pieces.
Hellhound and her dogs—Brutus and Judas she called them—down the hall ahead, and Chris raced after her. They couldn't leave her to run loose in the building.
"Push through," Weld shouted behind him.
Chris passed into the office space and swept his right leg around. The GM spun on the repulsors like skates. Lasers cut through the air, peppering his armor and scorching the wall.
"Five men with tinker-tech," Chris called. "Six dogs!"
"Go!" Weld ordered.
The nearest dog charged him.
Chris raised one arm and released his shield. It vanished in a flash of light, replaced with a Spark pistol. He blocked a dog's snapping jaws with the shield in his other hand, turned the weapon, and fired.
The beast recoiled and Chris released his shield. He drew one of his rifles instead and flashed away the thruster-pack. A heavier weight fell on his shoulders and he pitched the GM forward to keep his balance.
His hands raised two barrels. Two more barrels fell over the shoulders and another pair swung up at the GM's waist. The HUD lit up, marking the dogs and the mercs. His finger twitched for a moment.
None of this was approved. The armor. The weapons. The configuration. It might never be approved. The more he built using his actual specialization, the more he realized how much the approval process worked against him.
He intended to save the GM for an Endbringer.
So much for that plan.
I'm going to get such a lecture when this is over.
Chris pulled the triggers and fired.
Steam and red sparked from the barrels around him. Dogs whined as he shot their legs, knocking them to the ground. Mercs scattered, running for cover and shooting lasers back at him.
Chris didn't linger on the mercs. He shot two in the chest with low level shots from his spark pistol and then firing at Hellhound's mount with his rifle. When the charge on his rifle went out, he swapped it for another in a flash. The weapon went back to a dock in his lab to recharge.
He kept firing.
Mercs scrambled back, retreating from the door they'd tried to get into.
Why are some doors locked down while others aren't?
Chris slid to the left but not far. He took two shots to the chest, feeling the heat of the beams despite his protection. He emptied his pistol and drew another.
He kept firing, holding his position while the others caught up and spread out behind him.
Alec's hand flicked out and one mercenary spasmed. Olive charged behind Weld atop a minion she threw together as they moved. Lily shot a man in the foot and pinned him to the floor. If it were Stalker Chris would be worried but Flechette's power didn't leave anyone bleeding profusely.
Elle followed at a slower pace, humming to herself.
"Wards," Weld called, "Advance!"
Chris slid forward. He swapped the buster-pack for the thruster-pack and focused his fire. He peppered the dogs, keeping them back and away from Lily and Olive. Weld ran right toward them, but he could take a beating. Chris followed behind, swapping for new weapons and firing them at the closest dogs.
"How many dogs does she have!?" Olive shouted, riding atop her minion. An amalgamation of a couch, desk and chair legs, and what might have been a trolley cart, now that Chris took time to look.
"That's your question?" Alec waved his hand at some of the Mercenaries who were still standing and armed.
Lily shot one in the foot, pinning him in place. Using his reprieve, Chris drew his spark pistol and fired at the second Mercenary.
"What question would you ask?" Olive rode her minion over a crushed desk and toppled pillar to punch the second merc as Lily shot him in the leg.
Alec looked around the ruined, torn-down, crumbling office space.
"Where do I start? Human resources is literally on fire."
Weld swung his arms into Judas' belly, both shaped like mace heads. The monster dog—about the size of Chris in his suit—fell back and Chris turned to block Brutus with his shield.
Olive asked a good question.
How many dogs did Hellhound have?
Elle swallowed one into her power along with Sovereign and the mercenaries in the common room. The villain ran with Brutus and Judas, and now they'd found four more in HR with a team of mercs.
Hellhound wheeled her mount about and ran at him. Weld threw an arm out, morphing it into the shape of a blade. The dog snapped at Weld and ran over him. The monster dog looked like a landslide as it charged, a trail of debris kicking up at its every footfall.
Coming right at him.
Chris skated backward. He released his current rifle. It flashed away and a grenade launcher fell into his hand. Hellhound's mount jumped and turned suddenly, whipping a spiny tail through the air.
He banked hard to the right and ran right into a wall.
With a curse he forced the GM through the wall into the storage behind. He took aim and fired his launcher. Confoam exploded over the ground around Judas. The dog simply broke through the foam before it hardened.
Too big.
Hellhound shouted a command and rode her dog through the wall right after him. Very big. Horse big, damn. Chris dodged right, back into the wall and forced his way through back into the office space. Behind him, Hellhound's dog crashed into a row of filing cabinets.
He only had a moment.
Lily, Weld, and Olive were fighting the Mercs and the other five dogs. Weld kept the other big one—Brutus—to the side, while Alec kept messing with the mercs.
Too many enemies.
Chris released his grenade launcher and redrew his rifle. He fit the butt of the rifle to the barrel of his spark pistol. The systems linked, he set the errors aside. Chris set the spark rifle against the GM's shoulder and turned it toward the closest mercenary.
"Down!" He shouted.
Lily took cover. Weld ducked. Olive clambered onto her minion's back. Elle raised a stone wall in front of herself and grabbed Alec to pull him behind it.
A red beam of sparks and heat blasted across the room. The beam swept left as Chris turned his weapon. Mercenaries shouted and screamed, falling to the ground and dropping their weapons as the electronics fried and popped.
He switched the rifle to a higher power and ducked to the side as Judas leaped at him. The dog crashed, scattering debris about. Hellhound swung a club at him but missed when her arm jerked to the side.
Alec chuckled beside Elle, who seemed content to mostly watch?
Chris wasn't sure if that was good or bad. Elle's power was scary if she stood in one place long enough. He didn't have a good idea how moving around limited it, but moving around shrunk her range to basically a foot.
Chris circled around a collapsed cubicle. He fired again. Two of her other dogs yelped and fell back, shaking as the bones sticking out of their bodies began to smoke.
Hellhound roared.
It's not like I want to hurt them.
Chris released the Spark rifle and the weapon flashed away back into its separate parts. He drew his sword—an old piece from his first years as a Ward—and a spear.
He thrust the spear forward, only for Judas to dart to the side at a tap of Hellhound's leg. The dog grabbed the shaft between its teeth and snapped the spear.
Chris shifted his weight, letting the GM slide to the right as Judas cast the weapon aside. He swung the flat of his sword at Hellhound and she rolled to the side, hanging off of Judas by one leg as his blade went over her.
Chris lifted one leg as if to kick. The dog leaped back. He turned the repulsor to full. Judas flew back as the force hit him in the side and slammed through a stone column. Hellhound spilled across the floor and scrambled, barely avoiding Weld.
Weld turned toward her and she shouted.
"Brutus!"
The second big dog broke free from Olive's minion and tackled Weld from the side.
Chris cursed. He lost track of the second big dog, focusing on Judas too much.
He reequipped the buster-pack.
With all six barrels he fired, joining Flechette in peppering Judas as the dog fought back to its feet. Brutus scrambled back, freeing Weld to hit one of the smaller monster-dogs.
Olive tackled a second with her minion and pinned it to the ground. She had it raise one arm and drive the table and chair legs that made it up into the ground. Then the other arm. Chris switched the spark pistol for the grenade launcher and fired, trapping both the minion and the dog in confoam.
That was the four they found here. Lily had already pinned two of them to the wall or the floor with her arbalest.
Olive ran back, her hands slapping broken tables and chairs. She didn't have a lot to work with. She needed joints for her power and that mostly left table and desk legs.
Hellhound ran. She leaped back onto Judas and got the dog to rise despite the stakes and beams Chris and Lily fired. The beast barreled past Chris. Weld got thrown to the ground as the dog ran him over and the rider swung a club at Olive.
Her arm spasmed at the last second, and the weapon fell from her hand.
Judas continued running, Weld dragging from the leg he'd hooked one arm around. His other arm changed and he hooked Hellhound's leg and pulled. She jerked, sliding back from her mount while her hands clung to bone jutting from Judas' back.
She slapped the dog on its side, and it spun about and threw Weld into the air.
"Surround her!" Chris shouted.
He drifted left, and Olive went right with her newly assembled minion.
Lily shot the smaller dogs in the legs, adding them to the list of targets she'd disabled simply by nailing them to the floor. Then she moved right, following behind Olive.
Hellhound righted herself atop Judas, Brutus circling close and snapping his jaws. Just her and the two dogs now.
"Give up, Hellhound." Weld pulled himself up, a few pieces of metal sticking to his arms. "You're outnumbered!"
Hellhound made a snarling sound behind her plastic dog wavered, looking back and forth between them.
Chris didn't know her well. He'd only really seen her a few times. Once when they were gearing up to go after Cranial, and again when Vista was kidnapped.
Thank god Missy isn't he—Shit, that's not right.
He didn't have time to unpack that, so he filed it away.
He doubted Hellhound would surrender, especially not when they called her that.
"Bitch," Chris offered.
"Shit, Kid," Alec said.
"I think I'm good with it," Olive mumbled. "Dog master. Bitch. It fits."
Fucking PRT. They'd never call a villain 'Bitch' even when they knew that was what she called herself. They didn't even talk about it, or let the Wards know about it.
"Give up, Bitch," Chris pleaded. "We don't want to keep hurting your dogs."
"He"—Olive trailed—"has a point."
Elle raised her hand. "I vote we stop hurting puppies."
"That is something my sister would do," Alec grumbled. "And she is a psycho, so…"
Lily and Weld remained defensive. Chris didn't blame them. He wasn't letting his guard down either. Convincing Bitch to surrender with words seemed far-fetched from what little he'd seen of her.
Chris kept his fingers on the triggers, aiming for the legs.
"We aren't waiting," Weld decided. "Three—"
Bitch whistled and both her dogs spun.
Chris fired, blasting red sparks through the air as Judas and Brutus barreled past him. Judas' tail slammed into his chest, knocking him back and sprawling the GM across the ground.
Chris righted himself quickly. He came about and leaned forward, skating after her. He refitted his Spark rifle and fired. The dogs leaped off the floor and clawed into the wall, letting the shot pass between them.
If she keeps running around…
"I'll pin Bitch," he said. "We've spent too long on this as it is."
"He's right," Lily agreed. "They're here for Deputy Director Calvert. The elevator to the cells is two floors up on the other side of the building."
Chris swept right, cutting through a side room parallel to the hallway. He fired a stream of shots after Hellhound, driving her away from the central stairwell.
"Tattletale isn't a fighter and Grue can't take all of you," Chris pointed out. "Let me handle Bitch."
Chris thought for a moment, trying to imagine the building in his head.
"What if they already have Calvert?" Olive asked.
"The garage," Lily suggested. "It's practically empty now and it's closer to the cells than the back entrances. Quicker escape."
She was right.
Weld spoke up, saying, "Kid—"
"If we let her go, she'll come back or run rampant through the building. No one else can keep up with her anyway. I'll be fine."
Bitch broke through a pair of doors into the gym. Brutus and Judas slid to a stop. There was no other way in or out than the front. Chris fired, six barrels igniting from the GM.
Brutus and Judas leaped and ducked, running a crossing pattern. When they got close Chris released his guns and drew a pair of hilts. Shimmering blades ignited and he spun between the dogs and swept their legs.
They tripped, and while Bitch managed to right her mount the other dog crashed into the ground and rolled.
Chris checked the room. The others were gone. Save for some equipment in the corners, the open space was empty.
"Last chance," he offered.
Bitch turned Judas around and charged him, roaring along with her mutated dog.
Chris swung his sabers, knocking Brutus' jaws away with one and swinging for Bitch with the other. She let herself slip to one side of her dog and avoided the blade again. Chris pointed a pistol at her chest, the weapon flashing into hand as soon as he released his saber.
He fired and the girl fell from her dog.
Judas tackled him from behind, and he drew his second trident and thrust it back into the animal's stomach. The dog pushed him forward and Chris leaned into it to escape the falling beast.
Brutus lunged at him from the other side.
He blocked the tackle with a shield, firing thrusters to speed forward and get distance. Jaws closed over his arm and metal began to creak. Chris grimaced, feeling the pressure on his own arm.
He did the first thing he thought of and threw a punch.
Judas hung strong, arresting the GM's movement and jerking Chris back.
"Kill!" Bitch shouted.
The dog's jaws opened and snapped back down in an instant, cracking the armor. The dog pulled him back, then lifted him up with a sudden rear. Chris felt the ground fade and then gravity took hold. Judas slammed him into the ground.
Shit
He did the second thing he could think of.
The entire right arm flashed.
Judas roared and shook his head. Blood spilled from the hole in his jaw, part of it taken when the arm went back to the workshop.
Chris swung his new arm, punching the dog in the jaw. The panel on the underside popped and sparks sprayed from the Spark thrower inside. Judas scrambled, yelping and falling back. Chris fired the thrusters and the repulsors.
He righted himself, Brutus circling on his right while Judas scrambled to the left. Hellhound was fighting to get on her feet ahead of him, shouting at the dogs.
Chris switched to the buster-pack again, the barrels falling forward. He drew a rifle to his right hand and another to his left.
Chris spun and fired. Left. Right. Center. He forced the dogs back, swapping weapons one after the other.
Brutus and Judas darted and dodged, snapping and swiping at him as he poured beams and sparks through the air. He kept them back with the barrage, but the wounds only seemed to anger them. They didn't stop.
He needed to catch up with the others before something happened.
Think of som—
When stray beams hit close to Bitch, Brutus and Judas both reacted. They jumped to shield her.
Or that works.
Chris fit the rifles together. The pistol returned to his hand and he slipped it onto a slot at the front. He attached the beam sabers to the back quickly..
Three seconds. New best time.
Chris swung the Alternator cannon under his arm.
He slotted the weapon into the barrel hanging over his right side and connected it to the GM's reactor. The other three barrels on the buster-pack flipped back and reconfigured into vents for excess heat.
He took aim. Judas and Brutus guarded Bitch as she tried to get up. He aimed high.
I don't think I like fighting dogs.
The air ignited. Steam poured from behind his GM. The beam blasted through Brutus' side and down along his hind-quarter. It hit Judas square in the chest, knocking the mutant back into the air.
The mutant-dog slammed back into the ground and went limp.
Brutus scrambled on the floor with only two legs.
Bitch clutched her shoulder and grabbed one of Judas' spikes.
"Shit," Chris mumbled. I think I made a mistake somewhere.
He looked past Bitch, Brutus, and Judas. A perfectly round hole hung in the wall. The edges burned red and spit smoke and sparks. Another hole lay across the hall in the next wall, slightly smaller. And the next. And the next. And the next before a small fist sized dent sat two rooms away.
That wasn't supposed to happen at the lowest setting.
Maybe I forgot to carry the two?
Chris glanced down at the Alternator cannon and sighed. There went his plan of trapping Hellhound and her dogs in the gym.
The weapon, and the weapons that made it up, flashed away. Chris quickly drew the grenade launcher. He fired, using the last of the foam grenades he managed to swipe without anyone asking questions.
Bitch roared and tried to fight her way out, but it just meant the stuff hardened while she stood. Brutus and Judas were both covered, but neither seemed ready to keep fighting.
"I'm going to seal you in here," Chris said, "so just hang tight."
He left the gym and skated down the hall. Tearing a panel off the wall, he pressed a finger to the access port and looked at the security system.
He knew something was off. It looked like someone rigged the system to lock-down most of the building save for a few areas. The Undersiders? The only open paths were those they could use to reach a few areas. The building's communications were down too. He could access the Wards lines, but no others.
But weren't the mercs trying to get into a room in HR?
First he triggered the security doors to trap Bitch in the gym. A Ward couldn't do much, but he could do that. Then he closed off the hallways on either side of the hole he made. He tried to close the doors leading to the garage, but they were locked—Calvert's code?.
How did it still work?
"Weld," Chris called. "I've trapped Bi-Hellhound in the gym. Where are you guys?"
"We're chasing Grue and March," he replied. "The mist is getting thick!"
"Labyrinth fix!" Elle cried.
"March?" Chris turned his head. "Who is March?"
Chris opened doors that got him upstairs fastest and moved.
"I'm coming up the east stairway!"
"I can't believe she followed me here," Lily growled.
"Ex?" Alec asked.
"No."
"Psycho-stalker. Gotcha. Sounds fun."
Chris reached the top of the stairs and burst through the open door into the hall. Lasers cut through the air, and he flashed a shield into his hand. He took his pistol in the other and fired back.
There were about a dozen mercs running ahead, trailing behind Grue and some girl in a rabbit mask. Grue's smoke flowed from his body. It ran down the hall like a stream and…into Elle's sleeves.
Weld threw one mercenary into the wall while Olive held another to the ground with a minion. She'd put together a second one at some point, which continued forward after Lily.
Chris caught up quickly, moving past Labyrinth and Alec.
"You okay, nerd?" Alec asked.
"Fine."
"Would have been more badass returning without an arm or something."
Chris skated right, cutting through a room and skating along a parallel hall. He ported in weapons, and skated back through another room into the hall.
Grue stumbled back, shooting mist from his hands and arms. The girl in the rabbit mask flipped forward, sword swiping at him. He blocked the blade watching as the tip visibly pierced his shield and then cut down toward his hand.
He disconnected it from the system.
He cast the item forward, watching as it exploded.
March jumped away from it, spinning on one heel and swinging her sword at him again. Chris pulled back, shooting but failing to hit her as she danced about.
Lily was right. She is annoying.
The mist exploded from Grue, blocking his vision right as March's sword cut into the floor. The ground exploded, knocking Chris off balance. He couldn't see through the smoke, even after cycling his visor.
It faded as Elle passed him, the smoke flowing into her sleeves and disappearing. A vacuum. She was using her power to create a vacuum.
Chris fell in behind her.
"They're going left." Alec couldn't see through the smoke, but he should be able to feel them.
He flicked his wrist. One mercenary stumbled and fell behind. Lily shot his leg as the Wards passed.
"The garage." Chris assembled his Spark rifle quickly. "Have we crossed paths with anyone?" He'd seen almost no one since they started.
He aimed and fired. The beam shot into the smoke, but he couldn't tell if it worked. Did Grue's power interfere?
"No," Weld answered. "Can't reach anyone on coms."
"The Undersiders messed with the security system," Chris remembered. "The lines are all down. Might be using jammers to block the radios."
They passed through a doorway. Lily shot another merc in the foot, and Olive slammed one into the wall and set a minion to hold him.
"Did they get Calvert?" Chris asked. "Where's Tattletale?"
Alec shrugged. "Haven't seen her."
"Think they're just trying to get out," Lily added.
They would at this rate. They couldn't see anything, even with Elle sucking up Grue's power and Alec guiding them with his. If they made it out into the open and split up—
"Labyrinth!" Chris swung back to her and held his arm out.
"Oh, free ride?" She smiled and fell back onto his arm.
Chris sped forward, letting her continue to suck up Grue's smoke until he caught sight of them again. And in front of them—
"Wards!"
Lieutenant Ramius?
Chris grimaced. "Labyrinth, wall!"
"Wall?"
"Wall!"
Chris only caught a glimpse before Elle blocked the hallway with a stone wall. It simply rose in front of her.
Ramius shouted, "Fire!"
Thunder erupted, the sound of a dozen rifles firing over and over and over again.
"The Troopers opened the armory," Chris called as impacts pelted the wall in front of him and echoed on.
Lily pressed up to him, her arbalest ready. Weld took position on his other side, with Olive and Alec directly behind while Elle sat on the GM's arm and swung her legs.
Chris took a moment to look them all over. Winded. Ragged. Olive and Lily were in street clothes and domino masks. Alec's armor was dented in a few places and Weld sported a number of metal accessories.
They looked okay though.
Good
When the firing stopped, the wall dropped back into the ground.
No bullet holes, but little bits of burned rubber littered the ground. Three mercs were on their backs or sides groaning. Grue was on one knee as Elle continued sucking up his smoke. March dropped the mercenary her arm held in front of her and seemed mostly unphased.
Ahead of them, Ramius stood behind a line of eight men holding automatic rifles, pistol pointed at March.
"Surrender," Ramius ordered.
One merc raised a gun. It vanished in a black sphere, along with his fingers.
"You would not believe the trouble I had getting into the building." Stratos walked up from behind Ramius calmly. "It seems I've missed the excitement."
March looked at him, then glanced back at the Wards. Chris brought out his buster-pack and two rifles, aiming all his weapons at her. Troopers moved out of the line of fire, ducking into rooms and aiming around corners.
March pressed the tip of her sword into the floor.
"I'm starting to think I was not given adequate information," she mused. "Or enough money."
Where's Tattletale?
Never leave the thinker unattended. They couldn't fight half the time, but an unattended thinker was trouble waiting to happen.
"Surrender," Ramius snapped. "It's over."
Five mercenaries remained on their feet. Two dropped their weapons and held their hands up.
March groaned.
"You seriously suck at this, Grue."
And everyone looked at the girl standing in the hallway beside Grue.
"Hey, it's Nobody," Alec said. "Where did she come from?"
Grue stammered. "Aisha?!"
Nobody groaned and slouched her shoulders.
"Seriously. You. Suck. At. This! I was in a coma for three months and I know what the unwritten rules are, bro!"
Stratos tilted his head to one side, and Ramius pointed her gun at the girl.
"Aisha Laborn?" she asked.
"See?" Nobody pointed her hand at Ramius. "Now everyone knows! Good going, way to pay me back for saving your ass!"
Weld waved Lily and Chris forward. They both moved, getting closer to the Undersiders and the remaining mercenaries.
"Saving my"—Grue groaned, holding one shoulder tight—"What are you doing here?! Where have you—"
"Saving. Your. Ass!" Nobody pointed at March. "This was all her idea." March waved as if to a crowd. "She and Sovereign blackmailed Grue, Bitch, and Tattletale"—Nobody looked around—"Wait, where's Tats?"
"Aisha!"
"Where is Tattletale?" Weld asked. "We haven't seen her."
Grue turned his head. Not what he expected to hear?
"Do you have proof of that?" Stratos looked at Nobody. "Not that it exactly absolves anyone of anything."
Nobody reached into her back pocket.
Two troopers raised their rifles, but Ramius told them to hold.
Nobody produced an SD card and said, "Tats suggested the Undersiders bail instead of rescue what's-his-name. Sovereign stuck her to the ground with her power and threatened Bitch and Grue."
Nobody tossed the SD card into the air. Stratos stepped forward and caught it.
"Also I stabbed Sovereign cause fuck her. She's psycho."
"She is psycho," Alec agreed.
"Where is Sovereign?" Stratos inquired. "And Hellhound for that matter?"
"Labyrinth has," Elle declared with a smile and a raised hand.
"Labyrinth dumped Sovereign into her power," Weld explained. "Sovereign can't use hers as long as she's inside it."
Chris spoke up, saying, "I locked Bitch downstairs. She's foamed in the gym with one of her dogs."
"Wow, really," Alec shook his head at him. "What did she do to you?"
"That's her name," Grue pointed out.
Alec looked back around. "You can't be serious."
"He is," Nobody said. "Also, I might have sabotaged her"—she pointed at March again—"plan to let Bitch's dogs run loose by pushing the big lock down button in the security room. You're welcome."
Ramius, "You can all surrender and we'll talk about mitigating circumstances. If the Undersiders were blackmailed into the attac—"
"Yeah." Nobody She bent forward slightly, hands reaching into her brother's knee high smoke. "See, I'm mostly here to save my idiot brother from himself and keep people from getting killed cause that's not cool. Been here. Did that so"—she jerked up, pulling a tarp from the smoke—"bye."
Chris blinked.
Weird, thought I saw—
He shook his head and refocused on March.
The last of the mercs dropped their weapons and March was looking back and forth. As the mist on the ground faded, she visibly tapped her foot on the floor.
"Don't suppose I can get cuffed by Flechette?" she asked.
"You can dream, sweetie." Olive sent minion forward to grab March's sword and restrain her hands behind her back.
Chris exhaled and relaxed himself. "Where are Tattletale and Grue?"
"Search the garage," Ramius ordered. "Grue might have slipped by with his power somehow."
The troopers turned and ran down the hall. Weld and Lily started restraining the mercs, and Elle took their weapons and dropped them into a hole at her feet.
"Are you all alright?" Ramius asked, looking the Wards over. Her eyes lingered on Chris inside his suit.
Right.
Lectures.
"Mockshow was under Sovereign's power," Weld answered. "I think she's alright, though."
"I will be if someone brings her out here so I can get a punch in."
Elle started to raise her hand but stopped when Weld looked at her.
Lily lined the mercs up against the wall and stood watch over them. Weld sat March down, with Olive and Elle standing on either side of her.
"What now?" Weld asked.
"Keep them here," Ramius said. "I'll go find help and locate the Director."
"What about Prism?" Lily asked.
"She was in the lobby," Stratos explained. "The troopers started fighting her all of a sudden. They all got locked up front when the coms went down."
"Someone sabotaged the building with Deputy Director Calvert's codes somehow," Chris added. "I can't undo it."
"Wait." Alec looked around. "Where'd Nobody go?"
Chris blinked. Wait. Where did she go?
Chris rewound the video from his helmet. He didn't see her there before. How did he not see her?
She pulled the tarp from the ground, threw it around herself and her brother, and they walked down the hall.
"They…left?"
Rewinding further back, Chris' jaw slackened. S
he'd been there while they were fighting Bitch and the Mercs. She walked right past them and dropped the tarp on the ground beside her brother, right before she appeared in front of them. She'd always been there and they simply couldn't see her?
"Still no sign of Tattletale," Stratos grumbled as they went downstairs to secure Hellhound.
Weld, Alec, and Olive stayed with March and the Mercs. Lily came downstairs with Chris, Stratos, and a few troopers. Chris assumed she wanted to be far from March.
"I heard March say something about her being taken away," Lily said. "Grue didn't seem to understand what she meant."
"We'll have to see if any security cameras were working," Chris guessed. "Calvert didn't escape then?"
"No," Stratos answered. "I went there first. Popped my way through the lock down doors. The guards got taken out, but they didn't get past the elevator. Up here?"
"Yeah." Chris moved a bit ahead. "One sec."
He opened the doors and led the way inside.
Bitch was where he left her, covered in foam with her dog's husks. They looked like husks. A Rottweiler ran loose, barking and growling at the troopers as they moved in.
Brutus?
Chris glanced to 'Judas', frowning.
"I don't want to hurt a dog." Stratos pointed his finger at Brutus. "Help me out here, Bitch."
A few troopers turned their heads.
It really did sound demeaning out of context.
"Brutus," she said in a weak voice. "Heel."
The dog abruptly stopped barking and sat on his haunches.
"Thanks." Stratos looked to Judas' body. "That one?"
"He's dead."
She looked and sounded more sad than angry. Chris could see her eyes behind her mask. Bloodshot and a little teary. Great. Like he didn't feel bad enough.
Troopers took Brutus and led him away. No one wanted to release Bitch with one of her dogs around. He resisted but Hellhound said something and he stopped fighting. Chris mentioned the other four and the mercenaries with them.
Lily went with the troopers to unnail them all from the floor.
Chris powered down his suit. The limbs became heavy, and he fell to one knee. The back pulled away, and the helmet teleported back to his lab.
He was going to be fixing parts for hours.
The downside of quality in quantity.
"Good job," Stratos offered. "I was worried for a bit there, but looks like you all had it covered. Nice."
"Yeah," Chris mumbled, noticing the hero look over the GM.
He hadn't noticed all the pockmarks from inside. He took more hits from the lasers than he thought. A few bite and claw marks too.
"When did you build this?"
Stratos looked away from the suit and turned to the holes in the walls.
"Um…"
Neil chuckled.
"I'd brace yourself for a whole lot of console duty, but you did the right thing in my book."
Chris calmed himself and shrugged.
"That's fine with me. I didn't want anyone to get hurt."
"The Wards all looked good. Prism roughed up the troopers up front pretty good but I think she spared them her worst. Hopefully there weren't too many casualties elsewhere."
Chris nodded, but there wasn't anything he could do about that.
Call Missy, he thought. Tell her they were fine before she worried. He'd check on Olive latter. Make sure she was okay.
He watched as Hellhound was peeled out of the foam and restrained.
He'd deal with the consequences. He never wanted to wake up in a hospital and find his friends dead ever again. Anything was better than that. But he knew it would. That was the way the world was. The least he could do was his damnedest. No more wallowing in what he couldn't do.
The day was as good a win as he could expect, though he found it a bit more bitter than he'd like. Some people probably were dead in the building. Killing Judas didn't feel very good either, circumstances aside.
Only kids thought winning was easy.
"Stratos," Chris asked. "How hard would it be to change my name?"
Neil turned his head.
"Not hard. Lots of Wards change them as they get older." He smiled. "Let me guess, you've decided Kid Win sounds a little kiddy?"
Yes. "I want to drop the Kid."
Neil tilted his head.
Chris smiled. Hero called himself Hero and he owned it. He could do it too.
"Just 'Win'."
