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Foreboding 1.4
Boogeyman watched with cold disappointment as Sherrel's head thumped onto the floor of the cockpit while blood squirted out of her stump of a neck as her body twitched against the cold steel plating.
She hadn't been lying to Sherrel when she had said she would have preferred to break her. A broken parahuman would have been a far better statement than another dead one. She had pulled on the jumbled mess of threads that had been Sherrel's fears of enslavement and imprisonment but in doing so she had found a delusion so thorough that even she couldn't break through it with Sherrel's darkest fears and nightmares, or perhaps it was because of her fear she hadn't been able to break through. Instead, Sherrel had driven herself further and further into denial and Boogeyman didn't have the inclination or the time to spend hours trying to break through the delusional little world Sherrel had built for herself.
"Pathetic," she thought with no small amount of disdain as she picked the former tinker's head by her long blond hair. Crimson fluids dripped off the severed neck and started to pool on the steel plating beneath her whilst the tinker's empty glassy eyes stared back at her.
She was a little more than half tempted to try and take the tank for herself. The firepower it had demonstrated would have benefited her greatly, but a quick glance around the cockpit dispelled any notion of trying to pilot it. The controls were almost completely indecipherable like Sherrel had thrown them together into a blender and used whatever product came out the other end. It was a mishmash of chaos that gave her a headache just looking at it, never mind trying to use it. She would be more likely to blow up the street. No, as it was such thoughts of driving the tank into an Empire meeting surrounded by her Nightmares would never come to fruition no matter how tempting they were.
But now wasn't the time for idle thoughts, she still had some work to do. She dived into the nearest shadow, dragging Sherrel's head into the shadow realm with her. The trip only lasted a few seconds given the short distance she was traveling, but apparently, even that wasn't healthy for the parahuman's skull. Its features became paler and gaunt like she had been locked in a cellar for a few weeks without any food or sunlight and had all the liquids sucked out of her with a vacuum. It certainly made a disturbing picture of what would happen to any living tissue.
Boogeyman stared at the head in surprise. She hadn't even considered about what traveling through the shadow realm might do to humans. Apparently, it wasn't very healthy. Turning to one of her Nightmares she asked, "I guess it's a good thing that I didn't try to take Squealer alive huh?"
The Nightmare's only response was to snort in thinly veiled amusement.
"Phobia," Boogeyman called out to the small herd of Nightmares standing vigil over the now useless tank. They had given it their all, but Boogeyman didn't notice any significant damage that had been done to the armored monstrosity. She could see a few shallow dents in the amour where they had slammed the entirety of their bodies against it like battering rams, but they were ultimately minuscule compared to the sheer size of the mechanical beast. If it hadn't been for her ability to shadow travel and simply bypass the armor altogether to get to the much squishier tinker the fight might have gone very differently.
It was a sobering thought that even a group as destitute and pathetic as the Merchants could have posed a legitimate threat to her, to say nothing about the other gangs. She would have to be more vigilant in the future to avoid such surprises. There was always going to be that one time that she wouldn't get as lucky as she did this time and she would pay the price. She would need to be more thorough in her investigations of the gangs, the fact that Squealer had managed to hide this creation for some time without the slightest hint reaching anyone spoke of a disturbing level of competence from the Merchants.
If they could hide something like this, then what might the other gangs be hiding? Could the ABB actually have more than two parahumans and Lung was just hiding them from public view? What if Kaiser and the Empire did have access to a tinker and they were just stockpiling their creations? What if Coil had more than just tinker tech armed mercenaries? It was a disturbing notion that the gangs could be hiding things this big in the city and apparently, nobody had noticed at all when the Merchants decided to park a tank in a warehouse with several residential buildings in clear view.
Her personal steed reformed underneath her with a single swift motion. Boogeyman pulled the reins taut with one hand while her other continued to hold the dead parahuman's head. A quick tug on the reigns and the Nightmare trotted outside to where the Merchants were being restrained.
After the initial shock and panic of seeing a giant tinker tech tank blast through the warehouse, Boogeyman had ordered most of her herd to forcibly drag the panicking Merchants out so they wouldn't get killed in the crossfire or try to escape while she was dealing with Squealer.
It wasn't that she particularly cared if any of the Merchants died in the ensuing battle, but she didn't feel like starting her career with an outright massacre. The Merchants in question were in various positions on the ground ranging from rocking in a fetal position to trying and failing, to defiantly staring at her Nightmares. Most of them had the good sense to avoid resisting, but more than a couple had a few more bite marks to signify the price of defiance.
The more injured ones were focused on tending to their wounds or screaming their lungs out as they twitched on the ground in sheer agony. Ironically the most serious injuries didn't come from her or her Nightmares, but rather Squealer's rampage. A great number of the Merchants had been just far enough to avoid being killed by the laser but too close to emerge unscathed. Several were covered in second and third degree burns over most of their bodies. One looked like his skin had just melted off like dirt being sprayed away by a hose. Boogeyman was no expert on burn injuries, but judging by his state he wasn't going to last much longer. Death might even be considered merciful.
The various Nightmares and Merchants ceased their assorted activities to stare at her as she emerged from the husk of what had once been a warehouse. Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised if it collapsed within the next few minutes, the fact that it hadn't when Squealer had torn down that wall was a minor miracle in of itself, but she wasn't concerned with property damage or the Merchant's injuries right now.
She had a message to deliver.
"Skidmark is dead," Boogeyman intoned, her voice echoing through along the nearby buildings. Her superb night vision could pick up a handful of lights coming from various windows in the nearby inhabited buildings, indicating that people were trying to get a recording of the action. Good, she wanted all of Brockton Bay to see what was happening.
"Squealer is dead," she said as she held up Squealer's rotting head so that all the Merchants and onlookers could see. A handful of the Merchants went green at the sight, but all of them had a sharp spike in fear and terror. She allowed the fistful of hair in her hand to slip through her fingers and as she lost her grip the law of gravity took over and Squealer's head fell onto the concrete with sickening thunk. There was a certain finality to the sound, like a gong ringing the end of an era. She would have preferred to have used Skidmark's head since he had been the actual leader of the Merchants but given that his body had been pretty much atomized by Squealer's tank her head would have to do. It wasn't as if it was any less effective than if she had used Skidmark's.
She had to hold back an amused laugh as the head rolled down the slightly sloped concrete towards the Merchants who reacted like cats being threatened with a bath. They pushed and shoved and scrambled backwards at they tried to escape the path of their expired boss's skull. They only made it a few feet backwards before they brushed up against her Nightmares who glared down at them with their glowing yellow eyes, eliciting quite a few shrieks of terror and newly made pant stains.
"The Merchants are dead."
She could see them shift uncomfortably as she stared at them with her own yellow eyes. There would be no misunderstandings here. No miscommunications. She had learned the only language they understood- force, and now that she was fluent when she spoke they would listen.
"You are not," Boogeyman kept her feature purposely blank at the swell of hope and relief that coursed through the Merchant's minds at that statement. Their burgeoning hope was quickly crushed by her next statement, "For now."
This time Boogeyman allowed herself to smirk at the new wave of fear that rolled over the assembled gang members. She could see quite a few of them shaking in the back, images of her slicing their heads from their shoulders or letting her Nightmares rip them apart piece by piece filled the minds of more than a few of the Merchants.
"If you wish to remain alive you will not join another gang; nor will you participate in any criminal activities. Many of you will go to jail. Some of you may not for whatever reason," she said. It was an open secret that a large portion of the police force was on the gang's payrolls. Those that weren't were pretty much apathetic to the state of the city altogether, or good people trying to do their jobs and constantly being hamstrung by their own coworkers. Once the Protectorate and PRT handed them over to the BBPD she wouldn't be surprised if more than half of them made it back out onto the streets within the week.
"If you are freed, you will find a job that benefits society or you will leave the city," Boogeyman ordered. A more idealistic person might have tried a softer approach, knowing that many gang members had turned to crime because of the economic decline of the city and the lack of work forced them to join such criminal institutions to survive, but Boogeyman wasn't that person. This city couldn't afford the soft approach anymore, either the criminals stopped being criminals or they would suffer the consequences.
The time for being soft and fair had passed long ago, a fact that the heroes of this city didn't seem to understand. Or perhaps they simply didn't want to understand, they didn't want to admit that their way wasn't working.
"If you do not do this then I will find you. If I find you once then I will maim you. If I find you a second time and you are lucky I will only kill you. If you aren't lucky then I will do far, far worse," Boogeyman said, her chilling voice echoing through the empty street. She could taste the terror that clung to the Merchant's forms like a second skin. She had them, or at least most of them. She felt a handful of the Merchants push past their fear of her enough to become incensed at her instructions, but if she waited a minute then…
"Why should we listen to you?"
Boogeyman turned to the Merchant in question that had apparently decided it was a good idea to speak back to the person that held their lives in the palm of her hands. She recognized him as one of Skidmark's more recent personal lackeys. What she had found online linked him to more than four rapes and a handful of other assorted disappearances. He was big, probably around six feet or so standing up, but she wasn't going to be intimidated by something as trivial as the size of the man's muscle mass when she had the power of fear itself. He gazed up at her angrily even as her Nightmares moved forwards to deal with the fool in an appropriate manner. She gave her herd a mental command to back off.
She would deal with this personally.
The Nightmares relented, pulling back to the edge of the group of subdued gang members much to their collective relief that they weren't going to pay the price for one man's idiocy.
The Merchants hastily parted like the Red Sea as Phobia carried her towards the center of the group where the man was kneeling. She could feel a trickle of fear through his shroud of fury once he realized that she was coming straight for him but she felt him push it back behind the rolling ball of resentment and anger that was consuming his psyche.
"Because I told you to Zack," Boogeyman said, loud enough for the entirety of the assembled Merchants to hear. She could see a flicker of surprise in his eyes at the knowledge that she knew his name but she could see his mouth forming a snarl to bite back at her. "Or I might just give young Jack a visit."
She relished in his horrified expression at the mention of his little half-brother and the fear from thoughts of her killing him or worse entering his mind. Why bother describing what she was going to do when she could let her victim's imaginations fill in the blanks for them? It wasn't like she would actually do anything to a twelve-year-old boy besides a nightmare or two, but Zack didn't know that. As far as he was concerned she had power over the well-being of his little brother and anything he did to anger her would result in something bad happening to him. Sufficiently cowed Zack tried to shrink in on himself as her unnerving gaze held him for a few moments longer. Just to make sure the message got through.
Satisfied, Boogeyman turned her attention back to the whole group. They were staring at her with renewed caution and concern, caution that she did nothing to curb as she gave them a chilling smile.
"Follow these orders and we won't have any problems will we?" Boogeyman asked. She scowled at the few halfhearted replies. "Will we?" she asked again, much louder and sterner, the slightest hint of a growl entering her voice. If they rejected the soft velvet of diplomacy they would feel the harsh steel of punishment.
The multitude of terrified positive responses that echoed through the quiet street brought a nasty smile to her face.
"Good, now you're all going to wait here like good little boys and girls until the authorities come to pick you up," Boogeyman said as she tried to keep herself from laughing at the frightened looks on their faces.
As a few of the Merchants started to settle down and try to get a modicum of comfort on the cold asphalt Boogeyman hoped that the Protectorate wouldn't take too long in responding to the phone calls that were no doubt flooding their center. Having a warehouse torn down by a tinker tech tank that was the size of a small building would have attracted attention. What remained for her to see is if the Protectorate would pretend to do their jobs and investigate or assume that this was gang on gang violence and let it go on until the combatants burned each other out. It wasn't like they hadn't done it before. She had better things to do than to stay and watch criminals lay shivering on the street from the freezing breeze and their well-justified terror for hours.
Though she had to admit that the free food she was getting was a pretty decent reward. Now that everything had settled down and she had time to stop and think the difference between her power before and after the assault were obvious. She doubted that she would have survived a shotgun blast to the chest at near point blank range before, yet she did so. It had hurt like shoving molten needles into her chest, but it hadn't given her any lasting damage. What would she be able to do with the fear of a thousand people, or a ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand?
The thought alone was enough to moisten her lips in hunger.
A glint of red brought her out of her thoughts of feeding. The bright red streak that raced down the empty street stood out compared to the far duller and more muted grey and browns of the surrounding buildings. The blur stopped about twenty feet away from and slowed down to reveal the form of a man.
Boogeyman instantly recognized Velocity from a recent news report about the Protectorate breaking up a minor smuggling ring near the docks. His costume was almost ridiculously bright, the only parts that didn't seem to scream "notice me" were the two black racing stripes that arced down his sides and the single black V that covered part of his torso and broke up his profile somewhat. Though she couldn't see most of his face thanks to his helmet and visor she could still see the thin line of his mouth purse as he took stock of the situation.
While she couldn't see where exactly where he was looking at she could feel his nervousness heighten somewhat when he looked in her general direction. It appeared to be some combination of her appearance and the fact that Squealer's head was lying on the ground without the rest of its body. She could see his muscles tense under his skin-tight costume just as her Nightmares started to give the newcomer a hungry eye.
A quick mental command from her stopped them in their tracks. She didn't need to engage with the Protectorate tonight. Doing so now would gain her nothing but the full brunt of the Protectorate and PRT's ire. Satisfied that her Nightmares weren't going to charge him Boogeyman considered what she knew of Velocity.
From what she could remember from trawling PHO forums Velocity was a speedster, which at first glance was a rather versatile power in terms of battle control, but Velocity had a problem in that the faster he went, the less he affected the world around him. It wasn't something the Protectorate had ever confirmed, after all revealing their heroes' weakness and making them realize that they weren't the undefeatable heroes they proclaimed to be would be a big no-no, but years of being in the public eye and speculation by many PHO cape groupies had all but made it an open secret.
A fight between them would theoretically lead to her eventual victory. While she wouldn't be able to hit him while he was moving he wouldn't be able to hit her with any appreciable force as his body lost less and less mass as he moved faster. But while she couldn't hit him that didn't mean her Nightmares couldn't. It would be rather hard for him to dodge even as his blindingly fast speeds when the entire street was covered in writhing mass of living sand.
But if her conflict with the Merchants had taught her anything it was that theory didn't always mix with reality. Velocity was far more experienced than her with years of service and dozens of cape fights under his belt. She was certain that even with his disadvantages he would be able to hold her in place long enough for backup to arrive at the very least or defeat her altogether if he got a few good hits in.
No, for now talking was the best course of action.
"Who are you?" he asked. He was tense, but was avoiding antagonizing her in anyway. She could tell that he was uncertain and wary of her intentions and was trying to ascertain what he could about her goals without seeming combative. His posture was open yet stiff, ready to explode into action at the slightest hint of violence. She could see his chest puff up a little and his shoulders become a little straighter as he tried to make himself a little bit more intimidating to her. She saw a few of the Merchants shrink back a little at the sight of the hero's pose, instinctively reacting to a new parahuman's presence.
Trying to scare her? How adorable.
She gave him a wide smile that revealed all her sharp and somewhat crooked teeth and stretched her corpse pale lips and cheeks far beyond what was humanly possible. "I'm the Boogeyman," she said as she made her voice as cold and chilling as she possibly could. She felt more than one Merchant shiver in fear at her declaration.
Not simply Boogeyman or a Boogeyman, but the Boogeyman. It was more than a name, more than an alias- it was an idea. She was the monster hiding under the bed and the creature in the closet. She was the thing in the darkness that the criminals would fear.
She could see Velocity purse his lips as if he was trying to figure out what to do with her. His head tilted to the side a little bit, but enough to indicate he was probably listening to someone on the other end of an earpiece. His posture remained stiff but she could see and feel the slightest traces of unease work its way into his system at her identification.
"Are you the one responsible for Mush's hospitalization?" he asked, mouth set into a grim line, no doubt concerned about what he would probably consider excessive brutality.
Boogeyman felt her smile widen even more, to the point it was starting to be a bit uncomfortable. "Why yes I am, did you enjoy my work? I must say I was a little disappointed that you kept it a secret, I was hoping that these fellows here would hear about it," she said as she waved her hand out to the shivering men and woman huddled in fear.
"I suppose I should be angry at you," she continued in a conversational tone, "But I'm in a generous mood today. You can have the rest of the Merchants."
She gave him a sickening smile, "The ones still alive anyway."
One of the younger Merchants let a whimper escape from his lips.
She could see Velocity's muscles tense underneath his costume at her affirmative and rather admittedly unhinged response. But what little expression she could see on his face and feel flowing through his head was conflicted, as if he wasn't quite sure what he was going to do with her. Finally, he sighed, slumping a little as he let some of the tension loose from his shoulders. "Look kid," he said, and Boogeyman bristled at the unspoken connotations. Kids were weak and helpless, unable to do anything for themselves and prone to shortsighted worldviews. They were dependent on others to take care of them and protect them. They didn't- couldn't do anything. "I think that you want to help the city and do the right thing...it," he paused as if he was carefully considering his words to avoid angering her, "it's just that you're just doing it the wrong way, if you come with me the Protectorate can-"
"No," Boogeyman snarled, allowing anger, real anger, to break through her mask for the first time. She could see Velocity blur in place, apparently as surprised as she was by the vehemence of her negative response. "I will not allow myself to be shackled to the ones who have allowed the city to fall so far. You heroes can play all the dress up you want and bury your heads in the sand while the city burns down around you. I won't."
Boogeyman could almost physically feel the contempt that laced her every word and poured out her mouth like a waterfall. She supposed she should have been more in control of her responses, especially for first impressions, but she was not going to let the Protectorate get away with chaining her to the same rules and regulations that let monsters like Skidmark and Hookwolf to roam the streets.
She would rather die than be put in a position where she wouldn't be able to do anything but watch as the world around her went to hell in a handbasket.
She could see Velocity frown at her, apparently upset by her near-violent reaction to his offer. He opened his mouth to speak again by she cut him with a sharp motion of her hand.
"Run back to your masters and tell them that I'm doing what they should have done years ago," Boogeyman sneered as she waved her Nightmares away. She had dallied her for far too long, and while she was confident Velocity probably wasn't going to be able to stop her, she didn't want to risk him pinning her down long enough for another hero that could stop her to show up.
Her Nightmares faded into the shadows and through the cracks in the buildings, disappearing as quickly as they had appeared. Within seconds the street was empty of her demonic minions save Phobia. She could feel a few of the Merchants slump in relief that their tormentors had disappeared, but a quick glare and bared teeth kept them from getting any bright ideas.
They would remember this night for the rest of their lives. This was the night that they would speak in hushed whispers as they gathered around the safety of the open flame while the darkness crept in around them. They would tell this story again and again and let all of Brockton Bay know that the time of the gangs was over.
A tug on Phobia's reigns and her steed moved to ride into the nearly moonless night alongside its brethren.
"Wait!"
Boogeyman turned around to see Velocity with his hands outstretched as if he was trying to physically pull her to him. "Please," he said, a slight begging tone edging its way into his voice. "If you do this you're going to get labeled a villain. Please, just come with me and we can work something out. It doesn't have to be like this."
The last part revealed itself for the plea that it was. It tugged on the thread strings of his deepest fears. It wasn't the hero Velocity speaking to her, it was the man underneath the mask. A man who didn't want to see her go through with this, a man that had seen the worst the world had to offer and was shaped by violence beyond reasoning. She could feel his terror at the thought of that happening here in Brockton Bay, or someone of her personality ripping though the city with crusade like zeal as she crushed the life out of the gangs. Yet despite seeing the worst the world had to offer there were still seeds of compassion underneath all his pain, a true desire to want to help her and others.
Taylor Hebert might have appreciated the thought of a hero being so concerned about her but she wasn't Taylor Hebert anymore. Taylor Hebert wouldn't have killed two people in cold blood and ordered the maiming of dozens of others. Taylor Hebert would have just ducked her head down in the face in adversity and let it roll over her while she tried to wait it out. She would have let the world trample all over her without a single complaint.
She couldn't go back to that. Not now, not ever again.
As Phobia drew closer to the shadow of the nearest building Boogeyman stared at the Protectorate hero. She could see Velocity shift a little underneath her unrelenting yellow-eyed gaze. The tension was so thick she could have cut it with a knife and seemed to weigh on them like a physical thing. The only sound was the wind as it gently breezed through the street and the clicking of her steed's hooves on the cracked concrete.
After what seemed like an eternity Boogeyman gave Velocity his answer as her form slipped into the darkened shadows of the rusting corpse of the warehouse.
"Yes, Velocity. It does."
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