Enjoy!
Terror 3.4
"Where is he?" Boogeyman asked. The man in her grip was floundering like a fish as she held him by the throat. She could see that his face was starting to turn blue as his clawing at her hand became even more desperate. She could feel the terror of life and death latch its icy tendrils into his heart as she tightened her grip once more. She could feel the man's warm skin twist under her grip as his pulse raced like a jackrabbit.
"Where is Alabaster?" she asked again, uncaring of the wild kicks that struck her form. They bounced off her like a breeze against a battleship. The only way he was getting out of this mess was if he gave her an answer or if someone came to help him.
Nobody was coming to help.
"…don't know…" The man managed to gasp out with what little breath he had left. His answer wasn't the one that she wanted, but he wasn't lying to her. She could feel his fear of not being able to answer her question truthfully as his imagination ran wild with the ways that she could harm him.
"Then what use do I have for you?" Boogeyman asked with an irritated growl. She was tempted to just kill him outright and be done with it, but as she prepared to snap his neck a thought struck her. A living victim would be far more useful than a dead one. Because really, she didn't need to find Alabaster, she just needed to draw him out into the open. Either way he was going to pay. Boogeyman increased the pressure on the man's neck, cutting off the man's oxygen flow. The Empire goon's struggling tripled in ferocity as unconsciousness loomed over him. His fear fueled resistance was a short-lived one as his lack of air finally overcame him. His hands slowly slid from their desperate clawing and fell to the sides like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Boogeyman allowed the dead weight to slip from her fingers as she turned her attention to the two who had been watching.
She could feel their dread encompass the entirety of their thoughts as their eyes locked on to their comrade's unconscious form. Boogeyman's nose wrinkled in disgust as a dark stain ran down the front of one of the man's brown pants. She could feel his regret over the swastika tattooed on his neck, a tattoo he had previously held with joy and honor, but now felt more like a brand.
The young woman next to him was in a similar catatonic state, eyes wide and unseeing as her chest heaved up and down in panicked breaths. Her skin was pale and ashen as her former comrade's body gave a few more spasms before finally settling down into unconsciousness.
"I hope that one of you have a better answer than he did," Boogeyman said lightly as she approached the kneeling neo-Nazis. The woman didn't even hear her, so lost in her fear that she had become distant to the outside world. The man on the other hand still had some wits left and shook his head up and down. He tried to form words, but all that came out of his mouth were half formed squeaks as this throat threatened to close up in terror.
"So. Where. Is. Alabaster?" Boogeyman ground out with a wide smile that showed just how irritated she was at the entire situation. This was the third group of Empire members that she had interrogated, and each one had been about as disappointing as the last. The first hadn't even known that he was in the area. The second had known and been waiting for orders from the man, but hadn't been given anything more than a general location. This third group was in a similar category, they didn't know where Alabaster was, but they knew he was in the area.
"I- I don't know!" the man shouted as Boogeyman formed a sand sword in her hand, bringing the tip a mere few inches away from his throat. She could feel his desperate desire to live as he tried to back away, only to be stopped short by a pair of her Nightmares. With the demonic horses looming over him the man trembled even more has half-formed words tried to escape his tongue-tied mouth.
Boogeyman let the man stew for a few more moments before letting her blade fall to her side. "Fortunately for you, I believe you." She dismissed her Nightmares with a wave, leaving the four of them alone in the alleyway.
"Y-your letting us live?" the man asked with such naked hope that for a moment she was tempted to change her mind if only to stamp it out. The Neo-Nazi swallowed nervously as the full brunt of her gaze zeroed in on him like a hawk on a rabbit.
"Yes, I am." Before the man could even let out a sigh of relief Boogeyman took him by the throat and drew him in close. "And if you want to stay alive, you're going to find Alabaster and tell him to meet me down at the Boat Graveyard. If he doesn't then I'm going to start killing Empire members until he comes out of whatever rathole his hidden himself in. And I'm going to start with you."
The man paled at the rather explicit threat and made no move to resist her as she threw him to the ground. "Take your friend and go," she ordered. Boogeyman watched as the man rose shakily to his feet and pulled the woman up with him. She had regained some spark of awareness, but she was still very distant from everything. Their unconscious comrade was unceremoniously dragged across the concrete as the struggled to leave with all the haste they could muster.
"This has taken too long," Boogeyman grumbled as Phobia arose from the shadows beside her. She allowed her hand to absentmindedly pet her steed as she focused on other matters. She had hoped to spend more of the day going after Coil, but Alabaster's actions were completely unacceptable. The fact that it had happened meant that it had Kaiser's approval. The man wouldn't be stupid enough to let his minions have any wiggle room with what happened last time.
She had felt and heard the fears on the street of some of the Caucasian members of the city. Not all of them by any means, but enough that it was concerning. The Empire was playing up the threat of the minorities, using the two teens as examples of how the whites would suffer without their "guiding hands". Kaiser was trying to sway public opinion back to his side and it was working rather well.
"That was totally awesome!"
Boogeyman's head whipped around at breakneck speeds at the sound of the unfamiliar voice. She resisted the urge to throw a weapon at the stranger as she caught sight of the girl. She stood at the end of the alleyway with a huge grin on her face as she watched the Empire goons turn back with their tails tucked beneath their legs. The man dragging his comrade gave her a dirty look, but a quick snort from Phobia made him redouble his efforts and loose whatever color he had left. As the trio finally moved out of her sight she turned her full attention back to the girl.
She was quite pretty and Boogeyman was sure that she would have plenty of admirers once she matured a bit more. Her attire showed off plenty of her dark complexion while her hair messily flopped over her skull. It lacked form, but somehow that just fit with the girl's entire ensemble of ripped jeans and tank tops. A single streak of obviously dyed blonde hair cut through its natural black.
Boogeyman let the sand that had formed around her hands drop into nothingness as she urged Phobia to hold. "I'm sorry?" she asked, both as an apology or almost attacking her and for not entirely understanding what the girl was saying.
"You taught those chumps a lesson. You even managed to get that skinhead to piss his pants," the young girl said with an exuberance that put Boogeyman off balance. To hear someone talk so freely about her work in such a positive matter was…off-putting to say the least. As the girl jabbered on Boogeyman had to wonder how long she had been watching. Clearly for some time, but she hadn't paid the slightest bit of attention to her. She had clearly felt the girl's emotional signature, but she didn't pay her much mind. She had been so focused on extracting information that she had allowed herself to become complacent once more.
"Shouldn't you be with your parents?" Boogeyman asked, cutting through the girl's rambling. For a second there was a flinch of fear and true terror in the girl's mind that echoed onto her expression. If she had been anyone else she might have not caught it, the girl was good at concealing her emotions, she would give her that, but to her such deceptions meant nothing.
Boogeyman frowned as she traced that particular fear back to its source and held back a grimace. Intellectually she knew that doing bad things wasn't a trait restricted to the villain population, she did enough bad things all the time, but to see a parent so callously harm their own child was its own brand of evil.
Emily Jane
"I don't need them," the girl said as she drew in on herself a little bit. Some of the energy and excitement that she had possessed fell back in on itself as she rubbed a bandaged on her arm. A rather fresh bandage. "My brother is trying to take care of me."
There was some real affection and trust there, certainly more than what she had for her parents. Boogeyman was tempted to pounce on that black cauldron of simmering resentment and fear and drag it out kick and screaming into the light, but she hesitated. The girl's unsure look was so different that what it had been a few second ago. She could feel the discordant feelings warring in the girl's psyche.
What was she doing? The question came to her as she forced that desire to feed back down. There was no reason for her to commit such acts to this girl, and yet the thought had come completely unbidden by her own hand. She wasn't here to make civilian lives worse, she was trying to make them better. A nightmare or two was acceptable, they could shake those off, but to be confronted by their fears in the real world was a different matter entirely.
"You seem strangely at ease talking to a villain. Most people would be running away screaming," Boogeyman said, her words slow and cautious as to avoid scaring the girl off. It was an odd experience, not try to scare someone. She hoped that this attempt would turn out better than the first two times. There was a brief hint of apprehension from the girl, so she clearly knew who she was dealing with, but there wasn't the bone-shaking terror that people usually felt in her presence.
"Should I?" the girl asked with a small smirk as if the entire concept was foreign to her. Boogeyman doubted that the girl was an idiot, which probably meant that she was just teasing her. For a moment, she could feel her indignation rankle as the memories of malicious laughter echoed through her ears. She managed to keep herself from doing anything rash, but she could feel her hand tighten into a fist. She knew that the girl wasn't mocking in in the sense that Emma and the rest of the trio had, but it still plucked her nerves.
She didn't like being laughed at.
"Yes, you should," Boogeyman said simply as she tried to keep the anger out of her tone. It wasn't a threat so much as it was a statement of fact. She didn't want to intentionally scare civilians other than the occasional nightmare, but there was no doubt that more than a few would be terrified of her. She had browsed some of the PHO forums, and while there were people supporting her campaign of terror against the scum of the city, many were calling for her to be imprisoned for her actions.
She supposed it was a bit ironic that the people when the people wanted the villains gone and the Protectorate did nothing they celebrated them. But when she did something to deal with the problem they cast her out and called for her head.
"Nah," the girl said as she casually strolled up to the parahuman. Boogeyman gave the girl a curious look as she brushed past her to Phobia. The living Nightmare seemed just as befuddled by the girl's atypical behavior as she was. The monstrous equine dipped her head as the girl started to brush her hand along the creature's snout.
"And you're just…okay talking to me?" Boogeyman asked, honestly curious. The idea of some random civilian just walking up and talking to her without an ounce of fear was off-putting. She had no clue what she was supposed to do in this situation. And for a moment she didn't feel like Boogeyman, the terror of the criminal underworld, but rather she was Taylor Hebert, the uncertain outcast.
She could feel the metaphorical gears grind in her head as she tried to work her rather rusty conversation skills. After being neglected for almost two years her ability to converse with people in a normal conversation had atrophied over time. The certainty that she felt when tearing people down was absent, only a twisting path of seemingly impossible decisions ahead.
Another victory for Sophia Hess.
"Why shouldn't I be?" the girl asked as the Nightmare purred under her ministrations.
"I'm…I'm not a good person. I've killed people," Boogeyman said, the words falling reluctantly from her lips. She would have been a fool to deny her actions. She had killed people in cold blood or shattered their psyche like a sledgehammer against glass. She knew that she wasn't a good person by any stretch of the imagination. But the thought of this girl giving up on this conversation with her twisted something in her heart. She didn't want to be alone forever.
The girl paused her stroking of Phobia's snout as a flicker of fear passed through her. The girl let her hand fall to her side as she turned to face her. There was a look in the girl's eye that reminded the parahuman of her own. The gaze that had seen things that would stick with them forever. She didn't know what the girl had seen, but she was willing to be it hadn't been pretty.
"…I knew one of the boys that got killed," she admitted, her voice soft and strangely contemplative for one her age. "Not like we were friends or anything, but I knew him. He was always talking 'bout how the Empire ruined his dad's life."
Boogeyman felt her throat go dry at the girl's words. She knew that what had happened to the teens was horrible, but she had been shielded by her ignorance of them. In a way, it was like finding out an Endbringer had wrecked a city, you knew that it was a horrible thing and you felt sorry for the people on the ground, but there was still an emotional distance between you and them. To hear them talked about as people and not as corpses twisted her heart.
"I guess…I guess I just don't really care about the Nazis," the girl said. It struck Boogeyman that despite the girl's exuberant attitude, she was still a scared child growing up in a city that would chew her up and spit her back out without hesitation.
"I've thought about beating them up too you know," the girl admitted as she rubbed her arms. I mean, it's not like I have power or anything, but sometimes I daydream about that."
"Why are you telling me this?" Boogeyman asked with a frown. She must have spoken a bit too harshly because the girl's expression nearly collapsed at what she interpreted as a dismissal. At the girl's heartbroken look, she hastily amended, "I mean, why are you confiding this secret with me? I mean, you don't know me."
"I dunno," the girl said, surprisingly subdued. She rubbed her arms nervously as she considered the question. She looked so different from the confident young woman who had shouted in glee at her brutalization of Nazis a few minutes ago. She looked like a young girl who still wasn't quite sure about her place in the world.
Like Taylor Hebert had been before well…everything.
"You seem honest," the girl said as she kicked a stray pebble in the dirt. The girl seemed to stare at the ground for a moment as if she was trying to gather her thoughts.
"I mean, the Empire keeps claiming they're protecting the city from people like, well, me," she said as she indicated herself in in a grandiose fashion that made Boogeyman's lips twitch towards a smile. The girl's grin fell flat as she continued, "But all they do is kill everyone who stands in their way."
The girl gave her a helpless shrug, "You kill too, but I guess you're more honest about it? I don't really know, but I'd rather have you haunting the alleyways than them."
"And the Protectorate?" Boogeyman asked, honestly curious as to what the girl thought of the "heroic" organization. While she had enough issues with the group to find them pathetic that didn't mean that others didn't still hold them above the muck they had sunk into.
The girl scowled as if she had just bite out of a particularly nasty lemon. "What have they ever done? They kept Shadow Stalker on the streets. The psycho nearly killed my br-muggers."
Boogeyman couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the girl's slip up. "Your muggers?"
The girl's eyes darted around the alleyway nervously before standing up straight and looking the parahuman straight in the eye. "Yes, my muggers."
The two young women stared at each other for a moment before the younger of the two started to giggle uncontrollably. Even Boogeyman couldn't keep a few humorous chuckles from escaping her throat. She was pretty sure she knew what the girl was going to say but chose not to push it. There was no point in alienating her over something that Sophia did. For all, she knew Sophia could have attacked her brother because she was bored.
"Well, perhaps you should get back to your 'muggers'," Boogeyman said, a more serious expression plastered on her face. "The Empire's probably going to get pretty rowdy after I'm done with them."
The girl tilted her head, giving her a curious look. "What are you going to do?"
Boogeyman old raised an eye ridge at the girl's question. She could feel the realization and fear mix together in the girl's psyche as she swallowed nervously. The girl obviously knew what she was going to do to the Nazis after she got her hands on them, but killing was still killing. Even with an appropriate target there was a certain dread that most people felt when talk of killing came up.
"Yeah, I should probably get going," the girl agreed as she made her way down the alley with not quite worried steps.
"Hey," she called out, drawing the young girl's attention back to her. "If…if you want to talk again we can."
Th girl stared at her with an assessing gaze, and for a moment Boogeyman wondered if this was what people felt like under her gaze. She could feel her nervousness build up as she tried to keep her hands from twitching. It was almost ridiculous to think that she would be so afraid of the girl's answer. But the thought of her being rejected and cast aside once more weighed down heavily on her thoughts.
"I'd like that," the girl replied, a note of relief entering her tone as she rubbed her bandaged arm.
Boogeyman felt a wave of relief pass over her, scattering her darker thoughts. But her lips twitched into a slight frown as something suddenly occurred to her. "I don't think I got your name."
"I'm Aisha Laborn, the most amazingnest girl ever," she declared as she crossed her arms over her chest. A playful smirk darted across her lips as he eyes glinted in humor. Boogeyman let a chuckle worm its way out of her throat as she waved the girl off.
"Well, most 'amazingest girl ever' I'm sure your brother is worried about you," Boogeyman said with an amused smile.
"Nah, he doesn't even know I'm out here," Aisha said with a negligent wave.
"Probably because he thinks you're in school," Boogeyman said, a slight reprimand entering her voice. While her own experience with the education system had been utterly horrific, her mother would roll over in her grave if she supported truancy. Aisha flushed with embarrassment.
"Phobia," Boogeyman called out, drawing the Nightmare's focus back to her. "Why don't you make sure that Aisha makes it back to school safely. Without scaring anyone." She could practically see the irritation on the creature's face, but it complied anyway.
"I don't need a babysitter," Aisha said with a scowl. Boogeyman only raised an eye ridge in response.
"Even if that babysitter is a creature of fear made out of nightmares?"
"Well, when you put it like that…"
-
The Boat Graveyard had been a stain on the city as long as she could remember. Their towering husks of metal and rust where a constant reminder of the failings of the city, a scar that every Brocktonite carried with them. The shell of the oil tanker that she had commandeered loomed over her as if it could collapse at any moment. In the distance, she could hear the waves of the ocean slam against the submerged portion of its body, each one tearing a bit more of the ship off to sea.
"I didn't think that you would come," Boogeyman said as she rose up from her makeshift seat of scrap metal. Even as the noonday sun blazed outside the innards of the ship were a dark and cold place, perfect for her confrontation with Alabaster.
"I wasn't, but then you went and threatened by boys, and I can't have that," the skin bleached parahuman said as he entered into the shadow of the beached ship. A few more men followed suit, each one hefting a rifle or shotgun of some kind. Boogeyman let a small smirk play out across her lips.
"You know he doesn't care for you, any of you," she said, directing her gaze towards the assembled men. They hid their reactions well behind masks of indifference, but she could feel the uncertainty that her words inspired. The embers of doubt had been sowed into their heads long ago by the sadistic nature of their leader, all she was doing was kindling the flames. "What he did to those boys he would do to you in a heartbeat if he could."
"I'd be careful if I were you, girl," Alabaster warned as he pulled a blade out from his belt. The sharpened blade gleamed in the dim lighting of the ship's broke husk. Alabaster's eyes seemed to literally light up in delight at the prospect of forcing pain onto her. "You shouldn't spread lies about your betters. It isn't a very smart choice for your long-term health."
"Well seeing as I'm the one that will be killing you all today, I'd have to disagree," Boogeyman said with a serene smile.
"I'm afraid you're mistaken child," Alabaster said with a slight chuckle. The others apparently took that as their cue as they raised their weapons into a firing position.
"Guns?" Boogeyman asked with a raised eyebrow. "Skidmark and Miss Militia already tried those on me. They didn't work."
Alabaster blinked as if surprised, but she could feel that he was experiencing nothing but amusement. He let out a slow laugh, and for a moment Boogeyman could feel a sliver of doubt wedge its way into her mind.
"Did you really think I would come without some real firepower?" Alabaster asked with a mocking grin. Boogeyman felt a shard of uncertainty coil in her gut as two of Alabaster's group stepped forward. Unlike their fellow brown shirted comrades, they wore solid leather black jumpsuits. All they wore to conceal their identity were a pair of domino masks strapped around their eyes.
"No masks?" Boogeyman asked as the rest of the group started to slowly back away from the two apparent parahumans. While she didn't doubt that there would be some fools who would refuse to identify the two, there was no way such tiny things could protect their identities.
"Oh, there's no need for masks when your target's dead," the woman said, her smile calm and placid despite the thinly veiled death threat. Her partner's body started to smoke and loose form as it became a nebulous cloud of gas. Boogeyman watched as the now rolling Fog shrouded part of the ship from direct view, leaving only nebulous shapes. Even with her eyesight the smoke was too thick and churning to see what was inside.
The cloud of gas shot forward with a surprising amount of speed. Boogeyman found herself enveloped by the gaseous mass within seconds. She could feel it pushing against her nose and mouth, no doubt trying to suffocate her, but she had no such need for air. Fog might as well have been trying to drown a fish with water. She could feel the man's surprise at her survival emanate throughout the cloud, but he lacked any traces of fear at her apparent immunity.
Boogeyman felt the toxic smoke shift against her skin as something big and fast moved through the cloud, displacing the gasses. She looked to the side just in time to see a rather large but indistinct shape slam into her with the force of a wrecking ball. Boogeyman groaned as the rusted and worn steel of the ship's wall buckled around her. As she tore herself from the wall she watched as the cloud of fog started to drift towards her, slowly and methodically. As if Fog was mocking her, daring her to face Night in their domain. From the corner of her eye, she could see some of the men circling around the black cloud of imminent death, ready to blast her brains out at a moment's notice.
She knew that she could survive a shotgun blast or two, but it wasn't painless. And if they were able to overcome her durability with sheer numbers that wouldn't work much in her favor either. No, the best option would be to isolate the two sociopathic parahumans from their back up.
"Come and get me," she taunted as she threw herself into the ship's hallways. The structure had never been designed with the intention of people running inside, but with her ability to turn herself into liquid shadows the obstacles that would have hindered her were no longer an issue. Behind her she could hear Night's solution when confronted with such a small space.
Charge straight through it like a bull in a china shop.
The internal hull of the ship crumbled around her form as she charged forward with the speed of a creature possessed. Her partner was barely able to keep ahead of her so that her monstrous form would remain intact. As the duo started to gain on her Boogeyman shot up through a rather large crack in the ceiling.
Boogeyman regained her physical form just in time to see the entire shatter into a million pieces as Night tore her way through the steel as if it was made of paper. Boogeyman allowed herself to back up as the billowing smoke forced its way through the now massive hole. She could see a few indistinct shapes in the darkness, but she still couldn't make out Night's form. With the two parahumans standing over the gaping hole in the floor they now blocked off the only viable exit in the room.
Boogeyman doubted they could speak in their alternate forms, but she could still feel the smugness and satisfaction rolling off of them. They seemed to take an almost leisurely pace as they moved to eviscerate her. Too bad this trap was for them.
"Now," she shouted, her voice echoing through the ship's abandoned structure. Her Nightmares tore forth from the tiniest of cracks and poured out upon the two parahumans like a tsunami of sand. She could feel the flickers of shock as their forms were beset on all sides. Boogeyman wasn't sure if Night could be harmed in her current form, but her objective was Fog first. While the psychotic parahuman didn't have any vital organs to hit in his gaseous form, he could still be dispersed.
Her Nightmares ripped through the man's smoke body, tearing off pieces away from the whole. Within second they cloud that had covered half the room was now a quarter of the size. Boogeyman watched as whatever threshold they man had for his power was suddenly crossed, and all the remaining gas converged in on each other. Fog fell to the ground with a gasping breath and a dazed expression on his face.
"Kill him," Boogeyman ordered without a shred of remorse. She had read the death attributed to the man and his partner. There would be no mercy for him. The man didn't even have time to scream as one of her Nightmares tore apart his exposed throat with wild abandon. With her partner dealt with Boogeyman turned to face the now depowered Night.
…Who was still in her monster form.
Both combatants paused at the sudden turn of events. Boogeyman was forced to crane her neck up to feet Night's eyes, or at least what she thought were eyes. The pale white orbs didn't have anything to indicate that they could be used for ocular reception, but it was better than just staring at a blank face. Six arms shot out at random points on the creature's sides as if someone had just strapped a few arms on without a second thought. Talons that could have cleaved a man in two stretched out from her spindly fingers while a set of claws scrapped against the steel floor.
As the two opponents stared at each other with no small amount of surprise, Boogeyman watched as Night's already horrifying face stretched out into a parody of a smile. Hundreds of needle teeth skewed all across her mouth as she let loose a sound that was akin to grinding nails against a chalkboard.
Boogeyman didn't even have time to curse at the unexpected development as Night's digitigrade legs shot forward like a spring being uncoiled. A few of her Nightmares moved to stop her, but they were swatted aside like flied before a windshield. Boogeyman grunted as she was slammed through steel plating even as the creature's immense weight bore down on her. She tried to reflexively twist out of the way, but a hand the size of a dumbbell wrapped around her throat, pinning her to the ground.
While she no longer needed to breath, the standard human reaction of being choked out was still ingrained into her psyche. She thrashed against Night's grip like a fish against a fishing line and was about as successful. Despite her supernatural strength, Night's was just greater. She could see her arm quiver a little bit, but that was all her struggling amounted to. The Empire parahuman let out another bone grinding laugh as she brought one of her other hands in to finish the job. Boogeyman watched as the clawed appendage move slowly to piece her brains as if Night was mocking her.
"Let's see how you like it," she growled as a sword formed in her hand. At this range, missing Night's head would be all but impossible. Her assertion proved right as her blade pierced Night's head, eliciting a screech of pain from the parahuman. A black tar like fluid leaked from the wound, but Boogeyman's victory was short lived. With a sickening squelch, Night tore the offending blade from her face. The wound that Boogeyman had hoped would disable her was healed up in mere seconds, the featureless black flesh knitting itself back together. Her Nightmares tried to assist, but they wounds they made appeared to be nothing more than papercuts to Night.
"nICeTrY," Night's inhuman voice rang out, grating on the younger parahuman's ears. As the monster moved in for the kill Boogeyman felt a wave of rage pass over her, twisting her expression into an angry snarl. She could feel Night's brief flare of confusion as she wrapped her hands around the sociopath's arm in a vice grip and pulled.
Night tried to resist as she was pulled into her own shadow, but she had so much of her weight pushing down on the younger parahuman that she couldn't stop herself from falling down. Boogeyman felt Night's talons loosen from her throat as the older woman thrashed and struggled as she was pulled into the realm of shadows. Within seconds both parahumans were floating in the endless void of nothingness. Boogeyman felt a smirk cross her face as Night's malformed head snapped around to get a good look at her new surroundings.
"My gift to you," she said, drawing the parahuman's focus back to her. She held out her arms as if she was gifting everything in sight to the Empire killer. "A place where you get to be a monster, forever."
The last word came out as little more than a hiss, but Night apparently understood the sentiment. It was more than a little amusing to see such a vicious killer literally failing her arms in an attempt to close the distance between the two of them. The fact that she was utterly failing in her endeavor was lost on the woman.
"Bye," Boogeyman said with a wave as she moved to remerge from the shadows, leaving one of the most dangerous killers in the city alone in an endless void. As she worked on ripping Fog's head from his shoulders, she wondered if Night was capable of starving in her monster form.
She would check in a month or two.
As she approached the rest of the assembled Empire men she could hear the echoes of their conversation bounce off the walls. It sounded like they were betting on how long it was going to take Night and Fog to kill her.
Let's correct that misconception, she thought with a vicious grin stretched across her lips.
"I'm disappointed that you think so little of me," she said, keeping to the shadows and allowing her voice to echo through the ship's gutted hull. She could feel the tendrils of fear tighten around the group as they realized she was still alive. Boogeyman allowed herself to reform into a more solid shape a few feet in front of them, Fog's head in hand. Most of the group collectively paled at the sight of one of their heavy hitters down. A few of the braver ones raised their weapons to fire, but even they started to break out into a cold sweat.
"Don't worry, I'll be gentle," she hissed as her Nightmares leaped out of the shadows. A group of her Nightmares and herself versus some men with guns?
It was a very short fight.
-
Despite the fact that she had slaughtered all of his men and had taken him as her prisoner, Alabaster had yet to give into his fear. Oh, there was some concern mixed in there, but he still maintained a calm state of mind. Boogeyman supposed the man's inability to die was the core cause of that.
"You're going to tell me where Kaiser is," she started, only to be cut off by the man's mocking laughter.
"Or what? You'll kill me?" the skin bleached parahuman asked with an amused grin. There was a sharp gleam of amusement in his eyes as if the entire thing was a joke to him. I didn't seem to matter to the man that his former comrades were now nothing more than cooling corpses for the carrion birds. "We both know that won't work, now will it?"
"You're right," Boogeyman said with a smile. For a split second, she could feel a crack in the man's composure. A grain of uncertainty towards his safety. His smile twitched as he tried to keep is up, but she could feel a trickle of fear working its way down her spine. "I can't kill you."
Boogeyman leaned in, letting her breathless voice whisper into the man's ear. "But you of all people should know there are fates far worse than death."
A great screeching filled the empty husk of the ship as a dozen of her creations emerged from the dark, their prize in tow. It was as old as the ship and looked just as worn, but it would serve its purpose. Chains thicker than a man's arm scrapped against the metal plating of the ship. What had once been shining steel was now rusted over from years of disuse. As the length of chain was dropped before them, Boogeyman turned to see Alabaster's face frozen in stark horror. She could feel his terror at the realization of what she was about to do to him. She was willing to bet that if he hadn't already lost all of his skin color he would have now.
"Y-you can't," Alabaster stammered as he stared at the cold chains that promised a fate far worse than death. Boogeyman rolled her eyes at the man's statement.
"You know, you villains and Nazis keep telling me that, but you never really give me a reason why," Boogeyman said as she picked up part of the chain to test it. Even with her strength she could feel the sturdiness of the link. This had been designed to hold ships in place, it would take more than a little of her strength to warp it how she desired. "I mean, you would have no problem doing this to me if you go the chance, would you?"
"Because…" Alabaster started, only to trail off as he realized that he had nothing to argue with.
"That's what I thought," Boogeyman said with a smirk as she started to pull the chain forward. She watched in amusement as the man's face twisted in rage at her dismissal.
"You think you're special?" Alabaster asked with a growl. "The Empire has killed dozens like you over the years. What you have here, it won't last against the might of the Empire. We will crush you, race traitor."
"Perhaps," Boogeyman said with a noncommittal shrug as she started to twist the anchor links around the man. "But you won't be around to see it."
It was interesting to watch as the man's mask of enragement slowly started to chip away as she twisted more and more of the chain around him. She could feel the trickle of fear in the back of his mind transform into a deluge as she finished binding his legs. The metal groaned in protest as she warped several of the links around each other to hold him in place, but they refused to break.
"W-wait, I'll tell you what you want to know," Alabaster said as she double checked his bindings. Boogeyman grabbed the parahuman by the throat and lifted him so he was face to face with her. It took a bit of doing with the extra weight of the chains, but she still managed to make it look rather effortless.
"Where? Is? Kaiser?" Boogeyman ground out as she stared the man down. Even if the surface was completely white like the rest of his body, she could still see the stark terror dancing behind those lenses into the soul. She could feel his fear of her warring with his loyalty to the band of murderers and criminals that he called his brothers and sisters.
"Never mind," Boogeyman sighed as she let him fall to the ground. "I'll just find out from someone else."
"No! Wait! I'll tell you what you want to know," Alabaster cried out, his eyes wide with a primal terror. As loyal as he was to the cause, Alabaster apparently valued his own suffering over that of his "comrades".
"Will you?" Boogeyman asked curiously as she stared down at the man.
"Yes! He's going to be holding a rally today in a warehouse on Overland Avenue," Alabaster said, the words pouring out of his mouth so quickly they were almost unrecognizable. Boogeyman gave the man a pat on the cheek and an unfriendly smile.
"Now that wasn't so hard now, was it?" she asked.
Alabaster swallowed nervously as he shook his head. "So, you're going to let me go?" he asked, his voice filled with such hope. She could feel that flame of hope flicker a bit as she gave him a cruel smirk.
"No," she said. Alabaster's face shattered into one of horror at the finality of her declaration.
'But you said…" the man trailed off, unable to force the words from his mouth.
"I never said that I wouldn't throw you into the ocean, did I?" Boogeyman asked with a mocking smile.
"I'll kill you!" Alabaster roared as he trashed against his bindings with a ferocity that surprised the younger parahuman. His eyes glinted with unrestrained rage as spittle flew out of his mouth. She could see him tearing his skin against the chains, only for his power to reset the damage four seconds later. But for all his struggling the chains remained tightly bound. There was no way that he was going to break out of them.
"I'm afraid that Sophia already beat you to the punch on that one," Boogeyman said as she dragged the man along the ground. She couldn't keep a sliver of resentment from entering her voice despite her vengeance on her former tormenter.
Some scars would never fade.
The man continued to fling foul curses at her in both English and German as she pulled his body along through the maze of twisted metal that had once been a ship. But as she neared towards the part of the ship that was submerged underwater she could hear the previously controlled twinge of fear break into full blown terror.
"Please," the sadistic murderer uttered pathetically as she pulled a half-rusted door open. She ignored his pleas for mercy as she took a look down the shaft. With the way the ship had capsized on its side the compartment had exposed to the tide and had flooded as a result. She couldn't tell how far down it went even with her superb vision, but it was deep enough for her purpose.
"No! No!" Alabaster screamed in primal terror as she heaved him over the side and into the narrow shaft. It took a bit of doing with all his thrashing, but she was eventually able to squeeze his form into the hole.
"Don't worry," she said as a tear ran down the man's face for a few seconds before his body reset. She could see the hopelessness in his eyes as she prepared to confine him to a fate straight out of one of his nightmares. "Like you said, you can't die."
The look of utter horror on the man's face was priceless as she dropped him down the shaft. She listened for a moment as his screams echoed through the chamber, only to become muffled as salt water filled his lungs. The man sunk like a rock as the chains pulled him down out of sight and out of mind.
I should check in a week to make sure he's still there, Boogeyman thought as she sealed the shaft. The metal groaned in protest as she twisted it out of shape so that it couldn't be opened anymore. She doubted that anyone would come looking here, but it was better to be safe than sorry. She didn't want Alabaster to skip out on his own personal torment anytime soon.
"Come on," she said as she gathered her Nightmares together.
"We have an Emperor to dethrone."
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