Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower Interlude 3 Grue
Five...Six...Seven...Eight.
Grue was not happy.
"Tattletale, perhaps you would like to explain to me why there are eight fucking people out there."
"Nine, actually" Tattletale winced. "There's someone on the roof over there." She pointed over to a nearby house. "Might be-"
"Thank you Tattletale, allow me to rephrase that, why are there nine fucking people out there." Grue interrupted.
"Well, it was always a rough estimate." She pointed out.
"Ro-rough estimate?!" Grue snapped a little. "Three or four you said! Three or four! This is triple that number! Triple!"
"Well, as I said three or four, technically it can't be counted as-" Tattletale began, before being interrupted by shadows beginning to slowly spiral around her.
"If you finish that sentence." Grue proclaimed menacingly. "I will do things I will very much regret later."
Before Tattletale could dig herself in deeper, Bitch spoke up. "I can take them, just let me-"
"No, you can't take them." Grue talked over her. "You see that?" Grue pointed towards one of the heroes outside. "That, is the newly named Buster. You know, the girl who made swiss cheese out of motherfucking Lung. Who Tattletale described as, and I quote 'slowly going bugfuck insane.'" Bitch scowled, but acknowledged the point. Presumably not wanting to get her dogs hurt.
"Well, actually, she appears to have somehow mentally stabilized a bit." Tattletale mused. "Powers do seem connected to conflict, so maybe..."
"Well isn't that great." Grue sarcastically remarked. "So maybe we won't all get blown sky high today. Just heavily brutalized"
"Actually, her power has to high a lower limit for her to manage a non-lethal attack against a unenhanced human."
Grue stared. "That is not helping my concerns."
"Now that she's stable, she won't want to kill people?" Tattletale offered.
"Now that." Grue stated. "Is some actual good news for once. Okay, we might be able to work with-"
"On the other hand, she makes Aegis look squishy, and could take anyone here in a fist fight." Tattletale said absentmindedly.
"...Are there any other powers she has." Grue snidely remarked. "Because apparently, she just went to a bag labeled 'superpowers' and grabbed a handful when it came time for her to trigger."
"Judging by the way Clockblocker is still favoring his head, and his motions towards Buster? Self-localized power nullification."
A odd gurgling sound came from the back of Grue's throat, disturbingly distorted by his shadows into an echoing growl in the process. Before it was replaced by a sigh of resignation.
"So what do we do at this point?" Grue questioned. "There's still the other Wards there, so even if we do deal with the girl, who frankly seems to have gone to the same school of bullshit powers the triumvirate did, there's still them to deal with. And whoever is on the rooftop." It was a grim picture indeed.
"Well, she seems to have a lot of insecurities. If I-" Tattletale began, only to be interrupted once again.
"No. We are not poking the mental issues of someone who can knock out Lung." Grue left no room for interpretation. "Regent, if she starts, shut her mouth."
"Aye aye, cap'n." Regent faux saluted.
Tattletale frowned. "That isn't necessary, I am perfectly capable of controlling myself."
Grue immediately decided that, to the end of his days, he will never understand how Tattletale said that with a straight face.
Her frown deepened.
"Right... She have any enhanced senses or something like that?" Grue questioned.
"Looks like enhanced hearing. Although she hasn't noticed yet." Tattletale replied, a slight grimace of annoyance still on her face.
"Good. So, Plan A is cover her in my shadows, and hope the disorientation effects leave her unable to do anything." Grue decided.
"Why isn't that our plan for all the Wards?" Regent asked. "Just shadow everything, and we walk out like nothings the matter."
"Because." Tattletale interjected. "You see their formation? They've split up in a pattern intended to catch us if we try and run for it. And with Vista there, it's going to be a long run."
"Break out the back?" Regent inquired.
"If you'll look outside, Vista has already begun confusing what exactly constitutes the 'back' and 'front' of this building." Tattletale dryly responded.
"Fucking Vista..." Regent mumbled. "...So then what? We just roll over and submit?" Regent didn't seem to happy with this idea.
"Fuck that." Bitch was, if anything, even more against it.
"We are not going to just surrender here. We'll lose all of our rep. Make this whole thing even more of a failure than it already was." Grue pronounced, a bit of disgust entering his tone towards the end.
"Look people, I'm not advocating that at all. But." Tattletale began with a worried glance outside through the shadows around the building. "We are running out of time."
She was right. Grue cursed internally, observing Aegis bring out his phone.
"Probably telling the protectorate that they have us confined." Tattletale replied to his unasked question.
"All right, we go with Regent's... 'plan'." Grue said, a bitter taste in his mouth. "Were out of time, and options."
Shadows billowed forth from Grue's body, spilling out onto the streets, and covering the wards. "There not panicking in any noticeable fashion."
"Yep." Tattletale sighed. "They were totally prepared for this."
"We make do with what we have to." Grue solemnly spoke. "Bitch, you'll lead the charge. Tying up Aegis is probably the most important factor. Glance Buster on the way out too, we want her as disoriented as possible. After that, go for Vista, try and use her as a hostage-"
"Won't work." Tattletale interjected. "We've built up a reputation of following the rules to the letter. There is no way they'll believe we would actually seriously harm a non-Aegis member of the Wards, especially the youngest one. That is, unless your saying we change that MO. Which would be... bad" Tattletale trailed off at the end.
"No, your right. Dammit. Just try to scare her than, break her concentration. If she loses control of her powers, then we're probably home free. With a bit of luck. Other then that, you know the usual."
With a nod, Bitch jumped into action. Leaving a dog behind for them once the way was clear, Bitch's other two dogs tore out of the building with Bitch on top of the smaller of the two. The larger immediately went for Aegis, the slam into him causing them to roll away from the rest. Bitch on the smaller, sent Buster reeling as she sped by towards Vista.
Just before Bitch reached her, Grue lifted the darkness around Vista. Almost immediately, the warped space began to become less so. He imagined seeing a literal ton of dog heading straight for someone would break almost anyone's concentration.
That was about when he noticed that Buster no longer seemed quite as disoriented. In fact, she was looking straight at him.
"...Oh. Shit." Grue cursed.
"What? Buster did something? Oh goddammit. She pulled out another power didn't she-"
Tattletale was interrupted once more, as Buster burst in through the window.
"Hi." She said. A slightly crazed tone entering her voice. The eyes constantly flickering back and forth between a four pointed star, and normal not helping her maintain an image of sanity.
Tatletale opened her mouth. "You kno-" And then it clamped shut. "Ow daumnit, ehi biyut mah tange."
Well, at least something went according to plan.