Interlude: Dragon
Running final diagnostics check.
All systems Green.
"Assault Suit Unit 4-Peregrine. Launching." Dragon intoned as the massive suit Peregrine soared from the Air Force Base in Pease, New Hampshire, on its own specially cordoned off runway. It had been left on standby there until Taylor was captured.
Very likely it would stay there. Taylor had already gone postal once. It was not beyond possibility that it would happen again.
It was equipped with cryo-canons, foam cannons, heat insulation, high grade reinforced steel, two mini-guns, three rocket cylinders, one of which held an array of tinker-tech grade rockets, a self assembly and repair program, a high tensile, high tolerance, fibre mesh that was all but impossible to cut by any blade weapon hidden beneath the layers of steel, four autonomous drones held within a compartment along its back, and these were equipped with heat beam weaponry, tasers, Brute rated nets, and a self destruct sequence that could go off with the equivalent force of twenty pounds of C-4.
If nothing else it wouldn't just be reduced to scrap in less than ten minutes.
The roar of its engines would have hurt someone's hearing had they been standing too close as it lifted off from the runway and soared into the air, its destination: Brockton Bay.
Dragon would have sighed. Twenty-seven days ago she sent the Fast Response Suit Unit 2-Draco in on a call for assistance in regards to the prison break, and all she did was slow down Surtr for a few minutes. Thankfully, PRT officials were able to salvage and send back any spare parts that could work on making a new suit.
What they couldn't bring back though… was Colin.
She had him in one of the best facilities money could buy, with a private physician that looked him over every three days with round the clock nursing care. Very professional and very discreet.
His condition was stable… but not improving.
It wouldn't improve with… conventional science so she was looking into… alternatives.
There were avenues of research she couldn't venture through, unfortunately. But while she was limited, she knew a great many people that weren't so… restricted. People that were willing to do her this favor in trade for a piece of her tech. Any of her tech.
A trade she was willing to grant.
She wasn't… angry at Taylor… ok… She was, but no one could help it if they were under Master influence. It was simply beyond their control. So she'd be more honest by saying she had mixed feelings on the issue in regards to Taylor.
Where she didn't have any mixed feelings, however, was Coil.
Everything that had happened, everything that had been suffered, all the pain the people, Heroes, Wards, PRT, and others alike had been subjected to since that day could rightfully be laid at his feet.
And so it was when the software that dedicated itself to monitoring PHO gave her several high priority alerts at once that someone was carpet posting in regards to a cape's civilian ID (Probably with use of a Bot with a cheaply made hand-me-down algorithm to repeat itself every couple of seconds) and she was required, by law, to eliminate these postings and lock down their respective threads, she did so…
With the slowest software program she had available. She hadn't even used the thing since she first upgraded it a year or so after she officially… was.
She couldn't be blamed if so many other priority issues made it impossible to place these particular posts at the top of her 'To do' list.
Coil would just have to deal with his identity and photo being on a public forum on several threads for the next fifteen to twenty minutes.
Not very long at all.
And while it wasn't required by law, she felt it was in the interest of public security to make Director Costa-Brown aware of his identity.
She also alerted the airport security, police, coast-guard, highway patrol police, along with most public transportation agencies in the New Hampshire area… and the surrounding states.
And European Interpol.
And the European Department of Parahuman Affairs, the EU's equivalent to the Protectorate.
…
…
And most of South America.
For public security reasons only of course.
At any rate, Coil was a secondary issue at this particular moment. Approximately seventeen minutes ago the Bay had simply exploded with violence.
E-88 and ABB affiliated gang members were having open shoot-outs and raids in the street, attacking buildings, ransacking apartments and warehouses, all of which were purchased in some way or had a link towards Fortress Industries, the Endbringer shelter industry.
Calvert's properties.
The E-88 and ABB weren't attacking each other but were, in fact, being attacked by what seemed to be something of a private paramilitary group, complete with tinker tech weaponry and armor. At least one location had an armored vehicle with mounted weaponry.
If she had to guess, someone had turned the ABB and the E-88 against Calvert. His manipulations and use of civilian ID's to target the Wards must have come back to bite him in the ass.
She'd have applauded if the fallout wasn't spreading through half the city
Injuries from car accidents, stray gunshots and the actual combatants themselves were steadily rising and with the Protectorate and PRT forces already scrambling and engaging the rampaging gangsters where they found them this was only going to get worse. This was especially true if the reports she was getting about Lung being seen out and about weren't just exaggeration.
She would have to make him her first priority if it was confirmed he was seen in combat. Lung could easily level entire city blocks if he got amped up enough.
As it was the ABB was setting fires in what truly were random locations. Tossing Molotov cocktails in cars, buildings, parks, and anywhere else that seemed like it could hold a flame. No doubt to spread the emergency responders thin. The Empire hadn't adopted the same tactics but the sheer number of gangsters they were fielding led her to believe they believed they didn't need to.
She had all but hijacked the Brockton Bay emergency lines and channels, using at least three different programs to answer, question, and direct the calls that came in, sending out ambulances and regular police force to the areas of minimal risk while sending the men and women of the PRT towards the places that had clusters of calls coming in with reports of Parahuman activity. Already there was word of Krieg, Alabaster, Rune, Othala, Victor, and Cricket through the north end of downtown and part of the docks. Oni-Lee had been sighted in at least ten different city blocks in just a few minutes. No doubt he was using his teleportation for maximum distance.
She brought in another algorithm program to track and calculate just how fast he was moving. Perhaps later she could get an accurate measure on the distance he could travel in his teleportations and just how many milliseconds he needed between jumps and clones.
Still, there was no sign of Kaiser or Lung fighting as of yet. Thank Scion for small favors.
She listened in further, Legend was already on scene, using much of his abilities to put out the aforementioned fires and disable whatever gang member he came across, Velocity and Triumph were not far behind, with Miss Militia and Brandish on their way with the bulk of the protectorate forces.
She was getting mixed reports on if the Wards were joining or not. Evidently the higher ups of the Brockton Bay Protectorate were not too keen on sending the kids into what was fast becoming a literal warzone.
When she entered Brockton Bay airspace she immediately opened a channel to the heroes and PRT.
"This is Dragon. Legend, tactical analysis indicates Krieg, Othala, Victor, and Cricket are attacking a small business building at the corner of Winchester and Forty Second avenue. I will head there unless you believe I am needed elsewhere."
"This a rescue unit or a combat model?" She heard him ask.
"Combat." She answered. "Heavy ordnance."
"Confirmed. Go and take them down, don't need to tell you about keeping damage to a minimum."
"Understood." Dragon soared through the sky, lowering her descent as she saw the skyline of Brockton Bay. The suit cameras could already pick up the smoke and fires. A scanner already picking up the chips of police black and whites and PRT vans.
She drew up the GPS Nav-System as she entered the city limits, flying over the buildings, making note of the spreading violence to upload to the PRT and police emergency response units in short order.
As she drew close to downtown she dipped below the skyline, weaving through the city streets and avenues to buy herself those few extra seconds she'd need to get in close before the villains could see her approach.
Finally, when she reached Winchester she turned on a dime, crossing the last three blocks needed in less than five seconds before her combat unit hit the ground, wings folding up and activating the kinetic barrier system.
She hacked into the camera systems of the Fortress office building in question within and spotted another dozen E-88 thugs, finding with them three of the four parahumans in question: Krieg, Othala, and Cricket.
No sign of Victor, she'd need to run a scan after she took these three down.
"Throw down your weapons. Cease and desist at once." Dragon spoke over the Peregrine's speakers. The foam cannons at her shoulders came online.
The thugs scattered, shooting their handguns, assault rifles, and any weapons they had available, the bullets bouncing harmlessly off of her kinetic shields.
The containment foam cannons fired like fire hoses, hitting one gangster in the back and knocking him off his feet to faceplant on the ground. Another was thrown up against the wall, sticking there as the foam hardened around him.
Electric tasers were fired out of a miniature gun mounted on the suit's head, just beside its right eye. One, two, three, four, five. The sixth thug ducked into an alley, just barely avoiding the electric projectile. His friends fell down, unable to scream as they twitched and writhed on the ground, several thousand volts coursing through their bodies.
The E-88 members inside were now aware that something was wrong, the noise had alerted Cricket no doubt.
She spied one of the normals moving towards the window and swiveled one of her shoulder canons to fire.
The foam hit the window like a rock, shattering it and slathering itself over the thug's chest and face as he came towards it. He screamed, startled, trying to move before the foam hardened, leaving the man to topple over.
He still screamed at his friends though.
"Dragon!" Her microphones picked up, the cameras in the Fortress building didn't have sound. Krieg immediately moved, rushing towards the other side of the building, towards the fire escape. He was the most senior member here, the leader at this time. She needed to take him down first.
The compartment at the back of her suit opened up and four drones activated, the size of beach balls the four could move where she couldn't. One moved into the destroyed front door, the other headed up towards the roof, and the last two around the back to cut them off.
Dragon's sensors picked up movement, one claw digging into the ground listening to the vibrations as a dozen other instruments triangulated the positions of people moving in the building. Krieg had ducked back in, running into the hallway as the drones came round the building. Coordinating with the hacked security cameras she knew where every one of the thugs stood and moved inside.
So did her drones.
She heard gunfire and spotted the warning signs on Drone 2, focusing on its uplink in time to see the drone firing tasers and paralyzing toxins the size of thumb-tacks with pinpoint accuracy.
She focused on the group currently running towards the roof, where another of her drones lay in wait.
They opened the door in time to get a face full of containment foam.
Drone 3 suddenly blinked out as damaged. She rewound its camera feed.
One bullet from a high powered sniper as it was chasing Othala. Victor no doubt. Or a really, really, lucky shot to have hit the drone in its main camera. As the computer compensated and activated a secondary infrared system it came online just in time for some other E-88 thug to swing at it with a steel pipe, moving far faster than normal.
Powered up by Othala. She gave him a Mover rating and perhaps some Brute to go with it.
Drone 2, however, pinged an alert. Cape.
Focusing on that camera the thing was currently trying to stun Cricket. The young woman's lightning fast reflexes allowing her to dodge but not much else in the confined hallway. She was inching her way towards a door to give herself some cover.
Dragon took up manual control, leaving the Peregrine on auto-pilot. Cricket's hand moved to the door, intent on opening it, and Dragon fired when she was already mid motion.
Containment foam burst from the drone's canon, full power. It slathered the door, Cricket pulled back but the splash from the still liquid foam managed to get on her stomach and still outstretched hand. As it hardened, it slowed her down. Not by much, but just enough.
Down she went with a chest full of tasers.
Drone 1 had cornered Krieg, the kinetic manipulator wasn't going to get hit by any foam, his ability to all but cancel the momentum and inertia ensuring that. It didn't mean that she couldn't trap him anyway.
Drone 1 continued to fire, with drone four abandoning its search protocols to join it, making sure she had enough foam.
Soon enough, the foam had hardened into a mass blocking the door and hallway of the room. That should be enough to hold him until the PRT arrived. She kept Drone 4, the more well stocked drone, there and sent Drone 1 off into its search patterns. She had Drone 2 continue to search the office building, but no signs of any capes. So, Cricket and Krieg. Nice haul.
"This is Dragon to PRT HQ. I have Krieg and Cricket caught and apprehended, along with plenty of criminals incapacitated at the moment. Requesting immediate extraction."
"Affirmative, back up on the way for extraction." She heard the person over her communication network. Dragon began to look through the PRT network for an update on things.
Dauntless was currently by the docks with Triumph where the ABB were raising hell. Legend was moving fast towards the north end apartments. Aparently there was some kind of infighting with the ABB and the E-88 after all. Purity had just taken to the skies and was raining literal death on the asian gang members. Must have ended her little hiatus when word of Coil's actions came to light.
Velocity and Battery were on base at the PRT HQ for protection in case the ABB and E-88 got it into their heads to attack there as well.
The Wards, however, were on the move. Being sent to search and rescue locations or zones that were slowly but surely being pacified to help with the emergency efforts, their standing orders were to stay far from the fighting, freeing up some PRT agents to head there instead.
"This Dauntless; me and Triumph are moving towards the industrial district. Word is Rune and Alabaster are there."
"Dragon, you read?" Legend.
"I'm here."
"Be on the look out for Kaiser and Lung. We need to take them out. Once they're gone or they've been forced to retreat the others will follow right after. They are our top priority. I want them found twenty minutes ago. We don't have hard counters for either of them so be care-"
Suddenly, a broad sweeping call from one of the PRT agent radios.
"This is Team Theta. We spotted Ashburn heading downtown, she's on the roofs."
"Did she attack you?" Dauntless asked, all communicator icons activating for the Protectorate heroes and Wards.
"Negative, saw her jump across a roof two blocks down as we were setting up a perimeter. Had to rewind the recording devices on our helmets to make sure. Should we pursue?"
"Negative." Legend answered that time. "Hold position. How long ago was this?"
"Three minutes, five tops. Sorry sir, we didn't want to call it in and then realize it was just a mistake."
"Don't worry about it son. Dragon, add her to your list of high priority targets. Kaiser, Lung, and Ashburn. If they sneeze I wanna know about it."
"Understood."
She took to the sky, the whine of thrusters and weight reducing tech surging to life, the massive battle suit moving like its namesake as it went to the air. Scanners and satellite uplink giving her a minute by minute update on everything happening in the Bay, looking over the footage of her last confrontation with Surtr, reanalyzing the patterns and tells she gave in that form as opposed to her more normal state.
She hoped it wouldn't come to an all out war in the street with her. She truly did. Not for her suit, it was just bits and pieces that she could rebuild in a month. But 'Master influence' could only shield one so much before they were simply seen as 'dangerous' and in the middle of a city, surrounded by civilian apartments and businesses, that was one line that could be crossed with just a stray gout of flame in the wrong direction.
She really didn't want that to happen to her. Despite the damage she'd done to Colin she could still remember how the taciturn tinker described her when she asked after that conversation with Gallant.
'She's shy and reserved. She is acclimatizing to her teammates faster than Stalker did and being accepted more in turn. The cohesion between herself and her teammates is decent and continues to improve.'
Militia, Dauntless, and the late Assault especially held her in high esteem if Armsmaster's impressions weren't enough.
He said she would have made a fine hero. Some of the highest praise he'd ever given a Ward. To this day she only knew of one other Ward to have gotten those words out of him.
Vista.
And Coil destroyed it all. She had no doubt the knowledge of Sophia was used in some way. She could recognize that Colin, Miss Militia, and Piggot had some blame there as well, unintentional or no, but the catalyst of the whole thing was Coil. He was the one that planned it and executed it. He was the one that hired the Master, whoever he or she was.
The Peregrine reached optimum altitude and began its scans, searching through city blocks at a time with its special sensors and all but panning over the whole of the city with visuals.
Four minutes into her scan though, it became a redundant effort.
She could literally see the shockwave sweep through the city as a downtown building was literally consumed in fire, the flames spreading with an unnatural speed.
She turned her suit, taking off in the direction, one minute, maybe less. She cordoned off the emergency calls coming in from that area, listening in as the PRT and police emergency lines were once more flooded with an entirely new wave of incoming pleas.
She soared over the burning ruin, using her instruments to pierce through the heat and the smoke.
'Oh no.' She thought, dismayed.
It was Lung, already ramped up, standing at ten feet tall and rapidly growing. Grappling with him was a figure that was unmistakable.
"This is Dragon. I have a confirmed sighting of both Lung… and Surtr."