2.4
"Why?" she wailed. "Why can't I hear father?"
Other people flinched away, braving the slavering jaws of the mutant dogs to gain distance from this new abnormality.
"Now what's the problem?" Regent moaned theatrically.
Grue glanced across at Tattletale, expecting the usual cocky grin and big reveal. It was highly unsettling that she was just staring at the crying woman, her own chest heaving. It looked like she was hyperventilating.
Her head whipped around to her comrades, lips pale and bloodless.
"Bitch," she growled. "Take her down. Full power."
Grue didn't even have time to process that before it was set in motion. The heavyset dog-trainer barked the order, "Angelica, Kill," and more than a ton of canine crossed the floor in a flash, jaws more like a dinosaur than a dog clamping down across the woman's shoulder. There was a horrific crunching noise accompanied by a spray of fluid across the hostages.
All hell broke loose as everyone started screaming, backing away as fast as their restraints allowed, half-crushing each other in the rush to escape.
Grue rounded on Tattletale, practically shaking with rage. "What the FUCK Lisa? What DID YOU DO?" he roared.
She barely even seemed to register what he said, staring wide eyed over his shoulder at the carnage the dog was still doing. Wet chunks of flesh were spattering over the back of his suit.
"Holy fuck ..." she breathed.
Something in her voice cut through his anger. Grue turned around again, only to witness the impossible. The woman, missing an entire arm and a reasonable chunk of her chest, was tearing into Angelica. Her remaining bare hand was cracking bone, shredding flesh. He had seen big name Brutes do less damage.
The woman screamed incoherently, revealing rows of needle sharp teeth.
Bitch roared back, directing the other dogs to attack. The charged forward like juggernauts, but the woman was so fast. She ducked between them, dragging her arm through Brutus' belly. Ropey intestines spilled onto the ground.
Finally it clicked, and Grue recognised her movements as the same as the group who attacked Lung. Which meant...
"Come the fuck on, we have to move," Tattletale shouted. "Bitch, hold her back. Grue, help me cut these people free."
Grue just nodded, realising there was little he could do to help in the fight. Regent stumbled over as well and began splitting the zip-ties around the wrists and ankles of the terrified hostages. Grue looked at him questioningly.
Regent just shook his head, actually looking concerned for the first time in months. "My power can't find anything to work on. If she has a nervous system, it isn't like anything I've felt before."
Tattletale grunted while she worked at the restraints of a young woman. "Not human," she spat. "Something else."
She finally cut her way through the tough plastic. The girl she released flung herself forward, hugging Tattletale who rolled her eyes and tried to push her away.
"Just go you idiot," she said, "the Wards are out the froonnnn..."
Her words trailed off as she fell face first onto the floor. The ex-hostage looked up at the two remaining villains, angry tears in her eyes and an open cellphone in her hand.
"Oh shit," Regent whispered. "That's Amy Dallon."
"Glad to see you could join us," Kid Win smirked at me, looking down from his hoverboard. "You might just get to see us in action. If that doesn't make you want to join, nothing will!"
Aegis looked over from his conversation with Vista and Shadow Stalker. His demeanor was totally different than the last time we met, all the easy friendliness gone. He looked every bit the professional hero.
"Hi Bug-girl," he began, before being interrupted by Vista informing him of my new name. He nodded to himself. "OK then, Skitter. I'm gonna need you to stay well back, this is Ward business."
I inclined my head in agrrement. I didn't need to get close to help out anyway, my bugs were already swarming over the roof and through the air vents. The faster, smaller fliers had already made their way inside, confirming the presence of about 30 hostages and the Undersiders.
The bigger and more dangerous bugs were holding back, but there was enough of them in the walls and ceiling to get a clear impression of the space involved.
"Do you need any help with reconnaissance?" I asked. "I can tell you where everyone is in there and what they are doing."
Aegis blinked in surprise, before nodding. "Sure..."
I didn't hear the rest of his answer as my attention was diverted to the interior of the bank. Something was happening in there, and all the information my power was giving me didn't paint a pretty picture.
Lots of movement and noise and liquid.
A deafening crack pealed out from one of the rooftops opposite the bank, shattering multiple top floor windows in an expanding sonic boom. Something shot past in a blur of white and gold, crashing through the bank door like the thick bulletproof glass was so much paper.
It was like the world had exploded, heavy glass fragments turned into high velocity projectiles. Thankfully the battle had moved between the door and the crowd, so the bulk of the debris was soaked up by the grotesque overlarge bodies of the dogs.
It was too much for one of them, and it collapsed to its knees amid a pile of gore, flesh sloughing off in waves. The other two didn't look much better. Bitch screamed, looking ready to kill with her bare hands.
Panacea was still glaring at where the two bank-robbers had been moments before the door exploded, the space now inexplicably empty.
"You OK Ames?" came a familiar voice to the side, heavily tinted by anger.
Following the voice to the source, Panacea saw her adoptive sister Victoria grinding the villains into the bank wall, each held aloft by the neck. The one in the skull mask seemed stunned, while the … LARPer?... flailed ineffectually at the immovable object that was Glory Girl.
She looked so out of place in the warzone that the bank had become, the pristine white and gold outfit and perfectly styled blonde hair seemed inappropriate amongst the blood and wreckage strewn about. The rage twisting her features was even more unsettling.
"I'm fine Vicky," Panacea replied. "They just tied us up. No real harm done."
Glory Girl pushed a little bit harder, and even the pirate boy stopped struggling. He was starting to go purple.
"Come on Vic, let them go. They tried to help us escape when that happened," she said, pointing to the melee in the lobby.
Glory Girl craned her neck, taking in the swirling battle on the floor.
"Amy … how the fuck is that woman fighting missing most of her torso?"
At her sisters question, Panacea examined the battle for the first time. Sure enough, the woman who was fighting evenly or better with three mutant dogs had her arm and entire forequarter missing. Amy's first thought was Brute, perhaps with a healing factor, but something didn't seem right.
The wound was barely bleeding, despite a complete lack of visible healing. Again, par for the course for a subset of regenerators, but what blood she could see was definitely not red. Whiteish yellow.
That was unusual because it implied a very different physiology, in which oxygen transport occurred without haemoglobin.
It was also unusual because she had seen it before. In Lung, when the Protectorate had called her in. When she tried to fix him.
She glanced down at Tattletale, mouth open. "Not human," she whispered.
Glory Girl flinched, dropping the two subdued villains to the floor and walking over to her sister.
"Ames, talk to me. You are doing that quiet thing you do when shit's about to hit the fan."
Panacea shook her head. "Hold on, I need to check something. I'm going to wake Tattletale, so get ready to stop her if she tries anything, ok?"
Without waiting for the nod for Glory Girl, she brushed her fingers across Tattletale's temple. Green eyes flashed open, darting around before settling on the girl above her.
"Amy Dallon. Can't believe I didn't notice you earlier," she said with a rueful smile. She tried to raise her head but couldn't lift it by more than a few inches. She slumped back down.
Panacea glared back at her. "I've only restored your motor functions enough to talk, so tell us what you know about that woman."
Tattletale's head flopped to the side, following the outstretched hand.
"How long was I out?" she asked,squeezing her eyes shut.
"Just a few minutes. Now are you going to tell us what is going on?"
The villain barked a short, humourless laugh.
"What's going on? We're all fucked, that's what is going on."
"We have to go in NOW," Gallant shouted, grabbing the front of Aegis' suit. The Brute brushed him off effortlessly.
"I want to help as much as you to, but Glory Girl made her choice, and she can take care of herself," the leader replied calmly. "We go in there and it could jeopardise the plan, we would be fighting on their terms."
Gallant cast around for support. "Come on everyone, she is in there with four villains, at least one of which has a bodycount."
The team shuffled uncomfortably. "Gallant is right," Clockblocker said. "We can't leave her in there alone. Especially if Skitter is right and there is fighting going on."
I turned my focus to the bank again. "It seems like three of the villains are down," I informed them. "Some woman is still fighting to dogs but I don't think it is Glory Girl. If I am right, Glory Girl is talking to one of the hostages."
"See?" Gallant excalimed. "They are already out! We go in now and we can take them all down."
"I'm all for cracking a few heads," Shadow Stalker added. Even Vista nodded, popping her knuckles.
Aegis said something I missed as I tried to make sense of the swirling melee on the floor of the lobby. There was something familiar about …
Shit. Now that I had noticed it, it became obvious. That same gap in my perception. The fighter inside was like the group that had fought Lung. But why was she here, and why was she alone?
With a sick feeling in my stomach I turned my senses away from the bank and to the surrounding area, only to confirm my rapidly growing fears.
"Uh, team? Wards?" I called out. They paused halfway across the road towards the bank, turning back to me.
I'd like to think my voice was calm.
"We've got incoming."
AN: Pretty amazed that so many people are reading this. Drop me a line in the reviews so I can know what you think. There is an omake over at the space battles creative writing forums (I have the same username) if you want to read silliness.