Skitter and Gitanica were keeping mostly to the ground, zooming back and forth, as Futurias flew over head. A car squealed around a corner down the block, weaving wildly through traffic and then slammed into a street light pole. The driver was catapulted through the front window to smash into the front of an apartment building.
"Shit! Come on!" Gitanica shouted and rushed down the street.
Futurias beat them both, appearing next to the downed driver. Blood was smeared on the brick wall and the figure was crumpled in a heap. The defender looked around, trying to spot something she could use to siphon energy from to try and heal or bring him back. She was sometimes able to pull enough energy from a fire-
Windows shattered overhead, as Stormtiger and Cricket smashed their way out of two windows of the second floor above her.
"Ambush!" Futurias shouted as she started to turn away, energy gathering in her hands.
The 'Patuuh' sound and sharp pain in her leg had her look back down, only to see that the bearded victim was pulling back a drug dispenser gun from her leg. He looked totally unconcerned about all the blood covering his front.
Her arms were already turning leaden as she tapped her earbud. "Drugged and being kidnapped..." she managed to say, even as her voice started to slur.
Victor rose from the ground in a strong punch into her diaphragm. Crickett slammed the back, blunt ends on her sickles into her head as her feet were swept out from under her by Stormtiger.
"Get away from her," Gitanica shouted, charging straight ahead at the three villains. That charge was halted as six tons of very angry hooks, blades and needles landed on her from Hookwolf's jump out out an alleyway.
He spun and shredded, clawing at her like some macabre animal.
Faster. Faster! Skitter thought as she summoned more and more insects from everywhere. She zipped away from Hookwolf.
"Bugs," Crickett called out damaged, raspy voice. Her sonar was showing a huge amount of insects converging on them.
"What about bugs?" Victor asked the woman.
"Everywhere!" she rasped out.
Victor tapped his own earbud with a staccato beat.
"Get- Off- Of- ME!" Gitanica yelled angrily as she finally got some leverage and lifted Hookwolf right off of his feet.
Hookwolf was feeling a bit uncomfortable, as no one had ever just picked him up before. And the girl wasn't bleeding. Looking at her, she just looked like she been switched across just about every inch of her body, even showing tears in her bullet proof bodysuit. The smashing sound he made could be heard for miles as he thrown through the corner of an empty, boarded up building.
Skitter had kept about one hundred feet away from where Futurias had fallen, directing her swarms as they gathered as quickly as possible. Already they were stinging the villains.
Stormtiger tried to rush her, using her aerokinesis to try and catch her, but she zipped down the road further, easily outdistancing him. "She's a mover and bug controller." He tilted his head as if he was listening. Then he charged again and started throwing his air-claws, just missing as she dodged to the left each time. Finally, she dove behind a heavy SUV. The burst started cutting into her cover.
She popped out, looking down towards where Crickett and Victor were holed up-
KRAKOWWW!
The rifle bullet slammed into her upper chest, sending her sprawling.
"Got her. And here's Rune finally," Victor grumbled as he tossed the rifle onto the floating concrete platform. Stealing those skills from that triathalon retiree had been a great idea. Gold olympic athletic skills were very handy, he thought with a smirk.
"Hookwolf isn't winning," Rune noted from where she knelt on the slab of concrete.
"He won't let himself get captured. Menja and Fenja are ready at his fallback point with an ambush," Victor said as he helped Cricket put the insensate hero on the concrete slab.
"All aboard Air Rune," the teen villain said a smile in her voice.
Crickett just gave her a flat, annoyed look as she, Victor and Stormtiger all jumped on the pad.
With a swish, Rune started accelerating to leave the scene of the crime.
Victor was smiling under his full face mask. A perfect getaway.
It was always a warehouse, Futurias thought woozily. This one had less lights on than normal and looks like someplace the Freakshow or the Lost would live in.
"She's awake, but can't concentrate," a female voice said.
"About fucking time," a much younger voice said.
"Quiet." The sound of heavy footsteps came closer. "Futurias. And your 'fellow Paragons'. Do you realize how much you have destabilized the city with your little crusade?"
Futurias blinked her white eyes at him. "Crusade? Lung was a menace and Oni was a certified psychopath."
"And Skidmark and Mush? Or are we supposed to believe that it was just happenstance that the leader of another gang got taken out at that quickly?" Kaiser asked haughtily. At either side and behind him stood the twins Fenja and Menja. Hookwolf was across the block of concrete she was chained to, along with Victor and Othala. Rune was sitting on a platform made of rusted iron that she was floating in the air three feet. Stormtiger and Cricket were standing at her head.
"Think Charged State said she just ran into him on patrol," Futurias said woozily. It had been a funny story, as her teammate had been quite upset that Mush had gotten her costume really dirty.
"Of course, it's all a coincidence. I'm sure at some point it will just be another coincidence when I or Hookwolf get captured and the Protectorate starts to dismantle my empire. This is my city, hero. Lung was a fool that thought he could challenge me on his own, but his gang only existed because he by his lonesome was too troublesome to take out." The sound of stretching metal echoed from above as Kaiser extended a large blade from the steel truss up near the roof.
"So you are going to just kill me after mono- monologuing?" she asked.
"No, I am going to give you a choice. You are part of the disruption to Brockton Bay's current status quo. So I want your promise that you will leave Brockton Bay, never to return," Kaiser said as the foot wide sword continued to stab down from the roof.
"Or you kill me."
"Yes. I will regret doing so, as your power appears to greatly aid the world against the Endbringers. I would not mind having that power on my side, but I suspect that you would never join my team. To make Brockton Bay a better city." Kaiser's voice was strong and compelling.
"You haven't improved anything. Sold your drugs, attacked non-whites and robbed anyone you wanted to. So no, I won't join you." Futurias wished she wasn't effectively depowered.
"I bring money and jobs to a devastated economy. You have no idea what I do for Brockton Bay, mutant woman." The sword was getting closer. "But I see convincing you is a waste of my time. Decide. Death or exile."
"I won't let you just run me out of town," the albino said angrily.
"Fine. Boy, come here. It's time you started earning your place." Kaiser had a full longsword grow out of the ground in front of him.
A pudgy boy wearing a dark leather jacket and a mask that covered the top of his head stepped in between the giants Menja and Fenja. "Fath-" he started to say, only to be backhanded by Kaiser.
"You will call me Kaiser. And you have not earned a name. So you are merely a boy. Take up my sword and slit her throat. The Empire is forged in blood and power."
The boy took the sword he given. "But I'm- I'm- I'm not ready. I don't want to-"
Kaiser backhanded him again. The metalkinetic then had a rapier blade cut into the skin of his leg from the ground. "It will be either her blood... or yours. Which do you choose?"
"Please, don't-" the tubby teen beseeched pitifully.
Kaisar held up one hand to the huge sword from the roof and one towards his sone. Another rapier grew from the ground, actually impaling the boy's calf.
"Stop that! He's just a- a- boy," Futurias managed to get out
"It's time to end this-" Kaiser started to say when everything changed.
Lightning flashed and thunder boomed as the blurring figure of Charged State blasted through the roof, cratered the ground next to the concrete slab that Futurias was chained to by landing on her feet and caught the tip of the blade.
"I think I'll just trust my friends to come rescue me," Futurias said. "What took you?"
"We had to prepare the attack. But I couldn't let you be skewered," the clone admitted. Crackling electricity was traveling from her to all the other parahumans except Futurias, causing them to jerk and twitch just slightly.
The warehouse doors were smashed open as Armsmaster drove his heavy motorcycle right through it, popping a wheelie. Two more motorcycles were right behind it as four blurs shot into the room. Miss Militia and Triumph skidded their bikes to a stop.
Twin uzis appeared in Miss Militia's hands as she started to fire, while Triumph roared hard enough to knock Hookwolf back.
Dauntless flew through the hole in the roof, his lance shooting a bolt of lightning at Victor, only to find it ineffective as Othala had ducked behind him and imbued him with invincibility.
"Go low!" Assault shouted out as he and Battery kicked hard at the Valkyrie twin's ankles that were closest to each other.
That caused the twins to trip and almost fall. The spear lashed out Battery as she slowed, only to get intercepted by Assault who sapped it of kinetic energy, then leaped up to hit her wrist. Her sister interposed her shield between Miss Militia and Othala and then abruptly kicked out at Battery, sending her flying.
"We need to fall back, Kaiser," Victor shouted as he charged Triumph with his sword and pistol.
A blur had been working on the manacles even as a huge swarm of insects flooded into the room as the rest of the Wards appeared. Skitter had leaped up into the rafters, not charging into melee like the other speedsters.
Gitanica and Shadow Stalker were bounding into the room at the front with Aegis, while Gallant, Clockblocker, Kid Win and Vista brought up the read. Steel girders that had been laying in a pile across the room suddenly shot towards the less physically capable Wards, only to be intercepts by their brute. They bent like coat hangers with a screech of protesting metal. Gitanica then started to slam one end deep into the ground to keep them from moving.
Gallant and Kid Win used the improvised cover to start shooting beams of energy at targets of opportunity. Rune suddenly had to swish out of the way as Aegis put his focus on her and crossbow bolt from Shadow Stalker.
Down below, regular human members of the Empire Eighty-Eight crashed through the doors on the opposite wall, opening fire with guns and assault rifles, making it quite hazardous for almost everyone. Miss Militia started to deal with them while moving quickly on the ground, leaving her motorcycle behind to dodge the metal horror known as Hookwolf as he leaped after her with lupine fierceness.
Vista was about to compress the distance between her, Clockblocker and Gallant when shadows rolled over them from behind. The ground thudded as large monsters charged in through the darkness.
"What?" Armsmaster said even as he quite shooting energy bolts at Stormtiger and Cricket.
Three huge mutated dinosaur looking creatures with four riders on them came out of the shadows. The homely girl with a plastic dog-mask whistled as she slid off with the rest of her team. Grue started to blast out at the different flyers, trying to get them to knock themselves silly against the walls or girders up in the ceiling.
"Make an exit out the north door," Kaiser shouted out as two of the dogs charged to help Hookwolf and Victor. "You are quite strong, but strength is not enough today." He swung his hands up from his hip and into the air, gesturing as blades of all sorts skewered the bound heroine right in front of Charged State.
"You bastard!" Charged State shouted, ripping the giant blade from the roof off and then swung it hard to catch Kaiser with a clang even through the blades he grew to block the attack.
Kaiser skidded across the ground in a spray of sparks, then spat out blood as he haltingly rolled over. "It's done. Empire, retreat!" This was getting crazy even by super-battle standards. The building was going to collapse soon.
"Bye, sucker!" Rune called out as she surfed her metal platform into Aegis's face and then streaked out the doors to the north. A little zig-zag had her dodging Shadow Stalker trying to land on the platform.
The young chubby teen was almost blubbering in fear, trying to pull out the rapier that was sticking out of his calf. "It hurts. It hurrrrrts!"
A discordant chime was building in intensity purple energy leaked from the body on the bed of blades.
The young teen screamed in terror as he felt something draw part of his life force from his body. Every parahuman in the room was suddenly slammed with a vision of two huge entities, seeding time and alternate space with shards of themselves, unveiling and then hiding their grand purpose.
The heroes from Paragon Earth just saw most of the heroes and villains collapse, looking around to see what was going on. Gitanica leaped forward suddenly, catching Skitter before she could break her neck from falling off the girders above.
"What the hell was that?" she asked everyone.
The blonde jester in purple and black was the first one to respond. "Someone Triggered. Became a parahuman. Grue, we should get out of here."
"Right. Undersiders! We are leaving," the forbidding leader of the gang of thieves shouted.
Purple energy reformed, as Futurias rematerialized, but in a dark outfit of purple and black, cape fluttering in the background. "He tried to kill me. That means he's fair game. That they are fair game," the Nictus said, a deranged smile on her albino lips. She held out her hand towards the nearly catatonic teen, but wavered. Nict'Futurias then blasted one of the few remaining normal thugs, burning a hole right through his chest.
Then purple-black energy raised the body off the ground before a dark, umbral extraction of energy was pulled from the dead body. The hovering shard of dark kheldian then floated after its mistress.
"Oh, dammit! Futurias, you can't chase after than many villains solo!" Charged State shouted as she tried to intercept the possessed woman by flying through the air as fast as possible.
With a burst of purple and black energy, Futurias disappeared.
Outside, Hookwolf looked at the changed figure in shock as she appeared in the same burst of purple-black energy. "You should be dead!"
That got the rest of the Empire Eighty-Eight to look up from where they were piling into the back of a modified semi truck trailer.
"Hookwolf... go!" Kaiser ordered from where he lay on the floor of the container.
He leaped out of the truck, expanding dramatically as he went from a human in costume to a huge lupine form made of blades and hooks. "Die!"
Black energy pulsed around Nict'Futurias. One moment she was in her black and purple rendition of her normal uniform with a cape swirling behind her dramatically, the next she was a thing of dark nightmares. Easily eight feet tall even hunched over wide shoulders, covered in black chitin, like a horrific amalgamation of human and crustacean. Massive, clawed pincers on very large forearms slammed home a brutal punch to stop Hookwolf's forward moment.
Then with another burst of black energy the black dwarf form of Nict'Futurias appeared next to the back of the trailer and grabbed hold.
"You will not escape, Kaiser!" the alien said in a voice that thundered unearthly in all there ears. Negative energy burst from it to blast those in the back of the truck, filling them with strange pain.
"Now!" Menja ordered her sister.
Both of the twin sisters grew to their maximum height as they laid in the back and smashed four metal boots into the thing's face.
It felt like they had just kicked a concrete wall at their normal, smaller size. And it only turned the neckless head to the side slightly.
"Again!" Fenja shouted in a bit more of a panic. Their four feet slammed home again just as Hookwolf landed on its humpback, clawing and slashing away frantically.
The black dwarf roared in pain as Hookwolf went for its glowing eyes, letting go to try and grab and rend her enemy.
Squealer stuck her head out the side window. "Shit. Time to leave." There were more levers and knobs in the cockpit of her truck than a 747, but she had the under-thrusters had her flying truck lifting off the ground as if she was a practiced test pilot. The thruster nozzles under the truck, swiveled to point the thrusters towards the back as the truck started to accelerate. "Close the door if you don't like skydiving," Squealer called out over the intercom.
Rune was very glad she had 'marked' the doors as they slammed shut as the twins shrunk down to their normal side. Everyone grabbed hold of struts or the bench seats that had been crudely welded in place as the transport started to really accelerate.
By the time they hit the ship graveyard, it broke the speed of sound. Hitting its cruising speed, it wavered and disappeared like a mirage.
The monstrous form of the Black Dwarf alien growled at Hookwolf, clawed forelimbs smashing into metal hooks and needles. The pavement below them shattered as they clashed. The momentary stalemate was broken as a rocket smashed into his back, exploding with stunning force.
"Surrender, Hookwolf. You are outnumbered and severely outclassed," Armsmaster called out as his halberd charged up his heavy blaster component with a growing whine.
"Fuck you, Armsmaster," the changer snapped back, leaping to a roof to try and escape on his own.
Dauntless started shooting lightning bolts from his lance even as he flew afterward. He ignored the star-spangled form of Charged State, as he knew the lightning would, at best, just tickle her. Hookwolf roared as powerful punches and electricity sent him skidding.
Black energy appeared in front of Hookwolf as he skid along, a massive and hammering punch stopping his momentum. Hookwolf felt something being pulled and felt pain in his organic parts, deep under his blades, needles and hooks as he saw a gob of black and purple energy being pulled from him.
And saw that his scrapes into the too-hard carapace healed in front of his eyes.
"Shit," Hookwolf said as he realized that killing her would probably be as hard as someone trying to kill him would be.
That just got a dark, reverberating laugh from the monster in front of him. A massive arc of electricity from above and two punches from Charged State and Assault got his attention. He started loping off at a fast pace, only to swear under his breath as that monster teleported in front of him again. He was skidded across a warehouse roof when another beam burned a hole right through him and burned his core of organs in the center of his body by the near miss.
"Don't make me ask a second time, Hookwolf," Armsmaster as he casually jumped and slid over a large air conditioner unit. He was moving closer fast, he halberd never wavering from his direction.
"And don't make me laugh-AAAAUGH!" Hookwolf cried out as the Black Dwarf pulled most of his remaining life force from his damaged body.
He never recovered to escape, as everyone piled on to pound him down.
Triumph groaned as he limped back inside. His powers, like Miss Militia in front of him, did not allow for him to chase well across roof tops. Sometimes it sucked to have such one dimensional powers.
"Status!" Miss Militia barked out to the Wards.
"Just cleaning up over here," Gitanica called out. Her foot stamped out and sent the last three Empire Eight-Eight thugs flying to land in groaning heaps. "Man, they don't even have giant robots. Or werewolves. Just guys with normal guns." She narrowed her eyes at a thug that was going to get away, ducking out the hole in the building that the Protectorate had entered. "Αβυσσικά φλόγες του σκότους!" she shouted, sending a small burst of black magic to knock the thug down. Easier than running him down, as she was was too busy.
"That's bullshit!" Shadow Stalker complained.
"I'd complain about that too, that it's not fair you are a blaster, too, but I hurt too much," Clockblocker said from where he sat on the ground. "I think I broke my spleen."
"Clockblocker, shut the hell up. Vista's in a lot worse shape. She has a broken leg from those damn monsters trampling us." In fact, Gallant could feel the distress from her broken leg, but was just laying there. "And Kid Win is unconscious from banging his head against the ground."
"I'll- be fine," she managed to get out. "Just need a Panacea visit." Shit that hurt.
"At least he's breathing. That was a total mess," Clockblocker said even as he slowly got back up.
"Where is Skitter?" Miss Militia asked as she looked around. She then leaned sideways to see a puggy teen trying to crawl away. "You! Kid, just stay put. We aren't going to hurt you and we aren't going to let the Empire Eighty-Eight hurt you either."
"Do you promise?" he asked. "D- Kaiser hurt me. I don't even know why. Maybe its because Purity disappeared on him. I miss Purity."
"Shit," Miss Militia breathed. She had known that there were ties between the reforming villains and the Empire Eighty-Eight, but she had not really considered that it could have been familial. "We promise. If you want, we'll keep you far away from Kaiser and his goons."
"I- I think I have powers," the masked boy said as he pulled metal from the ground and had it encompass him in crude metal armor. "That's kind of cool. But my leg hurts pretty bad." He let the armor fall back down and clatter to the ground around him.
"Don't worry. Maybe we'll even be able to let you visit Purity." She didn't know which safe house they were in, as the PRT was handling that, but she could get a message.
"Oh. Cool. I like babysitting Aster," the boy said tiredly.
Miss Militia wasn't the most caring person, but even she could see the boy needed a hug.
Skitter was actually just ten blocks away, sitting casually behind a metal air vent on the roof of a warehouse. She was trying to force her powers to work better, to see and hear through her bugs.
The Undersiders were in that warehouse, all up on an inner level. She breathed in, and then out. She was trying to force that feeling of her power into her own brain. It was giving her a mild headache, but she was finally getting it.
"-thinking this is a bad deal, Tattletale," a male voice was saying. "This is escalating quickly and we now have the PRT focusing on us."
"We all agreed, every major villain player in the city, that we needed to band together to keep the Protectorate from just steamrolling us. It almost happened to the Empire Eighty-Eight today, if you hadn't noticed. We were just supposed to be back up 'just in case' and just in case happened. Only an hour and the Protectorate had found them and even rescued Futurias. By the way, if she's wearing that purple and black get up, don't piss her off. She's a psycho," Tattletale was explaining.
"How's she a hero if she's psycho?" the other boy, Regent, asked. He had already removed his carnival mask and set it on the end table.
"Multiple personality shit? Alien possession? I don't have enough information to work with," the blonde said even as she removed her own mask. "Everyone's mostly okay. Any stitches or cuts we need to visit a doctor for?"
"I'm good. Dog's didn't get hurt either. I don't like this truce," Bitch said as she pet her dogs and fed them treats from a recycled ice cream bucket.
"I have to admit, Kaiser's pushing this. He might have some points that the Protectorate is pushing hard right now, but he's poking a hornet's nest," the big, dark-skinned teen said as removed the mask he wore under his helmet.
"The boss wants us in tight with Kaiser for some reason," Tattletale said. "I agree, we should be lying low for a bit, just do some simple robberies to make sure we have enough money. But he's the boss."
Now Skitter was curious. A boss?
"Lisa, I really think you should let the boss know I have big reservations about this. I think I speak for all of us except maybe you. But I think you have reservations, too."
Who was leader?
"Understood, Brian. I'm going to monitor the PRT and Protectorate's network and cameras now, try to figure out who or how they tracked Futurias," the girl replied airily. "Someone will probably email the PRT about how someone made their job so much easier."
Monitor the PRT network and cameras? Oh, shit.
"We are still on for meeting Spitfire tonight?" Regent asked as he turned on the TV and started to flip channels.
"That's right," Lisa replied as she started to log into the network.
Now Skitter had to think hard about this, because this was a whole other can of worms, so to speak. She peeked around the corner and verified the address. She pulled out a little piece of paper and wrote it down. "Can't even just give this out. Have to think smart about this."
Miss Militia first, she decided. It would be bad if Armsmaster's armor could be checked on.