"All clear over Mass. Fed Cape Prison," Dauntless said as he flew overhead from the Massachusetts Federal Cape Penitentiary. He just wished he did not have to cover the north end of Brockton Bay and then over to the prison. He hated flying in the rain. It would be really embarrassing if he had to fly low enough to see the street signs again.
A blinding blue-white light appeared below him, shattering the outside yard wall of the prison through the rain.
"Not all clear!" he quickly said as he turned his radio back on. "Break in at Mass. Fed Cape Prison. I repeat, break in at Mass Cape Prison. Parahuman powers visible. Send backup!" He leaned forward in his winged boots even as he pulled out his lance and shield from his back.
With that, he quickly dove down and unleashed a bolt of lightning at a shiny metal clad figure down on the ground that he first spotted. It (or was that a she?) was sent flying across the ground in a spray of sparks. The rain started to come down even harder.
"Surrender!" Dauntless called out.
"That hurt, jerk!" the mostly metal figure called out. She stood back up woozily, flipping her blonde hair back out of her eyes.
"Pain is good. We've got a shining knight here. I wonder if he will be able to inflict any delicious, delicious agony?" another woman who was dressed (to use that term very loosely) in cords of silver wire. Metal spikes pushed out of her arms and the sides of her legs.
"The crazy bitch thing can take a back seat, Silver Mantis," another woman said. This aquamarine-haired woman was wearing an outfit of crystals over a skin tight leotard. Snow swirled around her as the rain was frozen prettily in the air with her power as she floated off the ground. "Wretch. Smash!"
The huge shadowed shape ran out of the darkness at Dauntless. "Wretch SMASH!" And he even smashed as he landed on the ground, towering over Dauntless. This mishappen man seemed to have been broken and then put back together... poorly. He was huge and had gigantic, grotesque muscles though. And his fists were as large as the heroes head.
Dauntless held up his shield, channeling his power to try and throw back the brute.
And flinched as he felt his forcefield bend under the strain. That wasn't good.
A blur appeared around the woman barely wearing the silver metal strands. Velocity was throwing hundreds of featherlight punches, but he was barely moving her and was definitely not hurting her.
"What's wrong with you? Hit me harder!" Silver Mantis shouted.
"So annoying," the first figure said as lashed out with a pale blue-white beam that hit the speedster and slowed him down slightly. "Eat hot irradiated plasma!" Her eyes flashed and then blasted a beam that staggered the nearly immaterial speedster.
"Undoing, speed please," Silver Mantis said with a psychotic grin.
The cyborg just grimaced at them even as she kinetically accelerated them. Just because she didn't have their raw offensive power didn't mean she was just supposed to stay in the background. A plasma bolt of blue-white energy flashed out from the palm of her inorganic hand, bouncing off Dauntless's shield. "Damn forcefielders!"
"It's nice to outnumber the heroes-" Silver Mantis was saying gleefully when a massive blast of purple-darkness appeared for just a second, fading away to reveal more heroes. "Now that's just being unfair."
"Go," Miss Militia called out even as she started to fire her gun. She had been on a hair trigger since the alert only a few minutes ago. "Assault, Battery! Take that brute down!"
"The cyborg is mine!" Armsmaster called out as he shot a power blast out of his lance at the silver and blue figure that blurred out of the way.
"Arachnos?" Nict'Futurias blurted out. "Everyone watch out! These guys are top tier archvillains from Paragon Earth!" She then teleported back about fifty feet and started to transform.
Ice Mistral frowned as she looked down at the purple and black wearing cape. "You look sort of familiar." She took in a huge breath and then blew out a huge cone of snow and frost at Armsmaster and Miss Militia that they had to scramble away to dodge.
"Isn't she one of those backup bimbos in the Freedom Phalanx?" the silver cyborg asked as she rushed forward to try and skewer Triumph, only to get knocked back from his sonic shout.
"What's she talking about?" Dauntless asked as he started to throw more bolts of energy.
"SMASH!" Wretch shouted, trying to flatten Assault and Battery. Battery was finding it hard to disengage and recharge.
"You look funny and you smell of elderberries!" Assault shouted out. "Does your mother dress you, you big dummy?"
"Quit making fun of Wretch! Wretch kills you so Arachnos bring back Ghost Widow!" the big brute screamed out angrily. He leaped up into the air and then then slammed his fists down on Assault, only for the much smaller and faster kinetic manipulator to absorb the blow while dodging and then kidney punched him ten times.
To limited effect, he noted glumly.
Battery stood still and started charging up to full power. What do you know? It appeared that the Taunting 101 class that Charged State and Gitanica have been teaching was actually working. "Where is Charged State anyways? We could use some back up here!"
"Dunno, love. But we'll just have to muddle through on our own."
Purple black energy thundered down from above as something flew over heard. All most people saw was some sort of swimming alien thing with tentacles and some sort of swimming tail. But it was unloading a lot of painful energy all across the field from its head at the villains.
"I'm not going to get taken out by a lucky shot again," Battery declared, her circuits glowing brilliantly white. She streaked forward and slammed a massive and fast punch to Wretch's face.
"Dauntless, Triumph and I need some cover!" Miss Militia shouted even as she dove forward, a k-bar knife in her hand that turned into two uzis as she completed her roll, causing Undoing to have to blur out of the way again.
Undoing was actually having to dodge a lot as Armsmaster kept trying to force her into melee. But she was just a bit too fast for that. His armor was scorched several times by her irradiated plasma beams.
"On it!" Dauntless called out as he moved into position to start shielding the two blasters.
Wretch charged forward, telegraphing another punch at Assault. The reformed villain just set himself to absorb the attack when the mishappen brute suddenly diverted his punch and then slammed his huge, booted foot into the ground. Concrete shattered in a circle, catching the duo by surprise and sending them flying. They landed painfully, out of the fight for at least the moment.
Armsmaster switched to blasting the brute, frowning as he found his lance was only scorching him.
"Quit stinging me!" Wretch shouted. He charged forward only to find his way blocked by a huge Black Dwarf. "Kheldian?"
"Oh, shut up you ignoramus! You make stupid brutes look smart!" Nict'Futuras rumbled out in the deep voice of the alien.
Triumph shouted in pain as his armor was breached. Silver Mantis had dodged his shout and had thrown a lance of metal into his chest.
"Gotcha, you damn lion. Not much of a roar now, eh?" the Asian woman gloated. She turned back to Dauntless and Miss Militia. She dodged left to avoid another lightning lance, only to blink as the patriotic themed heroine fired a rocket launcher right at her feet.
With a huge explosion, the silver imbued villainess was set flying.
"Triumph? Are you all right?" Miss Militia shouted.
"Losing- a- lot of- blood here," he got out as he slumped to the ground.
She dashed over, even as Dauntless turned to start blasting at the cold blaster as she flitted around in the air. Miss Militia was just starting to apply pressure to his wound when her back erupted in pain.
"Soldiers, we've got what we came for. Prepare to retreat," Captain Mako called out from behind Miss Militia, his clawed hands streaked in blood. "Heroesssss! Think fassssst!"
The shark-man ducked the hasty gunfire from Miss Militia's uzi's. He feinted towards her stomach, then lashed out towards her neck and head. The woman's reflexes really were top notch, as she managed to keep her jugular intact at the cost of a tremendous wound to her stomach and the side of her face that snapped her head back to hit the ground hard.
"Get away from her!" Dauntless shouted, zooming at the shark-man mutant, lightning crackling from his power lance. Captain Mako just flitted backwards in between the bolts of lightning.
Assault and Battery were back on their feet, but moving a bit more slowly and in pain.
"Ta ta, suckers!" Undoing shouted before she rocketed off in a blur that even Velocity had trouble keeping up with. Then she streaked off into the air, cherenkov radiation trailing behind her flight.
Wretch just leaped high into the air, heading away from the fight. Silver Mantis and Captain Mako sprinted up the wall and leaped up into the air as an Arachnos flyer flew under them. They landed on the upper hull as it banked back around. Ice Mistral and Undoing flew behind the assault ship as it faded into the dark, wet raincouds.
"Who the hell are these people?" Battery demanded.
Armsmaster skidded to a halt next to Miss Militia on his knees in a small spray of sparks from his armor on concrete. He pulled out a cannister of containment foam, spraying her stomach and the side of her head, then turned her over to spray her back. "Futurias! Emergency medical evac to base! I'll radio you with location to go retrieve Panacea! Move people!"
Armsmaster screeched his motorcycle to a halt at the police line as the sun rising behind the clouds lightened the day into a gloomy, gray mess. He walked through the puddles to talk to the PRT officer in charge before he planned to head home to get some sleep. He was surprised to find out that it was Director Piggot in charge.
"Where the hell were you?" she demanded when she spotted his armored figure.
"Getting an update from Panacea after containing the situation at the prison. It was pretty hit or miss if Miss Militia was going to survive and she's in a coma right now. Something that Panacea says she can't fix." She was lying, but under a lot of stress. So it was probably more 'won't' rather than can't. But 'cannot' sounds nicer to people. He almost called her out on her lie right there, but had to temporize because she had not healed the rest of the team at that point. "Skidmark is free and we got a new gang in the city," he snapped out gruffly. The Arachnos archvillains that they had been fighting had been a distraction while their operatives had infiltrated the prison to free Skidmark. Four guards had died and a good dozen prisoners were loose.
"Well, ain't that lovely. I guess I'll get them to add jailbreaking to his charges. I've got the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working to restore power after someone blew the hell out of the Brockton Bay Power and Light building. Forensics is on the way-" Piggot was saying when she was interrupted.
Armsmaster's armor started squealing as it sounded an alarm. His helmeted head turned to look in the direction of of the blasted, burnt out wreck of a building and the craters out front. "Everyone evacuate the area due to a radiological hazard. I repeat, everyone evacuate the area due to a radiological hazard!" he shouted out, grabbing Piggot by her upper arm to start pulling her away.
"What? Who the hell would use something like that on American soil?" Piggot said, walking a little faster and shrugging off the arm on her upper arm. She had her cell phone out, calling her personal assistant back at PRT HQ.
"It's low level radiation, about the level of getting a CT-Scan every fifteen minutes. If it was some sort of weapon, it was rather clean," Armsmaster explained.
She nodded. She started to talk softly on the phone to get a properly equipped cleanup crew on site.
"I'm going to thoroughly debrief the Paragons on Arachnos now that they are here. I'm not sure what breaking out a low level criminal works into their high level activities they usually use." Of course, they would also be refugees, wouldn't they?
Just better equipped ones, going by that assault flyer "Where is Charged State?"
Piggot put her hand on the bottom of her cell phone. "She showed up to help generate electricity for the city. She's been here for about an hour." She turned back to her phone conversation.
Armaster started trotting round the building to where a row of transformers was set up. Electricity was arcing to the ends of the wires.
"Why aren't you evacuating?" Armsmaster shouted out over the crackle.
"Immune to almost all energies. Antimatter hurts like a bitch though," Charged State said with a grimace of pain or exhaustion.
"Where were you last night?" It had better not be be a lame story about forgetting her phone, he thought to himself.
"I was, um, sort of indisposed and busy. I didn't hear it vibrating on the floor. In my defence, she was really hot," the Paragon said, glad that her mask hid her cheeks.
Armsmaster opened his mouth to yell at her, then snapped it close. "Don't let it happen again," he finally said. "How long can you do this?
"A few more hours, then I will need to take a break and eat," the star spangled Paragon said with a shrug of her shoulder. "It's just my aura, really."
"It's saving lives. So it's not 'just' anything," Armsmaster countered.
Skitter was not sure about this at all. She was paired with Vista as they were now on anti-looting and rioting duty (along with everyone else). She had managed get assigned to the areas of town near the boardwalk and the docks and was now just barely able to reach the Undersider's base. She was trying to be proactive, as Miss Militia was in a coma. But this had been their plan to try and follow the villains to their boss at some point.
Regent was complaining that the TV and game systems didn't work, so he was going to be forced to playing cards with Tattletale. Well, in their civilian guises. The complaints turned from the lack of electricity to how he just knew he was going to be trounced at the game.
"It looks like Top and Hop got looted," Vista noted as she pointed over to the young teen themed clothing store with its smashed in windows.
"Probably because it was next to the electronics store," Skitter replied with a shrug of her shoulder.
The electronic store was totally smashed and all the expensive new LCD TVs were gone. Only the older style tube types were left. But it was the shattered glass on the concrete that got their attention, as they were vibrating.
Skitter started to send out all of her insects, trying to find the center of the disturbance. It was moving, which made it tricker.
"Uh oh." That might be an understatement.
"What?" the younger girl asked.
"I think that's Squealer of the Merchants coming this way in a big vehicle." She had her swarms forming up and converging even as she started to slip bugs into the vehicle. "It's one block to the west."
"Let's go!" Vista seemed to stare and then she took a single step up onto the roof of the building. Another step had her step to the far side of the empty building. "I don't see it?"
"Stealthed, but still affecting the ground-" Skitter was starting to say just before the invisible APC slammed through a fence across the way and then into a warehouse. "Whoa!"
Squealer's armored vehicle appeared at that moment. But its appearance was not quite what she was expecting. It was a little smoother and meaner looking somehow.
Merchant thugs were firing pistols over the top of the truck's back or through gunslots at the figures inside the warehouse. Mercenaries were grabbing guns and shooting back while taking cover behind crates and bunks.
"Um, get low," Vista said softly. "I'm calling this in." She started talking softly into her radio.
Back at the Undersider's hangout, Tattletale's phone rang.
"Hey boss," she said. "The Merchants are gunning for you?"
The voice on the other end was too quiet to be picked up by the bugs in the area, especially without moving any in sight of the very perceptive girl.
"Doesn't sound good. Looks like they managed to figure out your mole on their team. Someone outside had to help with that as Squealers not really that smart or savvy," Tattletale replied on the phone even as she walked away from Alec. "My power is telling me they know pretty firmly that it was you. They... oh, shit. They've got someone that can figure out your power, too."
Skitter listened intently. Coil had a power? Of course, duh. But he was never seen in combat. So most likely a Thinker, Tinker, Stranger or Master.
"I think we had better talk about this face to face, see what we can do as damage control," Lisa said. "I'll be there in an hour." She listened for just a moment, then hit disconnect.
"We are not to interfere unless they involve civilians. The Protectorate is sending someone over in about five minutes-" Vista was saying, only to be cut off as Squealers APC truck fired anti-personnel stun grenades out of panels on the front and sides.
"Protectorates on the way, lover boy," Squealer called out as she started to back out.
"Tell me when," he shouted back up to her.
"And... NOW!" the scantily clad tinker shouted as she got her APC pointed down the road.
The dark-skinned leader of the Merchants pulled the trigger on handles that were part of his seat. A seat that shot down through a hatch on the floor, touching his tennis shoes on the ground for 1/10th of a second. It was already retracting as the truck APC suddenly accelerated to sixty miles per hour in just two seconds flat.
By the time they reached halfway down the block, the APC had already faded away into invisibility.
"What the hell?" Vista said, staring in the direction of the missing vehicle.
"I'll echo that. But something else came up. Vista, I'm following a lead on a criminal mastermind," Skitter called out.
"One second." She was looking intently down into the warehouse. Using her ability to warp space between her and the building, she peaked a look in. "Yeah, they are going to be seriously out of it for a bit. Where are we going?"
"This way, but we can't get too close," Skitter said, zipping off and jumping to another building.
Tattletale was driving a little scooter through traffic, keeping an eye out for anyone trailing her. She pulled off into a construction site through a small gate, using a key she had. Her little scooter ended up being parked behind a shed and she trotted down into an unfinished sewer.
Skitter was the only one following her by that time, even as she spread out her bug control senses. And that had her whistle softly to herself. "There's an entire base under that building. Where the heck does he get the money for that?"
"Huh? You know, this is really annoying, Skitter," Vista said as she tapped her toe impatiently.
"Sorry. I think there's a large main base is down there," she replied carefully. "It looks like I've found their boss." She was starting to move more bugs inside, but carefully and away from any cameras. It took her about five minutes to get enough bugs moved in the ventilation system to be able to hear any conversations in most rooms. Though there was one room where her bugs just disappeared in, some sort of vault.
"Hey, boss," Lisa said in her casual tone as she entered a fairly normal looking office. Though that tone seemed almost affected.
"Tattletale. What are the chances that the Merchants can cause any serious problems for me do you think?" the thin man in the tights with orobus snake motif stitched on it asked. "Someone freed Skidmark and Mush for them."
"I would have thought none, but it sounds like they hit one of your temporary staging buildings. We lost ten of your mercs?" she asked even as she narrowed her eyes in thoughts. "What about your mole in Faultline and the Protectorate?"
"You are fishing for information, Sarah. My mole in Faultline appears to be getting closer to being accepted. I want to know more about the people that helped the Merchants. It appears they may be extra-dimensional refugees themselves, from the same Earth as those 'Paragons' that joined the local heroes," Coil said in his clipped tone. "They hit Brockton Power and Light, then the prison where Squealer and Mush were being held."
"Hit hard, too. Miss Militia was almost killed? But they didn't 'hit' Brockton Bay Power and Light, boss. That's where they arrived. Someone... Squealer, I think... was paid to make a portal to let them come in here in numbers. So if we want to know more, we need to talk to Squealer."
"So they have a technological means of travelling worlds. That would be incredibly valuable all by itself," Coil said aloud as he thought to himself. "Anything about these Arachnos?"
"Villains, with a capital 'V' there. In fact, I get the feeling that most of the group that freed Skidmark were all what Charged State called 'Archvillains' in her interview a week ago in the paper. Powerhouse A-Rank villains. And... I think they are in touch with their boss. Pretty sure he'd be rated an S-Rank villain all by himself. He fought their version of Triumvirate all by his lonesome and usually came out even. Or at least never got himself captured."
Coil nodded. "When do you think you can start to prep your team to hit a target downtown next week? Is the new girl working out?"
"Spitfire? Well, she and Bitch want to kill each other, but Grue and I have managed to mostly head that off. I'm still not sure I can convince them to hit the bank on Tuesday at the time you want in the morning. I've been setting it up, but Grue's cautious. He's going to need some pretty good assurances that the Protectorate won't show up."
"More than just your statement?" He seemed to be looking down for a second. "Fine. Let them know that most of the Protectorate is going to be attending an Anti-Endbringer training seminar in New Mexico. I've managed to get one of my men in place to delay alerting them so even teleportation should not get them back in time."
"That might be enough. And with only some of the Wards that go the Arcadia showing up, we can probably steal enough money to make it believable," Lisa said as she nodded her head in thought.
"Very good. I want you to keep an eye out for this Arachnos. They might be a major disruption, but they might push the Protectorate back on the defensive. Dismissed," her boss ordered.
Skitter kept track of her, but she seemed like she was just leaving the way she came. Back in the office, Coil was still working. He had summoned one of his mercenary captains.
"Johnson, how is the plan for the kidnapping going?" he asked.
"We're just refining the plans, sir. The target should be on her way to school at the suggested time. The weather is forecasted as a 60 % chance of heavy showers. She'll take that known shortcut to Avalon Elementary School almost certainly. The chances of anyone really spotting us are low. Even if they do, we are in a white, unmarked van. We've got enough delivery orders from all the companies going on that use white vans so there should be enough confusion that we should just be able to disappear with her. I take it that the plan to use the parahumans is still a go?"
"Yes, I have prepped both Undersiders and the Travellers to be the distraction. I would prefer the Undersiders, as they are a local and 'known' quantity. They've been doing a good job of expanding into the old ABB territory that no one has even looked at them twice," Coil replied. "Remember, I want her alive and unharmed. She's critical to my plans for the next six months."
"Yes, sir."
Skitter turned to look at Vista. "I've got the information I think I need to tell Miss Militia when she wakes up."
"Miss Militia? Not Armsmaster or Director Piggot?" Vista asked curiously.
"Our computer systems and communications is compromised. In fact, I just heard the mastermind just tell one of his villains that they have someone in the PRT high enough up to delay the Protectorate getting recalled," she said truthfully.
"No shit? That's like really bad. So what are we going to do?" the younger girl asked.
"Let them think they are going to succeed."
"You've got a plan, don't you?" Vista suddenly had a mean smile on her face. "This is going to be good, isn't it?"