Aryana casually walked backwards while the rest of her team followed. She stuffed her hands in her leather jacket while Vivan pulled at his sports gloves. Emily wore the same outfit she'd had on from school. It surprised her that she was asked to dress casually for a mission.
Walking across the broadwalk, Emily couldn't help but feel nervous by the people around her. Strangers scowled down at them, specifically at Vivan and Aryana, as they happily walked into the center of E88 territory.
"Here's how it works," Aryana said. "Emily and Vivan are gonna hold hands and be the interracial couple, Ed and Robert are gonna hold hands and be the gay couple. Since I don't have a partner this time, I'll just be the fifth wheel token minority."
Emily looked over to Vivan, he was visibly blushing. Emily asked, "are you sure this'll work?"
"It's worked so far." Robert answered for her. "When it's obvious the bar is owned by the E88, they all react the same way. Seeing non-white non-straight couples at their hangouts pisses them off. So they try to kick our asses, not knowing we're capes. Things look better when they attack us first because it makes them look more like the bad guys. If we just ambushed non-powered thugs all the time, we'd come off as bullies."
"Self-defense," Edwin added. "For some reason, viewers like us more when they think we're just defending ourselves."
"That, and everyone hates nazis," Aryana said.
"Because they do nazi it coming," Vivan commented.
"Jew know you can't be anymore reicht." Robert added.
"Let's not take this any fuh-rer," Edwin said, "Nazi puns are outside mein kam-fort zone."
Aryana pointed to the bar up ahead, "Stop Shtalin, guys. We have to hitler them until they're fuh-rer-ious!" Before walking any fuhrer, Aryana took the time to turn to Emily and release a soft grin at her. "Just, um, be sure to keep your powers on ice right now. That place is flammable, so let's save burning it to the ground for last."
Emily nodded, it was a light reminder of how dangerous she was, but it was refreshing that she was willing to acknowledge it. By the time they reached the bar's street corner, Emily noticed that the people scowling at their presence were all gone. Not only that, but it became eerily quiet as they reached the bar entrance.
Aryana pushed at the doors, "well that's weird." She pressed her forehead against the glass,"the doors are locked, why would a bar be closed on a Friday at six o'clock?"
"Oh shit," Emily whispered.
Turning around, the team looked in astonishment at the two giantesses looking down at them with heavy weapons at hand. The twins each single handedly blocked off street intersections while grown to the size of three story buildings.
A few blocks from their right, Hookwolf stood in a beast like boney form. His size was growing, they watched layers of metal release from his central core. Crusader and Alabaster stood at his side armed with their lethal weaponry.
"Oh yes," Vivan gestured for Hookwolf to come in his direction, "I've been waiting to fight that guy forever."
"Please," Edwin said quietly, "now is the worst time to provoke them."
From the side of the street the group had entered from, a fog was forming. It was undoubtedly the trademark mist of Fog and Night. It inched closer and closer towards the bar's direction. Victor and Othala were obscured within the mist, Rune was floating on a stone platform above them, spinning smaller stones to encircle herself.
"Sup Rune, we should go shopping!" Aryana yelled. Rune threw a boulder in Aryana's direction, to which she easily stopped in midair with her own powers. "She hates that my power trumps hers."
Edwin scowled, "what did I just finish saying?"
Kaiser revealed himself from the rooftop across from them. Krieg stood by his side while they both looked down at the Losers with looks of disdain from all around. Kaiser said, "what made you think a bunch of delinquents could get away with making fools out of the empire?" Kaiser's voice was calm. It was factual, the lack of anger made him sound like he was spewing out truths instead of threats. "Humiliate our members a few times, avoid confronting the capes, and somehow you're all heroes? That's not how it works. You don't get away with playing it safe, not with the empire."
"Four capes are hiding behind the bar," Edwin said unmoving.
Robert added, "they're expecting us to hide in there." Emily looked over and noticed Edwin's backpack blinking. She had assumed his gadgets were in there, but she didn't think the backpack itself was a tinker tool.
"Wow," Aryana said. "I just remembered that badass line I've always wanted to use."
"Please not now," Edwin pleaded.
"Vivan, will you do the honor?"
Vivan took a deep breath and yelled loud enough for everyone to hear, "We're surrounded, now we can hit them at all sides! Those poor bastards!"
The E88 members stayed silent. "Are they retarded?" Othala asked.
Victor shook his head at them, "I'm going to enjoy killing these guys way more than I should."
Kaiser let out a heavy sigh. "They can't seem to learn." He was genuinely disappointed. He knew they were reckless and stupid, but he had at least hoped to catch a glimpse fear on their faces.
Aryana turned back to her teammates and screamed "what the fuck are we gonna do?" Aryana tugged down at her cheeks, "we can't fight ten fucking capes!"
"Fourteen," Robert corrected. Aryana's eyes and mouth widened further.
A thought suddenly dawned on Emily. Of all the videos they'd uploaded, the Losers never actually fought capes. Beyond running away from Oni Lee or the Protectorate, they'd completely avoided full-blown cape battles. As far as Emily knew, they were novices when it came to real fights. She gulped.
"Alright, I'm taking charge." Robert said. "First, Spitfire, put the roof on fire. Light, gets us in there." Spitfire froze at the thought. Put the roof on fire? Before going in there? Uber remembered that he needed to reassure her. "Rush, make sure the building doesn't fall down on us."
"Don't need to tell me twice."
Could her powers do that? Spitfire suspected that the recklessness was meant to stop the more vulnerable E88 capes from wanting to enter. It was suicidal, but they couldn't fight everyone at once. Holding her breathe, she launched a single fire ball onto the roof and watched it quickly spread across the ceiling.
Light knocked down the doors with his light. "Damnit," he yelled, "I forgot to bring ID."
They all ran inside. Leet took out his backpack and immediately sat down to work on his tools. He breathed heavy as he did his best to exchange banter while he worked; masking the panic in his mind. "Light, I thought you only kept that ID to vote."
"It's true," Rush said raising her arms up. The rooftop held strong as her gravity lightened the infrastructure above them. "He ain't drinking on my watch."
"Do you guys think I'd fight better drunk?"
"No!" They all yelled.
Rush called out, "Yo Spitfire, mind using that mask to make sure the drinks behind me don't blow up?"
Spitfire pressed on her mask, to her surprise, the thermal vision watched the fire seemingly bubble around and away from their specific area. Rush had more control over her powers than she'd originally thought. "You're safe," Spitfire said.
Instantly, a boulder flung passed between Rush and Spitfire. "Not safe," Rush eeped.
"Rune incoming," Light yelled. Slashes began tearing at the side of the building. They were shaped as claws and skidded against the floorboards like invisible razor blades. "And Stormtiger. When can I start hitting them in all directions?"
"Put shields at the walls." Uber ordered. He didn't have time to explain himself, they wouldn't have enough time to survive if Rush got hit and dropped the roof on them.
Leet threw a ball of goop for Uber to catch. Spitfire, to her astonishment, watched the black tar form around Uber's body. It looked alive, merging itself into him like he were a swamp monster. Once it wrapped entirely around Uber's exterior, his arms morphed into a heavy shield and blade. "The prototype works Leet."
"Thank God," Leet sighed. "I honestly thought it was gonna kill you."
"What?"
Hookwolf broke into the side of the wall. He looked like a giant wolf eying directly at Rush.
"Shit." The five of them said together.
"I got this," Vivan said.
"No, put up those shields. I've got this." Uber ran up to Hookwolf and launched his body into the center of his speared monster man. Uber's arm scythe slashed right into Hookwolf's stomach.
Metal extruded from Hookwolf's core. Its wall of spikes pushed Leet back through several dining tables, but he spoke as though he wasn't harmed. "Light. Shields. Now."
Metal canon balls and heavy stones broke into the building's sides. Light tossed up shields in all directions, firing at the walls and letting his powers encircle Rush.
By the time there were enough shields stop the projectiles from entering, Victor crashed through the gaps between Light's barriers. In an instant, he rushed onto Light and pounded him on the sides and neck. Light collapsed quickly.
Victor rushed to Rush, and almost managed to hit her before she took the time to force push him out through the wall. "Light is down," Leet said. "Can we go with plan Wolfenstein?"
Hookwolf clawed at Uber's body armor, his metal claws seemingly cut through several layers of tar, but it grew back faster than he could pull off. "Yup. Rush, bring the roof down."
Spitfire gasped. She looked up as the ceiling collapsed above her.
XXX
The smog at the bar was subsiding. There was a fall, then an explosion. He didn't want it to end so quickly.
"They didn't escape," Cricket said to Kaiser. "All the exits were blocked."
It was failure in his mind. He wanted to capture them alive. A quick death didn't make up for all the humiliation they had put him through. "Did we record it?" Kaiser asked to Victor.
"Yes sir," Victor answered. "The cameras were all placed to see them burn, but the footage from inside the building has been destroyed."
"Then this was a failure," Kaiser said. His underlings stood around him. Krieg stood nearest him, the rest of his capes were a few steps behind them. He had planned to defeat them with overwhelming firepower. Rush was an escape expert, so he wanted to have a flawless final victory over them. But it all ended too shamelessly. "We'd be lucky if their charred remains are recognizable. The plan was to capture them, not kill them quickly."
He couldn't even catch them pleading for forgiveness. This act couldn't undo the hundreds of hours worth of humiliating footage they'd uploaded of the empire on the internet. He needed to capture them dying, to show the world what torture the enemies of the empire would be forced to go through.
"They're alive," Hookwolf said stepping onto the rooftop. Kaiser and his followers turned to him. "They vanished before my eyes right before the roof fell."
"Are you sure?" Victor asked. Kaiser didn't doubt Hookwolf's words.
"Certain of it. I had Uber in my arms before he vanished before me."
"Their tinker," Krieg said. "He probably invented a teleportation device for emergencies."
"Is that even his specialty?" Crusader asked.
"They've said he's a match to Hero." Alablaster said. "That he can invent anything from any specialty."
"I've checked out their website," Rune argued, "they only say that to scare people."
"You checked out their website?" Othala asked keenly.
"I swear it was for prep reasons."
Kaiser allowed for the rest of them to speak amongst themselves. He was glad, the Losers were most likely alive. They were beaten easily but escaped, now he gained the chance to hunt them down again.
"Spread out." Kaiser ordered. "They might be close by, teleportation typically has its limits. From this point on, we focus our resources on finding their base of operations. We won't rest until we have their corpses, cold or warm."
All the E88 members spreaded out. The stronger members dug through the rubble for clues, but they all stayed distant from one another to cover more ground. Street corners, abandoned buildings, the capes searched everywhere, knowing they'd evacuated the place before planning the ambush.
"What the hell is that?" Rune said from her bird's eye view. Floating on her rock above head, she pointed to the distance. Fenja and Menja looked over from their heightened forms. Their jaws dropped.
As the marching grew louder, the rest of the E88 capes looked over at the bodies. A grey-uniformed battalion of soldiers marched in their direction. Mixed reactions were spread across all the E88 member's faces. Krieg, Kaiser, and Hookwolf watched with stoic stares. The others looked and exchanged glances with each other by the absurdity of the view.
Kaiser kept his thoughts to himself, I am going to torture them, so badly.
Krieg wasn't so modest, "I am going to kill them, so badly."
It was a nazi battalion of soldiers, marching into the streets with full blown world war two attire with skull patches, medals and antique weaponry. Some had gas masks to give off a stereotypical violent portrayal of nazism. Others wore cloths covering their heads, with their physiques identical to Uber and Leet. The most damning thing might've have been the tan skinned soldiers decorated in swastikas, structured identically and wearing masks similar to Rush and Light. There were hundreds of them.
"They're fake," Cricket assured them. "Every one of them, they're just projections."
A loud song played around all of them. It played through all the speakers, stereos, televisions, and radios, both broken and functioning, within their twenty mile radius. "Oh fuck no," Victor said. Only half the E88 members recognized the words.
"What is it?" Rune asked.
Victor's mouth twitched, "Hitler's national anthem."
More holographic projections popped up into existence overhead. Rush floated in a lying position smiling, her teammates flew around her with matching nazi uniforms. There were several groups of them in the sky, making it impossible to know which ones were the real ones. ""Bereitet eure Waffen vor!" the Rush projections yelled together.
The other teammate projections smiled, and began counting down. "fünf... vier... drei..."
Krieg's mouth gaped open. "How the fuck did they learn German?"
"One!" They all yelled together.
Before Krieg or Kaiser could even think, the projections fired an arsenal of lasers at the E88 members. At first, the lights only touched them the same way flashlights would. But it became very quickly apparent that Light hid his own energy blasts within the barrage of lights.
He fired from the sky and he fired from the ground. The lights spun and twisted in altering directions making the source and target impossible to find. Fog and Night moved to cover their teammates, but more lights rained downed from the air and all around the. A few of the gas-masked holograms began spewing ice and fire at the capes. Using the holograms as cover, Spitfire created walls of fire at sidewalks and abandoned buildings, while cold ice covered the streets around them.
An arsenal of super-suited Uber holograms jumped up at Menja, with a real Uber pounding her into the ground. When Fenja was about to help her, a ten ton iron baton, lifted only due to Rush's powers, dropped onto Fenja's side like a cannonball.
Night wasn't transforming. Rune blindly threw stones in all directions and Stormtiger had no target to aim for. Kaiser eventually threw up spikes from all sides of the streets, trying to find where the true bodies were hiding.
Cowards, Hookwolf thought to himself. He ran through the hundreds of holograms with heavy spikes tearing through the streets. The Light holograms all taunted at him in German.
When Hookwolf almost closed in on the real Light, a heavy foam was shot onto him. It looked as though several nazi soldiers had surrounded him and fired PRT-styled foam, but in reality, it was Leet hiding among them, testing out the new tools on his tinker-backpack.
Krieg was the only one who understood their words. "They're mocking us," he said. He turned to Kaiser, "what are we doing? We're fighting blindly now and we're just wrecking down our own territory."
One by one, the holograms began covering for the real team to fire containment foam on each of the members. Night was contained after Hookwolf. Othala, Rune and Victor were captured right after.
A Rush image floated into Kaisers direction. Kaiser instinctively shot a metal spear into its stomach, but the projection was unfazed. With her devilish grin she said, "Es ist ironisch, dass ich mehr Deutsch als du weiß Kaiser."
"What did she just say?" Kaiser asked.
Krieg clenched his fists, "she said, 'it's ironic that I know more German than you.'"
All the Losers, both holograms and real, yelled at once, "Wir sind die Inglorious Bastards!" A gravity rush pushed into Kaiser's face, causing him to fly off the roof.
"I've had enough of this," Krieg said. He spoke into his hand radio, "everyone retreat. From now on, we focus on finding out where they're hiding."
In an instance, all the holograms disappeared. The music cut off. Fires were beginning to spread, and half the E88 capes were incapacitated. When the remaining members took the time to look around at the damage they had done, a final message came out through the speakers again. Their newest member said it. She sounded nervous, "I bet you did nazi see that coming." A cheer was heard from the background, and then it cut off again.