Pick Your Poison
Agitator 4.8
[Monday, November 29, 2010]
"Holy shit, they've gone too far." I hissed in simmering fury at seeing what had to be a fifth of the Boardwalk in flames. There were dead PRT troopers scattered around, as well as the local security toughs and police as well. There were also several dead civilians and Jeepers. The Teeth's bloodthirst was on full display right here. The fact they haven't been Caged or killed before now was disturbing. "How're the heroes doing again?" I asked of my pilot, considering everyone else had already scrambled while I was getting ready, I had to take the last Skiff out.
"Last our Peepers reported, Aegis and Kid Win were down. Dragon's lost her VTOL because of Butcher's damn minigun. Armsmaster is in critical condition and is being evacuated by Weld and Clockblocker. That means the white hats only have Assault, Militia, Triumph, Velocity-." A few explosions rang out below and frantic chatter came over the cockpit. "Fuck. Militia's down too. You better get down there if we're gonna keep them alive."
"Glad you have such faith in my work." I snarked good-naturedly as my adrenaline and endorphin levels spiked in anticipation of finally getting some action again. "Don't bother getting too close, just skim over a rooftop near Butcher and I'll deal with her first."
"Fuck you've got balls kid. Get ready then, we're going in hot." The man declared as he moved us in low, and I rushed to the side door facing the buildings. "Shit, Skids is down! Get out there kid!" At hearing my superior was in danger, I slammed the door open and jumped the 20 or so feet to the rooftops below. I instinctively used my sense of balance to shift in mid-air and hit the flat rooftop with a roll, kicking up gravel before I rolled to my feet and took out my slingbow which I flicked on..
"Now where are you…?" I mused to myself as I ran to the edge of the roof and looked down at the street to see a towering dark-haired woman in a busy patchwork mishmash of different armor designs from Japanese samurai to tribal headhunter, and even had blades just randomly hanging off of her. If that wasn't enough of a clue as to her identity, with her pallid skin and holding a minigun like it was a toy and cackling while Skidmark clutched the stump of his left arm, I knew I was looking at Butcher XIV. "Shit." I fished in my ammo pocket and grabbed a dispenser. Thankfully it was a green one, which meant Knockout. I pulled the PEZ dispenser triggerhead with it aimed at my activated slingbow, and it neatly deposited a green ball onto the hardlight string. "Please stay right where you are."
She was posturing if her slowly stalking towards Skids and her faint voice from the distance meant anything. Which was fine by me. I took aim, pulling the slingbow as far back as I had before. I've heard she has a Brute rating, so while this may be lethal to most people, I figure it'll be enough to at least penetrate that grey skin. I took a breath, and after I let it out, I fired. I may not have anticipated just how powerful this thing is, since some of the pellet flaked off in a trail of powder and the crack of it breaking the sound barrier was just as deafening as in the lab, but most of it survived the trip to puncture into Butcher's exposed neck in a spray of blood and green powder. She staggered, spun around at me with fury, only to suddenly eat shit.
Seeing such a feared and powerful supervillain literally drop like a marionette with its strings cut over her gun was an amazing experience. No way in hell could I do that in a fair fight, but fuck fighting fair. I jumped down, wary and looking around for the other Teeth before I ran for Skidmark and helped him up. For some reason, his arm was still bleeding, and seemed infected. "Holy shit...what did you do?" Skidmark warily asked me as he backed away from me.
"Butcher just got to test out my new bedtime medicine, Knockout." I grinned under my mask, before I jogged over to Butcher and kicked her onto her back, examination revealed that the wound I inflicted on her neck had already caked up with scabbing. Also, ew, she shat herself. Better replace this batch once I'm done here. "Does she have regeneration?"
"Uh...fuck. Maybe? I think so. It's about as good as ours at least. I mean. FUCK. How did you do that? Butcher can sense attacks coming. Sense emotions of people nearby. See fucking veins through solid objects. How the fuck did you get the drop on her?" Skidmark demanded with frustration.
"No clue. She was busy with you, for one. I'm not exactly human anymore, so maybe my emotions don't register properly or something. And that pellet was literally fired with hypersonic force equivalent to a high-power sniper rifle, I doubt whatever precog she has can catch being blindsided from behind at range unless you're Bullshit." And the Butcher was bullshit enough as it was. I also read she can teleport explosively within a line of sight. Better take care of that.
"Huh. Well shit. Good work Deal-." Skidmark began, only for him to choke as I casually used my claws to gouge out the sleeping ex-beauty's eyes. "THE FUCK?! Why're you doing that?! She dies, you get fucked over!"
"Uh, you don't need eyes to live Skidmark. Especially not if she'll just grow them back. It's to make sure she can't teleport. Actually, she doesn't need arms or legs either." I flexed my toe claws, and prepared to cut off one of her arms by pressing the blade of my sickel-like large talon to her bicep, but Skidmark grabbed me and pulled me off. "Hey! The less agency she has, the easier it'll be for the heroes to figure out how to deal with-." Skidmark punched me with his remaining arm, the power in it was lacking, but enough to painfully jar my jaw.
"We're not like them!" Skidmark shouted in my face, spittle flying from his lips as I flinched at the fury in his face and voice. "We're not some fucking shit-eating little clit-lickers like these godless bastards! I see you pull shit like that again and I will fucking END you!" Skidmark roared, and I felt suitably chastened. "Tie her up or some shit, we've gotta help the others with Animos, Vex, and Hemorragia."
"What about Reaver?" I asked as I rolled Butcher back over and used some thick reinforced zip-ties on her wrists and ankles, and then used another to hogtie her limbs behind her back, leaving her curled up. I hope my Knockout lasts long enough for the heroes to haul her off, I didn't like the idea of bringing this psycho back to Haven. Spree was bad enough.
"Dumb fuck got offed by a fresh trigger or something earlier. Doesn't matter, one less asshole to bring down. By now at least the normal goons are all either dead or caught." Skidmark informed me as he awkwardly reached his right arm up to his left ear. "Skidmark here. I'm down an arm, but Dealer put Butcher to sleep. Relay our current location to the heroes so they can come pick the psycho bitch up."
"Speaking of which, you're dealing with losing an arm really well." I commented as we started jogging down the way towards the sounds of ongoing fighting. The anticipation for which had me decide to turn my slingbow off and swap it for my revolver. "Also, where are the others? Why were you facing Butcher alone?"
"It'll grow back. Even if not, Leet could just make me a new one. Besides, Squeal's got a bit of a domination fetish, so it'll make things even more interesting in bed for a bit." TMI Adam. TMI. "As for where they are, Squeal's helping box in the rest of the Teeth's unpowered goons with Trainwreck and Mush since Animos would fuck them over too hard. So we're letting your minions face them directly."
"Did not need to know that." I replied in regards to the first part of his answer. "But you still haven't told me why you were facing the fucking Butcher alone."
"Let's just say that cunt and I have history. I knew she'd come after me, so I pulled her away from the others." As I was processing how selfless Skidmark's action was, just before we rounded a corner that led just off the Boardwalk, we had to dodge back the way we came as a red convertible flew upside-down through the air where we'd just been, smashing off the corner of the old colonial-style facade of the building we'd been rounding.
"I swear, if that's Bebop or Rocksteady, I'm going to have them cleaning the toilets for a week." Skidmark just grunted in irritation as we warily poked our heads around the now recessed corner of the building to see the vicious melee that was Bebop and Rock duking it out with Animos, who was strong enough in his massive hulking gorilla-like reptilian form to handily take what they dealt, and then hammer right back. Rock's horn was broken, as was one of Bebop's tusks. They were visibly covered in lacerations, missing patches of fur and hide respectively, and were also exhausted. They had help from Assault, but even he could barely take any pressure off my lieutenants, as each hit he took tossed him several feet, even if they did little to him. But every time Animos emitted a horrific screech, he was disabled for several seconds.
"I've got Vex over there." Skidmark declared, and I followed his line of sight to see that several Jeepers were struggling with surviving Vex and Hemorragia's vicious assault, and it seemed only Tie-Dye was keeping his boys from getting sliced to ribbons like a few of the poor guys painting the road red and giving Hemorragia more ammo.
"I've got Animos then. My boys need a break." I opened my revolver, and loaded more Knockout pellets. Hopefully whatever biology Animos' changer state had was close enough to mammalian for him to be susceptible to it. With our targets chosen, we both broke into a sprint towards the enemy.
Animos did another screeching howl as I approached, which just annoyed me rather than debilitate me, even if it made my ears ring and my head hurt. Too bad for him headaches are something I'm used to. I continued sprinting at him, and without any warning beyond him seeing me coming, I jumped several feet in the air and went for a flying double-kick like I'd done against Hookwolf. Only this time, I was maybe a hundred pounds of saurian flesh heavier, and with leading sickle-claws, I gouged deep into the massive arm he raised in defense.
Using my momentum and my new foothold, I continued forward by curling my body up and forward, and shot him in the face nearly point-blank with my revolver. This caused a small explosion of green powder that the vicious changer inhaled from a pained gasp, and I jumped back off with a roll to my feet as he promptly collapsed forwards, shrinking down to his now practically naked caucasian self. Also he shat himself. I might just keep this Sick contaminated formula for the shiggles. "Sleep well." I felt so good right now. Two for five already. Well, three with Reaver dead, that leaves two.
"Holy shit kid. You're ruthless." Assault commented, but his approving tone of voice said he appreciated my tactics. "Ew, could've done without the brown though. Go on, I'll get this guy bagged." Assault gestured towards the rest of the fight, which seemed to be a frantic running battle with Hemorragia and Vex attempting to retreat. Unfortunately for them, Skidmark was on them, and they wouldn't be going anywhere with that line of transparent blue/violet force fields covering anywhere but towards us. "Fuck. You guys are the real heroes at this rate."
"You sound like that's a bad thing." Bebop snorted before he staggered and Rocksteady held him up. Honestly, they were holding each other up by now. My lieutenants definitely weren't up for another round right now.
"It is. For the most part, we've failed. We're not the heroes now. The city sees us as the villains, holding you guys back." Assault morosely shook his head as he cuffed Animos. "Armsy and Militia don't want to see it, but I do. Even Mouse does. Things have changed." Assault sadly stated, before he looked over to the side of the road, and I followed his sight to see Militia, down a leg and feebly trying to console Mouse Protector as the rodent-themed heroine desperately applied pressure to the wound trying to keep her friend from bleeding out. "Prove me right."
I immediately ran towards them, not caring for Assault's rhetoric, fishing in my coat for the small medkit I had packed. Mouse tensed as I approached, but I ignored it as I knelt down and opened the small stainless steel case in my hands to pull out a syringe of Stim. "This is Stim. It'll give you a permanent regeneration that improves over time." I informed them before I promptly ignored propriety and injected it into Militia's weak body via the side of her intact thigh.
"The fuck are you-?!" I interrupted Mouse by throwing bandages at her, and using a spray antibiotic on Militia's cleanly severed thigh. I could afford to be reckless now that she has Stim in her. The military-themed heroine seemed shocked, but was already less pale than before as her breathing strengthened.
"It's not necessary now that she has regeneration, but it'll take a while to fully kick in. Bandage her up and get her to safety." I ordered of Mouse Protector, and paused, before taking out a blank hanky. "Sign this please." I requested, before I got up and put my medkit away in my coat, preparing my revolver by loading another Knockout pellet. "We'll finish the Teeth here. Be ready to lock them up and throw away the key."
I walked away, and my quills flared at hearing Mouse mutter 'God he's hot' so I couldn't help the sinuous undulation of my tail at being complimented by my favorite hero. However, now wasn't the time to be fanning my ego. I cracked my neck as I approached the desperate duo of Vex and Hemo, who were completely unable to bypass a very pissed-off Skidmark's skill at using his power to deny movement. By now, he had them both trapped in triangular barrier cages with them screaming incoherently in impotent fury. "I see you're improving." I commented to my nominal superior, who snorted and spat a loogie at Hemo, said saliva-based projectile striking her in the face with enough force for her to yelp in pain and hold her face.
"Still not enough. If I wasn't limited to line-of-sight I wouldn't take so damn long." Skidmark looked contemplative as he dispassionately considered his prisoners, who were both starting to resign themselves. Because even though Hemo and Vex both had powers that worked at range, they couldn't do more than annoy us right now. "So...we did it. We finally fucking put down the Teeth." Skidmark seemed incredibly relieved if his content sigh meant anything. "The original reason we formed Deal. Was to put down the Teeth, and provide a service to this city."
"Kinda ended up doing that in reverse." I snarked, and Skidmark cackled happily as Assault, the only able-bodied Protectorate hero available, approached with a sardonic smirk on his visible lower face.
"Well now. I can't speak for the rest of my group, but I'm glad you guys are on our side. At least, in the broad term." Assault then looked at me with a powerful sneer. "However, I owe you a powerful deck to the snoz for hurting our Wards so many times. Don't take this personally." I had absolutely no time to brace for the incredible haymaker the Breaker hit me with, or the disorienting flight down the street, through a few wreckages of cars, and through the already shattered facade of Parian's former shop.
"...Ow…." I whimpered, feebly twitching as I felt numerous bones had broken, even more had fractured. I think a rib was puncturing a lung if the wet feeling in my chest meant anything. "*cough*" Yep. Blood in my mouth now. Ugh...where was he hiding that? Why didn't he ever hit Lung with something so bullshit like that? I'll probably need a new mask again.
"Wow! I knew Ass didn't like you for some reason, but dayum he got you good." Mouse Protector commented as she casually traversed the ruins of Parian's Dollhouse towards me. "You gonna be okay?"
"*hack* Y-yeah…." Thank Scion or whoever that my Stim was so strong by this point I'd be up in several minutes rather than hours from all this. "So. Where. Are. The. Others?" I haltingly chopped out, trying not to breathe too deeply so my punctured lung would heal quicker.
"Well, Halbeard lost an arm and a leg, he was taken by Weld and Clock to Pan. Aegis is...well, hopefully still alive, but he was little more than a chest with a head last I saw. Kid might have a concussion, or be in a coma. Vista was on console today, thank god. Flechette is across the city with Velocity, responding to another incident that sprang up almost at the same time. Dauntless and Triumph are with them too. We figured you guys would show up here, so we could stand to split our forces." Mouse informed me as if she didn't care about hiding anything, and she squatted near my head as she looked at my masked face closely. "Glad you showed up."
"You're the. Second hero. To say. That today." I rasped out, feeling well enough to at least move my head, and I had little doubt she had picked her pose and position just so I'd have a scenic view of her inner thighs and bikini area. Armored or not, that pose was far too intentional. "I'm fifteen."
"You're still hot." Mouse smirked devilishly at me with her freshly lipsticked grey lips before she held up the plain white hanky I asked her to sign, revealing she'd signed it, kissed it a few times with her smoky grey lipstick, and even wrote down a phone number. "I'm not as uptight as my friends. Call me~." Mouse lilted before dropping the autographed square of cloth on my masked snout, which I swear I was gonna frame ASAP, and left me be in my bed of rubble.
"Boss!" I heard Rocksteady call. Listening closer now that they had my attention, I could hear him and a huffing Bebop staggering into the destroyed tailor shop. "Boss, you okay?!"
"I will be. Still got a. Few broken bones." Ah, shit. Where's my pistol. "Did you see. A huge gun?"
"Uh, no? We'll go look for it, but you flew like a couple of blocks. That thing could be anywhere." Rock offered, and I groaned. I only JUST got that thing, and now I've likely lost it already?
"Whatever. I'll just buy another one off of Leet." Oh. Hey. Lungs are done. "Ugh, we're really fucked up aren't we? Damage report?" Was that something a leader asks after a battle? I think it is.
"Over a dozen of the crew have died. Mostly the adrenaline junky idiots in the Jeepers that were too stupid to listen or use tactics. Squealer's lost her monster truck since some of the Teeth somehow had explosives. But we got off lightly. A bunch of PRT troopers are dead, cops who were providing support too, pretty much all the rent-a-cop toughs that ran the Boardwalk are either dead or gone, a few civilians too. The Teeth must've decided to make this their biggest killing spree yet." Rocksteady snarled in disgust, and I sighed in lament that I hadn't been prepared earlier to put Butcher and Animos down. Then again, in both cases, I had the element of surprise, and they were preoccupied.
I grunted as I got up, and weakly checked my range of movement. "Fuck. Well, at least none of our capes died, and at least none of the heroes died."
"I wish you were right." I looked from my lieutenants who were now healed enough to stand without supporting each other, to the one-legged Miss Militia who was being supported by Mouse Protector. "I just got the report in, and since your group is intact compared to ours, I figured I would give you fair warning."
"Who died?" Bebop asked, and got whacked over the head by Rock for his insensitivity.
"Velocity. Robin. He died in the initial clash with another group of criminals that have decided to rear their ugly heads." Mouse Protector stated with disgust in her voice.
"Who killed him? What group of jackasses have decided to keep the misery going in our city?" I demanded, looking Militia in the eye, and even removing my mask so she knew I was doing so. "We got rid of the ABB, the Empire's almost gone, and we were going to move on to cleaning streets and buildings or something. Who's delaying us fixing this city?"
"It's two groups actually. The one that killed Robin was one I hoped would never even look in Brockton Bay's direction, let alone come here." Militia stared back into my eyes unflinchingly. "MS13 and the Bloods have come." I felt my breath hitch.
The local gangs were one thing, but they were Local. The Teeth were a beast all their own, but they were just a band of murder hobos. The Mara Salvatruchas and the Bloods are both international crime organizations, both with an agenda of escalating violence and brutality, stretching across the USA, down into Mexico as far as Brazil in some cases, and even up into Canada. Our megere numbers were nothing in the face of two well-established ultra-violent gangs with vast support networks. We're not ready for this, we didn't see this coming.
"Fuck."