1.9

-- Tanya von Degurechaff --

I glanced around the group. Had they really not expected an attack? Lot of firepower in one place, but no amount of firepower was going to bother Siberian. I was only willing to come myself because I had the men watching for her approach. Of course, the actual attacker had proven too quick for me to respond to the warning. I'd expect a deliberate counter to my strategy if he hadn't also proven so easily dispatched.

"Hatchet Face, right?" I asked, a little doubtfully.

None of them had done anything, but maybe they're just that slow? Most of them were still stumbling away. And...

"I hadn't heard he was so quick."

I flicked my rifle with enhanced strength and speed to clear out most of the detritus, deliberately not looking at Tattletale. A bit of brain and bone in the muzzle would hardly stop a bullet, but it wasn't great for accuracy.

"Not just Hatchet Face."

Given my excuse, I looked over at Tattletale. She looked a little green, presumably bothered by the gore. No matter. I'd keep her alive until she got used to it. Can't just take her on a midnight raid across no man's land to brain a few Francois with a shovel, but I'll make do. She continued a little hastily.

"He's not a power copier. If he has Velocity's power, Velocity is in there somewhere. Bonesaw's work."

I ignored some muttered profanity from the heroes' side, but I had to acknowledge it was a disturbing development. I'd judged fighting the Nine worth the risk in part because I knew their capabilities, unknown ninth aside. If they might all have two or three or even more unknown powers, that raises the danger substantially, even given how unimpressive the average power is. I glanced back at the chimera, looking for evidence of Velocity's inclusion. A bulge by the shoulder? It was vaguely face-shaped, actually. And Velocity's power was hardly average. Oh, I'd been told super speed was pretty mediocre in Velocity's hands, but that was because he'd had literally nothing else. An incredible force multiplier so limited it couldn't even multiply the force of his own blows. Even a pocket pistol would have made him a terror for the locals. There was a reason the initial development of reflex enhancement on my previous world had sparked such a vigorous arms race until every major power had hit the same plateau. And why I'd poured so much time and effort into perfecting the spell to squeak out a mere 6% additional effect at nearly double the cost.

If he had nullified my magic... well, I'd probably still have been fine. He didn't strike me as especially meticulous. Don't have to be faster than the bear, as they say, and by the looks of things, I could have run halfway out his range by the time most of the civilians realized what was happening. Add in the men providing harassing fire from above and nine times out of ten I would have made it out no problem. Of course, taking nine times in ten fights is no way to get 300 confirmed kills. 330? 350? They'd sent in a second battalion at least to try to stem the rout, but I'm not sure how many I actually killed. Well, I doubt anyone was bothering to record the fight at that point, so they'd never have been confirmed even if I hadn't vanished off the face of the world.

Point is, 'probably' isn't good enough. I'd have to be more careful. Hell, even a non-mage can get lucky and-- I quickly glanced around. No more of the Nine. Just the same 'heroes' and 'villains' I wasn't supposed to kill. Ah, but haven't things changed? Surely, I shouldn't leave Bonesaw free materials? I don't know if she could operate on Alabaster, but why take the risk when his power could make Jack or Shatterbird infinitely more annoying? Well, I probably couldn't kill him, but I could always just drop him in the--

"You need to completely mulch the brain. Both brains. Make sure Bonesaw can't put him back together."

Right. Let's focus on the immediate issue. I pointed my rifle and began to shape an extension of my mage shell to contain the blast. She'd said I just needed to get the brains, but why root around in there when I could just destroy the whole body? A thought made me pause.

"Ah, but wouldn't that be inefficient? Director, do you have another of those glass bombs?"

"You want me to waste a limited resource on destroying a corpse?"

"No, I want you to spend it on killing Bonesaw and neutralizing her countermeasures. It's easy. Deflated lungs leave plenty of room in the thoracic cavity and I've already opened it up. Just rig the bomb with tilt and lift triggers and shove it in there. Let her think we were careless."

Director Piggot gave me a considering look, then turned to speak to her people.

Faultline broke in, "Do that a lot, do you? Isn't trapping corpses a war crime?"

I shrugged.

"It's only really worth doing occasionally. Just enough that they have to check every time. And no, the practice isn't forbidden by any international treaty. Even if it is in this world, the Nine aren't uniformed combatants entitled to protection under the laws of war."

Tattletale couldn't resist adding her own comment.

"She predates the Geneva Convention. Guess there was a reason they had to make that rule."

I sent her an annoyed glance as an armored PRT agent came up and presented me a featureless metal sphere slightly larger than a hand grenade. I raised an eyebrow.

"What, you want me to set it up? I don't even see the trigger mechanism."

"It's remote detonated," the man laconically explained. "And you're the expert."

"Fine." I reached out for the bomb, then paused. "You should know my men have orders to kill everyone here in event of treachery. I have every faith in their capacity to follow through."

The agent was first to respond, tone even as ever. Former noncom, I was sure.

"Boss isn't going to turn on you now. Wants to throw you against the Nine. Effect range is about 7 feet. Stay outside that once you're done and you'll be fine."

Muted reactions from the rest. A few glances at Gallant and Kid Win, who both presumably signaled the truth of my words. No one broke into a sudden sweat, countermanded previous orders in a poorly disguised harsh whisper, or edged away from the group, not that I really expected any tells so obvious. Guess that's why I'm paying a Thinker. I glanced at Tattletale out of the corner of my eye and she subtly gestured for me to proceed.

I gave the agent a nod, took the sphere and, tuning my mage shell to keep the gore off, shoved my hand in through the gash I'd left in his upper back, which had conveniently already broken the spine, a couple ribs, and some variety of subdermal armor, giving me free access to the interior. Really, was this so hard? I withdrew and eyed the body critically, casually shaking my hand to encourage the mess to slide off. It looked normal enough to me -- not much my hand could do to disturb the body that the mage blade hadn't already -- but I'm not a medical Tinker. Well, messing with it any further was as like to leave more clues as to hide the existing ones.

I was about to leverage my demonstration of competence to finally move the meeting in a productive direction (that is, explaining their role and responsibilities as bait) when another interruption came barreling in. Seriously, is inconvenient dramatic timing just a feature of this world? Or is Being X taking a more blatant hand in things than usual? Coil's death was suspicious enough. Granz shouted a warning via communication formula, not that I needed it. The sound of something bowling its way through a line of buildings at tremendous speed was if anything less attention grabbing than the absurd magical output, nearly completely overwhelming my sensory spell.

I adjusted the sensitivity down as I darted ten meters up, close enough to observe and possibly participate in a conversation, but far enough to evade fire from capes with unaugmented reflexes. For good measure I employed the 'camouflage' spell the men and I had cooked up over the past couple days. A customized variant on the decoy formula that simply projected an illusion of the sky above just below the mage, it was crude and inefficient, a far sight from genuine invisibility, and only functioned in one direction, but I suspected it could prove reasonably effective against careless non-fliers and complicate targeting even when it was noticed.

I was certain it could be done much better, but we'd unfortunately had to design the spell ourselves, and I only I had had any real experience with that kind of work. On my previous world, such a spell was worse than pointless; as actively maintained external magical phenomena closely connected to the mage's mind, illusions show up strongly to magic senses despite their low power throughput, and a region of apparently empty air giving off strong magical emanations would be incredibly suspicious. In fact, an illusory blur in the air was often more effective against 'experienced' mages than a normal decoy. But everyone on this world with magic senses was ostensibly on my side at the moment. It would be best to make that state of affairs more permanent after the truce ended, one way or another, but one problem at a time.

Corporal Richter followed me up a beat later, having spun his flight spell most of the way up when I'd initially told him to stay in the air, curiously inspecting my spell. I signaled he should continue up and he sped off to relative safety. The... Francois? Albish? The other mages were only just starting now from a barely perceptible baseline and might take as long as half a minute by the look of it. Always good to find your enemies incompetent, I suppose. And that was all the time I had to consider as Siberian burst through the office across the street, stopping dead against a light post that didn't even quiver at the impact. She had a little blond girl riding piggyback and an arm around the waist of a fit older man with several knives at his belt, neither of whom looked any worse for wear, given their method of travel. Bonesaw and Jack Slash.

Jack looked about to speak when Bonesaw noticed the dead chimera and practically shrieked.

"You killed him already? I haven't even come up with a name for him yet! I worked hard on that!"

She jumped off Siberian's shoulders and took her free hand, careful to maintain contact continuously. She began to 'drag' the group forward, apparently unconcerned with the futility of dragging Siberian anywhere, and I felt some hope the trap might work. Well, who knew if the effect could bypass Siberian's granted invulnerability; it was ostensibly absolute, but so was she. Everyone had already cleared out from the indicated effect range for obvious reasons and were now mainly trying to avoid drawing attention to themselves, so they should be free to detonate the bomb in just a moment. Just then, a beep interrupted the tense silence. Jack held up a hand and Bonesaw stopped. He took a phone from a pocket, read the screen, then put it back.

"Ah, someone thinks they're being clever. Someone without the manners to introduce herself."

His hand filled with blades in a moment, one between each pair of fingers, and he slashed broadly at the air. I attempted to dodge, but he was unexpectedly quick and the pattern was just a little too wide. One projected blade caught the edge of my illusion and caused it to flicker and fade.