Taylor was, well, pretty nervous. That was just to be expected from her first patrol as a cape, but she really needed to do something after Emma-
Repressing the memories of the day she'd had, she took a left at the intersection, making her way through the docks, the urban decay giving the old factories, warehouses and occasional garages surrounding her their own typical brand.
Taylor had finally completed her costume, the dye finishing drying earlier this afternoon after she'd added the belt and the straps for the mask before heading out for the evening. The costume wasn't complete yet, lacking the full extent of the armor paneling she had planned out, but it still covered the essential parts, her face, chest, spine, stomach and major joints. Her mask design was... well, not perfect, but it did share some similarities with the concept she based it off of, so she would just take what she had, the yellow lenses giving the impression of an actual bug's eyes.
Taylor had crossed from the nicer parts of town into where the gangsters and crackwhores lived, the distance between the two shorter than one may think.
The Boardwalk was where the tourists came. Running north-to-south along the beach, there were shops that sold dresses for over a thousand dollars, cafes with ludicrously expensive coffees and stretches of wooden walkways and beaches where tourists could get a great view of the ocean. From pretty much any point on the Docks, you could see one of Brockton Bay's landmarks, the Protectorate Headquarters. Besides being a marvel of architectural design with its arches and towers, the PHQ was a floating base of operations that a squadron of local superheroes called home, outfitted with a forcefield bubble and a missile defense system. There had never been occasion for either to be used, but she had to admit, it made you feel safer.
If you headed west from the Boardwalk, away from the water, you found yourself in the area the locals just called the 'Docks'. When the import/export business in Brockton Bay had dried up, there had been a whole lot of people who were suddenly out of work. The richest and most resourceful people in town had managed to make more money, turning the city's resources towards tech and banking, but all of the people who had been employed on the ships and in the warehouses had few options left to them. They faced leaving Brockton Bay, sticking around while scraping up what little work they could or turning to more illicit activity.
This all contributed to the boom in the local supervillain population. The potential for big money coupled with the number of eager-to-please mooks and henchmen made it the city to be for the villains in the late 90s. It took a few years for the hero presence to establish and organize themselves, but they did, and there was something of an equilibrium now. As far as cape population went, Brockton Bay wasn't in the top 5 cities in the U.S., but it was probably in the top ten.
She had been patrolling for two hours already, not having found any particular crime to stop. No shakedowns, no drug deals, nothing so much as a single homeless being beaten. She'd been concentrating on trying to use her power to orient herself, as though she couldn't actually see or hear or anything through her bugs, she could feel, so she'd been using a few cockroaches to scuttle across alleyways to try and 'find' any people in them, but once she landed flies on any she'd found, all of them were just... lurking about, all the while gathering her swarm in preparation of something happening.
Really, just how hard could it be to find a damned crime in Brockton Bay's docks?
Taylor stopped cold. She'd just found... a lot of people. Drawing herself against the corner of a building, Taylor watched, the complete lack of light what confirmed something was going on to her. A flicker of light, the orange of a lighter, drew her attention, letting her see the red and green the people gathering were wearing, even as more of them came out of a two-story building nearby.
She knew who they were. They were members from the local gang that left the tags 'Azn Bad Boys', ABB for short, all over the East end of the city. More than a few went to her school. As far as the criminal element in Brockton Bay went, they weren't small potatoes. While the typical gang members were just Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese forcibly recruited from Brockton Bay's high schools and lower class neighborhoods, the gang was led by a couple of people with powers. Gangs didn't tend to be that racially inclusive as far as who joined, so it said something that their leader had the ability to draw in members from so many different nationalities and keep them in line.
They didn't have the air of people just hanging out for fun, and as the next person came out of the building, she knew why. Their leader, Lung, came walking out the door, his mask and many, many dragon tattoos unmistakeable even in the sparse light of the occasional lighter flame.
As to his powers, she only knew what she could scrounge up online, which could be completely false information for all she knew, but from all she could find, he had the power to... transform, gradually, and the longer a fight went, the more potent his powers became. He healed at a superhuman rate, got stronger, got tougher, got bigger, and he grew armor plating complete with blades at each fingertip. Rumor had it that he even grew wings if he fought long enough. If that wasn't enough, he was a pyrokinetic, which meant he could create flame out of thin air, shape it, intensify it, and so on. That power apparently got stronger as he transformed, too. As far as she knew, there wasn't an upper limit to how strong he could get. He only started returning to normal when there was nobody left to fight.
Lung wasn't the only cape in the ABB, but his flunkie, Oni Lee, was supposed to have a rather distinctive look, one Taylor didn't spot anywhere, so she felt safe in assuming he wasn't around.
Changing position by taking a side alley, Taylor got closer to the group of people, sneaking in their direction in the hopes of listening in on whatever was being said; why else would Lung gather his people like this?
"... the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?"
A murmur of assent flowed through the gathered gangmembers, the next shine of light as a lighter was ignited let her see the glow of dark metal carried among the nearest criminals.
They were going to kill kids?
Taylor felt a chill down her spine, wishing for the first time she'd brought a disposable cellphone with her, despite her distaste for the idea. She didn't have a utility belt, but she could've brought one on her costume's back segment, where she was carrying a set of epipens, a notepad and pen, a small canister of pepper spray meant to hang off a keychain and some chalk dust in a zippered bag.
She kept on watching in disbelief a few moments longer, but when Lung began grabbing one of his minion's hand, twisting it so he could see the wristwatch he had on him, she came to the decision that no matter how long she would think on it, there was only one choice she would not regret.
There was only one command she had to give the swarm she had accumulated.
Attack.
It was dark enough she couldn't really see her swarm with her eyes, only her power allowing her to keep track of what was happening. As the swarm poured over the now panicking thugs, she could almost see where they were by the outlines of where there were no bugs, even as she kept the venomous insects at bay for now. The last thing she needed was for any of these men to be allergic and go into anaphylactic shock from a bee sting or suffer serious complications from a brown recluse bite.
That said, before she could do more than have the more harmless bugs bite and sting them, Lung began blasting twin fire streams into the sky before directing them around himself, her bugs either dying or confused by the heat and light they often used for navigation.
In response, she began clustering her swarm around his mooks, the fire growing brighter and hotter even from where she was watching, suppressing her adrenaline-fueled hysterical laughter. Was this really all she could do? Force him to torch his own men?
As it happened, no, it wasn't. The heat and smells in the air told her enough about where Lung was in the crowd, so she directed the more venomous reserves she had been keeping around for him.
Her bugs told her he was almost three-quarters armored already, triangular sections of metallic plating breaking out of his skin, so she would have to target the softer areas to get anywhere, of course.
Taylor felt almost sadistic glee as she directed them to attack his face, though she twisted her face in distaste as she had them assault his... intimates. She really didn't want the same kind of topographical map she had just gotten from the other gangmembers.
Rationale aside, she did feel a stab of guilt about taking pleasure in someone else's pain. She quieted that moment's remorse by reminding herself that Lung had spread tragedy, addiction and death to innumerable families. He had been planning to kill kids.
Next thing she knew, Lung exploded. Literally, rather than metaphorically, she'd just had a wasp sting his eye and he answered with a rolling wave of flame, killing or crippling every bug within reach and actually setting one of his people on fire, only for her to tentatively send in another wave of fodder bugs to meet the same fate as the ones caught in the first explosion.
At least the thugs were running away now, leaving her with only one problem... one that was growing larger.
She may need to get somewhere safer that some dirty back alley right next to an angry Lung. A quick look around revealed a fire escape leading up a nearby building, so Taylor began climbing. Lung stilled for a moment, though she couldn't let that stop her as she climbed the side of the building- and there was someone up there.
Jerking back as she realized that was Cain of all things up on the roof, looking at her with that black, featureless face of his, Taylor instinctively took a step back, hitting metal with her foot and mentally cursing at herself as Lung immediately began coming towards them.
How did he know?
As soon as he came up, though, Cain turned towards him, the two capes locking eyes for a moment in their respectively unequal, but equally inhuman faces, one made of solid darkness, the other a reptilian nightmare, only for the latter to nearly slide off the facade he was climbing, a group pf people she hadn't noticed until then gesturing towards him even as Cain took out two water bottles, almost casually opening them with his thumbs and letting a dark fluid spill out in great, definitely not natural arcs and onto Lung's face.
The villain was visibly slowing down all of a sudden. Then, he exploded. Again. As the heat washed over her, Taylor gaped behind her mask as Cain, without a care about the sheer heat emanating from Lung nor the flames he had been exuding just moments earlier, jumped right at the other villain.
"Hold still, relax, don't fight!" Latching onto Lung's shoulder, Cain almost hugged the larger man, his hands, illuminated by the low flames flickering around Lung, turned into wicked-looking claws even as he drove his undiscernable face into his shoulder.
A surge of what Taylor would guess to be electricity flowed through those same claws, shocking Lung and keeping him in place, even as he kept on growing larger and larger.
Taylor never stopped to direct more venomous bugs towards any vulnerable areas left, mostly Lung's face, groin, the side of his neck opposite of Cain, under his arms and the backs of his knees, ferrying them towards their target areas with fliers in the area.
None of that kept Lung from blasting another, larger, wave of heat from his body with a bone-shaking roar, killing and removing most of her swarm from his vicinity, though Cain didn't even seem to notice, simply keeping on sending surges of electricity through Lung as he kept doing whatever he was doing.
A few moments passed like this, Cain stuck on Lung's back making his muscles lock up while Lung ineffectively kept trying to shake him off with explosions, but all of a sudden Lung's eyes just burst out of their sockets all over the roof Taylor was standing on with a disgusting sound, Taylor retreating even further than she had already in her efforts to avoid the flames now blasting in all directions regularly.
A roar of "H'l g'l uoh!" rank out, Lung's misshapen jaw incapable of properly pronouncing language as the villain pushed himself from the building, tall enough not to need to climb up it to remain at eye-level with the roof, and, in a motion of suicidal bravery Taylor didn't know she had, she tucked her pepper spray free of her back compartment and broke out of her terror-induced paralysis at the prospect of getting out of any situation that involved Lung staring at her, throwing the small container right into the dragon-like villain's overheated maw.
It exploded, but this time not in a way that was part of Lung's power.
Wildly shaking his head, Lung shot her a baleful glare, but wasn't brought from his original goal, almost jumping backwards and falling over, onto his back, right onto Cain.
"Uhck... uoh..." With that last mutter, Lung rubbed his back against the ground and gave off another explosion.
Then he stilled.
Trying to avoid the eye-goop covering half the roof, Taylor went up to its edge, trying to see what was going on. Lung just lay there, and there was no sign of movement from Cain, so was he-
Nevermind, the corpse began moving, but not in a way as though it was coming back to life. Simply walking out from under the small hill of reptilian muscle, Cain let it drop behind himself with a resounding bam, a few fires in the area lighting the scene as he wiped his (still invisible) face.
And stood there. Entirely naked.
Taylor not home. Busy staring.
"Hello there."
That was... very large. How did he fit it into those pants without a bulge showing? And those abs...
When Taylor didn't manage to muster her voice, the whole situation crashing down on her- Oh god, they had just done that, she nearly died just now, they fought Lung, they killed him-
Oh god, they just killed someone. She just killed someone. Fighting against the urge to just go find a corner to curl up in and retch, she was almost glad when Cain interrupted her oncoming panic attack.
"Are you alright? Do you require medical assistance?"
What caught her off guard was the underlying tone of genuine kindness hiding under the words kept short and professional. Maybe that was why she stumbled over her words when she realized she really needed to answer.
"Oh, um, I'm okay, he didn't hit me anywhere." Now that she thought about it, though... Yes, the tips of her hair were burned in places, a grimace forming under her mask at the realization. She'd need to cut that later.
"I'm glad." Stretching a little, Cain's bare muscles rippled all over his lithe form, distracting Taylor again. "I like the costume, by the way. Always nice to meet a fan."
Blushing a little at the fact that not only was she standing there and ogling a naked Cain, but also clothed in a costume vaguely based on one of his drawings and getting recognized over it, Taylor did her best to change topics, still standing on the roof as she was.
"We just killed Lung." It wasn't a question.
"We did, and I have to say, I've seen worse job applications."
Taylor just stared at Cain, trying to parse what he just said and coming up blank how murdering Lung connected with a job application.
"Think about it," the hunky gang leader explained, gesturing and pacing as he did, his... 'assets'... flexing and bouncing, "the two of us just killed one of the more infamous capes in the city, and even the east coast as a whole. That's not much of an issue for me, seeing how I have a support structure and am almost completely impossible to attack on account of my whole thing, while you are, unless I am mistaken, an entirely new cape. People will want to investigate, and the ABB gangers got away so it's almost impossible to stop rumours of the swarm of insects attacking them by now.
Naturally, you just helped me take out one of my biggest competitors, so I wouldn't just leave you out to dry. So I'm offering you a job, as a member of the Lord Street Crypts. Flexible hours and health insurance, you won't find a better offer anytime soon."
... So. Apparently Cain really was an unrepentant murderer. Then again, aside from that he was also genuine in his demeanour when online, and even offered to take her in to protect her from-
Oh god, she had just helped murder someone. And people would be coming for her. Fighting down the urge to hyperventilate, Taylor concentrated on the here and now, on the still naked supervillain standing down on the street.
The villain that a fly landed on almost without her conscious thought, his unnaturally smooth skin feeling-
"Thank you for the offer, but I'm not sure I-" As she spoke, she began 'feeling' something towards the outer edge of her power's range, a fast-moving object making its way through the empty streets surrounding them. Cain, too, cocked his head to the side, glancing towards where it was coming from, a distant sound now becoming audible.
"Looks like we're about to have some company incoming soon. Leave the talking to me, I've got this."
With that, Cain casually leaned against the still cooling corpse of Lung, though his skin didn't begin to bubble from the heat this time around. "By the way, you may want to hide unless you want the PRT to stick you with a 'villain' label already."
For some reason, Taylor wondered why he sounded like her being declared a villain was an inevitability. Then again, the clearly visible giant corpse lying on the street was somewhat of a large hint towards the fact she just helped murder someone.
"Why were you even here?"
"I was tracking down Lung, actually, and was planning to interfere if he tried to do anything ridiculous like murdering orphans or kicking puppies, but then things happened and, well, you saw the results."
... Great. So she didn't even manage to do anything Cain wouldn't have done himself, anyways.
Disregarding her self-loathing, Taylor retreated further towards the back of the roof, hopefully keeping hidden from street level even as she stretched her head upwards just a little, getting a glance as the now unmistakeable noise of a motorcycle approach, a figure in blue power armor riding an equally blue bike skidding to a halt, drawing his halberd and pointing it at the scene on the street before she crouched again.
That was Armsmaster, the leader of the local Protectorate and one of the most reknown tinkers in the entire world.
"Cain," she heard him growl.
Eyeing the glimmering edge of Armsmaster's weapon, you can hear a low humm in the air as he slowly approaches. Sherrel is about a minute out from this location, so you can't exactly get out of here with the corpse in tow yet anyways.
"Armsmaster, such a pleasure to see you! I will admit, I didn't expect someone of your status to come by tonight, but it's a pleasant surprise all the same."
"You are under arrest. Come quietly and no harm will come onto you."
"What, no smart wordplay before the fight?"
"There is a warrant out for your arrest and I have proof of your crimes right before me. Lung's death is... regrettable, but you will be prosecuted for it in the same way you would be for any other murder."
"Prosecuted? I was under the impression the PRT usually brushed murders under the rug, as Shadow Stalker amply demonstrates."
"Shadow Stalker is under investigation due to certain rumours, but her case is irrelevant to yours. One last warning."
With a sigh, you shake your head. "You see, I really wouldn't recommend that. You are entirely unprepared to actually fight me."
Without another word, Armsmaster twists his weapon, shooting something at you out of its tip!
Taking a half-step to the side, one of your hands raised lightning-quick and catching what you realize is a dart of some kind in your clawed grasp.
Slowly returning to your previous stance, you tilt your head a fraction to the side, Armsmaster's projectile now in your possession. He, on the other hand, twitches his mouth, the upper half of his face hidden as it is (you'd always found it weird a tinker would expose half his face, even if he is growing that goatee for PR purposes), letting off a soft, nigh-inaudible sigh before he opens his mouth.
"Why is your penis larger than in your self-depiction?"
... Well then.
"I am glad you asked, actually. I deliberately drew the penis smaller in that instance, as a way to camouflage myself in case I am naked in public. Happens more often than you'd think. Anyways, Freeze!"
Casting your spell, it is almost poetic to see the way Armsmaster looks at it, the low whirr you've been hearing from it all this time getting louder and louder as he hastily throws it away from himself before it explodes, ripping the air around it apart and throwing him off his feet.
"Alright, Armsmaster, the way I see it, you have two choices here. You can either get up, mount that bike of yours and drive off or I do the same thing I did to your halberd to your fancy bike and you have to walk on foot. Now... Which will it be?"
Armsmaster, bless his soul, clenches his teeth for a moment, looking up at you from where the explosion threw him, but after a long moment, he wordlessly gets up and turns around.
"This will not be the last time we see each other."
"I wouldn't think of insinuating otherwise. Just keep in mind that no matter how often you come at me, the result won't change."
Letting the obviously frustrated tinker leave in peace, you turn back to view the newbie's blood signature, which is indeed still up on the roof, seemingly cowering up there.
However before you go ahead and call out to her, you hesitate. Tinkers are known for being disgustingly tricky and versatile when prepared, and Armsmaster, as a veteran cape and leader of the Protectorate ENE is almost guaranteed to be prepared.
So you first take a moment to walk over to where he landed on his ass just moments ago, scanning the ground and-
Yeah, there it is, a dull, metallic object hidden underneath some debris, asphalt that came loose under one of Lung's clawed feet. Picking it up with your clawed hands, you proceed to pull a claw through the flat, relatively light piece of tinkertech, casting another Freeze! on it for good measure.
"You can come out now, it's safe."
On the way back to the Protectorate HQ, calling in any available reinforcements and reporting what he saw, the obvious corpse of Lung, the presence of Cain and an uncomfirmed parahuman from his infrared vision, even if it didn't seem to work on the main villain himself, over to the fact Cain's powers seemed to counter tinkertech in a major way, Colin Wallis, also known as Armsmaster, cursed.
He found and destroyed the recording device he'd been developing as a way to keep his civilian persona useful in an emergency. A shame he wouldn't have more than a few seconds of footage.
Hiding up on the roof, hoping nobody would see her, Taylor felt her heart threaten to jump out of her chest as she hyperventilated for real this time, listening in on the hero that was her childhood idol and possibly the person that would arrest her for murder confront the villain that was offering to shelter her from the consequences of her own actions.
She had no idea how to feel about this.
"Armsmaster, such a pleasure to see you! I will admit, I didn't expect someone of your status to come by tonight, but it's a pleasant surprise all the same."
"You are under arrest. Come quietly and no harm will come onto you."
As she thought, Armsmaster would try to arrest him. What should she do if they fought? What could she do if they fought? Cain had just shrugged off enough punishment and explosions to kill someone several times over, and Armsmaster was... Armsmaster.
"What, no smart wordplay before the fight?"
"There is a warrant out for your arrest and I have proof of your crimes right before me. Lung's death is... regrettable, but you will be prosecuted for it in the same way you would be for any other murder."
Oh god, they would be arrested for murder, after all. It'd been self-defence, but nobody would ever believe them.
"Prosecuted? I was under the impression the PRT usually brushed murders under the rug, as Shadow Stalker amply demonstrates."
What?
"Shadow Stalker is under investigation due to certain rumours, but her case is irrelevant to yours. One last warning."
Taylor had heard rumours about Shadow Stalker being more violent than the Wards were allowed to be, but this made it sound like both Cain and Armsmaster knew more than they were saying.
Could it be Shadow Stalker, a Ward, really murdered someone? She was supposed to be a hero!
Gabriel sighed. "You see, I really wouldn't recommend that. You are entirely unprepared to actually fight me."
Taylor heard a low clang, something was happening, but all she could tell with her bugs was that Cain had moved a little to the side, just to move right back again the next moment.
"Why is your penis larger than in your self-depiction?"
Taylor had no idea how to take that.
"I am glad you asked, actually. I deliberately drew the penis smaller in that instance, as a way to camouflage myself in case I am naked in public. Happens more often than you'd think. Anyways, Freeze!"
She was entirely caught up in trying to parse through what had been said, she'd seen the picture they were talking about, but now she was trying to compare it to what she'd seen of the real article, half tempted to land a fly or two on it to get accurate measurements, but before she could follow that line of thought, she heard a low humming sound with her nearby bugs, getting louder for about a second before Armsmaster threw something to his side before what she realized was his halberd explode, killing any nearby bugs and throwing him onto the street.
"Alright, Armsmaster, the way I see it, you have two choices here. You can either get up, mount that bike of yours and drive off or I do the same thing I did to your halberd to your fancy bike and you have to walk on foot. Now... Which will it be?"
Taylor held her breath. Had he really just...?
"This will not be the last time we see each other."
"I wouldn't think of insinuating otherwise. Just keep in mind that no matter how often you come at me, the result won't change."
He really did. He really just told Armsmaster to go away like a naughty child, given him an ultimatum, and Armsmaster obeyed.
Waiting a moment, Cain went on to go where Armsmaster just lay, moving as though to pick something up and muttering something to himself before he turned towards her hiding place.
"You can come out now, it's safe."
Somehow, Taylor doubted any place Cain was in could be genuinely described as 'safe'.
Turning back to the corpse lying beside him all this time, Cain began to drag it towards a black rectangle that suddenly appeared in the air as part of what she recognized as an invisible structure of some sort with the bugs landing on it, having Taylor give it a double take. It appeared as though it had always been there, and even though she'd been 'feeling' it earlier, she'd been completely ignoring it until she saw the opening.
"Well, do you have any questions? I'll probably take a while for this, so feel free to ask." Watching Cain, with his normal human size, pull the oversized giant reptilian form of the ABB's deceased leader towards and into the floating portal, mostly ignoring how much he should be able to fit into it at once, space seemingly warping around it.
Flying a few smaller flies inside confirmed that indeed, there was more space on the inside than on the outside. It was also pretty disorienting, feeling it out with her swarm.
"... We just killed Lung."
"We did." Shrugging as he kept on pushing the body inside, Cain gave her a glance. "Probably going to shake things up around the city for a while, have the ABB end as an organization and the E88 get really busy... Busier than I was planning on keeping them, anyways."
"So you weren't planning for this?"
"Not directly, no. The original plan called to let the ABB stay in the corner while Lung gets over himself a bit and the Crypts have a little 'fun' with the E88, weakening them while the right conditions to wipe out all other gangs in the city were being set up, but now, with Lung out of the picture, things will have to change, plans accelerated and all that. You can imagine, I'm sure."
"Why were you here? When I fought Lung?" The question of why exactly Cain had just shown up out of nowhere had been burning in the back of her mind ever since the terror and urge to dry heave receded.
"I was following him, actually. Lung was trying to get at the Undersiders, a minor group of villains, really, that seem to have pissed him off somehow, to my understanding, so I came to see how things would go for him. Then you showed up, drowned him in bugs and, well, I saw an opportunity."
Great. So she'd been risking her life, participating in murder and exposed herself to Cain, and it was all to interfere in a feud between villains instead of for a good reason, like she'd assumed when Lung talked about killing kids.
Way to make herself feel stupid.
"If it makes you feel better, Lung really was a nasty piece of work, though I doubt I have to tell you. It's really an overall positive thing he's gone, once the chaos that will inevitably follow his death clears up."
It'd still been murder, though Taylor doubted telling a murderous madman was going to lead anywhere.
"In fact, I'll probably be pretty busy for the next while gathering my people to go after his former territory and dismantle those rape farms a soon as possible."
Freezing internally, Taylor couldn't help but ask. "Rape farms?"
"Oh, you didn't know? The ABB has that whole thing where they kidnap girls and take part in human trafficking, well, before they can make money off of people they took or bought, they have to ensure they'll obey once they stuff them into brothels. So why not hit two birds with one stone and get them used to their new line of 'work'? And that's what the 'farms' are for."
Scratch what she thought earlier, Taylor was going to be sick.
"Would you like me to help you down, by the way?"
"... Sure."
Preoccupied with her thoughts, Taylor didn't react when Cain just jumped all the way onto the roof, though that changed rapidly when he wrapped an arm around her legs and shifted her into a princess carry, his well-formed pecs pushing against her side and ohgodCainwastouchingher.
Holding onto his shoulder for dear life as he just jumped again, depositing her onto the sidewalk (though not without her getting a few good touches in on account of 'finding her balance'). "You doing alright?"
"Yes. I'll be fine in a moment."
"If the prospect of those farms bothers you that much, how about you join us in taking them apart? Think of it as a preliminary test to see if you could see yourself as part of the Crypts."
Against her better judgement, Taylor couldn't help but agree to what Cain said. She may have started this, and what happened because of Lung's death was on her... but that didn't mean she didn't have a responsibility to end it.
"Okay."
"Good! Okay, so we have a few locations the ABB is or was probably using to filter young women in and out of the city, we can get there in half an hour if you feel up to it."
Taylor was about to agree before she remembered she was supposed to be in bed right now, having sneaked out earlier that evening to take her costume and just be a cape.
"I'm not sure I can, tonight."
"Time constraints? Civilian identity?"
Taylor tensed up.
"I'm not gonna ask, don't worry. Just think about it, is whatever you need to get back home to more important than an unknown amount of young women being horribly raped for another day?"
It wasn't, damn it.
"Okay. Okay, let's do this."
Unbeknownst to Taylor, Cain was in the midst of a heated debate in the back of his head, his little sister scolding him over doing 'the thing', again. Simultaneously, however, she was also collating information gained from Lung's soul with a few maps and scraps of internet activity, ensuring she could give him accurate information about the ABB's human trafficking, with Kate busy organizing their people into strike teams for the moment.
As it happened, there were three 'farms' within the city, with another facility of their kind and, in fact, the originator of the term, a good distance outside of Brockton Bay, where those about to be sold to another place within North America were put, though the place was apparently empty right now due to difficulties of some kind.
"Well then, on we go." Telepathically asking Sherrel to open the door on your side, the mystery cape doesn't so much as flinch as another lightless hole opens in the air, stepping right inside when you gesture for her to go ahead.
"Hello, sweetie," Sherrel greets her inside, patting the middle front seat for her to come sit.
"Who are you?"
"My name's Sherrel, I'm a tinker. Used to run with the Merchants before I jumped ship for the Crypts."
Looking at her for a long moment, the darkly dressed teenager sits herself down as requested.
"Alright, let's get going. We need to drop Lung's corpse off at one of the safehouses while everyone else is scrambling, then we can get to the meat of the matter." And when I say 'safehouse', what I mean is one of the freezer storages.
Gotcha, boss.
Staring you in the eyes behind that mask of hers, bug girl asks what might just be the formative question in all this.
"Why are you doing this?"
"You'll have to specify that question a bit. Why am I doing what?"
"Being a villain. Collecting Lung's corpse. Selling drugs and saving these women. Everything."
Well, that's a loaded question if you've ever heard one.
"Well, that's a hard question to answer, but if I had to put it simply?" Leaning back in your entirely too comfortable seat, you give her a good look of yourself for a moment as you cross your arms.
"Because Brockton Bay is a dangerous, broken, fucked up hellmouth where dreams go to die and happiness comes to kill itself, a sick and dying city that no amount of heroes and vigilantes can help.
To try to remove crime entirely in a place with these economic circumstances is, simply put, nonviable. It's never going to work, pure lunacy to attempt it. But while stamping criminality out isn't possible, controlling it very much is. The Crypts will take control of the criminal element, make it less dangerous and harmful to the Bay overall and keep other, much worse, alternatives from getting a foothold in the city, the Empire, the Teeth, the ABB or whoever else may come.
I sell drugs because there is a demand, and where a demand is, a supply will almost inevitably crop up, so I may as well ensure that supply comes from me, regulated and clean, as well as profitable, I am not going to lie about it. On the other hand, I am saving these women from a fate worse than death because I want to, as I have standards, though it also helps me in the long run, not to mention slavery is a stupid model for prostitution anyways.
As for Lungs corpse? We have a way to make useful brutes out of dead bodies, though we normally use animals, and Lungs corpse is one hell of a prize in that regard. Does that answer your questions?"
"So you're saying heroes are worthless and can't do anything anyways, so you just went and became a villain?"
"Essentially, yes."
"... I see."
"I mean, it'd sure be nice if the heroes would actually do their jobs, but that's just not very likely, all things told. Not without dropping the pretenses and just going ahead to murder people in the streets over being in gangs, like Shadow Stalker did."
"Is that what you meant when you talked to Armsmaster? Those rumours?"
"They're more than just rumours, I personally witnessed the whole event, why, I was even so distraught over it I called the police while I was filming!" Giving her a crooked smile, you gesture outwards, at the dark city streets Sherrel is driving through. "Of course, it turned out that it was a Ward, and so naturally the PRT shut down any official investigation. Because that's what heroes do."
"What do heroes do? You make it sound like they're just another pile of thugs."
"I wouldn't go that far, but there's an element of that, certainly. The PRT and the Protectorate have a mission, but that mission is not to uphold justice, defeat villains or protect the people. Their mission is to look effective while maintaining the status quo, and they don't care who has to be victimized in the process of doing so. Not that they're all that effective at it in the first place, mind you."
She's been oddly unaffected by the conversation so far, to the point you're almost sure it has to be power-related, but now she's tensing up the fist lying on her thigh- Something you're saying must've struck a cord.
"Is that why Armsmaster just left when you confronted him?"
"Pretty much. I just made it clear he had no way to further his agenda in that situation and the only possible result of fighting me was him losing, his armor is also tinkertech, after all, and I could've killed him at any time I wanted. Of course he'd just run in that situation."
You wait for a follow-up, but she just stays silent until you arrive at one of your meat freezer facilities. Time to go unload and meet the others.
It isn't long before several cars, vans and similar vehicles are parked all around the parking lot the invisivan is in, a few representatives of your people approaching as you disembark.
"Hey Kate," you greet her with a hug, "everyone ready for some fun?"
"You know damn well I've been waiting for some action for weeks now," she ribs at you in response. "Who's the little lady there behind you?"
"Oh, that's... Sorry, I don't think I ever caught her name. She helped me defeat Lung."
"Didn't think of a name yet. Anything I came up with sounded either stupid or... edgy."
You're fairly sure she was about to say 'villainous', but you'll let it pass this one time.
"Anyways, she did us a solid and set Lung up to die. Unnamed Bug Girl, this is Kate, my second in command most of the time. Let's get this show on the road before the targets realize their boss just died, though."
The defenses in place to keep just anyone from walking in and shooting up the place you are coming for are, to put it in a word, pitiful.
That's not to say you don't have to execute a bunch of asian wannabe gangsters, but in the end, in a shootout between 'tough guys' with guns and a horde of vicious she-devils equipped with laser rifles, body armor and hopped up on a lot of coffee, it's really not that much of a competition, ultimately.
Unfortunately, it turns out this wasn't really a 'farm' in the sense you were looking for when you started this, but to be fair, an organ harvesting plant still kinda works for you. From the looks of it, this is where they sent any of their captives that didn't look to be worth the trouble to whore them out, putting them into small metal rooms before carting them out, drugging them up and getting to cutting.
As it happens, a surprising amount of people die due to the ABB, and this is where they turned it into a business. The sick, the dying, the ugly, all were cut open and recycled, their organs sold off instead of their flesh.
Bug girl looked appropriately horrified when she told you what she could sense through her bugs, so you'll say this was an overall success, all in all.
You have a feeling Bug Girl already knows what you're leading her to see, but you go on ahead anyways. Opening the door leading to a somewhat crappy operating theatre, now used as an improvised infirmary, you make it a point to let her look at the emaciated, sickly and sometimes still open people the girls gathered in one place.
More females than males, all told, as many of them look to be rapefarm rejects, though by far not all.
"Behold," you murmur to Bug Girl, "the status quo! This is kinda fucked even by my standards, not gonna lie."
Out loud, you project your voice into the room. "Okay everyone, we're going to get you out of here now. Get up and come along if you can, someone will help you if you can't, and we'll try to get you all some medical assistance as soon as possible. Did you all get that?"
Meeting Kate's eyes, she nods towards Ethan, who is going around assessing everyone's states. "No good, boss. I doubt many of them are going to make it much longer without immediate assistance."
"What, you're a doctor now, too?"
"Used to be going for it before parents threw me out, actually."
"Huh. Anyways, we have the autodoc prototype, but it's got limited uses, and we'll still need it for the other places we're going to hit."
"Gotcha, only the ones that need it. Come on, nice and orderly, please."
And with that, Ethan's back at it, organizing and ordering around both the victims and the girls. A few of the former aren't in any shape to walk, of course, and a few are either panicked or frenzied enough to be a danger to themselves and others, but you don't really have to step in.
"Please, please, has anyone seen my sister? She is ten years younger than me, I was supposed to watch her..."
"Jade, take her to see the garbage bin? If they didn't throw the body in there, there's a chance she's been taken to one of the other places."
"On it, boss. C'mere, we'll take a look around here for her, okay?"
Once all of the patients are out in the parking lot, you theatrically clear your throat, well aware of the peanut gallery over on the other side of the street filimg this with their phones. "Alright, everyone, we're going to need you to follow directions a little bit longer, okay? We'll get everyone that absolutely needs it treated right here and now, but we didn't exactly bring enough tinkertech for this. Lung is dead and any place similar to this one is going to get a similar treatment, so just do as you are told and everything will be alright."
That should take care of things out here. Emily, Kate and Nora have the area well in hand, so you proceed to go for the cells stuffed with the captives you took when you stormed the building in a tidal wave of laser fire and brutality.
"I'm going to give you choice here, Bug Girl," you say as you open the door you just got all the victims out of. "I will need to make a point with the people that worked here. One that none of them will survive."
It's hard to tell with the costume in the way, but you're fairly sure she just swallowed hard.
"You can come in and watch, or you can stay outside and try to ignore it. I don't mind either way."
When she doesn't say anything, you continuue talking. "Keep in mind, if we didn't do this, these people? They'd get away with what they've done, even without Lung. That's how bad things are. We," you turn towards her, arms stretched out as though to embrace the whole world (or to strangle it) "are all the justice these people are going to get- Both the ones out on that parking lot and the ones in here."
With that, you open the door to the hallway full of cells.
Bug Girl is pretty quiet when you make your way out as a group, unsure as to whether to keep her distance from the rest of the group or not, given nobody seems to be lunging for her throat.
"Why..." She struggles with the word a little, unsure how to ask what's on her mind.
"Why? Mainly because it's part of my powers. I can spread a weaker version of them around, and anyone that gets them drinks blood instead of drinking or eating. Also makes us stronger over time."
"You're a vampire?!"
Oh fot the love of- "Wait a second, how do you even know that term?"
"Bram Stoker's Dracula. Based on old eastern european folklore and sometimes called a classic, though it really isn't that good. Do you burn up in the sun?"
By now everyone is looking at her instead of walking.
"Well, that isn't exactly wrong, though not all of us are actually hurt by the sun. It's more a very annoying hangover kind fo feeling."
"How about garlic? Or running water?"
You sigh. This will be a thing now, you suppose...
The next place you end up hitting happens to be, well...
Honestly, if you weren't a sociopath by nature, you suppose you might be genuinely horrified by what you see there. As it is, though, you're just idly breaking down doors and pulling horrid people off of and in some cases literally out of a wide range of underage girls.
Honestly, you're unsure if a few of these even reached double digits in age yet, though you have a hard time judging this kind of shit.
All over the refurbished apartment building, similar sounds are ringing out; while the girls aren't none too gentle on a good day, few of them don't go ahead and shoot these fucks somewhere just to make a point before they're eaten and left as a reminder as to who did this.
"Luuhng will fucking kill you for this!"
"Speak for yourself, I'm here because I went ahead and killed the fuck." With that, you beat the face of one of the people working in this complex of industrialized rape, keeping him down this time. Bug Girl, of course, is standing behind you, apparently having appointed herself your observer for tonight when she isn't using her power to warn your people of ambushes in the halls.
She is looking at the spread legs of the little girl in the room you just came out of, indiscernible fluid mixes leaking out of her.
Taylor Hebert wasn't feeling well.
This feeling, less a mild dislike of a situation or a light phobia of something, but rather a sick, crawling feeling spreading through her stomach and pressing down on her brain, wasn't a sudden development by any means.
On the contrary, she'd started to feel unwell when this whole debacle of a cape debut started and she'd accidentally murdered someone. It became worse when Armsmaster, as the official authority in these matters, came to investigate and she thought she would get arrested and her life would be over, though it slowly abated when Cain just straight up told him to go away and was obeyed.
The following conversation just reinforced the detached incredulity at everything that was happening all of a sudden, when she rode in Cain's tinkertech vehicle and asked the crimelord why he did what he did. But then, then they came to visit the Harvesting Plant.
It'd taken her a moment to figure out what the many, many bugs she suddenly controlled were when they approached the location of the Plant, but a few nearby flies crawling over the lumpy mount of strangely tasty matter soon told her what the new addition to her swarm was.
Maggots. maggots feeding on human corpses, ones that were cut up, mutilated and chopped into pieces.
This was how Taylor discovered she could 'push' her emotions into the swarm, as otherwise she would have started puking right then and there.
Of course, perhaps pushing her agitation and disgust into the swarm containing the maggots wasn't the best idea, as they started to wriggle and squirm and eat into their wet, slimy nests just that much harder, but at least she wasn't ruining her mask.
She would say something about clouds and silver linings, but she just couldn't bring up the heart to.
Seeing the people kept captive gathered in that horrid room like out of a demented dentist's dreams, with wounds she recognized on sight after feeling them far more intimately that she'd have ever liked to and even realizing a few of the insects she felt were in these people already...
She was going to have nightmares about this.
Taylor had just been following Cain in a daze, clinging to anything remotely familiar while she was trying to process... everything that'd happened that night.
At least the people who did this would be punished now, right...?
At least until Cain turned his head, directly acknowledging her for the first time since launching into a flurry of motion and commands when they first arrived, storming this entire place with laughable ease.
"I'm going to give you choice here, Bug Girl. I will need to make a point with the people that worked here. One that none of them will survive.
You can come in and watch, or you can stay outside and try to ignore it. I don't mind either way."
Blinking, Taylor realized where they were- in front of the hallway leading to where these... 'people' kept the people they were ... harvesting, used to keep them confined themselves in a sense of ironic justice.
"Keep in mind, if we didn't do this, these people? They'd get away with what they've done, even without Lung. That's how bad things are."
Taylor wanted to disagree, to argue the point, to do anything, but...
She'd seen he wasn't wrong. At school. All over the city. In how this place could even exist to this point.
So she just stood there and numbly watched the criminal making more sense than anyone she'd ever seen gesticulate, spreading his arms.
"We are all the justice these people are going to get- Both the ones out on that parking lot and the ones in here."
And she couldn't bring herself to argue.
Taylor Hebert was torn.
On the one hand, it turned out Cain was, apparently, a vampire, just like in Dracula. The book was honestly alright, just not that good when viewed in a modern perspective- Yes, for its time, it was downright revolutionary, the story told through diary entries, newspaper clippings and the like, and more of a slowburn gothic horror story than anything modern cape culture was liable to produce, but the plot was also fairly straightforward and easy to see through from halfway through the first chap-
Okay, to keep it short, it was decent, but not that great. More importantly, Cain's power, whatever it was, seemed to be following a similar theme, at least, hence him and his three vampire brides ate the... things the crypts captured at the harvesting plant (rather than repeatedly sneaking into a woman's room and drinking her blood bit by bit, which was just one of those less logical things completely normal in older literature).
She was still kind of disappointed none of the classical vampire weaknesses applied, by the way.
Any and all levity brought on by the chat during the drive, though, immediately flew out of the window when they arrived within a few blocks of their next objective. The bugs inside the place immediately alerted her to the scents inside, as well as the many still, but still breathing bodies.
And the tastes of various fluid spilled all over each individual room she wished she could forget. A repeat of the last location, just with a slightly different reason as to why she had to repress her urge to throw up.
She was almost in a trance, again, just following after Cain on autopilot, though this time he stormed into the building with the first wave himself, joining his people (why were almost all of them women?) in kicking down doors and beating the ABB gangsters inside.
She could feel it all with her bugs, and she wished she wouldn't have to.
At the same time, she wished someone would've done this before any of this could have started in the first place.
"Luuhng will fucking kill you for this!"
Yes, that was it, wasn't it? Lung was just a huge bully, in the end. A thug. And because he was strong enough, he could just... do this. Trying to repress her shudder, Taylor looked into the room Cain had just come out of- the girl inside couldn't have been older than ten, and yet she could clearly make out her reddened, swollen-
-something was seeping out of-
-was that her bu-
Talyor forcefully tore her gaze from the girl just laying there with her legs splayed open, blindly staring at the ceiling. She could feel she was still breathing, she just seemed to be entirely absent, mentally.
Safer to look at what Cain was doing.
"Speak for yourself, I'm here because I went ahead and killed the fuck."
Proceeding to ignore the angrily sputtering criminal, he looked right at Taylor, his eyes boring into hers behind her mask's lenses. "Would you like to do the honors?"
All of a sudden, the sickness welling up in her stomach stopped, replaced with a cold, clammy feeling. Did she-?
Looking at the man on the ground, for the first time looking at him as more than a mindless, non-person object of horror inflicted on this place, taking in the enraged scowl at being interrupted dominating his face, his pants left in the room and his... privates still covered in red-ish fluids...
Yes. Yes, she did.
He screamed when a tide of cockroaches came from his back, covering his face, then his whole body. He screamed louder when they started eating, through skin and into his flesh, when his lips were gnawed right off within moments and his tongue came next, when his eyes were scratched open to get at the juice, when his... 'tool' used during his... 'work' got what it deserved.
He screamed louder and louder until he stopped. Taylor had no idea how long it took, just that it wasn't long enough.
After all, no matter how loud he screamed, he wasn't screaming enough to make up for the screams the girls in this place must have let out time and again.
It'd just have to do. And by the time he stopped and nothing but a tattered mass of meat was left of him, slowly seeping fluids onto the ground much like his victims did...
Taylor was going to be sick. But for now, she had something to do.
"One of them is trying to hold a girl hostage, I think. I'm killing him."
"Feel free, Bug Girl. That's why we're here, in the end."
"Oh you poor dears, don't worry, we'll have you right as rain right quick!"
At Ethan's look, you give him a nod. "As before, the worst cases to the autodoc, I expect most of the damage to by psychological. Not much the machine can do for that."
A grim nod is your answer, Ethan turning back to doing his job in moments like this.
Doesn't matter you had no idea about his career choices before becoming a criminal, though you could totally imagine Ethan being a backalley practitioner taking care of 'customers' on the sly... and anyone else that needs it, for that matter.
He's just that kinda person. Funny how him being thrown out by his parents when he had his coming-out and just using everything he had to both continue pursuing a medical career and be as gay as physically possible turned out with him in the Crypts and actually fulfilling at least some parts of his dreams...
Still, time to keep this show on the road.
"I think we got everything, or at least I can't find anyone inside the building," you exclaim.
Bug Girl gestures outwards, towards the building... or behind it. "A few tried to run, but I'm herding them towards the fire cape."
"Ah, Spitfire. She's running perimeter control with a few of the others. So long as none escape, I'm fine with it."
You spot the red blur before any other sign something is happening. Naturally, it doesn't take you long to recognize the phenomenon from footage and that one time you actually met Velocity- and told him to fuck off.
Looks like the Protectorate is on the case.
It takes only moments by the time you saw him and got everyone else ready through a mix of loud shouting and telepathy that a motorcycle and half a dozen vans with the PRT's logo boldly emblazoned on the sides, nearly fifty people disembarking in short order; about fourty people in that featureless PRT Trooper body armor along with the entire Protectorate ENE.
Armsmaster, who you've met earlier tonight, is back on his still functional tinkertech motorcycle, a new halberd brandished in his hands, Miss Militia in her fitted army fatigues and the bandana and sash patterned after the american flag making up her costume with a swirl of green-ish energy forming a weapon of some sort at her side, the red blur of Velocity moving to thei side, taking position to your right.
On your left, you have Assault and Battery, in their red body armor and whiite-dark grey patterned bodysuit with cobalt blue circuit lines respectively, the golden lion-headed visage of Triumph standing with them while Dauntless, in his vaguely spartan-like empowered costume, is floating nearby them.
Isn't this just looking to be a barrel of fun.
"Cain! You are under arrest!"
Thank you, Armsmaster, for that statement. Really, truly thank you.
"Ah, the PRT, late and ineffective as ever. I'm afraid I can't play cops and robbers with you Tin Man, I'm quite busy cleaning up a mess your superiors have let fester for years on end and I don't have time to play, so could this wait for, like, half an hour? This is one of the ABB's primary rape farms, and I didn't save these girls just for them to get caught in the crossfire. EMTs are already on the way, you're welcome to take care of them while we get going to take care of the rest."
Gesturing towards the non-insignificant amount of girls and young women of all ages currently being brought out of the building you're standing in front of on stretchers, loose cloth draped around most of them and many, many dead, lifeless eyes promising to be wonderful promo material once you get someone on editing the footage the drones Sherrel's already deployed are filming.
"Medics, first aid and trauma protocols. Secure the perimeter while we search the building."
Lowering his halberd, Armsmaster walks towards you. "Officially, the Lord Street Crypts were sighted, but vacating the area by the time we arrived, leaving the victims for official authorities to take care of. There was no way to stop them from leaving without exposing civilian personnel to potential attacks by the Empire 88. Am I clear?"
"Completely," you nod at Armsmaster, "just remember none of this would've happened without us."
His hands tighten, somehwta weird to see through his power armor, but he just nods right back and turns to his compatriots, ignoring the incredulous looks some of them are throwing him.
"Let's go, we have to secure the building."
"Alright, everyone, out and at 'em, we have another place or two to hit tonight."
Sarah, have someone back on base start editing the footage we got so far if we need to release soemthing fast.
Nobody on base knows how to do that, but sure, I'll tell them to put their heads together and try.
So far, so good. Only two more places to go before you've hit all the human trafficking the ABB is liable to have in the city. It's shaping up to be a pretty long night, huh?
Time to get this show on the road again.
Annoyingly enough, by the time you arrive in your last target within the city, another group has managed to track you down; you suppose there can't be only upsides to having a small parade of people driving after you and sharing anything they can film with their smartphones live on the net.
Everyone wants their five minutes of fame, and even if it's by posting pics of parking lots full of raped girls.
Still, here you are, the entire younger generation of New Wave sans Panacea flying above your convoy. Actually, how is it that nobody tried to stop you on the road yet? Normally, you'd have unannounced shit like this shut down post haste.
Maybe because you're a cape gang and, as such, the PRT gets to deal with you, and it doesn't really have a protocol on how to react to something like this? Unimportant.
"See? I told you we just needed to follow the CainWatch posts!"
... Thank you, Glory Girl, for bringing the existence of something like that up.
"Hello there, you three." You drawl as you get out of the (currently visible and mundane looking) invisivan. "Would you like to join us in beating a bunch of rapists to a pulp?"
"Uh, don't get me wrong, Cain, but I'm pretty sure people would frown on purposeful violence like that," Laserdream hesitantly puts forwards.
"I mean, it's all up to you in the end, of course. Tell you what, if you manage to apprehend anyone we find inside, we won't even horribly murder them over being, you know, themselves."
Glory Girl holds up a finger before the three of them float up a little higher, poking their heads together as they discuss what to do.
What they don't know is that, among your prodigous amounts of powers, you possess enhanced senses.
"-our mom's going to kill us!"
"No, look, this is us looking to apprehend as many perpetrators as we can. We're doing the best we can under the circumstances, even if it's by cooperating with them."
"Pretty sure your mom won't let that count. You know how she is."
"C'mooon, you let that be my problem. I'll get her to ignore that part in favor of, y'know, saving lifes? You heard him, if we don't get them, the Crypts will kill 'em anyways."
"You really think they're killing them?"
"It's what people say on the Watch, so I'll believe him."
"Girls, could we hurry up? I think Cain's getting impatient."
"Ugh! Okay, but your mom's on your head, okay?"
"You got it!"
Coming back down, with you studiously pretending to be buffering your fingernails. "You done then? We're on somewhat of a timer here."
"Yeees, we'll come along and apprehend all the criminals."
"Sure, sure. Say, while we're talking already and all, Laserdream, could it be you've grown a bit lately? Pretty sure my paintings shouldn't have reality-warping effects... Yet, anyways."
Her blush says it all, and Glory Girl immediately proceeds to stare at her tits, making it very clear she knows exactly what you mean, while Shielder is just kinda looking away awkwardly.
Honestly. Teenagers.
"Alright, time to get in there and shoot a few sickos. Remember, everyone, if the kids catch 'em, they're off limits unless they get free or try to run, in which case they get to die slowly unless recaptured."
"I'm really not comfortable with the way you're wording this," Shielder says as he floats upwards, aiming for one of the upperfloors.
"Tough luck, I've just had to deal with offing Lung and going through all the worst ABB sites I could find. Neither the organ harvesting farm nor the breaking station were pleasant to look at, and I've run out of patience with these people before I got halfway through the first of those."
With that, you're through the door of the repurposed apartment building, a staple of the ABB, apparently, and off to repeat your last performance, Bug Girl walking after you.
As that happens, a ganger jumps through a window from the second floor, incidentally, screaming as a swarm of insects is covering him, only to be shot in the head by Nora who is casually bringing up the rear.
Pulling people right out of rooms and violently beating and/or eating them, it isn't long before you come upon Glory Girl, who is just beating them a little on occasion while tying them up. Doesn't detract from the haunted look in her eyes as she does, though.
"Oh, hello..."
"First time seeing something like this? Don't worry, the worst is already over, now that we're putting a stop to it."
"I still think I'm gonna retch later."
"So long as you can keep it in 'til later, you're already doing better than most in your situation would."
"I just- How did I never hear about anything like this before? I've been a hero for years and the most I've seen was a bunch of drug stashes!"
"Probably because they keep shit like this as hidden as they can. Believe me, this is the least of the shit I've seen today despite the little girls. I saw where they're put before they come here and all."
"I don't want to know, do I?"
She probably really doesn't. "Anyways, you wouldn't happen to be up for a group date with your sister?"
Disbelieving laughter is your answer. "Sorry, but why?"
"Well, I just so happen to have nothing planned for tomorrow, so I thought I'd ask, at least."
"Too bad, I'm really not sure I'd be up for going out with her like that."
"Oh? Why not?" You violently open the next door, handing one occupant off to Glory girl to be restrained before you move on.
"Well, beyond that being... weird, I recently did something to her I shouldn't have, and she's been super understanding about it, but..."
"What, did you accidentally try to rape her?"
The look on her face says it all.
"Wait, really? Are you shitting me?" You'd heard she was subjected to M/S scrutiny after your escapades, but was it for this? And how did that happen exactly?
"I don't want to talk about it, okay?"
"Hey, it's cool. Pro tip from a professional criminal, though, if she hasn't slapped you over it, she's liable to be at least a little interested. Also, see you at the stairs?"
"I guess we'll have to."
Splitting up at an intersection, you and Bug Girl take another path than Glory Girl, making your way through room after room, sometimes dragging someone out, sometimes just nodding at one of the 'girls' 'employed' here and leaving them alone for the time being.
"What was that, exactly?" Bug Girl asks, looking up at you a fraction.
"Teenage problems. Don't worry about it, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume they'll be making out within the week."
Opening the next door, you immediately feel the atmosphere shift. What stands before you is a short guy wearing nothing but a condom on his wilting dick, looking panicked at the sounds echoing throughout the building and brandishing a broken-off table leg.
Behind him, on a bed with red covers and all sits a younger girl, maybe... twelve, you wanna say? With medium-length blonde hair, trying to cover her naked body.
The reason for the tension in the air? Bug Girl is standing there, her hands clenching and unclenching rhythmically.
"Oh? Would you like to do the honors?" It's kind of obvious something about this situation is pushing one of her buttons.
"Please, please, don't, just let me go..."
"... No." Looking at you, she forces herself to relax. "Could you just... not kill him? Just have him imprisoned like the rest of them."
"Oh? Why's that?"
"I don't want to tell. I just want him to have to own up for this. If he somehow manages to escape justice, I'll hunt him down myself."
"Sure, it's your call. Hey you, c'mere and put your wrists together, would you?"
A flailing escape attempt, a good hit to the head and some zipties you actually made sure to take with you in case any of the victims need to be restrained in a hurry later, you're back to business as normal.
Note to self, actually have Sarah look into this later, you'll definitely want to investigate further, and Bug Girl doesn't look like she's about to just tell you what this was about.
"Well," you say, dusting off your hands, "I suppose that's all the worst places the ABB were keeping up in the city. I'd say our work here is done for tonight."
Bug Girl is staring at you wordlessly as you stand there on the parking lot, the girls moving back into their respective cars in order.
Well, this is awkward.
Sarah, help me! The weird bug girl that just doesn't emote is just staring at me!
Deal with it, you're the Gabe!
That doesn't make any sense! C'mon, you've been watching her half the night, you've gotta have something I can use.
Ugh, alright. Just comfort her a little and give her your number, that's all you'll need.
Thanks, Sarah. Love you.
Love you too, even if you're ridiculous.
Stepping up to Bug Girl, you awkwardly put a hand on her helmet, startling her. "... You okay?"
"... I don't know if I am."
"I get that. How about this, I'll have someone drop you off wherever you want and I'm leaving you a number you can call if you want to talk. In case you decide to join, if you need something or if you just want someone to talk to. That good?"
Wordlessly, she nods. You'll just count that as a win, you suppose.
And if Sarah glomps onto you for half an hour by the time you're back to the bunker, you're completely fine with that, too.
"Okay, what have you got for me, sis?" You ask, Sarah taking a seat on your lap and immediately beginning to languidly ride you with relish.
"Well, people are talking like crazy. A lot of shit happened once you killed Lung out of nowhere and we just started dismantling ABB operations all over the city. Rumours about who exactly killed the big guy are being exchanged, twisted and exaggerated faster than literally anyone can type, and it doesn't help that the PRT knows there was a third parahuman at the scene besides yourself and Armsmaster."
"So he noticed her, after all? Bugger."
"Literally bugger, not like she was subtle about using her power last night. Speaking of her, though, I got her info, if you want?"
"I'm listening," you drawl, idly groping Sarah's butt as she grins at you, fox ears and a tail flopping out all of a sudden. She must've been working on that.
"Taylor Hebert, daughter of Daniel and Annette Rose Hebert, the latter of which died in 2008. Her father works as Head of Hiring in the Dockworkers' Association, and is more influental there than you'd think. He's basically running the show nowadays, with most other administrative personnel long gone, off to other cities with an actual economy or just switched to other local companies."
"Wait a moment, how does Brockton Bay have a dockworker union? There are no functional docks! The city doesn't do any shipping, overseas nor inland!"
"Yeeeeep," Sarah agrees, drawing the sound out as she sinks herself all the way to the bottom of your cock, "but menial work still needs to be done, even with the current economic climate around this place, and none other than Daniel 'Danny' Hebert has been hankering for any contracts that didn't look too illegal ever since the boat graveyard went up. That's why he's relatively important in their little community despite being middle management, at most."
"Huh." Giving Sarah a deep kiss, the two of you tasting a vague hint of irn from each other's mouths, you continue. "And the guy she explicitly spared?"
"One of her teachers at Winslow High School, actually. A Mr. A. Gladly, teaching her World Studies class. From what I got from her, she didn't particularly like him by any means, he was just a face she recognized and was pissed at finding immediately. Chances are she'll just fucking murder him regardless of circumstances in a week or two, tops, once she's had the time to rationalize a little."
"Recruitment prospects?"
"Looking good, she's facing social discrimination of some sort, probably being bullied at school, from what I dug up online. I could look into that further if you want, but for now, her trigger event is pretty much assured to be a particularly disgusting occasion where she was stuffed into a locker filled with used tampons and other feminine hygiene products. Girl is lonely, borderline suicidal and willing to cling to just about anyone reaching out to her while expecting any such offers to be malicious and treacherous in nature."
"So what, literally just don't treat her like shit and she'll eat out of our hands?"
Pretty much."
"... You know, I've been thinking about it for a while, but it's almost like the universe wants me to prey on vulnerable people, with the way it keeps throwing them at me."
"Beats me, you know my opinion on the matter. Also, her power's really good, actually, control and sensing through arthropods in a considerable radius. In a city like Brockton Bay that has even more cockroaches than human civilization usually produces? She's a heavy hitter, for sure."
"Mhm." Silencing her with another kiss, you get to thinking.
Emily Piggot was not having a good day. Actually, fuck that, her evening was rearing up to be the complete madhouse she'd been dreading from the moment she took up her position as Director of the PRT ENE.
"What do you mean Lung is dead?"
"Armsmaster's report, Ma'am. Console alerted him to a fight happening and by the time he arrived, Lung was dead on the pavement, signs of struggle pointing towards him dying in combat, and Cain standing right there in the open, with another parahuman hiding nearby."
The curses Emily let out were enough to have renick duck out of the room for fear of getting something thrown at his head.
"This is an all hands on deck situation," she eventaully stated, holding her emotions back as she spoke in an even tone. "Have any and all teams on base assemble, we need to keep the Empire from sweeping all over the entire city. I'll have the Protectorate on call as soon as we know if they're sending their capes in."
"There's more, Ma'am."
"Out with it, we have to act fast!"
"Armsmaster left without fighting Cain when he disabled his halberd through his powers, a feat he suggested to be repeatable, and is currently on the way to the rig to retrieve a backup weapon."
"So he hard counters tinkers, wonderful. At least we finally got something concrete on his powers beyond 'probably powerful'."
It was about an hour later that PRT Director ENE Emily Piggot received reports that the Lord Street Crypts seemed to be rampaging through the streets in large numbers, only later being notified they were going around freeing sex slaves, now that Lung was no longer an issue, from ABB strongholds the official authorities didn't even know about.
Sending the entirety of the Protectorate after them in a hurried attempt to keep the situation under control, while not ineffective, took the city's heroes away from the series of skirmishes fought towards Brockton Bay's south without being able to contain the LSC's actions in the slightest. This would later come to be called a prudent decision, as, with the forces at hand, the PRT ENE had no better options available.
Damage control for PR reasons was the best they could be expected to do at this point.
Settling into his lab, Armsmaster wasn't happy. For several reasons.
First off, his halberd was a lost cause. Retrieval had proven possible, but it was almost like Cain's power had excised anything that made it tinkertech, violently making it explode and ruining each and every component. He would have to remake it from scratch, which represented a significant investment of both time and expenses.
Next off, Lung was dead. It was hard to believe, even having seen the scaled corpse with his own eyes, but the menace was gone... though not through any involvement from his side, despite the months he'd spent on designing and perfecting the anti-regeneration-agent. No, instead he'd been defeated through blunt application of powers of some kind, the time he had to view the body nowhere near enough to investigate possible causes.
A failure on several accounts, though he couldn't bring himself to blame the supervillain for taking the initiative. Not after what'd happened next.
Staying on hand to counter Empire offensives had been expected, once he sent off his reports and checked over his secondary weapon, ensuring the tinkertech to be functional. Similarly expected had been the call to scramble when Crypt sightings were confirmed, on the other side of the city, the first location they'd apparently attacked secured by PRT Agents in the meantime.
Nobody expected them to be rescuing victims of human trafficking and sex slaves. Colin grimaced at the thought of what he'd seen, as well as the vindictive satisfaction he'd needed to squash at the corpses lying in the hallways of the building they scouted afterwards, sporting obvious bite marks left by enormous teeth.
It wasn't proper for a hero to agree with unilateral mass murder, no matter how justified.
No matter how much he'd have done so himself in his darker moments.
In general, realizing exactly what the place the Crypts had been raiding was had been an unpleasant awakening to Colin, for several reasons. First and foremost, his first reaction had been, and he may be paraphrasing:
Shit shit shit how do I spin this.
Suffice to say, he was ashamed of himself for that to be his highest priority upon being confronted with rape victims of all things, as though all that their permanent physical and mental scarring only mattered in the context of making him look bad. So what if the existence of a goddamn rapefarm hinted at the PRT ENE being unable to control the situation in the city?
The fact that it existed alone should be enough for him to castigate himself over, public opinion be damned. His first reaction should have been to ensure the victims were taken care of, not even as a hero, but as a fucking human being, hell, he should've known about those places and shut them down with the kind of swift retribution they and everyone so much as tolerating them deserved.
Jumping to confront Cain wasn't his proudets moment when he realized who the people being brought into the dirty parking lot were, but once he realized, he shouldn't even have hesitated to jump to helping. The arrangement he'd suggested to the Crypts had been borne in a scramble to reign in his inner turmoil, even if it seemed it was the right decision, in retrospect, no matter how much he had to ignore operational procedure and his own colleagues at the time.
As he thought earlier, he couldn't blame Cain for stealing his glory, when it was the same man that had evidently known about these places and moved to utterly crush the barbaric practices therein.
... Pah, 'steal his glory'. Almost as if he had a claim of some sort on the villains of 'his' city. So what if it was a blow to his professional pride and advancement when it served to protect the innocent, those who were powerless to help themselves out of the situations they had ended up in for some reason or another?
"Colin? You have been assembling and disassembling the nanothorn generator housing for ten minutes now. Are you feeling alright?"
A face on the screen. Dragon.
Tess.
"I... I don't know." Unable to tame the energy suddenly welling up in himself, Colin Wallis got up, pacing along the confines of his lab. "It's absolute chaos out there, the gangs left over by now are running amok through the streets, and I'm here in my lab, feeling sorry for myself."
Calling up a photoslide of the people they'd found and secured from all three sites of Crypt activity, looking at the faces of people he hadn't helped, perhaps couldn't have helped, Colin swallowed thickly, bile rising in the back of his throat.
"Be honest with me, Tess, am I... Am I even worthy of calling myself a hero? Am I even a good person? Or..."
He breathed out, hard, controlled. "Or am I just some jackass sitting on his power and feeling good about himself while the people out there are suffering?"
"Oh Colin..."
Dragon, as one might believe, shouldn't be easy to surprise, given one knew she was an artificial intelligence.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. For one, she was laboring under limitations that had her thinking merely several times the speed a human would, and she was perfectly capable of feeling surprise when confronted with unexpected circumstances or situations even then.
So it wasn't wrong to say that she was quite surprised indeed when news of the recent developments in Brockton Bay reached her, mostly through the programs she had set up to inform her of major news monitoring PHO. Contacting Colin proved fruitless, as he wasn't in his lab and her colleague hadn't installed a direct feed for her into his helmet, despite the occasional jokes both of them made on the topic, so all she could do was wait and monitor the situation on the side as she went about her usual duties.
Lung, despite being somewhat old news currently, had caused quite a stir in certain circles when he fought Leviathan to a standstill in Kyushu, though he never again did anything as great, instead ending up as a minor crimelord in Brockton Bay a few years later, occasionally fighting other factions and heroes, sometimes losing, more often winning by using his power well.
And now he was dead. Dragon didn't know how to feel about it beyond the same regret she felt at any life being lost, though that regret truly was lesser than she would feel for most, given the footage of the Lord Street Crypts' activities she soon sifted through.
Dragon didn't have the necessary context to empathize with rape victims in any emotional sense, but even so she could rationalize just how disturbingly abhorrent the things done to them were.
Colin visited his lab for a moment in the meanwhile, but he was in a hurry to head right out again, doing his part in alleviating the situation both him and herself would soon be made privy of.
It was only several hours later, after the sun rose in Brockton Bay, that Colin had a few moments to rest. That he immediately spent them tinkering was just so... him.
The fact he just kept repeating the same motions, though, wasn't.
"Colin? You have been assembling and disassembling the nanothorn generator housing for ten minutes now. Are you feeling alright?"
Looking up at the screen she was using, his face brightened a fraction, the brooding grimace replaced with a momentary smile before the confused frown reasserted itself. "I... I don't know. It's absolute chaos out there, the gangs left over by now are running amok through the streets, and I'm here in my lab, feeling sorry for myself."
Watching him pace, Dragon held her tongue, knowing the man well enough he just needed to work through his thoughts aloud now that someone was listening to him.
"Be honest with me, Tess, am I... Am I even worthy of calling myself a hero? Am I even a good person? Or... Or am I just some jackass sitting on his power and feeling good about himself while the people out there are suffering?"
Oh... He was blaming himself. "Oh Colin..."
His lips quirking, he shook his head. "Don't 'Oh Colin' me, this is serious business."
"Would you like to talk about it? I often find just having someone to bounce my thoughts off of helps me deal with them easier."
"I suppose I should thank you for playing amateur psychologist for me, then."
"Nothing of the sort, just a friend lending an ear."
"Appreciated nonetheless. Where should I start, then... For once, I think I am blaming myself for just... letting those places exist." Scrolling through the gallery of pictures taken from footage of the attacked sites, Dragon winced internally. That really wasn't healthy behaviour. "I know I had no realistic way to actually do anything about this before actually knowing about it, but that doesn't stop me from berating myself over not putting in the effort of finding out, if you get what I mean?
I spent months- months- on formulating a response to Lung's regeneration, blissfully, willfully ignorant of what was happening out in the city. I got a few updates on the girls capable of being questioned already, some were kidnapped right off the street and we were doing nothing."
"As you said yourself, you couldn't have known. It is folly to question what could have been based on information you had no way to know at the time."
"Ah, but Cain knew. He knew, walked up to Lung to kill him and freed the victims. It's ridiculous that a villain is doing our job better than we could."
"That is a good point, and a reason to investigate just how the ABB could ever hide it from the authorities for this long, rather than moping."
"I AM moping, aren't I?" Scoffing, Colin cracked his neck, popping his vertebrae loudly. "Perhaps you're right. Perhaps I shouldn't feel sorry for myself and just go out there and do something. And this time," he smiled grimly, "there won't have to be compromises."
Turning to her, Colin gave her a nod. "Thank you, Tess. I needed that, I think. Now excuse me, I have to design a handful of non-tinkertech lookalikes to my usual equipment in case I need to face Cain again."
And there he went. That went well, Dragon supposed, or at least better than her last talk with Narwhal. Speaking of, she'd best get to that- all things considered, she was blessed with a lot of genuine friends for an artificial intelligence.
She may just be a few lines of code held together with duct tape and tinkertech magic, but she could still smile at that, at least.
Carol Dallon clenched her fist, browsing the PHO thread documenting the night's happenings. Already it was being given lofty titles such as 'Night Of The Dying Dragon' or 'The Crypt Crusade', though she couldn't find it in herself to criticise them.
Instead, she was somewhat busy being torn- torn between rejoicing at a great evil being purged, if at questionable hands she would love to see in chains, and a mix of worry and motherly rage at Victoria, Crystal and Eric being involved in all of this, having already driven Amy to the hospital they were sending all of the victims to and returned home when it became obvious the Empire would keep away from their neighborhood, the fighting in the streets having died out not long before sunrise.
Speak of the devil, though.
"Victoria Dallon," she pronounced with the tone only a mother that waited for her daughter to come back after curfew could produce as her wayward child came in through the door, "would you mind coming over here for a moment and explaining what I am reading about your latest... 'exploits'? Dragging your cousins into it, no less."
Because both of them knew, without doubt, that she would have been the one to initiate madness like what was being talked about on the internet.
"I can explain! Honest! Just, could you... Can I get a hug?"
Carol's heart broke at seeing one of her daughters like this, the haunted look in Victoria's eyes as she came into sight driving the breath out of her lungs almost like a physical punch.
Worldessly spreading her arms as she got up, Carol hugged Vicky to her chest, her hand combing through her hair and letting her sob freely.
"H-how... It was horrible, mom! Some of them were just little girls... a-and there were so many!"
"Shh, shh, shh... It'll all be alright... your sister is already at the hospital, she will take care of them..."
"I-I saw the pictures. Of the other places. I just thought, I just thought they would be more of the same, I-I've seen enough raped women and stopped enough rapes myself I thought I'd be okay, that it was just the same as usual, but it wasn't."
Looking up at Carol, her daughter's eyes, filled with tears as they were, sparked with rage. "They were industrializing rape, mom. I... I think if I killed the people there, I wouldn't even feel bad about it."
A cold feeling crept up Carol's spine, her experience as a lawyer taking over. "Did you? Kill anyone, that is?"
"No... But I think I was close."
"That's alright, sweetie. That's all alright. Even if you did, those things hardly counted as people, anyways, and I'm sure I could get a courtroom to agree. Come on, we have a few tubs of ice cream left, I think... and once you've calmed down, then I will ground you for the rest of the year."
Helplessly giggling even as she kept softly crying, Vicky followed after her. "Really, mom? Really?"
"You know I told you to keep away from Cain. You did the right thing tonight, I want you to know that, but you're still grounded, young lady."
Taylor heaved, the taste of bile worsening on her tongue. This wasn't getting better yet.
Every time she finally released some of the bitter tasting liquid gurgling up her stomach, having thrown up what remained of her early lunch that day... or was it yesterday...? A while ago already.
Spitting another glob of rapidly thickening saliva, she couldn't help but think about just why she was feeling so sick. In retrospect, murdering a man, especially that man, wasn't so bad, all told.
Having to come look at the victims left behind by him and the sick machine the ABB had turned out to be, on the other hand...
Recalling the feeling of crawling out a dead girl's eye, only to bore into that same girl's stomach, Taylor shuddered as another surge of bile came out of her mouth. Her power had turned out to be much more useful than she'd thought, all told, but the things she felt through the maggots at the harvesting plant would haunt her nightmares to come, she was sure. They were already haunting her stomach content, anyways.
Thinking back on it, her entire night had been a rollercoaster of horrible emotions. First, it had been shock, at killing Lung together with Cain and the latter then all but telling Armsmaster off for interrupting his night. Then, sheer revulsion and disgust at the 'packing plant', the things she felt inside and the people 'working' there, the way she just numbly went along and watched as they were killed in one of the most brutal and inhumane ways imaginable just serving to prepare her for the next location.
Which was what Cain had called the Breaking Station. Remembering what she'd seen and felt there...
Taylor retched a little more.
She had been brutal. She had been enraged. Taylor hadn't even been sure she still could feel that strongly for a few months at minimum, but seeing the sheer disgusting things going on in that building... She'd like to believe better people than her would've beaten them to death, if they had the means.
Heh. Better people. She liked to think she was being better than the trio, but after tonight, she... she wasn't sure if that even mattered.
All her daily foibles just seemed so... small. Pointless.
She just had no idea why she even bothered caring about them at all anymore.
And, of course, the 'brothel'. Calling any place that vile such a thing felt like an insult to shabby shagging shacks everywhere, but technically, the ABB were taking money in exchange for the use of their 'employees'' bodies. Those same 'employees' were also kept as little better than slaves and ranged from elementary schoolers to their mid-twenties, but at least the technicalities were clear.
... The reason comparatively little of the smaller ones were present may have something to do with how few of them managed to survive the breaking sta-
And there she went, another load of bile.
Finding Mr. Gladly in that place had been... She hadn't even been angry anymore. Just, disappointed. Disappointed and empty.
When Cain asked if she wanted to end him herself, she almost agreed. She'd been deliberatly swarming any of the people in that building seeming like they were actively raping someone already anyways, what was one more? But then she remembered Cain's words from earlier.
We are all the justice these people are going to get- Both the ones out on that parking lot and the ones in here.
She had to know the truth. She had to know if- if he was going to be punished for what he'd demonstrably done, or if he was just... going to get away with it.
Because if he did, Cain really was the only option.
"Taylor? Are you alright?"
Shit shit shit her dad was awake what-
"I-" She retched a little again, recalling the conversation when she first killed a man deliberately and saw what a raped ten-year-old's... lower orifices, looked like- "I'm not feeling so well." And she was still in her costume, just barely having managed to take off her helmet once she sneaked in through the backdoor and stumbled to the bathroom.
She'd been holding back all the way through the dark and dreary neighborhood, having asked to be let out a few blocks away, but as soon as she got back, it all washed over her at once.
"... Alright. Take as long as you need, I'll just... be in my room if you need anything."
"Thanks, dad."
She made it.
... Maybe Taylor was just afraid of going to sleep, after all. Maybe she was trying to run from her nightmares. Then again...
Could her hindbrain really conjure up anything worse than what she'd seen while awake? She doubted it. Every cloud a silver lining, and all.
With a crooked grin at that light hint of gallow's humour, Taylor retched a little again, recalling what she'd seen while awake. She'd be here a while...
Amy Dallon sighed, stalking the corridors of the hospital.
"Another wave coming in, they've started filling the west wing."
"Got it. Have someone bring me a coffee?"
"Will do."
Thanking the nurse, Panacea waved her off. Unusprisingly enough, she was extremely busy all night, ever since this whole insanity started in the first place.
Grimacing, she let out another sigh. Couldn't Cain have waited until afternoon to kick off another gang war and rescue all the ABB's kidnapping victims, at least? Then she could've gotten some breakfast in a place that wasn't stinking of disinfectants and maybe even gone through today's scheduled 'checkup' with Crystal ('s boobs).
As it was, though, she doubted she could possibly enjoy anything sexually until she'd rewatched Naruto seasons one through three just to brainbleach herself.
Emerging into the reception area, Panacea held open her hands, the by now practiced system in place. "Everyone into two lines, do what the nice nurses tell you and we'll make sure you're all okay."
She'd have loved to bitch a little, but not even she could muster vitriol in the face of a bunch of raped preteens, the unwilling organ donors at least already cycled through her power already to ensure none of them would die during the night, and so she just went on to heal far more internal bruising and discretely removing any diseases and the odd pregnancy or two.
The hospital staff had already organized them from worst cases requiring immediate attention to least issues, with most of the kids up front. She'd asked when she noticed the discrepancy earlier that night at bumfuck o'clock, but apparently the Crypts had brought some kind of medical tinkertech suite along onto the field, some kind of practitioner among their number selecting the worst cases that wouldn't make it otherwise to be treated that way, the victims in question currently held under observation by the PRT unless they started showing symptoms, in which case they would be brought to her location, too.
Just wonderful to basically become a medical-industrial complex overnight, but hey, needs must. At least this was a kind of healing she could really get behind with all her heart and soul- girls should be treasured and loved repeatedly unto exhaustion, not treated like- that.
Not for the first time, Amy cursed her power for granting her intimate knowledge of any organisms she touched. she couldn't help but mentally reconstruct how some of the injuries she healed were created, and the knowledge that apparently a torn sphincter was enough to get a ten-year old dismantled for spare parts still had her nauseous when she thought about it.
Still, eventually, she reached the end of the line, putting some of her patients to sleep as she went when she realized they were close to panic attacks or the like, the doctors and nurses swarming the area taking care of anything she couldn't.
Naturally, she also had the majority of wounded caused by the extensive gang fighting racing through the streets, which was why she regularly had to stop to pull bullets out of wounded, though most apprehended gangers she just patched up for the moment before she got back to more important things.
Normally, she'd have been talking, bedside manner being important enough for it to have been taught to her by a few of the doctors she knew better, but she, along with everyone else in attendance, was just too exhausted and sleep-deprived to speak as they went, and the usual warnings and mentions she gave on accord of her power's after-effects were well-known to the personnel by now, so they didn't bear repeating anyways.
The healed patients were wheeled out to actual sick-rooms post-haste as she moved along, making more space for everything else. The hospital was in complete chaos, though it was still better that it would've been without her.
Sipping her coffee once she was through the newest wave of rape victims, Panacea looked over at the nurse following her. "Any news?"
"Nothing yet, we're still on standby. Day shift's been called in, with any luck they can take some of the pressure off."
"Right, guess I'd best get back to the organ patients. Sooner I grow their parts back, the better."
And hadn't that been a pleasant surprise, realizing she would need to just ensure the first wave of victims wouldn't die and leave them to be stuffed full of disgusting hospital food in the hopes of getting enough biomass into their system that counted for her power she could regrow everything they were missing...
Panacea sighed. She was way too exhausted for this shit, and it wasn't even five in the morning yet.
Missy Biron wasn't prepared for this kind of thing. Then again, she wouldn't suppose many people would be.
"What do you mean Mary was missing?"
"Shh!" Ashlyn shushed her, looking around suspiciously. "I just heard it myself, but you know about the Crusade last night?"
"That's what they're calling it now?" Missy was indeed aware of what had happened last night, if only because all the Wards had been sent an emergency warning in case the citywide fighting would reach their homes. It'd actually woken her up, in fact, and caused her to look up what was going on.
She'd seen the footage before it'd been taken down.
"Apparently, Mary wasn't sick or anything this week, she was kidnapped, and they found her in the hospital today!"
Looking around the empty schoolyard, Missy tried her best to hide her grimace. "Any news on how she is, then, if you're so well informed?"
"I only found out when I listened in on my dad on the phone, but she's apparently not well enough to receive visitors yet. That's all I've got."
Missy's heart, already having plummeted down to her stomach, proceeded to grab a drill and dig itself underground. She knew what was being done to some of the people that were abducted, better than, she suspected, anyone else in her class, and she knew what it meant she couldn't be visited yet despite Panacea working at the hospital all night.
She just didn't want to think about it.
"Also, did you hear, apparently Cain is doing some kind of art exhibition tomorrow, and people think he's going to hold a speech or something!"
"I read about it, but it's an auction, and there's absolutely no way he would actually show his face. The whole thing is technically done by a 'company' that 'bought' his art stuff so the heroes wouldn't be able to stop him."
"Why would the heroes stop him? Isn't he a hero himself by now?"
"His people are still selling drugs and stuff, that still makes him a villain. Just one with basic human decency. Now come on, we should get back inside. Keep me updated if you can wheedle anything about Mary out of your parents, okay?"
And with that, the two little girls proceeded to return inside the school building, rejoining their weekend study group and pretending not to have had secret conversations to propagate information around their elementary school network.
"Alright Sarah, we have a busy few days ahead of us. We have to arrange for the ABB's former territory to firmly wander under our thumb, do some reorganizing, see about absorbing their organization into our own properly, I want to hand out a couple of souls and I need you to edit the footage we took in case we want to turn it into a news broadcast kinda thing. Actually, wanna co-anchor that shit?"
Giggling, Sarah presses a kiss to the corner of your mouth, still riding your lap. "Sure, you silly Gabey. I'll have Kate and Henley look into the rest, too. Anything else?"
"Oh, just one of the souls I wanted to give you, actually." And with that, you're kissing her again yourself, transferring the past victim into Sarah's own collection.
With the souls distributed and Sarah on the organizational stuff, as well as arranging a meeting with one Kayden Anders for later in the day, the dart filled with weird tinkertech you took from Armsmaster in Nolan's care for the time being, you turn towards the important things in life.
That is, fucking your little Priestess up the ass while having her explain to you what she could do in terms of longer lasting magical rituals that might come in handy for you.
"You know, I'm still not really comfortable with this," Alice murmurs, taking a seat in her red dress.
"Just roll with the punches. You'd think you'd have gotten used to that kinda thing by now."
"I'm trying, alright? I just haven't been to a fancy place since I was, what, twelve?"
"Why would anyone take a twelve-year-old to a place like this," you ask with a raised eyebrow, taking up the menu and idly browsing through your options.
Side note, you're rocking this suit. Then again, you usually do that with suits anyways.
"I just graduated elementary school, and my parents made a big deal out of me having straight As in everything, so they took me to a restaurant just like this."
"And let me guess, at some point later on, you got a single B and they never loved you the same?"
"Hah, nothin' quite that blunt, but you get the gist of it."
"Well, I suppose we can all have different kinds of shitty parents to bond over. Always amazing just how many ways people can fuck each other up, and it's especially easy for parents to do it to their kids when they're emotionally vulnerable and all."
Alice looks at you curiously, but clearly unwilling to ask further without prompting. Oh, and there comes the waitress, you usually don't have to wait too long in nicer places like this.
"I'll have the chef's recommendation, please, and thank you."
Flailing internally, you can see it as she frantically looks over the menu, Alice just closes it. "I'll have the same, thanks."
"Very well, anything to drink I can get you two?"
"Oh, some red wine would do nicely, I think. Two glasses?" Alice just nods, hilariously nervous on the inside, though she keeps up a facade well enough as the waitress notes everything down and gives the two of you a nod.
"You know, you're pretty adorable like this?"
"What?" At your teasing smile, Alice just blushes. "Oh, go fuck yourself."
"Nah, I don't think I will. So, anyways," you say, changing the topic, "parents. Figure it's only fair I give you some context here, what with me knowing pretty much everything about yours already anyways."
Her brow furrows, but she doesn't speak, letting you go ahead and continue talking.
"Well, to start with, my parents, and sarah's, for that matter, in case you didn't know? They were assholes. Are assholes, rather." You tap your fingers on the desk before you.
"They honestly never gave a shit about me or my siblings. Like, they pretended well enough in public, and there was hell to pay whenever one of us broke the illusion of a 'happy, normal family life', and that was what threw me off when I was really young, but in private? All they cared about was that none of us showed any signs of malnutrition or anything, and that was it. Not even that when I was older and could take care of my siblings."
"I can see how that would be... shitty."
"Yeah, you can guess the rest. Long story short, I basically raised my younger siblings by myself, that's basically why I was even in Brockton Bay, another long story, until my little brother killed himself and my sister triggered, which in turn triggered me."
Letting silence envelop the table, Alice's expression unreadable, you just wait until the wine arrives, thanking the waitress and grabbing your glass once she's done filling both your and Alice's.
"To shitty parents," you raise it towards her, having her lips quirk in black humour. "And the shitty people they turned us into."
"May they get what they deserve for it," she answers, both of you taking a sip.
"Actually, any thoughts about hunting your parents down, Gabriel? Thought you'd be all up for that kinda thing."
"Well yeah, I've just kinda put it on the backburner. They're despicable pieces of shit, just also not that important to me in terms of priorities, you know? Maybe whenever the situation with the Empire calms down, I'll take Sarah on a day trip to torturously eat them or something."
The rest of your little morning date passes in amicable discussion from this point on, with you telling Alice the odd funny story about how you've been slowly taking over the Bay's criminal underworld and her getting some more things off her chest. For one, she's quite happy Lung is gone permanently, the scar on her face gone almost as long as she's been part of your crew, but only lately stopping to pulse in phantom pain, just to name an example.
Also, the lobster thermidore you end up getting is delicious, even if you need to show Alice how to eat it. More blushing for you, is all you'll say, much to her renewed embarrassment whenever you bring it up thereafter.
Originally, you'd been planning to have a short talk with Cupcake, ask her if anything new came up in her 'department', such as it was, but, well, you hadn't been expecting her to be in the middle of another buffout test.
Or to be testing it on herself... again.
Long story short, you have a whole bunch of broken la equipment and a Cupcake with puppy-dog eyes staring up at you.
"You know, I do think you deserve a punishment. We told you not to test on yourself, and you're lucky this is the worst that happened."
And a few stimpacks got the cuts in her hands sealed up real quick, though she was still clenching them as though in pain.
"But it was just fine! That's why we have a stimpack dispenser set up right there!"
And it's true, Nell and Lindy actually got together to put an actual fucking dispenser together, making it easy to withdraw as many of the little curatives as needed.
"That's not what I mean and you know it!" Lifting her up by the crooks of her arms, her wild flailing lasts for just a few seconds before she just pouts at you. "In fact, I believe it's time for some punishment."
Carrying her off as she hangs there in the air, you get over to the break room next to the lab, Cupcake's two 'assistants' following you curiously, though they keep outside the door.
Sitting down on one of the benches, you splay Cupcake across your own legs.
"What are y-" You grab her pants and pull them down, wiggling them a little so they make it over her hips.
"Don't you d-" Once they're hanging at her knees, her panties follow, revealing the round butt to the open air...
"I'm warning y-" The air is driven out of her lungs as you slam your hand home, carefully modulating your strength as you administer punishment.
"Wh-" Slam "Stop i-" Slam "Don't-" Slam "Owie!" Slam
Ten hits is all it takes to reduce your diminutive underling to tears, her flailing arms and legs just lying there as she takes it. When you stop, though, she looks at you.
"That was mean!"
Chuckling, you stretch a hand to pat her head, the other one lightly rubbing at the base of her butt.
"You ignored the warnings like a little kid, you get spanked like one." Sliding your groping hand downwards, propbing her little pussy, though, you grin.
"Then again, maybe you enjoyed this a little too much, hm? Looks like you get the punishment for big girls, too."
Scooping up a little of the wetness gathering along her lower lips with your middle finger, you begin to lightly rub it in along her asshole.
"Ieeh! Not my butt! Not my butt!"
"Yes your butt. Or are you saying you want the little girl punishment, after all?"
"..." She just wiggles a bit as she adjusts her angle, still pouting as she lies bent over your knee. Chuckling, you begin fingering her with the angle you have, slowly but surely preparing her ass for what you're about to do.
Side note, Nell actually got a phone up and is making pictures, so you take a moment to give her a thumbs up.
Eventually, you decide Addy is ready, having managed to slowly massage your thumb inside her ass to her soft (very soft, hardly audible for the most part) moans.
"Up you go," you say as you suddenly grip her and shift her position, her pants still hanging by her knees as you manhandle her, pushing her labcoat out of the way a little until she all but sits on your lap.
"Well? Aren't you a big girl? If you are, then come get your punishment properly."
Wordlessly, Addy reaches downwards, opening your zipper. You can see her face moving from where you are, she is clearly biting her lips as your fully erect cock springs forth, hitting her hands as she immediately begins to fondle it.
"Mhm, found your favorite toy again?"
And with that, she's off to out again, crossing her arms as she looks away from you- not that that's difficult, facing away from you as she is.
"You still have to put it in, Addy," you breathe into her ear, the shudder going through her surely purely coincidental.
Lifting her up by the crooks of her knees, her upper body leaning against your chest, you casually move Addy into position, her cutesy "Eeep!" noted and remembered for posterity. It takes her a moment, but in the end, she blindly grasps for your tool as you lower her onto it, groaning when it hits her puckered star and you just keep slowly lowering her.
Sinking into her tight, tight asshole, you soon have her moaning just from the sensation. "So... So biiig..."
"I don't know, might just be that you're so tight," you tease her, leaning forwards to nibble at her ear and neck a little, something she seems to enjoy.
"We'll have to find out, won't we?" And with that, you just drop her onto your rod, the remaining half of it disappearing in her back entrance with a wonderful yelp from her.
"Come on, you still haven't taken your punishment." Taking her small hands into yours, you pull them from the front of her chest onto your legs, giving her some much-needed leverage.
"You have everything you need, now all you need is to repeat it. Come on, prove you're a big girl..." With your hands free, you begin to softly grope and knead Cupcake's entire body all over, taking special pleasure in playing with her pussy and pinching her nipples as she began laboriously working herself up and down his dick, letting out an amazing array of noises.
"We can do this aaall day, Addy..."
She shudders, again, and comes around you, clenching down on both your dick and your fingers currently exploring her front. Really, this was why you liked playing with her when you had the time.
Stepping out of the fancy limousine you had one of the girls drive you in, you adjust your equally fancy suit and give your driver a nod, Kimberley answering it with a thumb's up before driving off towards the nearby parking lot.
Approaching the apartment building's doors, you reach out a hand, only for the door to open by itself, Kayden Anders herself standing on the other side.
"You must be Mister Wilbourne, right?" She asks, holding out a hand for you to shake.
"Indeed, and you must be Mrs. Anders. Pleasure to meet you." Taking her hand in your own, you go on ahead and press a quick kiss on its back before you straighten your back again and go back to shaking it, smiling your charming smile #14 all the while.
And would you look at that, she's blushing and trying not to look at your face. Hook, line and sinker.
"Y-yes, uhm, pleasure to meet you two. I mean, too, ah, but where are my manners?"
Clearing her throat, she gestures for you to step inside. "Let's walk as we talk. I apologize for working out of an apartment at the moment, but I am a little between more professional offices, as you might be able to imagine."
"Oh, no need to worry," you assure her as you follow her towards the elevator, "you come recommended enough that I, at least, won't complain, especially not about getting an appointment on short notice."
"A pleasant surprise for both of us, I'm sure." Still pleasantly smiling, you follow her out the elevator and right to her door. "Just follow me to my temporary office and we can go ahead."
Making your way through her (already familiar) apartment, you soon find yourself in her office room, taking a seat and waiting for her to do the same.
"Let us begin then, Mister Wilbourne, your secretary mentioned you were looking into several possible businesses here in Brockton Bay, and this consultation was to be part of that?" She seems to have composed herself by now, though you can still make out a faint sheen of red on her cheeks.
"Please, feel free to call me Gabriel, and yes, Brockton Bay, despite the recent upheaval it has been under, or rather specifically because of it, is slowly developing into a... valuable location."
"Oh, please just call me Kayden in that case. Would you mind elaborating, just so I have a better idea of what this consultation is about?"
Leaning forwards a little, you cross your hands on her desk, looking her square in the eyes. "I won't beat around the bush, there is money to be made in Brockton Bay, and I wish to be amongst the first to take my share. Of course, that means diversifying investments and opening several places of business, and that's where you come in. I need those places to look their parts, and obvious solution is to hire a local professional, and you are the first one I could get an appointment on short notice with."
There you are, you've made it clear this is a limited-time offer, take it now or lose out! Because honestly, so long as you're not too blunt, simple advertizing strategies work on people just fine.
"What do you need designed and when?"
As you said, hook, line and sinker.
"The first project we're looking at is a nightclub, north of the boardwalk and close to the water line."
Now she wilts. "I-I'm not sure that's within my usual expertise, I usually work with living areas and the like. I can see about doing some reasearch, though, and see about what I can do. Of course, then there's the matter of price involved..."
Ah, she's trying to get you to suggest something, either as a way to gauge how well you're used to these kinds of negotiations or something to make a show of being too low so she can haggle you higher. Basic negotiation techniques.
"Well, with the amount of other projects in the works and the money being moved into Brockton Bay already, I see no reason to pennypinch at this point. I am willing to offer on the high end of market rates for interior design services, you are recommended glowingly enough for me to trust in your skills and take a risk with an independent agent over a firm."
Slowly moving your hand as you speak, you lay it onto hers as she has both of hers on her desk, resting it on the same place you kissed earlier. "I do enjoy the personal touch," you half whisper, half smirk at her.
And her blush makes a return, of course.
"Let's say whatever hourly rates you usually take, with a retainer of ten thousand dollars and the promise of more projects down the line if I like your work. Do we have a deal, Kayden?"
She takes a moment to regain her equilibrium, having to come to grips with the fact she's likely actually paid better than when she was with the firm, even before you factor in they took a cut from any jobs they mediated.
"Shake on it?" You hold out a hand this time.
Kayden numbly shakes your hand, coming back up to speed.
"When can I see the location in question so I can start planning?"
"Well, the property has already been purchased over the course of this last week, so you could go to work as soon as you wish, If you want to, we can arrange another meeting on site as soon as today. My schedule is fairly free until the middle of next week, and I'd prefer to show you around personally- just to make clear what expectations are realistic and such, I'm sure you know more about this than me, after all."
"Yes, I can just come by tomorrow evening, if that works for you? That should give me enough time to prepare everything."
"Very well, tomorrow around six? I'll have my secretary send you the address with the contract and we can talk more then. In fact, would you mind keeping your schedule clear afterwards? Save for any worldending occurences in the meantime, I'd like to get to know you better, considering we're likely to keep on working together for a while yet."
WIth your best disarming smile, Kayden isn't even suspicious about all this, just nodding along as she gets up. "Yes, that would be nice. I haven't been to a proper restaurant in months now."
"Then it's a date."
You don't get another word out of the blushing woman until you're out of the door, whence she shyly winks after you. "See you tomorrow... Gabriel."
Of course, then you have to take Kimberley out for waffles because there's a IHOP on the way, and while there already, you go on ahead and place a large order for more waffles to surprise everyone with. Sure, you could just have Ethan do it, but it's important to show you care sometimes.
Borderline dissecting Lung's corpse reveals several things, most of which you would like to formally summarize in a single sentence.
Powers... Are bullshit.
A simple and widely known fact, but Lung's insides whenever he transformed, or, you suspect, in general ever since he triggered, just didn't make sense. Probably a part of why he was usually in mostly human form but...
For starters, his internal organs are still there, just grotesquely small in relation to the rest of his body, and his bone structure is a lattice-like arrangement far more similar to reptiles than that commonly seen in mammals, as a quick wiki walk confirms once you've washed your hands.
Simply put, his power must have been sustaining him, as otherwise there was no way the sheer amount of thick muscle you just carefully split open via magic could be a thing in a living creature. Like, hell, you yourself can violate the square-cube-law, but you still have no idea how powers usually do it if not through outright magic breaking the laws of reality like you yourself.
That said, while his metallic scales and tough hide are a bitch to get through, as your own experience confirms, it can be done with a bit of determination and a sharp knife used at the right angle, something you may as well correct while you're at it.
Thus, you spend the next few hours just slowly working your way through his skin, peeling it off his body and installing hundreds of small, but thick bone plates you prepared beforehand underneath and between his scales before fusing it back on, hopefully keeping him from being easy to damage when you use the body against your enemies.
While you're at it, though, you also summon Nolan, and have him fill a sack of flesh you made from Lung's diminutive lungs and a few pieces of his inner mucous menbranes with flamer fluid, the exact same he once conceptualized for a friend of his, the same true soul you have that has a thing for flamethrowers and that painfire for a power.
Installing the sack inside the throat and raising the corpse, enchanted to replenish the fluid in its throat when used and an igniting mechanism set along its mouth that you cobbled together out of a few of the scales you tore off in your fight and later gathered up.
And all of a sudden, you have a giant near-humanoid lizard zombie capable of spewing a stream of flames and tearing through just about any building you could think of.
It'll do for now.
"Alright Sarah, I got my compass minion, I got my new ability to just overlay souls, I got no boner at the moment. Anything else I need before I head out?"
"Just remember, if that boner returns, don't try to seduce Oni Lee, just come back here, alright? I refuse to let this situation escalate any further."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, sis," you lie through your teeth. "Kiss for good luck before I go?"
"Of course, dummy."
A short makeout with Sarah later and you're off, just a shadow racing along the walls and across the ground, unnoticeable against the darkness bleeding into the city, just like it did every day upon sundown.
And if that shadow sometimes shifted into that of a slightly different silhouette, well, nobody was around to see either way.
Using your compass' power for yourself is... weird. Not in a way that had you immediately abort what you were doing, it was just a weird feeling in the back of your head.
This guy, Jared, he wanted to find something when you ate him. The urge and need to find that something had been immense, defining him on some level, and as a result, when you went and twisted and pushed him around, that need became the power to see the path to things he was looking for.
Now you're feeling that same need as you overlap with him, using his power, and the sudden need to find Oni Lee guides you, rather than the desire to find him so you can snuff his life out. It goes away as soon as you stop overlaying with him, but it's still distracting a little.
Weird, as you called it.
Still, here you are, making your way through the city of Brockton Bay, just a shadow chillin' on. Nothing to see here, officer! That is, if anyone could see you as you are.
All the way you go, from downtown towards the downtown coast, though you always thought the name was stupid. The boardwalk is technically part of downtown, so the downtown coast stretches all the way halfway through the damn city, why would you call only the southern inlet of the bay that, and then use it to refer to the entirety of the ABB's southern holdings?
Anyways, here you are, past the Forsberg Gallery you'll be paying a visit tomorrow, past Kayden's apartment, dipping through the commercial district to the south of your usual operations a little and keeping towards the east, soon penetrating what the uninitiated sometimes called Brockton Bay's Little Chinatown, only to be thrown evil looks from any asians nearby.
The place was full of just about any asian nationality, but Japanese were by far the largest demographic populating it, swathes of them fleeing to the US after Leviathan did his thing to Kyushu and settling all over the place, with brockton Bay taking in quite a lot.
Of course, Brockton Bay also is, or rather, was, an immigration-heavy city back in the day, so it wasn't like it didn't have a healthy chunk of other asians all about the place, otherwise it wouldn't have been so astounding that Lung managed to press so very many different asian nationalities that would normally murder each other over cooperating with each other.
Seriously, inter-asian racism ain't no joke.
Regardless, here you are, making your way through the area and marveling at just how completely normal everything looks. Because, as it happens, most of the asian-heavy residential areas you are now in don't look any different from the rest of this god-forsaken city.
Shocker, yes yes.
Your target, as it were, seems to be inside a building you're only now getting close to, an old meat packaging plant fairly deep into ABB territory. Wouldn't surprise you if it just so happens that the ABB took the place over as a convenient location to operate out of.
As you silently glide through the hallways of this factory, one thing becomes quite apparent to you immediately. Two things, rather.
One, the ABB is indeed using this place as a base to work out of, and seems to have been doing so for a while.
Two? The ABB is fucked.
It's no exaggeration to say that you knew this is how they would end up from the moment you took out Lung. Without the big bad dragon man, they could have all the goons they wanted, they'd be easy pickings for other gangs or, say, the PRT, not to mention both of those still have more people than them.
Ultimately, what this all leads to is the mass of wounded lying all over some of the rooms you're passing by, none of them looking like they're about to keel over, but many a gunshot wound is being wrapped tightly, some even still bleeding as simple medical care is being supplied to their unhappy owners. At a guess, any truly serious wounded are just going to the hospital, even at risk of being arrested, while less urgent cases just get patched up by one of the doctors here.
As you go along, leaving the rooms full of improvised beds and sheets and triage centers behind and scouting out the rest of the building whose heavy machinery seems to have been removed, you not only steadily draw nearer and nearer to tonight's target, you also begin to find armories full of heavy hardware, mainly machine guns, submachine guns, even the odd rocket launcher you find here and there, as well as other more administrative, rooms.
It is in one of the latter, one of the offices, that you find Oni Lee... Along with some other company.
Unfortunately, you don't speak what you're pretty sure is some dialect of Chinese, though the problem is solved for you in short order, as a meaty thwack sounds out of the door you're approaching.
"You know we don't all speak the same language, moron!"
"Not my fault you don't speak any civilized tongue."
"Just shut it and repeat what you were trying to say."
"Fine!" The short man, as you now see, says, the accent clearly audible as he continues. "The barbarians are pushing us back all along the frontline, and there is little we can do to stop them."
"And what does our tactical genius have to say about what we should do next?" Another man, korean, if you're not mistaken, asks in turn.
"Easy! We can't keep the rank and file in check much longer- now that the Dragon is gone, there is little keeping the rabble together. But if we could show a victory, a resounding trumpet to rally behind, we may be able to buy ourselves some time."
"And I suppose you're saying we have the tinman over here do it? Not sure how much he can get done without the big guy around."
"Ore will do what must be done," a raspy voice answers. Oni Lee doesn't sound like he's been speaking much for... quite a while. Interesting.
"And who will we have him attack? The nazis?"
"It is either them, them heroes or the Crypts. Shit options all around, comrades."
The chinese guy earns a few disgusted looks at that last word, though nobody spares the time to say anything about it.
"... We still have some of those tinkerbombs, don't we?"
At that, Oni Lee, some distance away from the little map table the room's other occupants are gathered around, lifts up a bandolier adorned by a series of wacky-looking devices you immediately recognize as Bakuda's work. Shit.
Well, time to abandon subtlety and instead go for your other favorite tactic... that of bitchslapping morons by surprise.
Darting around the room, you position yourself behind Oni Lee, ignoring the alarmed look a few of the normies in the room are giving off as they see an unnatural shadow clearly move through the well-lit room.
All that matters, now, is you and your victim.
All but jumping out of the two-dimensional darkness you so often become, you grasp both his arm and head, doing your best to block the cape's field of vision as you strike.
Driving your claws into his lower arms and the side of his face, you're fairly sure you just accidentally broke through his skull a little and are digging a finger through one of his eyeballs, but, not one to be deterred, you simply proceed to bite into the shoulder you're pulling his head away from.
Oni Lee, for his part, is trying to struggle, using his free hand to grasp your waist and attempting to pull you towards himself as he buckles downwards, what you imagine to be a martial arts throw being the intended result.
Too bad for him you simply do not budge.
When he realizes you are simply too physically strong to be moved this way, he instead reaches for a holster on the side of his 'costume', pulling out a bladed weapon of some kind- you think they're called kukri or something? You aren't big on fancy knives like that- and proceed to stab it deeply into your stomach, absolutely ruining your shirt but not getting you to let go by any means.
And with that, it's over. He made a better attempt than most you eat do, but at some point, the amount of blood you're missing is simply too great for the human body to be physically capable of moving.
Oni Lee is dead, as you have successfully eaten him.
You drop the now still body, licking the blood off your shadowed lips. Letting your gaze wander over the ABB lieutenants in the room currently frozen stiff, staring at either the cape that suddenly showed up or the corpse of Oni Lee, you tilt your head a little.
"H-he killed the Oni!"
No shit, Sherlock.
You don't acknowledge the exclamation any more than you usually acknowledge your food's last moments, instead choosing to simply amble towards them, making sure to keep yourself positioned to keep any happy meals from making a run for the door as you reach towards one of them, the chinese guy, if you aren't mistaken, and draw the blood right out of him with yet another hearty bite to the neck.
The other four suckers in the room begin screaming and trying to find a way out, but you effectively keep them pinned, your claws swiping the first guy and losing him a few fingers, which makes him your next meal even as you throw the corpse you just finished up with at the sucker on the other side of the map table, sending him to the ground for the few moments you need him down as you activate your intimidation aura.
None of them are leaving alive, and you want them to know that.
As it turns out, the door wasn't even locked. Amateurs.
Idly wiping your face a little, you leave the room, corpses and the errant fleck of blood all over it, pondering what to do next.
Alright, how to turn this place into a deathtrap with the least amount of effort and time wasted possible?
Well, first step, you go around casting "Freeze!" at all the doors you can find, dipping into and out of shadow form to avoid detection as required, and go out of your way to do so for any windows you can reach easily in any empty rooms.
It won't stop anyone determined to get through, but opening the windows you have affected the easy way won't happen anytime soon, you'd say.
Next stop, bat swarm central.
As you approach one of the improvised infirmaries, you take on your normal form, preparing for what you're about to do. Throwing the door inside wide open, you waste no time to transform, dissolving into a significantly-sized swarm of bats, screeching all the while.
Within moments, you have the room covered in yourself, using your sonic screeching attack to disable most of the people inside, setting a pair of yourself on them as they're wobbly on their feet, trying to regain balance and generally flailing about. More than a few just fall over as you ram your tiny mouths into any soft skin you can detect, sucking the blood right out of them.
The ones that slapped hands over their ears as soon as they heard something weird or just have a more robust inner ear immediately make to run out of the room, though you catch the last two of them with a quick blood transmutation, turning a few of yourselves into small spears or knives of blood to cut into their legs from behind, keeping them nicely within your reach,
"Cape! Caaape!" The call goes out, though you're a little preoccupied, dividing yourself between eating this room and following the runners.
A decent chunk of the assholes present go right for the armories spread throughout the building, though you keep a step ahead of them and preempt their tries to actually defend themselves, fluttering a sizeable part of yourselves towards where you know them to be and using generous amounts of both sonic disablers and hemokinesis to brust their eyeballs' veins in a rather explosive fashion, deciseively keeping anyone you have a moment to concentrate on down for the count as you busy yourself eating as many of them as you can, using hemokinesis to help you guzzle more blood down when you aren't too busy concentrating on using it in other ways.
As it turns out, having dozens of bodies, even if they're smaller, does have its advantages, and soon enough, the panicked screams have ceased, the last real bastion of the ABB, or what remained of it after the last few days, broken.
And, you think to yourself as you reassemble all your individual parts near the main exit, musingly looking at the hastily broken windows all around, some of which with clear traces of fresh blood as the suckers cut themselves in their panic, it made for a really nice dinner, after all.
Time to get back and think over what else to do tonight.