Little Hunter
"What about Nanku?" Cassie asked.
"She's out," Bitch replied.
"Well, yeah but—"
"And fuck her."
Nanku liked Bitch.
On a personal level, at least.
Getting onto the truck unseen was no minor challenge. The dogs had sharp senses and Bitch had a sense about them herself. Nothing parahuman like Nanku's power, but the girl tracked the animal's moods and attentions without thinking. All body language and all the more impressive for it.
Nanku sent the Twins flying south through the alleyways before guiding them higher.
Meanwhile, she moved alongside the truck and slid underneath. Just in case, she timed her movements with the dogs. They jumped into the truck one after the other at Bitch's direction and as the largest landed, Nanku grabbed onto the truck's bottom and lifted.
She paid attention.
The Nazis were doing something with dogs—lethal, apparently—and Bitch didn't like it. The parahuman wanted to act, and Tattletale wouldn't let her. As much as the girl could stop anyone from doing anything.
With the taunting of the corpses, Bitch's patience was done and Nanku didn't mind.
She still had to find Iron Rain. Her mother could 'clean up the mess' after the fact.
The back of the truck slammed shut and Bitch went to the front and told Cassie to get out.
"No," Cassie replied.
"Out."
"No."
Bitch growled loud enough Nanku felt it. She said nothing. Cassie pulled on a stick inside the vehicle and started down the road.
Maybe Cassie wasn't so bad either. For a girl without powers or any particular skills, she was remarkably unafraid when she chose to be.
Nanku held on and pulled the Twin close. They flew parallel to the truck, out of sight in the night sky.
The ride was simple until Cassie pulled onto the highway going south. The vehicle sped up which Nanku could handle. The ride grew bumpier as well, which was harder. Strength aside, maintaining the tension of her muscles and holding herself firm was exhausting.
Good workout.
The wind picked up as her ride carried her south and then west toward the mountains. They didn't go far after leaving the highway. The truck weaved through an area of suburbs and offices with a few storage warehouses. They were going too fast for Nanku to get a good look at most of the buildings they passed, but she kept her mind focused as her body strained.
Cassie had a point.
It sounded like a trap, a rather obvious one. To her credit Bitch wasn't dumb enough to not see it, but she clearly didn't care. She planned to charge into danger and let come what may.
Good attitude.
The truck stopped in a small row of trees lined against a chain link fence. The building within the fence was dull. Lots of trucks and machines and boxes loaded into trucks by machines. There were people inside—men mostly—but they were all working. Nothing that looked like a den for bad bloods.
Nanku dropped to the ground and slipped away from the truck as Bitch got out and Cassie looked the other way. No chance for either to see any shimmer from the cloak, and she went far enough the dogs wouldn't direct too much attention to her. She'd been around them all enough her scent was no longer alarming.
Only her presence might draw their attention.
Nanku slipped down the road into the row of trees and crouched.
The other buildings were quiet. Offices. Warehouses. Loading docks for trucks and vans. Repair facilities. Nothing in her range stood out.
Bitch wasn't reckless, it seemed.
She released her dogs from the back and they all circled around her with alert heads and tails. They began to grow. Snarls ripped from their jaws and they snapped their teeth. They grew quickly. Fur became hide. Bony spikes emerged along their backs and limbs.
Nanku thought they were big before.
Bitch could grow them bigger.
Angelica grew to the size of a van and kept growing with the other animals twitching. Barely able to restrain themselves. Not wanting to restrain themselves.
Only Bitch's iron gaze held them in place.
Cassie climbed out of the truck but she remained quiet and out of sight for the first few minutes. Once all the dogs were massive beasts bigger than most cars, she approached with a frown.
"Rachel."
"No."
"I know." She signed in resignation. "But this is obviously a trap. We know that. Right?"
Bitch pursed her lips briefly but nodded.
Cassie nodded back and climbed atop Sunny. The dog didn't throw her or even react. Its tail snapped at the air, stopping only as Cassie settled onto its back.
"Don't have to come," Rachel said. Her voice was blunt but carried more than her usual amount. Her voice dropped toward the end of the last word.
"Just making sure," Cassie replied.
Bitch stood for a moment, accompanied by a dozen giant dogs. She looked at them one by one, and finally at Cassie. The girl didn't meet her gaze but instead kept her eyes forward. She clearly didn't intend to do or say anything else.
A phone started ringing.
Cassie's eyes twitched but she kept her back straight and weighted.
Bitch didn't answer the device. It kept ringing to the tune of a song about being a bitch, a lover, and a mother. Nanku supposed that made sense, but Bitch's brow twitched.
"Aisha," she grumbled.
"Should have seen that coming," Cassie replied.
"Why live on the outside," Bitch mumbled, "if you won't use it?"
"Don't know."
"Won't let it go."
"I know."
Weird.
Nanku wasn't sure what the point of the exchange was. Hesitation? That was a bad thing to cultivate right before a hunt.
Dusk and Dawn flew overhead. They were high, near the edge of Nanku's range. She used their eyes. Far better eyes than any bug on Earth.
Much of the neighborhood beyond her power's reach was the same. More office buildings. Workshops. Storage and loading facilities. Nothing that stood out from sight alone.
No choice but to follow Bitch when she—
As soon as Nanku had the thought, Rachel mounted Angelica and whistled.
The dogs all burst into motion, each of them following after Angelica as she threw her full monstrous weight into a lunge.
As soon as the herd was in motion, Nanku leaped to her feet and ran after them. Parallel, behind the trees just in case. The wind blew into her face so the dogs wouldn't catch her scent.
Down the alley, the herd turned as Bitch raised an arm and Nanku quickly scaled the chain fence and dropped to the other side. She focused Dusk and Dawn in the appropriate direction and began pulling a swarm together from anything in her air. The tiny legs and wings began beating at the air behind her, sticking to the shadows and the air.
Running between parking tractor-trailers, Nanku released her wrist blades and rapidly scaled the distribution center.
Bitches dogs sprinted past the building, crossing over to the next set of structures. Nanku leaped from the roof after them, grabbing onto Dusk's leg as he swooped down from above. With the hold, Nanku swung her legs forward and landed atop of the trailers. Crossing from one to the next, she followed the pack of dogs nearly three blocks.
Bitch was coming at them from the opposite side of the city. Better than coming from the most straightforward direction.
Dawn flew high above and her eyes set on a set of industrial buildings. They were worn down and some of the windows were boarded over. There was no apparent power to the structure, but there were curiously a few dozen cars parked in its adjacent lot.
Nanku swiped her bio-mask over, scanning the electromagnetic spectrum.
There was a large room at the center of the building. Several really, but only one brushed with energy.
A few dozen men and some women, and a dozen dogs all oriented around a single area at the room's center.
"Barbarians," Nanku grumbled.
If they wanted to kill the animals, they should do it themselves. Not pit them against one another for spectator sport. There were guards along a second floor that overlooked the first and in the halls leading inside. All armed. Even the two dozen men loitering in the parking lot were all armed.
Nanku tilted her head.
A lot of men to guard a parking lot, away from the vile sport they'd come to entertain themselves with.
There was a sign on the factory. One she bothered to trace after her last lesson. A few mosquitoes and flies crawled around and got a feel for the letters and symbols.
A cross, and the letters M-E-D-H-A-L-L.
Medhall.
That sounded familiar. Where had she found that name before?
Nanku leaped to the other side of the linked fence and pulled herself into the trees. She settled into a crouch and searched the surrounding buildings once more.
Something was wrong.
Her instincts were on fire. Something wasn't right. The lay of the land. It was all wrong.
She'd run around enough rooftops and swept enough buildings. Something about the factory was wrong. Nanku started searching more deeply as Bitch came around the back side of it. With another motion of her hand, she pointed and the dogs running behind Angelica and Sunny turned.
The dogs charged at the building in a wave of meat and bone.
Impressive.
Nanku turned her head as Dusk and Dawn swept left and right through the air.
Something was wrong.
Nanku refocused her attention on the parking lot.
That was a lot of men loitering about. Waiting and talking. Why? Didn't they want to watch their caged prey tear one another apart half-starved and beaten? Why even come otherwise?
That's what was wrong, she decided.
Those men in the lot were all wrong.
She landed Dusk on the roof and directed him to look out from the edge.
The men were positioned oddly. They clustered around trucks and vans. They grilled food in half-bin grills cooking meat. Drank from cans—
Bitches dogs came through the walls like they were paper. The people inside shouted and scattered. Guns were drawn and fired. Neither Bitch nor Cassie flinched. They ducked low and directed the animals with shouts and signals. The words 'hurt' came from Cassie's lips. Bitch said kill.
The dogs battered their way through the open arena and both things happened in short order as the crowd began scattering for the exits.
Bitch sent the other dogs ahead but wheeled Angelica about. She surveyed the room, looking at the dogs all caged together to one side. She lingered only long enough to check on them.
A mistake, if one Nanku vaguely understood. It was still foolish.
Especially with the trap she was sending Cassie into.
Nanku flew bugs with better senses of smell closer to be sure. The cans were many, but yes. Most were already empty on the ground or in bins. Flying an insect into one to sniff and taste wasn't hard. The smell was clear. Sugar and bubbles. Soda and energy drinks. Lots of caffeine.
Not one of the men was drinking alcohol.
And any hand holding a can dropped it as soon as people came running from inside the building.
The lot erupted into activity. Cases and truck beds were opened. Flipped up and larger—very large—guns drawn out from inside. So large they needed a mount to be aimed.
Nanku snapped her head around, looking through her narrow vantage.
The dogs came charging after the rabble, chasing them down and blindly running into a crossfire.
Cassie realized it a moment too late.
The guns erupted, a cacophony of thunder rattling the air and tearing into the earth. They were so loud that Nanku felt the rattle in her bones. She'd never heard such a sound before. Bullets the size of her finger were turning the asphalt into dust and blood splattered as those that didn't miss struck boney flesh.
Dogs barked and snarled.
Cassie was wise enough.
She waved the beasts forward, into the onslaught. It was better than stopping and becoming sitting ducks.
It should have been, but the Nazis set their trap well.
While some men manned the guns, others jumped into the driver's seats and started the engines. The vehicles sputtered into motion and as Cassie tried to lead the dogs into breaking the line they split into two. There, Cassie showed inexperience. She kept trying to run through instead of picking a side to break.
Vehicles in the center drew back. Those on the wings came around.
Bitch guided Angelica in at a sprint. The dog didn't stop as a truck tried to position itself. A bone shoulder threw the vehicle aside and Bitch started snapping directions. The dogs began to split. Cassie turned to look at her, hunched low atop Sunny's back and shielded by the bony spines growing on the creature's shoulders.
A man on one of the trucks pointed and all the guns turned.
Rounds splattered across Sunny from all directions. Cassie yelped and tried to shield herself. The sheer force of the bullets was enough to throw her as Sunny fell.
Nanku's hand balled into a fist.
Cowards.
First, they pit beasts against one another for pathetic banal sport, and then they use their deaths as bait for an enemy.
An enemy they drew into an ambush, and surrounded to strike with overwhelming force. Barbaric. As foolish as Bitch was walking into what she knew was a trap, the Nazis lived up to their reputation.
Reprehensible.
Bitch circled her dogs around herself, using their bodies to block the bullets and shield her. The dogs barked and snarled in pain, but the guns weren't stopping them. Their bulk gave her a chance to jump to the ground and reach Cassie's side.
She helped the girl up but it had taken the momentum from her breakout.
That was enough.
They might be bad bloods, but Cassie and Bitch had been… hospitable.
And the Nazis still wanted to kill her mother.
To the Black Warrior with them.
Nanku drew her swarm as she emerged from the trees under her cloak. Dusk took off and flew overhead to meet Dawn.
With her mask, Nanku picked out the man directing the other vehicles and another on a bulky-looking phone. She planted bugs on that one, just to listen in.
Reaching for her belt, Nanku drew her weapons. In one hand, the blades of a shuriken expanded. In the other, her combi-stick unfurled to its full length.
The bullets were large enough to hurt her, she suspected. Fortunately, the guns were all pointed the other way.
At a run, she leaped onto the hood of the first truck she passed.
Her cloak shimmered, drawing the driver's eyes just before her spear went through the window and pierced his chest. As the vehicle jerked to a stop, Nanku stepped over onto the roof. She pulled her spear with her and threw her shuriken to the right. The gunmen on the bed of the truck turned and shouted.
Her wristblades went through one's throat and her spear the other's chest.
She kicked his body over, withdrew her blades, and took hold of the gun.
It was a crude weapon, but she supposed someone might like some silly attempt to obscure her presence.
Nanku jerked the weapon to the side and pulled the trigger. Bullets poured out of the barrel, fed into the gun by a belt of bullets out of a large canister. Down the line, hoods, windows, and blood burst out as the vehicles surrounding Bitch, Cassie, and the dogs on one side were perforated with the Nazi's own ammunition.
On the other side of the encirclement, Dusk and Dawn swooped down and pierced the backs of two gunmen. Dusk lifted off and let his kill drop. Dawn came around and sank her jaws into another man's throat. Dozens of flies and wasps flew. Small in number. A mere fraction of the swarm, but enough to distract them as Dusk and Dawn flew up and away.
The leader noticed something was amiss. He looked left and right, blinking in confusion and turning his head just as the shuriken cut through the air and cleaved the top of his head from his jaw.
Bitch looked Nanku's way, following the line of bullets firing into the other vehicles.
Nanku met her eyes and flashed the lenses on her mask.
It's not like she wanted the dogs to die in some cowardly mass ambush.
No one and no thing deserved such a death without earning it in the worst way possible.