Little Hunter
Nanku rushed with her eyes on the sky around her.
The heroes who could fly were already ahead of her, dipping low and flying back up frequently. Laserdream and Kid Win were firing beams down below and Dauntless' lightning spear nearly drowned both out.
Helicopters circled the battle from a distance. Some colorful with numbers on the side and one with a siren.
The fire had spread from the kennel to neighboring buildings. Nanku could see the smoke clearly. Three columns, perhaps four.
Nanku jumped the gap between two buildings and began turning east toward the water.
Why would they keep fighting if she wasn't there?
Maybe it had nothing to do with her. The attack could be targeted at Bitch. The Pure's thinker and Rune both escaped. Nanku was never their target but the coincidence boggled.
Nanku dropped into an alley and drew Dusk and Dawn lower behind her.
She'd bet it was related to her. The coincidence was too far-fetched, but then why keep fighting if she wasn't there? Did they think she'd be lured out if they attacked Bitch openly?
And what were the heroes doing now that they'd arrived?
She began to circle as she drew close. Building a swarm wasn't hard at night but the city itself had limited options. Black widows from houses. Bees and wasps. It was the best she could do without a thorough search.
It wasn't enough for her liking.
This was a trap.
Nanku wasn't dumb and she didn't believe the timing was a coincidence. She'd been hiding out at Bitch's kennel for weeks. If someone could have tracked her there and wanted to attack it would have happened already.
The problem didn't resolve itself even as she slowed down.
The closer she got the more distracted she became.
There was something else going on. No invisible drones unless they were lingering beyond her range. Which they had before. Kid Win could be watching for her, or Shadow Stalker.
Someone.
And while Nanku tried to figure out who she could hear the shouting and the barking of dogs. Snarling. Lots of snarling.
She wasn't close enough for the fires, but the air sweltered with smoke. There were several red trucks blocking the roads but they were being prevented from moving in by the PRT. The troopers were blocking the roads in and out.
That could be the trap. Getting Dusk and Dawn through the barricades unseen would be hard. Getting out would be harder after starting or joining a fight.
The smoke and heat were affecting the bugs too. The shifts in the air messed with their flight. The smoke dazed some. Others began to struggle to breathe.
The fire could be a ruse to hinder her use of her power.
Was Bitch even in any real danger? They could have moved her and her dogs.
No. That wasn't likely.
Nanku crouched at the edge of the cordoned area and looked within.
The kennel was all fire. She could barely see the building anymore. The roof had collapsed amid the smoke. Flames spread to the buildings beside it and one across.
Her answer to how a fire spread so odd and so fast was clear in the shadows moving about the burning street. Organized chaos. PRT troopers in packs sticking to the edges of the battle. Assault, Battery, and Miss Militia were further in, and at the center a horde of monster dogs and four capes in matching costumes.
Hard to make out from a distance but Nanku found a reasonably high building three blocks away.
Suits with white masks over their faces. Ambassadors.
Miss Militia was in the street with Assault and Battery shouting at them. She didn't seem to be getting very far.
Why would they attack Bitch? Didn't the Pure kill their leader?
They were in a scattered line, one woman holding her hands out at the air while a man stood just slightly behind her to her right. He appeared completely relaxed, arms behind his back.
Nanku tilted her head at the pair uncertain. The other two were more clear-cut.
They were to the side, avoiding Assault and Battery as they tried to hold the dogs back. Which didn't work with how many dogs there were. Kid Win and Laserdream tried to screen the battle and Dauntless was in the distance fighting something or someone else.
One suited man was brawling freely with three of Bitche's dogs. His suit was torn and tattered but his skin was hard and gray in color. Like Alabaster except he didn't come back from being dead. The man just didn't bleed. Even when cut and sliced no blood came and the flesh quickly sealed.
The fourth Ambassador was the source of the fire.
A woman within the head of a fiery serpent. Bitch's dogs hemmed the beast in but gouts of flame surged from every swipe of its tail. The dogs were burned lightly but the fire scared them more than it stopped them.
A dozen more of the transformed beasts were scattered about, some seemingly standing in place and others surrounding Bitch and Cassie.
Nanku hadn't seen Bitch use so many dogs before.
At least thirty of them were running around in varying sizes but the smallest Bitch was keeping close to her.
Miss Militia was behind the Ambassadors with some troopers, shouting.
The whole scene was a mess. Even looking at it Nanku could only call whatever attack had been executed sloppy.
And her instincts screamed at her to stay out of it.
She couldn't fight that many capes, and making herself known now might not help Bitch at all. Sour as the taste of standing aside was. Bitch had been generous with her space and time. Nanku didn't want to make trouble.
Making more trouble wasn't going to help.
Nanku rocked on her heels and turned her eyes on one of the buildings that wasn't on fire just yet.
It was abandoned. No one used it for anything.
It would do.
Slipping past the PRT cordon, Nanku left Dusk and Dawn in a shadowed alley out of sight and moved toward Dauntless' lightning. She didn't see who he was brawling with until she came closer behind the other Ambassadors.
A woman in a fine dress and a mask more stylized than the others. Nanku couldn't see it directly, but the woman had done something to the ground and the air. The lightning broke apart in the air and scattered into the ground.
Then it shot back and Dauntless dodged out of the way.
There were words going back and forth but the woman didn't seem moved.
Nanku ignored them. She weaved her swarm through the sewers. Into the water drains, through the tunnels and then out. They weren't noticed in the dark once they slid under the PRT barricade. Nanku poured them into the abandoned building. The roaches and flies mostly. Anything that didn't bite or sting very well. Most of her swarm went into the building and bundled together in one corner.
Save a few.
Crouching at the edge of the battle, Nanku drew a spear and readied herself.
She passed a few bugs into the burning building and let them catch fire. Their pain was palpable. Only a few made it to the other building. Nanku needed three batches to spread the fire. Then she stoked it, feeding bodies in rows to the fire and getting the flames to spread faster.
It was still too slow.
In the street, one of Bitch's dogs was thrown aside and the brute grabbed another. With both hands, he pried the beast's jaws open and Bitch snarled. She shouted and a half dozen of the dogs around her charged.
None reached their target. They swerved and scattered. It was odd. Strange.
Nanku focused her attention on the woman with her hands raised. She sent a few bees her way, but they didn't reach her. No matter what she did when she tried to approach her she found herself inexplicably moving aside. Off target.
That was annoying.
Nanku tried sending a few bugs at different directions and angles while she coaxed her blaze to life.
Directional.
The woman's power only worked in the directions she pointed her hands? Broad angles but focused on her hands. And only when approaching her. Directly behind there was nothing.
Nanku flew a single spider onto her back and dropped it. Just in case.
Smoke billowed high from her ruined building and Nanku jumped into the street.
Bugs exploded from the building, 'fleeing' the fire and rushing into the street. Heads turned and voices started. The swarm fell like a tide and enveloped the battle. Surrounded everyone, despite the woman's power as part of the horde flew at her from behind and kept going.
She turned her hands and Nanku's black window bit. The woman yelped and stumbled and her hands dropped. The fire serpent whipped around.
The brawl briefly stalled and Nanku ran through the cloud of buzzing insects right toward Bitch.
The air was sweltering. The fire and the smoke didn't get through her masks, but she felt both on her skin. If she lingered too long it might expose her cloak.
One of the dogs sensed her and barked. Another snapped. Bitch's head turned and Nanku flashed the lenses on her mask. Bitch blinked and grabbed Cassie's arm.
"Huh? Wha—"
"We're going."
"But what about—"
"Now."
Bitch forced Cassie onto Sunny's back and climbed onto Brutus. With a whistle and a call, Bitch took all her dogs and fled the battle and the fires. The beasts followed her on command and became a stampede of giants rushing the street while the swarm of bugs began to slowly scatter and flee the fire and smoke.
Nanku ran a different way, bolting between two burning buildings and letting her mask filter the air while she got through to the other side.
Pulling up a manhole cover, Nanku dropped herself down. She replaced the cover quickly and hurried back toward Dusk and Dawn.
If Bitch left then the fight was pointless. The Ambassadors and Protectorate would break off. Brawl over.
Nanku pulled herself onto the street carefully. A large truck was parked over the manhole and she barely had enough room to slide out. From beneath it she waited for a chance to slip away and passed through the barricade unseen. She hoped. Planting a bug on every helmet and orienting it toward the front of the wearer's head.
If they had any equipment that could see through her cloak no one was looking in the right direction to notice.
Slowing, Nanku took a moment to catch her breath. She could run and jump for hours, but going full out from one side of the city to the other was exhausting.
Dusk and Dawn reached her and fluttered their wings to cool their bodies.
Nanku took a breath and sat.
That worked.
Nanku was a bit out of range and she couldn't see but just from movement on the nearby street it seemed like things were breaking up. Good. She managed to get Bitch out of the situation without making it worse.
Not her usual interest but she owed the woman.
Nanku rose to her feet and quickly patted herself off. She didn't need any soot clinging to her while she found…
Something.
To sleep…
Damn it.
She had to find somewhere to sleep again.
She was tired. She'd not slept since the night before and her body felt it. Too tense and too weary. She had to find her mother for a candid conversation and she needed to sort out who was trying to attack her through Bitch—
Shadow Stalker and Kid Win.
Nanku snarled and rose to her feet.
One coincidence was suspicious but nothing to be alarmed over. Two. Three. Four. The more coincidences coincided the less coincidental they were.
Why did the Ambassadors attack?
Rolling her shoulders, Nanku checked her equipment and swept off any remaining ash and soot. Her swarm was essentially fodder for the fire after she'd blown them out of the building and let them scatter. That left her with work to do while she moved.
Nanku went northwest first, and then then north. Finding the Ambassadors as they retreated from the battle wasn't hard. The men from the brawl hauled the woman Nanku had bitten between them. The fire snake was gone and the woman who conjured it walked beside the one who'd battled Dauntless.
They retreated from the fire and Nanku could see the sirens and lights of firetrucks moving in toward the blaze as she vaulted a roof. Dauntless, Kid Win, and Laserdream darted back and forth. Laserdream carried people off the ground using her power and Dauntless was somehow sucking one of the blazing fires into his shield.
She crept along and planted bugs on each of the Ambassadors.
"—got played," the fire-snake woman said to the one in the dress. "Huntress wasn't there."
"That doesn't mean our information was wrong," the woman in the dress replied.
Nanku dared a closer look over the roof's edge.
The Ambassadors had a half-dozen other men with them. Their masks only covered their eyes and noses rather than their full faces and they clearly took direction from the others. Non-parahumans in their own non-parahuman costumes.
They were preparing vehicles ahead and talking on phones.
The capes were sticking together.
"Bit by a fucking bug," one grumbled. "Bit by a swarm of roaches."
"Disgusting," the gray man agreed.
"Imagine what the boss would have said after that? He'd have freaked out."
"Probably hunted down whoever owned the building and squeezed them to dust."
"Yeah. He probably would."
"Can't believe I miss the old nut."
"Right?"
The snake woman and the one in the dress continued to talk, and the snake woman was getting angrier.
"I told you not to trust whoever was feeding us that shit," she said. "They're clearly trying to drive a wedge between us and the Undersiders."
"You think Tattletale is trustworthy?"
"I think Tattletale is about as trustworthy as any villain can be trustworthy. She keeps her deals and we just stabbed her in the back attacking Bitch like that."
The woman in the dress shook her head. "There's something going on."
"A bunch of Nazi shits wind up dead, what do we care who did it? They killed the boss!"
"And now we have to stand without him. Simply being allied to the Undersiders means nothing if all we become is dependent on them."
"Going to war with the Undersiders doesn't help us. We're lucky Bitch isn't as mad as her rep. She could have fought harder instead of stalling for a chance to get out."
"And then the Protectorate let us walk to focus on the fires."
"Now all this shit on our head, J. I know you want to keep the boss' legacy going but fucking come on."
Nanku tuned out the bulk of the conversation.
She didn't care for their drama.
Someone told them she was with Bitch was the detail that mattered. Someone told them and got the fight to happen.
The only ones who absolutely knew were the Undersiders, Rose, her mother, Dauntless, and Vista…
And it could have been any of them, couldn't it? Tattletale had used Bitch as bait before. Her mother was her mother. Dauntless and Vista were enforcers opposed to Nanku's actions. The only one she was absolutely certain couldn't have done it was Rose…
But the fire-snake woman had a point.
Who had been trying to cause trouble since before Nanku even got into town? Who could have deduced her location and sent the Ambassadors to start a fight?
Nanku tapped a finger against her knee as the Ambassador got into their vehicles and left. Dusk and Dawn drew up beside her and rumbled their throats. They were rested and ready, and Nanku—if her guesses were right—had at least one lead.
But first….
Nanku rose and hurried the other way. It was slower than she wanted to be. Avoiding the PRT and others took time. Fortunately, the flying capes were busy with the fires and everyone else was at ground level.
She found Bitch after nearly an hour of searching.
Cassie was with her, along with Parian and Foil and a dozen women who were helping to pull dogs out of piles of steaming fat and meat.
Nanku stayed hidden and held Dusk and Dawn back. She couldn't be sure someone wasn't watching. Best no one sees her openly.
Bitch sat atop Brutus while the work was done, glaring in no particular direction.
"This is bad," Cassie grumbled. "Right? This is bad."
"Bad," Foil confirmed.
Parian sat side-saddle atop a stuffed animal. "We don't have to do anything."
"Can't do nothing," Bitch said. "Have to remind everyone why we're in charge."
Made sense.
Like any pack, the Undersiders had to assert who was in charge even if the Ambassadors seemed ready to drop the issue.
"What about Nanku?" Parian asked.
"She helped us get away," Cassie said. "Don't think she showed herself in a way anyone else would notice."
"At least she didn't go on another killing spree," Foil grumbled.
"Not an animal," Bitch replied cooly. "Don't talk about her like one."
Nanku tilted her head.
That was nice.
…
And Bitch looked unharmed. Her dogs too. Good.
Nanku raised a hand to her chest and breathed.
Good.