Chapter 6 - Markus III

I watched as Alice and Kayden glared at each other from across the table in the latters already packed up apartment. Theo sat to the side, soothing the baby in his arms, a suitcase full of his things next to him. I had halfway expected him or even Kayden to run to Kaiser after I left, but they had followed my commands to the letter.

It felt good to be in control.

"Alice, this is Kayden, Kayden, this is Alice. Get along." I introduced them, ignoring how they narrowed their eyes even further at each other. Alice had actually been fingering one of her newly built bombs but I really wasn't worried. As long as I was here, she would behave herself.

"...What can you do then?" The tinker finally broke the silence, leaning back and crossing her arms, a frown on her face.

"You'll see." Kayden answered without a pause, a cold smile on her face.

Alice already looked annoyed. "And the kids? Were you a slut as a teenager or something?"

Kayden's face scrunched up, the hands on the table clenched into fists. "Just because your mother was some asian slut your father slummed…"

"My dad's japanese you bitch." Alice interrupted, baring her teeth and this time really pulling a silver sphere from the harness on her chest. At the same time Kayden started glowing brighter and brighter, her eyes narrowed almost into slits.

I pulled the warmth of the room inside myself, lowering the temperature. The effect was immediate as all humans in the room stiffened up and their attention was suddenly on me.

"Didn't I tell you to get along?" I asked gently, their pale faces watching me. Alice lowered her raised bomb and Kayden dimmed down. It was a rush having these two jumping at anything I said. "But maybe you just need a team building exercise to get to know each other."

"What? Like trust falls and shit?" The Tinker asked after a moment of silence where they absorbed my words. "Don't think that's gonna work."

"No. Kayden, did you put together the list I asked for?" I ignored Alice as I turned my attention towards the former Empire member.

She grimaced and reluctantly pulled out a piece of paper from the laptop case next to her. "I'm not sure it's a good idea…"

"Kayden, you need a clean break. You'll be forever in Max's shadow otherwise." I nodded encouragingly, not letting on my real thoughts but I suspected that deep down she already knew.

My shadow would be far larger.

The flying nightlight hesitated for a moment longer before her eyes fell onto her daughter. Only then did she sigh and hand me the paper with the home addresses of her former friends and colleagues. At least the ones she knew about. "I don't know where Krieg, the Schmidts and the twins are sleeping nowadays and for Hookwolfs crew there is a list of safehouses they use in rotation which they might have changed up. Otherwise every other address should be uptodate."

I read the list, from the Herren house to Crusaders bachelor pad. They were almost all in empire territory but fairly far from each other. Kaiser's penthouse apartment was the only in a neutral area controlled by the Protectorate, but I wasn't really interested in taking on Kaiser right this moment, having him run around causing chaos would make his defeat more meaningful.

"Uhmm, Jessica and Nessa have been sleeping over at dads place a lot." Theo offered nervously after a moment, getting a wide eyed stare from Kayden in response.

"What? Why didn't you tell me that earlier?" She asked the teenager with a betrayed tone in her voice. Theo looked surprised by her sudden anger with him, his eyes darting to and fro before landing on me. He barely sent me a pleading look before he seemed to remember himself and glanced away to the floor.

I barely managed to suppress a chuckle before pulling the former Empire members attention onto myself. "Kayden, by joining me, you have already transcended the Empire. If you want to punish Max, you can do it if you want to."

She opened her mouth to respond, her eyebrows knitted in genuine anger, before it shut with a click of her teeth when she noticed everyone staring at her. Kayden struggled for another couple of seconds to say something before she finally slumped, her eyes on the table.

"Are we going after her former gang or what?" Alice interjected, still playing with her silver bomb. "I don't really know anything about the scene in this shithole."

"Yes, we need to make an impact." I explained as I planned a route to hit as many of the Empire safehouses as possible. Victor and Othala lived with Rune in the suburbs, the three Herren clan members sharing a nice three bedroom house. They would be my first target. "We will differentiate us from the rest of the groups in America."

Alice, Kayden and Theo looked at me ready for an explanation. When I gave it, Alice cackled, Kayden looked pained and Theo was almost dripping sweat.

I just laughed.

Later

I was hovering down into the backyard of Victor, Othala and Rune. The two adults were married and part of the Herren clan, a group of cape families that had a working relationship with the Empire. From what I could remember they never became relevant again. Victor was a skill thief but only for mundane things, which didn't even make him superhuman.

I was actually embarrassed to share the distinction of parahuman with him.

Othala in contrast had a very useful power, giving one other person temporary superpowers. The one I was especially interested in was the major boost to healing she could grant.

The last person living with them was Rune, a teenager with telekinetic powers that had some random requirements I didn't bother to remember. No threat at all.

I gently pushed my gravity outwards, flattening the grass and earth below me and splintering the deck behind the house. As I moved forward this sphere of pressure started pressing against the house itself, the siding and wooden supports of the outer wall breaking and cracking, the sounds surely loud enough to wake up the residents.

When a hole opened into the living room, I heard the loud pop of a gunshot, and another and another. Again and again a high caliber gun was shot in my direction from inside the house. It might as well have been blanks for how much damage it did, the shots entering my gravity field for maybe an inch before they were crushed into tiny metal pellets and pushed back out.

The wall studs finally broke beneath the pressure, the opening widening enough for me to fit inside the home. My gaze met the alert eyes of a half naked muscular man standing in the hallway beyond the living room, a rifle in his hands. A young woman stood behind him, a hand on his shoulder.

"There you are, Othala." I said, causing her eyes to widen while Victors narrowed, his empty magazine swapped out for a new one. Then he blurred forward, his movement so fast that I could barely catch sight of him as he started towards me before junking to the left and moving out of the house through the still intact backdoor.

Did he want me to chase him or was he just repositioning? It didn't matter.

I raised my arm, an unnecessary gesture, and expanded my gravity field to encompass the whole house as well as the rest of the property. Then I increased the gravity.

I heard the house creaking around me, the beams and wooden supports slowly being eroded by my power. Objects and decorations splintered or fell off their places on the buckling furniture. The building wouldn't survive the heightened gravity long but it would last long enough to stop anyone from fleeing back to the rest of the Empire.

Then the closed kitchen door Rune had sent at me with her telekinetic powers was smashed down into the floor in front of me, the projectile coming within a foot of hitting while I was tracking Victor. Not that it would have done anything, random objects were never going to hurt me.

I watched as the teenager crumbled down to the kitchen tiles below her with fear in her eyes, her pajamas ruffled from the pressure surrounding her. She looked like she was barely awake, like she was caught in the middle of a nightmare and was just now coming to the realization that it was real. I dismissed her with barely a glance.

Othala fell forward, her mouth open in a scream of surprise, or maybe warning, as I floated towards Victor. He was slowly crawling forward, the heightened gravity not quite enough to make him completely immobile. His eyes were jittery, moving from side to side rapidly. Having me slowly come closer must be even more terrifying in slow motion. For subjective minutes he waited until if stopped in front of him.

"Relying on the powers of someone else. You disgust me." I told him to his face, his clenched jaws wanting to open up to reply to me. Maybe to defend himself or just to curse me for destroying the nice life he had been enjoying so far. People like him would always have an excuse for their actions. I didn't let him utter a single word before I grasped his face and stopped the air from reaching his lungs.

He stared up at me in defiance, his eyes getting bloodshot from the lack of oxygen before he slumped to the ground, my power pressing him into the dirt. The empire stooge had lasted longer than I thought, fighting until his last bit of strength had escaped him.

I lessened the gravity and the house behind me seemed to almost sigh in relief, the coming collapse postponed for at least a little while. The sound alone tempted me to finish the job, flattening the whole plot and maybe some neighborhood too…

The temptation was strong but my will was stronger and I just shook my head as I grasped Victor by the foot and surrounded him with my powers again.

My control had improved by leaps and bounds lately. That first night I never would have been able to hold two different gravity fields at the same time. Now I could keep my surroundings in one such field while having Victor float behind me back into the house. I couldn't wait to find out what I could do with a couple months of practice. Not a single being on the planet would be able to touch me. Not that many were able to right now of course.

Othala was on her hands and knees looking up at me as I arrived before her. She looked terrified out of her mind as she looked at her husband's unconscious body. Good, it would make it easier to force her to my will.

"Why, why are you in our h, home?" She asked me with clenched teeth, the increased gravity not allowing her much more. I could see it in her face, she wanted to reach out to Victor and help him, but she was too weak. She struggled for barely a moment before she just gave up, instead turning her eyes towards me, silently pleading.

"Because I can." I told her simply and watched as the rest of her blood drained out of her face. She had already given up on finding a way out of this situation.

"Because I want to." I continued and she swallowed thickly, her cheeks wetting with tears. She had already given into despair. It almost reminded me of myself when I stood in front of Lung, seeing no way out anymore.

In contrast to myself though, she had an alternative to dying a quick death and with the way she was looking at me I knew she would take it with open arms.

"Because I… need you to do something for me."

AN: Avengers assem... eh... Titans, Go... no... Okay, I got nothing.