Glaistig Uaine was illuminated by a sea of stars, perched atop the spire of the city's tallest skyscraper. She was well outside my stamp sense, but I could still see her in the moonlight. She had three ghosts floating near her: a robed man with a blindfold and nails through his hands, wrists, and upper arms; a short squat man in sandals; and a four-legged woman with two different sized arms. Uaine's glittering green and black cloak faded like mist, replaced with armor, a shield, a sickle, and two massive luminous wings. Which ghost had done that? I'd need to match each ghost with their respective power if we were to find a path to victory.
"Regent, Bitch," I said. "Your powers aren't gonna help much in this fight. Find Vista, Trickster, Aegis, Rune, or any other movers and bring them here. Bring as many reinforcements as you can."
I stamped Regent's scepter and sent them off. The Faerie Queen tracked their movement, but didn't attack. She just let them go. A mind game? Did she not see us as threats? Whatever the case, I was grateful they weren't harmed.
"Princess Shaper, I will only deal with you as an equal. I am willing to protect the faerie's in your court: the Dotish Negotiator, Crownless Administrator, Caitiff in the Darkness, and Spaceless Dilator, from the Broadcast Officer," chanted Glaistig Uaine, her voice combined with hundreds of murdered shadow puppets. "In exchange for your Waifish Sting."
"Waifish Sting is Flechette," Tattletale translated. "Amy is the Princess Shaper and the Broadcast Officer is Jack Slash."
Flechette fluttered her eyes at Panacea. "It would be an honor to sacrifice my life to protect you, my queen."
I frowned.
"I ordered her to master Flechette," Tattletale said quickly.
That wasn't what I was concerned about. There were two things. I'd fought Glaistig Uaine, or I'd tried to fight her and hadn't even really been able to do that. I didn't think we could beat her. If that really was the case, wouldn't it be smart to take the Faerie Queen up on her offer? Get her on our side, and the balance of power swung significantly. Victory over the Slaughterhouse would be assured. Sure it would make me a hypocrite, but that seemed insignificant compared to assuring the safety of the Undersiders.
The other thing to consider was why the Faerie Queen wanted Flechette? It gave credence to the idea that Flechette could pop the Siberian, but was it possible she could do more than that? What if Flechette was the only one who could defeat Glaistig Uaine?
If so, then…
"You might just be the most important of us all," I told Flechette. "Don't sacrifice yourself so easily. I won't."
"Princess Shaper," chanted Glaistig Uaine, "I hear your paupers plotting. Scheming and conniving. I will negotiate only with nobility. Not rabble. I treat you as an equal, but if you demand war I will give you war. I will collect your entire court, not just your Waifish Sting."
Two of the ghosts around Glaistig Uaine had been replaced. The man who'd been tortured remained, a wispy woman had joined them, along with a really crazy looking one, wearing an inappropriate costume. The vulgar woman's costume exposed more than it covered up, and had been warped by Glaistig Uaine until costume and body were one and the same. I didn't like the look of the ghost at all.
"She's baiting us," I said. "Trying to get us to take a shot at her."
"I agree," said Tattletale. "Especially because whenever I try to get a read on Uaine, my power starts giving me the backstory of Mister Nail over there instead."
"I'm guessing some kind of defense that sends the attack back on us," I said. "I'm going to put a stamp on the ground. If the attack reflects back on us, don't run. I'll teleport you to safety as long as you stay close."
Flechette nodded, charged a bolt, loaded it into the crossbow, and took aim at Glaistig Uaine. The charged bolt raced through the sky, almost too quick to see, ignoring gravity and wind resistance. The vulgar woman reacted, created a circle of rippling air. When the bolt struck the barrier, Flechette dropped to her knees, showering the rest of us in her blood. Panacea was already doing what she could to heal the hole in Flechette's chest, but she'd be out for a minute. In a fight like this, a minute may as well be a year.
Blasters wouldn't work on Glaistig Uaine.
They'd work on us though. A barrage of lasers rained down on us, forcing Clockblocker to freeze an emergency thermal blanket to shield us.
"Flechette can hurt her," said Tattletale, her thinker power working again. She had to shout to be heard, as lasers blasted the concrete around us into gravel and tar. "She'll kill Flechette if we give her an opening. The rest of us she'll seek to isolate and torture until we second trigger. She'd prefer to leave Amy unharmed. If we lose, call her a human so she kills you quick."
I peeked out from our shield. Glaistig Uaine had replaced her ghosts again. Nail Ghost for countering Tattletale, a ghost with a ceremonial sword and gun, and a tall ghost in black that was whispering to his queen, drawing Uaine's attention. The Vulgar Woman wasn't active. For just a moment, the Faerie Queen was vulnerable.
"Load it," I said, handing Flechette her crossbow, and memorizing Uaine's position. "Grue, cover us in darkness."
When she handed me back the crossbow, I was surrounded in darkness, I aimed the bow as well as I could at Glaistig Uaine and her ghosts, stamped the charged bolt, and fired.
My aim was off by several degrees, but that was alright. I corrected for the error when I teleported a couple dozen of Bakuda's bombs right at her. And when the stamp got close enough, I would teleport her and that Vulgar Woman to the bottom of the atlantic before any of the bombs made contact with that shimmering reflector shield.
Didn't get the chance. Glaistig Uaine summoned a fox-faced shadow and vanished out of my senses. The night sky was lit up with a series of explosions which tore through a couple skyscrapers, dusted a few roads, but also took down two of the ghosts that had been atop the building.
Clockblocker whistled. "It's a lot more fun when you're on our side."
The tops of the skyscrapers I'd cut through crashed into the ground like an atomic bomb, raising a mushroom cloud of dust.
Something popped into existence twenty feet behind us.
"You'll pay for your impudence Administrator," said Glaistig Uaine, the fox-faced teleporter by her side. Two shadows emerged.
"Shit," said Grue, covering us in darkness.
I stamped the ground, opened up a geyser under Uaine, but she'd vanished before the spray made contact. I sensed arms, tentacles bursting from the ground, wriggling towards us. I blasted them with Bakuda's bombs: disintegrated some, crystallized others, but there were always more. When they got too close I tried to spray them, but couldn't stop their onslaught. Until they stilled, hardened, and even my strongest geysers couldn't harm them. We were fucked. But they didn't move? Why not?
Oh. They'd been put on pause. Clockblocked. The traitorous little shit had frozen one of Uaine's strongest ghosts.
Hehehehehe. Hahahahaha. Oh my god.
I let out a breath.
"It's a lot more fun when you're on our si-"
The breath rushed out of me. Flung by an impossibly strong force. Flying above the second story, would be dead when I hit the ground. Shit, shit, shit. Had let a brute sneak up on me. Stamped Everywhere's mask. Teleported to the inside of the Atlantic Portal.
Felt my Brockton Stamp tumbling across the pavement, rushing farther and farther from the battlefield. Leaving my friends vulnerable, and making it impossible to teleport back to Brockton without being grated into shreds by the pavement. I stamped fabric over my hand, jerked it downward, and teleported one of Panacea's stingers a few millimeters above my mask. Pinned it to the concrete. Restamped Armsmaster's bomb casket, and teleported back to the battlefield.
Looked around. Powers not working. Couldn't sense anything, except the ghost next to me. Where were the threa-
I let out a hiss. A hatchet was struck halfway through my calf. Why had he done that? It must've been a mistake. I fought through the pain and noticed a bubble of darkness, inside a crater two blocks down.
"I need you to carry me," I told the Nice Ghost, pointing to my friends.
He ripped his hatchet from my calf, and swu-
Popped. He'd… Been a stranger. Tattletale had shot him with one of Flechette's charged bolts.
Glaistig Uaine let out a ragged scream above me. She summoned another shadow. Not dark like the others. Monochrome. Gray.
Fuck. My friends. Had to protect them. I ra- tripped and fell. My calf had given out. Couldn't walk. Couldn't move.
But I could teleport. I stamped the ground, teleported to the Atlantic Portal, back to Brockton at the edge of my stamp's range, restamped the ground and repeated. Flickered forward faster than I could have run anyway. It took me a few seconds to travel two blocks, felt my Undersiders get back in range. I hurled one of Bakuda's bombs at Gray Boy.
It detonated, turned him into dust, but with a monochrome flicker he was back. Still, it had given my friends enough time to rush out of danger. Most of them.
Flechette was too wounded to retreat, and Panacea too frightened. I never should've brought her to the battlefield. She wasn't ready.
"Fuck you," said Flechette, lifting her crossbow.
Gray Boy smirked, and pointed at his forehead.
She pulled the trigger and an eight foot gray bubble enveloped her and Amy.
I flickered forward. Maybe, maybe if I got my stamp within ten feet of them I could teleport them. My power allowed me to cut through space, why couldn't it cut through time? I put a stamp right next to the gray bubble, but sensed nothing. It was as if they were in a different world, a different universe.
Maybe… Maybe… I pounded on the gray bubble, but it didn't pop. Just saw Amy trembling, Flechette raise her crossbow, again. And again. And again. Forever.
"She got him," Tattletale whispered into my ear. "They won't be tortured, and they're in there together. For a Gray Boy loop, it's as good as you could hope for."
I shoved her off me.
I'd killed Lung and felt nothing. I'd killed Oni Lee, nothing. When I'd murdered Bakuda in cold blood, fully aware that she had a deadman's switch I'd felt nothing. My actions had directly led to the deaths of dozens of good innocent people. Hundreds. And yet I'd never once felt a thing. Not a thing.
I didn't even like Amy. She'd been a liability, a loose cannon and a rapist, and I didn't know Flechette at all. So why? In the middle of the most important battle I'd ever fought of all times? It was ridiculous that I should…
I didn't have time for these… Whatever they were. I'd deal with them after, if there was an after.
I wiped something off my cheek, and blinked the dust out of my eyes.
"I have no idea how I'm going to do it," I said, turning to glare up at Glaistig Uaine. She stood atop the burning remains of the skyscraper I'd shelled halfway to the ground, her luminous wings making her look like an angel. "But I'm going to make you regret that."
"I already do," Glaistig Uaine chanted, her voices sorrowful. "My aim was not the Princess Shaper, nor even her Waifish Sting. Only the Dotish Negotiator deserves banishment. This has been a regrettable battle. Wasteful. Give me the Dotish Negotiator, and we shall have a peace that lasts three hundred years."
"Yeah," said Clockblocker. "You can fuck right off with that bullshit."
I flicked off the Faerie Queen.
Tattletale and Grue were silent.
"Even should our battle resume," said Glaistig Uaine imperiously. "I will merely collect you Spaceless Dilator. But Dotish Negotiator, I will allow you to drift. Will you force me to take your comrades into my collection, or shall you atone for the crimes you have committed to my Flock?"
"Our dear Gray Boy pointed at his forehead," said Tattletale, shooting Glaistig Uaine a vulpine smile. "Doesn't seem like your faeries are all that happy, does it? So maybe you should claim my power, turn me into one of your freaky little slaves if you really wanna punish me. I mean, having to play house with a middle-aged woman cosplaying as a twelve year old faerie really seems like the worst kind of hell to me. No wonder they all go insane."
"You live up to your name, Dotish Negotiator," said Glaistig Uaine. "You speak with confidence, although you know nothing. A shallow imitation of the Broadcast Officer…"
Something was off. Why talk in the middle of battle? Why not just wipe us out? It was almost as if she was stalling. But she had us in the open, and…
The ghost that Clockblocker had frozen, the man controlling the tentacles, was still on pause. Glaistig Uaine was stalling, waiting to get him back.
How long had it been? Was it possible she didn't have access to any of her ghosts because we'd killed two of them?
No. There were two ghosts hovering beside her. A ghost in armor, and the Vulgar Woman. The one who could conjure a barrier which reflected the damage from an attack back onto you. We couldn't attack Uaine with a blasting power until we'd gotten rid of the Vulgar Woman.
At the edge of my stamp sense I noticed that Regent and Bitch returned with reinforcements. They hadn't gotten Vista or Trickster, which would have won us the fight, but they'd gotten Aegis and Kid Win, who could be useful. They were still a block away.
I teleported stingers into the pavement in front of them, drawing a little arrow towards us. If Aegis and Kid Win could connect a string to the Vulgar Woman, Clockblocker could pause her, and then I'd be free to send the fucking faerie to the moon with a giant geyser.
Instead of following orders, I sensed Kid Win pointing a giant cannon at Glaistig Uaine. What was he planning on… Oh. I sent a paralyzing stinger into his neck before he got himself killed.
Glaistig Uaine frowned, and switched out her armored ghost for one in a gorilla costume. Aegis flew and deposited Regent next to us, and Rachel arrived riding a transformed Brutus shortly after.
I took a spool of thread from Clockblocker's waist, tied a quarter around the front of it, stamped the quarter, and handed it to Aegis.
"Get this on the Vulgar Woman," I said, "Keep it pointed at her. If you keep within ten feet of the quarter, I'll be able to teleport you away from anything she sends your way."
"Yes'm," said Aegis, taking the string, flying off.
I'd have liked to give him more details, more of an explanation, but we didn't have time for it.
I teleported to the Atlantic Portal, and waited for Tattletale's signal.
ooOoo
As soon as Aegis had flown ten feet the Forty-Year-Old Faerie started blasting. Tats threw up a hand sign, and Tay Tay made Aegis pop out of existence, and the Forty-Year-Old Faerie's lasers passed through where he'd been harmlessly. They kept going, hit the third story of a high rise a few blocks away, annihilated it, drilled through the base of another highrise, finally hit the ground, obliterated half a street from existence, and caved in the other half once the laser started tunneling underground. Now that was a damn blaster, holy shit.
Tattletale whistled and laughed, because otherwise she'd be crying. What the fuck had they gotten themselves into?
Tattletale signaled for Tay Tay to send Aegis back. The Forty-Year-Old Faerie kept blasting, but Aegis flickered out of the way of each laser. The barrage was taking its toll on the city though. Skyscrapers toppled around her, the heat from the battle making the tar in the concrete boil, smoke and smog darkening the air, even as the fires around her lit up the darkness.
Aegis got closer and closer, almost within that ten foot victory condition where Tay Tay could send the Queen to the bottom of the Atlantic. Then the Middle Aged Fae brought out her trump card.
A Case 53? Tats saw a point source the size of a grapefruit.
Creates Matter. A-
Blades flowed out of the source, almost as quickly as the lasers. Taylor opened up a geyser on the quarter, but the blades kept coming, she sent a dozen of Bakuda's bombs at them, but that barely dented them. The blades were replaced faster than she could destroy them.
Uaine's strongest attack. Did not use earlier because it takes a lot of energy. Uaine does not care about fight. Waiting for Eidolon. Stall with Clockblocker, and Uaine will move onto easier targets.
"Shit," said Clockblocker, freezing Aegis. The frozen hero was swallowed up by an expanding sea of blades. Tattletale was already throwing up the thermal blanket on top of them.
ooOoo
I couldn't teleport Aegis thanks to Clockblocker. I could teleport to him, and applied stamps all along the wire, flickering back to the Undersiders, a storm of expanding blades at my back.
Clockblocker had fucked up. I could've teleported Aegis! I could've fucking teleported him, but now he was stuck inside the attack and he'd be dead the moment he unfroze. Fucking tortured for eternity, just like-
A mistake. What next? Clock, Tattletale, Grue, and Regent were already setting up a tent using the thermal shielding. Good. Bitch and Brutus were running from the blades. Bad. They couldn't outrun them. Kid Win was still knocked out from earlier, bad too, and my fault.
Flickered to Bitch and sent her to the Atlantic. Couldn't teleport Brutus. Too heavy.
Stamped hand, and sent a geyser at Brutus. Shot him away as fast as I could. Didn't know if it'd kill him, didn't know if it'd even get him out of range of the attack. Flickered to Kid Win and sent him to the Atlantic. Sound of steel slashing metal on my back. Undersiders safe in frozen tent. Stamped a handful of quarters in my pocket, threw them at the tent, and teleported to the Atlantic Portal.
One of the quarters got through the blades, parked itself close enough that I could teleport the Undersiders to safety if things got too bad. I deactivated the extraneous stamps as quickly as I could, my stamp sense in Brockton overtaken by blades. Surrounded by containment foam and darkness, in a tiny metal crate in the bottom of an ocean.
A pit had formed in my stomach. Felt something coming up in my throat. Hard to breathe.
Bitch howled. Sad, mournful, angry. Undersiders still moving inside their tent, Uaine's blades not getting through.
What about Amy and Flechette? How had I gotten them killed? No, killed would have been better than what happened, they were in hell because of me, let's not soften the consequences of my failure. Maybe if I'd… If I'd just left the stamp by them, just let myself hit the- no that would've killed me. No, I should've seen the ghost who'd flung me coming. Should've prepped for it, expected it. Who had it been? Krieg. It could've been fucking Krieg, and I could've just teleported him to the botto-
Bitch grabbed me. Held me tight. Angry. That's right, I'd gotten Brutus killed too.
"I'm sorry," I murmured, as if that would do any good. "I'm sorry."
"Saved me," said Bitch. "Thanks."
I sniffed. Fucking containment foam. Getting in my eyes. The Undersiders were fine, but were surrounded by blades. How long could Uaine keep up the attack?
Maybe forever. She was Eidolon 2.0. Closer to an Endbringer than we were to her. I shouldn't have-
No, couldn't think like that. Not until it was over.
Did I have enough space for everyone? No, not right now. But maybe if I got rid of Bakuda's bombs. I needed them though, they were our best offensive weapon. With them I could guarantee victory if Glaistig Uaine wandered within 200 feet of me. They'd kept her from getting too close, kept her relying on blasters, as fucked up as it was, we probably hadn't seen a fraction of what Uaine was capable of.
Wait. Why had I shot a geyser at her in that one moment she'd teleported behind us, instead of flicking one of Bakuda's bombs right into her skull? I could've won, should've…
Amy, Flechette, and Brutus, they'd all died because I'd done the wrong thing at the critical point. I had to beat her. Make it mean something. Or else what was the point of all their sacrifices?
Tattletale, Regent, Grue, and Clockblocker were pounding on the walls of their clockblocked tent. Blades still surrounded them.
I teleported the rest of Bakuda's bombs to the hurricane of blades, and brought my Undersiders to safety.
"Breathe slow," I said softly. "We don't have much oxygen here. We're going to need to make it last."
"Four minutes of oxygen until we suffocate," said Tattletale. "Thanks for the save, by the way, she was superheating the concrete, boiling us alive."
"We have to go back," said Clockblocker. "Aegis is still back there."
"But do we though?" Asked Regent.
The hurricane of blades subsided. Cleared. Puffed to nothingness. We could teleport back. Fight on.
"We've only got four minutes of oxygen left," I said. "We need to use that time to figure out how we're going to put the vulgar woman on pause, figure out how we're going to get a stamp within ten feet of Uaine when she's got that fox-faced teleporter, and then we go back and take out the Faerie Queen. I missed a killshot on her earlier because I hadn't thought things through enough, I won't make that mistake again."
"Or, you could open up a portal," said Tattletale. "Let some oxygen from Brockton Bay flow here, let some of that containment foam flow to Brockton Bay. Truth is, our dear middle-aged fairy princess isn't doing so hot. She's here for Eidolon and we wore her out. Once she calms down, she's gonna realize she needs to recharge her battery, and she's gonna go running for the Siberian, looking for some prey to fill her up."
"And you're just gonna let her," said Clockblocker. "Our job was to stall her."
"Die, you mean," said Regent.
"I'm inclined to agree," said Grue. "We've done enough. Let her be somebody else's problem."
"Aegis is next to her," said Clockblocker. "He's dead if we don't do something about it."
"And so are the rest of us, if we go back there," said Tattletale. "Fuck that. I vote no."
"Seconded," said Regent.
"I'm out as well," said Grue.
"She killed Brutus," said Bitch.
"She'll kill Aegis," said Clockblocker.
So it was up to me then?
"You couldn't have beaten her," said Tattletale. "Even with the bombs. You're thinking you could've killed her if you'd teleported one of them into her. It would've been close, but you're forgetting that the bombs require you to jerk your arm. The geysers are a little quicker, and she was too quick to be hit with those."
"Then I should've reacted faster," I said. "I knew she had a bunch of powers, I should've been expecting her to teleport. Should've been ready for it. It's basic tactics."
"She used a power you'd never seen before in the middle of battle," said Tattletale. "There's no way you could've expected it. We fought. We did the best we could. We still lost, and I don't think there's any way we could've won. Maybe with Trickster or Vista, but we didn't have Trickster or Vista, and we still don't have them. This isn't a battle we can win."
"We could've," I said. "If I'd been faster. Smarter. Stronger. I will be; next time. We're going back."
"No," said a raspy voice. "You won't. Armsmaster here. I've been debriefed on your mission and overheard the conversation. Everywhere, I'm ordering you to stand down."
"But-"
"Not asking," said Armsmaster. "Ordering. You wanted me in charge, keep you from making mistakes, here I am, keeping you from making a mistake."
"But if I don't beat her, then Amy will have sacrif-"
"The odds that you defeat Glaistig Uaine at this point are infinitesimal," said Armsmaster. "She'll kill you, collect you, damaging our overall position."
"And what were the odds of her damaging any of the ghosts?" Asked Clockblocker. "This is fucking Everywhere you're talking to. Your prediction software doesn't mean shit when it comes to her. She pulls miracles out of her ass on the regular."
"Irrelevant," said Armsmaster. "I'm giving the orders. Follow them… Please?"
There was a weakness to his voice. I could take command, if I wanted to.
"Seriously," said Regent. "Please."
"Please," said Tattletale.
"I'll allow you to give me orders," I said. Obedience meant giving up on our fight with Glaistig Uaine. Losing. Letting a bully win. It went against everything I stood for.
But. I sensed the Undersiders. Bitch, Grue, Regent, and Clockblocker. Tattletale. I couldn't fail them like I'd failed Amy.
"Everywhere," said Armsmaster sternly. "That's not how you speak to a superi-" He paused, like he was considering his next words carefully. "I'll take it. Let's go over the mission. Consider this your first debriefing."
I felt myself grow more and more indignant. Outraged by the ridiculousness- the unfairness- of the whole thing. I mean really? So I'd damaged a few skyscrapers, so what? Did anyone really give a shit about collateral damage? What a waste of ti-
Wait. Seriously, wait.
How much was being deducted from my paycheck?
"Welcome to being a hero."
Author's Note: I'm pretty sure that Glaistig Uaine wouldn't have access to some of her powers if I were trying to keep everything strictly canon compliant. I think she gets the Queen of Swords and King of Cups in the Scion fight, but keeping track of when she got each power would have been a nightmare.