Chapter 21: Special Delivery (Part 2)
(Wednesday, October 20th, 2123)
"Don't let a single Brotherhood bastard set foot on the ship!" Skunk ordered, firing at an oncoming speedboat with a pair of villains in red life vests riding on it.
His shots missed, and the Brotherhood duo whooped mockingly as they zoomed past, one of them firing an Uzi at Skunk, forcing him to duck behind the ship's railing. Bullets pinged off, and he grimaced as he took in the situation.
His call to keep the other gang off of the ship had been mostly for morale rather than an actual tactical order. The Brotherhood were playing it smart, circling the transport on their own boats and firing at any Saint who poked their head out.
The initial victory with Defender blowing up one of their motorboats had faded with only a handful of Brotherhood going down after that.
Worse, this wasn't all of them. There were maybe thirty or so Brotherhood goons harassing them at the moment, and if Defender was right, that was barely a third of the full army Maero was sending out to reclaim the guns.
'Can't even have Fly-Guy get us out of here because they'd just shoot it down,' Skunk grumbled. 'The only bright side is none of us have been hurt, and we've got tons of ammo.'
Some of the Saints were taking turns scurrying down into the cargo hold to fetch weapons and combat gear, and then firing blindly over the sides.
The Brotherhood had a wide variety of Quirks on their side, unfortunately, evening it out. Skunk's Quirk didn't work at a distance, and the only reason the ship hadn't been sunk was because the Brotherhood needed the ship and its cargo intact.
"Damn, I could really go for some water right now," Steel Sponge grimaced as he ducked down next to the gang leader. He then tossed a flashbang grenade over the railing and looked away as it went off. The screams of pain told Skunk it had gotten a couple red-clad gangsters.
"Yeah, they'd gun you down before you could jump in," Skunk lamented. The Quirk Stilwater's Number Two hero had would have been incredibly useful at the moment, but it needed water to work properly.
That gave Skunk an idea, though, and he turned to one of his companions.
"Mink! Check the galley, or mess hall! See if they have some bottled water! If not, just fill up a bucket from the sinks and bring it here!" he ordered, and she snapped a salute before running off to do just that.
"Okay, we've maybe got some help going," Skunk said, turning back to Steel Sponge and handing him a handgun. "Here, take this and pop a few of them!"
"You know I can't use lethal force," Sponge said. "I may be working with you for now, but I'm still a hero!"
"Ugh, fine, you and your damn morals," Skunk grumbled. "Go get some more flashbangs and tear gas grenades, then!"
"Got it," the hero in a wetsuit replied, running off to do just that.
When Sponge left, Skunk shot a few rounds off at a passing speedboat and grinned viciously when a couple rounds hit the driver in the left arm, sending him tumbling into the drink with blood pouring from his wounds, but the supervillain's joy turned to annoyance as his pistol clicked empty.
"Damn it, outta ammo," he muttered, tossing the empty gun overboard. He managed to bean a Brotherhood goon in the head as he tried to climb out of the water onto the Sturmkopf, and Skunk snorted with amusement as the gangster toppled backwards with a yelp.
Another Brotherhood member was apparently a weak telekinetic, as several of his bullets curved through the air, and they almost hit one of the Saints, but Defender stepped in and countered the attack, deflecting them with a Quirk hardened sheet of canvas.
"That was close," Defender muttered, before chucking a grenade at the red-clad gangster who'd curved his shots. The explosion took off one of his legs and destroyed the boat he was on, which was a good thing in Skunk's opinion.
"Oi, somebody pass me a gun!" Skunk requested, and one of the Saints tossed him an AK-47 from the ship's stockpile. He snatched it out of the air and hosed down a group of Brotherhood, forcing them to retreat from the Sturmkopf.
"I'm back!" Sponge called out, running across the deck to rejoin Skunk. "And I have grenades!"
"Great! Start tossing!" Skunk requested. Several Flashbangs were chucked over the railing, and they burst into dazzling light and ear-piercing noise that made more enemies shriek and cry out.
Mink took advantage of their sudden blindness to come running out of the cabin towards her boss and the hero.
"Sorry, they shot the bottles and the bucket," Mink apologized as she hurried over with a hole-filled bucket leaking water all over the deck.
"It'll have to do," Sponge said and stuck his right hand into the bucket. A second later his arm started to swell, growing larger and more muscular as he absorbed the water within the bucket. It wasn't a massive amount of growth, but was notable. Steel Sponge then stood up quickly and aimed his right hand out towards a Brotherhood speedboat.
Steel Sponge then showed why his Quirk, 'Super Sponge,' had let him rise through the ranks so fast, as a torrent of compressed water shot out of his palm and slammed into the driver. The jet of water was as strong as a firehose and knocked the villain off into the foamy depths.
The now riderless boat then kept going until it slammed into another Brotherhood vessel, the crash sending everyone into the drink. A few shots from the Saints caused the two boats to erupt into flames.
Steel Sponge ducked back down a second later, his arm back to normal after expelling all the stored water.
"Not bad," Skunk said, nodding in approval, while Mink had stars in her eyes.
"Thanks, I've been practicing," Steel Sponge said, flexing his arms to show off his muscles.
A blob of green was flung onto the deck by a passing Brotherhood goon, and it began to sizzle against the metal, causing the group to wince and Steel Sponge to stop showboating.
"Acid… that must be Slippery Sloan," Defender said aloud from his spot on the other side of the deck. "He's one of Maero's last remaining lieutenants. Can create globs of acidic mucus from his nose."
"That all came from his nose?!" Mink uttered in disgust.
"Yeah. Acid Boogers seems gross – and it is! – until you realize it's still God Damn acid."
"Quirks are weird," Skunk muttered with a shake of his head. He then fired a burst of bullets over the railing with his AK. A scream told him he hit someone, and he smiled.
"Do you have any more water?" Steel Sponge asked Mink.
"There's some more in the kitchen," she said.
"Great. Stay here, I'll go get it myself," he announced, running off to fetch some more water for his Quirk.
Skunk peeked over the edge of the railing, and spotted a Brotherhood goon with a very large nose riding around on a speedboat. He sneezed into his hands, creating a blob of green gunk, and the gang leader shuddered in revulsion.
"Okay, he's gotta go," he declared, but Mink was one step ahead of him. She stood up, an AK-47 of her own in hand, and fired at the Brotherhood lieutenant as he passed by. The bullets ripped into his speedboat, causing it to catch fire, and he bailed out with a yelp, the boat's pilot not far behind.
"Yes! Take that!" she cheered. However, her celebration was short lived as another boat flew past, and the Brotherhood on it fired at her with some sort of white laser from his eyes.
"Argh!" the pink-haired Saint cried out in pain as one of the Brotherhood on the back of the motorboat managed to hit her, and she fell back down into cover.
"Damn it! Mink, you okay?" he asked, kneeling down next to her.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, the damn bastard just clipped me," she said, wincing as she pressed a hand against the wound in her left arm. Thankful the laser had partially cauterized it, so she wasn't about to bleed out.
"That looks bad… get a bandage on it, now! Skinny Will, help her get that wound dressed!" Skunk ordered, calling over one of the other gang members.
"Sure thing, boss!" Skinny Will, a Saint whose Quirk let him stretch a few feet by redistributing body mass, assured Skunk. His arms stretched out towards Mink and grabbed her by the ankles, before dragging her into cover.
Checking the current status of the Brotherhood, Skunk noticed that the red-clad racists were backing off for a moment, carrying their wounded with them away from the blood-stained waters surrounding the boat.
"Looks like the second wave of assailants is coming," Defender announced during the brief lull in the violence as he spotted a dozen more red-painted speedboats approaching from the direction of Stilwater. The fleeing Brotherhood regrouped with the newcomers, and seemed to be content to just wait and see what the next plan was.
"What's that sound?" one of the Saints' asked suddenly, his large rabbit ears twitching a bit as he heard something nobody else could.
"Over there, in the sky! Helicopters!" Fly-Guy suddenly screamed as a pair of red Oppressors whirled towards them, flying above the fleet of boats. Leaning out the sides, a pair of crazy Brotherhood gangsters fired hunting rifles down onto the ship, causing the Saints to scatter and take cover.
However, neither helicopter got any closer, and Steel Sponge emerged from the ship's kitchen, arms swollen to ludicrous proportions with water. He aimed a pair of finger guns at the approaching vehicles, and then unleashed two thin blade-like streams of water into the air.
The water jets the hero shot off were intense, and immediately cut through the helicopters' blades and tail as if they were paper mâché.
The two vehicles immediately spun out of control and plunged into the water. One even landed on a very unlucky speedboat, crushing it and its four occupants.
Steel Sponge winced at that, before diving overboard to rescue the Brotherhood onboard the helicopters before they were dragged down and drowned.
Nobody stopped the hero, partly because the Brotherhood were too shocked by their air support being taken out so quickly, but also because the Saints recovered faster and quickly shot as many of the remaining Brotherhood vessels as possible, sinking several before they could recover and react.
The Brotherhood goons who didn't get sunk quickly retreated out of range, though they kept in sight, circling the Sturmkopflike aquatic vultures.
"How many more of them are we gonna have to face?" Skunk demanded angrily, catching his breath as the firefight ended in an overwhelming victory for the Saints.
"Um, lemme just do a head count… there were ten boats in the first wave of Brotherhood, and that had approximately thirty guys… second wave looked to be about a dozen boats, so about the same number of gangbangers, plus two helicopters… I'd say Maero can only afford to send out another two dozen men if he doesn't want to leave the rest of his territory completely vulnerable," Defender replied.
"So, another wave, then," Skunk guessed.
"Based on what I've seen so far? Yeah, looks like it," Defender agreed.
"Great. Tell the guys to get patched up and rearm before the Maero's last ditch arrive," Skunk ordered.
A moment later, Steel Sponge returned, shooting out of the water propelled by a pair of water jets from his palms, like a water themed Ironman. Unlike when he'd gone in, the hero now looked incredibly bulky, like a professional bodybuilder thanks to all the water he'd absorbed.
He deposited a bunch of half-drowned Brotherhood onto the deck before walking over to Skunk.
"Is that all of them?" he inquired, but Skunk shook his head.
"No, we think one final push is coming."
"Hmm. We're closer to the city now, but I doubt any of the other heroes can make it out here in any meaningful time. Crabulon might be able to, he has a pretty fast speedboat he uses for dockside patrols, and maybe Silver Swan with her jetpack could reach us, but none of the others would be able to," Steel Sponge mused to himself.
"Could we call the Coast Guard or the Stilwater equivalent?" Defender suggested, walking over to discuss the plan. "Surely the police has some water patrol craft. They must, what with that island prison of theirs."
"No, still too far to make a difference, and they'd never get here on time. Maybe if we were closer to the prison the guards there could help, but this ship isn't near enough for them to care to send their vessels out," the hero sighed.
"Same problem with trying to get reinforcements from Rafflesia and the rest of the Saints," Skunk muttered in annoyance.
Eight people was enough to take out a single ship the size of the Sturmkopf, and defend it from a similar number of attackers, but there were too many Brotherhood members swarming them for it to be anywhere remotely near a fair fight. If not for the nigh unlimited ammo, the Saints would have been overwhelmed and boarded shortly after the start of the fight.
'Should we retreat?' he wondered to himself, before shaking his head in dismissal. That idea was impossible. Their Oppressor might make it, but the speedboat Defender and his team had used to get to the ship would never be able to outrun the Brotherhood vessels.
Furthermore, there was no chance he was going to leave all those weapons in Maero's blood-stained hands. And a glance over at Steel Sponge told him that the hero would also disagree with that,
"Hey, boss, something is happening," Rosebud, a Saint whose Quirk let her slide and glide around on ice and snow without needing snow boots or ice skates, pointed out, gesturing to the horizon.
A third helicopter was approaching, this one coming armed for bear. It was larger than the Oppressor, and had a pair of missiles attached to the sides with a machine gun mounted under the cockpit's nose, and Sponge frowned darkly at the sight.
"That's a Graham AH-5 Viper! The Brotherhood have fucking military attack vehicles?" he uttered in disbelief.
"Looks like it was stolen from the police," Defender said, pointing to a few spots where the Brotherhood paintjob failed to cover up the old colors and symbols.
"If I recall, some SWAT gear was stolen a couple months back by the Brotherhood, but I didn't think they got away with this much hardware!" Sponge snarled. "Heads are gonna roll as soon as I get back to Stilwater."
"Attention, Third Street Saints!" a voice suddenly boomed out from the enemy helicopter as it approached them. "You are surrounded, out gunned, and out-numbered! Surrender, and we won't kill you!"
"It's a bluff, they wouldn't dare fire on the ship, not with Maero's precious cargo still onboard," Defender whispered to Skunk and Sponge, who both nodded in agreement.
"Plus, I highly doubt if we surrender, they'll let us go," Skunk added.
"Aight, imma shoot it down, then," the hero announced, and aimed his left hand up at the Viper. He unleashed a torrent of high-pressured water up at the flying vehicle, only to have it strike a shimmering red wall that appeared in front of the stream of water. Afterwards, the barrier fell away, raining down onto the ocean.
In response to Steel Sponge's attack, the machine gun on the Viper burst into life, firing a hail of bullets down onto the Sturmkopf. It shredded the Oppressor, turning it into a ball of flames and scrap, and everyone else on deck threw themselves into cover to avoid being targeted next.
"That Quirk belongs to Back Alley Allan, one of Maero's more brutal lieutenants," Defender informed the two once the hail of bullets ended.
"How do we beat it?" Skunk demanded angrily.
"Well, it's made from blood. Either his own, or somebody else's. So he can't use it very often," Defender explained.
"A hemokinetic? Damn, that's a lot like Red River," Sponge said with a grimace, and Skunk felt just as unsettled, mouth set in a frown under his gasmask.
"Thankfully, Back Alley Allan is a lot weaker than the Number Two Most Wanted Supervillain in America," Defender assured them. "Allan can't control blood inside other people, and needs it to be outside the body. Plus, it can't go very far from him, or move all that fast. Making barriers and binding people is about as far as it can go."
"His manipulated blood was strong enough to block my high-pressure water jet," Sponge pointed out. "That makes this guy's Quirk pretty damn strong."
"Well, then, we find a way around it," Skunk suggested. "If he's really limited by the amount around him, then he can't use the Quirk too often while up in the air."
"You three can chat later, the copter is circling around for a better shot!" Fly-guy sudden exclaimed in warning, his compound eyes observing the sky even as he hunkered down.
The attack helicopter was moving through the air, and it wouldn't be long before it was lighting up the deck once more in a hail of bullets.
"Eat this!" a Saint screamed out desperately as he leapt from cover, emptying an entire AR-16 rifle magazine at the Viper, but once more a wall of blood appeared to block the bullets.
"Get down, idiot!" Skinny Will shouted, stretching his arms out to grab the reckless Saint by the collar. He successfully managed to yank the fool back into safety moments before heavy rounds shredded the deck where he'd been standing.
"That was too close!" Rosebud whimpered.
"That bastard doesn't even care if he hits his own men!" Mink snarled, glaring up at the attack copter, and Skunk realized after a moment that she was right.
A number of the Brotherhood goons Sponge had saved from drowning had been nearby when the Viper had started shooting at the reckless Saint Skinny Will had just saved, and in the chaos none had realized that the tied-up gangsters had been caught up in the crossfire. Several were already dead, torn to shreds by the machine gun fire. The rest were moaning and whimpering in pain and fear.
"If he's willing to risk hitting his own men to take us out, then he might just blow the boat and damn the consequences," Sponge grit out through his teeth.
"I've got an idea!" Defender shouted, and he grabbed the door of the Saints' Oppressor helicopter off the ground, holding it up in front of himself like a shield. He then used his Quirk on it, turning it into a nigh invincible shield, before running forward across the deck.
The Viper saw him, obviously, and turned its machine gun onto him, but Defender's Quirk had recovered from his earlier uses of it, and the broken sheet of metal resisted the hail of bullets. He did wince and cry out as one of the rounds ricocheted off deck the and hit him in the ankle, but he dove forward and rolled into the door leading to the cargo hold.
"Oh, I see what he's doing," Skunk muttered, before throwing out a capsule from his gauntlets. It exploded into a colorful smoke bomb, blinding the helicopter for a few precious moments that let the Saints reposition themselves.
A minute later, Defender limped out of the cargo hold duel wielding two rocket launchers, one in each arm. He raised them and aimed at the helicopter. It was still in the process of turning, and couldn't bring its machine gun to bear in time, and Defender fired both weapons at it.
Unfortunately, the heroically insane attack seemed to fail, and the first rocket exploded on impact with the blood-wall and did nothing, while the second one was slapped upwards by the first rocket's explosion, sailing above the Viper.
Yet everyone's surprise, the second rocket, despite being knocked off course, managed to perform a loop-de-loop in the air and came screaming back down onto the helicopter, detonating against its cockpit. The Viper fell from the sky, spewing smoke and flames, and it crashed into the water.
"Whoa, dude, that was sick!" Defender gushed in awe while the other Saints cheered and chanted his name.
Steel Sponge sighed, before diving in to try and rescue the pilot and lieutenant, if either had survived, that is.
He emerged from the ocean a moment later, hoisting Back Alley Allan and the pilot up onto the deck. Both were badly damaged and covered in wounds. Bits of shattered glass from the cockpit dug into them, and the fire had scorched their bodies, but they were alive all the same.
Skinny Will checked them over, before shaking his head. "Neither of them will survive without immediate medical attention," he said solemnly. "We'd need to use the military grade medical gear in the shipment to prolong their lives long enough to let them get treated in a proper hospital."
"Fuck 'em!" Defender growled as he used a med-kit on his injured foot. "If they were gonna shoot their own men, let the bastards die with them!"
"As much as I'm inclined to agree…" Steel Sponge began, ready to try and talk them into using some of the medical supplies the Saints had seized, when Back Alley Allan began coughing up blood and water.
"Damn you… damn you!" the Brotherhood lieutenant hissed furiously through mouthfuls of blood. Said ichor stirred and wobbled, trying to be controlled by his Quirk, but he was too hurt to actually control it beyond that. "If Maero can't have the weapons… no one can!"
With shaking hands, he then brought out a remote from his pocket and pressed the big red button on it before anyone could react. Everyone flinched at that, but when nothing happened – no explosions or loud noises – after a few seconds, the Saints and hero all relaxed with sighs of relief.
"The water must have fucked the remote up," Skunk muttered, wiping his brow.
"Huh, we got worried over nothin'," one of the Saints laughed out happily, only to stagger a second later as a tremor struck them, vibrating through the metal beneath their feet.
Something burst up out of the ship, tearing through the deck as it did so. It landed with a heavy thud on the railing, denting it, and everyone took a step back in surprise.
The strange, black-skinned creature from the stasis coffin stared at them with dead, unblinking eyes, its tails slowly undulating behind it and its exposed brain-meat throbbing in time with its heartbeat.
"Kill them! KILL!" the Brotherhood lieutenant gurgled out with a manic glee.
The creature tilted its head to the side, before two of its bladed tails lashed out, separating the cackling lieutenant's head from his shoulders. It also killed the pilot beside him.
"OH FUCK!" Skunk shouted, stumbling back in horror. He wasn't alone, the deck quickly clearing as everyone who could move did so, backing away.
The creature with the exposed brain let out a blood-curdling shriek and its three long, blade-tipped tails began to wave back and forth, gore dripping from them.
Reacting to the threat, the Number Two Hero raised his hands and fired off two powerful water jets aimed right at the abomination's chest, hoping to knock it off balance, but it moved out of the way, little more than a dark-colored blur.
"Fast!" Steel Sponge exclaimed in shock as the monster dodged his water jets, leaping off the railing and landing on top of the ship's wheelhouse.
"Shoot it down, shoot it down, now!" Skunk ordered, recovering his wits. His Saints loyally raised their guns and opened fire, shooting at the creature as it perched at the top of the Sturmkopf.
The monster, which Skunk was referring to as Tri-Lash in his head, swung all three of its tails at blinding speeds, deflecting and cutting apart every bullet shot at it. A few made it through, tiny wounds peppering its torso, but it didn't seem to feel them at all!
Blades erupted from all over its body, turning the fast-moving creature into a murder-blender as it tried to turn Skunk into chunky salsa! It leapt at him, and Skunk dove to the ground, just narrowly avoided the lunging attack.
"Let's see how you like this, you bastard!" Skunk snarled, and activated his Quirk. A foul stench burst forth from the leader of the Saints, and the Tri-Lash shrieked and fell back in surprise, having been hit point blank by the odor.
"Okay, so it can't feel pain, but it can still smell things. Good to know," Skunk muttered as he staggered back to his feet. He watched as Tri-Lash writhed on the ground, trying to claw at its face as the terrible smell permeated the area.
"Yeah, but our noses still work, too," Defender complained, pinching his nose, something that the other Saints were doing as well.
"What he said," Steel Sponge coughed out. "Oh, God, I think it's worse than before!"
"Just be glad you're still alive," Skunk grunted, glaring at the monster that had torn up the deck.
"Good point," the Number Two Hero replied. He then pointed a finger at Tri-Lash, and a needle thin jet of water shot forth at it.
The creature sensed the attack coming and rolled out of the way, but it was still disoriented and unable to move as fast as before thanks to all the blades getting in the way. Steel Sponge's water beam sliced through one of its tails and left ankle, cutting both off, and it snarled in anger at the lose of one of its weapons and two of its limbs, it's mobility heavily reduced.
"Shoot at the Tri-Lash, and don't stop firing!" Skunk ordered, blasting away at it. The other Saints did so, AK's and AR's tearing through the air and filling it with a horrendous din.
Being shot at from all angles was too much for the monster. It's tails were fast, but it now lacked a third of its defense, and the blades on its body were razor sharp but brittle and began to break apart as bullets slipped through. Before too many rounds pierced its body, however, Tri-Lash leapt backwards with its one good leg, springing back towards the roof of the wheelhouse.
It misjudged its leap, however, likely due to its lost limbs messing it up, and the dark-skinned creature crashed through the glass, and then went completely apeshit, thrashing and tearing apart the control room and the various consoles that controlled the ship.
"The damn freak went and broke the boat!" one of the Saints wailed, and Skunk could only stare at the destroyed wheelhouse. The control room was likely beyond repair, and there was a lot of smoke and sparks spewing forth.
"He sure did," Sponge muttered.
"Look sharp, guys, it's not over yet!" Defender called out.
He was proven correct as the monster soon staggered out of the smoke, electrical burns covering it along with shards of glass sticking out.
It shrieked, and then leapt down, tails lashing out with deadly precision at Defender, but its tails bounced off of his shirt, deflected by his Quirk.
Upon touching down onto the deck, it staggered, its missing left foot ruining its balance. The Saints took advantage of that, raining a barrage of bullets onto it. Most failed to hit, but just as last time, some slipped through.
Yet Skunk saw that the wounds weren't bleeding. The severed foot and tail had become scabbed over with unnatural speed, same with the burns and glass shards and bullet holes. It was still weakened, but its accelerated healing was keeping it on its remaining foot.
"How do we take this thing down?" Mink whimpered.
"I might have a way," Steel Sponge admitted reluctantly. "It's lethal, though."
"I don't think that thing counts as 'human,' so go buck wild and screw what the regs say," Skunk shot back.
"Fine," the hero grunted, and he pointed his hand at the creature. Five jet-pressure steams shot out from his fingertips, and even though the monster jumped away once more, Steel Sponge manipulated the different streams of water by twitching his finger and twisting his wrist.
The blades of water tore into the monster, severing both arms and one more tail, but also ripped apart the deck a bit.
It collapsed, screaming in pain, and this time the wounds spurted black ichor everywhere, unable to heal fast enough.
"You did it," Skunk uttered, relieved.
"Used up the last of my water, though," Steel Sponge replied, his body deflated back to regular human proportions.
"Um, it's still moving," Fly-Guy pointed out, and indeed, the strange monster was thrashing about, only it seemed to be using its tail to rip apart the deck.
"What the… what is it doing?!" Sponge asked in disbelief as its one remaining tail began to stab into the deck over and over.
Suddenly, the Sturmkopflurched to the side and a gout of oily black smoke began to pour from the ruined deck.
"It's attacking the engine!" Rosebud gasped in horror.
"It's going to sink the boat!" Skunk realized. If it couldn't kill them with its tail, it was going to drown them all instead!
Defender, Skinny, and the other Saints all began to shoot at it, and although their rounds ripped through the creature, it was too late, the damage had been done to the engine. Flames were spreading out through the lower area, and the boat was listing worryingly.
"Get away!" Skunk shouted. "Get overboard before-!"
He never managed to finish, and the flames reached the ammunition, blowing a huge chunk out of the Sturmkopf, including ripping apart the lifeboats.
"Hang on!" Steel Sponge shouted, grabbing Skunk and Mink before leaping overboard with them in his arms.
Defender shielded the rest of the Saints as they fled to the motorboat he'd taken. It was cramped, but since the helicopter had been destroyed and the lifeboats had been caught in the blast, it was the only way safely off.
"Damn it! All those weapons, gone!" Skunk whined, watching as the smuggling vessel went up in flames, errant explosions popping off randomly and tearing more and more chunks from its hull.
He then glanced at Steel Sponge, whose buff, muscular arms were the only things holding his head above water. "Err, are you gonna arrest us?"
"You know, any other day I would, but I just fought a bunch of Neo-Nazis equipped with some crazy firepower, including some sort of super-mutant. You guys are not at the top of my shit-list, and honestly? I'm tempted to let you go because I know you'll be going after the Brotherhood for this," the Number Two hero muttered.
"Damn straight," Skunk huffed. "Now please get us out of here. The water is ruining my costume."
Steel Sponge snorted at that, but obliged and swam the Saints back to the shore. He gave a polite nod to them before diving back into the water and swam back to the wreckage to try and salvage anything from it as evidence.
"So, uh, now what?" Defender asked as Skunk wrung water out of his clothes.
"Now? We prepare for war," the leader of the Saints declared darkly. "The Brotherhood won't live through the weekend."
He then glanced up as he heard sirens in the distance. "Before that, however… let's get out of here before the pigs show up."
By the time the police cruisers arrived at the docks, the Saints were long gone, same for the few Brotherhood who'd survived.
Yet the promise of violence hung thick in the air, and the cops were able to sense the tension lingering in the area. A storm was brewing, and they knew it.