Earning Her Stripes

Part Thirty-Seven: Escalation Marches Onward

[A/N: This chapter commissioned by Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

Friday Afternoon, 24 September 2010

Grue

"That's an interesting offer," Lisa said chirpily before Brian could put in his demurral. "Totally sorry, usually not this much of a ditz, but what exactly have you done before? I don't think I've seen you in the news or anything."

Brian froze in his tracks. Lisa never, ever admitted to not knowing anything, and he wouldn't have thought she would call herself a ditz even with a gun to her head. This wasn't just a red flag, it was Victory Day celebrations in Palace Square in St Petersburg. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rachel begin to open her mouth, and he smacked her hand with his. She gave him a confused look, but kept quiet.

"Me? I've kicked ass, is what I've done." The woman in the rabbit-head mask sounded far too pleased with herself. "Seems to me you're suffering from a sudden lack of talent in the supervillain sector, so I've come in from New York to take the job. Of course, supervillains need minions, and you four look like you could handle that for me just fine. What do you say?"

Alec's head came up, but Brian nudged him and he shut up too. There was something going on here, and Brian was happy to let Lisa handle it until shit went sideways.

Lisa never lost her chirpy demeanour. "Oh, yeah? Whose ass have you kicked? Anyone famous?"

"Flechette's, any number of times." March seemed to figure out that they didn't know who she was talking about. "Oh, and you know Monochrome? The one who took down Lung? I put her in the morgue yesterday. Just in case you're wondering if I'm all that. 'Cause I am."

"Hmm." Lisa still didn't sound like herself. Brian paid very close attention to what she was saying. "I was just thinking that Monochrome was kind of popular. Due to, you know, taking down Lung. It might get a bit dangerous for us if we started working for you. I mean, not that I'm averse to the money. What sort of benefits would we get?"

"Well, apart from having a kickass boss—that is, me—who'll never steer you wrong, and the money, not a lot," March admitted. "But that's a shitload more than you'd ever get from any other villain. Tell me I'm wrong."

"Well, no, you're not wrong," Lisa said, so enthusiastically that Brian was almost taken in. "Me and the guys, we're all in on the idea of working for another supervillain, especially one as badass as you." With her left hand, out of March's sight, she wrapped her thumb over her pinky, leaving three fingers sticking out.

"What, really? You've worked for other villains?" March sounded a little surprised at that. "How many have you got in this town, anyway?"

Lisa grinned. "More than you'd expect. Anyway, we were just now talking about how great it was to work for Coil, and how we'd love to work for someone just like him. You've heard of Coil, right?" One of her fingers folded in. Two.

Brian controlled his breathing, trying not to let his tension show. He wasn't sure what kind of vibe Lisa had picked up from March, but whatever it was, it had to be bad. Even Alec and Rachel had picked up on it by now, and were waiting for his move.

"Not really." March's tone was dismissive. "Small-timer, is he?"

"Well, he's not one of the high rollers, and he's behind bars right now so there's that," Lisa pretended to admit. "But working for him was as easy as three two one, go!"

Brian already had darkness building in his palms, and Lisa's final countdown gave him his signal. On 'go', he unleashed a torrent of it all over March, yanking Lisa back out of it as the cloud built up. Then, just to make sure, he stepped into the cloud and side-kicked the motorcycle to knock it over.

It didn't go over at first, but then March's knee spasmed and it fell over on top of her. He distantly heard her screaming obscenities as he bolted for it.

Lisa was already running; Brian caught up after twenty seconds or so. Alec and Rachel were pacing her, the former laughing under his breath.

"She's batshit cray-cray, isn't she?" he asked between panting breaths. "Reminds me of some of my family."

"Totally cuckoo," Lisa agreed. "Rachel, she's likely to come after us. We're going to need the dogs."

"Don't tell me what to do," Rachel snapped back. "Anyway, I'm already doing it."

"Think she really killed Monochrome?" asked Brian. "I mean, what sort of asshole just comes to town and starts killing off heroes?"

"The Slaughterhouse Nine or Butcher and the Teeth type of asshole," Alec said immediately.

Lisa glanced over at Brian. "She believes she did," she said soberly. "Whether she actually managed it or not is immaterial. The Real Thing will absolutely want to come down on her like a ton of bricks."

Brian had seen footage online of what happened when Blockade came down on someone like a ton of bricks. It hadn't been pretty. Up until now, the Real Thing had acted with unfailing restraint, when they could easily have permanently maimed their adversaries or even simply killed them. If Monochrome was dead, or even badly injured, this was likely to change.

He strongly suspected that March and any of her associates would be wise to leave town immediately, before the vengeful heroes caught up with them. From the way the Real Thing had mopped the floor with the Empire Eighty-Eight and the ABB, March would stand no chance at all.

Right now, the trick appeared to be convincing her to look elsewhere for minions.

They slowed to a stop at the corner, looking back at the gradually dissipating cloud of darkness. Rachel was still growing the dogs, which were about waist-high by now. Alec began to ask something, but Brian shushed him. "She's got the bike off her," he reported, watching as the masked woman picked the motorcycle up—no mean feat, that—then swung her leg astride and kicked over the engine.

A moment later, it emerged from the last of the darkness, and the rabbit mask turned to zero in on them. "Shit," said Lisa. "We gotta go. Now."

As if to underline her words, the rapier came out of its sheath to point at them, and March's words echoed down the street. "You cocksuckers! I'm gonna—"

The rising engine note of the motorbike drowned out her voice, but Brian wasn't listening anymore. Hustling around the corner with the others, he clambered onto Brutus and grabbed hold of a couple of convenient bone spurs. The dogs, jolted into action, galloped across the street, still growing as they went, then leaped up and started climbing the wall.

Seconds later, the bike swept around the corner, the tyres howling as she pushed it past its operational limits, yet still managing to hold the road anyway. Leaning down without slowing the motorcycle, March scooped up something from the roadway and hurled it with a flick of the wrist. A second later, the wall above Angelica erupted outward with an explosion, gouging a crater from the brickwork and blasting shrapnel in all directions.

Shrapnel blasted in all directions. Rachel was shielded from most of it by Angelica's body, but Brian was fairly sure she caught a hit on the knee. He was equally unlucky; a razor-sharp shard of brick ripped into his left shoulder, sending a wave of agony through his body and rendering the arm useless. Desperately, he clutched the bone spike with his right hand, knowing that if he fell, his darkness would not cushion his fall in the slightest.

Cracks radiated ominously outward from the blast point, and a piece of the wall came away in Angelica's claws. If they tried going any farther upward, Brian knew, it might just give way altogether.

"Get back down here, or the next one takes your head off!" Seated on her now-idling bike and brandishing her sword, March's entire posture indicated that she was remarkably pissed off; her tone of voice merely underlined the matter.

"The fuck was that?" yelped Alec.

"She empowers things with explosive energy." Lisa sounded unhappy about this. "And yeah, she's accurate enough to do it."

"Ideas?" asked Brian, gritting his teeth to keep from crying out with the pain. "If we move sideways, with darkness …" It would be difficult, but even a little bit of cover could go a long way.

Lisa grimaced. "She'll keep track of us anyway. She's got a Thinker power, too."

"Fucking grab bag capes." Alec sounded as pissed off as Brian had ever heard him; that is, not very.

"So, what do we do?" Rachel was also pissed off. "We can't go up, we can't go sideways, and I'm not surrendering to that assmunch."

"Only one option," Lisa decided. "We go down, but Brian covers the street with what darkness he can, Alec slows her down, and we bolt for it as soon as we hit street level."

"You got three seconds!" yelled March, clearly losing patience. "Three! Two!"

"Go!" Lisa snapped. She turned Brutus's head and he jumped back down to the street, missing March by a few yards. Angelica went next, the jolt as she landed nearly causing Brian to pass out from the pain. As March revved the motorbike's engine, they galloped off, with Brian doing his best to trail a swathe of darkness behind them. With the injury to his arm, he was less than successful at this, and March was able to hold fast to them.

"Slow her down!" he shouted at Alec.

"I'm trying! She's compensating!"

"How is she compensating for your power?"

"She just is! You want to go back and ask her?"

Brian gave up on that discussion as being pointless and turned his attention to Lisa. "What's the plan? How do we lose her?"

"Keep running!" Lisa pointed northeast. "That way!"

"Dogs can't run forever!" Rachel butted in.

"She's right!" Brian hung on tight, trying to ease the jolting on his shoulder. "Running's just a stopgap! We need to lose her somehow!"

"Don't worry! I've got a plan!"

As the dogs galloped onward and the psycho on the motorbike clung stubbornly to their tail, Brian could only hope that the plan was a good one.

Taylor

There wasn't anyone nearby in the park, but I stood watch anyway while Madison accessed the Blockade armour. Emma waited on a rooftop nearby, out of sight, already in costume. Using the tiny pair of binoculars she carried on her utility belt, she was scanning the area, making sure nobody was sneaking up on the two of us.

"You know," I said conversationally, "it would make life a lot easier for all of us if you could make that thing stealthy, so you could take off and land without scaring every bird in a one-mile radius. Like with, I don't know, anti-gravity."

Madison paused in the act of climbing into the half-open suit, and looked back over her shoulder at me. "Quick question. At what point did I ever give the impression that I build stuff that can go stealthy?"

I shrugged. "The camouflage when it's all closed up?"

"That's not stealth. That's just sitting there and pretending to be something else. Stealth is looking like it's not there at all." She finished climbing into the suit and it closed up around her then stood up. Her next words came out via the external speakers. "And even if I could do stuff like anti-gravity, it would still be loud. Just like I can't miniaturise stuff like Armsmaster can. It's how my power works. I can do many things, but subtle isn't one of them."

"Okay, yeah, you have a point." I let my force field flow over me, practicing with the double-layered idea—for a non-cape, Director Piggot certainly had some useful ideas for powers—so that if (when) ran into March again, she wouldn't be able to just drop my force field willy-nilly. Then I jumped lightly onto the suit's shoulder and grabbed the handhold that was waiting for me there. "Ready."

"Copy that. Three, two, one, ignition." As she spoke the last word, the suit's thrusters came on and it blasted skyward, Madison easily compensating for my (admittedly negligible) weight on the suit's shoulder. We angled over toward the building where Emma was waiting for us. As she climbed across, I jumped over to grab my staff from where she'd been keeping an eye on it for me. Jumping back, I took hold of the handgrip again.

The radio earpiece was already in place, so I tucked the staff under my arm and moved a little bit of force field aside to turn on the radio itself. "Okay, guys," I said. "So, how do we find March so I can pummel her into the ground for stabbing me?"

"This might be a red herring," Madison reported, "but there's a report that's just come in about a maniac on a motorbike with a rabbit mask and a sword chasing a bunch of teens on giant dogs."

I shared a puzzled glance with Emma. "That sounds like March, alright. But why would she be chasing the Undersiders?" There weren't so many capes in the city that a report of 'giant dogs' would cause confusion, after all.

"I have a suggestion." Emma grinned. "How about we add that question to all the others, after we've kicked her ass but before we hand her over to the PRT?"

I grinned back, opening a hole in the force field so she could see it. "That sounds like an excellent plan. Where is this?"

"The report said up near the old ferry terminal."

"Let's go kick some bunny butt, then."

"Way ahead of you."

Grue

Brian didn't figure out Lisa's plan until it was way too late to pull the ripcord and abort it, which was almost certainly why she hadn't explained it to them in detail. Of course, they had no idea how good March's senses were, so talking about it risked giving her a crucial heads-up. It was just that he would've preferred some kind of advance warning.

The plan, as far as he was aware, was simple in essence: bore right through the middle of the camp that Butcher and the Teeth had set up, and scrape off March along the way. If she wanted minions, she could poach them off of Butcher. There were undoubtedly nuances of which he was unaware, but that was the gist of it.

Overall, it wasn't a bad plan. It held the distinct downside of pissing off Butcher and the Teeth (who were infamous for their total lack of self-control when angry, and for being angry all the time) and March (who was already gunning for them). However, with any luck, one of their problems would take care of the other, and they were reasonably adept at evading those enemies irritated enough at them to come after them personally.

If Butcher killed March and then decided to be angry at the Undersiders for leading her to the Teeth, it would probably be a good time to leave town, or at least keep their heads down until the feral gang decided Brockton Bay was boring, and left town of their own accord. It wasn't like they were lacking in spending money, after all. Brian's bank account was looking quite healthy right about now.

"Ready!" called out Lisa. She turned Brutus's head so he changed course, and gave him the signal to speed up. Brian and the others followed suit, pulling away from March. She didn't waste time opening the throttle to regain the ground she'd lost, but by then it was too late.

They thundered down a narrow side-street, then burst out into the parking lot surrounding the ferry terminal. A bunch of cars and SUVs, most of them showing signs of hard use, were set up here, with camp chairs, mobile barbecues, and a general 'moving in for the duration' atmosphere. It would've been a lot more wholesome if he hadn't also seen the Teeth, with their post-apocalyptic chic and multitude of weapons.

"Bitch!" yelled Lisa, pointing at where two cars were set up almost nose to nose, at an angle to each other. "Make that a barrier!"

Rachel didn't argue or ask for clarification, instead slowing Angelica so that the others surged ahead. They barrelled through the ad hoc campsite—it looked like they'd started to colonise the terminal itself, which meant someone would have to be cleaning up quite a mess, later—and leaped over the two cars. Angelica spun around as she touched down, claws tearing up chunks of asphalt; under Rachel's expert command, she head-butted the closer car, skidding it sideways to close the gap between it and the next one.

Brian glanced over his shoulder to see Rachel turn Angelica again and power after them, even as the Teeth yelled and milled around, reaching for weapons. Behind her, March spotted the problem far too late. She'd been accelerating, which made it a lot harder to turn, and even hitting the brakes merely meant that the collision wouldn't be as damaging.

The crash as the bike hit the cars was audible all the way over where they were; now that they were safely past the Teeth (and able to see if any of the capes decided to aggress on them) Lisa pulled them to a halt. It seemed March had been thrown from the bike, but from the way she got up, the worst she'd suffered was bruising. Of course, she was now surrounded by a pissed-off supervillain gang, so things were likely to get a whole lot worse for her.

"Fuck," Brian muttered. "Are we going to have to rescue her?"

"Shit, no." Lisa shook her head. "She was literally going to murder us for not doing what she said. And you heard her: she's already attacked and maybe killed Monochrome."

"Fuck her," Rachel growled. "She blew up the wall right in front of Angelica. Might've hurt her." She massaged her leg, where a little blood was showing through her jeans.

"So what happens now?" asked Alec. "Do we wait around or just ride off into the sunset?"

"We wait," decided Lisa. "Whoever wins, I want to know about it. I especially don't want to assume she's out of the picture, and have her kick in the door tonight."

Brian nodded. "Good point."

March

Those motherfuckers are going to pay for this. Them and their little doggies both.

May climbed to her feet, pleased that she'd managed to maintain a hold on her rapier. "Okay," she announced. "I'm gonna be taking one of your cars, so—"

"Unless you're Alexandria in disguise," a woman said from behind her, "that's not fuckin' happening. And if you are Alexandria in disguise, fuckin' excellent. I've been wanting to kick your ass for years."

May turned, taking in for the first time the theme of the clothing that those around her were wearing. These were not, she belatedly realised, the basic vagrants or travellers she'd first assumed them to be. There was far too much leather, chainwork and spikes for that.

The woman who'd stepped up to challenge her either carried on the theme or was the inspiration for it. Tall and imposing, she wore spikes and skulls—that actually looked real, not plastic—and carried both a fucking great minigun and a bow slung across her back. It all clashed horribly, but looking at her, May wasn't totally sure it was a good idea to call her on it.

"I'm not Alexandria," May stated boldly, deciding that what the fuck, she'd gotten into this while looking for a gang to recruit, and here was one ready for the taking. "I'm better than her. My name's March, and if you all come to work for me, I'll show you how a gang really operates."

The general roar of laughter pissed her off, but she didn't kill anyone quite yet. If this bitch in front of her was running the show, then she was the primary target on May's hit list. If not … she'd keep. Or she'd bend the knee, one or the other.

"Is that fucking so?" The woman took a few steps closer. "We've got a fairly liberal approach to leadership around here. You want to run the show, you just have to kill me." Holding out her hand, she made the classic 'come at me' gesture.

"Yeah, right." May kept an eye out as far as she could with her peripheral vision. She was getting an idea of this bunch, and she was pretty sure she could predict their movements, but there was a lot of them. "I gank you, the rest of your assbitches dogpile me on the spot. Try again."

"Not how it happens." Goddamn it, the woman was confident. "You kill me, you're in charge here. Of course, that's not how it's gonna happen. You come at me, I'll rip you apart and we all get a good show."

"You?" May started moving, pacing out the perimeter of an invisible circle. Her adversary mimicked her, so they maintained the same distance, slowly circling each other. "Not on your best day. Nobody's even come close to beating me one-on-one."

The woman smiled viciously. "Well, then. It looks like this is your day to learn something new."

Grue

"Um," muttered Lisa. "This may have been a mistake."

"Mistake?" Alec snorted. "This is gonna be better than pay per view."

"Explain," Brian ordered.

Lisa took a deep breath. "That's Butcher she's facing, and it looks like they're about to get into it, one on one. If Butcher wins … well, there's a mess to clean up, and that's about it. But if March wins …"

Brian got it then. "She becomes the new Butcher, with her own damn gang, and still pissed at us. Oh, shit." A chill chased up his spine. "How likely is that to happen?"

Lisa shook her head. "So close I can't call it."

Alec summed up the situation succinctly. "Well, fuck."

"Yeah."

End of Part Thirty-Seven

[A/N: Yes, evil cliffhanger is evil. Mwahahaha.]