The Owl in the Abyss - Chapter 30

“Let’s go!”

The high revving of straining engines being pushed to maximum acceleration joined the concussive sound of massive footsteps slamming down on the old road.

The oddest convoy Brockton Bay had ever seen began racing its way out of the suburb.

The PRT vehicle in the lead with Armsmaster driving, Miss Militia in the passenger seat with a thick barreled weapon in hand.

Running behind them were two giant women, carrying a large exotic steel statue of a nude me.

Kaiser sat on Menja’s left shoulder, whilst I was on Fenja’s right shoulder. We were both gripping the massive strands of long hair of the twins to keep ourselves steady as they ran.

Taking up the rear of the convoy was Dad and Kayden. Coil’s car was powerful in more than just its supercharged engine and would take up the rear guard.

Our speed was capped to what the giant twins could manage at the moment, which took a bit of adjusting as we went.

“It seems 54 mph is our limit,” Armsmaster announced over the radio bud in my ear. “Upcoming turn, left.”

“Victor is permanently out of play, got some rats to tie him up and other critters to carry away all his gear, he’s not going anywhere even if I leave range,” Dad announced.

“Good, thank you.”

“Be aware, I’ve identified seven more hostile cars closing in on your position, filled with armed E88 gang members,” Dragon announced.

“Roger that,” Armsmaster said grimly, as we slowed down to turn.

In the road beyond we immediately ran afoul of the first traffic in the area. The first poor driver saw the two giant parahumans first and naturally panicked, abruptly turning his car to get off the road as quickly as possible.

He ended up plowing through a fence, his tires sinking into a large rose bed, the front sending a fountain of dark earth and ruined flowers spraying everywhere.

Armsmaster belatedly started the PRT vehicle’s sirens and lights. It helped a bit, but the sight of the giant twins sprinting was starting to naturally cause more chaos all around as other drivers in neighboring streets were distracted.

“Upcoming turn, right!”

“First two hostile vehicles will catch up to you in an estimated twelve seconds,” Dragon announced on overwatch. She had stealth drones somewhere overhead but my attention was focused behind me. I twisted Fenja’s blonde hair around my left hand, securing me further and readied ‘15.

“Hebert, the first one is yours, Escort take the second.”

“Roger.”

"Got it!” I shouted over the rushing wind.

The first hostile cars swerved into the view, screaming tires and over revving engines.

Dad swerved his car briefly, steadying it in the center of the road.

The hostile car, a Ford sedan, had three gangsters leaning out the windows brandishing assault weapons.

That was their first and last mistake as it meant that the large flock of birds had no problem dive bombing into the car interior. Their first target, the faces of every ganger, including the driver. The sedan immediately began swerving and lost control before crashing into a street light.

I aimed ‘15 at the second car rapidly trying to gain ground on Dad’s car.

He swerved out of the way to give me a clear shot but my aim was fouled when we had to take another turn.

It did mean that as we settled onto the new road, I got my clear shot as the hostile vehicle also turned.

The blast of aerokinetic force barreled out of ‘15 and caught the hostile car on the side.

It was instantly pushed over, its right wheels leaving the tarmac in the middle of its turn.

It tumbled over onto its roof, sparks flying as it skidded on the rough surface, careening off the road and crashed into a brick wall fence of a house.

“Good work, clear for the moment,” Armsmaster said.

I settled myself back on Fenja’s shoulder. It was quite challenging, almost akin to riding on a horse. If I didn’t flex with my legs with the proper timing, it could easily launch me right off. Kaiser had no problems on Menja, clearly having trained for the eventuality they were now experiencing.

We raced down two streets and turns before the E88 caught up to us again.

“Incoming from the front. Three cars. Escort, Kaiser, be ready.”

Miss Militia took the lead in dealing with this bunch. She leaned out the side window, took aim with a launcher weapon and fired.

Just what happened next I wasn’t exactly sure of.

The projectile fired was large, carrying itself in an arc before it landed right on the hood of the hostile car.

It punctured into the light aluminum steel easily, anchoring itself, then a slight arc of electricity flared from it onto the bodywork.

All power to the car died as it immediately slowed down, coasting on its momentum only. The driver turned the wheel in panic, but had enough wits to turn sharply right, forming a barricade to impede us. The car rolled in the process, tumbling twice before skidding to a stop.

Armsmaster simply used his armored PRT car to ram right into the rear wheel of the gang car, easily pushing it out of the way.

I had to hurriedly lift myself off Fenja, partially standing as the giantess hopped over the obstacle. The shock of the event rumbled through her body and I briefly misted for less than two seconds, figuring it was better to play it safe than trust my neophyte riding skill.

“Kaiser!”

My minion didn’t disappoint, as he formed two anchored steel ramps right in front of the ganger cars that were trying to rescue him.

He had shaped them not only to send them airborne, but also flip them over and like something straight out of 80’s Hollywood, the two cars sailed through the air, twisting in almost elegant movement before crashing to either side of the road.

One spent its remaining momentum on a tree, wrapping around it and spilling E88 members out of it, one even crashing through the front windshield. The other plowed through a thin fence before coming to a final stop against the outer wall of a house.

I winced at seeing the grisly aftermath.

We sped past it and hadn’t even turned the next street before another E88 car was on us from behind.

“I’ve got it,” Dad said.

He tried siccing another flock of birds on them, but it seemed that someone on the opposite team was also running coordination as well. Their windows were firmly shut.

Glass erupted from the forward windscreen as the passenger in the E88 car opened fire on dad’s car.

He swerved his own vehicle left and right, before a rear panel opened up and shot something out of it.

We had both read Coil’s handbook on his tricked out car at this point and this was a rather nasty device.

They were basically explosive bolas that had the feature of being set off in close proximity to a large mass of metal.

They rolled right underneath the E88 car and detonated with such force that it lifted almost five feet in the air, wrecking the chassis completely before it landed again and the wheels crumpled inward.

“Hookwolf incoming!” Dragon warned.

We were just speeding through an intersection when the call came and I spotted the massive wolf-shaped mass of writhing blades loping with high speed to our left.

He partially skidded on the road as he struggled to give chase, briefly losing traction before his limbs began pumping furiously.

“Hebert, switch places, take the lead,” Armsmaster ordered as he swerved and braked.

Dad turned right and gunned the throttle of his car to race past the jogging giants. No gadgets or armaments in the Coil car would do anything to take on Hookwolf.

Miss Militia was already leaning out her window, aiming with a rotary grenade launcher weapon.

Rapid thumps of concussion heralded the weapon firing grenade after grenade straight into the face of the lupine metallic parahuman.

They burst open with brief small explosions before the gray mass of containment foam expanded rapidly onto him.

It slowed him down immediately, but didn’t stop him.

He began literally shedding the metallic pieces most affected, leaving them behind in his wake.

The blade form rolled and tumbled, as Hookwolf preserved his momentum, allowing him to generate more metal from his core to replace what he’d lost.

Miss Militia was undeterred though, keeping up the pace of her fire from the grenade launcher, forcing Hookwolf to shed more and more of himself.

I began to see her strategy when greater amounts of foam began to visibly build up behind the mass of moving blades.

She fired her last grenade, the launcher shifted to a mass of green energy, becoming a machine gun, before it shifted again to the same grenade launcher.

Seeing this, Hookwolf quickly peeled off at the next intersection.

He clearly recognized it was a war of attrition that he would lose and would only end up with him being captured.

“Will he be back?!” I shouted over the rushing air.

“Not for a few hours,” Dragon replied. “The containment foam that reached his core will be on his skin when he returns to human form.”

Knowing the properties of that substance, it would mean several hours until it degraded and fell off.

We were just about to cross from the bumpy roads of the Docks and into the even more dilapidated region around the Boat Graveyard, when another group of cars ranging from pick-ups, sedans and vans approached.

“Night, Fog, Crusader, Stormtiger and Krieg approaching,” Dragon warned. “A dozen armed gang members in tow.”

“In a moving engagement, Crusader and Stormtiger are the only ones with applicable powers,” Armsmaster mused. “ETA to intercept us?”

“Less than two minutes if your current route remains constant.”

“Your ETA?”

“I’ve delivered Rune and Othala into Protectorate custody at the Rig, I can reach the Boat Graveyard in seconds.”

“We need this anomaly off our hands, Dragon.”

“Yes, but first we need a generally exact time for how long his metal shell will last around it,” she retorted.

That was my cue. “Kaiser, how long does your metal last after you leave proximity?!”

“It depends on the structure I’ve created, as far as I’ve been able to measure, it’ll be twenty hours, mistress!”

“That’s more than long enough, I’ve sent you a rendezvous, Armsmaster,” Dragon said.

“Received, Hebert, turn right at the next intersection.”

We were soon turning into a large dilapidated parking lot that had served the specific sea port that had become the Boat Graveyard.

It was strewn with potholes, burnt out cars and relatively old garbage skids that were so rusty that no one wanted to pick them up.  

Dragon’s Cawthorne plunged down out of the low level clouds and flared its thrusters to a hovering stop just as we arrived.

Fenja and Menja were breathing truck fulls of air as their own stamina had been extensively tested by our run.

“All right you two, good work. Put it down over there,” I instructed.

“Yes… mistress, thank you… mistress,” gasped Fenja, as her sister spat out a massive glob of lactic acid laden saliva into a nearby garbage skid. The sudden acid laden watery mass nearly tore the thing open completely.

The two giantesses carried the statue forward to the largest empty spot in the entire lot.

They backed off quickly and Dragon’s Cawthorne with barely any pause, swooped down, draconic style legs emerging from the suit and grabbed the nude statue of me over the shoulders.

Thrusters flared into bright plumes of light and the Cawthorne was gaining altitude again and disappeared into the low clouds, flying towards the south.

I misted and flew towards the parked cars as Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Dad and Kayden got out.

“What now?” I asked, looking towards the adjoining streets leading to the parking lot.

“We have barely a minute to decide,” Armsmaster’s signature weapon unfolded into his right hand. “PRT policy would tell us that we must retain custody of these three. However, Kaiser’s contingency for this scenario holds us hostage in effect.” He gestured into the distance and we could see columns of smoke climbing into the sky from multiple points all over the city. “Until he calls off his gang members, that will only get worse. Large parts of the city are without power due to burning substations, most hospitals are running on emergency power. Two police precincts were overrun and are in enemy hands. We’ve also begun receiving reports that the ABB is counter-attacking in places where the E88 have incurred in their territory.”

“So even if Kaiser was to order them to stop this minute, we’d have an open gang war anyway,” Dad scowled. 

I inwardly seethed at myself. Technically, I could get on the phone and order Kenta to pull his men back, but that would be highly uncharacteristic and potentially expose my mastery of him to  the entire ABB. That would be even worse as it would lead to the gang fracturing and all the consequences which I couldn’t hope to predict.

If the Empire was attacking all over the city, then it would mean…

I ripped out my phone from 15’s pouch and sure enough, Henry had left code messages that nearly the entire FTF was being deployed to defend Coil’s territory. He had also sent everything he had on SCP-173 to Dragon.

“Armsmaster, what’s the Director’s call?” Miss Militia asked.

“I’ve kept her appraised of our situation,” he nodded. “At this point, as much as it galls her. She believes we can’t hold on to Kaiser. He played his cards too well. The escalation against the ABB will stretch us to the breaking point in dealing with the fallout.”

“Then we must go.”

He nodded, “Escort, can you…”

I knew what he was asking, “Yes, get my dad out of here.”

Dad visibly fought with himself, his hands curled into fists. “You deliver this bastard to them and get out of here, Little Owl. You hear?”

“I will, dad,” I nodded.

They sprinted back to their cars, jumped in and practically burned rubber as they hit the gas.

Their cars had just about turned the corner out of my line of sight when the E88 convoy screeched into view.

One of their cars continued on to give chase, whilst the rest turned into the lot and spread out.

I sighed wearily and looked up at the giant twins, “Put Kaiser down and return to normal size.”

“Yes mistress,” they chorused.

The E88 cars stopped as far away as they could when they saw me waiting, in one case a car slammed on the brakes so hard that their wheels locked up and it drew skid lines on the tarmac.

No one knew what my range actually was, so they naturally assumed the worst.

I could see them hurriedly talking to each other in their cars and into radios, applying their Master-Stranger precautions.

The cars engaged into reverse gear and backed up to the edge of the lot.

Doors opened, the five E88 capes and other gangers began to emerge.

I spotted Crusader in his armor first and inwardly smirked. It would just take a word from me to unleash him onto his comrades, but he was a trump card that had to stay where he was.

This was my first encounter with the others and the most striking was Stormtiger; he wore loose fitting pants, running shoes, a pale blue tiger mask and nothing else. He was tall and deliciously muscled, but just fell short of equaling Kenta in that department.

Krieg, who was standing in the lead of the formation of capes, reminded me of a discount SS stormtrooper. He didn’t have obvious German WW2 era symbolism on his black uniform/costume, but rather the E88 logo and leather boots that came up to his calves. His white mask covered three quarters of his face, leaving just the mouth and his right cheek visible. 

Night dressed also completely in black, had the full package of cowl, hood, mask, high-heeled boots and a cloak, whilst her husband, Fog, mirrored her outfit, except in gray with combat boots.

“Escort! Release them!” demanded Krieg with no preamble. “Know that if you master any of us, our forces are poised to invade city hall and we are ready to take the mayor!”

His aura at least indicated that he believed that wholeheartedly. I needed to make a point here.

My left hand lazily gestured to Kaiser and beckoned him closer, which he eagerly obeyed, but stopped him before he could try to hug me.

“Sit,” I pointed to the ground.

He obeyed.

The auras of the five E88 capes burst into outrage and anger. Stormtiger brandished his fists, the air rippling around it and forming his signature aerokinetic claws that were only visible thanks to the dust that was sucked in.

I held up my hand, squeezing my thumb and middle fingers together. “When I flick my fingers, Kaiser will stab you all through the feet with his power! You know that little move of his well!”

Kaiser raised his hands threateningly towards his own roster of capes. “Please let me do it, mistress. There are some of them that really deserve it. I actually hate quite a few of them.”

His voice wasn’t loud enough to carry to his gang’s position but I could see Stormtiger had definitely heard that, judging by his aura’s reaction.

“If Crusader tries to manifest his ghosts to stop me, I’ll just go intangible and Kaiser will mutilate your feet!” I said to Krieg as he sucked in a breath to speak, which neatly stopped him. My eyes were also locked on Night, stopping her from employing her own trick, which was eerily similar to SCP-173. It let her transform into a blindingly fast monster of hyper sharp claws when unseen.

That was only an inference, given the state she left her victims in. No one could see the monster she turned into and the effect even applied to camera recordings somehow.

“What do you want, Escort?!” Krieg shouted.

“What I want?! I want an end to the E88 in this city, an end to the ABB, the Merchants! An end to parahumans running roughshod over people!” I shrugged. “But that is just a naive wish! No, what I will settle for now is you ordering every gang member in the city to stop and go home! Then I will turn Kaiser and the twins over to you.”

“Lunacy! You truly think that de-escalation is possible now?! Lung and Coil will not stop their retaliation just because we retreated!” Krieg sneered, shaking his head. “This war has begun, Escort! That bell cannot be unrung!”

I hated that he was right. It was now a matter of saving face and ego for all sides. Even if I could unilaterally order ‘Coil’s forces’, there were certain expectations from everyone in that territory and his reputation to uphold.

I was the power behind the curtain, but right now I ran head first into the limitation of that power.

“Go home, Escort! Return Kaiser to us and go! In exchange, your home and family will not be targeted for reprisal by the E88!”

How easy it would be to just mist and zip forward, snare them all. Battling Night for emotional dominance wouldn’t even be a problem. Her aura was rigid, inflexible and she’d had no children. There were emotional gaps there I could power straight through.

However, I couldn’t forget their Master-Stranger protocols and the fact that someone was coordinating them very expertly and maintaining an overwatch somehow. Dragon would’ve spotted conventional means, such as drones, immediately. Which meant that it was either a Thinker power that could still work in Brockton or a Tinker utilizing something like the Snitch.

“Stand,” I ordered.

Kaiser winced as his knees audibly cracked from the speed with which he rushed to obey. “Please mistress, don’t do it. I have yet to lose myself within you.”

In any other circumstance, I would’ve laughed at how simpy Kaiser was towards me. I warred with the impulse to take him right here. What could his capes actually do? If they tried to interfere, a single word could have them all spiked. I could ride him silly and they’d watch as they bled out through their feet.

My rationality asserted itself

“Sorry Max,” I sighed with regret. “But I’m going to have to take a rain check on that one. I had to at least try to stop this with words. I’ll take your deal, Krieg! They’re yours. Know that if you or Kaiser breaks that deal in the future, you and the rest of the E88 will regret it!”

It was lame and lacked gravitas but it was all that would come to mind.

I misted and blasted away over the ocean, before turning south.

There was a war to win.

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By the time the sun set on Brockton Bay that day, most of the city was still without power.

Everyone fell back to candles, gas lamps or emergency power generation if they had it available. A state of emergency had been declared by the mayor with the backing of the governor, including a curfew.

All it really achieved was to get civilians mostly out of the line of fire.

The E88 had scaled back their attack on city infrastructure, but now with Kaiser back at the helm, the war shifted to the gangs and their assets. 

The ABB had already spread the word through their network and I had sent warnings to all the working girls and gigolos of Red Light. It was unlikely that the E88 would start going after them personally, but I warned everyone to get home defense measures ready and to call me immediately if they were targeted.

No sane civilians or customers would be found on the streets tonight anyway. 

Every Protectorate and independent hero was on patrol and even the Wards were called up to assist.

Armored PRT cruisers patrolled the city center. Police and medical helicopters were mostly being used to ferry emergency medical cases straight to hospitals. Ambulances were being escorted by police cars.

Henry’s defense of the city’s south-west was still ongoing.

He was personally leading elements of the FTF and they were successfully turning back vans full of E88 gangers that were trying to burn down businesses.

This mostly consisted of him smashing the cars to pieces.

Patiently absorbing the gunfire of the gangers until they ran out of ammo, before slapping most of them senseless and letting the rest run.

The other FTFs were, with limited remote help from Coil, engaging the rest.

So far no E88 cape had attacked the south-west yet, though it was only a matter of time.

Their primary offensive was straight into the northern ABB territory.

Bakuda was nowhere near ready yet to actually contribute meaningfully, but her message had indicated she was hopeful of creating a steady supply of exotic ammo for the ABB rank and file. I had organized for those supplies to be delivered as soon as possible, but it was going to be very difficult to do without giving away her location.

Kenta and Oni-Lee had already moved themselves to the north, marshaling every ABB member they could to fight off the incursions and defend the businesses.

That left me defending the ABB Downtown Coast alongside Dragon.

This was a happy accident, since the Tinker had decided to store SCP-173 inside the same small containment dome that was now around the time-frozen Alex.

Dad had also taken the opportunity to finally debut in the cape world. He had simply just grabbed the armor of the FTF, a full face mask and begun an aggressive patrol in our neighborhood. Since it was located right on the edge of the Docks, which was ABB territory, he had already made a number of E88 gangsters gain a new fear of avian fauna that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Dragon’s voice in my ear interrupted my musings. “Escort, I’ve got E88 movement in your sector. One vehicle, six occupants, all armed.” 

I stepped forward from the center of the roof of the apartment building I was perched on and scanned the expansive view from right to left. 

“Roger, direction?”

“Bearing north-east from your current orientation, 800 meters, going down Obery Street.”

“Got it, on my way.”

I was flying the next moment, only partially misted below my waist.

This allowed for Dragon to keep a constant bearing on my location without any interruption, guiding me into a target actively without wasting time on corrections, backtracking or possibly missing completely.

Seconds later I was directly flying over the enemy vehicle, keeping pace. I was so close I could touch the roof. My dive bomb type approach had ensured they wouldn’t see me coming at all.

I could take them out now, but I was curious to see what their actual target was.

They ended up stopping just two hundred feet later. On my right was a two floor wooden building that held a dental practice and a… otolaryngologist? I struggled for a moment to even say that in my own mind and also remember what that kind of doctor did. A small coffee shop was next door, firmly shut with steel protection shutters down over the windows and doors.

On the other side of the street was an expansive two floor brick building surrounded by nicely maintained lawns and gardens. The four poles featuring the American flag, the greater Brockton county flag, the city and state flag meant some sort of local government function was carried out here, but nothing on this side of the building told me what exactly.

I misted fully when the car doors opened.

Of the six, only two were the almost stereotypical skinheads with leather jackets and boots. The others were dressed utterly normally, as if they had just come from whatever their day jobs were.

Their on hand equipment was jerry cans of fuel, axes, baseball bats, pistols and two AK assault rifles slung over their backs.  

“Go, go!” said one of them.

They split up, three starting to run towards the government office and the others towards the dental practice.

I materialized sitting Indian style right on the hood of their car and snagged them all in my mind web.

“Nope, freeze and stay where you are,” I ordered, laying ‘15 down onto my lap.

All six men paused mid-stride as best they could.

“Dragon, what’s the building to my left?”

“County registry of deeds.”

“Any specific reason you can think of why they would torch the place?”

“Besides general chaos, no. Deeds are not only stored in this location, there are redundant backups in many locations across the country.”

I nodded to myself in understanding and pointed at the guy who seemed in charge of this group. This one’s aura was the most dominant with a sense of pride and ego. “You, drop your weapons and equipment, come here.”

“Yes, my lady!” he complied eagerly.

His AK, jerry can and lighter clattered to the street and he rushed towards my position.

I pointed a few feet away from me and he stopped there, his eyes drinking in my visage.

“Now, the dental practice I can understand, since he has to pay Lung protection money, but why the Deeds office?”

“I don’t know, my lady. It was just the order I was given.”

“Who gave the order?”

“Krieg, my lady.”

“Escort, dematerialize now!”

Dragon’s urgency sent a jolt through my spine and I just barely stopped myself from asking the stupid question of ‘Why?’. 

I misted and shot myself upward by a few feet.

Twin kamas cut through the space I had just occupied and it was only now that I was intangible that I realized my balance was a bit out.

The lethal weapons grew taught as they stretched to the maximum limit of their chains and were pulled back into the hands of their owner who had stepped out behind a nearby tree just outside my mind web range.

“Fuck! So close,” said the robotic tones of an artificial larynx.

A twenty something woman with the muscled build of a gymnast stepped into the glare of the overhead street light. She wore a tight white sleeveless shirt, artfully torn in certain places, along with denim jeans. Her lower face was covered with a steel cage for a mask, with blue eyes glaring in anger at the spot I had been occupying. She wiped a hand through her buzz-cut blonde hair which was doused with sweat.

Just how Cricket of the Empire 88 had managed to nearly get the drop on me could be figured out later.

“Escort, you order these men to attack me, I will not hesitate to kill them,” her voice droned into the night.

Judging from her aura and her rep, I had no reason to disbelieve her.

“How dare you try to harm the lady!” the skinhead ganger exclaimed towards Cricket.

“Shut up, Doug,” Cricket pointed her kama threateningly at him.

I did my best to will my minions to remain silent and still.

“I will not,” he puffed his chest, “I shall… Yes, my lady.”

Cricket snorted in clear amusement, her artificial larynx turning it into a deep mish-mash of sound. “Oh, if you try and master me, know that we are being observed and the consequences will be very unpleasant for the hospital a block to the east. Now be a good little whore and show yourself.”

Fuck. They were really going all out with the ‘screw the Master with hostages’ strategies lately. I could only hope that Dragon’s overhead stealth drone had heard that. Not to mention finding who was doing the overwatch for Cricket.

Now the only question was, come out swinging or begin with talk?

The greatest danger in fighting Cricket was her subsonics. It was known she could use them to sense anything within audio range, gaining an almost omniscient awareness that also allowed her almost supernatural reflexes. There was disagreement about whether the reflexes were a whole separate aspect to her power, but now that I was studying her aura closely and what her Passenger was doing…

The other aspect of the subsonics was their offensive use, which I had already partially been hit by. She could radiate a pulse of those subsonics to disorientate and induce vertigo in her opponents, making them easy fodder for those kamas.

Currently I could see with True Sight she was using her sound radar and that it was in effect two modes that she had to switch between. She couldn’t use both at once.

Stop.

What was I doing?

First Coil, then Kenta and now the Empire. Each had applied variations of trying to coerce me into traps, compel or kill me, by using this basic technique.

Grab something I would care about, in this case a hospital. Then threaten something horrible happening if I didn’t dance to their tune.

I couldn’t keep responding to this tactic as I have.

It had to stop.

This was a weakness, a trap of thinking and action. I realized in that moment that I had spent so long now pretending to be a ‘normal parahuman’ - and wasn’t that a ridiculous concept - that I was falling back into the same bloody memetic pattern that the Cauldron conspiracy had been encouraging in everyone.

I was not a parahuman.

A parahuman would’ve already demisted and started fighting Cricket.

Yes, fight with stick and against sharp stick, exactly as these Passengers seemingly wanted.

Fuck that.

Think Taylor.

Use the most dangerous weapon on the planet that had conquered it for humanity.

I shot up higher into the air, gazing up and down the street, stretching my True Sight and perceptions…

In my misty form, I didn’t have physical eyes, yet I could see. I didn’t have physical ears, yet could hear. I didn’t have a physical brain present in reality, yet could think. I didn’t have skin, yet still had a sense of how my body was positioned. The only break in that pattern was smell, but I put that out of my mind for now.

There!

I could just barely pick out the radiance of an aura about six hundred feet away on the rooftop of a three story building that just peeked out over the long line of trees that stippled this road.

My flight blasted me forward and I had to hurriedly put on the metaphysical brakes not to overshoot in my eagerness.

I now hovered directly over the next link in the chain of the Empire’s MS protocol against me.

It was a very familiar one.

Hello again Crusader, I thought with an internal smirk.

He was lying down rather awkwardly in his armor, helmet off so he could use the high caliber sniper rifle more easily, in addition to a radio headset attached to a high power walkie-talkie. One of those high-end encrypted models with a full keypad and digital display.

“Anything Cricket? Charlie three nine.” Justin asked, tapping the transmit key on the earpiece.

“No. Alpha two one.”

How convenient. I snagged my little spy completely into my mind web, then hovered down so my head could materialize just behind his ear. I tapped my own radio earpiece to disable the auto transmit, didn’t want Dragon to hear this.

“Hello Justin. Are we secure?”

He smirked with satisfaction, “Yes, mistress. Empire manpower is stretched too thin. We’re on a duo buddy system here.”

His aura demonstrated his truth and it wasn’t like he could lie to me at this point anyway.

I kissed him on the ear, “Good boy. The threat against the hospital, what is it?”

“A bluff and decoy for you and Dragon. A fake car bomb parked in front of it.”

“And Krieg thinks he can fool Dragon with that?” I asked incredulously.

“He knows how good she is. The bomb is real in every respect, except that it won’t be used. The threat of it is enough.”

“Just to take out little ol’ me?” I mocked.

“Kaiser has recognized you are the greatest threat in the city to him, mistress.”

I didn’t know whether to be flattered or worried but I had to give this to old Max, he was far from stupid. Yet he still embraced the racial supremacy crap? Probably just uses it to retain control over the stupid and useful idiots under him.

"Do you have the detonator for the car bomb?” He nodded, patting a pouch on the tactical vest he wore over his armor. I materialized my left arm to grab hold of Justin’s shoulder.

“Let’s have some fun, Justin. What do you say?”

He shuddered with pleasure at the mere thought, his aura beginning to ripple with arousal.

“Yes please, mistress.”

“Good, we’re going to go back to Cricket and the goons, be ready to use your ghosts to grab her.”

“Mistress, if you’re not going to master her then her power-”

“Hush Justin, I know a way around it. Now hold tight.”

What a ridiculous thing to say, but I was feeling… liberated? Somewhat, after casting off the memetic chains of capedom that I had picked up. Naughty? Definitely. Horny? Oh yes and what better way for me to defeat my enemies than by using my SCP expression of power.

I completely misted both of us and zoomed straight back to Cricket.

She had just seemingly ordered the goons to resume their arson activities, as they strode away from her with their gear back in hand.

“Crusader, come in? Alpha three nine.”

My mind quickly snagged up the goons again, but let them keep walking away as if nothing was wrong, but made sure to will them to stop at the edge of my range.

I rematerialized myself and Crusader twelve feet behind Cricket.

She immediately detected us with her subsonic radar and whirled around, brandishing her kamas, rearing back her arms to throw them-

But froze in astonishment at what she was seeing.

That moment was enough for Crusader to manifest three ghostly duplicates of himself that dogpiled her immediately.

“Aaaah!” her artificial larynx droned in fright and struggle.

Her kamas went flying as she was disarmed and held down to the ground.

She struggled vainly against the superior leverage of the duplicates. Those ghosts were very usefully limited to be unable to pass through living organic matter, but similarly to my misty form could phase through anything else.

Her power switched to radiate strong subsonic pulses.

The goons who had stopped themselves fifteen feet away swayed, their inner ear balance badly disrupted before almost all of them hurled the contents of their stomachs. 

I inched my materialization upward so my mouth reappeared. “Not gonna work, Cricket.” She gaped at me in horror. “What’s the matter? Never seen a partially headless person before?”

Crusader also technically didn’t have his ears and the connected inner bits at the moment, giving him effective immunity to Cricket’s power. I really had to find out if his power still worked properly whilst he was completely misted, but now was not the time to experiment, so I had phased into reality the entire top of his head, which would have the corona pollentia. It made for a rather grisly sight.

I cradled my chin in thought, “Now what to do with you?”

Mastering her was a bit of a gamble. From her aura I judged that she was quite confident in her sexuality, which was firmly straight. She knew what she liked and wanted. Her will was strong and she could endure pain. A fact she outwardly demonstrated by the visible scarring she sported, which she also wore as badges of honor. The worst of which was around her throat, where she had been slashed and had lost her natural voice, but there were others on her arms and legs. Further showed off by the tears she had made in her clothes. Othala could’ve healed her but she chose not to have it done.

No, it was too risky.

The six goons fell over as another pulse of subsonics lashed out.

“Ouch,” I winced in sympathy. “Oh well, a pity.”

The sky overhead was suddenly filled with a draconic form of Dragon’s Cawthorne suit. Its stealth and noise cancelation didn’t help against the blast of displaced air that washed over us all.

It flew overhead then flared for a quick landing just twenty feet away.

“Escort! You… are… all right? Crusader is… you can selectively phase yourself and others that precisely?” Dragon’s voice through the suit did a fair job of also conveying her astonishment.

“Yes, handy isn’t it?” I smiled widely.

The odd aura in that suit was visibly disturbed and slightly horrified. “I suppose so. Escort, I found a car bomb at the hospital, but it has too many tamper proof sensors and this suit isn’t rigged for the specialized bomb disposal required. I’ve called Armsmaster-”

I raised a hand to stop her. Carefully put down ‘15 and ripped open the pouch on Crusader’s tac rig, then carefully reached in to pull out a rather professionally done radio detonator; it had a screen, numeric keypad and even an obvious big red button on the side.

“Think this will help?”

“Definitely,” Dragon carefully stepped her suit closer, letting a pair of fine manipular arms emerge. She grabbed the detonator and it disappeared into the dark mechanical depths of her suit. “Do you have everything in hand here, Escort?”

It somewhat pained me to have to ask for this. A few meals and fun times would just hit the spot about now. “Can you foam the goons and Cricket?”

“Certainly.”

A turret popped out of the suit’s right chest, swiveled slightly before taking aim and rapidly firing.

Each goon was hit with a dollop of containment foam that rapidly expanded to effectively cement them to the tarmac. Cricket was shot with two dollops which went straight through Crusader’s ghosts.

A few seconds later the parahuman shot a last resentful glare at us both before she was completely swallowed up by the foam, effectively becoming a misshapen cylinder of white, rooted to the ground.

That you could still safely breathe through that foam, yet it was still as durable, useful and versatile in its primary job was just the crazy bullshit that Tinkertech was capable of.

“It even dampens her subsonics to a significant degree,” I couldn’t help but comment in amazement.

“That it does,” she confirmed. “It should be safe for you to…”

I materialized myself and Crusader fully.

Dragon visibly sagged the shoulders of her Cawthorne suit in relief. Amazing how she’d even built emotive functions into the thing. “Armsmaster is finishing up with a combat engagement. He should be at the hospital in twenty-three minutes. Police bomb squad shortly afterward.”

“Are you going to evacuate the hospital?”

It was a smaller one that was meant to serve the south of the city and offer quicker emergency response times, stabilizing patients and transferring them to larger central hospitals for the specialized care. They had full in-patient facilities, so there were definitely people stuck in there who couldn’t easily be moved.

“There’s hardly any place to move them, Escort. The power failures have already caused knock on effects. Those who need medical machines and ventilator support, the out-patients are already streaming into the city hospitals because they have emergency generators. Casualties from the gangs fighting and civilians caught in the crossfire are putting further strain. No, evacuation is unfortunately a very last resort and unlikely now, thanks to you. I’ve got a way into the bomb now. Are you sure you don’t need me to foam Crusader as well?”

“No, he has a message to carry from me to Kaiser and especially Krieg. He can be caught another day.”

Dragon was clearly reluctant, “What message?”

I felt my hands ball into fists, “The hostage gambit is getting a bit old. They try it again, I won’t play the game. I’ll bull straight through and they won’t see me coming. Screw the unwritten rules.”

“I’m compelled to advise you against that resolution, Escort, but I can see how it could get frustrating. Since I have a critical life saving task that has priority, I will have to leave you now. Good luck.”

The suit rapidly backed up, its thrusters orientating downward as it went.

A brief flash of light and the high pitched whine of engines straining was briefly heard before the sound cancellation and stealth systems blanked it out.

Seeing something that large move so quickly and silently was quite eerie and frightening.

The Cawthorne streaked upward and shot out of sight.

I turned properly to Justin, gathering his other hand into my own and pushing him out of the mind web. “Now whatever shall we do now, Crusader?”

We had to be mindful of the audience of goons. I could hypnotize them, but it was such a hassle. Cricket could also possibly hear us to a certain extent.

His reply was eager, “Whatever you want, mistress.”

A single touch misted his armored costume and gear away, leaving him completely nude.

I walked us to the parked car, hopped on the hood, and immediately snagged his hips with my legs, pulling him into range.

He was erect and ready, using his right hand to guide himself into me.

My legs and vaginal muscles locked him down, his arms surrounded me, squishing my breasts against his chest.

The thrill and pleasure rumbled through every part of me.

“Giddy up,” I smirked, before our lips mashed together.

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No new SCPs in this chapter.

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A/N: Urgh. Came down with a bad cold few days ago. Woke up at 4 in the morning today, couldn't sleep, yet my brain and muse kept cracking that whip, 'Finish the chapter!'. So here you have it. Enjoy. Have a great weekend and stay awesome.