[The Kill List]—❈—08:: All That Buildup for Three Seconds of Fun

“Sorry, to get in the middle of this,” Prince said, somehow much closer than he’d been what felt like a second ago, “but they’re coming out.”

The Dallon sisters shared a look and a silent agreement passed between them; they would table this for later.

Vicky Dallon had no idea what was going on with Amy; maybe it was stress from the late nights she always had on the weekends, or maybe she actually was wanting for Vicky and Dean to get back together.

Whatever it was, this wasn’t the time—or the place—to deal with it.

Vicky and Amy moved with Prince over to the edge of the building peep at the Empire villains down on the street below.

They were in one of those business neighbourhoods, with lots of restaurants and small office buildings and such, and it was from one such ‘office building’ that three top Empire capes exit, Crusader carrying several crates with his ghosts while the twins and two armed grunts keep watch.

Vicky had known that this wasn’t the nicest, or the safest, neighbourhood; she also knew that it was solidly Empire turf, but, even so, seeing three Empire A-listers moving product out of a seemingly innocent office building was a bit of ‘what the hell?’ moment.

“Whatever they’re moving must be important if they sent those three to protect it,” Vicky noted as they watched Crusader’s ghost stack the crates in the back of the truck they brought.

Prince nodded. “That was what caught my attention too,” he said, then after a moment, added; “You know, ironically enough, this would actually be safer if they’d sent non-capes in and just pretended they were delivery guys or something.”

He was right, Vicky realized. There might be a double take or two at the odd hour, but besides that, few people if any would think twice about it.

“I wonder how long it’ll take gangs to realize that crime actually works smoother when you’re not dressed like it’s Halloween in April,” he muttered to himself.

“Shouldn’t we call this in before they drive off?” Amy asked.

“Yeah, you should,” Prince said stretching his arms. “We’ll keep them busy until the cavalry arrives. Vicky, you up for a workout?”

Vicky felt her pulse begin to climb at the offer, right before Amy’s words doused the flames of her growing excitement like a bucket of cold water: “What are you doing? Are you stupid? You can’t go down there. We need to wait for help.”

Prince didn’t look angry or insulted at Amy’s words, simply curious. “And what’s stopping them from driving off while we wait?”

“Vicky can fly; she’ll follow them,” Amy said, and Vicky had to admit that this idea had merit.

Yes, she would much rather jump down there and knock out Nazi teeth, but even she had to admit that against Crusader and the twins (who, regardless of what those dumbasses online think, were capable of much more than standing around and looking pretty), her odds (even with whatever help Prince might provide) didn’t look good.

Vicky was confident in her skills, but she wasn’t an idiot… often… sometimes.

“That’s not a bad plan,” Prince said after a moment, “but I got the feeling that it wasn’t kosher to stalk capes since you could accidentally unmask them and that’s a big no-no.”

Amy opened her mouth to respond, but for the second time tonight, she shut it silently.

Prince was right.

In fact, he’d just touched on something that Vicky felt quite passionate about; a matter that had been the cause of a few arguments with Dean and several members of her family.

Prince held up his right hand.

A black, almost metallic sheen covered it for a moment then disappeared.

“That’s a trump power that negates most breaker states,” Prince explains, leaving wide eyes in the wake of his words. “I’ll handle Crusader and the two non-capes. Vicky, you keep the twins busy, I’ll join you as soon as I’m done. Amy, stay up here, call for help.”

His eyes took them in, gaze holding them with its intensity.

“If you guys agree, then let’s do that. If you don’t, then I’m perfectly fine with waiting up here,” he finished.

Vicky and Amy stared at each other.

Amy didn’t want Vicky to say yes, she could see, but that was okay, because Amy was just looking out for her.

Vicky placed a hand on Amy’s shoulder.

“Come on, Ames, I’ll be fine,” she said.

Like Vicky knew she would, Amy caved (heh, big softie).

“Fine,” the surly healer groused. “But be careful. And you, if anything happens to her, I’ll give you cancer.”

“What kind of cancer?” Prince asked curiously.

“Fuck around and find out,” Amy said.

Vicky rolled her eyes. So dramatic, her sister.

“How are we doing this?” she asked Prince.

“Attack on my signal,” he said, and before she could process that, he vanished from right before her very eyes.

What the hell? He could teleport too?

A sound from below drew her attention, and Vicky looked just in time to spot Crusader go flying like a ragdoll.

The twins reacted immediately, growing a foot in the span of a blink and drawing their weapons for battle even as Crusader’s ghosts faded away.

Guess that’s the signal, Vicky decided.

She launched herself at the spear wielding twin at her fastest speed, coming in with fist cocked back to deliver a crushing blow.

A giant shield smacked into her face at almost two hundred miles an hour.

Her forcefield held, but the shield was sufficient to knock Vicky away from spear twin, leaving her open for a spear thrust right at her gut.

Her forcefield was still down!

A rocket blew in and slammed a foot into spear twin’s face, denting her helmet and sending the almost seven foot tall woman flying.

Holy crap! How strong was Prince!?

“Fenja!” the other twin screamed, and Vicky flew in in her moment of distraction and socked her in the chin. Hard.

Bone cracked. Blood sprayed. And Menja went down like a sack of potatoes.

Vicky stopped.

Her heart was pounding, her pulse a steady thrum through her being. Her hands shook.

That fight (if it could even be called that) hadn’t lasted five seconds. Likely not even four. Yet, within that time, Vicky almost died once and three capes were taken down.

Holy shit! She had never seen anything like that before.

Cape fights were usually long, drawn out affairs that seemed to be more posturing than actual fighting, but this… this had not been that.

She looked at Prince; tall, calm, impeccably dressed and not a hair out of place.

She swallowed. Who was this guy?

“You sure that’s the best idea?” Prince asked, and Vicky followed his gaze to see the two Empire grunts pointing guns at them with shaky hands.

“Go to sleep,” Prince said, and a wave of pressure rolled over Vicky.

The Empire grunts collapsed to the ground, eyes rolled up into the back of their heads and frothing at the mouth.

The hell?

She looked back at Prince.

“Was that you?” she asked needlessly.

He nodded, and Vicky felt again that delicious tingle as his dark, intense eyes settled their gaze on her.

“You should get your sister,” he said. “Crusader and the twins aren’t in the best shape.”

“Yeah, right.”

Amy tried to harangue Prince for the injuries to the Empire capes, but Prince shut her down with a simple: “You asked me to look out for your sister. It was either hard and fast and safe, or gentle and slow and risky.”

It looked like it killed Amy inside to accept it, but she did, and she got to work patching up the capes.

Vicky edged closer to Prince.

“You know, I didn’t need you to look out for me,” she said.

Prince smiled, pinning her with those eyes again. “Well, you know us boys,” he said. “We always need to feel like big damn heroes.”

Vicky hummed thoughtfully. “And are you feeling very heroic, Mr. Vinsmoke?” she asked.

“Well, I just helped Glory Girl take out three Empire capes, so yeah, a little bit,” he said honestly. “It’s a pretty strange feeling to be honest.”

“Good strange?” she asked.

Prince took a moment to think about it. “Yeah,” he decided. “Good strange.”

Vicky smiled. “Good,” she said.

Barely ten minutes later, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and two squads of PRT troopers drove up in a rush of sirens and flashing lights.