"YOU HAVE MADE HEAVY USE OF THIS STAFF IN THE SHORT TIME YOU HAVE HELD IT. IT WOULD APPEAR IT HAS BECOME SOMEWHAT ATTUNED TO YOUR POWER, ENOUGH THAT YOU CAN LOCATE IT."
Taylor stretched out a hand, trusting and pulling with her power and her staff, blackened and smelling of charred wood but still intact, thumped into her hand. Her headache eased a fraction, and she could have wept with relief.
'I almost thought that losing a staff was going to become some kind of running gag.' She remarked, smiling even as bullets continued to thump around her. She located Tattletale, also in cover but being ignored, and closed her eyes in frustration for a moment.
'We can't get to Bakuda now.'
"NO, UBER AND LEET ARE APPROACHING. EVEN SUCH HALF COMPETENT FOES WILL BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU IN YOUR CURRENT STATE."
'I know. I know, damn! But I can't just run, I'll need a distraction. Good luck that that warehouse is pretty compromised by the glass bomb, isn't it?'
Taylor extended her power to the unsteady warehouse and wrenched. The heavily damage structure wobbled, creaking and groaning before there was the splintering crack of breaking glass and the whole wall began to fall. Cries of alarm overtook the bullets as shooters were distracted, and Taylor made a sprint for Tattletale. Sliding down next to the purple clad villain, Taylor checked the area was clear, careful not to raise her head.
"Can you walk yet?" she asked. Blunt, but they really didn't have time to dance around the topic. Tattletale gave a hasty nod.
"Just about, but not very well." She said. Taylor bit her lip, then bent towards her.
"Hold my staff." She ordered, thrusting the weapon towards Tattletale before scooping the villain into her arms and beginning to move, as fast as she could while still staying low. Tattletale let out a quiet laugh.
"It's a good thing you aren't a guy. That last phrase could really be misconstrued."
Taylor let out a soft noise of amusement.
"Dream all you like, Tattletale. Makes no difference to me." Taylor responded easily. They were not being pursued, but she still took the time to bring her weakening powers to bear and take them to the rooftops. It was much safer there, and she was able to pause again, setting Tattletale down once more and sliding into a sitting position against a vent.
"Hmm." Tattletale murmured. "You do realise that you've been caught on live stream, carrying me around? The shippers on PHO will be frothing at the mouth with excitement."
Taylor leaned her head against the cold metal, closing her eyes and waiting for her headache to abate somewhat.
"They can join it to the bunch that are shipping me with Glory."
"You don't seem too bothered by it."
Taylor managed a quiet chuckle.
"Have you seen Glory in that costume? I'm not complaining."
Tattletale gazed at her in silence for a few moments, then let out a rueful laugh.
"I honestly can't tell if you're joking or not." She admitted. Taylor shrugged one shoulder.
"There'd be no fun in it if you could." She said. Slowly she opened her eyes, smiling as her headache receded to a tolerable level. She stood, careful not to move too fast, and held out a hand to Tattletale.
"Come on. We'll get further away before I leave and see what's happening at the PRT HQ."
Tattletale nodded, taking the offered hand and hauling herself up.
"You think we should split up?" she asked. Taylor nodded.
"I think we should if we can. I don't really like leaving you without protection, but I don't trust the PRT enough to turn up with a known villain in tow. Piggot's a vinegar faced bitch who despises Parahumans, and I wouldn't put it past her to try and arrest us both."
"You really don't like her, huh?"
"Honestly, no. She was hurt by one Parahuman one time, so she despises all of us. She's basically a racist, and the PRT was stupid to put her in command. She isn't even so competent that she makes up for it." Taylor replied, helping Tattletale down from the building. The ABB had left, taking Bakuda with them, so they were safe enough.
"I've got a safehouse I can go to, but-"
Taylor nodded to Tattletale.
"I'll stay with you until we're away from the Docks and out of danger enough. Seeing as it's all gone quiet at the PRT HQ, I daresay I don't need to be too quick."
"Thank you."
Taylor left Tattletale once they got away from the Docks and into a safer part of the city, trusting that the Undersider could keep herself safe at least for a short time. That done, Taylor began moving towards the PRT HQ as quickly as possible, grimacing.
'I feel like I've strained my brain. Bloody hurts.'
"YES. YOU HAVE USED YOUR POWER A GREAT DEAL TODAY, HOWEVER, AND YOU ARE NOT YET SO POWERFUL AS TO WIELD IT WITH IMPUNITY. THERE IS SOMETHING STRANGE ABOUT IT, HOWEVER…I WOULD NEED TO EXAMINE YOUR BRAIN TO SEE THE ISSUE, UNFORTUNATELY."
'Maybe we can get Panacea to take a look. I know we're more or less immortal at this point, but I don't fancy having a stroke mid battle.'
"A STRONG POINT."
Taylor drifted across one final building, letting herself fall smoothly to the ground and approaching the PRT HQ on foot, being careful not to alarm anyone. The building was clearly damaged: the facing was scorched, and part of the entryway appeared to have collapsed. PRT troopers and Heroes milled around, a line of armoured Troopers holding back a crowd of journalists and civilians. They let her through without protest, and Taylor felt a cold tingle slowly drift up her spine. Something wasn't right.
The Wards were clustered together in a tight group, looking concerned, and Taylor hurried across to them.
"Vista? What happened- where's Glory and Gallant?" she asked. The youngest Ward turned to her, face pale beneath her visor.
"The ABB attacked us, blew a hole in the building and freed Oni Lee." She said, her voice bearing a weariness that belied her years. She looked up at Taylor.
"Gallant was badly hurt by Lee as he escaped. Lung…lung got away as well, but not alone."
The cold tingle turned to an icy wash, countered by a slowly stirring fury in the pit of her stomach.
"Circaetus…Lung got away with a hostage. He managed to take Glory Girl."
Chapter 7: Chapter 6Chapter TextTaylor stood in utter silence as she heard the rest of the story, waiting with uncommon patience for Vista to tell it all. As she heard it, Glory Girl had been injured by Lung fairly early on, but Dauntless had managed to drag her away. Near the end of the fight, Lung had moved to attack Gallant, and Glory had intercepted. Somehow Lung had done enough damage to knock her out, and one of his goons had thrown a grenade that apparently produced a small black hole at the PRT building. While everybody was distracted Lung had escaped, but Glory Girl had been missing. They were assuming she had been kidnapped. The alternative, that she had been caught in the grenade radius, was something no-one wanted to contemplate.
Taylor listened, and then nodded.
"Alright. No doubt Lung will make some kind of contact with us once he gets back to human, especially since Bakuda will need some medical attention after what she managed to do to herself." She said quietly, her voice not wavering from a steady monotone. Vista looked up at her.
"What happened?"
"Bakuda attacked the Undersiders, kidnapped Grue, Regent and Hellhound. I got involved because I was nearby, saved Tattletale. Bakuda learned that throwing grenades at a telekinetic is a bad idea. Exciting night."
Vista nodded slowly, and Taylor briefly touched her shoulder.
"It'll be ok, Vista." She said, managing to inject some tiny amount of optimism into her tone, dead to disguise the howling tempest of rage within. She sighed.
"Well, there's no point in waiting around here. I might as well go home, can't fight Lung on no sleep."
Just as she turned, she heard a noise of disbelief from Browbeat.
"You're leaving? Just like that- don't you care?"
Taylor clenched her free fist, so tightly that if she hadn't been wearing gloves her fingernails would have left bloody gouges in her palm. Her voice came out low and level, though it was hard to force it past the sudden rage that was thick in her throat.
"Don't care? Of course I care, Browbeat. Do not presume I don't. But I have no patience for fools right now, and you Director would most assuredly test that."
Taylor turned, her eyes locking onto Browbeat, and the rookie Ward cowered before her furious gaze.
"Rest assured, Browbeat, that I care more than most here, and I shall be one of the first to offer my aid to finding Glory Girl. But I cannot do that without rest, especially when we have no idea where she is."
Her voice did not raise, but instead became more deadly, and she stepped closer to Browbeat. The fear was positively pouring off him, and it somehow fuelled her rage until Vista stepped between them.
"Browbeat, keep your mouth shut. Circ, calm down. You're frightening the rookies."
Vista herself was not free of fear: it edged her voice and her mind, but it was barely present, and her courage brought Taylor to her senses. She halted, her hand unclenching and the unconscious gathering of her power dissipating.
"Of course. My apologies, it has been a stressful night for us all. As I said, I must go…I will speak to you again another time, Vista."
The youngest Ward nodded to her, and Taylor turned and mechanically walked away, her rage briefly banked, but still smouldering.
Taylor returned home swiftly. She made her way into her house, sneaking in through the window. Her father was in the house, but deeply asleep. She applied a slight deepening of his sleep, enough to keep him unaware, and quickly changed her clothes and made her way to the bathroom. One swift shower later, and she had managed to compress her fury into a tight ball that wasn't threatening to consume her and send her into a vicious frenzy. She still couldn't sleep, but it didn't take her long to consider an option for that.
"SLEEPING PILLS, REALLY?"
'I need to sleep for at least a few hours. It won't hurt, and who will never know?'
"WE WOULD."
Taylor murmured sourly, but she didn't get up from where she slumped on her bed. She was tired anyway, and maybe drugging herself might not be the best option. She leaned against her headboard and closed her eyes, channelling her power in a gentle stream that didn't aggravate her headache and accelerated her healing, soothing her aches and pains. With this, despite her churning mind and still present anger, she was able to fall asleep quickly, troubled though her slumber was.
She was awoken by the quiet ringing of a cellphone. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes hastily, and answered the phone.
"Yes?"
Her father was still asleep, but Taylor re-applied the gentle psychic touches to keep him asleep and unaware. Better that he knew nothing.
"Circaetus? It's Tattletale. You have to check Uber and Leet's stream, now."
Taylor stood, still blinking but alarmed by the tone of Tattletales voice. She fired up her old computer, mentally cursing the slowness of the computer and the Internet connection, and glanced at the clock. Six in the morning. At least she had managed almost five hours sleep. She waited with rapidly decreasing patience until the computer loaded, and the stream was ready. It had already ended, but It could be replayed. She hit the button, and scowled as Lung came into view: how had he gotten hold of Uber and Leets camera? Were they so stupid that they had taken Bakuda to her base?
"OR SO UNFORTUNATE AS TO BE FORCED TO DO SO."
Lung was, as always, bare chested, and his metal mask was in place. He began to speak, his accent thick and his tone filled with condescensiom.
"Brockton Bay. I know you are hearing this. I have captured the famous Hero, Glory Girl."
The camera panned slightly, showing Glory Girl, tied up and unconscious. Taylor gritted her teeth.
"She is unharmed. More than I can say for my Lieutenant Bakuda, yes? Indeed. Fortunately, I am not a cruel man. I shall allow Glory Girl to leave unharmed, so long as the healer Panacea agrees to aid Bakuda, within three days. Three days, Panacea. And after that? Well, a heroine does not need ten fingers."
Lung turned his head, as though glancing at something, and then leaned closer to the camera, his voice lowering and roughening.
"And this last message, this is for the vigilante Circaetus. Circaetus, can you hear me? I offer congratulations. You have made an enemy of all the gangs of Brockton Bay. We shall meet, Circaetus, and you shall not survive. I, Lung, decree this. Flee or fight, Circaetus, your doom is decided."
Taylor waited as the stream ceased, and began to loop. She carefully closed down the Internet window and shut off the computer before letting out a long sigh and picking up her cellphone again.
"Tattletale."
"You've seen the video, then. What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to see how well Lung can back up his words, of course. Do you know where he's keeping Bakuda and Glory?"
"It's the same place as he's keeping Grue and the others, but I don't know where exactly."
A pause, and then Tattletale continued.
"I do know where a smaller safehouse is, though."
"Give me it." Taylor said quietly. Tattletale told her, and Taylor nodded.
"I'll go there and ring you once I'm done. We can plan more then."
"Circaetus…are you sure?"
Taylor sighed, but her course was clear and her mind set.
"Positive."
Taylor did not leave the house for most of the day. Much as she burned to leave immediately, to begin hunting Lung and Bakuda and the ABB, she was weary and wounded from the encounters last night and needed time to recuperate. As such, she remained in her room for much of the day, sat in a position that was almost meditative and focusing her energies upon healing. A relatively common technique among those Psykers that could achieve it, it was of little effectiveness upon others, and even limited when used on oneself. In conjunction with her own enhanced Perpetual healing, however, it would return her to peak condition before she left. Then she would be battle ready. Something that would be needed, she knew. All day long explosions crossed the air, and Taylor mentally counted the buildings that were reported bombed. All more reasons for Bakuda fall.
Her clock went off with a quiet alarm at nine o'clock, and Taylor opened her eyes. She had only left her room to eat all day. It was time to leave again, but for something far more productive. Before that, however, she needed to prepare.
Taylor stood in front of her mirror, dressing with mechanical precision. She could not afford anything to be wrong. Not now, when she had something to do. The trousers, shirt and black pullover first, covering her body and providing some form of protection. The boots next. And then the mask. It had taken her some time, but Taylor had managed to sew the balaclava portion of her mask into her hood, cutting it free so that she could lose her coat without losing her hood: she shrugged her coat on first. Her hair, pulled back into a tight ponytail, was tucked under the collar before she hunched her head a little, sliding the mask on. It covered the upper portion of her face, with eyeholes, and ran down her cheeks, a section fitting snugly under her chin to hold it all. Her exposed mouth was covered by her scarf, carefully wound into position, and she pulled her gloves on last. A hand extended, and her charred staff, still smelling faintly of burned wood, was pulled easily into her hand. The picture was complete, the image of Circaetus fully prepared. The only question that remained was the greatest one: would it be enough?
Taylor had no illusions. It would be enough, or she would make it so. Doubt is for the dying.
She looked at her hand for a moment, flexing the glove.
'Gauntlets, I think. And maybe a lightning claw. Something for the future, though. At the moment…'
Tatters of pink-purple flames briefly flickered around her fingers, and Taylor smiled without humour.
'Let's see how resilient Lung really is.'
Taylor moved towards the ABB hideout with steady purpose. Her plan was simple: she would find someone there. She would destroy the ABB until one of them revealed to her the location of Bakuda, and then she would rescue Glory Girl. Simple. Possibly not easy, but simple.
"Circaetus!"
Taylor stopped dead in the middle of the street, aggravation blossoming in her as the shouter descended to street level- or almost street level. Rune. The Empire Cape was floating on a chunk of tarmac rubble, and two dumpsters orbited her in lazy spirals. Victor was just behind her, and given that Taylor could sense Othella nearby he was presumably invincible-ed. She didn't have time for this.
"Circaetus. Going to rescue Glory Girl?" Rune asked, an edge of malice tainting her cheerful tone. Taylor turned her eyes to the Empire Cape.
"I intended to, Rune, but you seem to be in my way." She said, mustering a modicum of patience and civility. Rune looked amused beneath her hood.
"Yes. I'm aware that you intend to hunt down the sub-human Lung. It's almost poetic, the brave hero going to rescue the fair damsel from the Asian beast."
Taylor narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on her staff, and her voice gained a harsh edge.
"Don't bring your pathetic ideology into this, Rune. It was stupid the first time it was espoused and it's even more stupid now."
"Stupid? Foolish? Easy to say that when you hide beneath the PRT. When you ignore that the rampaging beast is Asian, that the insane bomber planting explosives in heads is Asian, that the PRT was attacked and a hero kidnapped to rescue a mass murdering Asian! What are they but beasts, savages, inhuman primitives enslaved to their baser nature?"
Taylor gave a snort of disdain.
"That's a pretty speech, Rune. Did Kaiser write it? I wouldn't be surprised, he doesn't seem to have any skills other than talking. You call them beasts and savages? What then is Hookwolf? What are Night, and Fog? You disgust me. You draw from a weakling regime that did nothing but draw its own destruction upon itself, a regime that barely lasted ten years before falling to its own weakness, and you trumpet your greatness as though you have any success. Let me tell you, Rune: you are nothing. Supported only because the other choice is the Merchants, always afraid, ranks filled with weaklings clinging to an ideology that brought no triumph, no victory to cover up their own inadequacies."
Taylor stopped, just long enough to let out an ugly laugh.
"You claim to be so superior, but your spurious claims are nothing when you have no power to reinforce them. If you are so great, then tell me: why are the leaders of two of the great three gangs non-white?"
Rune levitated a fraction further, her composure starting to break, and Taylor itched to unleash her full fury upon the arrogant girl. Rune was nothing, her powers paling before the might that Taylor could bring to bear, and she would learn it.
"You talk a great deal, Circaetus, but we do not have to be foes." Victor interrupted smoothly. Taylor shifted her gaze to him, calculating, but saying nothing. He seemed to take this as his cue and stepped forward.
"Kaiser has observed you, and found your skill to be adequate, if lessened by inexperience. He would offer a great position in his ranks to you…wealth, power, whatever you may wish, even to the forgiveness of your crimes against the true Empire. He notes that you already wear the eagle…perhaps you are not so far from us as you believe…"
Taylor raised her hand, cutting Victor off.
"Do not consider my Acquila a symbol of your beliefs, Victor. And even if it was, why would I ever serve one such as Kaiser? He hides behind numbers, as though it makes him great. He hides behind honeyed words, as though they make him strong. I would never serve him. Not even if he was the only option left. Even then, I have my pride…I will not bow to some petty racist with some delusions of grandeur."
Victor looked hard at her, but bowed his head and stepped back.
"So be it." He murmured, and Taylor saw him tense for battle. She looked at Rune, still levitating and clearly angry.
"Rune. Victor. I shall allow you one chance: Leave now. Cease to bar my way, and I shall allow you to leave. Do not squander my mercy lightly."
Rune sneered.
"You think you're so strong, Circaetus? If that stupid chink Lee nearly killed you, I'll shove your boasts down your throat! We'll see who's the strongest telekinetic!"
Taylor shrugged coldly.
"Yes. We will." She said icily, before reaching out and wrenching control of Runes weapons from her.
The dumpsters hit Victor with brutal force. Invulnerable as he might be, the laws of physics could not be denied and he was carried aloft, crashing into a warehouse and being buried by the wall and dumpsters. Rune fell as the asphalt block under her tilted suddenly, and Taylor ran towards her as the block added to the pile over Victor. Rune tried to stand, on her hands and knees, and Taylor kicked her. Well, not kicked: it was less a kick and more a standing stomp. Taylor's bootheel hit Rune in the collarbone, and a sickening snap was closely followed by a scream. Taylor let her staff drift behind her as she grabbed Rune by her injured arm and dragged her upright. The screams intensified, and Taylor threw her away, turning and holding out a hand to Othella as she broke cover. The Empire Healer halted, falling to her knees in desperate supplication as her airway closed, and Taylor did the same to Rune. The piercing screams abruptly turned to horrified, desperate choking.
"You see?" Taylor asked, almost mildly.
"You see how terribly outmatched you are? How foolish you were to challenge me? I could kill you all, here and now, and it would be easy."
Taylor considered for a moment, wondering if she should simply remove them from the city forever, but then reconsidered. There was no kill order for them, it would simply make her a murder. She released Othella first, dragging her closer with a gesture and planting her hand over the Empire cape's face. A brief psionic jolt, and the healer was down. Rune was next, and Taylor let her go. Telekinetic tendrils hooked onto her arms and dragged her, eliciting fresh screams.
"Rune. Rune, Rune, Rune. Have you learned your lesson yet?" Taylor asked, holding the smaller girl up with ease. Rune bit down a scream, panting and rasping with the effort, and Taylor sighed.
"All that defiance, so utterly wasted. Consider yourself exceedingly fortunate: my business tonight is with the ABB, not the Empire. But I shall return to you soon enough, Rune. If you are sensible, you may want to flee town."
Taylor briefly locked eyes with the terrified and agonised villain.
"Just a thought." She murmured before she knocked Rune out and let her slide to the ground. She left the three Empire capes there, detritus fallen in her wake. She did not look back.
The ABB safehouse was, as Taylor might have expected from the Docks, a warehouse. It appeared to be in relatively good condition, and Taylor could approve- it made it much more non-descript. Whether or not it retained that condition after she had finished was unknown. She thought it unlikely. It probably depended on how much of a fight the ABB put up. She walked to a side door, rather than the much larger main doors, and knocked politely. She took a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh as someone's mind approached, curious and a little wary. A deadbolt slid back.
"What do you-Circaetus!"
Taylor blew the door off it's hinges with a psychic blast and strode in, barely adding enough trajectory to the door that it swatted the ABB member aside rather than crushing him. There was utter silence for a long moment as she surveyed the inside of the warehouse.
"What I am here for is information. I will not harm any more of you, so long as you tell me where Bakuda and Lung are. Tell me, and I will allow you to leave unharmed."
Her response was a shout of defiance, and the dozen gang-members inside grabbed gun or some form of hand weapon. Bullets rained towards her, but Taylor simply deflected them.
"So be it. I offered the hand of mercy, but you have elected the way of pain!"
Taylor swung her staff in a sweeping motion, and every gun, bat or knife was torn from the hands of it's owner. As the cries of shock reached her she extended her other hand, and lightning ripped from each fingertip, each purple-tinged bolt striking an ABB member and bringing them down in writhing pain. The last one, as yet unharmed and closest to her, let out a scream of challenge and ran towards her with a knife he hastily pulled from his waistband. Taylor turned to him, and his charge faltered before her gaze. Her staff struck his wrist hard, and she shoved him against a wall with a simple blast of power, holding him in position. With the other ABB out of the fight, she walked towards him, the pressure increasing with every step, forcing him against the wall, spread-eagled and helpless.
"I want you to remember that I gave you a choice." Taylor said mildly, increasing the pressure the man was experiencing, but only on his head.
"Now. I want to know where Lung and Bakuda are. Or I suppose either one will do. Otherwise…well, we'll see which gives first. The wall or your skull. I don't much care, but I wouldn't give you the best odds."
The man screamed and struggled, but Taylor held him still and this part of the Docks was almost entirely empty, especially at night. He screamed only once, briefly, and then began babbling in his native tongue. Taylor didn't speak it, but The Emperor did, and he was able to translate most of it.
"Praying? It won't help. Even if they existed, they could not offer you salvation. Not now. Not ever."
Some part of Taylor stirred uneasily at what she was doing. It was wrong, she supposed, some abandonment of her morals inherent in her actions, but it was needed. She could not afford the luxury of mercy and kindness. Not now, with more than her life on the line.
Another mind popped into existence, and Taylor turned on her heel, dropping the man and bringing her staff up. It met the blade of a knife that was coming towards her.
Oni Lee dissolved into ash an instant after she blocked, appearing on the other side of the room and underhanding a grenade towards her. Taylor knocked it aside with a wave of her hand. Conventional explosive.
Lee appeared on her right and tried to ram his knife into her neck. Taylor ducked and snapped a boot towards his ankle but he dissolved into ash again and he was on her other side and Taylor threw out her hand, a whip of lightning flicking from her fingers towards his skull but it was another clone. Lee appeared opposite her, his mask staring directly towards her. There was no emotion behind that fanged, leering mask, barely any soul, and Taylor repressed a shudder. It was…unnatural.
She met his gaze, slowly trailing her lightning whip along the ground before drawing it up, wrapping it around her hand and forearm, encasing her fist in a gauntlet of purple-white lightning. She let her staff go, keeping it levitating next to her with a faint application of power: the weapon was practically part of her now, it wasn't at all difficult.
"You made a mistake coming here, Lee. You're all alone. Besides, I would have though Bakuda would have told you: don't bring grenades against a telekinetic."
Lee reached for his grenades.
Taylor jerked her hand up, fingers curling, and every pin popped out of every explosive.
Lee reacted with lightning quickness, she'd give him that: the knife in his hand sliced through the bandoleer strap and he hurled the belt at her. She thrust her hand out again, sending the belt hurtling towards the roof. The explosion was a kaleidoscope of fire and ice and endless, ageless voids that consumed each other, leaving nothing behind but a gaping hole in the warehouse roof. Lee returned his gaze to her, slowly drawing a second knife with his free hand. Taylor pulled her staff back into her hand, and nodded to him.
"No Hookwolf. No bombs. Just you, me and a good old-fashioned beatdown. I'm going to enjoy this."
And Lee teleported.
Taylor ducked his first knife swipe, turning the motion into a roll that carried her away. She rose and turned at the same time, her left hand swiping in a motion that trailed lightning, but it only cut through ash and she was barely able to bring her staff up to block as Lee brought both knives down, now holding them point down in his hands. He tried to leverage the position to drag her staff away, but she stepped towards him and struck with her lighting hand. He teleported again.
Taylor gritted her teeth and struck her staff hard on the floor, letting loose a circular wave of force that shoved Lee hard back before she dragged every available bit of detritus towards herself, tearing apart the furniture in the room and bringing it into a spinning cyclone that would shield her briefly. She stood, locating Lee but then there were two of him and they came through the shield, one bursting into ash and she guessed correctly and her thrust staff hit him in the ribs and she threw him into a wall. He burst into ash on contact but he was behind her again and a chair-leg hit his arm and knocked him off balance and even though he staggered back her swipe with her lightning coated hand left a long scorch mark on the chest of his bodysuit. He teleported away, once again looking at her in silence. Taylor met his gaze, as best they could stare each other down through the still swirling fragments of door and chairs and tables. This was harder than she expected. At least she didn't have to move much: the ABB goons were still flat out on the floor and she couldn't imagine Lee taking any pains to keep them alive.
"I'm going to give you the same chance I gave these idiots, Lee. Tell me where Lung and Bakuda are, and I'll let you go."
Lee stared at her and said nothing, as always. Taylor nodded to herself.
"Yeah, I kinda expected that. Guess I'll just have to beat it out of you."
Without any gesturing, the storm of shrapnel hurled itself at Lee. Taylor already knew that he would have teleported, and simply rammed her staff into the ground, releasing a telekinetic wave, carefully calculated to not be enough to throw Lee back. He leapt through the stirred up dust, knife lunging at her, and Taylor twisted her body, having tracked him. The knife skated along her side and Taylor threw in a headbutt. Lee staggered back, and Taylor lunged forward, her lightning-encased fist ramming through his breast and body, but it was too easy and he disintegrated into a cloud of ash and she scowled.
"All these Naruto-style clone tricks are getting mighty boring, Lee. I'd expected something better." She said, sourly considering. If she could just kill him, a single heavy blow would do it and even if affecting his internal organs was too hard without physical contact she could blind him or something. But she needed him alive, and she needed to be able to make proper eye contact to ransack his mind for Lung's location. Reducing his eyeballs to smashed pulp wouldn't help with that. Then again, she didn't really need to make eye contact. She just needed to be close. Besides, illusions were a lot easier than internal injuries, and were less incriminating. She just needed him close.
Lee teleported. The blade caught her this time, drawing a long cut down her left forearm as she tried to block, but she let go of her lightning and it expanded into a brief sphere that drove Lee back before he could use his second knife. Taylor seized her chance, and drove a psychic attack into Lee's mind. Really she was affecting the nerves running from his eyes. In actuality, it was like detonating a flashbang at point blank range. Lee hit the wall, one arm coming up to his face and the other cutting blindly.
"HE CAN'T TELEPORT WITHOUT SIGHT!" The Emperor said, his tone one of remembered realisation, and Taylor remembered what he meant: Oni Lee required his sight to teleport. She had her chance now. She twisted her arm and pulled, and a brick exploded from the wall and smashed Lee in the leg. There was a crack, and Taylor lunged across the room, a long wooden splinter from a broken chair settling in her hand. She angled herself to avoid the knife Lee waved, and drove the splinter into his shoulder, pinning Lee to the wall with the stake-like shard. Lee dropped one knife. Taylor snapped his other arm with her staff, a single blow channelling energy through the bone until it couldn't hold. Taylor took a long breath, grabbing Lee's chin. His eyes opened again just as she forced him to look at her, meeting his blank eyes and driving into his mind.
Oni Lee was not a strong man. Physically, maybe, and his power was impressive enough, but there was nothing behind it. No emotion. No personality. No soul. No resistance to her at all. Most people, they had some kind of innate defence that had to be broken. Lee had nothing. His mind was an open book waiting to be read, and Taylor was able to pull the location of Bakuda and Lung from him without effort. The mental attack knocked him unconscious, and she stared at his slumped form, thinking.
'I should kill him.'
"SHOULD YOU?"
'Would anybody miss him? He's a killer without a soul, without a personality. He barely has a mind. He isn't any use to anyone except Lung.'
"HMM. YES. NOBODY EXCEPT LUNG. WHO YOU ARE HUNTING."
'You think that we should keep him. In case we need bait.'
Taylor thought about it. It wasn't a bad suggestion, really: Lung had shown that he would be willing to attack the PRT to rescue Lee. It would make a good trap. Besides that, Lee had beaten her before. Taylor was loath to let Lee leave life while still one for one against her. She shrugged and reached for her phone.
"PRT, how may we help you?"
The tone was bored and lazy. Taylor decided that she might as well wake them up.
"You can help me by listening. This is Circaetus. I've managed to take down Oni Lee- I'd send some people before he wakes up."
The quick intake of breath on the other side of the phone indicated that the PRT operator was now listening, and listening well. Taylor gave the address calmly and curtly, and the operator hastily spoke before she could put the phone down.
"Ah, Circaetus, could you wait for one minute? One of the Protectorate wants to talk to you."
Taylor glanced around herself.
"I can wait, but not for long." She said. The operator quickly thanked her, and Taylor leaned against a wall, waiting.
"Circaetus? This is Dauntless- we met some time ago."
"Yes, I do remember. What do you want, Dauntless?"
A brief, humourless chuckle answered her.
"I want Lung in a jail cell, and Bakuda along with him. But I might not get that. You've found out where he is, haven't you?"
"No." Taylor replied, smooth and immediate. Dauntless snorted.
"Yeah, I believe you. You want to get in alone, I get that. Just do me a favour? Once you're in, send us a call. I owe Lung for that little debacle. Oh, and by the by…Bakuda's bombs have been found at a couple of police stations. It's been confirmed, she's got a kill order on her. So if you need to get a little rough, none of us will hold it against you."
Taylor let out a non-committal hum.
"And Lung?"
"No kill on him, unfortunately. Try to avoid him if you can. And think about making that call. If you manage to found out where the ABB headquarters is, of course."
"I'll think about it. Thanks, Dauntless."
"My pleasure, Circaetus."
Dauntless, Taylor decided, was a good man.
Tattetale's mind felt nervous. Taylor could understand why: they were about to mount a rescue mission, into the base of one of the largest gangs in Brockton Bay, and Tattletale had no combat powers.
"You don't have to come along, you know. I can do this alone." Taylor said. Tattletale looked at her, a quick twitch that betrayed the nervousness she was hiding behind an insouciant façade.
"What? No. I'd never hear the end of it if I left you to rescue the others alone. Just…just try to stay under the radar, yeah? I'd like to avoid explosives and bullets."
Taylor shrugged.
"I'll do my best. Staying behind me is probably a good idea, though."
"Stay behind you. Uh huh, sure. Got it."
Taylor smiled behind her mask before turning.
"The ABB safehouse is just over there. See the apartment building? It's joined to the warehouse next to it- illegally of course, but that hardly matters. It's Bakuda's lair according to my information: Lung doesn't live there, he doesn't trust her enough. He might turn up though."
"Oh. Might. Good. Do we know if Glory Girl, Grue and the others are in there?"
Taylor shook her head.
"Don't know. There's a good chance that they are, since Lung would want Bakuda to operate on the other Undersiders, but there's no guarantee. Bakuda will know where they are, though, and she'll be in there."
"You think we can make her talk?" Tattletale asked. Taylor shrugged, feeling an odd apathy.
"Everybody talks. Only question is how long it'll take."
Tattletale swallowed.
"Right. Terrifying. Are we going to get this started, then?"
Taylor nodded.
"Can you see any cameras? I want to keep this sneaky for as long as possible." She said. She herself couldn't see any, but Tattletale's power might give her some insight Taylor lacked. Tattletale gazed for a few minutes, and Taylor spent the time carefully locating the minds inside the building. If she was stronger she might well have been able to knock them all unconscious from out here, but for the moment her range with that sort of thing was limited. It was why she preferred to make physical contact when transmitting psychic sparks. Easier. Less draining.
"I can't see any cameras." Tattletale reported quietly, and Taylor nodded.
"Alright. Let's go then."
The two of them crept across the street, heading for the door to the apartment building. They crouched in the shadow of the doorway, while Taylor pressed her hand to the door and worked the lock.
"You can do that?" Tattletale whispered. Taylor glanced at her.
"I can do a lot of things."
The lock clicked, and Taylor led the way inside. The door led into a concrete hallway, bland and miserable and barely lit by a flickering strip-light on the ceiling. A stairway stretched into dimness at the end of the corridor: there was no elevator.
"Stairs up or down?" Taylor asked Tattletale, whispering. Tattletale was tense: she had taken a pistol from somewhere and was holding it with both hands.
"Up, I guess. Unless you can find anyone?"
"Hmm…there isn't anyone downstairs, at least. Best guess, this is just some kind of quarters, we'll be more likely to find the prisoners in here. Warehouse is probably the workshop. We'll go up then- try not to shoot me by accident?"
"I'll try."
"Comforting." Taylor murmured, but she led the way regardless. She couldn't find anyone too close by: she had located the prisoners, and two guards outside what she presumed were their cells, but she had to hide at least some of her powers from Tattletale.
The building was eerily quiet as Taylor and Tattletale slowly climbed the staircase. Taylor was somewhat surprised that there were no guards, but she supposed that Bakuda was hardly a tactical genius. Besides, the ABB Tinker probably thought that her hideout would never be found. Everybody made mistakes.
"So, seven floors. This is all Bakuda's base, it'll be her stuff." Tattletale whispered as they paused on the first floor. Taylor nodded.
"There wasn't anybody in the basement, so there might be a prison floor?" she tried. Tattletale nodded.
"Seems likely. Don't know what the rest are for, but we can probably guess that the prison floor- assuming there is one- is near the middle. Harder to escape."
Taylor nodded, noting that Tattletale looked strained. Then again, her friends were prisoners of a mad bomber and her boss was probably pushing her. It was understandable.
"There's somebody on this level." Taylor murmured to Tattletale, slowly moving off the stairway and creeping across to the door that she could feel someone behind. Carefully placing her feet to minimise any noise, she reached out and mentally placed a feeling of ignorance upon the ABB member, a slightly stronger version of the ability she had first honed at her school. She pushed the door open with her left hand and rose to her feet, laying down her staff: she would need both hands if this was to be quick and quiet.
The ABB member was a short man, bent over a bench- the room looked like an armoury, Taylor guessed that he was doing maintenance. She slid into the room, and he coughed. Taylor stilled, waiting until he stopped coughing and straightened, pressing a hand against the back of his neck and closing his windpipe with a psychic stranglehold. The reaction was almost immediate- the man flailed, but her stranglehold extended to most of his torso and he could only twitch weakly. Taylor gestured with her free hand, and a wad of oily rag flew from the bench the man was leaning over into her hand. A brief motion forced the makeshift gag into his open mouth, and Taylor released the grip on his throat and lifted him with a gesture, wrapping coils of power around him and pressing him against the wall.
"Hello." Taylor said, quite gently. The man looked at her, wide eyed and frightened, his breath rasping through the gag as he breathed again.
"Obviously you can't talk right now, but I'd really like you to be able to. Really, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to hurt Bakuda. And I think you can help me with that, right?"
The man looked terrified, and Taylor felt his intention to scream before he did it. She made a pinching motion with the outstretched hand that was pinning the man to the wall, and his windpipe closed again. Taylor kept it so for a few seconds, then released him.
"Yes yes, all the tired defiance and desperation. Normally I would indulge you, but I really don't have time. So. Tell me, where is Bakuda? Where is Lung? And most importantly, where are the prisoners?"
The man was crying. Taylor could sense the silent shock and horror that Tattletale was hiding, and it annoyed her. She didn't have time to be nice. Not anymore.
"Incidentally, if you don't tell me I've no use for you. You haven't got long. So, are you going to tell me what I want to know?"
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Taylor was aware that her soft tone of voice probably made the scene more horrible. The greater part of her simply didn't care. The ABB member nodded frantically, still sobbing silently. Taylor felt her conscience twinge a little, but it was a muted cry that she easily ignored. This was for the greater good.
"Alright. We'll keep this to yes or no, ok? Nod or shake your head, nice and easy. First question- Is Bakuda here?"
She lightened her hold on the man, enough that he could move his head, and he nodded frantically.
"She is here, hmm? Is Lung here?"
Headshake. That was good, easier to take him down. Honestly though, she had seen most of the answers to her questions in his mind, this was a show put on for Tattletale. It was a good thing that the lie detector portion of Tattletale's power seemed thrown off a little by her psyker abilities.
"Do you know where he is?"
Headshake. Unsurprising.
"Are the prisoners all in one place?"
Nod.
"Guarded?"
Nod.
"More than one guard?"
Nod.
"Less than five?"
Nod.
"Where are they, exactly? This is the first floor, so second floor? Third? Fourth? Fifth?"
Taylor paused between each floor, giving the man time to nod or shake his head. The prisoners were on the fourth floor- that was only two away. She repeated the process with Bakuda, finding that the mad bomber was currently in the warehouse. Taylor nodded, walking closer.
"Thank you. You've made my job a lot easier, you know? In return, why don't you just…sleep?"
Taylor pressed gently fingers to the mans head, and a psychic spark left him unconscious. She turned to Tattletale.
"Fourth floor it is, then. Come on, we don't want to be here too long."
Tattletale followed silently.
The fourth floor smelled of blood and antiseptic. Taylor could smell it even before she had reached the top of the stairs, a smell that made her frown and wrinkle her nose. She supposed that she knew where Bakuda did her surgery, now. A tiny part of her coldly approved of keeping prisoners in such a situation- break their spirits by allowing them some glimpse of their fate. Taylor tried to ignore the thought.
There were three guards, sitting around a table and playing cards. Two of them had lighted cigarettes- Taylor wondered if it was to try to drown out the smell. Honestly, she didn't care. They were just enemies now, and she needed to take them out quietly. Same method as before: keep them ignorant of her presence, move closer. A hand on two shoulders, psychic spark, two men down. Close a windpipe, psychic spark, third down. Easy.
She looked over the table for a key and saw nothing.
"Tattletale? Any keys? They're keeping Glory contained somehow, so I don't want to just tear the doors off." She said. Tattletale nodded, focusing and then pointing.
"The big guy. I'll take a look at the doors, see if I can work out how they're still there." She said. Taylor nodded, leaning down and rifling through the gang members pockets until she located a key ring with three keys on it.
"Shit." Tattletale said quietly. Taylor looked across, quickly moving to the Undersider.
"What?"
"The doors have bombs on them. Fuck! Even with the key the bombs need to be disarmed before we can free anyone!"
Taylor felt her jaw tighten in anger, but managed to rein in her murderous inclination.
"Can you disarm them?" she asked. Tattletale was paler than usual, but she nodded.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think so. So long as I can get a look at it- can you get the plating off the wall?"
Now that Tattletale had pointed it out, Taylor could see that the doorframes were surrounded by crudely fastened plates of metal. She stepped closer, carefully prying one from the wall and lifting it away. She turned her back, watching the stairs as Tattletale worked and scanning the rest of the floor. It was one giant room, the walls and apartments opposite the cells having been knocked down and stripped back to the concrete. The place was lit by the same miserable, weak strip lights as everywhere else, but there were two floodlights placed over a table- almost certainly Bakuda's surgery table.
'Because what this city was missing was a mad doctors lair.' She commented bitterly.
"YOU WILL HAVE PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITY TO SATE YOUR ANGER ON DESERVING TARGETS."
'Doesn't mean I'm ok with all this.'
Mental silence joined physical silence for several minutes, leaving Taylor to stare into the stairwell and keep a careful track of the people in the building. Two on the third floor, six in the warehouse.
"I've got it." Tattletale said suddenly, straightening. Taylor stood from her half crouch and hurried over, already taking out the key. She waited until Tattletale indicated the right one, and carefully pushed it into the door.
"You're sure we won't explode?" she asked. Tattletale gave a small, grim smile.
"Pretty sure. If we do get exploded, I'll be sure to send you a get well card." She said. Taylor gave a soft laugh, and turned the key. The lock clicked. The door swung open. The occupant came out swinging.
Taylor brought her hands together, catching the charging prisoner in a web of force that blunted the punch and let her block it with crossed arms. It still stung like hell and drove her back a step, and Taylor was glad that she had been gradually moving towards being physically superhuman since her powers awoke- that hit might well have fractured bones in a normal human. She'd still have a bruise.
"Glory!" she hissed, latching on to the arm and pulling the heroine closer to her. Glory Girl stopped struggling as Taylor latched onto her aura mentally, feeding it back to calm the heroine.
"Circ?" Glory Girl said, her blue eyes focusing.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Taylor shrugged.
"Oh, you know, rescuing damsels and stuff. General heroics. You look terrible, Glory."
Glory Girl did look terrible. Hair mussed, costume slightly torn, bruised and battered, her left arm was in a rough sling and she flinched as she moved it. She wore an expression of amazement.
"Is that Tattletale? The Undersider?"
"Enemy of my enemy, Glory. Look, point is we needed each other's help, but now you need to get out."
Glory Girl still seemed a little out of it, but then she shook her head and nodded.
"Right. Yeah. Bakuda. One of the Undersiders got taken to her lab, we should go and…woah."
Glory Girl stumbled and nearly fell, and Taylor was barely able to get a hold on her.
"Drugged." Tattletale said, barely glancing over from where she was working on another bomb-frame. Glory wobbled before rising a few inches off the floor.
"Oh. Flying is easier." She noted, a little muzzily, and Taylor swore mentally. She hadn't considered that Glory might be out of the picture mentally as well as physically.
"Glory. Glory, you listening?"
Glory Girl blinked and shook her head.
"I-yeah. Yeah, I'm with you. Still suffering whatever they were pumping into the room though. Probably a good thing, meant I didn't swing at you full strength."
"Yeah. Right. Look, Glory, you're in no shape to take on Bakuda. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to break out the Undersiders, and then you're going to fly out, take them nice and safe away. Drop them off, get yourself to your sister. Meanwhile, I'm going to punch Bakudas lights out and save whoever she's currently got hold of. Ok?"
Glory Girl stopped floating, meeting Taylor's eyes.
"Ok." She said, though reluctantly, and walked unsteadily over to the table and chairs, tipping one guard off and sitting down. Taylor turned back to Tattletale, who had managed to disarm the bomb and pull open the door. She was talking hastily to a tall black boy, who Taylor guessed must be Grue.
"Tattletale. News?" she said, walking across and pointedly not looking at Grue. Secret identities and all that.
"Grue and Regent are here, they aren't hurt that much, but Bitch has been taken to the warehouse. Bakuda decided that she's least useful and she's going to be Lungs demonstration of power, tonight!" Tattletale said, sounding worried. Taylor grimaced beneath her scarf.
"So Lung'll be coming here. Alright, here's what we'll do. Glory will take Grue and Regent, fly out and drop them off once she's gotten a bit away. Me and you will go after Bitch, take down Bakuda and escape."
"That's an awful plan. Where's the back-up plan?" Tattletale asked. Taylor held up her staff.
"This is the backup plan." She said dourly, before turning to Grue. He had taken a bandanna off an ABB goon, and was using it to cover his face.
"You hear the plan?"
"Yeah." He said quietly. He was limping, which was probably why he hadn't insisted on joining Taylor instead of Tattletale. Bakuda and her goons must have worked him over pretty good.
"Alright. Glory!"
Taylor called over to Glory Girl, while still staying as quiet as she could. The heroine walked across, very carefully, and nodded to her.
"You want me to drop them off once I'm far enough away?" she asked, looking at Grue and the thin Regent, who Grue was half-supporting.
"Yeah."
"Ok. Ok, I can do that. Should probably take them in, but hell, one good turn, right? Are we safe to head up to the roof so I can set off?"
Taylor shook her head at that
"Better to go down, no chance of traps that way. Bakuda might have mined the roof or something." She said. Glory Girl nodded, and Taylor lead the way to the third floor, where she paused and turned to Glory Girl, putting one hand on her shoulder.
"Glory. Be careful. Don't come back without getting properly healed- I'll ring the Protectorate once I'm ready, so don't try to be a hero."
Glory Girl didn't look that convinced, but she agreed quietly and moved off down the stairs, Grue and Regent following. Taylor turned to Tattletale.
"Just us two again, then. Let's make this quick: if Lung's on his way, we want to be gone before he arrives."
Tattletale nodded, and Taylor led the way again. If she was right there would be some kind of connecting door to the warehouse, and given that the warehouse was on the opposite side of the apartment building to the stairs she was betting it was near the three minds she sensed on this floor. They didn't seem wary, but there was a tension of stress in two of them. Prisoners, press-ganged by Bakuda maybe? Hard to tell. Didn't matter. They were close now, just one door away, and Taylor stood next to it quietly, deciding how to proceed. She still wanted to be quiet, stealthy, but there were three people in there and she couldn't rely on them looking away like the cell guards. Different plan.
"Here, hold this." Taylor said quietly, passing Tattletale her staff. Thus freed, Taylor raised her hand and rapped on the door, pushing a sense of curiosity onto the mind inside the room that didn't feel afraid. Whoever they were, they approached the door and opened it.
"Hello." Taylor said, pressing her hand to the gang members chest and driving a psychic spark through him. The man collapsed and Taylor stepped in, bringing her hands up and slamming the two others to the wall, holding them there with her telekinesis.
"Uber and Leet. I can't say I expected to see you here." She said, keeping them quiet by extending her telekinetic field to cover them in their entirety, preventing any motion. She couldn't keep this up for long- she needed to conserve power in case she went up against Lung- but for intimidation it had uses. Tattletale stepped around her.
"I didn't think we'd see them either. I don't think they're here by choice, though." She commented. Taylor looked at her, then shrugged and let them slide to the ground. Unnoticed, she kept up a fraction of her power, leaving a thin telekinetic noose in place around their throats. Just to make sure she could silence any cry.
"What are you doing here?" she said, looking closely at them. They were wearing the same costumes as the night before, and they looked dirty and tired. Uber frowned.
"Bakuda. We went to check that she was ok- she was employing us, y'know? But then her goons put guns on us and made us help them bring her back here. Decided we could be useful."
"Really? Lung went with that? He's not that stupid." Tattletale said, sounding sceptical. Uber shrugged.
"He turned up nearly an hour later. Told us we'd be paid plenty if we gave Bakuda a hand. Leet had already started working on something anyway- though I can't say I'm not glad to see you. Lung isn't really someone I want to work for."
Taylor leaned forward.
"Leet started to work on something? Started on what?" she said, her voice intense. Uber looked mutinous briefly, but then the defiance melted from his face and he shrugged again, tiredly.
"Lung needed Bakuda back in action. Didn't have time to wait for Panacea, didn't even know if she'd turn up. So he got Leet to make something to help her for the time being, maybe thought we could come up with something later on if Panacea was a no-show. I'm guessing that's gonna be the case seeing as the two of you are here."
"What did you make for Bakuda?" Taylor asked again, looking at Leet this time. He looked miserable still, but brightened a little.
"Stimpacks! You know, like in Fallout? The medicine? I made a machine that you put stuff into and it makes stimpacks!"
"Right. Stimpacks. For the non-gamers here, what do they do, exactly?" Taylor asked. Uber answered.
"They're…they're sort of like a healing item. In the game they heal you, but in real life they're more like…really souped up painkillers. They prevent infection, Leet said, and they numb pain so well that Bakuda can move like normal even when her arm and leg are all crispy." He said dully. Leet was beaming.
"It's incredible! They'll be so useful for our shows!"
A pause, and the smile fell.
"Unless the machine is destroyed."
Taylor glanced around the room, seeing a small machine in the corner. It was a little bigger than a normal printer, but otherwise fairly non-descript. She made a decision.
"Alright. Get out."
"What?" Uber and Leet asked, staring at her. Taylor jerked her head towards the door she had come through.
"Get out, and take your machine with you. I haven't got time to deal with you. Not with Bakuda around. So consider yourselves the lucky recipients of my mercy and leave."
Uber stared at her for a moment, then stood and pulled Leet upright, hurrying across to the machine and heaving it into his arms. Taylor watched silently, and he ushered Leet out of the door before nodding to her.
"Thanks. And, uh, be careful. Bakuda's even worse than normal- she's just through that door."
Taylor nodded, turning back to the door and waiting for them to leave. She heard Tattletale approach her- the Undersider was even more nervous than before, but she was hiding it excellently.
"You don't have any puns?" Tattletale asked. Taylor shrugged.
"I haven't really done my research."
"Your research? You do research for puns?"
"Oh, yeah. Stuff like the Wolfenstein crack at Bakuda, that was a comparison someone made on the Internet. Like I told Uber and Leet, I don't game much. I just took the comparison and ran with it. Most of my puns are all me though."
"And the Mortal Kombat reference?"
Taylor looked at her, tilting her head to express confusion.
"The- the 'Get over here'? Mortal Kombat reference?"
Taylor shrugged.
"Not intentional. Just came to me."
"Huh."
"Yeah. Weird, I know. If that's all? Much as I like talking to you about my quick wit and enviable verbosity, we have a mad bomber to stop and an Undersider to save."
"Oh. Yeah, that."
Taylor smiled faintly from behind her mask, taking her staff back and placing her hand against the door to the warehouse.
"Nervous?"
"A little."
"Ah. Well… 'screw your courage to the sticking place, and 'twill not fail'."
"Shakespeare? Really?"
"It's a classic. And in that vein, unto the breach, dear friend. Unto the breach."
Taylor cast aside subtlety, and simply smashed the door from it's hinges. The wooden door sailed across the warehouse, smashing into a wall and drawing the attention of everybody in the warehouse.
"Hello, Bakuda."
Every eye turned to her. Taylor stepped through the doorway, onto the stairway that led down to the warehouse floor- slightly rusted steel, bolted to the wall and with a basic landing at the doorway. A flick of her hand tore the railing from the landing with a squeal of tortured steel, and Taylor stepped into empty air, catching and lowering herself with her power so that she drifted gently down to the floor.
"You!" Bakuda snarled, the distortion of her voice that her mask caused even more pronounced that before. The Tinker was wearing clothes similar to the night before, but bandages poked out of one sleeve and her right leg was encased in a rough cast. She looked unsteady on her feet, but the long coat she wore covered most of her injuries and she didn't seem to be in too much pain.
'Leet's drugs must really work.'
"THEY ARE POTENT, IT SEEMS. INTERESTING. YOU SHOULD SEE IF YOU CAN GET A SAMPLE- IF WE CAN REVERSE-ENGINEER IT IT WOULD BE USEFUL."
'If. I'll try, but no promises. No chances this time.'
The brief mental conversation Taylor was holding was cut off by Bakuda, screeching once again.
"You- you dare! Kill her! Shoot her!"
The ABB were loyal to that order, if nothing else, and gunfire filled the warehouse in a rattling roar. Taylor tutted.
"You gangers and your guns." She said, and held up her hand. There was no shimmer, no rainbow shield, but the bullets simply directed away from her, glancing off the triangle shield of force that she erected in the air. She toyed with the idea of stopping them entirely, but it would be a waste of power. Power that she might need later. Bakuda was staring blankly at her, and Taylor took a single step forwards, letting lightning coil around her free left hand.
"Ah, Bakuda. You should have fled the city while you could. But you stayed here, instead, confident in your minions. Well, Bakuda, I don't have minions. But I do have something else. You have a gang, but I have power. Raw, unlimited power."
Lightning cascaded from her hand, flashing to the guns the gang members held and wracking them in convulsions, wrapping around them in a manner no natural lightning could ever achieve. Taylor sprang across the distance, hand and staff flashing in motions as Bakuda hurled herself away, leaving the minions to Taylor. Staff blow, palm strike, sideward chop to the collar bone, each charged with a psychic spark and each brought down an ABB member. Two more blows, and Taylor felled the last by pressing her hand against his face and letting the power flow. The lightning, purple tinged, flowed off the bodies and wrapped around her arm again as she stepped past the huddled form of Hellhound, or Bitch or whatever she was called, stepping towards Bakuda as the Tinker backed away.
"Where are you running to, Bakuda?" Taylor asked, her voice deliberately disinterested. She wanted Bakuda to know that she was insignificant, that she didn't matter. That her pride was all for nothing. Her eyes picked up a slight movement, and she left her left hand dangle limply. If she was to pull this off, she'd need to make it look effortless.
"Running? Running? No, I was wasn't running." Bakuda panted, having fallen into a sitting position. Taylor narrowed her eyes as the Tinker gathered herself. Bakuda wasn't far off from descending into full blown screeching insanity, assuming she wasn't there already- the unpredictability made her dangerous. Then again, Bakuda was one-dimensional as a thinker. Everything revolved around her bombs.
"I wasn't running. I was looking for THIS!"
Bakuda lurched to her feet, a grenade launcher coming up in on hand and pointing. Taylor smiled behind her mask, the merest curve of her lips as Bakuda pulled the trigger. Taylor simply raised a hand, and stopped the grenade with an application of force. An application of force, incidentally, that detonated the grenade. Bakuda's arm turned to glass.
"Fuck!"
Taylor was already across the open space between them, thrusting her staff into Bakuda's other shoulder and dislocating it with a wrench of power. An instant later she pressed her palm against Bakuda's sternum and pushed her into the warehouse wall, pinning her there like a bug on a collecting board.
"As I said, Bakuda, your power pales in comparison."
Taylor began to walk towards the Tinker, keeping her trapped, and noted that Tattletale had moved to Hellhound.
"Tattletale, can you get away with her?" she asked, keeping her voice calm and conversational. The Undersider Thinker made a noise of affirmation.
"Yeah, we can manage."
"Manage? Manage? There's nothing to manage you bitch, Lung is coming for you, you'll all die!" Bakuda snarled, her voice rising to a shriek. Taylor sighed, her patience with Bakuda rapidly waning.
"Be. Quiet."
The stranglehold extended, wrapping around Bakuda's jaw and holding it still. Taylor half turned, looking back at Tattletale, who was leaning over her barely conscious team-mate.
"Can you see Bitches dogs anywhere? I don't want to leave without them." Tattletale said quietly. Taylor nodded, looking around until she spied a makeshift pen on the other side of the warehouse. She walked across, leaving Bakuda still pinned to the wall. As she drew closer, her nose wrinkled unconsciously at the smell, and she didn't need to look to realise what she would find. She looked anyway, closing her eyes in a long blink as she saw the bodies. Slowly, she walked back towards Bakuda, shaking her head when Tattletale looked at her. The Undersider Thinker frowned, her lips thinning out, but she kept talking to Bitch, carefully bringing the thickset girl to her feet. Taylor relaxed her hold on Bakuda's mouth for a moment, expecting that she would be quiet, but the Tinker defied expectations.
"Oh, you were looking for the dogs? Did you find them? Like what we did to them? We didn't need them, the bitch was just feral, only good for being an object lesson for Lung to teach. You should have heard her crying when-"
Taylor didn't extend the power this time. Instead, she reached out, and closed Bakuda's throat. The mocking voice turned to an agonised gurgle, and Taylor held it for a few long seconds, not looking at Bakuda. Not even when she released it.
"I told you, Bakuda, be quiet. That was your warning. There won't be a second one."
Bakuda, her breath even more rasping than before, said nothing and Taylor walked over to Tattletale.
"You have to go. Lung will be on his way and if he finds you here you'll be killed." She said. Tattletale shook her head, half-supporting Hellhound as they stood.
"We'll never get away. He'll come after us." She said. Taylor sighed, and shook her head.
"No. No, he won't. He'll be busy."
Tattletale stared at her for a long moment, and then a look of horror flashed across her face.
"What- you can't be serious."
"Can't I? You should go, by the way, clocks ticking."
"Clocks ticking? That's all you're going to say? You think I'm going to just walk away?"
Taylor hardened her voice, stepping closer to Tattletale. The Undersider needed to leave, and Taylor couldn't afford to indulge in some fledgling friendship with Lung on the way.
"Yes. I do. Because you aren't here for me, and I'm not doing this for you. I'm still here because I intend to demonstrate to Lung that he isn't free to do whatever he likes. Why are you still here?"
Tattletale grimaced.
"You said you would help me." She said, barely a murmur and Taylor caught the meaning from lip reading more than anything else. Taylor stepped a little closer, until they were almost nose-to-nose.
"And I will. Have a little faith." She replied, just as softly. Tattletale nodded sharply, turning towards the stairway to the apartment. Taylor called after her.