Shayera's heart sinks when she reaches the final text. South Side?!? she glances up and confirms that she'd been heading north on the skyrail.
"Crapcrapcrap!" she mutters as she leaps out over the tracks and takes flight. She is about to dial in Bronwyn's number, but realizes that her sisters were actually now the closest to Sacred Heart. She quickly scrolls to Shu's number and hits send.
<Shu Zi! I need you and our sisters to head to Sacred Heart school in South Side! You gotta protect-->
<We're not superheroes, Xiu Ying.>
<What?!? They're going to kidnap a kid! My girlfriend's niece!>
Even over the wind, she can hear the sigh on the other end. <We cannot fight without you. You're the warrior.>
<I'm on my way! Just, be there, please, you don't have to engage, just follow and lead me there! I'll take over when I arrive!>
...
<Shu?>
<Very well>
<Great! Thank you, Sister!>
Shayera hangs up and then dials Bronwyn.
"Hey! I'm on my way! I just took down two Balorinas on a train. What is going on??"
Alexis has managed to gather up what cell phones were still intact after their defense of Bronwyn and unlocks what he can. Sending the data over to Kaoru is important. The dread of dealing with their former comrades settles slightly as they figure out where to go to reconnect with each other.
"Are you sure that you don't want to come with me?" Mercy asks Bronwyn, ready to head off to the school for Lucas. It is pretty apparent that despite the new color scheme of their armor that it is similar to what the other Triakosia were wearing into the field, having Kaoru there as well to be the face was a good idea. Mercy could keep to the sidelines and only reveal themself if needed.
"Conspicuous is good. He can just identify himself as a hero with that ID he got. Then he won't just be some potential perv trying to get a kid to go with him. I'm better off coordinating. Besides, I don't have time to get there and go through all this data." Kaoru had already pulled over and grabbed his laptop from his backpack to start sifting through things while also getting traffic data to send optimal routes to people while also trying to start a monitoring dashboard of video feeds.
Shit, and he was running low on battery too. He could have sworn he saw a power adapter in here... He scrambled over to the passenger side of the car and opened the glove compartment. Seeing the USB-C cable he wanted he plugged it in.
モニター
He jumped at the automated voice, but a moment later the inside of all the car windows darkened as his desktop appeared. He blinked. He knew USB-C could be used both for power and display but he didn't think it would work simul- ok, probably not the time to be considering this. He shook his head and quickly began setting up windows with his new, surround-screen system.
She forced herself to keep to bike speed while Alexis could still see her, pouring on more and more speed with each turn that took her farther from her friend.
"It's a middle school, Kaoru. Alexis could've just looked like an older sibling anyways and- Whatever. Fine. Coordinate. Alexis, just tell Lucas to turn on his d- his darn phone. I'll DM him something so he knows I know you and it's okay."
Crap - how many minutes ago was 'I've got about two minutes???'
With her comms still open Bronwyn slammed a palm against a passing dumpster. "Oww. Okay, okay I'm still good. Bran'll be up and ready, but... I'm definitely starting to fade..."
***
PS 122 was quiet. The kids were picked up and classes had ended. Athletes were running punishment laps around the soccer field.
They were staring at Alexis, at their armor. They couldn't hear the whispers, but they had to be there.
Practiced eyes caught sight of someone armed approaching. A uniformed officer walks forward, button popped on his holster. "Excuse me, sir. Can I ask what you're doing here?"
***
Bronwyn gently pulled her comms out of her ear as she slowed her frenetic pace near the Brownes', making sure it wasn't transmitting while she answered Shayera's call.
"The train? Return to form I guess. Alexis is on Lucas, Kaoru's on 'coordination' 'cause he doesn't want to leave his freaking room today I guess. And I need to collapse on a bed 'cause I had to bust out a little mojo so that I could cripple some kid who's only gonna be cyborged back together. So I faked a talisman to give Alexis and them something else to believe happened - so that's where I'll be once Bran's up and... Oh God."
The window was broken.
"What have I done to you MB?"
***
***
Sacred Heart was quiet. The whole of the school was inside a single, gorgeous old convent, but there were several children, young enough to be students, loitering nearby in the park.
<Over here.> The whisper was precisely loud enough for Shayera's ears to pick up above the wind. The Daughters were atop a nearby building looking a bit ragged from their rapid transport across town. <This is not an emergency Xiu Ying. This is clumsy, amateurish surveillance.>
Yin Ying pointed to a nearby blind, empty, but still filled with the scent of whoever had been watching from there. [b]<We did not take care of him, but we did dispose of his litter.> She crinkled her nose in dismay, <Some of it was even reflective. Amateurish.>
Shu Zi joined the complaint. [b]<Their network was simple enough to gain access to, but they have precious few cameras. We have not seen any violence; we have not seen any hunters worth the name; we have not seen their prey. This is not an emergency, Xiu Ying.>
Mercy was grateful that Kaoru had reminded them of the ID that they had. When the officer showed up, they held it up in one gauntlet for them to see. "There's reason to believe that one of the students here at the school may be the target of abduction. A list was found with their name on a group that attempted to take one of their relatives. I'm here to protect them until we can bring them to safety."
Perhaps it was good thing that it was quiet, and that there was only one uniformed officer here. There was still a sense of dread as they looked to see if there were any potential threats in the area. "Machina, I'm on site. What should I be on the lookout for?" They subvocalized, hoping for some oversight.
Sacred Heart was quiet. The whole of the school was inside a single, gorgeous old convent, but there were several children, young enough to be students, loitering nearby in the park.
<Over here.> The whisper was precisely loud enough for Shayera's ears to pick up above the wind. The Daughters were atop a nearby building looking a bit ragged from their rapid transport across town. <This is not an emergency Xiu Ying. This is clumsy, amateurish surveillance.>
Yin Ying pointed to a nearby blind, empty, but still filled with the scent of whoever had been watching from there. <We did not take care of him, but we did dispose of his litter.> She crinkled her nose in dismay, <Some of it was even reflective. Amateurish.>
Shu Zi joined the complaint. <Their network was simple enough to gain access to, but they have precious few cameras. We have not seen any violence; we have not seen any hunters worth the name; we have not seen their prey. This is not an emergency, Xiu Ying.>
Xiu Ying didn't respond right away. She was too busy inhaling the lingering scents. Her hope that her sisters were right evaporated the moment they mentioned that there was evidence of the Balorinas being there. They wouldn't have left without reason.
<Masks,> she says urgently, reaching out to Yu for hers. They all don their masks.
They become one. The overwhelming sense of urgency in the one Daughter fades, just as the disdain of the others falls away. They know the scent of the girl in danger and can pick up the traces of her growing body and the recent addition of lavender-scented deodorant.
More alarming is the scents of military barracks, familiar to one of them, far better obscured than the amateurish efforts of the ones who stink like compost. There are no recriminations, though. Not even the idea that such should be offered. Just a redoubled of efforts.
The fatigue is lifted of the others as well. The rejuvenating powers purging their bodies of the toxins that built up over their strenuous journey. They all straighten and become more alert. They find a well-hidden backdoor in the security system that was covered up by expertise in electronics so good it may border on the superhuman.
The one with wings (the only one unique) glides to the strongest source of the barrack scent and picks up a whiff of ozone. They all share the same thought: Triakosia.
Now that he had the extra monitor (that he was totally going to build an augmented reality navigation app for), Kaoru could begin working in earnest. The problem was even with the partial list of targets, that was still too many for the team to safely secure. Whereby "team" he apparently meant "Alexis" since everybody, including Bronwyn, seemed to have gone dark on him. That made finding the full list of targets a secondary priority. Hell, they'd be lucky just to secure Bronwyn's family. He just hoped Wingblade would be able to manage solo on her half of things.
That basically left him with two tasks for now: try to find Alexis' target and figure out a way to slow down the abductors. Alexis' target was probably more immediately pressing, so he turned his attention there while letting the back of his head turn over the other problem. He had access to the first group's phones, meaning their call history and contacts. He started work on creating a graph of all the contacts and calls the phones had made, looking for the cluster of numbers that represented the hit squads. Unfortunately, as many people who analyzed Facebook data could tell you, this kind of analysis tended to be sloowwwwww. Or at least, assuming a large network it was anyway. If they were burner phones, it'd go faster since there would be fewer contacts. Even more fortunately, he knew the rough location for the group he currently cared about, which meant for every number he uncovered, he could quickly ping it via cell towers to see if it was near PS 122. If it was, that went onto a "local enemy" list, regardless of the probability it was actually an enemy. If it wasn't, that when back in the queue to be checked later as a potential member of a different enemy squad.
As that process continued moving from first degree contacts to second and then third, the faster algorithm spat out low-accuracy 122 squad candidates while the slower algorithm worked on finding higher accuracy members of other squads. As specific locations printed on his screen, he looked at school cameras to find the owner of each of the phones. It was somewhat tedious, but luckily most of the Balorinas' other contacts didn't seem to have a reason to be near a school, so there were very few false positives despite the crudeness of the approach.
Once he had the appropriate camera images up on his screens, he quickly started relying locations to Alexis as he tried to figure out from their positions and orientations where they were looking for their target.
The officer's face becomes a portrait of surprised concern. He leans in closer to Alexis. "That's terrible! What would they want to kidnap a kid for anyways, uh, Mercy? Oh, which one of 'em is he anyways? The one they're trying to grab? I don't know all the kids, but I know a lot of the troublemakers..."
***
The scent was old. Probably at least a week. In a more trafficked area of the campus, or if there wasn't that odd ozone scent, even Shayera's nose might not have caught it.
But backtracking into the system, the Daughters are able to see what the Triakosia were examining: Camila's schedule, emergency contacts, permitted family pickups, list of field trips and permission forms, teammates...
***
Lucas's phone is currently off, which limits the specificity of Kaoru's detection, but based off its most recent pings, he's able to point out which of the buildings he was rehearsing in, verify that his phone hasn't turned on since it was there, and that there were plenty of other phones still in the building.
The easily found Balorinas seemed to be in a holding pattern around the campus. The biggest threat would be the Triakosia, if they're here, since they would be very unlikely to be a part of any footsoldier's contacts - or perhaps the officer talking with Alexis, who's a second degree contact of three of the cultists who assaulted Bronwyn!
Renewed urgency sets in the Daughters as they parse through the clues while staying out of sight. Shifting from shadow to shadow, they search for signs of Camila while the one peruses through the school's data for more information. They identify the pickup zone, and converge on that section of the school grounds.
They detect the scent of Camila from earlier in the day, intermingled with the scents of a few other girls. That was fine; the combined scents of multiple girls would be easier to follow than just one. They move closer, staying cloaked in darkness and surrounding the trail.
As they move, one of their number finds a listing of people authorized to pick Camila up. The names are familiar to them: Anna Pascal, Danilo Hernandez, Martian Pascal-Murphy, Cesar Pascal, and Chris Pascal. Wait. They consider more of their shared knowledge. They don't know of a Chris Pascal.
Acting more urgently, they find the video feed from the pickup zone. While they continue moving, the one runs through the video which is shared by all of them. Camila and three other girls leaving, and walking together down the street. A car pulling up at the loading zone. The window rolling down. The face of the driver, wearing an eyepatch. They speak with a nun, who by her body language seems concerned, but not alarmed. The car drives off in the direction of the girls.
They all immediately want to fly, but only one has wings; it's disorienting. They decide to stay on the ground for now, moving via shadow to stay on the scent trail. With three of them moving in the vicinity, they can stay alert for Camila's scent and know if she stays with the group or at what point she leaves it.
One remembers the phone in her hands. "布朗温，信徒们- Wait, sorry. The cultists were here. Camila walked someplace with some friends. We're following their scent. Do you know someplace she liked to hang out near her school?"
Kaoru quickly relayed the positions of the cultists to Alexis as well as which building their target was likely in. "Oh yeah, and be careful of whomever it is next to you; he has some connections to the cult. It's distant enough that he might not even be aware of it: friend of a friend and all that. But it's close enough that I'm not sure you can really trust him. Just in case he's sympathetic or they've got something on him, you should be careful."
"Just a moment officer." Mercy holds up a hand to the side of their helmet, listening to Kaoru's instructions. The news that the officer was potentially part of the cult was alarming, but Mercy did their best to keep still and not give away the game. "How would you like me to deal with the situation?" They asked Kaoru.
An officer wouldn't keep their weapon unsecured like they do. It was Kaoru's call though as leader how Mercy should proceed here. They awaited further direction.
"... I don't know Shayera," Bronwyn answered carefully, "I was the good example aunt, not the fun aunt. There a Starbucks or something nearby? I've got to run. Call Bran's burner if you get more. Be careful, alright? The Brownes' house is all messed up. Mary-Beth said she's okay on the phone, but she sounded weird. That's at least two places they tried to grab me. One team being down doesn't mean we're in the clear."
The comms crackle and Bran's voice rumbles across the link, too low for a clean capture, "Acolyte has informed me what it is we face this day, but her exertions against the Triakosia were not a small matter. I am not far from you, Mercy. Together this should be an easier burden to bear."
***
The officer leans in slightly, curious to hear what situation Mercy's talking about.
"Who's supposed to be taking him, do you know? Should I call this in?"
"All right," says the one with the phone. The others keep moving forward, following the scents of Camila and staying alert for signs of the cultists.
The one still connected to the computers at the school steps into the shadows and emerges outside. She moves through a few more shadows until she finds a pole with a traffic camera attached. She connects with the data running through the junction box and follows it to the hub where all the camera images go. Using the timestamp from the school video as a starting point, the Daughter starts looking for Camila and the cultists.
Kaoru paused in the middle of typing an update to his algorithm. It was not a question he had been expecting. It certainly wasn't a question Alexandra would have asked. He was just supposed to be the info guy. Give people information then let them do what they do best. Except, well, Alexis was good at smashing things. Which probably wasn't the best approach for a possibly-innocent civilian. It some ways, having to micromanage like this was annoying. But there was also something about having someone so powerful asking him of all people for instructions. He couldn't help but wonder, what could he get away with? How much could he get away with? Alexis wasn't really that bright, so he probably wouldn't be that hard to manipulate. Though what he would do with a living weapon, he had no idea. But it would be kind of interesting to test those boundaries.
He shook his head. He had more important things to think about. They needed to get rid of the possibly-comprised guy, but how? Ugh, if this were Alexandra, she could just talk the guy into leaving. But that wasn't exactly Alexis' strong suit. "Tell him you've got things handled and then ditch him. Don't give him a chance to argue with it. You're faster, he won't be able to keep up and he certainly won't be able to jump on top of a building. After all, if he had powers, I doubt he'd be working as security here. Depending on how sneaky you think you can be, I can chart one of two possible routes. One will have you move away from the target until you're out of sight of that security officer, then you can circle around and enter the theatre building in the cultists' surveillance blindspot. The other will take you through the best path to take out the surveillance. That one will lower the overall threat of a full-on confrontation, but it costs time. While you do either one, I'll run interference on both their comms and the guard's in case he tries to report to the cultists."
A crowd of uniformed girls rustles away through the streets, partially captured by a mosaic of traffic cameras. Despite the zebra-like camouflage of their outfits, the Daughters are able to trace the specific path of Camila and her friends, younger than most of the other students striking out on their own. Sure enough, they quickly end up at a Starbucks, friend after friend gradually peeling off to be picked up by harried looking parents.
Finally, Camila and a single friend walk back off down a crowded street, tailed by 'Chris Pascal' and his cultist buddies, their eyepatches all discretely pocketed for now. Presumably shielded by the crowds, Camila and her friend make it to the skyrail, tag on, and promptly vanish into a mist of poorly stored or expertly sabotaged feeds...
***
The officer is a bit affronted, but doesn't immediately try to interfere with Alexis. Their ID gives them the benefit of the doubt, for now, and they're able to quickly outdistance the officer as they head towards Lucas's rehearsal space.
Suddenly a pained cry rings out behind Mercy, the officer crumpling to the ground as the sound of the rifle catches up with the bullet. The surprisingly neat hole in his leg pumps out a steady flow of blood as a cascade of images and thoughts engulfs Alexis, their training surging up from the depths of their mind.
"Got it. Proceeding," Mercy informed Kaoru as they headed off. Still, it wouldn't do to let them be suspicious, so they turned to address the officer. "We have it handl-"
The hole appeared first, followed a second or two later by the explosive crack of the air. Sniper. Time slowed as adrenaline spiked and they considered what was happening.
High power, anti-material. No sight lines, remote view? Satellite/drone? Cover, bus, barricade. Move!
They reacted as they had been trained, grabbing the officer by his service vest and quickly dragging him behind the nearest piece of cover, the school bus. People seemed to be panicking all around the yard too, as Mercy checked the officer's wound.
"I need medivac. Officer down." Mercy spoke quickly to Kaoru. "Shot fired. Sniper, approximately..." They trailed off. Something was off. What were they missing?
They didn't know. They didn't know and they were alone. The officer was bleeding badly and Mercy could only do the basic thing of removing his belt and cinching it around his thigh to slow the blood loss.
"I don't know where they are. I'm pinned." Mercy admits over the comm.
The loss of video feeds of the skyrail alarms them, but they notice instantly the fact that the cultists had left their car. Alarm and suspicion rise in the Daughters as the video feeds show the cultists as looking very familiar.
Seeking to confirm their suspicions, they find the car, unoccupied, in a lot near the rail station. The scents in and around the car immediately confirm a startling truth: the Balorinas Xiu Ying took out on the skyrail earlier that evening were the same who were tailing Camila and her friend.
Before the feeds were lost, they see the cultists get on the train's last car, while the girls got on a couple cars up, explaining why Xiu Ying didn't detect Camila.
Xiu Ying rips off her mask, needing a moment of individuality to react properly. "F&@+!!" she shouts and bangs her head hard against the cultists' car, leaving a significant dent. "I was right there!" Training reasserts itself and she measures her breathing. She focuses on the car itself, checking first to see if the doors were unlocked, popping the doors open with her wings if they weren't. She starts going through the car, looking for clues.
Still inwardly chiding herself over panicking about Camila and not checking for the cultists' target on the train like she should have, she decides to push that away for the moment. She pulls the mask back on and becomes one with her Sisters.
Oww?!
She didn't have to feign the sudden lurch this time, though she narrowly managed to avoid crashing Bran entirely through a sedan.
"Wingblade? Are you-"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH! "-forgive me. I had forgotten she was not to be found through this device."
Bran fumbled with his helm as he ran, securing his phone to the holster Bronwyn had fashioned inside it. [b]"Shayera, have you been- Are you well? I-"
"I need medevac. Officer down. Shot fired. Sniper, approximately...
"I don't know where they are. I'm pinned."
Asphalt groaned beneath the tread of his boots as Bran picked up more and more speed, stampeding past car after car on his way to PS 122
I was too late for the Brownes; I can't be too late for Lucas, for Alexis...
"Shayera, just give me some good news. Tell me you've got her!"
***
The school's cameras show the cultists in disarray, but it looks as though they've decided to move forward, converging on the rehearsal space with their heads ducked and frantically looking around. They're armed very idiosyncratically. Some have simple bludgeons and blades, but some have firearms, and one or two seem to have some sort of tech - likely prototypes.
Another shot hasn't yet rung out, but the thunder of Bran's footfalls are already audible.
Four blocks, three blocks, two...
***
The car pops open without too much difficulty, and the Daughters quickly toss the sedan, finding a reasonable fake ID for a 'Chris Pascal.' The registration for the car doesn't match the plates, but is in the name of a Christopher Perez. There are a handful of loose bullets stored in a small compartment near the cupholders, .38s, hollow points.
The trunk though, that has the real fun - two narrowly man-portable pieces of anti-cape artillery. One of them a nominally nonlethal sonic disruptor, the other an all too familiar foam cannon that Wingblade knows carries with it a mild power mitigating effect.
The last piece of gear in the trunk crackles to life while the Daughters conclude their search - a police scanner. All across the city, Balor's minions are making their moves. They aren't identified in every incident; this couldn't possibly be all of them, but they're all moving - now!
The Daughters consider everything they have learned up to this point as they listen to all the reports coming through on the police scanner. A surge of desire to spread out and help is quickly suppressed. While they felt the urgency of the situation, they force themselves to create a plan. The cultists Xiu Ying took out were trailing the girls, so there was likely no one lying in wait for them. The biggest danger then was another pair learning of the one team's failure and making another attempt. The other police reports, they decide, are not their problem.
The phone in one of their hands rings.
"Shayera, have you been- Are you well? I-" Something interrupts his train of thought. "Shayera, just give me some good news. Tell me you've got her!"
In unison, they speak, though only one speaks into the phone. "We stopped the cultists that were following her. We are going to try to find her now."
The one with wings hands over her borrowed phone to its owner, nods to her sisters, and takes off. At her top speed, she flies towards the address they saw when going through the school's records: 811 Court Street, Northside. The rest of the sisters pull their masks off.
The other two each produce phones and begin to dial. Using the contact numbers also learned from the school records, Shu Zi rings the contact number for Anna Hernandez. Yin Ying tries to reach Danilo Hernandez. Meanwhile, Yu Hiu, still on the line with Bran, tells him, "We are trying to call Camila's parents. Is there something we can say to them so they'll trust us?"
Mercy held the belt tight, tying it off and hoping it would be enough to last the officer (Daniels, his badge said) until help arrived. They had to act. No more time to ask for orders when a sniper was pinning you down. There was only one thing that Mercy could do:
Barrel through.
"Help will be here soon. Keep the pressure on," Mercy told the officer, before running straight out of cover. They jerked and moved irregularly in order to avoid allowing a good line for the sniper to get a bead on them. The auditorium was where they had to go - could they make it through the covering fire?
Asphalt shattered underneath their boot as they surged and leapt forward, vaulting over the remaining cars in the lot and making it to the school. They burst in, looking for the auditorium and heading as fast as they could.
Wait, did Bronwyn tell them what Lucas looked like? They couldn't remember. They would just have to take out whomever tried to take them then.
Kaoru notified 911 about the injury and gunshot as he continued to feed Alexis information about what he was seeing through the comms. Meanwhile his algorithm continued to work on pin-pointing and refining his list of cultists and their locations.
You couldn't let me believe you weren't in the mask?
"Simply inform them that you are the well-known and respected hero known as Wingblade, or if you must wear a falsehood over your intentions, claiming to be a member of the pol- It is no matter, they will already have been-"
"Forgive me, but Acolyte informed me that Camila and Lucas's parents would already have been contacted. I pray that this is the case."
***
The splintering of the door sets off a series of screams from the students who are in the middle of hunkering down behind different set pieces with lamentably drilled order.
A small man in a sweater and slacks stays crouched in front of his students, but Alexis is still able to see a number of frightened faces behind him. Mercy's bounding leaps have given them crucial moments before the cultists make it inside the rehearsal space!
***
Shu Zi and Yin Ying's calls ring until they hit voicemails...
Xiu Ying came to herself when her sisters took off their masks, though she kept hers on. Once they learned of something, they could put on the masks again and she would know.
She doesn't speculate about what her sisters were learning; all she could do was put as much distance behind her at her top speed. Flying this fast was a rush, but she couldn't enjoy it due to the urgency of the situation. She was fast, but she wished she were faster.
==================
Shu Zi rolls her eyes as the phones go to voicemail. <Cell phones are not easy.> She gives a nod to her three sisters and they pull down their masks once more.
They reach out through the far more tenuous connections of cellular signals, bouncing from towers and linking through wavelengths sending terabytes of data from relays through relays. The information is buffeting, impossible to navigate without the connections of the two phones providing them with guideposts.
Accessing the phones remotely would be difficult to nearly impossible, but they weren't concerned with the data stored within the phones of the Hernandez's. They only needed the GPS location of the phones.
I made it!
There was some elation for Mercy in seeing that the cultists weren't here yet. There was still time to do something. Ignoring the panicking civilians, they scanned the area and felt fear - too many entry points, and they couldn't cover all of them at once. They couldn't protect the entire auditorium.
Then they saw the boy from the picture, the one that had to be Lucas, huddled with his classmates. Mercy knew what they had to do then, as they strode forward. They tried not to feel dismayed at how some of them scattered from them like they were some monster. Instead, they stopped in front of Lucas, an armored warrior looking like they were straight from some science fiction book.
Mercy was no good with words. But there was nothing that anyone could do to stop them from scooping Lucas up, hauling him up on their shoulder, and moving to book it out of there. "I have the package," They intoned into the comm channel. "The enemy will be in pursuit."
Because they had to ensure the cultists came after them and not take the students hostage, Mercy's voice boomed out of their helmet. "I have the boy! Come and get him if you dare!" They shouted, running out of the auditorium. At a quieter volume, they spoke to Lucas. "Bronwyn sent me. Those men want you and may hurt people to get to you. We need to go."
Okay, try not to bleed on anyone... maybe just try not to bleed Alexandra thinks as she shuffles down the halls away from the medical facility. the tests had cost her an hour. not sure how many of those she had left. the equipment was heavy, even with most of the interior left behind, and every laboured step, she expected to be stopped. after the Balorina attack, they had to be looking for agents who had been exposed. but everything was in disarray, half the fleet rusted into scrap, the facade all but rotted off, entire wings of the HQ being evacuated due to concerns about structural stability. it seemed no one cared about a slow agent who looked like they knew what they were doing.
The lockup was ahead, and with it her things. they are unceremoniously shoved into a duffel bag, and she takes the time to open the locker labeled "Confiscated from Prisoner 84023209, 'Circe'". a minute on google translate tells her which of Circe's potions to down hastily. it does nothing for the... god, her head was too fuzzy to name it something clever. Fomóireitis... no, itis was swelling. Fomóire Fever? F~!# it, that'll do the potion didn't cure Fomóire fever, but it set her clock back hours. she was able to walk without debilitating joint pain, and her head cleared some... it would be worse again though, in not enough time... She downs a protein bar, and then another, while she can still keep down food. the earpeice she had is replaced into her ear as she hustles out the doors.
Kay... I'm out of the SCA. The warning system was cut, but cultists hit this place, kinda like they hit the apartment. they're about to try something, or they already have. and... and If I stayed there, the disease... f$*!, I created a chemical cocktail to counteract it, and downed a potion from Circe, but it's still too strong. In the lab, there's a thing, it looks like an amulet, has Verðandi on the back, where you'd expect a maker's mark. ask Abbers if you can't find it. I think it can get me well enough to help. -For a little under a day, if I'm lucky. Alexandra does not say. It would just upset Kay.
She changes channels, to only Bran. Bran, I'm... I'm not gonna lie, I'm in a bad way. if we hit Balor hard enough, will it make this disease go away? She asks, her voice almost pleading.
Lucas's eyes go round as saucers behind his glasses, but though he struggles a bit, it's fairly trivial for Mercy to haul him along, but there's no sense that if Lucas were let go he'd keep doing what Mercy wanted. "You're lying! Why would Aunt Bronwyn have sent you?! How do I know you're not the kidnappers too?! Didn't you-"
From around the corner a sudden cacophonous din of metal on metal cuts Lucas off as he instinctively cowers against Alexis's shoulder. His feet dragging awkwardly against the blacktop as the Balorans burst out after both of them!
"Ah shit - he's got the kid!" "Then f+#*in' shoot him!" "What if we hit the-" "If he gets away that's even worse - who knows? The watis might still be able to use the body!"
**bha-spak**
A round thuds into a building behind Alexis -suppressed, low caliber, off target- but it's merely the first shot, and a deep thrum and a low whine from weapons Alexis doesn't recognize herald more trouble to come...
***
"真是垃圾!"
It should have been a simple matter to trace the phones of their new targets, following along the network of connections from their phones to Anna and Danilo, but a heartbeat after they received a quality ping, their own phones shorted out with a smell of acid and melting plastic!
"<They are at their house, Xiu Ying.>"
***
Halcyon was alive with little dots of potential, brighter or dimmer as their affiliations were flagged as more or less likely.
Some of them were tightly clumped and near to the addresses of known targets, shifting them higher and higher. Similarly sized groups of potentials brightened as patterns became clear.
There were a lot of them. 27 clumps in all. If they were all moving right now, there was no possible way the Team was going to stop them all before they grabbed anyone...
Some of them were lying in wait, but some were moving quickly, dots disappearing and reappearing in groups as they were picked up again by different signal towers, sometimes disappearing altogether when they hit long patches where the signal wasn't strong enough to break through...
"<They are at Her house, Xiu Ying.>"
At Her house. Bronwyn's.
The ping was enough to tell them where the phones were. The surge destroying their phones was enough to tell them that something was not right. But they'd already experienced other examples that night of blocked or jammed communications. They decided to adjust their flight to the Pascal's.
Shayera pulls off her mask so her wings stop messing with their unity. She had everything she needed: speed, senses, and offense. Her sisters could finish up with the Balorinas' car and the equipment they had found.
She pushes herself to her fastest while heading toward Northside.
"In position, Char. Mercy should be square in our sights in 3, 2, 1..."
She was waiting very quietly, a tremendous pistol still in her holster. One finger was raised to an earbud, her other hand held up with such purpose that there was no doubt her real weapon was quite ready. Torn jeans, distressed leather jacket, hair half-shaved, her entire being was prepared to catch a bullet that would soon be tearing through the air at nearly a kilometer per second.
An imperfectly drawn face appeared in Bronwyn's memory. Part of her started planning -Ava and Char - Char pushes things away with magnetism, Ava pulls them in.- but the rest of her simply seethed.
They know how horribly they were treated, how awfully Alexis was tortured, and now they're going to turn over a kid to an actual demon?! And they're shooting up a school to do it?!
Whether it was awareness of the magnetic field, or a scrape that she heard over the sound of low caliber gunfire, or just the sheer stink of the full three ton dumpster as it rocketed towards her, Ava threw herself to the ground, avoiding Bran's impromptu boulder entirely.
But it quite ruined her and Char's shot...
***
"Bran..."
"A moment."
"Bran-" Now that he'd spoken, she could open a private channel. "I'm... I'm not gonna lie, I'm in a bad way. if we hit Balor hard enough, will it make this disease go away?"
"I do not know, Alexandra. When last Balor was slain, it did not make whole those he had harmed. But like cures like; the cure for an adder's sting may be found in its fang. We will find him, and then we will see what cures vengeance might extract. You do not stand alone."
Yin Ying and Shu Zi look at their phones in disgust as they take off their masks. Yu Hiu exchanges a glance and nod with her Sisters and brings her phone to her ear. "The parents are not picking up. The GPS shows they are at your house. Xiu Ying is going there instead of the Hernandez home."
While Yu waits for an answer, Shu Zi and Yin Ying gather the two anti-cape weapons from the trunk. The heavy weapons look comically large in the slight girls' arms. <Perhaps this night hasn't been a total waste after all.>
They weren't checking their fire, that was very bad. Civilians could get caught in the crossfire if that was the case. It left little choice but to disarm the group. Mercy reached for the nearest classroom and opened the door, pushing Lucas in.
"Hide under cover, keep your head down," Mercy informed him before closing the door, and snapping off the handle to prevent anyone from opening it on this side. They turned back, facing the cultists and taking note of their weapons. Some might actually be dangerous for them...
Ava peeled away from Bran and yanked out her oversized pistol from the holster, the safety flicked off in the same motion that she drew a bead on the massive hero. Despite being foiled, Ava actually looks excited. "Been a while since I've fought a cape...Tell Tale!" She says before sound is consumed by the roar of her weapon kicking back as she fires several shots at Bran's direction while rushing behind cover...
Cover that Bran was suddenly lurching towards by all of his metal bits face first, crashing hard into the brick and mortar! At the same time, he could catch in the corner of his eye behind him several steel pipes flying in an arc and coming straight for him!
Kaoru watched as results started coming in. As he suspected, it was far too many for their little group to handle. The locations were too spread out and as far as he could tell, Alexis was having trouble with just that one group he was dealing with. They needed more feet on the ground. Defenders were out, he had no way to contact them. SCA was out both due to incompetence and again contact. Really, the only people he had any idea how to contact were the police. Which hopefully were competent and used to dealing with wackos with above-average force capabilities.
Fortunately, getting access to their communication network was easy. After all, you could literally buy police scanners in stores. He quickly patched himself into dispatch, using his voice modulator to give his SCA ID number or whatever the hell it was to request backup. Without waiting for a response, he started flooding their systems with data, making sure to give them enough for them to process without overloading their systems. He had suggestions as to the fastest routes and which units should be dispatched where and made sure to include whatever he knew of enemy numbers and what the officers on the street would be likely to encounter, making it clear the goal was more to safeguard the targets instead of just getting into a firefight with the enemy. He made suggestions for evacuation strategies to clear the areas of civilians.
A part of him wondered if this was the right move. He was putting these people, these poor, brave souls who likely had no powers directly in harm's way. But...well...isn't that what they signed up for when they became officers? He still wasn't really sure about how super jurisdiction worked, and he made that clear to them. He was relying on their training and expertise to know what resources they had available and who, if anyone, they could call in. But he could provide them with tactics, optimize and speed up coordination, and feed them intel. And maybe, just maybe, if he did a good enough job, they'd be able to minimize casualties while maximizing how many targets they could save.
Completely engrossed in what he was doing, Kaoru distractedly forwarded Alexandra's query to Abacus, instructing it to contact her directly with whatever it found as he acknowledged receipt of her message.
Bran lurched forward, limbs windmilling as he tried to keep his balance, rocketing straight towards Ava's cover, but at the last moment he simply sidestepped the flow of her power as if it didn't exist.
"Have a care. Despite what your masters may think, there are Higher Powers in this world than greed or lust for power."
Y'know, if she knew just how hard it was to hand forge Martensitic steel, or just **how many** repurposed boat shafts and brake discs have gone into this armor, I think even she'd be impressed.
But hey, sometimes non-magnetic is worth it.
"Mercy has chosen a better life; I grant you the same choice."
He didn't want to hurt her, not like Bronwyn had likely crippled her friend - she wasn't even armored! But a jungle gym worth of steel pipes was already right on his heels by the time her eyes widened in surprise. A quick twist and her arms were secured to her side. He had no doubt that she'd be freed before long, whether by herself or by her partners, but there wasn't time for anything more.
Lucas.
He was already moving.
One of the cultists has a very unstable looking... knife(?) the blade of which looks to be some sort of flickering, congealed energy. Probably quite nasty to get stuck with, but less threatening to Alexis since it would require getting within their arm's reach than one of the heavier weapons - a flare-nozzled piece that was barely person-portable and looked like some sort of particularly unpleasant radar gun...
Alexandra nods as her messages go through.... and Kay brushes her off. oh, no big deal, just dying over here. We're gonna talk about that.
she says back to BranOkay, so get bio-samples. f%#*... didn't this guy's gaze make a lake? She asks, quietly commandeering an SCA vehicle. Okay, I have an Idea. After that dragon, Skuld gave me an amulet. Probably gave B one to. or maybe B got something more personal from Skuld. anyway, a present, something her people use to ensure entry into valhalla. if you find yourself poisoned, sickened, or otherwise doomed to die a dishonorable death. you put it on, and it gives you the strength to pick a nice good fight. might give me what I need to go after Balor with you guys. But we have to be fast, it will mask the symptoms some, not halt the disease. When it wears off, in a day, maybe less, I'll be pretty bad, so we need to press the attack. now. can we do that? god, I'm so self-serving.
She arrives at the headquarters, and half stumbles into the elevator.
Abbers-
It is on the table, Miss Shadow
Good
Alexandra clasps the amulet around her neck, and breathes in deep. Okay, anyone who can, this is the Silver shadow, back in action, can I get a situation report?
"What kind of...weird magic knight are you?" Ava growls as she struggles with the pipe wrapped around her arms. "Char, incoming!" She warns as the knight moves out of sight.
Bran heads towards the school and Lucas just as another shot cracks the air apart. It's off by meters, gouging a baseball sized hole through a nearby car. There's still people in the parking lot, including an officer who looks like they're stemming off bleeding to death with a hasty tourniquet.
The knife was of no concern, but the heavy weapon could potentially cause a great deal of collateral damage. It appeared sound based in design, so Mercy baffled his audio and wrenched off a locker door, before flinging the metal at the cultists.
The metal sheared through the radar dish section of the gun, rendering it inoperable! Mercy yanked off several other locker doors to use as soft cover for their advance, keeping an eye out on the knife wielder!
The strange prototype whines to life just as the locker smashes into it, detonating in an infrasonic wave that engulfs everyone present in a haze of vertigo.
***
Okay, magnet-bullet-curving means that shot could've come from anywhere, right?
Wait now, he just pushes, so if his power travels faster than the bullet he could just wait to shoot and then push it into a different angle... but if his power's faster than a bullet why would he shoot bullets anyways...
***
"The blood that flowed from his wounds was once sufficient to create a lake. It may be that power still remains therein, but it is far indeed from these lands..." He shook his head, though it could not be seen. "When we find him, we will take what is needed from his present host."
***
***
...The police were actually listening. There had been a momentary complaint as 'Machina' overtook their dispatch system, but his intel was good, his plans realistic, and against a fast-moving foe like this, they needed the help.
Their own data made Kaoru's projections even more precise, allowing him to add squad cars and SWAT teams and intercept courses into his own plans. Not enough time had passed for the police to identify any cultists that hadn't yet sprung their trap, but in parts of Halcyon where a siren would clear a path through the traffic, they were gaining!
***
A squad car flashes towards Wingblade, but doesn't seem to see her, speeding away from her as it briefly paints the underside of her wings a lurid red and blue.
Its previous task is easy to see. An ambulance and a firetruck are still out front at 9659 E. Riverview Dr., and from the smell of things, the fire hasn't been out for long. Marian Pascal-Murphy has a blanket around her shoulders, and she's barely talking to the paramedic waving a flashlight in her face. Anna is answering at least half of his questions while Danilo squeezes her hand tightly.
She can't see César.
Wingblade had been spoiling for a fight, or hoping for relief. Just not more searching and fearing the worst. She brakes hard, slowing her descent, and flaps her wings hard as she comes in for a landing. She didn't need to terrify them by dropping put of the sky with no warning, so the whir of her wings and the downdraft announces her arrival.
She was grateful she had taken to wearing the mask since Bronwyn's parents had criticized her (weeks? months?) ago for not wearing one. She wanted to figure out what had happened here, but that damned smoke was going to make it difficult to pick up individual scents. She hoped everyone was all right for Bronwyn's sake and that her father's absence was innocuous. But she also had to be mindful of the reason why she was here: Camila.
She settled into her "superhero" demeanor the instant she landed. Instilled into her by Whippoorwill early on in her training, it's a way of holding herself and speaking with authority when addressing civilians.
"Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Hernandez. I'm Wingblade. Earlier this afternoon, I stopped a pair of cultists, members of the same group that has been causing havoc all over the city. My investigation has led me to believe that your daughter Camila was the target. I'm trying to locate her now in order to make sure she's safe. Do you know where she is?"
That was not what Mercy had expected, the ringing in their skull making them stumble and brace against the lockers for support. They needed a few precious moments to orientate themselves after that...
Bran was so focused on where the next shot was going to come from that the next shot came unexpectedly. Not a single powerful blow, but dozens of smaller impacts peppered him and the surrounding area on a wide spread angle.
They didn't hurt, but looking at them, they appeared to be coin sized adhesive discs stuck all over his armor now. They look like little magnets, a terrible advantage for Char and Ava!
Kaoru tapped his fingers on his keyboard. SWAT was moving too slowly. Even with his optimizations, too many cultists were going to get away. He needed to speed them up, but how? He doubted they were dawdling just for fun and profit. It wasn't like he could go and turbo boost their vehicles either. Was there some other group he could mobilize? Like...firefighters or something? Surely they would have better response time. But what the hell were they supposed to actually do if he did get them moving? Run at cultists with a fire ax? If Chloe's calendar was any indication, they would certainly have the muscle tone to do that well, but it wasn't exactly going to help versus guns. Or versus moving vehicles, which some of the cultists were clearly in.
Wait, moving vehicles. They were probably in cars or vans. Copters wouldn't be following streets like that. If he couldn't speed SWAT up, maybe he could slow the cultists down. It really wasn't hard to make the traffic worse. It wasn't even hard to cause gridlock without causing an accident. The tricky part was trying to slow only the cultists down without also messing with SWAT's transport time. They had sirens, sure, but cars couldn't get out of the way if they were too jam-packed together.
His fingers started to speed over the keyboard as he started turning traffic lights on and off and started inputting parameters to a simple network flow algorithm. He almost started laughing at how perfectly the situation mimicked a simple graph problem. One that he had never actually expected to use in a real-world problem. As the situation changed, he redirected vehicles. What once had been a terrible choice of a route was quickly becoming the optimal one as less-direct paths using less common roads became the best choice.
Still focusing mostly on the silent orchestra he was conducting, he responded to Shadow's query. "Mercy and Bran are trying to secure Acolyte's nephew and SWAT is trying to secure the other 27 or so targets. I have no idea what Wingblade is up to. I can direct you to Acolyte's niece if you want to work on securing that target. It looks a little like Mercy and Bran might be a while." Because for some dumb reason they decided to show off and try to engage rather than just get out of there as fast as possible. "Or I can direct you to the nearest..." Aw, crap, he had no idea where she actually was, and he didn't have time to hack her phone just to figure it out. And even if she just relayed the info, it would be a pain to try to direct her through the mess he had made of the streets. "Actually, where are you? It'll be easier if I pick you up and get you there. Traffic's a bit of a shitshow today."
He slid from the passenger's seat back to the driver's, gasping at the sudden fire arching through his ribs. Right. Better, but not completely healed. As long as he was staying relatively still it was fine, but his body was still quite insistent on letting him know how unhappy it was with sudden movements. He switched his computer's screen settings to at least give him enough visibility to see through his windows without crashing but paused before he turned the car on. Did he really have time for this? Shouldn't he stay where he was and continue to orchestrate? He glanced over to where his computer was still working on altering traffic and redirecting cars. It would take several minutes at least for it to finish running. After all, he was trying to avoid crashes, so he couldn't just suddenly turn all the lights red. He had some time and this would be the faster way to get Alexandra where she needed to go. Especially with his little hack to give himself green lights. This was definitely the best course of action. Probably.
"You. Of course it's you. Do you really- Do you think that that mask is hiding you?" "Mom." You've been in my house, I've seen your wings!" "Mom!" "Do you really think I don't know who you are because I can't see your cheekbones?! This is the kind of-" Lo siento pero- My- my daughter? The people who did this are after my daughter too?! She is thirteen years old! Why?! What could they possibly want with-
"Did you do this? You came to our church. You sat with her; your pictures are all over her wall. You and Bronwyn are- And here they-
"Did you do this to my baby girl?!"
***
Sound wasn't the last thing to come back, but Mercy could feel a bone-deep vibration well before their ears could process it. It almost hid the sharp pulses that gradually resolved into the sounds and sights of someone whaling on their faceplate with a sledgehammer.
The door next to them was broken,**ktaang** the grinding vibration was coming from **Ktaang** the room beyond where Lucas was and- **ktrrnch** a crack spider-webbed across their visor.
***
Well crap. Okay, magnetic fields are blocked by... opposing magnetic fields. Shielding is basically just stuff that's more magnetic, and nothing's gonna be more magnetic than what he just hit me with... Maybe if I...
No. Electrocuting myself or throwing myself in the school furnace is definitely a cure worse than the disease...
It was short term, but now that he knew where Char had shot from, he could at least break line of sight around a corner for now.
"You are Caritas, are you not?" Bran shouted. "Was that name truly given, or was it bestowed upon you in mockery? I do not believe that you truly adhere to Balor's cause, nor that his deeds have inspired you or your masters to lend your services out of generosity.
"Is the word of a demon truly worth this struggle?"
***
Char doesn't reply to Bran for a moment, before his voice sounds out from behind a bus. "You got something wrong here, hero. I honestly couldn't give a damn whether our client is a demon, a pimp or the freaking president of the moon. I'm a professional, and this is the job. How I feel about it doesn't matter.
Mercy understands that. He didn't let his feelings for that poor officer bleeding to death affect his mission," He points out audibly from behind cover. "Left him to die to save the one that matters. Surprised he did, he was always so damn softhearted. Glad to see you're teaching him to be a better soldier."
On the bright side, the armor still worked well enough to keep his head from being broken up like a melon. But Mercy could see that they had broken into the room they had stashed Lucas in. Worse, the man with the knife must have gone after him. There was no time to take a beating here! No time for subtlety either.
Mercy grabbed the sledgehammer when it came to strike them again, and swung around the cultist holding onto it into the lockers - and again on the other side. Again and again, they rammed them into the steel containers, smashing them open and letting notes, books, even musical instruments or snack stashes get crushed or trampled by their boots as they fought back. Mercy weathered their attacks still, focused on making sure no one was going to be getting back up by the time they were done!
Alexandra finishes pulling her coat on, leaving the SCA armour in the HQ kitchen... she'd clean it up later.
Acolyte's relatives are being targeted? do we have reason to believe her identity has been compromised? she says Or... f%%& it, not the issue right now. I'm at HQ. she finishes
Abbers, talk to me. B's niece, give me her name, and where she is... any other relevant things, by your judgement. She says, loading a simple Rhabdovore/tranquilizer mixture into her crossbow, she was going in armed for Balorinas. What was he after here? Force Bran into a trap.... while he summoned Manawydan? or was this unrelated... were there just random targets taken from Abber's systems when the Balorina detonated? was this Balor keeping them busy?
Her name is Pascal,- Blinding pain interrupts Abacus as Alexandra squints her eyes and clutchs her head
"You. Of course it's you. Do you really- Do you think that that mask is hiding you?" "Mom." You've been in my house, I've seen your wings!" "Mom!" "Do you really think I don't know who you are because I can't see your cheekbones?! This is the kind of-" Lo siento pero- My- my daughter? The people who did this are after my daughter too?! She is thirteen years old! Why?! What could they possibly want with-
"Did you do this? You came to our church. You sat with her; your pictures are all over her wall. You and Bronwyn are- And here they-
"Did you do this to my baby girl?!"
"NO!" Wingblade shouts, focusing on Anna Hernandez and actively blocking out Marian for the moment. Her personal bias was clear and it was not helping the situation. She needed them to focus.
"I am here to help. These cultists have been studying her movements for weeks. I've had minutes. Camila was last seen on a skyrail with another girl her age, dark hair, likely of Middle Eastern descent. Where would they be right now?"
Kaoru picks Alexandra up and takes her where ever she wants to go, quickly explaining the visuals being displayed on the inside of his windows.
"Weeks?"
"That's insane." Danilo cut in, "We just saw you sniffing around this last week and you expect us to believe-" "Look,"Wingblade's voice cracked like a whip, her wings flaring out to the side "I'm your daughter's favorite superhero. Let me prove to you why that is."
Marian pursed her lips, but Anna nodded uncertainly "...Her friend's name is Qamra El Din, we were supposed to pick her up soon, but with everything that happened here..." Danilo fished out his phone, "She's not picking up! I have Qamra's parents' numbers here somewhere... Mubariz? Wait, sorry, I don't think I heard you right- the police station? No, I, I understand." He turned back from his phone, face ashen, "Something happened; Qamra's not hurt but she's not talking and... Camila's not there."
***
The cultists scatter like roaches before Mercy's broad swipes, darting in whenever their back is turned, unable to easily breach their armor, but forcing Mercy to keep their guard up if that's going to continue...
Meanwhile from the nearby room the thrum of the strange knife was interrupted by a series of cracks, followed by sounds not much quieter than Alexis's path of destruction!
***
Is he right? I mean, I left Ava conscious and the fight's still going. I broke Chastitas's leg and it was all over...
***
A red haze overtook Alexandra's vision, with a voice of burning iron cutting through her mind. "Pascal... a name of sacrifice, a name of new births."
The face of a man with a thin beard and lined face swam before her eyes. One eye covered with a patch, the other replaced by an orb of obsidian. "Surely there is more to it my lord, some resonance or study that gives her such potential, which we have not yet uncovered. The name is not so uncommon as that."
"She is an ant, for all her potential. It matters not why she can be bent so easily to serve as a host. Her story does not matter; none of their stories matter, Watis. History is written for Gods and Heroes."
A smile like a knife nearly split Alexandra's skull asunder. "And now that the Hero has lost his accursed lance, we have yet another weapon to be turned to my ends."
Wingblade's heart starts to sink, but she wills herself to stay frosty. She snaps her fingers urgently. "Address! NOW!!"
Once she has it, she turns and spreads her wings to take off. Camila might be hiding, or she might be able to pick up their trail. But she needed to move fast. So long as there wasn't a fire--
She stops herself. Once already this evening she let her sense of urgency get the better of her. If she had stuck around just a few more seconds to figure out the Balorina's target at the rail station Camila would be safe. But the cultists struck the Pascal's home here, and Bronwyn's dad wasn't around.
She turns back around. "Marian. Where's César?" While waiting for her answer, Wingblade considers what her senses had been telling her.