This wasn't working the way that Mercy wanted it to, since there were more of them than they could take care of while keeping his guard up. Worst was that Lucas was still in danger. They needed to get to him and get him to safety. Bronwyn was counting on them for this.
Seeing few other options, they reached up and unsheathed their sword, the matte black blade still honed and sharp. Mercy kept it well oiled. They wish they didn't have to use it.
Mercy rushed forward, carving and cutting. They tried to believe it was all right. The lost fingers and hands and feet as their blade parted through flesh and bone like butter still made them feel sick to their stomach as they pushed towards the room with the man with the knife...
"You know, we're not evil," Char says from hiding. "Heroes like you throw a lot of black and white morality at us all the time. Not all of us are lucky enough to have the luxury of using our powers charitably."
As Bran is lost in his thoughts, he suddenly finds himself tugged back, crashing into a small coupe and sticking to it by the magnets glued to his armor! Ava walks around from behind it, jacketless and with one arm hanging at an awful angle - her shoulder had been dislocated to free herself from the pipe!
"This freaking hurts, you know! It never gets easier to do," She complains. "Char, are we clear yet?"
"We're waiting on confirmation. Though with Mercy in there, I doubt any of those goons are alive..." Confident, Char steps into sight, a massive anti-material rifle hanging from a strap across his shoulders.
"Marian. Where's César?"
"Where's- Where's César? Are you serious? He's-" "Ma'am? Ma'am we have him restabilized. We're ready to go."
"They came here looking for the daughter you- stole from us, and when he wouldn't tell them anything they beat him and set the house on fire around him. But sure, they're only targeting Camila; it has nothing to do with you. Did you even know they were looking for her? Is Bronwyn safe?"
***
***
Running might not work, hiding is... problematic. Just work with the pulls and pushes.
Ava had yanked him back into a car that was most of the way to her, so rather than try to unstick himself, Bran picked it up and barreled into her with a crunch, whipping around to keep the car between himself and Char's rifle - and directly above Ava...
Alexandra more or less comes to in Kay's car. Pascal... he knows that name. Acolyte might be compromised. she says They want them because they can be hosts easily. or at least Balor thinks so. she says
A channel opens to everyone. Bran, or Acolyte.... I think my power is interacting with his weirdly. I have soem information about his end-game. She says, waiting for a private channel.
Wingblade was in the air and putting the Pascals rapidly behind her the instant she learned that Bronwyn's dad was hurt but not abducted. He was in good hands. Camila, not so much. Marian's voice faded away as the distance increased, but Wingblade couldn't be bothered to care about her recriminations. (Shayera had rejected Marian's influence a while ago.)
She had a pretty good idea of Qamra's address when she heard it -- just on the other side of Halcyon North Memorial Gardens. She skims over the houses and treetops at her best speed, but thinks of a way she could go faster. She pulls on her mask, hoping that Yin is wearing hers. As luck would have it, all her sisters were wearing the mask, so she becomes one with them. She dives into a patch of shadow and shoots out from another several hundred feet away. She dips into and out of shadows like a dolphin diving into the water and leaping back into the air, eating up the distance like never before.
There were two plausible scenarios, she figured. Either "Chris Pascal" and his partner escaped the bindings or police she had called after finding them on the skyrail, or another team had been sent to collect Camila after word reached them of "Chris's" failure.
If it was the former, then the pair did not have their car, which would cause issues for the abductors. They'd be slow, on foot, and easily tracked. If it was the latter, there likely would have been some sort of delay while the Balorinas figured out that "Chris" was no longer in pursuit. But finding the car would be a lot more difficult once it got underway.
She shows up in Qamra's neighborhood in record time, and immediately stretches out her senses, looking for signs of struggle and the scents of adrenaline and fear.
"Of course he knows her name. The cultists have a list of people they're targeting. Full names with possible locations they could be nabbed and pictures. I suspect if they had a better idea of who 'Acolyte' was, they would have tried harder to nab her; someone associated with his great nemesis is a high-value target yet they sent a similar force to those going after her nephew, who has no known powers or super affiliations. Arguably a stronger force since Mercy seems to be having more trouble with them this time around." Kaoru didn't respond to the "host" comment. He had thought their goal was fairly obvious. After all, it's what Dane had seemed interested in prior to self-destructing: finding hosts. And if Bronwyn really was host to Branwyn, then it just meant whatever heuristics they were using to identify possible hosts had at least some validity.
He glanced sideways at her. "You sure you should be in the field for this one? There are enough targets that your impact would be much more pronounced if you helped me coordinate SWAT. That way you could help save a couple of dozen victims instead of just the one."
Ava yelped and flinched, seeming to fly back at an awkward angle before landing on her feet on the side of a school bus. She looked particularly hurt with her dislocated arm dangling down, pulling out that heavy pistol and glaring angrily at Bran.
"All right, enough playing around!" She shouts, and with a roar the gun goes off, firing into several cars on the lot, some of them with people still inside. Her accuracy seems off, until Bran sees liquids start to form puddles underneath the vehicles!
"Be very careful there, slugger," Ava tells him. "Wouldn't want some errant spark to start a fire, would you?"
"Ava..." Char gives her a look. Ava gives him a look back, the pair silently communicating the way only those who knew each other could. Char finally relents and levels his heavy rifle at Bran. "The job will be done shortly. Just sit down and let it play out. That's all you have to do. Stop fighting," He urged her.
Their blade was dripping blood, though it wasn't as bad as they'd feared at first after the first spray. The cultists were beating a hasty retreat, bringing their injured with them, finally allowing Alexis to make it into the room where Lucas awaited them.
The classroom was newly constructed and didn't have any windows that faced outward towards the rest of the world, but next to a locked supply cabinet was a hastily carved hole in the wall, the edges still sizzling and molten.
They'd taken too long.
***
A car started, underscoring Char's threat. Even if nothing else happens, sooner or later those people are going to panic - and then...
His fingers twitched towards the blade at his belt. This blade's non-magnetic too. I could probably hit the rifle from here, maybe before he gets a shot off... But will Ava try to help him, or punish me?
I can't take that chance.
He stood, still but ready, not even reaching up to his helm to reply to Alexandra in case that gesture was misunderstood.
"You say you are not evil, very well. You say you have not been given the luxury of choice; you know that to be false. Mercy denies it with every breath they take while living in freedom. I know the choice is hard. I know what it is to stand for yourself, the self you were meant to be when that choice means danger and isolation. You are choosing to do this, to bring terror and pain to innocents. You do not have to be afraid."
Gone. It seemed obvious who had Lucas now. It also seemed obvious to Mercy that they needed to give chase. They couldn't have gotten far. But they could have also already killed Lucas. Hope died as they extend their senses, using their helmet's HUD to see if they couldn't pick up traces to follow.
Now that they knew where the cultist had gone, they pushed off to the chase, ignoring their comm. They had to save Lucas, or Bronwyn would be even more upset.
Ava still looked angry as she glared at Bran, Char keeping his sights on the knight while seeming to listen to something in his ear. "See, you think we've got the same options as Mercy does," He tells him. "But you're wrong. Ava, show him."
She sniffed and stiffened, before turning her head to expose the thin scar on the nape of her neck. "We're chipped. If we run, if we abandon our duties, all Xenophon has to do is press a button and we'll die," Char spelled it out to Bran. "Extreme, yeah. But they weren't risking anyone else getting bright ideas after Mercy's stunt."
Char tightens his grip on his rifle. "So you can save your speeches about doing the right thing, because I'd rather live with bad choices than get killed by good ones."
Bran nodded. "But a duty deferred and a duty abandoned are not the same."
"I pose this to you: The matter inside is likely settled. Ava is injured; there are weapons available to me that are proof against your abilities. Perhaps this day's duty is done."
A quick glance was all the warning he got before the rifle was lowered and Char began to evac. Bran trotted over to the cars, quickly toggling his comms to ask. "What news then, Shadow?"
"Mercy, Avarice and Charity are withdrawing - do you have Lucas?"
And then, in a great bellow with thankfully closed comms, The visor of his greathelm turned towards Char and Ava just before they broke line of sight.
***
Qamra's house had no signs of forced entry, and no heavily deodorized scent trails either. Quickly retracing their likely path, Wingblade finds where the trail went to ground, not a block from the closest rail station. The heady notes of lavender, all the scents of passers by abruptly fizzle out into an undistinguished blur where a sharp ozone stench overwhelms them.
It isn't a trail, just a singular olfactory event. Doubtless careful examination of the scene could lead to other signs of struggle, but she already knows that Camila's gone, Qamra is safe, and a nearby security camera that might have recorded the event is drooping and unpowered.
This trail is cold.
***
The trail was easy to follow, Lucas had clearly run alongside his captor, goaded by fear into aiding his own abduction. A lightweight fence to the nearby street lay in ruins, the smell of burning rubber and the sound of a roaring engine not far out of sight make it abundantly clear where Lucas has gone.
***
SWAT and patrol cars are very close to PS 122, but they don't appear to have redirected yet onto the fleeing vehicle.
Other reports filtering back suggest that while the cultists have been universally armed and dangerous, the presence of prototype weapons and powered support has been far from ubiquitous, only making a notable appearance in a battle where the hero Tectonic was reported injured after happening upon an attempted abduction.
"Well, when you put it that way," Char said as he slung his rifle over his shoulder. He went over to Ava, helping her as with a audible pop and groan from her he set her shoulder back into place.
"Hey, word of advice?" Char says as he tosses a coin underneath himself, tucking his arm around Ava's waist. "Don't try talking Wrath to death if you meet him. He'll just kill you," Char warned, as he pushed himself and Ava up into the air off of the coin, before the pair use their talents to fly off in an untraditional sense.
Mercy's voice came on over the comm, static on their end. "They got Lucas! Pursuing the car now! It's a grey van with license number E20W49," They report.
Catching up to the car would be tough, but there was a bend in the road and a straight path for Mercy to run. They took off, shortening the gap as they pumped their legs and passed several frightened civilians on the way. They wouldn't make it without one final push, as they launched themselves up through the air...
...and slammed down on the rooftop of the van, leaving a heavy dent as they held on. "On top of them!" Mercy said.
Shayera had pulled off the mask when she arrived to make sure all she was getting was her own senses, here at the site of the abduction. Her body stands still, though her wings quiver.
Trembling hands reach up and pull the mask down so she becomes one again with her sisters, though it's no less easy.
Camila is taken / Gone / Could have found her / Should have found her / Bronwyn will be furious / No, upset / No, devastated / We should return to China / It will be easier / We're not superheroes / Broke out of SCA detention / Will be hunted / Don't care about that / We have to find her / No leads / We can get help / Bronwyn's family will turn her against us / Doesn't matter / We can find her / Trail is cold / Triakosia know where she is / Working with the cult / We don't strike the same place twice / The arrangement still stands / We do this, we return to China / We all return to China
Shayera pulls off her mask after the plan was made, tears streaming down her face. Her sisters were already on their way to the Triakosia compound, the same place they hit weeks ago to get Mercy's data for her father that ultimately went unused.
She wipes her face off and takes to the sky. Hitting a place a second time was a massive risk. They knew their tricks, and could put contingencies in place. So they'd have to try something new. Wingblade angles toward the Tower District, but not to her penthouse.
The Triakosia wouldn't know what hit them.
It was a brilliant form of urban camouflage. Six skyscrapers of near identical design, nestled within the innumerable spires of the Tower District. One of those anonymous skyscrapers just so happened to be the home of Whippoorwill, superhero and Defender.
Picking out the right one was nothing for her Protégé. Wingblade angled toward the nondescript tower and streaked through a small hatch that opened just for her. The tower's defenses were stellar, but its sensors detected Wingblade's biometrics as she approached and allowed her into the abode.
She lands hard on the pad in the center of the living space. The place was dark and empty; Shayera had anticipated that. Given all the news on the police scanner, she figured that her mentor would have her hands full. Which was why she didn't bother with calling ahead. Not that she had a phone or communicator to begin with. Her earbuds and mask-communicator were still at the SCA headquarters.
She moved quickly and deliberately, going straight to Whippoorwill's arsenal. She hadn't exactly ever been given permission to use any of the crime fighter's signature weapons, but she hadn't ever been told no either. She slipped her mask over her head once more and drew on the technopathy power she suddenly shared. With a bit of effort, she bypassed the security and got the reinforced door open. Wingblade grabbed several of Whippoorwill's weaponized quills -- throwing weapons with a variety of effects. She selected a few of the stunners, a pair of flares, four smoke bombs, and five explosives. She was just about to leave when she paused. She grabbed a tracker quill, and then in seconds she was back outside and flying on an intercept course toward her sisters.
Whippoorwill corkscrewed once around the stream of pressurized sticky foam and again had to gain more altitude to give herself more time to react to the specialized weapons. The perpetrators who had suddenly appeared all throughout the city had access to a concerning amount of specialized tech. She handily dealt with two sets of two, before more converged on her position with gear seemingly designed to counter her own abilities. Ranged, scatter, and netting were the order of the day.
She was starting to get pissed.
Standard response to something like this would be to throw a smoke screen quill and attack from a different angle, but she didn't like the look of the headgear that the glue-gun wielder had on. She put more distance between them, since the spray thankfully had a pathetic range. She would have to--
An alert beeped in her mask and Whetstone's voice sounded in her ear. "Hey, Whip, I know you're busy, but I thought you'd like to know that your apartment's security system just alerted. Shayera dropped by thirty seconds ago and raided your armory. Took a bunch of quills. Is she allowed to do that?"
Feeling suddenly irritated, Whippoorwill zig-zagged back into long range and invited another shot. The guy was good enough not to waste ammo on a shot that wasn't likely to hit. But that gave Whippoorwill enough clearance to throw a standard heavy-impact quill at the guy's head. It glanced off his temple satisfactorily, letting her close the gap quickly.
The guy with the scattershot gun started to aim rather than fall back, which was what she wanted. An edged quill followed the blunt one, and struck the pressurized container of his still-woozy partner. She pulled up quickly to stay out of the way as the pair were covered in their own sticky resin.
With a moment to breathe, Whip touches her communicator. "Shayera? You have to ask first! Shay-- Hello? Whet, where is she?"
"Don't know. Tracker in her mask says she's still at SCA."
Dammit. She cycles through her options. "Bronwyn? No. Ah, Bran! Do you have comms with Wingblade? I need to know why she has just pilfered a load of my ordnance. Can you call her?"
Alexandra clutches at the dashboard.
I don't... you're right. F$!~, Triakosia, and balorinas, not our day. she says
Okay, their hit list... crossing off all targets whose assaults have been foiled. Highlight active battles. What is Balor's game plan. She says, following through. Kay can practically feel the heat coming off her skin
Fo, Under, and either Mur[/], Sea, or [i]mor literally large, but figuratively underworld. He's appeared on the subways once. So, that's probably more correct, unless.... f$@! it, go with first thought Alexandra's mind was racing now. Camila had been snatched. Lucas was being snatched. Mercy had Lucas, so... Damn.
Kay, if you can, use your magic to block off access to the streets. gridlock the city as much as you can, our emergency services and our team has maneuverability. Bran, if you can, help Mercy. I bet you can get there I really hope you can And Wingblade, TELL me you have something on Camilla. In fact, tell me anything, You've been silent too long.
Kay,We're buying ourselves a flying car when all this is over.
Kaoru frowned. Alexandra was really off her game today. "I've already gridlocked things." He glanced at the near-empty road they were currently on. Maybe the fact he had cleared a way for him and SWAT was why she had missed his explanation of that. Or had she been asleep during that? But surely she had thought it was odd that they hadn't hit a single red light since he had picked her up. Or...surely she hadn't failed to notice that, right? "And Wing doesn't seem to be on comms."
He suppressed a sigh as Alexis' report came in. Really? He had had one job: grab Lucas and get out of there. How hard could that have possibly been given, y'know, superpowers? Did he seriously need to micromanage the guy that badly to get any resemblance of competence out of him? Well, as long as he hasn't destroyed half the school in the process of losing the kid... "I think we need to back Alexis up. Bran was barely able to catch up to car last time; it's too likely he won't be fast enough to catch this one."
He pushed harder against the acceleration pedal as he changed direction, moving now to go and clean up Alexis' mess. He'd really have to book it to get in the area before it was too late. Maybe he could redirect more SWAT to try to find Camilla? Or maybe-
玻璃
He grimaced, glancing at the flashing blue and red lights behind him. Were they serious? Why was this a*$$@%$ looking for speeders when they had mass kidnappings to stop? Ugh, he didn't have time to stop and explain things to the officer. He'd have to call in to the dispatcher to tell them to relay a cease order to the car. "Hey Xan, can you pass me my-"
He was interrupted by the siren and lights suddenly disappearing. He glanced in his rear-view mirror again. The police car had turned them off and was slowing down. Maybe dispatch was recalling him elsewhere? Y'know, where he might actually be needed? Coincidentally just when he was about to tell them to do just that?
右
He jerked the wheel abruptly to the left, bringing the car into the (thankfully) empty lane right next to theirs as the onboard sensors warned him of a vehicle on the right attempting to merge into him. He scowled. "Watch where you're going a+$!#&!!" Not that that would do anything since he already knew the vehicle was apparently soundproof. But at least it made him feel a little better.
He shook his head and accelerated even further.
The roof of the van dents in an odd pattern around Mercy's feet, and the plain grey paint... flickers. Hexagonal black paneling traced by strange fiberoptic cabling briefly appears in the place of drab grey, heralding a ferocious pulse of vaguely nonlethal energy that courses along the outside of the van!
***
"Ah, Bran! Do you have comms with Wingblade? I need to know why she has just pilfered a load of my ordnance. Can you call her?"
Really?!
Bran was already racing after Mercy, guessing what direction they must be pursuing in if Lucas hadn't been taken past her.
"I will see what can be learned."
It tore at her heart, but Bran's steps slowed as he fumbled with his phone, making sure it was secure so he could do his best to catch up.
"Shayera? What is- What's happening? You said you were gonna- You said you were going to find her, but Whippoorwill just told me that you have broken into her armory? Shayera, if... if she has been taken then we Will find her, but- Shayera just talk to me, okay?!"
***
The van that Alexis was pursuing hadn't been on Kaoru's hitlist, and something about it was blocking the signal of the cultist's phone - he kept losing him every few blocks, but it was enough to keep getting closer, closer, hopefully enough to let them cut him off...
"Shayera? What is- What's happening? You said you were gonna- You said you were going to find her, but Whippoorwill just told me that you have broken into her armory? Shayera, if... if she has been taken then we Will find her, but- Shayera just talk to me, okay?!"
Bran first hears Yu's slightly muffled voice. "Wait until we're all together. We know you don't like speaking to us."
Xiu Ying catches up to her sisters after a few minutes and starts distributing the weaponized quills. Yu Hiu hands her phone over in exchange. She steps away from the others and pulls off her mask.
"Bran? I'm so sorry. They got-- they got her. I tried to catch up, but they used some kind of scent baffler. The trail was wiped clean." The agonizing guilt threatened to well up and overwhelm her. She tried to drown it with her anger.
"I know I screwed up. It's my fault. But I'm going to make it better. Bron, the Triakosia were involved. They've been helping Balor -- they took your spear, they outfitted the cult. Bron, they hurt your dad looking for you.
"I'm taking the fight to them. I'm going to find out where they took Camila and then I'm going to make them pay. I owe them. I warned them; they didn't listen. I told them to get out of Halcyon, so now I'm going to burn Omega to the ground." Her voice starts low, but becomes increasingly heated, sounding as deadly as she's ever been.
"And Bran, she'll be safe, don't worry."
"...She'll be safe, don't worry..."
Her words tore through her, leaving a cold pit in her stomach as she tried to stay calm.
"Shayera, you have to stop. You're not... You can't let them take you again." Bran's voice rumbled throughout the helmet. She hated it. She hated so much that this was another moment that he had stolen.
Shayera's words were icy cold and resolute. Bronwyn could almost see her head shake. "They're not taking me. They're not getting anything from me. I'm going to rip Camila's location from them and leave nothing left."
Tears stung at Bran's eyes She's gonna do it. She's gonna leave me again. "You're being so, so selfish right now Shayera! They're just Balor's pawns, his tools, and you're acting like they're the Masterminds behind all of it. There are goons running around who are stupid enough to take pictures of their targets on their frickin' cellphones and you think that Omega's the easiest way to get answers?! Why are you going after them Shayera, can you be honest about that? To me at least?"
Shayera's gasp was audible on the other end. "What?? Bron, they got away!! I don't know where Camila is! But I do know where the Triakosia are, so I'm going there to find out! And if I can take them down while I'm at it, so much the better!!"
The sarcastic twist to her voice was blunted by Bran's bass, but she couldn't help but drive in harder. "So it has nothing to do with how guilty you're feeling? The fact that you know that they could really- Hurt you? That what they could do to you would be 'punishment' enough for letting them get away?!"
Shayera looked around wildly, not believing what she's hearing. She screamed into the phone. "CAMILA WAS TAKEN!!! I'm not letting her go! I'm not leaving her with them! Why? Tell me, why? Why don't you want me to find her?"
A sob tore free, muffling her words, "Because the best chance that any of us have of finding her, of saving her, is if you're fighting with us. You don't know if she's there, you don't know that this would go any better than the Hospital, and you're not even looking for other options! You didn't even care to find out what's happening with the rest of the team or what we know, or you would have gotten a comm while you were breaking into Whippoorwill's armory!"
She took a deep breath before rumbling once more. "You promised me you wouldn't do this Shayera. You promised that I'd be by your side when it was time to bring them down, and I'll be Damned if I let you pretend that this is what you'd be doing if it was anyone but Them.
"You can't beat them. Not like this. Not alone, not with nothing but guilt and hate driving you."
A quiet pause. Shayera's voice was soft. "I'm not alone."
Tears streamed down her face. Shayera turned away from her sisters and walked further away. "I'm doing this for you. For your family. Please understand."
"Shayera, I love you. Don't do this.
"I know how much you're hurting, but we will save her, together. We'll save all of them. We- I need you with me Shayera!
"Don't make me lose both of you."
It was Bran's deep bass but she heard Bronwyn as if she was there with her. Shayera's body wracks with pain as she wavers between what she feels she has to do and what her girlfriend is asking of her. Doesn't she realize? I'm not throwing my life away. I've got a plan. I've got-- She looks up and sees her sisters staring at her, their masks emotionless and unblinking. But I'll be leaving.
She screams. It's a long, ragged, pained scream borne of intense frustration and desperation. She throws the mask hard against the ground where it bounces away out of sight. She drops to her knees as the scream dwindles to a despondent sob.
She feels a hand on her shoulder and she looks up. Her sisters have stepped close and are surrounding her. "I'm sorry," she mouths to them.
She looks at the phone in her hand. Slowly, she brings it to her ear. "Bran? Where can I meet you?"
Mercy had crawled perhaps two paces forward before the pulsing energy erupted across the rooftop. They were frozen in place as their muscles contracted, unable to loosen their grip. They had to keep moving, Lucas needed them. They managed to struggle just enough to turn their head...
...that cultist with the knife had slid open the van door, holding onto the interior with one hand to keep himself steady.
With the other, he slashed through Mercy's gorget, the knife cutting swiftly through bone and muscle alike. If they weren't wearing a helmet, they probably would have looked surprised. They died quickly, their armor locking up automatically and preventing them from falling off the van.
That would be an easy problem for the cultist to take care of if they wanted. The mad beast that had pursued them was dead. All the cultist had to do now was cut off their death grip.
Something...shifted in the armor. Subtle changes that were alarming. A sudden cracking sound. And to the cultist's horror, Mercy reached out for him again!
There was no time to think about what was now different underneath the armor, as they grabbed the cultist's wrist and squeezed as hard as possible until the knife dropped from his grip from the pain. Eliminate the immediate danger and prevent them from getting another counter offensive in, they rotated and pulled themselves inside using the former knife-wielder as a shield with his arm wrenched behind his back.
Mercy's helm should have corrected to the shifting light as they entered the van, but their armor hadn't repaired quite as quickly as their flesh.
A piercing scream rose in the dark, and shadowed silhouettes rose with it, swaying with the juddering motion of the van as it tried to get towards open streets. The cultist in their hands writhed, panic fueling his movements as he struggled to escape Mercy's grasp. He had some sort of training MCMAP? but nothing like enough to overpower them.
The scream was still going, muddled up in an irrelevant smear with the blood still pounding in Mercy's ears, drowning out the warbles of the cultists' voices. There was a hiss of displaced air and Lucas's terrified face came into focus - just as the field went back up behind them.
Kaoru was quickly catching up to the target vehicle. It didn't matter if they were zipping in and out of his tracking software; he could see a familiar, annoying figure first on top of and then on the side of their target. And surely even Alexis' wasn't dumb enough to go after the wrong vehicle, right?
"I'm going to force them to slow down. Or at least change direction." He pressed harder on the gas, easily catching up and pulling along side before starting to pull ahead. The driver was apparently too busy dealing with their newest passenger to even bother trying to side-swipe him. He put a little extra distance between them, quickly doing some mental math to determine how long it would take them to stop. After all, it's not like he wanted them to total both the vehicles.
He pulled ahead. His heart was pounding a million miles a minute. This was dumb. This was oh so very dumb. But it would help stop them. It would help rescue Lucas. It would clean up Alexis' mess. He took a deep breath, "Hold on, Xan. I'm going to make them stop," and slammed on the brakes.
後
He inhaled sharply as the seatbelt pressed painfully against his ribs. He wasn't quite sure what he had expected, but he had definitely expected it to take longer to come to a complete halt.
後
He glanced in the rear-view mirror. The van wasn't slowing down. Why wasn't it slowing down?!
Oh f+!!! It wasn't going to stop! "Brace for-"
The noise of metal on metal combined and drowned out his scream as the seatbelt caused explosions of pain to flare all over his torso. After a few agonizing seconds, he pushed himself past it with a soft whine and tried to assess the damage. Alexandra was fine, thank God (and seatbelts). The back of his car was...completely intact? His eyes went wide. There wasn't even a scratch on it! ...ok, well, there probably was if he bothered to get out to take a look. But there definitely wasn't the completely demolished trunk that should have been there after getting rear-ended by a vehicle moving at top speed. "What the fk did you make this car out of, Pinky?"
The van slammed into what seemed to be some sort of telekinetic wall, only escaping disaster as the force of the crash dissipated into a suddenly appearing hexagonal field.
The tires squealed as the van started weaving, what was left of its pretense to normalcy burned away. Lights flashed as it scraped its way free, hexagons pulsing, the grey of the van melting away into glossy black paneling with the sirens and flashing lights of an SCA capture-van calling for everyone to clear the streets and sidewalk as it races away!
Okay, he has a plan... Alexandra thinks as Kay does fancy driving, she thumbs at the phone, she could... well, she could bring this fight to their terms, but they had to end kidnap-paloza first...
Okay, we're getting ahead of them okay, they were after a bloodline. B's bloodline... They make good hosts. Alexandra would have been smugly satisfied if she wasn't wired with adrenaline, with a big layer of fatigue just below it.
Hold on... okay, we're stopping... But they had a Pascal too. a better one, one who had wronged the cult... she already had a celtic god in her, but that wasn't public knowledge... unless it was. Still, worth a shot.
Oh god, it's not... Alexandra stows the phone as she braces. but the impact is not half as bad as it should have been between a car going 80 and a car stock still. she loses her wind, but rips off her seatbelt as soon as she can, and is out of the car. The van was already speeding off, missing a front, but she had her hand in her coat... her hand was already out, clutching a grenade, when she caught herself... This amulet is affecting me... frick the thinks, dropping it and bringing out the crossbow, thumbing up a tracker-arrow
Kay, we have the Van chipped. Broadcast that to anyone who cares. Wing especially.
Mercy's helmet display was dead for now, cut off thanks to that lethal knife severing the power connection. But they could still hear the screams, see Lucas terrified face. It was good news - they hadn't killed him like they'd suggested they would do in the school.
Still, there were several cultists, not including the driver, and they were fairly certain this was no ordinary van from how the interior looked. They had to try to stop them from using any more of their advanced weapons and get Lucas out of the van. It would be tight-
The whole vehicle lurched suddenly, as Mercy took advantage of the situation. They couldn't go all out with Lucas in the tight quarters, but they could prevent them from getting anywhere fast.
Vehicles were vulnerable in many ways, but it was the undercarriage that was normally the most critical. Mercy slammed their cultist hostage into the wall, before raising their fists and bringing them down in a hammer blow.
The field was strong, but all Mercy had to do was warp the floor of the van, and suddenly their smooth ride became all the more bumpy as the suspension gave out and the drive column cracked underneath them.
"You're not getting away," Mercy informed them, bracing for the counterattack.
The bottom of the van holds beneath Mercy's blows, but the sheer force of them tilts the van, and it veers up onto the sidewalk, taking an abrupt turn as it sideswipes a deli!
Inside the van, the cultists in the front compartment stay safe, but everyone in the holding area is unrestrained and bounces around from field to wall to floor! Mercy's armor holds fine, but their captive and Lucas land with a pair of sickening thuds!
***
From the outside, the van seems to have taken a turn through the corner deli for no reason - the paneling is still holding, but momentum is momentum and driving through two walls has slowed its progress.
Wingblade zeroed in on the sirens and crashes from her position high in the sky. Bran had relayed his location and the fact that they were chasing a van full of cultists.
The problem was, it turned out the van was an SCA containment unit, and those things were nigh indestructible.
Whippoorwill had told her about those things; it was the reason why she wasn't worried that Chitin could break out when one came to take him away. It used a smaller version of the Artificer field that most of Halycon's buildings are outfitted with. Though, instead of activating to prevent a building's collapse which required a huge power draw, these were designed to absorb the energy used to break free. The stronger you hit it, the stronger the field.
Fortunately, Whip had also told her of the field's weakness. But it wasn't easy. She dives down and matches speed with the van.
Well this was not what Alexis had expected. Normally they'd be looking at a massive crater in the floor. But if it was strong enough to avoid damage that way, then it seemed unlikely that they would be able to break out of this van themself.
Lucas was also not in good shape. They needed to get him out of there and to safety as quickly as possible. It didn't look like Mercy could access the driver's compartment from here, and they weren't going to risk trying to stop the van again after that fiasco. They didn't expect their comms to work inside of the van either.
It looked like the only thing that Mercy could do was attempt to crack open the van door from the inside. Snatching up the unusual knife that the cultist had dropped in the van, Mercy got to work on trying to cut through the lock and get the doors open.
The pain in his chest prevented him from immediately realizing what Alexandra was doing. "Wait, I can-" Nope. Soundproof. He started to reach over to push the passenger-side door open but his body very quickly Nope'd that idea.
Sighing, he rolled down his window. If he wanted her to hear him, he'd probably need to angle his voice in her direction instead of against it. Which unfortunately meant half-hauling his bruised self out of the window. "Hey Xan, get back in the car. Even with that we'll still need to-" Wait...why couldn't he see his car? It was clearly there; he could feel it. But as far as he could tell, he seemed to be a disembodied torso floating in the middle of the street.
So *that's* why- The police car. The lane-merging near collision. The actual collision. It all made sense now! Wait, what kind of tech is this? Some kind of color-changing metal? A field that distorted light rays? A- He shook his head slight. Geek out later. Rescue people now. "Xan, you coming or what?"
He waited for his companion to either get back in the car or decline before racing off after the vehicle. It was ahead of him, but between Alexandra's tracker and his traffic software, he should have no trouble plotting a route to catch up. And now that he knew about the cloaking tech, he could actually factor that into his plans. Though eventually he'd probably also need to figure out how to turn that ability off unless he wanted all his driving to become an exercise in Frogger.
The field was still resisting, but it seemed to be far less optimized against focused, low speed heat like the knife was bringing to bear, and a thin . The dark of the holding area was illuminated in the dull glow, but the light was mostly hidden from the front compartment by Alexis's armored silhouette.
Unfortunately, Lucas started to scream.
"Oh shit - he's got Scott's knife."
"So foam him"
"He'll just cut out of that too"
"Give him a zap then!"
"A zap big enough to down a f$&&ing cape is gonna fry the kid!"
"Shit, if he's getting away anyways... Hey, hey! Mercy! You put down that knife or we're gonna make you. Kid won't like that, Mercy!"
***
The feedback mode of Artificer's fields was very hard to deal with, by design, but powering itself via feedback does allow a weakness to be created. A hard enough strike, delivered close to the capacitor will draw most of the field's strength to that location for the instant before the power is properly redirected to strengthen the whole thing.
This makes the opposite edge of the field particularly vulnerable, but since the capacitor is located beneath the vehicle, that means you'd have to get someone on top of and underneath a moving van...
***
Ngh!
"Lucas is hurt! I beg you, stay cautious!"
Bran's words over the comm preceded him as he sprinted around the corner in pursuit. "Machina, Silver Shadow," he jerked his head to the side to reposition his helm-phone, "Wingblade, if you slow the van enough for me to catch it I might be able to..." Even through his helm, Bran's surprise was evident as he saw the partially disembodied Kaoru. "To... hold it in place while you... strike. Or it seems we may possess other assets of which I was unaware."
Wingblade thinks furiously. Hitting both on the top and the bottom was going to be tough. She probably could only generate enough of a hit by flying straight at it and hoping she didn't end up like a bug on a windshield. But that was only going to hit it from one end, and the wrong one.
It was also quite stupid.
She considers her other options. She still had a couple of Whippoorwill's explosive quills with her, which would do the trick if she could get the timing right of hitting it top and bottom -- though the explosions would probably do a lot of harm to the occupants.
She grits her teeth in frustration, wondering if there was a way to get an explosive under a manhole cover to blow it upward when Bran calls her again. He was trying to catch up -- saving her from trying to figure out how to hit the van in two places at the same time.
All she had to do was slow the van down.
Well, I'm already in trouble with the SCA, she thinks as she dives down to fly just slightly front of the van, accelerating enough to stay with it. She looks at the street ahead and identifies her targets: street lights, traffic signals, utility poles and other possible impediments that her razor-sharp wings could cut through.
She puts on a burst of speed and shoots out ahead of the van, darting back and forth between the sidewalks and street edges. Her wings slash cleanly through the poles, knocking them down with a shower of sparks and sending them directly in the path of the SCA van, or down on top and tangling it up with wires
They know my callsign? They must have been told about me by the Triakosia, Mercy thinks while hesitating in the middle of their cut. They were talking about ways to disable them, and it didn't look good for Lucas either. But what really, really bugged Mercy was how they consistently referred to them as 'him'.
But, one thing they did need to do before continuing to escape was prevent them from deploying their countermeasures. As luck would have it, they had a new weapon that could carve up the interior, and make it harder on them.
Of course, Mercy had no idea what anything did. So they gutted the first important thing they could find in here.
Alexandra nods as she puts the tracker in the invisi-Van, and hops back in with Kaoru Sorry, seemed a good plan.
Lucas is in there with Mercy... I'm no longer worried about them getting away, I'm worried about the rest of us extracting Lucas. Alexandra says to Kay
I don't have any gadgets... well I do, but anything that could get through that things armour would also probably kill every non-immortal in there She slams her fist against the car door. so, I'm gonna do something really stupid.
She flips the phone back open, and dials the most important looking number.
Kaoru kept his eyes on the road as he zoomed after the van. "Don't suppose you know any weak parts of their vehicles? Or are you calling someone to find out? If Mercy is in there with them, all we really need to do is stop the van from moving. Then we can extract Lucas at our leisure. Assuming Mercy's taken care of any enemies in the main body with him."
His point was semi-proven as the van swerved with no obvious cause through a building. The move was unexpected, so he needed to do some quick mental adjustments to the route plotted out to compensate and get in front. Starting by swerving down the uncomfortably narrow alleyway right next to the deli to avoid having to detour too far.
He yelped as the van apparently took another unexpected turn through a different wall than he was expecting, bringing both it and a load of bricks unavoidably into his path. Time seemed to slow as he desperately tried to figure a way out. Not enough room to dodge. Brakes? Won't be fast enough. Best bet though. God, I hope the windshield is as durable as the back...
手動制御は無効です
His foot started to shift over from the gas before the sudden jerking of the steering wheel distracted him. The bricks seemed to loom larger and larger as against his will, the car actually accelerated. And then the bricks were getting further away? And...no...they actually were getting bigger. Or more accurately, they were getting smaller. And the car was automatically dodging around them.
手動制御が有効
It was over in an instant and he felt the wheel loosen to give him control of the now RC car-sized vehicle. His hands were shaking with the rush of adrenaline, and he wasn't sure if he should be thanking Pinky for the gift or cursing them for not telling him about any of these features. At this rate, they might not even need to buy that flying car Alexandra had wanted...
The miniature wheels spun faster and faster as despite their smaller size (or maybe because of it? Were they lighter now? Or less dense? Or...okay, more things to figure out later) they were very rapidly catching up to their prey. Soon they were practically underneath it. Which was probably safer than being too far behind it. A small, invisible car might be more maneurvable, but he was pretty sure it would lose any collision with a normal-sized vehicle.
His voice was a little higher than normal and definitely not as steady as he would have liked. "So uhh, any ideas about how to incorporate this little turn of events into a plan?"
Alexis's increasingly frantic attempts to find something useful to stab leave a lot of glowing marks on rapidly cooling plating, but really become a problem when they explosively puncture a foam tank!
Rapidly-hardening purple goo sprays across the containment zone, brushing Mercy's enhanced physique with an odd weakness and weariness where it seeps through the breaks in their armor, but worse - the sudden spray catches Lucas and the unconscious cultist entirely unaware and it won't be long until they're entirely engulfed!
***
"Bobby? Why the hell are you calling? You know that any backup is already assigne-" The line crackles with static in Alexandra's hand for a moment before some intangible sense of menace makes it clear that someone entirely different is on the other end.
A thin voice cuts through the silence "If you're just calling to beg or to crow, then you clearly don't understand what's really happening."
***
Poles bounce off the armored van, but where they're still anchored to something they're able to lever the heavy vehicle off its course, or force it to slow as it crunches over them. A cry to "Get that damn bird out of the sky!" becomes increasingly easier to hear as one of the cultists pops open the passenger door and begins snapping off shot after shot at Wingblade with his rifle!
Another cultist hauls the shooter back in, slamming the door again as in a flare of re-powering shields the driver takes an off-road detour straight through the front of a library, shattering a mass of concrete and steel out front that was once some kind of public art and leaving a trail of broken wood, walls and books - and a sagging ceiling!
With a bounding leap, Bran hurdles the wreckage, stretching to his full height to try to brace it for long enough for the patrons to escape, but as his first grip crumbles he ends up barely supporting it across his broad back - pinned unless he lets it fall!
"Damn it!" Wingblade curses as a few high-caliber rounds buzz past her.
She starts dodging and weaving, since she's not entirely sure how much damage one of those shots would do. She swears in Chinese after the van crashes through the library, taking out its front and threatening the whole structure.
Wingblade spares a glance behind her to see Bran prop up the ceiling but also trap himself in the situation. She performs a wingover and zips back to him. Not having superstrength herself, she had to find something for him to use to brace the structure other than himself.
Fortunately, one of the heavy street light poles she had dropped on the SCA van had rolled up nearby. She nearly pulls her arms out of her sockets trying to move the thing into Bran's reach, but she manages it.
"Here! We gotta hit that van top and bottom at the same time! Let's go!"
She heads back into the air and gives chase.
The billowing foam shot out and tingled, Mercy wondering what was in it if it was getting through the cracks in their armor. But more important than that was Lucas, as they grabbed onto the terrified boy. Despite everything, they also pulled the unconscious Scott out of the way of danger too, before plunging their hand in where the tank was, pinching closed the breach to stop it from flowing out more than a tiny trickle.
"...I'm sorry." Mercy speaks to Lucas. "I'm messing this up. I'm trying my best to keep you safe. But I don't know how to get out of this van. I'll do everything I can to get you home, if you'll let me help you."
Alexandra mutes herself for a moment as the voice hands off. Kay, that thing is going to be front wheel drive... If you can get under the front and undo the shrinking, you'd control the van
She unmutes herself as the familiar voice finishes. Neither. I want to bargain. she says, spinning plans as fast as she can. you're plan has run its course. You have a pascal. We have one... But I bet you'd rather have ours. We want to trade she offers
There's a warehouse in the east of the docks, used to belong to the Red Eel... Now it's abandoned. 1000 tonight, be there with the girl if you want ours
She mutes it again oh, yeah, hey team leader, is it cool to do the whole "hostage exchange where we'll both betray each other, but it gets us a chance to rescue the girl" plan?
Kaoru frowned slightly. "In principle, I don't have an issue with that. But as has been demonstrated, they have a lot more manpower than us. Plus you and Bronwyn already seem to be on rocky terms; I doubt she'll like you using her as bait without even asking first. Though she's been irrational enough over the threat to her family, she might be desperate enough to go for it anyway."
As he talked, he glanced around the dash, trying to find some way to manually control the car's size. Nothing looked especially obvious. He wasn't even sure what the normal interfaces for a car looked like; most of his time had been spent on the mechanical and electrical systems rather than the UI.
But what would make sense? A button would only really be good if there were two sizes. He wasn't exactly sure how the size-changing worked, but that seemed like it might be an odd limitation. A dial then? That would work if there was a set max and min, but depending on that scale, that might be hard to control. He glanced at the dial, turning the ones that didn't have obvious functions like the radio or AC with no effect.
Maybe the GPS touchscreen? He tried pinching the screen, but that only zoomed in on the map more. Maybe if he selected the car? That seemed to bring up a display of the vehicle. It was registering some minor damage to the rear bumper. There were also a number of submenus, it looked like. Menus he'd need to look at in more detail later but for now, he just picked the one that seemed most promising for size manipulation, humming softly in triumph as this time the pinch gesture seemed to do what he wanted.
Using that he carefully scaled up the car size until the roof was just barely in contact with the undercarriage above. Making sure to keep his vehicle narrower than the van above, he expanded the car upwards, attempting to push the wheels off of the road and give him complete control over its movement.
Yeah, might hurt B... but I'll save that girl she says
Alexandra pokes at dashboard as the vehicle scales up. This button flashed just before the crash... I think it might be the forcefield... She says, poking at it.
When the hell did you make this thing? or... didn't you? why don't you...
As indestructible as the van was, it still had to obey the laws of physics and it was much slower than her. Wingblade catches up to the van easily and drops down to land on the roof.
She flips down in front of the windshield, not blocking it entirely since she doesn't want to encourage the driver to continue to barrel through buildings. She raps her knuckles on the windshield unnecessarily. "Hey! So, I gotta ask: What's your plan? You're hard to stop, I'll grant you, but you can't actually get away. I'm too fast. You'll run out of gas, or have to take a pee break eventually. So how about just stop now? Oh! Or you could take us to your boss! I'll bet Balor would love to punish us puny mortals for our impudence!!!"
Bran stretches out to snag the lamppost, wedging it as best he can before the library's field kicks in. Hexagons shimmer around him as he gives a satisfied nod, powering up to prevent further damage and fixing his temporary repairs in place.
The van's wheels began to spin faster and faster as they lost their connection to the pavement, twisting and squealing in vain for now as they sought to get a good enough grip on Kaoru's car to propel the van forward!
Wingblade casually balances on the swaying van while she makes her pitch, but rather than answering her with helpful directions, the cultist riding shotgun flings open his door to clear her off the windshield with his rifle!
The cultist's thin voice is edged with annoyance that Alexandra had dared to put him on hold, but the main thing that Alexandra hears from him is avarice as he replies, "So she is special then? She's Hex isn't she?" He snickers unpleasantly, "I thought her auspices were too cloudy for the danger we divined.
"Well, Shadow, your offer is interesting - even if your trap is transparent. Keep this phone. I will call you tonight with where we shall truly meet. Make certain that your sacrificial lamb is properly trussed up. We Will see through any foolish attempts to make her bonds illusory."
**click**
***
With his hands free from keeping the building intact, Bran is able to speak and reply to his companions as he catches up. "Wingblade says that there is a weakness to this shield - that if it is struck from above and below at the same instant it-" he comes within sight of the oddly testudinal position of the van "- Ah. Silver Shadow? Machina? Was this your doing?"
Within the van, with the door still open, Bran's words crackled through to Alexis's comm.
Lucas looked up, tears and snot mixed in with the power-suppressing foam. "I just want to get home."
He tried to brace himself as the van suddenly moved erratically before leveling off with a strange whine , but jogged his arm, face turning ashen with pain.
"Why did you save him?" Lucas barked out, trying to distract himself from the grinding agony in his arm. "I mean you killed all those other ones, right?"
Stifling a grin of vicious satisfaction, Wingblade snatches the rifle the instant the cultist pops open the door to "clear her off."
Something goes wrong.
The clear, loud shot of a high-powered rifle goes off just as Wingblade was about to twist it out of the man's hands. Pain rips through her body and she loses purchase on the front of the van. She falls -- backwards -- into the path of the SCA vehicle and drops underneath.
The van and the K-mobile bucks as it runs over something.
"They're still alive. One may still regain the use of his hand if he's lucky. I don't want to kill anyone," Mercy informs Lucas, before the crackle of their comm make them bring a hand up to the side of their helmet. "Bran! I have Lucas in the van with me...did you say weakness?"
Mercy noticed now that the van wasn't moving properly anymore - perhaps this was their opportunity to escape. They looked back at Lucas. "Be prepared to strike above. In five, four, three..." Mercy counted down as they swapped the knife for their sword, aiming for the dead center of their chamber.
As they ended the count, Mercy plunged their blade as hard as they could into the bottom of the van, striking it with all of their strength!
Bran winced as phantom pain lanced through his torso, only heightened as Shayera was tossed from beneath invisible tires. He swept his mighty arm low to scoop her up, resting her across his shoulder in a fireman's carry as he swiftly caught up with the rapidly slowing (and levitating) van!
She looks bad... Just gotta give her a moment to heal though - she can come back from anything!
"Be prepared to strike above. In five, four, three..."
This would not have been a good idea if this thing were still swerving!
With a quick leap and grab, Bran hauls himself on top of the van waiting for the countdown to unleash a devastating strike!
Alexandra leans out the window and raises her crossbow to tag team with wing... a second too late.
Yeah, Bran, we got the van up- OH JESUS KAY! SWERV- Alexandra pauses as they... as wing disappears from view. Sorry, Wing. Bran, do you have eyes on her, is she okay? she says, finishing her attack on the guy still leaning out.