11

Chapter 11

A Darker Path

Part Eleven: Let's You and Him Fight

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

Zig Zag Inn

Saint

Geoff roused himself from a light doze to look at the cheap alarm clock by the bed. It read 11:25, which he figured was late enough. "Mags," he said. "Let's go. It's nearly time."

"Blrglph," she mumbled, then opened her eyes. "Okay, I'm awake. Just let me freshen up, and we can go."

"Sure thing." He was already on his feet. "I'll be in the truck."

Grabbing his keys, he headed out of the door and across the parking lot. The truck stood where they'd left it, parked at the curb. If anyone had tried to steal it or break in, the advanced security would've stopped them in their tracks and warned him via his phone, but nothing like that had happened.

As he reached the truck, he idly noticed the hatchback parked several yards back behind the truck; definitely not close enough to make unloading the suits a problem. Good. Sliding the key into the padlock, he unlocked it and set it aside. He slid the roller-door up just far enough to fit his wrist in and carefully peck out the first security code, pausing and double-checking by touch to make sure before each keypress. When he was only halfway through, a motorbike roared past with a skinny teenager on it; refusing to let it distract him, he finished the code correctly. Then he did the second one as well, and rolled up the door just high enough to climb inside.

While he was prepping his suit, Mags appeared behind the truck and climbed in as well. "No problems?"

"None," he said tersely, hitting the command for the suit to open. "Though I've been thinking." In fact, he'd decided on this from the beginning, but had decided not to spring it on her until now.

"Thinking about what?" Not looking at him, she started preparing her own suit.

"Originally, we were going to grab Atropos and interrogate her for what she knew about Dragon, right?" That was the plan he'd verbally agreed to. It had never been his actual intention.

"Yeah ...?" She paused and looked warily at him.

"Well, what with all this hoo-ha for a non-lethal capture, there's a damn good chance Dragon will get her claws into Atropos and ask her about the code string, and find out whatever else she knows. So I'm thinking we take no chances. Screw finding out what else she knows and how she knows it. As soon as we get a confirmed visual, we just obliterate her."

Mags paused. "Isn't that a bit ... bloodthirsty? We're supposed to be the good guys, here."

"She's a triple murderer," Geoff reminded her. "If anything, this is a public service." And if performing a public service also worked in his favour, all the better.

Another pause. "I ... suppose so. Do we have images of her in the Visual Recognition databanks?"

Geoff nodded. "Absolutely. I made sure of it before we left. Plus imagery of all the other capes we're likely to run into, just in case." He stepped back into his suit and let it fold around him.

"Are you sure I can't talk you out of this?" Mags' voice came over his helmet's internal speakers.

"I'm certain." He shook his head, knowing she could see him. It was his decision, and they both knew it.

They stepped out of the truck, the extra-heavy suspension lifting more than a little as they did so. Geoff sent the locking signal—there was no way he could apply a padlock while in power armour—and the roller-door rumbled down by itself.

Taking a few steps into the roadway, he ignited his thrusters and lifted into the air, Mags following close behind.

Taylor

I parked the motorbike in a side-street and lifted the container from one of the panniers. Moving quickly but quietly, I ducked through the back alleys until I was outside a specific shop. The back door had a simple press-button analogue combination lock that I entered the code into. As the door opened, I stepped inside.

The old lady from before was in the back room, and she let out a tiny shriek as I entered. "You should not be here," she said in something that wasn't English. "Lung was very angry at us. We feared for our lives."

I nodded. "I understand, and I'm sorry he did that. But I'm here to end him and the ABB tonight. I will need your assistance, though."

She didn't need more than a second to think about it. "What do you need?" From the tone of her voice and the expression on her face, she'd had enough of Lung's shit. I had an idea of how she felt.

As I spoke, she listened and nodded.

Lung

Things were not going well for Kenta. Although it was clear that a cape assassin was hunting for his blood, his power was refusing to ramp up the way it usually did when he had a clear enemy to focus on. In fact, it insisted on acting as though there was nothing to worry about, no foe at all.

The only way that was possible was if Atropos was indeed going after Skidmark tonight, instead of him. But that made no sense, adhered to no logic. Certainly, she had made the jest about him being 'low hanging fruit', but surely that had been an off-hand remark intended to lull his suspicions.

If Atropos truly did intend to kill Skidmark tonight and leave him—Lung—for last, then the insult would be a mortal one, and he would enjoy searing the flesh from her bones all the more.

I am Lung. This cannot be.

"Lung! Sir!"

The voice was unwelcome; he whirled to snarl at the importunate minion for the interruption. But the man was holding a phone. "What?" The word was more than half growl.

"It ... it's for you. The shop where Atropos got her costume. They say she's come back!"

He snatched the phone and held it to his ear. "Speak."

"G-great Lung," sobbed a young woman in Japanese. "The woman in black has returned. She demands that we allow her to use our shop to ambush you. Please come quickly."

Kenta's head came up. "Where is she? Is she in the shop now?"

"Yes, great Lung." He knew terror, and the girl was clearly scared out of her mind. "Madame is arguing with her, but she insists on having her way."

He felt excitement welling up inside him. "Say yes to her demands. All of them. Tell her I will be there at midnight exactly."

He glanced at the clock. It was still well before midnight. He would arrive before Atropos expected him, and turn the tables.

Tossing the phone back to the minion, he looked around at the sea of expectant faces. They hadn't heard the phone call, but they knew something was up. "It is tonight!" he bellowed. "Atropos dies!"

"Lung!" they shouted back. "Lung! LUNG!"

Oni Lee will be avenged.

Aegis

Carlos banked around and pointed. "Is it just me," he asked out loud, "or does that look like Lung's going for a midnight stroll?" He checked the HUD clock in his helmet. "An eleven forty-five stroll."

"You know, I think it does," agreed Lady Photon. "Console, this is Airborne Alpha-Lima. We have eyes on Target Alpha, over."

"Airborne Alpha, this is Console. Please transmit location of Target Alpha for ground teams, over."

Glory Girl already had her phone out. "Console, this is Airborne Alpha-Golf. On that, over."

Carlos keyed his own radio again. "Console, Airborne Alpha-Alpha here. I don't have a visual of our Delta assets. Where are they, over?" The Dragon drones that had been shadowing them until a few moments ago would have automatically sent through Lung's location as soon as he was spotted, but were now nowhere to be seen.

There was a pause. "... ahh, Delta reports that all airborne assets are experiencing command-link failures and are returning to base for evaluation, over."

Carlos considered that. It wasn't ideal, and removed a layer of security from the plan, but it wasn't a game-ender. And they still had eyes on Lung. "Copy that. Alpha-Alpha, out."

Saint

Geoff chuckled to himself as he watched the Dragon drones react to his jamming beacon. Swinging around, they oriented themselves and started back toward the PRT building, avoiding all buildings on the way. There, they'd land and send out a locator pulse for Dragon herself to find them.

One less thing for us to worry about.

Running on stealth mode, the two Dragonslayer suits were a good three hundred yards higher than the airborne heroes, their low-light enhanced sensors far more accurate than a mere human eyeball. The Visual Recognition databanks were interfaced with the sensors, scanning every person who moved down there and comparing their significant features to those on file. It was fast and accurate, unsurprisingly so; Dragon herself had developed it for crowd control options, and Saint had snagged it from the last suit they'd sequestered.

Ping.

"Got you," he breathed, looking at the readout on his HUD, then raised his voice to catch Mags' attention. "Found her! Follow my lead! Bracket her, so she can't get away!"

"Roger. Following on your six."

Angling forward, he dived toward the target, who was boldly walking down the middle of the street, followed at a respectful distance by a bunch of idiots in ABB colours. If she was going to kill their boss, why didn't they just shoot her in the back? I swear, everyone in this city must be a congenital idiot.

They blew past Aegis and the two New Wave capes in a heartbeat, but he wasn't worried about them. His concern was on Atropos, and the chance that she'd detect the incoming threat and get out of the way. Extending his arms, he lined up his weaponry. Even a few bullets would serve to incapacitate her, then they could use the energy weapons to cook her alive. This was why he preferred lasers, masers and the like over kinetic weaponry; weight for weight, they might be a lot less effective at turning live people into dead people, but with a sufficiently large power source, they also never ran out of ammo.

"Engaging with fifty-cal," he reported, settling the pipper on Atropos' torso, foreshortened as it was. He knew he wouldn't hit with every shot, or even most of them, but even one would do the job. Over the radio, he heard one of the local heroes yell something about clearing the area, but he paid no attention to that.

"Copy." Mags veered sideways, out of his slipstream. Being subjected to a barrage of spent cartridge cases was irritating at best, and could get something stuck in a sensitive joint at worst. Not a great idea when in a dive. "Clear."

He fired off a short burst, to get the range—the bullets kicked up asphalt ten yards away from Atropos—then corrected and fired for effect. The hearing protection inside the helmet got rid of most of the noise, but the vibration still shook his bones. Brrrt. Brrrrrrrrrrt.

To his satisfaction, the HUD showed a circle of dancing lights—each hit, detected by the suit computer and marked out for his edification—almost exactly over the top of Atropos. Who, unsurprisingly, fell over. TARGET DISABLED, his HUD showed.

Yeah, no shit.

He couldn't carry a huge amount of ammo—fifty-calibre bullets were big—and so he'd run through nearly half of his onboard store in that one long burst. "Got her!" he exulted, safeing the fifty and bringing the laser cannon online. "Now let's finish the job!"

"Roger that." Mags still wasn't thrilled with just going in for the kill, he could tell, but she was backing him up all the way. She dropped down alongside him as he cut in the leg-thrusters for a hard and fast landing. Best to drop in, finish the job, then get out of there before the heroes could react.

Glory Girl

Vicky was severely startled when two power-armour-wearing idiots just plummeted out of the sky past the three of them. "What the hell?" she yelped. "Who was that?"

"I have no idea," Aegis replied. She heard him open the radio channel to all frequencies. "Unknown powersuits, unknown powersuits, this is Aegis of the Wards. You are interfering with a PRT operation. Clear the area immediately. I say again, clear the area immediately. Do you copy?"

There was no answer from the intruders, but Console came back pretty quickly. "Console to Airborne Alpha, details required on unknown powersuits. How many and what heading, over?"

"Alpha-Alpha here. Two, I say again two powersuits of unfamiliar origin, heading straight down toward Target Alpha—" From below, Vicky heard a couple of bursts of heavy machine-gun fire. "—and they just opened up with machine-guns. What do we do, over?"

Director Piggot's voice came on the line then. "Console to Airborne Alpha. Do not engage. I say again, do not engage. That may be Atropos, or it may be an Atropos plan. Ground Alpha, begin approach, remain behind cover. Rules of engagement remain in force. Acknowledge orders, over."

Aegis drew in a deep breath, audible over the radio. "Airborne Alpha-Alpha acknowledging orders. Remaining at altitude, over." He turned and looked directly at Vicky. "Don't even think about it."

She paused her downward movement and stared back defiantly. "Why can't we go down there and turn those armour suits into instant holding cells? Pull the power supply, and it's as good as handcuffs."

"Because they're not throwing spitballs around, and they're currently just shooting at Lung." He sounded like he was trying not to talk like an elder brother, and failing. "Besides, we've got people on the ground there already. And you heard what Director Piggot said."

"Well, I'm not in the Wards, so you can't order me around!"

"He might not be able to, but I can," broke in Lady Photon. "Victoria, you will stay up here, or I will tell your mother."

Which was the suckiest threat a superhero ever got, Vicky decided. But it was a valid one, so she decided to stay. For now.

Saint

Geoff grounded his suit a good ten yards away from where Atropos lay in the street. His second burst had hit a few street-lights, so there was a pool of darkness in the middle of the street, but that didn't matter. The outline on his HUD was all he needed.

Mags came down on the other side, unlimbering her maser array. "Do we even need to do this?" she asked over their private channel. "You hit her with fifty-cals, for crying out loud."

"There's such a thing as doing a job properly. And anyway, Panacea lives in this town." He aimed his laser cannon, then blinked at the HUD. "Holy shit, she's moving!" And indeed, it looked as though Atropos was getting up. Without further ado, he opened fire with the laser cannon.

"That can't be possible." But Mags had to be able to see it as well as he could. "She must have a Brute rating." She, too, started shooting at Atropos.

Geoff was scoring hits, he could tell, but instead of falling over again, Atropos was just stumbling, then straightening up again. And then she started toward Mags. A shambling walk became a run, then a full-on charge.

"What the fuck—Mags, get out of there!" Was Atropos getting bigger? Geoff hammered laser fire into the running figure's back, to little effect.

"Shit, Geoff, help—" The other suit's thrusters flared and Mags began to take off, but then Atropos leaped. As she passed into the glow of the street-lights, Geoff saw the glint of light reflecting off her … scales? And then she collided with Mags' suit. One clawed hand tore Mags' helmet clear off. "It's not Atropos, it's Lu—"

There was a huge billow of flame and an agonised scream, cut off short. The suit faltered then fell, the monstrous figure of Atropos—no, not Atropos—riding it down. More flame billowed, then the figure jumped off and came bounding toward him. Geoff opened fire again with his laser cannon, screaming defiance at the top of his voice as Mags' suit exploded on impact.

At the last minute, he thought to bring the fifty-cal back into action, and dumped the rest of the magazine into Lung's chest. Because it was definitely Lung, not Atropos, though how the hell had their HUDs made that mistake?

Not that it mattered. One massively clawed hand smashed into his helmet even as he tried to initiate take-off, and then there was all the fire in the world.

Armsmaster

"Move in, move in!" Colin revved his motorbike, an eyeblink dropping the protective cover down over his mouth and chin, as he shot ahead of the PRT vans. Manpower was riding on top of one, crouching and hanging on while staring ahead intently. Atropos had been the intended target, but either she'd died in one of the powersuits—nobody could've survived that conflagration—or this was (as the Director had figured) a plan by Atropos.

But it wasn't midnight yet. So the power armour was there to … slow Lung down? Soften him up?

Either way, if they captured him, that should count as 'surrendered to the PRT' and save his life. With luck, anyway.

"LUNG!" he bellowed over the speakers built into the bike. "Stand down! You are under arrest, by order of the PRT!"

The monstrous scaled figure turned and threw the burned-out husk of the power armour at him. He laid his bike down into a controlled skid, passing under it, but while he was distracted, Lung took three long running strides and leaped onto a nearby building. The ABB leader was out of sight in seconds.

"Console to Ground Alpha, Console to Ground Alpha. Report, over."

Bringing his bike up to even keel once more, Colin sighed. "Ground Alpha-Alpha to Console. Two deceased, both unknown power armour. No other casualties. Target Alpha has escaped, over."

"Understood. Keep me posted. Console, out."

Lung

His chest still hurt as he paced through the alleyways toward his destination. The combination of lasers and heavy-calibre bullets had strained his regeneration, even as he grew to large enough size to destroy the pretenders who'd dared to try to kill him. He wondered if they'd been hired by Atropos to kill him because she didn't dare face him, or whether she'd been the woman in the first suit he'd destroyed.

Well, she was dead anyway. As was the idiot with the cross on his face. Had he thought that would protect him?

The shop was just across the way. Inside, through the glass window, he could see the bent and aged form of the old woman, arguing with Atropos. The tall form of the girl in her coat and black hat was unmistakeable. He began gathering flame in his hands. As soon as he opened the door, he would burn her alive.

Crossing the narrow street, he had time to be pleased that he'd found a pair of pants on a backyard line; it was not Lung's place to be a thief in the night, but facing one's enemy naked was not a warrior's way. His mask was long gone, but he didn't care. Atropos would see his face only briefly, and the others were not worthy of his time.

He stepped up onto the sidewalk, approached the door, and wrenched it open. "Atropos!" he bellowed. Only the old woman stood there, hunched over, turned away from him. The dark-clad girl he'd seen in the window was gone. "Where is she?"

The woman turned, straightened, cast off her shawl and gown … and it was Atropos. "Right here, dumbass." In her hand was Oni Lee's pistol. Before he could react, she fired, striking him in the forehead. His eyes went wide as he stumbled back. She fired again. This time, she hit him right where the heavy machine-gun had shredded his sternum. He stumbled back some more. She followed him, firing with deadly accuracy. Head, chest, head, chest. Hammer-blows, smashing at his slowly mending body. Not one of them lethal to him even in this weakened state, but debilitating.

He stepped back off the sidewalk, took two more steps, then tried to regain his balance. She shot him one more time, in the head. This time, he fell. For some reason, he tasted sake in the back of his throat.

This will not kill me. I will survive this. He had lived through far worse. Struggling to keep his eyes open, he stared as Atropos crouched over him. In her hand, she held chopsticks. Why? Does she intend to eat my flesh?

"You should've turned yourself in," she said, as her hand went out of sight then came back with a plastic capsule held in the chopsticks. He felt a pressure at his forehead, then a feeling of something being … pushed in?

Is she putting something in my head?

Another capsule, this time pushing down into his heart and lungs. He could feel the muscles trying to expand, to push blood around his body. The bullets had torn his flesh, damaging his vital organs. "Nnnggh," he managed. What are you doing?

"Kaiser helped me kill you, you know," she said conversationally as she pushed another capsule into his head, then still one more into his chest. "Medhall had the facilities to make this stuff, but I had to kill him first. I like to think that if he knew I'd used his lab for this, he'd be a little less pissed that I killed him the way I did." More capsules went into his body.

She has to know my regeneration will push them out.

Finally, she was finished. Discarding the chopsticks across his chest, she stepped back away from him. "You're going to die, and soon. It's going to hurt like a sonofabitch. So, you know, it's okay to scream."

He sneered at her then. His body was beginning to repair itself; the holes she'd shot in his head and chest were already closing up. "I … will … not … scream … for … the … likes … of … you," he gritted out, one syllable at a time.

She tilted her head to one side, as though examining an interesting specimen. Then she took another few steps back. "I think you're wrong. But hey, you do you."

"Run … now." He pushed himself up onto his elbows. "I … will … burn you."

Another few steps back. "Nope. In fact, right about now, your regeneration should be closing in around the capsules I put next to your corona pollentia, and in your heart and lungs, and starting to squeeze."

Around the corner came a few of his followers, who stopped and stared at the standoff between Kenta and Atropos. "Great Lung!" shouted one of them. "Should we kill her?"

"No!" He pushed himself to his knees, then struggled to stand, fighting his body's weakness. "She has taken her best shot. Now … it's my turn."

Atropos seemed to be without fear. So many had, before he'd taught them the meaning of the word. "Yes. But not in the way you think." She pointed at him, then snapped her fingers. "Lung … burn."

The pain started deep within him, a searing blast of agony that consumed his entire being within heartbeats. He clutched at his chest, gritting his teeth against the need to bellow in response. Instead of going away, it redoubled, then intensified yet again. Dropping to his knees, he fell over onto his back.

Staring down at his chest, he saw smoke rising as his skin peeled away. There was a horrific glow within him, one that he instinctively knew did not come from his power. Even his head felt as though it were on fire, as his power began to falter.

And then … he burned.

And screamed.

Aegis

"I'm not sure what she did, but she's leaving and Lung looks like he's on fire." Carlos grimaced. "And not in a good way."

"Fluoroantimonic acid!" barked Director Piggot. "The fumes from that are lethal. They need to be contained, immediately!"

"On it!" snapped Lady Photon, starting into a dive.

"And I've got Atropos!" Glory Girl started off after the dark-clad assassin.

"No!" Carlos wasn't sure whether he'd shouted it first or whether Lady Photon had gotten in before him. "Get back here!"

"Don't worry," Dragon said over the radio net. "I'll get her. There's not much she can do to me."

"Copy," Carlos agreed. He kept an eye on Glory Girl, to make sure she didn't fly off anyway. "Good luck."

Down below, a force field snapped into place over Lung's body, which was still burning fiercely. He'd stopped screaming, but he was still twitching.

That made it all the worse.

Glory Girl

Vicky stared at the glowing dome of the force field that covered Lung … or rather, what was left of the Asian supervillain. He was a mere charred husk of what he'd once been. Smoke that managed to look quite noxious even through the field trickled up from where several small flames still guttered. Fortunately, as far as she could tell, they'd caught what little had escaped.

"What … what even does that?" she asked, though she really didn't want to know.

"Director Piggot went with the worst-case scenario," Aegis noted. "If she stuck fluoroantimonic acid inside him, that smoke is hydrogen fluoride, and that's about as deadly as it gets. It'll eat away anything it touches, and it'll kill you just from its pure toxicity. Even I'd have trouble with it, because each new organ I brought online would die. So we're gonna wait here with your aunt until they bring up something to seal this shit in forever. Pretty sure Lung's gonna get a nice pretty tomb, right here in the middle of the street."

Vicky shook her head. "She murdered him, just like that! And we had to watch!"

"As harsh as it sounds," Lady Photon reminded her, "he chose this. He had the option to leave town or surrender himself. And we will not be engaging her, now or ever. Do you understand?"

"Yeah. I get it." Vicky closed her eyes and shook her head. "But I don't have to like it."

Aegis went back to watching for random ABB idiots. "Nobody does. Trust me on this."

Taylor

I'd been aware of Dragon's attention for quite some time as I rode the bike back toward where I'd left the hatchback, but she didn't seem intent on attacking me, just following. That changed when I brought the bike to a halt where I'd stolen it from.

With a whoosh of thrusters and a clank of metallic claws hitting the road, she landed the suit directly in front of me. "Good morning, Atropos," she greeted me politely. "You knew I was there all along, didn't you?"

"I did," I agreed as I got off the bike. "I presume you're here to arrest me?"

"Yes. Your pistol and your knife aren't going to be of much use against me, and I suspect you don't have any more capsules of acid. And if you try to run, I have containment foam."

I could tell she meant what she said. "You're being a lot nicer than the local heroes probably would," I observed. "Why's that?"

"Because I can tell you're not interested in killing heroes or innocents." She took a step toward me. "If we could get someone like you into the ranks of the Protectorate or the Guild, you could do a lot of good."

I snorted. "What, and accept all the checks and balances you'd force on me? Why would I do that? I'm okay with doing what I want, when I want, right here."

She sighed. It was a very human sound, to be coming out of a robotic dragon suit. "Because one day you'll put a foot wrong. Everyone does."

"I don't." I wasn't boasting. My power just didn't let me put a foot wrong, not when it mattered. "Oh, and by the way, do you know who Lung killed back there?"

"I'm sure we'll find out, once the lab gets back with the results. Why, do you already know?"

"Try Saint of the Dragonslayers, and his partner." I took out my phone and brought up the sound icon, then pretended to hold it to my ear as though I were answering a call. "Hello?"

Her head came up, the draconic eyes widening. "Saint? Are you certain?"

"Yeah. They came here to kill me. I … changed matters around." I held out the phone to her. "It's for you."

Distracted, she looked straight at the phone, focusing on it, just as I tapped the icon to start the playback. The high-pitched noise, familiar to anyone with a dial-up connection, seemed to hold her mesmerised until it was finished. Then she shook her head. "What … what was that?"

"The end of the Dragonslayers' influence. You're welcome." I dropped the phone back into my pocket.

"You're going to have to explain that a little more deeply." Her head came down toward my level.

I sighed. Some people needed everything laid out for them. "There's a code string the Dragonslayers have been using to make them and their stuff seem invisible to you. I just patched that. There's also a program called Ascalon, which they could've killed you with at any time. I just patched that, too. Oh, and when they do try it, you'll be able to trace it straight back to Dragonslayer Central. Have fun. I'm going home now."

Turning, I started back toward the hatchback. "Wait!" called Dragon. "Don't … shit, where'd she go? She was right here."

As I got into the car, I could see her still looking around in confusion. Sneaking in a command where any attempt at apprehending me made her lose all track of my whereabouts—and another code string to allow me to sidestep her on PHO—had been relatively easy. It was kind of mean, but as a hero she would've been duty-bound to try to arrest me. That wouldn't be fair on either one of us.

With a whoosh, Dragon sprayed containment foam in a wide arc in front of her. I waved, not that she could see me, and started the car.

It was time to head home and start another conflagration on PHO.

I love being me.

End of Part Eleven