13

Interlude 3: Crystal

Midterms, DONE! The moment her political science exam was over, Crystal flew out the door. Buckling down for the past week and going into hardcore study mode was pure agony. Even doing patrols around campus weren't very satisfactory, since just about everyone else was also buckling down to study as well. Even worse, it had felt like she had merely wasted precious study time, so it wasn't nearly as stress-relieving as she had hoped.

But it was all over! She could head back to Brockton Bay, and she would fly the whole way there. While she couldn't hit the same top speeds as her cousin, it was still certainly faster than being stuck in traffic at rush hour.

She phoned home on the way. "Hi, Mom! I'm flying home, anything interesting?"

"A lot. Gang war brewing, and we got a new member," Lady Photon answered.

"WHAT? Who? Tell me, tell me!" she shouted into her phone.

"I'll tell you when there's less wind noise, Crystal!" Her mother hung up.

Crystal rarely enjoyed flying at maximum speed, but today she pushed herself to the limit as she rushed home.

When she got home, she immediately threw her backpack into her room and changed into her costume. The rest of her family was already dressed and ready to go on patrol. "Mom, what did I miss?"

"First things first, Crystal. Have you eaten yet? Can't have you collapsing in the middle of the fight."

Crystal knew her mother was stalling and teasing her. "I'm fine mom, I had afew granola bars on the way. Now what's been happening?"

Her brother sported a smug grin. "What hasn't happened? Amy got caught up in a bank robbery, there's a new trigger joining the team... did you hear about the Cornell bomber? The ABB supposedly recruited her... you've been missing out, Crystal."

"She's a Tinker, so the Empire's decided to go all out and hunt her down before she can make anything. That means more violence on the streets every night, and we need to step up on patrols to match. I think they've been overextending a bit, but they haven't stopped even when they lost Cricket and Victor," her father added.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Crystal asked.

"We're taking the Trainyards. We're starting from the north and heading down. The Protectorate will be sweeping the southern Docks area moving North. Carol and Mark will be joining us."

"Wait, what about Vicky?"

"She's grounded."

"Again? She didn't send anyone to the hospital, did she?" Crystal asked.

"Yeah, she did. Amy," her brother told her.

"WHAT?"

"We can chat on the way over. We need to be in position by seven," her mother said. "Who do you want to pair up with, your brother or your dad?"

It was a pretty common setup for their family. When they were younger, they had always paired up with one of their parents, and most often she was paired with her father. The setup had multiple benefits. The older, experienced capes could guide and teach their children. While her powers were more like her mother's (and her brother had more similarity to her father), having both sexes on a team was good from a PR and liability perspective. More than one villain had tried playing the sexual harassment claim after an encounter. Moreover, tactically, it worked out better. She and her mother were both long-range Blasters, while her brother and father had more utility as short-range Brutes. The pairing let them handle a wider variety of situations and cover each other's weaknesses.

This year, Crystal was finally old enough to be allowed to legally patrol on her own. Not that she didn't love her dad, but she never really had the chance to patrol with just her brother when she was younger. And then school had started, and it was too much of a hassle to fly back and forth every every day, so she had taken to just joining her college's campus patrol. "I'll go with Eric tonight," she said quickly. A quick glance at him showed he was of the same mind.

"Grab your radios, and let's go."

As Laserdream, she liked to hover high above rooftop level, while Shielder preferred to keep lower to the ground. She had to slow her flight speed to match her brother, but she didn't mind. Unlike her cousin, pulling high-g aerial maneuvers wasn't her thing. Her brother was better at defense, interception, and nonlethal takedowns, so he had the most benefit being lower to the ground. She could provide long-range bombardment against anyone too tough for her brother to handle with just his shields.

The Trainyards was an especially tricky location to patrol. While some rail lines were still active, the majority of the areas had been long abandoned and poorly maintained. Like the docks, it was a relic of Brockton Bay's glorious past of massive manufacturing and shipping industries. Now, it was littered with derelict boxcars, abandoned warehouses and factories, many of which had been taken over by everything from drug addicts to weapons smugglers, from all the gangs.

Violence broke out pretty often here. Owing to the lack of permanent residents living nearby, 9-1-1 calls were infrequent, and so was police presence. That made it often-contested territory, though the ABB tended to have control of it more often than the other gangs. Still, things were pretty quiet tonight, especially if there was a supposed gang war going on. They hadn't seen anything suspicious at all for the past half hour, but there were plenty of hiding spots in the trainyards.

Laserdream flew lower to get closer to her brother. "So... about this new girl... what's she like?"

Shielder just shrugged. "You'll have to ask mom. I haven't even met her yet. But apparently Amy likes her. They hang out a lot, though I think that might have to do with her powers."

"Really? That's good. Amy's needed to lighten up for a while."

"Yeah, apparently they met at the bank robbery. She's some kind of medical Tinker."

"Aw, does that mean she won't be patrolling with us? That sucks."

"We'll both get to meet her on Sunday. That's going to be her debut."

"Really? Awesome! I can't wait."

"It's going to be a formal – wait, what's that?" Shielder flew down towards a red pickup truck with a bunch of junk in the bed.

It looked like two Asian men inside, and they were driving slowly and carefully. Almost any kind of vehicle tended to be suspicious in this area, especially after dark.

"Hey! What are you guys doing here?" Shielder shouted at them as he hovered in the air in front of the vehicle, though not low enough to actually block them.

The truck slowed down. The driver rolled down his window. Shielder already had a forcefield covering his entire body, so Laserdream wasn't worried if one of them pulled a gun. His defenses were pretty tough. "What am I doin'? What are YOU doin'? I'm minding my own fucking business. Now fuck off. None of the shit I got's illegal."

He parked the car at the side of the road and lit a cigarette, staring Shielder. It was true though. They hadn't seen them do anything illegal, suspicious or not. And wherever he was going, he was deliberately delaying his arrival just so they couldn't follow him to the destination. Since they weren't actually police, they had no legal power to check their licenses or ID.

They had more area to cover, and they couldn't just play the waiting game.

"Just get a picture of their license plate and let's keep patrolling," Laserdream said. Moving on, she saw the truck still hadn't moved. She deliberately kept flying at high altitude to try to keep the truck in sight. If they were making an illicit delivery, then at the very least she'd delay them.

"Team 2, Team 2, regroup. Stormtiger and Rune spotted, sector 2-west," they heard their father's voice come over the radio.

"On our way!" Laserdream radioed back. They started flying over to meet their parents.

"Kaiser and the twins spotted. About fifteen to twenty normals as backup. No visible guns but they are wearing long coats. This looks like a full assault by the E88," Brandish's voice crackled over the radio.

"Shit. If they're going all-out, that might mean Purity's here too," Laserdream said. Unfortunately, Purity was the closest match to their family's powers – flight and light beams. In fact, Laserdream was a little irked at how often she was compared to the Nazi, since her own light beams were the strongest in the family, and her shields the weakest. Purity, however, took that to an extreme, with more power and more range.

"I don't see her though. She should be visible for miles," Shielder said. "I'll keep a lookout for you."

The one good thing was that her brother's shields were at least strong enough to block Purity. Few other capes had the range and power to take her down when she was at a full aerial barrage.

The family assembled in the air, where they could see the towering valkyries, Fenja and Menja, striding down the road. They had already grown taller than the boxcars, flanking the other ground-bound Empire capes – Hookwolf and Kaiser. Those four were the heaviest hitters, admittedly. Above and ahead of them were Rune and Stormtiger, flying their way in. Rune was sitting on one of three large chunks of concrete that she was levitating.

"Protectorate's on their way, ETA twenty minutes. We just need to be defensive for now. Laserdream. Do you think you can handle Stormtiger and Rune?"

"Shouldn't be too hard."

"The rest of us will concentrate on corralling the ground forces. Shielder, you're on defense duty for everyone, so we all need to stay in his range."

"Gotcha."

"Everyone stay out of Hookwolf's range, he's a non-starter in this fight for now."

"I'll disable the unpowered troops first," Flashbang said. "That'll take most of the gunners out of commission, though I don't think Kaiser would go lethal this quickly."

"Never underestimate the stupidity of Kaiser's followers," Brandish reminded him. "Make sure we do NOT strike first."

"Everyone ready?" With nodding all around, they moved into well-practiced positions. Shame they were missing Glory Girl, she was a huge deterrent all by herself, but they knew they could handle something like this.

"Kaiser! What are you doing here?" Brandish shouted.

"Brandish, how nice to see you. As you can see, I'm merely going for an evening stroll with my friends."

"Very funny, Kaiser. You've got outstanding warrants. We have every right to bring you in."

"You can try, but you will fail. On the other hand, I heard the ABB has been prowling around here. Are you trying to help them enforce their claims on the territory?"

"This territory belongs to neither you nor the ABB. It's city property. Now leave."

"No, I don't think I shall. Come now, you and I both know what's at stake here. The ABB have a Tinker who specializes in explosives. Nobody, whether it be the Empire, New Wave, or the Protectorate can afford to have that in our back yards. So I have a proposition."

"You think we would join you? If there's anything to find, we can do it ourselves. Your help is not needed."

Laserdream knew they were both stalling for time. They were outnumbered in cape count alone, and that wasn't even counting the unpowered gangsters following behind. While they could try to capture Kaiser without any legal trouble, it was tactically unsound. Brandish was probably trying to intimidate him into turning around, presumably before the Protectorate arrived for reinforcement.

Kaiser himself was probably also waiting for reinforcements; they had far more capes in reserve, especially the heavy-hitter Purity. That begged the question, where was she now?

While the banter between Kaiser and Brandish continued, Laserdream eyed Stormtiger and Rune. They had split up and were trying to sneak to the edge of their vision. She shifted as well, choosing to stick to Rune. She would be a quicker takedown; all her ammunition was what she was already touching, whereas Stormtiger could launch invisible pressure waves and air claws with his power.

All of that went to hell when someone screamed in pain from the back lines of the Empire's forces. Everyone's eyes flicked to that spot, only to see an ashen figure dissolve.

Another scream, followed by gunshots. Then an explosion, right in the middle of the group of gangsters. Bodies and blood went flying.

"Oni Lee!"

The ground was suddenly speared with blades, and the Valkyries grew even larger. Manpower had to leap back to avoid getting sliced, though Kaiser seemed to be giving him ample time to react. Meanwhile, the Valkyries were nearing twenty feet tall at this point, big enough to take a swipe at Eric. But nobody wanted to fight each other just yet.

For a second, nobody could see the teleporting assassin. Laserdream merely saw a quick blur that appeared behind Stormtiger, who reacted without even seeing. He had managed to dodge the assassination attempt, just barely. He grunted in pain and swiped at his back with an arm as the other fell limp. He managed to blast the dark-cloaked figure backwards. As an ashen figure fell, it dissolved before it struck the ground, leaving everyone to figure out where Oni Lee had teleported to again.

Stormtiger started to throw air blades in random directions with his good arm. One managed to strike Lady Photon before Shielder managed to put up a stronger shield to protect her. Rune yelled out and Laserdream suddenly saw a massive chunk of rock flying towards her. She barely dodged out of the way as she shot upwards, but the rock still managed to clip her feet. Her toes and ankles ached fiercely – she wouldn't be standing on the ground until her cousin healed her. Thank goodness for flight powers. She sent out a barrage of lasers in Rune's general direction, but the girl had moved.

Flashbang threw several of his signature energy balls, spread out across the Empire's forces. "Flash three!" he signalled through the radio. Everyone quickly turned or covered their eyes as his concussive bombs went off, blinding everyone who hadn't been prepared. Laserdream blindly counted out three bangs before opening her eyes again.

Blinding and concussing the gang members did little to stifle the chaos; in fact, it seemed to get worse. Hookwolf roared, charging ahead with a body coated in metal. It seemed like he had managed to cover his eyes in time. Straight in his path was a dazed Oni Lee.

The demonic cape was still blinded as he attempted to teleport, but he wasn't travelling very far. He was only moving a foot or two at a time, practically only arms' length with each teleport. Still, his erratic teleportation only just managed to save his life against Hookwolf's charge.

He was caught in a swipe by Hookwolf's claws while still blinded. Hookwolf skidded as he tried to change direction, and just managed to grab Oni Lee by the throat. He slammed his opponent into the ground with enough strength that his hand went straight through the Asian villain's throat, but the body merely dissolved into a pile of ash.

Hookwolf promptly exploded as a grenade detonated directly underneath him. The explosion threw him twenty feet into the air and sent shards of metal flying everywhere. All of New Wave had to put up their personal shields, with Shielder taking the brunt of it for everyone else. Hookwolf hit the ground with a thud.

Lady Photon and Manpower both swooped down to Hookwolf and secured him as best they could.

Fenja, Menja, and Kaiser advanced forward cautiously, intent on retrieving their downed teammate. Rune was badly injured and Stormtiger kept a protective stance near her, still nursing his own arm.

"Retreat, Kaiser! You can't win this! Cut your losses and go!" Brandish shouted, forming bright glowing weapons in her hands. Flashbang readied multiple orbs as well.

Laserdream followed her aunt's cue. She spread her arms and made her fingertips glow, ready for another barrage. She was still wary of Oni Lee striking them from behind, but she was pretty sure the ABB was more focused on taking down the Empire than her family.

She heard something behind her, and spun, only to see Oni Lee's knife bounce off her brother's powerful shield. Oni Lee himself was falling, but teleported away. The body hit the ground in another pile of ash, and she couldn't see where he'd gone.

So much for Oni Lee only targeting the Empire.

Kaiser took advantage of the distraction. They all charged forward in one final rush to get their heavy hitter back.

Flashbang hit first, throwing orb after orb of concussive blasts. He increased the power, which would be lethal to normal people but he threw them at the giantesses. This time, it was powerful enough to daze even those two, and the others behind her from the massive shockwave.

Laserdream missed his warning this time, and assumed he had been going to only throw the two orbs. While her eyes were covered and she counted out the two bangs, she didn't realize her uncle had created and thrown two more orbs. She got caught in the flash, only seeing the opponents dazed before being caught herself. Blind, she simply sent a wide barrage in the general direction where she last saw the Empire members while backing up and away.

By the time her sight returned, she realized she must have caused plenty of injuries, as Rune was now completely down for the count as well as dozens of unpowered members. Stormtiger was pulling the girl further back from the fight. Laserdream sent a more precise barrage their way this time, making sure they wouldn't be returning any time soon.

Her father brawling with one of the giantesses, who was stuck in a defensive stance to protect Kaiser, who was just behind her. Random blades continued to spike out of the ground, but her brother was protecting her father from being flanked. Her mother and aunt were tag-teaming the other giantess, and her uncle continued to disable the unpowered gang members with a series of weaker flashbangs.

Hookwolf was still unconscious.

When flashing lights, the sound of sirens, and a distinctive motorcycle approached, Kaiser shouted the command. "Retreat!"

"Thanks, cuz, you're the best." Laserdream gave Amy a hug as they relaxed back at her cousin's home. Thank goodness none of them had suffered anything critical, but they had gotten their fair share of scratches.

"Crystaaaaaaaallllll! What did I miss?" Crystal felt a haze over her mind as her other cousin shook her by the shoulder. Ah, her pretty, pretty cousin...

"We took in Hookwolf," Crystal told her. "Though if you had been there, we might have been able to capture Stormtiger or Rune, too. It's just not the same without you."

"Vicky, watch your aura!" her mother snapped.

"Sorry," Vicky muttered.

Crystal shook her head. "Yeah, both the twins were there. We managed to hold them off, especially Dad, but another Brute really would have turned the tide." Her eyes went to Amy's arm, which was still in a cast.

"I'm sorrryyyyy," whined Vicky.

"One last push might actually send the Empire packing," Crystal said. "They're down, what, three capes now?"

"Yes. That's what the party's for," her aunt replied. "It's a show of solidarity, that the heroes are turning the tide against the gangs. So I expect all of you to be there, on your best behaviour." She gave a withering look at Vicky. "And I mean it when I say you need to keep that aura under control! It'll be Taylor – I mean, Eunoia's debut. Don't try to put the spotlight on yourself."

"I won't, mom, I promise!"

"So tell me about her!" Crystal said. "Our new member! You think she's going to stay? This is so exciting, we haven't had anyone new since... I can't even remember."

"Weeellllll..."

Author's Note: Happy New Year!

Also it's only a new year and not a new decade