Interlude: Bakuda

Bakuda had been in her workshop, creating another masterpiece to show Brockton Bay. She had only a few more to make before the next distribution was ready. She was happy here, Lung had appreciated her art and what it could bring.

She frowned, "Then some stupid -brat- came out and took him by surprise. They made him out to be a hero when he's -nothing-." She had liked the guy at first. He tossed high powered explosives like they were candy his first night out. She had seen one, it hadn't been anything near -her- art, but none are truly capable of that. It would simply be unfair to make the comparison. Having someone like him around as a -personal- recruit would have been fun, but then he had to go and make himself a problem, and problems must be dealt with.

After Lung had been captured, the E88 and Merchants thought ABB would be easy pickings. We lost some territory, but the idiots paid for that in blood. She giggles to herself "And in glass, liquification and multi-dimensional dispersal" She loved the last one. Sure Liquifying an enemy is satisfying and there is art in leaving behind a glass statue of a victim's terror as they feel their body cease to be flesh and bone, but dispersing a person's molecules across the dimensions... That is as close to true destruction as there is. She smiles, "At least, for now."

One of her toy soldiers interrupted her. She assumed they had learned the lesson earlier, but apparently this one was -particularly- dim. He was blabbering about something. -That- got her attention, that 'something' was about the guy that took down Lung on a fluke. A smile spread over her features. Apparently they thought this was all just some stupid -game- and his identity was available for everyone to see. She knew some people saw it that way, but most of those people end up dead - Oh there were some that could get away with it. Those without families, those that practically live with their team, then some that couldn't be touched like that New Wave family. All because of the little brat Panacea. Touch them and the protectorate comes down on you with everything they have. Bakuda scowled at the thought and said to herself 'I'm going to have to leave them a particularly -pleasant- gift one day.

Her thoughts turned back to 'the brat', oh how she wanted to torture the kid's soul, force his own parents to kill him, or each other. Maybe leave a sculpture of one at his house. He thinks this is a game, maybe he can use the sculpture of his mother as a piece. And even if he comes for revenge he'll be powerless. All of those 'hero' types are. They're too predictable. Grab a hostage, tell them the orphanage down the street has a bomb, they'll stop. Then they're sitting ducks in a house of explosives.

She nods to the dim toy that had brought her the news, her robotic voice calling out "You. Grab two more. Meet me in the jeep." Bakuda had to prepare... time to grab some of her favorites, maybe a couple of experiments. She loaded up her bandolier and grenade launcher, then spun it's chamber - it's more fun if it's a surprise. Then she met her toy soldiers at the jeep. She never asked them to start it, and for good reason. She disabled the explosive device wired to several parts of the vehicle then started it and drove off to pay a visit to her 'friend'. Maybe ask if little William can come out to play. She smirks, 'yes, that'll do.'

A short trip across town later and Bakuda had parked in front of the place Oblivium called home. She explained the plan to the older man next to her, "You walk up and knock on the door. If someone answers you ask if little William can come out to play. If you can manage it, you grab them and bring them to me. Got it dimwit?" The man nods quickly. He knew you did -not- say no to Bakuda. It's really too bad he hadn't learned not to interrupt her work either.

The man had gone and knocked on the door, but no answer. The family had a garage so it was impossible to tell if they had a vehicle at home... Bakuda was getting annoyed, this was already cutting into her time being more productive, but she couldn't just leave without teaching a lesson. She activated the bomb she had implanted in the man, his was her favorite kind, dimensional dispersal, and instantly everything within a couple of feet of him became little more than dust as a majority of their molecules found themselves in alternate realities. This left a nice hole in the door.

Bakuda hopped out of the jeep grinning, she always loved seeing one of her creations complete its use. She pranced up to the walkway, hefted her grenade launcher and shot the round through the new hole. Ice instantly expanded outwards in a frozen explosion destroying a majority of the center of the home and she grinned. "That one's fun. The ice needs to be more clear though, to see anyone trapped inside." Well, that would do for now. If anyone was home, they were frozen, and it sent the message. Really too bad she couldn't spend more time on this. Her work was more important than some brat, no matter how lucky he had gotten. She returned to her jeep and drove back to the workshop with the terrified toy soldiers.

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Bakuda had been working on a new design for the ice bomb when there was an explosion outside. Some idiot toy must have accidentally set off one of her traps. She really thought they had better survival instincts than that. Mentally referencing a list of the traps nearby she was slightly confused, none of them should have made that much sound. A moment later Oni Lee was at her side. She didn't trust the man, he was only here protecting her for the chance to free Lung, the man knew he wouldn't be able to on his own. If she couldn't create enough of a distraction the man might decide she was simply a failure, but she had a plan for that.

Bakuda and Lee both stepped out of her workshop to check what was happening when the gunfire and screams started. They found two people in black SWAT style uniforms. Because of the uniforms it was a little difficult to tell, but one was a man holding what amounted to a hand cannon of a pistol in a two hand grip. The device looked like a miniaturized tinker tech rail gun of some sort based on the lack of explosion when he fired. He also seemed to have some sort of reinforced power structure under the suit to better control the gun. At first she thought he was using it just to be macho (or he was compensating for something) but then she saw the people that were hit were blown backward, off their feet and away from the pair. The man was fast and -deadly- accurate. The toy soldiers rounds were deflecting harmlessly off of tiny teal plates that sprouted up from nothing.

Bakuda couldn't understand what was going on. This wasn't Oblivium. This wasn't anything like the guy, but he had the same shield? The bastard was a TINKER!? And he had hired some idiot mercenary for revenge. HAH. Bakuda gave a signal to Lee saying "Grab the woman. Then the man will give up." and she aimed at the man with her grenade launcher. She just needed him distracted for a moment, Lee could do that. Lee disappeared and just as she was about to fire, a round from the man's cannon -tore- the launcher from her hands and mangled a section of the barrel, also breaking her right index finger. She saw Lee appear behind the woman at the same moment, but the woman moved fast as lightning plunging her combat knife under Lee's jaw into his head, then she heard a scream behind her followed by the telltale sound of a ricochet and *SNAP*. She looked back to see an Oni Lee with a combat knife sticking out from under his jaw lodged in deep enough it probably severed the man's tongue, but his head was twisted at an odd angle. A round from the man with the cannon had made contact with his mask. The mask hadn't broken but the sheer force had snapped Lee's neck. Then the figure faded to ash. The coward ran away.

Bakuda heard the woman complain "That jerk stole my knife!"

The man said, "Relax honey, you can have mine."

She stole his knife in the blink of an eye saying, "You're the best!"

Bakuda had started triggering the explosives in the dead toy soldiers, hoping to buy some time, a distraction -anything-! If the man had a normal gun he would have had bodies close enough for her to use, if the woman hadn't had reflexes of fucking -Cricket- she could have had a hostage, if they had been -heroes- they wouldn't be killing. She couldn't even set off any of the bombs in the building since she was still inside. She'd have to manage a way to run then blow the whole building. That'd stop the bastards.

She knew what was coming next, she snapped her head back and to the side while dodging backwards at an angle, expecting a shot from that goddamn cannon to her head and hoping to cause it to ricochet off without delivering much force. It didn't hit her mask though, it -shattered- her shoulder and tossed her to the ground. The man was TOYING with her! Her rage pushed back the pain as she rolled over and tossed a grenade at them only for it to be shot mid-air and an explosion of force tossed her backwards and pushed the two-man assault squad toward some of the bodies, PERF- *Boom-CRACK* Bakuda screamed, blinding white pain flashed across her vision as her knee shattered, she turned her head and saw the shattered window. They have fucking -snipers-! Through the pain she set off the explosive in the most likely building and it started crumbling inward from a vacuum force inside it at the base.

Bakuda tried to call out to her other soldiers to bring reinforcements but radio was being jammed, she was ready to scream. Hell, she was almost ready to just blow the whole building, herself included.

*tink* a concussive grenade landed in front of her tossed from the monster pair. She was FURIOUS, "YOU COCKY BAST-" The fuckers were using explosives against her! She tried to roll and throw her coat over her as best she could. The damn coat was -bullet- proof, it wouldn't do much against pure force, but at least it would offer a little protection. *BOOM* The force threw her against the wall and destroyed a chunk of the area and damn near flattened her. She could barely move, she coughed trying to get her breath and stopping the pounding in her head, then her vision started to go dark...

Erin stood over the unconscious Bakuda holding the bolt she had retrieved from Sophia over a week ago. She wasn't sure it would work but this seemed to be pretty potent stuff. She tilts her head, "So, how are we going to finish this, hun?"

John walks up, pure business, watching the doorways, keeping an eye on windows or telltale signs of less sophisticated bomb triggers such as trip wires. He was ready and waiting if Lee suddenly came back or someone showed up. Not that they'd make it inside. Allen was one of the best snipers in the business. He shrugs to his wife's question, "I have a soft spot for poetic justice."

Erin thinks for a moment then starts checking over the grenades still on Bakuda, then scoffs "None of these things have a standard trigger." She sighs and holds out her hand, "Frag grenade, John." and proceeds to pull out her sewing kit.

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Bakuda woke up feeling like she'd been dragged behind her jeep for miles. Her shoulder was -shattered-, as was her knee, she felt like all her ribs had cracked and she was bruised everywhere... but she was alive. She cracks her eyes open thinking to herself 'Why am I still alive? Was I captured?' but no, she was exactly where she had collapsed after the concussive grenade. Her body tensed, but she couldn't hear footsteps or gunfire. She just realized her radio was suddenly working again. "What the fuck was that? A WARNING!?" She scowled and threw herself into a standing position against the pain, her coat was stuck on something but she yanked it out with a *click* sound. She growls, "I'm going to hunt tho-"

****************************************

John was smirking, overall the hardest part of the job had been disabling Oni Lee. He was lucky no one could beat his wife when it came to close quarters. Her reaction speed had always been awe-inspiring, though his son's 'training' had helped some. It was easier to feel where people were. It was just a hint, but when you're trained to pick up on -everything- that makes all the difference in the world. The other thing was that 'aura' Will talked about. He had barely felt it when Lee had used his power - but he -did- feel it. John assumed his wife had felt it too. Lee had been chased off just as the fight started. Sadly Allen didn't get a good line of sight on the man when he ran away.

John was celebrating the victory with his men, they didn't get to go all out like this often, the last time had been before Will had been born. The fight and overwhelming victory had left everyone in high spirits, though they all knew this had been an undisciplined group, completely unprepared for a show of overwhelming force. The biggest concern was how 'mad' the 'mad bomber' was. If she had no sense of self preservation she may have been capable of lighting the whole area up, luckily it hadn't happened.

Just as he finished that thought, a -massive- explosion erupted in the docks, several buildings in town exploded as well.

Erin was watching the window, she seemed a little sad - though that made sense. They had pushed this into happening, even if it was Bakuda that had set the bombs and she had been evil enough to take as many with her as possible.

Erin just sighed, "I hope there aren't too many casualties. But if this is what she was doing with those bombs then this stopped something terrible."

John just held his wife. He couldn't say it out loud, but he knew, he would protect his family with all he had, no matter the cost.