Ad Hoc

Perhaps an hour later, after the gunfire had begun to die down and Gil was starting to question the wisdom of waiting for Rose, he felt a presence appear in the dumpster with him.

"She has been captured." Rose whispered, surprisingly understandable. "I believe her captors intend to do something horrible to her. Her thoughts were garbled by panic when I left her."

Gil briefly started at the word "captured," before realizing that Rose was using the mundane meaning of the word, rather than The Company's preferred euphemism. He didn't often end up in PVP tests, and when he did he usually ended up losing. He preferred to stay on the edges and gather power quietly, which tended to mean he survived the early scramble before being killed by a more aggressive player later. Winning usually didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, and lasting a long time generally meant that he got full credit for the tests.

"Shit. Are they going to kill her?" Gil asked.

"It seems closer to rape?" Rose said, uncertainly, "some great violation. She was too indignant for me to parse her meaning without forgetting myself. She managed to rather severely injure her primary target as she was lured into an ambush."

"I see." Gil said, scratching at his patchy beard, "any chance for a rescue? I still haven't even met the third girl, and I could probably earn some brownie points if I brought their teammate back."

"Shadowstalker didn't think her odds of victory against the full group were very likely." Rose answered, "there were six masked individuals, and I think they all had powers. Shadowstalker saw one as a noncombatant and didn't recognize one of them at all. She still saw the injured one as a threat, as well."

"But that's still 4 people that a goddamn superheroine considered to be a tactical threat." Gil sighed. "That's not promising. Maybe an assassination, then. Did they seem particularly angry with her?"

"As I said, she injured their companion." Rose said, uncertain, "the masks made it difficult for me to read their expression, and my host did not seem excessively skilled at understanding people."

"Probably the mist, then." Gil said, and pulled out his other globe of berserking mist.

He looked into the swirling gray, and shrugged. Consumables were meant to be used, and he wasn't actually sure if he'd be coming back to this world again. Besides, he didn't have the time to run across town again; if he didn't do something now he might as well wander off and see if he could scavenge something nearby. Maybe a bike?

"Might as well scope the place out." Gil decided. "If plan A doesn't look viable, I can always play the part of the concerned citizen at Wards HQ."

••••••••••

Skitter lay in the dark room, reading as well as she could in the moonlight. She'd laid alarms for herself across the exterior of the building, and analyzed every human being inside. She'd placed bugs on every person to track their movements, but this late at night nobody seemed inclined to move around too much.

All this despite being laid out, with a crossbow bolt embedded in her side. It was risky to call in a truck to come pick her up, but Tattletale was fairly certain she'd need surgery. Shadowstalker's crossbow bolt had been insubstantial when it struck her, allowing it to pass through her body and materialize halfway through her torso. Attempted murder wasn't exactly out of character for Shadowstalker, in or out of costume, but she usually had enough self preservation to make it look like an accident.

The translucent fog had driven her bugs into a feral rage; she had needed to manually override their instincts in order to stop them from throwing themselves at anything they saw. Skitter had been affected too; she hadn't forgotten the plan to lure Shadowstalker away, but she had forgotten the objective. After Shadowstalker had shot her, Skitter had lost focus for a moment and sent her swarms to attack the heroine almost on reflex. The rest of the team almost hadn't been able to capture her, thanks to the swarms obscuring her location.

Someone had attacked the PRT convoy and Chosen and Skitter didn't know who or why. That bugged her more than anything else, because it meant there was an unknown element in the city. Someone powerful or insane enough to deliberately pick a fight with two of the most dangerous paramilitary organizations in Brockton Bay, and Skitter didn't even know what they wanted out of that fight. Tattletale guessed the mist had been some new power, possibly tinker made. Whoever had used it wanted the PRT and Fenrir's chosen to tear each other apart. Of course, that still didn't answer the question of why. The Slaughterhouse Nine were potentially in town, leaving a chilling possibility. This was the kind of thing they might have decided to do just for kicks, and a smoke bomb that heightened aggression was potentially within Bonesaw's skillset.

Skitter's bugs sensed a man in the street. Slightly taller than average, wearing a backpack. Probably looking for a place to squat. She marked his presence with a few bugs, but anything more involved might give away their location. A quick extraction would draw enough attention, they didn't need more. The man rummaged through his bag, pulling something smooth and spherical out. Skitter realized something might be wrong only seconds before she heard a crash in the adjacent room, where Regent was working on Shadowstalker.

"We're under attack!" Skitter yelped, rousing her team.

Seconds later, the bugs outside the building became agitated. Skitter sensed the strange, cool air current through her bugs, and knew what they were dealing with. It spread unnaturally fast, seeming to permeate through the walls without any real trouble. Skitter immediately felt the anger growing, and sent a swarm after the attacker.

"The mist!" She called, "they hit the building."

"Grue!" Tattletale shouted, and the apartment was filled with his darkness.

It seemed to push away the mist, as it did with many similar gas or energy based attacks. Unfortunately, Skitter could hear growling through the sound dampening effects of the darkness. Bitch's dogs had gotten a good whiff of the mist before Grue could counteract it. The dogs were well trained. Angelica, the oldest and best trained of the current group, ran into the next room over, where the person she didn't know could be found. The other dogs followed her lead, as she was the senior-most dog present and often served as an example.

By the time the dogs calmed down, Shadowstalker had bled out from multiple severed arteries. The dogs were trained not to kill unless specifically ordered to, but they certainly knew how.

"Fuck!" Regent groaned. Despite getting a front row seat, he recovered the quickest from the gory display. "I guess it's a good thing the boss's goons are already on their way? He can dispose of a body, right?"

The rest of the team were much less sanguine about the prospect. In less than a minute, a kidnapping had become a murder. No one, as far as they knew, was aware of the Undersiders' presence tonight. Hiding their guilt would ironically be the least of their problems. Tattletale called their boss immediately, explaining the situation to him. She stopped and listened, chewing on her lip.

"Guys." She said, her voice unsteady. "He said to wrap her up, and until we know more about whoever is making this mist Bitch should be very careful with her dogs. I think we got lucky with them having a convenient target other than us."