Chapter 1
The location was isolated as much as it could be, not that anyone would want to report what was happening anyway.
There was a rule that was universal to all slums of the world, no matter what noise was made, how many screams there were or how many explosions or guns were fired you didn’t call the police, didn’t get involved.
Because snitches get stitches, or more likely a bullet between the eyes.
It was the same in the Docks of Brockton Bay. Where more than just simple drivebys and muggings were happening at night. Especially with what had happened with the Azn Bad Boys. Without a leader after all, they’d been forced to buckle under the demands of the best thing they had.
It was a blessing in disguise for Bakuda that Lung had been captured. Without him here exerting his influence she was free to act as she will. Lines that he wouldn’t cross for whatever attachment or reasoning he had to not act against ‘their’ people she could, and did so quickly and willingly. Sure there had been some resistance at first, but that was quickly resolved with the right explosion here or there.
Control through fear, just had Lung had described it was easier to cow the lesser of their forces with a significant show of force.
It helped that Oni Lee was a non-factor. With Lung’s direction he was little more than setting dressing for her intimidation. Half the time he wouldn’t even leave his room. Which while inconvenient since his powers would have been perfect for grabbing more people meant that there was no interference on his part. He wouldn’t even go to break out Lung on her command, though of course she already had plans for that regardless of his input.
No, Lung was necessary both for the fact that he dealt with all the uninteresting bits of taking command and for directing Oni Lee to help. Still without his requests or interference she was able to put her full attention on her projects.
Pulling away from her creation she marveled at the genius of her own design. She didn’t doubt she would go down in history once she started making ample demonstrations of her work in breaking past the Manton effect. What a lot of people didn’t understand is that it affected tinkers just as much as it affected other capes. Despite how much crossover one field of science could have there was almost always a limit to how a tinker could affect either the biological or the inanimate side of the spectrum.
Not that it applied much to her anymore. With a smile she looked at the seeds of her work.
It had taken forever to get right, but she had the notes of other tinkers to guide her way. Bombs the ‘volunteers’ lay in several groups. There were of course several of them, it was bad science to assume something would work without multiple tests. A few of them died instantly when it happened, which wouldn’t do, but the others that were still alive it was a thing of beauty. That kind of biological manipulation would surely get the right kind of fear if only….
A crash broke her train of thought making her turn instantly growling at the distraction, what did those incompetent….
There was a ring on her radio.
“Protectorate they’re….”
She let tsk with her tongue. It was too soon to let them see the main event like this. Oh well, testing was done for the moment and this base was. As she headed out she clicked her tablet to activate the bombs. She heard the shouts as those idiots distracted the so-called heroes while she went towards her escape route.
As she did she grabbed some of her earlier tests and threw it behind her to collapse this lab. It was one of many and there was no point in letting her subjects live; it wasn’t like there was any way to reverse what had happened either.
As she disappeared down the hatch the bombs went off, it started slow but soon the pinprick in space distorted and collapsed onto itself. The black hole sucked in the several dead or dying humans collapsing them into oblivion as it sucked the computers, tables and eventually the supports causing the structure to collapse onto itself.
–
Battery had to hold back the bile that threatened to come out of her throat as the shock from the scene started to wear off. She had been patrolling when she came upon this place, but had to step in when she saw the forced carting of several people being forced out of a van by the thugs. No sooner had she started to take down some of them did the explosions start, she’d seen explosions before as well as scenes of gore. Part of the job of enforcing the law meant dealing with some of the sickest and most twisted villains. But that didn’t mean she expected to see not one, but seven men’s heads exploding.
One of them had been near her and out of reflex she released the charge she was holding to use her power so she saw the entire thing happen in sickening slow motion, like a stop motion in a particularly gruesome horror movie. It was only her moving through the time that made her avoid most of the gore on her person though the folks in the car were not as lucky. As she turned to check on the no doubt traumatized when another explosion forced her to move.
“Move, move! Get back!”
The civilians snapped out of whatever haze the scene had put them in and scattered backwards as the building they were outside started to collapse. She chased them back behind the van to block them from the debris. As the building went down she saw the wind shifting towards it as opposed to outward. Glancing out from the building she watched in shock and horror as she saw the black hole set above the rubble sucking in the air.
The void in space continued to fill itself with rubble for a few more seconds before it started to collapse in on itself, the energy of its existence running out of it. She cursed as she kept her distance watching the black hole begin to sputter, the disruption in space closing in on itself before it blasted outwards in a more traditional explosion.
Taking cover behind the she held herself against the white surface as a large crash followed the explosion. Dust kicked up in a small sheet as well as the flying of papers. She started to charge as a precaution against any other adversary that might come out to attack but when none came she set her power and time slowed around her as she sprinted to examine the scene. She was careful of her steps as she ran through the building heading towards the scene of the wreckage. Where there had been a black hole there had been none, only rubble, destruction and….
Crumpled atop rubble was, metal it looked like mostly, metal and stone that didn’t match the color of the stone of the building. But not only that. There was a pile of fabric that cast a hue of maroon in the darkness. Leaning down she let her power slip away as time went back to normal around her and reached down to pull up the fabric to see a cat and a girl.
Blinking her hand went to her ear.
“Report, there has been.”
She looked at the area around her.
“An incident. Tried to stop a kidnapping in progress and I believe I stumbled upon an Azn Bad Boys base, only for it to self-destruct shortly afterwards. I think there was a black hole here a moment ago and now,”
She leaned down and set a hand on the girl’s neck. She could feel the warmth of body heat, steady breathing and a steady pulse.
“There seems to be a girl and a cat on the scene right under where the black hole was. I can’t explain what happened, but there are no other exits, she might have been pinned down when the building collapsed. Need ambulances for victims as well as bodies. Several of the members also,”
She glanced back.
“Self destructed.”
A voice on the other end responded.
“Acknowledged, can you take some pictures of the scene and you can bring the girl in to see if she matches any of the other recent missing persons.”
Battery nodded and got down on her knees as she slowly uncovered the mysterious girl. She was a slight thing, her hair a mess of dark red spread around her small head. Reaching over Battery slid her hand under her head supporting her as she reached under her head and tried to rise only to find the task more difficult than expected. She nearly tumbled with how much the girl weighed and only got her a few inches in the air before setting her down more quickly.
“What the hell?”
Putting a foot under her she looked to see if there were any rocks holding her down, but none were heavy enough to really keep her down like that. Kneeling she went for another route switching to a firefighter carry. It was awkward for sure, especially with how small she was but she managed to get the girl’s weight onto her shoulder. The cat had rolled off in the effort and after a woozy attempt jumped off the ground onto Battery’s opposite shoulder.
Exploding gang members, a black hole, a girl who weighed at least twice what she should and now a cat. Well at least one of those things made sense, given she didn’t know what she was going to do with the cat.