Eyeball had been impressed by Emerald on many occasions in the past; but this one was exceptional. Two doctors were very carefully, precisely, lining up the bones in her wings, working the powerful muscles into position, binding them, in a process that was likely just like what he'd gone through when they set his broken left arm a few minutes before; only rather than just two broken bones as Eyeball had, there were dozens. The process would undoubtedly be agonizing. Those wings were sensitive, and had so many delicate bones.
He grimaced each time he heard a subtle pop, and Emerald's face just barely changed expressions; but the entire time, she sat on the throne; well, her temporary one; and continued talking to the gentleman in the hardhat.
"While most of the structure was sound, a metahuman with a significant amount of superhuman strength went through the support pillars. He created cracks... and poured acid into these cracks. It's something that he's done before, while working elsewhere. My uncle has exceptional ability as a human wrecking ball and has destroyed buildings, bunkers... a variety of structures."
The man sighed, looking at the pile of rubble. "So we won't be attempting to repair the structure at all? There's so much of it left..."
"No. Much of the structure is well over a century old, so anything you can ensure is still solid I'd like to re-use; but the supports will all be useless. For now, just make sure none of my people are buried. The assistance in rebuilding is, of course, appreciated, but at best we will be building a new structure beside the old, using some of the old for raw materials."
The man gave a short bow, and turned, heading back to the site; where a team was working through the smaller pieces of rubble, with Butcher still stepping in now and again to move the support pillars themselves when exposed; as strong as he was, the millions of stones making up the pile were simply too numerous for him to lift with his hands.
Emerald turned to Eyeball; gritting her teeth as another bone was set into place. "How are you feeling?"
He glanced at her wings. "Better than you, love. Good enough to do some killing, if need be, though I'll be doing it with one hand. I'll make the call to General Zhou and we can start the ball rolling on it."
"But... we need to retrieve the children. And stop my mother. And... kill Uncle Sal." She winced. "That's going to be a tough nut to crack."
Eyeball shrugs. "It would be, but we've already got a nutcracker. They're driving an old fishing boat with an equally old engine. The Engineer and a group of mercs will be waiting for them when they get off the docks."
She tilted her head a moment in confusion. "..Don't mean to insult your friends, but can he handle the Salamander?"
"You remember the first time I fought the Green Knight?"
Emerald blinked. "Yes? What does that have to do with anything?"
***
The boat settled into dock almost an hour later than planned; Infernal was intensely angry and had barely restrained herself from incinerating one of the mechanics; they needed both of them to get it up and running as quickly as possible. Apparently the computer system hooked up to the motor wasn't required to run it; but optimized things. Gave it the best fuel efficiency and speed. They had been able to bypass it in minutes, but it ran slow, and used almost twice as much diesel; there was some serious concern it might not make it all the way to their destination; a Chinese fishing village where they already had a couple of rented trucks waiting for them.
Infernal glanced around at the dock, frowning, and pulled her hood over her head; she was wearing an improvised robe made from a grey tarp, roughly cut and tied to mostly conceal her scaled form.. and when she looked back, she rolled her eyes... Salamander had simply hopped out onto the dock, yanked the chain into place, and was visible, plain as day, an enormous mass of obsidian scales wearing a simple pair of athletic shorts.
Infernal walked towards a small shack at the end of the dock; there was supposed to be someone waiting to tie up the boat and give them the truck keys. Maybe they'd left after waiting longer than expected for the boat? She made sure to avoid using her badly maimed right hand when she reached for the knob... holding a grenade when it went off was bad even for the super-durable.. Where would the keys...
When she started to open the door of the shack, she only had a moment to respond; not nearly enough; as an enormous blade hacked through the sheet-metal door, her shoulder, most of her torso, and right through her pelvis; leaving her stunned and gruesomely bisected as she collapsed to the ground.
The massive black-armored figure; looking something vaguely like a medieval knight; emerged from the shack, stomping brutally on her torso, a disgusting squelch of boots moving through intestines as he moved out onto the dock.
Salamander stared for a moment. At first, he was too shocked to respond. He'd known Infernal for decades. She'd been a friend, a rival, occasional bedmate, especially during the early days before they'd both known they were infertile. And... she was in half. She was still alive, for the moment, but definitely not for long, as what was left of her twisted on the docks.. in her dying movements, he could smell the stench of fuel on the air, spilling out over the docks.
He looked at the figure, who was already marching towards him, sword uplifted; and let out a roar; loud enough that the glass on a nearby storage building cracked, those on the upper deck of the boat clutched their ears; and charged to meet him.
The sword was swung with just as much devastating force against him, the Black Knight raising it over his head and slamming it downwards like a hatchet; but Salamander was built of sterner stuff. The blade dug through the scales, leaving a nasty gouge in his left arm and sending blood running down his scales; but then he was on the armored figure. He grabbed the helmet with both hands and made a horrific gurgle; as he spat a long stream of acid onto the black-armored figure, completely covering it in a thick, grey gel, before slamming his knee into the Knight's chest, slamming him through the wall of the nearby storage building.
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He could hear the hiss of acid eating away, see the fumes rising from the spot where he'd spilled it on the dock, as well as the building itself... and stepped over, dropping to his knee beside Infernal. She looked at him; the arm she could still control reaching towards him... and finally stopped.
Salamander rose back to his feet, turning to the building, fully expecting to be about to finish off a crippled, helpless victim... only to see the Black Knight already marching steadily towards him, what looked like steam rising from the armored figure, sword lifted into the air once more.
Some of the guards on the ship started to open fire; bullets impacting the armor without apparent affect; before suddenly stopping. There was a scream of pain from the boat, and Salamander turned to it to see the two guards collapsing onto the deck... he growled, and reached down; yanking up a chunk of the dock, tearing away a mass of 2x4s and nails which he swung at the armored knight; buying just enough time by deflecting that sword to grab the armored figure's arm.
With splinters and chunks of wood scattering through the air at the impact, and another gouge on his left shoulder this time, he grabbed the Knight's arm; and spun, hurling him off towards the ocean; doubting the figure would drown, but expecting, at the very least, to buy some time for his regeneration to stop the wound in his arm bleeding.
Only... the figure stopped in midair, immediately hurtling back towards Salamander like a giant projectile. Grabbing a chunk of railing to use as another momentary shield, he braced himself; only to suddenly receive a burst of fire from the boat. Distracted, he turned towards the boat, seeing several guards; his own people; rifles raised, firing in his direction. He couldn't see their faces through the masks, but who else could it be?
That moment of distraction would prove fatal; the armored figure bringing that sword down once more; this time managing to strike the same wounded left shoulder, drive down through his flesh, and embed itself deep into his chest. Salamander was no stranger to pain; lashing out with the chunk of dock railing at the armored form, trying to drive him back despite the horrific agony running through his body, the blood spilling everywhere; but the Black Knight struck again. And again.
The guards on the deck shuffled onto the boat, clumsy, having difficulty managing the doors as they moved down the stairs; the Engineer stepping out of the storage building, ignoring the dust and debris he was currently wearing as a hat, checking his controls. Salamander would not be a viable Pale One; even if he were sufficiently intact after the Black Knight's work, his acid would dissolve the wiring in seconds.
The guards... he watched closely as they moved through the ship; shooting their former allies, making it mostly unharmed down to the engine deck; the children were in a panic, screaming, pressing against the walls; some of them were afraid at the beginning, now the gunshots only making things worse. There was a brief scuffle in engineering; the mechanics, possibly expecting an angry Infernal to be coming after them, had been ready for a fight; but were rapidly shot down.
The tiny camera; only getting a standard-definition resolution, but amazing for the size of the controller; showed something unfortunate; a scaled blue form, lying limp on the floor of the engine room. From the state of the body, he'd been shot, beaten, and possibly suffered a near-miss by a fragmentation grenade; there were numerous bloody wounds, broken bones, and darker patches to the vivid blue scales.
The Engineer frowned; he couldn't check the pulse using a Pale One; but to all appearances, he wasn't breathing. Disappointing. He pretended to activate a radio, in the event someone was watching. "This is the Engineer. Cargo is secured. Friendly and unfriendly casualties both. Medical assistant... to ensure well-being of cargo would be useful, but currently appears all casualties are deceased."
The Black Knight walked forward, and settled in place beside the Engineer, blade at rest. Buried in his head, Roland was railing against his fate; struggling to try to overcome the wires embedded in his very nervous system, the horrible pain he was going through... and with a body too durable to go into shock and start dying.
The Engineer studied the boat. The boat and its cargo were a diversion. The mission against these... breeding facilities was important. He was still hacking any connection he could find for more information, trying to find them, but as of yet, it was unavailable. It might not be online at all. The Chinese oligarchs were not the worst of them; but giving any given band of oligarchs access to an army of meta-human slave-soldiers would mean an end of any hope of Communism ever taking hold, and he'd have to fall back on simply doing his best to keep humanity alive.
***
"Hello there, General Zhou?"
The voice on the other end was gruff, irate. "How did you get this number? Are you an agent of the Dragon?"
"To an extent. There's been a change in management of the Dragon clan, and we'd like to discuss a new arrangement. A larger-scale arrangement, more lucrative for both sides." Eyeball grimaced slightly at the tingling sensation in his forearm. Advanced modern medication would speed the healing, but short of getting a metahuman to help or a bit of magic, broken bones didn't heal overnight.
"Larger scale?" General Zhou was somewhat bemused. The old Empress had seemed offended at how he handled his surrogates, and had declined to increase the count past the initial order.
"The new Dragon Empress, the old Empress's great-grand-daughter, has allies the old one lacked. Myself, namely. Are you familiar with the code-name Eyeball?"
Silence on the line for a few seconds. "My superiors have an ongoing agreement with you regarding your silence on certain matters. We are to avoid dealing with you if at all possible."
"I'm certain you are. But you have access to tens of thousands of surrogate mothers, and likely hundreds or even thousands of children who could contribute to the Empress's genetic program. And I have something even more valuable." Emerald frowned, looking at Eyeball in confusion; mouthing the words 'What the hell?'.
"And what would be so valuable? I'm familiar with Eyetech, of course. Reflex, and its other developments, while useful, are outside the bounds of my program. Technically, this program is completely off the books, unofficial; so any sort of deal we make will need to be related."
"I'm part-owner of every hotel, brothel, and medical facility on La Famiglia. I can get you semen samples of every meta whose laid with a prostitute on the island, blood samples of everyone whose ever been injured or seen a doctor on the island, including virtually all of the arena contestants, and samples from most of those who've stayed at one of my hotels, including hair samples of the only Titan we can be certain is still able to have children; though, to warn you in advance, the samples are of limited utility, as they are as invulnerable as the rest of her and difficult to examine meaningfully."
General Zhou almost dropped the phone. A deep inhalation. "Ahh... I'm certain my superior would be willing to work with you on this. What are you seeking?"
"Essentially, first dibs on children who have traits useful to the program, and additional surrogates. Let a few of my people review the surrogates, take ultrasounds, and if they have traits that would contribute to the Dragon program, they leave with us. We aren't looking for numbers, just specific traits, so I'm sure we can work out an acceptable ratio. As an opener, in exchange for letting me and my associates tour the facilities and meet your superior, I can give you a semen sample from The Lord of Iron and one of the aforementioned hair samples, in the event your people can do more with it than mine."
For Zhou, this seemed to be an unbelievable windfall. If they could find a way to extract Valkyrie's information... and even if not, the Lord of Iron was one of the most potent mutants on the planet. Even without the possible future agreement, the Lord of Iron was stronger than any of the genetically viable semen samples they had and would be an enormous boon to the operation. "Pending an agreement with my superior... I believe we can make an arrangement. I look forward to introducing you to our operation."