Chapter 22:
Ben and Resolve had been right. Sparring with Katie going all out wasn’t fun at all. Especially not after they’d sparred together and tired each other out.
Granted, Ben was probably the one most tired out by the previous spar, but it certainly didn’t help Resolve. It also didn’t help that Katie knew pretty much everything they could do, was completely fresh from having done no fighting yet herself, and had just enough space to use all her drones at once while not letting them escape.
And that she really was just that strong.
“Ugh. Really!” Resolve shouted angrily as two forcefield hands, each made from a dozen drones, clapped Ben and Resolve together, trapping them in place and raising them into the air.
Both of them were pressed tightly together and unable to break free. Resolve was already out of her teleports and Ben just didn’t have the strength. And despite being pressed up against a very in-shape girl his own age, Ben only felt tired and defeated.
Part of him wanted to believe that if the two of them hadn’t been tired, Katie wouldn’t have beaten them so easily. That at full power they might have stood a chance. And maybe they could have if the two of them knew how to work together. Even then that was a big maybe, as Katie had made a point of separating the two of them with two hands each before finally herding them together to capture them both in a single embarrassing go.
“Okay, enough already!” Resolve shouted, making Ben wince as her mouth was close to his ear. “You win you dumb bitch. Now quit showboating and let us out.”
“I don’t know,” Katie said, a teasing tone to her voice. “You guys might be able to break out if you work together. Maybe give that a shot.”
“Oh, you dumb bit—hey!”
Resolve’s insults were cut off as Katie’s meaning registered to Ben. Too tired to really think about it, he tapped what was left in his heliodor on his hidden necklace and focused on recharging Resolve’s teleport power. Lightning crackled from her body, but it didn’t seem to harm her and he couldn’t feel anything despite seeing the sparks right in his face.
“Try teleporting us. I’m trying to recharge you.”
“What? Just what is your po—oh, shit it worked. Hold on.”
Darkness welled up around the two of them for a second, even blotting out the lightning before the pressure holding him against Resolve disappeared and he fell on the floor. Too tired to really do anything else Ben just slumped and decided the floor was a nice place to rest.
Resolve though, apparently still had some energy left. “Okay, bitch! Payback time.”
Darkness covered her whole body and she blurred away at speed. Ben’s recharge must have only been enough for a single extra teleport.
What happened next Ben was too tired to follow. Instead, he just closed his eyes and listened to the sound of the two girls battling it out. Insults were thrown around. Yells of frustration could be heard. The sound of Katie’s Bugbot’s blasters could be heard, along with the sound of forcefield against flesh. Then finally something slammed near Ben, jolting him from his rest.
Opening his eyes, he was met with the sight of Resolve next to him. She landed in a heap on her side, her back to him and a hologram above her declaring her a loser. The safety system held her in place for a long moment, her body shimmering to indicate this before she was finally released.
“Ugh, freaking bull,” Resolve muttered as she turned over and pushed up from the ground. When she noticed his gaze she scowled. “What are you looking at?”
“Someone really strong getting their ass kicked by K-Swarm,” Ben said, catching himself from saying Katie’s name. They may have been alone, Katie might have already checked for bugs, and Resolve already knew Katie’s name, but it was a bad habit to get into using their real names when in costume. “She’s a lot stronger than I thought. Guess that explains why she’s able to compete with Shield Maiden.”
Resolves scowled deepened at his first words before she calmed as he continued. Once he was done, she sighed and shook her head. “Isn’t that chick an A-Rank? Freaking Swarm is stronger than I thought. But she’s just as annoying as I thought she’d be in a fight.”
Ben laughed at that and started to get up as well. “Well, that’s Swarm for you.”
“So what have we learned,” Katie said as she walked up to the two of them after they stood up.
“That your kinda a bitch,” Resolve said in a false upbeat tone.
“That next time your drones start swarming we should just attack you right away? And we might want to practice some teamwork?” Ben offered.
Katie rolled her eyes. “Yes to that last part, but the biggest thing you should have learned was that I’m the heavy hitter here. So next time any of you want to do something stupid and dangerous ask for help. Also, in case you were wondering, that’s part of the amount of firepower I use to keep up with an A-Ranker. Admittedly, that’s under controlled circumstances and against an A-Rank I’m familiar with, but it’s something you’ll have to keep in mind given what I’ve learned about our targets.”
Ben frowned as what she said sunk in. “They have an A-Ranker with them? How did you find that out?”
Katie shook her head. “I’ll tell you back at my place. We’ll go there to be secure and I’ll brief you both and also gear up a bit more. Then we can really start scouting things out. That is if the cube has finally been moved to their new hideout. Last time we checked, the cube was somewhere in Haven and that’s definitely not where their hideout is.”
Ben’s frown deepened but he nodded at that. And while Resolve was scowling fiercely, no doubt tired of waiting, she nodded in assent.
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A bit after they left the gym, the three of them met again at the secret entrance to Katie’s lab. Ben and Katie had just flown to it, being careful not to be seen heading there. Resolve though, not being able to fly and rejecting being carried again, took an extra ten minutes to meet them there. Which wasn’t too bad considering how long it would normally take to get from downtown Haven to Katie’s house on foot.
Apparently, her teleports only needed a couple of minutes to recharge and had a pretty long range.
Once they were all together, they made their way into the secret entrance, through the tunnel, and arrived at Katie’s lab. There, like she always did, Katie went and got herself a soda. Ben rejected the one offered to him, taking a water instead while Resolve accepted hers.
Resolve took a quick sip before she finally asked, “Alright, so what did you learn about those assholes with Blitz anyway? And how did you even find anything out about them?”
“I have my ways,” Katie said with a shrug before sitting down just as one of her lab Bugbots got under her and levitated up as a chair. Right beside her was a rolling stool she could have used, but apparently that was too boring for her. “Can’t go into the details but I have access to some Villain databases. Blitz and his gang are a known quantity to the authorities to an extent.”
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“And they have an A-Ranker?” Ben asked, wanting to get to the crux of the matter. He was also pretty sure he knew where she got that access. After all, the Workshop worked closely with the Cascade League. The much more pressing concern was the A-Ranker. It was a major complication and something they would have to work around. Especially if the A-Ranker was an adult.
Shield Maiden was already ridiculously strong but she couldn’t have been any higher level than the low 70s. 73 at most. Leveling as an A-Ranker was a lot harder than the lower Ranks, so with probably only two years under her belt, that was as high a level as she could have. But with long-time A-Rankers? They could be much higher level, and for A-Rank, each level could mean a lot.
“They do,” Katie said, nodding grimly. She then gestured to one of the walls and a holographic monitor suddenly appeared in front of it. The image quality was really crisp, though its holographic nature was apparent from the glowing edges of the image. “Apparently he goes by Warp Master.”
On the monitor was a photo of the man in question along with bullet points about what was known about him. The photo showed a man with a dark blue and purple costume. His mask looked to be metal and was a full face covering one with slits for the eye holes that glowed red. He had a high-collared purple cape with blue accents and his chest was covered in some kind of metal breastplate. Under all that was the typical super suit.
Ben took all that in quickly, and then scanned through the bullet points. He stopped when he saw the man’s estimated age.
“So he should be in his early twenties,” Ben said, relief in his voice. “Not the best but at least he’s not a long-time A-Ranker.”
“Keep in mind that’s an estimate,” Katie said. “It’s based on behavior patterns, his known associates, when he appeared and whether or not he could be an import from elsewhere, and even vocal analysis. Not 100% accurate even if the man didn’t go out of his way to be deceptive.”
“Right,” Ben said with a nod, reading over the rest of the notes. Warp Master was some kind of a teleporter. At first, it was thought that he was a line-of-sight teleporter but it was recently confirmed that he needed to swap objects and people instead of just straight teleportation. “So best we be careful. And probably go after Blitz and the cube when he’s not around.”
“Yes,” Katie said. “Though pay attention to the last part. That goes double for you, Resolve.”
Ben looked to where Katie was indicating but was interrupted by Resolve.
“That’s horseshit!” Resolve shouted, sounding pissed. “Escalation rate low? Petty Villainy? No way anyone willing to work with that fucker Blitz is anything but the worse scum! Where the hell did you even get this? It’s obviously wrong. Their gang is even a Syndicate gang!”
Katie sighed and shook her head. Unlike normal, she didn’t rise to meet Resolves shouting. “It’s not Resolve. This stuff is from an official Cascade League database. Also, these are the cliff notes. From what I understand, Warp Master is a new up-and-coming Villain who has recently been gathering up Villains for a gang. They are members of the Syndicate but you should know just how different their various gangs can be. The rest of the members that we’ve identified and are in the Villain database are the same. Petty Villainy and low escalation rate. Only Blitz is the outlier and suspected of murders.”
Resolve stood up and slammed her hands onto the workbench she’d been sitting behind. She did it so fast that her stool went crashing to the ground. Her whole body was tense and she glared at Katie furiously. Ben stared at her wide-eyed at the sudden display, not sure what to do. Resolve was pretty angry normally but this was on a whole other level.
“Katie…” Resolve said, her voice low but menacing and her shoulders heaving. “Blitz is not suspected of murder. He is a murderer.”
Once again, Katie didn’t react to the outburst. Very out of character for her and it made Ben even more nervous. Instead, she nodded and spoke softly. “Yes. Sorry. We know he’s a murderer but officially the government doesn’t have enough evidence to be sure. And considering that, the rest of the gang may be just as bad. But we also shouldn’t assume that and escalate things if it comes to a real fight.“
Resolve stared at Katie for another long moment, her breath heavy before she looked down. Her fists were balled on the table and trembling. After another long moment, she righted her too and sat down. keeping her eyes on the table. “Sorry…”
“That’s okay,” Katie said, then she winced as she continued. “But since we’re on the topic, I think we need to discuss something.”
Resolve took one more deep breath before looking up. “Discuss what?”
“You want to capture Blitz, right?” Katie said, voice still soft. “And you want to… extract some information from him. But… Afterward, we are going to give him to the authorities. Is that alright with you?”
Resolve’s breathing quickened and she started to tremble again. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before calming herself. “Yeah… As long as we put him away… He should have enough shit on his record to get him locked away for a long time… And if he gets out again… I’ll be much stronger then.”
Ben really wished he could believe that she meant that she could put him back behind bars easier then if Blitz went back to Villainy. Somehow, he really doubted that though. Not from how furious she’d been. Or from the pain he saw in her eyes despite her anger.
“Alright then,” Katie said, moving on from the heavy topic. “Since that’s the case, we will have to be careful about how we do this. None of us have our full Hero licenses and tracking down and hunting Villains like this could get us in trouble. Added to the fact that we'll probably have to do some… Well… Potentially questionable things to get information out of Blitz, and we will need to make sure things can’t get linked back to us. Before that though…”
Katie turned to look at Ben. “You don’t know the full story, Gem, but I’m sure you can guess some of it. The full story is for Resolve to share if she ever wants to. But I know you and I know you wouldn’t be happy with us toeing certain moral lines. Do you still want to be involved after hearing that? Cause you're one of my closest friends, but so is Resolve. And if need be we could go after the cube together after, or I can even grab it when helping Resolve.”
Ben frowned as he thought about it. Things had taken a very sudden and unexpected turn. He’d guessed that Dark Resolve's enmity with Blitz wasn’t a small thing. Considering her name and the things she said before, along with what Katie had said about Blitz, he had expected something like this. But he’d thought that Katie would be able to keep things calm enough and they would just give Blitz over to the authorities. But if they needed to get something out of him…
“What moral lines are we talking about,” Ben asked, looking at Katie. “Like cause it sounded like you wanted to torture the guy but… Can’t you just get some kind of Tinker Tech truth serum?”
Katie raised an eyebrow at that. “And you’d be okay with that? If we took this guy, criminal and scum he may be, and pumped him full of chemicals against his will. Chemicals that fuck with his mind and bend it to our whims? You wouldn’t have any problems with that.”
Ben winced at the vivid and horrible description. He hadn’t thought about it like that… Damn it. He hadn’t expected strange moral quandaries when he’d woke up today. And did it make him a bad person if he couldn’t just say that it would be over the line? Normally he would, but… That look Resolve had in her eyes. The hate. The anguish. Someone that could cause that kind of hurt… It made it a lot easier to justify certain things.
But then again, Ben didn’t even know what they were trying to find.
“Just what exactly do you need to get out of him anyway? Isn’t there another way?” Ben asked, hoping there was but knowing there wasn’t. If there was, Katie would have never brought this up. “I know I’m not necessarily needed for this, but I’m not sure if I can condone it if—”
“—I want the fuckers who killed my dad,” Resolve said, cutting Ben off and making him freeze. “Blitz was fucking involved, but he’s low-end scum. He’s a fucking B-Ranker and my dad… Wouldn’t have died to scum like him. That fuckwit loudmouth Jackal King got his from Dr. Ruin, but he was hardly leader material. I want to know who organized it all and everyone else involved in the death of Crimson Judgment.”
Ben stilled at her last words. He’d already wanted to help her. He knew what it was like to lose family. And he’d assumed that was what this was all about since few things could inspire such hatred. But that name. Crimson Judgment…
Just the name brought back memories from two years ago. The slew of articles. The even worse video online that he still regretted looking at. A man being slowly torn apart as he tried to protect a masked girl. Being toyed with after being ambushed. And the girl only escaping the same fate after the man passed because Heroes arrived.
Just remembering it made bile rise in Ben’s throat and his body tremble.
It also really fucking killed any empathy he had for Blitz. Maybe that made him a terrible person and a worse Hero. Maybe his brother would have had a strong enough heart to push aside the hate that was welling in his chest. But he couldn’t do it.
Ben didn’t like Villains. He thought they were terrible people abusing their powers. But Villains that did… what they did to Crimson Judgement, in front of his own daughter. Ben hated them even more than he hated monsters. Cause at least those things had the excuse of just being animals with powers.
With that in mind, Ben made his decision. Clenching his fist tightly, he met Katie’s eyes. Resolve wasn’t looking at him but looking down at the workbench in front of her.
“I’m… I’m not backing out of this now. I want to help get the cube and… As for Blitz. You can do whatever you need to do. Normally I wouldn’t want to be a part of that but… Yeah. No. Fuck Blitz.”
Katie nodded solemnly at that. “Well then, since we're all on the same page. Let’s go over the rest of what I have on the other Villains. Then I want to hand out some equipment. After that, we can start our search for these guys.”