“… awake. Not sure how he is even still alive,” said voices softly.
Grim heard them as he became aware of his surroundings. A distant explosion shook the floor, bringing him to a more alert awareness, but still not fully up to where he would have been otherwise.
“See? He’s waking up now. Nothing to worry about. His skin is already regrowing, Boss man wouldn’t die this easily,” said the voice that Grim now recognized as Tetra.
Cracking open an eyelid, he licked parched lips. A straw was immediately put between them and he sucked gratefully. Then the pain hit. His body spasmed for a moment as he felt more flesh being knitted together. After a moment they stopped, allowing him to take a deep and pain filled breath.
“What happened?” he asked. Then he realized he could feel the normal connection he had with his armor. Panicking slightly, he turned to see them stacked up within arms reach on a nearby table. He immediately relaxed, realizing that they had allowed themselves to be removed so that he could be cared for.
Even Strap.
“Boss… you were in bad shape. Like, you looked like you stuck you arm in a high voltage transformer and let it crispify you,” Tetra said. “You didn’t have any hair, third degree burns across most of your body, and we couldn’t move you at first. Your damn clothes wouldn’t let us. But man oh man did you do a number on that fucking Death guy.”
Stella moved into his view, pushing Tetra away. “Not just Death, you two leveled most of the northern part of the industrial district in your fight. Buildings from that era just weren’t designed to hand a serious fight between Class V’s,” she added.
“He wasn’t a Class V,” Grim muttered, catching both their attentions.
Stella patted his shoulder, getting a small wince from him. “He had to have been. He was far to strong for a Class IV Master,” she said. Then her eyes widened in shock. Even Tetra was forced into momentary silence. “You think he was above a Class V?”
“I don’t think. I know. He said as much,” Grim said, coughing slightly. “But we can talk about that later. I can hear the gunfire and explosions. What’s going on? I Thought taking out that fucker would give us the breathing room we needed?”
Tetra nodded, “Normally it would have. But in this case… well people really don’t like you Boss,” she said with a chuckle. “The damn military stepped in. They have a lot more firepower than the Guild and League combined. More supers too. They haven't deployed any of their Class V’s as of yet, but if we keep resisting at the level we are then its only a matter of time. Not to mention no one has seen Retribution in a few weeks. Now we are fighting everyone. Everyone is fighting everyone. It’s total chaos.”
“You were only out for a couple days while you regenerated, but changes are rolling through Euron in spades Master. Political changes, social changes, changes that we don’t even know about yet. Few of them good,” the succubus admitted. “It seems there was some kind of coup, but no one knows whose in charge. At least no one is admitting it,”
Grim groaned, shifting his still healing body to a sitting position with the help of Stella and Tetra. “But we are holding back the Guild, League, and the Government now?”
“Not… quite Boss man,” Tetra said. “The Heroes Guild is no more. They disbanded right after you turned Death into crispy fried bacon bits. I don’t know where the Heroes ended up at, but a few came our way. Ditto with the League, only they fell to infighting. I guess Death was more of a lynchpin holding them together than we initially thought. We got tons of recruits from them though, from minions to villains. None of the heavy hitters mind you, but lots of new small fry.”
Stella crossed her arms with a frown, “Too many small fry. Honestly we don’t have the resources to care for this many people. I budgeted and planned for about five to eight thousand people. Now we have twenty. Plus all the damn imps, androids, and robots… and Rat. He eats a lot.”
He grimaced. That was… a lot of people. An army in their own right. A small cities worth of people.
Grim froze.
Then he turned to the woman, “A small city,” he said, sounding out the idea. “They can’t survive in Inferno. Not possible. Environment would kill them. But they can survive in the wilds. Its just going to take a lot of work. And preparation. Time and materials that we don’t have…” he petered off in thought.
Tetra giggled, “I’ve been working on a bug out plan for us Boss. The beasts in the wilds are strong. Not as strong as you, individually, but there are lots more of them. But here’s the thing, the only flying beasts are near the mountains, and they aren’t that strong. Just numerous. I figured if we can fly out into the wilds we can raid cities and countries around us for what we need to become self-sufficient. Then we bunker down, develop our tech and army, then we take over the fuckin world!” She cackled madly, tail and wings waving wildly while a forked tongue wiggled in the air. He didn’t know she had a forked tongue.
Could be fun.
Stella rolled her eyes, “Crazy over here isn’t wrong, if a bit ambitious. If what you mentioned earlier is right then we need more people, better weapons, stronger supers, and a much stronger you Master. We can only guess how many Tier V and up supers are out there. Death almost did you in by himself. Imagine a duo or full team of them.”
Grim winced. Yeah, that wasn’t a good thought at all. Stella had a very good set of points. It had been a running firefight ever since he had arrived here. Battle after battle. And while he didn’t mind the constant fighting, it left very little room for him to pursue his goals. In this case, maybe a repositioning of assets would be for the better.
At least he had assets now.
Tetra whipped out a buzzing tablet and tapped on it, her face going grim. “Oh boy, we have problems.”
“No kidding. There’s lots of problems everywhere. The Syndicate is falling apart before it even-“ Stella began but was cut off when the building they were in was sheered in two, giving the trio a great view of several supers floating in the air. One of which they recognized immediately.
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“Hello there hobo,” sneered Retribution. “I was wondering when I was going to find you again. Imagine my immense surprise when I learned Death was dead. Death had died? Something like that. Regardless, when I learned he died, and you were involved. But then I heard a little birdy say that you were hurt really, really bad and I thought boy, wouldn’t this be a great time for a visit?”
Grim held up a fist as the Heroes’ looked at him in confusion. He put a single finger up. “One, you people suck at names. Fuck.” Then he deployed a second finger, “Two, what rock did you crawl out from under? Seriously. You show up at the worst times and your entrances suck.” Retribution was turning red with rage but Grim held up a third finger, forestalling any speaking. “Three, go back to your little controller and learn some manners for fucks sake. You entered like a villain. That’s my job. Get some manners you disrespectful prick.”
“There isn’t anyone above me in charge anymore,” Retribution said with a savage grin. “No Guild. No League. Just a whole lot of people without proper leadership. And no, they have it, from me.”
Stella face palmed, “You took over the government didn’t you?”
“With aplomb,” the now super dictator confirmed. “They cheered me as I slaughtered the executive branch. There is no hope for those who sit on the sidelines and do nothing to help further Elysium. Now that I am in control we won’t have to worry about beasts. We will take back the wilds, crush and absorb the neighboring countries, and work towards unifying humanity under a single banner.”
Tetra clapped, “Yay! Villain rival!” she cheered. “Every good villain needs a rival!”
The supers behind Retribution looked mildly unnerved but said nothing. Apparently the crazy ex-hero really did have the backing of the military and government branches. Not surprising, what with the council that had been made up of immensely powerful beings being gone there was no leash on anyone anymore.
“I am no mere villain,” snapped Retribution. “I am the Hero that will unite the world. I will save humanity and return the planet to the people! As it should have been, long ago!” He then launched into a long winded speech of world unification and the elimination of the beasts who infested the planet, preventing mankind from expanding properly.
During this long-winded diatribe against anything he perceived as an obstacle or enemy, Grim slowly got to his feet and walked over to the table. He quickly got dressed. The moment he placed the overcoat on, Strap began bombarding him with requests to kill things. First and foremost, Retribution. A request Grim, and the rest of his armor, wholly intended to fulfill.
He just wasn’t sure if he could.
“I hate retreating. I hate retreating from assholes like this even more,” he grumbled back over their link.
“That makes me feel only marginally better. It’s a still a fucking retreat,” he retorted, to which Bag simply responded with the equivalent of a mental shrug.
“How did it take you assholes three days to find me anyway?” Grim asked suddenly, interrupting Retributions rant. The Hero turned to look at Grim, and paled visibly when he noticed he was dressed and ready to fight.
Swallowing and taking a stance he replied, “That is no business of yours! People are always willing to betray a villain when it comes to serving your kind up on the altar of justice!”
“So, a spy then. Grand. That makes it easy. Appreciate it,” Grim responded nonchalantly while adjusting Kim and Kane on his arms. “Alright, let’s do this.”
Retributions eyes went and the supers scattered as Grim hurled bolts of Hellfire at them. “Tetra, do whatever you gotta do but get everyone you can out to whatever spot you picked. Now!” He said, keeping the supers busy with continual attacks.
“Don’t let them escape!” shrieked Retribution as Stella and Tetra sprinted deeper into the remains of the building. With mountain frustration, his eyes began to glow until they reached the peak of fiery red. Then the lasers came out.
This was new. Not something that anyone had ever seen the super do before. It certainly caught Grim off guard as the twin lines of energy erupted from Retributions face, slicing into the wall, cutting the bed in half, and slamming directly into his overcoat, Strap.
And the attack did nothing.
“Well, that was anti-climactic,” Grim muttered in agreement. Then he turned and ran after his two minions. He could hear Retribution screaming orders behind him, but his voice rapidly became muted after he put several doors, walls, and hallways between them.
Realizing that he had completely forgotten to ask the mad cat demon what her plans were, or even where to go, Grim simply followed the hallway out through a reception desk and into the street. He rapidly realized during his egress of the building that he was in a hospital. That made even him slightly sick to his stomach. He had killed a lot of people and beings, a lot, over his lifetime. But he had never attacked a hospital.
Not on purpose anyway.
Sure enough, Retribution and his half dozen patsies came flying over the top of the large medical facility. They spotted him immediately, flying after him. Grim was sure he could fight three, maybe four of them simultaneously. But seven was a bit much, particularly when he didn’t know what abilities his opponents had.
He took a deep breath and shoved the immense pain he was in to a corner of his mind. He could deal with the fallout later. If he lived. He coiled his muscles, feeling the power of his still developing super abilities washing through them. Then he blurred away.
“That… takes way too much concentration to get going,” he complained to bag.
Grim blinked, and even Bag seemed a bit taken aback. Someone had apparently been paying attention to their surroundings.
“Right. Will do. Thanks Kim. Good job,” he replied. He could feel the gauntlet practically glow with the praise. Always acknowledge the assistance of those on your side helping you. Particularly if they were a demon infused piece of a equipment that was parasitically attached to your body.
Annoying a being like that could be perilous.
He had only managed to turn at the intersection and get a block down from the sewer tram line before he was caught. Grim was slammed face first into the roadway as one of the faster supers barreled full force into his back.
“The fuck?” Grim ground out, spitting dirt and rocks from his mouth. He spun on the ground, put both feet on the surprised super’s purple spandex suit, and launched him across the street and into a car. “Fuck off.”
He got back up only to see several more supers turn the corner at the intersection, but Retribution wasn’t among their number. He prepped himself for a short, brutal fight, when more than a dozen imps launched themselves off the top of one of the buildings the supers were flying under.
The group took down all five and immediately began tearing into them with claws and teeth. Apparently supers tasted good, because it looked like the imps began comparing cuts of meat to one another before devouring the meat raw. One imp saw him and gave a cheery thumbs up before returning to its meal. Mildly grossed out, Grim absorbed the five souls before looking for the super that had tackled him, but he had slipped away in the confusion.
Shrugging, Grim moved on. He had more important things to do than just hang around and wait to be attacked. He made good time to the sewer grate, marked with a big red x on top of the lid. Grim rolled his eye at the conspicuousness, then tore it open and hopped in, catching the top rung of the ladder inside. He replaced the lid above him before dropping into the darkness. It was time to get back to the lair and leave this crumbling war-torn country behind.
For now at least.