Wave 2.10

2010, October 16: Brockton Bay, NH, USA

It was time. My near-death experience at the hands of Skidmark had awakened my latent psychic affinity, pushing me to move beyond Agility. Reflecting back, I had worked with SAINT, feeding him my aura and lashing out with a combined Psychic that threw the Merchants away like ragdolls. I took that as my cue to pick up Psychic via TM for real.

The headache was a sobering reminder to not push my luck, but I could now exert telekinetic force externally at will. It wasn't much, barely more than what I can lift with my own hands, but floating around my room pretending I was the Manhunter or Tatsumaki was admittedly pretty funny.

Hopefully, my next breakthrough wouldn't require another near-death experience.

I spent the past two days alternating between drawing schematics of different parts of my future ship, refining more pyrobloin, and forging ingots of wapometal. There was no way in hell I'd be able to build a ship in the time I had, but I was hoping some of that bullshit engineering would carry over. To that end, I thought I found a workaround: I completed building a scale model of the Thousand Sunny.

My power required that I build something in order to commit it to memory so I built a ship using the engineering expertise of Franky and Iceburg. Sure, it was a ship for mice, but damn it, it was a fine ship. So long as everything worked and the vessel was technically seaworthy, I was hoping the engineering knowledge would carry through for future applications.

A part of me wanted to make the Black Rhino FR-U IV, a three-wheeled muscle-bike capable of running through most obstacles, but it wasn't a priority. I had the materials needed and had even built a prototype using my old bicycle, but I didn't have enough wapometal that I felt comfortable wasting so much of it on what was essentially a luxury.

I had to build up as large a stockpile of seastone and wapometal as possible if I wanted the ship properly defended. Even when I wasn't in the forge, I kept it running almost twenty-four seven.

Instead of building with materials I couldn't afford to lose, I smuggled random fruits and vegetables from home to my lab to experiment. I tried to extract the lineage factor of a variety of fruits and inject them all into a single bland potato.

I ended up with a "fruit" that had the consistency of a potato, taste of an apple, and the fragrance of lemon zest. Eating the baked mutant potato was a distinctly memorable experience. Honestly, after a few tries, it stopped being an experiment to master the techniques of Dr. Vegapunk and became a source of amusement. Whenever I got too tired of working out and trying to box SAINT without Agility to boost me, I'd grab some funky fruit and make biology weep in a corner.

I had just finished making a lemon taste like watermelon when my PokéNav rang. I took a paring knife and started to peel the fruit. "SAINT, could you get that?"

A hologram of Amy's face appeared from the PokéNav on the counter. "Bryce, you there?"

I walked into her line of sight and waved my now half-peeled lemon. "Hey, what's up?" I took a big bite of the yellow fruit and sent her a toothy smile.

"Huh, my camera activated on its own." Her face zoomed into the camera for a moment, giving me a good look at her left nostril. "Does this mean you're using the weird hologram thing you made? Wait, are you eating a lemon? Raw?"

I fired back with a question of my own. "Has anyone ever told you that you have very well-groomed nostrils?"

She let out an adorable squeak and clamped her hand over her nose. "No! Eww! Who even says that?"

"People with a guided tour of your left nostril. Take a step back from the camera, Ames."

"Oh, fuck you, you ass."

"Phone sex? Already? But Ames, we've only known each other for a month!"

"Die. In. A. Fire."

"Anyway, yes this is a lemon. It's quite good, really delicious. Could be better with some tequila, but what're you gonna do, right?"

"You're so damn weird." Then, she realized she got distracted and visibly shook her head like a dog. "No, not the time. You need to get out there."

"Me or Creed? Also, where is here? And do I have to? What exactly is happening?"

"The Merchants took one of Squealer's trucks and ran it into a pharmacy in Empire territory. They're duking it out with Krieg, Victor, and Othala. They apparently have a new tinker too. Show up. You promised."

"So I did. Well, I am a troll of my word, so be there I shall. And that's Trainwreck, fought him already."

"Would've been nice to mention that," she grumbled. "They're on Eighth and Caldwell Avenue. I expect you to help."

"Still not a hero," I felt I had to point out. "But I already said I'll be there, Ames. If nothing else, I'll keep things from getting worse."

"Thanks," she sighed with relief, "Vicky just finished changing into costume and is going to carry me to the hospital."

I shoved the rest of the lemon in my mouth. "Okay, have fun."

The call ended and SAINT looked at me with a curious gaze. "Yeah, bud, we're going. I want you to stay inside the suit this time," I spoke over his protest. "I almost died because I wasn't agile enough. I'm fast and strong in the suit, but that doesn't mean I know how to move the way I should, or process all the information the sensors are sending me. I need you with me."

My porygon looked pensive. He trilled his affirmation and a moment later, we were off.

X

Caldwell Avenue was one of the streets that merged into a highway out of the city. It extended north to south at the western edge of Brockton Bay. The Merchants, who held territory in the Trainyard and the outskirts of town, typically did not come south to the business areas of the city. However, with Squealer's mobility and Skidmark's need to wave his dick around, they'd taken Caldwell all the way to Eighth, the edge of Empire turf.

My personal preference would have been to leave them to duke it out then let the PRT clean up the dregs, but Skidmark had decided to hit Medline Pharmaceuticals in the daytime, during standard business hours to make his point. I'd done exhaustive research into every cape in the Bay over the years and I knew MedIine to be the pharmaceutical distribution subsidiary of Medhall.

Medline's CEO was one James Fliescher, who I knew to be Krieg. It was likely by luck, no way in hell he was smart enough to figure this out, but Skidmark was straddling dangerously close to breaking the unwritten rules and the Empire had no choice but to reply to this.

'I didn't leave Skidmark at the PRT's doorstep because I thought the vacuum would start a gang war I wasn't ready for. Is Skidmark going to start one anyway?' I wondered, cursing my damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. 'I don't know what I was expecting from Brockton Bay.'

I cursed Wildbow one more time and stealthed to scope out the situation from a nearby rooftop. Amy wasn't exaggerating as it turned out.

Squealer had taken a modified garbage truck, a brother to the dump-dozer that Faultline cut in twain, and literally drove it through the main doors of the pharmacy. Four more pickup trucks filled with drugged up idiots made a makeshift barricade around the entrance.

Their flagship truck was even more heavily armored than its fallen brother, no doubt in some misguided assumption that Faultline had limits to what she could cut. Limits existed, just not in the direction Squealer was looking at.

Plates of metal stripped from abandoned locomotives were welded to the sides and front. The blades of the bulldozer were split in two and suspended on articulated arms that could split apart horizontally, clearing the way for a drilling hook of some kind. Presumably, it was to easily pierce obstacles, or maybe to tear them apart. Or, they just thought it looked cool. I wouldn't put it past them.

Squealer had learned somewhat from her previous defeat. In order to keep opponents from locking down the turrets with adhesives like Gregor did, much of the mechanisms maneuvering each turret had been moved to the inside of the truck. Gaps in the armored plating allowed them to retain a reasonable range of motion.

There was a single turret remaining atop the truck body. It was larger than the rest and contained a nest of micro-missiles rather than bullets. That one made me a little nervous; I didn't know Squealer could make those.

The interior of the truck had been divided in two, with the bulk of the space going to a storage compartment for Mush's trash. The other served as a holding area for Trainwreck's armor, an eight feet tall affair that looked largely the same as when I'd seen it last.

The large scrap tinker leapt out of the truck with surprising grace and landed on the ground, cracking pavement. He'd attached a pair of doors from cargo trains to his arms, allowing him to act as a mobile barricade for the Merchant fodder.

Mush took the other side, lashing out with tendrils of garbage to keep the Empire at bay. About two-thirds of the Merchants were outside keeping everyone busy while the rest were busy looting the pharmacy with Skidmark.

The Empire presence was largely as Amy described, with Krieg holding the line against Merchant gunfire and Victor returning fire from behind Krieg with far more accuracy. Every time Victor stood up, one of the Merchants' fell with a fatal wound.

I could see his wife, Othala, towards the back behind a car surrounded by Empire flunkies. She touched one grunt and he suddenly stood before he unleashed a torrent of flames towards the cowering Merchants.

As for the police, they'd retreated to the end of the block, closing off the street to the best of their ability. Brockton Bay being Brockton Bay, I could see several civilians standing around filming instead of getting to cover. The police shouted at them to stand back, but they wouldn't be Brocktonites if they had anything resembling common sense. It appeared as though I'd arrived before the heroes.

'Coil's meddling? Or was Velocity busy? Doesn't matter. Civvies first.'

Sighing, I leapt down from the six story building, catching myself with the hover boots to avoid falling too quickly. I ran through the air, ignoring the gunfire, and swept up a man who'd gotten a bit too close to the action.

"Let's not try for the Darwin Awards, bud," I growled, depositing him behind the police cordon.

"Cape!" someone called.

I rolled my eyes and pretended to look around. "No, shit. Where?"

"My baby!" another woman said.

"Okay, that one's important. Where?"

She pointed to one of the cars that had been shoved aside by the dump-dozer. The "baby" was actually a teenage son who'd been driving. The door had been crushed against a light pole, leaving the boy trapped inside.

'She must have been nearby and came after hearing about the accident,' I thought. 'But why isn't he leaving through the other door?'

My question was answered when I arrived on site. When the driver's side had been crushed against the light pole, the car crumpled and shoved the steering wheel into his stomach, leaving him stuck.

"Kid, you hurt? Look at me." His eyes fluttered open before he groaned in pain. Judging him to be fine, I got to work getting him out. Ripping the already damaged car door off its hinges was a simple matter with the GES. I then grabbed the boy in a fireman's carry and dragged him past the cordon into the waiting arms of the EMT.

I saved a few more civilians, shielding and walking with them to the police cordon when I heard the muffled shriek of the garbage-man.

"You!" I heard Mush scream.

'Guess he recognizes me.' I threw both hands into the air with two peace signs and cheered. "Me!"

Mush responded with a large haymaker using a metal garbage can as his fist. I nonchalantly turned my back, signaling for SAINT to activate the shield module. That was also when Velocity arrived. I stood there, back turned to the Merchants as concentric yellow hexagons bloomed behind me. Mush strained against my shield and my cape fluttered behind me dramatically as I gave the Protectorate hero a once-over.

"Yo," I greeted. "Nice breeze we're having."

I could practically see his power accelerate his perception so he could try to understand the sheer randomness of the situation before him. He must have processed my presence in super-speed because his posture changed from shock to cheeky banter in less than a second.

"A cape, really? Aren't you a bit short for that?"

"Dress like the man you want to be," I quoted at him before dragging a little girl from behind a car and to the police using Psychic by the scruff of her neck.

He blurred into red for a moment. The Merchant who'd been aiming at her suddenly found a miniature con-foam grenade (pellet?) lodged in his mouth. "You want to be a Sentai Elite?"

I groaned. "I walked into that one, huh?"

"Kinda. New hero?"

"Empire!" I chirped cheerily, only to immediately find a foam grenade at my feet. "Rude," I said, voice muffled. I jumped twelve feet into the air and shoved the grenade in the opposite direction, towards Mush, before landing by an Empire grunt. I leaned an elbow against his shoulder the way Bugs Bunny did whenever he was fucking with people. "Some people just can't take a joke, am I right?"

"Uhh, right." He looked confused but willing to agree with anything that'd get him in the good graces of a new caped officer.

"Yeah, see?" I called to the red blur, one hand pointed at the grunt. "He gets it." I promptly punched him on the chin, rattling his brain inside his skull. With my enhanced strength, he dropped like a light. I put on an affected casual stroll and walked out from behind the car. "As if I'd join the Empire."

"Shit, he's a hero!" came the cry from one of the grunts.

I dashed over and slapped the gun out of his hand. "Not a hero!" I shouted back, laying him out with an exaggerated headbutt.

With the civilians behind police riot shields and Velocity making quick work of the grunts on both sides using liberal quantities of con-foam, the capes were free to focus on me.

"It does not matter who you are," Krieg said in an obviously fake German accent. "You will fall before the Empire."

"Did you come from Gesellschaft because they bullied you for your terrible accent?" I shot back. SAINT blared a warning on my HUD and I ducked to avoid a speedster grunt courtesy of Othala.

Before I could retaliate, SAINT took control of the suit and forced me to drop to my face. With an ear-splitting screech, one of Squealer's micro-missiles sailed above my head to collide with a building across the street. I heard screaming and shouts of pain. Smoke rose above the rooftops as something inside caught fire.

"SAINT, our priority is the civilians," I hissed.

Another missile streaked by, but exploded harmlessly against the glowing shield of a newly arrived Dauntless. "Militia in one minute," he shouted to Velocity.

Taking that as my cue, I hopped up the sky to speak with him. "Dauntless!"

"New hero?"

"On your side," I dodged the question. "How many of those missiles can your shield block?"

"Two more, three if I push it."

"Tell Velocity to get civilians out of the building. Squealer's got six more. We'll trade off."

We finished our hasty planning just in time. Whoever was piloting the turret aimed it at the Empire grunts immobilized by con-foam and while the idea of literally taking a bullet for Nazis made me queasy, letting them die wasn't exactly an option either, not if it'd give Kaiser a reason to start a war over this. With extreme reluctance, I used Magnet Rise to tug the turret my way even as I ran to intercept.

'Welp, let's hope my shield's as good as Sanji's,' I thought. I swirled my cape over my head just as the first missile struck. My world became fire and sound, the screech of flight then roar of the explosion positively deafening. I skidded back despite my shield's ability to negate the majority of kinetic impacts.

"Holy shit," I heard someone whisper behind me. I understood; I felt the same.

"SAINT, shield integrity?" I whispered. A flashing sixty-eight percent was my answer. "Oh… Wow… I'm way better than I thought. I can do this."

I pinned the turret on myself with Magnet Rise despite the gunman's attempt to aim elsewhere. Once, twice more the shield rattled before I thought I could take no more. "Dauntless! Switch off!" I shouted. He landed in front of me just in time to take the sixth, seventh, and eighth missiles.

I would have liked to give my shied time to recover, or possibly fire a retaliatory Thunder Wave towards the turret, but I was distracted by Krieg who lobbed a grenade my way. The throw was nothing special, but enhanced by his power, it wouldn't have gone amiss at a professional baseball game.

"Shit!" I yelped, tanking the explosion and shrapnel with my torso. None of it penetrated the Germa fibers, but it did remind me that this was a fight between three factions, not two.

"Your creations are impressive," the Schutzstaffel wannabe said, voice too casual for a man who just tried to kill me.

"Thanks, you wouldn't believe how many hours went into this," I chirped back, quashing my adrenaline with the weight of snark alone.

"You could do so much good for the cause."

"Sorry, I'm a Jew," I lied. My great grandmother on my mother's side was in this life, but I didn't think that counted. I dashed to close the distance but every step felt heavy. I'd like to say I fought him on even ground even in his telekinetic field, but I'd be lying.

I threw a textbook straight. He knocked it aside with his left hand, opening my guard for a jab of his own. The blow felt like a light tap on my chin. There was no chance of him hurting me through it, but nor could I do much to him in a physical confrontation. He must have hurt his hand on my helmet because he snarled something unfit for children in German then kicked me like a sack of potatoes out of his field. The kick shot me over Dauntless and on a collision course with Trainwreck.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a floating bus land and deposit more Empire goons. Rune had arrived with reinforcements.

Victor immediately went to take command of them, leading them to form a firing line against the police. Their goal wasn't to actually down any cops, only to force them to stay behind their riot shields and protect the civilians. It was no wonder the BBPD never got anything done if all the civvies kept insisting on trying out for the Darwin Awards like this.

Othala ran inside with three of her own minions. She must have empowered one of them, because he launched a salvo of fireballs at Dauntless that the hero deftly dodged. Rune took off again, turning the bus into a flying artillery platform.

I finally landed against Trainwreck, my weight crumpling the car door he'd been using as a shield. "Hey, bud, fancy meeting you here," I quipped.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He grunted then dropped the now useless shield, instead opting to bring down both hands on my prone form. I rolled out of the way with less grace than I'd like. "You again?"

"Yeah, someone asked me to save the civvies. Can we not do this?"

Another grunt and a pointed look elsewhere was his answer. Fuck yea, mutual tinker respect. That, or he was a lot more pragmatic than the other Merchants, Coil's influence no doubt. That gave me the chance to dash up onto the pharmacy rooftop and fade from the visible spectrum to take stock of the situation again.

Victor and the grunts had switched focus and were firing on the Merchants. The remaining Merchant grunts not dead or con-foamed were holding out thanks to Mush and the turrets set inside the truck. Thankfully, Squealer seemed to have run out of micro-missiles for the moment.

Krieg, Dauntless, and Trainwreck were having their own three-way showdown. Trainwreck's insulated armor gave the hero a much harder time than anyone would expect. Sometime between now and our last meeting, Trainwreck had restored his flamethrower and was trying to bathe Dauntless in flames, but Dauntless was too agile, flight too great an advantage for him to take more than glancing blows.

I paused at that.

'Is my job done? All the civilians are saved, or as saved as can be given the circumstances. I feel like if anyone sticks around, it's on them.'

I was about to head out when Skidmark emerged from the pharmacy with his own fresh troop of Merchants. He was sporting some kind of makeshift jaw brace, probably cobbled together by Trainwreck.

The Merchants began to load the trucks quickly and I saw Skidmark's blue fields layer themselves atop the roof of their flagship dump-dozer next to the micro-missile turret. He hadn't said a word to announce his presence, atypical for the usually foul-mouthed man. Because he kept his trap shut, people were ignoring him in favor of more immediate threats.

After eight layers, he shouted, "You cock-munchers want to fuck with the Merchants? Fucking suck on this!" At least, that's what I thought he said. His speech was a bit garbled at the moment.

Something triggered his fields then flashed into a car the Empire was using for cover, causing it to explode spectacularly.

"Victor!" I heard Othala scream for her husband.

"Rune," Krieg snapped, "block the monkey."

"On it!" Rune rushed to obey. Descending for a moment, she drew her sign on a broken car and raised it into the air. It was the right call on Krieg's part; Skidmark's fields were one-way so predicting its vector was simple. The car Rune held in the way exploded much like the first, sending shrapnel everywhere.

"Shit," I cursed. Rune might keep Skidmark from finishing off the Empire grunts and Victor, but the shrapnel was almost as dangerous as active gunfire for the civilians. "I'm going to have to break the truck, aren't I?"

I shrugged and hopped down right on top of the truck as he was about to toss something else through the field. He held a bag full of nuts, bolts, and odd scraps, all of them far deadlier than they had any right to be.

"Hey, Skids, remember me?" I greeted, tone jovial as I came out of invisibility.

He shrieked something incoherent before lunging my way. I saw him coming though, so I pivoted on one foot and shoved him off the dump-dozer. "Thunder Wave," I called, shoving my strongest bolt directly into the truck body.

Instead of dying immediately or some finicky parts exploding like Team Rocket's robots tended to do in the anime, the truck sparked a bit then was fine.

"Hah! Trainwreck said you had some electric shit," Squealer… squealed. Say what you will about Skidmark's naming sense, but she fit hers to a tee. She leaned out of the driver's side to aim at me with a gun. "Die!"

I sighed and snatched the gun out of her hand with Psychic. "Tinkers are bullshit," I complained. I punched down as hard as I could on the metal, but I did nothing but leave little dents where my seastone knuckles landed.

I saw Mush lumber back to try and grab me, so I stepped into Skidmark's field and allowed myself to be launched over his head.

I flew in the air until I was caught by Rune's scrapheap car.

"Oh hey, there. You know, it's normally the guy that sweeps a gal off her feet."

"Are you… flirting with me?" she asked, genuinely baffled. She knelt atop her bus, car floating by her side. The pure confusion on Tammi's face was downright delicious.

"If I said yes, will you leave the Empire and become a respectable degenerate scum like myself?" I tried.

Her answer was to wrap the car around me, trapping me inside. "Fuck off," she yelled, tossing me to the side.

I landed and rolled in my car-ball. I considered staying like that for a bit, it was actually quite comfy, but I saw Skidmark clamoring back atop the dump-dozer. "Right, need to break the fields somehow. They need a flat surface so if I break the truck, I should also break the fields."

Miss Militia had arrived when I wasn't looking and had taken to firing rubber bullets at any gangbanger around. She took command of a squad of PRT troopers and started bolstering the police cordon. The woman practically strolled through the battlefield like it was just another Tuesday for her and I was reminded of the harrowing events of her trigger. Really, somewhat underwhelming power aside, she was probably one of the most combat-ready capes out there, a distinction I was sure she'd happily do without.

She wore combat fatigues colored red, white, and blue, but somehow made that look badass instead of tacky.

"Damn, that's a lady I don't want to fuck with," I whistled.

"You tell me," Velocity said, zipping by my side. "Not Empire then, huh?"

"Nope."

"You need help?"

"Nah, it's kinda cozy."

"If I foam you, are you going to stay put?"

I shrugged in my limited capacity to articulate my shoulders. "Ehh, probably not."

"Figures." He zipped off to throw things into Krieg's field. It wasn't doing much, but it was distracting him from bothering Dauntless, leaving Dauntless and Trainwreck to each other.

"Ideas. Ideas. Ideas." I muttered to myself as I tried to figure out how to break the truck. I wasn't strong enough. It was insulated from electrical attacks.

We were in a tricky situation.

The Empire couldn't retreat, no matter how far this escalated, because they were the defending faction. If they withdrew, no matter how Kaiser tried to frame it, it'd sound like he was making excuse for running from Merchants. From. Merchants. No, they'd stick it out even if their entire roster had to show to make their point.

The Merchants were too drugged up to retreat. Most of them sported bloodshot eyes and I counted only Trainwreck as truly in his right mind at the moment. Mush, maybe, but I couldn't exactly see him through all the trash.

The heroes of course had no choice but to remain so long as the combat lasted. They'd stick around to help clean up a bit then claim that the gangs ran from the long arm of the law or somesuch bullshit.

That said, I wasn't interested in ending the fight; I was interested in ending the fight while preserving the Merchants as an organization so I could prevent a vacuum from forming. It all came back to Squealer's dump-dozer. "Most of the Merchants are dead or captured, so if I break that, Skidmark should figure out that it's time to run. He's not an idiot after all."

Looking around, I got a crazy idea. The grin on my face could have split my face in two so it was a good thing no one saw it through the helmet.

I pried myself from the scrunched up car and faded from sight once more. From there, I cast Agility on myself and ran across the sky until I landed just behind Rune.

"Boo!" I shouted as I uncloaked.

"Ahh!" she screamed. The buss she was riding lurched dangerously. "What the fuck are you doing?"

She threw a sloppy punch that I caught effortlessly. We actually had similar builds, she was shockingly athletic for a teenage girl who mostly flew support, but it was clear that neither of us knew much about how to actually fight. Either way, I was the only one wearing a GES.

"Hitching a ride," I said with a grin. By now, the three minutes or so of Othala's power should have run out. I plopped down on my belly and punched in the window of the bus. Peering inside, I put on a faux jovial tone and cheered, "Hey there, crazy one-eyed lady."

"Wha-"

I didn't let her finish. I grabbed hold of her with Psychic and yanked her towards me before anyone had time to react. Once she was within arm's reach, it was over; she wasn't out-muscling me. I rolled her into a ball and pulled her through the broken window before shooting up higher into the sky.

"Hang tight!"

"Kyaaa!"

By the time I stopped, I stood several hundreds of feet in the air and had her in an awkward bridal carry. "So, how's the view?"

"Let go of me!" she shrieked.

I complied. She fell a few feet. She screamed some more. I hopped down and caught her. "You sure you want me to let go?"

"Let me down and I won't have the entirety of the Empire skin you alive," she gritted out.

"Can't." I jumped into the air several more times, climbing far out of anyone's ability to aim. With Victor out of commission, I doubted there was anyone currently on her side who could help her. Rune was far too slow. Although she could theoretically give chase, she wasn't immune from the forces of inertia. She'd fall off her mount long before she picked up the speed needed to keep up with me. "Seriously, enjoy the view and hear me out."

She punched me then immediately regretted her decision as her bare knuckles cracked against my helmet.

"Umm… wow, I'm all for ruining a Nazi's day, but I genuinely don't know who to root for right now," a feminine voice said.

When I looked to my right, I saw a pair of women flying towards me. One was middle-aged but in good shape, wearing a white costume with purple accents. The other was several years older than myself with a white-red theme and red headband to keep the hair out of her dazzling blue eyes. Sierra's hero-crush. My sister had great taste.

New Wave had arrived. I should have expected it considering how close this was to the college, but their presence still caught me by surprise.

"Photon Mom! Sparkles!" I greeted, cheering exuberantly.

"Lady Photon," Sarah Pelham said tiredly. "Who are you and what are you doing to Othala?"

"Giving those idiots down there a reason to stop fighting." I hopped into the air again to keep my altitude.

"I swear Kaiser will have your head for this," Othala glared. She didn't try to punch my head again so hey, progress!

"He'll try, Wazowski. Seriously, hear me out. I need you to give me invulnerability."

"Why the hell would I help you?"

"Well, I could always suplex your face into pavement." The two heroines glared at me disapprovingly. "But since I'm a gentleman, and totally not because the two scary ladies would shoot me, here's another reason: You should help me because this would end the fighting."

"Explain," Lady Photon said in that no-nonsense tone.

"Has anyone ever told you that your no-nonsense voice reminds you of their mother? Seriously, you sound almost exactly like my mom. You've got the whole 'mommy's not mad but she's very disappointed in you' voice down pat."

I could see Laserdream stifle a giggle before turning serious. "Yes, I have told her that. Then again, she is my mother. Now explain."

"Alright, the Empire won't run from this fight even if they have to call down their entire roster of capes. This is their turf. If they run, they look weak. Hell, they'd be running from Skidmark. You try to work out the optics of that one." I took their collective wince as cue to continue. "The heroes are stuck here as long as this fight lasts. But the Merchants? Skidmark's not an idiot believe it or not. If he thinks he has no chance, he'll withdraw. We need to break that truck and I need to be a brick to do it."

"Why can't we shoot it?"

"You could, Sparkles, but I tried a bolt of lightning and it didn't work. Can you break the truck without making it explode if it has that kind of armor? Or will you adding that much power to your lasers just drill a hole through it? How long will that take you?" Even Othala had fallen silent and stopped her flailing. "Normally, I'd be all for letting Rune wail on it with her cars, but that truck's more durable than the cars she's throwing around; it'd take forever. If we wait for Armsmaster to show up with an explosive of some kind, we'd also be waiting for Hookwolf and company. We need to take out the truck's guns without breaking the engine block."

"The Empire wins," Othala spat. "The Merchants die and the heroes look as incompetent as always. I have no reason to help you."

I nodded. "Normally yes, hence the suplexing. Can we get to the suplexing?" I begged the elder hero.

"No," both heroes said flatly.

"Alright fine, how about this? The car your husband was hiding behind was hit by one of Skidmark's empowered shots. He could be bleeding out and it's in your best interest to help me end this fight if you want to treat him in peace." Her face stilled as if not processing the words then morphed into concerned terror. For a moment, I felt bad for her. She was a Nazi, yes, but right now, she was a woman worried sick about her husband. "Please," I tried one last time. "For everyone's sakes."

"You have it," she said. "Three minutes." Her voice was remarkably still despite the pale pallor of her cheeks.

I nodded as I felt her power sink in. I handed her off to Lady Photon. "I'm trusting that you'll let her go under a truce agreement," I said. "Barring that, that you'll at least give her the chance to treat Victor."

For a moment, the leader of New Wave looked conflicted and I questioned my decision to leave an Empire cape in her hands. Fleur and Lightstar's absence was still felt in that family. Then, she swallowed her hostility and nodded solemnly. "We will."

"I'm off," I said. I jumped a few more times to catch as much air as possible before letting gravity grab hold of me again. My head naturally oriented downward and I used my PokéNav's function to point me towards the truck. "SAINT, Lock-On to the truck bed."

My cape fluttered behind me as I started to fall. I caught it on one arm and swirled it around myself. "Shield with everything we've got." I glanced at the flashing thirty-two percent shield integrity and tried not to think about it. It had charged a bit during the lull, but was nowhere near full.

Then, just as we started to build some speed, I fired my hover boots and kicked off as hard as I could. "Agility," I whispered, fueling my kicks with even more force.

"Protect." Everything I had was added to the suit's shield, the yellow hexagons and green sphere mixing in a dazzling display of color. I briefly saw the entire battlefield still and crane their necks towards the sky as I descended like an ornery star pissed at one truck in particular.

"GIGA IMPACT!" I roared, coming down on Squealer's truck like the hammer of an angry god. I made sure to aim for the back of the truck, away from the engine block.

It landed me directly on top of Skidmark's fields. The armored plating did absolutely nothing to impede my progress. I felt the suit's shield shatter before my Protect took the rest of the impact. I struck the truck and ruined the placement of Skidmark's fields, but I was launched almost as fast as I came in.

I shot off like a sling from a stone and embedded myself halfway into a stone pillar. Only Othala's invulnerability saved me from life-threatening injury. The suit was fine, but I most certainly would not have survived the experience without her power.

'And ain't that the shit,' I thought with a groan. 'I owe a Nazi.'

Pieces of plaster and concrete rained down on me. I brushed them off and stood, walking out and down from the second story building I'd been thrown into.

All eyes were on me. I had to seize the moment. Arms spread, I declared, "I think that's as good a finale as any, don't you, fellas?"

One PRT trooper shakily pointed his con-foam launcher at me, but Velocity blurred by his side and pushed the nozzle down. "He's a hero."

"I'm not," I shrugged helplessly. "I only said I'm on your side. And for the day, that's even true." I removed an imaginary hat and took a flourishing bow. "The name is Creed, an independent mercenary asked to prevent civilian deaths in this battle, and I declare this battle concluded."

"Fuck you!" Skidmark shouted. He'd managed to dive down from his perch and hide behind the truck, avoiding the brunt of the impact. The man had the tenacity of a cockroach.

Rolling my eyes, I used my still Agility-amped speed to cross half the distance before laying out a Thunder Wave that struck his torso. He slumped to the ground as I reached him. I faced the Merchants and held my arms out in open invitation.

"Anyone else? Your leader's down. Your artillery is in scraps. I suggest you withdraw while I let you."

Krieg stepped up. "Ah, but that permission is not yours to give, Creed."

I snorted. Rather than answer, I summoned a ball of electricity in my hands. "Psychic," I called.

Krieg was a competent lieutenant. He'd proven that while in his field, he was a good fighter, capable of taking on people far stronger and faster than he was. His power protected him from all sorts of kinetic impacts and even heat and electricity to an extent. It however did jack shit to guard him against a direct psychic attack.

Pokémon tended to downplay psychics, partially to keep their PG rating and partially because when everyone had aura, some passive protection was to be expected. As Syndrome said, "When everyone's special, no one will be."

Krieg had no such protections. I grabbed his own costume by the buttons and began to strangle him, cutting off his grandstanding. I couldn't lift tons and tons like Sabrina, but I didn't need to. Soon enough, the street was silent save for his desperate gurgling.

"Empire, Victor and Krieg are both down. You will allow the Merchants to withdraw."

"Hey, we're going to bring them in, Creed. You don't get to decide that," Velocity said.

"Leave." This time, I addressed Trainwreck, the only Merchant cape left who I considered even remotely rational. He sent me a curt nod and dragged Squealer out of her truck, shoving her in the same pickup that held an unconscious Skidmark. Grumbling, Mush followed. I turned to the heroes. "Anyone who's still foamed, you can keep. If you go after the Merchants right now, I will be your opponent. You will fail while I hold you off; several of you may even suffer injuries requiring Panacea's aid. Then, I will simply run away and you will have accomplished nothing. You will likely lose the foamed captures you already have."

Miss Militia frowned, clearly displeased by this development. "You were fighting the Merchants until ten seconds ago."

"I was. And now I am not fighting them," I said matter-of-factly. "Tell me honestly, heroes. If you capture them right now, can you prevent a gang war between the ABB and Empire over the vacuum left by the Merchants? Sure, they're the least of the gangs, but they're not nothing. Well?" I received sullen silence in response. "I thought not. The simple truth is that you are not ready to handle a gang war and I will not let you start one so you can feel good about a momentary feather in your cap."

Behind me, I heard three engines start. Of the five cars the Merchants came on, three was a respectable number to leave with all things considered. They drove away as the New Wave contingent landed with Othala.

"Rune, collect Othala and your capes. You have three minutes to leave before my protection expires." She looked like she wanted to argue and she sucked in her cheeks like she ate something sour, but with a gentle nod from Othala, she conceded. One of the Empire attempted to retrieve a foamed member and I fired a Thunder Wave into his chest. "The same rules apply. Foamed members belong to the heroes."

"Withdraw," Othala said, then turned to me with a conflicted expression. "Kaiser will hear of this," she promised. With both Victor and Krieg out, she was the senior cape so the rest of the Empire fell in line.

"Of that, I have no doubt. Leave, Wazowski ."

They cleared out within my three minute deadline, leaving me with Miss Militia, Velocity, Dauntless, Lady Photon, Laserdream, and a squad of troopers. Conflict resolved and the city in one piece, I allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief. "Whew, plan success, eh, Photon Mom?"

"Please don't call me that," she said with a strained smile.

"You planned this?" Miss Militia whirled.

"He did, he asked me to watch Othala while he did his best impression of a meteor."

"This is highly unusual."

"And that's the problem with soldiers, Minutegal," I said. "You lot are too inflexible. If I let you arrest Skidmark, Lung or Kaiser would have moved on Merchant turf within the week, maybe even one of the lesser gangs. You're not ready for that."

She frowned but before she could reply, Dauntless stepped between us. "What's done is done, Miss Militia, let's talk about just who you are, Creed. You're a tinker, right?"

I nodded, finally onto more comfortable topics. "I'm an independent. Think of me as a mix between Faultline, Toybox, and Mouse Protector. I take jobs occasionally. I sell tech online. Most of all, I try to have fun and keep everything from blowing up."

"Your shield was really impressive. It took me months to get a shield as good as yours. You could do a lot of good in the Wards."

"Tell me truly, Dauntless. Had I been a Ward, would I have been permitted to intervene here in any capacity?" I was met with silence. "And that is why I will not join the Wards. I'm sure most of the Wards are good people, but I don't need to learn to control my powers. I don't need funding. I don't need a lab. I don't need an image department telling me what I can and cannot build. I took a request from someone I admire today who asked me to save civilian lives. I have done so. That is all."

"Independent tinkers don't-"

I cut Miss Militia off before she could get going. "Don't last long? I know. I'm also aware of how much you've manipulated that data to misrepresent other outcomes besides death. Nor am I a fresh independent rummaging through scrapyards." I gestured lazily to the destruction behind me, letting the past several minutes speak for themselves.

Striding over with faux confidence, I placed a hand on the wreckage of Squealer's truck, the micro-missile turret in particular. It'd been snapped off its axle from my final attack and shattered into several pieces, but the part I identified as the launching mechanism was largely intact.

"Now, I believe I've accomplished all I set out to do today." I stooped low in another exaggerated bow. "Until next time."

"Wait," Miss Militia called, but I'd already turned invisible, taking the choicest piece with me.

X

I found it hilarious that it didn't take more than twenty minutes for a video of the whole encounter to be posted on PHO.

'Brockton Bay at its finest,' I chuckled to myself as I went about my lab. We really were the cape capitol of the world. I digitized Squealer's turret fragment in the DSS. After calling my mom and Sierra to assure them that I was nowhere near the fight, I thought about the things I'd done.

"All around, I think the fight went much better than our last one, right, SAINT?" I said as I allowed myself to plop down onto the bed in the berthing room.

"Pory," he agreed. I'd changed out of the suit, the helmet and cape a bit too unwieldy for casual wear.

As far as I could tell, I'd achieved everything I wanted heading into the fight: I kept my promise to Amy and did my best to save civilians. I also ensured that the Merchants would live another day preventing a power vacuum from forming. They were injured and licking their wounds, but they weren't out of this game yet. Lastly, I'd announced myself to the world at large as a new, independent cape willing to offer both my services and tech for the right price.

There were still several factors I wasn't sure about.

I didn't think a gang war was likely now, but this was Brockton. Kaiser was a cautious man. I doubted he would seek reprisal against the Merchants as it'd meant leaving the Empire open to the ABB and inviting the heroes, but I couldn't be certain.

To tilt the odds more in my favor, I'd presented myself as somewhat capricious but not unreasonable; Othala and Rune would report on me and my existence would be a massive wildcard. Without knowing whether I would involve myself again, he likely wouldn't make any drastic plays for power.

I was also unsure of the Protectorate and New Wave heroes' opinions of me. On one hand, I definitely saved lives. On the other, they'd likely figure out that I was the one who stirred the Merchants. Mush recognized me after all.

Hopefully, I came off as an independent with a code of ethics, but I couldn't be too confident that their impression of me was positive. Seeing how I stole Squealer's turret, there were even odds of them seeing me as just another opportunist. Even so, a cape who was willing to stop fighting was rare and one capable of forcing other capes to stop fighting even rarer. I'd shown a willingness to practice restraint and that alone should make me a lower priority compared to the gangs.

The major downside of this whole affair?

Coil knew I existed. He knew since the day I met Trainwreck, but now he'd seen my capabilities compared to some of the Empire's finest and I'd not been found wanting. There was no doubt that he'd soon have Tattletale snoop around for clues if he hadn't done so already. My saving grace was that I was practically impossible to track, but I wouldn't put it past Tattletale to work something out. I resolved to figure out a contingency of my own.

I got up and prepared myself some food, strips of an apple-flavored onion this time.

Almost two hours later, Amy called. Her face popped up on the hologram and I took an exaggerated step back.

"Ames, you look like shit," I said cheerily.

She flipped me the bird. "Fuck off, Bryce. Do you have any idea how many people I had to heal today?" she snapped. Before she could continue, I took a large bite of an onion and washed it down with some coke. "Why are you eating a raw onion?"

"It's got a great sweetness to it." I proffered it to her as though she could reach across the call and grab it. "Want some?"

"Seriously, what the fuck? No, you know what? I don't care. We need to talk about the fight."

"Yeah, did you see it?"

"The whole city saw it by now."

"And? Thoughts?"

She took a deep breath. "Thank you for saving the civilians. I didn't know you could fight like that."

"Hold my own against so many capes? Yeah, I told you I'm strong, didn't I?" I said with a confident grin.

"You did. You're going live with the catalog then?"

"Two, you made me make two, remember?" She nodded tiredly. "How'd your aunt react to me anyway? I'm not that concerned about public perception; I'm more interested in what the different factions think."

"We didn't really talk about it, but she called you a 'heroic rogue' so I guess it's good? She also said you were unpredictable, and a bit of an opportunist. Did you have to steal Squealer's turret?"

"Call it right of conquest. It's not illegal, is it?"

"Very," she said flatly. "Stealing tinkertech is different from stealing a few hundred bucks from a druggie. You also violated a crime scene. The PRT can legitimately call you a villain for that."

"I did say I initially planned on being a villain, Ames. I'm not too hung up over it. I saved lives and forced everyone to back off." I shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't do anything for free and as far as I'm concerned, the turret's payment."

She sighed but didn't push. "Just be careful. I don't want you to steal from heroes."

"I won't, I promise."

"Good. I'm going to go take a shower and crash now."

"You know, that sounds nice. Cheers."

Author's Note

A 100 pound girl can break a car door if she shoves it past the widest point. In a crash, actually detaching the car door from the hinges only becomes a big problem when the chassis warps around the door, sealing it shut.

I tried to write Krieg in a German accent, but I just couldn't. It feels weird writing yet another fight scene after the Merchant heist but ehh, it fits.

I had two goals: First, I wanted to show that Bryce's actions have consequences, even if he tries to leave as small a ripple as possible by not arresting the Merchant leadership. Second, I wanted to write a more public fight, where Bryce has to act as Creed and be as bombastic as possible. I wanted to capture a bit of the sheer anarchy of a One Piece fight scene, though I don't think I quite managed.

Thought about breaking the fight scene in half but nah… It's better whole.

Thank you for reading. To reach a wider audience, and because I enjoy a more forum-like setup to facilitate discussion, I like to crosspost to a wide variety of websites. You can find them all on my Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/fabled.webs.