“Three alarms,” Taylor said, her avatar frowning in Lisa’s AR glasses. Each Undersider now wore a pair, mostly to help hide Lisa’s enhancements from Coil. “The Protectorate are biting too, and all were Empire targets which will keep them busy when the capes show.”
“About as we expected,” Lisa replied. “You’re in the lunchroom with your Ward buddies?”
“Yes,” Taylor answered. “The alarm you’re going to disable will still send a signal, so the Wards will be called out. What about Amy?”
“She’s there, I can see her in line on the camera,” Lisa said with a grin. “All the players are in place on our end. How’s Shadow Bitch?”
The Major looked across the rooftops to a building two blocks away that covered the second entrance to the middle school. Shadow Stalker kept to the shade, but had binoculars on the building and was checking each car that approached. It was slow-going, but she knew someone would make a move once the Undersiders got the Wards mobilized.
Taylor was still uncomfortable trusting Sophia, but she did have some lines when push came to shove.
The Undersiders pulled into the alley behind the bank and parked their vans. Bitch’s dogs were already growing even as Lisa sauntered up to the keypad and entered the emergency code. The secondary signal was sent, alerting the authorities that a secure entry was made and the Undersiders made their entrance.
Taylor counted the seconds as two more silent alarms were tripped and not stopped. Amy was alerted that it was showtime seconds before the lights were killed by Grue’s darkness. The plan was in motion, twenty minutes began to count down. Amy played her part, encouraging everyone to cooperate so they didn’t get hurt.
“Attention Students, will the owner of a silver sedan with license X32-54B come to the office?”
Chris and Dennis both paused in their meal and looked across at Taylor.
“Subtle,” she said. “Go be heroes, I’ll cover for you if needed.”
“Thanks Tay,” Chris said as he took his tray.
Dennis gave her a look before he too took off, and she saw the pretty boy with Victoria get up to go as well. That was good, it meant the plan was on track. They must not have been told where they were being deployed, because Glory Girl didn’t leave with them, instead she was coming over to her table.
“Alright, spill,” Victoria said, taking Chris’ former seat.
“Why come to me?” Taylor asked as she continued her meal. Alarms had been sounded, a fake text sent out to the Empire’s phones to let them know a certain robbery was legit. All as planned so far.
“You know what’s going on,” she sneered. “Amy’s not here either, did you rope my sister into crime?”
“Amy’s only involvement is to be on hand if anyone gets hurt,” Taylor said. “We tipped her off solely for that reason and other than that, she will be able to keep the hostages safe.”
“Hostages? Oh fuck, the bank!”
Taylor rolled her eyes as Victoria flew off, Lisa was already warned of the incoming Demolition Dallon, not that it hadn’t been anticipated from the moment Amy offered to help.
Shadow Stalker drew the Major’s attention and she saw it, three white vans pulling up.
The Major held her fire as Vista stepped out in full costume and was directed to the first van. She hopped in and it sped off in the direction of the bank. That was expected, but neither of the vans that arrived with it pulled off. Instead, they waited.
It took less than a minute for someone else to emerge from the school. Two adults, leading a young and dazed young girl, Dinah Alcott, Triumph’s cousin. She seemed completely out of it however, and was dragging her feet while being pulled along. The people with her weren’t her parents, but appeared closely related enough to pass themselves off as concerned relatives.
“Stalker, you ready?” she asked.
“Always,” Sophia answered.
Shadow Stalker leapt off the roof at the same time the Major lined up a shot. Her Tinkertech rifle barked, the recoil slamming into her shoulder, and the first van was turned into inverted scrap. Armored mercs fell from the wreckage missing various pieces. That saw both of Dinah’s escorts hit the ground like trained soldiers and those in the second van jumped out like a swarm of pissed off hornets.
To Sophia’s credit, she didn’t pause for more than a heartbeat at such direct action. She moved after Dinah, as the Major had instructed. Plausible deniability was that she got a tip that a villain was snooping around the school and decided to do an unscheduled patrol. Close enough to the truth to pass muster. She’d get a slap on the wrist at worst and got to be a big damn hero to a young girl. Taylor could say whatever she wanted about Sophia, she could trust her to get the girl to safety.
The Major didn’t get that luxury, she had to get her hands dirty. She moved, rifle slung over her shoulder as the Tinkertech mechanisms made the device portable. She fell three stories to the asphalt, it cracked beneath her as her body absorbed the energy of her impact. Then she was moving, M4 in hand and spitting lead at the still disheveled mercenaries.
“Girl’s drugged,” Sophia said. “Unknowns are knocked out, I’m getting the girl inside.”
“Good enough,” the Major said. “Trust no-one.”
A grunt was her answer and the Major got to work, two mercs went down in the opening exchange as she took cover behind a parked car. Glass exploded above her, the return fire heavy. Setting her M4 aside, she pulled a grenade from her belt and activated it.
“Vivian, hope you’re watching,” she muttered, then tossed it over the car and into the midst of the mercs. Light flashed and people screamed. All shots ceased and Taylor risked a look. Each of the mercenaries was down, twitching. “Pain grenades proven effective, I still recommend against those being on the open market.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Pussy,” Vivian replied. “Saw what I needed though, thanks for the test run.”
She dropped from the call, no doubt needing to tinker some idea or another, but she had other concerns. Two men were intentionally outside the projected maximum range, and one more had been at the mid-line estimate. Those three were piling back into the remaining van and peeled out before she could get more shots off.
The Major grinned and activated her now completed active camo. She faded from all sight, her thermal signature blended with the environment and she Moved. The distance was closed, despite the van’s acceleration and she jumped atop it without a sound. Now all that was left was for it to bring her to Coil’s base and the man himself. Everything they had gathered suggested both versions of the man were at the base, not that she planned to kill him, just infiltrate and gather information from behind his firewalls where he couldn’t keep her out.
Once she had confirmed each and every actor playing the mastermind, then she would strike, and another cancer would be excised from Brockton Bay.
----------------------------------------
The Undersiders secured the money to the dogs, some forty thousand and change, never mind the assorted deeds and contracts. All physical jewelry was left behind unless it was Nazi themed. Amy did her part, keeping the hostages calm and Lisa made a show of hacking the president’s computer, something she had done days prior.
Taylor watched their progress while sharing a virtual chat with her girlfriend.
“I still say there’s something we missed,” Lisa insisted.
“No doubt,” Taylor agreed. “We disrupted his plans however, so he will be on the back foot now. The Major will infiltrate his base and we can get the information we need to bring him down.”
Taylor shared Lisa’s concerns, because it did seem to be going too well. Coil all but had confirmation that the Major was working against him now, which wasn’t a good thing if this did end up backfiring. Sure, the man had dismissed her employment following Krieg’s death, but she hadn’t acted against him yet.
The Undersiders were almost ready to leave when the van pulled into an underground garage, the three still shaken mercs disembarked. The Major followed them inside, past security panels and deep into what could only be an Endbringer shelter.
“Taylor Hebert, please report to the office,” the Arcadia intercom rang.
She could only frown, and Lisa turned pale. “Tay, there’s a play we missed. He’s coming for you.”
“Assume he’s out for you as well. Cut and run through Toybox if needed, Amy has her key,” Taylor said. She hurried to the office, not too concerned with running dick first into a trap, her body being damaged was technically expendable at the moment, because she needed to see what the trap was before Coil could spring it. Arriving in the hall by the offices, her heart jumped into her throat. “Dad?”
“Taylor,” he said with a faint smile. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah?” she said carefully. “Why are you here?”
That brought a frown to Danny’s face. “Someone called and said you weren’t feeling well.”
“Dad, you just walked into a trap,” Taylor said, looking around. She patted her pocket then drew her Toybox transponder. She aimed it at the wall, only for nothing to happen. Her heart thundered in her chest, and Lisa’s avatar was unable to hide the terror on her face. “Fuck, we need to leave, now!”
She grabbed hold of his hand and began to pull him along. The school was fairly straightforward in its layout, and she knew better than to bolt for the nearest exit. She wasn’t armed, and neither would her father be.
“Call Hannah,” she said, pulling up the entire surveillance network. There were dead zones in coverage, some artificial. She plotted a route to avoid those, smelling the trap closing in on her. “If they’re coming after us, she might be a target as well.”
Her father nodded, pulling out his phone. Taylor grit her teeth even as she fired off alerts to Toybox. She could only hope that she could get them out of whatever trap she found herself in.
On the other side of things, the Major was following the goons deeper into Coil’s base, making their way to the man’s office. She wasn’t sure which of the identified doubles was waiting and she was getting to the point that just abandoning the mission might be the most prudent option given her actual brain was there and the trap that Taylor was currently navigating.
Coil shouldn’t know that she was there, but something told her that he did. She could feel the jaws of a trap closing around her, and her instincts were telling her to run, yet she pushed on, determined to make the infiltration worthwhile.
Just as they reached the door to Coil’s office, the soldiers paused before they turned towards her, weapons raising up. Then a flash grenade dropped to the ground. Her systems compensated for the flash and bang, but her cloak shimmered enough that every gun zeroed in on her in an instant. The Major dropped, rolling forward as blindingly bright lasers seared the air she had just occupied.
Fuck.
Her rifle rose, taking aim and she fired, dropping the first of the mercs. She jumped to her feet and grabbed the rifle of one goon, swiveling in the motion she brought it level with the second merc and pulled the trigger on the Tinkertech attachment. The second merc turned to ash on impact. That was some of Pyrotechnical’s work, not that she had met the anti-social Tinker yet. She would be having words about him selling devices that could work on Toybox members, that or Vivian would, she probably had a word bomb around, or could make one.
She didn’t let go, and finished the motion, bringing the man over her shoulder and bounced him off the door and put three quick bullets into him. She looked up, more than a little pissed at the whole thing and almost ran a diagnostic on her cybernetic eyes. Anthony Gibson’s severed head lay on the floor next to a dismembered hand that lay at the feet of a familiar man.
At that same moment, her father’s phone connected and he stopped in the middle of the hall despite Taylor’s suddenly much more urgent insistence.
Militia’s voice was weak, but the warning rang clear, “Trap, run.”
Her voice was then silenced by the crack of a gunshot.
Before either of them could process that, six men emerged from the door ahead of them, all in E88 red and black and opened fire without warning, her father grabbed her and spun, taking the bullets himself even as she screamed. She pushed him aside, her stomach burning with bile as she did. Bullets slammed into her, stinging and burning even with Riley’s enhancements.
She shut those down, breaking into a sprint towards the only one in monochrome. Alabaster. The Empire goons panicked, but kept firing. Taylor ignored the warnings that her body’s monitoring suite was throwing down the connection. Alabaster grabbed a sawed-off shotgun off his hip, aimed, and fired.
A hammer blow struck her chest and she went down hard. Her systems flashed warnings, indicating that her visual and audio feeds were being cut off and that the failsafe had engaged. She wouldn’t be able to do anything further.
Lisa and the Undersiders made it into the lobby in a panic, Amy already opening the door to Toybox thanks to the warning she had given.
“Amy, Taylor and her dad, Arcadia!” Lisa said frantically.
Amy nodded, almost in slow motion as the glass front of the bank shattered without a sound. Lisa could only look down at the six-inch hole in her chest before a second shot hit her head.
The Major stood frozen as her entire world was ripped apart, eyes trailing up from the severed skull to see Bradley Meadows, or rather Hookwolf, as he dropped the eviscerated body of Coil’s suspected second body double. The monster before her chuckled, cracking his knuckles even as blades began to sprout from his body.
“Hello, Major.”