Several thoughts ran through the Major’s head in the seconds after Grue had relayed Aisha’s message. The first was, how the hell was she in the PRT building and in place to hear that? Second, what the fuck were they thinking sending Sophia off to the fucking birdcage for saving a girl from an abduction? Fury the likes of which she had never felt before bloomed within her at the thought of Sophia being sent to that hell on earth.
She immediately set about cracking into the PRT’s deeper security systems in an attempt to access the cameras. The first two layers were easy enough, then she hit a metaphorical wall in the form of Dragon tech. Frowning, she pushed on, attempting to wiggle her way through a shifting series of coded firewalls and could only marvel at how sophisticated the entire setup was.
“Hello there.”
The Major jumped. She hadn’t expected to hear a voice, let alone a familiar one. It wasn’t coming from the system however, but from one of the cellular systems she used to speak with the hero on prior occasions.
“You’ll forgive me for being surprised that you managed this,” the Major said.
“Yes, you did an admirable job reinforcing your security from our prior encounters,” Dragon admitted, though it came across as bragging. “I do have several unfair advantages you lack, Major, or do you prefer Cyber?”
“May as well call me Taylor,” she answered, though it rang a bit hollow. “Is there a point to this? I’ve had a really shitty day and just got another nasty surprise. I’d like to keep Stalker out of the Birdcage if possible.”
“I thought you would be all for seeing Ms. Hess behind bars,” Dragon said. “I advocated for her to be arrested long before today but was overruled.”
That got her attention, all but confirming one of her own theories. “A hero for a hero, that was the cost if I wanted justice.”
“And now you’ll have it,” Dragon said.
Taylor couldn’t help the bitter laugh that escaped. Melissa came over, a worried expression on her face. All she could do was tap the side of the Major’s and mouth ‘Dragon’. Eyes widened and Melissa stepped back, nodding before she pulled her own phone out and sent off a message.
“Justice that cost me my life,” Taylor snarled. “My father is dead, as is his girlfriend. Everyone thinks I’m dead too, gunned down in school. I have nothing to turn to but this, and I’ll be damned if Sophia goes down for wanting to help someone. Coil wanted Dinah, and I’m sorry, but no grown man or woman would kidnap a child with pure intentions.”
“Coil got exactly what he wanted,” Dragon said with resignation. “Your death was just one of many steps he achieved. I will say that Hannah’s death wasn’t part of that plan, merely a contingency.”
“I’m still going to get Sophia out,” the Major said after a moment. “Try to stop us if you can, but we’re going to do this.”
“Unfortunately, I am unable to act against him,” Dragon said slowly. “Coil has power, more than you know. It would be reckless to attack him while he is unaware of your survival, and you might not survive if you did defeat him in whatever ill-conceived plan you make.”
Taylor blinked. There was something in the wording that caught her attention, but she couldn’t place it. She made sure she was recording the conversation, as well as converting it to text for when Lisa awoke. She would be able to figure it out in seconds. She just needed to ensure there was as much there as possible for her to dissect once she was back up and running.
“You’re in contact with him, aren’t you?” the Major said more than asked. “He has something on you.”
“We are all slaves to our circumstances,” Dragon said softly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Armsmaster needs me for something.”
Before the Major could pry further, the call ended and she was left alone in her head once more. Worse, she still wasn’t able to get past Dragon’s security. Even with the conversation as a distraction, the hero had kept her out and continued to do so. She wasn’t as good as Lisa at that sort of thing and keenly felt her absence.
She grit her teeth and turned back to Grue. “Where is your sister?”
“She won’t say,” he answered.
The Major cursed. “Does she have powers?”
“No,” he said, then after a moment recoiled. “Nevermind, apparently she does.”
“Great, so your sister is somehow using powers to evade notice,” the Major grumbled. “Okay, we now have two people to extract from that building. Grue, if you can provide a distraction, I can get in there undetected and get them out.”
“With one arm?” he asked, then winced when she glared at him. “Sorry, I just, you’re apparently both Cyber and the Major, Lisa got shot, my sister has powers… This is a lot, okay?”
“Yes,” the Major said, stepping up to Grue and staring into his helmet. “It is a lot. Now, unless you want to know exactly how I feel, I suggest you get off your ass and move. These aren’t the nice sort of people playing cops and robbers if you haven’t noticed.” Her hand snapped out, grabbing a fistful of his leather jacket as she pulled him close with a snarl. “They catch your sister, she will die. You fancy yourself the leader of the Undersiders? Then fucking LEAD!”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
She tossed him aside and walked over to a cabinet along the wall and opened it as she sent off a few messages. More than a few guns greeted her, but most would be useless without two arms. She pulled her side arm from her holster and did a quick check, confirming it was still in working order. From there she took out the rifle magazines from all of her ammo pouches and replaced them with pistol. Satisfied she was as prepared as she could be on short notice, she walked back over to her own wall and activated the portal paired with her base in Brockton.
“Coming?”
“We need Rachel,” Brian said.
She snorted. “She’s waiting on the other side.”
Stepping through, the Major took a breath even as the others followed her into her base. Everything was as she left it that morning, which was a good sign nothing was compromised. Content all was good on that front, her mind turned to the mission to come.
Objectives: Find Aisha. Rescue Stalker.
Those were her win conditions. If anyone was captured the mission could be considered botched but salvageable so long as they all left in the end. She would do what she could stealthily, but eventually they would need to go loud. Bitch was especially skilled at that, and the Major planned to fully utilize that. Turning to the assembled villains, she adopted her best impression of Taylor’s mother.
“Alright Undersiders, this is what we’re going to do.”
----------------------------------------
“This is a really bad idea,” Grue muttered.
The Major followed a man through the front door, neatly side stepping the security checkpoint and emerged into the lobby. She had the public floor plans of the building and a bit more from when she had back-hacked Hannah’s connection with Lisa’s help.
“Quit bitching,” Regent said.
“Focus,” she said sharply. “Do you know where Aisha was last?”
“Who?” Brian asked. “Why is that name giving me a headache?”
The lobby was mostly vacant, save for a few people moving about for the evening shift change. If the heroes hadn’t been such asses, Taylor might have ended up joining. That ship sailed months ago, and now, whatever game was being played had cost Danny his life. Nevermind that they were willing to see another hero dead to make sure it stuck.
That alone made everything about the situation perilous. Taylor might not have liked Sophia, may have wished death upon her more than once, but the Major wasn’t going to let her be shipped off to the Birdcage just to tie up a loose end. Then there was Brian’s sister, who was somewhere in the building with a likely Stranger power keeping her safe.
A group of men made their way into an elevator and she followed as they descended two levels. The Major kept a steady hand on her side arm just to be safe, but she doubted they expected her like the goons in Coil’s base did. Unlike most Stranger powers, her cloak prevented everything but smell, and her shell didn’t have body odor.
The door opened and she followed them out, she needed to get information before she started breaking things that looked important. Worse, there was some sort of interference in the air, barely detectable on her sensors, but her suspicions were proven true when she attempted to open a portal to Toybox. It was the same tech that had been deployed in Arcadia. Harry was confident he could force a portal, given the higher power generation available to him, but it would be tipping a hand that nobody wanted to reveal.
That meant she was working with fewer options to get everyone out safely. Sophia would be in the Master Stranger cells until they were ready to move her, and the chaos in the city would make for the perfect smoke screen. She had no idea where these troopers were heading, but they were an easy ticket deeper into the facility.
It didn’t take long for them to arrive at their destination, the infirmary. Inside were several Protectorate members, all with varied injuries. Assault and Battery were leaning against one another even as the woman wept, no doubt over Miss Militia. Velocity was off to the side, visor set on his lap as he stared off into the distance.
It wasn’t hard to see the reason why. Hannah was laid out on one of the tables, her skin gray and cold. The Major couldn’t help herself, she approached the woman’s body and truly looked at her. She had a wound to her neck, where a bullet had torn through her. 9mm, based on her own analysis software. A second wound was located in a gap between her vest, hardly debilitating compared to the neck. No doubt that was the bullet that struck her before the call connected, and the neck wound was given after.
She let her software continue to analyze the woman, knowing there wasn’t much to learn. Anything on her person that might have been useful was long since seized by whoever had done the deed. The Major continued to scan her, that was when she noticed something. Her brain was still polarized. She wasn’t dead, not completely.
Panic filled her chest as she touched the woman’s neck, she didn’t have a proper pulse, but her heart was still beating, albeit slowly. Shit, she was dying, there was no doubt about that, but nobody seemed to realize that. They had dressed the wounds, and that helped keep her alive this long. She knew there were few options remaining, and time was ticking. Getting Amy down to the PRT building on short notice would raise red flags given she was currently ‘kidnapped’ by the Undersiders.
She needed to think quickly, and the only option coming to mind left a bitter taste in her mouth. She would need to go loud before she got Shadow Stalker out, and that risked the rescue further. Still, Taylor owed Hannah more than she owed Sophia, yet something about that rang hollow to the Major.
“Grue, launch the attack,” Taylor said, voice oddly indistinct.
A few moments passed, then the klaxon of alarms sounded. The heroes jumped to their feet, panicked words shared over their comms before they moved, leaving the Major alone in the medical room.
“Harry,” she said. “I need a portal at my location, jammers in place.”
“You’re asking a lot,” he answered. “My systems can barely read your location.”
“Militia’s alive, but fading. I need to extract her and get her to Amy.”
“Shit,” he muttered. “Aim the transponder at a wall, I’ll see what can be done.”
She did so and waited. Every second passed in agonizing slowness, and she was all but certain someone would burst in and prevent her from saving the woman. The wall shimmered and Amy stumbled out, cursing as she fell to the floor.
Amy sat up, grumbling. “Mind the step he said. No fucking kidding.”
“Amy,” the Major said, dropping the cloak. “Sitrep?”
“I don’t know military jargon,” she hissed but seemed to get the jist of it. “Your body’s patched up, but Riley said your interface was damaged, she and Cranial are working on it. Where’s Militia?” She asked that even as she looked around the room and found her. Amy pushed her aside as she hurried to the heroine and took her arm. “Fuck, she’s almost gone. Taylor, get a blood pack or two.”
“It’s Major in this shell,” she said softly, but with conviction. Her HUD guided her to a nearby fridge which contained several bags of plasma. She grabbed a handful and rushed over, passing them to Amy. “What now?”
A hole formed in Militia’s chest and it soon became clear what was happening next. “Pour them in there, I’ll be able to integrate it faster than an IV line.
The Major grimaced internally but did as asked. Hannah’s color slowly improved as she poured and she started getting her hopes up. That was when the door flung open and the Major spun, her arm up with her gun trained on the entry.
“Whoa, the fuck is this?” a familiar voice demanded.
The Major sighed, heart lifting with relief. “Stalker, you are a sight for sore eyes. How the hell did you get out?”
Sophia was wearing a basic jumpsuit and domino mask, and flip-flops, likely the standard setup for anyone being held even if it was willingly as part of some policy and procedure. What was of more interest was the person with her.
“That would be me,” a young girl said as she pushed past her. “I don’t have a cool cape name yet but I did knock out the idiots attempting to escort the Shadow Bitch.”
“Well, that simplifies things,” the Major said out loud even as the two began to bicker. “Grue, prepare to withdraw, all parameters secure, just need to exfil them.”
“Kinda busy,” he grunted. “The remainder of the Protectorate and most of the Wards showed up.”
That was going to be a pain in their ass, but she could work with it. “Stalker, happy to see you and all, but help me move Militia through the portal, we can deal with things once everyone is safe.”
As if on cue, something in the air shifted and the portal winked out. The lights in the room dimmed and one of the monitors lit up with Dragon’s face who quickly looked among all of them and frowned.
“Armsmaster won’t be pleased with this,” she said softly, then the door slammed shut locking them in the infirmary.