Countless Joyful Dawns - Chapter ?? - 13: Confoam Grenades (Patreon)

I had jinxed it. Of COURSE the place managed to nearly burn itself down in the week I was gone. At least it was back inside my ‘good’ healing range, and not just the passive ‘heal faster’ range. Still, there was no telling how many people had died in that timeframe.

I went invisible and flew around the place, trying to get the most sacred of resources in a war: Information. The burning buildings were a good start, and I quickly got a picture of what was going on. Several pictures!

It looked like the Empire 88 had declared war on everyone else. Which was both good and bad.

The bad part was all the destroyed property, and the sheer number of people doing the classic ‘pat pat I’m still alive!? Where did those injuries GO!?’ that I was so used to seeing when I hit an active warzone hard.

The good part? ALL members of the Empire had stuck their heads out of their holes. I sighed to myself. 

My plan - the one that had required the printer and quite a few discussions with Armsmaster - had been to blanket the city, announcing an Empire rally somewhere deep in their territory. A ‘meet the capes!’ event.

Fascists ran on their reputation. If they didn’t show up, they’d look terrible. They can’t announce a major event and just no show it. Sure, they didn’t make the event, and the top people would understand. But the further from the top they went, the harder the message was to communicate. Far easier to weigh the risks and rewards, and make hay when the sun shined. From my poor understanding of the city - and from the events detailed in the flier - it was extremely unlikely for the event to devolve into violence. Marketed as ‘family friendly’, targeted towards their richer ‘we like the status quo’ supporters, it would’ve stuck in my throat, but it should’ve worked.

Wasn’t the first time we’d run a sting like this, and the territory was usually far more hostile.

That would’ve gotten most, if not all of them, out in public, at which point I could stalk them and strike when the moment was right.

This was significantly worse from a ‘damage to others’ perspective, but it significantly sped up my timeline.

The capes moved in groups, with a number of Empire 88 supporters following along. I made a new book inside my [Astral Archives], then flitted around each group, grabbing everyone’s scent.

The fighting looked like it was over, and they were currently in the ‘celebrate on the field’ slash ‘let’s get out of here before the guards arrive’ phase. They were starting to pull back, and part of me wondered if it was because my healing field had hit Brockton Bay again, preventing anymore injuries or deaths.

People not in the medical field occasionally - loudly - wondered why I’d heal hated enemies, who’d go out and commit further atrocities. Especially as a Sentinel.

It was simple to say, but it hadn’t been easy to get here.

Healing was my art. I had sworn to heal everyone who asked for it, who needed it, regardless of religion or creed. Even when it was a hateful one.

Now, the moment they were actively engaged in hurting someone else, hurting a patient of mine, then the rules morphed. Or, morphed was a bad word for it. The ‘defend my patients’ clause became more prominent, and I believed it was more important to follow that line.

Plus, the Empire wasn’t going to be a problem after today.

I zipped around from group to group, tracking all of them and getting a good sense of who they all were. It took them almost 45 minutes to leave the field, where… of course, they had a ‘we won!’ rally as the town guard started cleaning up their mess.

Seriously, what the FUCK was going on here!? What bizzarro world was allowing this? The Triumvirate had time for me arresting one of their directors and heroes - okay, yes, that was reasonable - but no time for the actual insurrection in their city?

Well, fine. As usual, I’d do it myself.

I poked my head into my [Manor].

“Hey Colin!” I said. “Gotta change the printer around. I need a few hundred letters like this.”

I rattled off what I wanted the letter to say. Colin stared at me, unmoving.

“That is ambitious.” He said. “Admirable if it works.”

I nodded.

“Thank you! Hold off on today’s evisceration until it’s done?” I asked.

He darkly chuckled.

“Yes, I can do that.” He said. Man, the dude was really mellowing out. I guess unlimited time to work on his hobbies and taking a break from work was good for his mental health or something. “What’s your plan on containment? I don’t see enough space here to hold them all.”

I told him. He frowned. I explained myself. His frown got larger.

“Well, if you’ve got an alternative, feel free to tell me.” I said. “And no, before you say it, I’m not just handing them over to the PRT.”

“If I had a few weeks, I could tinker up a solution.” He offered.

“Nope!” I crossed my arms in refusal. “You’ve had two decades to handle the fascists, which is way too long. Not waiting a few more weeks.”

He huffed off without saying another word. Alrighty then, initial plan was a GO!

Hopefully I’d get those letters. And envelopes. Wait, I should go shopping.

Or… actually, I didn’t need the envelopes. Back to stalking the Empire!

The Empire 88 broke up after their big rally, and went and had a bunch of parties. Well, the people who didn’t go right back home, at least. I mentally marked where they went, and continued the gruelling job of trying to track down and follow all of them.

There were hundreds of Empire people, and one of me. No matter my speed, no matter my skills, no matter my memory and ability to track people, it was just too many for 100% coverage. I focused my attention on the leaders of the gang, and all the middle management that I could identify, and simply noted down whatever grunts I could easily pick up and trail. It wasn’t going to be a perfect operation, but I wasn’t going to let perfection become the enemy of ‘good enough’. 

One by one, people finished with their partying and vices, and returned home. Or just crashed in a corner in the party house. One by one, I got addresses and locations.

Eventually, around 4 in the morning, enough people were asleep that I finally struck.

The Empire 88 had a strong top-down hierarchy and culture. Any issues got called up the line, and orders went back down the line. So I decided to hit them from the leadership down, cutting their communications in the process.

I started off by teleporting into Kaiser’s bedroom, hovering invisibly over his bed. Lucky me, there were two other Empire members sharing his bed, Fenja and Menja. I wasn’t super worried about any of them, but better to be safe than sorry.

I popped three confoam grenades out from my storage, then slung on a backpack and sprayer I’d ‘liberated’ from the PRT during my first visit there. I pulled the pins on all three grenades, let them ‘cook’ in my hands, then teleported them on top of the three Empire cape’s heads right as they detonated. 

There was a lot of screaming, flailing, and sharp metal blades suddenly growing everywhere. I pointed the nozzle towards them and liberally hosed them down with more foam. The sticky, off-white substance rapidly expanded and grew, capturing the three Empire members and sticking them to their bed.

With a jaunty whistle - and modest application of my shield to cut apart Kaiser’s metal blades - I opened up the door to my [Manor], then dragged the bed inside, then off to one side of the entryway.

Still whistling, I returned to the outrageously expensive house that Kaiser lived in, fished out one of the letters that Colin printed out for me, and dropped it on the table.

To Whom it may concern;

I am Sentinel Dawn, and I have arrested the occupants of this house for being members of the Empire 88, and all associated crimes. This is likely to include: murder, theft, genocide, hate crimes, assault, terrorism, racially and religiously motivated violence, extortion, racketeering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, assault, battery, criminal conspiracy, and other such sundry crimes.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may be causing you, especially if you are a spouse/parent/child or other loved one of the arrested members.

I believe the PRT will be able to help you remove and clean up any containment foam that has been left behind, and direct you towards resources as you navigate the loss in your family.

They are still alive, but you are unlikely to be reunited. I do regret not giving you a chance to say farewell, but it is a risk that they took when they embarked on this life.

Sincerely,

Sentinel Dawn

Three down! Several hundred to go!

Each one was nearly as simple. Krieg? Grenade on his face, drag his bed inside, drop off a letter. Alabaster? Stormtiger? Cricket? Rune?

One-Two-Three-Four grenades dropped in their bed while they slept, a bunch of muffled complaints, and they joined the bunkroom I was making.

Rune gave me the slightest hint of a challenge when her bed started to float off, but it was already halfway through by the time that happened. I just yanked, and let her float up to the ceiling, where she tried to drive around like a drunk seagull.

Some of the Empire members had family, which felt slightly awkward. Like Purity had a one year old in a nursery, and an older teenager in his own room. Fortunately, I had already planned for this, simply marking her address down in my ‘follow up’ book.

Not all of the Empire members were easily stopped by containment foam. Crusader was hard. A stream of white ghosts streamed out of the foam, and obnoxiously, my Radiance wasn’t able to destroy them. The dude had gone to sleep in his pajamas, and the ghosts were entirely unarmed. I got annoyed, slapped one, and when it popped, slapped the rest of them. Still, every time I made another trip after that, a number of ghosts tried to dogpile me.

Shit, were some of them exploring the rest of the [Manor]? Was Armsmaster alright?

Eh… they’d been teeing off for ages, he should be alright.

Hookwolf I almost misjudged, and I ended up needing three whole containers of containment foam to take him down. Turned out he could rip himself through a little bit of containment foam, and his ability to go from deep sleep to murderously wide awake was impressive. 

Then there was Night and Fog. The two of them slept next to each other, and both of them were potentially challenging. Fog was a ‘Breaker’, he could turn his body into a fogbank and just flat out escape. Confoam was breathable, after all, which implied a gas could easily get out. Night… would either be extremely simple or extremely difficult.

I dropped a round half-dozen grenades on the two of them. Head, chest, waist, and immediately started spraying them with foam.

Fog woke up, turned into his namesake, and surged over me. It tickled slightly, but then the confoam sprayer blew up in my hands and my clothes dissolved off of me.

I took the win I could get, and threw Night into the bunkroom with the rest of the Empire 88. I could possibly win a fight with Fog, but it’d be a lethal one, and it’d slow down the rest of the operation. There was still the rest of the Empire to take down.

I zipped away, found my next address, and hit it.

The Empire 88 wasn’t just its parahumans. It was the dozens to hundreds of footsoldiers, middle managers, and others who kept the entire operation and hate going. I wasn’t going to just break the tippy top and call it a day. They were all involved in this. I’d seen them marching down the streets, then partying. Scott, Don, Todd, Doug, Sean, another Doug, Pete, Charlie, Rob, Kelly, Ben, Howard, Linda, John, more Scotts, Chris… so many people made hatred and fascism their trade and life. 

And a depressing number of cops. I liked the guard. Sometimes I had issues with them, but generally, I liked them. My dad had been one! And to see the local guards get so corrupted drove me nuts and made me want to cry. Not the first time I’d seen the problem, and it wouldn’t be the last.

Justice had come for them.

Well.

Nearly all of them.

I had a level of… hesitance about the youngest members. Children who, in all likelihood, had been taught to hate, instead of choosing it for themselves. Kids following in their parents footsteps, or possibly falling in with a bad crowd. 

My idea was somewhat final, and I very deliberately avoided thinking of other words to go along with final. Kids - and I was being a hair arbitrary here - deserved a chance to learn otherwise.

Not that they were getting away scott-free. Just… going somewhere else.

It took two hours before I’d gotten everyone I had a convincing amount of evidence on. There were a number of people I suspected were Empire 88, and I know I was missing a bunch of sympathizers, but I’d utterly gutted the organization. ‘Decimation’ was when one in eight - uhhh, one in ten, damn linguistic-cultural shifts - got taken out. 

I’d flipped it, and halved it.

Over 95% of the Empire 88 was gone. That wasn’t something survivable or sustainable. 

Then I called the PRT, because they had more resources and I hadn’t just gutted a significant fraction of their department. The police were going to be spending the next few weeks scrambling.

“PRT hotline.” The dispatcher said as I called, flying high up in the city.

“Hi! I’m Elaine. I’ve just arrested a bunch of Empire 88 people.”

“Where are you?” The dispatcher cut in.

I rolled my eyes.

“I don’t need a pickup. I have a list of addresses where I arrested the parents, and there’s unattended children that need support.”

I started listing off addresses, plowing through the first few squeaked ‘ma’am’s!’, then moving onto the horrified ‘ma’am’s!’, then all the background noise quieted down.

Then I was done.

“Excuse me…” The voice was very quiet. “Can you please repeat a few of those? I’m afraid I didn’t catch them all.”

A voice in the background shouted “Wait! That’s my sister’s house!”, followed by a clattering noise.

I took a deep breath and repeated all the addresses. From where I was, I could see a half-dozen vans tear out of the PRT headquarters, going to all corners of the city. A little later, cars started to trickle into the PRT headquarters from all sections.

Ah well. They got woken up a little early to help deal with the problem, I hoped they were getting overtime pay. 

I then flew off at high speed towards my destination. It took a few hours, and consulting a map a couple of times, but I was finally at my destination.

Well, one of the destinations. 

I was somewhere way far north. Like Alaska, or the Yukon. No civilization for miles and miles. I flew down to a random outcropping - near some berries and a stream, I wasn’t a complete monster - and kicked out the first confoam-coated prisoner. I quickly sprayed the dissolving agent on them - again, courtesy of the PRT - and flew off to another spot.

I wasn’t going to make it easy on them and stick everyone in the same spot. They’d just come back, stronger and with unbreakable bonds. Nah, better to have everyone doing their own little wilderness survival. They’d eventually make it back, but hopefully in drips and drabs enough that the locals could handle one or two at a time. Give them a bit of time to rethink their life and learn new and interesting skills.

It was spring, they’d have plenty of time to sort themselves out.

One by one, I dropped them off, dozens of miles between each of them, and between them and civilization. Of course, there were only so many streams and fresh water sources, so they could just follow the water and meet up… but I didn’t want this to be ‘impossibly hard, die in the winter’ mode. Most of the people here were baseline humans. My baseline was still Pallos-normal, where everyone had a System, and their own skills. Where they could drop a skill for [Wilderness Survival], or get even more. Where they were at least twice as fast and as strong as their bodies suggested.

No, most of the people had none of those advantages, nor any wilderness experience, and I needed some delicate gloves to handle them with. Even though they’d been lynching people last night.

Ugh. I missed Iona and the rest of my family, they made these problems far… simpler. 

Once I was done with them, I flew back across the country, where I dropped Rune and the other kids off inside the PRT holding cells… in New York. 

I also dropped Purity off in a cell. Not because she was a woman, but because she could also fly fast. No sense in dropping her off in Alaska, only for her to show up in Brockton Bay a day later. If she didn’t collect a bunch of other Empire 88 people first. She was slowed down far more in jail.

Legend had been cool. He could manage the problem. I gave them a call to let them know what had happened, restocked my confoam grenades from the armory - seriously good stuff - then zipped over to Brockton Bay.

The sun shone down on a new, facist-free city.

Okay! No time to rest! Onto the next task!