VT - Chapter 29 : Massive Weaponised Platform...... (Patreon)

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Undersiders’ Lair, Brockton Bay

–Lisa “Tattle” Wilbourn–

Something had spooked Coil. She could tell that much. While the man himself was a master of keeping his voice in check, his words in check, and likely had some kind of power that allowed him to look at everything from an outside perspective and then correct anything that might seem odd, she was Tattletale for a reason, after all. 

The man’s orders were as nonsensical and unpredictable as ever, save for one thing. Grand Chariot.

The Super Tinker group that had scared everyone in the Bay scared shitless. To the point that most of the criminal activities had either moved to daytime or behind closed doors, with any chance of volatility swiftly silenced. She would not be surprised if more or less the same number of people were being killed, only that they were being done silently, and without any trace of the bodies.

The trafficking by the likes of ABB and E88 had certainly reduced, so were the dog fights in the city, something that pleased Bitch immensely. She was only concerned about the dogs, and since Hookwolf had likely received orders from high up to keep his shows to a minimum, there had been a suspicious lack of cape chaos in the city for weeks now.

Now, she was not naive enough to think that this could last any meaningful amount of time. Cape business was always volatile, and while the appearance of a Big Predator had spooked everyone into staying silent and still for a while, as long as the Big Predator did not take some meaningful action, that fear was going to fade away, and sooner rather than later, some idiot was going to do something stupid and get himself killed, lighting up the powder keg on fire.

Shaking her head, she looked at the text she received from Coil. Apparently, even Coil could tell that speaking to her over the phone, despite the many voice modulators he must have on hand, was not healthy, and that she could tell something was wrong. The text talked about finding another wielder of a suit from Grand Chariot, wielding a massive grey gun.

That was the sole clue she got, and she had a hunch that asking for more was not going to help at all. So, scouting it was. Thankfully, she knew just the place to stake out to gain more information on the newest hero on the block. She was rather predictable in her routine, always being active at night and disappearing for the day. 

“Brian!” She called out to Grue, slipping her phone back in her pocket, before sipping on the heavenly coffee that she’d learned to make recently, as per her tastes. She had to actively suppress her coffee if she had to buy coffee from coffee shops, as she was basically in an always-active Too-Much-Information mode that she could do without.

“Yeah? Brian’s head peeked into the kitchen, still clad in his workout clothing, with sweat clinging to his body, showing off his musculature. She could say that Brian was objectively attractive, and once upon a time, she would have been interested in Brian, but her power being what it is, it just vaporised any interest she might have in sex. Turns out, dirty talk was not palatable when you had an entire power that did that job for you all the fucking time.

“Go get cleaned up. We have a stakeout for the night.”

“Alright.” Brian nodded and slipped back into his gym. She liked that about him. He was aware of his own abilities and limitations, and knew that the thinking was best left to the Thinker of the group. Not that he would not have any questions for her later on, but for now, he left her alone in the kitchen, with the coffee she made just the way she liked it, with a view she had carefully arranged to make sure that her power did not flare up to give her unnecessary information and ruin her pleasant mood.

Ah, the things she has to do for just a short amount of peace. Now, if only she could figure out a way to steer Grand Chariot towards Coil, as audacious and stupid as it sounded. After all, at this point, it seemed like they were the only ones who actually scared the fucker, and she would do anything to get her freedom back from Coil.

Snapping out of it, she stopped herself from spiralling into her hatred for the man who stole her freedom from her, and focused on the coffee……And it was gone. She’d finished the coffee, and while she would love to have another one, she could not do that, not yet. It might just be that they saw Blue Shield, terrible name by the way, early in the night and did not need to stay up all night. In that case, she did not want to have coffee in her bloodstream keeping her up throughout the night, knowing that Coil was going to demand answers the next day.

Sighing, she pushed the cup into the sink and walked off, turning off the light as she did so. Right now, there was only her and Briain in their home. Bitch was off doing whatever it was that she did with her dogs, and Alec had left for the border the day after news broke out that Grand Chariot had killed Heartbreaker, and left behind the Heartbroken with clear instructions on how to treat them.

She supposed that even someone with a supposedly dead heart like Alec would care for his siblings, who were supposed to be getting the help they needed right now, and would like to meet his family. Or, he might just want to see for himself the effect of his father's death on the remnants of his cult.

She would be surprised if more than one member of his cult had not committed suicide already, either due to brain imbalances from the abrupt loss of conditioning, or due to the things they had been subjected to by Heartbreaker. It was just the thing when it came to Human Masters, and the type of control they had over their victims.

Looking at the pitch black living room, she walked off to her room to get changed. While they were not going to go out in their costumes, it was prudent to keep them handy. She was also not going to go out wearing PJs, even if they were not going to engage in combat.

Plus, she hadn’t even told Brian about what they were going to do. She was not looking forward to the earful she was going to get from their leader, who was understandably shit scared of Grand Chariot and wanted nothing to do with them. So far, it had been just her alone who had seen Blue Shield from afar, and that had been enough then, but now, she had a hunch that a conversation might be in order, and it was always better to have muscle in that case.

Not that Brian was going to be of any use. Hell, from what little she had gleaned off the suit with her power, none of her team members was ever going to be making even a dent in that suit, even if the user of said suit would much rather heal someone than hurt even them. After all, their reputation as just some harmless thieves and robbers would definitely help if it came down to a fight.

“Brain, get your ass down here!” She shouted into the darkness, knowing full well that he was on his way down anyway, probably clad in subtle armour, as well as the weapons he liked to carry in case of an emergency.

“Coming~!”

Time to stalk a member of the most dangerous group on the planet.

____xx____

“I still can't believe we are doing this!” Brian practically hissed at her, even as they drove around the most dangerous part of the city, in a beaten up car, with their windows rolled down, and a broken rear windshield. The point was to appear poor, just in case their Lady in Blue came swooping down to whoop their asses. Also, Coil insinuated that there might be another suit in Grey, and that was an unknown quantity which scared her ass.

Alas, freedom was important, and if she had to do it scared to regain her lost freedom and get some revenge, then she was going to do so. Plus, if she trusted anyone to permanently fuck Coil up, then it would be the one entity that did not give a single flying fuck about the PRT, the government, the villains, the S-class villains, or public opinion. They were practically the ideal group to take care of a shadow villain who likely had deep roots in the local government or maybe even the PRT, judging by some of the intel she had gotten from the man.

She rolled her eyes at Brian’s whining, “Grow a pair, Brian. I am a girl and I still somehow outweigh yours.”

Brian frowned at her language, but did not speak after that, as they drove around in search of either Blue Shield herself or people who were injured and she could heal. From what she could tell, the heroine, who was not a cape, listened to 911 dispatch calls, messages originating from the general area, hacked cameras, and more, to search for people to be rescued.

She could not do all of that, not while moving about in a beat up car driven around by Brian. And she had to save the use of her power for more important things, like asking the cape upfront about a new member. So, the best she could do right now, on such short notice, was drive around. It was inefficient as heck, but it was the best she could do.

……

….

After driving around for just a little bit more than an hour, they finally heard a gunshot go off in the distance. Brian brought the car to a stop, and after exchanging glances with her, he whispered, “No.”

“Yes.” She insisted. They had to go there. Chances were that their heroine was already on her way there.

Sighing, Brian drove the car towards the direction of the Gunshot, with multiple bullets being fired later on, making it pretty easy to pinpoint the exact location without using her power. The limited use of her power was hampering them, but Brian understood that, so he did not say anything when she told him to park the car and make the rest of the way on foot.

Whatever was happening, it was big and involved many guns. It was likely an armed conflict with multiple people on both sides. 

“It’s a gang shootout.” Brian nudged her away from the street and into an alley with a reasonably robust looking fire escape. Climbing it with some difficulty, they walked towards the edge of the roof, only to freeze as she heard a sound. A whine. A very distinct whine.

Pulling Brian down with her, she looked up as a black blur launched itself straight into the ground, in the middle of the gunfight.

Armoured Suit. Black and Grey coloured. 2.55 times the size of Blue Shield. Male. Massively weaponised flying platform. Capable of–

She clamped down on her power before crawling forward to look down at what had happened, only for screams and snapping sounds to reach her before she could get a good look at what was happening below on the street. Brian pulling on her leg did not help matters. Eventually, she kicked his hand off and crawled forward, reserving the use of her power for important things.

It sucked trying to limit her power, as it created a pressure behind her head, but she had to do it. She only had a limited number of uses, and she would much—

“What are you kids doing up here?” She flinched before slowly looking up, only for a bright light to shine directly into her eyes, damn near blinding her. Even blinded, she could feel Brian activating his powers, as darkness began billowing all around them.

Fuck.