Chapter 9
Ashkari
(Verified Ink-slinger)
- Location
- United States
Side Note: Taylor's current forces and active spells are listed below:
Enjoy!
Taylor's dungeon reacted to her Call To Arms banner like she'd kicked over an anthill. Every one of her minions immediately dropped what it was doing and began converging rapidly on her location. Almaric was the first out the church door, having been only a flight of stairs away. Her nagas swiftly followed, needing only slightly longer than the warlock to navigate their way down the steps.
Her goblins and orcs needed a few more moments to reach her, so while she waited on their arrival, Taylor quickly reviewed her mental catalogue. Yesterday, when she'd been sitting on her throne and taking stock of her currently available options, she'd noticed options for two additional basic beast-types that made for excellent scouts - a giant fly, and something called an 'oculus'. At the time, she'd passed over them in favor of focusing on construction and research, but here and now they were something she could very much make use of.
A short query of her power's limited details decided her. The fly may have been cheaper, but you got what you paid for, and unlike all of her beasts so far the oculus had gold as part of its cost. It also seemed to possess something her power called a 'paralyzing gaze', which sounded far more useful than whatever a giant fly could possibly bring to the table. Taylor gestured, and with the customary swirl of smoke, the oculus took form.
It was hideous. A lumpy mass of flesh inset with many eyes, the thing floated in the air through no means that Taylor could detect. Several tiny tentacles jutted out from random points, each with tiny eyes of their own at the ends, and fleshy pseudopods dangled limply beneath what passed for its body, not quite touching the ground.
Taylor suppressed her revulsion; she had no time for squeamishness now. She needed to see just how well her minions could follow orders outside the range of her direct control.
Lifting a hand, Taylor pointed in the vague direction she and her father had heard the gunshots coming from, and addressed her creation.
"My enemies disturb the peace in that direction. Seek them out, but do not engage. When you have located them, hide nearby where you can see them, and await my arrival."
The oculus lifted off silently, propelling itself by some unknown force. As it went, Taylor slapped an Armour spell onto the creature, just in case. She didn't know if it could protect against gunshots, but she intended to find out long before she put herself into the line of fire.
As the creature flew off, the last of her minions finished scampering out from doors. A shiver of fear ran through Taylor as it really hit her: this was it, she was really doing this. Her first battle as a costumed cape.
A whole host of doubts tried to force their way into her mind, but she ruthlessly squashed them. She could do this. She'd persevered through more than a year of pure hell and come out the other side with superpowers; she could handle a bunch of gang members. She would die before she proved the Trio right about her.
A surge of anger washed through her at the thought of her tormentors, and she clung to it in order to push aside the last of her doubts. She was better than her bullies. And what were the gangs of the Bay, but bullies on a grander scale? They thought they could have their way with her city?
Hell no.
Taylor drew herself up straighter, sinking herself further into her regal persona, her simmering anger making it easier than ever. She gripped her staff loosely, held out to one side, and took a deep breath. Then she addressed her assembled minions.
"Listen up. Today we see our first battle. One that will shape how this city looks at us and treats us for a long time. That means no killing, and no maiming. Prove to me you are capable of incapacitating only, and remember that we are outside my domain. I don't want any 'mistakes'."
"Goblins, Orcs, that means no blows to the head unless you're confident of being able to knock them out without serious injury. Gnarlings, be careful with your knives, and use the flats of your swords, and on limbs only. Nagas, you're on healing duty; your first priority is healing any human, friend or foe, that looks like they might in danger of death or serious injury. Everyone here comes second to that. Almaric, I trust you to use your best judgement as to where you'll be most useful, but avoid setting anyone on fire; third degree burns won't be a look good to the PRT. For everyone in general, if a hostile is on the ground and no longer attacking, or has openly surrendered, I want you leave them be."
Taylor gazed across the faces of her assembled forces, and gave her best effort at a stern glare. "I will be exceptionally displeased if any humans, friend or foe, die today. Do I make myself clear?"
Either her glare worked, or perhaps her minions were simply terrified of Dungeon Lords in general, because two of the goblins actually flinched, and many of her other minions nodded vigorously. Almaric and her nagas, of course, were as professional as ever, merely bowing their heads quietly in acknowledgement.
Taylor held the gazes of her combined forces for a few moments, until she was satisfied she'd gotten the point across. While she had yet to interact much with any of her minions outside of Almaric, she was fairly confident by this point that they all understood her intentions just as much as her specific words.
Nodding to herself, Taylor turned on one heel and began striding quickly in the direction she could sense her oculus had gone, her minions following in her wake. Then, with a push of willpower, she cast her mind outwards to her oculus, just as she had her imps when she and Aegis had chased after them. After a brief moment of disorientation, she found herself quickly adjusting to once again seeing with both her eyes and her power. Only this time, instead of the minuscule vision radius of her imps, she could see quite a distance with her oculus.
The creature quickly zeroed in on the distant conflict as it sailed up and over the rooftops. It was both better and worse than she'd feared. On the one hand, the commotion wasn't coming from one of the gangs shooting up someone's home or place of business. On the other, it was instead a shootout between two rival groups.
It wasn't hard to identify the first group. The telltale red and green colors of the ABB were clearly prominent amongst several thugs who'd taken cover behind a pair of large pickup trucks which had been parked in the middle of the intersection. A few of them were currently blind-firing handguns into an old, boarded-up, two-story corner shop.
The second group, the ones holed up in the building and taking occasional pot-shots back at the ABB, took Taylor a moment to figure out. Unlike the all-Asian gang of the northern Docks, they didn't have any unifying traits beyond their generally disheveled and malnourished look. Which, in the end, was itself what made it click for her: these must be Merchants, a gang of drug dealers who were as well known for taking their own product as they were for selling it. She mostly knew of them from her time at Winslow; they didn't make the news especially often, not unless one of Squealers bizarre vehicles had crashed into something recently. To judge from school, the Merchants were practically cockroaches as far as the ABB and the Empire were concerned. Nobody respected them, not even the non-gang capes, unless you were looking to buy whatever flavor of the month they were peddling.
Which made Taylor briefly wonder why a bunch of ABB were way outside their normal haunts, bothering to shoot up a worthless building full of nobodies.
Not that it really mattered to her just at the moment; she had more important things to worry about. Such as not freaking out the local populace with a huge army of monsters in broad daylight. Fortunately, that proved to be rather simple. For one, most people in Brockton Bay were smart enough to get the hell out of dodge when bullets started to fly. The few who weren't usually were the cape nuts, for which Taylor had a relatively simple solution. Namely, she snapped her overhead view back to herself, allowing her to observe whether or not anyone was within a few hundred feet of her. Her power didn't care about walls or intervening terrain, although she did apparently have to page manually between different floors of a building for some reason.
Following her oculus as it 'landed' on the rooftop of a neighboring building, and sticking to alleyways and abandoned side-streets, Taylor and her forces soon reached an alleyway just out of sight, where she had her minions array themselves into two groups, one on either side of the conflict. She tossed out an armour spell onto her skargs, who would be leading the charge, being her most expendable creatures.
Immediately, she began to once again feel that not-headache, that very slight sense of strain that she'd felt before when she'd tried throwing two thunderbolts back to back. It seemed that six active spells was getting to be a bit of a drain on her current magic reserves. Not that she couldn't keep going for a while, but she'd tire quickly if she pushed it, and any further castings of Armour would severely curtail her ability to throw thunderbolts.
Taylor took a deep breath. Time to do this. Then she grinned, and dropped her rally banner right into the middle of the ABB thugs.
The reaction of the gang members was immediate, if disorderly. The banner came down from above, blasting out smoke and noise, which sent several of the thugs sprawling. Others reacted to the sudden racket by diving away and out from behind the trucks, cursing and yelling. One, who was far more twitchy than his peers, startled violently and spun towards the source of all the noise, emptying several rounds from his pistol directly into the banner before he even realized what he was looking at.
All of this gave Taylor ample time to begin handing out specific orders.
She sent her shielded minions in first. The skargs she had charge out from the alleyway, sending them on a beeline for the ABB member who'd thrown himself completely out from behind the trucks, ending up flat out on the street only a dozen feet from the alleyway. Her oculus, meanwhile, she had fly up and over the rooftop to attack a Merchant who'd been firing his gun out of a second-story window. She then waited a few moments before sending two of the gnarlings in on the heels of the skargs, and held the rest back.
The thug on the ground had just managed to climb back to his feet when the skargs barreled into him, knocking him back onto to the ground. He shrieked at the top of his lungs as the creatures started biting and slashing at his arms and legs. Struggling, he managed to get in a lucky kick that sent one of the spider-like monsters sprawling.
The Merchant on the second floor was not so lucky. He, too, screamed when he saw the oculus swooping down on him., but kept his wits enough to fire his gun at the creature. Unfortunately for him, his shots flew wide and the oculus reared back in response and let fly a small bolt of orange-yellow energy which struck the Merchant directly in the face. He dropped bonelessly onto the floor, stunned, his pistol falling out the window from his slackened grip.
While the rest of the thugs were climbing to their feet, still bewildered, Twitchy managed to get his act together. Upon hearing his companion's scream, he spun in place and, after only a very brief hesitation, began firing at the skarg his friend had kicked away from himself.
Sparks flew as several of the shots found their mark, the yellow forcefield making a brief reappearance as each of the bullets flattened themselves against it. However, the impact wasn't wholly negated; the skarg skidded backwards with each impact, causing it to screech in distress, and Taylor could sense that it had still taken some injury. The creature recovered, and together with its companion finished off the downed man by head-butting him into unconsciousness.
Inwardly, Taylor heaved a huge sigh of relief; her spell might not grant full protection against firearms, but being knocked around, even if painfully, was far preferable than what could otherwise happen if she was shot in the chest without it.
Confident now that she could protect herself and the more important members of her forces, Taylor dropped three more Armour spells onto her forces: one for Almaric, and two for her nagas. The strain she was feeling sharpened dramatically, but she consider the price worthwhile. Her casters were her most expensive minions, after all; she'd rather ensure their safety for now. She redirected the oculus and her skargs into the Merchant's building, and then ordered her remaining troops, the goblins and orcs, to charge into the fight.
A veritable horde of monsters came roaring out of the alley from both sides, causing more than one already-panicking ABB member to simply scream and run; they simply flung down their knives or bats onto the ground as they just sprinted away, screaming in various languages Taylor didn't recognize. Most of them were brought down immediately as the gnarlings all threw a series of small knives with pinpoint accuracy, sinking them into legs or feet with practiced precision. She winced, but they'd live and she would see to healing them up afterwards.
Meanwhile, three braver souls, Twitchy among them, attempted to stand their ground and unloaded their pistols into the oncoming horde. The two forward gnarlings went down immediately, one to a leg shot, while the other managed to catch two bullets in the head.
One of the nagas reacted by extending her staff outwards towards the surviving gnarling, and a coruscating beam of green energy lanced outwards, repairing the injury in moments. This in turn drew fire from the remaining ABB members, but their last remaining shots were deflected by Taylor's spell.
All attempts at resistance from the gang members ended immediately afterwards, as Almaric launched a fireball into their midst. It detonated in a wash of flame that left them only singed, but knocked them to the ground just as Taylor's ground troops reached them. She actually felt more than a little bad for them, as all three curled up into defensive positions, screaming at the top of their lungs as the horde charged down on them; she could only assume they truly believed they were about to die in some terrible fashion.
Fortunately for them, that wasn't the case. Instead, following Taylor's own instructions, since they were now down on the ground and not fighting back, her minions passed them by.
Unfortunately for her, she'd forgotten to leave allowances for fleeing opponents, meaning the two thugs who weren't curled up in fetal positions or rolling on the ground clutching leg wounds were now being pursued by… basically her entire forces.
Oh well.
A quick mental command had her oculus chasing after the pair, with two orcs following in order to drag them back to the trucks once they were subdued. The naga she called to her side, while the rest of her minions were redirected into the Merchant's building. Her skargs scaled the side of the building and went in from above, while the goblins forced open the front door and they and the gnarlings forced their way inside. Shouting and more gunshots followed, and she lost another gnarling, after which silence swiftly fell.
Taylor herself emerged from the alleyway, striding regally, her armored boots and the tip of her staff tapping sharply against the asphalt. She strode up to Twitchy as her nagas flanked her, calling a firebolt to the tip of her staff. Just as he seemed to realize his death wasn't imminent and began to uncurl, she thrust the firebolt in front of his face.
His eyes locked onto the swirling ball of liquid flames right in front of his face and he froze. His eyes flicked up along the length of the staff, until he saw Taylor's face. He paled, and made some sort of blubbering noise. Taylor realized that right now, to him, she probably seemed more like an actual demon here to collect his soul than a 'mere' cape with a sorceress theme.
"Yield." she commanded with authority as she gazed down at him.
Twitchy nodded frantically.
"Secure him," Taylor ordered her nagas, mostly for the gang members' benefits, mentally reinforcing her order with a mental image of what she wanted.
The two serpent-women roughly hauled the man to his feet and twisted his hands behind him. Taylor then drew a zip tie from the pouch on her belt, and used it bind him. Having been created by her power, Taylor wasn't actually sure what would happen to her gear when it exited her area of influence, but it would do for now. She'd simply need to warn whoever came to collect them that they'd need to use their their own restraints.
Rather than bind everyone personally, Taylor handed off the bundle of zip ties to Almaric and set him and the nagas to securing, and then healing, the rest of the gang members. Meanwhile, Taylor herself turned her mind towards her other minions.
Her oculus and the two orcs had already chased down the two fleeing ABB members. They were currently being hoisted over the orcs' shoulders to be carried back; judging from the ganger's unnaturally stiff bodies, they had been disabled by her oculus' paralytic ability. Meanwhile, the skargs and gnarlings she'd sent into the Merchant hideout were already aimlessly milling about within the building, having subdued the occupants, who apparently hadn't put up much of a fight.
Taylor finally took a moment to really examine the place. It had once clearly been some kind of two-story restaurant, one of the higher-end types where the everyday patrons would occupy a lower, wide open floor, while the second story was divided into a few different rooms for larger, private reservations.
What surprised her was the contents of the place. This wasn't just some basic safehouse with a handful of homeless drug addicts living out of it. No, this must have been a distribution center of some sort. What tables had remained in the place had been moved into orderly rows in the main dining room, with duffels and bags of various substances piled high in the center of each table. A number of large wooden crates, unopened, were stacked in one corner.
It was surprisingly well organized for an group with the kind of reputation the Merchants had. Even more extraordinary, despite the expected reek of unwashed bodies, which was quite foul, there weren't any immediate signs of active drug use on the main floor. That seemed somewhat at odds with what little Taylor knew of the gang.
The mystery would have to wait, however, as first she needed to secure her prisoners.
Taylor began by setting her goblins to shifting tables aside in order to make some space. This was followed by having Almaric, the nagas, and her two remaining gnarlings round up the gang members, haul them into the main dining room, and zip tie their hands before forcing them to sit crosslegged on the floor in the center of the room. At the same time, she also ensured that each gang member received a bare minimum of healing, at least enough that they'd be able to walk, and weren't going to suffer any permanent injury.
While this was happening, the pair of orcs and her oculus returned, so Taylor immediately set the orcs to guarding the front doors, to prevent any of the gang members from fleeing, and had the oculus join her two skargs in watching over the captives directly.
After a glance around the room to make sure her minions appeared to have everything under control, Taylor turned her attention to the surrounding area. The streets appeared quiet, so she quickly scanned all of the neighboring buildings using her overhead view. Thankfully, she didn't see any signs of people. Not within her power's range at least; it would seem that the Merchants had probably chosen this location precisely because the whole block was abandoned.
Satisfied, Taylor then swept her awareness around the outside of the building a few times before pulling back to examine the building she was in, beginning with the upstairs.
Checking up on the Merchant who'd been paralyzed, she saw that he'd already unfrozen and was now being escorted back downstairs by one of the nagas, the man in question shivering and mumbling something to himself as he stumbled along.
Examining the other upstairs rooms caused her stomach to turn in revulsion. It seemed the upstairs portion of the building was where they'd all been sleeping, and it was pretty clear from the literal trash heap full of rotting food containers and filth-ridden laundry they'd shoved into one of the rooms that they didn't have access to running water in the building.
No wonder they stank so bad, if they were willing to live like this.
Scrunching up her nose in disgust, Taylor shifted her examination of the building back downstairs, where she discovered that the goblins had finished shifting the tables around, and were beginning to poke curiously at the bags on top of them. She had no desire to discover what a goblin on drugs was like, assuming that was even possible, so she mentally nudged all of her minions away from investigating things they shouldn't, just in case.
Continuing to pan around the ground floor, the gang members who'd already been secured seemed to be doing fine, showing a mixture of both fear and resignation. Taylor supposed that for most gangs in Brockton Bay, being apprehended by capes was just a hazard of the job. Either way, with an entire roomful of monsters surrounding them, plus Taylor herself standing there glaring around the place, they didn't seem inclined to fight back.
The other rooms seemed more or less already secured. The back room with the loading dock was closed up, and had been cleared of occupants. The kitchen with all its rusting equipment was empty as well, though her minions hadn't yet extracted the one guy cowering in the freezer, who seemed to be hiding under a table whole holding something to his face and muttering. What had probably been the managers office was cleared as well, and—
Wait.
Taylor's mental processed hitched for a moment as her brain caught up. She flicked her gaze back into what had once been a freezer.
Was that a phone?
Oh. Yes. Yes it was.
Well, shit.
Active Spells
2x Reskin (Taylor, Danny)
1x Armour (Taylor)
Minions
4x Gnarling
4x Goblin
2x Naga
2x Orc
2x Skarg
1x Warlock
Current (Mentioned) Available Spells:
Reskin
Armour
Firebolt
Thunderbolt
Heal
2x Reskin (Taylor, Danny)
1x Armour (Taylor)
Minions
4x Gnarling
4x Goblin
2x Naga
2x Orc
2x Skarg
1x Warlock
Current (Mentioned) Available Spells:
Reskin
Armour
Firebolt
Thunderbolt
Heal
Enjoy!
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Chapter 9
Saturday, January 22nd, 2011
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Chapter 9
Saturday, January 22nd, 2011
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Taylor's dungeon reacted to her Call To Arms banner like she'd kicked over an anthill. Every one of her minions immediately dropped what it was doing and began converging rapidly on her location. Almaric was the first out the church door, having been only a flight of stairs away. Her nagas swiftly followed, needing only slightly longer than the warlock to navigate their way down the steps.
Her goblins and orcs needed a few more moments to reach her, so while she waited on their arrival, Taylor quickly reviewed her mental catalogue. Yesterday, when she'd been sitting on her throne and taking stock of her currently available options, she'd noticed options for two additional basic beast-types that made for excellent scouts - a giant fly, and something called an 'oculus'. At the time, she'd passed over them in favor of focusing on construction and research, but here and now they were something she could very much make use of.
A short query of her power's limited details decided her. The fly may have been cheaper, but you got what you paid for, and unlike all of her beasts so far the oculus had gold as part of its cost. It also seemed to possess something her power called a 'paralyzing gaze', which sounded far more useful than whatever a giant fly could possibly bring to the table. Taylor gestured, and with the customary swirl of smoke, the oculus took form.
It was hideous. A lumpy mass of flesh inset with many eyes, the thing floated in the air through no means that Taylor could detect. Several tiny tentacles jutted out from random points, each with tiny eyes of their own at the ends, and fleshy pseudopods dangled limply beneath what passed for its body, not quite touching the ground.
Taylor suppressed her revulsion; she had no time for squeamishness now. She needed to see just how well her minions could follow orders outside the range of her direct control.
Lifting a hand, Taylor pointed in the vague direction she and her father had heard the gunshots coming from, and addressed her creation.
"My enemies disturb the peace in that direction. Seek them out, but do not engage. When you have located them, hide nearby where you can see them, and await my arrival."
The oculus lifted off silently, propelling itself by some unknown force. As it went, Taylor slapped an Armour spell onto the creature, just in case. She didn't know if it could protect against gunshots, but she intended to find out long before she put herself into the line of fire.
As the creature flew off, the last of her minions finished scampering out from doors. A shiver of fear ran through Taylor as it really hit her: this was it, she was really doing this. Her first battle as a costumed cape.
A whole host of doubts tried to force their way into her mind, but she ruthlessly squashed them. She could do this. She'd persevered through more than a year of pure hell and come out the other side with superpowers; she could handle a bunch of gang members. She would die before she proved the Trio right about her.
A surge of anger washed through her at the thought of her tormentors, and she clung to it in order to push aside the last of her doubts. She was better than her bullies. And what were the gangs of the Bay, but bullies on a grander scale? They thought they could have their way with her city?
Hell no.
Taylor drew herself up straighter, sinking herself further into her regal persona, her simmering anger making it easier than ever. She gripped her staff loosely, held out to one side, and took a deep breath. Then she addressed her assembled minions.
"Listen up. Today we see our first battle. One that will shape how this city looks at us and treats us for a long time. That means no killing, and no maiming. Prove to me you are capable of incapacitating only, and remember that we are outside my domain. I don't want any 'mistakes'."
"Goblins, Orcs, that means no blows to the head unless you're confident of being able to knock them out without serious injury. Gnarlings, be careful with your knives, and use the flats of your swords, and on limbs only. Nagas, you're on healing duty; your first priority is healing any human, friend or foe, that looks like they might in danger of death or serious injury. Everyone here comes second to that. Almaric, I trust you to use your best judgement as to where you'll be most useful, but avoid setting anyone on fire; third degree burns won't be a look good to the PRT. For everyone in general, if a hostile is on the ground and no longer attacking, or has openly surrendered, I want you leave them be."
Taylor gazed across the faces of her assembled forces, and gave her best effort at a stern glare. "I will be exceptionally displeased if any humans, friend or foe, die today. Do I make myself clear?"
Either her glare worked, or perhaps her minions were simply terrified of Dungeon Lords in general, because two of the goblins actually flinched, and many of her other minions nodded vigorously. Almaric and her nagas, of course, were as professional as ever, merely bowing their heads quietly in acknowledgement.
Taylor held the gazes of her combined forces for a few moments, until she was satisfied she'd gotten the point across. While she had yet to interact much with any of her minions outside of Almaric, she was fairly confident by this point that they all understood her intentions just as much as her specific words.
Nodding to herself, Taylor turned on one heel and began striding quickly in the direction she could sense her oculus had gone, her minions following in her wake. Then, with a push of willpower, she cast her mind outwards to her oculus, just as she had her imps when she and Aegis had chased after them. After a brief moment of disorientation, she found herself quickly adjusting to once again seeing with both her eyes and her power. Only this time, instead of the minuscule vision radius of her imps, she could see quite a distance with her oculus.
The creature quickly zeroed in on the distant conflict as it sailed up and over the rooftops. It was both better and worse than she'd feared. On the one hand, the commotion wasn't coming from one of the gangs shooting up someone's home or place of business. On the other, it was instead a shootout between two rival groups.
It wasn't hard to identify the first group. The telltale red and green colors of the ABB were clearly prominent amongst several thugs who'd taken cover behind a pair of large pickup trucks which had been parked in the middle of the intersection. A few of them were currently blind-firing handguns into an old, boarded-up, two-story corner shop.
The second group, the ones holed up in the building and taking occasional pot-shots back at the ABB, took Taylor a moment to figure out. Unlike the all-Asian gang of the northern Docks, they didn't have any unifying traits beyond their generally disheveled and malnourished look. Which, in the end, was itself what made it click for her: these must be Merchants, a gang of drug dealers who were as well known for taking their own product as they were for selling it. She mostly knew of them from her time at Winslow; they didn't make the news especially often, not unless one of Squealers bizarre vehicles had crashed into something recently. To judge from school, the Merchants were practically cockroaches as far as the ABB and the Empire were concerned. Nobody respected them, not even the non-gang capes, unless you were looking to buy whatever flavor of the month they were peddling.
Which made Taylor briefly wonder why a bunch of ABB were way outside their normal haunts, bothering to shoot up a worthless building full of nobodies.
Not that it really mattered to her just at the moment; she had more important things to worry about. Such as not freaking out the local populace with a huge army of monsters in broad daylight. Fortunately, that proved to be rather simple. For one, most people in Brockton Bay were smart enough to get the hell out of dodge when bullets started to fly. The few who weren't usually were the cape nuts, for which Taylor had a relatively simple solution. Namely, she snapped her overhead view back to herself, allowing her to observe whether or not anyone was within a few hundred feet of her. Her power didn't care about walls or intervening terrain, although she did apparently have to page manually between different floors of a building for some reason.
Following her oculus as it 'landed' on the rooftop of a neighboring building, and sticking to alleyways and abandoned side-streets, Taylor and her forces soon reached an alleyway just out of sight, where she had her minions array themselves into two groups, one on either side of the conflict. She tossed out an armour spell onto her skargs, who would be leading the charge, being her most expendable creatures.
Immediately, she began to once again feel that not-headache, that very slight sense of strain that she'd felt before when she'd tried throwing two thunderbolts back to back. It seemed that six active spells was getting to be a bit of a drain on her current magic reserves. Not that she couldn't keep going for a while, but she'd tire quickly if she pushed it, and any further castings of Armour would severely curtail her ability to throw thunderbolts.
Taylor took a deep breath. Time to do this. Then she grinned, and dropped her rally banner right into the middle of the ABB thugs.
The reaction of the gang members was immediate, if disorderly. The banner came down from above, blasting out smoke and noise, which sent several of the thugs sprawling. Others reacted to the sudden racket by diving away and out from behind the trucks, cursing and yelling. One, who was far more twitchy than his peers, startled violently and spun towards the source of all the noise, emptying several rounds from his pistol directly into the banner before he even realized what he was looking at.
All of this gave Taylor ample time to begin handing out specific orders.
She sent her shielded minions in first. The skargs she had charge out from the alleyway, sending them on a beeline for the ABB member who'd thrown himself completely out from behind the trucks, ending up flat out on the street only a dozen feet from the alleyway. Her oculus, meanwhile, she had fly up and over the rooftop to attack a Merchant who'd been firing his gun out of a second-story window. She then waited a few moments before sending two of the gnarlings in on the heels of the skargs, and held the rest back.
The thug on the ground had just managed to climb back to his feet when the skargs barreled into him, knocking him back onto to the ground. He shrieked at the top of his lungs as the creatures started biting and slashing at his arms and legs. Struggling, he managed to get in a lucky kick that sent one of the spider-like monsters sprawling.
The Merchant on the second floor was not so lucky. He, too, screamed when he saw the oculus swooping down on him., but kept his wits enough to fire his gun at the creature. Unfortunately for him, his shots flew wide and the oculus reared back in response and let fly a small bolt of orange-yellow energy which struck the Merchant directly in the face. He dropped bonelessly onto the floor, stunned, his pistol falling out the window from his slackened grip.
While the rest of the thugs were climbing to their feet, still bewildered, Twitchy managed to get his act together. Upon hearing his companion's scream, he spun in place and, after only a very brief hesitation, began firing at the skarg his friend had kicked away from himself.
Sparks flew as several of the shots found their mark, the yellow forcefield making a brief reappearance as each of the bullets flattened themselves against it. However, the impact wasn't wholly negated; the skarg skidded backwards with each impact, causing it to screech in distress, and Taylor could sense that it had still taken some injury. The creature recovered, and together with its companion finished off the downed man by head-butting him into unconsciousness.
Inwardly, Taylor heaved a huge sigh of relief; her spell might not grant full protection against firearms, but being knocked around, even if painfully, was far preferable than what could otherwise happen if she was shot in the chest without it.
Confident now that she could protect herself and the more important members of her forces, Taylor dropped three more Armour spells onto her forces: one for Almaric, and two for her nagas. The strain she was feeling sharpened dramatically, but she consider the price worthwhile. Her casters were her most expensive minions, after all; she'd rather ensure their safety for now. She redirected the oculus and her skargs into the Merchant's building, and then ordered her remaining troops, the goblins and orcs, to charge into the fight.
A veritable horde of monsters came roaring out of the alley from both sides, causing more than one already-panicking ABB member to simply scream and run; they simply flung down their knives or bats onto the ground as they just sprinted away, screaming in various languages Taylor didn't recognize. Most of them were brought down immediately as the gnarlings all threw a series of small knives with pinpoint accuracy, sinking them into legs or feet with practiced precision. She winced, but they'd live and she would see to healing them up afterwards.
Meanwhile, three braver souls, Twitchy among them, attempted to stand their ground and unloaded their pistols into the oncoming horde. The two forward gnarlings went down immediately, one to a leg shot, while the other managed to catch two bullets in the head.
One of the nagas reacted by extending her staff outwards towards the surviving gnarling, and a coruscating beam of green energy lanced outwards, repairing the injury in moments. This in turn drew fire from the remaining ABB members, but their last remaining shots were deflected by Taylor's spell.
All attempts at resistance from the gang members ended immediately afterwards, as Almaric launched a fireball into their midst. It detonated in a wash of flame that left them only singed, but knocked them to the ground just as Taylor's ground troops reached them. She actually felt more than a little bad for them, as all three curled up into defensive positions, screaming at the top of their lungs as the horde charged down on them; she could only assume they truly believed they were about to die in some terrible fashion.
Fortunately for them, that wasn't the case. Instead, following Taylor's own instructions, since they were now down on the ground and not fighting back, her minions passed them by.
Unfortunately for her, she'd forgotten to leave allowances for fleeing opponents, meaning the two thugs who weren't curled up in fetal positions or rolling on the ground clutching leg wounds were now being pursued by… basically her entire forces.
Oh well.
A quick mental command had her oculus chasing after the pair, with two orcs following in order to drag them back to the trucks once they were subdued. The naga she called to her side, while the rest of her minions were redirected into the Merchant's building. Her skargs scaled the side of the building and went in from above, while the goblins forced open the front door and they and the gnarlings forced their way inside. Shouting and more gunshots followed, and she lost another gnarling, after which silence swiftly fell.
Taylor herself emerged from the alleyway, striding regally, her armored boots and the tip of her staff tapping sharply against the asphalt. She strode up to Twitchy as her nagas flanked her, calling a firebolt to the tip of her staff. Just as he seemed to realize his death wasn't imminent and began to uncurl, she thrust the firebolt in front of his face.
His eyes locked onto the swirling ball of liquid flames right in front of his face and he froze. His eyes flicked up along the length of the staff, until he saw Taylor's face. He paled, and made some sort of blubbering noise. Taylor realized that right now, to him, she probably seemed more like an actual demon here to collect his soul than a 'mere' cape with a sorceress theme.
"Yield." she commanded with authority as she gazed down at him.
Twitchy nodded frantically.
"Secure him," Taylor ordered her nagas, mostly for the gang members' benefits, mentally reinforcing her order with a mental image of what she wanted.
The two serpent-women roughly hauled the man to his feet and twisted his hands behind him. Taylor then drew a zip tie from the pouch on her belt, and used it bind him. Having been created by her power, Taylor wasn't actually sure what would happen to her gear when it exited her area of influence, but it would do for now. She'd simply need to warn whoever came to collect them that they'd need to use their their own restraints.
Rather than bind everyone personally, Taylor handed off the bundle of zip ties to Almaric and set him and the nagas to securing, and then healing, the rest of the gang members. Meanwhile, Taylor herself turned her mind towards her other minions.
Her oculus and the two orcs had already chased down the two fleeing ABB members. They were currently being hoisted over the orcs' shoulders to be carried back; judging from the ganger's unnaturally stiff bodies, they had been disabled by her oculus' paralytic ability. Meanwhile, the skargs and gnarlings she'd sent into the Merchant hideout were already aimlessly milling about within the building, having subdued the occupants, who apparently hadn't put up much of a fight.
Taylor finally took a moment to really examine the place. It had once clearly been some kind of two-story restaurant, one of the higher-end types where the everyday patrons would occupy a lower, wide open floor, while the second story was divided into a few different rooms for larger, private reservations.
What surprised her was the contents of the place. This wasn't just some basic safehouse with a handful of homeless drug addicts living out of it. No, this must have been a distribution center of some sort. What tables had remained in the place had been moved into orderly rows in the main dining room, with duffels and bags of various substances piled high in the center of each table. A number of large wooden crates, unopened, were stacked in one corner.
It was surprisingly well organized for an group with the kind of reputation the Merchants had. Even more extraordinary, despite the expected reek of unwashed bodies, which was quite foul, there weren't any immediate signs of active drug use on the main floor. That seemed somewhat at odds with what little Taylor knew of the gang.
The mystery would have to wait, however, as first she needed to secure her prisoners.
Taylor began by setting her goblins to shifting tables aside in order to make some space. This was followed by having Almaric, the nagas, and her two remaining gnarlings round up the gang members, haul them into the main dining room, and zip tie their hands before forcing them to sit crosslegged on the floor in the center of the room. At the same time, she also ensured that each gang member received a bare minimum of healing, at least enough that they'd be able to walk, and weren't going to suffer any permanent injury.
While this was happening, the pair of orcs and her oculus returned, so Taylor immediately set the orcs to guarding the front doors, to prevent any of the gang members from fleeing, and had the oculus join her two skargs in watching over the captives directly.
After a glance around the room to make sure her minions appeared to have everything under control, Taylor turned her attention to the surrounding area. The streets appeared quiet, so she quickly scanned all of the neighboring buildings using her overhead view. Thankfully, she didn't see any signs of people. Not within her power's range at least; it would seem that the Merchants had probably chosen this location precisely because the whole block was abandoned.
Satisfied, Taylor then swept her awareness around the outside of the building a few times before pulling back to examine the building she was in, beginning with the upstairs.
Checking up on the Merchant who'd been paralyzed, she saw that he'd already unfrozen and was now being escorted back downstairs by one of the nagas, the man in question shivering and mumbling something to himself as he stumbled along.
Examining the other upstairs rooms caused her stomach to turn in revulsion. It seemed the upstairs portion of the building was where they'd all been sleeping, and it was pretty clear from the literal trash heap full of rotting food containers and filth-ridden laundry they'd shoved into one of the rooms that they didn't have access to running water in the building.
No wonder they stank so bad, if they were willing to live like this.
Scrunching up her nose in disgust, Taylor shifted her examination of the building back downstairs, where she discovered that the goblins had finished shifting the tables around, and were beginning to poke curiously at the bags on top of them. She had no desire to discover what a goblin on drugs was like, assuming that was even possible, so she mentally nudged all of her minions away from investigating things they shouldn't, just in case.
Continuing to pan around the ground floor, the gang members who'd already been secured seemed to be doing fine, showing a mixture of both fear and resignation. Taylor supposed that for most gangs in Brockton Bay, being apprehended by capes was just a hazard of the job. Either way, with an entire roomful of monsters surrounding them, plus Taylor herself standing there glaring around the place, they didn't seem inclined to fight back.
The other rooms seemed more or less already secured. The back room with the loading dock was closed up, and had been cleared of occupants. The kitchen with all its rusting equipment was empty as well, though her minions hadn't yet extracted the one guy cowering in the freezer, who seemed to be hiding under a table whole holding something to his face and muttering. What had probably been the managers office was cleared as well, and—
Wait.
Taylor's mental processed hitched for a moment as her brain caught up. She flicked her gaze back into what had once been a freezer.
Was that a phone?
Oh. Yes. Yes it was.
Well, shit.
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