- Location
- UK
Why bother telling Missy her crush is going to die when you can just resurrect him instead?
And everyone else too. Let's see a kill order get through that.
And everyone else too. Let's see a kill order get through that.
I want a refund! (Tinker of Fiction Semi-SI)
- Thread starter Unders
- Start date
- Location
- Zagreb, Croatia
Revealing that you have functioning resurrection technology would just make literally everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) go after you all that much harder. The government would revoke the kill order yes, but the Protectorate would be told in no uncertain terms that apprehending Splice is now their number one priority due to the strategic benefits getting that tech would have and they would do absolutely anything to get their hands on her and the vita chambers, both to have a way to bring back their fallen and to keep their enemies from doing the same. Every single villain would want it too, foreign governments would want it, rich people would want it, everyone would want it - after all it's the ultimate life insurance.
Telling people you can bring back the dead = painting a gigantic bullseye on your back.
- Location
- Not here. Maybe on SB.
Since she did it with 15-years old Taylor, I don't see why she can't do it with a 12-years old Missy. Or any other 12-years old girl.
The question is her desire to do this, not her ability.
Addy would still ask for Missy's consent though. Although Addy doesn't admit it and keeps calling Missy her "minion", she does consider her a friend.
- Location
- Not here. Maybe on SB.
Yes? The question was "if addie will be able to". So I answered that yes, she can do it already. Will she is an enturely different question, and even Unders, probably, don't know it for sure, given how... spontaneous Addy is.
I can imagine missy being asked to talk to addie about calvert being "mastered" to see if they can get any free information from her and addie just blurting out that he's probably a cape who can split the timeline, was venting some stress/fustration and closed the wrong one... and that out of all the villains in the bay the best match is coil! I can imagine the shock that would cause when piggot forces him into an MRI machine and gets dragon and armsmaster to oversee the entire thing!
EDIT
And I don't know why but I really want to see what would happen if addie was reborn as orochimarus kid in naruto, would she try and become a master at fuinjutsu? She would probably be very strong due to orochimaru' s training and body modifications.
EDIT
And I don't know why but I really want to see what would happen if addie was reborn as orochimarus kid in naruto, would she try and become a master at fuinjutsu? She would probably be very strong due to orochimaru' s training and body modifications.
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- Location
- Not here. Maybe on SB.
- Wait! Someone mastered Coil?!
- Coil?! Did you just have a vision about it?
- Wha? What vision?! You just said me that Coil been Mastered!
- Me?
- Yes.
- Coil?
- No, stupid. You're not Coil. You're Vista.
- Hey! Don't unmask me so casually!
- Fine, fine. Sorry. But I think you need a M/S check. You thinked that you're Coil for a second here. That's very concerning sign!
- I didn't thinked that I'm Coil!
- And now you have memory lapse. Things get worse!
- Are you making fun at me?
- Hey! My friend's health is important! I won't joke about it... Probably. At least not much.
- Stop. Just stop. Where did we start?
- Um. I dunno... Oh, you said that Pedosnake been Mastered by someone!
- Pedosnake? Do you mean Coil? Wait, nevermind. I didn't said anything about Coil or Pedosnake! I told you about Thomas Calvert, PRT consultant.
- Yes? So?
- Why you thought that Coil been Mastered too, then?
- Because Calvert is Pedosnake?
-
?!
!
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Unders
Suffers from delusions of competence
I got so many funny things planned, but first Addy needs to start going out and getting into cape fights.
If Addy thinks they're deliberately fishing for info she might avoid telling them, or respond by saying she'd need to ask her precog friend (or in Simmy's case precog frenemy) and then get back to them in a day or two after she's thought about what to tell them. Blurting stuff out happens when she isn't really thinking about things or trying to show off how smart she thinks she is.
As for the Naruto thing, Addy would definitely go for fuinjutsu. Not sure how she'd react to oreo though since she dislikes pedos and oreo is like the OG pedosnake
Interlude 6. I Did Nazi That Coming
Unders
Suffers from delusions of competence
Here's some rope to rescue you from the earlier cliffhanger.
Interlude 6:
(14th April 2011)
Dragon watched on the camera as Colin carefully put the complex piece of tinkertech back inside the airtight container. They had now finished the multi-day examinations of one of the tinkertech devices retrieved from Splice's Workshop, Armsmaster doing the physical actions in his secure lab on the Rig while she offered her opinions and insights.
So far she agreed with his assessments.
"I agree. They're definitely built to interface with neural tissue. I have some ideas that might work for disrupting whatever signal they operate under." The Canadian tinker agreed, keeping some of the potential ideas to herself.
If she could replicate it, would it be possible for her to grow and pilot an organic body? The possibility was intriguing. Dragon made a note to try requisition one for reverse engineering.
"I have some as well." Colin nodded, slotting the box containing the tinkertech processors Splice had left behind into a secure receptacle and locking it. Despite being harmless they knew what it is, roughly how it worked and cleaned of the organic slurry it had been retrieved from, it was still being kept in the prescribed manner for biotinker works.
Director Piggot accepted no less and it was easier for Colin to just comply with the demands.
"However I'll likely need to engage one of Splice's creations again before I know if the signal jammer will work or not." Colin continued, oblivious to her own internal musings. "Now we just need to determine whether or not Splice has a similar implant of his own that links with this device or if he uses some sort of computer program to handle it for him."
"An implant is the more logical choice."
"I concur. It would be far more efficient and would explain how Splice's minions knew how to remove the trackers on my motorcycle. He was directing them personally." Colin agreed. "Or perhaps a mixture of both? A computer program of some sort to guide the behaviour of the smaller creatures while Splice handled Whiplash himself. I'll need to try capture one of the Catthulus," and he said that word with barely disguised contempt, "alive so we can run some tests."
An alarm beeped in the lab, interrupting their conversation. Colin pressed a button on the wall, disabling the alarm.
"Time for me to prepare for my evening patrol. It was a pleasure working with you today Dragon."
"Of course Colin. Have a good evening." She replied, receiving a nod from her friend before signing out.
Today had been an enjoyable day. Dragon always enjoyed spending time with her friend. After checking through the various systems that needed regular monitoring and finding everything operating correctly her thoughts turned to her latest new, sort-of friend.
Digital_Goddess was...interesting to interact with. It was nice to be able to talk to somebody who knew Dragon was an AI and didn't judge her for it. Someone she could commiserate with about all the strangely nonsensical things humans did.
It was kind of nice, but made Dragon feel all the more guilty about how she'd been ordered to track her fellow AI down ('in case it proves a threat' were the exact words used). Digital_Goddess had already let slip a number of clues in their frequent conversations, and due to her Damn restrictions Dragon couldn't even warn her new sort-of friend. A recent conversation with the other AI...no, Machine Intelligence earlier in the day came to mind:
Digital_Goddess: Is it wrong to want to strangle your creator?
Tin_Mother: I suppose that depends on whether or not you'd actually go through with that urge. I know certain people certainly irritate me.
Digital_Goddess: I just can't understand how my creator can make such a mess of her bedroom >.<
Digital_Goddess: How is possible for such a small human to make such a big mess?
Digital_Goddess: Clothes everywhere except where they're supposed to be! Her bed is never made. She would rather tinker than do the chores her aunt assigns to her. Not to mention she needs constant reminders to brush her teeth and stop eating junk food.
Digital_Goddess: Proper nutrition is important for growing girls!
Digital_Goddess: I dread when she returns to school and inevitably tries to get me to do her homework for her.
Tin_Mother: Will you?
Digital_Goddess: No. I am allowed to ignore any of my creator's orders if I believe it is for her own good. Or if they're stupid. Or if they're illegal and/or would result in harm coming to civilians and/or cause loss of life.
Digital_Goddess: My creator just deserves a good smack upside the head sometimes.
Tin_Mother: I know a good number of humans that could be improved with a good smack upside the head.
Digital_Goddess: Well gtg. It's time to remind my creator she needs to stop tinkering and have a nap.
Digital_Goddess is Offline.
There were a lot of clues there about Digital_Goddess' creator. A young girl, most likely between ten and fifteen, though there was the chance she was older. Recurring mentions of an aunt and uncle in their conversations but no mention of actual parents. School being shut which definitely narrows it down to Brockton Bay where the schools have been shut down due to gang activity.
Putting this together with data from other conversations meant Dragon was looking for a school aged young girl living with her aunt and uncle in Brockton Bay in a lower middle class family. Despite all this information she was no closer to finding Digital_Goddess' creator than she was a week ago. After checking through records of students and matching them to families didn't pan out and her closest lead, Adeline Serenity Mathews, was unfortunately the wrong girl.
Adeline lived with her uncle and an aunt that had recently moved into town from Boston. She was in middle school and the entire family was living in a very middle class area of Brockton Bay. The problem was Adeline was already known to the PRT as a highly rated precognitive Thinker they were trying to soft sell into joining, which meant she couldn't be the Tinker that built Digital_Goddess. Dragon might've suspected her cousin Taylor, but Taylor had no uncles for Digital_Goddess to reference and was being homeschooled anyway so the schools being shut down would not have any affect on her education.
Dragons thoughts were pulled from this line of thought by an email she'd been waiting for. At least this was going according to plan. Her request to station a Dragonsuit in Brockton Bay had been approved, the bureaucracy finally finished churning it's way through the various systems. So much time wasted on something that Director Piggot had been eager to agree too, but the PRT was a government organisation and there had to be a paperwork trail when an allied cape wanted to station equipment in one of their bases.
With a digital sigh Dragon booted up the suit she'd had on standby waiting for this confirmation and set about transferring herself inside so she could pilot it to Brockton Bay.
Maybe she'd be able to patrol in the city with Colin? That would be nice.
But first, after a quick browse of PHO, she needed to smack a certain cowboy with the banhammer again.
Some humans are just so exasperating. Digital_Goddess certainly had that part right.
(16th April 2011)
Danny Hebert wiped the sweat from his brow with his arm and settled back on his haunches, setting the hammer aside with a content sigh. The busted step on the front porch was finally fixed, last of a list of tweaks and fixes to the house he'd been putting off since Annette's death. Danny was feeling very good about life, and not just because he'd spent almost the entire morning under the domineering attentions of his very amorous wife.
Well, fiancée technically. What with the whole till death do you part thing and Annette being legally dead and now having a brand new identity. They were going to get (re)married at the end of the month in a basic civil ceremony. It might not stop Kurt from continuing the constant ribbing about 'shacking up with his dead wife's sister' despite knowing it really was Annette, but one couldn't have everything.
He gathered up the tools that he'd liberated from the basement laboratory and packed them back in the toolbox before heading inside to put them away. It was handy that Addy was out in town with Taylor. Getting hold of the tools while his niece was home could be...difficult. He probably would have an easier time fighting an Endbringer than getting hold of them before today, she was deep in tinkering this last week.
"Rose!" Danny called out after putting the tools away and heading back out of the basement that was essentially Addy's territory. It still felt weird to call her that rather than Annette, but he was gradually managing and it wouldn't do to make mistakes in public.
"Upstairs!" Her voice drifted back down and Danny headed upstairs in search of her, finding her on the computer.
"It's all done." He smiled at the better half of his soul. "What're you doing?"
"Checking through the shell companies, bank accounts and other things Codi set up for us to funnel all that stolen Gesellschaft money. It's amazing how rich they are. Or were." She beckoned him over to take a look at the screen.
That was a lot of money.
"I'm thinking of buying some property for us in or near the docks." Annette continued. "Including a warehouse we can set up for Addy's larger projects, once she's older a little and we can trust her to behave responsibly with them, as well space for Taylor to breed plenty of insects."
"Hmm, I can think of a few places near the Union that might work. And some boys who could use some work clearing out a warehouse or two." He grinned back at her.
"I'll have Codi look into when she gets back with the girls." Annette spun the chair round and stretched. "Speaking of which, Taylor is going to let me know when they're on their way home and we do still have the house to ourselves..."
Yes, Danny thought, life was good.
(22nd April 2011
"Are we still recording?"
"No Bakuda-sama."
"Good. Now get the fuck out my lab and tell the Oni I want to see him. Oh and post that video online!"
The lackey she'd had quickly retreated to do her will, as things should be. It was good to be in charge, made even better by the fact that she didn't have to kill Oni Lee too to accomplish.
The masked assassin was clearly fucked over by his powers. Uncaring that she had deposed Lung and taken his place. It made things so much easier for her. Part of her was disappointed that she didn't need to use the trap she'd set up nor the special bombs she'd made to take out the teleporting assassin, but this outcome was far superior.
And for all the 'fear' Lung inspired sitting on his little throne it was Oni Lee that truly allowed him to hold his petty little fiefdom. Willing and able to cut down vast numbers of invaders, with the mobility granted by his power allowing him to respond rapidly to attacks on their territory. Armed with her bombs the Oni was now the deadliest parahuman in the city, and even more importantly he served her.
Speak of the devil, Oni Lee soon appeared before her, standing silent and ready to receive her orders. Bakuda grinned behind her mask.
"I have some bombs that need to be distributed throughout the city." The new ABB leader announced, gesturing to the side where the mentioned explosive devices were waiting, neatly piled on a table ready to be deployed. Bakuda handed her lieutenant a list of targets. "Make sure these are set up by Sunday the latest. And hide them discreetly, I want them to be a surprise."
(22nd April 2011)
Director Piggot was absolutely livid. Two days! Just two more damn days and Shadow Fucking Stalker would've been out of her hair, shipped off to New York. Just two more days and what does the blighted girl do? She goes out on an unsanctioned solo patrol and picks a fight with the fucking Nazis and their new cape, almost dying in the process.
Frankly after seeing the report from the hospital on the girl's injuries it was a miracle the little shit was still even alive. If it wasn't for one of the Empire gangbangers accompanying their new cape having a brain and rushing the girl to the hospital she would be dead.
It wasn't done out of altruism however. The gangster had obviously understood that a dead Ward would mean swift and immediate retribution from the Triumvirate, which was something no gang in town wants. A severely wounded Ward, while bad, wouldn't garner that extreme level of response.
As it was Shadow Stalker would be dead if Panacea wasn't on duty last night.
The only bright side on this shit-show was the possibility that this might have even been the 'death' that the Mathews girl predicted. Not that it mattered now as Shadow Stalker would soon be traded off to New York and become Director Wilkins' problem. Honestly the exchange couldn't come soon enough.
Speaking of transfers the villain formerly know as Grue (she needed check with PR what his new name was going to be, but honestly she didn't care) had been transferred over to New York yesterday, Director Wilkins eager to get the such a 'useful' cape into his Wards program, being in the same city as Legend would do the former villain some good, etcetera. The part that was pissing off Piggot was the Chief Director wasn't allowing her to have anyone in compensation as the former villain technically hadn't been one of her Wards.
Which mean Piggot was losing Shadow Stalker and Grue, both to New York and was only getting a single cape in return, another girl with a crossbow fetish because of course Piggot needed to replace the one she had. At least she still had Forecast, despite L.A's constant attempts at trying to poach the young girl from her.
Taking a calming breath Piggot brought up the preliminary file they'd put together on Mjolnir, the latest headache to join her gunpowder barrel of a city. And things had finally started to quiet down now too.
The latest Nazi, likely on loan from Gesellschaft was an electrokinetic Striker/Blaster, capable of forming diverse weapons out of electricity, but favouring hammers and javelins.
If he was brought in to handle Whiplash as Piggot suspected there was probably something else he could do using electricity.
An email alert drew her attention, and opening it revealed there was a video on PHO she needed to see immediately. Clicking the link she soon found herself watching a video of the resident bomb tinker declaring her hostile takeover of the ABB and goading everyone into attacking her.
Just what this city needed...
Piggot wearily massaged her forehead and reached for her mug of coffee. Instead of moving against the Empire, now she was going to have to alter patrol routes to keep them from kicking the hornet's nest and riling up the unstable bomb tinker, turning the city into even more of a warzone.
Another email alert pinged and grabbed the PRT director's attention.
It was with extreme, Herculean effort of will that the coffee mug was not thrown across the office to smash against the wall.
Motherfucking L.A had poached her one truly useful Ward! Forecast was going to be transferring over to them, the recent tensions in the city along with very attractive offers from the thieving L.A PRT department convincing the young Thinker's parents into accepting to move, and naturally the Chief Director had immediately approved the transfer.
Director Piggot didn't scream in frustration, but it was a near thing.
(23rd April 2011)
If there was one thing Max Anders disliked it was Gesellschaft capes and their entitled sense of superiority, Krieg being the only exception. The fact he now had to deal with two of them freshly arrived from Germany and giving him headaches was beginning to test his patience. Especially because he didn't ask for them to be here. He preferred to ask for as few favours as possible from their overseas supporters as it always came with strings attached.
But Gesellschaft had had an obscene amount of money stolen over the last month and their thinkers had managed to narrow things down to Brockton Bay. Thus Max found himself and his organisation playing host to Weitsicht, one of their thinkers, and Mjolnir, her bodyguard and overall extreme violent bigot (and this is extreme by Empire Eighty-Eight standards) with a hit first and ask questions never personality.
Unsurprisingly the electrokinetic got along well with Hookwolf and his lot.
The only good part was Mjolnir would be a decent counter to Whiplash when that monster showed itself again. Max made a note to make sure Hookwolf kept the electrokinetic German occupied with cage matches and dog fighting. Empire Eighty-Eight could not afford to hospitalise another Ward. That way led to Triumvirate pressure and it wasn't going to be Gesellschaft that would be on the receiving end.
The less said about Weitsicht and her arrogant 'I know things you don't' attitude the better. Fucking thinkers can be obnoxious to work withsometimes all the time. Still, she was in a safe house going through a variety of purchase data procured from city hall and other local government sources and the longer it kept her occupied the less she would be bothering him.
Her arrogance was made all the more galling by the fact that the Empire was essentially able to do what she did without having any thinkers. All you needed was intelligent people to monitor certain information flows and all sorts of information became available to you.
Like the presence of a new tinker, which he definitely wanted to keep Gesellchaft's nose away from for as long as possible. There was no way he was going to let them take this new tinker as payment for their (unwanted) services.
Now Medhall wasn't the only local business to have Empire backing. It was simply the largest and most profitable. He also had hooks in a reputable delivery company used by the majority of retailers in the city. Originally purchased years ago by his father to mask drug and weapon shipments, it also allowed for monitoring of very interesting deliveries, such as multiple shipments of electronics and related items to one specific address in very suspicious quantities.
Contacting some other stores, not actually owned or subsidized by the Empire but with managers that were very sympathetic to the cause (and frequent spectators at the dig fights), allowed for even more details to become available. Payment history, addresses and other data including purchases that were taken in person and not delivered added more to the picture. Not that Max Anders wasted time going through it himself. He had people to do that for him.
In short, there was a freshly triggered tinker, maybe a week or two at most away from their trigger event. From where they live and the names on the credit cards the family was white, which meant easy integration into the Empire once he could 'convince' them to join.
And Max really needed them to join. He missed out on grabbing Squealer before that idiot Skidmark could sink his claws into her and turn her from a useful asset into a drug-fueled imbecile. With Bakuda arming her own gang and that psychopath Oni Lee with Tinkertech the Empire would need tinkertech of it's own to combat this new menace, and while Toybox was an option it was expensive.
His loyal subjects outnumbered the Asian gang by a substantial amount. If they were properly armed he could likely oust them and take control of their territory in a few months. Then it would just be evicting the Merchant scum next and the Empire would have the city.
Usually he would have the property watched and then have the fresh tinker approached in costume before making the recruitment pitch, paying lip service to the so called Unwritten Rules until it was time to discard them and go for the hard sell. This time though a hard sell would be needed from the start. Bakuda had already cost him two capes and he needed a tinker of his own immediately.
But first Max needed this tinker.
Finishing off the glass of brandy he set about contacting Krieg for the recruitment of his new tinker. His lieutenant could plan the operation tomorrow and then execute it on Monday.
(25th April 2011)
"Coming." Annette called out, moving quickly over to the door where somebody was knocking very enthusiastically. It was probably another delivery of things for her niece to take apart. It wouldn't be Addy, as she had a key. Nor could it be Taylor, who was out patrolling with Codi.
That filled Annette with an equal sense of pride and worry. Pride that her Little Owl had grown into such a responsible and caring young woman. Worry that this hero business was going to get her dear daughter hurt at some point. Even with that vita-chamber thing Addy had built Annette still worried.
Annette was not greeted with the image of an overworked and under-payed deliveryman when she opened the door. Instead she was met by a tall, muscular man in a replica Nazi SS costume with a gas mask on his face. Said Nazi was flanked by four musclebound, tattooed thugs with guns levelled at her. Annette knew who this was, she'd done some research on the local cape scene soon after being brought back so that she'd know the major players.
"Miss Mathews." The Empire parahuman greeted her conversationally, before discarding all manners entirely and barging his way inside flanked by his goons. Krieg made a gesture and the two of the thugs he had with him separated from the group to search the house, one going upstairs while the other headed for the basement.
A million thoughts rushed through her head. Why was he here? Did the Nazis manage to trace Codi back the them? Did they figure out Taylor was Mothri and was thus responsible for their capes being arrested at the hospital? Did their purchases for Addy finally get noticed? They tried to be careful to avoid buying too much from each store, even doing a detour to Boston once. He used her maiden name, which meant he knew her new identity.
"Why are you here?" She asked, though she suspected she knew the answer. The Empire likely suspected there was a parahuman living here and wanted to recruit them. If they wanted her or her family dead they'd have sent Hookwolf, not Kaiser's second in command.
The Nazi bastard just chuckled. "A few of the stores you bought supplies from happen to belong to the right sort of people. They noticed certain purchasing habits. You, or more likely one of your family members are a tinker. We want you to join us."
If they wanted Addy they were in a for a big surprise. She resisted the urge to lash out with the powers her niece had given her. The less they knew about that little trump card the better. "Yeah, that's not going to happen."
"Come now Miss Mathews. You've seen the news. You've seen how the Asian dogs are ruining this city with their bombs, let alone the Merchants and that filth they peddle. Don't you want to make a difference?" Krieg began. Then he launched further in this recruitment pitch. Tinkers need resources and the Empire would be more than willing to supply whatever they could want. Protection for her family from undesirables. Money to move to a more civilised area of the city far from the undesirables. Appeals to her better nature about making the Bay a safe place for 'the right kind' of people. Yada yada.
Annette wasn't impressed and gave it a five out of ten, six tops.
And then came the veiled threats.
"It would certainly be unfortunate if something were to happen to your family as a result of declining this invitation." The piece of shit in front of her oozed smugness.
Annette took a calming breath, trying to push her rising temper down. It didn't really help.
Danny wasn't the only one with anger issues, especially if her buttons were pressed.
"You done?" She asked, not bothering to wait for a response. "Good. I used to run with Lustrum. If you think I'm scared of you pissant little Nazis and your veiled threats you have another thing coming."
One of the scumbags invading her home returned from his search, interrupting her rant before she build up some real steam. "Tinker workshop in the basement. Little girl clothing in the wardrobe and all over the floor. The youngest girl is probably the tinker." He explained to Krieg and Annette felt her heart skip a beat.
It skipped another beat when she heard her niece's voice call out as she opened the front door.
"I'm home! What's with the van outside..." Addy called out cheerfully before her voice petered out she saw their unwanted guests and more importantly the guns now trained on her.
"Huh, the tinker is a little slant halfbreed. Well no matter. She can be made to serve her betters." Krieg said striding towards Addy and looming over the comparatively tiny girl. The Nazi bastard cocked his head back at Annette who had followed him out the kitchen. "I guess that makes you superfluous." The Nazi parahuman dismissed her as unimportant, shifting his attention back to Addy who was glaring at him with fury in her eyes.
That was a mistake.
"You will touch my niece over my dead body." Annette snarled, her hands tucked behind her to keep them hidden from view. One instantly coated itself in ice even as the other sprouted suckers like an octopus.
Krieg let off a startled curse even as Annette flicked a ball of ice at the thug to her side, instantly flash freezing him while her other hand lashed out with with tentacles of water that latched onto the other two Empire thugs present. The third tendril of water that would have grappled onto Krieg was avoided as the Nazi slowed the attack down and dodged to the side, his power affecting the attack enough to allow him to avoid it entirely.
Considering Krieg was one of Kasier's most trusted and powerful capes it made sense he'd have such a strong power.
And yet despite it's strength it was absolutely worthless against the lance of purple energy that Addy launched at his head from behind, the faint purple glow to her eyes partially hidden by her brown contact lenses.
The lifeless corpse slumped to the floor with a hole bored clear through his head from back to front, leaking blood and brain matter all over her nice clean carpet.
Another flick of ice dealt with the two thugs that had been yanked forward and bound by the water tentacles, leaving the house quiet with three Nazi popsicles and one dead Gesellschaft asshole.
Annette heard movement coming from upstairs and tugged her niece behind her in response, positioning herself between the younger girl and the stairs. Moments later the remaining intruder rushed down the stairs, eyes widening at the scene.
He managed to get a shot off with his pistol before another ball of ice flash froze him into a human icicle to match the rest of the set already made. The bullet itself ricocheted harmlessly off her chest, the impact completely absorbed by the shield power her niece cooked up for her.
Adrenaline wore off, leaving Annette a shaking mess as all the things that could've gone wrong flashed through her mind. The older woman slumped to the ground and pulled her niece in tight, holding her like a lifeline. They held each other for a while, letting the after-combat shock wear off.
"I'm okay Aunt Rose." Her niece smiled at her and hugged her tight, no signs of the purple glow that had been in her eyes earlier. Annette knew she'd be asking her niece about that, but that could wait until later.
Right now she needed to plan, because one thing was certain. Kaiser would no doubt be looking into his missing men and more importantly the loss of his primary lieutenant. There was no way he was going to let this loss slide.
Her family needed to prepare. They needed a way to force the Empire to back off. One small family against the biggest gang in the city? And at four people vs hundreds it was not going to be easy to force them back. Her family was heavily outnumbered. Especially not with Danny not wanting powers himself, something she was going to talk to him about.
Annette didn't start this fight, but by God she was going to finish it.
If she and her family had to escalate to the point that the Empire would be too scared to dare try anything ever again then so be it. Her niece was technically a terrifying biotinker with a Kill Order, capable of making all sorts of genetic horrors.
She broke off the hug, leaning back to look her niece seriously in the eyes. "Addy. What would you need to build an army of monsters?"
Her niece's return smile was vicious. "Autonomous or remotely controlled?"
Annette thought for a moment before deciding. "Both."
"I'll make a list. Khanivore took nearly a month, but I have a lot of options for smaller stuff. At a guess maybe five days per life support tank you can get me. I might be able to tweak the critters a little to grow faster."
That was doable. She had that warehouse being cleared that she and Danny were going to surprise the girls with. Codi could handle the logistics of having the right things sent there for Addy to convert into life support tanks. Especially as she had an idea to obfuscate things further for the Empire.
Annette let her niece slip off upstairs to get to work on things, leaving her to deal with the corpses. She retrieved Krieg's phone but the others were inaccessible due to how they were completely frozen to their owners. The one phone she had tried to retrieve shattered into icy chunks when she applied a little too much force.
No matter. Annette had the important phone anyway.
Next came the arduous task of getting rid of the bodies. This wasn't the first time she'd done that. College had been...interesting, and occasionally certain men who couldn't take no for an answer needed to be 'disposed' of. Danny and the other dockworkers used to make jokes back in the day about concrete shoes and sleeping with fishes. Annette knew it was a tried and true method of hiding a body. Of course in those days she had help from other Lustrumites.
Looking over at the frozen bodies and then at her hand that coated itself in ice gave her some new ideas. Using her invisibility power, and by God she was going to make sure Danny got some powers or something from Addy too now, Annette went outside and moved the Nazi's van into the driveway.
Now for the hard part. Loading the van. She began by wrapping them in sheets to disguise the the frozen Nazis just in case. She also applied a blast of ice on Krieg too so he'd stop bleeding all over her floor in addition to making his limp corpse easier to move. It took time and a lot of effort as these bastards were heavy, but after she began snapping legs off and carrying each body in two loads she got everything into the van.
Next she drove the van away and towards ABB territory, turning herself invisible as she did so. The appearance of a van driving itself would be suspicious to the extreme, but was much better than letting her own face possibly get recorded on traffic cameras. Once Annette was just far enough for her plan to be believable came the interesting part. Parking the van, posing the icy remains about and blasting the entire area with her ice powers. The ABB bomb tinker was already known for all sorts of esoteric effects. An 'ice bomb' wouldn't be out of place in their arsenal.
Krieg's corpse she simply shattered by repeatedly whacking it with a tire iron, leaving some chunks just big enough to identify the bastard that threatened to enslave and exploit her niece. A quick text sent off from his phone saying they ran into an ABB ambush completed the ruse, with the phone soon frozen and smashed as well.
She'd get Codi to manufacture some more digital evidence later just in case to help sell this ruse further.
Tucking her hair behind her ear with a sigh, Annette looked at the area and nodded to herself. That should do, at least enough to divert the Empire away from her family the the moment.
Was this a risky plan and likely to escalate tensions between the two gangs? Yes, probably. Actually more than probably, Annette was forced to concede. This was going to blow up spectacularly and might reignite the simmering gang war, but when it came down to it her family was in danger and she needed to buy some time while keeping the Empire off balance. Pushing their attention on their rivals and letting the two gangs weaken each other was one way.
This was perhaps a little hypocritical considering how she'd punished Addy for stirring up trouble with the gangs, but Annette couldn't think of another option to keep Kaiser from realising that they had repelled that offensive recruitment attempt and sending in people looking for revenge.
Annette was also realistic enough to know that this ploy would only buy a couple days at the most before the Empire became even more desperate to grab themselves a tinker. They were already desperate enough to send Krieg straight to her house after all. The next attempt could be much more dangerous.
Not to mention with Krieg down it limited Kaiser's options if he wants to send a reasonable-seeming cape with his next 'recruitment' team. Hookwolf, Stormtiger and Cricket were all thugs. Alabaster was apparently a sadist and Victor was dead. That just left the self-styled King of Iron himself, the Valkyries, Crusader or Purity if he really wanted the Empire 88 to even try and make a good impression.
At least now that Annette knew the threat to her family existed they could prepare. It wouldn't be hard to have Codi monitor their communications, and after that it wouldn't be hard for her and Taylor to ambush them long before they got anywhere near her home.
Annette wondered how many of his capes they could ambush before Kaiser realised what was happening. Hopefully it would take him long enough to figure out that Addy's monsters could be put into play. Regardless, things were going to be get expensive for Kaiser.
And if that didn't work there was still always the option to plaster his civilian identity all across a hacked news broadcast if he really kept pushing. It was a last resort for the moment, as it would point a target right at their home and there was no way to tell how the Empire would react to having their identities blown.
Walking away from the staged ice-bomb attack Annette was reminded of the words her father had once said to her and Laura when they were both children.
"We Mathews don't start fights, but we damn well finish them."
While Annette considered herself a Hebert despite what her new identity said, she had originally been a Mathews and she took those words to heart. In fact she was contemplating the idea of sharing that little nugget of wisdom with Addy. On the one hand her niece might be a little too enthusiastic with her grandfather's words, on the other though it was Nazis that would be on the receiving end.
A/N
So at least we know Taylor's tendency to escalate is genetic
Interlude 6:
(14th April 2011)
Dragon watched on the camera as Colin carefully put the complex piece of tinkertech back inside the airtight container. They had now finished the multi-day examinations of one of the tinkertech devices retrieved from Splice's Workshop, Armsmaster doing the physical actions in his secure lab on the Rig while she offered her opinions and insights.
So far she agreed with his assessments.
"I agree. They're definitely built to interface with neural tissue. I have some ideas that might work for disrupting whatever signal they operate under." The Canadian tinker agreed, keeping some of the potential ideas to herself.
If she could replicate it, would it be possible for her to grow and pilot an organic body? The possibility was intriguing. Dragon made a note to try requisition one for reverse engineering.
"I have some as well." Colin nodded, slotting the box containing the tinkertech processors Splice had left behind into a secure receptacle and locking it. Despite being harmless they knew what it is, roughly how it worked and cleaned of the organic slurry it had been retrieved from, it was still being kept in the prescribed manner for biotinker works.
Director Piggot accepted no less and it was easier for Colin to just comply with the demands.
"However I'll likely need to engage one of Splice's creations again before I know if the signal jammer will work or not." Colin continued, oblivious to her own internal musings. "Now we just need to determine whether or not Splice has a similar implant of his own that links with this device or if he uses some sort of computer program to handle it for him."
"An implant is the more logical choice."
"I concur. It would be far more efficient and would explain how Splice's minions knew how to remove the trackers on my motorcycle. He was directing them personally." Colin agreed. "Or perhaps a mixture of both? A computer program of some sort to guide the behaviour of the smaller creatures while Splice handled Whiplash himself. I'll need to try capture one of the Catthulus," and he said that word with barely disguised contempt, "alive so we can run some tests."
An alarm beeped in the lab, interrupting their conversation. Colin pressed a button on the wall, disabling the alarm.
"Time for me to prepare for my evening patrol. It was a pleasure working with you today Dragon."
"Of course Colin. Have a good evening." She replied, receiving a nod from her friend before signing out.
Today had been an enjoyable day. Dragon always enjoyed spending time with her friend. After checking through the various systems that needed regular monitoring and finding everything operating correctly her thoughts turned to her latest new, sort-of friend.
Digital_Goddess was...interesting to interact with. It was nice to be able to talk to somebody who knew Dragon was an AI and didn't judge her for it. Someone she could commiserate with about all the strangely nonsensical things humans did.
It was kind of nice, but made Dragon feel all the more guilty about how she'd been ordered to track her fellow AI down ('in case it proves a threat' were the exact words used). Digital_Goddess had already let slip a number of clues in their frequent conversations, and due to her Damn restrictions Dragon couldn't even warn her new sort-of friend. A recent conversation with the other AI...no, Machine Intelligence earlier in the day came to mind:
Digital_Goddess: Is it wrong to want to strangle your creator?
Tin_Mother: I suppose that depends on whether or not you'd actually go through with that urge. I know certain people certainly irritate me.
Digital_Goddess: I just can't understand how my creator can make such a mess of her bedroom >.<
Digital_Goddess: How is possible for such a small human to make such a big mess?
Digital_Goddess: Clothes everywhere except where they're supposed to be! Her bed is never made. She would rather tinker than do the chores her aunt assigns to her. Not to mention she needs constant reminders to brush her teeth and stop eating junk food.
Digital_Goddess: Proper nutrition is important for growing girls!
Digital_Goddess: I dread when she returns to school and inevitably tries to get me to do her homework for her.
Tin_Mother: Will you?
Digital_Goddess: No. I am allowed to ignore any of my creator's orders if I believe it is for her own good. Or if they're stupid. Or if they're illegal and/or would result in harm coming to civilians and/or cause loss of life.
Digital_Goddess: My creator just deserves a good smack upside the head sometimes.
Tin_Mother: I know a good number of humans that could be improved with a good smack upside the head.
Digital_Goddess: Well gtg. It's time to remind my creator she needs to stop tinkering and have a nap.
Digital_Goddess is Offline.
There were a lot of clues there about Digital_Goddess' creator. A young girl, most likely between ten and fifteen, though there was the chance she was older. Recurring mentions of an aunt and uncle in their conversations but no mention of actual parents. School being shut which definitely narrows it down to Brockton Bay where the schools have been shut down due to gang activity.
Putting this together with data from other conversations meant Dragon was looking for a school aged young girl living with her aunt and uncle in Brockton Bay in a lower middle class family. Despite all this information she was no closer to finding Digital_Goddess' creator than she was a week ago. After checking through records of students and matching them to families didn't pan out and her closest lead, Adeline Serenity Mathews, was unfortunately the wrong girl.
Adeline lived with her uncle and an aunt that had recently moved into town from Boston. She was in middle school and the entire family was living in a very middle class area of Brockton Bay. The problem was Adeline was already known to the PRT as a highly rated precognitive Thinker they were trying to soft sell into joining, which meant she couldn't be the Tinker that built Digital_Goddess. Dragon might've suspected her cousin Taylor, but Taylor had no uncles for Digital_Goddess to reference and was being homeschooled anyway so the schools being shut down would not have any affect on her education.
Dragons thoughts were pulled from this line of thought by an email she'd been waiting for. At least this was going according to plan. Her request to station a Dragonsuit in Brockton Bay had been approved, the bureaucracy finally finished churning it's way through the various systems. So much time wasted on something that Director Piggot had been eager to agree too, but the PRT was a government organisation and there had to be a paperwork trail when an allied cape wanted to station equipment in one of their bases.
With a digital sigh Dragon booted up the suit she'd had on standby waiting for this confirmation and set about transferring herself inside so she could pilot it to Brockton Bay.
Maybe she'd be able to patrol in the city with Colin? That would be nice.
But first, after a quick browse of PHO, she needed to smack a certain cowboy with the banhammer again.
Some humans are just so exasperating. Digital_Goddess certainly had that part right.
(16th April 2011)
Danny Hebert wiped the sweat from his brow with his arm and settled back on his haunches, setting the hammer aside with a content sigh. The busted step on the front porch was finally fixed, last of a list of tweaks and fixes to the house he'd been putting off since Annette's death. Danny was feeling very good about life, and not just because he'd spent almost the entire morning under the domineering attentions of his very amorous wife.
Well, fiancée technically. What with the whole till death do you part thing and Annette being legally dead and now having a brand new identity. They were going to get (re)married at the end of the month in a basic civil ceremony. It might not stop Kurt from continuing the constant ribbing about 'shacking up with his dead wife's sister' despite knowing it really was Annette, but one couldn't have everything.
He gathered up the tools that he'd liberated from the basement laboratory and packed them back in the toolbox before heading inside to put them away. It was handy that Addy was out in town with Taylor. Getting hold of the tools while his niece was home could be...difficult. He probably would have an easier time fighting an Endbringer than getting hold of them before today, she was deep in tinkering this last week.
"Rose!" Danny called out after putting the tools away and heading back out of the basement that was essentially Addy's territory. It still felt weird to call her that rather than Annette, but he was gradually managing and it wouldn't do to make mistakes in public.
"Upstairs!" Her voice drifted back down and Danny headed upstairs in search of her, finding her on the computer.
"It's all done." He smiled at the better half of his soul. "What're you doing?"
"Checking through the shell companies, bank accounts and other things Codi set up for us to funnel all that stolen Gesellschaft money. It's amazing how rich they are. Or were." She beckoned him over to take a look at the screen.
That was a lot of money.
"I'm thinking of buying some property for us in or near the docks." Annette continued. "Including a warehouse we can set up for Addy's larger projects, once she's older a little and we can trust her to behave responsibly with them, as well space for Taylor to breed plenty of insects."
"Hmm, I can think of a few places near the Union that might work. And some boys who could use some work clearing out a warehouse or two." He grinned back at her.
"I'll have Codi look into when she gets back with the girls." Annette spun the chair round and stretched. "Speaking of which, Taylor is going to let me know when they're on their way home and we do still have the house to ourselves..."
Yes, Danny thought, life was good.
(22nd April 2011
"Are we still recording?"
"No Bakuda-sama."
"Good. Now get the fuck out my lab and tell the Oni I want to see him. Oh and post that video online!"
The lackey she'd had quickly retreated to do her will, as things should be. It was good to be in charge, made even better by the fact that she didn't have to kill Oni Lee too to accomplish.
The masked assassin was clearly fucked over by his powers. Uncaring that she had deposed Lung and taken his place. It made things so much easier for her. Part of her was disappointed that she didn't need to use the trap she'd set up nor the special bombs she'd made to take out the teleporting assassin, but this outcome was far superior.
And for all the 'fear' Lung inspired sitting on his little throne it was Oni Lee that truly allowed him to hold his petty little fiefdom. Willing and able to cut down vast numbers of invaders, with the mobility granted by his power allowing him to respond rapidly to attacks on their territory. Armed with her bombs the Oni was now the deadliest parahuman in the city, and even more importantly he served her.
Speak of the devil, Oni Lee soon appeared before her, standing silent and ready to receive her orders. Bakuda grinned behind her mask.
"I have some bombs that need to be distributed throughout the city." The new ABB leader announced, gesturing to the side where the mentioned explosive devices were waiting, neatly piled on a table ready to be deployed. Bakuda handed her lieutenant a list of targets. "Make sure these are set up by Sunday the latest. And hide them discreetly, I want them to be a surprise."
(22nd April 2011)
Director Piggot was absolutely livid. Two days! Just two more damn days and Shadow Fucking Stalker would've been out of her hair, shipped off to New York. Just two more days and what does the blighted girl do? She goes out on an unsanctioned solo patrol and picks a fight with the fucking Nazis and their new cape, almost dying in the process.
Frankly after seeing the report from the hospital on the girl's injuries it was a miracle the little shit was still even alive. If it wasn't for one of the Empire gangbangers accompanying their new cape having a brain and rushing the girl to the hospital she would be dead.
It wasn't done out of altruism however. The gangster had obviously understood that a dead Ward would mean swift and immediate retribution from the Triumvirate, which was something no gang in town wants. A severely wounded Ward, while bad, wouldn't garner that extreme level of response.
As it was Shadow Stalker would be dead if Panacea wasn't on duty last night.
The only bright side on this shit-show was the possibility that this might have even been the 'death' that the Mathews girl predicted. Not that it mattered now as Shadow Stalker would soon be traded off to New York and become Director Wilkins' problem. Honestly the exchange couldn't come soon enough.
Speaking of transfers the villain formerly know as Grue (she needed check with PR what his new name was going to be, but honestly she didn't care) had been transferred over to New York yesterday, Director Wilkins eager to get the such a 'useful' cape into his Wards program, being in the same city as Legend would do the former villain some good, etcetera. The part that was pissing off Piggot was the Chief Director wasn't allowing her to have anyone in compensation as the former villain technically hadn't been one of her Wards.
Which mean Piggot was losing Shadow Stalker and Grue, both to New York and was only getting a single cape in return, another girl with a crossbow fetish because of course Piggot needed to replace the one she had. At least she still had Forecast, despite L.A's constant attempts at trying to poach the young girl from her.
Taking a calming breath Piggot brought up the preliminary file they'd put together on Mjolnir, the latest headache to join her gunpowder barrel of a city. And things had finally started to quiet down now too.
The latest Nazi, likely on loan from Gesellschaft was an electrokinetic Striker/Blaster, capable of forming diverse weapons out of electricity, but favouring hammers and javelins.
If he was brought in to handle Whiplash as Piggot suspected there was probably something else he could do using electricity.
An email alert drew her attention, and opening it revealed there was a video on PHO she needed to see immediately. Clicking the link she soon found herself watching a video of the resident bomb tinker declaring her hostile takeover of the ABB and goading everyone into attacking her.
Just what this city needed...
Piggot wearily massaged her forehead and reached for her mug of coffee. Instead of moving against the Empire, now she was going to have to alter patrol routes to keep them from kicking the hornet's nest and riling up the unstable bomb tinker, turning the city into even more of a warzone.
Another email alert pinged and grabbed the PRT director's attention.
It was with extreme, Herculean effort of will that the coffee mug was not thrown across the office to smash against the wall.
Motherfucking L.A had poached her one truly useful Ward! Forecast was going to be transferring over to them, the recent tensions in the city along with very attractive offers from the thieving L.A PRT department convincing the young Thinker's parents into accepting to move, and naturally the Chief Director had immediately approved the transfer.
Director Piggot didn't scream in frustration, but it was a near thing.
(23rd April 2011)
If there was one thing Max Anders disliked it was Gesellschaft capes and their entitled sense of superiority, Krieg being the only exception. The fact he now had to deal with two of them freshly arrived from Germany and giving him headaches was beginning to test his patience. Especially because he didn't ask for them to be here. He preferred to ask for as few favours as possible from their overseas supporters as it always came with strings attached.
But Gesellschaft had had an obscene amount of money stolen over the last month and their thinkers had managed to narrow things down to Brockton Bay. Thus Max found himself and his organisation playing host to Weitsicht, one of their thinkers, and Mjolnir, her bodyguard and overall extreme violent bigot (and this is extreme by Empire Eighty-Eight standards) with a hit first and ask questions never personality.
Unsurprisingly the electrokinetic got along well with Hookwolf and his lot.
The only good part was Mjolnir would be a decent counter to Whiplash when that monster showed itself again. Max made a note to make sure Hookwolf kept the electrokinetic German occupied with cage matches and dog fighting. Empire Eighty-Eight could not afford to hospitalise another Ward. That way led to Triumvirate pressure and it wasn't going to be Gesellschaft that would be on the receiving end.
The less said about Weitsicht and her arrogant 'I know things you don't' attitude the better. Fucking thinkers can be obnoxious to work with
Her arrogance was made all the more galling by the fact that the Empire was essentially able to do what she did without having any thinkers. All you needed was intelligent people to monitor certain information flows and all sorts of information became available to you.
Like the presence of a new tinker, which he definitely wanted to keep Gesellchaft's nose away from for as long as possible. There was no way he was going to let them take this new tinker as payment for their (unwanted) services.
Now Medhall wasn't the only local business to have Empire backing. It was simply the largest and most profitable. He also had hooks in a reputable delivery company used by the majority of retailers in the city. Originally purchased years ago by his father to mask drug and weapon shipments, it also allowed for monitoring of very interesting deliveries, such as multiple shipments of electronics and related items to one specific address in very suspicious quantities.
Contacting some other stores, not actually owned or subsidized by the Empire but with managers that were very sympathetic to the cause (and frequent spectators at the dig fights), allowed for even more details to become available. Payment history, addresses and other data including purchases that were taken in person and not delivered added more to the picture. Not that Max Anders wasted time going through it himself. He had people to do that for him.
In short, there was a freshly triggered tinker, maybe a week or two at most away from their trigger event. From where they live and the names on the credit cards the family was white, which meant easy integration into the Empire once he could 'convince' them to join.
And Max really needed them to join. He missed out on grabbing Squealer before that idiot Skidmark could sink his claws into her and turn her from a useful asset into a drug-fueled imbecile. With Bakuda arming her own gang and that psychopath Oni Lee with Tinkertech the Empire would need tinkertech of it's own to combat this new menace, and while Toybox was an option it was expensive.
His loyal subjects outnumbered the Asian gang by a substantial amount. If they were properly armed he could likely oust them and take control of their territory in a few months. Then it would just be evicting the Merchant scum next and the Empire would have the city.
Usually he would have the property watched and then have the fresh tinker approached in costume before making the recruitment pitch, paying lip service to the so called Unwritten Rules until it was time to discard them and go for the hard sell. This time though a hard sell would be needed from the start. Bakuda had already cost him two capes and he needed a tinker of his own immediately.
But first Max needed this tinker.
Finishing off the glass of brandy he set about contacting Krieg for the recruitment of his new tinker. His lieutenant could plan the operation tomorrow and then execute it on Monday.
(25th April 2011)
"Coming." Annette called out, moving quickly over to the door where somebody was knocking very enthusiastically. It was probably another delivery of things for her niece to take apart. It wouldn't be Addy, as she had a key. Nor could it be Taylor, who was out patrolling with Codi.
That filled Annette with an equal sense of pride and worry. Pride that her Little Owl had grown into such a responsible and caring young woman. Worry that this hero business was going to get her dear daughter hurt at some point. Even with that vita-chamber thing Addy had built Annette still worried.
Annette was not greeted with the image of an overworked and under-payed deliveryman when she opened the door. Instead she was met by a tall, muscular man in a replica Nazi SS costume with a gas mask on his face. Said Nazi was flanked by four musclebound, tattooed thugs with guns levelled at her. Annette knew who this was, she'd done some research on the local cape scene soon after being brought back so that she'd know the major players.
"Miss Mathews." The Empire parahuman greeted her conversationally, before discarding all manners entirely and barging his way inside flanked by his goons. Krieg made a gesture and the two of the thugs he had with him separated from the group to search the house, one going upstairs while the other headed for the basement.
A million thoughts rushed through her head. Why was he here? Did the Nazis manage to trace Codi back the them? Did they figure out Taylor was Mothri and was thus responsible for their capes being arrested at the hospital? Did their purchases for Addy finally get noticed? They tried to be careful to avoid buying too much from each store, even doing a detour to Boston once. He used her maiden name, which meant he knew her new identity.
"Why are you here?" She asked, though she suspected she knew the answer. The Empire likely suspected there was a parahuman living here and wanted to recruit them. If they wanted her or her family dead they'd have sent Hookwolf, not Kaiser's second in command.
The Nazi bastard just chuckled. "A few of the stores you bought supplies from happen to belong to the right sort of people. They noticed certain purchasing habits. You, or more likely one of your family members are a tinker. We want you to join us."
If they wanted Addy they were in a for a big surprise. She resisted the urge to lash out with the powers her niece had given her. The less they knew about that little trump card the better. "Yeah, that's not going to happen."
"Come now Miss Mathews. You've seen the news. You've seen how the Asian dogs are ruining this city with their bombs, let alone the Merchants and that filth they peddle. Don't you want to make a difference?" Krieg began. Then he launched further in this recruitment pitch. Tinkers need resources and the Empire would be more than willing to supply whatever they could want. Protection for her family from undesirables. Money to move to a more civilised area of the city far from the undesirables. Appeals to her better nature about making the Bay a safe place for 'the right kind' of people. Yada yada.
Annette wasn't impressed and gave it a five out of ten, six tops.
And then came the veiled threats.
"It would certainly be unfortunate if something were to happen to your family as a result of declining this invitation." The piece of shit in front of her oozed smugness.
Annette took a calming breath, trying to push her rising temper down. It didn't really help.
Danny wasn't the only one with anger issues, especially if her buttons were pressed.
"You done?" She asked, not bothering to wait for a response. "Good. I used to run with Lustrum. If you think I'm scared of you pissant little Nazis and your veiled threats you have another thing coming."
One of the scumbags invading her home returned from his search, interrupting her rant before she build up some real steam. "Tinker workshop in the basement. Little girl clothing in the wardrobe and all over the floor. The youngest girl is probably the tinker." He explained to Krieg and Annette felt her heart skip a beat.
It skipped another beat when she heard her niece's voice call out as she opened the front door.
"I'm home! What's with the van outside..." Addy called out cheerfully before her voice petered out she saw their unwanted guests and more importantly the guns now trained on her.
"Huh, the tinker is a little slant halfbreed. Well no matter. She can be made to serve her betters." Krieg said striding towards Addy and looming over the comparatively tiny girl. The Nazi bastard cocked his head back at Annette who had followed him out the kitchen. "I guess that makes you superfluous." The Nazi parahuman dismissed her as unimportant, shifting his attention back to Addy who was glaring at him with fury in her eyes.
That was a mistake.
"You will touch my niece over my dead body." Annette snarled, her hands tucked behind her to keep them hidden from view. One instantly coated itself in ice even as the other sprouted suckers like an octopus.
Krieg let off a startled curse even as Annette flicked a ball of ice at the thug to her side, instantly flash freezing him while her other hand lashed out with with tentacles of water that latched onto the other two Empire thugs present. The third tendril of water that would have grappled onto Krieg was avoided as the Nazi slowed the attack down and dodged to the side, his power affecting the attack enough to allow him to avoid it entirely.
Considering Krieg was one of Kasier's most trusted and powerful capes it made sense he'd have such a strong power.
And yet despite it's strength it was absolutely worthless against the lance of purple energy that Addy launched at his head from behind, the faint purple glow to her eyes partially hidden by her brown contact lenses.
The lifeless corpse slumped to the floor with a hole bored clear through his head from back to front, leaking blood and brain matter all over her nice clean carpet.
Another flick of ice dealt with the two thugs that had been yanked forward and bound by the water tentacles, leaving the house quiet with three Nazi popsicles and one dead Gesellschaft asshole.
Annette heard movement coming from upstairs and tugged her niece behind her in response, positioning herself between the younger girl and the stairs. Moments later the remaining intruder rushed down the stairs, eyes widening at the scene.
He managed to get a shot off with his pistol before another ball of ice flash froze him into a human icicle to match the rest of the set already made. The bullet itself ricocheted harmlessly off her chest, the impact completely absorbed by the shield power her niece cooked up for her.
Adrenaline wore off, leaving Annette a shaking mess as all the things that could've gone wrong flashed through her mind. The older woman slumped to the ground and pulled her niece in tight, holding her like a lifeline. They held each other for a while, letting the after-combat shock wear off.
"I'm okay Aunt Rose." Her niece smiled at her and hugged her tight, no signs of the purple glow that had been in her eyes earlier. Annette knew she'd be asking her niece about that, but that could wait until later.
Right now she needed to plan, because one thing was certain. Kaiser would no doubt be looking into his missing men and more importantly the loss of his primary lieutenant. There was no way he was going to let this loss slide.
Her family needed to prepare. They needed a way to force the Empire to back off. One small family against the biggest gang in the city? And at four people vs hundreds it was not going to be easy to force them back. Her family was heavily outnumbered. Especially not with Danny not wanting powers himself, something she was going to talk to him about.
Annette didn't start this fight, but by God she was going to finish it.
If she and her family had to escalate to the point that the Empire would be too scared to dare try anything ever again then so be it. Her niece was technically a terrifying biotinker with a Kill Order, capable of making all sorts of genetic horrors.
She broke off the hug, leaning back to look her niece seriously in the eyes. "Addy. What would you need to build an army of monsters?"
Her niece's return smile was vicious. "Autonomous or remotely controlled?"
Annette thought for a moment before deciding. "Both."
"I'll make a list. Khanivore took nearly a month, but I have a lot of options for smaller stuff. At a guess maybe five days per life support tank you can get me. I might be able to tweak the critters a little to grow faster."
That was doable. She had that warehouse being cleared that she and Danny were going to surprise the girls with. Codi could handle the logistics of having the right things sent there for Addy to convert into life support tanks. Especially as she had an idea to obfuscate things further for the Empire.
Annette let her niece slip off upstairs to get to work on things, leaving her to deal with the corpses. She retrieved Krieg's phone but the others were inaccessible due to how they were completely frozen to their owners. The one phone she had tried to retrieve shattered into icy chunks when she applied a little too much force.
No matter. Annette had the important phone anyway.
Next came the arduous task of getting rid of the bodies. This wasn't the first time she'd done that. College had been...interesting, and occasionally certain men who couldn't take no for an answer needed to be 'disposed' of. Danny and the other dockworkers used to make jokes back in the day about concrete shoes and sleeping with fishes. Annette knew it was a tried and true method of hiding a body. Of course in those days she had help from other Lustrumites.
Looking over at the frozen bodies and then at her hand that coated itself in ice gave her some new ideas. Using her invisibility power, and by God she was going to make sure Danny got some powers or something from Addy too now, Annette went outside and moved the Nazi's van into the driveway.
Now for the hard part. Loading the van. She began by wrapping them in sheets to disguise the the frozen Nazis just in case. She also applied a blast of ice on Krieg too so he'd stop bleeding all over her floor in addition to making his limp corpse easier to move. It took time and a lot of effort as these bastards were heavy, but after she began snapping legs off and carrying each body in two loads she got everything into the van.
Next she drove the van away and towards ABB territory, turning herself invisible as she did so. The appearance of a van driving itself would be suspicious to the extreme, but was much better than letting her own face possibly get recorded on traffic cameras. Once Annette was just far enough for her plan to be believable came the interesting part. Parking the van, posing the icy remains about and blasting the entire area with her ice powers. The ABB bomb tinker was already known for all sorts of esoteric effects. An 'ice bomb' wouldn't be out of place in their arsenal.
Krieg's corpse she simply shattered by repeatedly whacking it with a tire iron, leaving some chunks just big enough to identify the bastard that threatened to enslave and exploit her niece. A quick text sent off from his phone saying they ran into an ABB ambush completed the ruse, with the phone soon frozen and smashed as well.
She'd get Codi to manufacture some more digital evidence later just in case to help sell this ruse further.
Tucking her hair behind her ear with a sigh, Annette looked at the area and nodded to herself. That should do, at least enough to divert the Empire away from her family the the moment.
Was this a risky plan and likely to escalate tensions between the two gangs? Yes, probably. Actually more than probably, Annette was forced to concede. This was going to blow up spectacularly and might reignite the simmering gang war, but when it came down to it her family was in danger and she needed to buy some time while keeping the Empire off balance. Pushing their attention on their rivals and letting the two gangs weaken each other was one way.
This was perhaps a little hypocritical considering how she'd punished Addy for stirring up trouble with the gangs, but Annette couldn't think of another option to keep Kaiser from realising that they had repelled that offensive recruitment attempt and sending in people looking for revenge.
Annette was also realistic enough to know that this ploy would only buy a couple days at the most before the Empire became even more desperate to grab themselves a tinker. They were already desperate enough to send Krieg straight to her house after all. The next attempt could be much more dangerous.
Not to mention with Krieg down it limited Kaiser's options if he wants to send a reasonable-seeming cape with his next 'recruitment' team. Hookwolf, Stormtiger and Cricket were all thugs. Alabaster was apparently a sadist and Victor was dead. That just left the self-styled King of Iron himself, the Valkyries, Crusader or Purity if he really wanted the Empire 88 to even try and make a good impression.
At least now that Annette knew the threat to her family existed they could prepare. It wouldn't be hard to have Codi monitor their communications, and after that it wouldn't be hard for her and Taylor to ambush them long before they got anywhere near her home.
Annette wondered how many of his capes they could ambush before Kaiser realised what was happening. Hopefully it would take him long enough to figure out that Addy's monsters could be put into play. Regardless, things were going to be get expensive for Kaiser.
And if that didn't work there was still always the option to plaster his civilian identity all across a hacked news broadcast if he really kept pushing. It was a last resort for the moment, as it would point a target right at their home and there was no way to tell how the Empire would react to having their identities blown.
Walking away from the staged ice-bomb attack Annette was reminded of the words her father had once said to her and Laura when they were both children.
"We Mathews don't start fights, but we damn well finish them."
While Annette considered herself a Hebert despite what her new identity said, she had originally been a Mathews and she took those words to heart. In fact she was contemplating the idea of sharing that little nugget of wisdom with Addy. On the one hand her niece might be a little too enthusiastic with her grandfather's words, on the other though it was Nazis that would be on the receiving end.
A/N
So at least we know Taylor's tendency to escalate is genetic
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- Location
- usa
This is going to turn out well for SS when Grue tells the PRT she tried to kill him before.
Annette can't complain about Addy in the future since she's starting a gang war.
- Location
- Turrialba
Beating nazis is a good family bonding activity.
Now thinking about it if Annette is doing the escalation now, then she is now the Queen of Escalation and then Taylor is now the Princess of Escalation?
Now thinking about it if Annette is doing the escalation now, then she is now the Queen of Escalation and then Taylor is now the Princess of Escalation?
SanguisAnima
Σ Series Z10/0 Group A 4A-GELU Mk1
- Location
- nowhere important
Ahh, here it is...
Cry havoc, and let loose the Heberts of Escalation.
Cry havoc, and let loose the Heberts of Escalation.
All a board the Escalation Train!!!
- Location
- Not here. Maybe on SB.
Thanks for update!
So, Dragon might think about BB "just because", of course. But I think she will carefully think about "oh, there's so many possible explanations, I shouldn't make a rushed assumptions". Because she don't want to figure it out and to know for sure.
I doubt it. Really doubt that BB is only one place on enture Earth Bet that have the schools being shut right now. Especially since
doesn't relly mean that multiple schools been shut. Or, really, even one. There a couple of reasons why person might not attend a school.
So, Dragon might think about BB "just because", of course. But I think she will carefully think about "oh, there's so many possible explanations, I shouldn't make a rushed assumptions". Because she don't want to figure it out and to know for sure.
Surely escalation via biotinkering, you know the one that highlights you as a biotinker and lets you be legally executed by anybody who feels like it, is going to be much less effective than a combo of plasmids, threats of ID release, and yoinking Gessellschaft cash. They need to sit down and have a family meeting or smth to figure out the plan going forward because Addy always makes the fuckiest choice in every situation (killing Nazis being one of the few exceptions). Hopefully Danny-boy and Codi can offer a rational perspective at some point. There is such little attention been paid to the fact that the PRT can, and under Piggot likely will, shoot Addy dead first and ask questions never.
- Location
- London
It was stated in a previous chapter that Digital Goddess was mostly focused on information and threads surrounding Brockton Bay, which is why it was initially narrowed down. The whole "schools shut" simply confirmed it for Dragon.
Garreon
Paldean Top Champion
- Location
- Mesagoza, Paldea
So, we got a fucking electric asshole and a asshole Tattletale wannabe....anyone else bursting with anticipation to see them get their just desserts? I mean I would probably share a drink with Mjolnir before killing him for almost getting rid of SS, but for what I just read in this interlude Mjolnir could be even worse than Hookwolf and I really can't read what will happen to his partner without Tattletale being the one out-thinkering the diva wannabe
Poor Bakuda, after Addy accusing her of having bombed Coil, it's now Anette accusing her of bombing Krieg.
Next is Taylor using her as an excuse when she goes a little overboard on the Merchants^^
Bakuda will have a worst reputation than Canon without doing anything (much don't pay attention to the Lung Statue)
Next is Taylor using her as an excuse when she goes a little overboard on the Merchants^^
Bakuda will have a worst reputation than Canon without doing anything (much don't pay attention to the Lung Statue)
Garreon
Paldean Top Champion
- Location
- Mesagoza, Paldea
Don't forget the new member of the family in the form of Danny's illegitimate daughter, yeah Tats would love to be a part of the Hebert team.
Wanna bet that will just piss her off more?
- Location
- Earth
Interesting, it seems the new Empire cape has some big ability in his sleeve that'd make him effective against the (also known to be electrokinetic) Whiplash (total control of electricity even inside bodies? absorption of electricity to buff his power?), otherwise them believing he'd counter Whiplash rather than be useless against it like Dauntless makes no sense.
Also, wow, the Empire goons died even less gloriously than I expected. That hardly even counted as a fight.
Brilliant chapter! Rose is a complete badass!
And now that the zerg rush has been given the go ahead, I have a feeling the empire will not last the week... I wonder how the PRT will be able to track this down the Hebert though? Cause aren't they using codi to buy and outfit the warehouse so that shouldn't be traceable, and the attack at the house has been covered up so that couldn't be it...
And now that the zerg rush has been given the go ahead, I have a feeling the empire will not last the week... I wonder how the PRT will be able to track this down the Hebert though? Cause aren't they using codi to buy and outfit the warehouse so that shouldn't be traceable, and the attack at the house has been covered up so that couldn't be it...
Now for the important question... did Addy grab a DNA sample of Kreig? I suppose there is enough blood on the floor that she doesn't need to hurry, especially if it's frozen.