Ravensdagger_Headpats

Chapter Forty-Four

The van came to a screeching halt, the doors swinging open with a grind of steel on steel.Gallant was the first out, Aegis and Clockblocker right on his heels. Vista warped the path before them, spreading out the Wards into a large semi-circle before the bank.The two troopers in the van stayed in place, but they were ready to jump out at a moment’s notice. His empathic senses were inundated with eagerness, fear, joy, elation, excitement, a cocktail of emotions that were all primed towards fighting. His fellow Wards were ready to take out any villain at a moment’s notice.“Okay, formation Beta,” Aegis said. “Stay in a line. Browbeat, stay close to Vista, you’re playing bodyguard for her since she’s our VIP.”There was a twinge of annoyance from the girl, but she nodded and continued warping the street. Soon the back door would lead right to them too.Brockton Bay Central stood before them, a huge brick building with all the classical features of a place built for the wealthy of a hundred years ago. The steps before the bank were cleared of civilians and those that were around were keeping their distances, though there were plenty of gawkers with cameras out.“Hostages are our number one priority,” Aegis said.Shadow Stalker snorted over the line before using her power to jump to the top of a streetlamp. “Always protecting the weaklings,” she muttered over comms.“That’s our duty as heroes,” Vista said. He could sense the indignity pouring off of Vista in waves. “Not that you’d know anything about that.”“Your idea of heroics is letting the bad guys leave just because a few nobodies might get hurt,” Shadow Stalker shot back. She sounded heated, but a glance her way and he knew that she was amused more than anything.“Cut the chatter,” Aegis said. “Someone’s moving.”The disorganized but excited mess of emotions around him snapped; from one second to the next it went from a nervous maelstrom to a focused beam of laser sharp attention. He could see why.Capes were coming out of the bank, nearly ten of them. He recognized the Undersiders: Grue, Tattletale, Regent and Hellhound, their profiles still fresh in his mind. The four shuffled off to one side, looking and feeling rather defeated, though Tattletale had a burning core of incensed embarrassment. It was a weird mix, and one he would have loved to study more, but he had other concerns.Such as the six other capes standing near the entrance of the bank.“Uh,” Clockblocker said. “Did Console forget to count? Because that’s more than four. A lot more.”“They’re all little girls, maybe thirteen at most,” Aegis said.“Hey!” Vista said instantly. “Don’t underestimate them just because they’re young.”Gallant nodded. “She’s right. Vista’s around that age and I wouldn’t want to fight her, let alone five capes like her. Keep on your guard.”“I’m calling this in,” Aegis said. “Clock, care to introduce us?”“Oh yeah, sure, let me be the one tossed to the rabid, bank-robbing girl scouts,” Clockblocker said as he began to move up.“They’re not nervous or anything,” Gallant said as he read the girls. It wasn’t quite true, the oldest one in the group was a bundle of anxiety, but other than her the rest were all smug or excited or bored.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.The pure, unadulterated smugness coming from the girl with the tail and ears was incredible. The feeling intensified when their eyes met for a moment.“Thanks, Gallant, I really appreciate your ability to reassure me,” Clockblocker said with dripping sarcasm. He took a few steps closer even as half the girls moved down a few steps. The oldest looking one was in the lead, with a small girl in a ninja costume on one side and one in a cat onesie on the other. “Hey there,” Clockblocker called out. “Fancy meeting you here.”“You mean meeting law enforcement at a bank robbery?” the oldest girl said.Gallant narrowed his eyes. There was something about her. No, not her, the others around her. The girls all had an emotional response when she spoke.“It’s a day job,” Clockbloker said with easy joviality. “So, hey, uh, mind surrendering so we can skip the whole fighting thing?” he asked.The girl blinked. “Uh, actually, we’re done here. I don’t think there will be any fighting.”“Unless you wanna go down?” the girl with cat ears said. She glared up at the pole where Sophia was standing. “Me and Shadows over there have got unfinished business.”“You’re the little shit that copied my powers!” Shadow Stalker accused. She brought up her twin crossbows, but didn’t fire or even aim them at anyone. She was angry, but not that much more than usual.“Cheshire, enough,” the older girl said. She placed a hand on the cat-eared girl’s head and...Gallant took a small step back. The wash of joy, of pure glee and smugness aimed at the others around her... “Shit, she’s some sort of Master,” he said.“Dammit,” Aegis said. “Vista, Clock, take her out first!”There was a confused pause, everyone holding their breath as the street bent and warped to put Clockblocker right in front of the girl. She stumbled back, but he lunged forward with his hand outstretched.“Big Sis!” screamed a few of the girls.Clockblocker’s hand touched the girl, and she froze mid-stumble. “Got ya,” he said. He backpedalled and Vista’s power carried him away to a safe distance with practiced smoothness.Gallant had seen sudden shifts in emotion before, had witnessed people being told that loved ones had passed away, or seen people breaking up in public. He had sensed people like Oni Lee and Hookwolf who were savage killers, ready to rip and tear someone apart just because they could.Never, in all the time that he had his powers, did he ever feel such an overwhelming and powerful shift from such a large group.He swallowed.The girls seethed, drowning in anger so deep, so incensed and vile that it made him sick just to look at it. It was as if their auras had condensed together to form a huge, bloodsoaked skull, gnashing its teeth eagerly with a singular desire.DEATH.“K-kisama,” the ninja girl said, her hands trembling. “You, you filth, you gaijin, you... you touched Onee-Sama.”“Oh shit.”

Chapter Forty-Five

The world shifted.One moment she was stumbling back, Clockblocker of the Wards trying to tackle her. The next her foot landed behind her and she took two steps, her balance regained as if nothing had happened.But things had, in fact, happened.The first thing she noticed, the thing that was impossible not to notice, was... the sirens. Not Endbringer sirens, thank Scion, but car alarms and police sirens and the distinct sirens of PRT vehicles, all competing to be the noisiest thing on the street.Then the stench hit her. Burning rubber, spent gunpowder... blood.“What’s going on?” she said as she looked at the post-apocalyptic scene around her.She didn’t have time to take much in.“Onee-sama!” Pop was before her, arms wrapped around her waist and pulling her close in a vice-like hug. “Onee-sama, Onee-sama,” she repeated, each repetition harder to hear than the last. Her voice was broken by ugly, wracking sobs, her face lined with tears and puffy eyes and a leaky nose that all looked up to her with so much desperation.“Pop?” she asked as she pulled the girl in closer for a hug. “Are you okay? What happened?”“I failed,” Pop wailed. “I’m sorry, Onee-sama. I’m sorry.”“Hey, hey, shush, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Taylor said.It was not okay.“Your sisters?” she asked. She was almost afraid to do so. What if Pop was like this because they had... had been hurt, or worse?“Hey Big Sis,” Tattletail said. She sounded... contrite. “Uh, everyone’s okay. ‘Cept Pop. But she’ll get over it with enough hugs and stuff. You were out for nearly a whole minute.”Taylor stood up. She wrapped one arm under Pop’s backside and another over the middle of her back so that she could carry her up. It was a little awkward, Pop being just a bit too old for it, but the way her little sister buried her crying face into the nook of Taylor’s neck said that she needed the close contact right then.She did a quick count. Cheshire seemed fine. Her onesie was a bit dusty, but no worse for wear. She also had a crossbow she was petting fondly. Something to correct later.Crochet was beaming at her, completely pristine, though that couldn’t be said of her two plushies who looked to have taken a beating.Tattletail was trying to hide a gun behind her trench-coat until she noticed Taylor watching. She smiled sheepishly and flicked it aside. “Oops?”And finally, Remedy was...“What the hell?” Taylor asked.Her little Remedy was standing between two xenomorphs, the skeletal, bony monsters twitching slightly, eyeless heads turning this way and that. “Ah, I can explain?” Remedy tried.“I sure hope you can,” Taylor growled. She looked past her sisters, reassured for now that they were safe. “I sure hope you can,” she repeated as she looked past the circle of sisters who were all inching closer. “Fine, group hug?”While she was busy being squished from every direction, Taylor took in the world around them.This was going to be hard to explain.The first thing she noticed were the two pancaked police cars off to one side and the sideways PRT van absolutely covered in white foam, a few arms and legs sticking out of the white gunk including one costumed backside.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.Shadow Stalker was folded in half over a lamppost. Vista was laying on her back, her helmet visor cracked. Aegis was…. Well, one arm was not too far away, and there was a leg buried in the window of a shop across the street. His torso and head were doing a good job of painting the sidewalk red as he pulled himself along by his one functional limb like Anakin crawling out of lava, but bloodier.Clockblocker was buried under a pile of cloth frozen a foot above the ground, a thousand ribbons tied all around him. His hands were still held out defensively in front of his face, as if warding off an attack.Kid Win and Gallant were sitting next to each other a little ways down, backs against the wall of a jewelry store and Gallant’s arm around Kid Win’s back. The Tinker was crying over a board that was snapped in half at the middle.“Okay girls, hugs are over for now,” Taylor said to a chorus of awws. She placed Pop down carefully and gave her another squeeze. “I’m not angry at you, Pop,” she said.“But you’re disappointed and that’s worse,” the girl blubbered.“No,” Taylor said with some force. “I’m no such thing. I love you, I love you so much that I would overlook any number of tiny mistakes you made. And this wasn’t one of them, okay?”Pop nodded, but wasn’t meeting her eyes.“Pop, who loves you the most?” Taylor asked the girl.“Onee-sama does?” Pop asked.Taylor grabbed her in another hug. “That’s right. Your Onee-sama loves you so much you can’t even begin to imagine, okay?”“Okay, Onee-sama,” Pop said. Some of the tension in her shoulders had bled away.“I need to talk to Aegis, I think,” Taylor said. “Remedy, look after Pop for a moment, okay? Be nice. Tattletail... yeah, come with me. Cheshire, you too. Crochet, guard your sisters while Remedy makes sure Pop isn’t hurt.”“‘Kay Big Sis.”“Of course Big Sis.”She moved over to Aegis, aware for the first time that beyond the circle of destruction her sisters had wrought there were a lot of civilians with cameras out, taking pictures and filming the carnage. This was going to be all over the news if the PRT didn’t suppress it.“Hey,” she told the mangled superhero by her feet. “Are you, uh, okay?”Aegis flipped himself over and looked up at her. It sent a spray of arterial blood splashing past her, but none came close to her. “I’ve been better,” he said. “Ah, is this the part where the villain gloats?”“I’m a superhero, actually,” she said. “Ah, so are my sisters.”He blinked at her. “Oh?” he asked.“Yeah.” She gestured at him. “You sure you’re okay?”“I’ve had... not worse, but close. I’ll live?”“Cool,” Taylor said. “Uh, this is a bit awkward.”“A bit,” Aegis agreed.“The Undersiders got away,” Tattletail piped up. “Personally, I’d say that the Wards are to blame for that.”Taylor sighed. “Wonderful. So, uh, we’ll stop by the PRT eventually. Explain our side of things. Do you think that would be okay, or will we be attacked on sight?”“You should be fine?” Aegis said.“Need to get the media on our side first,” Tattletail said. “But yeah, we’ll be fine as long as everyone’s honest.”“Great,” Taylor said. “Uh, see you later, I guess.”“Right, later.” Aegis waved his one hand at her.She nodded and moved past him. “We should, uh, head out.”

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-Six Lisa didn’t want to look. She really, really didn’t want to look. But Brian was sitting right next to her and had his eyes fixed on the screen of her laptop. Worse, Brian’s sister was also in the room, and also looking at the screen, though the expression she was wearing was entirely different from Brian’s.On the ‘shit-eating to wanting to die’ scale, Aisha’s smug smile was definitely on the level of smug that even Lisa could admit was impressive.It probably had something to do with her figuring out Brian’s secret, or her breaking into the loft, or the team being so beaten that at this point even her behaviour (all out of some misguided concern for her brother post-beating, of course) didn’t irritate them enough to kick her out.“Well, here goes,” Lisa said.