Chapter Text
I may be looks at date a lil late but exams do b bussin frfr
Next chapter is gonna be delayed as well do to those bussin exams
Parahumans came in all ages, but tended to default to the younger side of things. So it made sense for the PRT to have something dedicated to these younger members; the Wards was what they called it.
What did not make sense was why I had to have a twelve year old follow me around as I patrolled Downtown.
Yesterday had apparently ‘proved’ that I could handle things on my own, which led to the splitting of patrol routes, Shadow Stalker having joined Velocity to patrol further on. It was something that clearly bothered Vista; the frown she had worn for a few blocks hinted at it, at the very least.
She tried to hide her expression whenever she thought I was looking, but a benefit, or downside, of having a bird’s-eye view is that you notice quite a lot of things others don’t think you do.
Like bald spots, see quite a few of them from time to time.
At the very least she hasn’t tried to talk to me, sparing me from having to figure out how to communicate directly with a child.
“Aren’t we going the wrong way… sir?”
Spoke too soon.
“This is the path that we were assigned, you may check your device to confirm it.”
“Look’s more like we are just taking a detour, if we take the normal route we’ll be there fa-”
“We are not to take… ‘shortcuts’ during a patrol, that would defeat the point of it, no?”
I don’t bother to see how she reacts, instead turning back to the path of the patrol. Not that I was expecting to find anything. The bandits of the city seldomly stuck around where I walked, Mush and Whirlygig having been the closest thing to a confrontation that I had faced so far.
Speaking of, I wonder if she is going to accept the offer she was given. Tentative membership was not something I expected to be given out so quickly, but then again she hadn’t done anything unlawful up until the gallery. The sudden shrieking of the radio echoes down the street, breaking me out of my musing.
“Maw he-”
“This is Velocity, backup is urgently requested at the warehouses close to the airport. Engaging Stormtiger and Cricket, out.”
I process what he says for a moment, hand awkwardly holding my radio close to my snout as I turn around towards Vista, who seems to be looking at me in confusion. Not the general channel then.
“Velocity is requesting us at…” The map shows… that’s nowhere near the airport? The edge of the Beach, Heathfield Avenue 15.
Empire territory.
What the hell is he doing there with a Ward?
“Maw here, I’ll be there in seven minutes, Coming in from the north through Hawk’s lane.” I put the radio back on my hip, fully turning to face Vista.
“Make your way back to the HQ.”
“What?” Suppose I am a bit far away for her to hear me.
“Make your way back to the HQ.”
“Yes but… didn’t Velocity need backup? Shouldn’t I come along as well?”
“No.”
I can’t see the exposed part of her face, the distance and lack of light on her level making it hard to discern, but her posture gives me a sense that she might be about to throw a tantrum.
“I can help!” Of course she can.
“That is not what I asked, make your way back. Now.” I turn, lurching forward to get on all fours, only for the right side of the street to bend and fold into itself. My eyes hurt as they try to make sense of the dimensions now in front of me, even as Vista stepped out in front of me.
“A ward on patrol is not supposed to leave the side of the assigned Protectorate member so if I head back then you would be forcing me to break the rules!”
Ward regulation section three. The one which also said that Wards are to be kept out of the red level situations and as such waives that part.
“I am also more experienced than Shadow Stalker!” I make for her right, “And I can help you get there faster!”
Could also be done by not arguing with me.
“If you think I’m going to allow you to do anything other than what you’re told to do then you are sorely mistaken, now return to the HQ or be ready to face consequences.”
She stares at me for a few seconds, but she relents as her body language shifts to one of shame.
“Sir…”
I huff. Too much time has been lost arguing with the child, a failure that will go out on Velocity.
The street lights turn into blurs, occasionally broken up by traffic lights or cars as I sidestep or just leap over the various obstacles that spring up before me. Had it not been for the map informing me of the incoming objects I would have flattened at least a few of them at this point.
It takes no more than minutes for skyscrapers to be replaced with run down buildings, sports cars with broken regular ones and the odd ‘clean’ taste in the air with one of alcohol and piss and the almost washed out mural of a giantess stepping on an ape.
Rye, the ‘white trash’ district as Hannah had called it.
I return my focus to the road ahead to make a swift turn, jumping over a pair of cars parked in the middle of the road and generally keeping an eye on the odd walker. Fear makes people do dumb things and all that.
Eventually I make my way out of Rye, shifting to running on two legs as I pass the last house. Running upright did go faster than all four, my body simply built better for it, but there was a cost to it. Several tons of force concentrated on a single point meant destruction, the road starting to crack underneath me. With the added speed the warehouses alongside the beach start to appear. Not as important as the docks themselves, more for the individual rather than the corporation.
350 meters
I plow through the thin metal fence to my left, now running in between the different warehouses and their contents. A light post is shorn in half as my left arm brushes against it.
150 meters
Around me I can see clear signs of a struggle; in a brief glance I see scratch marks on the ground, debris having been thrown around, the lone street sign here having already been knocked over. It’s at the end of this road that I see Hookwolf, his presence immediately taking the center of my attention. To its left I can see Shadow Stalker alongside two… bunnies? and behind them I can see another one of the bunnies hovering over Velocity's red form. I look to the right of the beast, a man and woman are dressed as if they were tempting fate itself, Stormtiger and Cricket, and there’s a dwarf clad in green floating on a piece of concrete even further to the right. All of them are turned towards me, but none are fast enough to act.
My left foot hits the ground, the distance between me and Hookwolf now null as I grab his chest in my right hand. With a snarl I slam him down into the ground, plowing the concrete road open as I use him as an anchor. Rock and stone are flung to the sides as I brace, both Stormtiger and Cricket having used the abrupt chaos to retreat backwards to the green one.
I finally come to a rest, effectively having slid the entire way to the other side of the area. Some of the ropes that carry electricity having found their way onto me, the occasional spark obscuring my vision of the enemy. I am thankfully able to make out Shadow Stalker and the bunnies with my right eyes; they had retreated back towards Velocity.
I can also see that I have effectively dug up the entire road, Armsmaster or the Director are bound to have me whipped for that.
“Fuck yeah! We’ve got backup too! Up your Nazi butt faces,” one of the bunnies, the one who was hovering over Velocity says. Shadow Stalker seems to trust them; the two that had been close to her earlier are now cowering behind her. Now as for the enemy, there is a man wearing what looks like a striped lioness mask, alongside a woman with an elongated cage on her head, a white bandana clear to see through the slits. The dwarf… no… child does not seem to have the same attitude as her companions; even from here I can see that she’s shaking like a leaf.
I pull myself from the depression in the road, each step sending a jolt through their bodies. It isn’t until I’ve put myself in front of Shadow Stalker that I choose to speak.
“I take it the two of you are Stormtiger and Cricket, yes?” Hookwolf sits still in my grasp, probably knocked him out with the charge.
…
A painful silence, only broken up by the sound of metal giving out and the odd hovering sound from the various objects that the green robed child had in the air.
“Uh… that’s them… and the Nazi version of Sabrina is Rune… Mister, you’re holding Hookwolf in you-”
“Bro shut the-”
“Maw.” Shadow Stalker steps out to my left, having clambered up on a piece of rock putting her at around stomach height. “Armsmaster and Dauntless will be here in twenty, I’m going to focus on keeping Rune off your back while you do your thing.”
I don’t even get the opportunity to tell her not to. Rune, taking the distraction for the opening that it was, promptly lobbing a steel bar as a spear towards me.
I drop Hookwolf, tilting my body as I do. Where it would have pierced my head I move to grab it, twirling it around in my hand and taking a stance before lobbing it straight back at the runt, aiming for the piece of land she floats on.
The negotiations died before they could begin, shame.
The land explodes as the spear strikes true, scattering even more rocks and stone onto the battlefield as Cricket moves to my left as she brandishes… farmers tools.
Stormtiger seems to have chosen the coward's way out, dashing for the way I just came through. I’ll catch him eventually, the area stretches far and his legs are small. As for the woman… A single step is all I need to cross the plowed street and be within arm's distance of her, a lazy arc to my arm as I go to scoop her up.
Just before my hand connects, the wind howling, she drops prone, hooking on to the back of the hand with a sound of scraping iron and uses the sudden stop of my arm to do a twirling mount onto it. As she lands I meet her eyes, not a trace of fear in them. No… she’s excited.
Bitch got guts, I’ll give her that.
She dashes up my arm, dodging the various maws before throwing herself off as I try to grab her with my other hand. She rolls, landing just out of my eyesight in between my legs. I don’t get the option to try to apprehend her again, a fhwoom being the only thing I can register before the vision to my right goes dark and a feeling of searing white replaces it.
I throw my arm up, covering my face from the source of it just as my head starts to throb. Stormtiger most likely, seems like the little shit didn’t run after all. I can feel my eyes reform with a sickening slurping, maggots crawling in the wound.
Cricket is backing up now while Stormtiger continues to rain his air rods at me, the sound of them impacting my scales being more evident than the feel. Would have preferred if they hadn’t worked out that my eyes were nowhere as durable as the rest of me, but things rarely go as you want.
“Cheap… Fucking-” A voice like cold iron sounds from behind me, followed by the same scraping sound I had heard earlier. “Cunt… you really go for the throat right out of the gate dont'cha? I respect it…”
I turn, making sure to have my back to Stormtiger as I do. Sure enough, the man has stood up, now on his hind legs.
He looks less like a wolf and more like an amalgamation of a bear and a rat with the chest of a man. A pair of eyes the color of summer gazes back, new blades poking out at random intervals across his body as they glitter in the moonlight. A visible indention on his chest in the shape of my hand seems to be slowly mending itself.
He's barely reaching my midsection.
“Making the two freaks who follow ol’ Spiderwebs seem like supermodels dont'cha, got mouths on your dick too?”
I can hear the light shuffling from Cricket, seemingly in Stormtigers line of fire who has stopped firing at me. Thankfully they are all three focused squarely on me and not the bunnies, who look to have moved further away with Velocity. The open water behind them robs them of the option to leave inconspicuous.
“I’m wondering, can you talk more than three words? or did they pull you out of the fucking retard bin up in Boston-”
I haven’t heard anything else from Shadow Stalker since the steel beam, the possibility that Stormtiger attacked her while I was focused on catching Cricket comes to mind. Yet another thing I should’ve thought of.
“-whipped dog came running when the human condom realized that he really should stay out of-“
“Silence.”
My voice catches him off guard enough to take a few steps back, just the same as I hear the shuffling of Cricket stop.
“You and your companions are under arrest, resisting further will have consequences both from me and the law. A prisoner transport will be arriving-”
I’m interrupted by the sound of laughter, the rat seemingly having found something absolutely riveting with what I said. He seems to be alone in that, his pathetic laughter being the only thing I can hear in the area.
Just as soon as he has begun he’s stopped, instead looking me dead in the eyes or at least trying, no doubt confused about where to look.
“You serious?”
“Yes.”
“... Y’know I was kinda joking about retards and all earlier but you really are one aren’t you?”
“I care not for the words of a criminal. Surrender.”
“... Aight… I’ll play along-” He takes a few steps forward, poised to speak but I interrupt him before he continues to fill the night air with more drivel.
“You are marked for the Birdcage twice over, resisting means that I will respond with lethal force. Unless you wish to further paint this area in your body parts I would suggest that you surrender. Do you understand or do I have to use smaller words?”
He stops approximately two steps away from me. He doesn't speak a word; instead, he twitches his finger in some sort of pattern, perhaps a signal, before bringing both his hands up, inviting me with the universal sign for me to come at him.
Good.
I surge forward, making a feint to grab his arm, all the while moving so that I can instead catch him with my maw. Hookwolf dodges into it, his hand clamping around my chest to hoist himself on to my back, almost making me land on my stomach.
I surge back onto my feet as I try to shake him off, in doing so opening myself up to another volley from Stormtiger. In an instant my leftmost eyes are shot to shit, a surge of white pain blossoming across my face as Hookwolf starts digging into the exposed parts of my neck.
Just as I let my maws loose, the taste of metal and rocks filling my senses, I see Cricket fly out in front of me. The cuts and gashes lining her body is all I can make out before she-
Darkness
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"
I roar, the pain only growing further as I try to swipe the sickles out of my eyes. I can feel Hookwolf wrench himself free from my back maws, but the pain makes thinking rationally hard. I swipe forward, right, left, right leftrightleft
I must’ve hit something, a pained shriek following as my left eyes start to finally regrow, Stormtiger unable to hit them as I trash about.
That is until I see Hookwolf's paw enclose on the left side of my face.
Before I can even make for his arm he pushes his claws into my eyes, a scratching noise from inside, followed by a pained scream as I grab what must be his face. I clamp down hard just as I feel him start to dig around inside my skull. Wrenching him off my back, the sound of tearing metal as he is forcibly dislodged from my back maws, and throw him forward.
“FUCK IT UP RUNE!”
What?
I don’t get the chance to think further on it as I feel something slam into me from above. In an instant I’m brought low to the ground, trapped.
Darkness
...
“Do you think it’s dead?”
“Maybe, how you doing boss?”
My regrowing eyes echo in the enclosed space, and trying to push myself up proves difficult. I feel with both arms splayed upwards, making any attempt at pushing myself up nigh impossible.
“It ripped my fucking arm off and I’m pretty sure every rib is broken, Cricket even alive?”
“Here, boss!”
“Crazy bitch power right there! Where the fuck did the pigs dig this thing up from anyways?”
Can’t be helped, I did warn them.
“Doesn’t matter, fucker plowed through concrete like it was sand. Gut the fucking Rats and fuck off before the rest of them show up. Don’t want to be here when it gets loose. Oh and Rune? Good job.”
I can feel it, it’s slow. The maws starting to tear apart the rubble around me and with my eyes fully regrown I can see how I’m lighting up the inside of the rubble.
“Uh.”
I start to push myself with my forearm, sand and stone flowing freely in front of me.
“Is it glow-”
I explode upwards, the entire motion stiff and unnatural as I feel my back give out and my arms collapse under the strain. The savages are already cowering, Hookwolf the only one to still stand his ground.
There is a pounding in my head, beneath my eyes, under my skin. It travels from my head to my gut, nesting, bursting, roaring for release. My mouth fully unravels as I breathe in the air. I keep breathing it in, more and more as I survey where they all are.
Stormtiger and Cricket are both standing poised and ready near the leftmost warehouse, two maybe three steps away. Rune is hovering even further back while Hookwolf… Right in front of me.
“... Nice light-”
In one moment I’m looking at the rat-bear-man, the next I’ve impaled his corpse upon my right arm, his bottom having exploded in the motion, shooting bits and pieces of him across the path I had carved open. I flick my arm to the left, the tangled mess that once was Hookwolf landing in between Rune and the two, a comically small blotch of blood being smeared across the ground the entire way.
For their own good they should get the message.
And it would seem that they do, Stormtiger shakily raises his hands up while… Cricket charges me…
A raised foot and a life ends.
My pen had been destroyed at some point, forcing me to ask the bunnies, or Downtown Rats as it were, to use zip ties instead.
Shadow Stalker finally showed herself; Rune had apparently thrown parts of a radio mast at her - perhaps something that interfered with her powers? Shadow Stalker had subsequently made her way back here.
She sees to Velocity while I check on the fallout of the other fight. I could already guess the fallout of my own stunt. As I wipe Cricket off my foot on the fence that had been obliterated I let my eyes roam. The marks from my feet don't seem to have done too much damage to the road so that was good. The bad part would be the overturned truck to the left.
Likely driven into the post and then lost control, walking over to it only confirms it, the post stuck in what would be called grill of the vehicle.
It was also stuck inside the man, most of his lower section no longer being inside of him. The words “Fedex'' are written in yellow alongside its sides. As I reach the end of it I start to hear it, a tiny little wail coming from the woods of all things, the van was not the only casualty.
A car, black, smashed straight into a tree. The wail growing in pitch as I move closer to it, a wounded animal? It’s hard to look inside but I can see that the two in the front are dead. Crouching down further does nothing to help looking around the car, its interior murky and blood splattered.
I put two fingers through the front top of the car, pelling it open like a patch on a wound revealing…
A pair of small eyes situated on a dusky face smattered with bloodstains.
That's not an animal.
…
“Hello-”
Seas consumed
Earth swallowed
Suns drown in a god's countless maws, a banquet of its own siblings is ripped open.
A limb extends as mountains die and skies break.
The world is dying beneath its crystal hides, no plan, no sustainability, no choice but to consume everything and anything.
My words die in my mouth, the shock forcing me to grab onto one of the trees for support.
What… what the… what the hell was that?
A glow from underneath snaps me back to reality, a growing pyre of light, body parts and metal gathering in front of the child.
Another parahuman, the child is in the crossfire. I reach for her, my hand between her and the pyre as-
“-unfair.” She’s curled up, her knees to her lips as the waves flow next to her as her feet dig into the sand. The sun is about to set, a merchant ship in its great flaming eye as I gaze into it.
“He’s older than Father!” A hiccup, hopefully not a sign of another tantrum.
“Is this how Mother felt? Having to marry a man thrice her age without even a say in it?” She nurses her cheek as she talks to noone, or maybe the ocean, she’s done dumber things.
It feels a little silly honestly, just standing by as a little girl cries and plays in the water but orders are orders. The magistrate needs to know his place.
I can see one of the villa guards from the corner of my vision, the young man looking conflicted as he stares at her. Hopefully he does something stupid, I could use a diversion.
Just as I take in the boy's appearance the girl stands, her dress caked in wet sand with the upper part having snot on it. Her cheek is already swelling from earlier, but there is no fear there, not anymore.
I know those eyes, never on a child though.
“Machinalis!”
She’s marching up to me, for half a second I think to draw my sword but she barely reaches my waist. Couldn’t do anything to begin with.
“Why are you even here, dog? All you do is stare, stare and stare. As if you think you are any better than me?” Not really, no. “Is that all your kind does? Stand around with your beady eyes as everyone treads around you? Do you think I’m afraid of you?”
She inhales, eyes burning with rage. “YOU ARE NOTHING, YOUR ONLY PURPOSE IS TO DO WHAT YOU’RE TOLD!”
Her tiny arms hammer on my breastplate, an act she will come to regret when the rage leaves her body. The boy meanwhile seems scared, his eyes looking more at me than her, hand on his sword.
“I HATE YOU!”
Does he actually think he can win? Then again, most people in the empire haven't seen us in battle.
“I HATE YOU!”
Some parts of the plate gives a hollow sound as she hits it, should get that looked at.
“I HA-te you!” Her voice gives.
She has begun to kick me now, her hands to her chest as the effect of striking raw metal has set in.
“I HA-” She misses, the kick knocking her on her feet with her chest smacking into my leg guard.
The action finally causes the boy to take action and my spear is in my hand before he can take a second step. I’ve slightly turned my body against him, allowing me to see more of his face. Freckled with green eyes, skin that has seen the work of a farmer framed by curly hair that reaches his ears.
He doesn’t try any further, instead crouching down.
“Marcella?”
She continues to weep underneath me, unheeded of his calls.
“... Marcella, it's me. Is… is everything alright?”
The squelcing of grass is sounded as she props herself up on her arms.
“NOTHING! NOTHING IS ALRIGHT!”
He didn’t expect that reaction.
“DID YOU JUST COME HERE TO ASK?”
I believe this is the part you are supposed to woo her, boy.
“I… I was worried about you.”
It’s quiet, for far longer than I expected. That can’t have worked?
“Leave.”
“Marce-”
“You will leave or I will have the Machinalis cut you down.”
…
“Marcella please I-”
“DON’T… don’t you dare call me that.”
Looks like he’s about to cry.
“What did you think was going to happen Nicabar? That you were going to sweep me off my feet? Convince my Father that we were to marry?”
She gets up, using me as a ladder.
"You? The son of a whore and a common legionnaire?”
He’s trying to hold it in.
“Leave!”
“... You don’t mean that.”
Quiet again.
“Machinalis!”
Why am I getting dragged into this?
“Hurt!”
…
I technically don’t have to listen to her but… It would end this gods damned charade.
Faster than the boy can stand I let my spear loose, my aim thankfully not rusty as the tip slices his left arm.
Just a flesh wound, I actually clean the damn thing.
Not that the boy knows that, falling backwards with a shriek as he clutches at his arm.
“Leave Nicabar.”
And that seems to be the end of it all. He runs off, throwing a few glances back as he does. The girl however… she seems to have meant it.
She stands there, staring at the ground even as I go to retrieve my spear, embedded in between the rocks of the land.
The sun has set, time to head back then. A part of me is already dreading having to drag her back.
She’s still staring at the ground when I make it back-
Stop
My entire being freezes, the howling wind rustling the leaves of the trees being the only sound I can hear.
Take me to the Tribunal
I turn towards the horse, Marcella softly stepping behind me.
I wake to the sound of my eyes regrowing, the moon hanging to my left as I feel my arms putting themselves back together ever so slowly.
It feels as if I’ve been kicked by a horse, my entire being hurting as I fall over again, stumps for arms making the act of getting up difficult.
The girl, she must've done something to me. Looking up to see if the horse is still…
There is no horse.
Why... why would there be a horse?
There is however a tree that is on fire. A shrieking sound coming from the carriage in front of me… the boy!
Right the boy, no girl, is still there.
I shuffle up, balance shot to shit as I try to balance myself, eventually finding a compromise with tilting my body in a swaying rhythm to steady myself.
My arms still haven't regenerated, and looking around proves that Armsmaster has yet to arrive.
Well… time to eat trees.
I unhinge my lower jaw, stepping forward and knocking the entire tree over. The flaming leaves quickly spread but are soon quenched, or at least so I hope, as I start to press my entire face into the ground, forcing the whole burning mess into my main maw.
Lifting it up has my entire back cracking and snapping but I fight through it, carrying it over into the main of the road before spitting it back out. Just as it hits ground pain rackets through my back, hunger ebbing through my entire being. A deep pit inside of me clutching at everything.
I can smell it, cooked flesh. just in front of me. There… in the van…
I bite it open… dead fish eyes stare back… It's already dead…
Saliva runs down my mouth as I realize what I'm doing.
The man's dead face stares back. this… this is wrong.
“Maw!”
I look up, fear gripping me as Armsmaster dismounts his bike, Dauntless and a PRT van driving through the hole I made.
He looks between me and the wreckage beneath me before moving to speak.
“He’s dead.”
…
Yes... there's...
“There’s a… there is a child in the car over there… might be a… crisis point.” I harkle up a bundle of branches as I talk, his face scrunching up in disgust as they hit the ground.
“... I’ll see to it, sit down over there and someone will come to check on you?”
The command comes naturally, trundling over to fall over near the fence. A pounding headache alongside the hunger as I slump down.
I don’t catch a lot of what happens after I sit down. More vans show up as others leave, Armsmaster comes out of the wreckage with the child cradled in his arms. Someone comes up to me and tries to flash lights into my eyes and I can see the flesh move and bob in front of me.
They back off as I start to salivate.
Armsmaster gives me a run down on why Velocity was in the area, the Rats having called in help from Shadow Stalker? to which she had decided that the best course of action was to run off. Velocity had reportedly not been adverse to the idea.
There wasn’t much that could be gotten out of him, a swelling in the brain.
And the reason for why the rats were here had something to do with a shipment that they had been tracking.
I stop listening after that point, instead choosing to scarf down on the food that they finally provided, my regeneration finally kicking in, allowing me to get up and head back for the debrief.
Hopefully they go easy on me, though I doubt it.