Amelia, Ch 345- Beth
It feels so weird, not taking pills with meals. To the point where I'd bought a thing of multivitamins just so I could follow my routine. Having a newfound expertise in general medicine may have influenced my decision at least a little. I glanced over at Sabah, who was still working on finishing her late lunch, then went back to scrolling through my emails. These days, the pair of us practically lived in her workshop, or out doing whatever public spectacle was needed.
"So, looks like one of the local schools has a job for me. One of those combination fundraisers for local after school programs, and PR things Crystal loves so much," I informed her idly. "Pay's kinda crap, but it looks fun and they're not asking for any of the intelligent summons." I forwarded it over to Crystal's email, letting her know I was interested. I also deleted four less savory while contemplating if I could get away with quitting the team, burning down a porn company, and then signing back up as a reformed villain. Edgy is in these days, right?
"I think I got that one, too," Sabah responded. "They probably mailed all of us."
"Have to admire their persistence, I guess," I smiled. Our phones buzzed simultaneously. I pulled mine out. Secret mission w/ambs, prep 5 mins.
"The fuck?" Sabah cursed.
"Maybe it's an emergency," I suggested, already getting up. My costume was one of the generic designs, focused mainly on movement and stealth options. Made it easy for me to get into. And GL almost never didn't use his. Sabah and Dubs were the last to get into costume.
"Minerva, what's the emergency?" Sabah demanded the moment she got her suit online.
"Nothing," Minerva answered casually. "Just throwing you guys a curveball. Citrine's going to be there in a couple minutes with a mission outside of town, you'll know her by the yellow costume. Your job is to follow her instructions during the mission. Don't worry, she has all the details."
All the details? "You mean you could have warned us, but didn't," Sabah accused, sounding about as happy as I felt.
"Pretty much," Minerva answered. "Don't worry, you'll be perfectly fine. Just remember to stay alert and try not to embarrass yourselves." Her com clicked off immediately, as Sabah tried to object again.
"I think I speak for all of us when I say 'what a bitch'," GL said after a couple seconds. There were no objections.
Citrine was, indeed, wearing a yellow costume. Alongside a woman in a dark blue green outfit, and men in a black, purple, and green costumes. All were clearly our biosuits, given some cosmetic alterations for theme purposes. I was sure they meant something to whomever customized them, but all I could think of was how ugly the color schemes were together.
"What's this about?" Genius Loci asked them before anyone else had a chance to speak up. Sabah may have had seniority, but GL was our functional second in command. "Minerva didn't tell us a thing about a mission today."
"Accord's going to find that annoying," the woman stated unhappily. "We're engaged in a raid against one of the Elite's illegal holdings."
"That's practically a declaration of war against one of the most powerful parahuman organizations on the West Coast," GL stated.
"My job's only a matter of carrying out my orders," Citrine shrugged. "Not speculating on long term consequences. Our respective employers believe it's worth the effort, and they believe we have the necessary skills to carry out the task. Or would you prefer we carry out the mission without you?"
"They're stirring up the hornet's nest on purpose," I added. I thought back at all the shit the Elite had put people in this area through. They were the main source of organized crime in the region, and we couldn't even prove it beyond nuisance crimes. "What's the target?"
"A drug lab hidden in the mountains outside of the city," Citrine answered. "Our goal is to capture the Tinker that operates it."
"I'm in," I agreed immediately. It felt amazing to not be terrified of every possible consequence for once in my life. "If it gets more drugs off the street, well, we can always ask for reinforcements later if we need them. Who knows, maybe we can talk Victoria into moving back?"
There was a quiet moment, then GL spoke up. "Point made. Fill us in during the trip. You guys have do have shunt drives, right?"
....
The labs in question were remarkably easy to find, mainly because we couldn't see them through our dimensional viewing tech. An empty black void in the VR simulation our equipment used to show us what was happening on Bet.
"They must have some kind of Tinker tech that keeps our equipment from working," GL stated. "How'd they pull that off? How'd they even know to try?"
"No way for us to be certain," Citrine answered. "I still intend to carry out the mission."
"We're pretty blatant about using our shunt tech," I suggested. "Ever since it was first shown off in New Delhi. Maybe it's just meant to keep people from teleporting into their base, and they didn't realize we could use it to see across as well?"
"Or they made an educated guess from other Endbringer battles," Citrine responded. "It doesn't take much to recognize that Khepri is fully capable of using her powers from her side of the dimensional barrier. A method to block her powers is likely high priority for a number of organizations. We also can't be certain our armor will protect us from whatever chemicals that Synth may have prepared to stop intruders. Tinkers have a habit of keeping a few nasty surprises secret in order to protect their bases. Anima's power is ideal for the initial attack."
"I'll need to shunt across before I start summoning," I stated. I also wasn't too happy with that idea in the first place. My summons dying made things very unpleasant for me. I didn't feel their pain, or anything so straightforward, but trying to replenish the power lost when a summon died instead of being reabsorbed was slow and painful. I didn't say anything, however. It was far better than my friends dying.
"I can take guard duty," Sabah added, stepping next to me. That was our usual method, either Sabah or GL would protect me while I did my thing. "My power and armor don't work well in tight spaces, it's best to let me operate outdoors.
"Indoors is my specialty," GL spoke up. "I'll go in and establish control of the base."
"Genius Loci, you should hold back," Citrine instructed. "We have no means of knowing what tech is inside the base, and they've had months to observe you. They might have a way to block your powers, and since you have no corporeal body that might prove fatal."
"This not having a body thing sucks," he sighed.
"Othello, we'll want to test if your power can cross through whatever dimensional barricade they have," Citrine continued. "You're under similar warnings to GL, we don't know if their dimensional tech will work on your projection or not, or what happens if that gets destroyed. Don't use your secondary power, in any case."
"Yes, ma'am," he agreed.
"Ligeia, Dubstep," she continued. "The pair of you are our demolitions team for this conflict. Should it prove impossible to capture the base safely, the pair of you are responsible for destroying it. It's not the optimal solution, especially as we want to capture the Tinker alive."
They nodded. Dubs was too shy to say anything. Unfortunately, his personality was influenced by his power, and that meant his issues couldn't be fixed like mine. As much as I hated my power, at least it didn't take away my ability to have a normal life like Dubs and GL had to suffer.
"Meanwhile, I'll attempt to identify and shut down whatever effect they're using to block dimensional viewing," Citrine continued. "Jacklight, I want you to wait on Avalon and observe. Should I succeed, your goal is to damage their base with power surges and other minor sabotage. Keep track of Synth, everything else is a secondary concern to his capture."
He nodded, not objecting in the slightest. Judging by how easily they made that plan, I had to imagine they'd used the tactic before. I wasn't sure what his power did, but it worked across dimensions. Or his suit had tinker tech that allowed it to do so.
We shunted over after taking our place on the other side of a nearby ridge, outside the blackout range. We peeked at the building, which was incredibly well camouflaged into the surrounding terrain. If not for us knowing exactly where to find it, and the Tinker scanning tech built into our costumes, we may never have noticed it at all.
I focused and drew on the full extent of my power at once. What I needed was numbers and maneuverability, and that meant the pixie summons. I did a count once, and my maximum numbers totaled over twenty thousand of the things, if that's all I wanted to summon. Each member about seven inches tall, they immediately took to dancing in a beautiful swirling cloud of light and laughter, spreading out and and swirling around all of us, trying to draw us into their dance.
"Attention, my subjects," I died a little inside, but the swarms of pixies calmed and gave me their undivided attention. "In that building are criminals peddling drugs." In a way, I could almost consider myself fortunate that the summons even understood the concept of narcotics. In another, it was a problem in its own right, as wherever my power got the idea of drugs from, my summons viewed them in an extremely negative light. Probably thanks to what few fantasy stories that mentioned them always portraying them in the worst possible way.
"You are to attack and subdue them," I continued my orders. "Remember, subdue them. I do not want them killed. We... we must interrogate them and learn where they acquired their foul wares." I am living proof it's impossible to die of humiliation. "Now go forth and carry out my bidding."
The tiny battle cries echoed across the glowing crowd like I'd given them a rousing pre-battle speech. And then they raced down the hill toward the base, looking more like a glowing rainbow colored fog cloud than an army.
Sabah took that moment to fire her weapon into the wall of the facility. It shattered a moment later, as she used her telekinetic control to rip the supports out of the ground. We rarely displayed Sabah's full power for a reason. Preferring to imply she was weaker, without this level of destructive ability. And stronger, able to hurt people instead of merely nonliving objects.
My power, on the other hand? Very much able to hurt living things. A few men I was assuming were guards rushed out of the building, in time to be swarmed by my army. I grimaced as the staccato of automatic weapons fire was quickly replaced by flashes of light and screams. Ordering them not to kill was a necessity. Each individual pixie wasn't that powerful, their attacks no more dangerous than being jabbed by a thumbtack or burned by a match for a second or two. But they fought in swarms, and could strip a man's flesh from his bones if I let them.
There is also a reason we rarely displayed my full power.
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A/N- Death by pixies. It might even be more horrible than death by bug swarm. Really depends on your opinion of being burned alive. Slowly.
