Chapter 13: This Amazon Delivers Mostly Pain

Alyssa hadn’t been sure exactly what to expect when she forwarded her information and plans regarding the human-trafficking operation to the Avengers contact line for that sort of report. Part of her had been convinced that the larger group would either ignore her or, more likely, take over the operation themselves. While it would have been a little unfortunate, given the amount of prep work she’d done, she honestly wouldn’t have been all that bitter if they’d done the latter. The whole reason she’d given them far more warning this time was on account of the nature of the operation being beyond something she could, strictly speaking, handle.

Yes, she could take out the gang.

No, she was not equipped to handle the thirty-seven current trafficking victims that she’d arranged for the gang to bring together all in one place. At best, she could have knocked them all out with telepathy, something she wasn’t keen on admitting she could even do, and let the GCPD handle them. Which…yeah, that didn’t seem like a great plan for more than one reason. Hence contacting the one group that she’d technically made contact with already, who also just-so-happened to have a charity that focused on helping the victims of this sort of thing.

Of course, despite being funded by the Avengers and formally headed by Wonder Woman, the Freedom Railroad was an entirely civilian group. They did, due to the nature of those who came under their care, have a robust security group equipped with non-lethal Stark Tech. But that group’s job was entirely defensive. The gang had to be removed first, and given that this was a night operation in Gotham, an escort was required for the convoy of inconspicuous vehicles belonging to the charity.

Alyssa wasn’t arrogant enough to believe she could handle that all on her own. Nor had she been willing to wait until she had a team to work with before striking at this particularly vile type of crime. Which meant that she would have accepted the Avengers taking over entirely, if it meant getting these people help. Thankfully, Wonder Woman had contacted her directly and offered up an excellent alternative. Apparently, there were specific members of various secondary teams that volunteered to do operations like this one, outside their normal patterns. Specifically because no one would notice them moving around and secrecy was often paramount to success with human-trafficking stings.

It was that group that was waiting for her, with them having trickled into Gotham over the last day and a half, when she let her invisibility flicker off at the entrance to an abandoned building. A building near their target that she’d already carefully secured the day before. Waving to the micro-camera that was certainly not there before, she waited a moment…and the door opened from the inside. She slipped inside and took a brief moment to assess who had come.

The two that she recognized absolutely instantly were Storm and Shadowcat, the first by far the most ‘senior’ hero present as a member of the main X-Men team. The latter a somewhat younger incarnation at just nineteen and a member of one of their sub-teams. The next one she sort-of placed was Anti-Venom. Aside from this one being male, she genuinely had no idea who was under the suit in this case. Whoever it was, they were honestly the single most important member of this team. While she could heal others, she hadn’t focused on it too much yet, and Anti-Venom far eclipsed her. His ability to identify and purge drugs safely, in particular, would be extremely important in the aftermath.

The remaining two members of the five-person team were ones she was significantly less familiar with. Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman’s own apprentice of sorts, was a member of one of the secondary Avengers teams. Only a year older than Shadowcat, she was nevertheless an experienced Heroine, having been active for a few years as her mentor’s sidekick before she joined said secondary team. Her role would actually be convoy escort, being both recognizable enough and powerful enough that very few people would fuck with her once she came out into the open.

The final member, doubtless the one that had placed the camera, was virtually a complete unknown to her. A mixed Quirk/Tech Hero, Elecplant was an affiliate Hero of the Avengers, but not an actual member of any specific team. Normally, she suspected he’d be handling electronic recon, as he seemed to have some level of technopathy. He’d likely be backing her up on that, which didn’t offend her at all. They just flat out didn’t know enough about her to not cover their bases.

Assessment done, she nodded to them all, and forced herself to overcome her introvert nature. Leaning heavily on Major Kusanagi’s experience with briefings, Alyssa stopped existing and Star Knight spoke.

“Good to meet you all. Thank you for coming. This wasn’t an operation I was comfortable trying alone. More, admittedly, because of the aftermath than the actual fighting.”

There were nods all around, and the calm and controlled voice of Storm spoke for all of them.

“It’s wise to know your limits. Particularly in this area. The fact you reached out at all is much of the reason we’re still letting you run this your way. I take it you have information for us?”

Star Knight nodded, but didn’t leave it at just that. Instead, she removed a small projector from where it had been clamped to her armor and set it against the wall, connecting to it with the neruo-link in her ‘helmet’ as she did. Immediately, a trio of holographic screens were projected into the open space the group were circled around, all showing the same thing but facing different directions so everyone had a good view.

“I assume you’ve all read the basic briefing, but just to reiterate to make sure we’re all on the same page, there are 37 current victims and 58 Triad members currently in the base. Only two of those members are powered. Both Quirk holders. Though a few more have at least minor cyber-augmentation.”

The screens went from an exterior image of their target building, to show a profile of the two Metas in question.

“Hiryu Tin can cover himself in scales, tough enough to be bulletproof, but he’s only marginally stronger than a baseline human and no faster. Also an expert martial artist. Zala Lee has the ability to grow black spikes from any part on her body. She’s honestly the one to be more careful of, despite not having the same level of training, as there is at least some evidence that her Quirk can penetrate most body armor. She’ll be my primary target, once the victims are secured, but if she escapes me, or I’m tied up with something else, Shadowcat is likely the best option to engage her.”

Nods all around at that. Shadowcat would basically be immune to that particular Quirk, so no one argued the point. It had also all been in the basic briefing she’d sent out to their contact numbers, so she quickly moved on. Mentally flicking the holoscreens to show a dozen camera feeds from inside the building, all surrounding a map that showed where each camera was displaying from.

“Unless someone has a protest, I want to split into two teams for entry, with Elecplant running Overwatch. One subtle team, one very much not so. Shadowcat and Anti-Venom, both of you have some stealth abilities and, due to Shadowcat, an ability to enter the building wherever you damn well please.”

That got a smiling snort from Shadowcat, and a nod from Anti-Venom.

“You’ll be entering through the wall closest to the victims. Since I got into the systems of the Neon Dragons, they believe they’ve been ordered to bring all of these people here for pickup. As such, they are situated just a few rooms down from a loading dock in the warehouse the group has subdivided into a bit of a warren. As you can see…”

Star Knight used a mental command to make two sub-screen views blink.

“There are only four guards you’ll need to avoid. One of them is Zala Lee, however. Which is another reason to send Shadowcat, though hopefully she’ll be drawn off by the louder team anyway.”

She could see they all realized where this was going and grinned.

“Yes, the louder team will be a distraction, though not the only one. Much like the targeted raid I did on The Hammer, I’ve set up similar events to trigger on four separate drug facilities, with the DEA pre-warned. They’ve made a few creative excuses to be at the GCPD HQ tonight, and will be watching their Vice people carefully as the live stream of the same knock out method is fed to them.”

Everyone straightened at that, it not having been in the brief. She went blithely on, disregarding that little detail.

“We don’t need to take any action for those locations. I tipped off two of the local vigilantes about something going down, so even if they somehow escape the police and DEA, it’s likely a good chunk of them will get taken down anyway. It will, however, trigger an alert that we’ll be able to see in real time.”

She waved at the cameras, causing everyone to nod.

“The moment the Triad get the alert, both teams will move in. Myself and Ms. Storm are both fliers, and I want this group looking exactly away from our trafficking victims. So we’ll go in loud, through a ceiling on the opposite end of the building. Since that just so happens to be where their armory and this location’s drug stash is, they should connect it to the other raids and rush to either meet us or flee. Since Elecplant will remain outside on Overwatch, anyone that attempts to flee can be picked off by him.”

Pausing for a moment, she let just a tiny bit of steel into her voice as she continued.

“Of course, there’s always a chance they think to try using the victims as hostages, or worse. Which is why the second team is going in quiet and heading straight for those victims. Your job is to reach them fast, take out their guards, and protect them until the building is clear. Overwatch will focus primarily on supporting you, since my and Storm’s job is frankly a cakewalk unless they have a nasty surprise of some sort.”

Shadowcat and Anti-Venom both nodded, the mutant girl looking grimly determined, though the suit made Anti-Venom largely unreadable.

“You all have ear-pieces?”

They all, as expected, nodded. She made a frequency pop up on the holoscreens.

“Link them all to that channel and test, please.”

Each of them had slightly different methods of doing so, but they all quickly complied and each test went through fine. The scramble they were using had been provided by Wonder Woman for the operation, and these people were all professional enough to have pre-tested. It was still good policy to check, though.

“Right. Wonder Girl, how much time do you need to get the convoy rolling? We’ll wanted them moving and inside Gotham’s city limits at roughly the time I picked to start the operation. I made sure that none of the drug sites are in the way of the direct approach, and Gotham streets are fairly dead at night. You shouldn’t run into much issue unless someone takes a potshot at you for moving through Triad territory.”

She popped a map of the route up for the girl, watching her look it over carefully for any complications. It was a live map, being fed from a drone and series of cameras she’d set up earlier.

“Twenty minutes to reach the convoy without being spotted. Fifteen to get them moving and into the edge of the city. It will only be maybe another twenty before we roll into the block. Will you be done by then?”

Alyssa nodded.

“Frankly? Yes. This team is hilariously overkill for this operation. Unless they have something I’ve somehow completely missed, it will likely be over in ten minutes or less. You’ll also be linked into our comms anyway. If we run into complications and need you to slow down arrival, Elecplant can alert you.”

Wonder Girl nodded, acknowledging the point, even as chuckles went around the group at the overkill comment.

“Then, I suggest you get moving, I can answer any question the entry teams have while you’re in transit.”

The Avenger nodded and did something that turned her garishly bright armor red and black, before slipping out the way Star Knight had entered. Facing the others, she invited questions.

“Alright, any questions, comments, or concerns? I won’t be offended, all of you have been operating longer than I have. Even if I’ve had the training and done my homework carefully on this group, you may well spot something I’ve overlooked…”

Almost immediately, questions started, though she was happy to note that she had answers for virtually all of them. She really had done well to pick Motoko’s skill set. She rather suspected none of the other options available would have been quite so good for being able to plan small unit assault tactics like this. Particularly not with such an unusual cast of characters on all sides.

… … …

The actual raid turned out to be hilariously easy. Alyssa had known their group was thoroughly overpowered for the job, but had honestly not quite had the right experience to realize just how thoroughly and completely that was true. This particular version of Storm had genuinely insane levels of control. To the point that she’d flash frozen then knocked out with rapid atmospheric alteration something like half the Triad members in the base. She’d only refrained from getting all of them out of an abundance of caution, not wanting to affect the part of the facility where the trafficking victims were.

With Alyssa’s speed as Star Knight added in, the entire combat portion of the operation had been over in under five minutes. Both of the Metas on site had responded to the initial assault and neither had been proof against the simple tactic of punching them with a telepathic ‘sleep’ command riding the end of her fist. KGBeast’s cyber-augments had allowed him to keep up to a degree, and prevented easy knockouts. The two Metas here just…weren’t in the same class as someone on Shield’s Top Ten Most Wanted list, even if said individual hadn’t technically had superpowers.

With the base cleared of combatants so quickly, the biggest thing to handle had been the victims. Which Alyssa was very happy to have let Storm and Anti-Venom take over. Part of the reason Storm volunteered for these sorts of missions, beyond a personal hatred for human trafficking, was the fact she spoke seven languages. Mind you, those were just the ones she was fluent in, too. She could get by in a dozen others, a skillset that made her perfect for dealing with situations where a large number of victims from different cultural backgrounds were pooled together.

Alyssa could technically have done the same, having both inherited several languages from Motoko and having gone on a bit of a ‘gotta catch ‘em all’ collecting spree using Starfire’s touch-activated language copying. Contrary to some versions of said girl’s power set, a kiss was not required, and she rather suspected that Force Comprehend had bled into her use of it. Mostly because she seemed to have gotten far more nuance than expected when she’d made a point of shaking hands with, brushing up against, or otherwise managing some form of contact with, a good two dozen foreign language speakers.

But, while ‘Star Knight’ could have done the same thing in a technical sense, Alyssa had neither the training nor the sheer presence of Storm. Despite only being in her mid-30s and looking a good decade younger, Ororo Munroe oozed a sort of regal kindness that instinctively calmed those she spoke with. She’d projected the fury of a thunderstorm just as easily during the fighting. But now, as she interacted with the victims, she moved among them like a gentle, cleansing summer rain. Alyssa could outright see the effect she was having on them as she moved from one group to another, more than a little awed at the effect the woman could have as each group relaxed a little.

Apparently, she wasn’t hard to read in that respect, as Shadowcat joined her with a grin.

“Yep, that’s a familiar expression. Storm has that effect on people, smart people who can see or sense her effect on people anyway, the first time they watch her work.”

Alyssa shook her head ruefully.

“A skill far beyond anything I’ll ever touch, I think. I’m not exactly a people person for the most part.”

That won another grin from Shadowcat, who seemed to settle in by her side, looking her over with obvious interest. Sensing the curiosity from the younger girl, Alyssa wasn’t too surprised when she carefully asked a question.

“So…why Gotham? If you don’t mind me asking, that is. If it’s something personal, just tell me and I’ll back off!”

Shaking her head, she smiled at Shadowcat. Sooner or later, the various groups were going to start digging into her motivations. She saw no reason to be anything but truthful, and this was a harmless chance to let one of the larger groups prod her a little anyway.

“Actually, it’s exactly the opposite of personal. I decided I wanted to help, then looked for the place where I felt my help would do the most good. Not to disparage the efforts of the Bat Clan and other vigilantes operating in Gotham, but for all the good they do, their approach clearly isn’t working. They’ve been active for over a decade and the crime rate in Gotham is still the single highest on the entire Eastern Seaboard. Add in Solemn Grundy’s occasional appearance, and I felt like Gotham needed help the most.”

Shadowcat took that in, nodding along in all the right places, then cocked her head with a non-judgmental but clearly quizzical expression as she asked another question.

“You intend to form a city-based team eventually, don’t you?”

Alyssa’s surprise must have shown immediately on her face, since Shadowcat giggled.

“Give me a little credit, Ms. Star Knight. That’s how most of the X-Men sub-teams formed, too. Move into a city that’s particularly messed up, get recognized as making a significant impact, then form up a team of mixed X-men recruits and independents. No one has tried it in Gotham because of the combination of Batman not liking other Heroes on his ‘turf’ and Grundy. Well, that and how many crazies here go lethal instantly, and how active the magic community is, and…well a lot of reasons I guess. You’re biting into a pretty tough apple here.”

Alyssa ruefully shook her head.

“I know that, actually. If my particular powers weren’t quite so good at covering the spectrum, I wouldn’t even think of trying it. As it is, I should theoretically even be able to tie Grundy down until support arrives.”

Shadowcat blinked, then her eyes narrowed.

“Seriously? You’re not just blowing smoke?”

Alyssa shook her head.

“No. I’ve seen the theories that I’m a tech hero, but they are completely wrong. Well, not completely, I’m skilled with tech. But my actual powers are closer to a Wonder Woman package. I’m not nearly as strong as her, but I’m at least theoretically faster, have energy projection powers, and at least some minor magic.”

Deciding it would be best to prove that last bit, she used a bit of telekinesis to pull a piece of concrete debris the size of Shadowcat’s head to them and started looping it in a figure eight.

“That’s on the ‘magic’ side of the spectrum. Though it’s a bit blurry in my case, as it’s also partially innate.”

Shadowcat nodded, slowly, as she watched the concrete loop. Pausing for a moment, she pursed her lips and nodded.

“Like Scarlet Witch, then. That plus something like a WW package…yeah, I guess I can see it. With the right team, you might just be able to pull Gotham out of the worst of its raw sewage. Still going be rough, though.”

Alyssa shrugged.

“If it was easy, someone else would have already done it. I’m fine with it being hard. So long as it’s possible, and I think it is.”

Shadowcat grinned at that.

“Well, I’ll be wishing you luck! You did a good thing tonight, and I know Shield is happy about having finally gotten KGBeast. So you’ve got a solid start! Just don’t hesitate to ask for help if you get in over your head, yeah? A lot of people have wanted to do something about Gotham for a long time, so you can count on someone being willing to lend a hand, so long as there isn’t a global crisis ongoing.”

Alyssa nodded then, when Shadowcat’s statement was followed by her sending both a contact number for the X-men and her personal ‘heroic’ number, followed the nod up with a genuine thank you…

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N 1: One thing we all-to-rarely see considered in Hero stories is what the heck to do with the people you rescue afterward. Batman...I don't know of a single case where we see what, if anything, he does about that. He certainly never seems to accomplish much as Bruce Wayne, despite the fact he should honestly be more effective for Gotham as Bruce Wayne than Batman. I'll call it benefit of the doubt to assume he DOES have systems in place, even if we don't see them very often.

It does seem more like something Stark would do, though. Particularly as I'm using the more mature acting versions of him from various comics, rather than the MCU pure playboy. Even in the MCU, we see him trying to make a serious difference with Arc Reactor power for New York, becoming a big name in clean energy. Him helping Wonder Woman arrange a support organization for a cause she's personally invested in, which just so happens to glue her strongly to the Avengers? That seems like something he'd do in a heartbeat. It also adds a touch of realism to the world by not just handwaving the issue away entirely. Instead, making sure their are experts at hand to deal with victims Alyssa isn't trained to handle.

A/N 2: Whew! More research was needed for this one to pull together a suitable strike team! Storm and Shadowcat are two characters I'm extremely familiar with, which is why they were the two that spoke the most. Elecplant, by the by, is one of the few American heroes mentioned/shown in MHA. Though I changed him a bit, as we don't know much about him. Again, a case of me wanting to have the group show off the amalgam nature of the universe by pulling from different groups/places/series. The resulting level of power for the group is why I didn't bother to show the combat this time. Frankly, Alyssa was right to call that group overkill...

A/N 3: For the first time ever, this story managed to win the Poll that determines my third story each month :-)! That also means there's another 15,000 words of this story currently in early-access on my Page. If you're interested in supporting me, it's only $1 for all Early Access chapters for my various stories! Don't worry, though, none of my fanfiction is ever permanently locked behind a paywall. All fanfiction content I make ends up here (or on Fanfiction.net and Questionable Questing) eventually, as new content for each story is released! While the support helps me free up time for writing, I really just want everyone to enjoy the stories!