Shmd

Heya, I'm back!

Like I've said yesterday on my profile, I took an impromptu vacation because I was legitimately exhausted after seven months spent working without any sorts of vacation and my brain was basically a mushy sludge.

But we're now back to our regular schedule, featuring the start of the real hostilities of the day!

Happy reading,

With love, Sh'.

 

Chapter 81 : Dawn of a new era (Hold)

 

USA Airspace, Above New York City, in rapid approach toward East Bronx, Manhattan, 5th of May, 16:04

 

“That’s so cool!” Cindy yells for the upteenth time, exhilarated about the idea of flying for the first time.

 

I turn my head head a fraction to look at her, chaining stupid pose and whooping all the way.

 

Iris choses to roll her eyes in amusement over my own face.

 

I sort of agree with her.

 

The emergency of the situation sort of dictated that we forgo all rules of discretion after the four of us had gathered, so I elected to fly us all with my TK.

 

We’ll just have to take a slightly, say, unconventional approach for the landing if we don’t want to reveal all the aces in our sleeves.

 

I’m only supposed to be able to fly myself, after all.

 

“I’ve got eyes on Raptor.” Flash’s heavily distorted voice resound in my ears, “10 o’clock.”

 

My head swivels back and down a bit.

 

There.

 

Her black armored form shines under the sun, despite all of Flash and I’s efforts to make it less conspicuous, hovering over the tallest building in the area, her head apparently on a swivel.

 

I guess the absence of an embarked communicator in her suit had been one of the casualties of its no-tech design and with her psy-shield raised and no mind links, Jessica’s obviously a bit panicked.

 

A smidgen of my attention, one of my accelerated minds still focused on the hidden vault relative’s position, informs me that Jessica’s own position is a good klik too far from the supposed epicenter.

 

My mind churns, directing the blunt of my telepathy toward her.

 

I poke, just enough strength to direct her attention toward myself and the three over.

 

I see her tiny form reels from there as I slow us down.

 

It doesn’t take long for her to approach.

 

“Who wanna bet she’s pissed?” Cindy wonders aloud, lazily lying on nothing-at-all-but-TK at my right side.

 

“Focus, Silk.” Gwen hisses under her breath, tensed like a coil on my left, visibly anxious, “This is not the time to be flippant.”

 

“Hey, I’m just sayin’.” The black clad spider girl answers with a lazy shrug, “Not my fault we’re late.”

 

“I told you it was…” Her white counterpart grouses.

 

I exchange a look with Flash and we both shake our heads in dismay as the two start to biker in the background.

 

I have to admit, his warface is impressive.

 

Well, with an armor like that, it better be, honestly.

 

Since he can blatantly cheat with his own powers, his own armor isn’t as polished and minutely crafted as Jessica’s. Props to being both a cyberpath and a body morpher, I guess.

 

The form he chose to wield because it can only be viewed as a statement if I’ve ever seen one, is definitely one of relentless aggression and immovability. All sharp edges, interlocked ten millimeter thick metallic plates that should impair all liberty of movements but for obvious reasons don’t, with an inherent bulkiness that transforms his already tallish form into a looming one, punctuated by an extremely wicked and predatory faceplate on his helmet.

 

The closest parallel I would form if I had to describe him right now would be a massive, bipedal wolf. The whole matte black outlook, already a little battered after a few spar with me, the only touch of color being our team’s emblem on his left pauldron since he chose a sober and only slightly shinier ‘T’ as his own crest over his torso, is going to inspire terror in some ne’er do well in a not-so-distant future.

 

I have, of course, pestered him to know if he took some inspiration from Berserk but he refused to admit anything.

 

Yet.

 

“You’re late!” Jessica yells as soon as she’s in range, “I was worried sick!”

 

“We had a minor setback, sorry.” I answer smoothly, my hands raised in a placating gesture.

 

“Gwen’s mum was…” Cindy starts to comment aloud for her benefit before emitting a startled yelp.

 

I sigh under my breath.

 

“Oy.” Flash rumbles, and I have to admit that with his current voice it is rather impressive, “Won’t you two just stop acting like children? There’s lifes on the line.”

 

“She’s the one who started first!”“She’s just pissed because it’s her fault.” The two spiders chorus, pointing at each other like petulant children.

 

“Enough.” I snap, my voice noticeably louder than usual and my temper rising, “Like Tank said, it’s going to be a shitshow in a few minutes, stop making a fool of yourself.”

 

My eyes roam over the two spiders and I know Iris crised her own brows to better show my disappointment.

 

Figures those two would be at odds on the field, really, with Cindy pushing Gwen’s buttons and the blond being naturally anxious if she feels like losing control.

 

“Now I’m going to link us and I want only priority information on the mindspace, clear?” I clip, arms crossed over my torso and feeling like a two-bit sergeant drill.

 

I have the very strong impression that I am acting a bit like a bitch but the situation is starting to get to me and I honestly cannot be arsed to be polite, of all things, right now.

 

After all, they aren’t the ones who have to deal with the bottomless rage, anger and thirst for blood I can feel under the asphalt from here.

 

A chorus of ‘yes ma’am’, some more cheeky than others, answers me.

 

Good enough.

 

A flourish of TK grabs the lot of them closer as I align my own mind fully with my symbiotic half.

 

We feel ourselves shudder in contentment as soon as it happens, being whole once more delighting us.

 

Four taps on four different shoulders later and one of our minds takes com’ duty as easily as during training.

 

The chatter immediately resumes, of course, and Iris and I have to express our disapproval with a particularly strong blend of ‘Don’t’ for the two to stop.

 

The first times had been a bit rough around the edges when we attempted that particular trick, especially since I definitely want us to maintain the appearance that we do not, in fact, have a telepath amongst our ranks. It had taken me and Iris being aligned and filtering the proper information for it to work properly without the link being permanent.

 

Since none of us were particularly inclined to have each other in our respectives heads day in and day out, it works for us just fine.

 

We resume our flight as soon as it is done, getting nearer the second taller building in the block, which happens to be closer to the rolling mass of anger and hate that we feel boiling somewhere below.

 

<“Why do we not go down immediately?”> Gwen asks, giving us the feeling that the question had been on her mind since I started talking about how to approach this incident.

 

<“Because we cannot,”> Iris and I answer with a shared sigh on the mind-space for the other’s benefits, <“We had no time to build our image, have no public recognition, no official accreditation since we’re just a bunch of vigilante, for now, and every media this side of the Atlantic is going to tear us a new one if we go in preemptively and something goes awry. No…”>

 

We sigh both aloud and mentally.

 

<“...Our only viable move, sadly, is to come to the rescue of distressed citizens while they are under attack.”> We answer, sharing freely how upset it makes us.

 

Me because if a random bystander got injured I’m going to regret it really fast and Iris because it is not how a proper predator acts.

 

<“What if someone’s got injured?”> Jessica asks, echoing my previous distress.

 

<“Guess we’ll just have to be good enough that it doesn’t happen in the first place.”> Flash answers gruffly.

 

<“Jeez, guys, no pressure at all.”> Cindy drawls.

 

Iris snickers, her [Mirth] ringing along in the mindspace despite my own grim mood.

 

<“Gosh, it never stops being weird.”> Cindy shudders to the quiet ascent of the others.

 

My teammates aren’t as comfortable as I am when Iris shares undiluted, raw emotions, apparently.

 

<“Get used to it.”> We answer distractedly, most of our mind focused on deciphering the gibberish that fifty clones going raving mad is as we finally get in the facility’s vicinity.

 

<“Alright, codename only from now on.”> We declare, slowing down our approach now that we’re almost touching down on the building, <“Raptor, you’re bringing Tank on the ground as soon as something happens before taking overwatch duty ; Weaver, Silk, you’re circling the zone and quarantine all the side alleys as you go, we want them focused on us and nothing else. The priority is the evacuation of the citizens in the vicinity. And I don’t want to see anything lethal unless a civilian is in danger, we’re the new good guys in town and we do not want to have the rubber ball on our back from the very first day.”>

 

A concert of ‘Roger’ rings and we start to disperse accordingly, Flash harrumphing and Cindy laughing at my personal nickname for Richard Reeds.

 

<“There’s a lot of people…”> Jessica unhelpfully points out.

 

Under the three of us, cars, cabs, buses and random pedestrians mill around, going with their lives while being none the wiser that those are going to be turned upside down in less than a few minutes.

 

Sometimes, I really hate this world.

 

<“You should be grateful that we actually know that something is going to happen.”> Flash callously answers and I can’t really fault him, <“Next time it certainly won’t be the case.”>

 

 Leaving unsaid the fact that the next time, there’ll be casualties for sure.

 

<“You sure they’ll come here?”> Cindy asks, our eyes darting in her direction as we see her swing around.

 

<“Positive.”> We answer, folding our arms across our chest, <“Because we’re going to goad them.”>

 

<“How?”> Gwen asks, her anxiety dripping despite her focus as she webs the side-alleys, <“They’re going to wreck a havoc in the tube if it doesn’t work.”>

 

<“Well, the fact is that they are very vulnerable to suggestions, so…”> We start to answer.

 

We stop, our arms falling alongside our body.

 

The minds’ pattern of our quarries have shifted and they’re on the move.

 

Iris and I’s focus narrows, our intent on the forty-seven remaining clone’s minds that we can still feel suddenly very sharp.

 

As much as we can, with all the telepathic might we can manage, we push an idea, something irresistible, maddening in the heavily tempered with and addled minds of those poor souls.

 

“You should go UP.” We declare to them and it itches itself in their brain with the finality of heaven’s mandate.

 

We feel them all stop moving before slowly starting to trickle in the same direction, grouping themselves like so many working ants in their tunnel.

 

<“Ready for contact.”> We say in our mindspace, our own muscles coiling with readiness, the thrill of anticipation seizing our nerves and making us shiver in delight.

 

<“Almost done.”> Gwen clips and we can all feel her distress rising steadily.

 

<“Ditto.”> Cindy answers disparagingly, her mind already bored with the task anyway.

 

For a moment, nothing happens, and we all hold our breaths.

 

Our eyes narrow and we clench our first.

 

There.

 

Almost imperceptible, too muted for human ears but not for us so we heard it.

 

The first ‘thump’ of a series of many.

 

Followed by another.

 

Then another.

 

Then another, always louder than the previous one.

 

On the asphalt, our eyes finally land on an innocuous little crack.

 

Another ‘thump’, and the crack widens just a bit.

 

The seconds trickle, the time crawling agonizingly slowly as the crack widens over and over again.

 

<“Do you hear that?”> Gwen asks, her task complete.

 

In the distance, I see her white clad figure perching over a building, the citizens still none the wiser of our presence.

 

The crack split the asphalt across the road with a tortuous shriek, alerting everyone who isn’t deaf of its presence.

 

The traffic halts suddenly, the walkers on the side-street jumping in fright.

 

Good, now if you could all decide to fuck off back from where you came that would be really nice, thank you.

 

Another ‘thump’, presumably a very strong and big fist on stone, concrete and metal if we’re not mistaken, gets heard.

 

There’s so much strength packed in it that the civilians closest to the crack, now a full blown crevice, stumble, looking around wide eyed.

 

Another impact, the asphalt buckle.

 

That’s when the hysteria starts properly.

 

First, of course, are all the individuals still on their two legs, who decide suddenly in concert that backtracking the hell of this road sounds like an extremely good idea.

 

We’re not going to pretend that we’re totally surprised here, since the Four have been active for over a decade by now and they live in the same godforsaken city. You can lay a lot of shit on humankind’s feet but a lack of self-preservation isn’t really part of the package.

 

Another impact, the ground starts to cave in.

 

Now, all the smart people still in their cars, cabs, buses or whatever tell themselves that ‘I have to get the hell out of here’ in no uncertain terms.

 

We’re helping a bit, of course, broadcasting a wide range suggestion to ‘go, go, GO!’ because we can and we don’t want to deal with a pack of headless chicken while simultaneously fighting against powered.

 

That’s also approximately when the screaming starts, the roving mass of people fleeing the scene in panic yelling to each other that they’d ‘better run’, ‘call the police’, ‘ohmygod’, the whole she-bang.

 

Mentally hypersensitive as we are right now, it is an almost painful sensation for us.

 

Another impact, shredded pieces of cement, ground, metal and asphalt starts to fly, and the ground caves in even more, the crevice now a little crater.

 

I sure as hell hope that there is no gas line in between.

 

People start to panic in earnest, running for their life when faced by the unknown.

 

In the mindspace, we feel Gwen’s emotions buckle, the others still impassive and trusting my judgment.

 

In the distance, nearby Gwen, we see that the precipitation has made some people fall in the stampede.

 

We wince.

 

<“Hold,”> We direct, emotions dulled as much as possible, <“A few more seconds.”>

 

<“But…”> I feel her hesitate and I know that Jessica is ready to bolt too.

 

<“If we don’t want to have that whole mess pinned on our back for no good reason, we have to hold.”> We reassert once more, <“Trust us, this doesn’t sit well with us either.”>

 

A cacophonous crash is heard, the ground caving in completely, two cars starting to fall in the full blown crater.

 

A bunch of victorious screams gets heard, the dull echo of the tunnel under the road reaching us all the way to the surface, and we see a big, meaty and extremely hairy hand dig in the crater’s side.

 

<“Go.”> We clip, already flying in the random mutant’s direction, <“And remember, protect the civilians first.”>

 

Pandemonium erupts, Iris roars with pleasure in my own mind.