This is still story of the Becoming Monsters Universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

 

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Chapter 28: What Comes Around

 

We were through the barrier, ready to roll. “Everyone, suit up as much as you can. Remember that we have bystanders, we need to be discerning in our tactics and attacks.” This last was mostly meant for myself. My pistol would not be a good idea unless the situation radically changed. “Emily, Lucy, scan what you can before we head in.”

 

Whitney was standing behind the others, breathing deeply. I could see her face contorted in focus. Her emotions were still going wild. It was something I would need to take into account. I could hear her shuddering breaths even from paces away. Outsiders might think they were due to our prior fight. I knew better. “Whitney, I need you to tell me if you are able to try something. Pre-charge Dance of Destruction, call out when it’s close to going off. We enter the bank, and if one of the attackers is in the clear you direct it on them for an opening surprise.”

 

She shook her head. “I don’t think I’m fast enough on the reaction times right now to try that. I’m scared I’ll hit a bystander. Or one of you.”

 

“Got it.” Not ideal, but I had to trust her judgment. Emily and Lucy finished their scans, coming up dry. Though there was magic in use, it was impossible to distinguish between the bank’s wards and residuals from attackers. “Alright. Remember, these are people. Give them a chance to surrender. If they decide to attack us, the results are on them. Prioritize the defense of the hostages and each other over the capture or slaying of the assailants. You three have all dealt with the Imp’s minions before, you know what’s up. Ready?” A chorus of assent. We got ready at the door. I could not hear anything inside, which was concerning. Emily got into battle form, as Lucy readied her wand. “On three. One… Two… THREE!”

 

I kicked in the door and took the lead. For this reason, I was the first to see the ever-so-familiar ice armored skeleton taking aim at me with another shotgun. My reflexive shield was thankfully almost a quarter second faster than its ability to kill me. Though some of the shot hurt my legs, the bulk of it was caught by the blue field. It was still not exactly pleasant, my arm reporting that the shock dampener effect had limits well below what had been sent at it, but I’d take it.

 

Whitney didn’t bother with special abilities. The last time I saw her take on one of these things in an open area, it was with a brass pole she ripped out of the ground. This time, she had her enchanted sword. With one mighty leap, it came down upon her target and basically crushed it into powder, armor and all. Time seemed to slow as I got a brief flash of the inside of the bank. It was not promising.

 

Four more of those skeletons were by the left and right walls, lined up against those walls were the hostages. At least some of them, I didn’t have time for a precise count but there seemed to be about a dozen. Short from what I was told to expect, which was not good. In front of us and to the right, beside the teller’s counter, was a large man in body armor. He was also carrying a firearm, though in his case an automatic rifle. It was starting to come up towards us. I’d be willing to bet at least one or two of the missing hostages were behind that counter, though without being able to directly perceive them I had no way of knowing for sure.

 

One more detail caught my eye. On the right hand wall, almost directly next to the rifleman, was a familiar figure. I could not see any of his skin, but he was of slight build and wearing a hoodie despite the summer heat. The same one he was wearing when he came to visit my home the previous morning. Nathan.

 

If the assailants realized what he was, they would not hesitate to end him immediately. The reward for doing so was just too great. He would need a way to escape without being noticed. Specter phasing would not function here. The bank almost certainly had enchantments placed on its walls (and floors, for that matter) to prevent those like him from getting in via unauthorized means. My decision was made for me, instantly. In that split second, I threw a Lightning Net at the rifleman.

 

Time, which had seemed crystallized, suddenly caught up in a rush. Emily dove left as the first of the wall skeletons brought their weapons to bear on us, shearing clean through its right arm with her terrible claws. Whitney, similarly dove at the other along that wall, splitting its attention for a critical second. The two on the right opened fire, their bullets stopped well before reaching us by a suddenly-manifested Shield from my wife, and as they reloaded both Lucy and I opened fire, disintegrating them with Flame Lances.

 

“EVERYONE OUT!” The incredible violence of the breaching action had taken shaved seconds to complete. All five skeletons were down, the much tougher human only slowly getting free. They didn’t need to hear it twice, all twelve of the people who could do so ran for the door behind us. I reached out and caught Nathan as he passed. “In case you need them.” In my hand, I had his brand new batons.

 

He shoved them into his pockets. “Two more hostages behind the counter and at least one in the back, there are three more robbers.”

 

“Good work! Now get to safety. I’ll talk with you more later.”

 

“Yes, sir.” He vanished with the crowd.

 

I looked back at the gunman, who had escaped the Lightning net only to find that his weapon had been melted to slag, and that my wife was quick on the draw with Telekinesis. He was being held suspended in midair, struggling against his bonds. No preamble, I Scanned him. Derek Kingston, Human Enforcer 4. Moderate ability scores. Initialization feat of Takedown, dude must have zero willpower if my ability was able to rip his Level One off of him. “Derek, I suggest you stop struggling. Do that, and you get carried outside and turned over to the cops. Struggle, and we knock you out before doing that. All the same to me, but you can save a headache.” His movements stopped. “Good. I’ll make this quick. How many teammates do you have back there, and do any of them go by the name Julia Aster or Marcus Graves?”

 

He started stammering out an affirmative, but conveyed that there were three there. Third was a Paladin. “Whitney, he has earned you not applying sword to skull. Please deposit this gentleman with the nice officers outside. They’re going to want to chat. Derek? Don’t struggle. She can bench press you and the car you drove here in. You’ll only hurt yourself.”

 

Once she carried him outside, Lucy looked at me with a tilt to her head. “You’re not normally one for theatrics.”

 

“I’m not normally going viral as we stop a bank robbery, either. He’ll be more cooperative with the police and less likely to come back for seconds, and he just confirmed who we’re up against. Emily, I need you as small of a Fox as you can easily hold. Scout the back, we got three more around here somewhere and I’d rather not find out where they are by losing a vital organ to the Black Cat.”

 

“As usual, going to do you one better.” She quickly transformed into a tiny fennec fox, then even smaller… and then into a miniscule heat shimmer as she hid behind a veil of illusion. If I hadn’t been able to see her Aura, I’d never have been able to track her movements.

 

Whitney came back in. “The cop says we have ten minutes left.”

 

“Okay. This breach was a good model for what I want to do once Emily finds them. Sudden, overwhelming force. Obliterate any minions, and anything attacking you. Disable otherwise. You know what they’re capable of.” While we waited, we made sure to get the two tellers who were hiding behind the counter out to safety.

 

It didn’t take long. Our Kitsune was back moments later, drawing out some of our injuries as she spoke. “It’s them, alright. Black Cat is in the same armor from the apartment, Marcus is trying to search through locked boxes he can’t casually open, and their third is in full plate armor with a greatsword. Room is pretty tiny, they’re looking through small boxes. I didn’t see any hostages in there with them, they either got shoved into a room or pushed out the back door.”

 

Even better. “Okay, we take them by surprise, then. Bathe them in everything we’ve got that hits the room. Fireball included as long as none of the safes are open, they’re made to withstand that. Whitney, that means you’re on rearguard with Emily. Make sure they don’t get past us, and make sure nothing sneaks up on us.”

 

Whitney took a deep, calming breath. “You got it. No space to swing in that kind of room, anyway.”

 

“Plans are set. Absolute silence from here until we unleash on them. Emily, lead the way until we get to the door.”

 

We padded behind the tiny fox, behind the teller’s counter, down a narrow hallway. It twisted a few times, the layout confusing to outsiders like us, but we were guided by the noise. The sounds of arguments, the rustle and thunk of shifting objects. They did not sound happy. Either they were having problems searching, or else they weren’t finding what they were here for. Our guide stopped suddenly, tapping a door frame. At the same time, I could hear those inside much more clearly. A familiar, greasy voice sharply stated “this one!”

 

About that time, eh? I looked at the others, making sure I had their attention, preparing myself for the initial shock. These three would not go down so easily as the skeletons and the goon. On my fingers I counted down. Three, two, one, GO!

 

I kicked in the door and launched a Firebomb into the small room behind it. Witnessing a flash of the smallest of their number trying to open a small safe box with the number 74 on it. My wife lobbed a restrained Fireball, making sure not to overflow the confines. In the shocking noise of the detonation and flame, I tapped my Aura and called Fear, dousing them with crippling doubt and helplessness.

 

That is where things started to go wrong.

 

I had miscalculated my Aura in two distinct and critical ways. We had been TOLD there was a Paladin present, and I had forgotten exactly what that meant. The wave of negative emotion washed over my foes and broke on an armored form, dispersing into nothing worse than nerves in the small room. The three people there twitched, but it didn’t even distract them from responding to the attacks.

 

The other way was worse. Whitney was still in exceedingly tenuous control of her own emotions, unwilling to risk using her own Rage and unable to reliably direct many of her own attacks. She got caught in the backwash of the blast, and like Sarah and Amber before she succumbed to it. I heard her wings beat hard as she fled, screaming, to the back door in the hall near us. I suddenly went from having a deck stacked in my favor to staring down a straight flush holding two pair.

 

And it was entirely my fault. I got overconfident. It was my job to do the calculations and tactics, and I had dropped the ball. Hard. Nothing to do now but see if it bounced.

 

“Emily, with her!” Suddenly, the timer that had been my greatest enemy became my ally. Lucy and I had little hope of taking down this team alone, but what we could do was prevent them from focusing on their goal until SWAT got here to finish the job.

 

A familiar voice shouted out at us. “I’ve gotten wise to your tricks, demon. You will have to try harder than that.”

 

… Remember that straight flush? Apparently, I was about to get the Royal end of that. “Aaron, imagine seeing you here. Thought you’d be busy accosting pets on the sidewalk.” I prepared to throw another Firebomb in, but had to duck backwards to dodge a Darkwave. I had no interest whatsoever in repeating the last two weeks of my life trying to recover, thanks.

 

Julia Aster, the Black Cat, hissed at us. “You have interfered with my team for the last time, Jeremiah.” I heard the scratch of Marcus trying to open the safe box. Apparently, so did Lucy, as she pushed a tornado of fire into the room. Marcus got the point and stopped.

 

I had to distract them. “It seems we are at an impasse, then. We likely can’t kill you all without exposing ourselves to lethal counterattack. You have a similar problem. We could just do this the easy way. You surrender, we hand you over to the police waiting outside, and everyone gets to walk away. I know you have the resources on your side to make that a short stay.”

 

The Imp’s disgusting voice oozed out. “I have a better idea. You step out here, we kill you, and then I make sure you become a decently strong undead minion. It’s a better offer than I give to most in your position.”

 

I checked my watch. Five more minutes until the estimated arrival of reinforcements. “You’re already out of minions. The goon you had out front is in cuffs, the hostages are gone, and you don’t have enough room in there to summon anything that will take more resources for us to kill than it will for you to call. As I’ve told your metalhead buddy before, you don’t get to win this one. Best you’re going to get is leaving here alive and empty handed.” At the resounding silence that responded to my declaration, I made sure to set an Ice Trap… and chug the Mana Potion I grabbed from the supply closet that morning. I didn’t like this standoff, but it was better than the alternative.

 

I had an idea. Gesturing to get Lucy’s attention, I activated Double Team. I left my main body where it was, but my focus would have to be with the clone. In its form, I took off running for the back door, sharply turning right and running around the building. I needed to be sure that reinforcements knew what they were coming into, and prayed I’d find Emily and Whitney somewhere along this route. It appeared that I was not nearly so lucky as I had hoped.

 

I found one friend out there, but they were not a part of my Delver team. Nathan was in the alleyway, batons out and metallic skin visibly showing. Two people faced him. Both of his opponents were Human, but much larger than the slight Metal Slime, one carrying a sword and the other a club. As I watched, both assaulted my friend. Nathan, however, was fast. He dodged no fewer than four attacks in as many seconds, phasing through the last one to strike at the assailant’s torso. It didn’t do much, but it connected.

 

The swordsman took another swipe at him, and Nathan blocked. The sword hit the side of the batons, and stopped cold. This was getting old. I gave up a chunk of my mana reserves and forced the copy to take offensive action, throwing a Lightning Net over the two larger men. Nathan saw it coming and got out of the way. The intended targets managed no such thing.

 

“That man is under my protection.” I picked both up by the scruff of the neck. Neither resisted, possibly realizing they were dealing with someone more than capable of dealing with them. I looked at Nathan. “You alright?”

 

“Yes, sir. They didn’t land a hit. Thank you, and to your enchanter. These are amazing.” I decided it was not time to correct him.

 

“Get safe. I’ll deal with these two.” He jumped to the side, entering the building across from the bank… through the wall. He really did have himself covered. I was proud. “And you two. You’re lucky I’m busy. You decided to assault a Guild Protectorate member. I’m pretty sure I know why, too, but I couldn’t prove it. You get to deal with the police instead of me, personally.” I dragged them out of the alleyway.

 

Within the building, I had to drain most of my Shield’s battery into my own reserves in order to keep this up. I had to finish this quickly.

 

In front of the bank, I handed them over to the cops with a description of what happened, then got to the part about Lucy and I. “We have a standoff of our own going on inside. Two of us, three of them. They’re trying to get into one of the safe boxes. We’re distracting them.”

 

The police sergeant looked pale. “Are you… ceding them to us?”

 

Crud. I would kind of have to, wouldn’t I? Without the others, I didn’t think I could take them. “Yes. Take them and they’re yours. Right now, they have the following people, to the best of my knowledge. I have Scanned all three magically in the past due to conflicts. Imp Necromancer named Marcus Graves, likes summoning skeletal minions with armor made of ice. Black Catfolk Hexer named Julia Aster, who Lieutenant Richards has told me you all have a history with. Really strong, do not let her hit you with her darkwave. Demi-Angel Paladin named Aaron Christiansen, has a fear resistance ability and is wearing full plate, with a greatsword.” He was taking notes. “I can hold this image for about another couple of minutes. If your people arrive in that time, I’ll dispel and we will clear out. You can get what you need from bank footage, the PD has my number if they need to talk.”

 

It turned out that the SWAT team arrived well within the time limit. Speaking of certain senior officers, Lieutenant Richards was with them. “Sir, I have about ten seconds to explain, then I’m clearing out.” I dumped all the info I had onto him, and released the power.

 

Suddenly snapping back to reality, I took stock. Out of mana, my shield would only last a few more moments if I pulled it up at all. The fact that the team in there had not tried anything was itself concerning. Like they were expecting an assist from someone.

 

Wait. Sergeant Mann. He was typically on SWAT and monster response, and I knew he was compromised. If that’s who they were counting on, and didn’t know I had clued in his superior about what was up, they’d be playing to that out. That probably meant if SWAT caught us there, someone else might not want us walking away easily… unless I was in full view of their senior ranking officer.

 

I gestured to Lucy to get over to me. She, in order to do so undetected, used a lot more power than she might have otherwise needed to lift herself to the ceiling and drop down on my side. As I heard heavy boots storming down the hallway, my wife and I made our escape through the back door, closing it behind us. “Lucy, find Whitney and Emily. I suspect they’re back at the hospital by now. Mind if I get a few spare MP, though? I’m dry, and in case I need this shield in the next half hour I’d rather be able to use it.”

 

“Where are you going to be with that as a possibility?” She already had her hand on my left forearm, over the battery. The touch meant a lot more to me than the recharge.

 

“Back up front. I need to make sure their senior on site gets the right version of the story.” I kissed her. “Soon as I’ve wrapped up here, I’ll let you all know. Apologize to Whitney for me? I’ll do it myself again when we get home, but I forgot to warn her about the Fear bomb.”

 

“You’re going to have to do a lot more than just apologize, love. Whitney is going to be really broken up about it. I’ll do my best, but I’m not the one she lo… looks up to.” Lucy looked tired. I didn’t blame her. I was so tired that, if it had been anyone else, I would have missed the slip. Not Lucy. Not my wife, my love, my life. She meant to hold her tongue on the L word, which meant that Whitney was in deeper than even I thought, and asked her to keep it quiet. She, in turn, knew me well enough to notice me noticing. Neither of us said anything further on the subject. She kissed me again, and jogged down the back alleyway as I turned to go toward the front.

 

Officer Richards, ever the gentleman, greeted me with a sulfurous series of expletives. “You want to explain things a bit better than what you dumped our way earlier?”

 

I could hear the faint sounds of gunfire. Someone in there had made a mistake. I found myself hoping it was Marcus. “Your Sergeant at the barrier got most of it. Be happy to give my statement… to you, right here. With all due respect? I’m still not comfortable swinging by the station. Especially not on empty MP and nearly there for SP.” I reached into my pocket, the normal one this time, and pulled out a candy bar. “You are, of course, more than welcome to verify anything I tell you via witness reports and bank security cameras. We accounted for fourteen freed hostages, one captured robber, and thorough data given on the other three prior to capture, which you can also verify independently.” I took a bite. Regeneration thanked me.

 

“And if we want more thorough discussion?”

 

“Then I enter into the record that you unconstitutionally Scanned me without a warrant while I was in the hospital, and call for the Guild Hall lawyers to have a field day roasting marshmallows over the smoking corpse of your career while I eat some turkey legs. Yes, I saw that, let’s not play that game. You do not know my capability set, nor will you. I can give you everything you need, right here.”

 

His lips twitched. “Is this how you treated Sergeant Mann?”

 

“Nope. I actually like you, or I wouldn’t have warned you away from the attempt. So, what do you need?”

 

There was a lot to unpack. For this reason, twenty minutes later, I got treated to the sight of the bank robbers being walked out in handcuffs. I had no illusions that they would be in police custody long, but for at least the next day or two they’d be out of my hair.

 

By the time I got back to the hospital, the others had already left. I clocked out, having posted entirely more hours and more effort than I had anticipated doing this day. Thankfully, the walk home was not a long one. Also thankfully, it went by a corner store, where chocolate cake was available. A big one, which I did not anticipate getting to taste. The rest of that walk was a bit slower than the first part.

 

The apartment was subdued, especially considering we had just stopped a monster attack and a bank robbery. I heard the sounds of sobs coming from the sleeping room, but saw none of the others outside of it. Cake safely set down on the kitchen table, I went there. All seven of my ladies were there, gathered around a weeping Whitney. The sound was heart-rending. The sound of a woman who was a pillar, who knew what she did and was good at it, and who had failed. Everyone looked at me as I walked in. “Do you all mind if I have a conversation with Whitney? Alone?”

 

The other six vanished. I sat next to the woman who, three weeks ago, helped kickstart this crazy life. She wasted no time, grabbing me and hugging me close. Actually, ow, painfully tight. I endured it, though. She needed to give a hug to her teddy Incubus. I hugged her back as soon as she eased off enough to let my arms move. I could hear quiet words streaming out under her breath, a whispered litany of apologies, of shame.

 

“Alright, that’s enough of that, Whitney. I don’t give direct orders like this often, so listen up. Stop apologizing for what went down at the bank.”

 

She was still sobbing. “But… but I ran. I couldn’t hack it when things got complicated, couldn’t support you. You put me in the back, then I got so scared I ran away.”

 

“Whitney. Listen. One person in this room made a mistake, and that person was me. I knew you had no experience being in the splash zone for an emotional attack, and I was trying to disable the people in that room. Who ended up in cuffs, by the way. Those were not your emotions. They were mine. I was pushing those outward from my own soul.”

 

She sniffed, arms still around me, leaning into me. “You… you were that scared? For me?”

 

“Whitney, your nerves were raw and on edge, so you felt everything very clearly, but I’ll let you in on a secret. I can’t project something unless I’m feeling it in some way. The more emotion I have, the stronger I can make that effect. While I can draw on other power wells to strengthen what I’m pushing out, I can’t weave it from nothing. And, you know, I had a lot of fear. Every time we have to dive into danger, I worry. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you because of what I told you to do. If I made a mistake and got taken out, my last thought would be sorrow that I couldn’t be here to support you all anymore.”

 

She broke down crying again. Coherence was a thing of the past, I just let the floodgates go. Hers were not the only tears shed, mine flowed freely, if much more quietly. Because, really, I felt the same way. I had nearly cost us much of what we had struggled and fought for with a stupid, unforced error. That we were all alive at the end of it was a matter of nearly pure luck and more improvisation than I was comfortable admitting.

 

The tears stopped, eventually. We left the darkening room to find the others had started on dinner, dessert first. Whitney joined them. I just stood and watched for now. Took a breath. I had to be better. They were counting on me.