NOVEL NEXT 147 - Between Jobs
Ego had me believing any assassination attempts coming my way would all be on the level of Silhouette. Knowing that I was a hard nut to crack, I expected proficient killers to descend on me in the dead of night.
I twisted the arm of the thug, breaking it, before knocking him out with the elbow joint of my gun arm. As his weapon clattered to the ground, more small arms fire bounced from the Meteor.
With a sigh, I sunk a little lower against it. The original shotgun blast hadn't made it through my several layers of defense, but my side now ached with a large bruise on the way. Even as I internally complained, I preferred the dissipated blunt trauma to having my skin shredded open.
Sending an armed gang against me in broad daylight was a little out of the blue. Maybe that was the point. It would be easy enough to sell that I had gotten mixed up in something untoward, given my renegade status - and compared to many supers, I was easy to take out with a handful of firearms.
Or that would have been the case if they had arrived slightly earlier in the day.
I loaded in a Nerve magazine and then pulled a Smoke grenade from my vest, dropping it close to where I was crouched. As the swirling cloud of gray emerged and cloaked the Meteor, I lobbed a Flash grenade over the roof toward my assailants.
No doubt the media would be clued in to this shortly, and either the police or a hero would show up at the scene. I would prefer to be out of here and back on schedule before that happened. Being so close to Droja's lab, Kingston might not be impressed by me drumming up attention here.
Still obscured by the smoke, I stepped out around the front of the Meteor. The minor break in suppressive fire due to the blinding flash gave me enough time to locate and determine the current threats. Six more gang members armed with either pistols or submachine guns. Three were using a parked civilian car as cover. One was crouched behind a metal mailbox. The last two had been working their way as a pair to flank around my vehicle.
They had taken the worst of the Flash, and while the man in front had crouched and shielded his eyes, his partner remained standing and fired off a few blind shots to catch me off-guard. His aim was terrible and did little but burst small chunks of brickwork from the building behind me.
Nerve caught him square in the chest, knocking him out immediately. I stepped forward and kicked out at the crouched man. Unconscious as well.
As the other four recovered, they started firing into the smoke cloud. Most hit the Meteor or the factory behind it. My force-field deflected a couple of errant bullets.
Grapple hit a thug in the hands, the resulting foam solidifying around his gun and making it inert. As the tension snapped, it pulled him onto the ground and dragged him toward me. At the same time, I struck another shooter in his exposed head with Nerve.
The thought of questioning them only crossed my mind briefly.
It was unlikely they had any worthwhile information in their skulls. In fact, I was starting to question if this was even part of the hit out on my head. It was just too amateur. Maybe just a gang I had annoyed at some point in my life, or an unrelated attempt to kill me.
Heck, even Immutable may have organized it for a post-reveal party. That idea was edging on paranoia, so I dismissed it for now.
While I idly dispatched the rest of the gang, I considered picking up some shopping on the way home. Or even look into a furniture shop? I wanted a nice chair for the garden or something. An empty shell clattered against the concrete as the last thug groaned and slumped to the ground.
I hummed through the vocalizer as I stepped over to the Meteor. The smoke grenade had now dissipated enough to reveal the vehicle. By the tracks on this side, the gang had attached some crude explosives. A little gift in case I had decided to run instead of fighting it out with them. Easily pulled off and thrown to the side - the timer on it with more than five minutes left.
The back of the Meteor lowered, and I stepped in. A scan ran up on one of the screens to show that the hull hadn't been breached by the small arms fire. Back door closed, and I started on my way to meet Belle.
//Clara: Scanners picked up you were in a firefight.
//Clara: Is that something to do with your previous question, Gunquake?
//Dubs: Just stretching my legs. Nothing to worry about.
//Clara: Please maintain good health. I need your body
//Clara: In good condition for the days ahead.
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I rolled my eyes. There wasn't much I could do to prevent assassination attempts - nothing short of sitting at home until the Heroism Arena rolled around. Even if I could cancel the mission with Belle, Kingston would surely force us to go do the mutant culling up north.
Putting it that way left a sour taste in my lack of mouth.
With the added information the old man had given me, I'd have to keep my eyes open when we went hunting. The World Government might be in the know about Kingston's plan… in which case we could be walking into a trap. Then again, if the Gov were fine playing the long game, then losing the unstable assets in the wastes probably wasn't a big deal. Certainly not worth showing their hand early.
The sound of sirens echoed around one of the side streets as the Meteor thundered onwards.
The Meteor hummed a soft silence as it sat idle under the cover of a disused parking lot. We still had some time before our mission, and I had filled the silence with everything that had happened to me today.
Belle rubbed her eyes and sighed for the fourth time. "Yeah, I guess a team meeting sounds like the best idea."
[Never an easy day, huh?]
She lowered her hand away from her eyes to scowl at me, as if this was all my fault. The way everyone reacted to the news, they made it seem like the hit out on my head and potential Gov interference were things I put an open invitation out for.
"Synthesized demonic regeneration, though." Her ire turned into contemplation. "I wonder if the runes inscribed on your nanites are demonic in nature, then?"
I shrugged, for lack of a better response. My assumption had been that Clara would have picked up on that if it was the case. Then again, maybe her original segue into the information on demons was due to her having that knowledge, but not wanting to share at that stage.
[The fact that there is a demon prince just walking about Goldarch concerns me slightly more.]
"Other than causing you mischief, it doesn't sound like he is dangerous." Belle drummed her fingers on the belt-mounted cases that hid her charging crystals. "I wonder what he has to gain by giving you all that information at this stage?"
It was something that itched at the back of my mind. I certainly appreciated the exposition and forewarning, but how much did I trust him? If he told me so that I could deflect the Gov and come out on top, he must stand to gain from that outcome. Perhaps freedom from the mortal plane was the end goal.
[You don't happen to know of a way to banish demons?]
She shook her head. "Not in my wheelhouse, I'm afraid. That's a very niche spell, and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone with something that powerful outside one of the main three holy churches. Their presence in Goldarch is rather minute as well. After a spate of arsons around a decade… oh."
[A bed of his own making, perhaps. My brief research has told me that death on the mortal plane can send a demon back to hell, but with his speciality being regeneration, it isn't easy to find a munition that is up to task.]
Belle pulled a face and slouched back in the passenger side chair. "If this ends up with you testing out various methods on him while the poor guy regenerates all over your back yard… well, make sure you invite me over first."
That did sound like something we'd do. With the number of tentative allies I was gathering over the last week, I'm sure we could find a way to kill him for good. At least once Clara could take her mind off of my arm.
[Let's discuss it with the others tonight. For now, we should focus on the mission.]
She nodded. "Odd that they sent me on this one with you. Not that I'm complaining, as it's rare for me to get something action-orientated. It's nice to get out of my own head and hang out as well, you know? Plus… your training."
[I can't wait to see what you have in store for me.]
"If anything, I should get credit for Roy's training." She rolled her eyes. "Don't expect anything so profound from me. I don't exactly have a lot of combat experience or great standing within the community."
[Weren't you the figurehead of a church?]
"An excuse to trot around acting holier-than-thou while everyone thought it was just a sex cult." She gestured to the screens of the Meteor interior. "Sometimes it feels like I'd just be a D-Rank no-namer without the rest of you."
I looked between the technology around us and the pink-haired hero.
[Is consoling you part of the training?]
Belle rolled her eyes and sat back up. "Point made. Let's go arrest some criminals."
It was difficult to see her as anything less than amazing considering she regularly communicated with a literal demi-god, but perhaps she felt out of place compared to the more overt superpowers on the team. I was sure every team had a support hero or member that was weakest. Even then, I wouldn't have said Belle held that position.
At least if I were to plan to kill them - which I had, several times.
Her shielding would be a problem, but it was her ability to curse people with 'bad luck' that I would be most afraid of. There didn't seem to be much in terms of a limitation on how she could cast it, and the effects ranged from an inconvenience to straight up death.
[If it makes you feel any better, if I had to fight the Natural Disasters… I would kill you first.]
Her mind had clearly already put that conversation to rest so that she could focus on the mission, as my statement briefly froze her in place. "Oh. Thanks?" She furrowed her brow. "Should my training session be about what is inappropriate to say to others?"
[Would you rather it was a surprise?]
"I'd like to think we wouldn't fight, Dubs. You've already proven yourself competent and ruthless even against terrible odds. I hate to think of the day when you're a match for Roxy, as at least she can keep you in check at present."
I wasn't even sure what to think about that. By the wry smile on her face as she left her seat, Belle was probably just poking me for a reaction. Could I ever be equal to Roxy? The super hadn't even gotten up to her own pinnacle yet with her new powers. Even if I had a weaponized hand…
No, it was a matter of when I had a hand. I'd leave any guesswork until after that day.
The Meteor powered down, and I checked my magazines. We had criminals to arrest.