Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
Taylor POV.
"We're leaving in 10 minutes," Armsmistress said as she approached us in the dining room. The three of us immediately stood up from where we were.
"We're ready, Armsy!" Vicky said confidently. Armsmistress looked at her and nodded.
"I hope so, Antares," Armsmistress said simply, then looked at Amy. "Panacea, thank you for coming. You'll be taken to the hospital with an escort. It'll be the best place to receive the wounded should we need it. Your transport is leaving now," Armsmistress said without hesitation. Amy simply nodded.
"Okay, who are my escorts?" Amy asked, frowning.
"You'll find them in the van downstairs," Armsmistress said vaguely. Amy just raised an eyebrow before shrugging.
"Very well, I hope it's a quiet night, Armsmistress. I hope no one gets hurt," Amy said, almost as if she were wishing us luck. Armsmistress just nodded. Amy turned and started walking, waving, before stopping, grabbing my thermos, and taking it away. "I'll take this," she said, waving the thermos, which must have been half full. I just snorted and shook my head.
"Antares, Skitter, you'll be with me, let's go." Armsmistress said without hesitation. I looked at the empty snack box, sighed, tidied it up, and placed it beside the table, hoping to find it again when everything was over. Vicky and I followed Armsmistress through the hallways, stopping several times to pick up other people along the way, but we finally reached the garage.
I'd been watching everything with my bugs, but it seemed everyone had picked up the pace in the last five minutes. There were dozens of fully armed PRT soldiers, as well as various heroes I didn't recognize, and several I did recognize and whom I greeted absentmindedly; they were all separated into their respective groups around a PRT truck.
I frowned as I looked around. There should be almost 20 vans ready to leave. Did we really need that much escort, just for Lung?
"Very well, everyone at attention." Armsmistress said loudly, and everyone immediately fell silent. "We are dividing into five groups. All groups have already been assigned, and I expect you are all aware of the situation. The ABB knows that we will be extracting Lung from Brockton Bay today, so expect reprisals and ambushes from them. Be vigilant and don't let your guard down."
"For security reasons, only your respective leaders know the route you will take. Your leaders are the only ones who know the exact transfer orders and all the information, so follow their orders to the letter, understood?" Armsmistress asked authoritatively.
"Yes, ma'am!" they all said at the same time, Armsmistress nodded.
"Well, the ABB is also expected to incite disturbances in various parts of the city to try and distract us or force us to split up. There are different groups of Heroes and PRT members stationed throughout the city to respond to these calls or to assist us in case of an ambush. Your job is simply to follow your leader's orders." Armsmistress repeated herself once more. I frowned. Why did she have to repeat herself? I looked around and saw several frowns, but no one said a word; they just continued to listen attentively.
Armsmistress nodded contentedly before turning away. I could hear a freight elevator starting to move. I turned to see where the elevator had stopped. Inside were five vertical metal capsules, like coffins or a mobile prison.
"Inside one of them is Lung, completely sedated and unconscious. The other four are empty," Armsmistress announced, then turned to look at everyone. "I'm the only one who knows which one Lung is in. Now, each leader will randomly choose one of the capsules to transport without knowing if it contains Lung or not. Even if Lung isn't inside, your duty is to transport the capsule with all due care and security."
"This way, the ABB won't be able to know exactly who's carrying Lung," Armsmistress said confidently. My eyes widened slightly. That was clever. They really prepared for this, didn't they? "Bravo Team leader, please take your capsule," Armsmistress said. I saw Miss Militia calmly emerge from the crowd, approach the capsules, and without hesitation, choose the third one from the left. Two soldiers immediately stepped out and began carefully moving the capsule and loading it onto one of the most heavily armored trucks.
"Team leader Charlie, your turn," Armsmistress said. Another heroine stepped forward, more cautious than Miss Militia, taking a few seconds to decide which one to choose before finally selecting the last. "Team Delta," Armsmistress said easily. After them, the leader of Team Echo came forward to choose one of the last two capsules. When she made her selection, Armsmistress nodded.
Two soldiers approached the last capsule and led it to the last group.
"Everyone to your positions, we're leaving in two minutes," Armsmistress said, her voice completely flat. "Good luck, everyone," she added solemnly. Everyone nodded solemnly and moved at the same time. Armsmistress looked at me and gestured. "How fast can we move without affecting your detection?" she asked seriously. I grimaced.
"My insects aren't very useful in fast-moving situations," I said honestly. "Even if my range moves, the insects aren't fast enough to reposition themselves, unless they follow us like the Undersiders. It's difficult to spot anything unusual in less than a few seconds and effectively detect irregularities. I'll try to keep an eye out, but it likely won't be of much use." I said honestly; this wasn't the place to even overestimate my abilities. Armsmistress nodded.
"I expected as much," Armsmistress said matter-of-factly. "Once the ambush begins, be on top of everything. I want you to find out where everyone is located, the number of villains, and immediately look for any villains who stand out, especially Bakuda, Oni Lee, and our third person involved. Also, check if anyone has grenades on them; any one of them is too dangerous to attack us unawares." Armsmistress said immediately, and I nodded.
"I will." I said without hesitation. Armsmistress nodded, then I hesitated momentarily. "It seems you expect them to attack us." I said cautiously. Armsmistress didn't seem to care; she just nodded.
"They will," Armsmistress said confidently. "The plan to have five capsules to send was already in place from the beginning. According to Tattletale, the information had already been leaked by then, so the ABB knows. We can't change tactics since this is truly the best option to force them to spread out and not concentrate all their forces."
"So they'll surely coordinate to attack the five escorts. The question is, which ones will have the most dangerous villains?" Armsmistress said solemnly. I nodded seriously. "Let's go," Armsmistress said as she approached. Besides Armsmistress and Antares, I recognized Aegis and Triumph, who had a gladiator/lion theme in her costume, three heroes I didn't know, and six fully armed soldiers.
"Antares and Skitter are going in the same van as the capsule. The rest will split up as planned; I'll go on my motorcycle ahead of the escort," Armsmistress said without hesitation, then headed toward her motorcycle.
"Let's go," Vicky said as she started to pull me along. Her smile was gone; now she had a slight frown as she concentrated. We both got into the truck. I glanced at Schrödinger's capsule, where Lung might or might not be.
The doors of the armored SUV closed, and Antares slumped into one of the metal seats, her foot bouncing nervously. I sat across from her, concentrating.
"Good evening everyone, this is Dragon speaking." I heard a voice in my ear, my eyes opening slightly. "Tonight I'll be leading and coordinating this operation. The radio rules remain the same as always. Everyone is cleared to leave immediately. Good luck to all. Dragon out." Dragon said.
"Wow, Armsy is really going the extra mile, she even called her girlfriend," Antares said, impressed.
"Team Alpha, moving." Armsmistress's voice said, I could feel the truck's engine start before it began to move.
The journey was silent; Vicky didn't seem to want to talk. She was slightly anxious as her foot bounced with impatience, whether from being locked in here or nervous about the ABB ambush, but I couldn't blame her. If I wasn't able to push my reactions to my insects, I'd be the same.
The other heroes were in the same state, all nervous and tense, enough to notice even the few insects in each vehicle.
As we moved forward, I frowned slightly, thinking we would take more turns, but we were going quite straight, too predictable, too- I turned my head almost out of habit, I didn't even hesitate.
"This is Skitter, Team Alpha. I have Oni Lee in my insects' sights; she's following us. Over." I said without hesitation. I could see Oni Lee moving across the rooftops, teleporting frequently to keep up with us. The insects above her seemed to appear and disappear suddenly. I could keep track of her just by observing where new insects suddenly appeared.
I turned my head once more and saw Antares completely tense, almost preparing to get out of the armored truck and start attacking.
"This is Armsmistress, I need confirmation, Skitter, over." Armsmistress said.
"Skitter here, Oni Lee confirmed, she's on the rooftops to our left, she's teleporting to keep up with us, she's just following us, over." I said immediately.
"Understood. Team Alpha, prepare for imminent combat." Armsmistress said, and I tensed slightly, gripping Shusui tightly. I continued monitoring Oni Lee for a few minutes before noticing something strange in front of us—dozens, maybe hundreds, of people waiting.
"Stop!!" I yelled into the radio, startling Antares. To my surprise and relief, all the vehicles stopped immediately right in the middle of an intersection.
"What?! What happened?!" Antares asked in a panic. I just kept looking through my insects. I could see how moments later, the street in front of us, two blocks away, exploded violently. Before we could adapt, a series of explosions began to erupt.
The street behind us, also two blocks away, exploded and somehow created a… wall of fire? It almost seemed solid, but still burning into nothingness, then to our left, our right, and all the streets around us within a two-block radius, as if they were creating some kind of fire barrier around us.
"We're surrounded! They've trapped us within a two-block radius, all the streets have walls of fire that somehow seem solid, there are several people approaching our position, 76 people and counting!"
"I just found Bakuda, she's inside the truck in front of us and- WATCH OUT!" I screamed in panic when I felt Oni Lee appear on top of our armored truck. I could see in extreme slow motion the moment she removed several safety pins from the grenades before teleporting away and leaving her clone next to us.
I tried to open the armored transport's door, but before I could unlock it, explosions threw me against one of the walls as the armored truck flew through the air and spun around several times. I gritted my teeth, covered my head with my arms as my body was flung and slammed against the truck's walls, the capsule, or even Antares, who seemed more surprised than complaining about the pain.
Finally, the truck slid and stopped upside down. I didn't even hesitate to move; I opened the truck door and crawled out along with Antares, who immediately began to fly and looked around.
I did the same, I looked around with my insects to see the whole scene, our truck wasn't the only one attacked, the others had also separated and were in different levels of destruction, I could see the other heroes and soldiers of the PRT crawling out, I almost sighed with relief when I saw that none of them were really hurt.
I looked around. Armsmistress was standing alone in front of one of the trucks and dozens of fully armed ABB members. I could see Bakuda on top of the truck with a grenade launcher; Oni Lee landed beside her with ease.
"Bakuda, Oni Lee." Armsmistress said solemnly.
"Armsmistress," Bakuda sneered. "Release Lung, and maybe I'll consider letting them all live."
"And how do you know we have Lung?" Armsmistress asked without any emotion. "You brought all your forces just to fight us? That's good, the other groups will be able to escape more easily," Armsmistress said with the same composure. Bakuda sneered.
"Don't underestimate me, Armsmistress." Bakuda growled, almost offended. "You think I'd be fooled by such an easy trick? I really enjoyed your performance, but they were never chosen at random, were they? You were always going to transport Lung." Bakuda said with an arrogant smile. I grimaced. Was she watching us?!
"I don't know what you're talking about, Bakuda," Armsmistress said, very unimpressed. Bakuda grunted in annoyance.
"Fine, deny it all you want, we'll free Lung our way." Bakuda hissed. I moved immediately, feeling new insects appear behind Armsmistress, along with Oni Lee. Oni Lee's fingers grabbed the safety pins at the same time as I unsheathed Shusui.
My sword struck Oni Lee's arm before she could activate the bombs. I could feel Oni Lee appear several dozen meters away. The Oni Lee in front of me turned to ash as Shusui pierced her.
I could see Bakuda fire her grenade launcher in our direction. The grenade was launched slower than I expected. I tried to gather my swarm, but Armsmistress simply raised her hand. A small needle shot out from her forearm and struck the grenade with extreme precision, stopping it halfway.
The grenade exploded, and a multicolored burst of flame shot out. Yeah… I'd better make sure no grenades hit me. I saw the gang members—those who had guns, which was almost half of them—raise them and prepare to fire, but all their weapons either malfunctioned immediately or exploded on themselves when they tried to fire.
I had discreetly used my insects to clog the chamber, mechanisms, trigger, and barrel with a mass of dead insects in all of their weapons to prevent their guns from firing.
I let my swarm out of the buildings and descend upon them in fury.
"There are civilians in the nearby buildings!" I shouted to Armsmistress, I saw her stop for a few seconds.
"Aegis, take the soldiers and evacuate the civilians. Gather them in the farthest building," Armsmistress said without hesitation. I heard Aegis and the soldiers nod and start running. "Anteres, Skitter, can you take on Oni Lee? I saw you could keep up with her, Skitter," Armsmistress said as she charged toward the crowd of villains who had dropped their weapons and were using their Quirks to fight my insects.
"Leave it to me!" Vicky said confidently.
"I'll do it." I said without hesitation, my head turning in the direction of Oni Lee.
"Alright, the rest of you, with me." Armsmistress said without hesitation as she began fighting a dozen villains at once and stopped Bakuda's grenades with extreme precision.
I set several insects to monitor the situation, used another part to help Aegis find the civilians, and the rest to focus on Oni Lee.
The fight broke out immediately.
Antares and I were fighting against Oni Lee, holding her in place. I was fast enough to keep up with Oni Lee; I could sense where she appeared, and she needed a few moments to safely activate her grenades—just enough time for me to catch up and attack her.
Several of my punches connected; I felt them strike her aura before she teleported halfway. Even so, my insects were still on top of her body, more and more of them joining her and quickly starting to bite her.
A swarm of insects began crawling onto her face and immediately moved towards her eyes, covering the holes in her mask and forcing them to close. Oni Lee, unable to see, was unable to teleport, since her quirk, as Armsmistress had mentioned, required her to be able to see.
Antares took advantage of that moment and struck Oni Lee in the chest, sending her flying backward. I lunged in her direction to try and finish her off, my insects still biting and irritating her face.
Oni Lee still stood up, drew one of her knives, and intercepted my attack even though she was blind. My eyes opened slightly. I moved my sword several times, and Oni Lee followed my movements with the same speed.
Antares intervened, descending forcefully and attempting to strike Oni Lee. I could see her knife and fist envelop in Armament Haki to receive the blow. To my surprise, Antares' fist collided with and crushed Oni Lee's fist, regardless of the latter's aura and Haki. I saw Oni Lee's fingers break, then her wrist and elbow, completely incapacitating her.
My eyes widened in disbelief. How strong was Antares to achieve something like that with her bare fists?!
I quickly snapped out of my daze and lunged at Oni Lee. Antares's attack had greatly reduced Oni Lee's aura, so I seized the opportunity to try and finish her off. I launched my attack—
My eyes opened as my vision suddenly changed. I could see that it had only happened to my insects; I had been teleported—no, someone had teleported me, or rather, I had been swapped with an unconscious person dozens of meters away from Oni Lee.
And there was only one person who remembered having that power. I gritted my teeth and prepared to warn Armsmistress and the others before I shuddered violently. My body reacted on its own and I began to move even before I saw the danger. My insects saw some kind of smoke behind me and I tried to move quickly.
"I've got you, bitch!" I felt something pierce my right shoulder, no, something had pierced through and fused with my bones and flesh. Moving my shoulder was too painful; I could feel everything protesting every time whatever was stuck in my shoulder moved even slightly.
I started sweating cold; I had seen the direction that shadow had tried to attack with my insects. If I hadn't moved, that knife would have pierced my heart without a doubt.
I grabbed Shusui with my left hand, spun around quickly, and turned as I tried to cut the enemy behind me, only for my sword to pass through a cloud of smoke, which reformed and I could see it.
Sophia Hess.
"Hey, bitch!" Sophia yelled with a deranged smile, grabbed a knife from her hip and tried to stab me with it, I just threw my head back away from her, turned my body around and kicked her side, only for Sophia to completely turn into smoke once again and my foot to miss her.
I almost clicked my tongue in annoyance; it was like fighting Mirio Togata all over again! Before Sophia could emerge from her smoke, I leaped back. Sophia returned to normal, glared at me mockingly, and walked away in Bakuda's direction. Trickster appeared beside her.
"It's about time you showed up, damn it!" Bakuda shouted at her two new teammates, who completely ignored her.
"Shadow Stalker—no, Sophia Hess, I see you've truly become a villain since joining The Travelers, the League of Villains," Armsmistress said, almost with contempt and disappointment. Sophia scoffed.
"Their offer was far better than yours," Sophia scoffed before breaking into a wide smile. " And they gave me something you could never have given me: real power." Sophia said with a deranged grin.
After a few moments, the ground began to shake, the ground cracked before breaking upwards, a huge living shadow emerged from the ground and shot out into the air, it was a huge mass of smoke or living shadows swirling, then it came down and hit the ABB truck where Bakuda had been.
The truck broke under the weight of the monstrosity that was the living shadow and revealed what looked like a… dragon skull? Or some similar monster, the skull was more than a meter long with several horns sticking out from the back, it was quite intimidating.
The shadow swirled around and seemed to grab or merge with her. The dragon skull began to move and was now the head of the living shadow. It crawled along the ground and headed close to Sophia Hess. She simply jumped into the air. The living shadow moved and positioned itself beneath Sophia, who landed on the skull and stood imposingly above us.
"Moord Nag... Sophia... what have you done?" Armsmistress said, her voice sounding for the first time, with some emotion, but she would have preferred her indifference, given how horrified she sounded now. Sophia Hess just smiled sadistically as the living shadow seemed to roar.
Author's Notes: Moord Nag! Sophia is here! I really had a lot of trouble thinking about what extra quirk I wanted to give Sophia, especially since I wanted something that would have good synergy with her original power, but after thinking about it I said… screw it, Sophia would choose something strong, and Moord Nag was the chosen one!
A/N: If you liked the story, join my patreon, patreon.com/Camellya_Addams, there are up to 10 chapters in advance, thank you. Or you can also visit my Ko-Fi, ko-fi.com/camellya_addams.