CHAPTER 18
There was only one patch of excitement, when the group turned a corner just after the world's unluckiest purse snatcher had made his move. The youth had taken the ill-gotten bag and was making for a parked motorbike, when he suddenly fell to his knees, vomit leaking from the visor of his motorcycle helmet.
Eyebite strolled over to the man, who had still not stopped vomiting when he reached him. His eyes were blazing a sickly green now, and he patted the poor asshole on the back before pulling his helmet off to look him in the eye. His own flashed a soft purple, and the thief fell into a puddle of his own sick, unconscious. He picked up the bag, wiped off a little stray vomit, and handed it back to the middle aged man it'd been snatched from.
"I always use a messenger bag myself," he said with a wink. "Bill, can I get a pick up on 8th and Grand? Got a purse snatcher. Make sure whoever ARMOR sends is wearing their gloves."
"On their way. Can I ask why you don't just do the sleep thing first?" Bill responded.
"Deterrence! Not like we still have prisons for dudes like this." Eyebite explaimed, standing guard over the unconcious youth. "But if you start to associate purse snatching with uncontrollable vomiting, you'll probably think twice."
"I'm almost 100% sure the psychology on that doesn't work out," Kennedy interjected, then shrugged. "But I guess it's better than shooting him."
"Especially with one of these!" Cait patted the sidearm at her hip. "Gwyn told me my head should've been mist after I took a round from this, probably couldn't even safely kneecap someone."
"Safely kneecap?" Kennedy's eyes boggled at Cait. "Safely KNEECAP?"
Her eyes glazed over for a second, then she punched a grinning Cait in the arm. "Oh fuck you, just cause I can read your emotions doesn't mean you can stop giving social cues when you're joking."
As the patrol team waited for pickup, chatting amiably, Nick noticed the first openly hostile looks he'd seen on their patrol, including the purse snatcher. That guy mostly just looked embarrassed. Nick tapped Pete on the shoulder, pointing at a group of men, most visibly Altered in some way, or glowing in his senses, staring at them.
TROUBLE?
"Ugh, less than you'd think," Pete said, throwing the group a mocking wave. Their leader, a big orange lad with some unfortunate facial horn growth, spit on the ground, leading the group away. "Those are Elevated Race idiots, you can tell by their cute little silver pins."
Pete looked sheepishly at Nick.
"Well, maybe you can't," he admitted. "Anyway, keep an eye out for those stylized up-arrow pins. Those guys are very much on the 'Altereds should be served instead of serve' side of things, and as such aren't big fans of Guardians."
He grinned wide, looking over the formidable squad he had with them.
"That said, most of them know Guardians are ready and able to beat ass at basically all times, so it almost never goes beyond those stare downs. Enforcers can cause problems sometimes, but Freeflow keeps their operations pretty heavily in check."
WHY WERE SOME HUMANS
WITH THEM
"Ain't no hate like self hate," volunteered Cait. "Strongest poison in the world. Except for most actual physical poisons, I guess."
"She's right," Kennedy agreed, "but she's forgetting the fear aspect. You guys haven't been Altered that long, you know how it feels to just be a regular person in this world. Some people can't handle the pressure, want to hand it all to someone who says they have everything figured out. The people that say that just never actually do."
"Hey! Cut the chatter for now, people," Pete ordered, snapping to grab everyone's attention. They were heading down the steps toward the riverbank. The water rushed along, dark enough that its depths remained a mystery to those above it. "No guarantee we'll see trouble here, but the next two miles are far and away the riskiest of the patrol."
The DSM riverwalk had, pre-wave, been the absolute best place to take a stroll in the metro. Des Moines was clean and safe for a city, and put a good amount of funds into public works like the Japanese garden that had adorned a portion of the bank. After the Waves though, water became a no go zone, and the area had fared far worse than the rest of the city.
Nick noticed that Cait still shot a teasing grin at Kennedy, probably taking things less seriously than she should, but after a pronounced eye roll the goth hero hardened up, clearly going into business mode.
Probably best to follow suit, Nick thought. He focused his senses, trying to sort through the myriad unfamiliar inputs for something amiss. The river reeked of moss and fish and a million other things Nick couldn't put a name to. His vibration sense didn't pick up anything specific either, but it was just as overwhelmed. He needed to talk to Director Swan, find out if they had a sensory specialist on staff to help him get better at sorting through all this. He focused on his Altered sense last. It didn't have a human equivalent, and it gave him a 'headache' to pull it to the forefront for significant periods of time.
It turned out to be the only sense useful here though. Deep under the surface of the water, he could make out feverish pink lights, racing up towards the banks. Hissing and gurgling in alarm, he pointed all his tentacles towards the bank. The rest of the group's heads swung round just as a carp the size of a lion leapt out of the water at Dawn. Two of the thing's four muscular legs reached out towards Dawn, eagle-like talons outstretched. Her eyes glowed, and she began to summon her staff, but perceiving the scene like it was happening in slow motion, Nick knew she wouldn't be fast enough.
The monster's lips peeled back unnaturally far, revealing a horrible set of teeth jutting out of its throat, poised for a venison feast. Moving fast, Nick lashed out a tentacle, wrapping Dawn's waist and pulling her out of the things reach harder than could have been comfortable. Its considerable bulk slammed down hard into the soft earth of the riverbank, and it didn't waste a second before it was sprinting towards them with the disconcerting gait of a komodo dragon. Dawn had her staff by then, and planted its base in the ground. Willow roots shot out of the ground in a long line, forming a barricade facing the river and skewering the charging Gigacarp. The Altered Beast thrashed wildly in its death throes, snapping the thick roots of Dawn's palisade like they were thin sticks. No sooner had its life ended then another sprung from the river to take its place. The splash and crash was deafening as one Gigacarp after another leapt from the flowing water to charge the root barrier.
Cait was there in an instant, filling holes in the wall, laying about with her warhammer and fists. Occasionally she'd get a lucky hit in and crack a skull, but it was the rest of the team doing most of the damage. Eyebite's eyes had turned an angry crimson, and Nick could see some of the Gigacarps' wide staring eyes take on the same red hue as they tore into their fellows. Dawn did what she could to keep her barrier up, roots exploding from the earth to fill holes and piece bodies. Kennedy must have linked to her, since small antlers had sprouted from her temples, and she worked her own form of nature magic, balls of rot hitting fish flesh and melting it away to sludge.
The true killer though, was Nick. His new body had come with new instincts, and they included inborn instructions for destruction. His powerful tentacles whipped out, filleting flesh like he was a sushi chef. Using Cait as a shield, he made her like a warrior goddess, myriad arms stabbing out from behind her back to skewer eyes and mouths, sometimes going straight through one monstrous fish and into another.
Despite the Gigacarps' massive numbers and overwhelming strength, the battle was a slaughter. Cait actually started to laugh, cracking jokes as she slammed a fist down a Carp's throat before pulling said throat with her on the way out.
"Anyone know if Gigacarp fries up nice?" She punctuated her question by crashing the pick side of her warhammer into a goggling fish eye, spraying herself with disgusting fluid. "Fuck! If they do, I hope they taste better than that!"
"Better, since the water cleared up. Replacing Industry with Altereds will do that." Eyebite responded. His fight was strange. He moved little, mostly just to make sure he was both behind and out of the way of the others. That said, his teeth were still clenched in effort and Nick was concerned about a pulsing vein in his temple. "We'll make sure we get a scav crew out here when we finish this."
The riverbank was quickly becoming an abattoir as the mutant fish charged the group of Guardians with the unreasoning rage ubiquitous to their species. The flow of bodies had slowed to a trickle, and the river ran red downstream of the fight. The fighters cleaned up the stragglers, Cait burying the head of her hammer into a carp Nick had skewered for the final blow.
"Whew!" Cait said, wiping her brow. Despite the playacting, Nick could tell she wasn't even winded. The rest of the group, himself included, looked at her in envy. Of the group, only Nick had taken any damage, and even then only to easily regenerated tentacles. The pain was exhausting though, not to mention the actual physical effort of sustained combat. The 10 minutes or so the fight had actually taken had felt like hours, as whatever passed for adrenalin in his new body coursed through him, speeding up his perceptions.
The rest of the group looked disheveled but healthy. Dawn's fur was matted with blood and whatever else was in a Gigacarp, and Eyebite's eye costume was more bloodshot than ever. Kennedy demonstrated the wisdom of wearing black, since besides her bun being considerably messier than when they had set out this morning, she looked almost untouched.
"You said it, Amaranthine!" Eyebite plopped down on his ass, visibly exhausted. He tapped his comm. "Hey Bill, took out a Gigacarp clutch. Got a lot of meat down here, send out a scav team?"
Nick didn't hear Bill's response over the comms. His vibration sense was completely overwhelmed by a subsonic roar from the river. He spun, seeing the same feverish pink glow as before rushing towards the surface. Specifically, towards where Cait was washing the muck of the fight off upstream. This time, whatever was making the glow was gigantic.
"Eyebite, these carp look strange." Dawn said at the same time Nick noticed the monstrous presence. "See how the skin is a little transparent? Almost like they are bab-"
Her final word was drowned out as an enormous form breached the water, maw gaping wide before it snapped shut on Cait's waist.