Monster: 2.10B

[06:35] <@Xale> roll 1d100+20      Challenge: 75 Bakuda
[06:35] <+qqbot> Xale rolled 1d100: 77 = [57] + 20
[06:36] <@Xale> roll 1d100      Challenge: 65 Shadowstalker
[06:36] <+qqbot> Xale rolled 1d100: 18 = [18]
 [06:36] <@Xale> roll 1d100      Challenge: 85 Dauntless
[06:36] <+qqbot> Xale rolled 1d100: 70 = [70]

“Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.”

You whispered to yourself, lips dry beneath your mask, body hot beneath your powered armour, musculature flexing as puffs of steamy exhalation roiled out from the collected bodies. Shakespeare had never been a great excitement for the most part, but the words sometimes just fit, and you always did like how vulgar it could be while being praised to the high heavens by people who’d never care for such vulgarities otherwise. Just like the ‘mask’ of Panacea you often wore... clean and white, despite the stains of blood and shit and every humor of the body, every fluid which would find itself splashed across your hands as you worked on those in critical need. They’d come to you with their guts hanging out, with their eyes gouged, limbs crushed, oozing vital fluids and crying like the devil was on their back.

How it haunted you, and hounded you as you tried not to be the monster you always knew you were. Haunted and hounded you to hold back, to not do that one more thing, that thing you wanted to, to not shape their flesh and change them just because they were there, just because they could be… yours.

Yet here you were.

Readying yourself to spring into action, to enslave and conquer.

You couldn’t say what broke inside, you found more and more that you couldn’t give a flying fuck. Your rules had shattered and now the creeping visage of Amelia, the horror child, was quickly overtaking the ‘Panacea’ mask. If not for Victoria you’d have probably have already let it all go. A smile drew out, cold pit in your belly against those lips as you thought of Carol forced to submit, changed and yours.

Your mind was fucking bouncing all over the place...

“We’re in place and ready… Apollo.” The crude centaur you’d constructed spoke. Grue shifting uncomfortably behind you. You nodded and climbed down, engaging your ripple skin as you did.

“Good.” You stretched your gauntlet claws, extending the vorpal blades at their tips, powerful yet fragile weaponry. You could feel the weight of the extra biomass you’d decided to carry into battle for this fight settled upon your back, heavy like your sins, your robe covered it all the same. “Alright, let’s this over with. Surround and attack.”

Your forces obeyed as you stalked your way towards whatever it was that Bakuda had been doing yourself under stealth. Waiting for the moment that Grue and Bitch were properly in position to begin spreading the Darkness though the area for cover.

“You’ll need to do this quickly Mistress.” Taylor buzzed in your ear through the encounter suit. “Oni-Lee isn’t extremely close, but close enough that if we take too long he’ll show up and this could turn even more complicated quickly.”

You nodded at that.

This entire situation could easily get out of hand if you were slow to the draw here, and you were getting antsy waiting for the moment which would signal its start. And then it happened.

The darkness came.

Black and billowing the cloud of darkness roiled its way across the area, blanketing your senses and muting your world. Even prepared for it you couldn’t help the uneasy feeling of isolation which it bought. A chilling sense of horror, which ran along the back of your neck, chilling your spine. Grue’s power tapped right away into a truly primal fear.

Lost and alone in the dark.

“Not alone.” Taylor spoke from within the suit, the vitals of it monitored by her from afar, reading you like a book laid bare. “Never alone with me.”

You shook your head. No, not at all alone. You allowed Taylor to take over the motor functions of the suit, concentrating instead on laying out thin tendrils of biomass from your extra stash, to illuminate the area to your thrall’s senses. It was apparently working pretty well, it seemed that whatever the Bug Bomb’s did it didn’t affect anything which wasn’t an actual insect.

Good, you could keep the darkness edge.

A primal howl loosed within the muffling fog of black, sounding far more distant that it actually was, you could tell from the feedback which Taylor was sending, if you paid attention you could even figure out how close Bitch and Grue were. It helped that the sense of hearing in the suit was amped up greatly.

Your prey was close...

“Mistress… Shadowstalker seems to be withdrawing from the area.” Taylor announced even she guided your steps. “She doesn’t seem to want to deal with the Darkness.”

You remembered briefly being told of the ongoing feud between Grue and the dark Heroine, their powers both an intense frustration to the other. Shadowstalker, you’d actually thought would have come looking for the villain you’d claimed and changed. Likely though tonight was different. She hadn’t approached with the Dauntless, and considering the things you’d heard about the girl, you couldn’t help but think that maybe this was an unauthorized excursion into the night. In which case, tangling with a villain of a known quality who could frustrate her own powers...

You frowned slightly. You’d liked the idea of bagging her, even if it had just been a passing fancy.

Still, you had more important and immediate matters to attend.

Bakuda and her crew were coming, stumbling through the ‘wires’ which you set in the darkness, the four men with her stumbling about and leading her onward, frightened muttering exchanging between them even as the stumbled out from whatever her task had been.

You were close enough to catch bits of their utterances.

“Fuck.” A mechanical voice sounded, faded what was almost a faded whisper. “… fucking hell… Drone bitch… … .. .. .. Should have known …nsect freaks wou…e batting for the same team. Dammed Undersiders… the fucking best timing. Get moving you idiots, keep fucking formation. This shit’s unstable and all your families get to go with it if it goes up.”

The final bit was shouted for all to hear... likely just as much for her attackers as her own men.

Hostages all round.

You snarled and sneered at the though, pulling back control of your suit from Taylor for just a moment to vent upon the stone which laid before you. The same anger you’d felt in the bank at the general injustice, the same hypocritical impulse which you understood all too well was a sense of ‘justice’ misplaced in the wake of what you’d become.

And yet still you could not help but hate her for it... could not help but desire the fear which was coming to that bitch, the terror, the pain, and the despair which you’d sow.

“Empower.” You spoke, your words carried by Taylor to all of your minions.

All around the howling began anew, as even your suit began to swell and bulk beneath the robe of skin which you wore, becoming a vicious outer armour layered over your already demonic armour. The same was happening to the rest of your forces nearby, Bitch and her Jaegers becoming monstrous tanks of hellish might, guided by Taylor who was in turn wired into the senses of Grue.

The first attack was swift, brutal and coordinated, as one hound the size of a small bus barreled in, it’s sleek yet utterly alien form unfathomable in the dark.

One scream echoed and was lost within the muffling night, only to be followed by what could only be described as a massive wave of pressure, a strange burst of which blasted back all of your people and revealed them all the same, with a massive outward swirling vortex.

“HAH! It worked.” The mechanical voice barked, as the Darkness rolled back enough that light was restored to the area. The lithe bomber turned towards your thralls, now revealed in the light of the moon. Only to pale in a sudden realization. Some thing was not right. These were not the foes which she’d expected to face. “The fuck is this freak show.”

Her men were visibly spooked to find themselves surrounded by the huge, now ‘alien’ figures of Bitch still ridden by Grue, and her massive children, one of whom had one of their people pinned beneath its huge paw, his arms and legs broken and smashed as he whimpered on the ground, protesting his innocence with every heaving breath.

There were no words to come from them, as you walked closer, ripple skin keeping you presence consealed as you tried to get close enough to end this with a touch.

“Fuck this shit… New orders boys. Get me out of this right now and I won’t set off my triggers… or my deadman’s switch. Your families will be safe and they’ll even get to stay that way.” She switched gears quickly, almost insultingly so, no fear, as she turned and tossed something small towards the Yaeger who was blocking up an alleyway out.

The sound was deafening as the small bomb detonated with an ungodly sound, ripping shards of generated crystal though it’s thick hide and nailing it to the wall as she made a dash for it, her men closing behind to cover her retreat.

The Darkness was starting to return as the effects of the air pressure bomb seemed to finally begin to die down.

And yet the men fought, throwing their bodies a your minions, with the desperation of the dying, tinker tech bombs strapped to their fists and feet, exploding outward in the direction they attacked without recoiling the rest of their bodies, as the lashed out wildly to fend off your beasts.

You followed without hesitation, still invisible and slipping though the enemy line to chase down your prey. Just as Grue was breaking off to do.

And you definitely meant breaking off, as he tore away the connecting skin which had held him in place, fused to Bitch by the thighs. Painfully he ripped free, then began to run after the fleeing Parahuman.

“What the fuck are you…” A new voice joined the chorus, at his feet, ABB gang members laid, power coursing though his shining golden armour and thunderbolt spear, the brilliant shield upon his arm flickering with force. Grue snarled, but did not answer.

Fuck this was going to get out of hand, any moment now if you didn’t manage to do something.

The villain detoured, trying to circumvent both hero and your forces.

Your hand reached out.

And from above the building Bitch and the Jaegers pounced down, only to be met by force, blue and crackling as they slammed hard against Dauntless’ glowing force field. The fight with him was joined and you would stay out of it at least until Bakuda was in your grasp, catching only glimpses of it as the almost Spartan designed armoured figure danced about, stabbing, dodging, and blocking the bestial assault.

Bakuda on the other hand had stopped for a moment, still clutching whatever it was that she’d come for, at least still clutching it for the moment as she stared down and snarled. “No… no… fuck it. Too much jostling. Fucking…”

She turned towards the melee and threw the item as hard as she could turning to run in the opposite direction.

The blast which resulted was inspired.

The side of one building reduced to rubble as four of your Jaeger’s outright died in the impact and shrapnel. Bakuda herself laid upon the ground, groaning as she was impaled with a piece of metal flung from the explosion, bleeding and prone on the ground.

Yours.

You sent the order to retreat, and to scatter. The protectorate would know about them... look to search for an classify them. Drone at least would help in keeping them from being directly discovered. And in the meantime you would claim your prize.

You picked her up from the bloody mess which she'd made on the floor, mending her wounds but leaving the pain intact as you woke her to her new nightmare.