The entire slaughterhouse 9

"Oh," he said. "Who?"

"The Slaughterhouse Nine," I said. "I've killed all of them but Crawler, and he's trapped somewhere else. I wasn't able to procure the abilities of Mannequin or Bonesaw, or whoever their latest member was, and I killed Siberian and wasn't able to get that ability either, but I've got the powers of the others."

"Jack Slash, Shatterbird, Burnscar, and Hatchetface," he said. "Do you have any proof…"

I nullified his Tinker abilities.

He stared at what he was working on, and he frowned. He glanced up at me for a moment, and then he said, "Stop that. I find it to be unpleasant."

He'd still be able to use his inventions, but while he was in the nullifying field he wouldn't be able to come up with anything new, and he wouldn't be able to maintain the equipment he had. Hatchetface's ability hadn't really been a power at all; instead it was simply an agreement between parasites, in which it commanded other parasites to shut off powers while within a limited radius of him.

That wouldn't affect the evolved, and attacks from outside his range worked perfectly well.

***

Strategy