January, 2012

  A girl sobbed as a man in a white robe circled her, his eyes glowing gold. “Yes child, realize your sin for what it is. Cast off the yoke of your homosexuality, return to God’s flock.”

  The pair were inside one of two dozen log cabins deep within the West Virginia mountains, situated on a piece of land owned by the Southern Haven Congregation. On the surface, they were a loose alliance of churches that had sprung up in the wake of the Southern Baptist fracture. Capes were either seen as a gift from God or of the Devil. It wasn’t hard to figure out which side won that little debate once they started deploying Masters as evangelical leaders.

  “I have eyes on,” the Major said.

  Goldenrod was a low level Master that worked with Haven; he would use his power to condition people into believing that their homosexual feelings were abhorrent, a sin against God and root it deep. He was perfect for working their conversion camps, and he seemed to love his work. He was one of several targets set to be taken out in the next several minutes.

  “Steady, Major.” Jacob said. “Status of the Protectorate force?”

  “We’re deployed about two minutes out,” Chrissie answered. “You’ll have a hundred seconds or so before Demolition Dallon wrecks shit.”

  “Hey, I’m not that bad,” Victoria said with a huff. “How’d you clear it to allow Chrissie on this op? She’s an Undersider.”

  “I literally have Legend and Hero on speed dial,” Motoko said, rolling her eyes. “Besides, you picked Chrissie? You’re not going to comment that Bonesaw is here?” At the sound of Victoria’s groan, Motoko let it lie. “Now focus, everyone in place?”

  “Ready to deploy,” Riley said, her flesh looking no older than she had been the day they met thanks to Amy’s help. “I’ve been wanting to try this one for some time.”

  “Calm down, squirt,” Vivian said, cracking her knuckles. “We’ve all got new shit we want to test out here.”

  “Language,” Riley said. “You know my rule about swearing.”

  “Aren’t you in high school now?” Chrissie asked.

  “Almost. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s rude,” she said with a huff.

  “Jacob, you raised her to some high standards,” Motoko said. “Now cut the chatter, let’s do this. Quarrel, you’re up”

  Quarrel lined up her rifle, Goldenrod in her sights, and fired. The bullet tore through the space between them and ripped into the man’s torso, white robe quickly staining itself red with his blood. A static filled pulse washed over the room, and the girl jerked, clutching at her head.

  “Nullification round delivered,” the Major said. “Move!”

  She sprung into motion, her cloaking field settling over her like a familiar blanket. Motoko had come to love her job, despite some of the issues with it, but it was the best way she could make a difference in the world at large.

  She vaulted over the wooden fence, running forward at a pace no normal human could match and not a sound to show for it. People were emerging from the log cabins around her, to investigate the sound of the glass shattering and the power nullifying explosive no doubt. The Major brought her rifle up, targeting software going to work and she put rounds down range.

  She dropped two unpowered members and Quarrel dropped another three, her own power ensuring that each bullet wouldn’t miss. They had chanced into her in the middle of a Nine run three months prior when she took a shot at Melissa. She managed to teleport away before the bullet hit and the Major subdued the woman moments later.

  It was always dangerous when someone willingly took a shot at the Butcher, and Quarrel had done so. She had a rap sheet a mile long in Boston and New York, and came to Florida in the aftermath of Leviathan attacking Miami seeking to take the mantle. Motoko had dissuaded her of that plan, with some help from Amy, Riley and Taylor.

  She was already proving her worth to Motoko’s chosen style of running ops with how her power could bullshit space almost as well as Vista’s. The Slaughterhouse Nine still did their old song and dance, spreading chaos as a cover for more volatile hits, but now Motoko brought a second option to the field.

  Efficiency.

  The Major broke off, entering one of the buildings where the kids were housed. Most of them were down on the ground by their bunks, but one person had a kid held hostage, looking around frantically.

  “I know you’re there,” the woman screeched, pressing a gun to the kid’s head. “Show yourself devil spawn, face god’s judgment!”

  The young boy was sobbing, crying out for someone to save him while the woman holding him muttered some prayer of salvation.

  Motoko sent the woman to meet her God.

  Leaving behind the traumatized boy, she continued deeper into the compound, moving from building to building and clearing it of the fanatical counselors. She was cold and efficient, killing without flinching. An unfortunate side effect of her line of work.

  The camp managers rallied, five capes in total and half a dozen armed normals if her software was accurate. “Riley, deploy ordinance.”

  “Go my minions!” she answered with a cackle. “Hope everyone got their Panpan vaccination before the mission!”

  “Amy’s going to give you cancer for that,” Victoria groaned, the sound of the wind whipping up around her.

  “I hope so,” Riley said with certainty. “A whole new cancer to play with sounds awesome!”

  “Only you would get excited about cancer,” Sophia grumbled before phasing into a cabin.

  A dozen spiderbots flooded out of the woods and shrubs, a pale green smoke wafting off of them. The capes attempted to fight them off, but the smoke was fast acting, the viral load not limited to it in the slightest as each cape came down with a sudden brain hemorrhage, their Corona and Gemma being rejected violently by their own bodies.

  Most of Haven’s Masters were present and currently bleeding from their eyes on the ground. For all the time it took to arrange, to weed out their support in the government, it was over far too quickly. The organization itself would still be strong, but their recruitment capability was all but effectively neutered.

  “Confirm effectiveness of viral load,” the Major said, impressed at how quickly it disabled each of the capes. “Collect a sample, deploy the counter virus to be safe, then withdraw.”

  “Already on it, sis,” Riley said.

  She was about to join them when the ground rumbled. She turned, eyeing the massive cross that sat atop the hill overlooking the compound as it began to lean. The Major watched with dawning horror as the thing fell to the ground, then shifted, standing up on four legs and Jesus’ eyes glowed.

  “Tinker!” the Major shouted. “Squishies retreat, Dallon, double time!”

  “Did you just call me a squishy?” Sophia asked, clearly offended.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Retreat now, bitch later,” Vivian said.

  Someone had screwed the pooch on the intel, because there wasn’t supposed to be a Tinker on site, let alone one that made giant fucking Jesus transformers. Someone had to be fucking with her, she knew it.

  A golden figure arrived with the thunderclap of an avenging goddess, smashing into the Tinkertech mech with enough force to drive it into the earth. She rose, wearing golden armor and a hood. Antares.

  That was a good start, but Victoria alone wouldn’t be enough.

  “Major,” Jacob said. “This would make for the perfect field test for the children.”

  She paused. “Are you sure?”

  Jacob hummed. “I don’t see why not, and they are getting anxious to prove themselves.”

  “Fuck it. Tachikoma, deploy,” she said, dodging a chunk of debris. “Focus on distraction and diversion while we get the victims to safety.”

  “You got it, Major,” a high-pitched voice said as a blue and white arachnid styled mech decloaked. “We won’t let you down!”

  “See that you don’t, Tachikoma!” she said and moved back towards the cabins.

  Eight more matching mechs decloaked across the battlefield and sprung into motion, autocannons built into their arms tearing into the armor of the Tinker made mech. Each moved as one, covering for one another and coordinating attacks with an efficiency only Taylor could match when she tested the Tachikoma platforms before handing them over to the AIs.

  The Tachikoma collective had grown by leaps and bounds since their integration, and were more than capable in their simulated trials, but she was still nervous about deploying them into a combat situation. They had been deployed to the field four times now, mostly assisting with search and rescue or cleanup until now. Now she would see how they managed with a target to bring down.

  She needed to apologize to Melissa if this was how her mentor felt that first night she went out as a cape, because it was nerve-racking to watch those under your care rush into danger. She would have to talk to Taylor about getting Melissa a card or something, maybe Arwen and Kimmie as well.

  The Major rushed into the cabin, several children still in a state of shock over the dead Master laying there as she began to usher the victims away. Undoing the damage would take time if Bakuda’s ordinance wasn’t approved for use as an anti-master countermeasure on a larger scale.

  The Major wasted little time securing the Master victims within the cabin, most still freaking out over the dead body she had left behind during her earlier sweep. That wasn’t her job to deal with, they had councilors on standby for that.

  “Everyone out!” she shouted, then one of the windows shattered. “Antares, Tachikoma, keep that thing away from the cabins until the civilians are clear.”

  “Trying,” the Tachikoma said. “Permission to go lethal against the pilot?”

  “Granted,” Motoko said. “ETA on the rest of the Protectorate?”

  “Twenty seconds,” Chrissie said. “Where do you want me?”

  Motoko knew she didn’t have enough information to make that call, not as focused as she was on the search and rescue side. “Taylor, Lisa, suggestions?”

  Taylor’s avatar appeared in her vision as she took in the battlefield feed, each Tachikoma contributing to a real time 3D render of the chaos as well as markers for each friendly and hostile. It took her all of a second to start barking orders.

  “Containment, keep that thing hemmed in, have the rest of the team join the Major in securing the civilians.” Motoko knew Taylor was tailoring her directives to each member, only sending relevant orders to each person. It was one of her more frightening changes since the Rig. Taylor had more in common with the Tachikoma than she did with most people.

  Motoko knew she was the last member of Section Nine on the field, and her armor was close enough to PRT issue to hide her identity as long as her helmet stayed on, so she should be okay to remain. It was the only reason she wasn’t given a withdrawal order.

  “You got it, boss,” Chrissie answered.

  Seconds later, shimmering mirrors sprung up in the air around the mech, swirling about as Vex landed, her costume set in Undersiders black and yellow. Chrissie really was loving the Tinkertech jump pack that she had bought from Chris’s Toybox catalog.

  Legend himself authorized her deployment, signing a temporary amnesty for her for the duration of the mission and her return home. She had been a victim of this group, Haven drove her to trigger, she deserved a pound of their flesh.

  That it would be good publicity for encouraging cooperation between smaller villain groups and the Protectorate against the true monsters of the world was a secondary concern for Chrissie, but the PR win would be huge. Taylor hadn’t been concerned much with the PRT getting a chance to look good, but every little bit helped make up for what had been allowed to happen in Brockton Bay.

  Two capes entered the room that she recognized from Brockton’s Protectorate. Flechette, in purple and white and armed with an arbalest. The other was Vista in her new green camo and combat gear modeled after Miss Militia’s. They knew who she was, most of the capes in Brockton were read in after Chris made his inquiries and the new roster was settled. It gave them a group that could be deployed in support that wouldn’t lose their shit if they saw a member of the Nine.

  “Vista, open us a tunnel for the civilians,” Motoko said. “Flechette, see if you can assist Antares in bringing that bastard down.”

  “Your little murder bots are moving too quickly,” Flechette said, watching the Tachikoma move like lightning across the battlefield, never sitting still, choosing their shots with admirable precision.

  The Major held back a biting remark, because Lily was one of Taylor’s friends from her AP classes and it wouldn’t do for her to start a fight that might spill over into their civilian lives. Motoko wasn’t happy that Taylor insisted on having her read in on the Nine, but it still beat Taylor’s entire friend group having to keep that secret from her.

  “Fine, cover them then,” she said, pointing at the scared teens. “I’ll move to the next house.”

  Then her entire team staggered, blacking out for just an instant. Motoko already knew their biological memory had been tampered with. She had encountered this before, and those sporting cyberware should have recorded whatever they had seen. One of Riley’s ideas in her quest to understand what she referred to as Passengers.

  “Confirmed Trigger Event,” Jacob said. “Be alert, it was likely one of the civilians.”

  On a hunch, Motoko entered the cabin where Goldenrod was killed and found their new Parahuman. The girl was gasping for air, in the midst of a full panic attack. Worse, a dozen small creatures had risen from nothing and more were joining them. Not even a foot tall, looking like some fairytale creatures holding little spears and other makeshift weapons.

  “Master, projection classification,” Jacob said. “Attempt to talk her down, but be prepared to incapacitate and foam if necessary.”

  “I am not the person for this and you know it,” Motoko said privately. “I can’t take my helmet off to reassure her.”

  “Sorry,” Jacob said. “You’re the only one on site trained for dealing with a potentially hostile fresh trigger.”

  “Hey,” she said softly, keeping her curses to the comms. “It’s alright, the heroes are here to help you.”

  “You’re late,” she wailed, her minions all assembling in formation around the girl.

  Motoko didn’t flinch, despite the fact those minions would likely overwhelm her in short order if it came to a fight. She sat patiently, waiting for the girl to settle down. Her minions were shifting slightly, watching and waiting for an order to strike.

  “Yeah, heroes tend to be like that unfortunately,” she said, sitting back despite the battle continuing outside. “I’ve found villains to be more likely to step in when someone needs help.”

  “You’re not a very good hero, are you?” she asked.

  “Nope,” Motoko agreed. “I’m a villain, have been for quite a while. The thing about villains though? We don’t have petty rules that require someone to be taken alive, or to play nice with the true monsters. It’s why when something needs to be done, I’m called in.”

  Outside, the Tachikoma were coordinating their tethers, the mech tied down with eight strings as the ninth fired a cannon at the weakened knee joint. The limb crumpled and Vicky wasted little time taking advantage, landing on what we assumed to be the control unit and began to rip the metal away. Moments later she held up yet another person dressed in the gaudy robes. The PRT had their prisoner for blaming the shitshow on at least.

  “Who are you?” the girl asked, looking up.

  “I’m just a ghost,” the Major answered. “You okay to stand? I need to get you to safety.”

  She looked at her minions as they began to fade away into motes of light. The Major stood, her hand offered in support and the girl accepted it. Stepping outside, the fighting was done and the Tachikoma were securing the scene. Victoria came down at the sight of her, but the girl shied away.

  “Hey, it’s alright,” the Major said. “She’s a friend, you’ll be safe with her.”

  “You promise?” the girl asked.

  “I swear it,” she answered. “If not, I’ll kick her ass myself.”

  Victoria rolled her eyes and set her feet on the ground as the girl hesitantly stepped over to her. The two started talking, Vic’s skill with children was on full display and Motoko found herself smiling. The Major took the opportunity to cloak and faded into the background, her part in the job complete.