55

Exsanguination 2

With the Slaughterhouse Nine attacking two, maybe three cities at once, this was no longer the time to keep my abilities secret. We needed every advantage we could get and I needed the rest of the team on board, and I didn't want to waste time doubting my information or explaining how I knew it.

"I have a few things to confess," I said.

"Hey, we're not dead yet," Shielder said. "No need tell me about your crush just yet, thanks."

I wanted to smack him, but there was too much at stake to joke around right now. "You all know that I'm able to use my bots for more than just medical procedures, but I just stick to that for my cape identity," I started. I glanced at Glory Girl and Panacea for a little bit of reassurance. Glory Girl gave me a small smile and nod, which was enough for me to continue. "I have the ability to sort of… see, feel, and hear through my bots. I've been keeping watch over the city as best I can."

"Wait, as in you can see Brockton Bay right now?" Lady Photon asked.

"Patches of it. Most of my bots are buried underground, swept out to sea, or inside people's bodies trying to save their lives, but yeah. I still need to build the numbers back up. But I had enough on the surface to see Jack Slash and the Siberian in Brockton. And I think Bonesaw is in Concord."

"You've been able to do this the entire time?" Brandish asked.

"Yes… and I've also been able to use them to create a kind of body armour. I've been reinforcing all your costumes since the Leviathan fight," I said, trying to deflect a bit.

"Is that why they've been feeling a bit stiffer?" Laserdream said, pinching a bit of the cloth covering her chest. "I thought it was getting crusty from all that saltwater and crap."

"Wait, if you can still see Brockton from here, what the heck is your range?" Shielder asked.

"I've got most of the state covered, along with bits of Maine and Massachusetts. I've been working on expanding it, but it's very rough coverage so far."

"You talk about it like a cell phone signal," he replied. "Three states so far? You could probably get a Master rating just for the amount of power envy you make other capes feel."

"Either way, I think the real question is, what do you see now? Where are the Nine?"

"Shatterbird's flying towards Manchester. Bonesaw's probably in Concord even though I can't see her properly. I think Mr. Dallon and my dad are in trouble. I saw Jack Slash and Siberian in Brockton, but the rest I don't know for sure. I haven't actually seen them. Jack's recruiting some kind of huge monster cape in Brockton, though."

"Crawler?"

"No, it's not Crawler. It's some cape that was with the Travelers. It's… joining them. They're joining them."

"I think we should go to Concord. Our job is to save lives, and we need to check up on Mark and Danny," Brandish said. "It's not our job to take on the Nine. Regrouping is the key."

"I think they may have snuck in via the supply trucks. I'm trying to investigate each one right now with my bots," I told them. "A lot of Protectorate capes and Wards are being evacuated towards Concord too, but I think their truck broke down when Shatterbird passed over."

"Let's meet up with them, then, and then travel together. There's safety in numbers. Which way?"

We were only halfway to the location when I had an update for team. "Guys, it looks like some of the Nine found the Wards first," I said.

Their armoured truck had broken down on the highway just like everyone else's regular vehicle. Not only had their bulletproof windows still shattered, the tiny, critical engine control computer was broken as well, rendering the whole vehicle little more than a massive steel brick. Their radios were likewise broken, so they couldn't radio for help. Their driver had died from the glass shards, but the rest who were sitting in the back had survived. They had gotten out and managed to figure out what happened, and were helping other civilians who had crashed their cars along the highway as well. However, they only had a few basic first-aid kits, and getting people out of their cars was the best they could do.

There were two Slaughterhouse members heading towards them on the highway. They were driving an old pickup truck with some very quick modifications. For one thing, the driver's head was sticking out through the top of the roof. It was Mannequin, the robot-like Tinker that was easy to identify. His passenger I didn't really know for sure. But the back of the pickup had some strange, crude-looking devices. It looked like they were made from piles of car parts and junk, like tires and gears and springs. Mannequin was reaching out back with his extended arm and tossing them out along the road as he drove.

The devices simply clattered to the ground. If I had to guess, they were most likely some kind of deadly traps. But nobody was following behind them, so I decided to deal with them later. I needed more bots in front of them.

The wheels of the pickup had been modified too, some kind of quick welding job that let it drive through all the broken glass on the road without slowing down at all. The front end of the vehicle was reinforced with spikes as well, and already covered in blood. Mannequin was deliberately trying to run down people who were trying to walk to safety.

My bots along the highway were spread too thin to form Abyssal quickly enough to stop him. There was so little crime that normally happened in the area I only just barely had enough bots to keep watch over things, and certainly not enough to catch up with a speeding truck.

I could only shout a warning to the heroes, because I presumed they would be a prime target for the two serial killers.

"Mannequin incoming." My bots shouted the warning to the capes.

There was a bit of confusion among them at first, and a bit of panic when they realized what it meant.

"Was that voice Abyssal?" Gallant asked nervously.

"Yes," I confirmed for them.

"Guys? I think I see them," Kid Win told them, looking through his binoculars. "I definitely see Mannequin, but there's someone else with him too, it's hard to make out."

"Retreat to the trucks. I'll try to stop them," Miss Militia said. Her power instantly formed a massive sniper rifle. "Wards, go back and help the civilians retreat. Don't look back. Velocity, Lieutenant Ellis, Captain James and I will form a perimeter hold them back."

The Wards murmured to each other and didn't leave. "There's no way you guys alone can take them on," Gallant said. "With all due respect, we have a better chance if we stick together."

"This isn't the time," Miss Militia said. "My job is to keep you alive. Go. That's an order."

"That's an order I can't follow," Gallant said, his voice cracking. Even though his face was completely covered, I could tell he was fighting back tears. "I'm not leaving you to die, Miss Militia. I can't live with that on my conscience."

"Me too," Vista said. "I'm staying."

"We're wasting time arguing. I'll try to go ahead and distract them," Velocity said. "Buy you guys more time to set up, maybe flank them."

"Take this," one of the PRT agents said, handing him a pistol. "They all got Kill Orders. Don't hesitate."

Velocity nodded, then took off in his Breaker state, zooming between cars towards the killers. Everyone else took their positions. Clockblocker slapped his hand across a few vehicles, then ran back. Everyone else backed up and kept their weapons pointed at the gaps between the time-frozen cars. Miss Militia climbed on top of a truck and laid prone with her rifle.

She didn't waste any time. Shot after shot rang out, one massive high-powered bullet flying down the highway each second. Somehow, Mannequin managed to swerve the vehicle to mostly dodge each shot. Some kind of enhanced senses and reflexes, perhaps? The shots either missed completely or seemed to mostly hit non-critical parts of the car, but it was at least slowing their advance.

Miss Militia didn't let up, but they were closing the distance quickly.

The high-caliber bullets were so loud, we could hear them even at the distance we were coming from. I didn't need to tell the team which direction the fight was happening. "That's Miss Militia," I told them. "Mannequin is probably going to reach them in less than a minute, and her bullets aren't really stopping him!"

"Stay in the air," Lady Photon said. "Stay at a safe distance. GG, Manpower, your job is to evacuate the wounded and keep Panacea and Eunoia safe. Brandish, Shielder, you back up the Wards and provide extra defense."

The plan was simple enough and made enough sense.

"I'm reinforcing your costumes to be knife-proof, but I don't know how well they'd stand up against whatever Mannequin and the other guy has."

"Play it cautious, everyone. These are trained killers who have probably killed a hundred heroes each. No stupid solo acts," Brandish said, directing it more at Glory Girl than anyone else. "We move together as a team."

The entire team flew or ran towards the fight, but we basically had to travel at the speed of the slowest member. Technically that would have been Panacea and me, but with Glory Girl carrying us, that meant we had to fly at the speed of Shielder. It still took a few minutes to actually reach the heroes trying to hold out against the killers.

When we got there, it was an all-out battle already. Miss Militia had managed to finally score a disabling shot on the car, wrecking its engine. But that didn't manage to stop them. They had just hacked their way out of the crashed vehicle and continued their advance.

Velocity had been completely ineffective with his handgun, but at the very least he managed to run back and inform them what they were up against.

Mannequin was an extremely competent Tinker in a nigh-indestructible body, nine feet tall and armoured like a tank. More than a tank, given how Miss Militia's bullets were just pinging off the armour. Even normal tanks would get a few scratches and dents. His movement was erratic and inhuman, making him even harder to predict and aim at. He was being more strategic about his advance. He took cover behind vehicles and moved in bursts between cover. His body was far more flexible than any human could be; he was able to crawl along the ground like a lizard, yet was powerful enough to lift and throw entire vehicles from below.

The passenger was Hatchet Face. He had the ability to nullify parahuman abilities. I wasn't sure exactly how the nullification worked, but I knew it had a certain range. I would guess that it nullified the person instead of the effect, since Miss Militia's power-generated bullets were still hitting him. Still, that meant that Vicky and Manpower would have no chance against him, and the flying members of our team could simply drop out of the sky if we came too close.

There had still been more civilians on the roads, many of whom were being hunted down for fun by Hatchet Face. Although he was known to have a grudge against heroic capes in general, he seemed to enjoy random killing just as much. That forced Miss Militia to concentrate her fire on him, which allowed Mannequin to advance uncontested towards the makeshift barricade the Wards had set up. Whether their defenses would hold, even against just these two capes, was still in question.

Not that the Protectorate and Wards team had much of a better chance against him, either. None of them had weapons on the same caliber that Miss Militia could summon up. They had limited amounts of containment foam too. The capes had only been travelling to relocate to a new base, not transporting prisoners or attempting an arrest. What they had on them was only what the PRT troopers normally carried as part of their everyday kit.

"Vista, give me some distance!" Miss Militia yelled.

The two Slaughterhouse members suddenly got propelled back approximately a quarter-mile. Vista had managed to catch them both while they were moving between cover, so the extra quarter mile of space was completely open. Miss Militia changed her weapon out for an even larger gun, some kind of anti-tank gun or something, and managed to fire two well-placed shots in a row.

Even with that massively powerful weapon, it didn't manage to kill either of them. Mannequin was to be expected with his advanced alloy armour, but scarily enough, even that gun hadn't taken down Hatchet Face. He had a few holes inside of his body, but they didn't slow him down and were already visibly regenerating. He was known to be a Brute before joining the Nine, and Bonesaw was known to have modified members to be even tougher.

There was enough momentum in the rounds to send them flying backwards, at least. Vista had also compressed the distances behind them, so when they landed, they ended up an actual quarter-mile away when space bounced back to normal. It bought them precious time, enough for us to arrive.

"New Wave incoming," I announced using Abyssal's voice. It had bought me enough time to gather bots from the surrounding area to form one copy of him.

"Thank goodness, reinforcements!"

"We're trying to evacuate the civilians," Velocity shouted at us. "We need to hold the line while they move! It's still four more miles to Manchester and we've got injured!"

"Eunoia, Panacea, you know what to do. Manpower, Brandish, Glory Girl, you're helping with evac. Shielder, you hold the line with the Wards. Laserdream and I will stay a hundred yards in the air, no lower, and bombard them," Lady Photon said. "We might be outnumbering them by a lot, but don't get cocky."

We got to our jobs. Vista and Miss Militia looked like they had a system going now to keep the killers at bay, increasing the distance as they needed to advance while pushing them back by hitting them with a massive gun.

Unfortunately, I was having trouble providing support. Hatchet Face was disrupting the control of my bots, and whenever he walked near one of my spare brains, my control over the area would collapse. In this unpopulated area, my brains had been stretched thin so that I could spread my coverage faster. What's more was that Mannequin was sticking close to Hatchet Face, so I couldn't do much to him, either. At least, when they moved, my control over my bots came back. So for now, I relegated most of my bots to supporting the heroes defensively, and possibly using Abyssal as a distraction.

With Lady Photon and Laserdream flying overhead now, they bombarded the two killers with their photon blasts. Unfortunately, neither of them were more damaging than Miss Militia's anti-tank rifle. Mannequin took to literally picking up entire cars to hold as shields while Hatchet Face just took the hits and laughed like a maniac.

Suddenly, all weird devices that Mannequin had thrown out along the highway activated and started moving. I thought they were just laying down a minefield to prevent people from chasing them, so I put them on lower priority as I gathered my bots to help save the heroes. Unfortunately, these were clearly far more than just some makeshift bombs. Legs unfolded from them and they started skittering forwards like very fast crabs. Some of them stopped under the broken-down cars, and they were siphoning the gas from their tanks.

"Danger. Robots." Abyssal pointed in the general direction to get peoples' attention.

Laserdream and Lady Photon got the message as well and noticed the movement. They started to use their lasers to bombard the entire highway, but the robots, much like Mannequin, crawled under the cars for cover and moved erratically.

Some of them managed to get past. Miss Militia now changed her weapon to an assault rifle, which she used to fire more quickly and accurately at large number of robots. Kid Win and Gallant were firing their blaster guns, as well, which did manage to pack a punch but didn't have the penetrating power of bullets. Vista was still trying to buy more time for them by increasing the distance again, but with so many targets, they couldn't do the trick from before to the same effect. Nor could she constantly stretch space, because that would throw off everybody's aim.

Abyssal rushed forwards to take care of the bots that they missed. "Shoot through me," I informed them as he ran past the barricade. Miss Militia hesitated for a second, and concentrated her fire away from Abyssal, probably on instinct. But after seeing a few bullets pass harmlessly through him, she stopped hesitating and really opened up at every possible target.

I wasn't really using Abyssal for brute strength or size, anyway. My bots were cutting through central components of Mannequin's robots to disable them. It was a little better than the robots that exploded under Miss Militia's firepower. The combination of burning rubber, plastic, and gasoline inside formed thick plumes of black smoke.

They soon realized the problem when the wreckage effectively started forming a smokescreen for the killers. It provided them more cover, and even closer than they had gotten ever before. Even up in the air, Lady Photon and Laserdream were wincing at the smoke in their eyes and coughing, having to fly upwind to get away from it all.

And the wind was blowing the smoke towards the heroes.

Through the clouds, I could feel the loss of control of my bots. Hatchet Face was running forwards, and Mannequin was probably very close behind.

"Fall back. Fall back! Clockblocker, freeze the truck and run! Vista, fast retreat!"

But before anyone could actually get going, Hatchet Face came sailing through the air. He slammed into the truck and bounced off, hitting the ground hard, but practically landed in the middle of the group of capes. I think Mannequin must have thrown him at the heroes.

Velocity had already been in motion when Hatchet Face came flying out of the smoke. He had grabbed Clockblocker, who was the closest to Hatchet Face's landing zone, and started moving. But as fast as his power was, he wasn't fast enough. Right when Hatchet Face landed, his Breaker state ended, and he was suddenly moving very slowly, as you would expect from someone carrying another person.

"HAHAHA. HIII EVERYBODY!" Hatchet Face shouted gleefully as he buried his namesake hatchet in the middle of Velocity's back. The hero fell to the ground, his dripping blood staining Clockblocker's costume to nearly match his own.

Everyone else screamed in panic and backed away. Gallant backed up and raised his arms, but his signature blasts didn't come. Miss Militia was grasping repeatedly at her right hip but coming up with nothing. Shielder had fallen to the ground from his hovering position and was scrambling away as well. Vista was thankfully further away and managed to start running, while Kid Win's Tinkertech still worked and he flew upwards with his hoverboard, while shooting with his blaster guns.

It was the PRT troops that responded the best. With the limited amount of containment foam, they managed to spray what little they had at Hatchet Face, sticking most of it onto the killer's legs. Through sheer brute force, however, Hatchet Face continued forward, ripping some of the foam off the ground before enough of it could stick him completely. He managed to take a few more steps to reach Clockblocker, who had only just managed to crawl out from under Velocity's corpse.

Gallant managed to get behind Clockblocker and yank him out of the way. His Tinkertech armour gave him enough strength to probably dislocate Clockblocker's shoulder, but it sent him skidding to a safe distance.

Gallant himself was not so lucky. Hatchet Face caught him in the leg, even as his own legs were rapidly being glued together with the expanding containment foam. He didn't seem to care as he pulled Gallant towards him to finish the job.

The knightly Ward tried to wrestle for his life, holding back Hatchet Face's arms. Even the power armour he was wearing could only just barely match Hatchet Face's raw strength. The killer only continued to laugh, then smashed his own scarred face into Gallant's helmet. Gallant, stunned, faltered a little. Hatchet Face did it again and again, as if he didn't even care about his hatchet any more, and was having more fun caving Gallant's helmet in.

The PRT agents couldn't do anything but throw the last of their remaining containment foam at Hatchet Face. The psycho seemed perfectly happy having caught a Ward, and as the foam finally trapped him, he continued smashing in Gallant's head until it was clear the boy couldn't possibly have survived.

Meanwhile, the rest of New Wave was trying to help the heroes retreat while staying out of range of Hatchet Face's nullifier power. Kid Win lagged behind as he had been trying in futility to save Gallant. Out of the smoke, suddenly a long, hooked chain snared Kid Win straight out of the air, yanking him off his hoverboard and dragging him into the smoke and flames.

With Hatchet Face trapped, the heroes finally managed to retreat far enough that their powers came back to them. Miss Militia instantly formed another rifle, pointing it at where Hatchet Face was trapped. She looked down the scope but didn't fire, only confirming that Gallant was truly dead.

Panacea and I, along with all the civilians we were with, could hear the screaming. Glory Girl left us with Manpower and Brandish to check on the heroes, despite Brandish's protests.

Glory Girl arrived at Miss Militia's side in seconds. "What's going on?"

"They got Velocity and Gallant," Miss Militia said, her voice hollow. She looked around at who else was with her. "Where's Kid Win? Oh no… don't tell me they got him, too!"

"Wait… Gallant? How… what…?" Glory Girl followed Miss Militia's finger, where it was clear to see Hatchet Face still trapped by his legs with containment foam. He was unable to do anything but continue to mutilate Gallant, the only person in reach, but seemed to be happy to have anyone to victimize.

"No… Fuck you, I'm going to smash your stupid fucking face in, stupidface!" Glory Girl flew at Hatchet Face with a fist cocked back before anyone could stop her, only to drop to the ground and scratch herself up on the asphalt as she entered his nullification range. Thankfully, she didn't land anywhere near Hatchet Face himself, and retreated in shame back outside his range.

"I'm going to kill him," Miss Militia said, her voice low and level.

"I want to kill him," Glory Girl snarled.

"You can help," she said. Her power formed a massive minigun. It was mounted to a post, but the post itself wasn't bolted to anything – her power didn't let her drill into the ground, apparently. "Hold this steady for me."

Glory Girl understood what she was going to do and held the post tight.

Miss Militia let rip the massive weapon. I could see why she didn't use it earlier. It wasn't particularly accurate, and without Glory Girl holding it steady for her, it would have been utterly uncontrollable. The first several hundred rounds went into a nearby car, and only after a few seconds did she manage to "steer" the stream of bullets into Hatchet Face.

The cape may have been able to survive a several rounds of being struck by a powerful sniper rifle spaced five seconds apart. Such was the combination of his Brute toughness and whatever healing abilities he had. But a hundred bullets per second, all directed more or less at his head, managed to shred his body to bits. She continued firing for almost an entire minute, and there was nothing left of Hatchet Face left aside from a messy red splatter and some broken containment foam, which at this point was only containing a pair of feet and shins.

Glory Girl flew forwards, and proving that Hatchet Face was truly dead, flew all the way to Gallant's corpse. He had been struck by a few stray bullets as well, but given what Hatchet Face had done to his body before Miss Militia avenged him, a few bullets really didn't make that much of a difference.

Glory Girl was about to carry away his corpse, but it literally ripped apart in pieces in her hands as she tried to lift him. His body was only held in shape by his armour. She collapsed to the ground, crying and throwing up. The rest of her family flew down to her, partly to console her, and partly to protect her, because as far as they knew, Mannequin was still out there.

Oddly enough, contrary to what everyone else believed, Kid Win wasn't dead. With Hatchet Face out of commission, my power and control over the area returned. I could finally get a clear picture of what Mannequin was doing with his victim. And he wasn't killing the boy. Maybe he was recruiting other Tinkers? He was retreating through the smoke, away from the heroes and heading back towards Brockton Bay.

Mannequin had done something to Kid Win, gassed him with some kind of compound that knocked him unconscious. I could only hope Panacea could nullify whatever exotic stuff it was.

Either way, that gave me an opportunity to finally stop Mannequin and rescue Kid Win. As Mannequin continued to stealthily retreat with his prize, my bots were sneaking on to his body. There were no openings anywhere; no eye, ear, or mouth holes. I didn't know if Mannequin had any human parts inside him or if he was completely robotic, I was leaning towards the latter because I had no idea how he even received oxygen or food.

The bots performed every trick of cutting that I could think of, but I had very little luck cutting through him. His body armour was basically as hard as diamond, roughly equal to that of my own bots. Diamond rubbing against diamond, we were damaging each other equally. My advantage, though, was that I had nearly limitless numbers to spare, as long as I could continue gathering them. I focused primarily on the weak points, mainly on the few scratches and micro-cracks in his armour that Miss Militia had caused. Some of those were already closing up; the crystalline metal also had self-repairing capabilities. I just had to work faster than it could fix itself.

Another potential weak point was his extended limbs. One of Mannequin's arms was still extended with some kind of chain, which was wrapped around Kid Win. That little extension presented a tiny opening that I hoped my bots could enter. I sent tons and tons of bots crawling up the chain linking his limb to his body through that opening. It was still protected and armored inside, but it was inherently less armoured than the other parts I had been trying to cut through.

Within all the other limbs, I had my bots link together as tightly as they could to freeze up the joints. Even if I couldn't cut through his armour quickly, my bots could simply jam all his joints and immobilize him. I continued drawing more and more bots towards him. The huge pile of bots that was Abyssal had now caught up. With that many piling on, I was hoping to overwhelm Mannequin. He couldn't move if nanobots were jammed into every joint and seam in his body.

Mannequin began to notice what was happening. He released some kind of fluid from his body, probably some aggressive cleaning compound. It pushed away some of my bots but the little pores only presented additional openings for my bots.

When Abyssal presented himself as an obvious opponent, Mannequin lashed out with his limbs and hidden weapons. Each one of his movements was just another opportunity to jam more bots into his joints and mechanisms. Every time he activated a new function, I would simply mess it up as much as I could.

Mannequin was learning quickly, and practically retracted like a turtle. He had even let go of Kid Win in order to retract that arm into his body, but I already had enough bots inside him to make some slow progress. My own bots were basically destroying themselves in the attempt to cut through his body, and it felt very much like trying to cut through Leviathan.

Speaking of which, I had Endbringer fragments on the way from Brockton Bay. I was hoping that unreal material could do something against the Siberian, but no luck. Whatever she was made of was even tougher. But I could use it on Mannequin and others, so once I had it here I could use it to grind through Mannequin's body quickly.

It took an extra half-hour before I managed to retrieve the fragments of Leviathan. I mostly monitored Kid Win's vitals while Mannequin had gone full turtle-mode. When the fragments got there, there was a massive difference. It was like the difference between cutting with a plastic spatula versus a chainsaw. I penetrated straight through his outer shell.

I swarmed my bots inside the body. I was somewhat surprised to find some squishy, wet organs inside there. Including a brain. I did swarm my bots over the brain, more out of curiosity about how he kept himself alive. I couldn't fully understand his Tinkertech, but once I got what insights I could decipher from it, I didn't let him live a second longer. The more sensitive life-support systems and the few organs that made up the real body of Mannequin were quickly liquefied and shredded.

The heroes, civilians, and New Wave had already reached Manchester, with help from Vista's power. Glory Girl was still feeling horrible, along with all the other Wards at the loss. Even so, we had picked up and helped more civilians along the way. Now I needed Abyssal to pick up Kid Win and carry him all the way to reunite them. Maybe having a teammate they had thought was dead turn up alive would lift their spirits, though it was a poor consolation for those they had already lost.

Author's Note:

- Well, here's the first major battle of the S9 fight. Horror is not a great genre for me (mainly because half the time I'm staring at the screen complaining that the characters are being stupid.) I hope I can keep the S9 arc interesting.

- I'll be honest, I both have trouble getting into the mind of a serial killer. I'm impressed when people can write a really compelling psycho like Hannibal Lecter or Patrick Bateman. Or, of course, a really good Jack Slash.