Hey!

Been a while, I took a break over Christmas and new years, and currently University is hell :)

Expect next few chapters to be much slower, as I'm going to focus on my University stuff for the moment (for as much as university is a fucking mess right now).

~§~

Winslow high school had been standing for nearly three decades, once it had been shiny and fresh, accepting the best and brightest of the bay. But as Brockton had a tendency to do, that had decayed. Now the halls of Winslow were quiet, the only sound the occasional footsteps, followed by the only disturbance of the three cape patrol teams. The majority of the capes now stalking its halls and grounds were some of the root causes for its decaying state, but they still walked its halls and grounds, unaware or uncaring for their impacts on the world.

They all did not care about the blinking devices at key points on the school. They stepped, hopped and flew over laser tripwires and physical tripwires. They weaved between minefields.

They talked in ways that their real life counterparts never had.

"Do you ever feel like your entire role in life has just been boiled down to being a glorified magic fountain?" Othella, or Mother of the Union asked Panacea, or Panic-a of New Order.

"Definitely," the other girl agreed with an eager nod.

The pair were sat within the makeshift infirmary of Winslow Highschool, repurposed from the gymnasium it had once been. In each corner sat a Tickertech device, each with blinking red lights. Though the pair didn't seem to mind as they talked.

"Some days, I just don't feel like healing anyone, but I feel too guilty to take a break, and I fear that's going to lead me down a cycle."

"I know the feeling, every hero in the bay relies on me for my services, and they seem to get injured all the time."

"Oh my god I know right?" Panic-a threw her arms up, "it's like, they get a splinter and they come running?"

"Exactly, and you have to be dragged out of bed at three am because someone tripped going down some stairs," Mother made a gesture, "tough shit buddy! That's just life sometimes y'know?"

"And no one ever asks how I feel? They never ask if I want to heal, or if I'm even okay? It's just expected of me."

"Mm, and they don't even want to utilise other parts of your power, I can make people control fire, or fly, or make them stronger or even invincible! But no, 'give this person regeneration, Mother', 'Mother, we need your regeneration'."

Panic-a nodded consolingly.

~§~

"Do you ever feel like you're just equated to some dumb hench man?" Hookwolf, or the now well-known and much liked hero Molotok asked his patrolling companions.

"Yes," Friend Lee- the aptly renamed Oni Lee- replied with a sage nod as they rounded a corner and walked around the back of the school.

"Yeah, I have more depth than that," Arid, or Mush agreed.

"I always feel bad for Svya and Togor, because even people in the Union just think they're a pair of dumb bimbos, but they're not!" Molotok shook his head, "it's just insulting, but I don't know what I can do to reverse that opinion of me anymore, because my powers do lend myself to just being the 'big dumb brute'."

"Yeah, I'm just so tired of the violence," Arid nodded.

"I'm not."

Molotok and Arid looked at Friend Lee, whose mask stared ahead, no emotion being given away.

"I enjoy my work, but… a vacation would be nice," Friend Lee continued. "A beach hut, just me and Kenta…" the man gave a wistful sigh.

"Can get behind that," Arid nodded, "though I'd prefer somewhere cold, skiing, snow cones…"

"Night clubs, street parties," Molotok broke in, "raves, that's the dream."

"Some peace and quiet…" Friend Lee whispered.

At that moment the window above them smashed and a belch of black smoke rolled out, along with a cackling that made Friend Lee's shoulders tense.

"Doesn't that ever get annoying?" Molotok asked as he looked up at the smoke still pouring from the room.

"HAHAHAHAHA IT WORKS!"

"Immeasurably," Friend Lee replied through grit teeth.

~§~

"Go fish," Phya said with a smirk, cards in hand.

"Dammit," Kaleido cursed as she pulled a card from the pile, then hiding a smirk behind her hand as she bent the space around her sleeve, switching the card from her deck with a card she had hidden up her sleeve.

It would be the game changer.

"So," Scoundrel said, looking to Phya, "I'm curious, earlier you said you hoped you didn't miss doing your homework later. When you get homework from school, you actually do it?"

"Of course? Homework is very important?" Phya spoke as if it was obvious, frowning.

"Any fives?" at a negative Scoundrel sighed, grabbing a card. "Yeah, but like… is it?" Scoundrel asked then, continuing the conversation.

"I always just put random shit on it," Timesnatch shrugged, "sometimes get it right! I love multiple choice."

"Ha! Yeah who does Homework, that's for pussies!" Shadow Stalker said, a touch too enthusiastically, her eyes avoiding everyone else's as her hand trembled. "N-not me! That-that's for sure! C-cause I'm an alpha predator with-with massive balls!"

The group collectively stared at her before turning back to the game, it was easier to ignore Shadow Stalker's weird behaviour then address it.

"Anyway, I just say my dog eats my homework," Kaleido shrugged, "at some point the teachers stopped asking, just give me this disappointed look. It's awesome."

"Hell yeah!" Timesnatch grinned, he and Kaleido high fiving.

"Oh…" Phya seemed troubled but played her card anyway.

Timesnatch hummed before smiling, "any sevens?"

"Dammit," Phya cursed.

"Hey guys!" Man Lose called as he walked over to their table, gear still on, "patrol done, was told to grab Shadow Stalker for the next one?"

"Finally," The girl jumped up and shoved her deck into Man Lose's chest before gliding off eagerly.

"How's it looking out there?" Scoundrel asked.

"Oh, same old same old, quiet. No sign of Buzzing Bee." Man Lose looked at his hand before seamlessly joining the game as he played a card, "why are we so eager to catch her anyway?"

Timesnatch looked at him oddly. "Uh, have you seen what she's done to the city? No one else is here, she and her gang have a kill order for a reason."

"Yeah I know… but…I though she just had bug powers."

"Second trigger," Scoundrel shrugged, "not uncommon."

Man Lose frowned, opening his mouth to reply when Kaleido slammed a card onto the table.

+4

Phya looked up, "is that an UNO card?"

"No," Kaleido grinned, revealing the Uno cards in her hands, "it's the game changer."

~§~

In another part of the school, Bakuda, or Boomer of the Azn Good Boys presented herself for her boss with a salute and a grin.

"Everything is set in place boss!"

"Good, good, The Warden will be pleased when I make my report," Lung-who-is-oddly-not-renamed nodded with a smile.

"If I may Lung-who-is-oddly-not-renamed, who even is the Warden?" Boomer asked, voicing thoughts she had been having for the last few hours, "we know he… she… it, is obsessed with Buzzing Bee, but why is it? Don't give me that second trigger crap either, I know that's a load of bull. And why are we working with the Attacktorate and New Order?"

Lung-who-is-oddly-not-renamed shook his head, placing his hand on Boomer's shoulder, "ours is not to question why, ours just to do."

Boomer frowned, "did you… did you just quote Alfred Lord Tennyson?"

Lung just smirked in amusement as he turned and walked away.

Boomer's frown deepened as she called, "you do know how that poem ends right?... Right!?"

~§~

I looked from my binoculars to the team, the other five members of the team getting ready. Along the way here we had broken into a police stations armoury and taken what we could, armed with pistols (or in Grue's case a shotgun), I now had a baton as well. We were under no illusion that this was going to be easy, and that we wouldn't have to take lives. I told myself it didn't matter, that these people we were hurting weren't real, but it didn't help much.

Tattletale was staring intently through her binoculars, using her power to time the best moment to set off the bombs.

I unconsciously squeezed the post-it note in my fist tighter, ignoring the throbbing in my left arm.

Tattletale suddenly held up a hand and Defiant got ready, bringing the device into his hand and pressing a button, a light blinking on showing it was armed.

All activity stopped as we waited, watching Tattletale's fist.

Her fist closed.

Defiant pressed the trigger.

~§~

Entropy frowned as he looked at the time, then back over to Defeat, "Dauntful and Miss Murder should have been back by now, right?"

Defeat looked at him before then nodding slowly, "you're right."

"We should tell the boss, maybe see if we can track them down."

"I don't know if the boss will be too happy about tha-"

Defeat blinked, or at least, he would have if he could move. Why couldn't he move? He couldn't even move his eyes. Entropy was staring at him as well, equally as frozen. He couldn't hear anything either, but he could feel the ground shaking, see flashes in the corners of his eyes. But they were beginning to burn in pain, slowly drying out, his lungs burning as he was unable to breath, stuck still.

He needed air! He needed to blink! Someone let him out! Let him go! Helpohgoditwasfuckingpainfulandhisvisionwasdarkeningandhislungswereonfireandhiseyesweredryingandhejustwanteditalltostop-

~§~

It was a horrifying experience to watch. Even if the people down there wanted me dead, or captured, or whatever.

The track field was the most obvious disturbance. Watching the patrol that had been weaving through it be torn apart. Battering Ram being suddenly sucked into a miniature blackhole and turn to a red paste before disappearing while Voyna stood on a pool of lava, looking unharmed for a second before fire erupted across his costume. He then exploded and fell face first into the pool, still floating and cooking but very much dead.

Incorrigible was suffering a fate much worse than that. He'd been closer to Battering Ram and had been sucked to the black hole, but the black hole had collapsed as soon as it had sucked her in and instead, he was flung across the field, landing into a green bubbling liquid. He surfaced moments later, screaming and swimming only for his limbs to dissolve followed quickly by his body. The he restored and the process repeated, his screams continuing in a horrible loop as he made no progress.

The gymnasium was destroyed, the very ground it was built upon snapping closed on it like one slamming a book shut. It stayed that way for a moment before then slowly crumbling. Meanwhile across the building, water was bursting from the cafeteria's windows, followed by the collapse of its four walls and a tidal wave sweeping several unfortunate figures into the death trap that had once been the track field.

A section of the school let off a flash of light and when I could see it again it had disappeared, motes of light floating off that quickly disappeared as well.

Then the car park promptly took off, chunks of rock and concrete falling off, some pipes spilling water, but it flew up and up, disappearing high into the atmosphere where it appeared to burn up.

A great plume of flame burst through the windows of what I though was the girls bathroom, it continued for so long that the actual cement walls started to melt to reveal it appeared to be a bomb that just continuously exploded napalm like fire. It rolled along, splattering a napalm like substance over the ground and sending waves of flame out around it.

Groaner's four-legged walker stumbled as a section of the roof melted under one of its legs. I could see Groaner desperately fighting the controls.

Then from what I think was where the boys locker room burst a glowing ball, it floated high into the sky and then hovered in place for a moment. It flashed once, then multicoloured laser flashed out and began sweeping around. Wherever the lasers landed they sliced through with no resistance, Medhall in the distance being sliced in half with a diagonal cut and the top of the building sliding off, collapsing in a plume of dust. The school was sliced up by these lasers, Groaner's walker being obliterated as a laser cleanly slice all four legs off and caused the whole machine to collapse.

Groaner was thrown from her cabin and fell. Just before she hit the roof however another explosion took place below her, and everything was this pink hard substance. Including Groaner who hit the roof and bounced, a perfect pink statue that lay motionless.

This all happened within the space of a few seconds, near simultaneous as we watched in a stunned silence at the chaos unfolding.

It was so violent and chaotic that everything stopped, frozen for a perfect second, the simulation clearly struggling for a moment. Then everything jumped forward in time to reveal chaos and rubble. The firebomb was still going, Incorrigible was still screaming in his acid pool. Some fliers were trying to gather themselves even as I watched one (I think it was Phya? Judging by the debris she was standing on) get cleaved in half by the laser ball before it finally flickered out of existence.

An eerie silence settled over the area.

"You know, I knew Bakuda was like… scary," Regent said, filling the silence, "but that… that was fucked."

"Yeah," Grue faintly agreed.

"I think," Tattletale said as we watched some survivors gather, "that we should start phase two."

We all wordlessly got to our feet, knowing what came next.

Time to play bait.

~§~

This chapter I wanted to see what I could think up for Bakuda's bombs.

We see:

Statue bomb (alternate time freeze sort of thing)

Black hole bomb (classic)

Lava pool bomb

Acid pool bomb

Venus Flytrap bomb (the gym)

Tsunami bomb (the cafeteria)

Photon bomb

Rocket (the car park launching to the atmosphere)

Hellfire (girls bathroom got spicy)

The Disco bomb (laser ball)

The Plastic bomb (like the glass bomb, but plastic instead)

I know the glass bomb is also a fandom classic, but I wanted to use some other stuff.