1.3 Celebration's End

Bob Cat laughed as he wrapped his arms around the shoulders of two beautiful women. As the redhead to his left laughed, she swayed against him obviously very drunk. The black girl to his right rubbed her hands all over his chest and arm, obviously high on something much stronger. Bob didn’t much care. Between the drink, the drugs, and his horde of fans around him, Bob was feeling no pain either.

Death Ray sat in the corner. The silent vigilante didn’t quite understand his partner’s “unwinding”. This frivolity left them opens for any kind of attack and therefore put the people of the Steelworks in even more danger of attack at the hands of any rogue metas. The more he thought about it, the angrier it made him. His rage slowly burning higher, he decided the best course of action was simply to leave. He nodded in farewell to the bartender and took his leave of the club.

Bob didn’t even notice. He was ready to call it a night himself. He pulled the women towards the back room. Like all the clubs in the Steelworks, this one had a private room set up in back just for his use. Well, mine and the ladies, he thought.

The two young women followed him gladly, but even if they hadn’t, he really didn’t have any worries. Any of the women in the club would be ready for him at any time. And I’ll get to all them soon enough.

A low rumble from somewhere outside the front of the club built to a level that drowned out even the grinding beat of the industrial music blaring through the club. Through the haze in his head, Bob couldn’t quite figure out what the noise meant. Was someone doing construction work at two a.m.?

The front wall of the building exploded inward, sending shards of concrete in to the packed crowd. Light radiated from the street and in the midst of it, a nearly seven foot tall man stood in the shattered remains of the wall. All but the lower right half of his face was covered in solid steel as was the entire left half of his body and his right arm.

Bob Cat, even through his stupor, recognized the bioengineered super-warrior known as Wargod, even as Wargod brandished his vibro-axe against the nearest drunken reveler. And where Wargod was, Venus de Milo won’t be far behind.

As if on cue, the light from the street flashed and disappeared. An olive-skinned woman stood just behind the savage cyborg. She wore nothing more than a wispy cover-up. Draped over her shoulders, the wrap barely covered her breasts and fell down to wrap around her torso. But the cover-up was a thin white cloth which allowed anyone who wanted to see anything they wanted.

Bob Cat gaped for a moment like he always did when he first saw Venus, but he focused as the supposed goddess raised her arms. The limbs suddenly detached at the shoulders and shot in to the crowd. The hands of the flying limbs quickly wrapped around the throats of two panicking partiers. Almost immediately, her two victim’s skin began to decay as her very touch drained the life from them.

That’s more than enough, Bob Cat thought. He released his two dates and shoved them in to the back room. Without losing a beat, he continued forward at high speed and pushed himself up and over the first club-goer he met. He spring-boarded up and off the confused man and pushed himself up and over the rest of the crowd. He came down straight at Wargod, his claws bared.

His claws scraped against the bigger man’s armored face but only left superficial damage. Bob flipped away again just in time to avoid a sweep by Wargod’s vibro-axe. But when he landed, the drink and drugs took their toll as his feet wobbled under him. Wargod raised his free hand and fired a pair of slugs in to Bob’s chest. His cat-suit absorbed some of the damage, but Bob could feel the fire in his chest at the sudden shots.

Wargod kicked Bob Cat in the side of the head. Bob fell back to the floor as Wargod hovered over him.

The massive cyborg raised the vibro-axe. “My lady commands your death,” Wargod said in his mechanical voice. “Prepare to die.”

Bob cringed and closed his eyes as the axe swept down towards his head.

1.2 Going to the Dogs

You have got to be crazy, Jack! Only a crazy man would willingly throw himself to the dogs like this.

Jack Flash groaned at his inadvertent joke. From his rooftop purchase, he could see down through the warehouse’s skylight. All four members of the Dogpack’s inner circle, along with dozens of wild dogs, frolicked at the group’s Olympic size pool. It’s now or never, he thought. He took a deep breath, pulled open the skylight, and dropped down in the midst of the Dogpack.

It took only seconds for Pitbull and Bulldog to leap from their revelry in the pool straight at the sudden invader. Jack threw himself backwards to avoid the massive fist of the hirsute, pug-nosed Bulldog. He bared his teeth as he charged again at Jack, but Jack rolled away from the attack. Bulldog’s momentum took him several feet past where Jack now stood.

Jack flamed both arms on. He aimed carefully and unleashed a blast of flame straight in to the oversized degen’s posterior. Bulldog yelped as his swim trunks smoldered and burst in to flame.

Jack turned just in time to see Pitbull’s chain strike before it wrapped around his neck. Pitbull’s face showed strain even past his wild eyes as he willed the enchanted chain to pull tighter around Jack’s neck.

Jack summoned the flames around his entire being, but the chain’s magical properties protected it from melting away. He could feel himself running out of oxygen. He fell to one knee as his flames died out.

“Please,” he said with what was left of his voice. “I didn’t come here to fight you.”

The various canines in the room circled around Jack. They sat down on their haunches and studied him as he choked to death. Pitbull stood just beyond them as he willed his chain ever tighter.

“Stop!”

The chain’s grip loosened slightly as Pitbull turned to look at Chihuahua. The leader of the Dogpack stood only slightly taller than his namesake. Completely blind, he held a chain linked around the neck of the barely clad woman known only as the Bitch. She stood silently behind him and through their mental link, served Chihuahua as his eyes.

“You have sixty seconds to explain yourself, human, before I let Bulldog and Pitbull tear you to pieces. Start talking.”

“The…chain…”

Chihuahua and his consort’s gaze both turned to Pitbull. “Loosen your grip,” Chihuahua said. “Just enough to let him talk.”

Pitbull nodded. Jack instantly felt the chain loosen around his neck.

“Better, much better.”

“You have forty-five seconds now,” Chihuahua said. “Explain your business in the Marked Territory or die.”

“Yeah, right,” Jack said. “As I said, I didn’t come here to fight. As it stands I have absolutely no problem with any of you or your gang. As far as I’m concerned, the Dogpack is one of the few forces in this mixed up pile of shit we call a city that I don’t worry about. But we do have something in common; something that all of us need to worry about.

“His name is Mr. Mayor.”

Bulldog guffawed from behind Jack. “The Mayor’s gone, fool. The Questions took care of him months ago. Those bastards stole victory right out from under us.”

Jack shook his head. “I wish it was that easy. The Mayor and his Cabinet have been working for weeks. Building up their forces, securing their power center, and preparing an attack on the Q-Zone.”

Chihuahua nodded. “And an attack that large would spill out over most of the Divide. Including our unfortunately poorly placed territory. Is that what you’re trying to say, human.”

“That’s what I’m saying. And the name’s Jack Flash, if you don’t mind.”

The Bitch whispered something barely audible. Chihuahua’s oversized ears twitched as he heard every word several feet away.

“We have heard of you,” Chihuahua said. “You have many enemies, Mr. Flash. Why would you think we would help you mount an attack on the Mayor’s forces?”

“Because I know as well as you do that the only thing you hate more than the Great Question is Mr. Mayor and his Cabinet. And I know you want to see him back in power even less than I do.”

Chihuahua smiled his toothless grin. “You are wiser than I would have guessed. If what you say is true, the Dogpack will stand beside you. What is your plan?”

“I see only one chance for success,” Jack said. “We have to go in now, before they can strengthen their power base anymore. With your help, we can hit them like lightning, take out the Cabinet, and remove Mr. Mayor from this world once and for all.”

Chihuahua shook his head. “I don’t like it. It runs too many risks. It—”

“It’s our only chance. Are you with me or do I go in alone?”

Bulldog and Pitbull looked to one another then to the Bitch. They both nodded. The woman whispered again. Chihuahua smiled. “The decision is unanimous. The Dogpack stands with you, Mr. Flash. When do we attack?”

Jack smiled. “Can you get this chain off me first?”

Chihuahua laughed. The chain fell from his neck as Chihuahua and the Bitch moved in to stand beside Jack. “Come, join us, and you can give us all the details.”

Jack rubbed his neck and nodded. “We’ve got only hours to work over this plan. Let’s get to work.”

1.1 Able's Arrival

Able felt the bile rise in his throat as he stepped off the bus and on to the streets of the Divide. He knew that the city lived under its own rule now, but he could still taste the unsavory American spirit in the air. Detroit may be gone, he thought, but all its vileness remains.

Able watched the other thirty or so Canadians on the bus exit the bus and head off in to the streets. Most looked confused by the blasted surroundings, though a few seemed to know where they were going. None had been to the Divide before; buses to the city-state ran only one way.

Able didn’t care. He knew his quest must continue here, whether he liked it or not. He retrieved his small rucksack from beneath the bus and exited the terminal.

The sign above the bus station exit told him he was now in Hardcore City. Well known even before the Disaster as a haven for crime, the westernmost district of the Divide was now little more than a blasted wasteland. Some of the worst metahuman battles in the days following the Disaster occurred here and like much of the city, no one ever bothered to repair any of it.

Able stood outside the bus terminal and closed his eyes. He concentrated and activated the oldest of his stolen powers. He could feel the darkened taint of hundreds of degens and the warm glow of over a dozen metahumans. A haven for metahumanity indeed.

Two distinct metahuman signatures sparked his interest. Both strong, both very close to one another. The second seemed to be following the first. No better place to start, Able thought. If I have to go through every metahuman in the city, I will find what I’m looking for.

Able focused his extra-normal sense on the two meta-signatures and started after them. The two metahumans were just over four blocks away and conveniently enough on his way out of Hardcore City. They moved slowly, far slower than he could move. Able sped up to a brisk jog. With his sweatshirt and backpack, he could look like a jogger. Only a moron would jog in Hardcore City, but Able knew he could handle any threat that came his way.

He got a few strange looks, but no one was ready to match his glare let alone try to start trouble. With the other metas much slower pace he was able to catch up to them in just over six blocks. He ducked in to an alley about half a block away from the man in the rear and watched.

Both men had their backs to Able. The man in rear, dressed in black from head to toe followed after the man in the lead. He kept to the shadows, which seemed to thicken as he moved in to them. The man farther ahead, nearly a block from Able was flanked by four normals, all dressed in multiple garish colors. Clown colors, Able thought. They have to be Great Question goons.

The Great Question were the current rulers of the city. Able knew little about the street gang and its leader Antagonist. Only one member of the group had any real notoriety outside the Divide: Mouthpiece. An infamous Middle Eastern business man turned metahuman yes man, Mouthpiece served as the public voice for the Great Question.

And he was walking only a block away from Able.

Mouthpiece turned and for a moment, Able wondered if he might be in for a fight. Instead Mouthpiece’s gaze went to the nearby shadows where the man in black seemed to have disappeared.

“Come out, Midnight,” Mouthpiece said. “I tire of this cat and mouse game.”

The man emerged from the shadows, but the darkness seemed to follow him as he walked. “That’s Mister Midnight to you, Mouthpiece. I am here to take you out of the Divide and in to custody.”

“You have no authority here, Midnight,” Mouthpiece said. “And you have no chance in hell of defeating me, let alone the entire Question.”

The shadows shot forward in four tendrils and wrapped themselves around Mouthpiece’s goons. The tendrils of pure darkness squeezed and Able could almost hear the cracking of each man’s bones as Mister Midnight crushed the life out of them.

“Your Question goons can’t help you,” Mister Midnight said. “Today you die, Mouthpiece!”

“You’re a fool, Midnight. You’re a fool who doesn’t even know why he’s in the Divide. You don’t want to kill anybody, especially me. No, you just got lost on a mission and wandered in to the Divide by mistake, didn’t you?”

Able thought Mouthpiece must have gone insane. Who would stop to tell a preposterous story in a life and death battle? But Midnight hesitated at the words. He seemed confused and unsure of where he was or what he should do.

Mouthpiece smiled and opened his mouth wide. He inhaled sharply and Able had just enough time to cover his ears.

A blast of concentrated sound smashed in to Mister Midnight’s chest. Midnight’s midsection twisted unnaturally as bones shifted at the sledgehammer-strong blow. As Midnight wavered on his feet, Mouthpiece inhaled. The next blast shattered Mister Midnight’s skull.

Mister Midnight’s corpse wobbled for a second longer before it dropped to the sidewalk with a wet thud.

Mouthpiece closed his mouth. He took a few calming breathes as he checked his three piece suit. He brushed some imaginary dust from his lapel before he turned and started back towards the Q-Zone, now alone.

Able waited for Mouthpiece to get about a block farther away before he ran out to look at Mister Midnight’s corpse. Between the full body costume and the misshapen body beneath, the figure no longer even looked human.