Broker

Chapter 146

In Rouge’s mind, personal beauty was a tool as well as a form of art. It was something to be used and appreciated in small amounts, not flaunted or paraded about. Art was fleeting, so too was youth. It was not meant to last forever. One did not go to the same museum every day and stare at the same piece and get the same emotional response. There were other, more important things in life to concern oneself with than getting lost in something that would cease to be in just a few short years. This was why she rarely left her office. Her focus was on raising the heroes in her care, not strutting about like some pompous preening peacock.

Her eyes narrowed as she took in the scene before her. Segments of wall had been created by Bedrock and it looked like he was fully prepared to tip them over onto their attackers. That would mean needless loss of life. Heroes did not kill humans. Period. It was a rule set by the Pandora Committee and one she vehemently agreed with. Life, like art and beauty, was fleeting and precious. Something to be maintained and cultivated. Her frown deepened as she took in the feral masses of inebriates clamoring to get at the young embryonic heroes under her care.

Black Lotus has taken up position inside the building. The last line of defense given her situation. When there is no other option she will take action, unless Administrator Mint can figure something out. She clicked her tongue, And that stupid boy, running off without permission. I’m going to give Ollie one hell of a talking to when he gets back. Don’t you dare die young man, She growled as she strode forward and stood at the ledge. There was a stillness despite the shouting and brandishing of weapons on the other side of the wall. Neither side was going to make the first move, it seemed.

She reached up to her ear and gently tapped an earpiece that hung seamlessly over her ear and along her jawline, “Deploy,” She growled. An instant later a pair of basketball sized spheres floated up on either side of her. Despite her corporate affiliation, she appreciated Dr. Carter’s craftsmanship. She tilted her head up and looked down on them all, “Last warning, retreat while you have the opportunity, otherwise I will see to it that you all leave in chains,” She said evenly, projecting her voice across the main courtyard now turned battlefield.

“Afraid we can’t do that!” A voice called out from the other side. She narrowed her eyes and heard a chime ring through the air. A heartbeat later a figure was standing on the wall, lanky, with slightly overlength arms that had been concealed by long sleeves. The figure tilted their head and grinned wildly. He dipped into a bow, sweeping his arm to his chest, “Sir Ellis, Knight of Liberty’s Round Table, Madame Rouge. I heard you were here! How exciting!”

Rouge narrowed her eyes and didn’t deign him with a response. His lip twitched and he barked out a laugh, “Just as haughty as I heard too! Wow!” He covered his face for a moment and let out a sigh, “Look, we’re not here for you! We’re here for Cassiopeia, right everybody?” He called, flicking his head back at an odd angle to shout at his comrades. They all let out a roar of agreement. “See? Just hand her over and we’ll be on our merry way! She belongs at her sister’s side, after all. How terrible to see siblings apart!”

He threw out his hands, “You so-called heroes cut corners all the time! What’s the big deal?” He held up a finger, “Just one girl and you save the lives of everyone here! Not a bad trade!” He snorted, “That way you people can do some proper hero work for once instead of playing summer camp while the world goes to shit.”

She let out a sigh, “Are you quite finished?” She asked.

He picked at his ear, “Yup, that’s about it, what do you say?”

She pursed her lips and shook her head, looking down at the others below. Axel’s shoulders were rising and falling as he did everything he could to hold back his rage. The wolves created by Canis were poised to strike. Crowley was holding onto his cane with a white knuckled grip. She flicked her eyes up to Sir Ellis, “You fundamentally misunderstand what we heroes do, Sir Ellis,” She said with all the venom she could muster, “And you live in a fantasy world created by your madwoman of a leader,” Her finger twitched over the strings of her guitar, “If you think I will let you lay a hair on the head of any of the young people under my protection, regardless of who they are related to, you are by far the greatest imbecile walking the face of this earth.”

He blinked a few times and his arms fell to his sides, his smile vanishing, “Well-”

She tilted her head forward, and if you think you get the first move, you’re even more foolish! She snarled and strummed her guitar, flicking through three notes. His eyes widened and he lifted his foot, the chimes beginning to jingle, the two spheres on either side spun with a lightning fast rotation and brought a pair of flat plated speakers to bear on him. A sonic wave crashed into him, his eyes rolling up in his head as he was knocked back, blood spraying from his nose and ears. “Come and take them!” She shouted and flicked a switch on her guitar.

A roar of fury rose up among the spectating cultists, “STRENGTH FROM LIBERTY!”

The next moment they charged as one at the segmented walls, slamming into them as their bodies glowed with a pale rusty light. She ran her nails over the strings, heavy metal it is, she growled and a deep bass growl matching her own rumbled out from the speakers. She strummed the guitar slowly, her head swaying left and right to an imaginary beat, despite none being present, the sound of drums began to pulse from the speakers. She nodded a little faster, stepping left and right as her lips curled, she took a deep breath and began to sing.

“Say your prayers!”

–

The music started to play, and Axel felt something burning up inside of his chest. The instant the drums began to beat and the guitar filled his ears he felt as if his blood was moving faster through his veins, not just that, his mana. He was angry to begin with, but now, he was pumped. He threw his hands down and released momentum as the first crowd of cultists climbed over the wall. Several were pelted by rocks that knocked them back, the strange glow reinforcing their bodies enough that the blows weren’t lethal. He landed on the nearest block of stone and whipped out a kick, releasing some stored momentum in a wave that sent several more crashing to the ground.

Gunshots sounded and he threw his arms open, Yeah! Gimme all that momentum! He laughed as bullets struck him from dozens of angles, he felt the momentum build in his body as a score more of the cultists climbed the wall and lunged at him. One grabbed him by the arm while four more tackled his chest, two grabbed his legs and they pushed, throwing him back over the side. He let them, falling to the ground on the other side of the wall amids the crowd of angry wolves. They started to rain fruitless punches on him as the wolves howled and charged, grabbing them by the legs and pulling them off of him. Screams of pain joined the shouts and gunfire.

Birds shrieked and darted down from above as they formed a cloud over the field. Axel pushed one of the men off of him with a tiny burst of momentum and got to his feet just in time to see a man with a bow land on the wall and sneer down at him. Axel squinted until he saw the color of the bow and his eyes widened, he rolled out of the way just as the man snapped out a shot of ruby light that struck the ground and left a sizzling hole in its wake. He got to his feet and kicked stomped the ground, throwing himself into the air with a burst before pivoting in the air and releasing another from his feet. He drew his fist back as the archer doubled back, landing on a temporary panel of red light and firing off another shot. Axel fired a burst of momentum from his shoulder and spun out of the way landing amidst the crowd of cultists that immediately turned on him.

“Body shields won’t work!” The archer shouted and took aim. 

Axel threw his hands out and released a blast that sent the fodder around him stumbling away. “Not what a hero does, asshole!”

The archer sneered and was about to release another shot when a pair of hawks darted down and started pecking at his face, “The fuck- get off!” He shouted before slipping and falling off the side.

Axel turned away from him and chuckled, his attention now on the horde of masked men and women all readying to charge at him. He opened his stance and grinned only for his expression to fall as a chime filled his ears. His eyes widened as a pair of bloodshot eyes appeared in his vision and a palm pressed against his chest, “Got. You.” Sir Ellis wheezed and a sudden agony blasted through Axel’s chest and out his back, creating a hole in his shirt on both sides. He coughed out a gobbet of blood and staggered back as a palmstrike whipped across his face and his jaw creaked. The music swelled and he drove his foot to the ground, releasing a good third of his stored momentum. A crater formed in an instant, dirt and debris either pulverized or sent all over. Ellis let out a shout and flew back into the crowd of his comrades as Axel wiped his lip.

He stood tall even as his body creaked, the music keeping most of the pain at bay, “Only a couple hundred of you?” He shouted, “COME ON!”

–

Canis and Crowley stood next to one another as the fighting grew more and more intense. The wolves were biting and disabling anyone who dared get over the wall. Birds darted down from above, attacking anything that the wolves didn’t have time to attack. Crowley nodded along to the music while Canis rolled her neck. Just a short distance away, Bedrock raced towards the wall and with a lurch was sent flying by a pillar of stone leaping from the ground beneath him. He flew over the side to join Axel.

“I do believe we’re getting shown up, dear Canis,” Crowley said with a huff and tapped his cane against the ground as a pair of hawks darted down and began attacking a man with a red bow that had been ready to assault Axel. The man fell to the ground and scrambled to his feet, whipping his hand and releasing a short range wave of red light that cut through half a dozen wolves, turning them into the motes of mana from which they came.

He bore his teeth at the pair, “Oh great, the cheerleaders,” He snarled and glanced down at his bow. “I won’t be needing this.”

Crowley narrowed his eyes and squinted at the bow, “Are those letters? What language is that?” He said thoughtfully.

The man stalked forward, pointing at wolves and destroying them as they charged, “Crowley, the Pandora Legal Expert sent to teach the trainees the ins and outs of hero law,” He sniffed, “Canis, who they sent to manage the monsters they would be training against,” He laughed out loud, “A pair of weaklings with barely epic-tier abilities. How do you get away calling this epic?” He gestured around himself.

Canis stood up a bit straighter, “I think we’re being underestimated, dear Crowley.”

Crowley huffed, “I do believe we are, dear Canis, that’s unfortunate!”

The man wrinkled his nose, “Once a weakling always a weakling. You barely qualify as combat heroes.”

Crowley let out a sigh and scratched his brow with the handle of his cane, “You know, it’s funny, I would have agreed with you a few months ago. But there’s a strange thing about being surrounded by young people with so much potential and being in proximity with talented licenced heroes.”

The man paused and narrowed his eyes, “What’s that?”

“Inspiration,” Canis growled and hunched forward, fur spreading across her face as her snout extended. Her body grew in size, her fingers stretching and her muscles expanding. She snapped her jaws and whipped her head left and right as her body changed. She grew and grew until she was the size of a Lurker, her white-gray fur gleaming in the moonlight from above, glimmering and shining like metal. The man clicked his tongue and pointed at her, a beam of red light crashing into her shoulder. She rolled back a foot before snapping forward and snarling, only a small burn and a bit of smoke left behind by his attack. Her yellow eyes burned and she threw her head back into a howl. The sound of howls and bones snapping joined her in chorus.

Behind her a cloud of birds exploded into existence as the man whipped his head left and right, the wolves collapsing and going through a similar change to herself. He whipped his finger out and pointed at one of the wolves as the birds condensed behind him and a cane struck him in the back of the head. He gasped and staggered forward, grasping at the back of his head and spinning. He reached out towards Crowley who was now standing behind him, glowing red claws forming around his hands as he tried to tear the man’s throat out. Crowley just chuckled and exploded into a burst of black birds that spread out over the area.

“Fucking - AUGH!” The man screamed, jaws digging into his shoulder. He glanced to his right and looked into the feral eyes of a wolfman that had grabbed onto his arms and was attempting to bite his entire shoulder out. Enraged he opened his eyes wide and a pair of red beams shot from them, skewering its head and sending it to the ground. He spun and whipped his hand out, releasing another wave of red and cutting three more of the much stronger creatures in half. As they dissolved he reached for his bow and leveled the bestial Canis with a stare. “It seems I owe you an apology,” He snapped, “I won’t be making the same mistake twice.”

The music hit a crescendo and a new song began, above them, the music rapidly increased in tempo. “You’re never gonna stop me!” Rouge sang, moving on to her next song. As she did, a glimmering sheen washed over Crowley and Canis.

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