Shard of Magic [Worm crossover]

by blake0831

Chapter 16

"Console. This is Vista and Starburst. We've arrived at checkpoint E near the docks." Vista dutifully checked in as they stood on a flat concrete roof of an dilapidated warehouse office block. Starburst took the opportunity to scan the area with her Radar, the light from the setting sun casting the area with sharp shadows.

Starburst had never been this far amongst the warehouses near the Docks, not during her visits to her father's office at the Dockworkers Union building, or even during the Docks's heyday (Endbringer attacks stifling the global trade and the riots that resulted in the Boat Graveyard put an end to that) when she was younger. She looks over the maze of large and medium sized warehouses; some abandoned, some empty and some were in use by local companies to store their goods.

"So...anything?" Vista asked hopefully, the twelve years old Shaker 9 Ward looking a bit eager.

Starburst was about to answer her when an alert appeared in her vision. An 'Event of Interest' flag, pointing a fair distance away. Starburst hesitated, thinking back what the last 'Event of Interest' she had investigated only a week ago had resulted in. But... there's no harm in checking it out right? Her luck couldn't be that bad twice in a row...

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Starburst and Vista peeked over the lip of the rooftop balcony of the commercial office/warehouse building just across the street from the large warehouse that was marked by the 'Event of Interest' tag.

A part of Starburst wondered if they're being overly cautious in this. Another part disagreed, reminding her that the tensions between E88 and ABB had been flaring up of late. Considering there was a gunfight between the ABB and E88 just the other day in one of the poorer suburbs/commercial area that the PRT got called in (Crusader was sighted), the caution felt justified. Though the PRT and BBPD didn't complained much about the aftermath. Dozens of gangbangers of both factions were in BBPD custody, Crusader was in one of the PRT holding cells and the Shield Watches were fielded to great success in protecting the deployed Troopers.

Taylor was just as surprised as the Troopers were when it was discovered that the Shields were effective against Crusader's infamous Ghost projections. The Troopers then used the Shields and simply bum-rushed Crusader en mass and knocked him out of the fight.

It was pleasant news to hear after she had just finished discussing with Dragon and Armsmaster about the proposed 'sleep gun' that day. Dragon had liked the idea and will work with the PRT R&D (PRT researchers handled the crystal matrices, Dragon handled the design and regular component manufacturing) to fab a prototype. Armsmaster suggested adding something to the proposed Taser pistol-like weapon to revive the target quickly just in case. Luckily, the power had, like the others provided by her Trump power, came with 'undo' instructions. Converting that and adding to the final Taser pistol-like weapon was pretty easy (press the exposed pair of metal studs at bottom of plastic gungrip to bare skin and push a recessed button to disrupt the 'enforced sleep' energy matrix lingering in target body and wake them up.).

As the pair peeked at the suspect warehouse, Starburst brought up her Radar again. Now that she's close enough, she can check the Radar to better see what it had found so 'interesting' about this place.

"Console, Starburst here" she reported via her headset. "Picking up lots of animal noises in the suspect warehouse."

"What?" The console operator, Kid Win this time replied. "Do you think it's an illegal puppy mill or an exotic petshop or something?"

Vista gave Starburst a sidelong glance. "Illegal kennel, maybe? Any other sounds to pick up?"

Starburst frowned a bit as she 'fiddled' with the Radar. "Hang on.... Hearing some metal sounds. Like chainlink fencing. And a lot barking." she paused. "Lots of rowdy people in there too."

Vista turned to look at Starburst, her eyes furrowing behind her visor. "Barking? Maybe-"

Starburst's back straightened suddenly. "Wait. Got four big somethings heading this way through the street. They just came into my range."

Vista tensed up. "Four? Four what?"

Starburst frowned in concentration. "I'm trying to see..." she trailed off as the Radar 'tags' on the four unknown objects changed to something she had only seen a week ago. 'Enhanced Dog'. "I think it's the UnderSiders. Four Enhanced Dogs." she switched filters. "But I'm only picking up one rider. A cape."

Vista spoke hurriedly. "I think that's Hellhound. And I think I see them coming up the street. Console, do we intervene?"

Starburst looked at the incomings. The last week, she couldn't make out the four 'Enhanced Dogs' properly in that dark alley, only able to tell they were there because of the Radar tags. Now, barreling through the middle of the street and moving fast, she could see them properly. And all she could think of was 'Those are DOGS?'. Said 'dogs' looked more like van-sized four-legged mutated scaleless lizards, with various bone spurs peeking through their thickly muscled bodies. And riding on top of one of them was a stocky figure wearing street jeans clothes and a cheap dog mask. Hellhound.

Before Kid Win could say any coherent order over the communications, the four beasts and its rider plowed through the thin corrugated steel wall of the suspect warehouse. Soon, there were a lot of shouting, barking, growling and gunshots audible even at Vista's and Starburst's lookout point.

"Crap!" Vista swore. "We have to get down there now and stop her." and, with a twisting of space, she was gone before Starburst could protest.

'Wait, what?!' Starburst frantically thought. 'Okay, okay. What do I do? Training says what? Back her up? How do I do that?' Another gunshot gave her an idea. 'SafeGuard! Set the distance enough to cover the whole warehouse from here. Gather energy and set it off'. After the shockwave of light teal passed over the warehouse, Starburst joined her fellow Ward on the street level via her Flight power.

"Vista, Starburst. Pull back." Kid Win said over their headsets. "PRT and Armsmaster are on their way now."

"Vista here." Vista reported as she stood outside the warehouse. Said warehouse now lacks the gunshots sounds from earlier, though there's still a lot of the other noises. "We can contain it. There's only Hellhound in there."

Starburst's eyes widened as the Radar picked up something. "Vista, wait! Most of the people are running out the back and side doors. But there's three more capes-"

With a crash, one of Hellhound's beasts smashed through the front of the Warehouse, where it weakly stayed crumbled in a heap.

And two capes strode out after it.

The shirtless white man with the tiger mask was not immediately known to Starburst. But the woman's rather distinctive appearance of a metal cage over her head and wielding twin mini-scythe blades connected by a chain (Starburst noted that the blades were covered with a soft teal shell. At least that's one worry out of the picture...) quickly brought to mind who was standing before her and Vista.

Cricket. And the other must be StormTiger. Both were known as capes of the Empire 88.

Oh, Come On!

Comments

[Tangent]

And the role of Missy Byron in this episode of Taylorball Z is played by Applebloom…

Being responsible in an irresponsible manner.

[Spellflame]

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