Dragon's Progeny: Chapter 46

Here's the first edit of the Empire War! This is a entirely new chapter to give more insight into the reactions of Yosei's first strike! Please enjoy!

"You know, there's really no better way to deal with a boring patrol than with a burrito and enough hot sauce to pass right through you.” Dennis sighed happily.

Beside Dennis, Vista made a disgusted face, moments away from biting into her own burrito, “Ew! What the heck? That's freaking disgusting!”

Dennis grinned unrepentantly, filling his mouth with charred steak and gooey, cheesy rice as he took a bite of his meal. He and the pint-sized heroine had paused their boring patrol to grab a bite to eat near the Boardwalk. It was a much deserved rest in his opinion, especially since they'd been running themselves ragged pretty much all day. This was the first chance they'd gotten to actually rest in the past five hours.

Swallowing the food in his mouth, Dennis looked over the citizens below him, watching as several of them lines up for the food truck that he'd gotten his burrito from., “You know, when I signed up for all of this, it didn't say in the contract that I'd be working pretty much all day on a Sunday. If it did, I would have told them to shred that thing.”

Vista nodded her agreement, gulping down her own bite as her hunger beat out her disgust at his comment, “I probably would yo. But you know it's necessary. Especially after what happened the other day. We have to make sure the people out here are safe.” She said in that tone she always got when trying to act more mature.

“True enough, I guess.” Dennis grumbled, taking another, much more unhappy bite of his food.

Since Yosei's little threat, patrols around the city and especially around Empire territory has pretty much tripled. Director Piggot didn't want to take any chances with Lung's daughter and had ordered them all to keep a close watch on both gangs so that they could be on top of things in case anything kicked off.

And after that bomb that she set off in the middle of the Empire's territory, things had only gotten more tense. People were

on edge and not just the heroes. Even the civilians were walking more carefully, watching out for any suspicious behavior even in their neighbors. Everyone could feel something in the air, even if they didn't know quite what it was yet.

Dennis personally was sick of it; he just wanted this to end, “So when do you think we'll get the go ahead to take down Yosei before she turns our fair city into a burning crater?”

The Chief Director still hadn't given them the go ahead to take care of Yosei before she turned the city into a war ground. Apparently she and most of the other directors were worried that provoking her before she actually did anything damaging could do more harm than good.

Dennis didn't really know what they were talking about considering that Yosei had already blown up several buildings with that pet demon. Nobody was killed but several people were hurt, possibly even for life. And now they had to worry about it happening again. He thought that they should just take her out and be done with it, but unfortunately, not everyone agreed with him.

Luckily, he knew that he wasn't completely alone in his thoughts, especially on the team.

“I don't know, but at this point, I'm about to say screw it and go take her down myself before she hurts anyone else.” Vista muttered and Dennis laughed.

“All we'd have to do is give you a confoam gun and you'd be able to take her out from a city block away.” He said, taking another chunk off of his burrito.

“But then I won't be as PR friendly!” Vista made an aghast face at the idea. She couldn't keep up the act for long though, and a smile cracked through the facade.

Dennis chuckled, “Imagine the horror. Glenn Chambers would actually flay Piggot alive.”

She giggled, “That might not actually be too bad.”

“Speak for yourself.” Dennis said, shivering, “I don't want to imagine what she's got hiding under all of that.”

“Ew.” Any mirth drained out of Vista's face, replaced with a look of disgust. She looked down at her burrito, before tossing it off the roof, “Well there goes that.”

Dennis leaned over the side of the roof, looking at the delicious, greasy burrito that had been splattered on the ground down below, “Eh, I'd still eat it.”

“You'd eat anything that wasn't dunked in a toilet.”

As Dennis went to argue that point, he paused at the gentle whir of motors coming from above. Together, he and Vista looked up to find the third member of their patrol group, Kid Win, floating down towards them. He had a tight frown on his face and looked extremely frazzled as he held one hand up to his helmet.

“Guys, we've got a situation!” He said as he set down on the roof, stepping off of his board, “We've got multiple reports coming in that the Empire just made a move on ABB territory. Apparently a bunch of their capes got together and marched straight in.”

Dennis shared a look with Vista, both of them coming to the same conclusion nearly instantly. Dennis’s face turned serious as he looked at Kid Win, “What’s the damage? Do we have a casualty count?” He asked, knowing just how serious this could be.

Kid Win shook his head, “No, we don’t know of any yet, but we do have reports that nearly every single cape that entered Yosei’s territory is out of commission. They’re saying that they’ve all been turned to stone.”

“Do we have names?” Vista asked.

Kid held a finger up before turning to address his helmet’s speaker, “Console, do we know who got taken out?” There was a pause as someone spoke on the other line, and Dennis took the opportunity to finish his food, before standing and putting on his mask’s lower face plate once again. As he did so, Kid Win’s shoulders stiffened visibly and his voice sounded shocked as he spoke, “Say again console? All of them?... Jesus. This could get bad.”

“Who is it?” Vista repeated, looking concerned.

Kid Win took his hand off of his helmet, looking shaken, “We aren’t one hundred percent certain, but most eye-witness accounts say that it was Fenja, Menja, Victor, Krieg, and Othala. Othala is the only one unaccounted for. The rest of them have been turned to statues, apparently by one of Yosei’s powers.”

The two of them digested this, taking in the fact that five powerful capes had been beaten so soundly by just one, before Dennis spoke up, “So what are we doing now? The Empire’s not gonna take this sitting down and I doubt Yosei is happy just beating some of their capes.”

“We’re on high alert now. Dragon’s drones are going to take care of all of the statues in Yosei’s territory and bring them to the Rig, but we need to keep our eyes out for any suspicious activity in the area. Armsmaster is going to be linking up with us for patrol at our next checkpoint.”

Dennis’s face soured, “Great. So not only is a gang war about to kick off in our backyard, but now we have to patrol with Beardmaster who’s gonna be on our case about every little thing we’re doing. What else could go wrong?” He asked, raising his hands high in the air.

As if the world wanted to mess with him, his question was answered by a great big flash of light from just a few blocks away. It blinded everyone present, even through their visors and helmets, searing their eyes for a single instant before the light disappeared and a rush of frigid air slammed into them. It felt like they had just been plunged into the dead of winter for a split second, before it went away and the heat of the sun rushed in to fill the void left by the cold.

Screams responded from down below as the civilians ran away from the area in a panic and as Dennis blinked the spots out of his eyes, Kid Win spoke into his helmet again, “Console! We’ve got a… I-I don't even know what that was! There was a big flash of light and a wave of cold air near our location. Possible parahuman in the area. Please advise!”

As he waited for a response, Dennis and Vista stared at the place where the eruption had emanated from, watching thick white smoke rise into the air and float away on the wind. There was a long moment of silence, before Vista turned to him, her face placid, “Hey Clockblocker?”

“Yeah?”

“Try not to choke on your foot.” She scowled at him and he nodded slowly.

“That’s fair.”

Kid Win walked up to them, hoverboard held in hand and an anxious look on his face, “We’ve got the go ahead to investigate but we aren’t allowed to engage. We’re on search and rescue until Armsmaster shows up.”

Dennis and Vista nodded and he hopped on his board, looking at the latter imploringly. Stepping towards the edge of the roof, Vista held her hands out, twisting the air in front of her. Space bent like silly putty and suddenly the next building over was a foot away. Together, they stepped through, making their way to the scene of the crime one building at a time

~~~

They arrived at the scene of the explosion quickly and it was immediately apparent which building had been the target of whatever attack had just been enacted, because every other building on the block was completely untouched.

The heroes cautiously walked up to the building, wary just in case whatever had caused this might repeat itself. Beside Dennis, Vista spoke softly, her voice practically trembling, “Are they…?” She didn’t finish the sentence, but she didn’t need to. It was apparent to everyone present what she was about to ask and the answer was just as clear to see.

Nestled between two completely normal buildings, was a display piece of ice so cold that it was causing the air around it to steam with its very presence. The smoke that they had seen on the horizon wasn’t smoke at all, just the usual vapor of the world rejecting the existence of something so frigid that it shouldn’t ever exist. What had once been a rundown laundromat had been transformed into a sculpture of ice so cold and so clear that Dennis could literally see right through it and to the other side of the street.

He could also see the frozen figures of several men with shaved heads through the walls. They were in the middle of counting fat stacks of frozen cash, wrapping them and putting them in containers for storage. They were frozen mid-motion, and it was clear to everyone that not a single one of them had a moment to react before they were trapped in this new existence as decorations for a fancy yacht party.

“Using a laundromat for money laundering? Classy.” Dennis said as they stared at the macabre sculpture in front of them. Vista gave him a dirty look as Kid Win called it in with console, and he shrugged as he walked forward to examine the ice more closely.

The closer he got, the closer the air was. But it was a strange type of cold and clearly not natural at all. If Dennis had to explain it, it was like someone had sucked all of the heat out of the air until only cold was left in its place, as opposed to just filling it with freezing air until it cooled off naturally. Definitely some power bs.

He leaned forward, inspecting the ice and marveling at just how clear it was. Even though it was freezing on a pretty warm day, the ice hadn’t fogged up at all, practically crystal clear all the way through. He reached out, wanting to see how cold it was on his hands, only to freeze as another bright flash of light came from behind him.

As one, the gathered Wards turned to look at the explosion that had just occurred less than a block away. Once again the explosion was silent and thankfully not nearly as bright as the last one, and a large plume of ash peeked over the tall buildings. More screams came from the direction of the blast, and each of the Wards shared looks before making their way over to the scene of the detonation, leaving the icy building behind.

The next location was pretty much just as bad as the first, with the key difference being in the method used to absolutely devastated the building. Instead of being turned into a giant ice sculpture, this one had been completely disintegrated, stone and glass and pretty much everything inorganic turned into one giant pile of ash laying in the gap between two buildings.

There were even more skinheads laying in the ash, naked and covered in a thin layer of soot but seemingly alive and mostly unharmed. They weren’t conscious and their skin was bright red from the burns that the ash had inflicted on them, and as he stared at him, Dennis was struck with a sudden realization.

“She’s attacking Empire fronts.” He realized, making the other two look at him. He looked at them, “This has gotta be Yosei, right? There’s no way its a coincidence that both places we’ve visited have skinheads hanging out in them. We’re close enough to Empire territory for them to operate out here, and I bet Yosei knows that too.”

“But how did she figure out which businesses belonged to the Empire?” Kid Win asked, staring at the destroyed building.

“Probably has a guy on the inside.” Vista speculated, “That place she took out a few days ago was a huge weapons depot that even we didn't know about. No way she could have known about it without some inside info, and I've got a feeling I know who.”

Dennis groaned, “I can't believe this whole thing was started over Rune of all people. Going this far for your Nazi girlfriend is nuts.”

As Kid Win called it in, Vista looked around, searching the area for anything suspicious or something that might tell them what had caused this. As she did that, Dennis moved to make sure that the guys in the ash weren't actually dead like their friends probably were.

They had pulsed, so that was good, but their breathing sounded hoarse which meant the probably inhaled quite a bit of ash, which was definitely not good for their lungs.

“Hey Kid! Call in some ambulances too! These guys aren't breathing too good!” Dennis said as he stood up, dusting his hands off and doing his best to avoid staring at these guys’ collective junk.

“Clock, we've got company!” Vista suddenly shouted, her eyes wide as she pointed up at one of the nearby buildings.

Surprised by the shout, Dennis turned to look where Vista was pointing and froze as he was met with a glaring red oni mask gazing down at them from the edge of a nearby roof.

“Oh shit.” He said, running to Vista's side as they stared up at Oni Lee warily.

The man wasn't doing anything, standing as still as a statue and just staring at them. It was like he wanted to make sure they saw him or something, so they could know exactly who was responsible for all of this destruction.

“Console, we've got Oni Lee here. Looks like he was the one responsible for all of this. Please advise.”

As Kid Win waited for the go ahead to do anything, Dennis decided that he wasn't going to just sit by and wait for him to get away. He exchanged a look with Vista whose face hardened, before she nodded minutely.

Dennis’s fingers flexed as he turned back to the demon who was still just standing there. Did he think that they couldn't get to him up there or something? Dennis would be happy to prove him wrong.

There was a beat, before Vista clenched the air in front of her, activating her power. Space warped and Dennis stepped forward a single step, slamming his hand on the side of Oni Lee’s body as the distance between them was reduced to a foot in a mere instant.

His hand made contact with the demon’s jacket and the man was immediately locked in place as he was put under the influence of Dennis’s power. The teen grinned triumphantly, holding his hand on Oni Lee’s body so that he could keep him time locked indefinitely.

Unfortunately, the winds of victory were immediately taken out of his sails as Vista shouted his name, pointing beside him at an adjacent rooftop. Already knowing what he would find, he looked over and glared at Oni Lee who was once again just staring him down.

“Oh that's bullshit.” Dennis said as he realized their surprise attack had completely failed. He took his hand off of the clone, eying Oni Lee from across the street. The man tilted his head mockingly, as if he was asking why Dennis had even tried, before glancing off to the side and going still.

Space warped in front of Dennis and Vista stepped through, landing on the rooftop beside him as the clone burst into a pile of ash. Dennis stared at the other clone, watching as it also disappeared, “I thought I had him.”

“There's a reason he's never been captured, I guess.” Vista said, sounding just as unhappy as he was, “At least now we know who was behind all of this.”

“Like it wasn't obvious before. We've only found skinheads in these businesses so far.” Dennis said, “Yosei's attacking Empire fronts.”

“I didn't think she'd be able to retaliate so soon after the Empire attacked her.” She said as she brought them back down to the ground, “It literally happened a few minutes ago. Was she planning this ahead of time?”

Dennis looked down at his hand, clenching his fist, “No clue. All I know is that Kaiser is going to shit his pants once he realizes that Lee's going around bombing their fronts.”

Vista stared off in the direction that Oni Lee had disappeared, a worried expression crossing her face, “This is going to be bad, isn't it?”

Dennis nodded silently, and the gesture was reinforced by yet another flash of light on the horizon, an explosion blossoming forth dozens of blocks away.