Tone: Downbeat 2.4

Skitter's plan was pretty ballsy, but Roxy had to admit that it was also pretty good. There was no way the Wards would expect it.

And sure as shit, they didn't.

The doors to the bank exploded outwards under the power of Roxy's Thumpers, sending the reinforced glass facades careening into the street with a deafening boom. The Wards reeled back as Roxy strode outwards confidently, armor gleaming in the rain as she took up position just in front of the building, blocking their path.

"Stay right there," she called out, her voice carrying toward them easily.

The Wards tensed, readying themselves for a fight, but just then, more figures stumbled out of the bank after her: the hostages. They crowded together in groups, looking terrified and then hopeful as they saw the heroes standing on the other side of the street. A few broke free of the crowd, sprinting past Roxy and towards their saviors. Roxy let them go, sticking to the plan.

"Everyone who just exited the bank, get on the ground and put your hands on your heads!" Aegis called out, his voice carrying over the rain. "Do it slowly!"

Several of the hostages complied, crouching down onto the wet pavement and submitting themselves to the law. Others remained standing where they were, too afraid or stunned to follow the command. Either way, it didn't matter as moments after the hostages cleared the steps of the bank, a wave of darkness rushed out after them. It consumed them without so much as a sound, quickly spreading to the street beyond. Roxy was enveloped as well, plunged into nothingness as Grue's power spread through the street.

Being inside of Grue's darkness was weird. Roxy somewhat knew what to expect after experimenting in the bank, but it was still disconcerting to be plunged into the pitch black. It was as if someone had plucked out her eyes and there was a faint resistance in the air, as if she was being held under a thin layer of water. Even her hearing, normally the bane of existence, had been muted until only the barest sound leaked into her ears. It threw her off for a moment, but she stuck to the plan.

She sprinted through the darkness at the Wards' last known location, hands reaching for her belt and grabbing several small spheres attached there by magnets. Her footsteps were soundless in the void, her breathing muted to nothing, but she didn't need sound to know where she was going. She'd memorized the positions of every Ward before the darkness fell, and her power let her feel the faint vibrations of their movements through the ground.

Three. Two. One.

Roxy burst out of the darkness directly in front of the Wards, her armor catching the light as she skidded to a halt. Before any of them could react, she threw the spheres in her hand, scattering them across the street in a wide pattern. They rolled and bounced, coming to rest around the heroes' feet like blinking marbles.

Space stretched, and the street around them warped and twisted like taffy, the buildings on either side of the street leaning as Vista worked her power. The distance between Roxy and the Wards grew , the Tick-Tacks skidding away from their targets as the young heroine tried to give them room, but it wasn't quite fast enough to affect them all.

“Pop,” Roxy mouthed into the speaker at the base of her helmet. 

The Tick-Tacks blinked bright blue as they registered her voice. A heartbeat later, they began to emit a horrific screech that built in intensity with every passing second. The sound echoed off the buildings and rattled the windows of nearby storefronts. Car alarms triggered in a cascade of wailing sirens, adding to the cacophony.

With her helmet, Roxy was unaffected, but two of the Wards in the blast zone weren't so lucky. Kid Win and Aegis staggered as the fluid in their inner ears bounced and bubbled alongside the frequency that Roxy had programmed into her little toys. Vertigo overwhelmed them, sending Aegis sprawling onto the ground with his first step, whole Kid Win's hoverboard drifted sideways, nearly dumping him onto the pavement.

Their teammates turned, prepared to help, but just then, the second phase of their plan was enacted as Bitch's dogs bounded out of the smoke as well. Bitch rode the largest of them, her fingers digging into its hide as she spurred them onward. They ate up the elongated distance Vista had created with long, loping strides, their claws scraping against the pavement as they closed the gap.

Roxy followed after them, her armor's motors whirring as she pushed herself forward. The Wards were scattered now, their formation broken by the Tick-Tacks and the sudden appearance of the dogs. Grue's darkness was fading behind them, receding back toward the bank, but the damage was done. The heroes were on the back foot, and the Undersiders picked their targets. 

Roxy’s target was Vista. Not only did the girl’s power fantastic for support, but as Tattletale pointed out, it also perfectly countered Roxy’s tech. She could fuck with whatever medium Roxy’s frequencies were traveling through and render them completely impotent by the time they reached their target, assuming they even did. If Vista was allowed free reign, none of them were getting out of here.

Roxy ran toward the girl who was focused on baiting a dog away from her teammates. As her attention was diverted away, her power had faded from the street, allowing Roxy to clear the distance between them in an instant. She reared a fist back, Thumper whining around her forearm.

Vista turned at the last moment, eyes widening behind her visor as she saw Roxy bearing down on her. Roxy tried to put on a burst of speed but space twisted and she was suddenly left staring at a parked car instead of her opponent. She could already tell it was going to be annoying.

Skidding to a stop before she ran headfirst into the car, Roxy reoriented herself toward her chosen opponent, only for a red laser to skid off of the side of her pauldron the moment she got the girl in her sights.

Cursing, Roxy rolled behind the car just as another laser whizzed by her face. Kid Win had managed to gain some semblance of control over his vehicle and was bearing down on her from above. The car was peppered with a barrage of lasers, forcing Roxy to duck behind it as the Ward kept her pinned down.

Trusting her armor to protect her, Roxy reached behind her and unholstered her rifle before popping up just as the lasers died off. Kid Win was only a few feet away from her, turning in midair to retreat or set up another run. He saw her lean over the car and tried to raise his pistols, but Roxy sighted him down and pulled the trigger before he could get a shot off. 

Coil's funding hadn't just gone into making her armor and a couple bombs. Roxy had made prodigious use of the asshole's money to improve pretty much every single aspect of her arsenal. Before, her Sonic Lance had been her go-to long range weapon, while her Thumpers were for more up close and personal business. With a few modifications, that limited capability had widened drastically.

Her weapon whined, the resonance rod lodged in the middle of the thing shaking like it wanted to burst apart. A wave of distorted sound shook the air like a shotgun blast, cracking the car's windows and pressing against Roxy's shoulders. The blast Kid Win square in the chest. He wobbled on his hoverboard, arms pinwheeling as he fought to stay balanced. For a moment, it looked like he might manage it, his board stabilizing beneath him as he fought to regain his equilibrium.

Roxy clicked her tongue, already priming another shot, but it turned out to be unnecessary as Kid Win's legs  suddenly spasmed, finally knocking him out of the sky and sending him careening down to the ground below. 

Vista gasped loudly, her head whipping toward her fallen teammate. The space between them compressed, the young heroine crossing a dozen feet in a single step as she abandoned her position to reach him. She crouched beside Kid Win, her hands hovering uncertainly over his twitching form.

And just like that, she'd given Roxy the opening she needed.

The air vibrated, distorting the rain between them into momentary spirals. The blast caught Vista square in the chest before she could even turn, sending her sprawling across the pavement where she curled in on herself.

Roxy holstered her Sonic Lance, letting it snap back into place against her back as she strode toward the fallen heroine. Combat raged around her as the Undersiders fought for an opening past the forces of good, but none of it was coming in her direction and Vista was struggling to her feet. She had to finish this.

The girl's hands pressing against the wet pavement as she pushed herself up. She barely made it to her hands and knees before Roxy was looming over her, her armor casting a shadow that blocked out the rain.

Vista looked up, her face pale and strained behind her cracked visor. Roxy reached into her belt and pulled out a single Tick-Tack, holding it between her fingers for the girl to see, before dropping it onto the pavement right in front of the girl. It rolled underneath her body and Vista froze, knowing just how dangerous the thing was.

Roxy smirked. "It won't kill you, but this close? Deafness is definitely on the menu. Maybe just lay back and play dead for a little while. It's not like it's your money anyway."

Vista glared up at her, her face screwed up in impotent rage. Rain plastered her hair to her forehead, running in rivulets down her cheeks like tears, and her lips were curled back in a snarl that seemed almost too fierce for her young features. She looked like she was about to throw a tantrum, and Roxy wanted to laugh.

"Brockton Bay has enough problems without some Tinker showing up and joining the most annoying villains outside Uber and Leet," Vista spat, her voice trembling with fury. "Why don't you just fuck off back to your wherever you came from and leave us alone?"

Roxy opened her mouth to respond, something cutting and clever already forming on her tongue, but the words died before they could leave her throat and she just... stared.

No fucking way.

Roxy’s powers came with several weird quirks, with supercharged hearing only being the most obvious and frankly annoying of them. One of those quirks was the ability to differentiate sounds and the frequencies that lay behind them with only the barest glance. It was useful in several ways: adjusting her tech, making music, picking her name out in a crowded room… And memorizing voices.

Once Roxy heard a voice, it was hard to forget it. Everyone had little bumps and hitches in their own personal frequencies that differentiated them from everyone else. Even twins who grew up together didn’t sound completely alike, at least not to Roxy’s ears. She had yet to find anyone who did.

So then why the actual fuck did this superhero have the exact same voice as her annoyingly nosy ex-classmate?