Paradox Pack: The Paradox Job, pt 1
sorry for the rush job on the editing, but i’m super thrilled to be working on this story. it’s a fic for my masks campaign, which is super fun and completely awesome to play. mostly for the other members of the group, but you can read if you want.
Nightingale went down first.
It had been a perfectly ordinary mission, in the beginning. Darkling’s family had received intelligence that there was going to be shipment for the Ring of Gyges passing through the warehouse district, not far from where the old Lairhouse had been. The pack had chosen positions and lain in wait, expecting the trucks at any time. They should have twigged that something was wrong when there was only one truck, but when the fight broke out no one was paying very close attention to the number of vehicles until Nightingale threw open the rear doors.
The truck contained a large and conspicuous power dampener, and a number of wire cages. Five wire cages to be exact. All of them were empty. As Nightingale stood frozen they one by one looked over: first Clubs, then Dynamo, Sundog, Butterfly and Darkling. As they saw the interior of the truck they all reached the same conclusion.
There was no shipment. Or rather, the shipment was them.
“It’s a trap!” Nightingale shouted, leaping backward to try and take to the air, but one of the thugs slammed the butt of his gun against her back and forced her to her knees inside the truck. He jumped in after her and shoved her into one of the cages before she could regain her feet, and locked it behind her.
“Nightingale!” Clubs yelled, leaping into the back of the truck to try and free her, but the thug who had been fighting Butterfly, who she’d been obliged to give some room to avoid taking the barrel of his gun the teeth, aimed at Clubs’ back and fired.
With a cry Clubs went down, bleeding profusely from a wound in his shoulder, and the thug in the truck shoved him into another cage.
“Clubs!” Nightingale shrieked, rattling the bars of her cage, but it was solid and the power dampener was doing its work.
The thug who’d shot clubs turned his weapon on Darkling next, but before he could shoot Butterfly high kicked his gun so that it whacked him hard in the nose. Another well placed kick to the groin had the thug on his knees, and Butterfly turned to the others. Dynamo, who had been trying to get at another thug with her stunchucks, activated her force field belt and ran toward the truck. Multiple thugs tried to stop her, but her force field barreled through them like a battering ram. She leaped into the back of the truck, her belt’s protection knocking aside the thug that had trapped her teammates, and began trying to undo the locks on the cages.
Low on time, Dynamo simply put her hand on the lock and tried to short it out, but apparently this had been factored into preparations. She screamed as whatever was in the lock flooded her system, electricity crackling along her skin, and her belt shorted out with a whirring buzz. She dropped like a stone, and was promptly shoved into a third cage.
Butterfly was distracted at that point by another thug coming at her from behind. He got an arm around her neck in a sleeper hold, and for a few seconds she was unable to free herself. She was just beginning to see blackness creep in at the edges of her vision when suddenly light exploded from above, and Sundog’s voice cut through the confusion.
“Let my family go!” they said, tone furious and commanding.
The thugs ignored them, but it was distraction enough for Butterfly to fling the one that had hold of her over her shoulder. He landed on his back, dazed and half blind, and Butterfly stood with one hand on his neck, exerting just enough pressure to cut off his air, but not enough to crush the windpipe. Above her Sundog was still shouting for them to let the others go, but down on the ground another thug was aiming at Sundog. Before Butterfly could move suddenly a small tuft of feathers was sticking out of Sundog’s back. A stunning dart.
As Sundog began to fall, their light fading as they lost consciousness, Darkling dived into the shadows surrounding the nearest warehouse. There was a long shadow from a nearby stack of crates right where Sundog was falling, and Darkling opened a portal directly beneath them. Sundog fell through it, and then there was a grunt of pain from Darkling as the exit portal in the shadows of the warehouse dumped the unconscious sunbadger atop them.
Not willing to waste the opportunity, the thugs swarmed into the shadows. In seconds four of them had the winded Darkling by all four limbs, and a fifth was carrying Sundog. Darkling was not so much hoisted as throw, struggling and kicking, into the truck and shoved into a cage by one of the soldiers that climbed in after them, and Sundog was placed none too gently in another.
“No!” Butterfly screamed, lifting her foot from the thug’s throat, uncaring whether she had successfully knocked him out or not.
She ran for the truck, but all the thugs except the one she’d been grinding under her heel were piling into the back of the truck. With a jolt of horror Butterfly realized why there were only five cages in the back of the truck; she had no powers, and hence was of no interest to the Ring of Gyges. The doors to the back of the truck slammed before she reached them, and the truck sped off just as her fingers brushed the handle. She ran after it for a few yards, screaming incoherently, but it was no good. She could not catch up. She couldn’t save her family.
Finally Butterfly stopped running and bent double, hands on her knees, breathing hard. She heard the tires of the truck squealing as they sped off, and there was the sound of laughter, and then of gunfire. Butterfly put up an arm to shield her face, and felt the bullet bounce off her suit. More laughter, and then the truck turned a corner and was gone.
Never, Butterfly thought, had she wished for superpowers. She’d always done enough, been enough, as an ordinary human. Her body was a weapon, a finely tuned instrument of beautiful destruction, and that had always, always been enough. As she watched the truck vanish however, she found that she couldn’t help but wish for some power that could reach out and stop them from getting away. Her family were right there, they were so close, and if they got any farther she would-
She shook herself. The truck was gone, and so was her family. Now she needed to concentrate on getting them back.
She turned, to see the thug she’d been choking with her foot sitting up and rubbing his throat. He had been left behind by his fellows, who had probably believe him unconscious. Now he turned to Butterfly, saw what was clearly the completely savage look on her face, and turned tail to flee.
“Oh no you don’t!” she shouted, breaking into a run.
The man was still dazed, and Butterfly was desperate, and she closed the distance between them easily. She kicked him in the back, hard, and he went sprawling forward onto the pavement. She turned him over, onto his back, with her foot, and he looked up at her in nothing short of horror and despair.
“Where are they taking my family?” Butterfly demanded.
“I don’t know,” the man shook his head.
Butterfly put her foot on his throat and pressed lightly. “Try again.”
“You don’t know the corners of the harbor my bits are gonna end up in if I tell you,” the man wheezed.
Butterfly reached up and traced Silver Star’s diadem with a finger. “Recognize this?”
The man’s eyes widened, and he looked suddenly even more terrified than before. Butterfly summoned up every scrap of anger and remembered what Kate had told her. They have to believe you’ll really hurt them.
“I was trained by Silver Star herself,” Butterfly told him, her tone cold as ice. “If you dodge my question one more time I will crush your throat beneath my foot, don’t think I won’t.”
The man swallowed, then whimpered. “There’s a piece of paper in my jacket. It’s got the address.”
