Amaranthine

The doors to The Council’s chamber were reinforced, there was no doubt about that. However, whatever reinforcement they had, it wasn’t designed with a tungsten rod delivered with the force of a dragon strike, and that was currently the best description for Kennedy’s leg. Her kick sent the doors crashing open, a sizeable dent in the center ensuring they wouldn’t be locking anyone else out for the foreseeable future.

The Council themselves, already harried from the emergency in their city, scrambled back in shock at Kennedy’s dynamic entry. She scanned the room quickly, locking eyes with Firewall and immediately pulling his soul into a link. She felt his confusion and fear as she set about the work of interfering with his abilities using her own imitation. The burst of delight she felt from Cait told her it was working.

“My god, Kennedy,” Chairman Zebrowski began as he regained his composure, “You could kno—”

“One or all of you are fucking with us,” Kennedy snarled, sweeping her eyes across the scared inhabitants of the room. Her gaze rested squarely on Splice, and the woman’s Lirapedia entry began to populate in Kennedy’s vision.

Amanda Partridge, “Splice”

Altered

Can ‘splice’ abilities of others into another Altered’s power. Has used this to great effect in Technocago’s infrastructure.

Loyal to Technocago, but has recently been suborned by the Elevated Race movement.

These fuckin’ asshats again? Well, shitbirds, you’re not gonna have any better luck in this city than you did in mine.

Kennedy immediately leveled her shotgun at Splice’s head. Technically, the gun was far less lethal than any part of Kennedy’s body currently, but there was just something about looking down the barrel of a gun that resonated with people. Or maybe not, the smirk on Splice’s face was not the fear she wanted to see. Kennedy spared a moment to glare at the woman, before once more sweeping burning eyes across The Council.

“Anyone else want to admit to being an Altered Superiority nutjob? Because I will find out, but if I have to do it myself, I’ll be a lot more upset,” she said, then had a thought. She glanced at Gwyn, standing behind her and luxuriating in her tech working properly again. “Like this!”

She lowered her gun slightly, and took just enough time to appreciate the way Splice’s face fell before Kennedy pulled the trigger. A full load of buckshot turned Splice’s toned midriff into chili, the force and shock knocking her straight to the floor. Kennedy flagged each member of The Council with the smoking barrel, ensuring she had each one’s full and undivided attention.

“Gwyn, make sure she doesn’t die. Gonna need to pump her for info,” Kennedy commanded, to a groan from Gwyn.

“Jesus, Kennedy, I do not have that kind of doctorate!” she complained, but nevertheless, a swarm of ‘bots flowed over to Splice, starting to undo some of the damage Kennedy had done. Judging by Splice’s screams, it hurt worse than the buckshot had.

Kennedy was tapped out as far as links went, holding Cait’s, Qi’s, Lira’s, and Firewall’s. But that was what Lira’s link was for. She saw the soft blue glow of her eyes reflected in Chairman Zebrowski’s as she pulled up his entry.

Herman Zebrowski

Altered: Meta-Brain

Unusual emotional intelligence and leadership ability, but low technical knowledge sets him apart from most Meta-Brains.

Interested solely in the safety and security of Technocago.

Okay, so not all the way to the top, Kennedy thought, allowing a little tension to leave her core. Mom wouldn’t have been happy if I went on a diplomatic mission and ended up killing the head of a city-state.

“Well?” she prompted, with a nod to Zebrowski she hoped conveyed ‘you’re cool’. “Anyone? Speak now or get shot in the gut when I find out myself.”

Firewall’s eyes were truly manic, those of a man whose panic was fully overriding his higher functions. His voice broke as he spoke.

“They have my kids!” he squeaked, and Kennedy turned her gaze on him. Honestly, either he was one of the best actors she’d ever seen or he was telling the truth, but it wouldn’t hurt to be sure.

Carl Macron, “Firewall”

Altered

Able to disable technology with pinpoint accuracy. Major part of Technocago’s infrastructure, his powers being spliced into the Powerlines.

Currently compromised by Elevated Race operatives, under threat of familial harm.

“Not lying, good,” Kennedy said, giving him a sympathetic look. That said, with that kind of motivation, she kept the gun trained squarely on him. No telling what a good parent would do to protect their kids. “Gwyn? Make that hurt a little worse, find out where and how.”

“This would be fun, if I was a fuckin’ sadist,” Gwyn muttered, but Splice’s screams intensified all the same.

“Better start hearing some actual words in those screams, bitch!” Kennedy prompted, raising her voice to be heard over the unholy cacophony. Gwyn might not be enjoying this, but Kennedy had found a bit of a sadistic streak inside herself with Qi, and, if she wasn’t being honest, she hadn’t liked the way Splice looked at Cait.

“His home!” Splice screamed, snapping like a twig under enhanced interrogation. “Operatives across the street! Fucking- ohmyfuckinggod stop this!”

Gwyn looked at her, but Kennedy shook her head, and Splice let out a groan that could’ve come from the pit of hell itself.

“What kind of operatives we talking about?” Kennedy asked, still scanning The Council. She thanked her lucky stars when PlazLoad came up clean. That would’ve been a hit to the entire NAAC, not just Technocago.

“Low level Altereds, more dangerous because of the guns than their powers, barely even elevated, please, god, make her stop!” Splice begged.

“I mean, I could, but you’d die,” Kennedy lied. Honestly, she supected Gwyn had already stabilized the woman, but she didn’t need to know that. “How are you fucking with our comms?”

“Operative outside of the city, Airwave,” she gasped, notably without a plea for Gwyn to stop. Gwyn, howeved was beginning to look at Kennedy with a face that said she was nearly at her limit for extrajudicail torture.

“Make him stop,” Kennedy commanded. Splice screamed in response, but pulled out a device from her pocket, clicking a rhythm on a button. After a moment, the device repeated the pattern back, with a couple additional beeps at the end. “There! Its done!”

Immediately, Kennedy’s comm freaked out, buzzing with a dozen messages and alerts. Most were just messages from Lira, casual, then flirty, then pouty, before a final one sent minutes ago telling Kennedy to ignore everything but the promises she’d made in the flirty ones.

More importantly, however, were the alerts from AEGIS’ network, warning of a major horde attack on DSM. Fortunately, that had quickly been followed by an all clear, as The Tortoiseshell and Dawn’s Arbor proved too formidable for even an enhanced horde to really challenge.

Kennedy opened a channel to Cait.

“You okay, babe?” she asked, nodding to Gwyn to stop hurting and start helping.

“Been better!” Cait answered, and Kennedy could hear a weird buzzing noise under her voice, alongside the racket Cait always made in a fight. “Got a Gwyn gone bad kind of situation down here, and gotta be honest, even with my tech back this fight is a holding pattern.”

“So not practicing ethical nano-tech,” Gwyn hissed under her breath, apparently having patched into the conversation, privacy be damned.

“Nope! B-Man’s okay, by the way,” responded Cait.

“Well obviously,” Gwyn said, but Kennedy could see the relief written on her face.

She wouldn’t have had to wait for confirmation very long anyway, as an Ironhide crashed through the window of The Council’s chamber, and was promptly smushed by the purple tentacle holding it. A series of thundering crashes announced Qi’s arrival, clawing her way up the reinforced glass of the building like something straight out of Rampage.

CAIT’S IN TROUBLE! THE GWYN KIND!

It was odd as ever how B-man managed to convey emotion through nothing more than the ambient motion of his tentacles, and some twitches of his hat, but he was very clearly frantic.

“Way ahead of you,” Kennedy said, tapping her ear. The channel clicked as Breastman and Qi joined in.

‘HEY BUDDY, YOU ALIVE?’ asked B-man’s hilariously accented text-to speech, and Cait’s chuckle gave him all the answer he needed.

“Okay,” Kennedy said, finishing her scan of the rest of The Council and finding them clean-ish, save for a few weird sexual predilections and minor offenses Kennedy was going to let slide for diplomatic purposes. Kinda see why Lira refuses to use this so often, weird to know this much about people. Feels wrong. “Gwyn, am I too tough for ‘bots to eat?”

Gwyn squinted at her, then a thin silver line whipped out at her, slapping across her shoulder.

“Gah!” Kennedy yelled, more out of surprise than pain, rubbing at the scaly armor. It was slightly scuffed, but only just.

“Looks like mostly? It’d take em awhile at least,” Gwyn said, shrugging.

“Good enough,” Kennedy said, snapping a talon at her. “With me, let’s go save a bimbo and find whoever’s pulling this ‘Dark Gwyn’ shit. Oh, fuck, wait.”

Kennedy walked over, and planted a combat boot in the slivered mess of Splice’s intestines. The screaming began anew.

“Any input, vis-à-vis you shitheads’ nano-fuck?” she asked, lifting her boot, pleased to find it’d left a dirty print on Splice’s outside-insides.

“Not really!” Splice whimpered, all real fire out of her voice. She raised a pitiful hand when Kennedy moved to place her boot back on her stomach. “Wait! I honestly don’t know much! He goes by Powershell, Shard sent him up from Tenochtitlan to help the organization take the city. He’s been working in the city tunnels for years, but he doesn’t say much. Just told us what to do, then gave the signal to kick things off!”

Kennedy fought back the urge to just give her another stomp in the guts on principle, but Splice was well and truly broken. Her whole body shook, and her eyes had the hollow look of shock. Hurting her more just out of spite would be pretty tough to justify and still count herself on the side of the angels.

“Qi, B-Man, Willow, the rest of the council is clean, work with them on emergency response. Get someone out to save Firewall’s kids so I can drop this link, let me know when it’s done,” she ordered, receiving jaunty salutes from both the dragon, too big to fit in the room by this point, and the little tentacle monster currently held tight between Gwyn’s breasts. “Drop him, Gwyn, we got work to do.”

Kennedy didn’t wait for her to obey, just turning and striding confidently out of the hole Breastman had left in the window.