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Exalted (Roleplaying Game)Parahumans Series - WildbowWorld of Darkness (Games)Mage: The AscensionWerewolf: The ApocalypseVampire: The MasqueradeChangeling: the DreamingDemon: The Fallen

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FriendshipAlternate UniverseSlice of LifeCrossoverBody HorrorMartial ArtsMind ControlDemonsCanon-Typical ViolenceReverse Isekai and TransmigrationAlternate Universe - World of Darkness (Games) SettingPost-Time Skip

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Published:2025-08-22Updated:2025-09-01Words:101,443Chapters:12/?Comments:4Kudos:14Bookmarks:7Hits:1,573

Allegedly a Villain in Brockton Bay: a Tale From The Broken-Winged Crane

tyrant_raksha

Chapter 7: Operation BIRDMAN

Chapter Text

Tattletale's cell phone rang--not her normal cell phone either. She relocated from the restaurant seating area she had been eating at to the single-occupant handicapped bathroom, and locked the door behind her. Without even looking at the Caller ID she answered: "Hi boss. I was wondering when you wanted us to hit that jewelry store."

"Tattletale," began Coil, "you are eager for action, as always. Incorrect guess though. That store folded yesterday. Further interference with their business would just cut into our bottom line."

"Really? That was quick. Did you mention the name of the dog?"

"Indeed, Tattletale, your finders fee on that has already been processed and on its way to your account."

"Great! Then I guess that's all the work for this month."

"Not quite. Your talents are too valuable to leave you idle. I have work that requires you specifically."

"Lucky me, boss. When you say 'me specifically' do you mean I don't need the rest of the team?"

"You probably won't need them."

"No offense, but we do have an agreement as a team. It might not be in writing, but we are a team, and agreed to negotiate as a unit."

"Fine. I will pay the normal rate. But, you should know that this is a low risk intel mission."

"So what's the job?"

"Your team will be tasked with leading Lung to personally encounter a target near the docks. It would be best if you did it without exposing yourselves to Lung directly. Harassing his staff is fine, just don't get in a fight. Your personal role will be to observe the encounter. Your standard pay will be doubled if you can get intel footage during the encounter and doubled again if you can dig up anything interesting about the powers of the target."

"Uh huh, something tells me you already had a plan prepared in case I took the team with me."

"Of course. Your target is expected to be wearing an all black costume with a long pointed mask and wide hat."

Tattletale didn't need her powers to guess this was a new cape in town. Her mysterious boss seemed to be the kind of guy who would likely sell that intel at a premium to customers. "Are you gonna sell this video boss?"

"Knowledge is power, Tattletale. I won't be giving you any additional intel about the target, I don't want to bias the results your power digs up. I will however give you a heads up when I know the target's schedule. I will use the code name BIRDMAN for the target in our communications."

"Alright, on behalf of the Undersiders, I accept Operation BIRDMAN."

At this point, she almost wished she hadn't agreed to this stupid plan. Tattletale had been stuck in the rain for hours, moving from roof to roof, running up and down stairs when the gaps were too big to jump, and picking locks in a hurry to accomplish it all.

The idea originally was to use BIRDMAN's schedule to plot out a route and try to wrangle him and Lung into meeting. Unfortunately, BIRDMAN seemed to not have a fixed schedule, and Lung did whatever the hell he wanted. Her powers let her read the writing on the wall, so to speak, but it was more like getting hints at probable paths implied by the infrequent radio reports she got about BIRDMAN and Lung.

It was exhausting, and she'd been there for six hours at that point, coming in right after Lung left his favorite office and before he got dinner. BIRDMAN was allegedly in the area as well, but she had no clue where half the time. Mostly, Boss's reports were followed up with mad dashes for her, while Brian and Alec got to mostly sit on their asses out of the rain, unless a target of opportunity was reported. Then they'd go harass one of Lung's minions to keep them annoyed with the Undersiders.

As near as she could guess, BIRDMAN didn't seem to have neither a schedule nor a planned route. There was some kind of method to the madness, but she lacked vital facts and her Power just highlighted her ignorance. Whatever eyes the boss had on the guy didn't seem to be very good at tailing him, or he was very good at avoiding them. It was too early to tell. Her best guess was that the boss had some drone cameras in addition to someone on foot. There really wasn't any other non-Power explanation of the speed at which the updates came in.

The only equipment she brought with her were a pair of throwable cameras. They were little more than Go-Pro's attached to cheap RC car controllers, but were innocuous and quiet if a bit slow. Their precision and video quality weren't the best, but it was better than most security cams. Those cameras coupled with a set of climbing equipment, would hopefully help her get her bonus. If not, she was out a few bucks. No biggie.

"BIRDMAN and Lung confirmed south of your location." chattered the radio update. She had to run again to catch up.

Lung held a plastic take-out container in his hands from one of the best chinmi restaurants on the east coast--which just so happened to be in Brockton Bay. Within the twofold partition were hearty servings of his favorite dishes from that restaurant's fine selection of Japanese delicacies: sun-dried Karasumi mullet roe, and his recently acquired taste for the strongly flavored salted fermented fish viscera dish Shiokara. The thick brown gravy-like liquid of the Shiokara left a pungent cloud around him. He knew that it nauseated his men, but didn't care.

It annoyed him to no end that his meal was interrupted. He liked having whiskey with his Shiokara, and was thoroughly disappointed that that option was taken from him by some fucking amateur villain team. He would order his men to kneecap the fuckers for his aggravation. He just didn't have enough hands to hold the bottle, cups, utensils, and plastic container all at once. Were he more sober, he would have probably had the foresight to just hand his shit to a lackey. Still buzzed, he was aware of his failure to plan ahead, but couldn't really be bothered to care that much. Not when he had someone else to beat for his inconvenience.

Starting just after dusk, there had been reports of tags being vandalized. Seeing as tags were a clear way to mark the borders of the ABB territory so that even those illiterate skinheads would think twice before crossing. Lung took his territory seriously, and had a spray crew sent out to fix the art and kick the ass of whatever punk kept tagging them.

An hour later, the spray crew walked into one of his bars. Or rather, they didn't walk so much as they hopped into the bar. The crew were naked, arms zip-tied behind them, and legs similarly bound at the ankles and knees. They were gagged with their own underwear or socks, behind some duct tape. They said two capes walked out of a cloud of darkness, tazed them till they shit themselves, then robbed them. Whatever paltry sum they had been carrying paled in comparison to the sheer gall of spitting in the face of his gang that the act represented. There were a lot of capes in town, but only the Undersiders' leader, Grue, had publicly demonstrated such a powerset.

After several rounds of ordering his men to pursue the little shits, Lung finally got confirmation that his men had them pinned down in a garage. He came in person specifically to kick their teeth in while he showed them his interrupted dinner.

Taylor could not help but overhear the part of the ABB's plans that were conveyed in mixed broken English--several asian languages interspersing heavily accented English--it was hard to understand for her.

"... just shoot them in the kneecaps and bring them to me. I wanna do it myself for ruining my dinner… ," she heard Lung command.

"Wait, make sure you get both kneecaps. Those tricky fucking kids can't be trusted not to pull something again. No escapes this time! Drag them out of that garage!"

It was obvious to her from context that Lung's gang was plotting to kill some kids!

She had trailed them from back alleys but they were splitting up to go kill those kids. She needed to do this though it seemed impossible--if she didn't act now, while the ABB were all in a clump, she might not be able to save those kids.

Her mouth was dry.

She had to move.

"Reports show BIRDMAN approaching from the south, 100m." said the boss over the radio.

"I don't see him, boss." Tattletale said, before turning and spinning 180 degrees. "I do see Lung and his gang, about two dozen. Coming into the lot from the north."

"Lung confirmed."

Tattletale could see the faces of Lung's minions, scowling slightly at his proximity through her binoculars. It was important, but she couldn't tell why. Maybe it was smelly? She could see flies around him through the optics.

"BIRDMAN should be visible." squawked the radio in her ear.

She turned back south and saw nothing. Poorly lit by sodium lamps, the roadway revealed little beyond debris and circling moths. She blinked and then saw him. A man now stood where there had previously been nothing but gravel and used needles. Where did he come from? In the middle of the orange cone of flickering lamp light, was a dark figure shrouded in ominous chiaroscuro. A cape of some kind, wearing a costume of strange angles in black on black. Two glass lenses reflected the flickering lamplight from within a mask of inhuman proportion. Either a giant nose or a beak poked out from beneath a wide black hat. He carried nothing besides a small cane.

She wanted to hide immediately.

"Um… BIRDMAN… confirmed, I hope..."

Another cape had appeared, not one he recognized either. His men stopped in their tracks, unconsciously backing away from a predator. Maybe the Undersiders brought in a mercenary? It looked like a villain, in that costume, and the fact that he was blocking the way that Lung was traveling didn't bode well, and surely couldn't have happened by accident.

The cape with the hat and cane stood very still and very conspicuously under a street lamp. Lung knew he wanted to be seen. Not an ambush then.

"This is my turf, stranger!" called out Lung, over the heads of his frozen men. "Leave now with just a warning."

"I want your food."

Lung growled involuntarily. His men backed away.

"The FUCK did you just say to me?!" he bellowed.

Broken English answered him; the stranger's accent was unplaceable and thickly foreign, as if he had even less English proficiency than Lung himself. "Can smell it from here. I want your food". <>

Taylor couldn't believe her luck.

Another villain showed up. In a creepy-looking plague doctor costume too! She could only just make out that the mask exposed his mouth to talk. Other than that flaw, it was a pretty close match for what she had seen in the history books and on the internet; she had spent embarrassingly long looking into creepy shit after realizing her Power was to control bugs. It reminded her of how her own homemade costume was very much a work in progress, and her mask didn't even cover her hair properly.

The Mexican Stand-off over shiokara continued.

Now, she realized that whatever distraction was happening, she would not have another chance to get so many bad guys in one small area. Her swarms definitely could spread out, but being in one big clump made them much easier to concentrate on.

It was now or never.

She had to keep these guys from killing those kids.

She reached out to her swarm, and commanded them for the first time:

Attack!

–

Lung either couldn't help himself, or (more accurately) just wanted to kick someone's ass right then. Too many frustrations had accumulated, and he needed some release. He could feel his pulse beat with the fire that he knew so well, his rage-stoked power began to prepare his flesh for violence. It called to him, begging him to use it.

"If you want this stranger, come TAKE it!" he growled while taking a step forward and holding up the container with his left hand. With his offhand, he signed at his right-hand lieutenant to stay on his shoulder. The man was the automatic rifleman on Lung's normal fire team--the brute was well aware of his limitations, and kept the gunman around to compensate. Lung hated having to chase prey when it ran.

{{Greed Without Restraint: rolls Conviction (7), failure, no botch}}

"I take." stated the stranger, his body language unreadable beneath the costume. Lung could swear that he could see the stranger licking the drool from the side of his mouth beneath the beak. The heat broke through his fingertips, and Lung knew that his claws were ready. He could easily punch through concrete with them. Lung shifted his weight slightly off center, preparing to sucker-punch the fucker.

As the stranger stepped forward a few paces into Lung's reach, Lung eyed the stranger's throat, picking a nice flat target of opportunity near the jugular.

Suddenly the lights dimmed, and his men started to mutter. Lung did not let them distract him. Flies buzzed around the meal he was holding out, but that didn't really surprise him, it was fermented fish. While it wasn't exactly tunnel vision, Lung's eyes were fixed, and did not detect the eerie swarms of insects that had appeared around the edges of the lot, which his men were pointing their guns at in confusion.

The man in the black costume reached out a gloved right hand, leaving his body open and throat unguarded. Lung could see the place on the man's throat he would strike, and knew that it was unarmored, visibly bearing no more protection than a bit of cloth and leather. Lung struck out with sufficient force to gut the man like a hog.

{{Lung attempts a sneak attack [combat rounds will happen after this action resolves]. Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner activates: All Things Betray for 1m; Attack no longer unexpected. Joining Battle(Wits+Awareness) [Lung(5), LT(5), Extras(go last), Skitter(8), JFLM(14) activates All Things Betray for 3m adding 7 autosuccesses]. Resulting order: JFLM[13s], LT[3s] Skitter[2s] / Lung [2s], Extras. ; JFLM goes first, performs Misc action Speed 5; Palette Without Limit is always assumed to be active for JFLM}}

Almost supernaturally, the stranger in black seemed to already know Lung's intentions. He moved just so, unnaturally entering into Lung's reach, and grabbing the bait from Lung's left hand with both of his own hands. The stranger moved with a grace that Lung had not expected from such a cumbersome looking costume, and the stranger shoved a ball of the fishy delicacy into his exposed mouth with chopsticks.

{{Lung Rolls to hit: Dex[3] + MA[4] +2(claws Acc bonus) + 2s from circumstance bonus; target Parry DV 10; net 0. JFLM counterattacks, activating Hand-Biting Retaliation (3m) and Mutilation Feast Method (6m) and Predatory Dominance (4m); Att Pool: Wits 7 + Occult 7 + 1(acc) = 15d10; Author Rolls: 7s. Lung PDV 4; Net succ: 3s. Raw Damage: 2 (carry over) + 7(Int) + 0 (weapon) = 9L raw - (Lung STA=4)/2 = 7L O2; Author rolls: 3s (spends 1m step 8 for Teeth Without Number); 3L to an appendage is greater than 2L threshold for Mutilation Feast Method; Lung suffers a Crippling amputation; A Bite That Keeps Gnawing applied. Crimson Fed Fecundity triggers: +3m for the Crippling bite attack. Lung spends 1w to the unnatural mental influence (UMI) from Predatory Dominance}}

Lung's trusted Lieutenant knew his place in this combat, positioned close enough to cover his boss with the automatic shotgun he carried but just far enough away to avoid the boss killing him with friendly fire. When Lung had signaled him to standby for his lead, he didn't expect the stranger was stupid enough to actually reach out for the wretched stinking rotten fish and had been preparing to spray at a fleeing back.

Instead, he now got a front row seat to watch Boss Lung, the head of the ABB gang, most famous as a cape for being nearly indestructible, getting his right hook not only blocked, but blocked with the stranger's teeth. The stranger had bitten Lung's near-bulletproof clawed hand and instead of just losing his head, he not only halted Lung's assault immediately, but did so without putting down his chopsticks full of wet fish chunks.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment, but for a slight motion that the Lieutenant wouldn't have noticed, if not for the exaggerated wobbling of the stranger's black beak. Then, Lung pulled his hand back and screamed like a stuck pig.

{{Author rolls 1d10 [1=lose arm; 2-5=lose hand; 6=lose thumb and two adjacent fingers; 7=thumb and index finger; 8=thumb; 9= last two fingers; 0=pinkie]: rolled a 3}}

The stranger held the boss's dominant right hand in his mouth, before swallowing it whole, leaving no trace save for Lung's screaming and his bloody stump. The Lieutenant didn't have the time to examine the wound, normally shit like that just made Lung mad, but the fact that it happened so soon in the fight, before Lung had a chance to bulk up, meant that the stranger just got elevated from "Low Threat" to "Highest Priority Threat". Although Lung could shrug it off, that ability didn't extend to the rest of the gang.

The Lieutenant promptly moved his right thumb and switched the fire mode selector from Semi-automatic operation to Full-automatic, turning his USAS-12 from a normal modern shotgun into a banned 'destructive device' with but a flick of a switch. It was meant for either suppressing a whole room, taking out a whole car at once, causing war crimes during a riot, or really fucking up one guy's day. The Lieutenant could only reflect on how much he loved his job, before drawing a bead on the stupid, masked stranger.

The masked stranger seemed well aware of his movement, but seemed to be trying to finish eating. His mouth was still stained with the blood of Lung's right hand, and the stranger was lifting the small pieces of fish to his lips, delicately so as not to crush the soft meat. The Lieutenant could only guess that the guy was too stupid to fear his streetsweeper.

{{LT fires Focused Full Auto (FFA within the first range increment) at JFLM, Dex(3)+Firearms(4)=(7/2 per FFA)3s+2s (circumstance bonus for proximity); Rolls: 5s+2s=7s; target PDV (Dex(7)+MA(7) - 5 (onslaught) -2 (hands full))/2=4 PDV; Target hit, 2 carryover; shotgun (9L) + 3L (and O3; close range) + 2 carryover= 14L O3; Target L soak: 7STA/2 = 4; Post Soak = 10L O3 ; FFA multiplies x3 = 30L O3; rolled: 8L final damage levels; JFLM Counterattacks in Step 9 (via Hand Biting Retaliation); Activates Teeth Without Number + Digestion Without Distinction + Memory Without Time + Picking Yesterday's Gums + Platter Cleaning Violence Flicker + By Pain Reforged + 2nd Mtg Exl(+3s) + Predatory Dominance (4m); Sea Within Veins Prana is automatic AoE, Great Mother's Tears substitutes Mutagenic Toxin for Kimbery's Depths + acid bath; 2 dose exposure to each; JFLM attack pool Wits+Occult-Onslaught+Acc-full hands (7+7-5+1-2= 8); rolls 8d10; 6s + 3s(Exl) = 9s gross; target DDV (3+3+0)/2 = 3; 9-3 = 6s net; Base dam Int(7)+0L (Hunger Penalty = 0; literally eating) + 6 carryover = 13 L; target L soak (STA 3)/2 + armor(reinforced breastplate +7L/6B) = 1 + 7 = 8L soak; remaining damage dice = 13-8=6L; rolled 6d10: 4 LHL. Amputation effect triggered. Armored With Suffering Triggered (-2 Wound Penalty); Predatory Dominance is resisted for 1w.}}

He fired a carefully controlled barrage at the stranger, struggling as always to counter the rapid recoil of the full auto setting. In faster than he could blink, the lead shot had peeled away the costume of the stranger, and then the stranger's arm was suddenly blown off behind him. The stranger's right side had a C-shaped divot in it where the arm used to be.

{{JFLM spends 1m-1HL to activate Mounting Hunger Frustration: regains 8L*7Ess=56m}}

Rather unexpectedly, the stranger grunted in frustration and began moving as the wound sprayed sticky green fluid everywhere, covering the Lieutenant and Lung. With his remaining hand he opened his mouth wider than any human could, and shoved the lot, plastic tray, chopsticks and all into his face, chewing the wood and plastic with audible crunches.

Without missing a beat, the C-shaped hole and ragged stump wriggled in a way that meat absolutely should not. A seam opened up, and a new arm, tipped with Lung's right hand shot out of the seam, ripping it open like a splitting pea pod. All along the arm, more seams tore themselves open, revealing countless toothy maws filled with tongues and blacked, rusty looking teeth. The limb then stretched and flung out of its logical socket like a chameleon shooting out its tongue. The disgusting harpoon of teeth moved too fast for him, but seemingly missed him at the last second as he dove away on the balls of his feet, dropping the gun in the process.

The Lieutenant had only a second to realize that the sticky green fluid was all over him, including almost covering his eyes. It felt like sizzling meat on a grill sounds, only it didn't seem to be actually burning him, as uncomfortable as it felt. He wasn't sure what powers that strange cape had, but he thought himself safe enough after that to take his right hand to wipe the crap off him. It just made it worse, as his arm was coated too.

As he wiped his palm on his shirt, it came away in his fingers, loose.

He looked down.

To his horror, he was missing most of his right torso, and the entire right arm. The ragged flesh leaked red blood that mixed with the unhealthy green fluid. He couldn't even feel it. Was it shock or nerve damage?

He could see extra eyes opening up on the undamaged flesh---lidless and staring like a carp.

He took a deep breath; bloody pink froth came out of a hole where his lung should have been.

He should only have two eyes, shouldn't he?

The stranger pointed at him accusingly with Lung's bloody hand, now with the mouths mostly closed it almost looked normal. He shouted, "You make me show teeth! You make exposed! Death too short a punishment! I cripple! I twist!"

{{Act of Villainy Performed: Agony-Savoring Mercy [Kimbery]. JFLM loses one Limit}}

He only had moments before his screaming was cut off by swarming cockroaches and flies, as he fell to the ground flailing. He could feel them biting his new carp eyes, but not his ragged wound. Small mercies, he thought, passing out from the pain.

Tattletale felt bile rise in her throat, as she tried to avoid vomiting at the sight of the fighting that was going on. It was a terrible idea to zoom in on the action with the high definition cameras.

Every goon was covered in crawling and writhing sheets of insects, all trying their damndest to either bite, sting, or burrow into the flesh of anyone unlucky enough to be in the scene.

Her powers forced her to analyze every bite and bore. That was just how they worked, and she the unwilling voyeur.

There was another cape. The bugs were indiscriminate in who they were attacking, and she couldn't see any special exception being made for BIRDMAN. He seemed to be too thick skinned to be too affected, but all she had to go on was his open mouth. Which seemed to be… biting… the bugs that came within range.

When he had… she couldn't think of the right word for it, but "opened" his mouths all over his body, the first time, she could only stare in horror. The "opened" mouths were obviously some kind of Power, but she couldn't fathom how they worked. All of the violence was so far away that she just hadn't caught it all first hand. Maybe the videos would hold more answers to how one of Lungs veterans had lost an arm to BIRDMAN.

What did matter was that the "opened" mouths seemed to stick around, opening periodically to consume more of the insects swarming around them. On the other goons, the insects seemed to aggressively try to invade the airways and mouths. BIRDMAN seemed to be special in this regard.

As she panned over to examine the now downed lieutenant she could see that he had grown what looked like dozens of lidless eyes. Her mouth filled with bile at the sight. She knew that hadn't been there before he fought BIRDMAN. Did it have some connection to the bugs?

There was a distant scream from a rooftop, and the sound of popping balloons. In mere seconds, a whoosh was her only warning that Lung had chucked a desk-sized air conditioner at her.

She dove behind the masonry.

Taylor could not believe that she had not only subdued Lung via biting off his genitals with her swarm, but that she had survived the encounter mostly intact. The famously dangerous brute had escaped capture dozens of times, from being literally too angry to go down to the likes of Armsmaster and New Wave. And here, she had him on the ground, to the point that she was vaguely worried she had overdone it.

She heard a noise from the ground nearby, and turned to see the last villain standing staring at her blankly from behind the red glass eyes of his plague doctor mask. Her swarm still circled him, but the ones closest to him were all dead.

As if he had forgotten what he was doing, the unknown villain walked seemingly carelessly around the carnage of the battlefield, searching for something.

Taylor couldn't hazard a guess as to what he was looking for. Her attention had been largely focused on Lung.

Less than a minute later, he kicked over the remains of an overturned dumpster and held up his prize from the ground: his own detached arm and shoulder, clearly still possessing most of his costume, glove and sleeve intact, if damaged.

He seemed to consider things for a moment, before tearing off the naked and uncostumed arm on his right side and dropping it on the ground like a flopping fish on a dock. It jumped and clawed, until the hand and the arm separated and both twitched and jerked on the dirt.

The damaged arm was swallowed whole. Taylor suddenly understood why the costume exposed the mouth, and was horrified.

After a second or two, the damaged arm, costume and all, extruded from the right shoulder, and returned back to the same state it had been when she first saw him that evening.

"A-are we going to fight now?" she called out to him, desperately trying to keep her mounting dread from showing. At the very least---even if she didn't quite come down from the adrenaline yet---Lung had burned up most of her bugs, and she didn't know how fast she could get more.

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