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Rating:
Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning:
No Archive Warnings Apply
Fandoms:
Parahumans Series - WildbowVampire: The Masquerade
Characters:
Taylor Hebert | Skitter | WeaverLasombra Antediluvian (Vampire: The Masquerade)
Additional Tags:
Canon-Typical ViolenceAlt-Power Taylor HebertCompetent Parahuman Response Team | PRT
Language:
English
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Published:2025-06-22Updated:2026-02-11Words:157,182Chapters:25/?Comments:650Kudos:1,401Bookmarks:538Hits:75,810
Abyssal Escalation
Zahariel_Scholar
Chapter 6: Wolf
Notes:
TW : animal abuse, rascist language.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Investigating Lasombra was proving more difficult than Lisa had anticipated. She'd covered one of the walls of the Undersiders' hideout with various print-outs, creating something straight out of a movie about Thinkers with lazy writing, but she didn't care.
After hacking into the PRT's database using some of Coil's passwords aided by her power, she'd been able to get her hands on the official threat assessment for Lasombra. That included the footage from Armsmaster's helmet camera of his encounter with the mysterious cape.
It was useless as anything but an example of Lasombra's Stranger power. Lisa had spent a good hour staring at the static trying to find a pattern that could provide a hint as to the exact method by which the Stranger effect worked, without achieving anything useful. The best theory her power could come up with was the same the Protectorate had reached : that Lasombra's power somehow interfaced with the recording device directly to fuck the data. Sure, that meant that using non-digital cameras might work in recording the cape's image, but even if Coil managed to find an old Polaroid somewhere, it wouldn't be useful for surveillance.
So, with the footage useless, Lisa had focused on the witness testimonies, which was a whole other can of worms. Simply put, Lasombra had too many strong powers.
She'd downloaded and printed the ratings the PRT had assigned to Lasombra. All came with a big metaphorical asterisk and a warning that these were temporary ratings, to be adjusted as more information came to light – and also that Lasombra was presumed to be friendly to the Protectorate and not to be engaged unless innocent lives were in danger. Reading between the lines, it was pretty obvious they had tried to overestimate rather than underestimate Lasombra, probably because going after a cape while not as prepared as you ought to be tended to go very, very badly.
Apart from the Stranger effect, and the Brute rating that let him go head-to-head with Lung and come out on top, all of Lasombra's abilities were all shadow-themed and powerful. Combat Thinker, Mover, Shaker … Grab-bag capes were supposed to have weaker powers than ordinary capes, and that clearly wasn't the case here.
There were capes who had that level and variety of power, but they were the likes of Alexandria (who had a Brute, Mover and Thinker package, each of which would individually have qualified her for entry into the Protectorate) or Eidolon (whose power was literally whatever he needed at the time). On the other hand, Lisa reflected with a wry smile, the notion that the Bay's discount Eidolon was a terrifying figure of darkness wouldn't have surprised anyone who'd lived in the city for long.
She focused on the hard data she'd available. Lasombra had only been seen at night, for short periods of time before disappearing. A power limitation ? She closed her eyes, holding the evidence in her mind, and activated her power.
Yes – no – can only be out at night – is most active during the day –
Lisa shut down her power's tangent with a wince. Contradictory statements like these were rare, and in her experience were caused by anti-Thinker measures or Stranger effects interfering with her power. Given Lasombra was an independent (he might have been a secret Protectorate operative, but him showing up to deal with a bunch of muggers on his first night made that theory implausible), the latter was more likely, and she added a note to her collage – Stranger power includes anti-Thinker effect.
Which made sense when she thought about it : a power that simply caused Lasombra to make recording devices glitch in his presence wouldn't be very useful for combat, and in Lisa's experience (and, she grudgingly admitted to herself, according to decades of study by numerous researchers across the world), all powers had some aspect of them which were useful for fighting. Being able to block the Thinker abilities of other parahumans, on the other hand, definitely was a useful edge.
Lisa turned her gaze toward the map of Brockton Bay on which she'd marked the locations of Lasombra's two certified appearances. Predictably, PHO was awash with people claiming to have seen Lasombra elsewhere, but her power had confirmed that they were all either lying or simply mistaken.
Lasombra had first shown up on the night from January 3rd to January 4th. At the time, the E88 had been more active than usual due to leaked PRT documents revealing that Shadow Stalker (the only black Ward in Brockton Bay) had taken part in a particularly heinous bullying campaign in her civilian identity. Brian had been happy to learn that the psychotic Ward wouldn't keep trying to kill him with her crossbow, but Lisa had been more worried, fully aware that it was her boss who had engineered the leak to make the PRT look bad by association.
The details of the affair were still confidential : despite the sensationalist media outlets' cries for more information, the PRT had closed ranks after the initial leak. Still, Lisa didn't need her power to wonder if there was a link between the two events. If Coil had access to more information, it wasn't available with the accesses he'd shared with Lisa – but she didn't need to rely on him for all her data. Ever since he'd recruited her with a gun to her head, the young supervillain had worked hard to build up her own network of influence and information. Coil's codes had given her a foot in the door of the PRT's computer systems, but once she was in, her power could help her go further than he'd intended.
She returned to her computer and got to work. She'd to be careful : the PRT's networks were monitored by Dragon herself, and Lisa wasn't arrogant enough to think she was better than the woman who was quite possibly the world's greatest Tinker at her own game.
After twenty minutes of intense, nerve-wracking navigation through the PRT's systems, she opened Shadow Stalker's file. She glossed over it quickly until she reached the end, which described the crime which had led to her solo patrols with unauthorized weaponry being exposed. She had to keep herself from puking at the gory, disgusting details.
At the end of the file was a note that the victim had recently left the hospital (which made Tattletale raise an eyebrow, as she'd have expected a much longer stay given what she'd read before – unless the PRT had discreetly called in a favor with New Wave to have Panacea intervene ?). From the timeline, she'd still been in a coma when Lasombra had first appeared on the Boardwalk and beaten up a handful of E88 thugs.
So that was a dead end, or at least it should be, but she had a nagging feeling in the back of her head that there was more to it. Going through the file again and reading between the lines, she saw that the girl – Taylor Hebert – had better than odds chances of having Triggered as a result of Shadow Stalker's actions, but the PRT was being very careful not to put that in writing, lest they risk outing a teenage cape who already had more than enough reason to bear a grudge toward their organization.
Even with the coma, the coincidence was too much to ignore, and she made a note to follow-up on that at some point. She would be careful : she didn't want to hand over the civilian identity of another cape to Coil, even if Hebert turned out to simply be a low-level Brute who may not even have realized she had powers yet. And if she was Lasombra … well, she didn't want to do anything which might result in a cape capable of defeating Lung being angry at her.
She checked her watch, and frowned. She'd been doing this all day, and was starting to get tired and hungry. On the plus side, she had been using her power extensively for the past few hours and had yet to get a headache, which was as pleasant as it was surprising. Actually, scratch that : it was actually rather worrying. She didn't like her headaches, but she'd gotten used to them and able to manage them, and she definitely should be feeling the beginnings of one by now at the very least. Was this some side-effect of Lasombra's Stranger power interacting with her own ?
Lisa stood up from her chair and stretched, grimacing as she felt all the knots in her muscles from remaining seated for so long. That was enough research for today, she decided. Coil had given her a week, and maybe there would be more data available tomorrow. With Lung's defeat, the entire city would be on the lookout for the cape responsible, from the Protectorate to the Empire.
Grue and her were in agreement that the Undersiders would keep their heads down while the situation stabilized. They didn't want to be caught in the crossfire of the upcoming struggle for territory, and they had enough cash reserves from their latest job to be fine for a few days.
She looked around, and …
"Where is Bitch ?" she asked with a sinking feeling as she realized one of her teammates was absent.
From the couch where he'd been gaming since before Lisa went into her Thinker fugue, Alec shrugged. "She left about fifteen minutes ago to walk her dogs. Why ?"
Bitch takes her dogs on walks at regular hours, not in the middle of the night. Didn't go for a walk. Knows that the Empire is reacting to Lung's capture by sending troops outside of their usual territory. Thought to take advantage by hitting the dogfighting rings while they are undefended.
Bitch hasn't realized the first night after Lung's capture is going to be more about posturing and gathering information than a genuine push.
"Fuck !" Lisa cursed aloud as she reached the inevitable conclusion her power was leading her to. "Brian, Alec, get up and suit up ! Bitch is hitting one of Hookwolf's dogfighting rings, and there's a good chance she's going to need help !"
Even as the other two members of the Undersiders reacted to her shout, she was moving to get into costume herself, while furiously thinking about where Bitch was most likely to go. One of the ways she'd used to make Rachel more willing to listen to her was give her intel on the locations of Hookwolf's rings; she just needed to figure out which one she'd be going for …
Dammit, Bitch, she thought as the three Undersiders went to the anonymous, technically-stolen car waiting for them next to the hideout. Don't you dare get yourself killed !
The men of the Empire were laying on the ground, moaning and bleeding from the bites of Bitch's dogs. She had told them to hurt, not kill, even though they deserved it, because killing people made the police try harder to arrest her, and that meant she had less time to take care of her dogs.
But right now, holding a puppy with a pink collar and a name tag she couldn't read as he slowly died from his savaged torso, she really, really wanted them to die.
The puppy wasn't the only victim of the men's cruelty, though he was the only one still alive. The room was full of dead animals, thrown into freezers after being killed in the pit. There were a lot of them : it seemed the Empire had been storing the dead animals not just from this place but a bunch of others as well, for easier disposal. As if they were just trash. The men hadn't even waited for the puppy to die before throwing him in after they'd used him as a bait animal for one of the bigger dogs they'd broken with the torture they called 'training'.
There hadn't been a fight tonight. The Empire men were just guards, to keep an eye on the dogs and feed them just enough that they would be fighting fit but still hungry. That meant the puppy had spent the entire day since being thrown in here after last night's fight clinging to life, slowly dying from his injuries and the cold, digging into the pile of corpses for warmth until Rachel had come in. He was a survivor, that one, and clearly been treated well and loved by whoever the Empire had stolen him from.
But she'd come too late to save him. Even pouring her power into him, if she'd been willing to go against her rule of only using her power on the dogs she'd trained herself, would only make him die larger.
Rachel wanted to be angry. Anger always made the sadness go away. But she couldn't. It was all she could do to keep the tears at bay, trembling as she held the little body in her arms until he stopped moving.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The noise of her dogs whining in fear made Bitch look up from the puppy in her arms. There was someone else in the building with them, someone who was still walking and not laying on the floor. She turned toward the door leading to the rest of the floor, where the animals who were still alive were kept in cages far too small and dirty for them.
And the dogs in the other room were silent, Rachel realized. They weren't barking and whining anymore, like they'd been since she'd barged in with her dogs. She tensed, wondering who it was, preparing to fight if it turned out to be more Empire thugs.
But it wasn't.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She saw a tall man dressed all fancy and black, with a head made of smoke that was more solid than Grue's and with a cane that was the source of the noise. She knew who this was, she had heard Tattletale bitch about him all day : he was the cape who had taken out Lung, something-umbra.
If he had beaten Lung, then he was strong. Bitch hadn't fought Lung, because she wasn't stupid, but she knew he was stronger than her dogs, and he didn't run dogfights, so she'd have left him alone anyway. But he also wasn't Empire, because he'd stopped some of their thugs who'd assaulted a woman a few days ago. So why was he here ?
She couldn't figure it out, which meant she needed to ask him. She didn't like that : Rachel was bad at talking with people, even the ones she knew. But she had no choice.
"What do you want ?" she rasped.
"JUSTICE."
Bitch's dogs whined and cowered, afraid of the noise that had come from all around them. Bitch was scared too, but she didn't let it show on her face.
"Don't scare my dogs," she snarled.
He looked around at Brutus, Judas and Angelica, then inclined his head.
"APOLOGIES," he said, softer this time. It still spooked Bitch's dogs, but less so.
She couldn't look the cape in the eyes, because he didn't have any. It made her twitchy. Unlike dogs, she never knew what people were thinking, and she knew even less about him.
He turned his head away from her, and looked at the piles of corpses around them. She breathed a sigh of relief, and as she did so, realized that somehow, despite the door having been broken open when she'd barged in, the room felt even colder than before.
What was going on ?
When looking up the villains of the Bay as part of my preparations once I'd figured out Lasombra was real, I had found Hellhound's page. As well as describing her ability to turn regular dogs into reptilian looking monstrosities, it had also claimed that she was unstable and dangerous, with a history of sending her dogs onto anyone who so much as looked at her wrong.
Seeing her now, hugging the mutilated corpse of a puppy to her chest, it was difficult to think of her as a violent criminal. Sure, I'd walked by the injured gang members in the rest of the building, but they were Nazis and they ran a dogfighting ring, so I honestly couldn't blame her.
I'd never had a pet, but I could imagine the reactions of the families whose beloved companions had been stolen by the Empire and thrown into the ring, to be torn apart for the entertainment of a bloodthirsty crowd. I could imagine the tears of children as their pets disappeared and never came back, and the grief of the adults who'd cared for them.
And I could try to imagine the pain of the dogs themselves – Man's best friend, tortured and broken, made into a plaything of violent murderers.
In the grand scheme of things, Hookwolf's dogfighting rings were a petty sin. There were many worst crimes, and Hookwolf was guilty of a great many of those as well. I knew that. Fuck, not too long ago I had walked through a building full of sex slaves and their pimps. This building, this room, paled in comparison.
And yet, I wouldn't pretend that the sight of the room full of dead animals didn't fill with me with rage.
The fights; the death; the simple, animal fear of the dogs and cats, many of whom had never known anything but the pampered life of a beloved family pet. It all called to the Abyss like the ABB brothel had, albeit in a different way. And Hellhound herself blazed with pain on the same level I expected I'd feel standing over a mass grave. I wondered if it was her power which had warped her sense of empathy like this, or if it was the other way around and she'd gotten the powers she had because she'd already been closer to dogs than people.
Both, probably.
In the depths of the Abyss, I felt something stir, responding to the evil that had taken place here, to my anger and to Hellhound's grief. It had been Hellhound's sorrow that had brought me here from the Abyss, and now, it seemed that something else wanted to follow.
I hesitated. I knew very little about the Abyss, but I had an instinctive belief that it wasn't safe, even for me. My mind only passed through it for short periods of time, but I knew, without knowing how, that to remain there for long would be dangerous.
At the same time, however, I could tell that whatever I was feeling right now wasn't a threat to me, or to Hellhound. And I had resolved to experiment with my abilities in low-danger situations : this, with no enemies immediately present, was probably as good as I was going to get, given I'd only been able to manifest Lasombra near dens of evil and iniquity thus far.
I took a metaphorical deep breath, and pulled. My shadow darkened as I strengthened its link to the Abyss, then spread out across the room like a tide of liquid blackness. It parted around Hellhound and her dogs, both of whom jumped in fearful surprise, but covered the open freezers and the piles of dead animals inside. The dead puppy Hellhound had been holding slipped from her grasp when several shadowy tendrils rose up and gently took it from her, lowering it into the pool.
I felt the rest of the corpses slip into the blackness, taking the echoes of what they had been along with them. The presence in the Abyss grew closer and closer, wrapping itself around the physical matter I had sent its way, shaping it into a reflection of its own nature and that of the offerings into a suitable vessel. I felt it happen, through senses I could not name, and knew when it was finished and ready.
"ARISE," I said, and slammed my cane down with a thunderous boom.
I sensed the strain as the entity pushed through the barrier between the Abyss and the physical world. Unlike when my consciousness slipped through to project Lasombra, there was a noticeable resistance, but the entity was tenacious, and after a few moments of silence during which the shadows writhed all around me, Hellhound and her dogs, I felt the obstacle give way.
A muzzle emerged from the pool of blackness, followed by a canine head, and then by an immense wolf, larger than any wolf to have ever walked the Earth. She – and it was a she, I knew that immediately upon looking upon her – towered over even Lasombra, nearly filling the space of the room. Her fur was black as starless night, but her fangs gleamed with pale moonlight, and her eyes were two shining rubies.
The pool of darkness which had filled the room retreated back into my own shadow, and I nearly swayed from the sudden exhaustion, leaning on my cane for support until the moment of weakness had passed. Of the animal corpses, there was no sign : even the bloodstains were gone from the containers.
I felt the bond between me and the great beast snap into place, and a sense of identity coursed through it. It wasn't words : the she-wolf was unable of using them, though there was an undeniable intelligence in her eyes as she looked down upon me. But my brain translated the bunch of images and emotions into a single word :
"MARCHOSIAS."
The wolf inclined her head, and I reached out with my right hand to touch her head.
"She's beautiful," breathed Hellhound, staring at Marchosias with wonder in her eyes. Her dogs were still cowering from the shadow wolf, but they seemed a lot less distressed than before, probably because their mistress didn't sound as disturbed herself.
I was wondering what to do next when I heard the sound of hurried footsteps, and three figures barged into the room – two men and one woman, all of them wearing costumes that marked them as capes, though their costumes could hardly have been more different.
"Bitch !" shouted the woman, a blond who wore a purple bodysuit and black domino mask, and who sounded slightly out of breath. "We need to move ! Hookwolf is on … his way …"
She trailed off as she saw me, and Marchosias looming behind me. Through her mask, I saw her eyes widen and her mouth hang open in shock.
Right. Hellhound was part of a gang of minor villains. I'd forgotten about that. I tensed, wondering how I would fare if things turned violent when facing four capes at once.
Then Marchosias sent the mental equivalent of a snort through our mental link, and I realized that if things did turn violent, my greatest challenge would be keeping my opposition alive.
At any other time, Brian would have enjoyed the sight of Tattletale being rendered speechless. God knew it didn't happen often. But right now, faced with the cape who had taken down Lung and a giant, fuck-off wolf of pure blackness (except for a mouthful of fangs that looked far too sharp for comfort, and a pair of eyes that gleamed with hellfire), he couldn't enjoy it as much as he otherwise would.
"Hey," he called out to Lasombra, hands held up in surrender. "We don't want any trouble, alright ? We're just here because we thought our teammate was in trouble. She didn't tell us what she was doing," he sent a brief glare at Bitch, who completely ignored it, "and we were worried about her."
"UNDERSIDERS," Lasombra said, and everyone in the room winced at the sound of his voice.
"That's us," nodded Grue. "Bitch loves dogs, and she doesn't like what the Empire is doing in places like these."
"BITCH ?"
"That's, huh, that what she prefers to be called," Brian did his best not to freak out at the sudden increase of what he thought was hostility in Lasombra's already-creepy voice. "'Hellhound' is the name the PRT put on her without asking, not the one she chose."
It had taken some time (and an explanation from Tattletale that she didn't see it as an insult but only as a reference to her tight bond with her dogs) for Brian himself to start calling Rachel by her preferred name when on the field. He had wondered whether the PRT knew Bitch had another nom-de-guerre and kept using Hellhound for PR reasons, or they simply didn't know yet. Given that, according to Tattletale, both the Empire and the ABB called her Bitch, the former was more likely.
"As interesting as this is," Regent cut in, "I'd like to remind everyone that Tattletale told us Hookwolf is inbound. I don't think we want to be here when he arrives, do you ?"
Without a word, Lasombra turned toward the building's entrance, then nodded and started walking, each step punctuated by the tapping sound of his cane. Brian and the others hurried out of his way, Tattletale finally breaking out of whatever fugue had descended upon her to do so. The big wolf followed, moving with impossible fluidity – and Brian didn't mean that as a figure of speech : he'd seen animals move, and none of them had ever moved like that. It was like the laws of physics didn't apply to the beast unless it remembered them.
"Tats, what do we do ?" he asked Lisa, who was leaning against the wall, staring at Lasombra's back with wide eyes. When she didn't reply, he shouted : "Tats !"
She jumped and turned to look at him. "What ? Oh, right, sorry. We need to get Bitch, her dogs, and the Empire ones who are still alive and get out of here."
"Do we really have to take the animals ?" asked Regent, not unreasonably.
"Bitch won't leave without them," Tattletale replied matter-of-factly. Which was true, of course.
"Alright," said Grue, resigning himself to the inevitable. Not that he had anything against rescuing a bunch of animals from the E88 in principle (if anything, the idea of spitting in the Nazis' face like that warmed his heart) : he just didn't want to lose his life doing it. "Is there any other exit out of this building ? I don't think we want to go out in front right now."
"No, we don't, and yes, there is," said Tattletale, already moving toward a side door which she opened with a firm shake of the handle and a strategically placed kick, undoing the shoddy lock and revealing a dark and dirty alleyway outside.
They started picking up cages, Bitch whispering to the animals inside so they didn't freak out and make things even more complicated. Look around, Grue estimated that the truck they'd come in should have enough space for them all, as long as Lisa and Alec left on Bitch's dogs.
Sure, Lisa could drive in a pinch using her power, but the poor animals had already suffered enough. Now the only question was whether they'd be able to make their exit without running into Hookwolf or any other Empire cape who decided to accompany him.
Brad was furious.
This wasn't the first time Bitch had attacked one of his dogfighting rings. Since the girl had arrived in Brockton Bay, she'd raided his operations constantly, sending men to the hospital and stealing the animals they'd 'acquired'. He'd asked Max for help in tracking her down and killing her, but been denied each time. Oh, Kaiser had given plenty of excuses, but Brad knew the truth : the rest of the Empire looked down on the activities of his group, seeing them as 'barbaric'.
Which was pretty fucking funny coming from a gang where the initiation ceremony consisted of killing a member of an 'acceptable target' minority group and which sent captured capes off to Germany for brainwashing semi-regularly. But Max was in charge and Brad needed the Empire's protection to avoid being dogpiled by every hero in town and shipped off to the Birdcage, so he'd gritted his teeth and told his boys to double up on security while he made more frequent sudden and random visits hoping to catch Bitch during one of her raids.
And now, this. He'd gotten the message about the attack while on the way to Lung's former territory, to show the flag and inform the slants of who their new overlords were. He'd ordered the driver to turn back the moment he'd received it, despite knowing Kaiser wouldn't be pleased – but it wasn't like he was going to do anything important anyway.
The car screeched to a halt in front of the building, and Brad was out before it had even completely stopped, already pushing his metal out to cover him (he'd tussled with Bitch's monsters before, and had no desire to be caught up in his baseline form). The rest of his guys piled out of the vehicle after him. Only three of them : he hadn't had time to grab more before rushing back for his territory.
"Bitch !" he roared. "Come out and die !"
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
A figure stepped out of the entrance and into the dim illumination of the street lights. The man was tall, wearing a suit black as Kaiser's heart, and holding a walking cane that struck the ground with a sound that was entirely too loud. His face was made of writhing shadows and completely devoid of features.
That wasn't Bitch. It was Lasombra, the cape who'd taken down Lung.
"Well, well, well," Hookwolf grinned, feeling his heart quicken. "This is interesting. The fuck you doing here, darkie ? You running with the Undersiders now ?"
Lasombra said nothing, merely staring down Hookwolf and his men for what felt like a fuck-ass long time, but couldn't have been more than a few seconds in reality. Then something else emerged from the doorway behind him.
Brad's eyes widened in shock at the sight of an absolutely fucking huge wolf. So big, in fact, that it shouldn't have been able to go through the door without breaking the wall, yet had managed to do it anyway.
The beast stalked between Lasombra and the entrance, staring at the E88's men. Its tongue slipped out of its mouth between pearly white fangs and it licked its lips, crimson eyes piercing Hookwolf.
That was new. There hadn't been anything about a monster like that in the report on Lasombra which Kaiser had procured and shared with his lieutenants.
"SURRENDER."
The voice came out from all around them, full of the kind of cold threat that made lesser men piss their pants (which, Brad noted with some disgust, included one of the thugs he'd brought with him). Credit where credit was due : Lasombra was one hell of a showman.
"Nah, I don't think so," he replied, making sure to sound a lot more relaxed than he actually felt. "How about something else ? You leave, I deal with Bitch, and there might be a place in the Empire for you. I'm sure Kaiser would love to have you."
Sure, the fact Lasombra used a Spanish name meant that he was likely a spic under his get-up, but as long as he changed his name to something more palatable to the E88, Brad knew his boss wouldn't have an issue bending the rules a little for someone who had taken down Lung (especially since nobody could tell what race he was in his Changer state anyway). He knew it for sure, in fact, because Kaiser had said as much during the meeting after the news of Lung's capture had broken out.
The street lights dimmed. The shadows darkened. The wolf growled (and while Hookwolf, despite his name, had never seen an actual wolf in the flesh, he was pretty sure that wasn't a sound they were supposed to make).
Through it all, Lasombra remained perfectly still.
"Fuck me," Brad muttered. "A simple 'no' would've been enough, you show-off."
He completed his transformation, growing into his full metallic form, and howled :
"Let's do this, then !"
Lisa really, really shouldn't be doing this. She might not be the most athletic member of the Undersiders, but she could still help carrying the cages to the truck. Instead, she was kneeling next to one of the building's windows, watching the scene outside.
She couldn't help it. She wanted – no, she needed – to know more about Lasombra. It wasn't just about Coil's orders, though the knowledge of how pissed off the bastard would be if she missed out on such an opportunity was definitely a factor. More than that, however, it was about her own curiosity. Her power had all but shorted out when she'd looked directly at Lasombra, feeding her a stream of contradictory information that had sounded, for lack of a better word, panicked. It was the first time something like that had happened, and the wolf had caused the same thing when she'd managed to tear her eyes away from the cape and toward what she assumed to be a summoned minion.
Hookwolf made the first move. The Empire cape jumped toward Lasombra in a sudden burst of acceleration, using his augmented strength to move his enormous body far faster than anything that large had any right to be. For one heart-stopping moment, Lisa thought Lasombra would use his Mover ability to get out of the way, leaving Hookwolf to slam into the front of the building in which she was hiding, which her power helpfully informed her definitely wouldn't resist the impact.
Instead, Lasombra punched the charging metallic horror directly in the face. It was a straightforward punch, without any technique or martial art behind it – only raw strength.
With a noise like a car crash, Hookwolf was sent hurling back, the entire 'head' of his constructed metallic form broken to pieces. He slammed into the car which had brought him and his goons to the scene, the impact reducing it to wreckage.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
While Hookwolf pulled himself out of the wreck, Lasombra leisurely advanced toward his opponent. The three Empire thugs, who had ducked out of the way when their boss had been sent flying, hesitantly brought their weapons (an assortment of guns in various levels of good maintenance) to bear. What they were hoping to achieve shooting a Brute who could stand up to Lung's fire, Lisa had no idea.
In any case, before any of them could open fire, the black wolf moved. With incredible speed, she (the one thing Lisa's power had been able to tell her was that the wolf was female) leapt from her position in front of the building and slammed into the three goons, sending them sprawling to the ground. Before they had time to do anything but scream like little girls, the wolf fell upon them with her teeth.
When the wolf moved away a few seconds later, Tattletale winced, expecting to see savaged corpses bleeding on the pavement. Instead, the three Nazis were laying on the ground, twitching but alive, with no trace of blood anywhere on them. Even their clothes were intact, but as she caught sight of the face of one, Lisa saw that it was frozen in a rictus of terror.
Master effect, her power supplied. Induce fear into the victim to the point of paralysis. Recovery possible, but will take time. That was useful, but then it kept going : Wolf only partly exists in perceived reality. Wolf is a projection. Wolf is not a projection. Wolf is subordinate to Lasombra's will. Wolf is independent entity. Wolf is not a wolf …
With a wince of effort, she shut her power down. It was clear that whatever Stranger effect protected Lasombra from direct analysis with her power extended to his summoned minion.
She refocused her attention to Lasombra and Hookwolf. By now, the Empire cape had disengaged from the ruined vehicle, and had rebuilt his devastated face.
"Okay," Hookwolf growled in an utterly inhuman voice. "That was a good one. Now, my turn."
"NO," said Lasombra, before slamming his cane into the ground.
Immediately, the ground around the two capes erupted into a swarm of black tendrils reaching up toward Hookwolf. They wrapped around him, slipping between the edges of the blades covering him completely, and began to squeeze, holding him trapped in place. Even as Hookwolf strained against them with all of his considerable strength, they didn't break.
"What the fuck ?!" Hookwolf screamed. "No ! Let me out and fight me like a man, you bastard !"
Lasombra cocked his head to the side, and said :
"MAN ?"
That single word was dripping with contempt. Lasombra doesn't consider Hookwolf a worthy opponent. Lasombra sees Hookwolf as a rabid monster. Lasombra is not a man. Lasombra is not a human being. Lasombra is a human being. Lasombra is –
Lisa shut down her power, and watched in awe as the tentacles began to peel out Hookwolf's metal skin layer by layer. She knew from past encounters with Hookwolf that his power didn't cover him with metal he conjured out of nowhere : his human body was transformed into a 'core' of sorts, from which the metal emerged and was shaped into the form he desired, with his senses working through the metallic body in a flagrant violation of the laws of physics and biology.
But Lasombra's tentacles didn't care about that. By the time they were finished, Hookwolf was back in his human form, shivering in the grasp of countless tentacles. Once the mass of his metal had gone under a certain threshold (which was approximately equal to his normal body), his transformation had reversed. Lisa would have felt bad for him, if not for the fact that he was a murderer, a Nazi, and general scum (but she repeated herself).
"You'll pay for that," he managed to say. "Kaiser's going to –"
Whatever Kaiser was going to do, Lisa would never know (but she could guess), as Lasombra shut the Empire cape up by smacking him in the side of the head with the pommel of his cane.
Knocked unconscious. Blow calibrated not to cause lasting brain damage. Posture and swiftness of attack suggest done on instinct, not carefully calculated.
Which would be coherent with the PRT's notes about Lasombra's combat Thinker power.
Silence fell upon the street, broken only by the distant sounds of sirens growing steadily closer. As much as Lisa wanted to stay and observe the fallout, she wanted to avoid arrest even more. Lasombra was focused on the Empire and hadn't done anything to hurt Bitch, but the Protectorate was another story, and they were sure to be coming by now. Someone would have called the authorities after Lasombra's initial punch, if nothing else.
She left her observation position and went through the side entrance she'd pointed out to Grue, finding the rest of the Undersiders busy loading the last cage aboard their vehicle. Grue, she noted, was already in the driver's seat.
"It's time to leave," she told them. "Lasombra's beaten Hookwolf, but the PRT won't be far, and we don't want to be here when they arrive."
"Get on the dogs," Grue called out, starting the engine. With a grimace, Lisa did so. Bitch's dogs were very useful for a number of reasons, but riding them was never comfortable.
"We'll need to pay Ombra back," said Bitch as they started moving. "We owe him and Marchosias."
"Who ?" asked Regent.
"The wolf," replied Bitch. "I heard him call her that when she showed up."
Because of course Rachel would remember the name of an animal she'd only heard once, even though she struggled with remembering human names.
Marchosias. Name of a demon from the Ars Goetia with the aspect of a wolf. Later sources attributed a feminine gender to the creature.
Very interesting, but where the hell had her power pulled that information from ? It only had access to stuff that … she … knew …
Oh. Oh fuck.
"What's wrong, Tats ?" asked Regent. Apparently she'd spoken aloud.
"'Marchosias' is the name of a demon from an old book," she began. She didn't need her power to know that Regent's eyes were already glazing over behind his mask. She continued : "Which is also the one the names of Valefor and Eligos, among other members of the Fallen, come from."
There was a moment of silence as her companions digested that revelation. Except Bitch, who didn't know what they were talking about and didn't care.
"Oh fuck indeed," Regent summed up how they were feeling right now.
Tattletale's report to Coil was going to be even more complicated than she'd thought, that much was clear.
Notes:
AN : Marchosias was pulled straight out from the chronicle of my VtM gaming group, as is the whole interpretation of the Abyss I'm using for this story (I asked the Storyteller, and they were fine with it).
It was only when I was writing this chapter that I remembered that the Fallen are a thing in Worm, and that two of their canonical members cribbed the Ars Goetia for cape names.
I considered changing the big Abyssal wolf's name (also, while the sources differ, I've decided to make it a female in this story, not that it actually has a biological gender), but decided that it was more interesting to keep it as such. Taylor, after all, doesn't know about the Fallen beyond what she may have seen on the news.
Another thing which took me by surprise while writing this chapter was Tattletale getting so close to figuring out Lasombra's secret identity. I hadn't planned for it, but when writing her scene, it just happened : given her skills and the resources available to her, it seemed a logical outcome.
Fortunately, I have managed to adapt my plans for this story to take this into account.
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and look forward to your thoughts, comments and suggestions.
Zahariel.
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Fandoms:
Parahumans Series - WildbowVampire: The Masquerade
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Taylor Hebert | Skitter | WeaverLasombra Antediluvian (Vampire: The Masquerade)
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Canon-Typical ViolenceAlt-Power Taylor HebertCompetent Parahuman Response Team | PRT
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Published:2025-06-22Updated:2026-02-11Words:157,182Chapters:25/?Comments:650Kudos:1,401Bookmarks:538Hits:75,815
Abyssal Escalation
Zahariel_Scholar
Chapter 7: Preparations
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
After years of barely holding Brockton Bay together by the skin of her teeth, Director Piggot was discovering that victory brought its own share of problems. This didn't surprise her : in her experience, things didn't get better, and when they did it was never easy.
Case in point : the capture of a notorious villain with a Birdcage sentence looming over his head should have been great news, even if it had been delivered to her doorstep by a worryingly powerful independent rather than through the efforts of her subordinates. And yet, it was still causing her a headache.
"Hookwolf is secure in the containment cell," Armsmaster finished his report, which he'd delivered to her first thing in the morning once she'd returned to the PRT's headquarters from her latest dialysis. "If he so much as tries to activate his power, the guards have orders to use the countermeasures to shock him, and he tries to power through, fill the room with containment foam."
Truth be told, Piggot knew they were lucky to have achieved as much – though Armsmaster's skills had more to do with it than luck. Once word of Hookwolf's defeat had spread, the rest of the Empire's capes had disengaged from the series of minor clashes that had taken place last night and rushed to try to free him.
But Armsmaster's bike had been too fast for them to intercept him before he reached the PRT headquarters, and Emily had been able to capitalize on the sudden withdrawal of the powered Nazis to sweep the rest of their forces with the help of New Wave and the BBPD. The local jails were full of skinheads and other assorted racist thugs, though she knew there were still far too many left free for the Empire to call upon.
"Good. I don't suppose another Dragon transport is on its way to take him off our hands ?" she asked Armsmaster, who shook his head.
"Unfortunately no," the hero replied. "Dragon's aircrafts are always kept very busy by her many duties for the Protectorate : we were extremely fortunate that one of them was available to bring Lung and Oni Lee to the Birdcage when it was. I can ask her to send one here to get Hookwolf, but it will take several days before one becomes available."
It was typical of their luck, Piggot thought. As long as Armsmaster's tranquillizer worked on Lung (and there had been no sign that it didn't) they could have held the supervillain more or less indefinitely. Without him to keep them in check, the various sub-groups of the ABB had turned on each other almost at once, reducing the odds of them attacking the PRT headquarters to break him out (not that the Director expected such an attempt to result in anything other than a bloodbath, as she'd bet on her troopers against the ABB thugs any day of the week so long as neither side had parahuman support).
Even if they had needed to transport Lung and Oni Lee outside the city so Dragon could pick him up elsewhere as part of one of her regular supply runs for the Birdcage, the chances of someone trying to free him would have been low (though they would still have taken all possible precautions, as the ENE had suffered far too many humiliations as captured villains were released by criminal accomplices).
But Hookwolf was part of the Empire, and they had far too many capes under their hideous banner. They were guaranteed to attack a Birdcage transport if it meant getting Hookwolf back. And they couldn't hold onto him forever : eventually, Kaiser would either attack the PRT headquarters to break him out or, far more likely, would order his capes to capture a member of the Protectorate (or worse, the Wards) and offer an exchange of prisoners. Which would put Piggot in a no-win situation no matter what she chose, both on the strategic and PR level.
"I expected as much," she sighed. "And it's all academic anyway. With Purity in town, using one of Dragon's aircraft to get him out of the city wouldn't be safe. From the level of power we've on record for her, she could blast the transport out of the sky with ease, and pull Hookwolf out with little more difficulty. The only fliers we could pull on our side are New Wave, and while I'm pretty sure I could convince them to help us get Hookwolf out of the city, I don't think they'd fare that well against Purity."
"There have been rumors that Purity has split up from the Empire," Armsmaster offered.
"Ah, yes," Piggot scoffed. "I've heard those too. Nevermind the fact that she's still beating up minorities in the same costume and with the same name, while letting the Empire do as they please as they push into Lung's former territory. She hasn't changed, Armsmaster, she's just having a dispute with her Nazi friends, whatever she's telling others and even herself. If she really wanted to be a heroine without having to fight her former 'friends', she'd leave the city and rebrand elsewhere. God knows the Protectorate would bend over backward to accommodate someone with her skills. No, we can't assume she won't go running back to them the moment they need her help preventing Hookwolf from paying for his many, many crimes."
Armsmaster didn't say anything. There wasn't anything to say : he knew Piggot was right, and had only mentioned the rumors to make sure she was aware of them and had all the information.
"Which means that we're going to need to send Hookwolf out of town the old-fashioned way," she went on.
"Our record on successful transport of captured capes is … less than stellar," said Armsmaster, and only someone who knew him as well as Piggot did would have noticed how angry that admission made him feel.
It was an anger Piggot shared. The number of times one of the PRT transports carrying a captured parahuman to a detention center outside of the city had been ambushed since she'd arrived in Brockton Bay was frankly absurd. It was a stain on all of their records, and one of the primary reasons why the PRT was so poorly regarded in the Bay.
Every time it happened, they'd run a security audit, and while they had caught several gang moles over the years, they'd never found the ones responsible for the leaks. At this point, Piggot was convinced one of the gangs was keeping a powerful Thinker under wraps and using them to fuck with the PRT. The only sticking point with that theory was that such leaks had happened when transporting members of every gang at some point or another. She'd still swallowed her pride and asked for support in rooting out the cause, only to be denied each time, her superiors citing 'insufficient resources' and 'lack of evidence'.
"We're going to have to keep the information as contained as possible," she decided. "You and Miss Militia will plan the op : see if you can ask Dragon for assistance and computer security. You will report to me with your plan directly, and I'll set things up so that whoever you need is available at a moment's notice."
"Understood," replied Armsmaster. "I will have a proposal for you by tomorrow morning. I would already suggest, however, that we perform the transfer at night."
"Why ?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Firstly, to minimize the risk of civilian casualties in the event of an attack despite our precautions. Secondly …" the hero hesitated, then carried on : "all of Lasombra's sightings have occurred at night."
"It's your operation, and you will be on the frontline," she replied. "If that's what you want, I have no issue with it."
Armsmaster probably didn't need his lie-detection software to see through that last bit. For all the good that Lasombra had done for the city since his debut (and there was no denying that he had done a lot of good), he was still an independent cape, and Piggot didn't want the PRT to look like they needed his help to do their job. Even if (especially if) that was the case.
"Speaking of Lasombra," she changed the subject with the subtlety of Glory Girl in a china shop. "What can you tell me about this wolf he had with him last night ?"
"To begin with, Lasombra's Stranger effect appears to extend to his minion," Armsmaster said. "My armor's systems were unable to record anything about the beast, though given they remained in close proximity the entire time, it is possible that Lasombra was merely covering it. From what I saw, it is completely obedient to Lasombra, but has its own instincts : it didn't behave like a puppet who needs to be manually controlled at all time."
Minion-type Masters came in different varieties, according to the PRT official documentation on the subject. Some were capable of controlling their servants completely, usually with some assistance from their power to manage the multitasking involved. Others had more autonomous summons, who followed general orders but acted independently. From what Armsmaster was saying, Lasombra was in the second category.
"I didn't have much time to observe it, however," the hero continued. "The moment I arrived on the scene, Lasombra greeted me with a nod, then vanished, and the wolf along with it."
"Same way as during previous encounters ?" Piggot asked.
"Yes, for both of them. They appeared to sink into the shadows, at which point the lighting conditions in the area returned to normal and the Stranger effect stopped – in that order."
"What about the Empire thugs who were attacked by the creature ?"
"None of them suffered from any physical injury beyond a few bruises from falling onto the pavement. M/S scans showed an intense, unnatural level of terror, but we believe they will recover naturally in time – though they're likely to be traumatized. Merely mentioning Lasombra in their presence caused them to undergo a panic attack."
Piggot frowned. Emotional manipulation like this was (quite rightly, in her own opinion) regarded with great distrust by the public, mostly due to association with the like of Heartbreaker or, God forbid, the Simurgh. It was why Gallant was officially a Tinker, after all. In this case, the fact that it required the victim to be bitten by a huge wolf was a positive factor, because nobody would be able to miss that happening to them, and it was preferable to being literally chewed and spit out. Still …
"We're going to need to add a Master rating to Lasombra's profile, both for the summon and for its capabilities. And the next time we meet him, we'll need to warn him that if he uses it too often, we'll have no choice but to come down on him for excessive force."
"It seems appropriate," Armsmaster nodded. "I really wish we could ask Lasombra to come in for some proper power testing : his abilities are not only powerful, but extremely varied."
"I've already received an email from the analyst team telling me as such," Piggot replied drily. "I told them the same thing I told you : I'd love for that to happen, but it doesn't seem likely at present. Weirdly, the only team in the building who don't seem to want Lasombra to come in from the cold work in PR."
One of the most frustrating aspects of this whole situation was that they hadn't been able to properly talk to Lasombra. His powers made communication from his side difficult : whether he could only speak in single-word sentences or was limiting himself to such to avoid making people collapse in fright was unclear, but the practical results were the same. If they could have just one proper conversation, maybe they could figure out why he didn't want to join the Protectorate, and maybe make accommodations around that. At the very least, opening communication channels would allow them to cooperate, rather than show up once the dust had settled to take the perps into custody.
"I cannot imagine why," Armsmaster deadpanned. "Have a good day, Director."
"You too, Armsmaster. And try not to spend it all in your lab : whatever plan you and Miss Militia concoct, you'll need to be in top form for it."
Armsmaster nodded and left her office. With a sigh, Piggot went back to checking the many, many reports and emails that constantly arrived into her inbox. One thing the series about the PRT and Protectorate somehow always failed to include was just how much paperwork went into waging a war against parahuman crime on a daily basis.
She consoled herself with the knowledge that, however busy her day might be, it wasn't going to be as bad as the Empire's leadership. Shadenfreude, she had found out long ago, was a great way to de-stress, especially when aimed at Nazis.
Max was furious. Last night had been a complete disaster : not only had they lost Brad, but they'd been forced to withdraw from their fights with the Protectorate, making them look like cowards as well as costing them a number of soldiers. Sure, they'd be out on bail within days, but even that would cost the organization money and influence. They could afford it, but it was still a blow to the Empire, to him.
"Talk to me. What the fuck happened ?" he snarled.
James was seated on the other side of his desk, looking completely calm despite his boss' anger. Neither of them were in costume – they were in Max Anders' office in the Medhall building in the middle of the day, after all, and had crossed the paths of dozens of employees who weren't privy to their employer's secret identity as leader of the Empire Eighty-Eight. A pair of empty coffee cups sat on the desk : they'd both stayed up late last night and needed the caffeine to deal with this mess.
"Lasombra happened," James replied. "From what I've been able to put together, Brad left the push on the ABB's territory when he got news that Bitch was raiding another of his dogfighting operations. He took a handful of our soldiers with him, but realistically, he alone would have been enough to deal with her."
Max nodded slowly. That made sense : Bitch's monstrous dogs were strong, but they couldn't do anything to Hookwolf once he was transformed. He was still furious that Brad had left without asking him permission, but was honest with himself enough to know that he wouldn't have thought anything of it if it had worked out as Hookwolf had intended.
"Except, when Brad arrived, it was Lasombra who faced him, not Bitch," the man known to the Protectorate as Krieg continued.
"Was it a trap ?" asked Max. "Could Lasombra have been working with the Undersiders ?"
"I'm not sure," replied James, frowning. "Bitch was definitely there, and the rest of the Undersiders were present as well – they were last seen driving away from the scene with a bunch of animals in cages, some of which have since been returned to their owners or delivered to various shelters across the city. It's not clear whether Lasombra was working with them from the beginning to draw Hookwolf out while the rest of our forces were engaged elsewhere, if he followed Bitch without her knowledge and seized the opportunity to use her at bait, or if it was just a coincidence she and Lasombra went after Brad's operation at the same time."
"I find it hard to believe that the cape who took down Lung would lower himself to rescuing dogs," Max pointed out. James simply shrugged.
"If he knew, or even suspected it would draw Hookwolf while the bulk of our forces were busy elsewhere, it would make sense," he pointed out. "He really shouldn't have withdrawn like this, but his desire to kill Bitch himself was well-known. Maybe Lasombra took a gamble that paid off."
"Maybe. I guess we'll never know for certain. Where's Brad now ?" Max asked, fairly certain he already knew the answer.
"In the PRT's custody inside their headquarters," James replied. "The odds that he will break out on his own are low to non-existent : his powerset is well known by the heroes, and Armsmaster will have made sure the cells can hold him. Our best shot at freeing him will be when they move him out, but if they do the same thing they did with Lung and use an aerial transport, we'll have no chance of rescuing him before Dragon drops him into the Birdcage. Rune is our only flier, and sending her alone would be a suicide, pointless mission. Unless you can get Kaiden back on board, Max ?"
Max glared at his lieutenant across the desk at the mention of his ex-wife. James endured it without flinching, and after a few seconds, Max sighed and lowered his gaze.
"I … I'm not sure," he admitted, hating that he had to do so but knowing that lying to one of his top advisors about something like this would be a mistake. "With Lung gone, convincing her that we need Hookwolf to defend the good people of the Bay would be more difficult, and you know she's never approved of his activities."
In truth, he might be able to, but he'd have to offer her something in return. He knew what she wanted most : custody of Aster in their divorce, but that wasn't something he was willing to give to her, ever. Theo had proven a failure as an heir : barring making another child, Aster was his only shot at securing his legacy.
"I see." James didn't push the subject, showing once again why he was Max's second-in-command. "Well, from what our moles have told us, Lung was a special case anyway. Brad is more likely to be transported out of town using ground vehicles, and those, we can ambush without Purity's support."
"We'll do that," Kaiser decided. "Tell our informants to keep an ear out and tell us when and where they are planning to move him out of town. We'll hit them hard, free Hookwolf, and bloody the PRT's nose all in one swoop. Then, depending on Brad's condition and that of our fighters after the breakout, we'll resume our push into ex-ABB territory."
"I will do that." James paused, then added : "What about Lasombra ?"
Kaiser's mood, which had lightened somewhat as they discussed their response to Brad's capture, immediately darkened.
"I want him dead," he said between gritted teeth, before taking a deep breath and forcing himself to relax. He was usually more in control than this, but lack of sleep and the fact that James was one of the few people he actually trusted was making his emotions come to the surface more easily. "I know we were hoping to bring him onboard if possible, but after last night that's not going to work. So we need to make an example out of him instead."
"Hmm. Figuring out his identity won't be easy, given he's both a Changer and a Mover," mused James.
Neither of them commented on this casual violation of the so-called Unwritten Rules : these only applied to those without the might to break them, and the Empire Eighty-Eight had done so many times over the decades of its existence. There was a reason Brockton Bay had so few independent capes, and it wasn't just because the PRT was desperate to grab all those it could to bolster their numbers.
"See what our sources in the PRT can tell us," Kaiser ordered. "If we don't get anything useful, we'll see about contacting Gesellschaft to ask about Thinker support. Until then, we'll pass the word to our soldiers to keep an eye out for the bastard, and keep a reserve force of our capes to respond to any further attack against our territory."
James nodded, then exited the office, returning to his own desk, where he would do what his boss had asked surrounded by Medhall employees who had no idea of his true purpose in the company.
Left alone, Kaiser brooded over the events of the last few days.
Lasombra was strong; after the last two days, nobody was stupid enough to deny that. But Kaiser had seen many cape battles, and one thing he'd learned early on was that no power came without weaknesses. Until now, Lasombra had only fought one cape at a time : he suspected things would be very different once he had to deal with multiple foes at once.
And once Lasombra was gone and Hookwolf was back into the fold, he would have the breathing room to focus on how to handle things going forward. For all that he'd played up the collapse of the ABB as a great thing for the Empire and the Bay to his followers, Max was no fool : many of their recruits had come from those who were afraid of Lung's savages and sought protection the police and PRT couldn't provide. Now that threat was gone, and the PRT was much more free to act than before.
The Empire needed victories, and fast, in order to seize the advantage. They couldn't afford to look weak – he couldn't afford to look weak.
The Empire was his, and Kaiser would burn the city to the ground before he let a jumped-up new cape like Lasombra take it from him.
Topic : Lasombra & Hookwolf fight – Hookwolf captured
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted On Jan 10th 2011 :
Folks, it appears that Lasombra wasn't content with 'just' taking down Lung and Oni Lee. Last night, he took on Hookwolf, beat him unconscious, and handed him over the PRT (along with a handful of E88 thugs, but it's not like they matter in this situation).
As always, details on how this went down are scarce, but I've managed to gather a rough timeline of events :
Hellhound of the Undersiders (here is her page and here is that of the gang) launches another raid on one of Hookwolf's dogfighting rings. The unpowered Empire members are quickly overwhelmed by her monster dogs.
Lasombra shows up while Hellhound is in the building. They do not come to blows. Then the other Undersiders arrive, probably to rescue Hellhound in case she got in over her head. They still do not come to blows with Lasombra.
Hookwolf arrives with three E88 thugs and calls out for Hellhound to face him. Instead, Lasombra comes out of the building, accompanied by a large (over 2 meters high) black wolf. After some posturing, battle is joined. The wolf takes out the thugs (none of them appear to be injured, as they weren't sent to the hospital or the morgue), while Lasombra faces off against Hookwolf.
Lasombra punches Hookwolf in his fully transformed state, then uses his ability to create shadow tentacles to tear at his metal covering until the Nazi is exposed, at which point he knocks him unconscious.
Letes
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Guess that answers the question of whether Lasombra's going to do something about the Empire, huh ?
Geronimo
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
If Lasombra could summon that big wolf, why didn't he use it against Lung ?
Laravelo
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Maybe he didn't have time ? Hookwolf arrived to find Lasombra was already on the scene, while Lung stumbled on Lasombra while he was making his way through the brothel. If he needs time to summon it, that would explain it.
XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Or maybe the wolf was created from the spirits of the dead animals, and Lasombra gave them a chance to avenge themselves on Hookwolf !
Venturain
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
… I want to say that's not how parahuman powers work, but even now, we still don't know jack about how parahuman powers work, and some of them have pretty esoteric requirements. So, I cannot believe I'm saying this, but maybe XxVoid_CowboyxX is right ?
Brrr, writing that felt so wrong.
XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Oh come on ! It makes perfect sense ! Obviously Lasombra is summoning spirits from Hell to punish those who have committed evil !
Venturain
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Aaaand now the world makes sense again. Phew. I was worried there for a second.
Sapphire_Prophet
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Wait, why didn't Lasombra stop the Undersiders, though ? They were right there !
Shadow_Seeker (Verified not a cape)
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Well, given that they were seen delivering kidnapped pets back to their owners this morning (here is a link to the article), my best guess is that after seeing the Empire's dogfighting ring, he thought they weren't that bad ? Also, the Undersiders aren't a big name in BB (I hadn't heard of them before), so maybe he assumed they were vigilantes come to rescue the animals.
Sapphire_Prophet
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
I guess they haven't done anything heinous since arriving, but doesn't Hellhound have a murder charge ?
Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Compared to Hookwolf, Hellhound might as well be Mother Theresa. That son of a bitch has sent more of my buddies to the hospital (or the morgue) than I want to think about. I'm glad that he's been taken off the streets, but I'm forced to wonder how long that will last. It's not the first time the PRT got him, after all.
Letes
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Oh, right. He escaped from a Birdcage transport once, right ? With any luck, the PRT will take precautions to avoid a repeat.
And hey, if they don't, maybe Lasombra will show them how it's done !
I smiled as I read through the rest of the comments on the thread, although part of me was equally worried and shocked that XxVoid_CowboyxX had more or less nailed what had happened (before descending into his usual rambling). I consoled myself with the thought that, for all that the rest of the thread weren't dog-piling his suggestion into oblivion, his reputation alone would make sure nobody took it seriously.
As for the Undersiders, I could admit to myself that I'd completely forgotten about them once I'd heard Hookwolf was coming. By the time I'd beaten the Empire cape, they'd already left, and I couldn't go after them and let Hookwolf escape. Between the Nazi who tortured and killed dogs for sport and the petty thieves who rescued them, I knew which one I wanted to see behind bars.
I could feel Marchosias' presence. Right now, she was asleep, or at least in a state that resembled sleep, having feasted upon the terror she'd inflicted upon the Empire's thugs. Unlike my main projection, she was a semi-independent entity, more similar to the types of minions I'd found described in the Master sections of PHO's wiki – albeit one far more powerful than most examples.
I still wasn't sure what my familiar (the word was about as good as any for the bond between me and Marchosias) really was. She'd come from the Abyss, that other realm of purest blackness which my consciousness could access while I was unconscious and which was linked to every shadow in the city. At the same time, however, I felt like I had created her – or perhaps I had provided her with a reference shape she could use to manifest with the pet corpses of the E88 cold room.
One thing was clear : Marchosias was not a demon I'd summoned from the underworld. I was the one who had given her the name, pulling it out of one of Mom's books I'd read years ago. Which was good, because for all the rumors that Brockton Bay had been built on an open portal to Hell, I didn't want to have to deal with the heroes' reaction if they thought that was what I was doing. Actions might speak louder than words, but I knew enough about capes to know that image was also important to avoid being named a villain purely for aesthetic or naming reasons.
Was the strange images and emotions I'd received from her just how my brain translated the information my power was feeding it through my Corona Gemma ? There wasn't a lot of hard data to be found on the Internet regarding parahuman perception (or at least if there was, I couldn't find it amidst the veritable sea of conjecture and wild theorizing).
I supposed I would have to find out for myself. The more I used my power, the more I learned about it. At some point, I would run out of new abilities and would be able to focus on mastering the ones I already had.
No time like the present, I decided. Leaning back in my chair, I closed my eyes and tentatively reached through the connection with my familiar. Without being unconscious and letting my awareness slip into the Abyss, it was more difficult, but the tie was here.
Marchosias ?
I blinked, and suddenly there was an enormous black wolf in my room with me. She was laying down on the floor, completely filling the space between my desk and my bed – yet still, she was noticeably smaller than when I'd called her for the first time.
In hindsight, I realized that maybe I should have done this in the basement, where there was more space. Fortunately, my curtains were drawn (the light of the January sun had been hurting my eyes), so nobody would call the police on account of seeing a huge wolf inside a house.
Slowly, carefully, I reached out with my right hand and petted Marchosias' head. Her fur didn't feel real : it was like touching smoke, or the memory of an animal's fur. There was definitely something there, though, and I stroke her as gently as I could.
Marchosias stared at me with what I could only described as an amused look (I didn't know wolf faces could be that expressive), then closed her eyes and lowered her head, graciously allowing me to continue petting her.
So, I could summon Marchosias without being remotely controlling Lasombra at the same time. That was … I guessed it could be useful if I were ever attacked in my civilian identity, since I couldn't exactly pass out and project Lasombra on command. Sure, it would risk exposing myself, but if it was a life-and-death situation, I would much rather stay alive than die to keep my secret.
I would have to be careful, though. I'd read enough superhero comics to know that having one's secret identity revealed rarely led to anything good.
In one timeline, Coil listened to Tattletale finishing her report on the events of the previous night over the phone.
"I see," he said once she was done. "Nicely done. Keep up your investigation, pet."
In the other timeline, the one where he had insisted on Tattletale reporting her findings in person, he grinned as he looked at her, bleeding and broken, bound to a metal chair. His men had been working on her for the past two hours, and he knew she was at her breaking point. After the number of times he'd done this, he'd come to recognize the signs.
By now, she'd figured out what his power was : being in his presence and using her own talent to make sense of her situation ensured it. But it wouldn't help her. All she wanted was for the pain to end, and she would do and tell him anything for that to happen, even if it ultimately screwed over her alternate self.
The first time Coil had done this, it had taken multiple attempts to determine just how much brutality was needed to bring his pet to the point where she wouldn't attempt to lie to him but would still be in a state to answer his questions. He'd perfected the process over time, until now, he could pump her out of every bit of information she thought she was concealing from him with a minimum of fuss.
After savoring the look of despair on Tattletale's face for a few more moments, he pulled his pistol and shot her in the head, out of what he could admit to himself was mere pettiness, and collapsed that timeline.
Back at his desk inside his lair, he pondered what he'd learned.
It would be problematic to say the least if Lasombra were actually connected to the Fallen in any way. Given the well-deserved reputation of the Fallen, even a hint that Lasombra might be associated with them had been enough to make Tattletale and the rest of the Undersiders panic. Not that she'd admitted as such to Coil on the phone, but she'd confessed it all in person, once given the proper incentives.
Neither Coil nor Tattletale believed that the cape was part of the Endbringer cult : while it was possible they'd send one of their own to act as a hero in order to infiltrate the Bay's cape scene, they wouldn't be so foolish as to have him use the Marchosias name if that were the case.
The most likely scenario was that Tattletale had overreacted and the naming similarity was a coincidence : even in a world with the Simurgh, these things still happened. It was a weakness of all Thinker powers to read too deeply into things and come to erroneous conclusions, and one such as hers who depended on the quality of input most of all.
Still, the connection was a potential lever of control : making public the name of Lasombra's summon would harm his image at the very least, and might be seen as cause to try and take him in depending on how the dominoes of institutional paranoia fell.
More interesting was the girl. Taylor Hebert, the victim of Shadow Stalker's little indiscretion. Tattletale hadn't told him about the possible connection between the girl and Lasombra over the phone, but she had in the timeline where he'd had her tortured for two hours. There was a possibility Hebert was linked to Lasombra, though Tattletale hadn't been certain : the timelines certainly aligned, but she'd still been at the hospital when Lasombra had first appeared.
However, Thomas Calvert's position within the PRT meant that he was more knowledgeable on parahuman theory than his pet. And once you added the fact that Lasombra was using a summoned minion, the odds that the parahuman responsible was a Master instead of a Changer increased dramatically. And given that Hebert had been sent to the hospital after her theoretical Trigger Event, she – theoretically – wouldn't have the remarkable abilities of her – still theoretical – projection herself.
And if that theory was correct, then bringing Lasombra under his control suddenly became a lot more plausible. He wasn't arrogant enough to think he could threaten a cape who had gone toe-to-toe with Lung and emerged victorious, but a teenage girl holding the metaphorical remote to said cape ? That was another story. He already had been planning to setup a room in his base where his pet Thinker could be kept drugged and quiescent once her utility as a mobile agent had run its course : adding another bed would be simplicity itself.
He would follow up on that lead later, though. For now, he needed to use his influence within the PRT to make sure that, when Hookwolf was taken out of town, the Empire had the opportunity to rescue him. Last night had been an overall victory for Piggot, and he couldn't let anyone think the tides of the war against the gangs were turning in the PRT's favor. At least not until he was the one calling the shots and could take the credit for himself.
Notes:
AN : Ah, Coil. Coil, Coil, Coil. Why are you like this ? It's not even powers messing with his head, since he's a Cauldron cape. I'm going to enjoy what I have planned for our dear evil Bond villain-wannabe, friends.
Once again, do not get used to this update speed. It's going to slow down sooner or later, but I'll take advantage of the Muse's enthusiasm while I can.
My next update should be ACCWAMD, as it is very nearly done at time of writing. The two Cain stories also each have chapters close to finished - I'm hoping to update them sometime next week.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I look forward to your suggestions.
Zahariel out.
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