The Stigma (by Koltin Scott)

Chap. IV

"Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."

–Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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Elizabeth

I strode down the street carefully, Gabriel on my military phone spoke,

"Inside you should see Magmantis, and you will be on your own," he seemed to grin before he said my new name, "War Gravity. He should be able to lead you to the Black Baron. The one who attacked the Self-Save Insurance company ten years ago."

"Throw the phone in the trash?"

"Yep, toodles."

I dropped my phone as I passed a can and began a gauged run. Not many know my powers, but also now I will be using them to a minute degree. Up ahead was a wall, but the world is in War Grav.

I ran completely up it with ease. With my gravity powers I am perfect for sneaking in a fort and arresting pretty much everything in it. I am just impersonating a weak super that can get me and a team over walls and such. Then when it comes time to arrest them I can increase the gravity, pasting them to the floor.

I was in a abandoned buffet, must have been a hit back before the Second Depression. The wall I climbed over was around where the outside sitting would be. There was a garden and Chinese-Japanese style bridge over the now green garbage ridden koi river.

I approached with caution, looking for cameras and other security. There was one on the far doorway and I spoiled myself to ripping it down. I snuck closer behind the tables and then back on the walls, going to sneak through the top windows.

Then suddenly the door opened and a man who, according to the information, wasn't supposed to be here. I heard the goon kick the camera and mumble something negative about this old building. Already things were escalating.

I quietly peeled back the window and wormed myself inside. I balanced myself on the banisters of the Chinese-style building. The tables were stacked neatly in a corner rusting to nothing. The only thing that lit the room(, yes, ONE room buffet,) was lanterns deeper into the building, closer to the kitchen.

I approached closer and the man who checked the camera came out from a doorway under me and my eyes exponentially expanded. I wasn't afraid of the man himself but the symbol on his back. The dragon of the Dragoons. This IS escalating quickly.

I came closer and could hear them speaking,

"Your base is a bunch of rubbish."

The man named Magmantis smiled, "Not for long."

One man said in a weary tone,

"Do you think your friends have caught on to your betrayal?"

Magmantis shrugged and continued packing. One said in a rougher tone, pointing a rifle to a unconscious figure in a chair,

"This Angel of Blah-de-Blah did, when are you going to get done?"

I pinched my lips together and assayed the situation. Magmantis, a fire super, was betraying the target for the Dragoons. The man in the chair was a good friend of my target, so it appears that only that man could get me on the inside.

I am one of the most powerful of the Angels however and these people are nothing. I thought it funny that a angel of the light is going to save an angel of darkness. No matter.

Then six more men came out of the old kitchen area. There was a dozen and a half Dragoons in the room. Man, they were planning something big. Still...

I positioned myself on the ceiling directly above them and pasted them so hard into the ground they couldn't move their lips. I gently fell from maybe thirty feet or so and picked up a G36C, a common Dragoon weapon, from one of the men. It was nineteen shots for nineteen people.

After I waited for any to regenerate or to resurrect, I went on to help the man who was in the chair. His clothes were tattered and torn, like he WAS from hell, but it was more weathered than burned. His face was a mysterious contrast to his outfit, asleep the man's face beamed with a strange trustworthiness. Thank God he didn't smell like he dressed.

He was cuffed in adamantium enforced stainless steel cuffs. These are usually used for people possessing super strength. I hesitated upon seeing them but I searched for the keys and found some on Magmantis' person.

When I fiddled with the cuffs and keys he woke with a start. He strained his restraints in panic and then I cooed him to calm down, when calmer he spoke,

"Did Father send you?"

"No," I replied, "but I think I am wanting to join the one that you call Father."

He grumbled something and said, "How many people did you kill?"

"Nineteen, why?"

I mumbled in frustration, there were five handcuff keys that didn't work.

"Cause there were 21 Dragoons in here, and the guy with the key was loading stuff in some truck."

I got a cold feeling and asked if he was sure. He shrugged and mumbled something about being unconscious. There's two more people.

"Do you think Magmantis has the key by now?"

"Nah," he said, "these are Dragoon cuffs, a Dragoon's got the key."

I began searching the bodies as Angel of... Something awkwardly walked over to the security screen and watched it. I stayed on my toes, no doubt the others heard the gunshots and Angel told me not to worry; he's bulletproof.

Messing with dead men is not my favorite pastime...

I was searching when I heard a motorcycle in the distance, probably just a biker from the bars. At first it was distant but it was growing louder over time. It continued to the point that I was getting alarmed.

"Um, Angel?!"

His eyes were big and he said wearily, "Well someone is coming this way but he can't-" something unexpected must have happened because he exclaimed in surprise, "Ohh, okay!"

At that moment a motorcycle smashed through the glass over the front door, slowing the descent with a chain that the rider used as a whip and skidded to a stop. The rider had a sock hat with a ghostly skull on it and I didn't like the electricity coming from his chain. I rose pointing the G36C his way, he seemed to regard the weapon as harmless rubbish.

"Who are you?!"

He just sat and watched me. Angel exclaimed the man's name like a good friend, Waya. He had a cool hooded Eisenhower jacket. A few moments passed and I realized that he wasn't watching; he was waiting.

The wall suddenly exploded next to me, striking several parts of my body in debris. I opened my eyes to a haze, flames were kindled somewhere close to me. People stormed in checking the room. I coughed and spat dust out of my mouth. My eyes focused to the sight of metal boots walking closer to me. The firelight bathing the metal man in a ominous orange. I looked up to another ghostly skull, my eyes flicked to the grapple on the man's right hand. They matched the design of the Black Baron, and looked back to the face, it matched as well. When I was kicked in the face, I realized that he had improved the boots as well.