Invisible beams flashed down out of the clear sky.  It was night in what had once been China but as glowing lines sliced across the ground they illuminated the rising smoke clouds from previous strikes.  Bob was chopping apart the shambling nightmare that Death’s children, now freed of his control, had become.


    “We don’t need to be here,” said Ryn.  “This is one you can deal with on your own.  Where are Frost and War?”


    “In North America fighting Liberty.  Magic and Life are staying out of it at the moment,” replied Bob through their comm links.


    “What do you want us to do?” asked Sally.


    “Head back to the Bunker.  Your armour needs decontaminating, then we can decide on a plan of action.”


    ***


    In North America a furious fight between War and Liberty was devastating the landscape across a vast area.  Liberty never missed, she was too fast, and each time her fist caught War he was flung away.  If the locals were lucky he went high and had to stabilise himself with his cloud before diving back into the fray.  If they were unlucky he ploughed through buildings and towns leaving long scars on the ground.


    War and Frost were trying to draw Liberty away from the major population centres but she wouldn’t always follow them, preferring to have the leverage of collateral damage to contain Frost’s powers.  New glaciers had been created whose melt water would soon cause massive flooding and displacement.


    A barrier of ice fell in front of Liberty as she paused from smacking War around like a tennis ball.  She laughed then vanished and Frost quickly surrounded herself with a hundred metres wide ice cube that began to fall from the sky with her caught at the centre like a mosquito in amber.  War suddenly flashed through the ice, blasting it apart and launching chunks into the landscape below that left metres wide craters.  His fist caught Liberty in the side and despite her intangibility he was able to throw her off course enough that she missed Frost’s true body by a hair''s breadth.


    “Get out of here,” he snarled, keeping his eyes focussed on where he had sent a now invisible Liberty tumbling.


    “I won’t leave you alone here!” snapped Frost as pillars of ice spun up around her body and began to orbit so fast they blurred together.


    “That won’t stop her,” War said absently.  He flickered forwards and avoided an invisible kick, he lashed out with a kick of his own to counter which caught Liberty in the midriff, launching her away again and she quickly vanished once more.


    “We need to find Mindscar!” called Frost as she searched desperately to spot Liberty.  “Killing the controller is the only option!”


    “Oh I don’t think I’ll let that happen,” came a voice from behind Frost.  The blue skinned woman twisted as a fist slammed into her spine with a crunching noise.


    Frost was briefly engulfed in cool blue fire and then she vanished.


    “I need you to pin her for a second!” called Ryn as she flickered from pace to place in the sky.  The clouds above parted and a dozen BFOs descended ponderously, casting huge shadows below them.


    “Easier said than done, girl.  Don’t stay still!” barked War.


    Ryn had already assumed as much.  Ten times a second she flickered to another location.  It was like watching a child wave a sparkler and leaving afterimages in the air.  She was never where she appeared to be and ghostly outlines of Liberty kept flashing through where Ryn had been only a moment before.  Being almost as fast as the speed of light wasn’t quite the same as being able to move faster than it, something that Ryn mercilessly exploited for her advantage.


    “You can’t keep this up forever.  One slip little girl and you’re toast!” echoed out around them.


    Ryn increased her flickering movement as War tried to intercept Liberty while she focussed on the girl.


    “Mindscar really doesn’t like your family does she?” he grunted as yet another punch whiffed through empty air.


    “What makes you say that?” asked Ryn as she continued to flicker from place to place as quickly as she could.  She began leaving bursts of sun-hot plasma in her wake.  The first time Liberty tried to attack through one she screamed and rebounded back into War’s arms.


    “I’m more of a threat than you,” he grunted as he slammed a collar around the temporarily vulnerable Liberty’s neck.  “Christ!” he growled as he fought to keep Liberty’s arms at her side.  Even collared, the woman was monstrously strong.


    “No.  You aren’t.” The girls voice was deathly cold as flames wrapped around Liberty and the woman vanished.  War’s arms slammed together in front of him and he spun on his cloud to face the girl made of fire.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    “You’d better not have killed her.”  His voice was equally inhuman.


    “She’s off-world, not dead.  In a holding cell on the Necklace. The rest of my team are moving on Belisarius.  We could use your help to limit collateral damage,” Ryn replied.  War glanced down at the ground below them.  Craters and divots, explosions and blasts had pockmarked the landscape for hundreds of kilometres in every direction.  The deepest of the holes his body had dug glowed red at the bottom.


    “I think we’re past worrying about that,” he said flatly.  “C’mon girl.  Let’s go see if we can sort out this tinker prick.”


    “Not yet.  You need a little bonus first,” said Ryn.  “Bob?”


    One of the BFOs had moved lower than the rest and was now opening a hatch on its side.


    “Head in there fat man.  You need an anti-psyker mod.  If Mindscar was in range you’d already be attacking us but if you go near her unshielded you’ll end up just like Liberty,” Bob said over the two fighters comms.


    “You want me to let you stick something in my brain?  Right now?” he guffawed and slapped his belly.  “Let’s just go-”


    “Get the fucking implant old man,” said Ryn harshly as her eyes tracked the ruins below.  Some of it cut through what had once been settlements.  Those towns were now ruins and god alone knew how many could have died.  This made France look like a walk in the park and her darker side was rearing its ugly head.  A cool sensation passed through her that she didn’t understand and the heat in her emotions faded somewhat.


    I’m just keeping a lid on it for now, Ryn.  You need some serious counselling but we don’t have time,  Kev’s voice whispered in her mind.  Part of her was enraged at the intrusion but that feeling was also muted and washed away.


    War examined the girl and narrowed his eyes.  He had earned his name not just from his power but from his history.  He’d seen red lining before.  Despite years of safety and seclusions this dangerous girl was clearly suffering from what used to be called combat fatigue.


    “I will accept this implant,” he said carefully and flew up towards the maw of the spaceship hovering above them.


    ***


    “She’s here.  I can’t find her but I can feel how everyone else is primed to react as she want’s,” said Kev.  "Whether it''s some kind of latent programming or she''s nearby and ready to take direct control... I can''t tell." The rest of the team were spread out around him in the hangar of the BFO.


    “Let’s go light her up!”  said Jane happily.  “We can flush her out with some of Armand’s summons?”


    “She''ll drive them all crazy!  They''re just civilians!” snapped Armand.


    “So what?” demanded Jane.


    “I think he’s worried that we would be putting them in danger,” replied Bolf.


    “None of them are helpless.  Even the weakest powers have some combat potential!” the fiery girl replied.


    “That makes it even harder, Jane.  We’d have to fight and maybe hurt some of them!  We can’t just burn through this problem!” said Simon.  “Bob, what about the orbital options?  Can’t you do a precision strike or whatever it’s called?  You’ve got nukes and space lasers!”


    “Belisarius is too deep underground.  I could take him out but I’d take out everyone for miles at the same time,” came the voice from the walls.


    “So get Ryn to blip a nuke into his base then?” asked Andrea.  “Let me copy her power and I’ll do it!”


    “You’ve never seen it.  You can’t go where you can’t see.  We’d have to fight our way down or light a fire down there,” argued Kev.


    “So let’s do that!  We can fix this!” snapped Bad as he smashed his fists together in frustration.


    “How are the drones doing?” asked Ryn from behind them.


    “Stalling.  It’s his territory.  He knows all the nooks and crannies and he’s boobytrapped every bloody metre,” replied Bob.


    “Ryn!  Did you get Liberty?” asked Jane, rushing forward to hug the other girl tightly.


    “Geroff!” said Ryn, pushing Jane away.  “She’s in Bob''s hands now.  If we can deal with Mindscar we might be able to bring her back.”


    “Unlikely,” said Kev sadly.  “It''s like hypnotic programming.  Maybe killing Mindscar will end her control of Liberty but I wouldn’t count on it.”


    “You sure, boy?  It would make life a lot easier if we only had to hold her until we dealt with the puppet master,” asked Bob.


    “No, I’m not sure but it’s what my gut is telling me.”


    “Ok.  Next on the shittiest job list ever is dealing with Belisarius.  Kev, is he controlled?” asked Bob.


    “No idea.  He should be visible to my mindmap but I can’t see anything where he should be.  Unless the info was corrupted in Liberty’s mind… no.  She visited Belisarius before Mindscar got to her so it should be right.”


    “So we blast our way in and kill the shrivelled prick.  You did say he was like- I dunno -a husk tied into a machine right?  Once we clear the bots he’ll be easy meat!” said Jane hopefully.


    “It’s looking like that might be the best option.  I don’t know where he’s gotten his manufacturing capacity but he’s got far too many drones to be making and running them himself,” replied Bob.


    “You got a mod that lets you run infinite versions of yourself right?  Why wouldn’t he?” asked Sally.


    “First of all we have very different power sets, despite the superficial similarities.  We''ve known each other for years and we used to talk, back in the day.  I suppose it’s possible it’s all him but I doubt it.  Best bet?  I’d say he’s using AI or some other form of control nexus to manage the load.  I still do something similar for rote tasks, you’ve no idea how boring it is to do a million mindless, repetitive tasks at the same time across thousands of incarnations,” said Bob.


    “So AI then?  Will that help him or hinder him?  AI can be pretty dumb sometimes,” scoffed Jane.


    “This isn’t like the old LLC type of thing, or I doubt it is anyway.  He was more of an enhancer of old earth tech rather than a true tinker.  That’s unfair.  He’s a proper tinker but he couldn’t modify material or harvest resources like I can.  So he was stuck with the materials he could get his hands on,” said Bob thoughtfully.


    “How does that affect what we’re up against?  He’s been buying mats off the market, clearly!” said Simon.  “His stuff is light on ‘magical’ materials as a result.  He’s an amateur!”


    “He’s a very fucking dangerous man with a shit load of very effective, disposable war machines.  Think of him like Iron Man gone to the dark side and you’re not far off,” Bob snapped back.  “You’re barely a spark to his candle at the moment boy!”


    “I’ll spark his fucking candle if I get a chance,” grumbled Simon.


    “What does that even mean?” hissed Andrea, earning a scowl in reply.


    “Ryn.  War’s surgery is done.  Go grab him and we’ll come up with a plan.  Might as well have a heavy hitter in place just in case,” said Bob.


    “I want his head,” said Sally quietly.  “That ship killed my whole family.  No one gets between me and him when we reach his little nest!” she finished in a snarl.