The Plan
Desolator sighed as he fiddled with his new prosthetic. He was lying on a cot, his clothes still bloody and torn. His broken rifle lay next to him. The room was stainless steel with metal shelves along the wall filled with boxes of dewormer, allergy medications, and a thousand other things a vet’s office would need. There weren’t many actual doctors willing to do surgery off the books.
Desolator’s heart was heavy. He’d never abandoned 2 team members before. He’d never lost a brother. He’d never lost a leg.
“That was FUBAR.” Maddox sighed. She was sitting on the dirty ground next to him. She wore a dirty bathrobe. Her clothes had been thoroughly ruined by her dip in the Mississippi. They had rendezvoused at a safe house. Desolator was barely conscious when he stumbled out of his commandeered car into Maddox’s arms. She’d managed to get him to the ‘Vet,’ an underworld doctor whose day job was… veterinary work.
Desolator could only silently nod. There was nothing more to say. That entire mission had been a fiasco from start to finish. He wished he vetoed Slaughter when he’d suggested holding the mayor’s kid hostage to lure Miracle into the kill zone. He couldn’t. He’d only managed to convince Maddox to take his side. Jabberwocky, the only man he’d ever loved, had taken Slaughter’s side. Bicorn, predictably, had followed Jabberwocky’s lead. It was 39% ownership vs. 61%. Slaughter’s plan won.
“So what happened to the others?” Maddox finally asked. Desolator hadn’t been coherent for the last three days. This was probably the first time he’d been responsive since the battle.
“Jabberwocky and Bicorn got disabled. I can only assume they were captured.” Desolator managed. Sam was weeping.
“What about Slaughter?”
A scream reverberated through Desolator’s mind. An unnatural shriek that abruptly stopped without so much as a rattle. He’d never heard a scream like that. He’d never be able to forget it.
He shook his head. “Dead.”
That silenced the room for a moment. Maddox didn’t like Slaughter. He’d been a cunt to her from day 1. Only the Five’s rules against internal squabbles prevented her from handling him herself. But… they had worked together for the better part of a decade now. She could give him a moment of silence before moving on to pressing matters.
“… do we try to bust Jabbers and Bi out?” Maddox asked. She was looking to Desolator for a plan. Hopeful they could still salvage something of what they were.
“You said it’s been three days?”
Maddox nodded.
“Then they’re in Gehenna by now.” Desolator sighed. Sam mourned. “There’s no saving them.”
“Won’t they have a trial?” Maddox ventured. “Maybe we can get them in transit--”
“S-rank threats.” Desolator waved his hand as if to dismiss Maddox’s last hope. “If they even have a trial, it’ll be by stream.”
“… fuck.” Maddox whispered. It seemed to finally sink in that their comrades were as good as dead. She didn’t like Slaughter, but Jabberwocky and Bicorn were… different stories. If she thought it was remotely possible; she’d advocate for breaking into Gehenna. It wasn’t.
The completion of Gehenna had been the effective end of America’s warlord crisis. A completely automated prison somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. It was whispered that Grandpa Slow had designed the prison. then some bastard with a machine production quirk had made the designs of the ingenious snail kaiju into a reality.
Before Gehenna S-class warlords would go to jail, network, and then walk out the door whenever they wanted. No one had ever walked out of Gehenna.
No one had ever so much as scratched Gehenna’s gate.
“… do we leave the country then?”
Desolator closed his eyes. “Yeah, we have to get the buyout money to their families.”
Maddox nodded. What more was there to say?
“Then we need to find three more members.”
Maddox sighed. She supposed that was rational.
“But I want to do one thing before we leave this Hellhole.”
“What’s that?”
There was a limit to how bad information could be before it was active sabotage.
“I want to meet our employer.”
Desolator woke with a start. He grabbed his leg. His hand closed around flesh, blood, and bone. He breathed heavily for a few moments as the fact that he wasn’t dreaming came to him. He leaned back with a sigh.
Sam had always wondered what would happen if he found a healer capable of regrowing limbs. Would he finally stop remembering that fucking day every time he closed his eyes? Would he get over it? Would he dream again?
Apparently, he would not. Maybe he was just too old for dreams. Maybe all he had left were memories.
The Five sat around their TV. They were watching surveillance footage. Desolator, sitting in the middle of the couch, stroked his chin as a black sedan pulled in front of a tall office building.
Nox sat on the couch on Desolator’s left. She leaned against the armrest disinterested. It’d already been decided she’d be conducting the feint. Her job wasn’t concerned with the going on of the video.
Mercury sat cross-legged in front of the couch. He practically bubbled with anxiety. This would be Mercury’s first ‘white gloves’ job. Last time, he’d been in charge of the feint.
Tether sat to Desolator’s right. He eyed the TV hungrily. This would be his third white gloves job. He always looked forward to these.
Behind the couch loomed Maddox. Her arms were crossed over her chest. She wore the expression of disinterested professionalism.
On the TV, the sedan rolled to a stop in front of the court house and a young Japanese man in his early 20s exited the driver’s seat.
“There!” Mercury pointed at the chauffeur.
Desolator’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded grimly. “Our employer’s information is immaculate as always.”
“Floor.” Tether grinned. He was getting excited. Whether he was excited to face someone with a comparable quirk or Floor’s employer, Desolator didn’t care.
Floor opened the back door. A middle-aged Japanese man exited with a bow. He was a handsome man. The sort of handsome whose success could be guaranteed with a smile and a firm handshake. He was their target, Takara Satori.
Desolator started scanning Satori for weaknesses as he walked up the stairway. His right leg was a little longer than his left. He had a tendency to cradle his left arm close to his body. He squinted in full daylight. The way he focused on the door told Desolator that the man was a little near-sighted.
Satori’s undercover bodyguard watched him ascend the stairs before speaking into a radio. He listened for a callback, then got into the sedan and left.
“… so why the Hell is a pro hero on babysitting duty?” Maddox rumbled.
“He was an informant for the Night Parade.” Desolator recited. “He flipped. Now the Hero Association is providing him protection until he gets them some actionable information. At which point, they’ll put him in witness protection.”
“And out of our reach.” Mercury snatched at an invisible target right in front of him.
“I don’t like doing the Night Parade a favor,” Maddox grumbled.
“If it makes you feel better they don’t know he’s flipped. They’ll probably think this is our official response to their ‘recruitment’ attempt.”
“It does not.”
“So, why this target?” Mercury asked idly.
“I’m not in the habit of asking.”
“Right, but he’ll be out of Saraki’s hair soon enough right?”
“Assuming it’s Satori he wants to hurt.” Nox pointed out. “His boss is a big bitch counselor.”
“Regardless,” Desolator interrupted. “he is our target. We have to kill him before the Hero Association disappears him. Which means, we have to deal with the fact he has a pro hero’s sidekick as a bodyguard.”
“Probably has the pro hero too.” Maddox rumbled. “Inigo was jabbering to Marrow about a kid who can teleport being one of Impakt’s sidekicks.”
“Wonderful.” Desolator deadpanned.
“Isn’t it?” Tether grinned.
“…”
“… anyway, I don’t suppose they stick to the same route when they drive him to work?”
“Three different routes,” Desolator reported.
“So, the best place to hit him would be at that office building?”
“Too many civilians.” Desolator vetoed. “It’d be better to hit them on route 3, on one of the side streets.”
“Ichikawa?” Mercury offered.
Desolator studied his mental map for a second. That was… literally the best place to hit them. He gave Mercury a slight nod.
Mercury smiled despite himself.
“How do we get them to take route 3?”
“We don’t.” Maddox corrected. “We wait until they do. Mercury sits at that coffee shop on Shirakawa. Route 3 is the only route where they’ll turn onto Imadegawa. As soon they turn right. He radios us. Then he books it to the ambush site.”
Desolator finished the orders. He looked at Nox. “Nox, you’ll conduct the feint as soon as Mercury confirms they’re on Route 3.”
“… Do you care where I drop it?” Nox ventured.
Desolator’s eyes narrowed. There was something about her tone that had Desolator confused. “Why? Do you have a place in mind?”
“No, just, what do I need to avoid?”
Desolator didn’t believe that, but he answered anyway. “Major highways, anywhere where you’ll rack up an unacceptable body count. If you hit a train, make sure it’s on a straightaway. That’ll give the driver enough time to realize he should brake. And please, this should go without saying, do not go far enough outside of Kyoto that Kyoto’s heroes stay home instead.”
“Right.” Nox bobbed her head. She began to tap on her phone. What the Hell was she thinking? Was she trying to moonlight? Desolator’s eyes narrowed. He almost continued his line of questioning before Mercury interrupted.
“We not bringing Marrow in on this?”
“No!” Maddox thundered. Mercury reeled back as if he’d just been struck.
“Whoa! Sorry, what’d I miss?”
Desolator sighed. “Do you remember when I explained to you what White Gloves means?”
“Yeah, of course,” Mercury answered, a little hurt. “It’s an ‘open killing.’ We make sure everybody knows it was the Five that did it.”
“Which means, we’ll be operating in the open.”
“Right.”
“Which means, if we brought him along, Marrow’s persona would forever be joined to the Five.”
“… oh.”
“I’m not inflicting our problems on a kid.” Maddox rumbled. “Final word.”
Desolator said nothing. There was no need for him to voice his agreement. No one seemed too eager to fight Maddox on this. She was more of a leader than she thought she was.
Maddox’s words hung heavily before Nox finally broke the silence. “So what else is there?”
Desolator thought for a moment at those words. There was only one more thing to emphasize. They knew their assignments. They’d already discussed how they’d deal with Floor, Impakt, and their two known interns. But, he’d made a promise at a hero’s grave.
“You know your jobs. You’re professionals, so this next is just to emphasize what you already know. The policy against killing children? That is especially true for this assignment. If any of you permanently harms Sunlight Man, you will answer for it.”
“What about Floor?” Tether asked breathlessly. “And Impakt?!”
“Go wild.”