Chapter 71: Warehouse Warfare
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"I will hurt you for this. I don't know how yet but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you'll know the debt is paid."
― Tyrion Lannister, (A Game of Thrones)
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<(Atem POV)>
The air inside the warehouse crackled with tension as the two sides faced each other. All of them knew that this wasn't going to be a friendly bout. They were going to fight with their lives on the line and only one side was going to make it out of there with their bodies intact at the end of the night.
"You could just surrender. We could take you, maybe even try to cure you of your condition." Scarlet gritted her teeth as she used her telekinesis to stop the bullets that were fired from Bloody Mary's guns in their tracks.
"But where is the fun in that? Plus, who says that I want to get rid of my unique condition? I like all my personalities. The one named Typhoid is even my best friend. I do admit that Mary and Walker are the boring ones, but I love just how stupidly innocent and powerless they are compared to me and Typhoid. Hahahaha" She laughed, her eyes glowing with a slightly red hue as she emptied all the clips of the guns onto Wanda, trying to find a weak spot in her defense.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the warehouse, Bullseye was engaged in a deadly fight of blades with Psylocke. Bullseye hurled anything within reach—knives, darts, playing cards even stray bullets—towards Psylocke, who was able to deflect everything with incredible precision using the two purple psionic katana blades she had conjured in her hands.
Their battle was a whirlwind of inhumane levels of skill, neither giving an inch to the other as they moved with lethal precision to win the battle.
"So, you all are mutants. That was truly unexpected, but now I guess I could at least have some fun before I end this. Come on, darling, impress me with your abilities and maybe you will have a quick death!" Bullseye laughed like he had just told a funny joke.
"Oh really? I guess, we will see." Elizabeth uttered; her eyes focused on the projectiles that Bullseye was throwing at her. However, there was a slight smile on her face. She almost looked like she was somewhat enjoying this too, perhaps because she didn't get to physically fight like this anymore. Most of her opponents were below average in their physical skills which made them easy prey for her. So finally, after being able to fight someone so skilled, she was almost enjoying it.
In another part of the warehouse, Polaris, and Quicksilver were working in tandem against a legion of Hand ninjas led by their armored leader.
Polaris's magnetic powers swept through the air, manipulating all the metal in the warehouse to entangle and permanently cripple the agile ninjas while Quicksilver moved like a blur, incapacitating those who tried to target her before they could even react. Their fight was almost one-sided with them making short work of their foes because of their immense cheat-like abilities.
Even their armored leader was now stuck to the ground with various parts of semi-metallic armor and his own weapons being mangled with his flesh, making it impossible for him to move. He was profusely bleeding from countless wounds on his body that were caused by Polaris at the very start of the battle when she had manipulated everything metal on or around him to pierce into his body.
The now-bound leader had tried to use his chi to escape his condition as well but unfortunately for him, his skill in using chi was far from the power that Polaris possessed in manipulating metals. While still nowhere near the level of Magneto yet, Lorna was still her father's daughter.
"What happened guys? Can't catch me? I thought that ninjas were supposed to be known for their speed and agility but to me, you are just a bunch of slowpokes, cosplaying after watching some cringe anime or something. Also, what is with your red costumes? Who did you get your ninja fashion advice from, Naruto?" Quicksilver smirked as he finally stopped his "super-sprint" after giving every Hand ninja present there a taste of his right hook at the speed of sound and the legendary wedges that he was known for. "Thanks for wearing underwear by the way. I always wanted to be the guy who bullies ninjas." He smirked proudly.
"Wait, you finished dealing with them. But I wasn't even done showing off. I wanted to try out a few of the other tricks that I have been learning." Polaris complained in a dejected tone.
"Heh? So, you want to fight a bunch of below-average enemies just so that you can show off against them? Wow, you have fallen really low, Lorna." Pietro mocked with a snicker.
But just as the battle seemed over with the Hand ninjas being completely overwhelmed, a new figure emerged from the shadows. It was an elderly Asian woman who looked like she would even have trouble walking straight, not to mention fighting.
I recognized the woman from one of the pictures Zoya had shown me back when Hand was specifically targeting me. She was one of the members of Hand who was trying to score a private meeting with me during that time, perhaps to initiate talks of peace or maybe just to kill me quicker. She calls herself Madam Gao and is one of the "fingers" of the Hand.
I had actually noticed her with my Rinnegan from the very start, but I hadn't expected her to show herself all of a sudden, much less even join in the fight. She was observing silently until now and I thought that she was there just to silently gather intel for the future. I was even thinking of getting rid of her myself after the fights were over here but looks like I don't have to do the work anymore. My lackeys can take of it, now that she has joined in the battle with her own volition.
"You lost too early Bakuto, you should be ashamed of calling yourself a leader." With a serene smile, Gao stepped into the fray, her hands and feet glowing with the golden energy of her chi as she refused to offer her associate more than a single passing glance. "I will show you the true power of the Hand." She confidently declared, her confidence in herself probably rising from the fact that she now had an idea about all their powers and abilities.
Madam Gao's sudden appearance had surprised the others in the warehouse including Bullseye who had slowed down for a split second but that small amount of time was enough for Psylocke to make her move and transition from her defensive role to offensive. Deflecting Bullseye's projectiles with uncanny precision, Elizabeth in a lightning-fast move sped in towards him, disarming Bullseye's nerves with a swift strike of her psionic blade.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" Bullseye immediately cried out in immense pain.
A single clean strike of her psychic blade although didn't kill him outright, was still enough to cause him mind-breaking pain as he lost the sense and control of his hands resulting in the mercenary staggering in his steps.
"It's over, I win," Psylocke stated as she placed two of her fingers near her forehead and used her telepathy to force the expert marksman to fall asleep.
Scarlet Witch on the other side, her hands crackling with red energy had also successfully started dominating Bloody Mary by firing unending mystical bolts of scarlet energy at her.
Bloody Mary had tried to fight Wanda by changing into Typhoid Mary again so that she could use the fire-manipulation powers of her other personality since her telekinesis was almost as good as useless against the might of chaos magic possessed by the Scarlet Witch.
However, despite Mary's relentless onslaught of fire-based attacks and rapid changing of her personas, Wanda's raw magical powers proved overwhelming for her as the Scarlet Witch used her telekinesis to stop her fire and rip apart Mary's metallic armor while using tendrils of chaos magic to completely incapacitate her before using a mystical bolt of energy to finally knock her out.
"Now, that wasn't so hard. I was even able to win without having to use any complicated or advanced spells." She exclaimed with a satisfied smile as she looked at the others.
Madam Gao, however, was still keeping up with Lorna and Pietro almost on equal grounds. She had used chi augmentation at the very start to send waves of mystical chi by hitting the ground with her chi-infused hands to immobilize Quicksilver. Then she swiftly closed the distance between herself and Polaris, trying to forcefully engage her in close combat, something the old vixen had already guessed that the young "female magneto" was not so good at. She was even able to deflect and block all the metal that Lorna was trying to throw at her by protecting her entire body with chi.
"Seems like I have no other choice but to use it. Fine then, remember that your fancy Kungfu is the fucking reason I had to do this, you old bitch" Lorna swore at her with venom in her voice before she raised both her hands at the semi-pseudo-immortal Asian crime lord in a finger gun-like manner and began to focus her powers.
"This is my current ultimate attack, Magnetic Pulse" She declared the name of her attack in quite a foolish and cringy manner before suddenly, a crescent-shaped surge of... rainbow-colored energy was unleashed from her hands towards Madam Gao at blinding speeds.
The energy attack reminded me of the blasts Magneto had once used against me as it vaporized everything in its path including the floor before accurately striking Madam Gao in her stomach, resulting in a big gaping crescent-shaped hole in her.
The old Asian female drug lord was dead in an instant without even being able to know what killed her. Most of her organs and upper body were also completely burnt by the attack, making it impossible for her body to return to life with even the dragon bone elixir thing that the Hand reportedly possessed.
Amidst the silent wreckage that was once a warehouse, the surviving metahumans looked at each other with satisfied smiles as they surveyed their handiwork.
"Shit. Why me every fucking time? I am supposed to be the fastest one. People are not even supposed to see me coming. Then why do the villains always figure out a way to get rid of me first?" Pietro complained as he got up from the floor, one of his legs slightly twisted. "That is going to take at least a day to heal." He sighed.
"Well, look at the bright side. At least we won... although we are going to need a LOT of glue to repair the broken stuff... especially those jade statues that are lying in shambles over there." Polaris said while pointing at a heap of broken jade pieces.
'A lot of damage but still they did good.' I praised them in my mind. "Reparo" I chanted in a low voice from where I was floating in the sky. Immediately, everything that was broken in the warehouse began to repair itself on its own until the warehouse went exactly to how it was before the fight had started.
"I'll talk with them about this later. Now, it's time for me to go visit the Kingpin for the play to end... *Sigh* The things you do for love." I mumbled before apparating out of there in a flash.
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