I paused, my hand hovering over my tablet. I debated whether I should send for help or step up and use my powers to join my ladies in a fight.
And that hesitation cost me as Pulsar screamed again into her comms.
"Venus, help. I can't keep them off me," Pulsar cried out.
Even from here, I could see blood dripping down her arm. I had to do something quickly, my thoughts swirling as I formed a plan.
Enacting the first viable thought that came to me, I created several balls of light around Venus, firing them off. I focused on low-powered blasts, almost like a machine gun.
"Switch, you two. Venus, focus on the aerial monsters. Pulsar, work on the ground ones." I paused. "Pulsar, are you okay? Do we need to get you back to the Bureau for medical care?"
"I'm fine," she replied, but I noted that she was clutching her arm. She needed her hands to fire her beams, and it looked like one of her hands was out of commission.
"No, you aren't. You’re grounded. I'm calling for backup." I wasn't so prideful that I'd risk any of my women. But rather than reach out to the Bureau, I had another source.
"Miles?" The primary Obsidian's voice came over the phone.
"There's a big mess on the east side of the city. Monsters are pouring in. I was wondering if the Bureau could hire a certain replicator to come deal with this." I tried to keep the smile off my face.
"Can do. Sending a team of clones over now. Want me to get the woman sleeping in your bed too?"
I coughed. "Sure. Tell her to teleport over. I have someone she needs to move." Looking around, I spotted a bank building across the street that would be a good landmark. "We are on a roof across from Two-Thirds Bank on Berry Parkway."
"Who's hurt?" Demoness's voice came over the comms.
My comms had been on, so they’d all heard my conversation.
"I'm fine, Miles," Pulsar argued.
"No, you aren't. You can barely move that arm, and without it, you are at half power. I told you that you were grounded. Get your ass down. Emma will take you to the Bureau," I ordered her.
Demoness was pissed. "Get the fuck down there and take care of yourself. Otherwise, you are going to get cut out of the bed for a month. The last thing we need is for anyone to get seriously hurt."
I could see the defeat on Pulsar's face as she floated down.
A moment later, a purple flash on the rooftop announced Emma’s appearance. She was lounging on a huge chunk of amethyst.
"Hello, darling." She waved with her fingers at me before taking in Pulsar. "I see who needs a lift out of here. Sorry, I don't do healing. But I’ve always wanted a stone that would let me heal someone else."
Pulsar hesitated for a moment, so I pushed her with my power. "Go. She'll drop you off at the Bureau, and you'll go for medical care. We'll be by as soon as we have this situation under control."
Emma grabbed Pulsar, and they disappeared with the big amethyst.
I was a little surprised at how cooperative Emma was being, but thankful for it. With Pulsar safe, I focused back on the remaining supers. "How are you two doing?"
"So many of them. Is Melody okay?" Demoness grunted, and I saw her send another monster flying into the wild.
I double-checked the side of the building, but so far, nothing else had tried to climb up. The large pile of corpses at the bottom was probably a wonderful deterrent.
"She'll be fine. That thing was bat-like. I'm going to have them administer her the vaccine for rabies." Swiping on my tablet, I sent a message to Doctor Wells to get started on it and to confirm that Pulsar made it into BSH.
"I am fine. But we aren't making much progress," Venus reported in. She looked like she was skating across the sky, using beams of light to take out monsters in the air as they flocked to her.
"We are at least preventing them from spreading inward." I glanced out over the wall, trying to see more, but there were still so many monster bodies. And some were making it past Demoness.
But they also were out of the way of any cameras.
I began creating hammers of kinetic energy and started slamming them into monsters that were getting around Demoness, sending them limp and sprawling into the dirt.
A moment later, the first Obsidian appeared and multiplied out to dozens. The clones began dogpiling on a monster and taking it down even as it swiped and killed them.
Unfortunately, I didn't have any comms with her or her clones. I made a mental note to fix that in the future, if I could, but I had no idea how technology worked with her multiplying abilities.
Watching the clones work was eye-opening. She was incredibly powerful. Without her fear of death, she just kept multiplying and throwing herself into the fray.
A few of the monsters were big enough to tear through the clones just as quickly as she could replicate, but her posse was doing a great job at stopping the forward progression and keeping the monsters from getting into the city.
I sighed, Even with the Obsidians’ help and my efforts outside with Demoness, things were still hard to contain. Something was drawing the monsters into the city from the wild.
Emma reappeared on the roof next to me, her ears twitching as she took in the battle. "So, this is hero work?"
"You should turn that stone into a throne." I snorted at the way she leaned on it as if it already were one.
She clapped her hands together. "That would be so fun. My throne." She rubbed the amethyst even as her ears continued to twitch.
"But yes, this is one aspect of hero work. What's wrong with your ears?" They didn't normally twitch so much.
"There's an annoying sound," she grumbled as her ears continued to twitch. "Like someone is playing chalkboard scrapings through styrofoam speakers."
If she could hear it, there was a good chance so could the monsters.
"Where?" I urged her.
My attention caused her to sit up from the amethyst. Her ears swiveled back and forth as she walked on the roof. “There. Two buildings over, maybe the second floor.”
“Send that stone back home before you get caught with it. We’ll need to disguise it sometime later.”
Emma whistled innocently and touched the stone before it winked out. “I feel naked without it, but if you insist.”
Only at that comment did I realize she was wearing bright, emerald- green yoga pants. I wondered where she’d gotten those; she didn’t have anything at the manor.
But then I realized that, with the recent addition of the amethyst and her abilities, she may have plenty of her stuff at the manor now. It was just like her to make herself at home.
"We need to get down there and stop that noise. Something is driving these monsters to come into the city."
Emma jumped up on the ledge and crouched with her hands placed between her feet. "I can get down there no problem. Is this my first job as a hero?" She grinned.
"Get down there and stop it," I ordered her, knowing she could take care of herself.
She flashed me a grin with a small salute before she launched herself off the roof, flipping in the air.
Once upon a time, I would have been startled, worried about her injuring herself. But I’d learned better. She landed against the building with her claws out, and like a cat riding a curtain to the ground, she left big rents in the side of the building until she came to a stop at the second floor.
It was all so perfectly done, it was like she’d practiced it a thousand times.
Emma's skin flashed for a second before she threw herself through the window, rolling along the floor and popping to her feet with a casual grace that would stun the world.
Somewhere in the vague line between her mutation and her second power, she was beyond coordinated, a born acrobat capable of incredible feats.
With her working on the source, my focus went back to stemming the tide of monsters rushing from outside the city.
Venus flew down low overhead, and I took that as a cue that she wanted help as well. Creating balls of light over her shoulder, I fired off into the flock of monsters chasing her.
They just kept coming, and we kept knocking them out of the sky. As we fought them, they suddenly seemed to slow in their insistence to get deeper into the city.
A few slowed; others stopped mid-air, looking around confused. Even the monsters outside the wall slowed. Some milled around while others continued to attack Demoness. But the overwhelming force became more sporadic and unorganized.
Emma flipped over the side of the building, holding a speaker and tossing it at my feet. "Found that making the noise. There were a lot more. I just tore them all up."
I grabbed her ruby-red hair and kissed her. "Thank you. That was wonderful."
"Well, if that's all I have to do to get your praise, this might not be such a bad gig." She laid herself on me with a languid stretch.
Rolling my eyes, I turned back to my tablet, working out how to wrap up the issue. "Demoness, Venus, there was a speaker attracting them." I paused before using Emma's real name. "Emerald has taken care of it."
"That's a little close to my old moniker," Emma snorted. "But who cares. If someone takes an issue with me, you can just squash them."
"I don't just squash people," I grumbled.
"Melody said you squashed, like, four people today," Stella helpfully interjected. Thankfully as Deputy Director, I rested assured that our comms weren’t monitored.
Emma poked at my neck. "I can't hear anything from this."
"Vibrations." I gave her a one-word answer, annoyed at all of them thinking I just squashed people I disagreed with.
Before I had killed the people at the repossession shop, I had given them a fair chance to surrender and do the right thing. There was a difference.
"One of them said something." Emma pushed at my cheek. "You are pouting."
"I am not. Cut it out." I smacked away her hand. "Go help Demoness outside the wall or the primary Obsidian in the streets."
Emma gasped. "I'm not that durable. Besides, I'm up here protecting you." She continued to laze on me, but I didn’t miss the shimmer in her eyes.
Instead of letting her draw me into more banter, I focused on Venus, creating more balls of light and thinning the monsters in the air. Once she was done, she would be able to help the primary Obsidian.
Despite her power over shadows, the main Obsidian seemed to be having trouble taking down the monsters. Either the shadows didn't make a great weapon, or there were limitations to her cloning that I wasn't aware of. She seemed to be swarming the monsters with bodies rather than using her shadow power on them.
I glanced around. The monsters in the air were either fleeing or dead as Venus floated victorious.
"Wonderful job, Venus. Remind me to give you a reward later. But for now, I need you to help the main Obsidian." I could feel her mind brush against mine, wanting to know more about the reward.
Emma licked the back of my jaw. "I want a reward. Who got the speaker?" She gestured to the speaker laying on the ground like a prized kill.
"You did good, but you are also lazing up here. She's helping the lead Obsidian," I replied, keeping my eyes focused on the scene below and my tablet.
Emma ignored that and continued to groom me with her tongue. Apparently, she was content as she was.
"Hey, I'm working hard too," Demoness complained over the comms. "I want a reward."
"I don't know. I was hoping you’d kill a few more monsters, if I’m honest," I teased her, which resulted in the next few monsters she attacked being entirely pulverized.
“There, better?” she asked cheerfully.
I laughed back. “Sure. Have something in mind?”
She was bobbing her head excitedly. I didn't even need to see her to know the tone. "Yep. I’ve wanted it for the last few days. Let me talk to Obby and Jelly Bags to see if they can do it."
I frowned, becoming ultra-curious what she had in mind, but I let her keep her secrets.
Without more monsters swarming in, it didn’t take much longer to whittle down the remaining monsters and clear the area.
I moved off the rooftop with Emma's help and landed on the ground.
The lead Obsidian spotted me as soon as we landed and jogged over. "She says we'll talk tonight. Go ahead and kill me. And will you make it hurt?" She bit her lip hard.
"Fine, we'll talk tonight." I sighed before I blew her away.
"That one is a little more than just cracked. She's broken," Emma commented with a slow blink. "Are they all that bad?"
"No, and it isn't bad. Obsidian is working through some things in her own way."
Demoness’ voice projected loudly over the comms. "You are talking to Kitty Cat, right? I want to come meet her."
I glanced at Emma, wondering if I should warn her, but I decided against it. They would have to sort things out themselves.
Stella blew past us before she saw me and did a sharp turn in the middle of the street before catching Emma in a flying tackle. "KITTY CAT!"
There was a surprised noise from Emma before she was swept away by Stella.
"Bad kitty," came over the comms amidst the sounds of struggle.
Should you really leave those two alone? Mona asked as she settled down next to me.
I pulled out my tablet, doing a final sweep of the surveillance in the area. No other monsters were rampaging around. There was still a little time left on our patrol, but I was ready to wrap up and get back to the Bureau.
The cleanup crews were already on site, starting to repair the buildings and do a more thorough investigation of the monsters.
I was anxious to get back and check on Melody. I was less anxious to do the absolute mound of paperwork that would be required since I’d gotten Emma and Obsidian involved.
"Come on, let's head back to check on Melody," I projected my voice over the comms, hoping to distract Stella and give Emma a break.
"I'll carry my fated. You can carry... Emma," Mona replied over the comms.
I could feel her trying to work out her own relation to the newest addition to the harem. Which was good, because if Emma was settling into the mansion, it was unlikely she would leave. Emma liked to mark her territory.
"Oh! We need to check on Melody. Ouch!" Stella sounded over the comms.
I decided to have them meet us at the Bureau. "Let's go, Mona."
Mona scooped me up and shot into the air. As we rose up, I could see the absolute mess that the monsters had made. And it was all because of a few speakers.
I didn’t know who had created that noise, but they could easily replicate it. They’d found the right frequency; it just needed to be deployed. I didn’t like that at all.
Tapping on my tablet, I shot a note to Mary to look for recent speaker purchases for the variety that had been used, and to try to trace the speakers we’d found back to the purchaser. We needed to stop it at the source.
I was thankful the monsters hadn’t gotten too far into the city, but it could have been much worse. If multiple S grade monsters had joined the fray, it would have been much harder for us. And that might have just been a test.
If it was a test, whoever had planned it now knew that it would work.
"It is interesting that only smaller monsters were drawn to the noise," Mona commented, adding to my thoughts. "That might be significant."
"Good point. We'll have the analysts look at it while we do paperwork and check in on Melody. Also, I have a gift for you.” Pulling the paper that held all her debt from my back pocket, I offered it to her.
But she shook her head. “I trust you. Besides, what if someone tries to mark the sale as an error and sells my debt again.”
I frowned and pushed into her mind to see what she was really thinking. Mona’s mind was a dangerous place, especially when I was looking for something about me.
Inside her mind, it opened for me, offering me anything that I wanted, even as just a passing thought. She was completely, and utterly open to me.
When I wanted more on her debt, she showed me just what she thought me of holding her debt. It was, in a symbolic way, an extreme form of trust to let me hold onto it. She wanted me to have it, to hold her life in my hand and do nothing with it.
Wow. Seeing her mind wrap around the thought of me was a little terrifying.
Pulling myself back out of her mind before I drowned in it, I thought about Melody and hoped she was okay.
Following my thoughts, Mona dove down into the city for a pit stop before we went back to the Bureau.