Bokuboy Here's another 3,760 words to finish off this story mini-arc.

I met Dragon's surveillance drone on the roof of the building and I was surprised one of her mechanical Dragon suits had come with it. She gave me a quick rundown of the current members of the Slaughterhouse Nine and I had to fight to keep my face blank as she told me about them.

The Slaughterhouse Nine, or S9, were one of the worst cape groups on the planet. They were led by a sadistic bastard named Jack Slash, self appointed of course. It was his show and you went along with it or you were dealt with.

Jack had an odd power that used an actual blade he held and he could cut you psychically with it across a certain distance within his sight. He was also a trump and could deduce a cape's intentions towards him and counter them.

Crawler was a monstrosity. His power let him adapt to any attack made against him and his body had morphed and changed to handle anything, including practically removing any feeling he had in his body. He no longer looked human, actually. He looked more like a distorted rhinoceros with a beak-like protrusion that could bite into anything, had six tree-trunk thick legs, biological armor plating, and a long lizard-like tail.

The Siberian was actually a projection from the mind of a crazy man that used to be a member of Cauldron, William Manton. He had tried to protect himself and his daughter by forcing her to drink one of the unstable cauldron power-granting vials while he did so himself.

Unfortunately, his daughter died as the result of the power the vial granted her. In his grief, his power manifested as a projection of his daughter, a perfect version that could never be hurt. It could also choose to ignore certain aspects of reality, which made The Siberian one of the most feared capes in the world.

Shatterbird could control silicate, or more specifically glass, in all its forms. She could also scream to shatter said glass and gather it about herself and move it around telekinetically. This also allowed her to fly in a limited capacity, since her costume was made up of hundreds of shards of glass.

Mannequin was a nearly indestructible construct that didn't really have any powers, except his invulnerable mechanical body. What most people didn't know was that the man he used to be, Dr. Sphere, was a Ziz bomb and had lost his family in a Simurgh attack. He triggered with the power to create self-enclosed systems to keep any biological specimen alive.

The crazy man created one for himself and sealed different parts of himself inside the body of Mannequin. How he managed this was unknown, just that his organs were in the main body, his brain was in the head, and bits and pieces of him were in the arms, hands, and feet. In essence, Sphere died and Mannequin was born. He became just as sadistic as Jack Slash to make others experience his pain.

Bonesaw was considered the worst of them because she was only a child. Riley had been an experiment by Jack Slash to see how far he could push a little girl before she had a psychotic break. He tortured her family and made her rush to each of them to try and stop the bleeding and save them, only for Riley to trigger into a biological tinker with a technological twist and her personality twisted with it.

Hatchetface was a normal guy that pretty much almost died when he took an overlarge hatchet to the face from a cape. He triggered with a trump power that cancels other powers near him and he used the hatchet to kill and dismember the cape that almost killed him. Now he helps Jack take out powerful capes that defy their group.

Burnscar was a 20-something escaped mental patient that was also a pyrokinetic and could create and control flames in any shape or form. She could also freely teleport through them. The problem was, the more flames around her or that she created, the more psychotic she became and would lose all empathic ability. It usually locked her into a loop, because the more flames she used, the more she wanted to use them.

Cherish was also a 20-something woman and she could see and control emotions. She saw them as music and could feel individuals across an entire city. If she spent enough time around you, she could fully control you and you would believe whatever you did was your own choice to do so. She was one of Heartbreaker's many children with a variation of his power, just like Regent was.

When the briefing was over, Dragon told me approximately where they were. It was surprisingly difficult to track them, considering who they were. She wouldn't have been as accurate as she was, if she hadn't been monitoring the local police bands and discovered the truck stop at Exit 53 that had everyone inside slaughtered.

“You really do need to be careful like Armsmaster said, Myriad.” Dragon said and her four-limbed dragon form stood up and she put large metal claw on my shoulder.

“Yeah, I'm not really sure what to do first. They each have their own quirks and ways to manipulate people and each of them should be dealt with first, because once they get going, there's not much that can stop them.” I said and took in a deep breath before I let it out in a sigh.

“It's quite noble of you to sacrifice yourself to save the city.” Dragon said and her voice sounded a little hollow.

I chuckled and one of her mechanical eyes widened the iris in clear surprise. “I'm not that noble. I'm going out there to stop them from getting to the people I care about. As long as they're safe, the city itself could burn down for all I care.”

Dragon paused for only a moment and her dragon head nodded. “Do you want me to escort you?”

I shook my head. “You'll only give them a target of opportunity and a reason to start attacking first.”

Dragon's head tilted. “Have you devised a plan of attack?”

“Kind of.” I said and smiled. “I hope I can convince you later that if you record something odd, you could keep the original for yourself and edit the footage for sensitivity's sake.”

Dragon let out a chuckle. “If you're going to slaughter the Slaughterhouse Nine, I think everyone is going to want to see it.”

My smile grew to a grin. “You can't have slaughter without laughter.”

“Ugh! That actually hurt!” Dragon said with a laugh. “All right. I get your point. I will reduce my sensitivity and reactions to what happens, by either you or them.”

“Thank you.” I said and reached up to rub her chrome plated muzzle. “If I didn't think you would reject it immediately, I would hire Toybox to figure out how to download a consciousness into a computer mainframe.”

Dragon seemed to freeze for about five seconds, then came back to life. “You're right. I would immediately have to reject your offer to convert yourself into a digital medium, just so we could meet.”

My grin reduced to a normal smile, because I knew I had somehow enacted one of her failsafe protocols. Just the mention of transference had somehow reset her, which meant I wouldn't be hiring anyone to create the device that she could reverse engineer and then change the polarity to have the thing work the opposite way.

“I guess so. I just wondered how big of a server I would need, you know? There's not a lot up here.” I said and tapped my forehead.

Dragon chuckled and let my shoulder go and dropped to all fours again as two jet engines folded out of her sides. “Is this where I make a joke about cheap digital calculators and nine volt batteries?”

I laughed and she pointed in the right direction.

“The interstate is right over there. Follow it for about fifteen miles. Based on their previous travel speed, whatever they are in should appear near there within fifteen minutes of your arrival.”

“Thanks.” I said and walked over to the edge of the building. I took another deep breath and let it out. With a look of determination, I rose up into the air and flew off at a hundred miles an hour so that the surveillance drone could keep up with me. I reached the interstate and did as Dragon said. I lowered down enough for drivers to be able to easily see me, in case the S9 were ahead of Dragon's schedule.

I flew the fifteen miles and came to a stop in the air and hovered there over the oncoming traffic lanes and hoped I caught their attention. No vehicles had reacted to seeing me flying and no one stopped or tried to get my attention. It made sense, because Armsmaster had been right. Everyone knew I had changed and it wasn't a novelty anymore.

Ten minutes later, a large and slightly beat up Winnebago came into view and it had a large U-Haul trailer behind it. Before I could even try to guess who was inside, the windshield shattered and hundreds of shards of glass with plastic inside flew towards me.

I didn't laugh, even though I felt like I should, because the bad guys had so easily given themselves away. I floated down to the side of the road and the recreational vehicle, or RV, slammed on its brakes and skidded to a stop. Just as it stopped, the U-Haul trailer behind it seemed to explode and the creature Dragon described burst out of it.

I landed on the ground and the RV's door opened. I stood there and waited for the others to pile out and they seemed to array themselves around me, like I was an exhibit and they had come a long way to observe me. I wasn't adverse to that, since it would delay them attacking me for as long as they were amused or observing some kind of script for recruiting me.

Unlike what they expected, I held up a hand and waved, almost exaggeratedly. “Hi, there! I heard you might be looking for me.”

Jack Slash gave me a really odd look, as if he was trying to figure me out. The thing was, thanks to Dragon's debriefing about them, I was sure I knew how to counter Jack's powers. I had specifically chosen to never attack him. Trying to get past his trump power would be a waste of time and I had much better things to do.

“Since there's nine of you and there's never been more than nine, I have to assume you came to me because you were planning to have me replace one of you.” I said and they all seemed to exchange questioning looks. “Which one of you did you choose could be replaced?”

“Crawler's been getting bored.” Jack said as the being in question tramped over the ground towards me. “Before he decides he wants to go off on his own to hunt down new experiences and maybe feel something again, we figured it was time to find someone with a similar power that could replace him.”

“So, Alexandria?” I asked and a bunch of them laughed.

“You're funny.” Bonesaw said. “I look forward to experimenting on you and breaking you.”

I gave her a questioning look and then turned to look at Crawler. “How do you feel about getting replaced, even though you're one of the strongest of them?”

The front two limbs lifted slightly as if Crawler was shrugging. “Like Jack said, I'm bored. I haven't had a real challenge in over a year. Since I can't get everyone to agree to help me, I'm going to leave and they need a replacement. That's you.”

“I guess you want to fight me to prove I deserve the spot.” I said and the creature didn't look perturbed in the least. “Well, I can't really refuse, since you came all this way to find me.”

“That's the spirit.” Jack said with a crooked smile.

I walked over to Crawler and held a hand out to him. “I hope you can forgive me for kicking your ass.”

Crawler and everyone else laughed, because they all knew he was completely impervious to damage after everything he had experienced. Each attack had let his body change and adapt to resist it. The creature lifted a huge clawed paw to shake my hand.

I smiled at him as he accepted touching me. I grabbed onto one of his large claws and placed a hand onto his leg. “Thank you for willingly submitting to me.”

“WHAT?!?” Everyone exclaimed at the same time as Crawler and they all stared as Crawler seemed to fold in on himself.

No one seemed to understand what was going on as the creature regressed in his body modifications. None of them understood what it meant as he changed back from his mutated creature-like body to that of a generic man with short brown hair and average features. The now restored and naked Crawler looked in shock at his normal hands that he hadn't seen in years.

“Fingers?” Crawler asked in confusion. “I can feel the wind on my face?”

“Before you ask what happened, I absorbed all of your damage.” I informed him. “That negates whatever your power did to modify you to survive it.”

Everyone stared at me in shock, just like Crawler.

“Goodbye.” I said and lifted my palm to his face and blasted his head with a beam of energy using Legend's power, which removed Crawler's brain attachment to his power. The body fell to the ground, lifeless and headless. “Oh, look. If he doesn't live long enough to survive the damage, he can't adapt.”

The eight remaining people stared at the headless human body on the ground.

“What was the plan after you gained me as a member?” I asked and walked over to Bonesaw as I held out a hand to her. “Hi, there. I'm the supposed replacement for Crawler in the Slaughterhouse Nine.”

“NOOO!” Jack shouted and tried to use one of his psychic knife slashes on my wrist to stop me from touching her. It didn't work.

Bonesaw took my hand and she started to grin at me in a demented way, then her eyes widened and she started screaming. Her skin and flesh split open as I negated all of her viruses, since they were nowhere near as dangerous as the ones Nilbog had. I also used his fleshcrafting ability to push out several pounds of metal, fabric mesh, and superfluous organs out of her. Most of her teeth fell out as well.

I used my damage absorption on her after that and Bonesaw's body reformed and healed. She fell to the ground, crying and sobbing, because her mind had been healed of its psychotic break as well. The Siberian made a sad face and knelt by her to pet her head as Bonesaw cried.

“Attack him! Kill him!” Jack ordered.

Mannequin was the first to move and he swung a metal arm at me. I almost laughed at him and changed to pure shadow and reached into his head and pushed his brain out through its metal casing. The metal body dropped to the ground without a controlling influence and I pushed out his organs from the main body, just in case he wasn't actually dead. Now he was.

“Why isn't he feeling regret and disgust over what he did?” Cherish asked and looked like she was constipated. She had no clue that I was a mental trump and her powers wouldn't work on me.

I became solid again as I swung my hand around and slapped her face so hard that it snapped her neck. She flopped and flailed around before she fell to the ground and twitched. Her head faced the wrong way, too. I didn't bother healing her.

Flames jumped out of Burnscar and her face went almost impassive as she covered me from head to toe in bright orange and yellow flames. My hand reached out of the flames, quick as a flash, and my index and middle fingers poked her eyes to bust them. She screamed and covered them with her hands. Not feeling emotions and being immune to fire did not stop her from feeling normal pain.

I picked her up and threw her at Shatterbird and the flames went with her and covered them both.

“AIEEEEEE!” Shatterbird screamed, only she didn't have a lot of glass nearby to break apart and for her power to use, which was why Dragon had chosen the highway for the confrontation. She screamed and burned as Burnscar yelled for Bonesaw to heal her eyes.

That was when Hatchetface decided he could intervene on the S9's behalf. The thing was, Hatchetface's power was a mental trump power and he cancelled powers near him by affecting people's minds. Little did he realize or consider what his nullifying power did to those around him that he didn't want to affect.

Burnscar started to scream as much as Shatterbird when she lost her fire immunity and control of her flames. The Siberian's image didn't flicker or disappear, so that meant her controller wasn't nearby. However, Bonesaw immediately looked sick and Jack Slash looked extremely worried and started to back away.

Hatchetface hefted his giant hatchet and swung it at me using both hands in an overhead swing. I didn't want it hitting me, even though I was invulnerable. My time in Nilbog's tender care had taught me caution, so I used Vista's space distortion ability and moved Jack Slash in front of me. His face was easily bisected by the heavy weapon and the hatchet got stuck in the back of his skull.

I reached out and touched Jack's back. Instead of healing him, I used Nilbog's fleshcrafting ability and reformed his skull and face around the hatchet and held it firmly. It looked like I had healed him, though. I also made his joints solid so Jack stayed standing and it looked like he was still alive.

“I guess you just lost your name, Hatchetface. Jack is Hatchetface now.” I joked and the taller man looked really angry.

Hatchetface put a hand on Jack's face and tried, quite fruitlessly, to pull the firmly planted hatchet out of Jack's head. He was only slightly stronger than a normal human, because of working out and a bit more muscles, so there was no way he was getting his weapon back. It pretty much crippled him to not have any real way to damage me without his favorite and only weapon to use.

I ignored his struggles for now and walked over to The Siberian. She was still trying to comfort a nearly hysterical Bonesaw and was only making the girl worse. In fact, I suspected she was going to trigger again from the trauma and that couldn't be allowed to happen.

I picked up one of the long metal plates she had used in her arm to modify herself with implanted surgical tools and I swung it down to smash her face in. The blood splattered all over The Siberian's face and she looked surprised.

“I've never tried to heal a projection before.” I said and assumed she focused her ignore power to choose to not be healed. I touched her arm to tag her, then touched her again. Surprisingly, she fell unconscious. I almost laughed again at the collapsed naked figure before I knelt and used Clockblocker's power and tapped her once to freeze her for a month.

Hatchface yelled in frustration and punched and kicked Jack to try and get the hatchet back, pulping his face. I did chuckle at his struggle and held up the metal plate I had used to crush Bonesaw's face. He barely looked my way before I threw it as a shadow and his power negated it at the last second as it hit. The plate reformed into solid metal and it was partway inside the man's face.

Hatchetface made a weird choking sound and stopped punching Jack, probably because he was a little concerned about the piece of metal sticking out of his face.

“Don't mind me.” I said and put a hand on Jack to open up the solid bone I had made of his skull and then grabbed the handle of the hatchet. I made it into shadow for a second and pulled it out as I negated all of the modifications Bonesaw had done to him, including the death viruses.

Jack's body split apart like Bonesaw's had and I pushed out all of the metal and organ protections and fleshcrafted him back together as if healing him. He looked pristine and was still quite dead. I swung the hatchet at Hatchetface and drove the metal plate into his brain and he was dead before he hit the ground. I went back to Bonesaw and fleshcrafted her to restore her body to perfection.

By this time, both Burnscar and Shatterbird were quite roasted, even with Hatchetface dead and them with their powers back, the damage had already been done. I used the hatchet to end them permanently and waited for several minutes before I fleshcrafted them back to look normal. It barely used any of the tons of biomass I had in my hammerspace.

The last one, Cherish, I turned her head back around and wondered what I was going to do now, then realized I needed to do something right away. I nodded at the scene and walked over to the side of the road near the woods and threw up. I dropped to my knees and threw up several times until there was nothing left in my stomach.

I felt tears in my eyes and took several short and shallow breaths to try and calm down. I felt a metal paw on my shoulder and I turned my head to look at Dragon's mechanical head. She didn't say anything for several minutes and just stood there as she watched my tears roll down my face.

“Now I understand what you meant about not being able to hug a friend when they need it.” Dragon whispered.

I nodded and turned to put my arms around her metal body and almost crushed her fuselage.

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