Is Black Magic even a Unique Powered? That would make sense, given her Power level. But that's a question for another time.
Travis exit the gallery and enter a room further down the hall to find Veta seated before a holo-screen, whizzing through menus and commands at a dizzying pace.
"See anything you like, schnookums?" Veta asks. "Something for the mantelpiece, perhaps?"
"Let's just get the coordinates and get out of this slugging hellhole," Travis responds.
"Aw shucks, you mustn't let the naysayers get you all…oh, fudgeberries."
Veta falls silent as the holo-screen displays a 3D map of America, with a red route-line designating the Blessed Vessel's course. It appears that the ship navigates the international waters surrounding the country in random patterns, but about a month ago it switched from Pacific Ocean routes to new ones in the Atlantic Ocean. Travis figures that must have something to do with a certain Victon's upgrade from HC's City Hall to the White House.
"There," Veta says, pointing to a red dot off the coast of Washington DC indicating the Blessed Vessel's current location. "Looks like we're going on a road trip, chicken!"
Travis turns to give Veta his best withering stare, but he's surprised to find a plasma contrail streaking in the space where Veta used to be.
He doesn't even have a chance to scream before he feels someone slam into him, knocking him to the ground. Then he feels arms pin him down and hear a low growl beside his ear, with hot breath steaming onto his neck.
"That was for stealing my pterrot, you psycho bitch," a familiar voice says from across the room.
Travis looks up to find a grubby-looking man standing with a smoking plasma cannon pointed at the hole in the wall where Veta just sat. One look at his shoulder-length hair and gaunt face and Travis realize that's Trackr, the Gravitas thief he encountered on his very first night as a hero. What the is he doing—
But that thought fades as a grey-haired Rottweiler snout obscures his view, dripping frothy drool onto his chin.
"Grrrr I've been waiting for another taste of Fade flesh for yearssssss."
The Rottweiler barks in Travis's ear and he twists to find it's The Hound, one of the most prominent villains in his parents' Sound & Fury rogues gallery. From what he has seen of his parents' battles with The Hound, he was one of their most vicious enemies, since he chooses not to curb the canine instincts of his Animalistic Powers.
The Hound has been obsessed with Travis's parents and his family for decades. Travis always figured one of his parents' old villains would come out of the woodwork once his identity was outed, and it makes sense that The Hound would choose to do so now…
Still, a thousand questions about why and how these two are here together run through his mind. Until The Hound presses his wet nose against his neck.
"Fade fear always did smell so slugging sweet."
"Go to town," Trackr says. "We just need his body, dead or alive."
Well, Travis can sort out the details later—assuming there is a later. Right now, he need to act.
"You need to crop it like it's haute, honey!" H-Chip Aphrodite activates in his ear. "Create some space between you and those fools."
The Hound has him pinned down very tightly, but luckily his left hand rests on part of his weapons belt. He can just manage to reach a couple of the items there, if he's lucky.
Clutching the Telepoint, Travis closes his eyes and send a mental command by picturing Veta's Fringes lair. Next thing he knows, the weight on top of him is gone and he opens his eyes to find himself back in the empty lair.
Standing up, he tries to think fast—the Telepoint will only be able to teleport him back to the Meek HQ, so he got a one way ticket. Which means he'll have to fight when he return.
Travis already cleared this place out of any useful weapons, but at least he'll have the element of surprise. Just as he thinks this, he see Terry's makeshift tomb in the corner and come up with an idea.
Two minutes later....
Travis watch as Trackr screams in horror, scrambling across the floor.
He suppose that seeing him spontaneously reappear in the Meek HQ would spook anyone, but the fact that he then tossed the dead body of Trackr's former pet pterrot in his face probably pushed him over the edge. Trackr started screaming and flailing and nearly blasted The Hound square in the chest with his cannon.
With Trackr still reeling, The Hound tried to come at Travis again, but Travis knocked him back with a kick to the stomach. Now The Hound and Trackr both scramble to their feet, recovering from Travis attacks. At least now he has the upper hand…
"Round on my location, I've got Gravitate and Veta," Trackr says into his H-Chip.
It sounds like these two aren't here alone. The job he did breaking into this HQ must not have been as flawless as he first thought. There were probably no guards to bypass because the moment he entered, the Meek must have registered the break-in and alerted this squad to come take him out.
Travis look from Trackr to The Hound and see that they both wear black uniforms with navy blue accents—though they both should be wearing prison jumpsuits. Whoever sprang these two out of jail wanted to find him and Veta badly: Trackr has the Power to locate any person or object on the planet, while The Hound has first-rate canine tracking senses.
Travis pushes these thoughts aside; he can figure out who sent them after he take them down.
"I owe you some love, Gravitate," Trackr says, training his plasma cannon on Travis. "Open wide."
Travis is deciding how to send some of his own love back towards Trackr when suddenly Veta leaps through the hole in the wall, shrieking like a madwoman. Trackr quickly turns his plasma cannon and fires at her, but the blast just collides with one of Veta's kick-shields as she tumbles across the floor.
The Hound takes his turn, launching at Veta with his paw-claws extended. Veta just spins around him in one swift motion and grabs The Hound by the fur on the back of his neck, using her momentum to toss The Hound at Trackr. Trackr tries to sidestep The Hound, but he's too slow and they collide, crashing to the floor.
Standing in front of Travis with her costume burnt and torn, Veta produces two of her biggest signature plasma guns.
"My turn," Veta says, raising both guns at The Hound and Trackr as they try to disentangle themselves.
Then Veta unexpectedly groaned and doubled over, dropping both guns.
Travis steps forward to finish this fight, but he spot movement in the hallway through a large window in the room's wall. Four figures are standing and one of them is Null
Or at least, there's someone in a Null bodysuit, since that's the heroic identity of his best friend, Jenny Yu.
This Null looks a little less sleek and a bit bulkier, plus it's missing Jenny's signature ponytail. Other than that, the suit is exactly the same. That couldn't be Jenny in some kind of upgraded Null suit, could it? Besides, she said she was retiring Null after The Hero Project….
Unless maybe that really is Jenny, going undercover to help him? Or could it be someone else entirely? Either way, he had better tread carefully, with this one.
All of these hunters are from his days at The Hero Project and they all wear the same black and navy bodysuits. What are they doing here with Trackr and The Hound? Who could have put together this little horror show of a team?
Travis suppose he can just add these to the list of questions he don't have any time to answer right now.
"Veta, we've got company," Travis shout, pointing to the window.
Veta clocks the oncoming unfriendlies and strains to produce a blue-coiled bomb, a miniature version of the one she used back on that first night they battled Smyther's Splice Circle.
Travis knows firsthand how deadly those things can be, but before he can say anything, Veta chucks the bomb at Trackr and The Hound, then spins to run by him.
"Follow me!" Veta screams as she goes.
Travis turns to find a set of open vault doors leading to some kind of hardware storage closet—Veta must have noticed those before she decided to blow up the room. Travis turns and jumps into the hardware vault and Veta slams the doors behind, just in time to block out the bomb blast.
As the explosion clears, Travis is thankful to see that the doors have held.
Still, he had no idea who that blast managed to take out, so he turned to Veta and said. "You probably just killed them, you psycho! That is unacceptable!"
"Those are two of the world's best trackers out there," Veta returns. "We can't risk—"
"No more killing," Travis say. "We find another way. Do you understand me?"
Veta looks like she wants to argue, but she knows they don't have the time. So she just nods grimly.
"Who else was out there?" Vet asks.
"Sheathe, Scoundel, Splicina, and…" Travis start, taking a deep breath. "What looked like someone in a Null suit."
Travis and Veta both fall silent for a few beats, after that.
"Well, maybe if we're lucky that blast annihilated them all?" Veta tries.
Travis stares back at Veta, not sure if he find that thought comforting or horrifying yet.
Luckily he don't have to decide as a bang sounds against the other side of the door. For better or worse, someone survived to keep coming for him.
"We only have a few minutes before those doors bust open, if that," Veta says. "So here's what I'm thinking—if more than two of them survived, I'll create holo-decoy versions of us programmed to run off. That should get whoever is left out there to split up or get off our tails for a bit.
"But if that Splicina witch is out there, I want a piece of her myself," Veta snarls. "She's been trying to outshine me with her life force tech business for years. Anyway, do you think you can handle your old bestie, if it comes down to it?"
"That is not Jenny out there," Travis says, a little too loudly. "And yes I can handle whoever it is."
Travis say the words and hope they are true. Because really, without his Powers, he's going to have to rely on strategy, his smarts, and his surroundings to get out of here alive.
"If we get separated, I'll meet you in the back alley where we left the hoverpod," Travis say, trying to speak over the banging against the vault doors. "Then we can figure out how we're getting to DC."
"Divine," Veta sings. "Now before we break on through to the other side, I have a little tidbit I've been meaning to share with you, a tasty morsel about your dampened Powers that I uncovered during my IRP surveillance."
....
As Travis opens the vault doors, the two surprisingly convincing holo-decoys of Travis and Veta dart out of the charred room and through the blasted hole in the wall. As they take off, Travis see that all four of the newcomers survived the blast unscathed, but Trackr and The Hound don't stand with them.
"Sh*t" Null's distorted voice shouts. "Sheathe and Scoundel, go after the runners! Splicina, stick with me for these two."
"Perfect," Veta whispers, activating a frequency jammer in her hand—Travis know that'll keep Null from calling Scoundel and Sheathe back, for now. But it won't buy them that much time, so Travis's going to have to act fast to escape this alive.
As Splicina takes a step towards him, Veta shrieks and leaps at her, shouting indiscernible obscenities. Splicina screams and twists her back, cutting at Veta with her sharp techno-wings. Veta dodges with a mid-air spin, then lands a kick that sends Splicina reeling into the next room.
Travis is distracted from watching the rest of this grudge match, however, as Null steps in front of him.