The Rising Dawn, # 23— "Luring an Adder, Part II"

The Magister’s hoplites closed in on the position of the Dawn Society’s strongest Outliers. Zane Frederick, the Magister, along with his Snakebite Fraternity, had been provoked by the Dawns interfering in his operations. His response had been to seize a few low-profile Outliers as bait for a confrontation with the Dawns. Absent a victory, these captives were a low-grade source of Outlier blood, which was essential for the Drive formula. 

The Snipe and The Ice had taken sniper positions, and the two Snakes were leading the hoplites foot. So far, the only man down was their singer, which the Ice took as fool’s gold. It was only a matter of time before their Wraith closed in on one of them.

Mech, Brawler, Pointer, and Nightshift took the battle to the hoplites, while Grego, Gamer, Philos, and Beacon held back, their powers either held in reserve or not useful for actual combat. 

Gamer, while taking cover, continued to flex his voicebox, producing seemingly random sound effects, which provided illusionary assistance to the Sentinels and distractions to the nearby hoplites. They fired rounds of ammunition against enemies that weren’t really there, but appeared to be threatening their positions.

Wraith parkoured her way to the first sniper position, making use of her Shroud ability when she knew she’d be exposed. She knew not whether she approached the Snipe or The Ice, but she silently prayed for The Snipe, as defeating The Ice was no trifling matter.

Hypodermic needles plunked off the Pointer’s barrier, but the ammunition of the hoplites were wearing it down. With a measured surge of telekinesis, Pointer disarmed a few of the hops, capturing their weapons. This would stress his ether.

Mech had few weak points, even her head being outfitted with a limited-power ether shield. She was able to navigate the hoplites’ suppressive fire and use charged ether missiles to neutralize the Magister’s soldiers, yet Snake Two closed in on her with a heavy bat, his anatomy now resistant to normal munitions. Mech deployed a Sabre fixed to one of her arms, and began pitched melee combat with the Second of the Three Snakes.

The performance of Brawler outdid even Nightshift, having fully built up kinetic energy in his legs and fists. He thrust towards them while making jabs, so that small bursts of his energy would deflect bullets. When he was in range, he used the energy stored in his feet to leap to superhuman heights, crashing down on a grouping of Snakebite brothers with one more massive burst of energy.

Snake One’s close-combat ability, now supercharged with the Drive in his veins, allowed him to go toe-to-toe with Nightshift. Glenn was armed with a bat, but Snake One had a wrist-launcher of hypodermic needles, which he was able to sink into Nightshift in a heated moment. Instantly, Snake One informed their team that the Nightshift was down.

Pointer was taking cover, nearing exhaustion. He said on the com, “Philos! I need an energy transference! Do you copy!?”

With hardly a pause, The Philosopher said, “Coming, coming.”

Thankfully, before he, too, was hit with a hypodermic needle, he managed to get near enough to Pointer to restore his strength.

Wraith had reached the first sniper location. It was the Ice, a Gifted empowered by the Drive.

The Ice’s power? Cold Blooded Instincts. She had fined-tuned her own nervous system to such military perfection that nothing could surprise her, take her off guard, or prove to be too difficult a task. She was utterly without fear. The Drive had overloaded her ability, and now even the Wraith could not contend with her supernatural sense of timing.

Pointer used one last surge of power to capture the guns of the hoplites who Brawler hadn’t dealt with.

He roared, “Trainer! The hounds! We need them now!”

With a crack of his whip and a command in a foreign language, Grego set his hounds on the disarmed hoplites, as well as Snake One and Snake Two. The dogs were armored in bullet -proof visors and body wear. When the hoplites saw them coming, they fled, and Snake One’s martial arts did not translate so well against Grego’s best hounds. Snake Two, though Mech had not subdued him, found an opening to retreat with the other hoplites. Snake One, able to mimic any movement he had ever seen, also found means to escape.

Wraith almost burned all her ether shrouding herself from the Ice, who was irresistible when fully armed. However, Wraith was equipped with a charged dart that caused metal to overheat, and she used it on the Ice’s sniper rifle, making it useless. This accomplished, she used her prowess and her Shroud to artfully escape the Ice.

Brawler began closing in on The Snipe, along with Grego’s dogs. Aware of this, the other two Drive users withdrew, leaving the Rising Dawn Society with a handful of captive hoplites. Though it had been more of a vulgar slug-fest than they had in mind, they had what they were looking for: captives who knew where to find the kidnapped Outliers, or so they were called.