Unity by Carl Stubblefield (epub read online books TXT) 📕

rained down as the three figures dropped through onto the promenade.

The leader shook his duster, flicking off broken chips of glass and revealing a blunderbuss fastened to his hip. Its brass bell glimmered before disappearing as he settled the front of his trench coat.

Another touched a dial alongside his head and focused some bulky oculars, shifting his shoulders as he settled the large backpack he was carrying. Seeing the tiger, he shuffled over to the body and started picking at the metal parts on its face and arm.

The leader turned and saw Kenway’s prone form while he lifted the pinched front of his Stetson, tilting it so the tiny bits of glass fell off and calmly placing it back on his head.

“Good, we won’t have to bother paying him,” the leader said in a smoky, raspy voice. Turning to the supers he cracked his neck and pointed at Tempest. “I assume you’re the ones who poached our deal with the Clan?”

“That’s going to cost you!” a wiry one in the back piped in. “They were going to give us one cubic unit of Endurium. Do you know how long it took us to track that down?! You’ve ruined seven months of hard wor—”

A stern scowl from the leader cut off the reprisal mid-sentence.

“He’s not wrong. I can tell from our scans that you have a fair amount of Endurium on you, so you can hand it over, or there will be… trouble.”

Gus laughed. “Was… was that on purpose?”

“We don’t have time for this,” Tempest growled. “And I’ve had it up to here with all of these interruptions and distractions. I guess these things are worthless now.” He dropped the burnt-out shroud. “I don’t know who you are, but you picked the wrong day to get on my bad side. I’m sorry you didn’t get what you wanted but I’m warning you, you don’t want to cross me. Not today. Let’s just go on our ways and I won’t give you the ass whipping you so clearly need,” Tempest said savagely.

“Is that so?” the leader said, running his thumb and index finger across his mustache, straightening it. “Well, let’s get to it then, boys.”

Before he could even react, the leader had drawn a gun in each hand and shot at Tempest and Aurora.

Gus saw the wiry one in the back roll forward and aim his fist at him. With a whistle-tweet, two darts stuck into the wall inches from Gus’ face. Gus activated Wreckognize and dodged, hearing a loud shriek and another flare of pain as he used an ability on instinct.

Black Lotus: ?

Associations: Luddites. Little is known about the Luddites except their predilection for steampunk or gaslight modifications on modern technologies. They rally around a female leader known as the “Prophetess,” who appears to be working for another unknown entity.

Powers: No Nth detected. Subject is in the database as a suspect for espionage. At least twelve assassinations are attributed to him, due to their questionable manner of death. Possibly many more have gone undetected. Kills always mimic natural causes or progression of medical complications.

Specializes in poisons, entheogens, and pharmaceuticals.

Before he could line up another shot, he was covered in a glittering shower of energy as Aurora hit him with Ion Storm. His father was surrounded by a whirlwind, and none of the shots from the guy dressed like a sheriff were penetrating to hit Tempest.

The hook-nosed man in the back dropped his pack and pulled out a drone which took flight as soon as he threw it in the air. “You idiots ruined it!” He pointed at the tiger. “Nothing to salvage, everything’s a melted mass of slag!”

Gus saw the drone approach, making a beeline toward him. The gadgeteer looked at a display, then looked up with a wide grin, exposing gray, worn teeth behind his thin lips. He pointed at Gus with a bony finger.

“There! He’s got the Endurium!”

All three of the attackers turned toward Gus and charged.

Yuki’s eyes fluttered open.

“Well that was a mess,” she said as she got up from the ground.

“What was?” Prime asked, materializing atop some machinery in the corner as she dropped out of stealth.

Yuki scuttled back and fell on her butt again.

“Holy hell. Don’t do that!” Yuki held her chest as she took a moment to catch her breath. “I had to turn off all of the sensors nearby, and I can tell you that there is much more security here than would be warranted at a normal hospital. The others set off all kinds of alarms. I was able to shut off most of them, but I don’t know if they alerted anyone before I disabled them.”

“Let’s go join the team, I haven’t heard anything for too long.”

“Prime, wait. We need to get inside—now. It’s only a matter of time before my backdoor gets discovered and we’re permanently locked out. I’m sure the others have it covered. Follow me.”

Prime cast a look towards the direction of the combat, then reluctantly followed Yuki.

Arriving at a side door, Yuki extended her hand and tiny fibrils extended and briefly interacted with the keypad, which blinked green. They slid inside and found themselves in a cement-lined corridor. Pipes of different sizes and colors extended in both directions and Yuki briefly checked her internal map then turned and headed down the maze of corridors.

They slid out of the maintenance tunnel into a storage room. Another interface with a large machine and there was a rumble and whir within. A small metal window opened up and Yuki plucked out a small bundle. The machine chugged along, and another window opened. Yuki grabbed this bundle and tossed it to Prime.

Unfolding it, she found it to be a scrub top and bottoms. They both donned the outfits over their own clothes and Yuki found some puffy blue bouffant caps that covered most of Prime’s pink downy hair that was obviously less than human. Kneeling, Yuki opened a zipper on her belt and extracted a small box. Punching a