Warlord

Chapter 1

Everyone knew Brockton Bay sucked. The cesspit of America, and home to more capes per-capita than any other city. It grew on you like mold and no matter how hard you tried you could never get it off. Which was made worse by the fact that literal Nazis infested the whole place.

Actual nazis ran the largest gang. The normal police might as well be an extension, and the PRT was only marginally better not actively working for them but still playing nice. Nice with nazi supervillains, some of which had rather high body counts.

Not to mention the propaganda on the other gangs. Sure yes Lung was a bastard and a murder, and the Merchants were scum, but he wasn't an international sex slaving ring bastard, and they weren't forcibly addicting kids to drugs. Nope, turns out the nazi's did that. They loved forcing drugs into the undesirable communities and blaming a man who has no international connections of selling women abroad, meanwhile the Empire handed off every white cis unaffiliated female cape to their German nazi friends for breeding stock.

Othella was married to Victor at age twelve and that was public knowledge and no one batted an eyelash.

So when all the gangs sucked and the PRT was too busy playing PR to actually save people it came down to good ole me to save this city.

Why me? Powers. I lucked the fuck out. Not just getting them but good ones. Possibly among the best. Not strong enough to wash the stench that was Brockton Bay from my soul, but maybe strong enough to fix it.

And with my costume complete it was time to start working on that thing that I'd need to make up for the one thing my power couldn't do. Reputation. A good reputation could smooth over all my autistic social blundering, but it took time to build one, and a good place to start would be to make sure folks knew I was stupid powerful.

My Mask? The lower face gas mask sliding on with the purple neon? Check. My black skater dress underneath the leather jacket and over the black torn leggings defending my modesty? Check. Last but not least, my thick black boots, perfect for crushing nazi skulls? Check.

Now if only I were hunting nazis tonight. Maybe as desert.

Stepping out of my small dingy apartment onto the fire escape I felt the cold Spring evening air. Not at all uncomfortable. My power insulated me from a lot of things, temperature included. The metal grating clanking under my boots before I rose into the sky.

Rising because I could fly! With a barrier to conceal me from sight up I soared up into the night air and began flying at high speeds through ABB territory looking for the dragon. No one beat Lung. No one. Not the Nazis, not the entire BB Protectorate, not even a fucking endbringer.

Well no one yet. He hadn't fought me.

So I soared just slow enough to actually take in what I was seeing. While my power did a lot, it was bad with info. I was no thinker. No special senses, but I could amplify the light approaching me to make things look closer to daylight hours. Amplify sound coming in while cutting out the white noise so I could overhear people.

“…the children, just shoot. Doesn’t matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?”

Bingo! Lung, and he was about to kill some kids which let me feel almost justified for what I was about to do. Scratch that the plan was dumb as shit and I was about to ruin my morals. Letting Lung ramp up as much as he wanted would probably level the city and get everyone killed.

As I got close I noticed a girl on the roof nearby who after alerting the ABB on accident had started fighting tooth and nail with bugs. Worse, she was actually doing somewhat well. Worse for my plan, good for her health.

Not that I recognized her, and I did my research before coming out tonight on every cape in the city. Must be new like me.

Dropping the concealment I yelled out, "Thanks for warming him up!" And I landed in a sick three point landing dead center of the street. Shut up! I deserved to show off and strut my stuff. I was unstoppable! Not to mention she did get him ramped up a bit.

Through a snarling, starting to deformed mouth he growled. "oo the 'uck 're u?"

Putting on a big grin, I replied, "I'm Goddess of War. And I'm here to crush a dragon." Holding out one hand, a massive impossibly large hammer appeared. The thing a hundred times denser than any natural material, and weighing a fuck lot. "Ramp up, I don't want this to be boring."

With a hurled blast of flame he charged me. The licks of flame not doing a single thing to me, and neither did his claws coming down only to halt as they collided with an immovable object. Me.

"Bug girl you might want to get to a safe distance, this is gonna get messy." Then with a single punch I caved in his chest and hurled him back a hundred feet.

For his credit he managed to stand up after a minute of healing. Metal scales forming, body shifting to a more complete wingless dragon, though still kinda small. Unfortunately for him he didn't know he should run away, not towards.

In blind rage he hurled himself over and over, as I bashed him aside, keeping his anger on me.

I did have to take flight as his size grew, flames turned white but still didn't do a thing to me. Our surroundings however? I uh, yea so this area was on fire. I flew around him and started summoning a torrent of water to rain down on the buildings. Not that I could control it well, my field of total control only extended out fifteen feet, from there physics took over.

Rolling up on us I watched the ole boy in blue, Armsmaster keeping a bit of distance. Lung now too big for even him to risk fighting.

Not me though. Heck he was about four stories tall and growing and I had a witness, so I guess it's time to bring down the hammer.

And bring it down I did. Hard, fast and turning most of his lower body into a smear on the ground as I flew in close to the winged dragon trying to melt me with blue tinged flames. I felt his body enter my aura and thank fuck Manton's Limit couldn't touch me. And a moment later I knocked that brain core in his chest unconscious with a flick of my will, and a punch to the head just for show.

He toppled over.

Easy-peasy… wait, no, everything within three blocks was on fire. Immediately, I flew over dumping shit tons of water on it all until the flames died. Some of the hotter fires I flew in close to manually suppress.

Then with all that done I flew back to the now shrunken, sleeping Lung.

Then I turned back to bellow, "I knocked him out. Want to arrest him?"

Several heroes approached. Armsmaster, Dauntless, Assault, and Battery. Them carefully eyeing me dragging a naked unconscious Lung by the scruff of his neck. Armsmaster stepped up. "Are you a new hero?"

"Sorta. I'm Goddess of War." I held him out for them to grab while holding the massive hammer on my shoulder.

The leader in blue stabbed the body with a needle and then had Dauntless haul him to a PRT van. Turning back to me with his perfectly trimmed beard, he said, "Well Goddess," Wow he called me goddess without a hint of irony. I guess I earned the name. "I'd like to get your statement if possible and extend an offer to join the Protectorate."

I snorted. "Statement, sure, but I'm not joining the PRT. Though if the triumvirate want to spar let me know. I'll go easy on them."

That at least got a chuckle out of Assault. "That strong huh?"

"You have no idea."

Through my aura I could perceive Armsmaster gritting his teeth hard. Took him a bit to calm down enough to ask for my statement.

"I flew around looking for Lung to kick his ass, and found a cape who controls bugs fighting him after he said something about murdering children, so I stepped in, warned her to back off and let him ramp up for funsies before putting him down."

Armsmaster almost cracked a tooth. "You let him ramp up? As in, you could have ended the fight at any time?"

"Yup. I just wanted to show off, but it was getting out of hand, and you all were too scared to approach, so I figured I'd shown off what I wanted." With a shrug I dismissed my hammer. "We done? I wanted to try and find Hookwolf before bed."

"He runs a fighting ring on the corner of 7th and Mason that he's known to stay at." Wow, Assault was my new favorite hero. But also they knew where he lived and he was still free? The fucking Murderblender?

Rising from the ground enough to finally look down upon the heroes I smiled. "Race you there!" and I took off fast enough I had to manually create and destroy air in my path to avoid a sonic boom.

Glancing back, Assault and Battery followed, and they moved really fast, while Armsmaster walked off to the PRT trucks.

Once I got close I slowed down and hovered near street signs to read them. Something that gave the married couple enough time to catch up along with the red blur known as Velocity. At which point they directed me the rest of the way.

Then I landed in front of the building. "Wait here, I'll only be a minute. No show boating for these guys." My hammer rematerialized and I strutted in.

The place smelled of sweat and ash. People stood around the ring, completely unaware I'd kicked Lung's ass not ten minutes ago. Sure enough Cricket stood next to a guy tall enough he had to be Hookwolf. The woman noted me first and the guy second, while everyone else grew quiet as they too saw me.

"Who are you?" He asked with a growl.

"I'm Goddess of War, and I'm here to kill nazis." A second later I leapt towards him and smashed him into paste. Cricket ran but I caught up and tore her apart too. As for the rest I only targeted the obvious skinheads. Everyone else got to leave on the technicality I couldn't prove they were nazis. Some tried to shoot me but that did nothing.

Of course the heroes entered soon after and saw the bodies. "Stand down!"

"Goddess what the fuck?" Her better half added.

"Remember when you asked if I was a hero, and I said sorta? Well I have a policy on nazis. Only good nazi's a dead nazi." We stood at a standoff. I just took out the two most powerful capes in the city, casually and bragged about being stronger than the triumvirate. "You know you can't stop me."

"They're gonna bring down the hammer on you." My fav hero said.

"They can try, but once I take out the endbringers, they'll back off." Wow, that visibly broke Velocity's brain.

"You're letting your power go to your head."

"Maybe." and with that I concealed myself, found their cash pile, and then flew off. My only regret was not being able to make sure Bug girl was okay.

I crashed at my apartment I was officially now too rich to live in, and fell asleep like a rock.

—

Took too long the next morning to figure out I'd really actually gone through with the whole fighting Lung and Hookwolf thing, rather than it all be an elaborate dream. In fact I found out through PHO who were talking about the Lung rampage and capture. That Bragart guy apparently got the scoop from someone in the PRT because he knew my cape name, and told everyone I murdered twenty people…

Twenty nazis.

Seven people died in my fight with Lung. I really really hoped Bug girl ran away like I told her, and it was just ABB gang members and maybe a homeless person… not that I'd feel much better if it was. Nazis? Didn't care. Everyone else? Guilt. Little bits of guilt (with the exception of bug girl being big guilt) but guilt nonetheless.

Speaking of, for all the info in the thread and speculation on my powers, no one mentioned bug girl. Something that nagged that little bit of my brain that said I'd gotten her killed on possibly her first night out. Then again, fighting Lung with bug powers was suicidal… and yea she's a cape so by default she's not going to be mentally sound.

I sure the fuck wasn't.

Oh they also labeled me a villain, and urged folks to not approach me under any circumstances and call the super cops right away, bla bla.

I browsed some more and realized I should probably get out and touch grass to stay sane. Civvie time increased mental health… probably. Thus summoning some clothes I walked on out as a normal everyday twenty something girl.

Taking the bus I headed down to the boardwalk since I had lots of cash and well… sure capitalism was evil and my power lent itself to post scarcity, labor and service was still a thing. I walked along and I glimpsed the boat graveyard… I should do something about that.

Later.

Got some ice cream and just enjoyed myself.

Somehow civvie life felt rather empty compared to the thrill of fighting Lung, and the nazis. It just felt so mundane and simple and sure I wanted to have my civvie identity, and maybe find a cute girl to date, but this was also a city where folks didn't feel safe to be openly queer. It'd take a while to fix that.

That said, I got excited when I saw Parian setting up her puppet show! She was a pretty cool cape. Used her power to entertain, and make peoples days better. Definitely better than let-Lung-kill-seven-people me. I sat down on the benches near her usual set up and licked my ice cream and watched.

"I won't be ready for at least a half an hour." Wait, she was talking to me?!

"Uh… okay? I mean I've got time." Falling silent for a moment, staring at her levitating stuff into place for the backdrop, I then added, "Want some help?"

"Thanks but I've got this."

Awkward silence ensued. I sat kicking my legs and finishing my food, and then sort of sat there until the show started. The show itself being awesome. Her power let her put so much life and motion into the dolls she used, and she'd clearly practiced the story. Of course my own aura covered the stage and I could intimately feel her control, and easily do the same if I wasn't a dumb bitch. My power for all its might only compensated for my uh lack of mental capability so much.

Maybe I was being a bit too ableist against myself. Probably.

Still it ended and I clapped with everyone else and took that as a good time to escape the awkward.

Next I tried scouting out some places around town. A quick concealment and I untethered myself from gravity to look for Empire fronts, stash houses, and any signs of nazis being nazis. It really sucked that my power was bad at finding targets. Sure I could win any fight, but that didn't matter if I couldn't find the fight.

My enemies very much could run and hide.

Oh and every time I found E88 graffiti I removed it and replaced it with 'No Pasarán!'. And an anarchist symbol for good measure. Unfortunately the Empire stole the anarchist colors like jerks.

I stopped a lynching, and found zero stash houses and such by the time I gave up, donned my cape outfit and flew towards the boat graveyard.

By the time I was over open water, the Rig gleaming with its forcefield in the distance, I removed my concealment thing and flew slow enough to hopefully draw attention.

Sure enough Dauntless flew off the Rig and towards me as I finally crossed the bay and hovered over the rusted hulls of the long dead ships that killed the Bay's shipping industry. The glowing spartan hero finally catching up a moment after. He was fast. "Goddess." Yea he didn't sound happy.

I turned, my neon lower-face gasmask hiding my nervous smile, and gave him a wave. "Hey. Didn't know you were on call today."

"Can I ask what you're doing?" Very serious this one. Thankfully he wasn't dumb enough to try and fight me.

With a sweeping hand motion I gestured to the ships beneath me. "Thought this mess could use some clean up. It kinda killed the economy and started the whole mass poverty thing, and most crime is because of socio-economic pressures, and so best way to fix the city besides ridding it of nazis would be to fix the thing that killed the economy."

"That's… surprisingly level headed of you." Wow what a backhanded compliment. Jerk.

My eyes narrowed. "Wow thanks for the compliment." All the sarcasm dripping from my voice. "Anyway, you gonna try and arrest me or can I try and get this done? I might be stupid powerful but this'll still take at minimum an hour, probably several."

He held up his hands. "No arrests, just wanted to talk. Preferably convince you to sit down and talk with the protectorate."

"We can chat while I work but no to the sit down. You can't convince me to be a bootlicker." And with that I began my clean up. Easy enough when I could just delete matter, but I did have to fly within fifteen feet of said matter to do that and there were a lot of ships. Also most of the ships were underwater so I'd have to go swimming in the bay.

Dauntless watched as I started flying around and the ships simply ceased to exist when I got close. Sure it showed off my power, including the exact range of it, but that changed very little. If I wanted to close the distance I was fast, and my concealment trick worked on everything but thinker powers.

He did try to strike up conversation a few times, but jokes on him, I had a disability that makes me bad at conversation! It went nowhere. Him prying and me giving basic noncommittal answers. Plans? Fix the city. Join the bootlickers? Nope.

Want some friendly advice on being a hero? Sure.

Apparently he talked a lot about balancing civilian life and hero life. Talked about acceptable use of force and when to hold back. PR stuff that seemed drilled into his brain. Talked up the protectorate resources in a thinly veiled sales pitch. Stuff about power and responsibility. The importance of having a team, not just for back up but for moral support on the hard days, because there'd be hard days.

"Have you heard about the unwritten rules?"

"Sorta, but they sounded kind of like an excuse to let nazi murders get away with hate crimes."

"It's to keep them from escalating. Back them into a corner and they take the kid gloves off."

Halting mid annihilation strike I turned to face the glowing bootlicker. "Take the gloves off? Hookwolf's nickname was the fucking murder blender and you all knew where he lived. His known body count was just shy of a kill order. You could have raided him and taken him out whenever you fucking wanted."

"We do that and suddenly the rest of the Empire stops holding back. Purity could level the city."

"If she shows her glowing tits around, she's dead. If Kaiser shows his tin helmet. Dead. Krieg? Dead. Alabaster? Dead. If I catch a blooded unpowered empire member? Dead. They can stop being nazis whenever they want, they can leave if they still want to be nazis, or they can stay and die. There's no corner, they can leave whenever they want. They're choosing to be bigoted fascist assholes."

The moment my rant finished I dove into the water to start getting the rest of the ships.