Chapter 5.09 - Worm

According to information known to me, Lung and his henchmen settled in the northwest of the city. For reasons unknown to me, this area was called the southern docks, although at best they could be called western. And certainly not the docks, because the nearest dock from there was fifteen kilometers away in a straight line. The logic of the locals did not give in to a scientific explanation.

Rushing through the sky like a bird, I scanned the neighborhood for clusters of people. Abandoned industrial buildings alternated with inhabited barracks here, forming a very strange architecture. In contrast to the coastal docks, there was enough normal homes. The infrastructure was not destroyed, and water supply, sewage, electricity and roads allowed the inhabitants to live a civilized life. Here lived the working strata of the population of the city, diluted with all sorts of drug addicts, lumpens and outcasts. The one that have not any profit to society, without any working place and living to Governments allowance.

The interrogations of drug dealers caught by me during the week gave a tip to several places that the ABB guarded most closely. Now I was heading to one of these places. At dusk, the dirty gray warehouse building looked like ... dirty gray buildings. It seemed to be not made from concrete, but solely from natural dirt - the very rubbish that accumulates in the corners in rooms where it is never cleaned.

Inside the warehouse were several dozen people. What is most interesting, in one of the rooms reside almost naked people. They walked along the tables, on which was located some kind of chemical equipment. Obviously, it was another drug lab. Well then, it's time to punish this whole breeding ground of lies and vice.

I landed on the roof of the warehouse and began to scan the neighborhood in a radius of half a kilometer. For each person, I put a kind of beacon, marking it as a member of the ABB or an innocent civilian. Of course, I was not sure that my definition was one hundred percent accurate, but I was sure that I could destroy most of the ABB forces in one fell swoop. There were armed groups, dens for drug addicts, and brothels. It even has a hundred "recruits" with bombs in their heads. I noted them especially.

After the sorting of the targets was completed, I gave the command to the symbiote, and it simultaneously killed almost a thousand people by dispersing their body to bloody dust. Among them were at least four hundred drug addicts who did not have a direct connection with the ABB, but supplied them with money, buying drugs. Having the ability of Panacea, symbiote could almost instantly determine the presence of narcotic substances in the blood, so there could not be an error.

The only living members of the ABB were only the inhabitants of the warehouse. I was already going to break in through the ceiling in order to organize my spectacular appearance in the expanding yarn of darkness, but then I noticed the car heading to the building and recognized Kaiser’s limousine at which he came to the bar today. Looks like something interesting is going to happen.

With a creak of brakes, the car stopped right outside the warehouse. Kaiser jumped out of it in his steel armor and froze in amazement, noticing the ground strewn with pieces of blood-stained meat. These were the remains of the ABB patrol . Without waiting for his companions in the face of two blondes Fenja and Menja, he rushed forward, knocking out the doors of the warehouse. They met him with a burst of gunfire, which nevertheless could not cause any harm. Although several bullets hit the mask in dangerous proximity to the eye slits.

A chain of metal blades grown from the floor pierced the gunners, and a fierce cry from Kaiser, the head of the Empire, swept across the room.

“Lung! Come out!!! Your last day has come.”

Immediately after the shout, loud bangs sounded, and Fenja and Menja burst through the wall inside the warehouse, they have grown to a three-meter height. I went down and headed for the breach, while remaining unnoticed.

“Kaiser! This is my territory. How did you even dare come here?” There was a surprisingly competent response in the form of a shout. Apparently, when he wanted, Lung could speak quite normally. One of the people in the hall tore off the top of his clothes and begins to be shrouded in flames. Right before my eyes, scales began to grow over his skin. “Have you brought the Black Cloak with you too? What, no longer confident in your strength?” Lung continued, noticing my appearance.

“Black Cloak?” Kaiser turned around and looked at me. “What are you doing here? Decided to steal my glory?”

“Your glory? Bwa ha ha. What are you talking about? I want to see how Lung will crush your skull. And do not think that you will be able to escape from here by holding your tail. Only one of you should survive today. I promise not to intervene in your battle.”

“You can not.” There was a pop, and next to me appeared the figure of Demon Lee. “You will have a battle with me.”

“Sounds fun.” I agreed, retreating back to the street.

Demon Lee appeared behind my back and tried to stick a knife in my back. Steel stopped a few centimetres from the cloak, as if buried in a spring. After another second, I felt the cape was teleported to the roof, leaving behind a cluster of force fields and virtual matter in the shape of a man. Both were the result of a symbiotic effect, the result of a partial manifestation of his tentacles in the physical world.

Lung’s minion over and over again tried to attack me using cold weapons. A couple of times he used grenades, but these were normal explosive grenades, so I did not even try to budge. Telekinesis reliably protected me from all such methods of influence.

“Is that all you can?” I mocked scornfully. “Jump back and forth to create the appearance of an attack? It will not hold me even for a second.”

I decisively turned and head for the warehouse. Demon Lee tried to stop me by teleporting close to immediately plunge the knife into my throat, but he failed. The tentacles of his symbiote came across the resistance of my symbiote, and the mask was literally thrown into physical dimension, sending the mask to the wall on the opposite side of the street. Having knocked out a couple of bricks from wall with his body, Demon Lee immediately teleported to the roof of the warehouse to take a breath.

“I haven’t even begun to try to kill you, and you’re almost dead. What a miserable power you have. Are you really so insignificant, eh, Demon Lee?”

The provocation made Demon Lee use the gift of Bakuda. He approached me with a grenade in his hand, after which he teleported around the corner of the building. But I already had the opportunity to make sure that it is better not to be tricked by the creations of an insane techie. That is why my telekinesis snatched the bomb from the clone's hand and moved it right under Demon Lee’s side.

There was a muffled boom, after which part of the warehouse wall was covered with hoarfrost. And here I thought Bakuda would be more creative in their explosives. Demon Lee managed to escape, but it was obvious that he had managed it with difficulty. A part of his left leg was covered with frost. Now he was sitting on the roof of the warehouse and rubbing it, trying to bring it back to normal.

“You are pathetic. It's time to kill you.”

I telekinesis picked up a brick from the ground and launched it into the villain. He made another attempt to attack me from the back, but seriously miscalculated. As soon as he appeared next to me, I telekinetically catched every cell of his body, preventing him from escaping. Not so long ago, I neutralized the ability of Night in the same way.

Demon Lee attempted to teleport, but did not succeed. I slowly turned around and looked into his eyes.

“That's all. Now, I will tear you into a hundred little demons, after which I can enjoy the spectacle of the battle of two powerful masks. You couldn't even entertain me.”

The demon struggled to break free, activating his ability to move over and over again. His symbiote squealed hysterically in the telepathic range, pronouncing something in its Swahili and creating the sensation of cricket chirping right under my ear. I winced at the unpleasant sensations, and my victim managed to escape. But, the success was ... partial.

I looked at Demon Lee, who was staring at me in shock. One of his self stood right in front of me, and the second stood ten meters away. A few seconds passed, and the head of the body in front of me showered with a weightless black dust. The second figure disappeared almost completely, leaving only the head and part of the spine hanging in the air. Both parts did not fall because I kept them telekinesis.

“Look at what you've done.” I turned to the head, which did not die because of my ability to heal. “I didn't even hit you, as you literally killed yourself. No, that won't do. I still need you alive.”

I inserted the spine back into the body, and then I overgrow the wound, hastily regenerating the tissue. The body remained paralyzed, but I was able to restore the work of individual vital organs - the heart, lungs, and liver. At least he won't die in the next few hours anymore. I interfered with the work of the cape’s brain, depriving him out of consciousness, and then put him on the roof of a neighboring building. I hope no one would bother him there.

Having finished with this, I turned to the warehouse only to notice its epic collapse. All this time, my symbiote automatically did not allow any person to leave the building, so now all the members of the ABB have died under the rubble. And who did not die, I helped them to die. Only Lung, Kaiser, Fenja, and Menja was alive. However, the definition of "alive" was somewhat inaccurate.

Kaiser was still in his armor shaped tin can, but his body was one big mutilated mess. Next to him lay Fenja, covered with bricks and concrete, staring in horror at Lung. He now resembled a real dragon. With a height of more than five meters, standing on four limbs, he raised leathery wings towards the sky. The long neck was crowned with a relatively small head, still preserving human features. Under the right front paw of Lung lay Menja. Or would it be more correct to say lying around the paw? Because his limb was inside her belly.

Lung roared, and then pulled out a clenched paw, pulling out a whole heap of guts. His opponent was at least six meters tall, so she had a lot of guts. I even thought that Lung would strangle himself. That will be very laughful.

“Nessa!” Fenja screamed in distress.

She threw the unconscious Kaiser on her shoulder, jumped off and kicked Lung with her foot right in the head. He collapsed heavily. Taking advantage of his confusion, the mask grabbed her sister's body, then ran away, dragging long ropes of giblets, covered with dust. No, if she is not given to Panacea right now, she will no longer be alive.

I looked from losers to the winner in this battle, meeting his eyes.

“Mortal Kombat, round two! Oh yeah, I need to introduce myself.” I took a few steps forward, wrapped in a thick canopy of darkness. “I am horror, flying on the wings of the night. I am a tax inspector who has found your black bookkeeping. I - retribution, like a brick falling on your head. I am the Black Cloak!”

“You're the snack on my holiday table.” - Lung responded. “I will eat you alive, and you will still have time to hear the crunch of your bones on my teeth.”

With these words, Lung rushed forward, intent on hitting me with his paw. I tried to stop him, but again I was surprised to find out that my telekinesis literally slips off his body. However, this was no danger to me. I could go at a supersonic speed from a spot, and then also stop abruptly. For the average person, it would look like teleportation. Very noisy teleportation, but still. I was faster than a bullet. So Lung couldn't even get close to me. I flew up to a height of a couple of tens of meters and began to study the reason why my telekinesis failed.

Of course, it was a symbiote. The transformation of Lung into a dragon took place due to the fusion of his physical body with the body of a symbiote. This sight was amazing... and disgusting. The symbiote did not simply touch the body, it penetrated inside and literally dissolved him in itself, turning a person into a chimera. Now the volume of the "dragon" exceeded the volume of the body of Lung a hundred times. That is why one cell of his body accounted for a hundred times more cells of the symbiote. Of course, this creature did not have a cellular structure, but it emulated it, following the inherent program of the ability.

Most of Lung's body had already dissolved, and only half of his head was human. The most intact part was the brain. I wonder how far he can go in his transformation?

My attempts to seize Lung by telekinesis were unsuccessful. Interaction was very weak. His body consisted of virtual matter created by a symbiote in our three-dimensional reality. It was under his direct control, but it was not himself, and therefore theoretically there was an opportunity to take control of him.

To keep Lung in a transformed state, I needed to somehow entertain him. For this, I began to grab the surrounding garbage, pieces of buildings, and the ground,where I bring them down on the enemy. After a dozen seconds, I surrounded the dragon with all this matter and even lifted him into the air. I also kept Night in similar way. But Lung proved that he is not for nothing, he is considered the strongest Brockton Bay mask. He literally exploded with fire. And it was not only Pyrokinesis, but also ... telekinesis. Very flawed, but still did the job and somehow better than my way.

The garbage scattered to the sides, revealing a flaming dragon that spun its wings and soared into the air, trying to reach me. Approaching, he exhaled a whole stream of flame that surrounded me from all sides. But all this could not do me any harm. Telekinesis did not allow the hot air to approach, and the darkness properly absorbed infrared radiation.

I continued my attacks, not forgetting to carefully observe all the actions of Lung’s symbiote. This battle was not only a chance to learn a strong mask, but also a way to hone my fighting skills, which results as a colorful show in which I showed my strength to the whole city. I could not boast of artistic expressiveness of telekinesis, and therefore I used the vivid image of Lung to show that all his power is nothing in front of me.

The longer our battle lasted, the more bigger Lung became. Soon he reached a length of twenty meters from nose to tip. Now there was nothing human in it. It was a European dragon with four legs, wings, a long tail and a long neck. Flames burst from the mouth, and small fiery tongues of fire slipped from under each scale.

By this time, there was nothing near that could be used as a weapon. All that was, we have already crushed everything to dust. So I began to collect soil in one piece and press it into the shape of huge stones. Alas, the strength of these stones was low, and they were falling apart from one blow.

Lung roared, jumped, flew, over and over again tried to get me either with his tail, his paws, or his mouth. I constantly eluded him, pretending that a little more, and he could get me.

I concentrated part of my consciousness on making a big hammer. I pulled out a piece of land with a diameter of more than twenty meters, and then began to compress it with all the strength available to me. A minute later, this mass shrank in half. Compression heated the rock, making it almost liquid. Heat gases escaped from the workpiece, while I increased the density of matter. In the end, I formed something like a pyramid from the melt and telekinetically began to reduce the movement speed of atoms. The hammer had cooled and was now ready for use.

Seeing an opportunity, I kept Lung in place by streams of formless matter, and then brought down my pyramid “hammer” on him with the flat side. There was a loud bang. I raised the pyramid and saw a flattened dragon lying at the bottom of a deep hole. Bang Bang BANG! I struck blows. After each of them, Lung flattened, but he was going to leap again and continued to resist. And most importantly - he began to grow even faster.

Another hit at the dragon met with a fist blow, from which my weapon split. I pushed him up, turned the tip of the split pyramid down and brought it down on Lung with all my might. The sharp pyramid pierced through his body. But he did not die, did not ask for mercy, but exploded with a flash of violent flames that finally destroyed my weapon. At the same time, the dragon has grown almost fifty percent. Now it was visible from all parts of the city. The sun had already set, the sky was overcast, but these clouds shone purple, reflecting the light of the fire that emanated from its skin. Lung roared in such a way that the entire city heard him exactly, and then he continued to attack me.

In order not to get lost against the background of this giant, I created a cloud of darkness around me and emulated the movement of huge tentacles striking. The formless blob absorbed all the light, but from time to time blue lightning flashes glittered inside it. Since I want to show my strength, it’s worth making the audience happy with the spectacle.

Lung grew and grew. Over time, he increasingly began to resemble an Asian dragon. His body lengthened and began to resemble a lizard, and then a snake. Now he flew no longer at the expense of the wings, but at the expense of telekinesis. Half an hour after the start of the battle, he was two hundred meters long and continued to grow. And then I noticed that Lung's ability to resist my telekinesis was weakening.

The strength of the dragon makes it so that during the battle it would constantly grow until it became ‘bigger and stronger than the enemy’. But the symbiote was not rubber. The larger the dragon became, the greater the ratio of the volume of the body of the symbiote to the volume of the pseudo-matter of Lung’s body. And now this ratio no longer allowed him to control his own body with the same efficiency. On the contrary, all this time I was trying to improve my control over the tentacles of the symbiote, in order to make it stronger and “harder” than my opponent.

In terms of body size, Lung's symbiote compared to mine was like a mouse in front of an elephant. But he had more experience, and he was also ruled by the beastly will of his master, who had refined his control over the years. Now I tried to learn all the best I saw from the enemy, plus adding my knowledge and skills.

And so, the turning point came when I was literally lit up, and I realized how I can fill the tentacles of the symbiote with my will, making them thousands and millions of times stronger. Moreover, the same principle could be applied to control magic, chakra and even Bahion. This method was not easy, but it was definitely effective. Therefore, I decided that this fight can already be ended.

For starters, I let Lung touch his paw or tail a few times. At the same time, my telekinetic tentacle literally sprayed his body at a short distance from me. After hitting me with a paw, I didn’t budge, and a hole was formed in Lung’s palm. I could kill him right now, but I wasn't going to do it. First, I do not want to "score points" for my symbiote. And secondly, it was worthwhile to mislead all viewers about my true abilities.

Having flown slightly to the side, I began to collect all available iron from the neighborhood. I pressed them into a ball, which began to warm up under the action of pressure. Plus, I applied my Pyrokinesis abilities, which also developed fairly well during the battle. Molten metal shrank even more, getting rid of all inclusions and gases. I already knew the principles of atomic separation for the nukes I made. I previously reproduced them based on chakra, magic, and then magical artifacts. Now I am doing it again, using the ability of the symbiote.

After a couple of minutes, I had a very large drop of chemically pure molten iron. Of course, it was very big compared to me. But compared with Lung, it was only a big drop. I squeezed it even stronger, translating it into a new phase state, heated it, and gave the metal the shape of a huge sword. It was a straight sword of the European type, on the blade of which huge letters in English were visible: DRAGON SLAYER.

With telekinesis, I sharply slowed down the movement of iron atoms, cooling the blade and giving it incredible strength. Near me in the air hung a huge monocrystal of iron. The strength of this material was several thousand times stronger than ordinary steel. It was relatively fragile due to poor resistance to crack propagation, but I neutralized this weakness by “feeding” the metal with the power of telekinesis and with my will. Now it was a weapon capable of piercing even the core of the planet.

Within all this time, Lung tried to get to me, but could not overcome the barrier of flying stones. Moreover, I constantly attacked him with these stones, dispersing them to great speed and entered on his scales, which only made him stronger.

The Dragon Slayer rushed forward like a lightning bolt and pierced Lung's body, entering the very hilt. The dragon tried to grab my weapon, but then it seemed to break through the seemingly invulnerable body, moving aside and flying away beyond the reach of Lung. Burning blood gushed from a wide wound, but there were no organs visible inside the body. It was all solid props.

The sword flashed once more, and the severed wing flew to the ground, leaving behind a trail of fire. Time after time I attacked Lung, inflicting wounds on him. The virtual body could not suffer much, but at the same time my blows wounded the symbiote, cutting off its tentacles, threatening to dismember it into several large pieces. There was a turning point in the battle, and Lung began to retreat. He roared, refusing to admit defeat, rushed at me more and more fiercely and quickly, already not paying attention to the injuries, trying to get me at any cost. But all his attacks were incapable of harming me. Even swallowing me, he only achieved the appearance of a hole leading from the mouth to the back.

The merging of Lung with the symbiote had another side effect. Every cell of his brain was now surrounded by a pseudo-material, which depicted the work of a dragon's brain. You just can not pretend to be smarter than you are. Symbiote was a blunt animal, and therefore Lung in the shape of a dragon was also no smarter than him. And as a fierce and brainless animal, he fiercely rushed at me, instead of trying to come up with some kind of plan, or at least retreat.

As a result, after another fifteen minutes, Lung fainted, collapsed to the ground with a shapeless gut and began to lose weight rapidly, regaining his human appearance. I picked him up by telekinesis and put him next to Demon Lee, who was lying on the roof of the only survived building within a kilometer radius. All this time I covered it, saving his life. I had a lot of fun. During this fight, my strength increased many times. That's what a good opponent means. Having pushed several veins in Lung's head, I made sure that he would not wake up ahead of time. Well, I’m finished with this animal, now it's Bakuda's time.

Having examined the baldness of total destruction formed on the territory of the city, I turned my eyes to a giant sword. I created it in a fit of inspiration, so I can hardly repeat something like that in the near future. The letters on the surface of the blade shimmered with crimson light. What is most interesting, it was not the result of the work of my symbiote. It was in some way reminiscent of magic, and in some ways the effect of Bakuda’s bombs. I decided to study this effect, but later.

Having unfolded the sword with the blade down, I thrust it into the ground. I plunged almost a third of the blade, but even so, the hilt is at twenty meters above the ground. Not bad, I’ve got a monument here. I focused, and on the surface of the blade appeared a lot of "holographic" inscriptions: ‘Property of Black Cloak’. Like the security images on banknotes, these inscriptions appeared at certain viewing angles. Sometimes it even seemed that they were inside the blade.

Having perpetuated my authorship in this way, I turned around and flew towards another ABB base. I expected that there was no one left, and everybody ran somewhere, but instead I found a building full of people ... and, of course, bombs. It is in the style of Bakuda. I wonder if she blows up herself with bomb, will it be considered that I killed her? Or symbiote will be attracted to the nearest kin?

Stopping in a couple of hundred meters from the building, I began to study the situation. My battle with Lung was somewhat beyond what was expected. Ash area with a diameter of two kilometers - this is serious. But at least not many people died there. I did not throw buildings with people to the dragon. Rather, I tore off the walls and roofs from them, enabling people to get away. Most of the real estate was destroyed by Lung with explosions and blows from his body. Still, the length of two hundred meters - it is a lot of volume. It was enough for him to simply crawl to raze the whole street with the ground.

Now I wanted to create an image of a heroic savior. And for this it was necessary to sort the people in the building into hostages and members of the ABB, neutralize the bombs and kill Bakuda and her minions. I was not going to arrange another battle. It will be enough just to make a work.

The study of the situation gradually shifted to the study of technologies used by Bakuda to create bombs. The more I looked at her creations, the more I realized that techies are just magicians. There was not a single gram of technology in their creations. But there was an obstinate belief in every heresy. Most of Bakuda’s bombs were ... three transistors, welded together in a special way. Here's how three pieces of silicon can explode, freezing everything in the neighborhood? Yes, nothing. This is magic, Harry.

The symbiotes did absolutely impossible tricks with the laws of the Universe, not caring about something trivial such as rationale. At least that was how it looked. A more detailed analysis revealed a picture of a limitless universe of dimensions, hiding behind the apparent of the physical three-dimensional world.

In a sense, techies still had to do with technology. If they had sufficient knowledge, they could influence the reality on the bare technique, without resorting to such substances as will, faith, energy of consciousness, and so on. But local techies replaced 99% of the desired impact with a symbiotic force.

If I may say so, it was the sixth type of magic known to me, despite the fact that the ability of my symbiote could not be called magic. Chakra and the magic of spiders were the first two. Behind them was the magic of people, the basis of which was faith and tradition. This fascinated captive souls in the world of demons. A separate discipline was ritual magic based on the use of divine laws — certain “Laws” of higher order entities, a kind of local rules for interpreting the laws of physics and magic.

The fifth kind was the use of Bahion. And the sixth was the physics of multidimensional space, known to symbiotes. My telekinesis was a commonplace interaction of multidimensional objects. The fact that no one can see tentacles of my symbiote has not yet indicated that there is at least a drop of mysticism in this. Now, with the ability of Panacea, I could grow to myself the exact same multidimensional limb and swing it by moving the circles and bending the spoons.

Sadly sighing, I decided to postpone the theoretical studies of this interesting field of natural science and return to our sheep. More precisely, to one sheep - stubborn Bakuda. This contagion connected the symbiote tentacles to all of its bombs in the bodies of people, so that her death would lead to an instantaneous explosion of everything.

But on the other hand, she is a techie. She does not even think that the source of her abilities is a symbiote, which can be mentally controlled. So, she thought up some technical device, which allegedly could send a signal to the bombs to explode. Carefully searching the only cape in the area, I made sure that there were some metallic inclusions in her chest.

The symbiote also had suspiciously close contact with her mask and rings on the toes. Most likely, Bakuda uses them for remote bomb blasting. What is the most funny, traces of long wearing rings were on her left leg, which I shot a week ago. It seems that precisely because of this, Bakuda then decided to slip away. Now these rings were on the right foot. The left one was dragged into a plaster and supported by something like an exoskeleton.

Overall, my plan is pretty simple. For starters, defuse bombs. Then, to deprive Bakuda out of consciousness. Rescue the hostages and turn the rest into a bloody mess. In this circumstance, point one and two could be swapped.

I localized one of the hostages in the building about three hundred meters from me and tried to defuse his bomb. Alas, my attempt to detach the Bakuda tentacles immediately led to an explosion. A few more experiments have shown that bombs are in a state where the slightest outside interference leads to their explosion. I had to go to point two. I squeezed a few veins in the tech’s head and waited until she lost consciousness. But, alas, everything went completely differently than I expected.

After a couple of seconds, the eyes of Bakuda rolled up, and all of her bombs in the area were detonated. And what is most terrible, a large bomb, installed in the basement of the house where Bakuda was sitting, blowed up. It did not just explode, but instantly isolated a piece of space with a diameter of several hundred meters, and then began to crinkle and deform the laws of nature inside this area. I found myself at the very edge of the impact zone, but I could not simply escape. I felt the time inside the bubble begin to slow down. There was an urgent need to do something. However, the very type of impact on reality was already familiar to me. Clockblocker’s strength worked on the same principle.

For a start, I killed all the members of the ABB, Bakuda and her symbiote. It took less than half a second. Then I directed my symbiote’s tentacles to search for the path to salvation in multidimensional space. The image obtained from the symbiote said that it was possible to smuggle me into the discovered breach located in the future. I immediately agreed and experienced the most unforgettable movement I ever had. Symbiote literally took me to its hump along cunning footpaths of multidimensionality, and then dumped me into physical space a couple of blocks to the east.

Once in the normal world, I departed for another ten minutes, trying to put in my head everything that I had seen and perceive in the process of moving. Repeating such thing again ... No, no. It’s better to die than to experience it again. Brr.

After coming to myself, I focused on the outside world. Just a minute ago it was night, and now it was noon. Rushing around the neighborhood, I found an empty residential apartment, where I turned on the TV to find out what day it was. Pretty good, I got on the news channel. As I opened the window to get into the apartment and see what was happening on the screen, I listened to the speaker’s speech.

“... huddle the search jobs at the scene of the battle of villains. Already confirmed the death of more than a thousand people. More than fifteen thousand citizens were left homeless. For them, temporary detention centers have been established, where all those in need are provided with food, water and a roof over their heads. According to experts, these temporary camps may well become permanent. After all, even the destroyed houses at one time were built only as a temporary solution to accommodate the workers employed in the construction of the industrial area of the docks.”

Finally coping with the grilles, locks and traps, I got to the TV. Well, what a miserable life. How do they become like this I wonder - to put a bear trap on the window leaf. Thanks to it nobody did not steal the TV, and now I can watch the news on it. The date in the scrolling line at the bottom of the screen showed that today is Sunday, October 1, 2018 11:38. Less than a day has passed since the collision with Bakuda.

“In the meantime, the Governor’s Office together with the PRT and the Protectorate are planning to arrange a charity dinner, the funds from which will go to help the victims of the opposition of criminal groups. The Armsmaster and Miss Militia will be present at the dinner, as recently as last night captured Lung and his assistant Demon Lee. The whole city expresses its support to the heroes who saved the city from these villains.”

What, they captured them? Even after I show them epic and bloody battles? Those kill stealers! Well, that's it. Wait for me at the dinner party.

“Hey, you're up there, I'm not waiting for an invitation. Right now I will come, oh right now I will come ... Now I will come to visit you.” Singing a catchy song, I left the apartment, locking all the locks back and alerting the traps.

Turning on the phone, I dialed Tattletale’s. While the beeps went on, I tried to use the symbiote in order to get information about what was going on “on the other end of the phone”. The sensations were rather blurry, but I “saw” how the girl grabbed the phone, looked at the number, said a few words to the teammates, and then almost ran to a separate room.

“I'm listening.”

“Hello. It's good that you keep acquaintance with me in secret from your comrades, but you could have picked up the phone early.”

“Black Cloak ...”

“And who else did you expect?”

“No one. We just had a discussion about our next mission.”

“Is that so?” I stretched more tentacles, reading the information. “An attack on a dinner party?”

“What? Where are you from ... you copied my power?”

“Guessed good. It's funny, but I'm going to get to this dinner too. Some questions to the Protectorate require discussion on live TV. So I need your informational support. Kindly find answers to a couple of questions?”

“Of course. But ... if you attack the meeting, our appearance will only be a minor event on this background. Coil will be displeased.”

“I will let you move first.” I grinned. “And when you screw it up, I will come and save you.”

“Thank you, but I don’t want such a record, I would like to have my CV.”

“Seriously. I need answers to my questions.”

“Speak. I hope you can wait a few hours for answers?”

“No problem. Take the notebook in the drawer to your left and write it down. There will be many questions “

...

Putting the phone aside, I thought about what I was able to find out. Dinner will begin at eight o'clock in the evening. It will be attended by bumps from the PRT, the heroes of the Protectorate, Wards, representatives of government and business. The event will take place on the top floor of the Forsberg Gallery. It was a building with glass walls and a roof, built by the rich in order to splurge tourists. The higher the floor, the more pompous events took place there.

Not far from there was a building with the studio of the ZBS channel. This means that I can control the broadcast of the events of the evening live. It will only be necessary to visit the director of the department and give appropriate instructions.

At five minutes to eight I sat on the roof of one of the small-scale skyscrapers and watched the preparations for the beginning of the dinner. Guests preferred to arrive in advance, because at eight the official part had to start, which would then be broadcast on television. The fact that the image from the cameras will go live, no one knew, even the operator.

Two minutes later, on the roof of another neighboring building, taller than the gallery, a team of Undersiders appeared. Bitch began to increase their dogs, which took about ten minutes. All this time, the governor spoke at the dinner, who was crucified on the theme “how good it is that we all gathered here today.” When his speech ended, and there was a loud applause, the Undersiders began to act.

Three huge creatures, formerly dogs, jumped off and rushed forward in an insane jump, carrying riders on their backs. If I were in their place, I would not make this decision. Overcoming fifty meters, flying from one skyscraper to another. It is worth making them feel the consequences from what they are doing.

Telekinesis imperceptibly slowed down the movement of dogs. They hung in the air, and then they flew down, picking up speed. I heard echoes of a shrill screech. It seems to be the Queen of the Zerg. Stopping in the air at a height of ten meters from the road, the dogs soared vertically upwards and landed safely on the glass roof, which immediately collapsed under their weight.

I expected the Undersiders would try to take hostages, establish control over the premises or do something else, but it seems that my innocent joke knocked the whole fighting spirit out of them. Only Tattletale retained composure. After all, she knew who was behind all this, and that I would hardly want to kill them in such an absurd way. Queen of Zerg generally pissed herself, and now did not know where to hide.

The silence that was formed gave the PRT special forces enough time to react. Two of them looked at each other, tore off grenades from their belts and threw them at the frozen villains. These were foam grenades that released a rapidly hardening foam that could hold a not-so-strong mask. But there were no strong masks among the Undersiders.

Slamming loudly, the grenades worked, and the foam clouded the villains, burying them under themselves. The dogs tried to escape, but they were flooded with additional foam streams from special sprinklers. The streams of darkness flooded the floor, but this could not help the Undersiders to free themselves. It was a failure, captured on camera and broadcast live.

I think the time has come for my pathetic appearance. I moved to the building, flew through the broken roof and dispelled the darkness around Grue. Cameras immediately focused on my figure.

“I am horror, flying on the wings of the night. I am the salvation that you did not expect. I am the plague during your feast. I am the Black Cloak!”

Nobody tried to stop me. The glory of a bloody butcher paralyzed people no worse than some superpowers. Downstairs, I stepped forward, while neutralizing the foam. I nibbled it in small pieces and threw it out onto the street. In just a few seconds, the Undersiders were freed, but remained standing behind my back. What else could they do if my telekinesis held them tenaciously in place?

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen.” I started my speech. “I heard that today the high society of Brockton Bay is gathering here, so I could not miss this event. Regarding on …”

And at that moment an arrow stuck in my chest right in my heart. I instantly focused, scanned the surrounding space and found the source of the problem. The Shadow Stalker was able to become non-material and deceive my sense of telekinesis. But only while I did not pay attention to her. Now I felt her with the tentacles, grabbed and materialized her in our world, crucified in the air like Christ.

“But doing such things are not necessary.” I said coldly, grabbing an arrow with my right hand and pulling it out of my chest. Not a drop of blood remained on the tip. “Because in response, I usually do this.”

The body of the Shadow Stalker was bent, snapped by breaking bones in dozens of places, and then she was dispersed by bloody porridge and flew to the side, making red circle on the glass. There were women's cries, someone tried to run somewhere, but everyone froze, all they had to do was give away to my roar.

“STAND, AFRAID!!!”

Once again, I looked around the crowd, who had stuck in my telekinesis like flies into honey, and then continued my speech. The wound in the chest has long been healed, healed by my symbiote. But the cloak will have to be repaired.

“So, I will support our esteemed governor in his statement. I am also very glad that all of you have gathered here today to help the residents of Brockton Bay in these difficult times. I also want to help them. And above all, I want to help them find out the truth. The truth about how the PRT and the Protectorate brazenly deceive the public, attributing to themselves the merits of others and declaring as villains those who dared to encroach on their right to hang noodles on others.

“Do you have proof?” The voice of a newspaper reporter rang out from the side. Under my gaze, he turned pale, and even prepared to part with life.

“Of course.” I replied. “That is why I came here - to hold a press conference, answer your questions and ask my own. I ask the official representatives of the PRT and the Protectorate to come forward and introduce themselves. I have questions for you.”

There was an awkward silence, after which the Armsmaster and Miss Militia came forward.

“You do not intimidate us.” The Armsmaster spoke out harshly, taking his halberd with combat grip. “You will answer for all the murders you committed.”

“Let me in, I'll pass anyway.” Pushing around, an unhealthy looking fat woman came forward. “My name is Emily Piggot. I am the head of the local branch of PRT.”

“Nice to meet you. It is good that at least someone here has an understanding of politeness and manners. Not like some caddies who rush into hollow threats.” The Armsmaster did not show anything on face, but he was internally embarrassed. Feeling like a dog who ate other’s meat. “So, Emily, I have a question for you. Today in the news I heard about how the Armsmaster and Miss Militia heroically captured Lung and the Demon Lee. Miss Militia even spoke on camera about her heroic battle with the Demon Lee. Do you know what really happened last night? Come on, tell me what happened according to you? “

“You, Black, and Lung staged a massacre at the southern docks, where more than a thousand people were killed.” Angrily expressed the director of the PRT. Judging by the quick gasping after expressing her opinion, she had heart problems.

“Firstly, my name is not Black, but Black Cloak. I advise you to remember this, because the next time, if I hear such an appeal to myself, I will immediately destroy the impudent one, as I did with the Shadow Stalker. Secondly, you just accused me of killing innocent people and conspiring with Lung. What a terrible nonsense you come up with. The brain in your head are completely rotten. Yesterday, the whole city saw me fighting Lung, and then I defeated him. And now I want to hear from the Armsmaster the truth about how he captured Lung, plus an apology.”

I waited a few seconds and continued.

“Come on, Armsmaster, if you do not answer my question, I will start to kill those people. One by one every minute.” Techie tried to rush at me, but naturally stuck in the air. “And then the whole country will see that for the Protectorate, concealing lies is more important than the lives of people.”

“Fine.” Gunsmith squeezed out the word begrudgingly. “What do you want to hear?”

“The truth. Only the truth. And if you deviate even slightly from the truth, then this woman will immediately die.”

I waved my hand elegantly, and one of the wealthy middle-aged ladies hovered in front of us, waving her arms helplessly. The techie looked at the hostage, looked absently at the characters surrounding him, and then spoke:

“Last night, we received a signal about the clash of two strong masks in the southern docks area. The combined team of Wards and Protectorate moved to the scene. We did not dare to interfere in the confrontation, focusing on saving the residents of the city. After Lung fainted and fell to the ground, I and Miss Militia moved to the center of the battle zone. Half an hour later, we found unconscious Lung and Demon Lee, who were immediately arrested and transported to the headquarters of the Protectorate. After that, we told reporters that we had seized the villains without clarifying the circumstances of the incident.”

“Well, uh ... it's not the whole truth, but it’s enough for the first time.” Frustrated, I stretched. “It’s hard to learn to speak the truth at once. By the way, I want to note that this is not the first time that the Armsmaster appropriates other people's merits. Last time, he also “arrested” unconscious Lung, taking Queen of Zerg’s right as the winner and threatening her to run away from the scene. And now, I want the Armsmaster to kneel and ask for forgiveness from the residents of Brockton Bay for cheating on them.”

“What? Get on my knees?” Armsmaster rebelled. “I am one of the leaders of the Protectorate.”

“Does this give you the right to deceive people and appropriate others' merits? Well, though, what am I asking? The protectorate was created precisely for this purpose. Right?”

The Armsmaster gritted his teeth, then knelt down and said:

“I apologize to all the residents of Brockton Bay for misleading them.”

“See, it's not that hard.” I praised him.

“You're a killer!” Armsmaster blurted out. “Confessions knocked out by threats have no power. No one will believe you.”

“Ha ha ha. They do not have the power in court. And now the whole city is watching and listening to us. Whole country.” Armsmaster in horror warped his face. “But let's forget about these envious losers, and I will tell you about what happened last night.

I looked at the audience. The Armsmaster remained on his knees. He, of course, made an attempt to rise, but with surprise he found out that my telekinesis is stronger.

“Yesterday, I decided to destroy the ABB criminal group. For a start, I discovered and executed about a thousand gangsters and their accomplices. After that, while I was fighting Demon Lee, Lung defeated Kaiser who appeared unexpectedly. Then I joined the battle with Lung and defeated him after almost an hour of confrontation. I think this moment was seen by the whole city. At the scene of the battle there is still a sword, with which I sliced Lung as a stick of smoked sausage.”

There were chuckles in the hall.

“Leaving Lung and Demon Lee unconscious, I headed to Bakuda, holding several hundred people hostage. I managed to destroy the villain and all the members of the ABB in the district, but many of the hostages were caught in an explosion of time-slowing bombs. I think they can still be saved. It is enough to wait until the end of the effect of stopping time. That's the whole story. Maybe someone has questions? If possible, I will answer them.”

My little lie about saving the hostages could not be refuted. The area of freezing gradually poured darkness due to the inhibition of the movement of light. And the earliest it would be cancelled is no earlier than a thousand years

“What are you hiding under the mask? Who are you really?”

“I’m afraid that if I answer this question, I’ll have to kill you all. I can only say one thing: under this mask is a man for whom the concept of justice is not an empty phrase.”

“What about the people you killed? Killing them is a crime.”

“I didn’t kill people, but only animals that pretend to be people: drug addicts, drug dealers, bandits and other niggas.” With these words, a whole crowd of goosebumps ran down the back of Darkness. I just smiled, catching this emotion.

“Are you a nationalist?”

“No. I equally hate all people, regardless of the color of their skin.”

“Will you continue killing people?”

“Of course. The world is still full of all sorts of geeks who are unworthy of living on Earth.”

“And who decides whether a person is worth living or not?”

“What a stupid question. Of course I am. I am the law, the judge and the executioner. I am the Black Cloak!”

“Maybe you should take the name Black Executioner?”

“This is ... worth considering. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha.” I laughed the classic laugh of a mad villain.

“Why do you oppose drug dealers? People buy drugs themselves.”

I looked at the questioner.

“I see that you are a drug addict with experience. Heroin, ecstasy, marijuana, and all this for at least two years. Here is what I tell you before breaking to pieces” I pulled the drug-addict to me and showed the public. “Drugs destroy consciousness. Once injected, and you're no longer a man. For the sake of the dose, the addict is ready to sacrifice any interests of the people around him. Theft, robbery, extortion - these are typical ways to make money to buy drugs.”

“If you compare people with ants, the drugs do not kill the ants, but the anthill. Turn civilization into a crowd of brainless cattle. The fight against drug addiction and crime is a way to clean the society from the cancer that struck it. You do not protest against the removal of a cancer tumor on the lungs that among the cancer cells even if there are healthy innocent cells. If you do not do it immediately, the tumor will kill the whole body. I want to build a crime-free society at Brockton Bay. To do this, it is necessary somehow to get rid of a noticeable quarter of the population. So get ready. Honest people can live in peace, but it’s better to kill out any scum from the city right now.”

With these words, I revealingly dismembered a drug addict, despite the cries of his relatives. Some of the masks tried to stop me but only resulted in a twitch, because I held them by the balls via telekinesis.

“More questions?”

“You are not afraid of Protectorate’s revenge? You just killed one of their masks.”

“Let them come. Eye for eye, life for life. This fool attacked me and tried to kill me. I did the same. I did it, she does not. I will not make a fuss with the criminals who attack me, whatever positions they occupy in any kinds of organizations.

I looked around the hall and turned my attention to several helicopters circling near the building.

“Well, gentlemen. The time of our meeting has come to an end. I want to note that I came to this dinner to support the residents of the city. But I’m not going to donate money, which the bureaucrats will steal anyway. With the help of my strength, I will build houses for those who are homeless.”

“Mister Black Cloak, wait.” The governor of the city burst forth. “Can you save my niece? She was kidnapped ten days ago, and neither the police nor the PRT can find her tracks.”

“What is her name?”

“Dina Alcotte.”

“I'll see what I can do with it. Goodbye.”

With these words, I flew into the air, taking the Undersiders with me. They meekly accepted their fate, not even trying to resist.

“And what the fuck was that?” Bitch was indignant when we landed on the roof of one of the buildings at the docks.

“Your dogs could not jump to the next building?” I innocently asked.

“Not funny.” Regent interrupted, twisting his rod in his hands. “In your opinion, do you think they changed their mind when they’re close to touching the very earth and decided to reach the building’s roof?”

“Ha ha ha. That was a very funny joke.”

“Because of you, we almost got caught.” Grue was outraged, not particularly persistent. He understood that with my abilities I could kill them all without any effort. He was also the only Negro here, and therefore considered himself to be in particular danger. Eternally, these niggas seek to push out their own exclusiveness.

“Blame yourselves for this. There was nothing to stand with such in a pose as if you had just fallen from a skyscraper.”

“Okay, that's enough.” Intervened Tattletale. “Black Cloak decided to attend the event at the same time as we, and we should not blame him for that. Especially since you really stood still like idiots until we were filled with foam.”

“Do you protect him?” The Zerg Queen was surprised.

“He saved your life, you fool. Shut up and do not open your mouth at all, pisser.” Tattletale whispered in her ear. The lady of the flies from such a collision was embarrassed and tried to hide from us behind the dogs. I did not allow any insect closer than ten meters. And without them, the mask felt like a lost ant.

“Well, that was funny. But the next time choose a task that corresponds to the level of your abilities. For example, look for lost dogs, drive flies away in the afternoon nap, protect the same nap from the rays of the sun. I hope you are aware of my laws? Do not kill, do not steal, do not stab, and so on. In this city, you either observe my laws, or are torn apart in attempts to establish justice. Good luck.”

I soared into the air and disappeared into the darkness of the night. Grue also surrounded his team with darkness and hurried to his base.