Quirky Row Chapter 54: Out with the Old (Patreon)

Chapter 54: Out with the Old

(Wednesday, April 4th, 2124)

“Are you sure?” Playa asked intensely. “100% sure?”

That morning, his Inner Circle (plus Julius Little) had gathered in his office after Twenty-One had come to him with a grainy photo of Nomu-Lin that had appeared on an online occult forum board in the last 48 hours. The tag-line ‘Zombie-Lin!’ was circling among the folks who believed in the supernatural, and tracing the source of the image revealed it’d been taken near an Ultor-owned warehouse.

However, the kicker was that the person who’d taken the picture and uploaded it was none other than Dex’s secretary! The odds of the photo being a trap created by Dex’s shapeshifting secretary were high, but it was the only lead they had at the moment.

“Yeah, we double-checked everything,” Shaundi confirmed. “Don’t know why he’s doing this, but Dex pretty much put up a big neon sign saying ‘Here I am!’”

“What Shaundi said! It makes no sense!” Pierce declared.

“Dex is not careless like that. This was deliberate. He’s toying with us,” Playa growled. “Trying to lure us into a trap.”

“We know that he knows that we know,” Johnny said. “So, what’s the plan?”

Playa drummed his fingers on the table, sorting his thoughts, before finally saying, “We’re gonna be smart about this. Listen up, alright!”

Everyone leaned in curiously.

“Dex is baiting us into attacking the warehouse, which is one of Ultor’s. He assumes that doing so will result in Vogel trying to get back at us. But what Dex doesn’t know is that Vogel came to us about this, and, so long as we clean up quickly, Vogel won't retaliate against us."

“But Dex is expecting us to go after the warehouse,” Shaundi reminded Playa. “He probably won’t even be there by the time we arrive.”

“Exactly. If I know Dex, this will be a distraction,” Playa nodded. “First, we’ll make it look like we’ve mobilized the gang to take down Dex at the warehouse. We’ll ‘attack’ it, which will result in Dex triggering his trap. Odds are said trap will be an attempt at a decapitation strike, sending Nomu-Lin here to eliminate anyone still at the Mission. Including Shaundi and Mink.”

“Us? Why would he go after us?” Mink asked.

“Because we’re Playa’s girlfriends,” Shaundi said, snapping her fingers. “Dex wants to hurt Playa, and killing us would do that.”

“Dex is expecting me to confront him at the warehouse while keeping you girls safe here away from the fighting,” Playa said.

“Ah, I see. He baits you out and then uses the Nomu to kill the people you care about before you can return to rescue them,” Carlos guessed.

“Exactly. So, we let him think he’s won, when in reality, we set a trap for Nomu-Lin and whatever forces he sends after us,” Playa nodded.

“Not a bad idea,” Johnny said. “We’ll have to coordinate this carefully.”

He then folded his arms. “I volunteer to protect Shaundi and Mink for you.”

“I appreciate it,” Playa said, giving a grateful nod towards his friend. “Just don’t use any explosives.”

“Ugh, fine, but that takes the fun out of guard duty,” Johnny sighed.

“Now, let’s set up this up,” Playa said. “We don’t have much time to act, so let’s get to it!”

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A few hours later and the Saints had assembled, gathering into three large groups near the Docks. Team 1 was small and consisted of spotters and snipers who were camped out around the warehouse Dex had leaked Nomu-Lin’s location was at. Team 2 was the group who’d be assault the warehouse, and Team 3 would be keeping the police and heroes out of the way until they were done.

“Alright, ready to move in,” Jean-Paul informed Skunk over radio, and he nodded, pleased by that, before turning to his friends and lieutenants.

“This is it,” Skunk said, speaking the strike team he’d assembled, his voice distorted by his gas mask. “Dex has a bunch of hired guns – most bounty hunters but also Ultor mall cops – waiting for us, so try not to kill them if you can help it. Self-defense is fine, though. Just don’t make too much mess. We’re still working with Ultor, technically.”

“Got it,” Carlos nodded, and the rest of Team 2 showed off their weapons.

“Now, where the hell is Julius?” Skunk demanded, looking around. He didn’t see the former boss anywhere, even though he’d specifically asked for him to join in on the assault to make it seem like they hadn’t figured out Dex’s bait-and-switch scheme.

“He said he had something to take care of,” Defender replied, and the supervillain clenched his fists.

“If he’s betrayed us again…” Skunk growled, before huffing. “Whatever. It’s on his head in that case.”

He waved at the Saints around him. “Come on, everyone. Time to put Dex in his place.”

They did not charge in, guns blazing, but calmly walked through the district towards the building in question. The Saints in Team 1 had cleared out the place of civilians and dock workers and Team 3 was keeping anybody else from entering while they took care of business.

Upon reaching the entrance to the warehouse, Skunk walked up and knocked on the door.

“Do you have a minute to talk about our Lord and Savior, the Extended Car Warranty?” he joked. When nobody answered, he shrugged. “Suit yourselves. Defender?”

“On it!” the African-American gangster called out, and he approached the door while carrying a hand-held battering ram, like the kind SWAT used.

Channeling his Quirk through it, Defender slammed the ram into the door, and it gave way immediately, getting torn off its hinges and flying into the interior of the warehouse.

The villain quickly tossed the battering ram to the side and grabbed his riot shield, and not a moment too soon as a barrage of bullets came firing out from within.

Defender ignored the gunfire and pushed forward into the warehouse, the rest of the Saints in Team 2 using him as a mobile barricade while they wheeled in specially made man-portable mobile ballistic shields, again like what SWAT might use.

‘The Brotherhood and Ronin sure had some wild and almost certainly illegal to own goodies stashed away,’ Skunk mused. ‘Maybe if they’d used what they had, they might have been more of a challenge.’

Then, remembering that they were still in the middle of something, awkwardly cleared his throat.

“Attention, idiots!” Skunk called out. “I don’t know what Dex promised you, but it isn’t worth dying over! Throw down your weapons and surrender, or else I can’t be held accountable for what happens next!”

“You think we’ll listen to you?!” somebody shouted out from behind a mountain of crates as the shooting momentarily stopped. “We leave, then you’ll just rob the place!”

“That you think we’re here to rob a random warehouse is hilarious,” Skunk snorted. “No, we’re just here to bring Dex to justice. Nobody gets away with trying to off me!”

“I’m head of Ultor’s security division!” Dex’s voice called out.

“Yeah, about that,” Skunk drawled. “First off, you’re not Dex. You’re his slutty, shapeshifting secretary he uses to give himself alibis while he does his own shady shit. And secondly… well, you’re not part of Ultor, either.”

He pulled out a phone, and dialed in a number. It rang for a moment, but after a moment the voice of Dane Vogel called out with a curt “Make it quick.”

“I’ve got Dex cornered, just like you asked, Mr. Vogel,” Skunk said.

“Ah, good. Not as quick as I’d have liked, but still, well done,” the important Ultor executive said in a pleased tone, and everyone was able to hear his words thanks to phone being on speaker mode. “Now, just so there is no mistake… Dex, and everyone who works for Ultor and is inside that building right now? You’re fired.”

Dane hung up after that, and for a moment, dead silence filled the warehouse. Then, a very feminine, very angry, scream rang out and bullets began to ring out, and a moment later the rest of the people trapped in the warehouse decided to do the stupid thing and join in, shooting at the Saints.

The former Ultor employees likely thought they had nothing to lose with their jobs gone, and the bounty hunters didn’t really care in the first place, they just wanted to make money by turning in villains.

Skunk sighed and motioned towards them. “They made their decision, it seems. Move in and finish this.”

The Saints hurried in, and after a short scuffle managed to subdue the various people inside.

“You think you’ve won?!” Dex’s former secretary shouted, all but frothing at the mouth as she was dragged out in handcuffs to face the music. “Dex is already on his way over to the Mission to kill your whores!”

“Oh no, whatever shall I do?” Skunk drawled, before reaching up and removing his gas mask. “Good thing the real Skunk already knew what Dex was gonna do.”

The secretary gasped in disbelief as instead of Playa, it was actually Johnny Gat wearing the supervillain’s costume.

“No… no! You can’t be serious!” she screeched. “How did you know?!”

“Bitch, Playa and I worked with Dex five years ago. You think we wouldn’t know how that shithead thinks?” Johnny scoffed. “Enjoy time in prison.”

As she was dragged away to be handed over to the heroes as an accessory to terrorism, Johnny got his phone out of his pocket and dialed Playa.

“It’s done. Warehouse is cleaned out and Dex’s lady friend is in custody with the rest of the security goons and bounty hunters,” he informed his boss when he picked up.

“Great! Now get back here ASAP!” Playa shouted, and Johnny could here gunfire through the speaker. “Nomu-Lin brought a lot of friends!”

The call was abruptly cut off, and Johnny frowned. “Well, shit. Guess I better go take care of that next!”

Back at the Mission, Playa cursed loudly as his phone was shot out of his hand and he ducked down behind the pillar he was using as cover.

“Son of-! Do you assholes know how expensive that phone was?!” Playa shouted angrily at the mercenaries who’d busted down the door to his base alongside his mutated girlfriend.

And yes, they were actual mercenaries. A PMC called Staghorn or something. He hadn’t really been paying much attention to what Twenty-One had been yammering about, not while they’d been tearing up his base!

“Son of a bitch!” Playa swore as more bullets pounded against the pillar. “Has anyone seen that bastard Dex?!”

“Nope!” a Saint called back from the couch he was huddled behind.

“I haven’t seen Dex anywhere!” Mink replied from her own spot cowering under the bridge. “Twenty-One? Has he popped up on any cameras?”

“No, he’s not been spotted by any of the security cameras!” the monkey-tailed hacker shouted, though her voice came from the intercom. The non-combatants, namely the IT and accounting teams of the Third Street Saints, had barricaded themselves in the safe rooms.

Twenty-One was still coordinating the Saints from the security room, which had been a lifesaver. Without her, the mercenaries would have broken in and overwhelmed them when they first attacked.

“Ugh, fine! It’s clear he’s not here! Shaundi, toss some smoke!” Playa ordered. “We’re not putting up with this anymore!”

He’d wanted to lure out Dex, but since the bastard wasn’t even here they didn’t have to keep sandbagging.

“Gotcha!” the green-haired lieutenant said, chucking a pepper spray bomb over her defense. It exploded in the air, showering the PMC with irritants. Sadly, it didn’t do much damage, as most of the PMC had come prepared with gasmasks, the Saint’s reputation for gas-based attacks well known by this point, but it did cause them to get distracted for a moment as the spicy liquid gunked up their lenses, allowing Playa to spray a bunch of light blue mist into the group.

The mist he’d created contained a lot of various irritants that attacked the skin, forming rashes that immediately caused the attackers to get distracted.

“At least they didn’t come prepared for you, boss,” a Saint chuckled as he watched the Staghorn mercs scratch themselves silly.

“They sure didn’t,” Playa snorted, before lining up a headshot on one of the attackers. Unfortunately, the bullet missed as Nomu-Lin’s Vector Control Quirk redirected it into the ceiling.

“Shit, I forgot about her!” he grimaced. The Nomu’s skin was immune to the irritants and it didn’t seem like her eyes were affected by the pepper spray from earlier, either.

For most of the battle she’d just been sitting back and acting as a passive shield for the Staghorn’s grunts, causing him to forget her as he focused on the more active threats, but now, it was getting annoying.

‘She doesn’t have a sense of smell, either,’ Playa thought, recalling how the clone of his dead girlfriend hadn’t reacted to the cloud of stinking fumes earlier in the fight.

Nomu-Lin had only one weakest, and it was that her Vector Control was limited to controlling a certain number of objects at a time. No more than thirty, from what they’d seen so far. Overwhelming firepower could get through, but add in her Wink Quirk to cause the Saints to close their eyes at the wrong moment while shooting, and it allowed the black-skinned mutant to dodge what she could not redirect.

Several Saints tried to launch explosive at her, but Nomu-Lin simply knocked them far enough away that the blasts couldn’t reach her.

Nothing could hurt her, but at the same time, she wasn’t trying to hurt the Saints. It was a grinding battle of attrition, and Playa couldn’t help but wistfully believe that maybe, just maybe, the reason she wasn’t fighting was because a part of Lin still remained within her reanimated brain.

“Hey, Playa,” Shaundi spoke up, shaking him out of his thoughts.

“What is it?” he inquired.

“That exposed brain of hers… is it, like, protected by anything?” Shaundi wondered.

“I… huh, I don’t actually know,” Playa hummed, rubbing his chin. It was definitely an odd feature. Both Nomus he’d faced so far had had it, so it was clearly not just an aesthetic choice.

“Hmm. Want to try creating Loa Dust smoke?” Shaundi offered.

“You want me to get her high?” Playa asked.

“If she has nothing protecting the brain, then the drugs should hit her extra hard,” she pointed out.

“Good point,” the boss of the Saints muttered, and decided to try it out. If it worked, they basically won the fight. If they failed, well, so what? Not like anything else had done anything to her.

A few flashbangs were tossed at the mercenaries, which successfully disoriented them. And while they couldn’t see anything, Playa got a clear shot, and he pumped a ton of Loa Dust fumes towards the assailants, mainly focusing on Nomu-Lin.

The Loa Dust smoke soon caused the mutated reanimated corpse to sway, and Nomu-Lin’s eyes widened briefly before going crossed.

The armed mercenaries weren’t doing much better, as the concentrated drug-filled smoke caused several of them to drop their weapons. The ones whose masks were still on properly didn’t fair better, as the smokescreen blinded them.

There was a heavy thump as the Nomu collapsed, high as a kite, and there was a moment as the mercenaries wavered. Their protection was gone, and a barrage of gunfire broke their morale, causing them to flee. Well, some of them did. Others just stumbled around, completely high and unable to see or walk straight.

“Grab them,” Playa ordered. “I want them interrogated. Find out how Dex hired them, and strip ‘em of their gear. They’e going to pay for this, and we can pawn their stuff and ransom them back to whoever wants to pay.”

“Ruthless,” Shaundi said with a saucy grin. She then glanced down at Nomu-Lin, who was still and unmoving. “What about her?”

“…bind her limbs for now,” Playa said. “And stash her somewhere she can’t easily break out of.”

“So, a room without windows and sturdy walls. Gotcha!” the lieutenant said. She then patted him on the shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry, we’ll figure this out and get her fixed up!”

“Thanks, Shaundi,” Playa said, but he didn’t share her confidence.

‘But, then again, they somehow managed to bring Lin back to life somehow. Perhaps… perhaps there is a chance her mind can return, too,' Playa thought to himself. However, he refused to hope, as he wasn’t sure he could handle the heartbreak a second time.

His phone suddenly rang, and he snapped out of his daydreams to answer it.

“What is it, Johnny?” Playa asked.

“Hey, boss, have you seen Julius?”

“No. Why? Isn’t he with you?” Playa asked, even as a sinking feeling seeped into his soul.

“He didn’t show up for the fight at the warehouse,” Johnny replied.

“Find him!” Playa ordered sharply.

‘Damn it, Julius! What are you doing?!’ Playa wondered as he hung up on his second-in-command. ‘Don’t make me regret giving you a second chance!’

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Julius sipped at a lukewarm cup of coffee as he sat in the corner of a coffee shop within the Stilwater airport. It wasn’t that good, but it gave him something to do as he waited. He didn’t want to look out of place, after all. After a bit his waiting paid off, and the former leader of the Saints saw the man he’d come here for getting out of a taxi.

Dex had changed his hairstyle, deciding to shave himself completely. Add in a pair of mirrored shades and a Hawaiian t-shirt, he looked like a Frat-Bro influencer about to go on vacation. It was a clever disguise as nobody would imagine this was the (former) head of security for Ultor.

As Dex walked inside the airport Julius got up and downed a pill, washing it down with the dregs of his coffee before throwing the empty cup away in the trash. He walked towards the ex-Saint with determined steps.

“Leaving so soon, Dex?” Julius demanded. “Not even gonna stick around to watch the shitshow you created?”

 Dex flinched and spun around, eyes glowing as he activated his Quirk, before relaxing.

“No gun?” Dex asked, raising an eyebrow at his former boss. “No knife? Not even gonna try and punch me in the face?”

“This is the end of the line for us, Dex,” Julius said. “I don’t need anything like that.”

“Ugh, if you’re gonna preach at me, just kill me instead!” Dex groaned in disgust.

Julius glared, and then spat in Dex’s face, the blob hitting him dead on, and the terrorist wiped the spittle away from his eyes.

“Ugh, some got in my mouth!” he complained. “That’s nasty, old man!”

“Consider it payback for trying to shoot me in my own church,” Julius shot back. The former leader of the Third Street Saints then coughed wetly, covering his mouth with his hand.

“Sounds like you got a frog in your throat,” Dex said with a grimace. “I swear, if you get me sick before my flight I will be very upset.”

“You could have dodged if you wanted,” Julius shot back. “You and your damned Quirk.”

“I saw what you were gonna do, that’s true,” Dex huffed. “I just let ya get one last hit in. Not like you’d be able to do anything else.”

“A pity shot? How kind of you,” Julius drawled, before coughing into his hand with a grimace.

“Eh, it was the least I could do,” Dex said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have a flight to the Caribbean to catch.”

“You’re just going to run away after everything you’ve done?” Julius asked, before shaking his head. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything else from a rat like you.”

“Hey, you’re the guy who brought me onboard into the Saints in the first place,” Dex pointed out.

“True. It seems I have a habit of trusting the people I shouldn’t,” Julius sighed. “First Troy, then you. And here I thought I had a good sense for detecting who was the right sort. At least my last choice proved to have been the correct one, even if you tried to mislead me about Playa at the end.”

Julius suddenly coughed violently, and blood burst from his lips.

“What the fuck?!” Dex exclaimed, stepping back in horror.

“I knew you’d skip town as soon as you could, and I also knew your Quirk would protect you from any assassination attempts. Hence why I had get creative,” Julius declared as he wiped the red liquid from his lips.

“You-! Poison?!” Dex exclaimed, only for a cough of his own to escape. He started hacking and wheezing before doubling over and vomiting up a worrying amount of blood. People began screaming as they saw the two men expelling their innards, some running off.

“I told you, Dex. This is the end of the line for both of us,” Julius laughed before joining Dex in spilling his guts onto the airport floor.

“H-how?” Dex gasped out.

“I swallowed a pill filled with a nasty little fast-acting, Quirk-based toxin before I came up to you. Used my own Quirk to conceptually ‘shrink’ the damage it was doing to me in order to buy time. By the time I got to you, my sweat and spit was laced with the stuff,” Julius replied as he slumped to his knees.

“You killed yourself just to take me down?!” Dex gasped out in disbelief before his own legs lost strength and he collapsed.

“Yes,” Julius said weakly, coughing a bit more. “I leave everything in Playa’s hands, now.”

He then fell over, his breathing slowing down. Dex tried to crawl away, but the poison in his veins was making it hard to move. His skin and muscles burned in agony and his vision was fading. Why had Julius been willing to go so far?!

“It was… it was just business!” Dex gurgled out as the toxin ate away at his brain. “It wasn’t… personal…”

Dex couldn’t speak another word as his throat constricted, and his vision started to blur. He died a moment later next to the man he’d betrayed, blood leaking from every orifice.

When the police finally arrived, they isolated the scene of the crime and shut down the airport. A little bit later, and Troy was in the morgue, looking down at the men he’d once called friends.

“What the hell were you thinking, Julius?” the Chief of Police couldn’t help but mutter under his breath. “Why’d you go after Dex?”

He didn’t know. He likely would never know. The security cameras at the airport hadn’t shown much, and Ultor hadn’t said a word, but looking into it, Dex had been terminated from his position earlier that morning.

Had the former security guard been let go because the Ultor Board of Directors were worried about the ex-Saint passing secrets to Playa? Or had there been some sort of difference in opinions and Dex simply left?

Then there was the fact that Julius had been alive and well until a few hours ago. Troy hadn’t known this! Where had he been the past five years?

‘There was a noise complaint over by the Docks earlier. And the Saints were out in force as well. Is there a connection?’ Troy wondered.

There was also that ridiculous ‘Zombie-Lin’ thing circulating on the internet. People had claimed to see former Third Street Saint lieutenant Lin Hong walking around, complete with ‘proof’ in the form of poor quality photos and videos.

Troy was disgusted by this. Using a dead woman for social clout? If he could, he would arrest the people making this hoax!

‘I actually liked Lin,’ he thought to himself. ‘She didn’t deserve what happened to her.’

But that was the third thing related to the Saints happening recently, and Troy was frustrated. He hated being on the back foot, and the Mayor was constantly breathing down his neck demanding results. It was frustrating not knowing what was going on, and he had a feeling Playa was behind everything somehow.

‘It’s always him,’ Troy grumbled as he walked out of the morgue. ‘Somehow, the bastard is always behind everything!’

Just when he’d thought things were starting to calm down, and Stilwater started to get hot again. Was it too much to ask for some peace and quiet?

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“The Saints never fail to deliver,” Dane Vogel hummed, watching the news. Dex was dead and so was Julius, a nuisance he hadn’t even known was still active. They’d offed each other, and the shit the former head of security was responsible for was currently being swept under the rug.

Dex’s minions in the office were being taken care of, and evidence ‘disappeared’ off the face of the Earth.

‘And not a single drop of backlash has landed on Ultor,’ Vogel thought to himself, pleased. ‘If anything, we’re getting a lot of sympathy for having ‘one of our own’ killed. I’ll tell PR to milk this for all its worth. Might be able to get a month’s worth of good will out it.’

“So, you’ve got everything you wanted. Now what?” his current Masako bodyguard inquired. It was the guy in the dragon-helmet, Ryu-something.

“Wondering when you’ll be let go?” he asked.

“You still have us for a few more months,” Ryu reminded Vogel. “Though personally I don’t mind this cushy job. Getting paid to guard you is a lot better than getting shot at by a warlord in Africa or the cartels in South America.”

“I suppose so,” Vogel said, conceding the point. “There’s just one more thing I need from you guys. And once that’s over, you’ll have earned your paycheck.”

Ryu nodded. Whatever the ambitious man wanted, it couldn’t be worse than the time they’d had to hunt down Anti-Quirk extremists in the Middle East.