System Supervillain, Chapter 131

Chapter 131 – Rout

(London, England)

“Bloody hell,” Green Knight sighed, as Iceblade finished his declaration. Not that it stilled his blade, as he stabbed a warrior through the chest. There was still a fight going on, after all. They’d launched a general offensive on the shield zone, to give Iceblade his distraction. And here he was, less than twenty minutes later, basically promising death and destruction to their entire species, with the Emperor’s head on display!

“Hah!” The Knave laughed as he used his Punchline ability to send another warrior flying back, crashing into a brick wall. “You have to admit, the man has style. Given the way all these lot reacted when they saw that head, they obviously knew it was the real deal. He just shattered their world view, and their morale.” He pointed to where the other warriors, who had been holding their ground, making the supers work for every step, now looked as though they were breaking. “They’re already faltering.”

“Indeed,” Britannia nodded, as she floated down out of the air, surrounded in blue, white, and red light. A disintegrator beam targeted her, but her Union Jack shield deflected it away, striking another of the Gel-nak, and removing much of their torso. A blast from God Save the King, her specialized pistol, took the shooter’s head off. “As much as I hate to give a villain like him credit, his actions have essentially shattered the cohesion of the Gel-nak forces, at least here in London. We can only imagine what effect this will have on their wider empire.”

“Especially since Iceblade is not the type to make false claims,” Silver Cutlass laughed as she cut through another Warrior, but Green Knight noticed that she was projecting her voice, using her Silver Words ability to make her voice echo to everyone in the city, including the Gel-nak. “He and his girls really will go hunting every last Gel-nak on Earth, except for those who surrender. And I would bet a million pounds that he’ll be getting the super-science types to give at least one of those ships a big upgrade. Soon as he is able, he’ll go hunting. The Gel-nak Empire is dead; it just doesn’t know it yet.”

The rate of return fire slackened, slowed, and then stopped. Green Knight’s eyes widened as he saw one of the Leader Caste step out from under cover, weapons in their holsters, instead of aimed. The leader had a long scar running down from their right eye to half-way down their scaled snout. Green Knight could tell that it was an old wound, not recent. This lizard must be a veteran.

Bathresk’s Translator Activation roll, 15-: 3d6 = 10 (Success)

When they spoke, there was a momentary disconnect, as words that were in whatever tongue the creature was speaking were translated into English. Some application of the ‘Universal Translator’ ability in the System, no doubt. Either way, it was slightly discordant to hear the two voices speaking like that, but not enough that he couldn’t understand what was being said. Made sense, honestly. A translator that made you unable to understand the translation was not much use.

“I am Bathresk of House Ikoknix, Army Leader of the 189th Planetary Assault Legion, Third Class Noble of the Gel-nak Empire. I heard the reports of an attack on the Emperor’s command center on Thraxl Prime, and of the weather across the planet turning suddenly cold. Just before the portal to Thraxl Prime turned off, and the controls were reconfigured, locking our technicians out.”

The Leader paused, and then said, “This will likely have me stripped of my rank, and cast down as a slave, if I return to the Empire. However, if there is a warrior who can get into the middle of the invasion point, kill the Emperor, who was the strongest warrior of our species, and escape to use our own systems to boast of the deed? Truly, he must be the Rhuk of myth and legend reborn, and there is nothing I can do to stop him, should he come after me, and my people.”

Britannia nodded, and floated forward, until she was only a few feet from the leader. “And what is it that you want, Army Leader Bathresk?”

“I wish to discuss terms for the surrender of myself and my people, before the Rhuk comes.”

(Rio di Janeiro, Brazil)

Sibila was not a fighter, not really. Oh, she knew how to fight, sure. You didn’t grow up in the barrios without learning at least how to defend yourself, after all. But she’d never really enjoyed it. Fortunately, her powers of Foresight allowed her to see conflicts before they happened, and so she could be a step ahead. Unfortunately, she was unable to do much besides speak while she was looking ahead, blind and deaf to the world of the present, which would have been a major problem, if her foresight hadn’t covered the entire city.

For the past ten years, she’d been the presumptive leader of the Vindicadores, Rio di Janeiro’s resident super-team. She did not lead the team in the field, of course. That was Gato Roxo’s job, and it was something that the purple-furred werecat shifter took very seriously. However, everyone knew that if Sibila said to go somewhere, people went. More importantly, when she said to wait, they waited.

It wasn’t just the heroes, government forces, and civilians who listened to her, though. Even supervillains and common criminals listened to her warnings when she spoke about natural disasters, or how to avoid getting caught in collateral damage. Not just because her Foresight had good accuracy, even before the System, but because, when she gave general warnings, she did so evenly, without respect to wealth, class, or what side of the law you were on.

Even in the barrios, her name was respected. In the last ten years, there hadn’t been a single gang war. Skirmishes? Certainly. But an actual bloody war? Not one. The reason? Whenever someone did something that might start a war, Pesadelo, one of the vigilantes in the city, would show up, on her ‘suggestion’, and negotiate a resolution. Usually by having the cause of the trouble fight a duel against a chosen member of the ‘victim’ gang. Which usually meant that the troublemaker ended up dead. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it helped keep bad blood from building up, or for problems to become too big to keep a lid on.

She had been living in the future for the last three weeks, ever since the first message from the aliens. Using her authority as leader of the Vindicadores, she activated the Emergency Broadcast System, and began relaying what her Foresight revealed. Her directions caused Destruidora and Tiromortal, a heroine and villain who openly hated each other, to work together, and take down the destroyer that was covering the landing. The two had almost died doing it, but she’d told them that ahead of time, and what would happen if they didn’t do it. If she hadn’t had Misericórdia staged to run in just thirty seconds after the blast, the two would have been dead, instead of needing to get sixty percent of their bodies either replaced or regrown. But the destroyer had fallen, and the city had a chance.

More importantly, the two transports had diverted from their original landing site, near Gramacho, to Jacarepaguá. Just as she had foreseen. The Gramacho site would have left the invaders with easy access to most of the city. With the landing at Jacarepaguá, the mountains made a natural fence. Once they had been blocked off a few highways out of the area, they could pour most of their defenders into Praça Seca. Taquara, Freguesia, Barra da Tijuca, Recreio dos Bandeirantes, and Vargem Grande were all under threat, and Sibila lamented the horrific losses that were happening there, but the majority of the city was free from the Gel-nak.

With her moving people like pieces on the chessboard, Sibila had managed to make the Gel-nak bleed for every step they took in the city, despite having better armor and weapons, and a shield to keep out bombardments. The only time she wasn’t in the future were those few times she allowed herself to sleep. Even when she ate or took care of hygenic needs, she had an assistant help her, so that she could keep watching the future, and prevent the Gel-nak from building momentum. Thankfully, Mirela was used to such things, since she often acted the same during natural disasters, even if those usually didn’t keep her occupied for more than a few days.

But they were reaching the tipping point, she could feel it. She had ‘seen’ each of Iceblade’s announcements before they had happened. She saw what it was doing to the Gel-nak. The first message had shaken them. The second had stalled what would have been a major offensive, as they tried to reclaim the initiative. Each time, she’d had people positioned to take advantage of the disruption, without overextending her forces.

This time, though, was different. She took a breath, and said, “The Emperor’s death will cause the Gel-nak to splinter. Reinforce the Itanhgá cordon. They will attempt a breakthrough in five minutes. Vargem Grande and Vargem Pequena prepare to push south. The Gel-nak there will try to pull back to their ships at Jacarepaguá. Allow them to go, and focus on cutting off Recreio dos Bandeirantes, the Leader Caste there will rally the Gel-nak if he is allowed to get to their command center. Rio Grande cordon, you are about to have Gel-nak attempt to surrender. Accept it, and tell the captured lizards to broadcast on their frequencies that they are surrendering.”

She took a breath, and allowed her Foresight to adjust to the changes. That was the thing with Foresight. Some events were fixed, beyond her ability to alter, like the Gel-nak making landfall in the city. She could alter where they landed, however, and that would then change the future she saw accordingly. Just as it was doing now. And it was a good thing, too.

“All posts, all posts. More Gel-nak will begin surrendering or pulling back to the portals. Liberdade, Leader Caste will attempt to take control of Warriors near your position. Eliminate the Leader, and Freguesia forces will begin retreating, forcing the entire northern front to collapse. All forces, do not overextend! Failsafe devices are set on critical Gel-nak equipment on the ships. They will detonate as the last Gel-nak retreat through the portal or surrender. However, if they believe that they are being pushed or there is a risk of counter-invasion, they will detonate their ship reactors! If that happens, fallout will cover the city. Allow Gel-nak to surrender or retreat, and pursue slowly, if at all.”

She knew that the people would not agree with just letting the Gel-nak run off. However, when she looked ahead to see what would happen if they tried to get bloody vengeance, she saw only death and destruction. And the radiation would do… things to both the living and the dead. Mutations and undead would run rampant thanks to the fallout from the alien reactors. They would lose Rio. Most likely, Brasilia would be at risk, along with the rest of the country, but she couldn’t see that far, not past her own death, eaten alive by a zombified Mirela.

Sibila shuddered. It wasn’t the first time she had seen her own death, and how to survive it, and she was sure that it wouldn’t be the last. However, it never got any easier. Especially when it came at the hands of a trusted friend. A friend who would have been a lover, if she hadn’t seen how that would end, years ago.

That was the downside to her Foresight. While she was actively looking into the future, her sight was limited, to only ten or twenty minutes ahead. She had a second version, however, which offered premonitions of major events, but she couldn’t control it, and they were usually only within a day or two. That was why all planes were grounded at Galeão International Airport when the System came online, for instance. The third (and most problematic) version, though, would sometimes give her flashes of premonition related to her personal future, usually involving personal, professional, or even platonic relationships. The dark side of those premonitions, though, was that the closer someone was to her, the more likely they were to suffer some form of tragedy, or cause her to twist her powers to benefit them, ruining her.

One reason she was staying in the future so long was that it blocked out her other forms of Foresight. She’d been getting a recurring vision of late. Ever since the villain Iceblade had announced his Devastation group. That event shifted the tides of fate. Before, there were many would be suitors or lovers who showed up in her visions, only for her to see how badly things would end. Once she chose not to pursue the relationship, the vision would fade, and not return. For the last two years, however, Iceblade had haunted her visions, even when she swore that she would not go to him, but the visions repeated, suggesting that it was a fixed point, and she feared what that could mean.