"Operator?" Ordis's voice buzzed through the ship's systems. "Are you alright? Your vitals spiked during that transference trance."
"It was a family reunion," the Operator replied with a smile. "To make a long story short, the Lotus is aware of our situation and is currently working on a way to track and retrieve us."
"This is great news Operator. Ordis is glad we'll be back home in no time!"
There were a series of gentle knocks on the pod, and already knowing who it was, the Operator mentally commanded it to open. With a soft mechanical hiss, the transference pod unfurled and revealed Umbra standing directly in front of him.
"You heard all that?" the Operator asked.
Umbra tilted his head slightly and gave a slow nod.
The Operator nodded. "Good, I..."
The door to the transference chamber slid open with a whoosh. Umbra instantly turned around, Ignis Wraith in hand and ready to blast the intruder, only to find out it was Ordis.
The cephalon had decided to show up in his Sentinel form and knowing Ordis, the Tenno guessed he had probably decided to use this body to not feel left out.
As Umbra lowered his guard and holstered his weapon, Ordis floated closer and chirped out. "Operator, Ordis is happy to inform you that the Liset is cloaked once more in that forest. Exactly as requested."
"Good work, Ordis." The Operator swung his legs off the pod and stood up, stretching slightly. "Now… we need to figure out our next move."
Umbra tilted his head again, confused. The Operator could tell the former Dax had probably expected the plan to be going into stasis until rescue. Ordis, while more informed, would also be confused since the cephalon wasn't with the Tenno when he was talking to the Drifter.
So the Operator gave a summary of everything that had happened after departing with the Liset and then spoke about what he experienced when the Drifter contacted him. He could've instantly passed on his knowledge through Transference, but staying linked to Ivara helped him stay alert to any changes back on Earth.
"And that's basically everything that's happened so far," the Operator closed out. "Thats why our goal now is to get in good with the PRT so we can access Professor Haywire's portal tech—either to build our own way home or pass the blueprints to the Lotus to help with her end."
Ordis hovered closer in his sentinel form, optics glowing gently. "How do we intend to accomplish this, Operator?" he asked, his metallic voice tinged with caution. "From my initial and still ongoing analysis of the PRT and Protectorate, individuals of our… particular background would not be met with open arms."
The Operator turned to him, face shifting from casual to serious. "Explain."
Ordis tilted in place, doing his best imitation of a nod. "This world's government fears interdimensional contact to a degree that unauthorized portals to other worlds are a criminal offense. In the most extreme case, our presence could be seen as a precursor to an invasion."
The Operator frowned..
"And that's not the worst of it," Ordis continued. "As you know, the North American continent has suffered greatly at the hands of 'biotinkers'—a label that, by their standards, would apply to us. Bonesaw, Nilbog, and their atrocities have poisoned the public's perception of biotechnology. Even if we present ourselves as benevolent, our reliance on the Infestation, even in the form of warframes, would be nearly impossible to justify."
The Operator folded his arms. "We could try to pass the warframes off as power armor… or parahuman mutants. I remember there being mentions of people mutated by their powers, case fifty-three's I believe."
Ordis shook his body in the negative. "Unlikely to hold in the long term. With the arsenal compromised, there is no telling when we'll be forced to use one of the dozens of Infested weaponry or even Nidus. Their mere existence violates multiple parahuman and international biosecurity laws and that is without acknowledging that they are weapons of mass destruction. Additionally, since perception matters much more here than in the origin system, operating as we usually do by permanently eliminating enemies is also ill advised unless the target has been issued a kill order."
The operator groaned in annoyance, voice heavy with disbelief.
"These rules are starting to get annoying," the Operator said dryly. "What's next—'don't shoot unless shot at'?"
The silence that followed was deafening. Even Umbra turned to stare at Ordis.
"It's not a strict rule for law enforcement or parahumans," Ordis said carefully. "But… it's likely a guideline we'll need to follow if we want to build a positive public reputation."
The Tenno sighed, but didn't argue. He wasn't thrilled about fighting with one hand tied behind his back, no lethality eliminated many, if not all of his weapons, as options when dealing with those who don't possess a kill order but it wasn't a deal breaker for him.
"Fine. We play nice. Kid gloves on. The real question is how do I approach them. I could walk through the front door and pretend to be a parahuman with my real body, but I doubt that'll hold up if any of their thinkers can tell if I'm not one of them."
Umbra began gesturing with growing energy, drawing the Operator's attention while Ordis hovered nearby, clearly trying to puzzle out what the warframe was trying to say, but the Tenno caught on immediately.
"Let them come to us, huh?" he said, nodding. "Not a bad idea. If we build up a solid reputation on our own, when the PRT inevitably comes to recruit, we can talk from a position of strength—as respected public figures instead of unknown threats. That way, even if they find out the truth, they won't have any logical reason to assume we mean harm."
It was an idealistic strategy, admittedly. Even if they acted with pure intentions, there would always be people in power willing to spin it into a threat—either out of fear, selfishness, or sheer paranoia. But it was still a better plan than flying the Liset to PRT HQ, announcing that he was an immortal teenage warrior, and asking for help opening a giant portal to his universe full of solar system-spanning, war-happy factions and threats.
"A wonderful plan, Umbra," Ordis said, complimenting the former Dax before turning to his Operator. "Is this to be our next move?"
"Yeah. And we already have a strong card to play," the Tenno said, a broad grin on his face. "We gave the Simurgh a hell of a beating and she's one of the most feared threats on this planet. All we have to do is flash the Liset and Ivara in a public broadcast and we can claim credit for it."
Umbra nodded sharply. Ordis bobbed in approval.
"But," the Operator added, tone cooling, "since we didn't finish the job, I think a definitive win over an S-class threat would make an even stronger impression."
He turned to the hovering Sentinel.
"You're still tracking the Slaughterhouse Nine, right?"
It wasn't even ten minutes later that the Liset was flying low across the treetops and powerlines, invisible and inaudible. Ordis kept her steady, broadcasting a high-priority, miles-wide emergency alert that hijacked car radios and cell signals alike—an escalating voice pretending to be the PRT and warning of dangerous parahumans in the area.
"Hopefully they won't be too mad," Ordis idly spoke while keeping the broadcast on repeat, making sure to keep any of it from reaching the RV housing the nine. "After all, we're about to save quite a few lives. Now if only this JACKASS WOULD GET OFF THE ROAD!"
The Operator hunched forward in Ivara Prime, her jellyfish-like veil waving gently as she watched with irritation as a nondescript civilian van trailed awkwardly behind the nine. Ordis had pinged it with a hundred warnings, but the driver never budged. Probably deaf or too stupid to listen. Regardless, the Tenno couldn't start until that civilian was out of the way.
"Guess I'll have to give him a nap," the Operator muttered in annoyance. One armored hand reached out to the air and grasped, the Artemis Bow materializing in hand as if it was always there. "I've waited long enough for him to move.
Ivara got out of the lotus position, stood, and turned to face the rear ramp coming face to face with Rhino Prime, Trinity Prime, and Excalibur Prime wearing Umbra's visage. All three frames were waiting in patient silence while either leaning casually against walls or seated like armored kings on the shop and codex terminals. Each one looked like the real deal but they weren't, just one of his many and now limited specters. A clone of a real warframe with all their abilities.
These ones also didn't have weapons. It seemed that whatever effect the Man In The Wall put on his arsenal also robbed them of their preset weapons. It was annoying but expected. It wasn't like they needed weapons to do this job anyways.
All this power to take out a couple of murderers drunk on power felt unnecessary to the Operator but Ordis and Umbra had advised before coming here that while being known as a singular powerful being would work fine, appearing as a powerful group would be exponentially better in the long run. Especially if his brothers and sisters were to make an appearance in the future.
"You three ready?" He asked with internal comms.
The Specters didn't speak, just nodded.
"Good, remember, try to keep the bodies intact, and Jack and Bonesaw alive," Ivara commanded as she drew her bow and knocked a sleep arrow while the ramp opened. Wind rushed in, the sight of the highway barely visible before she loosed the arrow.
It flew fast and course corrected automatically to hit its target. The van jerked once as the arrow hit its hood, then coasted to a gentle stop. The driver was slumped over the wheel. There wasn't a need to worry about the civilian sleep-driving into an accident because the car was also asleep.
The nine's RV almost immediately started driving faster for some reason, ditching the highway to go off road and into the woods. Ordis had no problem following them over the dense forest but this wasn't part of the plan. Had the civilian been a secret member or informant of the nine? If so, why didn't he warn them before Ordis had gotten everyone to evacuate the area? It didn't matter either way right now, he was out of commission.
"Operator, we still haven't located Crawler, do you still wish to proceed?" Ordis asked
"Yes, we'll hunt him down later if he doesn't come out soon. Got the recording going?"
"Yes operator."
"Good. Try to get our good side."
The Operator didn't waste anymore time talking, he dropped from the Lisets ramp with the specters, cloaking immediately. They hit the tree line running—silent, deadly and synchronized. Ivara led the pack in the chase, following the dirt trail of the murderers vehicle until they were right on them.
Rhino launched himself into a bullet jump from Ivara's right flank, arcing over the vehicle, and crashing down in front of the Nine's RV with earth shattering force. A concussive wave expanded out from the impact site, smashing into the van and sending it crashing and rolling into the trees.
Normally, this is where the Operator would have put the entire crew of murderers to sleep and then committed them to the void, via the Artemis Bow. But instead, the Operator took to the trees to observe how well the specters would perform against powerful parahumans while also trying to follow his command.
Surprisingly, the RV was intact. Helios, cloaked with Ivara, scanned it, and revealed it was layered with the same alloy they found on the moonbase. An interesting piece of information but irrelevant right now.
The first of the nine to come out the wreck was Hatchet face, the bald and maimed man punched the RV door right off the hinges and sent it flying as he jumped out roaring. Excalibur's hands joined together and pulled apart to reveal his Exalted Blade. Rhino charged past him, bashed the door aside, and met Hatchet Faces' charge.
The killer swung his namesake right at the Warframe specter but it didn't move to defend itself. His hatchet met warframe shields and the shield won effortlessly, rebounding the weapon and leaving its wielder open for attack. Rhino showed no mercy in his retaliatory strike, roaring right as it swung its armored fist into Hatchet Face's chest. The force of which caused him to explode in a shower of blood.
"I said keep the bodies intact," the Tenno chastised the specter through internal comms. "No more using Roar, just stay on defense until Crawler or Siberian show up."
Mere moments after Hatchet Face's death, the vehicles glass exploded outward. Shatterbird mid-song, levitated out the door on wings of glass and sent a shower of it towards Rhino, Trinity, and Excalibur. Rhino alone stood to withstand the onslaught as Trinity and Excalibur, broke right and left respectively to flank the woman as the rest of the Nine spilled out the RV like rats from a burning nest.
Jack Slash, Bonesaw, and Mannequin, each exploded into action the moment they could see their enemies.
Jack, already with a blade in hand, sent invisible slashes toward Excalibur, bypassing shields to carve futilely at warframe armor. Bonesaw's petite form stood under the floating Shatterbird, flinging powders and chemicals from her blood-soaked apron at Rhino instead of running off like Jack to fight. Mannequin, white, armoured and faceless, crawled out the front window of the RV like a roach before flipping onto his legs and blitzing toward Trinity with eerie silence, scalpel-like digits gleaming in the sunlight as he raised to swing at her. She dodged the first swing with a backstep and three follow up ones before grabbing Mannequin's arm and throwing him with a full body twist deep into the forest before following him out of sight.
The only member who wasn't given a chance to even attack was Burnscar.
The Operators Lex Prime barked once and the young woman, midway out the wreck, had a high-caliber round punch a gaping hole through her chest. She gasped once, flames flickering on her fingertips, but collapsed backward into the RV with a gurgle before she could ignite anything and start a forest fire.
Jack twisted in alarm, gaze snapping toward the parts of the tree tops Ivara had fired from just as Excalibur Prime surged forward to take advantage of his momentary distraction. He crossed the gap in an instant and Jack barely raised his arm before the Exalted Blade carved it clean off. The second swing came just as fast, reducing his other arm to a stump. He screamed as he fell on his ass, arms waving wildly as blood poured in wide arcs.
Distracted by the scream of their leader, Bonesaw and Shatterbird turned to see Excalibur raising his sword to do what looked like an execution strike. With a shriek of fury, Shatterbird raised her hand and commanded all her glass that wasn't supporting her flight to attack Excalibur. Bonesaw also leveled her arm at it, the skin moving in weird ways.
They never got the chance to attack, a radiant light flashed from the void powered energy sword, blinding both girls and Jack.
With Excalibur securing Jack for later interrogation, Trinity fighting Mannequin, and Rhino instructed to play defense, the Operator decided that he'd take matters into his own hands again.
A second Lex Prime round put a hole in Shatterbirds chest, narrowly missing her spine but causing her flight to falter. A third shot rang out to finish the job, puncturing through her throat mid-gurgle and beheading her, silencing the monster once and for all. The glass wave meant to save their leader and Shatterbird's wings broke apart harmlessly in the air and she crashed to the forest floor, her body jerking in spasms one more time before going completely still.
With nothing left to attack him, Rhino let Iron Skin activate. His overguard armour gleaming like Orokin Gold as he began his walk towards Bonesaw who was screaming and clawing at her eyes with manic desperation. She had tripped on some of the larger shards of glass after being blinded by Excalibur and that landed her in a crumpled heap near Shatterbird's corpse.
With that done, he began wondering when Trinity would be…
A white blur came tearing out of the treeline, it hit the RV hard enough to cave in the engine block and nearly flip the wreckage over again. Both Rhino and the Operator twitched, weapons and fist ready, expecting the Siberian. But as the dust settled and the form became clear, it wasn't her.
It was Mannequin.
His ceramic armour was caved inward, a perfectly shaped Warframe fist indented in the center. Fractures spidered outward from the point of impact like shattered ice. Brain matter and oil-black blood leaked from cracks in his chassis.
He was dead.
Trinity fell from the treeline in a graceful crouch nearby, stood, and walked close to Rhino as she flicked blood off her knuckles.
Jack Slash, still blind and bleeding, stopped screaming in pain for a moment and shouted. "CRAWLER!"
It took a while to sense if the man turned monster would respond but the Operator felt it through Ivara's heightened senses when it did. Something moving fast and with a tremor that was subtle before quickly rising like a drumbeat of a marching band.
Crawler exploded into the clearing in a wave of limbs, mutated muscle and glistening tentacles. The Operator's first thought was Phorid. A special kind of infested unit that popped up on different planets every now and again, but even that thing didn't look nearly as mutated as Crawler did.
"KILL ME! BREAK ME! MAKE ME STRONGER!" he roared, voice filled with madness and excitement.
Excalibur was standing with his blade at Jack's throat, but Crawler didn't even register him. His eyes—and every other grotesque sensory organ—were fixed on the biggest and shiniest of the specters. Rhino.
He didn't waste time with more talking, just charged. The collision between the two was titanic but Rhino barely moved, already dug in before he caught the attack. In retaliation he brought both arms up in a hammering strike that crashed down like a meteor, slamming Crawler into the dirt with a shockwave that rippled out and stripped nearby trees of their branches and sent flesh, bone, and ichor flying in every direction.
But Crawler just howled in delight as his body began regenerating.
"YES! MORE!"
His ruined body surged. Twisting, bloating, and reinforcing itself with stronger muscles and armour plating. But Crawler didn't stop moving even in his broken state and bit down on Rhino's leg, raising the warframe into the air and slamming it down like a club over and over.
Rhino's Iron Skin held and the retaliatory kick shattered Crawler's jaw in a burst of gore and teeth that forced him to leg go. Landing on his feet, Rhino charged into Crawler and sent both tumbling. Crawler laughed in joy as he and Rhino began grappling, trading haymakers and slams as dirt exploded and tree trunks split with every blow as they fought.
Trinity raised a hand, ready to support Rhino with an ability but the Operator stopped her with a mental command. He was confident Rhino could win on his own. He also wanted to see just how powerful Crawler's adaptation was in comparison to a Sentient so that if he ever encountered a similar ability, he would know what to expect. Once enough data was gathered he'd incinerate Crawler with his Burstron Prime Incarnon form to make sure there would be nothing to come back from.
Instead, he directed Trinity toward Bonesaw, who was trying to crawl away during the chaos. She was smearing something from her belt over her eyes—milky tinkertech gel. It worked quickly and within seconds, her eyes regained the light they once had. And when Trinity reached her, Bonesaw lashed out.
Needles extended from her fingertips like claws, jabbing at the Warframe's arm but they bent uselessly against her shields.
Uncaring of the fact Bonesaw wore the visage of a little girl or that the attack hadn't worked, Trinity reared back and delivered a single, brutal punch to the girl's temple. A crack like a gunshot echoed out on impact and she slumped to the floor.
With things seemingly coming to a close, the Operator uncloaked Ivara and dropped from the tree's right next to Excalibur, purposely letting the landing make noise to alert the now former leader of the Nine to another presence.
Helios, recognizing it wasn't needed, immediately parted with her to continue to scan Crawlers adaptations.
Jack Slash twitched but despite being blind and drenched in his own blood, he wore that same charismatic smile.
"Trinity," A voice that wasn't the Operator's own came out of Ivara. It was a calm, soft, and feminine voice that used to belong to the woman that Ivara was before being turned into a warframe by Ballas. "Make sure our captive doesn't bleed out."
Trinity obeyed, dragging Bonesaw through the forest floor and glass without a care, her limp frame bumping and snagging against roots and stones. She stopped beside Jack and dropped the girl's body unceremoniously. Then, with a glowing hand, sent a pulse of healing energy into his torso. It was just enough to stabilize the killer.
Jack chuckled hoarsely, teeth stained pink. "Some bedside manners you have. Not even going to heal my eyes so I can see the leader of this strange team who so soundly defeated me?"
The Operator knelt before him, unmoved by the attempt at conversation and began asking questions
"You've been active for years," Ivara said, her voice carrying all the warmth of the vacuum of space. "A low-level S-class threat. Not Endbringer tier, but still a more immediate danger than someone like Nilbog and even the machine army. And yet, the Nine stay alive, murdering at will. How?"
Jack sat up straighter, blind eyes blinking against nothing as he turned toward Ivara's voice.
"Trade secret," he whispered mirthfully. "But I'll bite, since you asked so nicely."
He coughed a wet, rattling, rasp before continuing.
"It's not that we're strong. Well, we are, but parahuman ability isn't our main strength. We—or rather, I—just know where to cut. We make a hero disappear? Sidekicks scatter. Announce ourselves by having Shatterbird maim a city? Panic spreads everywhere. All while spreading fear and recruiting from where we decimate. That's how we've thrived throughout the years. There's an art to it you know. One that only I mastered."
"Is that what you call your terror campaign? Art?" Ivara asked coldly.
"Yes. And with each member of my merry band and every atrocity we committed, it made a new splash on the canvas of the world and changed history," he said as the edges of his mouth curled into a sinister smirk. "The infamous Siberian, who killed Hero and scarred the Brute of Brutes, Alexandria. The immortal, ever-evolving Crawler. Bonesaw, our little plague maker. Shatterbird, our herald. Hatchet Face, the Brute-killer. Grey Boy and many, many more. And then there's me, Jack Slash, the one who brought out their full potential and carved our names into history."
The Operator watched him ramble. He was already done with this lunatic. He'd heard enough speeches about murder as art from that Orokin bastard Nihil. And all he was really getting from this was that Jack Slash had no real idea how he'd survived this long.
While Scion and the Endbringers were perhaps the only powers in this world that could match a Tenno, there was no reason a group of parahumans—or even heavily armed unpowered humans—couldn't have done what he just did to the Nine, if enough of them made a concerted effort.
In the Origin System, vengeance burned brighter than Sol itself. It united enemies, ended empires, and culled bloodlines. And humans here, despite the difference in time period and even universes, should be of similar temperament. Endbringer Truces existed after all. So a group like the Nine who only used fear tactics and terror campaigns, with none of the absolute power of someone like Scion, shouldn't have been thriving for decades, let alone a year, without someone or something protecting them from behind the scenes. Or maybe, humanity here was just more willing to tolerate evil than fight it.
Either way, it was time to end this.
"And the Siberian?" the Operator asked flatly. "Where is she?"
Jack's smirk faltered for the first time. "She popped."
"Popped?"
"Gone," he said, gesturing vaguely with both stumps. "At first I thought it was some sort of teleporter… then I thought it was you people. But you clearly don't know either."
The Operator stared silently, as if Ivara's main optic could peel the answers from his brain. But there was nothing more to glean. Jack didn't know anything. That was all there was to it.
So without another word, Ivara pulled the Lex Prime from her hip.
Jack heard the weapon draw but he didn't flinch.
He just smiled.
And then Ivara fired.
The bullet tore through Jack Slash's skull. The back of his head exploded against the forest floor, blood misting the air behind him.
Jack's body slumped sideways, the madman's twisted smile still frozen on his face, even in death. The Operator thought a quick death was too good for the likes of him, but torturing someone for satisfaction was beneath him.
Bonesaw stirred at the sound of the gun, quickly picking herself up and looking around. But instead of seeing a great stand between her allies and the warframes. It was only their bodies and her enemies surrounding her. Then she saw him, her mentor and kidnapper. Dead.
"Jack…?" she croaked. Her voice cracked as if breaking from a long, deep sleep. "No… no no no!" She scrambled across the dirt on all fours. "Jack! JACK!"
Trinity made to restrain her again, but Ivara held up a hand. The Operator wanted her to see this and process it properly. Trinity obeyed, and the little girl collapsed beside the body. Her sobs were high, childlike.
Bonesaw hands touched his ruined skull. She didn't recoil from the gore at all. Just shook and sobbed.
"I-I can fix you! Bring you back," she said desperately. "I just need my lab and tools!"
Ivara knelt beside her right as she started gathering as much of Jack's remaining gray matter in a pile. Then slowly and gently, reached out and pulled Bonesaw into an embrace.
The child killer stiffened immediately in fear, but instead of being executed like the rest of her murderous family, she was just held tightly but gently.
"I'm sorry," Ivara said softly, voice filled with pity for the girl despite everything she had done. "I wish I could've reached you before he turned you into… this."
For a moment, it seemed like Bonesaw had relaxed in that hug. Then her body tensed, and she screeched with fury.
"Don't touch me, you jelly fish face bitch!" she howled, flailing in the Operator's arms. "You think I care!? That I want your pity!? I made art out of hundreds of wannabe heroes! Wrote music with the screams of all the people I tortured. I broke better people than you for fun!"
She twisted and screamed. But couldn't break the hold.
"You think this hug matters? You think I'm sad?! I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you! I'll tear you apart and stitch you together with your friends!"
The Operator didn't flinch at the outburst. Didn't loosen the hug. Didn't move.
He just whispered.
"Then I hope that what I'll do next will offer the girl you once were some sliver of peace."
Bonesaw's body began to shimmer a deep orange in Ivara's arms, glowing from the inside out. The little girl took a while to notice because of her struggling, but when she did, she momentarily stopped trying to escape.
"What… what are you doing to me?!" Her high pitched voice demanded.
No answer was given but she had figured out quickly from the pain assaulting her that it wasn't good. Bonesaw howled as orange particles streamed off her into Ivara's palm as she began disintegrating on a molecular level.
She immediately activated every defense—needles, blades, injectors, stomach acid. None worked.
"LET GO! LET GO!!" she screamed as the glow intensified. "I SAID LET ME GOOOO!"
With no other hope left, she went berserk. Pain turned off as she clawed, punched, bit and roared like a cornered animal against the inevitable as her body came apart atom by atom until there was nothing left.
And just like that one more member of the nine was gone.
The Operator stood slowly as Ordis' voice crackled over the comms.
"Excelent work Operator, Ordis is here to inform you that local Parahuman law enforcement and PRT strike units are now aware of the fight and are heading your way. ETA, five minutes."
The Operator nodded, then turned to the clone of Umbra.
"Excalibur," The Warframe nodded its helm in acknowledgment. "Help Rhino finish off Crawler. Make it quick. I want him dead by the time the PRT gets here."
"And what about you, Operator?" Ordis asked.
The Tenno turned his head toward the highway.
"I'm going to visit our little civilian friend," he said. "Recent evidence points to him not being so civilian after all. Trinity, stay here and make sure nothing happens to the bodies or that one of them doesn't resurrect and leave."
Ivara stepped away from the clearing right as Excalibur bullet jumped deeper into the forest, towards the source of laughter and tremors. Soon, she broke off into a sprint before bullet jumping away, leaving Trinity behind.
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A/N: Sorry for the delay on this. I was struggling to write the fight with the nine properly and this is all I could do without delaying it another week. I hope you enjoyed it and I'll be returning to my normal upload schedule… Probably.