Trainwreck and the new girl on Faultline’s team were facing off on the far side of this area.  Behind Trainwreck, I saw a section of wall toppling, spotted Faultline dashing through the obstruction as though it were barely there.

Hiya.

So wait, is she not able to just run straight through Labyrinth’s walls without cutting through them? Maybe I’m still not fully understanding Labyrinth’s power.

She ran up behind Trainwreck and slashed her fingertips across his heel as he was stepping forward.

Hey, Achilles! Nice work with the

As he set the foot down on the marble floor, his ankle shattered and his foot broke free of his calf.

heel!

He caught the ground with the stump of his mechanical leg, and she darted in close to cut through the knee of his other leg.

Trainwreck and Dragon might be some of the best people for Faultline to go up against.

He fell onto his back as she slipped between his legs, and she quickly turned to begin using her fingertips to cut down the wall, like a jungle explorer using a machete to hack through brush and vines.  The red-haired woman joined her.

Good job, Faultline.

Flechette smiled, “It is.  The brown haired guy at the computer told me you’d be around here.  Took me almost two hours to spot you, though I did get sidetracked by some kids taking clothing from a broken display window.  We’ll patrol?”

I suppose being transparent and wispy doesn’t exactly help with visibility.

“Sure,” Shadow Stalker agreed, lowering her eyes to her crossbows as she picked bolts out of one of the three cartridges mounted on her forearm and loaded them into her crossbows.  “You look like a rooftop type.  Fly?  Glide?  Grappling hook?”

I’m guessing one of those cartridges has the type of bolts she uses when she spots Grue.

“Grappling hook,” she patted her weapon, touched the chain that ran along her arm to the automatic-firing crossbow, her arbalest.

Sounds like the grappling hook is built into the weapon. Neat!

Grue raised his borrowed gun and his arm bucked with the kick.  Cricket was oblivious as the gun fired off several times in a row, but whatever she was doing with her power was screwing with Grue’s ability to aim.

Hm, interesting. I was assuming the effect on Taylor was a result of her getting disorienting inputs from the bugs, but if it affects Grue too, that’s evidently not the case.

I’m thinking this might be specifically some form of infrasound. Consciously inaudible sounds near the border between infrasound and audible frequencies have been connected to feelings of fear, unease, sorrow and anxiety, sleep disturbances and even optical illusions through resonance with the eyeballs (there’s a hypothesis that such sounds are responsible for many supposedly haunted locations). This kind of sound causing disorientation and nausea is not far-fetched.

None of the bullets struck home.  He stopped.  Either he was out of bullets, though it seemed too soon for that, or he wanted to conserve ammunition.

Yeah, might wanna save those for when your aim is getting better.

I climbed to my feet, feeling my side protesting in agony.  The blade hadn’t penetrated my costume, but the sides of my stomach weren’t armored and the cloth had done little to soften the jab of it, even if it had prevented me from being cut or disemboweled.  Cricket was bigger than me, stronger, and she knew how to use her weapons.  It had hurt.

ow