He’d need help from elsewhere.

Ooh, who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters?

He wasn’t going to accept this.  They’d insulted him, hurt his people.  They wanted to subvert his mission and twist it to their own ends?  No.

And this is why you don’t hire people in this fashion.

If they don’t come of their own free will they’ll find a way to make you regret it.

His face twisted into a scowl as he looked over the glass-strewn street, and at Cricket’s prone form.  He’d told Shatterbird he’d kill her sometime in the future, had hopefully led her to expect something further down the line. 

No, he would go through the motions of their ‘test’, even join them for the short-term.  But he’d kill them sooner than later.  Before they left the city.

Niice. Good luck with that, though. Probably won’t be easy.

Especially Jack. Jack’s not going down, I’m 99% sure of that.

He looked at his people, saw Othala hurrying over to Cricket’s side to grant the young woman regenerating abilities.  Rune was hurt, the right side of her face torn up, healed only enough to close the cuts and stop the worst of the bleeding.  Probably Othala.  Everyone else was injured to some degree, many gravely.

Oh hi, guys.

Yeeeeeah. Shatterbird really didn’t care who she hurt as long as it got you on the team, it seems like.

Or rather, she cared about it as a matter of effectiveness.

“But I won’t forget what you’ve already done.  If you survive, I will wait for the right time and place, and I will kill you.  One day.”

Yeeah, ain’t gonna come completely quietly, this one.

“Already thinking like… one of us.  Rest assured.  I will survive.”

I’m torn between chanting “ONE OF US” over and over, or embedding a video of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”.

I guess the only reasonable solution is to attempt chanting “ONE OF US” to the tune of “I Will Survive”.

Glass drifted towards her to fill the injuries, cracking in the right spots so each fragment fit the wounds perfectly.

Hah, nice, that’s a really cool side of the power.

A power that’s versatile as fuck, that is.

The smallest particles of glass, a fine cloud of dust, flowed forth to fill the gaps.

Then she rose into the sky.  Hookwolf signaled for Stormtiger to hold his fire.

See ya!

“What is it you want?”

“Make history.  Names in books.  Taught to schoolchildren for years.  Centuries.  Our goals…” she winced, pressed one hand to her stomach, “Coincide.”

Huh, I suppose they kinda do.

Also this is perfect for a group led by Jack Slash.

He pondered for a few moments.  Could they escape?  No, you didn’t escape the Nine.  He’d already considered fighting, but that option was out.

There was a possibility he could lay a trap for them.  Or buy time for his people to escape.

Hmm. Gotta be smart about it, but it ought to be possible.

“Fine.”

Another thin smile crossed her face.  She used her power to raise herself to a standing position, her toes only barely touching the ground.  “So loyal.”

Man’s best friend, huh?

It’s kinda funny, we’ve got a dog-themed girl (though it turns out her power works better on wolves) and a wolf-themed guy, and the latter is the one that’s better at being friends with humans.

He raised his claw from her.  She was bleeding from wounds in her stomach and pelvis.

He’d had a hard enough time killing this one.  If the other seven arrived?  No, he wouldn’t be able to stop them alone, and his lieutenants were not strong enough to hold them off.

Yeah, makes sense.

Also, intellectually I know that they’re one person down, but it still feels weird to see the “Slaughterhouse Nine” split into “one” and “seven”.

“And you won’t rescind these orders and requests?”

If he joins, maybe?

“I will.  If you join.  You give me your word, I leave.  You will be tested.  Your people left alone.  When the test is done you’re… either dead or one of us.”

Sounds about right. Most of the Fellowship members seem the type to go quite intense on their tests.

Now let’s take a moment to consider that this presumably applies equally much to Bitch.

I wonder what happens if they both succeed. Do they duke it out over the open spot?

She shifted her position, huffing out sentences between gasps of pain.  “Only a matter of scale.   Need more like you in our number.  Frontline combatants.  Capable of carving murder through the ranks of the innocent.  Through our enemies.  We could be great warriors.”

…I suppose.

“Not interested.”

“We could create your Ragnarök more than any number of Chosen.”

That is if she’s right about her interpretation.

But also, she might not know how right she is, given Jack’s apparent involvement in bringing about Jörmungandr, or whatever the threat actually is.

Hm. Trickstery behavior, doing things just to see what happens or doesn’t happen… Is Jack Loki in the extended metaphor, perhaps? I mean, considering Loki is the father of both Fenrir and Jörmungandr (and the mother of Odin’s eight-legged horse Sleipnir), he’s pretty crucial to the coming of Ragnarök.

“They are my people.  I won’t turn my back on them.”

“Then kill me.”  A thin smile crossed her face, though her expression was drawn with pain.

Is that why she attacked them in the first place? To test his loyalty to them?

By asking Hookwolf to kill her, she’s asking him to prove that they matter enough to him that he’ll kill her for that attack.

When she spoke, it was in more short sentences. “But know that your dream is over.  Unless you come with us.  Once nominated you’ll be tested.  By others, whether willing or not.  I have left notes.  Urging them to kill your soldiers.  To raze any place you might call home.  To bestow fates worse than death.”

Ah, shit. That would be a problem.

“A sword age, an axe age.  A wind age, a wolf age.  A world where none have mercy.  I can believe this is your goal, your ultimate objective.

Sword and axe make sense, but wind? Also, are these in order, or describing the same age? I can’t really tell.

If they’re in order, I suppose we might currently be in the wind age?

Do you crave to reduce this city to darkness, blood and ash, so that only the strong will survive?  Do you tell your followers that it is only the pure will rise to the top in the new world order?”

If Hookwolf doesn’t know about Jörmungandr on the horizon (no pun intended), this is probably the best bet for an alternative explanation that still ties in with the apocalypse. Just a smaller apocalypse.

He set one clawed foot down on her.  He could feel some blades on the underside of his foot bite into her flesh.  She didn’t fight him or resist.

I’m guessing she still has plans for how to get out of this situation if she has to, but for now she just seems to want to continue talking.

“Join us,” she said, her voice strained.

He formed a head and mouth.  His voice echoed from within his metal skull, “You describe me as a warrior, why would I join petty killers?”

Good question.