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I hadn’t done much to try and stop Grendel since bombing the night gaunt nest. I haven’t been able to gather the will to. Didn’t want to have another encounter like the last with him….
But time passed. And that fear started to turn into anger. Burning, hate filled anger. Like hell I’m going to let him win just because I’m too scared to do anything about it. I’m going to tear off his limbs and beat him to death with them before I let him do that to me.
There’s all kinds of weird distortions along time, and it’s a lot of work trying to figure out which ones are caused by Grendel. Even when I think I’ve got a match, it’s not always absolutely certain. But this time, I lucked out.
Went into New Jersey looking for a fight. Instant I hit the ground, I started running in the direction of the distortions. Led me to the dockyard. I would have expected more people, but the place was oddly quiet. The walls of cargo crates would have made the place a maze, if I hadn’t cheated and warped on top of them. Ran along the top until I reached my destination. I saw Grendel, standing amongst a large number of armed men. They were overseeing several crates being moved onto a ship. Made a very dramatic shout down to those below. “Gotcha, Grendel!”
Then he looked up at me, smiled, waved, and vanished, leaving my dramatic entrance slightly ruined. No gloating monologue? No creepy insinuations? Nothing? Just popping off to another point in history once I arrive?
I may have been a tad surprised at the development, but all those armed guards Grendel had lacked my shock. They quickly got their guns aimed at me. I opened my mouth to make an attempt at negotiation (okay, maybe by attempt I might mean I was going to tell them they should run away because they were doomed…) but they pulled their triggers first. Rapid escalation of force, I see. Which meant I felt no issue with responding in kind.
Warped right into their midst, pistol in each hand, and opened fire. None of them had a chance to point their gun away from where I’d been standing before being killed. Which would have meant a rapid, and flawless victory. Except that it soon turned out that that they weren’t the only armed men Grendel had wandering those docks.
I don’t know how the hell he got that many people. Shortly after killing that first batch, it seemed as if more were pouring from behind every corner of the port. None of them looked very pleased at me being there. Guess I’d be shooting my way out.
That fight was… oh god, that fight. It. Was. Awesome. That’s not a good enough word to describe it, but it’ll have to do. Bullets whizzing by me, having to warp all around to dodge them, dancing between space and time. Those gunmen never stood a chance. Kinda hard to fight back when our target can dodge your bullets and appear behind you, ain’t it?
Things got really interesting when I started hearing gunfire picking up in a completely different part of the port. Went to check it out, and whaddya know? There was another group of crazy people with guns shooting at Grendel’s group of crazy people with guns. It was a mixed group of people. Half of them looked like leather jacket wearing thugs. A lot of those had a symbol on the jacket: four triangles, in a pattern that resembles two hourglasses. I’d seen that symbol before. Looks like Grendel had drawn the ire of the Timberwolves.
The other half of the new group was… weird. Apart from the heavy firearms, they looked like a collection of regular people. Except rather than passing through them, time would violently veer away from them. Exactly like how it would react to a Fear. And when I saw one of them get shot, instead of blood, water came out.
Had I been in a calmer state, I may have gone with the maxim of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” and helped them fight Grendel’s people. But my thinking was being done by adrenaline, not reason, and I was feeling particularly trigger happy at the time. These were servants of the Fears, after all; that made them acceptable targets.
Warped right between the two group and opened fire. I’d run out of ammo a while back, so I was just using whatever I’d picked up from the bodies. Poor bastards never saw me coming.
The Timberwolves scattered as I tore through them, but the water… Fear… people… things… put up a much more organized resistance. No matter how many I killed, they kept fighting with the same discipline. Out of everyone there, they were the biggest threat. They fought as if they could predict where I would warp to. Instead of shooting where I’d been, they were shooting where I was going to be. Had a lot of close calls; if I’d been just a bit slower, I’d have come through that hole with a lot of new holes in me.
But in the end, they broke as well. Not really broke. Strategically withdrew. Even as they fled, they kept that same sense of order, holding me off as they left the port.
Soon after they were gone, silence fell over the place. Not a long silence, since sirens soon started coming close. Guess whatever Grendel had done to clear the place of people wasn’t enough to cover the storm of gunfire I’d started. Oops. Time to get out of there.
But first! Had to figure out what Grendel had been doing there. Kicked open the crates they’d been moving. Most were filled with weapons, ammunition, other supplies. One had five spherical glowing stones. Kinda like what I’d seen in Lupine’s rituals. They looked important. So I blew them up.
Mark that one as yet another victory for the forces of justice!
I-330
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