Middles
Word count: 957
Parity didn't often patrol through King's Row. It wasn't that she didn't like that area of the city, in fact she often visited Utilitarian (in his not-so-secret identity of Douglas Greene) at Kord Technologies near the middle of King's Row. That, however, was as Melissa James. This time she was going as Parity, and Parity was rarely seen in the Row.
Tonight was different. One o her informants had passed along a tip. Some of the Hellions were using an abandoned factory to produce weapons, either to sell or use against the Skulls. Parity had no real love for the Skulls, but shutting down an illegal weapons mill would help more people than just the Skulls. That was the important part.
Parity stepped off the Yellow Line, and oriented herself. It only took a second to get her bearings, and then she was off. King's Row wasn't too big, and by keeping to the main roads, as well as following the directions, Parity figured it wouldn't take long to find the place.
The trick was finding it but not appearing to find it, she decided. There were enough heroes in Paragon City, and even just in King's Row, that one green-clad heroine running by wouldn't tip the Hellions off. A quick run-by and she would know if they were there -- all she had to do was look for scorches and burn spots, tell-tale evidence of a Hellions hideout.
Parity didn't change her pace as she jogged by the warehouse. Sure enough, the old garment warehouse had several scorch marks around its base. That was the spot. As she turned the corner, a motion in one of the top windows caught her eye: an orange vested man with a horned mask peeped out from the side to watch her.
"I'm not noticing you," Parity mumbled to herself. She ran past the warehouse, further down the street. "I'm just another hero patrolling King's Row. That's all." She turned again, out of direct sight of the warehouse, and moved into an alley.
They had watch guards, which meant she'd have to proceed cautiously. "Obviously," Parity thought. The trick would be to sneak up from a direction they didn't expect, which could be hard if they were watching every direction at once. She considered trying to come up from beneath, but the sewers held as many Hellions as the streets, or likely the warehouse.
Dropping in from above could work, but that would require flight. Strength and endurance were all she had in the way of powers; flight was Utilitarian's specialty. Parity stroked her chin, halfway considering calling him in for backup. The two of them could easily stomp a bunch of Hellions, plus it would be as good an excuse as any to subtlety remind Doug that if he finished working on her anti-gravity belt, she wouldn't have to pester him.
Not that either of them minded being pestered by the other. She grinned and reached for her phone. Before she could reach it, though, a pair of Skulls stepped into the alley. Parity looked at the two Skulls. Taking them out wouldn't be any problem, she decided.
As she was about to charge them, another pair showed up at the other end of the alley. "Two, four. Either works," Parity said to the new comers.
"How about eight?" a voice called out.
Parity looked up just in time to see four Skulls leaping off the fire escape above her. Two of them tackled her as the fell, and the other two that missed weren't far behind dog piling on top of her. Before Parity could even begin fighting those four off, the two pairs of Skulls descended on her.
Two would have been easy.
Four would have been a snap.
Six was no problem.
Finding herself under eight Skulls was another matter. There were always enough to keep her arms pinned to the ground, two per arm. Another sat on her back, his arm pushing her head against the asphalt. That left three to-- To what, exactly? Parity's eyes shifted as far as they could, but she could see the other three. She felt one on her legs, knees across the back of her thighs and hands squeezing her ankles. She didn't have any idea about the other two.
Parity struggled and bucked as best as she could. It wasn't so much their weight that kept her down as it was their preventing her from finding any leverage. With her arms held outstretched, she couldn't push herself up. With her back and legs held flat, she couldn't kneel.
It dawned on her, with a sick and sudden realization, this had been a trap. The Skulls were never this organized. They never planned an attack against a specific hero; they were pure, brute violence. These six, or eight, were attacking her specifically in ways that worked against her abilities.
But why?
A sudden, sharpness to her backside interrupted Parity's thoughts. She tried to turn and see what was happening, but the Skull on her back just leaned harder against her neck. One of the missing two Skulls seemed to reappear. He joined his banger brethren in holding Parity's head down.
Parity opened her mouth to yell at the Skulls just as wave of dizziness struck her. All she managed to get out was a garbled moan. The dizziness didn't end with the first wave, and a growing tiredness seemed to follow it.
The sharpness, she realized through the tiredness, was a drug.
Parity knew there was no way to get free from the Skulls' hold. All she could do was close her eyes, let the drug take affect, and hope that the Emergency teleportation network was working overtime.