Conduct crept around the corner of a ruined building, mere months ago it had been one of his many hideouts, a large abandoned industrial building, filled to the brim with heavy machinery and plenty of alcoves to hide in. The perfect place for Conduct to set up as his base of operations. Jack had never liked the building, he thought of it as a soulless and boring place. One of the many things the two of them had argued on, which had inevitably lead to Jack abandoning his Malus comrades.
Although Conduct still wasn’t sure if Jack was a Malus or an Heir, the hulking man had always been quiet, he’d spoken more often with their enemies than his supposed team mates. But all that was behind Conduct now. What did matter was the squad of Ultimates stalking his former haunt. Conduct was a predator, not prey. He could not allow the Ultimates to find any evidence to help track him down. Especially since the newer generation of Ultimates had arrived, there was always something different about the later generations. One would have better reflexes and skills then the previous, the next might have stronger mental powers which still confused Conduct of their origin. The latest was telepathic.
While they couldn’t communicate with their older generations there must be a telepathic one back at their base to cooridinate the older Ultimates and pass on any and all information gathered by the younger ones. The scariest thing of all was how they acted, the Ultimates were always efficient and well trained, but now they were practically parts of a whole, they no longer spoke orders through radios or gave each other hand signs to communicate, now they could pass information with a thought. Conduct didn’t know the specifics but he bet that they could send mental images as well as simple communication between one another. That made a squad difficult to engage. If they were indeed linked you had mere seconds to wipe them out before they could notify their commanders of who their assailants were, where they were and how many of them were in sight. While that in itself is a problem, the Ultimates unnatural toughness made this even more difficult, they could often shrug off a wound which would cripple or outright kill a human being.
They were like the Malus in that way. At least they had the heal rate of a Malus, they were, for the moment, almost as hardy as the Heirs. But that is still an incredible feat for a human being, something Conduct had to always keep in mind.
Conduct edged around the corner silently, he wore light but durable clothing, forgoing shoes in favour of moving more quietly on the cold floor. A while ago he had encountered a black market dealer who had acquired a suit of fireproof clothing which resembled a sort of mesh which appeared more like a fabric than whatever exotic substance the suit was made of, it also carried electrical currents much easier than his body would and as a result was likely to keep a fair amount of whatever electrical attacks he came up against off of him. The suit was black and aside from his dull black metal belt it was all he wore. Only his feet and head were visible outside the suit however.
The building was darkly lit but Conduct could make out the slow moving and bulky forms of the Ultimates moving within, rifles raised and tactical armour making their already bulky forms seem almost hulking in the gloom. Conduct had masterfully taken a position side on to the Ultimates, to better see the carnage he was about to unleash. Conducts eyes shot quickly off to his right where his protégé, Quake was also stalking around the corner. Quake, unlike Conduct had an interesting habit of wearing armour made entirely out of stone, although to many people, the armour would be cumbersome and brittle, Quake had the ability to morph the stone at will as well as control its movements, as such it was more akin to a suit of powered armour, even aiding him to move more quickly and fluidly. The Two Malus gave each other a curt nod; they needed to time their strikes perfectly.
Conduct grinned slightly at the prospect of violence, his body always felt warm and tingly when the thought of fighting came to him. He wasn’t particularly strong for a Malus physically, nor was he overly large and muscular, but he was an aggressive person naturally and simply being a Malus made him more than a match for any human being.
Conduct could sense all the metal around him, feel their weight and density, how brittle they were and how worn or corroded each individual piece was. His attention however, was focused on a small number of objects; traps set for would be assailants. A number of sharpened and masterfully placed steel rods. Each rod was about a metre long and seven centimetres wide, perfect for skewering an Heir or even a Malus. The rods were placed around the top of the building facing inwards. However those were the second part of his plan, the first part involved working with Quake. Quake would cause the ground beneath one of the heavy machines to buckle and sever the machine from its earthly connection allowing Conduct to throw the huge piece of machinery at the unaware Ultimates.
Conduct held up five fingers and began to count down as soon as the Ultimates began to leave the main room into one of the side rooms they had used as quarters during their stay in the gloomy building. As soon as the countdown was complete, Quake flexed and made an upper cut with a clenched fist, the action was made slow deliberately to prevent the Ultimates from seeing them in the corner of their eyes. The ground beneath one of the great machines screeched in protest as it lurched and crushed at the parts of the machinery which had long pierced the ground. Immediately Conduct mimed a sideways punch, far more forcefully than Quakes uppercut and the shuddering machine suddenly cannoned into the Ultimates who had turned to face the sudden noise. Midflight Conduct changed the machine and the Ultimates flight ever so slightly and brought the Ultimates down on a wall of exposed rebar poles, squishing and impaling half a dozen of the Directors soldiers in one fell swoop. Roughly eight still stood in the room, confused and dazed by their near death experience at the hands of an old, unused machine. Conduct immediately capitalised on this, he reached into the air with a clenched fist, unknowingly standing upright as he did so, his fist moved downwards swiftly, almost slamming into the concrete floor as he moved, the steel rods above fell on the survivors without mercy, piercing chests and hearts and even skulls. Within moments the once clean floor was covered in bodies and blood.
“Well,” Conduct chuckled, “I guess that’s over,”
As soon as Conduct spoke a figure burst in through the grime stained glass ceiling and slammed into the floor. The body was burnt as if set alight and turned into cinders. Immediately after the body hit the floor another form followed it through the broken window, however unlike the large form preceding it, the second form came through gracefully. Grabing onto the sides of the window and in a catlike movement flipping onto solid steel table.
“Gleam,” Conduct chuckled, “glad you could make it,”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Gleam said quietly as she hoped down from the table, “also, the Director can make his Ultimates as tough as he wants, but they still burn as easily in the heat as a regular man. That guy died nearly instantly,”
“Good shot,” Quake grunted.
“Jealous?” Gleam smiled back pleasantly at Quake.
“Enough,” Conduct snapped, “Quake, go get the thugs and rig the place to blow, I they have ten minutes to set up before the closest patrol gets here, they’ll want to set short timmers,”
“Sure thing boss,” Quake grinned, “I wanna see this place go up in smoke,”
“Don’t we all,” Conduct grinned viciously.
