Once Guilt had made her demands several things happened. First the church girl activated her powers, which appeared to be based on solid light constructs. Or at least something that looked like it. In addition this girl was capable of flight, and was going for an angelic theme. Not surprising for a zealot. Guilt was fairly certain she could handle this woman, if necessary, but would prefer not to have to kill her. As of yet Jeanne hadn't sinned, and thus punishment was unnecessary. She was about to unleash a blast of wind when she was stopped by her own voice.
[Wait! You're in danger!]
Claire was looking on from the sidelines, hand in front of her mouth. Danger? Of course she was in danger, she was in a fight. But the moment of hesitation allowed Guilt to spot something she might otherwise have missed. Was that... a shimmer in the air? A normal human would have most definitely missed it, but Guilt's hyperalertness payed off once more. There was definitely something there, even if she could barely even see it. Some kind of power was being used. Perhaps invisible projectiles were the power of one of the other two Epics, although both of them appeared to be cowering. What was this? Some kind of superthin thread, or perhaps-
It was at this point that Guilt was thrown out of the church. The ground beneath her feet seemed to rise up and wrap itself around her ankles, swinging her by her ankles and then launching her at a wall. Luckily the wall itself moved aside before Guilt hit it, allowing Guilt to flip head-over-heels into the open air outside. Acting on reflex alone she vanished before she hit the ground, appearing a hundred meters above the church. She equalised her momentum with the help of gravity, reorienting herself so she was being launched upwards instead of sideways. With the movement dealt with she returned her attention to the ground, where someone appeared to have left a message for her in the ground.
'PUT IT BACK'
A fairly unambiguous statement. So whoever did this took offense to her breaking the church? Was it the old lady she had seen walking into the room before? No, this kind of power and those kinds of motivations.... This had to be none other than the High Island himself. How lucky, Guilt got to be tossed around by two separate members of Those on High in the same week. All this celebrity attention was going to make her blush.
[Oh my God! We've pissed off the Island! This is terrible!]
'Shut up Claire'
[I told you, I'm not the Clairvoyant. I'm your-]
'Shut. Up. Claire'
She was not in the mood for her subconscious to start criticising her life choices. Angry, she momentarily considered pulling random buildings into Void out of spite. Just to show the Island that he didn't get to throw people around like that. But, ultimately, common sense prevailed over spite, and she reached out to replace the church's roof. It appeared out of thin air on top of the church, as if it had never left. Of course it was no longer attached to the church, but that was something the High Island could fix on his own. In the end the High really could just toss people around. Their power was such that nothing could really be done about it. Living Gods who maintained the charade of mortality for their own amusement. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Leaving her rant against the state aside, she focussed once more on the task at hand. She spotted the Freak running out of the church, making his way down the busy streets of Epic City. He was fast, but not Comet fast. This entire situation did have some advantages after all. As this fight was no longer taking place inside the church the angel-girl at least would no longer be involved. And the other Epic with the unknown powers had been left behind as well. With only the devil to deal with her job had just gotten a lot easier.
Vanishing from roof to roof, she set off after the demon. She might not have access to superhuman speed but her teleportation allowed her to keep up with any speedster. She waited until he'd made his way into a slightly less populated area of the city, which wasn't long with the speeds he was moving at. At this point she appeared on a roof near to his position and erected a solid stone wall in front of him. Solid rock taken from the walls of China. Nothing the Island would complain about. Hopefully. Another thought caused identical walls to appear in other directions, blocking off possible escape routes. But just to make sure he didn't think about vaulting over them, and to complete the aesthetic, Guilt covered them all in burning corpses. Souvenirs from the old days. She found that the sudden appearance of burning bodies and the smell of roasted human meat tended to break the morale of criminals. Reminded them, perhaps, of what was likely to happen to them.
Appearing in the little cage of fire and granite she had created, Guilt addressed the Devil. "It isn't possible to run from me. I am drawn to the guilty." She stepped forward and allowed a long black katana to appear in her hands. A present from her adoptive parents. She liked to use it when hunting crime, it reminded her of her family. "Surrender, and I will offer you a swift death. If not, I believe I'll have to make it much more painful for you."
[You can't just kill him. How do you know he's even guilty in the first place? We haven't seen him kill anyone, right?]
'Shut up, Claire! Actions affirm guilt, and require action in turn!' Guilt snapped at her previous self who lived inside of her mind, invisible to everyone except herself. Probably didn't do much to make her look sane.
[If he's a criminal then you can call the police. They can deal with him, right? And they'll give him a fair trial]
Guilt hissed as she was addressed by Claire. She knew nothing. There was no real way to prove super-powered crimes, not in an honest court of law. And the courts here were a puppet of the High's wills anyway. They'd most likely set free anyone Guilt sent in even if they were caught literally red-handed, covered in blood, just to piss Guilt off. After all, it seemed she'd managed to annoy at least two of them in a very short span of time.
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