Heroics 1.1
Why the heck was she doing this again?
Dodging another swing from the scaled claw that was gradually becoming bigger than her torso, she responded with a strong jab with her white gloved fist that pushed him back much further than what someone with her rather lanky frame should be able to. Super-powers didn't care much about appearances as she had found out.
"Justice Combo!"
Lashing out with a flurry of jabs much faster than her previous ones that kept Lung away from her, she hit all over his body with blows meant incapacitate him. She could hear the sounds of bones breaking, and she hoped that would be enough to put him down. However, when those bones snapped back into place or reformed as fast as they were broken, Taylor could feel herself losing ground a bit. Lung was currently around 10 ft, scaly and radiating flames off of his body like it was some sort of aura. Said flames had also set her white cape, that was formerly one of her old bed sheets before she had enchanted it, on fire.
The roaring from the gradually transforming parahuman Lung, who was currently becoming and more dragon-like as she tried to put out the flames on her cape, was causing her ears to ring a little bit. If she was being honest, when she had decided that she wanted to do this whole superhero thing she hadn't realized that the whole cheesy shtick that she had made for herself was going to be as hard to maintain as it was currently. This was rather scary despite the brave front she put on. Taylor'd like to think that this was Lung's fault, she had just wanted to go out and do her first patrol and she finds his gang ready to kill some kids. Lucky her.
Her senses blared at her, alerting her to the fact there was a large wave of flames being sent her way. Jumping over it, she allowed her body to contort around the scaled fist that had tried to grab her as she lashed out with a kick that made Lung's head snap backwards. Landing on her feet, she followed up with a hay-maker to Lung's chest that sent him skidding backwards. However, he still seemed ready to keep fighting her. She knew she should've finished this earlier, but no she had underestimated the amount of strength she'd need to take him out and had held back with her first attack.
"Hahaha!" She let out a hearty laugh that she had practiced many nights before going out to get what she thought to be the most heroic sound out of it, though currently it was being used to mask the worried feeling she had currently. "Lung, you are truly a worthy adversary. However, once you decided that you would commit villainy infront of me, this battle was already decided. Turn yourself in now or prepare for my ultimate attack!" Posing dramatically, she pointed a finger at him.
Lung stood there for a moment, the flames coming off of him dying down a bit as she held her pose. Maybe he had been cowed by her display of heroics and would gracefully turn himself in to the PRT? When the flames exploded off of him, and he let out what she could only assume to be a primal scream of rage at the fact that he was facing such an amazing hero. He rushed forward her at a speed that severely belied his size and the fact that he was gradually becoming covered in more and more scales along with other changes.
"'ll 'ill 'ou!" The transformations that were occurring to his jaw, made Lung's speech a sort of garbled mess, but Taylor still understood what he had said.
She felt like she should've been scared hearing that he was planning to try an kill her, but instead there was just a wild thumping in her chest. A sense of exhiliration at being in danger while trying to fight the good fight made her grin even as Lung rushed towards her much faster than before. Had this been the her of only a few months ago she would've cowered in fear at the giant scaled fist that was reaching out to slash her in half, but...she was no longer that meek little girl anymore. She was a hero! Clenching her fist tightly she grinned widely as she shouted out the name of her attack.
"JUUUUSSSTICCEEE SMASH!"
As her fist smashed into Lung's chin with explosive force, a sonic boom expanded outwards which should have kicked up massive amounts of debris however it did not, a weird aspect of her ability seemed that so long as she didn't want to cause collateral damage she didn't. What was even more noticeable was the huge pressurized wave of air that shot upwards from her attack. As Lung's head snapped back from the force, she could also feel the ability that she had imbued her gloves with taking effect. It was sort of like a super powered relaxant, much too strong for the average person and weaker capes, but up against an opponent that had regeneration on Lung's scale or a sufficient Brute rating it was perfect.
Lung swayed on his feet for a moment, reeling from not only the powerful attack he had been hit by, but also the relaxant working its way through his system faster, she hoped it was faster, than his regeneration could flush it out. For a moment she waited with bated breath to see if she would have to continue the fight, but after what felt like an eternity Lung dropped to the ground. Standing completely still for a moment, Taylor tried to take in what she had just done. That had been a large gambit on her part because that really was the closest thing she had to an ultimate attack, that was all the strength she currently had given herself, but even more so she was really lucky that the relaxant had worked. If it hadn't, she wasn't sure if she could have knocked him out before he evolved too much. More importantly though, she had managed to not only beat Lung on her first real night out, but also managed to do so with minimum collateral damage.
She was going to be the greatest Superhero ever! Well, at least as well known as people like Armsmaster, but if she could keep giving good showings like this she could totally be regarded as being Triumvirate level one day. Maybe she could even team up with Alexandria! As Taylor thought about her future as a Superhero, it did not go unnoticed by her current super-hearing that there were voices that were coming from atop one of the buildings and a motorcycle that was currently maybe five minutes away currently.
"You guys up on atop of the building!" She said pointing towards the building where she heard at least three voices speaking. Jumping with just a bit of her current strength was more than enough for her to get on atop of the building with ease. Looking around she made note of the people that were on the building.
There was a girl wearing a skintight black-and-lavender outfit, with an emblem of a stylized eye on her chest, and a mask that covered the upper portion of her face. Her dark blonde hair was still visible, however she had a tense look on her face as if she was worried about something.
There was guy standing right next to the previous girl, his costume was basically motorcycle leathers and a helmet, the helmet was a stylized skull, done in an inky black. It was a cool design, but she noted that it was also pretty villainous looking. Just like the girl he was rather tense too, but with the way he was positioned, Taylor felt like he was ready to run off. She should use one of her charges on getting a better ability at reading people, it would really help with talking to people.
A little bit behind the two and propping themselves up with what looked to be a scepter, there was a...guy? Maybe? Taylor wasn't all that sure because there outfit left them rather androgynous looking. The person was wearing a white mask, a silver coronet, a ruffled white shirt, and skintight leggings tucked into knee-high boots.
Lastly was another sort of androgynous person, but Taylor was leaning more towards this person being a girl. They were wearing a cheap dog mask, and next to them were three large deformed vaguely dog monsters. Looks like she had a really strange power, dog monsters would be hard to market as anything but villainous. Taylor could only assume this group was comprised of villains, but she wouldn't give away her suspicions immediately.
"So were you the one Lung tried to attack? I can only assume so with how tense most of you are, well hold onto your fear no longer! For I, have bested him and have subdued him with my powers. Hahaha!" She laughed merrily as she crossed her arms underneath her newly developed chest. Call her petty, but she had decided to use her powers to gradually give herself something of a figure. She wasn't Emma, but she had boobs now! ...She was so happy that she had gotten over, somewhat, the excitement from her little upgrades. It'd be really embarrassing if she didn't keep these thoughts strictly in her head, it'd really put a damper on er image too.
"Well, we're thankful for that really, but as it stands we need to leave. You know how it goes, seeing as you probably have already figured out that we're villains and you're most certainly not a villain." The girl in the skintight suit said after a few moments.
Taylor nodded her head at that statement and was about to speak about how they could choose to not be villains, only to be cut off by a thick fog of darkness. She knew she should've kept with her gut instincts and put one of her charges into a power that could see through something like this, but it wouldn't stop her for too long. Her super-hearing was good enough that she could track the sounds of the giant dog monsters cracking the roof as they jumped from it, preparing to jump after she stopped once she remembered that Lung was still down on the pavement unconscious. She'd have to get those guys later, as her hearing alerted her to the motorcycle pulling up onto the street where the fight had taken place earlier.
Dropping down from the building she was on, she landed softly despite not bracing herself in any notable way. Looking towards the bike, she could see a man in a sort of blue ad white power armor getting off of it. On his back was a six-foot long spear-like weapon, so this is what Armsmaster looked like in real life she thought to herself. Maybe she could get an autograph after this?
Walking over towards Lung carefully, he poked at him with his spear thing before looking towards Taylor.
"You the one who managed to do this?" He called out to her after a moment.
"Yeah, I managed to beat him before he got too strong to fight. I used a sort of super power tranquilizer to put him to sleep, and he should be knocked out for at least another hour. I'm not too sure though seeing as this is the first time I got to test it out." She rambled slightly to the man whose face was on a pair of her underwear.
"Hmm, you're telling the truth." The it was phrased made me think that instead of mere speculation on his part his statement was definitive. Though that brought up the idea of how exactly he was absolutely sure of her statement. "You have a name yet?"
Yes! She could finally do her introduction! Squeeing internally, she twirled in spot as she activated the minor aerokinesis enchanted onto her cape, making it flutter as if a breeze was present. As she crossed her arms, and smiled a bright toothy smile, the blues and whites of her costume seemed accentuated as if a spotlight had been placed on her. The gold star on her chest practically gleamed as she stopped her twirling and spoke.
"I'm Captain Paragon, and I am a Superhero!"