Lung felt the cool night air on his face as he walked out one of the many buildings he owned and towards the men he had gathered for the night, he took a deep breath savouring the cold air in anticipation of what was to come.
'Finally' he thought 'tonight we will be done with these Undersiders'
Standing at an impressive six feet odd, Lung gave off a commanding aura befitting the masked leader of one of Brockton Bay's biggest gangs Azn Bad Boys or ABB for short. Not content with merely being the leader of said gang he was also proud of the fact that he was one of the most powerful and feared Capes in the city being capable of facing down whole teams of heroes still staying out of jail. There were even rumours and whisperings that he could solo an Endbringer, not that he had any wish to test these claims but the reputation boost was big enough that he saw no need to silence them for now.
Looking at the group assembled he decided to address them before commencing his plans to ensure there were no mistakes on the parts of the normal's.
"Tonight, we will be dealing with a thorn that has stuck in our side for too long before they become more than a simple annoyance." Lungs heavily accented voice rumbled through the darkness of the night "while Oni Lee keeps them pinned down we gather together and crush the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?"
The group mumbled their agreement with the plan and began to light up amongst themselves as Lung smiled beneath his metal mask, tonight's play would put him that much closer to taking over the city. With the reputation boost the ABB would gain for talking down four Capes known for being able to escape most any situation the gangs recruitment rates would soar and they would be able to push Empire Eighty-Eight back even further.
"how long until the rest of us get here sir" a younger member asked respectfully, as he should when addressing one such as him Lung thought, he even deigned to answer the young man, Korean from the looks of him.
"They are almost here and then we move," he rumbled, the kid nodded quickly and thanked his boss as the car containing the last three members pulled around the corner. 'Good the veterans can show these children how real gangsters act' Lung thought as the car pulled up and three of his older members exited the car, another minute or so of milling about later and the group started down the street and began towards where Oni was occupying the Undersiders.
Suddenly however, Lung stopped as his enhanced hearing picked up a low whine from one of the nearby rooftops. Turning quickly he came around just in time to catch a blinding flash as pain lanced through his shoulder. Rage quickly built as he stumbled back and scales started to cover his body and his wound began to close, he narrowed his eyes and spied a figure standing on top of a building a few houses back, their arms extended and a long coat blowing in the wind behind them.
Roaring in challenge even as he charged forward and prepared to leap and his men backed away from their Berserking leader wondering amongst each other who would be mad enough to attack him.
Taylor liked to think that she was a cautious girl, not taking unnecessary risks and knowing when to fold 'em as it were, however hearing lung say that he was going to kill children. It was as if a switch were flipped in her. She couldn't just stand by while innocent kids were killed, even if it meant she would be going up against ... Lung. Shit. how was she suppose to deal with this.
Crouching on a rooftop a little back from the ABB gathering she was decked out in her Cape costume, not much by her now much higher equipment standards, but it was cheap and she had been able to buy it off the books for a little extra cash. so there she was in an old battered duster and Stetson hat with a red scarf around her face and the sleeves rolled up to her elbows to allow room for her gauntlets, her pride and joy, the proof she had powers
The Holdout Gauntlets as she liked to call them were the best thing had managed to put together in the last three months of tinker trances she went into while cannibalising old hardware and parts she was able to loot from the Brockton Bay junkyard or beg from her dads friends in the dockworkers union, not much in the way of resources but somehow she had pulled together something amazing.
A dull brass colour they covered her entire hands and extended all the way back to her elbows. And they were packed with a few nasty surprises for the scum of her city. Containing a small missile launcher in each that exploded into similar foam used by the PRT and able to fire out blasts of electricity to stun her foes she was well equipped for subduing your common or garden gangster.
Those weren't why she was so proud of her Holdouts however. no it was the two very special surprises she had worked into them that made them worthy of being called tinker tech. you see in the palms of each she had managed to install her very own repulser field generator that with careful timing could be used to stop incoming blows. and the Pièce de résistance of her gauntlets? when she used both together they became a laser cannon capable of putting a hole in even notoriously tough targets like Lung.
This was how she came to now, standing on top of a building looking like she had just walked out of a spaghetti western, about to fire a laser at one of the most powerful men in all of Brockton bay. What could possibly go wrong... don't answer that.
Placing her hands out in front of her and putting them together with the heels of her hands touching and her fingers splayed out the metal of the gauntlets rearranged themselves to show a glowing circle in the centre. One thing Taylor would admit she hated about the Holdouts was that in order to increase the power of her cannon it had to charge up, so she had to make this shot count otherwise she probably wouldn't get another chance against someone like Lung.
As the whine of her laser charging up rang out from the cannon Taylors heart nearly jumped out of her chest as lung stopped and turned around to look at her 'not good!' she mentally screamed as she panicked and fired the cannon. unfortunately for her thought the shot was enough to punch through an unpowered up Lung her aim was off only hitting his shoulder, this only went downhill from there as Lung roared a loud primal sound of rage and fury ripped from his throat as he charged to where she was.
Thinking quickly she folded up her cannon and turned bolting for the other side of the roof, if her luck held she could climb down and hide before Lung made it to the rooftop and turned her into a bloody smear on the floor. Fate, it seemed, was not on her side tonight however as with a great boom of what she took to be Lung damaging the concrete under him leapt the 4 stories straight up her building and landed with an almighty crash snarling and eyes burning with hate.
'this is not good, think Taylor he's not fully transformed yet there has to be something you can do right?' she thought to herself as she quickly ran through her arsenal in her head. deciding it was do or die she threw her hands forward towards Lung as a cloud of electricity was released from her gauntlets and flew towards the dragon man. Lung took the blast full on as he dropped to one nee twitching in places where the electricity messed with his nerves. 'Yes! He's stunned' Taylor cheered in her head for a second before her world exploded.
Flying backwards off the building, Taylor acted almost automatically, without thinking about what she was doing she threw her hands out again and just before she slammed into the ground activated her repulser fields slowing her decent. it was by no means a graceful landing but surviving a fall from four stories up wasn't something she was going to say no to at this point, she needed all the luck she could get if she was going to survive the night.
Looking back up at the building she could see the rooftop was wreathed in flames that parted like a curtain as Lung walked to the edge presumably to see if she had managed to survive, his bestial roar answered any questions Taylor might have had on what he thought about seeing her still moving.
By this point, Lung's entire upper body was covered in metallic scales and a nasty looking tail writhed behind him showing his frustration. Jumping down into the alleyway she had landed into Lung glared at her with a look of pure hatred "I'm going to fucking kill you tinker bitch" he growled as he started walking towards Taylor who at this point had at least managed to stand up.
Rapidly running out of options Taylor tried the only thing she really had left in her armoury, the foam missile launchers, they might not stop him completely at this point but at the very least it would buy her some time, something she desperately needed if she was going to get away. so, finding herself out of viable options she threw her right hand forward and the missile unfolded out of the side and fired.
Expecting some last-ditch effort from a tinker, Lung was already moving to the side as he saw the missile coming towards him. what he did not see coming however was for the missile to explode anyway as it was right next to him, spraying him and the alley around him in a viscous liquid that rapidly expanded into Taylors containment foam. Howling in rage, he tried burning the liquid away only to find the heat caused it to harden faster and he was quickly finding himself stuck.
'That actually worked' Taylor thought in disbelief as she was momentarily caught off guard by her desperate ploy worked in her favour for a change. Disbelief quickly changed to panic however as Lung's fire only grew hotter and hotter and so she decided to turn tail fast and retreat, turning and running out of the alleyway and back onto the streets she ducked reflexively as once again Lung exploded and sent pieces of the hardened foam flying everywhere.
Daring a quick look back at the alley she had escaped, her heart tried to escape her chest for the second time that night as she saw Lung bounding after, running on all fours and covered in a cloak of fire. Taylor knew she was going to be having nightmares about that sight for weeks, which was if she survived the next few minutes, and her chances did not look good, barring some sort of miracle.
She therefore didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the sight of a monster crashing down on Lungs head and grabbing his arm in its powerful jaws flung him down the street, seconds later two more monsters landed next to the first and bounded off after Lung. Skidding to a halt from her frantic fleeing from Lung, Taylor saw that a group of people had been riding the monsters and were now standing just across from her.
There were four of them, two guys and a girl and a tall man shaped person cloaked in shadows with a white skull on the front of his helmet, "you saved us a lot of trouble" the shadow man said, his voice deep and masculine but muffled by his helmet. Inside Taylor groaned she just knew this night was going to get even more complicated now.
AN. so my first ever story, hope you guys like it and if you don't by all means tell me exactly what you think sucks about it, cant get better at this if i don't find out what I'm doing wrong after all. either way i know the title is cheesy as all hell but i honestly couldn't believe someone hadn't gone for the idea already the names practically handed to you on a silver platter, oh well guess its up to me. just to clarify though
this isn't a cross over i just thought the name was cool as hell