Hey guys, this is a story I've had in my head for a while now, but after many tries, I've managed to actually get it out. This chapter is short messy, and kind of plotless, in fact it's not even for you. I'm just trying to start writing, so that I don't have any excuse not to, and in future, I;ll probably rewrite or delete this chapter. In the meantime, imagine it as a one shot with a sequel in the works. Enjoy!
Welcome to Brockton Bay, a shining beacon of hope in the storm that was the aftermath of Scion. Come for the portal, stay because a parahuman played volleyball with your car. Not even kidding, it had just flown a few metres past me, so don't be surprised if it's not where you parked it.
I absent mindedly adjusted my blood red cloak and looked around the rubble filled area. I knew from experience that Peregrine would be far away by now, but in a few moments he would return, and I needed to be ready; needed to make sure I would be ready. I raised a hand, and focused on the air around it, imagining the cycle in my head before I enacted it, then let the fire inside the air loose. Freeze and unfreeze, that was the cycle, if I didn't follow it the fire would rage out of control, and although air contained only a little fire, the result wouldn't be pretty. The flames orbited around my outstretched hand, safely cycling, safely suppressed.
"Sound off!" I called out, and listened to the answering cries.
"Alan here!" Came from the rubble that once was the heart of the Bay, till Scion had strafed it and reduced it to rocks and ashes.
"Anusha!" She was barely sixteen years old, but her skill with both a soldering iron and a gun made me sometimes wonder if she was actually a tinker or a thinker, hiding her abilities from a greedy world. She was clutching a rifle and huddled behind a car, dangerously close to the one that Peregrine had just thrown.
"Dreamer!" The only other parahuman who I could call friend in this god forsaken city. His power was ill suited for this encounter though, the Dreams he created were too fragile to stand against an attack from Peregrine, and weren't fast enough to avoid them either.
That was all of them, no one was missing. I took another look around and spotted a rapidly growing speck in the distance.
"Incoming!" I cried, and let the fire rage around me, before focusing it into a wave of such intensity and force that it would undoubtedly destroy my opponent. I had drawn this fire from the remains of the city that surrounded us, and it writhed and flared under my powers hand, it wanted to be released, it wanted to scorch the earth, to feel it all burn.
Peregrine crashed through the wall of fire, and hit the ground rolling and coughing. His force generating powers had presumably let him take my attack head on, but a lack of shockwave meant that he had probably hit the ground quite hard. I almost felt a bit sorry for him, I knew first hand how much it hurt crashing into the ground like that. Even so, I was really hoping he'd broken something, but considering he was getting up with minimal flinching, I doubted that was the case.
There was a loud bang, and a large dart like object hit the armoured hero, but shattered as it hit a gleaming armour panel. A cry of dismay from Anusha heralded its origin. The bird themed parahuman finished standing up, and tensed, obviously preparing to take to the air again, but I had other ideas. I slammed a palm into the ground and a line of fire hurtled towards my opponent. I barely restrained it's ferocity, merely focusing its energy on speed, leaving my target no time to dodge. It launched him through the air a few metres when it hit, and they again landed heavily.
I walked over, watching as they quickly got to their feet and threw a punch at me. It was a wild swing, and quite a few metres to early, so that left only one possibility. I twisted to the side and swept the my cloak in front of me, knocking away the blast of force with an equal amount of lead forged fire. I was fond of my cloak, and I'd had Anusha line it with threads of lead, as I'd found the metal to be full of fire, more so than any other material I'd ever seen.
As soon as I dropped my makeshift shield, I saw the bird hero struggling with a veritable swarm of Dreams, the misty creatures clawing at him, even as they were destroyed by his incredibly punches. I took a moment to cloak my hand in flames, then jabbed at Peregrine, the fire knocking him onto his back. He didn't get up.
I walked over to him, watching carefully in case it was some kind of trap, but when none were forthcoming I crouched next to him.
"Next time you try something like that, I'll break your legs." I warned him, before straightening up. I turned to my followers and nodded. "Let's head back home."
My name is Infernal, and I'm the most powerful parahuman in the city.
I spent a moment watching the bird themed hero pick himself up off the ground, then spun round on my heel, following Infernal. Her cloak hung down her back, obscuring the grey and red kevlar bodysuit underneath, but even without it, he projected an aura of power. Here was someone to be respected as an ally, and feared as an enemy. I adjusted my own costume, a black and grey robe that hid me from view, and did a pretty good job of letting me blend in with my Dreams.
Speaking of Dreams, that fight had just depleted my flock, I needed some more. I let my hands slip out of my robe and used my power. Grey mist billowed out from my fingers, forming a cloud like creature, a Dream. It was a rush job, fragile and sluggish, I doubted it would stand up to a blow from even a normal person, but it wasn't meant for fighting.
I mentally commanded it to scout the area around us. I saw through it's eyes, noted a group of bored teenagers a few blocks ahead, saw a family pause their lunch to take a curious look at my Dream. I created a few more Dreams and sent them out scouting as well. Nothing got past me, I was Infernal's eyes and ears, if something happened in our territory, I knew about it.
"Trouble ahead?" Anusha asked, cocking her head at the sudden flood of Dreams. I shook my head.
"I just lost a lot of Dreams during the fight. Need to replenish my flock." I replied, and with a flick of my wrist, summoned another Dream, this one I'd spent more time on than the others, it was stronger, faster, tougher, and most importantly, could fly at decent speeds with a passenger. It reached down to pick me up and dropped me onto its back.
"Not fair! If you're going to bring stuff like that, make sure you bring enough for everyone!" Anusha cried in a mock school teacher voice. I laughed and sent a Dream out in front of her. With a cry of delight, she jumped on, and quickly discovered that it wasn't nearly strong or tough enough to support her. She picked herself off the ground and pointed her taser rifle at me. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't shoot you right now!"
"That thing doesn't have nearly enough penetration to get through my robe and armour." I replied, eliciting a scowl from her. She let the barrel drop down anyway, and hurried next to Infernal.
The rest of the trip was spent in silence, though by the end I'd amassed a large collection of decently powered Dreams to work with. They patrolled the streets, phasing into abandoned buildings and clearing out the occasional group of drug dealers who though they could set up street in Infernal's territory. It usually didn't take much to send them packing, though one group were slightly more resilient, and shot the weak Dreams I sent in after them.
"Some punks with guns are trying to set up shop on our territory." I called out to Infernal, who turned around and nodded in acknowledgement.
"Anyone else?"
"One group, but they ran when they saw my Dreams. Excuse me." I pulled out my music player and pulled on the headphones. I browsed through my available songs, and decided on some white noise. With the sound of pouring rain drowning out distractions I could focus my attention of the trigger happy invaders. It didn't take me long to find them again, though I was a little more cautious this time round. A Dream floated up through the floor behind them, and took a swipe at the kid with the gun. His friends wasted no time with their baseball bats, and managed to shatter it in moments. They were to focused to notice the second Dream that snuck up behind them and grabbed them by their shirts.
"This is Infernal's territory. You don't set up shop here." I had my Dream hiss. The kid on the right laughed.
"If you're such a kissass, why don't you kiss mine?" He replied, and burst out laughing. Twit. He stopped laughing when my Dream started carrying him higher into the air. "W-what are you doing?"
"Teaching you a lesson." I replied, and dropped them. One managed to catch himself, and landed perfectly, while the other fell awkwardly, and rolled his foot as he landed. He howled in pain and rolled onto his side.
A few moments later, they were gone.
My name is Dreamer, and I am the most powerful parahuman in the city.
So there you have it, the first chapter in Flare, a fanfic that will follow the journey of Infernal and Dreamer, and their atempt at running a gang in a post Golden Mourning BB. Please review, and hopefully I should see you all again!