The sky bled red as the ground quaked again.
"Everyone else is gone, Ms. Liberty. We should get the hell out of here," the giant woman said. She was standing in front of a huge device, a dimensional portal that was screaming loudly with power as all of its parts rotated around the energy in the middle.
"There are still people-" the petite blonde said.
"-no, there aren't. Don't delude yourself, Ms. Liberty. The annihilation wave is twenty seconds away and burning through the forcefield. Don't fight us here and kill us all," the woman in a mock up of the Statesman's outfit said.
"It's time to go. You are the last Vindicator still here," the final figure said, pulling her maroon and black cape about her.
The wall across the room started to disintegrate in flares of white and blue energy. The four last heroines all charged, barely making it through the portal in time. The disintegration wave hit the Portal Corp generator, and they were flung off in an unknown direction of alternate space and time.
No simple appearance on the ground, ready to investigate a mysterious alternate Earth, but a blast that rocketed them out high above the Atlantic seaboard. Three of the heroines took control of their flight with practiced ease.
The giant woman, on the other hand, swore loudly as she slammed into the ground in the middle of a field and made a huge crater. "Damn it. Couldn't you have caught me?" she shouted into the air. The lap of waves on the rough gravel shore was loud in her ears as she brushed clods of dirt out of her cape.
"It was only three hundred feet. You can jump far higher than that yourself," the albino heroine said, letting her dark cape flutter behind her. Not that you could really tell about her coloration, as her costume only allowed her hair and the lower part of her face to be visible.
"She's got a point, Gitanica," the blonde girl wearing red and blue said. She looked more like a preppy cheerleader in a domino mask, even with the sword at her hip. She landed next to the seven foot tall girl. "This doesn't look like Paragon City though. We must have traveled very far dimensionally speaking."
It was a bit too small, a bit to generally run down. Most of the building could not be more than forty stories tall and most were quite a bit shorter. They seemed to cluster together, too, like a huddle of old, angry friends.
"Do you think they have heroes?" the dark-haired woman in the knock-off of Statesman's outfit asked. Blue electricity crackled around her. "What do you think, Futurias?"
"They do now, Charged State. I think I see the local police. I wonder what PRT stands for?" the albino said. She touched down next to the rest on the forlorn field on the shore and the worn asphalt of the road that ran along the edge of the bay. The air was chill and a hint of snow could be seen falling from the dull gray sky.
The sturdy police cruiser pulled up to the edge of the empty lot. The man and woman that came out were a bit of a surprise. No regular beat cops, these two looked like heavy SWAT in their gear.
Charged Stated shared a look Ms. Liberty. "This could be a problem."
"You there! Are you heroes or villains?" the driver called out.
"We're heroes, officer. Is that a problem?" Ms. Liberty called out as she started walking slowly up to the car.
"Not really, but we usually don't run into four new heroes at once. Especially ones that aren't in any of the PRT databases," the other armored officer said.
"We are..." Ms. Liberty looked away even as she tried to rub away a scuff on her white glove.
"-dimensional refugees. We just managed to escape our Earth before it was destroyed," the woman in red, white and blue said, looking quite imposing with the Grecian-styled face plate. "I'm Charged State. This is Ms. Liberty."
"I'm Gitanica!" the huge woman called out. She slammed her fist into the palm of her hand. She looked the most daring with a black 'swimsuit' that bared her thighs and a belt around her waist. She had white armored boots and shoulder-plates and a cape that fluttered behind her. Like Ms. Liberty, she only had a domino mask to conceal her identity.
"And I am Futurias. So you do have super-heroes?" the last heroine asked. She wore an almost full body outfit of black and red in four-sided diamond patterns with a few dashes of silver-white with a belt and shoulder guards. Her eyes and shoulder guards had a glow even under the bright sunlight.
"I- I think this is above our pay grade, Janet. Call it in and have the Protectorate. Armsmaster can talk to them. How many heroes did you have on your Earth?" the male PRT officer asked.
"Um, what was the number from city hall? Like five or six thousand heroes in Paragon City-" Charged State asked the others.
"And they're all gone. Everyone's gone," Ms. Liberty said, tears streaming down her face. Heartrending sobs finally broke free as she bent over while holding her stomach.
Futurias and Charged State looked on uncomfortably, so it was Gitanica that acted. She took three steps, shrinking seven inches with each step and then hugged the older woman tightly, even as she started to cry herself.
The PRT officers listened uncomfortably. They were not trained to deal with this sort of situation exactly.
"Six thousand in a city? God, that must have been a war zone," Janet said to her fellow.
The rumble of a motorcycle was quite welcome, as it heralded the arrival of the armored tinker known as Armsmaster. He was, as always, quite timely. He parked and looked over at the three woman and one teen.
"They said they were dimensional refugees, barely escaped their Earth before it was destroyed," Janet explained.
"Tech-based hero? Interesting?" Futurias said as she studied the halberd.
"Tinker, yes." Armsmaster was studying the group. "How old are they?"
"Ms. Liberty? I think she just turned eighteen. Hey, Gigantic-brat, how old are you?" Charged State called out.
"Gitanica. And I'm fifteen. And a half." The dark-haired girl gave the woman in red and blue a glare even as she stopped shedding tears.
"I'm sure our local Wards team would appreciate a new member. I'm Armsmaster, the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate," the native Tinker said. "Why don't we head over to the PRT's headquarters and get some information and maybe some food?" Textbook response to refugees was to feed them and keep them occupied.
"Local? You guys are a national team?" Charged State asked curiously.
"Just a bit." The bearded tinker gave them a tight grin at that.
Aegis zoomed through the air, called in from school for a pretty important reason, he'd guess. Not a battle or an emergency, though, as he was the only one called out. He found Director Piggot in conference room number six.
The reinforced one, in case things came to a fight. It was rarely used and was always ready 'just in case'. Today must be 'just in case' then.
"Aegis, you made good time," Armsmaster said as he nodded his helmeted head in his direction.
"I guess he and Futurias are going to get along fine. They both like their dark red costumes," Charged State said with a bit of humor.
Her outfit looked fairly formal and covered almost every inch of her, Aegis noted. Very patriotic themed.
"He's the current leader of this Wards group? The underage junior hero group?" the woman who wore red, black with silver highlights asked.
"Correct. I think that Gitanica here will probably fit in pretty well," Director Piggot said.
"Gitanica?" Aegis asked, looked at the girl that had to be only five foot four, if that.
The girl smirked as she stood up and then Aegis suddenly found himself staring up at the girl... no, woman. "Yeah. Gitanica."
"I take it you are a brute then?" the armored teen boy asked with a grin.
"You use that term? Yeah. Super strong, invulnerable and I throw a real mean uppercut," Gitanica said as she sat back down, not bothering to shrink down.
"So what's your brute rating, if you don't mind me asking?" Aegis asked.
"Huh? Brute's my job on the team. I'm tough, but I'm one of those sorts that gets faster and stronger as I go along. Unlike miss scrapper over there," the giant woman said.
"We use brute as a baseline for people that are strong and tough. Aegis here is a brute 2 rating, as he runs about two to three times stronger than a normal human," Armsmaster said.
"We categorize by team roles and power types. Charged State is also a brute, using electricity to protect herself while also having super strength. Ms. Liberty is noted as a scrapper, using martial arts and her invulnerability to strike nearly as hard as the brutes. I'm actually the odd one out, as I am a defender," Futurias explained.
"Dark powers are hax," Gitanica said with a grumble and frown. "She's almost as versatile as a controller and a decent force multiplier."
"How do you rank your powers then?" Piggot asked curiously.
"It was all handled on security or threat levels. Paragon City scales things up to level fifty, though some people, break that. I think Futurias and Ms. Liberty are both unofficially Security Level 53. They get all the good support as part of the Freedom Phalanx," Charged State said.
"It gets the big bullseye painted on you, too," Ms. Liberty said in a soft tone. "So you have all the villains trying to kill you for years. And then you die, even if you can take a nuke to your face," the blonde super heroine said in an angry funk, staring at the polished surface of the table.
"Her grandfather was murdered by a supervillain in a bid to destroy our world about four months ago," Futurias said softly. That had been a nasty fight to take down that supervillain out in space as he tried to collapse space and time to let the Rularu into reality.
"That was a hairy fight," Charged State said in a shudder. They had dodged that bullet so much it seemed like destiny. Until they finally failed spectacularly.
Piggot was staring at the albino and the blonde. "So you guys are top tier heroes from where you come from?"
"I was going to take grandfather's place on the Freedom Phalanx, which is the main super team in the USA. And Futurias has been a regular reservist for how many years?" Ms. Liberty asked as she finally looked up at the other woman.
That got her a shrug back.
"Well, both of our teams would like to have you join. I think you would be very good assets," Armsmaster said, sounding sincerely happy.
"I'm game. Beating up badguys is good therapy for me," Charged State said. Anything to distract her from the last sights she had of her super team trying to flee in their hastily repaired spaceship.
"Hell yeah!" Gitanica said happily.
"I- I need some time away from the battle," Ms. Liberty said in a soft tone. Even her grandfather had taken time to grieve.
"We have some therapists if you would like someone to talk to. Are any of you close? For support?" Piggot asked the quartet.
Charged State was frowning. "We're... technically sorta almost related."
That got Ms. Liberty to shoot an angry glare at the woman that dared wear that iconic outfit.
"Perhaps a bit more of an explanation?" the leader of the Brockton Bay PRT asked.
"I'm a modified clone of her grandfather, the Statesman. Probably to be used by the Countess in some of her illegal businesses," Charged State said, still frowning.
That was a bit surprising to the natives.
"I'd suggest just trying to be there. Obviously there's some bad feelings from the past, but I think you should try," Piggot said.
"Hmm." Armsmaster was wondering how to bring up this subject. "Third generation cape? When did this your world's first superheroes show up?"
"Statesman was listed as fighting in both World Wars, wasn't he?" Futurias asked the deceased heroes granddaughter.
"Yeah, but he only gained his power after World War I."
That got a whistle out of Armsmaster. "Almost a hundred years?"
Piggot coughed into her hand to get everyone's attention. "Gitanica, schooling is mandatory. I'd normally work to get you transferred over to Arcadia High School, but you are probably going to be spotted soon. So I'll get you into another school in the city. Probably Winslow High School or My Mother of Mercy Immaculata."
"A catholic school? No way in hell," Gitanica said vehemently. She had never liked that when she was a kid.
"Are you sure? Winslow is a tough school, full of gang members and problem kids," Aegis warned.
"Sounds fine to me," the giant replied.
Aegis chuckled. "One of our members also goes to Winslow. I'll introduce you to Shadow Stalker some time." They will probably get along like a house on fire.
"Do you ladies have any civilian jobs you would like to look at getting back into?" Piggot asked.
The three older heroines shared a quick look. They all shook their heads. They had all been full time heroines.
"So how do you want to do your first patrol?" Aegis asked Gitanica.
"Eh, I usually just go from roof to roof, checking alleys for crooks," the younger girl replied.
"What about you two?" Armsmaster asked Futurias and Charged State.
"We'll probably just fly around. I can avoid glowing and I know for a fact that Futurias can be damn sneaky when she wants," the clone in red and blue said.
"Ms. Liberty? Would you like to come with me? We'll look at some temporary housing and maybe some ID so you can go out," Piggot said as she stood up.
"Flyers are useful. I'll probably have you guys go with Dauntless, Assault and Battery for your first patrols then. Let's go and give you the tour of our base out in the bay," Armsmaster explained as he stood up too.
They nodded at that.
Gina jammed her hands into her unneeded jacket pockets, blowing a puff of steamy breath into the cold air as she walked towards the front door of Winslow High the next morning. January sucked and she missed the weather controllers in Paragon City that made sure it never snowed or got that cold. This school looked as worn and troubled as she thought it would be, as the 'trouble magnet' school.
She looked sidelong at Terrance Baker, her 'foster' parent. He was the husband of one of the PRT officers. Piggot had managed to get her fostered 'within' the system so that only people in the know were involved.
Terry (as he hated his full name) gave her a nod. "Come on, kiddo. Let's get your paperwork finalized."
"Yeah," she replied. She hated being 'just' Gina again. And she just knew that school was going to suck.
Half an hour later, she had her packet with her information, including her locker location. She walked down the hall, keeping a sharp eye out for the toughs. And there was her locker, two down from the newly painted one.
"Fresh meat, Sophia?" one of the taller girls asked her friend. She was what most people would consider a petite cutie that reminded Gina too much of Ms. Liberty.
"Naw, I hear Hebert is supposed to be back from the hospital finally. I don't want her to think we've forgotten her," her dark skinned, athletic friend said in a gloating voice. "Oh, and here she is."
"Oh, Taylor! It looks like freaking out and going to the hospital actually helped your complexion a little bit," the redhead in the group said in a faux happy voice. "I think I see some of your zits are actually gone now."
"I guess it isn't acting much if you are nuts, but I heard you actually freaked out and attacked the janitor," Sophia said with glee in her voice. "I mean, you were only in that locker a few hours. You'd think you nearly died or something. I mean, it was just filthy like you."
The curly haired girl seemed to sink in on herself and tried to move around them.
The redhead just shook her head. "I guess she really is touched in the head. Can't even talk."
Gina decided she'd had enough of that. "Man, I thought I left the shitheads behind at my last school," Gina called out loudly. "But at least they wouldn't pick on someone just getting back from the hospital.
"Are you sure you want pick her side, shrimp?" Sophia asked as she loomed over Gina.
"Nah. I'm on my own side. I just chose that you aren't on it. Shit head." Gina knew this sort of tough. Back down in the slightest and they'd try to tear you down.
"Ooh. She so scary for being a twig." Sophia moved to go past Gina and back down the hall, her elbow catching Gina's bicep hard. She frowned at the feel, as the girl must have serious muscles for it to be that unyielding.
Gina made an act of rubbing her arm. "Ooh, the violent sort."
They only tittered back in laughter.
"You okay? Um, Hebert, right?" the scruffy looking girl asked, looking up slightly at the taller girl.
"Taylor. Taylor Hebert. Are you new?" the girl asked suspiciously.
"Yeah, by way of being really damn lost. I'm Gina. Word of advice, they'll just keep pulling you down if you don't resist," Gina said as she check her locker and unloaded her lunch box into it.
"That just makes it worse," Taylor said in a muted tone, back to sinking into herself a little bit.
"Just my advice. I'll probably be a target for a bit. See ya, curly," the slightly shorter girl said.
It was during lunch that Gina found out that Taylor was the prime target for all the bullies. And had been shoved into a locker full of tampons and pads. She'd then had to be sedated and taken to the hospital.
Everyone knew it was the trio that had done it, somehow. They just weren't sure how they had picked the lock. Sophia, Emma and Madison. The runner, the model and the 'cutie'.
The bullies did try to trip her down the stairwell, but that didn't work so well when the smaller girl caught the handrail and stopped her fall with a very slight application of super-strength.
Then she got to do the whole big introduction thing with the Wards tonight.
Yay.
Gina did a quick change after school in an alley and then left, using Gitanica express bounding-ways. She wanted to get a view of Brockton Bay from hundreds of feet up and her corded legs made those super leaps a thing of ease. She only had to be slightly careful on her landings, as Brockton Bay was a lot tighter and compressed than Paragon City was for the most part.
She gave a wave to the flying hero in front of her. With a boom she landed on hard concrete and with a second 'thoom' noise shot back into the air.
Dauntless watched the girl making thousand foot leaps with an obvious practiced ease. And was actually faster than he was currently was flying.
Gitanica landed with a thoom on the ground in front of the PRT Headquarters here in Brockton Bay. It was a heavily reinforced building with a helicopter landing pad next to it. But other than that, it looked quite normal. She waved to a couple of families as she walked through the doors, ducking slightly step in. "Hey, Aegis!" she boomed out. Even had the obligatory gift shop.
He finished signing a photo. "Hello, Gitanica! Ready to head upstairs to meet the rest of the team?"
"She's a Ward?" blurted one ten year old girl in shock.
"Yup! Just joined yesterday," she replied to the small crowd. "Who is all going to be there?"
"All the Wards, the local Protectorate and some bigwigs from the PRT." He led her into the secure 'Tinker' elevator that lifted smoothly up at high speeds.
At the top, they walked down the hall to the viewing windows 'for tours', which had Gitanica raising an eyebrow under her domino mask. In the main area was a whole crowd of kids and adults.
Clockblocker was talking to Futurias as they entered through the security door. "So you guys don't use helmets much?"
The Wards 'base' was a large domed area, with movable partitions for 'private areas' or dorm rooms.
"On occasion, but those two are brutes, so they don't actually need armor. It's pretty redundant for them. As for myself, my shadow powers can protect me from most harm," the albino explained.
Vista looked over at the new girl and whistled. "Wow, she's as tall as they said. Hi, I'm Vista!"
"Hi!" she said as she waved back.
Next to her was the only other female Ward, Shadow Stalker that was frowning under her full mask. Something was nagging about her. "So she's a big fat target," she said disdainfully.
"Good thing I'm invulnerable," the giantess said with a roll of her eyes.
Gallant was frowning. "I thought you said she was fifteen?" he asked Miss Militia.
"I am." With a thought, Gitanica shrunk to her normal height. "My mutation allows me to change size a bit. I was stuck that big for a couple of years-"
"The fuck? You're the twig," Shadow Stalker exclaimed in anger and shock as it suddenly clicked who the girl was.
Gitanica just stared at her for a second in consternation, then parsed the words. "The- twig? How the hell do you know me?" Who was it that had called her that today? At least they hadn't called her flatty.
"Oh, you guys must have met at school. Shadow Stalker goes to Winslow High, too," Aegis said cautiously, suddenly feeling a new tension.
The brute was looking at her much more closely as the adults talked in the background. The dark skin around her eyes clinched it. "Oh, you're that bully that sent that girl Herbert to the hospital."
Shadow Stalker just stared at her, fury bubbling within her. "You little shit."
"She what?" Aegis demanded, suddenly alert and balanced on the balls of his feet.
Piggot blinked at that. She had not heard about this and the school administration should have let her know. "Shadow Stalker? Do you have something you would like to explain?
"Some girl freaked out over a prank, blew it all out of proportion. She's a weak, stupid bitch and blew it all out of proportion," Shadow Stalker said dismissively.
"Well, according to what I heard, she was locked up for hours in a locker filled with tampons and pads that had been left there since before Christmas and had to be tranqed and taken to the hospital. After you and your friends bullied her for over a year. I was warned off from being her friend, because you and Emma told everyone that she doesn't deserve friends," Gitanica said, her fists clenched at her side. She hated-hated bullies with a passion.
"That's bullshit. She's just a weak little introvert that thinks she's better than she is," Shadow Stalker said in a bluff.
"Shadow Stalker, have you been bullying this girl for over a year?" Armsmaster demanded.
"No way, Gitanica's just trying to get me in trouble," the shadow phaser said.
"My lie detector pinged on her statement of innocence, director," Armsmaster said.
"Oh, shit? Armsmaster added a tinker lie detector to his armor?" Clockblocker said. No more trying to bullshit the Protectorate leader. Which meant not doing some of his pranks. Crap.
"Fuck." Shadow Stalker glared at Gitanica, but left her crossbow on her hip. There was no way in hell she was going to even try to take on everyone here. Maybe she could slip away later.
"If you will excuse us, Armsmaster and I need to have a very long chat with Shadow Stalker. Bullying a girl for over a year doesn't exactly make me think she's trying to be a hero. And we might need to talk about her situation. In depth," Piggot said. "Let's go, Shadow Stalker.
Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck, Sophia Hess chanted mentally. They couldn't send her back to Juvie over a stupid prank, could they?
"So, um, awkward confrontation aside, nice to meet you, kid," Assault called out.
"So what are your powers? Other than being big and tough?" the woman wearing an outfit that had a metallic circuit woven into it.
"Pretty much just physically buffed stuff. I can jump and run fast. I picked up a few tricks from Ghost Widow, but really I'm just a brute," Gitanica explained.
"We have a lot of 'brutes' on the team now," Velocity noted in humor. "So my place as speedster is secure."
"We'll have to go for a race, then. I'm not the super-best at the running speed thing, but I can hit a couple of hundred miles per hour," the newest Ward said with a smile.
Gallant was nodding to himself. "So we got a decent amount of new people. Any of you do party tricks?"
That got a snort out of Charged State. "I can recharge your electronics, if that helps."
All of the wards looked at Futurias, who slowly noted them all looking at her. "Most people get creeped out by my darkness. So no tricks. I have been known to go clubbing at times."
"How about you, Gitanica?" Vista asked.
"I just get big, sorry." She gave them a shrug.
Taylor was having the best day of her new life. Once she had managed to drag herself to school, she had found out that Sophia was no longer attending Winslow High and that Emma and Madison were suspended for two weeks!
A couple of the regular hanger ons were still around and made some nasty comments, but even that seemed fairly unfocused. They tried to pick on the new girl, but she was willing to give as good as she got. In fact, she could be rather mean at times.
They had barely said two words, but Taylor finally had a little bit of hope. The new girl hadn't told her to just shut up or go away.
After school, Taylor just walked out the main door like everyone else. No verbal attacks, no tripping and her outfit wasn't messed up and she actually had all of her items in her backpack. She was surprised to discover that the new girl was walking in her general direction outside on the streets.
"Oh, you live this way?" Taylor asked.
"Yeah. Foster parents." Gina seemed to be thinking hard, her expression none too happy looking. "My mother died recently."
"And your father?" Taylor asked curiously as they walked past a couple of members of the ABB spray painting on the wall of a store in an alley.
"Don't know him. Just a John, but he's probably dead, too. Eh," Gina replied with a shrug.
"Oh. Sorry." Taylor felt a stab of pain for the loss of her own mother.
They walked for another five minutes Gina turned off down an alley.
"My foster's place is this way. Probably see you later. 'morrow," the scruffy haired girl said.
"See you, Gina." That was civil. Almost friendly. Well, not really. Taylor was about a hundred feet further along when she heard a crash from the alley. She took off at a sprint back the direction she came.
In the alley, she found the large garbage container had a two foot wide dent deep in its side, but nothing else. With a quiet footsteps, because she did not want to become a crime statistic, she moved quickly to the back lot behind the boarded up businesses.
Gina was kicking a can, sending it across the snow frosted ground. She looked around casually but missed Taylor in the shadows with just a bit of her head sticking out
And then with a tap on a bracelet on her left wrist, she was suddenly wearing a black superhero outfit with a short cape. She crouched down and then with a soft thoom, shot off into the air in an arc.
Taylor just stared in shock at the dwindling speck in the air as it flew up and then down and out of sight.
Gina was a cape? And not one that she recognized either. So maybe, just maybe, her idea to become a hero herself wasn't so stupid? Taylor disappeared down the alley and headed home.
"This is dumb," Gitanica said as she looked over the heads of her teammates later that next week.
"Typical PR stuff," Vista said in a bored tone. "Have to do this at least once a month."
'This' was the Wards visiting the local mall for a meet and greet. They walked in to the main food court area where a little stage had been set up. They waved to the crowd of people visiting in the evening. Their Protectorate guests were Triump and Charged State.
The mayor of Brockton Bay shook hands all around, winking at Triumph. "My, they grow them big in your neck of the woods," he said to Gitanica.
"Um, sure," the girl said uncomfortably.
After a few speeches, they were let to wander around. All of the fast food places were offering a free meal, which all the wards took advantage of. Vista grabbed some pizza, while Whiz Kid was a burger eater. Aegis, Gallant and Shadow Stalker all ordered Chinese, while Gitanica grabbed a gyro with fries.
Shadow Stalker threw her a glare as they retired to a curtained off area so they could unmask enough to eat.
"Got a problem?" Gitanica asked.
"Not that I can act on," the other girl said.
"You want to take a shot at me, I'm sure we can find somewhere to beat each other up." Gitanica took a big bite of her gyro.
"Really?" Shadow Stalkers dark brown eyes narrowed at the girl. "You aren't going to complain to Piggot or Armsmaster, are you?"
"Nah. Figure the rest of the team can watch to make sure we don't go overboard," the bigger girl said. "It's good stress relief."
"It's against my better judgement," Aegis said thoughtfully. "But I can see how it might help. I'll just let Armsmaster know ahead of time."
"Where did Charged State go?" Vista asked as she looked around. She was wearing a light-weight mask even with her helmet removed.
It was Triumph that answered. "She decided she wanted to follow a couple of shady character. I guess she can do a stealth thing with light from her electricity."
"Ah, we're missing out on all the fun," Gitanica said with a pout.
That got a laugh out of Clockblocker and Vista.
"You aren't exactly stealthy, Gitanica," Vista said with a grin on her face. At Gitanica's answering grin, she had the odd idea that she was laughing at them for some reason.
They found out later that evening that Charged State had followed two of the ABB gang members back to a warehouse where she had overheard that Lung was going to be.
"I am not a fan of stakeouts," Gallant said. "Especially with a Trigonometry test first thing tomorrow." The fact that Shadow Stalker was also in that class did not help his stress levels. She was feeling nearly murderous almost all the time since she had been forcibly transferred. And his armor, even the faux tinker armor, was cold at night in winter.
Gitanica was not tired or cold in the least. She had switched to one of her alternate (and totally different) costumes, a bright white outfit with a long cape. "I see some cars arriving out front."
The cars had disgorged a large group of mostly Asian men and a few women. The man in the middle was wearing a metal mask as he headed towards the warehouse.
Gallant nodded. "I see them, too. Gallant to Armsmaster, looks like Lung has arrived."
The click onto the secured radio heralded the leader of the adult team on the radio. "Acknowledged. Just remember, this is reconnaissance only. We will only engage Lung if at all absolutely required."
"Yes, sir!" Gallant said fervently. He had absolutely no desire to get into a fight with the dragon-man. Even if Miss Militia, Assault and Battery were here as backup down the street, parked in an alley in a PRT swat vehicle.
"I could take him," Gitanica said under her breath.
The sound of pins falling behind them was their only warning as the ABB assassin Oni appeared and dropped two grenades and then went on to stab Gallant in the back.
"Grenades!" Gallant bellowed out in panic.
Gitanica took two steps and then flopped down on the grenades as they went off.
"I liked that outfit," she complained as she got back up. "You okay there, Gallant? Gallant?" She looked over at him, seeing the blood pooling under his prone body.
Oni was staring down at them from the next roof over. His demon mask seemed to be staring at the girl intently. Gitanica only looked slightly singed.
"Man down. Engaging the freak in the demon mask," Gitanica said shooting off the ground in a short thirty foot hop, punching through demon-masked assassin in a spatter of dust. "The hell?"
"That's Oni," Armsmaster called out over the radio. "He's a teleporter that leaves behind short term combat clones. Can you perform first aid on Gallant?"
"Not while fighting the damn teleporting stalker!"
Another figure snapped into existence. "Futurias, reporting in." Life tap active, initiating Twilight Grasp even as she reached out and pulled at his life force as the mental menome mantra activated her powers on the surprised Oni. The teleporting assassin felt a small wave of weakness, then had teleported away.
Gallant coughed, spitting up blood in his helmet. "Ugh. Anyone get the name of that brute?"
"You'll live," the albino said flatly.
"When did you get here?" Assault asked as he flashed over in a blur of speed, Battery only a moment behind him. "I thought you were back at base?"
"I am a teleporter. So the Oni mask is my foe." With a snap, Futurias disappeared again. And again, suddenly chasing after Oni who kept dropping grenades that failed to hit the woman who was keeping up with him.
"Protectorate," a distorted voice called out from below. Lung was already growing and wisps of steam were drifting up from his bare skin. He charged suddenly at Armsmaster.
"Lung's incoming," Armsmaster said, frowning as he was forced to dodge backwards, deflecting with his polearm. "He's powering up quickly. Everyone-"
"Kowabunga!" Gitanica shouted, landing with a boom right next to the surprised Lung, looking him eye to eye. "Cool scales." Then she plowed a massive double-fisted punch into his face and knocked him back two feet. Then she stomped the ground hard, smashing a crater into the ground and knocking Lung back a bit further.
The Asian gang leader snarled, even as he felt a moment of confusion. From Armsmaster and the arriving Assault and Battery, he felt his power reacting as it normally would. Against this strange woman in white... nothing. He slammed a massive fist into her face, only to blink as she took the hit while grinning.
The gut punch lifted him off the ground slightly even as flames erupted from his silvery form. With a roar, Lung breathed fire over her and got a quick jab to his face and a right cross coming the other way for his efforts.
"Shooo-eee. The girl's got gumption. Doesn't follow orders at all, but I'd say I've taken a small shine to her brashness," Assault said, even as he zoomed in and punched Lung in his extending ribcage. He zipped back out of range before he could feel the flames.
A second later, Battery did the same on the other side, even as Gitanica slammed a huge haymaker into Lung's battered face.
"Bitchssss," Lung said even as he became even larger and stronger. His next punch was easily twice as strong as his first attack during this fight.
"Ooh. The lisp, its scares me, mommy!" Gitanica catcalled even as she channeled her rage, her fury into even greater ferocity. Her next double-fist downward smash actually caused Lung's knee to buckle slightly.
"Ssssstrongggur?" Lung asked, then smiled as his metal mask melted off his face. He blasted a much hotter fire into her face.
Gitanica just smiled as she punched his face even harder right back. "You bet, asswipe. Strong enough to take you down. Like your mother goes down on Kent Street." Hmm. Not the best taunt, she thought to herself.
Lung paused for just a second, then roared in fury as he realized what she was saying.
"You know, taunting the guy that fought Leviathan to a standstill on his lonesome is probably not a smart idea," Battery said even as she held herself still, circuits glowing across her body.
"Creative though. Lung's going to rip her a new breathing hole though, right where her head used to be," Assault said with a cheery tone and a wide grin. "Ready, luv?"
"Now!"
The duo charged in again, both of them hitting Lung's ribs and then his head back and forth for a second before having to retreat.
Amsmaster was sending blasts out from his polearm, but knew he was just annoying Lung by this time. Gitanica was doing a good job of matching him for the moment (which was a total surprise, he had to admit). But this was just going to get worse for them.
Lung was knocked forward as a rocket from Miss Militia hit him in between his shoulder blades. And finally he could feel his power grow again, wings ripping out of his back even as his form became more sauron in shape. Another blast of fire caught the giant woman in the face, leaving her open for both of his own fists to slam into her stomach.
"Shit. Haven't been hit that hard since the Reichsman," Gitanica said, wiping blood from her lip. She slammed both of her fists into his dragon head again, whipping it around.
"Getting too hot for me, Armsmaster," Battery called out.
Up on the rooftops, Gallant was firing his blasts at the dodging Oni as he and Futurias flashed across the rooftops in a game of cat and mouse teleport. Oni had quit dropping grenades. Futurias was cloaked in some sort of shadow forcefield and was harder to spot as she was half-shadow.
And... now, Futurias thought to herself. Pulsing black energy shot out in a clump from her hands, catching the new Oni on the edge of the roof. Then a larger black wave of shadows slammed the paralyzed assassin off the roof top. With a thud, he slammed into the ground and into unconscious.
"Got you," the albino in black and maroon said. "And Gitanica went and charged the arch-villain head on. Of course."
Lung slammed his fists in a brutal, one-two-three-four combos even as Gitanica tried to fend off his attack. He was going to rip the woman apart in front of the rest of the-
Shadows engulfed him in the most disorienting manner, then ground suddenly seeped up a cloying dark tar that seemed to sap even more strength. And he saw the new figure, flying above the ground, pulling energy from him even as he noted that the giant woman was visibly less hurt.
"Took you long enough, defender," Gitanica said with a wide smile on her face as she kept pounding on Lung.
"We need to pull back. He's starting to get to the level where he's going to be a threat to the entire block," Armsmaster called out.
"But we can take him! He's got to have a top level," the newest ward called out.
"No, we can't. And this is nowhere near his top power," the bearded leader shouted back even as he had to back up another fifteen feet front the blistering heat.
A bolt of blue lightning slammed home as Charged State finally arrived. Electricity crackled over her body, hurting his metallic scales. "I'll hold him off long enough for the rest of you to get to safety," she called out, slamming her fists down upon his head with quite a bit of force.
"And what's going to stop Lung from ripping you apart?" Miss Militia called out, firing a heavy anti-material rifle at the huge fiery dragon.
Lightning slammed home from the sky upon Charged State. After they blinked their eyes, they realized that she had turned into a humanoid figure of pure lightning, slugging it out with the dragon.
"Alright, everyone! Let's go," Armsmaster called out angrily.
Lung was too focused on hitting the living lightning bolt in front of him, only noticing that he was starting to lose some of his strength as there were less parahumans around. In fact, it felt like there were none, even as another lightning fist scorched his jaw.
Charged State felt her energy state finally starting to destabilize after several minutes, so rocketed straight up into the air at full speed and then off towards the south and downtown.
"Cowarz! Cowarz!" Lung roared in fury. He turned his back and then started to walk past the his burning warehouse. This would set him back a lot, so he would have to find a way to recoup his loss. He would lose face if he did not respond
With a 'bzzz-zap' Charged State reverted to her physical form, fell thirty feet with a heavy thud and then skidded across the rooftop.
She lay panting for several minutes. "Ouch," she said in a pained voice.
"What part of 'do not engage Lung' did you not understand?" Armsmaster asked the teen in front of him.
"The part where we were attacked by a teleporting assassin and things went to shit. Sir." Her sarcasm could have cut a fatal wound if it was a weapon.
"Don't sass me. You could have got yourself killed," the leader of the Protectorate snapped out. "Lung is only not considered a S-class threat because he follows some of the unspoken rules. He might be a crook, a thug and a violent maniac, but he knows not to rock the boat too much."
"What the hell? That Oni guy actually attacked us first, we just defended ourselves," Gitanica shouted right back.
Futurias had her arms crossed in front of her. "There had better not be a problem with us defending ourselves."
"No, there is not," Miss Militia said, interceding before Armsmaster could step into it further. "But we do ask you to try and be understanding that we know our foes a bit better than you. Lung has faced off against the whole team and reinforcements like the Triumvirate."
"So a top tier archvillain," Futurias mused aloud.
Gallant was just staring at them in bemusement. "Please tell me this isn't normal for you guys?"
"Nah, only every couple of weeks," Gitanica said in amusement, her bruised face had a wide smile on it.
"Are you going to be able to go to school in the morning?" he asked worriedly.
"This should be mostly gone by morning," the younger girl said with a shrug.
"And I thought Aegis was a masochist," the armored teen said with a groan and a facepalm.
"I don't enjoy being hurt, dumbass," Gitanica said as she glared at the boy.
"Can't you heal her?" Battery asked from the sideline where she and Assault were leaning up against the wall of the Ward's base.
"Tapping into friends life force to heal someone else is usually considered assault," Futurias explained in an almost flat voice.
"I'm not volunteering! Just saying," Assault said while waving his arms around.
Futurias looked confused as she stared at him. "That's humor, right? He was trying to be funny?" she asked Charged State.
"Yes, it was," Gitanica said in interruption with a sigh.
"I don't see the humor. It seemed silly," she said. "Or was that why it was humorous?"
"You need to get out more, Futurias," Charged State said with a hint of sadness.
"Do you need to talk to a psychiatrist, Futurias? Most people don't have problems understanding humor," Armsmaster said with a bit of worry in his voice per the normal doctrine for the Protectorate.
"It's just something I'm learning. It was not part of my initial knowledge that was downloaded into me upon creation," she said, shrugging her shoulders.
"I so called it! Robot!" Assault held out his hand to Battery. "Pay up, darling!"
"I am not a robot," Futurias snapped out angrily, showing a strong emotion finally. "I was a biological weapon until I rebelled against my creator. I'm am at least 95 % human genome still."
"Whut?" Gitanica said. She looked at Charged State. "Did you know that?"
"I'd heard rumors. I thought it was as likely as the fact she was from thousands of years in the future," red-white and blue garbed heroine said.
"Her name's Futurias," Battery noted.
"I traveled a one way path from a far off future. So it's not exactly useful now. I was still trying to figure out why the Menders thought you could only time travel a few thousand years back and forth," Futurias explained.
No time machine, but knew some time travellers, Armsmaster noted to himself. "Back on track here, Gitanica, you are off rotation for a few days until you are up to full. Since you said you will recover on your own, I'm going to let pain be a teacher here. If someone says don't, at least try to listen and understand. Okay?"
"'kay," the teen replied in a laid back, sarcastic tone.
Teens were going to be the death of him, the tinker lamented to himself. "Alright. Everyone, be back at nine in the morning. I'm sure Director Piggot will have something to say about the major property destruction that happened tonight."
Miss Militia gave them a shrug. "She's never happy at property damage. It was just some abandoned warehouses, so she really don't have a lot to complain about. And we caught Oni. He's a murderous villain that needed to be off the streets."
"Yay. We caught the mook," Gitanica said in a very deadpan tone.
"He seemed to be more under-boss material," Charged State noted aloud.
Teens, Armsmaster lamented again. "Which was a good job, Gallant. Great initiative."
"Thanks, sir!" Gallant gave him a thumbs up.
Jessica Duncan was not a terribly happy girl. She had a duffel bag over her shoulder, Excalibur jabbing into her shoulder on occasion. While the PRT was quite happy to help with identification and a fake background, they only gave her a small stipend as she was not 'one of their heroes'. She had heard that Gitanica was actually earning pay towards her own college fund.
"So what made you decide to look at our University of Massachusetts* here in Dorchester?" her guide asked, rubbing her gloved hands in the cold.
"Oh, it's just pretty close and I really do need to get into college. I'll have to try and find a part time job, Tara." Or join the local Brockton Bay Protectorate. Which was looking more like a requirement than something she wanted to do. It was only about ten minutes flight away.
The engineering building's top level suddenly exploded. Almost instantly people started screaming and running in a panic.
Tara pulled out her fairly large cell phone and dialed 911. "Oh my god! Why would someone-"
A red, blue and gold blur shot off into the air as Jessica's duffel bag thudded to the ground, interrupting the guide.
"Jessica?" The young intern looked around, not believing what must have happened. The girl must have been a cape!
Ms. Liberty flew in through a shattered window, looking around desperately for survivors. She zipped along at a quite brisk float down the hallway, heading to the epicenter of the blast.
"Ohgod-ohgod-ohgod-ohgod-" a young woman was repeating over and over. The half-Asian girl with blue eyes looked panicked as she sat in front of a cone of destruction. It looked like someone had set off a claymore in the direction away from her.
It was pretty obvious that she may have been part of the attack here, Ms. Liberty noted to herself. Time to see if she could stop someone from panicking and becoming a villain. "My name is Ms. Liberty. Let's get you to safety!" she called out in as comforting tone as possible.
"But I killed them," Rebecca Chang said, still stunned at her own actions.
"You look unhappy about it too. Come on, let's go and try to sort it all out. Trust me, I'm a hero," Ms. Liberty said in a soothing tone.
"You aren't another one of Empire Eighty-Eight's goons are you? Ruining my work?" the student demanded even as she stood up and staggered a bit away up. She didn't have any backup weapons!
"Those are the white supremacist jerks? No way in hell. I've made it sort of my mission in life to beat up neo-Nazi thugs," Ms. Liberty said fervently.
"They won't put me down? Steal my work?" the woman asked with tears running down her face. Or ruin her?
"Not if I can help it." Ms. Liberty held out her white gloved hand.
Coughing from the fire that was spreading rapidly, the student took the offer. In moments, they were flying outside.
"I've got to go back, help everyone I can. But I'll be back and we can talk. Okay?" At the woman's tentative nod, Ms. Liberty shot back into the air and back into the building.
She had more people to save.
(*Specifically changed to make this part actually make plausible sense)
Gina nodded to Taylor as they walked to school a blustery gray morning. Her hands were stuffed in her coat's pocket. "Yo, Taylor."
"Hey, Gina," the taller girl said as they fell in step beside her. "I, uh, heard that Emma and Madison are due back from their suspension finally. I have a hard time imagining that they actually got punished. The admin guys looked like they were just going to ignore it entirely."
"Sophia's friends, right?" Gina thought back a bit. "The redhead is Emma, right? I'm not too worried about them."
"What happened to Empire Eight-Eight wannabe that threatened to beat you up when you called him a racist when you were going to your history class?" Taylor asked even as she hunched her shoulders against the cold wind off the bay. She had to go to her own English class.
"I broke his arm." Gina waited for the stare of disbelief from the other girl. "No, I asked him if he proved his superiority by beating up girls. And then his girlfriend kicked him in the nuts and dropped him like a bad habit."
Taylor snorted in laughter, then looked mortified. She looked away intently at nothing in particular.
They walked along for a few minutes quietly, the crunch of the frost loud in their ears.
"Say, Gina? What would you do if you got super powers?" Taylor asked curiously.
Gina snorted softly in frustration. That seemed to be all kids at this school talked about some days. "Oh, I probably would go nuts, rampage through the neighborhood, get beat up by some lame third stringer hero, get thrown in some super-max prison for hardcore supervillains, then get broken out by some fascist bastard and be used as a superthug muscle until that same lame third stringer knocks some sense into my head. Then I'd be a screwed up hero that likes to beat up people."
Taylor's eyes were wide in shock as she took in the strangely specific and odd answer. "Um, okay. I just sorta thought about being a hero like Alexandria?"
"A leader, to be praised, always looked up to? She's probably so fucked in the head its not funny." Everyone had hangups, in Gina's mind. Her's were just more blatant.
Taylor opened her mouth, but realized she never really heard of Alexandria ever doing anything normal or fun, just being one of the big leaders of the Protectorate and the Triumvirate. "Huh, never thought of it that way."
"Wow, we're gone for a little while and Taylor actually has a friend again. I guess even a loser like you can manage to not screw up everything," a cloyingly sweet voice said as they entered the main doors to Winslow.
"Emma," Taylor said cautiously. "Gina just is being polite. We don't even have a lot in common." Except maybe super-powers.
"So you continue to be the loser of Winslow High," the redhead sneered. Madison just nodded her head at that point.
Taylor's eyes had hardened at that. "Yeah, but you lost your thug. And I think the administration is actually on to you now. So I wonder how long it will be before you get suspended again?" she said as bravely as she could.
"You little bitch-"
"Miss Barnes. Do you have a problem?" a woman's voice said from her right.
"Uh, no Mrs. Tenegall," Emma said a lot less vigorously.
"Then why don't you get to class, before I have to write you up again?" the stout older hispanic woman asked. She gave Gina and Taylor a glare. "You too."
The black garbed teen feinted with a punch to the face, then shadow stepped through the retaliation. She re-materialized and kicked her opponents knee, hard with her steel reinforced combat boot.
It was like kicking a steel beam. Ow.
Vista sat in between Aegis and Gallant, while Clockblocker just leaned on the wall next to them.
"They really aren't hurting each other, are they?" the teen time stopper asked the group.
"Shadow Stalker really doesn't have anything dangerous enough except her crossbow and bolts, while Gitanica can't hit her very easily," Vista replied as she nodded her head.
"She also has to hold back in case she hits Shadow Stalker," Aegis noted aloud. "So she's not fighting at her full ability."
Gallant nodded. "She was much faster and harder hitting against Lung."
That got a shiver from Vista. She couldn't believe that a Ward actually got into a fight (and wanted to fight!) with that scary monster.
"Are you done beating on my face?" Gitanica asked snidely. "I'm sure your fists need some more bruises."
"Not yet. Going to try and hurt you a little bit, but we might have to call for Panacea," Shadow Stalker said, a smile in her voice. She charged in again, switching a slightly more circular and spinning style of hits.
They weren't hurting the invulnerable brick at all, but this might she thought to herself. Shadow Stalker twirled around in her phased state then turned solid while her cape was still inside Gitanica's right arm.
"Argh!" the much taller girl said clutching her arm that had curled up uselessly. The cape ripped as the edge was pulled out of her arm by Shadow Stalker with a yank.
"First blood," the phaser said mockingly. That was so worth ruining her cape for.
Gitanica was seeing a bit red as her rage and fury were starting to take over. She charged over and punched at Shadow Stalker again to force her to phase away. Then as she was just starting to turn solid Gitanica stomped the ground hard enough to shatter the frozen dirt in the abandoned field.
Shadow Stalker realized just a moment too late what was going to happen and suddenly found herself smashed off the ground and flung ten feet away by the frozen clods. Her armor kept her from taking serious wounds, but she was out like a light.
"Last bloods the important one, bitch." She stared at the other girl. "Think she's just KO'ed." She clutched her arm as her blood pounded in her ears. She felt her powers starting to heal the damage slowly.
"Aw, shit. Armsmaster is going to pin my ears back," Aegis said as he ran over to Shadow Stalker to verify she was actually alive.
"Uhhh," the black-garbed girl said as her eyes blinked open. "What happened?"
"You got knocked silly. You okay?" Aegis asked.
The young woman sat up, groaning in protest. "I think so. Damn, that sucked."
"I'd ask what you were thinking, but I'm pretty sure it was 'I need to hurt her to prove I'm still the meanest bad ass on the team,' right?" Aegis asked.
"Screw you, Aegis. You can be a royal jerk at times," she replied scathingly. She knocked his hand away and then stood up with a hiss of anger.
"My sleeve? Damn, this was a Sergio special and everything. He does... did the best superhero uniforms," Gitanica complained as she finally noticed that the long, floppy sleeve was just gone. "They shrink and grow with me and everything."
"A superhero costume designer? That's cool," Vista said enthusiastically. Shadow Stalker got beat up! Fun!
"He's one of the best designers that Icon had on staff. Probably one of the better perks of being an official hero of Paragon that you got to go over and get new outfits when you were deemed to have done enough heroic deeds," Gitanica said with a sad smile on her face. She then grimaced. "Much better than the Facemakers in the Rogue Isle." She gave a shudder at that.
"How bad can they be?" Clockblocker asked, amusement in his voice. He was obviously finding this all terribly humorous.
"Oh, they are part of Doctor Vhazilok's group. Kills people or steals cadavers and makes techno zombies out of them. The doctor himself made a super-armor suit out of bodies. Ewwwwww," Gitanica said with a totally disgusted look on her face.
"Zombies? Please say they have to do more than bite you to make more?" Gallant asked with a theatrical shiver.
"They have to add cyber implants, so no," Gitanica said with a roll of her eyes.
"Back to base. I'll likely get chewed out, but it was my call and Armsmaster okayed the 'spar'," Aegis called out.