Seed of Hope
Germination 1.8

Lung got up.

Honestly, I shouldn't have been surprised. He'd fought the entire Protectorate ENE when he came to Brockton Bay, after all. Heck, rumor had it he'd fought an Endbringer one on one.

Still! Anti-tank lasers! Of course, they were heat-based weapons, and Lung was a pyrokinetic. So... did I screw up the design, or did he have some additional base resistance to heat? I didn't know.

"That hurt," he snarled. He was a head taller than he had been just a moment ago.

I could just teleport away. My mass limit was sufficient I could even save my Cyclone and either the Crann and most of my tools or the Odeon. But that would mean leaving Armsmaster to face a pissed off Lung by himself.

Not an option.

Armsmaster tightened his grip on his halberd. Setting my Cyclone's chest blasters and the Gallant to full power, I opened fire. The Crann and Odeon did likewise, and Lung stumbled back half a step, roaring.

This time, though, he didn't go down.

Maybe I should have gone with missiles after all.

With a mental command, the Crann and Odeon charged. They were faster than they looked, and although they didn't have the room to accelerate to full speed, over four tons moving at that speed were still enough to knock the ABB leader back and out into the street.

Armsmaster and I quickly followed them out and watched Lung picked up the Crann and hurled it into the building across the street. That, however, gave the Odeon the opening to pin Lung in place, at least for the moment. The fire around him did nothing to the Inorganic's armor, which was rated for plasma fire, but I could almost see Lung growing.

"That won't hold him for long," Armsmaster said.

"Got anything that will?" I asked.

"Maybe," he said. "I have some tranquilizers. Hopefully, they'll be able to suppress his regeneration."

At that point, Lung overpowered the Odeon and leveraged himself free. He turned and punched the Inorganic, denting its armor and knocking it back. It regained its balance and stumbled off to the side.

I firing my thrusters as I ordered the Crann to charge. I peppered Lung with more particle fire as the Crann pulled him into a full nelson and wrapped its energy flagellum around him. The energy flagellum was a prehensile super-alloy cable capable of eventually cutting through powered armor like my Cyclone, and it could deliver an electric shock capable of stunning someone even through said armor.

At the sudden jolt of electricity, Lung froze in... surprise? Pain? I wasn't sure; it was hard to read through the rage rolling off of him. Armsmaster dashed forward, halberd raised overhead. Lung raised his arms to block both Armsmaster's halberd and my particle blasts, but the Protectorate hero aborted the swing halfway, instead dropping low and jabbing the bottom end of the halberd into Lung's belly, activating something with a pneumatic hiss.

A few seconds later, Lung went limp, his fiery aura dimming, and Armsmaster withdrew.

Landing next to Armsmaster, I asked, "Did it work?"

"I'm not-"

Lung snarled and surged upright. "I! AM! LUNG!" he roared, tearing free of the Crann's grip and then reaching back to tear off its energy flagellum.

"Probably not," Armsmaster amended, walking quickly to his motorcycle as I sent the Odeon back into the fray. "We should leave. Now." He straddled the bike and started it up. "Hop on."

"No need," I said, shifting the Cyclone back into motorcycle mode.

I felt a wave of heat wash over me as we rode away at what couldn't be a safe speed for city driving, let alone legal, but neither of us were inclined to slow down. Warehouses zipped by as we raced down the deserted roads - no one sane wanted to be out in this part of the city at this hour - and I nearly wrecked more than a few times before we left the region nebulously claimed by the ABB.

As we slowed to a halt, I realized I was hyperventilating. I was taking a moment to calm down when someone whistled. "Damn, where's the fire?"

My pulse skyrocketed again as, on reflex, I shifted the Cyclone back into armor mode and jump jetted back, raising my Gallant.

"Whoa! Hey!" the man said, holding his hands up and open toward me, clearly startled. He was standing next to a woman who looked unamused, though her emotions told a different story. "I'm on your side. Um, I think. Armsy? A little help here?"

"Assault. Battery," Armsmaster said, nodding to each in turn. "New Tinker. The ABB tried to recruit her, and she declined. Rather strenuously at that." He twisted over to look at me, offering me a reassuring smile. "Relax. We should be safe now."

At that point, I realized I was still holding the Gallant up. Flicking the power off, I lowered the rifle and attached it to the magnetic clamp on my hip.

"H-hi," I stammered, approaching them tentatively. Assault and Battery, two more members of the Protectorate ENE. PHO disagreed on their exact relationship, but they were definitely close.

"Nice bike, Arcee," Assault commented. "Very much 'more than meets the eye.'"

"You should be proud, Regess," Armsmaster said, emphasizing the name I'd given him as he glared at Assault. At least, I was fairly certain he was glaring; I couldn't actually see his eyes, after all. He looked back at me. "Not many people fight Lung and get to leave under their own power."

"Lung, huh?" Assault said. "Well, I guess that tells me where the fire is."

Battery swatted the back of his head and pulled out a phone. "I'll let the fire department know to watch for Lung," she said.

"Watch for Lung"? Was that safe? I looked at the three heroes, but none of them seemed concerned. Then again, I supposed it would be stupid of Lung to attack the firefighters; he'd soon be ruling over a kingdom of ashes if he did.

"Will you be okay tonight, Regess?" Armsmaster asked.

I flinched at that. The lab was gone, along with my tools, the Invid brain, the protoculture processor, and both the Crann and Odeon. We'd actually passed my house in our flight from Lung, but I couldn't exactly bring the Cyclone home without Dad finding out, and I wasn't ready for that.

Maybe when I could transmute enough to fix the ferry.

"I know you said you had another location in mind," Armsmaster continued, "but I still urge you to consider the Protectorate. The ABB won't give up, and with the ruckus we made, it won't be long before the Empire comes after you. You got lucky tonight."

"I got lucky?" I echoed. Armsmaster had barely done anything in that fight; his tranquilizers had barely even slowed Lung down.

"Of course," Armsmaster said blithely. "Just think of what would have happened if I hadn't been there when Lung arrived."

"If you hadn't been there when Lung arrived, neither would I," I retorted. "I would have been long gone, with my tools and both Inorganics!"

He scoffed. "How?"

"Like this," I said and teleported away.