Pick Your Poison

Reaction 2.7

[Saturday, November 6, 2010]

I faced off against Lung with Kat at my side. Kat was constantly hissing in pain, likely from her costume literally bonding to her skin from the melted glass and scorched cloth. She was going to be fine despite the pain, but her body was likely constantly trying to repair damage with the blockage not letting it, so she'd be tired quick and need a lot of nutrition soon if we made it out of this.

Lung suddenly roared, literally, and began charging across the street towards us, which was thankfully at an angle away from the van so I didn't have to consider losing Howard in his rush if we juked left, so I did and quickly dropped the bug bomb, which exploded in a rapidly expanding cover of a thick fog-like cover that billowed up and out like a smoke bomb. No name for it though, can't figure out one catchy enough, fog bomb maybe.

Thankfully Kat had noticed and had ended up running down the street alongside me, the cover would only stall him a few seconds, so I grabbed her hand and darted into the alley on our side of the road that was just one in a maze of abandoned city apartment projects meant to house what was once a bustling port's grunt-level workers.

"Fuck!" Kat shouted and yanked me to the right side of the old brick masonry as a ball of fire flew down the alley. This is bad, very bad. We dodged another fireball from the burning metal rage-dragon that burst from the fog as we kited him back south towards the more populated areas through the maze of old project buildings with my lungs and legs burning from the exertion as Kat and I jumped over an overturned trash can through another alley towards the bay, ignoring the roaring and crumpling as Lung continued his fevered pursuit, tearing long gouges in the eroding masonry as he went.

I had no idea who told him how, where, and when to hit my van specifically, but if I got my hands on them I'd be glad to make them test some things for me without any safeties. Apparently, I can feel emotions at this time, it seems my power actually wants me to feel things during confrontations, because I was experiencing an inkling of fear, frustration, a rush of something, and the odd urge to try and fight back against the burning death on our heels.

"C'mon Deal! Lord Street's just ahead!" Kat called back towards me, since with her being the more fit between us she clearly decided to scout ahead and led me onward. What she neglected to mention was Lord Street was still almost a quarter mile away, and the Boardwalk another mile or so further down it. Then there was the fact that indeed it seemed Uber and Leet had stirred up the hornet's nest as the PHQ Rig in the bay was scrambling air support towards Downtown, and we'd be lucky if they even noticed Lung's blaze in the projects so far off from their intended course.

I reached into one of my many coat pockets, and pulled out some caltrops made from rusty old nails and bonded/reinforced with Balcoat. They'd probably do nothing, but they might be a nuisance. I dropped them amidst the mess of our current alley, avoiding a thrown burning bag of garbage, and was rewarded with a roar of pain as the lumbering oaf passed over my feeble trap. I felt a smirk form on my face as I followed my companion, appreciating her shape now that I could actually feel, if this is what it felt like to fight, maybe I should do field work more often.

"Ah!" Kat screamed as Lung had suddenly burst from a wall ahead of us in a shower of brick and fire, the brickwork shattering around his metallic body before he breathed fire at us from his cross-mandible maw, and I desperately pulled Kat back around the corner we'd just rounded, she yelped as his fire glanced her, and then we bolted down another alley. "Fuck he's persistent!"

"He wouldn't be a threat if he wasn't!" I commented breathlessly. This was fun! I can't believe I'm even thinking this, but running like this, death on the line, my body screaming in protest, my heart trying to leap out of my chest. It was a rush. Even the terror in the back of my skull was a wondrous thing compared to the numbness. "We've gotta get the attention of the authorities! The others can't handle Lung!"

"And the heroes can?!" Kat demanded in confusion, and I couldn't help but notice how cute she sounded when she was confused.

"No, but they'd make a nice distraction!" I declared to my possible girlfriend. Seriously, fuck my powers. It takes a life-or-death running sort-of battle with one of the most dangerous villains in the city for me to feel anything?! Fuck you powers!

We had to duck under another stream of fire, and this time I dropped a bug bomb of my Air-Yes, and I grabbed Kat tighter to rush away from it. I was rewarded with an explosion when the fire ignited the very flammable pocket of concentrated oxygen and then detonated the container, collapsing the two brick walls of the alley around it, and I laughed as I tabbed another bug bomb, this time of Sick Spray, and flung it over the debris, making me guffaw at hearing Lung retch from the wave of nauseating bacteria. "Go eat a dick you wannabe komodo dragon!"

"Whoa, Deal?" Kat sounded shocked, and I chuckled as I grabbed her hand and pulled her back into a run. "What's going on? You've never…."

"No clue, blame my power, I think it takes conflict for me to feel much of anything." Boy does that suck, but at least it means I would be rewarded if I get into a scuffle. "FYI, while I can say it, god damn you're hot Kat." I stated bluntly as we weaved through more alleys still heading south.

"Th-thanks?" Kat bewilderedly replied as we continued to try and put distance between us and the leader of the ABB.

"Not just your body either though, your personality is really strong and that's as much a turn-on as anything. If I ever work out a way around my usual emotion block, I'm going to want to go on some dates with you." I stated to my assistant, and the way she squeezed my hand made my chest flutter.

"I'd...love that, very much, if we can somehow do that after I'm some sort of mutant." Kat softly said, moments before Lung burst through another wall behind us, and we picked the pace back up. "Asshole! We were having a moment!"

This was hopeless, we'd burn out long before Lung ever possibly did and help was closer the other way even now with all the distance we'd put between us and them, but we didn't want to pull Lung towards the crew and reap casualties, and at this rate to survive I'd have to pull him into the Fishery which would result in even worse damage to the crew. Nothing for it then.

After we got through another alley in the stretch of apartment projects and ended up in a back-alley basketball court of sorts with a tattered tarpaulin cover, probably for rainy days, I stopped at the end away from where Lung would likely come out, panting as I waited for him to catch up since our enhanced bodies were up to task with the exercise despite my weight. "Deal c'mon! We can't fight him!" Kat protested, trying to pull me onward, but I'd become big and strong enough lately to just shrug her off.

"No choice Kay, help's too far away or not potent enough." I managed to get out between gasps of breath, and Lung slowed down after he burst onto the court once he saw we'd halted, and stopped himself at the other end, possibly savoring us either surrendering or deciding to fight him. "Well. Lung. Would you at least do us the favor of telling us who sold us out?" I figured it was worth a try, but he just laughed my request off.

"Ell oh, awk or eh eek!" The mutant ran at us, his blaze flaring, and Kat squealed in fear, before I held up my deodorant can of Air-No and sprayed right at the towering man-beast's face as I backpedaled. The reaction was instant, he blacked out from taking a lungful of inert carbon dioxide gas, and his flames vanished immediately from no fuel both from the Air-No and from their master's unconsciousness. I had stopped here since this court had shade from the directly overhead late-morning sun, and the Air-No would be more effective.

"Holy shit! Did...did you just one-shot fucking Lung?!" Kat gawked as the unconscious man began shrinking, and I took my slingbow out, and nocked an arrow. This man has caused so much pain, his men killed my father. "Deal?"

"No." I waited until he finished shrinking, and started groaning as he began to wake up. I quickly aimed and put an arrow through the back of his skull, making Kat scream as the man twitched, blood pooled under his face and he stilled. "Now I have. Let's go." I stated as we began slowly walking back towards the Fishery since it was closer. I felt so...satisfied. It didn't last long though, soon the numbness was back, and I calculated that Lung may even survive that if I didn't get anything vital.

Brains were complex things, people had survived having poles through the brain, he might just wake up and pull the arrow out and be back on the prowl, and Howard may heal but he might suffer neurological issues even then, hopefully he won't lose his fine motor control, since the section of his brain he lost was mostly responsible for that.

But that was a maybe, I had no desire to try and hack off the head of a regenerator with a piece of trash, it would be pointless and time consuming. From now on, I'll at least carry a knife. "Holy fuck...you just...curb stomped him!" Kat gushed as we walked, her hand in mine as I led this time, she was likely extremely ecstatic at being able to live another day. "Dude, if you were always this vindictive and passionate, I'd totally jump you!" Or again I am the focus, I am fortunate to have such a devoted assistant.

"Blame my power. Now let's get back, peel those ruined rags from your skin, and see about getting back to work." I think mentioning the molten and singed cloth literally plastered to her body reminded her that it was seared and melted on, getting her to gasp and stumble to the ground.

"Ow~! Why'd you have to bring it up?!" Kat whined as she tried not to move, and I huffed as I hefted the large woman into a bridal carry, my strength and own weight letting me do so fairly easily despite her weighing a few hundred pounds. "Thanks. Such a great guy." Kat complimented as she gingerly moved her left arm over my shoulders and I began the long walk to headquarters.

[Pick Your Poison]

I dutifully ignored the screams of pure agony Kat wailed as I sawed off another section of skin from her back with the hunting knife I had taken from the armory. "FUCKING GOD JUST GET IT OVER WITH~!" Kat screamed with heaving sobs as I skinned another section of molten fabric and flesh from her back, beings she had already done her front herself and needed me to get her head, back, butt, and backs of her legs as she laid on a table. Thankfully her healing was bolstered by consuming some Nutrigel, so she wasn't bleeding everywhere and what have you.

I'd already had to scalp her since the mask had melted to her whole head, burning her hair into hard brittle splinters. She had done her front, including her face, alone in the bathroom, sobbing and screaming the whole time. I was at least getting good data on the Nutrigel boosted Stim recovery rate from flesh wounds like this from her suffering. Unfortunately it made her bald again, shame, she had such a lustrous cascading mane too. "I am sorry, but there's more than-."

"IF YOU SAY 'SKIN A CAT' AGAIN I'LL RIP YOUR NUTS OFF!" Kat screeched furiously, and I shrugged before swiftly sawing a line down the last strip of molten fabric on her back, getting her to scream. At least she wouldn't scar from literally being skinned alive, but as it stood there was no way to get this stuff off aside from an acid bath, which would just be worse. Glass was cruel, I'll have to ante-up the Balcoat recipe to Carbon Fiber, maybe even Kevlar. I cannot guarantee carbon fiber won't lock up under intense heat, so I'll have to see about trying to go straight to kevlar, or even a tinker fabric, I'll consult Leet.

"What is going on here?!" I did not pause and finished Kat's back as Squealer stormed in, freezing at the likely disturbing image of Kat sobbing into her arms, and the area around the table covered in strips of flesh, blood, and ruined cloth. Only good thing to come from this would be a large batch of Stims from using Salve on the bloody flesh.

"Lung melted her outfit onto her body. Have to literally skin it off of her." I explained, getting to work on her large and muscular derriere, at least thankful that my cutting would not deform her rounded buttocks, beings it would be very difficult for her to get comfortable sitting down if I ruined the shape of it.

"Agh! W-what he said! Fuck! That-gah-asshole!" Kat extrapolated in her agony as I got half of her right buttock in a single go, and kept going down her thigh "AGH!"

"Holy fuck! Just...shit. Why haven't you used any heroin?!" Squealer demanded as I reached Kat's foot and finished that strip since Kat got the rest of her feet done herself. It was a logical question, as heroine was literally just 'street morphine' and would've done a great deal to help in this.

"Because I'm never fucking touching that shit again!" Kat declared with disgust. "I'd rather feel every single piece of glass fused to my skin again than to even consider it." Kat shuddered, clenching her eyes shut. "I also don't know if I could resist just falling ass-first into the habit again."

"I did offer her heroin, but as she said she refused. I can applaud such strength of will. Now hold still, I still have half of this side and all the other side to do." I cut into her again, and Squealer rapidly fled the room as I continued skinning my pet cat. I finished with little fanfare, her body having already regrown the skin entirely as I dumped the bloody chunks I could gather out of the glassed meat into a bin and poured Salve into it to make more Stim.

"Feeling better yet Kat?" I asked as I turned back to her, to see she'd blacked out finally, and was dozing prone in the nude on the impromptu operating table at the back of my lab. The whole thing was coated in blood, not to mention her. We'll have to clean this place again.

I carefully picked her up in another bridal carry, and carried her through the fishery to her and Sherrel's room, setting her on the queen sized bed Squealer had managed to squeeze into the room alongside her own bed, covering her up in her blankets. "Sleep well Kat, you have a big day coming up."

"So you finally done butchering her?" I turned to the agitated voice of Sherrel and saw the shapely woman glaring at me. "There could've been an easier way to do that."

"No. Glass is a cruel material. Lung's fire melted her outfit to her nearly instantly. Be sure to spread the word that I'm retiring the fiberglass Balcoat clothes immediately, I'll dump my own personal share of any loot or cash into paying for kevlar to make a superior batch for our clothing." I gestured to Kat as the example such an expensive change necessitated, and Sherrel nodded with a huff.

"Okay, that's all well and good, but we have more immediate problems." Squealer growled as she gestured for me to follow her.

"What else has happened besides Lung ambushing me? And how's Howard?" I added on. I hadn't forgot him, but I knew that since the Peepers saw the encounter, at least at the start, that Howard would've been picked up before any police or PRT did.

"In reverse, Howard's fine. He's...off, but fine." That did not inspire confidence in my lieutenant's wellbeing. "As for besides the ambush, Uber and Leet's distraction got wrecked. Literally."

"Is anyone in captivity?" It wasn't unheard of that an Uber and Leet show would be stopped or interrupted by law enforcement, so I had anticipated having to do a jailbreak for any of our captured members.

"Rahj for one." This got me to pause, and Squealer looked back at me with a grim look. "He's not the only one, c'mon, got a mole to introduce you to." Mole? The one who sold us out, hurt both Kat and Howard, and now Rahj is in custody too? My entire personal cadre has been wiped out in a matter of hours.

I followed Squealer through the fishery to the vault, and Mush was standing guard at the vault, fully submerged in his reinforced cans and looking agitated. Squealer strode in with purpose, and I followed. I was not expecting the person in the cell. "Trainwreck?"

"Hey Deal. Sorry for fucking you over like this." Trainwreck grumbled from his motionless seat in the corner, Skidmark was standing at the bars, leering into the cell at his traitorous subordinate through the multiple layers of his transparent barriers between the treacherous tinker and the bars.

"Like shit you are. If you were, you would've fucking warned us about this sort of shit instead of admitting it after that fucking obvious setup." Skidmark seethed. "Because of you, several of my most valuable lieutenants are either laid out or locked up, and you nearly got Dealer killed. Why, you fucking waste of space, should I not end your miserable cock sucking existence right now?" I was impressed with how well Skidmark was restraining himself. Honestly, it was more interesting to see how much more forceful a restrained and furious Skidmark was to a blatantly pissed off Skidmark.

"Because I already told you, I didn't tell Coil jack shit the past couple weeks. I didn't like sneaking behind your backs once I realized the Merchants were actually going places now. Problem is Tattletale." Trainwreck fumed from his still motionless spot. "Bitch is working for Coil too, but unlike me she's got a fucking gun to her head. She's also legitimately one of the best info brokers in maybe this entire region of the state, so I knew she was good for our hits and kept talking to her even if I ignored Coil."

"So that's it? Bitch cold-read you like a fucking book and you didn't say anything?" Skidmark demanded curiously, and I had to wonder myself, If that was so, even if she's being forced to feed info to Coil, who was obviously the one trying to sabotage us now that we've built up momentum, she was definitely still a good contact if we could get her to be forthright with us.

"Pretty much. I don't begrudge or envy the bitch though, unlike me she's got no choice in her situation. I was just in it for the money, now though, seeing us getting shit together, cleaning up folks. Pretty fucking awesome, don't want to lose that now." Trainwreck stated with a sigh. "I'll sit in here and tinker in silence if you want, just don't kill me or throw me to the wolves."

"...Fuck. I'm not good with this shit. Squeals?" Skidmark referred to his lover with a lost expression in his eyes, and Squealer huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Men. Can't think for themselves, gotta have a woman do it for them." Squealer winked at me, and I had to wonder what she meant by that. "Well, if you want to prove your loyalty in the face of this fuckup, you get to break our boys out of the PHQ. Since they've got superhuman enhancements, they're being treated like capes."

"I'm okay with that, but how do I get to a fucking oil rig that's covered in a hardlight shield?" At Trainwreck's question, Squealer got such a manically gleeful expression to her face I had to question her sanity for a moment.

"Ever go yachting?"