At My Fingertips Chapter 7 (original chapter Chapter 25, second chapter Chapter 110)

With Taylor

'Fast!' was what I thought as Glory Girl swooped at me, her aura blasting at me in fear-inducing mode. The memories I had from Panacea told me that her aura shifted depending on how she felt about the people around her; if she was happy and liked them, it made a 'love me' aura, while against people she disliked, it was a 'cower, mortals!' fear aura.

For whatever reason though, I was still able to control myself in spite of being the only one she was directing her aura at. Perhaps it was because I had been through so much shit over the fifteen months of my highschool career. Perhaps it was a passive power I'd somehow acquired from someone I'd copied before, I don't know. Whatever the reason, all Glory Girl's fear aura was doing was making me aware that she wasn't someone to take lightly.

Not holding back, I activated both Browbeat's biokinetic muscle enhancement and Triumph's super strength simultaneously. Thankfully, I could turn my powers on and off like a switch, so I wasn't at risk of hurting someone unintentionally.

As Glory Girl sent another bone-breaking punch in my direction, I leapt off of my disk and over her, lashing out with a kick that slammed into Alexandria Junior's side with every amount of power in my leg and from my powers. I distinctly saw her barrier shatter from the kick, which jibed with what I knew about it from Panacea's memories; her barrier could block up to a certain level of attack, or at least a certain amount of damage inside of a set timeframe, before it broke. It took a few seconds to regenerate once broken though.

That being the case, I slapped Glory Girl hard on the ass, making her squeal in pain. She turned around to glare at me, even as my disk came around for me to land on.

"The fuck was that for?!" she demanded. Evidently it had been a while since someone had

"What a spoiled child does something wrong, they usually need a sound spanking to make them understand that they're being bad." I informed her. "You attacked me simply because you believe that you are right and I am wrong. I'm an independent heroine, not a villain. The only ones that I have attacked are the gangs, and I have gone out of my way to ensure that they were unharmed, aside from bruises, cuts and the occasional broken bone. The one in the wrong here is you, Glory Girl."

That made one of her eyes twitch slightly. From what I'd understood from the memories of everyone in the Wards, Vicky Dallon hadn't ever been called out over anything she'd done as Glory Girl, aside from her property damage that is. She viewed herself (quite rightly, for the most part) as a force for justice. To be called out by someone she viewed as doing the wrong thing must sting her pride.

"Shut up!" Glory Girl snapped and shot at me again.

I made my disk shoot up to avoid her before speeding off towards the dockside area, away from anything important. I sincerely doubted Glory Girl was going to be beaten by anything less than an all-out effort by every power I could muster.

This, unfortunately, meant that the PRT, Protectorate and New Wave would get a pretty good insight into what I could do after debriefing Glory Girl. This, logically following on from that, meant that the gangs would find out from their moles inside the PRT. Miss Militia had know that there were moles from both the ABB and the Empire 88, and even a couple reporting to some guy called Coil, whoever he was, but I didn't know enough to track down and remove them.

Then again, I didn't really have to use my powers now, did I?

"GET BACK HERE!" Glory Girl shouted as she whipped around and sped in pursuit of me. I pushed my disk as fast as it could go, but still had to dodge to one side to avoid being punched across the Bay.

"How do you keep doing that?!" the flying brick snarled.

"...do I look like a cheap Saturday morning cartoon show villain who goes into an exposition about their powers at the slightest hint of a question being asked?" I deadpanned.

With a growl of frustrated anger, the white-clad girl charged at me again. I dodged away to the side again and slipped a hand into my pouch.

"Hey Glory Girl, do you know the definition of insanity?" I called over to her as she wheeled around. "Repeating the same actions over and over and expecting things to change!"

With that, I threw a flashbang at her. To most, it would seem like an ordinary grenade,so it didn't surprise me that Glory Girl didn't try to avoid it; her shield was reputed to have taken a laser cannon blast without her getting harmed, so an ordinary grenade wouldn't harm her.

Shame it was a flashbang.

When it went off Glory Girl shrieked in pain and clutched at her eyes with both hands. Being blinded and deafened at the same time, even temporarily, must be shocking and painful, but she'd brought in on herself.

As she writhed in pain, I sped in and hammered her shield with strong punches until it collapsed, before letting go of Triumph's power completely and slamming a single punch into her guts with all of my own strength boosted by Browbeat's power.

"Guh...!" the flying brick grunted before the force of my punch sent her flying back in the air, doubled over and clutching her stomach in pain.

"Consider this a warning, Glory Girl...don't try to stop me." I told her. Then, I sped down into the alleys in order to lose her. By the time she recovered enough to try and chase me, I'd be long gone. And, sure enough, when I was a couple of blocks away, I heard a roar of frustrated anger telling me that she had no clue as to where I was.

Deciding that enough was enough for one night, I turned and headed towards my hideout, keeping below the rooftops just in case Collateral Damage Barbie was still on the lookout.

That was not how I had wanted my first hero-to-hero interaction to go. It was so frustrating that Vicky had such a black-and-white view of the world that she automatically supported the PRT and Protectorate regardless of the truth of what I had said to her. Was it because I was a vigilante hero? Possibly; she hadn't exact been enthusiastic about Mnemosyne when one of her girlfriends brought my alter-ego up at lunch today.

Well, there wasn't much I could do about it now; I guess I'd have to keep my head low for a while. Vicky was likely going to be speeding all over the place looking for me the next few nights. Such a paaaaiiin~!

Later

Dallon Residence

"Vicky, I am very disappointed with you." Sarah Pelham said to her niece severely, making the girl wince. She was without her top, only wearing a sport's bra, and you could see the large bruise on her abdomen from where Mnemosyne had punched her.

"What were you even thinking?" the woman known to the media as Photon Mom continued in exasperation. "Unilaterally attacking an Independent Hero who has committed no crimes whatsoever!"

"Even being a vigilante?" Vicky asked, as Amy hovered over her sister.

"Mnemosyne, as they call themselves, is clearly a Parahuman." Neil Pelham shook his head. "By your own account, they were flying in the sky in a similar manner to Rune, and possessed enough strength to break your shield in a single blow, or in a quick barrage of lighter blows. So long as they don't act like Shadow Stalker did, they will be classed as an Independent Hero until and unless they do something clearly over the line. Only then will they be classed officially as a vigilante and actively sought out by the Protectorate."

"But they're blowing entire buildings up!" the younger girl argued, before wincing at the pain in her abdomen.

"Amy, you can now heal your sister." Sarah sighed. She had prevented the healer from fixing anything wrong with Vicky as a way to drive it home to the headstrong girl that actions had consequences. "Yes, Mnemosyne has been blowing up buildings, but in every case, they have gone out of their way to avoid killing or severely harming anyone, and they upheld the Unwritten Rules when dealing with Skidmark and Squealer. Someone as angry with the gangs as you described Mnemosyne being wouldn't have done so; I believe the majority of the vitriol in her words was as a result of her frustration at you attacking and challenging her for no good reason."

"More than that, every single building has been a storehouse for the gangs, full of weapons, equipment, money and drugs." Neil added. "Yes, a lot of people have complained about the property damage, but all of the buildings have been abandoned since the creation of the Boat Graveyard. There are no owners to complain about it, aside from the gang that was using them, and people just ignore anything they say."

Carol, who had sat stone-faced all of this time, spoke up. "Regardless, Vicky was attacked by this Mnemosyne character. What are we to do about that?"

"Carol, again, Vicky was the one who attacked Mnemosyne." her sister said exasperatedly. "As Vicky was the one to initiate the incident, Mnemosyne would be automatically entitled to the right of self defense; they even tried to run at one point, but Vicky pursued them. I believe that having Vicky on order to not attack Mnemosyne under any circumstances, barring them committing a crime, is what is needed. Furthermore...Vicky, you are off patrols for the next fortnight."

"Aunt Sarah!"

"Vicky, you were too impetuous and headstrong." Sarah stated in her 'Photon Mom' voice. "Furthermore, you could have been hurt badly; had Mnemosyne wanted to, they could have stabbed or shot you while your shield was down, rather than give you a punch in the guts."

Vicky gulped; that hadn't occurred to her.

"We'll be going over some basic combat techniques as well; evidently, you've become too used to being able to punch your enemies into submission." the leader of New Wave said firmly. "Remedial training is in order. We've really been too slack about keeping you skilled as well as strong..."

"Aw maaaan!" Vicky said, resignation etched on her face. There went her after school free time.

Several Nights Later

Lung's Lair

"Lee." the man sitting back on the much-abused La-Z-Boy chair said, a growl in his voice. "Has this mysterious attacker not been found yet?"

"No, Lung-sama." the kneeling figure of Oni Lee next to the chair replied swiftly. "It is as if they are a ghost on the wind."

"How have they been finding our hidden armories?! Are there traitors?" the Dragon of Kyushu demanded.

"I have thoroughly investigated all members who had knowledge of the armory locations, and none of them are either stupid or brazen enough to do so." the tele-duplicator replied. "A common pattern in each case was that one member has been attacked by a shadowy figure when separated from their brethren and rendered unconscious almost immediately. A short time later, the armory building that they were aware of was attacked. It is a solid pattern, Lung-sama. Somehow, this Kuroi Kage is able to take the locations of our armories from the people they have ambushed."

A security measure that Lung had long since adopted to limit the amount of damage a single traitor could do was to have the location to any given arms stockpile building only known to the ones in that territory. Only he and Oni Lee, as well as his top unpowered lieutenants, knew the locations to all of the stockpiles. A practice that had just paid off in spades.

"There are only two of our stockpiles which haven't been attacked as of yet." Lung growled. "Tomorrow night, you shall guard the first, while I shall guard the second. When the Hēisè Yīnyǐng attacks, I will call on you, or you shall call on me, and together we will rend this fool asunder for daring to touch what is mine."

"As you command, Lung-sama."

The Next Night

Mnemosyne's Base

"This is so cool..." I muttered aloud as I held up my new sword and admired it. The katana that I'd liberated from the ABB guard at the first place I'd hit looked way different now compared to how it had looked when I'd first gotten it; I'd expended every charge of Dauntless' power that I could over the last week into it, and now...

...well, now it looked totally badass, but very different from Dauntless' Arc Lance. Whereas the Arc Lance looked like a giant lightning bolt, my sword looked like darkness made solid. The blade rippled and writhed as if the shadows within it were fighting to get out, and even the hilt and guard were different, seeming to fade in and out of any darkness or shadows that it passed through.

It wasn't just cool looking though; when I swung it, the blade left solid afterimages behind that I could easily see myself using to block and impede people around me so long as I was careful to keep track of where I swung it. I could also project my slashes with it; as in, I could swing it and shoot a crescent of darkness out. I could even do it multiple times in a row.

I suspected that there was another ability hidden in the sword, but I honestly couldn't discover what it was. Something to work on, I suppose.

The sheath had been the subject of a handful of enhancements as well, although that has somehow resulted in it technically no longer existing. Yes, I am aware that it didn't make any sense, but there you have it. Powers are fucking strange.

OK, it did exist, but less like a physical sheath, and more along the lines of a pocket dimension that I could store my sword in and draw it from whenever I needed to use it. How I could figure something like that out and yet not know what the third trick my sword could do was baffling.

"I'm gonna have to think of a name for you, aren't I?" I mused before placing my sword back in its pocket dimension. It felt like the right thing to do for some reason. Dauntless had his Arc Lance, and my sword wasn't any worse than his oversized knitting needle. So, I'd have to think of a name for my sword. Let it be known though, that my naming ability sucks.

I was going to avoid calling it 'Shadow Blade' or anything like that, as that was being way too on-the-nose and lazy. Something to work on later, I suppose.

Gathering up all of my gear up, I headed out to deal with one final ABB stockpile. After that, I'd just hit random gang members and take some skills from them. The idea did make me feel a bit like Victor of the Empire, but unlike him, I couldn't take away their skill with something for even a short period of time; I literally copied it without taking anything from my targets.

Technically, Victor's power was stronger, as he could, if PHO was remotely accurate, drain someone's skills via eye contact from a distance, whereas I needed to touch someone to copy their skills, but I could also copy their powers, so that was something.

Rather than using the disk, I decided to just roof-hop to my destination; the last couple of times, I'd just managed to avoid being attacked by Oni Lee. For whatever reason, I got a bad feeling from his power when I thought about trying to copy it. Was there some kind of bad negative side-effect his power had that no one knew about which my power could sense?

Whatever. I'd go along with it; Oni Lee was officially not going to get his power copied.

I paused as I landed on a rooftop on the same street as the ABB storehouse I was here to bust. It was...a little too barren of people. Even at night, most places in Brockton Bay had some people around, whether they be drug pushers, whores, gang members with too much time on their hands or whatever. The entire street here was entirely empty of anyone...except for one person leaning against the warehouse which was my target for tonight.

I pulled out my binoculars and peered through them, seeing that he was Asian, shirtless and wearing a metal dragon mask. Lung. Fucking LUNG was waiting for me. Well...this was a shitty day. And I was a master of goddamn understatements.

Wait though...why was he waiting for me out here? Did he think I charged in like Glory Girl or something? If the memories I'd taken from the ABB asshole were right, then there was a gaping hole in the skylight, three or four panes of glass missing, which I could slip into the building unseen by anyone watching the front. Why on earth would I use the front door when I could do that?

Suspicion set in. Was Lung acting as a deterrent to my using the front door and had a trap inside? All the knowledge that the ABB gangbangers I'd scanned told me no; he had way too much pride in himself to use himself like that. He'd be waiting inside for me if he intended to ambush me.

So things were exactly as they appeared; he was waiting to attack me as soon as I showed up. If he caught me, I was likely going to die. All of the knowledge that I'd gained from the Protectorate heroes and ABB minions told me that. He could grow to immense sizes, control flames and could escalate to the point he had once fought off Leviathan the Endbringer at Kyushu.

If I was going to do this, I couldn't risk making him aware that I was present; I was going to have to get in, raid the place, set up my bombs, get out and then set them off, fleeing into the distance as I did so. All while remaining completely undetected by the single strongest Cape in all of Brockton Bay.

Was I insane to be excited at the challenge? Probably.

Tucking my binoculars back into my pouch, I ghosted back and took a more roundabout route to the storehouse, using my disk to get me to the broken skylight. I leapt off of the disk and shrunk it down, floating slowly through the open portion thanks to my Trumped poncho.

Landing soundlessly on the floor, thanks to the abilities that my boots and clothes had, I looked around stealthily. Over on the other half of the warehouse, there was a big stack of weapons and ammo, as well as several were those anti-tank missiles?!

I gaped at the massive pile of anti-tank ordinance. There were at least a dozen of the bastard things, plus a launcher. And that was just one type! There were also a couple of open crates full of one-shot variants, as in fire and throw the launcher away.

An obvious counter to Squealer's mishmash abominations masquerading as vehicles.

Still, it would be useful to have something to counter them myself; yes, I had arranged things so that Squealer had been arrested, but the chances were that the Merchants would get her back at some point. She'd been caught who-knows-how-many-times before now and had been broken out the same number of times. A little bit of insurance wouldn't go amiss.

After stealthily and carefully placing one disposable launcher into my backpack, almost filling it up what with everything else I was carrying in there, I set about rigging the place to blow, which was easy for me by this point as I'd done it so many times. I'd been refilling my stocks of explosives at each stockpile, so I had plenty of them at hand.

This time, I'd be using a remote detonator, as opposed to a timer. I'd be looking through my binoculars at the warehouse as I blew it up. Once I'd confirmed everything had been blown to kingdom come, I'd bug out and lie low for a while. I'd only come out this week because Vicky had been grumbling about being patrol-grounded.

I did feel a bit bad about that, but hey, she attacked me. Reap what you sow and all that.

Once I finished wiring everything up, I deployed my disk and floated out of the warehouse carefully before speeding away and around until I was a good distance away at an angle. Setting down on a convenient rooftop that I could use to view the warehouse, I pulled out both my binoculars and the remote detonator before setting the former to my eyes. Yup, Lung was still standing there with his arms crossed, glaring around as if expecting someone to stroll up to him and introduce themselves.

Boy, was he in for a surprise...

Flipping the lid of the detonator up, I hesitated for a moment before thumbing the detonation switch.

KABOOM!

With a loud roar, the entire stock of explosives inside the warehouse exploded, blowing the roof off of the building, and even blowing out the back wall. Lung leapt around far faster than a man his size should have been capable of and looked at the flames engulfing the building and the large hole the was rapidly widening as the warehouse started to collapse in on itself. Huh, it must've been closer to being condemned than I thought.

Then Lung reared back and let loose a wailing roar of pure fury that echoed throughout the area, chilling me to the bone. Oh dear god, he was pissed.

Time for me to NOT be here...

With Lung

With an effort of will, Lung forced his rage back under control, shrinking down to his normal, but still formidable self. Make no mistake, he was still angry, furious even, but there was a time and a place for unrestrained rage, and now wasn't it.

'Whoever did this is far more skilled and cautious than I anticipated.' the Dragon of Kyushu thought as he scowled at what had once been a storehouse full of weapons and equipment. 'A Stranger, perhaps? No, according to some of the Empire scum, whoever was behind this was able to defeat both Stormtiger and Rune, not to mention those two drug-addled fools Skidmark and Squealer. Most Strangers don't have the guts to fight, let alone the ability. Whatever the case may be, this new Cape acts more like a shinobi than any Stranger; they got in, did what they set out to accomplish, and got out.'

Lung was many things; justifiably self-confident about his power, arrogant, condescending, jealous about what was his, easily angered, etc, etc. But he was also a lot smarter and more cunning than anyone gave him credit for being, as well as being capable of admiring skill and competence when he saw it, even if it had been to his detriment.

He was willing to admit that he had perhaps been too arrogant in this case. He had treated whoever was behind this as a fly to be swatted, an inconvenience and no more. Now the warehouse he had set to guarding was ablaze and all of its contents destroyed, with him being totally unaware of how long it had been set up to blow.

The entire building had been manned until nightfall, but that was just on the outside. Had they infiltrated during the day and waited until now before exploding the contents, or was he being too paranoid? Either way, he had been defeated; he had been attempting to prevent the destruction of the warehouse, and the enemy had been attempting to get around him in order to destroy the warehouse. The state of the place made it very obvious who had emerged triumphant.

Unlike with raids from the other two large gangs, or even the Protectorate, Lung had no way of retaliating against this unseen enemy. They held no territory, their motives and goals were unseen and unknown, and he had no way of finding them.

Truly, those who struck from shadows were the most irritating. Only the woman with that accursed fedora was more infuriating.

For the moment, there was nothing he could do. He would concede to defeat on this occasion, but when next the Black Shadow struck, he would be prepared to deal with them, for no one woke a sleeping dragon and avoided being burned.

And that's the penultimate chapter of this arc done.

To answer what people have been asking, Taylor has deliberately been avoiding touching Vicky in case she gets her Master Aura. Bit of a giveaway, right? And don't worry about no Taylor vs. Lung fight...the best is yet to come...