Bird of Paradise

Worm/Darling in the Franxx crossover

February 7th 2011, Boston

Kaiser cursed, as he ran though the cold shallow waters covering the street, towards the waypoint his wristwatch. As if he didn't already have problems to deal with back home, if Boston fell, then the villains here would split between New York on the south and Brockton Bay on the north.

It was worrying that Leviathan attacked instead of Simurgh like expected, which meant the future order of Endbringer attacks was now a mess, but it was a lesser worry to the risk that the teeth would return to Brockton Bay.

Once this was over, he'd need to call a meeting between gangs, to keep unwanted outsiders out. No one wanted Butcher running around the streets after this.

As he arrived at the location, he only had a moment to wonder the odd collection of capes, before a zap went off from their wristwatches, as well as the gear of one of the capes.

The cape in question cursed as she checked her gear, before turning to others "EMP damage. Someone broke the truce" She said, as others started looking around for potential ambush. However, it was Kaiser who reacted first, raising a thick semi-circle wall of metal towards the direction of the coast.

A wave of water was approaching FAST.

Only five others reacted with haste, as the stepped closer to Kaiser, one placing his hand on the metal wall, causing it to glow with yellow energy, while other three raised their shields around the five of them, with the now-useless tinker barely making it inside before the shields slammed shut.

As the water crashed around them, one of the capes left outside tried to run, though it was pointless as a wave of water washed over them.

Kaiser had no doubt that they'd all be dead. He'd have to return the favor to whoever was behind this little deathtrap they had been herded to. As the water around them ended, the shielders gasped for breath while he turned to look at who was left.

A mistake, as a large claw came over the metal wall, crushing the teen cape next it into a paste. As the five remaining capes froze, their gaze fell upon Leviathan.

Death was certain at this point… Yet Kaiser raised spikes from the wall, digging into the beast as he backed away, the three useful capes readying their shields. Leviathan moved fast, breaking the metal spikes as he came over the wall, lunging at them.

Time seemed to slow down, as Kaiser watched the claw of death reach for his soul… Only for a white lance with orange tip fly over his shoulder, it's wielder dodging under the arm as the lance pierced the beast's chest, before releasing a blast that send Leviathan flying backwards, back over the wall.

"Go! Run while you can! I'll hold him off!" Their savior yelled, as Strelizia landed on the wall, readying her lance once more.

Strelizia was a two meter tall cape, with biomechanical body colored white, orange, and red, with large shoulder pads and feet styled like red heels. She had a pair of long orange-gold strands resembling hair on the sides of its face, with orange eyes. On Strelizia's forehead, there is a long, pointed gray-blue antenna.

She was wielding a white, red, and orange lance taller than herself, connected by a tube from the handle to her lower back with a black, flexible tube, through which the energy surged from her into her weapon.

As others ran for their lives, Kaiser glanced at the hero bitterly, become fleeing as Leviathan attacked once more, only to face the brute/striker/mover combo, who expertly dodged the Endbringer's attacks, while retaliating with her own, each explosion sending chunks of skin flying around.

Kaiser had seen her best against Lung; she was good, tearing through the dragon so fast that even with his regeneration, not giving him enough time to adapt before half of him was gone from her lance's exotic energy before Armsmaster took him down with a tranquilizer, but she wasn't triumvirate material.

Not yet at least… there as great deal of potential however.

As Kaiser continued running, he felt mixed feeling towards Strelizia; on other hand, her heroism boosted the morale of white supremacists around the country with her defeat of infamous Lung (not once, but three times), while her words against 'foolish ideas of ages since gone' served as a double edged sword. He had tried to recruit her at one point, but the hero stubbornly refused his offers; still, he was not out of options yet, so if they both lived to tell the tale of Boston Endbringer attack, then maybe there'd still be a change to get her into his side.

Kaiser's eyes tracked Armsmaster, as the man ran past him towards the fight, frown on his face; something suspicious was going on here, he shouldn't have been so fast to respond, especially after the wave. He stopped before turning, watching the tinker run towards the flight with his halberd drawn, before Kaiser turned his gaze towards his broken wristwatch. There weren't any other heroes rushing in yet, so it wasn't like they knew WHERE Leviathan was yet.

Kaiser narrowed his eyes, before glaring at Armsmaster; if his suspicions were right, there would be retribution for this… though he wasn't sure if Strelizia played any role of today's events yet.

He'd need to inform others of this treachery by the protectorate.

With his decision made, he turned and started making his way towards a safe area.

Colin cursed, as he ran past the fleeing villains; the plan had been perfect, yet the unexpected appearance of Strelizia had stopped his plans to get rid of several villains and stolen his change to fight Leviathan by himself. Still, as Colin ran past Kaiser (Out of all, why did he survive?), he readied his prototype nanothorn halberd. Ever since the lung fights, he had focused more time on developing the weapon, rather than the Endbringer prediction software.

Ever since Strelizia arrived last summer, she had been showing off; Defeating Lung three times already, as well as showing great deal of effort to take down local gangs. Unfortunately, most of her efforts went wasted, as the capes she did manage to capture ran free (Twice Lung had managed to escape the protectorate cell, while the first time he managed to escape purely because Oni Lee had rescued him from transport to PRT holding cell).

Armsmaster already had enough blows to his pride because of Dauntless, but now an independent hero was showing him off; from what he had heard, even Alexandria was showing interest on the cape, whose lance's blasts managed to disrupt cape powers due to its exotic signature. Then again, when a cape comes around capable of smacking someone like Lung around in a way that stops his growth and does so in three separate times, everybody starts to take notice.

If only he had the change to study it, he could have improved his own halberd more.

As Armsmaster reached the fight, running around the wall of steel (Clearly Kaiser's work), he saw Strelizia fighting Leviathan; the tip of her weapon running hot, swiping across his skin and cutting like hot knife through butter. Of course, Leviathan wasn't out of the fight yet; while patches of his skin were torn off, revealing the inner layers, it still managed to dodge or block the attacks of the biomechanical hero as she let bursts of energy from around her waist, thrusting her this and that direction as they dodged and attacked each other.

As Armsmaster ran towards Leviathan, Strelizia finally noticed him "Armsmaster, wha-" she didn't have time to finish her question, before Leviathan's fist send her flying through the nearby building's walls.

Colin didn't even glance at her direction, as he charged with his own blade, while wielding another halberd on the other hand. Leviathan blocked his first attack, which cut through the flesh and left a cloud of dust in its wake, a chunk of the arm now missing. Leviathan pulled back in pain, before retaliating with a swipe of his claw, which Armsmaster dodged with his other halberd and striking the beast in the back.

As the fight between Leviathan and Armsmaster continued, the latter dodged former's attacks with his built-in prediction program, while cutting chunks out of Leviathan, who reacted as if it felt pain, slowing down as the battle continued.

Even as Armsmaster felt pride swell within him as he harmed the beast while taking down its watery afterimage, his attention began to drift to the wounds left by Strelizia; even now, his looked paler in comparison, yet the beast reacted more. Did the nanothorn have unexpected reaction? Or did Strelizia's lance merely burn off the nerve endings with its explosive detonations? The nanothorn weapon was designed to cut through everything, between atoms and sever molecular bonds.

Maybe the reason only reason Strelizia's attacks had caused such wounds without painful reactions was because of much greater energy release than his nanothorn cloud, severing nerve endings while his didn't. However, just as he opened his mouth to brag, the beast suddenly swiped much faster than before, catching him mid-jump into its claw, while another claw pulled the nanothorn blade from his arm, breaking it in process as it crushed the weapon.

Armsmaster screamed at pain, as he looked at Leviathan silently observing him in its tightening grip. The beast hadn't been wounded at all, its wounds slowly closing before his eyes… except those left by Strelizia, which were closing at slower rate. The beast chose to discard its broken toy, as Armsmaster was thrown across the street, straight into the remains of Kaiser's iron wall. As he landed, he felt pain shoot through his broken arm, causing another scream as his body felt sore from the impact.

And as Amsmaster leaned against the wall and picked himself up, he noted that he had lost his other weapon; looking around, he could spot it a dozen feet away.

Unfortunately, it was directly in the path of Leviathan, who surged forward towards him with frightening speed, claws extending as it lunged through the air, water image behind him. Time seemed to slow, as fear spread across Armsmaster; the sight of his death coming for him freezing him in place.

However, his death did not come, as Strelizia slammed onto Leviathan's side at the last moment, her boosters around the waist spewing energy as she altered Leviathan's trajectory, instead causing them to hit the edge of Kaiser's metal wall as they went beyond it. Armsmaster felt relieve, as his legs fell from under him, leaving him gasping as the sounds of battle echoed behind him. The beast had merely toyed with him, pretending he had mattered while destroying his month's work in mere moments and crushing his pride; neither the blade nor prediction program worked as effectively as he hoped.

As Armsmaster stood back up and jogged to his still remaining spare weapon, he winced at the pain shooting through his legs. He barely reached it, before Leviathan was send flying over him, a flash of gold and white as his eyes tracked Scion on Leviathan's left shoulder, while Strelizia was on the right.

As the beast crashed to the ground, Scion kept attacking, sending it flying once more while Strelizia stopped, landing on the ground before turning towards Armsmaster. He could see her now, cracks on her body and face that bled blue blood, as she glanced at Scion chasing Leviathan away, before she relaxed as she walked towards Armsmaster.

He felt utter bitterness at his own weakness, as he watched Strelizia's wounds begin to close, while she looked at him with look of concern and pity…

"This is EMP damage; you're the only one who was close enough to use one" Metrolyst, the tinker who survived Leviathan ambush said as she pointed at Armsmaster, with the rest of the survivors behind her.

Opposite of her, Armsmaster stood with his spare halberd drawn, while Miss Militia stood on the left of him and Dauntless on the right, with Alexandria standing in the middle of the two sides with rest of Triumvirate. As soon as the battle was over, the accusations had begun to fly; the villains claiming foul play by Armsmaster, while he argued no such thing. The argument had almost become a full on conflict, before Triumvirate arrived to manage this "Endbringer truce violation".

Strelizia was standing little ways behind Armsmaster, glancing at him with narrowed eyes as the leader of Protectorate ENE claimed that the accusations were false.

"You falsely accuse me of breaking the truce, only to advance your own cause; the deaths Leviathan caused are all his doing, while the damage could easily be faked by Metrolyst; It's not the first time her tech has failed with unexpected side effects" Armsmaster said, as he pointed at the female tinker in question, who opened her mouth to angrily reply.

"It's quite interesting, seeing Armsmaster lie through his teeth. So, how about this" Tattletale interrupted, as she arrived, stopping as she turned towards the villains "An independent group of tinkers inspects the bracelets, as well as any weapons Armsmaster has; if they find the EMP device in question or that the damage was indeed EMP, then he'll be send to Birdcage. Does that sound agreeable?"

Kaiser looked at Tattletale angrily, before glancing at Triumvirate while answering "Fine" he answered angrily, before adding "But the inspection must not be from any Protectorate affiliate; otherwise, I will not accept the results" he added, with other villains nodding in agreement.

Tattletale smiled, before turning towards the heroes, only for her eyes to widen in shock "Don't!" She yelled, just as the heroes turned to look at what had scared her.

Unfortunately for Colin, it would be among his last, as he turned to look behind him at Strelizia… before freezing as he looked down at her extended lance, sticking into his stomach, as the pain registered. The expression on Strelizia's face was that of righteous anger… and it would be among the last sights Armsmaster would see; the face of his executioner.

"You broke the truce" She said, as she pushed the button on the lance; the time seemed to slow down, as Alexandria moved, just as the orange glowing liquid moved through the tubes from Strelizia into the lance, before into Armsmaster.

The sight of Alexandria tackling Strelizia was the last Colin saw, before the superheated energy exploded, scattering his remains all over the capes present….

AU notes: I hope you enjoyed the first part of my anthology of short stories. These ones will serve as a test bed, to see which spark the interest of the community; it's quite possible, that the most liked might become full stories.

Now, if you're familiar with DITF, you might wonder why Strelizia is so small… the mechs in the show are larger than Endbringers (by a lot) so i decided to resize her a little… also, it's a mech; I have to make changes to make it into a living being, instead of mech piloted by two people.

Originally, I had 12 ideas for my short collection, but I cut off Evolve, Tangled, Dragon Age, Kingdom Hearts, Code Lyoko, Big Hero 6, Prototype and Warframe ideas, because I couldn't figure out proper plots for powers I planned (or other reasons).

If you're interested in ideas however, I'll give you short summaries, so you can take them and use them as you wish (as long as you credit me for the idea).

Evolve: Taylor becomes a Wraith from Evolve and starts a friendship with Lisa, the only one who can understand her. They'll eventually escape Brockton Bay and go on a journey to find a new place to settle in as capes. (Cancelled, due to lack of original plot that isn't just an average smugbug fic)

Tangled Crossover: Moonstone would be possessed by Taylor, Sunflower would be by Emma. Later Taylor would steal Sunflower's powers to herself. (Unfortunately, couldn't figure out the plot)

Dragon age: Power to summon demons from the fade (that's it, nothing else planned)

Kingdom Hearts: basically alt-power as Aqua (Couldn't decide what to do between start and end aka Scion fight)

Code Lyoko: Ai tinker, who works for Empire 88 and builds Lyoko and Xana, with scanners bringing Xana's robots into real world as cannon fodder. (Scrapped due to another tinker setting instead)

Big Hero 6: Tinker, who in her hero costume replicates the powers of protagonists of the movie, while using a robot mimicking Yokai to control microbots as villain, stealing tech and money for her while she fake fights it as hero. (Scrapped, because apparently that's the premise of Lord Doom story by another writer)

Prototype: Alt-power as mix of Alex Mercer and Elizabeth Greene. (An interesting cannibalistic stranger fic, but… couldn't figure out what to do with it, other than at the end, have her absorb Thinker Entity's corpse and become the new Thinker, to prevent Scion from destroying the world)

And best for last…

Warframe: Earth Bet is invaded by Sentients from Warframe. As heroes and villains alike across the world fight back, before and after Sentient win the war, the pieces of deeper mystery begin to set in place.

As Cauldron races to organize a way to defeat the Sentients before they manage to open portals to alternative earths, Scion is chilling around, observing the chaos created by an alien armada from future of alternative earth, finally having a task that he can do since the death of his partner.

And the big reveal? Well, let's just say it involves Man-in-the-wall tampering with time and shard of our favorite protagonist to make it all possible…. Taylor. (Scrapped, because I realized I wouldn't be good enough author for this monumental task)