Gathering Clouds 2.3
Taylor felt the air rush through her hair and across her face. It was exhilarating, a taste of what true flight was like. Right before impact on the pavement, she felt an invisible force grip her and then slow her descent. One by one her team landed around her, except Deadeye who grapple-lined over to another rooftop for a better vantage.
"Alright guys, here's the plan: Dryad, Erection, you two focus on restraining her and keeping her back. Conductor, you're on civilian duty, evacuate them and keep them safe. Launch, Kite and Deadeye… Hurt her as much as you can. Tax her regeneration, see what its limits are, whatever you need to do." Taylor ordered. "As for any clones that pop out… do what you need to." She grimaced as she gave the order, feeling like she was betraying some sort of code, but if cloned parahumans started rampaging around, they'd cause too much chaos and death. The situation was already bad enough.
The battle kicked off with Kite transforming. Taylor had been curious to see what Nova's Changer state looked like… and it was just as horrific as she'd been led to believe. Her skin became pallid white and her body shifted and expanded. Her arms became long as her fingers extended, fleshy webbing forming between them as they became meaty wings in the shape of large hands with padded fingers. Her back legs gained mass as a long tail extended out. Her neck extended as a hideous head, like that of a lamprey, formed from her face. Two beady eyes of black stare down the rampaging parahuman and with a shriek, she charged forward, slamming into the unknown cape with massive force. Her wide mouth filled with razor sharp teeth began to rip chunks from the raving parahuman as the two began to grapple. Clones began to be spit out by the twisted cape, horrible parodies of humans, all of them with pale and slime covered skin, some missing features, some having too many. They immediately began to run amidst the chaos and confusion, throwing fuel onto the fire.
Erection flinched at the sight and muttered something to himself, before throwing down small devices that soon unfolded into turrets of some sort. They began to automatically pepper the cape and its clones with rubber pellets and electric shocks. Dryad proceeded to slam her hands into the ground and thick vines began to rapidly grow, moving at Dryad's command to begin tripping up and restraining the enemy. Deadeye began to fire his rifle, while Conductor began moving from vehicle to vehicle, tearing off car doors or moving aside rubble to allow civilians to begin running from the ongoing battle.
"What's going on?!" Armsmaster barked as his cycle pulled up next to Taylor.
"Master/Striker," Taylor quickly explained. "She consumes people and then spits out twisted copies. A Thinker on my team believes that if she consumes a parahuman, the clone will have powers too."
Armsmaster grimaced. "Are all of these capes working with you?"
"Yes."
"Alright, I'll inform Console. We won't be getting full support, some of my team is out of town today taking care of other matters, so don't expect the full Protectorate." Armsmaster informed her bluntly. "We'll contact New Wave and see if they can make it here to assist."
His piece said, Armsmaster leapt from his motorcycle and drew his iconic halberd off of his back, the edge already wreathed with energy. Shooting a grappling line from the end, he pulled himself through the air and took a swipe, the blow slicing away a huge swath of flesh from the rogue parahuman's side.
The earpiece that Erection had built for her buzzed for a moment and Suit's voice filtered through. "I've established contact with the Protectorate, they're sending more people as we speak. Current codename for our target is 'Echidna'. I'll be linking your earpieces with the Protectorate's systems so they can contact you."
How to not sound like an incompetent newby… "Acknowledged?"
Suit chuckled over the comline. "I'll be providing what Thinker support I can, Janus is currently crafting a new toy that may do some damage. Otherwise I'd advise you to help get rid of those clones."
Taylor nervously followed Suit's advice, charging toward the nearest twisted clone, what might have once been a woman, but now sporting a third arm and no eyes. Thumbing the activation switch on her bat, she swung the electrified club at the mutant clone, hoping to take it down quickly!
Unfortunately, while she'd been practicing summoning her team and strengthening her power, she hadn't trained with weapons. The mutant ducked the swing and then slammed itself into Taylor, throwing her to the ground despite her armor. So they had some kind of enhanced strength too…. Fantastic. As the twisted humanoid approached her, it's head exploded in a shower of gore.
"Up you get T." Deadeye chided over the link. "Kite is having a bit of a rough time of it. You might need to pull her back and have Dryad take a more active role."
Taylor grimaced and looked at the battle between two monsters and sure enough, while Echidna was healing rapidly from any damage her supers were causing, Kite wasn't looking too hot. One wing was broken and battered, numerous cuts lined her body, and one beady black eye was busted open like an overripe fruit. Even as they watched, Kite was thrown backwards and slowly reverted to her human form.
"Dryad-"
"I'm on it." The heroine interrupted confidently, the plants on her bark-like armor beginning to glow faintly. "Let me show you what I can really do."
The amount of plants that had been tangling and tripping Echidna suddenly doubled in both size and number. A veritable jungle began to restrain the screaming parahuman, regrowing faster than Echidna could break through them. Taylor began to feel her headache growing from the expenditure of power and popped a couple of pain tablets to ease it back. Some plants began to sprout thorns and dig into Echidna's flesh and others started producing a thick pollen that was toxic if the coughing was anything to go by. Then the clones that had been mass produced at that point began to fall as they were impaled by long splinters of wood or eaten whole by giant venus flytraps. It was a one sided slaughter.
"This is the power of an A-class super Taylor!" Dryad gleefully shouted into her ear. "This is my power- oh hell."
Everything began to go wrong as Dryad was swapped with a clone that began to attack Erection. Dryad herself was placed close to Echidna… too close to dodge as the monster cape managed to force her way through the vines temporarily and latch onto Dryad, dragging her into the lower mass of flesh. Taylor immediately tried to unsummon Dryad, but could feel that Dryad remained, almost as if she was being held in place. Echidna screamed again and light began to emanate from her lower half, a piercing rainbow miasma. She swelled in size and clones started spawning from her lower half, clones of Dryad. Plants began to grow, but not against Echidna, against Taylor, her heroes, and Armsmaster. Taylor scanned the rooftops and spotted the Baron Samedi knockoff, Trickster, with a look of grim satisfaction on his face. He made a hand gesture and Taylor saw Erection get swapped with a Dryad clone and be consumed himself. Launch let out a shout of rage and let out a barrage of kinetic energy blasts that threw Echidna back and pulped some of the nearby Dryad clones into red paste. Her place was suddenly swapped with Deadeye, who was promptly thrown through a storefront by a flailing vine, his presence dropping from Taylor's mind.
A large splinter slammed into her chest and knocked her against a wall, her head striking the brickwork and sending stars spinning in her vision. Even as she felt her head swim with pain and confusion, she began to feel her supers crying for help before being silenced. A Dryad clone stood over her, an arm replaced entirely by a vicious claw made of wood, the weapon poised to strike down.
"Get away from her!"
A figure dressed in a white jacket and jeans slammed into the Dryad clone, knocking it away from Taylor. Glory Girl, just arrived from school, flashed her a perfect smile and hefted her to her feet.
"You chose a hell of a day to make your premier newby! Let's talk after this is over."
At the same time a barrage of lasers fired from the sky as Lady Photon and her two children descended, scorching Echidna's flesh and taking down clones of Taylor's heroes that had begun to spawn. A van pulled up and four more heroes burst out, Manpower, Flashbang, Brandish, and Miss Militia. Evidently the heroes had gotten the notice that lethal force was necessary, as their powers began to lash out with deadly efficiency. Manpower and Brandish also made sure to stay back from Echidna, already informed of her Striker power. The mad parahuman in question kept shouting, vowing revenge for 'Luke and Jess'. If Taylor had to bet, that would be the two capes that had died when they'd attacked her home, Ballistic and Genesis. Two more vans pulled up, one deploying a squad of PRT troopers that began to fire containment foam and assault rifles and the other deploying a partial squad, but also Assault and Battery. The duo began to deal with clones, though occasionally Assault would dart in and deliver a powerful blow that sent Echidna stumbling.
"Where are the rest of the heroes?" Taylor hissed into her earpiece to Suit. "Where's Janus?!"
"Elements of the Protectorate are out of the city on a different mission." Suit explained with implacable calm. "It has been decided by the PRT that this fight is too dangerous to make use of the Wards in direct engagement. Janus is currently building a BFG."
"BFG?"
"Big Freakin Gun." Suit deadpanned. "Excuse me for a moment."
A gunshot suddenly fired out from Suit's rooftop, the bullet richoteching off of a force field that Shielder had put up to defend against Conductor's clones before deflecting off the side of Armsmaster's helmet, and then finding a home lodged in Trickter's shoulder just as he materialized in a PRT troopers place and would have been in a prime position to shoot Miss Militia in the back.
"He wouldn't have made the jump if I'd been aiming the gun at where he'd appear." Suit claimed. "Had to make it a trick shot."
"Surrrrre." Taylor drawled. Freaking Thinker show-offs. "Do you have a plan yet for Echidna?"
"A single strike is necessary. None of this city's capes possess that kind of firepower- Ah, Militia may be capable, but not without extreme collateral damage. Armsmaster as well, though the weapon is still in development and he's saving it for an Endbringer. You may wish to hurry or casualties will begin to occur." Suit concluded, his voice wooden and robotic with use of his Thinker ability.
Taylor focused again on her power and was pleasantly surprised to find that while she felt the connection to her heroes still, they were… bound. Ordinarily not a good thing, but in this instance, it freed up her power, she could already feel the headache receding.
ReNew could be useful… No, bigger. More firepower. Can't risk Legacy getting absorbed and Archmage would be a bad idea with his reputation, I don't need to fight the Protectorate when this is all over.
She didn't bother searching for a specific name, just felt the powers that were there… and pulled on a connection to a particularly powerful super. Her headache immediately returned, but with a burst of azure light, a super appeared. He was tall and lanky, wearing an elaborate tuxedo and a top hat, twirling a cane around with supernatural dexterity in one hand. His upper face was hidden by a porcelain mask, but deep green eyes peered at her curiously from beneath it.
"Huh. That was rather dumb of you." The super laughed. "You didn't even bother to check who I was." He leaned against his cane and stroked his thin mustache thoughtfully. "I mean you do seem rather desperate at this moment… Oh, you just asked your power for someone that could take out that big girl over there in one shot, is that it?"
"Who are you exactly?" Taylor asked slowly, already having a feeling based on his manner and appearance.
The super grinned and stood to his full height, performing a showy bow while sweeping off his hat. "I am Magician, m'lady. It is so very good to breathe free air again." His grin turned vicious. Feral. "I do apologize, but I require my freedom. I hope you'll be happy to know that your power will be in very good hands."
Then he drew a sword from his cane and lunged for her throat. Taylor flinched, but the blade stopped before it could touch her skin. Magician frowned and seemed to strain, but couldn't get any closer.
"Huh. This… is a new issue." He took a step back and threw a fireball, but the flames halted and dispersed before she could even feel the heat. "Damn it! Years of being dead and I can't even be properly free!" The supervillain whined.
"Ignoring the fact you just tried to kill me," Taylor growled. "How about you go take care of the rampaging parahuman that's keeping my friends locked up?"
"Dead or alive?"
"Preferably alive."
"Boring!" Magician declared. "So uninspired! You brought me to fight this… this…" He waved a hand at the still rampaging Echidna and the Protectorate/ New Wave team trying to desperately hold her off. "Waste of time!? If you had just properly coordinated your group of puny B-listers you could have taken care of this with ease, let alone with the help of the fine and upstanding Brockton Bay heroes." He mocked.
Taylor grit her teeth as she began to get a headache from more than just her power. "Look, can you help or do I need to force you to disappear to free up more space?"
Magician let out a scoff, but idly raised a hand and sent out a beam of light from his finger that disintegrated a car that had been headed for the airborne members of New Wave. "You aren't strong enough yet to try and force me to do anything, child." He chuckled. "You'd have better luck unsummoning my stubborn ass of a brother than me. I am Magician. They had to make up a whole new class of super just for me. This fight is beneath me." He hopped up onto the hood of an abandoned car and leaned back. "I'm just going to enjoy the sunshine. Now if one of those Endbringer things pops up, feel free to summon me then. But for this? Taylor, I am a fine wine to be paired with only the most exquisite meal. I won't waste myself on this... Dollar store super."
Taylor felt her frustration bubble to the surface. "I'm not leaving this fight and if I die, you die too!"
"I've been dead before my dear, it's not all that bad." Magician replied dismissively as a magazine appeared in his hands and he began to leaf through it "Run or summon someone else to try and fight that thing, but I'll just be here if you want to chat."
"Duck now Ms. Hebert." Suit suddenly chimed in.
Trusting the Thinker, she hit the floor as Armsmaster flew overhead and crashed into a parked car. His power armor had a large dent in the front and blood ran from beneath his helmet and down one cheek. With a screech of metal, the Tinker pulled himself free and stalked over to Taylor, a look of desperate exhaustion on his face.
"Between the clones and Echidna herself, we're losing ground." Armsmaster summed up. "Can you bring out any more projections?"
Oh so he's not even pretending he doesn't know me. Great, this must be really bad.
"No, they're all trapped inside Echidna right now, I can't um… unproject them." Taylor admitted.
"Will destroying her and them cause you any harm?"
Emotional maybe. But I can always bring them back.
"No, it shouldn't as far as I know." Taylor replied carefully.
Some of her hesitation must have shown though, as Armsmaster frowned at her answer before nodding tersely. "Then I suggest you move away from the fighting, you're just a baseline human without them." Without another word he charged back into the fray.
Taylor felt as if she'd been punched in the gut at the statement. Armsmaster had always been a cape she'd liked as a kid and to hear him so bluntly tell her to get out of the way… it stung more than it should have.
I can do this. Even with that lazy ass sucking up my power, I can do thi-
A blast of power suddenly lifted her off of her feet and pinned her to a wall, the back of her head slamming viciously against it. A parody of Conductor walked forward, using it's telekinesis to keep her in place. She felt a psychic scream begin to assault her mind, a shrieking wail of pure agony and suddenly she could hear all of their thoughts.
Kill me!
End my suffering!
IT HURTS!
If you were truly our friend, you'd kill us!
Taylor felt her heart shatter, felt her chest constrict with the rage that began to fill it. That fucking monster was hurting her friends, her heroes. Something snapped within her. Something that Taylor was holding back. But no more.
You cannot have my friends, you monster!
She threw back her head and screamed as rainbow light exploded from her eyes, brilliant, shining light.
Taylor grabbed the power of Archmage, the power of the strongest telekinetic she knew. Then she pulled that power into herself. To any onlookers, her eyes took on an eldritch green glow and a ghostly outline of a black robed super seemed to surround her. Immediately the pain in her head tripled and blood began to flow like a faucet down her face… but at the moment she couldn't care less.
She screamed again and threw out her hand, a voice whispering instruction into her ear, direction on how to use the new power she'd found in her hands. The Conductor clone disintegrated into a red haze, as did every other clone as a wave of destruction spread down the street, the only islands being the heroes in its path. Echidna took the blow head on and was thrown through several buildings for her trouble.
"Taylor, you cannot maintain what you are doing for long." Suit informed her. "Your brain will turn into literal sludge. Janus is ready. Get Echidna airborne, as high as you can now."
Instructions from Archmage were once more whispered into her ear and Taylor gripped Echidna. She didn't have Archmage's decades of experience, but she still had a good deal of raw power, so she hurled Echidna up as far as she could. I could have orbited her.
Janus appeared next to Taylor, in his hands (or more accurately, strapped to his entire body) was a massive glowing cannon. He laughed upon his entry to the battlefield. "You sonuvabitch Suit, you were right!"
"Of course he was!" Taylor snapped. "Now finish this!"
"Aye aye!"
The glowing cannon was pointed up into the sky before a brilliant beam of scintillating white light burst forth and consumed Echidna, a burst of that same light spreading across the sky.
Taylor narrowed her eyes at Janus. "Why exactly did I need to throw her up like that?"
"Well I figured you didn't want your friend Glory Girl to lose her powers." Janus replied amiably, unhooking the now smoking cannon from his body. "The point of the beam wasn't to kill her, it was too-"
"Catch her before she hits the ground." Suit interrupted.
Taylor's eyes widened and she spotted the tiny figure plummeting like a rock. She reached out with her powers and grabbed the small figure, slowly easing her to the ground. Then the pain in her skull spiked once again and consciousness slipped through her fingers.
Well done Ms. Hebert. All according to the Plan.