Trial 2.01

I pulled the hood of my jacket further over me. I'd needed a hood ever since my hair fell out. I was upset at first, my hair was one of the few things connecting me back to my mother, but I didn't really have much choice but to accept it. A few days later these weird tentacle things started going out of my head. That felt weird, and I wasn't too happy that I'd lost my hair over that. Then they started changing. At first they were a light bluish-purple color, then this thin layer of stuff started growing over them, and before long they were the same shade of black my hair had been. A little while later, I'd noticed black fibers growing in between them, so it was almost like I had my hair back. Compared to that, getting used to the other changes to my body was a cakewalk.

As I checked around the corner, I contemplated what I'd gone through in the last few months. I'd been trapped in foam a couple of time, I'd been stabbed a few times, and been shot once. I've even fought a few capes, mostly minor grunts from the Merchants and Empire when I got caught trying to steal from them. From all of that, I can say with certainty that my body changes faster when I'm healing from something. Between what I've taken in fights and what I've done to myself, well, let's just say that it'll take a lot to hurt me and leave it it that.

The coast was clear, so I went on. I was out and about because I was running low on supplies. Normally I'd have done this a few days ago, but I like to leave money behind when I break into a place to cover the damages and the cost of what I took, but I'm running low on funds. I had been planning to rob a Merchant hideout, but when I got there the place was swarming with cops. I didn't have enough cash on me to cover what I needed, but I was desperate. I was taking the long way, heading through the docks, in case I was being followed.

Only a few minutes into the docks, I noticed a plume of smoke heading up into the sky. My curiosity got the better of me and I went towards it. It turns out that the Azn Bad Boys had decided to burn down a building for some reason. I tried to stay back, but from where I was it looked like quite a crowd of asian gangbangers had gathered here. There was a big guy and… wait, that's Lung. Huge crowd of gangsters and their leader. Either this was a power demonstration or something big was going on. I moved closer, to get a better look. Lung and another fellow, Oni Lee I think, were fighting four people and some dogs. Oh, the Undersiders. They must have done something to piss off Lung. It wasn't really any of my business, so I turned to leave and…

They're not taking this seriously. The grunts were just standing there, and Lung and Lee were just toying with the Undersiders. It was just four kids in a fight that they can't possibly win. The dogs were getting bigger and charging towards the crowd… and the thugs shot one of them. One of the kids, a girl in a dog mask screamed and then Lee appeared behind her and knocked her to the ground. He wasn't able to do anything else because he tripped, and then Lung blasted fire at the rest of the Undersiders and they scattered. This wasn't right. They didn't have a chance here and...Fuck!

I charged through the crowd, knocking down gangbagers as I went; some of them at the ends shot me, but I paid it no mind as the bullets bounced off my scales. I got to the other end of the crowd, and then I jumped up and came down on Lung's back. I wasn't expecting to knock him to the ground. Either I'm stronger than I thought, or I weigh more than I thought. I'm going with option A.

Lung stood up and threw me from his back. I sat and rolled up just in time to avoid Oni Lee teleporting right on top of me. I turned and slashed at him with my claws, but he faded away before I could make contact. I got this feeling at the back of my head, and turned just in time to bury my claws in his gut. He fell off of my claws with a sickening squelch, landed with a thunk, and disappeared. There's that feeling again; I turned just in time to kick him back. He disappeared again, and I twisted around and slashed-I connected right across the neck and took his head off. Then he faded, just another copy. I'll admit I was a bit relieved at that. He teleported behind me again, and I just turned and kicked him; he flew at the crowd of asian gangsters watching the fight, who scattered, and then vanished after hitting the ground.

Lee appeared behind me again, but when he did he dropped something. I turned just in time to see some sort of device explode. Everything went white, and then my whole world was pain. My next conscious thoughts were that everything hurt, that I was considerably warmer than I was before the flash, that I was flat on my stomach with someone standing on me, and that I had the barrel of a gun at the base of my skull.

As soon as I could think straight again, I opened my eyes. I couldn't have been out long, because we were still in the same part of the docks, in front of the same burning building. I noticed that my arm was burnt black, with flakes of burnt skin already peeling off and being replaced with new scales below-that was going to itch as soon as I could feel something other than pain. I shifted my head, just a bit. Lung was still there, and Lee. The Undersiders had apparently tried to fight back, because Lung was bigger and scalier than he was when I blacked out. He was holding one of them, a blonde girl dressed in purple, while Lee had another, the girl who'd screamed when the dog was shot, in a choke hold. The two guys were down on the ground.

I couldn't let this happen. I reached down, deep into the well of power inside me and I pushed, and a pulse of force erupted from my body. Whoever it was that was standing on me was knocked back, as were a couple of thugs I hadn't seen behind me, and I scrambled towards Lung. I was in too much pain to stand up straight, so I just skittered four legged towards him and, when I was in range I attacked. I don't know what possessed me to bite him, or what possessed me to swallow the chunk of his calf I bit out, but he dropped the girl in purple and screamed, the primal cry of a predator in pain.

Lee teleported to the left and kicked me in the head. It didn't do anything to me, but he didn't get to try again, because Lung spoke up.

"Lee, take the others. The authorities will know we're here by now. Distract them."

Lee Teleported away, and I heard the sound of scampering feet. The pain from earlier was starting to fade, so I stood. Bits of burnt flesh fell from me and the burnt tatters of my jacket fell apart, but as the man turned dragon continued to grow larger, I met his eyes and bared my fangs-still wet with his blood-and grinned. As the pain was fading, I could feel the adrenaline beginning to flow into my veins.

*Break-Danny*

My little girl was fighting Lung. I mean, Taylor had clearly changed, but I could see her hair. It had to be her. I just stared at her, fighting for her life against that monster and, and… No. I could deal with those feelings later. For now, I had to get ready. I handed the tablet back to Uber, who had rushed over, and set out. First I called Kurt.

"Boss, what-"

"I know where Taylor is!"

"That's great!"

"No it's not, she's in a cape fight as we speak."

"Against who?"

"Lung."

"Oh… Shit."

"I know. I know it's late, but if you could do me a favor: Call anyone who might be up and willing risk a fight with one of the most dangerous capes in the city to help me try and get my little girl back tonight. If any are, tell them to try and head to the docks to suit up."

"Will do. And… You said she's fighting Lung. Do you know how she's doing.?"

I looked back to Uber and motioned. He checked the tablet.

"Okay, the good news is she seems to be holding her own. The bad news is she's been burned a couple of times and well, you might want to pack a change of cloths for her… She's blue now, by the way and… she just got punted through a wall."

Shit!

"Kurt, it's not going well. Make the calls, I'm heading out."

"On it."

I hung up and set out. I needed to be Bastion if I was going to risk fighting Lung. As I contemplated just forgetting the nonlethal gear for this, I spared a thought for how scared Taylor must be right now.

*Break-Taylor*

This was so much fucking fun!

I climbed from the rubble and jumped forward, landing on all fours, then hopped to the side to avoid a blast of fire. The last of my chard clothes crumbled away from the movement, but I don't have time to worry about that. I landed again, and then pounced towards Lung.

Lung had gotten bigger-much bigger, and his entire body was covered in thick scales, but my claws still sunk deep into his flesh. I tore out a few chunks of Lung-flesh but I couldn't jump off of him fast enough to avoid getting burned. Being burned didn't hurt anywhere near as bad as the bomb, and I'd noticed that over time it had hurt less in general, but it still kind of sucked.

Once I'd started to cool off a bit, I lunged for Lung's legs again but the sudden blast of fire prevented me from making contact. Then he was on top of me, clawing down at my back and I could feel him tearing clean through my scales and shredding the flesh below… Which was nowhere near as painful as I'd expected it to be. I managed to claw at his legs again and ripped off another chunk of flesh, but that only gave me a few seconds to crawl out from under him. I stood up straight, and turned just in time to scratch him across the chest.

His mask was gone by now and his face began to resemble a dragon. He seemed to ignore the slash and slammed me down. There was fire everywhere by now, some from his power and some from the debris of the building burning behind us. Lung was over me again, but between my back and being forced to the ground I couldn't move. Instead, I sent out another pulse of energy, stronger than the one I'd used before, and Lung flew off of me, giving me time to get back to my feet.

I could feel the slashes across my back healing, and while I'd destroyed some of his flesh and scales I could see Lung regenerating too. I to a moment to note the differences. He was just replacing flesh. Me, I fix as much of the damage as possible before replacing what's gone. He get's bigger and stronger, I get harder to hurt. Lung spoke up, in a distorted and monstrous voice.

"Oooh stron, earl… Ood figh... Shame too kill ooh."

I chuckled, then bore my fangs for him to see.

"Yeah. I've got to admit, this… fighting you? It was more fun than I thought it would be, but I've got no plans of dying here."

I was breathing heavily, and he was still getting bigger and bigger… My last slash didn't hit as deep as the others had. I wasn't sure if I could win if this kept going on but-I heard it. Sirens and moving vehicles. People were on the way here. Lung had clearly heard it too, with the look on his distorted dragon's face.

"Dwahw!"

And then he turned and fled… I fought Lung, and he ran way. I mean, yeah, it's the people coming that drove him off, but still. Fighting him was fun. Was that the adrenaline talking, or was I going insane? I felt someone tap me on the shoulder, bringing me out of my brief moment of euphoria, and I turned to see a blonde girl in a purple outfit and a domino mask. Who was this? Oh, shit, the Undersiders… I'd forgotten about them in the heat of the moment. The blonde was saying something.

"Um, I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said, would you like a job?"

Something about her was off, it felt like she was afraid of me but at the same time desperately wanted me to take up the offer.

I looked to the other members of her group. One of the guys, a muscular young man in biker lethals, was helping up the boy in tights, while the last girl was checking on her dogs. Did I really want to take the plunge and join a group of Supervillains? Hmm ...

The sirens were getting louder.

"We need to get out of here first. Someone's coming and they'll be here in a few minutes."

"What?" She seemed a bit shocked.

"...You can't hear the sirens?"

The girl shook her head and rushed over to her teammates, and began frantically talking with them.

Come on, what's there to discuss?

"Where is your lair? Is it far away?" I asked as I approached them.

The blonde pointed to the burning building.

Oh.

...

Ah fuck it.

Within a moment they were all following me as I hastily led them down an ally, away from their old lair to mine.