Chimera Rising

A:N-

Well, this is awkward. No seriously, I don't have any idea why I'm doing this. Why disappear for so long then come back with a new story?

Good question, I don't have an answer.

Why Worm of all things? I have a love hate relationship with it to be honest. I won't talk about it cause that's an entire essay that I don't feel like doing. Anyways the idea hit me like a truck and I couldn't get it outta my head. So, here it is, I don't know what i'm gonna do with it. Maybe I'll just leave it as a oneshot, who knows.

Anyway, I don't own Worm or Ben Ten yadda yadda here ya go.

X.x.X.x.X.x.X

He stirred, as if roused from a night's rest, slowly, peacefully, as if the world around him was quiet and content.

The smell of smoke and burning asphalt pressured him to wake faster.

Blinking slowly, he pushed past the veil of fog that had clouded his head and forced himself to awaken. Everything was blurry, a muted ringing clogged his ears, the taste of ash laid heavily on his tongue, and below him he felt the distinct toughness of the street. Carefully lifting his head from the ground, he blinked a bit faster to clear his vision. Eventually, the fuzzy unfocused blobs sharpened, and all he could see around him was the Fire.

Roaring, angry red flames blazed in a ravenous hunger that consumed everything around him. What once could've been a tidy well kept street was now a scene of calamitous and disturbing violence. Craters littered the ground, storefronts and apartments smashed and melted from the intense heat.

With his barely lucid mind he wondered,'Am I in hell?'.

Before he could ponder this, the dull ringing in his ears started to wane. Slowly, he felt his hearing return, only to be encompassed by the bellowing of the fire surrounding him. Wincing at the noise he pushed himself onto his hands and knees before gasping and collapsing back to the ground as an intense pain flared up in his side. Gritting his teeth he loudly hissed before slowly letting out his breath as the pain gently eased down. Tentatively he rose back up to his hands and knees, his left hand softly cradling his aching right side.

With an agonizing slowness, he worked his way to his feet, groaning and inhaling sharply as every motion seemed to antagonize the pain he felt. Standing uncertainty, he took in the mass destruction around him once more and felt something in him wither in despair.

'What did this?'He thought desperately. Shaking his head he realized he should get to a safer location, regroup with his-

His heart jumped in his chest.

'My squad?! Where's my team?'Looking around his eyes stopped on the flipped transport van behind him.

"No."He whispered.

Please no.

With a pained grimace he walked as close to the burning wreckage as he dared. His eyes searched frantically all over the overturned truck in hopes that someone might've gotten out.

He sighed, not seeing any burning corpses amongst the wreckage, he also didn't smell any burning flesh which was a good sign. He tried a quick check over his radio but was answered with silence.

'Hopefully they got out in time.'

No time to worry about that now, he had to get somewhere safer. Turning around, he walked as fast as he could, the ache in his ribs proving to be a formidable challenge. Wandering around, he saw the trail of destruction was not limited to the street where he woke up. For almost two whole blocks the carnage continued. Fire and ruined buildings permeated his vision.

'Has to be Lung,'He reasoned,'Only that bastard could do this much damage. His last rampage didn't end too well for us, I hope the Heroes can pull something off.'

He continued on, his pace slow and measured, standard PRT boots sinking into the melted asphalt and the heat causing him to feel like he was baking inside his armor.

'They need to throw that scaly fuck into the Birdcage already, that or give him a kill order already. This can't go on.'He grouched. Damned Endbringer Truce, life would be so much easier if those giant freaks of nature didn't exist. He stopped and leaned against a parking meter to give his aching side a brief rest.

From where he was standing, he could hear it now. Gun shots, crashing metal, explosions, a desperate scream or two. The sounds of a Cape fight. No mistaking it.

'Guess the fights still going on.'

Not surprising, against Lung of all people, you could be fighting for hours with no real progress. If he got too amped up then the fight was just unwinnable. He still shuddered when he thought of that fight he had against Leviathan. If he could only be matched by an Endbriger, then what hope did anyone else really have?

Sighing softly, he pushed off the parking meter and continued on.

After about five minutes of walking he was rewarded with a sight that made him sigh with relief. Just up ahead was a ring of PRT transport vans, these ones thankfully not on fire, and with plenty of troopers moving around them. A checkpoint he figured. Must be the unit sent to establish a perimeter around the fight. With a bit more energy to his step he hobbled as fast as he could to reach them. As he got closer he opened his mouth to call out but the words froze on his tongue.

'This isn't an established perimeter,'He realized,'This is an emergency medical station.'

And with mounting dread he entered the mix of at least 2 dozen PRT personnel and gulped at the state of some of the troopers. Burns he expected-its Lung, of course there were burns-but some of the injuries didn't make sense. One man, being looked over by two field medics, was sprawled on his back, jutting from his chest was a large lime tinted crystal. A few troopers had multiple shards lodged into different parts of their bodies, but none as severely as the man laid out on his back.

But that was only part of the injured. The others were either unconscious or had pried their helmets off to be sick off to the side. A closer inspection showed that their eyes were heavily bloodshot and their skin had gone pale or started to turn green from the nausea.

Swearing under his breath he trudged over to one of the only people still standing upright amongst the injured.

"Sir,"He called.

His face concealed by his helmet, the heavyset man turned to him sharply and looked him up and down.

"I don't recognize you, name and number private."

"Aaron Dwide trooper number 6612."He answered hoping he'd be forgiven for his slouching posture and lack of salute.

"Captain Davids. What're you doing here son?"

"Sir,"Aaron began,"I was en route with my squad when we were attacked about 5 blocks back that way,"He said pointing behind him.

"Where's the rest of your team?"Davids asked.

"I don't know sir,"Aaron sighed,"I didn't see anyone else near or in the wreckage. Right now they're MIA. Has anyone else come this way?"

"No, just you. Are you hurt?"

"My ribs,"He said gesturing to his cradled side,"I think they might be bruised."

"Can you hold on or do you need immediate medical attention?"

Looking around at the injured state of the others around him he concluded he could wait. "I'll be fine for now, just need to rest for a bit."

Nodding his affirmative, Davids crouched next to another trooper who was groaning from an impaled leg. Aaron stared at the large crystal embedded deep in the man's leg and shuddered to imagine it happening to him.

"What happened?"He asked Davids."Did Lung get a new Cape to his gang or something?"

Davids froze before turning to look at him.

"Lung?"He inquired.

A little offset by his question Aaron nodded.

"Yeah Lung, I mean, who else could be capable of all this?"

Davids just stared.

"What?"He said.

"Did you actually see who attacked your van?"Davids asked with a cautious tilt to his voice.

"No sir,"He replied with a bit of unease creeping into his voice,"It happened too fast to see. I remember us driving towards the location of the fight before the van lurched to a stop. Next thing I knew, the van was being tossed around and…"

He bit his lip as he tried to remember what exactly happened but he couldn't piece it together.

"I can't remember after that,"He admitted.

"I see."Davids said neutrally."Let me fill you in then, all this,"He said, gesturing to the destruction of the city and to the injured troopers around them,"It's not from Lung."

Blinking in surprise, Aaron felt his heart miss a beat. Gulping his suddenly dry throat Aaron croaked out a bewildered,"What?"

"It's a new cape. One of those Case 53's. Big ugly motherfucker."Davids growled.

A heavy feeling settled into his stomach. Sweat began to build onto his forehead, not from the heat, and he felt his nerves start to twitch in mounting dread.

"Oh God,"He breathed.

"My thoughts exactly,"Davids grumbled,"Why do the freaks always come here?"

"So,"He swallowed again,"Fire, those crystals and-"he looked over at the heavily ill troopers.

"Some kinda poison. Shit comes outta his mouth like green smoke."Davids answered."But that's just a small bit of what he could do."

The blood in his veins chilled as he turned back to the captain.

"Oh yeah,"Davids drawled,"We really hit the jackpot on this one. Has more than three powers, and can apparently use all of them at once. Fuckin Brockton Bay I tell ya."

A numbness started to seep through his body at the disturbing notion of someone-who is not Eidolon-having more than three powers, and also apparently, being a villain to top it off.

"How has the response been?"He forced himself to ask.

The sigh he received was not comforting. "Not good."Davids said,"Last I heard, the Heroes were getting their asses kicked. If I remember correctly, I think it was Assault that got injured pretty badly, something about being stabbed through his stomach by a giant crystal."

Suddenly feeling a little claustrophobic, Aaron pulled his helmet off and ran his hand over his sweat drenched face and groaned quietly.

"The hell's going on here,"He mumbled in distress.

"I wish I knew son,"Davids sighed."I've never seen anything quite like this before. All we can do now is hope for the-"

"INCOMING!"Someone bellowed.

A loud crash startled everyone present, one of the vans rocked back onto two wheels before righting itself and dropping onto all fours again. Davids shot to his feet and made his way over to the now wrecked van. Aaron, with a morbid curiosity, followed. What they found made his jaw drop.

"Is that…?" He tentatively asked, hoping he might be wrong somehow.

"It is."Davids said grimly.

Raggedy blonde hair covered the face, but it was still obvious who it was.

There was no mistaking that outfit, or that Tiara.

Glory Girl, Brockton Bays own little Alexandria. The little darling of New Wave. Thought to be invincible, was nowhere close to the image. Her white dress and cape were both torn and burned, the Tiara atop her head chipped and shattered. But most shocking, was that she, herself, was injured.

Left arm bent awkwardly in multiple places, a large splattering of ugly bruises formed all over her face and a large gash on her stomach let out a steady stream of blood.

"Shit!"Davids swore as he quickly ran back to find something to slow the bleeding. He returned a moment later with a med kit. Kneeling down he ripped the kit open and got out all the gause before pressing it on the wound. She groaned quietly at the feeling.

"I know kid, I know."Davids whispered.

"How bad is it?"Aaron heard himself say.

"It looks worse than it is, just have to keep the pressure on and wrap it up tightly. Her sister can take care of the rest later."

"This is crazy."Aaron muttered.

"Focus Dwide. I know you're injured, but see if you can find some more gause."Davids commanded.

Aaron just stared at the prone state of the young heroine.

"DWIDE!"Davids yelled, startling the trooper."Don't just stand there, go find me some damn gause!"

Shaking himself out of his shocked stupor, Aaron mumbled a choked yes sir before turning around to go look.

"You're gonna be okay kid, just relax."Aaron heard Davids say to her.

"Y-you have t-to run,"She weakly replied.

"Calm down kid, we're gonna try to patch you up."

"No, y-you have to...get away, he's coming here…"

Aaron stopped.

A thick silence settled over the area. "What?"Davids croaked. Aaron turned to see Glory Girl looking up at Davids desperately.

"You have to go, please before he-!"

The surrounding area, which had been partially shadowed before, was suddenly lit up. Aaron looked up to see what he could only describe as a smaller sun, and it was barreling straight towards all of them. Eyes widening, Aaron opened his mouth to shout something, anything to give a warning, but it was useless, the fireball impacted the dead center of the whole group-with him just on the edge of the group-before exploding outward in a blinding conflagration of heat and power.

Aaron felt himself get lifted off his feet and smash his back into something solid, his body crying out in protest at the added pain it had to endure.

Dropping back onto the ground, protective armor smoking, Aaron groaned as his ribs and now his back flared in agony. Slowly lifting his head-only partially noting that the back of his head was aching as well-he came up to a hauntingly familiar scene. Fire surrounding him, the smell of ash and melted asphalt taking over his nostrils. Looking around he tried to see if anyone else had survived the explosion.

He spotted Glory Girl lying still on the ground and who he guessed was Davids right next to her. The fire, lapping at her body, but it seemed like her invincibility had come back as it wasn't finding any purchase on her costume, or even her hair.

He tried to at least push himself onto his hands and knees but the added pain of his head, his back, and his ribs made the task near impossible.

While struggling with the task, a large impact shook the street.

He froze.

He waited a few seconds before loud thuds started making their way in his direction, each one sending an increasing feeling of terror through his veins.

"Must be my lucky day, more free target practice."A churning, sinister voice commented. Aaron couldn't even gulp with how dry his mouth was, but to hear how flippant it was about torching a multitude of people, spoke ill towards his survival.

Trying to keep as still as possible he heard more thuds-footsteps he figured-slowly walk amongst the carnage.

"Oh there you are,"The voice jeered maliciously,"Thought you could get away from me?"

He listened, feeling sick to his stomach, as Glory Girl yelped in pain. With all the courage he could muster, he looked up and felt a splash of sheer awe and horror.

"Oh my God,"He wheezed in terror.

He watched as the giant paused at his exclamation, and slowly turned his way to look at him, and he could see the full scale of the nightmare that had brought such ruin to the city.

It stood at least 12 feet tall, broad and muscled, its head, torso and legs a deep red. Its bulky right arm, which held a weakly struggling Glory Girl taut by the hair, was made entirely of the same green crystal that he saw pierced into the others. Its left arm, he could only compare it to highly compressed lava. The limb sizzling and distorting the air around it. A second set of arms lay just below the top-these two identical-muscled orange furred, with lethal black claws stretching from the tips. Its shoulders were black, with a green almost circuit like pattern etched onto them, and jutting out from there were large see through insect like wings. A long powerful blue and black striped tail extended from the base of his spine and slowly swayed. Its face he could say was the most disturbing. A fleshy growth stretched from the top of its head like an angler fish, one huge bulbous eye with a horizontal bar as a pupil sat on the right side of its face, and on the left, one above the other were two slanted dark amber eyes. Thick dark hair framed its face as it grinned an absolutely feral smile. Sharp pointed fangs glistening in the fire light.

"Well well well,"It sang with twisted amusement,"We've got a live one. Isn't this exciting."

Turning to look at the still struggling Glory Girl, his grin stretched wider.

"Still feel like playing hero? Hm? Well, here's your chance." It roughly tossed her forward, falling just short of him. She whimpered painfully as the landing aggravated her injuries. Aaron watched, even as tears burned in her eyes, as she levitated herself up slowly, her right arm pressing onto her injured stomach, and faced the monster with pained determination. Much to its apparent delight.

"Hahaha, that's it, that's what I like to see. Come on, let's see how badly you can break before you quit." It taunted.

Gritting her teeth, Glory Girl prepared to launch herself forward in a charge tackle before an enraged voice bellowed,"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

Turning to the sound, Aaron was momentarily blinded by a flash of light that struck the monster-it letting out a surprised grunt and stumbling back a step. Blinking his eyes he saw a furious Lady Photon, her white and indigo bodysuit looking as worn and ragged as Glory Girl's dress, and her hands pulsing with barely repressed power.

"You again,"It sneered in annoyance, "I thought I took care of you already."

"Not even close you damned monster!"She snarled before firing a large blast from both her hands. It held up its crystalline hand and blocked the shot, the light bouncing off its arm and redirecting in multiple directions, carving up the street and buildings surrounding them.

It cocked back its left arm and Aaron watched as it fizzled and crackled before he shot it forward and shot a river of flame up towards the heroine. Canceling the beam, Lady Photon brought up an indigo colored shield of light to block against the fire. When the stream of fire stopped, Lady Photon blinked in shock to see the monster flying towards her, its transparent wings buzzing loudly as it cocked back its crystalline arm and landed a solid punch right in the middle of the barrier, the force behind it launching her backwards and leaving a large crack on the wall of light.

Aaron felt his heart pounding painfully in his chest. He had heard about how resilient those barriers were, to have it just be cracked after only one punch was horrifying.

Feeling a tug on his arm, Aaron looked to see Glory Girl looking at him imploringly.

"Come on,"She urged,"Aunt Sarah won't be able to keep him occupied for long. We have to go." He felt a rush of emotion at her words, a feeling of hope in her as she promised to get him to safety. Nodding dumbly he tried to stand, and immediately grunted in pain as the pain over his body flared back up.

Taking his arm, Glory Girl draped it over her right shoulder before wrapping her arm around him, he winced and hissed about his ribs before Glory Girl apologized and held him a bit more gently. Making sure he was secure, she slowly ascended with him practically draped over her and started flying away from the chaotic brawl behind them.

"Where,"He grunted, getting her attention,"Where are the other heroes?"

Her lips thinned as a troubled expression twisted onto her face. He had a feeling he was gonna regret asking.

"They're,"She started reluctantly,"They're hurt, badly. The rest of New Wave aren't in good shape, at least half of the Protectorate capes are down, the Wards are more focused on search and rescue, but I doubt they would've been much help against that thing."

He was right, he did regret asking.

"What even is that thing? I heard it's supposed to be a Case 53 but I've never seen or heard of one like that."

Glory Girl shook her head."I don't know. All I know is that it's got a lot of powers, and knows how to use them."

They flew on in a solemn silence for a while. He finally broke it when he muttered despairingly,"What are we gonna do?" Glory Girl's expression pinched for a second before shaking her head and steeling herself.

"I don't know but, for now, i'm getting you to a Brockton General, Ames should be there right now, she'll be able to fix us both up."

"Ames,"He muttered,"You mean Panacea?"

"Yeah,"Glory Girl smiled in memory of her sister,"She's really good at what she does, we'll be back on our feet in no time."

"I hope so."

Glory Girl made to say something else but paused, her head tilted to the side as she listened. Soon Aaron heard it too, it sounded like...buzzing?

She realised it a second before he did, eyes going wide, she quickly tossed him onto a nearby roof before being smashed from above and driven down to the street and cratering the ground. Feeling a heavy weight digging into her spine, she turned her head and looked into the angered face of the beast that had been terrorizing Brockton Bay for most of the night.

"Going somewhere, hero?"It spat, grinding its foot into her back. Glory Girl couldn't help but shudder at the sheer disgust it laced in the word hero.

Flaming hand picking her up by the cape Glory Girl braced as she felt its crystal arm impact her spine hard enough for her to shoot into a parked car, utterly crumbling the vehicle's whole left side.

'Thank you God for my shields.'She thought tiredly as she remained slumped against the ruined car. If she didn't have them, she'd probably be more then dead by now. Or wishing she was. Hearing the fervent stomps of the monster, her eyes widened and she hastily turned around, only to be knocked to the ground with a ferocious back hand to the face by its flame hand. The physical blow was nullified but the heat still stung her face.

"Heh, you heroes are all so pathetic. Always trying to do the right thing. Always wanting to help people. But you're all so weak."It sneered.

Face down in the asphalt she couldn't help but mutter,"At least we're not ugly."

It went quiet, and before she could contemplate if those were her last words, she heard it start laughing. It was not a comforting sound.

"Hahaha, no, heh, I guess you can't be called ugly. That was a clever joke. Really good. We should share it, how about your buddy on the roof, I'm sure he'd love to hear it."

Her heart spiked in panic. She watched as it turned around and started to stomp to where she tossed the injured PRT trooper.

"No!"She called. It pretended that it didn't hear her.

"Leave him alone!"She pleaded.

Its wings started to buzz as it prepared to lift off onto the building. Frustrated tears started to fall down her face as she tried to push herself to save him. But it hurt. Everything hurt. She could barely move, she couldn't save him. She wasn't strong enough.

She watched in muted horror as he lifted off the ground and flew onto the roof.

"Hey buddy!"She heard it exclaim in false cheer. "You'll never believe the great joke your friend down there just told me."

'No no no.'She thought as she slowly started to rise from the ground.

Levitating off the ground she unsteadily flew to the roof just in time to see the monster lift up the injured man by his throat.

"NO!"She shouted before flying forward to bash her shoulder right in between its wings. The monster stumbled forward, dropping the trooper, before turning to face her, an annoyed snarl on its lips.

With all the strength she had left she swung her right arm in a haymaker that connected powerfully against its cheek and launched it right off the building and down to the street.

Slowly she set herself down onto the roof before collapsing onto her knees. Breaths heaving in and out, she looked down at her stomach and noticed just how red her dress had gotten. Oh yeah, she had a wound on her stomach that the nice PRT guy was trying to help with. Feeling dizzy, she decided to lay down and relax for a minute. Hopefully she'll feel better after that.

Not even ten seconds later she felt the roof shake as something heavy landed on it. Turning her head she saw the monster had returned, and was slowly moving its lower jaw from side to side.

"Hm, not a bad hit, I'm impressed. Too bad that was the only good hit you got all night."It complimented.

It stalked toward her, and Victoria couldn't even find it in her to be afraid anymore. She was just so tired.

Her half lidded stare watched him as he stood over her. Holding its crystal arm up, she watched as the fingers melted into one another and formed a long pointed spike at the end of the arm. Had she not been so tired, she probably would've thought that was kinda cool.

"Any last words, hero?"

Victoria's response was to slowly close her eyes and let her head droop to the side.

"Guess not." She heard it snicker.

Emily Piggot considered herself to be a realist.

In her line of work she knew that sooner or later something bad would happen, and they may not be prepared for it. Be it from one of the gangs, the Endbringers, or even if some rogue parahuman wanted to turn the Bay into the next Ellisburg. She knew that if something ever went wrong, they wouldn't be able to face it.

So she hounded her superiors for years. Requesting more equipment, more troopers, hell, more capes! Anything, so long as it helped her to fortify Brockton Bay against any and all threats. But she was ignored, told her requests would be considered and they would get back to her to tell her if they were approved. They hardly ever did, and the few times they bothered, it was a solid No.

They told her she was being paranoid and that she needed to make due with what she had. So she did, but she was not happy with it. The feeling never went away, that gnawing sensation at the back of her head-or where her kidneys used to be-wouldn't leave her be. Telling her, something, someday would go horribly wrong.

And finally, after all this time, it did.

"Send her in."She told her secretary from the buzzer on her desk. A few seconds later, Battery limped into her office. Her costume had seen better days, multiple cuts and lacerations littered her skintight outfit, the visor was cracked and she had no doubt that the skin underneath looked any better.

Battery came up to her desk and did her best to stand at attention.

"Have a seat Battery."Piggot commanded lightly.

Not needing to be told twice, Battery slowly eased her way into the chair to her right, wincing and hissing softly as she aggravated whatever injuries she attained.

Piggot opened her mouth to speak, paused, looking her up and down before opening her mouth again to ask,"Would you like anything to eat or drink for now?" A very nice courtesy, not one many people can say they were given when brought to Director Piggot's office. Battery however, was in too much pain to be dumbstruck.

She shook her head,"No thank you mam."

Piggot nodded. Okay then, onto business.

"The reason I called for you is because I heard that Armsmaster and Miss Militia are too injured to debrief."She explained,"I've tried calling for Dauntless but he's not answering. Do you have any idea why?"

Battery took a second to think about it.

"I think,"She began,"He's still buried."

The Director blinked.

"Buried?"

Battery nodded.

"Please explain."

"Yes mam. By the time Dauntless arrived, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Me and-"She swallowed thickly,"-Assault had already engaged the Case 53. Assault and I were having a hard time getting in close, the Case 53 was keeping us back with fire and the crystal spikes it would shoot from its arm. Being the only real ranged option we had, Miss Militia grabbed his attention long enough for me and Assault to try to get a good shot on him. But he proved…"She struggled for the word her tired mind wouldn't give her.

The Director sat patiently, waiting for her subordinate to continue.

"...craftier than we imagined. With his back turned to us, we thought we had a chance, but he moved quickly, he caught Miss Militia before she could fall back. Assault panicked and launched himself to try to help her. I thought he would get him, land a solid enough blow to stagar him, maybe give Miss Militia a chance to escape, but he turned at the last minute, his arm changed into a large spike and Assault had no way to stop himself before-"

Battery halted, her hand covering her mouth just as her voice started to tremble. Her other hand clenched painfully on her lap, She swallowed again and took several deep breaths.

Taking her headpiece off, Battery wiped her eyes and sniffled,"Excuse me."

Director Piggot waited.

When she finally got herself together she continued,"Before he uh, was injured, and had to be taken out of the fight. Dauntless showed up sometime after. He was able to get in close because of his Shield and for a while they traded blows, the rest of us supported however we could, but it wasn't enough, none of us could really hit hard enough for it to be effective. Eventually, the Case 53 grabbed Dauntless and charged into a burning building. The structure was already weakened by the fire and the two of them knocking each other around didn't help. The building collapsed soon after. It busted out easily enough, but Dauntless, he never came back out."

Director Piggot stared, waiting to see if Battery had more to say. When she didn't she nodded once and sighed heavily. Taking off her glasses the director gently massaged her eyes, where she could feel the beginning of a headache starting to pound.

Slipping her glasses back on she looked to Battery, really looked at her. She was pale, a large welt in between her eyes, no doubt the same spot where the vizor cracked. And the look in her eyes was one of true exhaustion, mixed with a fair amount of worry-no doubt for Assault.

"While I'd like to get the whole story sooner, rather than later, we'll wait for Panacea to get here and heal everyone before we try to fully debrief."She sighed,

"Do you have anything else to report?"

"No mam."

"Alright then, in the meantime, go get some rest, you'll need it."

Let it be said, that while Director Piggot was indeed a hardass, she was also understanding.

Battery nodded, carefully stood up from the chair, and limped back out the way she came. When the door softly closed, her computer chimed, and a computerized voice beckoned,"Director."

"Dragon,"She acknowledged,"Any new development?"

"No mam, but I did intercept a call from Velocity, he says he rescued Glory Girl and an injured trooper from the Case 53."

"Oh?"She inquired, suddenly interested.

"Yes, just in time apparently. He says that if he were a minute later, both would've died."

"I see,"The director says as she leans back in her chair."He escaped then?"

"Yes. He seems to have just disappeared."

"Wonderful."She groaned. She could hear the Chief Director's reprimands now. A shame her patience wasn't doing too well today, she may just say a few things liable to get her fired. All things considered, that may be the lesser of the evils.

"How's Armsmaster?"Dragon inquired after a pause.

"You don't know?"She asks with a raised eyebrow, knowing how easily Dragon could hack into the system and find out for herself. The thought never failed to make her a little queasy.

"I've been busy,"She replied with just a hint of bite to it. Seems Battery wasn't the only one worried about their other half.

"I've yet to hear anything too terrible, but at the same time, it's not good. His armor was apparently crushed with him inside it. His spine, I hear, is severely damaged. He's being monitored for any brain damage as well. Panacea can fix his back but if his head was injured as well, then there will be nothing that can be done for him."

Dragon was silent after that. Probably pondering how, if at all, she could help him.

"Thank you Director. I'll keep you updated if any new updates come in on our vanishing Case 53."

"Thank you Dragon. Very quickly, can you check to see if anyone has given our mysterious cape a name yet?"

"What? Oh, certainly."She said. It took roughly half a minute before she responded.

"Here."She reported, pulling up a page from PHO."Due to his amalgamous appearance, people have taken to calling him Chimera."

"Hm, how appropriate. Thank you Dragon."

"You're welcome mam." And with that, she left. And the director was left to sit and stew with her thoughts.

'Chimera, the mythical animal with parts taken from many others to create it. But instead of just multiple parts, it has multiple powers as well. Isn't that just lovely.'She thought sardonically.

Her phone rang, looking at the number, Director Emily Piggot braced herself and prepared for what may or may not be her last conversation as Director of the Brockton Bay Protectorate.

Across town, a girl and her father sat and watched with rapt attention in front of their television as they beheld the monster dubbed Chimera that had wreaked havoc on their city.

The father felt his mind wander towards worry for if the docks were hit too badly and wondered if this might be an opportunity to get some of his people jobs working in repairs.

The daughter however saw this and felt a cold chill go down her spine, her mind wondering if she was truly up to the task of doing what she wanted more than anything and being a hero. She thought of her costume, how close it was to completion and pondered briefly, if she should hold off on it and think her plan through.

In another part of town, in an abandoned factory, a group of teens watched the destruction and felt a collective spike of dread through their hearts.

"What the hell,"Breathed the eldest one, his eyes glued to the damage and the footage captured of the beast responsible.

"Chimera,"Read the other male in the room,"Guess it's better than patchwork."

"Alec, please, if we ever run into that thing, keep your mouth shut." The other male said.

Alec took another glance at the monster on screen and grimaced,"Yeah, probably a good idea."

"Your power giving you anything on it Lisa?"The eldest asked. When he received no answer he looked over to his blonde teammate clutching her head painfully.

"Lisa?"He prodded,"What's up?"

"I...I don't...It's-it's too much."She muttered.

"Huh?"

"I need to go think."She said suddenly standing up and walking to her room.

The two boys watched her go.

"Well, that wasn't ominous at all."

Meanwhile the third member just watched the screen and groomed her dogs, silent as always.

Underground, a Snake watched the news and schemed.

In his tower, an Emperor looked at the scene in disgust at the creature that dared damage his empire.

Within his cave, a Dragon hummed in anticipation for what he was sure to be a fight unlike any he's had before, his body starting to steam and sizzle at the thought of it.

Brockton Bay and the world looked on in horror as the new villian Chimera made his debut, the scars he would leave on the city would come to haunt its denizens for ages, for yet another monster had come to join the game.

X.x.X.x.X.x.X

Well, that happened. I'll be honest, this went very differently in my head. I was expecting more action, but it came out leaning more towards atmospheric. Eh, happens to the best of us. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, let me know if ya did or not in the reviews.

And again, if anyone wants this to be a full story...don't get your hopes up, we'll see what happens later. Goodnight, stay healthy and all that Jazz.