Oh my lanta this chapter. I can't explain why this was so difficult but jeez was it a challenge. We've all had that one chapter we just weren't too excited about and didn't really know how to proceed until we got the proper inspiration. This was mine. Hopefully I won't have one like this in a while.
That being said, the challenge in and of itself was good for me, pushed me. Motivated me in a way. For that I'm grateful, bust mostly grateful to be done with this part.
I don't own Worm or Ben Ten you know this, here ya go.
X.x.X.x.X.x.X
Brockton Bay
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
4:28 AM EST
(Two Hours After Chimeras' Rampage)
For the first time in a while, she slept, and so, she dreamed.
She dreamt of sweltering heat, horrible pain, mocking sadistic laughter.
Her comrades lay scattered around her, broken and near death. Their adversary watching them contort in agony with a cruel smile on his face. Even as she lay helpless on her back, leg impaled and her ribs broken, she glared back defiantly and raised her trembling right arm, her power forming a large pistol.
Slowly, he stalked towards her, taking in the sight of her prone form with a twisted glee. She aimed for his head, her arm steady, and pulled the trigger. He didn't even blink, the bullet bouncing harmlessly off his forehead.
When he stood over her, he raised his leg and gently lowered it onto her arm before pressing down.
She squirmed, groaning and writhing as he slowly smushed the bones in her arm. Her vision swam as pained tears started to stream down her face, groans transforming into desperate whimpers. She refused to scream, she would not give this monster the satisfaction of hearing her beg for mercy. She gnashed her teeth, fighting the yells that wanted to desperately escape. Her body convulsed, darkness swam around the edges of her eyes. Eventually her fighting proved futile and she opened her mouth in a loud suffering scream.
All the while he kept his terrible fanged smile.
Bottle green eyes opened slowly, staring at the pale tiled ceiling above them, but only seeing the bloodthirsty grin from her dream.
'What…happened? Where am I?'She thought lethargically. Looking down she noticed her right arm was bound tightly in a white cast, her finger poking meekly out the front.
'Oh, that's what happened.'
A sharp pain in her side reminded her that her ribs were still broken. Realizing this, she began a set of breathing exercises so she wouldn't get pneumonia.
"Hannah?"A voice to her left startled her. Carefully turning her head she saw Battery-now in civilian attire-sitting in a chair next to another bed, looking just as tired and hurt as she felt, wrapped securely in bandages and gauze.
"Battery,"She croaked quietly,"This is...?"
"HQ."She replied softly,"In the infirmary."
Nodding, Hannah looked around the room, noticing that all the other beds were filled and extra cots were brought in to accommodate for others. Troopers lay in various states of injury, some bandaged as tightly or more so than Battery, some barely conscious with pale/green tinted skin, their breathing short yet labored.
'Probably from the poison.'She assumed.
Turning back to Battery, she saw her staring intently at the one in the bed next to hers, a closer look at the occupant helped her understand why.
"How's Assault?"She gently asked. Battery took a moment to respond.
"Stable, for now."She answered."If Velocity hadn't immediately rushed him out of the fight…We're still waiting on Panacea,"She continued,"But she probably won't be here for a while with how many people are injured. So he's being monitored closely."
"I see,"She looked around again and noticed the rest of their teammates were missing from the room,"Where are the others?"Hannah asked, hoping for the best.
Battery took a deep breath before replying,"Triumph is in another room-probably still unconscious. Armsmaster is still in surgery, Velocity wasn't hurt as badly as the rest of us so he's out helping search and rescue...and Dauntless' condition is still unknown, we don't even know if they dug him out yet."
Hannah remembered that. She was dragging an injured Armsmaster off to the side and looked up to see the villain grab Dauntless in its arms and charge straight into a burning storefront. Her throat dried up and constricted at the memory.
"The villain,"She started,"Did we…?"
"No."Battery stated, her blank eyes staring into hers."He escaped."
Hannah felt a heavy feeling sink into her stomach at the news. After everything they went through, all the destruction and injuries, all the innocent people who were harmed by that monster, all of it, for nothing. She sighed in resignation and laid her head back onto her pillow."We failed."She whispered.
"Yeah."
It was quiet between the two of them for a while, nothing but the sound of shifting blankets, soft groans and the steps of the medical staff going too and from patients. Battery spoke a few minutes later,"He's been dubbed Chimera."
Hannah stared vacantly at the ceiling, rolling the name over in her head for a while before asking,"Is that all we know?
"So far."
Hannah swallowed.
"That thing...hard to believe it was ever human."She said.
"That's debatable."Battery responded,"There are Case 53's all over the world, but none like that."
"Perhaps he's like Crawler?"
"Even if he was, that wouldn't account for everything he does. Crawler's basic power is adaptability. What Chimera showed was multiple differentiating powers with little to no connection in the slightest."
"Maybe a Biotinker. Fusing different power sets into one person."Hannah ventured pensively.
"Sounds like something Bonesaw would attempt."Battery commented.
Hannah suppressed a shiver as she continued,"True, but if it was her, she and the rest of the Nine wouldn't be far behind. And there were no reports of them being sighted."
"Jack wouldn't want to be silent either, he'd make a party out of it, a grand unveiling to Bonesaws' newest abomination."
"What do you think?"Hannah asked as she turned to her teammate.
"I don't know,"Battery sighed,"The sheer range of abilities he showed. It really shouldn't be possible. Even with powers, there's always a limit somewhere. But with him…"
"Brute, Mover, Blaster, Shaker, Breaker…"Hannah rattled off.
"Thinker and Changer can be argued too. Easily some kind of Trump. But that's just off what we saw."
A nauseous feeling dripped into her stomach, Hannah asked with a voice barely suppressing her worry,"You think he was holding back?"
"You saw how much damage he could do, how many people he already killed and maimed. He could've killed us easily, instead he toyed with us, let us hit him as hard as we could, just so he could shrug it off and beat us down after."
"So he just wanted to humiliate us,"Hannah sighed,"He killed so many people but specifically left us alive. So we'd know we failed."
"Maybe,"Battery said,"Maybe not. He did almost kill a few of us." Hannah heard Batterys' knuckles pop from how tightly her fists were clenched. Hannah looked back to Assault's pale form on the bed and felt the feeling of nausea grow stronger.
'To think one person could do all this. Even Lung wasn't able to bring us this low.'Hannah despaired.
"I heard New Wave didn't fare too much better."Battery continued. Hannah blinked in confusion.
"New Wave?"She asked,"When did they come?"
"I'm not sure,"Battery answered,"All I remember is waking up and seeing the older members engaging while the others were getting us to safety."
"I guess we owe them a thank you."Hannah figured.
Battery drawled,"They'll need more than a thank you after tonight."
"How bad was it?"Hannah ventured, partially fearing the answer.
Battery softly chewed her lip,"If what I heard was right, Glory Girl was in danger of bleeding to death."
Hannah gulped in worry. If that was the condition of the resident flying brick of Brockton Bay, then what was the condition of the rest of the cape family? "So in one night, Chimera arrives, destroys a good portion of the city, fights and defeats every official hero in Brockton Bay-easily-and leaves without anyone having any clue as to where he could have gone." Hannah recounts tiredly.
"Sounds about right,"Battery murmured.
Hannah stewed in that knowledge for a moment, weighing it in her mind, studying and analyzing every aspect she could imagine. She and Battery fell into another silence, this one bubbling with frustration and hopelessness. After a few minutes, Hannah sighed and brought her good hand to her face to massage her temples.
"What are we gonna do?"
Robin was a mover, his power revolved around his ability to go fast. Speed was what made him a member of the Protectorate, a hero to the public. He had lived up to the name Velocity. Yet right now, all he could do was wander alone down the ruined street. His speed wouldn't be of any use here, there was no need to rush in at staggering speeds to rescue someone. There was no one to save.
He raced all around the northern end of the city scavenging for anyone he could find in the carnage, but it was counterproductive at best. He had to slow down, listen and be patient in case he missed something, so he walked. Keeping a sharp ear and eye out for any sign that he could find someone to help. But after walking amongst the dust for hours, he only found bodies. Two he remembered, with ugly wounds on their heads, and another one covered in horrible burns that turned him a charred black. The worst part was he didn't even have time to take them to the morgue. Other people might need his help.
The thought didn't do much to reassure him.
"Help!"
He stopped, his heart learching as he turned his head in every which way to find who was yelling.
"Someone, please help!"
A little louder this time, closer it seemed like.
"Hello!"He called back, his hands cupping around his mouth,"Can you hear me?!"
Silence. He called again. A few quiet moments later,"I hear you!" Heart pounding, he started running in the direction of the voice, calling out every few seconds to make sure he was heading the right way.
Half a block down, and down a narrow street he found them.
It was a young woman, her skin and pajamas covered in a layer of dust, stumbling along the road. Leaning heavily on her hip was a child, a t-shirt pressed against her temple to stem the blood from an injury he couldn't see.
"Hey!"He called out to them. The woman looked up and visibly relaxed when she saw him. He jogged up to them.
"Velocity, thank God,"She sighed.
"Mam,"He nodded,"Are you hurt?"
"I'm okay,"She answered before turning to the child resting against her."She has a nasty gash on her head from some falling debris, and she's exhausted. We both are honestly. We've been walking for a while now."
Kneeling down he gently moved the shirt to the side, assessing the wound.
"It's not too bad,"He concluded,"The bleeding stopped, just need to disinfect and bandage it up." Taking out a small bottle of disinfectant and some gauze from his hip pouch, Velocity got to work cleaning and wrapping up the injury. The little girl remained quiet through the whole ordeal, proving too tired to react to much of anything at the moment.
"Did you encounter anyone else before you got here?"He asked as he finished patching her head.
"No,"She said,"There's nobody. Either they ran away or…"
"Right."He nodded. Standing back up he excused himself to report into base. He knew asking for an ambulance would be a useless endeavor, but he asked anyway, just to try. The best they could do was point him to the nearest one. He gave a thank you before hanging up and turning back to see the older of the two eyeing him worryingly.
"The nearest ambulance is a few blocks away, I'll escort you."He assured her. Again, she visibly relaxed and nodded her assent.
They walked back towards where he came from, their pace slow and sedate. A few glances showed that both girls were barely staying upright, the child leaned more and more against the young woman until she practically melted against her hip. Encouraging whispers to keep going were met with lazy grunts and quietly muttered words.
This went on for about ten minutes before he admitted to himself that they were moving too slow. He stopped and turned to them.
"I can carry her if you want." He offered.
"You sure?"She asked, though he could tell that she approved of the idea by the way her face lifted just a tad. He repressed a smile.
"It's no trouble, we can move faster this way anyways."
She agreed, struggled for a moment removing the child from her waist, and turned her towards him. He was quick to scoop her up and cradle her into his arms. Whatever protest she would've had were silenced as she wrapped her skinny arms around his neck and nuzzled her head against his shoulder. She was asleep not a second later.
"Okay, lets go."He said, adjusting his grip and turning away to keep walking. They were able to move faster now, without the little girl hanging from her hip she was able to keep pace with him and their walk had a little more urgency in it.
Time passed between them in a disturbingly peaceful silence. He was sure to keep glancing her way to make sure she didn't collapse along the way. Her attention was rooted firmly on the ruins surrounding them. Her eyes beheld their surroundings with a sort of, numb shock. As if she wasn't really processing the entirety of what she was seeing. His jaw clenched at that look.
'Thought leaving the military would get me away from seeing people like this.'He internally griped. Even being a hero couldn't protect you from some things.
"Why?"He heard her whisper softly,"Why did this have to happen?"
He couldn't tell if she was asking him or just in general so he chose not to answer.
"What even did this?"She asked, this time turning to him so he would know she was addressing him.
He swallowed.
"New villain."He replied brusquely. Her eyes widened.
"A villain?"She gasped,"Just one? One person did all this?"
He nodded.
"It looks more like we were hit by an Endbringer."
A pit opened up in his stomach and a chill shot deep into his bones despite the hot and humid night.
No, it couldn't be. Could it?
He was reminded of that old theory, the one that said the Endbringers started off as Parahumans that eventually grew stronger and became what they were today. Losing some sentience and the ability to speak. Basically losing their humanity and becoming monsters. Chimera though, he didn't really seem to follow the distinction. As powerful as he was, and how monstrously he had acted tonight, he was very much cognitive of what he was doing. At least, it seemed so. Maybe this was just part of the process? Maybe all the others had a violent debiew in some obscure parts of the world and no one ever bothered to notice. Maybe he would just keep growing stronger like the others, eventually losing the ability to talk and just become a near mindless killing machine like its brethren.
He glanced at the ruined streets again and realized it would be kinda redundant. He readjusted the sleeping child in his arms as his thoughts drifted back to the fight he and his teammates endured.
Seeing Assault impaled on Chimera's arm had been one of the most disturbing things Robin had ever witnessed in his career as a cape. He'd rushed in without really thinking about it, knowing that with an injury that bad, his teammate wouldn't live long. He had to get him out of the battle and to the Protectorate infirmary. With the smallest chance available he swooped in, grabbed Assault and made a beeline for the base.
But one thing stood out to him at that moment. In his Breaker state, everything slowed to a crawl, as if the rest of the world was underwater, and he was the only normal moving person. Seeing Assault impaled was one of the most disturbing things he had witnessed as a cape, but just above that, was that when he had rushed in to save Assault, he had seen Chimeras' eyes following him as if he wasn't moving at a speed faster than most eyes could track, and he got the distinct impression that if he wanted to, Chimera could've intercepted him at anytime.
The idea was only strengthened by the parting smile he received as he carried Assault off the battlefield.
X.x.X.x.X.x.X
*Breathe in, Breath out*
Quality over quantity. Longer chapters does not mean better chapters.
That's basically become my motivational speech for a while. One of the reasons I struggled with this part, I just wanted to add more but I need to restrain myself. As long as I did what I needed to, then the mission was accomplished.
Review, Please, I'd greatly appreciate feedback. Stay safe and have a good night.