How Dense Can You Get? Chapter 2 (Original chapter Chapter 17)

Lung's 'Throne Room'

Lung glared down at Haretsu from his 'throne' with suspicion in his eyes. The loss of the safe house full of weapons had infuriated the Dragon of Kyushu. Not because he had valued the building or its contents but because it had been HIS.

"So this…gaijin onna Smackdown overpowered you?" he asked sceptically.

"H-Hai, Lung-sama." Haretsu answered, cradling his broken arm. "She did this to me with a single tap of her index finger, and even my most powerful explosions failed to more than scuff her attire."

Lung's eyes narrowed. He had felt one of Haretsu's most powerful explosions himself when he had had the man test it on him and it had hurt, a lot. For someone to simply be scuffed by it was unprecedented.

If the man was telling the truth that is.

"If I find out you are lying to me…!" he growled at the cowering man.

"I swear to you I'm not!" Haretsu said shakily.

"For your sake, you had better not be."

Later

Taylor's Secret Base

Taylor felt as if her body had been bludgeoned with lead pipes. Yes, she had made her skin and clothes functionally impenetrable, but it had still hurt like hell.

Removing her clothes was very easy, as all she had to do was adjust the density of them to normal before allowing her body to follow suit. Thanks to the little selective density power that was always active, she could walk normally while wearing and carrying weights that make a couple of tanks look light without being crushed like a bug.

Haretsu had been the first real test of her powers aside from the rank-and-file ABB grunts. The most damage they had done to Taylor was…essentially nothing. Bullets bounced off, swords broke and what have you, but the truest test of a Parahuman's powers was against those of another Parahuman.

'I have made an enemy of the ABB…' she mused. Haretsu had formally declared that before she had allowed him to flee. It wasn't unexpected and she had very little reason to care what the criminal element of the city thought of her.

She carefully inserted the mace made from the former ABB storehouse into the slot she had dug out of the ground, alongside her other super-dense weapons made from compressed ships from the Boat Graveyard. It sunk into the ground up to its hilt, like the others.

Granted, leaving her weapons here wasn't exactly what she'd call useful or convenient. It was in fact incredibly inconvenient. Still, she wasn't able to carry the things around with her all the time; the Bitch Trio would break their backs trying to steal them and she'd be outed in an instant. No, better to put up with the inconvenience and keep her identity a secret.

Three Nights Later

Docks Area, Brockton Bay

Smackdown leapt lightly from building to building, the mace from the ABB safe house and a club made of a ship slung over her back. They wouldn't be needed unless she ran into a strong enough Brute, which wasn't a common power in Brockton Bay. Just about the only Cape who would be a threat enough to warrant that level of response would be Lung. Perhaps Hookwolf as well, but it was doubtful.

'Not to quote a clichéd line, but it's way too quiet around here.' She thought as she looked around warily. No swaggering gangsters, no Merchants…nothing. It stunk of a trap.

"So, you are the wench who took something of mine." A deep voice in heavily accented English said, making her freeze. Turning around, Smackdown's heart skipped a beat. Lung. He hadn't ramped up yet, but only a handful of villains in the Bay went without a shred of clothing on their torso; Hookwolf, Stormtiger and Lung.

Lung's metal dragon mask was distinctive enough without the sparse few tattoos on his body that were in Chinese script. He was stood on the roof opposite hers with his arms crossed, uncaring of the cool breeze that was blowing down the street.

"So you're the lazy dragon that's been destroying my city." She found herself saying as she reached back to grasp the handles of her weapons.

"I do not take to having my possessions destroyed and my people hurt." The Dragon of Kyushu growled.

"I don't care much for your gang raping, murdering and tearing up my home." Smackdown countered.

Lung's eyes narrowed. "Prepare to suffer for touching what is mine."

"If you can." The Heroine answered as she drew her weapons.

For a moment, the two Parahumans were motionless. Then Lung roared, ramping up into a scaly-version of himself, with flames licking around his hands like a corona.

Smackdown responded by throwing the club at Lung, striking him in the chest and sending the Rage Dragon flying through the air in agony. His chest had been caved in and his bones shattered.

'What…the hell!?' was all Lung could think in disbelief, pain infringing on his mind before he smashed into a billboard. Thankfully, it also let him part ways with the improbably heavy club that had given him airtime, the clubs spinning off to slam into the ground. His body was already healing and ramping up fast, faster than any time before, save for the time he had faced Leviathan.

A worthy foe? Interesting…

Letting lose a roar of challenge, the Dragon of Kyushu returned to his feet, his eyes seeking out the gaijin who had struck him. She was landing on the roof and taking a double-handed hold on her mace.

"Bitch!" he bellowed and blasted a fireball at her. As expected, it washed over her harmlessly. If she could tank explosions of Haretsu's level, then a little heat wasn't going to do much. Close combat it was.

Meeting his charge head on, the girl slammed her mace into his leading right arm, shattering bones and snapping ligaments. Had he not been a regenerator, it would have been crippled for life. He grabbed her with his left arm and tried to lift her up…but couldn't.

"What the…?!"

"Sucks to be outmatched, doesn't it?" Smackdown snarled before slamming her mace into his left arm, breaking it as well and forcing him to let her go.

"I. AM. LUNG!" he roared, insulted by her presumption. His rage fed his powers, making him grow ever stronger, ever larger. Fire leapt from around him like fiery arms and wings erupted from his back as his scales redoubled in thickness in an attempt to protect him from the sting of her weapon. His mask tumbled to the ground as his face became almost completely draconic.

Arms already healed, he swung them at Smackdown, who dodged under them before smashing her mace into Lung's stomach, sending him staggering back a couple of metres. His insides felt pulverised by the strike and it was with a great deal of gratitude to his powers that he felt his regeneration kick in again, healing the damage.

"Seriously, give. Up." The helmeted girl growled before returning her mace to its holster and assuming a basic self-defence stance.

Growling that the girl was underestimating him by putting her weapon away, Lung charged in again. She dodged his swipes before landing several punches to his gut in quick succession, each feeling like he'd been slammed into by a cargo ship. Next, she grabbed one of his arms and threw him into the air before leaping after him, unlimbering her mace again as she did so. Once the Dragon of Kyushu reached the apex of his impromptu flight, she smashed him in the back with her weapon, shattering his spine and sending him spiralling straight into the Bay.

Landing on the ground with a grunt, she looked around and spotted PRT vans on the way. She reluctantly abandoned her weapon, as retrieving it would delay her too much and get her the attention of the PRT and Protectorate, which she didn't need right now.

Later

Armsmaster's Lab

"And this is…what, exactly?" Emily Piggot asked as she eyed the baseball bat-sized club.

"It was recovered from the aftermath of a battle between Lung and a new Parahuman…with Lung being on the defensive the entire time, according to a few eyewitness statements." Armsmaster replied.

Emily's head twisted towards him so fast that it was a surprise that she didn't pull a muscle. "What?!"

"My reaction as well." A face appeared on a nearby monitor. It was the image of a young woman wearing a token domino mask.

"Dragon." Emily nodded, "I take it Armsmaster brought you in to consult on this for some reason?"

"Correct." The Miniaturisation and Efficiency Tinker stated.

"Director…this 'club' is composed of metal, tightly packed metal that is essentially an entire ship shrunken down and condensed into this shape." Dragon said slowly, "It has all the combined weight and density that the amount of metal, glass, rubber and other materials that a ship the size of a modest cargo ship would possess. Coincidentally, a cargo ship hulk from the Boat Graveyard vanished not that long ago."

"Dear god…!" the Director whispered, looking at the suddenly very, very dangerous weapon floating in the field before her. A direct strike from that thing could kill anyone who wasn't an exceptionally powerful Brute or was a powerful regenerator, like Lung.

"Wait, if this thing still weighs the same and is just as dense as the combined materials of the ship it is made from, how could someone even wield it?" she demanded.

"A strong enough Brute could wield it." Armsmaster suggested, "At least Brute 7, with Brute 8+ being more likely."

"It would still be unwieldy." Dragon pointed out, "A weight cancellation field of some sort? Tactile gravity manipulation? The list goes on. It would, however, best be assumed that the Cape who did this has some sort of ability that allows them to wield these sorts of weapons as Armsmaster does his halberd."

"Dear god. Lung would have been pulverised." The PRT ENE Director muttered. "Right. Whoever is able to do this has to be found and brought into the Protectorate or Wards, whichever is applicable. Do we have any footage of the fight whatsoever?"

"None." Dragon shook her digital image's head. "I could scan the CCTV footage across the city for any sightings of unusual Capes that we don't recognise though."

"Do it." Emily ordered. Dragon frowned for a moment before a small smile showed up on her image.

"Here's an image of someone leaping in a clearly superhuman manner near a crossroad."

The person on the monitor was dressed in motorcycle leathers and a helmet. They were facing away from the camera, but the symbol of the clenched fist and aura around it was visible on the back, obviously added to the otherwise plain black leathers by the Parahuman.

"A better effort for a beginner costume than most new Capes." Armsmaster opined.

"Yes, although not at all conductive to defence unless she has other powers." Dragon commented.

"Have a basic description of this Parahuman put into the next update for the Protectorate and Wards." Piggot ignored the interplay between the two friends. "I want him or her to be under Protectorate supervision, stat!"

I skipped Alexandrite because my inspiration for that powerset dried up. Oh well.