Chapter 11: Conflagration γ (A Laurel crown for you and I)
Crazy. Crazy didn't fit the world anymore, marvels and horrors beyond understanding clawed into reality with increasing frequency. No; crazy sat and watch as maniacal and miracle worked side by side without accepting the truth of their damaging coexistence. Even then, maniacal might be a word too soft to describe the horrors sweeping across the United States of America and the world as a whole. And miracle too kind for the power-hungry, hypocritical, sanctioned killers of governments.
As such he tried his best to look out for those he could protect, even as his leash got dragged through dirt and mud by people falsely holding the shackles of responsibility. As for all parahumans, being unleashed remained the surest way to lose one's life. And the monsters taking the lives of unhinged criminals often faced even bigger guns pressed against their scalps. But that's what set the heroes apart from the villains, that indomitable will to face the barrel of governments and do must what must be done to keep the peace.
Thus, chained to sensibilities, moral justice, shady governments and even shadier organisations left him with a magnum against his cranium. Testing the leash only brought pain, red tape and inefficiency to saving lives. Play by the rules and the number of lives saved goes up. That is how he framed it in his mind as he arrived over an ashen street in the centre of the small port city of Brockton-bay.
"Six or seven out of ten, we don't see this scale of destruction every month." Musing aloud to the wind he followed the trail of destruction across the districts and settled his eyes on the black-blue dragon responsible. The dragon, as it had the classical storybook shape of one, kept sniffing the air, twisting around to look for something that wasn't there.
"Strange." he remarked, nothing he could do about it now and twisted around to head further into the city. The only way to deal with city-scale events were to amass capes and deal with them in an overwhelming fashion. And to get capes he needed to get to his compatriots.
Fellow heroes who he knew coordinated amongst the tents of emergency services spread around the PRT building, standing amongst ordinary men and women, dodging doctors and police cars alike.
With a huff he descend.
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"Legend!" The Protectorate cape calling his name stood in glowing bronze armour reminiscent of ancient Greece. The small shield on his arm vibrated oddly as he skirted past nurses and doctors too concerned with patients to make way for one of the triumvirates.
"Good to see you, sir, I'm Dauntless, the director's put me in charge of coordinating the emergency response here. Armsmaster will give you the briefing." Dauntless' right arm twitched to salute, only his practised control stopped him, habits from a recent past emerging under the stress of the situation. Small details that told people's stories, all highlighted by Legend's cosmically altered brain.
Dauntless skirted around people too engrossed in their jobs to notice them until they drew up to four fully kitted PRT guards. The guards loosely held their foam cannons but stiffened once they spotted the two capes approaching the light blue tent they defended. Inside tables occupied the centre of the tent as haggard men and women rushed papers and data pads around, coordinating responses and liaising with anyone willing to help. In the corner stood the power-armoured Armsmaster, his visor hiding his upper face and with his imposing frame, loomed over the room.
Armsmaster maintained a record for one of the most productive and active members of the Protectorate and his name ran numbers around tinker groups and forums both public and private. Tinkers often were the oddest of all capes, Armsmaster was no exception and his mere stoic idleness brought unneeded stress to the already strained crowd of PRT office workers.
Only when Legend closed in did he turn and approach them.
"Legend." Nothing more than an acknowledgement of a superior, the blue power-armoured man walked over to a table hosting a map dominated by thick black pen marks and circles in red. Armsmaster gently tapped a finger of each hand onto the map, drawing their attention to two spots.
"We're here." His right finger tapped.
"Hunter's monster is here." His left tapped a point several districts away and dangerously close to a 'Downtown' label. His right finger began running over the thick black line that haphazardly crossed the map.
"The trail of destruction and the red circles mark an engagement from third parties, either E88, ABB or Protectorate teams." Methodical and deliberate. Armsmaster didn't waste a word on small details.
"Hunter's monster engaged Lung and the Hunter herself for over two hours. The Hunter's current location and status is unknown. Lung is incapacitated somewhere or has retreated, last estimate had him at seventy feet long." Every sentence sounded worse than the previous one.
Legend interrupted Armsmaster's short form briefing. "You've called it 'Hunter's monster'. Tinker or master? Capabilities?" Legend tailored his approach to every cape, the oft fragile egos and people needed someone to reciprocate their language. The style and skill he employed with it often endeared him to them.
"Each monster has been defeated by Hunter, either she's a master summoning them or she's a hero fighting against an unknown bio-tinker. She's a breaker five, the monsters' overarching designations are between brute three and seven and blaster four to eight. Some have a shaker rating of four to five. Most have some sort of elemental control." Armsmaster described in as few words as possible the documented capabilities of the current crisis.
"Good good. Breaker sub rating? And the probability of us defeating the monster?" As legend continued to talk, dauntless quietly bade them a farewell, he need to get in contact with Shadow stalker's team.
The last words he heard from Armsmaster didn't ease his worries.
"Base brute one, Boosted brute six, mover four, blaster six, striker four. Elemental control from previous monsters, summoned weapons and items on par with tinker equipment. She is reclusive, non-confrontational but untrusting of authority."
Dauntless knew the mess started around the time he caught the Hunter with her back to him. The flighty teen remained untrusting of him but she relaxed after he explained he was merely there to talk. Silence bloomed from nowhere and they descended to the streets, fought Storm Tiger and then Lung.
And without prompt, sound resumed and Lung ignored him to clash with the Hunter instead, initiating a chain of events that brought the city to its knees. That black dragon fought with such ferocity that neither Lung nor the Hunter could kill it.
Then, after two hours of fighting, Lung burnt an entire street to ash. But the monster reciprocated with a series of thunder strikes so strong that it blew the electrical of several streets. Injuring the Hunter and vaporizing Lung. Glory girl got Hunter out but Shadow Stalker's team engaged.
Crazy kids.
"Shadow Stalker. Come in Shadow Stalker." Static answered his call. Seconds ticked by as he held hope at arm's length.
"Stalker… Stalker, please respond." With half of the city burning, he couldn't accept that the one Ward team under his command would remain silent, not after their crazy attack on the monster.
"Vista? Kid Win? Respond…" the fighting had dragged close to their impromptu headquarters, the PRT building entirely too close to the origin of the monster to be considered safe for any time, not with half of the building burning from a single errant fireball. Of course, with that their communication power had been severely diminished, the multitude of dishes and antenna on top of the building fried to bits left them with an ad-hoc solution of using short-range radios strung together to send the calls out as far as they could. Cellphones weren't used due to their ease of being tracked or hacked.
Longer seconds passed as he sat with the microphone in his hand, the blond radio operator silently fidgeting in her seat as he occupied one of the four working radio channels. They'd have some better gear sooner, Dragon had promised him about half an hour ago.
"This... This is Dauntless speaking, if you can hear this Wards, head back to the PRT building. We'll have teams waiting there. Or make a scene if you need help. Just don't keep me hanging." His only course of action remained to trust that the wards could look after themselves. He had other obligations than waiting for a response from a team more than capable of that than any other currently in the city.
He turned and stepped out, watching the horizon for a new plume of smoke or dust marking the Ward's location, but nothing appeared and the sound of a city imploding on itself held sway in the wind.
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"… If you can hear this Wards, head back to the PRT building. We'll have teams waiting there. Or make a scene if you need help. Just don't keep me hanging."
"Real helpful boss man." Sophia ground out from behind her teeth.
"If it's not a dragon, then it's a fucking nazi." Holding her bleeding left side, Sophia stepped right, narrowly avoiding the slice from Cricket. The audio based cape franticly flaying about in an effort to maim her.
Kid Win took cover behind a car as he traded fire with three bangers across the street, his power armour had several long gashes in it from absorbed small arms fire and the bare metal shone through in several places from various manoeuvrers to dodge the ensemble of capes following them. His lasers left pock marks in the ganger's cover, be it stone, wood or steel. Their return fire ricocheted off the ground or walls as Kid retread further towards the group of rogues and wards.
The Undersiders worked as a unit to hold off the unkillable Alabaster and his boss Krieg. The neo-nazi capes struggled to engage the flighty rogues, Grue's cloud engulfed them and even as Alabaster punched Krieg and Krieg rebounded the concussive force in various directions, leaving trailing holes in the cloud cover that slowly knit itself back, they simply could not hit Grue. The nazi's technique cost Alabaster an arm per shot but the time-split cape didn't care as his arm phased back after a few seconds.
Vista on the other hand. Vista tried and succeeded in keeping Hookwolf from engaging them. The churning hooks, razors and assorted sharp edges forming the shape of a wolf, kept slamming through building walls and concrete pillars as Vista dragged space around like spaghetti to forcefully collide the crazed murderer with buildings. But with Vista's concentration focused on their greatest threat, Sophia's dodging for her life and Kid Win dodging bullets; nobody could respond to the call coming from their radios.
Flashing into her smoke form to dodge a horizontal swipe from Cricket's bastardised scythes and solidifying immediately with a kick to the shin of the lithe woman. The kick didn't send Cricket stumbling but gave Sophia enough momentum to follow up with an elbow drop and as much as Sophia wished that it knocked out the themed nazi, it only led to the woman flowing into an overhead bicycle kick.
Sophia shifted back into smoke to avoid the kick and rather than re-engaging her adversary, floated away and over the spilling darkness of Grue. Dropping next to Tattletale behind the smoke.
"Tats! We need to send a signal." The purple spandex cape thrust Sophia's crossbow back into her hands, forcing the teen to reload rather than talk.
"Signal, okay. Big and high, clear enough that the PRT won't miss it." Tats began mumbling as Sophia pulled the lever twice to nock the bowstring in place. If she only had a flare, she could strap it to one of her last bolts and call for backup that way.
"A flare…" Tattletale had that far away look. "A flare's glare won't work with the midday sun, the smoke trail might catch an eye but half the city is on fire. No, we need something bigger." Tattletale's rambling aside, Sophia conceded that something bigger than a simple flare would be needed to grab the PRT's attention.
Kid stumbled through the fog next to them as Sophia knocked a bolt into her crossbow and Regent strutted out of the mist a second after she flicked the safety, the ruffles on his costume singed and blacked from the day's survival.
"Regent! I need you to nudge Krieg's attack up high. Kid! Get ready to shoot." Without waiting for the two to agree Tattletale ran off towards Vista, the girl unobstructed by Grue's smoke and grabbing a bright red jerry can hanging from a single latch of a beat-up Jeep.
Grue must have heard Tattletale as his smoke cleared between them and the nazi duo. Sophia dropped to a knee and aimed at Krieg.
"Vista! Up!" Arms heaving, Tattletale threw the can of gasoline at the pre-teen and in a split second, she recognised the liquid bomb soaring towards her and shifted reality to throw it up a hundred yards. Sophia's bolt flew straight and true, Krieg deflected, but his arm jerked just so that it went soaring upwards.
The kinetic blast ruptured the can before it even started its descent, Kid's laser igniting the air-fuel mixture in a bloom of red. The explosion knocked everyone on their rears, but the rising ball of smoke would grab the attention of anyone, good or bad.
"Wards spotted!" Harsh, metallic and robotic, the ground trembled as an eight-foot-tall robotic suit landed next to Sophia. Red and gold with accents of blue, the humanoid shape hoisted an arm cannon larger than Sophia's thigh to spit out seven grenades. Their impact and explosion flooded the street in foam.
"Dragon!" Childish glee from Vista, who finally showed that she was merely thirteen and rushed over to the Dragon suit as a shot connected with the crazed Hookwolf and left him fighting against a sticky, fast hardening foam.
"Ah, Vista. I'm glad you're safe." Dragon's feminine voice held none of the harsh grating noise from seven seconds ago, instead filled with genuine relief. She dropped to a knee to allow the frazzled blond girl to hug her, her arm cannon softly rubbing the back of the child. But Vista was still thirteen and she quickly realised her childish outburst and softly pushed against the Dragon suit to allow herself to gather some dignity. Tattletale knocked Regent in the stomach before he could say anything.
"Wards, follow me. You've done enough today. Undersiders, you can follow until a safe location and then go your own way." Grue knocked Regent in the stomach before he could run his mouth.
"I wasn't even going to say anything." Regent sputtered, Grue responded with a snort before turning back to the Dragon suit.
"Thank you, Dragon. I'm so done with this shit." turning to his friends. "Bitch is back at base already." The Dragon suit didn't have a face to show the disapproval of the 'vulgar' language and Grue turned back to face her. "Please, lead on." The six capes followed behind the Dragon suit as she moved throughout the city and at the corner before the PRT encampment, Dragon turned and faced the teenage rogues.
"Your help is noted and appreciated. Keep safe you three." Their day done, bodies tired and minds frayed, Grue gave an informal two-finger salute to Dragon and pulled the two younger capes behind him before they could say anything.
"This doesn't square anything smokey!" Sophia shouted at the back of the Undersiders, Grue softly shaking his head in mock defeat.
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Vicky floated ahead, and once again the grace she flew with reminded me that life hadn't been fair, she floated as if the air currents enveloped her in a loving embrace and took followed her heart's instructions. The fairy flight of the blond contrasted harshly against my rocket-powered and turbulent wind airborne capabilities. Vicky's flight had a clear parallel to Alexandria's flight, memories of videos I watched alongside Emma flashing into my mind's eye. Alexandria, the strongest cape in the world, even made Vicky's areal prowess look tame.
I nearly barrelled into her as she halted suddenly. Her hair glowed with an eery orange as half a dozen pyres lit the fading daylight sky. Her eyes reflected the red fires dotting the city, the same fires that I inadvertently started. I faced away, guilt gripping me.
"Taylor." How many homes did I destroy, how many lives did I shatter?
"Taylor!" I snapped back, twisting to face Vicky as she took a second to study my face.
"Taylor, you need to focus. We'll beat the monster together." Inhale, exhale. She continued. "Now, we can't get into a brawl with your monster, it'll just start wrecking the place. We need to hit it hard and hit it fast, hurt it so badly that it can't move. Maybe break its legs or spine."
Her assessment made sense, a debilitating strike would put us on a solid platform to finish Alatreon off. "One problem." I countered.
"Well, of course, there's going to be something." Vicky had years of experience with fighting, a considerable amount more than me and it counted even more so with cape fights. I couldn't forget this simple fact as I floated past her and pointed to the charred street from Lung's attack.
"That's tame versus what Alatreon is capable of. If, and I do mean if, we want to kill it, then we're going have to aim for its head. The rest of the body is simply too strong to get anything done." Striking Alatreon's hind legs felt like striking an anvil, pointless and painful.
"The head… well it is alive, and any living thing can get a concussion if we hit its head hard enough." Yeah, maybe if we got a lucky shot in we could stun it.
"Yes. But I haven't had an opportunity to hit its head repeatedly. And it can spot me coming from a mile away." I looked down at the flares of crimson beneath my feet, a second sense allowed me to float in the air with Valstrax's and Kushala's absorbed powers. Vicky had none of that.
"Well, isn't it fortunate that I can have a repeat of my last bout. If you can distract it enough that I can get a clear shot a few times-" "It won't work, as much as it's a good idea, with just the two of us it won't be enough.
A flash of blue, followed by purple, red-green-yellow a veritable rainbow flashed in my peripheral.
"I don't think we'll be doing it alone, I bet that's the cavalry." Vicky accelerated past me but a quick pull of my hand on hers rotated her to face me. I cleared my throat, my powers rushing through my system as the battle called on me to fight, muddling my words.
"We wanted an opening and now we have it, let's use it. I'll start and then fight it head on, you wait for an opening." As hot-headed as she could be, Vicky still paused to consider my words.
"Taylor. Okay, you go ahead, I'll knock its teeth out." I squeezed her hand as I shot past her with a sonic boom.
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A purple laser speared the sapphire hid of the monster's flank, burning scales as the hide absorb it with ease. A hurling icicle zipped by Legend's face as he brought another barrage of violet violence against the beast.
"He wasn't kidding when he said they're though!" The wind didn't answer but the monster sure did, an oily spew doused the street corner he stood a second ago.
Throwing a dozen more lasers out as he side-stepped a wall of ice he tracked them through the air before zipping them about to land against the monster's neck and face. The lasers burrowed into the scale and when one puttered out, spent entirely against the biological hide of the monster a second took its place. Then a third and a fourth, the repeated hits diving deeper into the beast, breaking scales harder than tinker-made alloys and cutting then charring the hard flesh underneath.
The monster's responding sonorous roar rattled the street, Legend covering his ears as they threatened to burst from the head-pounding cry. Only for a wall of ice to slam against him, freezing the tinker tech bodysuit in hard icicles.
"Fucking Christ!" Years of Endbringer fights saved him from the follow-up dive, the building covered in frost behind him shattering in a pile of dust as the beast reorientated in the blink of an eye to face him.
"Why am I fighting this thing alone!" Even if he tapped the button to broadcast the question, no reply came as static burst into his ear. Ozone engulfed his nose as he pivoted to face the monster, the horns blazing in ethereal blue as sparks coalesced around him.
Phasing into the light breaker state, Legend evaded easily but came out semi-dazed when he returned to normalcy a second later. A second the monster capitalised by heaving into the sky and diving towards him.
His eyes buldged behind his visor. Even if he didn't die from this hit, he'd be in the hospital for sure. Sucking in a breath and relaxing his body to better absorb the impact, Legend waited for pain.
"No one else dies today!" Red bloomed in his peripheral and the monster veered off course as the clap of a hypersonic teenager's boot slammed into its face.
The sword following the strike stood taller than the girl and sang violence as she swung around to split the monster's face into two. And even as the blade seemed to split the light gleaming off it, it didn't carve the chunk Legend thought it would, only breaking the scales and drawing blood instead of viscera.
The monster collapsed unto its flank, reeling from the shock of the two hits. A zap of air focused Legend's attention back to the Hunter as her blade vanished and a hammer replaced it. The thumping pulses of its power visible as she blasted upwards on a white puff of wind and crimson from her feat.
From the apex of her jump, she tucked and began spinning, the hammer trailing vapour behind it as the nose cone gathered speed. The Hunter unfurled herself and swung with her entire body as she landed on the monster. Crystalline snaps echoed down the street with the hammer's impact, the snaps belonged to the monster's horn as a jagged crack formed at the hammer's nose.
The Hunter recovered quickly, but so did the monster. Rolling from her attack she brought the hammer around in a golf swing just as the monster dove upon her, smacking its beak and nudging the locomotive-sized monster aside enough to only take her along its intended route with its front legs instead of skewered on its claws.
The four seconds it took for the girl to save his life and put herself in danger was enough for Legend to jump into the sky and decide to never land again. Three dozen lasers spread behind him as he raced after their destruction. The two didn't let up their attacks, the Hunter nimbly avoiding attacks as she swung hammer blows into the face, she'd slide underneath a talon and pirouette with a swing to the nose before retreating from a thunderbolt, icicle or oily snot.
At each opportunity Legend shot four or more beams into the beast's neck or face, aiming for an eye or the throat, his success depended on the movement of the two below. And as much as he should have been able to keep up with the two the frost covering him began to slow him down as the cold seeped into his body, depleting his breath as he shot laser volley after laser volley.
The Hunter dove underneath a tail swipe and rocketed away with a burst of red to avoid the freezing breath that followed. Legend had to do the same as a wave of frost hurtled down the street a second time, the frost catching up on the Hunter as she slowed down from her slide. She couldn't dodge it, but she didn't need to.
An inferno blazed from her, confronting the hail with equal power, twin ghostly roars swept down the street as the two forces clashed into a stalemate. But any hope for a lull in the battle got squashed as the monster sprung forward like a cat upon her, the same attack that the Hunter had saved Legend from.
The element of surprise was something all capes knew too well, a trick only worked once and then the enemy would anticipate it, the same could be said about beasts, even the most simple-minded of creatures learned from a mistake.
The girl flying in from the side hadn't learnt the lesson. The dragon whipped around, its body still soaring to impact the Hunter as its horns glowed ghostly blue and sent a lance of thunder through the girl.
Only for it to be slammed into the ground from above. The smoking body that disintegrated on impacting the ground revealed itself to be a mannequin. And the camouflaged girl disappeared behind a building.
Air separated in two as the Hunter's sword spun around again to impact against the monster's head, the blade glowing a pale yellow as the blade carved a fraction deeper than previously. Her twisting move flowed like water, the sword resting against her hip as the monster reared up on its hind legs, crimson energy enveloping its claws and trailing black smoke as it slammed downwards.
Only for the Hunter to disappear from sight for a second and emerge behind the monster, the air howling in protest from being abused and her sword glowing a hurtful red. Blood erupted in a line from the monster's stomach.
Yet the monster didn't howl in pain as any animal should. Instead, it sucked in a breath and with a flap of its wings, ascended while spinning around and coated the area with a fine layer of ice. The Hunter leapt instances before the beam of ice intersected her and with a cry she flew towards the sapphire monster. Arching crimson lighting caught Legend's eye, and with no time to shout a warning, he shot a trailing yellow laser to spear the Hunter in her flank, shoving her aside as the air erupted in red around the monster.
"Fuck!" A fitting testament to the change in the monster. The previously vibrant yet black burnt sapphire scales had turned a natural charcoal colour, with pulsing lines of crimson rushing around the membranes of its wings and curling around the sole horn.
Yet the Hunter didn't let the change in the monster's physiology dissuade her from attacking. A rocket of crimson trailed her as she levelled the blade to slice the monster.
Smoke oozed from the chest of the monster as she drew closer. And Legend had to blink to remove the sunlight spot from his eyes as a jet of white-hot fire escaped the mouth of the monster.
The Hunter at least saw the attack coming and twisted herself with wind and crimson into a spin that evaded the monster's attack barely, her attack shifting to strike the wing instead of the neck. The red glowing sword sliced through the softer membrane as she carved a gruesome line.
Ignoring the pain from her shoulder, she rolled through her landing and crouched low with her blade on her hip again and not a moment too soon as the monster's paw swiped through her position. The air screamed again as reality twisted to displace her behind the monster. A trail of blood spurting from a second thin line on the monster's flank.
Winded, she stumbled as she tried to put some distance between herself and the monster.
Legend jumped in, distracting the beast with a light show he hadn't used since fighting Leviathan, dozens upon dozens of light spears driving through the monster's wings, bore against its chest and evaporated against the face of the monster. He was one of three, one of the strongest capes in the world, and some city cape's monster refused to die! Even as he kept pounding the beast with more power than any cape except the most powerful could resist.
To say that it didn't have an effect would be a lie. As the lights carved flesh and blood from the monster.
To say that the monster didn't care would be the truth, evident as a fireball landed next to him. The earth around the crater glowing in red cracks before exploding, showering the area around him with molten tar.
"Fucker won't die!" The monster reared its head, Legend recognising the move as the beast readying to fire another beam of fire towards him. He phased out of the way but the monster tracked his movement, the fire following him around as he narrowly avoided being incinerated.
But as the monster was still a physical being, it had to follow the laws of physics, its claws leaving trails in the ground as the recoil of the jet-scale flamethrower pushed it back. Physics also meant that it was stuck while dousing the street in flames and thus a perfect target for a follow-up attack.
The fire abruptly ended as the Camo girl again stomped the monster's head into the ground. The Hunter didn't let the opportunity go to waste and came flying in with the same crimson jets and hammer, her wild spin struck the monster from below, stars blinking in its eyes as it crumpled onto the ground.
"Stunned! Now Vicky!" The Camo girl, who Legend now recognised as Victoria Dallon, lifted the monster's head by the cracking horn. Her grip tore into the remaining bone and splintered it across the street as she pulled with all her might.
The Hunter followed up by drawing her long sword, the blade arching in crimson as she flew upwards and dove down with a vertical slash. The air cried in pain as the blade left a white searing line in Legend's vision before a singular crystalline crack echoed down the street.
Vicky shot upwards, the horn coming off cleanly in her hands. The monster cried out in pain for the first time.
"Alright! Its elemental powers should be reduced now. But it ain't dead yet!" Hunter's testament was revealed to be true as the monster stumbled to its feet with a murderous cry. Its eyes sparkling red as lightning arched between its brows. But nothing descended and the blue refused to dissipate, the glow becoming stronger as if a charge built and built. Until an electric blast sent the three flying away, the monster wasn't immune to the attack and stumbled backwards with a pained cry.
All four of them recovered simultaneously and the three capes faced off against the forty-ton black dragon.
The Hunter sped off first, her longsword shifting into a solid gleaming lance of steel powered by rage-filled rockets. And yet with all her speed she didn't strike the monster in the head as intended, instead smashing into a shoulder as the monster shifted away from her.
Her lance broke, the tip digging into hardened flesh as she spun to the ground, landing gracefully as the tip dug further and further, steam billowing out as twin jets of flame forced it deeper between the muscles. A glint of steel caught the monster's eye, the same yellow glow of the Hunter's longsword flashed with recognition before the lance tip exploded.
Space contorted as the Hunter appeared on the other side of the monster, another line of split scales gushing blood as she used the explosion as her counterstrike source.
Glory girl didn't waste the opening as she slammed her boot down on the monster's head, digging it into the ground, granting another opening to the Hunter as she stepped off the monster's shoulder into the air with the glowing red sword that promised death and again dived downwards to cut the monster in twain.
Legend sped forward with a glowing lance of violet trailing his form, the spear of destruction racing away in a train of death able to kill a god.
Alatreon refuted its destiny, it wouldn't die, not by the hands of a hunter, not by the hands of anyone! Fire burst from between its scales, blasting the trifecta of capes away in an explosion of raw power and contempt for the nature of the universe. Alatreon gripped the Earth and in defiance stretched its neck to the heavens, its tattered wings raised alongside his cry of utter hate.
Alatreon's hate ate the sun, casting the block in darkness as its body became a beacon against the umbral void. Hazy orange and malignant crimson slinked beneath its scales, across the tattered wings and around the shattered horns.
Taylor recovered first, rolling the blond off her as she stood to stare at her monster initiated a cataclysm right in front of her. "No, no, no!" the shimmer of the heat haze blurred the world as a wave of fire swept off Alatreon, coating the area with tendrils of orange as a deathly silence followed until only the pounding of blood and the hammering of her heart remained.
Alatreon's eyes locked with Taylor's, a glowing malignant gold that judged her with ill contempt and pure hatred, a judging gaze that found her wanting.
A defiant roar echoed as Alatreon spun and ascended, coating everything in ash as the light vanished and returned as a single pinprick in front of Alatreon. A pinprick of light that existed for a nanosecond before exploding outwards.
The explosion levelled everything, and Taylor wouldn't be spared. Fire, crimson and sapphire, spun in a spiral towards Alatreon to contest. Her fire fought valiantly against the cataclysm but eventually failed. Wind had no effect as the heat smashed it apart. Lightning fizzled and crimson fared little better. Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing in her arsenal offered hope.
"Taylor!" Vicky's shout reignited her will to live. 'No one else dies today!' Her words echoed back to her.
'I won't lose anyone. Never again!' My Mom, taken too soon and viscously from my life. My Dad, wallowing in depression, ignoring the legacy of the woman he loved. Emma, a sister I thought would help me through everything.
I won't lose Vicky, I won't lose Lisa, "I refuse to lose anyone else!"
But a refusal to accept defeat wouldn't change the fact that death approached at hypersonic speeds.
Spreading her arms and challenging the imminent demise of not only herself but her closest friend, forced a burst of light from her, a wall of white and blue surging forth from the ground, an iceberg that speared the street and clashed against the approaching shock wave.
The ice shattered, piece by piece, chunk by chunk, cracking, melting, breaking until only a film-thin half dome remained as the wave of fire passed over.
"Fucking hell." That was Legend.
And the monster didn't care, rearing up again to charge at the three exhausted capes.
Only to smash into the ground and scream in utter pain.
Blood and bone exploded outwards on impact, an impossible blow ploughing through Alatreon, leaving a man-sized hole in its chest.
"What was that!" Taylor sprinted forwards, covering the meagre distance between her and the monster in less time than it took to think about it.
Alatreon's eyes faded, life fleeing the black dragon as a crouching, blood-covered figure rose from her feet, but Taylor paid them no mind, an instinct taking hold of her as she gently stroked the only patch of scales that didn't flow in reverse, her fingers trailing over the soft scales between its brow.
"Dragon of fire, of ice, of death.
Rest now your weary soul, I will take your burden, your hate of the world.
And we'll cross the chasm of despair together.
Rest now, for the world has seen your might, and fears it.
Be free, and come with me."
The scarlet motes joined a rainbow of colours as the dying husk of the Elder dragon evaporated into tiny pulsing points of light. And with her final words, pulled themselves into her.
The day was finally done. The streets of Brockton had been reduced to rubble, lives reshaped and a nation brought to tears. The day would bring remind America that a singular cape could change the lives of thousands in a single moment, a notion the PRT had been trying to stymie for decades. Fear and distrust ran across the streets as the destruction of Brockton Bay became televised, and yet none of it mattered now.
The figure stood behind Taylor, an unmoving hand firmly grasping her shoulder.
Taylor twisted to stare, the sun sitting right behind the woman, casting her in a golden glow. The black cape flowed along the ground, slightly fluttering in the mid-day wind, the enclosed steel Spartan helm stilled her head as Taylor started to remember the cape above her. The Lighthouse pillar atop her breast sinking the detail with finality.
"Alexandria-"
"Taylor Hebert, you're under arrest."