Outsider Chronicles: Empress of Escalation
Isekai. A Genre I love to bits and one of the few that I would quite happily jump into with both feet. However, I don't care what kind of god killing powers I get out of it, finding myself as Taylor Hebert following a close encounter with the back of a locker is NOT what I had in mind!
And we're back. Before we begin, I want to apologize for the unacceptably long time this chapter took for its length. I don't know why, but the fight just did NOT want to flow properly, even when I knew exactly what I wanted to write! Fortunately, I finally managed to break through and get it done. It probably wasn't worth the wait. Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 9
I didn't bother going out on Sunday. I probably could have accompanied my Aunt, who seemed to go on patrol every day, but I had other things to worry about, mainly The day after my encounter with Greg, I found myself at a bit of a loose end. Nothing I did seemed to hold my attention for long, not even going out in costume and I found myself back in my civies and sitting on a bench on the Boardwalk, just watching the waves and idly doodling in the sketchbook I used for a pseudo grimoire. I hated days like this. They always left me feeling groggy and drained.
I sighed and rubbed out the looping lines I'd sketched and did my best to focus on the arcane symbols that represented the unfinished spell. I really wanted to get it finished, if only because having an Anti-Master technique available could be nothing but useful. Unfortunately, my brain just didn't seem to want to cooperate.
"Urg, this is gonna give me a headache," I groaned.
"Then I suggest you stop doing it."
I glanced up and was mildly surprised to see Amy stood there with a coffee cup in hand.
"Hey Amy," I said, "Did you need something?"
Amy shrugged as she sat down next to me.
"Not really," she said, "I'm just finding myself at a bit of a loose end. Its a slow day at the hospital and Dr Dorian kicked me out."
"Good," I said, "You spend way to much time there as it is."
Amy frowned.
"I really wish people would stop saying that," she said, "I'm fine."
I opened one eye and fixed her with a look.
"When was the last time you got a full nights sleep?" I asked, "And don't try to lie. You could carry shopping in those bags."
Amy scowled lightly.
I know, don't remind me," she muttered.
She sighed.
"Believe me Taylor, I know exactly what I'm doing to myself," she said, "I've seen enough doctors collapse to know what burnout looks like. But I can't not go. My power can help people, save lives, so I need to do it."
I hummed.
"Well, I can't really argue with that," I said, "But remember Amy, you can't heal anyone if your the one that gets sick. There are plenty of ways to treat people that don't require you and I'm sure the hospital can call you if they do come across something they can't treat. If you really do know that your on the way to burnout, take a break for gods sake. None of us want you to hurt yourself."
"I bet Carol doesn't," she muttered.
"Sorry?"
"Nothing!"
She cleared her throat and looked around for a distraction and snagged my sketchbook from where I'd put it down next to me.
"Whats this?" she asked, opening it and flicking through it while avoiding my eyes.
I eyed her for a moment, then decided to let her have her distraction. Its not like I couldn't figure out what she was talking about after all.
"Just some drawings," I said.
"Looks kinda occult," said Amy as she reached the last filled page and scanned the runes with a frown.
I shrugged.
"I kinda like the occult," I said, "Besides, runes look cool."
"They might look cool, but if you want them to actually mean anything you need to work on your grammar," she said, "You used the wrong rune here."
"Yeah, I guess…" I started, before what she'd said filtered through my head, "Wait, what?"
Amy glanced at me and lowered the book so I could see it. She pointed at part of the rune chain that served to allow the spell to reset the target to their natural mental state.
"Look here," she said, "You used the rune for Spirit when you should have used Mind."
I looked between her and the book a few times as that statement registered, then took a closer look.
"And here as well, see?" she said, pointing at a couple of other places that, now that she mentioned it, I could clearly see the mistakes that had eluded me since I'd started.
"Holy shit, your right," I muttered, "Thats…"
I quickly took the book back and made the changes, then ran through the checks that would rule out the really loud failure reactions. The result was perfect. I stared down at the paper, then looked up at Amy, who seemed slightly uncomfortable.
"How the hell did you do that?" I asked.
"Well, I guess you could say that learning ancient languages is kinda a hobby of mine," she said.
I fixed her with a flat look.
"Bullshit," I said, "I know for a fact you know more than that because this isn't as simple as me getting my grammar wrong."
Amy stared at me for a moment, then seemed to deflate slightly.
"I'm guessing that you've already figured out I'm adopted, right?" she asked.
I frowned at the non-sequitur.
"Considering that you don't look anything like the rest of your family, it wasn't that hard," I said, "What about it?"
"I never really knew my birth Parents," said Amy, ignoring my question as she pulled her knees up to her chest, "I think my Mom died shortly after I was born and I don't remember much about Dad, other than him reading the Cat in the Hat to me and a few flashes of someone fighting while I hid. That said, I do have some things from them that Dad gave to Carol and Aunt Sarah. Mostly its a lot of books and a big chest no one can open and I don't know what to make of most of it since it seems to be either in code or talking about...crazy stuff to put it mildly, but I do have Moms journals. She seemed to be researching something that used a lot of runes and really weird math to do...something."
She sighed.
"I managed to learn a bit about the runes from some of the books I have, but I still can't make heads nor tails of most of it."
I frowned.
"Huh, that sounds...weird," I said, "I...might be able to help with that if you want."
Amy looked at me with an odd expression on her face, but before she could respond, a woman walking past on her phone suddenly yelped in pain and dropped the phone. Amy was on her feet in an instant and moved over to the woman, who was working a finger in her ear and looking down at her phone in apparent confusion.
"Are you alright miss?" asked Amy.
"What? Oh, yes, I'm fine," she said, "My phone just suddenly started making this really weird noise."
I frowned as I picked up the phone and held it to my ear where I was immediately greeted by a very loud sound of static, mixed with a high pitched whine that stabbed straight into my eardrum and made me yank it away.
"Ow."
"I did warn you," said the woman, looking mildly amused.
I wasn't though. I pulled out my phone and frowned when I saw the no service icon flashing in the top corner.
"Thats not good," I muttered, "Amy, do you have a signal?"
Amy pulled out her phone and frowned.
"No, I don't," she said.
"Well shit, thats not good," I muttered as I dialed the emergency services.
As I expected, I was met with the same static and whine which, considering that the emergency services network was beefed up with Dragons Tinkertech, meant that something extremely screwy was going on.
"Whats going on?" asked Amy.
"Best guess, some kind of signal blocker," I said, "Although who would do something like that and also include the emergency services, I don't know."
Amy frowned.
"Uber and Leet maybe?"
I shook my head.
"I doubt it," I said, "Those two are idiots, but I don't think they'd do something like this deliberately. They like the attention to much and getting into the emergency network would require a lot of work or some pretty impressive tech…"
I trailed off as a thought occurred to me.
"Or a backdoor," I breathed.
"What?"
I ignored Amy's confusion as I turned to look in the direction of Gregs lab.
"I would have thought we had more time, but they're the only people I can think of that could do this," I muttered.
"Taylor, your scaring me," said Amy, putting a hand on my shoulder, "Whats wrong?"
"I need to go check on someone," I said as I snatched up my sketchbook and shoved it into my bag, "Amy, get to the PRT HQ and warn them that the Dragonslayers are probably the ones responsible for this!"
"Wait, what?! Taylor, wait a sec!"
I made a mental note to apologize later as I sprinted away, cutting through a couple of alleys, before jumping up to the rooftops as I switched to my armour and taking off in the direction of Gregs lab. I just hoped I wouldn't be too late.
The first clue Greg received that things were about to get loud was his internet going down. The second was something very big and heavy landing on the road outside. He turned away from his current project and prodded a key on his keyboard, prompting the screen to switch from scrolling lines of text to the view from his security cameras. What he saw made his eyebrows shoot up.
"When Taylor said the Dragonslayers would want to target me, I wasn't expecting them to arrive this soon," he said, "This is gonna be a pain."
He glanced down at the body on the slab in front of him and scowled. Physically, it was done and the programming was technically done as well, but it took time to fully integrate and come online. The idea of one of his creations activating and being forced straight into combat wasn't really something he liked, but considering that there was no way to call for help and he really didn't like his and Penny's chances against all three Dragonslayers. None of them had the experience or firepower the tech thieves had and they were outnumbered, which certainly didn't help. He scowled, tapping a finger on the desk as he tried to figure out a way out of this mess.
"Wyvern, can you get through the jamming?" he asked.
"I can try," said the AI, "Unfortunately, Dragon does very good work and Saint has managed to modify the equipment enough that its not exactly the same."
"How long?" asked Greg.
"Ten, fifteen minetes," replied Wyvern.
Greg scowled again. That was too long. There was no way that he and Penny could hold them off for that long, not with the equipment they had at the moment. If Poppi could fight as well they might have had a chance, but she simply wasn't designed for it. Sure, she could technically provide him backup with her ability to provide power to a partner wielding her shield, but that was a last resort. She still needed some upgrades before she could be relied upon in that capacity. He had his own equipment of course, but it wasn't up to fighting three skilled combatants at once. Nothing he had was.
That said, they didn't need to win, only hold out until reinforcements could arrive and, while Penny's gear probably wasn't up to the task, he did have something that was. He pushed himself up, ignoring the loud crash from outside as the Dragonslayers located the entrance to his lab and started trying to break it down. He wasn't worried, the door was incredibly strong, so he'd at least have a little time.
Greg moved over to one of the work tables that held a massive sword that didn't look anything like a weapon a Human could possibly wield. It was only a prototype, but it worked and would, hopefully, be enough.
He glanced up as Penny and Poppi ran into the room, then looked back down at the sword as he started the activation process.
"Professor…" started Penny, glancing up at the ceiling nervously as there was another loud crash.
"I know," said Greg as he finished the process and straightened, "Penny, you take this, Poppi, you get your shield and get ready. I don't intend to use you for this fight, your not ready for that, but it might be needed."
"B-but Master…" started the little gyronid, before she saw the look on Gregs face and ducked her head, "U-understood."
Greg scowled slightly and put a hand on the small bots head.
"Next time Poppi," he said.
Poppi sniffed and nodded.
"If your not using me, what are you going to use?" asked Poppi.
Greg tapped the tablet on the bench beside him as Penny stepped up and placed a hand on the massive sword. There was a small flash and the dull sword went from the flat steel gray it had been to the green and gray of her dress, mixed with orange highlights.
"I wasn't expecting to have to use it so soon, but I finally got it done," he said, "Seeing Taylor in action gave me the last few clues I needed to finish it."
"I'm ready," said Penny as the massive sword floated up and came to rest behind her, not unlike the much smaller blades she normally used.
"Good, then lets go," said Greg, picking up the tablet as he slipped on his goggles.
Saint scowled as he watched Dobrynja pound on the formerly hidden door that led into the new Tinkers base. This was taking far longer than he was expecting, especially since most Tinkers who could create anything close to a genuine AI were pretty limited in what else they could create. The fact that the door seemed to be protected by some kind of barrier meant that either his abilities were much wider than they first appeared, or he had backup of some kind. Either option didn't bode well because it meant that the AI could potentially subsume two Tinkers worth of tech instead of just one.
On the up side, it meant that he'd gain more useful tech that would undoubtedly be exceedingly useful for when it came time to remove Dragon and take over. The forcefield protecting the door was especially interesting, albeit annoying.
The huge Russian in the even more huge suit drew back his fist to hit the door again, but before he could, something extremely odd happened and Saints ears went pop. Dobrynja stumbled as his fist hit nothing but air. Saint blinked as he suddenly realized that he and his comrades were suddenly back outside the warehouse where the Professors lab was located, facing down the Tinker himself and a young girl with orange hair and a massive sword floating behind her.
"Well, that worked better than I was expecting," said the Professor, poking the screen of the tablet he was holding, "Needs more tweaking for accuracy though."
Saint quickly shook off his surprise and stepped forwards, pointing his sword at the Tinker.
"Your the Professor, correct?" he asked.
"Thats right, and your Saint, the tech thief with delusions of grandeur," said Professor.l
Saint scowled. He was used to people saying that about him and was perfectly fine with it. No one else knew what he did after all, all they saw was a criminal targeting the so called 'great Hero' Dragon, not a man fighting the greatest threat to the world, possibly even beyond the Endbringers. After all, giant, island sinking monsters were easy to see, Dragon represented a much more subtle threat. That said, it aggravated him that a person who willfully put the world in even more danger for whatever asinine reason he had. Some kind of misplaced desire to play God considering the reasoning of many of the other Tinkers they'd dealt with in the past had.
"I'm going to make this quick," said Saint, "You have place the world at risk with your creation of an AI. For that, we'll be taking your lab and everything you've built. Now hand over your tech and the control codes for the AI or we'll have to hurt you."
Professor stared at Saint for a moment, then burst out laughing.
"And just what is so funny?" sneered Saint as his comrades readied themselves.
It was abundantly clear that this would end in a fight.
"Two reasons," said Professor, "The first is that I'd do anything so cruel as to shackle any of my creations like that and the second is that you think you can actually beat me with Dragons stolen tech."
Saint twitched at that.
"Are you telling me that your AI has no shackles at all?!" he demanded.
"Well, not exactly," said Professor, "I mean, she can't leave the bases systems, but thats more to do with the lack of decent network architecture than anything else and my other creations are platform locked, so aren't any more dangerous than any other person. Besides, I can literally see Wyverns thoughts and intentions if I want to, so its not like she can trick me."
Saint stared at the Tinker in disbelief, before he shook his head.
"And here I thought I could reason with you," he muttered, "I should have known better. Its quite clear that you are too dangerous to let live."
The other two Dragonslayers shifted slightly.
"Don't you think thats a bit much Saint?" asked Mags, "I mean, hes just a kid…"
"So is Bonesaw," said Saint, not taking his eyes off the Tinker, "Age doesn't matter when it comes to Parahumans, especially Tinkers. Its a shame, but we can't let a threat like this remain active."
"I...I guess, but…"
"Go keep watch Mags," said Saint, "We'll handle this."
The light suit user hesitated for a moment, then took off, taking up position on a nearby roof.
"For what its worth, I'm sorry for this," said Saint as he lifted his sword and Dobrynja primed his own weapons beside him.
"Yeah, I'm sure," said Professor, "Well, lets get this over with. Penny?"
The girl next to him nodded and did something that made her oversized sword glow and seem to explode into bright green light that swirled around her and reformed into a suit of armour over her dress that looked like it was made from blades with eight floating blades behind her and a visor over her eyes.
"Murakumo prototype unit active, all systems green," said Penny, "I'm combat ready!"
"And I'll be using Macro: Reflector," said Professor, poking the screen of his tablet, "Mainly because…"
He was cut off as Dobrynja opened fire with his shoulder mounted gatling guns. However, instead of perforating the Tinker and his partner, the bullets entered a field that caused the air to visibly distort and send the bullets shooting off in odd directions, somehow hitting everything in the area instead of the two teens.
"Что за…?!" spluttered the hulking Russian, right before Penny cut him off by shooting forwards and lashing out with her blades, cutting off his guns without too much effort.
Dobrynja stumbled back, barely avoiding another swing as he activated the stun batons attached to his suits arms and blocked the follow up swing that still managed to knock him back another step, despite his size and strength.
"Well, aren't you strong for such a little devushka?" he growled as he took a swipe at Penny to force her back.
The redhead zipped back, floating above the ground as she came to a stop, giving Dobrynja enough time to find his footing and harden his stance.
"I don't suppose I can convince you to surrender, can I?" asked the large Russian.
Penny frowned and shook her head.
"I'm sorry, but the Professors counting on me," she said, "I suppose you feel the same?"
"Da, izvinyayus'," said Dobrynja.
Then, the two pushed off again.
As the girl and the Russian clashed, Saint charged the Tinker himself, sword at the ready. The Professor didn't look particularly worried, despite the massive, razor sharp sword and the sheer bulk of Saints suit which, while not as large as Dobrynja, was still much larger than a Human, and didn't even move as the sword swung down at his head. A moment later, the reason for his lack of interest became apparent as the blade visibly distorted and appeared to pass straight through his body. Saint stumbled as he over extended, but managed to turn the stumble into a spin as he brought the sword around again, only for the same thing to happen.
"You know the definition of insanity, right?" said the Professor as Saint took another swing, "Its doing the same thing over and over without getting a different result. Now knock that off!"
He swung his hand and Saint felt like a Brute punched him in the stomach, sending him flying back. A short blast of his jets brought him to a stop and sent him rocketing back towards the Tinker, who scowled and flicked his fingers. The air distorted again and Saint was forced to slam on his reverse jets before he slammed face first into a wall. He spun around, just in time to slam face first into the wall he'd just avoided.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?" he roared, obliterating the brick edifice with a jet enhanced swing, "HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"
"I'm a Tinker," said Professor.
"BULLSHIT!" snarled Saint, "Your a PROGRAMMING Tinker, theres no way you could build something like this!"
"Oh, is that what you think?" asked Professor, sounding amused, "Well, I suppose I can see where you got that idea, but robotics and programming are just one of my many talents."
Saint snarled and charged again. This time when the Professor gestured, his sword distorted and twisted until the blade snapped in half. Saint didn't hesitate, tossing aside the useless weapon and unfolding his guns and rocket pods. However, before he could open fire, Professor twisted his outstretched hand and his suit seemed to come alive. Saint screamed as the metal twisted, creaking in protest as the Tinker alloy was stretched and pulled in ways it was never meant to until it started coming apart at the joints.
"Sorry, but I'm not letting you use those," said Professor, "I'm fairly sure there's no one around, but there's no way I'm risking you letting off live rockets here."
He opened his hand and Saint yelped as his power armour collapsed, the joints completely shattered and most of the plates warped beyond recognition, leaving him sitting in a pile of junk. A moment later, Dorbynja's suit hit the ground next to him, the limbs removed and chest cut open, while the man himself was unconscious and carried over the shoulder of Penny as she floated down behind the mech suit in a rather bizarre looking image considering the size differences between the two.
"Well, that was fun," said Penny as she dropped Dorbynja beside Saint.
"Izvinyayus' Saint, she beat me," said the huge Russian, not sounding all that sorry.
In fact, he looked like he found the entire situation rather amusing. Saint, on the other hand, did not.
"Fuck you Dorbynja, we're not beaten yet," snarled Saint, "Theres still…"
CRUNCH!
Saint was cut off as Mags' suit hit the floor, back torn open and the communications equipment, including the jammer, torn out and sparking.
"Huh, guess I missed the fun," said Ddraig as she landed lightly beside the broken power suit, "I'm impressed."
"You didn't think I could handle them?" asked Professor.
"Honestly? Not really," said Ddraig, "I didn't think your speciality lent itself well to direct combat. It seems I stand corrected."
The Professor grinned and opened his mouth, but before he could respond, he cocked his head on one side and put a finger to his ear.
"Ah, apparently the jamming is gone now," he said, "Wyvern has contacted the PRT and they are on their way to pick up the trash."
At that, Saint realized that there was no way he was getting out of this one. He reached behind him, wrenched open a hidden storage compartment and pulled out the heavily reinforced, old fashioned laptop that was the only weapon against the greatest threat to the world. He knew there wasn't any way out, so he had to act now and to hell with the consequences! He opened the laptop and reached for the Big Red Button, but before he could press it, a bolt of light slammed into the computer and shattered it. The casing survived, but the screen, keyboard and much more delicate insides were all blown to bits. Saint stared at the shattered remains of his dreams for a moment, before he whirled around and glared at the two Capes.
"You fucking IDIOTS!" he yelled, surging to his feet, "Do you have any idea what you've done?!"
"I've stopped you from making what might be the biggest mistake of your life," said Ddraig.
Saint stared at the red clad 'Hero' for a moment, before something in him snapped. Without warning, he dove at the teenaged girl, hands outstretched. However, before he could wrap his fingers around her throat, the air twisted and he slammed into the ground with enough force to crack his ribs, not that that stopped him as he tried to claw his way to his feet and get at Ddraig. By the time the PRT arrived, the Black Hat Hacker was suspended from a set of Magic Circles, spitting and snapping like a rabid animal.
And we're done, fucking finally! You would not BELIEVE the headache this chapters been, literally at times! For some reason, I always get like this at this time of year, but with any luck, I've broken through and the next chapter won't take as long.
Oh my oh my, just what do we have here? A possible hint of some mysterious past for Amy's Parents? That should be interesting. Long time readers might be able to guess what I have in mind for that.
So, I originally intended to introduce Gregs next (and final) bot in this chapter, but since that didn't work out, we instead got a glimpse of just what his power can do. Robotics and programming are only one aspect of it and even then, the latter was more a result of him having access to Richters programs. Anyone want to guess how he pulled off that trick?
If your wondering how the Dragonslayers went down so easily, its because A, they went in with assumptions that Greg was a programming Tinker who had only recently Triggered and suffered from a massive intelligence failure to the kneecaps and B, this fight was more to give an idea of what Greg was capable of and remove them before they got annoying.
Next time, the fallout of the fight and a timeskip. Until then, don't forget to leave a review!