"Hey Eli," I waved to the man as he came in. "Sup? How was your day?"
"Jam packed," he announced with a yawn. "Three classes, this big campus safety seminar that took two hours, and of course running around town trying to find a new cookbook for class tomorrow because someone only tells me we need the thingtodayand the campus shop is closed for the seminar," he rolled his eyes. "How was you're day?" he asked jaw tensing as he half suppressed another yawn.
"Eh, it went pretty cool. I suplexed an invisible tank, captured four villains, spent a few hours doing paperwork with Dauntless on all of that so that I can actually get paid for all the crap I've been doing, then came back and cleaned a lot," I summarized.
He blinked, "You suplexed a tank?"
~I get the feeling people are going to mention that a lot~
"An invisible one," I added in. "Squeeler," I added in. "Snagged her, her boytoy Skidmark, plus Cricket, and Stormtiger from the Empire Eight Eight," I listed off. "Mush and 'Das Vondertwins' got away. The place was pretty messed up, and I dented the ground pretty hard so depending on how the damages settle I'm probably not going to get a huge pay check for it," I lamented. "A lot of the gun and drug bounties, are going to process through soon though, plus what I got for handing over Alabaster back on my first night out."
"Jesus!" He replied eyes wide.
"Cook, clean, fight supercrime," I listed off each finger smugly. Then dropped my expression. "Honestly I'm a lot more concerned about a future problem. Lung sent me a letter of challenge for Saturday. Now in a straight fight I can probably take-"
"Wait! What?! Just...stop, for a second okay?" he held up his hands defensively. "Okay, let me get this straight, you're thinking of fighting Lung."
"Not fighting him isn't much of an option," I replied honestly. "If I don't show up, a lot of the momentum I built up will vanish on me," I explained. "Plus the fact he might not take 'no' as an answer."
Eli then proved black men can go pale... it's just subtle, "Oh Jesus Christ..."
I looked at him seriously, then frowned, "Hey, you know, if you think me being around is to much of a danger-"
"No man," He dismissed quickly, though I got the vibe it might be a little less then honestly, "It's fine." That at least was a lie. "Comes with the territory."
~Uh... I think he might be regretting the whole 'room and board' thing right now~
"Well it's not as bad as you might think anyway," I dismissed. "I've seen Lung in action, and I know how his power works better then he does. I can take him, buthowis where things get complicated."
"You can take him," My roommate replied dryly. "You know the guy crushed the entire protectorate, and every gang active in The Bay when he first showed up right?" he asked me seriously.
"And I kicked Ziz into Orbit," I dismissed. "That stuff was then, this is now. There is all sorts of crazy context involved in fights. Lung is near unbeatable if you play by his rules, but I have no intention of doing that."
"Yeah because that's easy," he replied bluntly, clearly still having issues processing everything.
~Weren't you just freaking out over this?~
I was freaking out over how to win. I wasn't willing to pay any price for victory after all.
"Well it is and it isn't," I replied. "I've already thought of three approaches that let me win, and a couple on top of that which will let me at least survive, but they've all got their problems."
"And you're sure these 'approaches' will work out?" he asked seriously.
"Hell no," I admitted without pride. "No one can be sure of shit in a fight... but I'm confident enough to bet my life on them."
"You suck at assuring people you know?" he replied, then sighed as he sat himself down. "Okay, what can I do to help?"
"Well mostly I need a sounding board," I replied. I mean I had one built in, but they weren't exactly great for getting a human perspective on things.
~Well sorry for not being mortal~
It wasn't their fault, or even a problem honestly. If anything it was an advantage. It was much harder to find a demon's perspective in the world then it was to find a human's... well for most people.
"Shoot," Eli offered.
"Lung's power is more complicated then even he knows," I explained. "Yeah he's fast, powerful, tough, and becomes all of those over the course of a fight, but there are factors to that even he hasn't figured out."
"And you have?" he asked me.
"I have some thinker powers in the mix," I admitted. "One of them lets me basically figure out how strong someone is, and tightens my intuition letting me break down what they can do, and how they can do it," a bit of a technical truth, but still very much true.
"Okay," he accepted that and if anything seemed more relieved, "So what do your powers tell you about his powers?"
"That his scaling is based on a few factors, duration of the battle, strength of the opposition, how much and how long he has been anticipating the fight are the key ones," I listed off.
"And he's set your fight for the end of the week..." he grimaced.
"Yeah, but I've also only been around for a week," I added in. "I bet you he's wanted to take a bite out of Kaiser a lot longer. It'll give him a edge, but one week isn't likely to be an overwhelming one. Not on it's own."
"No the rest of the problem is him being a super strong and tough dragon man," My sounding board helpfully interjected.
"More specifically the 'tough' part," I admitted. "Once he ramps to the point of growing wings, his regeneration is so fast I'm not sure I can knock him out safely... or at all," a grimace crossed my features. "At that point the only way for me to 'win' is to kill him."
"And that's not simple," he replied.
"No, that'd be pretty easy for me," I countered. "If I wanted to go lethal, I'm pretty sure could quite literally tear the guy's head off, right up until he his hit four winged state."
~He gets more wings?~
That shocked Eli considerably, "Wait, what? Are you serious?" he asked eyes wide.
"Dude, I kicked an Endbringer intoorbit," I reminded bluntly. "I've only really come close to cutting loose entirelyoncesince I got here. And in that fight I pretty much ripped Hookwolf to pieces, and dropped a building on him," and that was through he blinding haze of madness, where my ability to plan, evaluate, or even think was pretty much nonexistent. "Lung's tough, but his vitals are a lot easier to discern. If I wanted to, I could finish the fight that way in moments."
"Oh..." he replied as he finally came to understand just how bullshit I currently was.
~Not that you're tooting your own horn at all~
"Why don't you then?" he asked. "I mean... I don't want you to go out and murder someone, but... it's Lung man. Do you know the shit he does?"
"I have some idea," I replied. "Unfortunately one of those things is keep Kaiser in check. Without Lung dividing his attention, the Empire has the fighting power to basically run over the Protectorate, even with New Wave backing them up."
"No," he denied. "Well... maybe the local Protectorate, but wouldn't they just call in backup from out of town?" he asked. "I mean that's the entire point of The Protectorate in the first place. Heroes from all over the place uniting against a common threat?"
"For a place like Brockton Bay?" I asked him eyebrow raised. "With as many palms as Kaiser's greased? Maybe for a little while, but the empire has to many high collar holdings. They can afford to go to ground, and the Protectorate can't keep that kind of pressure up in one place to long without leaving too many others weakened." My face twisted into a scowl. "No. Without major opposition actively challenging him, he'll basically do to this place what Accord did to Boston. Make it 'his' city in all but name in all to short of order."
"And can't you do that?" he responded. "I mean hitting three dog rings in one night is pretty 'challenging' isn't it?"
"Not the same way a gang with manpower that can hold territory is," because of course it wasn't that simple. "There are a lot of fine details to it, but basically... if I take Lung out permanently, I've got to do the same for pretty much all the major names in the Empire as well. Just killing Kaiser wouldn't be enough. Otherwise I'd just be handing over the city to them."
"Then why don't you?" he asked me.
"Well, outside of the fact I'd basically have to go Villain at that point," I asked him eyebrow shooting up. "Well since, I'm not about to start a gang of my own. Other villains from outside town would just move in after and assume leadership of the preexisting power-bases. Accord himself is good at that, and right next door, and without Kaiser around The Teeth probably wouldn't hesitate to move back in."
His jaw flexed a couple times.
"Look, I've got a plan for that. But right now I need to deal with this Lung thing," I commented.
For a moment he seemed ready to argue, then rolled his eyes and slumped back, "Right. Okay so, if killing him isn't a good option... what are your other ones?"
"Take him down before he has a chance to ramp up," was the obvious idea. "That's plan A. I hit him full-out the moment things start, ether knock him out, or break his tailbone, shoulders, and maybe legs as needed. He'll regenerate, so as long as I don't hit anything too vital, he'll recover. But if he ramps fast enough..." I let it hang in the air.
"Then you're back to square one," he repeated.
I nodded. "Other then that, my only option is to negate his healing somehow. I know Armsmaster is working on a tinker drug that'll counter it, and there are a few powers I don't have yet but could develop over a week that make healing a pain in the ass... but getting those options would take a lot of time."
"Well... what's the alternative?" He asked.
"Set him off early," I replied with a smirk.