Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower Interlude 1 Armsmaster
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Motorcycle humming beneath him, Armsmaster contemplated the events that had led him all the way out here at such a godforsaken time of night.
The PRT had received a report that the ABB had been seen moving in the area.
That report had rapidly begun to take a backseat in his mental priority list around the time a red flash had lit up the sky.
The subsequent bone shaking shock wave had only reinforced that decision.
Armsmaster refocused his attention as a brief beep informed him that his helmets internal GPS reported that he was only a short ways away from where the red flash had come from.
Bringing his bike to a stop several dozen meters from where the flash had shown up, Armsmaster opened up a compartment in the side of his bike and retrieved the halberd he had made to counter Lung. He was the only serious threat Armsmaster was likely to run into around here.
Similar enough to his regular halberd, it did have a few noticeable differences. Well, noticeable to him.
The typical plasma jets had been replaced with a souped up fire extinguisher, the EMP pulse replaced with a containment foam launcher, and a special extendable needle, designed to pierce Lung's scales and inject a combination of several different tranquilizers which would hopefully put him down, and keep him down, was added to the end by a tether.
Nodding in satisfaction, Armsmaster began to carefully walk toward the the location.
Before he could get to far though, he was knocked over by the explosion of a broken down former grocery store a short while ahead of him as a nine foot tall mass of fire and steel was hurled through it across the street.
Picking himself up off the ground, Armsmaster took into account everything that had happened.
The aforementioned "mass of fire and steel" now getting up out of the divot its own body had caused appeared to be a steadily transforming, and extremely angry if the roar was anything to go by, Lung. Apparently, something had managed to hit Lung hard enough that he was going through buildings. Most likely that red light he had seen earlier.
"Hmm, The only villain cape in Brockton Bay I know of with the fire power pull something vaguely like this off is Purity, but her powers are colored white, not red," mused Armsmaster, "I suppose Skidmark could have finally learned to actually accomplish something with his power, either that or Purity underwent a spontaneous color scheme change.
It said something about Skidmark that Armsmaster considered the latter more plausible.
"No, the most likely case is that we have a transfer over here from another city, or a new cape entering the scene altogether." This was worrying. Brockton Bay already had a overabundance of villains in comparison to the number of heroes, and any cape transferring over from another city without informing the local protectorate was almost certainly a villain. The alternative was more worrying if anything. Unknowns were always the most dangerous things in the business, and one capable of throwing down with Lung for an extended period of time was indeed one to worry about.
His question was promptly answered as he observed a figure begin to walk out of the fire.
Clothes not even singed, a teenage girl wearing a scarf and goggles sedately traced a path through the wreckage of the store.
Armsmaster's visor, easily adjusting for light levels to see through the darkened goggles, focused in on an odd phenomenon it noticed in her eyes.
When she first looked at him, she paused momentarily and her pupils dilated into a... four pointed star? Before she blinked and her eyes returned to normal.
"Armsmaster? So that's who it was," she mumbled to herself, his audio enhancers picking it up without difficulty.
Armsmaster began to speak, "Girl, what-"
Lung, having extricated himself from the building he was blasted into, gave Armsmaster no time to finish before immediately rampaging towards the girl. Spitting flame all the while.
Armsmaster prepared himself to intercept, before another flash of red bowled Lung over and sent Armsmaster reeling by proximity.
"Dammit girl, watch where you're aiming that." Armsmaster rebuked her while picking himself up off the ground for the second time that night.
"S-sorry." The girl replied with a stutter.
"And there you go Armsmaster, you've fucked it up again. She's an inexperienced teenage girl likely on her first night out as a cape. Don't expect perfect competence from her."
"It's understandable, don't let it happen again." He stated.
Any response was cut off as Lung, having pulled himself out of another building, roared out, mutated mouth severely distorting the words, "Oom soo hick ofve fouccen bhuildanhgs!"
Quickly, he turned to the girl and asked, "Do you have way of immobilizing him? If you do, use it. Now."
"Eh?" The girl said in response before considering. "Well, he's already displayed enough regeneration..."
The girl brought both of her hands in front of her, the front of one palm placed over the back of the other, and breathed deeply.
A red light quickly gathered in front of her hands before releasing in a quick burst.
Perhaps the eeriest thing about it was the complete silence. Unlike the earth shaking shock waves of before, this one made no sound at all.
This flash of energy, approximately 2 meters in diameter according to what his visor caught, passed straight through Lungs legs as if they weren't even there to continue on, boring into the earth for who knows how long.
Lung, legs vaporised entirely, quickly fell over onto the ground with a scream of anger and pain.
"...Not quite what I had in mind, but it will work" Stated Armsmaster.
Noticing Lung already beginning the process of regrowing his legs, Armsmaster quickly moved the end of his halberd to face lung, before triggering the tranquilizer.
The needle shot out of the end towards the immobilized Lung and easily pierced through his metal scales to inject it's payload.
Lung's motions slowed, before stopping entirely. The ends of what used to be his legs ceased to squirm in that unsettling manner they did when he was regenerating.
Armsmaster sprayed Lung with a quick blast of containment foam. Both to ensure immobility, and keep him from bleeding out. Turning towards the girl, Armsmaster spoke in his usual brisk tone. "Thanks for the help."
"I should probably be thanking you," spoke the girl, "I don't know what I would have done otherwise to keep him down. At least, with out killing him..." The girl trailed off at the end.
Armsmaster nodded towards her. "You made the correct call. The PRT would not have looked well on a cape if their first night out concluded in murder, no matter how justifiable or in self-defense it might have been." A pause, before Armsmaster continued. "Continuing to call you "girl" would be rude, have you picked a name?"
The girl stopped moving, her eyes dilating oddly again, before she spoke.
"...Buster."