Chapter 4
Emily Piggot looked on in horror as the wall of black flames roared towards her, turning wood, metal, glass, and stone into slag as it came. She heard a voice call out,
"Shields and Brutes, to the front! Protect the blasters, breakers, and strikers!"
She started as she realized she was the one yelling out orders to the Parahumans near her, and they were following them as though possessed, moving with grace and skill, the tougher capes protecting the weak and the glass cannon capes.
Hero, villain, it didn't matter, only survival in the face of the overwhelming power and fury.
Scene Break
Panacea breathed heavily as she ignored the terrible aching of her head, her powers telling her that she had pushed them to the limit in order to start healing Taylor Hebert.
Her patient sat beneath her, far more whole then when she had started, but still not completely healed. She had managed to regrow Taylor's eye, and eliminate many of the infections that had become embedded in her flesh, blood, and bone.
What she hadn't yet been able to fix was the leg.
She had managed to regrow it to below the leg, capping of the raw flesh into a slim stump, she had worked on it and taken the limb as far as she could, but without enough nutrients, she couldn't go any further without sending her body into shutdown because of the lack of nutrients.
Panacea turned to the swarthy man who was sitting on a chair in the corner, blocking the door from opening with a chair. He raised one hairy eyebrow.
"You done?"
Panacea shook her head.
"Ive done as much as I can today, if I did anything else at regrowing her leg then her cells would begin to goin into a state of autophagy."
At the mans raised eyebrow Panacea elaborated.
"Basically if I use anymore of her fat or other body mass to regrow her leg, her cells will start eating themselves for energy, which will start with her kidneys dying."
"So in other words, there isn't anything else you can do today right?"
Panacea nodded. He patted Panacea on the shoulder, his greasy hair hanging down his back.
"In that case, you might want to get to the PRT headquarters, my boss, well… He's in a bit of a rampage, and you telling him that his daughters going to be okay might stop him before he kills everyone there."
Panacea stock still for a second, absolutely motionless, before she almost blurred as she raced towards the stairwell, screaming for Lisa and the rest of the Undersiders.
Scene Break
Coil gazed impassively at his monitors through his helmet.
His plan was beginning to diverge, people were straying from there predicted lines. By and large, Nidhog, PRT, and the capes were all going along what he wanted, but Panacea had arrived at Brockton General much quicker then he expected.
Tattletale was going to pay for that.
And now, it seemed as though Shadow Stalker was well on her way towards being delivered at Nidhog's feet. The only question was wether Nidhog managed to permanently deal with as many capes as Coil needed for him to be able to move onto the next phase of his plan.
Coil, or Thomas Calvert, had slowly infiltrated every gang, including the PRT. He had spies riddled in the Empire, dotted here and there in the ABB, and just a few in the Merchants.
He had the most in the PRT because of the sheer volume of information that passed through its headquarters on a daily basis. But now….
Coil sighed. He was willing to sacrifice most of his mole in the PRT if it meant clearing most of Brockton Bay of Capes.
Once that was done, well, then people would start to figure out why he chose to put a snake on his uniform. After all, it was the bite you didn't see coming that usually killed you after all.
Scene Break
Velocity cursed roundly as he carted Sophia freakin' Hess's unconscious and bound body towards the PRT headquarters. Aegis had flown off with Miss Milita under one arm, and he was rushing at full speed towards PRT headquarters, hoping that he could throw Sophia in front of Nidhog if the dragon-thing hadn't arrived yet, and stop it.
Velocity's annoying burden began squirming again so he paused, dropped roughly to the ground and waited as she squirmed to an upright position before landing a solid punch to the side of her head, dropping back into dream land.
Still cursing to himself he picked up the limp teen he started moving back towards PRT headquarters.
God, I hope I make it in time.
Scene Break
Far above the planet, somewhere in the upper atmosphere lurked an angelic being with a visible expression of utter fascination mixed with what most people, if they didn't know better, was fear, no, not fear. Something even worse, outright terror.
Scientists all over the world watched as the Simurgh moved, almost fidgeting in the air, its long feathered wings dancing with nerves as it tried to see into the future, but the angelic End Bringer just made its way slowly, floating in an unknown direction, its gaze fixed with an expression that seemed almost reluctant on… Brockton Bay.
The scientists, thinkers, and tinkers all over the world had to wonder, what was so important about Brockton Bay that it scared an Endbringer?
Scene Break
Heroes and Villains alike screamed as they bled on the ground, their bodies twisted, broken, and burnt by the onslaught of the dragon of the apocalypse.
Armsmaster, his armor torn and battered, turned to rally other capes for another go at the dragon, but stopped as he felt, more then heard, a thunderous crash behind him, followed by a warm gust of muggy air blowing over him.
He turned slowly, his halberd, crackling with electricity, gripped in tight, gauntleted hands.
The corpse eater's massive head was directly in front of him. Its teeth barred in what almost seemed like a smile, the black scaled dragons burning yellow eyes, boring into Armsmaster.
The hero didn't have event time to move as one giant talon impaled him through the gut.
What he did have time to do however was scream as he was lifted up, the talon still going in and back out his stomach.
Nidhog looked at the little human stuck on one of his fingers, then at the still and silent battlefield, who's members were staring at the sight of a powerful and skilled hero screaming and crying in pain.
The corpse eater smeared and slung the armored hero at the main body of his opponents, the armored missile of his victim slamming into other people, shattering bone and concrete as it impacted.
The dragon looked around, taking stock in the remaining capes that were worthy of some notice as heroes and villains alike froze, the malignant sulfur colored eyes of the dragon raking over each Cape in turn, seemingly peeling back their layers until they reached the core of a Capes being, and then dismissing them.
"Is this all? I came to exterminate you like the base vermin that you are, but you are truly are a pathetic bunch. I requested two simple, easy things. Instead, I am faced to commit to this travesty of a pest extermination."
Nidhog stopped and glared at Director Piggot and Alexandria.
"Know this before you die. This could have been avoided. This could have been stopped. I could have been an ally, rather then you end. Know and understand that as you die."
He stopped as Alexandria stepped in front of the wounded capes, most of whom were still amongst the living, but there were still corpses here or there on the blasted and singed front lawn of the PRT building. Nidhog eyed Alexandria skeptically, the heroes long hair, burnt, but still flowing in the slight breeze.
"What?"
The dragon could smell the fear on the hero as she spoke.
"Please, spare the rest of them. You know that whatever Shadowstalker did, it can be eventually placed at my feet, so I ask you, no, I beg you, just take me."
Nidhog raised one scale covered brow.
"And why would I want to do something as silly as that?"
The great dragon leaned his head in close to the hero, close enough that she could see the red lines of nerves and blood in the dragons eye as it regarded her.
"Why wouldn't I just kill all of you? Hmmm?"
Alexandria took a deep, calming breath before she spoke.
"Because I'm calling in the favor you said you'd owe me."
Nidhog reared back sharply in shock, he looked at Alexandria for a second, gauging her seriousness before roaring to the skies, shrieking in utter apoplectic anger. When the black scaled dragon finally turned back to regard Alexandria she was surrounded by other Capes who were all trying too convince the female hero to retreat while she still could. She waved them off as she saw Nidhog approach.
The corpse eater looked at Alexandria for a brief moment, his rage making the words it forced through an inhuman mouth harder to understand.
"Pre-pare yourself."
Alexandria nodded and the dragon of the apocalypse raised one mammoth taloned paw, its shadow casting the female hero in darkness as she prepared herself.
Nidhog brought the paw down with such force that its mere speed rattled windows, it raced towards its target, and was mere inches from impacting when-
"WAIT!"