Chapter 1-2

Lung looked at me. He seemed more angry than surprised. No matter.

As he prepared to lunge at me, I made my move. I focused my power and pushed. A wave of pure force was hurled forward and knocked Lung and a couple of his flunkies of their feet.

The others started shuffling backwards, away from me.

They were afraid. Afraid of Brockton Bay's newest hero. Afraid of me.

That felt…weird, to say the least. I needed to remind myself that these were the bad guys. It was okay if they were afraid of me.

In the blink of an eye, Lung pushed himself of the ground and hurled a fireball at me. Nimbly, I dodged away and swatted the follow-up punch aside. He was strong, yes, but so was I as long as I had my armor on.

Lung followed up with a kick, but I was out of the way before it was anywhere near me. The big guy fought like an animal, wildly throwing punches and fireballs around like confetti. He roared in frustration as I danced around his blows with ease. I almost laughed. Seriously, this is the best he could do?

Then a fireball managed to land on me. A bluish barrier winked into existence and blocked it completely. Huh. My suit has energy shielding too. Awesome. I could definitely take this guy.

Lung didn't agree. He managed to grab me while I was distracted and hurled me through the wall. Time slowed and I landed on my feet, but not before a stream of fire hit me in the face. The shield took out the worst of it, but I could feel the heat. My opponent stepped out of the hole he just made. He had already grown a foot taller and scales were starting to sprout from his skin.

I needed to finish this up quickly. According to the internet, the longer he fought, the stronger he'd get. Sooner or later, I wouldn't be able to hurt him anymore.

I attacked with a low kick aimed for the knees while narrowly avoiding his fists. Scratch that, narrowly avoiding his giant metal claws. Lung howled in pain and rage until a wave of fire exploded out of him. Literally, exploded. No metaphor, no exaggeration. The dude freaking exploded, burning straight through my shield and sending me flying into a wall. I looked down at myself. Several parts of my armor were burnt, and my right shoulder-guard was still smoldering. Did I break something too? I'd have to check later. The giant stomped through the inferno he just made, seemingly uncaring about the heat. He was fire-proof too? The tattered remains of his clothing told me that he probably was.

I thought back to the unpowered gangsters. They hadn't been afraid of me. They were afraid of him.

Not fair.

A massive, scale covered arm flew in my direction. I narrowly managed to dodge it as it slammed into the wall. While it was stuck, I punched him as hard as I could, but all I managed was to piss him off further. Metal scales now covered every inch of his body. My fists wouldn't get through that in a million years. He freed himself and swatted me aside like a bug.

This had been a terrible idea. Lung became too strong, too fast. In minutes, he had turned into some sort of monster. What the hell was I thinking? There's a reason the Protectorate hadn't arrested him yet.

I had to run, now. I wasn't going to win this. Not when he could probably vaporize me with a direct hit. According to the wiki, he was rumored to grow wings too. If he did, there'd be nowhere to run anymore. I pushed hard, knocking the giant down before silencing my steps and climbing onto the rooftops. I was still faster, quieter, and a more agile than he was. I should be able to outrun him.

My hopes were dashed when a giant ball of fire soared into the sky and landed on the rooftop next to me. He could use his super-strength to jump onto buildings. Shit. I kept running, hoping that I could escape his notice. The rapidly-closing roar told me I couldn't. I was silent, but not invisible. Shit.

Lung hurled himself forward, the rooftops creaking under his steps. In seconds, he had closed the distance and threw me of the building with a blast of fire. I slammed into the wall before falling another six feet or so into the alley below. A grunt escaped my throat. I slowly pulled myself up. Everything hurt, a dull, throbbing pain that was driving away rational thought. I was bruised and burned, and Lung was still there on the rooftop, enraged at the insect who dared to defy him. With a roar, he took a leap in my direction and I didn't have the strength to doge him.

As the ball of metal and fire drew closer, I instinctively crouched and held out my hands out to soften the impact. It was futile, but I didn't care. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die knowing that I did everything I could.

The fireball collided with me and the force of impact knocked me over. I heard something scream in pain and frustration as the flames washed over me. I willed my throat shut, but the scream didn't stop.

Wait, that wasn't my voice.

Lung had come to a stop a few feet down the alley, howling in rage. His left leg had almost been severed and he had a massive cut across his leg and chest. Where did he get that? I didn't have a knife with me.

I looked down at my hand and saw my glaive covered in blood. I'd summoned it without thinking. How did that even happen? I could have killed someone with that.

Lung somehow got back on his feet and roared. Reflexively, I lashed out with the glaive and hit him square in the shoulder. The blade sliced through his flesh like it was barely there. An instant later, I used the last of my strength to push the giant back on the ground with a wave of force. Lung went still.

Oh god.

Oh god.

I killed him.

First time out on patrol and I already killed someone.

Oh god, please don't be dead. Please don't be dead. Please…

Lung grunted. He was still breathing. Thank god, he was still alive.

Part of me felt like laughing. Lung would have killed me without feeling a thing, and here I was, begging that he'd be okay.

Another part of me was recoiling in horror. That blade cut through him like butter. I could have killed him. Just a few inches to the right, and I would have cut his head clean off. As the glaive retracted back into my hand I made a promise to myself: not again. I was never going to use that thing again, not unless my life was in danger. I was lucky that I hadn't killed him. If I wasn't so lucky the next time and people found out…That's why they build the Birdcage. An inescapable prison where they send the parahumans too dangerous to be put in a normal prison.

Now that I was thinking about it, I had gotten lucky with a lot of things tonight. If Lung's flunkies hadn't scattered to the four winds when they did, I could have been shot. I knew my armor could take a beating, but I wasn't Alexandria. The charred plates were a very good reminder of that. Moreover, if Lung had any other parahumans backing him up, this fight would have been over in seconds. Didn't he have a teleporting assassin working for him? Oni Lee, or something? If the guy wasn't here, where was he?

A stampede-like noise from beyond the alley shook me out of my thoughts and a trio of figures came charging towards me. Was it the Protectorate? When they came closer, I could make out the shapes: three monsters that looked like something straight out of hell, two of which carried a pair of people that I could only assume were capes. The largest of them, a big guy in a dark outfit and a skull mask, took one look at Lung, then at me, and chuckled. "Okay, I wasn't expecting that…"

I didn't know what to say. Should I be saying anything? I'd never seen these people on TV before. Were they part of the Protectorate? Maybe the Wards, their junior branch? Then again, what kind of hero wears a skull mask and rides a giant monster?

"When we got word that Lung was coming after us, I thought we were going to have to make a run for it. Been arguing strategy for the better part of the day, only to say 'fuck it' and meet him head-on. Hit him with the element of surprise and wing it from there. Not our usual way of doing things, but yeah."

I didn't think these guys were heroes. Dammit, I should have run already, not stand still like a deer in the headlights. I stuck to my usual routine of shutting up when opening my mouth would only get me into more trouble. When I didn't say anything, skull-mask kept talking: "Wouldn't you know, we found his flunky Lee and a couple of ABB goons, but no sign of Lung himself. Don't get me wrong, Lee's good at what he does, but the ABB isn't being run by him for a reason. Got spooked when his boss didn't show up and ran for it. I guess you're responsible for that?" He looked at Lung's unconscious body and laughed. "This guy took on whole teams of heroes and won. Seriously, how the fuck did you take him down?"

"High-powered waves of sound, kicks, and a really, really sharp knife." One of the girls answered for him. She was a blond and wore a skin-tight black and purple outfit with a domino mask. She also had this really weird look on her face, like she was trying to stare into my soul. "Don't worry, he's not going to die. His bones will probably shatter if you sneeze at him, but his regeneration should take care of that eventually. Still, it'll be a couple of days before he's back to full strength. He should be half-way to the Birdcage by then." Well, I suppose that was a relief. If she was telling the truth, that is. The girl suddenly smirked. She didn't know what I was thinking, did she? I really didn't like that stare of hers. Or the way she seemed to bite her lip.

Skull-mask suddenly started talking. "Introductions. That's Tattletale. I'm Grue. Girl over there" He turned to the only girl who wasn't in costume, unless you count plainclothes with a dollar-store Rottweiler mask as a costume. "is Bitch, or Hellhound, if you're feeling PC. And don't worry, the dogs are under her control. They won't eat you, I promise. Last and most certainly least, we have Regent."

Wait, those things were dogs? How did that even…

"Fuck you, Grue!" Regent said, with a chuckle. He didn't seem offended at all. His costume looked more like something out of a Renaissance fair. I couldn't help but wonder how he expected to fight in it. Maybe he wasn't a front-line fighter. He certainly didn't have the build for it. Then again, neither do I, really, so I guess that doesn't mean all that much.

"Hey, you okay? You hurt? You look a little…crispy." Grue said. He raised a hand towards me, but I reflexively turned away. I didn't know what to think. Could I trust this guy? Could I trust any of them?

"She isn't hurt, Grue. She's just shy." Tattletale said, sounding a little impatient. "It's her first big fight."

"Really? Could've fooled me, looking at Lung."

Suddenly Tattletale's head snapped around. "Dammit! Guys, we gotta scram. Protectorate will be here any minute."

Without another word, the team got back on their 'dogs'. Grue turned to me and asked: "Hey, want a ride?" I looked at the giant monsters shook my head. No way I was getting anywhere near one of those. Or their masters.

"Grue, we need to leave." Tattletale all but commanded. "Now."

"Just a minute." He nodded before turning to me. "You did us a solid, taking care of Lung, so a word of advice: get out of here. If the Protectorate see two bad guys duking it out, they aren't going to let one of them walk away." Two bad guys. Shit. He thought I was a bad guy too. That's why he'd been acting so friendly. Before I could say anything, Grue and the others disappeared into the night.

Now that I had time to think, I started putting two and two together. Those capes, they could have easily been teenagers. Grue might have been a little older, but not much. They must have been the 'children' Lung mentioned. I nearly died protecting a bunch of teenage supervillains. Worse, they now think I'm one of them.

Looking at Lung, I couldn't help but wonder if they were right.