Orthosilicic 2.8

(Terry Hess)

March 5, 2011, evening

The tension was thick on the rooftop, steadily rising as the faint sounds of gunfire and smashing rose from the street. Fish was wincing whenever the sound of metal came up, but never removed her eyes from the two standing in front of them. Terry desperately wanted to pull away and watch Rogue going at it with whoever had shown up (maybe Hookwolf?), but his maybe-not-so-temporary partner was paying attention, so he should as well.

She was the one with forty-something rules, or whatever. He'd have to ask her about them when they got out of this mess.

And it would be when, not if. Terry was confident about that.

Even if Victor was invincible, Terry's blows glancing off of him with little resistance, there would have to be a way to take him down.

The problem here wasn't Victor though, it was Othala. Othala was the mystery, at least to him. Fish might have figured out what her powers were, but all PHO had told his was that she was the healer of the Empire, the one who took care of the wounded.

Terry would have done anything for some ideas, but if the cocked back hand that Victor was currently aiming towards Fish was any indication, the time for thinking was over.

Popping right in front of the now flaming fist, Terry quickly shielded, taking the force of the blow without a twitch. Victor pulled back his fist, and he half expected for the villain to shake his hand in pain, but was disappointed. He looked back and watched Fish nod at him in thanks, then jet herself towards Othala, who had tapped Victor twice on the shoulder before running towards the fire escape.

Victor stopping flaming him to intercept Fish, somehow flying in front of her at a speed Terry thought was reserved for capes with moving powers. He stopped after glancing behind him at Othala's position, then turned and held his hands up at the flying fish coming at him.

Which wasn't really a good move on his part, but then again, he'd never fought Fish before. Victor seemed a little surprised to have gallons of water crashing into his arms instead of a teenager girl, but he saved face by somehow not flying off the building.

"Get Othala! I'll play keep away!" Fish yelled at him as she rolled out of the way out of a blast of fire, hastily spraying the flames as they caught on the boards nailed across the window on the skyscraper across from the one they were fighting on. Terry sighed with relief that they wouldn't be paying for property damage, and noticed a noise coming from where Othala had disappeared.

The sound of quickened thumping came from the fire escape, and Terry turned and teleported to the top, peering down at the flashes of red that glinted off of the villain's costume.

Terry scowled at the mishmash of metal below him. He couldn't teleport down this! Any of the holes could easily lead to the street, and he couldn't take any chances. Line of sight wasn't very useful with fences and grates, as he's come to learn. The last time he'd made that mistake had caused him to get shot in the back of the head by a surprised drug dealer.

So Terry did the simplest thing (maybe not the smartest, though) and jumped off the roof.

He barely had time to notice the shocked face of Othala as he fell past her, but the quiet "Fucking Brutes" was worth the shock of the landing.

Terry couldn't get used to the fact that he never really felt pain anymore. Sure, now he couldn't tell if he ever actually got hurt, and his arms and legs got stuck in walls and floor sometimes, but he rather liked the benefits.

Leaning down to push himself out of the concrete, Terry hastily looked up to see what Othala was doing, only to find out she was gone.

No, not gone. Just climbing back up.

Terry sighed and popped back to the top, just in time to intercept a backwards flying Victor that was coming to pick up Othala.

Intercept meaning being picked up and carried away while Victor looked back at a dumbfounded Fish.

"Dear, did you pick up something while running from…?" The stare Terry received was amusing, to say the least. However, all fairytale moments must end, and the bridal carry finished with the dropping of the fair maiden.

He looked up while falling at Victor, who was turning back towards Othala, and waiting to pick up more speed before teleporting back, grabbing onto the recently moved arms. The two of them were quickly yanked downwards for a moment, before a straining grunt from Victor sounded the cease of descent.

"Get off me, child. I don't have time for this."

"That's the problem." Terry grinned up cheekily at the villain "I do."

He looked up the concrete skyscraper across from the one blasts of water were flying off the top of and looked at the ridge of the roof. If he could aim this correctly, he could get a lot a speed before grabbing Victor again. He vanished, leaving behind a perplexed Victor that spun his head around before flying back towards Othala, who was dancing rapidly around Fish's sprays of water.

Crystal pulled himself up just enough to pop himself to his feet, then looked down at the scene far beneath him.

Victor was still halfway down the alley, quickly rising, Othala was soaking wet, dripping from head to toe, and Fish was trying to corral her into the center of the roof, as far from any alleys as possible.

He was glad she realized that Victor was trying to get to Othala. That kept a lot of trouble out of his hands.

Terry nodded jerkily to himself before leaping off the roof, trying to aim himself towards the quickly rising form of Victor. Maybe he wouldn't have to teleport on top of him… nope way off. He corrected himself by teleporting four feet over and a few windows down onto the shoulders of Victor, who had just crested the edge of the roof.

Terry wish he could have seen the exasperated look on Victor's face, but alas, it was currently smashing into the side of the building.

A blur of bricks and dust flooded towards Terry's eyes and he instinctually held up his hands, eventually lowering them to look down at the villain who was half sticking out of the newly crafted pile of rubble. Based on the kicking, Victor wasn't hurt, let alone knocked out, but he couldn't seem to be able to get out.

Pulling out two of Fish's zip ties, Terry roughly grabbed the villain's legs and bound them together as tightly as possible. The pile of fallen bricks and debris was shifting upwards, and Terry guessed the villain was trying to fly out. So he decided to trust in his partner to get here quickly and did the smart thing by sitting himself on top of the pile.

Multiple muffled curses came out from underneath him, causing Terry to smile. Another Nazi, ready to be put in prison. Once the rubble stopped trying to rise, he sighed in relief.

His relief didn't last after he realized something, and he quickly leapt to the other side of the pile to uncover Victor's head. Even if he was a Nazi, he didn't want the guy to die here. He should die of old age in a prison cell. Maybe while everyone laughs at him, or something. Terry proceeded to scoop out bricks, plaster, and bits of wood until the coughing face of Victor appeared.

"You *cough* Dick." Victor was hacking up something in the back of his throat, eventually pausing to spit out a wad of dust. "Are you incompetent? Or actually trying to kill me?"

"Eh, it's my second cape fight. My first was with Rune, so I guess you can call it inexperience."

"No wonder you have nothing useful for me to take."

"What?"

"Nothing. Are you just going to stand there, or are you actually going to do something useful. Help your partner, maybe? What if Othala gets the upper hand? You don't even appear to know what either of us can do."

"I know that Fish doesn't need my help. And that I would do more good making sure you stay put."

Victor sighed, then looked up to glare at him as he climbed back up the pile of rubble. "You don't need to do that, I'm stuck."

"Never know. You were flinging fire earlier, but that stopped."

The two then sat in silence, contemplating the wonders of the universe, the history of mankind, or maybe just what they had for lunch. That's what Terry was doing anyway (Turkey burger with bacon and cheddar cheese. Mmm). He didn't really understand how his new body worked, but it did something to the food he ate. He didn't poop anymore. Or pee. Or even sleep, apparently. But he still had urges to do those things sometimes.

It had been a disturbing realization when he discovered it'd been a couple days since he'd been to the bathroom. That rush had caused him to break the doorknob off, and it was a pain to replace before anyone noticed.

"Nothing!" Terry heard from beneath him "How can you have nothing! Everyone has at least one thing new!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not explaining my powers to the vigilante who is keeping me contained."

"Are you one of those people who can't stand a silent room or something? All you have to do is wait until Rogue or Fish are done, then I can get you out."

"…" The silence was welcome. Maybe now Terry could think about food in peace…

"Crystal, what are you…? Are you sitting on him?" Terry heard Fish ask from the hole in the celling.

"Hey Fish. I am. He kept trying to fly away, so…"

"You sat on him? Isn't he taking your skills away?"

"No! I can't! He has nothing!" Victor yelled in outrage from underneath.

"He steals skills? Oh, so that's what he was trying to…" Terry paused before realizing what Victor's words meant. "Hey, I do too have skills! I can juggle, I can babysit, I can even stock stores real well!"

"…I'm not talking to you anymore. Just take me in."

Terry silently fumed at the frowning face under him, then looked back up towards Fish who had the faint air of amusement around her.

"What?"

"Nothing. Are his hands tied yet, or just his feet? I have Othala tied up waiting for the PRT's backup. Rogue's fight ended a while ago, said Stormtiger ran off, or something. She's just waiting on the street for you to report in."

"Is she okay? Are either of you hurt?" Terry didn't want anyone but him hurt. If he learned anything from the video games his friends used to talk about, it was that tanks, or Brute in his case, were supposed to take hits.

"Nah no trouble for me, thanks for asking. Rogue took a hit to the shoulder though. She said he was fine, but I could see the… the blood." Fish seemed to collapse in on herself after those words, crouching down and hugging her knees. Terry waited a moment before softly asking a question.

"Never seen blood before?"

"Not on a friend… Uh, I mean…" She seemed flustered at her assumption "She's uh, cool?" she squeaked out the last few words.

Terry laughed a bit before responding, but her hands were covering her face now. At least she wasn't in shock now.

"Nah, I get it. Seems like the cool older sister, huh?"

Fish looked away "Yeah. Never had one, but she remind me of… Never mind."

"If you two are done with the chatter, can you take me to prison now?" Victor seemed a little annoyed. But he was interrupting maybe-team bonding! How could he!

Fish didn't seem to understand Terry's reluctance to stop talking though, and dug through a large pocket on her left leg for something.

"Hmm. Hey Crystal, you still have zip ties?"

"Yeah, a few, why?"

"Oh, good." Fish sighed and stood back up. "I was going to toss you some more, because I think his range in two meters, but I think I'll stay up here and let you take care of it."

Terry tried to raise an eyebrow, but failed. He never could understand how people do that. But he got what Fish was trying to tell him, so he dug up Victor's arms and began to put them together. He stopped though, when the sound of Rogue's voice came out of the alley.

"Hey, you two still up there?"

"Yeah, tying Victor up now!" Crystal responded.

"Is he still awake?"

"Yeah? Why?"

"Knock him out, he can't steal skills if he's unconscious!"

Victor sighed and commented "Of course they remember that." Before Terry launched his fist and the top of his head, producing a solid *thwack* and an unconscious Nazi.

"Got him!"

"Good, bring him down! We already have grumpy miss grumpy puss in the back!"

Fish hopped down and dragged Victor the rest of the way out of the debris before leaping off the side, leaving behind a very confused crystalline man holding a zip tie in his hands.

"Sure, tie his hands together, Crystal, I need to stay out of range." Terry sighed before leaping after her, wondering to himself if this was going to become a common occurrence to his nights.

Checking his phone after he landed, he groaned.

Make that a common occurrence to his mornings.

He probably didn't need to sleep anyway, if his dietary habits had anything to say about that.

…

Where did all that food go, anyway?