Drill Chrysalis
Episode 2: "From my shoulders, grow taller."
Winslow High-school's campus was bathed in alien light, light that moved like smoke without mass, pouring off a tower of flame.
Within the swirling pillar a limp figure floated, ascending up towards the kaleidoscope nimbus above.
{REPORT STATUS}
"Militia, what the hell was that!?"
[EFFICIENCY: INTERGRATION PROGRESSING]
"I don't know! My power changed and-and-!"
{ARSENAL: INTERGRATION COMPLETE}
"Shit! It's just hitting me, why didn't we evacuate from the school?!"
[EFFICIENCY: INTERGRATION COMPLETE!}
"We're going in the M/S tank aren't we?"
Out by the sea, trails of purple fire stretched down, plucking wrecks from the bay, the grasping tendrils seemingly uncaring of their thinness contrasted to their load.
Director Piggot was not happy.
She kept her face schooled as the video call went online, the faces of U.S. President Derickson, members of his cabinet, the Chief-Director of the PRT Costa-Brown, along with Dragon's avatar appearing.
"Alright people, lets not mince words here," Derickson started, "it has been five hours and that rainbow cloud has covered a third the U.S. and Canada. What have we got?" He asked.
The Hebert situation had been elevated from a potential PR disaster to an international indecent. And with the apparent nature of the girl's power...
Costa-Brown began the proceedings proper, "Sir, this event is the result of a Parahuman's initial manifestation, fresh off their Trigger Event. So far we are rating the observed effect as a high-level shaker effect. There's also evidence of Master powers in her interactions briefly before the flaming clouds started, and more recently Trump effects have been noticed." During the end of her spiel Costa-Brown glanced at Piggot and gave a slight shake of the head, clearly telling her to leave her questions about the the Trump claim.
Director Piggot's eyes narrowed.
The president nodded, "Where is this Parahuman now, Rebecca?"
"Dragon?"
"Onscreen now."
Another window popped up, showing a giant metal mass hanging in the sky.
The thing was shaped oddly, a cylinder with the end pointing down tapering to a point, while the top was domed. It was covered in shifting, colorful veins, some splitting like the branches of a tree while others radiated out in spirals.
"Somewhere within that structure Sir-" Dragon was cut-off by a sudden boom and glare of light from out Piggot's window. As the Director whipped around to see, those on the call watched the feed as the terrestrial UFO fired a bolt of purple-gold light that streaked down into the city.
The President was the first to recover, "I want a cordon where it lands yesterday!"
Lisa wasn't her name.
She didn't want to be Sarah though, Sarah couldn't save Reggie.
Lisa is too late to help him either.
"But I'm not to late to help her, am I, Cheshrare."
www dot deviantart dot com / danthehedgefox / art / Cheshrare-891537104
Velocity was out of his depth, and knew it. He only needed to look up at the sky to see it.
Still, he'd accepted the mission to check out the landing site of whatever had come from Hebert's structure.
Even at his speed, he was too late to do anything but watch as that whatever blasted back up out of the city.
There it stopped and hovered, for such a time only he in his breaker-state caught sight of the profile of a squat robot with a giant face, before it burst with a newly red corona of flame.
Then it accelerated away so all he could see was a streak of light.
Emily Piggot was nervous.
As a different colored bolt returned to the structure, Velocity called in.
"Velocity, did you get anything useful from the site?"
"Well Ma'am, I've got partial description and potential motive. I'm standing over a squad of knocked out goons with body-armor, assault rifles and restraints, I'd say this was a rescue. Though no sign of the rescue'e."
"Sounds like Coil's mercenaries," The Director nodded to her Deputy, he got the hint and pulled his phone to send a wagon out to the hero, "And what about that description?"
"Ma'am, it looked to be a robot giant head with arms and legs attached."
Emily grunted and turned back to her main call, the other callers looking various degrees of thoughtful, "Well, at minimum we have more to send to Watchdog. Speaking of, what's their word on the girl herself."
"As well," the President cut in, "Has anything been sent into the effect to see what it actually does?"
"The Thinkers are having conniptions and revelations by turns." Costa-Brown said then nodded to Dragon's window for her input. "Clairvoyant types reported their sight 'bouncing off' the structure. This would be worrying by itself, but each of them has also reported an increase in their abilities, that from their descriptions are revealing obscure but already possible uses of their powers." Here Dragon paused as several smaller windows appeared next to hers, "Less direct types such as post-cogs have been redirected towards other targets entirely, these have each turned out to be leads on villains and groups that prior have been resistant to impervious from Thinkers, particularly The Fallen."
Piggot's eyes narrowed, "That sounds to me like a pretty clear message, to turn our attention elsewhere." She gestured to the screen, and those displayed on it, "Obviously that's a bit much to be asking at this point."
"And the cloud itself?" Derickson reiterated.
Dragon made her avatar clear its throat, "I've sent several drones into the cloud," She hesitated, "They've all reappeared, changed, improved, in the same docks they left from the instant they entered the cloud, same with the ones that tried to activate sensors at a distance."
Emily shivered.
Someone in the president's corner of the screen snorted, "Well, seems like the girls power improves things."
In the basement depths of her most well defended work shop in Vancouver, Dragon, staring in only-barely faded awe at her hands , whispered to herself,
"You don't know the half."