Things were changing, that much was clear. The 'future knowledge' of the story was becoming invalid faster than I thought, and as such I was worried about a few things. In order for the best possible outcome, certain eventsneedto happen, if only a manipulated version, or at the very least, I need certain people alive, if only temporarily.
Taylor Hebert's battle against Lung is an event that needs to happenproperly. In other words, I couldn't let Taylor die in that fight, for two reasons specifically, one, she's a last resort against Scion, and two, Anika helped her with the Trio. I wouldn't want to put my sister's effort to waste now, would I?
So that's why I found myself in an abandoned building in the Docks near the scene of a fight that was about to play out, carefully out of sight in a room, carefully free of insects. If nothing goes wrong then nobody will ever know I was here, I had a feeling that wasn't going to happen though.
As for how I found the location, it was rather simple, I tracked them. With my enhanced senses, tracking certain things or certain people is, for lack of a better term, a cake walk. Despite the lack of mana, certain people were still easier to find than others, or so I had noticed. One particular individual was Lung, who's scent was more… monstrous.
There are others that are similar, when Shadow Stalker enters her breaker state she smells like how I'd imagine a ghost or wraith would, and Crawler would probably have a more monstrous smell as well, but for now all that mattered is that I could track Lung within a certain radius. That, coupled with the knowledge of his location tonight, and he was pretty easy to find.
So I sat in the room, paying close attention to the roach population, and waited, my enhanced eyesight allowing me to see what was happening clearly, despite the distance, and eventually,hemade his appearance in front of the store I was watching.
So that's the infamous 'Rage Dragon'.
I focused my attention on Lung, taking in his appearance. Despite all my tracking, this was the first time I was really seeing him. He was exactly how I imagined he would be, roughly the same height as me with broader shoulders covered in tattoos and a steel dragon mask. Just like he was described in the story.
My gaze moved to the other individual of interest, Taylor Hebert. She had arrived a little while earlier, I spotted her on the roof of a building overlooking the situation, dark costume and all.
Leaning against the glassless window, I waited and watched, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
Time to hope for the best.
Taylor Hebert was… distracted, that was the best way to put it, the last few days had been strange. First there was the Trio's latest 'prank' which, for what seemed like the first time ever, was interrupted by a girl Taylor only recognized from one class and who was otherwise a complete stranger.
That was also the day Taylor made the decision to finally go out that weekend, to make her debut in Brockton Bay's Cape scene. Then the next day the police were knocking on her door, giving her a momentary panic before finding out they were there for school issues, not parahuman ones.
When the police officers had asked her about the bullying at her school, specifically from Sophia Hess, Taylor was filled with many emotions, confusion for why it was suddenly happening, anger for how it took so long, and hope that it might finally end, or at least get better.
And then there was today, or tonight depending on how you look at it, late Saturday night to early Sunday morning, her first night out as a hero, where she was distracted by all that had come prior, and about to be killed by one of the most dangerous individuals in Brockton Bay.
It had started out fine, she had come upon Lung and his gathering of gang members by chance, and she was content to let a sleeping bear be, until she found out said sleeping bear was in fact awake and trying to kill children.
Taylor couldn't let that happen, she wouldn't let that happen, so she attacked, and when she was about to leave after doing all she could, she made amistake.
She was too unfamiliar with her opponent, of Lung's capabilities, especially of his apparent super hearing. The sound of her foot on gravel was all that was needed to draw the man-turned-dragon's attention and send him barreling through the air at her, damn near scaling the whole two story building. That was where Taylor made her second mistake.
She tripped, possibly the simplest and most embarrassing mistake she could make. Maybe it was the gravel roof sliding under her feet, maybe it was the unfinished costume she was wearing for the first time, hell, maybe she was just nervous, or it could've been some amalgamation of all of them combined with how distracted she was.
Taylor tried to recover quickly, but the second she felt something grasp her leg, she knew she was done for.
Lung grabbed the would-be-hero by the leg and hurled her backwards, his superhuman strength sending her flying off the roof, quickly tumbling towards the ground, inevitable death quickly coming upon her.
Taylor had heard it before, that when one's about to die they'll feel peaceful, or their life will flash before their eyes, well that wasn't the case for her, all she felt was fear, and the only thing flashing before her eyes was the cold hard cement she was about to impact.
Some hero I turned out to be, squashed on the pavement like a bug. At least it fits with my 'insect' theme.
Despite the fear, Taylor braced herself for her inevitable end, until she heard what sounded like a cannon going off, and felt herself suddenly jerk to the side.
Taylor opened her eyes, unaware she'd even closed them in the first place, and quickly realized it, she was no longer falling.
It was then that Taylor took in her surroundings once again. She was being carried, by a man in a trench coat, his feet planted into the brick wall of one of the various buildings, causing the two of them to jut out sideways, as if the man was standing on the wall itself.
Did he save me?
A beast like roar rang out through the air, drawing Taylor's attention away from her supposed-savior and back to Lung, who had noticed her survival and didn't seem pleased with it, the man-dragon launching at her and the new arrival like a cannon.
Her insects couldn't react in time to do anything significant, thankfully they didn't need to, her new supposed-ally reacting plenty fast enough.
The man shifted Taylor to one arm, handling her weight with ease as he slammed his fist into the wall his feet were stuck in, shattering the brick holding them in place, and sending the two of them into a freefall, Lung barrelling through where they were standing and in to the building moments later.
A spear suddenly appeared in her new ally's free hand, a spark of electricity marking it's arrival before he stabbed it into the wall halting their decent once again and sending a spike of pain through her ankle.
Probably injured it when Lung threw me.
Taylor's savior seemed to notice as well, making his way to the ground as gently as possible, which was still rough enough to cause immense discomfort. Her pain didn't matter though, they needed to escape.
Lung was a parahuman who can take onteamsof heroes and come out on top. Taylor may have been confident when her location was unknown to him but now that it's been given away there's no way she can win in a head on fight, even with her trench coat wearing friend. If anything his presence would just make Lung get stronger faster.
Taylor's swarm grew agitated with her frantic thoughts. She could only hope this guy was fast enough to get away, cause she sure as hell wasn't getting away alone, not with her ankle in the state that it was in.
"We need to get out of here," Taylor quickly made her thoughts known, her usual shyness gone in the face of imminent danger.
"Yeah…," Trench coat man responded after a moment, shifting her around once again, this time pressing her closely against his chest, his hand securely holding the back of her head.
"W-what are you doing?" and there was the shyness.
"Bracing your head so you don't get whiplash."
"What?"
And then he moved, surroundings becoming a blur as he ran faster than most cars, it was actually rather exciting once Taylor got over the pain in her ankle. Any excitement was quickly replaced with a sinking feeling in her gut though when she saw a large man-shaped ball of fire hurtling after them, accompanied by a loud bang.
Lung was chasing after them, less running as much as he was using his absurd strength to jump forward at high speeds. Taylor quickly shoved any fear down though, she needed to do something about this before Lungs power started making him even faster.
The high speeds they were moving at made it difficult for any of Taylor's swarm to keep up, leaving only a few of the faster species like dragon flies, thankfully with the ground they were covering, more insects were coming into her range.
Taylor waited for a few moments, letting the swarm build and collect, before sending the mall at Lung. The bugs covered his form like a dark cloud, impeding his sight, and making as much noise as possible to block out his super hearing.
Noticing this, her ally quickly made a series of sharp turns, ducking into alleys and swerving into roads, doing anything to lose the man-turned-dragon. Taylor's ankle erupted in pain from this, but she bit it down, better in pain than dead.
The trench coat wearing man came to a stop a few minutes later, when the only signs of Lung was some furious roaring off in the distance, and gently set Taylor on the ground to examine her ankle, which she now realized was bending at an angle it really should not have been bending at.
"It's dislocated," the man suddenly said.
"How do you know that?" Taylor questioned in response, coming out a little bit more harshly than she had intended
Damn it Taylor, this guy saves your life and you can't bring yourself to talk a little bit more nicely?!
Her savior didn't seem to mind though, letting out a short laugh from under his scarf, "I used to go to medical school, I wanted to be a nurse, didn't work out though."
"Why's that?" Taylor questioned curiously.
"My parents died, couldn't afford to stay in school and take care of me and my sister, so I dropped out."
Oh shit, "Ah… I-I'm sorry I didn't-"
Taylor didn't finish the sentence, to busy being overwhelmed with immense pain as her ankle was popped back in place. She sent a glare at the man through her mask, to which he simply laughed again.
Taylor realized what he did, it was a common tactic by doctors, to distract the patient through conversation to get them to relax, before doing something inevitably painful.
"Now," Trench Coat started, a vial filled with a red liquid being summoned to his hand, "open your mouth."
Taylor was hesitant.
"It's fine, it'll help with your ankle, I'm sure your family won't be happy seeing walk around in a splint for the next month."
That was true, Taylor hadn't told her dad about any of this, and he'd definitely want to know how her ankle ended up in this state, plus she'd have to go to the hospital and the doctors would want to know…
Fuck it.
Hesitantly, Taylor reached and pulled her mask up, just enough to expose the lower half of her face, and drank the contents of the vial. Her embaracement over the situation quickly faded to suprise though, as the pain in her ankle was replaced with a warm feeling and began to glow.
"There," he said once the glow faded, seemingly satisfied, "I'd still be careful with it though."
Taylor nodded, and began to cautiously stand up. There was still a bit of pain, but not enough to be too noticeable.
The man began to walk away, before turning back to Taylor.
"Come on," he said, tilting his head to the side in an invitation, "I'll walk with you until we get somewhere…" he looked around at the area they'd found themselves in, near the outskirts of the Docks, still not somewhere one would want to walk around alone at night, "...safer."
Taylor hesitated a moment but quickly moved to follow. She'd probably be fine alone, but it was still smarter to go with someone, especially if that someone has super strength and speed.
Taylor let out a sigh. What a night.
Tattletale was lost in thought. She and the rest of the Undersiders had placed themselves nearby to watch the fight between Lung and that bug girl. They would have stepped in if they needed to, after all, the girl was helping them, if only unintentionally.
How they were going to help when the girl had been thrown off a roof was questionable though, none of the Undersiders had powers well suited to saving someone from falling, and Regent would probably just make things worse too, for entertainment purposes.
That's whenheappeared, the individual who really caught her attention, not for what his powers were, at least not the ones he showed, but because of what Tattletale's power was telling her, or rather what it wasn't.
Brute and mover; distance jumped, 49 meters horizontally. Capable of running faster than most cars; capable of dodging bullets; can punch through concrete with ease. Aware of the Undersider's presense; knew they would be there before hand, choosing to ignore.
Tattletale wanted to know more, her curiosity fed by the difficulty she faced when extracting information from the man, but that's all she could handle. Drawing information from him was more strenuous than most people, and there were some things she couldn't get info on at all, her power just drawing a blank, whichneverhappens. Maybe his power counters hers somehow?
Tattletale wasn't sure, but that fact alone made him someone to watch out for, and made her very curious about her power couldn't find.
I'll have to say hello some time, and maybe I'll say hi to that bug girl too, she seems fun.
