April 10th 2011
'Today should be Taylor's first night patrol that will last six hours, longer than our others.' Jordan thought to himself.
And he would be right, every time that they had gone on patrol together it had been in daylight or a few hours of night patrol. Tonight would prove if Taylor has what it takes to deal with high stress situations at night with low visibility. He knew that she could probably substitute a fair amount of her sight with that of her swarm, but there would also be moments where she needed to use her own eyes to see what's in front of her and make decisions based on her observations.
Jordan was currently preparing some supplies that would help Taylor stay awake for the estimated six hours of their patrol. Most of the supplies were energy drinks, bottled drinks though, less risk of them breaking open during a fight unlike canned drinks. He packed them into a small bag that he would carry with him on their various night patrols until he felt Taylor had enough energy to not need a boost in the night.
'It's… 6:30 in the afternoon, we will begin at around 9 pm and if there are no extenuating circumstances we should be back by 3 am.' He nodded to himself before closing the bag.
Leaving his room and closing the door behind him he walked downstairs. He was met with Taylor sitting on the couch with his laptop in her lap. He had gotten over some of her aversion to tech, but still can't bring herself to use a phone, only comfortable enough with laptops and other such things.
"What's new on PHO?" Jordan asked as he wrapped his arms around her from behind.
"Not much, just that Lung seems to be gearing up for something." Taylor answered, leaning back.
"Well if all goes well, we won't have to worry about him tonight, hopefully he just goes to sleep and commits to his plan during the day." He said mildly.
Yeah, it's surprising but after all this time as a Cape, Jordan hasn't run into a Cape that wishes him harm yet. He really doesn't want Lung to be the first Cape he encounters but it will also be interesting to test if Noble Phantasms like Ascalon, those with a dragon-slaying property, will be able to deal harm to Lung when he is ramped up.
Jordan let go of Taylor and jumped over the back of the couch and sat next to her. She leaned on him while focusing on PHO.
"Let me know when it's 8:50 please Tay." Jordan requested.
"Sure thing." She replied with a kiss.
Jordan smiled and kissed back, after they broke apart Taylor returned her attention to the laptop in front of her while Jordan closed his eyes and focused on his inner world. He hasn't told anyone of this aspect of his power just yet, but that's mainly because he isn't sure if he can bring the Unlimited Blade Works into the real world just yet, so it's best to just keep it as close to his chest as possible for the time being.
When he next opened his eyes he stood atop his very own hill of swords. The ground beneath his feet was rust filled and mainly consisted of dirt and dried clumps of grass. The sky was a beautiful shade of pinkish purple, sort of like a sunset with the sun in the very far distance. Speaking of distance, far away from where he believed he could physically reach, he saw a ring of beautiful deep blue flames engulfing a city.
When he turned his attention away from the world around him and to the swords in front of him, he found that his eyes naturally gravitated to one sword in particular. A beautiful golden, blue and silver sword sat buried into the top of the hill. Caliburn, the sword of selection, King Arthur's sword that granted him the right to rule all of England once he pulled it from the stone. His hands traced the blade, watching as the sunset reflected off the metal.
When he turned his attention away from one of the most beautiful swords in the world his gaze landed on a viscous looking sword. It glowed with a menacing red light that glinted off of its black metal blade. Hrunting, the magical sword of Beowulf used to hunt down Grendel, now its tracking powers have translated to chasing down whatever it tastes the blood of and delivers the most suitable strike to harm the target.
Another weapon caught his attention, this one was a spear. Completely blood red in colouration and feeling like it was made of some kind of metal, but in truth it was made from the skull of Curruid, a creature from Celtic myth. Gae Bolg was the weapon, the spear that has the ability to rewrite causality, changing it from the spear struck so the target must be hurt to, the target was struck so therefore the spear must be thrust.
All of these mythical weapons were available for him to wield, ranging from Ascalon, the various Excaliburs, Durandal, Caladbolg II to even great weapons that he normally would never be able to make use of outside of his world, weapons like Ig-Alima and Sul-Sagana, divine weapons that he can bypass the requirements for if they are created within the world of swords, as shown by the Shirou from the Oath Under Snow movie.
Jordan blinked and found himself back on his couch with Taylors hand on his shoulder.
"It's 8:50 Jordan, you were almost like a statue there, what were you doing?" Taylor asked with concern.
"Going over the various weapons that I have access to." he replied.
"Ah okay, you ready to go?" Taylor asked.
"Sure, let's go."
The pair got up off the couch and went to Jordan's room to change. Once done they got out onto the streets.
They had been patrolling for a fair amount of time already. They had encountered some small time muggers and what not, but nothing that required the pair of them to engage the threat together.
Right now they were taking a short break, with Taylor leaning up against the stairwell and Jordan sitting on the edge of the building with a knee up.
"What time is it Hephaestus?" She asked.
Hephaestus pulled his phone out of the pouch on his hip and checked the time before responding, "It's 11:50, why? Are you feeling tired?"
"No, just wondering, it feels like we've been out here for longer than a few hours." Tithonus replied while moving next to him.
"Yeah that happens. Most of the time it's the lack of noise that gets you feeling jittery." He admitted to.
"Are we ready to move soon? I doubt I wanna stay in ABB territory with the Ruby Dreams casino having been hit this week. I don't think Lung will take it sitting down." Tithonus asked.
"Yeah, just a few more minutes then we can move up to E88 territory, see what's around the skinheads."
The pair just sat down and slowly drank their energy drinks for the remaining time of their breaks. They leaned up against each other, enjoying the quiet moment and each other's company. Part way through their remaining break time Hephaestus swore he could hear something in the distance.
"Are your bugs picking anything up Tithonus?" He asked while sitting up.
As the girl focused her attention on her bug's senses, Hephaestus Reinforced his ears, increasing their hearing sensitivity.
"Kill the kids, chase them down!" He heard in the distance.
"Just barely, I'm seeing Lung ordering a bunch of ABB and pointing in a direction while moving with them but I can't really hear too well because these bugs can't transmit what they hear all too well." Tithonus said, catching Hephaestus' attention.
"Well it seems like Lung is looking to kill some kids and from the sounds of it they are coming our way." He said nonchalantly.
"We have to help them!" Tithonus shouted as she got up.
"Right, just pray to god that Lung isn't on their asses otherwise tonight will be a pain."
The pair started roof hoping in the direction of where the ABB were, passing by some massive fucking dogs with a few people riding on their backs. Hephaestus managed to catch a quick glimpse of two of them, one dressed in all black with a motorcycle helmet in the shape of a skull and a girl dressed in purple and black spandex with a domino mask on her face. He couldn't identify the others because of how fast they passed by but from basic descriptions he guessed they were some of The Undersiders, a small-time villain group that was mostly about theft.
'So I guess this is about the Ruby Dreams or something, they would be the only ones ballsy enough to fuck with Lung.' Hephaestus thought as he heard more movements.
Turning his attention back onto the street in front of him he could see a bright glow in the distance, about two maybe more blocks away.
"Is that Lung over there Tithonus?" He asked, wanting confirmation.
After a moment of waiting he got an answer, "Yeah it's him. He is also coming this way with a few goons of his own."
"Alright, we'll intercept them, use your bugs to create a curtain blocking their vision." He requested.
"Got it." Tithonus responded.
Hephaestus jumped from the roof down to the street with a minimal amount of reinforcement to deal with the landing. Once on the ground he observed the situation with a clinical and critical gaze.
'9 individuals total, some of the thugs are armed with various weapons. 1 has a gun while the others have varying melee weapons. Focus on taking down Lung first, I've proven to be able to take up to 45. ACP when in my outfit and the ABB never has anything over 32.'
As soon as the rest of the thugs and Lung arrived on the street, a wall of bugs erupted from behind them and himself, sealing the street in a wall of bugs on either side.
"I am the bone of my sword." The first line of the Aria spoken, his connection to the world of swords felt more tangible.
"What the hell is with all these bugs!" One of the ABB shouted.
"A Cape is nearby." Lung said, beginning to ramp up.
"Body of steel, fire for veins." More of his Aria spoken and the connection grew strong enough for a small amount of encroachment.
Ever since he discovered his Aria and connection to the world of swords anytime he spoke past line two, Unlimited Blade Works would begin to manifest slightly into reality. Right now it looked more like a mirage, like if you were to try and touch it you wouldn't be able to grasp it. The ground around his feet in a 4 foot radius was replaced with a fuzzy image of the rusted ground of his soul and there were three mundane swords standing in the ground next to him.
"Will withstand pain to create untold weapons." More of the Aria spoken and more of the Encroachment became a little more tangible.
Comfortable with the amount of strength the connection provided him with, Hephaestus cycled through the available swords until he found the one he was looking for. A two handed longsword, coloured black and silver with a blue gem in the handle stood in front of Hephaestus, Balmung, the dragon felling sword of Siegfried, a dragon slayer.
Grabbing the handle of the sword and pulling it from the ground with ease allowed him to use it for the coming battle.
"Don't you think you're going too far for a bunch of little children Lung?" Hephaestus called out, grabbing their attention.
"Get out of my way, those brats stole from me!" Lung shouted.
"Hmm…" Hephaestus adopted a thinking pose for a moment.
"How about no?"
"Grah!" Lung shouted as he rushed Hephaestus.
Each step the dragon-based Cape took, the bigger he got and the more fire erupted from his skin. Hephaestus could feel himself start to sweat, and he was embarrassed to say that most of it wasn't from the heat.
'Ugh, this is gonna suck!' He whined to himself in the safety of his mind.
By the time Lung was within arms length, he was already two storeys tall. Lung made the first move by going to grab Hephaestus with his right hand and was punished for it. Hephaestus saw the hand coming in what felt like slow motion and brought Balmung up and swung, taking off the tip of Lung's index finger/claw.
The dragon Cape took a step back from the sudden spike in pain that was abnormal for him to feel. Normally the pain wouldn't be as bad as it was right now even if he had just gotten the tip of his claw sliced off, so in his mind there must be something going on with the sword that hurt him more than normal.
'It seems as though he is wary of the sword, guess that means he really does classify as part dragon then. Now if I can get through this without needing to use Balmung's Noble Phantasm ability that would be great, don't wanna flatten the block.' Hephaestus thought to himself.
The buzzing in the air grew, and it wasn't the electrifying feeling of being in combat. No, the buzzing was from Taylors bugs, she had done more than just wall off the street. She had sent in as many as she could to bite at the regular thugs while keeping their attention away from Hephaestus and Lung for the time being.
He knew he could trust her to keep the thugs off his back while he dealt with the bigger threat. Holding the sword in front of him with two hands he stared down Lung, waiting for him to make the next move. The dragon and the slayer stared each other down while Lung grew yet again, almost reaching the height of the buildings proper, and Hephaestus knew he needed to finish this as soon as possible.
"TITHONUS, CONVERGENCE!" Hephaestus shouted to his partner.
Without waiting for a response, he moved towards the dragon, prepared to do whatever it took to neutralise the threat. Lung also took a step forward, the ground shaking with each thundering step. Suddenly the wall of bugs collapsed and started moving towards Lung, intent on being a distraction even as they burned up in the flames.
With a sudden burst of speed, Hephaestus was up in front of the fire wreathed Cape with Balmung mid swing. To the outside observer it would look like Hephaestus disappeared and reappeared in a gust of wind, but to him he just ran fast enough for the swirl of wind to be left behind where he stood.
Lung saw the sword coming closer but all he could do was put his clawed hand in front of him to try and mitigate the damage. Balmung bit into the same claw-tip that was sliced off earlier, having been regenerated at a slower pace than Lung thought possible. The dragon went for a counter swipe, with Hephaestus having to leap up to actually land that earlier strike, and only had time to twist his body and put Balmung between himself and the claw.
Lung felt the bite of the blade even as he smacked his opponent into a building, sending him crashing through the wall. Hephaestus felt his arm crack as it was caught on the edge of an interior wall of the thankfully abandoned building he was in. Feeding just a little more of his energy into what he felt was Avalon, allowed him to mend the cracks in his body and get him into better fighting shape.
'Got about 350/1455 left in the tank.' Hephaestus thought to himself as he stumbled out of the hole in the wall.
Once out on the street he saw the remaining thugs writhing on the ground in agony, probably from insects with a painful as fuck bite. Hephaestus approved of her using such methods to take down thugs, because they didn't create a massive amount of collateral and also because she could potentially create a phobia of bugs in her victims, though he doubts that Tithonus would appreciate him calling them victims.
"'OUND OU!" A guttural gravelly voice shouted.
Hephaestus snapped his gaze over to where he heard it and saw Lung. The ABB Cape had found where Tithonus was hiding and leapt up to the roof she was standing on. He panicked and flooded his body with more energy, to an almost dangerous level, and leapt up after Lung.
He placed himself between the punch that Lung was directing at his girlfriend and brought Balmung down on the offending limb. It cut right through his flame wreathed form like butter, the offending limb falling to the roof with a thud before Lung let out an ear shattering roar. Hephaestus found his vision wavering with the intensity of the flames but found himself in a stable state of mind.
"Come on!" He shouted as he brought Balmung up parallel with the ground.
Lung let out another challenging roar and moved forward. Hephaestus met his movements with his own, dashing into Lungs guard and driving Balmung right into his gut before twisting the blade 90 degrees and pulling sideways, tearing it from the Capes body. Blood was spilled and most of it was evaporated by the heat while a small amount splashed onto the ground.
Tithonus watched stunned as her partner fought Lung in front of her and cursed herself for freezing up. Once she could move again, she called for bugs that were capable of flying to pick up the bugs that were capable of injecting paralytic agents with a bite and sent them all at Lung.
Lung was slowly starting to shrink, the abnormal properties of Balmung and the constant bug bites were starting to wear on him. After Hephaestus delivered a few more cuts and stabs and countless more bug bites, Lung finally shrank down and returned to his human form.
"You good Tithonus?" Hephaestus groaned as he watched Lung fall to the ground unconscious.
"Y-yeah I'm good. What about you?" She asked in response.
"We might need to visit Amy." He said in response and turned around.
Tithonus gasped as her partner revealed his front to her. His right arm was blistered red bordering on black, his mouth was exposed and was trying to stitch itself back together and his chestplate had all but melted to his torso.
All of a sudden there was a group of people standing on the roof with them, thankfully they hadn't seen Hephaestus' face as he had re-Traced the bandages once he smelled their scents getting closer. In front of them stood four other people, who were obviously The Undersiders as evident by the appearance of the taller one with all black and a biker helmet and the blonde in a purple and black spandex with a domino mask on her face.
"You two really saved us a lot of trouble." the tallest one said, a deep masculine voice emanated from the helmet.
He watched as the two Capes who took down Lung were supporting each other, Hephaestus requiring more support than Tithonus on account of his burnt right arm and the armour slagged to his chest.
"When we ended up hearing word of Lung wanting our heads we spent most of the day going over plans before we just decided fuck it." He said as he jerked his thumb to his companions.
"Dumbest fucking desicion you could ever make." Hephaestus groaned in pain.
"Yeah, but when we went to confront him we were only met with Oni-Lee, guess we have you to thank for handling him." The guy responded.
"What did you do to him anyway?" He continued.
The blonde girl spoke up this time answering for them, "Cut his arm off with some special sword, impaled his guts and pulled the sword out sideways almost bisecting him and a ton of bites from bullet ants, wasps and bees. He ain't gonna make it if his regeneration were to be halted."
"Right, introductions. That's Tattletale over there, I'm Grue, the one with the dogs is Bitch and finally we have Regent." The now identified Grue answered.
"Hephaestus and my trusty sidekick Tithonus." Hephaestus replied with a pained chuckle.
Tithonus normally would have pinched his side for the offence but held off in order to not cause any more damage to his body. Instead she settled for shaking her head at him.
"You need any help?" Grue asked, sounding genuine.
"Nah, I just gotta make it to a friend's place and I'll be fine." Hephaestus said pleasantly, or as pleasantly as he could while grunting in pain.
"We gotta scram guys." Tattletale butted in.
"Right, well I guess we owe you one." Grue said before moving for Bitch's dogs.
With that, the pair of Heroic inclined Capes were left alone on the rooftop with a slowly regenerating Lung laying on the ground. Shortly after The Undersiders left, the sound of a motorcycle could be heard and it was distinctive enough that the pair could identify who it belonged to. A minute later a grappling hook hooked onto the edge of the roof and retracted.
Climbing up onto the roof was Armsmaster, dressed in his signature blue armour that Hephaestus still couldn't identify, same goes for the halberd in his hands.
"Are you two going to fight me?" Were his first words to them.
"Does it even look like we could?" Hephaestus asked incredulously.
"Right, do you need any help?" He instead asked.
"No, just need to visit Panacea real quick and I should be right as rain." Hephaestus answered, trying to be polite through the pain and anger at the Protectorate Cape for allowing Sophia's behaviour.
"She's a new face, who is she?" Armsmaster asked.
"Tithonus, and I've been around for at least a few days." The girl herself answered.
"You'd know if you actually paid attention to what happens in your city, Armsy." Hephaestus taunted.
After a tense moment of staring at each other, Armsmater spoke up while turning to Lung.
"Am I safe to assume he is neutralised and safe for transport?"
"Yes, but I'd advise against something that will neutralise his healing. He might die if his healing is stifled even further." Hephaestus answered.
"I'll be the judge of that." Armsmaster replied.
When Armsmaster made to move towards Lung, Hephaestus lifted his left hand to check if his camera was working and found that it was mostly melted, he just hoped that the sim card wasn't melted or corrupted. Quickly turning to Tithonus he saw that her body cam was still looking fine and hopefully it was still rolling.
"Armsmaster stop… you'll kill him if you do that." Hephaestus called out as he saw Armsmaster pull out an injector.
"It wont." Armsmaster retorted, fully believing that he wouldn't be the one responsible for Lungs death if it were to happen.
He injected Lung and they all watched as his healing slowed from regenerating visibly but slowly, to looking like he wasn't even regenerating at all.
'Lung will die, I personally don't care but I'd rather Taylor not need to see this and we won't be held responsible if the video is uploaded.' Hephaestus thought to himself.
"Let's go Tithonus… I'm starting to feel the pain now." He groaned quietly to his partner.
Nodding silently Tithonus led her partner to the roof access door and entered, choosing to ignore Armsmaster.
'I think I have enough for one trip to the hospital and one back home.' Hephaestus thought hopefully.
Once they were inside the building Hephaestus stopped moving and focused on the hospital that he knew Amy would be working at tonight. He knew it wasn't healthy for her to do but they at least managed to curb her almost impulsive need to be at the hospital and she only ends up going to the hospital to work on the weekends like tonight.
Tithonus knew that her partner was focusing on where to open a distortion and so she let him do so while supporting him. Her experiences with authority had dulled her trust in them so it wasn't surprising to see that Armsmaster was more focused on trying to bring in an unconscious villain with an injection specifically designed to neuter Lungs healing. Instead she saw how his actions were looking more like he was trying to take credit for Lungs capture, likely seeing an injured Cape and the other supporting said injured Cape as a non threat.
Her thoughts were broken by the distortion ripped open in front of her, she knew that he seemed to be struggling with the energy left over after the fight and rushed him through the tear. Once on the other side it closed behind them and in front of them was the hospital that was just afew steps away.
"Come on, not too far now." Tithonus tried to comfort her partner, who had been groaning more often in pain.
"Yeah yeah… I'm moving." He replied.
They limped their way towards the hospital and were met with a nurse. Tithonus said they needed Panacea immediately and the nurse rushed off to get the healer Cape while another nurse led them to an empty room.
"How's it looking Tithonus?" Hephaestus asked as he allowed the bandages on his face disappear.
She looked at his face and grimaced at what she saw. His cheeks were almost completely burnt away and were only held together by multiple tiny swords acting as stitching, which unintentionally gave his voice a metallic and echoey sound as his voice bounced off the metal surface of his new cheeks.
Soon enough Panacea entered the room looking done with life. When she caught a glimpse of her friend she winced as she saw his right arm was now almost completely blackened, the armour was melted as a part of his chest and his face was covered in melted flesh and metal.
"The fuck happened to you?" She asked..
"Fought Lung, got a little too close to his fire." Hephaestus answered.
"Now can you please hurry up and heal me cause this is starting to fucking kill." Hephaestus hurriedly spoke, grunting with each shift.
"Alright, I have your permission to heal you now let's get to it." Panacea said.
She placed a bare hand on his burnt arm and took in the damages. His torso had 2nd and 3rd degree burns on account of the metal chestplate melting to his torso, his right arm was almost char with how burnt it was, his back also had several minor fractures and his legs appeared to have minor fractures and some burns due to his greaves heating up and his shins maintaining constant contact with the heated metal. She also found it odd that he didn't have a Corona Pollentia and Gemma, but just shrugged it off for now, not really much she could really do about that.
She healed him by taking the excess fat from around his body and redistributing it like the Soviet Union did in WW2. His skin was returned to a healthy complexion and his fractured bones were reset, though she was baffled as she could see swords working to knit him back together.
"There, all done, though you might wanna refill on fatty foods and rest for a few days." Panacea said.
"Ugh… thank you Amy." Hephaestus groaned, pleased that he was no longer in pain.
"Right, I gotta get back to work, hope you feel better tomorrow." She replied.
"Remember Amy, don't overwork yourself." Jordan said, pulling his hood down.
"I know, I'll only burn myself out quicker." Amy responded, sighing at the constant amount of times they had this talk.
"Amy, we care about you, we just want what's best for you." Taylor spoke up.
"I know, it's just hard to break such a long habit." She smiled bitterly.
"Alright, we'll let you get back to it." Jordan said, pulling his hood back up.
"I'll see you two later." Panacea said as she left the room.
"I suggest we walk out the front door instead of portaling home, no need to expose our trump card." Hephaestus said as he stood up.
"Right, you sure you're good?" Tithonus asked.
"Yeah, just a little lightheaded." He responded and hugged her.
When they separated they made their way out of the hospital and headed for an alleyway. Once they were away from prying eyes Hephaestus opened a tear in space and they stepped through quickly, the tear collapsing prematurely as he had run out of energy. Thankfully they were through completely and didn't have to worry about any missing limbs.
Though due to not having any more energy left, Jordans armour disappeared from his body and he collapsed on the spot, falling asleep. Taylor panicked for a second before realising he just fell asleep and got about to lifting him up and putting him in bed, thankful for the muscle that she had built. After he was in bed she undressed and climbed in with him, joining him in slumber not long after.