Current Energy: 13
Current Training: None
Monday, February 14th, 2011
Beneath The PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
Your Master is smiling.
There's nothing wrong with that. Being able to find happiness in the joy of combat is only to be expected from a warrior such as she. Most people smile when they're doing things they happen to be good at.
It's only that, what you're Master is 'good at' appears to be the swift application of overwhelming violence. And her smile somewhat threatening to behold.
You are broken from your thoughts by the whipcrack sound of another clones fist nearly taking your head off.
While your Master was busy handling the less durable members of the opposition, her various portals had converged on her location, connecting into a seamless wall of malevolent staring eyes peering out of the dark towards you and everyone else. There were gaps here and there in the coverage, but none nearly wide enough for one of clones to fit through. This, combined with your easily accessible presence on the other side of the barrier, has left you in something of an unfortunate position.
That being, getting rapidly assaulted by the ten remaining superhumans.
Skilled a swordsman as you are, you are only really capable of withstanding the onslaught for two reasons.
One, these clones clearly lack any kind of training as a group. They bump into eachother almost as often as they attack you, and they make very poor use of the advantage their flight provides them. They are fast and strong enough that without committing to being hit yourself, you find it difficult to land a counterattack, and your need to ensure they do not attack your Master somehow precludes youe ability to make some distance and recover. So in that respect you are stalemated. Already you can feel the dull ache of a half dozen glancing lows and hard deflections diffusing your body, a pain you fight through in order to continue your appointed task.
Two, Echidna is quite occupied at the moment. Not dead by any measure, but certainly occupied. She is screaming incoherently at you, while all of her various limbs lash out to gain her leverage, as behind her a tremendous orb of pitch black nothingness pulls at her, drawing her towards itself. You'd be surprised that you feel nothing of these effects yourself, but you suppose Eidolon, who appears to be maintaining the effect, is the greatest hero on the planet for a reason.
For now, anyway.
"How the fuck are you doing this? I'm mother fucking Alexandria! I'm literally the best!" One of the Greg clones yells at you in frustration as it breaks off it's attack. The others quickly following, pulling back to circle around you.
"I have honed my skill across a hundred battlefields! I-" You begin, lifting your head and shakily adjusting your glasses with your free hand, the mild glint of light from the continued blaster fire behind you sparkling across them and temporarily obscuring your eyes.
And then your Master forces you to stop your epic and uplifting speech on the topic of heroism by summarily leaping into your field of view with her sword drawn forward in a piercing stab that goes into the eye of the clone that spoke and straight into it's brain pan with the kind of crisp finality typically reserved from animals on a butchers block.
"Don't talk unless your fighting at the same time!" She calls to you, swiftly withdrawing her weapon from the falling clones corpse and whipping her free hand around to create a barrier of blue light that the nearest surviving clone quickly bounces off of, shattering it in the process.
You suddenly have flash backs to every time you've ever woken your Master up against her will, or surprised her, and found yourself with a sharp blade an inch from your eye.
"Jesus fucking christ, we wanted to sleep with her?" One of the clones hisses behind you before you can respond to that, drawing your attention towards it.
It might be crass of you, but you promptly plant Gram in the ground, pivot around it, and drop kick that clone into a wall. It doesn't kill the thing. You doubt it even hurt it. But it made you feel better.
"Really?" Your Master asks you, alighting next to you.
"Talk and fight at the same time." You answer instead of directly responding to the question. You put the order into action immediately, leaving Gramm sheathed in the floor and lifting your daggers upward, firing all four of them at a blistering speed even as the clones around you begin to break out in evasive maneuvers.
Two of your thrown (punched, it's more effective) weapons miss entirely, slamming into the walls of the tunnel with a loud thunk that rings out over the general din of the melee. One appears to be about to ram home into the eye of one of the dodging clones, but it raises it's arm to bat away the projectile before it can be hit - a behaviour the clones haven't displayed much of till now. The final weapon appears to be about to miss - until your Master whips her hand out in a clawing gesture, creating a glowing blue claw that yanks your target forward, allowing the weapon to ram home.
Directly into the things eye.
'Eight left.' You note even as you turn to regard your Master meaningfully.
'Remind me to ask if Alexandria's eye needs healing or something after this.' She responds.
Then the battle is rejoined. Your still outclasses physically by the clones, but with your Master to heal and support you, it quickly becomes apparent that the enemy can't win. They quickly become aware of this, and change tact, attempting to heard you and your Master towards Echidna, who is just barely managing to hold to the edge of the tunnel now.
It is only when your enemies are down to a scant three, and your back is directly to Noelle as they pressure you that your Master speaks aloud again.
"So, you idiots know I can teleport right?" She asks casually, lifting her arm to create another Gap behind her. The three clones in front of you barely register the words before they bolt forward, rushing towards your Master with clear into to spear tackle her backwards and into the Monster who's waning cries you have largely been ignoring this entire time.
Your Master releases a feral grin at this, and, instead of dodging completely out of the way, unleashes a blinding barrage of energy blast from her free hand. You at first have no idea what she is doing - the clones can almost certain ignore such blasts with ease. That is, until it becomes obvious that they can't see through it with ease. Something you only realize when your Master removes her hand from it's firing position and steps towards you - leaving a pulsing orb of energy to continue firing behind her.
'Three, two-' She counts off cheerily, letting out an unrefined snort when two out of the three remaining clones fly straight through her previous position to slam into Echidna - dragging all three of them into the black hole she had been barely avoiding all this time.
As one, you, your Master, and the combined forces of every cape present stare at the single remaining clone, its hair a mess from constant movement.
The clone looks to your Master, then to you, and then sneers, flickering slightly and then...
Falling to the ground like a puppet with it's strings cut?
A chill runs down your spine as your Master blinks at the fallen monster, then turns towards you.
"I guess it needed Echidna to live?" She offers carefully, waiting for a few seconds more before allowing her sword to return to it's katana like configuration, an act that is accompanied by a sudden brief pulse of pressure as she wrestles her spiritual power back under control.
"...Possibly." You muse, still uncomfortable with the entire situation and not sure why.
"Nexus. Is it safe for Alexandria to return?" Legend calls out as the group of capes you had originally arrived with, in particular all of your own team, begin to approach your position.
"Should be. I'm pretty sure we got all of them." She says seriously.
'Oh my god I'm takling to Legend. Is my costume okay? It's not too ripped or anything right?' She quickly asks, causing you to tilt your head and spend a moment examining her before shaking your head in the negative.
"That's good. She'll want to see... this." The older man says, and you can hear the wince in his tone as you continue to carefully approach the last clone. As you do so, notice that far from being dead, the thing is trembling, blood rushing from it's every orifice as it twitches upon the ground. True it could just be falling apart without a guiding intelligence to direct it but...
"Um. Yeah. Sorry. About you know, murdering a bunch of her. Sort of." Taylor blurts out behind you, all trace of confidence gone as she stands in front of one of the worlds greatest heroes, finally bereft of the lingering stress of the last few days.
With slow patient steps you approach shivering figure, calling Gram once more to your hand and lifting it high overhead.
"I'm sure she'll forgive you for it. The circumstances were certainly beyond the norm. Although. Have you given any thought to joining the Protectorate? I know you've stated a preference for independence, but exceptions could be made. We could grandfather your current team into the system and start a new branch. Somewhere less... volatile." Legend comments behind you, setting your Master to spluttering.
'Emmy, I need you to come be distractingly hot at legend. I really, really, don't want to say no to him directly.' Your Master commands you, entirely serious. You pause.
'I was given to understand that he was married.' You reply in confusion. You get the mental impression from your Master of deep and abiding exasperation along with that hand gesture you still don't understand.
Snorting at your Masters antics, you quickly dart forward and finish off the last of the clones. Then return to help distract the living Legend standing next to her.
You pointedly ignore Oliver's staring as you pass him, along with the aborted attempt at the weird gesture.