Current Energy: 2
Current Training:
Magic Resistance (7/10)
[Multiversal Emulator / Emmy]
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
City Limits, Canberra
Your Master considers the school pensively for a moment, wincing as her armband reports more losses in the ongoing fight. You can tell what she is thinking because you are thinking almost the exact same thing. With all the warnings you were given, with all of the things you've been told about the Simurgh, it becomes insultingly easy to puzzle out the intent of the current situation.
If your Master goes into the building, the chances that she will come across some scenario specifically designed to torture her psychologically are extremely high. It's simply how this Terror Engine operates. However, knowing that some innocent person might be included in that situation, can your Master really ignore it?
Obviously, the answer is no. Truthfully, that may be the most clever part of the entire scenario. If it were subtle, your Master might not notice, and could choose to ignore or let it pass. When it's as obvious as this? There isn't any way someone like Taylor Hebert can simply ignore it. It simply wouldn't be right.
Which is perfectly fine you suppose. This is what you're for.
"I'll check the school. Catch up with the others." You say resolutely, glancing back at the school. An immediate wave of relief rolls off your Master that she quickly stifles with new worries and concerns.
"Hang on." She says, her acceptance of your offer already self-evident through your bond. Expression firming, she turns towards the building with a look of intense concentration on her face, and begins to loosely gesture with her free hand. A few seconds later, the fire blanketing the school begins to sort of peel away, as though pinched gently by a giant and yanked backward. Thin streamers of flame begin to gather in your Master's open palm, until eventually, the school is no longer ablaze, and your Master is holding a white-hot orb of pure heat in her hands.
An orb that she hurriedly tosses into a quickly opened Gap.
"Now..." She mutters, flitting towards you in order to trace two runic characters across your chest plate. You easily recognize them as the runes for Hardening and Speed - fairly trivial enchantments to apply in a combat situation, taken to an absurd extreme by your Master's ludicrous energy stores. You don't really think this is necessary. For something as simple as search and rescue, you sincerely doubt your base capabilities will prove insufficient.
Still, you don't comment on the temporary enchantment. Ultimately, your Master can't conceive of you as the disposable combatant that you are. It brings a strange warmth to your heart to think about, even as your lingering annoyance over being treated as more precious than you actually are flares up.
"Catch up quick okay?" She says when she finishes enchanting you, taking a quick step back and pointedly not looking towards the scorched corpse nearby. You snort, then pound a fist on your breastplate.
"I can hardly imagine this will take that long." You snort.
Then confidently, you turn around, headed into the school.
[Taylor Hebert / Nexus]
She watched Emmy head into the school with an expression best described as 'complicated'.
She had acquired so many powers at this point that she liked to think she had sort of a knack for working out the intended use of any given one of them. In a general sense, she supposed that was starting to acquire a sense for powers not dissimilar to Eidolons. She didn't really have any control over what she would get, but she could analyze it. And through that, she could tell that the best possible way to utilize her main power, to utilize Emmy, was to let him take risks for her. She probably knew that better than anyone else.
But in her heart, she rejected it.
It wasn't just that she saw Emmy as a friend and a person. She was aware that a lot of people outside her team considered her to be either insane, or perpetrating a very elaborate ruse when it came to the supposed independence of her projection. It was more than that. Despite Emmy claiming an inability to die, despite his insistence that this was what he was meant for, she simply couldn't accept it. Because she had realized that just like he was more 'human' than many other projections, he was also more vulnerable than other projections. He had feelings, goals, and interests. If he was hurt, he felt pain. And so, to her, whether or not he could die was irrelevant. Because he could hurt. And dying was almost never painless.
That was why she had enchanted him before they split up, even though every moment counted during an Endbringer fight. It was as insurance against anything that might happen while they were apart. It was simply the sincere wish for him to remain unharmed.
She spared a moment more to watch Emmy walk away - then turned to her own task. She would be lying if she said that she was handling the ongoing litany of deaths and injuries her armband transmitted to her well. Every death reported made her ever more conscious of her tight grip on Nemesis, and she tensed with worry whenever one of the names sounded too close to one she recognized.
As she dashed through the streets, once more headed towards her team, she mused that it might be selfish of her to prefer the well being of her friends and loved ones in this situation. Really, she knew that many would consider the worry she was feeling to be misplaced or hypocritical. After all, everyone present on the battlefield was a Parahuman. She could easily bring back anyone from Brockton who was struck down.
So much of her focus was directed towards controlling her own actions and resisting her urge to attack the Simurgh that she belatedly realized that she had stopped searching for survivors and stragglers who hadn't managed to make it to a shelter. Instead, she had pointed herself at the last place she recalled seeing her teammates and ran towards it at full speed.
So it was that she came to find Oliver. And only Oliver. At least as far as her team was concerned. He was standing in the middle of the street with a handful of teenagers standing tensely behind him. During her initial approach, this made perfect sense to her. They were here to rescue people. Those were clearly people Oliver had rescued.
Only, the situation turned out to be somewhat more complicated than that the closer she got. It wasn't only a group of civilians near Oliver. There were also a handful of Capes that had fanned out around him.
Perhaps it was merely her own arrogance showing through, but the surrounding Capes didn't really bother or threaten her. Instead, the thing she focused on was the cape who Oliver presently had one of his boots on top of. He was collapsed on the ground and clearly terrified for his life, primarily because of Oliver's weapon, which was pointed firmly at his head.
"Bring them back!" Oliver was yelling as she arrived, using her ability to gain traction on air to bleed off momentum and come to a gentle stop instead of slamming into the ground like a jackhammer.
"I can't!" One of the nearby capes replied angrily, gesturing around himself. "Look, my range isn't that great alright? They'll be somewhere in the city. So just-" he started, shifting slightly towards Oliver, who responded by shifting his weapon and pulling the trigger faster than anyone could react.
Oliver had once asked for a weapon he described as a Pile Bunker. The very concept of that type of thing was hilariously impractical for real combat, and Taylor had been very sure to make that clear to him when she was helping make the thing. Hence, while she had somewhat managed to work with Trainwreck to replicate some of the shapeshifting tech from Ozma's homeworld, she hadn't made him a Pile Bunker.
She had made him a War Pick. That turned into a rifle. That shot rail spikes.
Oliver had just named the thing Pile Bunker.
Hence, instead of a high calibre weapon, which would have fired a bullet that would deform and expand on contact with a target, he had fired a rail spike at the person he was standing. He had fired a rail spike straight through his forearm and into the concrete beneath it. The sound it made was nothing next to the screams of the man he had hit.
"Huntsman!" Taylor shouted immediately, finally drawing attention to herself as she cried out. The other capes presented watched her with a mix of wariness and hope, no doubt expecting she could help them break this stalemate. Oliver's head jerked around to look at her as she approached, obviously tense and on a hair-trigger. The strain was obvious on his face as he attempted to keep everyone present in his field of view at once. He opened his mouth to speak but was quickly cut off by the cape who had previously been arguing with him.
"Is he with you? He's breaking the fucking truce." He snapped at her instantly. She took the time he spent speaking to look at him, and noted immediately that unlike many Capes - he was clearly carrying a firearm, although it was holstered at his waist. His costume was fairly standard besides that single point. Black spandex and a bulletproof vest for the most part. There was a hastily painted yellow symbol on the vest, but it was so sloppily done she couldn't easily determine what it was supposed to be.
"I broke the truce? You used your power on my team!" Oliver countered immediately.
His counterpart glared at him in frustration. "It was a mistake!" he yelled, and looked like he was liable to say more - but stopped. Not because he didn't want to continue. Simply that he couldn't. Because from the moment that Taylor had connected the dots, having recognized that the rest of her team were absent, her spiritual power had flared, driving everyone present to their knees.
With careful, measured steps, she walked past all those present to stand in front of the unknown cape. She had to be careful when she was this irked. If she wasn't, she risked destroying the ground beneath her feet whenever she took a step.
"Explain." She barked once she was standing in front of him. She relaxed her pressure just enough for him to comply - but no more than that. She was aware that the Endbringer truce was sacred - that you simply didn't do this type of thing when an Endbringer fight was ongoing.
But it was her team.
"I - " The man started, then coughed, spluttered, and vomited at her feet. She frowned, but waited for him to continue.
"My power - I teleport stuff out of my way!" He yelped eventually, fear clear in his eyes.
"And you used your power on my team?" She asked carefully.
"By mistake!" He yelled desperately. She turned her attention to Oliver for confirmation.
"They were going to kill these guys. We got in the way." Oliver replied with a cold fury in his voice.
"They're fucking Simurgh bombs! This whole city is fucked anyway! What do you think is gonna happen when they try and leave? They'll be given some candy and sent on their way?" The cape whinged, and Taylor took another moment to examine the group of six teenagers awkwardly clinging to each other in mortal terror nearby.
"You don't get to decide-" Oliver growled.
"Where are my people?" Taylor interrupted. She might have had more to say on the subject if she had the leeway to be leisurely about things, but she didn't. She could still see the expanding storm of debris in the distance that marked the Simurgh's location.
"Around! I don't choose where stuff I teleport goes, it just goes somewhere else! They could be anywhere in this hellhole!" The cape complained.
A long time ago now, it felt like this was the type of situation that might have made her catastrophically angry with someone. After all, this guy had basically just admitted to throwing her friends to random sections of an Endbringer battlefield. She rightfully felt that there was very little that could make her angrier than that.
Thankfully she had matured over the last few months. She considered herself to be a good person and a hero. Which is why she didn't hurt anyone present. She just contained her spiritual pressure and opened a Gap to one of the drop points for refugees.
"Get in. It'll take you to camp." She ordered the group of teens, who were eyeing the gap suspiciously. She had to admit, the things weren't exactly aesthetically pleasing. While she was speaking, she swept Oliver up into her arms. Enhanced by Aura as he was, he could keep up with her by roof hopping if she kept a leisurely pace.
She wasn't feeling particularly leisurely right now.
"This isn't emasculating at all..." Oliver grumbled as she switched hands so she could trace a rune in the air.
[Multiversal Emulator / Emmy]
As you expected, with your enhanced speed boosted even further by your Master's runecraft, it took very little time to search the school. If you had to make a particular note of something, it would be that the school is too clean. The only other school you can think of to compare it to is Winslow, but this school makes Winslow look like a penitentiary.
The walls were devoid of graffiti, the floors were clean and polished, and all the classrooms you checked seemed to be uncramped and well cared for. It was almost surreal to look at.
Of course, given forewarning about the exact nature of the Simurgh, you always knew the chances of you finding someone in a classroom was dwindling. Instead, almost as though waiting for the exact moment you chose to leave muted whimpering entered your ears, emanating from a nearby locker. You can't help but grimace at the development.
Your breath quickens slightly as you approach the locker slowly, wary of trickery.
And deep in your chest, you can't help but feel a lingering sensation of fear. After all, your core personality was crafted by your Master's experience of something similar. In many ways, this was your trigger event as much as your Masters. You can't smell anything foul in the locker as you approach it, but the whimpering grows louder, until it becomes sobs, and finally, cuts out.
Worried about what you will find when you open the door, you throw your caution to the wind as you realize that the person in that locker might have just stopped breathing. With barely any effort, you tear the door off the metal coffin before you, then shift forward to carefully catch the skinny girl that falls out of it. She doesn't look exactly like your Taylor did, all those months ago, but she looks close. Close enough that your mild disinterest in the Simurgh rapidly becomes anger that you are forced to suppress as the girl's eyes flutter open.
"Hello. Do you require medical attention?" You ask curtly, working hard to control your emotions. Instead of answering you directly, she merely stares at you, her eyes as wide as saucers.
"Do you know where the nearest shelter is? Can you stand?" You continue, aware that the girl must be in shock, but equally aware of your Master's sudden change in disposition from 'worried' to 'apocalyptically mad'.
"Y-yes?" She offers you after a second.
"Good. Rush there as soon as you can." You tell her, carefully moving to put her down.
"Wait! T-take me with you!" She blurts out, wrapping her arms around you and squeezing desperately to prevent you from releasing her to gravities tender mercy.
You want to refuse - you can't cart around an innocent on an active battlefield. But then you feel a sudden heat at your back, where her hands rest, and you can't help but think;
She's so small and frail. Maybe it's best that you take her to your Master, so she can be healed.
Decision made, you nod at her, straighten your posture, and step out of the school, ignoring the frown that has suddenly spread across her face, and the rivulet of blood running from her nose. It merely proves that she requires healing, after all.
A/N: Real life has been coming for me recently, so I'm sorry that this update is so delayed. I'm trying to get back on the horse, so to speak. PM me if I missed any omake or something. Usual disclaimers apply. I'm full of energy drinks and spite, which is the only way I could push myself to get back on it. Have fun with it.