Current Energy: 2
Friday, March 11th, 2011
Time Bubble, Brockton Bay
The first thing that your Master does, despite her obvious bloodthirst, is conjure a Gap that rapidly converges on Jess' dispossessed body - depositing it safely away from any possible fighting.
The blond woman standing next to you seems thankful but also, mildly distressed by the consideration. In a certain sense, she probably should be. After all, hiding the body is a sure but silent admission from your Master that there is a significant chance it's previous location might not exist at the end of the battle.
On the topic of silence, Uber and Leet - for all their posturing - haven't let their guard down once. They merely observe your Master's preparations with interest, allowing the otherwise completely, eerily still city street you are all standing by to push itself to the forefront of your mind, despite the distracting prevalence of the overly loud music being piped in from seemingly all directions at once.
You remember the last time you were in a place like this. A sort of 'unreality' where time doesn't move forward, and the Brothers Dim seemed to be able to manipulate space and time with some ease. If you were being charitable, you suppose you could almost compare it to a bastardized version of the Gap your Master wields.
Ofcourse, that event had been a trial for you mostly because you had been emulating a relatively inexperienced boy.
Now, not so much.
"So… you guys remember the last time we did this?" Taylor asks in a lilting voice that - for all the childish whimsy in it - is incredibly menacing sounding, as she skips, literally skips, over to stand in front of you with her back to Uber and Leet.
The pair glance at each other, then up towards a tiny glimmering object in the sky overhead.
"Hard not to. Why?" Uber calls to her, visibly tensing as though expecting her to respond with… well… immediate overwhelming violence.
In fact, the pair seem somewhat mildly confused that they haven't been attacked yet.
"You remember how I asked you guys exactly how durable you are? You know, cus I was worried about killing you." She continues, licking the tip of one finger and then rapidly tracing a series of runes in the air in front of you that flicker and fade as their magic suffuses you, making you faster and stronger in ways you imagine not even the average Homunculus from your Emulation's homeworld could manage.
"...Yes?" Leet responds hesitantly.
"Same question." Taylor declares, snapping her fingers and causing her costume to appear in place of her normal clothes in a burst of light, then crossing her arms in front of her chest and turning to face the two idiots, stance wide.
"...Okay so I'll totally answer cus I know you aren't joking but like, are you… aware of what you're doing right now?" Uber asks hesitantly, causing your Master to falter slightly.
"...Threatening you?" She says after a second of thought.
"Gainax posing. We've been watching tons of your videos-"
"Creepy."
"-and you're like, literally an Anime character." Uber continues, ignoring her commentary.
'Emmy?' Your Master calls you expectantly over your link to each other. There is no explanation, no order, and no information of note transferred between the two of you in that moment.
But even still, you and your Master both leap from your positions atop the stone steps of City Hall at the exact same moment.
"Shi-" Leet curses as you arrive infront if him, swinging your fist towards his head in a way that you can only hope will damage the device in his belt. Unfortunately the Tinker manages to jump away from you at the last second, grabbing for something hanging from his waist and raising it to point a futuristic looking gun at you.
At the same time, your Master swings her sword down at Uber, who responds much more calmly than his compatriot, deflecting the attack with his own glowing sword.
'Master!' You caution as old instincts kick in, and rather than allow yourself to be shot by the attack Leet is aiming at you, you rapidly crouch down, allowing your hand to brush against the ground.
-1 Energy
Heeding your warning, your Master immediately disengages from her swift exchange of blows with Uber, jumping to your side just as the asphalt beneath you ruptures upward, obscuring both sides of the fighting from each other.
Then the two of you tumble out of the way of a fluorescent green blast of energy that punches through the barrier and slams into city hall behind you with a thunderous crash that sends masonry and wood flying throughout the street.
"Since when were these idiots so dangerous?!" Jess calls out in concern, having sprinted away from the blasted building to arrive nearby.
"I think they could probably always have been like this, they just didn't have a reason to be!" Your Master says with some glee.
"And this makes you happy?!" Jess screams as the beam that had previously blasted apart city hall cleaves towards you through the rocky barrier obscuring your foe from sight.
Your Master chooses not to answer this question, instead cleaving open a Gap before her that stretches out to block the incoming blast. Without prompting, you gesture at the Gap with your free hand and nod at Jess.
"Ambush." You explain, too focused on the fighting to speak more than that as you charge into the side of the Gap that isn't absorbing Leets energy blasts.
You are relieved but unsurprised to find Jess quickly following after you as you plunge into the space between spaces ever so briefly.
Then you crest through the nullspace, like a fish from water, and end up in free fall for a split second as you bring an elbow down on Leet's collar with enough force to drive him to his knees and make him release the trigger in the weapon he is still firing.
Uber rushes at you from behind, no doubt having noticed the Gap as it appeared, but is deflected by a shaky Jess who appears behind you and who Uber is patently incapable of seeing.
Or… so you assumed.
Without missing a beat, the second he discerns that something invisible is present, Uber's visor lights up - and he begins to engage Jess in melee.
You have only a fleeting moment to wonder how this is possible, because Leet - who's collarbone should have been shattered by your strike - leaps up uninjured, sending you sprawling away under the bizarrely concussive force behind the beam.
You have just enough time to spot Jess faltering under Uber's superior swordsmanship, and your Master leaping to her aid, before you are slammed through the outer wall of a nearby building with enough force to cause your bones to crack, even with your Master's defensive enchantments.
'Perhaps we should end this before they surprise us any more?' You half groan to your Master as you push yourself upright, ignoring the pain this causes you via memories of much worse injuries to this body. You frown as the distant sound of a motor rumbling reaches your ears, but you can't quite place why the sound of a car on the road is so alarming in your dazed state.
'I'm thinking about it. Do you think we could steal some of this stuff? The ability to see ghosts and boost a Parahuman's strength seems really valuable.' She responds.
You consider the point as you rush to get back into the fighting, spotting Uber and Leet moving about the area with an acrobatic skill that far outmatches what you would expect from the duo, leaping across buildings and working together in a seamless way that you would only really expect from…
Well from you and your Master.
Something about this entire scenario seems wrong, but the more you think of it, the more you can't quite figure out why. It's certainly in line with Uner and Leet's general methodology to stage a huge, horrifically damaging fight while minimizing their own chance of injury using the time bubble you are in - but why?
You spot your Master beginning to get frustrated by the melee, and manifesting the spider constructs she uses to fire blasts of energy, when the sound of an engine revving reaches its peak, and an absolute monstrosity of a vehicle crashes through a nearby restaurant.
The thing is easily the size of a small building, adorned in more armour and weaponry than you would think could reasonably be carried by the enormous machine. It has tremendous grinding wheels of wrought iron that shred the ground beneath it as it moves, and dozens of gun turrets and emplacements all across it. And at each emplacement a hunched over scaled figure sits, too small to be human, but too different from any animal you know to quite place what it is you are looking at.
And every single one is firing at your Master, who quickly aborts her conjuration to grab Jess and leap out of the way - something Uber and Leet had already long since done.
The discharge from the behemoth is so loud as to be deafening, with each individual round fired impacting the ground and tearing furrows the size of a city bus in the road. It barely fires for more than a handful of seconds, but the combined damage of all the weaponry rips open the city in the direction it is facing - opening a valley of obliterated homes and buildings that stretches clear out of the city limits.
You stare in deafened awe, blinking stars out of your eyes as as a Gap opens behind you to deposit your Master and Jess. It takes nearly no time at all for you to determine that at least some of that attack hit your Master, because she leans on you for a moment while she heals her leg, which - rather than describe as having a hole in it - is barely hanging off the rest of her.
"Okay, not ideal." She grouchily admits, eyeing the monstrous tank like object as Uber and Leet step back into view - accompanied by three more people in matching coloured equipment.
"You thought we were a joke right? Thing about Tinkers, we adapt!" Leet yells jubilantly.
"We saw what your Monster Cape did with his armor and thought 'hey, why not increase the mass of a bullet?'" Uber adds smugly.
"Shut the fuck up dipshits, this is my baby - not yours!" A whiny sounding voice calls from the tank - where the other three figures had disembarked from.
"You wouldn't have the materials for this if we hadn't found you in a ditch like we did you bitch!" Leet fires back.
"How much longer?" One of the new figures asks angrily, pulling at his outfit with distaste.
Uber looks like he's about to answer, but is interrupted by your Master.
"Okay, I get that's Squealer but who-" Taylor asks, a note of worry entering her voice.
And for good reason. The last time you were in this time warped area, you didn't actually win the fight. You just disabled the effect creating it. Now that Uber and Leet seem moderately capable of keeping up with your Master, that might not be so easy.
And something tells you the device you are looking for is probably somewhere in that massive tank which… has its own complications.
"Yeah we aren't stupid enough to just explain-" Uber begins, but is cut off again by the other figure as they pull their stylized helmet free.
"Remember me bitch?" The man spits at you.
"…should I?" Taylor asks, almost embarrassed sounding.
"The- we're the Teeth! And once we kill you nothing is gonna stop us from-"
"-I mean the first time I met you it was really dark, and you were wearing a lot more human skin and skulls so-"
"…Spree." The man growls as your Master bumbles through her apology.
At this, the yellow armoured man next to him steps forward - instantly splitting into an army of howling and angry men who sprint towards you with the thundering force of a cavalry charge, concrete cracking in their wake.
You guess they got the benefit of Leet's strength boosting tech too.
Worse yet, the tank begins to move again.
Gritting your teeth at the human wave, you step forward, slamming your hands into the ground once more, erecting a barricade of sharpened steel spikes to impale the charging duplicates before most can reach you.
-1 Energy
"Okay, I'm all for being the hero and not killing anyone but you can totally destroy that tank thing right!?" Jess screeches as she charges forward to start slicing away at what few Spree clones make it past your defense.
"Working on it." Taylor hisses, trusting you and Jess to hold the line while she conjures her attack.
Those few seconds felt agonizing as you slogged through the ever increasing army of men, dodged opportunistic attacks from the other capes present - blast of energy from Uber and Leet, and scything waves of red blood from one of the Teeth.
When at last it seemed like you might be about to get overwhelmed Jess intervened.
"Witness, Eurydice." She cried out, stabbing forward with a suddenly needle like weapon that caused every clone it touched to be blasted backwards, taking with them a significant amount of the accompanying mob.
It wouldn't hold them back forever, but it was enough, for only moments later, Taylor finally stepped forward, chopping her sword downward with the point towards the tank.
Thus the familiar scene of a swarm of massive spiders raining untold firepower down on an object.
Typically this would herald the end of the fight. In fact, even against the Simurgh this was the distraction you had needed to finish the monster off.
In this moment of still time however, it didn't seem to work that way. Because as soon as the attack was launched, time seemed to stutter to a stop.
Then as soon as you had registered that something had happened, everyone you were fighting had disappeared, only to reappear safely once the dust had settled.
Though not in the exact same place.
"Omae wa mou, shindeiru." Uber stated gleefully, appearing in front of you with his sword already pressed against your throat.
"Wha-" your Master calls out in distress, barely avoiding several attacks from all around her and shoving Jess out of the way of one or two more.
"My life is complete." Uber mumbles to himself.
You find yourself getting frustrated that these are the idiots you are presently losing to, but avoid being taken out of the fight by becoming intangible before Uber can follow through on his own attack.
"Come on Nexus! You remember last time! Time is totally subjective here! Just surrender and we can finish up - it's not like we were paid to kill you!" Leet yells after Taylor as she leaps for the sky in an attempt to get some breathing room with Jess over one shoulder.
This of course, gives the tank an excuse to begin wheeling around to aim at her. You don't follow after your Master. Instead you watch as she lands on a villain in the distance, while remaining close to Uber - looking for any opportunity to stop him. You don't know which of those present has the controls for the device allowing them to manipulate time - so you suppose you'll just have to take them out one at a time until you find it.
"Think she'll run away? Maybe call her friends?" Leet asks nervously as the lot of them observe your Master cleaving open a gap in the distance. There is a moment where all those present glance around in search of the other end of the Gap, only to relax when one doesn't appear.
"Nah, she's fucked. We probably couldn't beat her normally, but we have infinite time to fix ourselves up and try again in here. She'll only get more tired. Besides - we're moving at like one fiftieth normal speed - there's no way she can portal between here and anywhere else without getting fragged by the difference." Uber declares confidently.
Annoyingly, he isn't entirely incorrect. It isn't as though your Master couldn't fight this group - but she was only one woman. The number of attackers she can handle at one time isn't actually that high, once the crowd controlling potential of her Spiritual Pressure is taken out of the equation.
'Are you alright?' You ask worriedly.
'M'fine. Gimme a second - got a plan.' She responds in a strained tone of voice before abruptly ending communications.
So you sit, and you wait for an opportunity.
Friday, March 11th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
Trainwreck stared at the Gap that had opened up unceremoniously in the center of his work space.
"You think that's bad or..?" He asked no one in particular.
Of course, because he hadn't been alone in some time now, he got an answer anyway.
'There is a psycho targeting her running around the city. Doesn't seem in her character to pull a prank or teleport you somewhere without warning.' Challenger pointed out.
Irked, but aware that time was probably of the essence, he sighed, stopped his work on the gynoid body he'd been making for Challenger - and grabbed a party favor off the wall nearby before charging into the terrifying hole in space his Boss used exclusively to travel around.
Friday, March 11th, 2011
Aspirants Dojo, Brockton Bay
"When you throw you're opponent you want to not only make sure you are rotating your hips to maximize force - but that you actually know where you are throwing them ahead of time. I will demonstrate with-" Aspirant paused in his teaching to stare at the void full of eyes that had manifested in the center of his Dojo floor, causing several of the women he was teaching to skitter away from it in shock.
"…class is cancelled. Please vacate the room. Miss Park, if you could ensure no one enters while I am gone?" He asks, immediately shifting to his bulkiest most durable form and stepping lightly towards the Gap.
"Sure thing boss! Come on Willow!" His energetic assistant allowed, ushering everyone from the room.
He made sure they left, before limbering up, and stepping forward.
God only knew what nonsense it was going to be today.
Friday, March 11th, 2011
Parian's Boutique, Brockton Bay
"Yes I understand that there are only so many models but I think if you just watch the attached video in the email I sent you that-" she paused mid sentence as a Gap opened in her office.
"-I'm sorry something has come up. I'll call you back." She rattled off primly.
She really was thankful that her powers had the utility of allowing her to dress in her costume at speed. It seemed like the only times she ever really needed to wear it anymore she was in a rush.
"Oh, Talyor. Would a message be too much to ask? A note perhaps?" She complained, gesturing for her newly repaired and upgraded dolls to march ahead of her into the void.
Friday, March 11th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"Yeah I know it's kind of lame but… I mean I just think of when you first… you know… and suddenly it's so easy to feel good about myself." Oliver spoke gently, to the unconscious form in front of him.
He would have stroked her hair or something but they weren't actually quite at that point in their relationship. He didn't think she would mind, but he didn't want to take liberties either.
"I just wonder when this will all be over, I guess. Seems like there's always something in this place and-" he stopped, to smile wryly at the Gap that had appeared before him.
"Yeah. Just like that." He mused, standing from his seated position and rolling his shoulders - before sprinting into the portal without a second thought.
Friday, March 11th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
"I just feel like we should have heard from them by now." Danny explained, pacing back and forth in the living room while Katherine, Memory, and Munin watched.
Other people might be accustomed to his daughter's random comings and goings, but he most certainly was not. Especially not when she took Jess with her, and then failed to manifest until many hours after the Mayor claimed to have seen her.
He knew, he had called the man to check.
"I'm sure they're just getting some bonding time in." Katherine dismissed from where she was slovenly splayed out on the couch.
"Five bucks says they're doing something hella cool right now." Mun joked.
"I will wager you two hair brushings and the dishes that she just got distracted by something and dragged Jess with her." Mem countered neutrally.
"Three and the laundry." Mun countered.
"Dea-" Mem began to respond, only for one of his daughters trademark 'Gaps' to appear in the center of the living room.
"-l…"
"No takesies backsies!" Mun declares loudly before sprouting feathers and lunging through the portal well before anyone could stop her.
"What-" Danny asked no one in particular, as Mem gracefully rose from her seat to leap after her sister.
"Here, and here! Come on Danny, this is the life!" Katherine squealed with glee, having vanished and reappeared with his hammer and ski mask, before repeating the process to return with her armor.
"I'm not sure if-" he started to say but was cut off.
"If you don't come I'll start sleeping naked again!" She cheered at him.
"…what do I get if I do come?" He asked suspiciously of the flighty woman.
"The same!" She yelled before diving through the portal.
He tried, super hard not to think of that - but he already knew he had lost that battle the second his word choice registered.
Friday, March 11th, 2011
The Coop, Brockton Bay
"Brother. Wake her First Wing. Rouse the Chaplain. We fly."
Friday, March 11th, 2011
Time Bubble, Brockton Bay
"No. No fucking way." Uber whispers.
You turn from watching him to observe the entirety of your Master's Oathbound and a veritable wave of Pigeons as they spill through from various Gaps in the sky around her.
"Do we have anything for that? Dude- dude! Do we have anything for this?!" Uber demands as Leet begins frantically gesturing in the air.
"We could- fuck, we never set up a ritual so- maybe if-" he babbles.
"What's the problem? Just shoot them!" One of the Teeth growls.
"You fucking troglodyte do you even understand what you're looking at?" Uber demands, turning to glare at him.
"What does it-"
"She cut time you stupid piece of shit! We've been in here for months learning all this magical crap and she fucking cut time!" Uber screams at him.
You take this as your que, appearing behind Leet with a hand already clasped around the top of his head.
-1 Energy
"Foolish Cape's who dare defy the will of my Master." You intone, as your tattoo's flare to life and your power disintegrates the armor covering the Tinker, separating him from the device on his belt and allowing you to slam his head into the ground so hard he instantly falls unconscious.
"Perish."