Current Energy: 20
Friday, March 11th, 2011
Time Bubble, Brockton Bay
"So... vampire?" You ask curiously, not bothering to turn around to actually look at the guy you're talking to, absent the need to reload and already knowing your shots are on target from the gurgling whining noise coming from behind you.
The beauty of demon powers.
Did you technically still need a gun to shoot your demonic power at people now? No, not at all. Your emulation had just about worked out how to project demonic power as a projectile a while ago - but he, and now by extension you, just think guns are cool.
Mostly because they are.
You wait for an answer as you observe your Master sweeping across the current battlefield with a quickness now that she is no longer hindered by the tinker duo's time manipulation tech. The horizon is slowly growing dark and for lack of a better word fractal as time goes on - so if you had to hazard a guess this little pocket dimension is about to pop.
Or explode.
An explosion is honestly a lot more likely in your experience, but you aren't honestly that concerned by the prospect. Taylor will figure it out.
Sighing lazily you finally turn around to eyeball the Uber, finally ceasing your barrage of gunfire, twirling your gun, and popping it back into its holster.
"Sorry I'm used to more chatty bad guys. You... probably need your larynx to talk still." You muse, observing curiously as the creature in front of you rapidly heals itself. You notice out of the corner of your eye that it isn't just 'healing' but actually somehow reversing its injuries, with blood that had spattered across the concrete nearby floating up and back to the afflicted Uber as the many holes you left in him seal shut, and his mouth finally opens to speak.
"How the fuck are you real?" He asks you incredulously, bloodshot eyes widening to disturbing inhuman proportions as he stares at you hungrily.
"Well see, when a mommy space whale and a daddy space whale wanna hook up-" You start sticking the pointer fingers on both of your hands up and then bringing them together for emphasis.
"Jesus christ this is nowhere near as funny when- shut the fuck up! You're a fucking video game character!" Uber screams at you, pointing one clawed finger at you.
"I mean I do have game." You drawl.
Secretly, however, you are deeply curious about this development. You suppose he could be mistaking you for someone else, or possibly, that by pure happenstance a video game closely modelling the reality this emulation came from might exist... infinite monkeys and a typewriter and all that.
Assuming this idiot even has the right guy.
"You're fucking Dante! I refuse to believe that that bitch had a power that could make video game characters real this whole fucking time and-" He is interrupted in his angry diatribe as you blow a hole in his throat and prevent him from talking using a quickly drawn firearm.
"Ah, ah, ah. Language." You say in a tranquil if chastising tone of voice that is characteristic of this emulation when he is taunting someone.
The inner fury you feel at the insult towards your Master is distinctly not in character for the emulation.
Well, that's confirmation that he's probably got the right guy at least.
In a manner you find most fitting for your current form, you decide to release some of this pent up frustration on Uber in a manner only possible using the inhumanly durable beings Dante has spent his entire life fighting. Before he can get a word in edgewise - his throat still in the midst of regenerating - you blow out his knee's with two more quick blasts from your weapon, then jump forward and kick in the chest just right so that instead of flying through the wall of the building opposite you, he hits it and bounces off of it, angling upwards into the air towards you.
Which is about when his throat finishes healing and he screams out in frustration again.
"Are you seriously about to air juggle me?!" He screams, arms flailing in the air as his body instinctively reaches towards you - probably so he can drink your blood or something.
Vampires were kind of new for you really.
Of course, his commentary is just off-colour enough that you decide not to do... exactly what he thought you were going to do, instead stepping to the left and allowing him to hit the ground. Then you grab him by the neck and shake him a bit.
"You're making this weird. Stop making this weird." You grumble at him, tilting your head left then right as your sudden physical proximity causes Uber's eyes to dilate and all sense to leave him. Rather than continue to complain at you, he instead begins to spit and hiss, scrabbling with this clawed hands at your arm in an attempt to get enough leverage to bite you - like a rapid animal.
"See that's more-" You cheer up, then are cut off as he manages to stretch just enough to jam his clawed hand into your chest and through your heart.
You blink, glance down at the offending hole in yourself, then hurl the vampire into the air, where you proceed to play a game of hacky sack with him.
...using your guns.
It's actually interesting how long you can keep a human body in the air like this. Implausible, if not impossible under physics as you understand them.
'How we doing over there?' You send to your Master idly.
'Fine. Please don't kill or torture our enemies. Is that a thing with this guy?' She sends back to you, and you glance over your shoulder to see your allies largely finishing up with the fighting, dragging the unconscious bodies of their foes into a loose pile between them so Taylor can Gap everyone out before the entire pocket dimension or frozen time bubble or whatever you are in collapses.
'What? No! I'm not a bad guy!' You defend yourself instantly, making eye contact with your Master who shoots you an unimpressed look as the sound of gunfire stops and Uber slams into the ground next to you.
"I'm not!" You yell across the battlefield, just as Uber's... kind of corpse really... begins to glow, then disperse into the atmosphere - leaving a mean looking Bo staff made of a swirling red material with sharpened ends like elongated stakes in his place.
You glance at it, glance back to your Master, glance back at the staff.
Then you use your foot to kick the weapon into your waiting hands.
"...okay so, technically this is like, the demon equivalent of uh... so you know eternal slavery is a really harsh way of..." You pause, realizing how flagrantly unethical what you do with things like this is when the soul in question doesn't belong to a literal hellspawn.
"...please tell me you can change him back." Taylor says in a strangled tone, like she isn't quite sure exactly how mad she should be - only that she is somewhat mad.
You lift a finger into the air, then lower it in thought.
"Hard maybe." You respond with a nod, allowing Vla- no wait. You shouldn't name it. You don't get to keep it. Like a stray dog your mom hates.
Damn.
"You look like a hobo." Trainwreck points out, saving you from this awkward moment in time by ambling up to behind your Master to eyeball you.
"Hey, I'll have you know this guy is a successful self-employed businessman with not one, but two fine ladies fighting for his time." You say, waggling your eyebrows at him.
"Gross." Taylor interjects.
"You sleep with either of them?" Trainwreck asks pointedly.
"Guys, gross." Taylor repeats.
"...I mean, no but-" you stop to look down at your Master who's expression says 'do not'.
"Another time." You say, waving off the smirk Trainwreck shoots you at that.
It doesn't take much longer than that for your Master to finish rounding everyone up - and for the entire team, and all their prisoners to get gapped to PRT headquarters.
Friday, March 11th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
Your presence on the PRT's proverbial doorstep does not go unnoticed.
Mostly because your Master adheres to Piggot's 'don't gap into the building' rule and therefore, the entire team, a small army of pigeons, the brats, and Danny's entire contingent of suitors all appear in the parking garage beneath the building, next to the open hole into the sewers below.
"Hey Noelle!" Taylor calls down a casual greeting to the ghost that continues to linger in that pit.
"...hello?" said ghost responds hesitantly.
Fifteen seconds later, a small army of PRT troopers headed by no fewer than four Protectorate members begin to pour into the room, with Armsmaster, in particular, seeming both incredibly stressed and focused.
"Nexus." He nods to her, head panning over the gaggle of captured villains, then the rest of your team, before finally turning to you for slightly longer than the others.
"You changed forms recently?" He asks pointedly, though you can't fathom why he seems so serious about it.
"Few minutes ago. Is it just me or is it like, really dark outside?" You ask, gesturing towards the exit to the parking garage where there is a distinct lack of daylight - which was definitely present when you first started fighting not too long ago.
"It's nearly midnight. Nexus, I'm sorry to have to ask - but we need your entire team-" He pauses to glance at the swarm of pigeons roosting nearby before seeming to make the conscious decision to ignore it. "- to stay the night for Master/Stranger screening. We've had an incident."
Your Master seems taken slightly aback by this, but before she can say anything Danny speaks.
"You can't legally force us to do so though." He notes aloud. Armsmaster glances at him before responding - to Taylor.
"That is the case, but in light of our most recent breach, the Director is heavily considering locking down the city. If marshall law is declared we can make you do so." He responds, though there is no heat or threat in the voice. It's just a statement of fact, and likely one he only feels comfortable making because he already knows your Master is a Hero.
God knows if she wasn't those would be fighting words.
"What happened?" Taylor asks, cutting directly to the heart of the matter as the troopers tromp forward to start collecting your prisoners.
"Predator, Night, and the Butcher are missing." He says grimly.
The members of the Teeth currently being taken away - start to laugh.