Don't have much to say for this author's note other than:
Screw it, this is my wormline now, continuity be dammed.
Keep those comments coming, it's my biggest motivator to write more of the story. The best comments are the suggestions and theory ones.
Looking back to the comment that mentioned Taylor, or in this story, Styx, resembles Crawler in terms of power. And honestly, yeah, sort of. I wasn't even thinking about Crawler when I made the powerset but when that fight inevitably comes knocking, we'll just have to see who adapts better.
Now on to Styx's first night on the town.
"You've got your phone?"
"Yes, Dad,"
"All your equipment? Everything Valka gave you?
"Yes, Dad,"
"You remember your way around? Aren't going to get lost?"
"Yes, Dad,"
"Okay, okay. Now, promise me that you'll be safe out there."
"Dad. I literally, not figuratively, can not die." Taylor groaned for what seemed like the umpteenth time now from her father's constant fussing. And what did he do in response? Chuckled at her pain. Some father he was.
"I know, Little Owl, I know. But as a father, it's one's responsibility to worry about their little girl." He scratched his chin. "No matter how unkillable they might be."
Okay, Taylor did chuckle at that one.
"Okay, then Dad. Just so long as you remember that I'll be safe no matter what happens. And I do mean anything." Taylor wiggled her eyebrows.
"Do not pick a fight with supervillains, Taylor." Her father deadpanned, unfazed by the door was knocked on.
"I make no promises~!" Taylor sang as she moved to open the door for Valka, who was standing on the porch.
"There's my favourite little pain in my side!" Valka joked as she stepped inside and hugged Taylor with one arm, using the other to noogie the girl. Taylor broke out of the noogie, making an exaggerated pout, not trying to hide her amusement in the slightest.
"Now," Valka continued "I've come to see you off for your first night of doing that hero thing. That's why I brought this." She waved a shiny black box with an orange bow tied around it before handing it to Taylor.
"And it isn't even my birthday," Taylor remarked slyly.
"Trust me, you stop caring about those after your third century." Valka waved a hand in dismissal. Taylor raised an eyebrow before turning her attention back to her new gift, removing the ribbons that held the lid down, and subsequently the lid, to reveal…
"An axe?" Taylor asked, the slightest bit confused by her gift. The axe was a dark grey, had a handle that slightly arched back, a head that didn't connect to the shaft at the bottom and a single spike coming off the back of the head.
"Yeah." Valka shrugged, perched on the back of Taylor's couch. "Wanted to give you a send-off present, decided a weapon was good and thought that an axe fitted your theme." Valka hopped off the couch and stood back next to Taylor. "This baby is cast adamantine."
"That's not a real thing."
"Not in this reality it's not."
"Huh, neat."
"Yep. And since it's one big piece of it, it'll never break. Not to mention that it's got heartstring running through the middle of it so that it'll bond to you over time."
"And I repeat; Huh, neat," Taylor repeated.
"Anyway," Valka continued, "Since I've finished 'officially' training you…" Valka air quoted. "…You won't be seeing as much as me anymore. I'll probably be hanging around for a month or two more before I jump into my next new adventure.
"But don't think that this'll be the last time we see one another!" Valka quickly interrupted Taylor, who she sensed was about to complain. "I still have a few tips and tricks to teach you before I pop off. And even when I do, I'm sure that you'll find some way to track me down." Valka smiled, patting Taylor's shoulder. "Now, go raze our special kind of madness, Kid."
Taylor nodded, grabbing a hood to wear until she was far away enough from her house. Looking back at her father and mentor, she gave a small and a small wave to them. In return, she got a wave back from her father and a thumbs-up from Valka. Smiling one last time, she pulled the hood over her head…
And Styx headed out the door, and into the night.
- - - - - Lazarus - - - - -
"We need a way out of this, Tats!" Grue called to Lisa, better known as Tattletale, as darkness began to seep out of his body and under the door to the room they were hiding in, hoping it would at least slow down the ABB that were getting into the building.
"Don't fucking shout!" Lisa hissed back. "Lung's out there and he'll be able to hear where we are, and that will cut our window of escape drastically!" She then turned back, sneaking glances outside and listening, allowing her power to kick in. Not that it ever waited for an invitation anyway.
[Moving up from the ground floor.]
[Will take 2 minutes to reach you]
[Lung waiting outside to catch you if attempting to flee.]
[Bitch's dogs will give head start, and a larger one if used to break through the opposite side of the building.]
[Lung will have trouble ramping whilst chasing you.]
'Not exactly appealing, but beggars can't be choosers.' Lisa mentally shrugged as she turned back to her teammates.
"The goons will be on us in two minutes and Lung's waiting outside for us." She informed them, "There isn't any way we can make a clean getaway, but if we use Bitch's dogs, we can break through the other side of the building and gain a head start on Lung. We'll try to lose him on our way to E88 territory and hope either he stops chasing us by then or have the Empire drive him off."
"Really, that's the best plan our great Tattletale can come up with. Running and hoping for the best?" Regent remarked.
"Like you have a better one." Lisa rolled her eyes as she got on top of a dog Bitch had finished growing. "Feel free to stay here and get shot, though. We won't miss you."
Regent groaned. "Fiiiine." He said as he got onto another dog, just as Bitch finished growing her last dog and getting on it herself along with Grue.
[ABB arrived on the same floor as you, 30 seconds] Lisa's power flared.
"Time to move people!" She told the rest of them, which Bitch took as her cue to let out a whistle ('Which Lung most certainly must've heard' Lisa thought.), which caused her dogs to surge forward. Ducking her head, Lisa felt the dog crash through the brick wall and debris pound her back. Falling a few stories, the Dog landed with a jolt before bounding away down the deserted street with the rest of the pack.
A roar behind them, followed by the sound of a wall crashing down, alerted them to the fact that Lung had started to give chase.
[Lung noticed you, and is pursuing] her power said.
'No fucking shit.' Lisa remarked internally as she looked back and caught a glance of Lung, only partially transformed, rounding a corner just as she and the rest of the Undersiders ducked down an alleyway.
[He saw you].
'Fuck'
Lisa didn't have much more time to think as the dogs exited out the alley and started sprinting down the street, and not a few seconds later Lung burst through the very same alley it a cloud of smoke and fire.
'Fuck you power!' Lisa thought as she looked back at Lung, 'This was not a good enough head start!'
"What the fuck is that?" Regent remarked, looking further down the street. Turning forward to see what Regent was talking about, Lisa spied somebody leisurely crossing the road. Somebody, with a flaming head, wearing a black firefighter's outfit and carrying an axe.
'Okay… not something you see every day, but then again, we're getting chased by a dragon whilst riding mutant dogs. What you got power?'
…
…
'Huh, usually it doesn't ta-'
[~Do-do do doooooo…~]
Lisa blinked in shock. And then blinked again. And again.
'Did my fucking power just make the windows shutdown noise?!' Lisa shouted internally as they rapidly approached the figure.
- - - - - Lazarus - - - - -
'Whoa, wonder what that was.' Taylor, as Styx, thought as three large blurs passed her, whipping her coat around in their tailwinds. 'Kind of look like dogs…' She added as an afterthought, watching them run further and further away. Looking back around, she only had a split second to realize something was there before she was run over.
A moment later and Taylor was back up again, noting her tougher body due to being run over.
"Okay. Now that, was rude." Taylor grumbled, turning around to where she could see the culprit of her latest death and leaping forward to grab a hold of their metallic tail.
Wait, metallic tail…?
Taylor actually observed what she had just grabbed, and subsequently made trip and fall onto the tarmac, which apparently was no more than a pissed off, flaming, snarling Lung.
'…' Taylor blinked (figuratively of course). 'Well, I did specify that I made no promises to-' Taylor's train of thought was interrupted. By a backhand from Lung that sent her flying into, no wait scratch that, through a wall in one of the buildings.
Taking a second to reignite and made a motion mimic wiping blood off one's face, she stood up and cricked her nonexistent neck.
"Again. Rude." Taylor told Lung as crouched down before springing forward, fist reared back.
Lung, expecting to catch the punch, raised his hand to do so, only to cry out in surprise (and most likely pain) as Taylor's own hand collided with it and snapped it back. Along with what Taylor assumed was a lot of bones, if the cracking sounds his hand and arm made was any suggestion.
Staggering back as Taylor made a cool three-point landing, eye sockets still trained on Lung, who staggered back, before stopping and making a deep, angered growl at Taylor as his arm hung limply at his side.
"'Ool, 'ill 'ay 'or 'at, 'oo 'isra'ill 'elp!" Lung roared, his words mangled and distorted by his continuously growing form.
"Okay, but to be real, I have no idea what you just said." Taylor deadpanned. Lung got down on all fours, his broken arm seemingly already healed, and let out a stream of fire from his mouth, melting the clothes Taylor was wearing underneath her jacket and overalls, as well as her remaining meaty bits.
Lung straightened back up after about ten seconds of expelling white-hot flames. Inspecting the almost liquid Taylor that laid on the scorched pavement, he grunted in satisfaction that he'd swiftly finished off the insolent little bug, but was unsatisfied with the escaped of the other-
*BLAM!* A fireball slammed into his head, not affecting him, however. Lung turned back and, to his admitted surprise, Saw Taylor standing back up, fire pooling in her hands and around.
"Y'know whilst I didn't exactly suspect fire to be my first extraordinary power, I certainly am not complaining." Taylor, her voice conveying her hidden smirk.
Lung road again (man he was doing that a lot), rearing his head back for another blast of fire. Taylor, realizing this, raised her own hands just in time for Lung to start spitting, meeting it halfway with her newly acquired own fire. A blast of heat and fire exploded out when the two steams of fire began clashing, both participants in this flaming push-of-war having to brace themselves or be knocked away. That's when Taylor realized something.
Lung was smaller than when he had done this the first time.
It was about common knowledge that Lung was able to continuously grow stronger over the course of a battle, so why would he suddenly revert?
Taylor had no time to think about that at the moment as with one more big push, she was able to overpower Lung's fire and slam him directly with her own. Lung staggered back for the second time that battle, which Taylor hope he felt shameful for. Taking the inch she was given and attempting to turn it into a mile, Taylor surged forth and grabbed ahold onto Lung's tail, before running the other way, dragging a flailing Lung with her, who was trying fruitlessly ('Well, almost fruitlessly' Taylor thought) to slow her down.
"HggghhhHAAAAA!" Taylor screamed as she swung Lung around her body and into the air, launching him further south. Crouching her legs and shifting her body, Taylor pushed her legs and leapt into the air after the dragon, leaving a small crater and cracked road beneath her.
"Hey, again Lung!" Taylor shouted as she shot through the air towards Lung, who shifted to look at her (and what Taylor swore was his eyes widening in surprise). "Did ya miss me!?"
She, for the third time that night, grabbed Lung's tail and quickly used it to move him before he had the chance to flick her off. Now behind him, Taylor locked his arms behind his back and used her new fire powers as impromptu jets as they arced over a few buildings, growing closer and closer to the ground.
"Y'know, this has been a pretty eventless patrol." Kid Win said to his partner as they sat on a bench, taking a snack break.
"And you're complaining about that?" Shaman asked back, putting a chip into her mouth.
"Well, not really?" Kid shrugged. "I mean, sure it's a good thing that nothing's happened, but I'm kind of bored, y'know?"
"Bored is good. Bored means that we're doing our jobs right." Shaman nodded at her own wisdom, brushing a few strands of stray hair back into her forest green hood.
"Ugh. You're right, you're right." Kid groaned. "I just wish something would happen, even if it wasn't bad."
Kid, to everyone's abrupt surprise, had his request answered when something impacted the middle of the (thankfully empty) road in front of them.
"..." Shaman slowly untensed herself from where she had splayed herself across the bench, her chips having flown everywhere. She turned to glare at Kid, who was in a similar position. "Fuck you kid."
"Ditto," Kid wheezed, nodding his agreement.
Both Wards slowly put their wasted food packets down and stalked slowly towards the smoking crater, Kid having drawn his laser pistols and Shaman having grabbed two stones from a leather pouch on her belt. Both tensed again when they saw the outline of a person begin to approach them.
"* Cough! Cough! * Man! When was the last time they cleaned this street? Roads should not have that much dust." A voice cut through the obscuring cloud. Kid and Shaman reeled back quite a bit when they saw the voice's owner.
A black firefighter's outfit, battle-axe strapped to their back, and a jawless flaming skull floating over the jacket's neck hole.
"You two may want to call somebody to pick him up." The skull person slapped Kid's shoulder before moving past them and towards the convenience store that was behind them.
The junior heroes stared slack-jawed at the, assumably female due to their voice, as she continued walking as if she hadn't just walked out of a crater.
They then slowly turned back around to see that the dust was dispersing to reveal the unmistakable, unconscious, unpowered form of one ABB leader Lung.
Kid raised his arm slowly, eyes not leaving Lung for a moment, and activated the intercom on his helmet.
"Uh, yeah, console? Shaman and I've got a... situation?"