Empress Ascendant

by Unruly Marmite

The Emperor wasn't sure how he ended up in a different universe, or what the parasite leeching off Humanity was. But he was the guardian of Mankind, and there was at least one person on this world worthy of taking up his mantle.

7. Chapter 6

And lo, Chapter 6. Taken a little longer than I wanted, but here it is and almost double normal size. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: As always.

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Taylor stood in utter silence as she heard the rest of the story, waiting with uncommon patience for Vista to tell it all. As she heard it, Glory Girl had been injured by Lung fairly early on, but Dauntless had managed to drag her away. Near the end of the fight, Lung had moved to attack Gallant, and Glory had intercepted. Somehow Lung had done enough damage to knock her out, and one of his goons had thrown a grenade that apparently produced a small black hole at the PRT building. While everybody was distracted Lung had escaped, but Glory Girl had been missing. They were assuming she had been kidnapped. The alternative, that she had been caught in the grenade radius, was something no-one wanted to contemplate.

Taylor listened, and then nodded.

"Alright. No doubt Lung will make some kind of contact with us once he gets back to human, especially since Bakuda will need some medical attention after what she managed to do to herself." She said quietly, her voice not wavering from a steady monotone. Vista looked up at her.

"What happened?"

"Bakuda attacked the Undersiders, kidnapped Grue, Regent and Hellhound. I got involved because I was nearby, saved Tattletale. Bakuda learned that throwing grenades at a telekinetic is a bad idea. Exciting night."

Vista nodded slowly, and Taylor briefly touched her shoulder.

"It'll be ok, Vista." She said, managing to inject some tiny amount of optimism into her tone, dead to disguise the howling tempest of rage within. She sighed.

"Well, there's no point in waiting around here. I might as well go home, can't fight Lung on no sleep."

Just as she turned, she heard a noise of disbelief from Browbeat.

"You're leaving? Just like that- don't you care?"

Taylor clenched her free fist, so tightly that if she hadn't been wearing gloves her fingernails would have left bloody gouges in her palm. Her voice came out low and level, though it was hard to force it past the sudden rage that was thick in her throat.

"Don't care? Of course I care, Browbeat. Do not presume I don't. But I have no patience for fools right now, and you Director would most assuredly test that."

Taylor turned, her eyes locking onto Browbeat, and the rookie Ward cowered before her furious gaze.

"Rest assured, Browbeat, that I care more than most here, and I shall be one of the first to offer my aid to finding Glory Girl. But I cannot do that without rest, especially when we have no idea where she is."

Her voice did not raise, but instead became more deadly, and she stepped closer to Browbeat. The fear was positively pouring off him, and it somehow fuelled her rage until Vista stepped between them.

"Browbeat, keep your mouth shut. Circ, calm down. You're frightening the rookies."

Vista herself was not free of fear: it edged her voice and her mind, but it was barely present, and her courage brought Taylor to her senses. She halted, her hand unclenching and the unconscious gathering of her power dissipating.

"Of course. My apologies, it has been a stressful night for us all. As I said, I must go…I will speak to you again another time, Vista."

The youngest Ward nodded to her, and Taylor turned and mechanically walked away, her rage briefly banked, but still smouldering.

Taylor returned home swiftly. She made her way into her house, sneaking in through the window. Her father was in the house, but deeply asleep. She applied a slight deepening of his sleep, enough to keep him unaware, and quickly changed her clothes and made her way to the bathroom. One swift shower later, and she had managed to compress her fury into a tight ball that wasn't threatening to consume her and send her into a vicious frenzy. She still couldn't sleep, but it didn't take her long to consider an option for that.

"SLEEPING PILLS, REALLY?"

'I need to sleep for at least a few hours. It won't hurt, and who will never know?'

"WE WOULD."

Taylor murmured sourly, but she didn't get up from where she slumped on her bed. She was tired anyway, and maybe drugging herself might not be the best option. She leaned against her headboard and closed her eyes, channelling her power in a gentle stream that didn't aggravate her headache and accelerated her healing, soothing her aches and pains. With this, despite her churning mind and still present anger, she was able to fall asleep quickly, troubled though her slumber was.

She was awoken by the quiet ringing of a cellphone. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes hastily, and answered the phone.

"Yes?"

Her father was still asleep, but Taylor re-applied the gentle psychic touches to keep him asleep and unaware. Better that he knew nothing.

"Circaetus? It's Tattletale. You have to check Uber and Leet's stream, now."

Taylor stood, still blinking but alarmed by the tone of Tattletales voice. She fired up her old computer, mentally cursing the slowness of the computer and the Internet connection, and glanced at the clock. Six in the morning. At least she had managed almost five hours sleep. She waited with rapidly decreasing patience until the computer loaded, and the stream was ready. It had already ended, but It could be replayed. She hit the button, and scowled as Lung came into view: how had he gotten hold of Uber and Leets camera? Were they so stupid that they had taken Bakuda to her base?

"OR SO UNFORTUNATE AS TO BE FORCED TO DO SO."

Lung was, as always, bare chested, and his metal mask was in place. He began to speak, his accent thick and his tone filled with condescensiom.

"Brockton Bay. I know you are hearing this. I have captured the famous Hero, Glory Girl."

The camera panned slightly, showing Glory Girl, tied up and unconscious. Taylor gritted her teeth.

"She is unharmed. More than I can say for my Lieutenant Bakuda, yes? Indeed. Fortunately, I am not a cruel man. I shall allow Glory Girl to leave unharmed, so long as the healer Panacea agrees to aid Bakuda, within three days. Three days, Panacea. And after that? Well, a heroine does not need ten fingers."

Lung turned his head, as though glancing at something, and then leaned closer to the camera, his voice lowering and roughening.

"And this last message, this is for the vigilante Circaetus. Circaetus, can you hear me? I offer congratulations. You have made an enemy of all the gangs of Brockton Bay. We shall meet, Circaetus, and you shall not survive. I, Lung, decree this. Flee or fight, Circaetus, your doom is decided."

Taylor waited as the stream ceased, and began to loop. She carefully closed down the Internet window and shut off the computer before letting out a long sigh and picking up her cellphone again.

"Tattletale."

"You've seen the video, then. What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to see how well Lung can back up his words, of course. Do you know where he's keeping Bakuda and Glory?"

"It's the same place as he's keeping Grue and the others, but I don't know where exactly."

A pause, and then Tattletale continued.

"I do know where a smaller safehouse is, though."

"Give me it." Taylor said quietly. Tattletale told her, and Taylor nodded.

"I'll go there and ring you once I'm done. We can plan more then."

"Circaetus…are you sure?"

Taylor sighed, but her course was clear and her mind set.

"Positive."

Taylor did not leave the house for most of the day. Much as she burned to leave immediately, to begin hunting Lung and Bakuda and the ABB, she was weary and wounded from the encounters last night and needed time to recuperate. As such, she remained in her room for much of the day, sat in a position that was almost meditative and focusing her energies upon healing. A relatively common technique among those Psykers that could achieve it, it was of little effectiveness upon others, and even limited when used on oneself. In conjunction with her own enhanced Perpetual healing, however, it would return her to peak condition before she left. Then she would be battle ready. Something that would be needed, she knew. All day long explosions crossed the air, and Taylor mentally counted the buildings that were reported bombed. All more reasons for Bakuda fall.

Her clock went off with a quiet alarm at nine o'clock, and Taylor opened her eyes. She had only left her room to eat all day. It was time to leave again, but for something far more productive. Before that, however, she needed to prepare.

Taylor stood in front of her mirror, dressing with mechanical precision. She could not afford anything to be wrong. Not now, when she had something to do. The trousers, shirt and black pullover first, covering her body and providing some form of protection. The boots next. And then the mask. It had taken her some time, but Taylor had managed to sew the balaclava portion of her mask into her hood, cutting it free so that she could lose her coat without losing her hood: she shrugged her coat on first. Her hair, pulled back into a tight ponytail, was tucked under the collar before she hunched her head a little, sliding the mask on. It covered the upper portion of her face, with eyeholes, and ran down her cheeks, a section fitting snugly under her chin to hold it all. Her exposed mouth was covered by her scarf, carefully wound into position, and she pulled her gloves on last. A hand extended, and her charred staff, still smelling faintly of burned wood, was pulled easily into her hand. The picture was complete, the image of Circaetus fully prepared. The only question that remained was the greatest one: would it be enough?

Taylor had no illusions. It would be enough, or she would make it so. Doubt is for the dying.

She looked at her hand for a moment, flexing the glove.

'Gauntlets, I think. And maybe a lightning claw. Something for the future, though. At the moment…'

Tatters of pink-purple flames briefly flickered around her fingers, and Taylor smiled without humour.

'Let's see how resilient Lung really is.'

Taylor moved towards the ABB hideout with steady purpose. Her plan was simple: she would find someone there. She would destroy the ABB until one of them revealed to her the location of Bakuda, and then she would rescue Glory Girl. Simple. Possibly not easy, but simple.

"Circaetus!"

Taylor stopped dead in the middle of the street, aggravation blossoming in her as the shouter descended to street level- or almost street level. Rune. The Empire Cape was floating on a chunk of tarmac rubble, and two dumpsters orbited her in lazy spirals. Victor was just behind her, and given that Taylor could sense Othella nearby he was presumably invincible-ed. She didn't have time for this.

"Circaetus. Going to rescue Glory Girl?" Rune asked, an edge of malice tainting her cheerful tone. Taylor turned her eyes to the Empire Cape.

"I intended to, Rune, but you seem to be in my way." She said, mustering a modicum of patience and civility. Rune looked amused beneath her hood.

"Yes. I'm aware that you intend to hunt down the sub-human Lung. It's almost poetic, the brave hero going to rescue the fair damsel from the Asian beast."

Taylor narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on her staff, and her voice gained a harsh edge.

"Don't bring your pathetic ideology into this, Rune. It was stupid the first time it was espoused and it's even more stupid now."

"Stupid? Foolish? Easy to say that when you hide beneath the PRT. When you ignore that the rampaging beast is Asian, that the insane bomber planting explosives in heads is Asian, that the PRT was attacked and a hero kidnapped to rescue a mass murdering Asian! What are they but beasts, savages, inhuman primitives enslaved to their baser nature?"

Taylor gave a snort of disdain.

"That's a pretty speech, Rune. Did Kaiser write it? I wouldn't be surprised, he doesn't seem to have any skills other than talking. You call them beasts and savages? What then is Hookwolf? What are Night, and Fog? You disgust me. You draw from a weakling regime that did nothing but draw its own destruction upon itself, a regime that barely lasted ten years before falling to its own weakness, and you trumpet your greatness as though you have any success. Let me tell you, Rune: you are nothing. Supported only because the other choice is the Merchants, always afraid, ranks filled with weaklings clinging to an ideology that brought no triumph, no victory to cover up their own inadequacies."

Taylor stopped, just long enough to let out an ugly laugh.

"You claim to be so superior, but your spurious claims are nothing when you have no power to reinforce them. If you are so great, then tell me: why are the leaders of two of the great three gangs non-white?"

Rune levitated a fraction further, her composure starting to break, and Taylor itched to unleash her full fury upon the arrogant girl. Rune was nothing, her powers paling before the might that Taylor could bring to bear, and she would learn it.

"You talk a great deal, Circaetus, but we do not have to be foes." Victor interrupted smoothly. Taylor shifted her gaze to him, calculating, but saying nothing. He seemed to take this as his cue and stepped forward.

"Kaiser has observed you, and found your skill to be adequate, if lessened by inexperience. He would offer a great position in his ranks to you…wealth, power, whatever you may wish, even to the forgiveness of your crimes against the true Empire. He notes that you already wear the eagle…perhaps you are not so far from us as you believe…"

Taylor raised her hand, cutting Victor off.

"Do not consider my Acquila a symbol of your beliefs, Victor. And even if it was, why would I ever serve one such as Kaiser? He hides behind numbers, as though it makes him great. He hides behind honeyed words, as though they make him strong. I would never serve him. Not even if he was the only option left. Even then, I have my pride…I will not bow to some petty racist with some delusions of grandeur."

Victor looked hard at her, but bowed his head and stepped back.

"So be it." He murmured, and Taylor saw him tense for battle. She looked at Rune, still levitating and clearly angry.

"Rune. Victor. I shall allow you one chance: Leave now. Cease to bar my way, and I shall allow you to leave. Do not squander my mercy lightly."

Rune sneered.

"You think you're so strong, Circaetus? If that stupid chink Lee nearly killed you, I'll shove your boasts down your throat! We'll see who's the strongest telekinetic!"

Taylor shrugged coldly.

"Yes. We will." She said icily, before reaching out and wrenching control of Runes weapons from her.

The dumpsters hit Victor with brutal force. Invulnerable as he might be, the laws of physics could not be denied and he was carried aloft, crashing into a warehouse and being buried by the wall and dumpsters. Rune fell as the asphalt block under her tilted suddenly, and Taylor ran towards her as the block added to the pile over Victor. Rune tried to stand, on her hands and knees, and Taylor kicked her. Well, not kicked: it was less a kick and more a standing stomp. Taylor's bootheel hit Rune in the collarbone, and a sickening snap was closely followed by a scream. Taylor let her staff drift behind her as she grabbed Rune by her injured arm and dragged her upright. The screams intensified, and Taylor threw her away, turning and holding out a hand to Othella as she broke cover. The Empire Healer halted, falling to her knees in desperate supplication as her airway closed, and Taylor did the same to Rune. The piercing screams abruptly turned to horrified, desperate choking.

"You see?" Taylor asked, almost mildly.

"You see how terribly outmatched you are? How foolish you were to challenge me? I could kill you all, here and now, and it would be easy."

Taylor considered for a moment, wondering if she should simply remove them from the city forever, but then reconsidered. There was no kill order for them, it would simply make her a murderer. She released Othella first, dragging her closer with a gesture and planting her hand over the Empire cape's face. A brief psionic jolt, and the healer was down. Rune was next, and Taylor let her go. Telekinetic tendrils hooked onto her arms and dragged her, eliciting fresh screams.

"Rune. Rune, Rune, Rune. Have you learned your lesson yet?" Taylor asked, holding the smaller girl up with ease. Rune bit down a scream, panting and rasping with the effort, and Taylor sighed.

"All that defiance, so utterly wasted. Consider yourself exceedingly fortunate: my business tonight is with the ABB, not the Empire. But I shall return to you soon enough, Rune. If you are sensible, you may want to flee town."

Taylor briefly locked eyes with the terrified and agonised villain.

"Just a thought." She murmured before she knocked Rune out and let her slide to the ground. She left the three Empire capes there, detritus fallen in her wake. She did not look back.

The ABB safehouse was, as Taylor might have expected from the Docks, a warehouse. It appeared to be in relatively good condition, and Taylor could approve- it made it much more non-descript. Whether or not it retained that condition after she had finished was unknown. She thought it unlikely. It probably depended on how much of a fight the ABB put up. She walked to a side door, rather than the much larger main doors, and knocked politely. She took a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh as someone's mind approached, curious and a little wary. A deadbolt slid back.

"What do you-Circaetus!"

Taylor blew the door off it's hinges with a psychic blast and strode in, barely adding enough trajectory to the door that it swatted the ABB member aside rather than crushing him. There was utter silence for a long moment as she surveyed the inside of the warehouse.

"What I am here for is information. I will not harm any more of you, so long as you tell me where Bakuda and Lung are. Tell me, and I will allow you to leave unharmed."

Her response was a shout of defiance, and the dozen gang-members inside grabbed gun or some form of hand weapon. Bullets rained towards her, but Taylor simply deflected them.

"So be it. I offered the hand of mercy, but you have elected the way of pain!"

Taylor swung her staff in a sweeping motion, and every gun, bat or knife was torn from the hands of it's owner. As the cries of shock reached her she extended her other hand, and lightning ripped from each fingertip, each purple-tinged bolt striking an ABB member and bringing them down in writhing pain. The last one, as yet unharmed and closest to her, let out a scream of challenge and ran towards her with a knife he hastily pulled from his waistband. Taylor turned to him, and his charge faltered before her gaze. Her staff struck his wrist hard, and she shoved him against a wall with a simple blast of power, holding him in position. With the other ABB out of the fight, she walked towards him, the pressure increasing with every step, forcing him against the wall, spread-eagled and helpless.

"I want you to remember that I gave you a choice." Taylor said mildly, increasing the pressure the man was experiencing, but only on his head.

"Now. I want to know where Lung and Bakuda are. Or I suppose either one will do. Otherwise…well, we'll see which gives first. The wall or your skull. I don't much care, but I wouldn't give you the best odds."

The man screamed and struggled, but Taylor held him still and this part of the Docks was almost entirely empty, especially at night. He screamed only once, briefly, and then began babbling in his native tongue. Taylor didn't speak it, but The Emperor did, and he was able to translate most of it.

"Praying? It won't help. Even if they existed, they could not offer you salvation. Not now. Not ever."

Some part of Taylor stirred uneasily at what she was doing. It was wrong, she supposed, some abandonment of her morals inherent in her actions, but it was needed. She could not afford the luxury of mercy and kindness. Not now, with more than her life on the line.

Another mind popped into existence, and Taylor turned on her heel, dropping the man and bringing her staff up. It met the blade of a knife that was coming towards her.

Oni Lee dissolved into ash an instant after she blocked, appearing on the other side of the room and underhanding a grenade towards her. Taylor knocked it aside with a wave of her hand. Conventional explosive.

Lee appeared on her right and tried to ram his knife into her neck. Taylor ducked and snapped a boot towards his ankle but he dissolved into ash again and he was on her other side and Taylor threw out her hand, a whip of lightning flicking from her fingers towards his skull but it was another clone. Lee appeared opposite her, his mask staring directly towards her. There was no emotion behind that fanged, leering mask, barely any soul, and Taylor repressed a shudder. It was…unnatural.

She met his gaze, slowly trailing her lightning whip along the ground before drawing it up, wrapping it around her hand and forearm, encasing her fist in a gauntlet of purple-white lightning. She let her staff go, keeping it levitating next to her with a faint application of power: the weapon was practically part of her now, it wasn't at all difficult.

"You made a mistake coming here, Lee. You're all alone. Besides, I would have though Bakuda would have told you: don't bring grenades against a telekinetic."

Lee reached for his grenades.

Taylor jerked her hand up, fingers curling, and every pin popped out of every explosive.

Lee reacted with lightning quickness, she'd give him that: the knife in his hand sliced through the bandoleer strap and he hurled the belt at her. She thrust her hand out again, sending the belt hurtling towards the roof. The explosion was a kaleidoscope of fire and ice and endless, ageless voids that consumed each other, leaving nothing behind but a gaping hole in the warehouse roof. Lee returned his gaze to her, slowly drawing a second knife with his free hand. Taylor pulled her staff back into her hand, and nodded to him.

"No Hookwolf. No bombs. Just you, me and a good old-fashioned beatdown. I'm going to enjoy this."

And Lee teleported.

Taylor ducked his first knife swipe, turning the motion into a roll that carried her away. She rose and turned at the same time, her left hand swiping in a motion that trailed lightning, but it only cut through ash and she was barely able to bring her staff up to block as Lee brought both knives down, now holding them point down in his hands. He tried to leverage the position to drag her staff away, but she stepped towards him and struck with her lighting hand. He teleported again.

Taylor gritted her teeth and struck her staff hard on the floor, letting loose a circular wave of force that shoved Lee hard back before she dragged every available bit of detritus towards herself, tearing apart the furniture in the room and bringing it into a spinning cyclone that would shield her briefly. She stood, locating Lee but then there were two of him and they came through the shield, one bursting into ash and she guessed correctly and her thrust staff hit him in the ribs and she threw him into a wall. He burst into ash on contact but he was behind her again and a chair-leg hit his arm and knocked him off balance and even though he staggered back her swipe with her lightning coated hand left a long scorch mark on the chest of his bodysuit. He teleported away, once again looking at her in silence. Taylor met his gaze, as best they could stare each other down through the still swirling fragments of door and chairs and tables. This was harder than she expected. At least she didn't have to move much: the ABB goons were still flat out on the floor and she couldn't imagine Lee taking any pains to keep them alive.

"I'm going to give you the same chance I gave these idiots, Lee. Tell me where Lung and Bakuda are, and I'll let you go."

Lee stared at her and said nothing, as always. Taylor nodded to herself.

"Yeah, I kinda expected that. Guess I'll just have to beat it out of you."

Without any gesturing, the storm of shrapnel hurled itself at Lee. Taylor already knew that he would have teleported, and simply rammed her staff into the ground, releasing a telekinetic wave, carefully calculated to not be enough to throw Lee back. He leapt through the stirred up dust, knife lunging at her, and Taylor twisted her body, having tracked him. The knife skated along her side and Taylor threw in a headbutt. Lee staggered back, and Taylor lunged forward, her lightning-encased fist ramming through his breast and body, but it was too easy and he disintegrated into a cloud of ash and she scowled.

"All these Naruto-style clone tricks are getting mighty boring, Lee. I'd expected something better." She said, sourly considering. If she could just kill him, a single heavy blow would do it and even if affecting his internal organs was too hard without physical contact she could blind him or something. But she needed him alive, and she needed to be able to make proper eye contact to ransack his mind for Lung's location. Reducing his eyeballs to smashed pulp wouldn't help with that. Then again, she didn't really need to make eye contact. She just needed to be close. Besides, illusions were a lot easier than internal injuries, and were less incriminating. She just needed him close.

Lee teleported. The blade caught her this time, drawing a long cut down her left forearm as she tried to block, but she let go of her lightning and it expanded into a brief sphere that drove Lee back before he could use his second knife. Taylor seized her chance, and drove a psychic attack into Lee's mind. Really she was affecting the nerves running from his eyes. In actuality, it was like detonating a flashbang at point blank range. Lee hit the wall, one arm coming up to his face and the other cutting blindly.

"HE CAN'T TELEPORT WITHOUT SIGHT!" The Emperor said, his tone one of remembered realisation, and Taylor remembered what he meant: Oni Lee required his sight to teleport. She had her chance now. She twisted her arm and pulled, and a brick exploded from the wall and smashed Lee in the leg. There was a crack, and Taylor lunged across the room, a long wooden splinter from a broken chair settling in her hand. She angled herself to avoid the knife Lee waved, and drove the splinter into his shoulder, pinning Lee to the wall with the stake-like shard. Lee dropped one knife. Taylor snapped his other arm with her staff, a single blow channelling energy through the bone until it couldn't hold. Taylor took a long breath, grabbing Lee's chin. His eyes opened again just as she forced him to look at her, meeting his blank eyes and driving into his mind.

Oni Lee was not a strong man. Physically, maybe, and his power was impressive enough, but there was nothing behind it. No emotion. No personality. No soul. No resistance to her at all. Most people, they had some kind of innate defence that had to be broken. Lee had nothing. His mind was an open book waiting to be read, and Taylor was able to pull the location of Bakuda and Lung from him without effort. The mental attack knocked him unconscious, and she stared at his slumped form, thinking.

'I should kill him.'

"SHOULD YOU?"

'Would anybody miss him? He's a killer without a soul, without a personality. He barely has a mind. He isn't any use to anyone except Lung.'

"HMM. YES. NOBODY EXCEPT LUNG. WHO YOU ARE HUNTING."

'You think that we should keep him. In case we need bait.'

Taylor thought about it. It wasn't a bad suggestion, really: Lung had shown that he would be willing to attack the PRT to rescue Lee. It would make a good trap. Besides that, Lee had beaten her before. Taylor was loath to let Lee leave life while still one for one against her. She shrugged and reached for her phone.

"PRT, how may we help you?"

The tone was bored and lazy. Taylor decided that she might as well wake them up.

"You can help me by listening. This is Circaetus. I've managed to take down Oni Lee- I'd send some people before he wakes up."

The quick intake of breath on the other side of the phone indicated that the PRT operator was now listening, and listening well. Taylor gave the address calmly and curtly, and the operator hastily spoke before she could put the phone down.

"Ah, Circaetus, could you wait for one minute? One of the Protectorate wants to talk to you."

Taylor glanced around herself.

"I can wait, but not for long." She said. The operator quickly thanked her, and Taylor leaned against a wall, waiting.

"Circaetus? This is Dauntless- we met some time ago."

"Yes, I do remember. What do you want, Dauntless?"

A brief, humourless chuckle answered her.

"I want Lung in a jail cell, and Bakuda along with him. But I might not get that. You've found out where he is, haven't you?"

"No." Taylor replied, smooth and immediate. Dauntless snorted.

"Yeah, I believe you. You want to get in alone, I get that. Just do me a favour? Once you're in, send us a call. I owe Lung for that little debacle. Oh, and by the by…Bakuda's bombs have been found at a couple of police stations. It's been confirmed, she's got a kill order on her. So if you need to get a little rough, none of us will hold it against you."

Taylor let out a non-committal hum.

"And Lung?"

"No kill on him, unfortunately. Try to avoid him if you can. And think about making that call. If you manage to found out where the ABB headquarters is, of course."

"I'll think about it. Thanks, Dauntless."

"My pleasure, Circaetus."

Dauntless, Taylor decided, was a good man.

Tattetale's mind felt nervous. Taylor could understand why: they were about to mount a rescue mission, into the base of one of the largest gangs in Brockton Bay, and Tattletale had no combat powers.

"You don't have to come along, you know. I can do this alone." Taylor said. Tattletale looked at her, a quick twitch that betrayed the nervousness she was hiding behind an insouciant façade.

"What? No. I'd never hear the end of it if I left you to rescue the others alone. Just…just try to stay under the radar, yeah? I'd like to avoid explosives and bullets."

Taylor shrugged.

"I'll do my best. Staying behind me is probably a good idea, though."

"Stay behind you. Uh huh, sure. Got it."

Taylor smiled behind her mask before turning.

"The ABB safehouse is just over there. See the apartment building? It's joined to the warehouse next to it- illegally of course, but that hardly matters. It's Bakuda's lair according to my information: Lung doesn't live there, he doesn't trust her enough. He might turn up though."

"Oh. Might. Good. Do we know if Glory Girl, Grue and the others are in there?"

Taylor shook her head.

"Don't know. There's a good chance that they are, since Lung would want Bakuda to operate on the other Undersiders, but there's no guarantee. Bakuda will know where they are, though, and she'll be in there."

"You think we can make her talk?" Tattletale asked. Taylor shrugged, feeling an odd apathy.

"Everybody talks. Only question is how long it'll take."

Tattletale swallowed.

"Right. Terrifying. Are we going to get this started, then?"

Taylor nodded.

"Can you see any cameras? I want to keep this sneaky for as long as possible." She said. She herself couldn't see any, but Tattletale's power might give her some insight Taylor lacked. Tattletale gazed for a few minutes, and Taylor spent the time carefully locating the minds inside the building. If she was stronger she might well have been able to knock them all unconscious from out here, but for the moment her range with that sort of thing was limited. It was why she preferred to make physical contact when transmitting psychic sparks. Easier. Less draining.

"I can't see any cameras." Tattletale reported quietly, and Taylor nodded.

"Alright. Let's go then."

The two of them crept across the street, heading for the door to the apartment building. They crouched in the shadow of the doorway, while Taylor pressed her hand to the door and worked the lock.

"You can do that?" Tattletale whispered. Taylor glanced at her.

"I can do a lot of things."

The lock clicked, and Taylor led the way inside. The door led into a concrete hallway, bland and miserable and barely lit by a flickering strip-light on the ceiling. A stairway stretched into dimness at the end of the corridor: there was no elevator.

"Stairs up or down?" Taylor asked Tattletale, whispering. Tattletale was tense: she had taken a pistol from somewhere and was holding it with both hands.

"Up, I guess. Unless you can find anyone?"

"Hmm…there isn't anyone downstairs, at least. Best guess, this is just some kind of quarters, we'll be more likely to find the prisoners in here. Warehouse is probably the workshop. We'll go up then- try not to shoot me by accident?"

"I'll try."

"Comforting." Taylor murmured, but she led the way regardless. She couldn't find anyone too close by: she had located the prisoners, and two guards outside what she presumed were their cells, but she had to hide at least some of her powers from Tattletale.

The building was eerily quiet as Taylor and Tattletale slowly climbed the staircase. Taylor was somewhat surprised that there were no guards, but she supposed that Bakuda was hardly a tactical genius. Besides, the ABB Tinker probably thought that her hideout would never be found. Everybody made mistakes.

"So, seven floors. This is all Bakuda's base, it'll be her stuff." Tattletale whispered as they paused on the first floor. Taylor nodded.

"There wasn't anybody in the basement, so there might be a prison floor?" she tried. Tattletale nodded.

"Seems likely. Don't know what the rest are for, but we can probably guess that the prison floor- assuming there is one- is near the middle. Harder to escape."

Taylor nodded, noting that Tattletale looked strained. Then again, her friends were prisoners of a mad bomber and her boss was probably pushing her. It was understandable.

"There's somebody on this level." Taylor murmured to Tattletale, slowly moving off the stairway and creeping across to the door that she could feel someone behind. Carefully placing her feet to minimise any noise, she reached out and mentally placed a feeling of ignorance upon the ABB member, a slightly stronger version of the ability she had first honed at her school. She pushed the door open with her left hand and rose to her feet, laying down her staff: she would need both hands if this was to be quick and quiet.

The ABB member was a short man, bent over a bench- the room looked like an armoury, Taylor guessed that he was doing maintenance. She slid into the room, and he coughed. Taylor stilled, waiting until he stopped coughing and straightened, pressing a hand against the back of his neck and closing his windpipe with a psychic stranglehold. The reaction was almost immediate- the man flailed, but her stranglehold extended to most of his torso and he could only twitch weakly. Taylor gestured with her free hand, and a wad of oily rag flew from the bench the man was leaning over into her hand. A brief motion forced the makeshift gag into his open mouth, and Taylor released the grip on his throat and lifted him with a gesture, wrapping coils of power around him and pressing him against the wall.

"Hello." Taylor said, quite gently. The man looked at her, wide eyed and frightened, his breath rasping through the gag as he breathed again.

"Obviously you can't talk right now, but I'd really like you to be able to. Really, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to hurt Bakuda. And I think you can help me with that, right?"

The man looked terrified, and Taylor felt his intention to scream before he did it. She made a pinching motion with the outstretched hand that was pinning the man to the wall, and his windpipe closed again. Taylor kept it so for a few seconds, then released him.

"Yes yes, all the tired defiance and desperation. Normally I would indulge you, but I really don't have time. So. Tell me, where is Bakuda? Where is Lung? And most importantly, where are the prisoners?"

The man was crying. Taylor could sense the silent shock and horror that Tattletale was hiding, and it annoyed her. She didn't have time to be nice. Not anymore.

"Incidentally, if you don't tell me I've no use for you. You haven't got long. So, are you going to tell me what I want to know?"

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Taylor was aware that her soft tone of voice probably made the scene more horrible. The greater part of her simply didn't care. The ABB member nodded frantically, still sobbing silently. Taylor felt her conscience twinge a little, but it was a muted cry that she easily ignored. This was for the greater good.

"Alright. We'll keep this to yes or no, ok? Nod or shake your head, nice and easy. First question- Is Bakuda here?"

She lightened her hold on the man, enough that he could move his head, and he nodded frantically.

"She is here, hmm? Is Lung here?"

Headshake. That was good, easier to take him down. Honestly though, she had seen most of the answers to her questions in his mind, this was a show put on for Tattletale. It was a good thing that the lie detector portion of Tattletale's power seemed thrown off a little by her psyker abilities.

"Do you know where he is?"

Headshake. Unsurprising.

"Are the prisoners all in one place?"

Nod.

"Guarded?"

Nod.

"More than one guard?"

Nod.

"Less than five?"

Nod.

"Where are they, exactly? This is the first floor, so second floor? Third? Fourth? Fifth?"

Taylor paused between each floor, giving the man time to nod or shake his head. The prisoners were on the fourth floor- that was only two away. She repeated the process with Bakuda, finding that the mad bomber was currently in the warehouse. Taylor nodded, walking closer.

"Thank you. You've made my job a lot easier, you know? In return, why don't you just…sleep?"

Taylor pressed gently fingers to the mans head, and a psychic spark left him unconscious. She turned to Tattletale.

"Fourth floor it is, then. Come on, we don't want to be here too long."

Tattletale followed silently.

The fourth floor smelled of blood and antiseptic. Taylor could smell it even before she had reached the top of the stairs, a smell that made her frown and wrinkle her nose. She supposed that she knew where Bakuda did her surgery, now. A tiny part of her coldly approved of keeping prisoners in such a situation- break their spirits by allowing them some glimpse of their fate. Taylor tried to ignore the thought.

There were three guards, sitting around a table and playing cards. Two of them had lighted cigarettes- Taylor wondered if it was to try to drown out the smell. Honestly, she didn't care. They were just enemies now, and she needed to take them out quietly. Same method as before: keep them ignorant of her presence, move closer. A hand on two shoulders, psychic spark, two men down. Close a windpipe, psychic spark, third down. Easy.

She looked over the table for a key and saw nothing.

"Tattletale? Any keys? They're keeping Glory contained somehow, so I don't want to just tear the doors off." She said. Tattletale nodded, focusing and then pointing.

"The big guy. I'll take a look at the doors, see if I can work out how they're still there." She said. Taylor nodded, leaning down and rifling through the gang members pockets until she located a key ring with three keys on it.

"Shit." Tattletale said quietly. Taylor looked across, quickly moving to the Undersider.

"What?"

"The doors have bombs on them. Fuck! Even with the key the bombs need to be disarmed before we can free anyone!"

Taylor felt her jaw tighten in anger, but managed to rein in her murderous inclination.

"Can you disarm them?" she asked. Tattletale was paler than usual, but she nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so. So long as I can get a look at it- can you get the plating off the wall?"

Now that Tattletale had pointed it out, Taylor could see that the doorframes were surrounded by crudely fastened plates of metal. She stepped closer, carefully prying one from the wall and lifting it away. She turned her back, watching the stairs as Tattletale worked and scanning the rest of the floor. It was one giant room, the walls and apartments opposite the cells having been knocked down and stripped back to the concrete. The place was lit by the same miserable, weak strip lights as everywhere else, but there were two floodlights placed over a table- almost certainly Bakuda's surgery table.

'Because what this city was missing was a mad doctors lair.' She commented bitterly.

"YOU WILL HAVE PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITY TO SATE YOUR ANGER ON DESERVING TARGETS."

'Doesn't mean I'm ok with all this.'

Mental silence joined physical silence for several minutes, leaving Taylor to stare into the stairwell and keep a careful track of the people in the building. Two on the third floor, six in the warehouse.

"I've got it." Tattletale said suddenly, straightening. Taylor stood from her half crouch and hurried over, already taking out the key. She waited until Tattletale indicated the right one, and carefully pushed it into the door.

"You're sure we won't explode?" she asked. Tattletale gave a small, grim smile.

"Pretty sure. If we do get exploded, I'll be sure to send you a get well card." She said. Taylor gave a soft laugh, and turned the key. The lock clicked. The door swung open. The occupant came out swinging.

Taylor brought her hands together, catching the charging prisoner in a web of force that blunted the punch and let her block it with crossed arms. It still stung like hell and drove her back a step, and Taylor was glad that she had been gradually moving towards being physically superhuman since her powers awoke- that hit might well have fractured bones in a normal human. She'd still have a bruise.

"Glory!" she hissed, latching on to the arm and pulling the heroine closer to her. Glory Girl stopped struggling as Taylor latched onto her aura mentally, feeding it back to calm the heroine.

"Circ?" Glory Girl said, her blue eyes focusing.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Taylor shrugged.

"Oh, you know, rescuing damsels and stuff. General heroics. You look terrible, Glory."

Glory Girl did look terrible. Hair mussed, costume slightly torn, bruised and battered, her left arm was in a rough sling and she flinched as she moved it. She wore an expression of amazement.

"Is that Tattletale? The Undersider?"

"Enemy of my enemy, Glory. Look, point is we needed each other's help, but now you need to get out."

Glory Girl still seemed a little out of it, but then she shook her head and nodded.

"Right. Yeah. Bakuda. One of the Undersiders got taken to her lab, we should go and…woah."

Glory Girl stumbled and nearly fell, and Taylor was barely able to get a hold on her.

"Drugged." Tattletale said, barely glancing over from where she was working on another bomb-frame. Glory wobbled before rising a few inches off the floor.

"Oh. Flying is easier." She noted, a little muzzily, and Taylor swore mentally. She hadn't considered that Glory might be out of the picture mentally as well as physically.

"Glory. Glory, you listening?"

Glory Girl blinked and shook her head.

"I-yeah. Yeah, I'm with you. Still suffering whatever they were pumping into the room though. Probably a good thing, meant I didn't swing at you full strength."

"Yeah. Right. Look, Glory, you're in no shape to take on Bakuda. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to break out the Undersiders, and then you're going to fly out, take them nice and safe away. Drop them off, get yourself to your sister. Meanwhile, I'm going to punch Bakudas lights out and save whoever she's currently got hold of. Ok?"

Glory Girl stopped floating, meeting Taylor's eyes.

"Ok." She said, though reluctantly, and walked unsteadily over to the table and chairs, tipping one guard off and sitting down. Taylor turned back to Tattletale, who had managed to disarm the bomb and pull open the door. She was talking hastily to a tall black boy, who Taylor guessed must be Grue.

"Tattletale. News?" she said, walking across and pointedly not looking at Grue. Secret identities and all that.

"Grue and Regent are here, they aren't hurt that much, but Bitch has been taken to the warehouse. Bakuda decided that she's least useful and she's going to be Lungs demonstration of power, tonight!" Tattletale said, sounding worried. Taylor grimaced beneath her scarf.

"So Lung'll be coming here. Alright, here's what we'll do. Glory will take Grue and Regent, fly out and drop them off once she's gotten a bit away. Me and you will go after Bitch, take down Bakuda and escape."

"That's an awful plan. Where's the back-up plan?" Tattletale asked. Taylor held up her staff.

"This is the backup plan." She said dourly, before turning to Grue. He had taken a bandanna off an ABB goon, and was using it to cover his face.

"You hear the plan?"

"Yeah." He said quietly. He was limping, which was probably why he hadn't insisted on joining Taylor instead of Tattletale. Bakuda and her goons must have worked him over pretty good.

"Alright. Glory!"

Taylor called over to Glory Girl, while still staying as quiet as she could. The heroine walked across, very carefully, and nodded to her.

"You want me to drop them off once I'm far enough away?" she asked, looking at Grue and the thin Regent, who Grue was half-supporting.

"Yeah."

"Ok. Ok, I can do that. Should probably take them in, but hell, one good turn, right? Are we safe to head up to the roof so I can set off?"

Taylor shook her head at that

"Better to go down, no chance of traps that way. Bakuda might have mined the roof or something." She said. Glory Girl nodded, and Taylor lead the way to the third floor, where she paused and turned to Glory Girl, putting one hand on her shoulder.

"Glory. Be careful. Don't come back without getting properly healed- I'll ring the Protectorate once I'm ready, so don't try to be a hero."

Glory Girl didn't look that convinced, but she agreed quietly and moved off down the stairs, Grue and Regent following. Taylor turned to Tattletale.

"Just us two again, then. Let's make this quick: if Lung's on his way, we want to be gone before he arrives."

Tattletale nodded, and Taylor led the way again. If she was right there would be some kind of connecting door to the warehouse, and given that the warehouse was on the opposite side of the apartment building to the stairs she was betting it was near the three minds she sensed on this floor. They didn't seem wary, but there was a tension of stress in two of them. Prisoners, press-ganged by Bakuda maybe? Hard to tell. Didn't matter. They were close now, just one door away, and Taylor stood next to it quietly, deciding how to proceed. She still wanted to be quiet, stealthy, but there were three people in there and she couldn't rely on them looking away like the cell guards. Different plan.

"Here, hold this." Taylor said quietly, passing Tattletale her staff. Thus freed, Taylor raised her hand and rapped on the door, pushing a sense of curiosity onto the mind inside the room that didn't feel afraid. Whoever they were, they approached the door and opened it.

"Hello." Taylor said, pressing her hand to the gang members chest and driving a psychic spark through him. The man collapsed and Taylor stepped in, bringing her hands up and slamming the two others to the wall, holding them there with her telekinesis.

"Uber and Leet. I can't say I expected to see you here." She said, keeping them quiet by extending her telekinetic field to cover them in their entirety, preventing any motion. She couldn't keep this up for long- she needed to conserve power in case she went up against Lung- but for intimidation it had uses. Tattletale stepped around her.

"I didn't think we'd see them either. I don't think they're here by choice, though." She commented. Taylor looked at her, then shrugged and let them slide to the ground. Unnoticed, she kept up a fraction of her power, leaving a thin telekinetic noose in place around their throats. Just to make sure she could silence any cry.

"What are you doing here?" she said, looking closely at them. They were wearing the same costumes as the night before, and they looked dirty and tired. Uber frowned.

"Bakuda. We went to check that she was ok- she was employing us, y'know? But then her goons put guns on us and made us help them bring her back here. Decided we could be useful."

"Really? Lung went with that? He's not that stupid." Tattletale said, sounding sceptical. Uber shrugged.

"He turned up nearly an hour later. Told us we'd be paid plenty if we gave Bakuda a hand. Leet had already started working on something anyway- though I can't say I'm not glad to see you. Lung isn't really someone I want to work for."

Taylor leaned forward.

"Leet started to work on something? Started on what?" she said, her voice intense. Uber looked mutinous briefly, but then the defiance melted from his face and he shrugged again, tiredly.

"Lung needed Bakuda back in action. Didn't have time to wait for Panacea, didn't even know if she'd turn up. So he got Leet to make something to help her for the time being, maybe thought we could come up with something later on if Panacea was a no-show. I'm guessing that's gonna be the case seeing as the two of you are here."

"What did you make for Bakuda?" Taylor asked again, looking at Leet this time. He looked miserable still, but brightened a little.

"Stimpacks! You know, like in Fallout? The medicine? I made a machine that you put stuff into and it makes stimpacks!"

"Right. Stimpacks. For the non-gamers here, what do they do, exactly?" Taylor asked. Uber answered.

"They're…they're sort of like a healing item. In the game they heal you, but in real life they're more like…really souped up painkillers. They prevent infection, Leet said, and they numb pain so well that Bakuda can move like normal even when her arm and leg are all crispy." He said dully. Leet was beaming.

"It's incredible! They'll be so useful for our shows!"

A pause, and the smile fell.

"Unless the machine is destroyed."

Taylor glanced around the room, seeing a small machine in the corner. It was a little bigger than a normal printer, but otherwise fairly non-descript. She made a decision.

"Alright. Get out."

"What?" Uber and Leet asked, staring at her. Taylor jerked her head towards the door she had come through.

"Get out, and take your machine with you. I haven't got time to deal with you. Not with Bakuda around. So consider yourselves the lucky recipients of my mercy and leave."

Uber stared at her for a moment, then stood and pulled Leet upright, hurrying across to the machine and heaving it into his arms. Taylor watched silently, and he ushered Leet out of the door before nodding to her.

"Thanks. And, uh, be careful. Bakuda's even worse than normal- she's just through that door."

Taylor nodded, turning back to the door and waiting for them to leave. She heard Tattletale approach her- the Undersider was even more nervous than before, but she was hiding it excellently.

"You don't have any puns?" Tattletale asked. Taylor shrugged.

"I haven't really done my research."

"Your research? You do research for puns?"

"Oh, yeah. Stuff like the Wolfenstein crack at Bakuda, that was a comparison someone made on the Internet. Like I told Uber and Leet, I don't game much. I just took the comparison and ran with it. Most of my puns are all me though."

"And the Mortal Kombat reference?"

Taylor looked at her, tilting her head to express confusion.

"The- the 'Get over here'? Mortal Kombat reference?"

Taylor shrugged.

"Not intentional. Just came to me."

"Huh."

"Yeah. Weird, I know. If that's all? Much as I like talking to you about my quick wit and enviable verbosity, we have a mad bomber to stop and an Undersider to save."

"Oh. Yeah, that."

Taylor smiled faintly from behind her mask, taking her staff back and placing her hand against the door to the warehouse.

"Nervous?"

"A little."

"Ah. Well… 'screw your courage to the sticking place, and 'twill not fail'."

"Shakespeare? Really?"

"It's a classic. And in that vein, unto the breach, dear friend. Unto the breach."

Taylor cast aside subtlety, and simply smashed the door from it's hinges. The wooden door sailed across the warehouse, smashing into a wall and drawing the attention of everybody in the warehouse.

"Hello, Bakuda."

Every eye turned to her. Taylor stepped through the doorway, onto the stairway that led down to the warehouse floor- slightly rusted steel, bolted to the wall and with a basic landing at the doorway. A flick of her hand tore the railing from the landing with a squeal of tortured steel, and Taylor stepped into empty air, catching and lowering herself with her power so that she drifted gently down to the floor.

"You!" Bakuda snarled, the distortion of her voice that her mask caused even more pronounced that before. The Tinker was wearing clothes similar to the night before, but bandages poked out of one sleeve and her right leg was encased in a rough cast. She looked unsteady on her feet, but the long coat she wore covered most of her injuries and she didn't seem to be in too much pain.

'Leet's drugs must really work.'

"THEY ARE POTENT, IT SEEMS. INTERESTING. YOU SHOULD SEE IF YOU CAN GET A SAMPLE- IF WE CAN REVERSE-ENGINEER IT IT WOULD BE USEFUL."

'If. I'll try, but no promises. No chances this time.'

The brief mental conversation Taylor was holding was cut off by Bakuda, screeching once again.

"You- you dare! Kill her! Shoot her!"

The ABB were loyal to that order, if nothing else, and gunfire filled the warehouse in a rattling roar. Taylor tutted.

"You gangers and your guns." She said, and held up her hand. There was no shimmer, no rainbow shield, but the bullets simply directed away from her, glancing off the triangle shield of force that she erected in the air. She toyed with the idea of stopping them entirely, but it would be a waste of power. Power that she might need later. Bakuda was staring blankly at her, and Taylor took a single step forwards, letting lightning coil around her free left hand.

"Ah, Bakuda. You should have fled the city while you could. But you stayed here, instead, confident in your minions. Well, Bakuda, I don't have minions. But I do have something else. You have a gang, but I have power. Raw, unlimited power."

Lightning cascaded from her hand, flashing to the guns the gang members held and wracking them in convulsions, wrapping around them in a manner no natural lightning could ever achieve. Taylor sprang across the distance, hand and staff flashing in motions as Bakuda hurled herself away, leaving the minions to Taylor. Staff blow, palm strike, sideward chop to the collar bone, each charged with a psychic spark and each brought down an ABB member. Two more blows, and Taylor felled the last by pressing her hand against his face and letting the power flow. The lightning, purple tinged, flowed off the bodies and wrapped around her arm again as she stepped past the huddled form of Hellhound, or Bitch or whatever she was called, stepping towards Bakuda as the Tinker backed away.

"Where are you running to, Bakuda?" Taylor asked, her voice deliberately disinterested. She wanted Bakuda to know that she was insignificant, that she didn't matter. That her pride was all for nothing. Her eyes picked up a slight movement, and she left her left hand dangle limply. If she was to pull this off, she'd need to make it look effortless.

"Running? Running? No, I was wasn't running." Bakuda panted, having fallen into a sitting position. Taylor narrowed her eyes as the Tinker gathered herself. Bakuda wasn't far off from descending into full blown screeching insanity, assuming she wasn't there already- the unpredictability made her dangerous. Then again, Bakuda was one-dimensional as a thinker. Everything revolved around her bombs.

"I wasn't running. I was looking for THIS!"

Bakuda lurched to her feet, a grenade launcher coming up in on hand and pointing. Taylor smiled behind her mask, the merest curve of her lips as Bakuda pulled the trigger. Taylor simply raised a hand, and stopped the grenade with an application of force. An application of force, incidentally, that detonated the grenade. Bakuda's arm turned to glass.

"Fuck!"

Taylor was already across the open space between them, thrusting her staff into Bakuda's other shoulder and dislocating it with a wrench of power. An instant later she pressed her palm against Bakuda's sternum and pushed her into the warehouse wall, pinning her there like a bug on a collecting board.

"As I said, Bakuda, your power pales in comparison."

Taylor began to walk towards the Tinker, keeping her trapped, and noted that Tattletale had moved to Hellhound.

"Tattletale, can you get away with her?" she asked, keeping her voice calm and conversational. The Undersider Thinker made a noise of affirmation.

"Yeah, we can manage."

"Manage? Manage? There's nothing to manage you bitch, Lung is coming for you, you'll all die!" Bakuda snarled, her voice rising to a shriek. Taylor sighed, her patience with Bakuda rapidly waning.

"Be. Quiet."

The stranglehold extended, wrapping around Bakuda's jaw and holding it still. Taylor half turned, looking back at Tattletale, who was leaning over her barely conscious team-mate.

"Can you see Bitches dogs anywhere? I don't want to leave without them." Tattletale said quietly. Taylor nodded, looking around until she spied a makeshift pen on the other side of the warehouse. She walked across, leaving Bakuda still pinned to the wall. As she drew closer, her nose wrinkled unconsciously at the smell, and she didn't need to look to realise what she would find. She looked anyway, closing her eyes in a long blink as she saw the bodies. Slowly, she walked back towards Bakuda, shaking her head when Tattletale looked at her. The Undersider Thinker frowned, her lips thinning out, but she kept talking to Bitch, carefully bringing the thickset girl to her feet. Taylor relaxed her hold on Bakuda's mouth for a moment, expecting that she would be quiet, but the Tinker defied expectations.

"Oh, you were looking for the dogs? Did you find them? Like what we did to them? We didn't need them, the bitch was just feral, only good for being an object lesson for Lung to teach. You should have heard her crying when-"

Taylor didn't extend the power this time. Instead, she reached out, and closed Bakuda's throat. The mocking voice turned to an agonised gurgle, and Taylor held it for a few long seconds, not looking at Bakuda. Not even when she released it.

"I told you, Bakuda, be quiet. That was your warning. There won't be a second one."

Bakuda, her breath even more rasping than before, said nothing and Taylor walked over to Tattletale.

"You have to go. Lung will be on his way and if he finds you here you'll be killed." She said. Tattletale shook her head, half-supporting Hellhound as they stood.

"We'll never get away. He'll come after us." She said. Taylor sighed, and shook her head.

"No. No, he won't. He'll be busy."

Tattletale stared at her for a long moment, and then a look of horror flashed across her face.

"What- you can't be serious."

"Can't I? You should go, by the way, clocks ticking."

"Clocks ticking? That's all you're going to say? You think I'm going to just walk away?"

Taylor hardened her voice, stepping closer to Tattletale. The Undersider needed to leave, and Taylor couldn't afford to indulge in some fledgling friendship with Lung on the way.

"Yes. I do. Because you aren't here for me, and I'm not doing this for you. I'm still here because I intend to demonstrate to Lung that he isn't free to do whatever he likes. Why are you still here?"

Tattletale grimaced.

"You said you would help me." She said, barely a murmur and Taylor caught the meaning from lip reading more than anything else. Taylor stepped a little closer, until they were almost nose-to-nose.

"And I will. Have a little faith." She replied, just as softly. Tattletale nodded sharply, turning towards the stairway to the apartment. Taylor called after her.

"Don't bother that way, Undersider." She said. She turned, gesturing with her right hand, and the double doors at the front of the warehouse scraped open, letting in a mix of harsh orange streetlight and paler, weaker moonlight. Tattletale nodded to her and moved towards the door, half carrying Hellhound. Taylor watched until she was out the doors, and then turned to Bakuda. She walked towards the Tinker with an unhurried stride, not showing the rage boiling within her. Bakuda, having recovered from her choking-induced sensibility, started talking again.

"Oh, look at you. All heroic and brave. Lung will kill you! Tear the flesh from your bones, sear your spine, crush your organs!"

Taylor said nothing, simply walking towards the crazed Tinker and releasing her grip on her power, letting Bakuda fall to the floor. The Tinker swore as she fell, struggling to gain her feet with both arms useless, but managed it.

"Oh, so tough. Just like that Bitch was, until I realised we didn't need her. Feral. No use to us, only as an example. She thought she was tough too, until we killed her precious dogs. Should have seen the ugly bitch cry, all screwed up face. It was pathetic!"

Taylor kept walking, now only a few steps from Bakuda and keeping an iron grip on her temper, though she let her staff drift from her fingers and come to rest on the floor behind her.

"And that Glory whore, thinking she could take Lung on. She didn't have a chance, needed rescue by you. Pity, I would have enjoyed seeing her forced to serve me once I put the bomb in her head-"

The increasingly shrill ranting finally wore Taylors patience too thin, and she crossed the open space in a single step. The air rushed from Bakuda's lungs and Taylor buried her fist in the Tinkers stomach. A savage frenzy rushing through her, Taylor grabbed Bakuda by the back of her mask and threw her, her enhanced strength sending the Tinker airborne for a brief moment before Taylor wrapped tendrils of power around her and rammed her into the wall again. Bakuda's glass arm shattered. Blood poured. The scream was barely a wheeze.

"Pity. I can't have you bleeding to death." Taylor said, her voice hard and terrible even to herself. She stepped in, and warpfire blazed bright in her left hand. She pressed it to the bleeding stump, and Bakuda's scream seared the air even as the stench of burning flesh filled Taylor's lungs. The Tinker might have fainted, had Taylor not driven a slap across her face and pulled her upright.

"You really should have left the city, Bakuda." Taylor said, pinning the Tinker to the wall with a hand at the throat and lifting her other hand to the gasmask.

"The attack on the Undersiders? No big problem. Attacking the PRT HQ? Stupid, but maybe not too bad. Bombing those churches, those police stations, that hospital, putting bombs in those people? Stupid. Very stupid."

Bakuda choked something, but Taylor didn't give her a chance to speak before tearing off the gas mask, exposing the Tinkers face. Bakuda might have once been pretty, in an unremarkable way, but her features were now dominated by raw, seared scarring from the bomb the night before. Taylor gazed at her without pity, simply dropping her and taking two steps back. Bakuda coughed, and then gave a malevolent glare at Taylor.

"Knew- knew you wouldn't do it."

"Wouldn't do it? Oh, Bakuda. You mean, wouldn't kill you?" Taylor asked, her voice having eased a little into conversational. The anger was still there, but it had receded a little.

"Hero. Useless coward. Too weak to do it." Bakuda rasped, eyes alight with an unsettling fervency. Taylor shook her head.

"Yes. Yes, I suppose you're right. I am a Hero, and I shouldn't kill." She said, half musingly. And then she shrugged.

"Of course, shouldn't is the key word there."

Bakuda's eyes widened in horror, and Taylor gestured, invisible force dragging Bakuda off the floor and dangling her helplessly in the air. Taylor stepped closer again.

"You see, Bakuda, you managed to get a kill order. And really? I can't find any reason not to execute it."

Taylor raised her right hand, her left holding Bakuda up. Normally, she couldn't affect internal organs. But from this close? She could simply close a psychic vice around Bakuda's heart and claim the Tinker died of a heart attack. Who would know? And even if someone realised, who would care?

"This is it, Bakuda. Here it is, the moment when you reap what you have sown."

Taylor shook her head, looking into the eyes of the Tinker, still alight with madness but infected by fear now.

"All your life you've been selfish. You've been pampered, spoiled. Your first failure, you are gifted with powers beyond anyone else, and you immediately use them to hurt others. No, Bakuda. You will be no great loss. And unless you've a very compelling reason to be spared…well. Speak now or forever hold your peace."

"Wait!" Bakuda gasped. Taylor stopped raising her hand.

"Wait?"

Bakuda was grinning now, her scars making the expression entirely unhinged.

"No. No, don't. Go ahead. Kill me, and set off the dead man switch in my heart."

Taylor stilled. A dead mans switch. That could be dangerous. Bakuda was still grinning.

"Yeah, that's right. Kill me. Make all those little schools and hospitals go boom, see if your righteous posing gets you any favours then." She hissed, practically gloating. Taylor blinked once, slowly.

"Bakuda. A switch linked to your heartbeat. How very ingenious." She said softly, thinking through her options and rapidly settling on one. Bakuda ceased gloating- Taylor guessed that something in her tone had frightened the Tinker.

"What? How do you know that?"

"Oh, Bakuda. I know many things. And I'll share one of those with you."

Taylor turned her head up, looking at Bakuda directly.

"I need your body alive. Nothing in there about your mind. Look into my eyes."

Bakuda was, for all her intelligence, weak in mind. She had never attained any strength, coasting through life until she failed. Even her madness only splintered her focus, and though there was some odd, echoing resistance in her mind it was far from sufficient. The will of Bakuda and whatever was helping her was no match for the combined will of Taylor and The Emperor.

Five minutes after starting her mental invasion Taylor dropped the husk that was once Bakuda on the warehouse floor. Her body was alive, but her soul and mind were scattered, mere shards, already dissipating into the Immaterium. Taylor considered the look of utter terror, now etched eternally into Bakuda's face, and shrugged. The gas mask would cover it. Now all she had to do was move the body. Her upcoming fight was with Lung, and he had something of a track record for area damage. It would do her no good if Bakuda's body was crushed because Lung brought down a building. Taylor pulled out her phone as she carried the body away.

"Dauntless."

The voice came quickly- the phone had only rung three times before the Hero answered.

"Hello, Dauntless. You might be interested to know that I managed to find Bakuda. And Glory Girl. And the Undersiders."

"You did it? How- I won't ask. We got Oni Lee, he's in custody now. Where are you? Where's Bakuda?" Dauntless asked, his voice quick and clear. Taylor shrugged, carrying Bakuda into an alleyway.

"Bakuda? She's with me. Took her down, though she seems to have had some kind of mental breakdown. Practically in a coma."

The lie came so smoothly off her lips, Taylor almost believed it herself.

"She said that she's got a dead mans switch in herself, though, so I didn't want to hurt her too badly. She lost an arm to her own bomb, but she's mostly intact otherwise."

"A dead mans- Jesus. She could take out half the city if the bombs are well planted. Where are you?"

Taylor didn't answer the question immediately, instead carefully placing Bakuda on the ground in the alleyway. No guarantee of safety, but better than being in the immediate danger zone. Dauntless repeated his question: Taylor set off back to the ABB warehouse.

"Dauntless." She said quietly. The Hero didn't reply immediately, but after a few steps he replied, clearly deciding to humour her rather than ask her location again.

"Yes?"

"Lung is on his way here. I'm staying behind."

"What? Circaetus, you can't- he's too strong." Dauntless said, a tinge of alarm entering his professional tone. Taylor laughed.

"If I backed down from anyone considered too strong I'd never leave my house. I'm only telling you because, really, you might need to get clear up teams ready."

"I- yeah, I guess. If you tell me where you are we can help."

Taylor paused by the warehouse doors.

"No. You wouldn't get here in time." She said. She thought briefly, and then shrugged.

"You know, I'm doing this the wrong way around. Usually you slay the dragon before you rescue the damsel in distress."

Dauntless said nothing in reply. She gave him the address.

Lung arrived only a few minutes later. Taylor was stood in the shadow of the warehouse stairs to the apartment, arms folded: she had woken the ABB members she had knocked unconscious and told them to run. None of them had hesitated. From the corner of her eye she could see Uber and Leets Snitch, the camera drone trying to be inconspicuous by hiding near the ceiling. It had only just arrived- Taylor had to appreciate the sheer opportunism of the pair. Even if Lung smashed her to paste in the first ten seconds they'd get plenty of viewers.

'This should be interesting.' Taylor noted mentally. She had been leaning against the wall, preparing herself: her mind was open to the energies of the Immaterium. Every cell in her body thrummed with contained power. The only questions now became simple: was it enough? And, in her current state, could she endure the power for long enough for it to matter? Even without the effects of the War in Heaven, the Immaterium was the thing that had become the Warp. Its energy was inimical to those without great strength of body as well as will.

"YOU CAN ONLY FIND OUT." Observed the Emperor, himself working to keep the power in check.

'Never really thought of myself as a knight in shining armour before. You think we should end this fast?'

"IF YOU CAN. ALWAYS END FIGHTS FAST IF YOU CAN. BUT IF IT GOES ON TOO LONG, HE BECOMES TOO STRONG, YOU MAY HAVE TO USE YOUR…NEW TECHNIQUE."

'Ah. Yes, that. I'll try to avoid it unless I have no other choice. Quite a way to field test, though.'

"INDEED."

Taylor straightened as a black vehicle skidded to a halt in front of the warehouse doors. The door of the vehicle opened, and a bulky figure emerged. Lung. The gang leader was shirtless as always, metal mask in place, and his skin bulged oddly, deformations covering his flesh that denoted the scales already formed within. Lung was already prepared for a fight. Taylor smiled as she stepped forward.

"Hmph." Lung grunted, staring at her. His eyes were like molten pits of orange behind his mask: Taylor imagined it made quite a contrast to her mask, lit by the blazingly electric blue of her own eyes.

"So. Circaetus. You continue to war on me." Lung said, his voice thick with his accent and heavy with power. Taylor fancied she could smell brimstone on the breeze as he stared at her, but that was probably her imagination.

"There's no continue, Lung. You made a mistake, and now you'll pay for it." She responded, voice flat and cold. No quips. No puns. Not yet, at least. The ABB leader chuckled, his shoulders shaking briefly with mirth.

"You threaten me? Lung? You are nothing, hero. Stay here to fight? You'll die. Then your friends. And it will be seen by the camera of those jackals. I am Lung. You are irrelevant."

Taylor crossed the space before them in a lighting fast leap, and her pressed against Lung's chest, a focal point for the massive psychic push she unleashed. Lung crashed into a wall, and Taylor looked into the cloud of brick dust without moving any further.

"Am I still irrelevant, Lung?"

The roar that followed shook her bones, and a gout of flame exploded from the warehouse wall, rushing towards her as Lung rose, boiling with fury. The fire parted before her, uncontrolled and no threat, and Taylor gestured as Lung rushed her. The first brick from the opposite wall hit Lung in the mask, and the big man, now scaled in silver and growing larger, staggered as it dented his mask. The bricks that followed sent him reeling, bringing his arms up as Taylor unleashed a storm of stone to cover her rapid approach.

Lung dropped his arms, a roar beginning to build.

Taylor rammed her staff into his chest.

Bones cracked and Lung's roar choked in his throat as she thrust her staff with both hands, the wood sheathed in energy so fierce it was visible. The backlash blew her back several feet, but it hurled Lung into the wall again. Structural damage didn't matter. She'd bring the whole warehouse down on him if she had to.

Lung hauled himself out of the wreckage of the wall again. Flames dripped from his battered mask, hands clawed and scaled and he was taller than before. Already big, Taylor guessed that he was approaching nine feet now and his wounds seemed to be healing as she watched.

'Guess he isn't all talk.' She idly commented. Lung glared at her, and one taloned hand rose to point at her.

"Kill you!" snarled the ABB leader, his voice more guttural than before, Lung already losing himself to the animal within. Taylor raised her hand and beckoned to him, the beckoning hand already crackling with a gauntlet of lightning.

Lung charged. The bull-rush came right at her, roaring and bringing his claws up, and Taylor ran at him, gritting her teeth in concentration as she readied herself. The trick she was about to try would need timing: she couldn't face him head on, she would need to outmanoeuvre him. Lung lunged, a massive, surprisingly agile leap from almost ten feet away. Taylor planted her staff on the ground, shoved hard and vaulted him. The enraged scream was still leaving his throat when she landed, twisting on her heel and ramming her left fist hard into his back. The scales held even against her brutal strike, her warp-augmented muscle not enough to pierce the metallic defence, but the energy around her arm leapt into Lung, racing through flesh and bone with terrible force. Lung roared as he fell to his knees, thrashing and twisting from the warp-born electricity, but a flailing elbow caught Taylor in the stomach and she was sent sprawling.

"Fuck!" Taylor spat as she landed hard, rolling barely in time to avoid a smashing blow from Lung, the draconic man already recovered and moving, if a little jerkily. She dodged frantically, trapped in close with the brutish villain as he rained furious, pulverising blows down upon her, smashing concrete as she rolled and jerked, desperately evading blows that would crush her to a bloody pulp if they ever hit. Lung loomed over her and she rolled onto her back, taking hold of her staff in both hands as Lung raised his arms. The arms came down in a crashing double blow and Taylor met it with a shield of force from her staff, but Lung was stronger than her and the fire around his fists was growing hotter as he inexorably pressed the shield down, closer to her. Taylor gritted her teeth, drawing up a leg and lashing out, blindly hoping it would distract Lung.

Lung might have been making the transformation into a dragon, but he wasn't there yet. And Taylor's blind kick slammed into his groin.

Lung lurched, the pressure on the shield almost vanishing as he hunched in instinctive, automatic pain, and Taylor rammed her staff up, converting the shield into a battering ram that knocked him back enough for her to stand. She snapped to her feet and glared at Lung, who glared back. His mask had fallen off, his eyes blazing with fury and his mouth twisted into a four-part maw more like an eel than a man. Taylor slugged him in the face.

Lung staggered from the blow, mouth and head wobbling and twisting on the long neck but his claw came around and Taylor barely avoided it, turning to gain distance but something latched onto her coat and a thrill of utter panic went through her. Lung dragged her back, and she dragged one arm out of her coat, throwing her staff away with the other but Lung swung her around, flinging her and keeping hold of her coat. Taylor was able to cushion her fall, but the breath still went out of her in a gasp, and as she looked up the fire around Lung's fist spread to her coat with alarming speed, turning the garment to ash. Lung looked at her, giving an ugly, bubbling laugh from his malformed mouth, and she snarled.

"You fuck. I liked that coat!"

Her power flared, the very air tasting metallic from the weight of it, and the metal and shrapnel all around them whirled towards her, snapping and twisting into a makeshift suit of armour around her. Taylor let electricity pour through the armour as a plate closed across her mouth, glaring at Lung.

"Round two, bastard."

Lung leapt across the open space, triumph filling his roar as he hurtled towards her, and Taylor grinned. He was too used to fighting the Empire leader Kaiser, thinking she was going to armour up and brawl with him. He had no idea.

She charged forward, acting as though she would meet Lungs own rush, but at the very last moment she pushed her power through the shrapnel and debris that made up her armour and exploded it into a swirling maelstrom. A maelstrom centred directly on Lungs face.

The dragon-man flinched back, the metal shards slicing at his eyes, and Taylor ran at him, warpfire bursting into existence around her clenched fist even as she dragged the floor behind him into a hump, tearing the already damaged concrete. Lung arched his long neck and exhaled with a bellowing roar. Flame lanced through the cloud of buzzing metal and speared towards her, and Taylor gritted her teeth and sprang. Her boots left the floor as she crashed into the plume of fire, parting it before her and smashing into Lung. She slammed her boots into his chest, rammed her fire-surrounded right fist into his face. Lung staggered back and tripped over the raised floor and fell and Taylor threw herself away from the now nearly ten-feet tall man, rolling and snatching for her staff with her left hand. Lung rose and Taylor spun and the warpfire around her hand burst across the brief space and struck his face, clinging and burning. Lung might be fireproof, but having a face full of near napalm was going to distract anybody.

Taylor ran for the doors while Lung was threshing and roaring, sprinting through them and sliding to a halt as she turned. She needed more time: there was one easy way to get it.

She stretched out her power, and tore the supports from the walls, shattering the warehouse structure. The roof fell in.

'That should slow him down.' Taylor remarked, swaying a little on her feet. She held out a hand, dragging the bag that she had left at the edge of a nearby building across to her, but as it reached her a savage spike of pain seared through her stomach and chest and she doubled up, choking. She fell to one knee, clawing her scarf away from her mouth and coughing. Blood spattered the ground below her.

'That isn't good.'

"YOU'RE PUSHING TOO FAR, TOO FAST. YOUR BODY CANNOT WITHSTAND THE WARP FOR MUCH LONGER."

'I know! I know. But I can't stop now. Just a little longer. Just a little more.'

"YOU CAN STILL USE…IT."

'I've got one more trick before that.'

Taylor rose to her feet, tossing her scarf away before dragging a hand across her mouth and spitting some more blood onto the ground. The pain had receded, but it was still there, hovering at the edge of her mind. Didn't matter. The fight was more important.

Fire plumed, and Lung came roaring out of the rubble that was the warehouse. Taylor smiled thinly, reaching into the satchel she had called to her hand and withdrawing a small, round object.

'Remind me to thank Bakuda for this. Or at least, thank her husk.'

Taylor threw the grenade. Lung barely saw it in time. The explosion took out a chunk of street, but Lung had thrown himself aside and wasn't even scratched. Taylor shrugged: there were plenty more. She didn't bother throwing them, instead flicking her hand and sending the explosives sailing towards the ABB leader, forcing him to dodge and twist desperately. Even as she did so, she manipulated others, bringing them along the ground, forming a circle. Lung didn't notice them until he leapt away from a time-dilating blast and landed in the middle.

"Goodbye, Lung." Taylor said, closing her fist and triggering every impact detonator at once.

Just like with Oni Lee, the explosion was a kaleidoscope of sound and light that brought a slightly grim smile to Taylor's face as she watched it.

"Just like the Fourth of July." She commented, leaning on her staff and hoping that was the end of it. She knew her hope was wrong, but a girl could dream. She sighed and straightened as a vast roar of anger split the air.

"The man doesn't know when to die."

She waved her hand, blowing away the mist and dust that obscured her vision, and gazed tiredly upon the scene before her. The explosives had torn a great hole in the ground, a hemisphere where all was simply missing and which was rapidly beginning to fill with water from a shattered pipe, but that was not what occupied most of her attention. No, that place was given to Lung, who was hunched over, his back to her. The heavy, bony protrusions that extended from his shoulder blades and would become wings given long enough had been turned to glittering glass, much of his tail otherwise, and a portion of the scales on his back glittered, transparent and showing the flesh underneath, but it was too much to hope that it would stop him. Lung rose from his crouch, his roar agonised as glass cracked and broke, fledgling wings and scales shattering and slewing off to leave gaping tears and flayed flesh, but as he turned to face Taylor his fury burned brighter than ever.

"ILL!"

Lung leapt across the crater, even larger than before and as fast as ever, and Taylor hesitated for an instant, delayed by surprise. She was able to dodge the pullmeting claws and snapping fangs, getting behind him but his tail caught her in the ribs and she was sent sailing. Something- several somethings- cracked on the hit, and Taylor cried out as her ribs flared with agony. She landed brutally hard on her left arm, a sick crunch accompanying another burst of pain, and gasped in a breath as she looked down. Lungs glass tail had shattered on impact, driving the shards into her flesh, and Taylor let out a sharp gasp of pain as she forced her arm up and dragged them out, relying on her power. Everything hurt.

"RIBS, FRACTURED. ARM, FRACTURED. WARP IS BREAKING DOWN YOUR BODY, AND YOU WILL BLEED TO DEATH IF THOSE WOUNDS AREN'T SEALED." The Emperor reported, crisp and urgent. Taylor gritted her teeth as she forced herself to stand, forced herself to ignore the agony.

'Yeah. I get it.' She mentally responded, lighting her left hand with warpfire. This would hurt.

Taylor threw back her head and screamed as she clamped her burning hand over her injuries, searing the bloody gouges shut to the accompaniment of her howls and the smell of burning flesh. Lung, standing across from her, laughed, a brutal sound of rasping metal and ugly intent. Taylor staggered after extinguishing the fire, light-headed with pain.

"He's too tough. Keeps regenerating." She said, realising that she spoke aloud only after she said the words.

"HIS POWER IS FORMIDABLE, BUT YOU CAN WIN. HE IS NOT INVULNERABLE. NOTHING IS." The Emperor responded. Taylor blinked, shook her head back into focus and looked around, her eyes falling upon one of the glassy wing-struts that had broken away from Lung.

"He's just getting stronger while I get weaker. I guess it's only in his interest to keep on dragon the fight." She said aloud, smiling at the last bit. Puns would never desert her, she thought and even as she thought that another struck. Glass. Glass, the Fulgurite.

'The fulgurite.'

"THE FUL- THAT COULD WORK." The Emperor responded immediately, some life entering his monotone. Taylor looked up at Lung, who was still laughing and had begun a slow, measured approach. She flexed her left hand, and pulled the glass into it, snapping and shattering it until it looked vaguely like a spear.

'This will hurt.' She absently noted, even as she forced her power through the glass spear and let it crackle in her hand with all the power she could muster. Her headache flared, but she forced it aside. This would work.

The fulgurite. A weapon crafted by The Emperor himself, forged from the Chaos-tainted sands of a conquered world, fused into glass by the tremendous power of The Emperor's psychic lightning and imbued with a very simple, very terrible power: The Fulgurite killed. Anything. Not even a Perpetual could survive it's might, a weapon that destroyed the very soul. Taylor might not be able to replicate the effect, but something that would hamper Lung's regeneration? Yeah, she could manage that. She took the first step forward, her legs unsteady but firming with every stride. She let her staff fall as she broke into a run, charging at Lung. Seeing her move, he roared and sped up himself. Taylor leapt from the edge of the pit in the street, dragging a cloud of debris behind her and launching it at Lung with a cry of defiance. Lung roared as it tore his flesh, his own leap altering slightly. Taylor thrust with her glass weapon.

A claw smashed into her, driving the breath from her and shifting her trajectory with a blaze of pain in her ribs, but the bootleg Fulgurite had buried itself in Lung's briefly exposed flesh and the twist shattered it and his roar was more pain than ever before as she tore out the fragments of shrapnel imbedded in him in a bloody torrent of flesh and bone. Taylor landed hard on the side of the crater opposite the one she had leapt from, but she was still alive and even if the pain from her now-almost-certainly broken ribs was blinding and she was on her hands and knees she had managed it. She blinked, a wetness in her eyes that fell to the concrete and she hoped that the thick redness of the liquid was an imagination colouring tears because the alternative was…disturbing. But it didn't matter. She stood and turned.

Lung had landed without grace, on the opposite side of the crater. He rose faster than she did, but he was thrashing and howling, clawing at his chest where the silver scales gave way to bright, bloody crimson red and Taylor grinned savagely. Already Lung was shrinking, his flesh not closing as well as it should, his regeneration slowed, and his face was a mess of red blood and white bone and yellow, glowing eyes and ivory fangs, the shrapnel tearing from inside the flesh inflicting horrid injuries. And yet he stood and turned, more maddened beast than human and Taylor knew that she only had one choice.

'It's time. I have to use it.'

"TAYLOR, YOU AREN'T IN ANY FIT STATE TO- YOU COULD DIE. THE PRESSURE ON YOUR BODY COULD BE TOO MUCH."

The Emperor sounded worried. Taylor knew why, but she didn't have a choice. And she knew that, in his very soul, the Emperor understood that.

'It doesn't matter. I win. I lose. I fight. Doesn't matter. I do not bow. I do not serve. I do not flee. And if I die here, I will do so knowing that I have done everything I can. That I fought to my last breath, my last drop of blood, my last shred of will. I will not yield.'

The Emperor said nothing. Lung, staggering, slid down into the crater and started towards her, a terrible, malevolent determination in every bloody step. Taylor took a deep breath, and smiled.

"I hoped you liked all my other tricks, Lung." She said, loudly. The Snitch might be watching, or it might not. But if it was…well, the viewers would get a show.

"But even if you didn't, this last one…well, it'll take your breath away."

Taylor flung her arms wide, dragging and twisting with all her might, and pain screamed through her. The fire around Lungs head went out, the water moved away from him, and a massive, clawed hand grasped at his throat as his eyes bulged and his knees gave way. Taylor screamed, venting the agony that ran through every limb, every bone, every nerve but she kept going, kept pulling, kept Lung trapped and he was shrinking, writhing, struggling to escape and climbing from the crater but the prison moved with him and she just had to hold out longer than his regeneration could stand and she was winning and she-just-had-to-

Taylor opened her eyes to find the Emperor roaring at her, the booming voice crying out for her to stand and she blinked and moaned as the pain came back with a fury. She reached for her powers but there was nothing there, nothing and she panicked for an awful, eternal instant before she found it, a tiny trickle that was all, barely a fragment of her might but still there and she could have wept. She looked up.

Lung was in the same position as her, bent over, fallen on his hands and knees on the concrete several feet away while she rested on the crater lip. He was barely larger than a human now, claws and fangs and tail and fledgling wings gone, blood running down his chest and face that were still dotted with scales, but he was standing and Taylor screamed inside her mind, screamed at herself to move. It was a race now, to see who stood first. Lung won.

Lung stood, unsteady, shaking, bloody, and Taylor gained her feet an instant later, every inch of her body in agony but her will unbroken, and she would not lose. Not here. Not to him, not even if she had to drag him into the crater and drown him in the water there and she gritted her teeth, fought through the pain but Lung wasn't approaching her. He was backing away, turning and she stretched out her hand, snarling and cursing and willing him to fight because she wasn't done yet but he was limping away and he had vanished and she heard a car start and she had fallen again, was falling, toppling towards the ground but something had landed before her and caught her in a soft grip and was laying her down and Taylor blinked at the older woman in the white costume. New Wave, she thought. Lady Photon? Something like that.

"Circaetus? Circaetus, talk to me!"

The woman sounded urgent but Taylor couldn't manage more than a soft groan as she lay back, the concrete and rubble suddenly seeming very comfortable to her. More figures in white, two rushing across, and Panacea and Glory Girl suddenly appeared over her, worry in their faces and Taylor found it in herself to smile up at them. She might not have captured Lung, but she supposed she could call this a win. She rested her head back, still smiling through cracked and bloody lips. Now all she needed was some sleep.

'Held off Lung, got Bakuda and Lee, saved Glory and the Undersiders. Yeah, I'm gonna call this a win.'

Ah, there was that blissful darkness. Unconsciousness was a wonderful thing, she concluded as she slipped away from the pain.

---

And there it is. Taylor may have gone off the deep end in this chapter, but I thought it was appropriate.

This one took quite a while: as with most of my chapters, I'm not exactly thrilled with it, but I don't have the heart to go through it all again. Apologies for any mistakes or lore inconsistencies- I'm actually reading Worm as I write this, so some things may be slightly off.

Psychic healing- that is apparently a thing. Turned up in the RPG's I believe, but it's limited, Taylor isn't going to be the next Panacea.

Regarding a PHO section, I do intend to do one, and it will be the next chapter. However, I intend to try and release it alongside the next actual chapter.

Finally, I hope you enjoyed reading this and, as always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Thank you.