Not really much to say here, just that I hope you enjoy.
14/06/2020 - some changes made to differentiate sections, of account of eating my formatting. Again.
"Armsmaster, you know anything about this 'Noelle'?" Taylor immediately asked, spinning Sundancer around and snapping a pair on handcuffs onto her. She thought that she could hear rapid typing for a moment before Armsmaster replied.
"Nothing. Another member of the Travellers, perhaps. There appears to be another level underneath the base, where there are very few cameras."
Taylor turned her head and looked across the room to the furthest door, more heavily barred than the others. From the way Dauntless, Miss Militia and Battery did the same thing she guessed that they were all on the same page, so to speak.
"I do not think this is a good idea."
'Oh?'
"Whatever is in there is blurred to us. We know that it is a phenomenon unique to Parahumans, but the scale might indicate power. Whatever is down there could be incredibly dangerous."
'Way I see it that just means that leaving it down there without supervision is the worst thing we could do.'
"Taylor, we may be stronger than we have been since before our battle with Lung, but our strength is only comparative. Miss Militia is injured, we are weak, Battery is distracted. It is too much of a risk."
Taylor bit her lip, fighting with herself. Her first instinct was to ignore caution and continue on, but the Emperor made a point that she couldn't refute.
'Alright. I'll try and convince Armsmaster.'
"Not to rain on our parade, but it looked like Sundancer was scared shitless of whoever 'Noelle' is. So maybe we shouldn't barge in there without backup?" Taylor said aloud. Dauntless paused in moving towards the heavy door, his stance shifting to something less inquisitive and more considering. Battery was standing over Raijin and Taylor momentarily distracted herself by wondering what the chances of some casual police brutality were. Armsmaster speaking brought her attention back.
"There is a chance that this 'Noelle' is in fact Coil. We cannot risk losing him at this juncture, and the PRT squads cannot deploy in numbers until the base is properly secured."
"What? Their job is to do shit like that!" Taylor protested. Armsmaster merely grunted in response.
"Nevertheless, they will not deploy yet. Dauntless, are you prepared to move on? Circaetus, if you object you may remain with Miss Militia, Battery will accompany Dauntless."
Taylor's irritation bubbled over. In hindsight, it may have made her a little rash. Even more so than usual.
"Oh yeah, let me just step out and go for ice cream, right? Not a chance. If we're doing this stupid thing, we're being smart about it. That means constant communication, you call for backup just in case and we send our heaviest hitters down first. That means I go with Dauntless."
There was a long silence. If Taylor cared about offending Armsmaster she might have been worried. As it was, her concern over just whatever was waiting for them was overriding any politeness.
The Emperor was right, this was an incredibly stupid thing to do.
'You think we can collapse this whole place if push comes to shove?'
"If we sacrifice the Dampener. Your heroic tendencies will be the death of us both."
'Fucking - probably. It's a shame that I like Dauntless too much to let him go down there alone.'
"Sentimentality."
'A crime you're just as guilty of as I, unfortunately.'
"As you insist, Circaetus. I have contacted the PRT and reinforcements will be organised. Dauntless, take Circaetus and investigate the lower levels."
"Yippee." Taylor muttered, but she followed Dauntless over to the door. She felt fear spike in the room and mentally tracked it to Sundancer.
'That isn't a good sign.'
"She's so frightened she's practically paralysed. Just by whatever is behind that door."
'Not a good sign at all.'
Taylor chewed her lip, thinking.
'Alright. Fuck subtlety, we do this the old-fashioned way. You think you can help me draw power in and hold it? Something comes jumping out of the dark we put a bolt of Warp-lightning into it with enough juice to take out an elephant and run as fast as we can.'
"That seems like a reasonable compromise." The Emperor allowed. Taylor began feeding her power through her arm, splitting her concentration. The Emperor was helping, dealing with most of the needed precision, but she still needed some thought for it. Under her left gauntlet she felt her skin start to tingle and jump, stray tendrils of power dancing along her nerves. The sensation wasn't unpleasant, exactly, but it was…strange, like pins and needles turned up to an incredible degree. Holding Warp-lightning was rarely advisable, but in this case she could stomach some discomfort.
The door clicked ominously as Dauntless prodded at it.
"I have unlocked the door for you." Armsmaster said, somewhat unnecessarily. Taylor drew in a slow breath.
"Come on then, Dauntless. No time like the present." She said. Dauntless shifted his shield on his arm and led the way into the corridor beyond, his lance gripped tightly in his hand. The corridors were clean, more dimly lit than the ones before. There was something in the air, Taylor thought. A smell, perhaps, drifting on the breeze, the faintest touch of something. She concentrated on the power shuddering in her left hand and kept walking.
"You think Coil is down here?" Dauntless asked, one finger tapping at his communicator- turning it off, maybe, or down. Taylor shook her head, though she left her own headset on. She didn't especially care if Armsmaster heard her.
"No. From all I've heard, he's not the type to be trapped, or do his own fighting. And even if he was, Armsmaster said that all the information on the computers has been deleted. Why would Coil be here in that case?"
Dauntless sighed.
"I was really hoping you would disagree with me on this, but I think you're right. There's something down here, but it's not Coil."
"I don't think it's anything good." Taylor admitted. Dauntless muttered an agreement before he paused, sniffing at the air.
"You smell that?"
Taylor tilted her head. Smells were somewhat reduced by her helmet, but she thought she could smell something. The scent she had tasted before, drifting sluggishly through the still air.
"Rot." She said quietly. Dauntless tapped at his earpiece again.
"Rotten meat, more like. That's not a good sign. We could be walking onto a mass grave or anything."
"I've always wanted to be in a horror movie." Taylor muttered. Dauntless didn't laugh, though she noted his tension decrease a tiny amount.
"Armsmaster, have you found anything else? The corridors smell like there's something dead down here." He said. The leader of their team was as quick to reply as ever, his tone calm and steady.
"Nothing, Dauntless. If I were to speculate, perhaps Genesis requires resources to alter her form and they are stored down there."
"In a basement rather than a freezer?" Dauntless muttered. Armsmaster made no reply to that and Taylor frowned.
"Armsmaster, I'd suggest that Miss Militia evacuates. She's injured and if there is something down here that would force us to retreat she would be better served on the surface, with better lines of sight." Dauntless continued, raising his voice.
"I'll suggest it to her."
Well that sounded ominous. It was a well made point, though. Militia had an injured leg. If Lungs long lost brother was down there, Taylor didn't want to be carrying someone through the corridors as she ran away from him. Or her. Didn't want to stereotype. Of course that left Raijin and the Travellers, but Taylor was quite happy to leave them behind. If they got eaten, well, it wasn't as though she was their keeper.
"The smell's getting stronger." She noted as they walked. The corridors were sloping further downwards as well, deeper into the earth. Dauntless nodded sharply.
"The base follows the standard Endbringer Shelter layout. You are currently moving towards the deepest level of the shelter, containing a vault built as a final fall-back position." Armsmaster informed them. Taylor clicked her tongue.
"So either something that needs to be kept very safe, or kept well away from others."
"Most likely, yes."
"Well, we knew that going in. How much further to the vault?"
"Approximately thirty feet."
"And there goes my vague hope that the smell was a dead rat or something. You ready, Dauntless?"
Dauntless gave her a quick, sharp nod and they advanced once more. The smell was growing stronger and stronger, cloying and thick and somehow sweet, tart on the back of her tongue and in her nostrils. Rot and death and decay. Carrion, maybe. Armsmaster might be right with his Genesis theory.
Or there could be a very messy predator down there. Taylor knew which answer she would prefer to be right, but she couldn't really fool herself. There was a conscious being down there, and the premonition of danger she felt was only growing stronger. At least she hadn't had any visions of her impending death. And wow, that was a really concerning thing to have to think.
Closer.
Closer, until Taylor could see the heavy doors to the vault. They were sealed completely shut, leaving her to wonder how the smell had gotten out. Was it really so bad as to have permeated the impersonal steel and concrete around her? Or had the doors only been closed moments ago?
"Armsmaster, it looks as though the vault is sealed. Could be our boy inside, but I don't think we can get it open."
Taylor eyed the massive steel door dubiously. Perhaps at her strongest - but even then it was unlikely. These things were built to hold against Endbringers, at least for a few moments. Still, at least that meant that whatever was inside couldn't burst through and come at them like a nightmare Kool-Aid Man.
The impact that hit the doors buckled them and a wave of foetid air boiled out, rolling through the gap and wrapping around them in a noisome shroud.
Taylor was not ashamed to say that she screamed and jumped back at the shock, especially as Dauntless did the same.
"It's breaking through the vault doors!" Dauntless shouted over the communicator.
"Can you see what it is?" Armsmaster demanded, his voice almost lost in the second hammering impact. The ground shook under Taylor and she staggered, the smell only worsening and the doors shrieking as the metal bent and buckled. There was a flash of something dark in the gap, something moving before it forced through the absurdly thick steel of the door and waved in the air.
"Tentacle!" Taylor blurted aloud. Dauntless spun on his heel, his lance rising. A spark leaped from the end of it, slamming into the bulging, squirming rope of flesh that had forced a path through the door. The tentacle recoiled for a fraction of a heartbeat before it snapped to the side and whipped itself at Dauntless. Taylor dived at him and knocked him down, the tentacle slashing overhead and leaving a divot in the wall where it struck, lashing back and curling around the door. A second tentacle burst forth from the pit beyond the door, twisting the other way and curling. An instant of respite and hope, a moment of relief was squashed as the tentacles coiled and bunched and the doors began to give with a groaning, tearing reluctance.
"It's tearing open the door!" Dauntless shouted as they scrambled up. Armsmaster didn't hesitate.
"Dauntless, Circaetus, retreat." He snapped. The two of them immediately turned back, but they had taken only a few steps when a ghastly noise called them back. It wasn't the tortured scream of the door finally giving way, or the oozing, squelching noises of movement. It was the voice, soft and wavering and laced with festering madness. It was the voice, calling out in a jagged whisper, that caused them to hesitate.
"Krouse…Krouse, where are you? I can't find you, can't hear you…have they taken you from me?"
Taylor turned, dread dragging at her bones, to see a sight that belonged more in the universe of the Emperor than her own. It was hideous to behold, a writhing, pulsating mass of flesh and bone, meat putty shaped by hands too uncaring or too insane. A twisting, tortured mess of meat filled the corridor, a blobbing mound of discoloured flesh that bristled with hideous features: massive limbs, red and raw, halfway between a wolf and a horse, the waving, slithering tentacles and half formed, monstrous heads bulged from the discoloured mess, gibbering and snarling in a cacophony that mocked the very idea of symphony. Atop the pile sat a human torso, pale and slender, bent over to prevent itself from crushing against the ceiling, the very incongruity of it only adding to the eldritch horror of the thing before them.
Tyranid. Daemon. Gene experiment gone wrong, said Taylor's thoughts, the fraction that was not paralysed in the face of such a violation of all natural lore. The thing let out a rumbling, liquid shriek and advanced again, bearing down upon them with viscous, implacable movement. Taylor grabbed Dauntless and ran, bolting through the corridor. She only made it three steps before a tendril wrapped around her ankle and dragged her to the ground.
'Fuck!'
"Kill it! Kill it now!"
Taylor flipped herself over, landing hard on her back and fixing her eyes on the creature. The monstrous chimera launched itself forwards, rippling and undulating, teeth and tentacles and reaching arms and misshapen eyes and gobbling, gaping mouths in the deformed heads and Taylor flung her left hand up and let the lightning go. It tore from her fingers, leaving behind shaking numbness and the taste of copper and the gasping emptiness of suffocation, blazing through the air in a purple-white bolt that seared her eyes and tore at her nose, the stench of ozone thick and overpowering, even stronger than the smell of rot and decay. The behemoth before her screamed as the lightning struck, a scream that rose and rose, a wailing, echoing cry and the ozone smell was thickened by the racking, tainted reek of burned flesh.
Taylor forced herself to her feet, grabbed Dauntless by the arm and ran for her life.
The creature was not far behind.
Taylor could hear it thrashing through the corridors, crying and wailing in a thin, high shriek that set her teeth on edge, the nearly ethereal sound of the womans voice undercut by a meaty, rasping echo, half dying wolf and half agonised horse, braying and snarling. The woman- the lure, Taylor thought, like an anglerfish drawing prey- called after them as they ran, words wrenched forth in between the weeping and screaming.
"Armsmaster! We're being chased- big, strong, regenerating monster! Can you set the self-destruct?" Taylor shouted.
"No. Not with the Travellers and mercenaries still in the base." Armsmaster replied, his voice stern and chiding. Taylor swore.
"There's a fucking Lovecraft love-letter coming after us with all tentacles and fangs and you're worried about the fucking Travellers?" she shouted, nearly screamed. Dauntless had gotten his feet beneath him and was running beside her now, but the monster behind was gaining, crashing through concrete without heed. Taylor didn't look back, fearing that even the slightest distraction would slow her down too much.
"Criminals as they are, I'm not prepared to kill them." Armsmaster told her, and Taylor barely bit back a scream of frustration.
"Fucking evacuate them then! This bastard ate a lightning bolt that would have put Lung on his ass and it's coming hungry for more, so hurry and do something!"
"Panicking will not help, Circaetus." Armsmaster reproved. Taylor hauled in a breath to swear at him, but he spoke again before she could.
"Can you delay the creature by collapsing the tunnels?"
Taylor snapped her mouth closed, almost missing her next step. The heavy impact of her boot on the ground sent a jolt up her leg, shaking her back into the moment.
"Probably, but can the shelter take it? And I can't just rip the walls apart, I need to know where to hit."
"Approximately five metres ahead there is a brace in the concrete. If you destroy the brace and destabilise the walls then roughly twenty metres of the tunnel will collapse." Armsmaster reeled off, clinical and calm. Taylor kept sprinting.
"Alright. Dauntless, don't wait for me." She snapped.
'We've got the juice for this, right?'
"So long as you aren't expecting to keep doing it. The Dampener is beginning to fail already- the force contained in the lightning bolt was inefficiently dissipated. Something to consider in the future."
'Whoop-de-fucking-doo. Alright, let's do this.'
More running. Another stride, just a few more and Taylor slid to a halt, power surging through her bones and acid in her veins, coiling along flesh and muscle, tart and stinging on her tongue and prickling at her eyes and she turned, the beast almost upon her. Her hand rose, left hand, already numb and her fingers quivered as she fed power along them, bursting invisible from her fingertips and whipping through the air. The sudden pins-and-needles agony curled her fingers in involuntary reflex but it had the desired effect, a wall of force ramming into her pursuer and halting it momentarily, sending it reeling back just a fraction. The pause was tiny, but it gave her the chance she needed.
Taylor held her hands out to the walls, tendrils of power punching through the concrete and wrapping around steel before she slashed her hands back across, ripping with all of her might. The Dampener was burning on her chest, unpleasantly hot, but the steel gave way with thunderous shriek and Taylor flung her arms wide again, the tendrils changing to something almost like a blade, whipping across and smashing into concrete, pulverising the walls.
The walls groaned and the corridor shook and Taylor grinned despite the pain that had begun to throb in her forearm bones.
"Sayonara, bitch." She called, grabbing her staff and fleeing a moment before the abused concrete gave way and the roof fell in. The indignant shriek the creature let off was buried in the clamour and cracking of falling stone, clouds of dust rising behind Taylor as she sprinted, feeling chips of rock smack against the back of her coat. She stressed herself, saw an instant of the future- the cave-in stopping not far ahead- and blinked back into the present, speeding up to try to outrun the collapse. It was faster, always would be and she gritted her teeth and gathered her strength. She could feel the Dampener protesting, the first of the tell-tale hairline fractures beginning to form in it but she just needed it to hold a little longer as she wrapped herself in a cocoon of force and pushed.
Hurling herself through the air with absolutely no means of control, in an attempt to escape being crushed by a cave in she herself had caused, was…not even remotely close to the craziest thing she had done. Really, that just about summed up the clusterfuck that her life was becoming. Still, she reflected as she approached the end of her impromptu flying lesson with alarming rapidity, it was quite the rush.
Taylor slammed into the ground with a lot more velocity than she would have liked, spreading out her cocoon of force to bleed off some of the impact and rolling to dissipate the rest. It still hurt, jarring her bones and rattling her teeth, but she came out of the roll on her feet and uninjured. She was inclined to call that a complete victory, no matter what anyone else would say.
"Did I get it?" she demanded, dragging herself to her feet. Dauntless nodded slowly.
"I think so, but-"
The whole base seemed to shake and Taylor didn't really need to hear his next words.
"Well, at least we delayed it." She muttered, deadpan. Dauntless clapped her on the shoulder.
"Time to go!"
"Yep."
They ran back further, quickly returning to the room they had fought the Travellers in. It was empty now, and Dauntless slammed the door shut.
"Think that'll hold it?" Taylor asked, though she was reasonably certain that she knew the answer.
"I have my doubts. Armsmaster, what's the plan?"
"If we evacuate then the self-destruct can be armed. Circaetus, I need you to evacuate the mercenaries that you dealt with earlier. Dauntless, there is another person in the base- I'll guide you to her. Possibly a prisoner."
"Understood."
"Got it." Taylor mimicked, a little less formally, and set off at a run. The Dampener was still burning hot against her chest, the heat reaching through her breastplate with groping fingers.
'The Dampener isn't going to last much longer.' She noted, somewhat redundantly. The Emperor growled agreement.
"There's no time to be careful, now. That thing regenerated from the lightning. If it attacks again, go for a kill."
'Yeah, but how? You said it yourself, it regenerated through the lightning. I don't think I've ever pulled an attack that big, not since…oh. You think we can pull off another Vacuum Prison without completely breaking ourselves?'
The Emperor was ominously silent.
"I think we can create and maintain one. Whether we can do it for long is another matter entirely."
'Fuck me with a chainaxe. You think cutting off the human part will work?'
"Not if it is just a lure. But it probably wouldn't hurt to try."
'I really hope that thing needs to breathe. Maybe it'll just suffocate under the rocks and we won't need to do anything else.'
"A pleasant thought, but past experience suggests it is unlikely."
'Fucking killjoy.'
The mercenaries were just as Taylor and Dauntless had left them, scattered and cuffed. Taylor swept her gaze across the room, suddenly realising something.
'There's five of them.'
"Your grasp of maths is astonishing."
'Firstly, fuck off. Secondly, how are we going to carry five fucking idiots with us?'
"Drag them. Haul two with your hands and three with telekinesis."
'And put even more stress on the Dampener?' Taylor grumbled. The Emperor made no reply. He didn't need to, the answer was obvious. It was the fastest way to deal with it, and the stress on the Dampener should be limited by the way the mercenaries were unconscious. Struggling made it a lot harder to hold.
Still, it took a fair chunk of power to enhance herself enough to drag the two biggest while levitating the other three. Taylor gritted her teeth and carefully rerouted her power, feeding it around the Dampener rather than through. It made her fingers ache and the breath in her throat gain a faintly metallic tang, but it was better than exacerbating the fracturing of her Dampener. She would recover quickly enough, after all.
"Circaetus!"
Battery, Taylor thought. The Protectorate heroine had met her half-way, sliding down the corridor and taking two of the levitating mercenaries. Taylor couldn't help but feel a flash of gratitude, the copper taint fading from her tongue as she let her powers simmer down a little. Fingers still ache, but she can deal with that.
"Armsmaster send you to help me?" she asked. Battery gave her a quick nod as they lugged the mercenaries to the exit.
"Yeah. He said there was something dangerous down there?"
"Tore through an Endbringer shelter vault door like it was rice paper, regenerated through a hit that would have given Lung pause. Little bit more than dangerous." Taylor told her, clipped and quick. Battery flinched.
"A hit that would have given Lung pause?" she quoted. Taylor shrugged- not an easy task while dragging two burly idiots behind you, but she managed.
"I put most of my juice into it. Hopefully the self-destruct will do a better job."
The two of them didn't speak any further, moving to the surface as quickly as possible. They emerged into the dimness, black night only slightly alleviated by the harsh white glare of the floodlights sparsely scattered across the Docks. Miss Militia met them, the white bandage around her leg stark in the artificial twilight.
"We need to get them as far away from the base as possible." She greeted them, not bothering with even the most perfunctory greeting. Her expression- what little Taylor could see of it- was set in a grim frown, tight with pain and worry. She led them away from the exit, moving quickly despite her limp. Taylor briefly considered mentioning that she should get away before she became a liability but decided against it. Miss Militia wasn't as bad as Armsmaster, but Taylor was fairly sure that she had pride of her own. She probably wouldn't listen, and Taylor was too tired to convince her- whether with words or psychic manipulation. They were led to a group of PRT Troopers, faceless in their armour and helmets. As usual, Taylor couldn't help but mentally compare them to the classic dystopia armed police of- well, a great many sci-fi standards. Even some comparison to the Adeptus Arbites if you squinted. As usual, she didn't make the comment aloud. No point in it, really. The mercenaries were quickly taken into custody, loaded into a waiting van, and Taylor tapped a hand against her helmet and let her staff drop against her side from where it had been levitating.
"Dauntless? Armsmaster? How are we doing?"
"I'm nearly at the exit. The girl is unconscious- I don't think she's a prisoner though."
Armsmaster grunted thoughtfully.
"Put her with the others until we know, Dauntless. We'll have to be fast, the self-destruct is locked and coded. It's good- I don't know if I can get through before the threat escapes the cave-in."
Taylor didn't need to look at Battery or Miss Militia to know the expressions they were wearing. Dauntless spoke immediately.
"Armsmaster, can you set the self-destruct off safely?"
"Yes. I simply need time. Do not attempt to delay the threat, or rescue me. It will only make it harder to escape." Came the clipped, harsh response. Taylor grimaced.
"That isn't a good sign." Battery muttered, a hand tapping at her communicator. Miss Militia nodded sharply.
"I'm going to find an overlook position, in case we need it. Circaetus, can you stand by in case we need you?"
Taylor nodded, waving affably and otherwise projecting an air of complete nonchalance.
"Sure thing, boss."
'What do you think the odds of us actually being able to stop that thing are?'
"Poor. Especially with collateral damage in the way."
'What a charming term for our colleagues. You're right, though. Maybe we'll get lucky and Militia will shoot the life out of it as soon as it gets out of the base. You think a dozen RPG rounds will do it?'
"Sufficient firepower kills most things. Whether she has sufficient remains to be seen- assuming she doesn't fall off the roof and die because she's injured her leg and refuses to leave the field like a sensible person."
'Yeah, this is approaching a full force clusterfuck a lot faster than I'd like. Maybe we can collapse the base if Armsmaster can't get the self-destruct to work in time?'
"Perhaps. Do not forget that we still have a number of the bombs we took from Bakuda."
'Huh. Yeah, I'd forgotten about those. Don't think we have time to run across half the city to grab them though.'
Dauntless cut through her thoughts.
"All due respect, Armsmaster, but we can't risk something going wrong. I'm coming to support you. Battery, come to retrieve the girl."
"I hear you." Battery replied, her tone crisp and professional. Armsmaster made no comment, apparently resigned. Taylor stole a seat from the security booth and sat down, taking deep breaths, and gripping her staff in both hands. She only needed a touch of power, a taste of the Warp to begin extruding tendrils of power into the ground, blindly searching for weak points in the structure below. It wouldn't be easy to collapse the whole thing, but maybe if she could bring down more of the corridors she could delay the monstrous chimera of offal and reeking flesh. Even from here she could feel it, the dullness of a powerful Parahuman only exacerbating the horrifying hunger that ruled every facet of its being.
"If you attempt to bring the base down from here you will almost certainly be incapacitated."
'That's a good point. Maybe I should leave it to the professionals.'
"I don't think I would go that far."
'Have some faith.'
"I have faith. What I lack is certainty."
'That's pretty cold of you. I'm sure that Armsmaster and Dauntless can deal with-'
Taylor felt the monster finally thresh free of the obstruction, a grisly, bubbling roar rising in its throat, a cacophony so loud that she heard it even from her position. It moved again, horribly quickly.
'I retract my previous statement.'
"Armsmaster the, uh, threat is free of the obstruction and moving towards you."
"Understood. Continue evacuation procedures."
'He could have at least given us an update on the self-destruct.'
"To be completely fair, he might be busy."
'He's about to be really busy.' Taylor grumbled, rubbing her hands together and hauling herself to her feet. Battery had returned, a slender form clasped in her arms- a redheaded girl, limp in Battery's grasp. Her legs looked even slimmer than the rest of her body, atrophied almost.
"I don't think she can walk." Battery explained. "Maybe she was a prisoner?"
Taylor shrugged.
"I think we're evacuating everyone along the same path anyway, so take her with you. I'm going to sweep the nearby area for any stragglers, better to make sure."
Battery nodded, moving away and Taylor drew in a breath, preparing to expand her senses to cover as much area as she could. Armsmaster speaking loudly through her communicator scotched that plan quite effectively.
"Circaetus, the self-destruct has been disabled. Repeat, the self-destruct device is disabled. Are you able to collapse more of the base to slow down the threat?"
"Not from here." Taylor replied, keeping her voice calm despite the icy hand that closed around her heart. She- she didn't want to admit it, but she was afraid. She didn't want to go back into those corridors where the monster lurked, too fast and too strong and stinking like a charnel pit. But she didn't exactly have a choice.
"I'm on my way down. If you can keep the threat contained for ten minutes I can bring down most of the base."
'We can do that, right?'
"What do you think?"
'I think it'll break the Dampener and it won't be pleasant, but we'll live. But a little reassurance would be nice.'
"Very well. You are Circaetus, the Eagle, chosen successor of the Emperor of all Mankind. Your power darkens the skies and boils the seas, shatters planets and snuffs stars from the endless void. You are inevitable, unstoppable, and no foe can stand before you."
Taylor had never heard such sarcasm before. It was incredibly impressive.
'Wow. Thanks for reminding me of how far I still have to go.'
"You're welcome. With less sarcasm- you can defeat this creature, Taylor. I believe in you."
Aww. That really did warm her heart, keeping her going until she strode into the control room of the base. Armsmaster was sitting at a computer, fingers moving with lightning speed and his halberd within easy reach. Dauntless was standing stock still in the middle of the room, lance in hand and posture tense.
"I've managed to lock several doors, but it's breaking through them all. None of them are as strong as the vault door." Armsmaster reeled off, not even looking at her. The clicking of metal gauntlets on the keyboard intensified.
"It's moving with deliberation, rather than the rapid pursuit behaviour it initially showed. Probably a Parahuman- possibly a Case 53 with heavier mutations than normal."
"And the self-destruct?" Taylor asked. Armsmaster gave the smallest shrug.
"Disabled from off-site. Hard to tell if there was a reason for it."
"You're really gonna believe that there being a horrible monster in the basement and the self-destruct being turned off could be a coincidence?"
"I would prefer more evidence before jumping to conclusions. Can you delay the threat again?"
"I already told you I could manage it. But I still need to get closer, there's too much clutter in the way. And it won't hold it for too long." Taylor said, exasperated at having to repeat herself. Armsmaster shook his head.
"That will have to do. Be careful, we still don't know the exact properties of the threat. I'll continue to work on the self-destruct."
"Someone needs to tell him that stubbornness is not always a virtue."
'I feel like I'm in no position to attempt that particular hypocrisy.'
Taylor turned and strode out of the command centre, fingers flexing. The briefest glance down at her chest let her check on the Psychic Dampener: it was beginning to crack, but still intact. Good enough.
"Armsmaster, which point would be most effective to collapse? I don't have that much energy left, this one needs to count."
"I'm activating defences in the lower levels, so attempt to collapse the corridors leading from there. The ideal point would be the room you engaged the Travellers in, but the threat is already almost there."
"So what you're saying is, there is no ideal place to destroy."
"Unfortunately."
"Great." Taylor muttered. She cleared her throat and raised her voice.
"Alright. I'm going to move forwards and try to drop the corridor as it moves through. No guarantees it'll work, so you should be evacuating."
"One could say the same for yourself." Was the flat reply. Taylor smiled slightly.
"Armsmaster having a sense of humour? More likely than you might think." She commented, pinning the location of the monster in her mind and striding towards it.
'This is gonna be fun, isn't it?'
"Depending on your definition of fun. We can distract the creature for a moment with a mental attack. It's a raging berserk, it won't be able to fight us."
'It's Parahuman, it'll resist us like they all do. Even more, in fact. It feels much harder to get a grip on than the others have.'
"But we can still pierce the veil. We feed its rage and direct it away from us long enough to collapse the roof, then we leave and return with the Bakuda bombs. Very few things can survive being turned to glass."
'You think we could survive that?' Taylor idly questioned, her mind searching out the mind of the creature and locking onto it. The Emperor was right, any reason it might have had was consumed by burgeoning, scorching fury that would be easy to hook her claws into.
"I think we would recover, eventually. But I would prefer not to experience it."
'That's fair. Alright, it's ahead. You ready?'
"I am not the one who needs to be."
Taylor burst through the doors at a run, shouldering through the doorway and hurling a wall of force at the creature. The shimmering force crashed into the tentacles that were lunging for her and Taylor immediately opened her mind to the Warp, not bothering with any quipping. She drove a mental blade into the rage and the hate that swirled around the creature, stoking it to an unimaginable degree and turning it back on itself, letting it feed on itself in a tearing conflagration. Her staff flung out, force whipping from her form and slamming into the walls and ceiling like thrashing tendrils, the creature before her giving a bubbling, screeching roar. Taylor ignored the faint scent of iron in her nose as the Dampener took most of the stress, forcing past it to cast the faintest illusion of herself to the left of the creature.
"C'mon, don't tell me that's all you've got!" she shouted. The creature let out a wrenching, cracking scream and lashed tendrils in every direction. Taylor flung herself for the door, one flailing tentacle catching her in the back and throwing her several feet down the corridor moments before the base caved in. She landed hand, grunting at the pain.
'It's a good thing we decided to enhance ourselves. Reinforced bones for the win.'
"Not that reinforced. You would have broken bones without your armour."
'Ceramite for the win.' Taylor amended, struggling to her feet and hastily limping away. She'd landed hard on her hip and the ache was spreading towards her knee. Bruises, she concluded. Deep, but not dangerous.
"Armsmaster, I've buried the threat. No idea how long it'll last. Time to go, right?"
"Confirmed. Circaetus, make your way out of the base and rendezvous with Miss Militia at-"
The whole base shook and the screaming howl resurfaced, deafening and backed with the creaking, tearing crack of concrete. Taylor looked up, saw the fractures beginning to form in the roof and swore.
"Circaetus, the base is beginning to collapse! Get out of there!"
Armsmaster actually sounded worried, Taylor absently noted as she started to run. It was fairly clear that she wasn't going to be able to make it but, as The Emperor had once heard, hope dies last. Maybe if she could-
"Get to the barracks and use the bedframes as shelter!" The Emperor barked. Taylor didn't bother to reply, surging power through her aching limbs to speed her flight in an attempt to outrun the inevitable collapse. The surging electric sting of the Warp through her body only exacerbated the aching of her bruises, drawing a low hiss of pain from between her teeth but she kept moving, flying over the ground until she reached the barracks and hurled herself in, tucking herself into a ball in the doorframe and telekinetically dragging the bunkbed and table over to her, smashing them into place above her hunched frame a moment before the cave-in caught up to her and her vision was swallowed by darkness, an impact ringing on her helmet a moment before the table fell into place.
Taylor muffled a cough in her helmet lining, uncurling once the shaking stopped. Carefully she felt about herself, hands groping in the darkness and powers stretching out in an attempt to parse the surroundings. She was all but buried in the rubble, eyes seeing nothing but deep blackness.
She was glad for her helmet, filtering out the dust- and standing the impact of the first rubble with ease. She was sheltered here: the bunkbed had landed over her, leaving her in the middle of the frame, and the table on top of that had caught just about all of the debris. There wasn't much of it, thankfully, but that couldn't be said for the rest of the base. Taylor squirmed an arm free of a surprisingly squashy mattress and reached up to her helmet, tapping at the communication device.
"Armsmaster? Dauntless? Can you hear me?"
Nothing. The device crackled and faint words trickled through, but it was barely legible. Taylor gritted her teeth and rose to her feet, back pressing against the table and heaving. It was heavy, her muscles straining and protesting as she augmented herself with the volatile power of the Immaterium and she strained, breath short in her chest and the table lifted, tipped and fell away from her, letting her stand. Taylor took a shallow, measured breath and let it out in a long sigh. A faint pain tickled at the side of her skull where the rubble had caught her, but it was a minor hurt, easily dismissed. She tapped at her comms device and the crackling resolved itself into words.
"Threat has escaped, repeat threat has escaped. Dauntless is engaging, Circaetus is missing in action. All PRT troopers, retreat to secondary rendezvous and prepare containment procedures for possible Class-A threat. All Protectorate assets in nearby area, assist with containment, do not engage."
Armsmaster was crisp and clear, his diction sharp and cold. Professional. Taylor coughed against the faint touch of dust that made it through her helmet.
"Armsmaster? Can you hear me?"
He didn't reply, instead repeating his earlier instructions with measured, careful cadence. Taylor grimaced.
'Guess comms are out.'
"It must have been damaged by the rubble. The monster must have destabilised too much of the base with its struggling."
'Sounds that way. Well, no rest for the righteous- we need to get out of here.'
"Do not bother with the corridors. Find a path to the surface as quickly as possible, lest the monster catch us."
Taylor flexed her arms and bent to pick up her staff, groping through the darkness until her fingers met the wood.
'Yeah. Good idea.' She allowed, her aches and pains returning with a vengeance, hot on the heels of departing adrenaline. She let out a slow sigh and began to move, calling the faintest spark to her fingers and raising a glowing hand to begin mapping out her path. But first…Taylor took a look at her chest, swiping away some of the dust to check the Dampener. The sight was…not encouraging. The purple crystal had begun to change, flecked with blue and crimson, and a long crack had formed in the middle. She had maybe one more good attack in her before the Dampener shattered entirely. But that was a bridge she could burn when she reached it. With a sigh she began to pick her way through the rubble, mentally tallying her resources as she went.
First things first. Herself, human girl, 15 years old, with just enough transhumanism work done that she was approaching the peak of strength and speed that someone of her age and physique could attain. Tougher than she should be. Not nearly tough enough to take on something like the threat- Noelle, the Travellers had called it? Regardless, she couldn't take it in a fist fight. A suit of armour, Imperium style, battered and dusty but still in good condition. Proof against bullets and knives. Not proof against being splattered by something approximately the size of a bus. Her staff, similar issue. And then…one powered gauntlet, fully charged and saved as a last resort. Taylor flexed the fingers on her left hand, testing the movement of the gauntlet. There was a good chance she'd need it, though overall…her resources were a little thin on the ground right now. Retreat might be the better choice, bitter as the thought was.
Taylor moved quickly, picking her way through the rubble and keeping an ear on the communications. From what she could tell, Noelle- she was going to call it that until further notice, she decided- had simply gone upwards, smashing through the concrete and earth rather than trying to squeeze through the corridors and thereby destabilising the whole shelter. It made sense, Taylor reluctantly concluded- the parts of the shelters that had collapsed were well made, but they were for movement, not the protective vaults. Regardless, Noelle had emerged onto the surface with shocking speed and ferocity, just ahead of Armsmaster and Dauntless. Dauntless had attempted to engage, Armsmaster had lost track of them in the ensuing melee and collapse and was now attempting to coordinate a response. Not an easy thing, given that as far as he knew his forces now consisted of an injured Miss Militia, Battery and himself. All the more reason for Taylor to hurry, and she slithered up a slope of rock and brick and abruptly tumbled into the cool night air, lit by the harsh glare of the halogen lights.
'I feel like I should have emerged to deep, cleansing breaths and starlight.'
"Keep your mask on in case tear gas is deployed." The Emperor responded, deadpan advice. Taylor snorted.
'Sure, whatever you say. I guess we just head towards the sounds of violence now?'
The Emperor didn't reply, but she suspected that he knew it was the only way. She needed to let someone know that she was alive after all, and…and there was a lot of gunfire. Like, a lot a lot. As though someone was firing a machine gun, but…
'Miss Militia's in trouble.'
Taylor picked up her pace even as quick, gabbled reports came over the radio.
"PRT Team One is under attack! Unknown Parahuman, male, hostile!"
"Team Two, under attack! Looks like Purity!"
"Miss Militia, engaging. Multiple hostiles, all male, similar body types. I think I can-"
Miss Militia was abruptly cut off and Taylor picked up her pace.
"What in the red white and blue fuck is going on now?" she demanded, speaking aloud in her frustration. She forced herself to expand her awareness again, pinning Miss Militia in her mind and moving quickly. The PRT teams were unpowered, but they had numbers and it sounded like they only had one enemy each. There were at least two on Miss Militia, both of them strangely familiar and yet obscured, somehow. Taylor suspected that was important. She didn't really want to know why.
Armsmaster was demanding a report across the comms, Miss Militia's comm flickering back for a moment with a hasty reply- she was engaging, three enemies, unknown powers but likely Brute and then her rapid, professional tone cut out into a scream of pain. Taylor was nearly there, pushing herself the last few steps and racing between the shipping crates that formed a labyrinth in the Docks. She slid around a corner, grabbing the edge of the crate to swing herself and staggering to a halt, eyes roving across the scene before her.
It came with a flash of horror. Miss Militia, indomitable second in command of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, was pinned against a crate, a hand locked against her throat. She was clawing weakly at the hand that pinned her with her right hand: the second arm hung limply at her side, barely held on by stringy tendrils of meat and sinew. Her assailant held the weapon that had taken the arm, a glowing blade of light, tilted in his hand. Even as Taylor found her feet he pressed it forwards and Miss Militia screamed in agony as it slowly tore into her right eye, a sickening squelch tainting the air. Taylor moved without thinking, power flowing down her staff and forming at the end, a lethal blade. Miss Militia saw her, eye widening in confusion and hope and the attacker turned, blade dropping away and Miss Militia falling to the ground and Taylor spun her staff in her hands, more glaive than spear, and cleaved through his wrist. The man shouted in shock, stumbling back and Taylor whirled the staff, let the blade dissipate and rammed it into his chin. She saw the spray of blood as his teeth slammed shut on his tongue and the cry of gurgling pain and she spun, drove the staff into his skull, saw him fall and her precognition screamed as a fist crashed into the back of her skull and broke her spine and Taylor moved in time with the vision, ducking away from the crippling blow and lashing a boot behind her and hitting something soft. She ducked away, staff whirling in her hands and she took three quick steps, whirling to face her new opponent. There was something familiar about him, tall and broad shouldered, but she didn't recognise his face. The smirking smile was familiar though, cruel and smug and vindictive.
"Circaetus. You must know you can't win."
The retort Taylor might have given died on her tongue, drying out at the sound of the voice.
"Dauntless?" she croaked. He smiled, sharp and pleased.
"Well, of a sort. You don't want to hurt me, do you? You don't want to kill your friend?"
For a moment Taylor's brain stuttered, words not coming and she lost her chance to reply as the smirk curdled with violence.
"I don't share that hesitation!"
Her precognition saved her again, visions of a grisly death at every blow flicking through her mind, her reflexes moving before her mind did. Taylor staggered back, twisting and stepping under the swift, savage assault, her tired body unable to keep up as she would have wanted, dodges crude and clumsy and she missed a step, a glowing fist catching her in the stomach.
Even through her armour the blow winded her, throwing her into a crate. She brought her staff up, swinging it at Dauntless without thinking and he met it with a glowing fist and the wood shattered, runes of enforcing and protection breaking under the brute strength and the numbness in her mind slowed her as splinters showered and then he was on her. She deflected the right jab he threw first, even the glancing blow painful but the second caught her stomach, drove the breath from her and as she bent over another blow landed on her shoulder, pain lancing through her arm. Armsmaster shouted something over the communications but Taylor couldn't hear him, head ringing as she brought up her arms, shrouded in a hastily raised barrier of force, and tried to withstand the flurry of brutal blows that rained down upon her, the voice in her ear returning more insistent than ever.
"-I repeat, Sundancer of the Travellers has indicated that the threat has the ability to clone Parahumans that she ingests!"
Sudden and horrified realisation was swallowed in a sudden rush of motion, her attacker changing from battering on her forearms to grabbing them and ripping her off her feet. Taylor swore aloud, her opponent spinning her around. She smashed into the shipping crate again, her hastily raised telekinetic barrier soaking most of the impact and leaving a dent. He was on her an instant later, smashing her head against the crate with a lightning fast jab. Her helmet held against the blow and the impact but stars crossed her vision for an instant and a hand closed around her throat, lifting her from her feet, a second hand joining it. Taylor choked and coughed, kicking at the man and grabbing at the hands but the grip was relentless, cutting off her air and all she could see was bared teeth, spittle foaming around the lips and the madness in his eyes and she drove blows into his chest, his stomach but they did nothing, darkness encroaching on her vision and she could feel his hate, taste it in her blood and she heard Miss Militia scream, another sound of raw, primal hurt, flickering vision seeing another attacker and Taylor felt hate rise in her, hot and bitter and soaked through with the vinegar sharp taint of murderous fury.
She raised a hand, clamped it over his face and called on the Warp in a last, desperate rush. The power seethed through her arm and her bones and pain flickered, sharp against the crushing hurt of suffocation and ten thousand needles of force drove into the man's eyes.
The clone shrieked in agony as his eyeballs burst, reeling back with hands clutching at his face. Taylor dropped to the ground, crouching a moment and dragging in a breath, raw fury boiling in her chest. She held on to the needles of force she had driven into his face, forcing them into every nerve she could touch, dimly aware of the Warp power roaring through her and the heat in her chest from the Dampener. She straightened up, raised her boot and, with a viciousness borne of rage, drove her boot into his knee. The joint popped, cracking under the impact and the scream got even louder, if that were possible. The man fell over, crashing onto the ground and Taylor let the Warp slide from her grasp, allowed the needles to dissipate a moment before she brought her boot down on the ankle opposite to the knee she had already crippled. She felt a sting of guilt for just a moment, in case this really was Dauntless, but it was consumed by the ravenous fury that still howled in her soul, a fire made thick and black with hatred. She left him there, raised her face and saw Miss Militia, fallen against the crate. The third attacker had something in his hand, something- Taylor realised what it was and her vision went white with rage.
It was an arm. He had reached down and torn Miss Militia's wounded arm from her shoulder, ripping through the last few slivers of flesh in a brutal, vicious act of cruelty. He had her other arm in a tight grip, his posture seething with malice and Taylor didn't even need to think. It was only a few steps between them, her left gauntlet driven to full power and Taylor curled her fingers, aimed and punched once. The crackling field of energy, made to destroy tanks, met human flesh and bone and met no resistance, the ozone stench of scorched flesh filling the air as the body collapsed, head reduced to atomised ruin. Miss Militia stared up at her, one eye a blackened and bloody mess, arms limp, ankle clearly broken. Taylor looked down, saw the blood pouring from the ruined stump of her arm and grimaced.
"This will hurt." She told Miss Militia, her apologetic tone lost in the gravelly rasp coming from her injured throat as she pressed her fingers into the bloody mess of Militia's shoulder and forced power through it. Biomancy turned and twisted, flesh dragging itself together in writhing, fleshy tendrils that knotted and twisted, sealing the wound with grotesque efficiency, Taylor ignoring the scream that Militia tried to choke down. Armsmaster's voice came through the comms, urgent and concerned- or at least as close as he could achieve.
"Militia? Miss Militia, what is your condition?"
Taylor crouched, hoping beyond hope that Miss Militia wasn't in shock because she was not qualified to deal with that and Miss Militia met her eyes, gaze clouded with pain but coherent.
"Armsmaster. I'm alive. Heavily injured. Circaetus is alive and present, in addition to three Dauntless clones."
A pause and Taylor gritted her teeth against the aching in her head. The Dampener wasn't cooling down anymore, but she pushed power through it regardless, trying to track the monster, wherever it was.
"Circaetus is alive? Understood, can you reach our position?"
"I'd belay that," Taylor said, her voice brittle with determination, "Because Noelle- the threat- is approaching us. Quite rapidly."
Miss Militia sucked in a breath but relayed the information. Taylor glanced down at her.
"Can you walk?" she asked. Militia looked uncertain.
"I can try." She said, her voice commendably level and the knife clutched in her remaining hand flickering into a pistol. Taylor nodded and leaned down, carefully helping her to her feet.
"Alright. I'm going to lead Noelle away. Get to Armsmaster, if you can, and tell him whatever you can."
"What? No, I can- I'm wounded. Better it's me." Militia protested, her voice wavering with pain as she tried to put weight on her ankle. Taylor looked at her and shook her head.
"I can lead it away and escape. You can't. Stay alive, Militia. I'll be back soon."
And then Taylor moved quickly into the darkness, deaf to any pleas for her to return.
Noelle was close, easy to track, her stench and the squelching, liquid noise of her movement easy to track. Taylor found her, hiding from her behind a shipping crate and taking a deep, steadying breath. One chance. She would have one chance at this. Best make it count, she mused detachedly as she laid her palms against the shipping crate and poured what was left of her power into it. Now all she needed was a suitably intimidating entrance.
"Noelle!" she rasped, projecting her voice, "Your end has come!"
And Taylor tore the crate to fragments and buried the monster in a storm of razor shrapnel. Blood and viscera fountained, the unholy shriek near loud enough to burst her eardrums but Taylor wasn't done, a curled hand thrusting forwards and a lance of purple-blue Warpfire sprang forth, curling around Noelle and splashing onto her hideous hide in a liquid, starving grasp. Noelle shrieked even more loudly, an unholy sound, a chorus of damned souls and dying animals and Taylor took to her heels.
Or that was the plan.
A flash of precognition and Taylor threw herself back, away from her escape route as a tentacle slammed down there, bleeding from dozens of wounds but already regenerating, the animal shriek becoming vengeful and Taylor immersed herself in the Warp, precognition struggling as she desperately tried to avoid the savage, smashing blows. Three, four, five and pain blossomed behind her eyes, unexpected and awful and Taylor faltered, missed a step and a tentacle knocked her off her feet. She landed hard on her arm, felt something snap and the fresh pain and a tendril wrapped around her ankle and Taylor panicked, flinging her uninjured hand out. A thousand knives of force slashed out, tearing the tentacle to shreds of meat and gristle and another one wrapped around her injured arm and Taylor screamed as it tore her into the air and smashed her into a shipping crate. Her helmet broke on the impact, shards of ceramite cutting across the face and Taylor swore aloud, dragging deeper into her well of power, sheer panic cutting through the fuzziness and the blades of telekinetic force lanced out, all around her, an impassable wall that reduced the tendrils to nothing more than flapping flags of flesh and then the Dampener broke. It shattered on her chest, the shock reverberating through the Warp and the pain came an instant later, slicing through every nerve and every inch of her, paralyzing her. She tried to pass through it, tried to overcome it but it was too late, her power out of reach and the tentacles seized her, dragged her. Taylor smacked into the gelatinous mass of the monster, sinking in, her power coming back to her through the agony as she reached out, fought and struggled even as she sank into the mound of meat and something reached through the break in her helmet, touched her face and a pain like stars and fireworks and ice in the bone filled her head, filled her skull, every thought a red-hot poker in her mind and darkness reached for her, wrapped her and dragged her down into a pit of silence.
So that was a thing, I guess. Originally this was supposed to cover the entire Echidna incident, but for that we'd be looking at probably another two or three weeks of writing and over thirty thousand words. Instead, I've decided to break things up into multiple chapters. Don't worry though, the updates should come a lot faster now- the next two, at least.
As always, I appreciate any reviews you want to drop and I hope you enjoyed.
See you next week.