Divine Administration - of Gods and Bureaucracy (Worm/Exalted)
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Hye
Reader of The Long Words
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Hmm... I feel that is vaguely familiar. I remember a Megaman taylor and a Killbuster Taylor, but i can't recall exactly where i saw Astro Girl Taylor... I'll let you know if i remember it
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- New Zealand
The problem with that reading of the Leviathan fight is that it is ambiguous in the text why he stopped growing, and that he grew bigger against Scion, so it isn't a size limit. Wildow also commented on that chapter in response to a theory like yours saying "there is no limit". The theory I lean towards is that he/his passenger stopped perceiving threat towards Leviathan.
I think Lung suffers a lot in fanfics from him having been defeated by Skitter early in canon, because if you look at what actually manages to take him down in canon you realize exactly why he is so feared.
List of Lungs defeats/things that seriously harmed him, and mentions of fights where he fought very powerful people:
Skitter using bugs on him and him growing far slower than he did in any other confrontation, possibly due to the indirect nature of the threat, before Bitch's dogs quickly take him down in his poisoned state.
Sundancer's sun caused him to collapse and almost die in the second Lung fight, but when Kaiser impaled Lung through the heart/lungs she extinguished her sun, and then Lung quickly regenerated and won the rest of of the physical fight.
Newter's sweat delivered directly to his eye put him down after a small delay.
He rampaged out of Glastig Uaine's section of the birdcage, through the women's side, and to the men's side after killing Bakuda.
He fought Scion at least twice, implied to do so several more times.
He fought the Case 53 group attacking Cauldron, and they were unable to do anything meaningful to impede him.
He fought through the Protectorate guards on the Simurgh's clone baby thing in the final interlude, destroyed it, and then escaped.
Basically Lung tends to suffer from people mostly remembering his weakest showings, and then being used as a stepping stone for character's march to greatness. This isn't to say that I disagree with the final method of bringing him down, or what ends up happening to him in this story, but he is definitely stronger than most people remember.
Lung didn't have endurance problems he hit his peak power for the size of the fight and that drove other capes away due to the heat resulting in him depowering a bit due to the fight shrinking. He kept fighting until Leviathan got bored and left. Lung lacked the power to harm Levi but could regen well enough to not keep fighting.
The poison idea is fine but trying to outlast lung is literally the worst plan possible for him because he keeps getting stronger till you are no longer a threat to him, and won't get weaker unless the conflict does. The fight would make more sense if poison was plan A and they needed to stall in order for new poisons to be made after the first attempt wasn't enough.
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Some inaccuracies in that statement.
Here are the quotes so we don't have any more debates about it:
Alexandria was there in a heartbeat, helping, keeping Leviathan from finding his way inside. She drove the monster back, bought Lung purchase.
She said something in English, but Lung didn't know the language. The only others who spoke Japanese or Chinese were gone, now. They'd evacuated who they could, and the remainder were left to drown. The only ones left were the indomitable, and for now, Lung was among them. They fought to keep Leviathan from continuing his rampage, to keep him from carrying on until he'd wiped away all of Japan. Lung just fought.
Fought for minutes, hours. Fought until four wings extended from his back, and he burned so hot that the steel-like flesh just beneath Leviathan's skin was blackening and charring to ash by proximity alone. Until he was larger than Leviathan, until even Alexandria hesitated to get too close.
For that indeterminate period of time, Lung was king of the world.
But he began to weaken. The lesser heroes were gone, washed away or helping others to evacuate, the greater heroes a distance away.
And Lung had nothing to fuel his power. He was engaged in a fight of ten times the scale he'd been in before, and his power was leaving him.
The landmass disappeared beneath the pair of them, the shards of land drawn beneath the waves, and Lung was now fighting Leviathan in the monster's home ground.
For an instant, he thought he would die. But Leviathan, wounded, broke away and fled into the depths.
Lung only sank, too dense to float, growing wearier by the second as his power left him, the fight over.
He'd expected a feeling of satisfaction, but he knew he hadn't delivered a killing blow, that he had been a long, long way from it, though he'd done more damage than anyone had in years.
His enemy couldn't be killed. Lung had become something more terrifying than the Endbringer, but there had been nobody to see. None of the public to recognize him, to respect and fear him.
He sank, feeling a kind of despair. Too tired to move, he touched bottom.
Alexandria found him in the depths and brought him to the surface
She said something in English, but Lung didn't know the language. The only others who spoke Japanese or Chinese were gone, now. They'd evacuated who they could, and the remainder were left to drown. The only ones left were the indomitable, and for now, Lung was among them. They fought to keep Leviathan from continuing his rampage, to keep him from carrying on until he'd wiped away all of Japan. Lung just fought.
Fought for minutes, hours. Fought until four wings extended from his back, and he burned so hot that the steel-like flesh just beneath Leviathan's skin was blackening and charring to ash by proximity alone. Until he was larger than Leviathan, until even Alexandria hesitated to get too close.
For that indeterminate period of time, Lung was king of the world.
But he began to weaken. The lesser heroes were gone, washed away or helping others to evacuate, the greater heroes a distance away.
And Lung had nothing to fuel his power. He was engaged in a fight of ten times the scale he'd been in before, and his power was leaving him.
The landmass disappeared beneath the pair of them, the shards of land drawn beneath the waves, and Lung was now fighting Leviathan in the monster's home ground.
For an instant, he thought he would die. But Leviathan, wounded, broke away and fled into the depths.
Lung only sank, too dense to float, growing wearier by the second as his power left him, the fight over.
He'd expected a feeling of satisfaction, but he knew he hadn't delivered a killing blow, that he had been a long, long way from it, though he'd done more damage than anyone had in years.
His enemy couldn't be killed. Lung had become something more terrifying than the Endbringer, but there had been nobody to see. None of the public to recognize him, to respect and fear him.
He sank, feeling a kind of despair. Too tired to move, he touched bottom.
Alexandria found him in the depths and brought him to the surface
And in the comments section by Wildbow: "He doesn't have an upper limit."
Basically we have nothing but conjecture for exactly what the mechanics are, and I already posted the fights Lung explicitly happened in canon showing that he powers up very quickly and his defeats were outliers, so now we can all reach our own conclusions.
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Well, I might have to describe it more accurately, but:
- consider how dangerous Rachels ramped-up dogs are. IIRC they were able to tackle Leviathan at one point. Here she has dogs that already started out bigger, and that have their own powers, which Rachel can also boost to boot. Plus she got some tips from Amy, so she can pull off more tricks with that boosting.
- poison, as you correctly pointed out. Apparently Lungs power doesn't register poison as an additional threat - and I also exptrapolated that to exhaustion, his power doesn't deliver additional power there either. What Lung took here was far nastier than what Skitter had available.
- Ti Kuan Yin basically hit him with a "sleep spell" that definitely didn't do his threat perception any good.
Basically, I wasn't intending this as an easy fight. It was supposed to be obviously impressive and dangerous. Without all the factors at work here, Lung would have won. It wasn't pure physical combat that brought him down here - it was a combination of that, as well as several other, less direct attacks.
As for the fight running long, instead of Lung being taken out with a massive attack:
That's due to Lung intentionally running away at first. He knows how his power works, prolonging a conflict is just perfect for him. That's why he refused to be pinned down. Lisa certainly knew that prolonging a fight with Lung was a bad idea, and I'm sure others did as well based on what's known about it, but it's not like it was entirely by choice.
Granted, it might not have been the smartest way to write this fight. I might change the "let's deliberately split up"-part at least, and just portray it as Lung evading a straight fight for that long.
- consider how dangerous Rachels ramped-up dogs are. IIRC they were able to tackle Leviathan at one point. Here she has dogs that already started out bigger, and that have their own powers, which Rachel can also boost to boot. Plus she got some tips from Amy, so she can pull off more tricks with that boosting.
- poison, as you correctly pointed out. Apparently Lungs power doesn't register poison as an additional threat - and I also exptrapolated that to exhaustion, his power doesn't deliver additional power there either. What Lung took here was far nastier than what Skitter had available.
- Ti Kuan Yin basically hit him with a "sleep spell" that definitely didn't do his threat perception any good.
Basically, I wasn't intending this as an easy fight. It was supposed to be obviously impressive and dangerous. Without all the factors at work here, Lung would have won. It wasn't pure physical combat that brought him down here - it was a combination of that, as well as several other, less direct attacks.
As for the fight running long, instead of Lung being taken out with a massive attack:
That's due to Lung intentionally running away at first. He knows how his power works, prolonging a conflict is just perfect for him. That's why he refused to be pinned down. Lisa certainly knew that prolonging a fight with Lung was a bad idea, and I'm sure others did as well based on what's known about it, but it's not like it was entirely by choice.
Granted, it might not have been the smartest way to write this fight. I might change the "let's deliberately split up"-part at least, and just portray it as Lung evading a straight fight for that long.
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This is really clunky. Also has some errors in it, but you're probably better off just re-writing it.
I think that works better than a comma (might actually be a semi-colon? Not actually sure when to use those).
Ah, that explains it.
The issue with the fight to me, is that they didn't cut their losses - if Taylor hadn't thought to bring in Ti Kuan Yin, they'd have been stuffed. Lung was outpacing their damage, because that's what he does. He doesn't tire - if he's ramping up on you, and you've hit close to max damage output (and they had), you're stuffed unless you've got an extra trick. They did, but no one knew that.
As others have said, his not getting any stronger against Levi is likely just since Levi stopped registering as a 'threat' from having ramped up sufficiently (Levi was doing nothing to Lung and so wasn't really a threat to Lung. Just, Lung was also doing no appreciable damage to Levi).
Wildbow said:
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FaeGlade Plural
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Okay, I just inserted a few edits into 4.4 that I worked on over the last week (while doing planning and a small amount of writing for the next chapter). I think this should shift the whole thing from "they planned to chase down and outlast Lung" to "they took an opportunity to fight Lung, held on for a long time, and made up a plan that worked". I hope I didn't mess up any formatting here, and I'll get on spelling mistakes and such later, I hope.
Thanks for all the input, it really does help and is very appreciated.
I'm putting the relevant sections into spoilers below if anyone wants to do a direct comparison, I hope nothing is messed up there either.
Thanks for all the input, it really does help and is very appreciated.
I'm putting the relevant sections into spoilers below if anyone wants to do a direct comparison, I hope nothing is messed up there either.
Lung ran. So did the members of his gang, but that wasn't surprising against our forces. All of New Wave except for Amy, who was safely tucked away in my sanctum prepared for any wounded. Three Lion-Dogs, Ver'ash with one of his contraptions, as well as Tu Yu and myself. And a squadron of cloaked camera drones, giving a life feed to Lisa.
But Lung was already ramped up. Glory Girl had pummeled him for minutes before we arrived in numbers. And he had fought the Empire before that. The scorched concrete and shattered walls only reinforced how he had no reason to run.
I didn't trust this. "This has to be a trap. Lisa? Dragon? Do you have anything?"
Both of them spoke at the same time. "Nope."
"Negative."
I sighed. Of course they had anticipated my question. "One at a time please. So there's no obvious trap you can see, Dragon. Lisa, do you get anything on his intentions?"
There was a pause, probably for Dragon to get a new angle on Lung with her drones and for Lisa to analyze him. "No, nothing. Well, other than him wanting to crush you very badly. I think he wishes you were dead and blames you for this mess? I'd suggest not getting cornered by him, but…"
"Wasn't planning on that anyway. Okay, I guess we can continue the chase then." Just Mornings Flame,, Rachel and the other Lion Dogs were already on the heels of Lung, harassing him to slow him down. The rest of us had kept more distance, but now we were picking up speed and heading deeper into the docks.
"No, we have to split up to catch him." There were mutterings about Lisa's suggestion, it being too risky, her not even being in danger here, why was she even using the word "we".
"She's right". Lady Photon interrupted. "Lung can outlast us in any chase. Most of us aren't even fast enough to keep up with him yet, and we don't know when his crippled wings might heal. Cutting him off and pinning him down now is our best option. But we'll only send people who can at least take a few hits from him. The rest stays safe as a group."
"Of course", Lisa's answer was dry, and I could practically see her roll her eyes at that obvious statement. "Glory Girl, Brandish, the Lion Dogs. Ver'ash, if you have something that makes you tough enough. That should give us enough people to cut off most routes, and if we…"
I interrupted her. "Me too!" That got me a few looks before I elaborated. "I can't fight that well yet, but I'm tough enough to take a few hits. And I'm sure Lung will go after me if he sees me. And worst-case, I can just become intangible and duck away."
Lisa sighed. "Yes, fine, and Aedile too. Dragon, can you update our maps?"
Our phones, HUDs or armbands blinked with the new information before Lisa had even finished her sentence. We broke off and hurried towards our destinations. Rachel was still chasing Lung astride Just Mornings Flame, but the others fell back and spread out. Lady Photon and Glory Girl broke north, trying to stop him from escaping towards the trainyard. Ver'ash and I hurried north-east, with any luck we would take the fight into the boat graveyard and pin Lung down there. There was only so much we could do to control his movements, however. Taking him out would be another matter entirely.
The fight was leading deeper into ABB territory. Even here, there were marks of the attacks from the Empire, and where Lung or Oni Lee had repelled them. None of the buildings in this part of the docks were well-maintained. People here barely made do with the sparse welfare they could get, whatever income they could share between friends and family, or crime both organized and petty. The city certainly didn't have enough tax money to spend on it, and the ABB didn't pretend to be an alternative to the government for its members by fixing up any houses, unlike the Empire 88.
So it certainly wasn't surprising to see broken windows and roads full of potholes. But I could spot houses where whole walls had been ripped out by giant claws, and half the streets concrete had been boiled off. I could spot bullet holes in some cars, but also one that looked like it had been forced through a giant shredder. There hadn't been a single picture like that in the news. And barely anything on the human cost.
I could only spot a few people myself. Their reactions to a robed girl running over a ruined street at olympic sprinting speeds was extremely mute. I had no idea where everyone else was, whether they had fled the fight, were hiding or had moved out of this area entirely. There wasn't the all-encompassing panic I had seen in Canberra, despite a ramped-up Lung fighting nearby. I wasn't sure whether to be creeped out or relieved.
An earth-shattering roar from behind me made me pause. I glanced at the display Dragon had installed under my veil. Rachel was no longer chasing Lung, now she was making a fighting retreat to lure him onward. I didn't know how bad it was, but given how ramped-up Lung was after this long chase I couldn't imagine Just Mornings Flame doing very well, even with Rachel's help and his ability to cancel most of Lungs fire.
They weren't headed in my direction. I could only watch, again, and this time I couldn't even coordinate the battle. I hadn't really done it last time, I had just coordinated people who knew about military strategies and tactics. I was here as durable bait, but I still had to do something. I brought up Dragons camera feed, filling the screen she had built into my veil.
Lung was huge. He had been growing for the entire fight, getting larger as well as sprouting claws, scales and fangs. But either he had been holding back or his powers had made a leap forward. By now he had nearly doubled his mass, warped his legs into a powerful bent shape and added a spiked tail and leathery wings. And I could see the constant fiery aura that surrounded him from here as an angry-burning glow shining over the buildings between us.
Lung jumped, high enough to reach the camera drone. High enough that I could see him above the buildings, his wings spread, fire burning the remains of Dragons supposedly cloaked observer. And then he looked down, folded his wings and barreled down onto my friends.
The seconds until Dragon switched the feed to another drone were agonizing. I let out a relieved sigh as I saw what had happened. Calm Depths Mirror had joined the fight again, just in time to carry Rachel away.. Given the warped, burned street where Lung stood, it had saved her life, there was only so much Just Mornings Flame could do to protect others from Lungs fire. But he could fight Lung directly without any worry about the fire. His skin was burning red and covered in glowing golden veins his mane had burst into flames. He was larger too, Rachel must have finally managed to boost more than just the endurance of the Lion-Dogs.
Lung was yanked down mid-jump by Mornings Flame's attack and I could feel him crashing through a building as much as I could see it. It didn't even stun him, and the Lion-Dog barely managed to evade the full brunt of his counter-blow. Lung rose from the shattered building, the inferno around him blazing hotter and sucking in debris that instantly turned to ash and cinders. He grappled Just Mornings Flame and dug his claws deep into the golden-red flanks. Blood sizzled on Lungs skin, but the Lion-Dog retaliated with the same ferocity. Claws were soon followed by teeth, sinking through armored skin and reinforced scale as the grapple turned into a shredding flurry of blows. His greater strength and regeneration gave Lung a clear edge, but Just Mornings Flame didn't even try to back out.
I couldn't just stand by and watch. "Everyone! Attack now!" I pre-empted any protest by Lisa and Dragon just in case they tried to argue. "We have him pinned now. That's what we wanted. It's our best chance, we have to take it."
Dragon agreed right away. "Aedile is right. Hit him as hard as you can without getting burned."
Lisa didn't argue either. "What Dragon said. Let's take that scaly, overgrown dragon-boy down. No offense, Dragon."
And she wondered why people weren't happy with her playing mission control from a safe location. But nobody commented, we were too busy rushing towards the Lung. A few of us could hit him even through the inferno, the others hoped to assist if and when it died down, I just hoped to distract Lung. But I tried to do more than that.
"Rachel! Boost Mornings Flame as hard as you can. He just has to hang on for a bit longer."
Her voice was raw and angry. "I'm trying! Damnit, why can't he just be a normal dog?"!
"Rachel, you can do it. Just make him a bit tougher, he doesn't need to win the fight on his own. Armor and whatever you can think of helping in that fight. You can do it for your dogs, you can do it for him. Your powers won't hurt him." At least I hoped so. But she needed all the encouragement she could get right now.
The street ahead was clear, I stole a glance at the fight while running towards it. Rachel had started her work, Just Mornings Flame was growing armored plates that stopped Lung from raking his claws all over his body. Several spikes shot out of his mane, but didn't manage to penetrate Lungs scales. They still hindered his arms, and with the Lion-Dogs muscles building the fight finally stopped being a bloody beat-down. I would make it in time. I took a short moment to look at my map, I didn't want to run in the wrong direction. Right, just around this corner and...
I couldn't move my arms. I could still get some leverage with my legs, but they kept pushing. My muscles were straining just to hold them from crushing my chest, without my powers I would already be...oh, right. I shed my material body, leaving behind a whirling mass of silk and paper that faded into light. The dumpster smashed into the crack I had left behind when they slammed me into it.
Right, I should have done that in the first place. My chest actually hurt and I checked myself over while floating just inches ahead of my assailants. Nothing seemed to be broken or even bruised. Now I just had to leave those guys behind and hurry towards Lung. Taking out his lackeys wasn't important. Unless they didn't work for Lung. They wore masks, none of the other ABB-members did that, so they might just be working for Coil and conceal that they didn't fit in with the asian members of Lungs gang.
I turned material again before I had made my choice. Gunshots rang through the air and I threw myself aside. I should have moved further down the street, or through a wall. I still could, but instead I ran towards my attackers. A few shots hit me, but I barely noticed them through my robes.
I opened with a strike I had practiced many times with Hu Dai. The gunman I aimed it at managed to avoid the worst of it, but he still fell back several feet. Before I could follow up to make sure he stayed down, two of his buddies jumped in and attacked me from both sides. I blocked their attacks, but my counterattack got prevented by yet more of their allies joining in. I whirled back and get out of their encirclement, they just kept their distance until they had me surrounded again. Their guns just stung, and I managed to take another one out when he shot at me. I got struck by an electrified baton in return, and just as soon as I stepped up another one attacked me from the side. I blocked him, dodged another swing of a baton and spun into a counterattack that just struck empty air. Dammit, they were working together too well, clearly had trained for this... and I just wasn't as good as Hu Dai. She had trained me well, I was stronger than most humans, I could pull of some amazing tricks - but it wasn't enough here. I neglected my defense, dashed forward and kicked another one hard enough that his ribs gave in. But there were still over half a dozen of them left. If I fought here until they were all down, I couldn't even help against Lung.
Screw it. If I couldn't do it, that's what I had allies for. "Dragon, can you get a drone on the guys I'm fighting? And send someone over who can't help against Lung to take them out?"
"What are you even doing Aedile? Taking out a few gang members won't help if Lung isn't taken out." She clearly hadn't kept an eye on me if she disapproved that much.
"Don't you think I know that? I'm pretty sure they're Coils men." She would have known that if she had kept the entire area under surveillance. I'd see what we could do about that after this was over.
"Oh, right. That changes things. I'll have a drone there right away. Disengage on my signal".
I hadn't been able to hold the conversation without losing some focus on the fight. All the hits from the guns and stun batons started to actually hurt. I managed to get my defense back just in time for Dragons signal to flash over my veil. I went immaterial again, and this time I'd stay that way until I reached Lung. A short moment to reorient myself and I sprinted through the mercenaries whom I had just fought.
A shot rang through the air and pain pierced through my chest. I stumbled and fell. Breathing hurt, but only for a few seconds before it faded into the bruisers I had already suffered. Then pain exploded in my legs. I ignored it, sprang up, sprinted through the nearest building. Dammit, what had happened?
It wasn't the mercenaries I had just fought. They were assisting the few of them I had taken down, hopefully that would take long enough for someone from New Wave to arrive. But who was shooting at me? How were they hitting me? I spotted a muzzle flash from a roof right as I felt more impacts across my body. The shots had passed right through the wall, just as I had moments before.
There was only one cape I knew who could do this. Shadow Stalker. Sophia Hess. If the Protectorate was backstabbing me, I would...don't be silly Taylor. It's far more likely that she's doing this on her own. You'll tell the PRT and they'll shut her down hard. Like they should have already done. Fuck, I might have to do this on my own. But for now I had to avoid getting killed for weeks again.
She had sprayed several more shots in my general direction. Apparently she couldn't spot me too well through my cover. Time to decide what to do. I could just teleport back to my sanctum. I could wait until someone from New Wave arrived, but I didn't want them to get attacked. Damnit, I didn't have time to deal with this!
I could just run. Run towards the fight with Lung and hope that he tried to attack me. Run away from Sophia and let her not ruin my plans. Let the PRT take care of her, and if they wouldn't, I would. I already had enough of her shit, of her getting away with it and how it had interfered with my life.
Another random hit from her gun decided it. I turned around and fled right towards Lung. Out through the back wall of the building, around a corner to check whether Sophia was pursuing, and then through several more buildings just in case she started to. Beyond that, I decided to not care about whatever she did now at all. I simply ran towards the fight, and the only thing that grabbed my attention was Manpower and Shielder evacuating civilians along with members of the PRT. I could have stopped and help them, but even a simple blessing might not leave me enough energy to fight Lung. And the spreading fires had not reached this far yet, nobody's life was in danger as far as I could tell.
For a moment, I just stood there. Just Mornings Flame was still fighting Lung. I had no idea how he managed, his left flank was just torn away, the only reason he was not leaving behind a stream of blood was that it was constantly evaporating. Lung still towered taller than ever, easily twenty feet in height without even standing upright. He was battered and bleeding. Mornings Flame had given back as much punishment as he had taken, Calm Depths Mirror's claws were sunk into his back and dampened his flame with evaporating water, and Enduring Grove Guardian was savaging Lungs legs with quick whipping attacks. But Lung didn't slow down, didn't even attempt to retreat and I could see deep wounds healing as I watched.
Then I remembered that I was still immaterial. I focused and could feel exhaustion wash over my entire body, but I succeeded. Even standing as far from the fight as I did, I was hit by the heat emanating from Lung and had to grasp for breath. "Lisa? Dragon? What's the plan to win this?"
Dragon was the first to answer. "Aedile, finally. We're working on it, we just couldn't tell you while you were gone."
I groaned. "What do you mean, working on it? Lisa, tell me what you've got."
Glory Girl swooped down and rammed into Lung. Her attack lasted barely more than a second, her dive took her away as fast as she had dived down, but even that was enough to leave her visibly singed despite her near-invulnerability.
"I already told everything to Dragon, and I already have a headache. But basically, it's possible to take him down if we strain his power too much. We're already doing everything we can."
Dragon provided a written summary for me, and it only took a few seconds to read through it. Lisa had analyzed Lung, but there just wasn't a specific point where he would break. The more we fought the stronger he grew, but there was no clear connection between length, injuries taken, how much stronger he got or how much more durable he grew. There was some limit where he would break, but she had no idea where it was.
Poison. That's what she hoped would work, and why she had told Enduring Grove Guardian to use hit and run tactics. "Lisa, are you sure this won't kill him?"
"How should I know? I told Rachel to help make the venoms paralyzing only, but she barely knows how. And how should I know if it'll stay non-lethal once Lungs powers give out? He's changing like crazy all the time."
I could feel myself get frustrated, we didn't want to kill Lung but he might just make that impossible "Damnit. Can't we just cut off his arms or something? No, forget it. I know how to solve both problems".
Ti Kuan Yin had knocked out someone in Canberra with just a touch. I had no hopes that it would be that simple, but maybe it'd at least slow down Lung. And if we had to give him medical treatment, I'd rather risk someone who could take a hit or two instead of risking Amy.
I kept the dream-message that I sent Ti Kuan Yin as short and to the point as possible. I hoped I had put enough urgency into it, because Lung was now putting all his weight onto Just Mornings Flame to crush him. We needed more time.
I ran up to Lung. "Lung! Look at me you big dumb brute!" His elongated neck craned in my direction. "We'll take you down. You hear me? Your gang is weak, because you're weak. You fought an Endbringer once and then you ran away. And for what? A gang that can't even" He breathed fire. It cut me off, penetrated through my veil, scorched my skin and almost made me scream in pain. "So you're angry, huh? Angry enough to try something other than running until we pinned you down? Guess what! It won't be enough."
His claws stopped squeezing Just Mornings Flame and threw him into the house on the other side of the street. The wall came crashing down and the dust it set off ignited as Lung unleashed another burst of flame around himself. He rose, growled something that nobody could understood and towered over me, easily ten times taller. Then his arm came down. The road splintered where I had stood. I scrambled back on my feet in less than a second, but he was just as fast. Another strike came down, I dodged it again. But I couldn't evade the fire that followed it, and a normal human would have died right then. My feet got stuck for just a split-second as the street started to melt, I lost my balance and Lung was poised to put all his weight into a strike from his tail.
It never hit me. It took me a second to realize that it was because Glory Girl had swooped down and picked me up. "You idiot! I could have just vanished, why didn't you attack him instead?"
Her aura flared with anger for just a second. "How should I have known that? Look at this!" She pointed down to where Just Mornings Flame had fallen, and the slight shimmer of the portal that had opened. "Look at what he did to Flame, and don't tell me you wouldn't get squashed by that hit. We got enough trouble the last time you were injured. Amy can't heal everything. Don't take stupid risks like that!"
"I had to! We need more time until the poison works, and I just called some backup. He can't keep this up forever!" Or so Lisa's theory went anyway.
Her voice made it all- too clear how annoyed she was by this. "Well great, maybe someone should have told us! All Lisa did was grin and say "I have a plan." Why should we think poison works against Lung anyway?"
Damn your smugness Lisa. "Because he has a limit. Enduring Grove has been using his venom all the time, and Rachel is trying to boost it. Eventually they'll have enough combinations that it'll work."
"Well tell Lisa to tell us next time! And get that dog out of here then!" I was about to shout that she was crazy, but she was ahead of me. "I don't know if it'll work. But I have a plan. Got get Rachel too." And we dove for the portal.
We interrupted Amy while she was healing Just Mornings Flame. Three of his legs were clearly broken, bones sticking out at all angles. The rest didn't look much better, open wounds and mangled skin covering his body and barely any of the previous glow left on him. Rachel winced as she saw him, and I wondered how much feedback she got from the dogs she powered up.
Victoria approached Amy, but got shushed with a raised hand before she could speak. I grabbed her hand to make it clear that Amy should finish this first, and we waited. Morning Flames wounds didn't close up before our eyes, but he stopped bleeding, his breathing got more regular and Amy even gave him some of his healthy glow back. "Please sit down if you're injured, I can take care of it."
Her sister shook her head. "No Amy. We're fine, but we need your help with something else. We need better poison to take down Lung."
Amy's expression slipped into horror for a second, and even after she got it back there was a nervous twitch in her lips. "What are you even talking about? I can't do that, I won't do that. No, absolutely not. Why are you even asking me that?"
"Come on Amy, you've healed all sorts of stuff. Is there no way you can teach Rachel a few nasty poisons? I know you don't want to harm people, but this is Lung and you can keep it non-lethal, right?"
"I...Vicky, my power doesn't work that way!" The stress this topic caused Amy was clear, but we needed her to do this.
Victoria didn't let up either, but was much softer than I would have been. "Why would it be about your powers? It's about you. You're smart, you can do this. You already taught Rachel a lot."
It didn't do much good. Amy was descending into panic, Victoria wasn't helping and I really didn't know what else to do with her either. Then Rachel stepped up, grabbed Amy by the shoulder and turned her around. "I know you don't give a damn about me, but that fucker did this to dogs. We'll take him out without your damn help, but...look, you were a great teacher, do it again. Please."
Amy brushed off Rachel's hand, but her panic stopped. She took a few deep breaths, then grabbed Rachel without a word and dragged her off into a corner. Enduring Grove Guardian followed, and the three of them got to work. Victoria headed out to the fight right away, but I stayed. I had been stupid when fighting Lung, at least here I could help Amy when she needed it. But who was I kidding, I hadn't been able to convince her just now. I was about to stop arguing with myself and head back to the fight when Ti Kuan Yin arrived. She didn't talk much, just asked short questions about the situation and then silently waited with me.
We were ready. Enduring Grove Guardian was brimming with energy, and Ti Kuan Yin would hit Lung on the first chance she got. I would distract him again. It would work. Or at least we had to try now, because Dragon urgently informed us that there would be no more time.
The sounds of battle and of distant sirens hit hard as we stepped out of the portal. So did the ash and smoke and heat. The fighting had moved, but it wasn't hard to spot where. Several bright forcefields tried to hold Lung. Glory Girl zipped through the air and harassed him, Calm Depths Mirror was barely holding on and Armsmaster had joined the fight. How he hadn't gotten hit by Lung was beyond me. But then I saw him dive under a swing just as well as I had, and use his halberds leverage for a nasty counterattack. It managed to cut deep, despite all the scales Lung had grown.
I could do this. I had done it earlier, but now I felt my stomach churn a bit at the thought of provoking Lung again. "I'll distract him". And just like that I leaped off the lion-dogs back and as close to the blazing inferno as I could. I didn't even have to yell to get his attention this time. He grinned with his long elongated jaws and promptly launched himself at me. I didn't dodge, I didn't even feel the urge to get out of the way. I slipped into immateriality with ease and just let him pass through me. I could still feel his fire, but it didn't hurt. As soon as he hit the ground I materialized on his back. My feet seared on his heated scales, but I took it long enough for him to notice. Dodging right out of his inferno this time, to the right so that his back was turned.
Ti Kuan Yin struck. It was clear that she wasn't protected from the fire, her clothing blackened and began to scorch immediately. But she only needed one touch. At first there was no effect. Lung went after me without even noticing. His tail battered Enduring Grove Guardian aside, and his claw managed to slice through my left leg. I fell, and he towered over me again. But just as he was about to crush me, there was a stagger. He recovered, but it was enough for Enduring Grove to get a hit in. Then Armsmaster hit him, then Glory Girl, then another Lion-Dog bite with new venom. I scrambled away. Lung reeled under the attacks, for the first time since the fight began he wasn't just pushed back momentarily. Attack after attack hit, his own attacks barely managed to hit anymore.
Fire engulfed everything. Armsmaster ran, I could barely breathe and Enduring Grove couldn't get close. But Glory Girl could. Lung was lashing out blindly, she just zipped around him, apparently invulnerable. Nearby concrete exploded under the immense heat, shards striking Lung. And then, a single vertical strike to Lungs head. Enough to stun him, enough for the fire to let up. Glory Girl's clothes trailed smoke and she retreated. But it had been enough. Armsmaster was there the second the flames opened up, and it didn't take long for Enduring Grove to follow up. And this time, Lung didn't recover.
He fell. The impact shook me right through the concrete. The attacks on him continued, dozens of strikes until it was clear that he wasn't getting up. Everybody retreated to a safe distance and waited. But we had done it. Lung was down, and he began to shrink and revert. What was left was a still large human, but clearly human and very clearly defeated.
But Lung was already ramped up. Glory Girl had pummeled him for minutes before we arrived in numbers. And he had fought the Empire before that. The scorched concrete and shattered walls only reinforced how he had no reason to run.
I didn't trust this. "This has to be a trap. Lisa? Dragon? Do you have anything?"
Both of them spoke at the same time. "Nope."
"Negative."
I sighed. Of course they had anticipated my question. "One at a time please. So there's no obvious trap you can see, Dragon. Lisa, do you get anything on his intentions?"
There was a pause, probably for Dragon to get a new angle on Lung with her drones and for Lisa to analyze him. "No, nothing. Well, other than him wanting to crush you very badly. I think he wishes you were dead and blames you for this mess? I'd suggest not getting cornered by him, but…"
"Wasn't planning on that anyway. Okay, I guess we can continue the chase then." Just Mornings Flame,, Rachel and the other Lion Dogs were already on the heels of Lung, harassing him to slow him down. The rest of us had kept more distance, but now we were picking up speed and heading deeper into the docks.
"No, we have to split up to catch him." There were mutterings about Lisa's suggestion, it being too risky, her not even being in danger here, why was she even using the word "we".
"She's right". Lady Photon interrupted. "Lung can outlast us in any chase. Most of us aren't even fast enough to keep up with him yet, and we don't know when his crippled wings might heal. Cutting him off and pinning him down now is our best option. But we'll only send people who can at least take a few hits from him. The rest stays safe as a group."
"Of course", Lisa's answer was dry, and I could practically see her roll her eyes at that obvious statement. "Glory Girl, Brandish, the Lion Dogs. Ver'ash, if you have something that makes you tough enough. That should give us enough people to cut off most routes, and if we…"
I interrupted her. "Me too!" That got me a few looks before I elaborated. "I can't fight that well yet, but I'm tough enough to take a few hits. And I'm sure Lung will go after me if he sees me. And worst-case, I can just become intangible and duck away."
Lisa sighed. "Yes, fine, and Aedile too. Dragon, can you update our maps?"
Our phones, HUDs or armbands blinked with the new information before Lisa had even finished her sentence. We broke off and hurried towards our destinations. Rachel was still chasing Lung astride Just Mornings Flame, but the others fell back and spread out. Lady Photon and Glory Girl broke north, trying to stop him from escaping towards the trainyard. Ver'ash and I hurried north-east, with any luck we would take the fight into the boat graveyard and pin Lung down there. There was only so much we could do to control his movements, however. Taking him out would be another matter entirely.
The fight was leading deeper into ABB territory. Even here, there were marks of the attacks from the Empire, and where Lung or Oni Lee had repelled them. None of the buildings in this part of the docks were well-maintained. People here barely made do with the sparse welfare they could get, whatever income they could share between friends and family, or crime both organized and petty. The city certainly didn't have enough tax money to spend on it, and the ABB didn't pretend to be an alternative to the government for its members by fixing up any houses, unlike the Empire 88.
So it certainly wasn't surprising to see broken windows and roads full of potholes. But I could spot houses where whole walls had been ripped out by giant claws, and half the streets concrete had been boiled off. I could spot bullet holes in some cars, but also one that looked like it had been forced through a giant shredder. There hadn't been a single picture like that in the news. And barely anything on the human cost.
I could only spot a few people myself. Their reactions to a robed girl running over a ruined street at olympic sprinting speeds was extremely mute. I had no idea where everyone else was, whether they had fled the fight, were hiding or had moved out of this area entirely. There wasn't the all-encompassing panic I had seen in Canberra, despite a ramped-up Lung fighting nearby. I wasn't sure whether to be creeped out or relieved.
An earth-shattering roar from behind me made me pause. I glanced at the display Dragon had installed under my veil. Rachel was no longer chasing Lung, now she was making a fighting retreat to lure him onward. I didn't know how bad it was, but given how ramped-up Lung was after this long chase I couldn't imagine Just Mornings Flame doing very well, even with Rachel's help and his ability to cancel most of Lungs fire.
They weren't headed in my direction. I could only watch, again, and this time I couldn't even coordinate the battle. I hadn't really done it last time, I had just coordinated people who knew about military strategies and tactics. I was here as durable bait, but I still had to do something. I brought up Dragons camera feed, filling the screen she had built into my veil.
Lung was huge. He had been growing for the entire fight, getting larger as well as sprouting claws, scales and fangs. But either he had been holding back or his powers had made a leap forward. By now he had nearly doubled his mass, warped his legs into a powerful bent shape and added a spiked tail and leathery wings. And I could see the constant fiery aura that surrounded him from here as an angry-burning glow shining over the buildings between us.
Lung jumped, high enough to reach the camera drone. High enough that I could see him above the buildings, his wings spread, fire burning the remains of Dragons supposedly cloaked observer. And then he looked down, folded his wings and barreled down onto my friends.
The seconds until Dragon switched the feed to another drone were agonizing. I let out a relieved sigh as I saw what had happened. Calm Depths Mirror had joined the fight again, just in time to carry Rachel away.. Given the warped, burned street where Lung stood, it had saved her life, there was only so much Just Mornings Flame could do to protect others from Lungs fire. But he could fight Lung directly without any worry about the fire. His skin was burning red and covered in glowing golden veins his mane had burst into flames. He was larger too, Rachel must have finally managed to boost more than just the endurance of the Lion-Dogs.
Lung was yanked down mid-jump by Mornings Flame's attack and I could feel him crashing through a building as much as I could see it. It didn't even stun him, and the Lion-Dog barely managed to evade the full brunt of his counter-blow. Lung rose from the shattered building, the inferno around him blazing hotter and sucking in debris that instantly turned to ash and cinders. He grappled Just Mornings Flame and dug his claws deep into the golden-red flanks. Blood sizzled on Lungs skin, but the Lion-Dog retaliated with the same ferocity. Claws were soon followed by teeth, sinking through armored skin and reinforced scale as the grapple turned into a shredding flurry of blows. His greater strength and regeneration gave Lung a clear edge, but Just Mornings Flame didn't even try to back out.
I couldn't just stand by and watch. "Everyone! Attack now!" I pre-empted any protest by Lisa and Dragon just in case they tried to argue. "We have him pinned now. That's what we wanted. It's our best chance, we have to take it."
Dragon agreed right away. "Aedile is right. Hit him as hard as you can without getting burned."
Lisa didn't argue either. "What Dragon said. Let's take that scaly, overgrown dragon-boy down. No offense, Dragon."
And she wondered why people weren't happy with her playing mission control from a safe location. But nobody commented, we were too busy rushing towards the Lung. A few of us could hit him even through the inferno, the others hoped to assist if and when it died down, I just hoped to distract Lung. But I tried to do more than that.
"Rachel! Boost Mornings Flame as hard as you can. He just has to hang on for a bit longer."
Her voice was raw and angry. "I'm trying! Damnit, why can't he just be a normal dog?"!
"Rachel, you can do it. Just make him a bit tougher, he doesn't need to win the fight on his own. Armor and whatever you can think of helping in that fight. You can do it for your dogs, you can do it for him. Your powers won't hurt him." At least I hoped so. But she needed all the encouragement she could get right now.
The street ahead was clear, I stole a glance at the fight while running towards it. Rachel had started her work, Just Mornings Flame was growing armored plates that stopped Lung from raking his claws all over his body. Several spikes shot out of his mane, but didn't manage to penetrate Lungs scales. They still hindered his arms, and with the Lion-Dogs muscles building the fight finally stopped being a bloody beat-down. I would make it in time. I took a short moment to look at my map, I didn't want to run in the wrong direction. Right, just around this corner and...
I couldn't move my arms. I could still get some leverage with my legs, but they kept pushing. My muscles were straining just to hold them from crushing my chest, without my powers I would already be...oh, right. I shed my material body, leaving behind a whirling mass of silk and paper that faded into light. The dumpster smashed into the crack I had left behind when they slammed me into it.
Right, I should have done that in the first place. My chest actually hurt and I checked myself over while floating just inches ahead of my assailants. Nothing seemed to be broken or even bruised. Now I just had to leave those guys behind and hurry towards Lung. Taking out his lackeys wasn't important. Unless they didn't work for Lung. They wore masks, none of the other ABB-members did that, so they might just be working for Coil and conceal that they didn't fit in with the asian members of Lungs gang.
I turned material again before I had made my choice. Gunshots rang through the air and I threw myself aside. I should have moved further down the street, or through a wall. I still could, but instead I ran towards my attackers. A few shots hit me, but I barely noticed them through my robes.
I opened with a strike I had practiced many times with Hu Dai. The gunman I aimed it at managed to avoid the worst of it, but he still fell back several feet. Before I could follow up to make sure he stayed down, two of his buddies jumped in and attacked me from both sides. I blocked their attacks, but my counterattack got prevented by yet more of their allies joining in. I whirled back and get out of their encirclement, they just kept their distance until they had me surrounded again. Their guns just stung, and I managed to take another one out when he shot at me. I got struck by an electrified baton in return, and just as soon as I stepped up another one attacked me from the side. I blocked him, dodged another swing of a baton and spun into a counterattack that just struck empty air. Dammit, they were working together too well, clearly had trained for this... and I just wasn't as good as Hu Dai. She had trained me well, I was stronger than most humans, I could pull of some amazing tricks - but it wasn't enough here. I neglected my defense, dashed forward and kicked another one hard enough that his ribs gave in. But there were still over half a dozen of them left. If I fought here until they were all down, I couldn't even help against Lung.
Screw it. If I couldn't do it, that's what I had allies for. "Dragon, can you get a drone on the guys I'm fighting? And send someone over who can't help against Lung to take them out?"
"What are you even doing Aedile? Taking out a few gang members won't help if Lung isn't taken out." She clearly hadn't kept an eye on me if she disapproved that much.
"Don't you think I know that? I'm pretty sure they're Coils men." She would have known that if she had kept the entire area under surveillance. I'd see what we could do about that after this was over.
"Oh, right. That changes things. I'll have a drone there right away. Disengage on my signal".
I hadn't been able to hold the conversation without losing some focus on the fight. All the hits from the guns and stun batons started to actually hurt. I managed to get my defense back just in time for Dragons signal to flash over my veil. I went immaterial again, and this time I'd stay that way until I reached Lung. A short moment to reorient myself and I sprinted through the mercenaries whom I had just fought.
A shot rang through the air and pain pierced through my chest. I stumbled and fell. Breathing hurt, but only for a few seconds before it faded into the bruisers I had already suffered. Then pain exploded in my legs. I ignored it, sprang up, sprinted through the nearest building. Dammit, what had happened?
It wasn't the mercenaries I had just fought. They were assisting the few of them I had taken down, hopefully that would take long enough for someone from New Wave to arrive. But who was shooting at me? How were they hitting me? I spotted a muzzle flash from a roof right as I felt more impacts across my body. The shots had passed right through the wall, just as I had moments before.
There was only one cape I knew who could do this. Shadow Stalker. Sophia Hess. If the Protectorate was backstabbing me, I would...don't be silly Taylor. It's far more likely that she's doing this on her own. You'll tell the PRT and they'll shut her down hard. Like they should have already done. Fuck, I might have to do this on my own. But for now I had to avoid getting killed for weeks again.
She had sprayed several more shots in my general direction. Apparently she couldn't spot me too well through my cover. Time to decide what to do. I could just teleport back to my sanctum. I could wait until someone from New Wave arrived, but I didn't want them to get attacked. Damnit, I didn't have time to deal with this!
I could just run. Run towards the fight with Lung and hope that he tried to attack me. Run away from Sophia and let her not ruin my plans. Let the PRT take care of her, and if they wouldn't, I would. I already had enough of her shit, of her getting away with it and how it had interfered with my life.
Another random hit from her gun decided it. I turned around and fled right towards Lung. Out through the back wall of the building, around a corner to check whether Sophia was pursuing, and then through several more buildings just in case she started to. Beyond that, I decided to not care about whatever she did now at all. I simply ran towards the fight, and the only thing that grabbed my attention was Manpower and Shielder evacuating civilians along with members of the PRT. I could have stopped and help them, but even a simple blessing might not leave me enough energy to fight Lung. And the spreading fires had not reached this far yet, nobody's life was in danger as far as I could tell.
For a moment, I just stood there. Just Mornings Flame was still fighting Lung. I had no idea how he managed, his left flank was just torn away, the only reason he was not leaving behind a stream of blood was that it was constantly evaporating. Lung still towered taller than ever, easily twenty feet in height without even standing upright. He was battered and bleeding. Mornings Flame had given back as much punishment as he had taken, Calm Depths Mirror's claws were sunk into his back and dampened his flame with evaporating water, and Enduring Grove Guardian was savaging Lungs legs with quick whipping attacks. But Lung didn't slow down, didn't even attempt to retreat and I could see deep wounds healing as I watched.
Then I remembered that I was still immaterial. I focused and could feel exhaustion wash over my entire body, but I succeeded. Even standing as far from the fight as I did, I was hit by the heat emanating from Lung and had to grasp for breath. "Lisa? Dragon? What's the plan to win this?"
Dragon was the first to answer. "Aedile, finally. We're working on it, we just couldn't tell you while you were gone."
I groaned. "What do you mean, working on it? Lisa, tell me what you've got."
Glory Girl swooped down and rammed into Lung. Her attack lasted barely more than a second, her dive took her away as fast as she had dived down, but even that was enough to leave her visibly singed despite her near-invulnerability.
"I already told everything to Dragon, and I already have a headache. But basically, it's possible to take him down if we strain his power too much. We're already doing everything we can."
Dragon provided a written summary for me, and it only took a few seconds to read through it. Lisa had analyzed Lung, but there just wasn't a specific point where he would break. The more we fought the stronger he grew, but there was no clear connection between length, injuries taken, how much stronger he got or how much more durable he grew. There was some limit where he would break, but she had no idea where it was.
Poison. That's what she hoped would work, and why she had told Enduring Grove Guardian to use hit and run tactics. "Lisa, are you sure this won't kill him?"
"How should I know? I told Rachel to help make the venoms paralyzing only, but she barely knows how. And how should I know if it'll stay non-lethal once Lungs powers give out? He's changing like crazy all the time."
I could feel myself get frustrated, we didn't want to kill Lung but he might just make that impossible "Damnit. Can't we just cut off his arms or something? No, forget it. I know how to solve both problems".
Ti Kuan Yin had knocked out someone in Canberra with just a touch. I had no hopes that it would be that simple, but maybe it'd at least slow down Lung. And if we had to give him medical treatment, I'd rather risk someone who could take a hit or two instead of risking Amy.
I kept the dream-message that I sent Ti Kuan Yin as short and to the point as possible. I hoped I had put enough urgency into it, because Lung was now putting all his weight onto Just Mornings Flame to crush him. We needed more time.
I ran up to Lung. "Lung! Look at me you big dumb brute!" His elongated neck craned in my direction. "We'll take you down. You hear me? Your gang is weak, because you're weak. You fought an Endbringer once and then you ran away. And for what? A gang that can't even" He breathed fire. It cut me off, penetrated through my veil, scorched my skin and almost made me scream in pain. "So you're angry, huh? Angry enough to try something other than running until we pinned you down? Guess what! It won't be enough."
His claws stopped squeezing Just Mornings Flame and threw him into the house on the other side of the street. The wall came crashing down and the dust it set off ignited as Lung unleashed another burst of flame around himself. He rose, growled something that nobody could understood and towered over me, easily ten times taller. Then his arm came down. The road splintered where I had stood. I scrambled back on my feet in less than a second, but he was just as fast. Another strike came down, I dodged it again. But I couldn't evade the fire that followed it, and a normal human would have died right then. My feet got stuck for just a split-second as the street started to melt, I lost my balance and Lung was poised to put all his weight into a strike from his tail.
It never hit me. It took me a second to realize that it was because Glory Girl had swooped down and picked me up. "You idiot! I could have just vanished, why didn't you attack him instead?"
Her aura flared with anger for just a second. "How should I have known that? Look at this!" She pointed down to where Just Mornings Flame had fallen, and the slight shimmer of the portal that had opened. "Look at what he did to Flame, and don't tell me you wouldn't get squashed by that hit. We got enough trouble the last time you were injured. Amy can't heal everything. Don't take stupid risks like that!"
"I had to! We need more time until the poison works, and I just called some backup. He can't keep this up forever!" Or so Lisa's theory went anyway.
Her voice made it all- too clear how annoyed she was by this. "Well great, maybe someone should have told us! All Lisa did was grin and say "I have a plan." Why should we think poison works against Lung anyway?"
Damn your smugness Lisa. "Because he has a limit. Enduring Grove has been using his venom all the time, and Rachel is trying to boost it. Eventually they'll have enough combinations that it'll work."
"Well tell Lisa to tell us next time! And get that dog out of here then!" I was about to shout that she was crazy, but she was ahead of me. "I don't know if it'll work. But I have a plan. Got get Rachel too." And we dove for the portal.
We interrupted Amy while she was healing Just Mornings Flame. Three of his legs were clearly broken, bones sticking out at all angles. The rest didn't look much better, open wounds and mangled skin covering his body and barely any of the previous glow left on him. Rachel winced as she saw him, and I wondered how much feedback she got from the dogs she powered up.
Victoria approached Amy, but got shushed with a raised hand before she could speak. I grabbed her hand to make it clear that Amy should finish this first, and we waited. Morning Flames wounds didn't close up before our eyes, but he stopped bleeding, his breathing got more regular and Amy even gave him some of his healthy glow back. "Please sit down if you're injured, I can take care of it."
Her sister shook her head. "No Amy. We're fine, but we need your help with something else. We need better poison to take down Lung."
Amy's expression slipped into horror for a second, and even after she got it back there was a nervous twitch in her lips. "What are you even talking about? I can't do that, I won't do that. No, absolutely not. Why are you even asking me that?"
"Come on Amy, you've healed all sorts of stuff. Is there no way you can teach Rachel a few nasty poisons? I know you don't want to harm people, but this is Lung and you can keep it non-lethal, right?"
"I...Vicky, my power doesn't work that way!" The stress this topic caused Amy was clear, but we needed her to do this.
Victoria didn't let up either, but was much softer than I would have been. "Why would it be about your powers? It's about you. You're smart, you can do this. You already taught Rachel a lot."
It didn't do much good. Amy was descending into panic, Victoria wasn't helping and I really didn't know what else to do with her either. Then Rachel stepped up, grabbed Amy by the shoulder and turned her around. "I know you don't give a damn about me, but that fucker did this to dogs. We'll take him out without your damn help, but...look, you were a great teacher, do it again. Please."
Amy brushed off Rachel's hand, but her panic stopped. She took a few deep breaths, then grabbed Rachel without a word and dragged her off into a corner. Enduring Grove Guardian followed, and the three of them got to work. Victoria headed out to the fight right away, but I stayed. I had been stupid when fighting Lung, at least here I could help Amy when she needed it. But who was I kidding, I hadn't been able to convince her just now. I was about to stop arguing with myself and head back to the fight when Ti Kuan Yin arrived. She didn't talk much, just asked short questions about the situation and then silently waited with me.
We were ready. Enduring Grove Guardian was brimming with energy, and Ti Kuan Yin would hit Lung on the first chance she got. I would distract him again. It would work. Or at least we had to try now, because Dragon urgently informed us that there would be no more time.
The sounds of battle and of distant sirens hit hard as we stepped out of the portal. So did the ash and smoke and heat. The fighting had moved, but it wasn't hard to spot where. Several bright forcefields tried to hold Lung. Glory Girl zipped through the air and harassed him, Calm Depths Mirror was barely holding on and Armsmaster had joined the fight. How he hadn't gotten hit by Lung was beyond me. But then I saw him dive under a swing just as well as I had, and use his halberds leverage for a nasty counterattack. It managed to cut deep, despite all the scales Lung had grown.
I could do this. I had done it earlier, but now I felt my stomach churn a bit at the thought of provoking Lung again. "I'll distract him". And just like that I leaped off the lion-dogs back and as close to the blazing inferno as I could. I didn't even have to yell to get his attention this time. He grinned with his long elongated jaws and promptly launched himself at me. I didn't dodge, I didn't even feel the urge to get out of the way. I slipped into immateriality with ease and just let him pass through me. I could still feel his fire, but it didn't hurt. As soon as he hit the ground I materialized on his back. My feet seared on his heated scales, but I took it long enough for him to notice. Dodging right out of his inferno this time, to the right so that his back was turned.
Ti Kuan Yin struck. It was clear that she wasn't protected from the fire, her clothing blackened and began to scorch immediately. But she only needed one touch. At first there was no effect. Lung went after me without even noticing. His tail battered Enduring Grove Guardian aside, and his claw managed to slice through my left leg. I fell, and he towered over me again. But just as he was about to crush me, there was a stagger. He recovered, but it was enough for Enduring Grove to get a hit in. Then Armsmaster hit him, then Glory Girl, then another Lion-Dog bite with new venom. I scrambled away. Lung reeled under the attacks, for the first time since the fight began he wasn't just pushed back momentarily. Attack after attack hit, his own attacks barely managed to hit anymore.
Fire engulfed everything. Armsmaster ran, I could barely breathe and Enduring Grove couldn't get close. But Glory Girl could. Lung was lashing out blindly, she just zipped around him, apparently invulnerable. Nearby concrete exploded under the immense heat, shards striking Lung. And then, a single vertical strike to Lungs head. Enough to stun him, enough for the fire to let up. Glory Girl's clothes trailed smoke and she retreated. But it had been enough. Armsmaster was there the second the flames opened up, and it didn't take long for Enduring Grove to follow up. And this time, Lung didn't recover.
He fell. The impact shook me right through the concrete. The attacks on him continued, dozens of strikes until it was clear that he wasn't getting up. Everybody retreated to a safe distance and waited. But we had done it. Lung was down, and he began to shrink and revert. What was left was a still large human, but clearly human and very clearly defeated.
Lung ran. So did the members of his gang, but that wasn't surprising against our forces. All of New Wave except for Amy, who was safely tucked away in my sanctum prepared for any wounded. Three Lion-Dogs, Ver'ash with one of his contraptions, as well as Tu Yu and myself. And a squadron of cloaked camera drones, giving a life feed to Lisa.
But Lung was already ramped up. Glory Girl had pummeled him for minutes before we arrived in numbers. And he had fought the Empire before that. The scorched concrete and shattered walls only reinforced how he had no reason to run. He had always stood his ground the last few times we had fought him. He only got stronger the longer the fight went. Taking him out by surprise would be the best option, but we hadn't managed that in any of our previous fights.
I didn't trust this. "This has to be a trap. Lisa? Dragon? Do you have anything?"
Both of them spoke at the same time. "Nope."
"Negative."
I sighed. Of course they had anticipated my question. "One at a time please. So there's no obvious trap you can see, Dragon. Lisa, do you get anything on his intentions?"
There was a pause, probably for Dragon to get a new angle on Lung with her drones and for Lisa to analyze him. "No, nothing. Well, other than him wanting to crush you very badly. I think he wishes you were dead and blames you for this mess? I'd suggest not getting cornered by him, but I see no reason we can't keep chasing him." There were mutterings about Lisa's suggestion, it being too risky now that he was ramped up, her not even being in danger here, why was she even using the word "we".
"She's right". Lady Photon interrupted. "We have to keep trying, we're learning more from those fights than he possibly can. Trying to take him down is a good option.But we'll only send people who can at least take a few hits from him. The rest stays safe as a group. And if this doesn't work, we can always retreat." Tu Yu made a few permanent portals on the docks, and
"Of course", Lisa's answer was dry, and I could practically see her roll her eyes at that obvious statement. "Glory Girl, Brandish, the Lion Dogs. Ver'ash, if you have something that makes you tough enough. That should give us a chance against him, and if we…"
I interrupted her. "Me too!" That got me a few looks before I elaborated. "I can't fight that well yet, but I'm tough enough to take a few hits. And I'm sure Lung will go after me if he sees me. And worst-case, I can just become intangible and duck away."
Lisa sighed. "Yes, fine, and Aedile too. Dragon, can you try to find a way to cut him off?"
Our phones, HUDs or armbands blinked with the new information before Lisa had even finished her sentence. Neither Glory Girl nor the Lion-Dogs had interrupted the chase. Dragon had painted a path for me where I might be able to cut Lung off, and I began to run.
The fight was leading deeper into ABB territory. Even here, there were marks of the attacks from the Empire, and where Lung or Oni Lee had repelled them. None of the buildings in this part of the docks were well-maintained. People here barely made do with the sparse welfare they could get, whatever income they could share between friends and family, or crime both organized and petty. The city certainly didn't have enough tax money to spend on it, and the ABB didn't pretend to be an alternative to the government for its members by fixing up any houses, unlike the Empire 88.
So it certainly wasn't surprising to see broken windows and roads full of potholes. But I could spot houses where whole walls had been ripped out by giant claws, and half the streets concrete had been boiled off. I could spot bullet holes in some cars, but also one that looked like it had been forced through a giant shredder. There hadn't been a single picture like that in the news. And barely anything on the human cost.
I could only spot a few people myself. Their reactions to a robed girl running over a ruined street at olympic sprinting speeds was extremely mute. I had no idea where everyone else was, whether they had fled the fight, were hiding or had moved out of this area entirely. There wasn't the all-encompassing panic I had seen in Canberra, despite a ramped-up Lung fighting nearby. I wasn't sure whether to be creeped out or relieved.
An earth-shattering roar from behind me made me pause. I glanced at the display Dragon had installed under my veil. Rachel was no longer chasing Lung, now she was making a fighting retreat to lure him onward. I didn't know how bad it was, but given how ramped-up Lung was after this long chase I couldn't imagine Just Mornings Flame doing very well, even with Rachel's help and his ability to cancel most of Lungs fire.
They weren't headed in my direction. I could only watch, again, and this time I couldn't even coordinate the battle. I hadn't really done it last time, I had just coordinated people who knew about military strategies and tactics. I was here as durable bait, but I still had to do something. I brought up Dragons camera feed, filling the screen she had built into my veil.
Lung was huge. He had been growing for the entire fight, getting larger as well as sprouting claws, scales and fangs. But either he had been holding back or his powers had made a leap forward. By now he had nearly doubled his mass, warped his legs into a powerful bent shape and added a spiked tail and leathery wings. And I could see the constant fiery aura that surrounded him from here as an angry-burning glow shining over the buildings between us.
He jumped, high enough to reach the camera drone. High enough that I could see him above the buildings, his wings spread, fire burning the remains of Dragons supposedly cloaked observer. And then he looked down, folded his wings and barreled down onto my friends.
The seconds until Dragon switched the feed to another drone were agonizing. I let out a relieved sigh as I saw what had happened. Calm Depths Mirror had joined the fight again, just in time to carry Rachel away.. Given the warped, burned street where Lung stood, it had saved her life, there was only so much Just Mornings Flame could do to protect others from Lungs fire. But he could fight Lung directly without any worry about the fire. His skin was burning red and covered in glowing golden veins his mane had burst into flames. He was larger too, Rachel must have finally managed to boost more than just the endurance of the Lion-Dogs.
Lung was yanked down mid-jump by Mornings Flame's attack and I could feel him crashing through a building as much as I could see it. It didn't even stun him, and the Lion-Dog barely managed to evade the full brunt of his counter-blow. Lung rose from the shattered building, the inferno around him blazing hotter and sucking in debris that instantly turned to ash and cinders. He grappled Just Mornings Flame and dug his claws deep into the golden-red flanks. Blood sizzled on Lungs skin, but the Lion-Dog retaliated with the same ferocity. Claws were soon followed by teeth, sinking through armored skin and reinforced scale as the grapple turned into a shredding flurry of blows. His greater strength and regeneration gave Lung a clear edge, but Just Mornings Flame didn't even try to back out.
I couldn't just stand by and watch. Lung wasn't coming towards me, I was already running towards him, but I had to do more. "Rachel! Boost Mornings Flame as hard as you can. He just has to hang on for a bit longer."
Her voice was raw and angry. "I'm trying! Damnit, why can't he just be a normal dog?"!
"Rachel, you can do it. Just make him a bit tougher, he doesn't need to win the fight on his own. Armor and whatever you can think of helping in that fight. You can do it for your dogs, you can do it for him. Your powers won't hurt him." At least I hoped so. But she needed all the encouragement she could get right now.
The street ahead was clear, I stole a glance at the fight while running towards it. Rachel had started her work, Just Mornings Flame was growing armored plates that stopped Lung from raking his claws all over his body. Several spikes shot out of his mane, but didn't manage to penetrate Lungs scales. They still hindered his arms, and with the Lion-Dogs muscles building the fight finally stopped being a bloody beat-down. I would make it in time. I took a short moment to look at my map, I didn't want to run in the wrong direction. Right, just around this corner and...
I couldn't move my arms. I could still get some leverage with my legs, but they kept pushing. My muscles were straining just to hold them from crushing my chest, without my powers I would already be...oh, right. I shed my material body, leaving behind a whirling mass of silk and paper that faded into light. The dumpster smashed into the crack I had left behind when they slammed me into it.
Right, I should have done that in the first place. My chest actually hurt and I checked myself over while floating just inches ahead of my assailants. Nothing seemed to be broken or even bruised. Now I just had to leave those guys behind and hurry towards Lung. Taking out his lackeys wasn't important. Unless they didn't work for Lung. They wore masks, none of the other ABB-members did that, so they might just be working for Coil and conceal that they didn't fit in with the asian members of Lungs gang.
I turned material again before I had made my choice. Gunshots rang through the air and I threw myself aside. I should have moved further down the street, or through a wall. I still could, but instead I ran towards my attackers. A few shots hit me, but I barely noticed them through my robes.
I opened with a strike I had practiced many times with Hu Dai. The gunman I aimed it at managed to avoid the worst of it, but he still fell back several feet. Before I could follow up to make sure he stayed down, two of his buddies jumped in and attacked me from both sides. I blocked their attacks, but my counterattack got prevented by yet more of their allies joining in. I whirled back and get out of their encirclement, they just kept their distance until they had me surrounded again. Their guns just stung, and I managed to take another one out when he shot at me. I got struck by an electrified baton in return, and just as soon as I stepped up another one attacked me from the side. I blocked him, dodged another swing of a baton and spun into a counterattack that just struck empty air. Dammit, they were working together too well, clearly had trained for this... and I just wasn't as good as Hu Dai. She had trained me well, I was stronger than most humans, I could pull of some amazing tricks - but it wasn't enough here. I neglected my defense, dashed forward and kicked another one hard enough that his ribs gave in. But there were still over half a dozen of them left. If I fought here until they were all down, I couldn't even help against Lung.
Screw it. If I couldn't do it, that's what I had allies for. "Dragon, can you get a drone on the guys I'm fighting? And send someone over who can't help against Lung to take them out?"
"What are you even doing Aedile? Taking out a few gang members won't help if Lung isn't taken out." She clearly hadn't kept an eye on me if she disapproved that much.
"Don't you think I know that? I'm pretty sure they're Coils men." She would have known that if she had kept the entire area under surveillance. I'd see what we could do about that after this was over.
"Oh, right. That changes things. I'll have a drone there right away. Disengage on my signal".
I hadn't been able to hold the conversation without losing some focus on the fight. All the hits from the guns and stun batons started to actually hurt. I managed to get my defense back just in time for Dragons signal to flash over my veil. I went immaterial again, and this time I'd stay that way until I reached Lung. A short moment to reorient myself and I sprinted through the mercenaries whom I had just fought.
A shot rang through the air and pain pierced through my chest. I stumbled and fell. Breathing hurt, but only for a few seconds before it faded into the bruisers I had already suffered. Then pain exploded in my legs. I ignored it, sprang up, sprinted through the nearest building. Dammit, what had happened?
It wasn't the mercenaries I had just fought. They were assisting the few of them I had taken down, hopefully that would take long enough for someone from New Wave to arrive. But who was shooting at me? How were they hitting me? I spotted a muzzle flash from a roof right as I felt more impacts across my body. The shots had passed right through the wall, just as I had moments before.
There was only one cape I knew who could do this. Shadow Stalker. Sophia Hess. If the Protectorate was backstabbing me, I would...don't be silly Taylor. It's far more likely that she's doing this on her own. You'll tell the PRT and they'll shut her down hard. Like they should have already done. Fuck, I might have to do this on my own. But for now I had to avoid getting killed for weeks again.
She had sprayed several more shots in my general direction. Apparently she couldn't spot me too well through my cover. Time to decide what to do. I could just teleport back to my sanctum. I could wait until someone from New Wave arrived, but I didn't want them to get attacked. Damnit, I didn't have time to deal with this!
I could just run. Run towards the fight with Lung and hope that he tried to attack me. Run away from Sophia and let her not ruin my plans. Let the PRT take care of her, and if they wouldn't, I would. I already had enough of her shit, of her getting away with it and how it had interfered with my life.
Another random hit from her gun decided it. I turned around and fled right towards Lung. Out through the back wall of the building, around a corner to check whether Sophia was pursuing, and then through several more buildings just in case she started to. Beyond that, I decided to not care about whatever she did now at all. I simply ran towards the fight, and the only thing that grabbed my attention was Manpower and Shielder evacuating civilians along with members of the PRT. I could have stopped and help them, but even a simple blessing might not leave me enough energy to fight Lung. And the spreading fires had not reached this far yet, nobody's life was in danger as far as I could tell.
For a moment, I just stood there. Just Mornings Flame was still fighting Lung. I had no idea how he managed, his left flank was just torn away, the only reason he was not leaving behind a stream of blood was that it was constantly evaporating. Lung still towered taller than ever, easily twenty feet in height without even standing upright. He was battered and bleeding. Mornings Flame had given back as much punishment as he had taken, Calm Depths Mirror's claws were sunk into his back and dampened his flame with evaporating water, and Enduring Grove Guardian was savaging Lungs legs with quick whipping attacks. But Lung didn't slow down, didn't even attempt to retreat and I could see deep wounds healing as I watched.
Then I remembered that I was still immaterial. I focused and could feel exhaustion wash over my entire body, but I succeeded. Even standing as far from the fight as I did, I was hit by the heat emanating from Lung and had to grasp for breath. "Lisa? Dragon? What's the plan to win this?"
Dragon was the first to answer. "Aedile, finally. We are trying to steer the fight closer to a portal, but Tu Yu is already creating another one. We can't win this now, so retreat is the best option."
I groaned. "Damn. Are you sure? Lisa, tell me what you've got."
Glory Girl swooped down and rammed into Lung. Her attack lasted barely more than a second, her dive took her away as fast as she had dived down, but even that was enough to leave her visibly singed despite her near-invulnerability.
"I already told everything to Dragon, and I already have a headache. But basically, it's possible to take him down if we strain his power too much. We're already doing everything we can, I'm afraid Dragon is right"
Dragon provided a written summary for me, and it only took a few seconds to read through it. Lisa had analyzed Lung, but there just wasn't a specific point where he would break. The more we fought the stronger he grew, but there was no clear connection between length, injuries taken, how much stronger he got or how much more durable he grew. There was some limit where he would break, but she had no idea where it was.
Poison. That's what she hoped would work, and why she had told Enduring Grove Guardian to use hit and run tactics. "Lisa, are you sure this won't kill him?"
"How should I know? I told Rachel to help make the venoms paralyzing only, but she barely knows how. And how should I know if it'll stay non-lethal once Lungs powers give out? He's changing like crazy all the time. And it's not even working so far!"
I could feel myself get frustrated, we didn't want to kill Lung but he might just make that impossible "Damnit. Can't we just cut off his arms or something? No, forget it. I know how to solve both problems".
Ti Kuan Yin had knocked out someone in Canberra with just a touch. I had no hopes that it would be that simple, but maybe it'd at least slow down Lung. And if we had to give him medical treatment, I'd rather risk someone who could take a hit or two instead of risking Amy.
I kept the dream-message that I sent Ti Kuan Yin as short and to the point as possible. I hoped I had put enough urgency into it, because Lung was now putting all his weight onto Just Mornings Flame to crush him. We needed more time.
I ran up to Lung. "Lung! Look at me you big dumb brute!" His elongated neck craned in my direction. "We'll take you down. You hear me? Your gang is weak, because you're weak. You fought an Endbringer once and then you ran away. And for what? A gang that can't even" He breathed fire. It cut me off, penetrated through my veil, scorched my skin and almost made me scream in pain. "So you're angry, huh? Angry enough to try something other than running until we pinned you down? Guess what! It won't be enough."
His claws stopped squeezing Just Mornings Flame and threw him into the house on the other side of the street. The wall came crashing down and the dust it set off ignited as Lung unleashed another burst of flame around himself. He rose, growled something that nobody could understood and towered over me, easily ten times taller. Then his arm came down. The road splintered where I had stood. I scrambled back on my feet in less than a second, but he was just as fast. Another strike came down, I dodged it again. But I couldn't evade the fire that followed it, and a normal human would have died right then. My feet got stuck for just a split-second as the street started to melt, I lost my balance and Lung was poised to put all his weight into a strike from his tail.
It never hit me. It took me a second to realize that it was because Glory Girl had swooped down and picked me up. "You idiot! I could have just vanished, why didn't you attack him instead?"
Her aura flared with anger for just a second. "How should I have known that? Look at this!" She pointed down to where Just Mornings Flame had fallen, and the slight shimmer of the portal that had opened. "Look at what he did to Flame, and don't tell me you wouldn't get squashed by that hit. We got enough trouble the last time you were injured. Amy can't heal everything. Don't take stupid risks like that!"
"I had to! We need more time until the poison works, and I just called some backup. He can't keep this up forever!" Or at least I hoped I was right to have more confidence in Lisa's theory than she did.
Her voice made it all- too clear how annoyed she was by this. "Well great, maybe someone should have told us! All Lisa did was grin and say "I have a plan." Why should we think poison works against Lung anyway?"
Damn your smugness Lisa. There were better ways to motivate people than fake confidence. "Because he has a limit. Enduring Grove has been using his venom all the time, and Rachel is trying to boost it. Eventually they'll have enough combinations that it'll work."
"Well tell Lisa to tell us next time! And get that dog out of here then!" I was about to shout that she was crazy, but she was ahead of me. "I don't know if it'll work. But I have a plan. Got get Rachel too." And we dove for the portal.
We interrupted Amy while she was healing Just Mornings Flame. Three of his legs were clearly broken, bones sticking out at all angles. The rest didn't look much better, open wounds and mangled skin covering his body and barely any of the previous glow left on him. Rachel winced as she saw him, and I wondered how much feedback she got from the dogs she powered up.
Victoria approached Amy, but got shushed with a raised hand before she could speak. I grabbed her hand to make it clear that Amy should finish this first, and we waited. Morning Flames wounds didn't close up before our eyes, but he stopped bleeding, his breathing got more regular and Amy even gave him some of his healthy glow back. "Please sit down if you're injured, I can take care of it."
Her sister shook her head. "No Amy. We're fine, but we need your help with something else. We need better poison to take down Lung."
Amy's expression slipped into horror for a second, and even after she got it back there was a nervous twitch in her lips. "What are you even talking about? I can't do that, I won't do that. No, absolutely not. Why are you even asking me that?"
"Come on Amy, you've healed all sorts of stuff. Is there no way you can teach Rachel a few nasty poisons? I know you don't want to harm people, but this is Lung and you can keep it non-lethal, right?"
"I...Vicky, my power doesn't work that way!" The stress this topic caused Amy was clear, but we needed her to do this.
Victoria didn't let up either, but was much softer than I would have been. "Why would it be about your powers? It's about you. You're smart, you can do this. You already taught Rachel a lot."
It didn't do much good. Amy was descending into panic, Victoria wasn't helping and I really didn't know what else to do with her either. Then Rachel stepped up, grabbed Amy by the shoulder and turned her around. "I know you don't give a damn about me, but that fucker did this to dogs. We'll take him out without your damn help, but...look, you were a great teacher, do it again. Please."
Amy brushed off Rachel's hand, but her panic stopped. She took a few deep breaths, then grabbed Rachel without a word and dragged her off into a corner. Enduring Grove Guardian followed, and the three of them got to work. Victoria headed out to the fight right away, but I stayed. I had been stupid when fighting Lung, at least here I could help Amy when she needed it. But who was I kidding, I hadn't been able to convince her just now. I was about to stop arguing with myself and head back to the fight when Ti Kuan Yin arrived. She didn't talk much, just asked short questions about the situation and then silently waited with me.
We were ready. Enduring Grove Guardian was brimming with energy, and Ti Kuan Yin would hit Lung on the first chance she got. I would distract him again. It would work. Or at least we had to try now, because Dragon urgently informed us that there would be no more time.
But Lung was already ramped up. Glory Girl had pummeled him for minutes before we arrived in numbers. And he had fought the Empire before that. The scorched concrete and shattered walls only reinforced how he had no reason to run. He had always stood his ground the last few times we had fought him. He only got stronger the longer the fight went. Taking him out by surprise would be the best option, but we hadn't managed that in any of our previous fights.
I didn't trust this. "This has to be a trap. Lisa? Dragon? Do you have anything?"
Both of them spoke at the same time. "Nope."
"Negative."
I sighed. Of course they had anticipated my question. "One at a time please. So there's no obvious trap you can see, Dragon. Lisa, do you get anything on his intentions?"
There was a pause, probably for Dragon to get a new angle on Lung with her drones and for Lisa to analyze him. "No, nothing. Well, other than him wanting to crush you very badly. I think he wishes you were dead and blames you for this mess? I'd suggest not getting cornered by him, but I see no reason we can't keep chasing him." There were mutterings about Lisa's suggestion, it being too risky now that he was ramped up, her not even being in danger here, why was she even using the word "we".
"She's right". Lady Photon interrupted. "We have to keep trying, we're learning more from those fights than he possibly can. Trying to take him down is a good option.But we'll only send people who can at least take a few hits from him. The rest stays safe as a group. And if this doesn't work, we can always retreat." Tu Yu made a few permanent portals on the docks, and
"Of course", Lisa's answer was dry, and I could practically see her roll her eyes at that obvious statement. "Glory Girl, Brandish, the Lion Dogs. Ver'ash, if you have something that makes you tough enough. That should give us a chance against him, and if we…"
I interrupted her. "Me too!" That got me a few looks before I elaborated. "I can't fight that well yet, but I'm tough enough to take a few hits. And I'm sure Lung will go after me if he sees me. And worst-case, I can just become intangible and duck away."
Lisa sighed. "Yes, fine, and Aedile too. Dragon, can you try to find a way to cut him off?"
Our phones, HUDs or armbands blinked with the new information before Lisa had even finished her sentence. Neither Glory Girl nor the Lion-Dogs had interrupted the chase. Dragon had painted a path for me where I might be able to cut Lung off, and I began to run.
The fight was leading deeper into ABB territory. Even here, there were marks of the attacks from the Empire, and where Lung or Oni Lee had repelled them. None of the buildings in this part of the docks were well-maintained. People here barely made do with the sparse welfare they could get, whatever income they could share between friends and family, or crime both organized and petty. The city certainly didn't have enough tax money to spend on it, and the ABB didn't pretend to be an alternative to the government for its members by fixing up any houses, unlike the Empire 88.
So it certainly wasn't surprising to see broken windows and roads full of potholes. But I could spot houses where whole walls had been ripped out by giant claws, and half the streets concrete had been boiled off. I could spot bullet holes in some cars, but also one that looked like it had been forced through a giant shredder. There hadn't been a single picture like that in the news. And barely anything on the human cost.
I could only spot a few people myself. Their reactions to a robed girl running over a ruined street at olympic sprinting speeds was extremely mute. I had no idea where everyone else was, whether they had fled the fight, were hiding or had moved out of this area entirely. There wasn't the all-encompassing panic I had seen in Canberra, despite a ramped-up Lung fighting nearby. I wasn't sure whether to be creeped out or relieved.
An earth-shattering roar from behind me made me pause. I glanced at the display Dragon had installed under my veil. Rachel was no longer chasing Lung, now she was making a fighting retreat to lure him onward. I didn't know how bad it was, but given how ramped-up Lung was after this long chase I couldn't imagine Just Mornings Flame doing very well, even with Rachel's help and his ability to cancel most of Lungs fire.
They weren't headed in my direction. I could only watch, again, and this time I couldn't even coordinate the battle. I hadn't really done it last time, I had just coordinated people who knew about military strategies and tactics. I was here as durable bait, but I still had to do something. I brought up Dragons camera feed, filling the screen she had built into my veil.
Lung was huge. He had been growing for the entire fight, getting larger as well as sprouting claws, scales and fangs. But either he had been holding back or his powers had made a leap forward. By now he had nearly doubled his mass, warped his legs into a powerful bent shape and added a spiked tail and leathery wings. And I could see the constant fiery aura that surrounded him from here as an angry-burning glow shining over the buildings between us.
He jumped, high enough to reach the camera drone. High enough that I could see him above the buildings, his wings spread, fire burning the remains of Dragons supposedly cloaked observer. And then he looked down, folded his wings and barreled down onto my friends.
The seconds until Dragon switched the feed to another drone were agonizing. I let out a relieved sigh as I saw what had happened. Calm Depths Mirror had joined the fight again, just in time to carry Rachel away.. Given the warped, burned street where Lung stood, it had saved her life, there was only so much Just Mornings Flame could do to protect others from Lungs fire. But he could fight Lung directly without any worry about the fire. His skin was burning red and covered in glowing golden veins his mane had burst into flames. He was larger too, Rachel must have finally managed to boost more than just the endurance of the Lion-Dogs.
Lung was yanked down mid-jump by Mornings Flame's attack and I could feel him crashing through a building as much as I could see it. It didn't even stun him, and the Lion-Dog barely managed to evade the full brunt of his counter-blow. Lung rose from the shattered building, the inferno around him blazing hotter and sucking in debris that instantly turned to ash and cinders. He grappled Just Mornings Flame and dug his claws deep into the golden-red flanks. Blood sizzled on Lungs skin, but the Lion-Dog retaliated with the same ferocity. Claws were soon followed by teeth, sinking through armored skin and reinforced scale as the grapple turned into a shredding flurry of blows. His greater strength and regeneration gave Lung a clear edge, but Just Mornings Flame didn't even try to back out.
I couldn't just stand by and watch. Lung wasn't coming towards me, I was already running towards him, but I had to do more. "Rachel! Boost Mornings Flame as hard as you can. He just has to hang on for a bit longer."
Her voice was raw and angry. "I'm trying! Damnit, why can't he just be a normal dog?"!
"Rachel, you can do it. Just make him a bit tougher, he doesn't need to win the fight on his own. Armor and whatever you can think of helping in that fight. You can do it for your dogs, you can do it for him. Your powers won't hurt him." At least I hoped so. But she needed all the encouragement she could get right now.
The street ahead was clear, I stole a glance at the fight while running towards it. Rachel had started her work, Just Mornings Flame was growing armored plates that stopped Lung from raking his claws all over his body. Several spikes shot out of his mane, but didn't manage to penetrate Lungs scales. They still hindered his arms, and with the Lion-Dogs muscles building the fight finally stopped being a bloody beat-down. I would make it in time. I took a short moment to look at my map, I didn't want to run in the wrong direction. Right, just around this corner and...
I couldn't move my arms. I could still get some leverage with my legs, but they kept pushing. My muscles were straining just to hold them from crushing my chest, without my powers I would already be...oh, right. I shed my material body, leaving behind a whirling mass of silk and paper that faded into light. The dumpster smashed into the crack I had left behind when they slammed me into it.
Right, I should have done that in the first place. My chest actually hurt and I checked myself over while floating just inches ahead of my assailants. Nothing seemed to be broken or even bruised. Now I just had to leave those guys behind and hurry towards Lung. Taking out his lackeys wasn't important. Unless they didn't work for Lung. They wore masks, none of the other ABB-members did that, so they might just be working for Coil and conceal that they didn't fit in with the asian members of Lungs gang.
I turned material again before I had made my choice. Gunshots rang through the air and I threw myself aside. I should have moved further down the street, or through a wall. I still could, but instead I ran towards my attackers. A few shots hit me, but I barely noticed them through my robes.
I opened with a strike I had practiced many times with Hu Dai. The gunman I aimed it at managed to avoid the worst of it, but he still fell back several feet. Before I could follow up to make sure he stayed down, two of his buddies jumped in and attacked me from both sides. I blocked their attacks, but my counterattack got prevented by yet more of their allies joining in. I whirled back and get out of their encirclement, they just kept their distance until they had me surrounded again. Their guns just stung, and I managed to take another one out when he shot at me. I got struck by an electrified baton in return, and just as soon as I stepped up another one attacked me from the side. I blocked him, dodged another swing of a baton and spun into a counterattack that just struck empty air. Dammit, they were working together too well, clearly had trained for this... and I just wasn't as good as Hu Dai. She had trained me well, I was stronger than most humans, I could pull of some amazing tricks - but it wasn't enough here. I neglected my defense, dashed forward and kicked another one hard enough that his ribs gave in. But there were still over half a dozen of them left. If I fought here until they were all down, I couldn't even help against Lung.
Screw it. If I couldn't do it, that's what I had allies for. "Dragon, can you get a drone on the guys I'm fighting? And send someone over who can't help against Lung to take them out?"
"What are you even doing Aedile? Taking out a few gang members won't help if Lung isn't taken out." She clearly hadn't kept an eye on me if she disapproved that much.
"Don't you think I know that? I'm pretty sure they're Coils men." She would have known that if she had kept the entire area under surveillance. I'd see what we could do about that after this was over.
"Oh, right. That changes things. I'll have a drone there right away. Disengage on my signal".
I hadn't been able to hold the conversation without losing some focus on the fight. All the hits from the guns and stun batons started to actually hurt. I managed to get my defense back just in time for Dragons signal to flash over my veil. I went immaterial again, and this time I'd stay that way until I reached Lung. A short moment to reorient myself and I sprinted through the mercenaries whom I had just fought.
A shot rang through the air and pain pierced through my chest. I stumbled and fell. Breathing hurt, but only for a few seconds before it faded into the bruisers I had already suffered. Then pain exploded in my legs. I ignored it, sprang up, sprinted through the nearest building. Dammit, what had happened?
It wasn't the mercenaries I had just fought. They were assisting the few of them I had taken down, hopefully that would take long enough for someone from New Wave to arrive. But who was shooting at me? How were they hitting me? I spotted a muzzle flash from a roof right as I felt more impacts across my body. The shots had passed right through the wall, just as I had moments before.
There was only one cape I knew who could do this. Shadow Stalker. Sophia Hess. If the Protectorate was backstabbing me, I would...don't be silly Taylor. It's far more likely that she's doing this on her own. You'll tell the PRT and they'll shut her down hard. Like they should have already done. Fuck, I might have to do this on my own. But for now I had to avoid getting killed for weeks again.
She had sprayed several more shots in my general direction. Apparently she couldn't spot me too well through my cover. Time to decide what to do. I could just teleport back to my sanctum. I could wait until someone from New Wave arrived, but I didn't want them to get attacked. Damnit, I didn't have time to deal with this!
I could just run. Run towards the fight with Lung and hope that he tried to attack me. Run away from Sophia and let her not ruin my plans. Let the PRT take care of her, and if they wouldn't, I would. I already had enough of her shit, of her getting away with it and how it had interfered with my life.
Another random hit from her gun decided it. I turned around and fled right towards Lung. Out through the back wall of the building, around a corner to check whether Sophia was pursuing, and then through several more buildings just in case she started to. Beyond that, I decided to not care about whatever she did now at all. I simply ran towards the fight, and the only thing that grabbed my attention was Manpower and Shielder evacuating civilians along with members of the PRT. I could have stopped and help them, but even a simple blessing might not leave me enough energy to fight Lung. And the spreading fires had not reached this far yet, nobody's life was in danger as far as I could tell.
For a moment, I just stood there. Just Mornings Flame was still fighting Lung. I had no idea how he managed, his left flank was just torn away, the only reason he was not leaving behind a stream of blood was that it was constantly evaporating. Lung still towered taller than ever, easily twenty feet in height without even standing upright. He was battered and bleeding. Mornings Flame had given back as much punishment as he had taken, Calm Depths Mirror's claws were sunk into his back and dampened his flame with evaporating water, and Enduring Grove Guardian was savaging Lungs legs with quick whipping attacks. But Lung didn't slow down, didn't even attempt to retreat and I could see deep wounds healing as I watched.
Then I remembered that I was still immaterial. I focused and could feel exhaustion wash over my entire body, but I succeeded. Even standing as far from the fight as I did, I was hit by the heat emanating from Lung and had to grasp for breath. "Lisa? Dragon? What's the plan to win this?"
Dragon was the first to answer. "Aedile, finally. We are trying to steer the fight closer to a portal, but Tu Yu is already creating another one. We can't win this now, so retreat is the best option."
I groaned. "Damn. Are you sure? Lisa, tell me what you've got."
Glory Girl swooped down and rammed into Lung. Her attack lasted barely more than a second, her dive took her away as fast as she had dived down, but even that was enough to leave her visibly singed despite her near-invulnerability.
"I already told everything to Dragon, and I already have a headache. But basically, it's possible to take him down if we strain his power too much. We're already doing everything we can, I'm afraid Dragon is right"
Dragon provided a written summary for me, and it only took a few seconds to read through it. Lisa had analyzed Lung, but there just wasn't a specific point where he would break. The more we fought the stronger he grew, but there was no clear connection between length, injuries taken, how much stronger he got or how much more durable he grew. There was some limit where he would break, but she had no idea where it was.
Poison. That's what she hoped would work, and why she had told Enduring Grove Guardian to use hit and run tactics. "Lisa, are you sure this won't kill him?"
"How should I know? I told Rachel to help make the venoms paralyzing only, but she barely knows how. And how should I know if it'll stay non-lethal once Lungs powers give out? He's changing like crazy all the time. And it's not even working so far!"
I could feel myself get frustrated, we didn't want to kill Lung but he might just make that impossible "Damnit. Can't we just cut off his arms or something? No, forget it. I know how to solve both problems".
Ti Kuan Yin had knocked out someone in Canberra with just a touch. I had no hopes that it would be that simple, but maybe it'd at least slow down Lung. And if we had to give him medical treatment, I'd rather risk someone who could take a hit or two instead of risking Amy.
I kept the dream-message that I sent Ti Kuan Yin as short and to the point as possible. I hoped I had put enough urgency into it, because Lung was now putting all his weight onto Just Mornings Flame to crush him. We needed more time.
I ran up to Lung. "Lung! Look at me you big dumb brute!" His elongated neck craned in my direction. "We'll take you down. You hear me? Your gang is weak, because you're weak. You fought an Endbringer once and then you ran away. And for what? A gang that can't even" He breathed fire. It cut me off, penetrated through my veil, scorched my skin and almost made me scream in pain. "So you're angry, huh? Angry enough to try something other than running until we pinned you down? Guess what! It won't be enough."
His claws stopped squeezing Just Mornings Flame and threw him into the house on the other side of the street. The wall came crashing down and the dust it set off ignited as Lung unleashed another burst of flame around himself. He rose, growled something that nobody could understood and towered over me, easily ten times taller. Then his arm came down. The road splintered where I had stood. I scrambled back on my feet in less than a second, but he was just as fast. Another strike came down, I dodged it again. But I couldn't evade the fire that followed it, and a normal human would have died right then. My feet got stuck for just a split-second as the street started to melt, I lost my balance and Lung was poised to put all his weight into a strike from his tail.
It never hit me. It took me a second to realize that it was because Glory Girl had swooped down and picked me up. "You idiot! I could have just vanished, why didn't you attack him instead?"
Her aura flared with anger for just a second. "How should I have known that? Look at this!" She pointed down to where Just Mornings Flame had fallen, and the slight shimmer of the portal that had opened. "Look at what he did to Flame, and don't tell me you wouldn't get squashed by that hit. We got enough trouble the last time you were injured. Amy can't heal everything. Don't take stupid risks like that!"
"I had to! We need more time until the poison works, and I just called some backup. He can't keep this up forever!" Or at least I hoped I was right to have more confidence in Lisa's theory than she did.
Her voice made it all- too clear how annoyed she was by this. "Well great, maybe someone should have told us! All Lisa did was grin and say "I have a plan." Why should we think poison works against Lung anyway?"
Damn your smugness Lisa. There were better ways to motivate people than fake confidence. "Because he has a limit. Enduring Grove has been using his venom all the time, and Rachel is trying to boost it. Eventually they'll have enough combinations that it'll work."
"Well tell Lisa to tell us next time! And get that dog out of here then!" I was about to shout that she was crazy, but she was ahead of me. "I don't know if it'll work. But I have a plan. Got get Rachel too." And we dove for the portal.
We interrupted Amy while she was healing Just Mornings Flame. Three of his legs were clearly broken, bones sticking out at all angles. The rest didn't look much better, open wounds and mangled skin covering his body and barely any of the previous glow left on him. Rachel winced as she saw him, and I wondered how much feedback she got from the dogs she powered up.
Victoria approached Amy, but got shushed with a raised hand before she could speak. I grabbed her hand to make it clear that Amy should finish this first, and we waited. Morning Flames wounds didn't close up before our eyes, but he stopped bleeding, his breathing got more regular and Amy even gave him some of his healthy glow back. "Please sit down if you're injured, I can take care of it."
Her sister shook her head. "No Amy. We're fine, but we need your help with something else. We need better poison to take down Lung."
Amy's expression slipped into horror for a second, and even after she got it back there was a nervous twitch in her lips. "What are you even talking about? I can't do that, I won't do that. No, absolutely not. Why are you even asking me that?"
"Come on Amy, you've healed all sorts of stuff. Is there no way you can teach Rachel a few nasty poisons? I know you don't want to harm people, but this is Lung and you can keep it non-lethal, right?"
"I...Vicky, my power doesn't work that way!" The stress this topic caused Amy was clear, but we needed her to do this.
Victoria didn't let up either, but was much softer than I would have been. "Why would it be about your powers? It's about you. You're smart, you can do this. You already taught Rachel a lot."
It didn't do much good. Amy was descending into panic, Victoria wasn't helping and I really didn't know what else to do with her either. Then Rachel stepped up, grabbed Amy by the shoulder and turned her around. "I know you don't give a damn about me, but that fucker did this to dogs. We'll take him out without your damn help, but...look, you were a great teacher, do it again. Please."
Amy brushed off Rachel's hand, but her panic stopped. She took a few deep breaths, then grabbed Rachel without a word and dragged her off into a corner. Enduring Grove Guardian followed, and the three of them got to work. Victoria headed out to the fight right away, but I stayed. I had been stupid when fighting Lung, at least here I could help Amy when she needed it. But who was I kidding, I hadn't been able to convince her just now. I was about to stop arguing with myself and head back to the fight when Ti Kuan Yin arrived. She didn't talk much, just asked short questions about the situation and then silently waited with me.
We were ready. Enduring Grove Guardian was brimming with energy, and Ti Kuan Yin would hit Lung on the first chance she got. I would distract him again. It would work. Or at least we had to try now, because Dragon urgently informed us that there would be no more time.
Move full stop.
Don't like the double 'hit' - maybe "Attack after attack hit, while his own attacks became easier to dodge"??
? I just think it's a bit stilted as 2 short single sentences.
Needs a space.
Unfinished sentence. Possibly 'in' instead of 'on'?
Move comma.
Probably dash or semi-colon I think.
? Didn't work before.
Move full stop.
Better, I think.
- Location
- portland oregon
I ship danny and tu yu. I shipit hard.
FaeGlade Plural
Semper Legens
- Location
- Land of Bureaucracy
- Pronouns
- Plural/They
Good, good
Because that's totally official, and I don't even know why I am putting this in spoiler tags other than teasing?
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
I think you answered your own question.Good, goodBecause that's totally official, and I don't even know why I am putting this in spoiler tags other than teasing?
4.5 - Lisa
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Worrying about others was a new experience for me. I mean, I'd always worried about the Undersiders when we were on missions, or taking risks outside of them, but that worry had always been tied to myself as well. And if I was honest, it had stemmed from far more selfish concerns. Now it was different.
My understanding of myself had grown hugely over the last few weeks, as I found within myself the ability and strength to extend my selfish caring to cover others. The care might still be selfish, but it enabled selflessness in a way I'd never thought possible. And also in a way that I felt sure should terrify me… but didn't. The reason for that?
It wasn't just Taylor, or Concordia, or the work I'd given to reforging the Undersiders into a weapon to serve as part of the latter. It was something that had changed in me, something very new. And it was more than a little terrifying really, that somehow in all of a month something had nibbled away at the protections I'd thrown around my heart, until parts of it lay entirely open to the world. Even harder to accept that the damage done to those walls had come from within, that a part of me wanted to grow closer to others. It had made the conversation I'd just had with Rachel a great deal more difficult than it would have been a month or two ago. Knowing the buttons to press was as easy as ever, but actually pressing down on them had become a lot harder. Especially with people who had, quite against my will, become friends.
I hadn't had friends since I was twelve.
So now I worried for them, as people instead of tools that I had to preserve. It made planning to send them into harm's way remarkably difficult and part of me wished I could choke the feelings. Except I'd Sacrificed my ability to do that, for it would have just been another way of running away. And I literally couldn't do that, it just wasn't in me anymore.
Yet for more than anyone else, I worried for Taylor. Not just for the burden she'd placed on herself, but because she didn't know everything that she needed to. About the current situation and about me. I'd seen the report Lotus had handed to her and it had barely scraped the surface. Like my worrying, but it went deeper than that. If Amy hadn't been patching up my injuries on a regular basis I might not have been able to discover some of the less obvious changes. Luckily Nishua had helped her get to the point where she would at least talk to me.
I stopped walking as the door to Taylor's office appeared in front of me. Another of those strange things about this place, I always had enough time to finish my chain of thought before I got to where I was going. But I was thankful for that today, I'd needed to resolve my thoughts before talking to Taylor. My occasional worries about the casual screwing of reality be damned.
I stepped up to the door, took a deep breath, and knocked.
"Just a minute!" The tone of her voice and the hasty shuffling while I waited told me clearly how stressed she was. The door clicked and swung open. She looked about the same as she sounded, and I hoped that this conversation wouldn't make the burden much worse. It was probably a futile hope.
"Is everything alright, Lisa?" Of course she'd have noticed that I wasn't quite myself. In fairness, it had become easier for people to see that, and I knew that she had an unfair advantage. "Did the talk with Rachel go badly?"
"It was alright," I sighed, looking across the desk to meet her gaze. "But we need to talk." She barely moved, but I could see her mentally wiping off things from her schedule. "And I'm sorry, but this really can't wait."
"What's this about, Lisa?" She asked, gesturing for me to sit.
"Me." She looked up sharply at that answer, but I pushed on. "There are some things you need to know, Taylor. I would have preferred to have had this talk before the planning meeting but," I shrugged helplessly. "There was never the time. I know you read the report, but it missed out a lot. How I've changed, for one thing, and how that changes the ways I can help you."
I could easily tell that she worried about all the possible things I could bring up, but she quickly settled on one. "Is this about the sorcery you've learned?" I nodded. "Alright, if you think this is important, I can take time out from messing with the gangs bureaucracy. But I've already read Lotus report on it, don't worry, I know what you can do."
"Not exactly." I paused, considering my options. It didn't take long, the easiest thing to show had also been the hardest to discover. "It's more what's changed since then." I rolled up one of my sleeves and reached for the gleaming letter-opener at the side of the desk. "This… This is the easiest one for me to show you, please don't be alarmed." I brought the blade down, scoring a light cut across the inside of my forearm. It was a tiny thing, but deep enough to draw blood and stimulate pain receptors, and I used that as a bridge.
I remembered the day Taylor had been killed, the pain inside and out, and the anger that had followed. I let it build, then squeezed around the cut. I almost didn't hear Taylor's gasp under my own, as I felt lightning crackle at the edge of my fingers, in the blood that they touched. But it didn't last long, it never did. Red liquid boiled away into the air, leaving only the faintest wisps of smoke. No more blood came, the wound sealed by the sudden burst of heat, and I looked up at Taylor.
She grabbed my hand and studied it closely. "You didn't do that intentionally, right? So how...Lotus and Tu Yu didn't mention anything like that. Lisa, what did you do?" She mostly sounded curious, though there was also some concern.
"I'm not really sure." I tugged my hand free and extending my arm across the desk. Only a fading white streak was left from the wound. "It came up a few weeks ago, when I needed Amy to heal me after a fight. She said that something had changed, at first she thought I had a fever or a bloodborne infection." I shook my head, thinking back to the conversation. She hadn't really wanted to talk to me, but she'd stayed long enough to make sure I understood.
"Average human body temperature is thirty-seven degrees Celsius. If you check mine, it's the same. But my blood, that's different, and I've found that it changes too. Based on my emotional state, of all things. When I cut myself I was remembering anger, and you saw the result. When I'm calm it doesn't do that, but it's still much warmer than human normal."
"Maybe your body is constantly channeling energy now? We can figure that out later. You're worried about that, we'll find a way to help you. You're not in any pain because of it? Has anything other than your blood behaving weirdly happened to you?"
"It doesn't hurt, no, but there's a...I'm not even sure how to describe it." I traced the white scar with my fingers again, remembering the feeling that had surrounded them. "When I bleed, when I feel myself do so, it feels like an echo of the power I feel in my hands when I use Sorcery. It's one of the things that made me certain that it was the cause." I paused, thinking about her last question. Then I nodded slowly.
"Yes, at least once. When I talked with Miss Militia and...well," I felt my cheeks colour slightly. "I got angry at her, for not understanding the threat that Coil was, and how unequipped the PRT is to deal with him." I shook my head, searching through the memories. "The temperature in the room shifted a lot, and it was one of the fancy private conference ones in the Town Hall, that shouldn't have happened. It went with my mood spikes as well, when I was able to get control of my anger again it calmed down again. But that wasn't all of it." I trailed off, focusing in the silence. What else had I done? White at the edge of my vision, tracing a pattern across the air behind my fingers. White, like the fire I'd wielded in battle. That was it. "I called fire to my fingertips, like Flight of the Brilliant Raptor. It was only for a few moments, but it was there."
"You can control it, I hope? Because if that can happen and you can lose control of it...I'm not too worried that you will, but we really should check with Tu Yu to make sure." She looked at me intensely for just a moment before continuing. "You were really angry with Miss Militia. You probably felt backed into a corner by her, right? What did she say to you that riled you up so much?" I had a feeling she already knew, but it was also clear that she wanted me to explain.
"She wanted us to leave Coil to the PRT." I shook my head quickly to cut off any reply, it wasn't just that. "She also seemed to be unable to take into account the fact that he'd ordered a hit on you in your civilian identity, and confident in the ability of the organisation she represented to face down someone who'd been running rings around them for years. Of course she had her reasons, the PRT always has a plentitude of those, but they weren't good ones in any universe. She, Director Piggot, the PRT, they were all fixed on the conflict points that Coil wanted them to be and they couldn't see it." I sighed. "And, as you might expect, trying to tell them that he was playing them didn't exactly go down well."
Taylor shook her head in resignation. "You realize that they asked you to fight the gangs because they had no other options, right? And I don't think they liked leaving the gangs free reign." She quickly dug out a file and put it on the table. "But you did start acting against the gangs after that meeting. I figured they had convinced you with reason, but it must have been something else. What leverage did they have, Lisa?"
I'd planned on saying that I expected that she'd know, and it was probable that she did, but the words stuck in my throat. I blinked hard, and then realised I'd started speaking anyway. "You know what spells I've learned, don't you Taylor." It really wasn't a question. "I was involved in the fighting from very soon after it started, using them. And there really isn't a non-lethal option for Flight of the Brilliant Raptor." I thought back to the soldier in the factory complex, "or Personal Tempest."
"I've killed, Taylor. I'm not sure how many, and I never took any joy in it, but I killed people. The PRT said that as long as I directed Concordia's efforts towards the gangs, they'd keep it out of the media as anything more than regretted necessity. Given the possible consequences, I had little choice but to do as they asked."
She sighed. "Wow. Okay. Lisa, don't be upset with me now. I don't like what they did there, but it's like my Dad said. The Protectorate has set the public image of how heroes are supposed to behave. Killing in self-defense isn't illegal for parahumans, but it's looked at more harshly. And especially for someone who was officially a villain a short time ago. I'd rather you defend yourself than care about bad PR for Concordia, but I care about you getting prosecuted. We'd win that case, but it'd put us under a lot of scrutiny. So in a way.." She held up her hand before I could answer while she paused to think. "They did it because they needed someone to go after the gangs, and they couldn't. As I said, in an ideal world you'd take out Coil and they'd stop the gangs. But even then what they did was shitty, and I'll talk to Miss Militia about that, okay? Just to make sure it doesn't happen again."
The sympathy was...unexpected. I knew she was thinking about her actions in Canberra right now, but I still hadn't expected her to react like this. Yet the same thing which had stopped my skirting the issue before kept pushing, and I found myself continuing. "Are you sure you're comfortable with that, Taylor?"
Her voice was harsh when she replied. "Comfortable? No, I won't like it if bad PR brings down what we're trying to achieve. And I certainly won't like it if you get dragged into court and they find out our 'dirty secrets'. But if those are the consequences of you defending your own life, we'll deal with those. If I have to, I think I can." She took a breath, and her voice softened. "But I'm worried if you can deal with this situation? You said you're different, and having killed certainly can't be easy." I felt her choking back some memories at those last words.
"I think that might be part of what I see as a problem." I looked down at my hands, picturing the fire that I'd wielded so easily wrapped around them. "Because when I remember it, I regret the killing, but it hasn't scarred me." I paused, struggling to find the right words. "I'm at peace with what I did. Yes, because I didn't have a choice, but also…"
"Did I tell you what I told Coil after Tu Yu rescued me?" I was pretty sure I hadn't, but it might have found its way into a report somewhere. Apparently I was right, as Taylor just shook her head. "It was after I was healed, maybe a week after the attack. I used the old cell phone he'd given me, and called him. He tried to tell me I could have my post back, that the damage done didn't matter. But it did matter, to me if not to him."
"I told him that I'd warned him once what would happen if he killed a friend. I'd never expected to be in a position to make good on that threat, but that's what had happened. I told him that I wasn't going to run anymore, and that we were coming for him. And that," I shook my head. "That was my Sacrifice, Taylor, and it's really the reason we're having this conversation."
She nodded. "So this is what this is all about? I wouldn't have thought that just flipping off Coil would suffice for that Station, Tu Yu said it was the most difficult one."
"Sacrifice like the one I made isn't a simple process, because as far as I can tell it's absolute. It changes you deeply, who you are and what you're capable of. I Sacrificed running from my fears, trying to escape instead of growing as person. But knowing what the Station is and actually completing it are two very different things. All the changes here," I tapped my head, "that I've experienced have all been as a result of that, and in some ways that terrifies me. It's also changed me for the better, I think, but in ways that have made things harder too. Like my talk with Rachel before I came here."
"It's not that I can't find her buttons," I said quickly, "that's still just as simple. But pressing them, using what my power gives me to manipulate people that I've...become close to. That's hard."
"And that is new for you?" She couldn't keep the slightly smirk off her face. "Sorry, I'm not making fun of you. I'm glad to hear that you care, but I'm sure it's hard too. Because there were reasons you didn't before, right? Would you like to talk about it?"
"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't new to me, Taylor." I sighed. "But I'm not going to tell you what I think you want to know. What is important is this: although I am not sure why, my power speaks clearer to me than it ever did, but it comes with the cost of my Sacrifice. Before I came here, I made my plans with little thought for those within them. People were tools, many still are. And yet," I trailed off, feeling fire burn beneath my skin as part of me sought still to leave the words silent. "There is more to it now, and that effects a great deal. My ability as a planner will not be as effective when working with you, but the edge of that sword cuts both ways."
"When I see a threat to you, or to any I know, I will act to destroy it, without delay or mercy. Some approve of that, but I know the PRT does not and I do understand why. But if Coil was sitting in your place now? There would be little in your chair but ash, and I would not mourn for his death. I can control myself," I smiled slightly, "you don't need to concern yourself with that. I just...need you to know this."
Taylor was quiet after that for a time, where I possessed myself of patience. It was a lot to take in. "Um...Lisa, I am concerned. Not about you killing Coil. But what you're doing here...I don't think that's healthy. Not you being able to connect to people, that's good. And I can really understand fighting for them, and I'm really flattered you're willing to do that for me. Just…"
"You're worried about me, about what I might do from what I've said here, right?" I shook my head. "Don't be. I know the consequences of breaking the rules, and I'll respect them as far as I can. But if it's a choice between the death of an enemy and the death of a friend? I'll try to find another option, but if I can't I know which death I'll choose."
"You've managed as a villain, you can manage that as a hero too, even if you now have much more lethal abilities. Just try to avoid any close fights where you might not have the choice to stay nonlethal, okay?"
"I think I can do that," I said firmly. I really would try to hold to it, too. "Now however, I think we have a rat to catch. A very powerful rat, with a lot of resources, but a rat nonetheless. And I know exactly what we should do first."
"Really? From what you've told me, I'd have figured he'd scale his attacks back now. Even stop them entirely and go to ground until he's recovered from your attack. How do you want to catch him?"
"Coil ordered a hit on you, Taylor. We've talked about the unwritten rules before, but that action shattered them. It's part of why I was so mad at the PRT, but even now we don't actually have any proof that he was behind the attack." My lips thinned in what only the most charitable might call a smile. "I think it's about time that we change that. And from what the PRT got from the hard drive I gave to them, we can as well."
A grin appeared on Taylor's face. "Oh, I see. Get proof that he ordered the hit on me, and he can't just play off the attacks as part of the gang war. Well, that gives me some ideas. What do you have in mind?"
"I need you to put your abilities to work on a macro scale against Coil's attempts to screen his mercenaries from the government tracking them down. They aren't covered by the 'cop's and robbers' rules that parahumans play by. Legally they're domestic terrorists. A truly incredible lawyer might be able to slide them under gang member statutes, but somehow I doubt they'll get away with that if you're watching." By now, Taylor's smirk was almost a match to my own.
"I've been doing some work on tracking down who actually took the shots on you, and I've narrowed the list down to five. With the ABB active I didn't have the resources to hit all of them at once, but with Lung taken care of we have a window of opportunity. Coil will move them, probably sooner rather than later, but he can't be everywhere no matter how hard he tries." I looked over at the pile of reports on the side of Taylor's desk and fished one out. "This is the file I put together for an operation on them. It's simple enough, a snatch and grab against all five on the shortlist in their civilian identities. You, Alec, Tu Yu, Brian and I. We all go in at once - two of them are currently staying in the same location, I'll grab them – then Tu Yu gets us home. Shouldn't take more than an hour, and I managed to," I squelched the word steal before it could get out of my mouth, "borrow one of Dragon's drones for a reconnaissance run."
She absorbed the file I handed her right away. "You know, we're on good terms with Dragon. After what I did for her...actually, I should tell you about that, but I'll do that later. You really don't need to steal from her. And I think you're smart enough to know that, the planning you did here proves that. Keep working on that whole trust-thing, okay? But it's solid, we can do this."
"Alright then, I'll get my gear. Lotus, can you call the others?" Since the fight with Coil had gone from skirmishes to something approaching a full scale war, the former Undersiders had been staying inside of the Sanctum a lot, even if Alec said it made him itch.
"Of course, Lisa."
"Thanks," I paused as I pushed the chair I'd been sitting in back in, and my expression softened a little. "And thank you for listening to me talk, Taylor." I shied away from how long it had been since I'd been able to do that, and managed to keep it down. She could probably tell a reasonable amount of it though, she was like that.
"Of course, Lisa. Even though I'm sure you were that verbose on purpose. No, don't worry, that's okay. I'm just teasing, I'm glad we could talk as well."
***
It had, in the end, been rather easier than I'd thought it would be. Taylor had come along quite nicely since returning to us, a brush with death often had that effect on someone and she'd had far more than a brush. Alec and Brian had both been involved in the early campaign against Coil, and they'd learnt rather quickly even if my methods had been a bit draconian. It was quite remarkable how quickly someone could learn things with the right sort of motivation, actually. And as for myself? I was getting better at not being overconfident, but two unarmed mercenaries in a location that I'd already scouted and with very little in the way of prep time weren't even much of a rush anymore.
Just to keep Coil guessing, I'd sent the two Lion-Dogs we had along with Rachel to sniff around where I was pretty sure one of his remaining safehouses was. I'd been rather firm about how they were to run away the moment they encountered any resistance, and I was mostly confident that they'd even do so. Or one of the Lion Dogs would carry Rachel home by the scruff of her neck. Either worked. I chuckled thinking of the latter, she wouldn't expect that.
It would take a few hours for the mercs I'd taken to come around, and the rest were similarly incapacitated. I'd already talked with Lotus about setting up a welcoming environment for them, and she'd been more than happy to oblige when I'd explained who two of these men were. I'd let them sweat a bit after they woke up as well, so there was plenty of time for a short nap. As I stripped off my gear and rolled into bed, I realised that even if I didn't get the same rush as I used to from close combat, it still did take quite a bit out of me. I'd have to work on that, but I could do that later.
Two hours of rest and another two of prep time left me in a rather good mood walking into the newly extruded interrogation section of Taylor's Sanctum. Tu Yu had added a few fine touches here and there for which I was very thankful, but he wouldn't be present for the interrogations. He had 'other plans'. What Taylor was going to do when she worked out exactly what those other plans amounted to I had no idea, but I intended to be on hand with a video camera when she did. The potential for blackmail material was too good to pass up. Or at least I couldn't pass up the chance to tease her with it. The thought made me chuckle as I opened the door and breezed into the room with the second merc. The first one needed a bit more time to let the walls work.
I ran through what Taylor had been able to pull on this one as I strolled towards the table at the centre of the room. Jacob Hill, former special forces. Had a divorced partner and a kid, still made maintenance payments for them. Had joined up with Coil after several extremely classified stints in South America. There'd been a lot more in the dossier I'd built on him, but the salient point was that he was an extremely good shot. All of the five were, to be honest, but there'd been something about the mission set that had set my power off.
"Mr Hill, how are we today?" Not much in the way of a reaction, but that was to be expected. In his line of work, tells could be lethal. Unfortunately for him, he still had one, although I doubted anyone other than a Thinker would have been able to pick up on it.
"I am a-" this was a well-practiced set of lines, he'd recited them before. I cut him off before he could get any traction going.
"What you are, Mr Hill, is a murderer and a terrorist. Someone with your history should know the sort of treatment both of those get in this fine country that we live in." I got a blink out of that. Most wouldn't see anything in it, but Thinkers were bullshit, and the meditation I was working with was even more so. I just needed to get him talking.
"I have nothing to say to you without the presence of legal couns-" Cut off again, he hadn't liked that the first time. Maybe it was that I was a lot younger than anyone who'd interrogated him before.
Afraid. Of you and Coil. Powers in general frighten him.
"Let me lay this out for you, Mr Hill." I said, letting the rage I still felt at the bald faced breaking of the rules that Coil now used to protect himself show. This time he gave a reaction that others would be able to see, pushing himself back away from me as far as the seat he was in could allow. "Your life, as you know it, is over. We have enough proof of what you've done over the last few months that you won't see the outside of a prison cell for the next two hundred years. Assault, attempted murder, terrorism, the list is rather long. The only reason I'm even here is because, unlike most of your fellows, you might actually have some information that can save you." He tried to speak and I let the fire flicker at the edge of my skin. He shut up.
"Now I am going to ask you a question. If you lie to me, I will walk out of this room and you will go to prison for the rest of your lifespan. And don't count on your boss to look after you, or your family." I was deadly serious as I leaned forward, following the chains to capitalise on the break I'd opened with the emotional dagger.
"Where were on the afternoon of the fifth of March?" He tried to control his expression, but couldn't keep it all down.
He knows. Wasn't a shooter, but doesn't think he can convince you of that.
"Ah, so you were one of them. Details, now."
"You will put in a good word for me." I was actually somewhat impressed that he kept his voice level. And now I had him.
"If you can give me what I want, I'll write a letter full of sweet talk to the District Attorney herself. I can be very persuasive." He considered his options, surely aware that I could read them as easily as he could, and then bowed his head in acceptance of defeat.
"State your name for the record," I clicked on a recorder. "Then start at the beginning."
Yes!
With the cooperation of Hill and my own abilities, it was the work of only a few hours to break open the secrecy that Coil had so effectively cloaked the hit against Taylor in. Having someone who had been on the support team, he'd actually picked me up, was invaluable. Paper evidence was all well and good, but a person willing to attest was worth far, far more. With that in hand, it wasn't hard to compile a full report on the matter, with enough leads that even the PRT should be able to run down something. The confessional recordings were just icing on the cake, and if I pushed I was reasonably sure I could get a Kill Order levelled against Coil for his actions. The question was…did I want to.
Even with Taylor's help, it wouldn't be easy to get a kill order signed off on, and the PRT was unlikely to want to bring in any further help to enforce it. Good as they were, the current official capes in the Bay would have trouble catching Coil. They might slow him down, make things difficult, but we could do that on our own. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. We didn't need the PRT to give a Kill Order, that it would take up a considerable amount of Taylor's attention that was needed elsewhere was beside the point. What we, what I, needed was at least unofficial sanction to act directly against him. Concordia could deal with this alone, but if we did so outside of the proper channels it would create problems for us, and I had no desire to do that. It would be inefficient.
In the end, it took more time than I liked, but less than I'd expected. Fortunately, I was able to use the time productively. The information I extracted from the various agents we'd captured revealed more links for me to work with, which led me to several new places to hit Coil's organisation. We hit all of them. I planned the raids and led several myself, but was able to keep the body count at a safe null. That most of the raids were busts was probably a large part of that, but the few that weren't were able to be solved with little violence. It helped that Coil's mercenaries were legitimately scared of me.
That was small fry, however, compared to the meeting I organised at the end of the week with the single remaining tool of import to Coil; Kaiser. The nature of his personal politics aside, it was hard to argue that he ran a tight and well-equipped ship. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite as impossible to manipulate as he thought. I'd wondered before why Coil seemed to like him in the way that a craftsman dotes on a favourite tool. To be able to focus properly, I had to break that tool or take it away from him. The latter of the two was much more possible, and less potentially suicidal for those who didn't have respawn points.
I chose a neutral location, well aware that he'd bring bodyguards regardless. There were places in the Bay that only Parahumans knew, where you could meet discreetly if you had to. I knew most of them, and so Coil did too. Given how long he'd been in the Bay, I expected him to know more of them than I did, despite my abilities. But I also knew that there were a few that he would never attack, if only out of simple pragmatism. And by this point his resources were far from the seemingly endless reserves that had loomed in my mind at the start of our war. So it was one of the locations that Coil himself had designated as inviolate that I offered as a meeting place for Kaiser. A little bit of good acting along with some leading lines on my part led to swift but guarded agreement.
My understanding of myself had grown hugely over the last few weeks, as I found within myself the ability and strength to extend my selfish caring to cover others. The care might still be selfish, but it enabled selflessness in a way I'd never thought possible. And also in a way that I felt sure should terrify me… but didn't. The reason for that?
It wasn't just Taylor, or Concordia, or the work I'd given to reforging the Undersiders into a weapon to serve as part of the latter. It was something that had changed in me, something very new. And it was more than a little terrifying really, that somehow in all of a month something had nibbled away at the protections I'd thrown around my heart, until parts of it lay entirely open to the world. Even harder to accept that the damage done to those walls had come from within, that a part of me wanted to grow closer to others. It had made the conversation I'd just had with Rachel a great deal more difficult than it would have been a month or two ago. Knowing the buttons to press was as easy as ever, but actually pressing down on them had become a lot harder. Especially with people who had, quite against my will, become friends.
I hadn't had friends since I was twelve.
So now I worried for them, as people instead of tools that I had to preserve. It made planning to send them into harm's way remarkably difficult and part of me wished I could choke the feelings. Except I'd Sacrificed my ability to do that, for it would have just been another way of running away. And I literally couldn't do that, it just wasn't in me anymore.
Yet for more than anyone else, I worried for Taylor. Not just for the burden she'd placed on herself, but because she didn't know everything that she needed to. About the current situation and about me. I'd seen the report Lotus had handed to her and it had barely scraped the surface. Like my worrying, but it went deeper than that. If Amy hadn't been patching up my injuries on a regular basis I might not have been able to discover some of the less obvious changes. Luckily Nishua had helped her get to the point where she would at least talk to me.
I stopped walking as the door to Taylor's office appeared in front of me. Another of those strange things about this place, I always had enough time to finish my chain of thought before I got to where I was going. But I was thankful for that today, I'd needed to resolve my thoughts before talking to Taylor. My occasional worries about the casual screwing of reality be damned.
I stepped up to the door, took a deep breath, and knocked.
"Just a minute!" The tone of her voice and the hasty shuffling while I waited told me clearly how stressed she was. The door clicked and swung open. She looked about the same as she sounded, and I hoped that this conversation wouldn't make the burden much worse. It was probably a futile hope.
"Is everything alright, Lisa?" Of course she'd have noticed that I wasn't quite myself. In fairness, it had become easier for people to see that, and I knew that she had an unfair advantage. "Did the talk with Rachel go badly?"
"It was alright," I sighed, looking across the desk to meet her gaze. "But we need to talk." She barely moved, but I could see her mentally wiping off things from her schedule. "And I'm sorry, but this really can't wait."
"What's this about, Lisa?" She asked, gesturing for me to sit.
"Me." She looked up sharply at that answer, but I pushed on. "There are some things you need to know, Taylor. I would have preferred to have had this talk before the planning meeting but," I shrugged helplessly. "There was never the time. I know you read the report, but it missed out a lot. How I've changed, for one thing, and how that changes the ways I can help you."
I could easily tell that she worried about all the possible things I could bring up, but she quickly settled on one. "Is this about the sorcery you've learned?" I nodded. "Alright, if you think this is important, I can take time out from messing with the gangs bureaucracy. But I've already read Lotus report on it, don't worry, I know what you can do."
"Not exactly." I paused, considering my options. It didn't take long, the easiest thing to show had also been the hardest to discover. "It's more what's changed since then." I rolled up one of my sleeves and reached for the gleaming letter-opener at the side of the desk. "This… This is the easiest one for me to show you, please don't be alarmed." I brought the blade down, scoring a light cut across the inside of my forearm. It was a tiny thing, but deep enough to draw blood and stimulate pain receptors, and I used that as a bridge.
I remembered the day Taylor had been killed, the pain inside and out, and the anger that had followed. I let it build, then squeezed around the cut. I almost didn't hear Taylor's gasp under my own, as I felt lightning crackle at the edge of my fingers, in the blood that they touched. But it didn't last long, it never did. Red liquid boiled away into the air, leaving only the faintest wisps of smoke. No more blood came, the wound sealed by the sudden burst of heat, and I looked up at Taylor.
She grabbed my hand and studied it closely. "You didn't do that intentionally, right? So how...Lotus and Tu Yu didn't mention anything like that. Lisa, what did you do?" She mostly sounded curious, though there was also some concern.
"I'm not really sure." I tugged my hand free and extending my arm across the desk. Only a fading white streak was left from the wound. "It came up a few weeks ago, when I needed Amy to heal me after a fight. She said that something had changed, at first she thought I had a fever or a bloodborne infection." I shook my head, thinking back to the conversation. She hadn't really wanted to talk to me, but she'd stayed long enough to make sure I understood.
"Average human body temperature is thirty-seven degrees Celsius. If you check mine, it's the same. But my blood, that's different, and I've found that it changes too. Based on my emotional state, of all things. When I cut myself I was remembering anger, and you saw the result. When I'm calm it doesn't do that, but it's still much warmer than human normal."
"Maybe your body is constantly channeling energy now? We can figure that out later. You're worried about that, we'll find a way to help you. You're not in any pain because of it? Has anything other than your blood behaving weirdly happened to you?"
"It doesn't hurt, no, but there's a...I'm not even sure how to describe it." I traced the white scar with my fingers again, remembering the feeling that had surrounded them. "When I bleed, when I feel myself do so, it feels like an echo of the power I feel in my hands when I use Sorcery. It's one of the things that made me certain that it was the cause." I paused, thinking about her last question. Then I nodded slowly.
"Yes, at least once. When I talked with Miss Militia and...well," I felt my cheeks colour slightly. "I got angry at her, for not understanding the threat that Coil was, and how unequipped the PRT is to deal with him." I shook my head, searching through the memories. "The temperature in the room shifted a lot, and it was one of the fancy private conference ones in the Town Hall, that shouldn't have happened. It went with my mood spikes as well, when I was able to get control of my anger again it calmed down again. But that wasn't all of it." I trailed off, focusing in the silence. What else had I done? White at the edge of my vision, tracing a pattern across the air behind my fingers. White, like the fire I'd wielded in battle. That was it. "I called fire to my fingertips, like Flight of the Brilliant Raptor. It was only for a few moments, but it was there."
"You can control it, I hope? Because if that can happen and you can lose control of it...I'm not too worried that you will, but we really should check with Tu Yu to make sure." She looked at me intensely for just a moment before continuing. "You were really angry with Miss Militia. You probably felt backed into a corner by her, right? What did she say to you that riled you up so much?" I had a feeling she already knew, but it was also clear that she wanted me to explain.
"She wanted us to leave Coil to the PRT." I shook my head quickly to cut off any reply, it wasn't just that. "She also seemed to be unable to take into account the fact that he'd ordered a hit on you in your civilian identity, and confident in the ability of the organisation she represented to face down someone who'd been running rings around them for years. Of course she had her reasons, the PRT always has a plentitude of those, but they weren't good ones in any universe. She, Director Piggot, the PRT, they were all fixed on the conflict points that Coil wanted them to be and they couldn't see it." I sighed. "And, as you might expect, trying to tell them that he was playing them didn't exactly go down well."
Taylor shook her head in resignation. "You realize that they asked you to fight the gangs because they had no other options, right? And I don't think they liked leaving the gangs free reign." She quickly dug out a file and put it on the table. "But you did start acting against the gangs after that meeting. I figured they had convinced you with reason, but it must have been something else. What leverage did they have, Lisa?"
I'd planned on saying that I expected that she'd know, and it was probable that she did, but the words stuck in my throat. I blinked hard, and then realised I'd started speaking anyway. "You know what spells I've learned, don't you Taylor." It really wasn't a question. "I was involved in the fighting from very soon after it started, using them. And there really isn't a non-lethal option for Flight of the Brilliant Raptor." I thought back to the soldier in the factory complex, "or Personal Tempest."
"I've killed, Taylor. I'm not sure how many, and I never took any joy in it, but I killed people. The PRT said that as long as I directed Concordia's efforts towards the gangs, they'd keep it out of the media as anything more than regretted necessity. Given the possible consequences, I had little choice but to do as they asked."
She sighed. "Wow. Okay. Lisa, don't be upset with me now. I don't like what they did there, but it's like my Dad said. The Protectorate has set the public image of how heroes are supposed to behave. Killing in self-defense isn't illegal for parahumans, but it's looked at more harshly. And especially for someone who was officially a villain a short time ago. I'd rather you defend yourself than care about bad PR for Concordia, but I care about you getting prosecuted. We'd win that case, but it'd put us under a lot of scrutiny. So in a way.." She held up her hand before I could answer while she paused to think. "They did it because they needed someone to go after the gangs, and they couldn't. As I said, in an ideal world you'd take out Coil and they'd stop the gangs. But even then what they did was shitty, and I'll talk to Miss Militia about that, okay? Just to make sure it doesn't happen again."
The sympathy was...unexpected. I knew she was thinking about her actions in Canberra right now, but I still hadn't expected her to react like this. Yet the same thing which had stopped my skirting the issue before kept pushing, and I found myself continuing. "Are you sure you're comfortable with that, Taylor?"
Her voice was harsh when she replied. "Comfortable? No, I won't like it if bad PR brings down what we're trying to achieve. And I certainly won't like it if you get dragged into court and they find out our 'dirty secrets'. But if those are the consequences of you defending your own life, we'll deal with those. If I have to, I think I can." She took a breath, and her voice softened. "But I'm worried if you can deal with this situation? You said you're different, and having killed certainly can't be easy." I felt her choking back some memories at those last words.
"I think that might be part of what I see as a problem." I looked down at my hands, picturing the fire that I'd wielded so easily wrapped around them. "Because when I remember it, I regret the killing, but it hasn't scarred me." I paused, struggling to find the right words. "I'm at peace with what I did. Yes, because I didn't have a choice, but also…"
"Did I tell you what I told Coil after Tu Yu rescued me?" I was pretty sure I hadn't, but it might have found its way into a report somewhere. Apparently I was right, as Taylor just shook her head. "It was after I was healed, maybe a week after the attack. I used the old cell phone he'd given me, and called him. He tried to tell me I could have my post back, that the damage done didn't matter. But it did matter, to me if not to him."
"I told him that I'd warned him once what would happen if he killed a friend. I'd never expected to be in a position to make good on that threat, but that's what had happened. I told him that I wasn't going to run anymore, and that we were coming for him. And that," I shook my head. "That was my Sacrifice, Taylor, and it's really the reason we're having this conversation."
She nodded. "So this is what this is all about? I wouldn't have thought that just flipping off Coil would suffice for that Station, Tu Yu said it was the most difficult one."
"Sacrifice like the one I made isn't a simple process, because as far as I can tell it's absolute. It changes you deeply, who you are and what you're capable of. I Sacrificed running from my fears, trying to escape instead of growing as person. But knowing what the Station is and actually completing it are two very different things. All the changes here," I tapped my head, "that I've experienced have all been as a result of that, and in some ways that terrifies me. It's also changed me for the better, I think, but in ways that have made things harder too. Like my talk with Rachel before I came here."
"It's not that I can't find her buttons," I said quickly, "that's still just as simple. But pressing them, using what my power gives me to manipulate people that I've...become close to. That's hard."
"And that is new for you?" She couldn't keep the slightly smirk off her face. "Sorry, I'm not making fun of you. I'm glad to hear that you care, but I'm sure it's hard too. Because there were reasons you didn't before, right? Would you like to talk about it?"
"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't new to me, Taylor." I sighed. "But I'm not going to tell you what I think you want to know. What is important is this: although I am not sure why, my power speaks clearer to me than it ever did, but it comes with the cost of my Sacrifice. Before I came here, I made my plans with little thought for those within them. People were tools, many still are. And yet," I trailed off, feeling fire burn beneath my skin as part of me sought still to leave the words silent. "There is more to it now, and that effects a great deal. My ability as a planner will not be as effective when working with you, but the edge of that sword cuts both ways."
"When I see a threat to you, or to any I know, I will act to destroy it, without delay or mercy. Some approve of that, but I know the PRT does not and I do understand why. But if Coil was sitting in your place now? There would be little in your chair but ash, and I would not mourn for his death. I can control myself," I smiled slightly, "you don't need to concern yourself with that. I just...need you to know this."
Taylor was quiet after that for a time, where I possessed myself of patience. It was a lot to take in. "Um...Lisa, I am concerned. Not about you killing Coil. But what you're doing here...I don't think that's healthy. Not you being able to connect to people, that's good. And I can really understand fighting for them, and I'm really flattered you're willing to do that for me. Just…"
"You're worried about me, about what I might do from what I've said here, right?" I shook my head. "Don't be. I know the consequences of breaking the rules, and I'll respect them as far as I can. But if it's a choice between the death of an enemy and the death of a friend? I'll try to find another option, but if I can't I know which death I'll choose."
"You've managed as a villain, you can manage that as a hero too, even if you now have much more lethal abilities. Just try to avoid any close fights where you might not have the choice to stay nonlethal, okay?"
"I think I can do that," I said firmly. I really would try to hold to it, too. "Now however, I think we have a rat to catch. A very powerful rat, with a lot of resources, but a rat nonetheless. And I know exactly what we should do first."
"Really? From what you've told me, I'd have figured he'd scale his attacks back now. Even stop them entirely and go to ground until he's recovered from your attack. How do you want to catch him?"
"Coil ordered a hit on you, Taylor. We've talked about the unwritten rules before, but that action shattered them. It's part of why I was so mad at the PRT, but even now we don't actually have any proof that he was behind the attack." My lips thinned in what only the most charitable might call a smile. "I think it's about time that we change that. And from what the PRT got from the hard drive I gave to them, we can as well."
A grin appeared on Taylor's face. "Oh, I see. Get proof that he ordered the hit on me, and he can't just play off the attacks as part of the gang war. Well, that gives me some ideas. What do you have in mind?"
"I need you to put your abilities to work on a macro scale against Coil's attempts to screen his mercenaries from the government tracking them down. They aren't covered by the 'cop's and robbers' rules that parahumans play by. Legally they're domestic terrorists. A truly incredible lawyer might be able to slide them under gang member statutes, but somehow I doubt they'll get away with that if you're watching." By now, Taylor's smirk was almost a match to my own.
"I've been doing some work on tracking down who actually took the shots on you, and I've narrowed the list down to five. With the ABB active I didn't have the resources to hit all of them at once, but with Lung taken care of we have a window of opportunity. Coil will move them, probably sooner rather than later, but he can't be everywhere no matter how hard he tries." I looked over at the pile of reports on the side of Taylor's desk and fished one out. "This is the file I put together for an operation on them. It's simple enough, a snatch and grab against all five on the shortlist in their civilian identities. You, Alec, Tu Yu, Brian and I. We all go in at once - two of them are currently staying in the same location, I'll grab them – then Tu Yu gets us home. Shouldn't take more than an hour, and I managed to," I squelched the word steal before it could get out of my mouth, "borrow one of Dragon's drones for a reconnaissance run."
She absorbed the file I handed her right away. "You know, we're on good terms with Dragon. After what I did for her...actually, I should tell you about that, but I'll do that later. You really don't need to steal from her. And I think you're smart enough to know that, the planning you did here proves that. Keep working on that whole trust-thing, okay? But it's solid, we can do this."
"Alright then, I'll get my gear. Lotus, can you call the others?" Since the fight with Coil had gone from skirmishes to something approaching a full scale war, the former Undersiders had been staying inside of the Sanctum a lot, even if Alec said it made him itch.
"Of course, Lisa."
"Thanks," I paused as I pushed the chair I'd been sitting in back in, and my expression softened a little. "And thank you for listening to me talk, Taylor." I shied away from how long it had been since I'd been able to do that, and managed to keep it down. She could probably tell a reasonable amount of it though, she was like that.
"Of course, Lisa. Even though I'm sure you were that verbose on purpose. No, don't worry, that's okay. I'm just teasing, I'm glad we could talk as well."
***
Just to keep Coil guessing, I'd sent the two Lion-Dogs we had along with Rachel to sniff around where I was pretty sure one of his remaining safehouses was. I'd been rather firm about how they were to run away the moment they encountered any resistance, and I was mostly confident that they'd even do so. Or one of the Lion Dogs would carry Rachel home by the scruff of her neck. Either worked. I chuckled thinking of the latter, she wouldn't expect that.
It would take a few hours for the mercs I'd taken to come around, and the rest were similarly incapacitated. I'd already talked with Lotus about setting up a welcoming environment for them, and she'd been more than happy to oblige when I'd explained who two of these men were. I'd let them sweat a bit after they woke up as well, so there was plenty of time for a short nap. As I stripped off my gear and rolled into bed, I realised that even if I didn't get the same rush as I used to from close combat, it still did take quite a bit out of me. I'd have to work on that, but I could do that later.
Two hours of rest and another two of prep time left me in a rather good mood walking into the newly extruded interrogation section of Taylor's Sanctum. Tu Yu had added a few fine touches here and there for which I was very thankful, but he wouldn't be present for the interrogations. He had 'other plans'. What Taylor was going to do when she worked out exactly what those other plans amounted to I had no idea, but I intended to be on hand with a video camera when she did. The potential for blackmail material was too good to pass up. Or at least I couldn't pass up the chance to tease her with it. The thought made me chuckle as I opened the door and breezed into the room with the second merc. The first one needed a bit more time to let the walls work.
I ran through what Taylor had been able to pull on this one as I strolled towards the table at the centre of the room. Jacob Hill, former special forces. Had a divorced partner and a kid, still made maintenance payments for them. Had joined up with Coil after several extremely classified stints in South America. There'd been a lot more in the dossier I'd built on him, but the salient point was that he was an extremely good shot. All of the five were, to be honest, but there'd been something about the mission set that had set my power off.
"Mr Hill, how are we today?" Not much in the way of a reaction, but that was to be expected. In his line of work, tells could be lethal. Unfortunately for him, he still had one, although I doubted anyone other than a Thinker would have been able to pick up on it.
"I am a-" this was a well-practiced set of lines, he'd recited them before. I cut him off before he could get any traction going.
"What you are, Mr Hill, is a murderer and a terrorist. Someone with your history should know the sort of treatment both of those get in this fine country that we live in." I got a blink out of that. Most wouldn't see anything in it, but Thinkers were bullshit, and the meditation I was working with was even more so. I just needed to get him talking.
"I have nothing to say to you without the presence of legal couns-" Cut off again, he hadn't liked that the first time. Maybe it was that I was a lot younger than anyone who'd interrogated him before.
Afraid. Of you and Coil. Powers in general frighten him.
"Let me lay this out for you, Mr Hill." I said, letting the rage I still felt at the bald faced breaking of the rules that Coil now used to protect himself show. This time he gave a reaction that others would be able to see, pushing himself back away from me as far as the seat he was in could allow. "Your life, as you know it, is over. We have enough proof of what you've done over the last few months that you won't see the outside of a prison cell for the next two hundred years. Assault, attempted murder, terrorism, the list is rather long. The only reason I'm even here is because, unlike most of your fellows, you might actually have some information that can save you." He tried to speak and I let the fire flicker at the edge of my skin. He shut up.
"Now I am going to ask you a question. If you lie to me, I will walk out of this room and you will go to prison for the rest of your lifespan. And don't count on your boss to look after you, or your family." I was deadly serious as I leaned forward, following the chains to capitalise on the break I'd opened with the emotional dagger.
"Where were on the afternoon of the fifth of March?" He tried to control his expression, but couldn't keep it all down.
He knows. Wasn't a shooter, but doesn't think he can convince you of that.
"Ah, so you were one of them. Details, now."
"You will put in a good word for me." I was actually somewhat impressed that he kept his voice level. And now I had him.
"If you can give me what I want, I'll write a letter full of sweet talk to the District Attorney herself. I can be very persuasive." He considered his options, surely aware that I could read them as easily as he could, and then bowed his head in acceptance of defeat.
"State your name for the record," I clicked on a recorder. "Then start at the beginning."
Yes!
***
With the cooperation of Hill and my own abilities, it was the work of only a few hours to break open the secrecy that Coil had so effectively cloaked the hit against Taylor in. Having someone who had been on the support team, he'd actually picked me up, was invaluable. Paper evidence was all well and good, but a person willing to attest was worth far, far more. With that in hand, it wasn't hard to compile a full report on the matter, with enough leads that even the PRT should be able to run down something. The confessional recordings were just icing on the cake, and if I pushed I was reasonably sure I could get a Kill Order levelled against Coil for his actions. The question was…did I want to.
Even with Taylor's help, it wouldn't be easy to get a kill order signed off on, and the PRT was unlikely to want to bring in any further help to enforce it. Good as they were, the current official capes in the Bay would have trouble catching Coil. They might slow him down, make things difficult, but we could do that on our own. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. We didn't need the PRT to give a Kill Order, that it would take up a considerable amount of Taylor's attention that was needed elsewhere was beside the point. What we, what I, needed was at least unofficial sanction to act directly against him. Concordia could deal with this alone, but if we did so outside of the proper channels it would create problems for us, and I had no desire to do that. It would be inefficient.
In the end, it took more time than I liked, but less than I'd expected. Fortunately, I was able to use the time productively. The information I extracted from the various agents we'd captured revealed more links for me to work with, which led me to several new places to hit Coil's organisation. We hit all of them. I planned the raids and led several myself, but was able to keep the body count at a safe null. That most of the raids were busts was probably a large part of that, but the few that weren't were able to be solved with little violence. It helped that Coil's mercenaries were legitimately scared of me.
That was small fry, however, compared to the meeting I organised at the end of the week with the single remaining tool of import to Coil; Kaiser. The nature of his personal politics aside, it was hard to argue that he ran a tight and well-equipped ship. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite as impossible to manipulate as he thought. I'd wondered before why Coil seemed to like him in the way that a craftsman dotes on a favourite tool. To be able to focus properly, I had to break that tool or take it away from him. The latter of the two was much more possible, and less potentially suicidal for those who didn't have respawn points.
I chose a neutral location, well aware that he'd bring bodyguards regardless. There were places in the Bay that only Parahumans knew, where you could meet discreetly if you had to. I knew most of them, and so Coil did too. Given how long he'd been in the Bay, I expected him to know more of them than I did, despite my abilities. But I also knew that there were a few that he would never attack, if only out of simple pragmatism. And by this point his resources were far from the seemingly endless reserves that had loomed in my mind at the start of our war. So it was one of the locations that Coil himself had designated as inviolate that I offered as a meeting place for Kaiser. A little bit of good acting along with some leading lines on my part led to swift but guarded agreement.
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ReaperofInterest
Herald of Disaster
It's so nice to see this back up and running.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Soooo... Did Lisa exalt or become a god-blood? I'm not sure what else could cause the effects she's experiencing.
Lisa became a Sorceress IIRC, and that tends to involve breaking your mind in some way.
Very interesting. So, Lisa ended up Sacrificing far more than she expected. Even then, she likely feels the trade-offs were acceptable. The changes to her blood and the like are weird as well.
Huh. I wonder why he was working for Coil then? Pressganged in some manner? Or the money/benefits were enough for him to suppress his natural inclinations/feelings?
Armsmaster and Accord, were they both present, would agree with Lisa's feelings, and then likely throw irritated glances at one another.
Looking forward to seeing how that meeting unfolds.
Nice update Snowfire.
FaeGlade Plural
Semper Legens
- Location
- Land of Bureaucracy
- Pronouns
- Plural/They
Well, we're back. Took us longer than for Taylor to come back from the dead, but such is life.
As might be obvious from the above, @Snowfire will write at least one more Lisa-chapter due to unfinished business. However, the next chapter should be from the perspective of Miss Militia, and hopefully I get a Taylor-chapter out after that because she's certainly not going to sit idly on the sidelines.
Also, some stuff to pad out my wordcount for the sake of author-alerts:
Once there was a Maiden….
….who knew nothing of the world, for she could not speak with it.
She did her best to learn, but could not know what she saw,
Wandering across the world without a path
She tried to fight, but faced only failure.
So she lost her desires and found her voice
"To know the world is to listen to it"
Fitting because this chapter is a lot about Lisas altered perspectives. Take "listen" as "develop actual empathy" here. It may seem kinda rapid and extreme - but IIRC, in canon it certainly took a while for actual friendships with the Undersiders to form, and here it's more extreme because Lisa forced herself into thinking about herself a lot. Which can include overthinking - no idea whether @Snowfire intended it, but you can clearly see that Lisa is particularly verbose here.
On the whole issue of killing people: It's actually not that many. One certainly, possibly one more, but all were in actual armed conflict. What I can give input on is Taylor's reaction to that: Do keep in mind that in her mind, she killed a lot of people in Canberra. Sure, there's a difference between ordering someone into a situation where you know for certain they will die, for the sake of saving more people, and killing personally in a fight. But it makes Taylor see things differently than she would have before these events.
Also worth mentioning:
Taylor isn't quite saying "damn the public relations fallout". She is concerned about what would happen if the public saw a member of Concorida as a killer. She wouldn't want to throw Lisa to the wolves, most likely wouldn't do it - but even though she doesn't show it here, she's certainly not happy about this. She just can't afford to reprimand Lisa too harshly - in part because she doesn't want to be an unreasonable authority figure that tells people not to defend themselves. Not because she knows of any PRT-directives or any such thing to such effect, it's more of an extension of her recognizing the necessity and extrapolating from her school situation.
The reason why she is concerned about this:
Quite obviously, Concordia actually needs good PR. She is already hatching plans for getting actual worshipers - she may not be comfortable with that, but, well, it's not like it's harming anyone. It's no weirder than, say, stuffing your costume with deadly living spiders. Also, Taylor in this story is more aware of PR-issues in general than she was in canon since she already dealt with them, and is publicly visible.
And since I can already answer a question:
@Lupercal , Lisa isn't an Exalt. Again, No Exalts in this Story, Ever. Not even Exigents. As mentioned several times before, that's because I don't want Exalts in the story - they'd simply detract too much from what's going on with the gods.
Instead, what's happening is because of her Sorcerous Initiation. Those are actually weird like that in Exalted 3E! And the displays seen by Lisa are certainly in the range of what's possible due to a shaping ritual or the merits you can get from them.
Now, you may say that this also detracts from having the gods in the center of the story. Well maybe, but giving how much @Snowfire has helped me with this story and other things, he get's to do that. And he's plotting things for Lisa, which is always fun to watch and has inspired some brainstorming on my part as well.
Okay, something to pad out the wordcount for the author alert. Say, going up to 1000 words. Really, I have no idea, I don't want to pre-empt too many questions people may have because active discussion is actually quite enjoyable to me. I could just talk about toast? But do that too much, and I'll get hungry. And our toaster is broken. Because apparently, roommates can break toasters just like that. Well, no point speculating about supernatural roommates, and by what set of rules they function. Plus, they'll replace it. And it'll be shiny and chrome and hopefully not follow the old toaster to Valhalla too soon. Of course, there are other foods than toast, but I needed something to talk about. Because word count and sufficient vanity on my part that I actually want people to see that this story updated. Which is why I'm writing random stuff in small fonts, because even with fancy blue stuff I can't hack the system and destroy the agents. Whom I don't want to destroy anyway, respect the staff! They keep this place for fragile writers such as me. Also, I'm above 1000 words now, time to stop and actually post this.
Oh, and since today is Bisexual Visibility Day:
Yes, Lisa knows what Tu Yu will be busy with. Spending time with Danny. Who is Bi in this story because I find it fitting. Just something that's worth mentioning.
Anyway, hope the chapter will be appreciated. I only wrote a bit of dialogue and did some basic beta-work on it. I'm off to bed now, and since I still need to pad my wordcount, another Sutra:
Once there was a Maiden
Who wanted to sleep all Day and desired the Night
For her days were dull
but she could walk her dreams
to lands of wonderful Desire.
And so she took her Loom and Gossamer
and wove herself from Nightshade Dew a Blanket.
Covered such, she went to rest
and her Dreams came true eternally
for Creation ceased to be.
No relation at all to the story, just something I wrote. No need to discuss it at the expense of the chapter - seriously, please don't.
As might be obvious from the above, @Snowfire will write at least one more Lisa-chapter due to unfinished business. However, the next chapter should be from the perspective of Miss Militia, and hopefully I get a Taylor-chapter out after that because she's certainly not going to sit idly on the sidelines.
Also, some stuff to pad out my wordcount for the sake of author-alerts:
Once there was a Maiden….
….who knew nothing of the world, for she could not speak with it.
She did her best to learn, but could not know what she saw,
Wandering across the world without a path
She tried to fight, but faced only failure.
So she lost her desires and found her voice
"To know the world is to listen to it"
Fitting because this chapter is a lot about Lisas altered perspectives. Take "listen" as "develop actual empathy" here. It may seem kinda rapid and extreme - but IIRC, in canon it certainly took a while for actual friendships with the Undersiders to form, and here it's more extreme because Lisa forced herself into thinking about herself a lot. Which can include overthinking - no idea whether @Snowfire intended it, but you can clearly see that Lisa is particularly verbose here.
On the whole issue of killing people: It's actually not that many. One certainly, possibly one more, but all were in actual armed conflict. What I can give input on is Taylor's reaction to that: Do keep in mind that in her mind, she killed a lot of people in Canberra. Sure, there's a difference between ordering someone into a situation where you know for certain they will die, for the sake of saving more people, and killing personally in a fight. But it makes Taylor see things differently than she would have before these events.
Also worth mentioning:
Taylor isn't quite saying "damn the public relations fallout". She is concerned about what would happen if the public saw a member of Concorida as a killer. She wouldn't want to throw Lisa to the wolves, most likely wouldn't do it - but even though she doesn't show it here, she's certainly not happy about this. She just can't afford to reprimand Lisa too harshly - in part because she doesn't want to be an unreasonable authority figure that tells people not to defend themselves. Not because she knows of any PRT-directives or any such thing to such effect, it's more of an extension of her recognizing the necessity and extrapolating from her school situation.
The reason why she is concerned about this:
Quite obviously, Concordia actually needs good PR. She is already hatching plans for getting actual worshipers - she may not be comfortable with that, but, well, it's not like it's harming anyone. It's no weirder than, say, stuffing your costume with deadly living spiders. Also, Taylor in this story is more aware of PR-issues in general than she was in canon since she already dealt with them, and is publicly visible.
And since I can already answer a question:
@Lupercal , Lisa isn't an Exalt. Again, No Exalts in this Story, Ever. Not even Exigents. As mentioned several times before, that's because I don't want Exalts in the story - they'd simply detract too much from what's going on with the gods.
Instead, what's happening is because of her Sorcerous Initiation. Those are actually weird like that in Exalted 3E! And the displays seen by Lisa are certainly in the range of what's possible due to a shaping ritual or the merits you can get from them.
Now, you may say that this also detracts from having the gods in the center of the story. Well maybe, but giving how much @Snowfire has helped me with this story and other things, he get's to do that. And he's plotting things for Lisa, which is always fun to watch and has inspired some brainstorming on my part as well.
Okay, something to pad out the wordcount for the author alert. Say, going up to 1000 words. Really, I have no idea, I don't want to pre-empt too many questions people may have because active discussion is actually quite enjoyable to me. I could just talk about toast? But do that too much, and I'll get hungry. And our toaster is broken. Because apparently, roommates can break toasters just like that. Well, no point speculating about supernatural roommates, and by what set of rules they function. Plus, they'll replace it. And it'll be shiny and chrome and hopefully not follow the old toaster to Valhalla too soon. Of course, there are other foods than toast, but I needed something to talk about. Because word count and sufficient vanity on my part that I actually want people to see that this story updated. Which is why I'm writing random stuff in small fonts, because even with fancy blue stuff I can't hack the system and destroy the agents. Whom I don't want to destroy anyway, respect the staff! They keep this place for fragile writers such as me. Also, I'm above 1000 words now, time to stop and actually post this.
Oh, and since today is Bisexual Visibility Day:
Yes, Lisa knows what Tu Yu will be busy with. Spending time with Danny. Who is Bi in this story because I find it fitting. Just something that's worth mentioning.
Anyway, hope the chapter will be appreciated. I only wrote a bit of dialogue and did some basic beta-work on it. I'm off to bed now, and since I still need to pad my wordcount, another Sutra:
Once there was a Maiden
Who wanted to sleep all Day and desired the Night
For her days were dull
but she could walk her dreams
to lands of wonderful Desire.
And so she took her Loom and Gossamer
and wove herself from Nightshade Dew a Blanket.
Covered such, she went to rest
and her Dreams came true eternally
for Creation ceased to be.
No relation at all to the story, just something I wrote. No need to discuss it at the expense of the chapter - seriously, please don't.
Amorous Intent
Love the future
- Location
- Octavia, Venus
- Pronouns
- She/her
Clearly Danny and his wife shared that trait in common, given she was once one of Lustrum's hench women.
Asheram
Not quite altogether
- Location
- Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground
*Coughs* Shounen Ai if we're going the PG route. *coughs*Definitely glad to see this updating.
Also, yaoi! Male on male shipping! Whatever you want to call it since it's probably not smut yet! So rare to see. Usually any shipping is vanilla straight or yuri spam.
This is probably the best paragraph I can find to demonstrate this problem. Lisa's entire point of view, from her narration to her dialogue, is incredibly stiff, overly formal, and slightly stilted. And very out of character. You use writing conventions that a person wouldn't ever think or speak like unless they were doing it intentionally, and it just doesn't sound like Lisa at all.
Nothing specifically wrong with this, but way too formal. There's not even a contraction from "I will" to "I'll" that would naturally happen with a real person speaking.
Unnatural writing conventions. You might talk like that as part of a prepared speech, but in any other situation it would just be "without delay or mercy", or something similar. Maybe even "immediately" instead of "without delay".
When have you ever heard someone say "such things"? Really? Only in prepared speeches and rich/fancy person talk, right? Normal people don't talk like that, even to their bosses.
Lack of contraction. Overly formal, very out of character. Unless you're English - the ethnicity, not the language - because they don't use a lot of contractions. But Lisa is American, so...
This is actually fine, though I'll suggest "know" as a low brow alternative to "understand", since we're low browing it up.
Way too stiff, way too formal. Nobody talks like that, except maybe an elf.
Upon. Lack of conrtaction; would not > wouldn't. Too stiff overall.
And this is one single paragraph. The entire chapter reads like that. This isn't Lisa. This is some Tolkien elf reading from a script.
Blah.
? Because the 'but' makes it sound like it's a positive and a negative - and a lower chance of dying definitely seems like a positive to me.
The word count ping is only 140 words (or there's some other sneaky OP thing that lets you send out alerts on posts of 140+). Edit: Pretty sure that it's 140 - but know that it's at least 160, since I've just got an alert for an OP post of 160.
Yes, it's not (or at least, not canon Lisa). Now, whether the extreme dialogue change was intentional? I don't know. But the entire point of the chapter is that Lisa's undergone some large personal changes (of literal magical scope) - which should impact on her thoughts and dialogue style.
This bit actually works for me - the emphasis would (potentially) be on 'will', and it's hard to emphasis that when it's contracted. i.e. "When I see a threat to you, or to any others part of Concordia who I know, I will act to destroy it" reads much stronger in tone than "When I see a threat to you, or to any others part of Concordia who I know, I'll act to destroy it" which sort of just...tails off on the biggest part of the sentence.
I think I do agree with the middle though.
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