Invasion 1.4
Victoria knew immediately that she had bitten off more than she could chew.
She was a local celebrity in what had once been Brockton Bay, a combination of her aura and natural social skills giving her the admiration of the people, and fear from the criminal. She was strong, she flew faster than some speeding cars, and she had studied parahumans almost religiously. Dean had been her man on the inside on that front, helping her study as they dated.
Dean. She'd been worried sick about him in the moments leading up to... whatever had happened to her city. Sure it was likely he was at the Rig with the other heroes, but if he wasn't...
Well, she might meet him
there soon.
Glory Girl ducked and flew low to the floor to her left, keeping angled debris between her and her opponent. Almost instantly as she moved from one area to another, the rubble acting as her makeshift shields were annihilated. Long, muscular, tentacles ravished the landscape as she made her escape.
"Yes, run little fly, run in fear of the swatter!" The monstrosity laughed so hard at his 'joke' that Victoria considered taking advantage of the apparent opening. Movement in the corner of her eye made her decide to shoot up instead.
The tentacles had almost caught up, and she had barely dodged that last strike. Pieces of concrete and steel that had survived the initial onslaught were ripped to shreds and tossed into the air high enough that she had to boost her speed slightly more for her ease of mind. Rubble weighing in the multiple of tons, tossed nearly fifty feet into the air like glitter.
All the while the monster mocked her from below as the tentacles receded and combined back into a single limb.
Monster Capes. She'd read up on them for a report on Power Expressions, people who'd triggered in some way, shape, or form that focused more on the power aspect than the human. There was a spectrum involved, with changes not only in biology but mentality and morality. Case 53's were the most well known, what with their sudden appearances and tattoos, but there had been some push for all Monster capes to fall under that umbrella term.
Personally, she had agreed. Monster capes was a horrendous title for people given something they never wanted.
Yet nothing better suited the enemy before her. Easily thrice her size and just as wide, he was like a walking, talking, pack of muscle and scar tissue in humanoid form. His personality seemed to match his appearance, if his torture of that poor man had been anything to go by.
Changer-Brute, easily an 8-9. He hit me with an attack that I couldn't see, but he hasn't used it again yet, so maybe a charge time? His regeneration is also pretty insane.
An opponent who could shape-shift into super-strong appendages, some invisible attack, and that she couldn't put down with her punches.
Fuck, I wish my team was here.
Charging on ahead had been a decision made in panic and disbelief of the situation at hand. She hadn't even waited to be healed. Now she was regretting-
Victoria blinked. The monster had vanished.
"Gotcha."
No.
The attack was as impossible to dodge as it was powerful, hitting Glory Girl into the ground like a nail-gun, cratering on impact. The shock of the surprise attack muddled her mind as she belatedly realized she had stopped breathing.
She quickly took in a breath, inhaled dust and dirt, and then coughed it out. Nothing hurt, but that was hardly indicative of being okay in any shape or form. Quite frankly, she was amazed that she was alive at all.
Victoria couldn't feel her force-field. Had she been hit so hard that her force-field hadn't had time to fully disperse from the first strike? It had never happened to her before, so she had no idea if that was possible-
The area around her grew dark as her field popped back up, just in time for a monstrous kick to punt her through the air.
She was completely disoriented, unable to tell what was up or down. Her flight was useless without a way to regain her senses, and any push from it could send her closer to her death. Once again her field popped up, briefly, and she felt confident in extending out her flight.
It wasn't able to stabilize her immediately, but a quick turn allowed her to see what was ground and what was open air. A twirl and she shot up at full speed, feeling her gut sink as the spinning and dizziness fought to make her impossibly nauseous.
She had to get back, reassess, and plan before she even thought of counter-attacking. Flight was a means of disengaging and for recovery. The sky was her domain.
It was right next to her. The monster watched her in amusement, delighting in seeing her expression warp as she took notice, before entrapping her with a hand larger than her entire body.
There was no time to panic. No time to think.
Her forcefield popped and it tried to crush her to paste, but her aura
sang, it's maximum output echoing through the world and into her target.
She took satisfaction in it's gasp, even as it flung her hard enough to rip the very air from her lungs. There was no attempt on her part to regain her barring, both because the very speed at which she'd been flung rendered it null and void, and because her landing wasn't so lucky. She had no idea what, but her field popped as she crashed through
something. The brick wall a second later?
Victoria saw that one coming.
Pain.
She didn't even notice her field coming back, for the crash and subsequent crater after destroyed it once more. It hadn't appeared fast enough for the rough landing, and she could feel parts of her costume tear and her skin blossom in pain where they came in contact with pieces of concrete and steel.
Victoria couldn't see out her left eye. Every time she tried to open it, the world looked like a hazy, red, mosaic. Was she concussed? No way for her to tell, but if she had some internal injury there wasn't much she could do about it.
The monster was there, standing above her like a deadly monolith, looking down upon her. "Annoying insect. We've grown tired of this play."
Move Glory Girl. Move or you're going to die.
It hurt. Her body protested loudly as she tried to use, even her flight seeming to struggle to assist her.
He struck her, a weaker hit, but enough to bury her further into the earth. The pain was indescribable now, almost driving her into unconsciousness. She clung to the land of the awake, conscious enough to hear a strained cry escape her throat, and feel a ridiculous amount of shame at the fact.
It brought a smile to the monster's face, layers an layers of teeth as it's mouth opening far wider than natural.
"I haven't forgotten my promise insect," the monster practically purred. He raised one of his limbs and Victoria watched in near delirium as it morphed into a blade, "First we'll remove the skin from you're body. Slowly, since it's been some time since our last planet. Then we'll rip out your arms and legs like the bug you are."
"I'll leave the eyes though. I want your mind to see it and process it.
Understand it." Then I'll do the same to those in that burrow. And then the rest of your people. Until every last one of them is a limbless, skinless, corpse."
The monster brought itself low, face to face with her, separated by mere inches. When he spoke, she could smell spoiled meat. "This is the will of our
Lord."
No.
Glory Girl spat in it's face. She had hoped some of the blood and spit would get in one of it's eyes, but she settled for it's upper lip. All the pain, the possible brain injury, for this?
"Worth-" She coughed and the pain was too much for her to finish.
So worth it.
The monster rose up and it's features... she couldn't describe it. Morphed, changed, shifted, nothing did it justice. Before, it had a humanoid - if mutated - appearance, but now it banished all pretenses of familiarity. It's eye-sockets simultaneously widened and narrowed, it's manic grin warring with a feral snarl, and it's very skin seemed to warp like ripples in a pond.
Five heads sprouted out, stretching and pulling this way and that. A few seconds passed before they brought themselves close together, sharing the top of it's torso. Ten sets of eyes narrowed in on her.
"Fuck it!" The blade rose and so did the shrillness of it's many voices, "We're going to slice your skull to fucking pieces! Very good!"
Victoria could only watch to tired, too hurt to even try her aura as a last chance. Dean flashed in her mind, smiling while holding her stuffed lion, and she hoped this wouldn't break him. If it had been him, she didn't think she could recover.
The monster swung with it's impossible speed and the massive blade bounced off the cerulean forcefield. All of it's eyes widened for a moment, glancing between the blade and forcefield, shocked.
Shock was soon replaced by anger, and more than a dozen swings bombarded the new defense. Although safe beneath the field, Victoria could feel the numbed shockwaves make their way into the ground around her, cracking it like glass. The vibrations hurt, but even they couldn't stop the smile forming on her face.
Eventually the attack stopped and all five heads glared at her beneath the field. Seeing her smile, they screeched, "Enough of your tricks you insect!"
"How about a treat then?"
It spun around on instinct, a grave mistake. Five balls of light flew towards the monster's heads, some having rebounded off of debris in ways that not even professional athletes could have managed. Two of the balls detonated, and Victoria had seen them used enough on Lung to know that they had the power of mortar shots more than mere grenades. For a second, she could see two of the heads damaged, burnt and chunks missing from their faces, before the other two went off. The forcefield dimmed it somewhat, but even then the flash of light was painful for even Victoria, and judging by it's screams the monster agreed.
Five pairs of eyes, five times the hurt I guess.
There was no fifth detonation, but Victoria had recognized the strategy anyways. The fifth ball, larger than the previous ones, dissipated, and Brandish emerged. Not a second spared before a battle-axe larger than a car tire was in-hand, and she swung. Victoria prided herself on her superstrength and versatile secondary abilities, but seeing her mom cut through a leg the size of a large tree-trunk was downright humbling.
A second follow up swing separated the monsters leg by the calf. More screaming from the monster and it began thrashing around in earnest, remaining upright only by catching itself with it's large hand. Multicolored lasers peppered the creature, leaving lines of burning flesh on it's body, helped by several more of the energy balls colliding with it. More explosions and flashes of light, bad enough that Victoria resigned herself to keeping her eyes closed.
Footsteps near her, and a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I thought you said you would only scout ahead for help."
"Hey mom." Victoria raised a shaky hand and squeezed her mother's own. Her vision was still splotchy, but she was able to meet her mother's eyes and smile weakly.
"Hold tight, Eric's going to bring us in, and I don't want to jostle you if you have a neck injury."
She nodded, felt nauseau from the action, and settled for squeezing her mom's hand again. The forcefield vanished for the briefest of seconds before reforming beneath and around her and Brandish. In a moment, the makeshift stretcher flew up and away, toward where her team had come from.
She watched as the monster tried to regain it's footing. Literally in this case, as it's removed limb broke down and flew towards the injury, gaining at least 80% of it back in a few seconds. As horrific as it was, Victoria noticed that it seemed to to have issues with the burnt material as it finished collecting the flesh.
She didn't know if her family had noticed, but they seemed to know that they couldn't allow it to fully recover. Red and purple forcefields surrounded the monster at it's knees, nearly ten feet long and just as tall, hampering it's attempts at movement. Uncle Neil launched an I-beam at the monster, the toss enhanced not just by his strength but also his magnetism. It impacted at the cluster of heads, and the force of coupled with the tripping hazards finally caused it to tumble onto it's back.
Her aunt unleashed a laser at full-power, maybe the size of a motorcycle, and it actually succeeded in pushing it down slightly into the earth. More effective, however, were the red lasers that cut and burned it's flesh. Those, combined with her father's flashbangs, seemed to cause the most distress in the creature.
They flew on, nearly a couple hundred feet into the backlines before they stopped by Eric. Shielder, and huddled next to him behind the wall of concrete was Amy. The forcefield lowered and then dissipated.
The look of shock on her sisters face was enough to really make her consider how messed up she must have appeared.
Victoria smiled weakly, "That bad huh?"
"
Very," her mother answered for her. She looked at Amy, "Do the best that you can. If it's... too serious, have her, you, and Eric head back to the house. According to Director Piggot, Dragon's ETA is two minutes out, and a military response is likely to follow. I'm going to back up our family."
More explosions in the background. Even louder were the aliens yells of fury.
She turned to Victoria, "If you're good to go after your check-up, stay near your sister. We need her for this fight and for any more civilians. Amy has the emergency line for the Protectorate on her phone. Call it
immediately if things start to go south."
I'm being benched. Victoria hated it, hated the very idea that she had to stay back while her family fought for their and other's lives. She wanted to help.
Still, she understood. She'd leaped before she looked and this is what it had gotten her.
Victoria looked her mom in the eye and nodded. A moment before she left, Victoria squeezed her hand.
"Energy," she said. Her jaw ached as she spoke, "Energy hurts it. He can fly. F-Fast."
Carol Dallon's eyes softened and she leaned down to kiss her forehead. "Stay."
Brandish rose and sprinted back into battle. Eric stood out slightly past the wall and Victoria imagined his forcefield would only add to the alien's mounting frustrations.
She felt a hand hold her own. Amy. Already she could feel her body mending and relief pouring throughout her body.
It didn't do much for the gut punch of seeing her sister holding back her tears.
"Sorry Ames."
Amy shook her head and wiped her eyes, "Don't you
ever run off like that again. I thought you were going to die."
"Sorry," she repeated. She was and wasn't. Sorry to scare her sister like that, but not sorry to save someone's life.
Victoria's eyes widened, "Amy, the people in the shelter-"
"Already handled." Amy's frown deepened, "Well, as best we could. A lot of people died in there and everyone else was just... well it's a fucked up thing to see. I healed that guy by the entrance. He pointed us in your general direction. Not that it was hard to see the dust clouds or the ground shaking."
Victoria took a deep breath, "I'm glad I saved someone then. Speaking of, how you holding up Eric?"
Her cousin glanced her way, and she could see a bead of sweat drip down his brow. His costume was the most pristine of everyone's but that was usually the case with his powers. Had they all not been strategizing in the family room, he might have been the only person to survive.
"Amy fixed me up, as much she could with my fatigue anyways." He turned back to the fight, eye's laser focused, "Trying to keep this fucker from winding up, pinning his arms down, which is really fucking hard when he tries to turn into goo. I seriously don't know how you got off so easy Vic, cause the feedback I got from his hits almost
hurts."
"Not off easy," Amy cut off Victoria's reply, "Broken wrist, sprained wrist and ankles, fractured shoulder blades, minor fracture in her jaw, and a
skull fracture."
"Jesus Christ."
Victoria swallowed, dreading the answer, "Anything wrong with my brain?"
"Besides your hard-headedness, arrogance, thick skull-"
"
Yes, Amy. Besides those."
Amy sighed and hugged Victoria, "No, you big jerk. You got really fucking lucky."
Victoria squeezed her back. "Sorry," she repeated for the third time.
It wasn't a quiet moment, not with the sounds of battle only a few hundred feet away, but it was a reprieve from the insanity of the past half hour. Until the world lit up with purple lights brighter than any of the New Wave lasers.
A very human scream sounded off in the distance, only for an inhuman cry of joy to overtake it.
"Very good! Cower you vermin, as the purification of your world once more assails your pathetic world!"
. And go team New Wave 
