ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
Does Winslow High have security guards?
Rise Of Titan (Worm/Original Superhero Setting)
- Thread starter ZFighter18
- Start date
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
Do you want to beta read what I have so far for the next chapter?
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
It's not grammar or spelling. It's to see how the story flows.
Complications 2.1
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
I want to applaud @Cherico on Sufficient Velocity. I just read his work "On A Pale Horse". I did not know that there were other Greg-centered works out there. I had seen the one about the mirror universe but that was mostly Emma and Taylor interactions. He inspired me to put Sparky in this chapter. I had actually forgotten about Sparky. I had assumed he was a Merchant but Cherico's characterization made more sense to me.
Complications 2.1
"Okay, class. It's time for all of you to break off into groups," Mr. Gladly began, a playful grin on his face. "I told you all to be ready with your lists of parahumans and how they've affected the world. I'll give you a little bit of time to get together and prepare. Remember, best group gets prizes from the vending machine."
The class made a few vaguely excited sounds and the majority began to get up and move their desks over to their friends. Almost immediately, people started talking about topics that had absolutely nothing to do with the assignment but then again, Mr. Gladly didn't care. Greg sat in his desk for a few moments, adjusting his rather large hoodie and making sure his face was somewhat hidden. It had been just a little over a month since Greg had made the leap from human to metahuman. Over a month of running, jumping, lifting, blasting, and spontaneous sessions of extremely high speed dodgeball had turned Greg into a physically fit superhuman specimen.
Before Greg had met Evron, he was as healthy and physically fit as your average skinny white male nerd. Pasty, acne-ridden, and with muscle tone that could kindly be described as flaccid, Greg was no male model. After just one month of being an Evolved, everything was different even without the superpowers. His acne was gone, his skin had gone from pasty vampire to porcelain movie star. He had muscles. They weren't big but they were visible and rather well defined, if he did say so himself. They were visible enough that he had woken up early and spent almost an hour in his bathroom admiring his new physique in the mirror. Visible enough that he had to hide them with a baggy hoodie if he didn't want questions that he couldn't answer. Greg didn't mind, though. Evron had promised him that, come summertime, he could let his guns out. Greg couldn't help but be giddy. After all, he had ABS!!!
After he gathered his things together, Greg stood up and dragged his chair over to the one person he knew wouldn't have partnered up with anyone else.
"Hey, Sparky."
Sparky looked up, a dazed look on his face, and brushed the hair out of his eyes. "Hey, brah. I'm not gonna be much help. I didn't do the work." His red bandana, which normally kept his long black hair out of his eyes, was loose.
Greg leaned back in his chair. "No prob, Sparky. I got you covered. I did everything. My list is probably the best."
"Thanks, man. So, what's up?" Sparky said as he rested his chin on his palm.
"You remember that guy I told you I met a while ago?"
Sparky closed one eye and made a face that let Greg know he was thinking. "Yeah. I think so...maybe. Some weird vato with weird hair...yeah. You told me, brah."
"Me and him have been meeting up. He's been helping me work out and stuff. He's a pretty cool guy. He thinks I have potential."
Sparky paused for a few seconds as he yawned widely and then gave Greg a sleepy grin. "So, brah, you're into guys now? I though you still liked that girl with the long hair...um, what's her name...Tara."
Rolling his eyes, Greg snorted in an attempt to hold back his laughter. "Sparky, you're barely funny. Seriously, you know her name is Taylor." Greg had had a crush on Taylor Hebert since the first time he had seen her. Something about her had caught his eye the second he spotted her. He wasn't blind, though. He knew that Taylor's friends were hot and plenty of other girls at school were pretty enough but Taylor was different. She was just so composed and stoic. To Greg, she was almost like royalty in the way she behaved. It was a subtle attraction but his infatuation was no less powerful. Her long hair and legs didn't hurt either.
Sparky turned his head slightly. " I guess. I don't really care. She's kinda rude, no joke."
Greg winced. He couldn't lie to himself that Taylor did have a habit of ignoring people sometimes. "No, no, she's not. She's just...busy with her own stuff."
The blank look he received in return told him exactly what Sparky thought of his reply.
Sparky sat up and yawned again. "Seriously, brah. You've tried to talk to her like a hundred times already and she just, like, straight ignores you. She acts like you're not even there sometimes. That's just not cool, brah. If it was me, I'd me majorly butthurt."
"Look, look, look, Sparky. It's not like that. I fuck up when I get around her. I act stupid and say real dumb things. Besides, she's busy with her friends and stuff and she doesn't really talk to people, yeah, but she's got a lot to deal with, you know...Like, you know the thing with the locker. People are seriously jealous of her and they're so messed up that they shoved her in a locker full of that nasty shit, man, and she still comes back to school like a fucking boss. Like it doesn't even bother her. She's like fucking royalty, dude. She's way better than them and they know it. That's why they're so jealous." Greg's eyes were almost sparkling as he spoke, his raw emotions bleeding through his words.
Sparky whistled softly. "Wow, brah..."
Greg nodded. "See, you get it now. She's pretty awesome."
Sparky snorted. "...You're so fucking whipped," he said, shaking his head. "And by a girl who only notices you when we're in a group together. " Sparky craned his neck upward and stared out at the class. "Where is your queen anyway, brah?
Greg let out a huff as his eyes passed over the room. "She went to the nurse. She had a pretty bad headache or something."
"What's wrong with you?" Sparky asked, an expression of shock on his normally dazed face.
Greg quirked an eyebrow. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Your queen is sick and you're not there to take care of her. She could, like, be dying without you there to make it all better. Not cool, brah, not cool," Sparky replied, shaking his head sadly.
Greg rolled his eyes again. "Again, you're just so funny, Sparky. Either way, look, I like her, yeah, but that's kinda it. She doesn't like me back. I'm pretty sure, at least."
"Yeah...that's heavy, brah."
"So I have to chill. I can't just like talk to her when all that that comes out is stuff she thinks is stupid. So, I have to – Oh...great."
Greg groaned softly as one of the popular girls who occasionally hung around Taylor walked in to class, late.
Sparky smirked at Greg's annoyance.
"Can I be in Madison's group?" Julia asked Mr. Gladly.
"That wouldn't be fair. Greg's group only has him and...uh...uh...one other person. Help them," Mr. Gladly said.
Julia walked over to where the two boys were sitting and made a face. Just loud enough for Sparky and Greg, with his enhanced condition, to hear, she muttered a disgusted, "Ew."
'Well, fuck you too,' Greg thought with a blank expression on her face.
"Gladly says I have to work with you two," the girl said with a sneer.
"Of course he did," Greg mumbled with a roll of his eyes. "Okay...what do you have for your list of parahumans.?"
She scoffed. "I didn't do the project, idiot. God, didn't you do it? You better have done it. I'm not getting an F 'cause you weirdos didn't do anything."
'And the bitching begins.'
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Greg sighed as he left his last class for the day. Mr. Gladly's class had really taken a turn for the worse as soon as Julia had shown up. Madison and her other friends had moved their desks right next to Greg's group so they could talk to Julia and annoy the shit out of Greg. 'Why does Taylor even hang with those bitches? All they did was bitch and insult other people. Fucking ridiculous!' Madison and her group had spent almost the entire time sniping at both him and Sparky. 'Stupid bitches.'
Despite all that, Greg was happy. Things were really looking up for him. Sure, there were assholes at school, but he had friends now. Well, a friend. Sparky had been Greg's friend since last school year and he was a cool guy. He worked hard at his dad's restaurant so he was usually too tired to seriously hang out but he was still Greg's only friend. He liked video games, Aleph anime imports, capes and occasionally, he liked to relax with some weed. Greg had even lit up with him a couple times. Smoking really wasn't his thing but he didn't mind it if it was just him and Sparky relaxing.
Then he met Evron and things had gotten even better.
He had become a parahuman, or was it a metahuman, or maybe Evolved. One of those was the right term for whatever he was now. Ev was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He was strong and fast. He could lift a car and outrun one too. He couldn't imagine how much better he would get in the future. 'I have to work on my attacks, though. Ev did mention that he's going to let me go fight gangsters on my own soon. Maybe some anime will give me some ideas.'
Lost in daydreams of Buster Beams, Final Flashes and Spirit Guns, Greg made his way towards the school's main double doors.
"Veder, you think you can walk out on me again? Where's my fucking money, Veder?!"a deep voice roared.
'Fuck me!'
Greg hunched down in his oversized hoodie, ignored the voice and continued walking down the hallway. Students that were previously in a hurry to get out of school slowed down, hoping to see a fight break out. He noticed some of them sending him knowing smirks. 'Assholes. You just want to see me get beat up.'
"Veder? Veder! Turn the fuck around!!!"
Greg sped up his pace, keeping his eyes firmly on the double doors ahead of him. 'Just get to the doors, Greg. Just get to the doors.'
"VEDER!!!"
With a quick movement, Greg sidestepped the large arm that had attempted to grab his shoulder and whipped around to face his would-be assailant and his group of friends. 'Fucking Mal...,' he mentally growled as he looked up at the towering beast in front of him.
At a height of six feet and seven inches, Malcolm "Mal" Steiger, was the biggest guy in school and a sworn E88 since the day he showed up. Malcolm had been a football star, a quarterback who had been kicked off the team at his old school in New York for using steroids. After that, his family had moved to Brockton Bay and Malcolm had found solace with one of The Bay's lovable group of racists. Being blonde, blue-eyed, massively muscular and extremely angry, Mal was exactly what the E88 was looking for.
"Veder, you fucking playing with me? Huh?!", Mal barked, his large neck veins bulging, "It's been weeks and my boys told me you haven't been bringing them what you owe me. I'm the only thing keeping these chinks from killing your skinny ass and you can't even show me respect. I called your fucking name and you don't even turn around! Where's my fucking money?!" he roared, spittle flying from his mouth. Greg saw a male teacher standing down the hall look like he was about to say something but a glance at Mal's normal group of E88 recruits as they attempted to look threatening had him shake his head and walk back into his class.
'Fucking help you are. Fucking Winslow.'
Greg grit his teeth and took a deep breath, ignoring the voice inside his head that said to crush Mal's head like a grape. He knew he could do it. The Boss had shown him that he was strong enough. It would be so easy too. Just slap his head faster than he could react and Mal's brains, the little that he had, would go splattering against the wall. Greg wasn't scared of any of the bullies anymore. It was hard to be scared of a roided up seventeen year old when you've taken a brick wall to the face. He knew hurting them would be meaningless even though it would make him feel so much better. It would prove that these powers were usable for much more than just training...but it wouldn't be worth it at all. Mal was just one of many bullies in Winslow and compared to others, he wasn't that bad. Sure, he demanded money from him but he never actually beat him up.
No, Greg being blond and blue eyed earned him a pass in Mal's eyes. In fact, all the E88 bullies never seriously messed with Greg. Vague physical threats were made, yeah, but they were pretty much required to do that. Greg was a huge geek. They were huge bullies. They would never get along. Every time Greg passed by them, he could literally see them restraining themselves from kicking his ass. It was in their nature so they had to do something somewhat threatening otherwise they'd just be scenery.
The Merchants never bullied him but honestly the Merchants rarely messed with anybody in school other than the ABB and E88. They were too busy skipping school or sleeping during class. No, the main efforts of Greg's bullying came from the students that were ABB. Apparently, they had all held a meeting and come to the amazing decision that since Greg was the biggest example of whiteness that they could find at Winslow that wasn't part of the E88, they would do their utmost to make him an E88 member by making him hate all Asians. They had beaten him up, taken his backpack, broken into his locker, and mugged him for his money. At least Mal and the other E88 guys had the decency of asking him for his money, albeit somewhat forcefully.
'Calm down, Greg. What did Evron say? If I want to keep a secret identity, I have to act the same as I always did.'Greg took a deep breath and fixed his face into the biggest nervous smile he could muster before looking up at Mal. 'And that means acting like I'm still scared of this shitty meathead.' "I-I'm sorry, Mal. I didn't hear you. I-I wasn't paying attention. I'm r-r-really sorry," stuttered Greg.
'Fuck my life. Was I really this sad before?'
Mal's expression changed from an angry snarl to a slight grimace of disgust. "Fine, whatever. Where's the money, Veder?"
Greg attempted to make himself look smaller, all the while hating the fact that he had to degrade himself in front of some Nazi asshole. "I only have a five on me, Mal. I'm really sorry," he lied through his teeth. Greg began to seethe even more as he realized a lot of students had gathered, making a circle surrounding Mal and himself and blocking all his escape paths. For some odd reason, Sophia, Emma, Madison all stood in front. Taylor stood right next to Sophia, holding hands with her and looking incredibly uncomfortable, almost like she was in pain. 'She looks like she wants to do something. Maybe she can't get past all the people in the crowd. Nobody else is even trying to get any help. I can't use my powers to get out of this! Where the fuck are all the teachers?'
Mal lunged forward and Greg watched him approach, his movement painfully slow to Greg's enhanced reflexes. He grabbed the front of Greg's hoodie and yanked him forward until Greg was right in his face.
"You really are stupid, aren't you? You think 'cause I go easy on you that I like you or something? WRONG! You're a weak piece of shit whose only friend is a fucking spic. Give me my money, Greg," he growled.
Greg swallowed what little was left of the pride that Evron had instilled in him over the past month. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out twenty-five dollars and held it up to Mal.
The twenty and five were quickly snatched from his hands by a Mal who somehow looked even angrier.
"...I thought you only had five dollars, Greg."
'No...no...don't tell me...'
"You don't know respect, Greg. I keep your undeserving ass safe and this is how you repay me. Lying to ME! And trying to keep my money from me?!!!"
'Fucking Mal...' Greg knew what was coming next. Mal was too far gone and from the rage in his eyes, Greg knew that there was no turning back now. Evron had taught him how to deal with situations like this. All he had to do was keep himself loose and limp and his body would handle the rest.
The punch was slow to his eyes and it didn't hurt at all when it connected with his jaw. He hoped he was good enough to pull this off. He needed to make it look real. He couldn't expose himself after only one month. The second one hit him on the side of his face and he moved with the strike, doing his best not to give Mal a broken hand. The third hit was almost a surprise. Almost. Greg had been expecting punches from Mal so he was caught a bit off guard when Mal lifted a boot and caught him in the chest.
Greg slammed into the locker, denting the metal as he slid to the floor, groaning as if he was in pain. He glanced around at all the expectant faces cheering at the bloodbath they were expecting. Sophia, for some reason, looked a bit conflicted, like she wanted to enjoy what was going on but couldn't for some reason. She seemed to alternate between a hungry smile and an angry growl. It was like she had just gotten a great gift but the person who gave it to her was a child-murderer. Taylor stood a few feet away from her, an odd look of pain on her face.
Mal grabbed Greg by his hood and yanked him to his feet.
A mad grin was on his face and he slammed his fist into Greg's stomach several times. "You're lucky your little border nigger of a friend already left. I'd be teaching his bean-eating ass a lesson too."
'This was a stupid idea,' Greg thought as he was held aloft by Malcolm's meaty hand. 'He could punch me for an hour and a half and I still wouldn't bleed. I'm not even feeling this.' Greg glanced over at Taylor, who still looked as if she was in pain. 'She must really not like seeing people get hurt.' Mal roared and threw Greg back into the lockers, knocking Greg out of his thoughts.
'Fuck this! I'm getting knocked around by this Nazi piece of shit and for what? I'm better than this!' Greg growled out loud, nearly surprising himself with the guttural sound coming from his throat. 'Fuck this. If I'm going to get outed as a cape, I'm at least going to look good in front of Taylor.'
Greg got up quickly. Mal looked at him, surprise evident on his face.
'What the fuck? Why isn't this fucking fucker bleeding? This skinny little shit should be crying. What the fuck?' Mal's inner thoughts did not match the guttural scream that came from his throat as he ran towards Greg. He threw a punch right at Greg only for it to be stopped. Everyone in the hallway had gone completely silent as Greg held Mal's fist with his open palm.
"What..." Malcolm stepped back a few feet and the crowd moved around him, to give him space.
Malcolm Steiger was never the smartest guy. His grades were barely hovering over the line. He always said something stupid or odd that always made conversations awkward. When he had discovered that he could play football, he had enjoyed how people finally praised him. He wasn't the slow big guy anymore. He was a star. He had friends. Girls wanted to go out with him. He was popular. When he heard steroids could make him better at the only good thing in his life, he had jumped on it. He won his team several championships before someone figured it out. They kicked him off the team. Nobody wanted to be his friend anymore. Malcolm didn't think it was fair. He didn't know it was illegal. His family was even more embarrassed by him, so embarrassed that they left New York. He was glad that they had moved to Brockton Bay. He met new people who wanted to be his friend. People who told him the people who caused all his problems. He loved the E88 and everything it stood for. Malcolm had made a lot of bad mistakes in just a few short years. Picking on Greg Veder was just the most recent.
The strike was quick. Mal probably never even saw it coming. The other students certainly didn't.
In less than an instant, Greg had crossed about eight feet and planted his fist into Mal's stomach. Before Mal could even vocalize the pain from Greg's first strike, Greg hit him again in the jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground, unconscious. As he fell, the crowd rushed out of the way as if terrified, leaving Mal to fall on the cold linoleum.
The entire crowd of students stared at Greg as if they had just seen a ghost. Greg glanced toward Taylor and noticed her staring at him as if really seeing him for the first time. He glanced around and noticed Madison with a look of stark fear on her on her face, Sophia simply tilted her head and stared at Greg in a curious manner as if he was something to be studied while Emma seemed to be looking at him with something oddly similar to...lust.
Greg shrugged nervously as he felt the weight of all their shocked stares on him. "He's not dead, you know. You can check his pulse and stuff."
No one said anything and they all continued to stare.
"I wouldn't kill him anyway."
More Silence.
"I wouldn't kill anyone, really. It was his fault. I mean, he was hitting me and I mean, it didn't hurt but he was...you know, he wouldn't stop. I just...I was angry. He's fine, really. Guys, it's me. I wouldn't hurt anybody," Greg rambled on, unsure if his verbal stream was working at calming anyone down.
Still more silence.
Greg huffed. "Fine...If that's how...you know...Just...MOVE!"
Greg walked forward and the students hurriedly began to part as they seemed somewhat frightened by his outburst, giving him plenty of space to walk until he was once again walking down an empty hallway toward the double doors. As he opened the door, Greg looked over his shoulder, and sure enough, they were all still standing there, silently watching his back as he exited the building.
Greg mumbled to himself as he walked out, one last muttered sentence spilling from his lips. "I just wanted to watch some anime."
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Greg sighed as he jumped from roof to roof, wearing only a white T-shirt and jeans. He had discarded the baggy gray hoodie shortly after he left Winslow and he was no taking his time to practice his free-running skills as he went home. There was no point in hiding his new physique anymore.
Greg sighed once more as he vaulted a chimney, body nearly perpendicular from the rooftop. This wasn't how today was supposed to go. Today was supposed to be a normal day.
'The only thing normal about today is the fact that I got messed with. With my luck, the PRT might already be at my house. I should really have told Mom about this. Fuck! This is all that stupid meathead's fault. Mal's lucky I didn't break anything. If I wasn't so nice...'
Greg was right. He had been very careful with how he struck Mal. Both strikes, while rather fast, were thrown using the minimum of his strength in order to keep from hurting the Nazi too badly. Instead of hitting Mal like a sledgehammer, Greg had struck him with all the force of a professional heavyweight boxer. His fingers twitched as he thought back to the incident that had taken place just a few months ago.
'Fucking Winslow! What kind of shit was that? Someone's getting beat up and a teacher just walks away like it's none of his business,' fumed Greg. 'If I was a normal guy, he'd probably have killed me. Shitty school, shitty teachers, shitty students and no fucking security! I mean..."
Greg paused his angry train of thought as he realized that he wasn't too far from home. Making sure no one was around to see him, he dropped from the roof of the brownstone he was currently on to an alleyway below.
After keeping on the lookout for roughly five minutes and not seeing any vans that seemed similar to the ones the PRT used, Greg made his way towards his modest two-story dwelling. He unlocked the door and entered his house hurriedly, shutting the door behind him. After dropping his backpack at the foot of the stairs, he headed up to his room where a surprise was waiting for him. On his bed lay a pure white jumpsuit.
'Oh my god. He did....he made it!. He told me he would but I didn't really think he could make one!'
He quickly rushed to his bed and picked it up, admiring it. It was a solid white jumpsuit made of some thick, ultra fine, mesh-like fabric that somehow managed to feel rigid and flexible all at once. Around it's forearms were two long golden manacles, almost the same as the ones Evron usually wore without his limiters on. It had a collar made of the same golden material. Surrounding the waist was a thin golden belt. As Greg put his hand on one manacle, the thing beeped and a full-size color hologram of Evron popped out.
Greg yelped and jumped back, dropping the suit on the floor. The hologram did not dissipate however.
"...Boss?"
"Hello, Greg. This is a pre-recorded message. I left earlier today because I needed to test if some of my abilities were still viable in your universe and I can't afford to level a city. I should be back by tomorrow. I made this outfit as a gift for you. I know, I'm kind. It's what I do. You've been doing pretty good this past month. You've been responsive to training, haven't been whining that much, and you haven't exposed your secret identity."
Greg winced. 'Shit....'
"So, good signs all around that you're ready to step up into the big leagues. From here on out, you're not just my student. Now you have an even bigger job."
"I do?"
"You do. This job comes with a lot of responsibilities and duties that could mean life or death. You'll have to make hard choices and tough decisions that could make or break your career. You'll get to fight beside people with more power than you could ever even hope to dream of and learn from them. Are you ready, Greg?"
"Yeah. I'm ready. I'm so ready. I was born ready. What is it?", he nearly screamed, excitement making him giddy.
The hologram crossed it's arms. Starting from today, you, Greg Veder, are not just my student. Effective immediately, you are..." the hologram paused.
"Yes?"
"...now my...." Another pause.
"Come on already."
"Minion."
"Yes! Yes! I'm a...I'm a...minion? the hell? Minion?!" Greg recoiled angrily. "I'm no minion! Why do you even need a minion? You're a hero. Villains have minions! Seriously, boss. Me, a minion?!!!!"
"Yes, Greg. A minion. This comes with several important duties and responsibilities. Including but not limited to; getting me food when I'm too lazy to do it myself, sparring with me whenever I feel like it, fluffing my pillow, listening to me me talk and last and most important of all, never dying your hair white."
'Dying my hair white? Why would that even be a thing that- Not the point, Greg!' "A minion though? I thought I'd be a sidekick at least. I was hoping for partner," whined Greg unashamedly.
The hologram shook his head. "Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg...Greg...Greg. Look, you can eventually become my sidekick or teammate, even. You can get promotions. The stronger and the most experienced you get, the higher you rank up. There is a pecking order in place. It goes errand boy, minion, lackey, henchman, underling, sidekick, protege, and superhero. You skipped right over Errand Boy, Greg. You should be proud. That never happens. If you get good enough, you might just skip right to Underling."
Greg opened his mouth for a few seconds but quickly closed it when he realized he had nothing to say in response to the craziness that was just spoken.
"Anyway, I made the suit out of some nanomachines from my suit and some scrap from the Ship Graveyard. It's bulletproof, self-repairing and has a tracker, in case you get lost or something, I don't know. Those armbands contain your Virtual Assistant. I call her Nia. It'll take a bit before she actually becomes fully functional. She has to adapt to you, after all. She comes with a GPS and an ability to access private networks and devices. I also loaded all your music on to the device in case you need some background music while kicking ass. You also have a program that tracks where large groups of criminals are likely to gather. Don't get into a fight you can't win, Greg. Or, you know, go ahead. Getting the shit kicked out of you early is good practice for when you get the shit kicked out of you later."
Greg marveled over the suit and raised it up to his neck. "It's kind of loose, isn't-WHOA!" The suit suddenly became semi-solid and wrapped itself around Greg's body. "What the hell? This shit's alive!"
The hologram yawned. "Relax, dude. It's just molding itself to your dimensions. It's mostly made up of nanomachines. Didn't I mention this? I think I did. Pay attention, Greg."
The slick, slimy feeling disappeared as soon as it began and Greg marveled at the suit he was wearing. "Wow, I look like I could be part of New Wave." His newly defined muscles were highly visible through the odd material and the outfit looked so skintight that Greg doubted it could stop a bullet. Despite that, Greg trusted Evron's words. If it was bulletproof, it was bulletproof. "Thanks, Ev. This is an awesome gift."
"No problem at all, man. Now go kick some ass."
Greg's eyes widened slightly. "You're letting me go out on my own?"
The image of Evron suddenly stood stock still. "This is a prerecorded interactive holographic message. No response was programmed for this question. Please ask a different question," he responded in a monotone.
Greg stepped back. "What? You-bu-whe-how-hu...W-We were just talking!!!"
"This is a prerecorded interactive holographic message. Responses were pre-recorded for a wide range of questions or statements. Including that one."
Greg grabbed his blonde locks with both hands. "How the fuck does that make sense?!!"
"It's technology from three hundred years from now, dummy. Figure it out."
An eye twitch was the only response Greg gave.
"Pre-recorded Hologram has exhausted all responses," and in a flash of blue light, the hologram disappeared.
Greg stared at the spot where the hologram was for a few more seconds before he shook his head and turned to the mirror. "Crazy-ass."
"Okay. This is it. The big time. I'm going out...to fight crime. This city needs a hero and that hero's name is...,"Greg paused. "What is my name? Name, name, name, name, name....name. Okay, let's think, let's think...let's think about names. It's got to be cool. It's got to be heroic. It definitely has to sound awesome. Paragon...no. There's already a Paragon. No. Captain Awesome...no...Huh...Okay, let's be serious. I'm blonde. My suit is white and gold and I shoot gold blasts. I can get a name easy."
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1 Hour Later...
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"Golden Guy...taken. Gold Shooter...taken. Booster Gold...copyrighted."
Greg sat on his computer going through PHO's list of confirmed parahumans hoping to finally find a name that he could make his own after he found out that all the ones he made up had been used before. It had not been fun.
"Bright...taken. Bright Star...taken and a villain. Gold Star...taken. Superior...Villain/Deceased."
Greg stood up, mulling over the name in his head. "Superior....Superior...Titan and Superior...Superior and Titan. I'm good with this."
Greg walked over to his window and opened it wide, placing a foot up on the windowsill.
"Criminals of the Bay, watch out! Superior is here and..." Greg paused as he felt the wind blowing gently across his face, "and he doesn't have a mask. SHIT! I can't go out without a mask!"
"Really?"
Greg whipped around to stare at the hologram of Evron that appeared before. "Wha..."
"Because you didn't seem to worry about that when you showed off your powers in front of half of Winslow's students. I thought you'd be out by now, Greg."
"You knew about that and you still gave me the suit? You're just messing with me!"
Holo Ev gave Greg a huge shit-eating grin."Who're you talking to, Greg? I'm just a hologram." And with that, he vanished.
"...Pre-recorded interactive hologram, my ass. You're just watching me all the time, you creep!"
'Whatever. Jerk's right anyway. I don't really have a secret anymore at this point. I'm like New Wave. Oh, I should join New Wave. That'd be so awesome. I'd be so awesome!'
Greg jumped out of his window and landed on the soft grass of his backyard with a thud. "Let's do this. Any gang scum better run, because they can't hide from Superior!...I really like that name. I could get used to that."
-------------------------------------------------------
Four Hours Later
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Jump....
Jump...
Flip...
Jump...
Greg...ahem...Superior made his way across the rooftops of the Docks, feeling pretty pleased with himself. He had been out for almost a good four hours and had managed to find a few E88 and Merchants members in the midst of a crime. Most of the Merchants were trying to mug or beat someone up. Most of the E88 just happened to be hanging around, looking suspicious. When Superior had showed up and announced himself, they had attacked him. Really. All he did was defend himself. It wasn't even hard to jump down and beat them up. Fighting Mal had given him a rush of power but beating up a whole group of armed bad guys by himself....was like a drug in how good it felt. But it wasn't enough. They were okay for a little bit of fun but the fights were pathetic. 'I wish I could have fought a cape. The gang members were just so...weak. I mean, I knew what I was getting into...they're just normal humans. I can't expect too much from them.'
He had left the gang members on the ground and had called the police to pick them up using the Virtual Assistant, Nia, that Evron had installed on the suit. He had felt so good saying his name, Superior, to the person on the phone that he may have repeated it a bit too much. No problem, anyway. Just have to work on talking to people. After all, a hero has to sound heroic.
Superior jumped across one more building and ended up scrambling to prevent his fall when his enhanced hearing caught a deep voice roaring a
block or two away.
"...those mother fucking kids. Shoot them in their fucking heads. Hold them down if you can and make them suffer. Bring the little bitch to me. I'm going to teach her a lesson myself."
'Kids?! They're going to kill kids!!! These guys are crazy!!' Greg spun around on the rooftop, trying to find which direction the voice was coming from. "Where is that-THERE!!!!"
Superior had already begun running, moving towards the direction of the voice. He reached the edge of the roof in less than a second and leaped, landing with a crash a few feet away from a large group of men, all of them huddled around one large masked tattooed figure.
"What do you think you're trying to do? Who the fuck kills kids? What kind of psychoa would do...something...like...,"Superior trailed off as he realized that the men surrounding him were all of Asian descent and the large masked man had silvery scales going up and down his body and he was walking towards him.
'AsianguysredcolorstallbuffguytattoossilvermaskscalesohfuckitsLungitsLungitsLungitsLungITSFUCKINGLUNG!!'
Greg felt all his confidence dissappear instantly. The fearless hero, Superior, had vanished and left only scrawny Greg Veder behind. Greg stood frozen, like a deer in headlights watching as his impending death walked closer and closer, taking his sweet time.
When asked why he said what he did next, he would blame it on Evron and never go into serious detail.
"Hello, Mr. Lung, sir. Can I get your autograph? I really admire the way you revitalized the Asian community in Brockton Bay by giving them a cause to rally behind and an organization to fight for. Charity work like that is really awesome. Also, I'm a huge fan of the way you get angry and turn into a gigantic firebreathing rage monster. It's just so cool."
Lung froze at Greg's ramblings and Greg gulped as the large Asian man continued to stare at him. Then he laughed, a deep, powerful belly laugh that carried because of his strong lungs.
The gang members surrounding him were unsure of what to do for a few seconds as their boss enjoyed his mirth. They soon joined in, figuring that if their boss was laughing, they should too.
Greg stood there nervously until he decided to join in as well.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Greg cackled maniacally.
Lung stopped laughing and his men followed his lead, leaving Greg alone cackling like a supervillain.
"ENOUGH!!!", roared Lung.
Greg immediately shut up.
Lung sighed deeply, a small tongue of flame appearing from his mouth when he exhaled.
"Boy..."
"Yes, Mr.Lung, sir?"
Lung placed a large hand on his shoulder and Greg had no choice but to look up at the silver mask of the Asian gang lord. "I have no problem with you. In fact, you have made me laugh. I appreciate that. If you leave now, I will forget you ever attempted to cross me. Are we clear, boy?"
'YESYESYESYESYESYES!!! I'm not gonna die!!!'
"Yes, sir. I'll just be..." Greg trailed off yet again as he found another reason to be terrified.
Lung was somewhat confused by his sudden terror. "What? Speak!"
Greg didn't say a word. Instead, he leapt several dozen feet away and began to scramble up a warehouse building.
And not a second too late.
Lung whipped around and his eyes widened behind his mask as he and his gang members were drowned under a wave of several thousand insects, both flying and crawling, working in sync as a giant blob of creepy-crawlies.
Greg gasped and retched on top of the warehouse as he heard the muffled screams of all of Lung's men as the insects completely washed over them. 'Ewwwwwww. What the hell is this? That's just...sick.' Greg may have been terrified of Lung but this living mass of bugs was just...disturbing in a way that made his primal lizard brain go "NOPE!" They were synchronized, too synchronized. A cape had to be doing this.
Suddenly, there was a crackling noise from beneath the bugs reminiscent of cooking popcorn and a massive gout of flame burst through the insects, scorching a lot of the bugs and a few of the men still struggling beneath them.
Some...thing leapt out from the burning pile of bugs and landed on the ground, cracking the asphalt under it's bulk. It was a monstrous beast. A ten foot tall creature with a rather long neck, red scales, tall black horns and massive black spikes going down it's spine and ending in a spiked tail that was at least as long as it was tall. The air rippled and the asphalt melted where it's long black claws touched the ground.
Greg gasped. "Lung?"
The aforementioned dragon beast whipped around to stare at the freaked out rookie hero and Greg noted that Lung's eyes were now just pits of flame.
'Fuck me....'
With a roar, the dragon leaped at Greg.
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
Any thoughts?
Cherico
Machine
first of all thank you, I get, I get a lot of crap thrown at me in real life, Im kind of a loser people being nice to me? That doesnt happen alot also your doing a bang up job keep it up.
Complications 2.2A
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
Complications 2.2A
Greg Veder
The massive red-scaled lizard beast landed directly in front of me with a thunderous crash, cracking the roof beneath my feet. His face was elongated, appearing more like the maw of a dragon than the jaw of a man. Black spikes jutted out all over the sides of his face.
I simultaneously flinched and gasped for breath as the air was suddenly superheated. My cheap plastic mask began to melt and it fell apart on my face, the thin string snapping.
"YOUUUUUU.....KAAAASER!!!!" he growled, his voice sounding like broken glass being smashed apart.
My muscles tensed as he stared me down with the flaming pits that he used for eyes. I was going to be roasted alive, burnt to ashes by his powerful flames.
His massive clawed fist swung at me and everything slowed down.
I saw it coming. It was fast but I was faster. I leaped, clearing Lung's head like a professional gymnast, barely avoiding the aura of flames surrounding his body, and I pivoted, spinning on the balls of my feet.
Lung roared in anger and swung at me with another claw and I danced just out of his reach, laughing as I did so. This was my chance. I made my move. I had learned the limits of my strength while training with Evron. The first week of my training, I could lift a golf cart over my head. Last I checked, five tons was my limit.
I threw a full-force punch at Lung as fast as I could and he stumbled. I hit him with all the power I had, my fists blurring. I must have been hitting him almost ten times per second, smashing at his scarlet scales, sending red chips flying from his hide. He was getting bigger, getting tougher and my strikes were doing less and less damage with every second. I was hurting him less and less with every single strike.
That needed to change. I darted in and out of close range, striking all around his body and occasionally dodging the gouts of fire he would attempt to blast me with. His flames were hot, incredibly so but my suit protected my skin from the worst of it.
'Yes....more!'
He was still growing and his flames were getting hotter, as evidenced by the pool of molten asphalt increasing in size at his feet. Lung roared again and a burst of flame exploded from his body. He roared and his neck stretched, becoming snake-like in it's flexibility. His entire body became longer and his already long tail had extended almost a dozen feet. I struggled to breathe under the uncomfortable pressure of Lung's aura of heated air but it didn't matter. I just didn't care. This was TOO MUCH FUN!
"KILLLLL YOUUUUUGHH!!!!".
Lung swiped at me and I easily dodged, leaping backwards just before his superheated claws rent apart a brick wall that had been behind me and sent brick and mortar flying.
He charged towards me and I grinned. Every step he took shattered concrete and tore apart asphalt, the sheer heat from his body leaving pools of melted, shattered pavement behind him.
I focused for a split second as I forced Zirin energy into my right hand and unleashed a quick golden blast. A ball of energy shot out from my hand and Lung halted his charge as it impacted his left shoulder, creating an explosion of blood and viscera that was highly gruesome to witness. Bone fragments flew like shrapnel, piercing Lung's face, neck and chest.
"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGRRRRRHHHHHHHH!!!!!" The scream that burst from the beast's maw was more like a roar of anger than a howl of pain. As he writhed in agony, blasts of flame erupted from the ground around the Asian Dragon like geysers, utterly destroying the entire street and destroying the cars and exploding windows that had still managed to remain untouched.
"Holy shit...Awesome." I glanced at my hands and back up at the still screaming Lung, who was busy cradling his slowly growing stump of an arm. He was still FUCKING growing, his body shifting as his arm grew back. His neck had elongated a few feet, appearing more snakelike than dragon like, and the spikes on his shoulders, spine and back continued to grow longer and more jagged. He was almost twice as tall as when he first transformed and he was still not done.
I watched him from several yards away and I gripped a stop sign and wrenched it from the ground intent on using it as a weapon. I felt the emotions inside me, surging through me with the same force as the Zirin in my veins. My Zirin had spread from my core to every single nerve and muscle fiber in my body. I was stronger. I was faster. I was enjoying this.
Lung...he was strong too. He was definitely strong. Stronger than I even thought. Definitely stronger than what I was sure my limit was. His transformation was nothing like I had ever seen from him from pictures and video on PHO. It was quicker, more adaptive. I knew he got bigger and stronger but I thought the process was gradual. This was sudden bursts of massive growth...and I needed more. 'Yes...more. More. Get bigger. I'll take you down even harder!'
As if he could hear my thoughts, a new viciously spiked and clawed hand suddenly burst from the stump that had grown to his forearm, sending steaming hot blood flying everywhere and Lung's massive muscles bulged, instantly growing to twice their size. His other arm shifted and gained additional claws and spikes to match the newly regrown one. He glared at me, this time with caution on his monstrous face. He wasn't scared, not yet, but he was wary.
'I need to get him angry. I need him to be stupid!!!'
I smirked and folded my arms, intent on making sure I looked cocky enough to irritate anyone. "Come on, Lung. I'm barely breaking a sweat here. I thought you were the big bad Dragon Boss. I'm still here! You fought Leviathan and you can't even touch me. I expected an unstoppable monster from the big, scary leader of the ABB, not a mere," Greg suddenly thanked Mr. Yamanuchi, his Japanese Language teacher, for his amazing teaching skills, "warugaki or a stupid akachan tokage."
"KILLLLL YOOOOOUUUUUU!!!!" That seemed to do the trick pretty well. Lung's face and chest ballooned, swelling to almost three times their size. Nothing happened for a few seconds but I was on guard, ready for the fire he would spew.
I was wrong. I was not ready. I was very much not ready.
He opened his jaws and everything was fire.
"HOLY SHIT!" I dropped the stop sign and booked it for cover. I barely dodged the flames, sliding into an alley at the last second. I jumped to a warehouse roof in one leap and stared in shock at the damage Lung's fire had caused.
Lung exhaled with the force of a fire hose, sending massive plumes of fire toward wherever he aimed his mouth and hands.
A literal firestorm had transformed the entire block into a living hell.
I had to end this.
'He's going down.'
Closing my eyes, I began to focus. Less than a second later, my body was aglow with bright golden light. I was faster. I was stronger...but not for long. I had to make this count. Lung was below, rampaging like a rabid animal. 'Let's put him down, then.'
I jumped from the rooftop and again time slowed down. I saw Lung running around on all fours, burning anything and everything in sight. I had a feeling that he was so far gone that even if his men weren't already burnt to death, he'd kill them right here and now. I landed on the destroyed road with a crash, sending pieces flying and alerting one berserk dragon.
He whirled around to face me and snarled.
I looked at him and gave him the same grin Evron usually wore on his face and his snarls increased. I ran, tearing apart the street beneath my feet and slammed my fist directly into Lung's chest.
Except I didn't.
I dove out of the way of his massive fist as it slammed into the ruined asphalt, leaving a crater where I just was. My hurried dive became a quick roll and I twisted around and jumped upwards to strike him in the face...only to remain suspended in the air.
"urk...."
My chest. My chest. It hurt...so, so much. I looked down and screamed only to stop as I coughed up blood.
His tail had gone directly through my chest. His TAIL!!!!. Lung's spiked, serrated, several meter long tail. I wasn't paying attention to the damn thing. It was fast....faster than I could react to that quickly and it's spikes were sharp...sharp enough to tear through material that had proved itself to be bulletproof.
Lung had raised his tail at the last moment and caught me on his own barbs. He knew I was going to try to get close and hit him again. He planned for this. Lung grinned at me, boiling hot saliva dripping off his teeth and tongue. He shook his tail, jostling me violently and increasing the size of the wound his tail had gored in my torso.
Raising one gigantic red-scaled palm closer to my face, a large ball of fire began to form in it. "ANY LAST WORDS?", Lung began, his voice oddly clear.
I gasped, blood flowing from my chest, as my attempts to think were hampered by the incredible pain I was feeling. I was scared. Terrified. I didn't want to die, especially not like this. This was my first night doing something. Nobody even knew my name yet! I can't die here!
Lung opened his mouth to say something more, most likely an insult or a one-liner before roasting me...only to gag as a huge swarm of insects flew into his mouth. Much more insects than before began to swarm Lung. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of bugs crawled, hopped, flew and slithered as fast as they could toward Lung, all of them intent on making his insides their new home.
He made odd choking noises as the large horde of insects forced their way down his esophagus. Bursts of flame erupted around him, killing some of the bugs but even more poured in.
I spent my time hanging off of Lung's tail in pain, my chest burning from the heat of Lung's tail and an intense tearing sensation in the center of my chest. Hisses and screams of pain came from both myself and Lung as we dealt with two very different types of agony.
Lung's tail had not been idle while the rest of him thrashed on the ground like a fish out of water. I had been slammed against buildings, had my face grinded into the jagged mess that once was a road, and been struck by Lung's flailing limbs several times as he attempted to fight off the seemingly endless horde of insects.
One powerful jerk of his tail was all it took to send me flying off his spiked appendage and into a wall. I heard a cracking noise that I was almost entirely sure was not the wall behind me as my body slumped to the ground. A warm liquid dripping down my face informed me that my skull was probably cracked.
Lung continued to writhe in agony, unaware or uncaring of my departure from his grasp. Fire flew everywhere, scorching so many, many bugs but more just kept coming.
'Gotta get up. Get up...get up...Get Up! MOVE!' I screamed at myself, urging myself to get up. "Why am I not moving?" 'Maybe it's the fact that your head's split open or a bunch of your ribs are currently loose from your ribcage or maybe it's the giant gash in your chest, asshat!' said a snarky voice in my head that sounded almost exactly like Evron.
Whether I wanted to run away or continue fighting, I wasn't sure but I couldn't stay down. With a grunt and a quickly silenced scream, I pulled myself up using the wall as a support.
'I have to get out of here,' I thought to myself, 'I'm bleeding out. I'm no help.'
I glanced back at Lung's massive draconian self groaning on the ground as he was being overwhelmed by the unending swarm of creepy-crawlies. 'Besides, whatever cape that's doing this looks like they've got it under control.'
I began to walk away tentatively, still holding my chest even as the pain began to fade. 'Less pain...I feel better. Is that a good thing? Cause I feel good but I did lose a lot of blood,' I silently wondered as I walked away. 'This was a horrible night.'
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
'What the..."
I paused and whipped around, ignoring the pain in my chest, as I heard a scream of terror that was undeniably female.
Lung was still on the ground, struggling to move while suffering from whatever poison the droning insects had pumped into him but a large swath of bugs directly in front of him had been burnt to a crisp and a rather tall building close to it had it's entire front engulfed in flame. I looked up and my eyes widened. A cape was at the top...dressed mostly in black with a bug like mask and long hair.
I wasn't the only one who heard her scream. Lung looked up and made several odd noises before a burst of flame finally shot out from his maw, sending a massive clog of bugs shooting out of his throat with it. I repressed a shudder at how many bugs it must have taken to close his gigantic throat enough to prevent him from breathing fire.
Another scream and I saw the girl backpedal as part of her costume caught aflame and she tried to pat the flame away. A literal explosion of flame surrounded Lung, so large that it surprised me that it didn't have a mushroom cloud. The streets were aflame. All of the bugs were dead and Lung stood, larger than ever. Forty feet tall, spikes and barbs everywhere, several giant black horns protruding from his skull. He bellowed and a wet, loud, cracking noise was heard. His spine and back began to shift and twist and with an explosion of blood and flame, four massive spiked wings burst from his back.
'He has wings? He has wings! Of course he has wings! He's a Fucking DRAGON!'
Lung flapped his twin set of wings gingerly, moving around as if unsure of how to move them.
"Nia? Nia...," I said aloud, hurriedly attempting to use my Virtual Assistant, "Nia...Nia." I tapped my armbands and...nothing. 'Great...I can't call the police. I can't call the PRT. What the fuck now?!!!!"
My minor freak out was interrupted as Lung bellowed and jumped, his powerful leap being overtaken by his four wings. The female cape screamed as Lung ascended rapidly, appearing in front of her with a massive fireball in his gaping maw.
"NO!"
The world slowed down and I moved. My body was suffused with golden light and I leapt. My arc carried me to the top of the roof, facing the bug controller. I grabbed the black clad cape, puling her into my chest and covering her body with mine as time returned to normal.
Lung roared and I heard the rush of noise that followed his pyrokinesis.
He roared and roared...and roared.
'Huh...?' I turned around and my eyes widened. Surrounding the two of us was a glowing golden dome, protecting us from the torrent of flames Lung was exuding.
'We were fine! I was alive!'
I smiled, a manic grin spreading across my face and began to laugh.
"Fuck you, Bowser!!!"
Greg Veder
The massive red-scaled lizard beast landed directly in front of me with a thunderous crash, cracking the roof beneath my feet. His face was elongated, appearing more like the maw of a dragon than the jaw of a man. Black spikes jutted out all over the sides of his face.
I simultaneously flinched and gasped for breath as the air was suddenly superheated. My cheap plastic mask began to melt and it fell apart on my face, the thin string snapping.
"YOUUUUUU.....KAAAASER!!!!" he growled, his voice sounding like broken glass being smashed apart.
My muscles tensed as he stared me down with the flaming pits that he used for eyes. I was going to be roasted alive, burnt to ashes by his powerful flames.
His massive clawed fist swung at me and everything slowed down.
I saw it coming. It was fast but I was faster. I leaped, clearing Lung's head like a professional gymnast, barely avoiding the aura of flames surrounding his body, and I pivoted, spinning on the balls of my feet.
Lung roared in anger and swung at me with another claw and I danced just out of his reach, laughing as I did so. This was my chance. I made my move. I had learned the limits of my strength while training with Evron. The first week of my training, I could lift a golf cart over my head. Last I checked, five tons was my limit.
I threw a full-force punch at Lung as fast as I could and he stumbled. I hit him with all the power I had, my fists blurring. I must have been hitting him almost ten times per second, smashing at his scarlet scales, sending red chips flying from his hide. He was getting bigger, getting tougher and my strikes were doing less and less damage with every second. I was hurting him less and less with every single strike.
That needed to change. I darted in and out of close range, striking all around his body and occasionally dodging the gouts of fire he would attempt to blast me with. His flames were hot, incredibly so but my suit protected my skin from the worst of it.
'Yes....more!'
He was still growing and his flames were getting hotter, as evidenced by the pool of molten asphalt increasing in size at his feet. Lung roared again and a burst of flame exploded from his body. He roared and his neck stretched, becoming snake-like in it's flexibility. His entire body became longer and his already long tail had extended almost a dozen feet. I struggled to breathe under the uncomfortable pressure of Lung's aura of heated air but it didn't matter. I just didn't care. This was TOO MUCH FUN!
"KILLLLL YOUUUUUGHH!!!!".
Lung swiped at me and I easily dodged, leaping backwards just before his superheated claws rent apart a brick wall that had been behind me and sent brick and mortar flying.
He charged towards me and I grinned. Every step he took shattered concrete and tore apart asphalt, the sheer heat from his body leaving pools of melted, shattered pavement behind him.
I focused for a split second as I forced Zirin energy into my right hand and unleashed a quick golden blast. A ball of energy shot out from my hand and Lung halted his charge as it impacted his left shoulder, creating an explosion of blood and viscera that was highly gruesome to witness. Bone fragments flew like shrapnel, piercing Lung's face, neck and chest.
"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGRRRRRHHHHHHHH!!!!!" The scream that burst from the beast's maw was more like a roar of anger than a howl of pain. As he writhed in agony, blasts of flame erupted from the ground around the Asian Dragon like geysers, utterly destroying the entire street and destroying the cars and exploding windows that had still managed to remain untouched.
"Holy shit...Awesome." I glanced at my hands and back up at the still screaming Lung, who was busy cradling his slowly growing stump of an arm. He was still FUCKING growing, his body shifting as his arm grew back. His neck had elongated a few feet, appearing more snakelike than dragon like, and the spikes on his shoulders, spine and back continued to grow longer and more jagged. He was almost twice as tall as when he first transformed and he was still not done.
I watched him from several yards away and I gripped a stop sign and wrenched it from the ground intent on using it as a weapon. I felt the emotions inside me, surging through me with the same force as the Zirin in my veins. My Zirin had spread from my core to every single nerve and muscle fiber in my body. I was stronger. I was faster. I was enjoying this.
Lung...he was strong too. He was definitely strong. Stronger than I even thought. Definitely stronger than what I was sure my limit was. His transformation was nothing like I had ever seen from him from pictures and video on PHO. It was quicker, more adaptive. I knew he got bigger and stronger but I thought the process was gradual. This was sudden bursts of massive growth...and I needed more. 'Yes...more. More. Get bigger. I'll take you down even harder!'
As if he could hear my thoughts, a new viciously spiked and clawed hand suddenly burst from the stump that had grown to his forearm, sending steaming hot blood flying everywhere and Lung's massive muscles bulged, instantly growing to twice their size. His other arm shifted and gained additional claws and spikes to match the newly regrown one. He glared at me, this time with caution on his monstrous face. He wasn't scared, not yet, but he was wary.
'I need to get him angry. I need him to be stupid!!!'
I smirked and folded my arms, intent on making sure I looked cocky enough to irritate anyone. "Come on, Lung. I'm barely breaking a sweat here. I thought you were the big bad Dragon Boss. I'm still here! You fought Leviathan and you can't even touch me. I expected an unstoppable monster from the big, scary leader of the ABB, not a mere," Greg suddenly thanked Mr. Yamanuchi, his Japanese Language teacher, for his amazing teaching skills, "warugaki or a stupid akachan tokage."
"KILLLLL YOOOOOUUUUUU!!!!" That seemed to do the trick pretty well. Lung's face and chest ballooned, swelling to almost three times their size. Nothing happened for a few seconds but I was on guard, ready for the fire he would spew.
I was wrong. I was not ready. I was very much not ready.
He opened his jaws and everything was fire.
"HOLY SHIT!" I dropped the stop sign and booked it for cover. I barely dodged the flames, sliding into an alley at the last second. I jumped to a warehouse roof in one leap and stared in shock at the damage Lung's fire had caused.
Lung exhaled with the force of a fire hose, sending massive plumes of fire toward wherever he aimed his mouth and hands.
A literal firestorm had transformed the entire block into a living hell.
I had to end this.
'He's going down.'
Closing my eyes, I began to focus. Less than a second later, my body was aglow with bright golden light. I was faster. I was stronger...but not for long. I had to make this count. Lung was below, rampaging like a rabid animal. 'Let's put him down, then.'
I jumped from the rooftop and again time slowed down. I saw Lung running around on all fours, burning anything and everything in sight. I had a feeling that he was so far gone that even if his men weren't already burnt to death, he'd kill them right here and now. I landed on the destroyed road with a crash, sending pieces flying and alerting one berserk dragon.
He whirled around to face me and snarled.
I looked at him and gave him the same grin Evron usually wore on his face and his snarls increased. I ran, tearing apart the street beneath my feet and slammed my fist directly into Lung's chest.
Except I didn't.
I dove out of the way of his massive fist as it slammed into the ruined asphalt, leaving a crater where I just was. My hurried dive became a quick roll and I twisted around and jumped upwards to strike him in the face...only to remain suspended in the air.
"urk...."
My chest. My chest. It hurt...so, so much. I looked down and screamed only to stop as I coughed up blood.
His tail had gone directly through my chest. His TAIL!!!!. Lung's spiked, serrated, several meter long tail. I wasn't paying attention to the damn thing. It was fast....faster than I could react to that quickly and it's spikes were sharp...sharp enough to tear through material that had proved itself to be bulletproof.
Lung had raised his tail at the last moment and caught me on his own barbs. He knew I was going to try to get close and hit him again. He planned for this. Lung grinned at me, boiling hot saliva dripping off his teeth and tongue. He shook his tail, jostling me violently and increasing the size of the wound his tail had gored in my torso.
Raising one gigantic red-scaled palm closer to my face, a large ball of fire began to form in it. "ANY LAST WORDS?", Lung began, his voice oddly clear.
I gasped, blood flowing from my chest, as my attempts to think were hampered by the incredible pain I was feeling. I was scared. Terrified. I didn't want to die, especially not like this. This was my first night doing something. Nobody even knew my name yet! I can't die here!
Lung opened his mouth to say something more, most likely an insult or a one-liner before roasting me...only to gag as a huge swarm of insects flew into his mouth. Much more insects than before began to swarm Lung. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of bugs crawled, hopped, flew and slithered as fast as they could toward Lung, all of them intent on making his insides their new home.
He made odd choking noises as the large horde of insects forced their way down his esophagus. Bursts of flame erupted around him, killing some of the bugs but even more poured in.
I spent my time hanging off of Lung's tail in pain, my chest burning from the heat of Lung's tail and an intense tearing sensation in the center of my chest. Hisses and screams of pain came from both myself and Lung as we dealt with two very different types of agony.
Lung's tail had not been idle while the rest of him thrashed on the ground like a fish out of water. I had been slammed against buildings, had my face grinded into the jagged mess that once was a road, and been struck by Lung's flailing limbs several times as he attempted to fight off the seemingly endless horde of insects.
One powerful jerk of his tail was all it took to send me flying off his spiked appendage and into a wall. I heard a cracking noise that I was almost entirely sure was not the wall behind me as my body slumped to the ground. A warm liquid dripping down my face informed me that my skull was probably cracked.
Lung continued to writhe in agony, unaware or uncaring of my departure from his grasp. Fire flew everywhere, scorching so many, many bugs but more just kept coming.
'Gotta get up. Get up...get up...Get Up! MOVE!' I screamed at myself, urging myself to get up. "Why am I not moving?" 'Maybe it's the fact that your head's split open or a bunch of your ribs are currently loose from your ribcage or maybe it's the giant gash in your chest, asshat!' said a snarky voice in my head that sounded almost exactly like Evron.
Whether I wanted to run away or continue fighting, I wasn't sure but I couldn't stay down. With a grunt and a quickly silenced scream, I pulled myself up using the wall as a support.
'I have to get out of here,' I thought to myself, 'I'm bleeding out. I'm no help.'
I glanced back at Lung's massive draconian self groaning on the ground as he was being overwhelmed by the unending swarm of creepy-crawlies. 'Besides, whatever cape that's doing this looks like they've got it under control.'
I began to walk away tentatively, still holding my chest even as the pain began to fade. 'Less pain...I feel better. Is that a good thing? Cause I feel good but I did lose a lot of blood,' I silently wondered as I walked away. 'This was a horrible night.'
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
'What the..."
I paused and whipped around, ignoring the pain in my chest, as I heard a scream of terror that was undeniably female.
Lung was still on the ground, struggling to move while suffering from whatever poison the droning insects had pumped into him but a large swath of bugs directly in front of him had been burnt to a crisp and a rather tall building close to it had it's entire front engulfed in flame. I looked up and my eyes widened. A cape was at the top...dressed mostly in black with a bug like mask and long hair.
I wasn't the only one who heard her scream. Lung looked up and made several odd noises before a burst of flame finally shot out from his maw, sending a massive clog of bugs shooting out of his throat with it. I repressed a shudder at how many bugs it must have taken to close his gigantic throat enough to prevent him from breathing fire.
Another scream and I saw the girl backpedal as part of her costume caught aflame and she tried to pat the flame away. A literal explosion of flame surrounded Lung, so large that it surprised me that it didn't have a mushroom cloud. The streets were aflame. All of the bugs were dead and Lung stood, larger than ever. Forty feet tall, spikes and barbs everywhere, several giant black horns protruding from his skull. He bellowed and a wet, loud, cracking noise was heard. His spine and back began to shift and twist and with an explosion of blood and flame, four massive spiked wings burst from his back.
'He has wings? He has wings! Of course he has wings! He's a Fucking DRAGON!'
Lung flapped his twin set of wings gingerly, moving around as if unsure of how to move them.
"Nia? Nia...," I said aloud, hurriedly attempting to use my Virtual Assistant, "Nia...Nia." I tapped my armbands and...nothing. 'Great...I can't call the police. I can't call the PRT. What the fuck now?!!!!"
My minor freak out was interrupted as Lung bellowed and jumped, his powerful leap being overtaken by his four wings. The female cape screamed as Lung ascended rapidly, appearing in front of her with a massive fireball in his gaping maw.
"NO!"
The world slowed down and I moved. My body was suffused with golden light and I leapt. My arc carried me to the top of the roof, facing the bug controller. I grabbed the black clad cape, puling her into my chest and covering her body with mine as time returned to normal.
Lung roared and I heard the rush of noise that followed his pyrokinesis.
He roared and roared...and roared.
'Huh...?' I turned around and my eyes widened. Surrounding the two of us was a glowing golden dome, protecting us from the torrent of flames Lung was exuding.
'We were fine! I was alive!'
I smiled, a manic grin spreading across my face and began to laugh.
"Fuck you, Bowser!!!"
Complications 2.2B
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
Complications 2.2B
Taylor Hebert
When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a princess, like most little girls dream of.
Like most little girls and their princessy dreams, I wanted a palace, fancy dresses and jewelry. Shiny, shiny jewelry.
But more than all of that, I wanted a prince. In the inevitable instance that a dragon kidnapped me and tried to eat me or roast me alive and then eat me, as dragons are wont to do, my prince would be there to save me from the big bad dragon. He would have flowing blond hair, blue eyes, muscles and he would be charming, handsome and the perfect gentleman. The hero holding me in his arms was close...but not exactly what I had hoped for.
"Don't worry, bug lady. I got your back. Once I let go of my shield, you distract him with your bug buddies and I'll take him down! Superior Style!" The golden haired figure stood above me, a soft aura of yellow light surrounding him in this opaque golden shield that protected us from Lung's flames. I felt relief. So much relief that my knees gave out and the unfamiliar glowing hero had to hold me up.
I looked up at him. His hair was golden, yes, but it was covered in dust and partially frizzy and a bit burnt. His face was covered in soot and blood and so were his teeth. His costume was ripped open at the chest, where Lung had stabbed him but I couldn't see a wound, showing that he truly was muscled. I really didn't care. Lung was a monster, a literal dragon, and he had saved me...even though just a few minutes ago I had thought he was dead. He was amazing.
"Hey, lady. You alright? Oh no, please be alright. I can't really get you to a hospital right now. Please don't die on me," he rambled in a tone that sounded more like a worried kid than a professional hero. Where was the bravado that I saw against Lung? The charisma he had when he was joking around with the most dangerous villain in town like they were bodies? The contagious level of confidence he had as he traded blows with Lung? It had vanished. Something else caught my attention.
That voice was familiar. Really fucking familiar.
"Pleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdie"
And really fucking annoying.
'What.'
That's Greg's voice. That's Greg's annoying little voice. Wait...'GREG'S A HERO?!!!'
I looked closer and noticed the same awkward nervous look on his face that he always seemed to have.
It was Greg.
Greg...Greg Veder. I don't get it. This makes absolutely no sense. Greg Veder is a lot of things. Greg Veder is a nerd. Greg Veder is annoying. Greg Vader has bad skin. Greg Veder rambles like an idiot even if you're doing your best to ignore him. Greg Veder stares at you when he thinks you're not looking. Greg Veder is this close from being a creepy stalker.
Greg Veder is a follower, unnecessary, a background character, a creep. Greg Veder is a wimp.
Except...he wasn't. At least, anymore.
Today, he had fought the biggest guy in school and knocked him out. He had used his powers, obviously. A normal person does not take that many hits from a guy like that and walk away without even a bruise. Sophia and Emma didn't even bother me after Greg left. Sophia had run off while Emma followed her, a weird look in her eye. Madison had stayed behind, shock etched on her face.
I had gone home, glad that the Bitch Trio forgot about me and Greg's fight still on my mind. I couldn't help but go over it in my head. 'How could Greg have powers?' I had eventually come to the conclusion that he had been so scared of the raging big guy, Malcolm, that he had gotten powers or something. It made as much sense as anything else I could come up with. If Greg had gotten powers earlier than today, I didn't see how someone with his personality could have kept it a secret for longer than a day or two. If I knew Greg, he would be shouting it from the rooftops.
But...if he had only had his powers for a few hours, where did he get this costume from? And how is he already fighting Lung?
"Hello...hello...say something, please."
Huh? He was still talking. Of course he was. This was Greg we were talking about.
I didn't need to hide my voice. With all the smoke in the air, my throat was so hoarse that it would make no sense to.
"What's your plan?", was all I said.
He smiled at me, a stupid goofy Greg-ish smile that I honestly didn't mind. It was nice. He was no prince but...he did save me from a dragon.
The confidence seemed to slide back onto his face and his smile became self-assured, almost arrogant. His eyes began to glow a bright gold and two glowing, golden...blades grew from the back of his hands.
Lung roared and circled us, his flames still crashing down on the shield above us.
" You distract him with your bugs and I stab him with these. The two of us, we're gonna slay a dragon."
What had happened to him? This confidence...this strength...this wasn't the Greg I knew. I could get used to this Greg.
I stood up straight and I looked at him.
"Okay. When do we start?"
Greg glanced up at the dome surrounding us.
"As soon as I take down this shield."
There was a few awkward moments of silence between us, interspersed with roars from Lung, of course.
"And...when are you doing that?"
The confidence dissapeared from Greg's face and that awkward look appeared again.
"I don't really...know...I didn't...really know I could even make...shields...so...heh" Greg said, smiling awkwardly.
My mind froze as I tried to wrap my head around this new development and I ended up realizing something. "So..if you didn't know that you could make shields, what were you trying to do when you grabbed me and shoved my head into your chest?"
Greg's face made odd movements and I realized that he was actually thinking about what he was going to say. 'First time for everything'
"I was trying to...protect you...using my body," he finally said.
" So you were going to protect me...from a giant blast of flame...using...your...body." Honestly, that was really nice...but extremely stupid. He doesn't even know me. I could be a villain. He did know me and he probably thought we were friends, for some reason. If it was anybody else, I'd call it sweet. I couldn't let him know that, though. "That's stupid."
He spluttered and his face reddened. "Well, I'd like to see how you could have survived if I hadn't showed up and made this!" He waved his hand at the dome and it flickered and dissapeared...while Lung was directly above us. Lung noticed this and pivoted his extremely long, snake-like dragon body in the air, opening his car-sized mouth wide.
I freaked out. "PUT IT UP!!! PUT IT UP!!! PUT IT BACK UP!!!"
"I'm trying!" Greg said, waving at the air furiously like a third-rate magician. "It's not working!!! IT'S NOT WORKING!!! Uhhhhhh...Jump on my back!!!!"
"What?"
He looked at me with a manic expression. "Do you want to be Lung's dinner?!!! Jump in my arms and put your arms around my neck!!!!"
I did so and Greg's arms locked around my legs and waist like a vise, definitely cutting off some of my circulation.
"Hey, that h-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
And then Greg jumped off a twenty story building.
Taylor Hebert
When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a princess, like most little girls dream of.
Like most little girls and their princessy dreams, I wanted a palace, fancy dresses and jewelry. Shiny, shiny jewelry.
But more than all of that, I wanted a prince. In the inevitable instance that a dragon kidnapped me and tried to eat me or roast me alive and then eat me, as dragons are wont to do, my prince would be there to save me from the big bad dragon. He would have flowing blond hair, blue eyes, muscles and he would be charming, handsome and the perfect gentleman. The hero holding me in his arms was close...but not exactly what I had hoped for.
"Don't worry, bug lady. I got your back. Once I let go of my shield, you distract him with your bug buddies and I'll take him down! Superior Style!" The golden haired figure stood above me, a soft aura of yellow light surrounding him in this opaque golden shield that protected us from Lung's flames. I felt relief. So much relief that my knees gave out and the unfamiliar glowing hero had to hold me up.
I looked up at him. His hair was golden, yes, but it was covered in dust and partially frizzy and a bit burnt. His face was covered in soot and blood and so were his teeth. His costume was ripped open at the chest, where Lung had stabbed him but I couldn't see a wound, showing that he truly was muscled. I really didn't care. Lung was a monster, a literal dragon, and he had saved me...even though just a few minutes ago I had thought he was dead. He was amazing.
"Hey, lady. You alright? Oh no, please be alright. I can't really get you to a hospital right now. Please don't die on me," he rambled in a tone that sounded more like a worried kid than a professional hero. Where was the bravado that I saw against Lung? The charisma he had when he was joking around with the most dangerous villain in town like they were bodies? The contagious level of confidence he had as he traded blows with Lung? It had vanished. Something else caught my attention.
That voice was familiar. Really fucking familiar.
"Pleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdiepleasedontdie"
And really fucking annoying.
'What.'
That's Greg's voice. That's Greg's annoying little voice. Wait...'GREG'S A HERO?!!!'
I looked closer and noticed the same awkward nervous look on his face that he always seemed to have.
It was Greg.
Greg...Greg Veder. I don't get it. This makes absolutely no sense. Greg Veder is a lot of things. Greg Veder is a nerd. Greg Veder is annoying. Greg Vader has bad skin. Greg Veder rambles like an idiot even if you're doing your best to ignore him. Greg Veder stares at you when he thinks you're not looking. Greg Veder is this close from being a creepy stalker.
Greg Veder is a follower, unnecessary, a background character, a creep. Greg Veder is a wimp.
Except...he wasn't. At least, anymore.
Today, he had fought the biggest guy in school and knocked him out. He had used his powers, obviously. A normal person does not take that many hits from a guy like that and walk away without even a bruise. Sophia and Emma didn't even bother me after Greg left. Sophia had run off while Emma followed her, a weird look in her eye. Madison had stayed behind, shock etched on her face.
I had gone home, glad that the Bitch Trio forgot about me and Greg's fight still on my mind. I couldn't help but go over it in my head. 'How could Greg have powers?' I had eventually come to the conclusion that he had been so scared of the raging big guy, Malcolm, that he had gotten powers or something. It made as much sense as anything else I could come up with. If Greg had gotten powers earlier than today, I didn't see how someone with his personality could have kept it a secret for longer than a day or two. If I knew Greg, he would be shouting it from the rooftops.
But...if he had only had his powers for a few hours, where did he get this costume from? And how is he already fighting Lung?
"Hello...hello...say something, please."
Huh? He was still talking. Of course he was. This was Greg we were talking about.
I didn't need to hide my voice. With all the smoke in the air, my throat was so hoarse that it would make no sense to.
"What's your plan?", was all I said.
He smiled at me, a stupid goofy Greg-ish smile that I honestly didn't mind. It was nice. He was no prince but...he did save me from a dragon.
The confidence seemed to slide back onto his face and his smile became self-assured, almost arrogant. His eyes began to glow a bright gold and two glowing, golden...blades grew from the back of his hands.
Lung roared and circled us, his flames still crashing down on the shield above us.
" You distract him with your bugs and I stab him with these. The two of us, we're gonna slay a dragon."
What had happened to him? This confidence...this strength...this wasn't the Greg I knew. I could get used to this Greg.
I stood up straight and I looked at him.
"Okay. When do we start?"
Greg glanced up at the dome surrounding us.
"As soon as I take down this shield."
There was a few awkward moments of silence between us, interspersed with roars from Lung, of course.
"And...when are you doing that?"
The confidence dissapeared from Greg's face and that awkward look appeared again.
"I don't really...know...I didn't...really know I could even make...shields...so...heh" Greg said, smiling awkwardly.
My mind froze as I tried to wrap my head around this new development and I ended up realizing something. "So..if you didn't know that you could make shields, what were you trying to do when you grabbed me and shoved my head into your chest?"
Greg's face made odd movements and I realized that he was actually thinking about what he was going to say. 'First time for everything'
"I was trying to...protect you...using my body," he finally said.
" So you were going to protect me...from a giant blast of flame...using...your...body." Honestly, that was really nice...but extremely stupid. He doesn't even know me. I could be a villain. He did know me and he probably thought we were friends, for some reason. If it was anybody else, I'd call it sweet. I couldn't let him know that, though. "That's stupid."
He spluttered and his face reddened. "Well, I'd like to see how you could have survived if I hadn't showed up and made this!" He waved his hand at the dome and it flickered and dissapeared...while Lung was directly above us. Lung noticed this and pivoted his extremely long, snake-like dragon body in the air, opening his car-sized mouth wide.
I freaked out. "PUT IT UP!!! PUT IT UP!!! PUT IT BACK UP!!!"
"I'm trying!" Greg said, waving at the air furiously like a third-rate magician. "It's not working!!! IT'S NOT WORKING!!! Uhhhhhh...Jump on my back!!!!"
"What?"
He looked at me with a manic expression. "Do you want to be Lung's dinner?!!! Jump in my arms and put your arms around my neck!!!!"
I did so and Greg's arms locked around my legs and waist like a vise, definitely cutting off some of my circulation.
"Hey, that h-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
And then Greg jumped off a twenty story building.
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Complications 2.2C
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
Complications 2.2C
Tattletale & The Undersiders
Tattletale looked at the scene before her through her binoculars, her power putting the information together.
Two capes, rookies obviously, were under a golden dome that seemed like something Lady Photon would make.
She obviously wasn't here. She'd be fighting Lung obviously. But...about Lung. Lung...Lung was different, very different.
She could tell that he looked different. That much was obvious from his new appearance as he flew above the roof raining down fire, but there was more than that at play.
His power had changed as well.
Scales no longer armor plated, now organic. Strength increases at the expense of speed. Regeneration much more rapid, bursts of growth and healing, much less gradual. Adaptation to damage, instead of pure growth. Not using new abilities properly, not adjusted...unsure of how to fight in new body.
Lung had changed, yes, but he was mostly the same. Honestly, the change to his appearance was more interesting than his powers.
He appeared to be something similar to a Chinese Lung Dragon with twin sets of wings other than the metal lizard thing he vaguely looked like before.
The other figure, the golden kid, was much more interesting. He had been fighting Lung for almost five minutes and had been holding his own, at least until Lung impaled him. But that didn't even stop him for long.
Able to fight in close quarters with Lung, puncture wound on chest healed in under a minute...powerful healing factor, Brute Rating High. Glow increases with use of power. Power temporary? No...alternate power source. Glows when stronger or faster...alternate power source limited.NOT HUMAN?
Smiled and laughed during fight. Fight crazy? Yes...no. Enjoyed fighting Lung...enjoyed the danger or no...? Enjoyed using power. Power addictive. Possible mental issues.
NOT HUMAN?
Holding back? Yes....no. Maybe. Partially trained. Only using tiny portion of power. Still getting stronger.NOT HUMAN.
Tattletale winced as she felt a slight twinge of pain. She quickly shook it off. It wasn't a real headache, anyway. Maybe the beginning of one, but not yet. She had to finish this.
The longer she looked at the golden guy, the more she began to wonder if he wasn't a member of New Wave that they don't let the public know about because of mental issues.
Possible...facial structure similar to Carol Dallon. Hair color too golden. New Wave hair color ranges from honey blonde or light blonde.NOT HUMAN.
Some connection possible. Displays several powers similar to Lady Photon and Brandish. Energy blasts, shields, glowing...,NOT HUMAN.
Possible offspring of member of New Wave. Possibility of infidelity from Carol Dallon...High? NOT HUMAN. NOT HUMAN. NOT HUMAN.
Tattletale blinked at the conclusion her power came to before smirking. 'Juicy...'
Shield still strong. Has not weakened. Completely impervious to harm? No. Diffusing heat away from area of protection...Only protects against flames? No...Yes?...No/Yes. Both.
'How does that even work? Both? What is this? Schrodinger's Cape? Nothing tonight barely makes any sense.
Lung looks like one of those Chinese Dragons and his powers don't even work the same. I know he was still the same earlier tonight. I saw him. Metal scales and all.
Then that kid showed up...'Tattletale paused and turned around to stare at the rest of the Undersiders behind her, all of them sitting on one of Bitch's dogs like she was and waiting for her to finally say something. She turned back to Lung and looked at him again.
Lung's strength and speed ramped up much faster than normal. Not currently fighting and yet not powering down. Keeping up his own transformation? Power seems to have gotten stronger. Touched Gold Rookie earlier, ability increased in strength and functionality. G.R. has a Trump rating. Makes powers stronger...permanently.
A big smile crossed her face and she turned back to her teammates. "Fucking Trumps..."whispered Tattletale to herself.
Grue tilted his head, his face obscured by the mask he had on, and cautiously spoke to Tattletale. "What's going on Tattletale? What can you tell us?"
Pointing an arm in the direction of the golden kid, Lung and the other cape, Tattletale smirked. "We're going down there."
"...where Lung is?"
"Yeah, I thought the idea was to get away from the angry dragon man, not go towards him," added Regent.
Bitch said nothing.
"No, we don't want Lung," Tattletale said with a shake of her head, "The kid down there who was fighting Lung. All you need to do is grab onto him for a second or two and then run."
There was silence from her teammates, interspersed with the faint sounds of Lung's roaring and the heavy breathing of the three dogs they sat on.
Regent broke it.
He chuckled softly and spoke, "So we're playing tag now?"
Bitch said nothing.
Grue sighed, the darkness around his head rippling with every word he spoke. "Tattletale, what are you talking about?"
"That glowing cape, down there fighting Lung, is a Brute, Blaster, Mover, Shaker and a Trump. Emphasis on the Trump."
Grue turned over to Regent, as if to ask him if he knew where she was going with this, only to receive a lazy shrug in return.
He had been curious ever since they had seen the blonde cape show up and start joking around with Lung but he had not been anywhere curious enough to risk his life when Lung was already looking for them. Tattletale had asked him to stick around. He had agreed, after some arguing.
When Lung had turned into a giant red lizard instead of his usual metallic form, Grue had decided that they were leaving.
Tattletale had informed him that her power had discerned that Lung had long forgotten about them in his rage so the team had decided to stick around so Tattletale could learn more.
Now, Lung was fucking huge and trying to Now, Lung was fucking huge and trying to kill two capes, Tattletale had said they were rookies, and Grue was pretty sure Tattletale only cared about what she could find out about the new arrivals to the cape scene. He didn't really care at this point.
Tattletale had been using her binoculars to get a closer look at the action even though all of them could see the light show as it was only a few buildings away.
Regent raised a hand toward Tattletale in a motion that clearly said 'continue'.
"And why are we sticking around? He's clearly got this handled."
Tattletale smirked, a smug expression that was familiar on her face. "You guys really don't get it at all, do you?"
Bitch growled, Brutus following her lead with a deep rumbling beneath her. "No. We don't. Explain or shut up."
Regent snickered and turned to look over at Grue, the two of them sharing another look. Well, Regent was pretty sure Grue was sharing a look with him.
With the motorcycle helmet and all the black smoke around him, Grue could be making faces at him all day and he would never know.
'Maybe he is making faces at me all the time. That would make a lot of sense, for sure. I do make fun of him a lot. That's probably the way he gets back at me...yeah...I should prank him for that. Syrup in his helmet or something...yeah...yeah...what was I thinking about again? Tattletale...no...Wait...Bitch said something.'
"Yeah...what Bitch said." 'Good one, Alec, good one.'
Tattletale huffed. "No appreciation...none at all. Okay, you guys see Lung, right?"
Grue rolled his eyes, well aware that no one else could see the action. "No, Tattletale, the giant fire breathing dragon is completely invisible. Yes...we see Lung."
"Anyway...Notice anything different?"
Grue paused before speaking again. "I don't know...He's red and bigger...four wings are new and he's skinnier and longer."
Tattletale's smirk returned. "Exactly and the golden rookie down there is responsible for Lung's new makeover. He's a Trump that boosts powers...permanently. All it takes is a touch for a few seconds."
All three of her teammates froze as they processed what Tattletale just said. The smug smirk on Tattletale's face increased as her team looked at her silently.
Grue was the first to break the silence, shifting uncomfortably on Judas. " You're sure about this, Tattletale? Because I don't want to go down there for nothing." 'But if it's to make my powers stronger, I'd definitely risk it.'
Tattletale tapped her forehead with a wink. "As sure as anything else."
Regent smirked. "Then let's do this. Bitch, you in?"
The dog-masked cape nodded and answered in a gruff, succinct manner. "Yes."
Tattletale ran up and climbed up on Brutus. Brutus?
Darker patterns on hindquarters.
Asymmetric bone ridges on muzzle.
Jagged ear pattern
Yeah, it was Brutus.
Anyway, she climbed behind Bitch and held on tight. "All set. What would you guys do without me?"
Regent chuckled, raising his scepter upwards. "You know we need you, Tats. You're our only Thinker. What would we do without your crazy guesses?"
"Guesses? What is that you think I..."
Grue smiled warmly and was glad that his helmet hid his expression. He didn't need his team knowing that sometimes he actually liked them. "Let's go. Undersiders, we go in fast and we keep moving. Regent, trip Lung up any chance you get. Tattletale, keep me informed on what you think he's going to do. We each touch this guy and we get the hell out. Let's do this!"
Bitch barked out orders to her dogs, Judas, Brutus and Angelica, and the Undersiders headed towards Lung.
Tattletale & The Undersiders
Tattletale looked at the scene before her through her binoculars, her power putting the information together.
Two capes, rookies obviously, were under a golden dome that seemed like something Lady Photon would make.
She obviously wasn't here. She'd be fighting Lung obviously. But...about Lung. Lung...Lung was different, very different.
She could tell that he looked different. That much was obvious from his new appearance as he flew above the roof raining down fire, but there was more than that at play.
His power had changed as well.
Scales no longer armor plated, now organic. Strength increases at the expense of speed. Regeneration much more rapid, bursts of growth and healing, much less gradual. Adaptation to damage, instead of pure growth. Not using new abilities properly, not adjusted...unsure of how to fight in new body.
Lung had changed, yes, but he was mostly the same. Honestly, the change to his appearance was more interesting than his powers.
He appeared to be something similar to a Chinese Lung Dragon with twin sets of wings other than the metal lizard thing he vaguely looked like before.
The other figure, the golden kid, was much more interesting. He had been fighting Lung for almost five minutes and had been holding his own, at least until Lung impaled him. But that didn't even stop him for long.
Able to fight in close quarters with Lung, puncture wound on chest healed in under a minute...powerful healing factor, Brute Rating High. Glow increases with use of power. Power temporary? No...alternate power source. Glows when stronger or faster...alternate power source limited.NOT HUMAN?
Smiled and laughed during fight. Fight crazy? Yes...no. Enjoyed fighting Lung...enjoyed the danger or no...? Enjoyed using power. Power addictive. Possible mental issues.
NOT HUMAN?
Holding back? Yes....no. Maybe. Partially trained. Only using tiny portion of power. Still getting stronger.NOT HUMAN.
Tattletale winced as she felt a slight twinge of pain. She quickly shook it off. It wasn't a real headache, anyway. Maybe the beginning of one, but not yet. She had to finish this.
The longer she looked at the golden guy, the more she began to wonder if he wasn't a member of New Wave that they don't let the public know about because of mental issues.
Possible...facial structure similar to Carol Dallon. Hair color too golden. New Wave hair color ranges from honey blonde or light blonde.NOT HUMAN.
Some connection possible. Displays several powers similar to Lady Photon and Brandish. Energy blasts, shields, glowing...,NOT HUMAN.
Possible offspring of member of New Wave. Possibility of infidelity from Carol Dallon...High? NOT HUMAN. NOT HUMAN. NOT HUMAN.
Tattletale blinked at the conclusion her power came to before smirking. 'Juicy...'
Shield still strong. Has not weakened. Completely impervious to harm? No. Diffusing heat away from area of protection...Only protects against flames? No...Yes?...No/Yes. Both.
'How does that even work? Both? What is this? Schrodinger's Cape? Nothing tonight barely makes any sense.
Lung looks like one of those Chinese Dragons and his powers don't even work the same. I know he was still the same earlier tonight. I saw him. Metal scales and all.
Then that kid showed up...'Tattletale paused and turned around to stare at the rest of the Undersiders behind her, all of them sitting on one of Bitch's dogs like she was and waiting for her to finally say something. She turned back to Lung and looked at him again.
Lung's strength and speed ramped up much faster than normal. Not currently fighting and yet not powering down. Keeping up his own transformation? Power seems to have gotten stronger. Touched Gold Rookie earlier, ability increased in strength and functionality. G.R. has a Trump rating. Makes powers stronger...permanently.
A big smile crossed her face and she turned back to her teammates. "Fucking Trumps..."whispered Tattletale to herself.
Grue tilted his head, his face obscured by the mask he had on, and cautiously spoke to Tattletale. "What's going on Tattletale? What can you tell us?"
Pointing an arm in the direction of the golden kid, Lung and the other cape, Tattletale smirked. "We're going down there."
"...where Lung is?"
"Yeah, I thought the idea was to get away from the angry dragon man, not go towards him," added Regent.
Bitch said nothing.
"No, we don't want Lung," Tattletale said with a shake of her head, "The kid down there who was fighting Lung. All you need to do is grab onto him for a second or two and then run."
There was silence from her teammates, interspersed with the faint sounds of Lung's roaring and the heavy breathing of the three dogs they sat on.
Regent broke it.
He chuckled softly and spoke, "So we're playing tag now?"
Bitch said nothing.
Grue sighed, the darkness around his head rippling with every word he spoke. "Tattletale, what are you talking about?"
"That glowing cape, down there fighting Lung, is a Brute, Blaster, Mover, Shaker and a Trump. Emphasis on the Trump."
Grue turned over to Regent, as if to ask him if he knew where she was going with this, only to receive a lazy shrug in return.
He had been curious ever since they had seen the blonde cape show up and start joking around with Lung but he had not been anywhere curious enough to risk his life when Lung was already looking for them. Tattletale had asked him to stick around. He had agreed, after some arguing.
When Lung had turned into a giant red lizard instead of his usual metallic form, Grue had decided that they were leaving.
Tattletale had informed him that her power had discerned that Lung had long forgotten about them in his rage so the team had decided to stick around so Tattletale could learn more.
Now, Lung was fucking huge and trying to Now, Lung was fucking huge and trying to kill two capes, Tattletale had said they were rookies, and Grue was pretty sure Tattletale only cared about what she could find out about the new arrivals to the cape scene. He didn't really care at this point.
Tattletale had been using her binoculars to get a closer look at the action even though all of them could see the light show as it was only a few buildings away.
Regent raised a hand toward Tattletale in a motion that clearly said 'continue'.
"And why are we sticking around? He's clearly got this handled."
Tattletale smirked, a smug expression that was familiar on her face. "You guys really don't get it at all, do you?"
Bitch growled, Brutus following her lead with a deep rumbling beneath her. "No. We don't. Explain or shut up."
Regent snickered and turned to look over at Grue, the two of them sharing another look. Well, Regent was pretty sure Grue was sharing a look with him.
With the motorcycle helmet and all the black smoke around him, Grue could be making faces at him all day and he would never know.
'Maybe he is making faces at me all the time. That would make a lot of sense, for sure. I do make fun of him a lot. That's probably the way he gets back at me...yeah...I should prank him for that. Syrup in his helmet or something...yeah...yeah...what was I thinking about again? Tattletale...no...Wait...Bitch said something.'
"Yeah...what Bitch said." 'Good one, Alec, good one.'
Tattletale huffed. "No appreciation...none at all. Okay, you guys see Lung, right?"
Grue rolled his eyes, well aware that no one else could see the action. "No, Tattletale, the giant fire breathing dragon is completely invisible. Yes...we see Lung."
"Anyway...Notice anything different?"
Grue paused before speaking again. "I don't know...He's red and bigger...four wings are new and he's skinnier and longer."
Tattletale's smirk returned. "Exactly and the golden rookie down there is responsible for Lung's new makeover. He's a Trump that boosts powers...permanently. All it takes is a touch for a few seconds."
All three of her teammates froze as they processed what Tattletale just said. The smug smirk on Tattletale's face increased as her team looked at her silently.
Grue was the first to break the silence, shifting uncomfortably on Judas. " You're sure about this, Tattletale? Because I don't want to go down there for nothing." 'But if it's to make my powers stronger, I'd definitely risk it.'
Tattletale tapped her forehead with a wink. "As sure as anything else."
Regent smirked. "Then let's do this. Bitch, you in?"
The dog-masked cape nodded and answered in a gruff, succinct manner. "Yes."
Tattletale ran up and climbed up on Brutus. Brutus?
Darker patterns on hindquarters.
Asymmetric bone ridges on muzzle.
Jagged ear pattern
Yeah, it was Brutus.
Anyway, she climbed behind Bitch and held on tight. "All set. What would you guys do without me?"
Regent chuckled, raising his scepter upwards. "You know we need you, Tats. You're our only Thinker. What would we do without your crazy guesses?"
"Guesses? What is that you think I..."
Grue smiled warmly and was glad that his helmet hid his expression. He didn't need his team knowing that sometimes he actually liked them. "Let's go. Undersiders, we go in fast and we keep moving. Regent, trip Lung up any chance you get. Tattletale, keep me informed on what you think he's going to do. We each touch this guy and we get the hell out. Let's do this!"
Bitch barked out orders to her dogs, Judas, Brutus and Angelica, and the Undersiders headed towards Lung.
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
No, I HAVEN'T. Have you read The Wall or On A Pale Horse? I'm still struggling with characterization of some of the characters. It takes me forever to update. Fist bump, regardless. I wish I had a steady beta though. I don't need spelling or grammar help just flow and plothole checking.
Cherico
Machine
You write action better then I do, and writing action is god damned hard.
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
Thanks.
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
If anyone wants to beta the next chapter, I'm ready. Again, I do not need grammar or spelling Betas. I need someone to pay attention to the plot to point out any plotholes or issues with the story. Thanks for reading, by the way.
Complications 2.3
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
I would like to thank @Mohamud, @LordCirce, and my new, hopefully official beta, @IrrationalSandwich for their ideas on how to make this chapter better. Because of their help, I was able to get this chapter from it's original 1.8 words to the 6k piece it is now.
Complications 2.3
With a thunderous crash, Greg landed on the already damaged street, adding a rather impressive crater to it's collection of ditches, gaps and generally torn apart pavement.
Oddly enough, the fall had barely even jostled the figure he held in his arms, the still unnamed bug-controlling cape. Greg thought that was odd but he would think about that later. He had to get the female cape to safety immediately.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"
Now if she would only stop screaming. Even if his hearing wasn't enhanced, it would be annoying. With his new super hearing, it was like nails on chalkboard and a distraction he didn't really need right now. Honestly, why was she still even screaming anyway?
The fall was only a few seconds long and Greg was pretty sure she didn't break any bones. Hell, he doubted she was even hurt. Which, now that he thought about it, was really strange. It made no sense at all. 'The building was just over twenty stories tall, so roughly 70 meters. Together, we weighed around 280 pounds and we fell for about 4 seconds. We should have hit the ground with at least an average of 2 million Newtons of force. Why isn't she pulp? ....That really doesn't matter. That's a question for later.' Apart from the admittedly stupid idea of jumping off the building, he was doing his very best to keep her safe and she was still screaming her head off. What was the big deal now?
Greg paused that train of thought and made a quick jumping movement to the right, leaping over the burned husk of a car with a good ten feet to spare, as the ground beneath his feet suddenly burst open in a relatively small explosion as a fireball impacted behind him , sending flames and red hot gravel into the air. Lung's roar from behind him was almost palpable in the rage it held.
Ah, that was it. Lung, of course, how did he not realize it before? She was scared of Lung.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"
Make that VERY scared of Lung. Did she really have to scream in his ear though? He did have enhanced hearing. That shit got annoying real fast.
With a quick glance behind him, Greg leapt into the air and scaled a building in less than three steps before he kicked off the wall in front of him, bounding away just as Lung's tail lanced through the building in front of him, tearing through brick and mortar like a hot steak knife.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Maybe it wasn't just Lung. After all, the dragon had tried to roast her a few minutes ago and she had barely screamed. In fact, she froze up. 'So, why is she screaming now?' Greg thought to himself. 'She should be distracting Lung, not making my ears bleed.' "Hey, Bug Lady, use your bugs already!"
She stopped her shrieking and looked up at him, her insect-like mask shuddering slightly. "I-I-I can't."
'Ah...shit.'
Greg turned on a dime, doubling back in the opposite direction and running directly under Lung, prompting the scarlet dragon-man to roar in anger.
Greg dodged a gout of flame that Lung sent at his retreating figure, causing Bug Lady to emit another shriek. "What do you mean, 'you can't'?"
Bug Lady's voice wavered a bit as she responded, "L-Lung can fly and he's moving way too fast. I've tried getting close to him but most of the bugs that even touch him die."
"...fuck."
Greg poured on the speed, his legs pumping fast enough to outpace a Formula 1 car and his glow increasing in intensity. Despite his incredible rate of movement and superhuman agility, Lung was still keeping up. His new snakelike body was somehow fast and agile enough to keep up with much smaller targets, following each and every one of Greg's attempts to avoid him.
It was kind of annoying, actually. It wasn't like he didn't want to fight Lung. He did. He really, really, really, did. It was just the matter of the girl in his arms, the squishy girl who was not wearing a fireproof suit. It's not like he could fight Lung with her in his arms.
Could he?
All he'd have to do is use his feet to fight Lung and be more careful around his flames, and claws and...that fucking tail. It could work. Kicks do have more force behind them than punches.
No...no...just...no. That's crazy. But maybe....NO. Greg shook his head at the thought. Now was not the time to be thinking of stuff like that. Safety first for the squishy person.
"BUUUUUUURRRRRRRRN!!!"
The street in front of Greg exploded as gouts of flame fell from the sky, tearing apart what little remained of whatever street Lung had decided to rampage. Greg winced and dug in his heels, leaving grooves in the already destroyed pavement. The heat from the explosion were powerful and spreading fast. The many wooden buildings that made up the Docks went up like dry tinder, tinging the night sky orange with the amount of light the inferno emitted.
'Fuck RUNNING! He's gonna destroy everything in Brockton at this rate and Bug Lady might die! No more fucking around.'
Mindful of the female cape still holding onto his neck, Greg spun around so he was facing the quickly approaching Lung and ran towards him, surprising both Lung as he halted his undulating snake-like movement and the Bug Lady, if the increased pitch of her screaming actually meant something about her emotional state. God, he wish he had some duct tape right now!
With a bit more effort than usual, Greg forced a portion of energy into his right hand, causing the golden aura around him to dim for a second, and a flash of golden light flew from his hands, moving quicker than Greg had thought possible.
Lung apparently didn't think it possible either as he simply hung in the air, wings still flapping, staring silently at the spot where his limousine sized left arm/shoulder formerly occupied. Even the Bug Girl had stopped screaming and gaped at the cauterized nub that took the place of Lung's wickedly spiked limb.
Greg was shocked as well but, as usual, his mind was already somewhere else. 'He's not even roaring or anything. Does it hurt him? Maybe it doesn't. He's so massive, he probably barely feels pain anymore. He did just lose an arm, though. He's definitely going to be pissed, though...I wonder if he'd be angry enough to eat me. Does Lung eat people? He probably does. Dude is a dragon. Dragons do that. I mean, it's not cannibalism if you're a dragon, right? It's just normal dragon business. Eating people, setting things on fire. Dragon stuff.'
Greg's inane inner monologue was suddenly interrupted by a quick feeling of pressure on his face and he looked down to see the Bug Girl out of his arms and shaking her hand. 'Did she just slap me?...and when did she let go of me?'
The girl had already started running away from Lung and Greg but not before yelling behind her,"Run, dummy! Stop staring off into space like an idiot and run!"
The Bug Girl's screams woke not only Greg, but Lung as well from their separate dazes. Lung roared in anger and pain, his bellows sounding less like a human and more like a wounded animal and he lunged downward toward Greg.
Greg turned on his heels and ran, attempting to put as much distance between himself and the rampaging dragon.
He didn't get far.
With the force of a semi-trailer, Lung's massive head crashed into Greg's retreating back, sending the young hero sprawling into the hot, jagged pavement. Greg hissed in pain as he felt his ribs crack and he tried to roll with the force of the blow, bashing his head on the rough street.
He gasped weakly, struggling to draw breath, and rolled over quickly in an attempt to get up. Greg jumped up quickly, ignoring the blinding pain in abdomen, and not a second too late. Lung's razor sharp tail stabbed through the spot where he once was, gouging a deep gash into the ground. Landing on the ground with a wheeze, Greg was not ready for the torrent of flame that Lung spewed from his maw.
Striking at him with a physical force, the blast of flame exploded as soon as it struck him, sending him flying. Everything burned. He didn't know how far he flew or where he was going and he didn't care. He just wanted it to stop. Greg's vision went black.
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Sounds...roaring...sirens...gunshots...crashes...something was wrong.
His face...his chest...arms...legs...breathing...Everything hurt. Everything hurt so much.
His body screamed in pain and his muscles burned. Blood filled his throat, filling his mouth with an iron taste. One of his arms hurt less than the other. He didn't know why and, right now, he didn't care. His skin also felt strange. It hurt, just like everything else but it felt...odd. Thick. Not right. Why? Why did everything hurt?
Greg forced himself to open his eyes, a slight movement that felt like the hardest thing he had ever done. He moved his neck, odd gasping noises involuntarily being emitted from his throat at the pain. He looked up, an oddly shaped hole in a dust-covered wooden wall the first thing he saw. He was in a room, a dusty, empty, insect-ridden room. Small flames were all over the place, threatening to converge into a blaze but a strong breeze prevented them from truly lighting up. 'Flames? Fire...was there an explosion?'
Greg attempted to sit up and nearly bit his tongue from the spasm of pain that ran through him. His head spun and he tried again, managing to pull himself up on one knee before nearly letting out a scream of pain. 'What...happened? Where am I?'
His breathing got heavier with every single moment of pain that he tortured himself with. Something was wrong, that much he knew. If he was hurt, what about Mom? Something could have happened. Where was the Boss? Why didn't Evron help? What was going on? The inside of the building was almost pitch black. It was abandoned, of course, so it lacked electricity. An orange light came from the hole in the wall. Greg needed to see.
Pulling himself up, Greg held on to the dilapidated walls of the rustic building as a support. Knees buckling from the pain, he made his way over to the hole and looked out.
With the available light, Greg noticed several things that he felt were rather pertinent to figuring out what had happened to him.
He was wearing...something...that seemed to be barely hanging on. It seemed to be white and gold, or at least it had been at one point. It was burnt and torn in several places, damaged beyond repair. His entire chest was bare and so were his forearms and feet. 'Did I make myself a costume? To fight? Did Ev give it to me? What the hell happened?'
His hands and, from what he could tell, most of his skin was burnt, severely burnt. So burnt that his skin was leathery, bleeding and peeling in most places. One of his arms, the left one, was little more than hamburger meat, almost completely unrecognizable as a limb. A burnt piece of meat maybe, but not an arm. "Wh-w-w-what is this? How could this happen? Why do I look like this? My skin...", Greg raised his hand to his face, the leathery sensation the same as on his hands, "my face..."
Greg raised his hand slowly to his scalp, dreading what he would feel. "...my hair..." It wasn't as bad as he thought but it was much, much worse than he hoped. The sides of his scalp were gone, leaving bleeding leathery skin in it's place. The only hair on his head was in a style that resembled a mohawk.
Greg fell to his knees, ignoring the screaming pain that his body was trying to force him to acknowledge. So many questions were running through his mind. So many, many questions. "What happened? What am I wearing? Why am I like this?...WHAT IS GOING ON?!!! I DON'T UND-!!!"
An intense roar interrupted Greg's breakdown and a massive slitted black and red eye surrounded by scarlet scales and ebony spikes appeared in the space leading to the outside. Greg shrieked and jumped back, fear overriding the signals of intense pain his body was sending him. With the sound of tearing wood and a rush of air, the ceiling above Greg dissapeared and he bore witness to the massive, serpentine, winged form of a dragon above him.
"What the-?"
He didn't get a chance to finish.
The dragon roared and an orange burst of flame shot from it's gaping maw.
An influx of images and thoughts hit Greg simultaneously as he recalled the events of tonight and recognized the appearance of the beast in front of him.
'Lung?...Lung. Lung!!!'
Time slowed down and the look of fear plastered on Greg's voice changed to one of glee. Slightly unhinged, manic, glee but glee all the same. Unnoticed by Greg, golden lights darted all around his skin, returning small portions of his skin to normal. His left arm glowed as well but nothing much happened to the mangled lump of meat.
The car-sized ball of flame rushed downwards and just before it landed, Greg moved.
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The abandoned house the blonde brat was in exploded, Lung's intense flame consuming the old wood of the rustic dwelling and spreading to other houses.
Lung's sharp eyes darted all around, searching for signs of the blonde's corpse anywhere. He knew that didn't kill him. He saw the smile on his face. That fucking brat needed to die. That little shit fucked with Him! Him! Lung!!! Tried to fucking ambush him! He wouldn't stop until he was sure he was done! Rip his arms off and eat them. That bug bitch too!!! She made Him eat bugs! He would find that Bug Bitch and roast her, roast her until she was nice and cooked, then eat her. No! No, she'd probably taste like fucking bugs.
The white boy! Yes, eat him first! One of Kaiser's, definitely! Kaiser, yes! Eat Kaiser next! Crunch his little shell like a crab! Stupid Kaiser kept trying to fight Him! The Dragon of Brockton Bay. Wouldn't stop attacking His men because someone burnt and ate some of his Nazis. Not Him! His hunger was new! Very new! As new as his new powers. He didn't know or care how his powers had changed or why but he was just so HUNGRY.
"WHERE ARE YOU?!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!!!!"
Lung darted in and out of the buildings in the Docks in his search for the blonde Kaiser brat, uncaring of the damage that his flames had caused and were still causing. The PRT and Protectorate wouldn't stop him, couldn't stop him even if they tried. They were busy fighting the gang war that fucking Kaiser started. He could only take a few men with him to kill those fucking kids that stole from Him. Lee and most of his men were in the streets fighting Kaiser and his Nazis. They were going to win. Lung knew it. At least, they better fucking win! If they didn't, he'd be fucking mad. He wouldn't eat Lee, though. Lee was good. Lee was a friend. Besides, he'd probably taste like dust.
Where the hell was this kid? Lung descended to the ground until he was at the roof level of some of the smaller buildings and tried to focus on his senses, intent on hunting down the kid and eating him alive. His hearing was useless. The sound of crackling flames and falling buildings all around would drown out any sounds the boy would make, his heartbeat especially. His sense of smell would not be much help in this situation either. Everything was on fire. Lung could smell plenty of burnt flesh all around, several of them his own men, but he couldn't tell them apart. He couldn't smell, he couldn't hear. What was he supposed to do?
Suddenly, a sound hit Lung's ears. Gasping, and a pained moaning from one of the rooftops around him. Which one? Where was he? Lung roared in an attempt to scare the boy into running.
Nothing.
No...footsteps. Behind him! No! In front! Left! Right! Where is he? "NO POINT HIDING!!! YOU'LL STILL DIE!!!", he spoke in that odd gravelly, yet clear rumbling bass.
The corona of flame around Lung grew, appearing more as a massive aura of fire, and massive balls of fire formed in his fists at the same time as another formed in his mouth.
With an unearthly roar, Lung exploded with the force of over thirty tons of TNT, sending a blast wave rushing from the epicenter of the explosion, namely Lung.
An inferno rushed out from him in all directions, creating a blazing dome of pure death that encompassed more than three entire blocks, collapsing many buildings and melting cars to slag. A large portion of the Docks had been destroyed in the fight already but this area, this area was little more than flat ground.
Lung breathed heavily, more out of rage than any exertion or tiredness. 'That had to kill him. It had to. Kaiser's gonna regret sending his little Junior Nazi Brute to fight me.'
Despite the scene of utter decimation that was once part of the Docks, Lung couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about the boy's death...something was definitely wrong. The boy had fought him with a tremendous strength, a good amount of skill as well, but the strength and speed were what had caught his eye. Lung had stabbed him in the chest and less than a minute later, he was ready for more. He was a Brute, definitely a high level Brute, he wasn't going down that easily. Lung's eyes shifted around, searching for any trace of the little Nazi fucker.
His ears twitched and he heard...something. Lung whipped his large head around several times, looking for the cause of the sound. It was almost like a soft whistling on the wind, definitely not something a normal human would ever pick up.
Lung hung in the air for a second more, wondering exactly what that odd sound was, and on a whim he looked up as a glowing yellow missile slammed into his skull from above.
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Greg Veder liked to think he was a guy with simple needs. He liked anime, porn, hentai, nerdy girls, porn, capes and junk food. Also, porn. Weed would be on that list but his only access to it was Sparky and he was usually busy at his dad's restaurant. Did he mention porn? Anyway, he had felt like things had been a little different in the month since he had gotten his powers. Evron had told him that physical improvements were soon to come and they did. He had gotten ABS! His muscles were toned and firm. He was a little disappointed that his junk hadn't grown since he had changed but he figured that at the rate his powers were growing, he'd need two rulers soon. Although, when he had asked Evron about it, he had stared at him quietly for a good thirty seconds before laughing so he assumed that was normal.
Greg liked having powers, he really did. The novelty of being able to chuck a four door sedan the length of a city block or being able to outpace a car on the highway hadn't worn off yet and he hoped it never would. However, Greg had been feeling...odd. Maybe he was losing it, he didn't know, but he had been acting oddly. His mother had noticed his new appearance and had also noticed his odd personality changes. When Greg first noticed his muscles, he had spent hours in front of the mirror, naked, admiring his new form. He hadn't stopped. Everyday, he would admire himself for a period of time that any regular person would consider too long. His stringy blonde hair had gained life and volume, the golden color brighter than ever. His skin had gone from pasty from his many years inside and in front of a screen to a porcelain complexion that he personally described as "beautiful". That wasn't him. He would never describe himself as beautiful. Handsome, maybe, but not beautiful. It was so ridiculous that he had to buy extra storage cards for his phone because of all the selfies he had been taking!
It wasn't just his appearance. While training with Evron, he had noticed himself exhibiting certain skills no one had ever taught him. He had instinctively known how to use weapons in a fight even though he had never done so before and, frankly, his hand-to-hand skills weren't bad either. He had displayed a ferocity when training with Ev that was just not like him. Tonight had proved that something was up. Any normal person that was fighting someone whose powers are "gets stronger when fights" would not do what he had done tonight. He had prolonged the battle, taunted Lung, held back on his blasts and rarely used them, preferring to get in close to someone who was much stronger than he was and literally breathed fire. He had laughed in the middle of the whole thing. Laughed...At...Lung! Something was wrong there.
His final clue was his lengthy inner monologues and the weird tone they seemed to be taking. Greg was not one to think much. He was a pretty smart guy but he didn't think much. He was usually doing something he liked, watching porn or doing something boring. Now, he seemed to be analyzing everything and trying to pay attention to almost every situation all the time. Sometimes, his thoughts would be smart and logical, like right now, allowing him to realize things or other times they would be a stupid and inane rambling that pretty much resembled how he usually spoke.
'Either way,' he thought to himself, 'I've got to talk to the Boss about it. Now I've got to focus.' And he did, have to focus, that is. Greg was currently in freefall headed directly toward Lung. The giant lizard had been hunting him while he was still struggling to recover from the initial attack that had left him painfully burnt. 'And ruined my hair!'
He had made his way to the roof of a warehouse and Lung had been close on his trail. He had hid as the soft golden glow had healed whatever pain he had been feeling all over his body while leaving his hideous burns untouched. The dragon hadn't known where he was hiding but Lung could tell he was close. Then Lung had the brilliant idea of nuking everything around him in a blaze of glory. He had seen the buildup of Lung's flames and had pushed a large amount of Zirin to his leg muscles to increase his jumping power. It had felt...not painful but odd, like the feeling you had when your leg was asleep but magnified by ten times, almost as if insects were inside his veins or under his skin. He had jumped just in time. His leap had carried him very high, high enough that he worried he might be hit by a low-flying plane. It also allowed him to see the extent of the damage Lung had caused. Lung's explosion had destroyed everything for blocks. Greg winced at the thought of all the people that may have been living in that area. All gone...
'I'm going to put him down this time. No jokes. No playing around.'
Greg angled his body until he was almost completely vertical and his feet were pointing downwards, one foot extended out. His golden glow returned to his skin and he felt a sense of confidence return to him, overshadowing all the doubts he just had.
He was moving faster and faster, the angle of his body increasing the speed of his fall with every passing second. Lung became visible as more than a red worm and Greg grinned, his light show increasing.
As if in slow motion, he noticed Lung tilt his head upwards. An instant later, Greg, glowing as bright as Scion himself, delivered a kick to Lung's cranium at terminal velocity.
Several loud cracking noises were heard as Lung's skull was penetrated by Greg's right foot, sending bone shrapnel from said skull flying, and Greg's right leg broke in several places due to coming in contact with something as hard as Lung's head.
Lung fell to the ground with an ungrateful crash and began thrashing viciously, jerky motions bearing the signs of intense pain rather than anger, in an attempt to free itself of whatever was currently stuck in it's cranium. His arms attempted to move but would instead spasm, leaving him unable to grasp Greg. Flames burst from his body at random intervals, doing nothing to harm the already destroyed environment. Lung was unconscious, most likely his body's attempt at dealing with the pain of having his skull caved in.
Greg cried out as he felt a renewed sense of pain as he felt his already broken bones crack and shift while Lung's muscles seized up as he shook violently on the ruined street. 'Come on! Finish this! End it!' Greg steeled himself, biting his tongue in an attempt to stop his cries of pain. Zirin was sent flowing to his right fist, the sensation of pins and needles flaring up again, and a golden blade formed. Greg held it over Lung's basketball sized, open, unseeing eye. He could do this...right? Just once through his eye and everything would be over. No more Lung. The ABB would collapse. One of the biggest problems of Brockton Bay gone, just like that.
'Just stab him!!! Come on! He tried to kill you! DO IT!' In a quick motion, Greg plunged the incredibly sharp blade through Lung's eye up to his elbow. He ignored the slick, disgusting, wet feeling on his arm and twisted the blade before pulling out. He watched Lung's unmoving body for a few moments, watching...waiting...Lung opened his other eye and gave a weak roar of pain, one of his eyes ruined and bleeding intensely. Greg reacted immediately, the golden blade plunging into Lung's one remaining eye and he pushed even deeper, not stopping until his shoulder was immersed completely in Lung's ocular cavity. He gave a few more stabs for good measure until he was sure Lung wasn't getting back up. No breathing...no movement...
Wincing at the pain, Greg pulled his damaged leg from Lung's cranium and lay on the sidewalk using Lung's dead body to prop himself up. 'I did it!' He had, in fact, done it. This was it. His crowning moment. He was beaten, bloody, bruised, horrifically burnt and mostly hairless but he had defeated Lung. He was so tired. Everything hurt. His body felt like ants were crawling under every inch of his skin and he felt like throwing up everything he had ever eaten. But...he won.
This was a hard fight and he was...just...so...tired. He didn't even have the strength to yawn. He closed his eyes for a moment. He just wanted to rest...but that wasn't going to happen. Sounds...barking....growling...sniffing. He opened his eyes to see three large...things standing a little bit away from him. He wasn't sure what they were. They looked like an animal Tinker took a dog, a lizard and a lion together and just went apeshit trying to make something...workable.
People were on the dog-lizard-lion things...young people. Five of them, really. They all seemed to have their eyes on the massive mountain of red scales behind him. A guy with a motorcycle helmet and leather jacket with black smoke coming out of his helmet. 'Dark Helmet', thought Greg to himself, the blood loss beginning to get to him. A girl with a bug mask and long, curly black hair. "Hey, Bug Lady!" The Bug Lady waved back. A somewhat unfeminine girl with a dog mask on that was standing by the dog things. She looked mean. 'Bitch.' Greg laughed at his own joke. A guy with black hair wearing a tiara, white mask and a poofy shirt and holding onto a jeweled stick. '...Gay Prince.' The last person was the one walking up to him. A pretty blonde girl in a domino mask and a skintight purple and black outfit. "Pretty..."
She smiled at him and held out a hand, barely even glancing at Lung's dead body just an arms length away. "Hi there, handsome. Need some help getting up?"
Greg stared at her hand for a moment before nodding. He grabbed on to her hand and she helped pull him to his feet, with a small grunt. "...Thank you," Greg replied as he leaned on Lung's body for support, his leg still broken in several places.
She stepped closer, her hand still in his, almost as if she didn't care that he was covered in dirt, soot, and various bodily fluids. Not to mention terribly burnt and nearly bald. "My name's Tattletale, What's yours?"
For a moment, all Greg could think about was what type of parents would name their daughter Tattletale until he realized that the name Tattletale was her cape name. "...I'm Superior."
Tattletale smirked and softly held his visible bicop on his right arm. The left was still too mangled. "Yes, you are...Your first night and you took down Lung? Impressive."
"Thank you."
Tattletale glanced at Lung carefully before giving Greg a kind smile. Turning around, she waved for her friends/teammates to come over and they did, walking slowly but none so much as the Bug Lady, who flinched everytime she saw the scarlet Dragon. "Superior, these are my friends." Black Helmet walked up, shook his hand vigorously for a few second before letting go. "Grue, the leader." The next one up was the skinny crown guy, Gay Prince. "Meet Regent." Gay Prince nodded at him and gave him a handshake as well. "Bitch" 'I was right? Wow, maybe I'm a precog, too.' Bitch stepped forward and looked at Greg for a few seconds before she placed a hand on his bare shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. "Good job." There was an awkward silence between everyone there that held until Bitch walked away. "And last but not least, our newest member, Arachne. We found her lost and running away from the fight between the Big Bad Lung and a powerful new Hero. " The Bug Lady...Arachne stepped forward and tilted her head at Greg while at the same time keeping her distance from Lung's corpse. "I really want to thank you for saving me. You didn't have to but you did...and I'm sorry I was being so...difficult. I didn't expect any of this to happen.'
Greg smiled at her, lack of blood making his smile more lopsided than charming. "No problem. I am a hero after all. Who are you guys, anyway?"
He heard an odd low-pitched humming sound coming closer to them. He apparently wasn't the only one. "Armsmaster!", growled Bitch.
They all turned to look at her. Tattletale nodded. "She's telling the truth! We have to go now!"
"Wait, why? He's a hero."
They ran to their dog-things, Arachne lagging behind, and as they climbed on, Tattletale turned to me. "Bye, Superior. Don't worry about your burns, they'll heal up."
And with that, the dogs bounded away. Just in time for the source of the low-pitched humming to appear. Armsmaster rode up on his blue and silver ArmsCycle, as it was known on PHO. In a single movement, he shut off his bike and jumped off, his Halberd in hand. Armsmaster was one of Greg's favorite heroes, an honor that only belonged to one other cape, Eidolon. He owned Armsmaster action figures, bedspreads, backpacks, posters and tool sets. A week ago, Greg would have given up half the things he owned to meet Armsmaster. Right now, he didn't give a shit.
They stood a few meters apart from each other, engaged in a staring contest, one of them a social outcast and a nerd who had worked hard to achieve things people would have thought impossible coming from him and the other was one Greg Lucas Veder.
Armsmaster broke the silence first.
"You gonna fight me?"
That...was not what Greg expected. He wasn't sure what he had expected but this...this wasn't it.
"...Really, dude? Do I look like I'm a villain?"
Armsmaster simply stared. "I don't know. I have no records of you. Are you?"
Greg sighed heavily, ignoring the pain in his lungs and wishing he could just sleep. He was tired. He was half-naked, bleeding, bruised, broken and mask-less, and that last one opened up a shitload of problems on it's own. He had just killed Lung and this fucker was giving him this right now. He didn't have time for this shit.
"No. I'm a hero!", Greg yelled out, more than a tinge of annoyance in his tone.
There was a pause from Armsmaster,
"...You're not...lying." He sounded off, almost as if he wasn't sure about what he was saying. "What happened here?"
"Lung was ranting about killing some kids. and then...
Armsmaster tilted his head in surprise at the first statement before shaking his head and interrupting Greg. "This is Lung? Why is his appearance so different?"
Greg sighed. "Beats me. Anyway I tried to stop him. We fought, I ran, We fought some more. He almost killed me a couple times. We fought again. I killed him," replied Greg glibly.
That's not true."
Greg spluttered weakly. "W-what are you talking about? I killed him when he was rampaging."
Armsmaster pointed at Lung's mass. " He's breathing. It's rather weak but it's still there. I should get him into custody immediately."
Greg shrugged, somewhat disappointed that he hadn't killed Lung after all his work.
Armsmaster aimed his Halberd at lung shot several rounds of some type of tranquilizer dart that stuck themselves in his hide. He pressed a button somewhere on his Halberd and the tip opened up, revealing a small nozzle which then sprayed containment foam all over Lung. When he considered Lung's unconscious form properly restrained, he turned back to Greg. "We still have something else to deal with."
Before Greg could even open his mouth, Armsmaster continued. "Who gets the credit for Lung?"
Greg recoiled and glared at him. "What do you mean? I took down Lung! I get the credit!"
"Hear me out. What you've done tonight is spectacular. You played a part in getting a major villain into custody."
Greg's blood boiled. "Played a part? You-you-you ASS! I DID EVERYTHING! I kicked his ass! I caved his skull in! I stabbed his eyes out!!!" 'Some hero.'
Armsmaster backed up, obviously not expecting this level of vehemence from Greg. "Listen, you need to consider the consequences."
"Consequences?! Fuck your consequences!!! I got stabbed in the chest by Lung's fucking tail! My arm looks like it belongs on a fucking sesame seed bun! I look like a piece of steak someone left on the grill too long! My hair is gone!!! Lung burnt off my goddamn mask. He saw my fucking face already!!!", Greg roared, bloody spit flying from his mouth as he shouted at the leader of the local Protectorate. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he began to limp forward. "I went through hell to kill this fucker and you want to take that from me?!!! I'LL FUCKI-oh, that feels weird..."
Greg paused and looked down to see a familiar red dart sticking out of his chest. He looked up at Armsmaster who was pressing another button on his Halberd, returning it to pocket size with a whoosh of air.
The whole world was turning, spinning young Mr. Veder around like a cheap ride at a carnival. Greg felt himself stumbling and before he knew it, he was lying on the floor. He looked up to see Armsmaster standing above him, expression as grim as usual. He had to say something. "You fucker..."Greg knew no more.
Complications 2.3
With a thunderous crash, Greg landed on the already damaged street, adding a rather impressive crater to it's collection of ditches, gaps and generally torn apart pavement.
Oddly enough, the fall had barely even jostled the figure he held in his arms, the still unnamed bug-controlling cape. Greg thought that was odd but he would think about that later. He had to get the female cape to safety immediately.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"
Now if she would only stop screaming. Even if his hearing wasn't enhanced, it would be annoying. With his new super hearing, it was like nails on chalkboard and a distraction he didn't really need right now. Honestly, why was she still even screaming anyway?
The fall was only a few seconds long and Greg was pretty sure she didn't break any bones. Hell, he doubted she was even hurt. Which, now that he thought about it, was really strange. It made no sense at all. 'The building was just over twenty stories tall, so roughly 70 meters. Together, we weighed around 280 pounds and we fell for about 4 seconds. We should have hit the ground with at least an average of 2 million Newtons of force. Why isn't she pulp? ....That really doesn't matter. That's a question for later.' Apart from the admittedly stupid idea of jumping off the building, he was doing his very best to keep her safe and she was still screaming her head off. What was the big deal now?
Greg paused that train of thought and made a quick jumping movement to the right, leaping over the burned husk of a car with a good ten feet to spare, as the ground beneath his feet suddenly burst open in a relatively small explosion as a fireball impacted behind him , sending flames and red hot gravel into the air. Lung's roar from behind him was almost palpable in the rage it held.
Ah, that was it. Lung, of course, how did he not realize it before? She was scared of Lung.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"
Make that VERY scared of Lung. Did she really have to scream in his ear though? He did have enhanced hearing. That shit got annoying real fast.
With a quick glance behind him, Greg leapt into the air and scaled a building in less than three steps before he kicked off the wall in front of him, bounding away just as Lung's tail lanced through the building in front of him, tearing through brick and mortar like a hot steak knife.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Maybe it wasn't just Lung. After all, the dragon had tried to roast her a few minutes ago and she had barely screamed. In fact, she froze up. 'So, why is she screaming now?' Greg thought to himself. 'She should be distracting Lung, not making my ears bleed.' "Hey, Bug Lady, use your bugs already!"
She stopped her shrieking and looked up at him, her insect-like mask shuddering slightly. "I-I-I can't."
'Ah...shit.'
Greg turned on a dime, doubling back in the opposite direction and running directly under Lung, prompting the scarlet dragon-man to roar in anger.
Greg dodged a gout of flame that Lung sent at his retreating figure, causing Bug Lady to emit another shriek. "What do you mean, 'you can't'?"
Bug Lady's voice wavered a bit as she responded, "L-Lung can fly and he's moving way too fast. I've tried getting close to him but most of the bugs that even touch him die."
"...fuck."
Greg poured on the speed, his legs pumping fast enough to outpace a Formula 1 car and his glow increasing in intensity. Despite his incredible rate of movement and superhuman agility, Lung was still keeping up. His new snakelike body was somehow fast and agile enough to keep up with much smaller targets, following each and every one of Greg's attempts to avoid him.
It was kind of annoying, actually. It wasn't like he didn't want to fight Lung. He did. He really, really, really, did. It was just the matter of the girl in his arms, the squishy girl who was not wearing a fireproof suit. It's not like he could fight Lung with her in his arms.
Could he?
All he'd have to do is use his feet to fight Lung and be more careful around his flames, and claws and...that fucking tail. It could work. Kicks do have more force behind them than punches.
No...no...just...no. That's crazy. But maybe....NO. Greg shook his head at the thought. Now was not the time to be thinking of stuff like that. Safety first for the squishy person.
"BUUUUUUURRRRRRRRN!!!"
The street in front of Greg exploded as gouts of flame fell from the sky, tearing apart what little remained of whatever street Lung had decided to rampage. Greg winced and dug in his heels, leaving grooves in the already destroyed pavement. The heat from the explosion were powerful and spreading fast. The many wooden buildings that made up the Docks went up like dry tinder, tinging the night sky orange with the amount of light the inferno emitted.
'Fuck RUNNING! He's gonna destroy everything in Brockton at this rate and Bug Lady might die! No more fucking around.'
Mindful of the female cape still holding onto his neck, Greg spun around so he was facing the quickly approaching Lung and ran towards him, surprising both Lung as he halted his undulating snake-like movement and the Bug Lady, if the increased pitch of her screaming actually meant something about her emotional state. God, he wish he had some duct tape right now!
With a bit more effort than usual, Greg forced a portion of energy into his right hand, causing the golden aura around him to dim for a second, and a flash of golden light flew from his hands, moving quicker than Greg had thought possible.
Lung apparently didn't think it possible either as he simply hung in the air, wings still flapping, staring silently at the spot where his limousine sized left arm/shoulder formerly occupied. Even the Bug Girl had stopped screaming and gaped at the cauterized nub that took the place of Lung's wickedly spiked limb.
Greg was shocked as well but, as usual, his mind was already somewhere else. 'He's not even roaring or anything. Does it hurt him? Maybe it doesn't. He's so massive, he probably barely feels pain anymore. He did just lose an arm, though. He's definitely going to be pissed, though...I wonder if he'd be angry enough to eat me. Does Lung eat people? He probably does. Dude is a dragon. Dragons do that. I mean, it's not cannibalism if you're a dragon, right? It's just normal dragon business. Eating people, setting things on fire. Dragon stuff.'
Greg's inane inner monologue was suddenly interrupted by a quick feeling of pressure on his face and he looked down to see the Bug Girl out of his arms and shaking her hand. 'Did she just slap me?...and when did she let go of me?'
The girl had already started running away from Lung and Greg but not before yelling behind her,"Run, dummy! Stop staring off into space like an idiot and run!"
The Bug Girl's screams woke not only Greg, but Lung as well from their separate dazes. Lung roared in anger and pain, his bellows sounding less like a human and more like a wounded animal and he lunged downward toward Greg.
Greg turned on his heels and ran, attempting to put as much distance between himself and the rampaging dragon.
He didn't get far.
With the force of a semi-trailer, Lung's massive head crashed into Greg's retreating back, sending the young hero sprawling into the hot, jagged pavement. Greg hissed in pain as he felt his ribs crack and he tried to roll with the force of the blow, bashing his head on the rough street.
He gasped weakly, struggling to draw breath, and rolled over quickly in an attempt to get up. Greg jumped up quickly, ignoring the blinding pain in abdomen, and not a second too late. Lung's razor sharp tail stabbed through the spot where he once was, gouging a deep gash into the ground. Landing on the ground with a wheeze, Greg was not ready for the torrent of flame that Lung spewed from his maw.
Striking at him with a physical force, the blast of flame exploded as soon as it struck him, sending him flying. Everything burned. He didn't know how far he flew or where he was going and he didn't care. He just wanted it to stop. Greg's vision went black.
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Sounds...roaring...sirens...gunshots...crashes...something was wrong.
His face...his chest...arms...legs...breathing...Everything hurt. Everything hurt so much.
His body screamed in pain and his muscles burned. Blood filled his throat, filling his mouth with an iron taste. One of his arms hurt less than the other. He didn't know why and, right now, he didn't care. His skin also felt strange. It hurt, just like everything else but it felt...odd. Thick. Not right. Why? Why did everything hurt?
Greg forced himself to open his eyes, a slight movement that felt like the hardest thing he had ever done. He moved his neck, odd gasping noises involuntarily being emitted from his throat at the pain. He looked up, an oddly shaped hole in a dust-covered wooden wall the first thing he saw. He was in a room, a dusty, empty, insect-ridden room. Small flames were all over the place, threatening to converge into a blaze but a strong breeze prevented them from truly lighting up. 'Flames? Fire...was there an explosion?'
Greg attempted to sit up and nearly bit his tongue from the spasm of pain that ran through him. His head spun and he tried again, managing to pull himself up on one knee before nearly letting out a scream of pain. 'What...happened? Where am I?'
His breathing got heavier with every single moment of pain that he tortured himself with. Something was wrong, that much he knew. If he was hurt, what about Mom? Something could have happened. Where was the Boss? Why didn't Evron help? What was going on? The inside of the building was almost pitch black. It was abandoned, of course, so it lacked electricity. An orange light came from the hole in the wall. Greg needed to see.
Pulling himself up, Greg held on to the dilapidated walls of the rustic building as a support. Knees buckling from the pain, he made his way over to the hole and looked out.
With the available light, Greg noticed several things that he felt were rather pertinent to figuring out what had happened to him.
He was wearing...something...that seemed to be barely hanging on. It seemed to be white and gold, or at least it had been at one point. It was burnt and torn in several places, damaged beyond repair. His entire chest was bare and so were his forearms and feet. 'Did I make myself a costume? To fight? Did Ev give it to me? What the hell happened?'
His hands and, from what he could tell, most of his skin was burnt, severely burnt. So burnt that his skin was leathery, bleeding and peeling in most places. One of his arms, the left one, was little more than hamburger meat, almost completely unrecognizable as a limb. A burnt piece of meat maybe, but not an arm. "Wh-w-w-what is this? How could this happen? Why do I look like this? My skin...", Greg raised his hand to his face, the leathery sensation the same as on his hands, "my face..."
Greg raised his hand slowly to his scalp, dreading what he would feel. "...my hair..." It wasn't as bad as he thought but it was much, much worse than he hoped. The sides of his scalp were gone, leaving bleeding leathery skin in it's place. The only hair on his head was in a style that resembled a mohawk.
Greg fell to his knees, ignoring the screaming pain that his body was trying to force him to acknowledge. So many questions were running through his mind. So many, many questions. "What happened? What am I wearing? Why am I like this?...WHAT IS GOING ON?!!! I DON'T UND-!!!"
An intense roar interrupted Greg's breakdown and a massive slitted black and red eye surrounded by scarlet scales and ebony spikes appeared in the space leading to the outside. Greg shrieked and jumped back, fear overriding the signals of intense pain his body was sending him. With the sound of tearing wood and a rush of air, the ceiling above Greg dissapeared and he bore witness to the massive, serpentine, winged form of a dragon above him.
"What the-?"
He didn't get a chance to finish.
The dragon roared and an orange burst of flame shot from it's gaping maw.
An influx of images and thoughts hit Greg simultaneously as he recalled the events of tonight and recognized the appearance of the beast in front of him.
'Lung?...Lung. Lung!!!'
Time slowed down and the look of fear plastered on Greg's voice changed to one of glee. Slightly unhinged, manic, glee but glee all the same. Unnoticed by Greg, golden lights darted all around his skin, returning small portions of his skin to normal. His left arm glowed as well but nothing much happened to the mangled lump of meat.
The car-sized ball of flame rushed downwards and just before it landed, Greg moved.
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The abandoned house the blonde brat was in exploded, Lung's intense flame consuming the old wood of the rustic dwelling and spreading to other houses.
Lung's sharp eyes darted all around, searching for signs of the blonde's corpse anywhere. He knew that didn't kill him. He saw the smile on his face. That fucking brat needed to die. That little shit fucked with Him! Him! Lung!!! Tried to fucking ambush him! He wouldn't stop until he was sure he was done! Rip his arms off and eat them. That bug bitch too!!! She made Him eat bugs! He would find that Bug Bitch and roast her, roast her until she was nice and cooked, then eat her. No! No, she'd probably taste like fucking bugs.
The white boy! Yes, eat him first! One of Kaiser's, definitely! Kaiser, yes! Eat Kaiser next! Crunch his little shell like a crab! Stupid Kaiser kept trying to fight Him! The Dragon of Brockton Bay. Wouldn't stop attacking His men because someone burnt and ate some of his Nazis. Not Him! His hunger was new! Very new! As new as his new powers. He didn't know or care how his powers had changed or why but he was just so HUNGRY.
"WHERE ARE YOU?!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!!!!"
Lung darted in and out of the buildings in the Docks in his search for the blonde Kaiser brat, uncaring of the damage that his flames had caused and were still causing. The PRT and Protectorate wouldn't stop him, couldn't stop him even if they tried. They were busy fighting the gang war that fucking Kaiser started. He could only take a few men with him to kill those fucking kids that stole from Him. Lee and most of his men were in the streets fighting Kaiser and his Nazis. They were going to win. Lung knew it. At least, they better fucking win! If they didn't, he'd be fucking mad. He wouldn't eat Lee, though. Lee was good. Lee was a friend. Besides, he'd probably taste like dust.
Where the hell was this kid? Lung descended to the ground until he was at the roof level of some of the smaller buildings and tried to focus on his senses, intent on hunting down the kid and eating him alive. His hearing was useless. The sound of crackling flames and falling buildings all around would drown out any sounds the boy would make, his heartbeat especially. His sense of smell would not be much help in this situation either. Everything was on fire. Lung could smell plenty of burnt flesh all around, several of them his own men, but he couldn't tell them apart. He couldn't smell, he couldn't hear. What was he supposed to do?
Suddenly, a sound hit Lung's ears. Gasping, and a pained moaning from one of the rooftops around him. Which one? Where was he? Lung roared in an attempt to scare the boy into running.
Nothing.
No...footsteps. Behind him! No! In front! Left! Right! Where is he? "NO POINT HIDING!!! YOU'LL STILL DIE!!!", he spoke in that odd gravelly, yet clear rumbling bass.
The corona of flame around Lung grew, appearing more as a massive aura of fire, and massive balls of fire formed in his fists at the same time as another formed in his mouth.
With an unearthly roar, Lung exploded with the force of over thirty tons of TNT, sending a blast wave rushing from the epicenter of the explosion, namely Lung.
An inferno rushed out from him in all directions, creating a blazing dome of pure death that encompassed more than three entire blocks, collapsing many buildings and melting cars to slag. A large portion of the Docks had been destroyed in the fight already but this area, this area was little more than flat ground.
Lung breathed heavily, more out of rage than any exertion or tiredness. 'That had to kill him. It had to. Kaiser's gonna regret sending his little Junior Nazi Brute to fight me.'
Despite the scene of utter decimation that was once part of the Docks, Lung couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about the boy's death...something was definitely wrong. The boy had fought him with a tremendous strength, a good amount of skill as well, but the strength and speed were what had caught his eye. Lung had stabbed him in the chest and less than a minute later, he was ready for more. He was a Brute, definitely a high level Brute, he wasn't going down that easily. Lung's eyes shifted around, searching for any trace of the little Nazi fucker.
His ears twitched and he heard...something. Lung whipped his large head around several times, looking for the cause of the sound. It was almost like a soft whistling on the wind, definitely not something a normal human would ever pick up.
Lung hung in the air for a second more, wondering exactly what that odd sound was, and on a whim he looked up as a glowing yellow missile slammed into his skull from above.
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Greg Veder liked to think he was a guy with simple needs. He liked anime, porn, hentai, nerdy girls, porn, capes and junk food. Also, porn. Weed would be on that list but his only access to it was Sparky and he was usually busy at his dad's restaurant. Did he mention porn? Anyway, he had felt like things had been a little different in the month since he had gotten his powers. Evron had told him that physical improvements were soon to come and they did. He had gotten ABS! His muscles were toned and firm. He was a little disappointed that his junk hadn't grown since he had changed but he figured that at the rate his powers were growing, he'd need two rulers soon. Although, when he had asked Evron about it, he had stared at him quietly for a good thirty seconds before laughing so he assumed that was normal.
Greg liked having powers, he really did. The novelty of being able to chuck a four door sedan the length of a city block or being able to outpace a car on the highway hadn't worn off yet and he hoped it never would. However, Greg had been feeling...odd. Maybe he was losing it, he didn't know, but he had been acting oddly. His mother had noticed his new appearance and had also noticed his odd personality changes. When Greg first noticed his muscles, he had spent hours in front of the mirror, naked, admiring his new form. He hadn't stopped. Everyday, he would admire himself for a period of time that any regular person would consider too long. His stringy blonde hair had gained life and volume, the golden color brighter than ever. His skin had gone from pasty from his many years inside and in front of a screen to a porcelain complexion that he personally described as "beautiful". That wasn't him. He would never describe himself as beautiful. Handsome, maybe, but not beautiful. It was so ridiculous that he had to buy extra storage cards for his phone because of all the selfies he had been taking!
It wasn't just his appearance. While training with Evron, he had noticed himself exhibiting certain skills no one had ever taught him. He had instinctively known how to use weapons in a fight even though he had never done so before and, frankly, his hand-to-hand skills weren't bad either. He had displayed a ferocity when training with Ev that was just not like him. Tonight had proved that something was up. Any normal person that was fighting someone whose powers are "gets stronger when fights" would not do what he had done tonight. He had prolonged the battle, taunted Lung, held back on his blasts and rarely used them, preferring to get in close to someone who was much stronger than he was and literally breathed fire. He had laughed in the middle of the whole thing. Laughed...At...Lung! Something was wrong there.
His final clue was his lengthy inner monologues and the weird tone they seemed to be taking. Greg was not one to think much. He was a pretty smart guy but he didn't think much. He was usually doing something he liked, watching porn or doing something boring. Now, he seemed to be analyzing everything and trying to pay attention to almost every situation all the time. Sometimes, his thoughts would be smart and logical, like right now, allowing him to realize things or other times they would be a stupid and inane rambling that pretty much resembled how he usually spoke.
'Either way,' he thought to himself, 'I've got to talk to the Boss about it. Now I've got to focus.' And he did, have to focus, that is. Greg was currently in freefall headed directly toward Lung. The giant lizard had been hunting him while he was still struggling to recover from the initial attack that had left him painfully burnt. 'And ruined my hair!'
He had made his way to the roof of a warehouse and Lung had been close on his trail. He had hid as the soft golden glow had healed whatever pain he had been feeling all over his body while leaving his hideous burns untouched. The dragon hadn't known where he was hiding but Lung could tell he was close. Then Lung had the brilliant idea of nuking everything around him in a blaze of glory. He had seen the buildup of Lung's flames and had pushed a large amount of Zirin to his leg muscles to increase his jumping power. It had felt...not painful but odd, like the feeling you had when your leg was asleep but magnified by ten times, almost as if insects were inside his veins or under his skin. He had jumped just in time. His leap had carried him very high, high enough that he worried he might be hit by a low-flying plane. It also allowed him to see the extent of the damage Lung had caused. Lung's explosion had destroyed everything for blocks. Greg winced at the thought of all the people that may have been living in that area. All gone...
'I'm going to put him down this time. No jokes. No playing around.'
Greg angled his body until he was almost completely vertical and his feet were pointing downwards, one foot extended out. His golden glow returned to his skin and he felt a sense of confidence return to him, overshadowing all the doubts he just had.
He was moving faster and faster, the angle of his body increasing the speed of his fall with every passing second. Lung became visible as more than a red worm and Greg grinned, his light show increasing.
As if in slow motion, he noticed Lung tilt his head upwards. An instant later, Greg, glowing as bright as Scion himself, delivered a kick to Lung's cranium at terminal velocity.
Several loud cracking noises were heard as Lung's skull was penetrated by Greg's right foot, sending bone shrapnel from said skull flying, and Greg's right leg broke in several places due to coming in contact with something as hard as Lung's head.
Lung fell to the ground with an ungrateful crash and began thrashing viciously, jerky motions bearing the signs of intense pain rather than anger, in an attempt to free itself of whatever was currently stuck in it's cranium. His arms attempted to move but would instead spasm, leaving him unable to grasp Greg. Flames burst from his body at random intervals, doing nothing to harm the already destroyed environment. Lung was unconscious, most likely his body's attempt at dealing with the pain of having his skull caved in.
Greg cried out as he felt a renewed sense of pain as he felt his already broken bones crack and shift while Lung's muscles seized up as he shook violently on the ruined street. 'Come on! Finish this! End it!' Greg steeled himself, biting his tongue in an attempt to stop his cries of pain. Zirin was sent flowing to his right fist, the sensation of pins and needles flaring up again, and a golden blade formed. Greg held it over Lung's basketball sized, open, unseeing eye. He could do this...right? Just once through his eye and everything would be over. No more Lung. The ABB would collapse. One of the biggest problems of Brockton Bay gone, just like that.
'Just stab him!!! Come on! He tried to kill you! DO IT!' In a quick motion, Greg plunged the incredibly sharp blade through Lung's eye up to his elbow. He ignored the slick, disgusting, wet feeling on his arm and twisted the blade before pulling out. He watched Lung's unmoving body for a few moments, watching...waiting...Lung opened his other eye and gave a weak roar of pain, one of his eyes ruined and bleeding intensely. Greg reacted immediately, the golden blade plunging into Lung's one remaining eye and he pushed even deeper, not stopping until his shoulder was immersed completely in Lung's ocular cavity. He gave a few more stabs for good measure until he was sure Lung wasn't getting back up. No breathing...no movement...
Wincing at the pain, Greg pulled his damaged leg from Lung's cranium and lay on the sidewalk using Lung's dead body to prop himself up. 'I did it!' He had, in fact, done it. This was it. His crowning moment. He was beaten, bloody, bruised, horrifically burnt and mostly hairless but he had defeated Lung. He was so tired. Everything hurt. His body felt like ants were crawling under every inch of his skin and he felt like throwing up everything he had ever eaten. But...he won.
This was a hard fight and he was...just...so...tired. He didn't even have the strength to yawn. He closed his eyes for a moment. He just wanted to rest...but that wasn't going to happen. Sounds...barking....growling...sniffing. He opened his eyes to see three large...things standing a little bit away from him. He wasn't sure what they were. They looked like an animal Tinker took a dog, a lizard and a lion together and just went apeshit trying to make something...workable.
People were on the dog-lizard-lion things...young people. Five of them, really. They all seemed to have their eyes on the massive mountain of red scales behind him. A guy with a motorcycle helmet and leather jacket with black smoke coming out of his helmet. 'Dark Helmet', thought Greg to himself, the blood loss beginning to get to him. A girl with a bug mask and long, curly black hair. "Hey, Bug Lady!" The Bug Lady waved back. A somewhat unfeminine girl with a dog mask on that was standing by the dog things. She looked mean. 'Bitch.' Greg laughed at his own joke. A guy with black hair wearing a tiara, white mask and a poofy shirt and holding onto a jeweled stick. '...Gay Prince.' The last person was the one walking up to him. A pretty blonde girl in a domino mask and a skintight purple and black outfit. "Pretty..."
She smiled at him and held out a hand, barely even glancing at Lung's dead body just an arms length away. "Hi there, handsome. Need some help getting up?"
Greg stared at her hand for a moment before nodding. He grabbed on to her hand and she helped pull him to his feet, with a small grunt. "...Thank you," Greg replied as he leaned on Lung's body for support, his leg still broken in several places.
She stepped closer, her hand still in his, almost as if she didn't care that he was covered in dirt, soot, and various bodily fluids. Not to mention terribly burnt and nearly bald. "My name's Tattletale, What's yours?"
For a moment, all Greg could think about was what type of parents would name their daughter Tattletale until he realized that the name Tattletale was her cape name. "...I'm Superior."
Tattletale smirked and softly held his visible bicop on his right arm. The left was still too mangled. "Yes, you are...Your first night and you took down Lung? Impressive."
"Thank you."
Tattletale glanced at Lung carefully before giving Greg a kind smile. Turning around, she waved for her friends/teammates to come over and they did, walking slowly but none so much as the Bug Lady, who flinched everytime she saw the scarlet Dragon. "Superior, these are my friends." Black Helmet walked up, shook his hand vigorously for a few second before letting go. "Grue, the leader." The next one up was the skinny crown guy, Gay Prince. "Meet Regent." Gay Prince nodded at him and gave him a handshake as well. "Bitch" 'I was right? Wow, maybe I'm a precog, too.' Bitch stepped forward and looked at Greg for a few seconds before she placed a hand on his bare shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. "Good job." There was an awkward silence between everyone there that held until Bitch walked away. "And last but not least, our newest member, Arachne. We found her lost and running away from the fight between the Big Bad Lung and a powerful new Hero. " The Bug Lady...Arachne stepped forward and tilted her head at Greg while at the same time keeping her distance from Lung's corpse. "I really want to thank you for saving me. You didn't have to but you did...and I'm sorry I was being so...difficult. I didn't expect any of this to happen.'
Greg smiled at her, lack of blood making his smile more lopsided than charming. "No problem. I am a hero after all. Who are you guys, anyway?"
He heard an odd low-pitched humming sound coming closer to them. He apparently wasn't the only one. "Armsmaster!", growled Bitch.
They all turned to look at her. Tattletale nodded. "She's telling the truth! We have to go now!"
"Wait, why? He's a hero."
They ran to their dog-things, Arachne lagging behind, and as they climbed on, Tattletale turned to me. "Bye, Superior. Don't worry about your burns, they'll heal up."
And with that, the dogs bounded away. Just in time for the source of the low-pitched humming to appear. Armsmaster rode up on his blue and silver ArmsCycle, as it was known on PHO. In a single movement, he shut off his bike and jumped off, his Halberd in hand. Armsmaster was one of Greg's favorite heroes, an honor that only belonged to one other cape, Eidolon. He owned Armsmaster action figures, bedspreads, backpacks, posters and tool sets. A week ago, Greg would have given up half the things he owned to meet Armsmaster. Right now, he didn't give a shit.
They stood a few meters apart from each other, engaged in a staring contest, one of them a social outcast and a nerd who had worked hard to achieve things people would have thought impossible coming from him and the other was one Greg Lucas Veder.
Armsmaster broke the silence first.
"You gonna fight me?"
That...was not what Greg expected. He wasn't sure what he had expected but this...this wasn't it.
"...Really, dude? Do I look like I'm a villain?"
Armsmaster simply stared. "I don't know. I have no records of you. Are you?"
Greg sighed heavily, ignoring the pain in his lungs and wishing he could just sleep. He was tired. He was half-naked, bleeding, bruised, broken and mask-less, and that last one opened up a shitload of problems on it's own. He had just killed Lung and this fucker was giving him this right now. He didn't have time for this shit.
"No. I'm a hero!", Greg yelled out, more than a tinge of annoyance in his tone.
There was a pause from Armsmaster,
"...You're not...lying." He sounded off, almost as if he wasn't sure about what he was saying. "What happened here?"
"Lung was ranting about killing some kids. and then...
Armsmaster tilted his head in surprise at the first statement before shaking his head and interrupting Greg. "This is Lung? Why is his appearance so different?"
Greg sighed. "Beats me. Anyway I tried to stop him. We fought, I ran, We fought some more. He almost killed me a couple times. We fought again. I killed him," replied Greg glibly.
That's not true."
Greg spluttered weakly. "W-what are you talking about? I killed him when he was rampaging."
Armsmaster pointed at Lung's mass. " He's breathing. It's rather weak but it's still there. I should get him into custody immediately."
Greg shrugged, somewhat disappointed that he hadn't killed Lung after all his work.
Armsmaster aimed his Halberd at lung shot several rounds of some type of tranquilizer dart that stuck themselves in his hide. He pressed a button somewhere on his Halberd and the tip opened up, revealing a small nozzle which then sprayed containment foam all over Lung. When he considered Lung's unconscious form properly restrained, he turned back to Greg. "We still have something else to deal with."
Before Greg could even open his mouth, Armsmaster continued. "Who gets the credit for Lung?"
Greg recoiled and glared at him. "What do you mean? I took down Lung! I get the credit!"
"Hear me out. What you've done tonight is spectacular. You played a part in getting a major villain into custody."
Greg's blood boiled. "Played a part? You-you-you ASS! I DID EVERYTHING! I kicked his ass! I caved his skull in! I stabbed his eyes out!!!" 'Some hero.'
Armsmaster backed up, obviously not expecting this level of vehemence from Greg. "Listen, you need to consider the consequences."
"Consequences?! Fuck your consequences!!! I got stabbed in the chest by Lung's fucking tail! My arm looks like it belongs on a fucking sesame seed bun! I look like a piece of steak someone left on the grill too long! My hair is gone!!! Lung burnt off my goddamn mask. He saw my fucking face already!!!", Greg roared, bloody spit flying from his mouth as he shouted at the leader of the local Protectorate. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he began to limp forward. "I went through hell to kill this fucker and you want to take that from me?!!! I'LL FUCKI-oh, that feels weird..."
Greg paused and looked down to see a familiar red dart sticking out of his chest. He looked up at Armsmaster who was pressing another button on his Halberd, returning it to pocket size with a whoosh of air.
The whole world was turning, spinning young Mr. Veder around like a cheap ride at a carnival. Greg felt himself stumbling and before he knew it, he was lying on the floor. He looked up to see Armsmaster standing above him, expression as grim as usual. He had to say something. "You fucker..."Greg knew no more.
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- Location
- USA
Is Armsmaster going to take this opportunity to go ahead and take credit? I get he was probably just scared of the pissed off guy who just took down Lung, but he is going to regret making Greg and Ev enemies. I look forward to the glowing fist that will be shoved up his ass.
- Location
- East of Sun, West of Moon
... Way to go, Halbeard. I am completely sure this is going to have absolutely no consequences what so ever.
Also, shouldn't Tattletale have picked up on the little side effect of the "power boost"? I mean, sure, trading sanity for power is a staple of fiction since the dawn of time, but it's a major dick move to get your buddies to do it without informing them of the cost.
Also, shouldn't Tattletale have picked up on the little side effect of the "power boost"? I mean, sure, trading sanity for power is a staple of fiction since the dawn of time, but it's a major dick move to get your buddies to do it without informing them of the cost.
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ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
The trading Sanity thing doesn't really carry over for all the power boosts. Changer Powers, they do a lot though. Reality warping, especially.
So, my comments on this fic:
First off, my first impression of Evron was that he was some sort of Mary Sue, such as with all the power wanking and how he's so special, and making him edgier didn't make him feel less like one. But I don't feel like I'm reading a Mary Sue fic, so I guess Evron isn't a Mary Sue.
As for Greg... he reminds me of Jaune Arc from RWBY. It isn't that he isn't a decent character, but it feels like you put this character in this role because he was the blandest, least plot-relevant character. Or something like that. Like, if the person who got powers from Evron Grey was Danny, or Piggot, or even Alan Barnes, the plot would change radically. But Greg is such a blank slate you might as well have made an OC.
But anyway, I'm enjoying this fic, so I'll assume you know what you're doing.
First off, my first impression of Evron was that he was some sort of Mary Sue, such as with all the power wanking and how he's so special, and making him edgier didn't make him feel less like one. But I don't feel like I'm reading a Mary Sue fic, so I guess Evron isn't a Mary Sue.
As for Greg... he reminds me of Jaune Arc from RWBY. It isn't that he isn't a decent character, but it feels like you put this character in this role because he was the blandest, least plot-relevant character. Or something like that. Like, if the person who got powers from Evron Grey was Danny, or Piggot, or even Alan Barnes, the plot would change radically. But Greg is such a blank slate you might as well have made an OC.
But anyway, I'm enjoying this fic, so I'll assume you know what you're doing.
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
No, you're right. Evron, at this point in his story, is a Mary Sue. The only thing that is an actual credible threat to him in Worm is Scion, for reasons which I won't say. I wanted to bring Evron earlier in his career when he was simply street or even Triumvirate level but back then, he wasn't involved in Cosmic Horror, alternate universes, aliens, and actual credible villains. Also, he was a much nicer guy back then so it would have felt like I was trying to write a fix-fic. Evron now is...messed up. He latches on to people and uses them as crutches. Greg is his current crutch. Besides, if I were to write Evron earlier in his career before he knew about Nexus or actually committed any crimes, he wouldn't know how to give powers. I was inspired by Cherico to use Greg. Frankly, Danny would have been my first choice. He would have latched on to Danny as an actual caring dad and Danny would have helped him in a moral compass type way realize that overkill and violence is not the answer usually. That would have been weird.
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Interlude 2b: Emma Barnes
ZFighter18
I'm not a god. I AM WHAT A GOD PRAYS TO.
- Location
- Maryland
Interlude 2b
Emma Barnes
You're either a predator or you're prey.
It's a very simple concept and one I've done my best to live by. I was prey once and I swore that I would never let that happen again, but something like that? It's easier said then done. Sophia thinks that attitude and determination is what truly separates predator from prey. That isn't the case, not really. It's power; social, economic, physical power. If I want to be safe in this world, then I need power. To do that I need to be honest about my strengths and weaknesses.
I know my strengths. I'm pretty, decently athletic, and thanks to Sophia, I know a little about fighting. Socially, I'm the queen of Winslow high but that means nothing in the real world. I know that I'm more or less protected at school, despite Winslow being what it was, but outside of it I'm vulnerable. Modeling means more contacts. It means more money. It increases my chances of getting power...but it's not enough. Not nearly enough. Being friends with Sophia is great, honestly. I learned a lot from her but I don't just want to be her friend. No, I want to be her.
I want to be a parahuman and if I can't be one, then I want to be around them, to touch power if I can't have it myself. I've studied them. I did my best to learn how they come to be and I discovered that parahumans usually have children who are also parahuman. If I can't be a parahuman, well...then my children can be that way. Yes, I know I'm pretty damn young but I'm willing to deal with a couple years of social censure if it means my children have powers.
It's simply just a matter of evolution, changing with the times. Predators get stronger by choosing strong mates. It's a pity that Sophia doesn't get that. If she had been more social, all we would have to do was make arrangements with one of the boys in the Wards. I know that I wouldn't have minded Aegis with his hunky body but, thanks to Sophia, that well is completely poisoned. They don't trust her, and thus wouldn't trust me. Which means I have to find a parahuman of my own.
I watched as Greg beat the bigger man and tried to play it off. He failed miserably. No one bought it. Fights weren't all about how big and strong you were in Winslow. Sometimes it was about the fight in the dog. Even then, no one beat Mal. Not in a straight fight, at least. It would be impossible for someone as scrawny as Greg to move that fast and knock out someone like Mal, who obviously abused steroids. It was also impossible to be hit as hard and as many times as Greg had been and not receive a single bruise. Impossible...unless you were a cape. I saw that Greg wasn't hurt, wasn't even bothered by Mal's hits. I saw him get up and stop a punch by holding up a single palm. I saw him win.
Greg Veder. Yeah, he's a loser but a predator is flexible about it's prey, and I will capture him.
Emma Barnes
You're either a predator or you're prey.
It's a very simple concept and one I've done my best to live by. I was prey once and I swore that I would never let that happen again, but something like that? It's easier said then done. Sophia thinks that attitude and determination is what truly separates predator from prey. That isn't the case, not really. It's power; social, economic, physical power. If I want to be safe in this world, then I need power. To do that I need to be honest about my strengths and weaknesses.
I know my strengths. I'm pretty, decently athletic, and thanks to Sophia, I know a little about fighting. Socially, I'm the queen of Winslow high but that means nothing in the real world. I know that I'm more or less protected at school, despite Winslow being what it was, but outside of it I'm vulnerable. Modeling means more contacts. It means more money. It increases my chances of getting power...but it's not enough. Not nearly enough. Being friends with Sophia is great, honestly. I learned a lot from her but I don't just want to be her friend. No, I want to be her.
I want to be a parahuman and if I can't be one, then I want to be around them, to touch power if I can't have it myself. I've studied them. I did my best to learn how they come to be and I discovered that parahumans usually have children who are also parahuman. If I can't be a parahuman, well...then my children can be that way. Yes, I know I'm pretty damn young but I'm willing to deal with a couple years of social censure if it means my children have powers.
It's simply just a matter of evolution, changing with the times. Predators get stronger by choosing strong mates. It's a pity that Sophia doesn't get that. If she had been more social, all we would have to do was make arrangements with one of the boys in the Wards. I know that I wouldn't have minded Aegis with his hunky body but, thanks to Sophia, that well is completely poisoned. They don't trust her, and thus wouldn't trust me. Which means I have to find a parahuman of my own.
I watched as Greg beat the bigger man and tried to play it off. He failed miserably. No one bought it. Fights weren't all about how big and strong you were in Winslow. Sometimes it was about the fight in the dog. Even then, no one beat Mal. Not in a straight fight, at least. It would be impossible for someone as scrawny as Greg to move that fast and knock out someone like Mal, who obviously abused steroids. It was also impossible to be hit as hard and as many times as Greg had been and not receive a single bruise. Impossible...unless you were a cape. I saw that Greg wasn't hurt, wasn't even bothered by Mal's hits. I saw him get up and stop a punch by holding up a single palm. I saw him win.
Greg Veder. Yeah, he's a loser but a predator is flexible about it's prey, and I will capture him.
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