Amelia, Ch 312- Victoria
I backflipped away as a surge of ice sprouted under my feet. With an idle thought, I wondered what it felt like for Taylor and Amelia, having chunks of their extended bodies ripped apart like that. Another burst shot up behind me, and I reluctantly hit the shields. A quick glance confirmed my armor was down to less than thirty percent of its maximum reserves. I need to talk to Emma about more battery power in the suit, it just doesn't cut it in a four on one battle like this.
A blade punched through the ice, straight toward me. I evaded only thanks to my danger sense, dropping toward the ground. Ancile was tough, but it wasn't the kind of tough needed to beat Caliburn. At full charge and shields, I could take a couple direct hits. This was nowhere near full charge or full shields. Another ice wall formed to my side. They're trying to hem me in.
I dived down. Yggdrasil was mostly soft plantlife. I set my shields to cutting, which cost me more of what precious power I had left, and the plant mass splashed around me. Then I looked up from my safe position below. Streamer, so named for his Sabah-esque telekinesis that he used to control and reinforce ribbons of cloth, was dumb enough to be on the ground. Rookie mistake, he should know better. I didn't even have to leave my safe place, simply tapping his foot from below and hitting him with a stun-taze. Maybe if he had one of our armors, he'd be okay. Oh well, sucks to be him.
That's when I realized the mistake. The ground around me started to freeze before he even began collapsing. I leapt out, burning yet more of Ancile's dwindling reserves. Another slash from Caliburn, this one too close and quick for me to dodge. I instead paried with Harpe. The immovable against the unstoppable, and in this case immovable won the contest. Twenty five percent power remaining. Another wall of ice started forming. Doesn't she know she can't build them as fast as I can get out of the area? It's not even an effective de-.
Oh fuck! The ice exploded into destructive shrapnel as Richter blasted it full on, a wall too thick to avoid. Are they insane? Streamer can't take that kind of punishment! A quick glance let me know he didn't have to. I wasn't sure where he vanished to or how, but I was the only one left in the line of fire.
I evaded most and deflected some with Harpe and Ancile, but it took so much of my focus that I didn't even sense Caliburn until it passed through my ribs. A few chunks of ice hammered the point home, before the rest splintered into what was essentially sleet.
The sword vanished from its position inside me, and I dropped to the ground. I fell, landing on hands and knees. The splash of deep red on the blue green of the Yggdrasil made for freakin' awesome theatrics.
"Vicky!" Chevalier exclaimed, rushing up to me. I smiled. Totes worked. He knelt beside me and put his hands on my shoulders. "I'm sorry, I thought you'd be avoid that and just take some hits from the ice. I didn't think I-"
"Y'know, Chevy," I teased, my voice low and sultry. "If you wanted to stick your sword inside me, you could have asked."
His worry vanished, replaced by a bit of annoyance. "She's fine, guys," he shouted to the others as he stood. He didn't take his hand off my shoulder as he helped me up with the other hand. Ever the gentleman, and one of my favorite things about him. Funny guys like Zach were nice to joke around with and all, but nothing got to me like being treated like a lady.
I leaned up against him a moment after I stood, I could blame it on the injury. Chevalier's annoyance was quickly eroded against relief that I was fine, and a light undercurrent of his attraction.
"You guys got me," I admitted, reluctantly removing myself from contact with the only hetero guy I apparenty couldn't seduce. I looked at Rime, and once again wondered what the story was between her and Chevalier. The way they regarded each other was like they were siblings, but there was no genetic connection between them. That didn't rule out adoption, of course, but I never could figure out that link. If only because Rime did not like me very much.
"We were trying to overwhelm your danger sense," Chevalier informed me. "Keep hitting you with just enough force that you were forced on the defensive, and wear you down slowly. I guess it worked."
"What really got me was using Streamer as bait," I responded, as my helmet folded back so I could speak without the damn suit in the way. It had its perks, but my face was just too pretty to be covered when it didn't need to be. "That was just ruthless. Where'd he go, anyway?"
"His idea," Chevalier replied. "He slaved his shunt drive over to my controls. He'll be sleeping it off somehwere at the bottom of the Delaware. His armor can handle that much, even if it's just a base armor system."
"It's probably cheating," Richter admitted. He was further out than the others, but even the generic suits have really good hearing. "I mean, this was supposed to be a powers on powers fight, not an exploiting the equipment fight."
"Fuck that noise," I smiled. "You saw an advantage, you used that advantage, and you kicked my ass with it. If the positions were reversed, I'd have done the exact same thing and then laughed at you."
"Uh... why didn't you?" Chevalier asked. "You have the same shunt option, only better for the way your armor harnesses your powers."
"I wanted to win," I responded. "If I run, I lose by default. Maybe if we were playing for keeps, but-" the Endbringer alarm beeped. "Well, crapperjacks. Fun and games are over, let's fish Streamer out of the river and see if all our training pays off."
I knew it had for me, and Chevalier. Rime as well. She'd gotten amazingly good at putting together ice traps, and whatever she did to allow her ice to splinter so easily for Richter, instead of just soaking the blast, was a whole new trick I'd never seen before. She was definitely ready. She just looked at me as if to say 'you're not the one giving the orders' for a second, then turned and headed back to the geoanalogue for their PHQ.
"I'll just stay on this side for now," I offered, looking toward Chevalier. I tapped the side of my armor, where his sword had punched right through it. It was already healing, and had already cleaned off the blood, but I wasn't at a hundred percent by any stretch, and my costume certainly wasn't ready. The practice fight had gotten a bit more heated than it was supposed to. Probably my fault, constantly telling them not to worry about hurting me so much.
"Sorry about that," he frowned. "I didn't mean to hurt you."
I shrugged, and then offered a coy smile. "Hey, I'm a big girl. I can take a good impalement, you just gotta give me a few minutes to catch my breath afterward."
He just shook his head and started jogging to catch up to Rime, giving me a good view of his back. Won't be that much longer now, I can smell it. Literally, my sense of smell was really good about figuring things like that out. Speaking of which. I looked over at Richter. "Hey, you need written permission to use that mental image."
"You're God's way of telling me I should have gone to college, aren't you?"
"It's never too late," I remarked back. "If you ask nice, I'll even be your wing chick. Cute girls like guys who are friends with other cute girls. At least until you're their boyfriend, then you won't be allowed to look at anything female and remotely mammalian."
"Good to know," he responded. "I'd better go now."
He's not bad, I decided. Hmm, I wonder if Crystal's thinking about getting back into the dating scene. Ever since the noodle incident with Triumph, she's been pretty dead set on becoming a crazy cat lady in her old age. Yeah, I bet they'd go great together.
....
"Ladies and Gentlemen," Janus announced. "Welcome to Paris. I wish we could be here under better circumstances."
I fought a wave of nausea, not from Eric's power, but from the effects of the Thanda member that ripped reality apart bringing hundreds of Zerg with us. Next to me, Chevalier staggered, and several of the others that I knew had special senses, like Emma and that newbie tinker they picked up out of that weird mass trigger experiment they made me attend. I almost laughed when Lisa tumbled back and had to be caught by Rey. It was subtle, she recovered quickly. Likely only a handful even noticed at all.
Amongst that handful was Alexandria, whose dim emotional responses indicated a protective, almost motherly, reaction. A desire to be the one who was there to catch her. Oh god, I am going to tease them both mercilessly until we all die of old age. No. Better. I am going to tell Taylor and Amelia and Zach. That way I can spend all my efforts on Alexandria. That's what she gets for not letting me bust that jackass Director in Indiana.
I stayed where I was, and we let the groups divide themselves. Lily landed next to me, as did Sveta and Genius Loci. "Long time no see," I said to them. "That's a new look for you, GL. So much better than the Tin Man cosplay."
It really was, too. His 'body' for this was semi humanoid, made up of floating fragments of glowing silver. There were gaps in it that I could see through, dancing along, as if following a pattern- I shook my head. "So it works on you?" he asked. "Hecate and Yum Kaax told me it would have anti-precog abilities. I don't know how that works, but I guess that means they were right."
"Yeah, worked on me," I confirmed. "So you planning to be the next Endslayer?"
"That's the plan," he responded. "Why I'm up here with you pillars of badass."
The Triumvirate had landed nearby, next to Chevalier, while I was distracted by GL's equipment. Rosary and Shaman joined us as well after another minute. GL was right, we did have a special status. We stood in the front position, amongst the swarms of zerg and armor suits. We were the heavy hitters, the Endslayers, and others that could meet these monsters head on and walk away. If not necessarily intact, then at least still breathing. I looked down at Harpe.
"Strategy's straightforward," Alexandria instructed us. "The potential Endslayers hang back for the first couple minutes, let the heavy hitters and the disposable monsters lead the first wave. Minerva will give instructions as to when and how to utilize the Endslayers on the field. Our goals are to force the new Endbringer to reveal its abilities, and then delay it long enough to kill it. Is that understood?"
"I'll take front point," I volunteered. "My senses have... some... value in the frontline fight, and I have an Endslayer grade weapon immediately available if I get the chance."
"Take point, fine," Alexandria agreed. "But that weapon's supposed to be the last resort. Don't use it without permission."
"Gotcha, sis," I responded, smiling at her. Amy's my sister, who's fiancée to Taylor, who's pretty much a sister to Lisa, who we both know you're pedo for. My powers told me the exact moment she figured out what I meant.
She said nothing and turned back toward the point we anticipated the Endbringer appearing.
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A/N- Vicky chapters are fun.
