Part Twenty-Four: Rubbing it In
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Part Twenty-Four: Rubbing it In
"Holy crapping Christ on a Tinkertech pogo stick."
Über's words, soft and almost reverent, were the first I heard as I exited the bathroom. I took a moment to finish towelling my hair dry, or rather damp, then wrapped the towel around my head and put my glasses back on. Around about that time, I noticed the smell of cooking food; however, my attention was on where Über and L33t were glued to the large-screen TV.
"What?" I asked. "What happened?" As an afterthought, I added, "And who's doing the cooking?"
"You happened," L33t supplied, without looking away from the screen. "When this goes online, they're gonna have to invent new ways to count the hits."
"And I'm doing the cooking," Über said, almost apologetically. "After the ass-kicking you just handed Lung, I figured that you deserved to have someone else do it for you."
I grinned at him. "Well, finally. But if I have to beat up a supervillain every time I want you to do the cooking, I'm pretty sure we'd run out of volunteers fairly quickly."
"I dunno," L33t commented with a snicker. "Start with the Empire Eighty-Eight and work your way down the roster. When they find out you're doing it to get home-cooked meals, they might just leave town."
Über and I laughed out loud at the same time. "Okay, yeah," I conceded, "but I suspect they won't just line up to be beaten senseless. Anyway, what's happening?"
Über pointed at the screen. "L33t just showed me the edited footage. We haven't even started to work on the finished product. We were just now admiring it. Frame by frame, in some cases."
"Talking about frames, I want to print out and frame some of these screencaps," L33t put in. "There is no way in hell you're gonna get anything nearly as impressive this side of an Endbringer battle."
Curious, I strolled over the the couch and leaned on the back, on my elbows. "Wait," I blurted, as the picture on the screen became clear to me. "What the hell? That's a dragon."
"Yup," replied Über in the same almost-reverent tone that he had used before. "That's you, in the middle of the fight."
I looked at the picture. It clearly showed a large draconic figure, scaled in a brilliant red and gold, gouting flame from fang-lined jaws at a more metallic-looking version. Lung looked powerful; the dragon looked … magnificent. Terrifying. Amazing. I gulped. That was me?
"Wait, but how?" I asked.
L33t shrugged. "I'm guessing holocloak."
"But I didn't have a dragon image in the holocloak memory." L33t was advancing the footage slowly; I watched as the two dragons clashed in midair. I remembered that clash; I just hadn't known how it looked.
"Your armour adapted," Über pointed out. "Maybe your holocloak did too."
"Holy shit." I shook my head. "So that's what happens when a power copying Trump wearing armour inside a Manton field meets a cape that can adapt and change his shape and size."
"Well, you have to admit, it was a fairly unique set of circumstances, but yeah," agreed L33t. "That's what happens."
"One thing's for sure," Über said with more than a touch of satisfaction.
"What's that?" I asked, without taking my eyes off of the screen. I'd been there, and the fight hadn't looked this awesome to me.
He grinned. "You'll be going on just about everybody's do-not-fuck-with list."
"I don't even believe that's a thing," I protested. "Is that a thing?"
"Well, she just went on my do-not-fuck-with list," Dennis breathed, pausing the clip and looking around at everyone. "Is that pure and utter bullshit, or just regular everyday bullshit? What do you guys think?"
Chris had a glazed look in his eye. "Adaptive power armour. How the hell did she build adaptive power armour?"
"You're sure it's power armour and not just, well, her?" asked Rory.
"No, it's definitely some kind of power armour," Chris stated. "We've got the tail. But how in hell did she make it adaptive?"
Missy looked at Carlos. "She wasn't wearing power armour when we fought her, was she?"
"No," he agreed. "There was no motif, and she was pretty skinny. Presuming that we are talking about the same person."
"It was North Side," Missy reminded him. "They lost millions of dollars worth of equipment. Stuff that would only be really valuable to a Tinker."
"Well, if it was the same person, and she's now sporting power armour," Dean decided, "she's definitely had an upgrade." He paused. "Vicky didn't say anything about adaptive armour when she fought her. Just some sort of narcoleptic touch."
"Well, we're about ninety percent sure that this cape is the same one who fought Vicky at the armoured car robbery, and also did the raid on Coil's base." Chris ran the action back to the firefight inside the casino. "See that big-ass rifle? It changes shape, kinda, but it's pretty distinctive all the same. She's carrying it in all three encounters. And that's pretty well the clincher for power armour too. It's gotta be about the same size as Vista."
"Hmm, yeah," Carlos agreed. "I see your point. You'd need some sort of strength augment to lug around a weapon that size."
"Wait, are you saying I'm fat?" demanded Missy hotly.
"No, of course not," Dean hastened to reassure her. "You're adorably petite." Ignoring her pleased flush, he went on. "But a gun the size of you is a big-ass gun by anyone's standards."
"And that raises another matter," Dennis put in. "When she first showed up, she didn't have power armour. And she still kicked your butt, Carlos, and Missy's too."
"And I'm half-thinking now that she went easy on us," Carlos commented. "Given what she's doing these days."
"Yeah, don't remind me," grumped Missy. "I can't believe how thoroughly she owned us."
"So anyway," Dennis went on, "what I was saying was that she's upgrading her armour. First appearance, it was pretty well vanilla. Brute rating and the sleepy-time touch that she used on Glory Girl. Next appearance, teleportation. This appearance, teleportation and adaptation. What's she gonna be doing next?"
"To hazard a guess," Carlos decided, "anything she damn well wants."
Chris' phone beeped. "Ah, gotta go," he told them. "Armsmaster wants my help."
"Have fun," Dennis told him. He turned back to the screen. "Fast forward it. I want to see her face-plant Lung into the ground again."
"But we've already watched that bit," Missy pointed out.
"Seven times," Dean agreed.
"So? It'll never not be funny."
They considered that.
"He's got a point." Carlos picked up the remote.
"Wait, wait," Dennis held up his hands.
Missy looked at him. "What?"
He pointed at the empty bowl. "We need more popcorn."
Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown leaned back in her office chair. "Good evening, Emily," she said to the empty air. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"There was another Über, L33t and Hax incident just tonight," the Director of PRT ENE informed her over speakerphone. "The footage is online and it's going viral faster than ever before."
"Have you viewed it?"
When Director Piggot replied, there was a strange note to her voice. "Yes. And I think you should, too."
She really thinks I should.
Sitting forward, Rebecca typed rapidly at her desk computer, calling up the appropriate website. A few more keyclicks got her the latest filmclip. She turned the volume down; at that moment, she didn't need to be distracted by the colour commentary from Über, L33t or Hax.
"So, a robbery," she observed. "With a … Halo theme, if I'm not much mistaken?"
"That's what I'm told," Emily replied; the tone of her voice indicated disinterest in the current theme.
"What is this place? Some sort of casino?"
"Yes. An illegal one, run by the ABB. Keep watching."
Rebecca put the clip to run at double-speed; she was well able to keep up with the action. "I'm impressed," she observed. "A full-on firefight and nobody got hurt."
"Well, one man did," Piggot stated. "The cashier. He tried to shoot Hax. Friendly fire got him. They sent us the footage separately, to prove it wasn't them."
"Wouldn't matter in a court of law," Rebecca observed absently. "They precipitated the firefight, they're to blame for any deaths." She blinked. "Is that Oni Lee?"
"Yes. Now it gets interesting."
'Interesting' was one word for it. Rebecca watched as Hax engaged Lung and they began to fight. She had been in her own fights before, many of them against more impressive foes than Hax. But still …
"Wait." She paused the action. "That can't be right."
"What can't be right?"
"She's taller than she was before. He's growing but so is she." She frowned. "Some sort of optical illusion?"
"No illusion. Keep watching. It gets even better."
True to Piggot's word, it got better. After Hax threw Lung out of the building through a brick wall – and Rebecca knew exactly how many foot-pounds of energy were required to perform that feat, making her whistle silently under her breath – the view changed. As had one of the combatants.
"Wait," she demanded, pausing the footage once more. "That's not Hax."
"That's Hax," Director Piggot assured her.
"That's a dragon."
"And it's Hax. Wind it back. You'll see the beginnings of the change before she throws Lung out through the wall. Our best analysts assure me that this is the case."
Possessed of perfect memory, Rebecca didn't need to rewind the footage; playing it back in her head, she noted what Emily had pointed out, the beginnings of the change from Master Chief to fire-breathing dragon. In addition, the postures and patterns of movement were the same. "I see. You are correct." She set the clip in motion once more.
She's matching him. He gets bigger, so does she. He becomes more draconian, so does she. Is she matching the changes, or instituting her own?
A moment later, her question was answered as he tried to smash her into the ground using her own tail as a lever; the tail disconnected, becoming a flexible length of segmented metal in his hands. He cast it aside, launching himself at her. When she did this to him, he could not detach it. Did she deliberately detach it, or did he tear it off?
"Please tell me you retrieved the tail," she said urgently.
"We retrieved the tail," Director Piggot assured her. "Armsmaster and Kid Win are examining it as we speak."
"Did she detach it or did he tear it off?"
"She detached it, I am told."
"What does the end look like?"
"That's the really interesting part. Plugs and connectors. Very normal looking. And a series of sockets for clamps. Armsmaster jury-rigged a matching interface for it, and he's able to manipulate it as she was doing there. Dangerous looking thing, though. Did you see the thagomizers?"
Rebecca blinked. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about." This was a new feeling for her; her encyclopaedic memory usually allowed her to keep ahead of any new terms.
"Kid Win assures me that's what they're called. It's an palaeontological term for the spikes on either side of a stegosaurus' tail. This tail has much the same sort of thing, only razor-sharp titanium steel. I watched Armsmaster put them through an inch-thick steel barrier, using only the tail's built-in servomotors for power."
"Thagomizers." It sounded like a joke term, even after it was explained to her.
"Apparently it comes from a comic strip. In any case, yes, we have the tail. It serves to give an idea of just how dangerous the rest of the suit is."
"So I see." She set the clip in motion once more. The fight went on; with increasing disbelief, she watched the dragon grow another tail. Regenerating capes are bad enough. But regenerating power armour?
And then she clicked to the reality of the situation. She has something that allows her armour to mimic powers as well. It's how she can match off against Brutes so well; she takes on their Brute capability, as does her armour. And it can also apparently make use of other aspects of their powersets.
It all made a lot more sense now. Lung became draconic; Hax mimicked the power and her armour did so also. And of course the holocloak is a part of the armour, and thus it shows a draconic aspect as well.
When Hax slammed Lung face-first into the ground, she winced, despite herself. But when the raging cape had his face ground into the melting asphalt while the red and gold dragon atop him roared her name to all and sundry, she shook her head slowly. That has to hurt. And I'm not talking about physically.
And then, with a flash of light, Hax teleported away; Rebecca half-expected her to return and humiliate Lung yet again, but the clip ended there. Displayed on the screen was the new logo for Pwnage, with the following tagline:
Cash retrieved from patrons and cashier: $10,563. Cash retrieved from vault: $748,450. Watching Lung get Pwned by Hax: Fricking PRICELESS.
Sitting back, she set it going again, giving it only half her attention while she mused over the implications.
Lung is going to be pissed.
It wasn't her problem … but it would be Pwnage's. The ABB leader would pull out all the stops in order to regain his reputation after such a humiliating defeat. Which made it the problem of the PRT, if they wanted Hax alive for the next Endbringer battle.
That power armour is a terrifying force multiplier, in her hands.
In anyone's hands, the armour would be dangerous. Equipped with a teleporter and possessed of sufficient strength and armour to give it a reasonable Brute rating on its own, even a normal could wreak havoc with it. But with her particular powerset, it magnified her abilities considerably while giving her significant protection no matter what powers she was copying at the time.
I would not like to fight her while she is wearing it.
"Chief Director? Are you there?"
"Yes, I'm here. I was just … thinking. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It was most impressive. I'll be expecting the full analysis on that tail and its …" She paused, still not sure if the word was indeed a real one. " … thagomizers. Also, I'd like you to consider something."
"Yes?"
"Imagine how things could be going if Alexandria hadn't smoothed things over between Hax and the PRT."
With that, she put the phone down. The Triumvirate, working as a team, could defeat her, she mused. We would, of course, have to work at range. But let her get close enough to tap our powers … She shuddered; the idea of facing someone with Legend's or Eidolon's powers, able to use them better than either hero, was somewhat daunting. Or if she got close enough to tap my powers, and with that teleporter she could, and then used my speed to stay within range of me without letting me tag her, and using my durability to survive the others …
That was not a fight she wanted to consider going into lightly.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
It was only a little later that the question occurred to her. If Über and L33t were in view almost the entire time … how did they manage to access the vault?
"Lisa?" Brian's voice was slightly strangled. "Would you come have a look at this, please?"
Lisa's head came up. "The Pwnage video?" She came out of the kitchen.
"Yeah," he said.
"We on it?" asked Regent, pausing his game and looking over at where Brian was sitting on the sofa with his laptop.
"No, we never appear, even in the crowd shots," Brian assured him. "I've been looking."
"Okay, cool," Lisa said, sitting down beside Brian. "So what … oh, wow."
"Wow is right," Brian agreed. "For starters."
They listened to the chatty dialogue between Über and L33t, with occasional dry one-liners from Hax. In contrast, the action on the screen was violent, almost visceral. Lung's savagery was evident; he wasn't pulling his punches. He wanted to kill Hax.
The two dragons, one faux-real, the other metallic, tore at one another, wreathing the battlefield in flame. As they fought, they grew larger, more dangerous, more destructive. Bricks powdered when struck; asphalt melted and then boiled.
"I saw some of this," Lisa breathed. "But not like this … oh god."
"What?" asked Brian. "Something wrong?"
"If they'd kept fighting …"
Alec raised his head. "We might've had another Kyushu. Two monsters just tearing the city apart while trying to kill each other. And Hax would be tapping Lung's power, so they would never stop."
Lisa's face had become remarkably paler, the freckles standing out in sharp relief. "Yes. That's exactly what would have happened." In her mind's eye, she could see it; two draconic beings, enlarged vastly beyond their human origins, shattering the city into a burning wasteland in the course of their battle.
Brian swallowed. "And we teamed up with them?"
"Well, hey," Alec pointed out. "We're making out like bandits, here. Our share's gonna be insane."
This time, Brian shook his head. "No, you don't get it. I like them as people, but as capes, they're really scary."
"Hax is really scary," Alec corrected him. "Über and L33t are … well, they're Über and L33t."
"Currently teamed up with arguably the scariest cape in Brockton Bay," Lisa reminded him.
Alec shrugged. "Okay, so we make a rule."
Brian looked at him. "A rule?"
"Yeah." Alec spread his hands. "If we team up with them again, we make sure we're not going against someone who can turn the battle into a …"
Lung spoke through clenched teeth. "And what of Oni Lee?"
Jin, the only one of his minions brave enough to face him, shook his head jerkily. "The authorities dug his body out of the building," he revealed. "He was killed by one of his own grenades."
"But how can that be?" demanded the leader of the ABB. "He never made a mistake like that before!"
Jin's terrified shrug was more like a spasm of his neck and shoulders. "I don't know, sir. I wasn't there. I just know that he is dead."
"Hrmm." Lung's murmur was like distant thunder. "Send in the men who were there. The ones who were downstairs. The ones who let them rob me. I want to hear what they have to say."
"Yes, sir." Jin made his escape.
Moments later, the men in question were shoved into the room. Their hands were tied behind their backs and their faces were bruised. Lung looked them over. "What happened to them? Was it the robbery?"
Jin shook his head. "No, sir. They tried to escape. We had to stop them. Two of them managed to get away before we could secure them."
Lung fixed him with a hard stare. "Find them. Bring them to me. Or you will take their place. In the meantime … give us the room."
The unbound minions scurried from the room; the door was slammed behind them. Lung turned to those left behind. "Now, you will tell me everything."
It took all of Jin's nerve to wait outside the door. Within, Lung's voice had gone from a formless rumble to a shout, demanding answers that the men did not have. This had progressed to meaty thuds, clearly audible through the thick door, then to an ominous silence.
After that, the screams began.
Jin wanted to run, but Lung knew where his family lived, knew their names. If he ran, if he deserted the ABB, he would be a marked man. There would be nowhere in Brockton Bay that he would be able to run to, no shadow deep enough to hide in. He and his family, his wife and little boy, would have to leave the city and travel far away to escape the vengeance of Lung.
More screams, nerve-racking in their intensity, tore at his nerves. I don't know how far would be far enough. I would always be looking over my shoulder.
The alternative, to kill Lung and end the danger, simply never occurred to him as a serious solution. Lung had faced Leviathan and survived. An insect such as Jin could never even hope to pose a serious threat to his life.
Smoke drifted under the door; Jin shivered. So glad it's not me. So glad it's not me.
The door opened. Lung, standing a head taller than when he had entered, loomed in the doorway. Behind him, the men he had been questioning lay on the floor. Some were whimpering, others were ominously still. None were unscathed; the stink of burned flesh was thick in the air, as was the smell of human excrement. Jin fought not to gag at the stench.
"Remove this trash," growled Lung. As he stepped past Jin, the hairs on the minion's forearms curled in the heat emanating from the leader of the ABB. "And bring me the other two."
"Yes, sir." Jin watched Lung stride away, trailing heat haze like a banner. He knew he had no choice.
He would find the two men who had run, or he would die trying.
"So what do you have?"
Armsmaster looked up as Director Piggot entered the laboratory. Kid Win didn't, as he was currently disassembling an intricate mechanism in the tail.
"Director," the older hero greeted her. "This is a fascinating piece of equipment. You say Hax built it?"
"I'm not sure who built it," the Director corrected him. "From all appearances, her power armor grew it during the fight, then detached it once it became a problem."
Kid Win looked up then. "That'd actually make a lot of sense, in a really weird way," he observed.
Piggot frowned. "Explain."
"Sure." He indicated the internals of the tail, where pieces of the outside armor had apparently been levered or cut away. "None of this was built, as far as we can tell. No bolts, no screws. Not even welded or soldered. It's as organic as something made of metal and plastic can be."
"Very efficient," Armsmaster agreed. "No single component does one specific thing. They interlock and overlap. There's no wasted space. From all appearances, it was created as a whole, rather than assembled from individual components."
"And yet, the plugs, the connectors, the fact that it uses electricity and responds to computer commands?"
"Yeah, that's the fun part," Kid Win acknowledged. "It's mechanical. The connectors make it plug-and-play. But there are no individual parts that we can point at and say 'this does that'. So yeah, it's basically an organic machine made up of standard carbon steel and other mundane materials."
Piggot closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she looked at Armsmaster. "All right. One question. Is there any way – any way at all – that this could be used to pin down the identity of the person in the power armor without question?"
They both knew what she was asking. He had been a part of the near-disastrous raid on the Hebert house. But neither of them mentioned Taylor Hebert by name.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," he replied. "I've got nothing."
"Well then, keep at it," she told him. "Let me know if anything new comes up."
Turning, she left the laboratory; she refrained, just barely, from slamming the door.
I know it's her, even if there's nothing to prove it. But one day there will be.
"Okay, seriously, that's you?"
Dad stared at her/me as she/I turned away from the computer monitor.
"Yup," she/I confirmed. "That's what I was doing while we were having dinner. During the movie, I was showering then helping to do the final edit on the filmclip."
"But … that's Lung," Dad protested. "How could you … how were you even able to fight him? And do that?"
In his eyes, as he looked at her/me, was a whole new expression. The first few robberies I had committed were, by and large, meat and potatoes type cape heists. Show up, have a brief tussle with the forces of law and order, take the goods and go. But the encounter with Lung had been on a whole new level. Things would never be the same again. I would never be the same again.
I had to pause as I thought about that. Was I becoming desensitised to the whole fact that I was now a serious supervillain? A few comments on the PHO boards indicated that people outside Brockton Bay were beginning to take notice. One or two were even from outside the US, which surprised me considerably.
"I did it because I had to," she/I answered him while I considered the question I had set myself. "He would have killed us, not just beaten us up and thrown us out. Lung plays for keeps. As for 'how' … well, let's just say my armour's got more tricks in it than most people realise."
"But you turned into a dragon," he protested. "How did you even manage that, with your armour?"
"I was kinda surprised, myself," she/I admitted. "But it all seemed to work out in the end."
Yeah, I'm a supervillain, I decided. But I'm doing it for a good cause. If the good guys can't get their act together, I'm gonna have to be a bad guy.
End of Part Twenty-Four
Part Twenty-Five
Part Twenty-Four: Rubbing it In
"Holy crapping Christ on a Tinkertech pogo stick."
Über's words, soft and almost reverent, were the first I heard as I exited the bathroom. I took a moment to finish towelling my hair dry, or rather damp, then wrapped the towel around my head and put my glasses back on. Around about that time, I noticed the smell of cooking food; however, my attention was on where Über and L33t were glued to the large-screen TV.
"What?" I asked. "What happened?" As an afterthought, I added, "And who's doing the cooking?"
"You happened," L33t supplied, without looking away from the screen. "When this goes online, they're gonna have to invent new ways to count the hits."
"And I'm doing the cooking," Über said, almost apologetically. "After the ass-kicking you just handed Lung, I figured that you deserved to have someone else do it for you."
I grinned at him. "Well, finally. But if I have to beat up a supervillain every time I want you to do the cooking, I'm pretty sure we'd run out of volunteers fairly quickly."
"I dunno," L33t commented with a snicker. "Start with the Empire Eighty-Eight and work your way down the roster. When they find out you're doing it to get home-cooked meals, they might just leave town."
Über and I laughed out loud at the same time. "Okay, yeah," I conceded, "but I suspect they won't just line up to be beaten senseless. Anyway, what's happening?"
Über pointed at the screen. "L33t just showed me the edited footage. We haven't even started to work on the finished product. We were just now admiring it. Frame by frame, in some cases."
"Talking about frames, I want to print out and frame some of these screencaps," L33t put in. "There is no way in hell you're gonna get anything nearly as impressive this side of an Endbringer battle."
Curious, I strolled over the the couch and leaned on the back, on my elbows. "Wait," I blurted, as the picture on the screen became clear to me. "What the hell? That's a dragon."
"Yup," replied Über in the same almost-reverent tone that he had used before. "That's you, in the middle of the fight."
I looked at the picture. It clearly showed a large draconic figure, scaled in a brilliant red and gold, gouting flame from fang-lined jaws at a more metallic-looking version. Lung looked powerful; the dragon looked … magnificent. Terrifying. Amazing. I gulped. That was me?
"Wait, but how?" I asked.
L33t shrugged. "I'm guessing holocloak."
"But I didn't have a dragon image in the holocloak memory." L33t was advancing the footage slowly; I watched as the two dragons clashed in midair. I remembered that clash; I just hadn't known how it looked.
"Your armour adapted," Über pointed out. "Maybe your holocloak did too."
"Holy shit." I shook my head. "So that's what happens when a power copying Trump wearing armour inside a Manton field meets a cape that can adapt and change his shape and size."
"Well, you have to admit, it was a fairly unique set of circumstances, but yeah," agreed L33t. "That's what happens."
"One thing's for sure," Über said with more than a touch of satisfaction.
"What's that?" I asked, without taking my eyes off of the screen. I'd been there, and the fight hadn't looked this awesome to me.
He grinned. "You'll be going on just about everybody's do-not-fuck-with list."
"I don't even believe that's a thing," I protested. "Is that a thing?"
<><>
"Well, she just went on my do-not-fuck-with list," Dennis breathed, pausing the clip and looking around at everyone. "Is that pure and utter bullshit, or just regular everyday bullshit? What do you guys think?"
Chris had a glazed look in his eye. "Adaptive power armour. How the hell did she build adaptive power armour?"
"You're sure it's power armour and not just, well, her?" asked Rory.
"No, it's definitely some kind of power armour," Chris stated. "We've got the tail. But how in hell did she make it adaptive?"
Missy looked at Carlos. "She wasn't wearing power armour when we fought her, was she?"
"No," he agreed. "There was no motif, and she was pretty skinny. Presuming that we are talking about the same person."
"It was North Side," Missy reminded him. "They lost millions of dollars worth of equipment. Stuff that would only be really valuable to a Tinker."
"Well, if it was the same person, and she's now sporting power armour," Dean decided, "she's definitely had an upgrade." He paused. "Vicky didn't say anything about adaptive armour when she fought her. Just some sort of narcoleptic touch."
"Well, we're about ninety percent sure that this cape is the same one who fought Vicky at the armoured car robbery, and also did the raid on Coil's base." Chris ran the action back to the firefight inside the casino. "See that big-ass rifle? It changes shape, kinda, but it's pretty distinctive all the same. She's carrying it in all three encounters. And that's pretty well the clincher for power armour too. It's gotta be about the same size as Vista."
"Hmm, yeah," Carlos agreed. "I see your point. You'd need some sort of strength augment to lug around a weapon that size."
"Wait, are you saying I'm fat?" demanded Missy hotly.
"No, of course not," Dean hastened to reassure her. "You're adorably petite." Ignoring her pleased flush, he went on. "But a gun the size of you is a big-ass gun by anyone's standards."
"And that raises another matter," Dennis put in. "When she first showed up, she didn't have power armour. And she still kicked your butt, Carlos, and Missy's too."
"And I'm half-thinking now that she went easy on us," Carlos commented. "Given what she's doing these days."
"Yeah, don't remind me," grumped Missy. "I can't believe how thoroughly she owned us."
"So anyway," Dennis went on, "what I was saying was that she's upgrading her armour. First appearance, it was pretty well vanilla. Brute rating and the sleepy-time touch that she used on Glory Girl. Next appearance, teleportation. This appearance, teleportation and adaptation. What's she gonna be doing next?"
"To hazard a guess," Carlos decided, "anything she damn well wants."
Chris' phone beeped. "Ah, gotta go," he told them. "Armsmaster wants my help."
"Have fun," Dennis told him. He turned back to the screen. "Fast forward it. I want to see her face-plant Lung into the ground again."
"But we've already watched that bit," Missy pointed out.
"Seven times," Dean agreed.
"So? It'll never not be funny."
They considered that.
"He's got a point." Carlos picked up the remote.
"Wait, wait," Dennis held up his hands.
Missy looked at him. "What?"
He pointed at the empty bowl. "We need more popcorn."
<><>
Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown leaned back in her office chair. "Good evening, Emily," she said to the empty air. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"There was another Über, L33t and Hax incident just tonight," the Director of PRT ENE informed her over speakerphone. "The footage is online and it's going viral faster than ever before."
"Have you viewed it?"
When Director Piggot replied, there was a strange note to her voice. "Yes. And I think you should, too."
She really thinks I should.
Sitting forward, Rebecca typed rapidly at her desk computer, calling up the appropriate website. A few more keyclicks got her the latest filmclip. She turned the volume down; at that moment, she didn't need to be distracted by the colour commentary from Über, L33t or Hax.
"So, a robbery," she observed. "With a … Halo theme, if I'm not much mistaken?"
"That's what I'm told," Emily replied; the tone of her voice indicated disinterest in the current theme.
"What is this place? Some sort of casino?"
"Yes. An illegal one, run by the ABB. Keep watching."
Rebecca put the clip to run at double-speed; she was well able to keep up with the action. "I'm impressed," she observed. "A full-on firefight and nobody got hurt."
"Well, one man did," Piggot stated. "The cashier. He tried to shoot Hax. Friendly fire got him. They sent us the footage separately, to prove it wasn't them."
"Wouldn't matter in a court of law," Rebecca observed absently. "They precipitated the firefight, they're to blame for any deaths." She blinked. "Is that Oni Lee?"
"Yes. Now it gets interesting."
'Interesting' was one word for it. Rebecca watched as Hax engaged Lung and they began to fight. She had been in her own fights before, many of them against more impressive foes than Hax. But still …
"Wait." She paused the action. "That can't be right."
"What can't be right?"
"She's taller than she was before. He's growing but so is she." She frowned. "Some sort of optical illusion?"
"No illusion. Keep watching. It gets even better."
True to Piggot's word, it got better. After Hax threw Lung out of the building through a brick wall – and Rebecca knew exactly how many foot-pounds of energy were required to perform that feat, making her whistle silently under her breath – the view changed. As had one of the combatants.
"Wait," she demanded, pausing the footage once more. "That's not Hax."
"That's Hax," Director Piggot assured her.
"That's a dragon."
"And it's Hax. Wind it back. You'll see the beginnings of the change before she throws Lung out through the wall. Our best analysts assure me that this is the case."
Possessed of perfect memory, Rebecca didn't need to rewind the footage; playing it back in her head, she noted what Emily had pointed out, the beginnings of the change from Master Chief to fire-breathing dragon. In addition, the postures and patterns of movement were the same. "I see. You are correct." She set the clip in motion once more.
She's matching him. He gets bigger, so does she. He becomes more draconian, so does she. Is she matching the changes, or instituting her own?
A moment later, her question was answered as he tried to smash her into the ground using her own tail as a lever; the tail disconnected, becoming a flexible length of segmented metal in his hands. He cast it aside, launching himself at her. When she did this to him, he could not detach it. Did she deliberately detach it, or did he tear it off?
"Please tell me you retrieved the tail," she said urgently.
"We retrieved the tail," Director Piggot assured her. "Armsmaster and Kid Win are examining it as we speak."
"Did she detach it or did he tear it off?"
"She detached it, I am told."
"What does the end look like?"
"That's the really interesting part. Plugs and connectors. Very normal looking. And a series of sockets for clamps. Armsmaster jury-rigged a matching interface for it, and he's able to manipulate it as she was doing there. Dangerous looking thing, though. Did you see the thagomizers?"
Rebecca blinked. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about." This was a new feeling for her; her encyclopaedic memory usually allowed her to keep ahead of any new terms.
"Kid Win assures me that's what they're called. It's an palaeontological term for the spikes on either side of a stegosaurus' tail. This tail has much the same sort of thing, only razor-sharp titanium steel. I watched Armsmaster put them through an inch-thick steel barrier, using only the tail's built-in servomotors for power."
"Thagomizers." It sounded like a joke term, even after it was explained to her.
"Apparently it comes from a comic strip. In any case, yes, we have the tail. It serves to give an idea of just how dangerous the rest of the suit is."
"So I see." She set the clip in motion once more. The fight went on; with increasing disbelief, she watched the dragon grow another tail. Regenerating capes are bad enough. But regenerating power armour?
And then she clicked to the reality of the situation. She has something that allows her armour to mimic powers as well. It's how she can match off against Brutes so well; she takes on their Brute capability, as does her armour. And it can also apparently make use of other aspects of their powersets.
It all made a lot more sense now. Lung became draconic; Hax mimicked the power and her armour did so also. And of course the holocloak is a part of the armour, and thus it shows a draconic aspect as well.
When Hax slammed Lung face-first into the ground, she winced, despite herself. But when the raging cape had his face ground into the melting asphalt while the red and gold dragon atop him roared her name to all and sundry, she shook her head slowly. That has to hurt. And I'm not talking about physically.
And then, with a flash of light, Hax teleported away; Rebecca half-expected her to return and humiliate Lung yet again, but the clip ended there. Displayed on the screen was the new logo for Pwnage, with the following tagline:
Cash retrieved from patrons and cashier: $10,563. Cash retrieved from vault: $748,450. Watching Lung get Pwned by Hax: Fricking PRICELESS.
Sitting back, she set it going again, giving it only half her attention while she mused over the implications.
Lung is going to be pissed.
It wasn't her problem … but it would be Pwnage's. The ABB leader would pull out all the stops in order to regain his reputation after such a humiliating defeat. Which made it the problem of the PRT, if they wanted Hax alive for the next Endbringer battle.
That power armour is a terrifying force multiplier, in her hands.
In anyone's hands, the armour would be dangerous. Equipped with a teleporter and possessed of sufficient strength and armour to give it a reasonable Brute rating on its own, even a normal could wreak havoc with it. But with her particular powerset, it magnified her abilities considerably while giving her significant protection no matter what powers she was copying at the time.
I would not like to fight her while she is wearing it.
"Chief Director? Are you there?"
"Yes, I'm here. I was just … thinking. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It was most impressive. I'll be expecting the full analysis on that tail and its …" She paused, still not sure if the word was indeed a real one. " … thagomizers. Also, I'd like you to consider something."
"Yes?"
"Imagine how things could be going if Alexandria hadn't smoothed things over between Hax and the PRT."
With that, she put the phone down. The Triumvirate, working as a team, could defeat her, she mused. We would, of course, have to work at range. But let her get close enough to tap our powers … She shuddered; the idea of facing someone with Legend's or Eidolon's powers, able to use them better than either hero, was somewhat daunting. Or if she got close enough to tap my powers, and with that teleporter she could, and then used my speed to stay within range of me without letting me tag her, and using my durability to survive the others …
That was not a fight she wanted to consider going into lightly.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
It was only a little later that the question occurred to her. If Über and L33t were in view almost the entire time … how did they manage to access the vault?
<><>
"Lisa?" Brian's voice was slightly strangled. "Would you come have a look at this, please?"
Lisa's head came up. "The Pwnage video?" She came out of the kitchen.
"Yeah," he said.
"We on it?" asked Regent, pausing his game and looking over at where Brian was sitting on the sofa with his laptop.
"No, we never appear, even in the crowd shots," Brian assured him. "I've been looking."
"Okay, cool," Lisa said, sitting down beside Brian. "So what … oh, wow."
"Wow is right," Brian agreed. "For starters."
They listened to the chatty dialogue between Über and L33t, with occasional dry one-liners from Hax. In contrast, the action on the screen was violent, almost visceral. Lung's savagery was evident; he wasn't pulling his punches. He wanted to kill Hax.
The two dragons, one faux-real, the other metallic, tore at one another, wreathing the battlefield in flame. As they fought, they grew larger, more dangerous, more destructive. Bricks powdered when struck; asphalt melted and then boiled.
"I saw some of this," Lisa breathed. "But not like this … oh god."
"What?" asked Brian. "Something wrong?"
"If they'd kept fighting …"
Alec raised his head. "We might've had another Kyushu. Two monsters just tearing the city apart while trying to kill each other. And Hax would be tapping Lung's power, so they would never stop."
Lisa's face had become remarkably paler, the freckles standing out in sharp relief. "Yes. That's exactly what would have happened." In her mind's eye, she could see it; two draconic beings, enlarged vastly beyond their human origins, shattering the city into a burning wasteland in the course of their battle.
Brian swallowed. "And we teamed up with them?"
"Well, hey," Alec pointed out. "We're making out like bandits, here. Our share's gonna be insane."
This time, Brian shook his head. "No, you don't get it. I like them as people, but as capes, they're really scary."
"Hax is really scary," Alec corrected him. "Über and L33t are … well, they're Über and L33t."
"Currently teamed up with arguably the scariest cape in Brockton Bay," Lisa reminded him.
Alec shrugged. "Okay, so we make a rule."
Brian looked at him. "A rule?"
"Yeah." Alec spread his hands. "If we team up with them again, we make sure we're not going against someone who can turn the battle into a …"
<><>
With a soft thump, my forehead hit the desk. Seriously, do all the idiots come out to play when this sort of thing happens?
Me neither. I rubbed at my eyes. What is it with people?
<><>
Lung spoke through clenched teeth. "And what of Oni Lee?"
Jin, the only one of his minions brave enough to face him, shook his head jerkily. "The authorities dug his body out of the building," he revealed. "He was killed by one of his own grenades."
"But how can that be?" demanded the leader of the ABB. "He never made a mistake like that before!"
Jin's terrified shrug was more like a spasm of his neck and shoulders. "I don't know, sir. I wasn't there. I just know that he is dead."
"Hrmm." Lung's murmur was like distant thunder. "Send in the men who were there. The ones who were downstairs. The ones who let them rob me. I want to hear what they have to say."
"Yes, sir." Jin made his escape.
Moments later, the men in question were shoved into the room. Their hands were tied behind their backs and their faces were bruised. Lung looked them over. "What happened to them? Was it the robbery?"
Jin shook his head. "No, sir. They tried to escape. We had to stop them. Two of them managed to get away before we could secure them."
Lung fixed him with a hard stare. "Find them. Bring them to me. Or you will take their place. In the meantime … give us the room."
The unbound minions scurried from the room; the door was slammed behind them. Lung turned to those left behind. "Now, you will tell me everything."
<><>
It took all of Jin's nerve to wait outside the door. Within, Lung's voice had gone from a formless rumble to a shout, demanding answers that the men did not have. This had progressed to meaty thuds, clearly audible through the thick door, then to an ominous silence.
After that, the screams began.
Jin wanted to run, but Lung knew where his family lived, knew their names. If he ran, if he deserted the ABB, he would be a marked man. There would be nowhere in Brockton Bay that he would be able to run to, no shadow deep enough to hide in. He and his family, his wife and little boy, would have to leave the city and travel far away to escape the vengeance of Lung.
More screams, nerve-racking in their intensity, tore at his nerves. I don't know how far would be far enough. I would always be looking over my shoulder.
The alternative, to kill Lung and end the danger, simply never occurred to him as a serious solution. Lung had faced Leviathan and survived. An insect such as Jin could never even hope to pose a serious threat to his life.
Smoke drifted under the door; Jin shivered. So glad it's not me. So glad it's not me.
The door opened. Lung, standing a head taller than when he had entered, loomed in the doorway. Behind him, the men he had been questioning lay on the floor. Some were whimpering, others were ominously still. None were unscathed; the stink of burned flesh was thick in the air, as was the smell of human excrement. Jin fought not to gag at the stench.
"Remove this trash," growled Lung. As he stepped past Jin, the hairs on the minion's forearms curled in the heat emanating from the leader of the ABB. "And bring me the other two."
"Yes, sir." Jin watched Lung stride away, trailing heat haze like a banner. He knew he had no choice.
He would find the two men who had run, or he would die trying.
<><>
"So what do you have?"
Armsmaster looked up as Director Piggot entered the laboratory. Kid Win didn't, as he was currently disassembling an intricate mechanism in the tail.
"Director," the older hero greeted her. "This is a fascinating piece of equipment. You say Hax built it?"
"I'm not sure who built it," the Director corrected him. "From all appearances, her power armor grew it during the fight, then detached it once it became a problem."
Kid Win looked up then. "That'd actually make a lot of sense, in a really weird way," he observed.
Piggot frowned. "Explain."
"Sure." He indicated the internals of the tail, where pieces of the outside armor had apparently been levered or cut away. "None of this was built, as far as we can tell. No bolts, no screws. Not even welded or soldered. It's as organic as something made of metal and plastic can be."
"Very efficient," Armsmaster agreed. "No single component does one specific thing. They interlock and overlap. There's no wasted space. From all appearances, it was created as a whole, rather than assembled from individual components."
"And yet, the plugs, the connectors, the fact that it uses electricity and responds to computer commands?"
"Yeah, that's the fun part," Kid Win acknowledged. "It's mechanical. The connectors make it plug-and-play. But there are no individual parts that we can point at and say 'this does that'. So yeah, it's basically an organic machine made up of standard carbon steel and other mundane materials."
Piggot closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she looked at Armsmaster. "All right. One question. Is there any way – any way at all – that this could be used to pin down the identity of the person in the power armor without question?"
They both knew what she was asking. He had been a part of the near-disastrous raid on the Hebert house. But neither of them mentioned Taylor Hebert by name.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," he replied. "I've got nothing."
"Well then, keep at it," she told him. "Let me know if anything new comes up."
Turning, she left the laboratory; she refrained, just barely, from slamming the door.
I know it's her, even if there's nothing to prove it. But one day there will be.
<><>
"Okay, seriously, that's you?"
Dad stared at her/me as she/I turned away from the computer monitor.
"Yup," she/I confirmed. "That's what I was doing while we were having dinner. During the movie, I was showering then helping to do the final edit on the filmclip."
"But … that's Lung," Dad protested. "How could you … how were you even able to fight him? And do that?"
In his eyes, as he looked at her/me, was a whole new expression. The first few robberies I had committed were, by and large, meat and potatoes type cape heists. Show up, have a brief tussle with the forces of law and order, take the goods and go. But the encounter with Lung had been on a whole new level. Things would never be the same again. I would never be the same again.
I had to pause as I thought about that. Was I becoming desensitised to the whole fact that I was now a serious supervillain? A few comments on the PHO boards indicated that people outside Brockton Bay were beginning to take notice. One or two were even from outside the US, which surprised me considerably.
"I did it because I had to," she/I answered him while I considered the question I had set myself. "He would have killed us, not just beaten us up and thrown us out. Lung plays for keeps. As for 'how' … well, let's just say my armour's got more tricks in it than most people realise."
"But you turned into a dragon," he protested. "How did you even manage that, with your armour?"
"I was kinda surprised, myself," she/I admitted. "But it all seemed to work out in the end."
Yeah, I'm a supervillain, I decided. But I'm doing it for a good cause. If the good guys can't get their act together, I'm gonna have to be a bad guy.
End of Part Twenty-Four
Part Twenty-Five
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