12

Velocity." Lung rumbled, clearly not sounding happy.

Impulse-Engine...

The students muttered amongst themselves excitedly, wondering if another fight was to follow.

Drat!

The smarter ones realized that Lung hadn't promised that one anything, and started shying back.

---===---​

<Lost? How have we lost?>

I fought against many speedsters in Japan. They were as popular there as Alexandrian types are in America.

<So?>

So, the best I could manage was a Pyhrric victory against the weakest amongst them. In all other cases, I lost. I had to destroy rather than conquer them. It's why I don't even bother being careful half the time now.

<Why?>

Because he has shown himself to me. And I am not on the offensive.

In the time I had thought all of this, and blinked, he had crossed the parking lot, finished examining Assault and Battery and was studying me. Then Oni Lee. Then the students.

Weighing the odds.

And then he was gone.

---===---​

"Oni Lee." Lung's voice was as serious it had ever been. "The Gym Rooftop, ASSD. Go."

<I didn't know that much about him, he died fighting Leviathan.> She still didn't understand. A speedster dying to Leviathan, the ultimate speedster, meant little.

Lee was on the rooftop, binoculars sweeping the nearby buildings. He should have remembered to arm and place his single claymore mine at the only door. It wouldn't do anything to harm Velocity, but driving him on the defensive would buy precious seconds, seconds that Oni Lee could teleport away in.

I glanced warily at the white van I had come in on. The only thing that had saved this whole situation from being an absolute failure was his inability to see inside thanks to the few windows being covered in bolted-on corrugated metal. Everything would have been over at that point.

Thankfully, Lung doesn't do cardboard.

I still had a chance, albeit an extremely slim one.

<I fought him, hit him in the balls with my baton, with pepper spray and bugs, I've beaten him.>

You fought him when he was seriously restricted in what he could do, in an area where your total power could be brought to bear. I am Lung, I do not get that luxury.

I strode to the middle of the parking lot and began my age old tradition of anticipation. I wasn't sure if I still needed to do this, but I needed everything I could get.

I studied the clouds in the sky, the cars, the battlefield I would soon be in.

You see, there is an eternal game with two players, Speed, and Power. Each envies the other, and each yearns to have both. Those with just one can only win if they press what sole advantage they have and never allow the other to do the same.

<You mentioned him showing himself to us, and not being on the offensive... what did you mean?>

For the former, in the time he was here, he had either written down or transmitted every license plate on every vehicle in the parking lot. We cannot escape him, no matter what we drive, and if we drive off, we can expect an attack at our weakest and on their terms. Any base or safe house we go to is compromised, if not searched before we finish putting the keys in the door. To show himself to us is a message, one that means we have no place we can go.

<Oh.> She was starting to understand, but still, not really.

As for the latter, as I said it's about opposites. If I was on the offensive, attacking a building or something that he could not move, he could do nothing to stop me. But I am not attacking, and thus, his speed has the fullest advantage. I can destroy the van and run, using Oni Lee's teleportation to get us to a place where we can hide and hope to skulk away, but that would undo all that I had done here today. It would send the wrong lesson.

I glanced at the fallen heroes I had planted into the vehicle. They were the only thing I could use. They were why Velocity had shown himself at all.

No, I also had all I could remember about the man, thanks to Taylor.

---===---​

It had nothing.

Impulse-Engine was a shard that was both diametrically in opposition, and intrinsically counterintuitive to face.

It had no data, no damage to the scales, and at best theoretical workings of how thermodynamics might affect the physics it's opponent utilized.

It understood this, and instead searched very carefully in the mind of it's Key.

There had to be a way...

<Hey, what are you doing?>

[STUDY.]

---===---​

"Children," the man boomed as he looked over his shoulder at them. "Step back. This will be..."

He stopped and thought carefully for a moment.

"Messy." He concluded.

---===---​

Those present watched as the man grew, seven feet tall, eight, before stopping just shy of nine. Larger than he had been fighting the last two heroes.

Stubby thick little spikes jutted from his shoulder blades as his tail thrashed about, seeking prey.

Scales covered him as he crossed his arms and waited.

And waited.

A minute passed, those who watched muttered, not understanding the duel before them.

"I know you can hear me Velocity." The voice was harsh and metallic, yet less than when he had been speaking during his first battle in front of them.

"You must have planted at least one device capable of that." The accent, the mangled words, both were gone.

"I know your plan to beat me."

"And it would work too. But..." He took a step towards the conscious, but still immobile duo stuck in the vehicle nearby. "I have these two. And I will not run."

I could not run.

Velocity was back between one heartbeat and the next.

"Please don't." He sounded calm and resigned despite the mechanical hiss his new mask gave him. "I've been fully authorized."

---===---​

It was very hard to surprise a speedster. Nearly all of them could think and perceive at very high speeds, meaning the fastest attacks still took seconds to choose, prime, fire, travel, and finally land. Sometimes they had subjective minutes between trigger pulls or words.

A Speedster had to be patient, the world simply cannot keep up.

Thus, they are never panicking. They may sound it, but that was usually due to how their pitch and speed of their voices became to human ears.

They have plenty of time to think, decide, and act. Plenty of time to see all the options and weigh all the choices.

Taylor had placed him in a situation where he had to slow down, become more tangible and vulnerable, and was therefore capable of being surprised.

Then pepper spray, bugs, and baton to the balls... always the testicles with her...

Therefore to win I had to take the options away, I had to do as Skitter had done, and place the walls around him. Not the balls part.

I took in what he was covered in at a glance.

As I told the children, this was indeed going to be messy.

I'm glad I got the suit off.

I looked at our playing field and decided where to start.

We shall start with Joseki I think...

---===---​

All the teenagers knew who Velocity was and what he looked like. He had sponsorship for shoes, exercise equipment, energy drinks, even a breakfast cereal.

He was a good guy.

Everyone knew he moved fast but couldn't hurt you. He could barely move an empty paper cup when he was going.

So when they took in what had changed in his voice, his posture, and most importantly his costume, they knew something was going to happen.

He was covered in weapons.

Several guns, knives both punch daggers and throwing, custom grenades, custom cattle prods, everything designed to be no more than two inches from his skin.

Or his Breaker power.

All told, even with Armsmaster refining and customizing everything, he must have had fifty pounds of ordinance, even more than Oni Lee. Military webbing kept everything carefully in place.

His mask was changed from the friendly open concept he normally wore. Everything was covered now.

His open eyes in angled hardened plastic yellow shooting glasses. His mouth in a rebreather for dust and noxious fumes. Any exposed skin left on his face was covered in dark angled plastic, not unlike the stealth bombers of yore. A helmet protected his head and ears, but there was no doubt little audio receivers designed to let safe amounts of sound through.

The same friendly red costume, covered in weapons and armor.

This was the Velocity that the children never got to see, the army man who'd just been given the authorization to use whatever means he needed to in order to win. The man with friends who needed him.

One of the many dreadful solutions concocted by the PRT should any gang go too far. The Speedster Gambit.

"I'm sorry." He said. "You know how it is."

"I am also sorry," I boomed quietly, "But the instant you arrived all options fell away." I shrugged resignedly as I gestured to his fallen comrades. "I can't even offer you the same concessions I gave them. You are too dangerous."

Instead of the casual and bestial stance I often took, arms spread and ready to roar and send flame in all directions, I entered a compact karate stance, one fist tucked closely by my side, weight on my back leg, my body angled towards him. "I will not aim at the children, that is all I can do."

He nodded and took his own stance. One hand low and relaxed, ready to grab what he needed, the other rocking slowly back and forth in front of him. His footwork resembled a boxers -an outfigther- carefully hopping from one foot to the next.

His footsteps doubled as every vein in my body began to glow red with the fire under the scale. He could see my heart throb with flame.

They doubled again and his right hand snapped to the small of his back as I crouched and prepared to lunge.

I kicked off in the same maneuver I had used against Assault and Battery, only now I was even stronger, and, as my feet left the ground both they and the spikes from my shoulder blades shot forth flame.

[Stand]

Just like I had with Armsmaster.

[Run]

I had never moved this fast before.

[Soar]

It still wasn't enough.

[Higher]

---===---​

The children and teachers watched as Lung shot forth like a rocket, flames and all, and executed a near perfect jump kick at the face of his opponent.

He hit nothing.

Velocity was gone.

And then he was back in the exact same spot. If you'd blinked you would have missed it, if not for the fact that he had turned to face his opponent.

Lung's rocket-propelled kick hit the front of a truck and demolished it. It crumpled like it had driven full speed into a wall and buried the Villain's leg in the engine up to his knee.

His fingers dug into the engine block, sheer Brute strength had him rip the truck nearly in half to free his leg.

Velocity waited, saying nothing.

The clouds rumbled above as Lung kicked off again, slower this time, less fire. He stopped directly in front of the speedster, body low, swinging in with an uppercut covered in a vortex of white-hot flame, one that caused the asphalt to ignite where Velocity had stood.

Had being the operative word as Lung felt the barrel of the double-barreled shotgun at his ear. Only the relative slowness of the trigger being pulled in normal time saved him as his head tilted just enough that the shot hit his temple instead.

Being students of Winslow, there were few shrieks at the sound of the gunfire.

Head reeling from the shot, his compatriot inside him barely managed to get the metal caps in his ears in place before the other ear received the second shot.

His head rung, but he had no fleshy brain to damage anymore.

As the echoes of the near simultaneous shots faded, Lung straightened his neck with a harsh metallic crack and turned to Velocity, who was sitting calmly on the hood of the Principal's car, slowly pulling out the spent shells in an almost bored fashion.

"You'd have better luck with solid slugs or darts." Lung noted almost conversationally. "Better penetration."

He noted how Velocity reloaded his weapons extremely close to his chest, likely practiced to keep them in the Breaker field he generated. He could reload on the move, but didn't want that fact to be known.

"I had hoped to get some of the buckshot into your ear canal, disorient you a bit." Velocity replied. He pulled out solid slugs and inserted them into the twin barrels of the stripped-down shotgun. "I'll save the rest of them for Oni Lee and his clones." His head tilted from up at Lung's head staring down at him over to the head peeking out from the Gymnasium rooftop. "Speaking of which, why isn't he helping? I keep checking on him but he isn't moving." Not moving on the kids for hostages, or at me, he didn't say.

"Lee has other duties at the moment," Lung said, amused. "Shall we continue?"

"Must we? You can't win this," Velocity said, the hiss of the mechanical voice his facemask sounding calm, but I heard his heart rate, it spoke differently. "If you hurt these children, the PRT will pull the city apart to get you. There won't even be an offer for the Birdcage, just a-"

"I think not." I took a step towards him, letting my natural presence scatter the power his words had on the children. "You would have done it already if you could have. City or children be damned."

Lung chuckled, low, harsh, and metallic. "Even the Endbringer Leviathan couldn't defeat me in sole combat."

Nor could he defeat it, whispered an ugly spot in his mind.

"Look at you," Lung turned and gestured at the Hero as he reappeared where he'd started the fight, weapons ready. "Your heart beats so fast, like your namesake, fluttering on tiny wings."

---===---​

That froze him on the spot, so much so my lunge at him almost got him. My claws clasped only air. No, there was something...

The grenade exploded, damaging my hands and blowing my arms wide.

The solid slugs I got on the backs of both my knees staggered me badly. My arms windmilled, trying to balance. Even my tail tried to help, though it lacked the strength to keep me up.

A quarter second later the Tinker-modified cattle prod hit me in the "soft" spot at the base of my neck.

Interesting, His breaker power upped the amount of electricity far beyond what it should. Good to know. Thankfully my leg still grounded me.

I fell backward, shoulders hitting the ground. Something small and metallic rained down on my chest.

Grenade pins?

The grenades I was laying on went off with a dull *crump* of an explosion. My whole body was lifted off the ground a foot.

Had I been the old Lung, most of my insides wouldn't have changed yet. I might have died.

But I wasn't the old Lung, now are we?

I grinned, with plenty of teeth to spare.

"Can your wings bear you above your denial, little Robin?"

"So it's true, what he said." Velocity's voice was steady, disciplined as he threw away the smoking cattle prod. "You know."

His heartbeat told me everything.

"Touched a nerve there, did I?" Two more solid slugs hit me inside my mouth as I spoke, ricocheting off of my metal palette.

I sat up and spat out the dented slugs. "I am Lung. Did you think I was just sitting there, waiting for you to build your cage for me?"

Had I? It's getting hard to remember.

[All]

I felt the surge of scales within me.

[We]

Only it was different.

[Know]

Different and familiar.

[Higher]

---===---​

It had studied enough.

The question, why they just didn't use more fire and scale and metal until everything was burnt and beaten finally had an answer.

Weakness.

Soft, emotional things inside them. Apparently they had a purpose, and, for now anyways, it would permit them to remain.

That didn't mean it couldn't help.

If the Key was correct, it had no access to the Impulse-Engine even if they touched it.

Thus they had no need for the Key.

It could be repurposed.

They had done so well together.

The Key was reconfigured into, oh what did they call it?

Ah yes, Pearl.

[PEARL.]

And inserted back into it's host. For you Mcpoopin!

---===---​

Scales grew, but differently than before. Angled. Aerodynamic.

|Stand|

Horns emerged from his brow, not jutting forward to stab or gore, but drawn against the sides of his temples, reinforcing them and pointing away.

|Run|

His nose extended, hardened, became beak-like.

|Soar|

His mouth, no longer needed, smoothed and hardened with fine slits for flames to emerge, should it be needed.

|Higher|

It was not wings, but spikes the jutted out and down his back, and they twitched slightly as they swiveled in what motions they could.

Shorter spikes, a few inches long at best, emerged from his forearms, the backs of his hands, his shins.

His toes extended, becoming digitigrade, A single front claw growing and resembling the saurian talon found in the nightmares of children.

And underneath the wrists...

---===---​

Behind the wannabe gangsters, a lone girl clutched her head as a new form invaded her senses, one vastly larger and more complicated than the others.

Too big and complicated to actually control, and yet familiar...

Her mind found one horribly similar crawling in the grass.

"Mantis..." She whispered.

And then she looked up and saw what else had grown on Lung.

---===---​

I was Lung and only Lung.

Once again I was different than my usual form, but I had my hair back, long and curly, just as it should be.

I glanced at my wrists, noting the outputs for flame. The switchblade like arrangement for the mantis claws.

In one fluid motion I lunged, jets firing, moving faster than the speed of sound.

My claws felt no resistance.

I glanced down again and immediately felt irritated that I had to do so. Where were my compound eyes?

[Helping!]

The scales grew. Ah, much better. And I could catch motion much better with them.

I looked at my claws, at the scraps of webbing dangling from the razor edges.

Without moving I looked at Velocity, at the thin red lines crisscrossing his torso where the stripe of his costume was, at the blood dribbling out.

Almost got him.

"What are you?" He whispered, just like another one had asked me just days ago.

I wanted to answer him, but I didn't have a mouth anymore.

[Speaking!]

Wait, there it was, grown just for the occasion. I'd tuck it back up inside my skull when I got moving again.

"Lung."

And Velocity was gone.

Oi-otoshi.

---===---​

"{Found it.}" Came the Japanese voice, just above a whisper.

I didn't turn to look at Lee, I didn't need to. {"When he returns, take care of it."}

A mouth was so... handy. I'd make a point of keeping one ready.

The clouds rumbled as I waited. He would be back, he just needed to rearm himself as I'd cut away half his weaponry.

I still had to be careful about using flame on him, whatever he had tucked away in the small of his back, clearly it was for that. But since he didn't use it on my jets, it was most likely for my omni-directional flame, what I used to be famous for.

He was back in a minute.

"Sorry, I had to pick up something special." His heart was racing. He was honestly terrified.

But of me, or what he carried?

I drank in his hasty additions. M40 grenade launcher, two bandoliers of grenades atop his wounds, and something strapped to both his wrists. This was in addition to the handguns he still had, the knives, and of course, plenty of grenades. He had bandaged his cuts as well.

A slight snag of compound eyes, fine details just weren't there. I'd keep them though, I'd need every edge I could get to catch him.

I shrugged, the scales clattering slightly.

---===---​

It was almost a repeat of their first engagement, except now it was a man against a monster.

And it was in fast forward.

Jets firing, the metal dragon mantis...thing launched itself at the Hero, foot first, claw-like toes reaching for flesh. A rocket powered jump kick, flying nearly perfectly horizontal.

The Hero dodged, returned, and started peppering his opponent with his handgun. One held in a bizarre Israeli variation of a military grip, while making sure the entire gun stayed within two inches of his hands.

It was awkward, but he made it work.

The Speedster moved in a blur, taking cover from one car to another between each shot, standing still just long enough to fire.

Instead of the bullets ricocheting off, they appeared to be doing some damage. Each shot caused scales to flake off and scatter, leaving healing pockmarks filling with more scale.

As for Lung, the vehicle he kicked looked like it was hit by a train. He didn't need to pull a leg out of the engine block, there was no engine parts larger than a man's fists left.

He turned and studied the Hero moving and shooting, compound eyes ensuring he didn't need to move to track Velocity. Noting that the Hero was never in any one place for long.

Searching for the pattern.

He leaped skyward, jets assisting his flight, before angling his body -and jets- and bringing an axe-kick down where Velocity was aiming to go next.

The parking lot buckled and concaved, the car he'd landed next to crumpled from the force of his landing.

The Hero wasn't there, but that wasn't the point. A third of the parking lot was gone, and if Velocity got too near his allies, the students, or anything fragile, Lung would end it, and them.

---===---​

Another wall was put in place. The Crane's Nest Tesuji.

STAND

He had only so many places where he could shoot at me without risks of hitting others, or risk me returning with literal fire at him and those behind him.

RUN

What looked like a half-full parking lot was now like a game of Go, pieces placed to limit directions.

SOAR

The children were one wall, his friends another, the damaged areas a third, and now the fact that I could and would crumple an area... not quite a fourth, but useful anyway.

HIGHER

He wasn't stupid, he knew what I was doing by where I moved and attacked and where I didn't. Next, he would have to start using his heavier ordinance. But I could endure that.

What would he use? The knives or the grenade launcher? The mystery behind his back, or whatever those were on his wrists?

I was blown off my feet from a shot at my temple, scales scattering.

Grenade launcher it is.

I stood and continued to chase, healing and moving towards my target.

---===---​

Lung wasn't growing. That was another thing that didn't add up.

That's what he did, what he always did. Grew bigger, had more fire, more scales.

Velocity moved and fired, moved and reloaded, moved and placed grenades for the Villain to land on.

The plan was to lead him to the empty school field and spring the trap.

But Lung didn't grow, no matter how many metal scales scattered from the attacks.

Why?

It took him a minute of thinking, or an eyeblink, depending on your perspective. His eyes swept over the triangular scales, their shape...

"Caltrops."

Lung rose and nodded. "Like them?" He sounded almost proud.

Learning!

"I can step around them."Velocity countered, studying the battlefield with blurring motions of his head.

"For now." Lung's voice was calm. "But they will limit you, lead you to Atari, and prove my winning move soon."

There was a distant explosion.

"And that." Lung said smugly, "Was the sound of your unmarked van of supplies going up. Lee was looking for it."

Velocity was well aware of the clock he was on now.

"Judging by the amount of ordinance on you," Lung crouched, lining up his next move. "You have until the rain starts. Then I win."

He dashed towards Velocity, car proving to be no more an obstacle than anything else.

He met only grenades, spinning and seemingly floating in mid air.

Then there were explosions, but he was used to that.

---===---​

Velocity was clever and tried to lead Lung away from the parking lot with a series of near misses.

Lung was also clever but was losing his calm as he moved and chased, clawed and swiped, growing more adept with his new form. More efficient with each motion and turn.

Gradually, Velocity lead him to the empty track and field area. The neat grass and carefully maintained running ground was soon pockmarked with craters, Lung practically skipping across the ground like an enormous metal stone across a pond.

Always chasing. Always just behind.

The explosives ran out, the handguns ran dry, the grenade launcher emptied.

ALL

Lung was still there.

WE

And then Velocity saw a drop of rain on his mask.

ARE

"It's raining." Lung said, glancing up at the sky though he didn't need to.

HIGHER

And with that, he turned and started walking calmly towards the parking lot.

---===---​

Why hadn't Velocity already won?

Not today I mean, but with the rest of the city.

No one else had a speedster on his level. Why is there still a drug dealer still standing?

How did anyone get away?

Why wasn't every safe house compromised, Shadow Stalker, sneaking through the walls, gassing the safer targets, killing the worst? <Probably rub one out after doing it, the bitch.>

Why wasn't Vista outside a building, making every window and door lead to one spot?

They had all the pieces necessary to win, I could see that, so why?

Why had he, or will, die, in the battle with Leviathan?

He was working with Trickster on rescue, not offense. A good combo, go out, find someone, mark him, meet up with Trickster, swap, and walk onto the next.

There had to be an answer. A commonality.

And then I had it.

And I was in it.

It fell all around me.

The shitty weather, Brockton Bay's second-highest export.

And not for the lack of traction, though that would be interesting to see, but the water itself.

Sophia, Shadow Stalker, could go through matter, but electricity was her weakness. Energy.

Velocity, as a matter of fact, seemed to accelerate the power of electrical output, judging by how the melted cattle prods had been.

But he could run through the air, it didn't become a force that tore the skin off his bones.

But what had killed him with Leviathan? What couldn't he escape?

The storm around the Endbringer. The excess water in the air.

And so, when it rained it was over. I don't know how much it would take to beat him, but I had ideas I could test.

The rain landed on me and turned into steam as I strode back to where I'd started this.

I watched Velocity pursue, but at a fraction of the speed of what he could do. My eyes followed him easily now.

"I've won." My voice made it fact.

"I've still got my little ace." He retorted. Indeed, whatever was on his arms was gone. I'm not sure when or where that happened. But...

"It doesn't matter. If it was dangerous enough to make you hesitate to use it at all, you wouldn't use it near your allies." The children, for the most part, had scattered as I returned, but there were some of my children still there, and her.

Oh, the things I have planned for you, Taylor Hebert.

Velocity was in front of me once more, his hands reaching for the knives. Face set and grim.

How would he use them? Could they cut me when he was diffuse, similar to Shadow Stalker? No, he had plenty of opportunities to open me up this whole time.

Something else then.

When his grip on them changed I understood.

Hilariously obvious in hindsight.

I lunged, but it was too late to stop him.

---===---​

The khukuri hit me at Mach 6.

Rather the fragments did, it broke up nearly as soon as it left his hand.

How did I know that?

[Impact Analysis!]

Velocity can barely push a paper cup when he's in his Breaker speed state.

But what if he was already holding the cup?

What if he let go?

The way the grenades twirled and spun in mid-air as he left them, that should have told me everything I needed.

I was foolish.

He could throw small things really really hard if he wanted to.

"Damn." I heard him curse as he readied his other blade. "Have to get closer."

I couldn't look at my torso with the way my head was shaped, but I knew I had taken heavy damage.

But my trap was ready.

NOW

I remembered my bugs, how they skittered and moved. I couldn't do that now, but the fragments of me, scattered from our fight, could still do one thing.

WE

As he swung the second blade at my face I ignited all the scales on the ground in front of him. The rain burst into steam.

ARE

There was an explosion and a scream.

HIGHER

---===---​

Slowly I rose, an eye missing, armored forehead dented badly, face mangled.

How long was I out?

STAND

Judging from his screams, less than ten seconds.

HIGHER

Compound eye no longer needed, I shuffled it for something more suited for study.

Velocity was on the ground, screaming and clutching his one arm, the one that had thrown the blade, the one that had gone through all the steam I had produced from burning wet scales in the rain.

It should have just scalded him, but in his diffuse state, I have no doubt that much of his arm was cooked through and through.

I got back to my feet, slowly mending, and he rose to his knees to meet me, still trying to keep me away from his comrades.

A Soldier kneeling on death ground.

---===---​

In difficult ground, press on; On hemmed-in ground, use subterfuge; In death ground, fight.

I had created the difficult ground, then I hemmed him in.

Even with one arm literally steam-cooked to the bone, he would fight me.

Life and Death both in Go terms, and in War.

"You cannot win," I whispered sadly, mouth descending from it's dented protection. "And do you know why?"

I turned and looked at his friends, awake now, and still pinned in the vehicle where I'd planted them. I could see them from here with my height.

"Because you are a Hero, Robin."

Fire collected in my mouth, dripped from it.

I ignited every scale I lost all around the parking lot, filling it with steam.

"And Hero's can't change anything."

I spat a large glob of white-hot flame at Assault and Battery.

He had no excuse for panic, Speedsters seldom did. Velocity had plenty of time to think of what he had to do.

He did it anyway.

I listened to his screams as he dove in.

---===---​

It was over, and I began to shrink, becoming a man once more.

I needed hands, not claws now, with webbing between them so I could blow the muggy air away, so I could see my proof.

The air cleared, revealing Assault and Battery covered in Containment foam, but it was different from what I remember.

I flicked a tiny glob of flame with a finger and watched as the foam grew towards it incredibly rapidly.

A specialized variant, just for me.

Had I used my flame like I always did, I would have been enveloped.

Had he got just an arm, it would have inconvenienced me, maybe gave him the chance to escape, but not nearly enough to save them.

And here he used it to shield his friends.

I had hands now, I could applaud.

I did.

He stirred at the noise, and I watched his new helmet, melted horribly, fall off as he slowly sat up with one arm and leaned against the vehicle.

His face was partially cooked, an eye steamed solid. I'd seen it before, I'd done it even.

He wheezed and coughed, a sound I also knew of burning men and lungs that had taken in burning air, always soon to be dead men. His good eye glared at me.

A pity, that the PRT held his leash.

I would have been honored to hold that leash.

He whispered something, and with my ears still capped, I couldn't pick it up.

With them gone, my enhanced hearing heard the whimpering of the children who had stayed, mixed with the rain, and his weakening heartbeat.

"I'm sorry, could you say that again?"

His whisper was barely moving his lips. I leaned forward to try and catch his final words.

"Checkmate fucker."

And brought his foot down to press the switch on the trap.

[Uh Oh]

Hamete.

---===---​

It was, I think, the same teleportation system Armsmaster used to teleport his halberd to his hands. Only modified to be a loop of area.

[Interesting]

And his Breaker power, like the stun baton, ruined the technology by forcing the electricity to act oddly.

Instead of teleporting, it simply disintegrated everything in the circle.

My arms were gone, so was my face, though thankfully my head was much longer than a regular human's, like a crocodile crossed with a stealth bomber.

[Impressive]

I lost my mouth, my eyes, my talking mouth, and I'm not sure what else. Mostly as I couldn't see, and it didn't hurt yet.

[And familliar...]

I still had my ears, and I heard everything. I heard my limbs and face get pulled apart, along with what I think was the leg Velocity used to trigger the teleporter.

[Who?]

I stepped back, gurgling, blood and fire pouring out as I desperately tried to pull the right kind of scales up to defend, as I knew what was coming next.

I heard Velocity's one good hand grab a handful of gravel and broken asphalt.

With no arms to protect my head, I had to settle for turning away, shying away like a coward, and try to lean into the attack with my shoulder.

Gravel hit me at Mach 6. I was much closer than when he tried this with the knife.

It hit like an Anti-aircraft cannon, which I have had the honor, and pleasure, of being subjected to by the JSDF on a handful of occasions. Sounded like it too.

I was blown off of my feet, and left scrambling to brace myself for the next volley. In the distance I heard windows breaking, likely tiny fragments of gravel had gone on and hit the houses far across the fields.

As he scooped up another handful of gravel, a part of my mind tried to guess how many people Velocity may have killed doing this.

I was hit again. And then again. And once more. Bits of glass, stones, I think a piece of a hubcap at one point impaled me, much like how straw and twigs pierced bricks and concrete when a tornado scooped them up.

Step by step I was forced back, shoulder set against the storm. Each blow I switched shoulders and leading legs. I felt my toes dig into what remained of the concrete and asphalt, trying to hang on.

A particularly large piece of metal got me in the upper torso, and I was hurled into what I think was a truck.

With my arms still slowly regrowing, all I could do was curl up, tuck my head against my knees, and endure.

Three more attacks, each seemingly weaker than the last.

Was I growing like I always did?

And then there was silence.

Had he run out of things to throw at me?

I prioritized an eye, just one, so I could see. I peered from above my knees.

Velocity had fallen limp, slouched next to his vehicle, protecting his friends.

His hand still gripped a rock.

I could barely hear his heart beat anymore.

Slowly I got to my feet. I had arms, tiny things, barely larger than my own untransformed.

I think I was also thirty feet tall now.

I rose slowly, carefully, and looked about.

Every car around me was a mangled mass of metal. You could see the literal cone of destruction I had been squarely sitting in as he hurled whatever he could grab at me.

Lung, cowering from mere rocks. My pride was in tatters.

Thankfully, there was only a handful of people left crazy enough to stay and watch when this was happening.

There was Greg, shivering and holding his phone out, recording this.

There were a few Asians left, colors proud, I didn't know if they were brave or merely stupid.

And then there was her.

I told them it would be messy.

---===---​

Those few that remained watched as Lung shrank, metal sinking back in and being used to compensate for what had been destroyed. His arms were completely made of metal now, as was much of his face, giving it a mask-like quality.

They watched as he stopped in front of the fallen Hero, ignoring muffled the curses from the other two, still pinned where he'd placed them.

The Villain contemplated the Hero in front of him for a moment.

"There is beauty, in a broken world."

He bowed, and those on the PHO with Japanese heritage watching the camera footage from XxVoid_CowboyxX noted just how much respect there was in it.

"Tedomari."

A metal hand grew a single claw. A blade.

It swung down.

---===---​

Two minutes remained on the ETA, despite what he rode.

Armsmaster listened carefully to every word Lung had said, until Velocity's mask went offline.

His hand gripped his halberd tightly.

This one was still an alpha model, the other strapped to his back one he'd last used against the Behemoth.

Would it be enough?

His musings were interrupted by his comm beeping.

"Aegis to Armsmaster, come in Armsmaster."

"This is Armsmaster. Aegis, this is not a good time." One minute forty seconds.

"We got him!"

What?

"What?" An efficient word, four letters. Got a lot done.

"We got Lung!"

---===---​

Ishi-no-shita