13
There are many things people did not know that Lung could do.
He could set things on fire with just his ears. Weeks in a Yangban pit could make any distraction into a hobby.
He did not need to breathe, only if he wanted to speak. That came with the slightest bit of scale, the faintest hint of threat.
He could hold absolutely still for hours. A proficiency learned on the stage, enhanced by Brute powers.
And when his organs were gone, replaced with metal and fire, even they obeyed his will. He could hold them still. His heart was silent.
He utilized them all in his latest performance.
And his minds, yes, minds, for there was more than one in his head, they were thinking.
Thinking carefully.
Very, very carefully.
---===---
When the blade missed Velocity and buried itself into asphalt a surprisingly long distance away from him, Lung and only Lung blinked behind the lenses covering his eyes.
Wanting to see clearly what had brought this on from the noises approaching behind him, Lung and only Lung turned.
He blinked again.
"Shouldn't you be in school?"
---===---
From years only learning of the world from what it could take from repairing damaged meat and bone and analyzing dented scales, to this.
It's cup runneth over.
And there was, even more, coming towards it.
The 'tail' twitched, pointing at each in turn.
S-Pincher, T-Delay, T-Repurpose, B-Integrator, B-Emote, and some it could use Key upon!
The Pearl was retrieved and converted back into Key.
Had it hands, it would be sitting on them in giddy anticipation.
It settled on preparing all sorts of scales, for any occasion that might arise.
---===---
I blinked, and was myself once more. I think.
It had happened again.
I wasn't me for a bit there.
I looked down at the man I almost killed. It perturbed me.
It wasn't the killing part that bothered me, for I had killed many for many reasons, but the fact that killing any one of them, today or in the days to come, would irreparably ruin my goals.
Another long term plan brought down by impulse, though instead of being ruined by one teenage girl, it was saved by another. Well, preteen to be correct, but still...
I knew this fact before I started fighting any of them, but when did that change? When did it cease to matter?
<What did we do?> She was as disturbed as I was.
Terrible things. But more importantly, counter-productive things.
<I remember it all, but it's like looking at a story told by someone else now.>
It was what happened when we fought Armsmaster.
<Pearl, that's what it called me.> Her voice held quiet terror. <Then it took me apart and put me into you. That allowed it to work with you as it had intended to.
I see.
It was listening.
<I felt my mind get taken apart... then put back together differently.>
It was learning.
I looked over at the approaching Wards, though I knew distances could be incredibly deceiving with them.
It would have to learn disappointment next.
If you can talk to it, please let it know that it has nearly ruined everything today, and, that what happens next is solely because of it.
<What will you do?>
I grimaced, both internally and to the world.
[STASIS DEFENSE!]
New scales formed around me.
Lung, mighty and terrible, will have to lose to mere children.
---===---
And so I did.
It was both a pity, and a relief, even then, that it didn't go according to plan.
---===---
Trapped in my own skin, I couldn't move, or breathe, or see, but I could hear.
Even frozen in time by a displaced touch from Clockblocker wasn't enough to lose any more. It had learned from Taylor how to counter it, by making my scales interconnected objects around me and cushioning my flesh inside with flame. A Lung shaped bubble of scales.
As soon as the shell froze, the heat sucked in, and I shrank nearly a foot in size. In a slightly too big Lung shaped cage. One that, if memory served me, gave me anywhere from half a minute to ten minutes to plan what to do next.
I've made do with much less.
Taylor and I bounced ideas off of each other, contemplating our next performance. And it would be a performance, and it would need to be very carefully managed, with no more surprises.
It was almost a relief when I heard the jets, the thump of something large landing on the ground. Metal footsteps followed.
I searched for a pattern of heat, one I had taken great pains to memorize. Lee.
From how it was splayed out and cooled slightly on one side, and comparing it to my mental map of the area, I deduced that he was under a vehicle, out of sight. Good.
As I said, I've made do with much less.
---===---
If a speedster was difficult to surprise, Oni Lee was even worse. An unwilling Zen master.
He didn't even blink when a tiny flame, less than a candle, appeared in front of his face.
Long practice had him crawl backwards silently, tiny flame following, enough to obscure what was to come, and reach for something tucked away by his spine.
A long, thin, rectangular-looking block of wood. It was something more familiar to him than nearly anything else.
A Kuroko's fan-guide. It was designed to look like an ordinary prop fan, but could contain any subtle instructions should the stagehand need to follow a complex pattern. One of the few things from Japan that was still his.
The bamboo slats unfolded like any other fan, though slightly warped from his many teleports, and he carefully withdrew a thin sheet of rice paper, one he pinched between the thin slats on each end.
Once complete, he held the completed fan by the tips of his fingers at both corners, letting his hands heat map the perimeter of the paper.
The fire danced closer and cooled, just enough to darken but not ignite the paper. That had taken many idle and sleepless nights from Lung to master.
Everyone knew that Lung got bigger and more monstrous as he fought.
Everyone knew that Lung's fire got hotter and extended further from him the bigger he got. That it came from him.
Few knew that Lung's control of the flame grew as well, naturally as precision wasn't typically required when fighting things that needed a twenty-foot tall rage dragon.
Only Oni Lee knew that Lung didn't need to bring the flame from himself, and could ignite a man from within, much like Behemoth, but hadn't ever revealed this fact, simply because it would make things even more difficult around him.
A final trump card should someone desperately need to die and be within range of him.
But it had other uses, like this.
Instructions.
Instructions that Oni Lee dearly needed.
---===---
Armsmaster touched down, knowing that he was on the clock, even if someone had jammed their parahuman finger into it.
#ARMS_ClockBlock_1
CB_Predictive_Average
4.2-6.7 minutes
His eyes swept left.
Lung, standing twelve feet tall, was frozen in a roaring lunge. No fire, as the source had been Clockblocked.
Sweeping right, he was greeted with the sight of the Wards, his Wards, as Piggot was happy to remind him. His responsibility.
"Time?" He grunted as he dismounted Dragon's Heavy Battle Armor.
Clockblocker, right hand bandaged by the deft hands of Aegis, glanced at and tapped one of the many clocks on his costume. A countdown appeared on Armsmaster's visor. "Two minutes twenty seconds have passed. I burned my hand a bit touching him, but I'll be fine."
CB_Timer_1
3:43
"Space?" The nextmost obvious question.
Vista, steely serious gaze looking absolutely adorable, was quick to respond. "I have cut the space between Clock and Velocity, and we've had to stop him twice. We've also got the space between Clockblocker and Lung's hip reduced, so careful cutting past them."
#ARMS_Field_VTerrain_Update
He nodded tersely, then turned to Aegis. "Lee?"
#ARMS_IFFupdate
ARMS_IFFlist
Team=3 Assault|Battery|Velocity| Wards=5|Vista|Aegis|Gallant|Kid Win|ClockBlocker|ShadowStalker| Dragon=1
"No sign of him, and I've been flying quick patrols around the school. He may have fled."
"Unlikely." He swept his gaze to his next target. "Crowds?"
#ARMS_Ultrasonic_Map
ARMS_Ultrasonic_Sweep
Active
"Calming down now that you're here." Gallant was ready for this. "Gangs present are unlikely to do anything, and I'll let you know if I notice any hostility, Lee or from the crowd."
"Good." One more to go. He turned at last to the one with the most important of answers. "Kid Win."
"Yes sir?"
"How," He paused as his eyebrow began to twitch under his helmet. "In the name of Fuck, did this happen?" He really shouldn't swear in front of them, but this week...
#Arms_SwearJar
Swear_Tally
|Vista=$0.50|Aegis=$3.00|Gallant=$0.00|Kid Win=$15.25+1.00|ClockBlocker=$25.75|Shadow Stalker=Int_Octet_Overflow|
"I tapped into the PRT Comm encryption when I was building my communications rig with you, remember?" His gaze turned a tad sheepish. "I may have neglected to remove it. And then I heard Assault's call in..."
"I pushed for us to go, no blaming him." Vista added, not taking her eyes off of Lung, even as Dragon sprayed his front with Containment foam.
"Blame all of us," Aegis added. "We all agreed to help because we were near by." At his glance Aegis felt compelled to add. "The photo shoot, remember?"
#BlameTally++
Tally
10.6 Warning! IceCream Threshold passed.
Ah, that. Forgotten with the slight dismembering. He'd have to build a better anticipative system.
ARMS_Memo
Noted
"All right." Something to deal with later. "Dragon."
"I've sprayed down his front half, when the time stop fades, he should land severely immobilized." Cannister depleted, harsh clicks from within her armor signified the selection of another. "This next batch has a shorter lifespan but is extremely heat reactive." She began the stomping trek to circle the frozen Super-Villain. "Footage from Velocity showed him using flame from behind to accelerate. This should, even if he can think or respond extremely quickly, prevent that."
---===---
Excellent, with this last wall in place, my stones will no longer be considered alive.
I can safely lose.
"No." said Armsmaster.
No? Keeping my emotions calm was difficult, but I managed. Couldn't tip Gallant off. Though, to be fair, I think we were all curious.
I just wish I had access to my eyebrows, but those go pretty quickly when I change. Perhaps some movable horns in the future?
"Under what authority?" Dragon asked, but she didn't sound surprised.
"Under Article One Hundred P."
Wait, wasn't that the one-
---===---
"In front of the school?" Dragon's voice didn't shriek, didn't raise at all, but she was immensely disapproving. Her voice could do that.
"Approval came from the Chief-Director herself, as well as two members of the Triumvirate." Unusually quick response as well from both of them, like they were expecting it. Dragon, the Chief-Director, what did they know? What were they both keeping from him?
#ARMS_Paranoia_Update-"CloutLadies"
ARMS_P_Tally
Dragon=11.7 Alexandria=22.6 E.Piggot=33.3
Answers for another time.
"They don't need to see this."
---===---
Armsmaster had most of his face covered thanks to his helmet, but not all of it. Glenn demanded that he had to show some of it in all situations not extremely dire.
Vista, while the youngest, had been a Ward the longest, and she knew how to read his face.
Determination and Regret, that was what was on his face when he looked at her right now. In bold capital letters no less.
Better than the pity she saw all too often, or the annoyance, or the hundred other things he advertised both on his face and in the minute distortions of space she saw around him. She still didn't know why they were there, but they gave her insight, even when he was completely covered from head to toe.
Parahuman or not, everyone had them, and she still didn't know why Alexandria's raised her hackles so, or why Gallant's were so... awesome, but she hadn't bothered to mention them for one sole reason.
For situations like this, when they didn't want to tell her something, or there was something they didn't want her to know, which was a lot.
And so, Determination and Regret. Capital letters.
He was going to do something he didn't want her to see. That, unfortunately, covered a lot of things.
Being the most veteran of the Wards, she knew pretty much every single rule they drubbed into the heads of the kids in capes, but she didn't know that one. Distorting space discretely, she checked the faces of her team without moving. They didn't know either.
What was Article One Hundred P?
Ah, the space around Kid Win's left foot was rippling ever so slightly despite being still in the armor. Toe-Typing. The panel on his left bracer spun quietly, revealing the screen.
She read over his shoulder.
Her eyes widened.
---===---
Oni Lee was about to pinch the floating flame with his fingertips, the signal that he understood his instructions, when the paper went up in an extremely controlled and dim flame.
New instructions were to come.
A new piece of paper was set on the fan.
The instructions came.
NEW PLAN
In English this time? Unusual. He was nearly empty though, so it didn't even quirk an eyebrow.
Much simpler instructions this time, a mere four lines, but now with a precise bit of timing.
He studied the feet of the people in the parking lot, no, the stage.
And he waited for his cue.
He was good at waiting.
---===---
I felt the little flame snuff out. Lee was ready.
Instructions sent, I prepared for a hasty bit of improv.
As I heard Vista shriek I started to carefully squirm in my cage of skin. I was nearly normal sized by this point, and squirming inside a twelve-foot skin wasn't too difficult. But I had to be silent, and Lung finds that very hard to do.
As I heard Armsmaster reply to her, I ran my hands carefully along the frozen skin and scales of my back.
If Clockblocker's power worked through sequential items, like ropes or chains, it had an upper limit. And, it stands to reason that because they are sequential items, the items on the far end will fail before the ones nearby. It was why he preferred to touch with his bare hands, or at least the fingertips, all to maximize whatever time he could stop. Otherwise he'd use ropes or chains and strike at range.
Hmm, not rope, too many interconnected fibers. Something monomolecular perhaps?
Thoughts for later.
Now he touched me where there was the least fire, and with most -but not all- of it coming out of my back, that meant my front.
Probably my chest or belly then. That means my back would, since my Powers had woven my scales to be sequentially connected, be vulnerable first.
That was where Armsmaster would strike. But where?
Not my back, too thick, too much potential flame.
My neck. That's where I'd aim for.
---===---
Article:
THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS OF 12 AUGUST 1949
II. Death Penalty.
Article 100
Prisoners of war and the Protecting Powers shall be informed as soon as possible of the offences which are punishable by the death sentence under the laws of the Detaining Power.
Other offences shall not thereafter be made punishable by the death penalty without the concurrence of the Power upon which the prisoners of war depend. The death sentence cannot be pronounced on a prisoner of war unless the attention of the court has, in accordance with Article 87, second paragraph, been particularly called to the fact that since the accused is not a national of the Detaining Power, he is not bound to it by any duty of allegiance, and that he is in its power as the result of circumstances independent of his own will.
See Article 100-P for revisions
Article:
THE HAMBURG ACCORDS OF 14 JANUARY 2003
Article 100-P
Parahuman exceptions to Article 100 are as follows:
I - Endbringer
II - Master; Bulk, Uncontrollable, or Permanent
III - Tinker; Antimatter, Biological/Viral, Nuclear+
IV - Thinker; National Security, Triumvirate Security
...
<MORE>
KW_Browser
Version 0.2.1-c
---===---
"You're going to execute him?!?" It was partly a shriek, but also a squeak. As soon as it was out in the world Vista winced. Way to sound like a kid. She scrambled to cover it by continuing. "I know it's Lung and all but-"
"This isn't something you should see." Armsmaster grimaced, realizing several problems.
ClockBlocker had to be ready to touch Velocity to buy time for the paramedics, and the Para-Medic whose beeper had gone off along with her sister's.
And Vista, in order to keep him safely at a distance lest Lung's flame harm him.
"Please avert your eyes." One halberd was returned to his back, the other, unpainted metal and exposed wiring showing just how much of a prototype it was, humming to life. "And get the others over by the school."
Aegis landed next to Vista, eyes hard. "You are certain this has to happen?" At Armsmaster's nod, he frowned and crossed his arms. "Then I will not let her endure this alone. I will stay."
Kid Win landed and Gallant stepped off the hoverboard he was sharing. Kid Win was grim, and Gallant, wincing at what he was feeling from all directions, also stood his ground.
"Don't mind me," Said ClockBlocker, tone sarcastic, "Not like I have anywhere to go what with this guy dying in front of me. No pressure."
Armsmaster sighed, knowing how little time remained. Instead of arguing, he started walking up the frozen Villain, boots clacking against the metal scales as his free hand grabbed the jutting spikes for handholds. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry you have to see this, and I'll try to make it up to you later, but it must be done. So much depends on this."
#BlameTally=Reset
Tally
0.0 IceCream Threshold Restored.
Lung's frozen lunge and outstretched arms meant he was angled enough for Armsmaster to find purchase on the spikes set under his shoulder blades. Feet braced, both hands grabbed the weapon and prepared to swing the coup de grâce.
#NanoThorn_Activate
---===---
It was quite a thing, to hear a man apologize for your death and scale your time-stopped, armored skin and scales. From the inside.
At a mere six-feet, I had to be compact to escape, relatively tiny compared to the threats around me.
But I wasn't weak, my associate was taking care of that.
<Brain and Organs are gone, it's asking me what kinds of scales do you want.>
Hmm, sharp wedges, I had to drive out in one motion. Possibly dive out as well.
My feet found purchase against the inside of my abdomen's scales as my fingers fused together to be one sharp flexible blade.
Almost time.
---===---
A lot of things happened at once.
A man trapped in his own skin found it moving, landing in sticky foam.
A clock on a particular Ward beeped. He automatically slapped it to reset it for further use as he turned his eyes away from what was going to happen.
A man standing on that skin brought his experimental weapon down on a scaly neck.
A man under a car collapsed into ash.
---===---
Armsmaster was unsurprised when his weapon found no resistance as it cut off the head of Lung.
That was what it was supposed to do after all.
He was surprised when nothing gushed out. No blood or lava or fire... was it that sharp?
As the body and head both landed in the foam in two separate pieces, he was surprised at how soft Lung's body was, as his boots were depressing it severely.
ARMS_Ultrasonic_Map
Warning! Unstable terrain!
Then a small human sized arm covered in scales shot out and grabbed his armored shin.
And then all was chaos.
---===---
Aegis didn't technically have nerves of steel, but he had plenty of redundant ones, just in case. That was why he didn't usually flinch in surprise or pain, and was a bastard to catch bluffing in card games.
Thus when he saw Armsmaster being pulled into Lung's body, he didn't recoil like the others, didn't shout, didn't panic, but instead started forward, ready to help in anyway he could.
He took only a step before he realized someone was behind him.
He couldn't have literal eyes on the back of his head, too much hair and mask in the way, but his neck? The skin there could have a light sensitive band, giving him a large third eye so to speak. Nothing in color or really in focus, but movement and direction were good enough when someone was trying something behind you.
He twisted and swung an elbow backwards. Whomever it was ducked his attack and he felt the shock of a taser on his neck.
Like that was enough.
He turned and grappled Oni Lee, unable to speak due to the shock to his system and vocal chords.
He always prioritized combat capability over communications. This bit him in the ass when he heard the sound of a grenade's pin being pulled.
Knowing how close his friends were, he knew what he had to do.
Using his strength and flight, he spun Oni Lee to the ground and pinned the grenade between the both of them. Trying to put as much of himself between the grenade and Vista.
Three, two, one... He grit his teeth...and nothing... only ash underneath him.
No explosion.
He got to his feet just to see Vista, thrashing in Lee's grip, disintegrate into ash.
---===---
Thank goodness Armsmaster's halberd scraped along the skin and scale as I dragged him in. At twelve feet of height, my former hide was pretty thick and it took everything I had to punch through it to grab him.
Still, with my skin parted from shoulder to waist, I could pull myself out and leap into the air, away from where all the noise was coming from. I landed on one of the few remaining cars relatively intact and swept in the scene in it's entirety. ミ＼(≧ﾛ≦＼) McPoopin!
Lee had grabbed Vista, Aegis was getting to his feet, and Dragon...
Was pointing a lot of weapons at me.
"Panlong," I rumbled as I nodded at her. "The yoke of mankind looks good on you."
"Surrender." She didn't hesitate in her demands despite my naming her. Interesting, I wonder if her name means anything to her like the rest of the Capes? Was it a Human thing?
"I honestly would, were it not for Article One Hundred Dash P." I replied. There she did flinch.
Glancing at the emerging Armsmaster, I finally got to see him in the light. "He wears that armor for Endbringer battles, and now for me. I should be flattered." My hands were open and at my sides, as non-threatening as Lung can get. "And that weapon..."
A completed version would be used against the Leviathan, and cut deeply into the being in the months to come. And today, Lung, were it not for my flame.
Finally free, Armsmaster's voice rang out. "Take the shot."
When neither Panlong nor I moved, his shouted again. "I said take the shot."
"Are you referring to Dragon, dear Armsmaster, or Miss Militia? Neither can fire, for they see more than you do." I wasn't sure if Miss Militia was actually aiming at me, she wasn't in range of my senses, but sometimes presenting the all-knowing threat means guesswork. "The fact that I'm not attacking, that Oni Lee is with your Wards, and so much more you have yet to see."
---===---
Armsmaster glanced over for a second, taking in what he could while not letting Lung out of his peripheral vision. Tiny cameras aided in that.
#ARMS_Cam_Feed
CameraSide
Toggling
Gallant was down, Aegis was rising into the air, Kid Win pointing his guns at vanishing ash searching for a target, Clockblocker was trembling, staring at the grenade he'd frozen an inch from his eyes next to the fallen Velocity.
CameraSide
Toggling
And no Vista.
A twitch of his eyes brought up his Ward's tracker program.
#ARMS_WardTrack="Vista"
WardsBe@
Lock
Vista was on the roof.
He turned back to Lung, who was also taking in everything with a sweeping gaze, and began prepping his alternate weaponry.
#ARMS_Endbringer_Armament="Behemoth"
ARMOR
Loading, ETA 47 seconds
He always had room for more.
---===---
What a day. What a week. And we hadn't even hit the weekend.
"Worry not, the grenade's pin is still in, it won't explode." I offered the Ward a consoling shrug. "Excellent reflexes by the way, and courage, most would have cowered or abandoned their duty."
I rarely complimented people working under me, much less enemies, but that would change I think. Best to practice here.
"Ah, what a day this has been, so much excitement." Scales rasped on my cheekbones as I, the man, the beast, the dragon, the Lung, smiled. "And there is more to come."
Oh yes.
And then I crushed the hood of the car as I jumped towards the school rooftop.
And to my prize.
Key!
On the rooftop I turned to Lee and his still thrashing prize. "Hand her to me."
Her muffled screams grew pointed and naturally the few feet between us began to grow. She was out of reach.
{"Teleport next to me,"} I sighed, {"Time grows short."}
And then there was briefly two Vistas. Both of their eyes widened as they felt the space they warped now bending at right angles in duplicate. Then one crumbled into ash, and the now sole Ward got to feel warped space crumble with it.
I used that distraction, I was good at that. First my hand went around her neck and then my tail aimed for the back of her knee, just above the armored boot she wore.
---===---
It was both easier and worse the second time Taylor found herself brandished like a police badge.
[KEY!]
{OKAY...?}
[GIMME!]
---===---
Vista winced as the large hand wrapped around her neck. At the heat and the scales on the the fingers digging into her skin, yes, but also what it meant.
She was a hostage.
She'd let her team down. Never mind that it was due to a silent, teleporting ninja-Villain with grenades, she could have been better. No wonder why they treated her like a kid.
She looked down helplessly at her teammates, dreading that they might get hurt if they hesitated.
Wait…
She discretely tried to signal that routine they had been practicing recently; Aim for the center of her torso, and she'd loop it to the back of Lung's head…
"Don't." As if reading her thoughts she felt the hand tighten slightly, the heat rising in his palm.
"Keeping you unharmed is difficult enough," Lung warned her with a quiet rumble. "Use your powers and your neck might snap quite literally by accident."
Ah…drat. She stopped resisting. Space discretely returned to normal.
"Good."
"How can you tell so quickly?" She asked quietly. It wasn't like she was warping the space in his field of view. Did he have eyes on the back of his head when he grew or something?
The slight shrug she got in return shook her entire body slightly.
"The same reason I know when a sniper is aiming at me," He replied. "Threat is threat to my Power."
As she filed that tidbit away to tell the others, assuming that she survived, she felt Lung shift slightly to look down at her.
"That wasn't in my file?" He asked, sounding only mildly curious. Like the armed dentante below her wasn't happening. "Interesting, those were PRT snipers..."
---===---
At her head shaking in denial, carefully, as some of my scales were rather jagged, I thought of my life in Brockton Bay.
Those damn snipers. Always aiming at me but never firing.
Thanks to Taylor, I now knew that it had to be Coil, trying, and failing, over and over and over and over, with his power. Seeking that single win.
Denying me my sleep for simply ages.
Another item on my ever growing to-do list.
I shook my head to clear it of idle thoughts. One thing at a time. One battle at a time.
With Taylor's absence, I suddenly felt Vista's power.
Space was mine now. A go piece suddenly became a chess queen.
With her as my Rikudo Gofu, I could be the dragon of all six paths.
Fire would be everywhere. Yes.
None here would survive.Yes.
Now, this would ruin the plan I had made, but there was no choice if they were going for summary execution. As for those to come...
I tilted my head slightly. "Lee."
He didn't move, but I knew he was ready.
"Return and follow the Orange book." That would ensure his survival even if I was unable to return, which seemed likely at this point.
After all, there was only one way this day made any sense at all.
I was on someone else's path.
A piece in their game.
As I pondered my enemies both below and afar, Oni Lee's head snapped to look at mine. Trying to come up with something long forgotten.
The old Lee would have snapped at me for my decision, probably had something sarcastic ready for my seeming foolishness.
I missed that, as much as I missed so many things taken by the tides.
"No."
No?
His voice made me turn sharply, Vista's heels dragging on the roof's gravel.
The old Lung would not have told him why. Only raised his voice and repeated it.
But I wasn't the old Lung.
I couldn't act that way.
The path of Heaven, of Man, of Slaughter, of Beast, of Starvation, or of Hell.Of Shard...
None would do.
There needed to be a new path. A new Game.
For a tense moment silently I thought, long and hard, of what I had to do and be done.
---===---
Armsmaster wanted to yell at someone, anyone, right now. At Assault and Battery for their reflexive actions starting this, at Velocity's inability to accept sacrifices, at the Wards twice over, and now at Dragon and Miss Militia, both with a clear shot at Lung's head, and yet the man still lived.
But he couldn't, and he suspected he wouldn't be able to later, even in private, due to the levels of security involved.
Of those present, only Velocity knew why, even Dragon was not in the know, as despite her dual-citizenship she had her own priorities and things she wouldn't talk to him about.
Though he had his suspicions on how much she actually knew.
#ARMS_Paranoia_Update-"CloutLadies"
P_Tally
Dragon=11.7+1.5 Alexandria=22.6 E.Piggot=33.3
Secrets, now more than ever, were absolutely precious in their rarity.
Right now, with all he wanted to do, all he needed to do, all he could do right this moment was limited; Stand and pose heroically, and wait for the next move from his adversary.
There was a reason why he wanted the Wards to push all the teenagers back into the school or at least out of sight.
And so he waited, letting the light and the eyes and the no doubt plethora of camera phones scour his form. On his "serious" armor, one that collectors fought over in their limited edition model kits. On his two weapons, one hastily deactivated and returned to his back.
On his secrets.
That more than anything was a serious blow.
Everyone knew that the Endbringers were in fact plural. But what most didn't think even the slightest about was the fact that they didn't appear to communicate.
At all.
On any measurable device.
On any possible Tinker device.
Or any parahuman sense.
And yet they took turns.
And more...
When a weapon was deployed against the Leviathan it wouldn't work on Behemoth, no matter how stealthily it was deployed or at what range. Simple as that.
When a weapon was deployed against the Behemoth that actually did anything, somehow the Leviathan would never find himself in it's crosshairs. No matter how carefully the fields of fire were arranged he would flow around the battlefield and never give it a chance.
Against the Simurgh, even cellphone footage from a kindergarten teacher at a kids show was enough to have her deploying defenses seemingly useless but somehow just perfect for that one critical moment when it would be brought to bear.
Would his trump card even work against Leviathan now? Was this all a total fucking waste?
And so he endured in his stoic pose. Endured and listened carefully...
"You are right," Lung rumbled in his ear. "I was in error." Who knew that reptiles had a sense of culpability? "Again."
From the distance, easily zoomed in, Lee nodded. Then Lung turned and studied the Ward in his grip, hand still on her neck, the other rubbing his own chin scales rasping as he did.
#ARM_Accoustic_Analysis
MohAccousticMatch
9.2~9.4
"Listen to my words Armsmaster."
Ah, good, he really was smarter than he let on.
Eyes met, one behind an armored visor, the other through scaled glasses.
---===---
"You are right," I rumbled. "I was in error." It is still difficult to admit that fact, even now. "Again."
Me, Lung, being wrong about something. But then there was the fact that my mind wasn't like it was. There was a teenage girl in there, and possibly more, adjusting things more to it's liking.
Lee nodded, it was obvious even in his current state. Ever careful to keep the stage in order.
There was only one thing I could do.
I looked at Vista, tilting her head to face mine with a finger.
"Listen to my words Armsmaster."
I waited a moment.
"Let's talk."