Heating Up!

"LUNG WHAT!?" Directly Piggot all but wails through the call.

"He's rampaging through the city after the ABB cape Kaibyo!" Armsmaster exclaims through the in-built comms in his helmet as he rides to the scene, "Sorry, former-ABB cape."

"Who gives a shit what distinction you make when there's a dragon destroying the city, COLIN! And this had to happen now of all times, that I'm on business out of the city!?"

"Look at the bright side, you'll be able to come back and sweep up our ashes." he drawls, swerving hard on the bike to avoid an oncoming vehicle attempting to escape the immediate area, obviously not wishing to be incinerated.

"How big is he already?"

"Eleven approaching twelve feet, he'd be bigger if we hadn't called on the police to stop firing at him, but as things are looking pretty dire. We've never seen Lung lose his temper like this before, he doesn't even seem to care about burning his own turf. Whatever Kaibyo did must've been big."

"That just makes things worse! The city's barely held together with glue, duct tape, and mutually assured destruction, something Lung apparently doesn't care about anymore!" Piggot bites her nail from the hotel lobby she'd been forced to take the call in.

"We'll do our best, Director, but I don't see a way to stop Lung without bringing in help. Maybe if he was smaller, it might be possible but that time's passed. Try Dragon, maybe she have some protocols for this scenario."

"I'll call her. I doubt the Triumvirate will decide to involve themselves so let's hope she answers..." she shakes her head, "Keep the Wards out of it, we don't need to throw a bunch of kids at him."

"I know, they'd likely only make him grow larger. What about Kaibyo?" Armsmaster queries, sliding around a corner and driving onto a road of half-melted asphalt.

"If Lung doesn't kill him try and bring him in. He's not a top priority, Lung is."

"Roger."

----------------------

"So, that's the situation." Amy states, sitting across from her slowly blinking sister.

...

"Vicky?"

"Let me get this straight, Guitar Boy came here and ask you to ask me where the PRT is keeping his mom. And you said 'okay!'?" she calmly repeated, expression fixed.

"I mean, what else should I do? You'd get mad if I didn't tell you, and I'm not even sure what to do right now anyway! Like-grrr!" she frizzes up her brown hair in frustration, "You know him better than me, right? Can you even trust what he's saying? What if he's just playing with us to get inside the PRT!?"

Victoria stifles a snort and kicks her feet up, "You say that like I've met him more than three times. I don't think he's a bad guy though, I kinda admire him... A bit." she admits with a shrug, drawing a weird look from Amy. "What?"

"You admire a villain cape that's murdered a bunch of people...?"

"Now you're just putting words in my mouth, kinda. I mean, a lotta what he says makes sense, but what I like is he has the balls to follow through with it. After all, when's the last time you heard of that white-and-white asshole or that Cricket girl killing someone? Not at all, right? Seems to me like 'getting rid of them' works pretty well..."

"Vicky..."

"Don't 'Vicky' me, Ames, if people weren't such wusses maybe-, maybe Aunt Jess would still be alive. I mean, I bet if I turned the T.V on now there'd be more news of another villain attack, more innocent people dead, and for what?... Actually, let's do that." she stands despite Amy's desire to stick to the topic at hand.

Snatching the remote from the bed, Victoria turns the T.V and is immediately greeted by breaking news. A scene of a fully-scaled and on-fire Lung running through a street chasing after a white blur, which turned out to be Kaibyo.

Vicky rigidly turned to Amy and threw her hands at it, "SEE WHAT I MEAN!?"

"I get it!" Amy hurriedly says, trying to placate her sister as she keeps an eye on the screen, "Well, at least we know Kieu isn't just an ABB spy or something."

Vicky blinks and realisation strikes her, "Oh shit! He's gonna get killed! Stay here, I'ma find me dragon to fucking destroy!" she says, storming out of the room to retrieve her costume.

"Wait! That's Lung! there's no point even trying! Let the PRT handle it!... Mom'll get pissed at you, again!" Amy follows, trying to stop her sister as she tries to slide the tight-fitting costume on.

"You shouldn't get involved! What if people find out you know him!"

"And let some down-on-his-luck kid die to that monster? Hell no! Didn't you hear me earlier? If I'm too scared to break some rules to get some real justice, can I even call myself a hero!?"

"And what happens if you don't get yourself killed!? Let the world know New Wave is friends with a murderous cape? That we condone his actions? Even if we survive the public outcry, Mom won't let this go!"

"I don't care if she grounds me for life!" Vicky slides on the last of her costume and turns to her sister, "Besides, I doubt I'll even get a chance to talk with him while I'm pounding that lizard into the dirt. You stay here, safe." she states before throwing open the window and flying away.

"V-vicky! Damn it!" Amy growls, punting one of Vicky's many plushies and feeling even more conflicted than earlier!

--------------------------

*Thwoom!*

*Thwoom!*

"Shit, that's hot!" I can't help but shout as a fireball cauterizes the stump of my tail that'd been attempted to regrow. I was forced to twist my ragged-sheet diaper to stop from accidentally mooning the world with my ass.

I'd been trying to lure Lung to the pier where I'd hopefully be able to knock him into the ocean. I wasn't sure if that'd do anything, but at the very least it'd give me the opportunity to escape.

My initial thoughts of killing him had vanished when he reached the ten-foot mark, his back becoming hunched as the scales covering him grew thicker, enough so that the bullets from the cops literally bounced off of him.

The police had fucked off halfway through the chase, leaving the giant flaming asshole sprinting after me. Sure, I was more agile than him and probably faster, but I was also now much shorter.

Combine the strategically thrown fireballs that expanded upon hitting the ground and moved to intercept my path, the big bastard was, if not getting closer, maintaining the distance. I was sure if he got any bigger I'd be unable to outrun him.

Shit, the one time I tried to escape over a rooftop caused the guy to follow behind, his red-hot claws allowing him to follow, while also accidentally setting the entire flat estate on fire!

Barely front-flipping over another wave of fire that'd sprung up in front of me and burst back towards Lung, I'm almost relieved by the arrival of another cape.

A chrome Tinkertech bike covered in pulsating blue lights skids to a stop at the end of the street, Armsmaster stepped off in his power armour and pulled out his trademark high-tech halberd as he took a stance before us. "BOTH OF YOU STOP OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES! THE PRT WILL NOT ALLOW THIS FARCE ANY LONGER!"

I sprint towards the man, ignoring the heat on my back as I slide next to him. He stiffens up but upon seeing my surprisingly relaxed posture, turns his attention to Lung... At least, until...

"Tag! You're it!" I exclaimed, slapping him on his metal ass as I sprint away towards the Pier.

His eyes shoot open behind his mask, my moment of sexual harassment momentarily distracting him from the big ass man-dragon charging his way.

"-oh man!" he shouts, twirling his halberd which transforms into what appeared to be a frame for a shield, blue light sprang to life in the centre, creating some sort of force-field barrier. Just in time too, as a wave of fire crashed into him, causing him to slide back a couple of steps, at least, until his metal boots shot spikes into the road to keep his ground.

The fire was just the appetiser however, as Lung's massive form barrelled into him, the shield holding up for a moment before fizzling out. Armsmaster's armoured body is flung right into his back, causing both to skid and collide with the building behind them.

Luckily for the PRT cape, Lung wasn't interested in finishing him off, instead continuing his sprint after me, now eleven-feet-tall!

"YOU COULDN'T LAST LONGER THAN THAAAT!?" I shout as Armsmaster groans a good distance away.

"DIE, CAT!" Lung bellows.

--------------------

POV Glory Girl :

She could see them now, Kieu running to the water front that'd already been evacuated of civilians, leaving behind many boats and other vehicles. Lung was quickly catching up now that the cat-cape was on flat ground with nothing to manoeuvre around or use to block the rapidly growing fires.

"STOP RUNNING!" Lung suddenly roars, swinging his arm and blasting a wave of fire at Kieu. It doesn't shoot directly for him however, instead going past then wrapping around like some sort of hellish net.

Unable to get past, Kieu was stuck, sliding to a stop in front of it and taking a nervous glance behind him at the rapidly advancing Lung. He raised his arms and readied his claws, but it wasn't needed as Vicky had finally arrived.

"IINNNCOOMING!" she shouts as she blurs past, flying directly into Lung and smashing a brutal punch into his masked face.

*CRACK!*

The metal mask shatters into a million metal shards and reveals the inhuman face underneath, his expression one of shock, pain, and surprise as it deforms under the sheer force she'd just provided.

Sharp teeth explode from his mouth as he head whips to the side, his body following as it crashes into a nearby bus stop, leaving a trail of fire from where his feet had dragged along the floor.

"HOLY SHIT!" Kieu exclaims at the sight, eyes wide at the spectacle.

"You're damn right!" Vicky snickers in response, smug at the reaction she'd drawn from him. Shaking her smoking fist as she kept her eyes on Lung, ignoring the helicoptors flying overhead recording everything, so she did her best to seem neutral as she continued speaking. "You got a plan to deal with this chump or?" she asks as Lung clambers back to his feet, angrier than ever.

-----------------

POV Kieu :

"I was gonna try dump him in the water, see if that cools him off..." I idly say, still baffled by Vicky's arrival. I'd never really thought about it before but this girl was damn scary! The fact she was like a baby Alexandria too just pushed me to be more cautious about drawing attention too.

This girl could fly and lift tons like it was nothing, if she'd hit me with even a quarter of the power Lung just took to the face I'd be a wet red stain!

"KILL. YOU!" Lung suddenly shouts as a pillar of fire bursts from him, the sheer heat of it even from a distance starts to burn my skin.

"NO YOU DON'T!" Glory Girl replies by lifting a downed lampost and smacking him with it, unfortunately despite her attempt to knock him closer to the water front, Lung catches the offending object which was already beginning to turn red hot in his grasp.

She strains against him, barely holding him in place as I approach... Only to dodge backwards once more, not from fire this time though, but from a... Knife? I catch the next one out of the air as it flies towards my neck and blink, glancing at the nearby alleyway where an androngenous-looking clown was stepping out.

"Circus...?" I utter in confusion. What's a two-bit thief cape doing here!? And why was she, he? Trying to fuck with me!?

"L-Little help...?" Glory Girl growls, feeling the lampost heat up in her hands. Any longer as the dragon would have a giant fire-poker to swing around.

"Should have stayed dead." Circus quietly states as she thrusts a hand out, causing one of the fires Lung had caused to jump up and shoot at me.

Can't I catch a break!?