119 Revelation

Before I can even really react to the situation, Siberian's clawed hand cleaves through my body, bisecting me without any resistance whatsoever and sending my torso flying away from my legs.

Ow.

My power reaches out from my two separate parts, meeting in the middle and my legs snap backwards to meet the rest of my body, my wings bursting out of by back at the same moment, sending me backwards with a single flap and shooting a pair of bone spikes at both of their heads.

Both of the spikes land and shatter on their invulnerable faces and I land with a huff.

Fucking bullshit 12 brute bullshit.

I'm not really surprised to know I can't hurt them. The power rankings only go from 1 to 10, but there is an extra level known as 12+, or, more commonly referred to as 'bullshit 12'.

The reason they're called as such, is because 12+ basically means that you have no chance of victory and there's no point in even trying.

Siberian is the only Brute 12+ that I know of, and the only other bullshit 12s I know of are Eidolon, who has all the powers and the Faerie Queen, who 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 has all the powers, which really goes to show what kind of level of bullshit it is.

Even Extinction was only like, a Blaster 8 or something.

In other, more simple terms, no one can hurt the Siberian, and she can hurt everyone.

She doesn't immediately push the attack, so I spare a quick glance around, hoping to evaluate the situation.

Bonesaw is off to the side, watching with wide eyes. She's basically a non entity since neither of us want to hurt her, if for different reasons, though I will use her against Siberian if it comes down to it.

But as of right now, we're in something of a stalemate.

She can't kill me if I don't let her and I can't hurt her or Jack so long as she is with him. Off to the other side, is Lucy who is keeping Shatterbird out of this, and Burnscar, who is just staring at the campfire, too enraptured by the flames to care about all of this.

The other two are still elsewhere, but they wouldn't really be able to make a difference anyway.

Haaah, annoying.

This was exactly why I wanted Siberian on my side, she basically invalidates everything.

"Did you really think you could just come in here and beat me at my own game? I've been the leader of the Nine for as long as you've been alive Tear, did you really think you could just turn everyone against me with a few words?"

Jack's mocking voice brings my attention back to him, and I take a step backwards as he moves forward, making him smirk at the 'show of weakness'.

"Eh, I figured it'd be a possibility. You're pretty lame after all,~ so tacky.~ I've always looked down on you, you know?~ You just kill and you kill and you kill, with a little bit of torture mixed in every now and then. How boring.~"

His eyes tighten slightly, angered by my dismissal of him and further proving my point by showing just how fragile his overinflated ego is.

He send another projected blade at me, clearly checking to see if Siberian's power extends to his own, and for that same reason, I don't dodge, but luckily for me, his attack just bounces off of my armour, not even leaving a scratch.

Well, it seems that we really are at a stalemate.

A stalemate Jack breaks with a few words and a mocking smile directed at me as he says them.

"Bonesaw, why don't you show Tear that surprise project you've been working on?"

The hairs on my neck stand on end at his words, even as I smile, enjoying how unexpectedly everything is going.

"D'awww, you made a surprise for me?~ I do 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 surprises Chibi, but Jaki is trying to kill me right now, so maybe you could save it for later?"

Bonesaw very much looks like a deer in headlights, wide eyes flitting between the two of us in indecisiveness until Jack gives her a stern look that makes her flinch.

"Bonesaw. Be a 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 and do as I said."

Getting an idea to stall for time, I quickly speak up, hoping to buy enough time to come up with a plan to defeat someone who has remained completely invincible since she showed up back in 2000.

"You know, I changed my mind.~ Like I said, I 𝘥𝘰 love surprises, but can you at least explain it to me, like you know I like?~"

Jack gives me a look that says a lot.

He knows I'm planning something with this, but he doesn't know exactly 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 the plan is. Either way, he's confident enough that he'll come out on top anyway, and he's 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴.

He's not going to stop her because he wants to see what will happen.

The Chibi still looks uncertain, but she likes talking about her 'art' anyway, and with both of us seemingly agreeing, she hesitantly speaks up, her voice gaining momentum as she goes on, growing in confidence with every word.

"W-well, I've been studying you're abnormal organs and the Rc cells inside, I decided to just call the organ itself 'Red Wrap' by the way, with how it stores your Rc cells, but as I was saying, I was studying your Rc cells, trying to see if I could do anything with them, maybe transfer them into other people's bodies to give them your powers-"

That's a scary thought, but also incredibly amusing. I could take Tiamat's title of 'Mother of Monsters', and I can't deny that the ego trip of 'mothering' an army of people with my powers would be good fun.

"-but that didn't really work out. Either they would barely get an increase in physical abilities, strength, minor regeneration, et cetera, or they would gain the same cannibalism as you, but they couldn't replenish Rc cells like you and kept going insane and dying instead, so I started trying more experiments and I ended up coming up with something pretty cool!"

As she says that, I wait for her to do something, to throw something at me or shoot a needle at me, which leaves me caught completely by surprise when I feel something shatter on my head, a cloud of gas quickly growing around me.

I see a glint of glass through the half transparent cloud and my head immediately snaps to Shatterbird, just in time to see her body Break down, crumpling into a pile of flesh.

The attention of everyone present is suddenly on Lucy, causing her to take a step back subconsciously, though I do notice that Burnscar is fine. Lucy must have moved around a bit with everything happening, ending up with Burnscar being out of her range by a hair's breadth.

Not that she seems to care about her brush with death, with Lucy's power having put out the fire, Burnscar is fully disassociating now.

But I shake my head and focus on more important things, like the gas surrounding me that is most definitely some kind of bioweapon.

I quickly swing both of my wings, causing a gust that blows it all away from me, where is swiftly disappears into the air, and I check myself over for a second, twisting around to look at every part of my body, looking for any symptoms.

Only to find nothing.

"Huh", I say, "is something supposed to be happen- OW!"

I cut myself off with a yell as all of a sudden I feel a piercing sensation in my gut, and when I look down I see that my own armour has transformed into a spike and pierced clean through me.

...That's not good.

"I discovered a way to excite the Rc cells so that they basically just go berserk, twitching and snapping into different shapes and directions, kind of like when you stab an octopus in the brain and it's tentacles spasm around!" Bonesaw explains, but I can hardly hear her over the incredible 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 wreaking it's way through my body as my own blood betrays me.

I feel my body start going haywire, my blood forming into spikes through my flesh and then turning liquid and repeating the process all over again. The feeling of losing control over my own body is probably worse than the pain.

Pain is something I've grown very familiar with after all, this sensation is new and unpleasant.

My blood pools over my face, forming my mask only for it to turn liquid again, leaving my face bare before the blood snaps into the shape of a thin spike, driving itself straight through my eye and out the back of my head before it turns liquid again, being reabsorbed into my body as I heal the damage.

However, even with my body ripping itself apart, I still notice Siberian approaching me, likely planning to take me out while I'm more or less immobilised, while Jack moves to stand next to Bonesaw, placing a 'reassuring' hand on her shoulder.

I can't come up with a plan, and my brain is too occupied to really think all that well, which is probably why I decide to jump at Lucy, hoping that if she Breaks me that it'll get rid of the drug and fix me.

As expected, the moment I reach her range, the pain only magnifies and I immediately collapse, sliding forward with my momentum carrying me to Lucy's feet.

But then I can suddenly think clearly again and I jump to my feet as fast as I can, glancing around apprehensively, being greeted by a shocked looking Lucy, and I see Jack's face twitch in annoyance.

Heh, nice.

"Lucy, I could kiss you right now, that was incredibly unfun, thank you", I say, completely honest in my thanks.

"Just don't leave me to the scary woman and I'll consider us even."

At her words and gesture, I return my focus to the main threat once more, seeing her stalking towards us, completely casual.

"I know she's tryna kill us and all, but damn, if she isn't sexy anyway", I admit, making Lucy slap the back of my head in reluctant amusement.

She doesn't want to die cowering, or maybe she just believes that I will carry her to safety either way, which I fully plan on doing if retreat truly is the only option.

But then Siberian reaches Lucy's range and everything changes.

"Wait stop!" Jack unexpectedly yells out, but it is too late, as the Siberian takes a single extra step forward, passing into Lucy's range, and then...

She disappears.

I didn't manage to catch her disappearance myself, as Lucy's power activation popped my eyeballs, but they regenerated almost instantly and by the time they did, Siberian was just... gone.

What. The. Fuck?

Silence descends upon us as we all turn to stare at Lucy in varying states of shock.

Though, I can't help but notice that Jack seems to have realised this would happen right before it did. Maybe he doesn't read minds but is some kind of limited precog? Or maybe he's not reading 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦, but is actually reading their 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘴.

That would actually make some sense, maybe. That would mean that his power saw Lucy's power activating and realised that it would disappear the Siberian right before it happened.

"D-did I- is she? Did I just kill the 𝘚𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯?" Lucy asks, clearly in just as much shock as the rest of us.

But the very next second, Siberian is just.. here again, standing a short distance away from us.

What.

The.

Fuck.

Is going on?

Idly, I notice that even Jack seems just as surprised as the rest of us at her apparent ability to disappear and reappear, as if she's some kind of-

Holy fuck.

With all the grace of a train, realisation slams into my skull as all the pieces come together to make one fucked up looking puzzle.

She's a 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

The Siberian is a fucking 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

She isn't a 𝘉𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘦, she's a 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳.

What the fuck!

"S-she's a projection?" I don't know who says it, and I'm too busy reeling from shock to figure it out.

Especially when I have a far more important concern to address.

If she's a projection, then...

"Who the fuck have I been flirting with!?"

=================

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Good ole lusia, always with the important questions and correct priorities.

Also, I would like to say, fuck all of this. Do you have any fucking idea how hard it is to write a conflict with these specific powers, all without being meta?

Like, Lucy's power is an all-or-nothing, just like sibby is, which means that when the two powers connect they cancel out, which pops sibby, cuz she's a projection, but no one knew that, so I couldn't just have that be an easy save, and with how Jack's power works, in DnD terms, you could basically say his power gives himself and his allies a passive +10 to intuition and his enemies disadvantage, which is why neither him or sibby suggested using Lucy as a bargaining chip, or just killing her, because their powers knew that she'd pop sibby.

all in all, it's just such a pain :< so I'd like to know if you think anything that happened this chap was unreasonable

Also also, I'm kinda mad at myself for killing shatterbird, because I had a really cool plan for her, where Lusia would convince her to be a gang lord, to both keep a powerful ally while satisfying her need to be validated as powerful, but it had to be shatterbird delivering the bioweapon because it would have not made sense for it to be anyone else, Jack is tricky like that.

(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!

pat/reon.com/user?u=41732867 (get rid of the first slash or check the description)

Also, join the discord with this invite code! Pj3Dttwses