7.2

The ABB had three Capes. The first of course was Lung, big fire breathing dragon man who needed no introduction. While I hadn't fought him properly before I still remembered his terrifying rage. The other was Oni Lee, a ninja who could teleport and leave expendable clones made of ash behind. A perfect, reusable suicide bomber and just as frightening. Finally they had Bakuda, a bomb Tinker. While I had never seen her I had witnessed her work first hand and the victims that she left behind.

The Empire 88 on the other side of the conflict outnumbered them at least two to one. They had Kaiser, Purity, Hookwolf, Krieg, Storm Tiger, the list went on each with their own set of powers, all of them built to fight.

Lung clung to the side of the Medhall building like a lizard version of King Kong. Though he was still smaller than the building he was still intimidating. A ball of metal spikes shot towards him before being batted away. It was hard to tell if that was Hookwolf or Kaiser. Translucent knights, ghosts made by Crusader, another Empire 88 Cape were stabbing into his side trying and failing to penetrate his scaly hide.

As powerful as some of the Empire 88 capes were, none of them could stand up to Lung on their own except perhaps Purity who could simply hover out of his reach, blasting him with lasers. However, for whatever reason she was chasing after someone else. As we were on the roof tops we couldn't see who had earned her ire, only that they were fast.

Probably meant it was Oni Lee honestly. Despite all the carnage, despite how many Capes and powers were being thrown around I had yet to start glowing green. Where ever Glory Girl and Dean were hiding, it wasn't here.

I took all of this information in to distract me from one simple fact. That I was looking at a corpse. Fenja, or possibly Menja laid dead in front of me. The giantess's head was bent at an unnatural angle, the concrete roof below her was cracked and her face was grey from a combination of the dust and blood lose. It spoke volumes about the building's construction that the roof had yet to collapse into the floor beneath our feet.

A low groan shifted me out of my terror. She was still alive! Looking closer I noted that she had shallow breaths, she was dying but was too injured to move. She wasn't just alive, she was still conscious, though considering how her eyes fluttered that wasn't going to stay that way for long.

"What… what do we do?" I asked Aegis. It was then I noted that the other Wards were shocked as well. Luckily it seemed that my question had shaken him out of it.

"I'm used to having my own neck snapped." He replied absently. "It's…. It's not nice seeing it on someone else… even if they're a Villain…"

"Aegis?" I asked again. "Orders?"

"Right!" He turned to me. "Vim, see if you can't do something to keep her alive. Clockblocker, if she does anything hostile then freeze her and uhh Kid Win, did you bring any containment foam?" The Tinker nodded showing off a grenade. "Make sure to get her arms and hands with it."

Grabbing a small health potion from my inventory I considered my options. I didn't need to get her in fighting shape, I just needed to keep her alive. I just hoped that her increased size wouldn't make my potion useless.

"Hey." I told her as I approached her head. "I'm going to heal you, if you don't want that then uh…." I looked at her neck again, unsure if she could even recognize that anyone was talking to her. "Just…. I'm going to heal you." I tipped the contents of the health potion into her mouth.

Despite not swallowing the mixture the effects were instant. The bones didn't snap back together with a sickening crunch, it was simply broken one moment and normal the next. She tensed and for a moment it looked like she was about to lash out but an application of time stopping powers from Clockblocker and a well placed foam grenade from Kid Win ensured that none of us would be attacked. Alive, breathing and by the looks of things secured with foam.

"We're wasting time." Shadow Stalker called us. Though she hadn't raised her crossbows yet, she was eyeing the rest the fight cautiously. "We could be out there…."

"Hold it." Aegis called out. "This is more dangerous than I first thought." A car blew up punctuating his point. "We can't spread out too much to look for him, we'll need to stay as a group…. Kid Win, can you carry Vim on your board?"

"Yeah, I've upgraded it to hold heavy weapons, she shouldn't throw off the balance too much." Did… did he just call me fat?

"Okay." He called out again. "Shadow Stalker and I are going ahead with Kid Win and Vim right behind us." That made sense, they both had Mover ratings after all. "Everyone else, take up defensive positions and try to find out where the other Heroes are, once we find Dean and heal him we're going to you!"

"Can't we just call them?" I asked. It was at this point that I realized that I hadn't brought my earpiece with me. I looked around at the other Heroes wondering if any of them had one.

"Uhh, my communicators aren't getting through." Announced Kid Win. "Something's blocking our signal."

"We can't worry about that now." Aegis pointed out. "Whatever is blocking us is also going to be blocking the Heroes… that'd explain how we couldn't contact them in the first place…"

"You think that's why they hadn't called us for reinforcements then?" I called out. Aegis simply shrugged.

"Doesn't matter, point is we have our roles so let's go!"

"Wait! Can't we come?" Asked Vista gesturing towards Browbeat and Clockblocker. "I'm fast and I can make everyone else fast as well." It seemed that she didn't like the idea of being left behind.

"Like I said, we need a defensive line to protect us when we need to get out, you three are the best people for that." Aegis replied. "It's the best chance to save Dean." At that, Vista nodded, acknowledging and accepting his point if not liking it.

"Fucking…." Vista mumbled and while I was used to swear words I was still taken aback by the language that such a young girl like she had just used. She was frustrated but understood that this was for the best. Her fists tightened and it seemed that whatever tension she had before had now multiplied. Aegis tried to look apologetic as possible but in the end he knew he had a job to do.

"Alright Wards!" He shouted out. "We've wasted enough time! Let's move!" Grabbing onto Kid Win I placed my hands around his waist. If he felt awkward by the physical contact he hadn't shown it. To my left Shadow Stalker had already leapt off the building becoming a cloud of smoke. Before she hit the next building she became solid again. Using her legs she launched herself forwards before turning into a cloud using the momentum to fly forwards. A bizarre display of shadow parkour. Aegis simply flew overtaking her as Kid Win's hover board lifted off the ground after them.

Flying through the area I looked down at the devastation. Oni Lee flitted in and out the ruins with the occasional gunshot at Purity whose lasers cut through the streets like a knife through butter.

Wait a second….

"Guys!" I called out. "We just passed Dean! He's that way!"

"What? You saw him?" Aegis asked not slowing down as we tried to find more cover.

"No, I just… I had a feeling, he's…I can't explain it I…"

"We get it, you must have a Thinker power." He concluded. "So where is he?" It seemed my reputation for pulling powers out of my butt had stopped any line of questioning.

"A few streets behind us in that ice cream store!" I yelled.

Zooming around the corner both he and Shadow Stalker stood their ground to cover us as Kid Win's hoverboard completed the journey. It wasn't just Capes around, it was also mundane gangsters as well with a variety of rifles and handguns, a few of which began shooting at Aegis and Shadow Stalker.

I was about to shout a warning but it was quickly revealed that my worry was unfounded. Aegis was a brute who shielded us with his body unflinchingly taking all the shots. Shadow Stalker on the other hand was a sort of reverse strobe light. Instead of lighting up constantly her form was instead constantly darkening before going back to normal as the bullets passed through her shadow form harmlessly. Her crossbows shot back forcing them into cover.

Making their way into the store with the rest of us Kid Win flew on ahead with me on the board, deeper into the spacious ice cream parlor. The area around which was littered with cars and boulders of various sizes.

"To the left!" I called out and it was at that point that I began to glow green. Glory Girl was nea-

I was launched off the hover board as a fist collided with my face sending me to the ground.

"OH FUCK!" Kid Win shouted as the sudden lose of my weight caused him into a spin. "VIM!" Crashing into a wall he slumped to the ground leaving the hover board to spin out of control before embedding itself three feet into the ground with a horrible crunching sound.

"SHIT!" A feminine voice called out. "I'm sorry! I thought-" It was Glory Girl.

"It's okay!" I shouted getting back up no worse for wear. "I'm a Brute!" That said, it still hurt a lot. Kid Win stood back up unsteadily, supporting his weight against the wall. I should've been upset but with Glory Girl's aura all I could feel was confident.

"Oh maaan." Kid Win whined. "My Hover board!"

Behind me I heard Shadow Stalker scream. "COME GET SOME YOU NAZI SHITHEADS! I'M FUCKING STRESSED OUT AND YOU'RE GONNA PAY! FUCKING DIE!!!!!"

"LANGUAGE!" Aegis replied as gunshots practically drowned out the sounds outside.

"Where's Dean?" I asked scanning the area.

"He's… he's behind the desk over there." I noted that that the area didn't just have a desk but a series of tables and chairs stacked together in what could have been called a barricade.

Running over to Dean I found that he was unconscious but alive. He was bleeding with several broken bones and a nasty looking bruise on his head which rested against an opened tub of slowly melting ice cream, no doubt to bring down the swelling.

"Okay, I got this." I told her bringing out several potions. "Drink up buddy… you're going to be fine." I knew he couldn't hear me but Glory Girl seemed like she needed the assurance that Dean was going to be okay. I uncorked the bottles and tipped the contents down his throats. In an instant his eyes opened up and his wounds simply vanished.

"DEAN!" Glory Girl practically bowled me over as she flew over to hug him but at the very last moment hesitated. "You're… you're not hurt are you?" She asked him delicately.

"What? No, I'm fine? Never better…. Huh." He noted flexing his hands. "Why is it so cold? And why do I taste chocolate?" It was then that she embraced him. "Too tight TOO TIGHT!" He cried out and like a slap to the face Glory Girl shot away.

"I'm sorry! Oh god, please do-"

"It's okay!" He told her. "I promise I'm okay!"

There was another explosion followed by Kid Win running our way.

"Uhh we might wanna leave…" He told us with both of his laser pistols out. "Hookwolf is coming this way for some reason and….." Aegis came flying in as if thrown. Shadow Stalker arrived soon after, backpedaling and shooting all the while. "Well on the bright side he's going through the ABB mostly….."

"Alright everyone." Aegis floated up as if he hadn't been thrown seconds ago twisted unnaturally in several places. "Let's see if we can't get out by the back room!"

"There is none." Glory Girl told him. "I checked, it's all collapsed from some sort of weird bomb."

Shit shit shit! "We'll have to fight our way out!"

"No chance, Dean is too fragile." Aegis pointed out making Glory Girl deflate. "We'll have to hold out here until help arrives."

"Wait, what if we make a distraction?" I pointed out. "Tough people fly out, fight a bit and run for it, you know lead them away from Dean?"

Aegis considered it for a moment before glancing outside. Hookwolf was obviously winning the fight and it wouldn't be long before he came for us. Why the hell were the gangs fighting here? It was practically a war zone.

"Okay… Glory Girl and I will form the initial charge with Shadow Stalker covering us at range. Kid Win, take Dean on your board and get out-"

"No can do boss." He replied. "Board is busted." He pointed out the Tinker Tech wreckage. "If we try to use it now the gravity emitter will break down and make us go into the atmosphere or something."

"Shit…" Aegis considered his options. "Okay, new plan Glory Girl flies out with her aura to shock them for a moment, I go out carrying you while you and Shadow Stalker give ranged covering fire."

"What about me and Dean?" I asked.

"See if you have a potion to make him invisible or tougher then lead him out of danger…. Wait a second."

It seemed that Hookwolf had finished going through the ABB gangsters and was now looking our way. Instinctively I brought up my hands producing flames hoping against hope that it would intimidate him enough that he wouldn't dare attack, to make him hesitate at the very least.

There was blood everywhere, all those people just dead. I heard that he killed, that those blades he had weren't just for show but seeing it in front of me was still something else.

Glory Girl hadn't waited for the rest of us and simply shot forwards punching Hookwolf in the face, knocking him over. With no time to think Aegis flew ahead without grabbing Kid Win, intent on giving Glory Girl some backup. Both Kid Win and Shadow Stalker pointed their weapons at the Nazi and began peppering him with their respective projectiles doing little more than annoy him.

As much as I didn't want to leave them behind I told myself that they were Heroes, that they knew what they were doing and that I had to get Dean out of here.

"Come on!" I told him. "Follow me!" I quickly dug through my inventory and threw him a few vials. "I don't have any invisibility potions left but maybe those can help." Things that would make him tougher, a potion that made him heal more quickly and a potion that enhanced his resistance to fire. Pulling out my shield I made sure to guide Dean in such a way that put him between a wall and myself, covering him from any criminal that would harm him.

We managed to make our way past Hookwolf and the other Wards. Neither side looked like they would win decisively but I supposed that was the point. We were trying to stall for time, not put him down.

It then struck me how quiet it had gotten.

There were still sounds of fighting but the sounds of explosions, screams and bullets had begun to die down. Surveying the scene I realized it was due to the more mundane criminals either being taken out of the fight or fleeing the scene. Between the terror that was Lung and the literal super powered Nazis I couldn't blame them.

"Come on Dean, this way." I told him as I lead him away from the ongoing battle.

Passing through an alleyway it seemed that we had managed to get away from the worst of it. Stopping for a moment a figure ran past us and thankfully we were hidden enough for them to simply ignore us. The pale while skin identified the figure as Alabaster, a Empire 88 cape whose power from my understanding meant that every time he got hurt he simply reset himself to a pristine state.

The pale white skin as I had mentioned was the first thing that had caught my attention.

The second thing was the fact that he held a large, intimidating automatic rifle.

The third thing that struck me was a question. Why was he here when Lung was fighting the rest of his friends?

I continued to crouch, covering Dean as we hid. Alabaster moved with purpose and eventually he left the Alleyway, however instead of going the way we had come from he turned the other direction.

Suddenly a ripple in the air passed over him as if underwater and for a moment he froze, clenching his jaw in pain. Then he fell apart, as if cut cleanly in a hundred different places. His flesh dropped from his arms, his ribs slipped through his skin and his face simply fell off to land on his foot.

Then he was whole again.

I realized that he had stepped on a mine, one of Bakuda's bombs. Was that why he was running around on his own? To disarm all the traps that Bakuda had set up? Then something landed on my head bouncing onto the ground.

A pebble?

No, it was too clean cut, just like Alabaster had been. I looked up and realized that bomb didn't spread out in area but rather spread upwards into a tube, destabilizing the building that we were hiding under.

"SHIT RUN!" I yelled at Dean as the building began to collapse. Alabaster turned towards us, weapon raised. "SHIT!" I swore throwing myself between Dean and Alabaster as I raised my shield.

Gunshots rang out, one after the other. It wasn't an endless stream of lead like how I imagined it to be but instead an infrequent burst of death.

I managed to block the bullets that came my way but each shot hammered against my arms making them ache. My shield was supposed to be indestructible why did it still hurt?!?!

With a low rumble the debris from the roof tops flooded the area between us creating a sort of landslide of cover and safety. It seemed that whatever supported the building was destroyed by the earlier bomb. Waving away the dust I quickly drank a small health potion and called out to Dean.

"Hey Dean, you oka-" The words died in my mouth as I saw what had happened. A tile, impossibly sharpened by the strange bomb had gone right through his gut. It's original color long forgotten, dyed by his blood. It had been removed and now sat in his hand like a knife. He was kneeling down seemingly in shock as he bled out.

"I… I think…" He managed to force out of his throat. "I think…."

"Dean, shut up!" I ran over to his kneeling form producing a potion. He didn't have the energy to speak.

"I think…. I think I'm okay." He told me suddenly standing up.

"DEAN!" I cried out, ready to catch his unsteady form. Yet he did not sway, his footing was confident and sure.

I glanced back down at the injury and noted that despite the abundance of blood, there was no wound. He was fully healed.

"That hurt." He commented. "I thought I was a goner but your Brute potions did the trick." Oh right, I gave him something that would allow him to regenerate. Honestly I had no idea it would be this potent.

"Okay, that was lucky but let's be careful, we can't afford to have you hurt again, the potion doesn't last forever." He nodded in reply allowing me to take the lead again.

Taking a step I heard a click.

"DEAN GET BACK!" I shouted throwing him away from the mine.

*BOOOOM*

My teeth rattled and seconds later I was in the sky, everything was spinning as my vision blurred. While I should've been glad that I had survived, another part of me wondered what the hell kind of Tinker Tech bomb I just stepped on.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed in terror. Dean might've shouted out my name in panic but honestly, with my own screams and the winds whipping through my ears it meant that any other sounds were lost forever.

I had to slow down! What would the other Heroes do?

Aegis could fly, Clockblocker would freeze his suit, Shadow Stalker would do some sort of badass parkour by kicking off the buildings.

Wait! That was it! The buildings! I reached into my inventory and pulled out my new Steel Sword that I had made right before leaving the Rig. Armsmaster would probably disapprove of me bringing out untested Tinker Tech but if it saved my life then I was sure he wouldn't mind.

I continued to flail, hoping that I would strike a building like ice climbers would a cliff with their mountain picks. It wasn't a reliable plan but honestly it was better than just flying through the sky waiting to land as a corpse. To increase my chances I produced a second weapon, in this case an Iron dagger, something I made after running out of enough steel bars of which I only had one left.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I continued to scream and somehow the dagger managed to bite into something. For a second it skipped off the surface slowing me down before latching onto another part of the building that jutted outwards. The blade, harder than diamond managed to penetrate the concrete next to me, my arm would've dislocated and possibly snapped off it weren't for my Brute rating. Still I swung inwards colliding with the wall with enough force to break anyone else's nose.

"OW!" I cried in painful victory, I couldn't believe it worked. Then the building I was attached to screamed in pain as blood began to run down its side.

….. Buildings weren't supposed to scream in pain or bleed were they?

"RAAAAAR!" The giant form of Lung roared as my dagger continued to cut into his back. He tried to bat me off but the wings he had grown managed to keep him from reaching me.

"AHHHHH!" I continued to scream as my free hand, the one with the sword flailed around randomly striking his wings. However with how he thrashed the dagger's hold on him was let loose flinging me to the streets. Before I could impact the ground I was caught by two translucent hands.

With the pause in action I decided I needed to heal up. I could put away both my weapons but I needed them both ready…. If I could don my helmet without my hands then perhaps I could drink them the same way? A second later and I was healthier than before, the potions had been consumed instantly without my hands moving an inch. From an outside perspective I simply regenerated.

The experiment was a success.

Huh…. neat.

"Thank you for the assistance stranger!" A masculine voice called. I continued to scream but noted I was no longer alone, it was Crusader being held aloft by his own ghosts. I glanced down to what had caught me and noted that it was also a ghost.

"AAAAAAHHH NAZI!" I screamed lashing out with my sword. In his surprised state I had managed to strike his breast plate with the tip of my weapon. Not strong enough to penetrate the armor but enough that his ghosts, in their seemingly relaxed state had let go of him in surprise.

It was then that I landed on the ground in a heap.

"Ow…." I got back up instantly as I consumed several health potions directly from my inventory. "Good as new!" I announced before noticing that I was now surrounded by Nazi Capes. Storm Tiger, Krieg, Othala and Alabaster. "Oh… hi?" I gave a shy wave.

Behind me the earth shook as Lung landed. The Empire Capes shifted away from me, encasing me in a semi circle leaving the big angry dragon man on the other side. I always dreamed about being surrounded by villainous Capes and fighting my way through them all. The reality of the situation however was a lot more terrifying. Why did life have to put me in such terrible situations?

Lung moved first, his claw lashing out. I managed to take a step back as my sword bit into his body causing blood to run down it's edge. His other claw grabbed my other arm. The Nazi's were more surgical, waiting for the right moment to strike, gathering themselves for a more coordinated attack.

"STOP!" I channeled my Master power. The Empire Capes paused for a moment and simply fled at that, making no aggressive action as they did so.

Lung on the other hand? He grinned.

"Uoouu Ded Naaow." He growled. Why didn't my Master power work on him? I pulled back the sword in his stomach to strike again but before I could bring it to bear he grabbed my wrist with his other hand effectively disarming me. The wound I gave him didn't even seem to slow him down and had in fact already healed over! I lashed out with my legs, kicking for all I was worth and he simply stood there smiling unaffected. I was tall for my age but Lung had grown to such a degree that I could only kick at his chest and stomach.

Then he erupted into flames and his grin took on a sadistic edge, the burning pain enveloped me.

I felt something get stronger within me, more specifically my Heavy Armor shard. Apparently the Shard wasn't limited to striking force but also fire. Still, even with that ray of sunshine, the flames still continued to hurt.

I gritted my teeth, hoping, wishing against hope that someone would save me. My vision blurred and I drank a health potion. For a second the pain was gone but before long I was in pain again as everything slowly began to fade. I kept drinking potions directly from my inventory repairing whatever damage I had taken. Occasionally I would feel triumph and my Heavy Armor Shard would become stronger. From all the pain I had gotten I had even leveled up three times and each time I invested into a tougher body and an even stronger Heavy Armor Shard.

Two of the Stars that I saw, that I grasped made me tougher. The third gave me fists of steel. In my desperate struggles I went for something more offensive, hoping that it would allow me to pull my hands away from Lung's grip.

It wasn't enough though. The additional strength, the toughness, none of it mattered. I was losing, I was dying, but a small part of me rejoiced perhaps a bit too hysterically. The expression on Lung's face had slowly gone from sadistic satisfaction to one of annoyance and rage. To an outsiders perspective I just looked indestructible if not immune to being hurt.

"DJIIIIEEE!" He screamed as he redoubled his efforts to burn me to death. Then after what seemed like an eternity of pain and fire I ran out of potions, not even the fire resistance potions were spared.

But I didn't give into despair. I didn't fear. I didn't give up.

Instead, I began to glow green.

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

Author Notes: Alright folks, this is my first proper action scene that I've ever done for this fic. I'm not sure how good I am at it but practice makes perfect! Also over 100k words! WOOO!

Special thanks as always to Taron for beta reading (as he has done for the last.... every chapter? Well besides the first few at least).

Hopefully I can come up with more, interesting bomb ideas in the future.