บท 128: 126 The Strongest Hero
Owwwwwww.
I may be used to pain, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still hurt, I can just ignore it.
Still, being melted and crushed and having my very body Break down is a whole different kind of pain compared to being catapulted into the ground by a very angry woman with very strong arms.
The whole thing was a blur of motion.
One moment I was standing there, mocking her, the next she was in front of me and all of a sudden, after a short but dizzying trip, I am in the sky, and then I'm plummeting to the ground fast enough to break the sound barrier before I can even try to cop a feel or something.
The world is truly unfair sometimes.
And let me tell you, being Broken down is possibly one of the most painful experiences of my life, but nothing takes the wind out of you quite like impacting the ground at at least Mach 1.
The worrying part however, is that this was not part of the plan.
Everything's been going well so far, and if nothing else has gone wrong then Queenie should be driving March and String Theory away by now, leaving Crawler, Nutcracker and I to bully Alexandria.
Which, even with the speed and strength she's shown, we should be able to do.
At least, once I actually bring forth the full strength of my power, because I can hardly see Alexandria move right now, but that problem, as well as the gap in our physical capabilities, should all be solved once I go all out.
However, she was supposed to drag me through the road, where Lucy would be waiting, standing just close enough for Alexandria's arm to be within the range of her power, but not close enough that she'd die.
I don't want to 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 her after all. There's good publicity and then there's political suicide, and killing a member of the Triumvirate would be way more trouble than it's worth.
But she didn't do that, which means something has changed and March's plan is now null and void.
That, is not good.
Sitting up in the crater around me, I take stock of the situation.
The girls are in the van, as planned, and Crawler is outside guarding them. Lucy is further forward, looking a little lost at what to do, but probably leaning towards hopping in one of the not broken transports and driving off.
Then, while I'm looking at her, I notice something odd.
She's looking up at the sky, where Alexandria is, except she's wearing an expression of 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥.
That doesn't make sense, she counters Alexandria pretty much perfectly, and even then, she didn't show any signs of caring about her earlier, so what is it exactly that has her looking like that?
Following her gaze, I tilt my head to the sky, and all of a sudden my mind blanks at what I see, a single thought making it through.
Ah.
That's why.
...Fuck.
My smile only grows wider and more uncontrolled as I take in the sight of Eidolon.
The Fifth Strongest being on the planet, just after Scion and the Endbringers, but they're freaks so they don't count, and none of them are technically capes, even if at least Scion is a Parahuman, probably, but they don't play the game, so they're not capes.
Which makes Eidolon The Strongest Cape, as well as The Strongest Hero, as well as the dude with 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘴.
Maybe, just maybe, we might be in just a little over our heads right now.
Ah well, it's not too big of a deal, probably.
The joys of being friends with such a versatile Tinker as Vendor, is that you can prepare for situations like this.
It's not like I ever thought we could escape Alexandria by just driving away, and I already wasn't planning on killing her.
So what is the solution, I hear you ask?
Well, that's easy.
Turning to March, who is sitting in the front of String Theories transport, with Queenie in the back trying to help get the containment foam off of her, I go to shout something at her, only for a bolt of lighting to drive itself down from the sky and through my entire body, frying me for a moment before I heal the damage.
Ah well, I'm sure she's got the same idea.
A fact that is proven once I see the van flash once.
I continue to ignore Eidolon and watch as Alexandria ploughs into Crawler, aiming for the van as it flashes again but getting knocked aside by his weight.
By the time she orients herself and starts moving again, it has already been nine seconds since March activated Vendor's device, and the van flashes one more time, before simply disappearing, as if an illusion.
Sorry, did I say they were getting ready to drive away? My bad.~
With a smirk on my face, I turn up to the floating Eidolon.
"Heh, looks like-" I am cut off by another lightning bolt hitting me, frying my brain and melting my organs, but I am fine again by the time the dust settles and I keep talking as if nothing happened, "-you're not the only one who can teleport.~"
Truthfully, it's a lot more limited than I'm making it out to be.
For one, it takes nine seconds to activate, during which the slightest tap can cancel it out. But more importantly, it needs a 'vessel' of sorts to teleport, hence the van.
The reason for this is that the teleportation basically just shreds whatever is being teleported, meaning that when they arrive, they will be standing just fine but surrounded by whatever scraps of the van managed to survive the travel.
Naturally, using the device on your body is suicide, but Crawler and I might be able to survive it ok.
Plus, they're Tinker tech. Vendor has only made like, nine of them. His power likes the number nine for some reason.
Turning back up to Eidolon, I lose myself just staring at him for a moment, lost in the pure 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 he exudes.
I actually might be a little fucked here. With Extinction, at the very least I went into that fighting thinking there was a chance I could win, but looking up at Eidolon, thoughts of helplessness gnaw away at me.
𝘈𝘩𝘯~ 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨.~
"I must say, I. Am. Flattered!~ That The Strongest Hero would go out of their way just for me?~ Why, it's enough to make a girl blush!~"
My exclamation is left unanswered as Eidolon seems to be ignoring me in favour of looking over at the other two, and a quick glance following his line of sight allows me to see another van flash once more before disappearing.
Looks like Lucy decided not to stay.
Fair enough really, can't blame her.
Still, he's ignoring me.
Right as I'm about to shout something at him, his head finally turns back to me, as if just noticing I'm here.
Tilting his head slightly, he seems to mull over his answer before giving an incredibly belated response.
"No," he says, "I did not come here for you. String Theory is threatening to blow the moon out of orbit. I came here for her, not you."
His voice is quiet and calm, yet still holding power enough that I hear him clearly, and I have to say, I'm a little hurt.
"Now that's just mean.~" I pout up at him, but he just gives a careless shrug and after one more glance at Alexandria's fight, he simply points at me and suddenly I can't see anything and am in incredible amounts of pain.
Luckily, thanks to Lucy my body has gotten pretty used to being Broken down in it's entirety, so I manage to keep my legs under me enough to jump to the side.
Light returns to my senses as I hit the ground on my side, and a glance back shows a swirling, spherical vortex of dark purplish-green energy sitting right where I was standing.
Yeouch, what even is that? Some organic matter destroying ball thing?
Turning up to the man in the sky, who seems to be looking down on my with mild interest at best, though it's hard to tell with the full face mask, and his green full body suit and cloak also make reading his posture a difficult task, I get the feeling I should stop playing around, otherwise I will definitely die.
"Interesting. Normally powers like that work well against you regeneration types. It's hard to fix anything specific if everything is being destroyed. Oh well."
With his piece said, Eidolon points at me again, but this time I take him a lot more seriously and blood bursts to life around my body, covering me completely in an instant, bulking me up until I am at least seven foot tall and as wide as a man who never skips the gym.
Each of my appendages burst out to cover my me, and I don't hesitate to use my ribbons and tail to assist my legs in launching myself away, just in time as the earth folds up blindingly fast, two slabs of dirt slamming together with enough force that they should have been broken into smithereens.
The fact that the two walls of earth didn't break tells me that there is probably some invulnerability effect added onto it, meaning I would have definitely been pancaked.
𝘚𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘺.~
Before he can point at me again, I launch a slew of projectiles out from both of my wings, some pointed spikes and some crescent blades. All together, there must be dozens of them, each as tall as a man, and as they fly I get a faint feeling of control over them.
Testing it, I try to manoeuvrer some of the projectiles to fly around to his back, but it proves pointless as right before they are about to reach him, a burst of white energy pulses out of Eidolon, passing all of the projectiles and erasing them with ease.
Dang.
As I'm about to try again, the air suddenly feels heavy, as if the sky is crashing down on me, and I collapse halfway to the ground, my bones creaking, before I manage to get my ribbons back underneath me, and I manage to keep moving once I start leaping around on all fours, my six ribbons aiding me.
The fact that I have to use ten limbs just to be able to keep moving is annoying, but before I can even complain further, the weight is suddenly gone and a blinding pain replaces it as every single one of my limbs is abruptly ripped off of my body, leaving only my head and torso.
My blood shoots forth, connecting my body parts and I snap back into one with a smile splitting my face.
Turning on a dime, I launch another slew of projectiles at him and crouch down, jumping with all of my strength after them, hoping to actually score a hit.
He points one hand in my direction, and a cone of translucent energy comes to life in front of him. The next second, my projectiles all freeze in time before suddenly reversing, as if he simply hit rewind.
Unfortunately for me, as I was following right behind them, my own projectiles pierce through my body, but I ignore the pain and take the opportunity to use my own projectiles as a foothold to launch myself at him even faster, something I could only accomplish because they were locked in time, otherwise they wouldn't have provided enough leverage for the boost of speed I got.
I reach his spot in the sky within a blink and I open my jaw wide to match my splayed claws and pointed ribbons, my tail swinging around to strike from behind as I intend to hit him with literally everything I have.
The very instant before I touch him, my claws mere inches away from his body, time seems to pause as he suddenly fades away, reappearing in-between my arms with a single palm resting a hairs breadth away from my chest.
Time resumes and I slam into his body, and instead of moving him even the slightest amount, I feel my entire torso 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘥𝘦 into a mist of blood and viscera as my limbs fly off in various directions.
Ow.
Once again, my blood snaps out, connecting each piece of my body and pulling it back together fast enough that a normal person would only see a blur.
Eidolon is not a normal person.
Right where my power is trying to regenerate my torso, a small black hole appears, and as my blood starts pulling me together, the black hole devours me.
It only lasts for the smallest of moments before I urge my power to move, but when I reform, I do it with only half a torso and one arm.
Thankfully, my stumps of flesh soon bubble out and grow new limbs for me to use, leaving me as good as new, if rather hungry.
Right as I am about to make another jump at him, Eidolon finally actually moves.
And when Eidolon moves, he 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴.
Even with nearly a dozen eyes, I barely manage to track his movement as he suddenly appears before me.
Instinctually, my clawed arms swing at him, but I am moving far too slow to match him, as, with an almost casual grace, he raises a single finger, glowing green with power, and slowly reaches forth, whereupon he simply taps me on the forehead, his touch light and soft.
The next thing I know, I am on the ground, looking up at Eidolon's back as he slowly flies away from me, heading to where Alexandria is still occupying Crawler, no doubt waiting for Eidipie to be done with me so that he can finish him off for her.
However, right as I am thinking about leaving Crawler to his fate and playing dead, Eidipie suddenly stops, casually glancing over his shoulder at me.
Well, fuck me I guess.
Shaking his head, he turns around to face me again, and I double check myself, finding that yes, I am all still here, but I am also starving.
It's nice to know I can survive without a head at least, assuming that's what he did.
However, right as he raises his hand, no doubt planning to hit me with something just as effective, if not more so than whatever he just did that I think erased my head, he pauses and raises a hand to his ear.
Startled, I get a feeling and quickly glance over to Alexandria to see her also standing with a finger held up to the side of her helmet.
Before I can further ponder on what's going on, I hear a faint noise coming from the distance.
I can barely hear it, but there's something familiar about it, and a little thought makes me think it's coming from a nearby town, when it suddenly clicks in my head.
Those are the Endbringer sirens.
=================
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
So, first of all, you might think the teleportation thing is a bit of a cop out, but fuck you, I don't write things that aren't canonically plausible, and if I didn't do it like this, then the story would have just ended lol, lusia would have died.
Because Eidolon kicks ass. I'm maybe making him a little stronger than he is in canon, but eh, fuck it, it's more fun like this.
And yeah, Lusia is strong, but Eidolon ins the Strongest, she doesn't stand a chance against him.
Also, I was pretty meh about how this was turning out, what with using an Endbringer to get lusia out of the fight, but I just realised something that's made me pretty happy about it.
It is 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘺 Worm of me to be solving problems by simply escalating them xD
Also lusia would have literally just died if she kept fighting eidolon lol
(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
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