บท 82: She Awakens
"Oh crap!" Cinder yelled out with wide eyes.
"Holy crap, that thing is huge!" A stunned Paragon stated. Destiny clung to the girl, and it was thanks to the bird's eyesight that the healer could tell just how big this monster was.
The Emperor had gone around using his title as Lord of Life to turn many humans and Supers into monsters. This was done to greatly power up his army. Monsters like Polaron or Mars King kept their sanity for the most part and had a vaguely humanoid shape. A majority weren't so lucky, though.
This thing looked like a worm. It was massive, bigger than a skyscraper, and the ground kept breaking away as it got taller and taller, rising out. Its head had hundreds of sharp teeth, and it was falling toward them at insane speeds. Earthquakes seemed to go off for miles all around it, causing Myth to stop and cling to the ground.
Even the Wandering Coin froze as they stared at the monster in shock. They had never really seen one still alive. Most were wiped out by the Victorian the moment they came near a city. Out here in the Wasteland, where there was so much disaster and crime, she didn't bother, so these beasts had grown as big as they needed to, and there would be no golden savior that would come in and save them.
Cinder gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on Paragon. "Hold on tight. It's about to get rough!" Already, the worm was falling over, content to crush or eat them. Her fire roared out of her feet and blasted her away from the beast, but its body kept getting longer and longer, the shadow of it staying over them as it got lower and lower. It was at least forty meters wide and five miles long, maybe even bigger. "I don't think we're going to get away from it in time." She hissed.
"Any chance you could blast a hole through it?!" Paragon shouted.
"Good idea!" She curved her body, pointed her feet at the thing, stopped focusing on escape, and instead poured all her effort into blasting out a massive beam of fire from her legs. It sent her crashing to the ground, and she broke the fall with her back, slamming into their van and breaking it into further pieces. She kept Paragon shielded, and her foot beams twisted together and smashed into the massive worm.
The thing barely slowed down, and while its flesh began to burn and twist into a nasty black, it was still coming down faster than she could destroy it. It was insanely dense, able to survive in the core of the planet, so her fire was barely a warm bath to this thing. They were about to be crushed together. Her and Paragon were about to die.
Myth and Snowdawn were thankfully out of the way, as were the Wandering Coin. The creature seemed focused on just the two of them.
"It's not working." She called out, her beam beginning to die out as the worm was less than fifty feet away and coming down fast.
"Throw me into its mouth." Paragon announced.
"What! Won't you die from that?"
"Maybe, but even if I do die, if I can touch it, then maybe I can do something!"
"I'm not going to throw you at it! I'm a hero!"
"If you don't do something, then we'll both die!" The girl argued. "I can maybe mess with its cells or something, I don't know!"
She dropped Paragon and stood, holding her arms up. "I'll use all my super strength and stop it! When I do, run like hell!"
"You can't pick up something that big! You're doing the same thing I am! You're throwing your life away!"
"I'm going to save us!"
The worm came down only a few feet away. The ground broke and cracked, and she was shoved to her knees from the force. Paragon was knocked over fully, and she squeezed her eyes shut tight, ready to at least try and hold it back-
"Got you!" Snowdawn crashed into her just in time, wrapping an arm around her and Paragon. "Fuck you, worm!"
She felt a wave of intense cold. More than anything she had ever felt before at the spot Snowdawn was touching. Everything seemed to stop, and the next second, suddenly, she and Paragon weren't beneath the worm. They stood next to Myth now, dozens of meters away from the giant monster, and still likely in the blast zone. Where they had been standing, a large ice statue of Snowdawn stood, flipping the worm off.
The worm crashed into the statue, shattered it into millions of pieces, and blew through the ground as it sank back into the sand. "We're still alive?" The spot Snowdawn held was covered in a thick block of ice, and she couldn't help but shiver. Paragon also groaned and shook, feeling the ice around her wrist. She generated some of her fire, quickly melting the ice around both of them, while Destiny healed any major damage they might have gotten.
Snowdawn was on his knees next to them, breathing heavily. All his ice and snow were gone, and he was panting badly. That weird fast-teleporting move he could pull off now was clearly taking its toll on him. He looked like he was about to vomit. "I- I need to rest for a few moments." He groaned. "I won't have any powers for a bit. I never pushed my new move that far before-"
A red beam of blood slammed into the ground next to them, causing them all to scramble and duck back down as the beams started back up again.
"We don't have a few moments." Myth stated calmly. The ground was shaking and breaking once again as the massive worm began to rise back up behind them as well. "Cinder. Take Snowdawn and Paragon and get out here. If you can try and grab Whisper and run. Don't bother fighting the Wandering Coin if you can avoid it."
"Right." She hooked one arm around Snowdawn's waist and threw him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Her second hand went around Paragon, and she held the hero under her arm.
"Do you seriously have to hold me like this?" Paragon snapped.
"Yes." She looked back at Myth, who stared at the giant worm. "What are you going to do, sir?"
"I'm going to kick that monster's ass."
"I don't think that's a good idea..."
"He can do it," Paragon spoke up, nodding her head. "This is the legendary hero Myth. Son of Legend, brother of Fable, former leader of the Sub Enforcers, former recruit for the Enforcers, and the man that not only saved my sister during the Beast attack but fought the Beast itself."
"Seriously? I know Myth is badass and all, but still..." She trailed off. Myth never really got into a lot of serious fights now that she thought about it. The closest battle he had been in was his fight against Polaron.
"Go, Cinder. I'll be right behind you once I deal with this pest." Myth stepped forward, and she nodded and began to run as fast as she could. Myth stared up at the worm as it rose higher and higher. He began to loosen his armor and robes, dropping them and cracking his neck. "It's a good thing we aren't in Oleander. I wouldn't want to destroy my home, after all. How long has it been since I've gotten a chance to use this form? I wonder. I guess the last time I used it was against the Beast." He smirked, and his skin began to bubble and grow as he got bigger. "Get ready. For the first time in two years, I'm about to go all out! Sorry in advance. I can't control this form, so do me a favor and keep 'it' entertained so it leaves my team members alone!"
Massive red scales stabbed out of his flesh. His legs twisted and came undone, becoming hundreds of snakes. Wings wider than the worm grew out of his shoulder blades. His muscles got larger, and he began to get bigger, his shadow twisting and stabbing out. The wind became his to command, and magma dripped down his mouth as his jaw jutted out and jagged teeth formed. Where his eyes should have been now stood the entrance to a small volcano, lava pouring down his face like tears, and each of his fingers grew the head of a dragon as he stared down at the worm.
The worm roared, and Myth screamed right back at it as the two prepared for battle!
Over with the Wandering Coin, Mayor Grove let out a whistle as he watched the two giant monsters begin to fight. "Gonna stay away from that one." The wind twisted and the ground shook as both monsters slammed into the ground and began to sink into it. They were miles away, and yet they could still feel it. "Let's get a move on-"
"Not so fast!" A loud voice announced. The sounds of engines filled the air, and the roaring of cars surrounded them. "It ain't often we get ya city folk that are bright enough to wander on out here, especially not with that damn fancy Super tech like what ya folks got!"
Four cars went in circles around the crash site of the Wandering Coin. Each one was made out of large shards of junk and looked to be glued together. The people that rode on them were barely any better. They wore suits of armor, mostly made of scrap, and carried weapons that would make even Metal Ronin shake his head, due to how much trash had been used to create them.
Wasteland bandits. Many died off in these harsh lands, but some managed to thrive. The majority of bandits were people from Oleander who ran from the city and thought they could live in these lawless parts. Others were Supers who had committed a crime so bad they'd be sent to Nightshade and, out of fear, fled to the Wasteland. After all, Uriel wasn't in the Wasteland.
For many Supers, surviving out here was better than getting unlucky and sharing a cell block with Uriel.
"Hand over ya stuff." One of the bandits yelled out. "Now, before me and my possy up and-"
"Casey."
"On it, boss." Red beams of blood blasted out of Casey's fingers and sliced through the bandits and their cars as if they were made out of butter. Or at least it should have. "Huh?" All the cars were cut to bits, but not a single bandit corpse could be found. "Wow. You're fast."
Cinder touched down a few meters away from the Wandering Coin members. Her arms were filled not only with Paragon and Snowdawn but also with at least eight men. They were screaming, as she had taken a page out of Battery's book and created chains made of fire to wrap around them and get them to safety. They weren't fireproof. She put the fire out, placed Paragon and Snowdawn down, and practically dropped all the men.
"Whisper. We've come to get you. It was kind of dumb running off like that."
Kevin's grip grew tighter around Whisper's waist. "Move an inch, and I pop her-"
His arm was blown off, along with half his body, as Cinder punched the air faster than he could react and used what Wyvern had taught her. The air current easily tore through Kevin and caused Whisper to drop to the ground. The girl turned invisible and quickly got out of sight.
Hannah struck out and fired a wave of bones, but Cinder punched through them easily and twisted her body around just in time to dodge one of Casey's blood beams. Her hair was golden, and her eyes roared with a red fire. "You guys seriously don't stand a chance. I'm already pretty pissed, so try not to make it worse-"
Cinder froze when she saw Wish. The girl rested in the arms of Mr. Brenner. Slowly, Wish's eyes opened, and she stared past Cinder, directly at Paragon.
***
Backup charged forward and raised both his arms. Two large tower shields expanded out of the bands he had around the sleeves of his martial arts uniform. They blocked the barrage of fireballs that Demonica threw at him and allowed him to ram his way into the villain.
Demonica slid back, hissing like a wild animal. She had already transformed, sporting three arms and bat-like wings. Purple fire crackled off her claws, which she stabbed through the air, but the hero blocked them once more and smashed both his shields together. They came undone and folded together, spiraling around one another and forming into a large great axe, which he swung out as hard as he could.
Demonica barely had time to raise two of her arms and block the strike, but the force of it lifted the woman off her feet and slammed her into the wall of the underground parking lot that they were fighting in.
Over with Green Wolf, he twirled his knives and brought them down, but his attack was blocked by a ghostly clone created by Pretty Face.
"You know, there are easier ways to get my autograph than this." Pretty Face taunted. He created another clone and swung it around like a hammer, smashing it into Green Wolf, but the man's kinetic barrier easily blocked it.
"Go to hell. I'd never be caught dead at one of your shows." The villain chuckled. He sent more of his invisible attacks toward Pretty Face, but the hero would constantly block the attacks with waves of clones that formed a wall in front of him, each one a different color.
"Says the guy who comes to my concert every time I host it here." Pretty Face weaved in between the slashes and gave a wink. "Honestly, if you wanted to get my attention, all you had to do was ask, hot stuff." He managed to grab the villain's wrist, and while he couldn't harm the man, he was able to twist the limb and cause Green Wolf to drop his knife.
Green Wolf swung out his other hand, but eight ghostly hands appeared around Pretty Face and stopped the leader of Zoo's arm from moving. More arms began to appear in the air, all pulling the villain into a chokehold and binding him in place.
"Why are you trying to kill me anyway?" Pretty Face asked, stepping away. "I do something to piss you off? I know I've made a bad habit of making people hate me. Don't tell me you're some ex-lover pissed that I didn't stay with some no-named loser."
"Nah. We've never met." Green Wolf's body ignited and exploded with a wave of kinetic energy, destroying all the limbs that were around him and shoving Pretty Face back. He reached into his coat and pulled out another knife, which he twirled around. This one was a large meat cleaver. "I just love killing."
Pretty Face slid back, creating three of his ghosts, which broke his fall and caught him. One of his clones ran at Green Wolf, but it was sliced to ribbons before it even got close.
Green Wolf cocked his head to the side and gave a casual chuckle. He took a step forward, and the entire underground area began to shake violently as he unleashed a wave of powerful kinetic force. "Man, I'm pretty ticked off. You guys all suck. This game is getting boring, and I'm not even getting any good loot or EXP. Why can't we all have a little more fun?"
"Seriously? You've killed countless people and harmed hundreds, and then have the balls to say this is just a bad game that you're not having any fun with." Pretty Face gave a large scowl and sneered at the villain. "I take it back. You aren't so good-looking anymore."
"Now we know that's bullshit." Green Wolf tugged at his collar, and moon walked backwards. "I'm fly as fuck." He ran his fingers over his white coat. "This is the finest leather money can buy. One of a kind. As in, I created it myself after cutting up some dude that turned into a dragon. I got a good collection going on, you know." He opened his coat, revealing rows of knives. Some were made out of metal, and others, disturbingly enough, were forged from bone. "Any guesses if I made the coat after or before I killed the hero? Come to think of it, you used to be on Boy Genius's crew, right? This must be a blast from the past seeing your old party member on me like this."
Pretty Face growled a bit and created dozens of his ghostly hands and arms around himself. "You're dying today. That's a promise. That's the punishment that scum like you deserves."
"If I die, then it means I had fun with the game and met a better player." The energy around Green Wolf grew stronger, and he slashed his knife down. "Will you be able to be that person? Because I, for one, highly doubt it!"
Near the only entrance left standing, Duplicity stood in front of Bad Wolf with her arms folded. "They sure do talk a lot," the young-looking girl said, humming.
Bad Wolf grunted, not moving an inch. Waves of cloud seeped out of her fur and formed large pillars of snow, ice, and water, the only thing keeping this entire area from collapsing and crushing them all. "Y- You'd think that they'd all be smart enough to take the fight outside of this death trap, but I guess that's too good for them." The hero spat out. "You should back them up, Duplicity."
"No can do." The hero said, shaking her head. "If a stray attack comes this way, I'll be the only thing to keep you safe."
"Too bad you did such a bad job!" An arrogant voice announced. Duplicity felt her eyes go wide, and she tried to turn around, but it was too late. Something wrapped tightly around her body, binding her in place. She stared down at the hundreds of large centipede-like bugs that had turned themselves into makeshift ropes. Bad Wolf was about to strike behind her with her clouds, but she froze when she felt the barrel of a gun press against the back of her head. "Way to go, Monkey!"
Standing behind Bad Wolf with his gun trained on the girl, Red Monkey cocked his head to the side lazily. One of his arms was wrapped around Red Ape, who supported the man. Rows of bugs came out of the villain's sleeve, creating the binds that had now formed around Duplicity.
The fighting in the underground parking lot stopped as Backup noticed his two teammates were in trouble. "Red Ape?" Even Green Wolf seemed stunned, staring at the man. "You, of all people, got down here to back me up?"
"How the hell did you get out of Hero Branch custody?" Duplicity asked, cocking her head to the side. "Pantheon knocked you guys out and tied you all up with chains made by Battery. Also, we saw the Hero Branch personally throwing you guys into some vans. You shouldn't have been able to get out of here so soon."
"Oh, that's simple." Moving out from behind, Red Ape White Spider didn't wear her mask. She wanted them all to see her smug look. White Lamb stood next to her. "You guys forgot all about me, didn't you? While all of you were busy fighting, I was on the sidelines, watching the entire thing and getting my webs set up!"
White Spider was a relatively weak teleporter. She couldn't go anywhere she wanted, instead having to spread hundreds of tiny spiders that would all connect with each other and form a web. Once her web was in place, it made it so that anyone inside the location could no longer get out, teleporting them back in if they tried to escape. It had a bit of an issue, though. White Spider had to place herself into the web and also couldn't escape without tearing the entire thing down.
Because everyone was able to come and go as pleased, they had all assumed the villain wasn't in the area or wasn't on standby.
White Spider held her hand up, and five tiny spiders began to slowly drip off of it, connected by her threads. "I can use my babies to see and hear things through them. I didn't bother setting a web up. Instead, I placed them into all the members of Zoo's clothing, and once they were captured, White Lamb and I snuck in and busted them out." Her other arm was a crazy tech gun Avalon had liked built. "It was all too easy to bust them out. You guys didn't even have guards or a hero standing over them."
From behind her, Black Shark and White Cow stepped out, both fully healed after their battle with Myth. Demonica's eyes narrowed. "What of Stone Face and Saw Head?"
"What of them?" White Spider cocked her head to the side. "Those gross monsters aren't on my team. I left them to rot. To hell with those freaks."
Demonica growled and was about to throw a fireball forward, but stopped at the last second when Green Wolf appeared behind her and pressed his knife to the back of her head. "This wasn't part of the deal."
"I lost my part of the deal the moment Avalon stopped teleporting me." Green Wolf shrugged. "As far as I am concerned, the game is broken and in need of some new rules. We're going to pull a triple-A studio and patch this thing into being at least semi-fair." Backup went to take a step, but Green Wolf shook his head. "Nope. You heroes stand still. The first sign of danger, and Monkey blows that puppy's head off." His remark caused Bad Wolf to growl.
Duplicity cocked her head to the side as the bugs around her began to squeeze, getting tighter. She grunted a bit but smirked. "Wow. It's pretty brave of you to call her a puppy, Green Wolf. The only runt of the litter I see is you."
"Most hostages are smart enough to know you shouldn't talk back to the game master." Green Wolf stared the girl down and held Demonica out in front of him as if she were a human shield.
Duplicity giggled a bit. "That's true. But most hostages are in danger. None of us are."
White Spider laughed and raised her gun up. It unfolded, and the barrel of an energy-based weapon popped out. "Honestly, I don't think we should play around with them any longer, Green Wolf. The heroes got a head start. We should kill these fuckers and go after them-"
"Didn't you find it weird?" Duplicity asked casually, leaning her head back to stare at White Spider. "Why did we leave the hostages unguarded? Well, the answer is simple. We didn't. Roulette was watching them."
The sound of a gunshot filled the parking lot, and blood splashed out of White Spider's mouth as her eyes stared down in shock at the massive hole in her gut. Red Monkey pulled the trigger on his gun, but the bullet inside of it flew out the back and exploded, blowing off the man's hand. The sound of a cane tapping on the floor echoed out as Roulette walked forward slowly. He held a rifle, using it as a walking stick, and millions of bullets suddenly blasted out of his coat, flying forward and twisting in ways they shouldn't.
White Cow formed her milk armor and jumped in front of Red Ape and Black Shark in an effort to keep them safe, but the bullets literally twisted and curved around her. Black Shark was downed as one of his legs was nearly blown off. Red Ape yelped and threw his hands into the air.
"I don't want to die! Don't kill me, please, I surrender!" The bullets curved around him and formed together into a strong metal rope that tied him down. "Oh, thank God!"
"I would also like to give up." White Lamb said, dropping to the floor. Seconds later, White Cow crashed to the floor, blood pouring out of her armor as the bullets found small chinks in it. "I guess we lucked out on the fact that Zoo never fought Watch Dogs before this. Looks like we would have never stood a chance. Then again, Roulette was an ex-member of the-"
Green Wolf lazily shoved Demonica out in front of him, and the hail of bullets smashed into the villain's gut, nearly ripping her in half and downing her. The rest of the bullets bounced off of him, unable to harm him. "Well, fuck. There goes my team. God damn it, how is Red Ape still alive? Kill him, too, at least! Hell, I'll do it; keep him still-"
"None of your people are dead." Roulette grunted, stepping forward. He smashed the barrel of his gun down into Red Ape's crotch. "I can control my bullets any way I wish. I've plugged up their wounds and am stopping the bleeding. It won't last for long, though. They have ten minutes at most. Duplicity can heal them or at least stabilize them. If you give up, she'll do it. Now if you have even the smallest hint of sympathy, then-"
"Let them bleed out." Silence filled the room. Green Wolf cocked his head to the side. "If White Spider fucked up this bad and didn't see you coming, then I don't need them. I want it to be slow. You don't mind if I watch, do you? I'd like to see them slowly bleed out all over the place."
"If you were counting on him being human, then I'm afraid your plan was doomed to fail from the start." White Lamb sighed as she rubbed the now-broken screen of her TV. "Though he might not be a monster created by the Emperor, the concept of humanity does not exist in someone like him."
White Spider spat out a glob of blood, clutching at her gut wound. "I- I don't want to d- die- Don't let them kill us, you a- asshole."
"Oh, yeah, 'cause name-calling is going to make me want to save you." Green Wolf snorted.
Duplicity sighed, and the bugs around her caught fire as she began to glow with a white light. She broke out of Red Ape's trap, and dozens of clones of her appeared. They weren't like Pretty Face's, though. They were solid and looked exactly like the young-looking hero. Usually, she had a large goofy grin on her face, but now her looks were twisted into a stare of disgust as she glared at Green Wolf.
Each of the downed Zoo members had a clone placed next to them. The clones touched the injured members, and their wounds began to seal shut and heal. It wasn't like Paragon's healing, though. It was more like Battery's or Victorian's—rough and slow. Limbs were regrown but slightly off. They were smaller or weaker than before, and the bullets were left inside of them. They'd live, though never the same as they used to be. Each of the clones that healed someone broke down and shattered into dust.
Demonica didn't get one. Her own body was healing due to her natural abilities, and her legs were slowly healing up. "What a coward you are." Green Wolf said, placing his boot on the monster's head and shoving it down. Despite his actions, though, he appeared to be talking to the heroes. "You went and healed them anyway. Heroes are so boring and easy to read."
"I wouldn't be cocky if I were you." Pretty Face called out. "We have you surrounded, now."
"Barrier." Green Wolf lazily threw his knife in the air. "No one can touch me. None of you guys are energy-based users."
"I wasn't the child of a Lord or anything like that." Duplicity hummed. "Despite that, though, somewhere in my blood flows the energy of a Lord. Maybe it was a great grandma, maybe a great grampa, or maybe even a great, great, great one. I honestly don't know. What I do know is that I got lucky and got powers from both my mom and dad. My dad had the ability to fuse with things, while my mom had the power to create energy-based clones' kind of like Pretty Face."
"Neat story. So what?" Green Wolf asked.
Duplicity took a step forward, and the villain swung out his weapon. The girl's body was nearly torn in two, but one of her clones quickly grabbed onto her, and they shattered into dust as she was connected back together. "There's a limit to how many clones I can make." The girl shrugged. "I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a million, maybe a billion, or even a trillion. I just know I have a limit. When a clone dies, it never comes back. Thanks to my mom, I can make them. It's also thanks to my dad that I can use them to sort of heal people. See, they can fuse with things. If a person is injured, I can use the clone to patch them up, though it destroys the clone."
"So, if I kill you enough times, you're saying that you'll stay dead?" Green Wolf chuckled. "Seems like a smart idea to tell me this."
"Guys like you are always a pain. The kind that constantly blocks physical attacks." Duplicity gave a sly grin. "Thankfully, I'm the perfect counter to assholes like you." Nearly twenty clones appeared behind the girl, and they all linked arms.
Green Wolf found himself taking a step back as a massive, brilliant light filled the rooms. All the clones seemed to be pulled into one another, and the glow got brighter. Then, in a bright, blinding flash, it died down. He found himself raising an eyebrow at what he saw.
Duplicity had turned pure white. She was glowing—her skin, hair, eyes, everything. It was like a solid white light had taken shape. She was bigger as well. She was no longer a little girl; instead, she had taken on her true form, now looking like an adult woman. "Talk about a growth spurt-" Blood dripped down Green Wolf's mouth as he gasped. In an instant, Duplicity was in front of him, ramming her fist into his stomach.
"You talk way too much." She hummed.
Green Wolf was hit so hard that he smashed through the roof above and the layers of dirt, slamming down into the stadium floor from up above. Duplicity floated up, phasing through the dirt and folding her arms over her chest as she hovered above the villain, no longer restricted by the world.
She had become pure energy given life, merged and fused with dozens of other copies of herself. In other words, the perfect thing to bypass Green Wolf's shield. Despite his injury, Green Wolf's laughter filled the air as he stood up and threw off his white coat. On his back, a long sword was hidden, and he drew it, the blade extending and glowing. More tech created by Avalon.
"Alright! Now this is what I call a boss fight! Let's make this into my best game yet!"
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง