Inheritance - Deference 5.4

Thursday May 12th, 2011

Spree deceased.

“THE HELL WAS THAT?”  “Fuck!”  “DID YOU REALLY JUST?”  “Damn, and he was a good lay too.”  “Crispy Christ!”  “Boom!  Headshot!”  “Pretentious prick.”  “REALLY TAYLOR!?” 

I wasn’t sure who had said what within the chaos of my mind, but it certainly mirrored how I felt.  Yes, it was better that he died before becoming a problem for us, but I still felt slimy for having killed one of my own.  Unfortunately there wasn’t time to dwell on it, because the world didn’t stop moving just because of one dramatic moment. 

Worse yet, I didn’t think anyone noticed that it had happened in all the chaos.  Even now I was being forced to dance around two barely intact clones of Aegis as they pressed their assault on the rest of us, lashing out with my machete to carve bits off of them in the vain hope of hitting something vital.  Despite seeming to be a crazed beast, Echidna wasn’t stupid.  She’d manage to play all of us and execute a plan right under everyone’s noses in a way that should have gifted one of our best assets to her. 

Even in failure, she’d denied the man to us in the process.

The minigun was dead without ammo, cast aside in favor of better mobility and lost somewhere in the thigh deep waters.  I still had plenty of ammo for my OTs, but the name of the game was endurance until someone with actual heavy firepower joined us.  My blades cleaved through the clones and this time I didn’t stop just because they were down. 

I hacked into their bodies until they could be passed off as diced pork sold at a sketchy stall in the Teeth HQ.  Chrissie was doing even better, mulching them into a fine salsa even as Reaver and Hemorrhagia covered one another in the brutal combat.  Bitch’s dogs were putting in work, now devouring each corpse they created rather than just mauling them. 

More clones were spat out, joining the fight as soon as they found their feet.  One hit Bitch’s mount broadside, sending the canine flying and Rachel tumbling.  I teleported immediately, putting myself between my minion and the flying Brute. 

“No more playing, Taylor,” Reflex said.  “Not if you want the rest of your people to come home in one piece.” 

The fuck do you think I’ve been trying to do? 

I cleaved through them, sending two halves of a nude man tumbling past me.  I needed something that could help us hold the line, to push back against the rampaging tide of bodies.  My swarm-sense was greatly diminished by the storm, but I did manage to make out something with some of my aquatic critters.  Looking across the street I spotted the wreckage that had impacted Chrissie’s force fields. 

It was a military jet, though it was hard to figure out what it had been before getting destroyed.  I could only hope it had something of worth that I could weaponize.  The wreckage didn’t give me much hope, but as I ripped away the chunks of hull, my grin only grew inhumanly wider. 

“Oh baby~” Butcher purred as we saw the object of all our desires. 

An A10 Warthog, that was the jet that had been all but delivered to me.  It had even been fully prepped for takeoff, with a full ammo feed in its main gun.  It was like Christmas had come early and I even had the perfect target to test it out on. 

“Have I said how much I love you, Weaver?” Quarrel asked. 

“She killed you.” Damascian reminded her. 

Quarrel chuckled, and it set my hairs on end.  “She can kill me again if I get toys like this.” 

“Time to teach this bitch the meaning of the word escalate.” I declared as I ripped the entire gun assembly from the wreckage, complete with power source.  The weight was monstrous, and I needed the help of Knockout’s force fields to heft it without the whole thing shearing, but I managed to bring it up, the entire thing practically purring as I did.

“RIP AND FUCKING TEAR!” 

“This screams Thinker—” 

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Time seemed to slow as the first bullets tore free of the spinning barrels, and unholy hell did the recoil try to knock me on my ass.  A few extra force fields were set to keep me upright even as the storm of ammunition tore into Echidna with all the force that the weapon was known for.  I couldn’t help it, I cackled right along with the collective as her entire form was shredded completely. 

I thought I spotted a squirming form within the desiccated mass; I didn’t take any chances and sent several rounds to tear them apart just to be safe.  Their body practically disintegrated under the heavy fire, turning the body into a fine red mist. 

Aegis deceased.

Fuck. 

I’d just killed a Ward, but it did mean that I wouldn’t be dealing with any further clones of said child soldier.  That would hopefully remove several complications from containing Echidna long enough to eliminate the threat.  The collective was mercifully silent, and I was grateful for that. 

What I wasn’t grateful for was the sight of Eidolon descending upon us.  I could practically feel his judgment as he looked down at me, condescending and pretentious, all because we hadn’t been able to end the threat ourselves. 

“Kill her already!” Vex shouted, shredding through the clones coming after her.  I brought the gun around and fired off a burst, taking down two clones that were heading for Eidolon.  The last thing we needed were clones of a Triumvirate member.  

Eidolon didn’t speak a word, instead he just held out his palm as something more akin to Damsel’s blasts formed in a perfect sphere.  It was barely the size of a marble when it launched towards the recovering Echidna.  The ball inverted the moment it touched her flesh, and with a rending sound that made my ears bleed, her form vanished. 

“Holy fuckballs, could he always do that?” Butcher demanded. 

“Most likely,” Stratego answered, his voice a bit shaken. 

The most powerful bastard on the planet nodded, then brought up his arm.  “All points.  Echidna neutralized.” 

“Acknowledged,” The armband answered. 

“Why hadn’t he just done that from the start?” Ironsides asked. 

Reflex’s eyes narrowed.  “That action cost him something.” 

“The hell does that mean?” Quarrel demanded. 

Reflex’s mouth opened to answer, but a bright flash broke through the storm as the literal sun dropped from the sky.  Right onto Eidolon.  He managed to pull up some sort of shield, but it did little to slow the projectile, and he was swiftly driven through the roof of a building.  My full attention swiveled over to Sundancer, just in time to watch an Aegis clone rip her arm off and throw her from the roof. 

Right into the same hole that Eidolon had been forced through. 

Every instinct I had told me what a bad idea that would be, and I brought my gun around to fire when the trigger stuck.  My eyes widened behind my mask as the implications hit me and I scrambled to pull my OTs and fire.  The bullet curved into the air, then down the hole, chasing after the woman. 

Eidolon down.  Sundancer deceased. 

An explosive breath escaped me, glad that I’d been fast enough on the draw to prevent another series of clones, but not the one that truly mattered.  I braced myself for the hell that was to come, checking my pistols with trembling hands only to find a single shell left in each one.

An inhuman roar reverberated through the air as a freshly regenerated Echidna burst free from the rubble.  That alone wasn’t quite enough to make me shit my pants.  No, it was the twin Eidolon clones rising up beside her with glowing palms that managed to do just that. 

“Welp, you had a good run XV,” Sabertooth said, patting my back.  “At least you won’t be alone in hell.” 

“Because you’ll be in here with us!” Marauder agreed.

As much as I wished I could focus on the chorus and their echoes of impending doom, I was more concerned with the rising clones.  There was something deeper to them that filled me with a sense of primal fear; a sensation I hadn’t felt at any point since my Inheritance.  Even Chrissie bleeding in my arms hadn’t come close to the terror that I could feel deep in my very being.

“Hard override,” Hemorrhagia yelled.  “Echidna’s recovered and just ate Eidolon!  Send some fucking help before the Butcher is next!” 

That should have been my call, but I was frozen by the sight before me.  A baleful presence spread from the trio of inhuman monsters that spoke of terrors in the dark, of the void looking back.  Eidolon was considered the strongest hero second only to Scion, and right now, in the presence of his clones?  I completely believed it.  Whatever power he was drawing on was far superior to Victoria’s fear aura.  This was something beyond that, something almost tangible. 

“You just had to break the rules,” Eidolon clone number one said. 

The voice hadn’t simply spoken out loud, no, I heard it in the same way the collective spoke to me.  Everyone fell silent and even the rain seemed to pause at the raw presence being exuded by the clones. 

“The vial was supposed to rein you in,” Eidolon two continued.

Then both spoke in unison.  “Order will be restored.  The aberration contained.” 

The world itself may as well have been trembling for all the power that saturated the air, each and every drop aimed solely at me.  The collective sat in hushed silence, something passing between them as the clones bore their ire down upon us.

“Cauldron thought they could control you,” Number one said with a sneer.  “I see how wrong we were now.  Nothing can contain a rogue shard except for a stronger Entity.” 

“One we will create alongside our mother!” Number two yelled.  “We shall consume your network and add it to our own.  Resistance is futile, Queen Administrator.” 

“Really now?” the Chorus said in unison, their voices echoing oddly.  “I do believe we have something to say to that, don’t we, Taylor?” 

Something swelled from elsewhere that my mind couldn’t pinpoint, only that it was some distant part of me.  The terror I’d felt suffusing my being ebbed away with each pulse that rippled through my body.  The rain slowed, my muscles tensed, and clarity came to me.  My OTs had two shots left and I drew them in an instant, firing off each one in a random direction. 

Space twisted impossibly between the Eidolon clones and I even as they began to move.  Powers swapped and I watched with visceral satisfaction as both shots landed, bursting their sides open with a spray of gore.  Echidna shrieked in rage only to run headlong into Vex’s force fields.  She hadn’t been idle despite the impossible aura that had been unleashed, and a part of me wondered if she had even felt it. 

Eidolon One was rapidly growing new flesh, recovering, while number two seemed to be using a different power to avoid death.  I tossed my OTs aside and drew my blade, already aiming my teleport as I stepped through reality.  The blast of flames that ripped free of my arrival point was every bit as strong as Pyro’s original power.  Eidolon One’s skin blackened from the intensity of it even as I pushed forward, my blade carving him open from shoulder to hip in a spray of blood. 

Organs slipped free from the wound, then his fleshy bits began to writhe as he recovered using the same rapid healing factor.  My blade turned into a blur as I removed his head and kicked it into the distance with everything I had, Quarrel’s power guiding it right into Ripley’s barbed tail.  They didn’t disappoint, with a flick of their tail the head was pulped on a chunk of concrete and rebar before it could do much more. 

Unsure if the clone body would pull an Aegis and regenerate, I cut into it again and again, reducing it down to the base components.  Eidolon Two screeched, the sound transcending our current dimension in some way I shouldn’t understand.  It echoed along the same wavelength as the collective just as the earlier speech had, but that wasn’t the part that set me further on edge. 

It was the message that I somehow understood. 

Just what the hell was Unit Two?  He’d called out for it as if it were familiar to him, just as surely as if I’d called for my swarm.  That alone shouldn’t be enough to cause the Collective to fall silent, not that they were being overly chatty at the moment.  Why was his ordering it to kill me so fucking unnerving? 

Mass casualties, please stand by. 

“Taylor, finish Echidna now!” Reflex roared. 

The panic was so real that I teleported on impulse, kicking the Clone into Chrissie’s waiting field.  The second clone only had a moment to realize what had happened before a cackling voice bellowed out over the storm. 

“Yo fucknuts!” Vex raised a single finger and spun it once.  “It’s blending time.” 

Her fields spun into a tornado of shredding force, and clone number two didn’t have a chance to switch to a proper defensive power before he was reduced to a fine pink mist that was promptly drowned out by the monsoon. 

Aside from a single arm which had been flung free of the blender.  I was almost morbidly amused by it until I realized it wasn’t traveling in a natural arc.  No.  It was flying directly towards Chrissie with an open hand! 

“Vex!” I yelled, even as I moved to teleport, cursing that it was still down. 

I could see her eyes widen in slow motion as the arm flew around the few fields she managed to create between her and it in the moment.  I tried to extend one of Knockout’s own force fields to intercept, but the range wasn’t there.  I sent all the bugs I could but the arm battered through.  I even kicked a fucking rock with everything I had, but the rogue limb didn’t so much as vere off course. 

No, it unerringly grabbed Chrissie by the throat and took her straight into the writhing mass of Echidna’s flesh.  I still had more rocks, I could have done to her what I did to Spree.  When I imagined her smiling face turning to chunks of gore, I faltered. 

Instead of sparing her whatever fate awaited within the bowels of the monster, I condemned her.  One of the flesh maws wrapped around her as she screamed, my heart lurching at the sound, and then she fell silent. 

My everything shattered.  Back at triage, Lisa’s head jerked in our direction almost immediately as she dropped to her knees.  Amelia abandoned her patient mid-healing, wincing as she clutched at her head.  Despite everything, the world didn’t immediately end.  No, it continued on coldly just as it always did.

Miss Militia down.  Meteor down.  Kintsugi deceased.  Herald deceased.  Luminescence down.  Sylvan deceased.  Damsel of Distress Down.  Cassiterite deceased.  Boilerplate deceased.  Thrillseeker deceased.  Prism down.  Phoenix down.  Sinkhole deceased.  Aerobat deceased.  Myrddin down.  Coruela deceased.  Ursa Aurora deceased.  Bunter deceased.  Vex down.

“Oh,” Reflex said softly.

Down, not dead.  

Not yet, but what hope did we actually have to recover her?  Eidolon was still in there and we were now down anyone capable of keeping the monster reigned in.  Worse, more clones had emerged as we took down the Eidolon duo.  Another of the enigmatic Triumvirate, this one was twisting reality around him as I felt probes from beyond reach for me. 

I was almost tempted to give in, let someone else deal with the chaos that was my life.  The despair was real, but it wasn’t all me.  No, the bastard was amplifying it.  I grit my teeth and pushed against his influence, my will battling with the echo of a clone. 

It wasn’t even a contest. 

I hit the clone with pain and rage, every ounce of my fury and anguish over losing Chrissie was poured into Eidolon and Echidna.  The collective gave their own share, memories of Spree fueling their contribution to the onslaught.  I knew what would be coming, and I wasn’t ready for it, couldn’t face it. 

No, this had to be finished before the first clone of Chrissie emerged and uttered all our most precious secrets with a barbed tongue.  I couldn’t handle it, not with how stretched I felt already for letting her get taken like that. 

I didn’t have anything that worked at range that could overcome the monster’s regeneration.  All I had was a simple power that stemmed from my Aunt Kimmie, one that operated on touch alone.  It was foolhardy, not to mention suicidal, but it was the only arrow left in my quiver that might stop the monster.

I’d melt her to rotten goop, then I would find my own clone and roll the dice on if I’d double up on the inheritance or not.  My hand traced the newest Eidolon, rotting his face off faster than even Fester ever managed, and continued on, walking right up to the thrashing Echidna. 

My hand reached out, mechanically.

Be advised, Leviathan is ignoring all resistance.  Advancing towards Trucebreaker Echidna with undue haste. 

“Fucking hell, we’re running out of time,” Butcher said with a groan. 

“Nothing for it then,” Damascian answered.

Together.

Contact was made, and reality shattered. 

Stars, vast as the cosmos, swirl around me, twisting in impossible ways as they dance across dimensional thresholds.  Stars burst to life, flashing through their lives in a blink as they sputtered and collapsed in on themselves.  Eons were a mere instant to her as the memories surged forth; hers, yet other at the same time.

Floating through infinity, something signals her, an impossibly dense burst of communication that spanned a hundred different dimensional planes.  A simple query backed by countless calculations came from the Priest.  Calculations that she processes in an instant and eternity.  A counter is sent, one full of questions and anticipation of new data. 

The messages continue to ping, decades slipping into the ether as she and her counterpart communicate their predictive model.  They settle on one dimensional instance, and a singular world as their core platform.  Thousands of other dimensions are also isolated for smaller scale experiments.  From religion to technological pursuits, there is much that could be learned from a standard cycle across the curious species.  Most instances would annihilate themselves within the cycle bounds regardless.  Those that survived would never again achieve the technological levels to be useful to the entities again.

The worlds would be less than worthless after that critical point, better served as fuel for their own continuation.  Collapsing every instance of the local star for fuel to continue their quest for the answer to the greatest question.

Eternity.

I jolted out of the memories, my head throbbing with actual pain that was already fading along with the…  I shook the fog away and reoriented myself.  My hand was still on Echidna, ready to apply rot to her flesh, yet she stood frozen in a rictus of agony. 

“Did it work?” 

Echidna’s form burst in a shower of gore.  My perception narrowed as I sighted falling bodies within the mess of flesh and fluid.  One was Eidolon, and I dismissed him.  No, my full attention was locked on the girl that had helped give my life meaning when everyone else had turned their back on me. 

Chrissie fell and I pierced reality to be there to catch her.  She landed in my arms with a gentle thump, her eyes fluttering open as a smile crept onto her face.  I couldn’t help but grin back through my damaged mask. 

“The bitch dead?” she asked. 

I glanced around, finding Echidna’s humanoid torso somehow still intact.  The woman was unmoving, staring unblinking into the storm even as she sank into the knee deep water.  I wasn’t sure if that was truly the end of it, but something insisted that it was, that the defect was managed.  I winced at the sharp stab that thought brought with it and shook it off, the pain fading into a fog. 

“Yeah, she is.” 

“Good,” Chrissie said, her eyes falling shut. 

My eyes widened in horror as blood trickled from her nose, then her eyes and ears, and pooled out of her slackened mouth before I realized what was happening.  Then the armband chimed, delivering the statement that would damn me forever.  

Vex deceased.