Inheritance - Deference 5.3

Thursday May 12th, 2011

The mutated parahuman thundered forward in a charge, heading right for the hospital as if it knew exactly where we were.  Hell, she probably did given she had several figures following in her wake.  I was still moving bugs in to get a better picture, which was a challenge given the storm, their senses weren’t built to handle such heavy rainfall. 

I wasn’t the only one sending in investigators.  I picked up two fliers on an intercept course, their armbands speaking in clipped tones that my limited bugs on them couldn’t transmit back to me.  One stopped further back, hands at the ready.  The other descended closer and began to shout at the monster of a cape. 

“This is a scene right out of a horror movie,” Chisel said.  “Taking all bets on how long it takes this dipshit to get eaten and for it to be our problem.” 

A flurry of bets quickly followed and trailed off before I could shove anyone down.  I let out a mental sigh as the collective began to innocently whistle. 

Each of you involved just lost food vote privileges for the rest of the month.

The whistling immediately turned into shouting as I began to push each voice into the depths of my mind.  I had no illusions that they would stay there once shit hit the fan and I was no longer focused on them.  Sure, I could keep them there, but I didn’t want to.  I’d grown attached to the menagerie of monsters that lived in my head.  They were a part of me and one day I would be among them, hoping that the next Butcher was as lenient as I tried to be. 

I could only hope that the memories they received would help convey that.

In the space of a moment, something shot out from near Echidna, moving at Mover speeds as it leapt into the air and backhanded the floating cape down onto Echidna, who promptly snapped them up with a gaping maw.

Aegis down. 

I cursed even as imaginary currency changed hands, uncaring of the loss of votes for the next three weeks.  The blaster fired pot shots at the mutant as it fell, but it was obvious that they weren’t going for lethal hits. 

“Heroes,” Reflex said with a bitter sigh. 

The blaster continued to fire back until something was spit out of one of the mouths, it was hard to make out what it was through the storm with bug senses, but it wasn’t hard to figure out that it was a clone of Aegis as it took to the air, screaming.  It was almost comical watching the Blaster turn tail and run from the pursuing clone. 

That lasted all of three seconds before a supersonic blur bisected the clone, stopping just long enough to sling the gore off of the Wolfslayer.  Then Alexandria was gone again, the force of her sudden acceleration knocking the rain back for a good twenty meters around her flight path as she streaked back towards the shore.  

“Attention all points,” a voice I recognized called out over the armbands just as the crack of the impact reached me.  “This is Chief Director Costa-Brown.  The mutant cape now designated as Echidna is recognized as a Truce Breaker and Class-S threat.  Any and all force is authorized.” 

And just like that, it was open season on the monster.  

I didn’t expect them to last very long following that, but something in the back of my mind was screaming at me that this was a situation I couldn’t just brush off.  My bugs were scrambling through water that fell with the necessary force to actually kill some of my roaches on impact, but I was getting a better picture of what we were dealing with. 

That was when my swarm died in droves and the horizon lit up in a myriad of explosions, a Dragon craft swooping through the air as it continued towards where Leviathan was spotted.  My bugs near the monster all died, including the closest relay.  I pulled in others as I worked to get my eyes back on the situation, but the earliest critters on the scene were already painting a grim picture. 

The figure of a woman atop the beast was blown apart, but an arm sprouting from the base and clawing to pull itself out of the regrowing flesh showed that it was superficial damage at best.  The snarling maws bellowed out a mournful cry of sorrow and rage that were echoed by the woman.  Whatever she was now, it wasn’t something that they could easily ignore. 

The Dragoncraft cut off on its approach towards Leviathan and instead curved back to make another pass at the bizarre cape that continued to mutate before my bugs’ very eyes.  Worse, Leviathan seemed content to wait things out, which I knew for certain wasn’t his usual operating procedure.  Everything about this was clawing at Reflex’s danger sense, and Stratego’s own power was informing me of how tumultuous things were.  

Worse, more figures were being spat out of the creature’s mouth, and this time I did have enough bugs to get a very disturbing picture.

“Well damn, the clones don’t come out clothed,” Butcher said with a whistle.  “I haven’t seen a dick that big since Pyro pantsed that stretching cape.” 

“Oh come on, you were all begging me to do it,” Pyro huffed.  “Best to keep Madison away; we’ve all read their fanfics.”

I shuddered at the thought of what Madison might write once all of this was over, but for the moment I needed to focus.  The cape was still yelling for Amelia and I, which told me everything I needed to know.  This was already a Trucebreaker situation, which meant that it would be weapons free on the cape and her clones.  The problem was that they all still looked human enough that I suspected most of those attending the fight wouldn’t be able to kill them without hesitation.  That would be a mistake that cost everyone else dearly. 

Marauder caught on to my line of thought before the others.  “Oi, we said we weren’t fighting the horror from beyond!” 

That was before it called us out by name.

Steeling myself, I made a judgement call as I pressed my own broadcast button.  “Hard Override.  This is Weaver.  To all Teeth willing, we’re engaging the monster from the basement.  Echidna wants us, so I say we give her a proper Teeth welcome.  Everyone else, have fun with the Godzilla knockoff.” 

As soon as I let go of the button, I heard an exasperated sigh follow from the band.  Apparently Dragon hadn’t appreciated my embellishment, but given the circumstances…  I aimed for a bug in the parking lot and stepped, landing mid-stride as I strolled towards one of the National Guard’s open top jeeps. 

“I need these,” I said, not bothering to acknowledge anyone in particular.  “You can either join us to kill a Trucebreaker or get out of the way.” 

The soldiers looked unimpressed by my demand, but they weren’t fools either.  Each of them could see my bandoliers which were loaded with unconventional weapons.  Anything they tried to stop me would end with them dead.

One of them held a hand to his helmet, then nodded.  “We just got orders to assist you.  Have your people load up and we’ll deliver you to Carter Playground.” 

I paused as I scoped out that area with my bugs.  It did seem like a decent place to stage an engagement with a massive cloning cape with a mover rating, but it was also close enough that I didn’t need any relay clusters to pick it up with my swarm sense.  If things deteriorated, there wouldn’t be much time to evacuate the hospital. 

“We’re working with limited options in the middle of an Endbringer attack,” Stratego reminded me. 

“An atypical attack at that,” Ironsides said. 

Sanguine snorted.  “If Clockblocker was here he would probably try to get Strider to bring the lizard a bucket of popcorn.” 

I couldn’t help the snort that followed, glad that most of the Brockton Wards were not present.  Dean was here, as was Chris due to the rotational deployments.  I didn’t know either of them that well, but I didn’t want to see kids die.  

Then there were Lily and Sabah.  Neither were technically my people, but Parian was under my protection, which meant Lily was by extension a part of that circle.  Too many people I cared about were in the city, which locked me into helping.

“Still feels like someone is setting us up,” Reflex said.  “There’s too many coincidences at play for this to not have been planned.” 

“Screw that,” I said, finding myself in agreement with the hero.  “We’ll engage her across the bridge to Charlestown, not so damn close to the staging area.” 

The soldiers paused in their preparations as they communicated with their command.  The station relaying their orders wasn’t at our staging area, but further afield.  Typical that the top brass weren’t putting themselves in danger.

“Bet they’ll order them to blow the bridge once we cross,” Quarrel said.

My bugs were guiding everyone to join us as I considered where best to engage the unknown cloning monster.  Something told me it wouldn’t be easy, especially if Dragon ordinance hadn’t even slowed her down.  Hemorrhagia and Reaver were the first to step into the open air, having been closer than the others.  Chrissie was soon to follow, and then— 

“Weaver,” Animos said.  He wasn’t speaking through the armband, but instead near a dumpster on the second line of defense.  “I need to stay with my sister…” 

“I understand,” I said through my swarm. 

There was no promise his power would work on whatever this person had become, and risking handing Echidna a power nullifier like that would be too dangerous for my Teeth.  A handful of my unpowered minions were joining us as well, though I was signaling every person trained in first aid to stay with Lisa and Amelia so they could do the most good.

“How bad is it?” Chrissie asked. 

Another salvo of tiny missiles hammered into the cape as Dragon continued strafing runs to slow her down.  They were keeping her contained to a city block currently, but those munitions would be better served against Leviathan. 

“She’s shrugging off Dragon’s anti-endbringer stuff, so that.” 

I didn’t need to say anything else, as all of my people settled into grim expressions.  They knew what it meant to fight capes, and each of them were ready to kill without hesitation.  That was what everyone needed if we were going to survive a fight like this. 

“Saddle up!” I yelled, hopping into the back of one of the open top discount humvees.  The minigun settled upon the roll cage, giving a few of the military guys pause.  Already I was wishing we had Coil’s rather posh transport instead of the military utility. 

“They’re designed to be simple, not cushy,” Ironsides said. 

Chisel snorted.  “Keep saying that when our tits are bouncing off due to the shit suspension.” 

“You say that like we have tits right now,” Fester muttered.

I let the banter continue, it helped to ground me in the moment as everyone piled into the vehicles and the squad leader ordered the cars into motion before I could do the same.  I let that slide given we were essentially commandeering his unit for what many might consider a suicide mission. 

The soldiers were soaked, and my Teeth weren’t any better despite most having been indoors.  The capes were dressed for war, wearing the bones of those they claimed on the battlefield.  The soldiers had trinkets of their own, claimed from the fallen over their time with us.  Trained soldiers being all but forced to carry a warband of murderers into a field of battle. 

Yet the one that brought the most discomfort to the regulars was the Xenomorphic form of Ripley as she climbed atop one of the transports, dwarfing everyone around her.  They were playing it up too, letting their mandibles protrude in an unsettling way.

I could laugh if it wasn’t depressing, but such was the nature of Class-S threats.

Thankfully the roads were blessedly deserted as we peeled out.  The sirens were cut off, and I could almost feel the tension in the atmosphere as everyone prepared for whatever Leviathan would do.  The bridge came into sight, and still nothing had happened aside from the monster continuing her advance. 

Leviathan was just standing there, and the defenders hadn’t moved to attack.  Likely afraid of being the one that would start the spiral of death that all Endbringer fights devolved into given enough time.  

“This isn’t normal,” Alkaline whispered. 

“More fuel for the Master theory?” Chisel asked. 

Reflex grunted.  “It certainly doesn’t douse it.” 

Was that really a water pun? 

Our first cars hit the bridge and finally the silence of the armbands was broken.

Wave incoming.

Shit.

“Gun it!” I shouted. 

The minion did as asked as the vehicles quickly accelerated, going as far as ramming cars out of the way.  Down below the water level swiftly rose, and across the city my swarm let me see how the waters shifted on a macro scale.  The team at the waterfront broke the worst of the wave and Eidolon was doing something up above with Myrddin to mitigate things further. 

Despite my personal feelings, I didn’t want anyone to die to an Endbringer of all things.  If I wanted someone dead for the shit they pulled, I’d simply do the deed myself.  I didn’t need some chaotic force of nature to do it for me. 

We crossed the bridge, the last of our little convoy making it just as the water began to flow back into the Boston harbor.  Leviathan had been just on the edge of my range when the Wave was called, but now he was missing to my swarm, having vanished into the waves. 

Leviathan sighted L-4 

There was a beat of silence as my swarm caught sight of the imposing monster now in the midst of a group of capes.  Movement faster than my swarm could follow streaked out; claws impacted capes who were hastily throwing up shields trying to stop the monster. 

Strike God deceased.  Longstocking down.  Saurian Deceased.  

Just like that, people were dead, killed by a monster.  The parallel wasn’t lost on me, but I had a different job to do.  I needed to keep the second monster off of their asses so they could fight the bigger monster. 

“More glory for the Teeth,” Butcher said. 

I wanted to glower at him, but the sight of a building bursting outwards as a screaming mass of flesh came tearing around a corner five blocks down the road.  Dragon followed a moment later, no longer raining death.  Instead, she accelerated, roaring overhead towards the true fight.  None of those in the convoy could see any of it, given the heavy storm.  That was why my swarm was so damn useful. 

“Eyes up, the bitch is here!” I shouted, checking the minigun.  She spun up without issue and I sent a stream of lead her way, guided by Quarrel’s power as they tore into the trunk-like legs keeping the cape upright.  Echidna screamed and stumbled, falling into a tangled mass as she did.  “Keep your distance, check your fire!  Shoot anything not dressed properly.” 

It said something that nobody gave me any sass over the comment, not even the voices in my head.  The vehicles split down different roads at my direction, though I kept ours heading straight for Echidna.  She’d had her chance to stand down and Echidna attacked the messengers instead.  There would be nobody complaining about our violence today. 

I aimed a teleport and left the jeep, twisting through space to arrive on a roof a block away from the stumbling mass of flesh and teeth that had to die.  The minigun roared, tearing through another leg before Echidna could find her footing again.  She was fast and powerful, but there were certainly ways to slow her down from a distance. 

“Stop hurting Mother!” 

A naked blur shot through the air, Danger Sense flaring even as I realized my teleport was still down.  I began to turn with the minigun only for a Brute powered fist to impact my mask, cracking it, and my jaw.  I was launched hard, tumbling through the air—and a billboard—before I crashed down into the streets. 

“Anyone get the number of that bitch?” Quarrel asked, echoing what was now a long running joke among the Teeth. 

Less amusing when it’s me, I grumbled internally as I pushed away a chunk of rubble, sending it splashing into the murky waters that were almost deep enough to engulf me where I fell.

Try not to drown from a lucky hit,” Chisel said.

“Yeah, can’t let your death be more embarrassing than Quarrel’s,” Sanguine added. 

“Fuck you!” Quarrel snapped.  “At least my power is actually useful, unlike Sabertooth’s shitty regen.”

“Are you still on about that?” The man himself growled.  

Shaking off the disorientation, I had my swarms relay to the team that there were hostile clones with Brute packages in play.  I had just enough time to get back on my feet for the clone to catch up, and already I was thanking everything holy that Spree’s clones popped out without the correct anatomical setup. 

The screaming Brute dove straight at me, and rather than dick around with the minigun, I drew an OTs and fired once into the bastard’s open mouth.  Whatever his Alexandria package gave him wasn’t nearly as strong as the namesake and the fresh corpse dropped to the ground with a solid thud of bloodied meat. 

I took a moment to look over the body, and after a moment my eyes caught on the mulched fist that had hit my face.  The hand that was currently regrowing despite the missing head. 

“Didn’t the armband call out Aegis?” Stratego asked. 

I was fairly certain he couldn’t survive without a head, but that girl did mention that it was variations of their powers that they got, not a perfect original.  Shit, if they got to me, there could be other Butchers running around with a twist on the inheritance powers.  Okay, priority one is to never get touched by the fucker.  Two, if I did, make sure I was the one getting the kill. 

Shinobi down.  Chubster down.  Permafrost deceased.  Red Knight deceased. 

Fuck.  Leviathan was still tearing through the front line defenders despite Legend’s team raining destruction down on him as the Brute and Shield teams tried to hem the monster in and keep the aquatic Endbringer from breaking through.  I put two more rounds into the fake Aegis’ torso, then leaned down and applied Fester’s seeping rot to his flesh.  If this was another adaptive Brute that could survive a beheading, we would need to be careful and my swarm relayed as such. 

“All Teeth, Aegis clones confirmed.  Shoot to kill isn’t enough, mulch them.” 

Vex let out a loud whooping cheer as she spread her fields.  My bugs picked up blood a moment later.  Well, if nothing else I could leave many of the regenerator clones to her.  The Aegis clone was reduced to goop in the ankle deep waters, washing away as quickly as it came down, which meant that it was time to get back in the fight.

Spree was flooding his own clones around Echidna, and she was absorbing them as fast as she could fit them in her mouths.  Yet, she wasn’t expelling any counter clones, which was fantastic for keeping her hemmed in and occupied.  Hemorrhagia was tangling with several Changer clones alongside Reaver, taking them apart fairly handily.  

It was a good start, but I knew that it would only take one small mistake for the entire thing to spiral out of control.  I burst onto another rooftop and started my plan anew, peppering Echidna’s legs to keep her mobility restricted until we could figure out the best way to deal with her. 

Wave incoming.

Bugs were swept aside in a rolling wall of water, pushing back the receding flow with crushing force.  I was keeping track of the water levels across the city with anything I wouldn’t miss, and that was paying off because the water wasn’t swelling as evenly as it should. 

“He’s pushing the water towards us!” Chisel howled. 

“Of course the fucking Endbringer would be focused on us the one time we bother to show up!” Marauder complained.

“That or he wants Echidna,” Reflex added. 

That thought sobered the entire collective as I decided then and there that Echidna needed to die yesterday.  Vex shredded another Aegis clone the moment he tried to fly up.  One of the perks of being a team that was familiar with being highly lethal was the lack of hesitation to kill.  I could only imagine how poorly this might be going if those working to contain her were squeamish; or worse.  

Pacifists. 

The Teeth were none of those things, and just to prove the point I pulled a grenade from my bandolier and tossed it down.  It landed right beside the girl fixed to the top of the mass of flesh and burst.  Napalm coated her form and piercing wails of agony tore free from her lips.  The small part of the old Taylor that remained within me was horrified at the smell of cooking flesh, but the Butcher that I had become was considering a pulled pork sandwich from Fugly’s once we got back to Brockton. 

Just another line of many I casually slipped across.

The bulk of the wave washed over the airfield and pushed deeper into East Boston along with a metric fuckton of debris.  It was quickly becoming clear that the wave wasn’t thinning as it pushed in, breaking so many damn rules for how water normally worked.  Worse, I could see through my city wide swarm as several capes tried and failed to make it to the people who could get them out of the way.

Wieldmaiden down.  Lizardtail deceased.  Citrine down.  Gallant down. 

“Well, that solves Victoria’s problems,” Fester glibly said.

“Dude!” Alkaline shouted.  “Not cool, even if he was a dick!” 

“Down, not dead,” Ironsides added. 

I couldn’t pinpoint him, even with the crabs that were falling into my radius thanks to the waves, but they weren’t as numerous as my roaches.  Hell, they barely outnumbered the relay bugs that were tucked into safe havens across the city.  Hopefully someone would get to him, because Victoria didn’t need to deal with that guilt on top of the whole thing with her mother. 

I would say that bitch deserved worse, but she had been involved with my father’s current situation.  I refused to say he was dead, because my swarm back in Brockton could still see him standing there, frozen.  That was one line of relays I wouldn’t break unless I had to.  That window that reminded me that he was still there, waiting to be freed, even if he didn’t realize it.

The question was, would I ditch the current fight if he did get freed? 

No, I wouldn’t.  

Too many people that I held dear were close at hand.  Leaving them to contend with the current mess wasn’t something that I could bring myself to do.  But that was a tangent, and one I couldn’t really afford to let myself wander down too far while monsters rampaged. 

New clones were being spat out as fast as my Teeth could kill them.  It was becoming apparent that she only had two capes and a handful of normals to pull from at the moment.  Keeping things that way would be paramount to killing Echidna before things got even further out of control than they already were. 

“She’s a rampaging monster in the middle of an Endbringer fight,” Sabertooth huffed.  “Out of control doesn’t even begin to describe it.” 

“That’s the fucking truth,” Sanguine agreed. 

I rolled my eyes and teleported, appearing on the ground near enough to Spree’s squad to back them up.  Not that they really needed it.  Spree’s clones were getting eaten, but no replacements were ever spat from within the monster.  The unpowered clones that kept coming out of Echidna were women, and given how she had a pair of tits hanging out for everyone to see, it made a bit of sense that they would prefer women to act as sentries wherever she was being held. 

Spree’s clones were taking them out as fast as Echidna could spit them up, and I wasn’t sure if a directed blast of Rage would help, but the surge of pain did make all of the clones stumble.  Echidna was still screaming regardless.  I sent another burst into the air, curving the bullets so they tore through another leg just as the first regrew. 

Her regeneration was fast, and I did have limited ammunition.  It didn’t help that the gun was frankly underpowered for something on this scale.  It was meant to mow down troops as they charged, not pulp parts of a flesh monster. 

“Having fun?” Spree asked with an almost manic grin on his face. 

I raised an eyebrow behind my mask as more clones split off of the man and ran into the grinder.  His clones weren’t gentle, tearing Echidna’s own clones apart limb by limb with sickening force, often wrecking their own bodies in the process.  What did he care?  His clones would vanish in under an hour, reduced to nothing; not even dust. 

They were a disposable army to be deployed on a whim, a powerful asset, and one I’d often exploited in battle.  Yet, I hadn’t spent much time with the man since taking over the Teeth.  None of the Butchers knew him that well aside from Quarrel, and her experience was more casual fuck buddy than anything. 

“Funny how we’re next to useless here,” Butcher said.  “Can’t get close to it without inviting disaster, which sucks because I want to hack her apart!” 

Ironsides took in the battle with a critical eye.  “She’s good for the boys and girls to work out some frustrations.  The Elite were a good start, but fights like this are why people join the Teeth.”

“Well, not exactly like this,” Sanguine chuckled.  “Close enough for government work though.  Which this technically is!” 

The collective groaned at the realization even as I snapped off a shot with an OTs, blowing the head clean off another clone as it spawned.  The mutant capes hadn’t stopped appearing even though we were killing every new clone as they emerged.  Either it was a unique twist on someone’s power, or there was a projection based cape in the mix that I hadn’t spotted.

My bugs moved to check all the bodies, and anything that so much as twitched at the contact was immediately swarmed and lead rained down on them.  It was grizzly work, and I was living up to my name even as I waited for the other shoe to drop.  We had the monster contained, but I didn’t want to call it in.   I knew better than to tempt Murphy.

The real problem was my ammo was starting to get concerningly low.  Okay, new plan time before I’m clicking dry. 

“Keep at Range,” Alkaline said immediately. 

A round of agreements rushed through the collective.  Given the crazed Aegis clones we had seen so far, I don’t think anyone wanted to see what might pop out if I was eaten like he had been.  That still didn’t help the current situation as I was forced to stop firing on each and every clone that appeared.  Chrissie was thankfully on top of things, shredding through Echidna’s legs without prompting. 

Spree’s clones continued to keep on top of most of the clones, but I couldn’t help the worry that I was going to miss one of them and it would cost us in short order.  I set my swarm to searching the city for an answer, but that would take time that we didn’t have.  It wasn’t as though Leviathan was taking a pleasure stroll while we worked. 

Glass Jaw deceased.  Fuma down.  Manpower down.  Fury deceased.

The bug I kept on Victoria was moving quickly at that notification.  Knowing how much Amelia cared about her sister, I was ready to jump in to help when she immediately grabbed someone and took back to the sky.  

Manpower recovered.

I breathed a sigh of relief at that, glad that I didn’t need to put myself in Leviathan’s sights.  

Unfortunately that was also when I picked up something in the water near the current battle that immediately had my full attention.  It was floating down the river, somehow not sinking into the depths and heading towards us.  Almost as if someone was hand delivering it to my doorstep. 

Ironsides raised an eyebrow.  “Omen is sitting this one out, isn’t she?” 

“Somehow I doubt she had the ability to arrange for a military jet to be in exactly the right place to float right up to where we are.” Stratego mused. 

Alkaline slapped her forehead.  “Great, another precog is playing games?” 

“Or another Thinker,” Reflex muttered. 

Accord? 

I knew he was working alongside other Thinkers, and that Lisa was communicating with them even though she was staying with Amelia as protection, but I wouldn’t put it past them to pull something like this without telling me ahead of time. 

“It’s still a minute or two up river, they might be waiting?” Pyro hedged.

Perhaps, but something still didn’t feel right about that, call it a whispered hunch in the back of my mind that there was more to it than that.  

Echidna was thrashing against the shards of razor sharp force fields that Vex had all but encased her in.  Her flesh wasn’t especially durable, but it reformed faster than any regenerator the collective could recall fighting.  The injuries might not have lasted, but it was serving the purpose of keeping her stuck in the open killing field.  The last thing we needed was for her to get a moment to produce enough clones to mount an offensive. 

Meanwhile Leviathan was getting hemmed by Legend’s team as movers made their way to people who couldn’t get out of the way on their own.  Leviathan lashed out, missing the man himself, but the water echo continued on to where the movers had gathered to help someone from under the rubble. 

Velocity deceased.  Battery down.  Scraper down.  Falcon deceased.

“This bitch just won’t go down!” Vex yelled, sending her shards into a swift blender before stilling them once again.  

I grit my teeth as I fired another burst through the air, guiding the bullets into a clone that had almost escaped the force fields.  The rain was making it difficult to track things and as enthusiastic as my little band of murder hobos was about killing, we weren’t making any actual progress. 

So of course that was when the universe decided to throw a curveball at us.  Something impacted the river with enough force to launch the wreckage of the military craft into the air, and I didn’t need to be a precog to know that it would practically land on us. 

“Vex, incoming, south air!  Protection!” I shouted. 

Chrissie didn’t hesitate to shift her fields, and I emptied the belt of the minigun into Echidna’s legs to keep her down.  The craft hit Chrissie’s fields hard and I didn’t need to see the way she recoiled to know that some form of feedback had just hit her.  My girlfriend dropped to one knee and snarled. 

Metal rained as Hemorrhagia summoned a curtain of blood to deflect a jagged shard away from herself while Reaver hacked the pieces out of the air.  Ripley was far enough away mauling a clone and Spree ducked under a pile of his own clones as they ate the shrapnel for him.  My focus remained on Echidna as I shot my OTs again, taking down yet another clone the moment it was regurgitated. 

“Wouldn’t that just be gurgitation?” Pyro asked.

Ignoring that argument, I had to reevaluate things.  Clearly Echidna knew enough to take advantage of the distraction, but how much of the original person was still in there?  I’d shredded her with the minigun, blown her head off with the OTs, and she’d just reformed as if it all tickled while screeching about how she would kill us all. 

“Ain’t nothing left of the original person,” Butcher said.  “Though, she could be like us, a ghost of our former selves just with a body still left to pilot.” 

“Oddly philosophical of you,” Chisel said, but didn’t disagree with him.

Another series of clones were violently ejected from the maws of the flesh sack and I didn’t have enough ammo loaded to cap all of them.  Those quickest to their feet were the ones I targeted first, bursting heads where I could.  The last one I hit was especially bloody, and rolled right through Vex’s razor fields, losing an arm and half a foot in the process. 

“It’s bloody work, but someone has to do it,” Sanguine said.

I grinned under my mask and continued to act as overwatch while reloading my pistols.  Vex was seriously putting in the bulk of the work given how we had to keep our distance and Spree’s clones were doing fantastic on cleanup.  I’d have to give him something nice for making sure that the clones were actually dead.

There were easily fifty bodies of Echidna’s clones littering the field, and Spree had his clones checking to make sure they were truly dead.  Not that it was easy for his own clones given they popped out unarmed, but the whole Alabaster treatment tended to work out regardless.  Spree could be vindictive, not to mention creative.

It was brutal, it was vicious. 

“It’s worthy of the Teeth!” Marauder howled.

Most of my people were falling back on melee weapons, conserving ammo rather than waste it all in the face of an endless hoard.  What we needed was someone with the destructive potential to completely decimate the cape at once with no chance for them to pull a Buu and come back from nothing. 

“Tattletale, this cloning bitch isn’t going down.  I need options!” 

Lisa didn’t stop moving as she followed Amelia from person to person back at the triage center, helping the nurses keep one stable while Amelia healed another.  To the credit of everyone present, nobody flinched at the talking cloud of bugs hovering over them.  

“I’m not keeping up with things over there, hell, I’m barely keeping up with the info from Accord.  Sorry, but I can’t give you much in return!  Try asking for a heavy hitter over the armbands!” 

Right.  I shouldn’t have bothered her given how detached she is from us at the moment.

“I need a cape capable of complete destruction of the cloner,” I said, following Lisa’s advice.  “Their regeneration capabilities are the best that I’ve ever seen.  I’m not convinced anything less than complete cellular destruction will be enough.” 

Sabertooth opened his mouth to complain but was cut off by a deafening explosion that took out half of Echidna’s flank.  She howled in agony, and one of the Aegis clones that had been playing dead shot off into the sky after the flyer that had committed to the strafing run.  The cape continued to peel back towards the fight, only to notice their tail and panic at the sight of half a torso trailing entrails hot on their ass. 

That was all well and good, but flesh practically boiled into existence, sealing the wound within a single heartbeat, and by the time the second impact arrived it was as though she hadn’t been injured at all. 

“Whoever that was, you barely scratched the bitch and she’s already recovered!” I yelled into my armband.  “Get me someone bigger before I throw myself into Legend’s line of fire to get some upgrades!” 

Moments ticked past as I waited for the answer to the obvious threat.  The collective was snickering at my outburst, but otherwise kept to themselves.  I did have to agree that my actions right now were very much in line with some of my other predecessors when they ran into a stubborn problem. 

“Remember when Knockout got pissed after his fight with Alexandria?” Pyro said, laughing. 

Fester rolled her eyes.  “Fight?  Hardly.” 

Knockout screeched at them and I was forced to push him down before things got out of hand and I died to a distraction.  Sure, my multitasking made that difficult, but knowing my luck it would happen and I’d suddenly be part of the flesh monster currently trying to eat us all. 

“Uh, is this working?”  I glared down at my armband, wondering what timid bitch was contacting us.  “This is Sundancer of the Travelers.  My power is to make miniature suns, and I think they could stop her…” 

Okay, that certainly sounded potent.  “How miniature?” 

The reply was hesitant as it came in.  “Pretty big?  I’ve never really pushed it, but I’ve taken it as far as a swimming pool.” 

I took another look at Echidna as Spree’s clones attempted to dogpile the bitch, only to fall limp the moment they touched her.  Reaver cleaved a tendril that grasped for him even as Hemorrhagia covered his blind side, taking down another clone trying to be clever. 

“Do it!” 

Glory Girl dropped through the walls of falling rain, delivering a woman with a bright sunburst symbol on her chest.  Victoria offered me a nod before taking back off into the sky, returning to the fray.  That left the girl standing there, looking painfully awkward as she seemed to shrink in on herself under Leviathan’s torrential storm. 

“Wait, wasn’t she the raving lunatic back at the staging area?” Fester asked. 

Reflex hummed.  “Which makes her a liability.” 

Attention, Tinker Ordinance being deployed.  Stand clear of Leviathan.

Well, that wasn’t our problem at least, though I wouldn’t have minded some Tinker ordinance of our own.  “How long will it take?” 

“I need time to build up to it,” Sundancer said, forming a small sun in the palm of her hands.  “A minute at most.” 

Bad, but I’d already dealt with worse news today.  

“You’ll get it!”  I jumped from the rooftop and risked a teleport, arriving close enough to Spree that I almost tripped over one of the headless corpses laying around.  Damien gave me a passing glance even as he continued to spin off clones.  “I need you to be as annoying as possible and piss that bitch off for the next minute!”

Damien grinned at me.  “Oh, is that all?”  

He began to split off a dedicated group of clones that were quick to get their asses in motion, shouting inventive insults that would make any veteran member of the gang proud.  Good help was always hard to find, but there was a reason that Damien was essentially the second in command cape despite being one of the younger members. 

Sundancer cupped her hands and it didn’t take long for the sun to grow from a tennis ball into a basketball and only kept going from there.  The light cut through the sheets of rain as if they weren’t even there, shining like a beacon in the sky above us.  The sphere swelled and I was getting serious anime flashbacks to the point that I wanted to raise my own hands to offer up some energy. 

Instead I drew a machete and cut through another clone with a snarling scream, uncaring of the blood that coated me.  I shaped it into spikes that clung to my armor, not knowing when they might be useful in the future.  It was messy work, but at least we had a clear sign of when we would be ready to finally take the bitch down. 

Stratego grimaced as he looked upon the engorging solar orb.  “You know, that sun is basically a looming warning that someone is going to have a bad day.  She might—” 

“MARS!” Echidna roared in fury, her arm pointing directly at Sundancer as she raised the growing sun up high.  “BETrAYeR!” 

Sundancer winced, and the sun flickered as it shrunk slightly.  I spun, ready to yell at her when I caught motion through my swarm.  Dozens of corpses rose despite their injuries, floating up into the air before they rocketed into chaotic motion around the entire battlefield.

I cleaved through one before it could get off the ground and pulled my OTs and fired upon another heading for Sundancer.  My entire team adjusted quickly, from Reaver and Hemorrhagia cutting down the pieces of Aegis clones that were all faking their deaths, to Vex going full blender once again.  Even Spree was adjusting, his clones shifting to keep Echidna bogged down in their combined mass. 

When it happened, I almost missed it.  There was a dead clone at Damien’s feet, no head or legs, just a single arm and part of a torso.  That didn’t stop it from springing up just like the other clones that had been playing possum all this time. 

The chunk of a corpse tackled Spree, carrying him through the air straight towards Echidna.  My twin OTs barked through their ammunition as I pelted the clone, it died, but the trajectory…  With a pained grimace, I adjusted my aim and fired. 

Spree’s head exploded just before Echidna could consume him.