Snatch 1.10

She hid.

It was a simple thing to do for her, for the one who had been beaten down, to follow the path of her fear. She’d been on the streets enough to know that simple logic as if it were an instinct with which she’d been born. Maybe like the way fear of a snake lingered within lineages of monkeys, dormant but ready to be awakened, so too did this particular instinct seem to well up within.

And was not the dragon simply the ultimate in serpents?

She shuddered as Lung’s minions searched and clambered their way through every place, every hidden hole they could, casting a wide net as they hunted. Sure she could take off her hoodie, and maybe a few other things and try to slip past as just another hobo in the streets, but these were Lungs thugs, hardened gangmen who would see her small mousy stature as a simple enough reason to lord their power over her, to take her and maybe even keep her.

And to fight? It was nothing but an impossible dream...

Sure she could destroy any and all comers here, of that she was certain, the old ratty gloves at her disposal would make her mighty, and the shirt which she wore would make her all but invincible, and even her new, but untested gloves had the potential to smash their ranks with electrical charges from afar. But then Lung would come, these lesser snakes were nothing before the Dragon which they would summon, simply existing to track and bog her down until their master could deal with her in perfect oppressive person.

And so she hid.

It was a shame that she hadn’t had that much time testing the full extent of the new equipment which she’d made, the nicely tough Kevlar gloves fitting sleek and looking nice on her tiny hands. She’d only completed them a few hours ago, but the combination had proven potent indeed, attraction seeming to apply in a way that was almost odd in conjunction with the electrically specific powers which she’d also granted the glove. The high end attractive force of what was meant as a metal separator pulsed within her fingertips, as she remembered the electric thrill of lightning arcs of electrical energy draining their way into the gloves from a nearby streetlight. It had been sweet indeed to realize an aspect of the power itself as the enchantment took hold and changed the fundamental nature of the gloves...

The electricity attracted, was ‘magnetized’ in its own way as well.

It was a strange effect to say the least, the interactions of those enchantments essentially having caused the energy drawn to it to in turn draw energy to itself, gathering towards its stored source until a shell of electrical energy crackled and ebbed around her gloved hands, an overcharge effect, essentially having reached the stored capacity within the gloves themselves the attractive force began to hold the energy tightly into the space around it, keeping it going until the point at which the attraction could no longer hold it steadily in orbit.

And even more devastating was how the energy acted once launched from her glove via the ranged attack function, the ‘attractive force’ of it staying in play for the full attack length, spraying off into the distance as the globe of projected energy drew even more power to itself, the final ball of electrically charged plasma and kinetic energy being far larger than the initial globes which had surrounded her hands; apparently striking far harder the further away that it traveled. She couldn’t help but giggle as she’d launched off orbs in both hands, smashing them together in a familiar videogame motion as they launched off spinning about each other in orbit of mutual attraction. Sonic boom! Never mind the lack of such sound.

Either way, Sasha had at least made an effective weapon... but she doubted it effective enough. The power of Lung was a known factor, one which she doubted anyone across the country didn’t have a concept of. Footage taken of his battle with Leviathan as an equal still could be found to this day.

Instead as she crouched, still as she could in the darkened rafters of the abandoned factory. Being nearly invincible in some regards had done wonders for her fear of falling, but still she’d needed several tries to get up, having embarrassingly busted her ass on the floor a few times in the process. Either way for now it seemed that she was to some extent safely out of the way, the men searching below missing every clue of her habitation within the building even as their boss outside roamed.

She’d dared a glance at the Dragon-man directing his troops, patterned scales already having begun to emerge from his painted skin.

Yeah… he was probably pretty pissed.

She needed someone to do something about it...

Maybe a call would help.

With care she reached into her pocket, pulling out one of the older model cellphones, even if their credit had expired they should be still able to call emergency numbers… right? She’d have to take a chance of it, dialing quickly and pushing the small phone to her ear.

“911, how may I dispatch your call?” A feminine voice at the end of her line asked with deliberate calm.

“Hi I want to report... uh, it might be a crime in progress I don’t know. Looks like a cape fight in the making.” Sasha whispered as loudly as she could, hoping that the men below wouldn’t hear the sound of her voice carrying within the empty building.

“Ok… let me guess. Lung and the ABB right? Down at the docks, north west?” The woman on the other end of the line sounded almost exasperated, though she modulated her voice towards more soothing tones.

“Uh… yeah. That’s exactly it...” Sasha trailed, not really knowing where to go from here. “… could you get someone over here then?”

“Dispatches have already been set out, just stay calm and stay hidden. Hopefully the Protectorate members on their way will be able to help. But we can’t do anything rash ok, you’re not the first person to report this in... just stay away from the fighting and stay safe, everything will be alright.” The woman assured, assuming you to be a suitably scared and concerned citizen trying to do the right thing while staying out of harms reach.

“… ah. Yeah, that’s fine. Can I at least get an eta on who’s coming and when? Maybe?” Sasha asked with a bit of hope in her voice.

“Sorry love, I can’t give that information in case it proves vital to the inbound taskforce. Just stay calm and everything will be alright.” The emergency service lady continued to emphasize. Sasha put down with a light growl of annoyance, she’d been getting tired of the entire call as it was... it accomplished little more than spending a bit of the time she should have been spending keeping a closer eye on the thugs who’d been searching for her below.

Fortunately they’d already moved on, seemingly convinced that they’d managed to properly comb the warehouse. Not that there was a speck of light by which they could have made a proper sweep without using their cellphone’s flashlights. The electricity in the building had been turned out long ago when it’d stopped paying the bills.

“Clear, keep it moving and keep it quick. Lung’s not in a good mood tonight, and I don’t want to be the guy that tells him his prey got out cause they were being lazy.” One of the guys below called out to the other two, only barely missing the spot where she’d been as he shone his light up into the rafters briefly.

And then they were gone, on to the next building in their sweeping pattern.

Still, now that they’d passed and she was alone, she couldn’t help but think that maybe, just maybe she should find the others being hunted. Not to join the fray, but to at least provide help and support in slipping away, keeping the body count for the night to a minimum. After all, if these other ‘children’ had put a flame under the dragon they couldn’t be all bad; unless of course they were Nazi scumbags, but that much was a given.

And that’s when Sasha started to hear the screams.

A surprise to her really, as the very same men who’d been hunting her had begun to cry out in panic and agony, even as she darted out of the building into the darkness at the edge of the functional streetlights, she heard it, a general outcry, one which caused her eyebrows to raise as she recognized a dozen men being harassed, stung, and bitten by what seemed to be an impromptu swarm of insects.

It was almost surreal how they moved, each subset just big enough to cloud around a man’s head and confuse his senses as they bit and stung. Each some leading men into each other to collide and groan incapacitated on the ground.

And most surreal of all was the concentrated effort of stings and bites which rained themselves upon Lung, insects crawling all across his body, looking for their chance to add to the chaos weighing him down.

And then he EXPLODED.

Literally.

Fire and the scent of cooked insects filled the air as the mad dragonman ROARED his displeasure to the world. His men scattering about as they suffered under sting and heat, even as the titan that ruled them stalked forward in bitter hate, casting his gaze for anything at all which would clue him into the director of the plague.

Sasha’s breath caught, she dared not move, frozen in place by fear, indecision… the vague suspicion that the beast’s before her power might not be so limited as to be ‘Only’ strength in abundance and the ability to summon fire at will. Lung’s head suddenly whipped about, facing towards the roof of one of the buildings with murder in his eyes.

Sasha hated being right.

Her heart caught in her throat as Lung lunged forth into action, his foot fall leaving a small crater in the concrete as he took a single step forward before making what was almost a two story leap into the air, throwing himself up against the building and towards his erstwhile prey.

Someone was about to die.

Sasha’s breath hitched at that very thought, someone was about to be murdered and all that she could do for the moment was watch almost impassively as it happened, eyes gripped upon the scene of the dragon man scrabbling up the building to cover the rest of the distance which had not been in his epic leap from the ground.

Her hands went up without thought as twin orbs of vibrant crackling blue burst forth from her fingertips, drawing deeply from the lights nearby.

The orbs spun about each other, growing as they flew. Growing until they were a twirling dual ball of whipping plasma, electrical energy crackling and drawing from every which direction... until the moment that they splashed hard against his back, drawing uncounted volts though his tall muscular frame as he twitched in howling abject agony.

A dull thud echoed through the streets the beast fell, muscles still twitching from the electrical stimulation even as he snarled and squirmed. And then the arc of plasma faded, and with it all restraint on the bastard beast. Already she could see scales forming thicker across his skin, eyes set wide as they burned with a malevolent liquid metal flame, like the orbs of a statue set in steel.

“More of you fucking cunt-stains?” He growled, his voice echoing like booming thunder even as he gathered himself to pounce.

Sasha didn’t make it out of the way.

It was unreal, as his growing bulk flew through the air with a massive leap, his still burning hand, now a gnarled almost blunt looking claw, lashed out catching her just under the chin and throwing her into a dizzying tailspin up against a nearby wall, his claws leaving burnt streaks in the dark gray of her hoodie.

She landed with a crash, an odd angle which should have killed.

And yet, she could feel her body still, her spine not broken, and only the damage she could detect as she rose up from what should have been her demise was the sensation of tender burnt skin that spread from where she’d been hit. Sasha gasped for air as she picked herself up… she wasn’t dead… she wasn’t dead.

But her durability had taken a more drastic hit than she’d ever felt since reinforcing her defenses with iron and then steel ship hull. Almost fifteen percent of it was gone with that single hit, she could feel. The thought left a sour metallic taste on her lips. Without extraordinary help, she wouldn’t be able to survive this fight.

... and the dragon advanced.

“I suppose you’re the hoodie... cunt that took my money?” She heard, though his words were slightly garbled as his teeth and jaw grew beneath the mask, his body bulkier than when they’d begun, a residual twitch running though his body even as he menacingly advanced. “I’ll deal with the other children later then... After... a bitch learns not to fuck with... what’s mine.”

She could literally hear his knuckles crackling as he advanced, letting slow seeping menace replace the frenzied beast that had been there but moments ago.

Letting the fear settle in.

Franticly she scrambled to her feet, feeling for any electricity she could gather with the gloves on the darkened dragon lit street, even as clouds of insects still buzzed about. A trickle of charge, she needed to find another position, closer to the electrical veins of the city... even as the insects seemed to gather and crowd about, too dark for her to properly see. Almost as if they were waiting for a chance to prove their worth while trying not to get in Sasha’s way.

Her heart caught in her throat, Lung’s patient gait was turning into a faster ground eating stride...

He was coming to fuck her up.

He was stopped in mid stride. A massive figure threw itself out from the darkness, the size of a bear, the thing looked like someone had crossed hell with a crocodile and a huge cat as it lunged, grabbed and bit at the powerful parahuman. Its body seeming like exposed muscle and bone intertwined as it fought under Lung’s candle light.

And it seemed to actually be winning…

“Hey you going to just stand and stare?” Sasha turned whipping around to find another cape riding on top of another such beast, a young woman in a domino mask. “He’s reeling from the bug bites and that blast you landed on him, but his regeneration is starting to edge it out... he must have started off pretty pissed as is. Bug girl’s swarm did a hell of a number on his ass. We might be able to knock him down here… but he’s going to get back up in a few minutes.”

Sasha couldn’t help but nod as she grabbed hold of the girl’s extended hand, looking back at Lung’s titanic struggles even as she climbed aboard.

“I can hit him again.” Sasha managed to squeak out to the girl, noting that like most everyone else, she too was taller than she was. “I need, to get closer to the lights.”

The girl nodded, then shouted a simple ‘go there’ command to the creature below her, even as another rode in on her own muscle bone tiger lizard thing, face covered in a pitbull like half mask, whistling and pointing as she directed another creature to assault the reeling Dragon before them.

“Hoodie girl’s going to give us some cover fire guys!” The domino masked girl called out even as another darkly dressed rider rode in, a strange cape girl… well Sasha assumed it was a girl by the long flowing hair out of the back of the scary villain costume... on the back of the beast with him.

“Get them Clear!” Sasha shouted, crackling electricity gathering in her hands as the beast charged about in a circle from light to light, glowing plasma trailing from her hand until the point at which maximum overcharge had been reached.

A sharp whistle pierced the night, and the beast threw themselves back from their sparring partner, leaving Lung momentarily disoriented at the sudden lack of a struggle... only to then be tagged once more with a ball of swirling plasma, slamming hard this time into his chest, and bringing him to his knees.

A final scream… a roar… a whimper.

And the Dragon had fallen, still twitching.

“He’s not going to stay down for long guys. We got this one but we need to get out of here right now. Let the PRT handle it.” The girl riding in front of Sasha called out to the others.

And then you were all off.

A wild ride into the city across rooftops as you clung for dear life to the girl who’d saved yours. The other passenger looking much the same as you felt, even though her intricate costume as finally you all settled down in a parking lot multiple blocks away.

“Lung’s down… and the ABB will likely regroup if the Protectorate and PRT don’t manage to take advantage here.” The guy in the dark leathers and skull shaped biker helmet spoke up, his tones were slightly warped by the helmet, yet familiar somehow. “We owe both of you.”

He nodded to both Sasha and the bug girl, though her body language seemed to be tight and guarded.

“Ok, gratitude’s fine and all… but we just stuck our necks out for you guys. Who the hell are you?” Sasha spoke up.

“Well, you’ll probably be seeing us in the papers soon.” The domino masked girl gave what could only be described as a vulpine grin, Sasha didn’t miss the way in which she glanced towards the quiet bug girl. “Look, we were worried as hell tonight. Lung’s a big fish in a small pool and we didn’t know if we were going to get out of this tonight alive... Hell, he’s still going to want to fuck us up if he doesn’t get captured tonight.”

“I for one am not looking forward to possible dragon dick!” Another boy spoke up, even as he twirled the short scepter in his hand between his nimble fingers, Sasha could almost see the mirthful smile beneath his full faced mask. “I mean some of you guys might be into that kinda thing but…”

“Shut up Regent.” You could practically hear the eye roll coming off of the biker guy. “Either way though they’re right, Lung’s going to come back after us, and he’s going to want to fuck the two of you up too.”

“He’s not going to rest after a loss like this... he can’t abide by being made to look like a chump.” The domino mask girl added, then grinned her foxlike grin. “He especially won’t like that you made him shit his pants with your electric tickles. That kind of think sticks with a guy.”

“I made Lung what…?” Sasha asked mortified, eyes wide open with a special horror.

“Yeah… he’s wasn’t liking that any more than the bug stings and what not… You managed to get a bee stinger right under his eyelid too.” The domino masked girl grinned as she turned to the quiet insect cape. “That didn’t burn up like everything else. So all through the fight he had it lodged in there protected by the eyelid and pumping bee venom in like crazy. He’s going to HATE you.”

Not that Sasha could clearly tell under the layers of costume, but the bug girl looked almost Ill at the prospect, though her continued stillness betrayed very little.

“So yeah… with that in mind. How about you guys accept a little sales pitch from us? Maybe you help us out and we help you? I think it could probably be beneficial to all of us if you guys think that over.” The Dark rider spoke once more. “I’m Grue. And these are the Undersiders.”

The domino girl merely smiled.