Unbroken 1.3 (Patreon)

I was flying through the Docks, just out relaxing. Clarendon had been its usual shithole, though the already rare fights had disappeared after Rick broke his hand punching my face. I couldn’t take the fire poker to Clarendon, so flying had become a regular thing I did after school. It was relaxing, and my temper didn’t seem to be as bad after I’d gone for a fly.

Vick had been saying his usual shit today, and he mentioned Taylor. I very nearly lost control, but I restrained myself enough to just leave. I didn’t go to my afternoon classes, just grabbed my shit and walked out. I also decided to vent a little and took something of Vick’s. His car would serve more of a purpose housing fish in the bay than in his hands. Though why the hell he had the trunk full of plastic bags of sugar, I have no idea.

Tossing the car helped, but I was still so pissed that I’d spent the entire afternoon and a good part of the evening flying. I was getting ready to head back, when I saw an alley light up, almost as if there was a bonfire inside it. Curiosity aroused, I flew over, eyes roaming both the alleys and surrounding rooftops. Dark clouds started forming around the alley, and it took me a minute to realize that they weren’t clouds, but swarms of bugs.

I blinked in surprise when I spotted Lung, unless there was another pyrokinetic in the city that I hadn’t heard about. Then, I saw an individual on a rooftop, overlooking the alley, and all the rage I’d felt today was as insignificant as a match against a wildfire. The figure was completely covered, except for their hair. It was Taylor’s hair.

Fists in front of me, I flew, as fast as I could push myself, past Taylor, driving into Lung with as much speed and momentum as I could. Lung let out a gasp as I drove both of my fists into him, and I felt skin rip under my fingers from the force I impacted him with. We hit the ground, and I raised a fist to hit him again, but a fire covered punch slammed into my jaw.

I bounced, once, twice, three times before my body impacted a car. The metal bent, nearly folding in half. I pushed it open, glaring at the one who threatened my sister, even unknowingly. Faintly heard Taylor, hard to hear over the roar of Lung’s fire as he swelled in size and metal scales pushed out of his skin.

Lung roared, rushing out of the alley towards me, and I threw myself out of the car to meet him. I ducked under a claw sweep and rose up, fist leading in an uppercut with as much power as I could put behind it. His lower jaw turned to powder under my blow, his head snapping back and sending him into a flip. His legs flew up on either side of me, but I hadn’t noticed the rapidly forming tail, the end of which slammed into my gut.

The air whooshed out of my lungs and I landed on my back, blood rushing to my head. Lung recovered first, his boots splitting open as his feet shifted into taloned claws. One of his feet pressed down on my chest, the heat radiating from him making my shirt bubble and smolder, and he grinned down at me, his jaw split in two, like a snake’s.

I snarled, my fist lashing out and driving a knuckle into his ankle. The limb buckled, and he lost his balance as I flew straight up. Not the way I normally would, instead my whole body rose up like a guillotine in reverse, my pelvis smashing into Lung’s crotch with all the force I could muster.

The noise that Lung made was somewhere between a bellow and a high pitched squeal. He bent over, and I used my flight to slide between his legs behind him, grabbing onto the end of his tail with both hands. With a grunt, I wrenched with all of my strength, swinging him around and slamming him against the street. As soon as he hit, I reversed direction, bringing him over my head to slam onto the ground.

Lung tried to stand, but I kicked his foot, knocking him back, and then jumped atop his back, grasping a fistful of his hair with my right hand. I brought my other fist around with great force, landing a blow to his left eye that should have broken his nose. Instead, it made him bite his lip and blink, shaking his head.

“‘Ill ‘ou!” he roared, sending a surge of flame from his back and whipping his tail around. My shirt burned away, and his tail slammed into my side, his scales shredding the skin below my ribs. Blood flew everywhere, and I slammed into another car.

Lung rose to his feet, his power already healing the damage I’d done and ramping him up even more. Lung grinned, his face more dragon than human, and his teeth glowed red as he built up fire in the back of his throat. Like Smaug from that one movie Taylor loved, Lung let out a roar and a stream of fire lashed over me, the paint of the car peeling and the rest of my clothes burning away.

Growling, I dug my hand in the rapidly heating metal of the car and with a grunt threw it towards Lung. The barrage of flame cut off as Lung caught the projectile, narrow and bony protrusions rising up out of his shoulders. A glance at his tail showed knobby spikes beginning to form on the end, and I met the villain’s gaze. He looked oddly happy, his split jawed mouth opened wide as what sounded like raspy laughter escaped his maw.

He said something, I think, but I didn’t understand him from how warped his voice had become. I rolled my neck, the joints popping with a satisfying sound, and my face ached from how wide my mouth was grinning. My heart was loud in my ears, the rush of blood through my veins sounding almost like a primal, ancient song. Danny and Taylor would hate it, but I couldn’t remember anything making me feel this way, the rush I was getting from fighting a foe that matched me blow for blow, where one misstep would result in his or my death, the drumbeat of my racing pulse. There was no denying it, I was born for this.

A lick of flames washed over me as Lung blasted me again, and I managed to duck the brunt of it by rolling to the side. Lung spat out a cloud of fire, and I swung my leg out, kicking him in the knee. Lung grunted, the joint bending and causing him to stumble. I took advantage of the momentary weakness, my fist hammering into his jaw. Lung rocked back, the impact cracking his jaw like a whip. Lung roared, throwing me across the street.

“Lung!” a voice shouted as I slammed into the road. I looked up, as a blue and chrome motorcycle roared past me, the rider clad in similarly colored armor holding a long metal staff with a point and an ax blade on one end.

There was a tiny puff from the end of the newcomer’s staff, and Lung gave a roaring, mocking laugh. I dug my feet into the street for traction before pushing off, sending myself flying towards Lung. He dodged my first two punches, but before my third could land, his tail slammed into me. The knobs I'd seen had grown and sharpened, making his tail look like it belonged on a stegosaurus. The spikes punched through my skin, embedding themselves in my chest. Blood filled my lungs, and I coughed, tasting metal in my mouth. Lung grabbed my wrist, locking me in place.

Lung chuckled again, and he pulled me closer and bit down hard on my shoulder. His jaws crushed my flesh, shredding muscles and tendons, and drawing blood. He then released his grip on my wrist and shook his head, spraying droplets of my blood all over the street. Lung laughed, and his teeth shone white against his dark, draconian face. Lung dragged me close, his breath hot and smelling of sulfur.

I grit my teeth, then lashed out with my head, driving my forehead into his snout. There was a cracking sound, but this time it was my bones that took the brunt of the damage. Still, it made him toss me aside, my body flying free from the spikes on his tail. I slammed against a brick wall, blood pouring from my side.

Looking up, the newcomer had his hand against the side of his head and his mouth was moving, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. Lung was focused on me, ignoring the newcomer and dismissing him as not a threat. Rubbing at his nose where I’d headbutted him, Lung slowly stalked towards me, his body now twice my height easily, though far lankier than my own build.

My fingers dug into the brickwork, dragging myself upright. Despite the bubbling in my lungs, my blood streaming from my side, and the corners of my vision starting to go dark, I was still grinning. Breathing as deeply as I could, I brought my feet up under me and pushed off the building, my fist primed for a hook.

Before I could throw it, my vision was filled with flames and I felt claws digging into the back of my head. I reached up to grab at Lung’s hand, but he swung me around, slamming me into the street, the force feeling like it would wrench my head off my neck. He threw me up into the air, before slamming a hand into my stomach, his claws slicing my belly open and digging into my guts.

A pained cry tore its way out of my throat, and my back slammed against the street. Lung turned and walked away, leaving me lying there with my intestines hanging out of my stomach. My head lolled to the side, my vision starting to go foggy. A shape in the mouth of the alley… brown hair…

My vision sharpened, my hearing cleared, and my eyes narrowed. I forced myself to stand, my balance unsteady. A voice shouted Prometheus, but I ignored it, focusing the entirety of my being and will on Lung. Lung was in front of me, beyond him was Taylor. There was no power, no person, no force, no reality that would stop me from preventing the two from ever meeting.

I rose up off my feet as Lung started to turn. My body turned parallel to the ground. My hands came together above my head like a swimmer performing a dive. I began to spin, faster than I could fly. I shot forwards, my body becoming a drill as I cut through the air. Metal met my fingertips.

For a long moment, a seeming eternity, the two were in a stalemate, before metal moved away, my body cutting into Lung’s body. Flesh, muscle, sinew, organs, bone, all parted as I drilled my way through the gang leader’s body. Eventually, cool air touched my fingers, then my arms, as I tore out the other side of Lung.

The armored newcomer stared as there were a pair of thuds behind me. I looked over my shoulder, Lung was in two pieces, his halves shrinking and turning back into human. Good. Taylor was safe, recognize newcomer, part of Protectorate. Vision going… dark… groun… d…

[hr][/hr]

Taylor wanted to scream, but no sound would leave her throat. Rick was… he’d… how’d he…

“This is Armsmaster, I need an ambulance on 5th Avenue and M Street now!” Armsmaster’s voice snapped Taylor from the panicked spiral her mind had been taking. She ran out, moving past the passed out gangsters as she raced to Rick’s body.

“C’mon, get up,” she begged as she reached him.

“Unknown Parahuman, move away from Prometheus,” Armsmaster said as he moved between her and Rick.

“He’s family!”

Armsmaster froze, before asking, “Do you have a cape name?”

She hadn’t decided on one, but he’d called Rick Prometheus, so… “Arachne, I’m Arachne, I control bugs. How do you know R- Prometheus?”

“He was considered for the Wards, Prometheus is the name he is registered under on the files. Medical will be here soon, Panacea is being contacted to see if she will be able to heal him,” Armsmaster said, carefully turning Rick onto his back.

Taylor felt sick, more of her brother’s intestines were hanging out of him than they were inside him! Swallowing down the bile that rose up, Taylor helped Armsmaster get Rick’s organs back in some semblance of place, then helped provide some first aid. The abdominal wound was the most gruesome, but it wasn’t Rick’s only injury.

He was covered in bruises, his breathing was rattling, there were three holes in his side, the left side of his rib cage looked like it had collapsed, and that was just what she could tell from looking at him. After what must have been hours, while Rick was leaking more and more blood, the ambulance finally arrived! Rick was loaded onto a stretcher, then into the back of the ambulance. But Armsmaster kept her from joining him.

“You say he’s family, but we need to contact his guardian. You can wait at the PRT medical facility for him to arrive,” the head of the local Protectorate said.

As soon as she got home, Taylor was going to burn each and every piece of Armsmaster merch she owned, starting with the panties!

[hr][/hr]

Amy yawned as she was escorted into PRT Medical Facility #23. It had an official name, she was just too tired to give a damn. She’d been just about to head home, when she was brought here because some dumbass new cape decided to get in a fight with Lung. Honestly it was surprising that there was anything left to heal, but she’d take care of this then go home and get some sleep.

A body on a stretcher was brought before her, his stomach bandaged and the entire left half of them stained red. If this was them, he probably had some kind of immunity to fire. Placing a hand on his shoulder, Amy’s half-lidded eyes snapped open and she felt like she’d drunk fifteen mugs of her preferred coffee.

Ignoring the punctured lung, ruptured heart, eviscerated abdominal region, cracked skull, and all the other injuries that she absentmindedly healed, Amy just had one question. What the shit?