Tempering 2.4
Fire burned around me, the sound of the flames mixing horrifically with the sounds of the dead and dying. Those who lived surely wished they were dead, instead of burning alive under the molten stone that was once my apartment complex. My head ached, and it was so hard to breath at the current moment. My concussion wasn't doing me any favors, being thrown by Shirou's panicked backhand across the hall right before the bombs went off was actively making my chest burn where Glory Hole had treated me like a punching bag just a few hours earlier. Or maybe the burning was the embers currently setting parts of my shirt on fire was.
Oh fuck...
I manage to ignore the pain of my scalding finger tips as I tear off the part of my shirt that covered my navel, revealing the tightly compressed bandages I had wrapped around my ribs to my waist. Luckily, they hadn't caught fire too, I may act cavalier about using my looks to my advantage but I didn't want to be seen like that by anybody really. The expressions and thoughts people usually had were actually gross. My eyes take the time to try and focus on what was going on around me.
Swords were all around me, long and thick, too big to be wielded by someone normal sized. I avoid using my power immediately, I didn't need to guess who made them. They were stabbed all around me in the ground, shooting up to the ceiling. One that was a few feet away from falling onto me and crushing my fragile body.
The realization is like a bucket of water on my mind, waking me up faster then I wanted. I quickly try to move and I'm greeted by my body's complaints in the form of sharp pains in my arms and legs that beg me to stop, but the impending death by crushing wasn't going to let me. I roll off the rubble I had been resting against and onto my side, starting to scoot down the only path down the rubble available. My legs push against the floor, and I idly notice something wet trailing down my scalp, I was probably bleeding.
"S-…," I start, my chest seizing up and causing me great pain. "S-Shirou...? Taylor...? A-Alec...?"
My words gather no responses from the screams around me, no response I could use anyhow. All they helped me do is fall deeper into uncertainty and fear. Where were they? Were they dead? What had even actually happened there? Before I can ponder that any, I needed to escape. I push and push against the floor, managing to get to my hands and knees. This speeds me up considerably and I notice the stairwell at the end of the hall was somehow still standing. I also see two familiar and just as banged up forms that bring relief to my heart, but only for a moment.
Because Shirou wasn't with them. That fact sent my mind into overdrive, so much so that I couldn't get any meaningful data from my power, I couldn't focus.
"L-Lisa...!" I hear Taylor yell when she finally notices my flopping form crawl out of my stone and sword prison. The girl stumbles over to me, her normal clothes covered in the same green lights that would sometimes cover Shirou. She was bleeding from her nose and a cut on her cheek, but she wasn't favoring her body much.
-Shirou can share his power with others-
-Shirou can make people tougher-
Neat, but that didn't actually help me at all right now. Taylor, bless her, finally notices how fucked up I am and decides to help me up. While Alec stops kicking at the clearly stuck door that would let them into the stairwell, which looked mostly intact and not melting. Alec was frowning, his stitches having opened a bit to let a stream of crimson flow down the side of his face. Besides that, he seemed the best off out of all of us.
"Where's Shirou...?" I gasp out, holding onto Taylor while my knees shake under my weight. "H-He... He was in front of us." I remembered his expression, one filled with open fear. But in that moment, I automatically knew it wasn't fear for his life, but ours. That idiot tried summoning one of the prettiest things I had ever seen in my life, a two petaled shield of pink. His free arm had then pushed the three of us away, and then everything exploded. We would certainly be super dead if he hadn't, but did that mean he was dead instead? The thought made my stomach flip... he wasn't dead I decide to believe before I can dwell any longer on it.
He wasn't dead.
He wasn't.
"I-I don't know...," Taylor whimpers, clearly even more affected by everything going on than me. It wasn't hard to tell why. She was just a normal girl, one with powers, but a normal girl all the same. More than that, she wanted to be a super hero. "I-I have to look for him, we can't just..."
Leave? I think we could do just that if we got that door open.
But I didn't want to leave without him either.
Gunfire erupting suddenly cuts Taylor off. That had come from through the walls, meaning it was coming from the streets. So not only did Bakuda set off a bomb in an apartment complex across the street from Arcadia, but now there was a firefight happening in front of the school? What the hell was up with this woman? This was shit you got a Kill Order for! Who were they even fighting?
"He's alive," Alec suddenly assures, making both me and Taylor turn to him. He looks at us and smirks, which comes off as far more menacing than normal because of the side of his face being covered in thin, red, blood. "I can feel his special nerves from here, he's outside."
"W-Wait, you're a parahuman??" Taylor shrieks in surprise, before looking at me with that same question in her eyes. Or at least that's what I think, her glasses were cracked and a bit dirty. Mutely, I nod, there was no point in denying it when I was sure Shirou would get me to tell her when this was all over... after I finished clocking him on the head for worrying me like this and also thank him for saving my life. "...Does Shirou know?"
Again, I nod, feeling her relax, as if she had been about to drop me. I would have mentioned this annoyingly if the building hadn't started to shake slightly. We needed to move and get through this door NOW! Alec clearly felt the same and he resumed kicking the door to no avail. This was clearly not going to work, so I look to Taylor again, her clothes still glowing with-
"Shirou did his brute power thing to you right?!" I ask desperately, spitting to the side after gagging on my own words. It was redder than it should have been, oh boy... Luckily Taylor seems to realize what I meant quickly, so she was pretty smart then, good to know. She hands me to Alec, who manages to not get any of his blood on me to my gratitude. I watch as she takes a step back, before lifting her foot and kicking the door.
It flies off its hinges and craters into the concrete wall behind it. We all stare in shock for a second, before we all quickly start moving down the stairs as quickly as we can. I was proven wrong about the fire not having reach the stairs about two flights down. The stairs were melting and have turned to slag all the way down to the ground floor. Past it even, all I could see was a shimmering pool of orange liquid that was carving its way downward through the dirt. I open my mouth to make a smart comment that dies in my throat when someone on a higher set of stairs on a floor above us comes streaking down, having fallen from the melting stairs above us.
Me and Taylor can only mutedly stare at the now melting civilian who thankfully disappears before his screams can get that loud. I was going to have nightmares; Taylor meanwhile was clutching her stomach. She barfs over the edge without any more warning, staggering back from the edge and looking close to breaking. That wasn't good, she was our ticket out of here.
"Taylor! You need to kick the wall down; this stairwell is connected to the outer walls of the building!" I quickly exclaim, making her shakily look up. I could see her fear, and I understood why. "...S-Shirou's out there, we need to get to him before the idiot takes a bullet!"
Taylor gulps, but visibly pulls herself together. She can see that there was no way they were escaping this unless she made the way. As the only one here with a brute rating at the moment, it was on her. I see her take a deep breath before lifting her foot again and giving the wall what looks like an even harder kick then she had to the door. The stone is bursted out around her foot, Alec moving us away a bit to avoid the sones that roll around us. The fresh air was helpful to my burning lungs.
"He's there!" Taylor shouts, pointing out down into the street where they could see Shirou standing alone. He seems to have heard Taylor's loud yell, as he quickly cranes his neck up to look at us in alarm. It's then I notice how ragged he looks, burns and blood run up and down his form. His favored shirt of blue and white died a more disgusting red and black. That wasn't the worst part though.
He was surrounded by what looks like dozens of normal looking people, old, young, all wielding weapons consisting of bats, pipes, and knives. A few had guns, but those actually seemed to be dressed as members of the ABB. Almost all of them were Asian, the civilians though, some of their faces told me something.
-They aren't willingly here-
-Scared they'll die if they run-
-They are paralyzed-
Paralyzed?
"...Oh? Those friends of yours actually survived just like you? Was that bomb defective??" An admittedly scary looking woman at the other side of the group of thugs that Shirou had been facing speaks up. Her voice robotic and monotone, most likely from the gasmask and tinkertech armor she was wearing. But even with that, it was clear she was frustrated to me, like she took us surviving as a complete slap to her face. I knew who this was, Bakuda, that Tinker that Lung had reportedly recruited. She looked fine, except for the sword that was currently buried into shoulder. Possibly adding to her frustration. "I doubt they can do much from all the way up there though! Hah!"
"You guys need to run!" Shirou yells up at us.
He takes a step towards our position, only to whirl around and parry a suddenly behind him Oni-Lee. The man's knife shatters against Shirou's suddenly appearing black sword and his swing follow's through, making sure to slice through the man's bandolier and then his body. Blood splatters over Shirou's face from Oni-Lee's body, until it turns to ash. There was a pile around his feet, he had been doing this for a while.
"So ruthless, are you sure you're a hero Red?" Bakuda taunts, she clearly felt secure in her position even with a sword in her arm and I couldn't help but see why. Shirou was wary to attack the civilians with his swords, or get close to them in general. It definitely wasn't for no reason. "It's fun to watch you struggle, but I'm getting just a bit bored here, I said I needed you to suffer remember? If I can't get past that stupid shield of yours then I'll just switch targets!"
-Bakuda makes bombs-
-Bakuda can make many bombs-
-Scars on the skulls of each conscript-
-Bombs implanted into skulls-
Helpful info but not info that helps me live at this very moment! I look to Taylor, but her attention was solely on Bakuda, or at least that's where her eyes were. They looked unfocused, like she wasn't actually here. Why the hell was she spacing out when we were sitting fucking ducks?? I couldn't guess why, because the Trump – Brute bullshittery was starting to give me a migraine.
Shirou creates a long and thin blade between the knuckles of his free hand, throwing it desperately towards her... Shadow? But Oni-lee appears in its path, almost proudly taking the blade before it reaches its target. Shirou's expression becomes murderous, a face I wasn't even sure he was capable of pulling off. The man he had targeted was turning to us with a resolute expression, a grenade launcher in his hand. I look back the way we came, I see the stairs we had ran down we're already starting to melt, we were stuck. The only way off was to jump, but a fall from the 5th floor would kill me and Alec without a doubt.
The Oni-Lee clone that took that long thin sword bursts into ash, making the blade fall to the ground where he stood. I can see dozens of them, stabbed into the shadows of many but not all of the slaves.
-The blades paralyze those who's shadows they stab-
A rush of sudden euphoria hits my head that almost makes me stumble right out the hole to my death. My migraine disappears and I'm left feeling as refreshed as I could with my broken body. What the hell was that? I don't have long to ponder it, because Shirou again takes a step towards us, before having to jump away when dozens of Oni-Lee's appear around him one after the other, knives raised and bandoliers still intact. It doesn't seem to matter where Shirou tries to go, Oni-Lee just keeps teleporting and using those clones to hem him in. The bandoliers probably also had Bakuda's bombs in them, meaning he couldn't let a single clone explode either. Had the ABB really gathered this much just to attack one cape that beat Lung?
-They're making a statement-
Thanks for the fucking obvious answer, power!
Back to my own impending death however, the Cape with the grenade launcher turns to us. I could almost see her fiddle with the trigger, and I realize this was it for me. I hadn't really gotten to live the life I wanted since I left home. I definitely hadn't gotten to absolve myself of the guilt I felt for my brother. I hadn't even got to tell Coil he's a fucking dick, that one burned me.
Just then, the entrance to the stairwell on my floor crumbles loudly. It's followed by a loud and inhuman screech that makes everyone in the street below freeze besides Shirou and Oni-Lee. What looks over the edge was something from my worst nightmares. Eight large red eyes, black chitinous armor, a set of mandibles that looked like they could swallow me whole if not for the comically oversized fangs jutting out of its maw. Eight legs that seemed sharp enough run through a human with ease were splayed out around the crumbling floor and the walls. And finally, it was the size of one of Bitches empowered Dog's.
...And it was glowing green.
Its screech is swiftly followed by Bakuda being taken down. Via a spinning white sword coming from behind her and cutting off one of her legs.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
-10 Minutes Earlier, Shirou's POV-
I had only managed to summon two petals before the explosions hammer into my position. The sheer power of the explosives manages to shatter the first petal with only nominal difficulty, one of my ribs cracking in response. The second Petal manages to actually hold up far better, cracking and crumbling while it holds back the explosive firestorm that rapidly melts everything in the apartment. But it holds firm, protecting the hall behind me that held two people I needed more than anything in this world.
But while the conceptual shield protected me and those behind me, that couldn't be said for the building we occupied. The explosion that couldn't bypass me still had 5 directions it could travel. The front of the apartment complex is blown outwards for many floors, my position being the point it can't pass. I try not to let the sure-fire fact that people had just died needlessly bother me while I'm trying to protect Taylor and Lisa. Alec too, but I wasn't going to kid myself that I wouldn't choose the other two over him if I had to.
The explosions rip to the left and right next, then to the floors above me and below me, spreading a viscous orange liquid that starts melting at the open stone. Already I could feel the buildings' structural ability starting to fail, the very floor beneath me and my friends planning on giving out regardless of Rho Aias. So, with some regret, I swing my other arm around, throwing the three of them with an enhanced reverse lariat. They are thrown deeper down the hall way just as the building starts to collapse on top of me.
That wasn't going to be enough though, I needed to stabilize the floor and roof around them so they weren't crushed, but I wouldn't have the time.
Not with my own power at least.
While Archer's arm wasn't actively killing me anymore as far as I knew, up until this point, I had avoided activating his circuits that I could feel in fear it might start the process all over again. But I needed that power right now, more specifically I need the skills I don't currently possess.
My vison is filled with stars and I feel the dagger-like sensation of my own body stabbing itself. I feel my circuits connect with Archer's, and the OD his arm brings joins my own. That was all well and good, but not what I needed. I delve deeper than that, I push into the fragments of Archer's mind that I knew to be there. His experience fills mine and I'm sure just a few more strands of my hair have turned white. My awareness of the world around me expands and I see what I was looking for. Large nameless swords of impeccable make form in a cage at points where the remaining hallway is strongest, stabbing deep into the structure and blocking the debris from landing onto the three.
That was all I could accomplish in the seconds following my fall. But I wasn't worried, because I was trusting not myself, but Archer's ability to save them.
I slam through the floors below me with the rest of the building, reinforcing my body back to peak and breaking through the next floor with my face. It hurt, but it put me ahead of the falling rocks. Even reinforced, I doubted I'd survive this much weight falling on me. I break the next floor with a punch, now firmly ahead of the falling building. I land on my feet on the thankfully empty ground floor before glancing up, watching the stones and metal fall in slow motion. Eye of The Mind(True) showing me the optimal path forward. I project two more nameless swords, one in each hand and reinforced just short of breaking.
I dash forward, dancing my way passed the falling rocks and slashing through what I can't avoid. I throw myself out the lobby window, soaring through the glass and sliding to a stop in the street below. The sound of the lobby being obliterated is followed by people screaming, running for their lives as parts of the apartment building rain down into the street. Arcadia itself had some broken windows and damage to the front from the bombs. Those were no normal bombs, more of that tinkertech stuff?
As I prepare to leap back up in to the building to grab my friends, I hear a small *pomph* behind me, and I quickly turn around to come face to face with a man in a oni mask. He had a knife in his hand that was coming for my throat along with a bandoleer of bombs on his chest. Was he the one who did this? I feel my blood boil in response to the thought. Taylor had told me earlier today about those rules, this was an attack on my civilian identity, that meant I had free reign to kill this man, right?
Even if I was in costume, I wouldn't let this slide.
The knife shatters against my neck as I throw my head forward and headbutt my attacker, his mask shatters along with his nose, then his skull. His head was almost assuredly destroyed. But I don't miss how his free hand had grabbed the pins of his bombs. He was willing to kill himself just to take me out?
The blades in my hands are replaced by Kanshou and Bakuya, crossing my sword and letting the extra endurance hopefully defend me along with my reinforcement. Even so, I move to back away.
The payload was greater than what I had been expecting. I feel the rib that had cracked before fully break even through my defenses. Along with three more which narrowly miss puncturing my lungs. As I soar backwards, I slam into a car's driver side door, flipping it and me over. I land first and roll away to avoid the car landing on me, then throw myself forward to avoid another man in an oni mask. There was more than one I realize.
I narrowly avoid the explosion that follows, getting to my feet and using Kanshou and Bakuya to carve out new breathing holes for the next two oni-masked that appear at my sides. This time I make sure to slice through the bombs on their chests. To my surprise, when killed, they dissolved into dust. I was fighting clones then? Was there a finite number? While clones continue to appear in my blind spot, I dutifully cut each and every one down, moving back into the street so I'd have more open space. At the same time, I was also inspecting everything I could see. It was because of this I could see the gathering group of people at the end of the street, a mob really, moving quickly in my direction. Behind them was a woman in armor that I definitely wasn't going to bother to grasp, it was so obviously tinkertech. She was standing on the hood of a slowly moving jeep.
Why was she doing something so unnecessary?
That didn't really concern me though, I was busy searching for the source of these clones. That was, until she started speaking, her voice dull and monotone, synthetic. It travels down the street, over the sound of crumbling stone and flames.
"Did you like my gif-" The woman starts and I immediately tune her out, my mind was still attached to Archer's. So, I do what archer would do, making his inner world swell against my own painfully for a second as I project a single sword pointed towards the probable monologuing villain. With my contempt clear, it races over the heads of the gather crowds of civilians towards her. Somehow, she was already moving once the sword was first shot. It makes the sure kill that the shot was into a blow that stabs her through the shoulder. I have to quickly disengage before the descending three clones manage to explode near me in return. Fire and smoke washes over me as I avoid the main blast, but my clothes are quickly blackening, blood starting to fall from my mouth as the internal injuries start to pile up.
"F-Fucking! Bitch!" The woman shouts as she's thrown against the front windshield of her jeep, the sword poking out of her arm also poking out the other end and shattering the windshield. She tries to recover her bearings, but even as I am unable to approach because of the constant assault from the ash clones, I project three more swords above my shoulders, these she wouldn't survive. Something she realizes if her sudden will to shout is any indicator. "I-If I die, everyone in this block dies in the explosion!"
I instinctively structural grasp at the nearest armed civilian. None of them were parahuman's, the alien presence in their minds missing, instead, I see the different but no less painful shock of tinkertech blast my mind when I gaze at their skulls. I of course had no idea what it was in their skulls, but considering this woman had probably made the bombs I've been dealing with…
A lance of pain quickly brings me back to the fight at hand when one of the clones knives grates against my shoulder, sparks flying off before Bakuya cuts him in half vertically.
In the end I suppose it doesn't matter. As much as I'd like to save these people, I'd kill them with no remorse if it led to an outcome where I could protect Taylor and Lisa even a little better. I knew where the bombs were, I could just send a blade through their skulls faster than they could react and destroy them like I had been doing to this masked man for what feels like years now.
It would be so easy… just a few dozen swords. Archer himself was urging me to take the path that would take me to my goal the quickest. But…
"Shirou-!" I hear Taylor suddenly speak up, staring up at me with big, hopeful eyes as we sit together on Lisa's couch. "…Please help me be a Hero!"
That's right, I wasn't here to be a Hero, I was here to be Taylor's Hero. If there was even a one percent chance to save these people, she would argue I take it. Lisa would understand, I was confident she would, Taylor however, she was just that type of person who wanted to believe in the small chances. I-
-I don't think I could handle her hating me, even if it was to keep her safe.
"There's only one thing I can do, and that's to give form to what's in my mind!"
That was my voice? But I had never said that…?
Archer's arm throbs as I kill another clone, it was the arm? Sharing a memory with me? Even now, in a world I wasn't sure he could reach, that bastard was helping me. I didn't understand how or why, but those words were one's that made complete sense to me. In the end, that was the only skill Shirou Emiya actually possessed right? If I didn't possess the weapon that could win…
Imagine one that could.
"I am the bone of my sword."
Lightning shoots off my form and drives the clones away for the moment, coalescing into dozens of thin blades that float above my form. The Black Key's. Bullets and bombs are shot my way by the mob of innocent people forced to fight. I wasn't fighting to save them; I was fighting to save Taylor's concept of heroism for as long as possible. That meant I had to save them anyway. Rho Aias appears again in front of me, 6 out of 7 petals forming under my power. My training and my small epiphany taking me to heights I hadn't before reached yet, because the arm wasn't fighting me now. At least, not as much, and I could work with that. The bullets and grenades are repelled without effort, how ironic that throwing a bomb or shooting it made it laughably easy to defend against with Aias's shield, while blowing up a stationary bomb would yield far greater results. There was even what looked like a black hole that erupted from one of the bombs, still, it counted as a thrown weapon and even something that could rip apart space time was useless unless it was also conceptual.
The black key's shoot out as fast as the machine gunfire that was blanketing my shield, striking every shadow in my sight. It didn't matter if their shadows were merged with others, or if their shadow was hidden, I struck true all the same. In an instant, I'm no longer under attack from any of the slaves, each and every one frozen in place. Beside the insane bomber woman and the guy in the oni-mask.
"Hey! Who said stop shooting!" The woman screams out in hysterics, she didn't like not knowing what was going on huh? I dismiss my petal shield, the need for it gone as now it was just two against one. I should throw her a bone though, if only to keep her from thinking her slaves were ignoring her.
"I paralyzed them all, they can't take your orders for the rest of the night." I explain, not dumb enough to explain how to her face even if it was incredibly obvious why. "Now it's just you, me, and the other guy."
"Other guy? Oh… oh man~! You don't even know who we are do you kid?!" The woman suddenly realizes like it's the funniest thing in the world, until it wasn't. Her laughs change to a deep and offended growl.
It wasn't my fault you weren't famous lady.
"Does the name Lung ring any bells?" She asks, grenade launcher poised at me. But that was ok, because I had 3 swords trained on her above my shoulders. I shrug, mostly because I didn't feel like talking to her. If she wanted to speak, that just gave me the time to plan and look her over. I needed a way to take her down without making her kill everyone here. I needed to know how it worked, there had to be some part of the tech I could understand right? Her monologue after my shrug is ignored in favor of structural grasp. My eyes water as I force myself to keep looking at her body, the images and information incomprehensible at a glance like always. But I don't stop looking this time, continuing to stare at the incomprehensible.
Like clockwork, and as I had hoped, bits and pieces of whatever the hell she had made were spinning into something legible to my brain, which I could feel throb in my skull. It didn't like what it was being forced to take in. I followed what I could, tracing wires and reading blueprints until my eyes land on her right leg, where she was hiding two toe rings that were the true activation requirements to her bombs. I could kill her without consequence. But I should get rid of the toe rings first. Her monologuing was going to be her downfall.
She stops monologuing and seems to stare in shock when I turn my back to her and toss Bakuya into the air, sending it spinning higher and higher until it was out of sight. All the while, I was using Kanshou to guide it.
"…What, don't want to fight anymore?" She asks, sounding disappointed, I wondered if I missed anything important? Probably not. "I can't just let you off, letting Armsmaster take the credit was smart, but ultimately meaningless when we have boys in the PRT that can get the first hand account themselves."
The wall of what of the apartments stairwells is suddenly blasted open.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
-Present time, Taylor's POV-
I could barely hear Bakuda's sudden cries of agony when her leg is chopped clean off. Because it wasn't what held my attention. Honestly, this whole second half of the day still feels like it wasn't real, like I hadn't almost died twice today and counting. That I hadn't seen the building swallow up Shirou after the explosion and like I hadn't been nearly catatonic at the thought of his death happening so quick. No, at the thought of his death period. I had laid there in a dazed shock in the burning hallway, until Alec found me and dragged me to the door. We had discussed looking for Lisa until she had found us, the only one not with me was the one I wanted the most.
In my panic I had lost sight of my backpack, losing the precious gifts Shirou had made for me. I could feel them, but I couldn't get to them or even connect to them with my power. They were rejecting my control. And why shouldn't they? I couldn't even do anything before all of this happened. I had no way of knowing this was going to happen truthfully, but that didn't change anything in my mind. I could feel some sort of will, probably my own, urging me to abandon Lisa and Alec and look for Shirou, but I couldn't do that. I wanted to be a hero and they didn't abandon people for their own selfish desires.
That led me to the stairs and my busting of them, to the realization that Shirou was alive, of course he was alive, my hero had never let me down before. He had been fighting what looked like some bomber chick in tinkertech and Oni-Lee. But he had beaten Lung, He wouldn't have any trouble with them, I knew it. But I wanted to help, I wanted to be someone Shirou could count on, someone who could protect him like he protected me. It was those thoughts that made me reach out to the bugs still alive around me, preparing to attack Bakuda and Oni lee to give Shirou an opening. It was like we talked about, He was the vanguard who'd keep me safe and fight at the front.
I was one who'd carry his swords to their marks.
But when I reached out, I wasn't met with the massive amount of information I usually got. No, I was met with one singular mind, one greater than every bug I had ever grabbed combined. I had no time to truly takes this in. I tried to make it come to me, but it resisted and stayed put. I tried again and it resisted again, refusing to be commanded. So, I instead pleaded for it's help, and it listened this time.
The creature began bounding its way through the rubble with ease, slamming through a wall into the stairs. It was beautiful, the single most beautiful spider I had ever seen in my life. It was looking at me, glowing the same green as the many spiders Shirou had used his power on. In fact, I could feel those spiders minds in this large one, some sort of greater intelligence being formed by so many small ones. I could see it's creation as if I was the spider itself, they had… cannibalized each other the moment I lost control, the one left standing rapidly mutating into this thing of beauty.
"…that's got to be the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life" I hear Alec say, somehow nonplussed by the appearance of the giant spider. Lisa hisses something into his ear and punches his shoulder, probably a command to shut up. Good, because it was beautiful.
It looked down at me, and I looked back up at it. I could feel it's skepticism, it wasn't sure what to make of me, someone who could reach its mind but not control it. So, I send feelings of happiness, affection, and gratitude to its mind, followed by a request to get us all out of here. It responds with what I can only describe as a smile, before opening its huge maw and shooting out three thick lines of web that wrap around my form as if controlled psychically, as it does to Alec and Lisa. It wastes no time in leaping through the hole my enhanced strength had made, carrying the three of us all the way to the street below. Everything was in a panic, the woman was clutching her missing leg while Oni-Lee quickly appears in the car with her, a dozen clones all leaping for Shirou as a distraction. My hero doesn't even look fazed, catching the white sword and attacking the clones faster then they could hope to react.
However, that does give Oni-lee the time to start the car and swerve into an alleyway, running over a few of the still unmoving gangsters as they disappear out of sight. The car's engine getting farther away by the second. I try to urge my beautiful spider to chase after them, but instead his webs dissolve around us and he sits down, a feeling of laziness taking over his mind.
Ok, he was still beautiful, but he was also incredibly lazy. I wasn't sure if he or she was the right term actually, but I'll stick with he.
"Please," Lisa groans to me "Never cover me in that stuff again…"
"A thank you would be nice," I say back, suddenly exhausted, mentally and physically.
"I'm glad you're all ok," Shirou says, walking up to us slowly, heaving slightly. He was probably more tired than the rest of us combined. It's then I notice just how bad he seemed to look. His eyes were red and puffy, irritated by something. His hands were constantly shaking, twitching like he couldn't control them. His stance was shaky at best, slow deliberate steps being the best he could manage as he walks over.
And the blood, he was covered in it. I could tell most of it had been from his mouth from how red his chin was. He was probably seriously hurt inwardly. My euphoria at the spider and Shirou's victory quickly fades into dread. We needed to get not just him, but most of these people to a hospital.
"…We should chase after them before they get away" Shirou says next, much to my and Lisa's horror. He barely glances at the huge spider, who was displaying signs of deep curiosity towards Shirou. We could deal with that later though.
"…Excuse you? We're not chasing anyone! We're going to the hospital!" I urge, shaking my head. Seriously, he looked awful and he wanted to keep going? How did he live before he found me?
"But Taylor-"
"NO!"
"Lisa, surely-"
"I'm with TayTay on this one."
"…Alec?"
"Don't look at me?"
Seeing as he was outnumbered, he slumps his shoulders and falls onto his back, spread eagle and eyes closed. He really looked like shit, I couldn't stress that to myself enough. I could see the mob of gangsters that couldn't move were now moving fine, many of them calling the cops and 911 already. We're they hostages or something? Either way, with my big spider here, no one was going to bother us yet. I needed a name for him honestly, and a place to keep him.
"…Hey, we should get out of here before anyone commits our faces to memory" Alec warns, moving to pick up Shirou who actually groans in complaint. It was a smart idea, but we needed a doctor.
"We need medical attention too…?" I remind, frowning at the blood I just remembered was coming from my nose. I had hit it pretty hard on a wall.
"Me and Lisa know a guy…" He says, grinning mischievously while Lisa sighs, nodding her head to show she agreed with Alec. I wasn't so easily convinced though, why couldn't we just go see a regular doctor?
" Taylor… just go with it for now, please…" Shirou asks as he fully gets back up. His hurt form makes me even more unsure. But I didn't have the heart to deny him right now. He clearly trusted Lisa at the very least. I couldn't say the same, but I don't think I mistrusted her if that made any sense at all. I guess we would see, they wouldn't trick Shirou right? Not when they also needed medical attention.
I hope I didn't come to regret this...
Interlude – 3
Armsmaster's POV
I have to hold in a sigh of agitation as I walk out of the meeting room, the first one to do so out of all my teammates. Perhaps it was bad form, but I couldn't help but not care, at least in this instance. Today had been a shitshow to put it in the mildest way possible. What seemed like a deathmatch at the bank earlier in the day between the Wards and the Undersiders would have been a cause for concern on its own. But a terroristic bombing of the buildings around Arcadia? That wasn't something anyone could write off or pretend wasn't serious enough to mobilize the entirety of Brockton Bay's defenders, cutting off the PR event we had been at before it could properly finish.
Admittedly I wasn't the most broken up about that, but even I couldn't ignore how important image was for the normal day to day citizens. To feel safe, it had to look like they were safe. Which was what today no doubt stole from them. It hurt our ability to reassure them.
And added another black mark to my once pristine record.
15 people were dead, their bodies unable to be identified because of the substance used in the bombs that killed them. 26 people were permanently disfigured and would need the personal attention of a parahuman healer over multiple weeks, as if Panacea wasn't overworked as it is. 54 people had none-life threatening injuries that could be treated by a normal doctor. Almost 100 people affected in only a day. That was realistically not a huge number when put against the population of the city, but to a normal person, 100 was a big number. They couldn't see the big picture, but that was their right, and my duty to protect.
What made it worse was that I knew why this happened.
I had only had to hear the reports of the civilians that had been conscripted by Bakuda to put the pieces together. That had been an attack on Sword's civilian identity. Somehow, an ABB plant had been close enough to Lung's cell to learn what had really happened. Said plant then just gave Bakuda that info, and now this was the problem that was happening.
The way the reports detailed what exactly Bakuda had wanted to do with Sword were distressing, because I had been in the position to stop all of this from the beginning. That night, if I had just been a bit more concerned about Sword and 'Chrysalis' being targeted instead of using that fact to try and push them into letting me take the credit...
"You can have him," he says to me, utterly void of any hesitance, fear, or reluctance. "I didn't fight him for the recognition it would bring, things like that are meaningless to me."
I sit down in my chair after entering my personal workshop, that scene replaying in my head over and over again. Those words had shaken me, utterly and completely. But it wasn't until I had gotten locked away for two days, treated like a criminal and losing control of my team because of Lung almost dying, that I had time to ruminate on it. I was angry at first, furious even, I blamed everyone but my own shortsighted, selfish, request to take the man in and get the credit. Deep and ugly thoughts that still ruminated at the back of my mind even now.
"You can have him."
After a day of that, replaying the entire scene in my head, I was forced to admit that I had made a mistake. I had thought that perhaps Lung had been poisoned by Chrysalis, meaning I could play off my over eager tranquilization of Lung as her mistake for not telling me. But Lung was clean of poison, he had most likely burned through what poison the girl had been able get in him from her bugs if any at all. Then I had thought of shifting the blame to the one I couldn't really get out of my head. Sword's... swords, he should probably change his name, that would get old fast. Anyway, his swords obviously must have had some sort of anti-regeneration effect on them that let him stall out Lung to a point, right? So, it was his fault, not mine.
"I didn't fight him for the recognition it would bring, things like that are meaningless to me."
…Except Lung had already been defeated and healing when I had arrived, the damage dealt to him having knocked him unconscious instead of leaving lasting wounds. I hadn't thought twice about the fact that Lung's immune system might have been compromised by his defeat. Whatever Sword had done didn't last long after the fight, it was a perfect countermeasure in a way and I desperately wanted to learn more about it.
I shake my head to dispel those thoughts for now, it was remarkably easy to go off track when I was thinking about Sword. I grab a cold cup of coffee I had left on my desk and force myself to down the rest, connecting my suits systems to my computer.
And even if Sword's… swords, had a longer lasting effect, how could I expect an obviously new and clueless parahuman that didn't want to be a cape (at the time) to know proper protocol. The protocol was on my end, it was MY job to make sure things didn't get to that point and to question him about his powers. No, what almost caused Lung's death had been my tranquilizers alone. That had been simultaneously a tough pill to swallow and something that filled me with pride. It was almost certainly the realization that had I fought Lung that night, I would have won. Which allowed me the calm to make these observations. In the end, I didn't really feel like I had changed all that much, I still wanted more recognition and fame, to take my craft to a point where it would be remembered. I still wanted a legacy that would proceed me. I had given up too much to stop reaching for that now.
…but I now had an example of my own tunneled vision. My hubris almost cost me everything I had built up to this point. The Director had said if it had been worse, she might have considered asking to transfer me to Chicago. ME! The leader of this city's squad, being transferred would have destroyed my credibility in the eyes of not only my compatriots, but the public. They weren't stupid, they would know I did someth-.
I put a stop to that train of thought, I had already realized that agonizing over what I narrowly avoided won't let me avoid it again, it was horribly inefficient. I had to focus on what I could do now with the situation that had just literally exploded onto the scene. Bakuda, she had targeted Sword's civilian persona, which I knew to be a boy name Shirou Emiya. It wasn't hard to find his school records on my helmets computer system at all, as long as this information wasn't revealed to the public there was nothing actually illegal about this snooping. Especially because he had an insane bomb making Tinker gunning for him, the rules could be bent it this situation. I needed to find him, not just for his own safety, but the safety of the city itself.
From what had been gathered by the witnesses and victims, who now all needed to be quarantined until we could get in some specialist to remove the bombs in their heads. Shirou had survived the bombing attempt on his life somehow, then had been forced into an open fight against Oni-Lee. Surviving multiple point-blank explosions on the level of Bakuda's bombs was definitely a brute rating of some sort. I put that away into the fledgling profile I was making for him to review later. He was able to wound Bakuda by summoning a sword different from the white and black ones from before and shooting her. Tinker rating? Blaster rating? Or is that Striker? He was just telekinetically throwing swords so I didn't-
Moving on…
From that point on the descriptions get fanciful and flighty. Apparently, he had then conjured some sort of energy shield that resembles a flower. It had then proceeded to block the fire arms and explosives that had been shot his way, blocking even the effect of what was definitely a localize black hole. Such strength is astounding, and I again mentally file away another file named 'Requests for Sword' and add a reminder to ask to observe some of his creations. After blocking those attacks, there had been some reports of some people Shirou had been friendly with about appearing on the scene with what was reportedly a giant spider. That part made my eyebrows raise, that was probably Chrysalis, who we were also looking for, but decided against unmasking even in private. I needed to update her potential rating as well. After that, Shirou had amputated Bakuda's right leg, causing Oni-Lee and her to disengage for obvious reasons. That would normally be considered overkill and be cause to bring said parahuman in for holding, but Bakuda had attacked a Parahuman out of costume, as well as killed multiple civilians, nobody was going to criminally charge him. Shirou had then been taken away by Chrysalis and the other two along with the giant spider to somewhere unknown.
It didn't give me many clues, and no one at the time could tell me why Shirou had been at that part of the city in the first place. He had been seen beforehand apprehending Mush, which was appreciated, but that had been in the docks, which was where he was supposed to live. Apparently, his house had collapsed during the fighting between him and Lung? That makes my eye twitch, I had left a parahuman homeless. It was a wonder he wasn't just picked up right there and he had friends that could put him up. I don't know which apartment he had been staying in seeing as almost all the casualties were on that floor, otherwise I'd pull up the lease record to find out.
I didn't have many options left besides ordering all available units to keep an eye out for him. So that's what I'll do.
Although there was someone I could ask who might know a thing or two...
____________________________________________________________________________________
The holding cells of Protectorate HQ were all state of the art, specialized in that they could hold even the rowdiest of criminals for at least a short while before they are shipped off to other prisons. They weren't comparable to the Birdcage, but they served their purpose well enough. I walked down the metal pathway, passed cell after cell, most empty, besides Mush, who was sitting in the corner of his cell, reading a book while hiding away from anyone's sight.
But Mush wasn't why I was here, instead I pass his cell to the largest one all the way at the back. The one we had specially made for just this man.
Lung.
Honestly, he didn't cut much of an intimidating figure as he was, dressed in the bright orange jumpsuit of a prisoner, his mask still on his face. I idly glance at his shirtless form and the scraps of orange fabric thrown into a corner. He obviously didn't like shirts. Lung was just reading a book like Mush, the only entertainment we allowed. Maybe they'd learn something?
Doubtful.
Lung seems content to ignore me as he lays on the provided bed, continuing to read. The bastard also had the gall to lift a hand under his mask and lick a finger before turning the page. He knew I wanted something from him, and he was already using it to inflict inconveniences. My mouth pulls back tightly and I decide talking was better than just standing here.
"I want to know what exactly your plan is with Shirou Emiya, Lung" I say, keeping my voice neutral. "You ordered Bakuda to go after his civilian life, I know you did. How did you find him?"
"…Oh, it's you," Lung says, voice deep and lowering his book to glance over at me through his mask's eyeholes. "Did you come to stop my heart again? Sorry to say, but I doubt that will work a second time. Not that your career would survive a second time anyway."
Of course, he also knew about my reprimanding, why wouldn't he? We very desperately needed to scrub some of our personnel for ties to the gangs.
"That's not what I asked," I respond with, gritting my teeth at my already fraying patience. "You should know what actions like that cause Lung, Bakuda is going to get a kill order at this rate, and then your entire gang is going to be buried. If you want any chance at a lighter sentence, you'll play ball with me."
"Hn," Lung huffs, seemingly amused about something. I couldn't begin to understand what the hell drove this man beyond a love of control. "You assume I fear your prisons, I do not. You assume I fear your heroes, I do not." I watch Lung like a hawk as he slowly drops his book and gets off his bed, approaching the forcefield that keeps him locked away. We would use a shock collar too if it didn't risk activating his power. His masked face gets close to the blue field, hands pressing against the wall tightly. To me, he seemed more beast than man at this moment, small embers burning in his eyes. It's then that I realize he wasn't as calm as I thought he had been acting. "Bakuda is just a means to an end in this situation. A vehicle if you will, the precursor to what will be my greatest moment."
I narrow my eyes; I could do without all the flowery language.
"…Breaking free?" I guess, unable to see what this lunatic was talking about. Not that he'd be going anywhere of course.
"Retaking my fear," Lung responds. "From the one who stole it from me."
I raise an eyebrow, because that was all I can do. I feel as though I'm missing some context here. But if it kept him talking, maybe he might say something worthwhile?
"That…'child'," Lung continues when he sees I'm paying attention. "Is no child, he descended on me from above and tore me apart like a beast of legend. And when I was forced to swallow my pride and try to run? He tore my hope away and showed me I was still alive through his grace alone!" His skin glows orange as he obviously starts to activate his charge, but it wouldn't do anything unless we attacked. "I was humiliated, more than that, I was afraid! I swore to myself a long time ago, I'd never die, I'd never lose, and I'd never bow my head again to anyone!"
"Shirou Emiya…." He hisses the name he by no rights should know with hate clear, smoke leaving his lips. "The one man that made me fear, and the one who stole the fear of me from others by laying me low."
"I'll crush him utterly, destroy everything he has, and reclaim the fear he stole from me." Lung says, suddenly calmer, but that only seemed to give an even greater menace to his words. "His swords will be mounted on my wall. And when our battle is over and I shove his corpse on top of that bug girl, only then I will be satisfied…"
"You're talking about a clueless kid…" I say, but my words actually sound very weak for once, even to my own ears. I was just uncomfortable with how utterly obsessed Lung sounds.
"He's NOT a child!" Lung roars through the forcefield, his mask pressing directly against it in a manic fury. He then takes a few calming breaths, stepping away from the forcefield and towards his bed. Taking a seat, he regards me, deathly serious from his eyes alone. "…But you will see what I saw, when the time comes. When he and I stand face to face again in Brockton Bay, I'll show you what I'm talking about."
"You won't be leaving this cell unless it's on a trip to the Birdcage. Even then, you'll be asleep for it." I say back when he insinuates he's going to escape. "You aren't going anywhere."
"Won't I?" He asks with a rumble to his throat; I could hear the grin. Just then I can hear something, multiple dull booms that vibrate the ground even deep in HQ like I was. I turn away from Lung and quickly check the built-in audio receivers in my helmet.
"Status!" I order to anyone that might be listening. The line is silent for a second and I contemplate asking again before Hannah suddenly cuts in.
"Collin, the entire downtown district has lost power!" She tells me, making my blood run cold as I slowly turn my head to Lung, who was staring right at me. "There are explosions ripping through the docks, we- we need to get out there now! The Director is recalling the Wards from PRT headquarters and we need to run search and rescue!" More explosions, closer this time on her end. She was probably on the deck of HQ, watching this happen. When had Bakuda set this up? It had to be before she confronted Shirou, right?
"On my way," I say, almost losing my voice. Hannah gives her acknowledgement and cuts the line, all while I stare at Lung. No, this absolute monster in human form. But I find my will a moment later, this had been a bad idea. The only thing I accomplished was getting the slightest bit intimidated by Lung's insane ramblings. I push that away and turn to exit the cell block with all my haste.
I could feel Lung's eyes burning into my back as I left.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
-Alec's POV-
Euphoria fills my veins again, this high almost reaching the heights of the very first one I ever had. But I was careful, I know just how dangerous this was. It had almost killed me when I first experienced it, my brain just unable to handle the dopamine release it had gotten at that time. My bottom lip is bit into by my teeth, using the pain to hold back simply because I was in the presence of my team and a few extra's.
A solid punch to my jaw knocks me out of my psychedelic experience and out of my chair next. I fall to the floor of the Undersider's loft, my face landing on the floor face first. I hear Lisa curse and see two of her shaking her hand and standing above me. Damn, she had a better right hook then I thought...
"Come on..." I groan from the floor "You don't have any proof."
"You were drooling," Taylor says, voice low. I wasn't looking at her but I could tell she probably wasn't making the friendliest face. Probably because she had punched me just as hard a bit earlier when I was a bit more open with my intrusions into Shirou's body. But it's really not my fault! You couldn't dangle a piece of wagyu beef in front of a starving man and not expect him to go for it! I wasn't even hurting him either! "Do it again and I'm going to feed you to Matty."
She actually sounded serious this time. Which was worth noting, because it was clear her mood was absolutely plummeting if talking about the spider didn't make her look all googly-eyed.
Right, the giant spider that had followed us home... It was surprisingly easy to get it into the loft through a skylight. Scared the shit out of Rachel and her dogs, all three of the main ones being huddled in a corner in the living room. Whimpering at 'Matty' while Bitch seemed half aggressive and half intrigued. So only half as annoying as usual, that was a half a win in my books. If she wasn't preoccupied with keeping her dogs calm, she'd probably be inspecting the spider with how she couldn't seem to decide how she wanted to react to it.
'Matty' (Seriously, what a lame name) was minding its own business in another corner, its glowing red eyes were blinking independently of each other while it's head swivels around, looking at... things. It was surprisingly docile for a monster, definitely could understand human speech though. I didn't need more proof of that when it had refused to let me ride it with the others on the way here. Probably because I called it ugly.
It's not my fault it's ugly. Cool, but very, very ugly.
"I don't think you can convince it to do that." I say from the floor, making the love sick dweeb glare at me with all the force of an angry kitten. Seriously, she wasn't scary at all. Taylor had been trying to feed the damned thing ever since we arrived, whenever she wasn't fussing over the doctor and Shirou, who was currently getting his ribs set and binded. It wasn't interested in any of the food we had clearly.
"Don't deflect," Brian says from the kitchen table, helmet on. He had been in a bad mood since we arrived, for obvious reasons, but not any I cared about. Lisa had done her thing and convinced him to let Shirou and Taylor get some medical attention from the good doc that daddy shadow boss had in his pocket. They all technically owed the sword cape a favor anyway. Brian itches at the big welts that covered his form, curtesy of Kid Win earlier in the day. All of us besides Circus, looked a bit worse off than we'd like. That bank job didn't quite go as well as he'd hoped. Oh, Brian was still talking to me, right? "You know the rules, I don't care if your only looking, unless the guy gives you his permission, quit it."
"Ugh..." I grunt, pushing myself off the ground and rubbing my jaw, glaring lightly at Lisa who just glares right back at me. She was covered in even more bandages than before, her head wrapped up at the top to stop the bleeding that had been staining her hair. Geez, she should just jump the guy and get it over with at this point. Though Taylor might have an issue with that. "Fine... I'll ask next time"
"I'd rather you just not," Lisa says again, before sitting back down on her chair, pulled up to the expensive white leather couch that Shirou had been coughing up blood on since he arrived. The man of the Hour hadn't said much or asked much yet since he arrived, probably just trying to get through the treatment as fast as possible. Was kind of a waste of a good couch that had served me well, but you had to make sacrifices sometimes to get what you wanted. I go to return to my seat, but that bitch Circus takes the moment to just pop over and steal it. Or is it Bastard? Why hadn't I checked yet? I easily could…
But did I actually care what Circus was packing? Not really, He/She was an asshole, that was my schtick.
Circus idly flicks one of her butterfly knives around in one hand while precariously balancing on the two back legs of the chair, she had got into costume the moment we arrived, not wanting Shirou or Taylor to know her secret Identity. Brian was of the same mind, while Rachel didn't see the point seeing as where we lived was now known, which I agreed with far more. Why waste the effort? Rachel was more concerned about 'Matty'.
"You done yet Doc? I'd like if this guy stopped ruining the couch I just got comfortable on" Circus asks, sounding bored with just sitting around. She had only been marginally interested in the re-telling of the last hours events, more interested in trying to poke Shirou on his face as he was being worked on to everyone's annoyance. Not mine, I was too busy surfing along those wacky blue nerves that appeared when he used his powers. I couldn't actually move them around funnily enough, but when they appear I can sort of just… ride the path so to speak, I could latch on to one and just get dragged along the wildest ride of my life. God, I wanted to do it again, but my jaw probably wouldn't take another right hook.
"Just about," the aged and balding doctor that Lisa had called over says wearily. I didn't even know his actual name I idly realize, then I decide it's obviously not worth knowing if I didn't already know it. "I had actually come a bit over prepared, when you said you were caught in an explosion, I was expecting things like missing limbs or shrapnel extraction."
I take that moment to walk around the couch and lean against the back, holding my head up with a hand on my chin. Shirou glances up at me and away from where he was staring at his left hand. Lowering it to the cushions below while Doc steps away. I smirk, eye's going lidded in mirth at his utterly clueless face. This was a guy I'd have fun messing with, he made it so easy, and that was the best part honestly. I'm actually glad I convinced Lisa to let me come with her today, even with almost getting caught in a mass terrorism attack.
"Are you disappointed?" Lisa asks the Doc with a tired stare that didn't hide her sudden annoyance with the doctor's question. Said Doc realizes this, before hurriedly apologizing to the girl half his age. Lisa doesn't change how she was looking at him though. "If you're done, you can go."
The Doctor nods repeatedly, quickly gathering his materials and equipment and leaving through the front door, leaving us all in an admittedly awkward silence that killed my vibe really quick. Damn, are we about to talk about serious shit? That's not nearly as fun as messing around like I have been. There wasn't any avoiding it though, Taylor looked like she was about to finally explode now that the doctor was gone. Lisa see's this and speaks to cut her off.
"Now that-," She begins, only for Taylor to cut back in return, not even giving her the chance.
"Have you been a criminal this whole time Lisa?" Taylor demands, standing straight up out of her chair and staring at Lisa with barely held back fury. Matty seems to have noticed the tone as well, as his red eyes turn to regard the argument himself while otherwise staying put in his corner. But that wasn't the bug everyone was looking at; no, we were more concerned with the seemingly endless hoard that was gathering at the windows. As well as from every dark nook and cranny in the living room that I had convinced Brian, I've totally been cleaning for the last few weeks. "Did Shirou know that?? Or did you neglect to mention it to him?"
"L-Look, you need to just calm down a little." Lisa starts, her expression tightening into one of frustration. "You should understand by now that I'm not your enemy here."
"There is a lot that I thought I understood, most of that got thrown in the toilet today!" Taylor hisses back. "On top of all that, you turn out to be a criminal. How am I just supposed to ignore that? Shirou is an idiot and trusts anybody who's nice to him and others. So, it's my job to make sure he doesn't get in over his head!"
"…And you've been doing a great job of it recently haven't you?" Lisa asks back, tone suddenly biting as her frustration starts to peak. I glance back down at Shirou who manages to only look slightly insulted at Taylor's words. Taylor looks like she had been slapped, reeling back at staring at Lisa with opened mouth shock. It seems to even make the bugs recede back as if spooked. Running back from the dark places they came from.
"I'm responsible for my own actions." Shirou cuts in, ironically cutting the growing tension like a knife. Or would it be sword? A bladed instrument of some kind then? The idiot (Taylor's words, not mine) slowly sits up leaning against the back of the couch. I decide to actually be helpful and steady him with a hand on his shoulder, resisting the slight urge to take another ride on those special pathways. Taylor and Lisa both turn to him, mouths open to speak and probably disagree. Lisa because she apparently had Shirou on some kind of pedestal in her mind, and Taylor because she was so down bad that it was actually painful to watch. But Shirou doesn't let them, probably to keep them from arguing further. "I fought Lung, I revealed my face without a thought, it was me that led them to your apartment Lisa, and it's my fault the people who died, died. If you two are looking for someone to blame and be angry with, I'm right here."
Taylor and Lisa both look chagrined at him taking all the blame for tonight's actions, but surprisingly it wasn't either of them who spoke up.
"I think you're taking a bit too much onto your shoulders." Brian speaks up from his spot, joining the conversation it seems. Shirou turns to regard him with a quirked brow and polite stare of expectation. "It's pretty idiotic to take the blame for something you didn't do. You didn't make Bakuda set up those bombs or set them off. Those were clearly her own choices, choices that are going to bite her in the ass once the other gangs in town hear about it. Shit like this, it's bad for business."
"The other gangs are going to do something about it…?" Taylor asks, clearly not realizing how amateurish it made her look. It exposed something to all of us, that she really had no idea how organized and rule driven the underworld was, or how not black and white life actually was. But at least the surprise had replaced her anger for the moment. "I… thought that was reserved for like, Endbringers."
"It's bad for business if a villain makes too much noise. Brings attention that the rest of us have to deal with. An actual terrorist attack? Villains have banded together for far less."
"Heroes too," Circus adds, apparently it was our turn to contribute to the conversation. Her painted face scrunching up at what looks like a distasteful memory. "Doesn't happen often, but truces do actually happen. I don't think this is serious enough to warrant that yet though…" She then gives Shirou and Taylor meaningful if slightly wary looks. "A truce kind of like what we're doing right now, right? This IS a truce? You aren't going to sell out our base to the authorities? I just moved in and would hate to move again so soon."
"We won't," Shirou says, resolutely enough that even I sort of believe him from the get go. "…We aren't allies, my only concerns are Taylor and Lisa, others are just secondary. It's no offense to any of you, but that's just how it is. I'm very grateful for your help though, and the fact that Lisa has some people who care for her well-being. Turning you in would be the same as turning her in." He stops and then fixes Circus with steely stare. "…Don't make it my problem and it won't become a problem."
Brian turns his helmeted head towards Lisa, who lifts a hand to her face and covers her eyes with such ease it must have been a common reaction to Shirou saying words in general.
"He's telling the truth, I trust him Brian, I wouldn't have brought him here if I didn't."
"What about her?" Brian asks, motioning towards Taylor, who was looking immensely conflicted. Probably because her boytoy said something she found cute and dangerous. Or at least, that's my guess.
Lisa looks sourly at Taylor; the start of the cat fight they almost had still on her mind apparently. But she slowly shakes her head after a second of watching the girl squirm.
"She doesn't have the guts to do it."
"W-What?!" Taylor demands, matching Lisa's sour look and bringing it up to eleven.
"That's not necessarily a she won't do it," I chime in, just to see if I can push the girl a little farther. Shirou gives me an unappreciative look at my comment. Hey man, this is just how I have my fun sometimes. Is Lisa the only one allowed to push people's buttons? Though she hadn't really done much of that today, probably because the flying brick had actually beaten the ever-living shit out of her in that bank. It had been useful as hell to the rest of us and was honestly pretty fucking metal of Lisa to just take that beating to keep her off our backs. I partially think Brian had agreed to let us in so fast just because he still felt that bad about it.
"Fine, she won't," Lisa groans out with more certainty this time.
"…I won't" Taylor eventually agrees, looking glum now. "There are bigger problems to worry about."
"Good to know you aren't as naïve as you look!" Circus taunts Taylor, who shoulders tighten in agitation at the clown. Like I said, Circus is an asshole, even though it was funny. "So how much longer are these two and the spider sticking around? No offense, but I'd feel a whole lot better about sleeping if the guy that the crazy bomber woman wants to get her hands on isn't here?"
"I don't think it matters," Lisa says, sinking into her wooden chair and finally looking like she was done with the day. "She saw mine, Taylor's, and Alec's faces and what kind of tinker doesn't have a recorder in their helmets? I'm not stepping outside unless it's in costume until she's dealt with. If Taylor goes home and someone follows her-."
"Dad…" Taylor mutters, suddenly looking horrified and worried. Must be nice to have a dad you gave a shit about.
"-Yeah, she gets it, I don't have to say anything more."
"I can figure something out," Shirou says confidently. "If Taylor could at least stay here while I deal with Bakuda, I'd be in your debt."
"How exactly are you going to deal with Bakuda, Shirou?" Lisa, who was looking like a limp pile of limbs at this point, asks. "You're going to be laid out for at least a month with broken ribs. Get used to that couch because you aren't leaving it for a while."
"I'll be up in a week then, at most," Shirou says confidently. "I also have some skill in tracking."
"…You actually believe that? Do you have some sort of regeneration power you've neglected to mention?" Lisa asks, glaring at him with tired eyes. "Of course you can also do that, why wouldn't you be able to? Now I'm tired and I want to go to sleep."
"I-I should call my dad…" Taylor adds, looking like she was dreading the phone call. "I don't know what to tell him…"
"I guess their staying then," Brian sighs out roughly, before standing up out of his chair. "One of them can take my room and the other can use the couch, I'm going to head home. No offence, I'd rather my identity not get known by you two."
"I apologize for the inconvenience." Shirou immediately says, bowing quickly while seated and definitely pulling something from how his face twists from polite to sudden agony. I could have stopped him, but would he have learned anything if I did? I'm such a good friend.
"You don't need to- fine, thanks for the apology I suppose."
"My costume is too easy to put on for it to be a hassle for me to stay in, just… knock on the bathroom door before entering right?" Circus adds, also standing and preparing to skip to her room. I roll my eyes, like anyone wanted to see that on purpose. Rachel, who had been completely content to just let everyone else work this out, grunts and whistles to her three dogs. She gives both Shirou and Taylor wary stares before moving to leave outside. Was that the feeding time whistle or the bathroom time whistle? I didn't remember, but that pondering makes me remember the final elephant in the room.
Or should I say spider?
"Hey…" I speak up finally, reminding everyone I was here. That's how it usually worked with big team meetings and I was ok with that. It was a hassle to involve myself more than necessary. But in this case, I needed to remind them. "So what's the consensus on 'Matty' here?"
Every head in the room turns to face the eight red eyes of the silent and observing monster. I idly notice that its glow was now less of a florescent glowing green, and more of a flickering green Christmas light. Matty meets our stares with one of its own, its fangs wiggling in what felt like curiosity to me.
"We should probably kill it." Shirou immediately suggests and even I have to do a double take at how quick that suggestion had come from his mouth. I mean, that was pretty ruthless and maybe I should have expected that from someone I just saw cut a woman's whole leg off. And who didn't even seem the slightest bit perturbed about it. I wasn't disgusted or anything by the suggestion, just surprised.
"We can't do that!" Taylor shouts, her vigor and fear doing a power swap as she comes to the big spider's defense. Honestly, I should probably do the same, the thing did save me from a gooey slime filled death. While I wasn't attached, I could appreciate the fact that it didn't have to save my life considering Taylor claimed she could connect to it, but not control it.
"You said you couldn't control it Taylor," Shirou reminds, frowning at her panicked response. "We don't exactly know what caused this besides an overdose on Ma-… My power." I notice Lisa perk up slightly at his slip of the tongue. She only perks up more when Shirou notices and actually seems worried that she did. "We can't just let it roam around on its own but we also can't control it, we also have nowhere to keep it and no idea what it eats."
"…I got to agree with Taylor here," I speak, making Shirou's frown grow just a touch annoyed that nobody seemed to be taking his side. "We can figure out what it eats eventually right? And the big thing obviously is intelligent, this isn't the same thing as putting a dog down, no offence Rachel."
"Skinny's right," Rachel speaks up for the first time and giving me the stink eye. Looking back into the room from the hallway, she looks at Matty like she had been this whole talk before clicking her tongue and turning to the greater group. She almost seemed a bit hesitant, which wasn't normal for her. "…I could keep him at my kennel for a little while, I'm pretty sure he doesn't eat dogs now."
Had that been what she was trying to figure out? How could she even be sure of that? Shirou seemed surprised Rachel, who he had just met, was talking on behalf of Matty at all. His frown lessens, but he looks far from convinced. And we had to convince him, because if he had zero qualms with maiming Bakuda for life, he'd probably be able to do much worse to a big inhuman monster spider.
"That's only a shallow fix to a deeper problem," Shirou explains.
"I also vote to let the big obviously intelligent monster spider that saved my life, live" Lisa adds her own two cents into the mix. "-And if you don't want him that bad, I'm sure my team could get a lot of use out of a giant mutant spider."
"H-He's not yours!" Taylor interrupts, possessiveness infecting her panic and making something a bit special. "Me and Shirou made him, so he's a part of our team! T-That you're not a part of!"
"You still don't know what it eats." Brian adds, his voice a bit flat while he continues to prepare to leave for the night. He had grabbed a coat not to dissimilar to the one he wears with his costume. I don't understand his sense of fashion and I don't try to.
Shirou however visibly mulls something over that only he-
Oh right, Lisa was in the room.
"You have an idea about what he eats right? Well, spit it out?" Lisa says, staring at Shirou who actually looks a bit fed up with Lisa's power. Her face however returns his look with a plucky grin. It eventually wins, and Shirou allows his shoulders to visibly slump. Wordlessly he raises his right hand and summons one of his swords, it was pretty I guess, a bit boring looking. Some kind of one-handed European sword that had no unnecessary ornaments. The unnecessary ornaments were the best part of a sword in my opinion.
Matty's eyes seem to light up in anticipation and once again I see the disgusting sight of the spider's mouth coming apart and stretching side-ways. Shirou grimaces, before tossing the blade in a slow arch at the spider. It scuttles to its full height and grabs the sword out of the air by extending its jaw like a dragonfly. Circus visibly cringes away at the loud snapping sound made by its jaw snapping closed on the blade. Amazingly, the sword lasts for more than a few moments of Matty's chewing before it cracks audibly. The sword shatters a few seconds later in its mouth and like a switch had been flipped, its green glow resumes as if it hadn't gone away. The spider itself also just looked more alert than before.
Interestingly enough, I watch Shirou seem much more relieved than he had been a moment ago.
"Happy?" I have to ask, because he wanted this thing dead a moment ago.
"Not really," Shirou says back to me to everyone's open confusion. "...But I suppose this means if it gets out of hand, I can just stop feeding it."
"Your power makes absolutely no sense..." Lisa grumbles, actually having enough for the night. I could see it in her shoulders as she forces herself up with a wince. "It's been a long day; I think we can talk more about this tomorrow. Who agrees?"
I'm unsurprised when no one disagrees, wordlessly everyone begins to disperse, ready to move off on their own. As I turn and leave the living room, I catch a glimpse of Circus as she rounds the corner, a phone in hand. Oh? I wonder who it was that she actually needed to talk to so late. I file that information away for later though and stretch my aching body when I enter my room. Sore from not only the copious amount of use my power got earlier in the day, but the excitement of the later half too.
I don't bother undressing and just flop myself onto my bed face first. I had expected today to be wild even without that shit show at the bank. I was proven right of course, very right. I lift a hand to my chest as I flip onto my back tracing where I could sense Shirou's nerves but on my own body. I was a simple guy I liked to think, I lived for what I found interesting and nothing else, anything beyond that was meaningless.
Shirou Emiya, throughout all of today, has convinced me of a few things.
One, is that he was a killer, a true killer, someone who could slaughter dozens of people without pause. He wasn't unfeeling, not exactly, but I could see it in his eyes.
Two, the single-minded devotion to Lisa and Taylor wasn't some kind of secret master effect that either of them had, Shirou was just crazy or something.
And three, Shirou Emiya was not a parahuman, the mental map of his body I had been able to make in the last few hours showing a completely unmarked brain. Something that every parahuman I had ever mapped out that possessed a brain, lacked.
I wasn't sure what he was really, he could be some monster from another world or maybe even an actual alien? I didn't think about it to hard because in the end I don't think I really cared about that. No, what I cared about was seeing more. Which meant that I planned on sticking around him of course. Beyond his uniqueness, I wanted to see something I think he could show me. Was it really possible to live your life for someone else like he clearly was doing? To live without ego? Shit like that sounded fucking impossible to me. It would be interesting to watch if nothing else.
I stop tracing my own chest, before sinking into my pillow, making sure I didn't sleep on my stitches.
Though it would be easier to sleep if the city outside would just stop exploding...
Wait.