18

Brave 3.7

"Are you ready? You're the bad guy. And when you're bad, you just run. That's fine, right? Well... Shall we go?"

- Majora

-April 05, 2011, Coil's base-

My communicator rang and I slowly picked it up. "Hello." I manage to mutter. 

"Maeve!" Taylor almost shouted in my ear. "Are you okay?" She's clearly worried about me, breathing deeply I reply. "Yeah, I'm fine. A bit stuck in Coil's base at the moment. I'll see if Belle can hack the system, lock the mercenaries and I'll join you up top." My voice doesn't sound too strained to my ears, but I hope that Taylor doesn't notice or comment on it. I really don't want to talk about how empty I feel at the moment. Thankfully she doesn't comment on it and says,

"Shit, look, stay where you are and don't leave. Lung is tearing apart the commercial district." She's serious, my mind starts to wake up and pay attention. Behind her I hear the sounds of crackling fires, the buzzing of insects and the cursing of several men as something breaks cement and stone.

" Fuck. " Is all I think as anger fills the void inside me. "Weaver, I-" the room shakes and I instinctively place my body on top of Emily's so as to protect her from debris. The dots finally connect in my mind, Coil wasn't the threat. I look around and spy a small camera, the room shakes again and I draw out the fire rod. 

"Weaver, get everyone out of there. No matter what, make sure no parahumans are there." I ordered, my eyes scanning for a secret exit or something, I really didn't want to fight that monster in an enclosed space.

"Maeve, what's going on?" Taylor asks, noticing the shift in tone. The alarm starts blaring, Coil must've left this as a last resort, if the bombs didn't kill whoever killed him Noelle would.

"Endbringer, no time, keep the parahumans away from here, she'll clone them and then we're fucked." I shouted at her before cutting off communication. I clap my hands and touch the ground, the walls break down as a tunnel is formed, several stones break as I make a tunnel to escape Noelle. I grab Emily, she puts her arms around my neck and I move. The room breaks as Echidna screams in anger. 

"I'LL KILL YOU!" She screams as I try to run away from her. Dozens of mercenaries spawn from her monstrous body and give chase. I aim the fire rod behind me and use it until it's spent. They scream as their bodies burn, but continue pursuing me. I hit the asphalt running and don't stop until I see Miss Militia.

"Get her to safety, and sound the damn endbringer alert, now!" I order her and before she can respond Echidna breaks through the tunnel and into the streets. I look into my slate, deku nuts, Fi, the ocarina and the mask are all I have outside of its rune weapons.

Echidna roars as a new head sprouts from her torso, a maw with no eyes and what seemed to be hundreds of sharp teeth bit into a ABB thug. I could hear the sound of his bones being crunched, I hoped he had died before she ate him. She saw me and her eyes grew empty.

" DIE!!!!!! " She roared with such force that broke the glass of the nearby buildings. Her giant body grew arms and grabbed everything and everyone it could as it attempted to rush me. 

"I'm sorry." I said softly, not for Noelle. I had made my peace with killing her and trickster, but for everyone she had killed. I snapped my fingers and lit her on fire, she recoiled in pain for a moment before beginning to charge again. I pressed my hands to the ground and spikes tore into her body, she continued ignoring it as she tried to kill me.

Miss Militia fired several explosive rounds to Echidna and chunks of charred flesh fell. She roared in pain as Militia and I used as much as we could to keep her pinned down and under fire. Problem was, she was regenerating, faster than we could hurt her. The bodies near her were disappearing, she was using them as fuel. Inch by inch she was getting closer. 

That was when I heard buzzing, it was faint at first, then it suddenly wasn't. Imagine standing next to a jet engine, now multiply it by a hundred and you'd have a decent approximation of the swarm Taylor had brought. It descended on Echidna like the wrath of God, billions of bugs tearing, dying, coming back to life and dying again. 

A smaller swarm formed near me and took Taylor's shape, it said. " You escape now ." I nodded and Militia grabbed Emily, we ran to a car and Militia hotwired it with surprising ease. Not even bothering to see if we had our seat belts she rammed the accelerator and we ran.

"So Coil is dead, and that thing was something he was keeping hidden." I said preempting her questions. She didn't even look at me as she asked,l

"Did you kill him?" Her tone was clipped and cold. 

" Ah, right, a former child soldier. I really should've started with the fact that he took Emily. Oh well… " I think before answering. "Yes." She sighs, I can feel her stress rising before she almost bites out,

"I should arrest you, but I have the feeling that you would just take over the birdcage."

"That's an accurate picture of the future." I said with no hint of sarcasm. Behind us Echidna finally broke free of the swarm and was beginning to pursue us. I took a stone and deliberately overcharged it, climbed out the passenger window and threw it. The Sheikah slate froze it mid air as Echidna walked into it. The explosion gouged a piece of her body out and scarred her face. She screamed for my blood and I breathed believing I was safe.

The ground shook as Lung in his dragon form fought Dragon, Armasmaster, Triumph and Velocity were there as well, aiding her. They weren't really doing much beside keeping him in check, and I silently cursed. "Keep Emily safe, please." I asked Militia and jumped out of the car before she could respond. I sighed and shouted.

"Hey fuckers! We have a damn problem, a nascent endbringer that eats biological matter is heading our way, everyone get the fuck out of this city!" None of them even reacted at my voice, fuck. Using alchemy I made a stone fist, and had it grab Lung's leg as Dragon shot missiles at him. He roared in pain and glared at me.

"Maeve! You are under-" Armsmaster started saying when a roar was heard, it came from below the earth and I quickly jumped back as one of Noelle's tentacles tried to grab me. 

" Fuck, she's recovered already? " I mentally cursed as more of the ground began to give way. 

"Fucking hell, Noelle. What will it take for you to die?" I barked out, creating dozens of chains and having them nail the tentacles and other body parts into the ground and the nearby buildings. Lung broke free of my grip and blasted Noelle with flames hot enough that even at this distance I could feel as if they were next to me. My tiredness faded as the temperature around me dropped. I smelled the burnt carcasses before Lung's flame attack stopped. She was charred, her body breaking down.

" Too easy. " Lung said in broken Chinese, Noelle shook as a single tendril covered in white bone like armor struck like lightning. Not at me, but at Lung, I tried to get there on time, Velocity intercepted me. The fool doomed us all.

Lung screamed as the tendril broke the scales on his stomach and pulled him in. The ground snake beneath the combined weight of the two monsters and I was on the floor, tears running down my face. We were doomed and they didn't even know it.

"You idiot! Why did you stop me?" I cried, as I managed to shake Velocity off.

"Did you want to be stabbed?" He asked and the ground shook.

"No, you damn idiot. She just ate fucking Lung!" I shouted, as more of the ground shook, the nearby buildings weren't looking stable either, Dragon put her hand on Velocity's shoulder and asked,

"What do you mean?" Resisting the desire to bash their heads in with my knowledge I opted to explain in the nicest way I could think of.

"Long story short, she's what can be classified as a broken trigger, her power is incomplete. If it was she could've controlled herself, but unfortunately she missed that. Her power is absorption and copying any biological thing, her power is also changing her mind to a more malevolent state. Unfortunately she blames me for screwing her chances at a cure for her condition, which really doesn't have a cure." I bitterly said, part of me wished to cure Noelle, but I didn't have that. The only one who could potentially do that is Amy and she can't get close to her without causing an incident that would make Ellisburg look like a tea party.

"How do you know all of this?" Armsmaster asked, I glared at him and replied.

"If I told you the truth, you wouldn't believe me. So instead I'll tell you this, right now she's copying Lung, I have no idea how long we have until an army of them comes crawling out of the sewers, so get as many people out of Brockton now and come help me as soon as you can." I could already hear the swarm of mini lungs crawling upwards, they would kill everyone and grow more powerful by the hour. 

"What do you mean?" Triumph finally asked, his voice remarkably lower than I expected. Then again I had only met him as Dinah's cousin…

" Fuck I forgot Dinah! " I realized and looked into my communicator as a single message from Danny that read; {Your friend Dinah was dropped with me by a prt woman. She said that while you are the cause for her headaches she believes in the golden path. Please call as soon as possible.} I stared at the screen, my heartbeat calming down, 

" Oh Fortuna… Let us see if the goddess of luck shines for me. " 

"I mean that I'll hold them off until you get some heavy ordinance, go I'll handle Echidna." I ordered them and before they could refuse a malformed clone of Lung appeared. Looking closer to a silver killer croc than a dragon it screeched and hissed as it tried to attack. 

(Let us fight together, master) Fi said as I drew her. One single step was all I needed to drive the Master Sword into its chest. It faintly glowed blue for a moment before being coated in crimson. More Lung clones began to be summoned and from the edge of my vision I saw the heroes begin to fight back. Shaking my head I used one of the circles in my boots to form a stone barrier between them.

"I thought I told you to go, you'll just end up holding me back. Get the civilians far away, I'll hold them off." I said as I methodologically began to kill Lung. I sliced off his head, tore his heart out, made him into a bloody mist, it was a constant flow of violence. I was draining their heat to fuel my body, they were relentless, and yet I wouldn't stop. I fully ignored the heroes as they ran, I couldn't understand what they said as they left but I could feel what they meant.

"We'll be back." 

That's what I believe they said. And I chose to trust that as I began once again swinging Fi.

-April 06, 12:00pm, Brockton Bay-

Taylor PoV

It had been a day and Marie kept fighting. Hundreds of clones of Lung, thousands of clones of civilians and my own insects all dead as she seemed to be dancing with a sword. Tattletale had barely managed to convince me to not try and get to her. Belle hadn't returned from her search for civilians, while the main force of Lung and Echidna was in the commercial district some parts of it had broken off and started to attack the rest of the city.

They weren't the strongest, a few thousand bites and they died, yet they were effectively infinite. And we weren't. The problem remained the same as yesterday until we found Echidna, we couldn't do much. 

"Marie…" Emily said looking at the screen, the girl had been brought in by Belle and hadn't left the console since she arrived. A piece of me wanted to tell her to go home, but given that her home was near ground zero, I resisted the urge.

"So any luck on finding Echidna?" Tattletale asked me. Unfortunately wherever Echidna was it was too hot for my insects to get close and given that she had spread that temperature all around the district, pinpointing her location was next to impossible. Still I had some hope given the fact that I had some very lucky beetles following the paths where the Lungs were coming from.

"It's just a matter of time." I replied, Tattletale, no… Lisa frowned at me, before stating "She's not going to make it. Not unless she has a trump card or something." 

"Don't underestimate her Tattletale." Emily said before I could, Tattletale's eyes glowed with some mild amusement at the belief. I merely nodded along with Emily. Marie couldn't die, I couldn't lose someone else. The door above us opened and Belle walked down, her suit was barely hanging on her body as she made her way downstairs.

"It is done." She mechanically mentioned her glowing as she made her way down to the floor. "There are no more civilians in Brockton Bay outside of Danny and Emily. The PRT has managed to scramble together a plan as well, they'll send in as much firepower as the government allows to crush Echidna."

"Shit." Tattletale was the first to comment on what we all thought.

"Indeed, furthermore this body is too damaged to help and the improved model won't be available until tomorrow at earliest." Belle added, bitterness adorning her tone. Marie screamed in pain as she was kicked into her wall by a clone of Lung. 

My swarm responded immediately and flew down to help her, various Lungs raised their faces to the sky and spewed flames, roasting them. It bought her a second, and she drew out an Ocarina, deep purple and played a melody.

Light seemed to come out of the instrument and Marie smiled. Soon after there was a storm above the commercial district, water and lightning rained down on the clone army. 

"Tattletale… Did my cousin just…" I began saying before Tattletale just looked at me straight in the eyes and said 

"I told you her power is bullshit."

"Just how?" I wondered aloud as the rest of the undersiders and Amy arrived. The endbringer truce was unofficially in effect and so Amy didn't have much of a problem, especially after Belle had convinced her. I didn't share Marie's trust in the biotinker, but I certainly understood why she trusted Amy.

"Listen to my song…" Emily whispered as she smiled for the first time. I was about to ask when I saw Echidna's main body.

"Found her." I said with a vicious smile adorning my face. I wrote down the coordinates and handed them to Tattletale and Belle. While both of them figured out a way to kill Echidna I would aid Marie, I focused on the various arthropods across Brockton, and I felt them all, focusing them into a single objective I sent them to their very likely demise. I could see from a million different eyes my cousins tearing her way across the army of clones. Slower, weaker than before and yet no less deadly.

" Hold on Marie… I'm coming to save you. " I thought to myself as a hundred brown recluse spiders bit into the mouths of the Lung clones.

"Thank you, sis." Marie muttered, her body barely avoiding getting hit again as she almost drunkenly swung her sword which glowed blue before cutting open Lung.

Marie PoV

How long has it been since the heroes departed? An hour? A day? A minute? My body was aching, my vision was wavering and Echidna still wouldn't show. I needed to draw her out, somehow.

"You know Noelle," I said in a tone that oozed with confidence I didn't have. "Krouse is going to die after you." I could almost hear her mind realizing that I knew who they were and what meant for them. If I hadn't been drop dead tired I probably would've tried something different, because had I known that a pair of 20 foot Lungs would suckered punch me into a building I definitely wouldn't have taunted her. The sheikah slate hung loosely from my left hand as my right held Fi. Her blade itself had small gouges and scratches decorating it, I felt bad about it. I couldn't beat them, I needed more strength. As if answering my prayer I felt the Fierce Deity mask call out to me. 

My masks slipped off as I pulled out the Fierce Deity Mask from the slate. My heartbeat raced as I placed it on my face.

" AAAAHHHHHHH!!! " I screamed as my body shook. Bones snapped and were remade, my skin felt too tight as it was forced to grow within a second, muscles, blood, everything stretched and was molded anew. Fi shone with a blue light as I felt my heart almost tear itself from my chest, which when I looked down made me blink. So it seemed that I wouldn't really have to worry about that for a whole.

" Look at me, still the same idiot as ever. " I jokingly thought to myself as Lung's giant clawed fist came at me, I frowned and swung my blade at it. The giant twin helix sword sent out a cutting wave that sliced his arm in half. Holstering Fi I rushed the false dragon and drove my blade into its skull. Soon after the second one tried to attack me as lightning fell on him stunning him briefly so I could send another cutting wave at him.

"It's time to finish this." My voice… It sounds so close to mother's.

" I couldn't agree more. " A monstrous voice bellowed from the depths of the earth. Echidna rose, her body a gross mockery of flesh and scales. Lung's dragon-like face had grown out of her left shoulder, her once human-like features were stretched out across her normal head, like a mask that was too tight.

" I have to thank you, without your existence I wouldn't have known how much power I could wield. " Echidna proclaimed with evident joy. I couldn't help but retort "Yeah too bad it's still a zero on the general scale."

Faster than anything that size had right to be she struck, I barely had time to raise my guard with the sword as I was flung away. I sailed through the air and landed on the third floor of a building, the shield activated on time, but I couldn't really depend on it if she kept getting smarter. She reared back several tails and tentacles and swung at where I was. They missed by what seemed to be a mile.

Way above us I heard the engine of a helicopter, looking down on our fight, was Vista. The heroes had arrived. Dragon in a different suit crashed into Echidna and forced the monster into the ground as Armsmaster appeared and handed me an earpiece. Without much thought I put it on, I heard static before a woman's voice asked me.

"Can you hear me? This is director Emily Piggot of the PRT."

"Loud and clear." I replied as I approached Armsmaster. "So what do I owe the favor, Miss Piggot?"

"I'm assuming you're Maeve, so listen up, we need you to hold her still for 10 seconds. Can you do that?" She asked in a professional tone.

"Yeah, you found her core?" I replied as I heard a pen snap in half and Piggot's voice became even more tense.

"You knew?" The silent and not so silent accusations were clear.

"Monsters always have a core Piggot." I snarled back at her, I took the twin helix blade out and jumped down. I could feel my energy flowing into the blade as it began to glow. It soon became like a second sun in my hands as I raised it above my head.

" Please grant me the strength to slay evil, grant me the wisdom to identify it and the courage to stand again, even if I fall. " I prayed to no one in particular and yet I couldn't deny the feeling of being heard, the light turned gold as I swung the blade down on Echidna. Dragon's suit was also split in half as Echidna screamed in pain. Chains of light rose from the ground, the symbols of the Sheikah decorated each link in the chain.

I heard a twang from a crossbow, and I saw Echidna's core be pierced. Noelle screamed in pain as she spat out Lung from one of her sacks. The last thing I remember before I blanked out was the sound of the swarm and the coldness of the darkness.

-April 11, 2011, 6:00 a.m.-

I felt warm, safe.

[Awaken] Sylph ordered forcing me back to the land of the living. I opened my eyes and noticed the ceiling of my workshop.

" Ah, they must've rescued me. " I thought as I moved my left arm over my chest and felt something. It was soft, looking down I saw a mess of blonde hair, I gently placed my hand on top of it and I heard a small sound. More akin to a hmmm rather than anything sensible, still Emily Cross moved her head closer to my face. Her gray eyes were staring into mine and we were both blushing. Which is exactly when Amy opens the curtains.

"Oh… Bad time?" She asked.

"It's not what you think!" We both said at the same time. A small part of me feels disappointed at that fact. 

The rest of the day was spent helping me catch up. After the fall of Echidna the PRT gained a massive boost in popularity, the undersiders had been rebranded into the rogue category rather than villains due to their invaluable help in evacuation and the actual takedown of Echidna. Apparently not all the Lung clones were accounted for and several of their corpses had vanished, though at the very least Blasto hadn't gotten a single scale, which made me very happy to know since the man was a crackpot and I had no desire to fight Shin Godzilla but it's Lung. The call to force us into the PRT had been called off by Costa Brown herself, so at the very least patrols had become simpler for both Taylor and Belle. In addition to that our little group had gotten national attention thanks to the coverage on Echidna.

Tattletale had complained about the lack of money in Coil's account but it was enough to buy the loyalty of most of his former mercenaries and pay the undersiders. Belle had kept up my end on the bargain for Brian and Aisha was now officially under his care. Bitch had spent the last few days getting more and more puppies, so she was extremely happy. Or just not frowning, hard to tell with her.

Belle on the other hand had introduced me to her perfect partition, 57. Who named herself Quinn, which was a play on Quinque which meant five and it also let her take the mantle of Harlequin. I groaned as it seemed that I had programmed my inability to name things into my artificial intelligences. Taylor, when she wasn't patrolling, training or taking down crime with remote swarms, had been switching with Emily on keeping my unconscious body company.

Afterwards since I had very little time left I decided to focus on making as many plants as I could, made ice and lightning rods, and finished the schematics for building divine beasts, which both Belle and Quinn would oversee the construction of. It was almost midnight when I finished everything I could. I had used spice as well to get as much energy as possible during the day, so I was exhausted when I hit the bed in the workshop. Taylor, Emily and Amy had collectively decided that I shouldn't be alone tonight.

"Are you ready?" Taylor asked me. In truth I wasn't, but there was no other choice in the matter. Either I died or I survived.

The clock struck midnight, my chest almost felt like bursting as my heartbeat became a jackhammer. Amy quickly used her power to heal the damage but that did nothing as I felt the world slip away.

-???-

Dust, dust as far as the eye could see. I picked a direction and started walking. Slowly and surely the ground became more solid, the dust covered less of the horizon and I heard a growl. Near me a dog-like creature with a screwed up mouth was rearing its head at me. Claws that seemed to be as thick as my leg carved the ground beneath. 

"Nice doggy, good doggy." I said putting my hand out in front, all that did was try to make it bite me. Its mouth opened up in three different directions, and I saw the depths of its throat, it lunged at me and I barely avoided it. A purple rock that sprouted from the ground gave me the last clue I needed. Though the presence of a Skag should've been enough of a clue.

"There ain't no rest for the wicked~" I sang as I followed the time honored advice of a madman: just punch it.

Brave 3.7- End

Next chapter title Vaults

Notes:

It's still February! I mean yeah, writing on a phone ain't the easiest thing in the world at the best of times. So I apologize for taking so long. But hey, this chapter was pretty chunky. Almost doubled the size of the fic by itself. But that's not really the most important thing, as always the single most important thing is you guys. Thank you so very much for your comments kudos and the like.

Talk to you guys soon