2.5

Taylor was stunned for a moment when the the explosions hit but recovered quickly, "Oblivium, take us toward that explosion. I know it's not what you signed on for Stalker, but we're on rescue detail." She points to one that has caused the building to blast apart then mostly float in the air.

So I grabbed everyone up and rocketed off toward the 'exploded' building. Sophia was still in a good mood from her fight so she only made minor complaints. The building had been hit with something that caused some form of intense gravity distortion with random areas of twisting... physics for lack of a better term. It caused some sections to be launched out of the area of effect sideways and some compressed inwards in sections where gravity had apparently folded inwards on itself multiplying the effect. The strangest thing about it is I could see a slightly blue aura interacting with all of it.

I set everyone down to start on rescue and right at that moment a chunk of the building hit a gravity distortion and launched a huge chunk of itself outwards over the buildings across the street. I yelled out "Careful!" to my teammates and launched myself after the chunk of brick, mortar and bathtub. I traveled next to the chunk of buidling attempting to infuse and slow the thing so it doesn't ruin some poor saps day. I managed to infuse the whole thing and lower it to the ground after it lost its momentum, but it drained over half my mana before I found a place to set it down safely.

This area was -littered- with rubble, buildings on one side of the street had holes punched in them from flying bricks and other debris. There were injured people all over the street, and in a strange sort of cosmic coincidence, or maybe just my luck, I saw the van that had been transporting the E88 cape prisoners under a chunk of rubble and flipped on its side. The back of the vehicle had buckled and caused the doors to burst open and one had fallen off. Apparently in the impact both Stormtiger and Rune had been tossed from the van. This had left Rune in a slightly compromising position on top of a young man and Stormtiger on top of the young man's father.

Yes, there were injured people everywhere. Yes, I was needed in other places. Yes, that time could have been spent much more productively, but the capes were unconscious and this would be my only chance. I now had blackmail photos for both Rune and Stormtiger.

After my amateur photography and I had put my phone away, I noticed the auras of all the parahumans present had been acting -very- strange. A little network of aura had linked between all of them and was pulsing violently. It had even changed colors as they all merged, almost like what I do to a chunk of aura when I move Shard to someone else. When I came close and my aura touched the 'network', a flash of power spiked into it. The network melded to my aura and barely grazed my core before it -snapped- back away when I felt the strangest sensation, almost like I could feel their cores, but they were so -alien-. Then my Astral Shield triggered as it protected me from -something- and cut off the connection. Suddenly all of the 'network lines' recoiled, as if in pain, and drew back into their respective parahumans.

Well... that was odd, though it did give me an idea I could use. Sadly, no time to think it over right now. I checked the van first, Miss Militia was supposed to be here after all. I found her protected and pinned by the foam encased Hookwolf. She either hadn't been knocked out, or just recovered quickly and watching me intently as I produced my phone. Then there was the telltale shutter sound effect of a picture being taken.

She just rolls her eyes, "Was that really necessary?"

I nod with complete surety, "Definitely. Now be a good damsel in distress and hold still so I can rescue you from being molested by Hookwolf." I mutter about how it would have been more fitting to rescue her from Lung, but then I'd have to be wearing armor to fit the stereotype.

She produced a pistol and aimed it at me, "I -can- shoot you, you know." but I detected the humor lacing the line.

I shrug, "Hell, if I knew you -liked- him I'd have just moved on. Get a room." and I wave her off acting like I'll go help someone else.

She rolls her eyes, "Just get me out of here already."

Since she was pinned and generally defenseless Shard decided to hug her.

A few minutes later and I had cleared out some of the rubble and freed MM and the PRT agents from the vehicle and rubble. MM is having a conversation with the E88 members while Shard and I are gathering any critically wounded civilians... though Shard keeps eyeing Rune. I think she wants another hug. Once I grab the most people I can fit safely in my aura I wave to MM, "Hey, I'm headed to the hospital." Once she got the message I floated up and crossed the buildings headed back to my team who were primarily using Taylor to identify gravitational fluxes, which were gradually smoothing out, and to identify any civilians trapped in the building. Impact and Stalker would use their breaker states to navigate the building and make rescues.

When I hovered by Taylor waved me over as she continued to give instructions to the other two.

I don't set down my load yet, I just ask, "Hey Arachne, any critical cases? I have two or three guys I can drop off here if there's someone that's bleeding to death." I actually had some mana shells and stitching keeping exactly that from happening to two of my charges.

She shakes her head, "No, we're good here, once you're done there go ahead and head to that one" she points to where another explosion had occurred, that one had been a vortex of debris. "See if they need help there. From what I've seen there that's the one that has the least assistance, and you're the best safe transport available."

I nod, "Understood oh great leader!"

She raises one hand to her face muttering, "Great, that's going to end up on PHO"

Shard gives her a hug while I just shrug and start flying off, "Good, that means I don't have to give any more speeches."

And I fly off before she can respond, forcing Shard to let go of her. Shard starts mothering the people I'm floating along, the shells holding them doing their best to act as stretchers. Shard is flitting between everyone, checking if they're okay and giving hugs as necessary. An elementary schooler ends up hugging her tightly so she stays with the girl but keeps checking everyone by 'feel' using my aura.

At the hospital several of my charges are grabbed but I'm left to bring in some of them myself as they were lacking personnel to get everyone. Turns out navigating several people via flight is fairly difficult, when you have to keep the position of everyone from banging their heads into anything. After depositing them onto beds I feel two auras on the floor above me that have that 'alien' feel I've come to associate with secondary cores. One 'tasted' of controlled flesh, the other was moving ash. I assume one was Panacea, leaving the other to be someone unknown, and I didn't think any heroes would be hanging out and bothering Panacea when she was this busy.

I used the window to avoid being slowed down by the people in the hall and zipped out. With a small infusion and boost I broke the lock of the window close to Panacea, slid it open and flew inside to see Oni Lee holding the pin of one of his grenades by a finger, prepared to remove it, but with an arm revealing a little skin in front of Panacea. She was touching the skin, I assume Lee had been hurt by my parents, I'm actually honestly surprised the guy isn't locked up or unable to move.

Panacea's eyes went huge when I flew in the window and upon seeing a ball of aura appear close to me Shard and I lit it on fire just as Oni Lee appeared, who then started howling in pain due to spontaneous combustion. I hear two *clicks* suddenly. A flying dive and several well placed boosts followed by the strongest shield I could possibly make resulted in both Lee clones and the outside wall being blown away while I held a slightly bruised and -very- wide eyed Panacea. Interestingly she's looking at -me- with that expression, not the missing wall. Eh, no time, I still have to go rescue people from vortex building.

I can't see Lee's aura anywhere, meaning he probably got healed and ran. I look seriously at Panacea to give some advice... she's staring at me, I have to do -something-, "You shouldn't take candy from strangers." Shard gave her a fairy hug, which turned the wide eyed gaze at Shard, then we were gone, heading for my next target at a quarter mana, but still using my full regen for speed. As long as there are no attacks, being low on mana isn't going to be too bad. When I looked down I noticed the roads weren't kind to the emergency response teams, apparently some people thought the town was going to blow up and had clogged all the main routes.

Several minutes and lots of wind along with a few bugs later, I was close to the building that still had a vortex of debris circling it at high speed. Actually the speed seemed to be -increasing-. That's not good. When I looked closely I could see aura marks similar to Rune's ability. I mumble to myself, "So... some sort of telekinetic vortex bomb?". I try a theory and toss a brick into the vortex. Luckily the brick just got hit by some of the debris that was already in the vortex and didn't get its own mark. So that means it's not going to pick up more if I can just purge what's there and stop it.

Quite a few people are watching me from the ground as I start grabbing some of the larger marked debris. Since the speed is increasing these will be the hardest to stop later. Some of them I have to use a -huge- chunk of mana just to slow down to a manageable level then rest to recover, but after a solid twenty minutes I manage to stop and deposit the most dangerous chunks and purge the 'mark' with a modified Astral Shield. Then I start picking away smaller bits like bricks and a kitchen sink.

A quick search and several trips later result in the rescue of the surviving inhabitants of the building, who all give cheers and calls for autographs. Well, more like complaints and demands. I start gathering up the most injured people, but my mana is down to almost nothing, it's going to be a slow trip. Shard is becoming a miniature celebrity among everyone, particularly the kids - until I call out to her, "Shard, we need to get these people to a hospital.", to which she reacts instantly and starts double checking my work to help stop any critical cases from being worse. We then fly back with an 'orb' of people. As many as I could fit in my aura.

Once we land and the hospital workers start taking the people off my hands I collapse on a bench, laying on the seating portion, and close my eyes expelling an explosive breath. Shard apparently agrees since she collapses on my chest. My battery orbs just hang around, floating and bobbing around like balloons. "Ugh. Need a breather. I wonder how the others are doing?" I figure they'll be fine, no one's dumb enough to make an attack during something like this.

A couple of minutes later and I hear someone talking a short distance away, and it's getting closer. I mumble to myself, "Guess it's time to go already...". I open my eyes and look over to see Victoria when I feel her enter my aura. I know exactly what's coming so I cover my ears and say "Busygottago, bye" then fly into the air saying "Lalalalala" to her -complete- bafflement. She gets a hug from Shard for her trouble though. Again, adding to the bafflement.

When Victoria tries to follow me (damn, forgot she could fly.) I increase my speed and fly toward where my teammates were last. When I look back she's -still- following me. I call out "Go away!" She says something but my hands are still over my ears. "You give me no choice!" I create a small Foxfire mine mid-air... which she lazily dodges and says something with a smirk. So I up the game and create a large -screen- of them, all low power, but hopefully she diverts her course. Nope, she plows through. I sigh and curse to myself, "Damnit, Of course, I knew she wasn't the reasonable type in the first place." I look to Shard and ask, "Thoughts?"

Shard acts out a hug. I shake my head, I don't think the 'awkward hug plan' would work here. She then holds up a hand and creates a mini Fairy Light.

I nod, "Good plan, knew I kept you around for a reason." I create a flashbang style Fairy Light and set it in the air behind me. Victoria swerves to the side thinking it's just a fancy mine, then it explodes in blinding bright light. At that moment I drop straight down killing my forward momentum and hide myself in an alley before letting go of my ears and hearing the sweet music of a woman cursing with the volume getting quieter as she gets further away.

I look to Shard, "We're free!" Shard looks smug. "Yeah yeah, your plans are the best." we float out of the alley slowly into the air, watching out for an upset Victoria. What we find is a new bomb has just gone off. Some sort of plasma ball seems to be expanding to consume a building several blocks away. I groan as I fly toward it, "Tonight just will -not- end."

Shard and I launch ourselves through the air at the building, only, when we get close I see the orb of plasma is being -actively- controlled rather than the tinker feel I got from the others. When I stop for a second to look around for a source I suddenly feel an aura enter mine from above, so I toss up a small personal shield and launch myself to the side avoiding the smallish form of an odd looking eagle, only for my talisman shield to shatter from deflecting a truck tire that had been launched at me, luckily between the slight change in angle granted by my shield and me moving the thing missed me.

This is not good, that's a three parahumans. I pull out my staff when Shard points out the guy that shot at me. I don't even bother aiming, I just fire off the lasers to ionize the air and blast him with the electric current... only for the bolt to arc just over the resin orb. Then I understand, the bastard's suit is insulated. I fly to the side and start weaving to avoid getting hit with another truck tire from the stack the guy has. I aim the staff at the next person I saw, she had a black suit with red suns, she's probably the one that made the plasma ball if those suns are anything to go by. The moment I'm about to fire off the bolt I see a lightning fast line of aura infuse the staff with the other end stretching off somewhere I can't see, there's a small flash of aura and suddenly I'm holding a tree branch. Damnit!

I mutter to myself, "Alright, you stopped the building from dying and they're prepared for you. Hell, they're all wearing goggles, probably can't even blind them. Best option is probably to disable, distract and flee for backup." I grab a handful of marbles from my bag and spread them into the air in a small group, then around fifteen marbles fire with the force of roughly a pistol round each, five at each of the three visible targets. I immediately turn and launch myself away from the group.

I then create a supercharged and slightly modified Fireball designed to keep the flames active longer, and toss it behind me, a moment later Shard fires a small Mana Bolt, hitting the Fireball and causing flames to wash out in a huge explosion in the sky, creating a sort of 'smokescreen', even if they were tracking via infrared that would help me get out of view. I use the moment of being free from sight to dodge to the side and down, hoping I may be able to drop into an alley unseen, but that's when the damn eagle makes another appearance.

The eagle does another divebomb and would have hit Shard but she doesn't have a normal body, inertia doesn't do much to her. She deftly avoids the attack with a couple of lightning fast infused boosts. Then, a laser rifle from a sniper fires at me apparently trying to clip my leg, but the laser shield diverts the beam at an angle so it blasts harmlessly to the side. There's vicious cursing from a nearby building something about 'That's supposed to work!'. Apparently they had snipers positioned all around the area since there seemed to be one on the roof next to me and the beam had come from a different direction. Well, at least two, but I'd bet on more.

Just when I thought I was going to get away another tire blows by me, only for it to be replaced by that -damn- eagle. Suddenly the eagle contracts and a cloud of... -something- is expelled into the air, but the speed I'm going I can't dodge, instead I close off the eyes of my construct-mask so I don't breath it in. A moment later my skin starts to itch -badly- and I can see my skin turning red. 'Can I hope it's just itching powder?... maybe crushed poison ivy?... if only I were that lucky.' I move my mask (I'm outed anyway) and dissipate it once it's away from me so I don't breath the stuff. Then I construct a new one just in case the bird can do that again.

'Damnit!' I think to myself, 'probably a contact poison, I need to get to the hospital -fast-.' I aim at the hospital, but I know it's too far. I look to Shard, "Hey, if I go down, you carry me to the hospital alright?"

She nods and flies touching me so if I lose consciousness she'll be able to easily grab the flight spell.

Just then I feel darkness cloud my senses as it encroaches in on the edge of my vision. Shard takes over the flight as everything fades to black.