ciara

After Lindy joined, we noticed a certain trend when generating my babies. How we felt – the intent behind the desire of our newest addition mattered. Gonzo and Sera were brought into this world by my basic need of not getting hit. The difference between the two was the state of mind I was in at the time; where I got ahead of myself at the thought of getting my speed boost and forgetting the costs thanks to the newly joined Leafy with the former, we wanted another way to dodge in the case of the latter. We wanted to defend against attacks aimed at us. To be able to dodge at all times. Gonzo gave a straight forward speed boost with restrictions I could get around while Sera prevented us from getting into many compromising positions in the first place. She had a literal eye in her back.

We needed a way to get to up to Gavel's cell block and it needed to be fast and take them by surprise. Griffin wouldn't be of much use thanks to Sing's extended vision rendering simple invisibility moot.

I needed to be fast, quick, and silent.

Part of the plan had already been enacted by generating the tunnels to multiple cells of Gavel's block, it just missed that final part. Mobility – flight – would be preferable but at the same time, the big man himself could become a major danger if I didn't overwhelm him from the very beginning. That, in turn, meant that we'd be exposed if anything went wrong.

We couldn't rely on just one specialized child but needed something more diffuse. While it likely meant costing me more, we could only rely on my Power and just give it a push.

Instead of the cold rationality my instincts initially wanted to go for, our models predicted that concentrating on my desire to protect us by striking down the enemy before it could act would yield better results. That risking losing some of me would be preferable to chancing complete oblivion was obvious, but that didn't mean I had to be happy with it.

We took hold of the indignation we felt at the idiots who were planning to eradicate me even after my efforts for them.

Focusing more fully on myself, we pulled.

A skipped beat of my heart and a tremor in my chest were all the warnings I got before my lungs exploded out of my chest in a shower of blood, bones, and tissue.

My mouth breathlessly formed words out of pure instinct even as we recognized that Ciara had apparently known where the mess would be created and how to avoid it entirely.

Burning pain and an ironic tightness of my chest threatened to override my senses and put me into a panicked fit when the first drop of restoring secretion dripped into the gaping cavity that was once my chest.

The lungs lying beside me started to quiver, fuse and lengthen and Carlos was busy putting the final touches on the metallic plates he had been working with.

We pulled on the roots to feed the healing process as more children joined in to use Leafy's oily liquid as well. To speed it up so we wouldn't inconvenience Ciara for too long.

Lindy wrote a warning to an excessively derailing shitposter in our name with a bemused sense of familiarity and the fleshy mass on the ground grew a beaked head, an emancipated claw arm. Skin and muscle wandered to one end to form a tail.

My chest was still open to all the world to see when our newest baby inflated the sacks that made up most of his body and with a great, bellowing hiss our link materialized.

In a great cacophony of excited chirps, we took flight, floating midair as if we were always meant to do just that.

It took until I could see the blackness encroaching on my vision until my chest was sufficiently restored and my weak, strained body finally got the oxygen it so desperately needed.

"I thank thee," Ciara spoke when she noticed that I sufficiently recovered. "'Twas a gift and honor to behold. I will ensure the common folk will learn of your offer in the manner you wish. Fare thee well on your Wild Hunt."

With that, she glided out of my cell block to return to her own seat of power, awaiting my move.

We continued our preparations for the rest of the day, putting our efforts into finishing my way in without rousing the drones that guarded the empty void beyond the walls. They would activate if we chose the direct route, forcing us to expend more mass and take the long way around by following the contours of the Birdcage. It took longer but on the other hand, it also meant we could be a bit more extravagant with the growing.

Nearing the evening, our encroachment of Gavel's block reached the point that explosive decompression wouldn't be something we had to worry about. It was prepared to be stripped and used when necessary.

The three automatons were completed around the same time by installing a significantly simplified version of dragon's code. If left alone they wouldn't be able to do much more than a young teen but that wasn't the point. They could be as blank a slate as possible for my Power.

We silently chuckled as we realized the extra advantage Claws gave us. Having an extra pair of arms meant that I could touch more at the same time. Three constructs were transformed into so much more at the same time without giving them the chance to panic first while we had one hand free to scratch any itch that tends to happen when your hands are full.

Three placid minds joined me, eagerly sprouted gems and added their efforts into the growing of our trap. Where the others felt brighter and malleable, these seemed more sterile – just a receptacle of us without actively adding to me.

They reminded me of the three I rejected at the beginning.

All the while, as much metal as safely possible was stripped from the unused cells to make more DNGRs and the PRT files of Gavel's block were researched and cross-referenced with news coverage as well as to learn our enemy. We weren't going to face unexpected surprises anymore if we could help it.

Towards the end of the evening, an hour before we predicted the sudden bounty of beer would have caused peak inebriation in block M, we made our customary round to check for anyone who was willing to let themselves be healed in the women's wing – nobody was desperate enough. I had some small talk with Lustrum and made our way back after having guided the discussion to how Gavel might have men who needed their ailments looked after. The woman I discovered to be my mother's former boss had a great imagination in what could go wrong with the bodies of unkempt men.

It didn't matter other than that we had a reason to visit Gavel through the front door. I went through the needed motions convincingly enough while we propagated the rumors we leaked earlier by uploading voice clips that seemed to corroborate that talks about making government-sanctioned killing were indeed going on.

Soon there'd be a couple of handpicked emails for journalists to discover as well. All would lead into the rabbit hole that would further undermine the existence of the Birdcage and decisions on how to handle parahumans criminals in general. We predicted that there'd be enough people who were in favor but the fact that the big shots had deemed the negotiations better to be kept a secret would be a sore spot for many proponents of the 'cage.

We didn't need to convince everybody, just enough. A goal that was easier accomplished when the opposition was fractured.

We couldn't wait to see how long the PRT managed to keep Emma from talking out on the topic. The internal emails that would be released to the public when the powers-that-be finally realized what was happening were bound to be a positively delicious read.

Ciara gave us an almost unnoticeable nod when I passed her cell. I straightened my back before slumping in on myself ever so slightly when we passed through the Hole.

Showtime.

Sharky, Ember, Jem, Leafy, and I were met with profanities when we approached the jolly block that was Gavel's. At least for now.

Forty children flew through the tunnels of fused roots while we did my very best to look slightly cowed.

The animosity between us and the Australian vigilante who went too far was well-known. He was a Leader for a reason and of his seventeen underlings, eleven were classified as Brutes of a variety of flavors, three had ranged attacks, one that could turn into lightning, and a lieutenant had the ability to generate deadly blasts of energy he could channel through a tube. The last one was also the reason why we couldn't simply sneak in invisibly and leave none the wiser. Sing wasn't someone to hesitate shooting something sneaking around that his allies couldn't see. Didn't help that he wouldn't miss, either.

"What the fuck do you want, you skinny cunt?" Gavel shouted at me when he finally noticed why people weren't finishing the extra drinks I allotted his block. "I fucking told you I didn't want you here."

"We heard there was someone here that could use our services," I replied, wringing my hands in pretend anxiety.

The quartet accompanying me continued to give their vocalizing input when Gavel finally recovered from his momentary stupor.

"Then you're fucking deaf as well as a stupid wanker," my fellow leader continued his tirade, moving towards me. "Fuck off while you still can and bugger your snakes instead. They're the only ones that'll ever like a cunt like you."

We nodded. "He's in the back trying to remove his own teeth?" we spoke to the mounting confusion as we stepped passed the door and into his little kingdom. "I can certainly see why you asked for our help."

"What the FUCKING hell do you think you're pulling, cunt?" Gavel thundered, raising the heavy pipe that would be his weapon.

Mass flowed into me through the tiny tendril Sharky had connected to the main network just under the floor. We felt how I gained more authority, more power – how I became more me than before by channeling Ghost's power. It was expensive but from testing, we knew that I wouldn't be moved unless we wanted to.

We activated Anne's power on ourselves, the men of cell block M charged me with a warbled cry of primal fury on their lips.

Sing managed to look confused when we dodged his phantasmal bullet. It scorched the floor on the other side of the door. We didn't blame him. It must have been frustrating to miss for the very first time. Especially when you want to destroy something.

It was just too bad that Jem made it so very difficult to directly aim at us. With Sera and Billy, we had more than enough time to avoid it all.

We who were keeping up appearances downstairs sagged when they slammed the door to the cell block shut and the four who led the vanguard blocked the entrance completely. Nobody would interfere.

We answered Gavel's sadistic smile in kind as we sprouted another pair of arms, gems piercing our skin to fuel the battle, forearms glowing an angry, pale yellow.

A spike of pain went through us as we induced seizures in the incoming horde. Muffled explosions opened up the tunnels and we surged out of them taking air even as the ranged threats were hit by spines and pulled out of the line of sight.

They were stabbed, the first of Gavel's block to join us.

Riding our heartbeat, others arrived at the Brutes, falling over the spasm-racked forms with two at the time. It left the single Changer in the ranks, who looked like an angry, two-legged wolverine, to me. He had managed to continue his charge even as his neurons were firing at random.

Trusting in Ghost's power, we met him head on and grabbed his haymaker with a single left hand. Our flight was all that prevented us from breaching the thin floor and revealing the roots reinforcing it.

The arm underneath the one that held his hand in a vice heated up more and impaled him – held him in place as we jumped to dodge Gavel's swing that was aimed at our head.

I twisted the captured changer even as a glint of cruelty entered Gavel's eyes and he moved for the follow-up strike.

He had played with speedsters before and knew most inexperienced ones were jumpy. The problem was that being mid-air severely limited most people's options when faced with a follow-up attack.

We disappointed him by flying out of his pipe's pathway and firing quills at his back to restrain him.

It didn't do enough damage to allow us to pull him back. Our grip slipped from him as we tried to constrain his slow but frustrated movements. The part of us that was downstairs rattled his brain with no effect, coinciding with our models. Time for plan B. Overwhelming force.

With one of our hands that weren't occupied, we carefully held the furry bundle who was in the middle of his initiation while we removed the tapered limb that was impaling him. Our other right hand touched my mouth to hide some of the anticipatory joy about what was about to happen.

Gavel froze in midst of a battle cry and heavy swing when I activated Anne's power for a second time. Freeze overrode Fight and I noticed a slight unease go through our group.

The former vigilante's eyes darted from where his former tenuous friends lay, twisting and warping on the ground, children sitting on them with eyes literally glowing in anticipation for what would happen next.

The smell of urine and feces filled the air as distilled fear truly settled in.

"Monster," the nearly invulnerable man stammered. "What the fuck did you do?"

We simply smiled, watching how the limbs were beginning to retract and calmly picked up Tavi as he joined us with a pleasant finality. Resilient fur and feathers sprouted from us as our muscles swelled.

Gavel didn't have to know that we had our escort mute his words of anger thanks to Mimi, twisting them into those of reluctant acceptance of my help. He didn't know that to those observing he had invited us in with some belligerence, after which he had given the command to attack us.

The little birdies didn't know what was happening inside of the cell block after we closed the door behind us. Rumors about me being lured into a trap based on my Samaritan efforts would be started moments after the realization settled in. They wouldn't have had a good enough view of Gavel to have noticed that his lips had been out of sync. For the better or worse, only Ciara demanded more attention whenever she walked the halls of the Birdcage.

Gavel needed to know precisely none of that, so instead, we used a fresh hand to reapply the Freeze and started to glue his feet to the floor using our silk.

When our models predicted that the application of immobilizing fear would end we grabbed his wrist with the upper pair of fur-covered arms. We looked him in the eyes as the cruel bastard started to struggle against the vice that was my empowered limbs. Our smile had become a lot toothier as a human wolverine.

Something – his power – was resisting my touch but we had ways around it. We muted the obscenities and curses he threw at me while we waited for all the connections to my new family members to be formed.

A barrage of fifty-six eye-blasts peppered his back to little effect while I aimed mine right at his eyes.

Tavi dissolved into a puddle of acid and settled around Gavel's feet. Smoke tendrils rose from his legs as we overlapped our microwave beams with the hard light and radiation ones while other parts of me combined our water lasers with our penetrating toxins and acids.

Electricity began to discharge in him while we balled our lower hands into fists and forced crystals out of our knuckles.

A white-hot fist shot forward and struck the terrified Gavel with an explosive crack as we ignited the volatile embers right away. The next blow came quicker and harder and we were glad we had improved our strength. We doubted that even the stacked bonuses we just gained would endure the abuse for too long.

The fifth blow would put a hole through three inches of steel and still, Gavel eluded our Touch.

By the time our arms resembled supersonic jackhammers, we finally overwhelmed his defenses. We stopped our attacks and prepared to put our would-be murderer out of his misery.

It had taken fifty-four hits, each successive blow stronger than the last.

I twisted.

Last edited: 22/10/2017