Shmd

Heya, a new chapter!

It's not cringe, I swear!

Happy reading,

With love, Sh'.

 

Chapter 83 : Dawn of a new era (It’s not cringeworthy, it’s heroic)

 

Unmentioned street, East Bronx, Manhattan, New York, 16:15

 

A cursory look in the direction Cindy came from informs us that she has, at least, taken the proper time to cordon the street behind her.

 

That doesn’t mean that she won’t be in for a severe tongue-lashing once that mess is over.

 

<“Alright, you’re cleared to engage, report once you’re done.”> We begrudgingly communicate.

 

A few seconds passes as we keeps evading poorly aimed shots, Flash having apparently done something with a piece of the road itself to create a makeshift barrier until the rest of the cloned mutants finally manage to pull themselves at ground level and Jessica still doing her most accurate rendition of an hyperactive bumblebee, her arm still firmly locked into the roiling mass of anger and hate’s direction.

 

Still no answers.

 

Peachy.

 

The future tongue-lashing automatically ranks up from severe to scathing.

 

I feel Iris trying to soothe me, sharing with me her own [Excitement, joy, hunting].

 

It barely dull the edges of my own annoyance.

 

<“Done and street webbed.”> Gwen interrupts our mulling, bouncing from the other side of the street.

 

At least we can count on one spider girl out of two.

 

<“Can we count on you to restrain the giant ass guy down there, please?”> We ask, our tone definitely more polite.

 

<“Sure.”> Her answer comes easily.

 

Just in time since our newfound and rather homicidal friends just start to pull themselves over the crater’s edges.

 

<“We’ll cover your side until it’s done.”> We says, <“Everyone else is cleared to engage our new acquaintances.”>

 

We start to swoop down from our highground position, our eyes locked on Mr. Flamethrower.

 

Our surprise attack doesn’t seem to go as planned, since the glorified blow-torch sidestep our sweeping kick with more ease than we expected.

 

Circling around him, we dodge a few of his stray shots, our eyes narrowed.

 

Jessica curses on the mindspace.

 

<“The buildings!”> She cries, <“That asshole just lit off two of them!”>

 

We redouble our assault, this time connecting a rather vicious scissor kick on his upper torso. His eyes bulge, a rather awful crunching sound that may or may not imply a few ribs broken getting heard.

 

A barrage of quills sent in our direction forces us to both dodge and womenhandle the pyrokinetic out of the pointy things’ way.

 

<“Raptor, evacuate the buildings.”> We order, <“Priority to the civilians, we don’t care if the building looks like a cheese wheel once you’re done. We’re neutralizing the threat.”>

 

A hasty acknowledgement later, we somersault in the air, the oversized firefly still between our legs until he suddenly isn’t any more in virtue of being firmly ensconced into the ground.

 

A quick telepathic check assures us that yes, he’s still alive, albeit seriously hurt and definitely down for the count, and we jump back into action once more.

 

As we fly back toward the others, we see Flash in the midst of a three-fold melee on the other side, Mr. Porcupine’s battered and apparently unconscious form not far behind, while Gwen is weaving her way between three other offenders.

 

A rather savage drop kick on a guy with disturbingly saurian features, albeit in oranges tones, later and we land back-to-back with Gwen.

 

“We’re not interrupting something, I hope?” We ask aloud, catching a fist aimed to the back of Gwen’s head.

 

A sweeping kick later, the owner of said fist is sent sprawling onto his lizardish companion, both cursing up a storm.

 

We blink a tad owlishly as we notice that the woman we just kicked sports a magnificent pair of mouse ears over her head, a tiny black nose with whiskers jutting out of her face..

 

“Holy shit, we just beat the shit out of Minnie Mouse.” We blurt out without thinking.

 

Gwen guffaws behind us, the adrenalin of the situation probably getting to her despite the fact that her breath is still completely even.

 

“The resemblance is uncanny, isn’t it?” She banters back.

 

We watch lizard-boy and mouse-girl starting to get to their feet, eyes dazed and limbs shaky.

 

Definitely non-combattants, we won’t get too hard on them.

 

The sound of displaced air reaching us from behind, sound followed by two startled yelps.

 

“Talk about a weird first date, I swear.” Gwen says without thinking about it too much, her mouth apparently running without a filter now.

 

We sputter.

 

“Nevermind that,” We try to salvage the situation, “We put them out of the count and you restrain?”

 

“Sure do, Prod.” The white clad spider girl answers, her tone easygoing.

 

Mentally acknowledging that we aren’t getting overwhelmed yet, we rush forward once more, downgrading our strength a little more.

 

We are actually surprised that it is so hard for us not to hit those mutants too hard. During training, we were always at something like thirty-ish percent of our maximum output and the girls dealt with it just fine.

Guess that our telekinesis both grew in strength during those months and the girl have thicker skin than we imagined.

 

We glide under the bipedal lizard, jamming our fingers in the back of his knees, making him collapse quite abruptly before executing a handstand and high-kicking him in the back of his head.

 

Mouse-girl tries to create some distance after a startled ‘eep’ escapes her lips but we’re bodily tackling her the next instant, pushing her before executing a somersault and landing on her torso rather rudely.

 

Her rolled back eyes inform us that the maneuver was successful and a peripheral look informs us that the lizard boy is donzo too and already restrained.

 

A sudden blast of sound forces us to brace.

 

Gwen isn’t as successful as we are at withering the unexpected assault and is sent tea-over-teakettle away from the crater’s edge.

 

Our eyes land on the perpetrator, a heavy set bald man with a manic grin on his face and crazed eyes, like all of them so far, who apparently just clapped his hand.

 

Our eyes met.

 

We launch ourselves toward him.

 

He claps once more, this time in our direction.

 

Uh, a directed sonic attack.

 

Fancy.

 

That doesn’t really save him from a rather unfortunate meeting between our right foot and his lower belly.

 

He bends forward, almost belching, while we side-step, side-fly should be more accurate, next to him and down him for the count with an axe-kick.

 

He barely has the time to fall before he ends up wrapped in enough webbing to make a very convincing Christmas gift impression.

 

We didn’t acknowledge Gwen landing next to us immediately, our eyes still firmly locked on the crater’s edge, other mutants still on their way.

 

“Sorry, I was surprised.” The white clad spider girl hufs.

 

In the mindscape, she radiates awkwardness and shame.

 

We chuckle lightly.

 

“And that’s why we train.” We say matter-of-factly, “Are you hurt?”

 

“No, I’m good,” She answers, shaking her head, “Just…”

 

She snaps her head to the side.

 

“ROOOOARRRR!” A primal scream comes from the direction she’s currently looking at.

 

We watch, slightly bemused, the giant that we downed previously shrug the webbing that restrained him while handpicking a freakin car.

 

We start to hover once more but he has already thrown the car in our direction.

 

Calculating the impact point at lightning speed, we intercept the deadly, and decisively heavy, projectile before it can splatter us, Gwen and the previously downed thunderclap generator.

 

We stumble under the strain of the weight, our flight suddenly a bit wobbly as we huff and roll with the kinetic energy of the throw, spinning on ourselves while still airborne before sending the projectile back to his sender.

 

He catches the car wreck with his head which made him only stumble a little.

 

“ROOOOARRRR!” He punctuates rather eloquently.

Gwen throws a few lines in his direction, tying him in multiple spots but it apparently doesn’t do anything.

 

“I’m sorry!” We hear her yell, panic rising in her voice, “I was sure he was restrained!”

 

We watch the huge ass monkey man, his pants now in tatters to our abysmal dismay, shrug off the bindings with pure, raw strength.

 

“He was,” We answer evenly, “His strength is just ramping up and he probably has a healing factor.”

 

The impact he took earlier in the fight was definitely nothing to scoff at and he should be reduced to a drooling mess.

 

“What do we do now?” The white clad spider girl asks.

 

With another massive grunt of effort, the giant tears the last of his binding and starts to walk toward us.

 

<“How is the evac going Raptor?”> We mentally ask Jessica.

 

<“I’m almost done,”> She answers immediately, <“It takes some time because I have to fly slowly and calm down the tenants.”>

 

<“Once you’re done, I’ll have a customer for your tranquilizer.”> We elaborate, <“A massive dose of it.”>

 

<“Roger.”> She acknowledges easily.

 

See that Cindy? That’s how it’s done.

 

“Go help Tank, I’m handling this.” We say with a last glance to Gwen as we bolt forward.

 

We easily dodge the massive hand that tries to catch us, going down the up for another kick in the chin.

 

The monkey man barely flinches, content with shaking his head with a dismissive grunt.

 

Something about his weight has apparently changed, too.

 

Lazily dodging another catching attempt we create some distance, baiting him away from the crater.

 

“[Excitement, gleefulness, joy, hunting] : Oh, oh, are we really doing this?” Iris blabber in my mind.

 

“I always dreamt to do something this flashy and completely useless, after all.” I answer good humoredly.

 

With way more dramatics than the purposefully flashy signature move we both brainstormed, we take a pose airborne, our legs straight and our arms raised in a fighting stance.

 

Our touch-TK aura rises and flickers for extra theatrics as the giant lumber in our direction, already gathering speed.

 

“Seven strikes.” We proclaim with way more joy than needed.

 

We make a little one-two with our fists, faster than a human can really see for added cinematic value.

 

Just as we direct seven consecutive telekinetic raw impacts from above on the giant.

 

BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO-BOOM!

 

Air howls under the impacts, cars move despite their locked brakes, the asphalt splinters and the highstreet shakes as windows are blown from the concussive blasts.

 

The previously unphased supersized monkey almost got ragdolled, his massive figure jerking under each strike, huge bones breaking under that much strength and his limbs going askew.

 

He stumbles for one more step, his look haggard, before finally falling face forward once more.

 

<“Webbing, please.”> We comment idly in the mindspace.

 

<“On my way.”> Gwen answers as I start to move back toward the crater.

 

<“This is still as cringeworthy as the first time you did it, Prod.”> Flash guffaws, an image of him shaking his head reaching all of us.

 

<“It’s not cringeworthy, it’s heroic.”> We answer, slightly peeved.

 

Knowing silence is the only thing that answers us in the mindscape.

 

We huffs aloud.

 

So what if we act like a chuuni when we are real heroes, after all?

 

<“Uh, guys?”> Jessica interrupts our worsening mood, <“I think the Torch is here, and he doesn’t look happy.”>

 

We groan aloud.

 

What a fucking day.

Shmd

Masquerading as just a really powerful superhuman with flying abilities, yes.

Completely relying on said subterfuge when you can just bullshit everyone by pretending that 'I just hit the air really fast' and use your overpowered double dose of TK, certainly not.

Especially when it appeals to your inner child and allows you to have some fun with it. ;D