Scene 24 - October 22nd

Exterior City, Late Evening

Abraham Armstrong

I got to the site of the battle only a few minutes later, as promised, after having moved as fast as or faster than I ever had. I barely paused to take in the scene as I arrived - Legion was, as Ben had said, in full monster mode, while Emilia was presently in the shape of a panther, landing on Legion’s face after a leap, then bounding off again along with a few scraps of flesh. The panther shrank into a falcon just in time to make a tight turn and avoid a large tentacle that had struck out at her.

Legion’s combat form was always a little different, but there were some commonalities whenever she decided to take a battle seriously, as she hadn’t done with me on my own. She always looked something like a mixture between a bear and an octopus - thick fur covered her as a kind of armor and every limb was tipped with razor-sharp claws, and there were far too many of those limbs, moving in ways that were unnatural for anything with bones. She usually had multiple heads, but today it seemed that she had decided to use extra eyes without growing additional heads - her head had a ring of bulbous eyes at the level of her brow almost like a crown, and a set of massive jaws occupied the entire region that should have been a face.

It was disconcerting, to say the least.

Emilia landed on my shoulder and briefly took the shape of a parrot to speak to me, saying, “I can keep distracting her for a little longer - get these gangsters out of the way before she eats them!” Then she was off again, shifting back into the falcon to approach at high speed, dodging and weaving around Legion’s limbs to keep herself from being struck.

As usual, she was right. There were around two dozen thugs lying around in various conditions - most unconscious, some just lying there and moaning. There were even a few that seemed to have had a chance to take brawn, as they were unhurt and their gold-tinged skin was still faintly steaming. Even they were holding back, though, showing a surprising amount of sense for members of the Buff Boys.

I sauntered up to a pair of the juiced-up thugs - a muscular Asian man of about my height, and a similarly well-built white woman a few inches shorter - trying to maintain as casual an air as I could while still watching the battle out of the corner of my eye. “Steering clear of the battle?” I asked.

The man glanced at me. “We’re no fools,” he said in a deep voice with a faint accent - Chinese, I thought. “We would have no chance against a monster like that.”

The woman nodded. “We’re just watching until Rube shows up,” she said.

“It certainly is a spectacle,” I agreed. “I can’t just stand around and watch, though - I have to get all of your friends here clear as well.” I gestured to the groaning and unconscious bodies that littered the street - hopefully no one was dead, but it remained to be seen. “Maybe you could lend a hand?”

They gave each other a look, then shrugged simultaneously. “I suppose the boss might be annoyed if we didn’t,” the woman admitted. “Alright.”

“Speaking of your boss,” I asked before they walked away, “you wouldn’t happen to know why there was no one fun at last week’s engagement, would you?”

“...fun?” the man said.

“Metas,” the woman guessed. “It was on Brewer’s word - she said nothing would go wrong with those buyers. Shows what she knows. Ridealong’s kind of pissed at himself right now for listening to a newbie.”

“More pissed at her,” the other thug commented.

“The MLED thanks you for your information,” I said with a grin, splitting off to start pulling bodies away from Legion.

A few minutes later, I and the BB thugs that had stayed away from Legion had gotten all of their fallen comrades out of danger. The shapeshifting villain, meanwhile, had abandoned much of the mass she’d brought with her, leaving it as a tree rooted into the ground, in favor of taking to the air after Zookeeper. My girlfriend was, thankfully, managing to stay ahead of her - while Legion was a far larger bird at the moment and would deal massive damage if she caught Emilia, Emilia was taking more maneuverable shapes.

It was one of the things that my girlfriend had over the other shapeshifter, in my completely unbiased opinion. Zookeeper’s power was limited to actual animals, while Legion could take on any form that she could imagine - but Emilia wasn’t limited by mass. No matter what form Legion took, in order to remain herself - whatever that meant for a woman who could duplicate herself as much as she wanted - she had to retain her human brain. That meant a pretty sizable bird, one which couldn’t make sharp turns all too easily. Emilia’s power, on the other hand, didn’t care one wit about mass - she could become an elephant as easily as an ant.

Speaking of brains... last time I had run into her I hadn’t been able to figure out where Legion was keeping her brain. The head was the first guess, but I hadn’t struck it in my attempts to attack her body, either. With the bird shape she currently wore, however, I could clearly see where the brain had to be. If I could strike her there...

It would definitely draw her attention, though. “Hey guys,” I said to the two thugs that had helped me clear the field, “I’m gonna do something stupid and draw Legion’s attention.”

“Who the hell is Legion?” the woman asked.

I pointed.

“Oh.”

“Anyway, you two had better get off the field too. You don’t want to be anywhere near whoever she’s mad at.”

“That’s a she?” said the guy, staring.

“...yes.” I gave them a gentle shove. “Now get going.”

They backed off, but not very far.

...eh, close enough. I took half a second to look for a convenient weapon - a manhole cover or piece of rubble of around the right size would be ideal - but didn’t see any. Instead, I stomped, twisting energies as I did, and with a loud crack, a chunk of the pavement came loose - another momentary exertion sent it to my hand. The piece of pavement, I noted with pleasure, had come loose perfectly shaped for my purposes. I reeled back and hurled it at Legion’s head, twisting with my power to give it a force more appropriate to an oncoming train.

Despite its speed, Legion’s unnatural-looking bird form twisted in midair and avoided it. That goddamn...

I winced as my projectile struck the building that had been behind her - that was poorly thought out. I was usually better about compensating for whatever was behind my target.

The building shuddered for a moment, one of the windows cracked, then a large portion of its roof began breaking off with a loud rumble. It came down in pieces right on both Legion and Emilia.

My heart stopped as dust rose - the fall had been too unexpected and too fast for me to react to - Emilia, having been engaged in life-or-death combat with a supervillain, had surely been caught in it. This was all my fault, I had hurt or killed the woman I-

I blinked in surprise as the dust began to settle. A falcon was lying on its back on a pile of rubble, seeming somewhat stunned but unharmed. A moment later a trenchcoat, launched into the air by the impact of the collapse, drifted down over it. She was okay!

The cloth shifted, and a moment later Emilia stood in human form once more, tying the coat closed to cover herself. She reached into a pocket and produced a domino mask which she slipped on. “That was lucky,” she noted as she began to make her way down the pile. “I think that Legion is somewhere underneath... all of that.” She gestured vaguely at the pile.

“I’m so glad you’re alright!” I cried, rushing to meet her and pulling her close. I remembered just in time that we had agreed not to make our relationship public until we had been together for at least a year, and restrained myself to only a hug - even so, she pressed a brief kiss to my neck as she sank into my arms. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

“No, I’m okay,” she assured me. “Like I said, I was lucky.”

“You’re welcome!” came a cheerful voice from behind us. I released Emilia and turned to see the smiling face of Rube, the Buff Boy’s enforcer, considered by the MLED to be the second most dangerous villain in New Venice.