In Which Taylor Uses Orbital Friendship Tactics

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Legend disappeared in a flash of light, a beam following his trail as he raced through the sky and towards the explosion.

Everyone else was a little slower to react. "Shit, Amy, c'mon!" Victoria said as she grabbed her sister and held her close. The healer nodded and wrapped an arm around her back to stay close. They took off after the Protectorate leader.

"What was that?" Cass asked as she turned to who she believed was the most informed person around.

Dragon looked away from the still roaring fires. "An alert came up about a break-in at the PRT lock-up facility. Someone, probably Mannequin, tampered with the security system and delayed the alarm. There are nearly half a dozen capes locked up right now, but they only broke into two cells. Lung's and Fenja's. I'm still trying to learn how much time they actually spent there, or what they did."

"Shit," Cass summed up the situation. "You think Lung's joined the Nine?"

"Perhaps, but then, why single out Fenja as well?" Dragon turned to Cass. "Did she strike you as the type to join the Nine?"

"Fenja? Hell no. She was a pretentious bitch, but not a psycho." Cass eyed Dragon. "So, we going to help?"

Taylor had recovered from the shock of the explosion. It had spooked her in a way that few things had in the last weeks. With a deep shaky breath she replied, "Yeah. We'd better get over there. Dragon, can you carry me?"

"I'm afraid not. The exhaust from this suit's flight mechanism would be rather dangerous to anyone without a Brute rating."

Taylor nodded slowly. She wanted to get closer to the centre of the action, but riding Leviathan might be too slow. She pretended to not notice just how close the Simurgh was to her side, or the look of glee on the Endbringer's face. Taylor sighed. "Simmy?"

[Anticipation.]

"Do you think you could carry me?"

The last word was hardly out of her mouth when the Simurgh glomped Taylor off the top of the hill and had her ensconced within a cage of feathers pressed against the Endbringer's chest. Taylor, who had not been expecting quite that enthusiastic a response, was caught floundering within the Simurgh's grasp. "Okay, okay, I get it! I'm sorry for not letting you fly me sooner!"

With a mid-air pirouette, the Simurgh came to a stop high above the city, then opened her wings and let Taylor lean backwards a bit while the Endbringer kept her close with both arms wrapping her in a hug. Taylor's eyes went wide as she stared down at the buildings of the Bay which all looked tiny from their height. She could see far out towards the ocean where the curvature of the planet appeared as a rough slash across the horizon. "Whoa."

[Joy!]

Taylor laughed and spread her arms out. It was like she was the queen of the world. The little bit of vertigo she'd felt at first was replaced by adrenaline that coursed through her veins and made her feel like she could do anything.

Then she saw all the smoke pouring into the sky and stared at the blazing fire near downtown. If she squinted, she could just make out the PRT building, half of it crumbling down into a fiery pit while the rest was slowly being eaten up by the fires.

The buildings around were suffering too, and a bunch of people were running away from the area. Something roared from within the blaze, then beams of light flashed under the smoke. Legend was fighting something, something big.

The Simurgh dived, taking a screaming Taylor with her as she aimed for the top of the hill in the little park they had been in. They slowed down to a complete stop, the Simurgh holding Taylor back with a bit of telekinesis until they were hovering only feet off the ground. "Woo! That was great! Cass, you coming?" Taylor extended a hand at the girl.

Cass took in the way her friend was grinning from ear to ear, then the similar expression on the Endbringer behind her. "I think I'll just do my rock floating thing," she decided.

"Aww, that's okay. Hey, Leviathan, come on, there's a bunch of fire and stuff and we could probably use your help."

{Affirmative.}

Dragon moved away from the group, then shot into the air with a blast from two turbines that poked out of her upper back. "I'll go and coordinate efforts with the Protectorate and PRT. I'll see you all very soon."

Taylor watched the Tinker go. Cass joined them in the air a moment later and Leviathan was ready to go beneath them. "Okay Simmy, nice and steady. Oh, and can you use that precog thing to figure out where Jack's going? And to make sure the fewest people get hurt?"

[Affirmative. Optimal Predicted Path indicates that Host-Queen_Administrator allow Unit Two of Twenty to enact Firefighting Protocols, followed by allowing Unit Three of Twenty full access to Friendship Protocols.]

Taylor nodded. "You hear that, Unit Two? Just try not to hurt anyone while playing with the fire!"

{Unit-02 confirms. Beginning Fire-Genocide Protocols.}

Their flight was fast enough, even with Cass slowing them down a bit, that they reached the edges of the battle in less than a minute. Below, Leviathan was rushing down the streets, every storm drain in his path bursting off as a torrent of water poured out and after him.

The Simurgh landed on one of the roofs where a few other capes were waiting. Dragon was there, of course, but so was Armsmaster, Miss Militia and Dauntless of the Protectorate. Amy and Victoria were standing nearer the edge of the roof, looking down at the fight below.

"Hey everyone!" Taylor said as she lightly stepped out of the Simurgh's grasp and started to fall the half-dozen steps to the ground. The Simurgh grabbed her with a telekinetic hug and lowered her down until her feet touched the flat roof.

The Protectorate heroes stared at her and her friend for a long moment before Armsmaster spoke. "You here to fight?"

"Yup!" Taylor said. The Protectorate heroes tensed. Miss Militia was suddenly holding a very big gun and Armsmaster started to lower his halberd next to Dauntless' famous Arclance.

Glory Girl flew around the Protectorate capes in a flash and placed herself between Taylor and the heroes. "She meant with us!" she said before anyone could do anything they would regret. "Right? You did mean with us?"

"Oh, yeah! Dragon said that the Nine did something to Lung?"

Armsmaster seemed reluctant to speak at first, but another explosion from below--though one much smaller than what had started the conflict--convinced him to speak. "The Slaughterhouse Nine somehow granted Fenja's ability to grow to Lung," he finally said. "And we suspect they dosed him with something to increase his aggressivity. He is not acting rationally. We were going to move in, but Legend told us to hold back for the moment."

"Hrm, that sounds pretty bad," Taylor said. She walked right by the heroes and to the edge of the roof where, from a dozen and a half stories up, she could see metallic scales moving under the smoke and fire, a huge beast that had to be three times Leviathan's size and vaguely lizard-like in shape.

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Lung's head was twisting around, slitted eyes glowing with anger as he tried to track Legend who was flying circles around him and firing laser blasts that carved meter-deep trenches into his draconic hide.

Lung himself was crushing cars and where he rubbed against the nearest buildings they crumbled, but the worst were the flames. His every breath unleashed a beam of concentrated fire that glowed white-hot and incinerated everything in its path.

When Legend spun out of the path, the dragon roared loud enough to push Taylor back a step, then grabbed a car as if it were no bigger than a pebble and flung it at the hero only to miss and have the vehicle crash into and through the wall of a building.

"That's a lot of fire," Taylor said. Even from as far away as she was, she could feel the warmth of the fire against her face.

"They'll have a hard time at the hospital with this," Amy said. Taylor had almost forgotten that the healer was next to her. "Burn victims are complicated enough at the best of times, and most hospitals haven't recovered from Leviathan yet, they're missing a lot of staff and there have been a lot of people getting hurt lately."

Taylor nodded. "I hope Leviathan brought enough water."

She heard, more than saw, a few heads turn her way. "I'm sorry, Queen Administrator," Miss Militia asked. "What was that about Leviathan bringing water?"

"Oh, I told him to douse the fires."

The building rumbled a little as Unit Two, riding atop a wave that reached ten stories high and that careened around the edges of the ruined PRT building, surfed towards the fire like something out of a very strange Beach Boys music video.

A violent burst of steam rose up when the water met the fires, thick enough to obscure all of their views of the streets blow. Then the steam twisted into a million tentacle-like tendrils that started smothering any of the fires that were above the wave.

A minute later, when the wave had passed, all that was left on the street were a few slagged pieces of metal that might have been cars, Lung, who had been bowled over by the wave, Leviathan, and Legend.

"Cool!" Taylor said. "Now you guys can all help if you want. You know, since there's no fire?" She turned to find that every Protectorate hero was looking at her as if she'd grown a second head. "Or, you could all just stare at me. That's... cool too, I guess."

Amy snorted. "They're not used to you yet," she explained.

Taylor tried not to pout. "It's not like I'm being complicated." She folded her arms across her chest.

Legend zipped over to them atop the roof. His costume was a bit singed on the edges but otherwise he looked fine. Then again, Lung was also looking pretty healthy below them. "Thank you, Queen Administrator," he said. "We appreciate the help. You might have saved a lot of lives with that wave."

"No problem! I live here too, you know," she replied.

"Nonetheless, thanks. Do you think you could get your friends to subdue him? I can't truly hurt him without risking too much collateral damage and I can't think of any assets already in the Bay that could take him out without risking the city."

"You can't be serious," Armsmaster said.

"I agree with him," Dauntless added in. "She's... obviously unstable."

Simurgh stood a little taller on the edge of the building, her eyes narrowing as she took in the hero who was no longer paying her any attention. [Indignant. Host-Power_Imbuer Small and Petty. Costume is Ugly.]

Taylor slapped a hand over her mouth to hold in a very inappropriate giggle.

"What?" Amy asked her, though she was still paying attention to the heroes who looked ready to argue.

"The Simurgh said that Dauntless' costume is ugly."

The hero in question huffed, then glared at the Endbringer standing behind him.

"Everyone," Legend said. "We don't have time for bickering. I know some of you have concerns about Queen Administrator but now is not the time for--"

"With all due respect sir," Armsmaster began. Taylor knew that when people started a conversation with those words, respect was usually off the table. "You have obviously been compromised."

Taylor sighed. "Simmy," she said loud enough that everyone could hear her. "Did you do anything to Legend's mind?" she asked.

[Today?]

Taylor suppressed a wince. "Yeah, today."

Legend did not seem to appreciate the distinction very much.

[Negative.] she said while shaking her head.

"See," Taylor said. Her audience wasn't terribly receptive. Dragon was probably on her side, maybe. Amy actually seemed okay with her for the most part, and Glory Girl was still kind of terrified of Simurgh but was friendly. Cass, who was mostly quiet off to the side, was the only one definitely on Taylor's side. Other than her two friends, that was. "Okay, fine, how about we just wrap this whole thing up for you, then you can all keep arguing?" Taylor pointed down towards Lung with a thumb.

Their attention snapped to where the dragon was squaring off against Leviathan. Every burst of fire was countered by a wall of water, but otherwise, Leviathan was keeping away from the enraged Lung.

"If you don't mind me asking, Queen Administrator," Miss Militia asked. "How do you suggest taking care of Lung in this situation?"

Taylor grinned. "Simmy?"

[Anticipation.]

She twisted and waved like a stage magician about to show off a trick. Her little routine ended with her pointing at Lung. "Fire the Friendship Cannon!" Taylor screamed to the heavens.

[Affirmative!] the Simurgh said.

Nothing happened.

Taylor's enthusiasm died at about the same time as her embarrassment grew. Across the rooftop from her, Cass started laughing.

"Is this a joke?" Dauntless said.

It was still mid-afternoon on the East Coast. Perhaps, were it late into the day, they would have seen it coming out of the dark of night. Instead, the first sign was a distant wail, then the the entire sky lighting up in every hue of the rainbow.

The clouds above, darkened by rising smoke, tore apart in a great circle as a beam of coherent light smashed out of the sky and rammed into the dragon below.

The entire city rocked at the impact and Taylor had to throw an arm across her face to save her eyesight from the searing, multi-coloured beam that pierced into the ground. A second ticked by, then another and another, the beam never letting up.

The wind around them was howling and every few seconds the building they stood on would shiver as the beam pulsed.

Then, with the same suddenness that had marked its arrival, the beam disappeared.

Taylor blinked and tried to clear the rainbow-hued flashes from her eyesight.

When she could see again, she took in the street below. There was a crater. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say a hole. A hole so deep she couldn't see the bottom of it, even with the sun overhead.

Leviathan stood on the edge, a familiar tattooed man held in one clawed hand.

"What the fuck." said Dragon.

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