"Faultline!!"
I crossed the distance between us in a moment, falling to my knees at her side with a wet squelch as the puddle of blood encompassing her splashed up over me. There was so much of it.
This isn't real. It can't be. It has to be the Endbringer fucking with me. The world around us slowed to a crawl as I tapped into Toro's power to buy time while I figured out what to do. Thinking I should try to slow the bleeding first, I pulled up Belial's power as well to pinpoint where she was hurt the worst. She immediately lit up, dimmer than anyone else I had seen. I'd have thought that would make things easier to parse, and maybe it would have if what light was there wasn't everywhere. The dim light of the blood pooled under her made it hard to filter out, but I could still make out a half dozen shining patches. Internal bleeding? Locations of open wounds? I had Belial's power, but I didn't have any sense for what the differences meant, much less what potential wounds I should be trying to bandage first. [Butcher: Pointless.] [DZ: Fuck, that's… that's too much blood loss…] [Toro: She's dead, Jim hahaha!] [Alchemist: Oh dear, this is… Well…] [Klaus: Get her to a healer cape ASAP!]
Klaus was right. I dispelled Belial's power with a growl and quickly but cautiously scooped Faultline up into my arms in a bridal carry that should have been impossible but for the strength I had inherited from Deimos and the adrenaline I was manually forcing into my veins. "Labs," I said, carefully turning to where I had left Elle hanging in the air behind me. "Tear this down and give me a clear path to a healer cape! Panacea, if she's here." And still alive, I couldn't bear to add. [Diamondback: Agreed, One. This is a futile endeavor.] [Edict: Goddammit, Toro, would you shut up for once in your stupid fucking life?!] [Footloose: Does your, uh, friend have a power to stop herself from bleeding? That'd be, y'know, really good, since she's hemorrhaging all over you.] [Klaus: The armband on your friend's wrist, use it to call ahead by… Shit, I forget exactly how they work…] [Toro: Hey now, here's an idea: Maybe use Ten's power to order her to stop bleeding! Hahahahaha!]
"Not… Pan—" Faultline surprised me by starting to say before being interrupted by a weak, very wet coughing fit. Around us the walls began to tremble, the stained, tattered padding falling away as the concrete walls they were fixed to cracked and crumbled while the ceiling turned to dust, quickly blown away by a frigid gust of wind. Just barely noticeable over the noise of Elle's constructions falling to pieces, I realized I could hear Dragon's voice coming from the armband on Faultline's wrist, announcing a seemingly unending list of casualties. [Edict: You are despicable! How can you joke at a time like this?!] [Rotlimb: Ha! Now there's an idea, Nine!] [Klaus: That armband! You can use the buttons to… Shit, how did they work again…?] [Butcher: Bitch's gonna die. If you're torn up about it, then get revenge—fight the Endbringer.]
"Shut up!" I accidentally snapped aloud. "Shit, not you," I hastily explained before refocusing on what was important. Not Panacea? No time to question it. Faultline would have her reasons. "Do you see anyone else, Labs? I saw a healer cape in a white costume with goat horns earlier." [Edict: Sorry…] [Toro: How 'bout you make me, you spineless shit stain?!] [Rotlimb: Haven't you figured it out yet, girlie? You might be the driver, but that doesn't mean we take orders from you! Learn some respect!] [Footloose: Now when you say "shut up"…] [Ror: Both buttons! Push them, and, u-um… A-Ask for help!] [Butcher: Stop fucking around with this nonsense, you spineless fuckabout! People die—get over it and get on with it.]
Seemingly stunned by MirroriM speaking, the voices lapsed into blessed silence. The pieces of the ground began to bulge up, light pushing back the darkness as rusted oil lanterns suspended from worn, vine covered lampposts began to emerge from the grass. We were moving an instant later as fast as I dared with Faultline in such delicate condition, flying over and past capes fighting off the nightmares still emerging from one of the burning eyes suspended midair I had seen earlier as well as the capes too injured to fight and the people incapable of it. My attention was quickly pulled away though by a burst of red and blue light directly under my face, Faultline's power creating a rip in the fabric stretched over my chest.
"Find… Br… ood…"
I felt Faultline shift in my arms, and at first, I only thought she was coming to or beginning to rouse. When I felt her weight leave my arms altogether, I panicked, my hands grasping for her as my horrified eyes looked up to the sky. There, Charon still loomed over the city, a hooded figure of light leeching on its surroundings until only the black void of true nothingness remained, and it was to there that Melanie was being lifted away from us, the edges making her up bleeding away. A ringing filled my ears, drowning out everything around me as I moved, unwilling to sit there and do nothing, to not even try despite knowing failure was inevitable.
Because there was only one reason the Charon, the harvester, would claim her.
I grabbed her and refused to let go, holding on with everything I had. She was losing cohesion, sifting through my grip like wet sand pouring past my fingers. I clung to her, to the pieces that lingered, but they too were slipping away. Stony flesh, cobbled together like irregular bricks rose from my costume to wrap the fragments of Melanie still here in a cocoon, but Elle's construct shattered as the unyielding force ripping Melanie away from us pulled her body through. I made one last ditch effort to take hold of what remained before it was over…
All that remained was the fragment of her mask I had pushed into elsewhere, suspended in place.
No… Please no… [Klaus: Oh sweetheart, I'm… I'm so sorry…] [Edict: Sorry for your loss…] [Rotlimb: Wah wah waaah hahahahaha!] [DZ: You did what you could, kid…] [Toro: Well shit, I guess Ten's power really isn't good for anything! Way to let the kid's mom fucking die, Ten!] [Alchemist: Alas, one does not just stop an Endbringer…] [Butcher: About fucking time the bitch died. Now get back to fight, or you going to cry like a baby?]
"Shut up," I hissed, my eyes squeezed shut against the threat of tears and my hands clenched tight enough I should have been bleeding. That I wasn't was an unnecessary reminder of the bunch of pricks stuck in my head. [Klaus: Ignore them, June. Don't give them the satisfaction.] [Edict: Goddammit…] [Rotlimb: Ahahahahaha!] [DZ: Ugh…] [Toro: Poor Sixteen, weft aww awone! Much sad!] [Butcher: Cry like a baby it is. Surprise surprise.]
"Shut up! Shut up!" She was dead. Dead and taken by fucking Charon. By Charon. [Klaus: Just ignore them…] [Rotlimb: OooOooOooooo! Sixteen didn't like that, Nine!] [Toro: Yeah? Ha! Still waiting for you to make me, fuckface. Go on. I'm waiting.] [Butcher: Useless. Pathetic.] [Diamondback: What is the point of this? You're making demands you cannot enforce.]
"Shut. The. Fuck. UP!!" I roared, spittle catching on the inside of my mask and chafing against my lip, the feeling vanishing as soon as it began. Another reminder of what I'd become. How had everything gone so wrong? Hadn't it only been a few hours ago that Elle and I had been on a date? [Rotlimb: What a comeback! I never saw it coming!] [Toro: When're you gonna get it, retard? You can't do shit. Pissing in the goddamn wind's all you're doing.] [Butcher: Was hoping we could shape you into something, but looks like you'll be another goddamn waste.] [Quarrel: For fuck's sake, Sixteen. Grow up.]
"Juniper? Juniper, what's wrong? Are you injured? Who are you talking to?" I realized I'd let us slowly drift down towards the ground, and Gregor and Elena stood nearby, torn cloth pressed against wounds to staunch the bleeding. Gregor looked confused, his question lingering, but Elena… I could see it in her eyes. The slowly growing horror. The realization. [Klaus: Elena…] [Rotlimb: Oh look who's here, Sixteen! You can ask mommy to kiss it better for you!] [Edict: Goddammit, Toro! Leave the kid alone!] [Toro: The Ice Queen arrives. Not gonna lie, I'm kind of looking forward to seeing this.] [Butcher: Go ahead and kill yourself now. Save us the time. Just another voice, another power.]
I let myself drop the rest of the way to the ground. My legs should have broke, the bones snapping in an instant. I only felt a slight strain as I let Elle drift down next to me. I tried in vain to calm myself down by rolling a small chunk of metal over my knuckles. Tried. It took me two attempts to even begin to speak. Gregor approached, his hand reaching for my shoulder. I flinched away and avoided meeting his eyes. I looked away, my eyes landing on Elena's trembling arms. I needed to tell him, to warn him to stay away from me, but more than that, I had to tell him, "Faultline… She… She's… I t-tried…!" [Rotlimb: Oh this is gonna be rich! Hey Seven, how long's Hev been looking for her brat?] [Edict: Dammit, Elena, not the best timing…] [Toro: Piss off, Ten. I'm trying to enjoy the show.] [Butcher: Shove one of Heavensword's blades through your skull. She has her flaws, but at least she's one of us.]
Gregor didn't reach for me again, clearly understanding I didn't want to be touched and respecting my wishes. My heart sank. What if they corrupted me like they did to Quarrel? Fuck, what if another accident happened, and Gregor became…? Fuck, what if Elle…?! No. No, I couldn't—I wouldn't let that happen! "Juniper…" he began, his words heavy. "I am sure you did what you could." [Rotlimb: Yeesh, barnacle boy's a bit much up close, huh?] [Toro: You know what, you're right, One! That'd be a spectacular end to this little show!] [Butcher: It'd be so easy. Just a little shove.]
The sight of orange skin and rats in the corner of my eye heralded Newter and Mischief arriving. More people I could kill or worse. I took a heavy step backwards, my nails digging into my palms and the metal dancing over my knuckles wavering. I knew what I needed to do. I forced a laugh out of me. Weak. I tried again, and though it was still hollow, there was a hint of madness. I could work with that. "I k-killed her. Was glad to!" A manic giggle escaped me. It came far more easily than the cruelty I'd been trying to evoke before. "If you don't s-stay away, I'll have to kill you too!" [Klaus: June, no, this isn't a good idea!] [Rotlimb: Bwhaha! Oh man, we broke the kid already! This is pure gold!] [Deimos: Watch your tongue, Four.] [Footloose: Uh, Sixteen? Maaay want to dial the madwoman act down a scooch?] [Toro: Kill yourself! Kill yourself! Kill yourself!] [Diamondback: More pointless drivel… An Endbringer is still at large, and you waste time on this facade?] [Butcher: Are you going to do nothing? Wait if you want, but it will be your fault when you infect them.]
"Meteor? What the hell are you saying? What happened?" Newter blurted, overlapping with Elena's concerned, "Don't listen to them, Juniper. Whatever you may have done, we can sort it out. Calm down, dear." [Klaus: Listen to your mother, June! Ignore the other voices!] [Rotlimb: Chill, Thirteen. It's a joke.] [Toro: Kill yourself! C'mon, do it! Do it!] [Edict: Toro! Shut! Up!] [Butcher: What's it going to be, new blood? Do you have the guts to kill yourself before we get you to kill them?]
"I killed her! I killed Faultline!" I tripped over the words, barely managing to convince my mouth and tongue to cooperate. I laughed. I sounded deranged. A hand slipped into mine, and I suppressed the urge to cringe as I ripped my hand away from Elle's, her expressionless mask watching me impassively. I had to do this. I had to. "Don't listen to them? How can I not?! They never shut up! On and on and on! Nope nope, had to kill her! It's what they wanted! I wonder if they'll want you next, Newts? Maybe you, Gregor? Maybe everyone will get in on the fun!" [Klaus: Don't do this!] [Deimos: You know where I draw the lines. Don't test me.] [Toro: You sound like the kid, Ten! But then again, I suppose it only makes sense that you'd mimic her. It's not like you to think for yourself, is it?] [Butcher: I wonder how your friends' heads will look impaled on spikes. Or perhaps you could wear their skulls like Fourteen did?]
"She's lying." My head snapped around so sharply my neck twinged before the pain vanished. Stupid. I hadn't been paying attention, and now Gallant and Spitfire were here, my teammate's arm no longer damaged and her jaw hanging as she stared at me, clearly bewildered. I opened my mouth to deny Gallant's allegation, but she plowed right on ahead, speaking over me. "She didn't kill anyone, but she's afraid she will. Meteor, these are your friends— your family. Don't push them away! They can help you!" [Klaus: Yes! Listen to her, June!] [Rotlimb: Man, fucking whatever… No need to get so testy, Thirteen.] [Edict: I knew she'd be a source of reason!] [Toro: Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yoooourseeeelf!] [Footloose: Are you really going to not listen to that hot piece of ass? Ditch the act and be yourself, dumdum!] [Butcher: The hero is your friend too, right? My my, you're allowing so many to get so close…]
Elena stepped forward, saying, "Listen to your friend, Juniper! You're not—" She tensed, and a cold sense of dread raced down my back.
The air was crackling.
Without hesitation, I began to tweak my brain chemicals, the world around me slowing to a crawl. It might not help if I was hit, but if it wasn't me… The wave surged over us a moment later, and Elena, Gregor, and Gallant nearly simultaneously began to faint. I was already in motion, crossing the short distance to Elena and Gregor while twin blades I formed from the metal wrapped around Elle shot towards Gallant.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
What looked like a goddamn viking of some sort had formed by Gregor, clad from head to toe in leather armor, while Elena's nightmare appeared to be some sort of living shadow, a human shaped hole in the world that drained in light from around it. The viking was halfway through heaving its battleaxe into the air, the polished metal gleaming in the moonlight, when I grabbed hold of the weapon and lashed out at it with a vicious kick that sent it skidding along the ground so hard dirt was thrown everywhere. Unsure what else to do with Elena's nightmare for the moment, I used Butcher's power to push as much pain into it as possible while I whirled around to figure out how I could save Gallant and Spitfire.
Gallant's nightmare was the oddest, if only because of how normal it was, appearing to be a girl around her age with long blond hair, but a quick look at its blood revealed three hearts beating in its chest. I reached out to the blades I had sent that way, and their flight abruptly arcing inwards from opposite directions, beheading the nightmare with ease. I whirled back to Elena's nightmare while liquefying the viking's battleaxe and quickly set about engulfing and compressing the shadow, hoping to crush it inside. I felt the strain on the thin layer of metal almost immediately and promptly dropped down to one knee, so I could press my palms into the damp dirt to change it into more liquid steel.
A couple seconds gave me more than enough material to shore up what I had and begin driving spikes inwards like a spherical iron maiden, but that meant the viking had enough time to recover. Weaponless, it wildly charged with a battle cry towards Newter, who took charge of the situation by whipping it across the face with his tail while jumping past. It slumped mid-rush and would have collided with Mischief, but for the Changer having already burst apart in a flurry of fur, his constituent rats scattering out of the way. For a moment I thought Mischief would eat it like he had earlier, but it became apparent I was wrong when he began to reform by Gregor. With a snarl, I teleported above it, the flames of my arrival searing its skin and setting it ablaze. Unsatisfied, I stomped straight through its oversized throat, leaving it partially decapitating it with a gaping, sizzling cavity. With a frustrated growl, I viciously kicked the head hard enough to finish the job and, finally satisfied it was probably dead, I looked up to make sure everyone was okay.
Spitfire sat on the ground nearby, quivering and covered in blood spatter next to the likewise bloodied Gallant, who was slowly—cautiously—rising while facing my way. Newter's tail was thrashing agitatedly behind him, his eyes wide and lip curled in disgust, while Mischief slowly reassembled himself just out of the appendage's range with wary, golden eyes trained on me. Gregor was already back on his feet, and while Gregor didn't watch me exclusively as his eyes alertly watched for oncoming danger, they lingered on me just a second too long whenever they passed by. Elena's slumped posture left her long hair hiding her expression, and though she shook, her clenched fists buried in the dirt gave the impression of anger rather than fear. And Elle… she had slumped down onto her knees, the grass around her slowly morphing into the broken, shit-stained tiles of the bad place while her expressionless mask looked up to the moon hanging in the black sky above us.
Butcher, Rotlimb, and Toro cheered and hooted in my head as my stomach churned in time with my swelling horror. "See? Do you s-see? You need to s-stay away! I'll h-h-hurt you, and I…! I don't—!"
"You aren't the Butcher," Gallant interrupted, her voice somehow steady despite the burst of violence. "You're Meteor. You're— you're our friend." [Klaus: Please, listen to your friends!] [Rotlimb: Hoo hoo hoo! Did you see that?!] [Footloose: You really are taking pretty quickly to the whole murder and mayhem shtick, ain't ya?] [Toro: Decapitation by stomping! I've gotta admit, that's a fresh take on it, kid!] [Diamondback: Quick and effective. I approve.] [Butcher: Well at least you're giving us a show again, new blood. Better keep it up. Wouldn't want us to whisper the wrong thing in your ear at the wrong moment…]
"I'm a MONSTER!" I roared, my voice cracking. "I didn't even think to do any of that! I just did it!! I'm a goddamn ticking bomb, set to go off who the fuck knows when, and none of you can be around me the next time it happens!" [Klaus: June! Don't do this!] [Rotlimb: She's rough around the edges, but we can definitely make a killer out of this one.] [Delible: They're goading you, surely you see that? Stop playing into their hands!] [Toro: Yeah, and the flight's a pretty good addition, I have to admit.] [Quarrel: Quick, but could be more effective.] [Butcher: Still, I wouldn't complain if you attacked Heavensword right now. Bitch could use a stabbing.]
"A monster goes wild, attacks everything," the armored hero countered, slowly stepping closer. "What you did was protect us. Yes, you were violent, but you never lost control. You wouldn't hurt any of us." [Klaus: Sweetheart, listen to her!] [Rotlimb: Oh hell yeah, flight is fucking dope!] [Edict: Newbie's right, June, stop listening to them!] [Toro: Hey Sixteen, how much can your power lift? Think you could drop an anvil on my ex's head? Bastard's had it coming to him for a while hahaha!] [Diamondback: Undoubtedly. My evaluation was tailored to my observations of her so far. She definitely has room to grow.] [Butcher: Whaddya think, kid? Think you could give mommy dearest a good shanking for me?]
"Shut up! All of you, just shut up!" I whined, so wound up I didn't even notice I had tugged my hair hard enough for my scalp to pull away until I felt it reattaching itself. "I just need a moment to fucking think, and they all just keep talking, and talking, and talking!" [Rotlimb: Nyahaha, 'quiet'?! Why would we be quiet?!] [Toro: Wow, it is stupid easy to wind you up, Sixteen. Gone mad with just a little push!] [Butcher: Did she tell you why she was looking for you all these years? You're upset that you're stuck with us, and that's what she wanted all along.]
"Use Ten's power," Elena interjected, her words heavy, like she had to drag them out. Her face didn't rise from where it lay hidden beneath her hair. "Command them to be quiet, and you must all be so for a time." [Rotlimb: Oh come on!] [Toro: Goddammit, don't you fucking dare, Sixteen!] [Butcher: Traitorous whore. See how easily she turns?]
"Quiet!" I half demanded half pleaded of the voices, and with one last furious roar of displeasure, the voices fell silent. I almost burst into giggles, only just barely containing the urge. Of course. I'd been wanting to talk again for months, and I finally had it served up to me on a silver platter. All it would cost me was my sanity.
All around us, people were moving—doing. Capes fought the last of the nightmares or maybe even one another, people ducking around them to tend to the wounded and all too often bending down to begin only to have the body plucked from this world by the cold grip of the reaper haunting the skies. So much activity and noise, but none of the eight of us said a word. Myself excluded, Edict's power could only be directed at one person at a time, but I may as well have rendered us all mute.
For several seconds the cacophony in my head was gone. It returned with a vengeance once the voices of the Teeth deemed it safe enough to tear into me, but with a faint, "Quiet," their complaints evaporated once more.
Gallant resumed closing the distance between us with soft steps. I wouldn't have thought she could be so quiet in that armor. Maybe it was the dirt and grass. Perhaps it was simply masked beneath what noise bled into our bubble from the activity around us. She gestured arcanely, and initially I ignored her in favor of commanding myself and the voices to be, "Quiet," once more.
She motioned again, and I realized she was signing. 'We're here.'
I ruthlessly suppressed a sob that almost escaped me, not wanting to risk losing function in my other leg too—or even something worse.
"Quiet," I commanded, my voice shaky. I was trembling. When had I started trembling?
I jerked when a voice abruptly spoke out of Gallant's wrist. [Medical site under control. Capes capable of damaging the Endbringer and not presently assisting with portals please proceed to north end for Mover transport.]
I could hear the same voice speaking from all around us. Dragon. My eyes rose up to where the Endbringer's massive body cut the horizon in two. [Rotlimb: You fucking bitch! I'm gonna enjoy driving you insane!] [Toro: Burn in hell you cocksucking cunt!] [Butcher: Huge mistake, you little shit! You think you can fuck with us like that?!]
I'd only had ten, maybe twelve seconds of silence in my head, but it was enough. A weary but unyielding determination had settled in, patching over the cracks that had begun to form. The Teeth continued to curse and threaten me, but I did my best to ignore them in favor of focusing on the voices that were actually trying to be helpful. [Klaus: Just ignore them. I know it's hard, but you have to try.] [Caterpillar: The illusionist has been dealt with, Sixteen. The Endbringer needs to be addressed.]
"I'm going to stop it," I said as I lifted myself to my feet from where I had fallen to my knees. [Klaus: Whoa, wait, hang on—!] [Toro: I'll rip your—!]
"Quiet," I seethed before looking to Gallant expectantly and signing the letters for 'armband.'
"Absolutely not," Elena hissed, on her feet in an instant, her eyes as wild as her hair as she marched over. "Absolutely not."
I shot her a brief, defiant glare then pointedly turned back to Gallant and signed, 'Where?'
She said nothing, even as her own armband began rattling off the names of wounded and deceased capes. Elena stepped between us, her hands on my shoulders and shaking me with a careful gentleness I would never have believed if I didn't have Klaus' memories. "None of the chorus' powers are suited to fighting that monstrosity!"
I sucked in a breath as the Teeth resumed tearing into me in my head. "I don't want to use Edict's power on you, Gallant, but I will if I have to. Where do I get one?"
"Juniper!" Elena begged, and even if I couldn't already see it from Klaus' past laid out in my mind's eye, I think her desperation might have finally convinced me to believe she cared. "Please don't!"
And in the face of that honesty, of my… my mother imploring me to stay, I realized I couldn't keep her at arm's length anymore. I didn't know if we would ever have what I knew she wanted, but the me who had easily written off her concern as faked, as some sort of ploy was gone. For better or worse, this was the June—the Meteor—left behind.
"You said it yourself," I told her as I started to lift myself into the air. I looked to Gallant's visor. "You both did. I'm not alone."
Tears—real ones, not the bloody ones she painted herself—streamed down Elena's eyes, and I could see her warring with herself. Gallant though…
She smiled. "Whatever Mover's at the north end should have some."
I left before Elena could stop me and before I could continue to worry about how shitty a goodbye this was.
----------------------------------------
It took a depressingly short amount of time to find a skyscraper with no one alive in it. Or rather, no one left alive that didn't have three hearts and the faint hues of dried blood caked over them. I almost failed right out the gate by starting at the bottom before Klaus and Delible helpfully—rather bitingly from the latter, if I was being honest—pointed out that was a very stupid idea. Toro and Rotlimb, very unconvincingly, trying to insist I should absolutely start there was the cherry on top.
Elena hadn't been wrong. None of the voices' powers were suited to fighting something as gargantuan as the sword terrorizing the city. Unless by sheer miracle I could command it to 'leave,' but while I wasn't writing off the possibility, to say I doubted it would work was understatement to say the least. What good was perfect accuracy when you could probably blindly attack the Endbringer and hit it? Transmuting the Endbringer into something else, if I even could, was insignificant in the face of its sheer size. Perfectly reforming metal and making it weightless had potential, but Klaus' power was limited by what he could touch.
But I'd already seen what those powers could do together.
[Klaus: Fingers crossed…] [Rotlimb: Pull this off, and maybe I'll forgive you for the whole 'quiet' deal.] [Alchemist: I must confess, I find myself excited at the prospect, June.] [Toro: Choke on a dick, you fucking bitch. I hope you get crushed.] [Footloose: You can dooz eet! You have da powah!] [Butcher: Hn.] [Diamondback: Let's see how this goes.]
I reached out to the metal in the building and grabbed hold of it. I didn't need to try and lift it to know I wouldn't have been able to budge it an inch. Skyscrapers might have had steel skeletons, but that didn't mean there weren't literal tons of other building materials involved. I wasted no time in shifting the non-metals into material I could manipulate with my own power. The more I had to work with, the more I could use Quarrel's power to quickly target what still needed to be altered.
Exponential growth. And here I had told Mrs. Hennings algebra would never be relevant in my life.
I had been fully prepared to reach a limit. Klaus had never figured out if he had an actual limit because above a certain size, anything he had tried to lift had too much else that wasn't metal to worry about. There had to be a limit eventually. The question was just where it was. A few floors at most, I had thought.
A few floors became a dozen. A dozen became three dozen.
If there was a limit, I never found it before I finished changing the entire building into pure steel.
[Klaus: Oh my god.] [Rotlimb: Holy fucking shit.] [Alchemist: Extraordinary!] [Footloose: Fucking radical! Think of all the quarters you could make!] [Diamondback: Hm. I confess I did not expect this outcome.] [Belial: Beautiful.]
Neither did I, DB, I thought as I tried to ignore Belial's renewed interest while pushing myself and my spoils as fast as I could push towards Cypress Hills Cemetery, where the base of the Endbringer had landed. I used to top out at 50 miles per hour without gravity boosting my speed. One of the others' powers—almost certainly Klaus'—removed that limitation. I had to build up still, but even that was quicker.
I crossed from Manhattan to Brooklyn in a minute, and as I diverted up, I pressed the two buttons on my armband. "Making my ascent, Dragon." [Diamondback: My name is Diamondback.] [Footloose: Taking all bets! How many quarters could Sixteen make from all this! Closest without going over gets a priiize!]
[Understood, Meteor,] the hero replied, having already heard what I was going to do. [Alerting everyone n—]
The voice died. I frowned but figured I had already reached the maximum range. All that mattered was I had warned them.
[Klaus: Hang on, I don't like this. I don't think that was the max range she mentioned.] [Rotlimb: Goddamn, this is going to be incredible!] [Edict: I don't think I'm bad with heights, but uh…] [Toro: Heh. Okay, fine. I'll admit I'm looking forward to this.] [Caterpillar: Agreed, Seven. It may be wise to investigate.] [Footloose: No one? No one wants in on this? I'll have you know it's a really cool prize!] [Butcher: Will you chicken out?]
The air was already so thin, and I could feel the stiffness setting in on my body, even if I couldn't feel the cold itself. This had to be high enough.
I came to a stop and reversed momentum, rocketing towards the ground.
I still remembered the numbers for the job at The Queen's Gambit. 1,000 feet. 250 miles per hour if I didn't decelerate. Definitely suicide.
I have to try.
Melanie had given me those numbers.
No more.
Reentry had set me ablaze, burning away my skin, but I refused to stop. This monster had taken enough from us.
Behind me, my meteor screamed through the air.
This is for you, Mama.