We stand facing each other and I can literally feel the air crackling in the room - from the excess tension between us. Alexandria. One word is enough to instill fear in the hearts of villains around the world. To inspire hope in those seeking protection. She's long since ceased to be human, becoming a symbol instead. A symbol of hope, a symbol of fighting for the righteous cause, a symbol of inflexibility and uncompromising service to humanity. All of humanity.
And I... did I really just challenge Alexandria herself? The one whose poster still hangs on my bedroom wall? Whose face asked me every day - what have you done to ensure humanity has a future? She's like a titan, with the dawn of everything bright and good behind her shoulders, and me? Am I really the villain here?
Through the eyes of thousands of insects around me, I see myself from the outside - black tactical "Ronin" armor, an ominous armored mask on my face with yellow lenses, standing stubbornly with my head tilted opposite her... I'm the spitting image of a comic book villain!
I swallow. Maybe I really should surrender? What would they do to me? They need me. They need Tattletale, they need Coil - they won't kill us or throw us in the Birdcage... we're reasonable, all she needs is to demonstrate her dominance, I just need to fall to my knees and repent. Show that I've bent and will do everything they say.
My back straightens on its own. No way. I've had enough bullies and thugs in my life who just pressure from a position of strength. Sophia Hess couldn't manage it, and neither will Alexandria.
"Even if Buddha himself stands in your path..." Muramasa reminds me from the depths of all the Butchers' consciousness, "even if God himself stands in your path - cut him down. Such is the way of the sword."
"Don't you dare bend to this crazy bitch, Taylor, I'll lose all respect for you!" warns the First. "But if you kick her ass, I'll stop calling you a whore. Maybe."
"This conflict was inevitable," says the Fifth. "Sooner or later you would have clashed with her. I recommend killing her quickly and brutally - only this way can you establish your legend. Only this way and no other. As for the method... she needs to breathe, right? Stuff her nasal cavity with insects, make her choke on her own vomit and die from asphyxiation... almost like Lung. During the Battle with Leviathan I noticed she avoided the waves and tried to immediately fly out from under water. So she needs to breathe. Cut off her access to oxygen."
"If possible - it's preferable to avoid destruction," Tactician advises me. "Lure her to the Ship Graveyard, prepare the battlefield there beforehand - in a cramped building all the advantage is on her side."
This communication happens as always - in hundredths of a second, neither I nor Alexandria have moved yet. I open my mouth to suggest taking our conflict outside the city, but at that moment a metal net falls on me from the ceiling and... the world flashes! My Taylor-body convulses, tens of thousands of volts passing through it!
"Tsk!" I-Amy say with annoyance, turning my head to Tattletale, who sits next to me at Coil's base monitoring what's happening through direct access modules. "Lisa, please prepare a place at the Ship Graveyard. Better there than tearing the PRT to shreds."
"Will be done. Already done," Lisa says. "I gave orders as soon as Big A entered the hall."
"What bastards," I say, feeling darts with paralyzing agent sticking into my second body. "This was a trap from the very beginning."
"Which is what I warned you about," Tattletale shrugs. "But you were all - oh, Alexandria herself personally invited me. Seriously, Tay-Tay, will you ever stop being a fangirl? Today we lost two of your clones, and we only have eight cloning vats total."
"Damn Armsmaster. I'm sure this is his handiwork," I say, watching what's happening in the conference room. After five tranquilizer darts hit my Taylor-body, a dose sufficient to put two elephants to sleep, Armsmaster finally turned off the current.
"I didn't think the Butcher's body was vulnerable to electricity," I-Amy say. "I mean, to such an extent... I was knocked out immediately. And how does Armsmaster know my weak spots so well? Good thing I have another body."
"Actually, that's now your original body. And Taylor's body is an animated meat puppet," Tattletale reminds me. "And besides - they have a whole Think Tank at their disposal, full of Thinkers, and Precogs too. Oh, looks like it's time for you..."
"Yes." In the conference room, Taylor's body, which Armsmaster is cautiously approaching, disappears. In the distance, an explosion rumbles. Alexandria utters a short curse and flies out the window without bothering to open it. Yeah, yeah, "there will be a door here" - Siberian has the same approach to real estate...
I in Taylor's body appear in the air out of nowhere, and the blast wave spreads in all directions. I jump down from the roof of some tugboat. I feel my insects, my Swarm, distributed throughout the Ship Graveyard. The muscles in my arms and legs tremble after the electric shock. Damn Armsmaster, I think, I'll remember this somehow. I take out my phone and dial a number. Long rings... ah, they picked up.
"Alexandria? I'm at the Ship Graveyard," I say into the receiver. "Fly here, let's play my favorite game."
"This isn't a game, you stupid schoolgirl!" Alexandria snarls back. "Don't you understand that I can't allow someone like you to break all laws and norms?! Stop resisting and surrender! If you work for the Protectorate - you still have a future!"
"All our life's a game?" I cautiously suggest. "And all of us merely players? If we're going by Shakespeare. No? A classic of the genre, by the way..."
"I don't have time to play games. I'm flying to you now and if you don't surrender immediately - I'll break your neck. You'll be rolling around in a wheelchair for the rest of your days!"
"Oh, so you already know the rules," I reply, clearly understanding that I'm getting carried away. Tattletale really is a bad influence on me. Now I've picked up her desire to enrage the strongest cape in the area and drive her to white-hot fury. First find, then enrage. I understand intellectually that this isn't such a stupid idea - when an enemy is enraged, they make mistakes. Another matter is whether I can survive Big A's rage.
"If you win, I'll surrender and fulfill all the Protectorate's conditions," I propose. "And if you lose - you'll leave me alone under current conditions. And I'll still participate in Endbringer Battles. But resurrection or modification - by separate agreement."
"Hmm. Rules? Conditions?" Alexandria drops curtly.
"The rules are very simple - whoever dies first loses," I reply and hang up. I fold my arms across my chest, awaiting the imminent arrival of a lump of anger and fury packaged in Alexandria's costume.
"You don't take care of yourself, Tay-Tay," Lisa says somewhere far away at the base. "Oh, you don't. Not enough to enrage her, you also singed her whiskers."
"There's no other way," I reply. "From the very beginning she was set on conflict and it could only be avoided in two ways - either completely bend and surrender, or give battle. No conditions, no concessions would have solved the problem, just postponed it. Better to sort everything out once and for all right here and now. And you know this."
"I know," she nods. "And I even think you have decent chances... but Alexandria? We'll be eaten alive for this afterward."
"He who has fallen in the river doesn't fear the rain. And besides - who's responsible for public opinion and all this PR among us? So think of something, you're the smart one. And I..." At that moment a white meteor appeared on the horizon, rapidly increasing in size. Tactician's ability warns me, and I manage to jump aside as the ground where I just stood erupts into the air and the roar deafens me. A rocket?
"She just threw a car at you! Well... at hypersonic speed!" Tattletale shouts at Coil's base and my insects rise into the air from all sides, blocking out the sunlight. At the same moment I sense danger and immediately teleport two hundred meters up, appearing in the air with an explosion and looking down as I begin to fall... and below it's as if a fiery abyss has opened. If hell exists, it should look something like this, I think, feeling millions of my charges die instantly, the Ship Graveyard losing almost all flying insects in a moment.
"Fuel-air explosive. That's Armsmaster!"
"I got it already!" Of course, it would be foolish to think that only we prepared for possible confrontation. I suppose the PRT and Protectorate had developed "Plan B" quite some time ago for the case when everything went sideways with Administrator, and now is just such a case. Net-electroshock, fuel-air explosives, an unfamiliar design sprayer in Armsmaster's hands, Miss Militia's jetpack flamethrower - all links in one chain. Surely the Protectorate and PRT still have aces up their sleeves.
I fall down, straight into the fiery hell that becomes smoky hell. You can't see shit in the smoke, but the blood sense... I know where Alexandria is now.
"Taylor, don't!" Tattletale warns me, but I'm already teleporting directly to her.
"Hah!" A powerful kick to the back, not holding back, with all my might, so that Big A flies through the air and crashes into the completely rusted hull of a container ship. What was it called? Ah yes, "EverPeace"... the metal squeaks pitifully, flying apart as an enraged Alexandria emerges from the pile of debris.
I block her strike and feel my bones crunch and break, teleport higher, to where I still left several particularly hardy Medici five hundred meters from the ground. Idiotic idea, trying to grapple with the strongest Brute in hand-to-hand combat. I grab my arm - it dangles like a rag. Regeneration begins, but slowly, still too slowly for such a fight. Alexandria launches from the ground like a rocket and flies toward me, I can see every pore on her face distorted with rage.
"Taylor! We agreed! What are you doing?!" Tattletale throws up her hands at the base and I come to my senses. What the hell always draws me into close combat with such monsters?!
With my healthy hand I draw my revolver from its holster. I teleport aside, Alexandria roars past where I just was. She doesn't even need to hit - it's enough to crash into me at such speed, she's like a projectile herself, flying at hypersonic speed! And that's the only thing saving me so far - her inertia. At such speed she has to make wide loops to turn around and come in for a new attack. Meanwhile I manage to teleport off the attack trajectory. Below, previously sealed containers with insects open. "Omega Squad," the last line of defense. From somewhere in the direction of PRT headquarters, many rockets fly toward us, leaving white trails in the sky and frantically maneuvering in the air.
My arm heals, so I can hold the revolver with both hands. A huge beast, custom-made by Bakuda. At first glance - just a very large revolver, a kind of hand cannon... and at second glance too - nothing special. What's special are the cartridges. Each bullet is a powerful stopping round. Unfortunately, Bakuda hasn't been able to provide me with Zero-T rounds yet...
I cock the hammer and aim the barrel toward where Alexandria is approaching... Shot! Teleportation! I appear on ground plowed by explosions and black with soot. I throw my head back up. I missed. No, I couldn't have missed - Svara's ability, Butcher Fourteen - I simply can't miss... but Alexandria somehow managed to dodge! I could use a machine gun right now... though ordinary bullets won't do anything to Big A, and I don't have that many special rounds. A machine gun would sneeze at it. Still, right now I could use an "army saw" to cut a burst from the hip... she can't dodge all the bullets. It's impossible.
A red light flashes in my head - Danger! I fall and roll aside, where I just stood the ground boils and plasma splatters! What the hell?!
"They've surrounded you," Tattletale says. "Stop playing around already!"
"Ah, damn," I say. The Ship Graveyard is crowded now - Alexandria in the sky, Armsmaster on the ground pointing some weapon with a wide muzzle at me, about four hundred meters south Miss Militia lies on a building roof, targeting my chest through the scope of a large-caliber sniper rifle loaded with non-lethal rounds. Assault and Battery are also hurrying to the scene, Aegis hangs in the sky.
"I'm telling you, Tay-Tay - enough already," Tattletale insists. "Enough! Continuing like this is dangerous. They'll break your body now! Again!"
"Enough!" I stand up and raise my hands. "Enough! Everyone - stop!"
"So you're surrendering after all?!" Alexandria stops right in front of me with her fist raised to strike. I clear my throat and turn to her. Everything freezes. Well... Alexandria - understandable, I would have had to fight her anyway, but the others... I need to warn them. It would be good form. After all, I have nothing against Miss Militia, I even like her... despite the fact that she's looking at me through her rifle scope.
"The Administration issues a warning," I say. "To all parahumans present here - immediately cease hostile actions. Put your weapons beside you and lie on the ground with fingers clasped behind your head. Otherwise..." I don't get to finish. Alexandria punches me briefly in the face and the world flashes around me, turns over and goes dark...
"What bastards," I-Amy say, watching through insects as Taylor's body flies away and rolls on the ground, her head lolling so that it's immediately clear - broken neck. And again I manage to be amazed by Alexandria's skill - you can't kill the Butcher, so she didn't kill. She broke the neck.
"Found time to admire her!" Tattletale shouts at my cockroaches, jumping up from her chair in the bunker at Coil's base. "Come on! Do it already!"
"Fine," I say and give the command. At the same moment - Miss Militia receives a tranquilizer bite to the neck, immediately droops her head, releasing her rifle. Aegis falls down, Battery and Assault settle to the ground, Armsmaster is surrounded by some kind of force field repelling flying insects, but... I planted a beacon on him a week ago. And now, even if all the capes of the local Protectorate branch could have avoided the bite - they would have settled down anyway... my beacons can not only track, but also immobilize.
"I knew it would come in handy," I-Taylor say, getting up from the ground and wiping blood from my face with my hand. I look at my hand. I bare my teeth. I raise my gaze to Alexandria. She looks around. All her allies lie on the ground motionless. With her abilities she surely understands they're still alive.
Something inside me boils and twists into a tight knot of anger. Alexandria, my heroine! She didn't even let me say a word! She struck treacherously, broke my neck!
"I didn't want this," I say, watching as she clenches her fist and takes to the air. I don't have much time, and I wanted to avoid this and... seeing her fist rush toward my face - I give the command. Small jaws clamp down on the brown "pill" of tinker device number twenty-one from Tomoko-Bakuda's workshop...
I sigh. I shake my head. Before me Alexandria has frozen. Like a perfect sculpture caught in the Zero Time field, her face distorted with anger, her fist rushing toward a target... it will never reach. And... Zero Time isn't forever... an hour or two will pass and the Zero Time field will disappear. However, the thing is that this field isn't that big. Only Alexandria's upper part fit into it... while her lower part moved by inertia. Moved very fast. So now I'm looking into the face of the upper half of my childhood idol. While her lower part... I look around. Ah... there it is.
"I suppose I won," I tell Alexandria, looking into her frozen face. "When will you finally learn?"
"They'll never learn," Tattletale responds, leaning back in her chair and putting her feet on the table in the bunker of Coil's secret base. "Never. Because these guys only understand force and nothing else. I'll send teams for cleanup and hero transportation. I suppose you'll take temporary control of the PRT in the city?"
"What else can I do?" I say, sitting right on the scorched ground that smells of something burnt. "Ifthere are no Protectorate capes left in the city, someone has to maintain order. Let's consider this a temporary measure."
"I'd like to see their faces... Although, actually, I would," Tattletale exclaims, jumping up. "This is just a historic event. At this moment, the Protectorate branch transitions under your control!"
"Temporarily," I clarify, lying back and watching the clouds drifting serenely above me. This body is incredibly tired. Right now I need liquid Panacea and a lot of organic matter... I look around. I have liquid Panacea in my medkit, but organic matter... only Alexandria's severed legs.
"Are you serious?" Tattletale asks. "Wait, the guys will arrive soon with food. Stop it."
"Theoretically, that's... organic matter," I say, barely able to move my tongue. "They killed almost all the insects nearby; I really need organic matter now. Situational ethics..."
"Hey, stop it!" Tattletale leans over the microphone at the base, furiously cursing and demanding they bring food as soon as possible. She threatens that if they don't arrive soon, she'll personally work through the gestalt and discuss childhood traumas. She breaks away from the microphone and assures me that the guys will be here soon and that they are bringing 'this big chunk of meat and three boxes of your insects.'"
I-Taylor lie on my back and gaze at the sky. This body needs rest. I-Amy 2 peeks out the window of my room at the Pelhams and sees a black van with the PRT logo stopping by the house.
"What's that?" Crystal leans over my shoulder, curious. "Wow! They came for you!"
"How do you know it's for her?" Victoria asks, flying over to us.
"For whom else?" Crystal logically assumes and turns to her, raising her hands with palms open. "Hey! I'm not responsible! I didn't hand Amy over. Or... who is she now? Taylor?"