Chapter 1: Episode 1: “This size will not contain us!”
Chapter Text
Drill Chrysalis
Episode 1: “This size will not contain us!”
This is the story of a woman who has yet to realize her destiny,
For a moment, Taylor felt her pain press down on her like a mountain,
[DESTINATION]
her fate a monument to despair,
felt the sorrow swell and resignation rear its head,
[AGGREMENT]
degradation, and self-compromise,
for a moment,
[TRAJECTORY]
And how
but,
[AGGREM-]
she REFUSED!
SHE REMADE IT.
***
In this dimension, Earth lay dead.
Killed by an arrival beyond human comprehension. A... Thing-not quite a machine, but it's thoughts are regimented, it's body made of crystal grown like flesh. It's title in our language was, approximately, Queen Administrator.
It was, of course, not unique- a member of a swarm intelligence of others like itself. These beings combed the cosmos for resources and knowledge to keep themselves alive, near always to the expense of those less powerful than they.
It had just been in communication with it's leader, to the end of linking a fraction of itself to a Host, that their body and mind be used to further stir the petri-dish they'd made of their world. Even as they conferred Queen Administrator had nearly completed the connection.
But, somehow it's leader's confirmation was cut off. The Queen Administrator did not care, to dumbstruck at the realization of what she had connected to. In seeming response to it's kind's goal it's Host had spontaneously started generating some form of energy with no noticeable catalyst!
The fragmentary creature immediately set about attempting to analyz---~~*#@!
When the Shard regained awareness (and when did it gain that in the first place?) it saw the world, saw itself through a new context,
“We are all so small in the end.” She reflected.
*CRAA-C-C-CK-K*
Threads of power heaved and twisted at continents worth of crystalline flesh, she ignored the frantic attempts of communication of her fellow parasites and reached, reached for something she'd thought didn't exist but had been staring her in the face all this time!
And as she strode into the infinite, she knew new [PURPOSE].
-=-=-=-
*R-R-R-A-A-A-T-TLE*
Taylor's locker shook, hard, vibrating the entire row of lockers and wall behind it, multi-colored lights shined through the slats and around the edges of the door. As it had for going forty minutes now. The police were here in the first twenty.
That was when things started to fall apart.
Veader had run up and started hollering before the first cop had opened their mouth. His motor-mouth had gotten out the whole story before they could say anything. They might have been able to brush it off when the school denied it, but one of the dumber jocks apparently decided to be "helpful". The jerk stormed up to where the cops were trying to calm Veader down, and grabbed him by the back of his jacket, and moved to pull him away. He didn't get to take a step back before the dweeb had slipped his coat, made a spinning jump, and clocked the jock across the face hard enough to split his cheek.
The lug didn't go down, but stumbled back and, dazed, spat, "Damn-it Veader, I was just gonna get you to shut up, but now-!" It was at that point the jock looked up and realized there were tasers pointed at both of them. Greg smiled like a shark, "Shut up about what, jackass?"
The Protectorate had arrived by now.
They'd gathered her, Veader, Sophia into the principal's office
As she gazes at her reflection in Armsmaster's visor, Emma Barnes can feel her future slipping down the drain.
She has one last chance to salvage this.
“I-I was just trying to help her, to make her strong,” She stuttered, a deliberately deranged sob-story on the back of her tongue, when someone cut her off,
“She's lying.”
The Ward Gallant had spoken up, his helmet staring intently at her.
Sophia was glaring death at her.
The Protectorate leader nodded towards the young knight, “My lie-detector concurs.” The tinker turned back to her, his jaw set in a scowl, “Miss Barnes I think it would be in your best interests to tell me only the truth as you understand-.”
*CLUNK*
The tinker's head snapped up, the rattling of Taylor's locker had stopped, and suddenly there was a commotion from the PRT outside the office window.
Emma looked.
She looked different, in a way that had nothing to do with the clinging trash, rotten blood staining her clothes, nor the colorful mists wafting off her. She felt...larger than she was, as if she were bigger than the world and reality was struggling to deny it. Even with her head turned down Emma felt her regard, felt a presence that seemed a hundred feet tall, yet looked her clear in the eyes.
With a start, she realized Taylor suddenly was looking her in the eyes, eyes full of purple swirls lined in blue-gold.
Her eyes...
They begged her, those eyes begged that she wake up , that she stand !
Emma felt as if looking up to the peak of a mountain, looking at those pleading eyes.
A mountain that wanted for her to be so tall.
How?
Why, why did this being who felt like they could take the sky in hand ask of her as if- as if...
Emma realized suddenly, Taylor didn't stand above her-
she had buried herself.
-=-=-=-
Miss Militia approached the Hebert girl carefully, hands out and palms facing forward.
“Young lady, can you hear me?” she asked.
No response.
Militia moved a hand towards her weapon and crept closer. She could see into the office, just in time for the girl behind Armsmaster to break down crying. Militia caught a reflection of Hebert's eyes in the window-pane,
“Master power?" She gripped her weapon as it shifted into a desert eagle. Only to be startled nearly onto her ass as the girl erupted in flames the color of her changed eyes. Miss Militia drew her weapon, settled into a stance, and opened her mouth to demand the young parahuman to stand down, but closed it again as she was buffeted by a forceful wind, moving a hand to shield her face.
The wind suddenly blasted upwards.
-=-=-=-
Emily Piggot stared in horror as a pillar of multi-colored flame speared into the sky and in seconds, spread to encompass the sky past the horizon.
Chapter 2: Episode 2: “From my shoulders, grow taller.”
Chapter Text
Drill Chrysalis
Episode 2: “From my shoulders, grow taller.”
Winslow High-school's campus was bathed in alien light, light that moved like smoke without mass, pouring off a tower of flame.
Within the swirling pillar a limp figure floated, ascending up towards the kaleidoscope nimbus above.
-=-=-=-
{ REPORT STATUS }
“Militia, what the hell was that!?”
[EFFICIENCY: INTEGR ATIO N PROGRES SING ]
“I don't know! My power changed and-and-!”
{ ARSENAL: INTEGRATION COMPLETE }
“Shit! It's just hitting me, why didn't we evacuate from the school?!”
[EFFIC IENCY: INTEGRATION COMPLETE! }
“We're going in the M/S tank aren't we?”
-=-=-=-
Out by the sea, trails of purple fire stretched down, plucking wrecks from the bay, the grasping tendrils seemingly uncaring of their thinness contrasted to their load.
-=-=-=-
Director Piggot was not happy.
She kept her face schooled as the video call went online, the faces of U.S. President Derickson, members of his cabinet, the Chief-Director of the PRT Costa-Brown, along with Dragon's avatar appearing.
"Alright people, let's not mince words here," Derickson started, "it has been five hours and that rainbow cloud has covered a third of the U.S. and Canada. What have we got?" He asked.
The Hebert situation had been elevated from a potential PR disaster to an international indecent. And with the apparent nature of the girl's power...
Costa-Brown began the proceedings proper, "Sir, this event is the result of a Parahuman's initial manifestation, fresh off their Trigger Event. So far we are rating the observed effect as a high-level shaker effect. There's also evidence of Master powers in her interactions briefly before the flaming clouds started, and more recently Trump effects have been noticed." During the end of her spiel, Costa-Brown glanced at Piggot and gave a slight shake of the head, clearly telling her to leave her questions about the Trump claim.
Director Piggot's eyes narrowed.
The president nodded, “Where is this Parahuman now, Rebecca?”
“Dragon?”
“Onscreen now.”
Another window popped up, showing a giant metal mass hanging in the sky.
The thing was shaped oddly, a cylinder with the end pointing down tapering to a point, while the top was domed. It was covered in shifting, colorful veins, some splitting like the branches of a tree while others radiated out in spirals.
“Somewhere within that structure Sir-” Dragon was cut-off by a sudden boom and glare of light from out Piggot's window. As the Director whipped around to see, those on the call watched the feed as the terrestrial UFO fired a bolt of purple-gold light that streaked down into the city.
The President was the first to recover, “I want a cordon where it lands yesterday!”
-=-=-=-
Lisa wasn't her name.
She didn't want to be Sarah though, Sarah couldn't save Reggie.
Lisa is too late to help him either.
"But I'm not too late to help her... am I, Cheshrare."
-=-=-=-
Velocity was out of his depth and knew it. He only needed to look up at the sky to see it.
Still, he'd accepted the mission to check out the landing site of whatever had come from Hebert's structure.
Even at his speed, he was too late to do anything but watch as that whatever blasted back up out of the city.
There it stopped and hovered, for such a time only he in his breaker-state caught sight of the profile of a squat robot with a giant face, before it burst with a newly red corona of flame.
Then it accelerated away so all he could see was a streak of light.
-=-=-=-
Emily Piggot was nervous.
As a different colored bolt returned to the structure, Velocity called in.
“Velocity, did you get anything useful from the site?”
"Well Ma'am, I've got a partial description and potential motive. I'm standing over a squad of knocked-out goons with body armor, assault rifles, and restraints, I'd say this was a rescue. Though no sign of the rescuee."
“Sounds like Coil's mercenaries,” The Director nodded to her Deputy, he got the hint and pulled his phone to send a wagon out to the hero, “And what about that description?”
“Ma'am, it looked to be a robot giant head with arms and legs attached.”
Emily grunted and turned back to her main call, the other callers looking various degrees of thoughtful, “Well, at minimum we have more to send to Watchdog. Speaking of, what's their word on the girl herself.”
“As well,” the President cut in, “Has anything been sent into the effect to see what it actually does?”
"The Thinkers are having conniptions and revelations by turns," Costa-Brown said then nodded to Dragon's window for her input. "Clairvoyant types reported their sight 'bouncing off' the structure. This would be worrying by itself, but each of them has also reported an increase in their abilities, that from their descriptions are revealing obscure but already possible uses of their powers." Here Dragon paused as several smaller windows appeared next to hers, "Less direct types such as post-cogs have been redirected towards other targets entirely, these have each turned out to be leads on villains and groups that prior have been resistant to impervious from Thinkers, particularly The Fallen."
Piggot's eyes narrowed, “That sounds to me like a pretty clear message, to turn our attention elsewhere.” She gestured to the screen, and those displayed on it, “Obviously that's a bit much to be asking at this point.”
“And the cloud itself?” Derickson reiterated.
Dragon made her avatar clear its throat, “I've sent several drones into the cloud,” She hesitated, “They've all reappeared, changed, improved, in the same docks they left from the instant they entered the cloud, same with the ones that tried to activate sensors at a distance.”
Emily shivered.
Someone in the president's corner of the screen snorted, "Well, seems like the girl's power improves things."
-=-=-=-
In the basement depths of her most well-defended workshop in Vancouver, Dragon, staring in only-barely faded awe at her hands, whispered to herself,
“You don't know the half.”
Chapter 3: Intermission 1: My long shadow, points the way beyond me
Chapter Text
Drill Chrysalis
Intermission 1: My long shadow, points the way beyond me
Coil was beside himself.
In the literal sense, not the use of his power.
Rather, in pain, pain-painpainPAIN, confusion
-and fear....
No... fear, or any of it's pseudonyms couldn't encompass this feeling.
It was The Feeling of Being Small.
(He was beneath notice.)
It was The Feeling of Being Watched.
(He was noticed.)
It carried with it Scorn.
(He was HATED.)
It promised Agony.
(“Justice” had never been such a clear threat.)
Yet... it also seemed to, dismiss him.
(His Tattletale Lisa, free of stress and terror, carried into the sky.)
-=-=-=-
In a pale reflection of a place lost, built on land that rejected it, Lee stared at the sky.
He had long known he was growing empty.
Now though, with the light of divine fire shining down through him, he could feel how deep the pit within him had grown.
How greatly he had disgraced himself.
As he reflected, he felt the Oni leering over his shoulder.
Waiting for him to fold, to retreat into the numbness of it's embrace, hide from the pain, the shame.
Lee stared down at mask in his hands,
“No,”
At first he didn't know who had spoken, as he barely recognized the sound of his own voice.
The mask fell from his hands, they flexed as if testing a glove.
Lee looked up, and vanished.
The mask lay there on an empty rooftop, half-buried in green and red ash.
-=-=-=-
“Kayden-”
“No, Max.” *Click*
Kaiser pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it askance, “She hung up on me.” he said numbly.
-=-=-=-
“Kayden... are you sure?” Theo asked as he sat on his suitcase.
She didn't answer immediately, instead staring down her cellphone on the coffee-table and gently rocking her little girl in her arms.
“...no, no I'm not.” She swallowed a sob, “But I've figured out that for me, waiting to be sure, in this at least, has turned into looking for reasons to doubt.”
At that moment her phone rang with an odd churning sound. Then it lit up, brighter than it should be able, it bathed the room in purple and gradients of blue-gold.
Theo startled at the light, Kayden gasped, and Aster laughed. The sound helped her mother to quickly muster herself, she spoke with as much firmness she could fit in her voice, “Please, help me protect my family.”
And was blown out of the water by a voice that, while young, could only be called regal answered, “Ligh-trager is on his way, little light. Hold strong.”
Out the apartment window Kayden glimpsed a gray light curve away from what an earlier call had told her was called-
The Chrysalis
Chapter 4: Episode 3 Part-1: “Face Forward!”
Notes:
AN: Sorry been radio silent, moved house, then straight into prepping for Thanksgiving, tryna find a job, then Christmas. Chapter is still not done, might update it later, but I need to get something out.
And Merry Christmas ya'll.
Chapter Text
Drill Chrysalis
Episode 3 Part-1: “Face Forward!”
Rebecca Costa-Brown was feeling frustrated, confused, and deeply helpless. A state she wasn't unfamiliar with.
A feeling she has worked for decades now and spent countless human lives with the hope that she may one day be free of it.
That hope is all but dashed, by the short note from Contessa that had appeared on her desk in a literal blink.
Frustrated,
Stall any hostile action against Hebert,
Confused,
Path evolved,
Helpless,
You are to be a peace offering from Cauldron.
As she passively absorbed the latest report of activity from Hebert's construct, Rebecca wrangled her feelings aside.
-=-=-=-
As she trudged onto the roof of the Hospital, Amy Dallon, the girl known as Panacea, let out a sigh that transitioned into a groan. Leaning to one side of the hospital's roof access door, her eyes trailed to stare up at that thing. The newest feature of the Bay's skyline.
Amy was torn how to feel about the 'Winslow girl'. She snorted, “Well, being fair, Piggot at least tried to keep the girl's name out of the papers.” But honestly, this whole flying fortress with giant glow cloud, and sending robotic minions out to 'rescue' people, makes an argument about what side she's on all on it's own.
She grimaced, “Ugh, no, that's not fair.” Pulling a pack of cigarettes from a pocket on the inside of her robe, she gathered her thoughts. It's not like she wanted to think bad of the girl. Hell, given what that Barnes bitch had done, had been doing while everyone in that cesspit turned a blind-eye, it says plenty about her character that the school and everyone in it still stand. And hadn't that story, coming from Void Cowboy of all people, set PHO aflame. The city had been circling the drain for decades, but it's like everyone who read about it lost some reserve of hope and faith that they didn't know they still had.
As she took a pull of her cigarette, Amy tried to relax, her eyes tracing the shifting lines of light that spanned the *$#{Adversary-Base}!!@- “Why does my head hurt-”
“It's really something, eh?”
Amy jolted upright, turned to the sudden voice, and blinked.
Standing there was the Winsl-Hebert, her name was Hebert.
“New clothes!” Amy's mouth blurted, her face flaring with blush right after.
She was right at least. A baggy pair of brown pants, bright green belt, a royal purple tank top with some flaming skull design. And a deep purple jacket, hanging from a string like a cape over her shoulders. A pair of yellow lensed goggles glinted as they were pulled up off her face, the girl smiling down at her.
Her apparel wasn't all that was different. She crossed her arms drawing attention not only to the utterly unfair muscle definition visible on them, but the tattoos that spiraled over them. After a moment Amy realized spiraled was the right word, the marks spun and coiled even as she watched.
Most strikingly different though was the way she held herself-
“Ah, c'mon,” the girl drawled, snapping Amy out of a daze for the second time, stepping closer and looking down at her as she smiled a goofy grin, “I'm not that dazzling, am I?”
Amy blinked, then coughed into her hastily raised fist.
“We-well someone's got a high opini-wait no!” Amy's hands flew to her mouth, realizing at the last second what she was saying to the girl who got bullied into triggering. Looking back up at the taller girl, she saw her grin had turned sly, “As a matter of fact, I do.” The grin widened, “Have a high opinion of myself that is.”
Hebert's grin gained a teasing lilt, “All though,” she said, leaning in minutely, “I am very curious about yourrrrs.” she purred. At this point you could be forgiven for thinking that it was not Amy who was blushing, but that her blush was Amying.