FIEB Chapter 50 (Patreon)

Dylan POV

I sprang from my comfortable couch, feeling the dire situation. Peeling my girlfriend off me, she floated away, looking puzzled. I sighed at the loss of warmth as I stood, wondering how to explain this to Victoria.

"Dylan, what's going on...?" Victoria asked, reorienting herself upright as she landed softly on my floor.

You know what, let's just rip the band-aid off.

"So... I think there are at least four parahumans in the unit below," I said, looking at her stone-faced as I delivered the verdict. Our night had just gotten busier. "...And I think they're going after Lung... I think."

We stared at each other, knowing there was no way we wouldn't intervene. If we didn't, there would either be four more capes in the ABB roster—which I doubted, based on what I heard—or, in the best-case scenario, four new bodies, or, in the worst, a giant Dragon-adjacent being wreaking havoc through the city.

"This could be really bad..." Victoria sighed, and she was right. After all, they were four unknown parahumans; you never knew what kind of powers they had.

"We should go now..." she said, turning to make her way to the door before I had to stop her.

"Vicky, wait, what's the plan...?" I rolled my neck, stretching. "You don't have to hide your identity, but I do, and this is going to be tricky. How do we even approach this? Should we just knock on their door?"

She grimaced at the reminder.

"We might be breaking the unwritten rules, but... let's knock, I suppose, but you can suit up." I raised an eyebrow at her comment and her plan. There might be some questions about how Vigil and Glory Girl were in this apartment, but I could deal with that later as I felt a sense of urgency and peril through the Force at this entire situation. I extended my senses and called upon the Force, which answered my call like a mother would her son.

My suit rose from the corner of the room. The pieces floated toward me and locked into place with smooth precision. I engaged the systems through Mechu-deru, and the armor powered up around me with a low hum.

"I have to admit, that was pretty cool," Victoria said, looking me up and down in my suited-up form. She gave a smile, tilting her head, and continued, losing her smile, "All right, let's go."

"Vicky..." I stopped her again, my helmet distorting my voice. "You should wear some pants first."

Her head snapped down as she realized she was just wearing a pair of panties and an oversized T-shirt. She gave me a look, letting me know not to say anything more, as she quickly pulled on a pair of my track pants. We made our way out of my place to Janna's apartment as I led the way.

I wasn't sure how we were going to resolve the situation, but allowing them to run rampant in ABB territory was not something I was keen on. It might be hypocritical, seeing as I had done that before... but hey, that was me. More importantly, I had no idea how these new capes would react to our presence. Hopefully, they'd be sensible enough to listen to reason. And whatever their reasons were for going after Lung, we would try to help them if we could.

I stood before the door, but before I could knock, Victoria tapped me on the shoulder, letting me know that she would do it, pointing to my attire. I nodded, letting her take the lead; most people would not like a dark armored stranger waiting at their door.

Knock, knock.

It was silent for a few seconds before my audio receptors in my helmet picked up movement. I took a few steps back, standing closer to the wall, so I wouldn't be the first thing the person opening the door would see.

The door cracked open. A young Asian man in his early twenties peered out. He looked exhausted—dark bags under his eyes. Victoria immediately went into friendly mode.

"Hi there!" she said with a cheerful wave, keeping her posture open and non-threatening. "My name is Victoria. I'm Glory Girl. Do you think my friend and I could come inside and talk for a little bit?"

The man froze, half-hidden behind the door. His eyes flicked to me, then back to Victoria.

"We're not here for any trouble," she added quickly.

He didn't say a word. He just slowly closed the door in our faces.

"Not interested," he muttered before it clicked shut.

Victoria and I stared at one another.

"That went well..." I said slowly.

"Maybe I should knock again," Victoria said before going to knock on the door, but before she could, the door opened slowly as a beautiful woman with black hair opened the door. The first thing I noted was a still-healing wound on the side of her head where she had lost some hair.

"Are you here to cause trouble?"

"No," Victoria said calmly. The woman looked at me stiffly. I nodded back, mirroring Victoria's words.

"Are you going to call the PRT?" the woman asked, still skeptical.

Vicky can play the good cop; they're already wary of me...

"Unless you give us a reason to," I said as softly as I could. Victoria gave me a quick sideways look. The woman stiffened but nodded slowly and opened the door fully to let us in. I normally wouldn't be this demanding, but they were unknowns here, and I wouldn't risk Victoria's or my life needlessly. I would do my best to de-escalate and help them, but if they turned out to be a threat... well, a few broken bones should calm things.

Ironically enough, I understood Armsmaster's and the Protectorate's wariness of me....

I was a little surprised at my casual violent thoughts but thought nothing much of it. I had been through a lot these past few months.

Inside, the apartment was dimly lit. Four people were gathered there, all of them visibly tense. The young man from before, the black-haired woman, Janna, and another woman I didn't recognize. You could cut the tension with a knife.

Victoria tried to lighten the mood with a small smile. "Hi, everyone. Sorry for dropping in like this—"

"How did you find us?" Janna cut in sharply. The once-reserved woman looked intense now, almost feral.

"Hey... now, calm down," Victoria started, trying to explain, but she faltered.

"We heard your conversation as we were passing by and thought we should stop by," I said, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Lie," the quiet, mousy woman standing behind the man said quietly. Instantly, all of them tensed up, and I could see Janna's hair start to grow. Weird, is this part of her powers? I thought.

I stared at them for a moment. Vicky started releasing her restrained aura slowly, seeing the situation, despite not really wanting to.

"It's part of my powers; that's how we found you out. Initially, we didn't want to do anything, but..." Vicky continued from where I left off.

"...But we heard you're going after Lung... that's not very advisable."

The tension spiked. The black-haired woman stepped forward, eyes hard. "You're all the same. The PRT, the Protectorate — none of you actually help people. You just let monsters like Lung roam free."

The man clenched his fists in anger as he stared at us. "There's a new Tinker in the ABB. She's implanting bombs into animals — rats, dogs — and now she's starting on people and plans to bomb everywhere. We escaped after we triggered, and they still have our families. We have to go back."

Victoria and I stared, paling at the news. I knew about all this before. I might have forgotten a lot of information due to the passage of time, but I did remember the broad strokes of the story.

But it was too soon for Bakuda to go active. Is it because of me?...

Things started escalating where Janna started to get furious as her hair now reached her knees as it formed a sort of cowl and looked very sturdy. She started to walk forward, "You don't get to tell us what to do...?"

Things are getting out of hand...

The entire room went dead still. The four would-be capes were locked mid-motion, eyes wide with sudden panic. Even Victoria had unleashed her restrained aura, glowing faintly as she floated a few inches off the floor, ready to charge at the first sign of real danger.

Why does all of this remind me of Taylor? I thought wryly.

"Well," I said, my voice slightly distorted by the helmet, "this did not go as planned."

Victoria exhaled sharply, still hovering. "Yeah. This is serious. We need to call in everyone."

I sighed, looking at the four frozen figures. "The Arbiters are ready."

She nodded, her expression turning grim as she glanced at the paralyzed group. "We're going to have a lot of explaining to do...."

Yeah... what a shit show.

Taylor POV

I stepped out of the shower, towel-drying my long dark hair as I stood in front of the mirror naked.

I paused, turning slightly to check my reflection. My figure had filled out nicely over the last few weeks — toned arms, stronger legs, and a flatter stomach. I struck a small pose, flexing one arm, and couldn't help but smile.

(NSFW PIC AHEAD)

I remembered my training sessions with Dylan, the way he threw me around like a rag doll at first before patiently helping me figure out my powers. I giggled softly at the memory of my first time truly flying with my constructs. That had been amazing.

Of course, that also brought back one of my most embarrassing moments — when I had tried to press-gang him into becoming my personal attack dog.

Wasn't that a complete mistake, I thought exasperatedly, what was I even thinking?

Honestly, he went really easy on me. Dylan was probably the strongest shaker on the East Coast right now, capable of lifting thousands of tons, and the worst part, he's not Manton limited.

There's always a bigger fish, huh...

"Taylor! Dinner's ready!" My father's voice called out.

"Coming, Dad!" My home life had shifted; Dad and I were actually happy,something I was truly grateful for. In a way, I was thankful for all the hardships I went through, for it gave me my powers. I scowled a little; that kind of thought process validated Emma and her fucked-up view on life. My fury started to spike at the memory of her, but then I remembered our last encounter, and a small, vicious smile crept onto my face.I finished dressing and was about to head out for Dad's homemade dinner when my work phone rang.

What happened? I thought, confused. We just parted ways.

I quickly picked it up.

"...Vespera, I need you on the field. We have an all-hands-on-deck situation. The Arbiters will be coordinating with New Wave and the PRT."

"What happened?" I asked, instantly on alert.

"We have a bomb threat situation. Best case, it's just Lung rampaging. Worst case... the ABB's new bomb Tinker is detonating her tinkertech bombs in multiple locations across the city."

Fuck.