Spark 1.4

I'd researched the Wards, even considered joining for a while, and while I wasn't sure about the specifics, I knew the basics. I was still probably going in blind in a lot of ways, but I had a rough picture to start with and was at least aware of how much I didn't know. Aegis was an Alexandria cape—flight, super strength, invincibility. Vista could warp space, something I hadn't given much thought to before now but suddenly realized was going to be an enormous pain in the ass. Gallant could do something with emotions, though I was forgetting what, and may have been a Tinker based on his suit, though I knew for a fact that Kid Win was. And Clockblocker—who had already reached Sophia's side, moving astonishingly fast—could freeze things in time, rendering them unmovable and untouchable for a while.

I only had a moment to see him before Aegis hit me full in the face, closing the distance with surprising speed—thanks to Vista again, I was guessing. I snarled, stumbling back a step, before punching him hard, sending him flying into—through—the walls of the school. I noted in surprise how squishy he felt for someone that was supposed to be invincible, his ribs braking under the force of my knuckles—but right before my eyes he rose up from the rubble like nothing had happened and came flying at me again, and while he moved fairly quickly even normally, about half way he hit this…patch of odd space and was right in my face again, fist taking me under the chin hard enough to lift me off my feet.

I landed awkwardly, stumbling, and he took advantage of it to ram into my chest, knocking me down. Growling slightly, I called my flames, brightening the bonfire around me in the hopes of buying myself a moment to think. Aegis rammed right through, showing no sign of concern at the flames, but he wasn't the one they were meant for.

Aegis's punches hurt a bit, but already I could feel more scales shifting beneath the ones that were in place, reinforcing them further even as the exterior scales grew harder. I was still growing, the sudden appearance of the Wards doing nothing but fueling my power, and I knew that soon I'd be too strong to be hurt by this annoyance. No, I had bigger worries—Clockblocker and Vista currently, and Gallant and New Wave before too long. With Vista here, they had complete control of the battlefield and if Clockblocker touched me, well, I'd probably wake up in chains and with the Protectorate around me. As long as I kept the flames around me hot enough, which thankfully wasn't a problem—I was safe from being directly affected by the latter, but there really wasn't anything I could do about Vista at the moment.

I threw another punch at Aegis when he suddenly stopped moving within my reach, only to fall hilariously short, the feet between us stretching before suddenly snapping into place in time for him to strike me across the face. I reached out to grab him but I couldn't reach quite far enough, even with him this close and he struck me again and again, darting around through paths of twisted geometry arranged in arcs around me. Growing irritated, I turned into the next blow, opening my mouth. His fist connected with my now warped teeth and though it sent tremors throughout the whole of my face, they held and I sank them into his flesh, the flames around me blazing brightly and growing to cover him as well. Aegis let out a surprised breath as my teeth dug in and he began to burn, but recovered quickly, bringing up his other hand to start punching me in the face to try and make me let go, but I just planted my feet and started shaking him like a dog with a toy.

To his credit, he didn't stop hitting me even as I swung his around again and again, though the sharp starts and stops were probably playing havoc on his body if he was, as I suspected, no more durable then a normal person. Did he have regeneration like me? I didn't think so, since the steadily worsening burns on his skin showed no sign of healing—but there was an easy way to confirm it. However his power worked, he wasn't slowing, much less going down.

I brought more of my flames to my mouth—and to the arm held tightly between my teeth. I felt his flesh cook on my tongue as the flames intensified in the confines of my mouth and just bit down harder, working my jaw so that I didn't have to open it and risk him escaping. I swung him again, back and forth, but with a different purpose now, my superhuman jaws quickly sawing through muscle and reaching bone. Aegis seemed to understand what I was doing and began kicking my frantically even as my flames continued to char his skin black—but his blows had already become ineffective.

"Aegis!" I heard someone cry—Gallant, I thought. Aegis, for his part, seemed to realize punching me wasn't working anymore and curled his fingers instead, shoving them into one of my eyes, forcing a muffled cry from my throat as he grasped the eye and tore it from its socket. I bit down harder—in pain and in anger—and bone splintered beneath them as I tore right through, ripping his arm entirely off. Aegis flung himself away from me, helping the process, and the other side of his arm fell on its own, leaving a streak of already sizzling blood down the length of my chin.

I exhaled a stream of fire after the fleeing Aegis, removing the charred strips of flesh and blacked splinters of bone from my mouth in the process. Unfortunately, the stream twisted directions again, washing over me as it had before. I didn't even stumble this time, spitting to help remove the bad taste from my mouth. Aegis flew away from me, assisted by Vista.

"—Careful! Something wrong—my punches…stopped working." I heard Aegis gasp out in a parody of a shout, only listening with half an ear.

I'd lost an eye, but it'd grow back soon at the rate I was growing and I'd paid back the one who'd done it. It was worth it, too, for what I'd learned about both Aegis and Vista. Aegis didn't heal, at least not that I could see, nor was he any more durable then a normal human—but I'd crushed his bones, burnt his skin until it was black, and tore off his arm and still he'd fought. His power, whatever it was, let him fight through pain and injury like they weren't even there. If I wanted to stop him, I'd probably need to rip all of his limbs off or something.

But I wasn't worried about Aegis—I'd grown past what he could do, though apparently my eyes hadn't. I'd have to keep that in mind, but I still wasn't particularly concerned about it, my enhanced senses already beginning to compensate. My flames were growing hotter as I grew bigger and soon he wouldn't be able to approach me at all.

The issue was still, of course, Vista.

I leapt after Aegis, more to test something then out of any actual hope of reaching him—and, sure enough, I fell short by nearly twenty feet. Considering she hadn't saved Aegis from my grasp—and hadn't just done something horrible to my body to stop me—I was fairly certain Vista couldn't directly affect people for some reason. That was good in that it kept her from making my brain too big to be contained by my skull or something. On the other hand, it still meant she could stop me from ever getting close to her, which was a pain in the ass—she'd lock me down until the other teams showed up.

I had to think of a way around it. I continued to run forward as I did so, hoping it'd at least keep Vista preoccupied while I was distracted, and as I did, I paid more attention to what they were saying, hoping to get something useful.

"Aegis, shit, are you—" Gallant started.

"M'okay," Aegis said, voice off, strained. I had probably collapsed a lung, for all it had done. "Hurts, but…fine. But she's strong. I wasn't hurtin' her. Even ripping out her eye didn't…"

"You're burnt really badly, Aegis," Vista said, an edge of panic growing in her voice. I tried to jump at her, take advantage of her being preoccupied, but she just lifted a hand in my direction and I barely covered a quarter of the distance I should have and then she did something and took a step back that carried her and her teammates nearly a block away. "And you're the only one who can get near her and she tore your arm of with her teeth."

"Vista's right," Gallant said. "We can't take her down alone—we have to delay her until New Wave and the Protectorate show up."

"I can't get near her," Clockblocker said. "Not without going up in flames, at least."

"I know," Gallant reassured him. "I had a different idea. Vista, remember that trick you showed me? Do you think you could do it on a larger scale?"

"The Birdcage?" I heard her ask. She sounded nervous but also…happy at being asked, maybe. "I…yes, I think so. If it's just one person, I should be able to do it for a while. She might climb out, though."

"You get her down there and I'll pin her in place. It should be enough to keep her busy at least."

I had only to a moment to worry—to realize why they would name something after the greatest prison on Earth—and then then ground around me rose up into tall walls. I tried to leap out of it, jump to safety, but my trajectory changed in midair and I fell back into my cage just in time for it to rise up higher, stacking on top of the existing walls. Grinding my teeth in irritation, I sank my claws into the wall, preparing to climb—

Something hit me—no harder than a normal punch, a tap to me, and yet it drove the breath from my lungs. I leaned against the wall for support, blinking my remaining eye rapidly. Whatever it was, it hit me again. Another time. One after another, the blasts connected.

I didn't care. I was trying not to cry, trying not to give up—and tried to remember why I was even bothering. I wanted to surrender, lie down, and sob myself to sleep. I felt miserable, like I had in some of the darkest times of my life. Worse, I couldn't keep from dwelling on them now. My mom had died because of me. Emma had betrayed me because she knew that as well as I did—the entire bullying campaign was just her trying to punish me for what I'd done, but it wasn't enough. Nothing she did could make up for that—not taking my mom's flute, not humiliating me, not insulting me, nothing. I deserved all that and more.

I should have just died in that locker.

The locker.

Through the haze of despair, something about that memory stuck with me. I clung to it like a lifeline as more blows hit me, trying to push me over the edge, trying to remember. My remaining eye burned with tears and I let out a choked, guttural sob—and I remembered. The bullying had been like this, hammering me with petty cruelties and hurtful words as they tried to make me give up and push me into despair, show me I was weak.

I'd sworn to myself that I wouldn't let them. I wouldn't show them how much they'd hurt me, wouldn't let them see my shame or my tears. That she had broken through my defenses, hurt me despite how hard I tried, that she still had what it took to reduce me to tears—it hurt as much as the betrayal, as the wielding of my mom's memory against me like a weapon.

I wasn't weak. I wasn't.

I sobbed again, the sound distorted by the changes my power had wrought on my mouth. I tried to hold it in, tried to hold up, and failed. I felt humiliated, disgusting. I was ashamed that they could see the pain they'd caused me. Even in the locker, when I'd struggled until I was exhausted and fallen into the rotten, stinking refuse they'd filled my locker with, I hadn't felt like this. I'd managed to hold myself together better than this, clinging to one thought.

I'd make them pay. Whatever they threw at me, I'd take it, I'd survive, and I would make them pay.

It had given me the strength to escape. Strength had flowed through me and the metal that had kept me trapped and bent outward against my hands. It had saved me then; I hoped it'd save me down.

I wiped away my tears and mustered up the strength to force myself to dodge the next blow—a flash of light. Gallant, I thought. His emotion thing. He was making me feel despair. Manipulating me like a puppet, humiliating me, hurting me.

Do you know what you're doing to me? Reducing me to this again? Making me feel helpless? I won't forgive you. I won't forget this—I'll make you pay.

I'll fucking kill you for this.

The thought didn't make the feelings he'd inflicted upon me disappear, but it filled me with resolve and the rage in my heart took the edge off my self-loathing, gave me the will to turn it outwards, inflict it on others instead of wallowing in it.

"—Um, guys? Is it just me or is she getting bigger?" Someone asked.

I was growing again. I wasn't sure if it was my inability to defend myself—the need counter my enemies or stop them from hurting me in ways I couldn't protect myself from—that was accelerating my powers or something else, but I was growing faster. More layers of scales started growing in, spear-like growths emerging from my back, my skeleton shifting and rearranging beneath my skin as I grew.

Then I threw back my head and roared my rage to the heavens, my flames rising around me like a massive spear aimed at the heart of the sky.

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