A/N: Last update for quite some time. This is a commission, and there are already talks of more chapters to come, but only in a few months.
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Taylor hadn't woken up yet; the very thought sent another wave of anger through his body, that those vermin had hurt his sister so much she'd gone into a coma, Panacea's unwillingness to touch brains keeping her from healing.
For a second, he considered just destroying the city, wiping the villain-filled stain off the map once and for all, only the fact that it would be too easy an end for the vermin really stopped him.
Instead, he squeezed her unresponsive hand one last time and leaned back on the chair, putting a hand over his glowing eyes to stop himself from blasting the PRT base apart.
If he ever felt the need to do that, he wanted it to be on purpose.
The PRT had put a lot of security around his sister, moving her to their own base downtown after Danny left the city and setting up a lot of guards, but it wasn't enough to stop, or even notice him when he wasn't holding back, his eyes capable of seeing every camera and microphone, and his speed beyond human senses.
Eventually, they'd probably create some Tinkertech that could catch him, but for now, it seems he was still being underestimated… or maybe there just hadn't been enough time.
Then there was his Kryptonian tech, with the Fortress active, it was trivially easy to modify camera footage, particularly when the whole system was filled with backdoors thanks to Coil.
Pulling the healing serum from his pocket, a small cylinder containing a crystal clear liquid, he considered for a second. The Fortress contained a stunning amount of Kryptonian technology, everything Jor-El had been able to get his hands on, so finding a healing agent was easy.
However, all of it was meant for Kryptonian physiology, with access to the internet and every medical database in the planet, Jor-El had been able to adapt the serum, but it was still untested, and the fact that Taylor was a parahuman only complicated things.
"Are you sure the parasite won't interfere?" Danny used his improved phone to ask, the device now modified by the Fortress.
"The margin of error is acceptable," the AI answered. "If you prefer to wait, the Fortress will be ready to receive your sister in another three days, or you can request the healer monitor the serum, she should be able to expel the substance if there is any complication."
For Jor-El, that meant less than a fraction of a percent, so Danny took a deep breath and pressed the cylinder to Taylor's neck, the substance being quickly absorbed by her skin.
"How long until she wakes up?"
"Barring any complications, an estimated eighteen hours and twenty-four minutes."
"I'll have enough time, then." Danny said, putting the cylinder away and adjusting his sister's covers, then getting up.
Then he moved, not bothering to hide his departure as he flew through the building at full speed, his kryptonian hearing catching the alarms triggering as he flew through every door faster than a human could react to and out into the city.
He wanted them to know he had been there, that he had been able to overcome everything they had used, all it would do was make them increase his sister's protection, still useless against him, but making it harder for anyone else to get to her.
Now, where would Panacea be at this time? Danny quickly looked at Arcadia, her high school, but classes had already ended and the girl hadn't stuck around. Searching, he quickly found her being carried by Glory Girl, both girls on their way home. Convenient.
PANACEA
"Five more blocks," Vicky said, arms squeezing her a little bit. "Then couch, hot chocolate, emotional recovery."
Amy snorted. "You still have to bring me to the hospital later."
"Yeah, but it's not prison! They should at least allow phones during recess."
Amy held back a sigh, if it were up to her, she'd go directly to the Hospital without even stopping at the house, but Vicky would complain if she asked her to… and she did like spending some time with her sister. At least Carol should still be at work.
"Yeah, I- gah!" Amy gasped in surprise, a strand of Vicky's hair blowing into her mouth as a gust of wind blasted them in the face, her sister stopping in the air. Ugh, she hated when that happened. "Vicky, I told you not to-"
Vicky's hands squeezed her body, but Amy didn't have time to enjoy it as she stared at the man in front of her, the same one that had approached her two days ago at the hospital.
Fuck, the images of Kaiser's house flashed through her mind and a shiver went down her neck, and to think she had actually been feeling almost happy right now.
Vicky narrowed her eyes. "You lost, buddy?"
The boy, Danny Hebert, gave her sister a brief glance, but then his eyes turned back to her. "Thank you, I don't know if you remember me, but I appreciate what you did for my sister," looking away from her, the boy squeezed his hand tightly. "I don't know what I'd have done if she…"
Of course she remembered him, she'd touched him once, two days ago, and she'd almost lost herself in his biology. tissues denser than most brutes, improved vasculature, perfectly optimized muscles…
God, she had dreamed of touching him again, getting lost in the feel of his impossibly complex DNA… this was so fucked up.
Then there were his cells, impossibly complicated and capable of… she didn't even know what they could do, each one filled with more energy than she had in her whole body and so much more.
"I didn't do it for you," Amy said automatically, her stomach clenching as she fought an urge to extend a hand. "I wouldn't have done it if I knew you were a murderer."
Immediately, Vicky flew back, widening her eyes when she finally recognized the boy in front of them as the one who had killed half the Empire.
"Lie," he said with a confident smile. "You'd just have complained more while doing it, but thank you anyway."
Amy huffed, hiding her conflicting feelings, fear and eagerness fighting inside her. "Thank me by not giving me more work, do you know how hard it was to regrow Velocity's leg?"
"That's it, we're leaving," Vicky bristled, starting to fly back.
"Wait," Hebert said, moving so fast Amy nearly couldn't see it as he approached, sending both their hearts into a frenzy. "I wanted to ask a favor."
"No," Amy reflexively said and swallowed, one hand squeezing her sister. "You kill people."
"I don't kill innocents," the boy said, and Amy could hear the 'not yet' hidden in his voice. "I put down monsters, vermin, people that have done enough damage to society, they don't deserve to live."
On her arms, Amy felt Vicky activating their emergency beacon inside one pocket, Hebert's eyes seemed to track the movements somehow, and Amy wondered if that's what she saw when he touched her, some kind of X-ray vision…
Swallowing the urge to touch him again and check, she felt Vicky landing on the roof of a building and slowly lowering her to the ground.
"I don't think I'm fast enough to escape," Vicky whispered in her ear, and Amy felt the huge dose of adrenaline going through the blonde's system. "Or even buy time, if a fight breaks out, run, help is coming."
"He can hear us," She said, remembering just how good his ears were and causing Vicky's heart to accelerate even more.
"I can," Hebert nodded. "But you've saved Taylor, I won't hurt you, or your sister, I owe you that much."
"What do you want?" Vicky said, standing protectively in front of her.
"I just came from the PRT building," He said, voice strangely vulnerable for a cape of his level, it reminded her he was actually younger than her. "I used a... 'Tinkertech' serum to help accelerate my sister's recovery, it is safe, safer than most medical drugs even, but I still wanted to ask you to take a look, just to make sure."
"… I don't do brains."
"But you can look, and I'm not asking you to fix anything, just remove the serum if you notice any damage, or even just yell that something is wrong, I'll be able to listen."
And wasn't that a cherry thought, the cape capable and willing to brutally murder half the Empire could either hear everything in the city, or had complete control of the PRT's systems.
Amy hesitated, images flickering through her mind unbidden, strange cellular structures, the energy shield not unlike her sister's right above his skin… the possibilities his biology could… Amy hated that part of herself, the part that wanted to lean forward.
In front of her, Vicky missed the way Amy held herself, but the boy's eyes registered everything. "I can let you study me, to touch me and make sure I'm not lying."
"You're not touching my sister," Vicky took a step forward, hand closing into fists.
"… Fine," Amy said, then winced at herself.
Vicky glanced back, stepping to the side so she could also keep an eye on the boy. "Amy?"
Amy closed her eyes and swallowed. A murderer, she was going to help a murderer, that's just wonderful… but the sister had done nothing wrong and… Shit, the offer had caught her by surprise… She was such a terrible person.
"I'm not doing it for you," she lied, like the lying liar that she was, nails digging on her skin. Then she managed to gather some willpower. "Now go, you've got what you wanted, get out of here."
She didn't want every Protectorate cape to see her dazed as she touched him, but the offer had been made, and he had been able to find her twice.
Hebert didn't smile, but his eyes softened and he nodded. "I'll owe you another one."
Then he left, moving with such speed the resulting blast of air made Amy lift a hand to protect her face, Vicky's hair flying back wildly, in the blink of an eye, he disappeared from view, going too high for them to keep track of.
"Are you alright?" Vicky said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Just great," Amy huffed with sarcasm, then her shoulders sagged as tension drained away from her. "Come on, let's go to the PRT."
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Danny looked at his phone, checking the clock one last time before putting it away, then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his mood shifting in an almost tangible way as he focused on his next goal. His cold rage started to come to the surface.
Nearly two days ago, when he first left the city, he had made a decision, one meant to both protect his sister, and excise a cancer on the city… Coil had to go.
His retaliatory attack against the Empire had been born of anger, an immediate answer to what they had done to his family but, now that those most directly responsible were dealt with, the rest could wait.
Oh, he'd get to them but, as he suggested, Purity had turned herself in, and Hookwolf was no threat to his sister, they could wait another day… let the fear build, let them stay shaking in their homes or fighting among themselves for a little longer.
In the same manner, he would deal with Lung once he was done with the Empire, or if the dragon dared poke his head out before then, but with the Asian cape content to stay in his territory, he wasn't a danger to Taylor.
Coil was different, Danny knew the Villain mastermind would start gathering information the second he revealed himself, and in the Fortress, Jor-El had been able to find several queries about his sister erased from the PRT's logs, tracing them back to Coil's backdoor.
Capable of simulating two timelines and choosing which one to keep, Coil could make hundreds, even thousands of attempts at his sister with nobody ever knowing. Worse, if some of those attempts succeeded, he could spend hours doing whatever he wanted to her, only to discard that timeline when he was done.
Danny knew those were simulations, that even if Coil got his hands on his sister, nothing would really happen, but the very thought of any version of her under the Villain's control almost sent him into a mindless rage.
No, Coil had to go.
Focusing on his X-Ray vision, Danny accelerated his thoughts and looked through the city, first at the PRT building, then at Thomas Calvert's, Coil's civilian identity, home, and finally at the underground bunker, a half finished Endbringer shelter Coil used as a lair, his eyes narrowing when he found the man.
Only a few seconds later, he floated miles above the Endbringer shelter, hidden above the clouds even as he kept a watch on the man, making sure he could never escape.
If Danny didn't know his power, Coil would be a nightmare to fight, if he attacked the man in one timeline, Coil could just drop it, keeping the one where he was safe while Danny wouldn't even know it had happened.
But when Danny knew his power, and could locate or keep watch on him with relative ease, dealing with the vermin was relatively simple.
Two days ago, when he left the city to establish the Fortress, Danny had decided to kill Coil, and he had set a date and time to do it. No matter where Coil was, no matter what he was doing or in which timeline, Danny was going to attack him at exactly six o'clock at night, and nothing the villain had prepared would change that, much less stop him.
That way, the attack would happen in both timelines at the same time, even if Coil dropped one, it wouldn't save him, it wouldn't change anything. Close as he was, not even Contessa, the strongest Thinker in the planet and capable of teleportation, could save the vermin.
Out in the city, a church bell rang as the hour turned and, before the first ring was over, Danny let himself drop.
For a moment, he just let the wind hit his body as gravity pulled him down, his back hitting the clouds and starting to gather moisture, then he twisted, using his flight to accelerate down, clouds exploding away from him when he didn't control the resulting shock-wave.
Danny hit the asphalt feet first, the ground parting like water around his body, offering no resistance to the level of strength he was capable of.
Only a second later, he broke through the reinforced roof of the underground shelter as if it were a thin sheath of plastic, one knee hitting the floor of the guard station in a three point landing and spreading cracks through the metal, shaking the foundations of the entire bunker, eyes already red with barely contained heat.
Two mercenaries looked at him, eyes wide with stupefaction, one of them having fallen to the ground thanks to the shaking while the other was holding on to a wall for support, their heart's just now starting to accelerate in fright. "What th-"
Opening his eyes, he released a wide blast of heat vision, the heat burning through their clothes, then the skin and flesh, temperature kept just low enough so as to not cause them to explode.
Screaming in pain, both men felt their skin melting, fourth degree burns eating through flesh for what must have felt like years until their voices died, even their throats burning away to leave brittle, blackened bones.
Standing up, Danny walked through the remaining skeletons, the bones collapsing into ash as he passed and pulled the cellphone out of his pocket, pressing it against the servers that controlled the bunker, the kryptonian tech seizing the system and ordering an immediate lockdown of all entrances.
In truth, he could have flown straight down, ignoring any walls and floors as he made his way towards Coil before the villain ever registered what was happening, but his sister would only wake up tomorrow, he had time, and mercenaries, to kill.
With every door closed, nobody was going to escape.
For a second, the entire shelter seemed quiet, as if even the systems had been stunned by what happened then the warning sirens went off, red lights filling every room while the eight remaining mercenaries in the base started moving, grabbing Tinkertech weapons and putting on gear to get ready for him.
Danny had been hoping there would be more, pity.
Looking through the walls, he saw a pair running towards Coil, the Villain repeatedly trying to use his phone, but failing every time as the virus Jor-El had created took over all communications.
Another two were hurrying towards a backup site, so he'd have to intercept them first, but the last four set themselves in a nice position, blocking the corridor to Coil's escape tunnel in a way that would require several times their number to overcome.
Quiet, precise, professional, they moved and acted as a team, having long since learned to trust each other.
Briefly, he wondered how the other timeline was going, did that version of him catch Coil on the PRT base? Or maybe even his house? Was he already torturing the man or was he taking his time getting to it
Ha, for how many times the Villain must have used his power to torture someone for information in a discarded timeline or, if he remembered right, sometimes just fun, it was amusing to think the shoe was on the other foot now.
Moving at almost normal speed, he flew through the rooms and corridors in a straight line towards the pair running for the backup systems, giving them some time to grow hopeful.
Finally, he stood on the floor above the running men and just stomped, the blow creating a huge hole in the ceiling through which he floated down in front of them, both men unloading their laser weapons at his head and chest.
For a moment, he just stared at the mercenaries, considering how best to do this, then he moved, too fast for their eyes to track.
In a single movement, he grabbed the first one's barrel and ripped the weapon from his hand, sending his trigger finger flying off and breaking another three with the motion.
Grabbing the man's shoulder hard enough to pulverize bone, he swung the weapon like a club, the blow hard enough to dent the metal and amputate both legs in a single swing.
The resulting scream was nice, echoing off the walls as blood squirted from his minced legs, soaking up the floor and finally causing the second mercenary to break, he dropped the Tinkertech rifle, letting it hang from a sling and ran, the movements incredibly slow to Danny's enhanced senses.
Danny swung the legless man to a wall just hard enough to drive the air from his lungs and reversed the grip on the rifle, slowly, painfully, he pressed the barrel of the gun against his belly and pushed, the round metal piercing through flesh, then the man's stomach to spill the acid all over his internal organs before finally pinning him to the metal behind.
Releasing his hold, Danny watched as the man slid down, his wound worsening as the remaining weight pushed down on the damaged rifle, but it held, leaving the man suspended two feet off the ground, still screaming and dying, shock, pain, blood loss and pierced stomach battling to see what killed him first.
Moving with superspeed, Danny caught up to the second mercenary a moment after he turned a corner, his helmet had fallen off, and his rifle was swinging wildly with every step so he grabbed him by the back of the head and smashed his face against a wall just hard enough to break a few bones, then did it two more times until the few turned into most.
Satisfied, he continued to drag the man towards the four mercenaries blocking the hallway, his fingers digging into his head hard enough to break the skin, then slowly crack his skull.
Unfortunately, his mouth was so damaged he couldn't scream right, but the painful moans were good enough.
Danny had briefly considered killing the mercenaries fast, they were just hired help after all, but those with access to Coil's safest hideout were only the most trusted. The ones who either participated in his worst operations, or that he had decisive blackmail on.
None deserve to die easily.
Dodging several traps he could see on the walls, Tinkertech devices and grenades he could see but didn't understand the principles of, he continued on A minute later, he stopped a few feet from turning a corner and facing the four mercenaries blocking the exit, then he used his X-ray vision to look again.
Coil and his two partners had started running, the Villain having destroyed all the equipment in his room and making a beeline towards the escape tunnel, the self-destruction sequence counting down as he moved.
Danny almost smiled, the vermin thought he stood a chance of escaping, it would be cute if he wasn't so disgusting.
As for the four Mercenaries, they armed themselves to the teeth, one pointing a large Tinkertech cannon at the entrance while the other four held grenades at the ready, nothing that he had to worry about.
Stepping out, he batted a projectile aside, the large rocket exploding against the wall to his left and drawing a terrified moan from the man he was still dragging around. Then it exploded, followed closely by the grenades and a hail of laser shots.
Finally, the photon cannon fired, the blast smashing into his chest with such a force it drove him back a step. Danny almost lifted an eyebrow, had it been a few years ago, the weapon would have actually hurt.
Danny's body acted as a shield, blocking the vast majority of the shrapnel from ever getting to his captive, but he made no effort to block everything, so a few got through and the shock-waves still did a lot of damage.
Amusingly enough, the man was still alive when it was over, if barely, so Danny lifted him by the head and squeezed, his fingers finding no resistance as the man's head exploded in a shower of gore.
The laser shots never stopped, the mercenaries taking turns reloading their weapon, so Danny just flicked the filth away with a flick of his wrist and shouted. "Please, please, throw down your weapons and run away… It won't save you, but you'll buy a few seconds, and I'd like more time to think of how to kill you."
Then he flew at them, grabbing the first man by his helmet, he threw him at the cannon hard enough to break bones, then he grabbed him by the leg and swung him around, using his body like a hammer to smash a second man against the wall, then he did it over and over again.
Eventually, he was left with only a leg on his hand, both men turned into paste by repeated blows and the remaining two running away, the smell of piss and worse filling the air as fear drove them.
Dropping the useless limb, he almost laughed, seeing both mercenaries actually fighting to see who went ahead, the Asian one, being surprisingly taller, ahead by only a few inches.
He caught the first guy and, holding both of his shoulders, just ripped him apart in the middle, the resulting shower of blood causing the Asian to slip and fall, his screams of terror traveling far, enough that even Coil, almost out of his tunnel, flinched.
Bending down, Danny pulled the man's helmet off, forced him to his knees and forced his mouth open, blowing a gust of frost breath down his throat, the air just cold enough to freeze the fragile tissues of his insides down to his stomach.
The man wanted to scream, Danny could see it in his eyes, but the pain was too much, sharp stabbing cold digging into his flesh as he tried to cough, only for pieces of his frozen throat to fall off.
Hands going to his neck, the mercenary only worsened the damage, the pain becoming too much to bear as his voice cut off completely, the unbearable agony cutting off his air and making him bend down in a fetal position, large, sharp pieces of ice breaking off inside him, leaving wounds on the inside of his neck and cutting up his stomach.
Dropping the mercenary, he left him to choke to death, the damage too much to recover from, the pain so great he slowly drew a pistol out, the weapon falling to the ground as his shaking hands couldn't get a proper grip.
Danny just moved after Coil, it was about time he crushed the man's hopes just as he got to the exit, behind him, he eventually heard a single shot, the man killing himself to escape the agony.
Thomas Calvert was furiously pressing a control panel, the device recognizing the password and turning to green just as Danny arrived. "Well, well, congratulations Thomas, you almost made it."
"Who are you," Thomas Calvert asked, trying to seem in control, but his heart was beating like mad and, under the black, full body costume, cold sweat had started to accumulate.
It seems like he had already caught the man in a different timeline, how many times had he done it? How much torture was he able to withstand before closing that simulation?
At his side, both mercenaries raised their weapons, one of them palming a Tinkertech grenade hidden behind his back.
"You know who I am," Danny said. "You've been looking at my sister's files for two days now, I don't appreciate that."
Moving too fast for them to react, he flew in front of the mercenary with a grenade, his hand going through the middle of the man's body, flesh parting with no resistance as he grabbed the device and pulled back, leaving a fist sized hole through the man's armored belly.
Turning the grenade sideways, he plunged it on the second mercenary's lung, Danny's bio-energy shield keeping the device from exploding as it pierced through armor and flesh to leave only the tip standing out.
As both men started to scream in pain, he pulled out the pin and threw the mercenary several feet behind him with casual ease, his eyes never leaving Calvert's.
"Very well, I surrender," Coil said, lifting both hands in the air. "I apologize for looking at her, but maybe there's something I can do to make up for it? There must be something you want, I'm sure that if you intended to kill me, I'd already be dead."
Danny landed in front of the man, the grenade going off behind him, the Tinkertech grenade seeming to twist space, squeezing the man into a small twisted dot before exploding again, showering the hallway in tiny pieces… Interesting, did that mean Bakuda was already in the city? No matter.
"You're very confident for a vermin whose spine I can remove in a second."
"In one possible future," Coil said, and the small wince probably meant he had done so at least once… odd, he'd have thought he'd take more time. "In another, you hesitate, you always do."
Danny almost laughed, the lie obvious to his senses, but it was amusing to watch the man flounder. "I'm listening."
"I can make you untouchable, both of you," Coil said. "You know my power, you must, I can give you a lifeline, any wound, any failure, gone."
"And what do you get?"
Coil smiled behind his mask, trying to portray strength. "Tomorrow."
For a long moment, Danny just stood there, then he slowly took a step closer, the Villain almost recoiling. "You know, I'm not just fast or strong, all my senses are improved… taste, sight, hearing, I can hear a pin drop on the other side of the city if I really try."
Moving with superspeed, Danny grabbed one of Coil's hands and lifted it up, the man resisted at first, but quickly gave up, all his strength useless.
"You lied," Danny said, starting to crush one of Coil's fingers, starting from the tip and slowly moving down as if squeezing a tube of toothpaste to get more and causing the Villain to uselessly pull back, teeth gritted in pain, finally, when he was almost at the knuckle, Coil screamed, his free hand smashing against Danny in a mindless attempt to escape.
Moving to a second finger, he did it again, the Villain's mouth opening wide as he screamed himself hoarse. "You lied twice, vermin, I can literally smell it, hear it in your body as your heart accelerates."
A whimper escaped through Coil as he tried to regain his breath and hold back the pain, his muscles tensing and shaking. "No, no, I swear I'll hel-"
Danny crushed a third finger, Coil finally falling to his knees, free hand desperately grabbing at Danny's vice-like grip. "Lie, you'll not help me, you'll try to escape, to betray me, no matter what agreement we reach, you'll always try from a different angle."
"I was… wrong," Coil gasped, taking long breaths and trying to move beyond the pain. "But I can adjust."
"Huh, you're actually telling the truth now," Danny said, releasing the man's hand and staring down at him. "I didn't think you were even capable of that."
It seems like Coil had finally given up on escaping, at least for the moment, he was sure the man would change his mind once things calmed down but, for now, he was actually willing to submit.
Then he lifted Coil in the air by the throat and gave him a cold smile, warmth never reaching his eyes. "You know, a month ago, this may actually have worked. I understand just how useful your power can be, even if I'd have to remind you of your place every once in a while. A pity it's too late now."
"I can… gah, disappear," Coil desperately said, both limbs wrapping around his extended arm for support. "Right now, no more contingencies, no more mercenaries. You'll never hear from me again."
"Unfortunately for you, I'm no longer willing to tolerate your kind, to have you even be on the same planet," Danny said, squeezing the man's throat and stopping him from talking. "But you're right, vermin, after today, I'm never going to hear from you again." Dropping the villain, Danny grabbed one leg and started dragging him through the floor, his clothes getting soaked in the blood of his dead mercenaries. "Now, come, let's see what kind of torture devices you have on your base."
Pulling out his phone, Danny canceled the self-destruction sequence in the hideout; it wouldn't do for his fun to be interrupted.
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