The sight of Assault cold clocking Rock is one that Mary finds incredibly cathartic after the asshole pancaked her against the wall.
But they aren't done yet, so this is no time to be getting distracted. A thought that is proven correct when she hears the faint sound of movement coming from the office clouded in dust on the other side of the building.
"Eyes up," she says indicating to where Circus was launched, having noticed that none of her allies are as perceptive as her.
The building around them has half turned to rubble at this point, with multiple gaping holes in the wall and ceiling. The factory's large open floor is covered with broken pieces and splinters. Only a few of the boxes that once neatly covered the floor remain intact from the scuffle so far.
And as they look deeper into the room, where there is the least damage, they can all see faint signs of movement coming from within the cloud of dust that currently engulfs the office box on the upper floor.
A tense silence falls upon them as they watch with trepidation for Circus to reveal themselves. Mary makes use of the time to move Rock closer to the entrance, just in case, as he can't exactly defend himself anymore.
The sound of something wet being dragged along the ground is all that is heard before the dust parts enough to reveal Circus.
Dragging her scuffed and dirty body to the edge of the office with a grimace of pain forged into a mad smile, Circus pays no mind to the trail of blood left behind his from their bleeding stumps that used to be called legs.
"Ahh," their voice is deceptively calm and rings out clearly despite not being very loud, "you got him."
"We got him," Mary helpfully confirms.
"That's too bad," Circus sighs, not sounding at all worried. Just as the Heroes tense to move in and capture her too, she speaks again, halting them. "Y'know, I'm curious. Have you lot figured out what TGT is yet?"
Pausing, the Heroes share a look before Miss Militia answers, "we have an idea."
"Is that so? Well, Tinkers have a habit of making stuff reminiscent of other parahuman's powers that they get to study, so you probably think it's some Tinker drug inspired by Her, right?"
No one answers, but Circus seems to take that silence as an answer all by itself and continues their explanation, still sounding perfectly at peace and calm, as if discussing the weather.
"I see. Allow me to enlighten you then. You were half right you see, it's just that TGT isn't entirely synthetic. I doubt any Tinker could replicate Her even if they tried after all."
"Are you saying..." Miss Militia doesn't finish her conclusion, but the injection is enough to bring a vicious smile to Circus' painted face.
"Indeed. TGT is Her blood, mixed in with a little extra extra so the consumer doesn't simply die and turn into a lump of flesh, as well as another something something so the blood cannibalises itself after about an hour or so. It's interesting right? What just an injection of Her blood can do, the power it can grant someone!"
A mad fervour seems to enter Circus' eyes as they continue, moving to sit on the edge of the office so sha can raise her hands as if in adulation, a prayer to an unknown god.
"Isn't it just fascinating!?! You've all seen it first-hand haven't you! With Rock down there! Her blood doesn't just give a massive boost to physical abilities and regeneration! No! That's just the most basic factor!! What really counts is its interaction with parahumans!!"
His tone turns so disturbing that the Heroes below can't help but grimace from the blatantly fanatical expression on her face and her wide, expressive gestures.
"I'm sure even you have noticed it!! Her blood widens the connection parahumans have with their power!! It allows the power to express itself to an even greater degree!! Forcing an evolution to greater heights!!! Surely with all this evidence, anyone can come to the same conclusion that I have!?!"
Circus doesn't wait for an answer as he turns his wide-eyed, maddened gaze down on them all, panting with excursion from his feverous speech.
"She is the next stage of parahuman evolution!!! TGT was just a trial!! A test!! But blood alone is not enough of an evolution! No! To reach the peak we must change our very foundations!!!"
With shaking arms, Circus brings his cupped hands forward as if a beggar seeking salvation, and in the blink of an eye, a strange, pulsating heart-like organ appears in his grasp, causing his deranged grin to grow even wider.
With the reveal of the Mystery Meat, the Heroes all collectively decided that it was time to move, but Circus doesn't even seem to notice them as he continues staring at the organ with reverence.
"Yes. Yess! With this, I will reach even closer to that peak. With The Slaughterer in my heart! I will take the first step towards that glorious future!!"
A slab of metal that could generously be called a shield appears in front of Circus just in time to tank a blast of electricity from Dauntless before falling to the floor below. At the same time, he moves his arms apart, holding the organ with one hand while the other launches a fireball at the approaching Assault.
A bullet from Miss Militia reaches him next, blasting a hole in his right shoulder, but he ignores the wound entirely, too far down his delusions to even register the pain. His expression doesn't even change from blissful reverence when he takes the organ into his healthy arm's hand and jams it into his own chest.
As blood trails down his arm, Circus' expression freezes for a second and his entire body convulses violently. Then, right as Mary is about to reach him, Circus explodes.
Mary is launched back to the others as a dome of dark swirling blood surrounds where Circus was a moment ago.
Miss Militia fires another shot into the sphere, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.
"Welp," Assault chips in, his tone somehow both severe and casual at the same time, all without looking away from the sphere of blood. "That's new."
"I have a bad feeling about this," Mary adds, and her allies around her all nod in agreement, except for Assault, who lets out an amused huff of air from his nose.
"Did you really just quote Star Wars? Now?"
Mary shrugs and smiles, not that any of them see it as none are willing to take their eyes off the blood orb. "Seemed appropriate."
"Sure. Hey Dauntless, see if blasting it will do anything."
Dauntless doesn't respond, but the bolt of pure white lightning that strikes the orb a moment later is answer enough.
"No damage huh. It's like how a Boss gets invulnerability when they transition into the second phase."
"Falcone," Miss Militia's stern voice interjects, "please focus, this is a serious situation."
"I am focusing so hard right now, you wouldn't believe."
"Falcone."
"Hai hai~. Shutting up now."
Assault snickers at the byplay and Battery subsequently elbows him in the ribs. They're all tense and ready for more fighting to pick up, but none of them are truly all that worried.
After all, even with a power boost, all of them together make for a pretty difficult to beat team. The only problem is endurance. And the banter helps calm their nerves anyway.
The fight against Rock only lasted as long as it did because they were wearing down his regeneration, and also because Rock is a very cautious fighter. Plus, his evolved power was difficult to pin down. So while they know the coming fight is likely to be difficult and painful, none of them doubted their chances at victory.
Not a minute later and the dome of blood abruptly swells to twice its size before popping like a bubble in slow motion. Starting from the top, the bubble of blood unfurls itself to reveal the 'butterfly' inside.
Only, before any of them can even make out Circus' new form, a bolt of pure white lightning crashes down on their location, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Mary gives Dauntless a disapproving look, finding it bad manners to interrupt such a dramatic moment, but it's whatever.
Not that it apparently mattered, since the only response to his attack is a deep, distorted chuckle that reverberates throughout the room. It hardly even sounds human, more like someone laughing through an old-timey radio full of static.
And as the cloud of dust settles, what is left could hardly be called human either.
Unlike the other examples of TGT use, there is no obvious constructs of blood sprouting from Circus' body. However, they are most certainly changed.
It is as if a clone of himself tried to escape his body but only got halfway. Circus now has two faces on their head, both with a single glowing red eye. The left face seems more feminine, while the right seems more masculine, something that follows with the rest of the body.
Circus' faces both grin widely as they watch their four arms in fascination, flexing and unflexing them. Further below, they even have four legs splitting out from where their thighs were cut off.
But other than the obvious, it would be hard to identify them as a victim of TGT right away, rather than just another Case 53.
The sound of both faces steadily loudening laughter raises the already high tension in the room even higher, the overlapping voices of their faces making the sound even more disturbing. "Yesss. With this power..." Their voice tapers off as four hands all clench and unclench under ecstatic eyes.
Four balls of white fire appear above their open palms, and then twenty four more appear surrounding each ball, each a quarter the size of their original fireballs, yet burning far hotter, enough to distort the air around them.
"With this power, this unstoppable power! With this I can join Them!! With all this power at my fingers, no one could stop me! Even They will accept me as an equal!!! I will be, finally, A TRUE Clo—"
Squelch.
Everyone freezes as a familiar halberd, that seems to be wrapped in some cloth, pierces through the centre of Circus' chest, interrupting their mad ravings.
Circus looks down at the implement sticking out of their chest with their mouths agape in shock and pain. Pain that rapidly starts spreading throughout their body like a burning virus.
Sluggishly, painfully, Circus twists enough to look behind themself, and they only feel their shock grow at what they see.
Cloth patterned in red and teal coloured stripes with puffy shoulders. A pure white mouthless mask, dark eyeholes that curl at the edges with a thin line of red cutting vertically over the eyes. A band of black edged by gold over the forehead and spiking down to cover the nose, topped by a pair of puffy cloth lappets tipped by bells.
"..wn..."
Separate from the pain spreading through their entire body, Circus feels a new, entirely different pain crushing against their heart. A pain like they have never felt before. They know how to deal with physical pain, but with this, they are left floundering, their mind blank as they struggle to comprehend this, this... Betrayal.
Circus' mouths open, a desperate plea on their lips, a need to understand, to ask; why.
But they never get the chance to utter a word, as the Jester behind them twists, the halberd, pushing it deep enough that Circus gets lifted off their feet. Leaving them impaled in the air just as the cloth that covered the end of the halberd falls free, showing a flag of all things, with a drawing of a dancing jester barely visible beneath all of the blood flowing down the fabric.
With a casual flick of the arm, Circus' still body is thrown to the side without a care.
The Heroes themselves are all uncertain on what to do, or rather, they can't think of what to do. Shock and a silent pressure pushing down on them, distracting them, setting off all of their fight or flight instincts like they've just come face to face with their natural predator.
All the confidence they had in facing Circus without trouble has suddenly vanished as they come face to face with what is undoubtably the real deal.
Venerated by the mad and feared by the world, the woman before them is undoubtably of their number.
The goal Circus went to such lengths for power to join.
A Clown.
Even on a good day, nobody wants to come face to face with a Clown, and the casual ease with which this one killed Circus, who looked like they were going to be a genuine threat to them all, only helps solidify that opinion.
Only for the atmosphere to shatter when the Clown abruptly drops her halberd and slaps both of her palms on her cheeks in a frame perfect picture of animated shock, before shouting out in an unidentifiable accent that is probably racist.
"Oh Mah Gawd!!" One of Jester's hands moves to point dramatically at Circus' body, "The big bad bifurcated bastard became beaten bloodily- err," Jester suddenly flounders, slumping down as her speech abruptly loses steam, "I can't think of any other B words, and it's probably rude to call the recently deceased a bastard anyway..."
As she hums and brings a finger up to her chin in pondering, the Heroes all share worried glances. They're all already somewhat tired, but even then, the fact that this Clown seems completely unperturbed by their presence is worrying. But beyond even that, there is still a silent pressure pushing down on them, like a constant reminder that they can't let their guards down.
"Well whatever," Jester eventually decides, nodding to herself and retaking her position pointing at Circus' body. "You killed him!!" She yells out with a voice full of sorrow, falling to her knees and crawling towards Circus until she can take the corpse in her arms, just like in the movies.
An awkward few moments follow where the Heroes aren't sure if interrupting whatever is happening is a bad idea or not, but before they can even come to a decision, Jester abruptly drops Circus back onto the floor.
"Well anyway," she continues, her voice completely calm in contrast to the previous display of emotion, turning rather exasperated as she continues, "can you believe this girl?" Her mask glances back at Circus for a moment, "girl? Boy? It? Fucking... I don't know, Jew?"
"Judaism isn't a gender..." Assault can't help but point out, getting Jester's attention who tilts her head at him.
"But they have the noses?" She responds, miming a long curved nose in front of her.
"W-what does that have to do with anything?"
"Honestly I forgot what we were talking about the moment you started speaking. Completely derailed my train of thought."
"Right..."
"Ahem... Anyway," Jester's segue couldn't be more obvious, but no one dares to comment, "gimme a sec, I'm trying to remember what I'm supposed to be doing in this scene, I'm pretty sure I forgot at least one thing already."
Miss Militia's hand goes to her earpiece, and though no one else can hear what she is being told, her change in posture is enough for her allies to understand that it was probably Piggot yelling at her to arrest the Villain in front of them.
"Jester-" Miss Militia begins only to immediately be interrupted by said Villain loudly smacking a fist on an open palm like she's just realised something.
"I've got it! Since I can't remember what I was planning, I'm just going to wing it~. But they do say improvisation is the better part of planning, so I'm basically Sun Tzu~." Leaning forward, Jester's arm abruptly snaps out, digging into the hole in Circus' chest, causing the Heroes to finally stop dallying and attack.
Even as she rips out the organ Circus implanted in a spray of blood that gets all over her outfit, Jester still manages to tilt her head enough to avoid a bullet from Miss Militia while also standing up and dodging a bolt of lightning with a simple half turn step.
"Y'know, it's not like this was a gift or anything.~ I was totally caught off guard when she shoved it in his chest, seriously! You all should have seen me-" Jester ducks under a kick from Battery and pirouettes around Assault until their backs are touching, whereupon she leans her head back enough to continue talking right in his ear, "-I was all like whaaaah, y'know'at'm'sayin'?~"
Assault spins into a backhand strike that Jester simply steps forward to avoid, right into a hastily made trap.
In front of her is Falcone, thrusting her cane like a spear. To her right is Battery coming in with a scary-looking punch. To her left is Miss Militia aiming a gun at her, which is generally not something you want to be happening, and of course Assault is behind her with Dauntless swinging down with his spear from above.
Quite a scary predicament to be in.
Jester feels her lips twitch into a smile behind her mask.
From her sleeve, a metal playing card falls between two fingers. The card itself is red with a white border, and while one side has the standard card numbers, the back has a small drawing of a cheering jester in the centre.
With but a flick of her wrist, the card soars towards Miss Militia, not scoring a good hit but managing to distract enough that she doesn't have to worry about getting shot.
At the same time, her other hand moves just in time to parry Battery's punch to the side while one of her legs kicks out into Falcone's approaching shin, causing her to fall short.
However before she can do any more, Dauntless' lance strikes her, cutting a long diagonal slash from her shoulder to hip. Blood bursts from the wound and the Heroes' tense muscles relax slightly as she falls back.
Only for them to be caught completely off guard when the expelling blood abruptly freezes in the air, and Dauntless fails to react when he sees Jester abruptly plant her foot to stop falling and tilt her head in his direction. He knew without seeing her face that she was smiling.
"Just kidding~." At her words, the blood in the air reverses its flow and returns to her body, the gash he cut into her mending within the blink of an eye.
He has no time to even be shocked as her mask suddenly collapses in on itself, a deep dark pit full of vicious, needle-like teeth forming where her face should be, like the visage of some Old God.
Time seems to slow for him, a primal fear filling his gut as he watches as the monstrous maw snaps ever closer to his face, but right before it can tear into his flesh, a red-gloved fist impacts the side of its head, sending the monster cartwheeling across the room and into a pile of broken crates.
The sheer amount of relief Dauntless feels is palpable as he gives Assault the most grateful look of his life, all while trying to hide the shaking in his legs.
"Owwwie.~" Jester's childish whining retakes all of their attention, and they watch as she rises from the pile of splinters she crashed into, her body jerking unnaturally until she is standing facing them, her back hunched and the abyssal maw on her face drooling at them.
But once again, as if a switch is flipped, her menacing appearance disappears as she waves a hand past her face, which returns to the mask that it was the moment her arm passes. At the same time, she stands straight and then leans back slightly in a casual slouch.
"That was like, so, like, rude! You clearly don't know how to treat a lady! But I'll let you off this one time because Assault and Battery is one hell of name for such a heroic duo." Jester brings a finger to her chin and tilts her head to a side in pondering, only she doesn't stop tilting her head until it touches the floor, her body somehow bending like rubber to allow the unnatural position. "Actually, I changed my mind."
Her body abruptly snaps back upright before she is on the move, dashing at the Heroes.
Miss Militia responds first, sending a round straight at her forehead, but before it can land, Jester's head opens up like a doughnut, allowing the bullet to pass through harmlessly before reforming.
"Miss me, miss me, now you gotta kiss me~." Jester laughs.
Past the point of being shocked into inaction, Miss Militia ignores her and keeps firing, but every bullet only meets the same results as Jester's body freely opens and closes like Swiss cheese to avoid being hit.
Jester reaches Falcone first, who swings her cane for Jester's chest in a feint that is completely ignored as her chest simply splits to allow the cane to pass untouched, only a thin line connecting her lower body to her upper body just out of reach of the cane.
"Another miss! Man, I'm gonna be kissing so many people at this rate~."
Falcone decides to take a cue from Miss Militia and ignores Jester's taunting words, but still she doesn't really have a choice but to go through with her attack even with the failed feint and whips her leg up in what would have been a vicious knee strike. If not for Jester moving her hand to catch the blow.
Falcone lets out a low grunt as blood sprays around where her knee met Jester's hand, and it's clear to see why when she notices how Jester's palm had transformed into a mass of hooks and thorns.
"Woah, so much blood! Scary!~"
Battery blurs into place behind Jester, sparks following her trail as she launches a kick at Jester's thighs.
"How low can you go!" Jester shouts out as her body folds away from Battery's kick until she is almost flat against the ground like a squished cartoon character. "Limbo!!!"
Assault appears above her with his boot raised and stomps down with everything he has. He feels his foot squish her against the ground, but he doesn't feel any actual resistance like he should. Instead, it's like he just stomped on some soft rubber.
When Jester's gut gets flattened by Assault's boot, her arms and legs both stretch out and rise in the air like she's actually a cartoon character. Her mask's eyeholes even bulge out.
It's a lot more disturbing to see happen with a real person than a cartoon, is all Assault can think as he watches the display and struggles to catch his breath.
With her locked down, Dauntless drops down from his flight and levels his spear against her throat, pushing hard enough to draw blood.
"Surrender," he pants.
Jester laughs.
"Oh you Heroes~. Aren't you just so precious~," she coos at them. "Very well then, I surrender~."
Dauntless relaxes minutely at her words, which is all the distraction she needs for her upper body to shoot upwards, coiling around his spear and arm until her neck is wrapped around his shoulder.
From her new position right next to his head, she whispers to him, "you should have gone for the head," before her neck transforms into a ring of sharp blades that immediately tightens.
Dauntless' arm falls to the ground with a wet thud, and Jester uses the brief distraction it causes to slip out from under Assault's boot and leap backwards, creating some distance.
She expected Dauntless to scream, so she's rather disappointed when all he does is hyperventilate and stare at his bleeding stump. At least the other Heroes call out to him in concern and worry. That does bring a smile to her face.
"Oh man, that looks rough buddy," her smile grows wider, "do you need a hand?"
She immediately burst into a fit of laughter at her 'funny' joke. The Heroes don't find it quite as amusing.
Sucks for them.
Jester snickers some more before dropping into some stretches. "Alright then! Who's ready for round two?"
"Ahem." The sound of a clearing throat draws all eyes to the entrance of the building where a masked man now stands, wearing a long black high collared coat with belts wrapped around his arms and buckles over it's zipper. His mask is just a simple white full face covering, split into four rows of three blocks by black stitches.
"Eh, No Face? Wazzup? I'm kinda in the middle of something here," Jester gestures between herself and the Heroes, making No Face visibly sigh.
"Times up. If you're gonna drag me around to work as a timer for you, the least you could do is remember. Besides, you got what you wanted right?" As he speaks he pulls his hand out from a pocket to reveal the organ that Jester ripped out of Circus, somehow in his hands.
"Oh yeah, forgot about that~," Jester laughs before skipping past the Heroes and towards her fellow Clown.
No one tries to stop her.
"Are you sure you don't have Alzheimer's? Or are you really just an idiot?" No Face drolly questions.
"Oi, I'll kill you," is her intelligent answer as she snatches the organ out of his hand and stuffs it in a fold of her outfit.
"My, what a convincing argument." No Face responds in a tone dryer than a desert.
Without any warning whatsoever, Jester pulls a revolver out of nowhere and doesn't hesitate a moment before blasting No Face right in the head.
The echo of the gunshot makes all the Heroes tense, only to be filled with confusion when No Face drops to the ground like a puppet with it's strings cut.
Casually putting away her gun, Jester starts to whistle a tune to herself as she simply leaves the Heroes without looking back.
Suddenly left alone, they stand in tense silence for a moment before the spell is broken by Battery slumping to her knees.
Immediately there is a rush of movement as Miss Militia and Falcone move to help Dauntless while Assault tries to support his partner.
None of them say anything, but they are all no doubt thinking the same thing.
They lost.
Badly.
///
Under the shadow of the night Mary find herself walking into an isolated alleyway just twelve hours after her humiliating defeat against the Clown.
Piggot had not been happy about their report, and she ended up having to spend hours in meeting after meeting discussing Jester and what they were going to do about her.
In the end, the final conclusion was basically that they couldn't do anything about her. Piggot said she'll try calling in for some transfers to help, but Brockton Bay is famously underfunded, so the chances that anything will come of her requests are incredibly low.
Regardless, since she wasn't too injured, Mary was eventually allowed to go home. But just as she was falling asleep, she got the sudden urge to go for a walk. Yet now that she is standing here in a random alley, she can't for the life of her figure out why she wanted to go for a walk.
Unfortunately for her, she never gets the chance to figure it out as a hand abruptly burst out of her chest with a spray of gore.
Uncomprehending eyes stare down at the bloodied limb, turning to look behind her, barely getting a glimpse of red and teal before her vision fades to black.
Standing behind her, Jester lets out a sigh.
"I knew I was forgetting something," she says before yanking back from the fresh corpse.
Gore explodes over her front as she yanks out Mary's entire spine, only, as Mary's body falls to the ground, what Jester holds in her hand could hardly be called a spine.
A mixture of red and purple, the 'spine' wriggles like it's alive, more resembling a centipede with it's long body and numerous thin limbs, each writhing independently of each other.
"Aww, aren't you just a cutie, you adorable parasite you~," Jester coos at the thing, tickling it slightly with one hand, before wrapping it around her waist like a belt.
"Phew, and that's a wrap!~" She exclaims before sighing and slumping down. "Man, I work so hard," she moans, "this is supposed to be a vacation, so why am I doing even more work than before? Well whatever, I wanna get laid."
With that final thought, Jester turns and leaves, only briefly remembering to wave her arm behind her, making it stretch out and transform into a hammer that crashes down on Mary's corpse's head, popping it like a melon.
"Wouldn't want to leave evidence," she mutters as she fades into the distance.
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
O.O Mary's dead!?!?! Whaaaaa!? :)
I feel like I've said it too much already, but I'd like to reiterate what I've been saying since I started writing. I have no idea what I'm doing. But trust, it'll probably all work out.
Also, this is the last chapter I had stocked up, which means I have to write another one by next week or there won't be anything to post, hopefully that will generate enough anxiety in me that my dumbass will actually stop procrastinating so damn much :/