[b][u][center]The Choice to Stand
For ArrowQuivershaft
By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]





Common sense told Lindsey to stay back as the minions carried yet another hero out of the converted city square. The arena was littered with rubble, blood, and worse, and the one responsible still stood, unbroken and nearly untouched. Their greatest hope, a phoenix known as the Immortal Flame, was the latest to be carried from the battlefield, and dozens more lay on stretchers outside. 
“Does anyone else dare challenge me?” the hissing voice of the dark-scaled serpent called out. He flicked his tail, the air rippling with a crack of thunder at the motion. “Or is this all the heroes that this pitiful city could summon?”
Common sense told Lindsey to keep quiet. She was little more than a shifter, and barely that. The top tier heroes of her hometown hadn’t been able to do a thing to the Shatterer. Did she really think that she could do better than the Immortal Flame?
She looked over her shoulder, the rattling of the latest wave of helicopters fleeing the city catching her ears. They were evacuating everyone they could, but it was a process. She didn’t know how many had been removed already, didn’t know if it was more or less than half the city. Was it okay to run if there were still people? 
Could anyone say that she could have done different? 
Lindsey clenched her hands into fists, feeling her nails sharpen, the claws grinding against her palms for a moment before she pulled them back in. The reptilian minions of the Shatterer continued to wander, looking through the crowd with smirks on their faces, all but convinced that they were on the winning side. They probably were, considering the utter lack of success the heroes had had against their master. 
Even now, she could see the battles in her head. The shatter-points that the snake’s power had created were almost like miniature black holes, sucking in those that were anywhere near them, pulling on limbs so hard that muscles snapped and skin ripped, making it impossible to keep one’s footing in any way and giving the Shatterer endless openings to come in and beat the hell out of his opponent. It was impossible to beat that. 
But…
But she could still buy time. The helicopters were still going in and out of the city. And she could give them time to get at least one more wave of evacuees. 
So, she stood up. All eyes, civilian and monster alike, turned to her. 
“...I volunteer,” she said, her voice cracking halfway through the sentence. 
“You?” The Shatterer chuckled. “Heh…what luck. One more to break. And what are you, then?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she walked down from the bleachers that the townsfolk assembled were made to sit on. She hopped over the spiked fence that had been placed between the makeshift arena and the seats, and walked across the flaming, ripped-up, flooded ground. The shatter-points had ripped the open space to shreds, and the snake did not seem done. If anything, he seemed like he had barely begun with the hell that he meant to unleash upon them all. 
Lindsey stopped barely twenty feet away from him. The snake, dark-scaled from the top of his head to the tip of his tail, smirked down at her. His fangs were long enough to slide past his lips and hang out in the open, and while they did not drip venom, she’d seen what they’d done to the Guardsman. The former soldier had been pierced through despite his natural body armor, the stone he’d transformed into broken by the sharp teeth. She’d have to avoid more than just his shatter-points. 
“What are you, human?” the snake hissed, chuckling. “Or are you just a little creature that thinks I’ll show mercy because you have no power?”
“I have power,” Lindsey whispered. 
“Show me.”
It was almost a compulsion, as if he spoke with some deeper power than just fear. She resisted, shaking her head and assuming a barely-remembered defensive pose, one hand held out, leaning on her back foot, the other hand low and ready. 
“Make me.”
“Pitiful.”
His tail cracked, but she was already in motion. Even as the shatter-point appeared where she’d been standing, she was already airborne. The painfully-fast change made her bones feel like they were about to stab through her skin, but she managed the shift from human to cat faster than ever before. The burnt tree above her head gave her something to grab onto, and she swung over and sideways. 
“A shifter, hmmm?”
Lindsey didn’t answer, just holding onto the tree. The transformation hurt. Oh, it hurt to change that fast. She’d forgotten how it felt to rush through it, considering her day job of animal therapist barely required a transformation faster than ten minutes, most of the time. She bit back tears as she lowered herself to the ground. 
“That…is truly pathetic.”
“It’s what I have,” she said, hoping that her pain didn’t show in her voice. 
“It’s worthless.”
She shook her head, taking up the same stance once more. The longer she made this last, the more flights could come and go. The longer she made him fight her, the longer the city would keep standing. Nobody had any illusions how long it would stay upright if the Shatterer didn’t have any more heroes to humiliate. Once he stopped fighting those that could take it, he’d turn it on the buildings that couldn’t. Anyone still trapped in them would be dead in seconds. 
So, she’d take it, instead. 
He smiled as she waited, the snake slithering forward by a few paces. She fought the urge to run, remembering what had happened to the Blinking Man. He’d teleported, and the Shatterer had still caught him from behind. She had to - 
The tail moved faster than she could see, and it cracked across her chest, sending her flying across the arena. Her shoulder slammed into one of the still-standing bike racks, and she felt it go. Pain rippled through her before she could change, before she could have transformed into something that could have taken it. Too late to save that arm. 
She was screaming, she thought. Screaming loudly, too. But as long as she was screaming, she was alive. 
Lindsey didn’t try to stop herself from screaming. She didn’t need the air. She just needed to stand. She used her good arm, pushing herself to her feet, and the Shatterer chuckled. 
“So, you want more?”
“I’m not letting you out yet. You made the deal. You’ll keep fighting until all the heroes are done.”
“You’re all that’s left?”
Shrugging, Lindsey lifted her good arm towards the Shatterer again. He chuckled - 
She saw it this time. The tail swept over her head as she fast-shifted down, becoming a feral dog for a moment, then a flea as it came down again. She leaped, expanding as she flew through the air - 
CRACK!
He caught her with his tail as she flew towards his head, and sent her flying over him. She hit the pavement, managing to turn armadillo for a moment, keeping the worst of the skin-scraping at bay, but she was still torn and bloody as she came to a halt at the end of her landing. The broken shoulder was getting worse, and she could feel the rips and tears elsewhere starting to pile up. 
“You’re not worth my time, little girl.”
“Worth it…or not…you made the deal,” she said, forcing herself up again. Her clothes were ripped, where they were still present. Some of it had been knocked around when she had hit the ground, when the tail struck. If she lived through this - 
She almost chuckled at the stupidity of wanting a new wardrobe if she somehow lived through this, but the ludicrousness of life always seemed to find a way. Lindsey shook her head, looking out through one black eye and one that ached. Something else might be broken. Maybe. She hoped not. 
The Shatterer chuckled as he flicked his tail behind him once more. 
“You will not live to regret this mistake.”
“Maybe…” Oh, pain. Oh, breathing was pain. Yes, there was definitely something else broken. But at least it was another bit of time. She curled her hand into a fist, forcing the fur to grow out, changing the end of her arm into a clawed paw. Not much, but at least she could defy him a bit. Her hand fattened, and the digits thickened as she fanned her fingers to show the claws. “But I’ll make you work for it.”
“Heh, you call this work? I can’t even call it sport.”
“...”
“You will die. And you will die knowing that you couldn’t stop me. Is that what you want?”
“No.”
“Heh…then you must feel very foolish…because that is all that remains to you.”
“...Then bring it on.”
He did. A shatter-point opened behind her, sucking her off her feet. She shifted down, becoming less than a flea, this time, less even than that. She became a water bear, the tiny little things that could survive anything, and even that barely survived the rampant twists and violent shifts of the shatter-point. 
But it flung her around and forward as it disappeared, and even as she screamed from the agony of growth, she shifted back. All her claws were outstretched. The tail came up - 
She caught it. It made her scream with agony as it jammed her broken shoulder against her collarbone, but she held tight, swinging herself down. It was barely anything, little more than a claw scratch across the snake’s cheek, but she’d done something as she went flying past him. She hit the ground, wheezing, coughing, gasping. 
Her claws were red. And so was he. 
“You…little…”
The Shatterer had no words for what she’d done. She had no breath to banter. Lindsey turned her head, looking back at the snake as he advanced. One little red line marked his cheek under one eye, little more than a delicate mark. If only she’d aimed an inch higher. 
He raised his tail to strike her, only for a flaming fist to grab it from behind. He whipped his head around, only for a gust of heat to knock him backwards, sending him flying across the arena. 
“How about you stop talking about breaking shifters, and get back to [i]our[/i] fight?” the Immortal Flame said, fiery feathers bursting with heat as he stepped into view. The phoenix looked at her. “Can you move?”
She grunted a no.
“Okay. Stay down, stay out of the way.” 
More heroes walked up to stand behind the Immortal Flame, each one glaring at the Shatterer across the way. He groaned as he pulled himself out of a hole in one of the buildings at the edge of the arena, and he was pissed. 
“Interrupting my fight? I thought heroes had honor,” the snake said. 
“We do. You started a new one, before [i]mine[/i] was done,” the phoenix said. “And that means the rules are off. You broke them first…and now we know you aren’t invincible.” He cracked his knuckles. “Let’s see how you look with a few more marks on you.”
Lindsey would have liked to see the fight, but she was too badly injured. She barely managed to stay conscious as the heroes charged, but as she passed out, she had the joy of seeing the Shatterer take a punch right to the face. 
[i]I mattered,[/i] she thought. [i]I mattered.[/i] 
And then the world went dark. 


[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: Lindsey is a hero with shifting powers that has never wanted to do hero things. Now, she has little choice. 

Tags: No Sex, Superhero, Human, Shifter, Snake, Villain, Supers, Transformation, Fighting, Pain, Buying Time,