Cybil (2018) #projectsuper

Chapter 99: A Would-Be Sacrifice

Cybil was in a state of both panic and dispair as she ran up this monster's clawed arm for the umpteenth time while her mother distracted him.

The spiked tail curled around to her, and she had to dive off, lest she get skewered.

She glanced at her, eyes filling with tears. "This is hopeless! There's nothing any of us can do that will so much as touch him!"

"Come with me, child." The woman walked her over and away from the immediate battlefield.

"You know, child? I never could think of you as my daughter... It just doesn't compute, no matter how much I try to force it together."

"What are you..." Cybil whispered as the action played behind them.

"You are a wonderful child, but you're just not mine. Though James did make you look like me... He created you. He raised you. I suspect that if he's proven anything to you over the year or so of your existence, it's that he's a wonderful, if not flawed, father."

Cybil was screaming without even realizing it. "What are you talking about?!"

"You have been a wonderful comrade," the mechanized woman rattled off with no shortage. "I haven't known you long enough to call you a friend, but I'm sure you'd be good at that, too..."

The girl couldn't begin to sort out her emotions. She just knew that her heart was on fire. "What are you saying?!"

"This is hard for me, too, child..." Cybil could tell that she meant every word of that, too. "But know this: from what I've seen of you, I am proud of you."

There was nothing for her to say to that.

The cyborg looked back at the battle. Everyone was simply wearing down faster than Wester, and their struggling against what seemed inevitable became weaker and weaker. The woman closed her eyes and began to slowly glow brighter and brighter.

"I'm going to try one last thing to end this, at the cost of my 'life'. Take care of your siblings, as much of a handful as--"

A rumbling, and not from the fight. The first tremor went unnoticed, but the second, louder one stopped all activity. Even Wester looked up. A body suddenly fell from a fresh hole in the ceiling.

Some kind of cross between a porcupine and a boy screamed as he hit the ground. He looked up into the scene before him and staggered back in fear on stubby legs.

He then called up. "They're here!"

The ceiling collapsed, causing everyone near it to run for cover. A woman of African descent hit the ground.

"Whew, that's the last time I do any heavy digging like that! Come on, guys, join the party!"

Soon, the hangar was flooded with a cavalcade of superhumans of many different kinds. The commander was the last to arrive, falling as a pool of acid on the ground before reforming.

He looked at Cybil. "Sorry we're late. We had to put this together on such short notice. We had to shut all classes down as well, and give everybody the day off."

This was actually happening. The Guardians were out in full force!

Cybil's mother looked at her sheepishly, no longer glowing. "About what I just said... You can subtract that last part."