Fireballs would cause some of the secreted mucus on Luna's horrific form to bubble, melt, and fall off in strange, sizzling chunks upon the abaonded factory floor as she charged him down and took the impact of his blasts. Even as Luna could feel the searing pain signals from her fleshy form, her pain tolerance having been well honed and then been further augmented by her capabilities, she would still keep up the charge regardless of the damage to herself as the forward-most head on her shambling visage kept the focus of its faintly glowing red eyes and horrifically split-open monstrous maw focused straight ahead on her target. There was no dissuading her from this course of action, nor stopping her monstrous roaring of untold warped and distorted voices coming out from her many mouths.
Torch, for what it was worth, wasn't one of the heaviest hitters of the old gang from what she'd ever known....man hadn't even been among those kept at the HQ for later while the rest of them had been sent out to die for the sake of what amounted to blasted publicity stunt of all things. A useless, hollow publicity stunt meant to propel those left behind into infamy, enough to work to make that accursed dream of being 'big time villains' a reality. The thing that had cost most anyone left with even two cents of brain power in their heads back in the old Blue Skulls their lives and otherwise.
As her monstrous form crashed into the body of Torch, tendrils and myriad arms reaching out as well, Luna would grab and thusly rip the black control device from Torch's hands as her mass sent the other metahuman flying. The tendrils that grabbed the device would then retract it quickly into her own body, moving it to where one of her many heads had retracted into a hollowed-out space inside of her huge fleshy body while her HERO watch had come to be stored elsewhere inside of her. This, even as she stood back up from where she'd fallen and continued her pursuit of the man to try to get him while he was down.
"Why did you decide to accept their deal in the end?"
Why indeed. The therapist had asked her that after she took up HERO's deal. Poor therapist had listened to her about a lot of things, helped her work on many others, and yet she could still recall her response after they'd talked a little more about it. Motivations. Reasoning. Etc. Things that'd motivate her to accept that deal, all trying to make sure she wasn't feeling forced into it among other things. Therapist crap, basically, though in hindsight she was glad for it to enough of an extent. Helped her get her head on her shoulders, perhaps for the first time in her life, and she'd resolved to do something with that.
And she still felt that resolve even now.
"[Because] for the last few years I thought I'd rot in my cell for the rest of my life, yeah, and hell I'd determined myself to do just that after all I've done. I deserve it I think, still think I do at least, but now at least I have a chance to make a difference rather than just sit around now. Make a good difference, in a great way, for as many people as I can help one way or another. This is something I never thought I'd get the chance to do in my life at this point, and I-....I....I-I want to do this, and do this with my own two hands and work my hardest at it.
You told me ta' find a better 'reason to live' than guilt and everythin', and I think this is it. I want to live for a good reason, not just feelin' guilty all day and night and wishin' I was dead with the rest of em'. Won't bring back the dead, make anyone else feel better or do better, won't make me better, or the like. I wanna' put myself to good use in something I've come to believe in now, and work toward that as best as I can and live my life as best as I can from now on.
As for the freedom eventually? That's just a tiny little bonus beyond all of this, nothin' more."
She would work to make the world better, even if it cost her the rest of her life to do so. For the kids and people who lived in Brookside, for the average person who got caught in the middle of all of this sort of crap, and for the people who had yet to be born. She'd fight to make sure as few bodies as possible got sent back in bags or pieces even among her enemies, and would make sure as many of people as she could would get back home alive. Couldn't save everyone, though, but like hell if she'd give up regardless. And right now wasn't any different, as if this fire got into more of Brookside, if the Zards' got spread out into the area, and the like then it would only make things worse for everyone. Even if she had to come out each day to spend all day and night hunting the things down alone and by hand she'd do it, but maybe with the device Torch had used now in her hands she could at least do one thing for the people of Castleburg and Brookside in this situation.
Yet the heroine and resident 'Freakshow' wouldn't get to her target much in time despite her efforts, though, as Torch injected himself with the same stuff Menace had been hit with and dropped the syringe on the ground. A lashing tendril would shoot out and grab the empty thing at least, though, before just as rapidly retracting into her mass to protect and store it. Likewise a hand would emerge from the lining of the internal space inside of her body she had created prior to store one of her new many heads, this hand holding the captured Leftovers Control Device and attempting to use it as the mouth of the one head in there also spoke loudly into it. She'd try it with her own normal voice, then by mimicking Torch's voice if that didn't do anything. Etc. But she had to at least try something.
(("Terrazards, return to this building and destroy it completely! Bring this piece of trash burning building crumbling down to the very ground and your use your bodies to put out any scraps of the fire that remain afterward!")Bring down the building, right down on the head of the asshat who was setting it on fire right now. Bring it down, and kill Terrazards. Then what would remain in the aftermath, if any of the Terrazards? She had a plan for that once they got to that point, but one thing at a time for now. She had to see if this particular stupid plan of hers, certainly not the first nor the last, would function how she hoped. Otherwise, she had to come up with a Plan B really, really fast and on the fly. She could at least do that. But for now, Torch had gone even more insane and was doing a good job of making the place into a literal dumpster fire at this rate. But....perhaps it was the funeral pyre he had wanted....and the one he deserved as well.
They had to get out of there before things got worse, though, and as Torch went mad Luna would try to emit more protective anti-fire mucus and would fire about five bone spikes from her body at the man like a shotgun blast. This all as she scrambled off back toward the others, where if she got the chance she'd try to grab up Lab Rat and both of the Twins and to pull them safely close to herself as her own huge form sought to barrel out of the burning building and back into the safety (ironically) of the open and not-currently-on-fire space outside. If her attempt to command the Terrazards was working, however, she'd not attack any Terrazards on the way out. If it wasn't working and the the things were still attacking them all anyways or such, she'd use the extra arms and bone spikes and her many feet and such to keep killing as many Terrazards as she could on the way out one way or another.
"Time to go, party people! Keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times, and be careful because the local Lizards bite!"Yet as her main external heads spoke this aloud and in a hurry as she sought to do all of this, she would take care to contain the injured member of the Twins as well as use a side head to speak to the other one if she had managed to get ahold of them as she intended to do.
"Hey, kid. Time to get out of here, see if I can keep you two alive too at that. This ain't picking pockets near the corner store on fifth. Hate me or not, I don't care, because you two don't deserve to die because of Torch being the insane asshat he is....or other reasons for that matter." @Blizz@ManyThings@Silver Carrot@shylarah@Hitman@DClassified@Zoey Boey