Okay, here's the final segment of my omake series. I hope people have enjoyed it.
Sovereign: Extinction
A mechanical, piercing wail penetrated the dark interior of the throne room, drawing the attention of the occupants.
"Explanation?" Asked the figure on the throne, a blue light on their chest brightening.
"Ah, those are the Endbringer sirens my Sovereign." Calamity Witch said. She then paused as a particular sound rang out.
WHIIIIIR. WHIIIIIR. WHUUUUR.
"That pattern…means that it's the Simurgh. And she's coming here. Orders, my Sovereign?"
There was a moment of silence while everyone in the room looked to the figure on the throne, whose armour glowed with lines of blue light.
"Transcendent Gadgeteer, Tome, Mask, Gears. Evacuate all critical artifacts and resources to these coordinates. Transcendent Gadgeteer, cede command on all completed armaments to me. Calamity Witch, Infinite Enhancement, Sword, Shield. Prepare for combat."
Alexandria pulled herself out of the building she had been slammed into and took to the skies again; diving straight back into the battle and seeking a possible opening in which to strike. Normally, fighting the youngest Endbringer was an exercise in frustration, with the angel-like figure almost dancing through the battle; dodging and weaving around crushing blows, redirecting blasts to hit other targets, and of course the growing paranoia that everything you did was part of the monster's plan. This battle, however, had a few differences from normal.
First was that while the Simurgh's descent into Brockton Bay had been as graceful as previous attacks, once it had entered the city its behaviour had visibly changed. Although the expression on its carved face never changed, there was a palpable air of confusion around the Endbringer. Its movements in the air became erratic and jerky. There were multiple occurrences of the angelic figure dropping pieces of its orbiting debris field for absolutely no recognizable purpose (which would likely be a source of paranoia after the battle). And while Alexandria could not perceive the infamous "Scream," the other capes fighting the monster reported that the Scream decreased in intensity several times during the fight, accompanied by the Simurgh flailing around like a distressed bird.
Next were the new capes. Alexandria ensured that she was aware of as many new triggers as she could get information on, but there were always gaps in her knowledge. While rare, new triggers or those who could bide their time sometimes chose Endbringers battles to debut their abilities, usually resulting in fatalities. However, the ones she was witnessing this time were interesting in their effectiveness. There were two direct attackers, Brutes armed with Tinkertech weapons, and a Master/Trump who improved the Brute's attacks and summoned a legion of small, agile creatures. All three possessed some form of forcefield and were capable of flight. But what really caught Alexandria's eye was the Simurgh's reaction to them. Or rather, her lack of reaction. The first sighting of the two Brutes had been when they had charged straight at the Hopekiller a few minutes into the battle. Normally, the Simurgh punished such actions with telekinesis redirecting the capes in ways which benefited the Simurgh. These attacks, however, went completely unimpeded and struck the angel directly, the sword biting deeply into an arm and the hammer driving it downward into a building. Said building erupted into a storm of debris as the Simurgh flew upward, but again, none of the material in the Simurgh's telekinesis seemed to be aimed at the two capes and they evaded easily. The Master then made herself known when she flew in from above and spread her arms, prompting a shower of creatures to emerge from her clothing and rain down on the rubble orbiting the Endbringer. Every piece of debris that hosted a creature began moving erratically, careening around in the air with none of the usual precision that the Simurgh usually wielded, and they eventually began to fall from the air. When that occurred, the creatures were quick to relocate to another piece, and the weakening of the Simurgh's control continued.
And finally, there was the plethora of Tinkertech weaponry throughout the city. The new capes, using their immunity to the Simurgh's foresight, had steered the Simurgh towards an innocuous building in the city. With no forewarning, a continuous bolt of lightning exploded out from said building and struck the Simurgh's midsection, scorching the porcelain skin. Alexandria froze in midair, stunned. The Simurgh hadn't dodged, hadn't redirected the beam, and it certainly hadn't seemed like it had planned that! The Simurgh gestured with an arm towards the source of the lightning, and Alexandria's heart sank. This was the part where, in past battles, Tinkertech would be delicately plucked from its location, intricately rebuilt using telekinesis, and then repurposed into an even more devastating weapon to be used against the defending capes. This time, however, the Simurgh tore off the entire top half of the building with its mental grip, then ripped it to pieces to expose the floor with the weapon, which was still blasting away at the angel with lightning. Alexandria dived towards it, hoping she could destroy it before it could be turned against them, only to halt as the weapon was slammed down, collapsing the remains of the building it was found in atop it.
The Simurgh has always kept Tinkertech around to use against us. Alexandria thought. Searching her memory, the weapon did not match any recorded Tinkertech on file. She also recalled that as far as she could tell, the Simurgh had never directly touched the weapon with her telekinesis, only the building around it.
Is this another new trigger. Could…Could that weapon be invisible to the Simurgh?! Just like the others?" Alexandria resolved then and there that after this battle, she would be personally tracking down these new capes and recruiting them. This kind of immunity to one of the Endbringers was something the Protectorate, hell, the entirety of Earth Bet, desperately needed.
As if to add more weight to her thoughts, a myriad of differing energy effects began peppering the Simurgh from various locations all over the city. The Simurgh began moving, it usual flowing dodges and orbital debris shield reasserting to protect its body, only for the attacks to unerringly stay on target.
No, Alexandria thought,
it's both that the Simurgh can't see the attacks coming and they are exceedingly fixed on its position. Her observation was supported by what appeared to be a rotary cannon emerging from a manhole beneath her; that began firing laser beams which, once they cleared the rooftops, twisted in flight to target the Simurgh directly. With the constant barrage, the Simurgh was barely able to support any debris into the air before a blast of some type demolished it. Once more, the seeming immunity to the Simurgh's precognition was proving advantageous, as the monster could not locate any of the weapon platforms except for those utilizing continuous beams. Even after flattening the locations with those weapons, the Simurgh was still under continuous fire from the others, and was now more damaged than it had ever been before. Alexandria watched as the Simurgh, its body blackened, battered, and damaged far more than she had seen previously, reversed course and began retreating out of the city.
We've won, she thought, hope growing in her mind, following at a distance to ensue its departure.
As the Simurgh drifted out over the body of water that gave the city its namesake, a new attack was launched. From one of the wrecked ships in the harbour, a strange-coloured orb of light shot from the side, splitting the ship in half with the force of its exit. The orb struck the Simurgh legs and erupted into a globe that hurt Alexandria's eyes, seemingly made of every colour and yet no colour at all. The Simurgh was consumed by the globe up to its chest, and retaliated with the flick of a wing, crushing the remainder of the ship under a massive telekinetic impact. The Simurgh shuddered and her free limbs twisted around, but she remained encased within the globe. The waters below her rose up in imitation of what her brother was capable of, but they had no impact on the globe.
Alexandria floated over the water, alongside many other capes both in the air and on the ground that were staring at the trapped form of the Simurgh. Her attention was suddenly drawn upward by a spot of light appearing high above the city. Focusing her eyes showed that a vaguely runic triangular orange sigil had formed, with an indistinct figure wreathed in a purple aura centered above it. She then found herself falling downward in midair, a strange pressure pulsing from within her chest. With a gasp of pain, a glowing red cloud of vaporous light flowed out from her skin and moved upwards towards the symbol. Alexandria, just barely catching herself and still reeling from the feeling of pain after so many years, looked back at the waterfront as a cape -
Ice-based Blaster. Philadelphia. Villain. - collapsed to her knees as a pale blue cloud was pulled from her body and into the sky. The lights were emerging from several of the visible capes and areas throughout the city, seemingly at random, and more concerning was the masses of colours rising from where the highways leaving the city were located. The colours all blended together into a stream which flowed into the sigil and were absorbed; an orange aura blending with the purple already around the cape high above. What looked to be three miniature suns appeared, one at each point of the triangle. Tongues of flame streamed from the suns towards the middle of the sigil, swirling around and around to create an even bigger ball of fire. Meanwhile, Alexandria was flying upwards, powering through the pain to observe whatever this cape was doing.
As she came closer, her armband blared out with a harsh clicking noise, and Dragon's voice followed shortly after, filled with fear. "
Radiation Spike! Behemoth protocols, evacuate NOW!!!" Dragon screamed as the figure above gestured downward with their staff. Alexandria flew directly at them, determined to prevent their attack before it struck those below, when her world was consumed by light, heat, and sound, sending her cartwheeling downward from the force and only barely hanging onto her consciousness.
Alexandria uncrossed her arms and found her vision and hearing returning, finding herself enmeshed in a thick cloud bank. Descending through it, she emerged to find a scene of horror, her armband accentuating it with constant clicking and a litany of deceased capes. The bay was no more, the water vaporized and spread over the entire city as a radioactive mist. The abandoned ships and bedrock had been liquified and shaped into a crater, the inside still glowing with heat. All the remaining towers had collapsed, and fires were burning everywhere Alexandria could see, adding smoke to the toxic haze over the ruined city. And hanging over the massive crater, the single shining gain of this entire event, was the globe, shimmering with its odd colouration and with a charred, unmoving figure ensnared within it.
We…did it? The Simurgh is dead? Alexandria thought, before glancing back at the ruined city.
But was it worth it? All this death, all this destruction, so many good heroes dead?
"Exceptional." Alexandria spun around to see an armoured figure in the air before her, looking down at the deceased Endbringer.
"Threat to population terminated."
"Who are you?!" Alexandria angrily demanded. "Do you know the parahuman that did this?! As a member of the Triumvirate, I order you to tell me!" The figure slowly spun to face Alexandria, seemingly unconcerned at the ire in the Brute's voice.
"I am Sovereign. Calamity Witch killed the Simurgh Endbringer." The jewel in the figure's breast lit up and washed Alexandria's body with a blue light.
"And your new title is Extinction Knight." A beam shot from the gem into Alexandria's chest, and for the second time that day, she felt pain. The heroine tried to fly, to escape, to attack this person, but her power wasn't responding. She frantically searched her memories, searching for any clue as to who this person was and what they were doing and…"
"
Alexandria deceased, H15" the remaining armbands in the city dutifully reported.
