Our coordination and our IEU are saving countless lives, so trying to kill us is trying to kill dozens of capes.XenonPrime said:
Alchemical Solutions [Worm/Exalted] Thread 6: Fatal Fires Flagrantly Fry Frantic Friends, Family
- Thread starter Gromweld
- Start date
-
- Tags
- exalted (white wolf) worm
BobTheNinja
Sword of Possibility
- Location
- Multiverse Sector Texas
Yeah, but I don't think he knows that. And again, it's highly probably that Coil fucked with his head somehow, and he's acting out of a warped perspective.Elero said:
I'm seriously not getting why so many people hate Danny right now, given those circumstances.
.IronSun.
I don't descriminate, I hate all of you equally.
- Location
- IN UR BASE, PUNCHIN UR DOODZ
Not necessarily, but he's seriously screwed himself over. Our neglecting to reconnect with him after our reincarnation and Coil's screwing with his head are mitigating factors, but he's still going to be in deep shit for breaking the Truce.Jinnt said:
Yeah, but we can probably deal with him trying to kill us without killing him in self defense. But it's not just our live or his, it's our live, everyone in Autochthon, Autobot himself and all the people we could save by stopping the Enderbringers against his live. So, don't just ask if a small chance of Taylor dying is worth it trying to save Danny, ask yourself if risking MILLIONS of lives to save Danny is worth it, and if it would be worth it to high Clarity Taylor.BobTheNinja said:
Can't use stealth while anima is making us light up like a volcano.scope said:
anima banner stops any stealth attempts and charmsscope said:
veekie said:
xenondestroyer said:
Reemphasizing:
Railroaded in a future post or retcon'd out of continuity. We have never stealthed since putting on the power armor and I'm not seeing it happen unless it gets railroaded in.
First, made that more readable. Second, the bolded part: High Clarity doesn't cause sadistic tendencies, only logic- and efficiency-based thoughts and decisions.MovingTarget said:
EnderofWorlds
Kneel, mongrel
- Location
- My Ship of Light in the Cosmos
Probably us getting close to being mote-tapped; so we gotta get out of dodge and run like a mofo.scope said:
Thinking on that, I wonder why Gromweld even put that line into the Interlude anyway. He had to have known from the beginning that fighting Behemoth would cause us to go Full Anima Banner.scope said:
That was the effects of Essence use. Behemoth is likely being aimed by Simurgh and our anima went up around when we put on the armor, which DID cut Simurgh's ability to aim, but not Behemoth's native ability to sense energy, the power armor runs on electricity, pumps and antigravity. He can see that. He can't use Simurgh to target us unerringly even out to the extreme of his range, but our totemic anima and the power armor's energy use is going to be visible if we're close enough.scope said:
Votes still ongoing?
Well, I would give it a stab, but 1) Someone will beat me to it and 2) I am prepared (resigned, more like) to die a horrible, screaming, ineffectual death.Gromweld said:
Quantumboost
Now with 50% more dots in Dimensional Science
- Location
- Ensemble Space
Since the last post you XP-assigned for:
Omake by Bozwevial
Omake by AkatsukiLeader13
Picture of EOA by assana73
Picture of Danny by assana73
Omake by Bozwevial
Omake by AkatsukiLeader13
Picture of EOA by assana73
Picture of Danny by assana73
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
Thank you, good sir. Re-roll given. You'll see your fate soon.Quantumboost said:
Oooh! This is great! The spider-legs for Shard of Perfect Administration are a little off (they flare out a bit more before sweeping back, and don't wrap tightly around the hair), but otherwise you really nailed this scene! +2 XP!assana73 said:
Oooo, awesome work conveying the anger and sunken expression here! +2 XP!assana73 said:
I'm in your teeth! (...and you should really cut back on those fizzy sodas.) Anyway, I really loved that last bit - if you don't mind, I may even crib some of this for the eventual Danny Interlude. +1 XP!Bozwevial said:
YOU ARE GIVING ME IDEAS. I APPROVE. +1 XP!AkatsukiLeader13 said:
Especially considering Sophia shouldn't be anywhere near this battlefield.AkatsukiLeader13 said:
BobTheNinja
Sword of Possibility
- Location
- Multiverse Sector Texas
I did a really, REALLY rough sketch of Behemoth. I understand if it doesn't warrant a full point of XP, but I couldn't wait after seeing everyone else contributing their own art.
BobTheNinja
Sword of Possibility
- Location
- Multiverse Sector Texas
I'm basing the appearance off of what I read from Interlude 15 Bonus #3.Carrnage said:
Naw, he's right, specialties aren't used in a "as many as possible" manner, you can only ever use three in a given roll, and they are niche by design. So specialties are used in rolls which you can dictate the approach, things like Craft specialties are obvious, as are combat specialties involving our choice of weapons or armor, but in all other cases they are unreliable.
Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
The Battle for Brockton Bay: The Rampage
[X] "Even though we were barely organized, we still needed to stop the monster from tearing through the city like it was his playground. After only a few seconds of rest, everyone standing was teleported back into the fray. We didn't expect to see two monsters, though…"
- [x] Stunt: Allocate all available Blasters, Movers and Brutes to harass and distract Behemoth. Using Shard of Perfect Administration and bug clones, have the Blasters and Movers coordinate their efforts to minimize cape casualties. When Behemoth is off balance or focusing on attacking the Blasters and Movers, plan to have the Brutes strike at Behemoth to topple him. Give orders to any remaining teleporters to keep watch over the Brutes and Behemoth, 'porting out any brutes that he turns his attention towards.
- [x] Stunt: Fill the battlefield with swarm clones and keep supporting effective capes with IEU while you analyze the second monster and try to communicate with it.
XP Expenditures:
[X] 4 XP - Dodge ●○○○○
[X] 2 XP - Awareness (Swarms ●●●)
[X] 4 XP - Athletics ●●●●○
[X] 4 XP - Occult ●●●○○
[X] 2 XP - War (Swarms ●●●)
***
Almost two-hundred feet out into the bay, you rest, kneeling as your suit's HUD displays error after error. The rapidly-cooled molten rock and metal that is covering most of your form have disrupted many of the delicate instruments in your suit, but only your anti-gravity wings have taken enough damage to render them inoperable. With a sigh, you exhale the last of the breath in your lungs and absorb your armor so that your Technomorphic Integration Engine can get to work repairing it. Ignoring the ice-cold bath that follows your armor's disappearance, you dedicate five of your thought processes towards focusing on your charm and ways to speed up the internalized repair process, while leaving the last to review the chaos out on the beach.
The remnants of your formerly-massive swarm give you a clear view of the sprawled, bleeding, and broken parahumans that litter the beach a few hundred feet to the west. Heroes, rogues, and villains alike stumble and stagger after being cast about like twigs when the massive, headless metal dragon-form of Lung was hurled into your assembled group at near-supersonic speeds - crashing through the hastily erected defenses to finally come to a rest at the water's edge. Beyond the beach, the molten, smoldering ruins of the PRT Headquarters and surrounding buildings lay as testament to the power of the First Endbringer: Behemoth, the Herokiller.
Who is, at this very moment, tearing through downtown in a direct line towards your home, or - more likely - your former high school.
Reviewing your essence pools, you note that you have enough to dispense Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade a few more times – you have already regenerated the essence commitment WCM freed with her death, and the fly in the air that you moved Eidolon's application to is still alive and high in the air.
Time is now, truly, no longer on your side. You realize that your efforts are still only marginally understood by most of the combatants here, so it is critical to facilitate those that are already proven leaders in such a time of crisis.
As they rise from the mountain of rubble thrown by Lung's landing, you shove applications of Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade into Alexandria, Legend, and Chevalier. Each appears to rock slightly as you feel the charm take hold in their minds, giving you a moment to coalesce enough of your swarm near each to voice your thoughts.
"Thinker augmentation granted. Behemoth headed northwest, towards Winslow High School."
Alexandria - her costume ragged and filthy after being used as a mining pick by Behemoth - immediately turns to address the cloud of bugs to her right. Her voice is raised only enough to be heard by your swarm, but her tone is clipped and fierce.
"What are you keeping there?"
At nearly the exact same moment, Chevalier is asking a similar question - though his tone is more of confusion and concern.
"Your old high school? Why?"
Legend is silent, simply nodding his head as nearly a dozen small, brilliant beams of various colors burst between his hands, twisting like some schoolyard display of Cat's Cradle.
You expected such queries from the veteran heroes, and though you would normally be reticent to reveal anything regarding your Exaltation, you understand that deception would only provoke further delays at this critical juncture.
"Reason uncertain. Current hypothesis: exploitable power conduit left over from trigger. Incalculable damage estimate if true."
This gets very sharp head-turns from all three, though Alexandria and Legend don't bother with responses and rocket off in the direction of Behemoth, each causing a shockwave that disperses all the bugs in their wake. They also collect a large number of dead bugs on their visor and faceplate, respectively, as they power through your aerial swarm.
Chevalier, now rapidly moving through the area and helping downed capes extricate themselves from the mountains of sand, rock, and other detritus, keeps talking despite his work.
"Why didn't you tell us about this, Weaver?"
"Object and location discovered minutes ago. Iris at High School now. New secondary hypothesis: Iris current target of Behemoth."
Chevalier turns from where he has finished helping up the downed, power-armor clad form of the St. Louis ward named Bob, then strides over to where you see the remaining medical teams. Most are struggling to set people on flat chunks of rock being levitated by the Empire Eighty-Eight supervillain, Rune, so that they can be moved off of the beach and onto the raised, adjacent parking lot.
"Your Tinker projection? Can't you recall or disperse it?"
"Not projection. Immeasurably powerful entity, unpredictable in behavior."
This gets a slight start from the Philadelphia Protectorate leader, though he quickly recovers and is striding onwards like it never happened.
"If Behemoth is targeting him?"
For a brief moment, one of your consciousnesses recalls the feeling of awe, of power you felt radiating from Iris' true form. How your mind almost fell into his lightless depths, barely hidden by the opalescent hues flickering across the massive black pearl. Another remembers the attempt to draw him forth from your Elsewhere pocket manually, and how you got the feeling that it would take more essence than you will ever have to force Iris to manifest before you.
Taylor Hebert would hesitate to reveal these kinds of concerns to an authority figure. Such fear is wasteful, now, when the command structure must realize the severity of the situation at-hand.
"Secondary hypothesized scale of effect: Massachusetts coastline."
This manages to halt Chevalier in his tracks, allowing you to solidify the swarm accompanying him into a proper bug clone. He immediately squares on it, pointing a finger at its 'chest' and gripping his canonblade with his left hand hard enough to cause the armored gauntlet to creak slightly. His voice is hard, all trace of compassion gone, leaving it cold and brittle.
"Your first guess?"
"Primary, most probable hypothesis: Iris unable to effect any change, will likely be destroyed by Behemoth. Probability of secondary hypothesis exceedingly small, stated first due to need to clarify worst-case scenario."
The creaking stops from his left gauntlet, and after a moment Chevalier turns and resumes his strides towards the medical section. As he marches in silence, you continue using your swarm to shape arrows pointing towards downed capes in need of attention, directing Shakers such as Vista and Kaiser – the armored leader of the white supremacist supervillain organization clearly preferring to render aid to his own forces first. Finally, just before Chevalier reaches the newly-designated medical area, he stops and rounds on your trailing bug-clone for a final time.
"You've proved a capable strategist so far, but I need to know if there's anything else you've been keeping hidden that could result in a 'worst-case scenario.' We don't have time for secrets."
Casting aside emotional concerns, you focus on probable reactions should you reveal your nature to Chevalier – and anyone who might be listening to your conversation – at this point in the battle. Chevalier has thus far proven himself to be dedicated and focused on the more important matters at hand, but declaring your status as a harbinger of a planet-sized, reality-remaking deity will likely divert his focus from the current conflict. Unfortunately, you are also aware that you are lacking a great deal of necessary information regarding your Exaltation and everything that has come with it; worse what information you do have is sometimes faulty or misleading.
"Large number of uncertainties regarding own condition, origin of powers. No readily-available information source to resolve uncertainties. Will update should relevant information become available."
You can hear Chevalier exhale a long, frustrated sigh through his helmet, and he looks away towards the sounds of Legend and Alexandria's battle with Behemoth in the smoke-choked ruins of northern Downtown.
"If we make it through this, we are going to have a long talk about what is, and what isn't, vital information for your superiors."
"Understood."
With that, Chevalier presses two buttons on his armband and raises it to his helmet to speak. Your own armband, along with your suit of armor, are currently resting in your Elsewhere pocket, so you only hear his voice through the almost two hundred others attached to the parahumans on the beach.
"This is Chevalier. Behemoth's new target has been revealed to be at Winslow High School, located at AK-17. New information indicates that if he makes it there he'll either be able to wipe out the city or a large chunk of the Eastern seaboard. Alexandria and Legend are stalling him as best as they can, but we need everyone who isn't unconscious or treating those that are to prepare to hit him with everything we have. We'll be teleporting to-"
With a deafening screech, all the armbands you can sense briefly shriek with the characteristic sound of microphone reverb before going silent - automatic overrides built into the armbands kicking in to silence the interference.
You doubt it's a coincidence that Behemoth's radio and wireless interference aura would kick in just as the defenders were using the armbands to coordinate a rally. Could he hear Chevalier making his plan through Alexandria's and Legend's armbands? Either way, you heard Chevalier list the destination before he realized the armbands had been rendered useless, so you momentarily divert all your consciousnesses towards gathering your swarm into the largest, most focused voice box you can.
"TELEPORTING TO AW-22 IN 60 SECONDS. GATHER UNDER ARROW FOR TELEPORT."
The buzzing cacophony of your swarm's simulated voice echoes across the beach and out into the bay, causing many to flinch, shudder, or jump in alarm. Chevalier himself looks up to the massive arrow you are forming above the widest, most debris-free section of the beach, then back to the swarm-clone you still have beside him.
"Where are you now, Weaver?"
"Two-hundred twenty-four feet east, bay floor. Repairing suit malfunction. Immune to teleportation effect, will fly to battlefield when able."
There's a short pause before Chevalier merely nods his head, then strides into the medical area to do a sweep of the casualties. You've already been keeping an eye on the comatose form of Armsmaster and Clockblocker, but the Undersider Grue appears to be up and moving with the help of Tattletale and Regent. Good - you understand from Tattletale's report of his powers that his darkness ability will help against the radiation being thrown around by Behemoth.
As you coordinate the rest of the rallying effort through your swarm, the consciousnesses re-dedicated to your mind's eye review the mental image of your absorbed armor. While you were tempted to simply run to the battlefield in your PRT-provided armor while your power suit repaired itself in your Elsewhere pocket, you had an instinctive feeling that running would actually slow – or even stop – your charm's ability to repair absorbed objects. Thus, why you have been sitting, Indian-style, on the bay floor for the past three minutes as you absently dedicate your sixth consciousness towards the coordination of the parahumans on, around, and floating above, the beach. The Brockton Bay Wards – now with Shadow Stalker in tow - are grouped together with a few non-local Wards, and while they have called out to your various swarm bodies they have only asked if you are alright.
"Medical aid unnecessary. Render aid to those in need, if capable of such."
You're finding it difficult to read their emotions beyond 'panicked' and 'stressed', but your response does not appear to ease the tension in their mannerisms. While unfortunate, you cannot afford to devote a consciousness towards idle chatter with them and thus have your swarm clones move on after ascertaining that they do not need anything else from you at the moment. Aegis, Gallant, and the entirely-metallic, Case 53 Ward named Weld ask you to direct them to those still struggling, so you have swarm arrows point them to various out-of-town capes that their powers would synergize with satisfactorily. Eidolon has regained consciousness again with the help of the regeneration-bestowing neo-Nazi Othala, but has otherwise remained silent despite the bug-clone you have walking alongside him.
Your buzzing swarm voice updates the countdown at thirty seconds, then fifteen seconds, before counting down from ten as the stragglers make their way to the massive group of capes arrayed below your gathered swarm. You count one-hundred thirty-one capes gathered there before they all disappear in a field of Strider's telltale light-blue starbursts, leaving only the five working in the medical area – Scapegoat, Penitent, Othala, Escutcheon, and the still-morose Panacea – and the sixteen capes, fourteen PRT officers, and seven civilians under their attention.
Still taking up a large chunk of the shoreline is the massive, metallic, comatose dragon-body form of Lung. His neck and head appear to be regenerating, and his body is still radiating heat, so he'll likely be up and ready to fight again soo-
Only by accelerating your mind with a burst of essence do you manage a resounding, "WATCH OUT! LUNG!" through your swarm voice before the beach is swallowed in flame.
In a cataclysmic display of pyrotechnic might, a massive corona of fire erupts out of Lung's form as he suddenly leaps to his hind feet and roars in rage and indignation. While most of your swarm is blown back or incinerated by the expanding fireball, those insects in the air farthest from the giant metal dragon briefly catch sight of the medical area engulfed in the blowback from Lung's rousing. A great gout of steam rises around Lung as the bay waters near him vaporize instantly, while the sand beneath his feet appears to be fusing into glass.
Before you can even attempt to gather a swarm to warn Lung off, his titanic metal wings beat once – turning the beach into a sand-filled firestorm - and leaps into the sky on a trail of fire.
As Lung's blazing form rockets into the night sky towards the receding sounds of Behemoth's rampage through the city, your swarm sees another massive form hunched protectively over the medical area: Jotun, the frost-giant themed villain from Canada. As the flames around his giant body die out from lack of fuel to sustain them, the frost-and-icicle-armored titan rapidly shrinks back down to a mere seven feet before collapsing to his knees. Beside him – gathered in a mad swipe of his giant arms as he sought to shield them – lie the similarly-unconscious forms of Panacea, Escutcheon, Penitent, and Scapegoat. Only Othala and a handful of regular PRT medics appear to be sensate, with the teenaged white supremacist desperately attempting to distribute her regeneration power in spurts to keep those around her from dying from their newly-added burn wounds.
It takes you almost a full minute to gather enough of a swarm again to generate a loud enough voice, but in that time she appears to have stabilized those in most dire need of attention.
"Othala. Assistance required?"
The red-suited villainess shrieks at the sound of your swarm voice, looking around wildly before turning her head upwards to see the mass of bugs looming above her. You can't read her lips through her full-body costume, but you hear mutters under her breath as she looks up at your swarm.
"Repeat. Do not mumble."
"I-I said… nevermind! Can you heal?"
"Negative. Insufficient medical understanding to utilize surgical powers efficiently."
"You... you don't know how to use your own powers? That doesn't make- no. Just… just go! Fight! Once I get Panacea up we'll be able to fix everything here. And…"
She works her hands over, wringing them as she appears to be struggling with some idea. Finally, in a softer, pleading tone that you have trouble making out over the ambient noise, she continues.
"If-if you see Victor, please try to keep him alive. For me."
The PRT and Parahuman Online databases on the Empire Eighty-Eight's supervillains indicated that Othala and Victor are either engaged or already married, even though there appears to be a decent age gap between the teenaged-looking Othala and the early-thirties-looking Victor. The Parahumans Online entries had rumor-mongering pointing towards an arranged marriage, but such a request strikes you as against the standard behaviors of a loveless pairing.
Every willing parahuman is a valuable asset in this conflict, so you have no intent to actively seek his destruction or worsen his chances of survival.
"Understood."
You disperse the swarm and keep an eye on the surrounding environment while your other mental threads remain focused on your internalized armor suit, which does appear to help accelerate the repair process. Two minutes later, you note Panacea – her white robes charred and soiled from her tumble - finally rousing from unconsciousness. Othala breathes a sigh of relief, but it is short-lived; Panacea remains as morose and unmotivated as before, and it takes the teenaged Empire Eighty-Eight villain nearly two more minutes of pleading with the New Wave heroine to get Panacea healing again…
…Just in time for three more casualties to appear in a flash of blue light, all of them toppling to the beachfront parking lot floor upon arrival while Strider himself instantly disappears after delivering his passengers. Of the three new arrivals, Brockton Bay natives Parian – a rogue parahuman dedicated to the fashion industry - and Triumph appear to still be breathing, if barely conscious from their charred wounds and broken bones. The smoldering skeleton next to them is recognizable as the Louisiana supervillain Gygas only from his tattered leather cape.
Turning the majority of your attention from the medical emergencies on the beach, the flood of information from Technomorphic Integration Engine streaming through your mind indicates that the hardened rock and crystallized minerals left over from your molten bath is finally cleared from the anti-gravity panels in your wings. Leaping up from your seat on the bay floor, you break into an underwater dash towards the shoreline.
It only takes you a few moments, but as soon as you burst out of the bay and sprint past the water line you extrude your armor - you can deal with some sand in your boots, but extruding your suit underwater would have likely resulted in some of the bay being stuck in your suit for the rest of the night.
You ignore the awed stares of those watching your ascent from the waterline, armor swirling into existence around your revealed form while your Iconic Anima blazes above. You all have more important things to do, which you remind them of with your swarm voice as you leap into the air on a corona of blue anti-gravity waves.
"Stop staring. Tend to wounded."
You throttle your flight systems to maximum overland flight speed and streak off into the bleeding night sky.
***
Though your flight is brief, Glenn Chambers' words in New York echo in your mind as you streak through the ash-filled skyline. The brutal calculus of war seemed so far away, then - just a series of statistics that showed the Endbringers and their effects on Humanity.
But at almost nine-hundred feet up, your suit's sensors, the senses of your swarm, and your own augmented vision give you unimpeded sight through the smoking and flaming ruins of Brockton Bay.
A skybox view of the slow end of the world.
***
Even moving at nearly eighty miles an hour, it takes a few minutes to catch up to the progress made by Behemoth's apocalyptic advance through the city. Not that it's difficult to track the Herokiller; just follow the swath of destruction and sounds of dynakinetic-directed death.
Buildings smaller than six stories mean little in the face of his sheer destructive potential, while the Endbringer simply tears straight through anything taller than he – usually resulting in the building's collapse shortly thereafter. Behemoth no longer appears to be targeting Endbringer shelters, which is just as much as concern as a relief. On one hand, you're relieved that the thousands of people in the shelters your swarms can see might make it out of this alive, but such a display means that Behemoth is now purely focused on making it to his destination.
Judging by the massive pyrokinetic display tearing haphazardly through the boundary between Downtown and the southern edge of the Docks, Lung is making Behemoth's journey significantly more difficult than the Endbringer expected.
Alighting on a rooftop corner, you see Lung and Behemoth engaged in battle that could easily be ripped straight from the old monster movies that came out of Japan – before the nation was sundered by Leviathan's destruction of Kyushu. Unfortunately, the destruction before your eyes is far more real than any cinematography, and far more deadly. Lung's physical might at this stage of his transformation appears to be nearly a match for Behemoth, but as you watch another blast of flame swirl into the Herokiller's palm and be directed towards those waiting on the sidelines for an opening, the Endbringer appears to be using Lung's pyrokinesis against the defending forces.
Legend, along with Eidolon – who appears to have manifested a power that projects deep blue beams of ice – and several other ranged capes are doing their best to keep the pressure on Behemoth whenever Lung and the Endbringer separate, with the ever-invincible Alexandria knocking the Herokiller to the ground every chance she gets. Through your swarm, you see the capes that lack abilities to strike directly at the Endbringer move as quickly as they can to stay ahead of the fight, clearing streets of cars, trucks, and other vehicles in order to deprive Behemoth of easily-accessible projectile ammunition.
Behemoth himself is beginning to finally show significant wounds, Lung's gashes and Legend's endless barrages finally appearing to do more damage than the Endbringer can overcome with his dynakinetic defenses, impossibly-thick hide, and rapid regeneration. Deep black ichor pours from jagged wounds all over the beast's body, a constant flow of vile-looking blood that Lung's flames turn into a toxic steam that corrodes anything it touches – including the unlucky Collector, who is soon whisked off by Strider to the medical team.
Just as you are finishing your insect-gathering loop around the fight, Behemoth seems to finally notice your arrival – strange, because you were certain that you passed directly in his line of sight a few times just to test how preoccupied the Herokiller was with his current fight.
The obsidian-horned head snapping up to follow your flight, Behemoth's straightens up from his formerly-haggard posture and holds his left hand out towards you. With an almost casual display of indifference, the renewed charge by the massive flame-wreathed dragon is met by the Herokiller's other outstretched arm as it wraps around Lung's extended, metal-plated neck. Just as quickly, the flames around Lung wink out of existence and Lung appears to freeze in time, while Behemoth's left hand rapidly becomes too bright for your swarm to look at directly. Guessing at what is coming next you throttle your anti-gravity thrusters to maximum and drop behind the hill of the small public park below… just as a solid stream of lightning the width of a moving van pours through the air you just vacated.
Directing his arm like the extension of some massive hose of electrical current, Behemoth swings the massive beam of electricity towards the defenders scrambling to retreat in the face of this new development. Forcefields fly up in desperate attempts to stave off the oncoming stream of death, and several of the hardiest defenders leap in the way of the beam as it slashes across the defensive lines, but the width and power of the beam is enough to carve massive trenches out of buildings and earth, sending shockwaves filled with car-sized shrapnel everywhere.
And through your swarm, you see it all.
Crickett, vaporized save for her left arm. Two of Hellhound's dogs practically explode when caught by the onslaught, sending the broken form of Tattletale flying. Leet throwing his partner, Uber, out of the way as the Tinker melts in his video-game-themed power armor. Deanno and Mouse Protector crushed by flying, car-sized pieces of the building behind them, the former struggling out of the rubble shortly afterwards only to then pass out.
You manage to shout a warning to Kid Win and Gallant, both atop Kid Win's new anti-gravity board, saving them as the beam tears through their cover. Kid Win's arm disappears as the beam passes just to the right of them, clipping the board and sending both spinning to the ground in a motionless heap.
The beam is finally knocked off course by Alexandria, who grabs Behemoth's left arm and wrenches it down into the ground before driving it like a nail deep into the earth with a follow-up pile-driver. As she rockets away from the downed Endbringer, Legend, Eidolon, and Rime fill the air with dozens of ice-encrusting blasts, rendering the Endbringer and Lung into indistinguishable towers of jagged ice.
As the three keep piling on the layers of hoarfrost, you begin directing Strider through the area towards where you can sense the wounded and deceased. He doesn't appear to mind (or even notice) the thick carpet of bugs you've attached to his back, through which you've been able to keep in touch with him with your swarm voice as he blinks around the battlefield and teleports casualties to safety.
The reprieve lasts all of a minute before the distinctive tremors of Behemoth's burrowing can be felt, coinciding with the pillar of ice toppling inwards as the Endbringer dives down into the ground to escape the energy-sapping attacks.
Only a few hundred feet away from the towering pile of ice he left behind, Behemoth re-emerges alone in an eruption of superheated rock – his ichor-laced wounds showing signs that his regeneration is flagging. Without pause, the Endbringer turns and breaks, dashing off once again towards your home and Winslow. The Triumvirate are quick on his heels, but Strider is still busy teleporting casualties to follow suit.
As your swarm observes the receding form of the Herokiller, you finally feel safe to expose yourself for more than five seconds in order to get a complete Diagnostic Overlay reading of the Endbringer.
As the complete diagnostic scrolls through your mind's eye, all six of your consciousnesses have trouble making sense of what your charm's sub-module is telling you: Behemoth's entire, visible body is some kind of shell or frame. All the wounds, all the 'blood', and all the indications that you've been hurting the beast are just… superficial, at best. The overlay does seem to indicate that there's something deep within his right side of his chest that could be the beast's actual 'heart', but beyond its shape – large and oblong, like a four-foot-long watermelon – your scan is only giving you garbled nonsense for its composition and toughness.
The data available to you regarding previous Endbringer fights detailed the usual length of each fight and the general threshold of damage each Endbringer seems to require to drive off without Scion's involvement.
The 'wounds' you see on Behemoth right now – massive rents all over his body that trail constant flows of black ichor - fit with what he usually takes before being driven off. Except, your readings indicate that Behemoth isn't actually hurt at all – there are no nervous systems that would indicate the ability to feel pain, no discernable muscles or organs that would slow him down should they be injured. Beyond a skeleton that yields similar garbled readings as his 'core', Behemoth's body appears to just be layers upon layers of the same crystalline-composite material – getting denser and denser as you move deeper into the body until the scan just returns errors.
Has anyone ever actually hurt these monsters? Has Scion – the first parahuman, the Golden Man, the only being on the planet that the beasts flee from – ever actually hurt them? Why are there ever any 'victories' if the Endbringers have never actually been truly injured?
Ever since Behemoth's first appearance in 1982, the world has struggled to come up with credible theories for who - or what - the Endbringers are, where they came from, and why they behave the ways they do.
This latest revelation, combined with your earlier discoveries, casts almost everything you've ever read on them into doubt.
As Strider returns from teleporting the last of the casualties, you lift up your swarm into the air and project your loudest swarm voice.
"GATHER UNDER ARROW. TELEPORT TO AO-19 IN 90 SECONDS."
You will not waste the sacrifices made tonight in vain by doubting yourself now, nor will you allow your mission from Autochthon to be compromised.
As you count down the seconds through your swarm voice, you use other swarm clones to coach others on the layout of the teleport's destination so that they can set up in time to meet Behemoth's charge. After all, you know this territory better than anyone.
If you're going to make a last stand, you might as well do it with a home field advantage.
***
After Strider teleports out with the remaining defenders in tow, you take to the air and begin making your own way towards the new battlefield. Behemoth's direct path is easy to follow, and with Alexandria, Eidolon, and Legend harrying him you rapidly overtake his current position, but you decide to keep your distance while the Triumvirate does their best to stall for time and keep Behemoth from regenerating too much.
Not that it truly makes a difference, you suspect.
It takes you less than five minutes to traverse the distance to your house, but when you get there you almost don't recognize the neighborhood anymore. Shakers such as Kaiser, Geomancer, Ujuju, Vista, and Meian have rendered the scenery into a nightmarish, dizzying horizon of kaleidoscoping blades, grasping vines, and towering Mayan-like ziggurats, and that's just what your swarm can make out through the distorted space before they're annihilated by some ambient field of energy that's likely being produced by Harsh Mistress.
You accelerate up, higher and higher until the spatial distortion finally lessens and you can cross the barrier safely. As you rocket downwards, you're able to make out the second line of defense: an army of orange and blonde – clones produced by Orange Ninja, some clones wielding tinker-made hand-artillery in the oversized style of Iron Sun, while others sport sleek-looking laser rifles that are the trademark of Sinful System. Beyond the wall of clones, you see most of the other defenders arrayed beyond multiple layers of forcefields and summoned barriers of solid stone, each sporting more tinker-weaponry likely handed out by the Orange Ninja clones.
Above, you see a number of aerial drones summoned by RC Aviator floating along with the flying capes – some of whom are carrying others to help ensure they have a clear shot at Behemoth when he arrives.
All in all, the defenders have taken what advice you gave them before the teleport and run with it. You spare a nod to yourself in satisfaction.
You float down to rest on the roof of your house – now thoroughly reshaped by the Shakers so that it stretches out to fuse with the surrounding houses, while also being converted into a dense, dark metal. You no longer sense any insects inside the house, so it is likely that your childhood home has been rendered into a fully-solid block of tungsten.
You do not think your family's homeowner's insurance covers this.
Looking out to the battlefield and towards the ocean of deadly traps, you gather what you can of the insects in the area and tag everyone you can with a few insects to help you help direct Strider when the casualties start to accumulate.
Like he has a habit of doing, the ever-silent Strider briefly pops into existence next to your perch just as you happen to be thinking of him. As you turn to him, he hands you a copy of one of the long-barreled laser rifles, then disappears before you can ask him whether this is a cloned version or not. You opt not to test whether you can absorb a cloned item at this time, and instead position yourself so that you will have a clear line of fire once the battle begins.
As the tense seconds pass by, Myrrdin – cloaked in his faded burlap robe, with his tall, gnarled staff and massive white beard – appears in a thundercrack besides you.
You turn your head to him to indicate that you recognize his presence, but the leader of Chicago's Protectorate merely smiles absently and nods his head as he mirrors your previous gaze out into the battlefield.
"Tales will be sung of this day, young spider. Valor, Conviction, and Compassion you have shown in your actions against a foe that has shaken the world for more years than you have lived."
Your diagnostic scan complete – he appears healthy, though you detect the onset of a (power induced?) migraine – you return to scanning those you can see out on the battlefield below. You are certain that your voice would have more inflection to it normally, but such displays of emotion are a waste of cognitive processes.
"Unnecessary."
This widens his smile, though he seems even more weary than before and his voice is softer, tinged with… regret?
"Humility too? A Temperate soul as well, it seems. Would that our Age had more crafted in your likeness, we could perhaps unearth the means to cast these primordial foes into the Oblivion from which they came."
You blink, then turn back to the wizard-like parahuman. While part of your mind considers this line of conversation suspicious, it is far more productive to reveal your recent findings to an authority figure that has dealt with the Endbringers in the past. As you speak to Myrrdin you also use a swarm near Chevalier to relay your updated information – as you stated you would, earlier.
"Diagnostic scan reveals Endbringer composition. Outer body not true form. Layered shell around dense core in right chest. No physical imperative for displays of pain, weakness, injury."
This gets startled reactions from both of the Heroes, though it's Chevalier who responds first – turning fully to the amorphous swarm behind him, his voice is incredulous and strained.
"That doesn't make sense! We've bled these things nearly dry before!"
Myrrdin's counter is more abstract, but along similar lines - his voice is distant and awe-struck.
"They bleed and they flee, they run and they hide. Has it always been on their terms? Are we so insolent to be taught with such rods?"
Both questions go unanswered, however, as a deafening thundercrack rolls across the battlefield, silencing all discussion. The sea of swirling blades, vines, explosives, and antagonistic masonry ripples as if it were a still pond disrupted by an errant stone, the towering Endbringer barely visible as it enters the warped space and plows through the defenses as if they were merely blades of grass.
You hear Chevalier give the command, so you lend your swarm's voice to the call.
"FIRE!"
Dozens of Blaster-created beams, orbs, and bolts are joined by nearly a thousand Tinker-made artillery rounds, crossbow bolts, lasers, rockets, and waves of power. Beside you, Myrrdin unleashes a storm of black lightning that crackles with a disturbing reverse-echo that clearly drains him greatly as he keeps up the continuous stream.
There is no pause for effect, no stopping to see if shots landed – the only slowing of attacks comes when the first group of clones runs out of ammunition in their first clip, but within seconds they have reloaded and are filling the air with shards of metal once again.
High up in the air, your swarm gives you sight of the Triumvirate behind the Endbringer as they box him into the killing field; beams of brilliant blue stream down from Eidolon and Legend to hammer away at his legs, while Alexandria hangs onto his back and keeps him from bending down to burrow into the ground. The Herokiller – for the first time this entire fight – appears to actually be taking more damage than he can disperse, as both his outstretched arms seem too busy redirecting the worst of the blows from striking him to dislodge Alexandria from his back while he slowly, inexorably, trudges ever-forward.
As the flesh along the front of his body melts away under the constant barrage of damage, you begin to see signs of the black, light-absorbing bones your scan indicated comprised his skeleton. True to your scan's information, this doesn't appear to bother the Endbringer in the slightest, despite the gallons of vaporizing ichor streaming down his body like a river of poison.
With Behemoth's slowed advance, you consider your knowledge of the location of his apparent 'heart.' Then, taking a calculated risk, you leap up from your perch and fly high into the air, far above the battlefield and aim your laser at where it would sit, resting up near the collarbone in a human. You steady your hand, guide your swarm out of the path of the beam, and depress the trigger.
In the space of an instant, your beam visibly drills home into his ichor-seeped flesh.
With a massive shockwave that sends you spinning in the air, Behemoth loses control of his energy redirection and is catapulted back by the now-unblocked tide of destruction. Alexandria manages to dive out of the way of the torrent, while Legend and Eidolon pause only momentarily in surprise at the development before pouring even more into their attacks to keep the Endbringer pinned.
Did your attack somehow reach his heart? Your scans indicated that his innermost layers were almost as dense as the object in his core, so you don't believe that your Tinker-made rifle would have penetrated that deep – there are hundreds of copies of it on the battlefield, and he didn't give any indication that those attacks were having any effect.
That train of thought – along with all the others – is interrupted by your swarm's senses detecting something… monstrous tearing down the path created by Behemoth's passing. You turn your sight to it and activate your Diagnostic Overlay, but when the scan finishes you have an even harder time parsing its results than when you scanned Behemoth.
To say that a girl's upper torso is the 'top' of the creature belies the sheer size and horror that is her 'bottom' - the female torso also reads as extraneous, with multiple brains all having fused together into one beastial gestalt located within the massive centaur-like bottom. Hundreds of limbs ranging from the size of an infant's to larger than an elephant's sprout chaotically across the garden of flesh that comprises the majority of the being, with hundreds of eyes of various size and shape dotting its surface. What is most dramatic are the jagged, gaping maws all around the beast, which all feed into a massive gullet in which - your scan reads, lie several dozen humans in some form of embryonic sacks, held in stasis through some form of toxic chemical cocktail.
Helpfully, your scan points out that several of the humans inside match previously-recorded scans: Scapegoat, Penitent, Jotun, Estucheon, Parian, Tattletale, and Panacea. Several of the other bodies within register as distinctly similar, but each seem to be warped physically and mentally from the... original?
Opening her three dozen mouths in a feral, anguished cry, the beast slams into the already-reeling Endbringer, sending them both crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Then, before anyone else can realize what is happening, crowds of cloned parahumans pour out of the creature's largest mouths in a tide of bile and vomit.
***
Intimacy: Chevalier/Robert (Respect) +1 Increase!
Intimacy: The Endbringers (Creeping Paranoia) Gained!
Archery/Firearms +1 Training Interval (4/6 Intervals)
*Archery/Firearms (Sniper Rifles ●○○) Now Available!
Athletics +1 Training Interval (1/6 Intervals)
*Athletics (Power Armor ●●○) Now Available!
Dodge +1 Training Interval (1/6 Intervals)
Lore +1 Training Interval (6/6 Intervals)
*Lore (Endbringers ●○○) Now Available!
Presence +1 Training Interval (5/6 Intervals)
Medicine +1 Training Interval (4/6 Intervals)
*Presence (Swarms ●●○) Now Available!
*War (Parahumans ●○○) Now Available!
Dodge ●○○○○ Gained!
Awareness (Swarms ●●●) Gained!
Athletics ●●●●○ Gained!
Occult ●●●○○ Gained!
War (Swarms ●●●) Gained!
The Battle for Brockton Bay: The Crush
"Yet another monster had entered the field, quickly devouring some of our greatest defenders and then spewing out twisted clones of them to send at the Endbringer. Our hopes for stopping Behemoth were wavering, and Brockton Bay was burning all around us. It was then that the call went out through Weaver's swarm:"
[ ] "Fall Back!"
[ ] "Hold the Line!"
[ ] "Attack!"
MAP OF BATTLE SO FAR:
(Taylor is Blue, Behemoth is Red)
Please remember to format XP Expenditures properly:
[X] ? XP - Item ●●●○○
[X] ? XP - Item (Specialization ●●○)
[X] "Even though we were barely organized, we still needed to stop the monster from tearing through the city like it was his playground. After only a few seconds of rest, everyone standing was teleported back into the fray. We didn't expect to see two monsters, though…"
- [x] Stunt: Allocate all available Blasters, Movers and Brutes to harass and distract Behemoth. Using Shard of Perfect Administration and bug clones, have the Blasters and Movers coordinate their efforts to minimize cape casualties. When Behemoth is off balance or focusing on attacking the Blasters and Movers, plan to have the Brutes strike at Behemoth to topple him. Give orders to any remaining teleporters to keep watch over the Brutes and Behemoth, 'porting out any brutes that he turns his attention towards.
- [x] Stunt: Fill the battlefield with swarm clones and keep supporting effective capes with IEU while you analyze the second monster and try to communicate with it.
XP Expenditures:
[X] 4 XP - Dodge ●○○○○
[X] 2 XP - Awareness (Swarms ●●●)
[X] 4 XP - Athletics ●●●●○
[X] 4 XP - Occult ●●●○○
[X] 2 XP - War (Swarms ●●●)
***
Almost two-hundred feet out into the bay, you rest, kneeling as your suit's HUD displays error after error. The rapidly-cooled molten rock and metal that is covering most of your form have disrupted many of the delicate instruments in your suit, but only your anti-gravity wings have taken enough damage to render them inoperable. With a sigh, you exhale the last of the breath in your lungs and absorb your armor so that your Technomorphic Integration Engine can get to work repairing it. Ignoring the ice-cold bath that follows your armor's disappearance, you dedicate five of your thought processes towards focusing on your charm and ways to speed up the internalized repair process, while leaving the last to review the chaos out on the beach.
The remnants of your formerly-massive swarm give you a clear view of the sprawled, bleeding, and broken parahumans that litter the beach a few hundred feet to the west. Heroes, rogues, and villains alike stumble and stagger after being cast about like twigs when the massive, headless metal dragon-form of Lung was hurled into your assembled group at near-supersonic speeds - crashing through the hastily erected defenses to finally come to a rest at the water's edge. Beyond the beach, the molten, smoldering ruins of the PRT Headquarters and surrounding buildings lay as testament to the power of the First Endbringer: Behemoth, the Herokiller.
Who is, at this very moment, tearing through downtown in a direct line towards your home, or - more likely - your former high school.
Reviewing your essence pools, you note that you have enough to dispense Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade a few more times – you have already regenerated the essence commitment WCM freed with her death, and the fly in the air that you moved Eidolon's application to is still alive and high in the air.
Time is now, truly, no longer on your side. You realize that your efforts are still only marginally understood by most of the combatants here, so it is critical to facilitate those that are already proven leaders in such a time of crisis.
As they rise from the mountain of rubble thrown by Lung's landing, you shove applications of Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade into Alexandria, Legend, and Chevalier. Each appears to rock slightly as you feel the charm take hold in their minds, giving you a moment to coalesce enough of your swarm near each to voice your thoughts.
"Thinker augmentation granted. Behemoth headed northwest, towards Winslow High School."
Alexandria - her costume ragged and filthy after being used as a mining pick by Behemoth - immediately turns to address the cloud of bugs to her right. Her voice is raised only enough to be heard by your swarm, but her tone is clipped and fierce.
"What are you keeping there?"
At nearly the exact same moment, Chevalier is asking a similar question - though his tone is more of confusion and concern.
"Your old high school? Why?"
Legend is silent, simply nodding his head as nearly a dozen small, brilliant beams of various colors burst between his hands, twisting like some schoolyard display of Cat's Cradle.
You expected such queries from the veteran heroes, and though you would normally be reticent to reveal anything regarding your Exaltation, you understand that deception would only provoke further delays at this critical juncture.
"Reason uncertain. Current hypothesis: exploitable power conduit left over from trigger. Incalculable damage estimate if true."
This gets very sharp head-turns from all three, though Alexandria and Legend don't bother with responses and rocket off in the direction of Behemoth, each causing a shockwave that disperses all the bugs in their wake. They also collect a large number of dead bugs on their visor and faceplate, respectively, as they power through your aerial swarm.
Chevalier, now rapidly moving through the area and helping downed capes extricate themselves from the mountains of sand, rock, and other detritus, keeps talking despite his work.
"Why didn't you tell us about this, Weaver?"
"Object and location discovered minutes ago. Iris at High School now. New secondary hypothesis: Iris current target of Behemoth."
Chevalier turns from where he has finished helping up the downed, power-armor clad form of the St. Louis ward named Bob, then strides over to where you see the remaining medical teams. Most are struggling to set people on flat chunks of rock being levitated by the Empire Eighty-Eight supervillain, Rune, so that they can be moved off of the beach and onto the raised, adjacent parking lot.
"Your Tinker projection? Can't you recall or disperse it?"
"Not projection. Immeasurably powerful entity, unpredictable in behavior."
This gets a slight start from the Philadelphia Protectorate leader, though he quickly recovers and is striding onwards like it never happened.
"If Behemoth is targeting him?"
For a brief moment, one of your consciousnesses recalls the feeling of awe, of power you felt radiating from Iris' true form. How your mind almost fell into his lightless depths, barely hidden by the opalescent hues flickering across the massive black pearl. Another remembers the attempt to draw him forth from your Elsewhere pocket manually, and how you got the feeling that it would take more essence than you will ever have to force Iris to manifest before you.
Taylor Hebert would hesitate to reveal these kinds of concerns to an authority figure. Such fear is wasteful, now, when the command structure must realize the severity of the situation at-hand.
"Secondary hypothesized scale of effect: Massachusetts coastline."
This manages to halt Chevalier in his tracks, allowing you to solidify the swarm accompanying him into a proper bug clone. He immediately squares on it, pointing a finger at its 'chest' and gripping his canonblade with his left hand hard enough to cause the armored gauntlet to creak slightly. His voice is hard, all trace of compassion gone, leaving it cold and brittle.
"Your first guess?"
"Primary, most probable hypothesis: Iris unable to effect any change, will likely be destroyed by Behemoth. Probability of secondary hypothesis exceedingly small, stated first due to need to clarify worst-case scenario."
The creaking stops from his left gauntlet, and after a moment Chevalier turns and resumes his strides towards the medical section. As he marches in silence, you continue using your swarm to shape arrows pointing towards downed capes in need of attention, directing Shakers such as Vista and Kaiser – the armored leader of the white supremacist supervillain organization clearly preferring to render aid to his own forces first. Finally, just before Chevalier reaches the newly-designated medical area, he stops and rounds on your trailing bug-clone for a final time.
"You've proved a capable strategist so far, but I need to know if there's anything else you've been keeping hidden that could result in a 'worst-case scenario.' We don't have time for secrets."
Casting aside emotional concerns, you focus on probable reactions should you reveal your nature to Chevalier – and anyone who might be listening to your conversation – at this point in the battle. Chevalier has thus far proven himself to be dedicated and focused on the more important matters at hand, but declaring your status as a harbinger of a planet-sized, reality-remaking deity will likely divert his focus from the current conflict. Unfortunately, you are also aware that you are lacking a great deal of necessary information regarding your Exaltation and everything that has come with it; worse what information you do have is sometimes faulty or misleading.
"Large number of uncertainties regarding own condition, origin of powers. No readily-available information source to resolve uncertainties. Will update should relevant information become available."
You can hear Chevalier exhale a long, frustrated sigh through his helmet, and he looks away towards the sounds of Legend and Alexandria's battle with Behemoth in the smoke-choked ruins of northern Downtown.
"If we make it through this, we are going to have a long talk about what is, and what isn't, vital information for your superiors."
"Understood."
With that, Chevalier presses two buttons on his armband and raises it to his helmet to speak. Your own armband, along with your suit of armor, are currently resting in your Elsewhere pocket, so you only hear his voice through the almost two hundred others attached to the parahumans on the beach.
"This is Chevalier. Behemoth's new target has been revealed to be at Winslow High School, located at AK-17. New information indicates that if he makes it there he'll either be able to wipe out the city or a large chunk of the Eastern seaboard. Alexandria and Legend are stalling him as best as they can, but we need everyone who isn't unconscious or treating those that are to prepare to hit him with everything we have. We'll be teleporting to-"
With a deafening screech, all the armbands you can sense briefly shriek with the characteristic sound of microphone reverb before going silent - automatic overrides built into the armbands kicking in to silence the interference.
You doubt it's a coincidence that Behemoth's radio and wireless interference aura would kick in just as the defenders were using the armbands to coordinate a rally. Could he hear Chevalier making his plan through Alexandria's and Legend's armbands? Either way, you heard Chevalier list the destination before he realized the armbands had been rendered useless, so you momentarily divert all your consciousnesses towards gathering your swarm into the largest, most focused voice box you can.
"TELEPORTING TO AW-22 IN 60 SECONDS. GATHER UNDER ARROW FOR TELEPORT."
The buzzing cacophony of your swarm's simulated voice echoes across the beach and out into the bay, causing many to flinch, shudder, or jump in alarm. Chevalier himself looks up to the massive arrow you are forming above the widest, most debris-free section of the beach, then back to the swarm-clone you still have beside him.
"Where are you now, Weaver?"
"Two-hundred twenty-four feet east, bay floor. Repairing suit malfunction. Immune to teleportation effect, will fly to battlefield when able."
There's a short pause before Chevalier merely nods his head, then strides into the medical area to do a sweep of the casualties. You've already been keeping an eye on the comatose form of Armsmaster and Clockblocker, but the Undersider Grue appears to be up and moving with the help of Tattletale and Regent. Good - you understand from Tattletale's report of his powers that his darkness ability will help against the radiation being thrown around by Behemoth.
As you coordinate the rest of the rallying effort through your swarm, the consciousnesses re-dedicated to your mind's eye review the mental image of your absorbed armor. While you were tempted to simply run to the battlefield in your PRT-provided armor while your power suit repaired itself in your Elsewhere pocket, you had an instinctive feeling that running would actually slow – or even stop – your charm's ability to repair absorbed objects. Thus, why you have been sitting, Indian-style, on the bay floor for the past three minutes as you absently dedicate your sixth consciousness towards the coordination of the parahumans on, around, and floating above, the beach. The Brockton Bay Wards – now with Shadow Stalker in tow - are grouped together with a few non-local Wards, and while they have called out to your various swarm bodies they have only asked if you are alright.
"Medical aid unnecessary. Render aid to those in need, if capable of such."
You're finding it difficult to read their emotions beyond 'panicked' and 'stressed', but your response does not appear to ease the tension in their mannerisms. While unfortunate, you cannot afford to devote a consciousness towards idle chatter with them and thus have your swarm clones move on after ascertaining that they do not need anything else from you at the moment. Aegis, Gallant, and the entirely-metallic, Case 53 Ward named Weld ask you to direct them to those still struggling, so you have swarm arrows point them to various out-of-town capes that their powers would synergize with satisfactorily. Eidolon has regained consciousness again with the help of the regeneration-bestowing neo-Nazi Othala, but has otherwise remained silent despite the bug-clone you have walking alongside him.
Your buzzing swarm voice updates the countdown at thirty seconds, then fifteen seconds, before counting down from ten as the stragglers make their way to the massive group of capes arrayed below your gathered swarm. You count one-hundred thirty-one capes gathered there before they all disappear in a field of Strider's telltale light-blue starbursts, leaving only the five working in the medical area – Scapegoat, Penitent, Othala, Escutcheon, and the still-morose Panacea – and the sixteen capes, fourteen PRT officers, and seven civilians under their attention.
Still taking up a large chunk of the shoreline is the massive, metallic, comatose dragon-body form of Lung. His neck and head appear to be regenerating, and his body is still radiating heat, so he'll likely be up and ready to fight again soo-
Only by accelerating your mind with a burst of essence do you manage a resounding, "WATCH OUT! LUNG!" through your swarm voice before the beach is swallowed in flame.
In a cataclysmic display of pyrotechnic might, a massive corona of fire erupts out of Lung's form as he suddenly leaps to his hind feet and roars in rage and indignation. While most of your swarm is blown back or incinerated by the expanding fireball, those insects in the air farthest from the giant metal dragon briefly catch sight of the medical area engulfed in the blowback from Lung's rousing. A great gout of steam rises around Lung as the bay waters near him vaporize instantly, while the sand beneath his feet appears to be fusing into glass.
Before you can even attempt to gather a swarm to warn Lung off, his titanic metal wings beat once – turning the beach into a sand-filled firestorm - and leaps into the sky on a trail of fire.
As Lung's blazing form rockets into the night sky towards the receding sounds of Behemoth's rampage through the city, your swarm sees another massive form hunched protectively over the medical area: Jotun, the frost-giant themed villain from Canada. As the flames around his giant body die out from lack of fuel to sustain them, the frost-and-icicle-armored titan rapidly shrinks back down to a mere seven feet before collapsing to his knees. Beside him – gathered in a mad swipe of his giant arms as he sought to shield them – lie the similarly-unconscious forms of Panacea, Escutcheon, Penitent, and Scapegoat. Only Othala and a handful of regular PRT medics appear to be sensate, with the teenaged white supremacist desperately attempting to distribute her regeneration power in spurts to keep those around her from dying from their newly-added burn wounds.
It takes you almost a full minute to gather enough of a swarm again to generate a loud enough voice, but in that time she appears to have stabilized those in most dire need of attention.
"Othala. Assistance required?"
The red-suited villainess shrieks at the sound of your swarm voice, looking around wildly before turning her head upwards to see the mass of bugs looming above her. You can't read her lips through her full-body costume, but you hear mutters under her breath as she looks up at your swarm.
"Repeat. Do not mumble."
"I-I said… nevermind! Can you heal?"
"Negative. Insufficient medical understanding to utilize surgical powers efficiently."
"You... you don't know how to use your own powers? That doesn't make- no. Just… just go! Fight! Once I get Panacea up we'll be able to fix everything here. And…"
She works her hands over, wringing them as she appears to be struggling with some idea. Finally, in a softer, pleading tone that you have trouble making out over the ambient noise, she continues.
"If-if you see Victor, please try to keep him alive. For me."
The PRT and Parahuman Online databases on the Empire Eighty-Eight's supervillains indicated that Othala and Victor are either engaged or already married, even though there appears to be a decent age gap between the teenaged-looking Othala and the early-thirties-looking Victor. The Parahumans Online entries had rumor-mongering pointing towards an arranged marriage, but such a request strikes you as against the standard behaviors of a loveless pairing.
Every willing parahuman is a valuable asset in this conflict, so you have no intent to actively seek his destruction or worsen his chances of survival.
"Understood."
You disperse the swarm and keep an eye on the surrounding environment while your other mental threads remain focused on your internalized armor suit, which does appear to help accelerate the repair process. Two minutes later, you note Panacea – her white robes charred and soiled from her tumble - finally rousing from unconsciousness. Othala breathes a sigh of relief, but it is short-lived; Panacea remains as morose and unmotivated as before, and it takes the teenaged Empire Eighty-Eight villain nearly two more minutes of pleading with the New Wave heroine to get Panacea healing again…
…Just in time for three more casualties to appear in a flash of blue light, all of them toppling to the beachfront parking lot floor upon arrival while Strider himself instantly disappears after delivering his passengers. Of the three new arrivals, Brockton Bay natives Parian – a rogue parahuman dedicated to the fashion industry - and Triumph appear to still be breathing, if barely conscious from their charred wounds and broken bones. The smoldering skeleton next to them is recognizable as the Louisiana supervillain Gygas only from his tattered leather cape.
Turning the majority of your attention from the medical emergencies on the beach, the flood of information from Technomorphic Integration Engine streaming through your mind indicates that the hardened rock and crystallized minerals left over from your molten bath is finally cleared from the anti-gravity panels in your wings. Leaping up from your seat on the bay floor, you break into an underwater dash towards the shoreline.
It only takes you a few moments, but as soon as you burst out of the bay and sprint past the water line you extrude your armor - you can deal with some sand in your boots, but extruding your suit underwater would have likely resulted in some of the bay being stuck in your suit for the rest of the night.
You ignore the awed stares of those watching your ascent from the waterline, armor swirling into existence around your revealed form while your Iconic Anima blazes above. You all have more important things to do, which you remind them of with your swarm voice as you leap into the air on a corona of blue anti-gravity waves.
"Stop staring. Tend to wounded."
You throttle your flight systems to maximum overland flight speed and streak off into the bleeding night sky.
***
Though your flight is brief, Glenn Chambers' words in New York echo in your mind as you streak through the ash-filled skyline. The brutal calculus of war seemed so far away, then - just a series of statistics that showed the Endbringers and their effects on Humanity.
But at almost nine-hundred feet up, your suit's sensors, the senses of your swarm, and your own augmented vision give you unimpeded sight through the smoking and flaming ruins of Brockton Bay.
A skybox view of the slow end of the world.
***
Even moving at nearly eighty miles an hour, it takes a few minutes to catch up to the progress made by Behemoth's apocalyptic advance through the city. Not that it's difficult to track the Herokiller; just follow the swath of destruction and sounds of dynakinetic-directed death.
Buildings smaller than six stories mean little in the face of his sheer destructive potential, while the Endbringer simply tears straight through anything taller than he – usually resulting in the building's collapse shortly thereafter. Behemoth no longer appears to be targeting Endbringer shelters, which is just as much as concern as a relief. On one hand, you're relieved that the thousands of people in the shelters your swarms can see might make it out of this alive, but such a display means that Behemoth is now purely focused on making it to his destination.
Judging by the massive pyrokinetic display tearing haphazardly through the boundary between Downtown and the southern edge of the Docks, Lung is making Behemoth's journey significantly more difficult than the Endbringer expected.
Alighting on a rooftop corner, you see Lung and Behemoth engaged in battle that could easily be ripped straight from the old monster movies that came out of Japan – before the nation was sundered by Leviathan's destruction of Kyushu. Unfortunately, the destruction before your eyes is far more real than any cinematography, and far more deadly. Lung's physical might at this stage of his transformation appears to be nearly a match for Behemoth, but as you watch another blast of flame swirl into the Herokiller's palm and be directed towards those waiting on the sidelines for an opening, the Endbringer appears to be using Lung's pyrokinesis against the defending forces.
Legend, along with Eidolon – who appears to have manifested a power that projects deep blue beams of ice – and several other ranged capes are doing their best to keep the pressure on Behemoth whenever Lung and the Endbringer separate, with the ever-invincible Alexandria knocking the Herokiller to the ground every chance she gets. Through your swarm, you see the capes that lack abilities to strike directly at the Endbringer move as quickly as they can to stay ahead of the fight, clearing streets of cars, trucks, and other vehicles in order to deprive Behemoth of easily-accessible projectile ammunition.
Behemoth himself is beginning to finally show significant wounds, Lung's gashes and Legend's endless barrages finally appearing to do more damage than the Endbringer can overcome with his dynakinetic defenses, impossibly-thick hide, and rapid regeneration. Deep black ichor pours from jagged wounds all over the beast's body, a constant flow of vile-looking blood that Lung's flames turn into a toxic steam that corrodes anything it touches – including the unlucky Collector, who is soon whisked off by Strider to the medical team.
Just as you are finishing your insect-gathering loop around the fight, Behemoth seems to finally notice your arrival – strange, because you were certain that you passed directly in his line of sight a few times just to test how preoccupied the Herokiller was with his current fight.
The obsidian-horned head snapping up to follow your flight, Behemoth's straightens up from his formerly-haggard posture and holds his left hand out towards you. With an almost casual display of indifference, the renewed charge by the massive flame-wreathed dragon is met by the Herokiller's other outstretched arm as it wraps around Lung's extended, metal-plated neck. Just as quickly, the flames around Lung wink out of existence and Lung appears to freeze in time, while Behemoth's left hand rapidly becomes too bright for your swarm to look at directly. Guessing at what is coming next you throttle your anti-gravity thrusters to maximum and drop behind the hill of the small public park below… just as a solid stream of lightning the width of a moving van pours through the air you just vacated.
Directing his arm like the extension of some massive hose of electrical current, Behemoth swings the massive beam of electricity towards the defenders scrambling to retreat in the face of this new development. Forcefields fly up in desperate attempts to stave off the oncoming stream of death, and several of the hardiest defenders leap in the way of the beam as it slashes across the defensive lines, but the width and power of the beam is enough to carve massive trenches out of buildings and earth, sending shockwaves filled with car-sized shrapnel everywhere.
And through your swarm, you see it all.
Crickett, vaporized save for her left arm. Two of Hellhound's dogs practically explode when caught by the onslaught, sending the broken form of Tattletale flying. Leet throwing his partner, Uber, out of the way as the Tinker melts in his video-game-themed power armor. Deanno and Mouse Protector crushed by flying, car-sized pieces of the building behind them, the former struggling out of the rubble shortly afterwards only to then pass out.
You manage to shout a warning to Kid Win and Gallant, both atop Kid Win's new anti-gravity board, saving them as the beam tears through their cover. Kid Win's arm disappears as the beam passes just to the right of them, clipping the board and sending both spinning to the ground in a motionless heap.
The beam is finally knocked off course by Alexandria, who grabs Behemoth's left arm and wrenches it down into the ground before driving it like a nail deep into the earth with a follow-up pile-driver. As she rockets away from the downed Endbringer, Legend, Eidolon, and Rime fill the air with dozens of ice-encrusting blasts, rendering the Endbringer and Lung into indistinguishable towers of jagged ice.
As the three keep piling on the layers of hoarfrost, you begin directing Strider through the area towards where you can sense the wounded and deceased. He doesn't appear to mind (or even notice) the thick carpet of bugs you've attached to his back, through which you've been able to keep in touch with him with your swarm voice as he blinks around the battlefield and teleports casualties to safety.
The reprieve lasts all of a minute before the distinctive tremors of Behemoth's burrowing can be felt, coinciding with the pillar of ice toppling inwards as the Endbringer dives down into the ground to escape the energy-sapping attacks.
Only a few hundred feet away from the towering pile of ice he left behind, Behemoth re-emerges alone in an eruption of superheated rock – his ichor-laced wounds showing signs that his regeneration is flagging. Without pause, the Endbringer turns and breaks, dashing off once again towards your home and Winslow. The Triumvirate are quick on his heels, but Strider is still busy teleporting casualties to follow suit.
As your swarm observes the receding form of the Herokiller, you finally feel safe to expose yourself for more than five seconds in order to get a complete Diagnostic Overlay reading of the Endbringer.
As the complete diagnostic scrolls through your mind's eye, all six of your consciousnesses have trouble making sense of what your charm's sub-module is telling you: Behemoth's entire, visible body is some kind of shell or frame. All the wounds, all the 'blood', and all the indications that you've been hurting the beast are just… superficial, at best. The overlay does seem to indicate that there's something deep within his right side of his chest that could be the beast's actual 'heart', but beyond its shape – large and oblong, like a four-foot-long watermelon – your scan is only giving you garbled nonsense for its composition and toughness.
The data available to you regarding previous Endbringer fights detailed the usual length of each fight and the general threshold of damage each Endbringer seems to require to drive off without Scion's involvement.
The 'wounds' you see on Behemoth right now – massive rents all over his body that trail constant flows of black ichor - fit with what he usually takes before being driven off. Except, your readings indicate that Behemoth isn't actually hurt at all – there are no nervous systems that would indicate the ability to feel pain, no discernable muscles or organs that would slow him down should they be injured. Beyond a skeleton that yields similar garbled readings as his 'core', Behemoth's body appears to just be layers upon layers of the same crystalline-composite material – getting denser and denser as you move deeper into the body until the scan just returns errors.
Has anyone ever actually hurt these monsters? Has Scion – the first parahuman, the Golden Man, the only being on the planet that the beasts flee from – ever actually hurt them? Why are there ever any 'victories' if the Endbringers have never actually been truly injured?
Ever since Behemoth's first appearance in 1982, the world has struggled to come up with credible theories for who - or what - the Endbringers are, where they came from, and why they behave the ways they do.
This latest revelation, combined with your earlier discoveries, casts almost everything you've ever read on them into doubt.
As Strider returns from teleporting the last of the casualties, you lift up your swarm into the air and project your loudest swarm voice.
"GATHER UNDER ARROW. TELEPORT TO AO-19 IN 90 SECONDS."
You will not waste the sacrifices made tonight in vain by doubting yourself now, nor will you allow your mission from Autochthon to be compromised.
As you count down the seconds through your swarm voice, you use other swarm clones to coach others on the layout of the teleport's destination so that they can set up in time to meet Behemoth's charge. After all, you know this territory better than anyone.
If you're going to make a last stand, you might as well do it with a home field advantage.
***
After Strider teleports out with the remaining defenders in tow, you take to the air and begin making your own way towards the new battlefield. Behemoth's direct path is easy to follow, and with Alexandria, Eidolon, and Legend harrying him you rapidly overtake his current position, but you decide to keep your distance while the Triumvirate does their best to stall for time and keep Behemoth from regenerating too much.
Not that it truly makes a difference, you suspect.
It takes you less than five minutes to traverse the distance to your house, but when you get there you almost don't recognize the neighborhood anymore. Shakers such as Kaiser, Geomancer, Ujuju, Vista, and Meian have rendered the scenery into a nightmarish, dizzying horizon of kaleidoscoping blades, grasping vines, and towering Mayan-like ziggurats, and that's just what your swarm can make out through the distorted space before they're annihilated by some ambient field of energy that's likely being produced by Harsh Mistress.
You accelerate up, higher and higher until the spatial distortion finally lessens and you can cross the barrier safely. As you rocket downwards, you're able to make out the second line of defense: an army of orange and blonde – clones produced by Orange Ninja, some clones wielding tinker-made hand-artillery in the oversized style of Iron Sun, while others sport sleek-looking laser rifles that are the trademark of Sinful System. Beyond the wall of clones, you see most of the other defenders arrayed beyond multiple layers of forcefields and summoned barriers of solid stone, each sporting more tinker-weaponry likely handed out by the Orange Ninja clones.
Above, you see a number of aerial drones summoned by RC Aviator floating along with the flying capes – some of whom are carrying others to help ensure they have a clear shot at Behemoth when he arrives.
All in all, the defenders have taken what advice you gave them before the teleport and run with it. You spare a nod to yourself in satisfaction.
You float down to rest on the roof of your house – now thoroughly reshaped by the Shakers so that it stretches out to fuse with the surrounding houses, while also being converted into a dense, dark metal. You no longer sense any insects inside the house, so it is likely that your childhood home has been rendered into a fully-solid block of tungsten.
You do not think your family's homeowner's insurance covers this.
Looking out to the battlefield and towards the ocean of deadly traps, you gather what you can of the insects in the area and tag everyone you can with a few insects to help you help direct Strider when the casualties start to accumulate.
Like he has a habit of doing, the ever-silent Strider briefly pops into existence next to your perch just as you happen to be thinking of him. As you turn to him, he hands you a copy of one of the long-barreled laser rifles, then disappears before you can ask him whether this is a cloned version or not. You opt not to test whether you can absorb a cloned item at this time, and instead position yourself so that you will have a clear line of fire once the battle begins.
As the tense seconds pass by, Myrrdin – cloaked in his faded burlap robe, with his tall, gnarled staff and massive white beard – appears in a thundercrack besides you.
You turn your head to him to indicate that you recognize his presence, but the leader of Chicago's Protectorate merely smiles absently and nods his head as he mirrors your previous gaze out into the battlefield.
"Tales will be sung of this day, young spider. Valor, Conviction, and Compassion you have shown in your actions against a foe that has shaken the world for more years than you have lived."
Your diagnostic scan complete – he appears healthy, though you detect the onset of a (power induced?) migraine – you return to scanning those you can see out on the battlefield below. You are certain that your voice would have more inflection to it normally, but such displays of emotion are a waste of cognitive processes.
"Unnecessary."
This widens his smile, though he seems even more weary than before and his voice is softer, tinged with… regret?
"Humility too? A Temperate soul as well, it seems. Would that our Age had more crafted in your likeness, we could perhaps unearth the means to cast these primordial foes into the Oblivion from which they came."
You blink, then turn back to the wizard-like parahuman. While part of your mind considers this line of conversation suspicious, it is far more productive to reveal your recent findings to an authority figure that has dealt with the Endbringers in the past. As you speak to Myrrdin you also use a swarm near Chevalier to relay your updated information – as you stated you would, earlier.
"Diagnostic scan reveals Endbringer composition. Outer body not true form. Layered shell around dense core in right chest. No physical imperative for displays of pain, weakness, injury."
This gets startled reactions from both of the Heroes, though it's Chevalier who responds first – turning fully to the amorphous swarm behind him, his voice is incredulous and strained.
"That doesn't make sense! We've bled these things nearly dry before!"
Myrrdin's counter is more abstract, but along similar lines - his voice is distant and awe-struck.
"They bleed and they flee, they run and they hide. Has it always been on their terms? Are we so insolent to be taught with such rods?"
Both questions go unanswered, however, as a deafening thundercrack rolls across the battlefield, silencing all discussion. The sea of swirling blades, vines, explosives, and antagonistic masonry ripples as if it were a still pond disrupted by an errant stone, the towering Endbringer barely visible as it enters the warped space and plows through the defenses as if they were merely blades of grass.
You hear Chevalier give the command, so you lend your swarm's voice to the call.
"FIRE!"
Dozens of Blaster-created beams, orbs, and bolts are joined by nearly a thousand Tinker-made artillery rounds, crossbow bolts, lasers, rockets, and waves of power. Beside you, Myrrdin unleashes a storm of black lightning that crackles with a disturbing reverse-echo that clearly drains him greatly as he keeps up the continuous stream.
There is no pause for effect, no stopping to see if shots landed – the only slowing of attacks comes when the first group of clones runs out of ammunition in their first clip, but within seconds they have reloaded and are filling the air with shards of metal once again.
High up in the air, your swarm gives you sight of the Triumvirate behind the Endbringer as they box him into the killing field; beams of brilliant blue stream down from Eidolon and Legend to hammer away at his legs, while Alexandria hangs onto his back and keeps him from bending down to burrow into the ground. The Herokiller – for the first time this entire fight – appears to actually be taking more damage than he can disperse, as both his outstretched arms seem too busy redirecting the worst of the blows from striking him to dislodge Alexandria from his back while he slowly, inexorably, trudges ever-forward.
As the flesh along the front of his body melts away under the constant barrage of damage, you begin to see signs of the black, light-absorbing bones your scan indicated comprised his skeleton. True to your scan's information, this doesn't appear to bother the Endbringer in the slightest, despite the gallons of vaporizing ichor streaming down his body like a river of poison.
With Behemoth's slowed advance, you consider your knowledge of the location of his apparent 'heart.' Then, taking a calculated risk, you leap up from your perch and fly high into the air, far above the battlefield and aim your laser at where it would sit, resting up near the collarbone in a human. You steady your hand, guide your swarm out of the path of the beam, and depress the trigger.
In the space of an instant, your beam visibly drills home into his ichor-seeped flesh.
With a massive shockwave that sends you spinning in the air, Behemoth loses control of his energy redirection and is catapulted back by the now-unblocked tide of destruction. Alexandria manages to dive out of the way of the torrent, while Legend and Eidolon pause only momentarily in surprise at the development before pouring even more into their attacks to keep the Endbringer pinned.
Did your attack somehow reach his heart? Your scans indicated that his innermost layers were almost as dense as the object in his core, so you don't believe that your Tinker-made rifle would have penetrated that deep – there are hundreds of copies of it on the battlefield, and he didn't give any indication that those attacks were having any effect.
That train of thought – along with all the others – is interrupted by your swarm's senses detecting something… monstrous tearing down the path created by Behemoth's passing. You turn your sight to it and activate your Diagnostic Overlay, but when the scan finishes you have an even harder time parsing its results than when you scanned Behemoth.
To say that a girl's upper torso is the 'top' of the creature belies the sheer size and horror that is her 'bottom' - the female torso also reads as extraneous, with multiple brains all having fused together into one beastial gestalt located within the massive centaur-like bottom. Hundreds of limbs ranging from the size of an infant's to larger than an elephant's sprout chaotically across the garden of flesh that comprises the majority of the being, with hundreds of eyes of various size and shape dotting its surface. What is most dramatic are the jagged, gaping maws all around the beast, which all feed into a massive gullet in which - your scan reads, lie several dozen humans in some form of embryonic sacks, held in stasis through some form of toxic chemical cocktail.
Helpfully, your scan points out that several of the humans inside match previously-recorded scans: Scapegoat, Penitent, Jotun, Estucheon, Parian, Tattletale, and Panacea. Several of the other bodies within register as distinctly similar, but each seem to be warped physically and mentally from the... original?
Opening her three dozen mouths in a feral, anguished cry, the beast slams into the already-reeling Endbringer, sending them both crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Then, before anyone else can realize what is happening, crowds of cloned parahumans pour out of the creature's largest mouths in a tide of bile and vomit.
***
Intimacy: Chevalier/Robert (Respect) +1 Increase!
Intimacy: The Endbringers (Creeping Paranoia) Gained!
Archery/Firearms +1 Training Interval (4/6 Intervals)
*Archery/Firearms (Sniper Rifles ●○○) Now Available!
Athletics +1 Training Interval (1/6 Intervals)
*Athletics (Power Armor ●●○) Now Available!
Dodge +1 Training Interval (1/6 Intervals)
Lore +1 Training Interval (6/6 Intervals)
*Lore (Endbringers ●○○) Now Available!
Presence +1 Training Interval (5/6 Intervals)
Medicine +1 Training Interval (4/6 Intervals)
*Presence (Swarms ●●○) Now Available!
*War (Parahumans ●○○) Now Available!
Dodge ●○○○○ Gained!
Awareness (Swarms ●●●) Gained!
Athletics ●●●●○ Gained!
Occult ●●●○○ Gained!
War (Swarms ●●●) Gained!
The Battle for Brockton Bay: The Crush
"Yet another monster had entered the field, quickly devouring some of our greatest defenders and then spewing out twisted clones of them to send at the Endbringer. Our hopes for stopping Behemoth were wavering, and Brockton Bay was burning all around us. It was then that the call went out through Weaver's swarm:"
[ ] "Fall Back!"
[ ] "Hold the Line!"
[ ] "Attack!"
MAP OF BATTLE SO FAR:
(Taylor is Blue, Behemoth is Red)
Please remember to format XP Expenditures properly:
[X] ? XP - Item ●●●○○
[X] ? XP - Item (Specialization ●●○)
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