...I find myself tempted to say Vegas.
I mean... that's a city where the battle of heroes and villains mostly occurs via Thinkers.
And Weaver can accelerate Thinkers sixfold. Can do it to more than one person, as this battle has taught us.
I suspect a one-week visit of the Vegas Protectorate by Weaver would completely turn around the balance of power there.
This whole arc is really proving far more trouble than I anticipated. I guess this is the first time I've written such huge flusterclucks before? Catching a cold from nieces and nephews isn't helping me right now, either.
I really wanted to finish this arc before the end of the 16th (2 month anniversary of first post), but it looks like that's not going to happen.
Ah, well. Might as well give you guys some fodder to mull over while I wrastle this into completion:
Note: Not final, but 95% chance it'll stay the same.
I wouldn't be surprised if he's the reason Winslow is in ruins.
Besides, losing the Cradle would be bad but it's not the end of the world. Our goal is to bring Autocthon to Nowhere, one way to do that could be to build a machine that tears a hole in the fabric of reality to him.
Losing the Cradle would be a big setback.
Even without it, though, Weaver is a game-changer for the Protectorate. Consider:
1)She has one of the most powerful Stranger abilities on record, combined with the power to perceive and act through insects on a wide range. Want to comb the city in search of someone (like, say, Slaughterhouse 9)? Weaver can be incredibly efficient at it.
2)Aside from being durable and agile enough to survive acting as a distraction for Behemoth over half an hour, Weaver has demonstrated an unmatched ability to lead large groups of capes in battle. This could change how Endbringer fights happen from now on. Plus, she's potentially making a huge splash from a PR perspective, which might help with Protectorate recruitment.
3)Most importantly: Weaver can give an immense boost to Tinkers and Thinkers... and we've discovered during this battle that she can do it for more than one person at a time.
Consider: One week of intermittent boosts allowed Armsmaster to finish his Endbringer prediction program and nanothorn device months ahead of schedule. It allowed Kid Win to progress far, far ahead of where he was earlier. Keep boosting Kid Win for another month, and he'll be on par with classic Armsmaster. Do the same for Armsmaster, and he'll be the most powerful cape the Protectorate has short of Eidolon. Boost six Protectorate Tinkers for a few weeks? The Protectorate as an organization is now significantly more powerful than before. And that's without getting into Thinkers.
So... losing the Cradle isn't game over.
I'm more concerned about losing capes. And the city.
Grom asked that we shelve the Exalt candidate discussion until later, but I will say that we should pick people who fit MOST of those criteria and would make a useful assets as exalted and then work on them to make them fit the rest of the criteria. We should also start with people who don't have very dominant personalities and focus on our Intimacy with them before Exalting them. As for WHO specifically we should work on, that discussion should wait until after Behemoth leaves and we see who's left.
As for Grom's hypothetical question, every vacation spot mentioned so far sounds like it could be a good idea.
Once you get your books and give them a good read-through I think you'll have a better understanding of why the rest of us are much more optimistic about our predicament. Although maybe I'll drop a link or two, not necessarily related to this, that might help you get a broader understanding of the system and the world.
Off the top of my head - ways we can unfuck the situation should the situation become fucked through the destruction of the cradle:
-Essence sight plus extended Perception + Occult rolls to analyze the lingering energies of the cradle.
-Work with Iris to construct a inert Manse over the remains of the cradle, the construction tailored to cause the dispersed energies to slowly draw together at the Manse's heart which was the original location of the cradle.
-Say fuck it, the cradle is unrecoverable. Analyze the leftover energies, then do a lot of extended Attribute + Occult rolls to make a new better cradle. This one with blackjack and hookers automated defenses and a factory cathedral.
-Say fuck it, the cradle is unrecoverable. Analyze the leftover energies, then do a lot of extended Attribute + Occult rolls to make a new better cradle. This one with blackjack and hookers automated defenses and a factory cathedral.
Wait, you knew that Gromweld had asked people to hold off on discussion of that topic but decided to post anyway?
And then, after you get called on it, you just say, "Yeah, I know it was off topic but I just wanted to get the last word in anyway and then cut off debate by saying that I'm done talking about it."
I'm chalking up the lack of Grom to bad connection, difficulties writing, or both. The fact that he's been pumping out such consistent writing when he has to alter his plans after every installment because a spastic committee of players who disagree on almost EVERYTHING and a bag of fickle dice have at least as much control of the story as the actual author is flat out amazing. Hell he gets mad props just for resisting the urge to completely railroad us in this Behemoth encounter.
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:" [X] "Hold the Line!"
- [x] Stunt: Our shot was the only thing that truly hurt Behemoth, and it seems unrelated to the nature of our weapon. Aim at his heart, and shoot as frequently as possible. While also disseminating the knowledge about Behemoth's apparent weak spot to the entire army via our swarm. Try to get him pinned again and focus a volley of fire there to either dig a hole into it or exploit other capes who might penetrate his defenses (like Flechette, perhaps.)
- [x] Stunt: Send Strider back to the medical tent to check for survivors, while warning the capes in the field to stay well back from the new combatant.
XP Expenditures:
[X] 2 XP - Presence (Swarms ●●○)
[X] 4 XP - Investigation ●●●●○
[X] 2 XP - War (Parahumans ●○○)
[X] 2 XP - Lore (Endbringers ●○○)
[X] 4 XP - Lore ●●●●●
[X] 2 XP - Athletics (Power Armor ●●○)
***
As the third gargantuan monster this evening throws the battlefield even further into chaos, your Iconic Anima bursts forth around you while the world slows to a crawl. Through your essence-imbued Clarity and cognitive alacrity, you take in what seems to be the hundredth 'turn for the worse' tonight.
You are certain that you would have heard about this monstrosity in your search through Parahumans Online and the PRT's detailed cape records, so is it a new creation? The face of the girl attached to the sea of flesh doesn't call to mind anything from your limited trawling of 'missing person' reports, so was this the result of some trigger event caused by Behemoth's rampage tonight?
The… thing appears to have absorbed a number of the heroes and villains that were last seen either at the makeshift medical station, or being teleported to there. Not everyone, however, just most of the healers and a few others that don't appear to have a common theme. Parian works with clothes and Tattletale is just an intuition-based Thinker, so why would they be chosen over more combat-worthy capes like Jotun?
Thankfully, your scan notes that the parahumans stored within this monster have not been chewed-up or digested. You're uncertain if they'll remain that way for long, but the fact that the creature was able to seize and absorb these capes without causing them further damage implies the paralyzed state you see them in now may be applied either from range or by touch. Judging by the manner in which Behemoth has just cast her off in an almost casual manner while recovering from his tumble, perhaps his crystalline composition makes him immune? Or is it his complete lack of a nervous system through which to propagate such a paralyzing attack?
In the same wave of the arm that cast off the new monster, three of the twelve naked clones were also reduced to a blazing red mist, indicating that their direct use against the Herokiller will be limited-at-best. The nine remaining all appear to still be recovering from the tumble they took out of the creature's gullet, so you're not certain of the intelligence level of these fundamentally-warped clones; one of the blonde-haired females appears to be looking around with a semblance of sapience (and terror), though the others are still blinking groggily.
Perhaps equally concerning is the fact that, by sheer lack of clothing or costumes, these clones effectively have outed their respective originals in front of the worldwide cape community. Tattletale's - Lisa's - clone looks much the same, if a bit paler than you know Lisa to be, but this is the first time you've seen her face without the scarring makeup applied. Panacea - Amy Dallon - already lacked a public identity, but judging by her robe-like costume and frumpy day-to-day attire, the three naked Panacea clones are yet another tally in tonight's personal disasters for the reserved healer. The others - two burly Norweigan-looking Jotuns, a squirrely-looking Scapegoat, and a remarkably handsome Penitent - all are obviously their counterparts. Two, however, stand out: a young, beautiful arabic woman who and a rather plain caucasian female. Which is Parian and which is Escutcheon is a secondary concern - this reveals to everyone else that Escutcheon has been a woman all along.
Your final consciousness notes, however, that these clones don't all look quite… on-model. One of the Panacea clones appears to have been stretched like a piece of taffy, resulting in an Amy that is likely somewhere over seven feet tall and with mis-proportioned limbs, fingers, body, and head. One of the Jotuns is varying shades of blue and starting to grow flecks of ice on his skin, while the others have smaller deformities that are less glaring: the Penitent clone's all-black eyes, the Scapegoat clone's maw of wicked teeth, the Parian clone's shorter and rounder stature, the Tattletale clone's paler complexion, and the Escutcheon clone's much more womanly physique.
As the world around you speeds back up, you focus on the reactions of the defenders while your Dynamic Reaction Enhancement System charm wears off; you calculate that this newcomer is at least focused on the Endbringer for now, but anything that can absorb and clone parahumans is a recipe for disaster. While most are still concentrating their focus on pouring everything they have into Behemoth's still-struggling form, a great number of the defenders have paused in shock and disgust at this new development.
Except for two: Sundancer and Ballistic, two from the supervillain gang calling themselves the "Travellers," who have a much different reaction: recognition.
"Noelle! Oh god… Luke, what is Noelle doing?!"
The nearly-infirm Sundancer - still recovering from having one of the healers re-grow her amputated arm earlier in the fight - sits astride a horse-sized dragon-creature that has ceased shooting bursts of ice from its mouth at the Endbringer. Is that the Travellers' fourth member, the shapeshifter Genesis? Regardless, Ballistic - Luke, you surmise - is more resigned in his response to Sundancer's alarmed question.
"Fuck if I know. Probably trying to avenge Krouse. Coil probably even opened that little holding pen for her. Fuck. At least I don't have worry about her going nuts and eating me anymore."
There's a sad warble from the ice-dragon as it looks away from the scene of Behemoth tearing limbs off of the creature - Noelle? - while Sundancer has covered her mouth and is in tears. 'Noelle' herself can be barely heard over the cacophony of weaponry and earth-shattering blows, but through your swarm you pick up the telltale sounds of inconsolable sobbing and wailing.
"What do you know of that creature?"
"Holy shit!"
Ballistic whips around and aims his loaned, copied Tinker-made rifle at the mass of insects you have floating above them, though he refrains from firing.
"Referred to creature as 'Noelle.' Explain."
There's a quick look shared between the three Travelers, the silent discussion ended by Genesis nodding her head at Ballistic. The moment passes, and Ballistic turns back to your swarm while the two others watch the on-going brawl between the two monsters - which is rapidly turning into a rout as the Endbringer immediately vaporizes or incinerates any clone 'Noelle' regurgitates. The distraction is at least working in the defenders' favor, as the sustained firepower has continued to keep Behemoth from making headway towards the school, but you're not certain how much longer this will last - what damage the weapons have been doing appears to have stalled, no longer penetrating the layers of skin remaining over the Herokiller's body.
"She's… a friend, I guess. We've kept her hidden while we looked for a way to fix her, but she's been getting bigger and crazier. She can clone people she touches, but the clones are fucking evil and insane."
"Creature contains several parahumans within. Method for extraction?"
You can't get much of his body language through his square mask and thick body armor, but your swarm picks up a sigh and a small shake of his head.
"They're fucked, then. We've only got her to spit someone out once before, and that was when she was still kinda sane. Sucks for them."
"Unacceptable. Additional relevant information?"
Ballistic shrugs and mutters something undecipherable, but the pause that follows is broken by Sundancer's despairing voice.
"Noelle she… she was my best friend. She was so smart, so pretty… not… oh, Noelle. Why did we listen to Krouse?"
"Krouse?"
"That was... Trickster's name. Noelle and Krouse were… together. He was the only one who could calm her down these days."
As the trio of supervillains looks out on the destruction wrought by their one-time companion and the ramaging Endbringer, Ballistic snorts audibly.
"Really, I'm just fucking glad she isn't cloning the damn Endbringer. That would have just been our luck."
The steady barrage of Tinker weaponry is lessening now, most of the cloned weapons overheating or running out of ammunition. Those clones that now lack for a weapon have begun to mindlessly charge into the fray, causing a growing pall of fog as they pop like steam-filled balloons at the slightest bit of damage.
"Remove female torso from bottom growth?"
Ballistic waves a hand, his cloned weapon having disappeared in a puff of smoke when the clone that made it died, cutting off that train of thought.
"We tried that a while ago. Just makes the bottom part go crazy until her top regenerates."
"Understood. Assist retrieval?"
Sundancer and Genesis' dragon-form share a look, but Ballistic just gives a flippant gesture.
"Never was my problem in the first place. No way am I risking my ass when she's gone full psycho monster."
Gingerly, Sundancer climbs off Genesis and limps the few paces closer to Ballistic before clumsily falling to a seated position on the ground with a wince. Genesis utters a sorrowful warble before taking to the air and making her way to where your own body has been hovering in the air - a few hundred feet above the ruins of your old neighborhood.
You keep your assembled swarm near the two remaining Travellers to keep watch over them, as well as place a few insects on their costumes for later tracking afterwards.
Should you all survive this fight, you have questions for them about their relationship with Coil.
***
While one of your consciousnesses was busy conversing with the Travellers, your others were occupied passing along the information you were receiving to other defenders - more specifically, the teammates of those absorbed by Noelle, as well as to the Triumvirate members. Wisely, the three legendary Heroes have thus far retreated to the sky above the fight to avoid being entangled in the monster battle below.
"Stand by for information on new arrival. Continue bombardment on Behemoth, avoid striking arrival."
Thankfully, this manages to stop a number of the defenders who were shouting wasteful sentiments, such as, "Ahh! Ugly! Kill it!" Those with area-of-effect attacks cease their fire, though from the haggard expressions of many of the Blasters, you suspect they barely needed the excuse to stop.
"Creature contains several intact parahumans held in stasis within gullet: Panacea, Scapegoat, Penitent, Escutcheon, Parian, Jotun, Tattletale."
This elicits cries of alarm and concern, causing many of the defenders to cease firing into the melee for fear of endangering friends or former saviors. You suspect that numerous individuals in the defensive line have been healed or saved by those within the monster's form, but you find it difficult to view that as a worthy concern at the moment - Behemoth must be stopped at all costs, but as you are unlikely to kill him, the best you can hope is to keep delaying him until Scion arrives and drives the Endbringer off.
Strider disappears from the battlefield for a few moments, then reappears near one of your swarm clones. The mute teleporter forms a cross with his hands, then shakes his head and makes a cutting motion across his neck.
You do not hold out hope that anyone else back at the medical tent survived the monster's rampage through it.
"Creature name: Noelle."
Through your swarm, you catch the barest twitch from Alexandria and Eidolon when you relay the creature's name. Alexandria turns towards the collected mass of insects hanging near the three Heroes and asks where you're getting this information, but you ignore the question and continue your updates.
"Creature abilities: clone generation through touch, able to absorb individuals for later clone generation. Clones warped, malignant, dangerous. Behemoth appears immune to abilities, possibly due to inorganic nature or inhuman physiology."
There's a number of alarmed expressions when you explain the clone-through-touch ability, which turn to relief when you explain that Behemoth is likely immune to this power. You keep silent regarding your own fears: if the Endbringers truly have been holding back, warped, evil clones may not possess such restraints.
As your conversation with the Travellers finishes, you finally have the swarm near the Triumvirate answer Alexandria's question.
"Creature former friend of Travellers, warped by powers. Trickster, lover, killed by Behemoth. Supervillain Coil possibly released creature from custody. Creature seeks revenge."
Alexandria and Eidolon (who seems to be recovering from his dazed state) share a quick look, while Legend continues to survey the damage the two monsters are causing as they weave through the neighborhood - Behemoth continuing to avoid Noelle while focusing his efforts on warding off the barrage from the amassed defenders. The Endbringer's several attempts to use his Kill Aura on the thrashing Noelle have only seemed to enraged the misshapen monster - the Travellers' statements about the consequences of removing her top half proving true - but you're uncertain of how long until his attempts destroy the comatose prisoners within her.
"Do the Travellers know of any way to get the people she's eaten out?"
"Negative. Only willing regurgitation."
Alexandria looks to Legend, before turning to your swarm.
"We need to get the healers out of there - we can't afford to lose so many, especially Panacea, at this point. All of them combined are worth more than this city."
Knowing now the sheer horror and chaos of an Endbringer fight, and having seen how many capes the healers trapped within Noelle have saved just tonight, you calm, rational mind finds itself agreeing… at first. But then you remember your charge - your mission. You are going to save this city. You are going to bring Order and Justice to Brockton Bay, and nothing, not even an Endbringer is going to stop you from accomplishing that goal.
"Negative. Freeze Noelle, focus on Behemoth. I will retrieve healers."
All three of the Triumvirate turn towards your coalesced swarm, though it's Eidolon who speaks first. His voice is hoarse and shaky, but you can still hear the ring of steel in it from the years of facing down worse situations.
"Before you do, Weaver… give me your Thinker augmentation again. We need the edge now more than ever, and now that I know what to expect…"
He trails off as Legend floats over near him and places an arm on his cloaked shoulder.
"Eidolon, you don't need-"
But you do not have time to waste for sentimentality. You retrieve the application of Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade from the comatose Tattletale and drive it home into Eidolon once again.
"Done."
Both Legend and Alexandria are holding up the flagging Eidolon in an instant, though only for a moment before he jerks is surrounded in a blazing green corona. His teammates pull away from him, just as you begin to hear a relieved, disbelieving laugh grow from behind Eidolon's mask.
"Ah haa… this… yes… yes! Weaver! Go!"
The bugs near the Triumvirate abruptly combust as Eidolon's blazing green form explodes like a starburst, then streaks across the sky towards the two monsters below.
***
You receive Eidolon's call to action just as Genesis' blue horse-dragon form reaches your position in the sky. Your laser rifle having long since disappeared in a puff of smoke, you grab hold of the ungainly flier and take off after the Triumvirate, towards the monstrous melee.
In a dizzying display of power, Behemoth is flung high above the nearby rooftops and held in a rapidly-condensing pure-white ball of force that immediately annihilates all nearby insects. With a sweep of Eidolon's other arm, Noelle is hurtled back into suddenly-appearing tundra of ice where once there was a four-way street intersection. Dozens of icy-blue chains leap from the lake upon the monster's contact, ensnaring the massive beast and dragging her to the ground despite her groans and struggles.
As you approach Noelle with Genesis in tow, you are finally able to make out the mournful cries from the mangled top-half of the monster.
"N-nooo! He-he's mine! Mine! MINE! I need to e-eat him! I have to kill them all!"
Two more panacea clones pour forth in a tide of bile from her largest mouth, but are quickly incinerated by a blast of green flame from Eidolon. You fly down so that you are level with the monster's top half, able to look her tear-and-blood-streaked visage dead on.
"Noelle. Stop."
Her crazed expression flickers briefly between sorrowful clarity and depraved madness, her voice echoed by the numerous, hideous mouths littering the sea of flesh below her torso.
"No no MINE no NO! Get away! NO! FEED ME!"
With a shriek of shearing ice, one of the longest arms on her body snaps the chain holding it down and snags your right leg. You feel a brief sensation, passingly similar to what you felt when Panacea tried to heal you, before your Industrial Survival Frame reminds reality that you will not be changed.
Then, with a slash of the Nanothorn knife in your right hand, you sever the arm like you were parting air.
"Noelle. Release absorbed parahumans."
But the monster that was once Noelle is only maddened screams and howls of anguish now, trashing in vain as more and more chains of ice stretch over her massive form to bring her further to ground.
You turn to the form of Genesis beside you and give it a nod.
"Returning with passengers. Stay."
The dragon-horse blinks and snorts in what you surmise is agreement mixed with slight indignation, then nods in return. Focusing your various minds on the task now at hand, you retract your anti-gravity wings and plummet into ocean of flesh below.
***
Through the crystal clarity that has enveloped your mind this night, you spare no thoughts on the gruesomeness of your task, or on the disgusting, twisted viscera that flows around you as you gut the enormous beast from the inside. Miles of distended, useless intestines and hundreds of mutated organs stream out onto the ice as your Nanothorn knife carves through Noelle's ten-inch thick hide like water.
Your subconscious awareness through your swarm alerts you to Behemoth's escape from Eidolon's spherical prison, but the re-focused firepower of the defenders and a series of kaleidoscopic lances of power from Eidolon pin the Endbringer to the ground again. Behemoth has taken to re-directing many of the attacks back at the defenders now, which your swarm observes as the returned fire downs several capes: Demon Fork, Shadow Stalker, Narwhal, Lilume, Strider, and Flechette.
Chevalier, Myrrdin, and the Triumvirate are now back in full swing with coordinating the running engagement, and while you are able to provide subconscious aid by way of directional arrows your six trains of thought are still focused on ensuring the completion of your current mission. Specifically, you have three dedicated to analysing the constant stream of Diagnostic Overlay information, two that take that knowledge to help guide you through the morass of mutated viscera, and one to ensure that you're using the wickedly-deadly knife in your hand correctly.
Not thirty seconds into your efforts, your medical scans indicate that you have finally reached the first set of hostages: Scapegoat, Escutcheon, and Panacea. Though Noelle's thrashes have lessened under Eidolon's continued application of additional chains of ice, the downward pressure exerted by the chains has an unintended beneficial side-effect: you have barely a moment to recognize what is about to happen as you breach the final internal membrane separating you from the paralyzed hostages, but you are quick enough to dodge out of the way as the ooze-covered forms of the three healers burst forth from the massive rent in Noelle's body.
You motion through your swarm to Genesis to retrieve the comatose forms of the three healers, then resume your haphazard operation. Diving fully into the opening before it has a chance to heal up, your extended senses relay the sight of Genesis swooping down and gently scooping up the three prone forms with her tail and wings before taking off towards the rear guard of the defenders.
Inside the twenty-foot-wide beast's gullet, you feel small tentacles and appendages grasping at your armored form in an attempt to eject you from Noelle's belly. Your knife prove more than a match for them, but you feel it flickering occasionally now - either detritus clogging the heating baffles, or some of the containment shielding is being shaken loose by your inexperienced handling of the weapon.
You mentally note to speak with someone about close-quarters combat training after this whole ordeal.
Luckily, your knife lasts long enough to get you to the second set of imprisoned parahumans: Parian and Tattletale. Unfortunately, as you finish digging through the lightless sea of flesh and organs, you slip and drive your failing Nanothorn knife directly through Parian's abdomen, finally lodging the now-useless weapon in her spine. Thankfully the toxins rendering the rogue cape keep her sedated, but when you turn your scans on her it appears that you may have just sealed her fate - severe internal hemorrhaging and complete paralysis from the waist down.
Grabbing the two comatose young girls, you strain with all your might and pull them free from their embryonic sac with a disgusting squelching sound. Seeing the hole in Noelle's flesh rapidly sealing up in an attempt to trap you within, you desperately flare your anti-gravity jets and tear out of the gore with a sickening explosion of meat, blood, and flesh.
Your swarm gives you vision of Genesis' returning form, so you gently turn Parian's unconscious form over and activate your Omnitool Implants - feeling your available essence completely run dry as your Iconic Anima bursts to life overhead. Sliding your gloves off your hands to free your new surgical tools, you turn your many-segmented mind towards every scrap of medical and biological knowledge that could help you here and get to work staunching the bleeding and removing the knife from Parian's spine.
Amazingly, your tools almost seem to move with a will of their own as they deftly spin and sew together the horrendous damage caused by the knife's passage through Parian's abdomen. Removing the knife proves easy as well, and within seconds you have stopped nearly all traces of bleeding that your scans can pinpoint. There is still catastrophic damage to her kidney, diaphragm, and both intestines, but she's no longer in danger of dying within the next few minutes.
As you absorb the broken Nanothorn knife and direct the hovering dragon-horse form of Genesis to the two unconscious parahumans at your feet, you consider how you will pierce the now-reinforced hide of Noelle. Approaching her form, you ignore the hateful glares of the dozens of inhuman eyes scattered throughout the monstrous appendage, as well as the gibbering howls from Noelle and her many mouths, and direct your omnitool-laden fingers towards rending the armored flesh. Various tools spring to life, slashing, burning, clawing, and piercing in a whirlwind of impossible gadgetry, but each time some progress is made the skin heals the damage twice as quickly as it was dealt. Would it be better to dive into one of the open mouths? Or could you sever some of her arms and use them to pry open the wound as you make it?
Your experiments and musings are cut short by a crack of thunder, Noelle's struggling suddenly making headway into shattering the icy bindings surrounding her. In the same instant, your swarm observes the massive block of ice holding Behemoth secure on the ground explode in a hailstorm of jagged icicles as the Endbringer frees himself with a triumphant, scenery-leveling roar.
Eidolon, hand halfway-extended as if to summon forth some new power, floats motionless high in the sky. What insects you have near him can make out a whispered utterance before he grows silent again.
"...my fault."
You scramble away from the now-freed Noelle, accelerating high into the air and out of reach of her arms, but her focus is still singular: Behemoth.
Launching up from her prone position, it takes the mangled gait of Noelle's misshapen arms and legs only fifteen seconds to traverse the two blocks between her former prison and the freed Endbringer.
In a single, smooth motion, Behemoth spins, plunges his right, black-skeleton hand into the woman-turned-monster, and reduces the mammoth beast into a two-block-wide stain of boiling blood. A number of defenders are caught in the blast, their screams cut off as the heated, acidic blood dissolves them on the spot.
With a brief turn of his melted visage towards your general direction, Behemoth dives into the ground and is gone in a burst of molten rock.
With the swarm near Chevalier, you relate your final message to the defenders as you throttle your anti-gravity boosters to their highest setting.
"Behemoth burrowing to school. No method to halt progress. Evacuate."
Streaking towards your former high school, you absently notice Alexandria trailing behind you slightly.
***
You're uncertain if the PRT purposefully evacuated everyone in the two Endbringer shelters near Winslow High School, but your insects don't detect a single person in the three-block radius of your insectoid senses. Either way, you pay no attention to the front doors of the school and simply crash straight through on your failing anti-gravity jets. You manage to avoid slamming into any walls or lockers, coming to a sliding stop at the base of the stairs that you used to take up towards Mr. Gladly's History class only a month ago.
The batteries failing completely in the suit, you reluctantly absorb your power armor before it renders you completely immobile - just in time for Alexandria to come swooping into the hall behind you.
Standing up from your prone position on the floor, you realize that you don't have the essence to extract your original Weaver costume. Not that it would have helped in the slightest against Behemoth, and a small part of your mind considers it appropriate that you meet the Endbringer face-on in your true form; it's why he's here in the first place, is it not?
Absently, you note that while you are naked in front of your childhood Hero - perhaps the most respected superhero on the planet - you only feel it worth noting that your current natural Alchemical form lacks anatomical correctness - besides the smooth bulges on your chest, of course. Could you have always retracted or hidden those, or did something happen and they're gone for good?
The rumbling under your feet is growing in intensity, so you shelve those thoughts for another time and instead focus on the Triumvirate hero floating just off the floor in front of you.
"Plan?"
You knew your decision to keep Incomparable Efficiency Upgrade on Alexandria would bear fruit. No errant questions about your state of undress or your awkward plunge into the school grounds, instead only a matter-of-fact tone and efficient focus on the task at hand.
Or is she always this goal-oriented? Something to research later.
You hold your arms up to your side and point upwards with your index fingers.
"Lift?"
Swooping down, Alexandria grabs you under your arms while you point the way for her to go. Together, you tear through the halls as they begin to rumble and shake.
"Secure Cradle, Iris. Move both before Behemoth arrives."
From above your head, Alexandria's tone betrays a hint of incredulity.
"You didn't do this from the start?"
You don't shake your head to coincide with your negative statement, as you are doing your best not to jab her chest with your spider-leg headgear.
"Low probability of accomplishing either task. There."
As you set down in front of it, your old locker no longer has any indication of the small shrine that was here when you awoke - it's only been a little over three weeks, but even in your heightened state of Clarity it still feels more like two months. There's not even any indication that Iris has been doing anything of note.
The ground below you becoming more difficult to stand upright upon, you grasp the unlocked handle and yank upwards.
Only for Alexandria to carry you away in a dive as the world explodes.
***
The insects around the school give you a perfect view of Behemoth's eruption from under Winslow, though all but the farthest are incinerated or tumbled back by the heat wave. Nearly two stories taller than the former roof of your former high school, dripping with molten rock, metal, and his own ichor-like blood, Behemoth's ravaged form takes two casual steps toward the only thing left standing in the massive crater caused by his emergence: your solitary locker, standing atop a pillar of stone like it had simply ignored the apocalypse taking place around it. Unfortunately, the locker door has been blasted off.
Only to reveal an empty locker and a put-upon Iris of Innovation.
[Frustration.][Indignation.]
The rubble covering you and Alexandria is blasted off by her sudden ascent, but as you scramble free of the re-settling debris the legendary Triumvirate member careens towards Behemoth.
With a shockwave that sends you flying and decimates what was left of the school around you, Behemoth absently back-hands Alexandria into the horizon.
[Astonishment.][Inspiration.]
Landing hard against what's left of the school's boundary wall, you feel a twisting snap in your left thigh. The pain makes you gasp once, but you are quickly on your feet and making your way towards the Endbringer once again.
Through your remaining insects and your own telescopic sight, you witness Behemoth slowly, almost cautiously or blindly, reach towards the locker. He misses by a few yards to the right at first, but then finally snags the locker itself after waving his hand back and forth.
Then, using both hands, Behemoth gingerly feels the locker like a man gone blind.
You take no pleasure in the fact that you manage to lob your throw - only a rock - directly into the twisted remains of Behemoth's skeletal jaw. You would be more dissatisfied at having missed, since you are only ten feet away from his towering form.
In a move that's faster than you can react, Behemoth's left hand lashes out a lightning bolt that strikes a few feet to your right. His hand stays extended for nearly thirty seconds, during which you remain perfectly still, before he turns back to your locker.
High above, you think you see the form of Alexandria. Watching.
The ground around Behemoth cracks and trembles as you note his nearly-skeletal frame straining against the locker.
This time, you do your best to dive well out of the way of your original location as you heave a rock directly into the empty eye socket of the Herokiller.
Struggling, you keep moving as Behemoth unleashes bolt after bolt in the general direction from which your throw originated.
Can he not see you when you are outside your armor? Judging by his fumbling around the locker, is he blind to essence completely? You would have thought that the billowing smoke, crackling essence, and wailing of damned souls radiating from your form would have given you away. You are also somewhat disappointed that you didn't appear to do any damage with those attacks, even though it was an errant hope.
Clearly tiring of this whole affair, Behemoth turns back to your locker and uses two fingers of his right claw to fish inside.
[Irritation.][Indignation.]
"Iris! Do something!"
[Exhaustion.][Frustration.]
You briefly glimpse the basketball-sized brass-like form of Iris as Behemoth yanks him out of the Locker.
With a slight burst of displaced air, the Locker and its pedestal of concrete disintegrates in a puff of metal flakes and dust.
[Resignation.]
Just as Behemoth cups his black, bony hands over the tiny form of Iris, you start to feel… heavy. Like the air around you is rapidly cooling and becoming denser. You struggle to backtrack away from the growing effect, but even the light around you appears to be dimming - your insects give you a constant view of an ever-expanding, ever-darkening bubble in which you have been trapped.
Until your normal senses explode with information once again as you are whisked away by a speeding Alexandria.
"Stop! Need to watch!"
"No. Haven't seen him do anything like this before. Too dangerous."
"Up! Can extend vision one mile!"
With a wordless nod of acknowledgement, Alexandria accelerates upward and into the smoke-choked night. Behemoth's most recent shockwaves have cleared most of the sky around the school, but your own augmentations have no trouble seeing through the ash with a small expenditure of your newly-regenerated essence. Alexandria flinches as the massive Design Weaver explodes into full view around her, but otherwise shows no further emotion as she carries you high into the air.
Below, the lightless hemisphere has expanded to well past the school's former boundaries, and is slowly approaching your position a mile in the air.
But just as Alexandria begins to move away from the expanding field, it disappears...
Only to be replaced by an explosion that turns the world white.
***
Alexandria pulls out of her tumble from the shockwave several thousand feet later, having managed to keep hold of you the entire time. Unfortunately, the force of the explosion was enough to break a number of your ribs as you were smashed into Alexandria's impervious form. You shake off the haze starting to occlude your vision and point a hand towards the enormous crater centered around the Locker's former location.
"Closer!"
Alexandria's lips are set in a firm line, but her pause is only momentary before she accelerates at near supersonic speeds. You clench your teeth as every fracture and tear in your body protests the sudden acceleration and deceleration when she arrives close enough to the half-mile crater for you to see.
His arm outstretched to the sky, Behemoth holds the True Form of the Eye of Autochthon, the Iris of Innovation clenched in his extended right index finger, middle finger, and thumb. You can feel your essence regeneration dropping off completely and your meager essence pool depleting by the second.
[Exasperation.]
With a deafening blast that echoes across the city, into the bay, and over the surrounding hills, Behemoth launches Iris into the starless night sky.
As your link to Iris strains further and further, you feel a soul-wrenching snap as your reservoirs run dry and your link to him severs.
The last emotion you feel through the link before it frays into the ether is a combination of muted resignation and wistful recognition.
[Deja Vu.]
Down below, Behemoth turns once more towards you, utters a triumphant roar, and then burrows out of sight for good.
***
Intimacy: Alexandria (Respect) Gained! Intimacy: The Endbringers (Creeping Paranoia) +1 Increase! Iris of Innovation (Companionship) +1 Increase! [NOW FULL INTIMACY]
Athletics +1 Training Interval (2/6 Intervals) Dodge +1 Training Interval (2/6 Intervals) Medicine +1 Training Interval (5/6 Intervals) Melee +1 Training Interval (1/6 Intervals) Occult +1 Training Interval (1/6 Intervals) Presence +1 Training Interval (6/6 Intervals) Resistance +1 Training Interval (4/6 Intervals) Socialize +1 Training Interval (3/6 Intervals) *Socialize (Swarms ●○○) Now Available! Thrown +1 Training Interval (2/6 Intervals)
The Battle for Brockton Bay: The Cataclysm
(Choose one. No stunts.)
"With Behemoth's interference signal gone and the city burning around us, we thought it was finally over. But when Dragon finally regained communications and her warning came through the remaining armbands, we knew the most important thing was to..."
[ ] Save The People
[ ] Save The Capes
[ ] Save Yourself
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 ●●○)
Seriously though, I'm... Not really sure how we bounce back from this.
Pretty much the one shred of hope that humanity had in the past was that an Endbringer could be driven off. Behemoth basically showed just how incredibly fucking hard to kill they are, how much they normally hold back, and that they damn well Will cut loose and just ignore all damage to get a high value target.
That's pretty hard to recover from.
They also quite likely denied us the ability to create more Alchemicals, barring a small miracle. Which means no Vats for a good long time, and our own ability to change the game is limited. I mean, sure, we coordinated the group like a fucking boss and marginally reduced the casualties, but that's going to be overwhelmed by the reveal of how little of a fuck Endbringers give.
I cannot believe I completely forgot about Space Core when writing that scene. I even installed the Skyrim mod for it! Oh well, it was clearly lurking in my subconscious. (Which is in SPACE!)
I'd like to correct something people are misinterpreting:
Alchemicals are usually MADE, not Chosen. After a long string of mortal heroism of a specific flavor, a soulgem containing all those past souls is stuck into a blank Alchemical body. Voice of Authority is a self-centered ass, yes, but he still does his job for his nation. Conviction is the name of the game for Alchemicals.
Most importantly, you have to remember that Alchemicals are (usually) the very definition of state-created supersoldiers designed for a very specific need/task. Thus, here are some questions you should be asking yourself regarding choosing Candidates:
- Does this person have the willpower to catalyze an Alchemical form? (Does this person have high Willpower and/or Conviction stats?)
- Will the person follow Taylor's guidance/orders/administrating? (A positive Intimacy towards Taylor would likely help here.)
- Will this person be fine with allowing mortals to rule? (Alchemicals are servants of the state, not lords or tyrants.)
- Does this person's skill set (and personality) help the Assembly? (You should really determine what sort of general abilities you want for your party, as the other new Alchemicals will NOT be gaining XP as quickly as Taylor has been!)
- Will this person accept Glorious Bullshit Robot Communism into their hearts? (Are they unsatisfied with the way things are now to the point where they would accept the fundamental rewriting of reality itself?)
These are the sorts of questions to answer via extended Investigations into someone's background and face-to-face talks. Going off Canon personalities is going to be a risky proposition from here on out as we are now wildly off the rails and Butterfly Effect is in effect.
Opps, Parian. Hopefully Panacea can fix her. Also we really DO need some Melee. I assume that was a melee check botch.
In a single, smooth motion, Behemoth spins, plunges his right, black-skeleton hand into the woman-turned-monster, and reduces the mammoth beast into a two-block-wide stain of boiling blood. A number of defenders are caught in the blast, their screams cut off as the heated, acidic blood dissolves them on the spot.
He flung Iris. Fuck. Must be for Simurgh to intercept.
We do have confirmation that Behemoth can't sense us when we aren't using technology though. He must have been tracking us through the power armor's electricity.
Normally I'd say save the people, but as callous as it seems effective Capes are harder to come by, especially ones we already have any degree of positive intimacy with, and I get the feeling we're going to need them.
