*
3.9
*
The storm outside was renewed in its ferocity, suddenly and every one of the reinforced bullet resistant windows shuddered so violently I was almost afraid they would shake themselves loose. Everyone took this as a signal that it was time to end the briefing. Within seconds every single cape in the lobby was in motion, following our armbands directions. While most capes received instruction on where positions needed to be filled, those with Mover powers were directed to groups or individuals who needed rapid transport to reach theirs. With only a little over an hour since the alert it was impressive how much planning had apparently been done, though now it occurred to me that if I were in charge of the Protectorate, I would maintain a number of such plans just in case the opportunity to implement one against an Endbringer surfaced.
Even so, those plans couldn't have been very detailed; more a collection of general strategies, general position information based on broad categories of powers and capabilities than any real battle plans. Even making use of pre-determined would require collecting and organizing data on as many parahumans as possible all across the world, and then being able to draw on that information on the fly, in order to slot individual capes where they were needed. That was where Dragon had to come in with her armbands. Besides her now almost iconic suits, complex smart software systems were what the Tinker was known for best - but that also hinted at a deep problem for chances of defeating the threat, long term. All large scale strategies involving parahumans were flawed, deeply, because they had to rely on individuals with unique powers who could be killed or incapacitated and then their power could no longer be used.
Out beyond the bay a bulge of seawater grew by the second, while water almost flowed in the streets already from the torrential downpour of rain being dumped on the city. The entire scene was almost biblical, and I wondered briefly if perhaps the Endbringers were in fact something out of more ancient times, more akin to forces of nature than living things. I dismissed the thought, even if it were true it didn't change our responsibility as capes. Besides, it was a simpler explanation that whoever or whatever had created the Endbringers had designed them to prey on exactly those fears.
As I ran, my feet and the feet of those running around me sent sprays of water shooting up around our knees. We had gone perhaps a couple of blocks when my armband indicated I should stop, while others continued on or broke off down the street just as they had been. Lung stayed with me, and I wondered for a moment what other people thought was going on after he'd singled me out earlier. On the buildings surrounding our position I could see the silhouettes of more capes arriving, some being dropped off by flyers or teleporters.
Through my enhanced senses I could see a formation beginning to take shape, a rough crescent centered on where Leviathan was predicted to make landfall. The Endbringer hadn't deviated from its path in the last fifteen minutes so it seemed that the plan would at least succeed in its initial stage, but it wouldn't come together fast enough. Maybe ten percent of the crescent was filled out, while the initial signs of the tidal wave which would arrive well before the creature itself were already clearly discernible and the software I was tapped into was estimating no more than seventy percent would be in place before it arrived.
How many capes would survive the impact of the water? Not enough, but then it was becoming clear there probably hadn't been enough even at the start, and what would the loss of even more do to all the neat little plans? The real problem was that numbers only did so much good, more bodies only helped to a point against the Endbringers before becoming simply more casualties. What we needed was greater numbers of certain kinds of powers. Instead what we had was an essentially random assortment of powers based on whoever had decided to, or been able to, show up to this particular fight. Today would not be a good day.
"Let others worry over the city," Lung growled from beside me as he stared out at the water, scales already working their way up through his skin. "Concern yourself only with survival, girl. When that beast wades back beneath the waves to wherever it broods, when this is all over we shall make the ruins of this miserable city our arena and see who is the master after all."
"Shut up," I snapped.
I wanted nothing more than to refute his fatalistic prediction of the future of the city, to tell the man who stood beside me that I would never give him his rematch much less in the ruins of Brockton Bay, but I couldn't see how he was wrong. As things stood the city would fall, there simply wasn't enough firepower available unless someone had been hiding their full strength.
Of course, I was doing exactly that in a way, except that it wasn't by choice.
"Nono," I whispered carefully, to ensure that Lung didn't overhear. "I'm need more firepower… like, right now."
Before she could respond, a voice came from the armband. "Tidal wave approaching, proceed to this location," it said, indicating a space only a little bit farther down the road where several other capes were gathering. "Forcefield support in twenty seconds." I glanced at Lung, who'd closed his eyes and seemed to be meditating, I swear I saw him grow ever so slightly before my eyes..
"Tidal wave!" I screamed at him as I turned to run towards the group.
I could see various capes moving about on the roofs above us and in the air, presumably capes with powers which allowed them to create forcefields. The distant figure of Shielder from New Wave angled towards us, dropping low to pick up speed, but I could already see the wave approaching out on the bay. He would only barely make it in time to protect our group.
As I ran, Nono appeared besides me. "Nono is working as fast as she can," she said, her voice apologetic. "Twenty more minutes! Nono can get you a little more power! Nono is sorry, but anymore and Nono risks killing you!"
"I don't care, just save this city!" I whispered harshly back at her, but Nono didn't respond.
Frustrated, I let out a growl at her silence. My life had never been bad enough that I'd actually considered suicide, but if that was the price to pay to destroy Leviathan, to save this city and all the lives those who would suffery today, well... I counted that a cheap bargain, after all it was her body too and she could take up the fight afterward! Unfortunately, it wasn't one I could make on my own, so the situation would stay as it was until she changed it.
Lung and I finally reached the group of capes, none of whom I recognized, and we all gathered together as tightly as we could even though I could already feel heat coming off of the villain like an old campfire. Water was rushing up the street in a solid wall, crashing into buildings, sweeping up abandoned cars and shattering wooden light posts in its path. Shielder dropped into our formation just an instant before the water struck, and a pale blue bubble snapped into being around us. A cascade of water washed over us, settling around my ankles but rising no higher. It was like being underwater in some post-apocalyptic city from a movie, with pieces of debris rushing by as the wave surged and broke over our heads. A splinter of wood larger than my arm slammed into the bubble and bounced off, then a couple of tires, and countless shards of glass before the water began to flow in the opposite direction. The same debris, or at least similar wreckage crashed into the rear of the bubble and stuck, crushed against its surface by the strength of the current as the water level dropped rapidly. In just a moment the water had largely retreated, leaving a garbage strewn street before us with miniature rivers of runoff from the pouring rain leading to an immense puddle of standing water where the paving in the road dipped.
"Saurian down, CF-3. Streaker down, CF-3. The Scarlet Pumpernickel deceased, CF-3. REbound down, CF-3…" The armband began listing.
Shielder dropped his forcefield and let the debris pinned against it fall, then we got our first glimpse of Leviathan. From our position in the left hand arc of the crescent it was in profile, somewhat obscured by the falling rain, just over nine meters tall from head to toe in its upright position. The Endbringer's proportions were all wrong, limbs too long, torso too broad and short, and a tail longer than its main body combined with the way that it moved made it seem almost constantly on the verge of falling over. More water poured down the surfaces of its body as it moved, head slashing left, right, up, down, and all over. It had an odd arrangement of eyes, one of the right and three on the left set into slits in the skin.
I focused on the monster before us, trying to discern a weak point or vulnerability in the supposedly super strong exterior. My eyes adjusted subtly, some mechanism within switching on and causing my vision to swim for a second before settling to normal. Except it wasn't normal, though I couldn't explain exactly how it was different what I saw told me that whatever Leviathan was composed of was far from normal material. Its outer layer was a sort of composite which mimicked many of the properties of aircraft aluminum but remained flexible enough at room temperatures that it could move without real issue. Beyond that outer layer I couldn't make out anything about the actual composition of the Endbringer's body, besides basic information about the density of the material which increased steadily the further "in" it went while retaining the flexibility. It went a lot higher than it should.
"Material density approaches unsustainable levels," Nono's voice whispered in my ear, tight and worried. "Space folding in use to prevent layered topology from collapsing, outer layer materials display similar properties to those that compose Stellar Propagating Life Forms."
I stared at her, not quite understanding what she was saying at first.
"Profile and physical characteristics do not match with those of Stellar Propagating Life Forms," she added in what seemed to be relief. "Not Space Monsters then, Nono is glad."
Once again Nono was gone without really giving me the chance to properly respond, though this time at least I sort of understood the reference to "Space Monsters." From what she'd shown me days ago I remember that these Space Monsters had been the threat she was built to fight against, and some part of their life cycle involved spending time inside a star. They also tended to show up in the millions at least, and had seemed bent on humanity's total destruction so, yeah, I could agree that that was good. The Endbringers were plenty bad enough, there was simply no way the world could have dealt with a threat on that scale. I switched to my larger view and focused on where the main congregation of capes was, facing off directly opposite Leviathan.
A great spray of water went up all along the twisted remains of the boardwalk as more surging waves crashed into where once Brockton Bay's high end shopping district had been. With the spraying water, the torrential rain, and the low level of light it would have normally been difficult to make out details from this distance but, well… my powers were kind of bullshit so I could clearly see the Alexandria squaring off against Leviathan. Each stood silent and still for a moment, as if waiting for some signal and then just as suddenly as everything else had been happening today they were each careening towards each other. Alexandria struck first, her blow almost seeming to lift the Endbringer off its feet for a brief instant before the water echo which trailed it caught up and forced the capes following her wake to break off.
The heroine herself was thrown back, though Alexandria simply charged back in; slipping underneath the swing of Leviathan's scythe like claws to spear up into its exposed neck, throwing it off balance. Due to the short range it wasn't enough to put the monster totally down, so the other two flying capes from before darted in and landed their own blows, the man opened his mouth let loose a series of sonic booms which resounded off the Endbringer's flesh while the winged woman simply slammed into it. Leviathan's tail lashed out as she rebounded off and sent her careening into a nearby building even as the Endbringer fell backwards to the pavement, one arm whipping out to catch Alexandria and drag her down.
"Iron Falcon down, CD-7," The armband announced.
All manner of laser blasts, projectiles, and whatever else was available pounded away at it in an attempt to get it to release the heroine before Legend swooped in and unleashed a large beam which left part of Leviathan glowing with heat. In dark of the night the momentary light show had been all the more impressive, though it was clear that it hadn't had much effect. Small pockmarks dotted the Leviathan's outer layer but so far no major damage seemed to have been done, and then the Endbringer decided to really respond. The fury of the impacting waves redoubled again, sending more spray shooting into the sky and washing the first two blocks in from the old boardwalk with water, and the overflowing storm drains, sewers and water mains suddenly burst with immense pressure. Manhole covers, rain grates, chunks of pavement and shards of shattered metal pipes were flung into the air, striking some of the unlucky defenders and turning them into so much human wreckage when their powers did not give them the durability to survive, and sending everyone else for cover.
Huge geysers of water cut off the line of sight to Leviathan, while also flooding the streets almost immediately and making it more difficult for the capes nearby to get about. The Endbringer itself used the chaos to right itself and charge away from the area down an intersection. Alexandria shot out of the water, wavered drunkenly in the air and then collided with the side of a building before slumping down weakly to the soaked ground as Legend flew over to check on her.
Immediately Purity,Lady Photon and Laserdream were there confronting the beast and hammering away at it with another brilliant display that lit up the night. Leviathan was staggered but unfortunately the attack did nothing to stop its afterimage. All three Blasters were only saved by Narwhal's timely intervention, as the Guild heroine placed a faceted, crystalline forcefield between them and the onrushing water and gave them enough time to dart away before the water crashed around the edges. She simultaneously dropped a dozen more just like the first, like huge spinning sawblades. The forcefields glittered like twinkling stars and bit deep into the Leviathan's flesh where they struck joints or more flexible parts of its limbs but glanced off hardier areas. All but two of those disappeared into nothingness, though one neatly bisected a car and another opened up a huge rent in a nearby building before they could be dispelled. The two she hadn't done away with shifted to crowd Leviathan and hamper its movement.
Purity swooped back in and unleashed a crushing beam of light on the Endbringer, once again sending it stumbling for a few seconds before it managed to compensate, but by then Dragon's suit and Miss Militia had joined the fray. Each of the women positioned themselves on opposite sides from Leviathan at slight angles so that their attacks wouldn't risk hitting each other, then they began firing. Dragon unleashed a barrage of missiles while Miss Militia stood and waited for another woman kneeling beside her. It took me a second to recognize her as Bakuda, because she was thoroughly drenched and her costume was covered in filth.
Bakuda was rummaging in a stuffed duffel bag, sometimes tossing aside bombs ranging from smaller than my fist to larger than my head, until finally she seemed to find what she was looking for and began to make some sort of modification or correction to the piece of hardware. Meanwhile Miss Militia took a couple of the discarded midsized tinker devices, loaded them into her oddly proportioned weapon, and fired them off one after the other. The first exploded into acid which fell sizzling onto Leviathan's flesh, and seemed to have little effect as it swung much of its bulk out of the way in its efforts to dodge Dragon's swarming missiles. Next there was an explosion of a curious white goop mixed in with long fuzzy fibers mixed in which hardened in a shiny cake on the Endbringer's limbs before simply cracking and falling off. The last Tinker bomb which Miss Militia fired fell lazily through the air until it was right in front of Leviathan, where it simply stopped and unleashed white hot flame right into its face for two seconds before promptly sparking and crashing to the pavement below.
This seemed to signal some change in tactics, because Dragon ceased her missile salvos, planted her suit's feet wide apart and began to extend a long barrel while Miss Militia changed her weapon into a rocket launcher and started up her own barrage. After a few seconds the transformation seemed complete and the roles switched back, Brockton Bay's second in command ceased her firing while the world famous Tinker started up again. Dragon shot four times in quick succession and each round of what appeared to be her railgun struck true with a deafening boom that shook the windows all around the city. After that she appeared to either need time to recharge the weapon or be out of rounds for it, but Bakuda was already handing the device she'd been working on off to Miss Militia, who quickly retransformed her weapon and fired the ordinance at Leviathan. The customized bomb impacted on its shoulder and made a visible shockwave that produced no light but turned a large chunk of the outer layer black. After a second the black chunk simply crumbled away and the Tinker began to laugh.
"Tidal wave incoming, fifteen seconds," announced my armband.
As Lady Photon and Laserdream grabbed Miss Militia and Bakuda to evacuate them from the four story building they were currently occupying, the tinker continued that piercing maniacal laugh, like something out of a bad movie. Narhwal perched atop one of her crystalline shards of shield while Purity support it from the bottom and carried them both away. Dragon tried to jet up and away from Leviathan but just before she was out of reach the Endbringer lunged forward with that same surprising speed it had before and swiped her out of the air, its claws catching on a plate of armor and tearing it straight off while sending her slamming back into the street. Dragon recovered and shot into the sky on a powerful jet turbine and I was so absorbed by the whole proceedings that I barely noticed Shielder dropping in again to erect his cerulean shield.
This wave was even taller than the one before, which didn't strike me as a good sign at all. While the water swept in and out of the city, Leviathan slipped beneath the surf and disappeared from the armband plot. When the water had mostly receded again and Shielder dropped his bubble, I found the Endbringer just a couple blocks from where he had been in an area where there were no capes currently to spot it, heading straight for a group of Tinkers working on some sort of device. I dutifully used the armband to spread the word of Leviathan's location but just as I was gratified to see its icon appear on the map a dozen more popped up as well. A quick look across the city explained it; people were spotting the water echo the creature created and which it could apparently sustain at longer distances than anyone had ever suspected. It didn't truly look like the Endbringer itself but they had always been tied directly with the immediate presence of its creator and that change was now biting us all in our collective asses. How could I pass the message that all the others besides the one I'd indicated were decoys and have it believed?
"Strapping Lad down, CD-5. Adamant down, CD-7. Matron down, BC-5. Tick Tack deceased, CB-5. Carapacitor down, CB-5," the synthesized voice of the armband announced.
Maybe I didn't need to pass the message at all. It occurred to me that Nono had only a little while ago accessed the software which had tracked Leviathan to Brockton Bay and presumably also done the same to figure what had been happening during the briefing, so why couldn't she do the same now? Actually, if Nono could do it there wasn't any good reason I could think of that I couldn't do it myself. I grinned at that thought.
If I could access whatever software fed into all the armbands I could feed them all the information I had directly. Instead of relying on the individual capes to manually report on Leviathan's position or their own conditions I could bypass all of that and produce a far superior system. What was more, if I could do that then I wouldn't need to keep my position as an observer, seeing as I could warn whoever was in danger long before the Leviathan actually materialized to threaten them. I could start striking at the monster myself! I was really beginning to like this plan, so I started running at the same time as I devoted a portion of my attention to accessing and modifying the armband to suit my needs.
Shouts followed me, most of alarm from those less durable behind was protecting but I could also make out Lung's deep rumbling voice; distorted as an effect of his ongoing transformation. His pounding foot steps followed but quickly faded as even his considerable strength couldn't make his scaled form keep up with me. I knew that I was breaking up the carefully laid defense plan, but it was already very much dissolving before my eyes as the Endbringer's afterimages sowed chaos wherever they struck.
Water sprayed up around my knees every time my feet splashed through one of the now numerous miniature lakes dotting the waterlogged urban landscape I had to make my way through. What could I do to link with the armband? I would need some way to transmit data, but I didn't know what kinds of signals the device could send and receive or how to go about making the transmissions anyway. Then I remember that prickling sensation I'd felt when I'd first put the armband on. It was probably a longshot, but it wasn't like I had a lot of other options, considering the limited timeframe I had to work with at the moment and Nono's preoccupation with doing whatever it was that she needed to do to get me more power. Almost as if responding to my needs the sensation surged back, like little needles which just barely sunk into my skin and stretched it as they pulled away. Without hesitation I latched onto the feeling and suddenly I felt a whole new world opening up before me.
There was a web, which shifted and contorted but all the while retained its structure. Strands vibrated when data was transmitted, first just one but then the motion was carried along until it had spread to every point in the web. I could see the frayed and dangling connections where armbands had disconnected due to destruction, in some cases the capes that they had been linked to remained alive while in far too many more they lay dead or dying. That web was only the outer layer though, beneath it great cognitive engines churned through the same data I was seeing work its way across the network.
Even as I recognised the efficiency and elegance these algorithms represented, to my eyes they were crude, lumbering devices with none of the smooth blended power of the structures I had seen in my mindscapes just days ago. I longed to do nothing more than wipe them all away and replace them from scratch, but to do so would have sent the entire system into chaos for far too long, so I was confined to simply implementing the most basic patch jobs to bring it up to the required level in order to handle the new load. A method replaced here or there with a creation of my own, new connections, and entirely new functions to expand the utility existing portions of the software. Soon, as my modifications raced to propagate themselves across the network it became more difficult to recognize the original architecture underneath the sheen of my additions, despite the minimal changes I had limited myself to.
When everything else was done, I had to connect the armband system with my own enhanced senses so that it could automatically receive the information it needed. Doing so was odd, because I wasn't entirely sure how to actually go about it at first but by reaching out with my enhanced senses for the tingling feeling I'd first used I was able to form a connection between the two and suddenly there was a steady flow of information. I waited a moment or two, simply watching as the entire systems changed to accommodate the new flow of information; strands shuddering in place and nodes beginning to shift as capes responded to the new information.
Out in the real world my own armband's display had changed; now instead of the number of reported locations for Leviathan there had been there was only a single icon indicating the Endbringer's location while new icons now indicated the location of its various water echoes all over the city. The process of making the the changes had taken only a couple of minutes in total and brought me a few blocks closer to Leviathan's position, but that still meant there were four more blocks between us and it was quickly closing in on the position of the Tinker device being set up nearby. Whatever it was, it was large enough that I didn't think it could be moved easily without disassembly.
Capes here and there were moving towards the group working on the machine, some of them closer than me. I knew I couldn't get there before Leviathan arrived, but hopefully those on their way could keep it occupied and off of the group of Tinkers for long enough until I could get there and hopefully draw the Endbringer away. My feet pounded against the pavement faster and faster as I pushed against my limits trying to eke out just a little more speed.
I ducked down an alley at the same time as half of the Brockton Bay Wards showed up to confront the Endbringer. Something curious happened to the street in front of Leviathan as it became suddenly much longer under the influence of Vista's power, meanwhile Shadow Stalker and an out of town cape with a crossbow I'd seen her talking to at the briefing began firing at the monster before them. I knew Shadow Stalker's power let her bolts become intangible briefly, similar to how she herself did for a time but apparently the other cape's power, whatever it was, had a much longer duration because though each of their shots seemed to go right through the outer layer, Shadow Stalkers all ended up half buried while the other Ward's disappeared completely. While they and Vista distracted Leviathan Kid Win began to assemble something that resembled the top of one of those round castle towers in midair. The Endbringer's attention seemed to settle on Shadow Stalker as it struggled across the unnatural distance Vista was creating, and took a swipe with its claw at the black clad cape. She hopped back as Leviathan's claw sliced through the air toward her before turning into a burst of thick black smoke a moment before collision. As the claw whipped through the air it scattered the thick black smoke, sending swirling eddies in the wake of its passing and carrying a bit of it along for a couple of meters before it slid through the gaps between the claws.
The out of town Ward used the opportunity to grab something out of a pouch on her hip, a bolt with a long thin silver cord attached, and notched it on her crossbow. Just as Leviathan was beginning to round on her, its arm swinging up high, she let the bolt loose and it and the silver cord attached passed right through the Endbringer's hand. For a moment it seemed as if she'd simply miscalculated the timing or something as the bolt slipped into the ground below, but then the string suddenly went taut, arresting the progress of Leviathan's arm and throwing it off balance again. It only lasted a moment though, before the Endbringer yanked hard and a chunk of of the street broke free but that pause had been enough for Kid Win to finish assembling his turret. A barrage of energy blasts rained down on the monster's face, forcing it back a step or two.
I cut through an alleyway and burst onto the scene just as a metal pipe thrust up through the street and aimed at the turret, a stream of water shooting out of it less than a second later and forcing Kid Win off his perch. The now riderless floating turret was knocked into a building by the jet of water, crushing some of its components and sending it spinning to the street while its rider fell less than a meter before activating some sort of harness which boyoud him up. Kid Win whipped out two pistols from somewhere on his suit and renewed his assault on the Endbringer.
Leviathan began stalking forward again, only to be stymied once more by Vista expanding the space before it. In response there was a deafening crack as another storm drain burst near her and water shot out and knocked her over. There wasn't enough force to take her out of the fight but it was apparently enough to bowl her over and break her concentration so that the Endbringer could move more freely. Aegis flew in to pull the youngest Ward out of the way as Leviathan's tail whipped around and slammed into where she had been just seconds ago. Time for me to make my move.
I charged in, closing the distance between me and it quickly enough that its attention was drawn to me. Leviathan shot forward rapidly, but jerked just as quickly to a stop well short of me and let its water echo continue on. I let it wash harmlessly over me as I increased my apparent weight so that the force of the impact didn't force me back. Once the initial crush of water was past I reversed the change and launched myself out, putting myself within two meters of Leviathan and needing less than a second to close the rest of the distance between between us. I was forced to duck underneath the answering swipe, which passed just over my head and actually opened up a long gash in the pavement behind me.
Springing back onto my right foot I swung out with my left at the Endbringer's own left leg.
My leg moved.
When it hit the lower portion of Leviathan's shin there was a deafening crack and splinters of whatever its outer layer was made of flew off, a few bouncing off of me. Everything seemed to freeze, a snapshot in my mind, and I knew that I'd hit hard enough that the leg would be forced out of position and wouldn't be able to support the mass of the Endbringer correctly. Sure enough,as I rode the recoil of the kick, turning back to my left to move out from under Leviathan, its leg moved awkwardly to the side enough that it then lost its balance and began slipping on the water slick asphalt of the street. Without that leg to support its mass the creature tipped forward and began falling face forward and was forced to catch itself by flinging out its right arm, dragging it through the facade of a building. Debris rained down on me as I got clear.
Making a split second decision I scrambled several feet up that same facade before launching myself off and onto Leviathan's outstretched arm. Dashing across it before the monster beneath me could throw me off I dropped to a knew and skidded to a halt just before its head, to give myself a better shot at the eyes. My footing slipped a little as the Endbringer levered its body upright again but I managed to grab hold of a laceration left by one of Dragon's railgun rounds with my off hand and started slamming my fist into the material surrounding the upper eye. Cracks were spreading, but I was concentrating so much on doing damage that I didn't have time to react to the spear of water which slammed into my side and lifted me into the air.
I crashed into an overturned car six meters away, bending the metal underneath me and causing a wheel to pop off. Again Leviathan began advancing on the building where Vista and Aegis had landed, throwing its body and afterimage into the side of the building which shook violently, threatening collapse. I heaved myself out of the wreckage of the vehicle and grabbed the wheel which had come unattached, hefting it easily to test the weight before I sent it soaring. My improvised projectile struck Leviathan in the side of the neck, momentarily catching its attention but not forcing it to come after me. I tore off another wheel and flung it just the same and then began to pick up whatever pieces of loose debris I could get my hands, flinging them at the Endbringer's head. None of my missiles seemed to do any real damage, but they evidently irritated the creature enough that it decided I was a more pressing issue than the other two capes.
The Endbringer was on me again in a second, crossing the distance with phenomenal speed and letting its watery afterimage do the work of momentarily sweeping me off my feet. I managed to catch myself before the water carried me very far, then tucked into a ball and rolled out of the water. Leviathan's right arm came sweeping down, clearly aiming for me but I uncurled and sprung over the sweep of its claw, flipped once and used its forearm to launch myself over the other arm as well, as it moved towards me. My feet only briefly touched the top of the outstretched claws before I launched myself ever higher, now I was a few meters above even Leviathan's head. I took aim and began to Mo-
The first arm shot up and swatted me out of the sky before I could repeat the attack that had worked twice on Lung. I bounced off the pavement on my face once, rebounded and tumble midair until I was right side up and slid on my ass to a rest near the car I'd struck before. Leviathan was on top of me before I could recover, and I observed distractedly that there was a patch of material missing near the eye where I'd hit it, then it struck me like a sledgehammer with first the left arm and then the right.
The first hit shattered the pavement beneath me, and when it pulled its fist away water rushed in over me until I was totally submerged. The second hit forced the water out of the shallow crater I was in for a brief moment before it rushed back in to fill the new pothole. Absently I realized that there was no pain even as Leviathan struck again, and again, and again before I was saved, though saved wasn't really accurate, by the arrival of a new group of capes. Armsmaster was leading a group consisting of Kaiser, Manpower, and Hookwolf though to say he was leading them was probably overly generous. Kaiser and Hookwolf, seemed to each do whatever the hell they wanted to, while Manpower seemed be somewhat responding to whatever cues Armsmaster was throwing out. Sill, I was grateful for the reprieve as it was becoming clear to me that I just didn't have the maneuverability or power to do enough damage in order to turn the fight against Leviathan. I really needed Nono to finish whatever it was that she was doing.
Hookwolf got cocky, didn't pay enough attention to the tail, and was sent flying by it. The Empire cape slammed into the side of a building head first and then slumped onto the ground, apparently unconscious and likely out of the fight. Armsmaster dodged a swing of Leviathan's arm, dancing out of the way and swinging his halberd to open up a gash along the upper arm while Kaiser made a forest of blades spring up around the Endbringer's feet and Manpower took a hit from its tail on his shield.
"Hookwolf deceased, BC-3," came the armband's voice distantly.
Leviathan crushed Kaiser's swords under its feet contemptuously and spun its body around, creating a cyclone of water that picked up both Kaiser and Manpower in its whirl but missed Armsmaster as he dodged backwards. The two capes were entangled with one another for several moments as the water spun about the Endbringer, until it peeled away in a sheet and sent it and them crashing into the side of the building. Much of the water continued over the lip of the roof, catching Shadow Stalker as she tried to get in position to take another shot at Leviathan and sending her over the edge to crash to the ground in a debris strewn alley.
"Kaiser down, BC-7. Manpower down, BC-7. Shadow Stalker down, CC-4," the armband continued.
I couldn't do anything for Manpower, Kaiser, or Hookwolf without drawing its attention away from Armsmaster which I didn't want to do because his weapon was having more of an effect that almost anything so far. What was more I worried that if I went for any of them I might draw Leviathan's attention to them and put them in greater danger, at the moment I was fervently wishing for some sort of teleportation power. Shadow Stalker, in contrast, was much nearer and Armsmaster was between her and the Endbringer, which would likely mean that any movement would only serve to distract it and might in fact provide an opening for him to strike. Still, I wanted to be cautious in case Leviathan did come after me so that I could avoid putting her in any further danger, so I moved to the building's facade and began slinking along the edge of it.
Armsmaster darted in as the rushing water flowed away from the Endbringer, sidestepped its attempt to crush him with one hand, then swung his blade at its neck and slashed maybe a quarter of the way through. I almost expected the Endbringer to bellow in rage and pain as black ichor like blood began oozing out of the wound, but seeing as it had no mouth no sound issue forth and the only noise which accompanied the scene was the hiss of rain, the distant pounding of the surf, and sounds of battle.
Though I kept an eye on the fight I continued steadily towards the fallen heroine, who continued to remain entirely motionless. A fact which did not seem encouraging for her chances, yet I kept moving towards her to either confirm she needed attention or that she was dead; it seemed the least I could do. As I neared I noticed that that her mask and hood had been ripped off. No, the hood was just bunched under her head, but the mask was nowhere to be seen. Shadow Stalker was a girl about my age, with dark skin and a faintly familiar cast to her features. As I approached to less than a meter I realized she had a very familiar face indeed.
The local Protectorate leader dodged backwards underneath a swipe of Leviathan's tail and lopped off a short chunk, less than a meter in length, near the end. But then the tail whipped back around just as a watery copy of it came from the other side and he was caught in between them as they collided, creating a thunderous clap. The impact apparently stunned Armsmaster, because he did almost nothing to avoid Leviathan's hand as it snatched him up and only began to struggle once it had him held aloft. Leviathan's other hand yanked Armsmaster's halberd violently out of his hand, probably dislocating the hero's shoulder, and flung it away. Whether by intent or simple chance the blade found its mark in the Tinker device which had at some point been completed and looked to be powering up. It evidently struck something vital because the device began to give off a loud whine before emitting a sound like a huge explosion going off underground. A distant rumble answered a moment later. Leviathan ignored all of this and began to crush Armsmaster. The Tinker's famously tough armor seemed to offer little resistance, though the Endbringer just as promptly released him. He dropped to the ground like a sack of freshly butchered meat, and the water where he lay began to become tinged red.
The roaring-hiss of the rain was all of a sudden overcome by the staccato hiss of rain being flash boiled mixed with a bellowing animalistic cry as Lung finally caught up with the fight, his form distorted beyond anything I'd seen before by his transformation. Heat and steam poured off his body in roiling waves as he crashed passed me in the alley, but I only barely noticed any of this with a corner of my mind.
Sophia Hess was Shadow Stalker, a Ward. I was almost surprised, but then why shouldn't she be a Ward? No one had ever said the world was fair, that heroes had to be good people. I stepped closer and saw her mask just behind her, hanging on by a single frayed strap.
I bent over to pick it up and as I held it in my hand I studied it.
The mask was purely Sophia. It wasn't the sternness of justice that was etched on the face of the mask the scowl of a disapproving task master; it was a sternness that promised violence.
At the moment that seemed to be all the world promised anyone: violence, and death, and destruction.
Another cape entered the alley from the opposite end, a figure I vaguely recognized as Chevalier, who led the Protectorate in Philadelphia. Other capes were arriving too, from several directions; Protectorate, the gangs, New Wave, and numerous out of towners. Too little, too late. If they had arrived moments earlier when Armsmaster was still fighting, they might have saved him and turned the fight back on the Endbringer, but now they could only hope to occupy Leviathan long enough for Scion to arrive. That was, if he hadn't show up at one of the other two attacks already.
Chevalier said something to me, but I wasn't paying attention. How many vicious bullies like Sophia had he covered up, I wondered? Was that why no one had ever taken my word over theirs, because the Protectorate considered Sophia Hess the parahuman more valuable than some apparently normal girl at her school? No, that was pure conspiracy theorizing, my circumstances could all be explained through plain incompetence so it did no good to go looking for some self-serving narrative simply to make myself feel better.
After all, the world never promised to be fair.
A great crash echoed off the battered buildings around me, loud enough that I could feel and followed by a wave of steam and heat, that brought me back to the moment. I was alone again, still holding the mask when I began to feel… more.
"Taylor," Nono's voice right in my ear. "Nono has given you as much as she can, for now."
Partial Limiter Release. Target Selection Matrices Unintegrated. Directed Energy Systems Restricted.
Okay, so the world wasn't fair and one of my tormentors was nominally a "good guy." What did that mean for me? Nothing. After all nothing about the world had actually changed in the last few seconds, just what I knew of it and what I could do about it. First things first, save the city.
Degeneracy Engine Integrated. Energy Absorption Field Projectors Integrated. Energy/Mass Engine Integrated.
"Finally," I grinned at Nono as she floated to my right. "How do you feel about kicking some ass?"
Counter-Gravity Field Motors Integrated. Systems Check… Pass.
Nono answered my grin with one of her own, bright and kind and everything the world was not.
Before I went I put Sophia's mask back on her face, turning her into Shadow Stalker again, because somehow it just didn't seem right to leave her lying there unmasked. Somehow it seemed like it would have been a violation of her in some way. Then I turned back to fight to find practically every remaining cape watching Lung face off against a battered but, as far as I could tell, unimpeded Leviathan in silence, forced to hang back lest they be caught in flames that poured off Lung or the billows of scalding-hot steam that accompanied it. The both of them had the appearance of something out of the mists of prehistory, though Lung was smaller by at least a third at this point. But, as I watched them fight, I realized I could predict Lung's moves even as he made them, for all his inhuman form he still fought like a man. Like the man I fought for hours in fact, learning his patterns and rhythms the hard way. Not perfectly, perhaps, but enough that fear of our getting in each others way wouldn't hold me back anymore than the heat would.
Power surged through my body and as I looked out over the tense scene I felt suddenly as if the entire world was at my fingertips. I flexed something and found myself beginning to float upwards, then a single thought arrested my motion and another brought me down again without ever once altering my apparent physical characteristics. On its own the base speed of my flight seemed little better than walking, but I knew I could use one of my other abilities to far exceed that speed. Though, the idea of walking on thin air momentarily conjured a ridiculous picture in my mind.
On the power of a thought I rose again and pushed myself out of the alleyway. Some voices called out, either in surprise or warning, as I broke the invisible line no one had dared to cross and stared at the hulking figure of Leviathan, still for a moment and struggling to dislodge Lung as he pulled the Endbringer's considerable mass low to worry at the gash Armsmaster had left in its neck. It was indeed injured, though not seriously so, but the wounds evinced no sign or even a slight hint of actual organs of any kind beneath their surface, only continuing to ooze a steady flow of ichor. Time to see what kind of damage I can do now.
Cogitative Propulsion System Engaged.
"This is my city!" I screamed.
My entire body shot forward, as Lung released his grip and leapt away to a rooftop to dodge a swipe of a claw, head ducked and shoulder pushed forward to take the brunt of the impact. I slammed into Leviathan's chest, its feet dragging through the standing water below. An instant before impact with the building behind us I reversed my motion and let the Endbringer continue under its own momentum. Lung roared something unintelligible, though approving, and launched a jet a flame at the Endbringer as I jinked out of the way.
Without pausing to catch its breath, likely because it didn't actually breath, Leviathan surged out of the imprint it had made on the four story building, water pouring off its body in great sheets and feet not even touching the ground beneath the water as it dashed. As it neared it did a neat about face, whipping its tail and its watery afterimage through the wall of flames in my direction. Dodging was a trivial matter of darting above out of the range of both the echo and the tail. Meanwhile it began forcing water from the surroundings to rush into the area in huge surging rapids.
"Is that the best you can do?" I shouted.
The water level began rising in an area roughly two square blocks, creating an odd bulge. I dropped, aiming for the Endbringer's head with my fist but had to shoot back up a little to dodge its flicking tail. Water continue to stream in, dousing what fires had managed to catch despite the rain and forcing the few capes who remained on the ground to be evacuated by Movers. Leviathan kept lashing its tail at Lung and sending spears of water up at me, forcing both of us to maneuver or risk letting the monster gain the initiative too much. The water was high enough now that it was higher than the Endbringer itself and it was difficult to see through the amount of dirt and debris clogging the water.
"Come and get me, you stupid piece of shit!"
A great geyser of water shot up, blasting the entire street along with me and sending up great cloud of steam where it hit Lung. Using the momentary chaos to obscure its movements Leviathan shot out of the water, feet scrambling for purchase on the nearest building. I neatly avoided the arm it shot out to grab me, but a flick of the Endbringer's tail sent a gout of water straight into my back, forcing me back into range where it could grab me with its opposite hand.
I sensed, more than felt the pressure Leviathan began exerting in its attempt to crush me like it had Armsmaster, ignoring my unlikely teammate as he charged in once again, clamping at the base of its tail as he tore at its back. Certainly the force it used would have killed all except the most durable capes and even they would have felt it. To me it barely registered though unfortunately it had trapped my arms as well so I couldn't get the leverage to free myself. Well, who said I needed to free myself?
Leviathan was dragged right out of Lung grip and trailed along as I shot straight up. We were more than three kilometers in the air before it released its grip on me, twisting its body about to orient head first towards the cushion of water below. I wasn't about to let it get back into the city so easily though, it had already long overstayed its welcome. My body dropped like a stone as I let myself start falling and then began to move down, quickly catching up to to the Endbringer. Latching onto the end of its tail with both hands quickly covered then in the thick, black ichor that poured out of the wound Armsmaster had created as I quite literally dug in.
I headed for the former Boardwalk district and curved my flight path up. Laden with uncounted tons of monster I wasn't able to keep its claws from trailing in the water, sending up long sprays, and ripping up chunks of the round as they scraped against the pavement beneath. I made a quick adjustment, shifting up just slightly to dislodge them and then seconds later I dropped low again, turning perpendicular to my original path at the last second, slamming Leviathan through the twisted and ruined boardwalk. As the wood was splintering under the impact I let go of the tail and watched the Endbringer tumble end over end a couple of times before getting its bearing and scrambling upright in the shallow water.
Before it could fully recover I was on it again. I shot forward until I was inside its reach, my eyes locked on to the patch of material on its shoulder already blown away earlier in the fight by Miss Militia, Bakuda, and Dragon. I wrapped my arm around its left bicep, holding it out and slammed my fist into the area of exposed material.
Physical Canceler Engaged. Molecular Decohesion Field Active.
"Come wreck my city, huh?" I screamed as my fist connected and a flash of heat and light blasted a chunk of material into shards, creating a shockwave that shook every still standing window in the city.
"See what you get!" I screamed again, with another strike and another flash followed by more debris.
Another strike, another brilliant flash. Leviathan tried to pry me off with the claws of its other arm, tried to lash my head with its tail, but I ignored it.
Strike, flash. Strike, flash. Strike, flash.
The rest of Leviathan's shoulder disintegrated in one last burst of intense heat and light. The sudden release sent the Endbringer stumbling back and left me floating in midair with one of its arms tucked against my side. I was kind of stunned by the fact that I'd just fucking amputated an Endbringer's limb so I stared blankly at it, wondering what it was thinking while it stared back at me. There was the sound of heavy objects falling, shattering glass, and crushed metal.
Gaining height to locate the source of the sudden destruction what greeted my eyes was a chunk of the city about a block in size slipping beneath a growing pool of roiling water. I'd failed and my city would pay the price.
Other capes were beginning to react, moving away from the growing sinkhole as the edges simply fell into the water. Fortunately there was only one shelter nearby and it was already in the process of being evacuated; it wouldn't be quick enough to save everyone, but they would be able to save most at least. I turned back to Leviathan and found the Endbringer in full retreat, trailing a thin sheen of blackish film through the water in its wake. I considered pursuing, running it down and finishing the monster once and for all but I had no idea how long that would take and there were two more Endbringer attacks to deal with.
Warp Systems Online. Expanding Tannhäuser Gate. Destination: 45°25′17.5074″ -75°41′49.8942″
Lung appeared through a cloud of roiling steam and as he approached the nearest planks of the boardwalk burst into flames, for a moment our eyes met. A spattering of other capes followed after him, making sure to give him a wide berth. My skirt pulled out towards the water as a sudden gust of wind caught it.
I had work to do, and so I disappeared from Brockton Bay's skyline just as Leviathan slipped beneath the waves out just beyond the bay with a last flick of its tail that sent a spattering of black ichor flying into the air.
A/N: Phew, and we are done with Arc 3. Next up, Chevalier interlude and then after that I begin my semi-rewrites of earlier chapters (mostly just editing really, rather than total rewrites). The Next Arc may start up during or after that.
Edit (as of 8/1/14): Did a little more editing, nothing major simply addressed some of the issues people on SB and SV brought up, not comprehensive or anything.
