As the blast hit Behemoth and hurling him backward, he emulated the falling motions of Zora Folley, viewed as one of the prominently recorded scenes of someone being knocked out. As he went limp he reduced power immensely and focused purely on defense.
The Leviathan took a hold of the energy, and with the thematic advice given by The Behemoth, tore open his face, all six eyes emerging and glowing a green so bright it was almost blinding.
As he coiled his tail around his waist to minimize his depth profile, he broadcasted without encryption.
The Client only saw a blue streak and a crackle of white before Scion was gone.
---===---
The tackle at 0.437
c disoriented the Humanoid Interface of He-Is, relativistic forces temporarily disrupting the connection between it and the entity controlling it. It went limp in his hands.
A little over forty-one milliseconds later they landed in Spain. Kneeling over the prone form The Leviathan struck, fists coming down hard in blows that would splatter most upper-tier Brutes. Despite the lack of connection, the body automatically repaired itself as fast as it was struck. This data was collected.
After nearly three seconds of this, Scion, the Humanoid Interface of He-Is, opened his eyes. All he saw was the palm of the Leviathan as he was grabbed by the head and they were off again.
His connection broke once more.
Two point seven one five seconds exactly. That was his window of operation.
The Leviathan ran, the motions of his form perfect, and though the running motions themselves were unnecessary for the transport they were absolutely necessary for his plan. With the Simurgh in Brockton Bay, Tinkers the world over had been releasing custom satellites and they were all watching. It had to look perfect for this to work.
The column was also vital, not only for the speed but also to contain any damage he would do just by moving this fast. The tube grew ahead of him and disintegrated behind him, and he burned the difference in energy, leaving a zero sum behind him and a few errant photons.
One stride, two strides, three, his running form carrying Scion in the column of swirling hyper-energized water, leaving crackles and streaks of white light on his back and legs as the water couldn't handle the strain of the interactions of his matter and split at the atomic level in protest. The strides took longer than the actual travel time, time dilation did that. He listened to the distorted complaints of The Behemoth about his tail not trailing behind him. Such Art would be expensive, having the tail free would triple his energy cost with the eighty feet of additional column needed.
And this was difficult enough as it was.
The extremely blue-shifted vision ahead of him was one he simply could not perceive. Not at these speeds.
He was running blind, but he had a map to work with. It was the total social-emotional layout of this planet, built and modified over the years, and it allowed him to avoid going through certain squishy things and places while stopping at certain high points on the map.
At .621
c he was in front of the statue in New York in a little over thirty milliseconds, hurling Scion down in front of a large crowd before stomping on him with a clawed foot. The spikes of emotion he measured were just what was desired, as was the sound the Interface made when the air was pushed out of its lungs. He grabbed the Humanoid Interface by the leg and moved on.
Two perfect strides at 0.113
c had him in front of Montreal in eighteen milliseconds, visible just long enough to be seen by the crowds throwing Scion west. Using the rivers to reduce energy consumption, he criss-crossed the land and struck from the side over the middle of Manitoba. Two-point-six-two seconds was putting it close to his estimation of the Interface of He-Is, but the lack of physical response confirmed that his plan was working.
They went south.
While He-Is had the advantage of not actually being present - thus all The Leviathan's attacks did nothing whatsoever to harm him - he had a delay in establishing his control of his interface. It was why he never traveled beyond a certain speed, and it was something Leviathan could leverage.
By being physically present he, The Leviathan, could die. But he also had no delay in form. No lag.
The tackle ended in seven strides and he spiked the body in Rio de Janeiro almost thirty-eight milliseconds later. 0.874
c was pushing the upper limits of his speed, but he couldn't take any longer than fifty milliseconds in any single travel, lest He-Is get a bead on their signal trail. As the statue of Christ the Redeemer and the crowds around it looked on, Scion flew through a building only to be caught on the other side.
And then they moved on.
The Leviathan ran.
Ran and bought time.
---===---
"What is happening? Report!" Alexandria roared into her microphone. Behemoth was down for the moment, The Simurgh was nowhere to be seen, and the Leviathan...
"Leviathan has attacked Scion." Dragon's voice was radiating amazement. "He's driven him to Spain - no they've moved, they're in New York - No, in Montreal." She was silent for several seconds. "Brazil, Vladistok, Singapore, Dubai..."
"Is Scion fighting back?" came a male voice, one Alexandria didn't know, and didn't care to know. The fear in his voice though, that was important.
"He can't." She replied in wonder. "He's being tossed around like a ragdoll. Look!"
A beep and a video appeared on everyone's right eye. "video feeds are being assembled from the assorted satellites around the world!"
And the Parahumans watched as The Leviathan ran, his empty arm pumping, strides so perfect an Olympian would weep in envy, carrying Scion in his claws. What looked like blueish-white lightning crackling behind him as he appeared to be running in slow motion as software algorithms compensated for the immense blue-shift. And then with a lurch they landed. Leviathan punched, two times, three, before scooping him up and running again. He hurled Scion down, stomped, then scooped him up to run again. A throw, like a man throwing a javelin, sent Scion across the plains of Canada, only to be tackled and sent to Rio. The feed broke there but picked him up several seconds later in Egypt as he was slapped against a pyramid. Then in Moscow to tumble through the remains of the abandoned Kremlin and past the tourists outside it. Then London. Then London, Ontario.
Run and strike, run and slam, run and throw, catch, run and kick.
And Scion could do nothing to stop him.
Humanity's greatest hope was helpless.
---===---
Naturally, The Simurgh took the feed and redirected it to the world, on streaming sites, video forums, MySpace,
everywhere.
The world had to see this after all.
---===---
That this was a distraction had been determined long before they hit Korea. Slamming Scion down in the square of neo-Akihabara, the techno-slum of the Japanese locals, The Leviathan couldn't see the cameras flashing on their ever present phones, but he felt their surprise, their fear, and their wonder.
The physical attacks were merely there to keep He-Is from dismissing him and disengaging, nothing more.
And they were off again. Holding the Interface in front of him, they went through the half-submerged dead city in Kyushu, before aiming for their iconic mountain. And then through it.
Two steps later Scion's head came off. Seven hundred miles separated them when the head detonated, destroying his hand, and, temporarily knocking him out of the column.
How did He-Is act while they were moving at this speed?
Ah. That explained why it hadn't been reattaching bits that were struck off.
The Leviathan intercepted the body, its head was already back in the microseconds it took. His own hand would take thousands of times longer in comparison.
He grabbed it more securely by the torso with his other hand and ran on.
---===---
The world watched in awe as Endbringer defied Scion.
They always retreated, before, whenever the golden man approached.
What had changed?
---===---
What had changed?
This couldn't damage He-Is, so his reflexive tactical relays were not priming for War. Proper War anyways.
What had changed?
It had to be searching for the pattern, the reason, the weakness.
What had changed?
Why keep him from that city?
What was in Brockton Bay?
He-Is directed his gaze, studied the city in the entire electromagnetic spectrum, then in other forms.
He studied it all.
Nothing.
Nothing important was there.
So why?
And then the thought was sent to his Thinker Shards. In very little time the pattern was found.
And He-Is, Scion, understood. And as Leviathan had planned, had hoped really, he adapted correctly.
Scion went into Stand-Alone mode, while He-Is prepared to attack.
---===---
The World watched as Scion's placid face contorted into anger.
Then he began to thrash while being hauled.
---===---
Separated from the greater whole, the Interface Scion was radiating mild bemusement at best at its predicament despite its facial expression. It was enjoying itself immensely.
The rest of He-Is saw it differently. This wasn't a physical attack, this was an attack on his image. The world was seeing his Interface being dragged and hurled like a toy. This diminished his efforts on this world.
And every place they'd landed in was a place that He-Is had personally repaired, modified, or corrected over the years.
This was an Information War.
---===---
Now, The Leviathan pondered, how would the response come?
Leviathan immediately let go and adjusted course. The slight deviation had them almost a thousand kilometers apart in the South Atlantic when He-Is struck.
All water in a sphere fifty kilometers around the Interface was simply gone. Freed from the grasp of the Leviathan, Scion hit the island and flattened the dormant mountain. He-Is contained the damage of the impact, preventing the planet from cracking or tilting on its axis. There was no sentient life in this location anyways.
That was bad, that was very bad. His form barring his core was almost entirely water. The loss of which would not only expose his true form but also expose it to attack without it's speed.
He would be rendered helpless in a single attack, destroyed by the second.
But to disengage now would be to waste all that he had fought to accomplish. Three minutes remained for the delay.
No choice really.
He charged, strides perfect, only to stop directly in front of the rising Interface, less than twenty meters away. The wind of his arrival blew the dust of all the fragmented plant life away.
Then in plain sight of the Interface and those watching, he utilized a simple piece of Art.
---===---
The world watched as the Leviathan threw his arms wide and laughed.
Without a mouth, without most of a face, he laughed.
Though lower and slower than a human would typically produce, the mocking tone was unmistakable to the Tinker recording devices.
His chest heaved, though most people knew he didn't breathe.
Gi-Meit!
Weak Free translation from ZiZsoft. Please consider purchasing the pro license.
But then he didn't speak either.
And Scion froze.
---===---
The mind of He-Is was in conflict. It usually was, but more so now.
-The parts of his mind that aimed at things noted the target perfectly stationary and thus it was good to strike now. They also measured how much energy would be needed, and, all possible directions for it to dodge. And for himself to dodge should it attack. And to counter attacks from seventeen other dimensions, sub-dimensions, intersecting points, and scalar destructive interference waves.
-The short-term analytical shards could not understand why the artificial life-form had stopped and suspected a trap. They always suspected traps, but here it might be true...
-The social-political analyzers noted that the display was designed to limit his responses. It started collecting options.
-A lone precognitive shard determined that neither it nor the artificial life form in front of his interface would move for at least ten seconds. The energy it consumed to determine this was more than every shard he'd used thus far in this engagement. Combined.
-Then the long-term analysis came in.
And the debate continued in the mind of War.
Fire.
Long-term damage will occur. Do not fire.
Kill it.
Cycle-Damage suspected. Fifteen planetary rotations of work by the Interface undermined.
Vote.
Combat and Energy-Manipulation had their votes stunted in value due to how little threat the Leviathan posed. They did have the advantage of sheer numbers though.
Extrapolation and Defensive-Measures over-ruled the fire command but lacked the proposal for alternative action.
A stalemate loomed. And in this case inaction appeared to also be damaging. An action -any action- would be required.
And then Prime Dēpositum struck.
And cast its vote for the option presented by the Humanoid Interface.
---===---
Seconded.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Decided.
---===---
Scion's feet touched the ground.
---===---
The world watched as the golden man grew in size, like many capes the world round did. In no time he was as tall as the Leviathan, taller even, just enough to look downwards at him slightly.
Golden light condensed tightly around his form, some thickening enough to be tangible lines, not unlike the veins on a bodybuilder.
In response the Leviathan also swelled slightly, cracks in his skin exposing the blue light that the Tower once shone in, also mimicking veins.
Their height was now equal.
Scion did not expand again, it would be seen as juvenile, so declared the data aggregators. First point to the enemy.
Both adopted eerily similar poses; legs slightly bent and ready to move in nearly any direction, hands palm outwards in a cone, aiming to defend at the statistically highest angles of attack.
The air was pushed out, leaving a perfect vacuum. A cube, one kilometer across. The edges were glowing golden.
Behemoth understood the implications and transmitted the range of the ring and the ground topography to The Leviathan, who felt amusement at how such patterns repeated.
They lunged at each other in perfect Synchronicity.
---===---
Two minutes remained.
The Simurgh supported with what little she could provide, mostly on a delay as she studied the live recordings the beings of this planet made. She couldn't see the Interface of He-Is, she never had directly, but she could see the holes it left, would leave, and might leave, in the area the next day. She had watched how the Thinkers watched and fought her efforts after all.
The Behemoth went through his cataloged motions, poses, stances -everything to make their brethren appear better- to swing the opinion of the people on the planet. While he couldn't predict just how the Interface would attack, he could offer a branching tree of options. Package complete, he prepared with The Simurgh as many traps in their package as they could on the hopes that He-Is would intercept and be unable to recognize them all. Everything they had learned from dealing with Prime-Dēpositum.
It was sent. And it would take time to decipher.
He-Is could win in an instant, in over a hundred-thousand currently known different ways, but to do so would open up so many questions and risk the Cycle.
Thus, there was a very thin line where both sides could operate.
For both sides, this had to look good.
---===---
In their first exchange Scion launched forwards at .251
c, fist cocked back to shear through the face of his opponent.
His surprise radiated in the aura around him and nearly was expressed with his face when the attack was dodged.
How?
The vacuum should have removed all external water from the area. The artificial life-form should be blind.
And he was using the six sides of the cube to map out his motions. It had no equivalent.
As the Leviathan grabbed his extended arm, accelerated, and slammed him down with it, his inquiry was answered by the tactical shards who had heard the thought.
It had allies. The other two artificial lifeforms. The dynakinetic one in particular.
Clever, and to block the light would obscure the battle and ruin the whole point of this.
But even gathering light and relaying data had a delay, and on the inside of the cube, he held the advantage in travel time...
He rose and charged again, at .667
c this time. Costly in energy considering his mass, but it shouldn't miss.
And yet it did.
And the Leviathan used it's ducking motion to grab the interface's leg and hurl him into the borders of the barrier at .138
c. He hit the barrier with enough force to briefly liquefy his internal structure despite his external reinforcements to his form. Microseconds were spent repairing the damage, first to his physical form, then to the recording devices memory banks to ensure his image appeared inviolate. This was an Information War after all.
He bounced off the barrier and sprung to his feet, as would his opponent, for no one was allowed to leave until it was over.
And his mind, both within the interface and all-without-and-around, was a question.
How?
At that speed, no one could collect the photons in time to react, not even he. The motion he had used had to be mapped out in advance.
In advance?
The third one?
A precognitive defense turned offense?
The Leviathan grabbed him again and hurled in one motion. Scion contemplated this, as did He-Is.
As his body tumbled along the ground he recovered and hurtled forward again. A more sedate .375
c this time.
His punch was dodged, and so was the golden blast from his other hand, tucked away from sight. As a hundred meter cone of matter in front of his hand was no more, Scion found himself struck on the side of the head and tumbled along the ground. Due to the Stand-Alone mode it was in, the blow damaged the scalar-expanded three pounds of matter it had available for thought. Ancient instincts carefully copied from the denizens of this world had him curl his body slightly and bring his upper limbs up to protect his head.
It was his first defensive motion on this world. Ever.
In fact, in a
very long time indeed.
And then his body was repaired in those instants. The hands lowered. Data feeds were edited.
Data from all-without-and-around flowed in.
- No sub-dimensional relays reducing communication time.
- No intrusion countermeasures on his own communication system detected.
- Checksums of his own form found no fragments of the artificial life-form around or inside his interface. They weren't using his triangulation technique from earlier.
Definitely precognition. Precognition from a being that had Rules imposed upon it. Restrictions.
The Leviathan was ahead of him by the second bounce and struck again with his foot, hitting the interface where it stored the majority of its organs, sending him on a 90-degree turn and again into one of the walls.
More and more of He-Is was studying the third artificial life-form, trying to determine how she had circumvented the Rules put into it by She-Was.
In response, it presented itself almost mockingly in every dimension it existed, in every time, and displayed the Rules still carved into it.
It hadn't circumvented anything.
It wasn't predicting him.
So how?
So many eyes on this world were watching this...spectacle now -billions easily- and even more not on this world were starting to take interest.
A puzzle of violence unfolded.
---===---
It was The Leviathan's final ace in the hole, one he had never told the others, one he had never uttered on any broadcast medium.
And it was so
obvious.
The Humanoid Interface of He-Is, Scion, was perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
Every single fragment.
He shone gold, a deliberate choice. The color held importance in many of their cultures.
It had a beard, every hair carefully assembled from the decision of his Thinking shards. It suggested maturity and implied a connection with a number of their religions without siding with any.
In the 5856 Days before he donned the white bodysuit, the world knew that Scion wasn't circumcised. This too was the result of a debate, the aesthetics of the prevailing culture versus the implications that his tissue could be cut. Invincibility won out.
Every single part of him was like this. And it was absolutely impossible to tell he wasn't human. No technology, no power, he even had several shards short-listed in case he needed to perform any human act, from consumption to copulation to defecation. The Cycle demanded no less.
He was perfect, right down to the water in his tissues.
The Leviathan couldn't manipulate it, but he certainly could see it. He could always see it, had always seen it, though he had pretended to be surprised by the entity's arrival time after time after time. He hadn't even attempted to warn the others in any way, shape, or form today, even in preparatory actions.
He lunged forward again and intercepted the moving interface once more.
---===---
He-Is didn't understand how it was possible, but it didn't need to.
And it would act regardless.
By the third time The Leviathan grabbed an upper limb and threw him towards the ground, Scion's body twisted and his feet struck the ground first, driving up to his knees into the stone. Reactive countermeasures were assembling on schedule.
Thus anchored, in one motion he straightened and threw The Leviathan at the barrier. It's body cracked at the impact, but it used its limbs to reorient and move before the follow-up blast erased him.
It healed as it ran, trailing broken fragments as fresh ones pushed from within, and angled for another attack. But it healed so slowly in comparison to himself.
The vacuum gave him another advantage against his opponent. It could not produce the liquid column for its subluminal hydro-acceleration. Being primarily composed of water it could still move at the speed, but it had no way to bleed off the waste heat unless it shed its form and shrank.
But in the same way He-Is could not simply obliterate his opponent, instantly, easily, nor could it simply ignore its own form's limitations.
And while they battered at each other with their limbs at insane speeds, the mind of He-Is was in motion. Thinking shards were pulled apart, modified, fused, and reassembled for a new task.
Even for a minor diversion such as this, there was no sense not being thorough.
And so they studied the motions the beings of this world used to harm each other. A form was found, four basic strikes, and it took place in areas similarly shaped like this. A suitable beta test.
In fifteen seconds after it's creation it successfully fused atomic science with the sweet science. It created suitable actions for the interface to utilize.
Said interface froze for a half-second, learning, before it's stance shifted into a form recognizable through much of the world.
Weight on his front foot, back foot on its toes, his arms crossed in front of his upper body area.
A boxer's stance.
Thermonuclear Detroit Style.
Fists began moving in jabs, crosses, hooks, and uppercuts.
That they also utilized electron cloud distribution, three-dimensional waveforms, and particle acceleration was obvious.
---===---
It was going poorly.
By the end of the next minute, the Leviathan was starting to glow red in spots, and his body spider-webbed with cracks that were healing but taking seconds to do so. Slow, slow seconds.
Whenever he got in close, Scion shifted into a form The Behemoth had identified as Peek-a-boo, and started introducing rapid radioactive decay with his fists. This was bad.
Whenever he disengaged, Scion shifted into a form of outfighting and with efficient kinetic energy relativistic correction and intercepted him at high speed. Then he started peppering Leviathan's form with fine structure damage. Since the Leviathan was partially Hydrogenic, this was also bad.
But on the positive, he had finally finished deciphering and disarming the package they had sent him.
Leviathan also froze for a half-second, learning.
---===---
While the interface was going through the motions, He-Is was busy.
Naturally, when the package was sent to the Artificial Life-form by the others he had taken a copy for himself.
Thinking Shards descended upon it like buzzards on a corpse.
The first few went insane. Others were corrupted and attempted to introduce Memetics that would spread to any that would listen. Sterilizing Checksum Shards were deployed, killing them, but by then it had started to spread. Thinking Shards were then tasked with anticipating and hunting them down, as no Shard of He-Is was ever unarmed.
A thousand Shards died in the end, but the infection was stopped.
And then the Thinking Shards tried again, more carefully this time.
The world saw the lips of Scion quirk almost into a smile.
---===---
