I tuned Legend's speech out after the first sentence. Being forced to sign up for the second group to attack her was only due to having not officially undergone power testing and this being my first Endbringer fight. The Simurgh had set up on top of the evacuated Parliament building. Fields of debris varying in sizes from a small car to an entire apartment building orbited around it as it apparently was building something. Capes had tried long range attacks on it, but found their attacks blocked by a piece of debris, often before they actually even got close to hitting their target. My mouth metaphorically salivated at the thought of having that power for the gestalt.
But no, I had to wait. After reluctantly putting on Dragon's armband and an 'anti-mind control device' that basically was a low yield bomb. I don't know why she even bothered; it probably wouldn't even scratch the paint on my armor. With a heavy sigh, I moved to the designated area with the other second wave capes.
Have you ever met someone and immediately disliked them for no apparent reason? That was how I felt about a cape named Napalm. She was an independent hero out of Salt Lake city with a penchant for property damage. Then again, with the ability to turn into fire such a thing was unavoidable. I didn't know what it was about her, but something just rubbed me the wrong way. It made me want to shove an infection form down her throat.
"What do you think it's building?" Napalm asked me.
"Don't know, don't particularly care." I replied without looking at her.
"I thought all tinkers went all goo-goo eyes at another tinker's work?" She darted into my field of view once more, her lips pulled into a wide grin.
My biomass writhed underneath my armor. "I'm more a brute than a tinker. I had help with the suit."
"Oh, I see." She said in a way that told me she wasn't surprised that I was a brute.
Forget Sophia, eating Napalm would be the most satisfying thing I'd ever do.
"Leave the lady alone, Palm." A large man wearing a suit of armor that wouldn't be out of place in the Third Crusade. His name was apparently Templar, a new member of the Protectorate out of the same city as Napalm, and his power was an area of effect buff to any parahuman power in his range. Fire burned a little bit hotter, punches hit a little bit harder, speedsters moved a little bit faster. It had a moderately long range of about a thousand feet.
The sticking point was that the powers that be didn't know if it worked on Endbringers. Meaning that, if it did, the Simurgh's scream would be that much more potent. They had Dragon monitoring the situation for any changes and to pull him out if need be.
I thought the whole thing was a moot point considering that, as far as the heroes were concerned, the Simurgh would be dead here soon.
"When is the first wave due back?" Napalm asked impatiently.
"Not for another twenty minutes." Templar replied tersely.
The plan was to go in after either one of two things happened: thirty minutes had passed since the first wave had gone in or if more than fifty percent of the first wave was downed or killed. I'd tuned the alerts out almost immediately after putting the armband on.
Amy had already gotten her first casualties; a pair of fliers that were hit by stray debris. Broken legs were even more trivial for her to fix now than they had been when she'd been human. Of course, I'd had to steel her resolve when she'd wanted to convert the heroes she was healing. Apparently her power had been pent up for quite some time and now that she had the freedom to experiment, she wanted to go all out. She'd already modified her own biology considerably and was hungry for more.
'Amy, you'll have all the time and materials you need for experimentation after we get the Simurgh.'
Embarrassment and reluctant acceptance radiated from her in the gestalt. With that safely handled, I returned my focus to the second group. Napalm had wandered off somewhere, while Templar was looking at his cell phone. The rest of the capes here were nonfactors in my fight against the Simurgh, so I just ignored them.
As I waited, I reinforced my bones; utilizing biomass, Shaper, and our kinds' innate biological manipulation to make them harder than titanium. Purely out of curiosity, I interacted with Patina, Victoria's shard, and focused on the specific part that generated her forcefield. I pulled and felt mild resistance, but I could see all connections that the shard currently held. There was one going to Vicky and one to me. Both were fading in and out, as if it was a light running out of power.
Power! That was it!
I released my hold on Patina and moved over to Reversion, Alabaster's shard. Given that the Nazi was currently in time out alongside Sophia, he wasn't using his power for anything. I focused on the shard, drawing upon the energy source that was currently sitting idle. With a bright flash, I connected it to Patina. The shard grew in brightness slightly, and Reversion faded a bit. Patina's connection with Victoria remained the same, but when I tried to connect with it, the connection was made almost immediately.
My body warmed up considerably, and I felt something roll invisibly over my body. It worked! With the slightest movement, I could tell that my strength had increased tenfold.
I looked up towards the city of Canberra, a wide grin on my face.