A/N: As much as I love happy reader reviewers, I'm pretty sick this morning. So I'll just give a deep thanks to those who've reviewed and are enjoying. Also, a quick confession. When I introduced Adamant in the NY scene in Part II, it was a name I picked out to describe a high tier brute. I completely forgot he was a canon character. So please accept that the Adamant in Theogony might be slightly AU.
Chapter Fifty-One: In Grim Strife
"You don't have to go," Legend said. "Endbringer fights are always voluntary, and no one will think ill of you."
Lily liked to think he was talking just to her; he had that effect on people. But since she stood in the midst of almost twenty capes, she knew it just wasn't her. Most were full Protectorate, but she, Jouster and Shelter were there from the two Wards teams since the three of them were considered most likely to help.
"We're with you, sir," Prism said with all the gung-ho attitude of a cheerleader on speed and steroids.
"All right, gather around. Strider should be here…"
Strider was there. "Gather 'round, kiddos, things are looking fucked!"
The most powerful teleporter on Earth sported a glaring fake accent that was probably supposed to be Scottish. He sounded like Jonah Hill imitating Sean Connery and the effect was grating. Prism warned Lily that every Endbringer fight, Strider would fake a different accent. He actually got in trouble the one time he faked a Japanese accent, but his power was too important for him to suffer any true consequence.
Despite the fear boiling in her gut, Lily stepped forward with her fellow Wards. To her chagrin, the teleporter caught her eye. "Hello, love! What's a cute thing like you going to a place like Brockton Bay?"
"Strider, leave Flechette alone. We need to go." Legend sounded very stern.
"Roit. Hang on tight, it's going to be a ride!"
Lily blinked, and in the space of that blink went from the Emergency Coordination Center of the New York Protectorate Headquarters to a parking lot in front of an unfamiliar and not particularly impressive office building within sight of the water of Brockton Bay.
The other Wards and New York heroes who agreed to join the fight looked around as the air rang with Endbringer sirens. It felt oddly surreal—there was no sign of the monsters yet. City First Responders were desperately evacuating citizens not toward shelters, but out of the city entirely. They appeared to have help in the form of what looked like Asian men and women in gang colors.
This was to be Lily's first Endbringer fight, and to say she was terrified didn't even capture a fraction of what she felt.
Legend, who served not just as the head of the New York Protectorate, but also of the national organization, walked forward confidently toward the empty office building, leading as much by example as by direction. Lily fell in behind him, Prism and Adamant. They hadn't gone a few feet before Adamant stiffened in the middle of their group. "Legend, shit, is that fucking Lustrum? Does that mean Kratos is here?"
The Leader of the Protectorate followed the powerful Brute's gaze to the older, matronly woman who was standing outside the door smoking.
"Yes," Legend said. "His team has several Birdcage parolees."
"Including Glaistig Uaine?"
Lily blurted the question before she even realized it. She'd had nightmares about the cape stealing her soul. Legend must have heard her fear, because he turned and gave her a reassuring smile. "She calls herself Cliona now, and she's agreed to fight the Endbringers."
"Is Telos going to be there?" Adamant asked nervously.
None of them forgot the one and only cape to actually hurt the powerful brute.
"We'll find out shortly," Legend said.
As they walked into the PRT building where the heroes and villains gathered, Lily's eyes were immediately drawn to the front of the room. Working as she did under Legend, she'd had the honor of meeting Alexandria herself. Lily also had a poster of the powerful flying brute in her dorm room, and a signed copy of the woman's autobiography too. She kept the more risqué fan art to herself.
She hadn't ever met Eidolon, but the most powerful cape in the world was standing off to himself. His mask covered his face, but his body-language looked tense. That wasn't what really surprised, her, though.
No, what surprised and amazed her was that they didn't weren't the center of attention. They didn't even appear to be in charge. That seemed to center on the huge, ash-skinned figure with the axe and swords who stood talking in the center of the room to…Lung? Lung?
"Legend?" Prism didn't sound so gung-ho any more.
"Stay together," Legend said before leaving them to talk to Alexandria.
"If Telos is to be believed, we're looking at a living god," Jouster said faintly.
Shelter snorted dismissively. Adamant, Lily noticed, didn't.
Kratos, the man who killed Ashbeast and the Slaughterhouse Nine—whose team wiped out Nilbog's kingdom and Heartbreaker and the Dragonslayers-looked scary. Almost seven feet, with a massive, bristling beard of pepper gray, a long, sharp nose and a perpetual scowl, the bald brute wore a primitive-looking set of pauldrons, almost like shoulder-pads over a bare torso. A massive, glistening axe hung from the back of his pauldrons, and a pair of wicked swords hung at his waist. He stood with his massive, ash-white arms crossed over his vast chest. He dwarfed even Lung.
She saw not one, but two girls with wings, each standing on either side of a tall, powerful-looking red-head whose power made the air shimmer around him. He too was speaking to Kratos.
"Are there two of them now?" Adamant asked.
"One of those is Glais…Cliona," Prism said. "Legend said she'd gained new armor from somewhere that looked like Telos. The other…that's not Telos, but I'm not sure who she is."
"That girly-child's name be Aideen," a heavily accented speaker said from behind Lily. "Her Da is Aengus Óg, Son of the Dagda, of the Tuathá Dé Danaan. He's the Irish god of love, and she's a lusty little bitch, that girl 'o his."
Lily blinked and found herself looking down at an ancient, withered face covered in tribal tattoos. The ancient cape looked up at Lily and beamed. "My, yeah a pretty thing! Like a burst of sunlight. Come heah, child, for a blessin, so the Simurgh don't fuck your brains up too much!"
Lily's heart lurched. "We're fighting the Simurgh?"
The ancient cape laughed. "Oh, baby girl, Telos is fightin' the Simurgh. We're fighting Leviathan and Behemoth! Come on, yeah too tall! Bend over! Time for blessings!"
She held up a bone necklace. Lily, confused but also swayed by a strange sense of familiarity, bent over and accepted the bone-charm. The old woman pattered her cheeks. "You're a special one, girly. I think old Coyote has his eyes on you."
With her piece said, the old woman moved on to Adamant. "Anyone don't want their brains fucked, come get a blessing!"
"I'll take my chances," Adamant said.
Lily felt lost, and the fear began to mount up in her heart. She found herself thirsting terribly for a drink. That's when a soft hand took hers. She bit back a yelp and turned to see the most beautiful young woman she'd ever laid eyes on holding her hand. She had rich black hair that hung out from the back of a stunningly realistic canine mask of some kind, though the eyes behind it were a reddish brown. She wore a fur vest that had striations of dun and black colors, while under the vest was unblemished, perfect brown skin the color of the southwest. Lily couldn't say for sure why she was so sure the newcomer was beautiful, seeing her face was covered.
"Don't be scared, Lily," the woman whispered in a voice that seeped into her mind. "I'll protect you."
"Who are you?" Lily stammered.
The mask itself smiled at her with a vulpine grin. "Áłtsé hashké," she whispered. "And I'm here for you."
"Why?"
"You have a delicious sting. I may just have to steal you away."
Anything more she might have said was lost when the air fell still. Lily froze, as did all those around her, because it felt suddenly as if they'd changed elevations by ten thousand feet. In the center of the room, a glowing figure appeared. Sparkles like stars formed in the air around the newcomer, collapsing down into the increasingly bright figure until, with a clarion bell that rang in her mind, Telos stood among them.
And by stood, Lily saw she floated a foot off the floor.
The Telos she fought in New York was clad in old rags. This one wore exquisite silvery armor that hung off her form as it tailored by the best PR staff the Protectorate had. She bore a massive black sword with a shimmering red gem in its pommel set between her black and silver wings. Her eyes were completely different from what they saw in New York, though.
Glowing blue orbs that shone like dwarf stars swept over the crowd. When that inhuman gaze touched Lily, she felt her breath stop. Beside her, Áltsé bowed her head. No one could speak; even breathing was a challenge.
"The fuck is that?" Adamant whispered.
"Have respect, little man," Áltsé said. She seemed almost to be laughing as she spoke. "You stand in the presence of the queen of gods."
Lily could almost believe it. It felt as if reality itself shifted with her. Legend couldn't even meet her gaze, though Eidolon stood so stiff it looked like he was about to fly away.
Alexandria stepped aside. Lily struggled to grasp the fact that the Alexandria stepped aside so Telos could speak. Her words rang in Lily's heart and her mind, and around her she could see other capes stiffening as something about the girl's words permeated like no sound should.
Alexandria followed up, but all was lost in a terrible ringing sound, followed by an explosive ripping sound. Lily ducked and screamed as the office building above them ripped away into a whirling maelstrom of debris. In the heart of the massive tornado, barely visible, she saw the alabaster wings of the Simurgh.
Adamant managed one squeaking cry before he was sucked into the air.
"He should have accepted Ataksak's blessing," Áltsé said. Despite the rush of the wind and the roar of exploding buildings all around, the strange cape's words sounded perfectly calm and audible in Lily's ear.
Abruptly all other sound stopped, as if overridden by a spiritual clang that stole Lily's breath and made her eyes water. Telos had drawn her sword. A nimbus of red-black flame surrounded it, while around her own head a golden nimbus had formed. She spread her wings wide and shot into the air right at the Simurgh.
Suddenly all was lost in a swirl of sand, and Lily found herself somewhere else. Somehow, she still held Áltsé's hand. She turned to look at the life-like coyote mask. "You're a teleporter?"
"I'm a thief," the woman said, chuckling. "And I'm stealing you from the Simurgh. That blow wasn't meant for Telos. It was meant for you."
Before Lily had a chance to ask what she meant, a new voice demanded, "Who's the new bitch?"
Lily turned and found herself staring at a World-War I era gas mask attached to a woman of medium height. She'd draped herself in bandoliers filled with cylindrical grenades. Behind her, a skinny, older woman with thick glasses and a long braid was fawning in a disturbing fashion of a serious-faced young man in a domino mask, a red and gold costume and a logo of an atom on his chest.
She felt a moment of relief when she saw a familiar Protectorate costume behind them. Armsmaster, Brockton Bay's own Protectorate head and one of the best tinkers in the country stood looking over the squad, flanked by another smaller figure in power armor.
They appeared to be on the roof of a building on the edge of Brockton Bay's downtown region. Even at that distance, the roof shook under Lily's feet. She turned and saw a massive shockwave blasting out from the center of the tornado that held the Simurgh.
From the center of the cloud, Lily got a hint of black wings and orange-black flame entangled with the glinting alabaster of the Simurgh. The shockwave rushed at them in a visible wave until the roof of the building they were on suddenly glowed blue. All around, Lily heard shattering glass, but none of it touched them.
She turned and saw Bastion from the Chicago Protectorate drop his hands and the Forcefield that protected them. "Prometheus, how's it coming?" the man called over his shoulder.
"Working," the young man said. He sounded younger than Lily. "It'd help if someone could get her off me."
"But your work is so pretty!" It took Lily a moment to recognize the woman, and her heart skipped a beat. It was String-Theory, a Birdcaged cape whose mass-driver weapons almost destroyed the moon.
"I don't…why am I here?" Lily gasped.
"Good question," the gas-mask woman said.
Armsmaster, though, looked from Lily to her hand-holding companion. His shoulders slumped. "Your one of them, aren't you?"
In answer, Áltsé held up a large pair of boxers with Armsmaster's image printed over them. Her grin looked so utterly unrepentant that Lily couldn't help but grin in turn.
With a tired sigh, the Tinker returned his attention to Lily. "You're Flechette. New York Protectorate?"
Confused but unwilling to admit it, she nodded.
"Striker-Blaster-Thinker. You're…" He paused. "String-Theory, Prometheus, your delivery system just arrived. Flechette is an all-or-none striker. She can make objects she imbues ignore the laws of physics and penetrate anything, with a secondary power of a perfect shot."
"Except Telos," Lily said. "I shot her twice."
Beside her, Áltsé laughed. "Telos' mother granted her the blessing of Baldur. It is metaphysical. Nothing can penetrate her skin."
"Be that as it may," Armsmaster said. "She can imbue your deliver system with penetrating power, and String Theory, her thinker power ensures perfect aim."
He turned back to Áltsé. "I'm assuming that's why you brought her to the tinker station?"
The coyote-themed cape grinned. "Maybe."
The Coyote-themed cape turned, and because of her grip on Lily, forced her to turn as well. "You will see a thing to see," she whispered.
Across the Bay, the ocean water was pulling back from the coast that ran the length of the city. Suddenly the building they'd built their tinker's nest on began to shake violently. Brockton Bay was nowhere near any fault lines—the last time the city shook was when Behemoth attacked New York in the 90s.
Their armbands all beeped. "Alert! USGS Seismographs confirm Behemoth is emerging, projected first appearance C-2. Confirm, Leviathan in-bound. All capes stand ready."
"Holy fuck, this is really happening," Bastion muttered.
Clouds swept in from the ocean, just as from the southern end of the city a massive explosion sent lava flying into the sky. The air thrummed with a horrifying, visceral roar as Behemoth made himself heard.
Lily turned and saw an entire section of the city ripped up from its foundation and slam into the golden, glowing figure of Telos while the Simurgh seemed to back away from her. The self-declared goddess blasted through the multi-ton cloud of debris and swung her sword. Again, a massive shockwave blew debris away from the combatants.
Those buildings under them that the Simurgh had not pulled up were flattened from the concussive force of the blow. Lily saw a flickering shard of white falling, and realize from her power that it was one of the Simurgh's wings, shorn clean off by Telos.
"Holy fuck we're all going to die," Flechette said.
"I'll steel you away from death too, if you wish me too," Altsé said coyly.
"Look at that!" Gas-mask woman shouted and pointed to the bay.
Lily followed the cape's finger and felt her stomach clench with something between terror and hope. The wall of almost black cloud hit a barrier along the edge of the beach and stopped. The unbelievable energy it produced resulted in an artillery barrage of thunder and lightning so intense and dense for a long moment she couldn't even look. It shone like a second sun, darkening the astonishingly blue sky elsewhere in relation and turning the beach into glass.
And then she saw the monster himself. Leviathan.
From her position atop of the ten-story building a block away from the beach, what she saw was a bus-sized black creature with scaly green skin and a grossly over-muscled chest and shoulders that made him looked hunched over as he moved.
Long, disproportionately thin limbs heightened the impression of wrongness. His body ended in a long, whip-like tale that was even longer than his body, which itself was probably thirty feet high.
Even from her distance, she saw that the creature's face didn't have any actual features, like a nose or mouth. Instead, it had three cracks of glowing green eyes on the left side of the face, and a fourth at an uneven angle on the right.
His upper body swayed as he emerged from the water, carrying what looked like an umbra of water with him as he emerged near the coast.
But what made Lily feel both terror and hope was when a set of tentacles, each as thick as a car, slinked out of the wall of water behind the Endbringer and wrapped him up. Even as she watched, the nightmarish creature pulled Leviathan back into the water behind the still present but invisible shield that ran along the terminus of the land. Beyond it, waterspouts and lightening whipped the water around.
"Huh, don't see that every day, do you?" Altsé said, as if talking about a wrestling match or something. "My lands have nothing like Sedna. She is scary. Better not go swimming."
Lily just didn't know what to say to that. She still wasn't sure what Altsé wanted from her. She couldn't quite bring herself to mind the hand-holding, though, because in truth she'd never felt so scared in her life, and something about the hand in hers made her feel better.
Those windows that survived the concussive shock-wave of Telos' battle with the Simurgh gave up the ghost when Behemoth emerged finally and roared his rage so loud glass shattered into dust across the city.
The first and most overtly lethal Endbringer stood over forty-five feet tall. Gray, leathery skin crackled under a constant sheath of still hot magma and formations of black rocky spikes that looked almost like black glass.
The monster had an almost bear-like barrel chest bristling with more magma and obsidian spikes. Arms thicker than Redwoods swung slowly around him, breaking apart the towers of the city like they were toys with huge spiked clubs where hands should have been. A single red eye glared at the world between a pair of ragged, stony horns on his head. His mouth looked like a cavern lined with more long, obsidian teeth. She could see a fiery red glow coming from within, just like his eye, as if the interior of him were pure fire encased in magma that cooled only because of the air around him.
On the streets behind him, Lily could see ground-based heroes desperately trying to evacuate civilians. More importantly, she saw what Behemoth's power was infamous for.
One of the Concorde capes, Limelight, got within his range while firing her lime-green hardlight blasts. Behemoth didn't even look as his unlimited power over energy fried the woman where she flew. She had a moment to scream before she exploded in a shower of goo.
"Oh shit," Lily whispered in horror.
"Yeah, that one's a real beasty," Altsé said. "Do you want to take a shot at him?"
"What?" The world was lost in a swirl of sand, and suddenly Lily was much, much closer to Behemoth than she was comfortable with. She looked down at the gravel and tar ceiling of the building Altsé took her to and saw the tar bubbling from heat.
"You have the blessing of Ataksak," Altsé said. "She who brings the light of joy to men's hearts. While you wear that blessing, and while I am with you, you shall not be harmed. Take aim, daughter of Amaterasu, and reclaim your place as a champion of this world."
Shaking with something between fear and excitement, Lily imbued one of her three-foot-long darts with her power, set it to her Tinker-made arbalest, and took aim.
Her power worked oddly, even to her. It felt almost like the targeting reticle of a video came, only she saw paths. Green was a path to her target that she could make, orange a path that she might make with repositioning, and red out of her power's reach. She oriented to the green, took a deep breath, and then fired with the release of it.
The dart flew true. It did not take a ballistic arc, but rather flew perfectly straight against the pull of gravity or physics. It struck Behemoth's head and then, as was her power, punched right through it to the other side.
Behemoth turned its baleful eye toward her.
"Away would be good," she said.
A swirl of sand later, the building Lily just occupied shattered in a storm of blue lightning even denser than what Leviathan's storm unleashed. From her new position three blocks away, she could only stare in shock as the huge monster roared in anger and made the air around him take on an ominous red-orange glow.
"His kill field," Altsé whispered disdainfully. "All the Jinn of Iran perished before such power. But Kratos is no Jinn, is he?"
Lily strained to see what the Coyote-cape was talking about.
The two girls with winged armor were attacking Behemoth's face with blaster powers, keeping a safe distance. In their midst, a giant native-American man who stood at least twenty feet tall ran right toward Behemoth with a loud, angry roar. On his shoulders stood the almost like toy figurines of Kratos and the red-headed man in archaic-looking armor and a silver sword.
The giant Native-American man grabbed Kratos and threw him. The ash-skinned brute had his axe in hand and flew toward Behemoth with the axe reared back. When he landed between the monster's horns, he slammed the axe down.
The shockwave of the impact sent Behemoth stumbling into another building, crushing it. Kratos swung again and again; every time he did, the axe sparked with blue light, and somehow a piece of Behemoth's rocky skin fell off.
"Flechette, move to Sector CB6."
She turned to Altsé, having no idea where the hell CB6 would be. The beautiful woman winked, took her hand again, and with a swirl of sand teleported her to the other side of the Behemoth fight. From this angle, she could see the hole she'd made with her own strike, now expanded from Krato's axe. Around him, Legend and other blasters were trying to contribute, but Kratos' axe seemed to be the only thing that could hurt the monster.
She imbued another dart and took aim, waiting for another shot.
It came when Behemoth finally reached up with his opposite limb and slammed the craggy club of his left "hand" onto his own head where Kratos worked.
The so-called god of war dove out of the way, flying away in a ridiculous parody of a flying cape, his arms wind milling as he tried to balance. He left behind a flare of magma where Behemoth had damaged himself.
Lily fired.
The dart flew true, faster than the most powerful bullet, and punched right through the cavern first she and then Kratos had carved. Behemoth roared as his Volvo-sized head snapped from the blow, then slowly turned and faced her.
"Oh shit," Lily said.
Altsé grabbed her, and again she was somewhere else.
"Holy shit, I love you!"
It took Lily's brain a chance to catch up to who said that, and when it did she realized it was String Theory who just declared her love. This was the woman who tried to hold the earth ransom under the threat of destroying the moon.
"You said the same thing to me," Prometheus declared. "And I'm only fourteen."
"She's taken," Altsé said to the tinker. "You have a gift for my future lover here?"
"Will you guys stop sexually harassing me?" Lily asked.
"I'm not harassing," Altsé said. "I can see the future. And they should have a gift for you."
String-Theory rolled her eyes. "Simpletons!"
"That's what I said," Gas-Mask woman said.
The villainess marched to the impromptu lab where Prometheus was finishing up and grabbed a massive arbalest similar in shape to what Lily normally used, but twice as big.
"Zero-point explosive cannister," she said. "We only got one, make it count. If you can get it somewhere vital, it'll suck every bit of energy out of him and shunt it to another dimension."
"Any idea where that would be?" Lily asked. "Cause I shot it through its head and Kratos made the hole bigger, and it didn't seem to notice."
"Its core is in its left hip," Altsé said. "I can hear the souls of its victims screaming. Like music. Not good music, though. More like Polka than rock."
Lily turned to face her grinning, coyote-masked companion, who still held her hand. "Who are you?"
"I'm the first scolder," Altsé said. "And I aim to scold Behemoth. Take your weapon, champion, and let's go kill a monster!"
A/N: I had over 8 versions of this scene. Some from Taylor's POV, some from Kratos'. The problem was that neither of them were in a reasonable position to see everything going on. More important, Lily had a role to play just like she did in canon. So her overwatch-style POV granted the best look at what was happening while also giving me a chance to show you the roles some of the less powerful gods were taking-such as Coyote, from the Navajo mythology.
I have one more stand-alone chapter after this, then I'm debating on whether to drop the last three chapters at once. I'm still tinkering and cleaning up the climax chapter, but I should have in done in a couple of weeks.
Anyway, as always, thank you all for reading.