A random comment, and this happened... Stop making me have ideas!
The assembled capes stared as the vast reptilian form straightened up from the crouching posture it had taken as it came through the weird portal that had opened up a few hundred yards away. Everyone gaped at the thing, which was easily eighty to ninety feet tall, the footsteps as it moved towards the Simurgh shaking the ground.
Even the Endbringer appeared to be shocked, halting its activities immediately and facing the creature, then freezing in place. Everyone watched, wondering what was going to happen.
And, of course, wondering why Kaiju was wearing the world's largest leather coat, with a pair of huge safety goggles over her face.
"That's far too close to us for Athena," Armsmaster said in alarm to Dragon. "The fringe effects alone will be lethal to at least half the people here."
His best friend was staring at Kaiju, who in turn was looking at the Simurgh with narrowed eyes. Floating at eye level, the Endbringer appeared to be staring back.
"That's not Athena on her back," Dragon finally said. Switching his attention to the rear of the massive reptile, Colin could see she was right. The stock sticking up over Kaiju's shoulder wasn't the one from the enormous nuclear shotgun, it was… made of plastic?
He looked at Kaiju in bemusement, then turned around to stare at Clockblocker, who was howling with laughter and rolling around on the ground. Why the Ward was even here he wasn't sure, there had been talk about his powers possibly being useful despite his age and Alexandria had over-ruled the Director. Now, the boy was apparently losing it.
"Oh. My. God," he managed to say, lifting his head just enough to watch as Kaiju reached over her shoulder and grabbed her weapon. "Ianthe was serious. I can't believe it. They're all nuts."
"Serious about what, Clockblocker?" Colin growled, not in the mood for jokes from the annoying lad.
"I can't believe she listened to me," the boy chortled, still staring.
"Serious about what, Clockblocker?" he said again, more forcefully. The boy kept giggling, like Ethan on a sugar high. "What did you do."
Looking at his set mouth made the irritating red-head produce fresh peals of laughter. "What. Did. You. Do. Clockblocker?" Colin grated.
A loud plastic on plastic sound that approximated a gun being cocked made him turn, to see Kaiju leveling her weapon at the Simurgh, who was slowly floating backwards as if she was trying desperately not to make any sudden moves. Armsmaster studied the huge, bright orange and gray plastic weapon. It looked vaguely familiar for some reason…
Dragon started laughing madly beside him, making him stare, then sigh at the betrayal. "Oh, god, she didn't," the woman snickered.
"Didn't what?" he asked, seriously ticked off. "Someone tell me what's going on. What is that weapon?"
The huge cape adjusted a lever on the side of the thing, which was large even in her hands, ridiculously so for a human-scale person. He could have walked into the barrel without bending much. Pulling it back to her shoulder she sighted along it. The Simurgh sped up, then turned and fled.
"I was just joking," Clockblocker giggled. "I posted on PHO, 'Kaiju OP, pls..." His voice fled him, leaving a fresh bout of hilarity behind.
Colin looked down, sighed, then up in time to see Kaiju pull the trigger.
What happened next he would ultimately have to go over his helmet-cam footage frame by frame to completely understand.
The loudest sound he'd ever heard came from the weapon, what looked like a solid beam of neon orange light several feet across coming out the end in a dead straight line, panning to follow the fleeing Endbringer, who was now moving nearly at the speed of sound and still accelerating madly. Whatever the damn thing was firing, though, was moving much faster. A series of sonic booms so close together they were a continuous roar spread out over the countryside, every person for miles putting their hands over their ears and dropping to the ground in agony.
Colin's helmet cut a lot of the sound, but even so it was deafening. The shock waves massaged his innards at a frequency of tens of hertz, feeling like he was being punched over and over again even through the armor.
The beam of orange intersected the Endbringer, which spun like a top, wings and limbs flying, as it was battered helplessly across the sky in a torrent of what turned out to be projectiles some thirty feet long. As they hit, they rebounded all over the place, some of them disappearing entirely over the horizon. The sound changed, the roar being overlaid with a continuous hammering noise as the Simurgh was smashed skywards, several wings actually breaking off.
He tracked one projectile as it whizzed overhead, his remote scanning systems identifying the material. Blinking in shock, he reset his helmet and tried again on the next one. It matched the first.
Staring as thirty foot long hypersonic projectiles, each one over a ton of flexible plastic foam, roared forth from the scaled up toy gun, Colin knew he would never be able to forget this sight as long as he lived. Nor, he suspected, would the Simurgh. He almost felt sorry for it.
Eventually the firing stopped, the Endbringer a tattered and sad remnant of its former self, erratically rising into the sky.
His ears ringing, he could barely make out Clockblocker still laughing like an idiot.
"K, K, Kaiju OP… Pls nerf," he managed to say, before he collapsed again, pointing at the distant reptilian monstrosity, which was looking down the barrel of its gun with an expression of pleased satisfaction. Even from here he could read the maker's name down the side of the damn thing, and it was nothing to do with the Family.
He felt entirely betrayed when Dragon started howling with laughter as well, dropping to her knees beside him.
"God," he muttered, sticking a finger up under his helmet and scratching his ear. "Sometimes I wonder why I even bother coming to these things."