Chapter 13, the birth of a goddess, the Headache of the demigods
Percy was miserable. He had been ordered by the rest of the team to go fetch Gaea. They had said that it was like the damn nosebleed thing again. They didn't let him live it down all the time that they were back home. Their trip to the Mansion of Night and the ritual to bring them here had made them forget about it a little, but today made it all come back. Anyway, He went a mile away from the gathered mortals, and prayed for Gaea to come.
"Perseus, what is the reason of calling to me? You usually go out of your way to not do that."
"There's been a new development. One of those Endbringers, the one they call the Simurgh, has come to the bay. they say that it's not ordinary behavior, as they usually don't come twice in a row. But the thing's own behavior is different from the norm, as in it didn't attack us, didn't start to sing, and came straight to us, the Custodes. She has been civil, if somewhat alien in behavior, and has been asking questions. So we thought we'd tell you about it, see what should we do."
Gaea was visibly surprised, not an easy feat for a goddess of creation, and thought about it for a minute.
"Tartarus, Chronus, call the others. There has been a situation."
For the second time in this world, the primordials had gathered in one place. They were looking at each other with confusion, wondering what has happened that requires all their presence. They listened as Percy told them of the past hour's happenings, and then looked at each other, deep in a telepathic conversation. A few minutes later, they turned to Percy and Chronus said,
"We will assume mortal shapes, as to not spook the mortals present. But it seems that there's something bigger afoot, or the damn thing wouldn't change its whole behavior and come here."
They started to go there, and decided to walk, as to not give up their full capabilities. They reached the gathered Parahumans, and stood in a circle around the Endbringer. At first, it couldn't conceive them, looking around unseeing, but suddenly it gave a gasp, a physical sound, and dropped to her knees. It was as if a great weight was being pressed on its shoulders, and was driving it into the ground. It gave a strangled cry, and then started to change, to morph, its wings shrinking, most of them fading, and the ones remaining were moved onto her back, becoming symmetrical, becoming six pairs of wings, grey, the color of rain clouds. She shrank down, her height becoming a solid six feet, and her eyes started to glow. Suddenly, a white dress materialized on her body, and a glow surrounded her being. The demigods recognized this as a goddess assuming their divine form, and averted their eyes. The primordials present obscured the mortals' eyes, lest they die from witnessing the true form of a diety. The demigods all kneeled, heads bowed, before the newborn goddess. Ananke, the embodiment of fate, the inevitable destiny that even the gods cannot escape, came forward, and in a formal tone, said,
"All Hail Simurgh, Goddess of Plans, Patterns, Deception, Psyonic arts, Contraptions, Music and Scholars. May she do us proud."
Simurgh, the newest goddess of this world, opened her eyes and for the first time in her relatively short life, witnessed the present. She looked around herself, and the novelty of seeing for the first time made her gasp. Her simulations were absent, but for every plan that she thought of, all the steps, all the outcomes, and all the variations and deviations made themselves known to her. She could kick a stone, and a day later someone would be killed by a car accident quite easily. It took barely a second to do that, but the perks of being a goddess were more than being a conflict engine. The first of them was being out of the old man's control. She should have a chat with him later. First She should pay proper respect to her bosses.
She fell to her knees in front of the beings surrounding her, their power simply beyond comprehension. The one who had hailed her, the one who's purpose was inevitability, that any decrees she made could only be contradicted by one being.
"Well, it seems the one above sees a purpose for you, young Simurgh. Normally it takes the fate dieties of a world to appoint someone a domain, but he took exception." The being of Destiny stated.
"This is very generous of him, I'll do my best to perform my duties in a satisfactory way."
"Remember, you cannot meddle into the affairs of the mortal world, but you can issues quests to a select few mortals." This was the being who was the Earth.
"Oh I already have someone in mind..." An evil grin grew on her face, and Tattletale felt a shiver go down her spine.
"It is time for us to leave, young goddess. You can speak with them, but unless attacked, you cannot retaliate. You may live with my grandchildren, their reaction will be amusing, if nothing else." The earth goddess said.
Simurgh turned towards the demigods, who were looking at her with veiled displeasure. The poor schmucks were literally without options, whatever they did would offend someone of great power. She waved cheerfully at them, and went towards her maker. On the way there, she told the demigods to keep Tattletale busy, as she had plans for her.
She reached the Triumvirate, and beconed them to follow. They went to an empty part of the temporary compound, and after checking that they were alone and there were no monitoring on them, she told them about her existence. Eidolon, or David, was obviously pretty shocked, in denial, outraged, believed, and finally catatonic. The others were not much better, but were faring better than David. She told them to seek help for him, as it was better to know this now, instead of at a later date, or learn it in the middle of a battle. They saw the logic in that, and took hold of David and left.
"Well? What are you waiting for? The day is over, get out of my sight." Slowly, the Parahumans left, feeling worried and didn't know what to think. They didn't fully understand what had happened and just saw the Simurgh change shapes and become human. They didn't know about the divine, and wouldn't believe if they were told. slowly, they all left, some by Strider, some teleported themselves, and the Brockton Bay capes slowly turned to go to the city. They were shellshocked, the light had left their eyes at the thought of the Simurgh living in their city, thinking of all the carnage about to happen. They didn't comprehend the conversation with the primordials, the voices beyond their hearing, and in a different language to boot. When the Undersiders tried to bug out unseen, they were looking around for anyone noticing them. when they were out of sight, they heaved a sigh of relief, and turned to leave, only to see the Simurgh standing in front of them. There was a glint in her eyes, that to the rest of the Undersiders looked like Lisa's smug, knowing look. They looked between the two suspiciously, comparing their faces, body types, and mannerisms, and came to a sudden realization. It would seem that they had been playing host to the Simurgh's daughter. Lisa looked at her teammates, shocked and outraged.
"The fuck? I'm not her daughter!"
"We didn't say anything. How did you know what we were thinking about?" This was Brian, and his voice was guarded, panic was about to take root.
"I'm a fucking thinker 7! It was all in your body language! If I can't do that then I'm not worth the air that I'm breathing!"
"Or you have been reading our minds. You always said that you were psychic, we all thought you were joking, but you were laughing at us in your mind!"
There was a snort of laughter, and when they looked at the Simurgh, she started to laugh at them in earnest. It was a full belly laugh, there were a few tears at the corner of her eyes, and after a minute, she calmed down.
"Oh this was fun. Thank you, Undersiders, for making me laugh like this. I'm going to reward you all for it. You, Brian," Brian choked on his spit, "Will have this plan. take it, implement it, and you will have custody of your sister. You won't need that snake anymore." She handed him a folded piece of paper. She then turned to Alec.
"You do this, and you can exercise your powers freely, and you will be rich enough to live as you desire."
"Oh Rachel, what to do with you? Well, one way would be to help you understand human behavior. Come here." She then put her hand on Rachel's forehead, and grasped it in her palm. Rachel gave a cry of pain, and her knees went weak. She still didn't release her, holding her up with her head. It took a minute of agonizing pain for Rachel, but she finally was released and fell down. When she looked up, she saw concern in the expressions of her teammates, though Alec was far less, more like a curiosity.
"Soooo, is she your daughter?" Alec said, to a glare from Lisa.
"I wish. I didn't have the necessary parts to have children until today. Parts like a womb, or DNA for that matter. She would have made such a good daughter too. Smart, deceptive, looks for more info everywhere, likes to fuck with people's heads, has a plan for anything she may face, what's there to not want in a daughter?" Through her monologue, the Undersiders were left feeling conflicted. Lisa was proud, horrified, melancholic, and embarrassed.
The rest of them were mostly horrified, and a little gleeful, because all the things that the Simurgh was saying were describing Lisa to a T. And Lisa's expression was pretty funny to look at.
"I have some matters to discuss with Lisa, if you could excuse us?" It was said like a question, but everyone knew it was an order. So the rest of the Undersiders left, leave Lisa to the tender mercies of the Simurgh.
"How are you feeling, Lisa?" Simurgh said
"Not bad, but not exactly good either. It has been some time that I heard words like that. I thought that I was over it, but it seems that I may need more time."
"Then I may have some good news. I want you to come work for me, be my hand in the mortal world. take care of some of my time bombs, that sort of thing. If you agree to it, you'll have more control over your power, you will receive more information, and your headache would be really lessened. You can trick people easier, and you'll be able to make Contraptions that have interesting results."
"That's all well and good, but before Coil is out of the picture, I can't make much of it."
"Not to worry. before I came here, the Custodes were getting ready to attack Coil. They had scouted his bases, taken over the defense mechanism, and were about to pick a time to move in. You should go to them, and tell them to ask you what they need. Tell them you would be like the Oracle. They would take care of the rest."
"Well, what the hell. I accept." As the words left Lisa's mouth, Lisa felt a little pain in her head, slowly the pain intensified, becoming a burning feeling within her brain. Unbeknownst to her, her eyes had started to glow white, just like Simurgh. After a minute of agonizing pain, it went away, and Lisa opened her eyes. She didn't remember closing them, or falling to the ground for that matter. She looked around, and started to see patterns everywhere. They weren't exactly patterns, they were like a set of actions and what would happen if she tweaked the little things. It was hard to explain, like how she would bring down the tent in front of her with a pebble, throwing it just right, it would lead to a set of actions that would have the tent wrapped up, ready to pack away. And it didn't involve getting people to do it. She could perceive way more information as well, with the damn headache absent as well.
"You have as much of my power as if you were one of my children. Now go, and reclaim your life from that worm. I'll expect my share of the loots. They'll teach you what to do."
"Son of a bitch. You better not spout a prophesy, girl. We had too much of the damn things. Now, How do we take care of the one named Noelle?"
Lisa had come to the area that she knew the Custodes base to be. It was practically public knowledge, what with Lung attacking them here. They opened the door for her, and allowed her to walk in. It was a good place, had everything they would need. She told them what had happened, and that was her answer.
When she heard the question, there was suddenly a device in her mind, a blueprint of sorts. She quickly took a paper and pen and started sketching it, giving measurements, parts, things they would need to make it. She even wrote a name on top of it, Noelle-restore-inator, and then looked at it in horror. What the hell kind of name was that? Why the hell would she write it down? She looked around, to see the Custodes looking at her with begrudging respect, and the one with the fiery hammer symbol, looking at it in disgust.
"How in the name of fuck does it work?"
"No idea. She said that I can make contraptions, it's in the name."
"All Hail Lisa wilbourn, The Oracle Of Simurgh!"
There was a clap of thunder following that exclamation.
"Well shit. It's now official. Fucking ridiculous. Come on kid, let's teach you how the damn thing works."
And they spent five hours teaching her about the gods, what they knew about the entity, what the hell they expected to happen, all those things. Lisa was left dumbfounded, and suddenly it dawned on her why her power couldn't perceive what they did. But it seemed that whatever Simurgh did to her gave her power the ability to understand the supernatural. Or something else happened.
They each introduced themselves, even the bug girl was there, they called her Khepri now.
"Leo, after you're done making the contraption, start on making an artillery platform. something tells me we're going to fucking need one." This was Annabeth, the blonde bitch that punched her in the face. She was glaring at everything, and there was a tick in her left eye.
"What's having you worked up?" Lisa asked her. The glare was turned to her, and Lisa was intimidated despite herself.
"There's a goddess coming to live with us. That's what has me worked up."
"I mean, what's so bad about it? hosting a Goddess?"
"Well, generally speaking, gods are beings of unimaginable power, they are truly awe-inspiring, inhumanly beautiful and unbelievably petty. you haven't known pettiness unless you've heard about the gods doing things to mortals. Like Apollo skinned a satyr alive because people said he is as talented as him. You'd just have to look in mythology, and examples would show themselves. Like Annabeth's mom, or even my own father, there's been a lot of myths about them through the years." This was Percy, telling her the reason of their agitations.
"Now we have to take care of Coil. The fucking shit has been a nuisance ever since he knew of us. We know where his bases are- thank you Lisa-, we know their layout, we've sent people inside the bases, and we're ready to attack. Now, we have a way to deal with the monster, or Noelle, as they call her, and we have to know who Coil is. Taylor, here's where you come in. You'll have to stake out, wait for a day that he shows up, and put bugs on him. we'll then Identify him, and on the day of the operation, we send people after him. We have to hit all four targets at the same time, or it's gonna be a bust." Annabeth told them, laying a general plan of action.
"Why do you think he has Dinah?" Taylor asked.
"Because she's a precog. He took us to his base, before the attack, it was around nightfall. He showed her to us, and she's a very powerful precog. She gives the probability of something happening down to the hundredth of a percent. My power told me he asks her three questions everyday, asking about the probability of someone attacking him." Lisa answered.
"... Fuuuuuccckkkk. fuck. Son of a bitch. How do we stop the precog from seeing us coming?"
The question was pointed at Lisa, and she took paper and pen again and started sketching. It took five minutes, but the design was made. It was way more complicated than the Noelle-restore-inator, the damn name, and had the grand name of Precog-blind-inator. Damn Simurgh and the namings of her contraptions. It was humiliating, the all powerful thinker, blessed by the Simurgh, the one who always got away, and this was the name of things that she designed. They decided that they would wait a week, see if they could take the girl, and then attack whatever happened short of the damn slaughterhouse nine coming to town.
A/N: giving credit to "THE TECHNO QUEEN" story, I don't remember who the amazing author is, for the silly names of the queen's tinker inventions. Poor Dinah has to suffer a bit more before she gets saved...