It was raining. Jim remembered that through the shouts and screams.
The Simurgh had come, touching down in Canberra, and they'd all been recalled. None of them to go. Even ignoring Blinky's refusal to let them attend Endbringer fights, none of the Wards were certified as being able to withstand the Simurgh's scream. The two who could have been useful, Claire and Missy, were absolutely forbidden from attending—the damage a zizzed Mover 8 and Shaker 9 could do was too frightening to consider.
So they'd been pulled back to the Ward's quarters, watching and listening. Armsmaster, Dauntless, Miss Militia, and Velocity had been tapped. Triumph wasn't a good match, and Assault and Battery had been held back in reserve, in case anyone was suicidal enough to break the Truce.
The PRT had put out an all call for any villains or rogues to stand by to assist. Jim had thought that was pushing it—who would start something now?
And then some moron had started a rumor that the Simurgh had left Australia and was heading here, but that the PRT was concealing it because they were ziz-bombs.
It was laughable, it was stupid…
And Jim realized he'd never understood just how much terror the false angel held because it looked like about 5 percent of the entire fucking city had decided that a random loon on PHO was telling the truth.
There was rioting downtown, but that wasn't where they were. They were on the interstate, where a flash-traffic jam had turned into something far worse when a tanker truck had spun out, spilling fuel across the road, the slush of the winter day now mixed with gasoline.
Which was on fire.
Even better, for the first time with the Wards, Jim was in charge of a team. The rest of the team was by Revolutionary Square, trying to do something about a mob that agreed that TVs were the perfect defense against Ziz, so why not go loot the place? Jim, Claire, and Missy were handling the road, mainly because they hadn't expected a tanker truck to explode.
"Vista, I need you to open up a space in the center of the cars!" Jim said. The cars were all jammed together, but if Missy could put some space in them, some of the people could get out themselves. Meanwhile, Jim leaped from car to car, landing on the hoods, the sound of horns loud in his ears. He reached down, ripped the top of the car off stared down at a terrified mother, with three kids and a yowling cat in a cage.
"She's coming!" the woman said. "She's coming for us, you've got to—" Then she shrieked as Jim reached down, pulled her out and tossed her through a portal, following with her kids and the cat.
"How are we doing, Shadowdancer?" Jim asked.
"We've got some cops here and they're handling the crowd, but…"
"Yeah, I know. Hang on." Jim flipped channels. "Console! What's the status of the Boardwalk?"
There was a pause. "It's fine, Trollhunter, why?"
"Get some people over there. Cl-Shadowdancer is porting people out, but we're running out of room. I want the crowd spread out. Also, are any PRT squads free? We need containment foam to hopefully wall off this fire."
"Negative on that," The console said. "All units are currently involved in other issues, you'll have to deal with it with what you have. We're notifying BBPD about the Boardwalk."
"Good. Shadowdancer, start sending anyone who isn't injured to the Boardwalk!"
Jim had been in battles before, but this was as complex as any battle, with the added issue that you couldn't just punch people, not even the old lady who was waving a cross at Jim. He sighed and tossed her through as gently as he could, and finally, the police were making progress waving the people who were semi-sane down Vista's lane, while he'd gotten the trapped people out.
"Is the tanker-truck clear?" Claire asked.
"Yeah," Jim said.
"Good, stay away from it." And then portals opened out and a virtual tide of seawater sprayed, not from the top, but from the side.
Normally, using water on a gas fire was a bad idea…
Unless you were dumping the better part of a small lake on it. The spray went over the side of the interstate, running down the decorative plants on the slope. The truck was still leaking, but all the fires had been snuffed.
"My part is clear," Vista said, as the people walked down the area of warped space she'd created.
"Good. I—"
"Trollhunter, this is Console. Take your team to Sam's Crazy Deals, Fourth and Meridian. Looting in progress, New Wave will assist.
"Good. Console, I could really use some confoam!" Jim said.
"Sorry," the dispatcher didn't sound it. "But what we can deploy is already fully used."
"Fine, Vista, Shadowdancer, let's go," Jim waved to the police officer who was leading clean up, who waved back.
Then they were in a parking lot, with the now familiar smell of burning cars filling Jim's nostrils.
"Where are all these people coming from?!" Jim asked.
"It's common," an older woman said. Lady Photon, Vicky's aunt. "The gang capes aren't on the streets, because of the Truce, and so unpowered gangs take this as an opportunity. It's especially bad when the Simurgh is the Endbringer in question."
"Yeah," Jim said. There was a liquor store down the street, the structure cheerfully burning. Nothing close to it, so Jim really didn't care.
"Hey Jim," Vicky said as she zoomed up. She was holding a struggling man, dropping him where one of the cops tied him.
"We need you to hold the store," one of the police officers said. "It plays a vital role in this neighborhood."
When he turned away, Jim heard Lady Photon mutter, "You mean in the Mayor's re-election committee."
Still, orders were orders. "Vista, take the right side, keep people from getting in that way," Jim said.
"Right."
"Shadowdancer, take the left side with Shielder. Anyone who gets by him, tie'em up or portal them back out into the crowd."
"Right, Trollhunter!" Jim looked over at Claire and she winked. He chuckled and then got to work. Jim spent the next several hours walking the perimeter. Few wanted to push into New Wave, with Vicky flying down and grabbing people who tried to climb the barricade.
Before long, the crowd started to flag. The people who kept throwing stones started to get engulfed with clouds of bugs, the annoying insects buzzing around them.
"Looks like we have a guardian angel," Claire said over the coms. Purple-black ropes of power were flickering from her staff, binding people who tried to climb the barricades. Meanwhile, Vista's side was clear of people—nobody else wanting to brave the MC Escher looking shapes she'd twisted her side of the parking lot into.
"ATTENTION. ATTENTION!" Jim's earbuds blared. "The Simurgh has retreated."
"Now to count the cost," Photon Mom said. The news started filtering out around the crowd, and Jim saw more and more people starting to leave.
Right. The fight's over and nobody has to be held in reserve. Still, they remained for the next hour or so, until enough police were freed up to the secure the place. Lady Photon shook Jim's hand, and then New Wave left, rising into the sky.
"Wish I could fly," Claire said.
"I bet they wish they could teleport," Jim said. Now for the scary part. "Console, is there any news of…"
"No dead from our team, Trollhunter."
Jim sighed.
"But the center of Canberra has been declared irrecoverable."
Damn. It.
The Brockton Bay Simurgh Riots actually only saw six dead, three of them from heart attacks from anxiety, one suicide, and two homicides. Damage was just over 30 million dollars to local property.
The Bay got off light. The riots on the West Coast, closer to Australia, had been much worse.
"It's weird," Jim said as he leaned back on the couch. Claire was lying on her side, her head pillowed in Jim's lap.
They would all remain at Ward's quarters until tomorrow, just in case. Blinky was okay, and Jim just wanted to go home, snuggle with Claire, and then sleep for a week. "You'd that things would be calmer here, if you know where the Simurgh is."
"Sure, with Behemoth or Leviathan," Chris said, from where he was laying in a boneless heap in a beanbag chair. "But who knows with Ziz—maybe she has a plan, and attacking the city is just a byproduct."
"Yeah," Carlos said. "Ziz is scary and scared people are stupid, especially when some groups are trying to use them."
"Things are gonna be a little tense for a few days," Dean said. "When the gang capes go active again, you can bet that they're going to punish anyone who thought they could use the truce."
"And we'll be in between them." Missy said.
"Lovely," Jim said.
"Well, good news," Claire said from her comfortable position. "No school assembly tomorrow so we all don't get to hear about how selling 4 cases of Genuine Westlake Chocolate will help fund the school and save America."
"No, we will," Dean said. "Nothing, but nothing keeps Arcadia from trying to make us do that. They'll just postpone the assembly to next week. Fortunately, the PRT just pays for five cases for all of us, so we don't have to worry about it."
"What, don't you want the cheap 10-speed?" Claire asked.
"Better than us," Vista muttered. "About the best we get is a bunch of trash like yo-yos."
"So we do better!" Jim said. "We let everyone know that there's a chance you can get a genuine piece of LeeT-tech from our storage chambers with every purchase."
"Is that a promise or threat?" Dean asked.
Chris shot up from where he'd been toying with some diagrams. "No, it's both! Because right after they get it, we tell them that for thirty boxes of chocolate, Armsmaster will visit them and defuse Leet's gadget, but we don't know what will happen when the beeping stops, so hurry up!"
"So blackmail?"
"Anyone who keeps buying chocolate after we tell them they might get something Leet made is insane, and we can't be held liable." Chris said.
Abruptly Carlos stood up, putting his hands on his hips in a heroic pose. "Wards, I like this plan, but we need a proposal paper! Let's make it the best proposal in the world, properly written!"
"Are we going to send it to Piggot?"
"Depends on if I'm still sane tomorrow," their leader said. "We can always give it to Assault." With that, he was pulling out some paper. "Remember, I want this written properly."
"A…um…" Vista paused. "Proposal for community outreach via dietary supplements!"
"Like it!" Carlos said. "Subtitle?"
"While assisting in educating the public about the dangers of Tinkertech!" Claire called as she started to laugh.
With that, the laughter and proposals ran hot and heavy, as someone heated up the pizza.
It really wasn't that funny.
But it helped them all forget what had happened, what was happening on the other side of the world.