Apparently Coil had been an adviser for the PRT, so he had the designated meeting place in case of Endbringer on his computer. Convenient because it meant we could just pop out in the sky near the mall and make our way there. Bitch absolutely refused to have herself or her dogs carried, so we let her ride them there while we took off. There were still floods of people rushing to get to shelters that thinned out as we got near the meeting place. The streets were clogged with more foot traffic than cars, but I really hoped Abby and my dad could get out of the city. There was no telling how much damage we'd end up doing to the city and I didn't want them anywhere near that.
The building was where the Docks met Downtown and stood six stories high. It was nondescript and brown with the only defining feature being the stretch of beach right behind it. Dragon in one of her suits, a quadruped version, stood in the parking lot watching the ocean, staring down at the approaching storm cloud. Two PRT vans, probably smaller than Dragon's suit put together, sat in the empty parking lot with PRT Troopers surrounding it. As we started to cross the parking lot the Troopers blocked our way.
A moment later we learned why. A muffled clap of thunder rang in the air and half a dozen people appeared in empty parking lot. One in particular caught my eye and I felt a flash of awe I hadn't felt in months. Alexandria— THE Alexandria— Stood in the middle of the lot with a handful of other Capes at her back. She was still every bit the heroine I saw her as when I was a kid. Seeing her reminded me of everything I had once aspired to be. She took in her surroundings as she entered the building and we started around the troopers to avoid anymore teleports. One Cape, dressed in blue and black, stayed back before teleporting off again.
As we rounded toward the building to the door another dull clap of thunder alerted me to the arrival of new Capes. None of them I recognized, but the brighter colors screamed "hero" at me. The one in front stood out to me in particular. He had silver skin, but more than that, his hair and eyes were too. It took me a second to realize what I was seeing as I noticed the chain link fence that was stuck to him and seemed to slowly absorbing into him, the same as the prongs of the fork sticking from his neck.
"Weld," Wraith informed me lowly as we approached them. "Leader of the Boston Wards." I could only assume she picked it up from Coil's computers.
He seemed to pick up on the fact I didn't want to be touched and offered me a courteous nod, which I returned, as we entered the building. He seemed to be one of the moor open minded heroes.
The lobby was filled with folding chairs, lined up in a rows and columns like a makeshift auditorium. The far end of the room had a podium backed by three large televisions which in turn were backed by large windows giving us a perfect view of the approaching storm.
"Ominous," Rhapsody said.
"Shut up," Gorgon said. "This whole situation is ominous."
"Yeesh, don't turn those bony claws on me for making a joke," He replied coolly.
"Stop your bickering. It's not helping anything," Purity said.
I mostly ignored my teams antics in exchange for surveying the room. There already a lot of capes with more coming in by the moment and only maybe a third of us were local. Near the front of the room I saw Armsmaster with two halberds strapped to his back, and he had annoyed me enough during the week that I had to resist the urge to crack a joke—even to myself—about him trying to compensate, speaking to Miss Militia and Legend. There was another flash of excitement at seeing one of my childhood heroes here. I knew they would be here, but it was different experiencing than thinking about it. Especially for the fact that even if I hadn't already lost the ability to go full fangirl over any of them, this wasn't the time or place for it. Legend himself was a sight to behold. His suit was damn near skin tight and showed off his physique—which almost made me wish I had a shot at him despite his being gay—and was covered in a design somewhere between fire and lightning.
Off to the side, staring out the window, was Eidolon. He had never been my favorite, that place belonged to Alexandria by a mile, but I had to respect the man. One of the "Big Five" when it came to Capes. The ones who, when it came to arguing about who would win in a straight fight, the response would always be "Obviously, but besides them". The Endbringers took the top three spots, it was hard for them not too considering everything they'd done to the world, while Scion and Eidolon took fourth and fifth respectively for opposite reasons. The first just for being so strong with the powers he had and the latter for just having every power, despite his limited use of them.
I stopped my musing on Cape power levels, I was almost starting to sound like Madison, and scanned the rest of the room. It pleased me to no end that the Empire didn't get the chance to be here, meaning the only other local Capes were the Wards, who were sort of mingled with one another, New Wave, and Parian, who was talking with a very young looking girl that I was actually able to remember. Bambina. She was a notorious villain, actually managing to get sponsorships because her name was just that well known, and a lot older than she looked. Parian obviously didn't seem to be having much fun talking to her, but wasn't exactly relieved when she got dragged off to a group containing Shadow Stalker either. The Travelers were here too, though I wasn't sure I'd count them as locals.
New Wave, at least the teens, were sitting near the Wards and Glorly Girl was holding Gallants hand. Seemed they were back on for this occasion. They were joking around and trying to lighten the mood despite the situation but it seemed forced. Weld and Aegis could barely keep the tension low amongst their teams and it showed. The adults from New Wave were sitting in not-quite a circle to huddle up and discuss their plans. Between the two groups, sitting backwards on a chair with her arms folded across the back and looking miserable was Panacea.
I wanted to talk with her, but that could wait for the moment as I kept looking over the room. There were mostly Protectorate Capes around, not that it was any sort of surprising. Myrrdin, Chevalier, those weren't the types of guys to miss a fight like this. I was surprised, however, to see Haven had showed up. I probably shouldn't have been, but I was. It was a long way from the Bible Belt, but I wouldn't put it past them to just be regular helpers.
"Wraith," I said lowly, getting her attention.
"Yeah?" She asked, idly swatting at Rhapsody for something I missed him saying.
"Cover me and Panacea. Wanna talk to her."
"Gotcha. You're clear," She nodded.
I walked over to the girl and tapped her, pulling us into Vacio Mundo and pulling a chair up. She looked up just as I sat down and glared a bit at seeing it was me.
"What do you want?" She asked. "Better yet, why are you talking to me in front of every—, what?" She said, noticing we were the only ones there.
"This is one of my powers. I call it Vacio Mundo, the Empty World. Time doesn't flow here. It's essentially just a snapshot of the world taken as I enter," I said, making a viewfinder with my fingers with her right in the middle. "We're free to talk."
"I don't want to talk to you," She growls. "You've made things difficult enough for me."
"Oh?" I ask. "How so?"
"You told Carol, and most importantly Aunt Sarah, about the thing with my sister!" She snapped.
"Brandish was being kind of a bitch. Wanted to throw her daughters misdeeds in her face to prove a point and didn't consider it would affect you. My bad."
"Yeah, your bad that I'm having to deal with Vicky being annoyed at me cause they questioned me and I could lie because they already knew! Carol is acting like it's my fault Vicky can't keep her powers in check and she's especially mad at me because Aunt Sarah is taking my side and saying she should've kept a closer eye on Vicky! This is more stress than I've ever dealt with."
"Fuck, I'm real sorry about that," I sighed. "I didn't realize just how dysfunctional your family was. I should'a kept my mouth shut, but as I'm sure you know, Brandish tends to be a Grade A cunt and I wasn't gonna let her talk down to me like that. Guess it's a case of my pride getting the better of me. Either way, my bad. It's probably a bad time, but you're more than welcome to take your spot on our team whenever you feel like."
She sighed, tossing her head back and looking at the ceiling before leaning back down so her hair covered her face.
"The fucked up part is it's looking more and more appealing by the day. I just… I feel like if I leave, even if it turns out to be better for me emotionally, I'd just be proving Carol right about me. That villainy is in my blood or something. And…"
"And having her be right about you is the least appealing thing on the planet," I agree with a nod.
"Yeah," She said slowly.
"To be fair, we're not exactly villains, just not completely heroic either. Of course as far as the PRT is concerned we might as well be villains, but we're all about making things better. We just see that sometimes that involves questionable or even illegal means."
"Illegal as in…?"
"As in regulating things to keep them to a minimum. You really think it's possible to stop prostitution or drug use in a town like Brockton Bay? No. Not with the city rotting away the way it has been. People are gonna turn to those things because they have nothing better in life. No job, no prospects, selling yourself or drugs is the way to survive. Conversely, using to take the pain away."
"So, what, you just take over as the dealers and pimps?" She asked harshly.
"The idea is to keep those things in check until we can get the city back on its feet. Wraith proposed fixing the Docks so we could get the shipping industry up again. Maybe not internationally, but domestically. Get some money in. With our powers, it seems possible once we stop getting hit by waves of shit, but it's something we're hoping to try."
She stared at me silently, seemingly thinking it over.
"Of course, if you do decide to join, you wouldn't be obligated to participate in anything you didn't want to. Gorgon and Samael are the ones least likely to deal with that stuff and I mostly want to look at helping the homeless population for now."
"And you having territories?" She asked after a long moment.
"Mostly a way to keep other villains from showing up. If the Fallen or the Teeth or Accord caught wind there was free real estate in Brockton Bay they wouldn't hesitate to move in, then where are we? Back at square fucking one. This way, even if it's just for show, the other groups look at the city and say, "Oh, there's no space there unless we fight for it." And there's no way the fuckers are gonna want to mess with us if they can help it."
"What makes you say that?"
"Our track record. We took out Lung on our first official night out, we helped keep the city in tact during Bakuda's rampage, and we took out the Empire and Coil."
"You took out Coil?"
"Ah, that's a recent accomplishment by Wraith. But the point stands, we've been virtually unstoppable from day one. And, if things go well today, the only ones who would want to step to us would be the really crazy bastards."
"What do you mean by "Well"?" She asked hesitantly. I could tell the idea of us being stronger than she'd seen was a scary one to her.
"You think we've been showing our full power this whole time?" I asked with a wide grin despite the fact she couldn't see it.
"You've been… You've been sandbagging this whole time? Even through the Empire rampage?" She asked with a hint of horror.
"We were trying to keep damage and loss of life to a minimum. We don't have to worry about that with an Endbringer."
"Am… Am I that strong?"
"Should be," I shrugged. "Speaking of, you figure out any of your powers?"
She shook her head, "Not really. I figured out I can tell when people are about to die, they get this weird black butterfly over their heads, but that's about it."
"Hm… That should be a hint to what your powers are, but I can't think of anything at the moment. Anyway, sorry about that shit with your family, Panpan. Let's head back so we don't miss anything." I reached over to touch her and she leaned away.
"Hold on. If I want to join you guys… During the fight or something. How do I get an outfit like yours?"
"You just… kinda visual the change," I shrugged. "Gorgon figured it out pretty easy."
"Typical," She scoffed. "Fine. But what about what the rest of my family will say about this?"
"They don't even know you left. We've got a pretty strong Stranger on our team."
"Of course you do," she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, let's head back."
I tapped her hand and we were back in the room. Legend had just gotten to the podium and was about to speak, so I got back to my team and had Wraith undo the illusion. I idly noticed Bitch had made it in at some point and was sitting with Grue near where Wraith was standing.
"We owe thanks to Armsmaster and Dragon," Legend said. He had the kind of voice that drew the ear with ease. Made you want to listen to him. "If not for their early alert system we'd have to jump into the fray as we arrived, but now we get time to gather together. Precious few minutes that can be used to prepare for Leviathan's arrival and hopefully, with some luck and skill, make today one of the good days." He was silent for a moment and I noticed a slight drop in mood before he spoke again. "But I feel you should all know your chances going in. Due to our statistics from previous battles with this beast, even a "good day" will unfortunately mean one out of every four of you are probably going to be dead before the end of the day."
"Real inspiring," Rhapsody said lowly, earning a swat from Wraith.
Legend paused to let everyone think on that. There were murmurs of worry amongst those who had never done this before, especially from the Wards. One in four dead was a lot of people, especially considering the number of people in the room. And that was only deaths. It didn't take injuries into account. Potentially career ending injuries or disfiguring wounds. I could tell a few people were more worried about losing an arm or leg than they were about actually dying. Not that I'd be letting it happen if I could help it.
Unsurprisingly, my team was resolute in the face of that number. Even Purity seemed confident in our ability to get her back to Aster at the end of it all. She, Grue, and Bitch were the only ones really vulnerable so it would be our job to make sure they made it out, but it was nice to see that even Bitch believed we'd make sure they made it.
"I want to tell you your chances now because you deserve to know," Legend said. "Because we rarely get to inform those brave enough to fight these monsters. The thing I want you to know, more than battle formations or anything like that, is do not underestimate Leviathan. I've seen too many good heroes and… and villains die because they thought they were stronger than they were. They got cocky thinking they could take on an Endbringer and they died for it."
He turned to the window, where the rain was now beating against the window like someone throwing change at it. The storm had reached the beach and I could see the water thrown across the shoreline from the force of the waves.
"We often think of Leviathan as the middle child; lacking in some way. He lacks the overwhelming force of Behemoth and he's not the cunning manipulator the Simurgh proves herself to be. That thinking is false. Leviathan might not be as specialized as his siblings, but he I still incredibly strong and incredibly cunning. You've seen the videos. You know what he can do physically. More than that he is not as dumb as you might assume. Do not attack thinking he lacks any form of tactics. You will be caught off guard otherwise.
"What you may not know from the videos is that he does feel pain. He does bleed. It's just a rare few attacks are capable of penetrating deep enough to cause him to do so. That's at least one way he doesn't differ from his siblings. What sets him apart the most is his focus on water. You all know of his water clone. Do not treat it like a simple splash of water. At the speed he moves, the surface tension makes it harder than concrete. He also has a crude hydrokinesis. I say "crude" but what I mean is Macro. Large scale control of water. This rain is no coincidence. It's him actively using his power to cause the storm. The force of this rain," He pointed to the window, seeming to bend at the force of the rain drops beating against it, "Is only a small portion of what he can do. There will be water on the battlefield and we believe this is what allows him to move as fast as he does. Far faster than any speedster we have on record."
"Bet we're faster," Rhapsody said. Wraith didn't hit him this time. We were all in agreement that we could probably match Leviathan's speed.
"Despite everything Dragon and Armsmaster have done to help make this one of the good days, there are still things that are working in opposition to that. There is no better illustration of that then the days Leviathan won. Newfoundland, May ninth, 2005 and Kyushu, the night of November second and the morning of the third, 1999. Ten million dead between those attacks and two sunken land masses. These were grave mistakes on the part of defending heroes. A lack of understanding of not only our enemy but our battlefield. Our only strategy at the time was to try and minimize the damage until Leviathan was beaten of Scion showed up. We've now been able to split up his targets into soft targets and hard targets. The hard targets are the ones where we can afford to buy time and wear him down. Soft targets are locations where we cannot afford to play the waiting game."
A diagram of the city appeared on one of the TV's showing what was essentially a cave filled with water under the city. I knew what that meant before it even left Wraiths mouth.
"We're a soft target," She whispered.
That… changed things slightly. Not necessarily our battle plan, but it did mean Leviathan might have a source of water inside the negation field Nihilus was going to put up, which put us back at square one.
"Brockton Bay, this location, is a soft target. This city was originally founded for the ease of coastal trade and the aquifer allowing the settlers access to easily obtained fresh water. This aquifer is the weakness of the city. We fully expect Leviathan to manipulate this underground water source to erode the stone and sand, and with the tidal waves from above…"
He trailed off, giving everyone enough time to visualize the outcome.
"We have to end this fast. Each wave he brings upon us will be stronger than the last and that will be one step closer losing the city. This means our top two priorities are keeping eyes on Leviathan and finding way to hurt him. If he slips through our defenses that's time lost trying to find him we could spend on our assault. If you cannot hurt him, support those who can. Any damage we do could help delay his next attack." He paused, looking at the window rattling under the force of the pounding rain. I was hesitant to even call it rain at this point. It was more like pressure washers being fired from the sky.
"Nihilus," I said a bit louder than I meant too, inadvertently drawing attention to us. "Negation field, now. Big as you can make it starting from where the sand meets the wood on the docks."
I heard murmurs of awe and shock as the rain instantly stopped.
"How big is it?" I asked Wraith.
"Larger than my range. From what I can see she's probably got the entirety of the Docks and at least half of Downtown covered."
That earned wide eyed looks from Legend and a few others but no one commented on it immediately.
"Right, well," Legend started, "I want you all to know you're doing a good thing. The best thing you can do. This is why we're tolerated. Why society allows and accounts for Capes to walk and fight amongst the city streets. For situations like this, where not having us would mean the loss of life and land. We are here to keep the world safe, even if we're not all on the same side. Fighting here and forestalling the inevitable is why we're allowed to even have sides, your sacrifices if you choose to make them, will be remembered."
With that, Legend looked to Armsmaster, who promptly took the stand. He was authoritative and to the point, though less impassioned as Legend. I hardly listened as he explained the armbands that Dragon had designed that the Wards would be passing out.
"So, this is a problem," I said to my team.
"I can't believe I forgot about the fucking aquifer," Wraith sighed.
"It's fucked, but we'll get through it," Rhapsody said.
"Agreed. I haven't been on the team long, but I think we can do this," Gorgon said.
"Bitch," I said seriously, snapping her attention to me. "This is looking more difficult than I anticipated. Do you want to go back to Las Noches with your dogs? We're aiming for all out assault here and I don't want you or them to die because I pushed you into a fight you can't take."
"Stand-by. Call if you need, but we'll try to avoid fighting," She said gruffly.
I nodded. If she thought she could act as a taxi for the weaker Capes, I'd let her.
"Does this mean I get to fight?" Rhapsody asked.
"Yes, it means you get to fight," I sighed. "That said, what I said before goes double now. No more holding back, no worrying about buildings. If you have to level a block or two to get a good attack off, I'll fucking fix it if I can. Worry about keeping Leviathan in your sight and attacking as much as you can."
I noticed a group of Capes stand and Legend spoke, directing us to follow the Protectorate first and foremost for these things. A Ward, Clockblocker, strode by and handed us all the armbands. He lingered in front of Gorgon for a moment before taking off. We took the moment to set up our armbands, I'd heard enough to know how it worked, but Wraith had us covered even if I didn't.
We finally started listening to Legend again as he was organizing groups. We'd be splitting up, Gorgon going to Alexandria's group while the rest of us split into Legend's since we would largely be focusing on long ranged attacks. As we moved one of the heroes, Bastion, screamed. A massive wave approached the building and forcefields went up to try and stop it. Somehow I hadn't noticed Narwhal was in the room, even if I was talking with Panacea when she arrived the woman was seven feet of forcefield scales who refused to wear clothes. Eyes were drawn to her like magnets. The forcefields proved to be unneeded as the wall of water was repelled effortlessly by Nihilus' negation field.
"Nihilus, how are you feeling?" I asked.
"Fine. I honestly forgot I had the field up. I can still fight perfectly fine," She shrugged.
"Great, let's get it together," I told them.
We pointedly ignored the confused and surprised looks the other Capes were giving us as we got into our groups and prepared to fight. From the window I saw the crystalline beast emerge from the water like a Kaiju from one of those old monster movies. He dashed from the water, stopping at the edge of the negation field and looked out over the city. Everyone else was in a panic as he stood mere meters away from the building we were in, and we started to rush out to fight him, but all I could feel was a sick sense of giddiness in the pit of my stomach. The kind of knots you got in your stomach from the adrenaline of anticipation.
As we got outside and I saw the beast at his full height, what little light that broke through his storm reflecting off of his crystal skin, I unconsciously moved my hand to cover the manic smile stretched across my face. It had been so long since I felt any emotion as strongly as I was feeling now, staring at this unholy monster that had come to destroy my city, that it was nearly overwhelming. I had never been much of an adrenaline junkie, always preferring a cup of tea and a book over roller coasters and the like, but for some reason, staring down a foe that had built up as impossible, I couldn't help that the idea of a challenge seemed so… Exciting.