Trailblazer – Dream of Eden

"The attack has started," Veda announced. "You're sure?"

"Yeah," Trevor replied. Dinah had been the one to silently ask him, but the push was needed. "There's something I want to check out for myself anyway."

There was something very odd in what was going on. Trevor was no thinker, but he'd been around long enough now to see it. The plan didn't line up. Attacking something as prominent as the AEU parliament and just using idioms? Stealing the F-Driver was brazen as hell, especially given the obvious implication of the act. Charlotte compared it all to viral marketing but the point of any marketing is to have a message or direction. Trevor didn't see one.

And that wasn't the really weird part.

They were leaving clues for Veda to follow.

Who did that? It was insane. Leaving clues for Veda to track down was practically inviting her to blow your door down. So they were either trying to trick them—which Trevor figured was Dinah's concern—or they were trying to trick someone else.

There was one good way to know.

Walk on up and ask.

"You don't have to do this," Charlotte insisted.

"I know."

Trevor sighed, settling into place and lamenting. "But this is different, Char. It's not some get rich quick scheme or some plot to take over a city or a country." He clasped his fingers over the controls. "Someone's going after Taylor and I'm not going to turn a blind eye to that."

The line was quiet for a moment and Trevor glanced to the side.

It had been hard right after it happened. Taylor waited until everything was done and the big threats were out of the way to drop the bomb. The crazy part was people—not everyone, not even most, but enough—blamed her. Like she was the reason the Shards existed or something.

It was infuriating.

People acted like they knew her when the first sentences out of their mouths made it clear they didn't. All they knew was the idea in their head, not who Taylor really was. Anyone who acted like fame was the only thing she cared about clearly never listened to a word she said.

Taylor never gave a damn about being famous.

If anything, Trevor got the sense part of her resented it even as she used it to get what she really wanted.

"We made the world this way," Trevor muttured. "Right or wrong, it's our responsibility now."

The system finished its checks and came online.

"Okay," Charlotte mumbled.

"Don't worry." Trevor smiled. "The Simurgh couldn't break this armor. What are these guys going to do?"

"Teleporting," Veda warned.

"Ready."

He didn't see the flash, but he felt the 'shift' and the crash as the locker was delivered to its destination.

The irony was not lost on him.

As soon as the shaking in his bones settled, a voice echoed over an open channel.

"Unidentified mobile suit, this is a restricted installat—"

"I'm going to transport the others to Miami," Veda announced. "Call when you're ready."

Trevor nodded and flicked a switch. Instantly the voice outside cut off and he threw his shoulder forward.

The locker doors snapped and blew forward, slamming the heavy metal front into the ground and sending it skipping.

"This is Chariot. Those attacking this base have until I reach them to surrender."

With that, Trevor leaned in, and the Graze burst forward, the locker exploding behind him as he raced down a long runway. He set his eyes immediately on the burning hangar at the far end and the flash of gunfire. Racing over the ground, he swerved left and right, weaving through the chaos of moving soldiers and base staff. Some stopped and pointed. Some with fingers, some with weapons.

Trevor ignored them, hefting Kimaris' lance as he charged.

The base was essentially built atop a plain of E-Carbon plates; rows of warehouses, offices, and barracks arranged into three rows. To one side a long rail shot out into the ocean before curving upward. They'd apparently gone with the rail launch system concept here instead of rockets.

Trevor registered a line of fires in one direction and smoke from an explosion in another. He kept his eyes locked on the large-wheeled tractor hauling a rig out of the burning hangar—a shuttle, mounted and braced in a rudimentary launch assembly. It was a long delta-wing-shaped ship, maybe big enough for eighty people and some large cargo.

Dinah was right. They were trying to launch themselves into space by stealing a ship. Trevor would call them crazy but—

He reached the battle line within five seconds and grabbed the head of the first Leo he saw. The suit noticed him too late and turned too slowly. Whoever was using it clearly hadn't been trained by Lafter.

"Time's up."

As the bullets flew and pinged left and right, Trevor swung the Leo around, slid to the side, and threw the suit into the air. It tumbled and crashed, slamming into the tractor and crushing the side. The vehicle came to a stop and the rig lurched. The other five mobile suits and the three-dozen armed and armored mercenary types turned.

The dozens of army guys scattered around behind vehicles, crates, and anything that could be cover also turned on him, but they didn't shoot.

The Leos opened fire, large rifles slapping the air with a high-pitched drone. The bullets pinged off his armor and Trevor shot forward.

"Sorry," he warned. "This isn't a standard Graze."

The first suit he slammed in the knees, breaking the legs and sending the machine to the ground. The second he struck in the square lens with an elbow. As the suit stumbled back, he swung around behind it, kicking the back of the leg and firing Kimaris' lance-rifle into the ground. Airburst rounds exploded, scattering the armed attackers as he slammed his shoulder into the blinded Leo and sent it to the ground.

Six mobile suits.

Lisa said that Frost guy 'misplaced' a shipment of thirty. Including the other five that made eleven.

Dinah was right to be worried.

"This isn't right," Trevor confirmed as he dodged to block some bullets from hitting a trio of evacuating soldiers. "There aren't enough mobile suits here, and only—"

The cape jumped into the air with a burst of light from one foot. Trevor fired into the air, sliding to the right as he did and then punching a fourth Leo so hard the chest imploded. The pilot inside screamed and Trevor bit back the coil in his throat. He hooked his lance between the suit's legs and heaved it into the air with his suit's enhanced strength.

The suit crashed and flipped, knocking a group of mercenaries over with it.

The cape came down with another blast of light from his hand and Trevor fired the thruster.

The Graze shot into the air and he clotheslined the cape on the way down. Bone shattered, and there was a scream as the man flipped and crashed.

And he kept going because he'd grown used to it over the years.

Violence is like riding a bike. Unfortunately.

From the air, Trevor did a quick three-sixty and scanned the entire base.

There was a lot of fighting, but it was spread out. They were trying to clear a path to move the shuttle to the launch rail, but they weren't getting there now. Far to the North a trio of Dragon ships were rapidly approaching. The military had clearly called the Guild in for help.

Trevor blinked as he came about.

As soon as he hit the ground, Trevor barreled through a team of mercenaries. He left them to fall over, crashing through a wall and slamming another cape into a large truck. The woman tried to fight back—brute—but Trevor caught her fist and crushed it. The woman screamed, shouting at him in a language he didn't know as he flipped her around and threw her into the blaster throwing explosive balls of sound at the soldiers defending the hangar interior.

"There aren't enough capes either," Trevor determined. "Maybe a dozen?"

The timing didn't work out at all.

Even if they managed to get the shuttle to the launch rail, they'd never hold the rail long enough to take off, let alone clear the base enough to get people aboard it. They'd be no match for the Guild and the Air Force had at least three capes of their own on the base from what he'd seen.

They were trying to get to the launch rail, but he didn't see how they could make it.

Going through another wall, Trevor came out onto a street lined with letter-marked buildings riddled in gunfire. It was near the center of the base, where the two trails of destruction he'd seen from above met. Mercenaries and soldiers fought across the length with a few capes in the mix.

The capes were mostly fighting each other.

So were the mercenaries.

"Veda?" Trevor asked in surprise.

"I've identified one group positively as the Christian Liberation Front," she answered. "They're an insurgent group in the Congo that opposes the new government there. The other group I believe is the National Popular Front, a rival group that supports a minority political party in the Congo."

What? "That sounds like—"

"These groups are not allies," Veda confirmed.

Then how the hell—

Trevor got to work, breaking up fights. He broke arms and bones. Slammed guns into the ground. He used his suit as a shield to take a rocket and barreled through the explosion to swing his lance into a cape's legs and shatter them.

"Any masters or shakers?"

"No masters," Veda confirmed. "They don't last long in Africa without a very potent power. There is one shaker but Dragon can handle him."

There was some cape that could explode into a swarm of bugs running around but Trevor wasn't going to chase him. "Miami is being attacked too, isn't it?"

"Yes. Win's team just arrived on site."

"Chris?" Bringing himself to a stop, Trevor leveled the lance and held it in both hands. One of the silos mounted on the Graze's shoulder swung forward, connecting to the base of the lance and sliding a rail into the barrel. "I should say hi. Come get me."

"En route."

Trevor took aim just to the right of the cape that could turn his arms into flailing chain-arms tipped with spikes and barbs.

With a thought, the air wailed and the rail shot forward as the Gungir fired.

The cape was lifted off the ground by the force and then thrown as a plume of water rose on the horizon.

"Dragon and the Guild can handle this," Trevor said. "Tell them I stopped the theft of the shuttle and took down some capes."

Stargazer teleported overhead and Veda replied, "Already done."

Trevor nodded. "Let's get to the bottom of this. And Charlotte, you still there?"

"I'm here," she promised.

"Sorry for the PR mess. I don't think the Air Force is going to be happy with the help."

She scoffed. "I've managed worse."

Stargazer teleported again, and Trevor landed on another E-Carbon sheet foundation. This one had even more warehouses, a runway behind it connected to an international airport, and three rails that extended in the direction of the ocean. And there were at least three different scatterings of fighting he immediately noticed.

Bursting into motion again, Trevor came in behind one group and slammed a Leo into the ground.

Another suit turned, silver, with bulky legs and weapons mounted on its back.

"Win," Trevor greeted.

"Chariot?" Chris laughed and turned his rifle and fired. "Long time no see."

An entire team of tinkers advanced, all of them fighting inside custom-built mobile suits. Chris led them forward, leaving police to mop up the remaining mercenaries and to surround the downed Leos.

"That the Silver Bullet I've heard so much about?" Trevor asked.

"This is it," Chris confirmed. It was the third suit he'd used over the years, not counting all the minor upgrades he'd made to the others. "You know what is going on here?"

It was night instead of day and that made the fires a lot brighter.

"No," Trevor admitted. "Why I came out to look and see."

"No Kimaris?"

"Not today."

They came around a corner and instantly engaged a pack of four Leos.

And just like before, the Leos were brawling with each other.

So were the mercenaries. There was an entire police team—complete with Grazes—in the brawl too, but over a dozen capes were fighting back and forth through it all.

Four more Leos, plus the earlier two. That made seventeen out of thirty.

Trevor stayed back this time, watching.

Londo Bell swept in from three sides. Chris' team went in with the Grazes, taking out the Leos and the capes. Another team led by Weld moved by, proceeding past the fighting to another in the distance. A swarm of insects preceded Emma's appearance, her entire team behind her as Orbit flung two large metal balls into the air and Mercury tackled a brawling pair of capes and forced them apart.

"Same story," he said to Veda. "These groups are fighting each other now that they're here."

"I don't think we're the ones who were tricked," Dinah announced. "Whoever Silver Mask is, she just duped the last big insurgent groups in Africa into taking themselves out."

Trevor nodded. "You're still getting blanks from the colony?"

"Yeah."

Then it wasn't over, but this plan was more involved than they thought.

They still stole the F-Driver. Trevor didn't think that was a mere ruse. It could have been anything, why the F-Driver? And if they weren't planning to get into orbit like this—realistically, Trevor didn't think that plan would ever work—then how did they plan to take their shot?

"There's no sign of Silver Mask or her capes here either," Trevor noted. "And we're still missing thirteen Leos."

"We have information though," Dinah noted. "Whatever Silver Mask wants, she wants resources focused here and she didn't want any of these groups to actually help her."

"Yeah. But—"

Trevor saw the bodies dropping to the ground in his peripheral. He turned, watching with wide eyes as a little field of death expanded in advance of an old cape with a mess of gray hair atop his head.

Veda's voice broke the air, announcing to everyone, "Evacuate immediately! That is Fasiki! An extremely dangerous shaker!"

Trevor began loading another rail while the others ran away.

The bodies were already starting to rot. The man was a literal walking death field! The range wasn't wide. Only about sixteen feet, but—

A shot was fired and vanished into a black void. Another cape trailed behind Fasiki, a woman that walked just beyond his range and surrounded herself with small black balls. Great. A cape with a walking death field and his own personal shield.

"Orbit," Win called. "Can you—"

He didn't even get to finish as Orbit lifted a large truck into the air.

The cape from Sanc—the huge woman with a bull mask—crashed through a wall, running at Fasiki full charge. The man turned, seemingly shocked as she walked right into his power field and kept going. Black balls began appearing in her path, which was when the cloaked cape ran into the field from the other direction.

They threw themselves forward, grabbing Fasiki from behind and the cape exploded.

Not the blast of air from Sanc.

The fire blast rolled over the ground, shattered the E-Carbon plates and snapped the supports of the nearby com tower. Trevor stared in shocked silence with everyone else.

"Suicide attack?" someone finally asked.

"Why are they fighting each other?"

"Veda?" Trevor asked.

"Fasiki was one of the few warlords left in Africa," she explained.

Warlords.

Trevor lowered his lance then flinched as metal groaned and creaked.

"The tower is coming down!" someone shouted.

Heads turned as the com tower started to bow. Trevor looked back, grimacing. "We need to get everyone out!"

Hands started grabbing left and right, lifting injured and wounded from the battle site. Trevor hefted three onto his shoulders and left his lance to grab two more. There were too many. People were helping each other—even those who'd been fighting moments before—and capes were using their powers but there were more who needed to be saved than—

"Mercury!"

Trevor craned his head around as a silver girl ran forward, pumping her legs as she ran at the tower. She flung her arms back, planted her feet, and then threw her arms forward. The limbs extended, branching out and latching onto the metal skeleton of the tower as it came down.

Chloe winced, grimacing as the weight fell into her and pushed her back.

"Hurry!" Weaver shouted. Emma sounded surprised and worried. "She can't hold that up for long!"

Mercury held her ground, grimacing as she struggled to keep the tower in the air. The top started to bend because it was so tall, but it bought time. Orbit swung a flatbed around and people were piled onto it. The extra seconds were all they needed to go back and grab those who would have been left behind.

The fire from the blast was fading, revealing two charred corpses and the brute kneeling and seemingly disoriented. Except she was half the size she'd been before the blast and her mask had fallen off. A changer instead of a brute?

"That's everyone!" Win shouted as he pulled back. "Clear the area! Mercury, let it fall!"

Trevor retreated, watching as Chloe started to release the tower. It raced toward the ground as she pulled back.

Then she stopped.

She blinked at the shrinking cape as she decreased to the size of a ten-year-old and heaved.

"Mercury!" Weaver warned.

Chloe ignored her, bursting forward in a wave of silver that surrounded the seemingly exhausted cape and formed a dome as the tower crashed down. The ground shook and smoke filled the air.

Trevor didn't wait.

He set the people he'd carried away down and skated back in. Using the sonic cameras, he identified the dome of silver and quickly dug it out. He was still lifting a steel beam up when the dome collapsed and Chloe breathed.

"Really glad that worked!" she declared.

The changer lay under her, hands over her head.

"You okay?" Trevor asked as he watched her for any sudden movements.

Mercury patted herself down. "Seem okay. I'm pretty durable though." She looked down. "How 'bout you?"

"We surrender."

Trevor looked back.

The cloak cape was there, mask at his feet and his hands up.

He repeated the words in broken barely audible English.

"We surrender."

As the fighting died down and the police took over the scene, Trevor glanced down at Chloe.

"That was brave," he said.

She shrugged, sitting atop a piece of rubble with her face between her hands. "Just asked myself WWND."

"WWND?" Trevor asked.

"What would Newtype do. She wouldn't have left someone to die like that."

Trevor smiled. Would Taylor like that? She didn't want statues or memorials, but Chloe wanting to be a hero like her…

He didn't know, but he liked it.

There were times he wondered if it had all been worth it. "She'd be flustered."

Chloe turned her head. "Huh?"

"Knowing there's people running around asking themselves what she'd do and trying to be like her." Trevor grinned. "She'd be flustered, I think."

And there were times he thought he was just being a sourpuss.

What would Newtype do.

Trevor asked himself that a lot. He'd worked hard. Tried to keep things going the right way as best he could. Took responsibility for the bad that came with it. Didn't get too high on himself for the good.

He wanted to think he'd done a good job. Best he could do.

And he tried to live the best life he could. Charlotte and Ian. Standing with Mirai as she rebuilt a nation. Helping Brockton Bay keep growing like Taylor wanted. It was never just about her, but he'd helped change the world. Helped make it this way.

He had to live in it too. He deserved to.

And he hoped she'd make it back sooner rather than later.

Looking out over the plating of the port, Trevor didn't see much real damage. Some buildings needed replacing but E-Carbon was strong. The damage would be mended. If Yashima's test flight worked, people would start flocking to it. Veda would bring more colonies. More cities in the stars.

Trevor looked up. The moon was always there now, no matter the time of day or where you were standing. If you could see the sky, you could see the moon.

She changed the world too, and Taylor should get to live in it. She deserved to live in it.

And that made Trevor wonder.

"Veda."

"Yes?"

"What if we had this wrong?" He glanced up, looking toward the moon. "What if this isn't a warlord? It's not Azrael. None of that."

It was the way the end played out. The way two of Silver Mask's capes came out of nowhere, seemingly with the sole goal of killing a very dangerous cape with a very dangerous power. Then they surrendered and gave up. Like their fight was done.

Distractions and getting rid of rivals from back home was one thing, but sending those two out like that…

Trevor nodded but said it anyway.

"What if we're dealing with someone like Taylor?"