A/N:
The response I've gotten from this has been crazy! Thank you all so much for favoriting/following. The pressure is officially on.
A forewarning: I'm writing several other stories on top of this. One fanfic on my other account, two original stories and the daily essays/articles for college. Add all of that together as well as the fact that I update slowly and you guys might be in the waiting game.
I learned my lesson the hard way when I started my other story right off the bat on fanfiction and wrote full 7,000+ word chapters between updates, which takes a month and a half or so going by my schedule. I tried to avoid that with this one by writing about two chapters before posting the first, but in case I drop off the planet for a month, don't freak out. I'll try to aim for once every two weeks, but that's a very generous estimate.
Sad things aside, I loved your reviews Inverness, Xyfa, Ctornello and Crowheart! I'm so glad that you're are enjoying it so far.
Xyfa: Haha, I'll take that as a compliment. The Simurgh is new territory for me, but I always wondered how Taylor would fair in a fight with her since she's gone against everyone else. She truly is the butterfly effect personified.
Crowheart: Yeah, too true. I guess it's also because I thought she was a Junior halfway through the story. Whoops!
And last but not least: The true master is Wildbow, whom we all owe thanks for the wonderful and brilliant Worm.
I put the phone on speaker as I threw on my suit and gathered my bugs. The sound of rustling papers filled the background.
"Thought as much. I can't go out on the field," Tattletale said, "but Dragon is hooking me up to the coms. I'll try to keep you updated with whatever I can find on the Simurgh…" She trailed off and groaned. "If there was any worse time for this-"
"It's fine," I said, though we both knew it wasn't. "You do your best, I'll do mine. Where are they picking up volunteers?"
"Ninth street beside the Derry's Warehouse block. I told Grue to evacuate with Imp."
That was going to be my next priority. Everyone, including the folks who lived under rocks knew the Simurgh played on your mind. If your mind was already half-broken, there wasn't going to be much of a challenge to destroy it all. Brian couldn't afford to go near the fight.
In fact, "Have him take Regent, too." I didn't want to know how much damage the Simurgh could do with someone with his mindset.
More rustling. "On it," she replied.
I finished the last strap of my armor and grabbed a wireless earpiece that Lisa had dropped off recently, and exited through the front door instead of bothering with the tunnel. I doubted anyone was going to pay attention to just another person leaving their house, costume or not.
"Though with that thinking," Tattletale said through the earpiece. "Don't you think we should all evacuate? We're not exactly the sanest bunch," she joked.
It was true, but there was nothing I could do about Bitch until I got there. She wouldn't leave her dogs behind, and I wouldn't make her. If our situations had been switched, there was no way someone could make me leave.
"Maybe," I replied instead. "You sure you want to stay?"
"As sure as you are," she said.
And that was that.
By all circumstances, it wasn't too hard to get to ninth street. It was a place that was out of everyone's way, where no one had a good reason for being there even when things were running in smooth order.
Derry's Warehouse block was exactly that: several buildings lobbed together to store local business wares. The present day had the block more or less demolished, with only one building left standing next to the pulverized remains of the rest. Any merchandise that might have been within was long gone by now, and the only thing left were bugs and rats. I took the bugs.
Other heroes were showing up. Without any teleporters on hand they were arriving in a mismatch of aircrafts, the capes that could fly carrying over platforms of others. Miss Militia stood out front of the main warehouse with Chevalier, a faded red sign labelled Derry's Berries hanging crookedly behind them. She met my eyes.
Narwhal from The Guild had also arrived, standing at her brilliant seven feet. The light glinted off the thousands of tiny force fields that covered her body, making it almost painful to look her way.
The Brockton Bay Wards along with who I presumed to be their new leader stood nearby several out-of-city teams, but unlike last time there was no forced camaraderie or joking between the other Wards. They kept silent, watching. Flechette wasn't with them. She presumably stayed behind with Parian.
Not far from his old team stood Weld with Gully, along with the red-skinned boy from the Echidna fight.
The Irregulars.
Or the beginning of them, anyways. I couldn't see Weld stopping there. He seemed to be goal-oriented, ambitious in a healthy way that Armsmaster lacked, and it suggested that he would try to recruit as many Case 53's as he could.
I watched as Weld approached the Brockton Bay Wards and strike up a conversation with them. It might have just been me applying a negative light everywhere I looked, but all of them looked distinctly uncomfortable.
Dragon and Defiant had taken up over half the block with their machines and were in the middle of what looked to be an intense, silent conversation. Their helmets covered their faces and they were practically at the other end of the road, but it was easy to see the tension in how they held themselves.
Defiant stood with his arms folded and clutched his spear in one hand, the length of it easily twice his height. His chin jutted forward and from this distance I could tell that whatever Dragon had said hadn't sat well with him.
Alexandria, Eidolon and Legend completed the entire scene, floating above us all; unreachable, untouchable.
I was distracted when Rachel pulled up beside me on Bastard, three other dogs flanking her sides.
"Where are the others?" she asked.
"They're not coming," I answered. "Tattletale's still worn out, but she'll be on coms."
Rachel grunted. She whistled sharply and pointed at me, and one of the dogs pattered over.
I shook my head. "Actually, I need you to help evacuate the city. Look for hospitals or people who look injured." I doubted riding one of the dogs would be much fun for a patient, but I figured they would need all the help they could get.
Rachel eyed me a moment longer before coming to a decision. "Okay," she said, and without warning or farewell she whistled sharply and bounded off, startling the heroes around us. Now I was alone. I didn't speak lest I bother Tattletale with needless conversation while she was trying to find something that might save our lives.
I didn't have to look to know that I was the only villain that had shown up, and with the amount of eyes on me I knew that others had come to the same conclusion.
I felt awkward, distinctly uncomfortable for the first time in a long while. It was funny, that I could be in as many life or death circumstances as I've been and feel out of my element in something like this.
I couldn't help but compare it to the last time I'd faced off against an Endbringer. No team, no real fighting power.
Useless.
The word dropped to the bottom of my stomach but I ignored it. This was no time to doubt myself. I was stronger now, and I knew where those strengths lay.
But I was beginning to second guess my being here.
"Thank you all for coming," Miss Militia spoke. Her voice carried over the whole block. "You all know what's going on, so I'm going to cut to the chase. The Simurgh has descended less than fifty miles away. We have reason to believe that this is her destination."
She didn't pause as some of the Wards began to hand out the armbands and another piece of tech. "We are to engage her long enough for the city to evacuate before we pull out. Only half of you are actually qualified to participate normally, but because of extenuating circumstance we're calling all hands on deck.
"This means that if we say to pull out, pull out. If we run, you run. Follow our orders to the T. The Simurgh plays no games and too many capes forget that."
Clockblocker approached me next. He handed me the armband and the other tech without a word.
"You will be receiving the standard armbands for the fight. The left button allows you to send messages to other members. These messages will be…"
I tuned her out, having received the same instructions twice in the last two months. Glancing around, I saw that our defense was increasing, but it was slow work. By the rate that capes were arriving and the amount of time we had to travel to the battleground, the situation was looking worse.
The capes around me ranged from nervous to budding panic. Miss Militia seemed to notice this as well because she cut the instructions early, moving on to the next gadget.
She held out her hand with the small capsule balanced in her palms. She took each end of the capsule with her fingertips and pulled it apart, revealing a gooey inside.
"These are prototype counter-measurements to the Simurgh's scream. They haven't been tested and each one is not guaranteed to work, but it's better than nothing."
That was why they weren't as uptight as I thought the Protectorate would be. They had some defense against the insanity, little though it was. I tried my own capsule and it came apart with a slight tug. The inside spilled out like molasses, smooth and slow and a dark purple. Weird.
"Apply it to the inside of both of your ears," Defiant said, stepping over to where Miss Militia and Chevalier stood. Dragon joined him shortly after. "If all else fails, the capsule will act as another layer of armor for your head."
"Did you get that?" I asked. Those around me gave me strange looks but I couldn't find it in myself to mind.
Tattletale hummed in response. "Yeah, take me out. I'll update over the bands as I find anything that might be useful." She hung up, no goodbyes.
Miss Militia began to apply the purple goo for the benefit of the crowd, to which half the capes around me winced at. I looked at my own slowly-forming puddle of purple. I wasn't about to complain, but the stuff was definitely not my first choice on the list of what I'd like to shove in my ears.
Still, I swiped it across my ears, unsure how deep to actually put it. It turned out I didn't have to worry. The goo began to spread immediately on contact, pouring over my ear lobe to the base of my neck, filling the inside of my ear canals with a gradually heating mass. Just as I was about to really start worrying, the goo hardened in place and immediately cooled.
I did my other ear and the goo repeated its technique, reaching around the back of my head to create a shell of a helmet.
Others around me weren't faring as well. One cape's capsule spewed a fountain of goo immediately upon opening, spraying his friends with a spatter of purple. Another's was already hardened on the inside. Still, mostly everyone's head was coated in a shell-like helmet, dull in shine and a little crusty around the hair.
I wondered briefly how mine looked at the moment.
"Our thanks to Defiant and Dragon for designing both of these defenses," Chevalier said, stepping up to continue the speech. He, Clockblocker and a few other capes reappeared after applying the capsule underneath their helmets.
"We'll split up into teams for travel," he said. "If you came with a team, stay with that team. Otherwise, join another's. With enough skill and forethought, we'll stand a chance."
It wasn't as good as Legend's or nearly as long, but it did the trick. The capes began to move out, some returning back to their own crafts and others boarding the ones that Dragon had brought. Stragglers joined together after trading a few words, and before I knew it a wide space was beginning to form around me.
Awkward.
I hurriedly advanced through the crowd, scanning for anyone who looked like they could hold another member in their team. It looked like everyone had already found their niche.
Man, the speedsters showed up in force today. The only other time I'd seen a place clear out this fast was when someone was threating evisceration to the immediate public. Which, I confess, happened a little too often in this city.
Only the Brockton Bay Wards, Irregulars and Miss Militia were left, purple helmets coating their heads about as unattractively as I imagined mine was. Dragon and Defiant had taken off almost immediately after the speech.
I approached.
"Skitter. You're not here to cause trouble, are you?" Miss Militia asked, the weapon at her side switching several times before settling on a handgun. I shook my head no.
"Then you're with us," she said before anyone could intervene. She waited a pause as if expecting someone to complain, but no one did.
It was hard to get a read on their expressions. For one thing, Clockblocker's face was completely hidden from view. I had a feeling Vista was glaring daggers at me behind her visor and the purple gunk that caked her head, but I couldn't be too sure. I wouldn't blame her for the hard feelings. I'd sort of taken on the Wards and won every time.
Miss Militia lead us to one of the aircrafts with a scaled-motif on the sides. Dragon-made. The interior was rather lackluster, containing only a row of seats on both sides of the main room and a pair of seats at the front for a pilot and co-pilot. There were compartments low to the floor and about a foot above the headrests, both presumably filled with first-aid, weapons or some other tools.
The Brockton Bay Wards sat on one side of the ship, the Irregulars and I taking the other side. Gully was too large to strap herself in, so she took the floor without complaint. I suspected that she was used to it.
Miss Militia took the pilot seat without question and started the engine, jerking the ship into motion. I felt the gears shift beneath my feet as the inner workings clicked to life and caused the ship to lift in the air.
It wasn't like flying with Laserdream or Atlas. With them there was a sense of motion, no matter how smooth the former had been or bumpy the latter was. This type of flight carried no weight to it, and I would have thought we were still grounded if I weren't able to see out of the front windshield.
"Orders are to keep at least quarter-mile distance between groups," Miss Militia said after we had settled in. "We'll remain spread out to minimize contact with the Simurgh but keep her engaged."
Miss Militia kept her focus straight ahead, but with the gnats I had planted throughout the ship I could tell she was tense, her fingertips twitching minutely on the controls. Agitation, maybe nerves. It wasn't every day that you went against the Simurgh.
A thought struck me. Had she? I couldn't recall ever hearing her partake in the fight, but Simurgh battles were a touchy subject. I knew that Dragon and the Triumvate were returning brawlers and perhaps some others that had shown up today, but that was all.
It was an unpleasant thought. I turned my focus to my bugs, feeling for the ones outside. We weren't that high up, definitely closer to skyscraper-height but nowhere near what a plane would fly at. I was thankful for that, it made the idea of plummeting to my death a little easier to swallow.
"C-8 The Simurgh may have a teleportation device in her weaponry. Confirmation waiting." The same message was repeated throughout the ship. Tattletale must have found something and relayed it to Dragon.
"C-8 Information confirmed," came a moment later.
"So, teleportation device?" Clockblocker broke the silence. Miss Militia tensed further in her seat. I supposed the commands were to keep conversation to a minimum.
"This wouldn't be the first time. The Travelers were brought here by the Simurgh," Weld said from beside me.
"Yeah, we know," Vista said.
She stared pointedly in Weld's direction, her mouth pressed in a hard line. That was surprising. I knew next to nothing about her, but by her team's body language it was obvious that this was new.
Weld's eyebrow lifted a fraction before he collected himself. "Sorry, just refreshing everyone."
The silence that followed was heavy, broken by the sound of something akin to an explosion below us.
I curled into myself instinctively and my armor buzzed, alive with thousands of insects ready to fly. Shouts and grunts erupted around as everyone braced for impact.
"A transformer blew, nothing else," Miss Militia said, stopping Clockblocker who was halfway out of his chair to freeze Crucible.
He coughed and re-buckled himself, a frozen Vista and Kid Win on either side of him. They came back not a half a minute later, the latter only having a moment of confusion before settling back in, obviously used to the disorientation.
The red boy who came along with Weld and Gully gave me a strange look and I realized that my armor was still buzzing. I focused on calming my nerves, willing hundreds of tiny wings to settle down. Easier said than done.
The rest of the ride was spent idly surveying the area around us with my bugs. There was moisture in the air, but not enough to warrant worry. More like the type of humid, lazy days that came as a staple of summer. It was going to be a pain to fight in, but I'd take it any day over rain.
We landed without fanfare and made our way down the ramp, the hot air blasting me in the face on the first step.
The Simurgh had landed in a beach town.
It had an old Hollywood feel to it, the squatted buildings and umbrella tables cast in an orange filter. I'd like to say it reminded me of the beach from Baywatch, but it was closer to Jaws.
I added the bugs in my suit to the ones I had been collecting on the way and reached out. The area was relatively flat save for a few shrubs and snack shacks. Further away from the beach the buildings began to grow in height, but the skyscrapers hung back at least a mile. Probably to preserve the view.
Miss Militia had brought the ship in a midway point between the two. Beach at our back, city to our front. Several blocks from us landed Defiant, Dragon going on ahead towards where the other teams were landing.
He nodded at us but kept his distance, and Miss Militia didn't look like she was about to make her way over anytime soon. She spoke in grim undertones to her armband and I barely heard the response. "…ed here."
The Wards and Irregulars had already gathered in their individual circles, though I got the impression that Weld had intended for it to be all-inclusive. The result left me in the middle of a circle and a half, forming the wall that kept the two teams separate.
"Skitter," Weld approached. He extended a hand and I shook it, the unyielding metal below my fingers only vaguely unnerving me. I knew as well as anyone that he was metal, but it was easy to forget in gestures so inconsequential.
"It's nice to have an extra set of eyes. While Miss Militia is getting updated, mind filling us in on the situation?" he asked.
The Wards quieted at that. I could feel their interest grow behind me.
I acquiesced, "We're in the midzone of the beach and city, a mile at least to either side. No optimal covering for at least several blocks, but no people either. The area is deserted."
As I said it, I realized just how strange that was. There was no way the town could have possibly evacuated in time.
Where was everyone?
I continued, "Um. It looks like the area was emptied recently, maybe in the last hour." I concentrated on a cockroach that had just fallen into a pot of mildly warm stew.
Miss Militia rejoined our group with a frown. "No eyes on the Simurgh just yet. But there's something else that's unsettling."
"If it's about the people, we know," Clockblocker interjected. "Skitter was just telling us."
Miss Militia raised an eyebrow at me and I took that as my cue. "There's nobody here within six and a half blocks. It's like everyone upped and left."
She nodded. "Chevalier and Dragon reported the same. Let's move further north and scout the area. Vista?"
Vista stepped forward and my whole perception became skewed. The distance to the larger buildings was shortened dramatically, and my bugs were giving me confused readings all around. The distortion ended and I almost tripped over a fire hydrant that was placed in my way. I couldn't tell if that was on purpose or not.
We were almost directly in the city now, the first skyscraper less than two blocks away. The bugs that I had been scouting with were suddenly out of my range and I frowned, quickly gathering new ones. It would've been nice to have a warning.
I wasn't crazy about our new position, either. Ever since I had seen Siberian topple a skyscraper, I've felt a little uneasy being in the middle of them for a fight.
I felt trapped. At least my range would extend.
Kid Win took to the skies, flying low and ahead of us. I saw another ship land not far from where we were, though it became hidden by a series of giant metal beach balls stacked on top of each other, a promo for some sports store.
I felt more than saw Miss Militia and Weld flick their eyes towards me more than once, a silent agreement between the two to keep me in their sight at all times. I couldn't blame them, but at the moment we had bigger fish to fry.
"C-8 Simurgh landing Stopper's Place NE."
We froze and collectively checked our armbands. A marker blinked on the map, placing the Simurgh about a mile off our location. Kid Win rejoined us, landing with a metal clink of his armor against the pavement.
"Don't focus on the scream," Miss Militia spoke first. I hadn't noticed it until she mentioned it, which defeated the purpose. It was a subtle note that had taken residence in my mind, high enough to break glass.
It could easily sound like the high-end of a piccolo's range, but I had a feeling that if I tried to associate something positive with it, it would be all the more effective. Upon that thought the sound grew an edge, turning into a steady, near-silent shriek. I tried desperately not to think on it after that.
I had no idea whether Dragon and Defiant's tech was softening the shriek or at least its effects, but I couldn't imagine trying to last against an Endbringer with the sound any louder.
"What are your orders?" I asked.
As much as it pained me, I didn't know what to do here. I had tried to ignore it until now, but there was a part of me, the part that was hopefully untainted by the Simurgh, that said I wasn't in the right mind to call the shots. I had been prepared to turn myself in and cut ties with the Undersiders today. I had been ready to gamble everything, and to be in that same mindset here, now? I could suck up my pride and admit that I wasn't going to be doing much good as leader.
It felt strange not to be in charge after leading my own team, though. But the thought of Trickster shut up the feeling. There were parts of him and I that were similar, miniscule qualities maybe, but they were still there.
I wasn't going to end up like him.
Miss Militia looked surprised. "We-"
A crash interrupted her. The stack of beach balls was blasted off its foundation by a wave of light, half of them splitting open and melting onto the pavement.
Another flash of light erupted at the end of the block and we split off without order, the Wards and Miss Militia taking shelter behind a corner bookstore while Gully and the red boy dove for cover through the store front of a local boutique.
I wasn't far behind them when I was shoved to the ground. I barely managed to turn my face to avoid breaking my nose before I squeezed my eyes shut against another burst of light. Heat rushed over me, scalding enough to burn like nothing I had ever experienced before. It ended before I could do more than gasp.
I opened my eyes and came face-to-face with a half-melted arm.
"Don't move."
Weld.
I waited patiently as he got to his feet though the heat radiating from his metal skin made my flesh burn. When I felt the relatively cooler air against my neck I shifted, and upon hearing no protest I gingerly stood up.
The upper half of his body looked like an old bottle of silver nail polish. His skin was running slowly over itself, then reabsorbing and repeating the process. One of his arms was pointed with what looked like the shrapnel from the beach balls and his other arm was slowly pooling back into place, but he looked the most upset over the half of his face that had been rubbed off.
His pants were more or less intact, though I suspected they wouldn't be for long. The light had practically vaporized them, leaving them the consistency of tissue paper. Parts were already fluttering away in the breeze, revealing a flame-retardant suit much like the one he wore against the Nine.
Though a little crispy, the purple crust-helmet had survived. Impressive.
More crashes sounded further away and I saw the tip of the Simurgh's wing above a skyscraper as she dodged a hit from Eidolon and Legend combined, Alexandria coming close to almost swiping her with a fist. Almost was the key word.
One of Dragon's suits hung towards the back, engaging the Simurgh with shockingly green rays that zigzagged like lightning bolts. It missed but provided Legend the chance to hit her full-on with his lasers. Clumps of the Simurgh's feathers looked burnt at best, but it was something.
The shots that had been fired at us were only the aftershock of the true blast. The Simurgh unleashed a storm of light from her artillery, prompting the heroes to barely dodge out of the way as she laid to waste an entire city block. Dragon's ship wasn't so lucky. I could hear capes scream above the sound of screeching metal and crumbling stone.
"Fuck," Weld muttered.
"C-8 Top deceased, Girlpower deceased, Throne of Fists deceased-"
"Regroup!" Miss Militia hollered, her weapon forming into a bazooka her size.
Vista and Clockblocker stood at the ready, freezing and distorting the incoming shrapnel while Kid Win prepared what looked like a handheld version of the laser he used against Leviathan. It rang with a high-pitched whine that I could hear from the other end of the street.
Crucible completed their defense by throwing out concentrated force fields of heat, incinerating everything in its bubble. The name fits, I noted absently.
I sent several swarm decoys out to distract the Simurgh but she didn't spare them a glance before vaporizing them with another piece of tinker tech. The blow carried over to the building behind my swarm, and nearly an entire floor's windows shattered simultaneously.
I gathered what bugs I could find and set them on the heroes below. "Falling glass," I said, and they didn't waste time in clearing out as shards the size of my foot fell from the building.
I dashed forward with Weld hot on my heels, having to stop and dive behind a street bench as a spray of light fell down. I saw the source of it when it shot again. The Simurgh had found some sort of laser and had massively tinkered with it, the weapon circling her like a moon in orbit. It flashed into sight only when she was employing it, and she had half a dozen toys with her that implied the laser was being used for a specific purpose. Other than terrorizing humanity, that is.
Legend had found the gun as well and was in the middle of shooting at it, her and everything around her to get a lucky shot in when she vanished.
What?
And then I remembered Tattletale's message. The Simurgh may have a teleportation device in her weaponry.
A/N:
Tell me if you think any characters are OOC (especially Miss Militia- my favorite but the hardest to write dialogue for minus Kid Win). I've applied my own headcanon to how I think some of the Wards would react to the Irregulars. The Wards never interacted with them, which I think would've been interesting. I wonder if there were some hard feelings?
Feel free to lay into me about the character's powers if I'm doing them wrong. Actually, please do. Vista and Clockblocker's abilities absolutely scramble my brains. I already wrote chapter three and half of four, but if I'm getting something completely wrong or if there's a better way to do it, let me know and I'll see if I can fix it.
Also, I couldn't remember if Kid Win had a booster pack or not, but for the sake of this story he created it after the Echidna fight. Yep.
Please let me know of any errors you see. Comments, questions; all critique is welcome and will be thanked profusely with my tears (of pain or joy, both work). I'll start labeling these chapters once I have some groundwork built.
See you next time.