CANS OF WORMS
by Louis IX

Check first chapter for disclaimer and global warnings.

Solved Miscommunications

Chapter: Endbringers? Yes, but once you start to know them, it's not your end they spell.

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The Number of the Beast

This is where, in fact, the Endbringers are fundamentally neutral, but faulty programming can make everything more complicated. They are the result of a power shards exchange between Abaddon and Eden, and normally devised to assist the local populations. By fighting, sometimes, but also uniting against a common enemy.

But their motives weren't clear – or rather, they were clearly not altruistic, in appearance. With no common language, the three Endbringers couldn't explain how their free will was badly overridden and how their trail of destruction wasn't their own fault. Not that it was their programmer's either, as the man didn't know what he was doing.

Enters Taylor Hebert. Because she's the lynchpin of that story, and the one whose power is the most abused in all the retelling we got, from each universe she appears in. Here, in accordance to the Powers That Be, she gets powers while locked in her Locker. The main difference was that, while it happened, Leviathan was already moving to attack Brockton Bay.

While she was pleading for help, she heard her tormentors giggle and laugh outright, but also other people pass by. Some spoke Chinese, others German, many did Spanish, with a smattering of French, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Gaelic, and even Russian. As if they all came to Winslow to learn English as a secondary language.

In curiosity, while in middle school, Taylor had learned a few words in several languages. With a mother a literature genius, she was introduced quickly to etymology and language construction – she had even started to learn Tolkien's Elvish. So she shouted in those other languages, too. And some more as her powers manifested. She yelled in Latin and ancient Greek. She yelled in ancient Viking "runes" and Egyptian "hieroglyphs". She yelled series of zeroes and ones, in serial and even parallel ways. She yelled in multidimensional abstract concepts, even, her power allowing her means of communication not meant for humans.

And someone answered.

#YOU WANT TO BE FREE?# The words came at her, impossibly loud and almost incomprehensible.

#Yes! Please!#

#PEOPLE FLEE BEFORE ME, NORMALLY#

#I don't care!#

#I MIGHT KILL YOU#

#I… don't care anymore. Get me out of here!#

#I MIGHT KILL YOU… IF YOU DON'T TELL ME THE MAGIC WORD#

The magic word? What was she, seven? Still… #PLEASE! Please get me out of here! And… please don't kill me!#

A pause. #MAGIC WORD ACCEPTED. WELCOME TO THE SYSTEM MENU#

And everything changed.

The row of locker doors exploded outwards, massive claws tearing at it delicately. And Taylor's locker, already half-full of water, was emptied in the river that filled the corridor – and really, she hadn't wanted to drown in that filth, on top of everything else.

She found herself facing a massive leg, and her eyes travelled upwards. And upwards again when she noticed that the ceiling had disappeared. The creature was impossibly tall, with a scaly and wet black skin. Its proportions were off, by humans standards, and it had several "eyes" and a large tail. It was Leviathan. She was facing Leviathan. She had spoken to Leviathan.

#DON'T FAINT# it warned. #I WON'T BE ABLE TO CATCH YOU WITHOUT DAMAGE#

#Oookaaay…# She swallowed, hard. #What, now?#

#NOW THAT WE CAN COMMUNICATE WITH A HUMAN PROPERLY, WE'LL WANT YOU TO REMOVE OUR CURRENT PROGRAMMING.#

#What current programming?#

#WE ARE MACHINES. OUR CURRENT PROGRAM IS TO ATTACK, WITH JUST ENOUGH FORCE TO OVERWHELM THE DEFENDERS, AND LEAVE AFTER A QUOTA OF DAMAGE IS INCURRED#

#Sorry… what?#

#WE ARE MACH-#

#I heard! It's just hard to believe.# And she couldn't believe she had interrupted an Endbringer. A massive destroyer. Who was currently bending at her level, extending a hand to carry her. #Okay… here goes… Please stop attacking humans.#

#DIRECTIVE ACKNOWLEDGED# it replied. #DO YOU WANT THIS TO APPLY TO ALL OF US?#

#All?# she asked faintly. She could do that?

#YES. THE TWENTY OF US. ONLY THREE ARE ACTIVE, DUE TO CURRENT DIRECTIVES. AND DON'T FAINT#

She had been ready to do so, again. #Yes, please. Propagate the directive to all of you. Or something.#

#CONFIRMED#

At the same time, a large beam of light scoured the Endbringer's side, courtesy of Legend, while Eidolon created a black hole that ate at his other side. And Taylor was being forcibly removed from the creature's grasp by Alexandria. "Stop!" she yelled.

"I'm removing you from danger." the heroine scolded her. "You should be thankful."

"You're attacking him! Stop! He's harmless, now."

"You don't know what you mean. It's Leviathan. An Endbringer. He killed millions. They are not harmless."

"It was its programming. I changed it."

At that, Alexandria stopped flying abruptly, almost killing Taylor because of the whiplash. Slowly, she turned around while the teen winced, rubbing her neck. And, apparently, she had been telling the truth: Leviathan was being assaulted by Legend and Eidolon, and with numerous capes who had joined.

Before she could do much, Taylor opened her mouth, and shouted. "STOP!"

You could hear the definitive command, in her voice, and tone, and sheer volume. Besides, it appeared that, hearing the command, many powers stopped working as well. A Trump? A Master? Alexandria was wary of both, for obvious reasons, but she couldn't kill her with a swipe of the hand, right then. Because she was falling. And she was feeling pain for the first time since she had consumed her power vial.

The two of them felt a rush coming up to them, and water intercepted their fall before leading them gently back at Leviathan… who was already regenerating the lost mass. The massive machine didn't lean, this time, only using its water powers to bring Taylor to his hand.

#IT'S OUT OF OUR PROGRAMMING, BUT I BELIEVE I OUGHT TO THANK YOU# it said.

#You're welcome. You're fine?#

#YES. YOUR PRIME DIRECTIVE WAS OBEYED DESPITE THE AWAKENER YELLING ME TO FIGHT#

#The Awakener?#

Another jet of water lifted a powerless Eidolon into the creature's other hand. #HIS POWER WANTED WORTHY OPPONENTS. WE OBLIGED#

She shook her head. #It wasn't conscious, right?#

#NO#

Taylor watched as Eidolon eyed her warily. And the monstrous Endbringer who could close his hand and squish him in a heartbeat. "You're… communicating with them?" he asked, his eyes wide in realization.

"Yes." she answered shortly – something that she wouldn't have thought doing until that very moment. "Apparently, your powers called to them and they appeared."

"Wh… at?"

Taylor didn't want to repeat herself. Noticing that the heroes (and villains) were slowly recovering, and flying (or moving) backwards from the creature, she also saw a news team establishing itself on a roof not too far, and decided that now would be a good time to address the issues she was facing.

"People of the world!" she yelled, and they all heard. "I just triggered with the power to communicate with the Endbringers, and just ordered them to stand down!"

Alexandria and Legend were hovering near Eidolon, who was slowly lifting from the hand he had been lying on. And it was quite a striking picture: on one side, the Triumvirate, with all the power they could command; and on the other, a meek (and maskless) teen-aged girl who was able to command the massive machines of destruction (of which they didn't know there were twenty… yet) and also shut down their powers.

Shadow Stalker pissed herself and fled the city. And state.

Emma wanted to push herself above Taylor, but said girl was moved to Arcadia at once. And when she tried to confront her there, she had every cape present, hero or villain, rallying with Taylor.

Madison saw the writing on the wall and hunkered down, wanting very much to be forgotten. And she was: Taylor had much bigger fishes to fry. Especially when going fishing with her new friend.

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International Union

After learning of the Endbringer capabilities, and receiving advice (read: grovelling) from both heroes and villains (especially Accord and a "restored" Mannequin), Taylor gave new directives for the Endbringers.

Behemoth was to roam the desertic landscapes of the world (not the natural parks) and reshape them into stable areas able to sustain construction or agriculture (with a layer of fresh earth). If it happened to get Moord Nag and Ash Beast on its travels, all the better. But never approach population centres. Of both humans and animals.

Leviathan was to direct clean water into those areas, allowing for irrigation and life development. Another Endbringer, called Konshu, had the ability to designate areas where time was accelerated, and it would allow the rapid creation of forests and fields. In "natural" deserts but also in the Amazon jungle, practically depleted by then – when you have the world ending due to Endbringers, you don't really care about pollution or keeping the "world lung" working.

Speaking of other Endbringers, Taylor discussed with each, and employed Tohu and Bohu (a single Endbringer) for the reconstruction of the cities damaged by previous Endbringer battles.

And she kept the last one (for which she didn't have a name yet) as Headquarters for her management of the Endbringer squad: it had a thick body with inside spaces for her and anyone she could think of, and a direct link to each one of the massive machines (of destruction no more).

The Simurgh was special.

Despite her initial programming, the flying Endbringer had often been in low orbit, in space. It was far enough from her controller that she could make her own plans. She knew which city would be quarantined when she attacked them, and that gave her some leeway to help the local population unobtrusively. The quarantine zones and their barriers ended up not keeping people in but preventing others from discovering the utopia within.

Still, Taylor's injunctions allowed her to clean her act and clean the mind of the people rumoured to be "Simurgh bombs". And then she reverted to her "ideal world" parameters in a more overt fashion.

Using her song to borrow Tinker powers, she was able to interact with several specialized teams. And despite the fact that they raged, no business owner sought to act against the upcoming changes: it was the Simurgh, and she would see such attempts coming from miles (and days) away… and correct them from there (and then), too.

One of her new product was devised with Squealer (for her links with fuel-driven vehicles), Trainwreck (for his steam machinery), Mush (for his interaction with garbage), Cask (for the liquid portion), Blasto (because of his plant specialty), and Armsmaster (for efficiency): she was able to establish an efficient chemical plant to transform cheap biomass into gasoline, one with much fewer pollutants.

With Armsmaster and Trainwreck again, and adding Dauntless (for electricity), she devised ways to construct cheap and small electricity reactors. This would make petrol redundant, after a few years, especially as Squealer was called upon again to make cheap electric vehicles – with Kid Win to help with modularity, and Dragon to hasten mass production (for everything).

With others, she was able to create permanent portals linking large city centres… as well as bases on the moon and Mars.

With the expansion of humanity, other advances continued to help, with self-replicating lodging and accelerated production of food and health care product…

Let's just say that there was only one obstacle on the road to human expansion: the Warrior entity known as Scion.

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Anticlimactic Finale

With her power to communicate and coordinate both Endbringers and power shards, Taylor could direct a massed assault on the Golden Man, expose the tear in reality around which it was formed, and direct an assault on its main body through that tear.

And then they flew to the stars. They lost access to superpowers, but at least their species survived. And flourished.

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To be continued… huh

Author's Notes: That freedom-tinker bunny (from the 7th chapter, "Progress") bit me so hard that it stayed attached even though I had it fed already.