A Waken 18.3
Hold on long enough and you see your faith rewarded.
"Every time I think we've gotten lucky for the last time." Lafter brought Kyrios beside 00 as I left the beach and veered back around. "You sure you don't have a master power?"
Pretty sure.
Confirmation.
Okay good.
"Don't stop!" Veda instructed. "Stay focused!"
I flew toward the beach as the Wards swarmed in. At first, I thought they might be a smaller group. I didn't know how they'd managed to get Vista's power to reach Sanc but they just kept coming. It was more than a handful. Easily three hundred capes and they were from all over.
Chris came in right behind Vista, followed by Labyrinth, Tecton and the Chicago Wards, and X-Caliber. Flash warped in a small tinker who started jumping up and down. Orbit flew over them with a full stand of bleachers filled with Wards.
The Haros dropped out of a portal on the beach, joining a line of capes who were meeting the Wards and handing out communicators.
"What's the light show?" one of them asked as soon as he came online.
The GN Particles were still falling, Throne Drei hidden by the cloud cover. The hum in the air had stopped. Or at least, I couldn't hear it anymore. Maybe the Simurgh couldn't pull that trick now.
Nudge.
Right.
Time limit.
Administrator tackled the Simurgh from behind, a shockwave of force rippling out as the stunned Endbringer was slammed into the ground. Assuming she wasn't faking. I wasn't putting anything past her.
"She's doing something," Lisa warned, still on a roof with Canary.
It seemed dumb until I realized she was counting on the Simurgh taking shots at them. Any shots thrown their way didn't go elsewhere and they were an obvious and predictable target.
I glanced over my shoulder. "Lafter"—she was handling her fear well—"cover Tattletale and Canary."
"Is that okay?"
"Yeah." Seemed better than admitting I'd planned for her not wanting to face an Endbringer. Even if we both knew that was the real answer."Go."
She was struggling enough just being in sight of an Endbringer. The Simurgh wasn't the one that killed her family, but this was still essentially her trigger event. Facing those memories was hard for every cape.
It was kind of weird the way we lied and accepted lies now that I had a front-row seat to it. There would be time for questions about human nature later.
Lafter veered off and I pulled 00 into a sharp stop. FLAGs were coming down from the clouds, circling the Simurgh in wings of three. The Tierens were showing green on my HUD, and Lily looked to be in position off to the North. Administrator raised a hand to fire a beam from her palm only for a solid wall of debris to slam into her and throw off her aim.
The Simurgh rose slowly, bouncing Administrator around with more and more debris while she struggled to catch up to what physical sensation even was.
We didn't have much time and we'd spent enough of it.
"Veda is everything in positio—"
The Simurgh suddenly jerked. It was a violent motion, visible only because she'd been in one place and now she was in another. She only moved a few inches.
Was she just as fast as Leviathan if she wanted to be?
Her wings swung out, scooping Administrator up and batting her away, causing the air to visibly ripple.
"Everyone brace!" Lisa shouted.
A few FLAGs shook as they flew in an arc, one started to spin out before it rolled, slid to the side, and accelerated back into the air inches from the ground. On the ground, capes were blown over and tossed into the air. Even those that'd ducked behind cover in time. Tombstone was thrown off his feet into a group of people who all fell like dominos as the wave hit them.
Ariel down. Rosary down. Torque down.
No deaths.
Surely she could hit harder than that.
I squinted, watching the ripple begin moving in a circular pattern as it spread.
Lisa beat me to announcing it. "She's using telekinesis as radar!"
Golden light blew up off to the side as Administrator began forcing her way through. Others seemed to take that as a signal. Powers began launching as those who could shoot that far started firing. The movers got back into the swing of things, keeping the blasters mobile and avoiding the worst of the Simurgh's attacks.
The first Wards went into the streets, shielding civilians and helping them to escape. Others joined the firing line. I saw a few capes in plain clothes too. The refugees from Europe?
The ground around the Simurgh exploded, dust, glass, and debris tearing into the air and forming streams that flowed into ribbons. Administrator finally blew through, raising her head and her fist to strike. The Simurgh jerked again, twisting around behind Administrator and slamming her into the ground with a brick wall that she swung over her head.
Debris followed, burying the golden avatar as the Endbringer turned its attention back to the beach.
Nudge.
"We're ready," Veda said.
"Then let's do this."
I came about and shot forward, charging right for the Simurgh's wall of debris. Smaller pieces were floating far out from the main cloud. Using debris as further radar?
No matter.
The sound barrier shattered behind me. Bringing my Buster Sword forward and wielding a longsword in the other hand, I aimed right for the Simurgh's head.
Just ahead of me, Stargazer flashed over a street between two apartment buildings. The Tierens fell a few inches onto either roof as the lightning faded. Ten of the suits hefted Gungnirs onto their shoulders. Immediately behind them, ten more loaded stakes into the back of each weapon. The launch arms swung forward and the launchers spun up.
As they did, every mover capable of moving more than one person flashed, shimmered and burst in. Strider dropped a team of twenty on a street. Vacate moved another group on a path of light through the air. Hands went up. Eyes focused. Powers were conjured. Hashmal leaped into the air and came crashing down behind the Simurgh, beak open and tail whipping out.
"Fire," Veda commanded.
The air erupted. Beams of ice. Fire. Rays of light. Hardlight projections. Spheres of black. Rippling waves of force. Those who could fly had gone high and were firing from above. Capes on the streets and rooftops launched volleys. The FLAGs banked, turning towards the Simurgh and popping shots from their noses. The first Wards got into the fight. X-Caliber pointed his sword and blasted a red beam at the Simurgh.
The Gungnirs snapped just as I passed them, the shockwaves from their firing shaking 00 as I flew. The stakes raced ahead of everything else in the blink of an eye, colliding with a cloud of debris and blowing it away.
On the other side, the Simurgh's head snapped around. She shifted again, moving out of Hashmal's blast. Her wings moved, every stake flying through the gaps and crashing into the buildings behind her.
Two hit her, shearing into her wings and piercing her feathers. As she recoiled, I swung my sword. I angled the edge toward her cheek only for a tiny wing to come up and take the blow. It was a very small wing, not bigger than my chest and thinner than a finger.
Despite that, my blade seemed to both stop completely and continue swinging in a strange sensation.
Shooting past her, I swore her unseeing eyes were looking right at me.
I flipped 00 over a piano that was soaring in the air and slashed through a car with my long sword. FLAGs flew in sharp turns and spins, avoiding me, each other, and the debris. We all broke off, escaping the Simurgh's immediate debris field. Almost. One FLAG crashed into a fire hydrant and a steel beam ran right through another. The second suit began to spin out, sailing toward an evacuating crowd.
The suit's legs and arms snapped out at the last second, dropping it to the ground. One leg snapped and the suit entered a violent roll on course to hit the crowd.
Chris swooped in from around a corner, a long cannon slung under one arm. He fired, destroying the suit before it hit the crowd while another tinker behind him projected a solid wall of light from a binder on his arm. The shrapnel battered the field and Chris turned to fire on the Simurgh along with thirty more Wards who poured around the corner behind him.
More force fields were projected and one cape raised a shield to his shoulder. Those behind the barriers opened up, blasting a new volley into the Simurgh's dust cloud and burning some of her makeshift shield away.
Administrator blasted out of the ground below me, shooting straight up and punching the Simurgh in the jaw. A wave of golden light scoured her porcelain white face black. The Endbringer shifted around, appearing behind Administrator and batting her away again.
She brought her arms and leg in and curled the wings in around herself as the barrage continued. The streams of debris began closing around her even as powers slammed in one after the other. The air was a fireworks display of power blasting away at her layered defenses.
And blocking line of sight.
Frustration!
I know. There's nothing more you can do.
She accepted it.
"Lily," I called. "Do it."
A mountain top a mile away exploded, the top popping like a firework. The Simurgh jerked to the side again, trying to move a moment too late. One of her wings snapped forward and the ground before her exploded. Strider teleported his team away just in time to avoid being caught up in the blast.
Good thing too.
The Simurgh violently struck the ground, her entire body thrown forward as a new and more wild ripple of force blew the GN particles into a wild swirl in the air. The Endbringer quickly recovered, floating her body around and lifting herself from the ground.
On the mountain top, Dynames stood in the dust cloud. A pair of FLAGs pulled another stake from a rack and loaded it into the suit's rifle. Stargazer teleported over them and they vanished from the position. A Gungnir. A fully operational GN Drive. Lily's power.
The Simurgh began moving immediately, drawing her wings back in.
I couldn't see the stake at all.
All I saw was the nearly imperceptible hole in one of her wings
Had that ever happened? Even when Lily fired the prototypes at Leviathan, the stakes were half sticking out. They'd never fully vanished into the body before.
It could work. We can win.
I flew over Lisa and Canary, not delaying to look at the streams of people moving down the streets on either side of them. Tombstone was back on his feet with a limp, directing other shakers covering the evacuation. Parian was directing a half dozen puppets, using them to ferry the elderly to safety. Narwhal was there too, projecting her forcefields while others erected barriers and cover against possible attacks.
Canary's song was working. We'd cleared at least four blocks of people and left nothing but groups of capes battling debris and random telekinetic waves. Movers kept bringing groups forward and back, moving them out of the way of anything the Simurgh tried to throw at them.
"Veda," I whispered on a private line, "Anything yet?"
"I have identified thirty-two possible points she is attempting to minimize damage to."
Fucking figured. The Simurgh could probably guess at what we were trying to do. Knowing her she'd create fake points just to buy time and trip us up.
The Tierens fired again and Stargazer teleported them away just as a wall emerged from the Simurgh's debris shield and flew their way. Other movers started evacuating the capes they were conveying, altering positions to keep the Simurgh from directly attacking them by tracing their lines of fire.
"It would help if I had clear lines of sight," Veda suggested.
"Yeah, I noticed that." Also probably not a coincidence. "Let me see what I can do. Start targeting those points and let's whittle them down. Get the flying bricks up here."
I threw 00's legs forward and thrust backward. As I flipped the suit around to fly back at the Simurgh, Vicky and dozens of other fliers shot off the ground and charged.
"Hold fire," Veda commanded. "Five seconds."
Hashmal fired the last shot, its cannon aimed at the debris field and incinerating a portion of it. The Simurgh seemed to spread the remainder out, able to maintain a good curtain while pulling another building apart.
The powers stopped firing as we flew right into the debris field. I swung my swords, batting larger objects aside. Vicky tackled the piano from earlier and started pulling away. Others did the same with other objects, and one cape ignited into a flying ball of fire that began burning the debris around her into ash and smoke. I rolled over, firing my longsword at the cloud to break it up.
A blast of gold drew my eyes to my right.
Administrator's golden aura surged, evaporating everything it touched and blowing a big hole in the Simurgh's makeshift cover.
Cresent down.
My head snapped around and I accelerated to the right, rolling over Vicky and two other fliers. Spotting the limp figure in the cloud, I grabbed Cresent out of the debris. Her throat was wide open, torn out by something. Her hand, and watch, were gone.
I grit my teeth and flew forward, barely avoiding a sharpened steel beam that was suspiciously aimed at my head.
Suppose it was too much to expect the Simurgh to quietly let me kill her.
As we passed, openings were made in the cloud, exposing the Simurgh. She was at the center, eyes peering out from between the wings that had closed to shield her.
She's up to something. I took note of how low she was to the ground. Bitch.
This had been too easy. She was just floating there taking everything we were throwing at her and offering only token resistance. We'd barely lost anyone.
I slowed as I reached the edge of Sanc at the foot of the mountains. I set Cresent's body down and took right back off.
"This is Newtype," I said. "I think the Simurgh is building something."
"I think so too," Vicky agreed. She and the other fliers were leaving the Simurgh's range and turning around outside of it. "She looked stooped over the ground."
Another barrage came in. The Tierens fired from a hill to the west and another mountaintop popped as Dynames fired. The stakes blew the Simurgh's debris field apart all over again, and the Simurgh rocked forward as Lily's second shot hit her square in the back. That one didn't come out the other side at all, but it did disappear through the Simurgh's wing and into her main body.
What appears to be her main body, my power corrected. That was a little more specific than Prime Future usually got when helping.
She was right though. Maybe the Simurgh's core was there, but I'd put good money it wasn't. It was too obvious a place to hide her weak spot, even in a reverse psychology sort of way.
As I came about to make another charge, the Wards were starting to file into the fight. The first groups had immediately rushed to help civilians get away. We'd managed to completely evacuate a few blocks near the actual fight thanks to them. Now they were starting to turn, advancing on the Endbringer and joining the firing or shield lines.
"Jouster here. What is the status of civilians?"
"We are still clearing the Simurgh's suspected area of effect," Veda answered, "Be advised that we believe the Simurgh's song to be a ruse. I am marking the suspected area of effect of her master power on your watches. Please watch your times."
"We know the drill," Chris said. His group on the street broke up. Orbit lifted some of them into the air while Chris led the others out of the path of a flying chunk of sewer tunnel torn from the ground. "The Protectorate isn't coming, by the way."
"We're all getting grounded when this is over," Flash complained.
Vista stood at the water's edge, visibly scoffing as I passed by. "Who fucking cares?"
"No fucking swearing!"
"Cut the chatter," Narwhal warned. "I heard Vista. Get her somewhere high. We can use her power to create safe corridors of movement."
I dove in, following Vicky and then overtaking her. I shoulder-checked a corner of brick wall to clear her path. The Simurgh remained stooped, wings pulled in. I couldn't see whatever she was doing as she'd turned to face the other way.
"Keep going," I said.
I forced my way out with Vicky and three others behind me.
"We're not seeing what she's doing," one of them said. "She keeps moving around."
The red particles were still falling. Was the Simurgh still able to use precognition after all?
"Flash," X-Caliber called. "Take Vista and Optics"—Optics? Where have I heard that name before?—"toward the mountains. Bring Shimmershield, Rasp, and Shortcut as security from any ranged attack."
"Tinkers consolidate," Veda said. "We are limiting the Simurgh's access to tinker tech as best we can."
"She's already building something," Hashtag said. "Thinkers over here are confirming it."
"The satellite debris," I said. I flew low, cutting under the Simurgh and trying to pry one of her wing's away. The damn limb held firm, making me wonder if all of her getting knocked about was real or not. "She dropped all those damn satellites around here. She could build anything even if the parts fell in pi—"
The ground shook below. I flew straight up, not even looking down. Administrator crashed into the Simurgh's wing and fired a beam from her palm that blew whatever was rising after me away. She turned her hand on the Simurgh, prepared to fire until one of the largest wings was destroyed when another pile of debris slammed into her.
She really wants to keep you busy.
Annoyance!
Every hit she throws at you isn't going at anyone else. You can take it.
She wasn't interested in silver linings.
She blasted more gold beams from her hands as she tried to fight her way free, shooting up while everyone else poured in. The Gungnir's launched another volley before Stargazer moved them. Hashmal blasted the debris cloud again, now joined by Spitfire and other capes who'd been teleported in close to try burning the cloud out while fliers continued trying to fight through it.
"Holy shit that's a lot of firepower!" someone exclaimed.
"Thinkers will be rerouted to Toronto," Veda continued as I flew clear and the Tierens fired another volley from another position. "Anyone without ranged attack options, organize by power and those not able to directly engage the Simurgh form rescue and evacuation teams."
"Come on," Jouster added. "This is why we do what we do."
Outside the city, Stratos and another group of capes leveled their hands, weapons, or projections. They began firing, blowing into the Simurgh's debris field anew. We'd broken it all up or destroyed it outright. It was more of a fog around her now, barely obscuring her form.
That lasted for about a second before a massive shockwave rippled and contracted. Administrator and others were pulled in suddenly. Two capes seemed to become crushed by the debris as it compacted around them. Gold light exploded as Administrator escaped. Other fliers pulled away at the last moment, all before a dozen buildings were suddenly and violently crushed as if by an invisible hand.
"Watch out!"
Movers started teleporting people away, but one group was overtaken by the debris. Hashmal's foot came down on their flank and its tail swiped out. The storm of destroyed buildings showered them, but most of the capes buckled down and took cover under Hashmal's leg.
"Follow me," I said. We need to see what she's doing.
I followed behind Vicky and four others. We punched, swung, and slammed our way through concrete and steel and delivered a series of blows to the Simurgh's crouched form as we passed. I circled as I struck, trying to get a better look but her wings were always perfectly positioned to block me. No amount of hitting seemed to move her if she didn't want to be moved.
A series of Gungnirs hit her in the side but she remained perfectly still in her haze of trash.
"Anything?" the cape to my right asked as we pulled out again.
"No," Vicky answered. "I need to pull back. My shields are down."
"Go," I told her. "We—"
"Watch out!"
Another cape tackled Vicky, knocking her out of the way of half a building that was flying after us. In the initial debris, it hadn't stood out at all. I started shooting at the chunk of rock and glass, as did a bunch of other capes on the ground.
Flash appeared behind Lisa and Canary, his hand falling on both their shoulders before teleporting them away.
Kyrios charged forward, slamming into the debris with its shields projected and breaking it apart.
"Is this wise?" Flash asked as he reappeared on another roof. "Can't she sing from anywhere?"
"Yeah," Lisa answered, "but this way, the Simurgh keeps trying to take pot shots and they're pot shots we can guess are co—"
Her voice faltered and Flash teleported them again as another piece of building crashed into the roof.
"Shit!" Lafter pushed Kyrios up and through the falling cloud of destruction around her. "I thought the point of this was to blind her!"
"She's not stupid," I warned. "She's using telekinesis and debris to keep track of things… And she's guessing."
Shards didn't really see the future.
No one did.
What they did was take into account massive amounts of data. Plug enough information into a system and you could predict the future statistically. More data, more reliability. Dinah's power was probably more than any human construct could ever manage, but if Defiant and Leet could build prediction engines then I imagined precognition wasn't much different.
The Simurgh was blind but she could damn well guess so long as she could somehow see. Making a safe bet, I'd say she could guess really really well. Which made the question how well she could guess me. Maybe she—
No.
I wasn't sure what that possibility meant for our plan but it didn't matter. It was too late to second guess ourselves now. This would either work or it wouldn't. We won or we lost. There was no in-between.
"Veda?" I asked.
"Twenty-nine points."
Damn he—I spun out of the way of a falling tank that immediately exploded as it fell past me.
Administrator grabbed me from behind, pulling 00 out of the fiery explosion licking against my GN Field.
I righted myself far above the warzone, struck by the scene.
The air was firepower. Rays and beams. Gungnirs. Hashmal's blinding laser. Movers kept the blasters moving and the ruined center of the city—Relena's home was gone—was filled with explosions, dust, and flying junk.
Rescue teams were pulling people out of the rubble as quickly as possible from the Simurgh's show of destruction. Groups of strikers and brutes were clustered in the cleared streets, some of them moving into tunnels of warped space while others waited for a chance to move in. Vista's warped space tunnels were spreading through the city. I'd never seen her use her power on such a scale before.
Vista's space tunnels weren't hard to see with the way light bent and twisted. She'd left openings in and out of the corridors. At the moment capes were funneling civilians into the tunnels leading away while others snaked close to the Simurgh. Very close.
And capes were going down.
The Simurgh was throwing more debris out and driving groups of capes to retreat. Sometimes the debris exploded. Fuel tanks. Boilers. Energy cells from the satellites she'd dropped. The barrage filled the air with explosions, smoke, and fire. Veda moved the Tierens back and forth between volleys and Lily fired her fourth shot as the battle intensified. Chris and others who could move quickly didn't stop moving.
The FLAGs swooped in and out, a few being caught by debris that trapped them as they attempted to dodge other projectiles. One exploded in the air, showering a rooftop in shrapnel and pinging Narwhal's shield. Lustrum floated in the middle of her power, a hard light construct she used to shield the street behind her. A few durable capes seemed unafraid to simply try and approach the Simurgh.
Gavel was just walking through the storm of debris she'd whipped up like he was on a stroll.
Part of me wanted to check in on the Birdcage prisoners but there wasn't time.
I had to trust Veda to manage the big picture of this fight. It was too chaotic for anyone else.
I'd tuned out Veda's series of downed and deceased messages. I had too much to focus on. I picked out names though. Mantellum was down, and Stingray too.
Looking down from above, I felt them all.
Felt the things they knew. The things they thought. The things they hoped. Marquis was using his power to rescue those who got trapped, quietly hoping circumstances would let him see his daughter. Flash, for all his edges, was a hero. He wanted to help people. Many of them did, and those who didn't were willing to play along toward their own ends.
Unfortunately, it was too raw. I couldn't quite sort it all in my head except to push it to the back of my mind and focus. Administrator was helping there I think, keeping me from being overwhelmed. I still tried to hang onto it, just a bit.
For those who died, what I felt from them might be the last they ever thought. It seemed important. That itself was distraction enough without keeping track of everyone who winked out of my senses.
"Twenty-five points," Veda declared. "I believe we should start."
"Transfer this data to those who can potentially do real damage."
Because the sad truth was, a lot of the capes here were here to provide flak. Data points to try and figure out where the Simurgh's weak point was. People had died for that, so we could try and figure out where to hit.
We had to make sure the lives lost were well spent.
My HUD began highlighting points of the Simurgh's body. Each marked a potential weak point Veda suspected and she kept the icons on point as I flew. I picked one and sent the location of another to Administrator.
We both charged. Administrator came in like a wrecking ball, plowing through explosions and debris. I swerved around obstacles and avoided the streams of firepower. Veda had arranged for us to have clear lanes of fire but with so many capes running around she couldn't control everyone.
As we came in, others closed. Strider teleported in close, dropping a ten-foot-tall Lung onto the ground. Fire erupted from his mouth and he grabbed at the Simurgh's wings. The fires rolled over her limbs and he attempted to pry them apart. Beneath him, Defiant stabbed his nanothorn Halberd into a pristine spot of white at the tip of one wing. Debris erupted in an explosion, but Narwhal shielded them with her power and Faultline slapped the ground in an attempt to break the Simurgh's footing.
While the battle broke out on the ground, I accelerated 00 and took the buster sword in both hands. Administrator blasted golden light with both palms, shearing clean through her target on a wing, and I cleaved my blade down and dug the edge into another. Telekinetic force grabbed at me, but a quick flare of the GN Field broke the effect.
As I swung back, Gavel brought a lamppost down, slamming it into the Simurgh's wings and budging her. Lung tried to push into the gap only to be thrown off and sent flying. Defiant avoided the force blast and retreated to Strider with Narwhal and Faultline.
In the distance, I could see Lung crash into a street, dig his claws in, and pull himself back up.
Turns out some cowards disliked being known as cowards so much they went and did brave things.
Strider teleported his group away and I flipped 00 around. I locked my eyes on the next spot Veda had pinpointed. Gavel was weathering more attempts to move him and was swinging the light post around again.
Colin's warning came a moment too late.
"The Simurgh has built something."
The beam of light seared into my eyes. I threw 00 backward and accelerated, pulling the suit up and over a building directly behind me because I felt the capes on the roof. The water in my eyes prevented me from seeing until after the calls came in.
Boost deceased. Gambit down. Gentle Giant deceased. Jasper deceased. Jurassic down. Phobos deceased. Polarity deceased. Sheerweave deceased. Tombstone down.
The names kept coming in as I blinked the tears away and shook my head.
A scar had been cut through the city. A straight line of destruction from the Simurgh into the sea the width of a city block. Capes were still scrambling away even as air rushed back in and cleared the smoke away. There was just nothing except Gavel who was burned but alive.
For everything else, it was as if whatever had been there were simply scooped up from the Earth and erased.
The Simurgh's wings spread, and as the feathers unfurled the barrel came into sight. It was a crude weapon. A long barrel with a break at one end and a series of coils and particle accelerators along its length. Crude reactors were strapped on either side of the base, along with a dense series of condensers that fed directly into the barrel.
I stared at it and the destruction, trying to rationalize what kind of power source so small could prod—
"She has two!" Veda shouted. "Everyone move!"
A golden beam cut through the air as Administrator tried to shoot the second barrel but a trio of wings absorbed the blast. The Simurgh held a hand out and the second barrel floated from the ground and aimed.
Right at me.
I threw the GN Drives to my right and launched myself across the city. The weapon fired, blowing through the air and striking two FLAGs as they tried to escape. The shot didn't even hit them directly. Their armor bubbled and popped on the fringes of the beam and both suits exploded.
"Bitch," I cursed. I was starting to feel a little like an old record with that word but I was too busy to be original.
Lily fired another shot and Dynames instantly began moving. Administrator wheeled around, trying to get a line of sight to the guns but the Simurgh twisted herself to keep her from getting a shot. The Tierens fired next, a volley of ten stakes slicing through the air. Three were aimed at the gun barrels rather than the Simurgh but a dozen triangular-shaped shields burst from the debris on the ground.
Two were destroyed instantly when the Gungnirs hit them. The third wobbled but deflected the blow rather than taking it in full.
The shield turned on its side then, revealing a square barrel. Stargazer dropped in and teleported the Tierens away moments before the other nine swung around and fired. The barrage obliterated the hill where they'd been standing.
"Spread out," X-Caliber ordered as capes on the ground began scrambling. "Vista, tighten the number of openings in your corridors."
"Already doing it."
The rifles broke their firing line and began shooting.
"I'm taking Canary out of here," Lisa informed. "This just got too dicey for playing bait."
"Take her," I agreed, swinging 00 around to avoid a pair of beams thrown my way and then stopping with bone-shaking abruptness to avoid a third.
While three of the stub rifles fired at me, the rest were a frenzy. They shot everywhere. It was like the Simurgh had made her own Fangs. Lung was pummeled in the second wave of shots, his body almost embedded in the side of a building as one blast after another struck his torso.
I switched my longsword to rifle mode and fired but the Simurgh jerked her weapon about to avoid the shots.
Lung down.
Too late.
I dodged left and right as shots were directed my way.
The warzone had reversed itself in an instant. Before, we'd been pummeling her while she tossed obstacles and distractions our way. Now she was barraging the city, blowing holes in everything in sight.
Blackbriar down. Lyran deceased. Notus down. Orion deceased. Triskelion down.
Movers moved. Capes ran for cover. Vista altered the shape of her corridors, twisting shots that flew toward them away from the people and capes using them to escape. Black spheres erupted over one of the stub rifles and it spontaneously detonated over the Simurgh's shoulder, but the rest drew into the shelter of her wings. They kept shooting and the casualties kept coming in.
Fortress down. Kaze down. Pearl deceased. Xanadu deceased. Zandava deceased.
I darted down, joining Administrator as she tried to get past the wings to the guns. Both long rifles pointed right at us and fired. I dodged, gritting my teeth as turbulence shook my control. I nearly crashed before pulling up and immediately needed to dodge the stub rifles.
Administrator took the blast head-on, surviving but getting herself knocked out to sea.
She really needed to be less direct.
"We need to get those guns!" Chris exclaimed as he took cover behind a school building with Housenka.
"Attack!" Veda called. Hashmal fired. The Simurgh shifted, floating fully off the ground and into the air over the beam. "Everyone who can move in. We need to destroy those guns!"
Yes!
We couldn't fight that kind of firepower by running from it.
A second wind rippled around me. Capes reversed course. Brutes ran in. Movers dropped teams in to fire a single volley before moving them again.
I pulled myself up as I passed Chris' position, gliding over the ground on a solid cushion of green light. His armor was already marked from a shot that blew right through his shield. Housenka's armor looked bad enough she'd have to withdraw.
"Break into smaller teams," Defiant suggested. "Did any brutes get hit in the blasts?"
"Cover will not help," Veda warned. "I calculate the energy output of both cannons to exceed even the capacity of the buster cannon Newtype and I used against Leviathan. I do not believe anyone is capable of taking a direct hit and surviving short of full invulnerability." Veda and I both knew enough about powers to know that didn't exist. "The smaller cannons are comparable to Purity's power."
As if to make Veda's point, a beam struck a building and blew it out before she'd even finished speaking. The rest of the structure began collapsing, burying the capes on the street before they could get away. The battlefield had been a warzone before but it was one-sided, us pummeling our enemy while she let us.
Now she was fighting back after luring us in.
And we fought harder.
I weaved through a flurry of powers cutting the air, joining a solid wave of fliers that slammed into the Simurgh like a wave.
I swung my swords around and aimed for one of the long rifles. A stub rifle swooped in, knocking my first swing away and firing a shot at a cape that flew low. He hit the ground hard and flipped, where a rod sticking from the ground impaled his throat.
The Simurgh, no longer content to let us pummel her, moved. Her wings spread and she rose, firing the stub rifles in volleys of three. One popped out from between her wings and I barely avoided a full hit. The GN Field shook as the beam slammed into 00's leg and I was flipped by the blow.
In an instant, I flung my other arm out and threw my longsword.
A wing moved to intercept the blow.
"Failsafe!" I snapped.
My sword exploded, showering the wing in shrapnel and peppering the barrel. My effort scored the weapon's length but didn't stop it from firing. That was done when Lafter drove a shield tip into the weapon and opened the claw, tearing the rifle apart.
The casualties kept coming.
Blesk down. Cyclops down. Flashpoint deceased. Jouster down. Sleeve deceased. Weld down.
Weld? I craned my head around to get a look with the rear cameras. I couldn't see him. I did see a wave of earth and bricks driving Gavel away as he tried to get close again. The stub rifles focused on Lustrum, slamming her hard light body until it shattered.
Lustrum down.
We were hanging in though. Many of our blasters and tinkers were still shooting. Another volley from the Tierens came in. This time the stub rifles deflected all of the shots, sending one into a street where it came close to hitting Narwhal.
Administrator blew one of the stubs away with a blast and tried to fire at another weak point. The second long barrel pushed through some feathers and fired into the sky. Administrator wasn't hurt but the force of the beam threw her back and sent her spinning away.
Was the Trans-Am particle shower even working?
It was impossible to fucking know. With the Simurgh, her randomness could be fake or real. Was she taking shots seemingly at nothing because she was unsure or because she wanted us to think that? Different questions, same answer.
It didn't matter now.
We'd win or we'd lose.
I swung low, flying over a street as the air exploded with lasers, beams, and blasts.
Strider dropped X-Caliber and twenty other Wards ahead of me. They all fired once as the Simurgh flew overhead and then vanished before a wave of debris came crashing down. I swung my sword and cut the wave in half. Slipping under the Simurgh as she twisted about over a rooftop, I stabbed straight into her foot.
She pointed four rifles down and fired.
The building exploded and I held the suit firm as I flew out of the blast and pulled up. Two wings of FLAGs flew past me, firing as the Simurgh continued to roam over Sanc, shooting and shielding herself. Hashmal jumped in. Its beam cannon tore through her debris cloud, slamming down onto a rifle but missing the long barrel Veda was aiming for. A wind blocked the blow and every rifle snapped around and fired.
Explosions raked Hashmal's form as it retreated, another wing of FLAGs flying over to fire on the rifles.
I'd swear she produced more of the damn stubs from somewhere but there wasn't time to count.
There were still shoutouts and calls on the com. Veda continued reporting the fallen and directing rescue teams to the injured. Stratos was trying to get eyes on the Simurgh's weapons but she was using her wings to block him. Flash was going to try and move him to a better spot.
I'd let others handle her weapons.
Between Lily, Administrator, and I, we'd hit about a dozen of the predicted weak spots.
This needed to end and it needed to end now. Not next time or the time after that.
Agreement.
"Lily," I called.
"Yeah?" She sounded tense.
"Keep shooting weak spots. If we can hit her damn core it's over."
Lily inhaled. "Okay."
I heard Dynames fire and I flipped 00 around a street corner and charged. Administrator came from the other side, grabbing onto one of the Simurgh's wing joints and slamming her fist into the porcelain white flesh. The Simurgh ignored her, firing a volley into the air that sent the FLAGs and the fliers with them scattering.
Coming in low, I ignored the smaller stones that struck my armor.
Throne Zwei forced its way through just ahead of me. The Fangs darted in a dozen directions as they fired at the long rifles. Gusts of wind and some ribbons of junk blocked the shots but Stargazer and some FLAGs dove from the other side and fired. One of the stub rifles exploded protecting a long rifle and I came in just under another but didn't distract myself.
I thrust my buster sword forward, driving the tip into the Simurgh's hip. One of the stub rifles swung down on me and I threw a GN Saber straight up and into the barrel. The weapon exploded and I flew back as a wave of telekinetic force tried to slap me to the ground.
The feet of capes appeared around me, X-Caliber's team firing another volley before teleporting away with Strider and taking me with them.
I forced myself up quickly and took back to the sky. "Thanks."
"No problem," Strider said as he used his power again.
I flew back up. The Simurgh had started moving east parallel to the mountains. Slowly, but with enough bob and weave that we were destroying buildings as much as we weren't destroying her. Administrator and other fliers were chasing her, firing, and trying to get in close. The debris cloud had concentrated into thicker blocks. The Simurgh rotated them about herself, compressing them to defend and blasting the debris outward to attack.
She had seven of those shielding rifles left after Flash dropped Spectre from above. She held something in her hand and when she fell through one of the stub rifles without it, Flash teleported her away again. The rifle exploded, and the Simurgh turned and lifted her wings to avoid another volley of Gungnirs.
I swung around behind the Simurgh, stabbing at one of her wings and blinking at the blinking light under her.
Shit. "There's something under her," I called. "Tinker-tech device. She's floating it along low to the ground."
"Likely some kind of detonator," Colin warned. "In her attack on Sweden, she detonated a geological device to sink most of the country's lowlands."
We were still fighting as I pulled up. It was chaos now, but it was a fight. Movers kept people from standing in one place. Blasters and tinkers were showering powers at the Simurgh and her growing sea of flying debris. The Tierens were taking fewer shots—avoiding the chance of friendly fire deflections—but the remaining FLAGs continued to dive in a swoop.
"Time up," Veda announced. "Switching to Throne Eins."
Wait—"Evade!"
The Simurgh looked at me and one of the long rifles pointed straight up.
The beam fired and blew the clouds apart. In the sky, I could barely make out Throne Drei's right arm and leg exploding as the suit barely escaped. Throne Eins went the other way, losing its left arm as it swerved. So much for that plan. Even if we plugged another suit into Drei to use its dispersal system, the two suits would be sitting ducks for the long rifles.
We'd planned for that probably happening though.
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear—" There was no one near me. Who said that? Nudge.
"You let me die, Taylor."
My heart jumped into my throat.
"You're supposed to be a hero, but you let me die."
Noelle.
"You let us all die."
The voices were a chorus without a source. The hum was back in the air. So the Trans-Am did have an effect. I almost launched my Trans-Am right there to silence the chorus as it bombarded us. It wasn't just me. It was happening everywhere. All around me.
"How many of us have to die before you're satisfied?"
Except it would produce another massive GN Field that would likely distract everyone and get a horde of people killed in this situation. It's not time. Time?
"Trans-Am!"
Lafter.
Kyrios burst forward, silencing the voices and shimmering red as it soared over the rooftops.
She grabbed onto one of the Simurgh's wings with one of Kyrios' shield claws and endured a telekinetic wave that slammed into her. She raised her other arm and drove it toward the long rifle that had fired. The Simurgh twisted around, throwing Lafter to the side and putting her in the line of fire of one of the stub rifles.
Administrator came down with both feet, slamming into the weapon and detonating it. I came in from the other side, swinging for another weak spot at her left knee. Lily fired a particle beam between Gungnir shots, but the long rifle was moved down out of the way. The Simurgh managed to throw Lafter off and slapped Administrator aside with debris. As she moved I took a stab at another weak point and swiveled a GN Drive forward.
A stub rifle fired at me and the GN Particle stream met the blast and slammed me to the ground. I recovered quickly, flying back and then up as Lafter continued to hang close to the Simurgh.
I wasn't sure if we were getting anywhere. The Simurgh was down to six stubs, but those clouds were blocking half our firepower. The rest just went into her wings. She kept using them as shields and as black as we'd made them, they were still huge.
"We need to destroy that device," Colin affirmed.
"It could be a trap," Jouster warned.
"The best traps are the ones you have to walk into," I admitted. Personal experience taught me that well.
"I'll take a team in," Narwhal proposed. "We need a mover."
From what I saw, most of our movers were keeping our blasters from staying anywhere long enough for the Simurgh to directly return fire.
"Way ahead of you," Dinah suddenly said.
"We got this."
Trevor?
I looked to the hills as Doormaker's power opened a portal. Kimaris charged through, landing with a loud crash on the street below and instantly bursting forward. Not even a second later Barbatos came through, swinging a huge mace over its shoulder.
Mikazuki?!
As most of the rest of the capes below scrambled to get away from whatever the Simurgh was building, Kimaris and Barbatos charged. Going down parallel streets at first.
The Simurgh's head turned away from them but one of the buster rifles flipped on its axis.
"Mikazuki," Trevor called, "get behind me."
At the next block, Barbatos deftly slid over and fell in behind Kimaris. Trevor angled the suit, holding his shield out front and leaning into it.
"Trevor!" I glanced at the barrel and threw 00 into a dive. "Don't!"
"We got this," he repeated.
"No! Wa—"
The long rifle fired and both suits vanished into the light. The blast was enough to throw 00 back as I tried to get closer, sending me into a slow spin that took a moment to right.
I reached out with my mind, still able to feel Trevor and his Shard.
They were—
The beam passed. Through the smoke, Kimaris's left knee exploded. Trevor shouted as his machine collapsed and slammed into the ground. His suit began to tumble, the armor plating melted but unbroken across its front half.
Barbatos surged forward, jumping over Kimaris unscarred. The Simurgh pushed out a wave of debris, but Barbatos was already jumping over it as it went by.
"The ice cream cone thing, yeah?"
"Yes!" I shouted.
Barbatos' arm wheeled back and Mikazuki swung. Air whipped around his suit and the mace spun forward end over end. The Simurgh dived down, but too late. Her head jerked just as the mace slammed into the cone.
The machine exploded.
"Tinker-tech device destroyed," Veda announced.
I came about and tried to see who wasn't still running away. We didn't have time to rally the troops though. "We need to destroy those rifles before—"
The second long barrel took aim and fired. It shot straight behind the Simurgh between two parted wings.
Right at one of the entry points into Vista's folded spaces.
Adreste down. Beak down. Faultline deceased. Grace down. Gregor down. Garrote down. Ilia deceased. Jester deceased. Newter down. Raymancer down. Tanis down. Tecton deceased. Weaver down. X-Caliber deceased.
Nudge.
I got a hold of myself. Time?
Nudge.
Context—my head twitched and I could see the others already moving in—oh.
"Veda, we need to all go in. Right now!"
Gavel jumped from an alleyway on the side, Mikazuki's mangled mace in his hands. He brought it down and when he hit the Simurgh's body reacted. She shook violently, almost hitting the ground but rose back quickly.
"Everyone who can, charge!" Veda commanded. "The long rifles need at least eight seconds between shots."
Lafter grabbed onto the Simurgh again and to my surprise, Mikazuki hadn't stopped his charge. He tackled her from below, grabbing onto one of her wings and pulling. Veda must have fed him our target because Lily drove a stake through the wing's joint a moment later. The stake slammed into the ground and threw a wave of debris forward. It split apart as I flew through it, stabbing a sword into another point.
Nothing.
The Simurgh raised two of her largest wings and I looked up as the first long barrel started to swoop up and point down at us.
Not this time bitch.
If she thought killing all those capes would break us she was dead wrong.
"Kill!"
The dogs piled in, claws and teeth burying into the Simurgh and pulling at her. Rachel grit her teeth, just as afraid as Lafter but fighting anyway. When a stub rifle turned to aim at her, Chris stabbed it through with a spear tipped by a pink flare of energy and covered Rachel with his shield.
Lafter released the Simurgh, grabbing the long rifle and smiling despite herself.
"Gotcha."
Vicky grabbed the other end of the rifle, squeezing with all her hands and crushing the end of the barrel. The weapon heated up and Administrator batted Vicky aside and kicked Lafter away before grabbing the weapon and throwing it into the sky. It exploded above as Veda announced Antares down and Lafter grabbed hold of the Simurgh with both shield claws.
I reached under her, stabbing into the Simurgh's shoulder. When a telekinetic blast blew us away, Narwhal threw herself forward with her shields and brought a large reflective blade down. Another shield threw Colin in and he drove both his nanothorn halberds into another weak point. Lily fired again at a wing joint and Administrator blew up one more stub rifle and reduced the Simurgh to four.
Strider teleported in, a hand clutching his arm. Thirty capes charged, barriers raised, and powers firing.
That's when the scream rose.
Not the Simurgh's.
Elle's.
"Everyone back!" Spitfire shouted.
Throne Zwei and Stargazer covered us as we retreated, destroying two more stubs. I flipped around, grabbing Colin with one hand and hoisting him into the air. Chris shielded Rachel as she called her dogs off and got them to scurry away. Flying between them, I blocked a shot with exhaust from the Twin Drives while Lafter grabbed Vicky off the ground.
Administrator.
She grabbed Narwhal on her way out, not that she needed to retreat.
We took off together, flying away just as a massive inferno exploded around the Simurgh.
Elle walked forward slowly, hands tight at her sides, her hood fluttering behind her head while Spitfire tried to pull her back.
Truthfully, the flames weren't going to do much, though I had no idea where she was getting all that endless fire.
It was a hell of a spectacle though and combined with the loss of most of the Simurgh's weapons, it was enough.
The capes on the ground rallied. Teams continued rescuing those too hurt or injured to rescue themselves. The Tierens got in another volley, blowing the inferno back around the same time Spitfire managed to pull Elle to the ground before a beam could take her head off. The blast flew over them and hit the ground and Flash quickly swooped in and teleported both girls away.
The fire died down, and the Simurgh moved forward slightly. Lafter and I were already charging back in, Administrator racing ahead with Narwhal dangling under her. Strider teleported a group of blasters onto a roof, including Stratos and they all barraged her together. Another stub rifle exploded and Strider teleported away before the other two struck the roof and destroyed the building.
Her body was barely white anymore. The entire fight blasters had been pouring it on and she'd been taking hits. Dozens of stakes stuck out of her from multiple Gungnir's. The spots that were still white were scarred or cut from attempts to find her core. There were a dozen possible points left.
Her time was running out.
Mikazuki was back with Trevor, using Barbatos to haul Kimaris up. A stub rifle fired, but Lustrum jumped into the way. Her hard light body was smaller than before but strong enough to take the shot even if it sent her staggering backward.
"Get him out of here, Mika," I told him. "You've done enough."
"Don't die," he muttered before twisting around and dragging Kimaris onto Barbatos' shoulders. Trevor was alive and conscious, patently proud of himself for doing something. He'd earned that.
We had to finish this before the Simurgh—
"Vista, move!"
The shout was Chris', but others echoed it as the remaining long barrel pointed right at the mountain top Vista and her protectors were on.
Lafter surged forward, Kyrios cracking the sound barrier in a sudden burst of speed. The rifle snapped as she grabbed onto the barrel with a shield claw. Then Kyrios snapped as force slammed into the suit, shearing one arm off and sending the suit in the other direction.
"Lafter!"
Kyrios flipped in front of the barrel.
I flew in, stabbed through one of the stub rifles with my buster sword, and drove a beam saber into the Simurgh's right eye. My eyes widened. I couldn't reach Kyrios in time. The wings were blocking my aim for the rifle.
The beam fired, and Hashmal came crashing down. Kyrios crashed to the ground and the beam cut clean through Hashmal. The massive machine exploded, but not before the tail drove down from above and cut the rifle. Secondary explosions tore through Hashmal as the suit came crashing down, directed away from Lafter but shielding her when the long rifle exploded.
Laughter down.
The Simurgh turned her head and though she was expressionless I got a sense of what she was thinking.
I flew straight up as a stub rifle fired after me and rolled to avoid a second and third shot. Other capes piled back in, even more appearing as more movers got themselves back into the fight. Gavel kept smashing the Simurgh with the mace, keeping her down while FLAGs flew in and took shots for him. The few that hit knocked him back, but the massive man remained standing and smashing, holding the Simurgh in place.
Why wasn't she throwing him?
Nudge.
That feeling was still there.
Pissed?
Something had happened suddenly. When Trevor and Mikazuki showed up. No. Before that. The voices. She'd been waiting to use those. To attack us after breaking the GN Field we were using to suppress that aspect of her powers. It was supposed to slow us down, but Lafter reacted too quickly. Too decisively. The Simurgh hadn't seen that coming and now the dominoes weren't falling how she expected. Little things into bigger things. She was losing her hold on the fight.
Administrator?
Restriction.
Not hers. Ours.
Administrator fired a golden blast into the other eye and flew over the Endbringer's shoulder. Stargazer teleported ahead of her and caught Kyrios as it fell. Throne Zwei destroyed the last two stub rifles, again causing the Simurgh to move like she wasn't sure what was happening.
She'd done what anyone did.
She tried to guess what her enemies would do when she didn't know.
Except I'd been out and about too long.
I'd affected too many people.
Chris. Vicky. Colin. Mikazuki and Orga. Lafter. Even Administrator.
Guessing as hard as she might with as much data as she could find, she couldn't guess everything.
Reality had finally caught up to her.
Confirmation… Acceptance. Destination.
Right. "Veda. Pull everyone else back. Administrator and I are going t—"
Naïve.
Even if the Simurgh had lost track of this fight, she could still guess what I'd do in a certain situation. Hell, I did that. If I could think it, she could think it.
With a surge of force, Narwhal and Colin were blown back, as were the three dozen capes who'd moved in to start shooting the Simurgh. She closed her wings and started raising into the sky with speed. The Tierens and Lily fired off another volley of shots but they collided with her body and she kept rising without stopping.
Veda wasted no time. "The Simurgh is withdrawing. Time, seventeen minutes forty-two seconds."
No.
Lisa had told me the only way to secure victory was for this fight to end like no other. That was true. For the Simurgh, she won if this fight did end like any other.
I went over the casualties in my head. Tecton. X-Caliber. Weld. Phobos. She'd gone after the future of caped heroism. Weld had survived and Phobos wasn't one of the capes the PRT had wanted to promote—her girlfriend was—but she'd damn well tried. If the capes destined to lead died here, and she just got away, what was there?
We hadn't saved Sanc. The people maybe, but she'd destroyed the city. It was a wreck all around me. The length of the attack was too small for the world to push for quarantine, but that might come anyway once word got out about how people hadn't wanted to run away. Those who'd come to defend the city would have nothing but corpses and a meager sense that they'd been brave when it mattered most.
It wasn't enough.
It doesn't end this way.
I glanced at Administrator.
Her avatar hovered beside me and she looked toward the mountains. My brow rose and I looked in the same direction. My eyes widened in surprise. I hadn't expected the three of them to be here. It was almost as shocking as the fact they'd been waiting and were now moving because the Simurgh was leaving the fight.
That's Count's handiwork, isn't it?
Probability.
Bitches. Alright then.
I raised my head and drew a khatar from its holster on 00's leg. Stargazer's head turned at the motion and I smiled to myself. I'd tried to ignore it because it distracted me and I didn't want to distract Veda, but now was the time. The quantum relay was right there in the suit, not even fifteen feet away.
I already told you. It's gonna be okay.
With that, every thruster fired and I shot into the air.
She wasn't getting away.
This was a trap for me, but that changed nothing.
Whatever Leet or David planned I could stop, but this?
This battle was the battle that decided the war.
Administrator flew after me, rising in sync as the Simurgh accelerated in her race to reach orbit. She could be fast when she wanted to be. We'd left the sound barrier behind a few hundred feet off the ground and were still gaining on her at a crawl.
Then Alexandria brought both hands down and crashed her full might into the Simurgh's shoulder.
Again the Endbringer jerked as if something unexpected had happened and I smiled.
"I told you. You're going to die. Shine, Trans-Am!"