And here we go. The biggest fight I've had planned. A real change to the story. This will definitely shake things up. But first, I just want to say something. You can ignore this if you don't have any problems with me focusing on OCs.

Now, my dream job is to be a writer. To make money from my stories, to earn pay from doing something I love, and all that stuff. Writing fanfiction helps me work out my writing muscle, see what works and what doesn't. That way, I can have more hits than misses when I actually write an original story. I've had family and friends (and family friends) take a look at the work I've done, and many of them think it is amazing.

That said, I've read on TV Tropes about people who had their egos inflated by family praise, had their books self-published, and generally turned into spoiled idiots churning out toilet paper worth books.

But the point is, I want to write an original story at some point. With my own characters, my own abilities, and my own plot. Much like how Wildbow made this amazing story. Except that I'd like to earn cash from my work. (Hey, I like getting money, and I admit it.)

So anytime I focus or create an OC, it's my attempt to try and see if I can make my own original character and if they will work. Like everything, some will work and others don't.

Still glad that people like my story though.

Ok, now onto the fun.


Chapter 14: Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Clockblocker grabbed the bottle of water he had left in the fridge and started gulping it down, his helmet hanging from his fingers. He had just come off a busy patrol; one that ended with a fight against Fenrir's Chosen. They were pushing further into the city, trying to take territory as they lost ground to the Undersiders, the Travellers, Coil, and Blacklight. Right now, with the way the city was standing, the Protectorate and the Wards were the easiest targets. More concerned with following rules and guidelines, less willing to use lethal force. Together, it meant that they had fewer options in a fight. And everyone knew it. Plenty of people had already moved out of their area, heading towards crooks like Swarm, Grue, and Blacklight. People who the Chosen were scared of, people who would put them down. He had heard some of the PRT officers debating whether they would arrest people for willingly siding with villains, but he doubted anything would come of it. They were too hard-pressed dealing with the crooks they already had, let alone locking up people for just trying to find safety and stability in these troubled times.

Whether they wanted to admit it or not, they were losing control of the city.

Vista stepped out of the shower bay, dressed in casual clothing. The left side of her collarbone was covered in gauze, peeking out from under her top. Her hair was still damp, and she was currently drying it with a towel. "Hey Dennis." She said to him, speaking softly. "Been a crappy day, hasn't it?"

He nodded, dropping the helmet and falling into a seat. "Yeah. We weren't expecting Hookwolf and Storm Tiger to both show up. Fuck. Nearly got torn apart when I stopped Hookwolf. If Weld hadn't thrown himself in his way, I would've been killed." He paused. "How's our team leader doing?"

Vista shrugged. "I think he's hurting, but he doesn't want to whine and moan about it. Not when others got hurt too. Or he could be perfectly fine. It's hard to tell since he's made of metal."

"Perfectly fine here." They both looked up, saw Weld standing on a higher level than them. His chest and arms were marred by large scratches. But he was smiling at them. "I don't really feel pain like regular people do. I feel something, but it's a lot duller than pain. That said, it always looks creepy walking around with bits missing. Missy, could you come up and help me apply some metal on?"

Vista nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Great." He turned back to Clockblocker. "Tell the team they did good tonight. We might not have captured anyone, but I just heard that we managed to scare the Chosen off. And apparently Storm Tiger and Rune are gonna have a few bruises tomorrow. We've shown them that we're not going to let them move in without a fight. Keep fighting like that, and they'll have nowhere left to turn to."

Clockblocker nodded. He followed Weld's orders most of the time, but as the resident rebel, he and Weld were complete opposites. Weld has always been a company man. The kind of guy willing to do everything the PRT asks him to do. Follows their rules to the letter, deals with the bureaucracy, and all the other things a team leader had to do. If the PRT told Weld to jump, he'd ask how high.

If they asked Clockblocker to jump, he'd make heaps of trouble for them before he went through with it.

He left their headquarters, heading towards the main offices of the PRT. He had been too busy these past few days to check up on his family. Dad's leukaemia came back, but according to Mom it's getting better again. He had seen them when Leviathan was chased off, when he had first heard about Dad getting sick again. But things have been too hectic to check up on them much. If he could get away, it was mostly just long enough to eat a reheated meal and make sure they were ok. They had been swamped with work. Dealing with the Merchants, dealing with the Undersiders, keeping an eye on Blacklight, hunting down and detaining the surviving Merchants after Blacklight took over, keeping the Chosen from taking more of the city, losing half the city to the other criminals… And then there was the Nine showing up. He was thankful that they were stopped before they did too much damage. Hell, they didn't even get time to announce themselves. As far as anyone is concerned, they haven't been in Brockton Bay since… God, decades ago. Most of the world didn't even know that they were dead.

Piggot figured that people would be more terrified that Blacklight managed to wipe them out pretty much on his own. He apparently had help against Crawler, but they were still his people. To Dennis though, it was the fact that he killed Siberian that was freaky. She had always been the boogyman of the cape world. The invincible monster. The unkillable killer. She would show up, and everyone would have to run. Because if she got her hands on you, you were dead. And then Blacklight stopped her. And no one knew how.

That was what scared him the most. Things usually get less scary once you can explain them. Sure, the Endbringers were terrifying. But mostly because they knew nothing about them. Once they got an idea of what their strengths and weaknesses are, how much abuse they will suffer before running, they weren't as horrifying. But Blacklight was an enigma. He just showed up and robbed a bank. Took out Glory Girl on the first try. Then he started moving up in the world, and just kept getting stronger. Or maybe he was just using more of his abilities. Siberian probably fell because of some new power he had kept in reserve.

Made him wonder what else Blacklight had to fight with.

He was so busy thinking over these things that he almost missed the shadow following him. When he turned around, he blinked as he recognised them. Then smiled.

"Carlos!" he said jovially, pulling his former teammate into a hug. Carlos did the same, almost crushing his ribs in response. He pulled away and looked at him. He still had the same uniform, still the same red colouring and silver shield. Only now it had some form of plating over it. A little redundant, but he could understand why the Protectorate would give it to him. "What the hell are you doing back here?"

Carlos gave him a grin. "Heard that someone's been dragging my city down while I was gone. Couldn't keep working in Boston without coming back to bail the little guy out."

"Oh, I'm dragging this city down? I'm surprised everyone isn't abandoning ship the moment you landed, buddy." He replied, still smiling to show that he was joking. Carlos had been his best friend in the Wards, until the Protectorate decided to move him to Boston in exchange for Weld. It felt good to have him back. "Still going by Aegis?" He asked.

"Yeah. Might as well." His grin faded though. "Seriously though. Things have gotten a bit bad since Leviathan, haven't they?"

Dennis shrugged. "I guess. We're holding out somewhat, but there's no way we can hide the fact that half or more of the city is under villain control. Still, could be worse. We're pushing back, mostly. But… sometimes, it's just not enough."

"I hear you, man. Honestly, I was kind of hoping that the news was playing it up a bit."

"Slaughterhouse Nine got killed off though. That's good."

"Heard that too. Blacklight found them and ripped them apart." His smile came back, but there was a touch of fear in his eyes.

"So, why are you really back?" Dennis asked. He was glad to see Carlos again, but he doubted he could've come all the way back in uniform to hang out.

"Got recruited by Alexandria." Carlos explained. "She's assembling a team and a plan to rescue Brockton Bay from the crooks holding onto it. I think that she thinks that Blacklight is the biggest problem."

"Can't argue with that. So she's assembling a group to take him down?"

"Maybe. But… Well, we're required to read up on everything they know about Blacklight so far. And it doesn't look good."

"How? Or am I not on the 'need-to-know' list?"

"Well, you know how he's listed as a Trump, right? He shows off powers similar to what other capes had, and he can somehow grant them to his pantheon? It turns out that he can harvest them from capes he kills."

"Shit."

"I know. Anyone we send in, we live with the knowledge that he could add their powers to his own. So we can't have anyone too powerful in case he gets to them."

"But at the same time, you need powerful people to overwhelm his healing factor."

"Catch-22 scenario, right there. Apparently Armsmaster and Dragon tried to use machines to off him, but he managed to smash them and then survive the suicide attack. But Alexandria says that she has a plan, and I don't think she's lying." They had started walking as they talked, and now they found themselves outside the conference room. A big place, able to hold lots of people. Dennis came to a halt as he took in everyone there.

The New York branch. The Boston branch. Chicago. Houston. Los Angeles. Philadelphia. Pretty much every Protectorate team in the US was here right now. Only Eidolon, Arbiter, and Ursa Aurora weren't present. And Alexandria, but she was probably in a meeting with Piggot.

"Seems like a lot for one guy, doesn't it?" Carlos noted.

Dennis nodded. "I just hope that this isn't one of those times where it's not enough."


There wasn't much of a crew guarding Ellisburg these days. They had over several dozen officers watching the cameras 24-7 when they first went up, every last one of them certain that Nilbog was going to come charging for them with his army of monsters. But days turned to weeks turned to months turned to years. And nothing happened. Oh sure, there was plenty happening inside the walls. Nilbog taking left-over corpses and changing them into monsters. Growing his own little 'garden'. But not once did he or his pets approach the only way in or out. He was apparently content to live as a god in this little domain. And the dozens of officers waiting for the pin to drop started relaxing. They stopped having weapons with them at every moment. Stopped jumping every time they saw movement. As two years came and went, the PRT decided that Nilbog wasn't an ongoing threat. Men started getting reassigned. Two were taken off to be stationed elsewhere. Then a quarter. Then half. Right now, only six men were left. Three for the daylight shift; three for the midnight shift.

Some of them had spent a decade here, and nothing exciting had happened since the day it all went to hell in the first place. Of course, like all things, it wasn't to last.

The first clue they had that something was up was only on camera. A section of the wall, outfitted with several cameras, caught something crashing to the ground. The officer at the console, Officer Whitter, jumped a bit from the sheer suddenness of it. He blinked as he took in the dust cloud.

Something big had landed.

"Uh, John?" He called out to the general quarters. "I uh… I think something's going on."

"You think? Are you interrupting my nap because you think something's happening?" John's nasally voice called back. "Nothing's happened for ten goddamn years. He's happily living in la-la land, and nothing's ever gonna change." More movement from the cameras. Nilbog's monsters approaching the cloud. Hundreds of them, ready to defend their master and territory. The dust cloud was dissipating, revealing black body armour.

No. Not body armour. Scales.

"I'm serious, John." He called out again. "I…I think it's Blacklight. I think he's shown up." At this, John finally came out of the quarters. He was a thin and greasy man, made greasier and thinner from living here for so long. He always felt shafted having to babysit a giant monster, and his mood had only gotten worse with every day he spent here. He leaned over Whitter's chair, and squinted at the screen.

"Huh. So it is. So what? Our job is to keep things from coming out. Not keep them from coming in. If Blacklight feels like committing suicide, then I say that we should get some popcorn and watch these things rip him…"

Blacklight slammed his fists together, a slight smattering of dust billowing outwards. The beasts and goblins and monsters all started pawing the ground, taking this action as a sign of aggression. Whitter partly wondered how long Blacklight would last against this horde. Would he even manage to wipe out most of the crowd already present, or would…?

Wait. Something was happening. He looked closer at the screen, zoomed in even. The monsters were bleeding, coughing up blood. Wounds were opening up on their bodies, and parts started rotting off.

Every last one of them was being affected.

But it was when they started melting that he realised what was happening.

"Fuck me." He breathed. "He's just like Nilbog. He's making… something out of those monsters."

"Brilliant deduction, Whitter." John said nastily. "Of course, if you were paying more attention, you might've realised that already." He pointed at the screen. The remains of the monsters were rising again. Mutated with pustules and claws and other horrific things growing out of them. One's face was hidden underneath what looked like a hive. And the bigger ones turned into giant dog-like things, with far too many teeth and claws.

As one, Blacklight and his small army turned. Whether alerted by spies or scouts or his power, more of Nilbog's monsters were rushing towards them, determined to defend their home.

Blacklight charged forward, and his army followed him at speed.

Both armies clashed, and the fighting swayed between them. Blacklight's creations were tougher, stronger, and faster. But eventually they would fall under the onslaught against them, the various abilities that the monsters showed.

But every time one of Nilbog's soldiers fell, it would change and rise as one of Blacklight's. Every ability they used, one of his would use it as well.

They're evolving. Whitter realised. Everytime they fight, they adapt to their enemies and take whatever they find useful. They get stronger and tougher. It's only a matter of time before they become strong enough to survive everything Nilbog can throw at them.

"We uh… I think we… need to tell someone about this." He stammered. But he couldn't tear his eyes away from the fight, watching as one of Blacklight's monsters breathed fire at the enemy. It seemed surprised when the corpse spawned dozens of little monsters that swarmed it, but even as they tore it apart, another monster crushed them under its girth before devouring its fallen brethren. John was exactly the same, his mouth hanging open. Whitter pulled himself away, looking around the room. Where the hell did Lester go? Idiot was always slacking off. Sighing, he grabbed the phone, already set to ring up the PRT. After all, who the hell were they going to call all the way out here?

"Ellisburg team, this is PRT Central." The voice on the other end said. "What exactly is your emergency?"

"We've got a break-in. Blacklight just showed up out of nowhere, and now he's fighting Nilbog's creations. He appears to be another Master cape, can make monsters just like Nilbog can."

"Roger that. We'll send out a call to the Triumvirate. Hopefully they can solve whatever crises they've got and deal with him post-haste." Whitter turned to the cameras again, and saw that Blacklight and his creatures had vanished. He pulled the phone cord to its limit reaching for the console, flicking through the various drones and cameras they had around Ellisburg. Finally, he found him again.

In the centre of town, facing off against Nilbog himself.

He was wearing one of his creatures, just like the first time the PRT had fought him. He was seemingly screeching and raving at his new rival, every monster in his domain converging on his position. One of them, a large behemoth with several long necks, was spraying Blacklight with what looked like acid.

Blacklight simply weathered the assault, before exploding into a mass of tentacles. They skewered through every creature around him, reaching far and wide for targets. Nilbog shuddered under the assault, several tendrils stabbed into him and pushing him back. But then they all started quivering, melting down as the tendrils fed and absorbed them. Nilbog seemed to be screaming as he melted. Then Blacklight – or whatever monstrosity had taken his place – shuddered, exploding outwards again. The tentacles moved through the entire town, appearing on every screen and camera. The few monsters still wandering around were caught and devoured. When they started retreating back to the centre of town, Blacklight grew and grew and grew. Eight large trunk-like legs pushed it up above the buildings, while several large wings grew from the sides. It all smoothed out into some kind of lizard-like bird, a monster from prehistoric times.

"Oh shit." John whimpered.

"Whatever you're gonna do, you better do it fast." Whitter said quickly into the receiver. "Blacklight's just killed off everything in town, and now he's some kind of… flying thing." The room shook as the beast pushed away from the ground, rising seven stories before the wings started flapping like mad. Vents on the underside blasted out air like a wind tunnel, pushing it ever higher as the legs shrank down. Parts of its body started glowing bright white as it rose up even more, before it suddenly rocketed away. Away to god-knows-where. "He's taken off. He's taken off. Blacklight is heading… I don't know. Somewhere. Get every officer on this thing. If he's managed to out-monster Nilbog, I'd hate to see what he'll do in a populated area."

"He's… Did you just say that he's flying away? Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit." The line went dead, but he managed to hear the officer shouting for someone else before it was cut off. Whitter shook his head. This was easily worst-case scenario. Maybe even higher, or lower, or whatever you wanted to call it. Blacklight managed to create an army of monsters that can adapt on the fly. And they can make more of their kind. It's… it's a fricking zombie apocalypse in the makings. He jumped as something went bang against the wall, turning around and grabbing his sidearm.

Lester was standing in the doorway, zipping up his pants. He yawned as he walked into the room, spotting the two of them glaring at him. "Hey guys. What's gotten your panties in a twist?"


Despite what many people would say – the church, the governments, the Protectorate – the greatest power in the world is information. Knowledge of anything and everything. With information, one could raise and topple entire countries and world orders. One could make or break any politician or actor or would-be dictator.

And thanks to Alex and his Hive Mind, Dana had access to oodles of information.

She looked away from the screen showing the current stock rates and checked up on the map of Brockton Bay, the city sectioned off into different zones. An up-to-date record of everyone's territories, gleamed through Alex's scouts. The lines marking the Chosen territory shrank again, while Regent's grew larger. They were running out of space, and out of options. It wouldn't be long before the Chosen either made a suicidal run or left the city completely. In effect, this left the city divided into three slices. The Protectorate, Coil, and Alex.

She had to admit, she liked this whole supervillain shtick.

There was a chime as one of the windows popped up with some new information. It seemed to be a slight rise in crime in New York and Boston, caused by the decreased number of capes active in their areas. Most of the crooks and villains were probably too busy taking things to care. But she was pretty damn curious as to where the hell they went. Nothing she had suggested an Endbringer was active, or anything as scary as them. No Nilbog, no Slaughterhouse, no Sleeper, or anything. They all apparently decided to have a little holiday. At the same time.

In this world, there were no coincidences.

She immediately started typing away, hooking Noctua into every social media site in the world. Looking for some recent mention of the 'missing' capes. She wouldn't scroll through it herself though. That was just too boring. No, Noctua would read through everything for her, sort out the news from the trash. In the meantime, she looked up an online course about parahumans. Yes, Alex knew a lot from the people he had consumed. Yes, she could access that knowledge on top of what was on the internet. But she wanted a proper education on parahumans and powers. Not operating on hearsay and rumours.

Besides, it gave her something to do now that their territory was functioning on its own.

She had just started listing the few courses she found from best to worst when Noctua chimed. It had found several dozen hits, most found on Brockton Bay boards. One person had posted how they saw Rime in the city. Another had gotten a picture of Myrddin and his second-in-command Revel flying above the city. A third person had even seen Aegis back in the city.

Weird. It sounded almost like nearly every cape in the States had headed to Brockton Bay. But the only thing that could warrant that kind of firepower would be…

Her thoughts were interrupted as Noctua started blaring an alarm. All screens flashed red, words appearing over the sites. Code Black, Code Black. Over and over again.

Code Black meant biological weapons. Quarantines. Complete information blackout in an entire city or town. Anything that suggested that the entire town had been wiped out in scant hours, and powerful people wanted to keep it under wraps. Anything resembling the Hope and New York Zero Incidents back home.

She moved away from the message boards, scrolling through the new information that Noctua had found. The heroes can wait till later; they're nowhere near as bad as a bioweapon outbreak. Where was it happening? How quickly was it contained? Were there any mention of deaths in the surrounding towns? Found it; some small place by the name of New Hastings. A small town with only seven thousand people; too big for a rural wild-west town, but not big enough to be a city. An almost perfect place for a new villain to unleash an outbreak.

Or the perfect place to study the effects of an outbreak.

She found the little shell clinging to her desk, pulling it free and pulling it to her ear. When she placed it against her skin, it clamped around her ear, holding tightly but not too tight. By doing so, its sister shell would know to start sending out a signal to Tattletale. Tell her that she's needed.

The shell rang twice before it was answered. "Hey Athena." Tattletale said brightly. "What lovely little connections of facts do you have for me today?"

"It's more of a hunch than fact, but I've found something that's bugging me." She replied. "Noctua alerted me that a little place called New Hastings just went off the grid. No communications inside or out."

"Definitely sounds suspicious. Not enough to work with yet though. Any other things you've gotten about it?"

"Just looking… Found a posting about New Hastings. Dated only three hours ago. Some people spotted a massive dome surrounding the town. Think you can find the picture attached?"

"Already on it." There was silence from her, while Dana used the time to study the picture. A large blue energy dome surrounded it, just like the poster said. Hexagonal shapes formed up most of it, and there was a slight hole at the very top. A helicopter hovered above the opening. "Found it. Getting a bad feeling though."

"That's what I was afraid of. According to an unofficial PRT database, that helicopter is built to drop payloads on a target. Whatever's going on in there, the PRT aren't looking for survivors."

"Yeah, you're right. Let me think, let me think. See the bottom of the dome, about two hexagons up and seven from the right? Zoom in." Dana did so, the picture becoming blurrier. Despite what CSI made people believe, there was a limit to how zoomed in you could get before a picture became too blurry to see anything. The shapes were hard to make out, but she could still tell that they were apparently attacking the dome. And they were only somewhat human. "Those Hexagons are at least fifteen feet in height and width. See how there are smaller shapes near the larger ones? We might be looking at about one giant for every twenty-five people."

Dana nodded. "Spotted something else too. Two people near the middle of the wall. Any guesses on who they are?"

"Depends. Do you have any?"

"The guy is obviously Eidolon. I recognise that cape anywhere."

"My thoughts exactly. It's the woman that's the problem. I'm getting nothing. Nadda. She could be his cleaning lady for all I can tell."

Dana narrowed her eyes. Something was going on in New Hastings. Something important or dangerous enough to need Eidolon involved, maybe the whole Triumvirate. Something that required them to drop bombs from above instead of just smashing the monsters with their powers. "Tattle, Alex told me that your power found out what he is. So I need the truth from you. What kind of bioweapon are we looking at here?"

"We're… Give me a moment." Silence again. "It's…" She sighed. "My power tells me that it's a match to Alex."

"Shit. Shit, fucking shit." Dana cursed. "Goddamn fucking PRT. Trust them to fuck this shit up. What the fucking hell were they thinking?" She sighed, rubbing her eyes with her hand. "This is a clusterfuck of problems."

"You're telling me. I don't even have the full picture and I can still tell that this is bad. Is the entire town gone?"

"Close enough. Anyone still alive in there is still infected. The Virus' just fooled their bodies into thinking they're clean and healthy. And it acts like a goddamn zombie apocalypse." She sighed again. "I need to let Alex know. He can get in there, clean their shit up, and then fucking teach them a lesson." She moved to get up, when the room turned bright red. An alarm.

"Dana." Argus said urgently. "Scouts picked up Alexandria heading our way. You need to…" Whatever else he was going to say was lost as the North wall exploded inwards. Dana was knocked down by the fragments, their impact softened as they lost consistency. Even so, she still had about seventy kilos pressing down on her. She pulled herself far enough out of the goop to turn and look over her shoulder.

Alexandria was standing in the room, ripping Noctua out of its hole. Tendrils wrapped around her, trying to hurt her. But she pressed at some device at her hip, and a wave of force blasted outwards, blasting the tendrils away. She then activated some kind of wrist-mounted flamethrower, forcing them further away. She pulled Noctua free, leaving tendrils writhing from the wall, before moving at speed and grabbing Dana by the arm. She screamed as she felt it break, the sheer momentum Alexandria had too much for her human body to handle safely. She blacked out momentarily from the pain, and when she came to, they were already flying away from Mount Olympus. Already out of its immediate area. The scouts nearby started chasing them, easily catching up with the two of them. But a Ward surrounded by floating lenses popped up on a nearby rooftop, blasting with dozens of beams. The scouts dodged most of them, but that just gave time for Alexandria to fire on them with her flamethrower. The distraction in turn allowed the Ward to hit them with his beams, burning them to a crisp. Dana blearily looked back at Mount Olympus. Alex would be coming for her. He would be probably rushing ahead of the others, hands ready to kill and maim. Alexandria and the Protectorate had no idea what they were…

Mount Olympus started shrinking down, just as a plane flew overhead. Bombs dropped down on top of it, exploding with enough force and heat for her to feel from her location. More and more bombs dropped, each making it less likely anything would've survived. When the flare faded, there was a crater covered by what looked like glass. That was all that was left of Mount Olympus.

And everyone in it.


Legend stormed through the PRT offices, pushing past officers and capes alike. Most backed away in surprise. Legend had always been one of the ideal heroes; someone who fought for truth and justice while still acting like a swell guy. Seeing him in a rage about anything was surprising. And yet here he was, looking ready for murder. They let him pass by, glad that they weren't the ones he was after.

When he finally reached the room he was looking for, he slammed it open loudly, causing the two people in the room to look up in surprise. He glowered at Piggot and Alexandria, slamming the door shut behind him. "What the hell were you both thinking?" He said angrily.

Alexandria looked back at the map of Brockton Bay. "Bakuda's former armaments are the most dangerous and lethal weapons in our armoury. It's only natural that we would use them against Blacklight. We would've dropped them without alerting them if Athena wasn't so important."

"That's not what I'm talking about." He slammed his hands against the table top to emphasise his words and emotions. "You just blew up hundreds of people along with him! Innocent people who just wanted a safe place to live! What goddamn reason led you to doing some so callous?!"

"Legend, you know what Blacklight is. What he's capable of. Those people stopped being innocent the moment they entered his territory. I simply utilised a similar response to what happens during a Simurgh attack."

"Alexandria filled me in. About how Blacklight is actually a bioweapon from another Earth." Piggot said. "And how his cells can fool medical equipment into thinking the infected victim is clean. All of those people were walking time bombs. We could've had an endemic on our hands."

"Could've been. They could've been time bombs."

"Weren't you listening? They were time bombs. Even if they came up clean on all scanners, they could've still been infected. We can't take that kind of risk." She looked back down at the map, tapping at one of the territories. "Our next hit should be on the Undersiders, followed by the Travellers. They were Blacklight's closest allies; maybe he had them store something for him."

Piggot nodded. "I'll send in Prometheus; they should be able to handle a few kids. The Wards could also back them up. Some of them are notorious at running."

"Then we'll organise a similar group to go after the Chosen. With our numbers, we should be able to wear them down until we've captured all their parahumans. Without them, the Chosen will be far easier targets. I'd say that we could have full control of Brockton Bay in under a week." She looked up, saw that Legend was still fuming. "You can go now, legend. You've made yourself heard."

"And what the hell are we going to tell everyone? Most of those people had family and friends outside Blacklight's territory. How are we going to tell them that we blew their loved ones up for a damn theory?"

"Just tell them part of the truth. That Blacklight had infected them with a virus, with the intent on detonating it in the event he was beaten. That for the safety of Brockton Bay and the world, we had to destroy them. Offer some condolences, and give them a promise that we will take back this city. That should tie them over and give them some closure." She barely looked up from the map, an obvious sign that she considered the matter closed. Legend breathed heavily through his nose, before storming out of the room. The sound of the door slamming echoed down the hallway.

Damn Alexandria. Damn her and Piggot. He had agreed to starting the Triumvirate under the hopes that they wouldn't have to commit this morally grey bullshit. Protect people and save lives, not blowing up innocents because it was easier than luring a villain out. Yes, they'd have to put such reservations aside during an S-class threat, but Mercer wasn't at the level yet. He seemed perfectly fine being left alone. But now… He shook his head. Alexandria made this far bigger than it had to be. And he was worried that this would all come crashing down on their heads. Get people killed.

"Uh, Sir? Legend, Sir?" He turned, and saw a PRT Officer standing behind him, a piece of paper in his hands. "We uh… we got a message from Central for the Triumvirate. But Alexandria and Eidolon are busy, so…"

"So that just left me." He gave the man a tired smile. "I understand. Let's hear it then."

"It's… it's not good, Sir. It came from the team stationed at Ellisburg." Legend felt his stomach drop. Of course. Of all the damn times Nilbog had to act up, it just had to be today.

"Dammit." He cursed. "How bad is the breakout? How far has he gotten?"

"That's the thing, Sir. It's not a break out. According to them, Blacklight broke in."

"But… That's… That's impossible." He replied haltingly. "We… Blacklight was killed barely fifteen minutes ago. We had confirmation that he was in his territory when we attacked."

"I know Sir. But the Ellisburg team said that forty minutes ago, he arrived at Ellisburg and started attacking Nilbog and his monsters. Spawned his own creations from their corpses. Then he killed Nilbog, somehow ate all the monsters in town, and then created some kind of flying monster. It's… They think it's heading…"

"This way." He realised. A cold feeling came over him. Despite seeing Blacklight at his base, he was somehow also in Ellisburg at the same time. He would come all the way back, and find a smouldering crater where his territory was.

And it would be easy to realise who was responsible for the attack.

"Sound the alarm. Mobilise everyone and prepare for a battle. As soon as he gets back here, he's going to be heading straight for us." The officer nodded, while Legend started running back to Alexandria. He slammed open the door again, Alex looking up furiously. "Blacklight wasn't at his base. He's still alive."

"Impossible." She replied instantly. "We saw him in there. We know he was at ground zero when the bombs fell."

"Yeah, well he was also attacking Nilbog at the same time. One of them has to be the real one, and my gut says that it's the one that's still alive. We need to prepare for the worst case scenario."

"My god." Piggot breathed. "He's going to have Crawler's enhancements and strengths and Nilbog's monsters on top of what he was originally capable of. If he manages to get close to our people…"

"Where's Eidolon?" Legend asked. "Maybe he could help fight back."

"Currently busy in New Hastings. He cannot be reached or interrupted at this time." Alexandria replied. She was already leaving the room, entering the storm that was the PRT offices. People and capes were running around, equipping gear and masks, calling out to each other, and nearly having collisions. The sheer number of extra capes made things far more difficult than normal.

Legend left them to it and flew out the window. He wanted visual confirmation on when Blacklight arrived. But he barely got above the city skyline before he spotted him and his… creation.

It was absolutely massive, large enough that it just shouldn't be able to support its own weight, let alone fly. It was shaped like an arrow, a tapered head attached to a short stubby neck. Eight massive wings splayed out the sides, flapping occasionally to manoeuvre it. A series of ducts went down its body, and a long tail swung lazily through the air. Patches of its skin glowed white, nearly blindingly bright.

Legend tapped into his comms. "Blacklight has arrived, and he's got a massive beast. Treat him and it like you'd treat an Endbringer. Target is currently thirty five miles above us. I am moving in to attack. All flyers, rendezvous at my position." He flew higher up, beams lancing out to fire. They struck the beast, tearing into its skin and burning whatever it could.

The beast shuddered, before several things dropped down from its mass, falling rapidly. He didn't know what they were, but given what Blacklight and Nilbog could cook up, it probably won't be friendly. He swooped downwards, firing more beams that chased the masses. They struck them, sending them veering off course, patches of them burning away. But they corrected their course by blasting something from their sides. He was now low enough to see the PRT officers lining up outside, large guns on hand.

Then the masses hit the ground, and he could feel the shockwave from up above. He could even see the shockwave radiating outwards from their point of impact.

The officers were immediately thrown away, slamming through walls and skidding along the ground as the nearby vehicles exploded as they were thrown through the air. Cracks formed all over the PRT Headquarters, and some of the walls actually collapsed. A couple of capes who had already moved outside – Arbiter and Fume – were pretty much turned into paste from the sheer force. Dust billowed outwards from the point of impact.

The rest of the PRT Officers ran outside, guns covering the monsters. They, in turn, started shifting. Unfolding arms and legs, teeth gnashing away and drool dripping from their mouths. Cauldron already had records of what these beasts were. Hunters. The second biggest force the Infected had. Tank crushing monsters that could withstand incredible firepower. You needed two rockets just to kill one of them. The center mass though, took on a more humanoid figure. Black spines jutted out all over its body.

Blacklight grew massive claws, tips dripping with acid. "Where. Is. My. Sister?!" He snarled. His voice was so distorted it didn't even sound human.

But then again, Blacklight wasn'thuman. He was a monster. And they had awakened the beast.

"Open fire!" Someone shouted. And then the battle began. Hunters and Capes collided in battle, beams and blasts filling the air as the Protectorate fought for survival. Legend left them to it, focusing on the flying beast. It was dropping more and more masses, none moving as fast as the ones before. He started tearing into them, his beams changing direction to slice through them. But the monster wasn't going to just sit and watch. Things grew from its underbelly, firing acid and razor sharp blades at him. He flew away and dodged them, blasting again and again as he kept one step ahead of their attacks. He flew above the beast, his breaker state the only thing stopping him from suffocating from the height. As he arced overhead, more weapons and beasts started growing. Hunters snarled at him from the monster's back, completely covered in spines. They rooted themselves to the skin and fired spines at him continuously, like a Gatling gun. He had to swerve away from them, feeling the lack of oxygen affecting him.

He dearly hoped that everyone down below was holding out.


Piggot watched in horror as everything she had worked for crumbled before her.

Officers were getting slaughtered left and right, their training not truly preparing them for facing opponents who care so little about their own survival. Several of their number had started coughing up blood, their bodies mutating into horrific things. Forced to fight on two fronts, and with every death making more creatures, they were being worn away. Flashbacks of her teams fight in Ellisburg threatened to overwhelm her.

The capes were only doing somewhat better. Their powers were allowing them to overwhelm the monsters before they could get close. But even then, they simply refused to stay down and dead. Albatross had crushed two by pulling away the air pressure and then slamming it back on them explosively, only for one to get back up and swat him out of the sky as he tried to move to another area. Prefab, a cape with a powerful tinker cannon, found his cannon being shattered under a heavy blow from some bloated monster with large fists. The blow crushed him too, trapping him in the ground. It moved in to finish him off, only to be blocked by Knight Crimson. He had a large broadsword strapped to his back, and then he grappled with the beast and made them both disappear. When he returned, he was alone, his blade crimson. He then grabbed Prefab and carried him away. Battery and Assault were currently up against Blacklight himself, using their powers to constantly stay on the move. This kept going until Blacklight got his hands on Battery, breaking one arm in his grip. Assault knocked them all flying, Battery sailing out of his grasp. Blacklight responded by shoving his claws through his chest, ripping him in two and consuming him. Though she couldn't hear it, she could see Battery crying out in anguish. A minor Ward, Crucible, stepped in and caught Blacklight in a bubble shield. The villain started pounding his way free before Crucible managed to fill the inside of his bubble with fire. He kept at it until there was nothing left.

Behind him, one of the monsters suddenly stopped. Its body started shifting, growing smaller and skinnier. Within seconds, Blacklight was standing amongst them again. He smashed Crucible, but was stopped from unleashing a killer blow by Miss Militia and her guns.

He's truly immortal. She realised. Everytime we kill him, as long as there is a piece of him left, he can keep coming back. We could kill him hundreds of times, but we can't get rid of him unless we destroy every last scrap. This was as bad as the Endbringers. How do you truly kill an enemy who can keep coming back and was already strong enough to kill people with his bare hands? Even Alexandria, who was currently pounding Blacklight into his own forces, couldn't stop him forever. He would always return.

They needed to find every last piece, and burn it and everything surrounding it to the ground.

She stumbled as the room started shaking. Bits and pieces started jittering, jumping off the shelves to hit the ground. The shaking was getting even worse. Did Blacklight have earthquake powers? Or was Tecton and Gully simply putting their all into this fight?

Then at the far side of the complex, the ground exploded upwards and outwards. Those who had been in that area – Gallant, Grace, Gully, and Ursa Aurora – were sent flying into the air. Ursa hit several bits of rubble before being pulled from the air by Aegis. The others weren't so lucky. Blood exploded outwards as they were crushed by something big. A long neck extended from the ground, curving and swaying as it moved ever upwards. The head split open into three lips, teeth lining the inside. A set of seven heads rose out from its maw, shrieking and screaming. The all loomed over them before spewing a dark red goo. It smothered the ground, spreading outwards and pulling at the feet of the officers caught in the gunk. Prism was caught, but she created a tower of her three copies and flung the topmost one to safety. Gasconade wasn't so lucky; even his power to revert anything he imbues with energy to its previous state didn't slow or abate his death.

And from the gunk rose up more monsters. And the Pantheon. A part of the giant beast – the Proto-Endbringer – opened up, revealing a man glowing with heat. As he got closer, he seemed to be growing in size. Scales started forming over his skin.

And then they were upon them.

Before, the fight had been merely challenging. Yes, officers were dying. Yes, capes were fighting for their very lives. But they had been fighting back. They had been holding out.

Now that they were being attacked on two fronts, it was a massacre.

The Hunters were just too damn fast, too strong. They would charge in and start crushing people, forcing them to focus their firepower before they simply bounded away to another group. They killed scores of the monsters with every pass, but there just seemed to be more to replace them. Piggot watched as a woman appeared out of thin air, her face simply a smooth blank orb. She walked through the fighting and the chaos, attacks and blows bouncing off her or being shredded. On contact. Siberian's power, no doubt. Blacklight was probably using it to find Athena.

A spiteful part of her wanted to have her killed as a way to have revenge.

The room shuddered strongly again as the Proto-Endbringer jumped into the air, tunnelling down somewhere else. Anomaly had been distracting monsters with his black orbs when it landed near him, blowing him away from the shockwave. It tunnelled under before causing parts of the ground to collapse, forcing them to run for cover. Tecton helped created bridges and ramps to safety, before the beast rose up again. Its mouths opened wide again, and it started bombarding them with glowing red orbs. Piggot watched as Rime surrounded herself and a squad in ice, before firing icebergs at the monster.

Then Alexandria threw Blacklight into his own creature and then slammed it into the ground. She was tearing holes through it, her fists creating shockwaves as she fought to keep it down. With it distracted, others joined in on the assault. Miss Militia was working with officers to fire more of the bombs down on it, blasting away more and more of its flesh. But when Alexandria rose up to slam into it again, it opened a hole in its chest and then slithered away. Several of the beasts moved towards it, offering themselves to heal its wounds. As it moved away, mouths appeared over its body, spewing out more red gunk. Anyone caught in it was consumed by the liquid, a beast taking their place. It didn't matter if you were completely engulfed, partially engulfed, or it only got a dob on you. You would die, and become one of the Infected.

Such was the power and speed of the Virus.

Blacklight appeared again, jumping towards Alexandria. As she is near invincible, he would rate her his biggest threat. She flew towards him and smashed him into the ground. Or would have, if he hadn't somehow turned into a liquid state. He wrapped himself around her, covering her entire body. Meanwhile, his Proto-Endbringer rose back up. Its body was shuddering, as though it was tearing itself apart.

And then it unleashed an unholy scream.

The sheer power behind it was overwhelming, even greater than the force Blacklight unleashed when he dropped down on them. The very air was distorted by the pressure, and Piggot felt like her head was going to explode. The building completely tilted, blowing away in bits and pieces. She opened her tear-filled eyes, saw capes and officers alike being hit by the blast as time seemed to slow. Many of them had limbs severed, cut off as they impacted broken rubble. Others were killed on the spot, their corpses rag dolling away before being devoured.

Then the glass window shattered, and she was bombarded by hundreds of blades.


(Earlier)

Alex felt his body leave the range of his Hive Mind, and was 'rebooted' back in the rest of his biomass. He will have to increase the range somehow. Maybe by making the mind larger, or setting up relays around the world, his Hive Mind could stay connected anywhere.

Still, there little to do right now. Either he will return a victor, or he won't come back at all. Previous battles suggested that his victory is assured.

In the meantime, he had to think about what else he could do while waiting.

Well, he could study the powers a bit better. Yes, he could manifest three powers in a single body without suffering any deterioration. But he wanted to use more. He wanted to use ten powers, or twenty, or even a hundred if he ever got that many. He'd pretty much be a god.

Laws of story-telling usually have it that anything capable of granting powers to others also has access to all of them too. If he ever had to fight something like that, then he needed all the advantages he could have.

He created a small sealed room a good distance away from his lair, buried under the water. Held up the walls and roof with more biomass, stronger than steel. He was about to create a body to test the powers through when he saw something through his scouts.

Alexandria. Flying at full speed towards Mount Olympus.

He groaned. Why couldn't the heroes just leave him the fuck alone? All he wanted was to take control of the entire city and have everyone leave him alone so that Dana could live in a safe environment. It wasn't like he was doing some Saturday morning cliché of dropping the moon on everyone's head or something. And instead of just letting him get on with his takeover, they just kept throwing things at him. Now he's got to find a way to kill her too.

Hold on. Alexandria lost an eye to Siberian. Her projection obviously trumped her own invincibility. All he had to do was send Merida off against her, and he'd have another power to add to his collection. Now where was the little…?

A breach. A breach in the Right Wing. Dana's quarters.

No. No she fucking didn't.

He materialised almost immediately in her room, ready to stall Alexandria and get her the fuck away. But she burned him with some flamethrower, halting his creation of a body. Argus was trying to stop her, but she was simply too tough. Her flamethrower kept him and his creations at bay, just long enough for her to grab Dana by the arm.

And then they were both gone. But not before he heard the snap of bone.

"DANA!" He yelled loudly, forced to watch as they got further away. He instantly sent as many scouts after them as possible. He had to do something to free…

The aerial scouts picked up something. The sound of a plane. Matches a bomber-class jet. Heading straight towards them.

"Argus, get everyone below." He said, moving to chase after them. The scouts didn't have enough biomass to be of use as another body. He'd need to have them all as one to match his current need. Better to have them distract her and allow him to catch up. As he ran off after Alexandria, he felt everything in Mount Olympus start scurrying downwards. Sirens wailed and Themis started up emergency procedures. Realising that the open areas were too vulnerable, Alex had modified Mount Olympus to have tunnels under the houses. An easier, safer way to go.

Except that they didn't have time for that. The bombs were likely falling even now. So everyone just got bundled up into the nearest building, and the houses were sent falling downwards. Moving fast enough to mimic freefall. As per instructions, the surface layer separated from the rest, building up biomass to help sustain it.

Just in time too. When the first bombs struck, he felt the surface layer dying. He could feel it turning into glass, before shattering as more bombs dropped. Pain wracked his biomass as the bombs tried to destroy him and everything he ever made.

And then a bomb landed near him, and he felt himself vanish.


He opened his eyes back at Mount Olympus. Searched for the shelters. Found people congregating in there. Most of them seemed angry. A few were confused. All had a hint of fear. And why wouldn't they? They were nearly killed. By the supposed 'good guys'.

Was he ever going to find a governmental force that wasn't actually corrupt and evil?

He found Themis easily enough, organising his police to help keep people calm and to disrupt any fights. He appeared behind him, causing the man to jump. "What's the current situation with the civilians?" He asked.

"Well, they're all worried. That's pretty expected when you shove them into houses and then drop the houses into pits." Themis replied nervously. "The bounce-house floor stuff was a good idea; no one suffered any broken bones. There are a few bruises from where people accidently hit things though. And people are feeling angry about all…" He looked over Alex's shoulder. He saw and felt a large crowd walking towards him.

"Hey. Blacklight. What the hell is going on?" The civilian in the lead shouted. "You could've killed us with that stunt. Is this some fucking game to you or something?"

"The PRT and therefore the Government attempted to blow up Mount Olympus and everyone currently living in it." He explained. "There was no warning, no chance to get to safety, nothing that suggested they expected us to have any forewarning. They must've decided that killing you lot was worth it if it meant getting me and my Pantheon." The crowd looked at each other in shock and alarm. "And they've kidnapped Athena. This is the last straw. By tomorrow, I am going to get them out of this city. One way, or another. Pantheon, to me. Merida, where the hell are you?"

"H…Here, Sir." She said meekly, pushing her way through the crowd. She was shaking like a leaf. "I… I was going to the bathroom. I'm sorry that Athena was captured."

"'Sorry' isn't going to cut it." He snarled, stepping towards her. "You're supposed to be guarding her twenty-four/seven. If you had been there, Alexandria would've been in chunks right now."

"But… But I don't know how to fight." She was crying now.

"Easy boss." Hephaestus said, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "We all make mistakes. What matters is that we're still alive to kick some ass. We go to the PRT, fight everything they've got, and bring her back home."

"No. I'm not going to settle for just running. What I said is true. This was their last chance. I am not going to take this shit any longer. The heroes want to start a war? Then I'll crush them."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" Ares asked him. "Even with our powers and strengths, we can't just walk up to the front door and smash everything. They'll overwhelm us through sheer numbers and firepower."

"Not if we bring enough of our own." He replied. "Argus."

"Yes, Blacklight?" The base mind answered.

"Gather up as much biomass as you can spare. Upload blueprint FATHER."

Time to show them just what the Virus can make when it's provoked.


'Do not Invoke the Gods, for Their wrath is great and terrible'.

A fitting phrase, given what is currently happening to the PRT, Protectorate, and Wards.

As soon as his Ellisburg self had returned, he had promptly taken control of the flying beast and sent it after them, acting as aerial assault. They had bombed him; he would reply in kind. His Hunters and Juggernauts were slowly but surely overwhelming them, helped by the Infected he had made in their ranks (originally to keep track if a large squad headed his way). It was when he decided that they were suitably distracted, and he had been killed again, that he decided to unleash the second way.

Cue Father. His version of Greene's Mother form. A massive Hydra, modified to be even more dangerous. Able to spawn more Infected. Can use every attack Mother used against him.

Given its capabilities, perhaps it would be just as easy to call it an Endbringer.

"Um, Blacklight?" Merida said hesitantly over the Hive Link. "I've found Dana. She's… mostly alright. I've got hold of her right now, so my power is protecting her."

"Good. Now do your damn job and keep her safe." He replied tersely. With Dana protected from practically everything, it was safe to bring out his biggest gun.

Father used its Scream Devastator, and all the heroes fell before its might.

The world shook from the sheer power, and the PRT Headquarters turned into so many pebbles and sand. Blood flowed freely and body parts flew through the air. Capes and officers died left and right, his Infected moving in to feast. He could feel shards being added to his mind, his bodies barely affected by adding the trigger memories anymore.

Now, all that was left to deal with was goddamn fucking Alexandria. The most persistent bitch in the world. And the most vexing too. At least with Siberian, all he had to do was find his real body and kill him. How would he work around Alexandria's invincibility?

Well if nothing else he might have better luck inside than out.

He recollected himself (his liquid state had been blown off her by the scream) and flowed back towards her. She was busy targeting Father again, but he had learned from her previous attack. Father created holes in her path, causing her to fly harmlessly through him instead of smashing into him. Alex jumped into her next path, letting his body take her blows. Then he covered her face, forcing her jaw open and force-feeding her his biomass. He heard her gag as he went, her fists punching through his body as she tried to rip him off. But whenever she tried to get a grip, he simply flowed through her fingers. So she slammed into the ground, as though she could splatter him across the ground.

It worked, to an extent. But he had managed to hold on long enough to get into her body.

And found that she was as annoyingly tough inside as she was outside. He couldn't hope to get a grip, to get some way to infect her.

But then he remembered her gagging. That had to mean that she needed to breath, right?

Could that work? Was the answer simply to suffocate her to death?

Well, it wasn't like he had any other options. Aside from having Merida leave Dana and kill the bitch herself.

No; not going to happen. Never going to happen.

And so he flowed back up her oesophagus, and took the path to her lungs. Her body tried to stop him, but as invincible as she was, even her body wasn't strong enough to keep him at bay. He flowed into her lungs, filling up as much as he could. He felt her body buck, felt it start panicking as she fought for breath. Her lungs contracted as her body tried to fill his occupied space with oxygen. And then a great pressure started forcing him downwards.

Interesting. He wouldn't have thought of going straight up as a solution to getting things out of your lungs. Maybe she's trying to get out of his range, stop him from commanding his biomass. Well, she was shit outta luck there. He gave his biomass an order. It will follow that order till the day it dies.

Guess that makes the third invincible person he's beaten so far. Maybe now people might take a fucking hint and fuck off.

Merida and Dana were approaching him, Dana's right arm dangling. She winced everytime it swayed. He quickly rushed over and wrapped some biomass around it as a cast. She nodded in thanks. "Alex, I think now is a good time to stop this." She said.

"Stop? I'm not stopping until every last one of these fuckers is dead. The PRT needs to learn that you don't fuck with me or my people."

"I know. But you've already killed off a lot of them. You're beating them down on at least three fronts; maybe four. They're losing, and they've got to realise that by now. If you kill them all, then there'll be no one left to tell people what a shitty idea attacking you is."

Alex sent out a single command. To the likely relief of the heroes, it was a command to stop. All his Hunters stopped in their tracks, and backed away from the heroes. Father stopped spraying biomass, and the biomass stopped eating people. Even his flyer (which Dana will probably call something like Pegasus) stopped attacking Legend and Myrddin and the other capes flying up and attacking it. It took a louder command to get his Pantheon to stop. The whole area went completely silent, after spending so long with shouting and roaring and screaming and violence.

"This is your only warning." He said, his voice magnified. "Brockton Bay is no longer welcome to heroes. I'm in charge around here now, and I will never again tolerate your attacks on me or my people. You can either leave, stop using your powers, or die. I don't give a fuck which. But by tomorrow, Brockton Bay will be free of anyone who's part of the PRT, Wards, or Protectorate. If I catch anyone disobeying this simple rule, I will have them killed. There will be no mercy, no second chances, no negotiation. We see you, we kill you. Tell the world that Brockton Bay belongs to Zeus and his Pantheon."

Dana stepped forward. "You can collect your dead and injured, give them treatment. And you can also move your families out. I'm sure your bosses have some way of covering your moving costs. Anyone who wants to leave can do so. We won't force them to stay. But since Zeus isn't afraid to kill criminals, Brockton Bay could probably end up one of the safest cities on the planet."

"Like I said; you've got till tomorrow to decide. If you're going to stay in hospital, then I'd better not hear of any fucking powers from any of you." As if to emphasise his threat, Alexandria fell from the sky and landed near them. Everyone jumped from the impact, dust billowing outwards. Alex strolled over to her, grabbing her by her suit and checking her for life signs.

Brain dead. Caused by asphyxiation. Her power was still active, but she wasn't doing much more than breathing.

Good enough.

He carried her over his shoulder, his Infected following him back towards Father. Once they were all inside or a part of him, he carried them back towards Mount Olympus, closing up the tunnel behind them.

Leaving the heroes to lick their wounds, count their dead, and make their choices.


"It'll be ok." Legend said softly to Kid Win, holding his hand as they injected him. "You'll be fine. You'll pull through, and things will get better. I promise you." Kid Win nodded, but there was still fear and loss in his eyes.

They both knew that Legend was lying. But neither of them wanted to admit it. Legend slipped free as they wheeled Kid Win to the wards, his comforting smile sliding off as he turned around. He sighed, a long pain-filled sigh. This went horribly, horribly wrong. Easily as bad as when Behemoth first unveiled himself, bringing the threat of the Endbringers. And now everyone will be talking about even with all their resources and powers, the good guys still managed to lose a city.

And all because Alexandria couldn't leave Blacklight… Zeus alone.

He rounded the corner into the lobby, and found Eidolon waiting in there. He looked slightly out of place in his suit, sitting there in a seat and twiddling his thumbs. But then, they all looked out of place. Like people playing dress-up.

"I thought you were busy with a mission." Legend said with a frown, walking over to him. Eidolon looked up from his hands, stood upright.

"I was. Another Blacklight-related fuck-up." He said softly. "The second lab suffered a catastrophic failure. The Virus got out into the town. It's only thanks to Contessa realising that would happen that we managed to contain it. Then we levelled the entire town before burning what was left with a thermonuclear bomb." He looked around the room, saw the number of capes staring numbly into space. "How many did we lose?"

Legend sighed again. "Too many. Albatross, Campanile, Dogwood, Pinpoint, Rail, Adamant, Assault, Revel, Arbiter, Prism…" His voice choked a bit. He still remember how nice and sunny she had been. He liked having her as his second. She just liked making the world a better place. He took a halting breath, and continued. "…Fume, Gasconade, Cache, Dauntless, Velocity, Hunch, Clockblocker, Gallant, Grace, Browbeat, and Gully. All in all, nearly a third of everyone who took part. Not including the PRT. I don't even know if there's anyone left of them."

"Fuck." Eidolon cursed, pacing around. "This is exactly what we were worried about. And what about Alexandria? Where's she? If she's not feeling the slightest bit of remorse for this…"

"I think she's dead too. Or at least close to it. Zeus dragged her away with him. And we've been given an ultimatum. To leave the city, and never come back."

Eidolon moved to say something, but stopped himself. Instead, he lead Legend to the roof. From there, they had an excellent view of Mount Olympus forming again. Rising up higher and stronger than before. "I hated it when Cauldron ordered us not to go after Nilbog. I wanted to do nothing more than charge in and take him down. Even from a selfish point, imagine how famous you'd get taking him down. Instead, we gave him a town and left him alone because he's a 'valuable asset'. And now we've got something even worse, and we have to leave him alone. Give up a whole city to him."

"From what we've heard, he keeps the peace pretty well in his territory. Everyone gets to live their lives, just under his protection. There are worse people to have in charge than him."

"I know. I know. Doesn't make it any easier though. I've seen what the Virus can do. I'd sleep easier knowing that we wiped out every last trace of it."

"You and me both." He saw movement to their left, turned to see Fireteam Prometheus approaching. Their helmets were off, showing their shell-shocked expressions.

Eidolon noticed them too. "And where were they during all this? Was Zeus controlling them somehow?"

"No. Alexandria and Piggot had them go after the Undersiders. I guess there's no point to it now."

"I see." He sighed again. They were interrupted by knocking, turning to see Triumph approaching. The once tough hero looked broken now, weighed down by defeat.

"Legend, Eidolon." He said respectfully. "I've got good news and bad news. But I think you've probably heard enough bad news for one day."

"We have." Eidolon replied. "But putting off till another day isn't going to make things easier. Let's hear it then. What's the bad news?"

"Some of the injured… didn't make it. Clay didn't survive. Or Prefab. Neither did Ursa Aurora or Narwhal. But Miss Militia's pulling through. So are Lockdown, Sere, and Tecton."

"Thank you Triumph. I'll make sure that their families hear. You can go now. Mourn your friends."

"Thank you, Sir." Triumph replied. And he went back down the stairs.

"And now more dead. If an Endbringer hits now, we're all doomed."

"So what now?" Eidolon asked.

"Now… We just gotta find a way to convince Zeus to work with us instead of against us. Or at least be willing to fight the Endbringers."

"Without him, we will all die."


For those of you who wanted Piggot and the PRT to suffer for messing with Alex, your prayers have been finally answered. And what a way to go.

The fights did feel a little on the short side to me, but I can't really think about how to expand it without turning this into a big long drag as Alex/Piggot/whoever goes over every last hero and what happens to them. And once again, sorry if this seems too much of a curb-stomp and anticlimactic. That's just how Alex rolls.

Besides, when you've got two Proto-Endbringers with healing powers on top of an army, you've got your hands full anyway.

Now, the capes that took part are all the ones I could find on TV Tropes and the Wiki. I used everyone I could, barring those without a description. Obviously there are more, since plenty more died fighting Leviathan in canon, but we never get a clear idea on what they could do, or who's side they're on. Wildbow probably made a lot of them simply to kill them off and show us just how dangerous an Endbringer is. Also, I read that during the battle, Wildbow decided on whether or not someone lived by rolling a dice. Get a low number, and you die or get injured; a high number means survival. It put a bit of randomness into the fight, and actually meant that Taylor was on the line too. In fact, if she died, then apparently Weld was meant to be the next protagonist. Wonder how they story would've gone if that happened.

So that's what I did here. I listed all of their names, rolled a dice, and then sealed their fates when I was done. And those with 'life-threatening injuries'? I rolled to see if they survived surgery or not. Those who survived? It's because they got lucky. So if someone you liked died, or someone who's powers should've let them live died, blame chance. And possibly my terrible rolls.

Now that I've got this fight over and done with, I've realised that I've kinda got a problem. See, now that Jack Slash is dead, the end of the world is going to take between seven and fifteen years to happen (just guessing). And now that Alex had scared off the heroes, that just leaves the villains (who are going to fall in line, leave, or die). And after that, we've got up to fifteen years to fill with events and fights to keep Alex busy. Because we all know that he can't just sit on a throne forever. He's not the Lich King or Orcus after all. (look up Orcus, and you'll get what I'm talking about.) And so despite what I said near the beginning, I think I'll put this on a slower update and focus on some of my other stories.

But don't think that you still can't contribute. I've got questions for you guys. And a challenge. The challenge is simple; help me come up with events to happen during the years it takes for (Spoiler Spoiler SPOILER) Scion to go evil. Could be anything. Could be a rival gang trying to move in. it could be someone starting up Slaughterhouse Nine again. It could be an Endbringer attack. Anything that I like, I'll credit the person who suggested it. Send me a PM if you want to talk about it in length.

As for the questions, there's at least one I meant to ask last chapter yet totally forgot. Noelle's powers allow her to create evil copies of people, with their powers acting slightly differently. Now, do you guys think she could make an Evil Alex? Would her powers even work on him, or would it do nothing while he consumes her (hypothetically)?

Coil's got to realise that Alex is now near impossible to kill off. So should he be the smarter man and just do as Alex says? Or should he be an idiot and try to kill him? And if so, how should he try and fail?

(Not a question here) ages ago, I asked about how big the population of Brockton Bay was. This was meant to be a part of the battle here, where Alex turned ten percent of the city into Infected to swarm the heroes with. I decided not to bother, since it was pretty much in his favour to begin with.