Alexandria stared at the man in front of her. Or rather, at the front of the group that was supposed composed of Brutes.
This man was the cape who went by the name of "Vexa," and this was his thirty-seventh participation of Endbringer fights. This suicidal participation of Endbringer battles put him in the sights of the Cauldron, of course. His early participants were noted by his focus on search and rescue operations, which then transitioned into a heavy hitter stance as a Blaster.
He was also a blindspot for Contessa.
What made her focus on him right now, though, was not the fact that he was a blindspot but that he wasnot a Brute.
"Vexa. You are not a Brute," she said as much. "Why are you here?"
Vexa didn't speak, merely looked at her through the bandages that covered every inch of his exposed skin. Another thing to note about Vexa. He never spoke. This, along with his suicidal number of Endbringer fight participation, earned him the nickname of "Mute Warrior" among the internet.
He tapped himself on the chest, which was covered by the hoodie jacket he always wore - which must be at least ten years old - and pointed in on the ground.
Alexandria frowned. This was not the first time Vexa had used that motion. He used it in the last Endbringer battle he participated to show that he was going to stand his ground.
"I can't have to participate as a Brute and get others hurt," she replied. "I can't let you-"
He pointed at her and then at him. He spread his arms wide open and waited.
"You… want me to hit you?"
He nodded.
She shrugged. "Your loss." And then punched him at the speed and strength of what the PRT power testers would say to be a Brute 6 or 7.
He took the hit… and didn't move.
Her eyes widened and she slowly drew her fist back. He put his hands on his waist and puffed his chest out dramatically. Almost childishly.
"Fine then," she said and tossed him his Dragontech wristband. He caught it and put it on quickly.
"Simurgh incoming!"
And the battle for Canberra began.
-
Armsmaster watched Vexa slam through Simurgh's telekinetic debris at Mach 17 – his helmet HUD reported so – and slammed into Simurgh's torso. Simrugh actually lurched back.
"Vexa is showing at least Brute 8 rating," he whispered to himself. "This is the seventh new power he's shown on the battlefields."
And right then, Vexa showed the third power he publically used. He reached outward, and his hand disappeared. When he pulled his arm back out, there was a giant axe with untranslate-able runes engraved on its surface in his hand. Even as Simurgh grabbed him telekinetically, he slammed that axe into her face.
To everyone's surprise, her face got cut in two.
Simurgh's scream intensified.
Then showed the second power he publically showcased. He teleported out of Simurgh's melee range and far out into the sky.
Here, he exhibited the first power he showed up with: flight. He dragged his axe behind him and charged right back in.
Simurgh didn't react until Vexa slammed into her face. All of his momentum, however, didn't come from his body but the axe he had been dragging behind. And just like that, Vexa swung his axe around with the same force that he had used to propel himself to Mach 18 this time, and struck Simurgh's neck.
Her head… lopped off.
Everyone's breath held as they watched the head fall.
Instead of dying, the Endbringer merelyscreamed louderand definitely not from her head.
Just then, Alexandria slammed into Simurgh from behind, taking advantage of Simurgh's focus on something everyone was realizing.
She couldn't see Vexa. The Thinker Endbringer couldn't predict Vexa.
Vexa teleported back out, and momentarily, Simurgh's attention was on Alexandria.
Armsmaster struck then. He aimed his halberd towards her and activated his new tinker mechanic built into it. The energy blade coalesced … and fired off. Simurgh saw it coming, and dodged instead of blocking with her telekinetically upheld debris.
And then she launched a huge chunk of a building at him. He jumped away to the best of his abilities and that of his power suit.
-
SimurghslappedVexa away, and Dragon winced as the second most powerful Trump in the world fly away like a broken ragdoll. He plowed through a building, and then a building behind that building, and finally clipped the roof of a three story building… some four miles from where the Simurgh was in thirty seconds.
And then he teleported right back in the fight.
As she watched Vexa pull out that axe of his, she noted to herself to make sure to catch him before he left this battle. She had so many questions about that axe of his. Her scans didn't work it. She could see it through her drones' lenses because the object reflected light. Beyond colors given off by the light and the fact that the axe did affect reality like any other axe which had a blade as long and wide as a human being, no other instrument available to her was capable of making heads or tails of it.
Like that! He just chopped off one of Simurgh's wings, but that made no sense! People have tried to chop her wings off before, but very few were capable of even scratching her feather. Those of the Triumvirate had the most success hurting the Endbringers, but even they had hard time making Simurgh or other Endbringers bleed.
And Vexa just … chopped it off with his axe.
Her sensors allowed her to detect gravity waves, rough atomic make-up, and shapes of objects by the effects they had on reality.
At first glance, the last of these should have the easiest time figuring out the shape of the axe, but it didn't! This was because at first glance, while the axe might look like it was behaving like it should – cutting and crushing things with its blade and weight respectively – it really didn't! Her senso-
"Dragon, rain it down now!" Alexandria shouted.
"Firing!"
Her Gilandra, her first attempt at a mobile missile boat, lurched as the anti-matter warhead rockets launched from its back. The seven dozen rockets flew, covering the sky with their white trails, and the first wave of the rockets – mere nine such rockets – slammed into the debris shield Simurgh threw up. Anti-matter containment unit within the rockets failed and met matter. The resulting explosion bloomed all over the debris shield.
The second wave, which consisted of thirty rockets, pierced through the hole left by the anti-matter explosion. Simurgh's telekinesis, however, caught them.
Dragon triggered early detonation.
That failed too.
But that's what the third and last wave was for.
They slammed all over the shield, and for a second, Simurgh was distracted as she pulled up more debris to at least ward off Vexa, who had gotten behind her.
Dragon activated the second wave's early detonation.
It worked.
The explosion rippled against Simurgh's fr...ont….
Dragon felt her electronic jaw drop as Simurghtelekinetically containedthe anti-matter explosion.
Vexa struck then.
Only to be held mid-air by Simurgh's telekinesis.
That… that didn't make any sense. Simurgh never showed this level of telekinetic control or the power-!
"She's been holding back!" she warned everyone. "I'm doubling the Simurgh approach zone. Retreat!"
And Vexa…
Vexa struck.
Simurgh's eyes minutely widened as Vexaoverpoweredher telekinesis. Dragon watched, her digital jaw refusing to close up, as Vexa landed a solid hit on Simurgh's biggest wing.
And promptly sent off flying by Simurgh's telekinesis, again.
Simurgh wasted no time after that.
And rocketed off to the sky.
It took a microsecond for herself to regain composure and understand what just happened.
"Simurgh has retreated. I repeat, Simurgh has repeated."
It had been only thirteen minutes since the Endbringer had descended from the skies. It was, by far, the shortest battle to date.
And of course, no one found Vexa after the battle.
The post-battle debriefing began with her report of the discovery of Simurgh's descent from orbit three hours prior to the actual battle. It was followed by the numerous names of capes who had appeared and then died on the battlefield.
And then they – meaning Dragon herself, Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown of the PRT, Australian Prime Minister Tyler Manniesfield, and two dozen others – got the final part of this battle.
The final two minutes of the battle.
Before those two minutes, Vexa had stayed back for the most part. He helped people leave Canberra, but it was only when Simurgh's scream had hit the ten minute mark – which was two-thirds of the Scream Exposure timer – that Vexa had moved in.
And moved in he had. Despite everything, someone had gotten a video of Vexa's fight against the Simurgh out onto the internet. It showed her chopping off Simurgh's head off and the Mach level speeds at which he was thrown back and forth across the battlefield.
"I want to give him a medal," PM Manniesfield declared. "Can you find him for us, Dragon?" he asked.
"Unfortunately," Chief Director Costa-Brown spoke up first. "Vexa has never been seen outside of the Endbringer battles in the Americas. In fact, we're surprised that he showed up at all to an Australian battle."
PM looked surprised. "Is that true, Dragon?" he asked.
Dragon nodded her digital head. "Yes. Vexa has shown up for a total of twenty-three Endbringer fights, which is twice the number of fights that the next runner-up for Endbringer participants have. Most do not even survive half the number of participation that Vexa has," she began. "Despite this, however, no one has ever seen him outside of the battle. Eidolon, Alexandria, and Legend have each seen the cape once in the last battle of the 1999, but that was an exception."
"Doesn't he leave any kind of information for -?" the PM tried again with a frown.
"Sir," Chief Director Costa-Brown interrupted. "You are coasting very close to the Unwritten Rules-"
"I don't give a shit about it at this point," he huffed. "I've seen the entire battle, Chief Director. I saw how it washewho did the most damage to the Simurgh and drove her away. If it weren't for him, then Simurgh would have stayed for the whole duration of her Scream exposure, and Canberra would be getting walled right now. I want to meet and reward the man who saved the capital of Australia."
Dragon and Chief Director shared a look before Dragon answered the PM's demand.
"Your Grace, we can't give you the information you want because we don't have it."
PM looked at her as if she was daft. "But doesn't he want someone to know if he died?"
"Vexa is known online as the 'Mute Warrior,'" she added. "In all of the clips and verified anecdotal accounts of Vexa, there hasn't been a single word he spoke. Not even a grunt when he took a hit from Alexandria, which he invited for the sake of confirming his Brute rating."
"He's a Brute now, too?"
The demands ended there.
-
Bandages littered the hallway.
The red blotched gray hoodie jacket laid crumpled in a corner.
The dark hall hid all of these details, and within seconds of their appearance and away from the body that they were touching mere seconds ago, they disappeared. In their place was a mundane and unblemished white t-shirt.
"Shit," a hiss rang out from the bathroom in the far end of the hallway.
The lights – the white dim light that barely kept the hallway lit – flickered as something lightly hit the walls.
Spitles of blood hit the wall from the other side of the bathroom. A muffled groaned was heard.
And then a stretch of tattoo'ed skin was left on the sink. It too disappeared like the bandages and the jacket.
A tiny hand wrapped around the edge of the doorway and a head poked around.
"D-Daddy?"
There was a jerk from the man within the bathroom, and he looked down at her.
She shivered.
It always scared her whenever Daddy came back with blood on him, and despite the fact that his hands were bloody, he smiled. "I'll be right out, sweetie! Go to your mom."
She nodded and scuttled away. Mommy taught her that word. Scuttle.
Mommy was awake. She was in her bedroom with the TV turned off. It was on merely hours ago, she remembered. "Mom, mom! Dad's back!"
Mommy's head snapped up, and Jenny watched mommy's tear-stricken eyes look at her.
"Dav-. Daddy's back?"
Jenny nodded. "He's in the bathroom. He said he was gonna be right out," she said. "Daddy told me to go to mommy."
Mommy stared off into the distance for a second before tapping her lap. "Come here, Jenny."
Jenny quickly ran over to mommy's bed and then climbed over the side. She plopped herself down on mommy's lap and waited.
She pulled at mommy's feather-like hair once before mommy grabbed her hands and held them still.
"Mommy?"
"Hmm?"
"What does daddy do?"
"… He does good things."
And then daddy came inside the room.
He saw them and smiled.
"Hey, lil birdie," he said as he grabbed her cheeks. She giggled and slapped at daddy's hands.
SLAP
Jenny squeaked when mommy moved so suddenly like that.
"...Sorry," daddy said. What was he sorry about?
"Don't. Ever. Do that!" mommy hissed. And then began sobbing. "I-I-I saw you g-get hit by that b-b-"
Daddy held mommy's hands. "Not in front of Jenny, please."
Mommy nodded, but her tears didn't stop.
"Mommy, please don't cry," she mumbled. Something welled up inside her, and she began to cry too.
Daddy just laughed a little before picking her up. He walked around the dimly lit bedroom and sat down on the other side of the bed. He set her down between himself and mommy.
"Don't worry, lil birdie. Mommy's just a little surprised," daddy said.
Mommy snorted. "A little, he says. I watch him get smacked by an Endbringer, and he says it surprised me alittle."
Daddy just laughed. "They're not that bad at slapping me. I mean, you certainly do better."
Daddy always laughed after coming back bloody and bruised. Blood and bruises were always gone by the time he saw her again, but Jenny remembered them all.
But daddy was okay. Mommy was okay.
Jenny closed her eyes. Sleep always came easily when she was between mommy and daddy.