Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower 4.4
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"...Couldn't you have at least got me a flyer, then?" Taylor questioned the empty space. She sighed, and looked at the location on the wristband with a cringe. That was a long way away.
Grumbling to herself, Taylor activated her extra sense, and blinked. Her range had, apparently, exploded since the last time she had brought it up. She could 'see' the entirety of Brockton Bay now. Guess the wristband was useless.
A thought struck her. A brief moment of searching, and Taylor breathed a sigh of relief. Her father had worked up the will to get to shelter after all.
A moment's thought divined the optimum route to get her to the area, and Taylor started off.
During the midst of her journey, Taylor began taking into account everything that was going on. The Brockton Bay capes, and a few others who had already arrived, were currently standing in a large circle a fair distance from Armsmaster, the named figure fiddling with his halberd.
Currently, Leviathan was nowhere to be seen.
…This was kind of dull, Taylor thought, as she flipped over a railing and used that momentum to spin around a pipe and flip onto a rooftop, a rooftop upon which she stumbled abruptly.
Since when the hell could she do that? As she steadied herself, a glance behind her told an interesting story about the past few moments.
She was currently three stories up, the metal on a few of the fire escapes was bent, and there where unusual footprints upon the walls.
Evidently, the last few moments had indeed been interesting.
"Wonderful." Taylor grumbled. "More things my power does I don't control." The other capes were beginning to become restless, as Leviathan still hadn't shown up, and Armsmaster was still preparing. Already, they were beginning to explain the situation to new arrivals.
Taylor sighed, one more thing to worry about after all this was over, and continued onwards.
Then, Taylor saw it, a figure moving at incredible speed below the water. Her eyes widened.
The sea surged up, and water broke apart as Leviathan appeared from beneath the waves.
A heavy rain began to fall.
Taylor's heart raced. "Goddammit Nowhere, couldn't you have gotten me a flyer!" Taylor shouted into the steadily increasing rainstorm.
She was still a good fifteen minutes away. "Hope Armsmaster can hold it off." She mumbled, before moving on.
She took a few moments of time to look closely at Leviathan, who was slowly walking towards the gathering of heroes, with her power.
"That's... really dense." Taylor spoke to herself. Leviathan was made up of several increasingly dense layers all surrounding one incredibly dense sphere at the base of its tale.
Impossible levels of density detected, singularity should form. Potential physical canceler at work.
Analyzing: Negative. Alternate dimensional interaction. Creature is layered across thousands of dimensions focused onto one. Sphere probable weak point, further analysis required.
Analyzing: Power limitations hit, no further analysis possible.
Taylor frowned. "I certainly didn't read anything about the Endbringers having a weak point."
Further thought was interrupted as Leviathan sped up. Abruptly changing from a sedate walk to a 120mph dash, it raced onwards, scattering water and earth in its wake.
Just prior to reaching Armsmaster, it spun itself around, tail lashing out to bisect Armsmaster.
He was ready for it.
A rocket charge in his boots launched him into the air. Leviathan continued its spin and brought a fist up to smack Armsmaster. An already launched grappling hook reversed his momentum and brought Armsmaster down to the ground, while another shot out from his side to drag him away from Leviathan's kick, a lance of purple fire spilling forth to evaporate its echo.
"...Holy crap." Taylor was honestly impressed.
Analyzing: Prediction software detected.
Interfacing: Success.
She wondered how long that took to make.
"Jump, grapple to the side, cut with halberd." Taylor found herself muttering as she watched Armsmaster duel Leviathan.
However... he wasn't dealing any actual damage to Leviathan. A swipe with his spear here and there resulted in a few cuts, but he didn't have any real method to damage Leviathan.
"So, I guess he's just holding out until the heroes come." Taylor assumed.
A wave began to rise up, however; Eidolon, Legend, and some cape she couldn't name lashed out with beams of frost that froze the wave in a block of ice.
Six minutes twenty three seconds until ice barrier breakdown.
Will that be enough time? Taylor looked forward in the predictions, and found an odd occurrence where Armsmaster's predictions differed from hers.
Foreign Program insufficient data analysis.
"It wasn't ready." Taylor whispered.
Fatal difference calculated in twenty two seconds.
Taylor panicked; she was still eight minutes away.
Analyzing: Methods for quick travel
Warp: Power inadequate.
Flight: Power inadequate.
Searching Alternate Methods: Method found.
This was crazy. But did she have any other choice?
She brought both of her hands beneath her, and fired the accumulated sparks.
The building below her collapsed, as she shot off into the air with all the force and speed of a rocket.
A few seconds into her flight, just as she was right over Leviathan, Taylor fired upwards, and smashed into Leviathan.
Considering her method of impromptu flight, Taylor could be excused her few seconds of awkward flailing through the air before she managed to catch herself on a piece of exposed metal.
"Buster? What are you doing here? I explicitly asked for no interference-"
"Saving your life," Taylor interrupted Armsmaster. "Your program was about to fail in a few more seconds."
"And how the hell do you know that?" Armsmaster scowled. Leviathan had already pulled itself up from Taylor's smash.
"I just-Look. Take this." Taylor shoved her data into Armsmaster's computer.
"Wait, the fuck did you just-" He jumped as Leviathan swept its tail out, leaving a trail of water echo. "Do..." Armsmaster trailed off at seeing Taylor respond perfectly to Leviathan's attack in turn.
"I'm piggybacking off of your prediction software, while enhancing it in turn." Taylor replied, as she lanced out with a flash of light to send Leviathan's fist of course.
"How-Doesn't matter, it's working better for some reason, keep doing what you're doing." Armsmaster spoke.
Taylor merely nodded.
Then, everything went wrong.
Seeing Taylor enter the battle, the other capes assumed it was a signal to attack and charged in.
"What, no-" Armsmaster began, before seeing that his prediction program was taking them all into account. "The hell..." He breathed out.
It wasn't going so well for Taylor.
Processor draining power, rate exceeds generation. Estimated time until Power Overdraw fourteen seconds.
"G-get them out of here." Taylor gasped.
"What?" Armsmaster questioned, as he parried another blast of water from Leviathan.
"I-I sa-"
Power Overdraw
Taylor collapsed.
"Buster? What happened?" Armsmaster began to panic as his prediction program crashed on him.
Taylor kneeled on the ground, gasping for breath.
"It's the same as the time bubbles." Armsmaster realized. "Dammit, someone get her out of here. She's just a liability right now."
Fourth consecutive time power limitations have caused unacceptable error.
Analyzing: Power Outputs.
Primary Singularity: 1% Output.
Secondary Singularity One: Offline
Secondary Singularity Two: Offline
Math Drive: Currently Irretrievable.
Excess mass redirected.
Primary Singularity: 10% Output
Taylor gasped, as thousands of sparks flooded in. So many she was having trouble keeping them down, it seemed like they would leap out of her hands of their own accord.
Taylor needed a power sink, now.
An idea came to her.
She waited, still on the ground for the opportune moment.
It happened, Leviathan's tail swished by her.
She leaped up, and snatched it.
"You're not going anywhere." Taylor stated.
Inertial Canceler: Online