Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower 6.5
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Nowhere led Taylor into a fairly large room filled with capes. Some she knew; Armsmaster and Dauntless most prominently, but most she didn't. However, considering what this meeting was about, they were all probably important to one extent or the other.
"Well, I've done my duty here, Alexandria's thataway." Nowhere waved in a direction. "So I'm gonna fly, see ya." He vanished.
"Well, good bye to you too." Taylor wasn't exactly dissatisfied to see him go. She turned towards the direction Nowhere had signaled, and saw the Triumvirate speaking with Narwhal, a cape she most definitely did know, and another in black and gold armor.
Taylor moved in the direction of them, however, she was interrupted. "Buster." A man in a gray and red outfit, with a helmet similar to Alexandria's stepped up and offered out his hand. Taylor took it. "I'm Rapid, the leader of the Hunters, and I just wanted to thank you for what you did with Leviathan, you singled handedly saved hundreds of lives there, including potentially my own."
Leader of the Hunters? Oh boy, a recruitment effort. Taylor internally groaned. Outwardly she shrugged. "I just did what anyone would do given my power set." It was probably even true to an extent; Leviathan seems much less intimidating when you can't be harmed by... anything, so far. Admittedly, she hadn't known that she would block even Leviathan's efforts at the time, but it had seemed fairly self-evident for some reason. Probably the Protocols.
"Perhaps, perhaps not." He murmured. "The world might not be as altruistic as you believe it to be. Or maybe I'm just a cynical old fart." He commented with self-depreciating smile. "Regardless, I just want you to know that a place in the Hunters is open for you at any time."
Taylor nodded. "I will keep that in mind." Not likely to happen, but always good to keep her options open.
"That's all I ask." He replied, before giving a wave and walking off somewhere.
Taylor moved onward, but was stopped again. "Yo, Buster. You like my ride?" A woman in a black outfit with large green stripes interrupted. She walked up. "Names' Mobius, as you might have presumed." The woman introduced herself with a bow. "So, did you like it? It's something I've always wanted to do, but alas, such safeties are outside my specifications." She shook her head in despair that was only half faked. "But you know what they say, live vicariously through others! Well." She paused. "That is usually used to refer to one's children, but, eh." She shrugged.
"I'm not sure how much there was to like." Taylor admitted. "The trip was over so fast, I was talking with Dragon at the time, and inertia only affects me when I want it to. So I honestly didn't even notice most of the ride.
"Inertia? That must be how you stopped Leviathan, but that would be more than-" She stopped as realization broke. "You can manipulate inertia?" A slow smile spread over her face. "Oh my do I have ideas. I'm going to have to call in that favor you as of right now owe me for the use of my tech so I can test that." She stated, and then walked off mumbling things to herself.
"...Bye?" Taylor called into the now empty space.
After a second of awkward silence, Taylor shook her head and managed to actually finish her journey this time.
"Buster." Alexandria greeted. Legend and Eidolon looked up from their conversation with the man in black and gold armor and gave a nod of their own. Narwhal, however, had left at some point while she was being accosted. "I see you made it, and in surprising time. However did Dragon get you here so quickly?" Alexandria continued.
"She got a rocket from Mobius." Taylor explained.
"...That would explain it, yes." Alexandria nodded. "Moving on, there's someone I would like you to meet, this is Chevalier." Alexandria motioned towards the man in black and gold armor. "Chevalier, this is Buster."
Chevalier turned towards her. "Greetin..." He trailed off. He stared at her, his face was completely covered so she couldn't tell what he was thinking, but from the way his hand tightened around the grip of his sword, it wasn't anything happy. After a moment of this, he relaxed. "...My apologies, I just let my surprise overcome me."
"Surprise? At what?" Taylor questioned.
"Nothing important." Chevalier dismissed. "Now, I'm afraid I must take my leave." He gave his goodbyes to the Triumvirate, and walked off.
"What was that about?" Taylor asked.
"I would think nothing of it." Alexandria spoke. "Chevalier's powers are odd at times; it's nothing to be worried about."
"...Right. Well, it's not like I've got much room to comment when it comes to weird powers." Taylor replied.
Their brief conversation was interrupted; as Narwhal reentered the room followed by one of Dragon's suits, and loudly cleared her throat to catch the attention of the room.
The light chatter of conversation ceased.
Narwhal nodded. "Thank you all for coming in response to this unprecedented sequence of events. And now, I cede the floor to Dragon." She stepped aside and motioned to the suit of armor.
Dragon stepped forward. "I'm sure you are all aware of the tragedy that happened earlier this morning."
"Well." A male cape Taylor didn't know spoke up. "I don't know if I'd call it a tragedy..."
"Not a tragedy?" Dragon directed at the cape who had spoken. "There were seven people in the Birdcage who were later cleared of all crimes, and only remained because no method exists to remove people from it. A further fourteen existed whose sentencing was highly questionable at best. They are all dead now, don't insult their deaths by saying it wasn't a tragedy."
"Uh, sorry." The cape who spoke out said while sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
Dragon's armored form nodded. "By all means, rejoice the deaths of Black Kaze or Grunge if you must, but please remember that not everyone in there deserved to be." She turned back towards the crowd. "Moving on, we are here primarily to discuss the reasons for the attack on the Birdcage, and potential responses."
"Wait, we're seriously questioning the why here?" The previous cape broke in. "I thought it was obvious. No offense, Buster." The cape turned towards Taylor. "What you did was totally the right thing to do, but what's the major change in variables between the previous pattern and now?"
Taylor considered things. It was probably true, in all honesty. However... "I think she's talking about why the Birdcage was attacked."
"Oh, that would make sense." The cape said with embarrassment. "I think I'll just shut up for the rest of this discussion."
"Buster is correct. While we cannot know for sure the impetus for the change in pattern, it may very well be the decisive defeat of an Endbringer that triggered it. It is, however, irrelevant to the topic at hand. So, currently, I am taking ideas on why they may have attacked the Birdcage." Dragon finished.
A low drone filled the air, as the various capes began talking amongst themselves. It continued for a moment, until a man stepped forward.
"The target for the attack is fairly obvious, they were after String Theory; he was the only one they specifically killed." Rapid began. "The question remains, why? I have a theory, however." He began pacing back and forth. "String Theory was a Tinker specializing in the creation of weapons which caused destruction on a massive scale. The Simurgh is precognitive, correct? Perhaps it saw a future where String Theory managed to build a weapon that killed them, and bringing all three Endbringers together was the only way to reliably break the cage."
"An interesting theory." An unknown female interjected. "But that doesn't explain why they took his head."
Rapid nodded in the middle of his walk, and picked up the pace. "A fair point. Why did they take his head?" He had broken out into a full blown run as he dashed back and forth across the room.
Strangely enough, no one seemed to think oddly of this. Taylor turned towards a nearby cape. "Uh, why is he-"
"Rapid is a high level Thinker that gets more intelligent the faster he is moving under his own power." The cape explained. "He can make some truly incredible leaps in logic when he really gets going."
Taylor's power seemed less and less weird the more capes she heard about.
Rapid was breathing heavily by now. "I... think... I... have... an... Idea." He stopped to catch his breath. "Completely disregard my old theory, the Simurgh is the only confirmed telepathic, it commonly puts new ideas inside of capes that stay within her range too long." He began moving, at a more sedate pace, once more. "What if it can pull them out? It may be possible for the Simurgh to pull Tinkertech schematics and knowledge out of the minds of Tinkers, and those minds might not even need to be alive." He finally stopped moving. "The Simurgh is potentially pulling the knowledge of how to build String Theory's Tinkertech out of her head."
There was a shocked silence. The idea of the Endbringers with Tinkertech we terrifying.
"...A very good assumption." Dragon began after a moment. "I believe it is fair to assume that, on their next appearance, the Endbringers may appear with String Theory's technology to aid them. Therefor-"
"I... Think we need to assume quite a bit more than just String Theory's tech." A very pale man who was presumably an assistant of some sort interrupted while looking at a phone. "And I think Rapid's theory was just confirmed, the Endbringers are hitting the Toybox."
Muttering began.
"The Toybox? It's been barely an hour? How fast are those damned things?" Spoke one cape.
"They must have been going... at least two hundred miles per hour while under the earth to pull that off." Responded another.
However, they were all overshadowed by Mobius. "What!" She screeched. "But-my lab-all my things!" She wrung her hands worriedly.
Legend rapidly took control. "Strider!" He roared. "Everyone who isn't a Tinker, now!"
Most of the capes vanished. Only Taylor, Mobius, Dragon and two unknown capes remained.
"Hey! My stuff-" Mobius cut herself off with a sigh. "Well, fine, whatever."
Taylor marched over to Dragon. "Can you get me there?"
"Maybe. Mobius?" Dragon questioned.
"Not happening." Mobius waved. "You think even Tinkertech materials can withstand those kinds of speeds for very long? Well, I'll tell you, they can't. You guys had, like, five more seconds in that before the thing fell apart."
Dragon paused. "...Why was I not told this?" She demanded.
"Didn't seem relevant." Mobius shrugged. "Anyway, repairs would take days assuming optimal conditions. And I have nothing else on me."
Dragon looked at her askance. "Not relevant? Dammit, Mobius. If you ever want to be a member of the Guild..."
Taylor ignored their bickering. "Fuck. There has to be something can do. Alexandria said my power is probably adaptive, so fucking adapt."
Analyzing: Methods for quick travel
Warp: Power Inadequate
Flight: Power Inadequate for necessary speed.
Searching Alternate Methods: Algorithmic Image Propulsion unreliable in current state.
No method available
"Unreliable? Don't give a fuck." She tried to draw out the power anyway, it seemed to... struggle with her.
Warning: Currently unable to compensate for Causality Errors.
"Don't. Give. A. Fuck." Something seemed to give loose.
Algorithmic Image Propulsion Online.
"Buster, what are you doing?" Dragon questioned.
Taylor moved.
Taylor moved
Taylor moved
Taylor saw the Toybox.
Taylor moved.
Taylor rammed into her.
Taylor hit the Simurgh.
Taylor stopped moving.
Mobius Spoke
Taylor never moved
Taylor always moved.
Automatic Shutdown
Things faded into of focus. Taylor stumbled onto the ground.
"...The holy flying fuck was that!" Mobius demanded.
"I must agree with Mobius. What happened there?" Dragon agreed.
"I'm not sure. I think I tried to activate a power that wasn't ready."
"Well, damn girl. In the future, if one of your powers isn't ready, don't fucking activate it." Mobius said to Taylor. "I mean, how the fuck do you describe that?"
"I have it on video." Dragon reached out with an arm, and projected the scene onto a wall.
Taylor saw herself fly forward, and then saw another Taylor fly forward from the same position. A Taylor appeared in front of the original one, and Taylor rammed into that Taylor. Taylors scattered everywhere from the impact, bouncing and scattering across the room till it was filled to the brim with Taylors. Mobius began screaming at some point. Then, all of Taylors vanished, and Taylor saw herself in her current position.
"...The fuck?" Taylor questioned with eyes wide open.
"Yeah." Mobius replied. "Fucking yeah."