Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower 6.6
Dennis scratched his head. "You know, I don't even know how to react to that, just... what?"
Taylor shrugged. "All I remember is something about causality errors." Taylor was currently showing the video of the... thing that had happened back at the Guild to the Wards.
The Endbringer response... hadn't gone well. Most of the capes who had shown up had, well, exploded the moment they appeared as Leviathan forced the water out of their bodies. That move had almost taken down Legend, who barely managed to fly out of range with terrible damage. Panacea had fixed him, but still.
The more invulnerable capes had made an attempt to stand their ground. Behemoth hit them with a kinetic force wave that sent all involved hurling for miles. Most survived, but that was the end of the offensive. The Endbringers made off with the heads of every Toybox tinker and retreated before any recovery could be made.
It was a battered and bruised protectorate that slowly left that battle, very slowly left. The loss of their most notable teleporters was going to hurt the protectorate for a long time. Taylor hadn't really known Nowhere for long enough to really mourn his passing, and he was kind of annoying in that 'adult child' kind of way, but still, someone she knew had died.
Dragon had gotten Taylor home a few hours later. Mobius had lost pretty much everything with the Toybox attack, so she had hitched a ride and was now currently staying at the Protectorate Headquarters.
Taylor upon returning home had tiredly greeted her Dad and fallen asleep. Only to awake in the morning to find that the world had turned upside down overnight.
The Endbringers had apparently been doing work all night. There were confirmed reports of at least five attacks. Large portions of Africa were now devastated as the Endbringers added not only Tinker heads but raw resources and parts to the increasingly massive cloud telekinetically trailing behind the Simurgh. The cloud of parts both visceral and mechanical underwent constant shifting, as the Simurgh brought things together and tore them back apart to add something new to the design.
A few more attempts were made on the Endbringers; they were, if anything, less successful than the Protectorate's initial efforts. Teleporters had rapidly reached a point of 'fuck no' towards anything involving going near the Endbringers, and the loss of mobility grounded any potential effective response to a halt.
And thus began the Tinker panic. It hadn't taken long for Tinkers to realize the implication of all this and they had, well, panicked. The actions they had taken varied. Some made likely to be proven ineffectual last stands with everything they could possibly build, others had scattered in the hopes that their tech would be deemed not worth the effort.
The Protectorate had taken the option of consolidating everything. Every Tinker they could possibly convince was brought to Brockton Bay, along with every cape they could bring, all in the hopes that the fact that since most of the world's strongest capes were either there, or not too far off, the Endbringers would be deterred towards less 'hard' targets. Villain actions had fallen off entirely as the number of Hero capes actually outnumbered even the number of non-capes in the city. Well, in the city was probably a misnomer, most of the new arrivals had taken up residence in the increasingly massive number of hastily set up tents surrounding Brockton Bay.
A few people had questioned as to why they were consolidating on the eastern seaboard of all places, rather than someplace easier to get to for most of America, especially when they had lost their major cross-continent movers. The Protectorate had replied that it was easier to bring people to a place that was further away, yet already moderately entrenched, than entrench a new place entirely. Personally, Taylor felt that statement rang a bit hollow, but it seemed to satisfy those people and Taylor certainly wasn't going to object to not having to move.
The last major thing to happen was that, as far as anyone could tell, precognition was down. As in, not working for the next few months. Every precog had agreed that the future had basically blanked out for them, and the only thing they could tell was that it would clear up within a month or two. Taylor had winced when she first found that out; it was probably her fault.
In short, shit had happened during the eight hours she had been asleep. An actually quite impressive amount for the time frame. And now Brockton Bay was host to the world's greatest collection of Parahumans since... well, the Endbringer attack before the last one. Although at this rate even that might get outpaced.
All Taylor's Dad had to say was that he hoped the influx of people would revitalize the economy.
"...Causality errors?" Mathew's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "As in, errors in cause and effect?" If his eyebrows went any higher, they would probably fall off. "Taylor, what were you trying to do there that would cause that?"
"Flight of some sort, I think." Taylor replied.
"What kind of flight method has causality errors as a side effect?" He cried out.
Taylor shrugged.
"Ugh, no wonder precognition has fallen apart." He shook his head. "If you keep this up, Myrddin is going to have to cede the Wizard title to you."
"Um." Missy cut in. "What exactly does any of that mean?"
"Causality is basically the thing that states every effect must have a cause." Mathew explained. "If you mess up causality... weird crap would happen, rather like what happened in that video. You'd have stuff occurring for, quite literally, no reason, and then that stuff not doing what it should be. Fire not burning something, for instance. You might also have something ridiculous like the effect preceding the cause. Like if you went to punch someone, you would punch them before you punched them."
Missy went slightly cross eyed. "I... think I get it, sorta."
Miss Militia walked into the room. "Taylor, Alexandria would like to see you."
"Alright." Taylor answered. "Well, see ya." She directed towards the Wards.
Dennis waved. "Bye." He turned back towards the other Wards. "So, running off your comment, Mathew, where would we find a good place to buy a wizard's outfit? I'm thinking..."
Taylor sighed in exasperation.
Miss Militia looked amused. "Something I should know?"
"You've spent more time around Dennis than I have, do I really need to answer that question?" Taylor replied.
"No, probably not." Miss Militia's amusement heightened a notch. "Come on, then." She walked out the door, and Taylor followed behind.
"It's amazing that they've managed to keep up with the logistical nightmare all of this must be." Taylor commented while looking out the window at what would be best described as a 'sea of tents'.
"The Protectorate hired on Accord, he was apparently rather pleased that his plans would finally have the full backing of the US economy. What he directed was expensive, but no one can deny that it works." Miss Militia answered. "Truthfully, I'm a bit worried about what will happen to the general economy with all of its resources fixated in one spot, but that's something to deal with after the Endbringers are."
Taylor sort of admired the absolute certainty that the Endbringers would be dealt with. Taylor herself wasn't quite so sure, the Endbringers were playing hard ball now, and were doing pretty well at their game of keep away with Scion, who had yet to manage to get there in time to stop an attack. Taylor supposed that made the Protectorate's decision the most likely to actually accomplish anything. The last stands certainly weren't going to work, and scattering ran into a 'what's their long term goal' problem; it's not like the Endbringers were going to die of old age or something.
Taylor finished her thoughts as they stopped in front of a nondescript door. "And this is where I leave you, they have me directing the local protectorate as Alexandria and Armsmaster are each tied up with their own little things." Miss Militia waved, and left.
Taylor gave a wave of her own, and entered the room. Legend was in a wheel chair talking with Alexandria, and Eidolon stood in a corner staring at Legends legs.
Taylor blinked. "Are you going to be alright?" She directed at Legend.
Legend looked up from his conversation. "Ah, welcome, Taylor. And yes, with time. Even Panacea and my own power can't completely deal with all the... unpleasant repercussions of having your legs torn off by your own blood." He shook his head. "Not an experience I would like to have again anytime soon. Anyway, we brought you here primarily so as to discuss what is to be done when the Endbringers attack."
"When?" Taylor considered things. "Fair enough."
"Indeed. By bringing so many Tinkers to one place, we know where the Endbringers will attack." Alexandria explained. "And so, we can prepare to fight them here."
"Here... Uh, what is going to be done about the civilians? I hope you aren't expecting to fight the Endbringers while they're around." Taylor crossed her arms.
"They're being evacuated, as many as we can at least." Legend answered. "I'd like to promise that they will all be gone, but I can't. We have no idea when the Endbringers will attack."
"Why the rush, then?" Taylor asked.
Legend sighed. "What's the Endbringers endgame, and when will they reach it? Those are the two questions plaguing my mind, and I would rather neither of them ever be answered. So if I must make a risky decision here or there in order to do my best to see that come to be... So be it." Legend deflated ever so slightly upon saying those words. "It's not a happy choice, but the longer I hesitate to make it, the greater the amount of potential deaths."
Taylor frowned. "There is far more talk of 'potential deaths' in the heroing business than I am honestly comfortable with." She sighed. "But it's already done. I suppose I can't do much other than move on and hope everything works out." The idea left Taylor feeling slightly bitter.
"A wise point of view." Alexandria noted. "Now, I do believe we have a fight to plan."
"I suppose it makes sense." Taylor muttered to herself after she left. "The first soldier lost in every conflict is the plan and all that. But wow, that was kind of disappointing." Well, the 'plan' was effectively, 'Alexandria, try and distract them. Legend, shoot. Buster and Eidolon, pray for awesome power.' After you got through all the fancy words.
Taylor looked up as she heard footsteps from around the corner.
"Buster." Armsmaster declared after rounding said corner. "I take it you just came from the Triumvirate."
"You would be right." Taylor nodded. "What are you doing here?"
"You bring every Tinker in the US to one place with the intention to protect them, and you expect us to not have anything to offer." Armsmaster snorted. "We have a plan. And with precog down, now is our best chance to outsmart the Simurgh."
"Really? Good to hear. Maybe we'll get an actual plan out now." Taylor was still kind of miffed. "Our current one relies entirely too much upon either Eidolon or I pulling something incredible off for anyone's good. It makes for an okayish backup, but it would be nice to actually have a primary."
Armsmaster grunted out an agreement. There was a moment of awkward silence, and Taylor moved past.
"Buster." Armsmaster called out just as she would have gone round the corner in turn. "Do you regret it?"
"Hmm?"
"Letting Leviathan go, do you regret it?" Armsmaster clarified.
"No. Why would I?" Taylor asked.
"If Leviathan had died there, we might not have had any of this-"
"I'm afraid I would have to disagree." Taylor interrupted. "It's not like the Endbringers couldn't have pulled all this off without Leviathan. They might have been a bit slower about things, but I fail to see how Leviathan being dead would have helped things, and that's if we had managed to kill it. It's not like Leviathan is the big thing making the Endbringers so unassailable. Behemoth could most likely perform everything Leviathan is currently doing, if a fair bit slower. Best case scenario, we killed everyone in Brockton to slow down the Endbringers. I do not consider that a fair trade." Taylor firmly finished.
Armsmaster turned to look at her. "Steadfast to the end... And a fool too. Why don't you say that to everyone who died when Leviathan ripped the blood from their veins?"
"Precog was still up at that point; they were teleporting into a trap no matter what. Instead of Leviathan, they would have had Behemoth's shockwave waiting for them." Taylor replied.
Armsmaster frowned. "You don't think like a human." He spoke bluntly.
Taylor frowned back. "I can't really be considered human anymore, can I?"
Armsmaster looked at her. "And you just accept it so blithely..." He snorted after a moment, and walked off without a further word.
Taylor internally sighed. The fact that she wasn't worried about her mental state was probably the biggest proof that she had been altered mentally. Not that she needed more after the combat protocols debacle.
"I suppose I should help with the evacuation." Taylor decided. She could worry about her sanity, and if that term even applied anymore, later.
Primary Singularity: 42% Output