7.3
When I called the flame, it answered…
Like liquid poured into a mold it acted in a way I'd never seen before. The destruction was bigger than I expected but I'd take it and call it a win.
Because with the flame, came ash.
More than I'd ever used, more than I'd ever even seen in any one place, five city blocks went up in smoke. Burning with flames that refused to be put out by the overwhelming volume of water.
I called it towards me, pulling a million grains of burned out homes and properties like a black hole.
"Jesus H. Christ!" It was the mover that spoke. A flier from the Philadelphia Wards program that was a faux Alexandria package. Faux because he had no super-strength, but rather flight, sheer durability, and endurance. He didn't get tired and he could tank bullets, or so his file read on my helmet. He was called Frontline, which was more than a little ironic.
The ash moved through the air like a plague of locusts.
It swirled around us, a nebulous cloud of gray and black before I moved it. All of my ash winding and weaving through the city streets like a fungal bloom through nooks and crannies in a forest. Focusing on every individual grain keeping it bound to my will, not letting it be washed away in the torrential rain.
I heard the screams of confusion, the shouts for an explanation as to what was going on through the radio. I looked to the Philie cape. "Get me back to Leviathan!"
"What the hell are you gonna do!?" He asked, even as he picked me up by one arm.
"I'm gonna have to concentrate!" I answered as we took off through the storm of ash, with me clearing his way. "I've never tried this before. I may not be able to react fast enough if he tries something. You have to fly us high enough so he can't hit us. And flying will let me keep my eyes on him."
The ash below us, moved through the city like a black cloud, swallowing everything in its path like the debris of a volcanic eruption as I directed it through the tight city streets.
With Leviathan fighting a newly arrived Alexandria, and being pelted from above by Blasters of all kinds, I made my move.
The storm of ash surged forward. Crashing over Leviathan and instantly spreading out through his water echo. A hundred tons of ash with more pouring in from the still burning section of the city. The water around him, and at his feet, quickly turned into a mulched, thick mud.
'Can you swim through mud?' I wondered with not a little vindictiveness.
The monster looked at the sludge that was rapidly covering him from head to toe, seemingly confused.
The water vibrated, moving rapidly, as though trying to break down the ash that was weighing it down like a million omni-directional teeth.
I focused, concentrating, my mind expanding, able to individually comprehend and multi-task on every piece of ash, keeping it intact. Keeping it on him. Inside the water he was controlling around him.
Alexandria dove in from above, both fists held out in front of her.
Leviathan skirted back, the filth-laden water echo moving to intercept her.
With a thought, I made the ash move.
The power of Leviathan's water based attacks came from one thing.
Compression.
He compressed the water to such a degree it was like being hit by a concrete slab. A thousand gallons forced to take up a space that should have only been able to house half of that across his whole body.
With ash now in the middle of that mess… I just… made it scatter, dragging the water molecules trapped in the carbonated mass with it.
And just like that, Alexandria pushed straight through with a resistance that was like pushing through a thin water fountain stream. I felt the impact of her fists against its chest, striking the monster with enough power to shove it into the side of a building.
If it was annoyed or surprised, I couldn't tell, the monster moved with the impact, shoving itself through what was left of the building and discarding the water that it had been using to sheathe itself, trying to dislodge the tons and tons of ash that I moved back into place just as fast. It formed a current, the water pushing at the ash at its feet, trying to wash it away like one would use a hose to wash away dirt.
I poured more. Making it fall from the sky just as I made the ash already in the water follow suit, however sluggishly, and called in even more from the still burning debris that added more to my arsenal with every passing second.
The quagmire around his feet grew, a swamp of muddy ground that could now be measured in city blocks as I shoved more ash onto the Endbringer itself. A quagmire that was immediately under assault by a current of water he swirled around himself in order to try and wash it off.
I made the ash cling to him, grip him, hold him in place.
From the skies above, laser beams struck against the Endbringer. Its claws and tail lashed out, rainwater and seawater churning around it as it tried to wash away the filth and attack at the same time.
Alexandria pushed straight through the remains of the building, a half dozen Brute rated capes at her back.
Leviathan lashed out with his claws, his physical movements as fast as ever, Alexandria barely had the speed to react and avoid the blow.
Then the water echo moved to hit her instead.
I tried the previous trick, but he was ready for it this time, the bulk of the water remained in place and when it hit her, it was with the sound of rolling thunder as her fist crashed straight into it.
His tail whipped through the air into the mob of other Brutes even as they dispersed. I saw the spurt of dark red blood and felt a foreign warmth on some of the ash particles as I heard the armband chime again.
The Endbringer dove into the mulch at his feet, trying to swim away, gain some more distance. I could feel the water that now swallowed the ground level of the city fighting me, pushing my ash away, literally scraping it off of him like a metal toothed brush, scrubbing him clean.
I moved my one free hand, feeling it help my focus, moving the ash with all speed, crashing it over him in sheets.
But every grain was shoved aside, every ton of ash I had at my disposal was matched by an equal amount of fresh water.
He was almost free, almost gone from my grasp when the others, the Brutes, Barrier, and Blaster capes managed to get ahead of him, intercepting his mad dash for escape.
The Endbringer for all intents and purposes seemed to do the equivalent of a normal man running into a brick wall. He crashed into the line of sudden barriers without the speed to actually break through them. He reeled back just as the Brutes crashed into him like a mob of linebackers and the Blasters brought down the proverbial wrath of god over him, their long ranged artillery striking him in the back of the neck, head, and shoulders.
Then he was covered from head to toe in ash once again.
...I… I did it… I found a way to slow this bastard down!
Then… movement just on my peripheral vision. I tilted my head to the side, looking. Above me, Frontline followed my vision.
"Oh shit!"
It was water. Water that was half a block away from Leviathan himself..
It took a shape, the shape of Leviathan. His water echo!
I heard shouts of warning ring out around the group before it smashed into them, a string of casualties and wounded sounding out from the armband as the barriers that had been in front of him lost their power entirely.
"Generator down, BG-3. Menja down BG-3. Kaiser deceased, BG-3. Hexfield deceased, BG-3. Firewall down, BG-3"
Kaiser!?
The Capes currently fighting him didn't even look at the commotion, focusing entirely on delivering as much punishment as they feasibly could while he was still in one spot.
Leviathan struck out, his claws, tail, and water turning him into a whirling dervish of death.
I could feel the headache pounding against my skull as I poured all of my will and determination into holding this bastard still.
Like velcro, the individual particles of ash clung together, a hundred billion tiny grips each overlapping onto the other, an ever tightening noose as Leviathan visibly began to slow in his movements.
The capes struck. But as hard as I'd made the ash, they were doing more damage to it than him.
Fuck!
"This is Dragon. Striking with missiles in ten seconds!"
I looked up, finding her armored suit circling around for a pass at the Endbringers.
I waited, biding my time.
When I saw the first streak of fire from the suit I reacted, a million grains of ash suddenly exploding off Leviathan in every direction, dragging the water around him with it and leaving him wide open for the tinker-tech explosives that crashed into him with speed and force ten times that of a freight train.
The blast was so bright I had to look away, I felt the wind knocked out of me from all the way up here where we were hovering above the fight.
Leviathan apparently took the opportunity for all it was worth, the split second of completely free movement and the second I couldn't see him behind the cloud of smoke.
They always said he was the fastest of the Endbringers, he proved it right now.
Before I had even blinked he was there.
Right there, jumping two hundred plus feet into the air, a clawed arm reaching right for the both of us.
Shit!
Maybe it was the rain, the panic, or the sheer surprise, but Frontline didn't move, freezing up as the Endbringer closed the distance between us with dizzying speed.
Suddenly, there was a blast from above, pure kinetic force striking with enough power to crack the Endbringer's torn face completely open, making a slash along his features widen into a gaping crack that spurted ichorous blood and sent him crashing back down to the Earth.
I looked up, and saw the green robes caught in the wind.
Eidolon!? But wasn't he with the Barrier team?!
I looked out towards the shore line, behind us, spotting a sheer wall of pure ice, gleaming on the horizon from end to end, nearly twice as tall as any building in the Bay.
Before I could think any further on it something hit me!
Pain bloomed across my body, I felt the arms above me going slack before I was falling down towards the ground.
"Frontline deceased, BP-2."
I tumbled through the air, feeling fire spreading through my lungs as I screamed in white hot pain.
Then something grabbed me, my arm nearly yanked out of its socket before Eidolon was grabbing me, catching me mid fall.
I heard a crash underneath as I saw Frontline's bisected body fall right past us.
The legendary Hero soared into the air, away from the monster.
The pain was excruciating, but I kept my mind on the ash, focusing, bringing it to life again forcing it to respond and cling to the Endbringer as it picked itself off the ground, still covered and surrounded by mulched ash.
Eidolon touched down on a roof, his hand glowing with something that instantly soothed the pain under my ribs. As the ash idols formed around us, I felt him tense before they began to emit their healing light.
"You have to stay alive!" He demanded. "If he's targeting you, that means he's angry! And if he's angry you're doing something right!"
I nodded, still trying to catch my breath through the pain.
Then… something was wrong, a ripple through the ash.
I turned just in time to see Leviathan leap and stomp back down into the earth and the water that was in the street exploded outward, creating a ripple-like tsunami that was traveling at an absurd speed as the water on his body and around him shot out like bullets, a million drops of shrapnel in all directions to hit the Blasters above and the Brutes coming in.
The building we were on was rocked, knocked clear off its foundations before Eidolon grabbed me and pulled away before it, and nearly all of its neighbors around Leviathan were knocked back.
The armbands went insane a slew of cape names droning out of the machines.
"Bruiser down, BP-2. Sparkplug deceased, CE-4. Beastie down, DR-6. Hookwolf down, BP-2. Redside down, CD-5. Alexandria down, BP-2. Fenja deceased, BP-2. Coldfront down, BP-2. Legend down-"
Fuck we may not even last long enough to see the Bay drown!
My ash was completely blown away, tons of ash now spread out in a cloud, half of it having been blown clear out of my range.
Damnit! Was he just screwing with me? Humoring me?!
At the sound of his teammates going down, Eidolon set me down and shot forward like a rocket. A blast of cold freezing the monster's right arm and leg. It lashed out with its tail only for the green hero to dart out of his attack. A hornet attacking a mountain lion.
I focused, trying to gather up my ash from all the corners of the Bay that it had been spread out to. Focusing and trying to bring it all together.
Only, now… now it was the water dragging it down. The water itself keeping it away.
My little trick worked both ways. And Leviathan was both more skilled and had more water than I had ash.
With a water echo that crashed right into the most powerful man on earth barring Scion, Leviathan turned his full, undivided attention right at me.
He was as big as a house... And he was so fast I had no doubt he could close the distance between us in less time than it took me to blink.
Well… Shit.
I saw his tail whip around behind him, like he was giving it a few practice swings just for the fun of it.
Then, with all the subtlety of a car… quite literally, a car was thrown right into its face!
Leviathan reeled, surprised, for a second before another car was pitched at him and very nearly completely destroyed by the force of the impact.
He turned, and I didn't give my good fortune a second thought before I bolted towards another building, jumping with my ash armor to get away!
I saw Leviathan lash out with his claws at some unseen cape, ready to run until I could effectively gather my ash enough to fight him again
"Glory Girl down, AQ-3"
My whole body froze, seizing up like my armor had decided to lock itself in place.
I turned, looking towards where I'd seen Leviathan attack just a second ago.
The Blasters, Brutes, Eidolon, they all came back with a vengeance, pressing the attack as Leviathan staggered under sheer magnitude of attacks that came at him as I saw more capes coming in from the shoreline. Barriers sprang up around him, including Narwhal's signature fields.
But I disregarded that, my mind focusing on a single point past the line of half collapsed homes.
I ran.
I moved as fast as I'd ever even remembered moving, rushing past flooded streets, through destroyed buildings and capes that were rushing to the battle zone.
"Vicky!"
I screamed out her name long before I was there, my voice lost in the hiss of the rain and the sounds of the fight going on just a few dozen yards away.
"Vicky!"
She wasn't a Brute… not like the others, not like Alexandria. She was either invulnerable or she wasn't. There was no middle ground for her. Other Brutes that had levels of endurance well beyond hers had died.
If Leviathan had managed to get past that force field… even for a second…
My eyes panned through the helmet's functions, blink-clicking through them in near panic before I finally found the built in sensor for the armbands.
North. Thirty meters, just ahead of me!
I looked, finding nothing but a destroyed building directly ahead of me, a hole punched straight through the upper corner.
There! She had to be there!
I rushed forward, my ash armor allowing me to leap up, all but punching through the brick and cement that I was going to land on with the angle of my approach.
The second I made it inside, I felt my heart drop into a pit as I gasped.
Vicky was there, lying in the remains of whatever office this had been of, three pieces of rebar running her straight through, blood leaking from her mouth.
"No… Nononono." I muttered, running forward. I could feel my own breathing, shuddering through my chest, the pain blooming through my ribs as I knelt at her side.
"Tay-Tay?"
"Don't-Don't talk Vick… Don-" My hand flew to my armband pressing the buttons there. "This-This is Ashburn I need… I need a Mover at my location now! Emergency rescue I-Dragon, Gallant I-"
"You got away." She smiled.
There was an explosion outside, the force of it shaking the building around us.
Vicky coughed, a wad of blood bubbling up from her throat
Heal her… I can heal her!
I reached forward, grasping one of the rebars and holding its base with one hand, feeling her warm blood seeping through the ash armor before I used my other hand to snap the thing clean off, almost two feet of metal in my hand before I tossed it aside, grabbing onto another one.
"Tay…"
"Vicky just… I'll have you out in a second, okay." With a grunt and a deafening clang of metal the thing was snapped off same as the one before it, a foot or so of metal shortened down to just a few inches or so.
"I'm sorry Tay." She breathed. I looked up at her, her face was pale, eyes glassy and half lidded, not even looking at me so much as past me.
"What are you talking about… Why're you sor-" I shook my head growling as I nearly crushed the communicator in my hands, screaming into it! "I NEED A MOVER NOW!"
I reached for the next piece of metal, the ash along my hands red with her blood.
"I… made… made you lie." She wheezed. "Made you lie… to cover for me..."
"Don't worry about that right now… Just..." I sucked down a breath, feeling the hitch in my throat before snapping the last length of metal. "Just be quiet right now. Save your strength. Please… Vicky"
"That wasn't right… never said I was sorry… should have said it..." She continued, ignoring me or not having heard me at all. "I wish... I'd been a better friend Tay-"
She slumped, and my heart stopped.
"No… No God please no!"
I reached for her, carefully hugging her close before pulling her off the metal with a wet squelch of flesh that turned my stomach.
I set her down on the wet office floor, her blood drenching my front.
Heal… I can heal her!
I looked around, towards the discarded pieces of metal.
I didn't even think about it. Not for a second. I grabbed onto one, discarded all the armor from my body and swung it straight down with all my strength.
I couldn't even scream at the pain I felt as I heard my hand crunch with the snapping of bone. Tears of agony leaked from my eyes before I lifted the piece of metal and brought it straight down a second time.
My whole body convulsed, the pain nearly making me throw up, I felt acid at the back of my throat, before the ash that had been my armor moved with a foreign will and the cracking of bone reached my ears.
The aurora bathed us both, the pain in my hand receding from my mind as though a warm balm had been spread over the rapidly bruising skin.
I looked to Vicky, my hand hovering over her, eyes looking to the wounds that dotted her torso.
Nothing was happening.
I shook my head. "Vicky…" I patted her cheek. "Vicky… wake up…" My voice cracked.
"Victoria?"
My mouth gaped up and down, and then took off my helmet and went down to her chest to hear her heartbeat. My hair was drenched in sweat and rainwater and obscured my vision.
Her heartbeat… where was-
"Glory Girl, Deceased. AP-4."
…
I…
I…
I looked up…
And there she was.
The idol, it's unnatural glow illuminating through the whole room from the dark flames at its core.
"Help me…" I muttered.
It didn't move… it didn't say anything. Not even the feel of a foreign emotion at the back of my thoughts. It's faceless head unresponsive.
I…
I collapsed…
I felt… all the fight literally drain out of me, my body going cold and numb as my head slumped forward.
…
...
I hadn't cried.
Not once. Not since the prison break.
Not once.
Not for Coil. Not for Surtr. Not for the PRT. Not for Legend. Not for Alexandria or Glenn, or Colin or Dragon or Militia or even the Wards or my Dad. Not for the Ash-woman.
Not once.
Not one tear.
"RAAAARGH!"
When the cry escaped my lips, I didn't even recognize it, didn't even know it was me that had made that sound.
It tore at my throat, my eyes burned with liquid fire before I brought them up.
"FUCK YOU!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, screaming at the hollow face of the shattered statue.
"FUCK YOU, YOU BITCH! THE ONE TIME I NEED YOU YOU GO FUCK OFF! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU IHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATEYOU!"
My bare fist lashed out, punching the ash idol as hard as I could, feeling my knuckles crack with the violent shift of bone before the same statue healed the wound like it wasn't even there.
I hit it again, and again and again. Clawing at it with raw, primal desperation. The whole world could have collapsed around me and I wouldn't have cared. The sounds of battle raged outside and I didn't care.
When I finally regained enough of myself, when I could finally think. I threw all my focus inwards, the same ability that had allowed me to control all the ash that had blanketed the city allowing me to look inward with an inhuman clarity, searching.
A surge of strength flowed into me, I felt my range expand, new abilities with my fire coming to mind.
An afterthought. Barely a flicker of emotion passing through her. She was humoring me.
I followed it. A gossamer thin thread that no human could have found without the ability to control so much see so much focus on so much.
I took hold of the thread. Like a little string of gold I took hold of it and followed.
The world fell away, fading into pure black, the rain, the thunder and lightning, the water, the waves the capes, the Endbringer. None of it mattered. None of it!
Suddenly, I could feel it, emotion blooming through my mind. Surprise first, then panic, fear.
Stop!
The word hit my mind with the subtlety of a brick.
With tears burning through my eyes… I didn't care. It didn't matter!
More words, more emotions came to my thoughts, pushing through the black haze of rage.
Fragile.
Power.
Danger.
Mortal.
I ignored her, ignored it all. No matter what I found at the end of this, this bitch was going to know that she was not going to toy with me anymore! She would learn to regret letting Vicky die!
I found it deep within... That tiny sliver of light... I reached out.
Stop! TAYLOR STOP!
Before me in the depths of this… ceaseless Dark I can hear the thundering footsteps. Raime.
I peer through the gloom, seeing the faint outline of Raime running towards me, trying to stop me. I felt my vision darken the strain on my mind like a thousand shards of glass cutting into the black matter of my brain.
TAYLOR!
Then I felt my mouth, curving upward. The smile that reached my face… there was nothing kind about it. It was just… pure hatred.
Before I cried out for them to stop. Pleaded with them to stop. Now...
I laughed. I laughed and followed. Followed the thread to the end. Reaching for this power…
Reaching for…
My Soul?
No…
Not mine...
Her Soul.
The Dark Soul
Then….
...
I knew peace.
A peace so deep…
It was like…
…
...
The Dark.
(X)
"This is Alexandria. If you can hear this; I am ordering a full retreat!
"Clarification! Please confirm orders. Leviathan is still in the city Alex-"
"I'm confirming! I'm ordering everyone to evacuate! Get out! Get out no-
"Fucking hell what is that!?"
"Strider! We're gathering the survivors for immediate-
"Get out of there! Get out of there now!"
"INSIGHT, WE NEED TO KNOW WHAT THIS IS!"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
"But the civil-"
"What's Leviathan done? Is it the Reservoir?!"
"This is Mouse Protector calling for any Movers in the area that can transport the wound-"
"Leviathan… Leviathan is-"
"I repeat! This is Alexandria. If you can hear my voice... You must get out! Get out right now any way you can!"