AN This chapter never got posted somehow.
xxx
Evacuation.
Medusa was trying very, very, very hard to evacuate as many people as she could.
She'd sent up the Snake Signal as soon as she'd been able to think straight enough, but still her head was pounding as she continued escorting people away and pulling people out of the wreckage from the explosion.
"So the fuck we doing?" Aisha asked, as knowledge of her existence once more entered Verity's mind.
"You are getting somewhere safe," Brian immediately said.
Medusa double-took at their presence. "You're still here? I thought you were evacuating! Go, escort people if you can, keep your head down if you can't."
"Understood," Brian said. "Rachel, Aisha with me."
"So are we heading to the PRT?" Sabah asked, now in full doll mode.
Medusa listened for a moment, and only when she was certain she couldn't hear anyone under the rubble, she nodded. "Yeah, yeah we are. Get on, I'm gonna go top speed."
"Might be a good idea to drop the child off there too, building is basically disaster proof." Lisa said.
And Medusa remembered her existing passengers, the still very drugged Dinah and the envenomed Mr Pitter. "Right, right, everyone who's with me, come here."
In a move that made her already pounding headache worse, she carried them all to the PRT building, the solid construction standing firm against the encroaching storm.
"Medusa, where were you?" Miss Militia asked as she immediately came up to them, the entire building was exploding with movement as everyone was in disaster mode. And was that the sound of displaced air she could hear further up?
"Kidnapped by Coil, he compromised my transport and then proceeded to raid my house." Medusa explained as she uncovered Dinah. "Found Dinah Alcott and one of his accomplices."
"Oh… Oh… of course you were, we will have an agent bring her down in the safe room, and him in a cell. Is Coil stone?"
"Unfortunately, no, the bastard uses body doubles." Medusa denied. "Also unfortunately, that explosion earlier was him blowing up an Endbringer shelter." She all but spat. "Bastard."
"NNNNNN." The pain on Hannah's bandana clad face was both clear and audible. "We were about to investigate that, but then this happened. Both heroes and villains are currently being teleported in. Thankfully Armsmaster's new detection system gave us about half an hour in advance instead of the usual five to ten."
"Yes, Armsmaster deserves praise for his work." An unknown female voice spoke from behind Verity, and she turned around to see three figures.
Metal mask lady, Doctor Doom pastiche, blue and white bodysuit-
"Ma'am! Sirs!" Miss Militia immediately stood at attention as Verity registered that this was the Triumvirate.
The Big Three of this world.
She really wished she had the time and energy to geek out right now.
"And you must be Medusa, I've seen the reports on your work." Alexandria said. "You've really turned this city around."
"Y-you've heard of me?" Verity stuttered. It was the local equivalent to Wonder Woman (if Scion was Superman, otherwise she was the Superman equivalent), she couldn't help it.
"Of course, Lexi keeps taps on every cape that is on our level." Legend stated. "And we are glad to fight alongside you."
"Yes, and hopefully you will survive this first Endbringer fight of yours," Eidolon added as the three walked past the two of them and went further up.
"Ah…" Verity squeaked as they were left behind.
"Well you made a decent first impression," Hannah said as Dinah and Mr Pitter were taken to a more secure location by the PRT troops.
Troops that Verity quickly had words with before she did.
And then they headed up as well, alongside a clearly out of her depth looking Parian and a hastily-made Domino Mask wearing Tattletale.
And they all found themselves in probably the biggest conference room in the building, which overlooked the ocean, the room filled with heroes and villains she did not recognize at all, and of course there were a few Brockton Bay locals.
Including…
"Hey biggest V." Glory Girl said.
"Hey Medium V." Medusa said with a forced smile, her headache not having faded much.
"So the three Vs have been assembled." Vista said as she came up to finish the trio.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Medusa said with a nod. "The 3V's of Brockton Bay included."
"Yeah," Vista said. "Also here," She said as she gave a rather familiar looking armband to Medusa. "Like yours but simpler, the Wards that got permission to join the fight are giving them out. This one just gives locations of capes for when they go down, for search and rescue and Leviathan. Just state your cape name."
"Got it." She said before holding it up to her face. "Medusa."
"Medusa: Registered." Came the voice of Dragon. Though it was clearly just the Siri version. "Welcome to the fight."
"Thanks little V."
"Thanks Medusa, let's all get out of this alive." Vista said as she left.
"Yeah, I hope we do, I need to get ready to transport Amy to the medical center once stuff hits the fan, she is currently giving as many as she can last minute fixes." At that Glory Girl left.
"Ahh, Sa- Parian, Medusa I am glad to see that you could both make it," The penetrating voice of Ragyo Kiryuin spoke as she approached them, her daughters and the Four Heavenly Kings following right behind her.
Gamagoori visibly increased in size as they entered.
Wordlessly, Medusa nudged Parian in between them like a shield. She did not have the mental energy to deal with Ragyo at the moment.
"Yeah, I am kinda surprised myself," Parian replied.
"Do not worry, I brought equipment that you can use," She replied. "So Medusa, are you ready to slay a monster?"
"Yes." Medusa said. "Just not the one I was expecting today."
"Twelve years."
"?" Medusa blamed her only somewhat abated headache for her inability to parse that statement.
"Almost twelve years since Leviathan sank Kyushu, and put my home into a crisis it still has not recovered from. Almost twelve years since I witnessed that disaster first hand. It was when both I and my husband gained our powers, and the day I found Nui."
"Yep, if it wasn't for her I would still be under my old house." The frilly dressed girl said.
"And so for the last decade we've been working towards this day, a day we would have the weapons needed to fight that beast, in a place so similar to home."
"We shall bring down the beast Lady Kiryuin." Gamagoori declared.
"...You were expecting this." Medusa accused flatly. No heat in her words, so much as resignation.
"Brocton Bay was one of the five locations that I determined to be hit by Leviathan within the next year," Data boy (she could not remember his name) said as he pushed up his glasses.
"We should collaborate on prediction programs then," Armsmaster said as he came in. "Medusa, Miss Militia gave me the sit-rep of what happened. Full report after the fight."
"Of course." Medusa agreed with a nod.
"And it seems that Mr Laser is about to begin his speech." Sanageyama said. The blindfolded swordsman smiling with battlelust.
At that Medusa's attention turned to Legend who stood alongside his friends at a podium.
"Everyone, Independents, Protectorate Heroes, and those who carry the label of villains, thank you for showing up today, to fight the good fight against one of the three we all can call our enemy. Endbringer Leviathan, the middle child, and second largest. He is thirty-feet tall, and shaped like a lizard, four eyes, three on one side, on the other. And out of the three he is the physically powerhouse, unlike Behemoth the Dynakinetic who controls all energy, and the Simurgh who can control the mind of others, he relies on his Macro Hydrokinesis, to create tsunamis, heavy rain and storms, and a water echo that mimics his movements, are his most common usage of his power. But he is also the fastests, easily reaching mach one in water."
There was murmuring among the crowd.
This was not helping her headache.
"But the most dangerous ability is where he fights, 'cause Leviathan fights on what we call soft and hard targets, Brockton Bay is a soft target, like Newfoundland and Kyushu. If the fight takes too long, he will be able to take control of the water reservoir beneath the city, and sink it."
Well great, in other words no matter how well they did if they didn't deal with Leviathan fast enough they might lose everything anyway.
Awesome.
Great.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
"And thanks to the work of Armsmaster and Dragon and their new warning system we are more prepared than ever, and so that means this fight can maybe be one of the Good Days, and by that I mean, about one fourth of you are going to die."
WOW.
This was what passed for an inspiring speech here?
"I am telling you that because, I do not want you to let your guard down, Leviathan is an Endbringer for a reason, and I've seen too many good people, heroes and villains alike lose their life because they did not take him seriously enough." Legend spoke as images on the screens behind him emphasized his words, showing the aftermaths, and also info about the area and general tactics to be employed.
"As usual you will all be separated into three teams: Search, Rescue and Recovery; Long Range; and CQC, please go where you think your powers will best suit you. Strider and other teleporters will assist as best they can." Legend said. "Leviathans eta, five minutes, get out and get ready."
Medusa quickly gave Parian a hug before going to the CQC group that was growing.
She was there alongside one of Dragon's suits, Alexandria, Armsmaster, Sanageyama, Gamagoori. And many others she didn't recognize.
One of them introduced himself as Chubster.
And as-
"Wave inbound!" Came the voice over the PDA.
"Strider, take us out now!" Alexandria ordered.
Air was sucked out of Verity's lungs, which accompanied a sound like thunder.
And at first Medusa thought she was standing in a shallow river, but it quickly clicked as her senses readjusted that she was standing in a now flooded street filled with seawater.
She could see fish swim past her feet.
Medusa didn't have to try too hard to start growing immediately.
And she saw it.
The beast standing on what had once been the boardwalk, the Rig that had once stood as a beacon in the middle of the Bay, was now crashed against the old Ferry Station, and many other things.
It moved. Before where it had once been about a kilometer away.
It was now two hundred feet away from them.
"Let's see if you can move faster than light." Medusa snarled before she fired a test shot with one eye.
Her beams smashed against the figure.
And it exploded into water.
She had hit the echo.
The Leviathan had moved in that moment where she hadn't been able to see anything, leaving her looking around wildly with one eye and her snakes to try and find the thing.
It was on the other side of the street, a car that Alexandria had thrown exploding in its face. But it just responded by smacking her into a building.
The newly formed echo mimicking the movement but delayed and extended from the body catching two other Capes of guard.
{Daybreaker: Down, CD-5, Highlord: Down, CD-5}
The armband announced, and she briefly wondered how it could differentiate between somebody being down and not dead.
And then she proceeded to try a laser bullet hell on Leviathan after smacking the block of concrete it threw at her out of the way.
And water came up to block and defend. And it exploded in geysers of steam as it rushed at her.
And Verity felt her head being pushed through a building as Levithan grabbed hold of it before letting go and moving on before she could even react.
The damn thing was a fucking speedster and it definitely fought like one.
She pulled her head out, whatever minor injuries she had already starting to heal as she saw Legend along with other blasters start bombarding him as Eidolon flew above and she saw the area darken.
The beast started to sink in the street as the strongest cape in the world(outside of Scion) increased its gravity.
Verity wasted zero moments in joining the bombardment while it was held in place.
And while it tried its best to create a water barrier while it fought against the increased gravity.
Her eyes did catch the swaying tail.
And she hit that part dead on.
And continued to hit until suddenly several dozen tons of water hit her from above, knocking her over as her left eye burst from the pressure.
But she did see it as the hold was broken and it ran off knocking all the capes down with a massive whip of water.
A small, but notable, bit of Leviathan's tail had been melted off.
"It's not organic?!" Medusa asked in surprise as she pulled her head out from underwater and tried to breathe enough to continue the assault.
"What do you mean Medusa?" Alexandria asked as she came up and pulled her out of the water. Which hurt her finger a bit but the help was appreciated. The woman lifted her like a sack of potatoes.
"My beams, they- they turn organic material, dead or alive, into stone, and they melt inorganic material." Medusa said as she breathed and held a palm over her slowly mending left eye. Now that she knew it worked she would need to make sure she could use the other one without blinding herself.
"Reporting to thinkers: According to Medusa, Leviathan is made of inorganic material," Alexandria spoke into her armband. "Hopefully they can make use out of that."
"Hopefully… where'd he go?" Medusa asked as her eye finished healing enough she could see out of it, though she was pretty sure beaming from it would pop it again. And as it did, she could hear the reports of downs coming from her armband along with several deceased.
One of them was Velocity.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, where'd the bastard go?" Medusa asked, pressing her armband as she did.
{Leviathan, DS-7: Warning Wave Inbound!} At that Verity turned her head and she…
…that was a tsunami.
A several story tall wave was heading straight for them and…
Krech!
It was now ice.
As it was frozen in place.
She could see the blue blur that was legend flying away from the utterly MASSIVE wall of ice that now covered most of the bay proper, as best she could see.
"Good work friend." Alexandria spoke. "Let's go, Medusa."
"R-right." Medusa said, still somewhat in awe at the power Legend was able to bring to bear.
And he was the weakest of the Triumvirate?
She followed Alexandria, the more experienced cape either better able to hear her armband or just knowing where the bastard was.
And there she saw the Beast following…
TAYLOR!
She was spiderman-swinging from building to building in full arachne mode as she-
Medusa saw Leviathan reach out to cut the web.
And she saw three claws fly off.
It stopped moving.
"Ha eat it Leviathan, get clockblocked!" Came the voice of Clockblocker and she saw the ward several roofs away holding a piece of web string.
They had made a giant cage of web and made it frozen in time so it could only move by cutting itself.
Medusa was so proud and wasted not a single second longer before she began blasting the exposed parts of Leviathan with everything she had, concentrating as much as she could on a single spot- it's head.
She was not making the same mistake Thor did.
And she continued, and she continued and she continued, screaming in pain as her eyes burst and she still.
Kept.
Blasting.
A long, long moment later, she stopped.
Whatever well of energy Medusa drew on for her beams had been drained dry.
"Did it work?" She asked blindly. Her ears were droning with the sound of her own beams, her eyes were little more than bleeding holes, and her brain felt like overcooked gelatin, but she was pretty sure she did not hear screaming, which she was taking as a good sign.
"The head… the head is gone!" She heard somebody yell.
"MESSAGE TO EVERYONE!" Tattletale's voice shouted from her armband, and also Alexandria's. "LEVIATHAN IS NOT A LIVING THING! IT IS MADE OF A MATERIAL THAT GETS DENSER AND DENSER THE FURTHER YOU GO! IT HAS A CORE!"
Oh.
She… really should have gone for the body then.
"ALL OTHER INJURIES ARE SUPERFICIAL!"
"Oh my god he is-" Verity rapidly blinked her newly regrown eyes so see about ten capes exploding in a shower of blood as it was added to the water echo, the now headless body jumped over a hundred meters into the air ignoring the barrier and injuries on all sides as it landed-
BOOM!
The sound barrier was broken as it moved like a fighter jet through the city tearing through-
Through-
{Weaver: Deceased}
Verity's world froze as she saw Taylor in two pieces, cut through by a supersonic whip of water, falling from the air but suspended in the moment as she processed everything.
Taylor, her Taylor, her precious Taylor had been cut in two at the waist.
Verity could see the arc of blood from her body's halves.
And Verity realized something.
She'd fucked up.
She'd fucked up and gone for the head when she'd had a clear shot at the body, and now Leviathan had just killed her baby.
Her baby was dead.
Her baby was dead.
And it was her fault.
As the moment faded, as she saw her baby falling, all of her feelings turned to one outcome-
Death.
She needed to kill Leviathan.
No, Leviathan would die today.
And she-
[Destination]
[Agreement]
[Trajectory]
[Agre-]
[ASCENDENCE]
"AAAAAAAAAAA!"