0.2
'I should have kept my mouth shut.'
Velocity griped, sipping from a cup of half lukewarm, half stale coffee as he leaned back against his seat. The long hours of work since Lung's initial rampage may have dwindled down, but that intense, exhausting rush was far tamer than the madness that happened when that tidal wave loomed over the city.
Only to smack the dragon man into the distance.
Like swatting a fly.
What came after that? Pandemonium.
Alarms blaring, heroes from other cities showing up in a hurry to combat what was thought at the time to be a random, out of season, Leviathan attack. The first few moments after Lung was swatted aside had been the most tense of Robin's life as he wondered when the big lizard would make landfall.
The answer, as it turned out, was no.
A minute turned into ten, which turned into thirty, which turned into an hour.
Yet there hadn't been any sign of Leviathan showing up. And when some Tinker from California confirmed that there wasn't anyone out in the bay it felt like the tension drained away, replaced by confusion or annoyance.
Nobody liked being dragged from bed to an Endbringer fight.
They liked it even less when it turned out to be a false positive.
What was even worse is that there was video evidence of what had happened. Not only were their helicopters in the air, recording Lung's actions and tracking him, but the fact that a giant tidal wave had suddenly appeared meant that Dragon had tasked a number of government satellites on tracking it, scanning for the Endbringer, and the greatest Tinker in the world had confirmed both the sudden manifestation of power use and the location of the Endbringer.
On the other side of the planet, according to sonar pings from unmanned buoys.
'You'd think they would be happy that it wasn't actually Leviathan.' People tended to die in Endbringer fights, after all. So annoyance and false positives aside, most were probably relieved they wouldn't have to lay down their lives tonight and got to go back to bed.
Protectorate ENE wasn't as fortunate.
Neither was he, by proxy.
"Do we really need to do this now? Shouldn't we be glad that the big bad Lizard got chucked into the bay?" Ethan, that is to say, Assault, yawned.
Robin agreed with the sentiment, but couldn't help but sigh at the lackadaisical comment.
He didn't have much of anything against the man. In fact, he would go so far as to say that they got along just fine. The man spoke his mind, and often what was in other people's. But the army man in him couldn't help but grimace at how flippant he was being.
His wife agreed with the sentiment, poking the side of the man with her elbow.
"Ouch, okay, fine. But really, what are we even sitting around for? Shouldn't we be, I dunno, doing something?"
Armsmaster, their commander in chief, massaged his brow clearly stressed.
"As it stands, we would get in the way of emergency services. The remainder of the fires were put out by that freak storm and fortunately there weren't any casualties. All in all… we were lucky."
Lucky was right.
Lung's rampage and that fire already had them tied up, and there wasn't much they could do with the big lizard outside of stalling until he got bored, left, or reinforcements arrived from another city.
"Luck, however, is no reason to let our guard down. As the situation stands, Lung could be back soon so it would be wise to use our time to prepare, should that be the case."
"Or maybe he won't. His record does point out that Lung will usually leave whatever town he is in once a stronger parahuman shows up. Given what happened tonight… it's safe to say that might be the case." Battery leaned back against her chair, clearly drained.
Ethan nodded energetically, throwing an arm over his wife only to get elbowed in the side again.
Though that didn't keep him from talking.
"Yeah, what she said. The guy's clearly out of the picture for now so what exactly are we doing here?"
Good, they finally arrived at the crux of the matter.
After the heroes who'd come to help them combat Leviathan's supposed arrival left, the PRT ordered them to return to base and prepare for a debriefing. Which hadn't really started, leaving Brockton Bay's finest heroes sitting around a table with nothing but cheap coffee and energy bars to keep them up.
"Because we now have to consider a number of incredibly unpleasant options." Armsmaster hesitated a moment before removing his helmet. There were dark circles around his eyes and he looked exhausted. "Right now, we're facing two situations. One, that an Endbringer has displayed previously unknown behavior, diverged from their standard pattern, and sought out an individual for… taunting. Two, there is an unknown cape, tentatively rated Shaker 9, Blaster 9, with an extraordinary number of asterisks attached to both ratings, who has just removed the most physically powerful cape in the Bay."
The Tinker paused, needing a moment to put his words together, grimacing, and then finishing a clearly unpleasant line of thought.
"They also did so with incredible precision, an absolute minimum of collateral damage, contained the damage of his rampage, and remained utterly undetected while doing so. If this individual is truly responsible, then there is a tentative rating of at least Stranger 4, as advised by Dragon, as well."
"Jesus."
Triumph was the first to speak and he only muttered.
Miss Militia, Battery, Assault, and he remained silent, needing to think those numbers over.
Eventually, though, there was a question he had to ask.
"And this is the better case?"
His leader gave a slow nod.
"If the Endbringers are becoming unpredictable, well, I don't think we'll need to wait for them to pick targets for cities to start dying."
And no one else had a word to say about that for a long moment.
What could they say to that, really?
Fortunately it wasn't long before the silence was broken by none other than Velocity himself
"Then what's the plan? We can't just sit around when something like this is going down, right?"
Robin had always been a man of action.
And for once, it seemed everyone in the meeting room was of a similar opinion, even their commander.
"For the time being we will split our resources. Until the time we are certain that this isn't a break in established endbringer pattern, I want the bay area monitored at all times. Cast a wide net, and if something larger than a dolphin approaches, I want to be notified immediately."
Miss Militia fell in line, back straightening up.
But to be fair, she wasn't the only one. The entire room seemed almost eager to hear their marching orders.
"And the rest of us?" The weapons specialist inquired.
"You'll be on city duty. Whether Lung comes back, or if something worse decides to rear its head, I want you to be ready. The ABB are reeling from this loss, and I doubt the other gangs won't be making a push. And when they do, we'll have a problem on our hands."
From there it became a simple matter of assigning each hero's roles and what their rotation would be.
Whatever the outcome may be, they would be in for a busy week.
He just hoped that whatever, or whoever had been at the bay tonight wasn't planning on making a repeat performance anytime soon before they could find out the truth.
It couldn't be hard to track someone down with that kinda power…
Right?
Taylor had never been to an Endbringer shelter before.
Sure there had been emergency drills before at Winslow, but those tended to happen only once or twice a year, and they never let the students actually into the shelters, instead teaching them what the fastest ways to get to them from the school were.
Which would be by bus, in theory, but even Winslow's staff had admitted that actually learning the on-foot routes was easier.
Brockton Bay was a coastal city so it was only right that they have somewhere to go if Leviathan decided he wanted to play tourist and visit. Though there were a few complications to that particular problem, the Bay also had a semi ready made answer to it.
The hydrokinetic, however, was rather… underwhelmed by the entire thing.
Not that she expected a five star hotel.
There was plenty of room, and those with conditions, small children, or advanced age were allowed to sit in an elevated section. The rest of them huddled together around the ventilation systems, some kind of near Tinker-tech from the nineties that kept clean air flowing and helped avoid the… stink from getting too, too bad.
It was helping… but not by much.
She was sure this must have felt like a terrible surprise to everyone else, and as the reason they were all waiting for confirmation that Leviathan wasn't going to power wash the city, Taylor tried to be understanding of their anxiety and fear.
She really, really did.
But it was hard when half the time someone's toddler was yelling their little lungs out and the other half you had someone trying to start a conversation.
'Ah, small talk. Our mortal weakness.'
And, of course, then there was her power's commentary on the whole thing. She seemed terribly amused that the two of them were forced to waste their evening sitting around after causing the city-wide panic in the first place, but hadn't seen the need to needle her about it.
'Because you tried your best. You ought not be punished for that.'
Taylor frowned.
'I stopped Lung from doing worse. That's hardly a failure.'
'Perhaps.' Her power allowed. 'But that does not mean there aren't consequences.'
Trying not to glare, the teenager tried to come up with something appropriately biting when her ability surprised her.
'All things considered, you did well tonight. It was a good start, but that's all that was. A start. We are capable of so much more and I wish to see you reach your potential.'
Well now she was interested in helping. After a whole month of nothing?
'If this is some kind of twelve steps mentorship deal then I'm out. We're wasting enough time as it is and if you won't let me use these powers now, what's gonna change if I go through with this, waste even more time and you still cut me off when I need it?'
What was the use of these powers then? She might as well just stay home and not bother.
'Because, one day, there won't be time for advice and for mistakes. When the time for action comes, that's when you and I will be tested. And after tonight, I believe that you shall excel.'
Her thoughts slowed and each word seemed to be… heavy.
'There's a "but" in there.'
Taylor's response wasn't harsh or ungrateful. Simply matter of fact.
'Yes. There always is. Everyone has a choice and that choice doesn't end. Even in death.'
The teenager sighed. In all the research that she conducted about parahuman powers, she'd never come across anyone with a power that seemed so… intelligent. Or prone to drawn out monologues.
But maybe it was just her luck.
Phenomenal cosmic power, but with a babysitter attached.
'So, what comes next?' She might not like how her powers treated her, but even she had to recognize she was being offered an olive branch here, and if Taylor could get her powers to collaborate, that meant she could start making a difference sooner.
'For tonight? Rest. Spend time with your father. At the risk of being trite, you don't have any guarantee of tomorrow.'
'That… was a low blow.'
There was a sensation of regret that crossed the bridge between the two of them.
'My apologies, it wasn't my intention to dig out painful memories. Only suggest that you use the time you have now. Besides… tomorrow we'll need to begin planning your debut.'
A surge of eagerness welled up inside of her, Taylor feeling almost giddy for a moment, and was very, very glad she was sitting by herself.
It would be slightly awkward to explain to her father why she was so excited.
"Hello everyone, if you have a moment, we've got sandwiches, water, and napkins. Those with small children, we've also got candy for them, too, so let's form a line!"
"Taylor." Opening her eyes, the young woman looked up to see her father now standing over her. "Hey kiddo, here." He held out a pair of sandwiches. "I managed to snag some before the mayor started speaking."
Taking the food, she glanced over at the entrance to their shelter, where people were already starting to mill about.
"Thanks Dad." She tore the wrapper off of the Uncrustable. "That's the mayor?"
"Yeah." He sat down next to her, grunting as he did so. "Oof. Old man back. Still, turns out he ended up in here with us. Though, and you didn't hear this from me, his family may or may not have been flown out of town."
Looking up, a little curious, she couldn't help but ask a question that had been bothering her since they'd arrived.
"Really? I don't blame him. He probably knows that the shelters are all over an aquifer or something. Couldn't Leviathan just, I dunno, drop us down there?"
Suddenly concerned, his brow furrowed, and Taylor's father paused mid chew to think.
"What-" he swallowed, excusing himself. "... do you mean?"
"Well, uh, there's at least one huge pocket of water below us. And all of the shelters are, what, built into the ground? Couldn't Leviathan just do to us what he did to Kyushu and undermine the shelters? Even if he doesn't attack them directly, he could probably bury us or drag us out to sea."
'It's what I would do.' went unsaid.
She had been wondering why they went through the effort of building the shelters so close to water when the endbringer most likely to attack Brockton Bay was a hydrokinetic. Even now she could feel the presence of the aquifer beneath them.
The earth wouldn't be much of an obstacle if she really wanted to move it, and she doubted it would be hard for Leviathan.
"Better not say anything out loud then. Being stuck inside here is stressful enough." Though she wasn't really feeling scared or threatened, it's not like everyone else was as optimistic. An endbringer scare didn't happen often, but it put people on edge.
She might have been annoyed, but she didn't want to scare people.
"You know, I'm proud of you, kiddo."
Taylor's first instinct was to assume that, somehow, her father knew about her powers. Then, frozen mid bite, she slowly nodded.
"For the food?"
"Yeah. it's not like they were starving or anything, but you still gave those kids our food and saved their parents a long, long night of headaches because you cared about them."
The way he said that made it seem like she was solving world hunger or something.
"Come on Dad." She muttered around a mouthful of peanut butter and jelly, trying to hide her colored cheeks. "It was just some bacon and egg sandwiches. The toast was the healthy, crappy kind too."
"Whole grain and tastes like bark?"
"Yeah. That's what we had left."
"Well now, perhaps we ought to call the cops. Feeding that anyone is practically torture."
His lips were twitching in amusement and Taylor couldn't help but punching her dad's arm, trying not to laugh herself. She did stiffen up when he hugged her, but only for a moment, and then, with one arm from each of them, the teenager leaned against her father's chest.
It was a small thing.
There were kids still hollering in the background.
Taylor could smell a hundred bodies and all of the human stink that carried.
But it… felt good.
Eventually, though, the moment passed and when it did her father let her go. Perhaps aware, even if only subconsciously, that there was still some distance between them. That one hug wouldn't - couldn't - fix everything. But the simple fact is that his daughter, she, Taylor Herbert, had allowed him to hug her in public.
And for a teenager, well, that was about as likely as Hell freezing over.
At least that's what the young woman felt she ought to feel like, before promptly deciding that this was far, far too much introspection, and defaulted to doing something just a smidge self aggrandizing.
"Hey Dad?"
"Yes?"
"Can I borrow your phone? I want to check the news."
"Uh." Fumbling around his pockets for a moment, he pulled it out. "Sure."
"Thanks."
She smiled a few moments later, Taylor was browsing a few different forums, waiting for them to load page by page, struggling to get a reliable signal.
'But I suppose I should be happy there's any signal down here at all.'
In the end, part of her felt disappointed.
Lung was gone.
She'd grabbed one of the biggest problems in the Bay and chucked him into the sunset and instead of celebrating or having a good night of sleep for once, everyone was huddled together in shelters.
'Power can be an assurance, but it can also be a threat. We didn't stay behind to make any statements, so our actions spoke for us.'
Yeah, well, she wasn't going to stay and talk after that mess. She didn't even have a costume or mask on!
There was no way she could handle that.
'Yes, it was a spur of the moment decision. But it only means we'll have to address it in the coming weeks before this first impression is allowed to settle.'
Taylor sighed, munching on her small sandwich moodily, ready to finish it off before she just… held it for much longer.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
She wasn't doing this for the glory and fame. No, she didn't have time to waste on photoshoots and interviews when she had the power she did. But at the same time she couldn't help but feel sour over the entire incident.
Wasn't it enough that she got rid of Lung? Why did it bother her so much that she did something good and everyone was still scared? The only positive she could think of is that she did it in a way nobody other than her would be able to take the credit for it.
People knew that there wasn't any hero, villain, or rogue in town who managed to do that.
'Recognition for our efforts would be nice.'
Right?!
'However, one cannot expect acknowledgement while wholly separating themselves from the court of public opinion. Is interacting with others really such a bother?'
Yes, yes it was.
At least if she stayed like this, Taylor could do what she wanted without having to get into arguments or fights or have to explain herself to busy bodies who didn't have the faintest idea of why she was doing this, nor would want to.
It would be Winslow all over again.
'While I do not believe it would be wise to lecture on human nature, I do believe that you would prefer to be able to work with others, no? If only so you do not need to work at cross purposes with everyone.'
Contenting herself with scrolling for a bit longer, Taylor didn't answer until she thought of something clever to say.
'Just because we aren't working together, doesn't mean we can't work together.'
'Perhaps I ought to applaud you for planning out non verbal communication strategies, but who do you intend to collaborate with, how do you wish to inform them of your shared goals, what are you considering for your first joint operation, and what do you want to do if this other fails to read your intentions perfectly?'
'I… well… that… doesn't really happen?'
'But is that not a common trope in most superhuman media? The traditional hero versus hero battle before they team up to deal with the true threat.'
The teenager sighed, already regretting accepting that olive branch.
'Look, do you just… want me to go join the Wards? Because that's not gonna happen.'
She wasn't dealing with that drama.
'Not if you don't wish to.' Her power seemed a little tired, exasperated. 'But I don't want you to cut yourself off from those around you. Not yet, at least.'
Unsure how to respond to that, or even what to think, the hydrokinetic simply pressed a button on her father's phone and started reading the first vaguely interesting post she could find.
Better than thinking much more today.
The Docks get Washed!
Greetings dear readers, it's your favorite cape chaser, Verity, here again with another exclusive scoop!
Or so is what I'd like to say, but I think we all know that last night's events were anything but exclusive. In fact, I'm sure people on the other side of town could see it from their windows, which admittedly makes my job way easier than it should be, but hey, I'm not one to look a gift wave in the mouth!
Instead, I shall regale you with an exclusive tale chronicling my own adventure.
It all started at the docks, and yours truly happened to be on the trail of a brand new up and coming rogue by the name of Frostbite. Word on the street was that this hard boiled vigilante was planning on ambushing a deal between the ABB and a client from outside of town.
To see Verity's analysis of ABB's list of known associates, click [Here]
Anyway, long story short, apparently Lung happened to be present for this bit of dirty deeds and took quite the exception to Frostbite's presence which led to a fight in Warehouse 13 of the Docks.
Picture Links: [1] [2] [3]
While I wasn't able to stick around for the full thing, I did manage to snap a couple pictures of the warehouse when Lung broke through the east wall, crashing into a nearby street and setting fire to a poor food stand that happened to be nearby. My condolences to the owner. Though his business looked much better off than Warehouse 13 and Lung, which happened to be half frozen and falling to pieces.
I suppose this will rest the case of whether Frostbite's cryogenic abilities are of the Blaster or Striker variety.
This, my dear readers, is what led to yesterday's rampage. Yet it pales in comparison to the events that would soon shake not only Brockton Bay, but the entire coast. Following a swift response from our local heroes, what at first seemed like an unstoppable rampage from the Dragon of Kyushu soon took a turn for the shocking as a massive current of water rose from the bay area.
Pictures: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Looming over the city like a biblical flood, the current of water stayed still for a whole minute before lashing out and taking hold of the, by now, forty feet tall Lung and after a brief struggle pulling the leader of the ABB off the ground and flinging him into the distance.
Pictures [1] [2]
I must apologize for the quality in this case. Usually I'm a much better shot, but after falling into the water and having to get fished out by the Protectorate heroes on site, I realized that the angle and focus of my trusty lens were off target.
I did, however, manage to sneak a few pictures of the heroes as they arrived at the site of the supposed Leviathan attack. With special mention going to Myrdyn and Chevalier for pulling yours truly out of the water.
Still, let's not ignore the elephant in the room any longer.
Someone, or something appeared tonight and stopped Lung's temper tantrum. And since most of the heroes will have left by now and Brockton Bay isn't halfway sunk I think it's safe to say that Leviathan either wanted to screw with Lung or didn't come at all.
And while I'm not an expert on Endbringer behavior, I am fairly certain the latter is more likely.
Where does that leave us? Frankly, I don't know.
But I intend to find out.
Last night, someone was out there in the bay. Someone decided to go out there and put the city on notice, and I can tell you that when I saw that wave looming over the buildings, over Lung, over the city… I had never felt as small in my entire life as I did then.
Who is this person? Why are they here? What is their objective?
Right now, we're all busy huddled inside the shelters waiting for a storm that's never coming. And when those doors open as we're let out into the world again, I promise you I will do everything I can to get to the bottom of this. But that's all I had to share today.
Look forward to more soon.
- Lens_Of_Verity
Charlotte's hands still shook as she finished typing.
The gulp of ice cold water she took didn't make it any better.
But huddled in the corner of the shelter, having to fight with a flickering internet signal, and praying that her post actually updated, the young woman… didn't know what else to do.
Sure, she was scared, proud, too, at what she'd managed to do, but some part of her just couldn't quite square the circle of knowing she should probably be dead. Of knowing that her bad habit had really, honest to God, gone too far. Because she could still feel salt in her hair and her nails were chipped from where they'd broken, holding on to her camera so tightly.
Truthfully, though, she'd also never felt more alive right now than ever before.
Sitting behind the camera was all well and good, but it also meant she'd kept a distance between herself and whatever she was taking pictures of - usually Wards or New Wave doing a photo op - and that just… wasn't real.
Poses and canned one liners might be good for PR, but it wasn't tangible.
Last night, the salt still on her tongue, the pain in her bones from the impact of the water, the bruises forming under clothes, and the truth she'd set in digital stone….
All of that was real.
'And I'm gonna get to the bottom of it.'
Whoever it was, whatever it was… Charlotte was going to find them.