Power brings attention, for good or for ill.


Two chapters within a week, again! Praise Helix!

I'm not sure whether to call Horizon an actual Annihilator in this fic or not (she's considered "Striker 1-12" in canon) because her offensive ability is… inconsistent, according to the docs she's in, even if I'm writing it to the point where she can appreciably damage an Endbringer and somewhat bypass their durability. Thoughts?


Taylor didn't manage to spend much more than five minutes in the healing tent with Panacea before someone came to drag her away to a discussion. Admittedly, it was something she expected, given that she had just put on a phenomenal showing of both power and tactics, but that didn't exactly make it feel particularly welcome.

Of course, having her childhood crush, Revel, be the one to do it did mitigate the bitterness of being called away from her work, replacing it with a tinge of embarrassment.

"I hope you don't mind if we ask to borrow you for a moment," said Revel in her low, smooth voice. "Myrddin and I had a few questions about your abilities, if that's okay?"

"Um… I guess…" said Taylor, after catching Panacea's eye and getting the nod from the more experienced healer.

"Wonderful. In that case, please follow me." The taller woman (and she stood a solid six inches over Taylor's 5'10, which in and of itself had only come as a result of a recent growth spurt) departed from the medical tent, then rose into the air, Taylor following after casting hagalaz to recover the flight she'd used during the fight against the Simurgh.

Revel led Taylor (and Odin, who was hovering behind the girl) to the burlap-robed from of Myrddin, who was floating over the medical tent and holding his signature staff of gnarled wood.

"Volur," he said, offering Taylor a deep nod. Then, he surprised her by offering a bow to Odin. "Spirit."

Odin frowned. "A mortal mage? I thought that your line had died out with Flamel."

Myrddin chuckled. "Nay, sire. Just a man with the misfortune to attract the attention of both a god and a parahuman passenger."

"And yourself?" Odin asked Revel, who was unfazed by Myrddin speaking to what was seemingly thin air.

"I have been charged by Xuannü to find her successor and granted the boon of clear sight to discharge that duty."

"I see. In that case, why have you called upon us?" asked Odin.

"To warn you of a perversion of the natural order and to beseech your aid in rectifying it," said Myrddin immediately.

"To beg your wisdom in the matter of my task," said Revel.

Odin turned to Taylor. "How would you have us handle the situation, lass?"

Taylor was briefly confused, then realized that she was the one with the body and the capacity for significant action and understood why he asked. She thought for a moment, then nodded once. "Myrddin first."

The bearded cape nodded. "My cousin is… she is controlled by the Morrigan. The Golden Man dealt Morrigan a fatal blow, decades ago, but she refuses to die, attempting to cling onto life by using my cousin as a host. Her actions have… caused my cousin's mind to deteriorate, and the Morrigan to deteriorate worse, but she still remains mostly in control of my cousin and has taken up the name Glaistig Uaine. I fear she means to consume my cousin, body and soul, and return to the living, as far gone as she is now or worse. Please, I beg of you, save Ciara from her grasp, either by ensuring the Morrigan passes on to where you gods lie in state or by granting her release from the clutches of the world."

Taylor's jaw clenched as she hardened her resolve against her fear of the Fairy Queen. "I will stand against the Morrigan once I have the strength, you have my word."

Myrddin bowed fully from the waist. "Thank you, Volur. Mine own efforts have been… stymied, and it is not lightly that I foist this burden off on you. I will stand beside you in this, and in your efforts elsewhere as well."

"I thank you for your aid and pledge myself to uphold your cause in your stead," said Taylor, reciting half-forgotten words from Odin's memory.

"Just so," said Odin, affirming the oath.

"And what about you, Revel?" asked Taylor. "What of the Allfather's wisdom do you seek?"

"I… I represent the last of the Shén, Jiutian Xuannü. Before she allowed herself to pass, she charged me with finding a successor to her mantle, one worthy of being entrusted with her bow." In a flash of brightly colored flames, the weapon appeared floating in front of Revel. It was a simple weapon, an asymmetric piece of wood taller than Revel whose ends were connected by a cable made of some sort of brightly colored feather woven together.

Vanishing the bow once again, she continued. "I had hoped to give it to a candidate here at this battle, one who proved herself courageous and skilled in battle, yet when I saw her I became certain that Vanadís' legacy has chosen her as a successor. Now, I am unsure who to choose next, and I thought to ask the one who bears the curse of wisdom for their advice."

Taylor weighed her options. She didn't really have any particular wisdom to share with her on the topic, and even if she did she would have been wary of interfering in another person's divinely ordained quest, but on the other hand she was in the business of helping people…

It didn't take very long before a solution presented itself. "I cannot offer you wisdom of my own. What I can do is offer you more of your own to better judge the situation, if you would take it."

Revel nodded. "I would."

"In that case…" Taylor closed her eye and focused on conjuring the item she had in mind as intended with gebo.

When she opened her eye again, she was holding a leather armguard in her hands, inscribed with unobtrusive ansuz and algiz runes, which she held out to Revel. "This is… a gift to Xuannü's successor that I grant you leave to use until you present it and the bow to them," she said, once again drawing on what memories of Odin's she could access to fit the act of giving a gift to a questor. "It will protect the wearer from the environment and their own archery process, sharpen their accuracy, and better enable them to choose between the options presented to them."

"Thank you for your generosity," said Revel, strapping the armguard to her left arm under her kimono.

"By all means. If there wasn't anything else…" Taylor trailed off, gesturing towards the medical tent.

"Ah, one more thing," said Myrddin, snapping his fingers and causing what looked to be a smartphone to fall out of a rift in space into his hand. "This is for you. I keep them on hand for situations like these, where I'd want to get in contact with an ally under the table, so to speak."

Taylor took the phone and slipped it into a pouch on her belt. "Thank you very much. I'll be in touch."

As the godling descended, both capes stared after her, lost in thought. Eventually, Revel turned to Myrddin. "If I may ask…"

"Why was I not putting on the airs I normally do?" Seeing his subordinate nod, he chuckled. "The theatrics are for the public, not the woman I ask to save my cousin from her fate. There were some, to be sure, but that was as much force of habit as anything."

Another moment of silence.

"Do you think she can do it?" asked Revel.

Myrddin sighed. "One way or another, yes. What I'm more concerned about is what the Morrigan will leave behind." He took in a deep breath, then let his cheeks puff out as he exhaled. "That is for then, though. Come, we have a city to put back together."


The next interruption to Taylor's work in the med tent was slightly more expected than the previous.

Slightly, because as much as she was expecting some higher-ups to approach her about joining up, there was no feasible way for her to expect all three members of the Triumvirate to walk in led by the imposing figure of Alexandria.

"Volur, we need to speak with you," said Eidolon, arms folded over his chest.

Before Taylor could get out a word, Horizon cut in. "Make it snappy. Say what you will about a normal Simurgh fight but we're swamped in injuries today because it was so damn short, and I'd rather have all healers on deck to chew through some of the backlog sooner than later."

"Relax, Horizon," said Taylor. "They're the Triumvirate and have great respect for the relief work that goes into cleaning up fights on their scale. They wouldn't keep me for longer than strictly necessary." Even through her helmet, it was clear that she was all but challenging the trio to disagree with her.

"Of course," said Legend. "We're just hoping she can fill in some of the gaps in the timeline we have for the fight, and maybe explain some of the choices she made."

Taylor and Horizon's eyes met and they both silently agreed to not comment on the Triumvirate's blatant show of braggadocio and the potential implications thereof.

"Fine. But if it takes longer than fifteen minutes I'm going to drag her back, and damn anyone who stands in my way."

"Noted," said Alexandria.

They led Taylor out of the med tent and into an odd, vaguely mushroom-looking structure, and specifically a room containing a variety of capes. She didn't recognize most of them, but a blonde dressed in purple who blanched at the sight of her was vaguely familiar, and she knew enough about the cape scene in cities near Brockton Bay to recognize March (from the one incident involving Flechette shaving her head using a series of thrown razor blades, which had been good for a laugh back in November) and the Bostonian crime lord Accord.

"Let's make this quick," said Alexandria, causing the susurrus of whispered conversation to die out. "What new information do we have on the Simurgh based on Volur's actions?"

"The main bodies of the Endbringers aren't necessary, strictly speaking," said the blonde in purple, still pale and darting glances at Taylor. "They were… designed? something like that, to evoke a specific emotional reaction in humanity, and the core that Volur exposed is the important part. Based on the appearances and nature of the three I suspect the designer wanted to evoke some strongly Christian imagery, but I can't be sure without more information on who or what made them."

"So… what, there's some Master out there fuckin' laughing at us trying to beat his monsters?" asked a bleach-blond man with barbed wire on his leather jacket.

"We lack the information to properly make assumptions about the Master. The more important thing we should be focusing on is the direct threat that is the Endbringers. There is a significant possibility that a new Endbringer appears based on previous patterns of escalation around their battles."

The clamor that the room descended into at Accord's statement was only quieted by an explosion from the rabbit-masked March. "Let the man speak or the next one takes a life."

The room went quiet, and March turned to Accord. "Explain your statement for those of us less familiar with the history of Endbringer battles."

"The arrival of Leviathan and the Simurgh were both preceded by significant decreases in the casualty counts in the previous battles in a way that can be traced to individual capes that stymied their battle style which were killed in the immediate next attack. For example, the cape Hodr had the ability to dampen energy attacks from a single target and use some fraction of the energy they dampened, and they were killed by Leviathan in his attack on Oslo. Likewise, Strongtower was an Alexandria package swift enough to match Leviathan and with some ability to dampen his storms, and he was driven insane in the Simurgh's attack on Lausanne and only died this past year at the hands of the Thanda. We cannot afford to count on Volur's survival past the next Endbringer attack or her ability to kill them."

All eyes in the room turned to Taylor.

"Wonderful," she groused. "I'm marked for attack and death if my enemies get their hands on me. That and two bucks will buy you a coffee in the Bay."

"This is no time for irreverence," replied Accord.

"Gallows humor is always appropriate." Taylor turned to the Triumvirate. "Is there anything else for me here beyond vague warnings of targeting in the future, or can I go back to the med tent?"

Alexandria opened her mouth, but Legend beat her to the punch. "Go ahead and go," he said. "We can handle things here, as long as you're willing to offer up contact information for us to get in touch with you later?"

Taylor nodded. "Myrddin can get a hold of me." With that, she turned and left the room, raido turning her journey back to the medical tent into a single step once she was out of sight of the assorted capes.

"Welcome back," said Horizon. "How'd it go?"

"Not great," said Taylor. "Apparently the Bay is going to be an Endbringer target, there's probably going to be a new Endbringer, and I'm specifically drawing their presence for almost killing the Simurgh."

Horizon blinked. "You were gone for ten minutes."

"What can I say," said Taylor wryly. "I live a charmed life."


"How'd it go?" asked Shadow Stalker, arms crossed.

"It was… weird," replied Assault. "The newbie here in the Bay, Volur, she damaged to piss off the Simurgh but good after she cleared out the med tent early on in the fight. Then, once she had like five minutes away from the murder pigeon, she grabbed like five other capes and put together a plan that almost put the Smurf down. She actually punched through her entirely with the rest of them, too, one hell of a lightning bolt on her. She threw a bitch fit and left after that, and now thanks to the new kid on the block we've got one of the lowest casualty Simurgh attacks on the record in Canberra."

"Sounds strong. Any way I can meet her?"

"Uh… maybe? Depends on when she wants to come in. She's close with Panacea, apparently, so we're asking through her, but we're not expecting her by at any point in the next couple days. She's earned a few days off, if you ask me." Assault yawned. "'Scuse me. If there's nothing else, I'm gonna go get takeout and then pass out for about twelve hours."

Sophia let him go without remark, too lost in thought to stop him. There was the faintest possibility that it was Hebert, after all- the bitch had exerted some kind of weird energy attack that seemed to interact with her Breaker form, and that kind of ability spoke well to the kind of attack that could "punch through" the Simurgh.

Ultimately, she decided it wasn't possible for it to be Hebert. The bitch was a pushover and, while not strictly unintelligent, she tended to be bad at thinking on her feet.

"I'll hunt her down," she muttered. "Then maybe we can get Hebert and show her her place together." Secure in her decision, Shadow Stalker walked away, not noticing the eyes that watched her from the shadows.

Interesting, thought Flechette, going over her conversations with Volur and Panacea earlier that day as well as what she'd overheard, both from them and Clay's musings. What is it about Taylor Hebert that makes you so vitriolic, Sophia?


The plot thickens! Hehehe

The first one to find the Reckoners reference gets… an internet cookie! (::)

I know that the reason Accord gave isn't really the reason we got more Endbringers in canon, but I like the way it works out (and also it lets me tie up a loose-ish end).

My original draft of this chapter had Myrddin as a modern incarnation of Ogma (of Celtic fame) and Revel as Ame-no-Uzume's successor, but I scrapped that because I thought that might be a little much in terms of divine side characters and this works better in terms of roping in the plot threads that I have here.

On a totally-academic note, does anyone know where I can get my hands on a list of cape characters from Wildbow's Weaverdice campaigns? I'm finding the page about Weaverdice characters to be a little light for my tastes.

That's about it, so read, review, enjoy, and have a nice day!