A Champion in Earth Bet [Worm/Original Setting]: Story-Only Thread
Author: sun tzu
Platform: SpaceBattles (Reposted to FF illegitimately)
Start date: Aug 6, 2015
Finish date: Nov 5, 2023
Word Count: ~250k words
Tags: Original, Worm(Parahumans), Crossover, Quest, Earth, Story Only
Not Author's Note: This is not my work! It's being posted on FF simply for my own preferences(FF's Text-to-Speech feature).
Choice of Champion
This is the story-only thread for A Champion in Earth Bet.
A Champion in Earth Bet is a Worm quest with light crossover elements from The Avatar's World. The Avatar's World was my first attempt at creating a custom superhero setting, back when I was running a Mutants&Masterminds campaign... Playing this quest won't actually require any prior knowledge of it, though - it's just one character crossing over.
A fair warning - this is my first attempt at running a Quest, done in large part to learn the ropes. Do not expect the brilliance of a Sojiko or a Gromweld, nor a rapid-fire update rate. XD
And so, without further ado…
CHOICE OF CHAMPION
There's something oddly anticlimactic about the teleporter. It relies on incredibly sophisticated applications of physics to nigh-instantly transport you from the Earth's surface to an ultra-tech fortress in low Earth orbit, but it doesn't feel like anything is happening. No lightshow, no sound effects, no tingling sensation - one moment you're in one place, the next moment you're in another.
Of course, the view more than makes up for it. From this height, the curvature of the Earth is plain to see. The sight is enough to remind even the most jaded superhero what you're fighting for.
But, while no-one will begrudge you a few moments of silent admiration, that's not what you're here for. Like the rest, you're headed toward the meeting room.
As you take your seat, you gaze at your colleagues. The Global Champions. The world's premier superhero team. Sitting with you are the best of the best that Earth has to offer. Everyone at this table was selected for three qualities: Being an A-lister in a fight (yes, even Bleu-Blanc-Rouge), being highly competent and intelligent (yes, even Phantom), and being incorruptible (yes, even Tracer Pulse).
It has been said that your team saves the world every day. A ridiculous exaggeration, of course - if the entire world was in jeopardy every day, at least one of those threats would have destroyed it by now. Genuine globally menacing events tend to be a once per decade occurrences (though sadly, there have been busier decades). And sadly, the good guys don't win every fight - the fate of Madagascar, Jerusalem and (to a lesser extent) Pittsburgh are all troubling reminders of that.
Even so, none can deny that the Global Champions have done a lot to keep the world safe and free. Against the ruthless conspiracies of Shadow, against the sorcerer-tyrant Nollius, against the alien invasions of Garzor, against the plots of Professor Cryo, against your opposite numbers in Global Might, and so many more.
Right now, though, there isn't a pressing crisis to discuss - just a regularly-scheduled meeting to make sure you're all on the same page.
"...rising supervillain population in the Cryosphere is larger than projected…"
"...catch him, and the mutant supremacist movement would fall apart…"
"...civilian industries still need omni-metal; the patent rights should be falling to…"
"...dropping an iceberg there will end the drought, but also bankrupt the existing water infrastructure unless we…"
"...confident in Doc Prometheus's rehabilitation…"
"...fought a Golden Dawn cell in…"
"Don't mind me, I'm just here for the coffee."
That last sentence freezes you for an instant. You know that voice. Everyone instantly look at its source - a young-ish looking man in a lab coat with messy blond hair and a smug grin the whole world wants removed.
Madman.
He strolls through the meeting room. "So. Nice redecoration you did since my last visit. Simple, but tasteful. Oooh, is that the letter from the kids at the Megalopolis orphanage? Sappy, but I guess some sappiness can help get you going, eh?"
Madman. The Mad Scientist To End All Mad Scientists. A man who didn't stop at figuring out the laws of physics, but started rewriting them.
Madman appeared many years ago, the first inter-dimensional traveler. His technology, light-years ahead of everyone else's, seems to break all rules and limits. If he isn't omnipotent, then he is close enough to it that he can be effectively considered as such. He is also motivated primarily by his own amusement. His idea of a good time tends to involve chaotic capers (with, mercifully, little in the way of actual death) - be it unleashing robotic dinosaurs on Halloween, launching a hundred nukes as a distraction while he sneaks into the White house to pie the president in the face, or stealing Christmas.
Frustratingly enough, no-one's found a way to beat Madman. So for now, he is simply a quasi-omnipotent pest that you have to put up with. On the positive side, you suspect that he won't let other cosmically-powerful individuals actually destroy the Earth - if only as a "don't break my toys" policy.
"What do you want, Madman?"
"Straight to the point! Well then." Madman claps his hand and gives an eager smile. "I've been looking across the space-time continuum - you find the darndest things, you know - and I came across something interesting. Another superhero world. Less fun than this one, though. Pretty depressing, really. Your so-called 'greatest failures' are quarterly events there. Mind you, in a few years, something will finally put them out of their misery." He pauses. "And then it'll start a massive interdimensional mess that will make the Man of Might kerfuffle look like kindergarten roughhousing."
You take a moment to digest his ominous words as he keeps going. "So I figured, someone ought to fix this mess. Now, I'm someone. One helluva someone, even. Buuuuuut… no, boring, too simple. It's a superhero problem. Let's send in a superhero!
"So I remembered you guys! By the standards of that other world, you guys are, in layman's terms, pretty darn kickass. Enough that, as a team, you could steamroll over this mess.
"But I don't want a total steamroll, which is why I'm only sending one of you."
With that, Madman snaps his finger. Suddenly, you see luggage bags all around you.
The mad scientist waves. "Ta-ta for now!"
So, first vote: Who, precisely, did Madman choose to send to Earth Bet?
[X] You are the Avatar. You are, literally, the abstract concept of heroism given mind and form. You started the superhero movement, and remain the world's greatest hero. As a god, you have given your physical form nigh-invulnerability, immensely powerful blasts of cosmic energy, hypersonic flight, and a small pool of cosmic energy that can be adapted to nearly any use. Your mind is axiomatically immune to all forms of control, biological needs are meaningless, and even death will not end you - as long as there is a single being in the solar system with a single spark of heroism in their soul, you will always return from the dead after some time. You are, in short, the world's most powerful hero. However, your heroism is axiomatic - you literally spend 24 hours a day committing heroic deeds or inspiring others to do the same, never taking a break.
[ ] You are Titan. A third-generation Japanese mutant, you are the daughter of a supercop and the granddaughter of a supersoldier. At rest, you are an order of magnitude stronger and tougher than humanly possible, gifted with minor regeneration. When you get serious, you can grow several stories high, your strength and resilience growing with you. You are notoriously well-grounded and easy to get along with. However, your power is not the most versatile.
[ ] You are Bleu-Blanc-Rouge. As France's premier super-soldier, the field leader of the international Task Force Synapse, and the main tactician of the Global Champions, you are a busy man. A complex (and dangerous) neurological operation enhanced your brain's motor centers, giving you superhuman reflexes, coordination, agility and combat skills. You routinely use your sword to parry machine-gun fire and take on small armies. With its monomolecular edge, your omni-metal saber can cut through tank armor like butter. You are a born leader, and one of the world's greatest tacticians… however, you truly NEED to be, seeing as your powers are less impressive than those of your colleagues.
[ ] You are Mister Tomorrow. A Moroccan mutant, you have always believed that transhumanism is the future - meaning empowered individuals like you have the responsibility to make that future a good one. Your control over your own biology allows you to enhance your physical capabilities, instantly heal even major wounds, and turn your fingers into monomolecular-edged blades. However, you are deeply invested in your political beliefs, and will publicly take positions even when it's wiser to keep quiet.
[ ] You are Tracer Pulse. A gritty, hardboiled detective straight out of a noir novel, you got sick of being unable to handle superpowered criminals. So you went and got some superpowers of your own, through ways best left unmentioned. Your super-speed lets you reach any point on Earth in about 80 minutes or pluck bullets out of the air, your energy blasts put heavy artillery to shame, and your detective skills have remained sharp. However, you are easily the most antiheroic member of the team, and a bit of an asshole, making you difficult to get along with.
[ ] You are Causality. Some have called you "India's Marie Curie". You are a genius physicist, and have applied that genius to a poorly-understood phenomenon - magic. As it turns out, actually understanding the physical process behind it gave you an edge, turning you into a sorceress of rare power. Your abilities are vast in both scale and versatility, and only more so if you take the time to prepare a proper "ritual". However, you are an academic at heart, not a cop. You'll save the world because duty demands it, but it doesn't come naturally.
[ ] You are Techno-Paladin. People call you "the smartest man in superheroics". You're not sure it's true, but it might be. Your cybernetic armor, in addition to making you a particularly mighty "flying brick", also provides you with immunity to many physical attacks, and comes armed with ranged blasts and a variety of gadgets. Your genius allows you to find solutions (technological or otherwise) to nearly any problem. However, without your gadgets, you are a squishy human.
[ ] You are Mimic. A mysterious magical swashbuckling shapeshifter, your power is the ability to have almost any power, or combination thereof. You can't have everything at once, but your sheer versatility eclipses even the Avatar and Causality. However, you cannot quite match their sheer scale.
[ ] You are Phantom. A mysterious alien energy being, you are invisible, go through matter like it isn't there, and are immune to most physical attacks (but not to concentrated energy). Not only does that make you a fantastic spy, but your own telekinesis means that most fights are very, very one-sided in your favor. However, interacting with you understandably weirds most humans out.
[ ] You are Thermakron. A 12-foot-tall robot, you are strong, nigh-invulnerable, MUCH quicker and more agile than anything your size should be, immune to all mental tampering, able to self-repair… and, perhaps most impressively, you possess truly immense control over extreme temperatures, both in melee and at range. You are as capable of instantly freezing ten city blocks near absolute zero as of striking a single target with a heat beam comparable to the heart of the sun. However, your robotic nature and size can make things awkward in human society.
Madman doesn't give you time to protest, for all the good it would do. In an instant, you (and several luggage bags) are transported to some manner of urban setting.
Well. No point in complaining, you should get a bearing on your situation. Today is…
[ ] April 8th, 2011 (start of canon, the trio's juice prank ruins Taylor's superhero journal)
[ ] April 11th, 2011 (Taylor fights Lung for the first time)
[X] May 15th, 2011 (Leviathan hits Brockton Bay)
[ ] June 20th, 2011 (Echidna battle)
[ ] July 26th, 2011 (Behemoth hits New Delhi)
[ ] November 25th, 2011 (Simurgh hits flight BA178)
Well, there it is. Vote for who you want to play, and for when you enter the story. Multiple votes allowed.
Some of the choices are more powerful than others. I would suggest voting for who you expect to find fun to read about rather than who is strongest - every one of these characters can change things around in Earth Bet.
Chosen Character Stats:
Name The Avatar
Evasion AAA
Resistance SSS
Melee A
Ranged SSS
Intelligence B
Charisma A
Speed A
Movement SS
Utility S
AVATAR INTERRUPT
(Big chunk in italics is lifted directly from Extermination 8.2, so feel free to skip.)
There was a quiet murmur through the room at Legend's words. One in four dead. And that didn't mean the rest of us would get away unscathed.
"I'm telling you your chances now because you deserve to know, and we so rarely get the chance to inform those individuals brave enough to step up and fight these monsters. The primary message I want to convey, even more than briefing you on the particulars of his abilities, organizing formations and battle plans, is that I do not want you to underestimate Leviathan. I have seen too many good heroes," he paused for a fraction of a second, "And villains, too, die because they let their guard down."
Legend paused, glanced out the window. The storm clouds had reached the beach, and torrential rain stirred the water into a froth. Not just rain, but buckets of water.
"We think of Leviathan as the middle child; he was the second of the three to arrive. He is not the physical powerhouse Behemoth is, nor the cunning manipulator that the Simurgh so often proves to be. That said, I would advise you to think of him as having many of the strengths of both siblings at once. You've seen the videos on television and the internet. You know what he is physically capable of. I want to be clear that despite the image he might convey, he is not stupid, and he can display a level of cunning and tactics that can and will catch you off guard.
"I will tell you what you may not know from the videos. He feels pain, he does bleed, but few attacks seem to penetrate deep enough past the surface to seriously harm him. He is like the other two Endbringers in this respect.
"What sets him apart is his focus on water. You're likely aware of his afterimage, his water echo. This is no mere splash of water. At the speeds Leviathan can move, surface tension and compressibility make water harder than concrete. He also has a crude hydrokinesis, the ability to manipulate water, and there will be water on the battlefield. We believe that this is what lets him move as fast as he does when he is swimming. Faster than he is normally, far faster than any speedster we have on record."
He went on, "Were it just that, this fight might still warrant a show of force like what we've gathered here. But things are more serious than that, which brings me to our primary concern. As much as Dragon and Armsmaster's advance warning might give us the opportunity to make this a good day, other issues threaten to make it just the opposite.
"I spoke of Leviathan as a hydrokinetic. I can't state this enough – Leviathan is primarily a hydrokinetic on a macro scale. There is no better illustration than the days where Leviathan won.
"Newfoundland," he spoke.
I knew exactly what he was speaking of, and mouthed the date as he spoke it, "May ninth, 2005. Nearly half a million dead. The Canadian island simply gone, after the shelf of land holding it up cracked in the face of what we now understand were incredible pressures beneath the water level.
"Kyushu, the night of November second and the morning of the third, 1999. His sixth appearance. Nine and a half million killed when the region was swamped with tidal waves from every direction while Leviathan disrupted prearranged evacuation attempts. Nearly three million evacuees rendered homeless, a nation sundered.
"These were errors, grave mistakes from defending heroes. We had but one strategy at the time – to hem him in, minimizing the effects of growing waves and casualties until Leviathan was beaten into a retreat or Scion arrived. These areas, however, were too vulnerable. Waiting let Leviathan build up the strength of his attacks, and we lost."
He paused. "We have since classified the locations the Endbringers target as either hard targets or soft targets. The hard battlefields are where we stand our ground, buy time, wear him down. The soft ones are locations where we cannot afford to do this."
The television screen showed a cross section of Brockton Bay as seen from ground level. The West end of the city was bordered by hills, and the terrain sloped gradually from the base of the mountain down to the water. Directly below the image of the buildings that marked the city's location, there was a large cavern, bordered by rock on all sides except the part nearest the beach, which was sand. It was marked blue – filled with water.
"Brockton Bay, this location, is a soft target. The city was originally founded at this location because of the proximity to the coastline for trade routes and an aquifier that provided the first settlers with access to fresh water. This aquifier, essentially an underground lake beneath the city, is our weak point. From the moment Leviathan shows himself, we expect Leviathan will stir and manipulate this underground reservoir to erode the surrounding sand, silt and rock. Add the tidal waves from above, with the resulting tremors and impacts…"
I doubted anyone failed to understand what would follow. A section of the city, perhaps most of the city, could collapse into the aquifier.
He paused, "We have to end this fast. Each wave he brings on top of us is stronger than the last. This means we have two priorities. First, we cannot let him out of our sight. From the moment the battle is initiated, we hem him in, sustain an offensive onslaught. If we let him slip past our defensive lines, precious time will be wasted chasing him, getting him in another situation where we can contain his movements.
"Our second priority is that we need to find ways to hurt him. If you cannot, if your attacks are deflected or prove otherwise useless, work to support those who can. It is vain to hope to kill him, but he can be whittled down enough that he will flee back to the ocean, and if we hurt him enough, it may delay the time before he is capable of making another attack elsewhere."
Legend frowned. The windows were rattling with the force of the rain against them. It was almost impossible to see through them with the water that streamed down, and the overall gloom beyond.
"This is what the Endbringers are. As of yet, we've been unable to stop them, unable to get through even one confrontation without grievous losses, be it civilian casualties, the loss of a city, or the loss of the lives of some of the bravest and strongest of us. And they will keep coming, one after another, winning these small victories, and winning some major ones.
"You are doing a good thing. The greatest thing. This is why we are tolerated, why society allows and accounts for the capes that walk the streets and fight in its towns. Because we are needed for situations like this. With your assistance, we can forestall the inevitable. Your efforts and, if you choose to make them, your sacrifices, will be remembered."
He looked to Armsmaster.
Armsmaster spoke, authoritative, less impassioned, but confident, "The Wards are handing out armbands of Dragon's design. These are adjustable to slide over your arm and should be tightened around your wrist. The screen on the top of the armband notes your position on a grid, as well as Leviathan's last updated location. Use this. You'll also note there are two buttons. The button to the left lets you send messages to everyone else wearing an armband. It will not, unless you are a member of the Protectorate or otherwise a veteran of these fights, directly communicate what you say to everyone else wearing an armband. Dragon has a program screening messages and passing them on through the network based on priority, to cut down on unnecessary chatter that could distract from crucial information. If you must bypass this three to five second delay, speak the words 'Hard Override' before conveying your message. Abuse of this feature will lose you the ability to send any further messages."
"The second button is a ping. Use it in the case of an emergency, to alert others if you are in danger or hurt. If it is not an emergency, but you want assistance, such as a flier to get you to another vantage point or you see an opportunity to turn the tables, press both buttons, tell the armband what you want. Dragon's program will prioritize your needs, with assistance being directed your way if others are not occupied with more pressing matters. The armband tracks your condition and will automatically send a ping if you are badly injured or unconscious."
Legend called out, "Capes! If you have faced an Endbringer before, stand!"
I watched as the rest of the Protectorate, about a third of the out-of-town Wards, Bambina, half of a commercially sponsored cape team and the Travelers stood. I couldn't help but notice Armsmaster lean over toward Miss Militia, whisper something in her ear, and point at the Travelers. Miss Militia shook her head.
"When in doubt, follow the orders of the Protectorate first! We have trained, organized and planned for this! The others who are standing, now, are the ones you listen to if we aren't contradicting their order! They have been through situations much like this, you go with their instincts!
"We are splitting you into groups based on your abilities! If you are confident you can take a hit from Leviathan and get up afterwards, or if you have the ability to produce expendable combatants, we need you on the front line! You will be directed by Alexandria and Dragon!"
As a share of the crowd moved toward one corner of the room, Armsmaster stepped down from the podium to approach Tattletale, Grue and Regent, "Where's Hellhound?"
"At least call her by her real name," Tattletale glared up at him, "She's not here. You knocked her dogs around enough to know they aren't that tough, and that means you're implying they're expendable. Be glad she wasn't around to hear that and figure that out."
Armsmaster opened his mouth to respond, but broke off when Legend called out his name.
"Armsmaster and Chevalier will be leading the hand to hand combatants who do not fit in Alexandria's group! Anyone who thinks they can harm or hamper Leviathan in close quarters, you'll be assisting and reinforcing the front line!"
Armsmaster strode away from the Undersiders, and I saw Assault, Battery, Brandish, Night and Fog move to join that group, among others. Smaller than the first group, but I suppose it took a certain amount of bravery to be willing to get close to an Endbringer when you weren't invincible or close to it.
The boy with the metal skin began to pass through my row. He handed me an armband from a bag, and I slid it over my hand and cinched it in place. A flat, square screen showed a satellite view of the building we were in, and the surrounding parking lot and beach. A display read: 'State name'.
I pressed the communicator button and spoke, "Skitter."
My name appeared on the display, with a yes and no display in the corners over the respective buttons. I confirmed it.
Legend was still organizing the groups. "-forcefields, telekinesis, whatever your power, if you can interrupt Leviathan's movements or help reduce the impacts of the waves, you're the backup defense! Bastion will direct you!"
I was also all too aware that the size of the group that was still sitting was dwindling, and I had no place to go.
"Movers! We need fliers, teleporters, runners! You'll be responding to pings! Rescue the fallen, get them to emergency care, assist any others where needed! Myrddin will give you your orders!
"Long ranged attackers, with me! If you fall in more than one category, go with the group where you think you'll be the greatest assistance!"
Did I count as a long ranged attacker? No, my power wouldn't hurt Leviathan. I turned to look at those of us who were still seated. I recognized Grue, Tattletale, Regent, Othala, Victor, Panacea and Kaiser. There were a half dozen more who I'd never seen before. People from out of town.
"The rest of you-" Legend was interrupted by shouts. Bastion bellowed, pointed, and the people in his team moved.
Well. This wasn't exactly how you were planning to spend your day. At least Madman had the decency to pull this when you didn't have anything too pressing on your schedule. A couple weeks ago, your sudden absence would have been disastrous, even accounting for your team's extraordinary competence.
You are known to the people of your world as the Avatar - the first and most powerful superhero, protecting the innocent and fighting the good fight since the 1920s. It is often asked what you are supposed to be an avatar of; only a select few know you as the earthly incarnation of Adeltom, God of Heroism.
And right now, you are standing in torrential rain on a pier in a presumably parallel Earth, surrounded by luggage (which in itself is worth raising an eyebrow - you doubt you've ever owned enough personal effects to fill these bags).
Ignoring the rain, you quickly rise a couple hundred feet in the air, trying to get a better view of the city. Visibility conditions right now are very, very poor, but at first glance this looks like a North-American mid-sized town. Did Madman drop you here because of something specific to this place, or was the choice of location rando-
Wait.
This rain… It has the intensity of a monsoon. This is the sort of rain you get in warmer areas, when the heat causes much of the oceans to evaporate. It's too cold for this sort of rain.
And the clouds are moving too fast for this wind.
Weather control.
Possibilities flood your mind. An archvillain like Professor Cryo, building a weather control machine and threatening to flood the East coast if his demands aren't met. An evil sorcerer like Nollius, casting a ritual to drown technological societies so that he may reign supreme. An exceptionally powerful mutant, like Neo, going mad with power. An ancient behemoth, like Uberwyrm, returning to Earth and wrecking havoc.
You cast your senses around, trying to locate the source of this disturbance. Before you're really able to do so, you see something far more pressing:
A massive tidal wave, heading toward you. Or rather, heading toward the city behind you. A wave this big could wreck a large chunk of the city, killing thousands, tens of thousands.
Well. You've been at this for a while. You've stopped tidal waves before.
Almost reflexively, some of the free-floating cosmic energy in your reserves goes to your mind, accelerating it. The world around you slows down. You can see individual raindrops moving around you, now that your thinking is an order of magnitude faster.
A fraction of a second later, leaving a trail of white light behind you, you have moved a few hundred yards away from the pier and close to the incoming tsunami. With a wave of your hand (done mostly to help you picture what you are about to make), you create a giant wall. It is one meter thick, 30 meters high, and two kilometers wide. No less importantly, the wall is made of carbosteel - barely denser than water, but stronger than the strongest steel alloys by two orders of magnitude. The same substance you used to build the Tower of Babel, the elevator that connects Venture Island on the equator to Venture City in geosynchronous orbit. Amusingly, the amount of the substance you've just created would be worth a fortune back home.
The carbosteel wall begins falling, half of it sinking beneath the sea level when you telekinetically take hold of it. You focus all your power on this hold, spreading it over the entire wall rather than any singular point of it. And then, as the mighty tidal wave comes crashing upon you and your wall, you push back. For several interminable seconds, you push back with enough strength to lift a whole skyscrapper. You push back against the titanic city-killer torrent of water.
And the wave breaks.
It's not as if nothing goes through. You had mere seconds to react, after all. Enough water currents pass beneath and above you to shatter the pier. The damage caused, however, is trivial compared to what a true tidal wave would cause.
...There is another thing. A creature. Moving beneath the water at incredible speeds, following the tidal wave. It passes beneath your wall, and you can sense that it is big - and it seems to have swerved somewhat to avoid you. Before you can react, it continues its corrected path, briefly emerging from the water to disappear into the city's streets, trailing a mass of water behind it.
Unless things are incredibly misleading, you have found the culprit responsible for this current mild bit of bad weather.
While you're still processing the information (and shifting your energy away from telekinesis, letting the wall drop entirely into the sea), a streak of light flies in your direction, stopping in front of you to materialize as a man in a blue-green costume with patterns evocative of fire and lightning. You approve of his costume - it is inspiring and evocative, the costume of a hero. Hopefully the man wearing it is worthy.
The man himself is giving you a surprised look, and you notice some minor reddening in his cheeks. That is not surprising. When you originally took an avatar form in the 1920s, you had an urgent need to influence human society to avert disaster. With that in mind, you made this form look like a member of the then-dominant group (that is, caucasian males), and made it as handsome as humanly possible. It worked… but, looking at bigotry, inequality and preconceived notions in human societies, you've often wondered if you might have accomplished more good for them by taking a different form.
He quickly glances at your face (impassive but non-threatening), your costume (white with a pattern of golden lightning bolts), your cape (flying in the wind despite the water), your aura (faint silver light emanating from you, not bright enough to cause discomfort). He seems to suppress a chuckle at something before he speaks, sounding very much like the confident man in charge: "Thanks for stopping that wave. I notice no armband - you weren't at the gathering, were you?" You notice what seems to be a high-tech armband on the man. "Do you think you can block other waves?" he asks, his expression very serious all of a sudden.
As he speaks, you hear words coming from his armband. "Multishot deceased, CD-3. Shockwave down, CD-3."
What do you do?
[ ] It sounds like that creature is hurting people as you speak. You should fly in the direction where the creature entered the town, look for people who need help.
[ ] Just by stopping the tidal wave, you've prevented untold damage. If you stay here for a couple minutes, you could build an impregnable wall of omni-metal that can hold all the waves back until the end of the fight.
[ ] The man in the blue-green costume obviously knows more than you, and you're currently going blind. Take a moment to ask him a few questions, so you know what you're dealing with.
[ ] Any second when a giant monster with super-speed is rampaging is one second too many. Take some altitude, locate this thing, blast it, and hope it goes down.
As you settle on a course of action, you reach deep inside yourself. There is a small portion of your cosmic power that is fluid enough to be invested in a variety of minor abilities. For now, you need…
[ ] Super-Speed. You accelerate your mind and body by an order of magnitude. It won't enhance your attack rate (you can only generate so much energy per second), but hopefully it'll help you keep up with the creature.
[ ] Enhanced senses. This creature is super-speeding through an urban environment. You give yourself long-range battlefield awareness, along with accelerated mental processing.
[ ] Hydrokinesis. It will "only" allow you to move 25 tons of water, but that might make a key difference against this opponent.
[ ] Communication. It will allow you to communicate in real-time with anyone within a one-mile range.
EDIT: Upon closer reading, the range pretty much covers the city.
Write-ins and stunts are allowed, but subject to QM veto.
NUKE THE SITE FROM ORBIT
"...Do you think you can block other waves?"
Still accelerated by your secondary ability, your mind considers your options. From the sound of it, the heroes of this world are already mounting a resistance against the attacker - and suffering casualties. Which should be expected, the enemy being a speedster.
Were you inclined to shudders, you would experience one right now. Super-speed can so easily turn the tide of battles. Be they heroic like Lightspeed or Celerity, or villainous like Blitzkrieg or the Turbo-clan, you have always known speedsters must not be underestimated. You may have voted against inducting Tracer Pulse into the Global Champions, but you understand why the majority voted otherwise - your team needed his speed as much as his detective skills.
But when someone combines super-speed and destructive powers, like Tracer Pulse and Blitzkrieg? That has the making of an uncontainable nightmare scenario right there. Every second a giant monster rampages supersonically through the city can be a second of untold devastation. You need to put a stop to it, fast.
At the same time, rushing in with neither a plan nor intel is a rookie mistake likely to get you used as a mop - and, more importantly, get everyone you might otherwise save here killed. You are immortal; they aren't. Presumably. Also, coordinating with other heroes - especially ones that know what you're dealing with - is smarter than going lone wolf on this.
Of course, you can do both things. Not wasting a second, you switch your secondary powers to the ability to communicate via long-range talking holograms (you briefly consider more efficient telepathic communication, but that occasionally freaks people out and this is no time for panic). Turning toward the man in the blue-green costume, you speak: "Keep talking. I can hear you." That second sentence is spoken by a hologram of yourself in front of him, as you speed toward town near the speed of sound. "I'm new here. Who and what are we dealing with?"
He seems surprised at the question. "It's Leviathan, the second Endbringer."
"Foudroyeur down, CD-2. Dark Mind down, CD-2."
"Are you talking about the speedster that just came from the sea? What can you tell me about them?"
He tentatively moves toward the city, then accelerates once he sees the hologram can keep up with him. "Thirty feet tall, incredibly strong and though. Fast enough that we lose track of him on land, much faster in water. Cunning. Followed by a water shadow almost as deadly as himself. Macro-hydrokinetic. If we don't stop him quickly, then between the tidal waves and the aquifer, he'll destroy the city like he destroyed Kyushu and Newfoundland."
"Tsunami deceased, CD-2. Fireball down, CD-2."
Kyushu. Newfoundland. Unless things are very different in this world indeed, this means this "Leviathan" has a body count in the seven digits or more. You find yourself reminded of the destruction of Madagascar, decades ago. And he is the second "Endbringer", which is more than a little ominous.
And to make things worse… the city below, from this man's words, is built over an aquifer. Meaning that even if you did build a wall to block all the tidal waves, the city could still be destroyed by hydrokinesis; you'd only be delaying a bit.
In other words, you have to end it even faster than you thought. Thankfully, flying as you do has given you a good vantage point. You can now see your quarry - the massive creature, lean and scaly, zipping through the streets as its water shadow follows. It's heading toward a group of three heroes, two of whom are lying on the ground, either dead or unconscious. You don't need to stop it - a man in a wizard costume steps forth and taps his staff on the ground, causing the torrent to deviate and go around them.
"There will be a tidal wave every five-ten minutes," the man in blue-green adds, even as he flies much closer to your location, probably also hunting for Leviathan. He aims his arms toward the Endbringer, seemingly preparing a blast. "If your abilities can-"
You hate to be rude and not let him finish his sentence, especially as he has been nothing but helpful and professional. But politeness is hardly a battlefield priority, especially with Leviathan rushing toward another group - a woman in a military uniform and "patriotic" scarf, and some short man in red armor on a hoverboard. With your communication powers, you shout at them to take cover even as you unleash your offensive power; the woman quickly complies, while the flyer follows suit a second later.
You're dealing with a speedster, but one that isn't familiar with your powerset. One that isn't expecting this attack. Still, he (she? It?) is liable to react very quickly, so you don't bother with one of those "slow but powerful" attacks. Instead, you take aim, and send a bolt that can cross the distance in a fraction of a millisecond.
One of the first supervillains you've ever faced was a pyrokinetic mutant. When you faced him, he bragged about his own invincibility, his ability to destroy a tank in one shot and set a whole city block aflame in a minute. Seeing that your attempts to talk him down were failing, you demonstrated a single blast, not aimed at him. He surrendered, and wouldn't say another word for days.
When the nukes fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at least one opponent of the atomic bombs referred to them as "the power of the Avatar, but with neither conscience nor the ability to spare the innocent".
During both battles of the Cryosphere, your attacks were among the very few that Professor Cryo considered prudent to dodge, rather than absorbing them with his thermodynamic field.
Right now, cosmic energy courses through your hand. The primordial power of the cosmos, resonating across multiple planes of reality, directed by a sentient idea, ready to smite the wicked.
A blinding eruption of white light illuminates the battlefield, connecting your hand to Leviathan's back. The Endbringer is violently slammed to the ground, the blast grinding him against 40 feet of road.
Your fellow flying hero seems in shock for a moment. To his credit, he quickly recovers. "That helps too," he says with a slight smile as he shoots some kind of energy blasts that hits the Endbringer before it can get up. A direct hit - you think his lasers actually adjusted their path midway, and their firepower sounds comparable to heavy artillery.
When Leviathan does get up, you can see that you've burned off a big chunk of his back. At the center of that small crater, you can glimpse a smooth surface - is that his physiology's equivalent of a bone? Did you expose a chunk of his skeleton with that initial blast?
Sadly, it doesn't seem to affect his speed. He begins running in a different direction, laterally from you - the buildings providing him with intermittent cover.
Not a bad idea, but it won't suffice against you.
"That's more damage than anyone's ever done to him," the flying blaster says. "Except maybe Scion." As you begin flying after the Endbringer, he goes in another direction. "Quick, how good is your defense?"
"As good as my offense. I could survive my own blasts, but it would hurt."
"Noted. Bastion's group has the people who might be able to slow him down; I'll get you an armband so you can coordinate with them." With that, he speaks into his armband. "Dragon, we need an armband for a newcomer. He stopped the wave and landed that hit on Levi just now. Blaster 10+, probably 11-12."
"Copy Legend. Got one ready."
That's interesting, and Legend (since that's apparently his name) is very fast, but every second counts. As such, you decide to cut the middle-man. Your communication power goes out to the entire city at once. "Bastion. Do you copy, Bastion?"
Understandably, there are a lot of jumpy reactions. This city probably has a 5-6 digit population. Still, you do manage to filter out the one answer of "This is Bastion. The hell are you?"
"I am the Avatar." As you speak, you manage to position yourself with a good line of sight, and sends another blast at Leviathan. This time, he manages to get out of the way, the cosmic energy flying past him. "My blasts seem exceptionally effective against Leviathan, but I need to actually hit him. Help corralling him or slowing him down can make all the difference in this fight."
Before he can answer, you send another blast. Leviathan prepares to dodge it…
...only for the previous blast, the one he dodged, to swerve around and hit him. Destabilized, the Endbringer is unable to get out of the way as your more recent shot nails him.
Not knowing what you can do includes not knowing your blasts can home in on their targets if they miss. It's not perfect, but it's helped you many times. Right now, it has left a second "crater" in the lower left of the Endbringer's abdomen, and burned off the flesh (if that's what it is) around a big section of his right arm, exposing the "bone".
"Legend here. I confirm, Avatar's attacks are hurting Leviathan more than anything else we have."
"Roger," says Bastion. You're guessing Legend has a leadership role - Bastion didn't pause for a second. "Which sector are you in?"
Before you or Legend can try to answer, Leviathan starts running - this time in your direction. Seeing the windows shatter in his wake, you're confident he generated a sonic boom.
During the next split-second, the gigantic creature jumps, using the roof of a two-story building as a stepping stone. That leads him between two much taller buildings. He places a foot on the side of one, jumps upward to the other, then back, totalling three jumps between them. This little bit of parkour, aside from leaving significant structural damage, has brought him some fifty feet in the air - at which point, a mass of water arrives behind him.
You realize that Leviathan is surfing his own water shadow to reach you.
Considering the whole thing occurs in less than a second, it is a testament to your reflexes that you manage, barely, to avoid the Endbringer as he flies past you.
You are less lucky, however, with his water shadow.
Tens of tons of water, slamming into you at the speed of a bullet. The equivalent energy of multiple tons of TNT.
It's not so bad… but it's dragging you with it. The moving water makes it hard to see, but you manage to tell that Leviathan is using the water shadow to coordinate your and his fall. And then… you hit the water.
The water shadow must have carried you past the coastline. Though upon reflection, you had to move several blocks closer to it while chasing him. Was that his plan while he was evading you, or did he just get lucky?
Regardless, the water unsurprisingly presents no resistance as the Endbringer proceeds to punch you, kick you, and lash at you with his tail, all at super-speed. He seems to be favoring his left arm, though; not surprising after the damage the right one took.
Even for a creature his size, Leviathan is very, very strong. Every single blow he lands on you could turn a bunker to rubble.
Titan and Techno-Paladin, to name but two, have frequently hit you harder during training spars. The Endbringer is bruising you, but nothing more.
Actually, scratch that - all his blows were aimed downward. He has slammed you against the seafloor - though this close to the coastline, that must be, what, 60 feet underwater? 70? 80 at most.
He isn't hitting you at the moment. Instead, he is floating above you, looking ready for anything. The water around you, however, is flowing unnaturally, moving to pin you to the ground with immense force.
Your best guess is that Leviathan is trying to suffocate you. Not a bad idea when dealing with someone tough enough to take his punches.
A bad idea, however, when dealing with the avatar of a god. You don't actually have biological functions; you only breath to avoid creeping people out. And even if you did, Leviathan's hydrokinesis wouldn't be enough to keep you imprisoned here.
But… well. No reason to tell him that. If he wastes some time focusing his efforts on drowning you, that gives you the opportunity to turn the tables on him.
"Avatar! Are you all right?" A massive, wyrm-like mechanical construct speaks to you, apparently using your own communication power. That would be Dragon. Not wanting to risk tipping off Leviathan, you switch your communication from talking holograms to straight telepathic contact. "I'm fine. He's wasting time trying to drown me, but I don't need to breath. Get people close to my location, I'm going to…"
The telepathic continues for the next few seconds, during which you make a show of holding your breath, struggling to go upward, and gasping for air. As the better part of a minute passes, you even make a show of weakening. Leviathan merely maintains his position a few dozen feet above you, ready to smack you down should you manage to get closer to the surface.
Then Dragon signals you she's ready.
Your cosmic power coalesces once more. You've spent nearly a minute getting a lock on the Endbringer - too focused on drowning you, he wasn't running around as usual. He was, probably, ready to dodge your blasts if needed.
But you don't blast him.
Instead, you create a box.
A box that completely surrounds him.
A box with thick walls.
A box made of omni-metal. Not the cheap, diluted alloys they use for skyscrapers nowadays - the pure, military-grade stuff that's as solid as carbosteel, if much heavier.
And then, you telekinetically push the box upward, above the sea level. Flying up, you see an assembly of heroes. Dragon has given you a very quick briefing about them. You remember to switch back to talking holograms as you glance at them.
Eidolon. She said "right now", he had gravity control, some "stilling field" that saps high concentrations of kinetic energy in its area, and a disintegration ray. That "right now" makes you wonder if he has variable powers like Mimic (and to a much lesser extent, yourself).
Dragon herself. Robot? Mecha pilot? Regardless, she has both melee and ranged attacks.
Alexandria. Flying brick.
Legend. Flying blaster, who quickly hands you an armband you attach.
Armsmaster. Guy with high-tech armor and halberd. Dragon says he believes his halberd might kill the Endbringer - and if the past decades have taught you anything, it's not to underestimate technology.
Narwhal. Force-fields.
Bastion. Also force-fields.
Myrrdin, the wizard-looking guy from earlier. Apparently has a lot of versatility, which would fit with an archmage.
Vista. Can warp space… and either she's a short person, or… That's a concern to be addressed very quickly after the battle.
And a few more who haven't been described to you yet. Another one gets dropped in by a teleporter who quickly disappears.
"So, is Leviathan actually inside-"
The hero's question stops when the Endbringer - probably assisted by the water around him - begins wailing on the inside of his box at superspeed. It's actually pretty damn impressive that he can damage pure omni-metal that quickly. You doubt this will contain him for more than a few seconds, and the waters are still raging.
As your regeneration finishes healing the bruises from Leviathan's underwater assault, you quickly consider your options.
[ ] Containing such a super-strong speedster is almost impossible. However, it's worth the gamble, to end the fight quickly. Using your telekinesis, you try to get Leviathan out of the city's range. Preferably upward.
[ ] Throw the box with Leviathan upward… then blast. And blast. And blast. Hopefully you can tear him apart before he even hits the ground.
[ ] There's a whole squad of powerful heroes here, more are coming, and you suspect Leviathan has never been this close to a sitting duck. Focus on holding him down for a little bit more so they can hit him with their best shot.
[ ] Write-in.
HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT
According to Legend, no-one has hurt Leviathan as much as you did with your initial blast, with the possible exception of that Scion character (something to look into later). It logically follows that your offensive firepower is the best bet you have of stopping the Endbringer before he tears down Brockton Bay.
That said, you didn't ask Dragon to bring these other heroes here for nothing.
Quickly, you throw the omni-metal box dozens of feet upward. "Force-fields!" you address Bastion and Narwhal, "Protect the others!" you nod in the direction of the nearby ocean. "Eidolon and whoever can help - keep him from falling back to the ground! This ends today!"
And then, you blast upward.
Pure omni-metal is an incredibly strong material, reverse-engineered by Omnicorp from alien technology (Garzor's second invasion ship after it crashed, to be specific). You've seen heroes who could juggle trucks punch omni-metal without even denting it.
From what you've seen, you suspect some of Leviathan's deeper layers are tougher than even that. The box was effectively obliterated by your blast; the kiloton's worth of water inside it, torn down to its subatomic components; the Endbringer was nailed in the chest, pushing it another 20 feet up and making an even larger crater, exposing a large section of the "bone" beneath.
You don't think it's really bone, per se. Your cosmic senses have now had some time to analyze the structure of the Endbringer, and… you don't see any organs, the "blood" is apparently just for show, and you think the only part that actually makes a difference is the "skeleton" - that's the core of the creature, with the outer layers just being cosmetic.
Waves rush toward you and your allies, only to slow down as they enter Eidolon's range, and then be easily stopped by Narwhal and Bastion. Eidolon uses his gravity control to keep Leviathan up in the air, then nails him in the right shoulder with a green disintegration ray that manages to go 90% of the way to the core. Myrrdin does something - you think you detected planar manipulation, but whatever it was, it seems to be pushing water away from the area; even the rain is no longer falling on you. Legend, Dragon, and another hero are blasting at the Endbringer, with admittedly less impressive results than you or even Eidolon. Alexandria and another hero seem to be standing guard. Armsmaster is giving Vista some orders.
You send another blast. Leviathan manages to contort in time for it to miss him, but he fails to dodge it on the way back as it homes in near the first crater you made. Still, you don't think any damage really makes a difference here unless it is done to the core. What you're destroying seems to be mere ablative armor. A moment after your blast, another hero is brought in by the teleporter, and a glowing figure flies near your location, blasting at your foe with a force that could level small buildings.
"Hey! Avatar!"
Some blond heroine in a purple outfit and domino mask - older than Vista, but still probably too young for this - is using your holograms to talk to you. "I can see the lightshow from twenty blocks away, but I need more data to analyze Leviathan. Any chance you can give me a direct view of the scene?"
You're not entirely sure how helpful that would be, but you don't know what that girl can do, and it costs you almost nothing. You slightly tweak your communication power to let her see Leviathan through your eyes. "I've been scanning him," you quickly say. "No biological functions I can detect, the blood's probably for show. Structure is some crystalline matter, growing exponentially denser as you get deeper in. At its core is some 'skeleton' that seems to be the actual active part, even denser and tougher than the rest."
"It's not human," she concludes, "and never was. The outer layers are just to make it look scary - no, also to make us think we can hurt it. It's been toying with us, sandbagging all those years." There's a horrified tone in her voice, but she keeps going. Brave one. "The density is due to a hyperdimensional structure. The reason it regenerates is because it keeps bringing in matter from other worlds." That… is disturbing for a whole set of reasons, but now is not the time to ponder those. "Only damage to the core matters. Arms are less armored than any other part, should be easier to damage. There should also be a core in the core - a part that controls the rest. Destroy that part, he dies." She grins smugly despite her obvious fear. "I'm Tattletale. Who are you, a second-generation Scion cape?"
"I am a hero," you state factually with a reassuring smile, even as you raise both arms and unleash power cosmic.
You weren't just analyzing the Endbringer while talking to Tattletale - you were gathering power. So far, most of what your blasts have been doing was make craters in the ablative armor. At this rate, it will take several minutes to handle - long enough for another tidal wave, and who knows how much damage via the aquifer. You need something faster. You need something that attacks from all directions. You need an area attack.
You have those, of course. Creating a sphere of destruction wide enough to contain the Endbringer is well within your capabilities. However, since the energy isn't as concentrated, it's nowhere near as damaging - you'd only destroy the outermost layer or two of Leviathan. Not much of a gain.
So, you've spent some time building up power. When you blast upward, Leviathan finds himself completely enveloped by destructive power, as if he were plunged deep into the Sun. For a second, the entire battlefield shines a blinding white. On the other end of the city, the streets are brighter.
When the light dissipates, Leviathan can be seen, having lost most of his volume. 75% of its ablative armor has been disintegrated. You know it's just as dangerous as before, and yet, it probably looks a lot less frightening to the humans.
You hear an appreciative whistle from Tattletale, even as the blasting resumes. Dragon, Legend, and other blasters hit the Endbringer, though they find these deeper layers more resistant to their attacks than his "skin" was. Eidolon zaps his left leg with his disintegration ray, exposing some of the core this time. You carefully aim, and blast the Endbringer in the right arm, sending it spinning upward; nearly half the arm's core is now exposed and, encouragingly, you can see two cracks in it. That structure could no doubt survive a direct hit from an entire nuclear arsenal, but your power has a way of overcoming such resistance. The Endbringer is mighty, but not invulnerable. Not to you.
Tattletale is apparently using the armbands to communicate with Legend while you keep observing Leviathan, trying to identify his control center. You do not let up your attacks, of course. Another onslaught of cosmic energy causes the right arm to break, dangling uselessly from his side.
You consider that, with Leviathan's constrained mobility, a slow-but-powerful blast would actually have much better odds than usual of hitting him. Sacrificing speed and precision for firepower might be enough to kill the monster. But Leviathan has shown himself to be both cunning and generally underestimated. If you play that card, you suspect the Endbringer will do everything to ensure you don't get a second chance to play it. As such, you'd rather make sure you can hit his control center first.
More heroes showing up. A heroine in power armor, a (too young) girl with a crossbow, and more. You blast at the leg now, still trying to identify the critical point.
Then, for an instant, space twists and warps. Vista's power, you realize. It allows Armsmaster, still on the ground, to swing his halberd right at the Endbringer's face. There's some strange field around the halberd's blade that you don't have the time to identify, but whatever it is, it's disintegrating Leviathan's ablative armor even more efficiently than Eidolon. The core of his head is now completely exposed.
Armsmaster and Vista are already preparing another swing, when a voice speaks across all the armbands. A message from a "Skitter", it says. The voice is that of a panicked young woman. "He's made an ice battering ram and broke the door to a shelter near my location, the water's going to drown everyone!"
An instant later, other pings come from the armbands. "Panacea down, FA-6. Sundancer down, FF-2. Gallant down, EB-4. Clockblocker down, EB-4. Responder down, EC-7."
Of course. Since Leviathan is currently stuck with you and unable to make proper use of his super-speed, he's using his hydrokinesis instead. Gambling you'll have to rescue his victims.
Which isn't a bad gamble in this case. If you let hundreds, maybe thousands die in those shelters, then what are you fighting him for? True, he's a threat to an even greater number of people. But there is a point where the sacrifice of countless innocents is required, and you do not consider that you have reached that point. You will not allow these deaths. Which means you have to trust in the capabilities of your impromptu teammates.
You send one more blast, sending the Endbringer further up. "Focus on keeping him up in the air! I will return quickly!" you call loudly enough for them all to hear, even as the Vista-assisted Armsmaster slashes across the monster's torso, exposing a massive portion of the core in one smooth move. In an instant, you switch from communication to super-speed (less to accelerate your already-hypersonic flight, and more to help you navigate the city at such a speed), and fly toward the location that the armband identified as Skitter's.
One instant, you're going at mach 6. The next instant, you're almost still. You see a young girl in a bug-themed costume (which seems designed for intimidation more than inspiration) frantically trying to use any object she can get her hands on to plug the entrance to an anti-atomic (anti-Endbringer?) shelter, to slow down the waters as they rush in. Chunks of ice float around, presumably the remnants of the battering ram. A chunk of ice as big as your hand flies at the girl's head right as you arrive there; she's clearly hurt, but keeps going.
There must be several thousands of people inside the shelter, obviously terrified as the water rushes in, already reaching the adults' waists. Most of the children (but not all) are being held above the water by adults. Actually leaving the shelter would take far too long, which is probably why the bug-costumed heroine was trying to keep the water out, even though she was getting people stuck in.
And they're not the only people hurt. A couple hundred yards away, at the site of a crumbling building, a young boy in power armor is floating face-down in the water, as is another one in a white costume. Some kind of shadow materializes around them - another young girl, wearing a black costume, with a crossbow to her side. You really need to discuss the matter of bringing minors into superpowered battles when this is all over, but right now, there are more urgent matters. The black-clad heroine manages to pull the boy in white out of the water (revealing the image of a clock on his helmet), only for a wave to come rushing toward the trio - a wave of water covered in ice spikes.
Shelter in front of you. Three underage heroes a bit further away. Your super-speed is minor, not sufficient to save both.
Thankfully, you have other options.
Letting go of the super-speed, you focus your secondary power pool into hydrokinesis instead. Compared to Leviathan, your scale is pitiful, a joke… but you don't need his scale. You need only focus on the water inside the shelter. You grab the 25 tons nearest the exit, and, with a wave of your hand, you flush it out. Pressure helps with the rest of the water in the shelter, which gets pulled toward the exit. It takes you less than ten seconds until the water inside the shelter is only knees-high, if that.
What of young boy in the path of the spiked wave, then? One might think him doomed. One might think this the end of his story. One might think that you allowed him to die so that the thousands in the shelter may live.
NO. You reject that twist of fate. You reject this story of senseless death in the face of an uncaring cosmos. You are part of the cosmos, and today, the cosmos will care! Even as you pump the deadly water out of the shelter, you grant the boy luck. You rewrite his fate, and, in the already-crumbling building, a massive chunk of ceiling collapses upon the incoming wave, crushing it; through supernatural luck, the roiling waters just happen to eject him, landing him harmlessly next to the boy in white and the girl in black.
Another boy (seriously, how many children are thrown in harm's way around here?) arrives - a flyer, from the looks of it. He exchanges quick words with the shadow girl, before picking the two unconscious boys and flying off with them; she returns to her shadow form. For yourself, you give the bug-costumed girl a smile that lets her know you're proud of the courage she has just displayed. "You did good today, young lady. You did good," you say, not slowing for one moment as you seal the shelter's entrance with pure omni-metal (that'd actually make it hard to get out, but the shelter has more than one door).
You briefly ponder why there was so much water here. The rain alone wouldn't… ah, right. Pulling rainwater from other neighborhoods, and bringing in seawater through the sewers.
And then, it's back to super-speed and flight.
On one hand, you want to get back to dealing with Leviathan as soon as possible - the quicker he is defeated, the less damage he will be able to cause. Part of you wishes to assist every person you heard going down, but spending that sort of time will give Leviathan more windows of opportunity to hurt others.
Still… there is one more stop you need to make. One of the names that came out in the armband was "Panacea". That very, very much sounds like a healer's name. In your experience, metahumans with healing powers are exceedingly rare. Furthermore, they can turn the tide of a battle like this one - and that's not accounting for the number of lives saved out of battle.
This is all guesswork, of course, but it's a safe enough guess that you consider sector FA-6 (as marked on the armband) a necessary stop.
In sector FA-6, you find a building that's apparently serving as a battlefield hospital at the moment (you think the young flying brick from earlier was going this way). There's several injured heroes (and some civilians), some people in uniform with a logo that says "PRT", medical personnel… There's also a breach in the wall, and right next to it, a young woman in a white robe with a spike in her stomach. The spike seems to be some chunk of metal, but it is encased in ice (probably how it was directed so precisely; the wall was broken by a water blast). There are other costumed heroes trying to reach her, but they're struggling to get past a maelstrom of water in their way, which only gets stronger by the second as more water trickles in from a broken faucet.
Well. That's not going to stop you. But you also can't afford to spend one more second than strictly necessary.
A tiny hint of telekinesis pulls the spike out of her stomach, even as hydrokinesis clears the floor. And then, you focus your cosmic energy on a particularly difficult task: Healing. Even for a god, entropy is not trivially handled.
But in this case, you handle it indeed (with some effort). Panacea's injuries close, her colors return, and she blinks at you, just in time for another flying brick to arrive at the scene. Another young girl (seriously? Though this one might actually be old enough to be in college) in a white costume, rushing toward Panacea. Most people recoil from her in fear - you briefly wonder why, before your cosmic awareness informs you that she has some emotion-affecting aura. Huh.
Not that you have time to ponder it, or even say hello just to be polite. Every second counts. You switch back to communication as you take altitude and fly toward Leviathan, informing the heroes near him of your impending also give Tattletale visual back.
From the looks of it, Armsmaster and Vista have really gone to town on the Endbringer - his ablative armor is virtually gone, only bits and pieces dotting his core. Armsmaster still tries to slash at the core itself with no effect. Only damage to the core is the arm you broke… and two holes in the Endbringer's chest, which seems to have gone all the way through.
Then, right before you get there, Alexandria looks at the ground, notices something, and shouts a warning.
The next instant, a veritable drill of water emerges from the ground. Water and rock fly toward the green-robed figure.
"Eidolon down, AC-3."
The Endbringer begins to fall.
Vista tries to extend the space between him and the ground. Myrddin, as far as you can tell, weakens gravity where Leviathan currently is.
Then the tidal wave comes.
Except… it's not quite like before. Before, you had one giant wave rushing toward the city. Now, it looks instead like you have two waves moving toward your location from two different angles, only to crash against each other before they reach you. The combined result looks less like a wave, and more like a colossal blast of dozens, hundreds of kilotons of water rushing at your group.
Too close, too fast. You can't stop this water mega-blast like you did the tidal wave. You can, however, channel all your might into a force-field to try to shield the team.
Alexandria, in the second at her disposal, grabs the downed Eidolon, grabs the crossbow-wielding girl, and throws them both a fair distance away.
Dragon lands in front of Vista and Armsmaster, enfolding them in her mechanical wings.
Vista tries to put as much safety distance between your location and the watery blast as she can.
Myrrdin does something, though the results are not visible.
Bastion and Narwhal join their force-fields to yours.
And you, focusing your power over fate, declare that this torrent of destruction will not get past your defenses and kill your comrades-in-arms.
And then, the apocalyptic deluge comes.
"Othala down, AC-3. Myrrdin down, AC-3. Bastion down, AC-3."
It's a literal miracle that you're all still alive, considering. And since the blast was entirely focused on your group, there's almost none of the collateral damage that a real tidal wave would involve. Eidolon and the crossbow girl seem to have landed harmlessly on a roof, the latter already getting up - Alexandria must have some kind of enhanced precision.
A sudden movement. Leviathan's tail, creating a sonic boom as it strikes Alexandria and drives her into the ocean. You barely manage to fly out of the tail's way yourself.
The Endbringer falls to the ground, its legs and the water around it already coiled to take it back into the ocean. You suspect it's had more than enough of this battle.
Tattletale is opening her mouth in the hologram, but by the time she says two words, your quarry could be miles away. You only have a split second to come to a decision.
[ ] Hit Leviathan with your absolute most powerful blast. Sacrifice accuracy for power, and hope you can compensate through luck manipulation.
[ ] Your telekinesis isn't great at catching moving foes, but it's worth a shot. If you manage to throw him in the air for just a few seconds, that might give you the opening you need to win this.
[ ] Leviathan thinks it's safe in the ocean. That's because he's never fought an angry god. Use your secondary power pool to turn insubstantial, then follow him at hypersonic speed, unhindered by water.
[ ] If he leaves, it's a victory - it means the city survives. Focus on helping people for now; there will be other opportunities to fight him.
[ ] Write-in.
FROM ABYSSAL DEPTHS, I BLAST AT THEE
Anger, as tends to be the case with emotions, is a double-edged sword. It can motivate one against injustice. It can make one stupid.
Leviathan is a mass-murderer on a scale that would give some true monsters pause. He tried to drown all the men, women and children at the shelter, just to distract you. He shot the medic. He tried to kill your teammates. And now that his power has proven insufficient to win, he's trying to escape justice so that he may return to kill again. You allow yourself anger against him, and focus it on pursuit. The monster will not escape.
Leviathan enters the water, and the hologram of Tattletale disappears as you switch your secondary power from communication to Intangibility - your material form vibrating at high frequency between hundreds of different planes of reality, to the point that it only barely has any interaction with anything in this one.
You have some experience with this, so you know how to vibrate at the right frequency so that you (and anything you carry, such as the armband) can still interact with electromagnetic waves on the frequency of radio - it would do you no good to completely cut yourself off from communication, after all.
And then, accelerating far, far past the speed of sound, you rush into the water. Right before you go, you see Dragon fire a missile into the sea. The underwater explosion apparently disturbs the artificial currents enough that Alexandria is able to free herself from her watery prison.
That's good, but you need to focus on your target. You're already several miles from the shore, and half a mile beneath the surface. There's little to no light here - not that this counters your cosmic perception.
Zipping by at mach 15, thinking as fast as you can without super-speed, you do your best to follow the trail of displaced water. For a moment, you think you've lost him, but veering slightly to the left you are once more in range.
You give Leviathan this much credit - he's fast, underwater. Close to the speeds you and Tracer Pulse are capable of. Still, you are definitely gaining on him, and…
The armband comes to life. "Avatar! Tattletale again. Did you just go intangible to pursue the watery jackass?"
You're actually a little impressed that she's figured it out. You'll have to ask about that. "Yes. I'm on his tail."
A short pause. "...He can't see you. His sense - his only sense - is knowing where water molecules are. Since you're intangible, you're not displacing them, and he can't see you!"
That makes sense. He certainly doesn't seem to be evading you, even though you're now only a few dozen feet behind him and gaining.
Since he doesn't know you're there… since he doesn't know you've been trailing him for all these miles… when you will show up to blast him, he might simply assume you can teleport to his location. If you can make him believe that, then you can bluff him into believing escape isn't an option at all, forcing him to stay here and fight you instead of trying to evade you in the oceanic depths.
As such, you bluff. Instead of aiming your hand at him, dephasing, and blasting, you dephase first, then aim and blast, as if you'd just teleported in range. Even with his speed, the advantage of surprise remains decisively on your side. And at this range - right behind him - it doesn't matter that you finally went for that "slow but powerful" attack.
Gasping for air, Alexandria flew up, Legend quickly reaching her.
"Is Leviathan-"
"Gone," Legend said without trying to hide his mirth. "We've never hurt him this much. We've never driven him off so quickly. Barely any casualties. Minor damage to the city. It's all thanks to…"
She noticed Strider porting in, grabbing Eidolon, then teleporting back with him to the hospital. Good - they needed Eidolon more than they needed anyone else they had. Although… that Ward from New York, Flechette, had actually managed to hurt the Endbringer's core with those two last shots. It was why she had prioritized rescuing her and Eidolon. And that newcomer, Avatar…
And then, there was a white light. Looking back, she saw the ocean glowing.
When the light clears, you can see the effect a serious blast can have on the Endbringer: The lower three quarters of his left leg have been annihilated; there are cracks all over his right leg.
If you had thought this would make him any slower, though, then you were very much in the wrong. In less than the blink of an eye, he is on you, his good arm lowering a cataclysmic hammer punch that sends you spiralling hundreds of feet down into the depths.
You haven't even had time to process the hit, and already Leviathan is diving down toward you, his fist punching you down. Again. And again. And again. All in less than a second.
You've only become aware of this, and already you've hit the ocean floor. The next punch hammers you into the ground, shockwaves pulverizing the basalt rock in a radius of at least 20 feet. Subsequent punches keep hammering you deeper and deeper, explosively digging a deep pit into the rock. The sheer energy of the unrelenting assault actually turns some of the basalt under your back into molten lava.
Taylor, still clutching her head - she hoped that concussion wasn't too dangerous, even Panacea couldn't heal brains - heard the words on her armband.
"Avatar deceased, East of area."
"No." The whisper escaping her lips wasn't loud enough for even her to hear it over the sound of the rain.
You are dimly aware of the loss of your armband, which got disintegrated by one of the first shockwaves. You are more keenly aware of how every one of the rapid-fire blows shatters another bone in your body.
Leviathan wasn't hitting you remotely as hard before. But here, deep beneath the waves, you are in the seat of his power. The multiple kilotons of water directly above him move in unison, acting like part of his body - rising with his fist, and coming down upon you with the full might of a macro-hydrokinesist. To compare what he does to you to a jackhammer is like comparing the Tsar Bomba to a hand grenade.
You briefly consider going intangible again to escape the blows. But that might give the trick away, or otherwise allow Leviathan to escape.
When you originally designed this form, you gave it the same capacity for pain as the human bodies you were emulating. Partly to help you quickly gauge damage in battle, and partly to occasionally remind you of the humans' perspective. You have never regretted that choice, not even now… but the pain of feeling your skeleton suffering dozens of fractures brings back memories of all your defeats.
And you have suffered defeats. Few compared to your thousands of victories, but you do not allow yourself to forget.
Tagton. The first to ever defeat your Avatar form, when none before had ever come close. The first alien to reach Earth, he had been a complete outside-context problem, even for you. He was also purely mercenary. In the build-up to WWII, Hitler had hired him to dispose of you - unsurprising, as you'd made your thoughts on bigotry abundantly clear when you'd destroyed the Ku Klux Klan. Tagton managed to trap you in the heart of the sun, your shackles maintaining you in place while ensuring you burned at the exact same rate you regenerated. For several years, you just kept burning alive nonstop. It was only in 1944 that you finally managed to wriggle enough to kill yourself, allowing you to self-resurrect outside the shackles. The public only learned of your return when you appeared on the frontlines of Operation Overlord.
Garzor. There had been no warning. The alien would-be conqueror put his ship in Earth's orbit, utterly destroyed Madagascar in a volley of energy cannons, and demanded every other nation's unconditional surrender. You and your allies were able to destroy his ship, but Garzor himself escaped to make another attempt decades later.
Nollius. The soulless archmage-tyrant of Avalon. Oh, you have foiled many of his plots, but you have never been able to drive him out of his seat of power. He has too much magic, too many minions, too many powerful artifacts and ancient rituals to entrench himself with.
Professor Cryo, both times. As with Nollius, you have at times ruined his schemes, but the archvillain still rules the Cryosphere with an iron fist, the closest thing supervillains in your world have to a unifying leader.
The Sydney Crisis. Global Might successfully ambushed your team. Without a speedster, you all struggled against the battlefield advantage Blitzkrieg constituted. Mordor managed to grab you and hold you in place long enough for Gatemaster to teleport an antimatter charge inside you. If Tracer Pulse hadn't saved the day, that might have been the Global Champions' end.
The Man of Might, perhaps the most bitter of all. He appeared one day in Jerusalem. Gave one interview. Casually blew up the entire city halfway through. And then he proceeded to annihilate the heroes (and to a smaller extent, villains) who rushed in to stop him from all over the world. Even you were killed by his insane power. You returned to life a week later, to a world still mourning the loss of a city and thousands of dead heroes - the heavy price of stopping the Man of Might.
That last one… is that what it's like for the people on this Earth, whenever Leviathan (and presumably any other being called "Endbringer") attacks?
Do they go through all that destruction, all that loss, all that despair, again and again and again?
What kind of nightmare world is this?
What kind of nightmare are these people living?
Are you going to allow it for one minute longer?
All four of your limbs are sprawled against the sea floor with multiple fractures each, water pinning them down. You don't have a single intact rib. Your face is a bloody mess. Every small fraction of a second, Leviathan's fist strikes you down at hypersonic speeds with the power of countless kilotons of water behind it. And none of it changes your answer one bit.
Actually, it does make one difference:
Inside the pit that he's dug up by repeatedly punching you, Leviathan has no room to dodge.
Your eyes light up. And then, cosmic energy pours through, blasting the monster half a mile upward.
Almost without thinking, you assign your secondary power to regeneration and gather your energy. Leviathan is still being pushed up by the blast, trapped in the ascending torrent of cosmic energy and unable to bring in water to himself. Before he can correct that, you send a second powerful blast.
Legend watched as the ocean turned white again. And then, a massive blast erupted from the waters. He managed to recognize Leviathan, propelled hundreds of feet into the air, looking even more damaged than before.
Then Avatar came above the surface like a missile.
As the second blast ejects Leviathan into the sky, and regeneration fixes much of the damage to your physical form, you fly up.
These last two blasts were focused less on outright damage, and more on pushing him out of his domain. On the ocean floor, he had too big an advantage. Now, however, he is falling through the air, far above the water. You actually have several seconds to line up your best shot without any fear of him dodging or counter-attacking. You need to make it count.
You give it your all. You aim without having to worry about defense. You sacrifice speed and accuracy for firepower, knowing he cannot dodge this time. You draw upon all your reserves of energy to make a far more powerful blast than at any other point in the battle.
And then, as you unleash your full might on the monster, you declare that his fate is to end now. You may not know exactly where his core is, but you make it so that by sheer luck, the blast hits there nonetheless.
A power greater than what even the Endbringer can bring to bear homes in on him, unstoppable, relentless. It strikes at the base of his tail. Lightning strikes in every direction, a mere side effect as this much energy ionized all the air anywhere near its path.
There is nothing left of the Endbringer but its torso, its head, and its useless broken right arm. It falls, limp like a ragdoll, when you telekinetically take hold of it.
Letting go of the enhanced regeneration for now - what injuries are left are minor anyway - you switch to improved cosmic awareness, getting a better scan of your foe. Every piece of data confirms your victory.
You do not make a habit of killing your opponents, but at times it is necessary. Leviathan was a mass-murderer, and with his exceptional range, he could very well have kept killing people while you tried to capture him alive - you don't even know what the limit on his range is.
A beam of light transforms into Legend. "You're alive," he says with some relief, his eyes quickly settling on Leviathan. "Is he…"
"Dead," you confirm. "I have scanned him thoroughly. The structure that controlled him is gone, and he isn't regenerating. Right now, he's just a hyperdense corpse."
Legend takes a moment to swallow your words. You don't need enhanced senses to recognize the flood of emotions he's experiencing right now. "This… changes everything," he says, somehow managing to keep his voice steady. "I hate asking you for anything more at this point, but we need his remains dropped somewhere safe inland. If only so the Thinkers can properly analyze them and confirm he won't be coming back."
"That is no trouble at all," you say with the best smile your injuries will allow you to pull, "Though we're making a stop by the city first."
Legend having no objection to that, the two of you fly a few dozen miles, returning to the rain-wracked city. Your enhanced senses actually manage to catch its name here and there - apparently, this is Brockton Bay. You remember the Brockton Bay of your Earth - a medium-sized city on the American East Coast. You've visited it on the job on a couple occasions over the decades.
Switching your secondary power to weather control - less impressive than Leviathan's, perhaps, but sufficient for a city this small - you take a minute to move the rain clouds out of the way, allowing the Sun to break through. Flying two hundred yards above the beach, the Endbringer's remains in evidence with you, you switch back to communication. Every man, woman and child in town sees the image of the dead Endbringer, next to your bruised-yet-cheerful, reassuring smile as you speak to them.
"Brockton Bay, this is the Avatar speaking. Doomsday is cancelled until further notice. Leviathan is dead and the city saved, thanks to the effort of the many who heroically stood in its defense."
Legend raises an eyebrow… then starts laughing. A few seconds later, he forces himself to stop and speaks into his armband. "Legend here. I confirm. Endbringer down."
There was a moment of doubt.
Then the Endbringer sirens stopped blaring.
And then, for thousands across the city, capes and civilians alike, a series of realizations sunk in.
They weren't going to die that day.
Brockton Bay was going to survive.
The Endbringers were not invincible.
The Endbringers could die.
Leviathan, murderer of millions and sunderer of nations, was gone forever.
Humanity had a chance to survive, to win.
In the shelters, in the streets, in the air, triumphant cheers erupted. So soon after the rain had stopped, tears of joy and relief were shed everywhere.
It only takes a few minutes for you to drop Leviathan's remains at an agreed-upon location to the West of Nebraska - far from both oceans, reasonably far from the Great Lakes. You fly back to Brockton Bay just as fast.
A part of you wants to just fly away and find another fire to put out. Force of habit. But you know, rationally, that this is the wrong time and place for it. You know almost nothing of this world. More than anything else, you need to learn about it so that you can make informed decisions (...though you do ask Legend if there is any other major crisis going on in the world at this very moment, just to be on the safe side).
The heroes are assembled in front of the battlefield hospital from earlier. Inside the hospital itself, you see Panacea at work healing people with an efficiency that, frankly, amazes you. The only person you've met who was more capable in that regard is Thermodynamic Miracle, who is a very special case.
Myrrdin, Bastion, Othala and Eidolon all seem back on their feet. Othala is being shown some frank affection from a costumed paramour who… actually, you find that man's costume somewhat disturbing. It reminds you of the Third Reich. Hopefully that isn't what it looks like. You check your armband's positioning grid to confirm the man's identity - his codename is apparently "Victor".
Another person in the room is the flyer with the emotion aura from earlier, which your armband identifies as "Glory Girl". Her emotion aura seems to be intimidating people right now and causing them to give her a wide berth as she stares daggers at Panacea's current patient, Skitter. For that matter, Panacea herself is glaring at the bug-costumed girl like she barbecued her puppy. You wonder what that's all about.
When Glory Girl spots you, however, she smiles wide and rockets toward you, giving you a super-strong hug. Other people are once again affected by her aura - you really ought to have a word with her about caution with superpowers.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" she gushes. "Sorry, I just didn't get to properly thank you earlier for saving my sister." She smiles at Panacea, who is only too happy to return the smile.
"You're welcome," you smile back, "though I'm not sure how much credit I deserve. There were other heroes struggling to get to her. I only got there a little faster."
"OK, for a guy who killed a fucking Endbringer, you are way too modest."
You chuckle. "I would not have fared nearly as well on my own. Legend and Dragon helped me coordinate with the others. Eidolon was the one holding him in place for a long while so the rest of us could blast at him. Armsmaster finished off his ablative armor. Vista enabled him to do just that. Tattletale provided useful information. Skitter made it possible to save the thousands at the shelter. And so on. My role may have been central, but everyone contributed. Everyone risked their lives to save the day."
You notice that both sisters' expressions darken at the mention of Tattletale, but despite that, you think you've raised the spirits in the room (and they were high to begin with, by the standards of battlefield hospitals). You then address Panacea: "What is the state of injuries and casualties?"
"By Endbringer standards? It's a miracle," she says. "Heck, Bakuda caused way more damage than this. Among capes, I've helped who I could. It just leaves Multishot, who was dead on arrival, Tsunami, who's in a coma, and Skitter here, who'll be fine but has a minor concussion. I can't help with brains."
"I can't heal brain damage and information loss," you admit, "and I couldn't hope to match you in sheer scale. Healing tires me quickly. But perhaps I can still assist with these two cases."
You step over to Tsunami's cot. You hadn't actually seen her during the battle. Asian girl, young, with a rather edgy costume. You focus your healing powers on her. Seconds later, her eyes blink, and she coughs. You're a bit winded from the effort if you're honest.
You then turn to Skitter. "If you'll allow me…" you smile reassuringly at her, your power working from across the room, mending physical damage. Her mask fully covers her face, but you can still see it via your cosmic perception. Her emotions appear to be in turmoil.
Some time later, the immense assembly of metahumans stands before Legend, Alexandria, Eidolon, and yourself. Legend is giving his speech. You notice a lot of red eyes - many tears have been shed after Leviathan died.
You also notice other things. With the battle over, people seem to be hanging with what you guess are their regular teams. Glory Girl and Panacea are hanging with a group of white-clad metahumans, several of whom bear some family resemblance to Glory Girl. Othalla and Victor are hanging with a large group of Caucasians, many of whom are bearing symbols of Nazism and American white supremacism. Tattletale is standing with a boy in a black skull mask, a boy in a renfaire costume, and a girl in a dog mask (accompanied by several gigantic creatures that make those outside her team nervous), who seem to be, respectively, "Grue", "Regent" and… actually, the last one has no armband. Tattletale also seems to be staring with concern at Skitter, dozens of feet away; Skitter looks like she wants (but doesn't dare) to get closer to the woman with the khaki uniform and American-flag scarf ("Miss Militia"), who is herself standing with Armsmaster and several others ("Triumph", "Velocity", "Dauntless", "Assault" and "Battery"... wait, seriously?).
"Less than two hours ago, I was giving you all a very different speech. I was explaining how dangerous Leviathan was. I was warning how, even if we played all our cards right, about one in four of us would die here. I was telling you that, while the Endbringer could not be killed or truly defeated, he could be driven back.
"It is amazing how quickly everything can change. Today has changed what the Endbringers mean. Leviathan has attacked, and only one cape died today. Civilian casualties barely entered the double digits, and most of those happened in the panic of evacuation before he even arrived. Property damage to the city is measured in millions of dollars - consider that anything less than a billion in damage, in fact anything less than the city's destruction, is normally considered a good day. And finally, Leviathan himself, after fifteen years of carnage, is finally gone for good. For the first time in years, an Endbringer is truly gone; it gives me hope that both of Leviathan's siblings may follow suite.
"There were several factors to this victory. The early warning from Dragon and Armsmaster allowed us to gather more forces and prepare better than we usually do. The heroic efforts of many of those present, of which some of the bravest were villains, did a lot to to prevent casualties. Better coordination than usual helped a lot. But, of course, the biggest factor was the presence of a newcomer who, in addition to an impressive array of powers, has also displayed the sort of courage, altruism and gallantry that we should all aspire too.
"Avatar, I don't believe any of those present have heard of you before. You appear to be a new cape, and yet you fight like a man experienced with his power. I don't know what to think of you except for this: You have our eternal gratitude, and I am honored and thankful that you fought by our side today."
He's deliberately setting things up so that you can give a speech, but don't have to give one. Smooth. Well, as it happens, this is actually a good opportunity. Your role as the Avatar isn't just to save people - it's to inspire heroes. You step forward, all eyes (and several cameras) on you as you open your mouth.
You have several themes you want to touch on, and you'll bring them all into this speech, but there's one you want to focus on:
[ ] Equality. Frankly, the presence of a large Nazi/white supremacist supergroup has disturbing implications. You're going to make it very clear that people of all ethnicities, genders, creeds, and more need to work past their differences and work together to make the world a better place, especially in the face of threats like the Endbringers.
[ ] Redemption. It's clear that a lot of the people here are villains, yet they came out to fight this monster - just like the villains who came to fight the Man of Might. You're going to appeal to their better nature, to the spark of heroism in their soul that yearns to be better than this.
[ ] Hope. This Leviathan has been running around for fifteen years, and there are apparently two other Endbringers. This is a world that clearly has convincing reasons to despair. You won't let it. You just killed an Endbringer, and you're going to tell them all: It gets better.
PERSPECTIVES: THE BRAVE LITTLE SPIDER
Taylor Hebert's life had had a lot of ups and downs lately. Mostly downs.
Four months earlier, the relentless bullying campaign at school had reached its apex. It had been the second worst day of her life. When she had returned from the hospital, however, she had had a new goal, a new dream: To use her newfound bug control powers to become a superhero.
For three months, that dream had offered a meager escape from her personal hell as she'd made plans, experimented with her powers, made a costume, and somehow managed not to go all Carrie on the school, no matter how cruel the trio and their hanger-ons got. She wasn't going to sink to their level. She wasn't going to sacrifice her future, break her dad's heart, just to get back at them. She didn't believe in eye for an eye.
Then, the time had come to actually go out there and be a superhero. As luck would have it, her first night on patrol had concluded with her fighting one of the most powerful and terrifying villains on the East coast. It was, of all things, the intervention of the teenage villain gang, the Undersiders, that had saved her life.
The very next day, the Undersiders contacted her, offering membership. It had seemed a good idea at the time - go undercover, join the gang, discover the secret of how they always stayed ahead of the Protectorate. She had only told her plan to Armsmaster, leader of the local Protectorate branch, but he had been less than supportive (to put it mildly).
At what point, exactly, had things gone off the rails?
Was it when her stated goal had shifted from "discover how the Undersiders stay ahead of the Protectorate" (that had been achieved on the first day) to "discover the identity of the Undersiders' mysterious patron"?
Was it when she had helped them rob the Brockton Bay Central Bank, holding the customers at metaphorical gunpoint with her black widows, fighting both the Wards and New Wave's Glory Girl and Panacea?
Was it at some point during Brockton Bay's gang war, when she had been one of the many villains joining forces to stop the ABB's rampage?
Was it when the Undersiders had assaulted the fundraiser for the victims of the gang war, and she had handed Armsmaster a painful and humiliating defeat when he had refused to go along with her plan?
Was it when she had discovered their secret patron was the supervillain Coil, and started writing everything in an e-mail to the Protectorate's Miss Militia, only to realize she couldn't bring herself to betray her Undersider friends the way she had been betrayed herself? When she had concluded she could accomplish more good as a villain?
Was it when Coil had broken the unwritten rules by revealing the secret identities of every Empire 88 villain to the media, eliminating his last major rivals for control of the city's underworld?
Or was it less than a day ago, when she'd learned that the purpose of the bank heist had been to distract from Coil's abduction of a little girl, whom he was keeping as his drug-addicted slave so he could exploit her parahuman abilities? When the rest of the Undersiders - the friends she had given up all dreams of being a hero for - had refused to raise a fuss or make it a point of contention? When their position and the benefits of working for Coil had been more important to them than complicity in the destruction of a child's life?
She had been unable to take it. She had walked away in a haze of anger, guilt and disgust. She hadn't been thinking straight.
And then, an Endbringer had attacked her city. Kind of put everything else in perspective.
For just one moment, she had been able to recapture her old sense of wonder at the cape scene, seeing all those heroes and villains gathered in one place. Especially the Triumvirate. Eidolon, the world's most powerful cape (not counting Scion of course). Alexandria, her childhood hero, the reason flight/super-strength power combos were known as the "Alexandria package". Legend, the charismatic leader of the Protectorate, giving a pre-battle speech to the assembly.
Admittedly, the "one in four of us will die if we're lucky" part of the speech had killed that sense of wonder pretty quickly.
But then, as the Endbringer arrived and the cameras showed the incoming tidal wave, someone had stopped it.
For a moment, she had dared hope that Scion, through some incredible stroke of luck, had arrived right at the start of the battle to save them all. Instead of the golden man, though, it was someone she didn't recognize. Not that she had the time to ponder it, really - Leviathan was already inside her city.
Her power wasn't going to do anything against an Endbringer, but she thought she could perform search-and-rescue. As she got working on that, the new hero had started blasting Leviathan from the sky, Legend-style. She hadn't really been in the right position to follow the whole fight, but what little she had seen made Purity's blasts look like firecrackers in comparison. And then, he briefly appeared as a talking hologram to her, calling for Bastion.
A minute later, Dragon was using the armbands to say that the new guy, "Avatar", thought he could briefly trap Leviathan in the air near the coastline; they needed anyone whose power could help hinder his movement, maintain him in the air, contain his hydrokinesis, or just plain hurt him from a distance. None of those categories included her, so she kept working on the search-and-rescue side of things, while also wondering what crazy powers Avatar had that he could go toe-to-toe with Leviathan like that.
She'd realized too late all the water was flowing toward one neighborhood, and then the shelter door had been smashed. Water rushing in, threatening to drown everyone inside. She sent the call for help. She tried to stop the water. She got hit on the head and kept trying, because what else she could do?
Then Avatar had shown up. For a brief moment, she had forgotten to breath - Legend may have looked handsome, but Avatar looked better than anyone she could think of.
More impressively, he saved everyone inside in seconds and sealed the door. She was seriously starting to wonder if he was like Eidolon, armed with whatever powers he needed (so unfair).
"You did good today, young lady. You did good."
Why had those nine simple words floored her the way they did? Was she that pathetically desperate for positive feedback? Was it because, for once, an authority figure felt like they were on her side? Was it the way he said it, without a hint of condescension but still authoritative - like he was the world's foremost authority on the worth of her actions, and he was declaring that she'd done well?
Things kept happening so quickly. Armband chatter indicated Leviathan had left, and she had felt the tension draining from her. Then it indicated Avatar was in pursuit.
"Avatar deceased, East of sector."
And all of a sudden, she could feel the world slipping back into darkness. Why did she care so much? She'd only met him for ten seconds.
She stood there, in the rain, losing track of time. The she noticed the rain stopping, the sun shining, the clouds disappearing unnaturally fast.
Then the hologram of Avatar, still alive, battered but smiling over… what was that thing?
"Brockton Bay, this is the Avatar speaking. Doomsday is cancelled until further notice. Leviathan is dead and the city saved, thanks to the effort of the many who heroically stood in its defense."
"Legend here. I confirm. Endbringer down."
He was alive. He was alive, and an Endbringer was dead.
In a few seconds, the entire world was turned upside-down. Behemoth had appeared before her birth, and Leviathan a year after it. She'd only been seven when the Simurgh had first struck. She'd always grown up in a world where the Endbringers attacked several times a year, taking another bite out of humanity. A world where the absolute best the heroes could bring to bear could only mitigate the damage. A world where hope was a polite fiction.
And now, of the three Endbringers, one was dead and gone. Avatar had killed him… at least, she assumed it was Avatar. But he was still giving credit to people like her, for showing up and doing what they could. And that meant so much more, now that hope was once again real. There might still be a human civilization by the time she grew old.
At the hospital, she'd briefly run into Gallant, who was already back on his feet. He didn't seem to hold a grudge over the bank fight, but the same could not be said of Panacea and Glory Girl. She had to suppress the shudders of terror the later's aura was invoking while the world's greatest healer provided her with what mending she could.
Then Avatar had shown up again. His injuries seemed to be completely gone, along with the damage to his uniform. Whatever his powers were, they were bullshit.
"I would not have fared nearly as well on my own. Legend and Dragon helped me coordinate with the others. Eidolon was the one holding him in place for a long while so the rest of us could blast at him. Armsmaster finished off his ablative armor. Vista enabled him to do just that. Tattletale provided useful information. Skitter made it possible to save the thousands at the shelter. And so on. My role may have been central, but everyone contributed. Everyone risked their lives to save the day."
Why were his words affecting her so much? Did he have some kind of aura like Glory Girl?
And then he woke Tsunami from her coma and healed her concussion, just by looking at them.
Who was Avatar?
At the post-battle gathering, she'd noticed that Bitch had arrived with her enhanced dogs. Hadn't she wanted to keep them out of harm's way? Still, Taylor avoided the Undersiders. Even just seeing them was bringing back the waves of conflicting feelings.
Avatar had been right about this much, at least - she had done good. She'd helped save everyone at the shelter. Somehow, that realization was spreading warmth across her entire being. All the past month, as a hero, undercover, as a villain, she'd always told herself she was doing the right thing, or at least doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. But looking back on all her accomplishments, all her fights, she sometimes wondered if she'd really done anyone any good. This? This was unquestionable good. This was what superheroes were supposed to do. True, her role had been mostly limited to spotting the problem and alerting someone who could solve it, but she had helped.
And meanwhile, Dinah was still trapped in Coil's little hell. No matter how many people Taylor helped, she was still an accomplice to what was done to that little girl.
The warm and fuzzy feeling disappeared. She thought back to Avatar telling her she did good. She tried to imagine him learning about Dinah.
She found herself shuffling closer to Miss Militia. She may have lost respect for Armsmaster over the past month, but she still thought highly of his second-in-command in the East-North-East Protectorate.
It would take so little. Reveal that she had been undercover. Explain Dinah, her power, what Coil did to her, the location of his hidden lair.
Abandoning the Undersiders. Spitting on Tattletale and Grue's friendship. Giving up on Regent and Bitch.
Once again, she felt that sick churning in her stomach.
Maybe she could sell out Coil without sacrificing the Undersiders? Would they even want her on the team, or as a friend, after she ruined a cushy gig for them? Did she want to go back?
"Avatar, I don't believe any of those present have heard of you before. You appear to be a new cape, and yet you fight like a man experienced with his power. I don't know what to think of you except for this: You have our eternal gratitude, and I am honored and thankful that you fought by our side today."
As Legend spoke, Avatar stepped forward. His voice resonated clearly, as if he was right in front of her:
"You are right on both counts. I am an experienced superhero, but I am new here. I come from another world, another Earth - a different universe, existing in parallel to this one." The revelation brought murmurs to the assembly, but they quickly quieted as he went on: "On my Earth, I have been for decades the leader of the Global Champions, an elite international team dedicated to protecting the world from the worst threats around. It was circumstances beyond my control that have stranded me here… and yet, I find myself glad it happened, if it means this city gets to live. I, too, am honored and thankful to have been here today - honored, because I have witnessed heroism at every turn."
His eyes surveyed the audience, and Taylor felt like he was looking right at her. "You had an early warning, and you all came here. You came to stand in the path of a monster straight out of mankind's primal nightmares, knowing full well that it was likely to kill you, knowing full well that it had never been truly defeated before. Faced with such bleak odds, you showed selfless courage. And what is heroism, if not courage married to nobility?
"I have seen too many displays of heroism today to count them as they deserve. I have seen it in those who fought Leviathan head-on. I have seen it in those who provided support and defense for them. I have seen it in those who rescued and healed their comrades. I have seen it in those who protected the civilians. I have seen it in the civilians who maintained their calm and kept others from panicking in the shelters. I have seen it in the powered and the unpowered alike.
"There is, in every sapient soul, a spark of glory. Male or female, black or white, organic or cybernetic, earthling or alien, any mind capable of conscious choice can choose to be great. To help, rather than to hinder. To acknowledge fear, and refuse to be its slave. To admit your flaws with humility, and work past them to the best of your ability. To stand up against injustice in all its forms. To choose the right and good over the convenient and easy. To treat everyone with the respect and generosity we wish were afforded to us. To give aid and kindness, not because you expect reciprocation, but because it is a better way to live, a better person to be.
"That spark of glory is in everyone, in all of you. Sometimes, you lose sight of it. Sometimes, you feel that it is out of reach. Circumstances place you in what feels like a lose-lose scenario, where doing the right thing looks like a losing proposition. At times, it's terrifyingly clouded what the right thing to do even is. Yet even in the murkiest of circumstances, it is always worth it to strive toward the most heroic self you can be. Even at the world's darkest, you are not truly alone; there are millions who would gladly reach out to you, help you ignite the spark within. I, for one, can think of few greater honors than standing by the side of someone trying to be better, even as the weight of the world seems determined to drag them down and extinguish their spark.
"Today, I have seen you all reaching for the spark within, and I salute you for it. I have known your world for mere hours, and already I love it - because, in the face of bleakness and horror, your world answers with that heroic marriage of courage and nobility. And because of that, I feel confidence as I make you a promise.
"I promise you this: It will get better. Yesterday, as I understand it, your world lived under the terror of three Endbringers. Today, two remain and a city lives. Tomorrow, with the spark of heroism within everyone, we will build an even better world! With the glory within everyone, powered and unpowered, rich and poor, saint and sinner, we will fight back the darkness and return hope to the world!"
He smiled at them all and concluded: "I don't know much about your world yet, but I know this much: I know that I want to serve it with the same kind of heroism I saw its natives displaying today."
And with that, the speech ended.
Sensing her environment through her bugs, Taylor hadn't realized at first that her vision was getting blurry. With a start, she realized she was crying under her mask.
It wasn't the words alone. It was how they were said. Avatar's voice, his tone, his entire body language. It all spoke of absolute confidence and complete earnestness. Despite how badly she'd been burned by nearly every authority figure in her life, she found, to her surprise, that she didn't doubt for a second he meant every word he said. Nor did she think he was naive - hearing him, she got the distinct impression it was the wisdom of experience talking, not the naivete of a newcomer. And when he talked, she actually felt like a hero.
And that, she suddenly realized, was why his words back at the shelter and the hospital had shaken her so much. It wasn't some kind of Master power. It wasn't mind-control. It was because he was appealing to what she had thought was a dead dream.
She had loved heroes growing up. She'd been a cape geek. When she'd gotten her powers, only the dream of being a hero had kept her at times from taking revenge on her unrelenting bullies.
After weeks of making friends with villains, fighting against worse villains by their side, and getting disappointed by several of the heroes, she had tearfully abandoned that dream. She had concluded that villains, at least those who weren't psychopaths and respected the unwritten rules, were really no worse than the so-called heroes. She had believed, or at least wanted to believe, that helping Coil take over Brockton Bay might actually be good for the city. She had given up on her pretense of being undercover, and admitted that she was a villain because the Undersiders were her friends.
Then, Coil had revealed just what sort of monster he really was. Her friends were unwilling to oppose him. She hadn't known what to think, and she no longer even had her old dream of heroism to fall back on.
The reason Avatar's words touched her was because he considered her a hero, and made her feel like one. She thought back to the terror of the hostages at the bank. She thought back to the terror of the people at the shelter. And she knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, that she preferred opposing the terror to causing it.
"Fuck yeah, I'll go for that."
Taylor blinked. She couldn't see very clearly through her teary eyes, but her bugs barely managed to identify the speaker. The girl from the hospital - Tsunami. The Asian cape spoke:
"You know how I got my powers? I triggered when my entire family died at Kyushu. Orphan girl among three million refugees, with a power that reminded everyone of the fucker that just killed everyone else? Shit, I became a badass villain to survive.
"I woke up an hour ago. You didn't just save my life, you killed that goddamn motherfucker and avenged my family. Fuck, you avenged everyone I knew as a kid. You're saying I should be a hero? Fuck, man, you tell me to wear a tutu and speak only in rap songs for the rest of my life and I'll fucking do it."
Taylor looked at the villainess with the edgy costume. She looked at the Undersiders. She looked at Miss Militia. She looked at Avatar.
"Even at the world's darkest, you are not truly alone; there are millions who would gladly reach out to you, help you ignite the spark within."
Why did she try to take it all on herself? Why did she try to do this alone?
She took a deep breath. With utterly feigned confidence, she stepped toward the second highest-ranking hero in the ENE Protectorate.
"Miss Militia." She hoped her voice wasn't as broken as it sounded to her. She noticed, but ignored for now, the concerned look on Legend's face as Dragon spoke to him.
"Skitter." The heroine didn't exactly welcome her with open arms and a smile, but she displayed no hostility either. "Is there a problem?"
"No… well, sort of I guess. Actually… I wanted to ask you for advice. I've been having a moral dilemma, and I wanted some perspective…"
Following the Miracle of Brockton Bay, the Avatar… (Pick 3)
[ ] Took the time to get to know the heroes of Brockton Bay, and then the Protectorate as a whole.
[ ] Gathered information about the worst problems facing Earth Bet, including the S-class villains.
[ ] Performed one more miracle for the city by clearing the boat graveyard, allowing the port to reopen.
[ ] Took the time to study the exact nature of superpowers on Earth-Bet.
[ ] Wasted no time and handled another major threat.
[ ] Helped fund useful charities by producing and selling massive amounts of omni-metal and carbosteel.
[ ] Flew a hypersonic patrol around the world, letting everyone know he was there if needed.
[ ] Raised a memorial from beneath the waves at Kyushu and Newfoundland.
Note that these are the things the Avatar does in the short term. Things you don't do now may still come up later.
OK, not quite progress on the quest exactly, but something I wanted done at some point (and this looked like the best one):
OMAKE: ALTERNATE PATHS
THE WORKING GIRL
Taylor hunkered down on the roof, nervously clutching her pepper spray as Lung, wreathed in flames and growing larger by the second, climbed closer and closer.
Then she became aware of another person on the roof. Where, when had she…?
The newcomer was a woman of average build, dressed in what looked like a sobre spandex uniform (which didn't cover her clearly Asian face). She blinked a couple of times, surveyed her location, then positioned herself between Taylor and the approaching Lung.
"Pardon me for interrupting what looks like a superpowered brawl, but I don't suppose you could tell me who you are?"
Lung's response was to send a flaming blast at her. Or try to, at least - she must have been ready for it, seeing how quickly she dodged.
"So, bad guy. Check!"
With a smile, like she was playing a game, she stepped over the roof's edge, foot aimed down at Lung.
Then she grew.
Taylor had seen pictures of Menja and Frenja, the Empire 88 twins who could grow to gigantic sizes. This woman made them look tiny, and Lung was crushed on the ground under her foot.
Paying the city's most powerful villain little attention, the giant woman turned to face Taylor with an easy smile. "So! Introductions. My name's Titan, and I fight crime. You?"
THE SOLDIER
Kaiser was a man who prided himself on his calculating self-control. He had worked hard to build his image as a self-assured, charismatic leader. He had to - he was leading Empire 88, an organization that gathered under a single banner white supremacists, Aryan Brotherhood gangbangers, Klansmen and Neo-Nazis from all over the East coast. These radical fringe groups tended to hate each other over minor ideological differences almost as much as they hated the impure, the race traitors and the deviants. So, no matter the situation, he always maintained his cool around his subordinates.
Until now. "For fuck's sake kill him! He is ONE MAN!"
The man in the red-white-blue uniform casually stepped out of the way of yet another of Kaiser's blades, then proceeded to vault over it to dodge Menja's giant spear as it struck the ground. He then followed that by running up on the spear, reaching the giant woman's head and using that ridiculous saber to slash above her eyes. Blood trickled down, blinding her. She cried out and tried to swat at him with her right hand; he had apparently been preparing for just that, and had positioned his legs so that he could jump from her hand straight toward her sister's head. Frenja tried to move back and lift her shield, but the saber cut through it like butter, most of it falling to the ground. The combined sudden move backward and loss of the shield's stabilizing mass caused her to lose her balance, falling over while the fencer jumped away. She briefly screamed in pain as her back hit the power lines, and fell silent as she hit the ground. Alabaster, who had just gotten out of cover now that the fencer was no longer throwing bits of Kaiser's blades at him, ended up pinned under the giant valkyrie.
Kaiser looked around, his eyes searching for the fencer. Instead, they found Victor, still unconscious from that kick to the head; Othala, pinned to the wall by the blades in her sleeves; Hookwolf, lying down in a haze surrounded by a pile of sliced metal bits; Cricket, crumpled against the lamppost she'd rammed into; Krieg, stuffed head-first into a trashcan; Fog, unconscious and covered in burns; Night, struggling with every breath due to that diaphragm puncture; Purity, twitching under the remains of the collapsed wall; Rune, sobbing in a corner; Stormtiger, face-down on the floor, all limbs too injured to get up; Crusader, in a heap next to the car that hit him.
Then, at last, he found the fencer, balancing on a phone pole with trivial ease. The next instant, he was jumping at the blinded Menja.
And then there was no-one left to stand between him and the fencer.
He screamed. He shouted. He cursed as he bombarded the man with blades that were dodged and parried with utterly insulting ease.
Then the fencer was upon him.
The saber moved, too fast to see clearly. A blur of metal.
Kaiser's armor fell to piece.
The saber moved again. This time, the top half of Kaiser's helmet fell.
"You… you can't! You can't unmask me! There are rules!"
"Merely unofficial guidelines," the fencer said with his distinct French accent. "And where I come from, we do not believe in giving violent criminals preferential treatment because of superpowers. Equality before the law, regardless of ethnicity, gender, money or power… a beautiful ideal, wouldn't you say?" His mirthless smile didn't change one bit as his blade deflected, without him even looking, a blade that Kaiser made appear from the nearby wall. "Now, little kaiser of a little gang in a little city, it so happens that I have an entire list of monsters more threatening than yourself to take care of, ranging from Slaughterhouse Nine to some of your Europeans partners-in-crime. So, here's how things are going to go. In a few minutes, PRT vans will show up to collect you and your entire collection of parahuman malcontents. During those minutes, the people over there with less-than-satisfactory survival instincts will snap a lot of pictures on their phones, as they have been doing for a while now."
He couldn't tell when it had moved, but the tip of the saber was now millimeters from his eye. "Whether or not any of those pictures show the lower half of your face depends on how much you can tell me about Gesellschaft."
THE VISIONARY
Shatterbird had tried to protect herself by sending a wave of glass shards at him. The Maghreban man in skintight blue costume had dived through the wave, come at the other end a bloody mess, rolled back on his feet, and stabbed her in the head with those finger-claws. His injuries, which would have caused a normal man to bleed out in seconds, healed completely in mere instants.
"Not bad, not bad at all." Jack Slash smirked, holding the Siberian's right hand; the left one was holding Bonesaw. "I don't believe anyone's ever taken down so many of our members in such rapid succession. For a hero, you are pretty ruthless." His smirk didn't waver as he glanced at the remains of Burnscar; her foe had guessed exactly where she would teleport and had lunged there like a clawed missile. Hatchet Face, who for some reason had been unable to cancel his power. Even the nigh-invulnerable Crawler had had his brain slashed to ribbons
"Hardly," the man replied. "I use the least amount of ruthlessness required to resolve the problem. The existence of superpowers presents a problem in itself. What sort of society can we build with it? What role to powers have? How can justice and fairness be maintained? I have given a lot of thought to these problems, and I like to think I have some solutions. But you and your Slaughterhouse Nine… You would have torn down any solution I tried to implement, burned everything to the ground and danced on the ashes. That's why you had to go. Well, that and the crimes against humanity."
"I'll give you this much - pretending to get neutralized by Bonesaw's biological agents was a clever move. However… A bit quick to use the past tense, aren't we?" Jack remained amused and unafraid. "The Nine have always had a rapid turnover rate. We'll bounce back as always. Siberian can keep use completely invulnerable in the interim. What makes you think you have any card left to play here?"
"Simple." The man suddenly stabbed the wall behind him. Then he stabbed and slashed, again and again, with a quickness that reminded Jack of Leviathan videos. That section of the wall collapsed, revealing Mannequin behind it - or rather, what was left of him.
The man looked at them. "Eventually, you'll get tired. I will not."
THE DETECTIVE
Leviathan lunged forward, the massive Endbringer striking at supersonic speeds against the man in the black trenchcoat and fedora.
His fist smashed the pavement. The man was now twenty feet to the right, looking at him with a predatory grin. "Too slow."
Leviathan's tail slashed. The trenchcoated man was now behind him. "Too slow."
Strike followed strike. Ten seconds, hundreds of attacks as the man remained just within reach, always getting out of the way at the last moment. "Too slow, too slow, too sl-"
The water he had gather in the sewers surged upward, violently shattering the ground. The entire street was destroyed.
The man was now thirty yards behind him. "That all you got? I've already given you more time I needed in Ellisburg." He adjusted his hat with his left hand, the right one glowing with energy.
"My turn."
THE PROFESSOR
All across Ellisburg, the minions of the goblin king swarmed, with their myriad forms and powers.
And, block by block, battalion by battalion, the minions of Nilbog were disappearing from sight.
A small number managed to get close to the flying woman in the green and purple sari. All their attacks proved equally unable to get past her force-field.
"You see," she spoke in an even tone, "one of the reasons they consider you terrifying, on a level not so far from the Simurgh, is that you can create an army of super-powered minions with a thought. Numbers and strength make for a terrifying combination. Back home, even Nollius actually needed a complex ritual with years of preparatory work to summon his shadow fiends. Even Doctor Combat needs to actually perform a medical operation on his recruits' brains to boost their fighting prowess. You can raise a whole platoon in an instant." She gestured, and the monsters in another block were no longer there.
"However, I have been observing Elisburg and taking notes for a good while. You do have a limiting factor: You cannot create new biomass. Every creature you make, you build from the recycled remains of another one. So little actually gets past the walls surrounding the city.
"You understand, naturally, what the logical conclusion was: To defeat you, I needed to not only defeat your armies, but remove their biomass from play. That is why, for the past week, I have been working with Dragon to create a prison pocket dimension, to which I have teleported more or less your entire force. A separate such prison awaits you - it is humane, but only has the biomass you need to survive.
"Come out, Nilbog. It is time for this fairy tale to end."
THE ENGINEER
Legend flew next to Eidolon and Pretender, desperately trying to fend off the Simurgh as she bobbed and weaved around the plane.
Though he wouldn't allow himself such an admission, he knew the fight was already lost. Simurgh battles were always lost from the start, but this one was even more one-sided than usual. Very few capes could even join this aerial faceoff. With every shot, they had to be careful not to hit the plane. And soon, it would be too late; everyone on the plane would have been exposed to the Simurgh's scream for too long, and have to be terminated to keep them from serving as her time bombs.
Part of him wanted to be grateful that, for once, the third Endbringer was attacking a charter flight, instead of an entire city that would later need to be placed under indefinite quarantine. Another part of him knew better - if the Simurgh was doing this, it was only because somehow, the consequences would be even worse. There was no winning against the Simurgh - at times, he wasn't even sure there was any mitigating the defeat. Things always fell into place as she intended.
And then some guy in armor appeared and clotheslined the Simurgh.
Legend blinked.
It was a man in a white-gray armor that seemed a mix of knightly themes and futuristic designs. Oddly, the armor didn't cover his head at all. He grabbed the Simurgh by the throat.
"So, are you bluffing, or did you honestly not see that coming?" he asked. "If it's the latter, that would be because my tachyonic echo generator should be showing you the future that would have happened if I'd never come to this world. If it's any consolation, it was very challenging to build."
The Simurgh's expression became one of hateful fury, her scream intensified while her arms and wings futilely grappled against the man. Even hits to his unarmored head didn't seem to phase him.
"Sorry," he said with an apologetic smile, "I'm kind of the worst possible opponent for you. My armor works on principles similar to Bose-Einstein condensates, causing every single particle in it and my body to react like a single particle in certain regards. So, when you hit me, or try to apply your telekinesis, it's not actually hurting or changing me - any push you exert is evenly spread across all of me. You can push me back, but not actually cause me any damage."
His free hand then aimed at the Simurgh, surrounded by a green glow. "Now, obviously it'd be stupid to try to lock you in the Birdcage, but I've also cobbled a disintegrator ray. I'm going to see if it works on you. If it doesn't… Well, it'll take most of the day to accelerate that much, but I'm going to see what happens if I ram you into Pluto at relativistic speed."
THE ADVENTURER
Illusionary decoys for Black Kaze to chase, and invisible force-fields for her to accidentally ram into.
Mental blasts for Lung, bypassing the resilience of the only man to ever escape the Yangban.
A liquid, acidic form to defeat Marquis' bone weapons and armor.
A freezing ray to dispatch Acid Bath.
Mental super-speed to think up a clever answer to Sphinx's riddle.
And then, at last, he was before the most powerful prisoner in the Birdcage - Glaistig Uaine.
"You have journeyed through every neighborhood of this domain, fought those among its residents who would stand in your way, and gathered seven of its inhabitants to follow you," said one of the most terrifying villains Earth-Bet had known. "What is it that you seek, enigma with a thousand powers?"
He bowed with an elaborate flourish. "Justice and adventure, fairy queen. It has taken an entire quest of its own, but I have managed to obtain official recognition of innocence, or at least mistrial, for each of those seven. I came to the Birdcage so I could get them out." His eyes twinkled. "But I'm also here for another objective. I am here, fairy queen, to defy you to a duel. Shall you accept, the vanquished shall owe the victor a boon."
Her expression didn't change. "And what boon, enigma, would you ask of the fairy queen?"
"A mere trifle, your majesty. Merely your assistance against the Endbringers."
"A prize worthy of your descent into Hell. Do you truly expect to win, enigma with a thousand powers?"
He grinned. "Always."
THE GHOST
Shén Yù, still twitching in pain from the electric shock, struggled to look up. "W-who…?"
"Do not exert yourself, strategist." The otherworldly voice seemed to resonate across the whole room. He became aware of keystrokes at the computer, despite no-one being there.
"Telekinesis," he muttered.
"Technically, yes. But I'm also here. Invisible, undetectable to any of the tools at your disposal, and quite entirely unhindered by walls I might add. Very handy for infiltration."
"Doesn't… matter. You'll be found soon enough. Any damage you cause in the meanwhile will be dearly repaid."
"Your threats are noted and ignored. I will not be found, because there will be no-one to find me. Over the next few hours, every parahuman except for yourself will be heading to various Canadian cities on a 'secret mission', with strict orders not to use their powers until ordered to. There, they will be picked up by PRT agents."
"Impossible. You can't expect them to fall for such a ruse."
"You misunderstand. I have been inside this compound, observing the Yangban for weeks. I know how everyone here thinks. I know how you file your paperwork, how to imitate your voice, how to type your passwords. I've dotted all my Is and crossed all my Ts. What little that leaves will be handled by your retinal scans. ...I'm not going to remove your eyes from your head, if that's what you're wondering."
"You can't expect to fool everyone. Some of them will suspect…"
"Who? The parahumans you've been brainwashing to obey blindly without questioning? The ones most likely to question my orders, Shén Yù, are those most inclined to leave this place."
"Even so, you can't get away with this! The political ramifications alone…"
"That? I'm visiting his Imperial Majesty once I'm done here, and explaining the realities of political life to him, seeing as you will not be available to do so yourself. The CUI getting its entire national parahuman team kidnapped? That's a humiliation that would destroy it politically, not to mention give ideas to some people who are less than fond of you or the regime. So, the emperor will simply pretend it didn't happen, and the Protectorate will help him maintain that pretense. They'll frame it as an exchange program - North-American heroes helping China, Chinese heroes helping North America."
He gritted his teeth in rage. "What gives you the right?! How dare you defile our national sovereignty like that?"
"National sovereignty? You overthrew your national government to install this puppet emperor. You're brainwashing your parahumans into a State-run cult, and kidnapping foreign ones to add to it. Don't act so outraged."
Shén Yù considered. Anger served no purpose, and surely the Stranger's plan couldn't actually work… right? "Do as you will, but there will be consequences. You will pay dearly, even if you temporarily inflate the Protectorate's ranks."
"Oh, these people won't actually be joining the Protectorate."
"...What?"
"Oh, there'll be some operations for visibility, but, mostly they're going to be spending the coming weeks in psychological deprogramming. No pressure will be put on them to join, much as I hope some will be willing to contribute to Endbringer fights. Once again, you misunderstand… this isn't the PRT's plan. It's mine. The PRT will just be helping me in setting some cult victims free.
"Otherwise… Chief director Costa-Brown may soon be looking for a new job. You're not the only people I spy on."
THE SENTINEL
It launched itself from the other side of New Delhi.
And landed smack on Behemoth's face, causing it to stagger.
The 12-feet-tall red and blue robot punched the Endbringer, and fell back to the ground, never losing its balance.
This close, it was smack dab inside Behemoth's kill-aura. Despite that, despite being utterly engulfed in deadly energies, it did not slow down. Small amounts of damage disappeared shortly after becoming visible.
Then, all at once, the torrent of energy ceased. Everything in a range of dozens of yards became deathly cold.
Behemoth struck at the robot directly. It dodged each attack with the speed and nimbleness of a circus acrobat - a spectacle that looked strangely ridiculous, given its own size and girth. It blasted the Endbringer with a continuous freezing beam, keeping up with its infamous dynakinesis, draining up its attempts at building up energy. For the first time ever, Behemoth's skin was covered in frost.
And then, all of a sudden, it flooded the Endbringer with white-hot fire.
There was a series of cracking sounds. As the flames dispersed, layers and layers fell from the Endbringer, like it had been a gigantic onion.
"Thermic shock," the robot commented as it resumed dodging blows and freezing Behemoth. "The Avatar would do this better, but I can harm you."
OK, this needs some proofreading, but screw it, it's late and I want it posted already.
THE MIRACLE OF BROCKTON BAY
All in all, you think your speech went very well. Meaning every word you said certainly helped.
You notice some look of concern on Legend's face as Dragon whispers something to him; he quickly relays the information to Alexandria and Eidolon. It would be trivial to expand your senses to hear their words, but why spy on your supposed allies? You can simply ask.
For now, you notice Skitter, the young heroine, having what looks like an awkward conversation with Miss Militia… huh. Miss Militia's weapon seems to be shifting forms, going from a rifle to a handgun to a knife. Odd. Tsunami, the admitted hydrokinetic villainess, is stealing glances at you. You notice the boy you saved by rewriting his fate ("Gallant", according to your armband), standing next to a whole group of obviously-underaged teammates, including the boy and girl you saw with him ("Shadowstalker" and… "Clockblocker"? You assume he came up with the name himself. At least, you hope he did), the boy who flew them to the hospital ("Aegis"), Vista, and the armored boy with the hoverboard ("Kid Win", a name that at least has the advantage of optimism).
...You really do need to discuss the matter of children being brought into danger. On your world, the only underage superhero team in recent memory was the Young Champions, and they only got away with operating as long as they did because their activities took place on the Digital Plane, whose existence wasn't even known to you at the time.
Actually, how did they even get powers? Mutations manifest during puberty, but it takes years for the powers to reach their full power. Kid Win and Gallant appear technology-based, but does that mean the rest are using magic? ...No, that can't be it. You realize, with a start, that even with a crowd of this many metahumans, you haven't sensed any magic since you got here, not even from Myrddin. Maybe magic in this dimension remains banished to Limbo, as it was for over a millennium on your Earth?
Well. The impromptu semi-official events seem to have concluded, so mostly what's left is people talking before they leave. Before you can decide who to talk to, Legend approaches you again:
"Avatar. I have to say, you keep taking us by surprise today. Visitors from parallel worlds are not exactly a common thing."
"They aren't on my world either," you admit. "There's only one, really. Some of our finest scientific minds have been trying to reverse-engineer his technology for years now. Results so far are mixed." Venture Industries have managed to create dimensional portals, but they're not quite good enough to be used reliably. Even Doctor Dexter Darien himself admits much of the design remains a black box.
Legend chuckles at that. "I know what you mean. Attempts at replicating tinkertech rarely meet encouraging results."
You raise an eyebrow. "Tinkertech?"
"Ah, my apologies. A local term. We call 'Tinkers' parahumans with the power to create advanced technology."
At that, you blink rapidly. "I have known many tech-based heroes and villains, but never of anyone with the power to create technology." Well, one might make a case for Doublethink… but even the Zenith Watch's leader creates his devices with natural genius. His mutant-based mental superspeed merely affords him more time to work out the blueprints.
This gives Legend pause. "Then where does their technology come from?"
You give him a bemused smile. "In most cases, hard work and human genius. In some rare cases, reclaimed or reverse-engineered alien technology."
"You've mentioned aliens in your speech," Legend notes. "You're saying you weren't just being rhetorical?"
"My world has had a few encounters with extraterrestrial life. Sadly, none of them were very informative about what lies beyond our solar system." Tagton just started his mercenary career and wouldn't answer questions. Garzor just tried to conquer the world and fled when he was beaten. Phantom has no memories before approaching Earth. You're not convinced the robotic creature that landed in the Cryosphere was even sapient. As for Sekhmet and Upstart… assuming they even are what you believe they are… She seems to have traumatic amnesia, and he seems to want to forget. Also, as a member of Global Might, he's less than cooperative.
"That's fascinating," Legend says earnestly. "But, forgive me. I, and no doubt countless others, have a lot of questions. I'm not sure how much of your time we may take, but to the very least, we were hoping to have a talk about your plans for the future. You'll understand, no doubt, if we want to keep in touch with someone who can kill an Endbringer," he smiles coyly.
"It is no problem," you give a calm smile with a dismissive gesture, "especially seeing as I have a great deal of questions myself. Considering that I will apparently be staying on this world for an indefinite amount of time, I need to know more about it if my presence is to do any good."
He grins at that. "I think you're well-covered in that regard."
After some quick discussion, you are directed toward the local PRT base - "Parahuman Response Team", apparently an organization in the US and Canada tasked with regulating "parahumans". The actual metahuman team is known as the "Protectorate", and apparently includes within its ranks a solid majority of both countries' superheroes. There is also an underage branch, called the Wards. You file that information for later, as you still need to discuss the matter of children on the frontlines, superpowered or not.
The fact that the USA and Canada exist here (along with the English language) prompts you to start comparing Histories. When you ask about major events of their 1920s, they mostly bring up the rise of communism and fascism, the independence of Ireland and Egypt, the Prohibition, and the gigantic financial bubble that concluded in the 1929 crash; when you tell them that this was the time period when superpowers first appeared on your world, they seem stunned. They still had a second World War, albeit one without mutant super-soldiers on either army… and, for that matter, without Nazi mystics shattering the banishment of magic to Limbo in the final months of the war, giving the Third Reich sorcerous resources as a desperate last-ditch gambit.
Garzor never invaded. No aliens have ever come to their world, as far as they know. Without the fear of metahumans to capitalize on, it doesn't look like Shadow ever formed. They had no superpowers at all until 1982, when Scion appeared.
The description of Scion gives you pause. Arrived before all other superpowered individuals (you arrived when the first generation of mutants were reaching their legal majority), more powerful than anyone else (you were that at the time, and with rare exceptions like Nollius and Professor Cryo, still are), never stops to eat or sleep (check), helps people 24/7 (check, check, check)... You find yourself wondering if he is somehow a local equivalent to yourself, a god who took an avatar form, only for something to go wrong and limit his ability to comprehend humans or communicate with them.
Parahumans followed all over the world in Scion's wake, but it's apparently not the same as mutants - the powers manifest all at once without any specific target age. Regrettably, even in relatively stable society like the Protectorate's jurisdiction, it appears that for every parahuman who becomes a hero, three become villains.
You almost reel from that last revelation. It sounds absurd. Even at its most lopsided, your world never got like that. Heroes were never outnumbered that badly, even after the Man of Might massacred them. You briefly wonder if the higher heroism rate is the result of your own influence… but, no, that can only be a small part of it. Humans, simply put, are better than that. You've observed them for enough millennia to know. Something has to be fixing the odds - either pushing parahumans toward villainy, or giving parahuman abilities primarily to those likely to fall to the dark side. Another thing to look into.
The parahuman situation was bad enough, but the Endbringers only made it worse when they showed up. You already know of Leviathan, who first appeared in 1996, but there were two others:
Behemoth, the first Endbringer, also known as the Herokiller, first appeared in 1992. 45-feet tall, even tougher than Leviathan, and an enormously powerful dynakinesist - he can manipulate every form of energy. An attempt to nuke him only resulted in him absorbing the energy and turning it against the city he was attacking. He is also able to make any kind of energy appear inside the body of his victims. He has turned many cities into radioactive craters, and killed an enormous number of heroes (and villains, though you must attribute some heroic qualifiers to anyone who willingly faces such a horror), hiding deep within the Earth between attacks.
The Simurgh, meanwhile, first appeared at the end of 2002. At fifteen feet tall, she is the smallest Endbringer, yet also the most terrifying. Not because of her flight and incredibly advanced telekinesis. Not because of the subtle mind-control powers that let her gradually affect human brains if they stay within her range for too many minutes. Not because of her ability to emulate the powers of Tinkers and Thinkers (another power category, apparently) within her range. But, rather, because she is an immensely powerful precognitive, who uses her every attack to set up deadly dominoes that cause tragic consequences months down the line.
You have trouble wrapping your head around that. Precognition? How is that even possible? How can the information travel backward in time? Furthermore… Furthermore, from the description, this Simurgh's prediction has made her effectively invincible to these people. It's so bad, that they quarantine cities she's visited indefinitely, just to limit the effect her time bombs can have. You actually find it heartening that, with such a powerful cause to abandon all hope, the people of this world have kept going.
Digging for further details, you learn that the top figures for the Protectorate are the "Triumvirate" - Eidolon, Alexandria, and Legend, the latter acting as the organization's official leader (while the PRT is led by the unpowered chief-director Costa-Brown - as an organization devoted to policing parahumans, its charter forbids parahumans from direct membership, shunting them to the Protectorate instead). They, and a now-deceased Tinker called Hero, originally founded the Protectorate. The Protectorate itself is divided into various local teams. Legend, in addition to his role as general leader, also commands the New York branch; Eidolon does the same for Seattle, and Alexandria for Los Angeles. Brockton Bay, which you learn houses a disproportionate number of parahumans for a city its size, house the East-North-East branch, led by Armsmaster.
There are, of course, many other things for you to learn about this world. Apparently, their China's government was overthrown by its own parahuman army called the Yangban, who installed in power descendants of the old imperial family. The current regime, called the Chinese Imperial Union, has been… difficult to deal with, to put things diplomatically. Meanwhile, a depressingly large portion of Africa is a war-torn mess where parahuman warlords vie for power, and South America is ruled in all but name by parahuman-backed criminal cartels. And then there's India, Europe, the Middle-East… the aborted space program, another casualty of the Simurgh… the crumbling world economy…
In truth, you only get the general gist of their History - as much as you can get in a few hours. Naturally, they are just as curious about your own, though they seem dubious when you tell them about the magical elven city of Avalon coming out of Limbo and flying menacingly above the Atlantic (even after you tell them what little you understand of Causality's scientific explanation of magic), and just as dubious when you speak of alien invasions. Tellingly enough, they have a lot less trouble believing you when you tell them about how Professor Cryo put together an army of supervillains, took over the greater Pittsburgh area, turned it into an arctic micro-climate, and renamed the whole thing the Cryosphere, ruling over it with an iron fist and turning the place into an international supervillain haven.
They're annoyed when you refuse to go into details about your own origin, but they don't push the issue. You're apologetic about it, but knowledge of the gods could have apocalyptic consequences back home, and you don't know enough about this world to tell if it's safer here.
They actually sound impressed when you describe some of the technological progress of your world, such as the mass-produced power armor that elite police around the world uses to face supervillains, the omni-metal that most modern skyscrapers use in lieu of steel, nuclear fusion, an island being artificially raised near the coast to make room for Megalopolis, and the burgeoning field of medical nanotech. You detect some unsurprising envy when you describe the Tower of Babel space elevator, and Venture City, the space station with a population above 400,000 people.
They don't seem to know what to make of Madman and his seeming technological omnipotence, or the issue of inter-dimensional travel. You ultimately decide not to mention Checkmate and the Quantum Matrix - it probably couldn't be replicated anyway, but why take risks?
You recognize Assault, a member of the local protectorate, as you walk through the base's hallways.
"If it isn't the Silver Scion," he says with a chuckle. "Taking a break from the PRT interrogators?"
"Actually, they're the ones who needed a break," you state truthfully. "I didn't want to waste time, so I figured I would get to know some of the local team in the meanwhile."
"Well, Armsmaster's still busy with paperwork. Mind you, I'm sure you'll find him in a good mood - today's pretty much just saved his career." Seeing your expression, he goes into further detail: "The chief is a… driven guy. No family, no social life, just the hero thing whenever he's awake. Probably improves blueprints in his sleep, too. But this past month has not been a good one. First the Wards got humiliated failing to stop the Undersiders at a bank robbery. Then the ABB gang went on rampage, and we stopped them in the end, but not before a fuckton of civilian casualties and property damage. Then, when we held a fundraiser for the victims, it got crashed by the Undersiders, and Skitter pretty much handed him his ass in public. It was pretty much a career-ender for him… then he got us the early Endbringer warning and melted off Leviathan's ablative armor. Even if you overshadowed him, he's getting a commendation and job security after this."
"...Skitter is a villain?"
He gives you a bemused smile. "You're probably the first person to find that surprising."
"On the battlefield, she risked life and limb to protect civilians, despite her own injuries. Hardly the behavior of a self-serving blackguard."
Assault shrugs. "Eh. In my experience, most villains think they have good reasons for what they do. Usually, it's mostly excuses in the end, but they're still human beings, not cartoon baddies… with some exceptions."
"That much I am aware of. Still, I definitely ought to have words with her in the near future."
"Feel free, just watch out for Tattletale. That girl seems to know everything about everyone, and she has a way of getting into your head. Last time we went against the Undersiders, Armsmaster actually had us using earplugs."
"Duly noted, though I got the impression Skitter and the Undersiders were not on the best footing at the moment."
"Maybe. Anyway, you should probably get out a bit. I figure the 'holy shit we're not dead' party will die down in… I dunno, 24 hours? There's rumors May 15 is getting declared a national holiday." He grins. "So, any other S-class threat you intend to take out today?"
"I'm afraid I haven't gotten to that bit of terminology yet. What's this threat classification?"
"Ah… well, let me put it this way: An A-class threat is something that can seriously wreck the city and take on a whole Protectorate team. An S-class threat can wreck the country or more, and you need dozens of heroes to contain it. Thank God we've only got five of those left."
"I assume two are Behemoth and the Simurgh. Who are the other three?"
"Well… There's Nilbog, some nutcase who took control of Elisburg with an army of monsters. Sleeper, some Russian reality-warper. And, well, the Slaughterhouse Nine, who aren't S-class individually, but got the designation as a team. Nomadic bunch of overpowered murderhobos."
"I… see." You will definitely need to look more deeply into those S-class threats.
Eventually, you resume the discussion with the PRT interrogators. You make sure to ask them about A-class and S-class threats.
You end up hearing a lot of disturbing things. Sleeper effectively absorbed Volgograd. Nilbog killed everyone at Elisburg, and the city remains quarantined because he is considered a potential extinction event. As for the Slaughterhouse Nine, they are horror and cruelty in one of its purest forms. Now, your world also has its share of monstrous killers, such as Global Might's Reaper, Toxin and Angelbane… but even in Global Might, the tone was always mostly set by people like Mordor and Jack of all Trades, whose goals are money and power. The Nine sound like a version of Global Might where Reaper is in charge.
For that matter, you don't like much what you learn about how they handle supervillains around here. Apparently, with superheroes outnumbered by villains so badly, and with villains being needed in Endbringer battles, the Protectorate isn't really trying to stop super-crime - just mitigate it. Captured supervillains are deliberately placed in easily-escapable prisons the first two or three times they are caught, and their identities are kept secret, even by the police. If a villain's identity is discovered, no attempt is made to arrest them when they leave their home - apparently, there's a whole set of unwritten rules to preserve this dynamic and prevent an escalation that the good guys couldn't win.
There is, in Brockton Bay, a team of superheroes that tried to take a step beyond this sick dynamic, by abandoning their secret identities - the New Wave team, of which Glory Girl and Panacea are second-generation members. Their goal was to responsibilize parahumans by having them subject to the same rules as unpowered citizens, without secret identities to hide behind. The movement fizzled when one of their members was killed in her home by a thug in the service of a local gang.
Frankly, you're baffled. Back on your world, American metahumans (as in many other countries) are required to register with the government, and they can request that their identity be kept secret. Half of them do, to stay away from the media, but those without secret identities need not worry - attacks on a superhero's family and civilian home are exceedingly rare, simply because they are automatically answered with pursuit by hundreds, thousands of vengeful heroes. Why is everything so much worse here?
And then, there's what happens when a villain goes far enough for them to get serious (or after their third strike). They get thrown into the Birdcage, an inescapable supertech prison (good) from which prisoners cannot be retrieved, ever (bad). No appeal, no time-limited sentence, no way out if innocence or mistrial are later established. And in more extreme cases, such as the Slaughterhouse Nine, they have "kill orders" - legal bounties placed on the heads of the vilest villains, to which anyone can contribute money, and which anyone can claim by killing the target. You are getting the distinct impression that justice and human rights have been taking more and more of a backseat since superpowers first appeared on this world.
Well. You shouldn't criticize. These people have been dealing with a plain terrible situation practically from the start. That they've done as well as they have is, really, impressive.
But you've promised them it would get better, and you intend to make good on that promise. Slaying Leviathan is one step. Teaching them how to do better is another.
It's the middle of the night when your interviewers decide to call it a day. There's also talks of power testing tomorrow, and further talks with Legend, but for now, you're on your own. At your request, you are given a computer to look up further information with.
Not that you're at the computer right now. You simply channel your secondary power pool into an ability to communicate with the machine from a distance - a trick you found necessary to learn after the Internet became a thing.
You're looking up information about this world, about heroes, about villains, about various problems. At the same time, you're flying above the city, observing. It's obvious that the state of the world has wrecked the economy, and you can still see traces of the recent gang war… but right now, even this late, people are still partying in the streets. Several newspapers are referring to today's events as "The Miracle of Brockton Bay". Which you suppose is accurate enough.
Looking at the partiers, Brockton Bay is certainly not lacking for minorities (including, you understand, a large number of Asian refugees who came after Kyushu was destroyed). Ghettoization is a factor here… but not quite as bad as one might fear in a city that's sometimes referred to as the Nazi capital of the US, due to Empire 88 persistently trying to establish its control over it.
A ray of light. Legend, looking a little tired but trying to hide it. "Thinking of joining the parties, or just patrolling?"
"Not even really patrolling," you admit, "but rather getting to know the lay of the land."
He nods. "Most of my work is in New York City. Millions of citizens, over seven hundred villains at the last count… Mostly, I try to find the best way to delegate, and spend my day flying around town helping the various Protectorate teams put out fires."
You nod in return. "The New York of my world is rather lively too. It's competing with Tokyo for the position of 5th largest metahuman concentration."
He raises an eyebrow. "What are the first four, then?"
"In no specific order… Megalopolis, another East coast city that experienced a gold rush of sort in the 80s and 90s. Venture City, in geosynchronous orbit, which has effectively become the world's transhumanism capital. Avalon, which has been ruled for over a millennium by an evil sorcerer and his armies…" If he disbelieves, then he's too polite to show it, "...and the Cryosphere, which has become an international haven for supervillains."
"I see." He looks into the distance for a moment. "I've perused bits and pieces of your interview, but today's performance already tells me this much: A man with your abilities and inclinations can do (and has done!) incredible amounts of good for this world. I'll admit, I'm hoping to recruit you into the Protectorate."
This is hardly a surprise, of course. "Truth be told, I'm considering it. I try to avoid getting involved in politics outside of extreme situations, which has kept me out of State-run teams in the past." This despite almost every nation awarding you citizenship at one point - even countries that don't normally permit multiple citizenship. "The situation here is different, though. Back home, the majority of State-run teams are military in nature. Most superheroes get deputized by law enforcement agencies that provide them with basic training and a stipend. Here, joining the Protectorate is the default assumption… in the US and Canada. My duties, however, are going to take me beyond those borders."
"True enough," says Legend. He grins. "For the record, we are trying to expand into Mexico. But I see your point. Joining the Protectorate as a full member is just one option, though. Just coordinating with the Protectorate would be immensely appreciated." Once again, he has an amused expression. "Right now, the PRT's greatest fear is that you'll leave with no forwarding address and start flying around the world like Scion."
You smile at that. "I promise to maintain contact, if nothing else. I'm under no illusion of being able to carry the world's weight on my shoulders alone."
Your words seem to please him. "Have you considered a trial period? Spend some time with a Protectorate team, work with them, get an idea of how things on Earth-Bet work?"
You note the odd name for his world. Something else to look into at some point. "That might not be a bad idea. It would keep from acting like a bull in a china shop, at least. Would that be with your New York team?"
"That's one option," he says. "You could also work with Alexandria's Los Angeles team. Or, maybe start with something smaller - Brockton Bay has faced a lot of villain activity lately, and could use the help of an A-lister of your caliber."
"I've been trying to get to know the local team," you admit. "...I'm still befuddled that you have heroes named 'Assault and Battery'."
He laughs at that. "Battery came first. She named herself after her power, that lets her accumulate energy and spend it in short bursts of enhanced strength and speed. Assault picked his name specifically to annoy her."
"Ah, I see." There is one other thing you wanted to ask about. "Earlier today, after my speech, you got worried when Dragon told you something. Anything I ought to be concerned about?"
His expression grows serious. "It's the third Endbringer. The Simurgh. We can't find her." Seeing you blink, he goes into more details: "She usually stays in orbit, visible from several telescopes and satellites. Some time after Leviathan died, several satellites were destroyed, and chunks of them used as ballistic weapons against ground-based telescopes pointed at her. We have been unable to locate her ever since." He pauses. "I don't know whether I need to tell you this, but… don't try to go after her. We've checked, and we already know precogs can see you."
"Understood," you nod. You'll have to find a way to beat the third Endbringer, but today is not the day.
Legend's expression lightens up. "Speaking of your speech… did you know that in the past few hours, six villains in six different cities have turned themselves in to the Protectorate, asking for a chance to join and be heroes?"
As morning comes, you're still flying above the city, learning the geography of Brockton Bay while simultaneously obtaining information online.
One of the main sources of information on parahumans in this world is apparently a massive website called ParaHumans Online, or PHO for short. It already has speculations about your powers ("Blaster 12, Brute 10, Mover 9, Trump 7" is mentioned at times), as well as the effects of your arrival. You also learn that two videos of you - one of your speech, and one satellite view of you killing Leviathan - are overnight sensations on YouTube. You've never done PR for PR's sake, but, pragmatically, you know this is good - building up a reputation will give more weight to your words.
More interestingly, you learn more about the heroes and villains of Brockton Bay.
Armsmaster. Head of the local Protectorate, was a member of the very first Ward team. Considered a powerful Tinker and a capable fighter. Has a bit of a reputation as a gloryhound. Maybe you should check up on that at some point.
Miss Militia. His second in command. Doesn't sleep. Power manifests as weapons - any weapons she chooses, without needing to reload. Highly regarded by everyone except racist bigots.
Battery. Charges up power and spends it on bursts of strength and speed, like Legend said.
Assault. Considered the team clown. Manipulates kinetic energy.
Dauntless. Permanently charges his personal items with powers, rendering them stronger and stronger over time. Local star, expected to become one of the greatest some day.
Velocity. Laid-back speedster, who becomes less and less able to influence physical objects the faster he goes. (Odd, that.)
Triumph. Recent Ward graduate. Sonic attacks.
Aegis. Current Wards leader. Regenerating flying brick with immense organ redundancy.
Gallant. May or may not be a Tinker, given the armor. Fires energy blasts that influence the victim's emotions. Probably the most popular team member.
Clockblocker. Definite team clown. Can freeze what he touches in time for an indefinite number of minutes.
Vista. Both the youngest member of the team, and the one who's been at it the longest (which you find horrifying). Warps space, as you were able to see for yourself.
Shadow Stalker. The edgy one. Can turn intangible.
Browbeat. Most recent member. Speculated to have autobiokinesis.
And then, there's New Wave, which is apparently the sum total of non-governmental heroes in this town. Brandish, Lady Photon, Manpower and Flashbang are the adult members - two married couples, with Brandish and Lady Photon being sisters. Laserdream, Shielder, Glory Girl and Panacea are the children of these two couples. Most of the team has abilities centered around flight, forcefields, and light blasts.
There are parahumans who act as neither hero nor villain; they are called, counterintuitively, "rogues". One such rogue is Brockton Bay's Parian, who tries to use her textile-kinesis in her fashion business. You figure you'll leave her and other such "rogues" be - just because someone has a power they may never have asked for, doesn't mean they should be forced to spend the rest of their lives in superpowered battles.
Sadly, though, Brockton Bay's villain population outnumbers its heroes and rogues combined.
Empire 88, an alliance of Neonazis and white supremacists of every stripe, includes as many as twenty parahumans, led by a man called Kaiser who used to run a pharmaceutical company. The reason he no longer runs it is because very recently, someone released the identities of all the gang's supervillains to the media, which started a city-wide fight. Even without their civilian resources, though, E88 remains a force to be reckoned with in this town. ...Really, how can an outdated ideology like Nazism sway this many people in this day and age? For crying out loud, even Blitzkrieg is just a mercenary with no real ideology these days, who only clings to Nazi symbols out of nostalgia - and Blitzkrieg was an actual SS member!
The Merchants are, apparently, the second largest gang left. They are a particularly degenerate lot (though you still find them preferable to Neonazis), specialized in the drug trade. Their leader is known as Skidmark, and they have three parahumans beside him.
Faultline's Crew is a mercenary team - they don't run organized crime so much as get hired by others to perform a variety of criminal acts. Generally considered efficient and professional. Six members, counting Faultline herself.
Uber and Leet. Considered joke villains, at least until they helped the mad bomber Bakuda.
Circus. Solo villain.
Coil. Mysterious villain with well-armed mercenaries.
The Undersiders. Teenage gang. Were considered a minor nuisance specialized in smash-and-grab operations, but recently got more aggressive, brutal and destructive. Members include Grue, Tattletale, Regent, Hellhound (the girl with the dogs who had no armband)... and, most recently, Skitter.
Well. Maybe you ought to check what that's about.
You go back to communication powers - just audio communication, no need to risk embarrassment. And then, you send out a message at one specific person:
"Skitter. Skitter, can you hear me?"
The reply comes soon afterward. She sounds like she just woke up. "Who is this? Where are you?"
"My apologies if I startled you. This is the Avatar."
"The Av… You can find me?"
You chuckle. "Not that easily. Communicating, however, is a different story. Is now a bad time? It's no emergency, we can talk later."
"I… no, this is fine. You can contact me anywhere?"
"It's a bit less trivial than you're making it sound, but, I do have a rather good range."
"Is it… Can you communicate like this with anyone?"
"Well, I need to have some vague idea of who I'm trying to contact, unless I just aim at everyone in a given area."
"Does that mean that, in theory, you could contact Scion? Tell him when an Endbringer is attacking, and where it is?"
You pause. "...That is actually an interesting idea. I'll have to look into it. Good thinking!"
She doesn't say anything, but a minor involuntary sound lets you know she's happy at the praise. Eventually, she speaks up: "Thank you, but… why are you calling me?"
"Aside from receiving useful tips for the next time I face an Endbringer? I wanted to check up on you. I'll admit, there are a few things that don't quite make sense to me." You pause. "I've been trying to get myself up to speed on this world. Most sources define you as a villain, which, to put it mildly, seems at odds with your heroic behavior yesterday."
She takes a few seconds to answer. "...Being a villain doesn't mean you have to be a monster. Villains helping during Endbringer battles is normal."
"In my time as a superhero, Skitter, I have known and fought thousands of villains, only a small number of whom I would describe as monsters. Even then, an overwhelming majority of those wouldn't have gone as far as you did trying to rescue civilians.
"I am asking you to please help me understand. In a life-or-death situation, suffering from head injuries, you desperately fought onward to protect others. An overpowered jerk just woke you up from across town, and your first instinct was to help him figure out how to save more people with his powers. It's plain to see that you have the heart of a hero, so… why attack a fundraiser for Bakuda's victims, of all things? You're obviously better than that."
What follows is ten seconds of silence. You don't press her - this is clearly difficult to talk about.
"I'm sorry." You get the impression those two words were not easy for her to say. "It… seemed like a good idea at the time. I was… I was trying to learn more about the Undersiders. They had a backer, and I wanted to learn who it was."
"You were undercover?" That still wouldn't justify her actions, but it would explain them.
"That's what I was telling myself. I told Armsmaster, but I made him promise not to tell." She pauses again. "I did discover their patron in the end, but… I couldn't do it. These guys were my friends. Betraying them after everything… it just felt wrong. And, and most of what I'd done as a villain was fight other villains anyway. I thought we were actually accomplishing less harm than good."
Though she can't see it, you nod. Sadly, even brilliant minds can fall to rationalization. "Did something change? You seemed to be avoiding them yesterday."
"...Our patron. He did something that, that I couldn't condone. The Undersiders… they weren't happy about it, but they weren't willing to turn on him either." She pauses. "Now, I understand why some of them really needed his help, but… I couldn't take it. I ran away."
"Skitter."
"What?"
"I'm requesting your permission to meet you face-to-face ASAP."
That seems to take her aback. "Just give me twenty minutes."
Twenty minutes later, you meet Skitter in her costume on a rooftop. "So, why did you want to meet me in-"
You hug her.
A returned hug and a cathartic cry later, she's talking once more.
"I haven't really had the time to think it all through. Leviathan arrived almost immediately after that.
"After you killed Leviathan, I had words with Miss Militia. I said I wanted her help with a moral dilemma. I said I'd become aware of… of something really awful being done, but didn't see how I could stop it without betraying my friends."
"So what did she say?"
"She said that, if she was in my place, she'd look for any way she might possibly do the right thing without hurting her friends. But, if she couldn't… she said that sometimes, doing the right thing is painful. That's usually when it's most important."
You smile. "Sounds to me like she's got a good head on her shoulders."
That prompts a light chuckle from her. "I guess. I'm still not sure what I should be doing. I'm trying to follow your advice and reach for that spark, I guess, but I don't know what to do."
"Well, if I may suggest, start by taking some perspective," you say. "Let's suppose you decide to let things be as they are, in order to stay with the Undersiders. What will happen afterwards? Will that be the last moral compromise you need to make?"
At that, she freezes. "...It'll never end," she says, horror dawning upon her. "Our patron… he's a monster. A real monster. He'll keep breaking every rule to get ahead. There will be more atrocities." She takes a deep breath. "Whatever I do about the Undersiders, he needs to go down."
You nod in agreement - from your admittedly limited information, that sounds like common sense. "What about your friends, then? Do you see a way to take him down without hurting them too badly?"
"I don't know," she admits. "Maybe it would be best if you talked to them."
"That could be arranged."
"Of course it could," she chuckles. "Look, I need… Give me an hour to think about it, all right?"
"By all means." You give a joking grin. "Any other paradigm-changing advice on saving the world? I'd hate for that hour to go to waste."
She laughs a little at that. "You've already killed Leviathan. That alone might help revitalize the city - if they clean up the boat graveyard, the shipping industry might create jobs again."
Then she freezes. "Wait. Could you clean up the boat graveyard?"
The boat graveyard would be the massive mess of rusted ship hulls that block the harbor. Since international shipping as an industry fractured due to Leviathan, there have never been sufficient funds to clear it. Skitter describes it as one of great tragedies of Brockton Bay - the reason unemployment is so high.
Well, nothing wrong with some civilian applications for superpowers. Fighting supervillains keeps the world from becoming worse, but it would be a terrible tragedy if extraordinary abilities could not be used to make the world better.
With Skitter in tow, you make a quick stop by city hall. Mayor Christner, despite some hesitations, agrees to see you; while he eyes Skitter nervously, he thanks you profusely for saving the city. You get the feeling he is being genuine rather than political.
When you outline Skitter's suggestion, his eyes bulge. He asks questions. You ask questions. You wouldn't want your attempt to backfire due to poor understanding of the local situation. Thankfully, the mayor's words indicate that there should be no problem with the idea.
It doesn't take long for a crowd to gather in the docks when you and Skitter arrive there. And then, you reach inside. Your secondary power pool forms a disintegration beam, and the ray begins striking ship carcasses.
At first, the crowd is amazed. Then, when ship after ship disappears from existence, they begin to cheer.
Within the hour, it is done. The ship graveyard is no more. Brockton Bay's harbor is cleaned up, ready to once more serve the shipping industry. The crowd - which, from the looks of it, includes many dockworkers - is ecstatic.
Yesterday, you saved Brockton Bay from destruction. Today, you have given it a chance to be prosperous again.
Skitter seems taken aback by all the cheering - like she doesn't know how to be on the side that receives it. When you speak to her again, however, it's clear that her decision has been made.
You're going to deal with Skitter's pressing problem and do some more digging for information. That aside, you also need to come up with a few decisions. Firstly, how do you wish to handle PRT power testing?
[ ] The better they know your powers, the better plans can be made to save the world. You know the importance of being a team player, so you're going to tell them everything you can afford to about your powers and fully cooperate with the testing.
[ ] You want to help these people, but you don't know them very well yet - or, for that matter, their operational security. It might be best to keep a few aces up your sleeve. You will cooperate with the power testing, but not reveal everything you can do.
Additionally, Legend suggesting working in conjunction with a Protectorate team for a short while in order to get your footing.
[ ] Start small. Brockton Bay could use some help, as well as some denazifying.
[ ] Start big. Go work with Legend in New York.
[ ] Start big. Alexandria is supposedly the brains of the Triumvirate, and might make better use of your abilities. Go work with her in Los Angeles.
[ ] The Guild is a non-governmental team that specializes in fighting the Big Bads. It sounds more fitting for you than the Protectorate, honestly.
[ ] Write-in.
Gonna leave the vote open for a while longer. In the meanwhile...
(INTERLUDE) PERSPECTIVES: THE ILLUMINATI
"...all confirm it. Leviathan's dead," said Alexandria in a meeting dimensions away from Earth-Bet.
"That's a load off my mind," said Legend. "So, what are we going to do with its remains? We collected more Endbringer parts than in all other battles combined, not to mention much deeper ones."
"For now, they're going to be analyzed by multiple teams of scientists, Thinkers, and Tinkers. Hopefully Dragon can make something useful by studying them. After that, we may be able to find applications - to name just one, it's likely that Chevalier would be able to engage Behemoth directly without risk if he incorporates some of the Endbringer's core into his armor." She paused. "We also want to recover the wall Avatar created to hold back the tidal wave. Between what he's told us and what Thinkers have told us, it seems comparable to some of the sturdiest materials Tinkers have made, probably even stronger."
Eidolon nodded. "I have two questions, then. Firstly, how is PR handling the battle? I mean, beyond the obvious. It's a great victory for mankind, but I take it Avatar gets most of the credit?"
"To an extent," said Alexandria. "Thankfully, he seems downright eager to share it, so I see no reason to minimize his role. You effectively held Leviathan in place for him to blast, which we're playing up. We're also giving some focus to Armsmaster and Bastion's roles in the battle, as it lets us save their careers."
"I see. My second question: To what extent have the Endbringers been sandbagging?" Even with his mask hiding his eyes, the intensity of his gaze was somehow felt. "You all saw it. We dug deeper into its flesh than ever before, and all we accomplished was discovering it had been ablative armor - no, cosmetic all along. Nothing Legend, Dragon or I did could hurt the actual core. Every time we fought them and they fled, they were just… letting us think we'd beaten them. Letting us think we had a chance. Like some cruel joke." His head inclined down for a moment. "Turning liquid water into ice to give its attacks an edge, taking down capes and civilians all over the city to distract us, using the aquifer to drill from beneath our feet, that tidal blast… Hell, I've read the seismic readings; its underwater attacks on Avatar were something unheard of. It means that every time we fought the Endbringers, they were using a fraction of their ability - and what's worse, no-one except Scion and Avatar can truly hurt them!"
"Not quite true," said Alexandria. "There's at least one more person who can hurt them." As eyes in the room turned toward her, she explained: "During the fight, one of the Blasters shooting at Leviathan while you held him was Flechette, a New York Ward. Her attacks perforated even the core without slowing down. I believe we are about to take a much closer interest in her and her power - and whether it is possible to replicate it," she cast Eidolon a meaningful look.
"She's not the only one who performed surprisingly well," Legend pointed out. "One of Brockton Bay's villains, Tattletale, provided a lot of accurate intel on the go. Her Thinker power apparently works on Endbringers just fine. Perhaps we should hire her to work on Leviathan's autopsy, maybe even help Cauldron make vials?"
Doctor Mother sighed. "I've been evaluating that possibility. While Tattletale could be potentially useful, bringing her in would start an unending uphill battle to keep her from learning too much. Either that, or working to ensure her loyalty… and even then, Tattletale is driven to lord her knowledge over others." She paused. "I'm considering it, but it's not a decision to be made lightly."
Alexandria nodded. "Then, back to Avatar. Legend, you've spoken to him more than most. What's your opinion?"
"As far as I can tell, he's genuine. I believe he is as noble as he seems, and he seems intent on working with others to help the word," he said. "He seems like a smart, reasonable man, for all that his description of his world sounds… fantastic."
"And yet, some things don't fit," said Doctor Mother. "We've tried to locate his home universe by searching for every single one of the people he mentioned. Nothing. It's like the universe he describes doesn't exist. Like he made it all up."
"Given the breadth and consistency of his story, that seems unlikely," said Alexandria. "Maybe he deliberately changed some parts just enough to throw us off? Or maybe something is hiding his Earth from our sight?"
"Hopefully it's something like that," said Doctor mother. "I'd hate to imagine someone that powerful having a sinister agenda."
"I suppose he could be the world's greatest liar, but I don't see what objective that would serve," said Legend. "And his speech seems to have had quite an impact. Tsunami has gone to the Brockton Bay PRT, asking to join the Protectorate. So have seven other villains in the US and Canada alone so far, including Master of Disaster. We also have a rogue in New York who has asked to join - Steelhammer, a Toybox-affiliated Tinker."
It was now Number Man who spoke up. "According to Thinker estimates, between Leviathan's defeat and the Avatar's speech, the villain-to-hero ratio among new triggers should go from 310% to 280% over the coming year in Protectorate territory, and from 330% to 310% in the world at large. This is assuming that Endbringer battles continue as before Brockton Bay and the Avatar doesn't engage in further game-changing behavior, neither of which are safe assumptions."
"So if nothing else, he's bought us some breathing room," said Alexandria. "Legend, whether or not we trust him, we need him in the Protectorate. Not just because he can give us an edge against A- and S-class threats, but because his presence could bolster recruitment. He might be exactly what we need to keep society from collapsing before the end of the world is even there." She took a moment to gather her thoughts. "Frankly, if he proves himself trustworthy, we may want to consider adding him to the Triumvirate."
"You're serious," Eidolon said with a tone of surprise.
"Completely. Someone who can fight an Endbringer and win is someone we want on this team."
"I've told him the Protectorate would love to have him," said Legend. "He promised he'd consider it, but he also expressed some reluctance to join a government-run team. He may do better with the Guild - I know Dragon and Narwhal have mentioned the possibility of bringing him in." His expression grew concerned. "Dragon also said the Simurgh remains unseen. That's never happened before, which suggests she doesn't want Avatar to be able to find her… well, to the extent that anything the Simurgh does can suggest anything about her actual goals."
The meeting lasted a while longer. Eventually, Legend excused himself to get back to his husband - their family was just as eager as anyone else to celebrate the "Miracle of Brockton Bay". Once he left, though, the tone in the room changed somewhat.
"This Avatar. Could he be like Scion? In some respects, he doesn't come across as human," said Alexandria. "The similarities are obvious enough."
"Indeed," said Doctor Mother. "However, unlike Scion - or the Endbringers, for that matter - he seems visible to precogs."
Alexandria turned to face Contessa. "Can you see a path to killing him?"
"Yes," the Mediterranean woman answered. "It would not be easy, but I could do it."
Alexandria nodded. "A path to bringing him into the Protectorate?"
"I can see that path."
"A path to making him go villain?"
Contessa blinked. "...I don't see a path for that," she admitted, visibly surprised.
"Hm." Alexandria took a thoughtful air. "Path to brainwashing him?"
"I don't see that either."
"So he should probably be safe from the Simurgh's scream. Path to reaching his world?"
"Unknown."
"Path to making him tell us the truth about his world?"
"...Just ask him. My path says he's been truthful so far."
That gave Alexandria pause. "There's definitely something odd going on here." She looked around. "No precog saw him coming. Every precog in the PRT's employ has reported a big change in the future after Brockton Bay."
"I noticed several of my paths changing," Contessa admitted, "but I had assumed it was due to Leviathan's actions. My path always needs to adapt to the actions inside its blind spots."
"The conclusion of most PRT Thinkers - and I'm inclined to share it," said Number Man, "is that the Avatar entering Earth Bet was an event unlikely enough, that it didn't enter into any precog's view up to that point. Once it did happen, though, it changed the likelihood of all subsequent events, simply because the Avatar has both the power and the charisma to change the world - an ability he has demonstrated well enough so far. Or," he shrugged, "maybe what brought him to Earth-Bet was in itself a precog blind spot."
Alexandria nodded. "One way or another, he is to be watched closely. For better or worse, Avatar is changing the world."
THE GOD AND THE SERPENT
You give Skitter a moment to recover from her recent emotional roller coaster.
"You know, I think this might actually be the first time the existence of superpowers has really helped this city," she comments with a chuckle. "...Well, except for Panacea."
You nod at that. "It's not too surprising. Back home, the majority of superpowers seem geared toward combat use. Even so, I still see some used for civilian purpose - search and rescue during natural disasters, scientific research, sometimes even industrial applications." Research into mutant powers certainly allowed a few scientific and technological breakthroughs. "At the end of the day, power is power. What matters is what is done with it."
She takes a few seconds before talking again. "About my friends. I think it's best we talk to them."
"Gladly. Anything I should know?"
She considers. "They're not bad people. At least, I didn't think they were until yesterday. I'm not sure what to think now. Grue is the professional one, and effectively the leader; he's also the one most opposed to going against our patron, because he depends on his help for… understandable reasons. Tattletale can figure out almost anything from minimal information; it's her Thinker power. She likes to get into people's heads. Bitch - it's just the Protectorate that calls her Hellhound - is hard to deal with, but it's not all on her; I think her power actually overwrote her social instincts with canine ones, so she doesn't really understand things like sarcasm or facial expressions. Regent is mostly laid back, nonchalant and irreverent." She pauses. "You're going to contact them the way you did with me?"
"Unless you think it's a bad idea, yes. I'll start with the effective leader, see if we can arrange a meeting."
With no objections coming from the bug-controlling parahuman, you send out an audio message. "Grue. May we talk?"
There is, of course, the surprised reaction. "Who is - Avatar?"
"Correct."
"You can see me?!" From the panicked tone edging itself into his voice, he's probably worrying about his secret identity. Of course, that's the reason you went sound-only this time.
"No. This link is purely auditory. I can only hear you."
That seems to calm him down. "...All right. What is this about?"
"Skitter and I wish to arrange a meeting with the Undersiders. Any location of your choosing, as soon as you can arrange it."
You hear the hesitance in his words. "Hypothetically, what happens if we decline?"
You smile widely as you answer in a cheerful tone: "Quite frankly, I have no idea what I'll do."
For some reason or another, Grue apparently got in a real hurry after that; it doesn't take long before all six of you - plus a couple of Bitch's enhanced, monstrous-looking dogs - are meeting in one of the many abandoned warehouses of the docks area.
Most of the Undersiders are looking at you with wariness, and at Skitter with mixed feelings. Tattletale looks concerned about her, and curious about you (and not, you suspect, just because of the peeks she occasionally takes at your pectorals).
You look at them, and mostly see children. One or two of them might be past the age of majority, but most shouldn't be in superpowered fights. Yet, they showed up to an Endbringer battle. That deserves some respect, regardless of all else.
"All right," Grue says, clearly trying to inject more confidence in his voice than he's really feeling. "All right. Everyone's here. I take it introductions are superfluous?"
"Indeed. I've read up on the parahuman population of your fair city, and I believe I wasn't very discreet yesterday."
There are chuckles at that. "I'd say you were about as subtle as the Endbringer," says Regent.
"Fair enough," the Undersiders' leader says. "So, what's this all about?"
"You know what it's about," says Skitter. "Our boss has gone way too far."
"You told him," says Grue, with a tone of accusing anger (but no surprise).
"I haven't told him any of the particulars. Not yet. Not before talking things out with you guys."
"You're still deciding on your own for the rest of us," he accuses. "In case you forgot, some of us depend on the boss for things just as important as-"
"This isn't up for negotiation, Grue!" she interrupts him angrily. "I'm not going to sit down at a meeting and put her fate up to a vote! I understand wanting to take care of family, but there is a limit in how far you can go and still argue your actions are justified by your circumstances. This is completely beyond that limit, and the only reason you're even trying to rationalize it is because the deed is done and our role was indirect. If the boss had asked us to do it ourselves, with full knowledge of what he was doing, don't tell me you'd have actually agreed to it!"
There is an uncomfortable silence after that. You suspect Skitter is trying to decide whether what she's just said is correct, and feeling uneasy about the fact she isn't 100% sure.
"If you've already decided to do this unilaterally, then why call us here?"
"Because I wanted to talk things out and see if there was some solution that pleased everyone, or at least didn't screw anyone over." Confidence returns to her voice. "You guys are my friends. My only friends. You mean a lot to me. Maybe it doesn't say much good about me, but I am willing to compromise my morals to a large extent for you. Just not this far." Her head turns around, surveying the room. "So, if there's a solution that I can live with that keeps you guys happy, let's hear it."
Grue seems to hesitate. "Well… if you and Avatar just, ah, resolve your specific problem, I guess the boss would simply have to roll with it. The pragmatic thing for him to do would be to keep the four of us on his payroll."
"Look," Tattletale speaks up, "there's no point in dancing around it. We'll have to tell the Avatar what we're talking about sooner or later. Might as well rip off that band-aid now." She gazes at you with a confident grin. "A month ago, the boss, also known as Coil, hired us to rob the Brockton Bay Central Bank. As in, he paid us a large extra on top of whatever we could steal. As we discovered right before the Endbringer alarms started, the purpose of our heist was to act as a distraction while he kidnapped Dinah Alcott, the mayor's 12-year-old niece. I thought it was politically motivated, but it turns out she's actually a parahuman. More specifically, she's one of the world's most powerful precogs."
She keeps going, her tone sounding more like she's relating idle gossip. "Apparently, she can give the probabilities of any future event taking place. So he got her hooped up on an addictive drug regimen to keep her obedient to him, as his little pet oracle."
"Tattletale…" Grue's tone is now positively frozen. She dismisses it: "Eh, he's going to find out one way or another. No point in dressing it up in pretty words at this point."
Wow. No wonder Skitter wouldn't permit it. That Coil character sounds positively vile. Chemical enslavement of a child… Frankly, you are disinclined to let such a man keep operating just to please these Undersiders. How many more crimes would he commit, how many more innocents would he hurt, if you don't arrest him? "It sounds to me like that man needs to be behind bars. Why exactly do you need him so badly?"
"I don't," Regent shrugs nonchalantly. "It's a good gig, but the day he pisses me off too badly, I'm out." He doesn't seem particularly concerned about the young Miss Alcott. For that matter, he appears unconcerned with letting you see how unconcerned he is.
"It's not just about money," Grue says. "I have a… younger relative, one who needs my help. The system won't do it, and I need Coil's connections. Without his help, I can't protect my family."
Ah. That might be an issue. You turned toward the remaining Undersiders. "What about you, Tattletale? Bitch?" That word feels odd in your mouth, but it's her chosen moniker. Since it's her enemies that call her Hellhound, you figure using the other name will probably be less of a faux pas.
"I don't care," says the rough-looking girl. "I just want to be left alone. Coil pays well. That's it." That just leaves you wondering what she needs the money for. The dogs, maybe? Those she brought here are obviously well-cared for.
"I'm not married to this job," says Tattletale. "Coil does pay well, but I don't think he should be able to get away with this shit. He doesn't respect the unwritten rules." From the sudden head movements, Grue and Skitter both seem surprised at her position. "Just the other week, he released the identities of the E88 capes to the media. He doesn't really have anything he's unwilling to do to advance his agenda."
"You're sounding a lot more anti-Coil than yesterday," Regent points out, still sounding mildly bored.
"The situation's changed," she states evasively. "There's going to be a lot of money coming into Brockton Bay soon. Partly because of the boat graveyard, and partly because, least damaging Leviathan fight ever or not, the mayor's going to fight tooth and nail for some of that sweet Endbringer reconstruction money. He'll probably only get a fraction of what a normal payout would be, and even that will still be a 9-digit number. The way I figure it, things in this town are going to pick up… and," she addresses Grue, "I suspect I can help you the Tattletale way, without going through Coil." You don't think she's outright lying, but you the feeling she's not being upfront about her motivation, either.
Grue's not happy with it, but there's nothing he can really do except make the best of a situation outside his control. As such, he mostly tries to keep his team together. "What about you?" he asks Skitter. "After Coil's gone, are you staying with the team?"
She crosses her arms, turning her head away; her voice wavers a bit. "When… When we were robbing that bank, Grue, I remember seeing how terrified all the people inside were, and thinking I was going to hell for this. Two weeks ago, we attacked a charity fundraiser. I love you guys, but…" Her voice breaks. You place a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she goes on. "I love you guys. I just don't love Skitter. I want to use my powers to help people, not… terrorize them."
He brings his hand to the side of his helmet. "...You're thinking of joining the Wards?"
"I doubt they'll have me. And I'm not going to tell them anything about you guys, so I don't think…"
Tattletale interrupts her with a dismissive sound. "Pft. Tall, bright and handsome here can get you a job in the Wards with one short recommendation. It'll be probationary, but if he insists, they'll let you keep our secrets. Heck, they'd probably bench you if they ever got in a fight with us, just out of concern over divided loyalties. The PRT aren't stupid."
Skitter turns toward you, not daring to ask. You nod: "I don't know enough about the PRT to tell you what they would do, but you would certainly come recommended by me." You're not happy about underage metahumans being sent to the frontlines, but you're nevertheless being truthful here.
With that said, you still need to actually rescue the Alcott girl from Coil. Tattletale gives you a quick briefing about his powers, his methods, his minions, and his lair.
"Between Dinah's powers and his own, he had to know something like this was coming since yesterday, and he'll have done what he could to maximize his chances," she says. "Can you find him anywhere in the city?"
"If I give myself wall-penetrating super-vision couple with multiplied mental processing speed, I can canvass a city this size in ten-twenty minutes," you state. Thankfully, Brockton Bay isn't that large a town.
The game is afoot.
The game, as it turns out, is in its lair.
You choose to turn yourself intangible to enter Coil's lair. You find him in his office, dressed in that snake-themed jumpsuit.
"Ah, there you are," he says in an even tone when you materialize right in front of him. He doesn't even jump a little. "I've been expecting you. I'd tell you to come in, but that would obviously be superfluous."
"Coil."
"Myself, yes. Should I offer you any sort of beverage?"
You've seen a wide variety of types among villains over the years. You know Coil's. "No thank you. I am here for Dinah Alcott."
"And you think she's here?" he asks with some amusement. "I have had my people drop her off at her family's two hours ago."
You don't let your surprise show. "You don't mind if I verify, do you?"
"By all means."
You proceed to initiate your communication powers, in telepathic mode, aimed at Dinah Alcott. You'd considered doing so before even coming, but there was a slight concern of tipping Coil off.
The child's exhausted, somewhat hazy, but still coherent thoughts come in answer to your. She's at the hospital with her parents, having told them she needed treatment for her chemical addiction. She also mentions something about all the numbers changing yesterday.
"As you may see, I know when to fold them," Coil states. "I knew that trying to hold on to the girl would result in a relentless pursuit by you which I couldn't evade for very long."
You stare at him. "You are still a criminal of the worst kind. Are you hoping that, because of this, I will not arrest you?"
"Perish the thought," he says. "I'm hoping you will not arrest me for far more pragmatic reasons." He steeples his fingers. "Let me tell you a little about myself. Or rather my abilities.
"You see… I am a man who gets to make mutually exclusive decisions. I have the power to split reality into two concurrent timelines in which I make different choices. I experience both timelines at once, perfectly aware of both my selves. Once I have seen which of these two realities yields the better results, I abandon the inferior one, and the preferred timeline becomes the true one.
"Now, good sir, you are no doubt aware of two more Endbringers that remain at large, as well as a given number of S-class threats. Some of them might have nasty surprises, even for you, were you to take the initiative and go after them. With my help, however, such nasty surprises would not matter, as you would get another go at it immediately after each failed attempt. You could save the world within the space of a week.
"For that matter, my assistance would not be restricted to Earth-Bet. When and if you manage to return to your world - an endeavor I may be able to offer some assistance with, given some time - I could help you there, too. You could gather the heroes of the world for an assault on the Cryosphere… only this time, any failure would get retroactively undone, Cryo's hidden tricks would be discovered, and attempts could be repeated over and over until the city was liberated. The same could be done with Avalon.
"What I offer you, to put it plainly, is your best chance of saving both worlds from their S-class threats. In exchange, all I ask is that you stay out of Brockton Bay, and allow me to continue my operations as a local crime lord in a mid-sized city.
"I have let the Alcott girl go, since you would never have agreed to a deal where she remained in my employ. But as for the rest? I am no worse than the ABB, the Merchants, of Empir 88. The question then is, do you want me behind bars so badly, that you will sacrifice the safety of billions to put me there?"
[ ] The little girl is safe. Coil is despicable, but he is also right - arresting him is less important than stopping monsters like the Endbringers. You'll have to trust in the local heroes to protect Brockton Bay.
[ ] One little girl is safe, but the city has thousands of people who will suffer if fiends like Coil rule. If you make a compromise like this, where does it end? Can monsters escape justice for their crimes, simply by having enough power, or being useful? No. That is not the world you're fighting for. You're fighting for a world where people like Coil can't prey on the powerless.
Whew. Guess we'll be getting into the PRT power testing in the next update…
If you do vote to stay out of Brockton Bay and work with Coil, it will override the previous vote on what to do, so I suppose a new vote will take place on whether you go to New York, join the Guild, or whatever. If you vote to take Coil down, we'll be sticking with the earlier vote.
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