Brockton Bay

The Boardwalk

Ethan looked about the area. There were containers of supplies, scaffolding, power equipment of all types, and so many tarps he couldn't hope to count them all. Workers were mostly heading to lunch but here and there clusters were still busy with one task or another.

The devastating force of Leviathan's waves had shattered the old boardwalk to splinters. The entire bay had been a swarm of rebuilding work. The priority had been restoring essential services. The second was supporting the construction of the fortress. During that phase places like this were seen as less important to the powers overseeing such work.

Now that most of that was over the non-essential projects had started. The boardwalk was a high priority among the so-called non-essentials. It would give the city's ledgers an immediate shot in the arm.

Brockton was building new factories to produce high-tech goods. The construction of the fortress dredged the harbor, restoring shipping. That was all true, but the factories would take a while to start production and churn out goods. They'd be a greater source in the long run but Brockton needed funds now. Tourism, medical, and cape, were a significant source of the city's revenue. The boardwalk had been a popular spot for visitors.

Shops and eateries would offer decent-paying jobs that had fewer requirements to obtain. That would help the recently re-housed to stay on their feet. The City would pull in sales tax while spending less on providing for those who could once again provide for themselves.

The villains had been keeping their end of the deal. The projects to restore tourism weren't being hassled by protection rackets and gang fights. There was plenty of evidence that the crews were getting minor contraband from the gangs. Bootleggers, pot peddlers, and dealers of the weaker amphetamines mostly.

They were stretched thin with just Himself Battery, Luminous, Miss Militia, and the Wards guarding the city. They had made a routine to ensure nothing was left out. First, the adult heroes made half-day patrols on parallel courses. Each was solo but near enough to another cape that they could call for backup. Afterward, each took a single ward and did a paired-off patrol with one of the youngsters.

Most areas saw a hero present every few days. The boardwalk got a pass-through every single day. Normally he or Battery so they could cover more ground in the allotted time. They were playing a game of whack-a-mole with minor charges. Miss Militia insisted they continue. She felt if they didn't keep on top of it the minor drug rings would only get worse. She instructed them to keep up the pressure and force the petty crime to remain nervous about expanding into a major operation.

Assault didn't buy that but did think those sloppy and lazy enough to get caught deserved what they got. The villains seemed to think the same for that matter. They had passed word of their approval for the patrols. They'd even left out some beat-down thugs who were trying to move stronger merchandise than the Alliance would allow.

So here he was, doing a quick jaunt through the boardwalk. He sped along avoiding the active construction areas. While doing so he checked the quiet corners for excessive contraband. Penny ante stuff he didn't bother stopping for. He wasn't filling out the arrest paperwork for reasonable personal use levels. Large supplies were either sloppy dealers or users who'd graduated from causal use to serious issues. The former he'd stop due to professionalism the latter he'd stop because they needed a wakeup call.

He paused to eye a suspicious stack of drainage pipes. They were not stacked in the normal neat manner. It could be someone was lazy about putting things back in an organized state, it also could be they were trying to conceal something.

Numerous open boxes were around it. Packing straps and styrofoam bits were littering the ground. That made laziness more likely. Assault leaned and peered in between the pipes. There was something in there that didn't belong. He could just make out the strap to a backpack.

He reached for the strap thinking he'd pull the bag up and see if it was worth setting up a stakeout to catch who had stashed it or not. The strap strained whatever was in the bag must be heavy.

Pain lanced through his lower back. Something had stabbed him around both kidneys. He released the bag and spun, swinging his fist. A hideous figure backpedaled to avoid the blow.

Eathens mind spun. It was Ravager. She must have been hiding among the empty packing material. Bonesaw had worked on the former New York villain. Her fingers now ended in claws. The metal talons dripped some putrid-looking fluid. Her mouth had been altered and sharp steel teeth added. The jaw was distended, with a prehensile tongue lashing around somehow she could still speak. The voice emanated from deeper in her throat unconcerned for how the jaw was moving.

"I know who you are and have come to punish you!"

A quick decision was made Assault dashed up the haphazard stack of drainage pipes. Once on top, he focused his power sending them rolling in a cascade. Ethan rode like a log roller on one of the pipes. As he did, a bomb exploded coating the area in ice. Ethan's pipe didn't get caught. His quick decision had saved him. Pulling the strap likely armed the timebomb.

The pipe was rolling in the opposite direction from Ravager. Ethan's brow was breaking out in a sweat. The pain in his lower back was incredible and getting worse. Only the panicked adrenaline was keeping him upright. All wounds Ravager inflected would worsen and she'd injected him with either poison or some sort of acid.

He had tongued the in-mouth SOS switch. He now took the time to vocalize what he faced.

"Ambushed by Ravager, she's been altered by Bonesaw. She has blades, mouth, and hands, a large bite, very dangerous. Poison or acid I need healing."

The pipes had come to rest. Now that she wasn't dodging the avalanche Ravager spotted him. She dashed after him. Ethan took off at his best sprint each step sending shockwaves of pain through him.

"Hold on Assault. I'm coming!" Battery called out.

"I am too far out of range. I am heading to Brockton General." Luminous said

"No, I can make it faster. I'm closer, on a cycle, and have a sidecar. I can bring Panacea. That is if Victoria is not with her move west and link up with PRT teams for a special assignment." Miss Militia commanded. She didn't want to say it but she doubted either teen would take the former Nazi's word. A delay could prove deadly.

"Altering course now. I was monitoring Trainwreck. I will advise him as I pass by that the Nine are likely in town."

"Yes, do that. I'll advise Director Calvert on the way. Assault, focus on staying alive. Battery, focus on getting to him and helping with that."

"Making my best time" Battery responded.

Ethan didn't take the time to reply, breath was becoming harder to come by. He was faster than Battery when he focused his power solely on speed at least over a long haul. The altered villain had to have some leg enhancements as well for she was closing with him. 'Or maybe, he thought with dread 'you're moving slower than normal' his mind interjected.

Grabbing a piece of board meant for the walk he killed his forward momentum and channeled all that kinetic energy and more into the piece of lumber. He spun and smashed his pursuer in the face.

The unexpected move sent Ravager to the deck. She fell off the walk into the sandy dirt. She didn't stay down. She came up using a backflip. Her lashing tongue cleared broken teeth and spikes from the damaged jaw. Her weirdly projected voice was unaffected.

"You once fought for what you believed in. You were a Mad dog. Now you're a tame beaten dog. Hypocrite! You hide your sin behind jokes and laughter. You are just like the Mouse tricking the world so they don't see the real ugly truth of who you are!"

Ethan had made it an active section of the walk. The workers had seen the fight and scattered. With Ravager tossed into the dirt, he had a height advantage. That was all that he had going for him he had things going against him in spades. He was so weak it would be hard to inflict more damage. He needed something that wouldn't rely on his physical strength. He needed to get past her defenses as well. An attack would do little good if Ravager was aware of it. She was a canny fighter and would be hard to catch off guard if she was thinking clearly. But, she wasn't, she was ranting and angry. He needed her madder still, mad enough to be stupid. He thought of a dozen quips he could use. He just as quickly abandoned them not one would affect this humorless ass. He had something stronger and less pleasant than humor. He had the truth.

"I once thought you could never justify things like the Birdcage. I started to see I wasn't right. The Birdcage was bad but those being put there were bad too. They hurt good people I heard about the pain one of them caused. Saw what it did to someone. I caused someone to live through the worst day of their life. I helped the bastard that hurt her give punishment the slip. What right did I have to tear down what I couldn't replace? I fought for what I believed in. But it was hollow. It's easy to be a critic when you never try to make a better way, only attack the old one."

"Weakling!" Ravager hissed as she charged again.

Assault leaned back like he was going to just accept the blow. He fell expecting the claws to rake his torso. They didn't. He hit the walk, his power redirecting the energy sideways. He slid across the boards to the edge. He reached for an object and stumbled back up. As he rose he noticed Battery had arrived. She was kicking Ravager's ass. That was what had saved him a second clawing. He fumbled a bit but lifted the industrial nail gun he had been aiming for with his slide.

'That's my girl' Ethan thought as Battery moved to one side giving him a clean shot. He pulled the trigger. His power absorbed the recoil and added its energy back to the ammo. An air compressor kicked on nearby sensing the pneumatic tank's lowered pressure.

The stream of large gauge collated nails drove into Ravager. Ethan thought it was a beautiful sight. The villain started to screech in pain. She ran as she wailed. Battery made a few yards of chase after her only to reverse course. She saw Assault fall. His costume lower back down to his knees was soaked in blood.

She fell to her knees beside him. She then lifted him to a sitting position.

"Stay with me they're getting Panacea."

"No good puppy. I could stay still and die or keep moving and rip it all worse. I didn't want her to win. She would use me against you somehow. Afraid I made a mess of it anyway."

"Stop talking your not dying we're going to save you."

His eyes rolled back and his breathing took on a scary rasp.

"You're not leaving me! You are not going to die!" Desperately she tried to think of a way to save Ethan.

Moving him could be bad but if he stayed still he was dead anyway. Picking her husband up Jane activated her power and ran as far and fast as she could. Then again, and again, again... But she was racing time and even the god's lost foot races to time.

A few blocks from

Brockton General Hospital

Dean Stansfield was driving his BMW. The traffic was light. This was good as his thoughts were heavy. At least it was not with rehashing the horrid last moments of Carlos' death. Being caught in that loop had nearly destroyed him.

He had made it mostly out from that dark cloud. The thoughts of how easily such a fate could strike down his other friends- could strike down Victoria. Well, those thoughts still crept up upon him but they were manageable. He would not let them paralyze him.

His current dark thoughts were of Amy. Mary tried to pick a fight with Victoria using information she should not have had. Information Amy had leaked. Information that was supposed to be held in confidence.

Dean asked Vicky to explain what Mary had been talking about. She had confided in him how she had been using excessive force and Amy had been using her healing to cover for her. He could see and feel what the confession cost her. She literally thought less of herself now that she had been forced to examine what she had been doing with a critical eye.

He admitted to her he was surprised and disappointed. The Victoria he knew was better than that. The Victoria she wanted to be was better than that.

He had then offered to mediate between the three girls so they could work out their issues. Honesty was a bit easier to find when an empath was with you. Amy and Mary had accepted.

The conversation that followed was tense, even dangerous. But in the end, it was for the better. Amy had explained Mary had been helping Amy with issues of her own. She was too willing to compromise her morals when Vicky asked and didn't know how to broach the subject to anyone else.

Mary had apologized to both. She had misused both girls' trust and let her frustration and anger push her into hurting a friend. She was genuinely sorry and upset with herself.

They had mostly forgiven each other. Vicky could tell there still was something the other two were holding back. Amy and Mary had said the issue was too complex to deal with that evening. They agreed to meet again in a few days.

Vicky went to her Mom about control and anger issues. She had framed it as being a problem that occurred after Leviathan. She left out the part with Amy covering for her.

New Wave decided to reduce Vicky's patrols and find some new options for therapy. As open capes, they could perhaps hire someone the Protectorate had not snapped up. They made a deal with a therapist still under evaluation by the PRT. It wasn't much but it was helping.

Now however was the day they would be meeting Amy and Nova at the hospital. Dean would drive them away to change. Afterward, they were going to have another uncomfortable talk. Again he was playing mediator. He knew what this one was going to be about and how explosive the subject matter could prove to be.

Things had been better. The former Othala spent three days a week volunteering twice a week she was at the hospital and once a week she visited Nursing homes. She would use her ability to bestow regeneration to heal.

Loved ones flocked to the nursing homes on the days she was there knowing their loved ones would be having a good day.

At the hospitals, anything that she could fix that wasn't an immediate danger was saved for her visit. That took a large chunk of simple and repetitive cases off Amy's docket.

Now that things were going so well he was tempted to let them be. To just enjoy how much better everything was. That would be ignoring a problem that would only get worse, however. It was a recipe for disaster he reminded himself.

He pulled into the hospital parking lot. Mary and Amy were standing near a group. Surprised, he noticed Vicky was already there and engaged in conversation. She was pissed.

He put the car in park, hopped out, and jogged up. As he neared he could hear a young Intern was taking her mind a whirl of conflicted emotions. She was the center of whatever was going on.

"What's up?"

"Miss Saito is doing her residency here. She found out that she was pregnant. She found out some dick-" Vicky started.

"Doctor Richards. Whom she reports to" Amy supplied

"Right! Well, he has heavily implied the department can't afford to lose any staff in the coming year. He's pressuring her to abort."

"I don't want to. I mean this isn't the most convenient time but my fiance and I do want children."

"Then don't. Free choice includes the right to choose yes." Nova cut in.

"He hinted that if I didn't, I might not meet the qualifications for continued residency. If I couldn't meet the work hours required or perform all duties he would drop me."

Dean blinked rather stunned. "He can do that?"

"It happens," Amy answered.

"Scumbag," Vicky said with a deep scowl.

"Not at this hospital it doesn't. Not over this issue." Nurse McKenzie assured them.

"Huh?" The distraught resident asked.

"Sweetie, Do you think Doctor Alani is going to allow that?" The Nurse asked.

"But I don't report to her."

"Yes, but Richards does. She's on the board. A quarter of the hospital is under her. Go to Alani about this. I'd be surprised if Richards kept his job."

"I knew she was big but I did realize she was that high. I nominally fall under Hutchinson. Where is she compared to him?" Amy inquired.

"The same level. Alani, Hutchinson, Davids, and Glen are the big four. Technically Becker is their equal when he remembers where he is."

"You really think it will help?" Miss Saito asked.

"Come on, we'll go together." McKenzie offered.

The two headed away. Dean pondered what he'd just listened to.

"Unbelievable." Dean opined.

"Oh, it's believable. Lamentable, sad even. But believable." Mary murmured.

Amy gave a nod. Vicky just glared at the building. Dean decided he'd better move the conversation back towards their purpose.

"Well we should head out, have you two eaten?" Dean asked.

"These two eat? We'd better get something." Vicky joked.

"We're in luck there's a food truck," Amy said, pointing out the vehicle pulling into the staff parking lot.

Dean turned frowning at the approaching truck. "Something isn't right. Back away."

"Food truck Sushi? That is sketchy." Vicky opined.

"No, I think he means-" Nova started as the truck accelerated, turning directly towards the teens.

Vicky grabbed Dean and Amy. She pushed herself a foot into the air and sped towards the hospital doors. She only moved at the speed of a ground sprint. Both passengers were still shaken by the sudden movement.

Nova ignited her aura and threw out both hands to stop the onrushing truck. The food truck hit her and crumpled. Glass shattered and metal twisted.

Dean turned to see what was happening. Someone had stepped out of the back just before the truck hit. A large muscular woman who was as nude as she was stripped, white and black.

"The Siberian," Vicky said in shock.

Upon the Siberian riding piggyback was Bonesaw who started clapping. In excitement. Before they could wonder what she was so excited about the twisted remains of the truck shrieked. The tortured metal gave way, ripping apart in several places to reveal the bulky mutant known as Crawler.

With an excited scream, his scythe-like claws struck Nova's shoulders. His enormous fang-filled mouth descended to bite off her head.

Nova's eye rays lanced into the mutant slicing a vertical path through his jawbone. She seemed to fall back with his weight. How it looked was deceptive. She hit the ground using her flight to control the fall as her back hit the ground she pushed with her legs. Superhuman strength launched the bulky monster away sending him careening into several cars.

Vicky started to fly to Nova only to be knocked back by a backhand blow from Siberian.

"Uh uh uh. You have to play with Siberian first. You see I'm here for Amy, her power and mine would be such fun together. Siberian looks for people with wildness and fury. According to some little birds in Boston, you two had quite the gig going here. Crippling and uncrippling anyone who offended you. It made Siberian think maybe you have enough buried rage to be fun!" Bonesaw excitedly explained. As she climbed down the invincible woman's back.

"Run, get help!" Vicky yelled to Dean.

Stansfield started to run towards the doors. He would call the Protectorate once away from the villains then circle around to come at the Bonesaw from another angle. Spider-like mechs came down the side of the building. Cutting off his escape.

"No, I don't think so. We don't have to look for a prize when we have him. Now the rules are simple. I have built monsters that will attack Amy. She has to use her power to stop them before they get past her and kill lover boy. Once he's dead they'll try to get into the building and weed out the sick. Vicky will try to help while Siberian blocks her. Each failed attempt to get past Siberian will earn a forfeit. She will break or cut off something from GG. Ready? Steady, go!" the excited girl exclaimed.

Dean sprinted for the building again hoping to get away and use his phone to alert the Protectorate. Two of Bonesaw's mechanical spiders blocked his path. He dodged back looking for a way around. Right now they didn't know he was parahuman. That was a surprise that would be a game changer if used when it wasn't expected. He was willing to betray his secret identity to help the others but wouldn't until the payoff would be decisive.

Two vans slid into the parking lot. They end up pulling to a halt to disgorge patchwork capes built of mix-and-match pieces of Edict, Licit, Chuckles, Carnel, and Prophet.

Nova turned from her continued battle with Crawler. She tried to head toward the vans but before she could do anything her adversary lept upon her. The fankencapes rushed towards Amy. Vicky flew at them. She knew Siberian would intercept her but with no reliable way to stop the infamous monster Vicky had to rely on guile. She knew her own powers that would be core to her plan.

Siberian slammed into Victoria's forcefield. As the field popped, Victoria twisted to change direction and go between the killer's legs. Not having to push off the ground gave her a tight turn radius she rammed the first frankencape whose core was made of Carnel. He toppled over. Being knocked off balance he tried to reorient himself. Vicky made it barely an arm's length before the Edict and Licit frankencapes spun and launched the right and left Chuckle arms at her. She dodged the arms but not the hand that grabbed her leg.

Vicky was swung around by her ankle. First, she went upwards then down into the sidewalk pavement. Siberian snarled and grabbed Vicky's left hand. Teeth closing she bit off the young cape's pinky finger.

Victoria fought against pain and shock at her missing digit.

A whisper reached her ears. "Can, little sister fix that too?"

Blinking in surprise, Vicky flew backward. 'Siberian could talk?' she thought in shock. She was surprised to find Siberian allowed her to get the space. She realized it was part of the game she could head away from Amy and Dean but not toward them.

Amy had been attacked by the Chuckles-based frankencape. Dean was behind her. He had his car keys as a makeshift brass knuckle for all the good that would do against a brute.

Amy had done something to the former Slaughterhouse member while Vicky was busy. He was laughing and holding his belly with mismatched arms. Unknown to Victoria tumor-like growths formed inside releasing psychoactive compounds. Created with a quick modification of the work she'd used to help her father Mark with his depression.

Edict turned from attacking Victoria retracting her fold-out arm she threw it out again grabbing Chuckles. She pulled hard while kicking off the ground. Launching herself at Amy as she screamed a command.

"KILL!"

Edicts power was not a full control Master effect. However, scared and desperate Amy reacted without fighting the command. Her hand touched the former hero. Biological processes simply stopped as she hit the ground.

Amy stared in horror. Dean touched her back and summoned his power. A wave of calming power washed over her. She reached out for Licit who was climbing over Chuckles' back.

Chuckles suddenly grabbed Amy in a bear hug. Licit jumped down off Chuckles while creating a forcefield before landing. Carnel was back up and nearly upon them as well. Victoria had continued to try to get past Siberian. The feral woman grew wiser to the tricks Victoria was using. She was missing four fingers for her efforts. She suddenly flew away from the battle straight up into the air seemingly abandoning her loved ones.

Dean held both hands up and blasted Licit in the face. Drawing the maximum power he could channel the former hero's head disintegrated into ash.

"Oh! Wait hey! That wasn't part of the rules!" Bonesaw exclaimed.

Chuckles' body ripped apart like a rotten melon. Inside it revealed a cephalopodic nightmare of lashing tentacles and a snapping beak. Amy had created a limited-duration monster to shield them. It latched onto the approaching Carnel and started feasting. A wet snapping sound accompanied the beak cutting through bone and muscle. Carnel was sliced and swallowed as fast as the beast could gorge. The final frankencape with the prophet core attacked the beast but was scooped up in the tentacles. They crust it as fast as it could heal.

Amy grabbed Dean's hand as they ran for the Hospital. Dean was already pulling out his phone and calling the Protectorate. Bonesaw waved on her spiders.

"Cheaters never prosper! Two of you go, replace Licit. Kill people in the hospital!"

The nearest two ran after the teens. The ground suddenly shook knocking even the stable spider mechs over. Bonesaw had to pick herself up off the ground to see what had happened. Victoria had flown into the air and used a tactic similar to Nova's assault on Leviathan. With simple speed and force, she had made a devastating attack. She had picked up a cement pouring truck flown as high as she could and come down directly on Crawler. Her forcefeild had popped protecting her from the rebound of the impact and her ears and nose were bleeding.

Nova however was free to act she locked eyes with the tiny tinker then her eye ray started cutting a swath through the spider mechs. Siberian lunged for Bonesaw her touch saved the immature villian but when the eye ray hit her she popped out of existence.

The angry Nova became a blur as she moved at nearly full speed. Bonesaw's enhanced eyes couldn't track her. She felt the slender fingers bite like steel bands around her throat. She was lifted off the ground facing the furious literally burning eyes of what appeared to be a goddess made flesh.

"Your traps and tricks won't save you. I am going to vaporize every atom. Every bacteria, virus, and prion will cease to be."

She spoke not for Bonesaws benefit but so Amy and Dean would know not to approach a cone-shaped blast of power flashed into existence. -

Amy saw what happened next a fist came directly out of Nova's upper chest. The blood-soaked appendage pulled back leaving a hole through which Riley could see Siberian. Victoria had a better view of the Murderus cape appearing out of thin air just the way she had vanished with struck by Nova's eye ray. The grip on Riley immediately went slack. Nova fell in a heap.

Bonesaw rushed to the Siberian's side. The monster grabbed her and dashed away as quickly as she could. Dean Victoria and Amy ran to reach Nova each praying that Amy could save her life. Before they could make it even a quarter of the wave a green flash of light blinded them.

Where once their friend had lain now rested a green crystal. Its faceted irregular shape took up the entire space she once occupied. It strobed with an inner light that made them cautious to approach.

Endbringer containment and research facility.

AKA the Fortress.

Most of the systems onboard the Fortress were automated. Those that required human intervention were teleoperated. Human presence physically on site was only allowed under the most secure of situations. Plenty of scanning equipment swept the area for intruders. With no one onsite even the slightest disturbance of the air or change in humidity would cause the alarms to sound and security to investigate.

It was the collaborative effort of the world's greatest Tinkers. Mannequin had studied them all. This place was an offense to his sense of ego. It was a spherical shell made to completely isolate the inside. He knew he would have been at the head of this project before he changed its direction. It definitely used his old work as inspiration and that was unforgivable.

He would allow no resurrection of Sphere. Even the reminder of what he once had been had to be removed from existence. That this affront was luring people into the false comfort of hope only rubbed salt in the wound that its existence was to Mannequin.

There also was a certain fringe benefit to destroying this place. He cleared that from his mind as he proceeded. He had made it past the outer shell in a specialized body made of soft plastics. It was stealthy causing minimal disturbance to the water, the EM spectrum, and magnetic fields alike.

Slithering along he carefully wound about objects slithering like a serpent. There were a few things he needed to examine before he put his plan into motion. Mysteries he had to unravel before he could be sure they wouldn't protect the Fortress from his wrath.

Jack didn't know where he was. He had been careful to avoid him. The leader of the Nine has been so preoccupied with mastering the voices within that it limited his view of what was around him.

This was good for Mannequin. He normally was keen to go along with Jack's plans. He felt that of all of the Slaughterhouse Nine, he and Jack were closest in vision. They both wanted to strip the delusions from the world. He was focused on his fellow Tinkers while Jack sought to spread his lessons amongst humanity as a whole.

He would see what Mannequin was planning as worthy but too large and impersonal. Even the added prize wouldn't tempt Jack into letting this attack proceed. In the aftermath, he would perhaps understand its wisdom.

The first unknown wasn't what Mannequin was looking for. He was now directly under Leviathan. His sensors were more acute than mere eyesight. He could detect the atomic level distortion in the water above. When they surrounded the sphere they had pumped away the water that wasn't frozen in time. The sphere was falling but its deformation would take millennia to reach a noticeable level.

Just touching the sphere was a framework surrounding an object that appeared to be a metal drum or spool.

Capacitors fired magnetic fields with such strong gauss they would scramble a human brain. The energy surged through the room and then faded. Mannequin's defense held but his puzzlement increased. He held still after a minute and forty seconds the Capacitors fired again. Then again in another, then again in a third interval each time one hundred seconds.

Reassured he had not set off this effect by his presence he crawled further forward. He examined the device closer.

The spool was a sabot, an electromagnetic one it was part of a rail gun coil gun hybrid. The time field kept the object in place by its tip while the greater bulk was outside the temporal fields, the energy built and built. Every hundred seconds fifty thousand feet per second of velocity was dumped into the frozen object. For three weeks it had been running. Eighteen thousand one hundred and forty-four... five... six... times, it had run its continuous cycle.

Nova's lesson? Sheer acceleration against the resilient body of an Endbringer? He sent a hair-fine sensor stalk as close as he could. He was able to make out the payload inside. A sharp needle that consisted of Leviathan's own flesh. It was reshaped and hardened to be closer to the deeper levels. Designed to penetrate, then fragment.

The one hundred seconds drumbeat continued each cycle. Each added energy to the projectile. The frame was designed to slowly warp under the forces it was channeling. If left to run for centuries It would give out seconds after the payload was fully within the sphere. By that time each discharge would be adding negligible energy. The fight against the light speed limit would be lost.

Mannequin's mind whirled with possibilities. If he could turn it ninety degrees it would wipe out Brockton like a giant shotgun, Leviathan fragments would scour the city. If aimed down it would still wipe out Brockton. The shockwave would make earthquakes and tidal waves.

No, no he was getting distracted this wasn't what he came for. He started to crawl away to the next mysterious location.

This one was the jackpot. A bio computer that could interface with the Fortress controls. Mannequin had speculated that Dragon was likely a Monster Cape from how she hid from everyone. She was also some sort of changer able to take the form of data and transmit herself across networks.

This was going to become a trap for her. His specialized body started to flow into a new shape. Internal segments latched, artificial muscles linked to hard points. A gaunt humanoid formed out of the wriggling mass. As it did steel cables wiring and small hunks of technology were ejected.

Mannequin started to work. The steel cables made a frame that crossed over itself. The ends were then plugged into a device. That device pulled on both ends of the cable. That created tension. Tension forced the loops to pull on each other making honeycomb-like cells. The cells wove it into a spherical frame. More devices snapped into place along the frame. Laser welders would shear off the supports holding the bio-computer. Several inertialess thrust units to propel it where he wanted. Then his magnum opus a device he had engineered after studying the Greyboy time loops. Lastly, he patched in a data module that would attach to the severed feeds when the computer was cut free.

He would have to set off the Endbringer alarm. Once he did, Dragon would project herself into the computer. The sphere would cut off her retreat while launching itself with her as a captive. It would plunge Dragon into the temporal field trapping her. It would then invert its field to keep Dragon aware. She would be hopelessly stuck within the small sphere he had crafted. The data module was a distillation of arguments and rhetoric used by Jack to break capes. If the heroes ever recovered her with only a little luck they would not be bringing back an old friend. They would be unleashing a new convert to the faith of nihilism.

Once he had double-checked the work Mannequin returned to his slithering form. He then sent himself towards the other two locations he was unsure about.

They were not far from each other. The first was a complex device that he had to infer what it did from the data feed. It was a spatial warp. It was bending space to give the sensor arrays a timely means of analyzing Leviathan. He found the device curious but in the end, it mattered little to his plans.

There was a direct feed from it to the last mystery box. When he reached it Mannequin sent out sensor hairs again. It appeared to be one of Dr Danger's Dynamic Matrix Crystals only rather than a cube the size of a grain of salt it was a sphere the size of a large grapefruit.

What was most puzzling was it didn't appear to be doing anything. There were none of the indicators that the unit contained data. It was sitting inert plugged into a cradle that could write data into it. It wasn't linked to anything that would input such data. It was surrounded by some unusual shielding. After some study, he was fairly sure it was shielding against psionics. That looked like Armsmaster's doing.

He debated stealing it. He didn't see anything that would trigger if he took it. There was no way to get it out without breaking the shielding. The shield was odd. The entire Fortress had some psionic shielding meant to protect from the Simurgh. Why the increased protection here?

He felt like an answer was brushing the edge of his consciousness. A blaring klaxon derailed his thoughts. Endbringer alarm? He hadn't triggered that yet. His thoughts immediately went to Simurgh had she foreseen this and taken action?

He spun and slithered behind some thick pipes. His olfactory sensor picked up metal vaporizing. His trap was working! Then a shockwave hit, ripping the Fortress apart. Mannequin had taken shelter in one of the strongest parts of the structure. All he could do now was hold on.

His filament sensors extended around the pipes allowing him a view of the outside. The weird DMC globe was glowing with an intense internal light and the unit that had been warping space for the sensors was now overheating. The shell was giving off steam. Mannequin's sabotage device had hit the temporal sphere. That ensured Dragon was trapped with the collected works of Jack Slash ringing in her ears for eternity.

Above the fortress shattered sea water rushed into the working of the lower portions. Making some quick calculations Mannequin released his hold on the pipes and rippled his body. He worked with the onrushing wall of water. He was shooting out of the facility with a speed given by a mix of artificial muscle and harnessing the force of the incoming sea like a sail catching wind.

Outside he could see a distorted form far above the water. It glared down at the Fortress he was sure it briefly eyed him before discarding his presence as irrelevant. Mannequin continued away at top speed. Only time would tell how successful his mission was.