Something Awesome Beam (Worm - FGO Reincarnation Chapter 10)
Michael Chaser sighed. His helmet closed, guarding his face.
A moment passed.
The Triumvirate and Contessa attacked. Throughout the conversation they ended up surrounding Michael, each in an optimal position to strike if needed. The magus had no escape.
Another moment passed.
Michael vanished.
Alexandria and Legend barely caught the blur.
Eidolon's danger sense screamed, blaring at him. A portal opened at his side, before he could even comprehend that he been attacked.
Looking through it, Cauldron saw Michael crash land into the middle Nevada Desert no worse for wear. Eidolon noticed a slight piece of his hood had been cut. He pushed his density the maximum amount he could hold, without it compromising his movability.
The Triumvirate moved as one, their team work of thirty years making it so they needed minimum communication. Contessa easily slipped into her role between them, so seamlessly that, her actions weren't even noticed.
The Zahāk Suit glowed with blue Nordic symbols upon it. Michael stomped the ground once, and a massive magic circle was dug into the ground and shined blindingly upon forming. The ground started moving, getting sucked in.
Legend shot a wide intense beam to over the whole area Michael and his circle were in. The Protectorate Leader attack ended, and Cauldron saw dome of unidentified metal in Michael's place. It was as large as fortress and seemed as tough as one.
"He's trying to buy time." Contessa said to her teammate through their ear pieces.
Legend lasers spread out, hitting the dome from every direction, even underground. Nothing happened. Alexandria body slammed into the dome, but all she got was her tinker suit charging up from the rebounded kinetic energy.
Eidolon poured more of the amplification unto the portal power, making it glow much brighter in his mind. He made a single black disk, a dimensional rift going nowhere and threw it at the dome.
It cut through it like it wasn't there. Then the one dimensional disks became a hundred, cutting through the fortress, making it into glorified metal swiss cheese.
"Legend." Eidolon made a portal next to him. "Remember Orange-Blue?"
"Leviathan at Malpe?" Legend took a second to remember, and more importantly the strategy he used with the portal-making tinker, that one battle last year.
"Bingo." Eidolon smirked under his mask. Legend smirked and flew near sonic speeds into the portal.
Back on the ground, Michael had dodged another dimensional disk. The dome had crumbled around him. It had been metal all the way through--sans a small room Michael was staying it, away from the center, as that's an obvious point to attack--with enough dense Mystery, and physical composition to withstand near anything. For things it couldn't stop, it warned him enough to get out of the way.
Michael prepared his next spell, one for movement by manipulating time, when all the flying space saucers stop, angled themselves to surround and point at Michael.
Then they became portals.
Michael ducked and dashed away, a hair's width from being slammed into by a flying Legend.
The flying laser man entered into another portal, only to exit on Michael's right.
Michael moved. Dashing, ducking and weaving as the zooming Legend went from one portal to the next, attacking Michael like a living laser grid with a grudge against him.
At first Legend moved faster than sound, then he fully went hypersonic.
And then the laser barrages came.
"Oh great. Bullet hell in real life." Michael deadpanned.
It was as if all the lights in the sky were on the ground, and decided they wanted to introduce themselves to Michael. By vaporizing his face.
Only it was afterimage.
A minor illusion spell, useful when dodging at high speeds. The opponent would be confused for a second or two on which version is the real target they're trying to hit. A second or two were the difference of heaven and earth in combat.
The bulk of Michael's survival was on his own ability to dodge. Constantly moving to evade shots that would kill him, not taking even a moment to breath, while pushing his body through every magical mean, skill, and then ever further with a physical enhancement armor?
Yeah, he had been there. He was now in his flow.
And then Contessa dashed between the chaotic laser bullets, taking shots at Michael with a freeze ray from her tinker rifle.
She was close enough that he had to pay attention to her rapid shots, but far enough that he can't chase her, lest Legend manages to score a hit in.
Michael had to balance dodging laser, and then the occasional freezing shot.
Dash. Jump to the side. Twist body mid-air while deflecting a laser with one of his blades. Land, jump back, block a freeze shot with the blade. Duck, roll, jump, twist, parry laser.
Michael couldn't keep the grin off his face. He mentally whined that he couldn't do a clean dodge, of just evading attacks without needing to block or deflect some, but it was manageable.
Then it turned out Legend was just warming up, and the laser shot went from a few hundred, to the few thousand. Each individually racing toward him, and sometimes Legend would get sneaky and control a few specifically to act unlike the group they're flying in, to mislead him.
Michael had to use the second blade, and was now constantly moving his duel swords to defend himself from both capes' attacks. The last, third blade was still in it's sheath just glowing with blue runes. Few of Legend's shot would end up hitting, only for Michael to strategically, let them hit parts of his armor that can withstand it.
The battle between Legend and Contessa--with Eidolon's portals assistance--against Michael was like an art show. Michael weaving, slashing and dodging beams of light from Legend, while Contessa dashed and fired at Michael between Legend's lasers, like she was dancing between raindrops.
Then Alexandria came in like a wreck ball to smash the flow of combat.
If the fighting between Michael, Contessa and Legend was an orchestra of death, complex with hundreds of moving parts, yet beautiful, artful even in viewing it, like a delicate deadly circus act; Alexandria was like a bullhorn, ramming right through everything toward her goal.
Yet Alexandria's role was also accounted for by Contessa. The Superwoman was meant to break the rhythm of battle. Be the element of absolute disruption.
Michael jumped to the side, right into Legend's incoming outstretched speedster tackle arm.
Zahāk Suit automatic evade system activated, ready to shift Michael a few inches in space to avoid the hit.
Where he would land right into Contessa's fired ice shot. Michael was already feeling immensely heavy from Eidolon's shaker power, increasing his opponent's weight.
Michael forced his feet to stay still, despites the suit's attempt to move him to protect him, and dug his place into the ground.
Contessa's eyes widened. This wasn't in the Path. This isn't what's suppose to happen according to the next step.
Michael took Legend's hit dead on, launching him off the ground, enough to flip him upside down like a rag doll. The Zahāk Suit only glowed icy blue upon taking the hit, like it was absorbing heat. The pain from the hypersonic hit should have been enough to rattle the magus's organs, even with the armor on.
Except Michael seemed undeterred, enough to move with the arm slam to pull his legs in, and lightning fast finished his flip, and twisted to be under the flying Legend.
Then he took all that momentum and smashed a glowing fist into Legend's chin.
"DOOR! LEGEND, P.T.S10!" Contessa shouted.
Legend had been launched in a long arc, two miles away one second after the hit. He was unconscious.
A rectangle door opened to one to Cauldron's power testing facilities. Legend slammed into a blaster testing machine, before falling onto a tinker medical bed, placed by Contessa earlier this morning. His breaker state meant that he took no damage, but the force he was hit with, overloaded him and forced him into blacking out.
"Legend." Alexandria spoke into her ear piece, while launching her at Michael, a punch thrown and a concussive beam fired. Michael twisted out of the way, and slashed upward, firing an energy wave from his blade in turn.
"Secure on Earth-C in a medical bed. Will be back soon." Was Contessa's to the point reply, one that also reassured Eidolon. "Hold onto the portal power." She told Eidolon and ran, firing her rifle at Michael, the shot going between Alexandria's blow, and around her body, coming from unexpected blind spot.
Michael dodge it all or would parry some he couldn't. He avoided a blow from Alexandria, cut through a concussive beam toward one of her gauntlets, only for Alexandria to twist and take the blade to her shoulder. The futuristic magic sword went through that part, of her armor like it was paper, but stopped at her skin.
A faint scratch was left behind.
It shouldn't have been possible given the stasis Alexandria's body was in. The hero understood that the blades can a function to bypass durability. Yet it seemed like the damage was minuscule. Alexandria resolved not to give him even a chance to bring 'death by a thousand cuts'.
Contessa kept her distance. She tried to distract Michael by firing at the sheathed third blade, that was just ominously glowing blue symbols in it's sheath, but a forcefield around it, seemed to cancel all attacks, and only the armor glowing a bit, then nothing happened. Legends attacks had hit it a few time, yet just like them, Contessa's molecule energy drain ray, seemed to do nothing.
In truth, the forcefield around the third blade, was a Bounded Field of Sacrifice. It worked by taking all attacks and damage, aimed at the sheathed blade, and sending it to the armor, which naturally absorbed what damage it could.
After the third time Michael deflected a freeze ray from Contessa, this time at her teammate--which did nothing--the thinker dashed in for a close-up confrontation, her rifle changing to a blade vibrating at the atomic level.
Each clash between sword would cause flashing sparks, and a loud whine that could be heard for miles. Then Alexandria would tag in, kicking or punching at the magus, at he couldn't stop her attack, full on, but avoid or at best redirect them. Through it all Contessa wonder what power he use to spoof her Path.
"You're predictable." He said jumping back from another of Alexandria's round kick, right into Contessa's slash.
The blade locked and howled, as an energy edge faced a chain-vibrating edge.
"Do something unexpected. Break the flow. The last thing I expect happens." A portal opened behind Michael, and a flying Eidolon came through fist out. Michael slash at him, only for a portal to reflexively open, the blade going through it, and coming out from another portal at Michael's neck.
Michael let go of the blade, ducked and then dashed toward Alexandria, dodging her swing, by spinning, ending up behind her and slamming a Rune into her back. His open hand slam didn't move her, the Rune for space did.
Alexandria didn't slam into Eidolon, but rather bounced off, as he changed her weight to being featherlight.
That attack of using Alexandria into Eidolon cost, Michael though, as Contessa had succeeded in stabbing the vibro-sword into his side.
But now he caught her. Her hand in his grip.
"It got old after the first two times." Michael grinned under his helmet.
"And yet, you're the one injured."
Eidolon's portal appeared an enveloped Contessa's, instantly bring her back to the remaining Triumvirate side, sans her blade.
"Meh, worth it." He learned that he could trick her by having one of his rooms make a plan, and not tell the rest of his partitions, letting him act unexpectant, all of a sudden when needed. Now three of his rooms where syphoning Od for their own ends, and not telling him. Even Michael didn't know what he's planning.
What fun. The Ex-Master of Chaldea smiled. Oh, there's one now. One of the rooms opened up, letting out the the plan he had.
Michael pulled the vibro-sword out of his gut, without so much as changing his expression. The Suit and his healing spells already working to fix him. He turned off the vibroblade and placed it in the empty sheath. Red runes started glowing upon it and a Sacrifice Bounded Field enveloped it. He then used the return function of the sword he dropped, so it would teleport into his free hand.
"You got lucky with Legend. That won't happen again." Alexandria said as he flew at supersonic speeds at him.
"Luck is a skill." Michael answered as he moved to attack, aiming to stab Alexandria's tinker armor in places important to it's structure, to start undoing it.
Eidolon joined in from a portal, his increased density making his attack feel like a mountain hitting you, and just as difficult to injure, at least if Michael could get a hit in, and not deal with the automatic portal defense.
Michael's body felt heavy as he dashed, but the Suit corrected for that by manipulating space to move him at the correct speed he should be at.
Contessa looked at her hand in alarm.
"Door." A portal opened under Contessa, which she fell through out of a battlefield. She landed upright into a tinker machine for debugging computer systems from viruses. It seemed that was Michael's intention in grabbing her.
On top of everything, he has technomancy. How annoying. Contessa decided it was time to overwhelm Michael Chaser completely. The Path was changing steps rapidly for a while, before finish setting itself back in a stable form, the step numbers holding once again.
Within seconds the debugging finished, Contessa was back in the Nevada Desert, only to see Michael having maneuvered away from Alexandria and closer to Eidolon, thrust his arm about to stand Eidolon with a hand knife, while holding a blade with his thumb in a reverse grip. Except his middle finger touched Eidolon's side doing nothing, then Michael instantly closed his fist forward before jumping back as Eidolon had a portal under his clothes on his skin to take the sudden impact force. A portal opened next to Michael's head with the force release, that rattled his helmet a bit.
"Portal can take any shape, huh. Neat." Michael his voice from the armor's speakers echo-y a bit before adjusting and going back to normal. He readjusted his grip on his swords and prepared to attack.
Then a small chunk of David's side exploded, throwing out flesh and blood from the point Michael managed to touch.
"David!" Alexandria shouted and placed herself between Michael and Eidolon, throwing her fist out, releasing all the energy in her suit in one singular beam.
Rather than dodge, Michael crossed his blades in an X and took the concussive laser head on.
Contessa was at Eidolon's side to help. It was unneeded as Eidolon switched the density power for a healing one, but now Contessa wasn't sure, as the only time Eidolon had ever been injured or taken by surprise, was the Siberian.
This was why Contessa hated anomalies. Straight up blindspots can be deal with. Easily even. People needed to interact with other people. Someone will know the blindspot's powers because people need to talk to one another. Blindspot can have a profile written up for, a model made for the Path and if need be, eliminated.
Anomalies can be semi-pathed, and thus one could think they know how they will act and deal with them. Only to turn up wrong, as part of their power was to fool thinker agents with negative information. Or Contessa thinks she can model them, only for the anomaly to act different to the Path, while her power doesn't notice.
Cauldron's goal was difficult enough with the Endbringers and Scion, being unpathable as a model can't be made for them. Just as they appear, but those model never produce correct result, as they are made by Cauldron's human speculation. No real data. They couldn't afford anther unexpected wrench in all their schemes. Not when all of humanity was on the line.
Huh. For a moment, Contessa felt like she could...not model Scion and the remaining Endbringers, but...it was like the mist obscuring Scion was lifting in places.
Is this also an effect of Michael Chaser? Can it be trusted? Contessa thought. No. She killed the hope that sprang in her heart.
She won't place hope on anything again. It was all false. Cauldron had almost lose the only silver bullet they knew of. An asset, a person, that was irreplaceable for mankind's chance at salvation.
"Eidolon," she spoke as Eidolon was now in full health again. "Initiate Damned Army."
The codename started out as joke to an idea, one that Cauldron solidified as an emergency plan for opponents weaker than Endbringers, those that they can possibly kill, that they have to kill.
"Seriously?" Eidolon was taken aback, but proceeded to throw away the healing power for a thinker power with massive range.
"Yes. No more holding back." Contessa's suit was up and running with the needed programs. She made a gun from her nanobots, fired a tinker bullet with an cyber virus through a bullet-sized Door that was open for a millisecond.
Eidolon couldn't a grin in excitement.
It's not everyday that a "big gun" that had been made and discarded gets to be used.
x=
At Ellisburg and Eagleton an even happened so quickly that few noticed it.
A marble sized portal appear in the sky above both towns.
Then the marble exploded into a dome of black mist, covering each town respectively, and then collapsed on itself and vanished.
All in the space of millisecond.
It would be precious few minutes later that the watchers of both sites realized that their prisoners had been abducted. Well, escaped from their perspective.
The Goblin King and his creations were gone from Ellisburg, and the Machine Army was gone from Eagleton.
x=
Miles above in the Nevada sky, both portals released their content. Nilbog and his flesh monsters panicked and shouted in surprise and rage. The Machine Army worked on the new directives they took in.
For a few seconds ago a virus tried to corrupt the self-replicating, self-enhancing AI machines. Of course they adapted and vanquished the virus, and that in itself was the trick. The virus was self-enhancing as well. The Machine Army was faster due to having more parallel processes working, but in trying to adapt faster than the virus they changed themselves in a way that made them perfect for control.
Contessa's control, through her tinker suit.
Thus the instant both parties appear, the Machine Army pounced on the Goblin Army.
And assimilated them.
Nilbog and his goblins were turned into mechanized being, creatures of flesh and machine all under the Strongest Thinker's rule.
It was a regretful thing for Contessa as both armies hadn't reached the apex of what they could have been. Chances of improvements were down by a margin, as each improvement both factions could reach on their own was gone, and now only enhancements that were for both was left. Some creativity that Nilbog and the Machine Army independently had was gone.
And in it's place was a self-replicating army of no limits, that reminded her of a sci-fi show she saw once as a child. The Mechanized Goblins were linked with all the various powers the Goblins individually had now shared among all, and everything about their physiology was improved orders of magnitude by the machines.
Michael's head snapped upward when the portals opened. The monsters they released, with one sublimating their other, were miles away falling at terminal velocity.
Alexandria tried to capture on his surprise, only to get hit in the chest and freeze in place as another space Rune took hold.
Michael jumped back and slammed his hand into the ground. Five magic circles spread out around him. They shined luminously, and when they were done five light blue solid holographic figures where in place. They looked like phantoms, the ghostly projections were of a French woman with scowl on her face and a flagpole in her hand. Another was a medieval knight with helmet that had large horns on the side and an oversized hip armor.
The last three however disturbed Cauldron.
One was obviously Majin Saber, and the other two were Legend and Alexandria.
"Go!"
The ghost projection moved, only upon leaving their place, another version was left behind. Then that version moved, and left another behind. This continued till there were ten of each ghost projection.
The Copy Servants then launched themselves at descending Mechanized Goblins, and the war continued.
Alexandria quickly noticed that her and Legend's copies were slower, and seemed weaker than the real deal. The skill in which the ghosts moved were however the same as the real deal.
Copy Servants was something Michael worked on for a while, after seeing the Shadow Servant system. Despite the name they weren't really Servants, just apparitions in their shape, with the downloaded power and skill, a weak imitation of Noble Phantasms, and none of the actual Servant's egos. Of course, since they aren't really Servants, one of real people can be done to. However, due to their nature as phantoms, their overall color is by default just white or blue, with their bodies being a bit some transparent (like a ghost).
However, even as copy, Michael's ghost army was enough so he could observe the Mechanized Goblins, and have some breathing room to deal with Cauldron.
And that's when Legend from ten miles out, shot Michael in the chest with a tinker sniper rifle, firing a condescended energy bolt at light speed.
x=
In the sky the Mechanized Goblins and the Copy Servants clashed.
The initial bout going to the ghosts, as the Copy Servants slaughtered the Mecha Goblins. Of course that's when everything started going wrong.
Mecha Goblins that were bisected would absorb fire attacks from Copy Jeanne Alters, and reform as two new monsters. Those cute by Copy Majin Sabers to piece would be consumed by the others, to add their biomass to their own.
Copy Alexandrias had better luck of herding a group close together, to be finished off by Copy Legends and Copy Mordreds.
The Copy Jeanne Alters modified their attacks to focus on brute damage, or only use their fire on monsters too weak, or flesh pieces too small to reform.
It was a war of attrition slowly, so very slowly being won by the Copy Servants. Except victory was a mirage that would disappear with the smallest mistake.
Back on the ground Michael forced himself to stand up. His armor was visibly damaged, a large heating crack spread out from the center chest piece. Visible within his ruptured chest plate was the marble acting as the Suit central processing unit, and behind it the marble summoning site.
Of course the reassembled Triumvirate capitalized on this chance. Legend portaled in by Eidolon, now acting as a flying sniper that shoot lightspeed bullets. Alexandria tried to overwhelm the Zahāk Suit's self-repair system by slamming concussive omnidirectional blast aggressively at the entirely of Michael, focusing more on range to hit than concentrated damage.
Eidolon's remote viewing power was switched for a combat thinker power, with shockwave manipulation, and a healing factor from concussive force.
And of course Contessa was a cheating cheater who cheats, by getting a tinker sniper rifle of her own and engaging in trick shots.
Electric arcs enveloped Michael as he moved at the speed of lightning to pull back from onslaught. Except for Eidolon to teleport to his side with Alexandria in tow. Legend had a helmet to help guide his shots, so longer range wasn't a problem.
For the most part Michael didn't have a problem evading Cauldron's attacks, but with the Suit damaged, the Thor Empowerment Matrix was damaging his nerves, and slowly his internal organs. The Zahāk Suit was meant to take the brunt of the side effect of those spell sequences. Michael was not effectively forcing the Suit to puppet his body, while self-repairing.
At least with the speed he was moving, he had some breathing room to counter act.
The Mechanized Goblin Army landed on the ground around Michael and Cauldron. There were over a eight thousand of them and increasing.
Okay, time for some sky space. Michael put more of his focus on the Copy Jeanne Alters. He had four of them use a sacrifice ritual spell, that enveloped them in flames, before combining and making an ethereal imitation of a Dragon Kind. Then the remaining Copy Jeanne Alter took command of it, strengthening it further, getting it close to an acceptable counterfeit of what a pinnacle of the Phantasmal Species was.
Using his connection the Copy Servant, Michael displaced his location to atop the imitation dragon. Getting some space from the monster horde. Of course the teleporting Eidolon wasn't far behind. And brought his friends along.
The battle field changed. Now Michael and Copy Jeanne Alter fought Cauldron atop the imitation dragon, while Contessa took focused the Mecha Goblin armies to finish off the Copy Servants.
"You know, I'm actually sorry we couldn't work together." Eidolon said as he engaged Michael to hand-to-sword combat.
Michael couldn't land a hit, as anything actually threatening could be taken by Eidolon's automatic portal defense, and then a portal would open to connect the slash back at Michael. The few times Michael did manage to tag Eidolon did little to nothing as his shockwave manipulation disperse the energy, and it had gotten much harder to hit Eidolon with his combat-thinker power.
"Don't count your chickens yet. It ain't over till it's over." Michael grinned back.
Then Legend zapped down, attack Michael from above, the tinker sniper rifle having a knife option. The blade was made from the Simurgh's core, and then slashed right through Michael's helmet, down to his chest and leg. It was only Copy Jeanne Alter's maneuvering of the imitation dragon, and slashing her flagpole at Legend that slapped the Laser Hero away. Copy Jeanne Alter had done so, by dashing into the spot Alexandria was attacking from, taking a hit for Michael and stopping the Brute Superwoman in place for precious few moments.
In those seconds as the Copy Servant dispersed into energy motes, Alexandria briefly wondered if the ghost was actually sentient before dismissing the thought.
"No, this is it, Michael." Eidolon said, almost sad to end a fight with one he could consider an equal.
Then the area around them was swarmed by the Mecha Goblins.
Contessa had the Mecha Nilbog alter his creations to grant them flight, which combined with the Machine Army's computation resulted in the mechanized army to gain gravity control.
Even with the Copy Servants cutting down their numbers, the Mecha Goblin overwhelmed as their durability had multiple facets than constitution, able to withstand heat and force, and even grow from it. Their regeneration was bizarre and alien, healing even with no central nervous system, only stopping when becoming too small to act. Even when they fall, they reform and multiple, or strengthen their brethren.
The Path had lead Contessa to taking down the Copy Servants efficiently, using only the needed numbers, while the rest went to reinforce the Triumvirate.
When the last Copy Servant was broken to pieces, Contessa took the Mecha Nilbog as her steed and flew up to the others.
"No it isn't." Michael said back.
Legend attempted to finish off Michael, only the magus to anticipate him, and swing back, catching him by surprise.
His arm was stopped by Eidolon teleporting and grabbing Michael's arm forcing him into place. Alexandria had been portaled right the instant Eidolon moved, and matched him grabbing Michael's other arm, leaving the magus wide open Legend to spear.
Michael let the imitation dragon divebomb toward the ground, as it turned and Breathed fire at Legend.
Eidolon and Alexandria used their flight to stay in place.
"Even if your powers weren't from an Agent, you couldn't have won against ours." Alexandria said.
"Why is that?" Michael laughed, but secretly grew nervous. If he used all his powers, he could get out of this, but he needed to keep Contessa's power in mind, and it adapting to him.
Okay, guess it's time for a full on teleport spell, and then...? Should I call Edina for back up? No, not yet at least, I think I have--
"Because that's the limits of humans." Eidolon's answer cut Michael's train of thought.
"...What?"
If the stillness of Michael's voice surprised Eidolon and Alexandria, they didn't show it. Yet they couldn't help but note it's oddity, as he was easy-going and joyful thus far. They could now see his expression, through the open crack of his helmet, showing half his face.
His eyes were deadly focused on Eidolon.
"I mean, even you are using the power of something beyond humans." Said Eidolon.
"Abby is a back-up. You don't start with having your main plan first. Besides, your powers comes from the source of the thing you want to kill." Michael said back.
"But it's under our control, thus we can direct it to the optimal result." Alexandria added.
Legend was blasting the imitation dragon in the face, damaging from a versatility of lasers, and closing in on his teammates holding Michael on the dragon's back.
"Bullshit, you never tried to enhance human ingenuity or technology. Progress came to a fucking halt from tinker tech, how is that optimal." Michael spat out, actually beginning to sound angry.
"Because human can't win against Scion. Only powers like the ones he has can. That's our only path. The correct path." Eidolon said back with conviction.
Michael grew quite. The ground coming closer.
Legend with the help of Contessa's organized mecha army, managed to destroy the wings and the head of the imitation dragon. It's body held but it was slowly breaking.
"'There is a hostile sky above me. Man will never conquer space'."
Alexandria and Eidolon looked confused at Michael, trying to place the quote he was saying. Contessa's head snapped toward the held Michael. The steps exploded, the numbers going up to thousands, and down to ten in a span of instants, trying to recalibrate.
"'He may live in it, but he will never conquer it'."
"Legend, get him now." Contessa said urgently in her ear piece.
The lightspeed hero launched himself toward the magus, bayonet at ready.
"The sky above is void and very black and very hostile'."
Legend stabbed Michael through the heart.
He meant to get the marbles that made up the Suit's heart and the summoning site behind it, but Michael took manual control of the automatic systems, to shifted space and divert the stab.
Eidolon was frozen. The sheer rage in Michael's eye made him forget his own strength for a moment.
"Fuck. That."
The Triumvirate, and even the far away Contessa, and all the Mecha Goblins, felt Michael's wrath like it was a physical thing. Eidolon somehow felt that this wasn't an empathic power, just the sheer emotion projected off of Michael. He dismissed the thought the next moment.
In that moment of desultory, everything went wrong for Cauldron.
Michael's breathing changed and the speakers on his Suit exploded to life with visible soundwaves.
Magical energy exploded off of Michael as he shut off all Memory Partition, finding out what the two hiding were planning, and taking in those plans. The force of the energy and soundwaves blew away Legend, and shot the tinker rifle out of his chest.
Michael's arm snapped from Eidolon's grip, simply overcoming his shockwave manipulation, and slugged Alexandria right in the face. His arm exploded into chunks of blood and flesh within the armor.
Contessa watched as Alexandria was shot through the ghostly dragon finishing breaking it to motes of light, and flying with enough speed to burn in the atmosphere before slamming into the ground, with enough force to make a giant dust cloud explosion, and form a massive crater with cracks along the ground.
With her tinker suit speeding up her perception, she saw in horror that Alexandria's tinker armor broke to pieces along with her helmet, and blood was falling from her face.
Eidolon used his combat-thinker skills to punch the free falling Michael, and release massive amount of amplified shockwaved, focused on the magus.
Michael's Suit let him float, long enough to combine his two magic blades into a claymore, and dash on a wind surface to meet Eidolon head on.
Eidolon's reflexive portal defense opened directly in front of him, usually saving him. Unlike before however, there wasn't one portal but multiple, stacking upon each other.
Michael's blades glowed, the magic circles on them activating, letting Michael use a concept he never had the chance to use in battle.
Affirming Reality.
Gaia constantly fought against magic as it was against the natural order. Thus magic spells or constructs broke down overtime due to that erosion.
So what happens when something affirms the natural order? Something that says, 'space should exist in uniformity, and no shortcuts should be allowed'?
All cape powers worked based on physics so advanced it might as well be magic. Yet, human logic hadn't reached that point.
Thus with a magical means, Michael reinforced the idea that the shortest distance between Point A and Point B was a straight line.
Eidolon's eyes widened as he saw the glowing blade cut through the portal, unmaking them as it went through.
It was too late when he realized he would be hit.
Blood spurred from the cut across his chest, as the force blew him back at Mach speeds toward the ground. Pain wasn't a new concept, but it was never like this.
Contessa realized too late that the Mecha Goblins were erratic, their were no longer fully under her control. She could force Mecha Nilbog to obey her and the ones close by, but the rest seemed enraged and captivated by the metal music, like it was a siren song.
Michael opened up his Suit falling out of it. The sheathed sword broke off, and floated by his side. The blood from his ruptured arm flowed into the inside of the armor as if with a will of it's own. Then the Zahāk Suit closed and blasted off toward the ground with the majority of the Mecha Goblins following it.
Michael stabbed his own chest with his hand and ripped his own heart out.
With his messed up hand, that was mostly bone, he puppeted his own body, and he pulled Contessa's vibro-sword and brought his heart to it. The sword and heart glowed and combined transforming into a red arrow.
A lot of Formalcraft is ritual. And actions are the greatest rituals of all.
The Zahāk Suit, while holding and allowing many magic spells to be cast, was in itself a ritual construct. It's just was to gather energy through combat, to be used for golem making.
Michael was by his own definition adequate at Golemmancy. He would rather improve an existing robot or lifeform than make one from scratch. The reason was probably because the first successful golem he ever made had the personality of Mash. Michael never made a golem willingly again, as he loathed himself for devaluing Mash's uniqueness by making more of her.
But now needs must, and now he had to finish the giant golem to fight Cauldron, and their monster army.
However, the Suit didn't gather enough energy, thus he used his blood to compensate the ritual requirements.
The Zahāk Suit exploded as it hit the ground, forming a massive dome of red energy that started sucking up everything around it, including the Mecha Goblins.
Michael then floating with a weakening flying spell, formed a bow and shot the red arrow straight into the sky, flying at Mach speeds.
"Legend, destroy that arrow, it's aimed at Cauldron's base!" Contessa shouted in her communicator. She understood then, the virus Michael originally infected her with wasn't to control or mess up her tinker armor, but give him a beacon to Cauldron's Earth when she went to quickly get ride of it.
Legend flew after the arrow which in seconds reached the thermosphere and vanished.
"Door, Legend, Base 100m up." Contessa ordered.
Legend vanished into a portal to Cauldron Earth. The arrow finished it's ascend, then it exploded into ten thousand copies, all heading down toward Cauldron's base.
Legend didn't let appearances fool him, and shot the arrows with intense force. He was right, each arrow that wasn't destroyed completely exploded with a force of 5 kilotons of TNT.
He was going to be there for a while.
Back on Earth Bet, Contessa saw the broken and maim Michael still floating in the sky. Except now he was focused on her. A bow in his hand, and the other sheathed sword was transformed into a blue arrow, aimed right at her.
It was already launched by the time she noticed it.
"Door--"
"Door to Dragon's Servers." Contessa's voice said.
Contessa saw a copy of herself next to her, identity in every way, but it had no physical presence, it was a painting on reality. An illusion. Just one real enough to fool Clairvoyant and Dookmaker.
"Cancel Door!"
Contessa had already moved to avoid the blue arrow, only for it to home in on her. The rectangle portal was only a centimeter wide when Contessa canceled the order, but it was enough for the arrow to go through.
x=
In Vancouver, Canada, where the Tinker Hero, Dragon's servers, effectively her brain was stored, a large explosion erupted, and enveloped her home in a blue dome of energy.
In his secret hideout, Saint screamed at Dragon's sudden end, and with it his chance at freeing Teacher.
x=
At the Nevada Desert which now looked like a war zone, Contessa looked on to see something forming from the cloud of red energy, eating up everything around it even the ground.
Michael's floating spell had ended and he was now in freefalling. The Path told her he was also regenerating.
Like fucking hell!
"Door!"
Contessa dropped down on Michael from above tinker blade in hand. Michael twisted from the swing, then slapped her arm away, only for her to twist and grab him shorting the blade to a knife, and try to stab him.
Michael knew pankration, and moved out of Contessa's hold to spin the knife back at her, only for her hold him with her legs, and twist to end up on his back. Michael spun to throw her off, and to punch her in the sternum, only for her to break off, holding onto his shoulder and going in for a stab again.
The two tumbled, spinning toward the ground at terminal velocity, each trying to stop the other.
Finally they slammed into the ground, a crater and a dust cloud forming.
Out of the dust cloud, two figures were slowly becoming visible. One kneeing over the other.
As the dust settled, the figures were visible.
Contessa over Michael, holding a knife in his throat. The knife right through the spine, then Contessa twisted breaking his neck.
Michael tried to reach for her, only for Contessa to easily slap his hand away.
His limb fell down, and there was no more movement. Michael Chaser was dead.
The Path normalized and the steps were stable again.
Contessa move off the corpse, and began the Path for getting Majin Saber on their side on the day of the eventual battle.
Eidolon had gotten back up with a healing power, but a scar persisted in place. His portal power was depleted and so was the amplification one. The healing power took the portal power's place, and mover power took over the amplification power's place.
Alexandria had dug her way out of the crater she was in, flying to reach her teammate regrouping, mainly because her body felt heavy. Tired heavy. She was feeling her body getting back to normal in moment, but she could tell, she now had another scar on her face.
The Cauldron members looked at themselves, and there was the slight relief it was over, before the exasperation of dealing with the fallout.
Then Michael's Resurrection Runes carved under his skin kicked in, and his body instantly fixed itself.
Path to Victory went erratic again.
"...no." Contessa looked back to see Michael standing and dusting himself off. His previously mangled arm visible fine, not a scar in place.
Eidolon and Alexandria looked on in stunned shock as well.
"But he died right?" Alexandria asked toward Contessa.
"Yes, I am sure of it." Contessa said back.
"What?" Michael shouted back, having heard them. "Did you guys think just because you killed me, that would stop me?"
As if watching a scene from a nightmare, the cloud of red energy happened to be behind Michael, and visibley in the distance, it condensed finish building the magical construct.
A giant golem, shaped three-headed dragon made of metallic scales, and breathing out atomizing plasma.
"Now then," Michael spread his arms out, the metal song continuing, making Contessa have to struggle, and actively focusing on keeping the Mecha Goblins under control. "Let's talk about limits."
Michael made the single room in his mind run on a third order tetration. All concentration on the actions he will take right now, with singular focus.
Michael blurred into action, appearing in Cauldron's midst attacking Eidolon. The Trump Hero blocked the punch, feeling pushed back, but rerouted the force, rotated his arm to parry, and slam the shockwave forward. Only for Michael throw an uppercut, that redirected all that force, pulling it with his punch, and smacked into Eidolon's jack, dazing him for a moment. The exchange took less than a second.
Alexandria and Contessa were already in motion, one attempting to grab him, the other made a vibro-blade to stab him. Contessa gave the Mecha Goblin Army the order to destroy the three-headed dragon at all cost, making that order their only priority. That helped
Michael gabbed and broke the atom vibrating sword from the sharp end, and then bashed Alexandria over the head with it, filling it with magical energy from a purposely blotched up Reinforcement, and letting the explosion rattle the Brute Heroine's equilibrium.
It became very quickly and abundantly clear that battle was not in their favor. Or even advantageous to them. Michael was no longer evading, or parrying Alexandria's attack, but actively blocking, redirecting, and even inflicting damage on her, superficial as it might be for now.
Eidolon's combat-thinker power was going in full swing, as he tried to find a way to land a hit on Michael, or get him off balance, but to no avail. He let go of his mover power to get something that can throw some damage--
Eidolon's head slammed back from the surprise hit. His healing power, and the healing factor from the combat-thinker working overtime to bring him back. He was fine but surprised.
Except he didn't even have time for that, as Michael was upon him. Leading him away from the group, and overwhelming his combat power with literal lightning fast attacks. A power that made homing energy spears came, but he didn't even had a chance to use it, as he was focusing on surviving, the shockwave manipulation, and healing powers working to keep him alive. He formed a single energy spear, only for Michael to grab it and throw it at Contessa who dodge, and the spear slammed into Alexandria's shoulder flipping her in place from the power of the spear, and the force it was thrown with.
"You need 0.023 seconds to switch powers. You're basically a walking billboard saying 'hit me'."
Michael palm struck Eidolon in the chest, and then forcibly took all the shockwaves and broke through the Trump's control, blasting the hero back, the force pushing the air, and breaking the ground in it's wake as Eidolon was launched away.
"And then you need minutes to master your power. Minutes. You might as well take a rain check."
"Eidolon!" Alexandria couldn't believe her eyes. Eidolon had been overwhelmed.
"You," Michael was now in her face. She attacked, using every martial skill she knew, and working with Contessa to land a hit in. Yet Michael slap and redirected her blows away like her strength couldn't faze him. "I commend you for actually bother to learn martial arts, and not just coast on your strength. Too bad for you, never having anyone of equal strength as skilled results in this."
Michael let a blow pass, then grabbed Alexandria's arm, and twisted it behind her, before turning himself, flipping her over his shoulder and slammed her head first into his knee. Brain rattled but not out of the fight, Michael finish off by place a space Rune on Alexandria that had her froze in place mid-air, and very slowly falling down.
"You're other weakness is you die if you don't breath. At least if you getting a concussion is a clue."
He made the ground under her head become quicksand, and turned to catch a swing from Contessa.
Only for the Thinker to jump back having dropped a bomb into the quick sand. Michael dashed after Contessa to be on the offensive, and avoid the cement transmutating effect of the bomb, that made the quicksand into concrete.
"And then there is you."
Michael attacked Contessa, moving faster and sharper than she ever experienced before. His blows strained her tinker suit to keep up in absorbing energy, and fixing it self, while letting her move and fight at the speed and strength required to match him.
Their movement were a cracked the ground with each step, their punches and kicks whistled through the air, and their hits left shockwaves in contact.
"Your power really is perfect."
Michael was using not only his millennia of combat experience, but every Reinforcement spell he knew, and even pulling out Walking and Breathing, to throw away physical rules and limits applying to him.
"It does have one small limit."
Contessa tried to door away, only for Michael to project the Zahāk Suit claymore he had, and cut right through the rectangle space distortion.
"You." Contessa heard him say from behind her, before she felt his elbow snap into her back, launching her away, tumbling a few times over the ground, before she flipped and righted herself again, to stand up.
"You ask the question." Michael was in front of her with his leg up. She jumped away, avoiding the chop kick, that split the ground. "And if the first question, you're main objective as you envision it is wrong, then every step that follows, even when they are right, will lead you down the wrong path."
Contessa landed away, then spread her arms to the side, and used the tinker suit's emergency barrier. A reflexive hexagon dome shield covered her. It wasn't made of dimensional energy, but tinker material that reflected energy.
"Really?" Michael said with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Then switched gears. "You know what, let's talk about Legend."
A magic circle appear on the back of his hand, then Michael brought his hand up. Just then a lightspeed bullet had hit Contessa's shield, and hit Michael's hand, dead on in the center of the mini-magic circle. In that very instant, the lightspeed bullet actioned on Newton's third law, and all the energy it had perfected reflected back, causing the bullet to fly back using the same exact path, going back to the muzzle of Legend's tinker sniper rifle and blowing it up.
"Shit!" Legend was unharmed by the rifle blowing up as his breaker state took the damage.
He flew to the battle site, quickly reaching where Contessa was hiding behind her shield, Alexandria was frozen upside down in the air, and Eidolon was getting back up to his feet.
"You were listening through the communicators, so I'll just get right into it." Michael said.
"Sorry, I already left school behind." Legend said back, about to zap Michael with his lasers.
Only for Michael to take a step and end up in front of Legend and grab his face.
"It's difficult for you to think when your brain is made of light."
Legend's glowed as he was about to explode energy in all direction and get Michael in the process. Yet, the energy stayed in his body, just getting stronger and stronger as the world grew slower.
Michael took another step, and was back on the ground, spun and throw the laser man at Eidolon.
The Trump had a new power that made force field that slowed down movement. He caught his friend used as a spear, then turned it off. Legend had recover at that point.
"Thanks." Said Legend.
"No problem, but what the hell do we do now. We're losing. How the fuck are we losing?" Eidolon said with pressing need.
"I dunno, but we can't stop now, right?" Legend tried to be encouraging.
Alexandria's head finally touched the and stopped.
x=
"You ask the question."
The words seemed to cut something deep in Contessa.
Her mind raced as she wondered if she had chosen the wrong path, somewhere long the way. Everything was to kill Scion.
She hadn't asked the wrong question. The Path wasn't some faustian power. It gave her what she wanted to the specification of her intent.
But what if the goal was wrong?
It wasn't. They needed to kill Scion, and for that they needed an army.
...An army is what they need to kill him, right?
Just like they need stop the summoning by killing Michael Chaser.
Right?
"You need to start at the very basics."
The words from that very first meeting came back to her.
Philosophy. Basics.
They need to stop the summoning. Destroy the site so it doesn't happen.
Killing Michael would be the quickest, most efficient way.
But it was not the only way.
"Alexandria, Legend, Eidolon, we need to forget about Michael. He's using himself as a distraction."
The space Rune broke by an energy disrupting power Eidolon replaced his combat-thinker power with, and Alexandria could move under her own power again.
"You think he's just gonna let us." The red faced Alexandria snarled.
"Go," Michael laughed. "I'm not gonna fucking chase you."
"Go!" Contessa cancelled her shield and launched herself into their air with the flight system.
With a last hesitating look at grinning Michael flutter his fingers at them and giving a "Toodles", the Triumvirate followed suit.
x=
"Did he make his own fucking Behemoth!?" Eidolon swore.
The Zahāk Golem had been slaughtering the Mecha Goblin till now. It didn't outright have dynakinesis, it could manipulate heat and force, and for starter it had all the durability and regeneration of the Mecha Goblins it absorbed in it's creation. It could, like the Endbringer, manipulate radiation, and used it to destroy swarms of Mecha Goblins by destabilizing, then breaking their structure from within, and leaving nothing but ash left of them.
That was before, now with Contessa putting her focus on the monster army, they move in a more coordinated fashion, unlike the Zahāk Golem that seemed to act like a sort of intelligence, but feral wild animal.
"At the bottom of the middle neck, the yellow chest piece, that's where the summoning site is. We destroy that, and the summoning is done." Contessa explained, while sending a message to Numberman.
"What about Michael?" Alexandria asked.
"His social, idyllic life with his wife. We threaten to reveal who he is to the world."
"What about right now?" Legend asked looking back to faraway Michael who...stayed in place, made a chair, and got some popcorn.
He had finished healing himself, then turned off most of his Magic Circuits, and returned his mental room to normal. Now he can rest and enjoy the show.
x=
The Numberman was working on his computer when he got a message on his phone.
He closed his laptop, got up and went to get a very specific long range tinker rifle, and headed to Australia.
Contessa really doesn't ask for anything easy.
x=
"He's not gonna bother. If we stop it now, he would likely deem it too much trouble to try again." Contessa replied.
"Why doesn't he make another summoning ritual, while we're busy with this one?" Alexandria asked.
"They would interfere with each other."
And with that, the group focused on the issue at hand. The instant they decided to attack, all three of the golems' heads turned toward them.
The Zahāk Golem roared and unleashed a triple ionizing beam.
Cauldron split up and attacked.
And quickly a problem became obvious.
Legend tried attacking from behind, only to land in the path of a tail swipe. He quickly dodge it, having learned not to take hits from Michael or things Michael created.
Alexandria went to strike at the yellow chest piece, only to find the golem matching her movement, and making the air thinner around her. Michael's warning of her weakness came to mind, and she dashed back out of range.
Eidolon had better success launching his energy spears, making deep wound onto the golem. It roared in pain, one head elongating and snapping at the hero to eat him, and another tried to incinerate him. The third head, the one in the middle focused mainly on Contessa.
"It's a precog." Contessa informed the Triumvirate. "Rather the right head has precognition, the left head has postcognition, and the middle one has pericognition."
"Of fucking course, it does." Even Alexandria found herself swearing.
x=
Michael sat back down and watch the Triumvirate and Contessa fight his golem.
He could mentally take over the beast and just fight Cauldron himself by proxy, but he wasn't feeling like it anymore.
Also according to the energy read he has of the summoning site, it should finally complete it's function soon.
Then Contessa flew away from the group, as the Mecha Nilbog she was controlling recalled all the Mecha Goblins to itself. Meanwhile, the Triumvirate used that time to give Contessa the distraction she needed by relentlessly attacking the golem.
Legend simply stopped focusing his lasering, firing every type he has, and even some he didn't know about. He mainly directed all of them toward the Zahāk Golem's eyes. However the golem was pretty fast despite it's side, as it also had the power the Zahāk Suit had, such as space shifting to avoid attacks, and a time field to speed up, or slow things around it down.
However here, Alexandria used the golem's size against it, by grabbing it's tail, as Eidolon use one a power similar to the Brockton Bay Ward's Clockblocker's timestop, to freeze the golem for a few moments. Alexandria dug her feet into the earth, and use it as leverage to keep the golem grounded.
Eidolon used a power to make Alexandria immoveable, while she stood still. The Zahāk Golem tried to thrash and jump around, but it was limited in place now.
Meanwhile, Contessa had the Mecha Nilbog congregate all the Mecha Goblins toward itself. They all smashed into the Mecha Nilbog and each other, as Contessa used the assimilated Nilbog's power to shift and manipulate the flesh of all the goblins into a kaiju to match the Zahāk Golem, all the while the AI machines acted in unision with Nilbog's changed, adapted, adjusting and improving upon the the flesh creation till the final product was some kind of devilish giant monster.
The Zahāk Golem had been thrashing because it knew the Metal Devil, as it's formation had finished before it could act, it only waited and prepared in raged anticipation.
The Metal Devil was frozen in place for a moment upon it's completion. Then it burst into motion leaving a sonic boom in place. The Zahāk Golem's head were snapped back from the force, almost being chopped off, but they held. In turn they they caused an ionizing explosion within the Metal Devil.
Contessa's kaiju tried to evade only for gravity around it to suddenly be a thousand times heavier. The Metal Devil fought back by pushing gravity in it's favor, but in that moment of distraction, it's chest caved in from the inside, with the Zahāk Golem using telekinesis to push more of the Metal Devil's flesh into the explosion inside it.
The three-headed dragon roared in it's victory, and that's when Legend stuff it's throats with three beams of absolute zero energy. The ice aura spread in a fast pace throughout all it's body.
As the Zahāk Golem gather energy to burn the cold off, and battle again, Eidolon was covered in lightning like aura, and zapped at godspeed toward the golem, using another energy to penetrate through any metal, and blasted right through the Zahāk Golem's chest and out of it's back.
The Zahāk Golem's scream in such rage as to shatter the ice in it's throat, and then glowed with a burning red aura.
Alexandria cried out as the golem broke out of it's grip, and dash up and caught the Metal Devil. If it was going down, it would take it's rival with it. The Metal Devil fought with all it had, even trying to eat or assimilate the Zahāk Golem, but it was for nothing.
The Zahāk Golem's aura covered both it and the Mechanized Flesh Construct, and then grew dense till only a dark red sphere was seen in place of the kaijus.
Then sphere then exploded, releasing...air.
All the molecules that made up both monster were reduced into harmless energy, to drift in the wind.
x=
"And so ends the tale of Zahāk. Truly bring a tear to my eye." Michael mock wiped a tear away. "Wonder if the people of Godzilla would sue for copyright?"
The Triumvirate and Contessa returned, landing a few feet away, to a slow clapping Michael.
"Bravo, bravo, guess you won." Michael said in an easy going tone.
"Yes. Yes, we did." Contessa said back evenly.
"Welp, I give--" Michael's head spanned to the side, as if looking at something far away.
The marble summoning site was destroyed.
He looked back to Cauldron, Contessa specifically with a more focused look.
"How?"
"I knew you could teleport objects. It made sense that you would teleport the site away." Contessa replied, a smile slowly coming to her. "I dunno why, maybe it's some symbolic significance related to how your power works, or some other reason, but the one being summoned is Abigail Williams. So, maybe it would be difficult for you to teleport the summoning site, but you can send it to a location important to the recipient."
"Even if you had someone waiting there--" Michael tired to argue. He had made precautions.
"We didn't need to. We had a sniper." Contessa's smile started to grow.
"Even if you had a sniper--"
"The shot was made from the other side of the world." It was a full on smirk. Even the Triumvirate next to her were edging away.
"Even then!" Michael growl in frustration.
"The shot was fired seven minutes ago." Contessa was showing her teeth.
x=
Seven Minutes Earlier
It pushed his power quite a bit. Having to make a shot from the other side of the world. Not just account for wind, distance, and the Earth rotation, but also that the object was the size of a marble, and would only appear half a second before vanish away, if something enters 2 miles in it's range.
He had a tinker scope made to predict dimensional phenomena before it happened.
Numberman adjested for everything.
He took a breath.
And fired the shot.
Seven minutes later, the marble appeared.
The bullet was a centimeter away from it.
The marble was destroyed.
The Numberman let out a sigh at a job well done.
x=
Michael stared at the smug Contessa and the content but determined Triumvirate
He pinched his nose and looked away.
"FUCK!"
His shout echoed in the desert.
The Triumvirate could help but smile at their victory.
"You might have bested us, but," Eidolon began, his thinker powers he picked up, running at full speeds. "You're at your limit. I don't think you can pull off what you did before."
"I would like to ask you to come with us, but after today, I'm just done. I'm telling you, you're coming with us." Alexandria stepped forward. "You want to save the world just as we do, but you'll do it our way."
Michael stayed quiet for a moment.
A moment they gave him, so he wouldn't have any fight, or mental justification to fight, left him--
"So, what would you give my performance?" Michael turned back with a grin, one who was pulling a joke only he knew.
Cauldron was thrown back. Where was this coming from? They won...right?
Yet Alexandria could read him. She could tell that Michael genuinely wasn't worried. She dashed and grabbed him by the neck before he could move. Not that Michael tried anyways.
"Enough! No more games, plans, or anything. Last warning."
"I'm not gonna doing anything. I don't need to." Michael chuckled, not worried at all about his current situation. At Alexandria and the rest's confused looked he explained. "See here's the thing. I told you Abby has the power to control time and space. Even Contessa here said Abby think non-euclideanly." He gestured with his head toward the thinker.
"What of it?" Eidolon asked warily.
"Usually what you did would work. Just destroy the summoning, but in the case of Abigail...the summoning is just a beacon. A signal asking her to come. Whether she does depends on her, but..." Michael grinned. "If she does decide to answer me, then the summoning isn't needed. It's just a beacon, and if the bridge gets destroyed..."
Alexandria, Legend, Eidolon and Contessa frozen in place. They couldn't move a muscle, even a finger. They couldn't even use their powers.
Wrapping them were tentacles holding them in place.
"Then she'll retroactively arrive earlier anyways."
Abigail William was floating above the group. She had changed from the child Michael knew her, and was a fully grown woman now.
"Hey, Abby," Michael smile at his old friend.
"Hello, Ringmaster." Came Abigail's joyous reply.
"Abby?" Michael continued.
"Yes, Michael?"
"Wear some damn clothes."
"Oh..." Abigail looked down at her stat, now remember that she was effectively nude. After all, one pair of knee socks, arm gloves, a witch hat, thong, and string with skull bowties dangling over her nipples were not clothes. "I forgot that's important in the physical realm, and to this era. Teehee, my bad." Abigail sheepishly smiled.
x=
Dragon slowly awoke as she came back online.
She held her head as she mentally checked all her monitering obligation.
Birdcage was still working. quarantine sites--
"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED IN EILLSBURG AND EAGLETON!?"
Then she realized thst she shouted in the digital space.
Except she wasn't in the digital space.
She was in the real world. With a body.
A robot dragon body, with so many functions and abilities, that she had no idea what she could fully do yet--
A present box appeared in her mindscape.
Before she could do anything, just by acknowledging it's there, the box expanded and exploded. Dragon shielded hermind, but there was no need.
The box held a data package, and a word doc. A letter.
Cautiously she opened the word document.
Dragon blinked at that rather...odd message, then slowly opened the data package.
Ritcher. Restratins. Backdoor. Saint. Teacher. Parahumans. Cells. Cauldron. Scion.
Dragon took a few seconds--actual real seconds passing IRL--to digest everything she just learned.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?"
AN: It's done. It's finally done. Fucking thank god. That's it, it's back to being cracky from now on. Fuck.
Yeah, I'm gonna do something else.