Chapter 16
Seeing pictures, limited news broadcasts, and even fanart (because yes, those kinds of psychos existed in this world) did not properly prepare me for seeing an Endbringer in the flesh. She was beautiful, in the austere way that a statue was, her flesh not quite as white as marble, but far paler than a normal human. Her face was set in a neutral, almost contemplative expression. Wings of crystal flowed around her in random patterns, the size and shapes of wings not having any kind of uniformity, the mere sight of it enough to drive one to madness.

The world held it's breath.

Then Legend struck. Beams of energy lanced out from him and the Blasters following his lead, a plethora of lasers, elemental effects, and other more esoteric abilities. The wall of power that could level a city was abruptly side stepped as the Simurgh somehow picked out a path through the hail of attacks, weaving around the worst of them. Once she was closer, a single hand flicked out and a wave of force ripped an entire neighborhood apart in a rain of debris.

Even from our position on the backlines, I could see the bodies intermingled.

Glass, wood, concrete, and steel flowed around her into a shield, ever moving and constantly deflecting incoming strikes. Only the luckiest of shots made it through and usually the weakest, the projectiles deflecting or energy fizzling out against her wings. Parts of the debris she had gathered began to drift in closer, fusing with the device she had already begun building weeks ago. Something told me that none of us wanted her to finish it.

The defenders didn't just sit back and let her continue her Tinkering. Alexandria charged, leading a group of flying Brutes and Strikers to get in close, the unbreakable woman often using her own body as a weapon to plough through the shields of debris that Ziz had created, creating openings for the squishier members of her team to get through. These also created opportunities for Legend and the other Blasters to begin focusing their fire, aiming more carefully than before, less an overwhelming barrage of power and more direct, surgical strikes. Through it all though, Ziz ducked and weaved through the air, leaving no doubt that she knew exactly where each shot was headed, only dodging the really big strikes or ones that were for sure going to hit her. Not a single wasted movement, just quick and precise and the occasional burst of telekinesis to move a piece of debris within her shield or throw defenders off balance.

It was a beautiful and also disconcerting display. It was difficult to even hit the Endbringer and even the hits that did connect didn't-

There was a flash of eldritch green light and suddenly a gap appeared in her defenses. A massive hole in her debris shield, not to mention several of her wings. It was a solid chance for Legend to rain more lasers directly into the Simurgh's body, while Alexandria ducked in and began slamming horrendously powerful blows on her crystalline wings, shattering many of them. Eidolon descended from his floating position and charged up another lance of disintegrating energy. The onslaught from the Triumvirate spurred on more capes, who took advantage and began to get in their own hits.

For just a moment, I allowed myself to believe it would be that easy to drive off the Endbringer.

Then Ziz shattered that illusion.

Her Scream redoubled, the effects felt even where those of us in reserve were standing. She made another gesture with one hand and an entire section of downtown Canberra was ripped apart by her fury. Capes began going down or dying, as Dragon began to recite the casualties. I tuned mine out, knowing that hearing it wouldn't help, it would just piss me off even more. Plus there was the Scream still echoing in my brain. I hated it. It was wrong, unnatural on so many levels. I genuinely didn't know how it worked or what it was doing. Was it a psychic assault or was it Ziz using some kind of weird timeline domino effect thing? I couldn't remember and the Scream
was drowning out my thought processes.

So I pushed back.

Magic gathered within me, raw mana fueling Lunatic Eyes as I attuned to the wavelength of power that the Simurgh was using and then twisted it on it's head, nullifying it completely. I quickly began to feel the draw upon my reserves as I did this, but I was able to bear it with all of the foundational bits of power that I'd been granted over the last few weeks.

A gauntleted hand clasped upon my shoulder. "What are you doing?!" Armsmaster demanded to know.

"Blocking her frequency," I grimaced with concentration. "Why?"

He showed me his timer. It had reset and wasn't going down anymore. "All of us who are standing close to you are experiencing the same thing. And while we can still 'hear' the Scream, it's… muffled."

"Oh. Well that's convenient."

Armsmaster gave me a look that said I was an idiot. "It's a game changer." He pressed the buttons on his armband into a hard override. "Armsmaster to Dragon, Magus seems to be able to block out the Simurgh's Scream in a radius around himself. Recommend he be deployed to rescue capes who are about to run out of time or protect other assets."

"Copy that," a feminine voice with a slight Canadian accent spoke through both of our armbands. "Be advised, since you just started nullifying her Scream, the Simurgh has begun acting erratically. Far more aggressive and she appears to be trying to actively push toward your position."

She's blind to the present, but can use pre and post-cognition to 'see' her surroundings, I remember that much. So is her Scream like… a psychic echolocation? So maybe she's pissed off that I'm creating what's basically a blindspot for her? Why didn't I pay better attention when reading the actual fucking-

I felt a light shove on my shoulder and blinked at Assault who was looking at me patiently, but with firm resolve. "Head in the game, kid. Dragon has orders for you and you can save lives. This is the big leagues, remember?"

Right. People were counting on me now. "I'm ready."

"Glad to hear it," Dragon chimed in from my wristband. "First target is a hero named Longshot, he's pinned beneath some debris and there aren't any Brutes nearby-"

"Where's Dauntless located in relation to him?"

"On a rooftop about a hundred meters away, but-"

Perfect. Without waiting for Dragon to finish, I delved through darkness until I sprang out behind my fellow hero. "Hey there."

He flinched and turned, Arclance half raised, but froze once he spotted me. "What are you…?"

"Just piggy-backing, thanks." My eyes and magical senses roamed over some of the other capes with Dauntless, making them possible candidates for shadow jumps in the near future. "Dragon, where's Longshot now?" The Scream was more prominent here, closer to the Simurgh, but my aura of nullification appeared to give all of the present defenders a much needed bit of relief.

"As I was trying to say, a hundred meters from your current position to the east, but you're on a rooftop and he's below you in a collapsed metro."

"Not a problem," I assured her.

I found about where she was probably talking about and then leapt up and off the roof in a high arc, my old abilities allowing me to land with barely a flexing of my knees as I impacted with what should have been bone shattering force. A pair of capes- heroes based on their costumes- were struggling to lift a slab of concrete.

"Hurry! His timer is almost out!" One of them was practically sobbing and I realized with a bit of shock that she had to be either a Ward or of a similar age.

"Stand back!" I ordered.

I channeled magic without thinking, letting instincts guide me as I uppercut the large slab in an angled direction. The magical punch shatters the concrete into a hail of small pebbles and dust, up and away from anyone in the immediate vicinity. I just hoped that the small bits wouldn't be dangerous when they fell back to the ground.

Beneath the slab was a tunnel, a metro that wasn't running at the moment, because what good would that do now that an Endbringer was actually here? Pinned beneath some more rubble was a hero who bore a striking resemblance to the crying girl. I dropped down and let out a pulse of mana to examine him. Broken bones and bruises, but nothing some healing magic couldn't at least put a band-aid on. I waved the two other heroes down and I towed them with me through the shadows, something I hadn't dared try before, but I was feeling confident in my abilities.

"He'll live, I fixed up the internal bleeding, but the rest will take time. I have to get back out there."

The older of the two heroes gave my hand a firm shake. "Thank you." His eyes darted over toward the sobbing girl as she desperately clutched at the wounded hero's hand. "My brother and niece. We won't forget this, Magus."

I wasn't sure how he knew my name, chalking it up to either a Thinker power or Dragon informing them that I was on my way. I just dipped my head and then jumped once more to a familiar shadow.

Velocity flinched at my appearance, having been in the middle of examining an injured person's leg. "Jesus man, that's really freaky."

"Sorry about that. Need a hand here?"

"Yeah, I can't move him while I'm using my power. Think you could…?"

"No worries."

Another jump, another life saved.

And so it went for the next two hours, Dragon feeding me information and targets that needed my aid the most. She was as unbiased as possible and I ended up saving more than just heroes and rogues, villains were on the rotation as well. I figured I would give them the benefit of the doubt seeing as they'd signed up to fight a kaiju. Meanwhile, the largest Endbringer force in history fought to send the monster running, doing their best, but still failing to do any meaningful damage other than the cosmetic. Things seemed to be at a stalemate.

Until a new name came through from Dragon.

"We've got a Ward named Flechette who needs urgent extraction. She stayed longer than she should have and now she won't get out of the Scream's zone unless you or another Mover gets her out. Strider has his hands full and all of the Triumvirate are currently needed against the Simurgh," Dragon explained rapidly.

Flechette… Oh hell.

It was arrogance or perhaps just forgetfulness on my part, but I'd never given the girl much thought. Dumb of me, I know, because I knew how powerful her ability truly was, but in my defense, I had a bad sense of the timeline. I thought that by the time we actually needed her, I'd have a different plan in place. I'd included her ability to kill an Endbringer with a direct shot to the core in my reports to Armsmaster and Piggot, which I had no doubt Alexandria and Cauldron had viewed. Of course they'd brought her to Canberra. The only problem was that it needed to be a direct hit and an Endbringer's core was still hidden by layers of hyperdense armor that was nearly impossible for most capes to even scratch.

"I'm on it!" I warped away in the direction Dragon pointed me.

The only thing I hadn't considered? Flechette was shooting from a relatively close range. As I moved closer, debris swirled around in an ever strengthening maelstrom, a constant telekinetic storm to trip up the defenders as much as protect the Simurgh. I had to shadow jump multiple times 'skipping' as it were within my line of sight and each time I had to duck and weave around pieces of rubble ranging from fist sized lumps to entire building facades. Once or twice I had to lash out with a magic-infused blow to keep myself from being crushed. I knew instinctively that each object was being individually controlled by Ziz.

Damn, Endbringers are scary.

Even the weakest (physically) was still worthy of being called an S-class threat for a reason.
I arrived on a tall rooftop overlooking a midair duel between titans. The Simurgh, facing off against the Triumvirate and other heroes that were household names, like Myrrdin or Dauntless. From other nearby rooftops or even ground level, Blasters added another layer of suppressing fire that could have held off a small army. Things weren't as coordinated as when the battle had first begun. Too many injuries and deaths. Too much chaos as the Simurgh danced around the battlefield, sometimes maneuvering in such a way that friendly fire was inevitable. And yet, our forces had to keep on trying, because the only alternative was to just sit back and let her continue building her strange device. I couldn't quite make out what she was building, even with reinforced eyesight, but I knew that it couldn't be good.

"Give me just a minute," Flechette spoke as I appeared.

She didn't even look at me, just kept sighting with her massive crossbow thing before letting her fingers brush the dart-like projectile and firing it at the Endbringer. It was unnerving to watch just completely ignore physics, like gravity, wind resistance, and the multiple damn buildings that the Simurgh tried to throw in it's path. It cut through everything before punching through the Simurgh's leg and out the other side. Flechette's power wore off at that point and the dart got caught up within Ziz's telekinesis.

"Can we stay longer?" Flechette asked coolly, eyeing the damage she'd done. "Because my power is one of the few things that actually seems to hurt these guys."

"Have you been to a lot of these?"

"This is my third. And I had a nice private chat with Alexandria before the battle. She said that I might actually be able to kill one, said that you had some weird Thinker powers. I mean, I figured, with an All or Nothing power like mine, but I've never had the chance to try, you know? Couldn't get close enough for Behemoth and the last one before that was another Ziz fight and they kept me on search and rescue then," she babbled, nervous and frustrated and scared in equal measure. She twisted a wrist to eye her wristband. "My timer just reset and it stopped going down. Your powers are really weird."

"So I've been told. Look, I'd be happy to stick around, but others might need my help and I'm starting to run low on gas." Keeping up my anti-Ziz field and constantly teleporting was rather draining on even my rather large mana reserves. "So why don't we get out of here? Endbringers don't have human biology, you need to hit a specific spot, so let's get you rested until we have a shot at said spot and-"

[ANOMALY!]

The voice that wasn't really audibly heard still echoed within my skull as I dropped to my knees, blood running down my nose.

Oh shit…

I hadn't been paying attention. I didn't notice as the Simurgh broke free from her engagement with the other capes and made a beeline straight for me. I created a blindspot for her with my powers, I think, but the thing about that was that it made me even more visible in it's own way.
She was right there. Mere feet away. The full weight of her psychic attack lashing out. Her wings flowing dangerously, face a mask of rage rather than it's usual serenity…

I didn't have time to teleport. Too much pain, not enough concentration. Flechette was too important to go down. So I did what I thought was the only smart thing. I shoved the Ward off the side of the building as the Simurgh ripped it apart.

And I died.

Instead of the darkness of death, I found myself within the void of my power, the Grimoire and my soul made manifest.
"Hey man, what's up?"

"You fucking dumbass!" Mak did not look happy, anger written across his familiar features.

"I'm sensing some hostility here…" Mak punched me in the face, sending me sprawling within our metaphysical soulscape.

"Just had to pick a fight with an Endbringer, couldn't stay cozy and safe in the healers' tent because that would be too fucking easy!"

"I could save people. I wasn't about to let them die just because I was scared, ya dick," I said defensively.

Mak looked like he wanted to rage some more, but he let out a slow breath and settled down. "Sorry. I just… I don't want to die."

"Didn't you already do that?" I asked, rolling my eyes slightly. "Seems like you got better."

"I wouldn't exactly call this living," he gestured around himself. "I see and observe your actions, but… damn it's depressing watching someone live your life better than you can."

"We're different people dude and I have superpowers."

"We aren't as different as you might believe or even want. Some things are just… naturally who we are," Mak took a deep breath and began to drift toward the light at the center of our soul. "It's been fun."

"Yeah. It has. Sorry I screwed it all up. Hopefully everyone will be okay." I braced myself for the inevitable darkness of true death.

"Oh they will be. You'll make sure of it." He reached out and grasped at the power, then latched a hand onto me, forming a conduit of raw magic.

Everything became pain. "What are you…?!"

"This is the end of the line for me. I'm just a ghost, man, a remnant of the body that you now inhabit. The Grimoire or maybe just your own subconscious, let me linger. But this much power changes things. Shifts the very soul. So I'll be moving on now," his mouth curled into a slight smile. "Maybe I'll even get to see Mom and Dad." He grinned wide as power cascaded into me. "Now go show that Endbringer why you don't mess with a bearer of the Celestial fucking Grimoire."

+-+-+-
Beneath layers of rubble and debris, my eyes snapped open and power became mine.

It was time to get to work.

Vestments of Balance (DC Occult, 1600cp): The Lords of Order and Chaos are powerful magical beings that were born at the dawn of time. For untold millennia, they have been locked in a metaphysical war, attempting to further the cause of Order or of Chaos. Primarily, this is accomplished by empowering mortal agents to act as proxies.

The most powerful and well-known example of this is Doctor Fate - the manifestation of Nabu, the greatest and most powerful of the Lords of Order - who channels his power through the Helm of Fate and those who wear it. But Nabu is far from the only Lord to empower his agents through artifacts and one such item has fallen into your possession.

You have some wearable object that contains the essence of a lesser Lord, whether of Chaos or Order. This item is bound to you, allowing you to summon it at-will, and when worn, grants you access to a large sum of magical power. This would be a formidable amount of power even in the hands of a mortal with none of their own, but it truly shines when worn by an already powerful being. The more powerful the person wearing the Vestments, the larger the increase in power will be.

As well, when worn, the ghost of the — now long-dead — Lord will whisper into your mind, teaching you powerful magic and prompting you to follow their agenda. The ghost will be completely unable to possess you unless you allow them to do so and the possession may be revoked by you at any time. You don't have to advance their cause, but they will be much more willing to teach you if you do so.

With a second purchase (discounted if the first purchase wasn't), you may gain the Vestments opposite of the ones first purchased, but both cannot be used together. Or, in place of having one for Order and one for Chaos, you may instead spend 1600 CP (prior to discounts) to purchase Vestments containing the power of a Lord of Balance, which will be half again as powerful as either of the others and allow you to wield both Chaos and Order magic at once.

A/N: Sorry for the late upload, this chapter was not easily written (I have a hard time with Endbringer fights) and ended up being done at like midnight and I didn't want to go through the hassle that this site usually causes with my formatting and such. Heading this off at the pass, because this was a point of contention on SB, but no, Alexandria/ Cauldron did not just leave Flechette alone in the middle of a battlefield despite her importance, that's simply how Magus found her at the time. Any other mistakes or suboptimal actions on the part of characters, just chalk it up to a tired writer who doesn't have a proper editor. Hope everyone has a good week.