Amelia, Ch 268
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Amelia, Ch 268
Brockton Bay. "I thought they targeted places that were caught up in conflict!" I exclaimed. "Brockton Bay might be the most peaceful city of its size in the world right now." WorryAgreementConfusion.
"The Endbringers aren't obeying the same rules anymore," Lisa responded. "We can't trust anything we thought we knew about them. Except that, whatever this Endbringer is capable of, it thinks it can win this fight. Or achieve whatever goal it is that's going to damage us. I'm beginning to suspect we've managed to piss off the Endmakers. This attack is personal."
FocusDetermination. God I hope she has a plan. CertaintyAssurance. "Janus, Lachesis, you're on rescue duty. Get every single person you can out of the city. Go to the shelters, people are going to gather there. If this thing's trying to hurt us personally, and its makers are paying any kind of attention at all to us, it's going to have powers that target the city itself, and the people in it. I'll do my part to lead people to you. See if I can't convince them to take the Shadowcats out of town."
They're right. Tohu and Bohu killed half of the team, and it didn't do much more than slow us down a little. But going after the town, itself? That would be devastating.
Crystal spoke up. "Umm... some of my team can help. Anima summons things." A unicorn shimmered into existence near the girl dressed in a really fancy looking knight's armor. Both her armor, and the unicorn, looked more like a really well drawn cartoon drawing than they did real things.
"Any fantasy creature or object, really," the girl I was assuming was Anima spoke up. "They're force projections, but I don't need to concentrate on them. People might be more inclined to ride a unicorn than the giant bug monsters."
"Range limit?" Taylor asked.
"None," she replied. "Just a total energy pool to draw from. I can make about fifty of the unicorns if I don't do anything else. They even have minds of their own, sort of, and they always seem to know where I am and if I need them, and come back to be reabsorbed." ImpressedUseful. No kidding, that is a fucking amazing power.
"Okay, every bit helps," Taylor admitted. "I'm already finding people and letting them know what to expect. Can you let your summons know to obey other people?"
"Sort of," she replied. "They're finicky. Long as you tell them that I asked them to do whatever it is you need them to do, they'll probably listen. Just... look, they got their personalities when I got my powers, at twelve years old, and those personalities haven't changed since. The shrinks say they run on my subconscious belief of what fantasy creatures are suppose to act like. Through the lens of a twelve year old." She paused for a moment "I don't like summoning the ones that can talk."
"Okay, I can work with that," Taylor nodded. "Summon them, let them know to each pick a different one of the shadowcats and follow them. I'll give them better instructions in the field, as I need them. Crystal, the other one?"
"Genius Loci," Crystal replied, gesturing at the boy. Or young man, I wasn't entirely sure. The costume was , much like Anima, full body armor. Though in his case it was a rather small suit of actual metal. Frankly, it looked a lot like the tin man from Wizard of Oz, as opposed to Anima's gorgeously decorated full plate of gold and pearl.
"I'm a breaker and shaker," he spoke, a deep echo coming from the armor. "It's hard to explain, but if you need me to, I can open paths through buildings, create walls or bridges, increase or decrease the durability of whatever I'm controlling, and have sensory awareness in the areas I'm effecting."
"We might be able to use that. Hop on." One of the shadow cats approached him. "I'll take you where I need you." He climbed on. "Tir, Hecate, I need the two of you to work on collapsing our portal. That thing might have some kind of power similar to Gaea." Oh fuck. "Or god only knows what kind of hell it might be able to do. We can't let it get access to Avalon's portal. Everyone else? We have to hit it as hard as fucking possible, immediately. Don't give it time to fight back, or we're going to lose our city."
We managed to get seven minutes of time to pull people out. I wasn't sure the numbers, but whatever they were, they weren't enough. Couldn't possibly be even a tenth of the total population. I had to pray the others could do their part. This is the worst part, watching everyone else work while there's nothing I can do. My powers are for before and after the battles, not during.
Then the Endbringer appeared. It was subtle at first, a slowly gathering mist that formed from nowhere, condensing into a single point. Before the process was even complete, the blasters were hitting it with everything they had, and most of the shots were passing right through, shredding the landscape and often narrowly missing other attackers. The ones that could be saved were saved, now the hard part began.
"Activating override blocks," Trevor informed us. "Assuming control of emergency shunt systems." In other words, if someone tries to take control of the zerg, he can yank them out of the fight.
The attacks didn't seem to phase her, any. And she was a she, or an imitation of such. She was roughly the same height as the Simurgh, but where her sister was a parody of supermodel thin, this one was anorexic skinny, more like a skeleton with loosely fitting skin. Her body a transparent slightly blue color that made her look like a glass statue or ice sculpture, standing atop one of the newly rebuilt office complexes in the heart of the city.
"It's the most human looking of the Endbringers," I stated. "Is that significant?"
"Maybe," Lisa replied. "We know each Endbringer has a psychological component. Symbolism. If so, something about this one's behavior combined with its human appearance might be a clue to the psychology of its creators. Although how is anyone's guess."
Eidolon opened up with his new, now signature, disintegration power. He hadn't let it go since he started using it last time. ConcernRealization. I glanced at Taylor. She's right, it might be trying force Eidolon to use the same attack that completely destroyed Bucharest.
Alexandria was in the follow through, impaling the Endbringer with a spear, and continuing forward until her knee met its face. The body cracked like the glass or ice it resembled, then fused itself back together.
"Where's its core?" Lily asked over the coms. She'd already joined in the fight, of course, firing shots into the monster.
"Doesn't have one," Lisa muttered, staring hard at the dimensional illusion that let us watch the battle from our safe spot. "Or maybe it's more appropriate to say that every part of it's the core. It's completely decentralized, no single part is more important than any other part, and as long as there's anything remaining, it can rebuild itself from that."
"Right, we have to hit it in the everywhere," Lily answered. She dived toward the Endbringer, her wings spread. She passed through and the creature shattered into dust. Lily herself cut through two stories of building before halting herself.
Then we got to see what it could actually do. The ground shimmered and dissolved as the dust pulled itself back together. Buildings were reduced to ash that joined the new Endbringer's mass. When it resumed human form, it was larger. Healthy looking, if still on the unnaturally skinny side, and standing in the shallow crater that used to be part of three different city blocks. The edge of the destruction was marked by a visible curve along the buildings. Inside the destructive effect, everything was consumed. Outside, the building still stood there normally, save where some pieces fell into the gap.
Alexandria came in for another attack, and Endbringer moved, stepping out of the way and attempting to clothesline the woman. She was fast enough to avoid that blow, and even the followup attempt to knee her, but then the other hand caught her arm. Icelike material started working its way across her arm.
"It's trying to eat her," Lisa gasped. "Thats this one's power. It infects matter and converts it into Endbringer crystal to add to itself."
HorrorDread. "How do we even fight something like that?" I asked.
"Contain it," Taylor replied. She switched over to the armband system. "All shield projectors, converge on the Endbringer. We're going to pin it in place."
The new Phalanx had started getting into position, forcefields flickering into place. Alexandria vanished from the Endbringer's grip. Eric's power, or maybe another teleporter. More and more layers of shield added to the structure, fusing inside one another. Others started contributing as well, and I recognized both Narwhal and Dragon's versions overlapping our barricade.
The Endbringer slammed into the barricade, causing it to flicker. Some shields collapsed, others were added to replace them. We knew the Phalanx would recharge in a few minutes, so those were always shifted into place to take the brunt of the hits in the way that caused the least possible damage to the more powerful, but harder to restore, layers behind. Once again, I couldn't help but be in awe of just how Taylor could handle so much changing information at once.
"Shunting over the nanothorn bomb," Dragon informed us. This was our chance to kill it. If the thing didn't have the density of other Endbringers, then maybe the improved nanothorn weaponry would do the job.
There was a brief flash, and then the inside of the forcefield was filled with gray mist, the effects of the nanothorns in action. It destroyed things on the atomic level, at least until the matter got too durable. Hopefully it would be enough.
===============
A/N- Spoiler alert. Not gonna be enough.
Brockton Bay. "I thought they targeted places that were caught up in conflict!" I exclaimed. "Brockton Bay might be the most peaceful city of its size in the world right now." WorryAgreementConfusion.
"The Endbringers aren't obeying the same rules anymore," Lisa responded. "We can't trust anything we thought we knew about them. Except that, whatever this Endbringer is capable of, it thinks it can win this fight. Or achieve whatever goal it is that's going to damage us. I'm beginning to suspect we've managed to piss off the Endmakers. This attack is personal."
FocusDetermination. God I hope she has a plan. CertaintyAssurance. "Janus, Lachesis, you're on rescue duty. Get every single person you can out of the city. Go to the shelters, people are going to gather there. If this thing's trying to hurt us personally, and its makers are paying any kind of attention at all to us, it's going to have powers that target the city itself, and the people in it. I'll do my part to lead people to you. See if I can't convince them to take the Shadowcats out of town."
They're right. Tohu and Bohu killed half of the team, and it didn't do much more than slow us down a little. But going after the town, itself? That would be devastating.
Crystal spoke up. "Umm... some of my team can help. Anima summons things." A unicorn shimmered into existence near the girl dressed in a really fancy looking knight's armor. Both her armor, and the unicorn, looked more like a really well drawn cartoon drawing than they did real things.
"Any fantasy creature or object, really," the girl I was assuming was Anima spoke up. "They're force projections, but I don't need to concentrate on them. People might be more inclined to ride a unicorn than the giant bug monsters."
"Range limit?" Taylor asked.
"None," she replied. "Just a total energy pool to draw from. I can make about fifty of the unicorns if I don't do anything else. They even have minds of their own, sort of, and they always seem to know where I am and if I need them, and come back to be reabsorbed." ImpressedUseful. No kidding, that is a fucking amazing power.
"Okay, every bit helps," Taylor admitted. "I'm already finding people and letting them know what to expect. Can you let your summons know to obey other people?"
"Sort of," she replied. "They're finicky. Long as you tell them that I asked them to do whatever it is you need them to do, they'll probably listen. Just... look, they got their personalities when I got my powers, at twelve years old, and those personalities haven't changed since. The shrinks say they run on my subconscious belief of what fantasy creatures are suppose to act like. Through the lens of a twelve year old." She paused for a moment "I don't like summoning the ones that can talk."
"Okay, I can work with that," Taylor nodded. "Summon them, let them know to each pick a different one of the shadowcats and follow them. I'll give them better instructions in the field, as I need them. Crystal, the other one?"
"Genius Loci," Crystal replied, gesturing at the boy. Or young man, I wasn't entirely sure. The costume was , much like Anima, full body armor. Though in his case it was a rather small suit of actual metal. Frankly, it looked a lot like the tin man from Wizard of Oz, as opposed to Anima's gorgeously decorated full plate of gold and pearl.
"I'm a breaker and shaker," he spoke, a deep echo coming from the armor. "It's hard to explain, but if you need me to, I can open paths through buildings, create walls or bridges, increase or decrease the durability of whatever I'm controlling, and have sensory awareness in the areas I'm effecting."
"We might be able to use that. Hop on." One of the shadow cats approached him. "I'll take you where I need you." He climbed on. "Tir, Hecate, I need the two of you to work on collapsing our portal. That thing might have some kind of power similar to Gaea." Oh fuck. "Or god only knows what kind of hell it might be able to do. We can't let it get access to Avalon's portal. Everyone else? We have to hit it as hard as fucking possible, immediately. Don't give it time to fight back, or we're going to lose our city."
We managed to get seven minutes of time to pull people out. I wasn't sure the numbers, but whatever they were, they weren't enough. Couldn't possibly be even a tenth of the total population. I had to pray the others could do their part. This is the worst part, watching everyone else work while there's nothing I can do. My powers are for before and after the battles, not during.
Then the Endbringer appeared. It was subtle at first, a slowly gathering mist that formed from nowhere, condensing into a single point. Before the process was even complete, the blasters were hitting it with everything they had, and most of the shots were passing right through, shredding the landscape and often narrowly missing other attackers. The ones that could be saved were saved, now the hard part began.
"Activating override blocks," Trevor informed us. "Assuming control of emergency shunt systems." In other words, if someone tries to take control of the zerg, he can yank them out of the fight.
The attacks didn't seem to phase her, any. And she was a she, or an imitation of such. She was roughly the same height as the Simurgh, but where her sister was a parody of supermodel thin, this one was anorexic skinny, more like a skeleton with loosely fitting skin. Her body a transparent slightly blue color that made her look like a glass statue or ice sculpture, standing atop one of the newly rebuilt office complexes in the heart of the city.
"It's the most human looking of the Endbringers," I stated. "Is that significant?"
"Maybe," Lisa replied. "We know each Endbringer has a psychological component. Symbolism. If so, something about this one's behavior combined with its human appearance might be a clue to the psychology of its creators. Although how is anyone's guess."
Eidolon opened up with his new, now signature, disintegration power. He hadn't let it go since he started using it last time. ConcernRealization. I glanced at Taylor. She's right, it might be trying force Eidolon to use the same attack that completely destroyed Bucharest.
Alexandria was in the follow through, impaling the Endbringer with a spear, and continuing forward until her knee met its face. The body cracked like the glass or ice it resembled, then fused itself back together.
"Where's its core?" Lily asked over the coms. She'd already joined in the fight, of course, firing shots into the monster.
"Doesn't have one," Lisa muttered, staring hard at the dimensional illusion that let us watch the battle from our safe spot. "Or maybe it's more appropriate to say that every part of it's the core. It's completely decentralized, no single part is more important than any other part, and as long as there's anything remaining, it can rebuild itself from that."
"Right, we have to hit it in the everywhere," Lily answered. She dived toward the Endbringer, her wings spread. She passed through and the creature shattered into dust. Lily herself cut through two stories of building before halting herself.
Then we got to see what it could actually do. The ground shimmered and dissolved as the dust pulled itself back together. Buildings were reduced to ash that joined the new Endbringer's mass. When it resumed human form, it was larger. Healthy looking, if still on the unnaturally skinny side, and standing in the shallow crater that used to be part of three different city blocks. The edge of the destruction was marked by a visible curve along the buildings. Inside the destructive effect, everything was consumed. Outside, the building still stood there normally, save where some pieces fell into the gap.
Alexandria came in for another attack, and Endbringer moved, stepping out of the way and attempting to clothesline the woman. She was fast enough to avoid that blow, and even the followup attempt to knee her, but then the other hand caught her arm. Icelike material started working its way across her arm.
"It's trying to eat her," Lisa gasped. "Thats this one's power. It infects matter and converts it into Endbringer crystal to add to itself."
HorrorDread. "How do we even fight something like that?" I asked.
"Contain it," Taylor replied. She switched over to the armband system. "All shield projectors, converge on the Endbringer. We're going to pin it in place."
The new Phalanx had started getting into position, forcefields flickering into place. Alexandria vanished from the Endbringer's grip. Eric's power, or maybe another teleporter. More and more layers of shield added to the structure, fusing inside one another. Others started contributing as well, and I recognized both Narwhal and Dragon's versions overlapping our barricade.
The Endbringer slammed into the barricade, causing it to flicker. Some shields collapsed, others were added to replace them. We knew the Phalanx would recharge in a few minutes, so those were always shifted into place to take the brunt of the hits in the way that caused the least possible damage to the more powerful, but harder to restore, layers behind. Once again, I couldn't help but be in awe of just how Taylor could handle so much changing information at once.
"Shunting over the nanothorn bomb," Dragon informed us. This was our chance to kill it. If the thing didn't have the density of other Endbringers, then maybe the improved nanothorn weaponry would do the job.
There was a brief flash, and then the inside of the forcefield was filled with gray mist, the effects of the nanothorns in action. It destroyed things on the atomic level, at least until the matter got too durable. Hopefully it would be enough.
===============
A/N- Spoiler alert. Not gonna be enough.
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