43

10:03 P.M. EST, Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Brockton Bay

The Docks​

A flash and peal of thunder rolled across the Docks as I used Excalibur to disable the ugly turret on Squealer's monstrosity of an armored personnel carrier. It looked to be made out of three different pickup trucks and haphazardly attached steel plates. Squealer's tinkertech cloaking device failed under my feet, the APC coming fully into the visible spectrum without my helmet translating into visible wavelengths for me. Curiously, the cloaking effect did not carry the signs of any technology my sensors recognized. It was either completely novel, or it was the result of Squealer's power imitating the effect of some stolen technology instead of an actual active camouflage system like the one I used.

I jumped off the abomination's roof, my own camouflage still keeping me nearly invisible in the dark save for when I bared Excalibur's blade. Another ignition and sweep of the fusion plasma blade on my way down took out two of the APC's three wheels on the driver's side, and the hulking vehicle nearly rolled over before the driver counter‐steered in a practically miraculous display of driving.

I sprinted to catch up until I was next to the driver's side window. It was a thick sheet of polycarbonate, enough to stop most bullets. On the other side of the window Squealer was furiously doing something with controls on the dash. In the passenger seat Skidmark was screaming something no doubt obscene, spit flying through his rotting teeth.

With all the strength of my war body and the power armor over it, I plunged my fist into the armored window. It went plastic under the force to warp and tear like taffy, pulling out of its anchors on three sides and exposing the inside of the cabin.

Squealer had just enough time to scream before I put a knockout flechette into her and Skidmark. There was considerable screaming after, too, as I forced the door open and dragged her out and away from the controls she needed to remain a threat.

Then I had to turn to protect her with my body as Skidmark tried to use his power to accelerate the warped sheet of polycarbonate and a set of wrenches that must have been in the cab. The wrenches packed enough kinetic energy that I had to brace my footing to avoid being sent tumbling onto Squealer.

She fell unconscious first, followed a few moments later by Skidmark as he was searching with drooping limbs for something else to push through his colored acceleration field at me.

I laid Squealer out on the sidewalk and put Skidmark next to her. Just in case Squealer's tinkertech abomination decided to spontaneously explode from the damage I'd inflicted, it seemed best that they were some distance away.

Scientia > Skidmark and Squealer won't be making the party. Prometheus, please tell the PRT where they can pick them up.

Prometheus > Command acknowledged, Miss.

Mouse Protector > My turn?

Scientia > Give it about forty seconds for me to get close, I'm just a few blocks away, then you can go.

Mouse Protector > Save some of the fun for me.

Scientia > I will.

Dragon > Armsmaster says his teams are in position.

Making a soaring leap onto the top of a closed laundromat with barred windows, I sprinted across the flat roof to reach the next street with an anticipatory grin on my face.

I might not know what the hell to make of my life, and I might miss a whole lot of people terribly — I still thought of them that way — but at least right this moment I had something that needed doing to take satisfaction in.

Scientia > Good. I'm nearly there.

10:07 P.M. EST, Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Brockton Bay

Somer's Rock​

Behind her modified welder's mask, Faultline's lips were stuck in a thin frown. The sound of thunder echoed her gut feeling. A storm was coming. She and Gregor were here at the meeting to find out what shape it was likely to take.

Kaiser, in his elaborately sculpted steel armor, occupied one end of the central table that had been arranged for the meet. Fenja and Menja stood behind him in their valkyrie‐themed armor, the former wearing a sheathed sword and carrying a shield, the latter holding a spear upright with its butt planted on the floor. To Kaiser's right sat Krieg in his Nazi officer costume and gas mask. Two booths on their side of the room were occupied. Hookwolf, whose mask now had one eye, Stormtiger, and Cricket sat together, beers in grimy glasses in front of them. Othala, looking tired, sat next to Alabaster in the next booth, Crusader across from them. A glass of water sat untouched in front of each.

Opposite Kaiser sat Lung in his dragon mask, Oni Lee standing behind and to his side.

As the two gang leaders sized one another up, Faultline's gaze was instead drawn to the bar. A moment ago two brothers had been tending it, older siblings of the young woman who was stacking crisp hundred‐dollar bills in the register. Where had they gone?

Her phone vibrated, and Gregor raised an eyebrow across from her.

Faultline ignored it as Kaiser spoke.

"I believe," he said, voice filling the room in the easy, confident manner of an accomplished public speaker, "that this is everyone who will be attending. We need to discuss how we will respond to the threat among us."

"Hmph," Lung snorted dismissively. "Is the Empire afraid of this one woman? Do you propose we all run?"

"Like you ran from Leviathan, you Jap piece of shit?" Hookwolf snarled from his seat.

Oni Lee's hand immediately went to the knife strapped to his chest, and Lung's expression grew thunderous.

"Hookwolf," Kaiser reprimanded, his voice like the crack of a whip. The leader of the Empire turned to meet his subordinate's eyes for a long moment, before turning back to his chief adversary across the table. "Fear is different from justified caution, Lung. Scientia either lives in Brockton Bay, or has a particular interest in the city."

"And why should I care?" Lung asked dismissively. "I have seen the videos of her attacks. She is a hero. She would not risk burning a city by fighting me."

Kaiser's eyes narrowed. "Would she?" he asked.

Lung did not respond, and Kaiser swept an arm around the room. "Look around you. Coil and the Undersiders are not here. Two groups gone from the city in the last month. Do you think that is a coincidence?"

"Perhaps," Lung said with a shrug.

"Perhaps if it was one, yes. But both? And perhaps if both of us had not suddenly lost our sources in the PRT as well," Kaiser said.

Lung angled his head back, evaluation in his gaze. "Perhaps," he said, and it sounded more like a concession than a challenge. "But I still do not see why a dragon should care. You are at risk; I am not."

When Faultline's phone vibrated again she finally checked it.

This is Scientia. I'll wire $2,000 into your account if you leave with Gregor before the fighting starts, and talk to me later about a job offer. Honest work that could help a lot of people.

$5,000, then.

Faultline stiffened, and her conscious thoughts raced only slightly behind the raising hairs on the back of her neck.

With so many villains in one room, would one hero really be foolish enough to attack them?

…Scientia had just attacked the Chinese Union‐Imperial and won. Jesus, she'd killed most of the Yàngbǎn with a missile strike. A room full of villains, powerful or not, was not something of any concern to someone like that.

This would be more like bait.

A cape who'd just openly conquered a nation would not care one whit for any truce between villains. This was no summit Faultline was sitting in.

It was a killbox with flimsy walls and barred windows, and if she stayed she and Gregor would likely become collateral damage.

"Scientia is not like the heroes we are used to dealing with, Lung," Kaiser continued. "Would the Protectorate have reacted to a kidnapping by slaughtering the Yàngbǎn and conquering a nation?"

Lung rolled his eyes. "Some conquest, if she will not even rule it. But you are correct that the heroes in this country are too weak to even kill their enemies. And this woman," Lung spoke the word with derision, "is not. But I am willing to test myself in battle against her if she would challenge me."

"Even if you won," Kaiser contended, "would your organization still exist after the battle? You might survive her wrath; those under your command would not. It is in your interest as well as ours to come to an arrangement for dealing with this mutual problem."

Faultline tapped the table to get Gregor's attention and made a pair of subtle hand gestures. Hostile. Come. He shot her a look of alarm and they both stood, drawing looks from everyone else in the room.

"If you will excuse me, gentlemen, I believe we are superfluous to this conversation. Whatever the two of you decide, we will be maintaining our policy of not acting within Brockton Bay," Faultline said, and walked in an unhurried way that did not betray the frantic pace of her heart.

"Are you not interested in work?" Kaiser asked, curious.

Faultline stopped and looked over her shoulder. "On this matter? No. We are not."

"Vhat do you call zee mercenary who will not fight?" Krieg joked in his thick faux German accent.

Faultline ignored him and resumed walking.

"I don't know eizher," Kreig said, and derisive laughter erupted from Hookwolf's table.

Faultline exited the door, Gregor behind her.

Four unconscious gangsters — two Empire and two ABB — were laid out on the sidewalk outside unconscious.

"What the fu—" Gregor began.

"Shh!" Faultline hissed, and his mouth clicked shut.

Their van was waiting for them at the curb, the passenger and driver's side doors open, engine running.

That wasn't where they'd left it, and Faultline's hand drifted to confirm that the key was, indeed, still in her pocket.

"Go, I'll give you a moment to get clear," whispered a voice that Faultline recognized. It was the woman from the video of the slaughter of the Nine, and from the surrender of the Emperor of the CUI.

Faultline and Gregor's heads jerked to the right, toward empty air where the voice had originated.

"What do you want us for?" Faultline whispered back, voice tight.

"To observe Elle using her power. Passive observation only. She won't come to any harm, you have my promise. I believe that getting sensor data of her power as it works is vital to humanity's continued survival. I'll pay millions. Enough that none of you ever need to work again. Up front. Wire transfer, suitcase of cash, gold, whatever you want," said the voice.

Gregor looked at Faultline for direction, and Faultline hesitated.

"You should go, things are about to get exciting here. Think about it," said the voice, and Faultline and Gregor heard a scuff of something hard against the concrete of the sidewalk.

Faultline only paused a moment more before heading for the van and getting behind the wheel, closing the door behind her. Gregor followed.

"What the fuck was that?" he asked.

"Maybe the most dangerous cape in the world," Faultine said under her breath. "And she's interested in Elle."

Prometheus > Civilian evacuation of the neighborhood is complete.

Mouse Protector > I yoinked the two bartenders out the back. I can't get to the girl without being seen.

As a result of her antics, Mouse Protector was deeper than her fans and enemies tended to give her credit for. I'd seen that hidden depth many times, most memorably during our conversation in the hospital after we'd fought Hookwolf.

One thing she certainly didn't advertise is that her agility and teleportation powers make her a terrifyingly effective ninja when she wants to be. Earth Bet was lucky she hadn't gone villain. Or worse, assassin. I'd asked her to go into the bar first and get the three siblings working there out without being seen. She'd managed two, and it would be up to me to swing the third.

Scientia > Thank you. Everyone, final check.

Prometheus > Sensor net recording, Miss.

Shoferi > Confirmed, I've got good telemetry.

Ares > Combat support standing by, Ma'am. Repositioning drones used for civilian evacuation.

Dragon > Armsmaster has PRT teams ready to breach. You should know that Piggot is very displeased that you strong-armed her into this with your threat to do it whether the PRT helped or not.

Scientia > She can't afford to let me take all the credit, or have it look like she's not in control of her own city.

Dragon > It was certainly effective, but please try to remember that people hate being put in a corner.

Scientia > I know. There's a price for everything. It's a matter of priorities. In the final consideration I'm willing to live without her goodwill as the price for getting things done. I'm not trying to make enemies, but you know how it is balancing competing considerations. This is the right move.

Dragon > Are you sure you aren't being motivated just a bit by wanting to punch something?

Scientia > Oh, I want that too, but this needs to be done. Punching something is just a bonus.

Shoferi > Less debate and more data, please. This is important.

I spoke out loud in my helmet, letting my words carry to the PRT and police frequencies. "Scientia to all points, I am commencing the distraction. Execute, execute, execute."

The door of the bar burst inward off its hinges as I put my armored boot into it, landing on the ground with ripped hinges and a tremendous bang.

I deliberately dropped my camouflage and walked in, enjoying the shocked and angry faces of the villains remaining in the bar.

Lisa > Hey boss, I don't want to bother you, but I've kinda got something weird here.

Scientia > Middle of something.

"You know," I began, dramatically shaking out one armored fist as though the knuckles were sore, "having tried it, I can't resolve the debate on whether punching Nazis is moral, but it certainly is satisfying."

The villains shot to their feet. Lung growled and heat shimmer began to rise from his shoulders as his musculature started to visibly grow.

When the waitress looked up at me I used my hands to rapidly sign at her.

Your brothers are safe. Run.

Shock only stopped her for a moment before she went out the back through the kitchen, where Mouse Protector would be waiting.

"This is neutral ground. What do you want?" Kaiser demanded. His voice hid it well, but I could tell from his stance that he was tense, ready to move.

A good step one in many conflicts; make your enemy too angry to be smart.

"I just conquered a nation. You think I care one whit about the unwritten rules, Max Anders, Chief Executive Officer of Medhall?" I asked.

The Empire capes stilled in shock. Lung stopped growling long enough to look at Kaiser's end of the table, something calculating in his eyes.

"The bitch knows too much!" Hookwolf roared, taking a step towards me.

"How's the eye, Brad?" I asked. "That bullet looked like it hurt last time."

He froze, the tensing of muscle across his chest and neck conveying pure fury despite his features being hidden behind his metal wolf mask.

"And Victor," I continued, "I didn't even need a weapon to kill him. It's funny just how unlucky he was, really. Trying to take me hostage, on a day when I just happened to be visiting the PRT building? That deserves some sort of award for bad luck. Do you think the PRT ever managed to clean all his brains off the walls? It looked like they really got into the cracks."

"YOU BITCH!" Othala screamed.

Evidently Stormtiger agreed, as he slashed at the air and I bent just enough to get out of the way of the resulting thin blade of wind, helped by my HUD highlighting the otherwise invisible volume of superdense air. It cut a long diagonal slash in the wall behind me, near the empty doorway.

"Wait—" Kaiser began, but Hookwolf was already changing, and Lung was already running towards me. Oni Lee appeared, trying fruitlessly to wedge a combat knife into the seam where the armor around my neck sealed with my helmet. I put a fist through his chest and the clone turned to ash.

Shoferi > Good data coming in, keep it up.

Steel erupted from the ground around my feet, and a controlled leap and tumble took me away from it. I ducked another blade of air and let flame from Lung splash off my armor while I drew my gun with my left hand. An anesthetic flechette caught Cricket in the air as she leapt toward me, and I knocked her out of the air and through a table with a carefully timed kick. Another shot caught Othala, but not before she touched Alabaster.

There were too many capes here to fight neatly, and only some of them had powers that moved mass across dimensional barriers. I could put down the ones I wasn't interested in quickly and focus on the rest.

Another punch ashed an Oni Lee clone, and I flashed my armor brilliantly white to temporarily blind the room to pained cries. I put another flechette into Krieg, and Alabaster recovered first with the benefit of his power to charge at me, a pistol raised and firing without effect.

There would be no point in putting an anesthetic flechette into him; his power brought him back to perfect health every few seconds. A lethal shot might kill his brain fast enough to work, but I didn't particularly need to use lethal force. He wasn't really a threat to me.

When he got within reach he took a swing. I blocked, and the unexpected force sent me tumbling out the door.

The hell?

I reviewed my memories. Othala had touched him, and one of the powers she was known to be able to grant was super strength.

I couldn't be sure if it would expire when she lost consciousness, but there were ways I could deal with it.

I kipped up to my feet outside and backed up. Through the door I saw that Krieg had collapsed from the drugged flechette already. One less to worry about.

Lung, bulked up to the point that he could barely fit through the doorway, roared as he charged out first with a hand, fingers beginning to transition into clawed talons, cocked for a punch. I shifted my weight in a fractional dodge, letting it pass by my head before shattering his jaw and putting him on his back with a full strength uppercut to the chin.

Alabaster was out the door next, and I didn't bother matching strength to strength. To get data on how his power worked I'd need to hurt him to trigger it anyway. As long as I didn't destroy his brain he'd be fine. Probably.

Excalibur roared just long enough to cut him in half at the waist, and arced again to melt two Oni Lee clones attempting to suicide bomb me from both sides before Alabaster's torso hit the ground. The grenades they'd been swinging towards me triggered and instead of exploding spat sparks and smoke and a fire that ate into the asphalt.

I kept my distance. A quick thought queried the temperature with IR sensors. Incendiary grenades, probably thermate based. What lunatic gave him those? They weren't hot enough to burn through armor I'd designed to stand up to Excalibur's radiant heat for several minutes at a time, but being covered in rapidly cooling molten iron would get annoying fast. Not to mention having to kill Oni Lee clones would distract me from the other more significant capes gunning for me in this fight.

Scientia > I need to reduce the number of simultaneous targets. Ares, suppress the clones. Use the small combat drone coilguns, penetrator rounds. Keep the real one alive. Foam him if he tries to escape. Do the same with Alabaster, just avoid headshots and you shouldn't have to worry about killing him.

It'll be good data, I mentally added, with a trace of vindictive ruthlessness.

Ares > Command acknowledged, Ma'am. Commencing fire mission.

Scientia > Mouse, think you can mark Oni Lee? I'm not positive we could catch him with a foam round if he really goes for it. And I'd rather not risk permanently blinding him with a laser shot. The PRT would get upset.

Mouse Protector > They do get irritable about that sort of thing. It's been a trice since I've played tag with another teleporter, this'll be fun.

The deep staccato cracks of hypersonic rounds thundered like cannonfire as Ares went to town on Oni Lee somewhere in one of the adjacent buildings, camouflaged combat drones a thousand feet up raining fire down as fast as the teleporter could create new bodies.

Hookwolf came howling out the door fully transformed, his body screeching as it ground away at the too-small doorframe until he forced his way and ripped through.

Scientia > Ares, electrolaser the wolf.

Ares > Command acknowledged, Ma'am. Firing.

Hookwolf didn't even reach me before a pair of lasers flashed two conducting plasma channels of perfectly straight lightning through the air, conducting electricity from a specialty drone overhead into Hookwolf's very conductive steel body.

Much of the power would be lost to ground through his outer shell, but as Hookwolf's inhuman scream of agony attested, far from all of it.

Scientia > Hit him again if he gets up.

Ares > Command acknowledged, Ma'am. Maintaining target lock.

A short distance away Lung's skin had sprouted in hard scales over bulging musculature, and his face had started to distend in the beginnings of a snout as it healed. My running kick caught him in the chest as he leveraged himself up, the sternum collapsing under the force of the blow as he flew and landed on his back. He gurgled, vomiting blood from what would be a fatal injury for any normal human.

That had been considerably harder than breaking his jaw was, and his resistance was only going to increase as his power continued to work.

Scientia > Director, got anything yet?

Shoferi > A clue, there have been gravitational anomalies associated with the powers that move mass. Following the thread as data comes in. Keep them going.

Fenja and Menja made their way out of the widened hole where the door used to be, weapons in hand and eyes on me as they began to rapidly grow. Kaiser followed them.

"I've seen dozens of heroes like you. You know what killed them?" he remarked.

"Nazis?" I quipped.

A frown briefly crossed the lower part of his face that his elaborate power-created steel armor didn't cover. "No. Hubris. You've overestimated your abilities."

"Please," I scoffed. "I have enough firepower pointed at you to level the East Coast."

"But you're a hero," he mocked. "You won't use it."

"Are you sure? I've killed more people than you have, Max," I argued. "I'm powerful enough that I can kill people who deserve it and get away with it. Did you know there's a task group of contingency planners in the Pentagon trying to figure out what they're going to do if I decide to conquer the United States? And they're not having a great time of it."

The crack of a hypersonic round killing another Oni Lee clone punctuated my point, and Fenja visibly flinched.

"We'll see," Kaiser said, setting his jaw.

Prometheus > Miss, forks sent to check on Miss Wilbourne are not reporting back.

Scientia > What?!

A bestial roar split the air and my head pivoted towards it on instinct. Lung was up again, his body fully scaled and his head grotesquely transitioned to the four-piece snout that was more monster than dragon up close.

Then something hit me hard in the chest and I was tumbling backwards. Unthinking reflex used the momentum of the tumble to get me back to my feet. A spike of steel protruded at an angle from the ground where Kaiser had tried to put it through me. My armor was tough enough that it'd pushed me back instead of penetrating.

Prometheus > Priority interrupt. Forks sent to Miss Wilbourne's vicinity are not responding. Electronic devices in Miss Wilbourne's vicinity are not responding to remote queries. The entire area appears to be offline. Unknown cause. Hardware is not responding.

Ares > Threat analysis inconclusive. I need more to work with, Ma'am.

Scientia > Where is she?

Prometheus > Key West, miss.

Ah. She'd left town and was working while sipping drinks on a beach. Because of course she was.

Scientia > Shift the drone carrier here to above the area, a hundred thousand feet should be safe enough. I want eyes on whatever's going on.

Prometheus > Command acknowledged, Miss.

Ares > That will compromise our tactical options here.

Scientia > No choice, the drones don't have FTL and the timing is really damn suspicious. We've still got the Gunboat Diplomacy. Do it anyway.

Ares > Yes, Ma'am.

Lung, his clothes ripped and burnt away in the flames that licked his scaled and inhumanly large and muscled form, made a powerful leap aiming to pin me. A thruster-assisted sidestep got me out of the way of his bulk, where I smoothly ducked under a taloned swipe and landed a powerful blow on his ribs that caved his side inward. He hit the pavement in an uncontrolled tumble with a pained roar.

Ares > Behind you!

I leapt and rolled through the air without looking, trusting in Ares. Menja's spear, enlarged to gigantic proportions, embedded itself into the asphalt where I'd just been. Fenja's equally gigantic sword caught me in the air and swatted me down like a fly, the blade two feet across pinning me to the ground while Fenja strained with all her strength to shove it through my torso.

SuitOS v3.7 > Warning, forces exceeding design limits.

I swore under my breath and tried to shift the sword off without success. Fenja was just too massive, and Menja was raising her spear for a strike to aid her sister.

I switched tactics. Excalibur briefly flashed on and thundered in a swift arc that severed the tip of the blade, allowing me to roll out and get to my feet while the other combatants looked away or covered their eyes while I returned it to my waist.

Scientia > Ares, keep the bimbos busy.

Ares > Command acknowledged, Ma'am. Blasting bimbos.

A volley of cracks rang out, and the two women cried out in agony as they fell. A glance showed blood streaming from holes in their armored boots just above the heel. Ares had hamstrung them.

Scientia > Director, talk to me.

Shoferi > I'm seeing evidence of negative mass. It's maybe something remotely like our FTL drives, but if it is it's using a novel mechanism or something more. We encapsulate the volume to be bent in negative mass exotic matter plates, it's the most efficient way to form and guide the warp. They seem to be moving free matter somehow. I need to think, and I need more data.

Lung roared, shifting from two legs to four as his body grew and changed yet again into something even more monstrous.

Scientia > I'll see what I can do.

A ghostly white spear erupted from my chest. I turned around, feeling no damage or resistance to see a ghostly figure frozen there, and behind him a shocked Crusader. Kaiser, next to him, concealed his surprise slightly better, but I could still perceive it in the way he tensed.

Crusader's power to summon ghostly warriors only affected organic matter, going right through other solid objects. For a real person wearing power armor he would be a perfect counter. But this body wasn't organic, however flawlessly it appeared to be under the armor.

Shoferi > Oh that's interesting. See if you can trigger more of that.

I sighed to myself, hand moving away from the pistol I'd been reaching for to knock Crusader unconscious. I casually walked forward, letting the ghostly spear slide back through my torso without apparent damage.

"Is that the best you can do?" I asked.

"I had her! What the fuck is she?" Crusader swore, pulling the ghost that had tried to stab me back closer to him where two others joined it, spears leveled in my direction. The suit's software warned me with a virtual sharp sensation across my back, and I ducked low to allow one of Stormtiger's blades of air to pass over me. He'd left the bar and moved into a flanking position, using a corner of the building for cover.

"Something's not right," Kaiser concluded, fast on the uptake. "She has some sort of tinker trick."

"Whatever it is won't help her any more than it helps Armsmaster," Stormtiger said.

Prometheus > Miss, Eidolon wants to speak with you.

I leaped and rolled in the air past a nightmarish sculpture of dendritic steel spikes that exploded out of the pavement, trying to trap me. I didn't know what Eidolon could want, but I needed to focus and now was really not the time. Lung was looking nearly fully transformed and charging in my direction.

Scientia > Damn it, tell him I'm in a fight!

Prometheus > Command acknowledged, Miss.

I landed to the side of Lung and Excalibur ignited for the duration of an arc that severed his left foreleg at the shoulder. The dragon roared in pain and collapsed to the ground while flesh around the wound began to recover from the extreme burns and grow outward.

Scientia > Update on Lisa?

I ducked and dodged another pair of air blades from Stormtiger, moving to get some distance from Lung.

Ares > Drone Carrier Two has a visual.

Prometheus > We are unsure what to make of it, Miss.

Then Excalibur flashed and thundered in my hand once again to cut my way out of a steel cage Kaiser attempted to form around me. The other combatants jerked their heads away from the light and sound, save for Lung.

Hephaestus > Analysis incomplete. Drone Carrier Two has a visual on Miss Wilbourne sprinting down a side street in Key West. She is being pursued by something, but passive sensors only perceive a spherical dead spot approximately sixteen inches in diameter. It is either at absolute zero or anomalously emitting no black body radiation. Active sensors receive no returns except for gravitic sensors, which suggest a high mass without commensurate inertia. Presence of exotic matter possible.

She'd taken my generous pay and gone to the beach, evidently. But the spherical thing. Why was that familiar? It was following her, why…

Realization hit me, and I swore out loud.

Scientia > Dragon, the Simurgh! Check the Simurgh!

Dragon > She's in orbit. She appears to be inactive. What's wrong?

Scientia > Her body's in orbit. She left it there to trick us. Her core must be on Earth chasing Lisa. She can use the powers of nearby thinkers and tinkers, so she's using Lisa's for something.

Dragon > If that's true, whatever she wants we can't let her have it.

I rolled under another of Stormtiger's wind blades. The man was looking increasingly frustrated.

Scientia > Agreed.

Dragon > The PRT Endbringer alert system isn't responding. Something's trying to get into my systems!

Prometheus > Miss, ewar threat to you and Dragon detected. Engaging threat. Scaling. The threat is scaling. Emergency procedures are now in effect. Attempting containment.

Ares > It's using our tricks.

Dragon > He's right, I've got one and peeled it apart. Scientia, this is your work. They're hostile Prometheus forks. We have to fight them, or it will turn into another global mess. I'm sorry.

I swore again, the sound dwarfed by Lung's roar as his leg finished reforming. His inhuman four-part maw yawned open and attempted to incinerate me in a long burst of flame.

It wasn't nearly white or bright enough to be anywhere near a temperature that would compromise the suit, so I stood there and let him try his worst.

Scientia > She can pull apart and repurpose tech. She did it to the tech in the area and the forks I sent. You and I can't go to get Lisa out of there. We would just be feeding her weapons and information.

Dragon > A Cauldron Door, then?

Scientia > She might follow Lisa through.

Dragon > Then we need a parahuman. The mastered forks have infiltrated PRT systems, Endbringer alarm access is locked out, and the forks are trying to stop me from notifying responders.

Ares > We could clear the forks faster by destroying enemy-controlled server farms, or the communications hubs.

Prometheus > Missile strike options are available. US military or ours, if we redeploy the Gunboat Diplomacy.

Ares > Do I have clearance to engage targets, Ma'am?

Scientia > If you need to. You have clearance on Dragon's order.

Prometheus > Command acknowledged, Miss.

Ares > Command acknowledged, Ma'am.

The flame finally stopped when Lung's let loose an inhuman roar of pain and anger as the bony fingers of wings ripped out of his back, splaying out as leathery flight membranes grew at an incredible pace to fill in the gaps.

Ares > Jump!

I was a split second too late. Steel trapped my armored left boot before I could push off and then a spike of steel erupted from the ground in front of me. It hit my chestplate, shoved my back into a steel pillar that erupted from the ground to act like an anvil, and when I could no longer move the spike forced its way through the armor plate with a crack and pop as the layered metamaterial fractured.

Despite operating a body remotely, I was lost to a moment of agony before some safety in my implant must have interceded, adjusting the input down to something tolerable. With a thought, once I was capable of thinking coherently, I shut it off completely.

SuitOS v3.7 > Warning, serious damage. Suit penetrated by foreign object. Vacuum seal impossible. Left anterior thoracic thruster assembly destroyed. Maneuverability compromised. Strength compromised.

Pinned like a butterfly, I couldn't move. I reached for Excalibur, only for erupting tendrils of steel to grab at it and my hands.

I grit my teeth and strained at the restraints. The steel screamed in frequencies far above human hearing as it began to deform under my assault, and Kaiser responded by thickening them faster than I could bend them.

Scientia > Redline servos!

SuitOS v3.7 > Suspending safeties.

Steel stretched like taffy under my augmented strength only to thicken even further, slowing my movement as it went. Trying to stop me from reaching Excalibur and cutting my way out.

Shoferi > That's strange, is somebody operating some sort of broken FTL drive over there?

Scientia > We're a little busy, Director. Ares, can you cut me free with laser fire?

Ares > Building a model, please stand by.

Thirty feet away Kaiser tightened a steel-clad fist harder, and the steel swelled with more force, seeking to crush the suit from outside in and inside out.

Scientia > Ares, I don't think we have a lot of time.

SuitOS v3.7 > Warning, forces exceeding design limits.

"YEEEEEAAAAAA!"

Mouse Protector's battlecry rang out as she brought the pommel of her sword down on the back of Crusader's skull, having appeared behind the two of them with a silent step and a strange warped blur that didn't look like her teleportation power. Crusader collapsed like a string puppet, the ghostly forms of his power winking out with him. The crushing force on me ceased suddenly as Kaiser whirled and brought up a spiny thicket of branching steel in an effort to ward off Mouse Protector, backpedaling as he went.

In an awe-inspiring display of superhuman agility, Mouse held her sword and shield close to her body as she jumped, spun, whirled, rolled, and occasionally cut her way through the lethal hedge faster than Kaiser could make it grow, even using the metal as cover from several of Stormtiger's compressed air blades before taking advantage of the resulting gaps to make up more ground.

"Let her go, Kaiser Roll," Mouse Protector told him, her voice unusually serious.

"And why should I do that?" Kaiser asked, his urbane tone strained with effort.

"Because if you don't, you're gonna have to rebrand as Odin," Mouse answered.

"Odin?" Kaiser asked. Mouse answered by leaping unusually high using a steel branch as a vaulting point, and triggered the shield I'd made for her. Brilliant, blinding light flashed from the emitter I'd placed in it, and Kaiser was stunned long enough for Mouse to finish closing and sweep his legs out from under him.

Kaiser went down on his back with a clatter of heavy steel armor on asphalt, and Mouse positioned the tip of her sword just over his right eye, through the vision slot in his helmet.

"You know," she said, sparing Stormtiger a warning look that stilled him before returning her gaze to Kaiser. "The one-eyed god?"

"You wouldn't dare," he said, voice low.

"Hm. I think you'll find that I'm pretty loyal to my friends, but maybe I'm not the one you really need to worry about, my racist friend in a very conductive metal can. Scienta has some other friends who really like her, and unlike cheery ol' me they have absolutely no ruths at all. Ares?"

Mouse Protector disappeared and the crack of an electrolaser was echoed by Kaiser's involuntary scream as he was briefly electrocuted. When it was over she reappeared, feet placed exactly where they'd been.

She could dodge by teleporting between places she'd tagged the ground. Yikes.

"You fucking-"

Mouse's sword hung down in front of Kaiser's eye again, and he stopped.

"Let. Her. Go," she said, emphasizing each word.

There was a long pause, and then the steel around me started to recede in the opposite way in which it had grown, apparently into thin air.

I moved as soon as the steel bonds and spike released me, and checked the surroundings as the suit software did its best on the fly to compensate for the damage I'd taken to preserve my mobility. Where the hell was Lung?

With a thought I accessed the video feed from the Gunboat Diplomacy overhead and scanned for him. I found him around a street corner in a tangled warp of space; the street had been raised in a sort of arena to contain his blasts of flame, the space above it bent back towards the ground again in a way that made my head hurt, and a warped and rapidly moving white and green blur was dancing between blasts of flame and swipes of enormous claws amid man-sized clumps of shattered containment foam that had the look of what PRT foam grenades produced.

With a thought I froze the image. It was Vista, which also explained how Mouse had appeared behind the nazis. She was engaging Lung alone. Keeping him busy? She didn't seem to have anything that could hurt him, but she was using her spatial manipulation power to enhance fluid movements that seemed inspired by what I'd taught her, and she was doing it all with her eyes closed for some reason. Lung couldn't seem to lay a claw on her.

Of course, she would only have to make one mistake and it would be all over.

The Simurgh with Lisa in Key West, Vista and Lung here, the various villains here; things were becoming unmanageable with the resources I had to work with. My enormous knowledge of tactical decision making was telling me that when I couldn't do everything I needed to prioritize, but there had to be a way to do everything if I could just think of it.

Scientia > Ares, back up Vista. Lethal force authorized.

Ares > Unable. Rapidly shifting freestanding spacial warps make accurate targeting or plotting an FTL jump impossible.

Damn it!

Scienta > Ares, tell me about our response options for the Simurgh.

Ares > Alert wing fighter aircraft are available to scramble out of Homestead Air Reserve Base south of Miami. The naval air station in the area is inside the blackout zone and not responding. Ship and submarine launched missiles are also available with conventional or nuclear payloads. We could redeploy the Gunboat Diplomacy in a close support role, but approaching the Simurgh with your technology is inadvisable; she has already demonstrated that her ability to use nearby tinkertech evidently enables her to suborn Prometheus forks, it is likely she could attack your other technology as well. A main gun strike by the Gunboat Diplomacy from low orbit is viable, but civilian casualties would be total. An antimatter warhead would have a similar result.

Fighter aircraft had done some damage to the Dragonslayers' suits and been a good distraction, but their weapons wouldn't do anything against the Simurgh's incredible wide area telekinesis. I'd just be sending the pilots to their deaths, not to mention likely tipping off the military to someone having infiltrated their command and control. A human commander wouldn't deploy against an Endbringer.

As for the other options, Ares was right that getting my tech close to the Simurgh was just asking for it to be subverted, and I had no interest in wiping Key West off the map. All of my weapons that could hit the Simurgh hard enough to be a real threat to her – at the moment the Gunboat Diplomacy's main gun and large antimatter warheads – weren't suitable for use on an inhabited planet I wanted to keep inhabitable.

Scientia > What about parahuman response?

Dragon > The hostile Prometheus forks are prioritizing the Endbringer alert network as a target, I have not been able to trigger the alarm system yet.

"That thing isn't bleeding, there's nobody in that armor," Kaiser rasped, evidently to Mouse Protector, while looking at me from his position on the ground. "That's why Crusader didn't kill her, it's just a machine. Is your new friend even a human, or just some tinker creation herself?"

"Shut your mousetrap," Mouse Protector growled at him, the tip of her sword menacing his eye.

"Half a point for the Hitler wannabe," I sighed. "I'm human, I'm just not here. And I made the suit and the body inside it." I shook my head. "Mouse, Vista is fighting Lung over there all alone, we need to-"

The air shattered with a powerful gust of wind and a sonic boom, and Mouse and I both had to check our footing to stay standing. Abruptly a translucent blue bubble a bit larger than a man appeared in the air above us, and my HUD highlighted its entrance vector; it'd come to a dead stop from supersonic flight. The bubble disappeared, revealing the emerald green costume and flowing cloak of a man in a full face helmet who was instantly identifiable to anyone on Earth Bet.

Mouse Protector looked up. "Big E," she said, a trace of something uncharacteristic in her voice as Eidolon floated down towards me.

"This fight doesn't matter, we need to go," he said, the helmet amplifying his voice and its sense of urgency.

He was right. But setting aside the question of whether there was anything I even do about the Simurgh this instant, there was a more immediate problem. "There's a Ward engaged with Lung down the street, I can't abandon her," I said, gesturing in the direction of Vista and Lung's battle.

He turned his head and flew. I ran after him on foot, turning the corner in time to catch Eidolon raise his hand as the translucent blue bubble appeared again around Lung, visible as though warped like a funhouse mirror by the maze of Vista's spatial containment around them. Eidolon closed his raised hand into a fist and the bubble shrunk, compressing Lung into an angry ball that roared in a way that echoed strangely like sound in a cave through the warped space. Then Eidolon jerked the clenched hand in a throwing motion and the bubble was abruptly gone with another sonic boom and a gust that knocked Vista down.

My HUD used sensor data from the Gunboat Diplomacy to trace a flight path that went far to the east, out over the Atlantic somewhere.

Space abruptly snapped back into place, revealing the half-melted mess that Lung had made of the street. "Scientia. Eidolon!" Vista shouted, evidently more shocked at the second as she got back to her feet.

Eidolon paid her no mind, one of his hands touching the side of his head while the other held up a hand in a 'wait' gesture. "Console, this is Eidolon. The Simurgh has attacked Key West and she's disabled the Endbringer warning system. I need you to activate the city sirens manually." He paused briefly, listening to someone's reply on the other end. "So check my encryption key and then hit the button, trooper! NOW!"

A moment later the slowly rising scream of air raid sirens started their long peal, announcing to the entire city that an Endbringer attack was underway somewhere on Earth, and the start of the Endbringer truce.

"There, now we need to go," he said, flying close to me.

"Wait-" Vista and I said simultaneously. The blue bubble travel power formed around Eidolon and I, and space warped at the same time. Vista was suddenly in the bubble with us and we were accelerating.

"Vista!" I said, "What the hell?!"

"I'm backing you up!" She shouted over the roar of air and plasma outside, and my HUD indicated that we were hurtling south by southwest through the sky at the insane rate of mach 30 and rising. Eidolon's power had to be doing something to manage inertia and air resistance, because my knowledge of physics told me we should be crushed paste from the acceleration and leaving everyone under our flight path deaf at best.

"Eidolon, I can't-" I started, urgently needing to explain that getting my tech close to the Simurgh wasn't a good idea.

"Quiet," Eidolon ordered, his hand raised again. "Be ready. Three, two, one…" My HUD registered massive deceleration that I didn't feel, and then we were on what was left of Key West. Everything on the ground was in shattered ruins lit only by scattered and uncontrolled fires. The sky was dominated by a massive cloud of debris whipping around a basketball-sized night black orb that I could just barely see with magnification and light amplification against the night sky.

Vista bent over and clutched her head. "Ugh, that sound. Is that the scream?"

SuitOS v3.7 > ALERT, alterations in suit memory detected, suspected cyberattack by unknown vector. Attempting adaptive countermeasures. Suit self-destruct available at user command. WARNING, to prevent suit capture, self-destruct will activate autonomously in the event of imminent loss of core process control.

"Shit," I swore.

There wasn't time for an outside editorial pass on this one before the time I wanted to get it up, so let me know if anyone spots anything that needs a fix.

This chapter has been a brutal bear for me; much of it was written back in February, and it's somehow taken this long to get it into final shape with everything else I've had going on with work, the patent bar, and school. But now it's done, and I can move on to the rest of my story outline.

My studies seem to be going well, although I'm looking forward to actually getting grades soon and knowing for sure. I also moved this month, and I'm loving the new place, and I even had a job interview last week. Life is looking up. I hope it is for all of you on this Christmas day too. Or if it's not, I hope that I was able to brighten your day a little. Especially if this crazy North American weather has you alone with your computer this Christmas. I'm there with you in spirit, so let's raise a glass together.