18 The Power Of Love

As if fate itself had dictated it, the Endbringer sirens blared on the morning of May 15 and Leviathan showed up at the edge of Brockton Bay. It was Vista's birthday and she did not appreciate the present and neither did anyone else that lived in the city.

"You don't have to do this with me." I said to her as we gathered with the other heroes and villains that had been called into action. "I signed up because of my abilities. You don't have to be here."

"I won't abandon you, Myriad." Vista said and stepped close to give me a kiss. "Now do your thing and see what abilities you can use."

I glanced around at the mass of capes around us. "Do you think they'll hate me for taking them out of the fight?"

Vista snorted and then laughed. "I think the majority of them will thank you."

I gave her a smirk and a return kiss. "I hope you can accept that I'm probably going to age up after I gather all of the compatible powers assembled here."

Vista looked down at my formfitting cape costume and smirked right back at me. "If you can take out an Endbringer, I'm sure I can take whatever you end up with. Eventually."

I laughed and hugged her close. "I don't deserve to be your boyfriend."

"I'm glad you understand your place." Vista said and gave me a quick kiss. "Go ahead and show me what you can do when you're truly motivated."

I let her go and stepped back. "I'll be back in a second."

Vista started to nod at me and I used Velocity's power to speed myself up to little more than an eyeblink. I had hours to find those that had physical powers that I could copy and I knocked each of them out to gain a permanent 100% copy if it was my main choice and a permanent 50% copy that I could use at any time if I left them as secondary powers.

When I was done, three quarters of the capes were sleeping soundly inside the medical tents that had been set up and I was back beside Vista when she finished her nod. I was a foot taller than her now and my body had matured to that of a 20 year old. I was also completely brimming with power. Vista gasped when I took her hand again and her power rejoiced when it touched mine.

"We are going to kick Leviathan's ass." Vista said, her face determined.

"Yes, we are." I said and disappeared with her to reappear at the edge of the bay on the closest dock. "Halfway to the horizon, please. Copy what we did to crush the ships, except we are expanding the distance instead."

Vista grinned at me. "None of the Endbringer's waves will reach the bay."

"Not a single one." I said and we combined our powers to create a gigantic spacial distortion in the middle of the bay.

All of the other capes started to freak out as the 30 foot tall and seemingly disproportionate humanoid body with scaly green skin of Leviathan appeared on the horizon where the old ship used to block the entrance to the bay. The creature had a top-heavy appearance due to his hunched shoulders and the large cords of muscles stood out on his neck, upper torso, and shoulders.

The thing's top-heavy appearance was only strengthened by his much thinner forearms and calves, topped off with massive claws and digitigrade lower legs and feet. At the rear end of his body was a prehensile whip-like tail that was around 40 to 50 feet long. It also weighed about nine tons.

The first of the psychic tidal waves the Endbringer generated grew to almost 50 feet in height before it rushed towards the rebuilt docks and businesses there. It hit the invisible barrier that Vista and I had generated and it lost all of its momentum as it travelled a hundred miles through shallow water and then disappeared.

Another wave grew, then another and another... and each wave completely disappeared when it hit the spacial distortion. Even though the power did not work on living organisms, it did work on the space around them, so Vista and I kept Leviathan pretty much locked in the center of the bay.

The surprising thing was, none of the capes knew what to do with the thing essentially trapped, because they didn't want to get trapped themselves if they attacked.

"We can't... keep this up... forever." Vista said as sweat beaded on her forehead.

I looked over at Alexandria and she gave me a bit of a glare. "Truce? We do this together?"

"Did you copy my powers?" Alexandria asked.

"Technically only part of them. My own invulnerability is better than yours and I have Legend's flight." I told her and she looked surprised for a moment, then she nodded. "Vista, drop the power as soon as I let your hand go. Use what you have left to get to the medical tent and protect it."

"Okay." Vista said and took a deep breath. "I'm ready."

"Dragon, let everyone know the first offensive is Alexandria's." I said.

"Already done." Dragon's voice said over our armbands. "Good luck."

"Thanks." I said and looked back at Alexandria. "You take the head and I'll take the tail."

Alexandria only gave me a slight once-over with her eyes. "Fair enough. You've grown a lot bigger."

I couldn't stop my smile. "Let's see if Leviathan is more lizard than humanoid."

Alexandria barked a laugh. "I'd like to see it try to regrow a tail."

I nodded and counted. "I'm letting Vista go in three... two... one... NOW!"

Vista dove away from me as soon as my fingers opened and she was almost instantly over next to the medical tent. I flew up into the air with Alexandria right behind me. Because we had spaced our attacks appropriately, her super-powered fist slammed into Leviathan's face at the same time my own energy charged fist slammed into the tail of the creature beside its rump.

I discharged the hardest blast Legend had ever unleashed and it severed the entire tail in one shot. I grabbed the thing and flung it as hard as I could into the creature's back to slam it down into the water. A second later, I threw the severed tail to Alexandria and the happy smile on her face looked odd, because she was supposed to be serious all the time.

As soon as Leviathan stood up on the sea bed to regain its balance, Alexandria used its own tail like it would and tore the hell out of the creature. She had a lot more experience using such a massive weapon against a much larger opponent, so I waited until she paused before I changed to Shadow Stalker's power as my main one and flew through the severely beaten creature at near eye-blink speed.

I found the core and grabbed it, thanks to Velocity's speed power, and flew back out through the creature. The look on Alexandria's face as I reappeared carrying a one foot wide shard of crystal was priceless.

"No time!" I said and aimed up into space and used Legend's top speed, near light speed, and it only lasted for a nanosecond. I let the shard go at the top of the atmosphere and it flew off at terminal velocity into deep space. The problem was, I had forgotten to take a breath first. I started to black out as I aimed myself back to the planet's surface before the crystal destabilized. I started to fly again just as the thing exploded.

*

"NOOO!" Several people yelled as they saw the massive explosion in the upper atmosphere, Vista's and Hive Queen's voices the loudest among them.

Alexandria tapped her armband. "Dragon, are you tracking Myriad?"

"Unfortunately, he was too close to the explosion. The armband was destroyed instantly." Dragon said. "I've taken over sixteen telescopes, including the array in New Mexico. I need a minute to triangulate... got him!"

"Preliminary trajectory?" Alexandria asked as she flew up several thousand feet.

"He was up fairly high. His trajectory... tumbling... wait, I've got it." Dragon said. "He's coming down in... oh, sweet lord!"

"Where is he, dammit?" Alexandria asked and swirled around in a circle, ready to take off in an instant.

"He... he's headed for the edge of Ellisburg."

"No!" Alexandria gasped and looked at the tracking data. If she could just get close enough, she could potentially knock him off course. "Door!"

One appeared and Alexandria flew through it as fast as she could. She came out of it near the right coordinates and her sharp eyesight saw the fireball created from Myriad's reentry. Before she could adjust her flight, she bounced off of the tinkertech energy shield wall around the city of Ellisburg.

"Unidentified CAPE!" An amplified voice yelled out from below. "You are in violation of restricted airspace around a restricted and contaminated area!"

Alexandria ignored the idiot and watched helplessly as the fireball went almost straight down into the town. The impact and resulting debris cloud from something falling from space, pretty much set off all of the breach alarms set up on that side of the city's blockade.

"Use the sentries! Shoot anything that moves!" The amplified voice said and a hundred automated machine gun turrets opened fire.

Alexandria could only watch as they wasted ammunition on nothing but rocks and pieces of wood. She flew down to meet with the commander of the containment brigade and filled him in on what had happened. The thing was, the airspace was restricted for a reason.

Nilbog was a powerful bio-tinker and had converted the entire town's population into abominations that adored him... and now Myriad was trapped inside with them all. Even if he had somehow survived the fall from space, he had been exposed to the mutating viruses and contamination that had altered the rest of the population of Ellisburg and would never be allowed to leave.

Ever.

*

Emily Piggot sat in her office and she was stunned. Not only had Myriad somehow killed an Endbringer, he had also fallen into the place that was her biggest shame and regret. She had lost everyone in her unit when she had to retreat from that hellhole and she had suffered more injuries than she realistically should have survived.

"What do you mean he can never leave there?" Hive Queen asked, indignantly. Vista was cuddled in her arms and hadn't stopped crying for over an hour. There wasn't much chance she was going to stop anytime soon.

"We haven't received any confirmation that he survived the fall from space." Alexandria said. She had returned to the PRT ENE office to personally deliver the news. "If he did survive, he has been exposed to an unknown and virulent biological plague that could infect the rest of humanity if he ever left. If he... didn't..."

Vista let out a loud wail of sorrow.

"...his body would have to remain inside for the same reasons." Alexandria finished.

Hive Queen thought about it. "Send me there. I'll use my bugs to..."

"They wouldn't be allowed to enter or leave if they did enter." Emily Piggot said and had to ignore the girl's glare. "Same reasons. The chance that any diseases could pass through them is too great to take."

"But..."

"The orders to cease and desist are from the president himself." Alexandria said with a sigh. "Because Myriad himself is immune to any psychic probing, we can't even check to see what happened to him."

The meeting room fell silent as everyone thought about their missing member. He had been a valuable asset, even with the trouble he had invariably brought because of his powers and attitude.

"What's going to happen to the bounties he earned?" Assault asked and his wife Battery slapped the back of his helmet. "What? It's a valid question."

"Until his passing is confirmed..." Emily said as Vista let out another sob. "...the money will be deposited into his slush account."

"I doubt he has access to or will need money inside the city, considering the hellhole it was years ago." Armsmaster said. "We never did try and test how long he could go without food."

"Do you really want to discuss starving Myriad while we know he probably will in the situation he's in right now?" Miss Militia asked, angrily.

Armsmaster raised his hands in surrender. "I apologize. I should have said we never tested if he could eat too much food for a normal body to digest safely."

Silence fell after that and no one said anything as Vista tried to get her crying under control.

"What do we do about this?" Battery asked and looked around the room at everyone's sad faces.

"There's nothing we can do." Alexandria responded. "Without confirmation that Myriad is alive, all we can do is hope that his invulnerability protected him."

"And if he did live and is trapped in there?" Assault asked.

"Then we hope he won't become one of Nilbog's creatures. If he does, with the powers he has after that Endbringer fight..." Emily Piggot stopped talking and reached over to lightly touch Vista's arm. "Hive Queen, take her to her room. Put her in bed and stay with her. You're both off-duty until I say so."

Hive Queen nodded and carefully stood, with Vista still tucked into her side, and slowly walked out of the meeting room. As soon as the door shut, Alexandria let out a sigh and turned to the monitor.

"Dragon, replay what I saw." Alexandria ordered.

Everyone watched the replay of Alexandria's armband recording. It looked particularly bad as the fireball slammed into the ground at terminal velocity and the resultant dust cloud looked like an atomic bomb had gone off.

"Good lord." Miss Militia said as tears came to her eyes. She had held her emotions in check until the order to open fire had been given and all of those automated turrets opened fire and loosed thousands of armor-piercing rounds into the very spot that Myriad had fallen. "No... no."

"Just wait." Alexandria whispered and the recording showed her landing, her confrontation with the commanding officer, and then a view of the television monitors as hundreds of mutilated and mutated creatures swarmed the area. When the dust and debris finally settled down, the creatures had already moved off as a mass and the crater was empty.

Miss Militia let out a sob similar to Vista's and stood, wiped at her eyes as she barely muttered an excuse to leave, and ran from the room.

"Did they eat him or change him into one of them?" Armsmaster asked.

"I have already analyzed the video and I can't tell." Dragon said. "They could have easily carried him off to go meet Nilbog himself for all we know."

"I don't know if that's better or worse." Emily said and everyone nodded.

Alexandria met everyone's eyes once before she nodded to Emily Piggot and left the room. She called for a door when she was out of sight and stepped into Cauldron's primary base.

"We don't know." Contessa said and Alexandria sighed, her question answered before she asked it.

"That's two blind spots in the same area." Legend said. "Is there no way to use Path to Victory on anyone around that area?"

Contessa shook her head. "Nothing comes up because it's all tied into the creatures Nilbog controls."

"So, now what?" Eidolon.

"We continue on." Alexandria said. "Despite the loss of a massive trump like Myriad, our Path is still the same."

The others around the table nodded and discussed what they could do next to advance their plans to save humanity from extinction.