Chapter 12: An alien's wrath

[Dragon's POV an hour later]

Really, she should've seen this coming. It wasn't an Endbringer fight unless something went wrong. (And of course it's a Simurgh raid where something like this happens.)

Thinking about it, it started because of the Simurgh's sudden attack on the Search and Rescue section of the battle. It made sense really. The efficiency of Capes not only being found, but retrieved and sent to medical was at an all time high. Thanks to not only the retrieval, but the aid of Panacea and the other healing Capes, deaths had been lower, and Capes were able to rejoin the fight faster then before...

The reason for that was probably why she sent four buildings towards the S&R center with a speed rarely documented.

'Rarely documented.' If she could, Dragon would snort at that.

The sonic boom that had come from the Changer called Sun Wukong, because the speedster had been caught by one of her drones suddenly blurring faster then they could track, had not only been unexpected, but had also caused a few deaths due to ruptured ear drums making Capes incapable of hearing the retreat orders, or anything in general...

It was difficult to determine whether that should be labeled as Breaking the Truce or not, Theresa understood why it happened when she received the signal of Khepri : Lost. Her band had gone from Australia to Canada, taking the Artificial woman by surprise that another pair of Capes had their base in her country, and even greater surprise when she calculated just how fast one had to go to reach that destination in under a few minutes. (Apparently the speed of sound was just a suggestion to that form.) It'd be amusing if it weren't for everything else that happened.

Namely, the return of Sun Wukong, and the reveal of the two forms currently labeled as Ifrit, and Agni.

The first form had been visible for only a few moments, but images from her drones had portrayed a figure seemingly made from plasma and volcanic rock in the shape of a man. The form practically screamed Pyrokinesis, and the... Secondary form, confirmed it.

Looking towards the active feed of Canberra, the massive volcano leaking magma as the surroundings burned with fires that had yet to die down, the scorched and glassed earth, Dragon nodded. (Naming oneself after gods is a pretentious and normally taboo thing... Being named after gods though donates a threat that deserves our full attention.)

Taking stock of what was known, Dragon opened the file that'd been created for this specific form. The first thing she saw was the clearest image they had of Agni. The Changer was almost fully covered in glossy black armor, seemingly some kind of highly resistant obsidian from what the samples they'd managed to recover showed, and only had a few sections of its body not encased in the material. The sides of its shoulders were open and venting out white flames, the miniature volcanoes on its back billowed out thick smoke, and its feet had small cracks that oozed magma. It was topped off with a helmet like structure that resembled a demon. (supertodd9 on Deviant Art. Though like I mentioned, instead of its entire body having sections where the flames/magma can be seen, it's only those specific parts. I'll explain at the end.)

The form looked befitting of one named after a god, or again, a demon, and its abilities more then matched up.

'Turning', Theresa replayed the opening barrage between Agni and the Simurgh. A veritable storm of debris being shot towards the Changer, who just raised a hand, the flames coming from his shoulders roaring to life as a sea of white fire surged forwards, atomizing the projectiles and flying towards the Simurgh.

The Endbringer had caught the flames with her Telekinesis, the flames writhing for a moment, before they exploded in a blinding flash that had rendered anyone unfortunate to be looking at them, blind. Panacea had fixed them, those who lived atleast, but the fact that those explosions seared the retinas of Capes was one of the strikes against the Changer. (One of several, that would make anyone else a Truce Breaker.)

Shaking that thought away, the next clip was another one of his strikes. After that opening, Agni stepped towards the Endbringer, a towering pillar of flames and smoke erupting from his body as imprints of his feet melted into the earth beneath him. The heat and smoke alone had led to chaos as the former began to set everything/one nearby ablaze, while the smoke began filling the street, hindering efforts to escape as the Changer lumbered towards his target.

Then came the next strike. A few minutes into the fight, Agni's armor began to crack... Cracks that formed when the Cape smashed his fists into his chest, legs, and arms. Those cracks exposed white plasma hot enough that anything not already on fire or melted started to succumb to those affects... That was a much more serious thing when the safest place to be was 75ms away. If evacuation hadn't already begun then the losses would've been more then what we had.

Though, when the cracks first started appearing, the Endbringer's face shifted from the usual mask she had to one of startled surprise, Then...

Then fear...

If it hadn't been recorded, Dragon wouldn't believe it. The Simurgh, The Hope Killer, had been afraid...

Then came the last strike... The volcano and its simulated eruption... There didn't need to be an explanation. Just watching a volcano burst from the earth, erupting beneath The Hope Killer and bathing her in magma, was cathartic.

The audible scream that came after he used the sudden eruption to create a tornado of white flames that engulfed the Endbringer, however, was terrifying.

By the time the fight was over, The Simurgh retreated with nearly all of her wings burned, for some reason she did her best to avoid one specific wing being damaged, missing a foot, half of her face scarred, and her torso a mess of blackened 'flesh' that seemed to slowly peel off.

It was horrific.

Disgusting.

Revolting...

And so goddamn gratifying.

The Simurgh had retreated after 8 minutes of fighting a living volcano, and looked like she would be keeping her wounds for a long time. We'd even gotten some hints of a weakness if how adamantly she tried to protect the undamaged wing were any indication.

Which made the situation with Anubis/Sun Wukong/Agni that much more difficult to deal with.

The lives he'd saved with his speedster form were heroic.

The sonic boom caused by that form led to casualties.

The change to Agni led to more casualties and strikes that should've led to him being declared a Truce Breaker.

He had single handedly fought off The Simurgh.

The dilemma here was such a difficult one that even as an A.I, Dragon had no idea what would be right. (Hopefully, I can get in touch with Khepri and Anubis on PHO. Knowing where their base is, I could get an audience in an hour or two if they're amenable.) A direct line of communication would hopefully help. And thanks to them being in Canada, The Guild, and Dragon by extension, had priority due to it being within their jurisdiction.

She'd feel sorry for the Protectorate, but she was also anxious about meeting someone with that level of power... Actually, she had to deal with this now... (Those lucky bastards.)

Ultimate Heatblast, well, my interpretation of him atleast, is kind of based on Echo Echo and NRG, just a little different. Though firstly, backstory.

After a fuckton of years of getting nommed on by their natural predator, the rhino crab thing, Pyronite's evolved to not only burn hotter, reaching levels near the surface of the sun, but have gained a way to make themselves harder to hurt. The phrase, 'If fire isn't working, you just aren't using enough of it' personified. They grew volcano like protrusions on their backs, gaining the ability to secrete a substance similar to magma. When this substance hardens, it becomes an outer layer that keeps their bodies from turning their immediate surroundings into a wasteland. This layer gives them enhanced strength and durability, but costs them speed, the ability to fly, as well as traverse the sea. However, should they deem it necessary, they can break the armor to allow them to increase how hot their fires burn, but to also let more fire out when the time comes to burn their opponents.

Now, what does this mean?

The Pros

Superior firepower

Advanced Geokinesis

Enhanced Strength

Enhanced Durability

The Cons

Loss of speed

Loss of flight

Loss of advanced fire manipulation

Loss of fire transportation

Can't jump for shit

Loss of underwater capabilities

The cons might out weight the pros, but given the description of the fight, again, Leviathan is going to get a proper fight, you can see that being a big ol tank that can create volcanoes and is as hot as the sun, is worth it. Well, in my opinion it is.