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Chapter Fifteen—Journeying Through Abadd

Chapter Fifteen—Journeying Through Abaddon

AN: I made a few changes to the previous chapter shortly after I posted it, including one fairly significant one, so I recommend going back and rereading that first. Once you're done, feel free to read on.

I also wanted to thank everyone for the great feedback I've received for this story. I can't tell you how beneficial it's been to hear your suggestions and criticisms. Please continue to let me know where I'm doing well as well as where I'm screwing the pooch. Thanks!

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

The first thing Taylor noticed when she almost slid out of the teleporter's arc was the controlled chaos around her. Controlled, because there were people in charge providing direction. Chaos, because despite that direction, several people were moving around in seemingly random directions.

They were located in a lightly wooded area, likely a park, six kilometers to the south of the downtown area. Taylor was able to ascertain that by pinging a satellite, since she couldn't see the downtown area from their base camp, the buildings being much too small to show at this distance. Canberra, despite its population, was anything but the typical city with its planned set up from the beginning of its existence. That much, at least, Taylor had absorbed from JARVIS' brief.

Instead of night, it was now late afternoon, with the bright sun starting to form lengthening shadows. It was also extremely hot, based upon her armor's sensors, a scorching thirty-eight degrees Celsius in the shade.

It was shortly after taking in all of her surroundings that Taylor noticed the fear. There was a feeling of almost panic in the air.

The look of strain on the visible portions of most of the faces around her was something that Taylor's memories recognized. It was a mix of stark terror that you were going to die, along with worry that when you did, it would be in vain. There was also that little bit of fear of the unknown. All of the signs around her pointed to the Simurgh's presence. It was, after all, the most feared of all the Endbringers.

Taylor's armor's cameras panned over the proceedings, zooming in occasionally as something caught her attention. Here, a group of eight heroes were launching into the sky, likely off to engage the Simurgh. There, another group streamed back in, injured and bleeding, their very body language reflecting how badly they'd been beaten. Heads of various capes hung down as they trudged along. As Taylor tried to make sense of everything, her HUD briefly overwhelmed her with names and histories to the point the exterior view was almost completely hidden by various sized fonts.

Whew. Inside her helmet, Taylor blinked rapidly, then said, "JARVIS, from now on, only tag new capes with names, and then only for ten seconds. Also, no more than ten percent of the screen should be used at any one point. Prioritize by threat status. Otherwise, it's too distracting."

"I will take care of it, Miss." Seconds later, everything cleared off, with only the occasional tag sneaking in as a new Parahuman came into view.

Glancing at the impassive faces of Lady Photon and Brandish, who still stood next to her, Taylor noticed that none of the chaos surrounding them seemed to come as a surprise. Both of the women's faces were carved in stone, as all emotion was suppressed. Finally, after a long moment, they moved.

Taylor slowly followed, falling behind slightly, as they made their way over to a tall armored figure carrying an enormous weapon resembling the bastard child of a cannon and sword. Her HUD labeled him as Chevalier, a name she recognized as head of the Protectorate branch in Philadelphia. Which made his weapon the rather infamous Cannonblade. She noticed that the other Protectorate capes they'd arrived with were already scurrying off. While she watched, Chevalier just finished waving Panacea towards a large tent with a red cross on it.

As she caught up, Taylor heard the tail end of a question. "...think that we are best used."

"I want the two of you joining D Wave to make up for casualties there. I already sent off the others in your group to work on civilian rescue or healing. Here's your armbands. Remember your exposure. Good luck."

"Thanks."

Chevalier turned towards Taylor, taking her in for the first time. His voice was curt as he asked, "Name and affiliation?"

"Iron Man. Rogue Tinker."

Taylor saw his eyes flick over her armor from under his helm. It made her glad that he couldn't see her own in return. "I'm not familiar with that name. Where are you out of?"

Taylor answered honestly. "I'd rather not say."

His tone was clipped as he said, "Fine. What are your abilities? I take it that your armor is functional? Does it include flight? Also, please give me an preliminary weapons load out so I can figure out where to slot you."

"My armor includes supersonic flight, coupled with multiple energy weapons, including high energy particle cannons and repulsors." Taylor decided that he didn't need to know the specifics of the repulsors or her other weapons, and continued, "My armor is protected by its superalloy chassis, as well as strong forcefields, which I can also project. My drones are a mix of forcefield and weapons platforms."

"Is this your first Endbringer fight? Do you think you can you take a direct hit from the Simurgh, Iron Man?"

Taylor swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. "Yes and yes."

Chevalier nodded. "Fine. As soon as I assign you a wave, you'll join them for a brief on the Simurgh. It'll cover how best to combat her, as well as any perceived goals she appears to have and if we need to thwart those."

"I understand."

"Is there anything else you need to tell me before assignment?"

Taylor stepped up to the floating metal cube that acted as both a storage unit for the psionic dampeners, as well as armored transport for a set of servers for JARVIS. She opened the drawer and pulled one out, tossing it to Chevalier. "Yes. I made these. They're psionic dampeners. Should be effective for at least some time against the Simurgh. They completely block telepathy, as well as other forms of psychic attacks. Large scale macro-telekinesis will likely overwhelm their dampening fields, destroying them. Until then, they should work."

There was a sense of suppressed excitement in Chevalier's voice as he asked, "How many do you have with you?"

"I made eighty, but with the ones I've already given out, I have seventy-two left. Do you want me to leave them with you?"

"Yes. I'll take care of dispensing them as waves come back in." Chevalier picked up an armband from the table beside him and started to hand it to Taylor. He stopped when it became clear that there was no way it would go over her suit's arm. "Policy is that you wear one of these so that if you are in the area affected by the Simurgh's Scream too long, it can be detonated to prevent you from turning on us. It's also a communication device to let you stay in touch with everyone else involved in the fight."

Taylor took the device from his hand. Turning off her external speakers, she said, "JARVIS, analyze and decode the frequency this is on and patch us in."

"Analyzed and decoded, Miss. Accessed using encrypted radio protocol Omega One."

"Thank you, JARVIS." To Chevalier, Taylor said, "I have patched into the armband's frequency and will be in contact with everyone." She handed him back the armband, wondering how they were going to handle the need to possibly eliminate her.

Chevalier nodded. He also picked up a different device from the table, a flat rounded disc. "Turn around, please."

"What is that?"

"It serves the same purpose as the armband in dealing with Parahumans who have been exposed too long to the Simurgh's scream. It's designed for armored capes and attaches through a combination of magnetic and electrostatic bonding."

Taylor really didn't want what amounted to a limpet mine attached to her, but since she was the one who had wanted to be here, didn't feel like she had a choice. "Fine."

Chevalier attached it high on her back just below her head. Once it was clinging to Taylor's armor, he said, "G Wave is just forming up. It's composed of mostly first timers as well. You'll see a flag with the letter about seventy-five yards due north. Once you're there, your group will head in for briefing shortly after. Understood?"

"Understood."

With that, Taylor set out to find her group, or wave. On the way, she said, "JARVIS, make sure to disable that damn mine that's attached to my armor. I'm rather fond of my head and would rather keep it."

"Already done, Miss. I've also taken the liberty to spoof the electronic monitoring to believe it is still operational."

"Excellent, JARVIS. What would I do without you?"

JARVIS' tone was supremely dry as he murmured, "We'll never know."

Taylor noticed the large white flag with the letter G in red above it. Clustered around beneath the flag were several Parahumans, including another figure in powered armor, although it was substantially smaller and appeared more lightly armed and armored than her own. As she walked up, Taylor said, "I'm Iron Man, here to join G Wave."

The armored cape laughed, but Taylor could hear the strain in his voice as he spoke, "Nice going, mate. I'm Adamant. Hero." He gestured towards the others. "That's Faust, Majestic, Ronin, Billabong, and Feral. We were just getting acquainted. What's your deal, mate?" His accent was definitely Australian. It made sense that since it was their country that was being attacked, a majority of the capes here would be natives.

Taylor kept her words simple as she explained, "I'm a Tinker. Rogue. Besides the armor, I'm also protected by forcefields. I have several energy weapons for engaging at a distance. I also brought the drones behind me. The ones with the one large central indention that looks like an eye are weapon platforms, firing a high energy particle beam weapon. The ones with the four equally spaced triangular indentions are forcefield drones. You can use them for protection against the Simurgh while you wait to launch your attack. Just remember to stay away from the edges of the forcefields, which are colored blue for visibility. They are very sharp."

One of male capes whistled. "Damn. I'll be sure to avoid being killed by my own side then." The man's accent was very Australian, almost exaggeratedly so. He also sounded cocky as he spoke, "Anyway, I'm Faust. Not a hero. As you can see, I dress the part." Faust gestured at his all black outfit, which looked almost like a man's suit, if it came complete with a flowing black cape. He wore big dark goggles covering his eyes, as likely to protect his identity as it was to guard against the wind while flying. Taylor did notice that his suit showed a lot of areas of body armor when she scanned him, so he wasn't completely without protection. "I fly. I also summon these big red flying demons to fight for me. They're pretty nasty, but I don't know if they can take on an Endbringer."

Next was a tall female cape dressed in Japanese-style Samurai armor with a metal helm concealing her identity. "I'm Ronin. Rogue. I can form an energy sword that can cut through most objects, as well as throw balls of the same energy that explode. I fly, too."

Taylor noticed that Ronin's armor was mostly decorative and likely provided less protection than Faust's. She asked, "How far can you throw them?"

There was a nervous energy to Ronin as she shuffled her feet before answering, "About a hundred feet."

That took her into almost pointblank territory with the Simurgh, a dangerous place to be. But Taylor stayed silent, deciding to wait to make any objections until she heard the rest of her group's abilities.

"I'm Majestic. Ahh... hero. I'm a mover two, flying that is, plus I have a brute rating of three. I also shoot beams of green energy out of my eyes that burn extremely hot, giving me a Blaster rating of four." Majestic, who also spoke with an Australian accent, wore a bright red uniform that showed his musculature off, as well as a black half-mask that covered his upper face, while leaving his square jaw and blonde hair uncovered. His hair was long, well past shoulder-length, and kept swept back from his face by his mask.

Unlike any of the others, Majestic's voice showed an intense sense of excitement rather than fear. Taylor also noticed how the crimson-themed cape seemed to almost pose, as if trying to show himself off to the others around him. The other homegrown capes didn't seem that impressed with him. She'd keep an eye out for him.

"Billabong, here. Rogue. I control water. I can fly on a hardened disc of water, as well as shoot out blades of it. If I'm near a large body of water, I can make a water twister that can do a lot of damage. Without water nearby, I only have what I bring with me in my tanks." Billabong, another Australian cape, carried a roughly ten gallon metal tank on his back, apparently full of water. He was dressed in a blue and white bodystocking with a utility belt around his waist. His matching mask covered most of his head with holes for his eyes, nose, and mouth. To Taylor's dismay, he didn't appear to have any armor beyond Kevlar protecting his chest and back.

"I'm Feral. Villain. I can fly. Rated Mover none-of-your-business. I'm also a Shaker. I create these fields of warped space where the physical laws aren't... normal. I can toss them, see? As some of you already know." The cape who spoke, was a woman, and didn't resemble her name in the least. With a cape name like Feral, Taylor would have thought Brute, but instead, the woman was short, blonde, and delicate, and wore a costume of tye-dyed cloth, with various beaded accouterments covering her, including a headband and mask. She looked more like a hippie than anything else. A completely unarmored hippie.

Adamant nodded. "Yeah, we know, Feral. For now, we're on the same side. Least till we deal with this dunny rat. I'll finish up things. Adamant here. Her- sorry, I already said that, didn't I? I'm a member of a team out of Perth. I'm a Tinker, rated a three. I specialize in lift systems with an emphasis on smaller payloads. That's how my armor works. I'm rated a Mover four because with my armor on, I'm quick. I also have miniature explosive rockets that I can use to attack with. Nasty buggers. Might just be bities, though, to an Endbringer. So, everyone have a good idea of what this wave can do?"

There were assorted nods of assent along with a smattering of "Aye" and "No worries" statements. Adamant said, "Then, let's head in for briefing. I want to be ready when it's our turn to head in."

Taylor walked with the others towards another large tent, her thoughts in turmoil. Moving inside, she noted the person at the front of the tent was another cape she'd never seen before. Her HUD identified the person as Revel, a Protectorate member out of Chicago. She was clearly Japanese, with a painted mask covering her lower face. On a table next to her rested a massive lantern on a stick. Under a crimson kimono, Revel wore a white skin-tight outfit with straps at the shoulders, the legs ending mid-thigh. Without the kimono, the outfit would have been scandalous. With it, she had a degree of modesty, only her shoulders left bare.

Revel spoke, "Gather around. I'm Revel, a member of the Protectorate. I'm here to brief you on the Simurgh. You'll be launching in just a few minutes."

She walked over to a large white board at the front and began pointing at different things. "First, understand that we're not fighting Behemoth or Leviathan. The Simurgh is far, far worse."

"While physically not as imposing, she is nearly their equal, strength-wise. She prefers not to engage in hand to hand, instead employing an intense form of telekinesis to strike you. She can knock you down, or hit you with objects. She keeps a cloud of debris hovering around herself that she can employ for this purpose. Remember, her telekinesis is strong enough to lift buildings."

"One of her other primary powers involves her Scream. We've never found a way to block it, although we'll be fitting you with untested devices that might work before you set out. Combat ops are scheduled in blocks of five minutes. If your group can't make it the full five, try to last at least half that before disengaging. When you get back here, anyone who needs it seek healing and ready yourself for the next wave. We'll also being combining waves based upon casualties, so you may end up fighting alongside someone different before the end. So communicate."

"Remember, throughout each wave of the fight, your total exposure to the Simurgh's scream is only thirty-six minutes. Before that, you must get out. Your armband keeps a running tally on your exposure. It will also alert you at the point that you only have five minutes to get out of her range, which is approximately one point six kilometers in radius, and again when you only have one minute. Shortly after the thirty-six minute deadline, your armband will alarm, then detonate, terminating you."

Revel looked at each of them, to further emphasize what she was saying. After a moment, she continued, "That is the worst part of what you'll face. But I do need to warn you of another ability she possesses. We believe she can access Thinker and Tinker powers in her vicinity. Since she first demonstrated this ability back in 2009, she has used it twice since to build devices that have a variety of purposes, none of them beneficial. While she is always your primary target, any devices she is working on are a high priority secondary target."

"So anyone who finds out they can't hurt her, attack any Tinker devices she's working on. If nothing else, it provides a distraction, giving her more targets to worry about. Her precognition makes the Simurgh, herself, a difficult target at best."

Taylor asked, "Is she building something right now?"

That earned her a hard look. "Yes, she's centered over the Australian Academy of Science. It's next to a building called the Shine Dome, which looks... looked like a flying saucer cut in half. Apparently there were Tinkers working inside and underneath the building in protected bunkers. Some, but not all, have been evacuated. We do not have an up to date list of what the Tinkers were specializing in, so be prepared for anything."

"Remember, hit hard and fast. Stay with your wave and try to get everyone out. If you can't help someone else, get yourself out. Regroup back here for another attempt. Stay in communications and let us know if something is working, or not. If you get routed early, communicate that, and we'll get the next wave on her ahead of schedule. Any questions?"

Taylor was sure that she should have a million. But she'd read every possible scrap of information that JARVIS had managed to scrounge up on the Simurgh. Nothing from the briefing had been really new, with the exception of the target.

It made sense, however, if the Simurgh had deemed some Tinker here inimical to its plans. Additionally, a successful strike here would severely damage the Australian capital city and its economy, while dealing a strong blow to morale throughout the nation. She would also create time bombs of an unknown number of citizens, something that could only be prevented by killing or isolating them all. It would be many months before any of the survivors would be able to leave and stop being a drain on their fellow citizens.

Grudgingly, Taylor had to give the Simurgh her due. It was a nasty and effective strategy. Shortly, she would find out if the Simurgh's tactics were just as good. For now, she had to wait.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

As soon as the massively armored cape moved away, Chevalier hit his communicator. "Dragon, please ask Alexandria to come to the staging area immediately. I have something I need her to test for me."

"Chevalier, Alexandria is in the middle of aiding C Wave to disengage. As soon as she's done, I'll request she swing by. What is happening on your end?"

"A Tinker by the name of Iron Man dropped off just over seventy armbands that he says will block the Simurgh's Scream. Some kind of psionic dampener, I believe he called it. Whether they'll work or not is still up in the air. I need Alexandria to test them before hitting her exposure limit." Damn, but he was hoping the things worked. It would make a fucked up situation a lot safer and maybe they wouldn't lose any more good capes to their own side.

"I understand. Armsmaster has already sent me a communique regarding the devices. He was unable to ascertain if the one he has in his possession works, or anything else about it. The device fused solid when he attempted a deep examination using a Boyd-Yukawa Scanner he had in his lab. It's just a lump of melted circuitry right now."

Chevalier mulled that over. A Tinker who was able to protect his tech. And who also felt the need to. Interesting. "Well, let's not destroy any more of them until we find out if they work."

"Understood. Dragon out."

Chevalier took one more look at the devices, then grabbed a colorfully dressed cape who was wandering by, apparently with nothing to do. "Take these to the staging area. Wait there for Alexandria. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

The other's voice, with its strong Australian accent, was full of gratitude at having something to do. Too many of the native capes that had shown up were completely unsuited to fighting the Simurgh and had to be kept back. The forced inactivity was eating at many of them. Helpless to protect their country, many of them had helped earlier with rescuing civilians, but that had mostly finished up a few minutes ago. Now they were just left to wait.

Chevalier knew the feeling as it applied to himself as well. There was only one more group coming in, then he would be left with nothing to do. Oh, nominally he'd head over to Operations and monitor the waves going in and coming back, trying to help with countering tactics. Unfortunately, the harsh reality was that the Thinkers already there were far more qualified to deal with the threat than he was.

Still, he would try his damnedest to find any holes in their strategy and tactics, Chevalier thought. It was all he could do.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Trish stared at the monitor, as if trying to make it form a picture. "JARVIS, why isn't there a signal?"

A moment later, his cultured voice answered, "Miss Hebert has requested I not turn it on early so as to avoid causing undue stress to your ability. This is per the earlier discussion the two of you had, Miss Rogers, where you agreed with her."

"Damn it!"

"Language." The admonishment came from the figure sitting next to her.

Trish glanced over at Danny, who looked as worried as she felt. "I wish Taylor would stop trying to do what's best for everyone else. She needs to let me help her, Danny."

"What do you think you'll be able to figure out before you see the Simurgh? Seeing things now could put a lot of pressure on you and you can't take another of those tablets anytime soon."

Trish could have said that she was crucial to Taylor's survival, or used any of a hundred strategies to win any argument with Danny. She didn't because not only would it serve no real purpose, it would devastate a man who was slowly coming to feel like a father to her. It was odd to feel so protective of people. Then again, maybe it was because they were so protective of her.

Certainly Danny was. Just as he also wanted to protect Taylor. He just needed to understand that you can't always protect your kids. Besides, Trish wasn't the one in danger. That would be Taylor, who was being a stubborn fool, thinking she could take on an Endbringer this early in the game.

"Tattletale."

"Tay- Iron Man, what's going on? I need a feed right now!"

"Feed incoming. I also have you wired into the communication net. They're testing my psionic dampener. They're sending it in with Alexandria."

Trish nodded, despite the fact that Taylor wasn't there to see. "I take it that you want me to observe and see if I can ascertain any weaknesses? Audio from their communications net won't be the most effective with my power."

"Any information you can get might be helpful."

"Fine. I'll do my best. What I really need, though, is video. I'll do better once you engage."

"Understood. Iron Man out."

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Alexandria gave a dubious look at the armband decorating her left arm. Her right still sported her Dragon-made communication armband, although hers was without the explosives placed in the others since no amount of ordinary explosives would be enough to kill her. Instead, Alexandria made sure to carefully monitory her exposure so that the Scream didn't scramble her mind, turning her into a time bomb aimed at humanity. The last thing the world needed was a member of the Triumvirate going bad.

As she neared the Simurgh, Alexandria spoke into her communicator. "Tell them that the new armbands work. I'm within her range and I'm not hearing the Simurgh's scream."

It was true. She was experiencing blessed silence for the first time ever in a fight against the Simurgh. Alexandria said a silent thank you to whoever had built the armband that she currently wore.

With that, she rocketed towards the tall white winged figure surrounded by a revolving disc of debris and other items. Just as she was getting close enough to strike, she was knocked off course by a large piece of concrete and steel, that Alexandria recognized as part of the dome of the building beneath them.

It struck with enough force to hammer even her aside, knocking her in a flat trajectory toward the ground. Alexandria impacted a couple of seconds later, digging a trench more than a hundred feet long through earth and concrete before she finally ground to a halt. Staggering to her feet, she leaped skyward and immediately headed straight at the Simurgh a second time.

This time, she was hit by debris from two directions, as well as buffeted by a huge wave of telekinetic force. That's when it happened. Instead of silence, the Simurgh's scream was back and as bad as ever, tearing into Alexandria's mind. Was it all a trap? Had the Simurgh known all along how to destroy the device?

Alexandria was hammered into the earth again. Grunting with effort, she struggled to get up. Then there was one huge rock after another crushing her into the earth. As strong as she was, the Simurgh was stronger.

Desperately, she tried to break loose, but the weight of the rocks over her was reinforced by the Simurgh's will. Alexandria struggled to reach her communicator, trying to let her teammates know what was happening. But she couldn't get her hand around to her armband to press the button for communications.

Time passed, several minutes at least. Alexandria heard fighting happening above her, then it stopped. Air was starting to become a problem as more and more debris was piled upon her. Then there was a light so bright she could see it through the cracks in the rocks. And she was free.

Alexandria blasted through the rocks covering her, before falling to the ground, panting desperately. She choked slightly at the thick smoke that surrounded her. Out of the corner of her eyes, Alexandria saw fires burning. Above her, the Simurgh had vanished. Just what the hell had happened here?

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Taylor watched her fellow capes as they stood around and chatted. She'd been waiting for someone to take charge and plan out the fight, but so far, no one had stepped up. She could certainly do it, but she had zero credibility with these Australian capes. So if Taylor wanted to take charge, she was going to have to put on a show.

She quickly analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of each of the capes before her. Then she spoke, "JARVIS, who do you think is the best bet out of the group to make a point with?" Taylor had already decided who to make an example of, but she wanted confirmation.

"That would be Majesty, Miss. He's the obvious weak link here." JARVIS might as well have been talking about recipes for crumpets instead of possibly humiliating someone from his tone.

Taylor muttered, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

Taking a deep breath, Taylor began her takeover of the group.

"We need a plan when we face the Simurgh." Taylor's stark statement seemed to almost echo through the space as her fellow capes turned towards her.

Adamant asked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, who here actually believes they can hurt the Simurgh. I mean, actually damage her?"

For a moment, all of the capes stood still, then slowly Majestic raised his hand. Taylor nodded. "Fine. Use your energy blast on me, since it's your strongest ability. I'll gauge it."

It was Adamant who protested. "No! He could injure or kill you! We're here to fight the Simurgh, not each other!"

Taylor was implacable was she stated, "We can't fight anyone if we don't know each other's capabilities. The rest of you have indicated that you cannot hurt the Simurgh. At least you do not believe you can. I know I can. Majestic also believes he can. I want to see it. Don't worry, Adamant, he won't hurt me."

Adamant seemed to wilt. "I still don't think is a good idea."

Taylor moved over so that there was nothing behind her but trees. She changed her armor's forcefield wavelength so that it absorbed rather dispersed energy. It wasn't a setting she'd use against a truly powerful foe, as it made the field vulnerable to blow through if the attack was intense enough, but against what she expected, it should be enough.

She commanded, "Fire!"

Majestic hesitated a moment, then bright green beams of light erupted from his eyes, hammering into her armor's forcefield. Staring at the energy readings from them, Taylor almost despaired. They were even weaker than she'd feared, nothing like the intense cutting beams she'd hoped for. Majestic's green beams wouldn't even have gravely damaged her armor without its forcefield protection, as its hyper efficient thermocouples converted heat into usable energy.

She let him fire a moment longer, then waved for him to stop. "Was that the best that you can do?"

Majestic appeared almost petulant as he nodded. "I gave it my all."

"The problem is that your all won't even scratch the Simurgh's feathers. We're going to need a lot more that that to have any significance in this fight." Taylor watched as Majesty slinked to the back of the group, clearly upset. Several of the others looked thoughtful.

"You know, you talk big, but I never even heard of you before today. Why don't you prove something before you put everyone else down." It was Faust who spoke, his expression calculating.

It hadn't been unexpected that someone else would challenge her. Now it was time to drive home her superiority. "Fine. Iron Man to Operations, test firing of energy beam in staging area."

A moment later, a voice over her communications net answered, "Ops to Iron Man, aim your fire straight up. Be done in two minutes."

"Understood. Iron Man out."

Taylor stayed where was since she was already separate from the group by sufficient distance. Pointing her right arm straight up, she fired her particle beam cannon, using just its normal output energy of nine gigawatts.

A second later, a brilliant white beam, inches in diameter, erupted from her arm straight up. From first hand experience, Taylor knew it was bright enough to leave purple afterimages dancing on a person's retinas. The cracking sound it made was loud in the sudden silence around them. She could see the thermal bloom wash over her teammates, stirring their clothing, as they stared back at her.

Taylor turned to Faust and asked, "Satisfied?"

The other, whose exposed skin was suddenly pale, nodded jerkily. Majestic looked stunned by what he had just witnessed. Taylor explained something she'd been thinking about, "Look, I think they try to include a heavy hitter in each group. I'm a relative unknown, but my armor looks nasty and its energy output is high for anyone with sensors capable of picking it up. So it looks like I'm the heavy hitter here."

In a cynical tone, Feral asked, "What about the rest of us?"

Looking over masked figures in front of her, Taylor explained, "I have a plan. Want to hear it?"

A chorus of relieved ayes answered her as Taylor took charge.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

There was the signal they'd been waiting for. Taylor quickly wrapped up her discussion with JARVIS.

"Keep analyzing the readings from the psionic dampeners, JARVIS. I'll talk to you more later."

"Of course, Miss."

She was staying in constant communication with JARVIS, trying to devise a solution to the failure of the psionic dampeners. The thing is, they simply weren't robust enough to survive being assaulted directly by the Simurgh. Taylor had tuned them in a way that stopped a broad range of psychic attacks. That broad tuning had allowed the Simurgh to use her telekinesis to apparently destroy several of them, starting with the one worn by Alexandria. Of course, no one had seen her since she'd flown off to confront the Simurgh a little more than ten minutes ago.

"We're up! Follow me!"

Adamant leaped skyward, as the others followed behind him, Taylor included.

The wave that was finishing as they approached, F Wave, had apparently had some success in keeping their dampeners working. Only two of their armbands had been destroyed. The others, based upon the radio traffic, were working fine.

Over her encrypted communications array, Taylor heard Tattletale speak, "Iron Man, forcefields appear to stop the effects of the Simurgh's telekinesis in destroying your psionic dampeners. Also, anyone not struck directly by her macro-level telekinesis still has a fully functional dampener." Tattletale's voice was completely analytical as she spoke, reinforcing Taylor's own views.

"Understood. Some capes have it better than others because of their own innate protections. Iron Man out."

Taylor focused her mind back on the strategy that her small group had come up with and away from the limited success of her devices. Once it had become clear that she was the most powerful cape in their group by a large factor, the others had deferred to her. There was also a sense that they were just cannon fodder to be sacrificed in the fight, although Taylor wasn't sure she was cynical enough to truly believe it. Maybe they were just that desperate.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise, that the powers that be were throwing everyone they could at the Simurgh, especially in light of the limited exposure each cape could have against her. But it actually made Taylor's job harder, as she was fairly certain none of her erstwhile team could affect the Endbringer. Worse, she felt responsible for their safety, including that of the villains.

The plan they'd come up with reflected this reality. Instead of staying together, the rest of Taylor's teammates would circle around behind the Simurgh, who, for unknown reasons, was facing East. They would be protected by one of her forcefield drones and accompanied by both of the weapon drones. Taylor would circle around to in front of the Endbringer. The other forcefield drone would stay with her.

Once everyone was in position, Taylor would then attack the Simurgh, unloading everything upon her, in an effort to distract the telekinetic. As soon as she did, her group would attempt to damage whatever device she was building with the help of the two weapon drones.

Of course, JARVIS would be guiding the forcefield drones and aiming the weapons. He was innately suitable for that as he would be using the Iron Man suit's sensors to aid in his targeting. It remained to be seen whether they would have any effect through the Simurgh's precognition, as she would almost certainly see the attack coming.

That the Simurgh would see Taylor's attack as well went without saying. Still, there was a chance Taylor would get through her debris ring regardless. Tagging the Simurgh, herself, would be a different matter entirely.

Taylor had almost decided to saturate the area of with large numbers of far less intense beams, using up all of the energy that filled the immense capacitors located throughout her armor in an effort to hit the Simurgh at least once. Instead, she'd decided to direct all of that energy through just the two high energy particle cannons located in her armor's arms and her unibeam located on her breastplate.

Both particle cannons were already powered by three arc reactors apiece, which allowed them to send nearly nine gigawatts of energy out with each shot. But Taylor had had another idea when designing her armor. It contained a bastardized adaptation of a Marx generator, although she doubted the inventor himself would have recognized her version. It was a type of high energy capacitor that she was using to up the energy storage capacity of her armor.

Her armor currently contained dozens of these Marx capacitors, each capable of storing the immense energy output from the ten arc reactors. These capacitors also allowed Taylor to fire shots with her unibeam and particle cannons much greater than their normal energy feeds allowed for. Using this increased energy storage, Taylor had managed to up all of her weapons' outputs by a factor of five, at least until the well ran dry.

So instead of those two particle streams each being powered by nine gigawatts of energy, they would each contain nearly forty-five gigawatts apiece for nearly ten seconds, as would the GRASER she would be firing from her unibeam. They would almost certainly cut through any of the debris the Simurgh was using to shield herself and her Tinker invention. Whether they could hit or damage the Endbringer herself was another matter entirely.

Taylor was getting close to her target, and upped her magnification to study the figure in front of her closely. The Simurgh appeared as a freakishly tall woman with a countless number of asymmetrical wings fanning out from her body, some growing out from other wings. Her face was beautiful, but it was the beauty of a porcelain doll, cold and utterly still. Three times the height of a person, the Simurgh looked deceptively delicate, her wings covered in gauzy white feathers that Taylor knew from her studies could score steel.

Taylor stopped, hovering less than two hundred yards from the Simurgh, who completely ignored her. Instead, she continued to work on the device in front of her as her huge debris field rotated around her. The fact that she was ignored was more than a little daunting to Taylor, who had thought she'd be considered at least somewhat of a danger. Was the Simurgh that confident she couldn't hurt her?

She briefly increased her vision's magnification still further, studying the device in front of the Endbringer. It looked almost like a gun of some type, possibly a bomb-pumped X-ray LASER. Which lends itself to the question, where was the nuclear bomb that might power it? Deciding the device might truly be dangerous, Taylor made the decision to target it was well as its inventor.

"Iron Man here. I'm in position."

"Iron Man, Adamant here. We're in position. Launch your attack when ready."

"Roger. Iron Man out."

From her suit's display, Taylor saw that JARVIS had taken over her own built in targeting computer to look for a thin spot in the debris field circling the Simurgh. A few seconds later, he identified and highlighted a gap in the pattern. When the vulnerability circled around in front of her, Taylor brought her arms up and fired both of the high energy particle weapons built into her forearms, as well as the GRASER in her unibeam. Three beams of ravening energy, each ten seconds in duration, reached out to the Simurgh and simultaneously struck her and the device she was working.

A titanic detonation of light and debris erupted from the Simurgh's figure as the two particle beams, each so bright they stole the daylight around them, hit her squarely in the chest. The resulting gaseous cloud covered the Simurgh, shielding her from view. At the same time, the GRASER struck the device in front of her, causing it to immediately turn into a mix of burning gases and molten metals, while overloading its power source, which exploded in a glaring wave of blue-tinged light, only adding to the conflagration.

Taylor was buffeted by the resulting shock wave as well as large chunks for the Simurgh's debris field, but easily rode it out behind her armor's forcefield. She tuned out the cries of alarm from her teammates, who would have been closer still as they approached from the rear. They should have been protected by the other forcefield drone, which should easily block the kinetic energy and thermal bloom of even that intense of an explosion.

Taylor strained to see results of the blast, but her armor's enhanced vision couldn't break through the thick cloud, despite cycling through various other wavelengths, including ultraviolet and x-ray. What she could see was the ground beneath the Endbringer, where the nearest buildings had been completely flattened by the blast. Additionally, anything within five hundred yards that was flammable was burning. Taylor began to move forward, ready to dodge or fire again.

As she arrived at the halfway point to the Simurgh, the cloud around the other began to clear. The Endbringer had wrapped her wings around herself at some point during Taylor's attack. Blackened and burnt feathers dropped away as she slowly unwrapped herself. Her torso was also blackened from the initial blasts. Two smoking craters, each more than a foot across and nearly that deep, decorated her there. Then the Simurgh looked at Taylor.

For the first time since before she had attacked, Taylor felt like she had the Endbringer's complete and undivided attention. Staring into the face of the terrifying being in front of her stirred her emotions in ways that Tony's memories had never prepared her for. Taylor felt such intense fear and disgust it threatened to overwhelm her. In that moment, she knew that the creature in front of her was so utterly alien that it had never been human. Taylor was on the verge of some epiphany concerning the creature when, suddenly, an urgent voice assaulted her ears and broke her concentration, "Taylor! Run! She's about to attack you! If she catches you, she'll tear you apart!"

Taylor didn't wait to figure out why Trish had made such an outlandish statement, completely contrary to the Simurgh's past actions. Instead, she instantly turned and headed out at maximum acceleration due east. Behind her, more than half the debris circling the Simurgh dropped to the ground as she followed behind Taylor just as rapidly.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Aussie slang:

Bities: biting insects

Dunny rat: very cunning being

Feral (n.): a hippie

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

AN:Next time: Taylor finds out how it feels to be the mouse when the cat's pissed.