58

Date

2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

Sergeant Tarun was one of the PRT personnel responsible for monitoring the walled city of Ellisburg. For some, it was punishment duty, but for the Sergeant, it was the perfect posting.

After all, nothing ever happened here. Nilbog was content sitting on his throne and playing pretend. Much better than being out there fighting villains who wouldn't think twice about killing him.

Plus, they were one of the few PRT postings that had no permanent parahuman detachment. For some reason, parahumans didn't like standing around and doing nothing, and after a few times the parahuman decided to 'take care' of Nilbog and got themselves killed, the brass decided that maybe they didn't need to station them there.

They were close enough to New York that Legend could be here within seconds, so the brass decided not to waste money on suicidal parahumans.

At least that is how Tarun viewed the events. He didn't really care what the actual reasons were.

He just wanted to do the job until retirement, then move to Florida and fish while ignoring the world.

He was about to unwrap his sandwich that he made for a quick snack when he was interrupted by the alarms going off.

Despite his general laziness, he was still a trained agent, so he immediately jumped up, sandwich forgotten, and ran towards the command center for further instructions. On the way, he met other people also running towards the center with a hard look on their faces.

After a minute or so running (because he wanted to have lunch out in nature) he arrived at the command center, with several other people also just arriving, though he knew that most people were still up on the ramparts or towers, keeping an eye on the city.

The Commander of the installation was standing in front of their work desk, a phone in their hand and with an ashen face.

"Well, boys… remember how you guys joked, that we will be here staring at the walls until we die?" he asked nervously, glancing around.

Several people nodded unconsciously, and Tarun swallowed heavily. Something in that question making him rather uneasy.

"It seems, that day is today. The Simurgh is coming," continued the Commander, and the room immediately descended into chaos.

After getting the news, they immediately evacuated the walls and retreated to a distance, from where they could observe the arrival before the reinforcement arrived.

And it was coming, because Tarun, thanks to gossip, knew that Director Piggot was a survivor of the initial assault on the city, so he was pretty sure at least she would send somebody.

And according to the Commander, the people who went to Madison were also coming. He hoped they would bring some big guns.

Tarun was relegated to one of the binoculars because he lost out on the chance to observe things on one of the computers.

He was terrible at rock-paper-scissor…

He raised his binocular in the direction from where they expected the Endbringer to arrive, unknowingly imitating Tagg's movements, though with less dignity.

"Can't they just shot it down?" asked Thomson from over the gun he was pretending to be handling.

"Apparently the white bitch is jamming everything around her, so they can't get a bead on her or even the Ball," answered one lieutenant who was sitting in front of a computer. "Plus, it's too fast for most of our weapons, and nobody wants to chance a Tinker tech gun missing."

"Shame…"

Tarun listened with one ear, while he was frantically scanning the dark sky for the Endbringer.

Ultimately, he wasn't the first one to spot it, but by the time he or anyone else did, it was too late.

They watched with trepidation as the Simurgh, faster than it should be possible, zoomed towards the city. It stopped over it, and before anyone could even fire a gun, the Ball in front of her spun up, ominous green lighting shining from it. Thanks to that, however, they could observe easily her movements, the lighting illuminating everything around it.

The Ball spun for a few seconds, then six parts detached with their own ominous light, and shot off towards the walls. In no time they were next to the walls, equidistant from each other, according to a drone flying overhead, then they also began spinning and in an instant, a see-through green energy shield enveloped the entire city.

"Well, that's not good…"

Sergeant Tarun didn't know who said it, be he absolutely agreed.

Date

2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

Assault watched as people gathered in the meeting room after the alarm was shut down and the message was sent out. Everyone was on the edge because of the eerie Endbringer attack, and the alarm didn't really help.

He could see everyone in the room: the Protectorate (minus Armsmaster), the Wards, and even New Wave. Young Glory Girl was chatting animatedly with Gallant, while Vista adorably glared at the older girl.

Ah, young love…

The most impressive, however, was Panacea, who was clad in some kind of new armor made from some kind of wooden material. It was formfitting, yet despite the material it seemed to be made of, was looking rather modern.

According to what he overheard, it was strong enough to stop the blast of Lady Photon. It seemed second triggering agreed with the girl.

"Hey Miss Militia, who are we still waiting for?" he asked the masked heroine, getting antsy.

The woman responded while gracing him with her famous eye smile. "Armsmaster and the Director."

"I wonder what happened…"

Before anyone could join him in the discussion, the door to the room flew open, and in strode the Director. For some reason, decked out in PRT armor and a rather big gun slung over her back.

Armsmaster followed her, and he couldn't help but notice how the man had apparently upgraded his armor. It was a little beefier than the previous one, but Assault would bet everything he had that it was exponentially stronger. Though he didn't envy the man of the PR nightmare, that would follow this change. Those people were crazy…

"Sweet new threads, Bossman!" he exclaimed with a grin. "Did your girlfriend get it for you at Robot-R-Us?"

For some reason the man totally ignored him, and his wife stuck her elbow in his side, though he could hear a few snickers around the room.

The armored Director walked in the middle of the meeting room, waited until everyone was looking at her, and cleared her throat.

"I will be short because time is actually short," she started to explain. "Simurgh is heading for Ellisburg…"

The clamor that flooded the room interrupted her.

"Enough!" Piggot yelled, silencing the room. "You can ask questions when we are on our way. For now, I'm simply asking for volunteers. Obviously, Wards are not coming," said teenagers immediately began protesting, but with a glare, she spoke over them. "But the rest of you can volunteer. I was also told to make sure that Panacea is coming with us."

"Absolutely not!" yelled Brandish immediately.

"Mom! I want to go…" said Panacea, while Glory Girl nodded next to her. "Vicky can protect me, but you need me to counter Nilbog!"

"You don't know that!" exclaimed Brandish, turning towards her daughter. He could already see it turning ugly and was about to intervene when the Director acted.

"Brandish, that's enough. I understand that you… worry, but this is important. Not just for America, but for me." He could see her swallow before continuing. "I would take it as a personal favor if Panacea came. And I don't do favors."

Now wasn't that impressive…

Brandish spent several seconds looking into the steely gaze of Piggot, then glanced at the other adults of the New Wave, who all nodded with various enthusiasm. Finally, she sighed.

"Fine. But Vicky, you are staying next to Amy the entire time, and if anything happens you are taking her away as fast as you can! Understood?"

"Yes," replied Panacea.

"Thanks, mom!" cheered Glory Girl.

Piggot nodded in thanks, and Ethan could see at least some minuscule amount of stress leaving her body.

"Now the next question: Who is coming and who is staying? We need a few people to stay in case something happens."

People looked around, waiting for the first person to volunteer. After a few seconds, Triumph stepped forward.

"I will stay; I don't think my power will be useful for this…"

Lady Photon also spoke up. "Flashbang, Shielder, and Laserdream will also stay."

Surprising Assault, both young heroes nodded without complaining.

"Sure, mom. We can hold the fort with Triumph, the Wards, and uncle Mark," said Crystal with a serious look on her face. Lady Photon gave her a proud smile, then turned towards the Director.

"Will that be enough?"

Piggot thought about it for a few seconds before nodding. "Yes, thank you. Now those who are coming, let's head to the roof. Transport is arriving shortly." With that she turned around and marched out of the room, followed by Armsmaster, and everybody else. Leaving a room full of teenager parahumans and two adults.

Date

2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

Taylor stepped through the portal and arrived high in the air. After a momentary panic, she activated her flying power and began to hover, while trying to figure out where she was. Though she made a note to talk with Admin about such surprises.

Thankfully, her mask software was equipped with a map function, and because Dragon had access to it, she already had several markers. She found the one that said Ellisburg and began flying at full speed.

Thanks to her impressive speed she arrived within seconds, only to see with her own eyes the shield activating.

"Shit! Admin, can I overpower that?"

The slime avatar appeared next to her, with a complicated look on his face.

"Yes, but nobody would thank you. Also, I won't be opening a portal in there…"

"Won't?"

"Yeah, Simmy is doing something weird to space in there. Best not to chance it."

She frowned upon hearing that, but she could understand the logic behind it.

"Any idea what she is doing?"

"Yeah, but nothing concrete. Sorry, Taylor, but here, you are on your own," said the slime with an apologetic look.

She cursed, then began flying towards the PRT people Dragon marked on her map while sending the information about the space inside over to Tess.

She was greeted by several guns in her face when she touched down next to the hastily erected tent.

"Who are you?" asked one agent, while pointing their gun at her.

She toggled the voice changer, then introduced herself. "Lux Arcana. Dragon asked me to come."

"Dragon?" asked the man while glancing at his colleagues.

Taylor nodded, then took out a phone that had an identification app that Tess sent over. She ignored how the hands on the weapons tightened when she did so.

"I was told you can use this to authenticate me," she said while offering the phone screen that showed the activated app.

The man nodded and motioned to one of the others. The woman came over with some kind of scanner, scanned the app, and when the scanner chirped twice she visibly relaxed.

"She is legit, guys!"

The agents as one released a sigh of relief and lowered their guns. "Sorry, ma'am. But with the Simurgh… everybody is on edge."

"I understand," she replied while putting away the phone. "What's the situation?"

She hovered a little in the air to see better, while the surrounding people returned to their post, only the woman with the scanner staying. She was the one who answered her query.

"Nothing. The Shield is up, the Ball is spinning, and we haven't seen Nilbog yet. Reinforcements are coming from everywhere."

"Hmm. Make sure to warn people you can't teleport inside. Simurgh is doing something that prevents it. I've already told Dragon, but let's make sure everyone gets the info. I will go take a closer look."

The woman nodded and immediately began to speak into her headset.

While that was happening, Taylor flew a little higher, trying to see what the Endbringer was doing.

However, the moment she reached a height from where she could see the entire city, the formerly placid Simurgh began to move. There was no sound, the shield somehow absorbing it, but she could clearly see one of the buildings explode.

Though, instead of the debris falling down as it should, every piece from the biggest chunks of concrete to the smallest dust particle hung in the air as if frozen.

The Simurgh, with a small smile on her face, reached inside the exploded building and retrieved a humanoid figure.

After zooming in, she identified the figure as Nilbog.

The Endbringer raised the Goblin King in the air right in front of her face and opened her mouth. Taylor couldn't hear anything, but she was pretty sure that Rinke was getting the full blast of a Scream.

"Dragon, this is Lux Arcana. Simurgh screamed at Nilbog," she said into her communicator while trying to make sure she missed nothing.

"Thank you, Lux," came the reply from Dragon. "We are minutes away, so are ENE, New York, and Boston."

"Good, because I've got a terrible feeling about this…"

While they were talking, the Simurgh placed the villain down, as if it was a doll, and the man let it happen without moving. And even after he was let go, Nilbog didn't move, standing in one place looking into the distance with an empty gaze.

The Simurgh turned away from the former Goblin King, the debris gently lowering to the ground around her, and opened her mouth again while dramatically raising her hands and unfurling most of her mismatched wings.

Looking for the effects of the second Scream, she instantly spotted as the horrible creations of Nilbog came forward, moving towards their creator in a daze. It was as if she was watching a horrible zombie movie.

The moment the first creature reached Nilbog, he finally moved by reaching out and touching it. The horrible caricature monster instantly liquefied and turned into some kind of reddish-brown material that fell to the ground, then somehow wriggled towards Rinke's feet.

One after another the other creations joined the first, also transforming into the disgusting material, which began to pulse with a heartbeat. And the material around his feet soon become big enough to cover the man, but the creatures kept coming and kept being absorbed.

Soon only a giant globe of meaty, pulsing sack could be seen.

When the size of the sack reached a house, the Ball also began to pulse, and the Endbringer turned towards it.

The Ball pulsed for a few seconds, then stilled, the light coming out of every seam and hole.

The next second both Taylor and the people under her were surprised when four giant green flat ovals appeared around the Ball, boxing it in.

"Those are portals, Taylor…" spoke up Admin, from next to her. "Luckily leading to empty Earths."

The Simurgh once again opened her mouth to scream, but for a while, nothing happened. Then she saw something black poking through a portal. The thing continued to wiggle while more and more of its 'body' came through the portal. The other portals soon doing the same thing. And as the cherry on top, it was heading directly at the sack.

However, when she zoomed in to see what the hell the Endbringer summoned, it became clear that it wasn't one being, but countless small animals coming through the portals in an unending tide.

"Biomaterial…" she whispered in horror. She could hear the agents at the tent also yelling, and she couldn't fault them.

She watched horrified as the meaty sack with Nilbog in the middle of it began to absorb the fauna of several other worlds, growing bigger and bigger. Soon the top of the sack almost touched the shield, and Taylor could see it growing vertically, with several tentacles sprouting out of it, extending towards the shield.

The Simurgh looked around, nodded to herself with satisfaction visible on her face, then looked towards them, gave a quick wave, then flapped her wings and flew out a hole that momentarily appeared in the shield.

Soon an announcement came from Dragon, probably sent over all channels.

"Attention everybody! The Simurgh has returned to her usual position in the Mesosphere!"

That was at least good news. Now they only had to take care of whatever the hell was growing where Ellisburg was.