28

Extraction 4

Vicky stood up. "C'mon, Ames, Taylor. We're gonna be some big damn heroes, right? Let's go." She was already putting on her tiara, the last part of her costume. I noted how she avoided looking at Lisa.

Amy nodded. "Right." She flipped up her hood as well.

"I'm guessing he's going as well?" Glory Girl asked as we got out the front door. Abyssal was still there, standing guard, still as a statue.

"Of course he is," Lisa said quickly for me. "Where I go, he goes."

"How do you even talk to him?" Panacea asked.

"Oh, the two of us have an understanding," she said, walking up to him. She put a hand on his waist-plates, which was nearly at her shoulder height. "Isn't that right, big boy?"

I made Abyssal wrap a hand over her protectively. Lisa gave the two sisters a saucy smile.

Glory Girl's eyes danced between Lisa's small frame and Abyssal's colossal one. "So, uh, the two of you... how?"

"Oh, we make it work," Lisa said, wagging her eyebrows. "Why, do you want to join? He's a bit much for me alone, but if you want to share..."

"Nope! NOPE! Never mind. Ames, come on, let's go. We'll see you there!" Glory Girl quickly shouted. She picked up Panacea and flew off.

"Thanks for covering for me," I whispered to Lisa.

She gave me a wink. "It's fun to keep up the charade," she said. Then she pointed behind me. "By the way, I think someone wants to say goodbye."

"Taylor." Dad was standing at the doorway. He gestured for a hug.

I walked up to him and gave him what he was asking for. He hugged me back harder than I could remember. "Be careful, my little owl."

I paused. I didn't remember him calling me that since Mom died. "Don't worry, dad. I'll be careful. I... I have friends watching out for me." It had been nearly as long since I was able to say something like that as well.

He watched us go as Lisa and I climbed on Roamer and rode off with Abyssal.

Through my other brains, we could already see many heroes – and villains – gathering at the PRT headquarters. On that note, I knew I couldn't take all my brains with me. Over the past few weeks, I had grown to literal tons of brains spread across the city and beyond. I could fluff up some of my costume and maybe some wouldn't notice, but that wouldn't even get me a tenth of them.

What's going to happen to us?

Yeah, that was bothering me. I'd never left the range of the rest of my brains before. I could preserve some of them – collecting as many bots as I could while we made our way to the PRT headquarters, picking up some of my cloned brains along the way. I could incorporate them into Abyssal's mass, or Roamer's.

But it wouldn't be all of them.

Are we going to die?

Is it really dying if a perfect copy of you lives on?

Are we perfect copies of each other?

Endbringer attacks were known to cause existential crises, but not like this.

The best thing I could do was, for lack of a better word, synchronize. Even though they were all originally clones of me, we all had slightly different experiences. Even though we were all connected, we each held slightly different memories, since no single brain could handle all the memories and thoughts of the entire network all at once. The best I could do was try to preserve as much as I could in all the brains I could take with me. We'd all become near-identical copies of each other once again, and I wasn't sure how much of... me I would be losing.

The ones I couldn't take with me I would try to lock down. Maintain their structure, bury them underground in a safe and stable place, then lock the bots into a permanent state. Hopefully they wouldn't be disturbed and I could "revive" them when I came back.

Brains aren't just the structure, otherwise brain death would be as easy to reverse as restarting the heart, one of my brains reminded me. I think it was one of the ones along the highway to the landfill. Parts of me certainly had reasons to be doubtful of this technique. We had learned quite a bit about the brain, obviously, not just from formal research but also from building the brains myself.

But my nanobots don't undergo cell death. A hard reboot might work.

Memories aren't stored in structure, parts of me argued with myself.

Then we just need to copy over as many memories as possible to be safe. In the end, it was a circular argument. I had to go to the Endbringer attack, and I couldn't bring them all. Doing something was better than nothing.

It's the best we can get, my other brains agreed.

It was strange going from thousands of brains down to barely a hundred. Brain after brain went silent as I locked them into a stasis, without even knowing if it would really work. My vision of the city and its outskirts shrank down rapidly. At least the brains that were at the outer edges, the newest ones, didn't have many unique memories to synchronize.

But it got a bit harder to as we got further into the city. Roamer ran to the PRT building as slowly as we could without missing the teleport schedule. I kept eavesdropping on the announcements as we went. The brains that could safely be moved into our path and picked up, I did. Those that I couldn't, I didn't have that much time to synchronize, and hoped for the best.

I could feel my perception shrink a little bit at a time.

Ugh this feels weird.

It's like getting blindfolded while drunk.

None of us have ever had alcohol before.

We know what I mean!

We'll let you know if an afterlife exists when you bring us back.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way.

I'm pretty sure nobody's sure how any of it works at all.

See you all on the other side.

We arrived at the PRT building a lot heavier than when we started. Aside from the brains I was picking up, I also grabbed as many loose nanobots as I could. I had no idea how many I would actually need, after all. There was already a large gathering of parahumans out front. Glory Girl was already waiting for us, hovering near the entrance with her sister.

"Jeez guys, I almost thought you weren't going to show!" Glory Girl exclaimed. "I was almost going to go back and fetch you. Ames insisted on waiting down here, because if they're going to delay for anyone, they'd delay for her."

"Thanks, Amy. I wouldn't abandon you," I said. "We just had to detour for some... supplies."

"Come on, we've only got a few minutes to go. There's an express elevator to the roof." It was a massive cargo elevator, so all of us, including Abyssal, as well as some additional PRT equipment and employees could all fit in at once.

It was strange not being able to see the whole city any more. Not being able to see where the villains were. But I didn't really have to. Many of them were right in front of my face. I shouldn't have been surprised to see some villains there – that was the entire point of the Endbringer Truce. Kaiser himself had shown up, as well as Stormtiger, Victor, and Othala. There were also a few independent capes I didn't recognize and, naturally, the Protectorate members. None of the Wards were there - I suppose they weren't allowed to join for the obvious safety concerns.

"Hey. Come on, Armsmaster's already giving out the armbands," Glory Girl said as she ushered us in. She was looking questioningly at Abyssal and his mount. I saw that she was already wearing some electronic band on her upper left arm.

Armsmaster was already in the middle of explaining the armbands when we got inside. "...translate if you don't speak Spanish. Make sure you listen to any evacuation order. Dragon and I have been working on predictive algorithms for Behemoth. If it says to evacuate, it's because we're predicting a massive energy burst within the next five seconds." His eyes flickered to Amy. "This includes healers. Although we're positioning the medical camp as far away as reasonably possible, healers should still pay attention to these alerts."

And here I was under the impression that we had a decent chance at surviving if we stayed away from the front lines. I took an armband. "Please state your name for the registry," came a soft feminine voice.

"Eunoia," I said.

"Eunoia registered. Status: Healthy. Default language: English. Translations: On." The band rattled off several other settings, which I mostly ignored.

I noticed that Abyssal was having trouble with his. Especially since he didn't talk.

"Please state your name for the registry," his band was repeating.

"ABYSSAL," he said, causing some heads to turn.

"Please state your name for the registry," his band repeated.

I rolled my eyes. Figures that a voice making the entire band vibrate probably messed up with its noise-cancelling technology. "Abyssal," I said for him.

"Abyssal registered. Error: no heartbeat detected. Status: Critical. Please seek medical attention. Medical beacon activated. Error: no brainwaves detected. Status: Deceased. Error." Abyssal pulled the band off his arm and threw it away. I wondered how the band worked for other parahumans who had breaker forms that didn't have human physiology.

"Strider is running late, but he's due in three minutes," Armsmaster announced. "Everybody heading to Spain, stay OUTSIDE the large circle until Strider arrives. There will be several teleport jumps before we get to Spain. Do not step outside the Strider's teleportation field in between jumps or you WILL be left behind. Dragon will be providing a heavy troop transport the rest of the way."

We did as we were told. There was a circle clearly drawn on the ground, which I presumed was Strider's limit. The center also had a smaller circle with some communications equipment and cameras. The space in front of us seemed to warp for a second, and then suddenly there were almost fifty capes in front of us, and the platform was pretty crowded.

"Go, go, go! Get on the platform!" Armsmaster shouted. "Departure in twenty seconds!"

We all rushed on. Thankfully, there was still plenty of room. I noticed there was one guy with a mostly-blue uniform and aviator goggles in the center. He must have been Strider. He said something into his microphone, probably talking to people at the next destination. "Ready to go! Jumping!" he said.

"Make way for more capes at each jump!" Armsmaster added as Strider used his power and teleported all of us at once.

I got a queasy feeling, followed by a mild electric shock as we moved. With a flash, the background suddenly changed. No longer was I looking over the Bay at downtown, we were suddenly in completely unfamiliar lands. I heard some people shouting in French. We couldn't have jumped to France already, right?

Another twenty capes or so ran onto the platform. Legend himself was yelling at them, "Departure in twenty seconds!" We all crowded together even more. Strider again checked the screens and cameras that had been set up for him, and then radioed someone before speaking to the rest of us again. "We're crossing the Atlantic this time, this might be a bit uncomfortable."

Oh, so we hadn't crossed the ocean yet. The last bunch of capes must have been some Canadians. We were probably in Montreal. I suddenly felt a stronger electric shock and nausea before the sudden flash.

Suddenly we were under the blazing-hot sun of late-afternoon Spain. There was a distinct lack of total devastation that I had expected from a Behemoth attack, though. We were at a makeshift airstrip, with multiple advanced-looking planes all lined up in front of us. If it wasn't Tinkertech, it was probably some kind of secret military thing. The planes were bigger than any I had ever seen before; it looked like it could eat a jumbo jet. They would have no problems with fitting massive capes like Abyssal.

"All high-level Blasters and Movers to the left! Front-line fighters, to the LEFT! Support Capes, healers, melee, Thinkers, to the RIGHT! Non-combatants, to the RIGHT! If you're unsure of your role, go RIGHT as well!" Legend had taken charge over Armsmaster with all the capes from North America. He showed us the way with some very nicely colour-coded laser shows.

There wasn't much time to loiter and take things in; we all followed the coloured lines to our appropriate plane. Glory Girl, Panacea, Shielder, and I moved into the right transport. I watched as Lady Photon and Laserdream quickly separated and went to the left. I had Abyssal and Roamer move with Tattletale, slightly separated from the New Wave group.

As for other capes I recognized, I noticed Kaiser and Stormtiger had gone to the left, while Othala and her husband joined us. I saw Armsmaster go to the other side, while Legend flew off on his own – he could probably get to the fight faster than the plane could, after all.

The interior of the plane was pure utility. There was no seating room, in fact, there was just barely standing room with some straps to keep us steady. Everything seemed stripped out for minimal weight; the greatest luxury on this plane were floor lights directing us where to stand. Not even any windows. It did have a massive screen up front, but I suspected we weren't getting an in-flight movie. As we all strapped in, Dragon's voice came in over the speakers and the screen flickered to life. "Please secure yourselves quickly. This unit will be flying into the rear combat support camp. Estimated time of arrival is twenty minutes."

"I wonder why Strider doesn't just bring us all the way there," Glory Girl said aloud.

"Can't risk bringing him into a war zone," Tattletale told her. "He's the only one capable of long-range teleportation. We lose him, every Endbringer fight in the future will only have local capes fighting."

"That's not the only reason. It also gives a little extra time for a mission briefing," another Cape told us. He wasn't from Brockton Bay, and I assumed from his costume design that he was a hero.

I was barely in the seat (stand?) and still adjusting my the belts when I felt us accelerate powerfully but steadily. It almost felt like the UFO ride at the amusement park that pinned me to the wall from the acceleration. Mere minutes later we heard the distinct sound of a sonic boom. As the acceleration ended and the plane reached cruising speed, Dragon's voice returned. A 3D map of the area surrounding the shores of Southern Spain appeared on the screen in front of us.

"Forty minutes ago, at ten-forty Eastern time, Behemoth appeared approximately sixty kilometers north of the city of Gibraltar in the Sierra de Grazalema national park. He appears to be on a direct path towards Gibraltar while local capes, army, and navy have been mobilized."

A little Behemoth icon showed its current location and path, as well as the two transports from Dragon departing the city of Seville. In dotted lines, it showed what would happen in less than half an hour - our plane would be landing almost five kilometers behind the Endbringer, while the other plane would be dropping off its passengers dangerously close, only one kilometer away.

"The territory is being evacuated, but we don't know if the area is the true target. His target may be to cause earthquakes and landslides to dam off the Strait, which would cause massive upheaval and disruption to the entire Mediterranean. Since there is a low resident civilian population, the role for healers is to focus on cape healing, with high Blaster rated capes receiving priority. The faster we can stop Behemoth, the lower the death rate, and the lower the chance of international disaster."

My hand wound its way to Panacea's, and I gave her a squeeze. I know that she was under pressure to heal as many people as possible in Brockton Bay, to the point that her sister almost had to forcibly take her away from the hospital to make sure she took breaks. I knew she was stressed out by the small population at home as it was; a giant, densely populated city facing Behemoth would be overwhelming.

Lisa tapped me on the shoulder. She quickly said, "You don't have to save everybody. Neither of you can. Don't sweat it. Just do your part." I nodded. Panacea didn't seem to take much stock in her opinion, though.

"All capes with healing powers will be situated here, at the mobile healing base." An image of a large platform on huge tracks came up on screen. It had an entire building mounted on top of it. The image zoomed out quickly to the map, so I didn't get to appreciate its design. "We will maintain a minimum safe distance of ten kilometers. Listen to your armbands. If Behemoth changes course and we need a fast evacuation, drop whatever healing you are doing and evacuate. Behemoth has had a history of directly attacking healers, and he can cover the distance in as little as six minutes."

This was definitely a different policy compared to the hospital.

"Thinkers are to travel to the Command base, which is located on another mobile base next to the healing base. Any insight and deductions, both long- and short-term, as well as analysis for future Behemoth fights is greatly appreciated." The image now showed another vehicle, smaller but similar to the medical platform, covered in satellite dishes and antennas. It was still massive by any measure, though.

I looked over to Tattletale, who gave me a nod. At least she wasn't far from me. I knew it would be the height of stupidity for anyone to try to hurt her in the middle of an international Truce situation, but I couldn't shake the fear away completely.

"All capes with Mover ratings without offensive Blaster capabilities will focus on helping evacuate injured heroes and transporting them from the battle zone to the healing camp. Take a note of the grid system - downed heroes will be announced on your armbands as well as their location on the grid." The hologram displayed the grid, which showed a relatively simple letter-number grid system.

"All other heroes can provide support in many ways that are suited to your strengths - search-and-rescue, logistics, supplies, communication, defense. Any way you can help is appreciated. Please register with the command post with your abilities and strengths so our Thinkers can coordinate efforts better." That would be the role that Abyssal would take, unless there were so many injured that I had to use up his nanobots for medical procedures instead.

"Please note, the Spanish army and Portuguese navy have mobilized and will be providing support. All capes, especially those operating near Behemoth, take note of the artillery and airstrike warnings. You will only have a five-second window to disengage and move to a safe distance."

Behemoth was the first Endbringer that had showed up nearly thirty years ago. He'd been around long enough that he had been a part of the World Studies curriculum at Winslow. The Simurgh wasn't, but I wasn't sure if high schools were all perpetually out of date, or if they thought she was too scary to teach about to teenagers.

Either way, we had a whole lot of info on Behemoth. And oddly enough, the oldest strategies still worked. Early on, when there weren't as many capes in the world and especially none with Dragon's level of coordination and planning capabilities, he had been fought off with regular military arms and a few capes. Being one of the simplest Endbringers, the simpler strategies worked.

He attacked his targets directly through sheer overwhelming force and toughness. He often walked in fairly straight lines directly to his targets. He didn't have Leviathan's nimbleness and cunning or the Simurgh's deceptiveness. That meant large, heavy, military strikes from tanks, planes, and ships could be used against him, unlike the other Endbringers, although capes were still needed to contain and slow him down enough.

On the other side of the equation, he was simply so deadly that these military-level strikes were necessary. Capes alone could eventually deal enough damage to Leviathan or the Simurgh for them to retreat, but Behemoth needed literal tons of military ordinance to finish the job. Many compared fighting Behemoth to be fighting an actual war, and it wasn't just because of the military presence.

Brockton Bay had seen destruction before. Sure, Lung could go on some pretty serious rampages. Sure, the Empire had Kaiser, Purity, and other strong capes. But "strong" on the gang-war level had nothing compared to the actual war level, though Bakuda's bombing run had come close.

"You know, I'm surprised that you people would bother helping the Spaniards. So what shade of white is needed for membership? I was never clear on that," Glory Girl said. I turned to see who she was talking to - ah, the Empire members. Of course.

Othala lifted her chin in a haughty manner as she regarded Glory Girl. "We do what we do for the benefit of all mankind. Surely you noticed that the most brutal and predatory criminals are Lung, Oni Lee, and the Merchants?"

"If you ignore all the crimes that the Empire does, then the Empire doesn't do any crimes! Excellent logic from a Nazi. Your members go around beating up ordinary, innocent citizens," Glory Girl said. I could feel her temper from her aura again. This time, it made me a little scared of her.

"Unlike the others, we don't control who decides to swear allegiance. People want to join the Empire. The Merchants forcibly create addicts; the ABB forces their members to pay tribute. We cannot control it when a criminal who misunderstands our cause shouts platitudes while committing a crime."

I didn't want to get into the discussion, but I was amazed at how Othala could be so hypocritical while keeping a straight face.

"Hey, everyone. Tone it down. We're all on the same side today, remember?" a cape sitting on the other side of us said. "I'm Parademic. I'm a... rogue, I guess, from Miami. But if we aren't all on board today, we're all dead."

I shook his hand. "Yeah. I get that," I said loudly, making sure both Glory Girl and Othala heard. "Nice to meet you. I'm Eunoia."

"Well, we should know how our powers work together. What do you do?"

"Uh, I'm good at micro-surgery I guess. I control nanobots I use to speed healing and do precision, minimally-invasive surgeries to speed up healing. I've been working on brain surgeries mostly at the hospital."

"Nice. I'm sort of a Trump, I can enhance any powers that affect the human body to... spread to others others. Like, if someone can paralyze an arm, I can cause the effect to spread to other people nearby. It works for healing too, though I have no healing powers myself. I'll be shifting between healing and enhancing Brute powers."

"Hm. I think you'll work well with my power, then," Othala said. "I can bestow regeneration, but only on one person at a time."

Tensions may have been high, but at least we weren't at each other's throats for the rest of the flight. I felt myself shift in the straps as the plane slowed down and descended. As much as I wanted the flight to be over, I was also dreading our arrival.

As Dragon had told us, we didn't have enough time to actually settle in before we began to land. Without windows, I couldn't see what the battlefield looked like. Then again, against Behemoth, I vastly preferred more armour plating on the transport than a good view.

After we landed, I stepped out into what really seemed like the aftermath of a warzone. The ground had been charred and blackened, where it crossed roads the asphalt was melted, all plant life was either dead or burning. Craters pocked the ground randomly; it was hard to tell if it was from capes, Behemoth, or conventional weaponry. The mobile command and medical platforms were even larger than I had expected after seeing their images on screen. They inched ahead, their massive tracks easily and smoothly rolling over the swath of destruction that Behemoth had left behind. Capes were flying or running to and fro.

At the distance we were staying, Behemoth was beyond the horizon. On top of that, the healer's transport was behind a mountain. However, it was still obvious where Behemoth was. He was still visible by the sheer amount of destructive energy he was releasing. The corona of light and electricity was almost like a second sun, shining over the horizon. A few random sparks and flashes must have been the flying Blasters attacking him. A massive plume of smoke rose all the way to the clouds, wide enough to be an entire town on fire.

I was glad I couldn't actually see it with my own eyes right now.

A noise from my wrist revived me from my shock. The armband was talking. "Trango, deceased. Matadora down, G-6. Dark Gemini down, G-7. Cuchilla Maestra down, G-7. Lasermonger deceased..." The stream of casualties seemed endless. It only brought back the reality of what I was faced with. Death. So much death, people helpless to avoid it and those who risked their own to stave it off.

"All capes disengage, incoming airstrike." Seconds later, supersonic jet fighters flew by at low altitude, launching a dozen missiles at Behemoth. I watched as Behemoth let out a burst of electricity, frying ten out of the twelve jets that had flown overhead. He didn't even seem to care about the missiles, which struck his body at various points. Even with all the explosions, I couldn't see any appreciable damage. The capes re-engaged. Several seconds later, I heard the sounds of explosions finally reach us.

And then a speedster came in, carrying a badly-burned cape in his arms, and I was forced to focus once again on the immediate problem. No time to gawk. We had a job to do. I followed Panacea; she seemed to be rather experienced with these things.

Our group was being split up again. Search-and-rescue, healing, logistics. Lisa went off in another direction. Abyssal was directed towards another with Glory Girl and Shielder. I kept an extra chunk of nanobots for medical use, while Abyssal dropped off ready-made cloned brains along the way so I could maintain some additional range. I also gave Lisa a coating of nanobots for extra protection, too.

Healing capes were working like mad. A man with a clipboard ushered us to the side so we weren't blocking the entrance.

"We're dividing you by healing type and methodology! Listen up, move fast! Shaker-healers, step up!"

Only one stepped forward. "Sanctum, from Los Angeles," he said. I was hesitant – I could do my thing at range, did I count as a Shaker? I was a little too slow, though.

"How does your power work? Regeneration, reconstruction, reversal of damage, or other?"

"Minor regeneration, and stabilization with mental calming effects," he explained. "Five foot range."

"We'll put you in the discharge area. Make sure everyone's tip-top before going back into the fight," he said, pointing in the direction to go. "Touch-based general healers, step forward!" Othala, Panacea, and a few other capes stepped up.

"Names, limitations, and type of healing."

"Othala. I can bestow a massively improved natural healing speed to a single person at a time. But I can also bestow invulnerability or other effects."

"Panacea. Touch-based bioreconstruction of the body except the brain. I only need biomass, and inorganic materials removed from the body would make things faster."

"Rejector. I can reverse anything short of brain death up to five minutes prior," said the girl with the fancy hairclips.

"Right. Panacea and Rejector, you're heading to critical care," our organizer said, pointing to the section right beside the entrance. "Othala, you're in general treatment for now, but I'll mark you down for the support team if Control demands it. Spot healers and surgeons, step up!"

This was probably the best category for me. I stepped forward along with two others. One guy had four extra robotic limbs on his back, and the other cape wasn't carrying any tools.

"Eunoia. I control nanobots. I mostly do brain surgery, but I can also do some general first aid training. And I can do multiple patients at once."

"Doctor Arachnus. General surgery, just faster and more precise. My arms can take the place of an entire surgical team," said the guy with the robot arms.

"Reflectra," said the girl. "Mirror-healing. I mostly take care of limbs, if their opposite limb is okay I can mirror it to remove the injuries on the other limb. No internal organs."

Our organizing guy nodded. "Arachnus, you're obviously going to general surgery," he said, pointing at a clean-room further to the back. Reflectra, I'm going to put you in the Physio area. If we need you for something major we'll call you. Eunoia, hang around for a second, we'll figure out what's best."

I nodded.

"Pharmaceuticals? Anyone? No? As for the rest of you - Thinkers, Changers, anything else?"

The last of the group introduced themselves.

"Viktor. My power has allowed me to acquire lots of medical knowledge in several specialties, including emergency medicine, neurosurgery, physiotherapy, among others."

"Bulkhead. Brute. Can't heal anyone else but I got Rh-negative, type O blood. And I can regenerate as fast as I can bleed. I can probably provide about three gallons of blood for transfusion per hour, as long as I have some food to eat."

"Parademic. I can cause powers affecting one person to affect others."

"Excellent. Bulkhead, go to the supply team. Viktor, you're with Triage. Parademic, you'll probably work best with Othala. We may need you for the support team as well. Eunoia, we'll have you work in between General Surgery and Critical, to cover for Panacea's blind spot. Go to Critical for now."

I was happy to be put into a familiar role. Over in the critical area, Panacea was already working on some horribly injured capes. Behemoth was absolutely ruthless when it came to his attacks; many of them were suffering burns across the body. "Anything I can help with?" I asked.

"This one's suffering a concussion and some subdural bleeding. If you could fix that, I'll handle the radiation damage to the rest of his body," Panacea told me.

This was far worse than anything we'd had to work together on in Brockton Bay. We barely, if ever, had to work together this hard, except for a few of the victims of Bakuda. Once we finished with this one, there were more still waiting to be treated. I didn't want to think about the capes who died waiting for treatment, but I didn't want to rush my work either.

Victor, although I didn't really understand his power, was in the triage area assessing incoming patients, working alongside medical Thinkers and regular doctors. He was sending a fairly large amount of patients to us, and I didn't know how professional he was being, but I didn't have time to question it. A life was a life.

There was another cape already working there who wasn't strictly a healer, but he seemed to work like Clockblocker did, putting critical patients in some kind of stasis. He was really being taxed, because there seemed to always be more injured coming in than we could heal.

The next few capes didn't have major head injuries so I was shuffled over to the area suited for mass-healing of minor wounds. Some of them had a Shaker healing ability, and they stood in the middle of the room exuding a healing aura. There was a healing singer, who played an uplifting melody that made me feel better too. Surgical tinkers worked furiously, including the guy with multiple robotic arms.

I couldn't instantly heal anyone the way the biokinetics or those who could massively boost regeneration could. In this area, most of the capes seemed to boost natural regeneration, which weren't great at clearing debris and shrapnel. That was what me and the arachno-surgeon guy focused on.

I closed my eyes and let my swarm flow over everyone. Burns were the most common injury. Heat, electrical, and even some radiation burns were present. Some had taken blunt injury, cuts, broken bones. I had to close my eyes and concentrate, using all the spare brains I had to gain all the control I needed. I think I could clear up ten patients at a time this way, and that was still just barely keeping up with the number of capes flooding into the medical base.

"Moción Mujer down, B-23. Texas Wrecks down, J-19. Americano deceased. El Espirito deceased. Zorra down, Y-3. Cease offensive. Naval artillery strike in 5... 4... 3..."

Even as far as we were from shore, I could hear all their guns firing in unison. The announcements continued until they nearly became background noise, more capes were being brought in. Every wave of attacks resulted in a wave of injuries. Movers were getting tired carrying people back and forth. I saw Glory Girl drop two capes off before flying off again a second later.

Panacea could only heal so quickly, same with Othala, who was being paired with Parademic. All the capes with powers that could legitimately bring people back to fighting form in a timely fashion were limited in some way or another; few of them could keep up with the influx. The Thinkers at the entrance weren't just prioritizing capes by injury; they also bumped high-level Movers and Blasters to higher priority.

Those people quickly got moved to Panacea and other one-on-one healers in her area. The capes healed quickly but they appeared incredibly weary as they got up from the bed only to rejoin the fray.

On my side, the numbers were building up higher and higher. Most of the patients were suffering from burns of various kinds, either heat, electrical, or radiation. For those I couldn't do much other than remove bacteria and clear debris or charred flesh from the wound. Broken bones were pretty common; those I could help set, as well as sealing internal bleeds.

Many were suffering numbness from electrocution; their nerves were often fried completely. I wondered if I could help them. In a similar way that my bots were used to make artificial brains, I could probably patch them up with artificial nerve cells. Then again, this wasn't the time to be experimenting with new techniques. I left that up to Panacea for now, but maybe I would mention it to Dr. Akagi when I got home.

Even though several other area-healers were stacking on their healing capabilities along with my own, our abilities were being taxed to the limit. When I arrived there were close to thirty injured; that number kept creeping up slowly. Despite the mass healing ability, it took well over an hour to fix critical wounds compared to the seconds for Panacea or minutes for Othala.

I think we were close to forty patients at a time now, even with Panacea and Rejector being good enough to fully heal capes within a minute each. I had to limit myself to the most critical twenty; I think that was my limit. I didn't want to do any more in case I made a critical mistake. The other patients that were on the latter half of the healing process generally didn't need my support any more anyway.

"Mexicombat down, T-32. Passaro Azul down, T-33. Galloping Ghost down, S-21. Sandy Eggo deceased. Lost Angel deceased. L'Alpine down, T-30. All combatants clear the area. Artillery strike incoming."

Every once in a while, Glory Girl would appear, carrying another cape. Panacea would brighten up a little bit seeing her sister, but they never had time to chat.

One thing that gave me some hope was seeing how everyone worked together. I couldn't tell who was hero or villain if I hadn't known beforehand. Not really, anyway. Some had scary costumes, but so did Abyssal. Othala was the only confirmed villain I knew, and she could have been a hero in this setting. Some people could have been gang or mafia members with full-body tattoos, but that didn't really mean anything. Everyone was just working hard to survive. Everyone was on the same side, for once.

"Redsphere deceased. Maximus Rex down, O-24. Sol-Soldado down, E-2. Flareburst deceased..." The announcements continued without end.

Author's Notes:

One thing I found weird was how little the world militaries participated against the Endbringers. Sure, they failed the first few times originally, but then again, it's not like the world has been doing much better. People are constantly failing against the Endbringers, nearly every time.

Capes may have physics-breaking powers, but not that often. Flechette seems like one in a million. Most typical Blasters are only at "minigun" levels of damage or less, which is easy for military to match. Even the power/damage output a high-rated Blaster like Purity can be matched or beaten by standard artillery shells. They just need good coordination, which Dragon could provide.

Leviathan may be tricky and difficult to hit with standard military arms, Simurgh is always bullshit, but Behemoth still seems like a legitimate target to me.