50

Excavator 2

We were soon ready to mount the biggest coordinated strike in the entire battle, now that we had Dragon helping with organization. The Triumvirate was taking on Leviathan right now, holding him back while the rest of the capes got organized. Legend was shooting freezing beams to try to trap the monster in his own water, while Alexandria simply flew at him to punch and wrestle him into submission. Eidolon was doing something weird; it was sometimes hard to figure out what power set he had on at the time. But I was guessing most of his power was some form of water manipulation to counter Leviathan's own. The rest of his powers I couldn't figure out, but one was clearly a Brute power given how he took a water echo to the face and remained unfazed.

We were hoping to jump straight into an attack wave, but Leviathan was more slippery than his size suggested. Even against the Triumvirate, fighting in partly-frozen water, slowed by Eidolon, and held back by Alexandria, he managed to fight back. He whipped his tail at Alexandria, knocking her off his neck and smashing her through an apartment building. He actually burrowed underneath the ice that Legend's lasers were creating, and then flung chunks at the hero with a massive geyser-like burst. As soon as Legend's barrage paused for just a second, Leviathan dove down into the water-flooded streets and disappeared.

That meant we had to actually find him again. The flyers took to the air in pre-determined search patterns while the trapper teams spread out in a way to minimize response time. Most of New Wave was part of the search team. Not only were their flight powers ideal, most of the teams' Blaster powers glowed, which provided a lot of necessary lighting in the darkened city.

It was scary for me, too, realizing how much control Leviathan truly had over water. Even my bots couldn't sense him well. You would think a thirty-foot-tall monster swimming underwater, right past my bots, would be noticeable. If it had been during the day, perhaps. But right now my bots were just trying to sense the water's movements by feel, and I couldn't notice anything bigger ripples caused by the wind and rain. I knew exactly where he had been when he dove down, and I never sensed him leave. Since my bots were operating nearly at the molecular level, Leviathan must have been able to control water to that level of precision.

I knew this was also the most dangerous time for the search team, and I couldn't do much to help. Unlike the other two Endbringers, Leviathan liked to ambush capes. Even if they flew high above the water, Leviathan was fast. Especially so if he was attacking them from behind. So I did my best to keep an eye on them as well, making sure my bots clinging to their costumes were ready to harden into a protective shell at a moment's notice.

We cleared the area, sector by sector as Dragon laid it out. We took the cautious approach, beginning the search from the areas closest to the medical tent first instead of Leviathan's last known location. By securing the areas, there were support capes that could place more defenses. One had a kind of landmine-like Shaker power, and another Tinker was able to set up sentries and motion detectors. From a dark battlefield where we could barely see, we were getting back more control of the battlefield.

Laserdream was the one who spotted Leviathan first. Well, Laserdream and I did. I sensed a major movement in the water and "tapped" her on the shoulder with my bots to get her attention. It made me wonder if Leviathan had deliberately allowed me to sense him, or if this was just a result of him shifting strategies. Laserdream was able to signal everyone quickly with a firework display of lasers straight into the sky while backing away from Leviathan.

Unfortunately, Leviathan appeared to understand that he had been found, and he sent multiple jets of water at Laserdream. She flew backwards trying to dodge them, and even tried to intercept them with her own lasers. Unfortunately, she wasn't well-equipped to handle Leviathan on her own, and her partner was of no help. They ditched as soon as they saw Leviathan.

Laserdream got struck with a blast of water. Her shields were among the weaker ones in her family, and even with my bots on her to form some additional armour, the water blast knocked the wind out of her. She fell from the air, and I did my best to cushion her fall into the flooded streets with my bots.

"Laserdream down, B-12. Ermidillo down, B-12. Leviathan sighted, B-12." Dragon's armband system had a quick response time. I was already transporting her and her patrol partner. Though she was injured, I knew that she could survive as long as I got her to the medical tent. I just needed someone to take care of Leviathan.

Thankfully, backup didn't take long to arrive. Alexandria was the first, having taken a beeline from wherever she was straight into Leviathan. I also saw space warp as Vista helped Aegis carry Clockblocker to the monster. I was surprised Vista was even allowed on the battlefield. She was young. I was ready with my bots to interfere, but there was plenty more capes as well.

I'd be able to get Laserdream to get healed while the others distracted the monster. I think she was just suffering from broken ribs and bruising, which I was already taking care of. As far as Endbringer injuries went, that was quite lucky. I knew Panacea would want to prioritize her cousin once I brought her in.

Alexandria made contact, this time much harder. The impact was so strong that I thought Leviathan had counterattacked with a water echo, but in reality it was just all the water on his skin being shaken off all at once. She then grappled with the monster, focused on holding Leviathan still so that everyone else could combine their efforts. A Tinker of some kind used some kind of cannon that lobbed balls of sticky goo. It was a little bit like containment foam, but far denser, stickier, and stronger. It hardened to the point that even my bots that got caught in it couldn't cut through or escape.

Legend arrived and again used freezing lasers to slow down Leviathan and limit his retreat options, while Eidolon joined in, this time with some kind of glowing-donut power that tried to wrap around Leviathan. Despite all that, Leviathan still managed to shake Alexandria off and dodge one of the glowing donuts. Even more capes started piling on, trying to slow down the Endbringer enough for heavier hitters to arrive.

While the search-and-contain capes engaged Leviathan, I had more time to perfect my rescue and treatment options. I still had more and more bots from out of state entering Brockton Bay. Thankfully the dark, rainy night hid the sight of hundreds of monstrous horse-shaped monsters running parallel to the highways. I wasn't looking to overwhelm Leviathan, but to carpet the entire city. Where I used to just have enough bots to keep watch over the city, I was slowly building up to the point where I could make the entire city into one giant conveyor belt.

Any cape that went down would in my town would be immediately carried to the medical tent. Any straggling civilians would be taken a safe distance away. And with that many bots, maybe I could even exert some control over the water, or Leviathan himself. At least, that was the theory.

The reality was capes of all different strengths and powers were going ham at the Endbringer. And Leviathan repeatedly proved to be tougher than he seemed. There were dead zones where my bots simply couldn't reach because of some other Shaker power, or one cape that would drain my bots of energy to fuel their own powers without realizing it, or another cape that simply blew them up because their Blaster power was that strong. Other areas I just couldn't reach properly because space itself kept warping and straight lines stopped being straight. That was probably Vista, but there were other capes that could mess with direction and movement too.

I still did what I could, and capes kept going down every second. Once enough of my bots were in the city then I could practically take over search and rescue for everyone, freeing up far more capes for the fight. I also warned Panacea and other healers to prepare for a major influx of injuries – both because the fighting was ramping up again, and because more people would actually survive the trip to the tent.

Even though he was being slowed down, Leviathan was still deadly. Even with both legs glued down, one arm bound, and tail being pulled by five different capes, the monster still managed to lash out with its one remaining arm. That arm went straight towards the group of young wards. Aegis twisted in the air, but he couldn't dodge fast enough because he was carrying Clockblocker. Space twisted just a fraction of a second too late, pulling the pair of them away from Leviathan. But Aegis was falling through the air, smashed nearly in half. He dropped Clockblocker, and both of them were falling to the ground unconscious. I prepared my bots to catch them, but Vista was also reshaping the direction of gravity so they fell along a slope instead of directly impacting. I made their impact as cushy as I could.

"Clockblocker down, B-14. Aegis deceased."

Few others noticed the message, because Leviathan suddenly became completely still. Frozen solid in time. The team had done their job. Capes cheered as it appeared that Leviathan had finally been stopped, though a few people hurt themselves because they didn't fully understand Clockblocker's power.

Dragon explained the updated plan to everyone through the armbands and quickly organized the battlefield in preparation for when Clockblocker's power wore off. Meanwhile, I took care of the downed Wards. Vista was trying to get them closer to the medical bay with her space-warping, but didn't have the actual strength to pull the two bigger boys herself. I moved her along with them. She was surprised but realized quickly that I was there to help.

With Vista's help, it didn't take long to gather both the boys and… their pieces. I could move them far more gently than Vista trying to tug at their costumes. Clockblocker was badly injured, but alive. Aegis even worse off, with the bottom half of his body somewhere two blocks away. Dragon's armband declared him deceased, but I could sense from my bots that he was just barely alive. Any normal person would have been long dead, and his power was the only thing keeping him going. I had my bots flood over both of them, stabilizing their broken bones and clotting their major bleeding. For Aegis I practically knitted a new skin just to hold his organs in. But they would survive, I would make sure of it.

Vista and my bots working together got them to the medical tent in seconds.

Back at the main battlefield, people were just reinforcing the other bindings on Leviathan while the attacking teams got into place. Eidolon's ring-traps now wrapped around him. The Tinker using the goo covered Leviathan's left arm and tail with the stuff. Legend froze the water around Leviathan's legs all the way up to the hip. Other, slower capes joined in, tying down or trapping Leviathan further before he could break out of the time-lock.

We didn't know how long all the restraints would hold Leviathan, so everybody readied an attack all at once. Dragon led the offensive teams with each of her assault drones. Before everyone was in place, Leviathan twitched.

"Blasters, attack!"

It wasn't ideal, but it was still the most coordinated simultaneous hit that we had managed on Leviathan. Blasters of all kinds, from Legend's laser beams (now hitting with concussive force) to Miss Militia's anti-tank RPGs flew towards Leviathan as the monster struggled against the restraints. I saw Lady Photon raining destructive beams alongside Legend, while Flashbang was throwing his bombs at it.

There was so much firepower smashing into the place that even my bots in the area went blind, and the ones near Leviathan were destroyed.

I wasn't the only one going blind. Many people were taking pot shots towards the general area of Leviathan without being able to see, which meant a lot of unintended crossfire. Friendly fire was bringing down as many capes as Leviathan was, right now, and I intended to get as many of them the healing they needed.

Meanwhile, I focused on moving the local Wards team that made the attack possible to the medical tent. They arrived just as Laserdream was finished being healed.

"Oh dear lord, what happened to them?" Panacea asked.

"Clock… first…" Aegis croaked out.

"Not this time," Panacea said. "You're literally chopped in half! Even with your power… ugh. Where's your other half?"

I shuffled his legs and pelvis over to her. It took her longer than her usual healing, but she did manage to stitch Aegis back together before moving on to Clockblocker.

"This one's got a concussion, Eunoia. You'll have to finish off the treatment."

"Got it," I said. "Vista, watch your teammates while they get some rest, okay?"

"I can still help! I'm barely even hurt, let me get back out there!" she protested.

"Not right now you can't," I advised. "Everyone's just shooting at Leviathan from every direction. You'll just mess up their aim. Wait until it dies down again."

Opening the tent flap a little just proved my point. It almost looked like dawn, with the intense brightness of continuous explosions and beams brightening the entire landscape from the east.

When the dust, light, and water settled, the city was missing a neighbourhood and gained a new crater. Multiple buildings had toppled or flattened. But Leviathan was still standing. Even worse, the massive barrage from all the Blasters had mostly destroyed all the restraints that were holding Leviathan back, except for Eidolon's power. And that power alone wasn't enough to hold Leviathan back completely.

The monster struggled against the restraints, and was going to break free soon. Most other capes that had been part of the capture team couldn't safely get near him again, but maybe I could do something. I racked my many brains trying to figure out how maximize my tiny bots' effectiveness against the giant to help the attackers.

"Striker team, engage!" The command was short and quick as many more melee-based capes rushed forwards, with Alexandria in the lead. I noted that Errant was one of them, and he was charging in with a blade coated in nanobots. Dragon was doing the same with several of her suits that were specialized for melee attacks.

A freezing cape attempted to slow Leviathan down by icing up the water around his ankles, but unlike Legend, he had to do it at short range. He barely even caught up to the Endbringer before nearly getting stomped on. A rock-controlling cape created pillars of stone to hem the monster in, but it barely slowed him down. The Endbringer continued to charge at the group of capes, who were powerless to stop him. Glory Girl was part of this attack wave, and even her massive strength paled in comparison to the Endbringer. I was worried for her; it would only take a small mistake to be fatal.

Leviathan's greatest advantage was his speed and agility. Many of my bots were already sticking to him, doing what little they could to slow him down or whittle away at his skin. The bots on Leviathan's body began to crosslink with the ones in the water, forming a net that gripped his entire body. Long draglines and fins extended outwards, creating massive amounts of drag through the water that flooded the city.

It slowed him down a little. It didn't seem like much but I guess I was contributing to the fight as much as any other cape, not counting the healing I was doing. Glory Girl narrowly dodged out of Leviathan's grasp as he leapt out of the water. The drag nets I'd attached to him were working well, causing him to lift hundreds of tons of water up with him. Given how close Leviathan's arms came to her, I was sure that my efforts had also saved her life, though I didn't know by how much. The capes on the ground were immediately drenched with the massive plume of water. They were soaked, but alive.

I yelped in concern when I saw Glory Girl get caught off-guard as Leviathan went for a follow-up strike against her. She was catching her breath, thinking she was high enough to be safe. Leviathan had leapt off a building and my draglines weren't enough to stop him. Suddenly, she was sent tumbling by a sudden rush of intense turbulence in the air and the crack of a sonic boom. It was too dark to see what had really happened, but I could feel it through my bots. Leviathan went from moving at highway speeds to an immediate stop.

Alexandria. Of course. Her dark costume made her harder to track at night. Even Glory Girl stopped to watch her face off against Leviathan. It seemed kind of obvious that she would be Glory Girl's idol; her powers were basically everything Glory Girl had, but better. Greater strength. Greater speed. Greater indestructibility.

But that wasn't enough to match Leviathan. The monster was fast. Despite adding yet another crater in its body, Leviathan didn't seem to care, and smacked Alexandria. Even knowing Alexandria was basically indestructible, I winced at the power behind it. The hit launched her to the horizon, though seconds later she came roaring back for another round.

I did my best to try to restrain Leviathan, slow him down just a little bit so that the world's greatest flying brick could actually land a hit. Suddenly, huge cables made of light wrapped around all of Leviathan's limbs, completely restraining him. I traced back to where the light originated from and saw Eidolon. I wasn't sure if this was the same restraining power he used earlier or if he'd switched powers, but it looked like he was mainly focused on support instead of offense for this entire fight.

Eidolon was a great confidence booster for many capes. The fact that he was restraining Leviathan encouraged many more to jump into the fray, and the second wave of capes began fighting in earnest.

For a few seconds I thought we had Leviathan on the back foot, I really did. But even being beset on all sides, Leviathan was fighting back with equal ferocity.

Even restrained, he was still doing damage simply using his hydrokinesis and attacking with water directly. I needed my bots in the water to actually affect the water's movement. I called upon even more of my bots to rush towards the city, hoping to flood the waters. When Leviathan tried to move water with my mesh of bots, they could at least slow it down and absorb some of the energy; turning it into something like a jelly instead of a pure liquid. It reduced the impact of his water attacks, and slowed them down just enough to give the heroes a fraction of a second more to react.

The capes didn't give up. If anything, the destruction signalled to the capes that collateral damage didn't matter, and they were even more destructive. I continued to see more massive blasts of energy, strange bombs, capes spewing mystery liquids at the Endbringer. Despite the fact that Brockton Bay hadn't exactly been kind to me, I didn't want the city to be completely leveled. I needed to go on the offensive. Endbringers usually retreated when they eventually took enough damage. I just hoped we could reach that tipping point a little bit sooner.

I decided that would be the right time to join in with the special version of Abyssal made out of my version of the Nanothorns. I would join Errant and Dragon, who for now had been dodging around and looking for an opening. They appeared to have extremely good coordination – probably something they had worked out together, or maybe their suits were sharing data. But instead of charging straight in and hitting what they could like a lot of other Strikers, they were trying to be nimble, dodging Leviathan's strikes to get closer to the torso.

"All capes, Thinker has suggested we aim for the base of the tail," Dragon announced through the armbands. I was guessing that was Princess doing something with her power. Not everyone followed the new advice, which might actually be a good thing. It would have been worse if it got too crowded and there was too much friendly fire.

Errant and Dragon managed to somehow get behind Leviathan while he was distracted with several other capes. Their blades dug into the armour-like skin. They sank in less than a foot, but then Leviathan lashed out and attempted to swipe at him. He had to break off with a fancy flip, aided by maneuvering thrusters on his suit. Dragon had to do the same, except her suit flew into the air for safety.

To be honest, that one-foot deep wound was probably among the deepest wounds that an Endbringer had ever suffered. People had managed to gouge out parts of their skin before with especially powerful attacks. But in terms of depth, the narrow cut that Dragon and Armsmaster managed was probably in the lead. And given how quickly Leviathan had reacted to the two of them specifically, I was guessing they were onto something.

I rushed in with the Nanothorn Abyssal to follow up on their work. I dove into the same wounds that Dragon and Errant had inflicted. I noticed that they had exhausted their own nanobots' power and cutting ability far earlier than expected. Inside the "wound" I had to clear away plenty of bots that had been fully exhausted of their usefulness. My own bots dove deep and started carving into Leviathan's body where they left off, but the body was far, far harder than I expected.

I may have managed another inch at most before my own bots had been used up. I blew all their energy in a single continuous grinding action, and it had barely hurt the monster. I had thought the skin was like a type of armour, protecting something soft and sensitive inside. That wasn't the case. Instead, it was the opposite. The outside was soft, probably easily-replaceable material, protecting an even stronger inner core.

As I watched Leviathan thrash most of the Striker team with his extreme agility, I couldn't even fathom how it was possible for a material that hard could simultaneously be that flexible. My nanothorn bots could cut through diamond like butter. Against this material, they were failing after digging a few inches.

There was no point in trying to try the same thing over and over when it wasn't working. A hammer didn't work and I had a quadrillion hammers. My cabon-nanotube-diamond bots may have been some of the most advanced materials known to science, but Endbringer bullshit defied science. And yet, maybe the solution was bafflingly simple.

When faced with physics-defying materials, use physics-defying materials against it. Sometimes the only way to fight fire was with fire. The upper layers of material that we had managed to cut through left some fragments of the Endbringer's body. My bots collected all that they could, and used those instead of the diamond tips to slice or grind deeper into the wound.

It seemed to be effective, but too slow. Few of the fragments were ideally shaped or sized. I worked with what I had, but I knew I could have done better if I had more. The few fragments of Behemoth I had could have helped only a little, even if they hadn't been too far away. If only I had more time, more material, more experimentation, I could have figured something out. But I had none of those on the battlefield.

And I wasn't the only one who was having poor luck. All the rest of the capes were having trouble too.

"We're losing momentum. I'm calling a retreat and regroup." I overheard Dragon said privately to Errant over the radio.

"Wait. I'm making one more run at it," Errant said. "Dragon. This might need the sacrifice of a few drones. Can I count on you for that?"

"I can always build more drones. You don't need any specific cape's powers?"

"Othala would have been nice. But no. This'll do."

I had noted the conspicuous absence of the Empire members at this fight. At least a few members usually participated in each Endbringer fight. But since the last fiasco… I suppose many were too busy with their civilian lives spiraling out of control. And with no Empire left to speak of, there wasn't a reputation left to uphold. A shame, because the Empire had many capes that could have contributed well against Leviathan.

I watched as Errant and eight of Dragon's drones moved in formation towards Leviathan while other capes were still retreating. They transferred some containers, probably containing fresh nanobots, before charging ahead full speed. Dragon's drones formed a protective circle around Errant. But her drones, even though they were twice the size and ten times the weight of a normal human, couldn't block Leviathan's strength. Instead, they reacted to Leviathan's movements at a speed only a machine could perform, and pushed Errant out of the way of any deadly strikes.

One by one, each of Dragon's drones were crushed, smashed, and trashed on their approach to Leviathan, until Errant lunged at the same wound they had inflicted on Leviathan a few minutes earlier. With his halberd held like a javelin and his suit's boosters running full blast, he accelerated through the air at the beast's back. With Alexandria, Eidolon, and a few other high level Brutes tying Leviathan down for the final retreat, the monster only had his tail to whip at Errant.

Dragon used the last drone to give Errant a boost and correct his path as Leviathan tried to dodge. That drone got split in half for her efforts, but Errant made it to his target. He stabbed the halberd down with all the force he could muster, and I could tell that there were far more bots flowing out of the blade this time than they had before. Moreover, the halberd itself had some kind of high-energy plasma injection system that forced their nanobots into the area, digging harder and deeper.

Their bots crumbled after literally a single use, being pushed to the absolute limits of their capability. The cut was making progress, going a little further than my own bots managed, but it was slow. Agonizingly slow, more like erosion than cutting. I tried to help as much as I could, clearing debris and broken bots out of the way so the new ones could attack the cut directly, but even that didn't help much.

"Errant, look out!" Dragon's voice warned him of the danger, but he couldn't react fast enough, and I didn't have enough functional bots remaining to provide much help. Leviathan had thrown off a Brute that had held back his tail, and now sent it whipping at Errant. He bucked, throwing Errant off his back, while the tail came cutting across.

It smashed through the halberd, causing all its remaining reserves to explode. Errant, still in the air trying to reorient himself, had part of his leg twisted into a sickening direction. The thrusters on that leg fired uncontrollably, putting more torque on the injured limb and sending him into an chaotic spin. At least I had enough bots in the water to catch him when he fell.

When he hit the water, I knew that leg was mangled beyond repair. Panacea could do it, but only if I managed to retrieve the section of leg that had flown off as his suit was torn apart. That thruster carried it off like a bottle rocket.

I could still stabilize him and bring him to the medical tent, at the very least.

The worst part was, I didn't think that attack did a whole lot. He had managed to dig another inch further, and as far as my bots could tell, Leviathan's armour – or body – only got even tougher. If Princess had been right about that part being Leviathan's weak spot, I couldn't find anything weak about it.

Dragon and the Triumvirate called for a regroup. I had to agree. There were still more capes inbound, this time from overseas. We still had a chance to take this further, depending on who showed up.

But then again, there was still one cape that had been conspicuously absent from this fight.

A cape that had made a name for himself for fighting Leviathan. One who should have been here.

In a far-off section of town that had been sunk underwater long before I arrived, my bots sensed the temperature of the water rise rapidly.

Then, like the bursting of a geyser, a plume of water – no, steam – shot into the sky. At the base was a bright, yellow-orange glow, and a figure that was half of Leviathan's size. There was a roar that shook the city, and draconic form stepped forward.

Author's Notes:

- This chapter came late on account of me finishing a new bike build and trying to enjoy the last few days of good weather while it lasts.