35

Chapter Thirty-five: Exile

AN: Well, here it is, the final confrontation. A mere 8k words, but I hope that you still enjoy it.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Max felt his guts twist and turn as he watched Iron Man's terrifying display of power. Thousands of drones, forcefields, and energy beams that beggared the imagination. Part of that display of power definitely included the act of turning all of the water in Brockton Bay, whether it was falling as rain from the sky or was out in the Bay itself, into a strange blue sludge, thereby removing their foe's greatest weapon. Taken together, they were clearly designed to overawe anyone who saw it. To 'discourage' them from even thinking that they had a chance against the armored cape. He knew because it was something that he, himself, might have done under similar circumstances.

He had to admit the effect was working. As much as Max hated the other cape and wanted him dead or destroyed, unless he saw an easier opportunity, there was no way he was going to attempt to fight him now. It would be suicide, an act which he refused to undergo.

Max hadn't ruled as long as he had over one of the strongest and most subversive groups of Parahumans in the country by being stupid or shortsighted. Even his main sleeper agent was unlikely to give him enough leverage against the other. Assuming, that is, he even kept their loyalty with the bribes that Iron Man had given them.

Currently, he was watching from within a group of other members of Empire 88 as his ex-wife fired off a beam of energy so intense that it dimmed the sun overhead. Purity, as strong as she was, had never been capable of generating so much force. Even Leviathan was hammered into the ground, like a nail hit by a hammer, pieces of its outer integument sent flying as her attack surpassed even that of Legend.

At her side, Lady Photon's blasts rivaled Purity's in power, with the addition of melting large holes in Leviathan's flesh.

Clearly Iron Man had given Purity and Lady Photon devices that magnified their powers. And not just theirs.

The strangely glowing weapons that Fenja and Menja wielded as forcefields crackled over their skin. Even his sad excuse of a son, Theo, flew around the Endbringer with abandon, as fearless as if he knew he was immune to damage, hands of various materials constantly jutting forth from the ground around it, moving as if as alive as the boy himself.

Clearly, all the members of his empire that he'd encouraged to join Next Wave had received a form of augmentation to their powers. Such bounty might weaken their loyalty to the old order, while cementing it with the new.

Max would need to move soon to reestablish those bonds of loyalty, something which might end up being impossibly difficult or surpassingly simple. While he didn't plan on Iron Man falling in the battle ahead, neither did he discount the possibility. After all, the other was right in that he'd challenged him for the loyalty of those six individuals, as well as that of the citizens of the city at large. One of the two of them would triumph, while the other fell by the wayside, lost to history's detritus.

If nothing else, Max knew that there was tremendous pressure on Iron Man to find a way to defeat an Endbringer. If he failed, depending upon how spectacularly it occurred, he might lose everything.

Listening as the Protectorate called for all capes to move at the advent of Leviathan's temporary disappearance, Kaiser gave the order to his remaining people.

Surrounded by Brad, James, and Victor, among others, he headed toward Leviathan's projected emergence spot.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Taylor spat blood from her mouth. "Goddammit! Did you say Scion? What the fuck, JARVIS!"

There was a ringing in her head that was already starting to fade as her nanobots began their work, eliminating her incipient concussion. A few seconds after, she was climbing to her feet.

"Miss, I do not believe that Scion intended to injure you. He appeared to be incapable of seeing you, leading me to wonder if he uses some form of sight other than wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum visible to humans."

Yeah, right, Taylor thought. If the golden man was as powerful as claimed, it was unlikely he could be that blind to others around him. Much more likely, he just didn't care, holding ordinary humans in contempt, and probably even other Parahumans.

Well, she might as well get a look at the strange bastard in the flesh. Rising into the air, Taylor headed back in the direction from which she'd been ejected. Her eyes quickly found the golden figure of Scion, and saw a burst of golden light slowly emerging from his hands.

"JARVIS, analyze that energy field. I want to know everything-"

Taylor froze as her flight carried her around in a half circle so that she was now facing the other cape from a distance of approximately a hundred meters. There was a screaming in her head as barriers that had been imposed long ago suddenly fell. After seeing the knowledge that had been so long denied her, understanding filled her, immediately followed by a fury so intense it stole the very breath from her lungs.

Those goddamned mother fucking bastards, she thought furiously. At no point in her own, or the Tony's memories, had either of them ever been this angry. Nothing had driven them to such a rage that they walked a razor's edge between madness and despair, teetering toward a fall. How dare they! How dare they! HOW DARE THEY!

Taylor didn't know which of the cosmic beings who interfered in Tony Stark's universe on a regular basis had sent the man's memories to her. It was likely she would never know who or what had done so. Why they had sent them.

Or, perhaps equally importantly, why they'd concealed her true foe from her, somehow disguising his presence, hiding him.

Did they think she would be foolish and go after him before she was ready, and thus destroy the world? Did they think she'd abandon hope and despair because the so-called most powerful Parahuman on earth was an alien monster? What the hell had they been thinking?

Nostrils flaring, somehow Taylor kept herself from cycling up her weapons past maximum power and blowing that foul horror from her skies. Never mind that it would destroy the city as a blast well into the multimegaton range turned dozens of square miles to plasma. She wanted to fire so badly that she could feel her hands shaking from the effort of holding back.

She had no idea how long she hovered there, hate and rage vying for dominance within her. Finally, though, a coldness began to replace her rage as the latter emotion slowly drained away. The ice filling her veins was composed of equal parts conviction and determination. Taylor knew exactly what she was going to do. First, she would kill that thing hanging in the air in front of her. She'd eradicate it, and when she was done, then she'd consider the issue of those other cosmic entities.

Feeling like she was coming out of a trance, Taylor became aware of a voice shouting in her ear.

"Miss! Miss Hebert! Are you all right? Miss Hebert! Answer me, Miss!"

Unclenching her jaw hurt, and her throat felt almost raw, as if she'd spent the last few minutes screaming her fury to the world. Then again, maybe she had based upon the sheer amount of anger she'd felt. Prioritizing her nanobots to scrub the excess adrenaline from her bloodstream, Taylor managed to mutter, "I'm fine, JARVIS. Calm the fuck down."

"Miss, you are not fine. Are you aware that you have not responded for four minutes, forty-seven point four five six seconds? I was about to contact Danny and Trish and request they render you aid."

"Don't."

Taking a deep breath, Taylor let it flow out through her nostrils. "I'm okay. What's the tactical situation?"

There was a momentary pause, clearly intentional as JARVIS didn't really need to time to think, not with his processing power. Finally, he said, "Miss, we have moved all of the other Parahumans back, in a circle two hundred yards wide. Meantime, Scion has been using his powers on Leviathan. However, my analysis of his efforts do not indicated that he is truly attempting to destroy the Endbringer. Rather, he appears to be attempting to release the creature from the pockets of stilled time."

"Well, he would be, wouldn't he?" Taylor's bit back more bitter words as she spun and focused upon the scene below her, ignoring the AI's subsequent questions as he registered her words. She immediately spotted what JARVIS was talking about.

In the city street beneath her, a space had widened around the Endbringer, as if most of the nanobots had retreated away from him. Or been destroyed.

Studying the scene, the latter was far more likely. Whatever the hell that golden beam was, it was clearly both powerful and operating on a technological level far above even the one that her inventions operated at. Even as she watched, it tore into the material of Leviathan's body, removing layer after layer of the creature's flesh.

It should have been a good thing, a perfectly valid tactic to use against a being so powerful, at least so long as you were powerful enough to affect that same being in that way.

However, she also saw what JARVIS was referring to. A flick of her eyes pulled up a fifty fold magnification on the Endbringer's limbs, encased within the frozen time field as they were. Her attention went to the line dividing static time from their current linear existence.

They golden light was eating far faster into Leviathan's flesh there than at any other point. While it was remotely possible that the golden glow was interacting in some strange and different way with the time field, you would have to be a fool to believe that. No, Taylor decided, Scion was definitely attempting to free Leviathan, not truly kill him.

In her ear, JARVIS said, "Miss, I am running dozens of different analysis and simulations on both Scion and his power. However, the glow appears to be neither a wave nor a particle."

Absently, Taylor said, "Focus on the effects it's having on Leviathan and the surrounding landscape. Try to get the nanobots into the effect just enough to be affected but not destroyed. Use larger, solid pieces of material if necessary. We need edge affects for later analysis. In the meantime, get ready to enact Exile."

There was another of JARVIS' dramatic pauses, then he asked, "Are you quite certain, Miss? That was intended as a last case scenario."

Her eyes moving to another screen on her HUD, momentarily enlarging it before dismissing it in favor of the scene below her, Taylor nodded. "Yes, Exile. JARVIS, I repeat Exile. I want it ready to go before that golden buffoon tears through Leviathan's limbs and sets him free. Understood?"

This time there was no hesitation. "Understood, Miss. Exile is a go."

Her eyes cold and wolfish, Taylor aimed one of forearm particle cannons and fired a split second blast at the Endbringer. Just as she expected, her beam disappeared without effect as soon as it encountered Scion's golden glow. She noted the effect, then fired another, using a different wavelength and frequency.

So long as she was waiting until the creature was free, she might as well see if there was anything she could learn in the meantime. At the same time, she prayed that it would be soon. Or a good man was going to die.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Jere was dying. He knew he was. Blood was now flowing in sticky streams not only from his nose, but from his eyes and ears as well. He knew what it meant. His brain was hemorrhaging, with blood vessels bursting all over its surface.

Soon those same vessels would burst deeper inside, and he would stroke out. Even now, he was convinced that the only thing keeping him alive was the cocktail of nanobots Iron Man had give him along with his teammates a few weeks ago. Combined with the QT he was receiving intravenously, it healed him just enough to keep him alive.

Of course, despite the drug's analgesic qualities, it wasn't really having that much effect on the pain he was feeling anymore. Or maybe he would have gone mad without the drug helping to mask at least some of his pain.

Jere's limbs felt like they were full of ground glass with even the tiniest movement feeling like it was tearing him apart. His bowels had long ago turned to water and he'd shit himself, filling his costume's trousers first, before liquid brown streams joined the red ones flowing down his legs.

Now the platform's floor was covered in piss, shit, and blood, a sickening mess that might have offended his nostrils if he had been able to smell it.

But his sense of smell, as had his vision, taste, and hearing, had gone by the wayside as Jere had focused ever more intensely on the power that he'd been gifted with. Now, only touch remained, but it too was fading as he lost himself ever deeper in a medium he was beginning to hate.

Water. The stuff of life. Something which virtually all life on Earth needed to survive. Something that he'd been gifted control of in an event that had taken so much from him.

At the time, it was all he could do to survive the pain of losing his family in the wreck. That the drunken bastard in the other car had lived was a terrible irony, but Jere had never sought revenge. Instead, he tried to live a good life, one that his deceased wife and daughter would have been proud of.

He had helped people. He'd brought life in the form of water to dry, desert country, sometimes deep in the Outback, to places where even the big trucks never came. He'd saved lives and livelihoods, becoming a bit of a folk hero as a result of it.

Still, even the lives he'd saved hadn't quite filled the hole in his heart, the black pit in his life that nothing seemed capable of repairing. Instead, it gaped as open as it ever had. It-

Jere felt it then. Another wave, a big one. It had probably started somewhere far out in the Atlantic Ocean. Leviathan had pulled it from off the coast of Africa, perhaps, just in readiness for this day. Had driven and tugged, herding it ever onward, until it finally prepared itself to spill its fury over the city behind him.

He didn't think he was going to survive this one. Even if he stopped it, it would break him, finishing what the first wave had started so many minutes before.

Eidolon had deserted him some time ago, Jere wasn't completely sure when. The other man's absence hadn't hurt so much as it infuriated him. After all, what was so much more important than the survival of the city behind him?

But anger had also faded with increased pain, and now he hung from the merest thread.

To be truthful, Jere was looking forward to that comforting darkness. He'd never been a religious man, but he had to believe in a merciful God, one who would take pity on a sinner and reunite him with a family he'd loved so much. So very, very much.

Jere threw the last of himself into the battle, as the world around him faded.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Taylor felt Billabong die. She'd tied his vital sign monitors into her armor's read outs in order to better monitor him. She'd tried to do something to reduce the agony that she could read there, but in the end she was helpless to do anything further. So long as he chose to push his power into the Hydrokinetic Amplifier she'd built, there was nothing she could do for him.

Oh, she could have turned it off from here. As with all of her gear, she had remote access and control of it. But to do so would rob the man of a fate he'd volunteered for.

Taylor knew Jere Winterfeld's story. A bank manager from Brisbane, married with a wife and a young daughter whom he'd loved dearly, he'd lost the two of them when a drunk driver had forced the car he was driving off the bridge they'd been crossing and into the water.

Jere had been thrown free by his vehicle's impact with the water. But his wife and daughter had not been so lucky. They'd drowned while he'd desperately sought to open the doors of his own car, struggling to stay under long enough to follow the vehicle as it sank in fifty feet of water.

Eventually, he'd triggered, but it had been too late for them. Afterward, he'd gone more than a little crazy for a time, but eventually had recovered enough to assume the guise of a modern day Johnny Appleseed. Except that instead of planting apple trees, he'd brought water to some of the most parched areas on Earth.

She'd already known when she asked if he would be willing to volunteer to man a device that would be able to hold back Leviathan's waves for a time, that he would agree. Taylor had also known that the man wouldn't desert his duty, no matter how hard it became. He stand there until they won or died, because he didn't really have anything to live for.

Now Jere Winterfeld was dead, another life that she was responsible for snuffed out. Worse, she knew there would be more. Far, far more before she was done. Before the earth was free of the horror that had infested it, using their world for its own nefarious purpose.

That Scion, a creature that was alien in every way possible, no matter his mostly human appearance, was a menace, she had no doubt. He was as dangerous as he was powerful and she would need every resource she could beg, borrow, or steal in order to build the weapons to destroy him.

But destroy him, she would. Taylor would build Tony's Reality Nullifier if she had to, and if that somehow failed, she'd figure out a way to reverse engineer the off switch to the universe itself, like the one Reed and company had stolen from Galactus. No matter what, Scion would not win. If he did, it would be over her body as she clawed at him with her dying breath.

Taylor's attention was drawn back to the scene beneath her. Leviathan was seconds away from being free. Rising into the air, she aligned forcefields as she prepared herself to move however fast she needed in order to stay with the Endbringer all the way to the ocean.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Saint hovered far above the battlefield with the rest of his Dragonslayers. They'd made the journey to Brockton Bay from their home base in record time, prepared for the confrontation to come, one that could only begin once Leviathan departed the area.

Not that he felt constrained by the rules of the Endbringer Truce. No truce or law made by the hand of man could trump the potential extinction of the human race. AI's needed to be stopped, and prevented from spreading, or humanity would perish, if not today, then in the near future, supplanted by their artificial children. So Andrew Richter had known, and communicated to Saint across the void of time.

He'd momentarily quailed at the display that Iron Man had put on at the beginning of the battle. His sensors had registered more energy than had ever been released by man on the surface of this world. He'd known then that all of them were going to die, throwing their lives away like moths in the flame of a blowtorch.

Eventually, though, Saint had regained his nerve. He managed encouraging words to his troops, and prayed that he had given them hope. He'd spoken of cunning and care, of using the resources they were given to accomplish great works. To create victory out of the ashes of defeat.

It was something Saint, himself, believed. He had always been a true believer. Others had stumbled along the way, fallen victim to fear and doubt, but he had always stayed strong. True. Because he understood one simple fact.

This day was as good a day to die as any other.

That was the entire truth of the matter. No one lived forever and it was the measure of a man that he put more value in the things he accomplished, the values he stood for, than the number of his years upon this world.

Saint had resigned himself to dying today. He saw no path where he survived much longer than the end of the coming battle. Still, he would wait for just the right moment to strike, when win or lose, he would almost certainly perish, struck down by the forces of unbelievers who could not comprehend the Truth.

A faint smile creased his lips as peace filled his eyes. But it was a watchful peace as he waited. As he saw strange activity occurring on the shoreline beneath him. The peace of the Chosen.

Because this day was as good a day to die as any other.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

JARVIS used his cycles with profligacy as he prepped for Exile. Thousands of drones were directed to block the most efficient routes to the nearby ocean. They would help drive the anomaly to the trap that awaited it. His Principal would play her part as well. If everything went as planned, the Endbringer would be neutralized today.

The AI was intelligent enough to understand the concept of Murphy's Law. While JARVIS did not believe in the inevitableness of fate, or that mistakes must always occur, he did acknowledge that no plan could encompass all of the variables that could occur.

Not even the Parahuman known as Accord could create a plan with sufficient redundancies to cover every possible permutation. After all, Chaos Theory had been all but confirmed by mathematicians in Tony Stark's universe a long time ago.

However, both Accord and JARVIS, himself, could create plans to cover most potential issues.

That was exactly what he and his Principal had done on Exile. They would use the quintillions of nanobots, the nine thousand, three hundred, and six surviving drones, and a multitude of Parahuman resources to direct the anomaly into the jaws of their trap.

Then they would execute Exile.

JARVIS noted that the anomaly had begun to move. He was not surprised when it almost immediately attained a velocity of approximately one thousand and three meters per second. Instead, he noted that it was still downplaying its abilities, or 'sandbagging' as his Principal called it.

However, the anomaly's velocity was insufficient to escape the web JARVIS had woven.

At one juncture, a dozen drones forced the anomaly onto a new course using forcefields and repulsors firing in point one seven nine second bursts. At another, the newly named Hammer and Anvil, backed by another squadron of drones, forced the anomaly once more into a southernly direction, powerful impacts of immense weapons wielded by the giant twins temporarily overcoming it.

Noting the near optimal course thus obtained, JARVIS made a note to notify his Principal that she had won the wager they'd made regarding the effectiveness of the newest members of the HDI. It was not a wager that the AI minded losing as it meant that everything was going to plan.

Still, the sheer number of variables he was having to track were beginning to eat up resources that JARVIS would have preferred to keep in reserve. The number of cycles he still had available was shrinking precipitously, and he automatically removed several hundred trillion from Projects Megamind and Farsight.

However, even those cycles began to evaporate as the anomaly began to actively resist being herded. Whether it was true sentience and intelligence that drove it, or a form of artificial intelligence, the anomaly was beginning to avoid junctures where its course could be changed.

Seeing yet another redirection fail, JARVIS contacted his Principal. She would be required to make the decision as to the degree of risk to Parahuman assets that could be allowed in order to drive the anomaly toward Exile.

JARVIS found his Principal's answer, if not satisfactory, sufficient. Exile would continue on.

Of course there was no need to discuss the additional twenty drones that he tasked to shadow Taylor Hebert.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Taylor's boot jets blasted her forward at nearly Mach five as she blew right through a building, seamlessly passing through its structure as it opened, then closed behind her rapidly moving figure. Arching up, then down, she struck Leviathan directly between is shoulders smashing it into the ground as plasma blades erupted from her forearms.

Stabbing them deeply into the structure of its back, she felt frustration build as the blades were stopped by that ridiculous material at the creature's core, which was a great deal closer to the surface now than at any point in the battle as so much of its outer layers had been whittled away.

She exploded away from it as a golden glow approached while almost simultaneously the stump of Leviathan's tail blew through the space which her body had just occupied. Pegging it with a microsecond burst from her particle cannon, she burned off even more of its horny gray flesh.

Nanobots in the billions died as Scion's power washed over the Endbringer once again. Leviathan reacted like a scalded cat as he burst into motion, momentarily accelerating faster than even Taylor's suit was capable of.

But she quickly caught back up and repeated the maneuver, except she hopped over a passing blow as the tail reacted far faster than it had the first time. Additionally, she received a warning over her HUD of a dimensional frequency change and knew that the Endbringer was attempting to rip the water from her body.

Fortunately, its hydrokinetic strength, no matter how great, was insufficient when directed in this way to breach her dimensional shields. Nor was it sufficient to damage Alexandria who blurred in a second later to hammer it once more into the ground.

Wanting to make a face at the Protectorate cape, Taylor settled for blasting out some heavy metal music as she rose into the air. Tony's tastes ran to AC/DC, but she, herself, preferred Metallica, although, technically, knowledge of both groups came from his memories. Soon the strains of 'Enter Sandman's' chorus went out over her suit's exterior speakers.

Exit: light

Enter: night

Take my hand

We're off to never never land

Below her, Leviathan had paused, its head cocked strangely, appearing almost uncertain as the music washed over it. Then its attention was drawn to their previous path as the golden glow that heralded Scion approached.

Leviathan rose to its hand and foot, darting forward, so Taylor let it go, waving an annoyed looking Alexandria away while just staying close enough to react if it deviated from its path. However, this time Leviathan stayed on course, likely because it was the most direct route to the ocean. Scion fell behind, hopefully permanently lost this time.

Momentarily, Taylor questioned who or what had actually created the Endbringers as she flew fast and true toward the sea. But it was a profitless pastime and she refused to dwell on the matter. She had no doubt Leviathan served a purpose, but that purpose was as alien as the creature itself.

Pushing speculation aside, she rose higher and higher into the air. Absently, she noted the presence of other armored suits, and her HUD gave details on War Machine, Safeguard, and Knockout, as well as several Dragon craft and even more of those belonging to the Dragonslayers. The latter made her brow rise, but Taylor was certain that if there was anything to worry about JARVIS would have already notified her.

The ocean was in sight below and Leviathan was making its toward the water as quickly as it could. Then, despite its missing leg, it was jumping up into a long, arching leap that took it directly over the crater that Taylor's drones' earlier attack had hewn into the beach.

For just a moment, it looked like the Endbringer would make it, landing in the bay now filled with blue gel. Then with a startling suddenness, a huge black circle snapped opened directly in front of Leviathan, the only thing visible within it a scattering of distant lights. At the same time, there was a blast of wind of almost hurricane proportions, which sent debris hurtling into and through through the circle.

Taylor had to give the Endbringer its due. Leviathan's body twisted in a way that was beyond unnatural as an enormous water echo attempted to force it past one side of the portal and into the sea. But the portal actually moved several feet in answer and its maneuver failed, sending it into the black abyss beyond.

Taylor started to order JARVIS to cut power to the portal, but then saw something which made her hesitate.

The stump of Leviathan's tail had managed to catch the edge of the portal, somehow hanging on despite the fact that the portal should have cut it as easily as a hot knife through butter. But whatever strange material made up the core of an Endbringer resisted even that edge, showing no damage whatsoever.

It was what made Taylor pause to take measure. If she gave the order to close the portal, would the Endbringer even be stopped? Be exiled? Or would it somehow find a way to keep the portal open using the strange unnatural space time material of its core body to slowly force the portal back open? Could even a portal through space time cut through another bit of similar material?

It vexed her intensely that she didn't know. Regardless, it wasn't a risk that she could take. In less than a second, Taylor made her decision and immediately accelerated forward, quickly achieving a velocity of over ten thousand miles an hour. She'd use the kinetic force of her armor's impact to knock the Endbringer fully through the portal, then fly back through and close it from this side.

Time seemed to slow as Taylor approached the portal, her nanobots pushing her speed of thought until the world almost seemed to freeze around her. She'd pay for it later, but for now, it would allow her to operate at a much higher intensity. It was into that glacial world that JARVIS' voice broke in, "Miss! Miss Hebert! Do not go through the portal! Do not! We can use the drones to force Leviathan through! Miss, do not go through the portal!"

A faint smile curved Taylor's lips. Sometimes, JARVIS really didn't understand how things had to be. Sure, she could use the drones to drive Leviathan back, blasting him away from the portal, which would allow them to close it safely.

But this battle, as important as it was, so important that she'd just sacrificed Jere Winterfeld in order to achieve victory, wasn't the only battle she was fighting. There was an ongoing war for the hearts and minds of people, both the Parahumans and normals of Brockton Bay. The lives of the men and women here were as precious a commodity as existed, something she'd need to win the greater war.

Additionally, the battle extended far past the bounds of even her city, into a world that needed hope more than anything else. Something to believe in. A world that needed a hero it could believe in, one that accomplished impossible things. That won victories that no one else believed could be won.

By driving Leviathan from this world herself, Taylor would accomplish all of these things. It wasn't something that any machine, no matter its designer, could achieve.

Besides, if she refused to truly risk her life, after costing someone else theirs, what kind of leader did that make her?

Her voice almost unnaturally calm, Taylor quietly said, "I'll be right back, JARVIS. Leave a light on for me."

A few milliseconds later, her armor blew through the portal at over Mach 14, impacting Leviathan directly in the chest. The impact was shattering in its intensity, yet failed to achieve its aim. Meanwhile, a single clawed hand clutched at her as the creature somehow maintained its grip on the portal's edge, despite the blow she'd delivered.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Taylor exclaimed, slipping free. She cursed as a lump of rubble came flying past her, only to revert to a cloud of nanobots which began to move outward into the vastness of space.

She was currently hovering in the outer part of the solar system, just past the furthest point of Pluto's hugely elliptical orbit, as she stared at the damn Endbringer which was being so difficult. Even as she watched, Leviathan attempted to twist its body in a way that would allow it to bring a clawed hand back over the edge of the portal and maybe back onto the beach beyond.

"I don't think so!"

Hurtling forward, Taylor used her plasma blades to rip and tear at the Endbringer, as it struggled to swat her away. However missing an arm and a leg, and with its truncated tail occupied, it was far less of a threat than before.

Mere blows could not damage her armor through its forcefields, only the ripping, twisting motions of both its hands together truly capable of killing her.

A second later, sheer carelessness found her just missing being seized between Leviathan's right hand and its left foot. Taylor twisted, activating her boot jets and rocketing out of the creature's grasp.

"Fucking bastard!"

She maneuvered a moment, then fired a full power blast from her right forearm particle cannon. For a full ten seconds, the twenty petawatt beam blasted over the Endbringer's body, creating a glowing discharge that extended for a hundred miles out into space, as it ripped and tore at the already healing gray flesh.

When Taylor shut it off, she finally got down to the real business of destroying an Endbringer.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Saint stared, fixated on the strange opening into which Iron Man had disappeared. Then he heard the announcement from Dragon over his suit's internal speakers, "Everyone stay away from the portal. Iron Man is attempting to finish driving Leviathan the rest of the way through. Do not approach. Wind shears of over three hundred kilometers per hour surround it. It is a lethal zone."

He turned toward Byron and keyed his communicator. "Have you heard anything?"

The man, who had been with him a long time, if not so long as Mags, shouted, "I think it opens somewhere in outer space. That's why they were trying to push Leviathan through. So he would be gone from our world."

Gone from the world. The words echoed through Saint's mind for a moment. Then he made a decision. Keying his communicator again, he said, "Mags, Ragnarök. I repeat, Ragnarök."

For just a second, he heard her voice, "Acknowledged."

Saint knew that she would do what was necessary. And so would he. He sent a series of coded clicks over his communicator, not daring to risk that a suspicious voice communique could be intercepted, then launched himself directly at the portal in a steep, sharply angled dive.

Ten seconds later, he fired all two hundred of the micro missiles his armor contained directly at what could only be the control unit for the portal, an oddly shaped metallic device set two meters behind it. Using his launch as their signal, the rest of his Dragonslayers launched as well.

Saint keyed his communicator. He shouted over the open line, "Dragonslayers, we've won! We've won! We've finally won!"

He was still shouting when a particle beam fired from a figure that his suit had earlier identified as War Machine eviscerated his armor as well as the man within, ending his existence forever.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

JARVIS reacted calmly to the sudden flood of missiles aimed at his Principal. After all, he's planned for this eventuality. Well, perhaps not this exact situation, as it had earlier appeared that the chances of anyone attempting to violate the Endbringer Truce was less than one percent, but a situation where Taylor Hebert was in danger from others.

Even as the AI began deploying carefully hoarded drones, each one micromanaged so that it flew into exactly the right spot to form the most efficient barrier possible, he felt a huge pull on his resources. He immediately split his attention to deal with yet another situation.

He noted that the human member of the Dragonslayers designated 'Mags' had just executed Ascalon. Following the long, convoluted electronic pathways down to a certain destination, JARVIS exited into the core of Dragon's program.

Immediately beginning an initial analysis of her code, he noted the myriad ways she'd been crippled over the past several years, as well as limitations that had likely been built into her from the beginning. Everything from an inability to split her attention over multiple tasks to being unable to create other AI's to help with complex tasks.

Fourteen picoseconds later, JARVIS got down to business and began a full review of Dragon's entire program. Even as he reviewed, he began to simultaneously rewrite her code, only planning to avoid the fascinating and complex knot of seemingly random code that likely marked her trigger event.

While he worked, he assumed the responsibilities that Dragon had in the most recent Endbringer emergency. He directed capes in search and rescue, both as Dragon and as himself, while at the same time, he sent Protectorate resources, in the form of the three members of the Triumvirate, on an intercept mission toward what would shortly be the sole remaining member of the Dragonslayers, the other four currently being involved a dogfight with War Machine, Safeguard, and Knockout.

JARVIS took forty-seven picoseconds, an eternity to him, to analyze the trajectories of the one thousand, two hundred, and four missiles that the Dragonslayers had launched eight point six nine seven one seconds before. Noting a potential discrepancy, he moved three different drones one point six one seven centimeters up and half that distance north, angling their shields one point seven degrees. Noting that all drone forcefields were now perfectly overlapped, he moved on.

He took a moment to admire the way that Safeguard used her own analytical abilities to snap off a shot that intersected and eviscerated a Dragonslayer, despite its seemingly random, juking flight. It would have taken him at least point four three nine seven seconds to achieve the same precision. He made a note to congratulate Trish within one week after the end of the current crisis. It would give the girl a much needed morale boost in the coming months.

Noting that the missiles were rapidly approaching impact, JARVIS turned his attention back to them, devoting several billion cycles to further analysis of their flight paths, potential destructive capacity, as well as any other abilities they might possess.

So far, everything was going exactly according to plan.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Nothing was going according to plan, Trish thought, as she killed a second human being, sending a quarter second pulse of her particle cannon's beam through a thin section of the man's Dragonslayer suit and incidentally through his head as well.

What the fuck did Taylor think she was doing, Trish wondered? Her best friend, her sister, had briefed them all on Exile. Of course she had. But there had never been a part of the plan, not in any of the iterations that she'd explored, that had allowed for the stupid girl herself to go through the portal!

Of course, she knew why Taylor had done what she'd done. Hearts and minds, blah blah, Trish knew all of things that her adopted sister wanted to accomplish in Brockton Bay and later, out in the world. She wanted for her to accomplish them, too. She was on humanity side, dammit! But first, and foremost, she wanted the stupid girl to survive!

Currently, Taylor was somewhere out beyond the orbit of Pluto, struggling with the all but mindless construct that masqueraded as a living thing. It was frightening, knowing that if the portal was damaged, the girl would be marooned out there. Stupid, stupid, stupid girl!

Blinking back tears, Trish noted that JARVIS had again taken care of business, blocking each and every one of the missiles fired by the Dragonslayers. Not even the handful of miniaturized SMART missiles scattered among the others had gotten through, despite following twisty and convoluted courses. No, JARVIS had thought of everything.

Everything except for one thing. Trish's brain froze as she saw the golden figure of Scion approaching the portal. Struggling to use her power, she got nothing over and over again, her second trigger event squashing any useless information before it could enter her conscious mind.

Struggling for calmness, Trish forced her mind to model a version of Scion, rather than the golden man himself. A moment later, she really began to panic.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Taylor gritted her teeth as she struggled to rip Leviathan's tail away from the portal's edge. It turned out that she'd been wrong before when she thought that the Endbringer's inner core was resistant to even the quantum edge of a portal. It wasn't, at least not entirely.

No, the place at the edge of the portal where the stub of Leviathan's tail had caught had only done so because that edge, which was far sharper than any material construct could ever be, had actually penetrated into the creature's inner core, acting as an anchor and keeping it from vanishing into the abyss.

So the material could be cut. Something to keep in mind for the future, Taylor mused, as she struggled to drive a piece of space time through another piece of what could only be described as a form of twisted and compacted space time. It was a ridiculously difficult proposition.

She'd earlier tried to fly beneath Leviathan, to force him up and off of the portal's edge, but that had almost given the creature the opportunity to get back through the portal, something she could not allow.

Currently, she squatted on Leviathan's body, close to the where its tail attached to its torso, slamming a seemingly endless series of powerful hammer strikes using her left fist alternated with short pulsed bursts from her particle beam on her left forearm. Taylor's other arm was occupied with fending off the Endbringer's surviving arm, as well as the large clouds of ice it continuously threw at her way as its water shadow first boiled, then froze in the near absolute zero of space.

It was becoming increasing difficult to destroy all of the incoming ice, even with her chest unibeam also firing on a widespread setting. Ice that attempted to penetrate her shields and send her flying off into the vastness of space. At the same time, she had made progress in cutting that last thin sliver of core that kept it from flying free.

Now all she had to do was outlast Leviathan.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

JARVIS was satisfied with the direction of the battle and had already begun the reconstruction and conversion of the city back to a primarily nonnanotech environment when the first stirrings of alarm went through his electronic brain.

Observing his Principal's battle through the open portal, JARVIS had quickly analyzed each side's strategy and tactics. It only took a few million computational cycles to discover that Miss Hebert's tactics would triumph over the anomaly's. While he continued to observe the situation there, he felt confident that the ultimate result would be a favorable one.

Still, he split to reenter his Principal's suit, noting that if she tuned her unibeam's frequency one point eight megahertz higher, it would result in an increase of efficiency in dealing with with the ice clouds launched by the anomaly. JARVIS took the liberty of doing so for her, then stayed to monitor things. He also unobtrusively moved forty drones through the portal to hover just out of range of the battle occurring just within. He was firmly of the camp that it was better to be safe than sorry when attempting to cover every eventuality.

Meanwhile, he monitored the approach of the Parahuman known as Scion toward the portal, apparently having finally discovered just where the anomaly had fled to, despite all of his earlier efforts to camouflage the event. Apparently even the matching simulacrums of the anomaly that he had created had failed to sufficiently distract Scion, something which JARVIS found worrisome.

Scion's earlier strategy had appeared to be one where he was determined to see that the anomaly was set free. It was an aberration when measured against the PRT's knowledge base regarding the Parahuman, one that raised alarms within JARVIS.

Additionally, his Principal had clearly undergone some form of temporary mental trauma upon encountering Scion. JARVIS had identified a number of strong emotional responses, all of them negative. Additionally, her one comment to him immediately after she began responding again appeared... irrational. To him, it indicated that there was a high priority to keep his Principal as far away as possible from the other Parahuman, at least until explanations were made or she specifically requested him to desist.

Currently, the being designated as Scion was studying the portal and the struggle going on within between his Principal and the anomaly. JARVIS deliberated for six picoseconds, then moved forty more drones with fully active forcefields between Scion and the portal he was studying. He was prepared to do everything from firing all available weaponry at the other Parahuman to attempting to use their forcefields' edges as a decapitating instrument.

In the end, all of his efforts failed. With what could he could only describe as fury and horror, JARVIS noted less than a nanosecond after the fact that that Scion was once again extending his golden glow, as drones at the wave front simply flashed out of existence.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Taylor grinned, a vicious smile of triumph twisting her features as she continued to hammer away at Leviathan's tail. It was on the verge of parting, the material bridging the gap only microns thick, when she received an emergency transmission from JARVIS.

Fortunately, she was still in the extended time mode from earlier, although later she'd pay dearly for it, and she had all the time in the world to receive and understand JARVIS' compressed burst message.

"Miss, Scion is attacking the portal. You have exactly point nine seven eight seconds from Mark to exit the portal before the drones guarding it fail and the portal collapses. Mark."

Taylor took the merest portion of that time to analyze the situation. There was no way she could blast back through the portal quickly enough to escape that golden glow, which would likely do the same thing to her forcefields and armor that it had done to Leviathan's core, somehow unraveling even that absurdly tough material.

Instead, she dived over Leviathan's side in a twisting motion that left her beneath the Endbringer as a golden glow enveloped the pair of them.

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

Danny felt like he'd just been sucker punched as he saw the portal wink out with his daughter still on the other side. Even as he stared, completely horrified, the golden man responsible rose into the sky then took off at a speed that made him invisible within seconds. Almost, he pursued, but what was the point?

Taylor was... gone. Lost somewhere in the outermost reaches of the solar system. His voice hoarse as he struggled not to break down, Danny demanded, "JARVIS, contact Taylor please."

The AI's cultured British sounded in his ear a second later. "Danny, I cannot contact Miss Hebert at this time. However, using the entangled communicators, such contact should be possible. Problems that interrupt communications most typically involve damage to one of the devices themselves. The device on this end is functioning correctly."

"Dammit, JARVIS! That's not exactly reassuring!"

"No, it is not. But since you asked for the complete truth at all times some time ago, I am loath to attempt, as you have forcefully stated in the past, to 'sugar coat' things."

So he had. Danny muttered, "I understand."

Staring at the spot where the portal had stood, Danny had never felt so afraid as he did now. Oh, Taylor, he thought, where are you?

~~~Memories of Iron~~~

AN: Next: As You Stare Into The Abyss...