62

Date

2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

Alexandria walked out of the meeting very satisfied. There was an actual plan, and she hadn't had to even lift a finger to make sure it worked. Yet.

She walked past people rushing back and forth, parahumans stretching, preparing for the fight until she reached a nearby small hill. She climbed it and took in the view. The green shield shined with malevolent energy, the meat sack that replaced Nilbog hadn't grown further, but it's pulsing was extremely disconcerting.

She was about to take to the air to take a quick look at the other sites when her communicator rang. A quick perusal showed her it was Legend on a private channel that only the Triumvirate could access.

"Yes, Legend?" she said after accepting the call.

"Hey, Alex, I got a quick question for you!" exclaimed the man, and Alexandria immediately noticed there was emotion hidden in his voice.

"Yes?"

"Why aren't you directing the operation? I didn't want to say anything in front of Emily, but I know you. You wouldn't give up leading this without cause…"

"Very simple, Legend," she answered with a small smile on her lips. "Because, no matter what Piggot thinks, she is not in control. Dragon organized everything. Communication goes through her, and so on. Basically, nothing can happen without Dragon's say."

"Then why not put Dragon officially in charge?"

"Because she is not American, and imagine the stink Piggot would create. No, let her play general, and Dragon will smooth over the edges. We can deal with the monsters, while they deal with logistics."

"I see," said Legend in a flat voice. "I understand your reasoning, but I don't like it. I trust both Dragon and Emily, and this would just cause strife if it comes to light." He sighed before continuing. "But I know it's too late to change things without bruising egos, so I will leave it. Thank you for the information." And with that, he hung up.

Alexandria blinked in surprise, then smiled coldly. If only things were so simple…

There would be countless people complaining that they let a 'foreigner' take charge of American units, and so on. No, it was much better to let Piggot be the figurehead.

If the operation was a success, then maybe she would leak Piggot's connection to the city, creating a beautiful PR story.

And if they've lost, there was at least somebody to blame.

Her communicator came alive again; this time the local channel.

"Alexandria, everybody is ready. I'm calling Lux Arcana back for the operation," spoke Dragon in her usual unflappable voice.

"Understood. I'm on my way," she replied, then flew back to the tent.

Date

2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

Taylor was in the middle of trying to perfect her accuracy at one-shotting goblins with her lightning spear, while her clones decimated the incoming flood when her communicator rang.

"Lux, it is time to leave the battlefield," came Dragon's friendly voice. "We are having a meeting about the operation and you are required."

Her smile grew even bigger, while her body didn't even stop for a second, continuing to destroy the endless swarm trying to tear her apart.

"Great! Should I leave the clones?"

"Yes, but let them be destroyed slowly," answered the Tinker promptly. "We don't yet know how much actual intelligence remained in Nilbog, so I want you to pretend to be tired. As soon as you leave, others will take over. Eidolon will hopefully attract its attention."

"Roger!"

She took a quick stock of the situation and began methodically slowing down her movements, playing the tired parahuman for all potential observers. She even let a few non-critical hits in, though they didn't even manage to scratch her armor.

Over the next minute, she began to move towards the edge of the battlefield, and she was happy to see that the monsters barely reacted to her movements.

Either Nilbog didn't buy her act, didn't care, or wasn't able to understand the situation. Of course, there was a possibility that he was playing with them, and with the involvement of Simurgh, there was a non-negligible chance that he was.

In the end, she extricated herself from the carnage, leaving her poor clones to suffer dramatic yet heroic deaths at the hand of abominations. Maybe she could write a play about it?

As she stepped through the gates Amy made, she was greeted by cheers from the present parahumans and soldiers. She smiled at them, not that they could see it, then nodded in acknowledgment before heading for the command tent.

She barely took a step when she was slightly shoulder-checked by Eidolon heading for the gate. She, of course, sensed and saw him coming, but expected him to go slightly around. Looking at the jerk, she shook her head and returned to her trek.

She had to remember to never meet her other heroes…

As soon as Taylor stepped through the door of the center, she was greeted by a very respectful PRT personnel, who directed her to a room filled with some of the most famous she knew.

Around a table where familiar technology was projecting a map of the area, was Narwhal in her famous 'costume' (and no, she wasn't jealous), next to her Dragon in her gynoid body wearing the latest armor they have created, talking with her friend. Alexandria was also there, ignoring everybody and fixedly staring at the map, while next to her was an unknown parahuman, playing with something small in her hand. Alone and a little frightened was another unknown woman next to them, in armor with green and red accents covering her entire body.

On the other side was Director Piggot, flagged by Armsmaster and Miss Militia. Armsmaster was intently typing into a projected computer, and the Director was doing an excellent imitation of Alexandria.

Miss Militia however gave her an eye smile, then cleared her throat. "Lux Arcana is here, so let's begin."

Instantly everybody was looking at her, pretending to only notice her, but she was pretty sure that aside from the probable Tinker if what she sensed was correct, and the unknown armored woman was aware of her as soon as she got near the room.

She gave a small wave but said nothing.

Director Piggot nodded to herself then spoke up. "Thank you Lux Arcana for coming and keeping the monster occupied." Taylor bowed her head slightly but didn't interrupt the Director. "This is the team we put together for the operation to take out Nilbog. I will do a quick introduction, then we will go over the plan," said the woman brusquely. "Narwhal, shields. Dragon, firepower, the Ball. Alexandria, brute," she talked while motioning towards the parahumans one by one. "Armsmaster, close combat, the Ball. Nero, bomb tinker, brings the solution. Cardea can do shields and fire blasts of healing energy. And finally Lux Arcana, firepower."

Taylor looked around, eying each parahuman, and saw that aside from Nero and Cardea everyone was cool as a cucumber. While Nero was radiating excitement, Cardea looked really out of her element.

Nobody spoke, and Director Piggot continued. "You are all covered in armor, or can cover yourself with shields to protect against whatever Nilbog could come up. The operation is simple. Nero created a series of bombs that need to be planted at specific points, one of them under the Ball. You will do this while we distract his army. Questions?"

"Sounds simple," said Narwhal calmly. "What options do we have for extractions?"

"None," answered Piggot promptly in a flat voice. "We confirmed that there is a field inside the shield that prevents all kinds of teleportation that we have access to, so your only option is to fight yourself out towards a portal."

"I see…"

Taylor had to swallow at hearing that. She was pretty sure when she was telling her dad about this, she would leave this part out.

"If you don't have questions, then Dragon has the details," said the Director, and everyone understood the unspoken dismissal.

Without a word, all of them filed out of the room, following Dragon, and Taylor could hear as Alexandria, last in the line, threw a parting word at the Director.

"Good luck, Emily."

Date

2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

Amy sat on the surprisingly comfortable chairs as Vicky was 'resting' on one of the nearby crates. Probably the entire hall could hear her snores.

All this waiting allowed the stress and the fact she hadn't slept in a while to catch up with the blonde. Amy couldn't blame her; she was only so awake because of her new power. According to Shaper, sleep was for the weak organisms that couldn't figure out how to function without it.

Even so, the suspense was starting to get to her. She thought about checking PHO for the hundredth time today, but in the end, she decided against it. There was no point in reading the same memes reiterated ad nauseam. Even if the fact that the PHO servers were melting due to the entire Endbringer situation, and the videos the news helicopter captured of Taylor in action. And something with Vista and Hookwolf. But the thread was so polluted with memes and raging Nazis, she couldn't make heads or tails of what happened.

She was about to retrieve her phone again, despite her misgivings, when Dragon began speaking from the speakers.

"Attention everybody! The attack is beginning in two minutes."

Amy sighed and went to wake up Vicky, who somehow slept through the announcement.

Date

2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

Danny was sitting on the edge of the sofa ever since Taylor left, barely moving, keeping his eyes on the multitude of a screen projected in front of him, wanting to catch a glimpse of his daughter. He long ago turned off the camera feed that came directly from Taylor, unable to see his daughter dancing on the edge. He was sure he saw one more where she escaped a giant claw swipe by a hair he would have a heart attack. So instead he chose to watch the news. Less gory details, but still enough that he knew what was going on.

When he saw Taylor show up on the news in multiple angles, in her armor, in the middle of a horde of horrific monsters, his heart almost stopped. Thankfully, after calming down somewhat, he realized his daughter was playing with the monsters.

He was about to get angry when one of the dumbfounded newscasters reported that Lux Arcana was distracting the monsters until the proper response can be organized. After that, he was just merely annoyed at people on the ground.

Why his daughter?

After a quick message to Tess, he was less grumpy but still planned to sit down with Taylor on accepting certain responsibilities where he could see it.

He was actually getting bored watching Taylor dance around the monster, and the newscasters were also visibly running out of things to say when something changed. The highlighted form of his daughter began moving towards the wall that Panacea erected.

Who knew the girl could do that?

Maybe when the summer came he would ask the girl to help repair the fencing…

He watched with bated breath as Taylor retreated for some reason, then sighed in relief when she stepped through the gate.

Danny watched as the camera followed Taylor as she walked into the building that was erected by Dragon, the people on the screen speculating about it.

Then when Taylor didn't return, the camera panned back to Eidolon and the other parahumans standing in front of the gate, more than likely there to take over from his daughter.

He watched as the previously invincible seeming clones died one by one, while the parahumans visibly readied themselves.

When the last clone vanished in a puff, Eidolon was the first one to fire. He let loose some kind of energy attack, and the others followed. On other screens, he could see that on the south side Legend was blasting the flooding monsters with all sorts of lasers, while in the west the parahumans and soldiers were sniping the oncoming monsters from behind the wall and some kind of energy barrier.

The only screen showing the army saw them employ an enormous amount of firepower, mowing down the monster rushing at the barricades.

He was about to raise a toast when the portals fluctuated and even more monsters came pouring out, only this time with even more variety.

He saw some kind of green and scaled monkey with four arms ending in horrible claws and a tail that ended in some kind of bony growth that resembled a spear, jumping from one hulking brute to another, aiming to skewer the heroes.

A screen was focusing on a monster that arrived with an enormous amount of goblins. It was taller than them but thinner. The questions about its purpose lasted only a few seconds, when it raised its arms, opened its mouth, presumably to screech, and launched a familiar green plasma projectile towards a few heroes who were intent on taking out the group. The projectile was much bigger than the one the dogs shot, and when it arrived in the midst of the shocked group, it exploded spectacularly.

When the dust died down, he saw that one of the heroes was down, only for the parahuman to be whisked away by a Mover.

Danny also saw giant mammoth-like and sized monsters by the dozens lumbering out of the portal, blocking the fire headed for the smaller monsters. Their trunks were adorned with spikes that had their own spikes, and he could see several armor-like plates on their heads.

It was very satisfying to see Eidolon erase one with a laser of his own.

It took the people on the ground a few minutes to realize that there was another monster. The parahumans and the viewers only saw something hit the creation of Ursa Aurora with tremendous force. A second later, the monster uncloaked and revealed itself to be some kind of green cheetah-like creature.

He was just glad that the monster was stupid enough to mistake the bear-like projection as an enemy.

Danny saw the attackers immediately reorganize, clustering in tighter groups, not leaving their backs to be attacked.

Sadly, the monsters kept coming, no matter how many they have killed…