87

Date

2011 May 14th - Friday - Earth Bet Time

Day 6183 - Friday - Administrator Network Time

So, this was it. The last act of this weird stage play.

Sure, he still had to take care of a few dozen S-class threats, at least on the human side, and the CUI wouldn't be going away overnight, and the situation in Africa was still a clusterfuck, but at least he knew how to fix them.

Dragon, Amy, and Taylor all knew their parts, and the Leviathan was ready to commence its attack on poor, unsuspecting Brockton Bay.

And when that was done, he would simply fade into the background, letting the humans live their lives as they pleased, while occasionally interfering to prevent bad things from happening.

He doubted Taylor needed him to do what she did best.

Be her terrifying, memetic self.

Date

2011 May 15th - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

Before the Simurgh attack, Taylor was worried about the unknown, and about the Endbringer. Now that she knew she could win against an Endbringer without the help of Admin's superweapon (albeit with some tiny collateral damage) she was still worried, albeit differently.

It was more like stage fright, and a worry that she wouldn't accomplish her task (her last part in the Plan, according to Admin) without keeping everybody alive.

Though it helped that for the last week, they spent a lot of time in the virtual space with Amy and Tess planning the defenses and such. Though they were sometimes interrupted when Franky and Vicky got bored. Which happened a lot.

A virtual water balloon fight wasn't the same as a real one, but it was still a lot of fun!

Taylor had already upgraded the defenses of the house, making it as waterproof as possible, and stacking it with enough clean water and food (and air) that her father could survive for months. The shields were strong enough that even if the Endbringer dropped a mountain on it, it wouldn't even flicker.

And Tess was bringing almost the same level of shields to cover the bunkers (she made a note to talk to Tess about refitting the bunkers after the fight because they would be a great business opportunity) and the city.

The friendly AI wasn't at a level yet where she could create city shields, but shielding the city from the water could be accomplished easily.

Added to that would be Amy's wooden walls, hopefully preventing any damage befalling their recovering city.

Taylor walked down the stairs, still in her pajamas, to join her father for breakfast.

Danny stopped going to work on Saturdays in the last few weeks unless there was an emergency, but the habit of waking up early was hard to beat, so he transitioned it into making awesome pancake breakfasts.

Not that Taylor complained.

"Good morning, Dad!"

"Morning, honey!"

He served her the usual stacks while she poured herself a cup of tea.

"What are your plans for today?"

Trying to keep a neutral face, Taylor grimaced inwardly. It wasn't like she could tell her dad that she knew today Leviathan would be attacking Brockton Bay.

"Probably laze around. Amy is doing her rounds in the hospital, Vicky is on a date, so I'm on my own. You?"

"I have no idea," answered her father with a helpless face.

"How so?"

Danny seemed frustrated and exacerbated at the same time as he answered.

"Ever since the works started on the Graveyard, I had so much to do, but thanks to the upgrades Dragon did to our systems, and the increased workforce, my job took less and less time."

"That's good, right?

Danny huffed in frustration.

"Yes, of course, it is good. But I just feel so helpless…"

"Why? There is enough work for everybody, money is rolling in, what else is there?"

Danny sighed despondently.

"I know that. I just feel like I should be doing more…"

Taylor stood up, went around the table, and hugged her dad.

"Oh, dad. Don't worry."

They stayed like that for a few seconds, then Taylor returned to her breakfast. Raising her fork, pointing at her dad, she swallowed and then spoke up.

"Why don't you get a hobby? Or, dunno…" here she swallowed a little in discomfort. "… try to date?"

Danny just looked back with a surprised face, but he said nothing, just returned to his own breakfast and newspaper, deep in thought. Taylor, not wanting to force the issue (talking about it once was hard enough) did the same, sans the newspaper.

After breakfast, Danny relocated to the living room, halfheartedly trying to watch something, while Taylor returned to her room to do a last-minute check of her equipment.

She was going over her spear, trying to get a little smudge off the blade in her nervousness, when her phone rang.

"Answer call."

The call connected automatically, without her needing to move from her spot. And Tess's voice came through.

"Taylor, Leviathan has begun moving. The sirens will start soon."

"Thanks, Tess."

"No problem, and good luck!"

"You too!"

She slowly stood up, stowed her weapon away into her pocket space, donned her armor, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes to wait for the sound of the sirens.

Unfortunately, she didn't have to wait too long.

Hearing her father's cursing, she grimaced slightly and left her room.

In the living room, Danny was watching the news, as they discussed the attack, and why Leviathan was targeting Brockton Bay, while also speculating if this Endbringer would be also deviating from the routine or not.

The moment she stepped into the living room, her father stood up and turned towards her.

"So, you are going again?"

"Yes, dad."

He walked closer and placed his hands on her shoulders while staring into her eyes.

"I know, I can't stop you, and after the last one, I'm somewhat confident you can protect yourself, but promise me, Taylor, that you will be careful. Promise me!"

Placing her hand on his hand, she gave him her most confident smile.

"I will, Dad. I promise."

"Good."

With that, he abruptly pulled her closer, enveloping Taylor in a bear hug.

"Please come back, Taylor," whispered Danny, and Taylor could feel that he was crying.

She felt awful that she couldn't tell her dad that they planned the entire thing well in advance and that nothing short of divine intervention could stop her from killing the Endbringer. And seeing as the closest thing to the divine was on her side, she wasn't that worried.

Still, she returned the hug, then walked back up to her room, turned on the defenses, and stepped through a portal leading high above the city.

It was time to become a hero.

Date

2011 May 15th - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

Amy was between two healing sessions, taking a well-deserved break when the sirens sounded. Even if she knew beforehand that it would happen, it still didn't stop the shiver of fear traveling through her body.

She turned to the nurse next to her, who was paralyzed by fear.

"Start preparing, I will be at the shore."

Then she checked her emergency bag, dimensionally enlarged thanks to Vista, opened the window and jumped through it, beginning her journey towards the bay, bounding over the rooftops.

The nurse still standing in the room was left flabbergasted.

"What?"

A few minutes later she arrived at the beach, which still contained at least a few people armed with cameras.

Shaking her head at the foolishness of the people of Brockton Bay, she simply walked through the people, who of course began aiming their cameras at her, and simply fell on her knees, then placed her hand on the ground.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't necessary, but it helped her concentrate.

And, most importantly (at least to Vicky) looked much cooler.

Some people shouted questions at her, but she simply ignored them and focused on her work.

The first ones to appear were the walls hugging the coastline, to the surprise of the watchers, shielding the city from the water, with the exclusion of the beach to allow some space for the assembled parahumans to fight if needed.

Then where possible, she added platforms to the wall that would be the perfect space for Blasters to fire at the incoming Endbringer, while some would be used by Dragon to stations her shielding units.

And while the people watching and recording her in awe on the beach didn't see it, on the outskirts of the city she raised landing platforms for Dragon's planes. Next to them, she also put together a field hospital building according to the plans they had discussed previously.

The moment the last platforms and buildings were finished, she could hear the distinct noise of Dragon's planes approaching the city.

She watched with the crowd on the beach as several planes flew over the city while disgorging drones by the hundreds while several mechanical armor units touched down on the platform that she had built for them. She also knew several of them would be heading for the shelters to protect them.

One of the smaller units flew towards them, and then slowed its speed, landed delicately on the beach to the awe of the people.

It immediately began herding them towards a safer area.

Amy simply nodded to the mech and began her trek towards the medical station.

Date

2011 May 15th - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

Ethan, with Sherry at his side, watched from the Rig as the wooden walls went around the city, and also as Dragon's drones appeared and overlapping energy shields began to cover the previously raised walls.

"Probably the strongest defense ever created against an Endbringer…" spoke up Sherry in awe.

"Hell yeah! I doubt a drop of water would be able to go through that."

"I'm not worried about the water."

"Well, if I'm correct in my theory, then…"

"Then, what?" asked Sherry with a raised eyebrow.

Ethan didn't answer, just pointed up in the sky, where they could see as the much more upgraded and sleeker versions of the gigantic mechs that Dragon used against the Endbringer were arriving.

It wasn't like he was surprised that Tess progressed so much in a short time. After all, it was given based on what she was.

He sometimes wondered how people couldn't see it….

Not that he cared, but it was still weird.

Watching the giant robots land and unfold was awe-inspiring.

"So badass…" he involuntarily whispered as he admired the nearest one to the rig. As if hearing him, the mech turned its head and nodded at him. To him it looked like the light in its eyes was laughing.

"Come on, Ethan. You can admire them later, lets go to the briefing."

Reluctantly, he nodded and began following his lovely wife to the meeting room.

Date

2011 May 15th - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

Lisa was thrilled with her life right now.

Mostly because she was several thousands of miles away from an impending Endbringer attack while still participating.

San Francisco wasn't the best city, but she refused to spend her time in the frigid north, so they compromised with Dragon, and she was given the top floor of one of the newly built recycling facilities that Dragon Industries was building everywhere.

Her office was decked out with equipment straight from Dragon, with countless screens streaming data, information, and showing scenes of the preparation.

Her job was to watch it all and point out if people were going to make mistakes, or if she found some kind of error in the plan's execution.

Before whatever the fuck happened to the powers, something like this would have wiped her out after an hour of doing it, but now she could probably do it for days.

Ever since the power upgrade, her power stopped showing her useless information and was generally behaving so much better.

She could even go and eat at a fast-food restaurant without vomiting!

Dating was still a no-go because no matter what she tried, her power always piped up with some information that it knew would cause her to drop the guy.

Lisa had a feeling that her power was annoyed with her for some reason, or just overprotective.

She didn't know which was worse…

Date

2011 May 15th - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

Alexandra stepped away from Eidolon as his teleportation power deposited them on the landing pad at the PRT HQ, surveying the walls and shield covering Brockton Bay. A second later, Legend landed next to them.

She hoped Contessa was right, and this would be the last Endbringer fight…

Legend, still surveying the activities below them, spoke up with wonder in his voice.

"This looks amazing. I wish we could have the same level of defenses at all the other fights."

Eidolon joined him, but his tone was a little sourer.

"Indeed. It will make the fight much easier."

Alexandria was about to suggest that they head for the Command tent, or in this case if she saw it correctly, command building when the telltale flash of Lux Arcana's arrival gained their attention.

Legend gave the younger woman a wave, and she immediately headed for them, while she wondered how much use the young parahuman would be in the coming fight.