Capítulo 2775: 8.4
The Endbringer destroyed cities, killed Heroes and shrugged off attacks that could topple buildings. Every time one appeared the Triumvirate would fight it. Alexandria, the strongest woman in the word would punch it. Legend, the man whose lasers lived up to his name would blast it. Eidolon would pull out some random overpowered ability and trade blows. Then Scion would come in and force the Endbringer to run off with their tail between their legs.
Me? I swung my sword at it.
The blade produced the most shallow of cuts into its claw and since I was just floating in water without anything to ground my feet I was then pushed away. Such a useless attack that only further reinforced the idea that me fighting an Endbringer was a terrible idea. Well, I had gained a bit of distance at least? That was something wasn't it? Two whole feet worth of distance in the water with the giant monster who could control it.
Yay?
Seriously, this was insane. Previously we had skyscrapers towering over it but now only ruin remained highlighting just how huge it was. Some PHO fanfics involved new Capes getting an awesome super power that let them blow away Endbringers on their first try. Why couldn't I get a power like that? Surely there was a Shard for that right? Some sort of Blaster power that let you shoot exploding suns or black holes at people.
Instead all I had was a useless Blaster power that boiled water. Considering how much water was around at least I didn't lack for targets in case anyone wanted any tea…
Well now that I thought about it said water was pretty dirty and with the damaged pipes it would be likely that clean, drinkable water would be in short supply soon, so maybe my blaster power wasn't so useless after all? Did my fire actually boil water or just make it steam and look like it was boiling? I don't think I ever remembered checking if the temperature changed though I was sure that Armsmaster had made a note of it.
The Leviathan brought up it's claw and the water around me began to rise and fall along with several other cars putting me in danger of being squished by debris. It was a slow, almost theatrical and deliberate action as if it was taunting me. If I had some sort of Mover power I might've been able to fly away but as it stood I just floundered, struggling to remain un-squished by the floating cars. With an air of finality the claw came down. I raised my shield quickly hoping that it'd be enough. It felt like I had been hit by an explosion and with nowhere to go but down I was forced into the flooded waters of Brockton Bay.
The sounds were muffled and the water was so murky that I could hardly see even five feet ahead of me. I held my breath as much as I could be the initial strike had winded me, knocking precious air from my lungs. I hadn't noticed before but it seemed that my heavy steel armor didn't weigh me down. I wouldn't call it buoyant but at least I wasn't sinking. Still, I was deep enough that it wouldn't matter, I was going to run out of air soon.
I thought I'd be able to withstand it. I had survived being shot at, set on fire by Lung, being squeezed by Lung but this? Being hit by Leviathan hurt on a whole new level.
Everything hurt and I found my vision quickly fading.
Air. I needed air! I was hurt! I needed potions!
I felt like such an idiot.
All of my healing potions had been given away. All my potions that allowed me to breath underwater, just gone. There was nothing I could drink to save me now. All I had was my healing Shard. If I could use that to buy me even a second then perhaps it would give the other Heroes a chance to take Leviathan off me.
Soon I glowed with yellow light. Everything still hurt and my lungs continued to burn but death was warded off for a moment longer.
I was then raised out of the water as claws wrapped around me. I struggled of course and swung my blade in defiance knowing full well that I wouldn't do much damage!
"FUCK YOU!" I screamed sinking my blade deeply into Leviathan's hand. At first I thought that the Leviathan had gotten hold of me but when my vision came back into focus all I saw was Lung's scaley arm, much larger than it had ever been before. It was then I noted that I had stabbed him with my sword… again.
"Uhh… sorry about that." I apologized as I stashed the weapon back into my inventory. Not a second later the wound I had inflicted closed up. Maybe I wasn't cut out to fight giant monsters after all.
"OROROUOO JDOOUNCH GECHA DJIIIEEE RET!!!" He screamed gibberish at me. He then turned his attention back to the Endbringer. Lung had saved me earlier by attacking and fighting Leviathan but this was the first time today that he had actually gone out of his way to personally help me.
I had to admit that today was an odd day.
How did I go from my own Media debut to this?
I glanced around, wondering where the hell Scion was. Besides Lung, he was the only Cape to have ever gone toe to toe with an Endbringer and come out on top, or at least as on top as anyone could get with an Endbringer.
Scion also did it with a lot less collateral damage from what I heard. Just a big giant laser beam of light that would batter the Endbringer around before forcing it to run off. That's what we needed right about now. A big giant blaster power.
My hands erupted into flames once more.
I had nothing else to go on and Armsmaster did say that powers sometimes only affected very specific things. Maybe I hit the jackpot and had a power that only hurt Endbringers and nothing else?
Before Leviathan could get close enough to me to let loose my flames Lung decided to casually toss me into the air behind him before charging into Leviathan once more. Eidolon's big green Lung clone was nowhere to be seen and I wondered what he was up to? As I sailed through the air I began to wonder what choices I could've made to avoid all of this. Maybe I should've asked Dragon if I could've join her guild. Dad and I could've been in Canada by now making millions of potions.
"Gotcha." A familiar voice called grabbing me from behind. "I am not getting paid enough for this shit."
"Thanks again Glory Girl." I told her. "Also you get paid?" I knew the Wards got money in a trust fund and that Tinkers like me got a budget for our tech but I don't remember ever getting paid directly in cold hard cash. Then again she was a public Hero and thus wouldn't have to hide where she got her money from. It's not like a Villain would attack her family since everyone in said family could shoot lasers or summon up force fields anyways. Seriously, who would be dumb enough to do that?
"Well, Dragon is the one who told me to take you somewhere and she's the top Tinker, maybe I could ask her to swing a few dollars my way huh?" She forced a bit of humor into her voice.
We suddenly jerked away as an errant car flew in our direction. It was unclear if it had come from Leviathan or another Cape but luckily it passed by us harmlessly. And then a truck came flying towards us but before it even came close a green light enveloped it and the thing turned to ash revealing Eidolon.
Holy CRAP it was Eidolon! As in Eidolon with a capital E! One of the Triumvirate! Arguably the strongest Hero around! THE Trump! One of the top candidates for Alexandria ships and that only happened because Legend was gay.
Then again there were a lot of Eidolon X Legend fics as well now that I thought about it.
Was I turning into Ash?
"Vim is it?" He asked floating there with his Cape billowing heroically behind him. "It's an absolute pleasure to finally meet you."
And he knew me by name!
Well… Cape name at least.
"Yes sir!" I answered him as professionally as I could. "That's me-" Then he was knocked out of the air by Leviathan's claw.
"OH COME ON!" Shouted Glory Girl in both fear and frustration as Eidolon began blasting away at Leviathan seemingly no worse for wear. We flew around the corner of a miraculously standing building which fell over a second later as Leviathan ran right through it with Lung being dragged behind holding onto it's waist. A swarm of flying Capes followed soon after bombarding the Endbringer with their powers.
"GRAOOOAAR!" It seemed that Lung was more than a little upset that he was being ignored in favor of me. What the hell was so special about me that the Endbringer of all things felt like I needed to go down? Seriously what the hell was going on?
"Velocity down, ED-4" A feminine voice intoned from Glory Girl's bracelet. Wait, Velocity was hurt? When did that happen? We were fighting Leviathan! I hadn't seen him at all! Did he drown? Wait, he could run really fast, maybe he just ran faster than I could see?
"This is Armsmaster!" Another voice sounded over the bracelet. "To all Capes, do not digest the serum bottles on the ground! I repeat, do no digest the serum bottles on the ground that were used to attack Leviathan by Vim! They are untested Tinker Tech! I repeat! Untested Tinker Tech!"
Did I? Did I accidentally poison Velocity?
"Velocity up, ED-5" Oh, that wasn't so bad I guessed. Looked like someone healed him up.
We then began to fly low. "We can't afford to be knocked outta the sky again." Glory Girl told me. "You might survive but it almost killed me last time." I felt terrible for not having any potions for her. I was practically dead weight here. I couldn't heal, I could fight Leviathan, I had nothing that I could do except boil water and make a bit of steam.
Wait a second…
I glanced over to Lung who burst into flames as steam surrounded him, concealing his tail as it whipped out to trip Leviathan.
Suddenly my hands erupted into flames startling Glory Girl. "Hey, what are you?" Blasting away I threw up a veil of steam to cover us…. However since we simply moved too fast we quickly left the steam clouds behind.
Yup, one hundred percent useless. Why did I even have a fire power? Even my ability to eat things instantly was more useful!
More ruined buildings were knocked over and while I couldn't feel the tremor due to flying around I could see the dust being kicked up and most importantly the walls of water coming for us. The buildings around us, many of which had already been damaged beyond all repair began falling over at a faster rate. Glory Girl in fact had to punch one before continuing to fly ahead.
"Uhh… we might need to fly up." I told Glory Girl. As much as she wanted to stick low to the ground it didn't seem like we'd have a choice anymore. If I hadn't told her then the sounds of the rushing water behind us would've.
Then a litany of garbled message assaulted our ears. Her bracelet was damaged! When did that happen? It was fine just ten seconds ago! Why did these things keep happening? Why hadn't I noticed it! GAH! I wish I wasn't so scatterbrained! Focus Taylor FOCUS!
So up we flew but not quick enough to avoid the wall of water as it crashed into us like a truck, it felt like being hit by Leviathan all over again. Luckily Glory Girl managed to keep hold of me as the flood submerged us both in muck. Floating past us was an array of cars, loose rubble and a dead Cape. I couldn't tell who they were but they wore black spiky armor and in my mind they were most likely a Villain.
Did it matter though? They died fighting an Endbringer after all.
We then came to a sudden stop as sweet air flooded our lungs. We breathed deeply and I noted that we were suspended on a lamp that was attached to a oddly intact billboard sign for a new brand of cola. What kind I couldn't say since the flood had worn most of the information away.
I glanced down and noted that the billboard was supported by a single rusty column that was starting to fail if the slight tilt was anything to go by. Was it rusty before or after Leviathan showed up? While I knew rust took longer to take hold then a single minute there was no telling what sorts of powers an Endbringer had so I didn't discount the idea.
"Okay that hurt." I told Glory Girl. "But I think we're good now." I glanced at my friend and noted that she had gone pale. "Hey, Glory Girl?" It was then that I noted that her grip on me was starting to slacken.
Something was wrong.
"I think…. I think I'm…." She stammered as she floated away from the light that we had crashed into. Dipping slightly she gingerly dropped me off onto the Billboard's railing before collapsing face first onto it next to me.
"Shit! Glory Girl!" It was then that the confidence and fearlessness that I drew from her aura disappeared. "Hey Victoria! Come on! Get up!"
No no no! Something red began to pool around her back staining her costume. She was bleeding? Since when could she bleed? She was supposed to be a Brute! Or maybe she was like me in the sense that she only felt damage at a certain threshold? No, she couldn't be dead! Not after everything that happened!
I checked her breathing, that was supposed to be step one of first aid right? Shit, why didn't I take first aid class? I laid down next to her to listen, her breaths were quick and sharp as if struggling to grab what it needed. Producing my sword I cut off a piece of her cape and began tightly winding it around her torso, hopefully stopping the bleeding. Books and TV shows always talked about applying pressure right? This was the right thing to do right?
What the hell was I supposed to do? Not for the first that day I cursed the fact that I had no health potion to use. Could I use my healing Shard to heal other people? Testing back at the Rig had said no but I found new ways to use my powers all the time!
I hadn't known that I could drink potions directly from my inventory to begin with for example.
I didn't know that I had a Master power originally either.
The fact that I could make water breathing potions was relatively new as well.
Perhaps this would be the time that I would find a new way to use my healing powers?
Producing the golden orbs from my hands I placed them over her body and concentrated.
Only to be bathed in healing light myself. The aches in my body slowly began to disappear but the bleeding from her back only continued to grow. It wasn't good enough!
"COME ON!" I screamed in frustration. "WHY WON'T YOU HEAL?!"
I had so many powers that let me do so much. I could hide just by crouching. I could make indestructible armor. I could even get stronger just by getting hit! So why couldn't I save her? Why couldn't I help?! She was going to die because of me! I pushed down on the wound, praying that it would at the very least staunch the flow of blood, hoping that a bit of my healing powers would bleed into her wounds.
The metaphorical kick came when I felt a sense of triumph, my restoration Shard as I felt it was called became stronger. The surge of greatness and elation was quickly struck down by guilt and frustration. Soon my magicka reserves ran dry. I didn't even have any potions to recharge it and soon the hopelessness of the situation crashed down upon me harder than before.
I had so many different powers but in the end, nothing I could do could save Victoria. She was going to bleed out because I didn't know how to do first aid properly. Because I was weak, because stupid old Taylor decided to rely on her powers rather then herself.
And honestly who could blame me for doing that?
"There they are!" A voice called out and it was then that I saw Aegis. With him I saw the rest of the Wards on an bright yellow, inflatable boat. Only Gallant, Browbeat and Kid Win were missing from the group. Perhaps they were too heavy? Did they only bring the Wards with Mover ratings? If so why Clockblocker?
"Come on! Hurry up!" Clockblocker shouted. Were they on rescue duty?
The distance between the billboard and the water was suddenly just a step away, an effect of Vista's power no doubt. Hope bloomed in my chest.
"Shit Vim." Shadow Stalker greeted me warmly. "I can't believe you threw an anvil at Leviathan, that took balls!"
"Not now Shadow Stalker!" I snapped at her. "Glory Girl is hurt!" She flinched at that and instantly I felt bad. I knew that she liked me but this was a serious situation. I didn't want to deal with this shit now!
"Don't worry." Called Aegis. "I still have the potion you gave me!" It was then that I noted that his red costume was slightly discolored in certain areas. Was he already bleeding? Was his costume only red to hide the fact that he could be hurt? It made sense from a morbid point of view.
Flying over he wasted no time in giving Glory Girl a health potion and before I knew it she was sitting up without any sign of damage…. Well besides the fact that I had cut off her cape to use as bandages at least. Hopefully she wouldn't hold it against me or- and then all doubt fled me as I was enveloped in her green aura of confidence once more.
"Come on." Yelled Clockblocker catching my attention. "Your Dad is this way, he's hiding out at another shelter." This…. This was good news!
"Yeah!" Cried Vista. "Armsmaster is using it as a fallback position because it's really high above sea level." That made sense. Why weren't more shelters built that way? They knew that Leviathan existed and that his MO involved floods. Then again it wasn't as if land was cheap, even here. Hell, now that I thought about it, it was a miracle that a shithole like Brockton bay even had enough money to have shelters in the first pace. Most of them doubled as community centres or other office type buildings if I remembered correctly and I think I heard a rumor about some of them being used a gang hideouts.
The fancy one that I was at with reinforced doors and security guards was probably an exception and not the rule, at least in Brockton Bay.
"Well what are we waiting for then? Let's head out!" It was then that another wall of water came at us. Just as I was about to scream out to everyone to run for cover Aegis grabbed both me and Glory Girl before diving at the inflatable raft.
"Hey watch what you're grabbing!" Cried Glory Girl. I heard a slap but was too busy trying to find a way to survive the coming wave. Suddenly the side of the boat was as tall as the wall of water and when the impact came we didn't shift, not even a little as the water surged around us. Flecks of water splashed into our faces but the impact might as well have been just a light shower.
"Yeah! Teamwork makes the dreamwork!" Cried Clockblocker as he gave Vista a high five with his free hand while the other leaned against the boat. Huh, so that's why Clockblocker was included on the rescue team.
It wasn't just Glory Girl's aura that was making me feel this but for the first time that day, I felt like everything was going to be fine. Dad was safe, the Wards were alright and even if the city was broken I could say with confidence that the Heroes of Brockton Bay would stand tall. We were a stubborn breed of people after all.
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