Capítulo 616: 55
Date
2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time
Day 6103 - Tuesday - Administrator Network Time
He watched the news about the Simurgh descending on Canberra, and couldn't help but panic.
He changed things; he altered the flow of events so much, he didn't even consider using his 'canon' knowledge, yet the Simurgh was following canon almost to perfection.
That made no sense unless it was a deliberate ploy by the Endbringer because he was a hundred percent certain that the false angel couldn't have missed the big blind spot he created.
So what was the purpose?
Draw him out? Draw his host out? See how the blind spot reacted to the attack?
Or was it just the distraction and another Endbringer would attack the Bay, while everybody is concentrating on Australia?
It was maddening…
His simulation and prediction routines also weren't much help, seeing as he had almost zero data on the Endbringers. Though, at least he could learn from the Network traffic that the attack generated.
It was, sadly, a small consolation price, compared to the utter confusion he felt.
It seemed he would need to sit back and wait, just like everybody else, to see what the Simurgh planned.
God, he hated precogs.
Date
2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time
Assault was wary and slightly confused.
When the sirens sounded he was of course scared and only calmed down somewhat when he realized it wasn't the Bay. Thanks to his promise to Sherry, he didn't go to the fights, but if one of the monsters would attack the Bay, he would suit up no question asked.
And now he was walking towards one of the bigger meeting rooms, with Sherry at his side, after an all-hands-to-deck message was sent out, with a specific request to all the parahumans not to volunteer for the fight.
Usually only Dauntless, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and sometimes Velocity volunteered, but not always. But the fact the Director requested them to stay was making him wary. What did she know that they didn't?
The meeting room filled up slowly with Kid Win being the last to arrive (with a few loose wires hanging from his hair) and the only parahuman who was missing was Armsmaster, but that could be simply explained by him helping Dragon with something in his workshop.
They didn't have to wait long before Piggot came barreling into the room, followed by at least a half a dozen assistants holding reams of paper and several tablets, and a few of them talking into their headsets.
She began without any preamble in a brusque voice. "Right, you are all wondering why I wanted you to stay."
Several people nodded in confusion and in agreement. She glanced at the tablet one of the assistants showed in front of her, nodded at them, and continued. "It's very simple. It stinks. Simurgh attacking Canberra makes little sense. Usually the feathery bitch attacks targets that are trying to make the world a better place. And we have the 'honor' of housing Serenity, who you all heard of."
Hearing that, Ethan's heart sank a little, and he felt Sherry grab his hand. He smiled at her, squeezed it in support, then returned his attention to the Director.
"So I want to keep you here, in case the situation changes. According to Armsmaster, Dragon had some kind of breakthrough so the manpower we could provide wouldn't really be noticeable and I would feel better if you are here."
Several people nodded, and Ethan could see the Wards pale, though he had to hold back a chuckle at seeing Vista's adorably serious face.
"So as of now, we are all hands on deck and on alert until the official word comes down that this attack stopped." She took a brief pause, and swept her cold, hard eyes through the room, making eye contact with everybody. "The Truce is live, but if anybody tries anything: no quarter. Understand?"
"Yes, Director!"
"Ma'am!"
"Understood!"
As soon as everybody voiced their agreement, she turned towards the door to leave; the assistants orbiting her, also preparing. "As for Armsmaster, he is helping Dragon, so don't bother him, unless it's extremely important."
With those parting words, she left the room as fast as she came, leaving the assembled heroes to stare at each other.
"Well, this should be fun, eh guys?" he said, only to receive a glare from his wife.
Date
2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time
Alexandria strode into the tent designated as the command center through the opening left in the shield that covered it courtesy of Dragon. It seemed being unshackled really agreed with her.
"Talk to me," she said simply, watching as one of the people sprang from their seat, their entire body radiating nervousness and fear of her.
"Ma'am," he greeted her. "Simurgh is on a direct course towards the exact geographical center of Canberra. ETA is in 10 minutes."
"Good," she said and was about to ask about the evacuation when she noticed the man's posture. It changed from nervousness to outright fear and confusion. "What is it?"
"The Simurgh, Ma'am. Her speed and behavior are anomalous."
Now that was something new. And worrying.
"How so?" she asked without changing her voice from neutral.
"Her speed fluctuates between the usual and slowing down significantly. We also observed odd body movements."
She didn't wait for anything else, did an about-face and strode out of the tent, then left the shield area and soared up in the air.
She turned toward the Endbringer and used her helmet's built-in zoom function to take a look. It took a few seconds to find the white monster against the backdrop of the blue sky. But when she did, she instantly understood what the man meant.
The Simurgh was approaching the city the same way she saw her do it every time, but now and then her movement became odd. Every few seconds or so she slowed down, and moved her arm or one of the wings a little, but instead of a continuous movement, the moving appendages stopped at a point, then with blinding speed moved into the probably desired position. Then she sped up, only to repeat it in a few seconds.
It made the Endbringer's movement choppy as if it was lagging. It was really disconcerting.
She was about to place a call to Contessa, to see if she had any idea what it was about when she noticed something big and loud approaching from high in the sky.
To a normal person, it may have looked like a giant black block of metal, but her eyes could see the details and the famous logo of Dragon.
She watched, a little stupefied, as the gigantic device arrived over the site, then slowly lowered to the ground, stirring up dust in massive quantities.
Alexandria, with everybody else, watched in an awestruck fashion as the dust settled, and a gigantic dragon-themed mechanical construct unfolded before everybody's eyes.
She was a little tempted to join the cheer that began as soon as people realized what it was they were seeing.
"HQ, how did Simurgh react to the new arrival?" she spoke into her communicator while wondering how Dragon managed to build something like that.
"It slowed down, and the anomalous movement increased, Ma'am. ETA still 10 minutes." came the reply.
"Confirm ETA."
There was a brief silence before the man on the other side replied. "ETA confirmed. It slowed again. ETA stable at 10 minutes."
"Fuck. Monitor it closely, I want a report every 2 minutes."
"Yes, Ma'am!"
Done with that for now, she changed her communicator over Dragon's frequency, wanting to know what the gigantic construct was capable of.
"Dragon, what is that?"
The reply came immediately, crystal clear, with an undertone of smugness. "Alexandria, please meet my Titan-class Armored Suit, Codenamed Nuri. Capable of standing up to the strikes of the Leviathan, radiation-proof, and capable of diverting the energy attacks of the Behemoth, while fast and maneuverable enough to go toe to toe with the Simurgh. Hopefully."
"How sure are you?"
"Simulations say yes, but you never know with them."
"Good. I assume you have a game plan?"
"Indeed."
"Then let's call people to the command center and go over it." With that, she turned around and flew back to the tent she just left. Only for her communicator to come alive.
"Alexandria, ETA is still stable at 10 minutes."
Everybody stood at their position, waiting for the Simurgh to make landfall. Evacuation on the arrival side was complete, and the other part of the city was also well on its way, thanks to the fact that Dragon showed up with a ludicrous amount of drones and carrier planes, and other miscellaneous vehicles.
They really needed to figure out what the AI was up to because that she managed to do this in a month was unbelievable.
And also thanks to the Simurgh slowing down to a speed that was uncharacteristic for her. She dreaded to think what fresh hell the precog planned for them. And she could see the anticipation in the surrounding people, especially Eidolon. The man was fidgeting like a four-year-old in front of a birthday cake.
Their game plan was simple: allow Dragon to engage, hopefully baiting or dragging the Endbringer from the city and then going to town on it.
"Endbringer arrival in 180 seconds east-south-east heading." came the calm and measured voice of Dragon from their wristbands. Funnily, every wristband came with a small Medi-gel spray.
She did a last check on her equipment, sent another message to Contessa because she still hadn't replied to her first three. Then she returned her attention to the approaching calamity.
With her speed so low, she could, even without her enhanced vision, see her choppy and lagging movement, and most importantly for the first time ever she could see the frustration on the monster's inhumanly beautiful face.
"ETA in 120 seconds."
The Simurgh face changed again, from frustration to hatred for a brief second, and Alexandria was sure only she could see that the Endbringer threw a glare towards the giant mech standing in front of the army preparing to receive her. But as soon as the glare appeared, it vanished, the face returning to frustration.
She could hear the people chattering below her about the unusual behavior, but she ignored them all, her concentration on the Simurgh.
"ETA in 90 seconds."
Still staring at Simurgh's face, she spotted the moment when a small smile appeared. And then the Endbringer stopped dead in the air.
"ETA unknown. Simurgh stationary."
Alexandria watched, slightly horrified as the Simurgh lowered all her wings into a resting position, frustration on her face no longer showing, instead sporting a rather cheeky smile. She turned her head slightly and looked directly into Alexandria's eyes, and winked.
Before she could comprehend what just happened, the Endbringer slapped her wings once and vanished into the sky.
She ignored the panicked cries around her, barking into her communicator. "Report! What the fuck just happened?"
There was a tense silence for a second before Dragon answered her question. "Simurgh left Australia, her new target is currently unknown."
"Well, then figure it out!" she yelled at the AI, then changed the channel once again. "Teleporters, be ready to move, everybody else: return to the command center. We move when we have the new target."
"What the hell happened, Alex?" came from her side, from a raging Eidolon. "Where the fuck did it go?"
"Calm down, Eidolon," said Legend, who also returned from his assigned position. He was floating next to them, frowning. He then poked his communicator a few times before speaking. "Dragon, any idea where it is heading?"
"Yes, Legend. Simurgh is following a ballistic trajectory towards continental America. Calculations put the arrival site somewhere on the east side of the USA." Came the reply from the AI. However, before any of them could comment, she continued. "Correction: 89% chance that the arrival site will be the quarantine site of Madison, Wisconsin."
Date
2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time
Day 6103 - Tuesday - Administrator Network Time
Well, that was bad.
The Simurgh obviously used the attack to see how the blind spots would affect her. And now she was heading for a quarantine zone, famous for its dimensional portals. Nothing good would come from that.
Furthermore, the fact the Simurgh broke the mold, and after pretending to attack a city, she chose to attack another target, made it so that he couldn't go forward with his plan to 'second trigger' the parahumans in Brockton Bay. Because he knew, after this, they would attribute everything weird or suspicious thing that happened to the Endbringer.
An entire city worth of parahumans second-triggering when the Simurgh attacks?
The city would be quarantined so fast; it wasn't even funny.
The question was: did the Endbringer know he was going to do that? Or was it simply going for something that she could use to take care of the blind spot without approaching it?
What he knew was he had to revamp his entire plan because of this.
So much work wasted…
A quick check on the Network showed that the other two Endbringers weren't active, so it wasn't that.
So why head for Madison?
He really hated precogs.
Date
2011 February 23rd - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time
As soon as she heard where the Endbringer would be attacking, she spun around and headed for her room to change into her armor. Unfortunately, she was stopped by her dad, grabbing her arm.
"Taylor, no!" he said, and she could see the fear in his eyes. "Please, don't go…"
"Dad, I…" she said, before faltering. With every second, her father was collapsing into himself. Finally, she whispered. "I have to help."
"You already helped! You helped Tess with her suits, and created the Medi-gel!" he exclaimed, desperately clinging to her. She was keenly aware that with a simple movement, thanks to her super-strength, she could wrench her arm from his grip, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.
"But with my power, I could really help, Dad! I'm immune to master powers!" she said, turning fully back towards Danny.
"And how do you know it would work against the Simurgh?" he asked, grabbing her shoulder with another hand.
She was about to open her mouth when she realized that explaining to her dad how her power said it would work, would not be the best choice. She closed her mouth and settled on glaring at her dad.
They stayed like that for a few seconds, Taylor glaring, and Danny begging with his eyes when she heard a call coming in.
"Accept!" she barked out, turning her eyes towards the screen.
"Hello, Taylor, Danny," said Tess as her actual face appeared on the screen. "I assume you saw…"
"Yes! But dad doesn't want me to go!" she burst out, hoping to find a sympathetic ear in her friend. Tess knew better than everyone how powerful she was.
"Good," said Tess with a serious face. "Something is fishy about this attack. PRT ENE is on high alert, as is every regional office. It would be a great help if you stayed and helped to look for anomalies, or if needed react as fast as possible."
Both Heberts blinked in surprise at hearing that.
"What do you mean, fishy?" she asked, her anger forgotten.
"Based on her previous targets, there were far better ones around the world, including Brockton Bay," explained the AI.
"You mean Taylor, right?" interjected Danny.
"Correct," agreed Tess. "So we want to be prepared for anything the Simurgh might try. My new suits will be enough to evacuate Canberra and hold it off, but if something else crops up, maybe even another Endbringer attack, then we need a few powerful parahumans in reserve who can react fast."
Taylor thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. "Fine, I will tap into your sensor net and see if I can find anything." With that she turned around and marched up to her room, intent on utilizing her system and interrogating Admin for anything he may know.
Luckily she missed that her father mouthed a thank you at Tess, who just gave a quick smile and wink at him, then cut the call.
Danny spent a few minutes watching Taylor work in her room, from the door, and when he was satisfied that she wasn't going anywhere, he returned to the living room with several beers and changed the projector to only show the news channel.
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