Amelia, Ch 179
"By the way," Crystal said as she walked in. "Mom says thank you for the armor. And I say go to hell, I had to spend all freakin' yesterday teaching her how to use the equipment. You're not planning to recruit her, are you?"
"Not really," I responded. "All we really did was give her one of your hand-me-downs. Do you think she'd accept if we offered her a spot on the team?"
"Probably," Crystal responded. "I don't think she'd last long. Basement Bonesaws... I know I'm almost nineteen and could just move in here, but she'd still find a way to ground me for the rest of my life. Then there's all the other horrible stuff we do. If she found out the Nilbog plan, we-"
Our phones' emergency alert went off simultaneously. Crystal, in her armor already, could read it through that interface before I could get to mine. She only had one word to say. "Endbringer."
"A month early?" I asked. FearConfusionDetermination.
"That or Dragon's tech is broken," Crystal defended.
I had gotten up already and was running to my room. I needed my armor. Taylor had hers at home. I held still as the biosuit worked its way over my body, sealing itself. I'd need my second layer, of course, but I was now wearing the indispensable systems, at least.
I didn't bother with stairs, simply forcing the floor of my bedroom to open, so I could drop into the next layer. "Everything important ready?" I asked Emma as I levitated down. Of course I knew not everything was ready. The early attack screwed up our plans.
"Everything essential," Emma answered. "A lot of the Raptors are underdeveloped right now. They'll do what Taylor needs them to do, but they won't be as good. We also have to leave a lot of the new zerglings behind." Of course, since she and I were both suited, Taylor would hear every word we spoke.
"Fuck," I muttered. "Will it be enough?" I found my Dryad, now upgraded with tinker tech to get a 'v3' tacked on. Still wasn't as good as any of the other named suits, but it was designed specifically with me in mind.
"Twice the numbers we had last time," Emma informed. "Half of what we wanted. At least all the new armor systems are fully operational?" she offered.
"That'll do," I replied.
Riley rushed in, wearing her own set of bioarmor. Wasn't even close to the same capability as the rest of our, but it was meant for sensory tech and medical function, not a combat model. Clarice v16 was her combat model. Both designs were Emma's present to Riley, a joint project between her and Defiant. "The school knows," she announced. "I'm going to use Clarice fourteen to shunt everyone over. Faster that way, I can fix her later."
Part of the standard protocol for Endbringer battles is that all schools were canceled during attacks, nationwide. It was good policy, for Wards to be able to participate, and also fairly redundant, since what were the possible odds that anyone would do anything productive anyway? I slipped into the pilot position of my armor. It wasn't a match for most of the other suits, but it was still my suit.
"Got the newsfeeds," Taylor informed us over the communications. "Mexico City. Recent parahuman civil war seems to be the lure." One of the many, I thought darkly. "No prediction on which."
"Makes sense," Crystal spoke. "After what happened in New Delhi, they probably don't trust the prediction software. "
"I'm not so certain," Lisa replied.
Riley, meanwhile, had rushed over to the armor storage bays, and had shunted over Singularity and the other armor systems for Zach and Theo, as well as her combat variant of Clarice. Then she climbed into my Dryad, into the compartment that was actually built for her this time.
Most of our members had assembled on the other side of our personal world already. The zerg armies had assembled, pulling themselves out of their burrowed hibernation. Many were older models- we had functionally infinite raw material, so there was no need to recycle anything unless it was a failure to begin with.
Taylor was the last one to arrive physically, looking splendid in her armor. Missy didn't ask, and we watched as space folded and bent before us. Not for the first time, I wished we had a way to shunt things without the hassle of containment fields. We could draw Endbringers here and kill them on our terms.
Missy didn't wait for permission, she simply stepped forward. Her own power, plus all the tech in her suit, let her pinpoint exactly where we needed to go without outside help. Space bent and twisted itself to her whims, creating a distortion of light. The formation was so vast that electricity danced around the corners due to the stresses the air was being pushed through. Relatively minor, our sensors didn't even register it as a threat. Not that it mattered, the Gargants went through first, collecting as much power as they could and clearing the energy.
We walked through, followed by the zergling armies.
Chariot pulled out a device and planted it in the mass of Yggdrasil. Several teleports later, using the tech that Kid Win originally created, the area had its own control platform. We had learned our lesson from last time. If at all possible, we would stay on this side of the dimensional barrier. Riley sent over Clarice with our Shadowcats, for search and rescue.
We were there ahead of schedule, if only by a few minutes. It was all locals. Zerg started shunting through, taking their positions. Capes were startled at first, but our reputations proceeded us, making it possible to warn them. Lisa's changeling shunted over to their control center. Taylor's shunted in with the flyers. Zach shunted in his brand new suicide-bomber Raptor. Supposedly, it was the most destructive weapon ever made by human hands. Our tinkers were stationed in the portable control system.
The scenery around us flickered and shifted, providing the ghostly impression of a city abandoned by normal men. Only parahumans, and our biomonsters, existed here. It was illusory, a visual illusion created for our benefit, that we could see what was happening on Bet from the comfort and safety of our alternate dimension. The rest of us, waited and watched.
"Behemoth, probably," Rey spoke to Emma. She probably asked about the Endbringer, I decided. "Way too far from the shore to be Leviathan."
"I'll bet you money it's not Behemoth," Lisa responded.
"What makes you think Leviathan would come here?" Rey asked.
"I don't," Lisa answered. "I think we're about to see a fourth Endbringer." ApprehensionRealization. "Taylor, fan the Zerg out to as many locations as possible. I've started issuing commands to the locals to avoid engaging the Endbringer. When this fight starts, we're going to be relying upon you alone. Force the new Endbringer to show as many of its tricks as possible before committing actual people to the battle."
CertaintyAnticipation. "I can do that," she agreed.
A sonic boom announced the first Dragon battle suit arriving. Others, the bulkier and slower ones, would arrive eventually. Many carrying parahuman reinforcements. None would be in time to coordinate with the local. The Endbringer picked that moment to arrive. It came from nowhere, without warning or fanfare, one moment there was nothing and the next it stood in the midst of the defensive line.
It was only about twelve feet tall, significantly shorter than the nearest Gargant. It was, however, the biggest Endbringer in total mass, as it was a quadruped. The beast was black, not merely a dark color, but a total absence of light. It was impossible to determine features, but it could have been a wolf, in the same way Behemoth was a parody of a body builder, and Simurgh a parody of a woman. Nine long, almost swordlike spines extended from its back and shoulders. Three tails extended from it, each possessing a nasty, scythelike blade at the end.
A gargant slammed into its size, taking heavy damage as it impaled itself on a shoulder spike. The new Endbringer's scythe-tales wrapped around the gargant and flensed it, peeling flesh and external armor plating from Taylor's weapon. FocusDeterminationAnger.
"Well, we know it has a nasty close range weapon. All the others have had something that let them hurt outside a close range kill radius, what should we expect from this one?"
"Whatever features it has, it's likely to be safe from the weapons we used to destroy the Simurgh," Lisa spoke as we watched the holographic representation of the clash. Wow, that looks incredibly lifelike, I thought to myself.
"What makes you think that?" Rey asked.
"Because it's what I would do," she replied.
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A/N- *Looks at the likes in the most recent chapters.
*Looks at the likes in the older chapters.
You jerks are holding out on me.
