Amelia, Ch 269
The gray mist remained trapped in the shields. The moment those shields dropped, it would pour into the ground and consume a mass of area almost as large as the crater lake we built our first base from. The phalanx moved, slowly, pulling the forcefield along with it.
"We're going to dump it in the bay," Taylor told me, and everyone else. "Safer that way."
Then the shields flashed, the sign that some of the phalanx shields, at least, had been broken. The Endbringer was still alive in there! "Oh mother fucker."
PanicHorrorFailure. "I can't see where it's going to attack, I won't be able to reinforce the shields that need it," Taylor muttered. She hit the armband. "All units, withdraw from range immediately, it's going to break free!"
Oh fuck. Come on, Amelia, there has to be something that can be done. "Missy, Sabah, Lily, think you can get another barricade around it?" It was only after I gave the command that I realized I used their actual names. Luckily I asked through our com system, not the wristbands.
"On it," Missy responded immediately. Sabah didn't say anything, but shunted over anyway. I trusted them to figure out the details. After all, they knew how to use their powers better than I did.
People started falling back, moving their shields to protect them. Only the zerg and the robots remained, and they were quickly running out of strength to hold back the barriers, but they were buying time for the Moirai to do their part. Infused ribbons charged with Lily's power started moving through the area, right ouside the forcefield itself. They wouldn't last very long, but they weren't meant to. A couple more flashes and a lot of the phalanx started falling back, their power depleted for the time being.
The ribbon barrier was established slowly, but it was established. I wasn't sure how they even found a way to use Missy's power on something that was influenced by Lily's, much less leaving it in such a state that Sabah could actual control it, but they figured it out.
There was one more flash, and then the gray nanothorn dust leaked over the top of the ribbons, but most of it was already being annihilated by Lily's power as it spread out onto the effect. The Endbringer leapt over the top of the barricade, moving so fast that I only knew it happened by the dust cloud that followed her.
Alexandria hit her in mid air, stopping her in place for a barrage of blasts from Legend. Somehow, this time, they didn't pass through. They exploded on impact, leaving cracks in the glass body. Eidolon took another stream of shots with his disintigration power, which didn't accomplish much. And our own blaster set let loose with the ice weapons. I noted the old version of Eki's suit in the mix. Aunt Sarah's out there fighting, too.
A pair of arms stretched out and grabbed the airborne Endbringer, then there was a shattering of glass as the owner pulled herself toward the thing, slamming into it hard enough to smash right through the frozen body, quite a bit more than Alexandria had been able to do. Victoria caught her in the air.
"Holy shit," the tin-man, Genuis Loci, muttered. "Little Sveta can do that? How fast was she going?"
"Four thousand one hundred and twelve kilometers per hour," Clarice answered. "Approximately three and a quarter times the speed of sound."
"I don't know how she can do that and still be afraid of arresting a freakin' mugger," he laughed.
"Ever stepped on a tube of tooth paste?" Crystal asked. "That's why she's afraid. Now get off the open channel!"
Streams of energy washed over the Endbringer's mass, as the blasters did their best to make sure the thing never put itself back together.
Nearby, a mile wide area vanished into rainbow dust, pulling itself together to form a new body for the Endbringer. The armbands started naming names. Everyone caught in the area, reduced to mass for the monster. The one saving grace, as such, is there weren't a lot of heroes caught in the effect, the zerg were there to do the dying. The Endbringer's figure was now a little on the larger side. Not really fat, but curvy at least.
"It just ate over two hundred of the EB cats," Taylor informed us. "They're no more resistant to her than anything else."
"Endbringer being temporarily designated as Wendigo," Dragon spoke over the coms. The hell is a wendigo? I wondered. Probably something really unpleasant.
More streams of energy hit it, and it seemed to almost casually shrug the attacks off this time, as opposed to before when they cut through it. Eidolon's attack was the only one that still got through the body, and that didn't seem to do any actual damage to the thing at all.
Sveta used her slingshot attack again. Damn she's fast. Slamming into the Endbringer's head hard enough to slam it face first into the earth it was standing on. She jumped away, and the zerg were on it. Two of the gargants locked their tusks around her arms, and a pair more got in lower, grappling her hips, holding her mostly upside down. They pushed into each other, attempting to crush her between them. She gripped one's tusks and actually lifted the thing off the ground and threw it toward the defenders, who were forced to dive for cover. A kick sent another gargant skidding back into a building that collapsed on top of it and a few others.
She then slammed the one remaining holding her upper body into the one that had the lower, shattering the asphalt beneath them. The message was clear, she was a lot fucking stronger than the zerg. Fuck, the strength she just demonstrated was greater than even Behemoth had ever shown.
Alexandria got in a good hit while it was distracted with smashing our supermonsters, although now her weapons only cut grooves into it instead of impaling it completely. She dodged a backhanded swing narrowly. If it weren't for Vicky's upgrades, would she be able to avoid the attacks like that? Sveta grabbed one of those damaged zerg and used it to hammer the Endbringer into the earth, buying Alexandria another opening to stab it in the eye. Didn't make much real difference, but damn did it look satisfying to see the Endbringer with a spear sticking out of its face.
"It's getting tougher with each new iteration," Lisa replied. "Stepping up its strategy for more durability and destructive potential. Losing speed, though. The early stages are meant to test attacker strategies and adapt against them. The late stages will show its actual power."
"Stages?" I asked. Meanwhile, the battle raged on. Dragon took her opportunity, raining exotic energy beams down on the creature and hammering it with projectiles that could crack a mountain. It was well past the point where nanothorns were a valid weapon, but a few of those were used as well.
"This is its stage four. We did enough damage so fast that we didn't even get to see stage three for more than a few seconds," Lisa replied. "I'm placing my bets on a total of six stages, each approximately twice as strong and resilient than the last."
Our blasters did their thing, switching rapidly between cold and sonic or heat to maximize damage to the thing's body. They were finally making progress, showing microfractures in the monster's body. They are wearing it down, at least.
"It's already insanely durable," I complained. "Aren't these things suppose to have tradeoffs? Like, they can't be good at everything?"
"It's also close to the slowest," Lisa pointed out. "It hasn't managed to kill anyone outside of its reforming into the next stage. I know it sounds insane, but this thing is a step in the right direction. More property damage, less casualties."
Alexandria and Sveta opted for a bit of a teamup next, another sling-attack. Sveta gripped it and pulled them in, with Alexandria more or less riding in her lap, carrying two of her spear weapons. Both spears impaled deep into its gut, and it was stagged back into a building.
AngerDisgust. "I wouldn't be so quick to say that, Lisa," Taylor growled. "There were still over five thousand civilians still in that part of the city. And if the next time it does the same thing, it'll be the as bad or worse."
"It'll reach about three and a half miles, next time," Lisa replied. "And ten, for the final event."
"Ten miles? That's all of Brockton Bay!" I exclaimed. "There's still way over a hundred thousand people in there, and it'll kill every last one of them."
"So you see the problem," Lisa sighed. "This one's game? It's psychological. The whole city is its hostage. We hit it, really hit it, force it to move into its next level of strength, and in exchange the city dies. Or, we play softball with the fucker. Fight it how Endbringers have been fought before, let it demolish the city and leave after its had its fill of killing people. If we give it all of that, and we're lucky, it'll never step up to stage five or six." FrustrationRageGuilt.
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A/N- Step 1 of inventing your own Endbringers: ask how you can piss on everyone's parade. Step 2- Ask if there's something funnier than piss to use instead.
