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The massive steel alloyed door sealed itself shut with barely a sound. The only signs of its movement was the change in air pressure and the cessation of the sound of the torrential downpour mere meters away outside.
The soft but solid sounding thump from the walls and door as the inner wheel stopped turning was a good sign that the door was secure. While the materials that made up the Shelter were tinker fabricated materials, the basic design... wasn't.
Each and every Endbringer Shelter was designed by architects in the employ of Fortress Construction. True, the materials were created by Tinker designed and built factories, but the basic designed did not require actual tinkers or thinkers. No, that work fell to professional architects who were given details on the limitations of the materials available to them.
More than that, they were given a list of requirements. A challenge for the skilled, to squeeze as much shelter capacity in as little space available with the materials and equipment provided. There was also the understanding of the need for as much redundancy involved.
Thus were the Endbringer shelter vaults designed, by the mundane men and women who might one day seek refugee in them.
He had been one of the last to enter, knapsack resting against his back, head turned just so to see the police officers pull the vault door shut.
Once, he would have been standing on the side of that door. Putting his life on the line to protect the city from villains and monsters alike.
But that had been long ago. He had been young in those days. Been in better shape. All of that had been before that night, before that fight with the bastard Marquis.
Before he had been hospitalized, where his life had hung on a thin razor edge while surgeons in the pay of the Protectorate and PRT had operated on him.
Because of Marquis, he could never be an active hero again. Because of that bastard, he could never run as he had... and when the weather changed like it had been at the approach of Leviathan... he could feel it in his bones, the dull ache a sign of the grave injuries done to him and which had never healed properly.
As he walked stiffly into depths the shelter vault, he used his power to keep air around his body warm. The lighting was cold and harsh, almost incandescent that normal florescent light couldn't match. He could see sharp shadows cast against the concrete walls from the people as they moved deeper into the vault, from the upper level where the entrance had been, and down into the lower levels.
There was the mandated bi-yearly drills which had gotten people familiar with the shelter vaults that were near their homes, their workplaces, their schools, and even malls which meant he was familiar with the shelter.
In his case, it was near his home and restaurant. But from the clothing of some of those in the vault, it was clear that they were tourists from some of the hotels near the Boardwalk.
It was unheard of for there to be hours of warning to an Endbringer. To have a day and night to prepare, for the civilians to evacuate or to prepare and make their way to the shelters? That was nigh unthinkable,
And yet, the sirens had gone off yesterday. The warnings of what was coming had been announced on the radios and TVs.
Which was why he was in here, heading deeper into the shelter, towards the sound and scent of humanity.
"Al!" He blinked as he heard a familiar voice call out his name.
His response to Kelly was almost customary and somewhat loud as he walked stiffly to her. "What?"
"I'm glad to see you're not crazy enough to stay in Fugly Bob's to protect it." At her statement, he had to laugh.
"Nah, I'm not crazy enough for that, 'sides... that's what the insurance is for, Join me for a smoke?" He nodded at the smoking enclosure further into the shelter.
At his question and nod, there was only a frown. "Al, you know that stuff will kill you eventually, right?"
"Probably, but it being Brockton Bay, it's more likely I'll get killed in a gang fight than by my smokes." He waved her off and off to the smoke room.
...
...
...
The one issue about being stuck in an Endbringer shelter was that it got fairly boring fast. True, there were people to talk to, there were places to have a smoke or some privacy, but in the end, it was a confined space where people didn't have much to do.
That combined with the natural tension of knowing absolute disaster awaited them. That their family and friends, their homes, their livelihoods could all be lost.
It was an atmosphere that could result in a riot or murders inside a structure that had but one exit.
Which was why Al had brought his pack of cigarettes and the book he had been meaning to read with him. That was what gave him something else to focus on as he drifted from the shelter's main hall to the smoke room. The muted television screens located here and there in the shelter were meant to inform, to entertain... but they were filtered out as pointless background motion.
It was also why others had brought their own forms of entertainment given that there was a warning this time.
"Hey old man, you got a light?" The voice was far too young for someone to be asking for a lighter.
He turned to look at the speaker, and it definitely was someone who in his eyes was far too young to be asking for a lighter. But then, it wasn't as if kids from high school back when he was a kid in school didn't smoke.
"I do." He settled for looking at the cigarette in the kid's hand before he started to dig out his lighter from his pocket. "But aren't you a bit too young to be smoking?"
"Seriously, old man?" The girl in black with a red and green scarf just looked at him with a raised eyebrow as she accepted the lighter to light up her cigarette. Her gang alliance was easy to work out for him, given that he paid insurance for his restaurant to her gang.
He shrugged at her. "Suppose to say something like that to a high school kid smoking, right?"
"Right before lighting me up?" There was a skeptical snort from her as the fans in the room pulled the smoke up into the ceiling ventilation grills.
He stretched before shrugging as he pulled out one of his cigarettes. "Is how things are. Way the world is, best I can do is warn you and let you do what you decide to do."
"Huh... at least you're not a hypocrite. I guess you're alright, old man."
At that, he could only grunt in reply before enjoying the smoke in relative peace and quiet.
"The fuck?" The surprised exclamation from the ABB girl as she looked at the water cooler in the smoke room. A quick turn of his head showed the why. The cooler's water container was full of butterflies instead of water.
"Huh." Lightly tapping the container had the butterflies flying about in said container before landing once more. "I guess, someone just got powers or the fight is happening nearby and there's a cape out there that can no-sell Leviathan's water."
He looked up at the ceiling, imagining the fight that he once would have been a part of. "Most likely, the fight moved close to us."
That was before the rumbling started.
And the floor tilted.
Shifted and moved.
...
The falling motion was almost expected by the parahuman who had once called himself Fugly Bob.
Along with the screams.
And then, the inevitable... silence.
- - -
Goblin Queen | Transient Structures
Worm / Exalted
- - -
Goblin Queen | Transient Structures
Worm / Exalted
- - -
She pushed her body into solidity in the cabin that she was using as a launch pad.
"Hey, catch."
Her conditioned reflexes had her reach out and snag the thrown can out of the air without actually looking at it. The motion from her peripheral vision was enough to guide her hand in catching the can. That was one of the benefits of being a proper front line cape, one either had good physical coordination or one stopped being a front line cape. Sometimes, fatally.
There was a blink from the heroine as she looked down at the brightly colored can, water beading on the the aluminum casing from the difference in temperature of its content and the warm air in the dirigible cabin.
She turned to look at the PRT officer, who nodded at her before he popped the pull-tab on his can. "You looked like you could use a cold one."
"The day's been long." She sighed in acknowledgement even as she checked her armband to make sure that there was no one who needed saving before she opened her can and the lower half of her mask with a tap to the release just behind her left ear. "And it's not over yet."
The cold sugary and acidic taste of the coke was enough to get her to hiss out briefly given the momentary rush of energy. And yet, there was something different from the usual coke that she drank. "This tastes... different. Almost like root beer?"
"The PRT got the new batch of coke for taste testing, see if the switch to cane sugar in a can is good or not before they start the bidding for a Protectorate cape, or so I've heard." The officer's co-pilot spoke up from where he was keeping an eye on Leviathan.
"What? Like Pepsi girl?" She replied with a frown, the nods from the two officers were answer enough.
"Chubster Down, DD-8. Strapping Lad Down, DD-8. Cevaliar Down, DD-8."
"Welp... time to go save people." With that, she turned towards the rear of the cabin as she finished off her drink. A light tap on the display of her armband brought up the relative location of the downed cape to her.
She pulled her body towards the endless darkness elsewhere and walked through the door, before pushing back towards the reality of Earth Bet.
There was a single moment of dizzy motion as she flipped down and over outside the cabin. All it took was a thought focusing on her boots, which was caught by the interface in her mask, and down became subjective for her as the tinkertech in her costume set gravity to her frame of reference.
Looking 'up', she focused on the sector indicated by the armband.
A breath in as she bent her knees and launched herself 'upwards' and away from the PRT dirigible. With her heart racing at how fast she was arrowing at the surface, she had to admit that this was invigorating even as she guided her trajectory towards the downed cape. The flash of color against the darkness of the roof was a good enough beacon and meant she could conserve her mask's battery power by not using the auto-locator.
There was only the omnipresence beating of her heart and nothing else. Despite the brilliant light show not too far away as the blasters engaged Leviathan with lasers and other more exotic attacks, there was only silence for her as she glided down at speeds that most would consider horrifying and terrifying.
In the distance, she could see a familiar crimson and green armored figure in the distance guiding the butterflies to drill at the Endbringer, transforming the butterflies that surrounded her into a lance of light.
[Danger. Enemy-Predator. Retreat?.]
She shook her head as she pulled and turned into a mass of shadows that impacted the roof before she pushed herself together as she stood up.
The heavy-set cape was everything that she wasn't. Fat, heavy, and likely slow. Still, he was here, and pinned by a broken display panel. "Hey. I can't feel my leg, can't blast it while pinned."
She nodded and reached her hand out to him. "Just close your eyes and mouth."
A quick pull, one that was further and had her and him engulfed in the liquid darkness. Followed by a push and the two were standing on the undamaged roof of the neighboring building. "Think you can fight on? Or do you want me to take you to Panacea?"
"If you hold me steady or can get me to a place where I can support myself?" He looked about. "I can keep going on."
"Navigator here, I can not maintain the hold on Leviathan for much longer. He likely will attempt to escape. Soon." The voice from the armband was that of the girl who had been keeping the Endbringer tied down all this time.
Both Shadow Stalker and Chubster turned to look at where Leviathan was. Where he was being held down by the giant octopus and being savaged by the silvery giant Lung and the Merchant robot.
There was a moment and the Merchant robot fell back even as the Endbringer's whip-like tail threshed about, and he launched himself and the giant octopus up into the air.
"Surtr Down, DD-8. Skidmark Deceased, DD-8. Bakuda Deceased, DD-8. Player One Down, DD-8. Player Two Down, DD-8..."
The female voice from the armband started to announce those fallen and deceased even as Leviathan started to descend, leaving behind a small silvery reflective orb where the PRT Manta had been as he used the falling wreckage from it as ammunition to deal with the blasters.
"Navigator disengaging." The voice of girl was the only warning before Leviathan was released by the fiery octopus.
The Endbringer slammed into the street. There was a brief moment of stillness before the street started to collapse from the impact point...
Followed by the buildings next to it... Shadow Stalker could only look in horror before she grasped Chubster with her arm tightly. "Close your eyes and mouth, and whatever you do. Don't let go."
It was almost reflex as she pushed and pulled.
Over and over.
Hopscotching from roof to roof, grabbing those she could. Darkness interspersed with light as she yelled at them to hold on and not let go.
Behind them, the crater grew as street after street cracked and collapsed, while buildings slid downwards or sideways.
An ever growing collapse as butterflies pulled free from the earth and made their way into the blue sky.
"
