Here to Halp 07:
And so this is what happens when you trap two Filipinos in a VC with a mad Canadian foxxo.
"Soooooo," Cain asked the nearest drug addict with a roll of his shoulders. "I'm gonna kill your boss, so if you don't wanna end up like him, you might wanna skip town…"
"Fuuuuck you," a man slurred out as he flipped Juggernaut the finger while holding a blunt in one hand. "Ah dunt care hu yu are ya bigh assh muthafucka! Yu shulsdh shtay ahway frum Skiiiiihdmaar..."
The man barfed all over the ground, and he was
still giving Juggernaut the finger.
"Uh, you okay buddy?" he asked, patting the man on the back to help him clear his throat. Unfortunately, he
may have patted a little too hard.
The first pat was enough to splatter the man all over the pavement.
"Oh shit!" he jumped backwards, flying through a school bus and watching as the area began to fill with bugs. "Fuck!"
Cain ran, straight towards where Skidmark was, a legion of flying bugs hot on his trail. He was
pretty sure that Skitter was controlling those, and that he was going to have a terrible time shortly if he didn't move fast to kill all the targets in the area and leave.
"Ayo!" a raspy voice called out loudly. Skidmark came out of a worn-out building, fixing his pants while holding onto a bottle of beer. "I'm trying to get high here!" he angrily ranted before grabbing a gun from somewhere and shooting towards the sky.
"Who the hell's trying to jump me on mah turf?! I don't get jumped, I'm the one doing the jumping here, you bitch ass fucktards!" he tossed the beer bottle down on the ground, shattering it. The high man then grabbed a weird looking bong from somewhere and took a hit. "Who's the punk ass, bitch interruptin' my buzz?!" he asked, looking into the side of it like it would somehow tell him the answer.
"Aaaw c'mon Skiddy~! Did ya really have to look away for a bit?" Squealer groaned out as she opened a garage door in the building nearby, revealing a zmassive tank she was working on as she looked back at Skidmark crossly. "C'mon now! I was, like, JUUUST about to get so fucking
high, Skiddy! Don't just leave a girl hanging!"
Cain shuddered, before simply picking up her nearby tank-thing by the barrel and smacking the both of them with it. He wasn't one to waste words really, not to people like this.
Skidmark stared at impending doom... before cursing. "Oh fuck you, you bitch ass nig—"
Squealer didn't even get to say anything before her own tank turned her into paste.
"Welp, guess that's that then," he sighed, making his way out of the rusty, rundown trainyards until he accidentally stepped on a jelly-blob of some sort with arms.
"Wait, uh," he looked at it. It was extremely dead.
"Huh, that's not good," he said, but ultimately shrugged it off.
At least the bug swarm was finally gone? Though he knew it would probably be back later.
"I just gotta think of it like making omelets," he told himself with gritted teeth. "Can't do that without breaking a few eggs."
"Huh, speaking of eggs…" he looked around. "Does Tattletale like eggs? She's a fox after all…"
~~~~
Tattletale was fucking terrified.
She had no idea why, but the Juggernaut decided it was a good idea to take a visit to lovely Brockton Bay, and now...
Thud!
Man approaching your apartment, weight inconsistent with human musculature. Does not compute.
Walking up the stairs, unable to take elevator.
Distant screams, alarms. Druggie on floor under us fired a pistol, ineffective.
Is now outside of apartment.
Don't make any sudden moves.
Even her own power knew that she was probably fucked, because the walking disaster was
right there. On her doorstep...
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
He's here. Don't open the door.
Tattletale, too curious for her own good, opened it anyway.
"Hey Tattletale!" the Juggernaut cheerfully called out to her, handing her a bag of hardboiled eggs he had stolen from a convenience store and some… Fried Tofu? "I need your help with something, so I brought you a bribe!"
He knows who you are.
Tattletale could only whine in despair.
'Damn it, I'm fucked!' she thought to herself, before she looked at the bribe.
A bribe for foxes... Knows Japanese myth. Bribe is for Japanese kitsune for good luck.
'Why the hell does he think that?!' Tattletale screamed internally as she looked at the bag for a few moments, before finally making a decision.
Whether or not it was a good decision is something that she was still thinking on.
"... Fuck it, I'll take it," Tattletale said with a small sigh as she grabbed the bag. "What do you want?"
"I am going to kill Coil, so I need you to work with Armsmaster to keep all his Deadman switches and bombs from going off," Juggernaut nodded. "So come on, let's get going so I can set you free sooner!"
"... Bullshit."
No, he's not, in fact, bullshitting.
'Shut the fuck up.'
"Fine, I'll help, but you better have more bribes like this," Tattletale said as she ate the Fried Tofu first.
"... Especially the Fried Tofu. I want more of these."
"We can stop and get some from the nice old lady who liked my work later," he grinned. "When she heard I was recruiting a tricky fox to help take down an sneaky snake, she just asked that I endorse her business to anyone who asks, so we can go to Mama Jo's later if we do a good job."
"Wait, you just got these for free?!" Tattletale squealed out in shock. "I thought you stole these! You don't even have any cash on you!"
"Turns out she's a fan!" he laughed. "But yeah, I would have found a place to steal from, but she saw me on the street and asked how she could help."
"You're just bullshit," Tattletale said as she nibbled her tofu. "But fuck it, I'll bite. What plans do you have to get rid of my scaly little problem?"
The Juggernaut chuckled to her confusion. "Nah, his false timeline simulation precog won't help him if I am immune to all his defenses, and can actively track him no matter where he goes on the planet." There was a mild impression that he was grinning like a dumbass behind that helmet of his.
He is telling the truth. Do NOT piss him off.
Wait...
'That coin trick of his when he recruited me! That's how Coil did it! He's a goddamn precog!'
Signs point to yes. Other coincidental events during Coil's missions also corellate to that possibility.
'Motherfucker.'
"And on THAT terrifying thought, I am going to make sure you don't do anything stupid," Tattletale said with a small sigh, biting into her tofu with a little more force than necessary. "Any more grand plans that I need to know about?"
"Well I gotta fight Lung and Oni-Lee, and the Empire after, but they should be a lot easier to deal with," the Juggernaut nodded, holding out his arm to her. "If you climb on, I can give you a bit of armor protection while you're there so you won't get smushed by accident."
"..." Tattletale looked up at the massive form of the Juggernaut, then back at herself.
"You are way too big..." she complained as she sat down on his arm. "And we're going to look
ridiculous."
"Don't worry Tats," he grinned, making her a foxgirl-themed armor to cover her up. "You look very cute!"
Tattletale blinked as she looked at herself, her eyes wide before she looked at Juggernaut.
"The hell is this?!" Tattletale screeched out as she looked at her armor. "Why the hell do I suddenly have armor!?" she gave Juggernaut's helmet a small knock with her fist. "Your power is fucking bullshit!"
"How am I supposed to protect you without armor?" Juggernaut asked.
The young woman blushed, then groaned audibly, because she knew.
Oh she knew...
"I am never going to hear the end of this," she muttered to herself, realizing her new position as a designated Shoulder girl, while she and the Juggernaut left the apartment complex.
~~~~
Armsmaster's foot tapped against the floor repeatedly, impatience was clear in his posture as he glared at the elevator doors. A lot of problems had happened and after attending a meeting with Director Piggot, his mood had worsened.
The topic was the numerous problems that had happened because of Juggernaut. Triggers, casualties, and even a cult of all things had formed in Africa. And it all occurred because of that armored bastard.
Juggernaut caused a lot of problems, but Armsmaster knew they could handle it. Like they always had.
Then they lost contact with Dragon. And that was when Juggernaut was in Canada. It was obvious what had happened that very day: Juggernaut killed Dragon.
Out of all the things that happened, the very entity that suddenly appeared killed one of his closest friends.
It was unforgiveable.
And the worst part? People were
praising the murderer. For what? Mindless slaughter of thousands, maybe even more? The monster was a walking force of nature controlled by the whims of a literal Endbringer!
Villains were his main targets, but there were more ways to handle them. Ways that would not involve numerous civilian casualties! What Juggernaut would always do, as evident in his ways, was take a hammer and use brute force.
He was like a caveman who solved his problems with a huge stick.
As he mused to himself, the Elevator doors opened to a scene he most
despised. The Juggernaut had broken into the building, and he had apparently found a new…
friend.
"Armsmaster! Buddy! Just the man I need right now," he spoke, as though they were somehow
friends, despite never having met before.
The people in the Lobby began to whisper among themselves, their phones all recording the sight as though it was something novel and amazing in their minds. Pictures were taken from unsavory angles, and the woman in fox-themed armor on his shoulder simply ate a boiled egg while they waited for his response.
"Hello," the fox woman said in utter deadpan. "I am..."
She looked at Juggernaut for a few moments.
"Do I
really have to introduce myself as... as..." She choked out, as if trying not to gag at the words she was about to say.
"I dunno? What name were you going to introduce yourself by?" Juggernaut asked. "I didn't actually give you one? I was just winging it."
The young woman stayed silent for a few moments, before finally...
"The name is Mindfox..." she said, as if unsure, as if this is the...
"What are you doing here?" Armsmaster glared at Juggernaut, his eyes filled with hatred.
"I'm saving the city from the Villains!" Juggernaut grinned. "Just like with all the others, like the Dragonslayers and the S9, there are some real bad guys here. Coil being the worst of them."
"Wait what?" Armsmaster blinked. His posture stiffened as he approached Juggernaut with a frown. Fists were clenched as he tried to control his breathing.
"What do you mean?" he asked with an irritated growl.
"I mean that Coil is just as bad as the Dragonslayers with their Ascalon Program for Dragon, keeping her under their control and threatening her with it, or the S9 with how they had been killing innocent people for fun," Juggernaut claimed boldly. "They're real Sadistic, just like that Thomas Calvert guy calling himself Coil while planting bombs pretty much everywhere and bugging the PRT stuff. Guy's sneaky too."
Mindfox seemed silent for a few moments, before she laughed loudly, the bag filled with fried tofu almost spilling from her hands as she slapped Juggernaut's helmet.
"You stupid,
stupid little-!" She screeched out to him, "You can't just reveal stuff like that! We needed leverage!
Leverage! We could've used this to bargain and now you just-!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"Leverage?" he asked, "What use is that when we're gonna dip from this world as soon as we're finished? Also, he probably would have tried to kill us if we lied to him or hid things. Wouldn't have worked, but still."
"But
STILL! You could've had a
BIT more tact you
IDIOT!"
"Also, another world? What the hell do you mean we can go to another world?"
"Thomas Calvert..." Armsmaster slowly repeated before turning towards Mindfox. "How do we know you're telling us the truth? You're accusing a PRT Consultant of being Coil."
"Well it's either you confirm it while I make my way towards him, and save thousands of lives from his bombs going off when he dies, or you get in my way and end up as collateral?" he asked with a shrug. "You don't really have much of an option here."
Staring at Juggernaut for a few seconds, Armsmaster let out a calming breath, putting his anger aside despite his entire being roaring at him to fight, to send the murderer to the Birdcage himself. However, he was not stupid, he saw and witnessed everything that happened with Juggernaut. There was no way for him to stop this menace.
"Fine, but we will only apprehend Thomas Calvert," he made a note to talk to Director Piggot...
again...
"... Yea, no," Mindfox said with a growl as she bit on her fried tofu furiously. "That fucker doesn't get to walk away after putting a gun on my head!"
She then looked at Juggernaut with a growl.
"If you kill him I'll be your fucking minion forever, deal?" She growled out.
"You're not a minion though? You're an intelligent woman with more than enough of a grip to sit on my shoulder without falling off," he chuckled.
"I don't care! Kill the fucker and you get a shoulder fox! There!"
"Okay!" he said, giving her a thumbs up. "Let's go kill a snake."
Armsmaster stared at them for a few seconds. He felt incredibly... exasperated. Here was an extremely dangerous individual casually arguing with a woman who acted like a fox. And they were doing it while talking about murder...
He needed a cup of coffee... and a vacation...
~~~~
Shadow Stalker was aware that what she was doing was a really bad idea, she was already in hot water at this point after the PRT discovered that she was out on unauthorized patrols at night as well, so if her superiors found out about this, she
would get sanctioned.
That fucking hardass Piggy bitch flayed her over the coals for the former already, but what she's about to do would guarantee that she would be court martialed, or worse, transferred to a Simurgh Containment Facility for
training.
But Shadow Stalker didn't care. After all, she was hunting the ultimate animal on this block, the animal that just decided to walk into her hunting grounds:
The Juggernaut.
Now, Shadow Stalker was no fool, she knew that in a straight-on fight she would definitely lose against the Juggernaut. It was made very clear in Canberra what he could do when given the chance to ramp up. Scores of heroes better than her have tried and failed to stop him.
But she was different.
Her powers made her uniquely capable of taking down the prey in front of her.
She only needs one shot.
Oh, she can already see it, the Juggernaut with his new pet bitch rushing around in their fancy armor, doing whatever they were doing, and then, a well-placed shadow bolt to the head of the Juggernaut first.
Then another on his pet bitch.
The blood spray would be
magnificent.
Then she would take his helmet, the same helmet that she had completely bypassed with her powers and mount it on her bedroom, her ultimate achievement: Killing the unbreakable, the unstoppable.
Once these fools and doubters saw what she had done,
no one would doubt her ever again. Especially the Piggy Bitch and Armsmaster. That machine obsessed autistic prick, would
finally let her cleanse Brockton Bay of all the
filth that was rotting it from within.
Oh she could already
see it, she already had plans.
She would target Skidmark first, that druggie obsessed freak, and his pocket bitch Squealer too. She will riddle them with crossbow bolts before executing them with a bolt to the head each.
After the Merchants implode from their lack of leadership, she will clean up the druggies first, their bodies stacked high on the alleyways of
her city. Her hunting ground will be sterilized of the druggie filth before she moved on to bigger targets.
The next targets would either be the Empire 88 or the ABB.
A part of Shadow Stalker wanted to hit the ABB first. After all, Lung is the bigger threat between the two, and him ramping up to his dragon form would be a pain to deal with. However...
Fuck Nazis. So against her better judgement, the E88 would be what she targets next, and after wiping them out, the ABB would be the only gang left in Brockton Bay.
Sure she would need the PRT's help to subdue Lung, she couldn't take on a raging dragon alone after all, but finally,
finally, Brockton Bay would be clean.
And it would be thanks to her, Shadow Sta—
"We'll have to be careful not to crush the poor Tinker between your thighs though Mindfox," the Juggernaut nodded as he made his way into a building nearby. "He'll probably need your help to defuse the big bomb."
"Are you saying my thighs are fat?" Mindfox asked crossly as she squeezed her thigh, frowning in thought.
"There is a difference between being pleasantly thicc, and actually fat," the man told her. "You have some good muscle on you, and take care of your body, so you definitely aren't fat."
Mindfox was silent for a few moments, before finally saying one thing:
"Pervert."
"Hey! Just because I can appreciate the hard work you put in, doesn't mean I'm perving on you," the Juggernaut laughed, stomping on the floor hard enough to cave the ground in. "Armsmaster will be here in a few seconds, the bomb is right there."
Shadow Stalker knew, this was her best chance.
So, without hesitation, she coated her crossbow bolt with shadow and fired at the Juggernaut's head.
She can already see the crossbow bolt sink inside of his helmet, a violent spray of—
It plinked off his helmet.
She blinked, the sight in question an impossibility in her eyes, as she charged another crossbow bolt and fired again.
It plinked off his helmet.
Again.
She growled as she tried to attack again.
Surely this next crossbow bolt would—
~~~~
Watching the idiot load another bolt to fire at the Juggernaut, Armsmaster let out a tired sigh. Out of all the Wards that had encountered the walking force of nature, it had to be the most troublesome of them all.
Worst, he could tell that her current actions were fueled by her philosophy. A philosophy that could easily get her killed... especially because she was trying to kill Juggernaut of all things!
Armsmaster knew she was a stubborn idiot, but was there even a
sliver of intelligence inside her brain? Obviously, none, because she was going after the most dangerous being in the world.
Being, because they had no idea if Juggernaut was human.
"Is there anything inside her that's
actually functional?" Armsmaster let out a sigh of frustration as he made up his mind. He needed to get over there, grab her by the scruff of her neck, and drag her back to the PRT.
At this rate, he might as well call her Shadow Pooch with how annoying she was. Like, how could a young woman like her whose philosophy revolves around Darwinism
not have a single sense of danger?
Better heroes had tried, and all of them failed.
What could she and her
medieval weapon do against an armored menace? Nothin—
Was she using fucking broadheads?! Those were not permitted! She should only be using non-lethal bolts!
Out of all the idiotic shit she had done to date, Shadow Stalker was using lethal bolts! Against the fucking
Juggernaut!
And was she insane?! Her tricks had not worked even once, she was literally doing the same thing again and again, hoping for a different result. Shadow Stalker was now a walking definition of insanity!
God, he needed to grab her, put her in probation
again, and hope everything worked out.
Might be the best time to see if he could install some soundproofing in his helmet. It would help with the inevitable nagging from Shadow Stalker... and probably from Director Piggot too...
Shadow Stalker only growled in frustration as she loaded in one last broadhead bolt to fire at the Juggernaut again...
"Uh, why are these mosquitos so persistent?" the Juggernaut asked, waving his hand to ward off the arrows.
Unfortunately, the pressure wave from the way he was waving his hand around was enough to launch Shadow Stalker off into the pole line, just as she attempted to go into her shadow form. The pole line broke, and her body was wrapped up in several live wires, partially phased into them.
She screamed in shock and pain for a few seconds, before falling unconscious.
And then she died, the electricity frying her body like a potato in a microwave.
Armsmaster stared. He wanted to say he was shocked, but he wasn't, he was tired. PRT had just lost one of their Wards, but strangely enough, he felt nothing.
Hell, he had to steady himself when Juggernaut waved his hand. He was wearing armor and he almost lost his balance.
After a few seconds, Armsmaster used his helmet to call PRT headquarters. "Bring an ambulance on my location," he said, obviously tired.
Shadow Stalker was dead. But it was protocol for medical personnel to try everything they could to resuscitate the dead before declaring them dead.
"An accident has occurred," Armsmaster declared before walking over to Juggernaut.
"So, how do we deal with his bomb?"
"Hmm... The bomb is made of Tinkertech so it will be a bit difficult," Mindfox said with a hum of thought. "Give me a few seconds..."
Mindfox started to...
poke at the bomb in question, giving it a sniff and looked at the wiring.
"Hmm, this is... difficult. Armsmaster, you're going to need something that can fry the electronics so that defusing this one won't trigger the bombs all over the city," Mindfox said with a scowl visible on her helm. "This should give us five, maybe fifteen minutes before this thing resets and blows everything up."
"I got it," Armsmaster went through his armor before grabbing a cylinder. "So, all we need is to fry everything, right?" he asked Mindfox.
"No, frying the electronics is just the easy part, it gives us the time to take out this bomb's power supply," Mindfox said with a wince. "Like I said, after frying the electronics we have five to fifteen minutes before the bomb resets and blows up anyway."
"I was hoping to save this for later..." Armsmaster sighed, cracking the bomb open before opening the cylinder... and promptly dumping the steaming coffee all over it.
In an instant, sparks flew, and the circuit just
melted.
"... Wait, that worked!?
How?!" Mindfox squeaked out as she looked at Armsmaster. "You melted the circuits and the fucking power supply! What the fuck was that?!"
Armsmaster turned to Mindfox and Juggernaut. "I like my coffee strong," he stated with a shrug.
"... Your stomach lining should be in shreds then, and yet you're still alive," Mindfox said with a wince.
"My old boss and I would have loved to have a mug of this with you on those long night shifts," Juggernaut nodded, giving him a thumbs up. "Especially the ones where it got so hard to move the rest of the equipment that we just flopped on the floor and slept."
"You were a salaryman? Bullshit," Mindfox said with a side-eye at her partner.
"I can see it," Armsmaster replied with a slow chuckle as he looked down at the melted bomb. "I'm gonna need more coffee later..."
He made sure to check his helmet's recorder to file away the fact that Juggernaut was a salaryman, which meant that he was human. Every single piece of information, whether that be relevant or not, was vital.
Especially when it was about Juggernaut.
~~~~
Coil was certain that everything was completely under control.
He knew that the current situation was... Untenable at the moment. Given that the Juggernaut was in Brockton Bay and his empire was about to be smashed underfoot.
However, that did not mean that he was out of options. As he sat in his house, well away from his secret base, he drank his coffee and made a few... Calls.
A call to an associate here, a minion there, making preparations to ensure his inevitable escape...
Oh, and his funds too, he should move them to a different alias. Can't make a new criminal empire on another city if he was penniless after all.
It took him some time to finish all of this, as he needed to deal with a few loose ends. Some of his more...
unruly employees needed to be disposed of.
Such a shame that his previous plans to acquire Miss Alcott would be scrapped. However, a simple drive towards her school wouldn't be such a bad idea.
The temptation of such a...
delicious power alongside his was too much to ignore.
He hummed and split the timeline, one where he leisurely stuffed his briefcase with all of his confidential documents and started the upload of all the cape identities of the E88, ABB and the PRT.
Meanwhile, his second timeline was him just leaving his house, walked towards the car waiting for him, and drove away.
His destination: Dinah's school for some asset acquisition.
As both timelines seemed to be safe for a moment, nothing at all happening in either one, he relaxed, his body sagging in slight relief. And then, just as he was about to turn a corner, he saw the Juggernaut, and the wall to his home broke open a voice calling out "Oh yeah!" as he died in his first timeline.
He jolted from his relaxed position as his first timeline was destroyed, eyes bulging from the shock as he looked at his driver.
"Get out of the city as fast as you can!" He said in fear, while on a second timeline, he kept calm and let his driver drive him to Dinah's school.
Surely, he would have a chance of gaining a new thinker, yes? He already lost Tattletale after all, he needed to recoup his losses.
Unfortunately, his path took him right by the Juggernaut, who simply reached his hand out and crushed the entire car in one hand while his former
pet laughed at him.
With him still inside.
He groaned as a massive headache sent a shock to his system, before he saw something that sent ice down his veins.
The Juggernaut, with his Pet, leisurely
strolling towards his car.
Coil was so shocked at this, that he almost forgot to use his power, before he finally had the sense to split the timeline again.
He fought his almost debilitating headache as he directed his driver to turn an intersection while the other continued out of the city in a straight line.
In the timeline where he turned, he found his car suddenly lifted off the ground by its rear wheels, and kicked off into orbit like it was a football at an NFL playoff. He didn't survive the rapid decompression, nor the head-on collision with the Simurgh.
He groaned as he split the timeline
again, this time to loop back towards Dinah's school to try and lose the Juggernaut there, with one of his mercenaries driving a car identical to the one he was in.
Surely the stupid brute would just follow the second car—
Unfortunately, the Juggernaut simply grabbed both cars, and slammed them together like they were children's toys, until nothing was left of either of them. Then, seeing Coil had managed to fall out of the car and was trying to escape, stomped him through the pavement by his waist, splattering his intestines across the road and watching him slowly die.
Well, that didn't work.
Perhaps if he made his way towards his base he could hunker down and fight the Juggernaut? Surely some of his Tinkertech weapons and multitudes of mercenaries could take down the bastard?
However, the moment he turned towards the base, the timeline abruptly ended, and he was stuck facing the Juggernaut in his own car, his bodyguard and driver replaced with the man while Tattletale — or was it Mindfox now — sat on the dash, facing him with an armored boot on his crotch.
"Hehehe, here's a little present for you, you little shit," Tattletale crowed victoriously before she stomped his crotch with her armored boot. Before he could finish his screams of pain, she fired two shots into his chest and one through his head, killing him instantly.
~~~~
"Haaaaah... That's fucking satisfying..." Mindfox said with a sigh as she emptied her pistol's bullets on Coil's cooling corpse. "Just let me stand here for a bit, I want to
enjoy the fact that this son of a bitch is dead."
"I'm not sure that's the best idea," Cain told her with a small grunt. "Looks like the PRT are on their way, and they're a little mad that we killed someone important."
"Just let me have this moment, okay?" Mindfox said as she loaded another magazine, "I have a
lot of pent-up aggression against this son of a bitch."
"Unless you stay close to me, you won't get the benefit of my power," Cain reminded her. "And I'm about to start moving."
"... Fine, let's get a move on then," Mindfox said as she went back to her seat on Cain's shoulder. "I want more fried tofu for this."
"We can get some
after we deal with the incoming fight," Cain told her, poking her on the side of her helmet gently. "If we don't, we will get the place caught up in all of this, and that won't be fair to them."
"Right then, let's get the hell out of here," Mindfox said as she patted Juggernaut's helmet. "I want that fried tofu sooner rather than later after all!"
The revving of an engine echoed through the silent highway. Armsmaster's motorcycle skidded to a stop in front of the two. His armored visage shone as he got off his bike, approaching the pair.
"Juggernaut, Mindfox," he glanced towards Coil's dead body. "I was hoping to capture Coil alive to interrogate him... but you beat us to it."
Armored trucks stopped behind him before dozens of armored men with foam guns formed a disciplined line. Each of them had said guns pointed at Juggernaut, their trigger fingers itching to shoot.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Armsmaster?" Mindfox asked with a tilt of her head as she looked at the PRT. "You do know that whatever you do to my associate is just an exercise in futility, yes?"
"I have received orders from my superiors," Armsmaster stated, his hand clenching his halberd tightly. "Juggernaut is to be captured and sent to the Birdcage to prevent any more damage. Collateral or otherwise."
"I'll try to make it as painless as possible," Cain told him, shoulder slumped as he advanced on their position. "I'm sure you'd do the same in my position."
Mindfox shook her head.
"They're not gonna take that well, Juggernaut," she said as she looked at the tensing PRT troopers. "Might have been better if you just kept quiet there."
Armsmaster held a fist up. "On charges of multiple accounts of murder, damage to property, and God knows what else, you are sentenced to imprisonment in the Birdcage."
"Surrender and cooperate, Juggernaut."
Mindfox scoffed as she stretched her arms.
"Not happening, sadly, we'll be taking our leave soon."
"Unfortunate," Armsmaster let out a sigh before forming a hand signal.
"Fire at will!"
Cain simply
moved. And kept moving through it, despite all their efforts to stop him.
Nothing slowed him down as he removed the guns from their hands, along with their arms by mistake, and used them to destroy the trucks behind them like their flesh and weapons were a fastball to a glass window.
"... You are so fucking busted," Mindfox said with a shake of her head. "I swear you need to be NERF'd but you're exactly what Earth Bet needs I think."
"Fuck..." Armsmaster grunted as he held onto his bleeding stub. The armored hero turned to look at the troopers before letting out a painful groan as he injected something into his injury.
"This is Armsmaster, call for backup and get some fucking ambulances on my location!" he barked out as he forced himself to stand up, glaring at Juggernaut.
"I don't recommend fighting me," Cain sighed. "It's a lot harder to not simply destroy you outright when you attack me than it is to turn you and everything around you into dust."
"You're all gonna lose you know!" Mindfox taunted with a laugh as she waved at them gaily. "Do you really want to throw away your lives for something so meaningless?"
"Bringing a criminal to justice is never meaningless," Armsmaster grunted out. "Juggernaut has committed countless crimes, and he must be punished. How many people has he murdered in his rampage? How many more will die if we let him go unpunished?"
"The answer is simple: more will die if we let Juggernaut do as he pleases," he stated as he stood straight against the behemoth of a man. "And it's our job to make sure that doesn't happen."
Mindfox just sighed and shook her head.
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," she said with a shrug. "Feel free to hit Juggernaut here as much as you all want, it's not gonna change a thing."
"I have very few targets left before I leave this world on my own," Cain pointed out. "I have the rest of the simurgh bombs, the Endbringers, and Scion, who is actually out to destroy your world after giving out powers and collecting enough data. The dude really only needs one bad day to just vaporize your planet, and all those I've sought out to kill would also kill thousands more lives than I did on a weekly basis individually, so I'm doing you all a favor here."
"Wait, what?!" Mindfox squealed as she looked at Cain in shock. "What's that about Scion!?"
"That he's a depressed space whale who really should have taught his wife not to text and drive," Cain nodded.
"... Oh my God, you're telling the truth," Mindfox said in appalled horror.
"I mean, yeah?" Cain looked at her. "What would I gain from lying that I can't gain from just smashing things for more power? It would be kinda pointless."
Armsmaster remained silent for a few moments before hanging his head low. "Bruh. I give up," he let out a frustrated sigh before looking at his stub. "At least I can install a better arm."
Mindfox shrugged at Armsmasters words.
"You realized the weakness of your flesh and it disgusts you, Armsy?" Mindfox asked snarkily. "You craving the strength and certainty of steel?"
Armsmaster looked down and nodded. "My flesh... to be made into machine. I can't believe I'm saying this, but thanks. I have a good excuse to change everything," he turned towards the remnants of the troopers.
"Prepare to retreat and prepare the coagulants! Everyone's getting a new arm today!"
"Uh," Cain sighed. "All's well that ends well?"
Mindfox shrugged.
"Maybe? It could've been worse," Mindfox said with a small grin. "All of the things went according to my deductions and we've also escaped Brockton Bay as well! We're home free to do our stuff now! Nothing can possibly go wro—"
The roar of a massive flaming lizard breaking through several buildings echoed nearby.
"Juggernauuuuuurt! I kirrrr yuuuuuuuuuuuu!" the rage dragon screamed.
"I sometimes wonder if your Thinker power is all for show," Cain nodded.
"Hell no! That's completely unrelated to my Thinker power, Juggernaut! This is clearly a setup! A setup!" Mindfox screamed as she looked in horror at Lung's current state. "D-Don't just
stand there! Do something!"
~~~~
Stomping towards the armored bastard, Lung unleashed a stream of fire from his mouth.
If his fire was not enough, the Juggernaut would also have to deal with his foot!
Buildings crumbled with each step, windows smashed with the vibrations. But he didn't care, why would he care about property damage? Lung only cared about crushing the Juggernaut with his bare hands. He knew that one way or another, the ABB would be next on the chopping block.
And that was unacceptable.
So, it was best to nip the problem in the bud.
"Burn!"
The armored man grabbed the flame as though it was solid, balled it up and compressed it into a solid cube, and then tossed it back like he was rolling a die straight through Lung's brain.
"What the fu—" Lung didn't finish, as the cube of fire went through his head, leaving his mind literally blank.
"Juggernaut, I don't think that cube's enough!" Mindfox groaned out as she looked at the rage dragon. "We need something bigger to deal with this son of a bitch!"
"I think we'll be alright," Juggernaut chuckled moving forwards and punching Lung's stomach out of his back, only for it to regenerate tougher in time for the next punch, his power ramping up faster than ever before.
Lung growled. "You son of a bi—" he let out a snarl, his voice becoming unintelligible as he tried to smack Juggernaut with one of his hands.
Juggernaut grabbed the hand and ripped it off, along with his entire arm, before smacking Lung with it repeatedly. "I don't think it's a good idea to hit yourself so hard," he joked as he smacked Lung's face with his own dismembered shoulder. "You might get brain damage."
"Arrgh!" Lung glared at Juggernaut before thrashing his body around, attacking indiscriminately. Buildings fell as he crashed around, flames bellowed from his mouth, spreading across the streets.
As the buildings collapsed, white powder began to fall from the sky around them, like snow that didn't melt. It coated the streets burnt off his body as he began to rampage harder, the strange feeling of his heart pounding in his chest getting stronger and stronger until it actually hurt.
"Ohh... fuuuuck..." Lung tried to stand up... only to stumble. His tail wagged lazily as he lied down on his back. "Thish shit... heh... hahaha... thish shit bangs..."
"... Holy shit, his system can't deal with both the fight and cocaine together!" Mindfox said with a gasp. "Juggernaut! Keep wounding Lung! His powers can't handle purging the drug from his body in addition to healing from the wounds you're giving him!"
"Okay!" Juggernaut grinned, stomping Lung's face and brain in before pulling his chest apart by the ribs to expose it to the falling drugs.
"Hahaha... that feelsh... goooood!" Lung started to cackle, laughing at what should have been something that was extremely painful.
Blood seeped out of his lethal wounds, but he still kept on smiling. The cocaine flooded his senses, making him feel the euphoria of the snow-white powder. Lung cupped his hands, gathering some of the cocaine before dumping it all over his face.
"Ahaha! Fuck..."
"Holy shit, he's
dying," Mindfox said as she jumped down from Juggernaut's shoulder and grabbed a piece of rebar,
wrenched it from the concrete slab it was on...
And poked Lung.
"Oi, you alright? You doing okay?" Mindfox asked as she continued to poke Lung with the rebar. "Also, Juggernaut, why am I suddenly able to rip rebar off of concrete?"
"Because I'm sharing a fraction of my power with you, and you destroyed Coil?" Juggernaut chuckled. "Also, just rip off his head. He's almost dead."
"Huh, that so?" Mindfox said curiously...
Before she gripped the rebar with both hands and shoved it deep inside of Lung's draconic eye, at the exact spot that pierced his brain...
And his Corona Pollentia.
Lung died almost immediately after that.
~~~~
Eidolon knew that he was just hot air.
Deep inside him, he was still that same, sickly boy that was offered a powerful shard by a doctor who was definitely going to be put on a watchlist.
However...
The power was... Intoxicating, with that vial, he was no longer David, no longer someone that had to be attached with IV drips and all sorts of medical equipment to be kept alive.
He was Eidolon now, an ideal, someone that people looked towards in admiration. An ideal for people to be inspired by, somebody that could light the torch for other heroes to follow.
However, a part of him, a small,
infinitesimal part of him, wanted something more... Something...
with weight.
Deep within him, he wanted something that could
CHALLENGE him.
Find Strong Opponents
He knew that he shouldn't think that way. After all, there was already an opponent so strong that Eidolon
needed to fight in the future. Scion, the Golden Man, the alien who gave humanity powers with shards that forced them to fight and die for
Data.
His mate had already died by Fortuna's hand, a lucky break that Humanity gained in the war against the Entities. Her Path to Victory had gotten them so far, and Cauldron made sure to follow her Path to the letter.
However...
Everything went
horribly wrong when Hadhayosh, now called Behemoth, attacked Iraq.
Heroes from all over the world worked together to combat this unprecedented threat. But it was too strong. After the battle, Iraq
burned.
People prayed that its attack was a one-time thing, but no. Behemoth attacked again, striking Sao Paolo. Then New York.
Six times Behemoth attacked. It was at that point that they realized Behemoth was just something that they would need to deal with until the heroes could find something to destroy the monster.
Find Strong Opponents
However, it wasn't just Behemoth that came from the deepest depths of hell to torment Humanity.
Jormungandr, Leviathan, came next.
A monster that controlled water in ways capes had never known before. Waves crashed on Oslo, Norway on June 9th, 1996. A storm of unprecedented scale battered the city, wiping it clean from the map and causing an unprecedented refugee crisis.
After that, Behemoth and Leviathan started to attack in a pattern, destroying cities in their wake. In response, the Endbringer Truce was made so that heroes and villains would work together to defend against these inhuman forces of destruction.
Things were silent for a while, the current state of things became a pattern that had to be repeated every few months. A pattern that started to feel...
stale.
Find Strong Opponents
And because of that, fate, or some sick sense of humor felt compelled to plague Humanity with one last freak of nature.
She came down to Lausanne, Switzerland on December 30
th, 2002, one day before the New Years.
People that day looked up and stared at this multi-winged woman floating in the sky. The spitting image of an unknowable and terrifying angel from the Christian Bible. It seemed to stare at the populace for a few moments, and sang a song, before flying off into space.
There was no attack that day, no buildings destroyed, no lives lost...
But in six, short months, everything went wrong.
Lausanne became a city of violence. Individuals who had heard the song became antagonistic and hateful. Riots broke out in the streets as normal people and capes rampaged throughout the city.
And after the assassination of the Prime Minister of a country David couldn't even recall, Lausanne was walled off from the world.
That was how Israfel, the Simurgh announced herself to the world. The third and final Endbringer. The most hateful and insidious of them all. Because no matter what you did, once you have heard her song, it was all over.
Your thoughts were no longer your own.
Everything you did, just a vessel for her unknowable design.
All the things that you have done, or what you would do in the future, would only serve to further the designs of the Simurgh, to destroy humanity by making sure that no one could be trusted. Not even those close to you.
You couldn't even trust
yourself.
David hated her. He
loathed her. She was, in his thoughts, the biggest threat to humanity among the Endbringers. An abominable intelligence whose only goal was to kick humanity down when it tried to ascend to greater heights.
Above all of the Endbringers, Simurgh is the one that David
loathed. Hated. Despised.
And she'd dealt despair throughout the world for nine long years.
Find Strong Opponents
Goddamn it, if only he was stronger, if only he wasn't so WEAK!
Find Strong Opponents Find Strong Opponents Find Strong Opponents Find Strong Opponents
Find Strong Opponents
Find Strong Opponents
Find Strong Opponents
Find Strong Opponents
Find Strong Opponents
Find Strong Opponents
He
NEEDED to get stronger, He needed strength. He
must find a way to save Humanity.
If not him, then who would?
Who else will save Humanity if not their strongest champion?
Eidolon had to be strong, the strongest, even. He needed to attain strength to lead Humanity to victory against the Entities. Because if he failed...
Then all of Humanity would fall. Destroyed by the Entities in the name of their
precious Data. Humanity would be nothing more than a footnote to history. A microcosmic fart in the legacy of all universes that came and would come.
He could not let that happen. Not while he had strength left in his body and soul.
And then... THEN... During Canberra, against his most hated foe...
He appeared
...
Juggernaut.
That...
imbecile of a brute just
slammed down the Cape Scene like a meteor, destroying all preconcieved notions of how the world worked for all capes.
He was beyond strength, beyond any sort of counter. Anything and anyone that came to fight him, to defeat him, to
kill him, were not only rebuffed, but destroyed utterly.
Juggernaut was an immovable object and an unstoppable force in one. A man so strong that Eidolon, once the most powerful cape in the world, was now playing second fiddle to this...
man.
Time and time again, David looked deep within him, trying to find the perfect power, or combination of powers to defeat Juggernaut in combat.
However...
Nothing.
His Shard could not fathom any sort of power that could defeat this force of nature. Ice powers would melt, overheating him wouldn't work, exhaustion and trying to debilitate him just slid off his form like water to duck's wings.
Nothing worked.
At the moment, David did not know what could be done with the Juggernaut. He was too strong for any sort of cape to handle. Hell, even Ash Beast was undone when he came to Africa, and now the bastard was in Brockton Bay causing a ruckus!
And then, he had an idea.
If he could somehow discern what shard the Juggernaut had, it would be possible to create countermeasures for him, or even beat him!
David closed his eyes as the swirl of powers inside of him surged. Power after power floated before his eyes, all sorts of Thinker powers that can achieve any goal he could think of.
And yet...
nothing.
His powers could not sense any shards from Juggernaut at all. The Juggernaut did not have a Corona Pollentia.
Mother.
Fucker.
~~~~
"Well, damn..." Daniel Hebert muttered tiredly as he watched Eidolon and Juggernaut through a pair of binoculars. The boat shifted every so often due to the waves. Normally, he would try to relax and enjoy the tiniest of peace that Brockton Bay could offer.
But evacuating the city and surviving the horde of panicking people rendered that impossible.
Fortunately, his daughter was with him. His face didn't show it, but he was relieved. Extremely so. Taylor was his only daughter, his only family. Even though he had depression, Daniel was capable of acting like the father he was.
Sometimes...
Speaking of...
"Dad," Taylor called out to him softly from behind.
Daniel grunted in response, glancing towards his daughter. She was, fortunately, unharmed. Although she looked shaken, which was understandable since Juggernaut was literally on shore a couple of miles away.
Unfortunately, she had been pressing him to go back to said shore. For what goddamn reason, Daniel didn't care nor would he even think about it. Not with Juggernaut on the loose in Brockton Bay. The armored man, thing, whatever, was a walking disaster and he would be damned if he would let his daughter get close to it.
"Dad, please, you need to listen to me," putting down the binoculars, Daniel sighed before turning around to face her. Her eyes were wide and her breathing was erratic. It looked like she was on the verge of breaking down.
"W-we need to get back on shore. I... its... it's a lot safer there than here!"
Daniel frowned. "Taylor, Juggernaut's on shore. Its a lot safer here than there—"
"Then go to the other side! As long as it's not where Juggernaut is, it's fine, right?!" Taylor bit her lips, frustration showing on her face. "Anywhere but... but here!"
Another sigh left Daniel's lips. "Taylor, what's gotten into you?" he asked worriedly.
What his daughter was suggesting was a bad idea. The boat only had enough fuel for a short trip back to shore after Juggernaut had been dealt with. Certainly not enough to circle around the Bay to find a safer place.
Plus, he was not risking his daughter even after Juggernaut had gone. After it got dealt with, he would not sail back to shore for at least a few more hours. He managed to pack enough supplies to last an entire day, so they should be able to stay a while longer.
Now if only the Bay's water was clean instead of a toxic sludg—
Taylor suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders, her eyes were wider than before and she was noticeably panicking. "Dad! We need to go back to shore, please!"
"No, Taylor, that's fina—" Daniel wasn't able to finish his sentence as he heard buzzing. Lots of buzzin—
"What the hell?!" a swarm of flies covered his vision, making him panic. He couldn't even hear anything but the buzzing of the insects.
But that doesn't matter.
"Taylor, get back!" he tried to swat at the flies.
At the very least, he should act like a real dad for his daughte—
"Sorry, dad..."
Through all the buzzing, that was the only thing Daniel heard from his daughter before he felt something hard hit him at the back of the head.
~~~~
Getting the boat to move took a bit of time, but thankfully, her dad always had a notepad with instructions beside it. Why her dad had a set of instructions on how to start the boat, Taylor didn't know, but she wasn't going to complain.
Hopefully, she didn't hit him too hard. A concussion would be bad, but that'd be better than staying still and waiting for fucking Leviathan to say hi.
She really wanted to tell her dad that she was feeling the crabs, lobsters, and shrimp fucking panicking. Their instincts were telling them two things.
Fucking.
Run.
First, Juggernaut, and then Leviathan? From one problem to the next. It was like jumping out of the pan and into the fire. Because they had not only one problem, but two of them.
And the two problems could level cities. One could just run around and destroy everything at Mach plus speed, and the other could just decide to flood the entire city and fuck off afterwards.
Truthfully, Taylor didn't know which of the two were worse!
Either way, it was better to be near and slightly far than the Juggernaut than to literally have Leviathan lurking beneath them waiting to appear and give them the jump scare of a lifetime.
She'd seen plenty of jump scares in videos and in games, but a jump scare from a thirty-foot monster was something she would rather
not experience. At. All.
Focusing on her senses, she nervously watched Leviathan lurking under the water. The way it remained still under the water, its eyes staring at nothing made Taylor shiver. It was waiting, biding its time.
For what reason, Taylor didn't know and neither did she care. All she wanted to do was to steer clear from the Endbringer. Hell, she would even help every single insect leave the area. Anything to stop the feeling of dread creeping down on her.
"Come on, almost there," Taylor muttered. The shoreline looked so close yet so far. With an Endbringer behind her and her dad, that might as well be something she was feeling even though she was going at full speed.
"Fuck," she flinched as she saw Leviathan move slightly through the eyes of the numerous crustaceans beneath her. Her breathing was erratic, adrenaline surged throughout her body as her heart rate accelerated.
She would even go as far as to say that she felt more adrenaline pumping into her the longer she stared at Leviathan.
The flickering of the gas light made Taylor grimace. "Not now, just a bit more, please!" she glanced at her dad's unconscious body before nodding to herself.
Taylor needed to get her dad to safety, as soon as possible.
~~~~
AN:
~~~~
MC entering in Brockton Bay
Goes to off the Merchant Leaders Skidmark and Squealer
Next is Coil, juggs tracks down tattletale, strongarms her to help armsmaster to defuse coil's deadman switches, proceeds to walk through coil's base and catch and kill him.
Local PRT constantly trying to stop him with reinforcements being brought in to deal with the S class Ziz bomb, kinda pseudo endbringer fight, accidentally kills some (shadow stalker dies), which escalates prt response more
(Shadow Stalker dies inconsequentially due to the result of something Juggernaut does in relation to something else)
Next Lung and Oni Lee shows up, unable to kill oni lee due to his teleporting power to keep away, Lung fights and ramps up to the same point he was fighting leviathan at Kyushu
Huge fight between juggs and lung, large collateral damage, triumvrate shows up
Eidolon wanting to fight juggernaut real bad accidentally attracts leviathan who shows up early ahead of schedule
Leviathan shows up, endbringer alarms ring chapter ends
Next chapter is endbringer fight
EB fight chapter from everyone elses' pov but the MC's
Go wild with what you want to write
Do not worry about word count
Juggernaut kills Leviathan in the end
