Leviathan: 73% HP
Another nick, I thought. All we can do is prick his hide.
Jolt tossed me a nod, and I returned it awkwardly. He settled into a battle stance as Leviathan roared and launched himself toward the speedster, but before he could hit Jolt, the rock-man that had attacked Spydar barreled into him from behind. They went down in a tangle, and the elemental hero acquitted himself as well as could be expected, landing a few echoing blows that threatened to split the square into a true canyon.
“I had heard the stories,” the creature said as it rained its judgment down. “We all had. That the almighty Leviathan used others to do his killing. I didn’t want to believe them.”
Leviathan’s eyes were shut. This one was strong. He had to Shift again.
When the rock man raised his fist up to smash back down, Leviathan caught it, and punched with his free hand to take a chunk out of his attacker’s body, sending him backward.
Yet the rock-man had taken another notch off our enemy’s health.
Leviathan: 72% HP
I could hardly believe my eyes when more heroes took up the call. A blue and gray cyborg fired lightning arrows from atop a pile of rubble, and Leviathan took three to the back before he launched a hundred-pound tile across the square and shattered the hero’s bow and the metallic hand that held it.
Leviathan: 71% HP
On and on it went, with more heroes leaping in alongside the villains. Jolt was joined by two other speedsters, one dressed in yellow armor and the other in red, likely his apprentices. They ran circles around Leviathan but didn’t dare get too close lest he catch them.
This was our chance. This was our real chance. Everyone had seen his true colors. Heroes and villains alike were running for Leviathan now, but even that might not be enough.
I needed a way to speak to every player, and found my answer soon enough. A pair of NPC cops were huddled behind the open doors of the squad car they had parked on the grass to my right. There were speakers on the roof in front of the red and blue lights. I sprinted toward them, waving for two of my men to join me. The cops were so caught up with the tumult in the square they didn’t see us until we were on top of them.
“Stop right—”
“Guns!” I said, opting for brute force for once. “Drop them!”
An Influence icon appeared above the head of one, but the other started to squeeze his trigger. One of Post’s thugs beat him to it, depositing a bullet right into his head.
“Step aside,” I said to his partner, who was now blinking in confusion. He did as he was asked, and I reached into the car and grabbed hold of the transmitter.
“He is no god!” I shouted, my voice amplified.
Those heroes and villains still locked in their private fights within the larger battle turned toward my corner of the square. I tried to seize on their fascination, jabbing an accusing finger at Leviathan. “He is corruption. He is everything that is wrong with Titan Online. He kills with no consequence – you’ve seen that now. He lords over the city, and the city across the water, while the rest of us stagnate. How many rivalries have you begun in the last few years? How many crisis events have you played a major role in? You heroes of Titan City have been reduced to cheerleaders while Leviathan, Meteora, Prism and their ilk have taken the lion’s share of Fame, in-game and out.”
Those not already fighting Leviathan turned to face me.
“And what about those of you who don’t need Fame or Infamy? What about those of you who are here for stories, to make them and be a part of them? Every story in Titan Online ends the same. Every story ends with Leviathan. Today, his own story must end, but we need you – all of you – to help make that happen.”
Cheers rose, and rivalries were set aside as the players of Titan Online at last turned upon their tyrant king.
“Men,” I said, directing the NPCs I could see in the area. “Direct your fire!” I pointed at Leviathan, and ten sub-machine guns opened fire. No meaningful damage, but even if they distracted him enough for the other players to land their hits, it was worthwhile.
Leviathan was frothing now. Jolt came in with another punch that sent him tumbling as he leapt upon two of Post’s men and flung them bodily away.
Leviathan: 69% HP
More players appeared in the skies, popping into the server. I thought they had come to watch. Some had, but not all.
A snake of green fire twisted free from an amulet one clutched in his demonic hands. The burning serpent coated Leviathan’s form in flame. He thrashed madly, his cape burning up into ashes.
Leviathan: 68% HP
I thought Leviathan might attempt an emergency Shift back to armor, but it appeared he knew the game was lost. There were too many players arrayed against him, with too many powers at their disposal. Each second spend thickening his hide would only make him slower and weaker. If the fight lasted too long, he would lose. A death by a thousand cuts.
I saw him blink, Shifting his stats once more. He launched himself skyward and shattered the demon’s amulet with a single blow. He carried the punch through to strike the red-skinned demon in the gut, then smashed him down toward the ground like a volleyball. The demon hit the square hard, his HP flashing red.
Leviathan seemed unstoppable. His movements were a blur, his strikes dispatching enemy players with speed and ferocity. I could only imagine what his stats looked like now.
He must have almost 500 points to play with in order to fight like this, to move like this. His brawn and agility had to be well over 200 points apiece. If he’d kept points in mind to be safe—no psychic attacks seemed to have any effect on him—then his armor might be low now. 20 at best, or perhaps none at all. Leviathan was now fighting like a glass cannon.
The battle raged on, and Leviathan struck down a dozen enemy players, and then ten more. It looked less like a war and more like a hunt gone horribly wrong.
Finally, he landed in the broken square, panting like a wolf. His knees shook.
Leviathan: 68% HP
All that, and not even a scratch to show for it. He hadn’t killed a single player in his rage, which, I had to admit, was impressive in its own right. Whatever player was behind Leviathan, they had mastered his inhuman physicality—precision and finesse mixed with Herculean might. Opponents lay scattered and broken about him, and those left on their feet backed away slowly, retreating to the edges of the battlefield and hoping not to be noticed.
Leviathan’s eyes found me once again.
“Ah, well,” I said, not feeling nearly as despondent as I expected. “Good scrap, ol’ Levi. Good scrap.”
I dusted myself off, tried to make myself look as presentable as possible in all my strange mix of hero and villain attire.
“Who are you?” Leviathan asked. He didn’t sound like he really wanted to know. It was asked on reflex. He needed a name to put to the mask, and the face on the other side of it.
“Name was Streak,” I said. No spark of recognition. Nothing. It was disappointing, but again, not as much as I thought it would be. “Now, I go by Despot.” I lowered my voice so that only Leviathan would hear me. “In the real world, I’m called Karna. It’s a name for a—”
“Godkiller,” Leviathan said. “I know it.”
I inclined my head and dipped a modest bow.
“You failed.”
“Did I?”
Strained seconds passed in which Leviathan had no answer.
“You did well,” he said. I knew he was angry. I could see it in his eyes. But he was ever the showman, even after all that had happened. At least, he tried to be. “But you all failed.” He made a show of looking around, nodding as if he was appreciative of the efforts the players had made to stop him.
He was a better actor than I had given him credit for. I almost believed him.
He shot towards me, fist extended. Somehow, I knew this was it. He wasn’t going to hold back on me.
And I was out of moves. No swarm grenades. No NPCs close eno
ugh to call upon, even if they could have helped. I was too slow to run and too weak to fight him. Far too weak. Even if his armor was at 0 now, I couldn’t have ended it. My power, such as it was, had all been in knowledge.
Had I failed? Not in my estimation. Leviathan had been unmasked and it was proven he could be damaged. Things would never be the same in Titan again, even if I died. So I’d won, in a way, even as my vision focused on that fist hurtling towards me.
I stood with arms out wide, hoping he’d kill me and tier down as a final act of revenge.
“Leviathan!”
I knew the voice. It was clear and bold and defiant.
Leviathan halted his attack, frowned, and turned toward the voice. Turned toward the western sky, now the brightest part of it as the sun continued its arc.
The beam took him in the chest and passed through it, burning a trench into the stone and gravel behind him.
Leviathan didn’t have time to look down after it was done. He didn’t even have time to fall. Just like that, for all the world to see, the most powerful player in history simply ceased to be.
I blinked at the place where he had stood, and blinked at the viewer bot that trundled down from on high to inspect the spot.
Encounter Ends
Despot vs. Leviathan
Leviathan has been betrayed by a fellow hero and slain.
No Infamy Awarded.
Your role in Leviathan’s demise has been noted.
Threat Index Increased!
New Threat Index: Titan
The skies darkened, and then I remembered Starshot. I looked back up to the place where she had been and saw nothing, but then I followed the direction of the collective gazes of every hero and villain in Titan Online.
The girl I had known as Starshot was standing on the edge of Heroes’ Square. The emerald leaves of the gardens swayed in the distance behind her, and though the sun shone down on her, none of it illuminated her.
She walked toward me, stumbling a bit, and staring at her hands the whole way. When she reached me, Starshot’s glow was gone. In its place was a shifting, amorphous border of black and lavender shadow. Tongues of flickering dark trailed motes like fire. Her suit, which had been white and gold, morphed, with black taking over, and with purple infecting the star in the center.
“What…” she started.
“You’re tiering up,” I said, smiling in horrified fascination.
“But…”
“Not as a hero,” I said. “You’re flipping, hero to villain.”
Starshot has shifted allegiance
Tier 6 Villain
Threat Index: Titan
I smiled, proud as could be, but Starshot fell to her knees, and my heart broke to see the change.
I looked around and saw the stares reflected back at me. There was no storm breaking the sky, no thunder rolling in the distance. There were no cheering crowds; even the villains looked too stunned by their newfound power to celebrate in the middle of Titan City. The heroes did not look somber, but shocked.
But something had changed. The world of Titan Online had shifted. We all felt it, even if it would take hours, days and even weeks to understand why.
Starshot had landed the killing blow, so no golden sparks greeted her or me. No influx of Infamy to send me into the stratosphere of villains. I was still only a tier-five player, but everyone knew it had been me.
They knew that I killed God, even if I hadn’t been the one to lay him low.
Starshot looked up at me. Her suit was a mix of lavender and black shadows that moved like a second skin. She tried to call to her power, and a yellow light was birthed on the edges of her blackened palms.
“Sometimes it takes a villain to play hero,” I said. “You’re still you, Starshot.”
Her eyes shone through a film of tears, but she smiled.
“I’m still me.”
Twenty-Seven
Beginnings
Leviathan was dead.
I was so caught up in the rush of victory, and I had given so much thought to what we had done, that I hadn’t devoted much attention to the implications.
Blackstrike helped Starshot – it was hard to think of her that way given her new appearance – to her feet, and the three of us stood in the cracked center of what had been the pristine stage on which the heroes of Titan City preened themselves each morning.
No shadows fell upon us now. We had destroyed the tower and purged its corruption. We were surrounded by heroes and villains of every persuasion. There was only a stunned silence, and many eyes looking from one to the other, as if to confirm what they were seeing was real.
Somehow, my receiver was still working. I heard the telltale crackle. I was so dazed and delirious from the fight – from the outcome – that I expected to hear B5’s voice. Instead, it was Madam Post.
“I have him,” the old crone said. She sounded like she might swoon as she rambled on. It took me a while to remember what she was talking about. Then it came back hazily: the mayor. The crisis event objective. I’d put him in a van and sent him on his way. “Well done, my boy,” Post squeaked in delight. “Well done.”
Your Reputation with Madam Post has increased!
Madam Post (Doom Docks)
Alignment: Allies (1000/6000)
Although pleased to see my reputation with the old bat had gone up, I didn’t want to deal with her right now. I cut her call off. Time enough for Post’s thanks later. And with the objective of the day fulfilled, in came the notifications every player was here for.
Notice: Crisis Event Ended
The Mayor has been captured. The villains have won the day!
Infamy Reward: High Value
Armistice: as the dust settles, all PvP is deactivated for the next 24 hours.
I couldn’t help but smile. I’d forgotten entirely about the event itself as we’d fought Leviathan, and his death alone would have been enough. Yet here was a heady influx of Infamy for all our trouble, a fitting reward for taking down a god.
All around, the villains of Titan Online who had participated in the event began to tier up. Good or bad, new power was always preceded by shimmering gold, and the square was glittering with it.
Even I got a taste, once the AI calculated my share of the crisis event Infamy. And what a taste it was.
I did tell you tiering up never got old, didn’t I?
Congratulations! Your Infamy has increased sufficiently to advance you to Tier 4!
Base stats have been increased
New Stats Populating…
Mind: 35
Brawn: 15
Agility: 25
Armor: 15 (+10)
Charisma: 60
Around the square, villains fired guns into the air, whooped and hollered and launched into a celebration that seemed unbecoming of cunning masters of evil. From a distance, they must have sounded like a great pack of howling coyotes, or yipping jackals. Close up, they didn’t look much different.
Some approached us – approached me – and shook my hand, along with the hands of Starshot and Blackstrike, and not in an ironic way. They wanted to touch us. To greet us. To thank us for what we had engineered.
It didn’t seem to be so much about the fact that we had kicked off an XP bonus for them, but more so that the villains had actually prevailed in a major engagement, even if they had some help from the heroes who were meant to be their sworn enemies.
I couldn’t help but think back again to Deadlock’s words on that fateful day, when he claimed the AI wanted the villains to win for a change. Well, we’d done just that. I hoped wherever he was out there, he would watch and feel satisfied he’d been avenged.
The looks on some of the heroes’ faces suggested they wanted to continue the fight right there. Good thing there was a twenty-four-hour ceasefire after crisis events for this very reason. Tomorrow, the heroes and villains of Titan City would be at each other’s throats once more.
A player with a tiger’s head on an armore
d body approached me next.
“Despot, is it?”
I nodded.
“Well met.”
On it went, with the villains forming a snaking line. I won’t say it made me proud to see the villains celebrating the destruction of the heart of the city I had once defended with my life. But we had accomplished something here. We had done something that even Deadlock and his crew had failed at, time and time again. We had not simply beat against the ivory gates and let our ire be known. We had torn them down, ripped them from their hinges, and slain the lords who’d kept them closed.
The tide had turned. We could all feel it. Every player, in-game and out.
The tide had turned, and there was no telling what would come next.
As for the heroes, they took turns looking from one another to the cracked stones on which they stood. Many of the heroes in Titan City had aided in Leviathan’s demise directly. Those who had not actively sped his death along hadn’t exactly rushed in to prevent it, either. Their initial fascination with seeing Leviathan threatened had morphed into shock at his death, and now, for many, guilt at having played a part, however small.
‘What have we done?’ those looks seemed to ask.
It remained to be seen.
Still, I saw the way some of them were starting to look at us. Not every hero had interfered on our behalf. In fact, only a handful had. As for the rest, they might not have any great love for Leviathan or Meteora, but they were heroes and we were villains, and in this case, we had won. We had come into the heart of Titan City and killed a god and his monument. Their god. Their monument. We had created a power vacuum, but we had also made the city vulnerable. We had emboldened hundreds of villains who would soon become thousands, and we had done it directly and emphatically.
Mastermind Page 40