Her power, to create the bomb. Ten and a half feet long.
Without even being asked, the Simurgh caught it with her telekinesis and flung it. Scion dodged, and the Simurgh moved the bomb to ensure it hit the target.
The cape beside her used his power to contain the damage, to direct it outward, skyward, to shield us from sound, light and shockwave.
The clouds had been struck from the sky.
What remained of Bastard, cut free where the flesh dangled below the erected barrier, fell into the water. It continued to spread over the Bay’s surface and creep towards the beach.
That effect would end before it became a problem, I suspected.
Yet Scion appeared untouched. He was cleaner, even. Scoured of the blood and dirt. Pristine.
“A bottomless well,” I said.
“Bottomless enough to matter,” Tattletale said. “We take out pounds of flesh, but it’s really only removing a drop from the bucket at a time. Then the ‘water’ flows out, high pressure, filling the gaps.”
“And morale plunges,” I said, staring out at the capes who were hanging back, staring at the scene rather than participating.
“Psychological,” Tattletale said. “Just like Endbringers. He crafted that body for a reason.”
I nodded.
“We understand him more with every passing moment,” she said. “It doesn’t help. Just the opposite, really.”
I couldn’t bring myself to answer.
I heard voices behind us, the noise of thrumming engines.
Reinforcements had arrived. Chevalier, members of the Protectorate, Leviathan.
And at that same moment, Scion was gone.
I’d grasped, some time ago, that flight added a whole new dimension of possibilities to battle. Scion brought a fourth dimension, capable of stepping out of the fight any time he wanted.
“Running?” I said.
“No. Moving on to the next target. He’s going to do a rotation,” Tattletale said. “Hit each area in turn, then go.”
I nodded slowly. “Going to do better next time.”
“You didn’t do anything this time,” Tattletale said.
She was right. I was… what, supposed to coordinate powers? Pull something?
I’d been on my heels the entire time. Not scared…
Well, yes, scared.
But more in awe, out of my depth, remembering the last fight and seeing this fight, knowing how small I was… This wasn’t a fight that would be won with some gimmicks. It wasn’t a fight that would be won with a lot of gimmicks. I could see it in the trigger-event vision I’d glimpsed, in the way things were playing out, the costs, the lack of any concrete gains…
I shook my head.
“I‘m not going to be on the battlefield the next time.”
29.03
“We knew it would come to this,” Legend said.
I turned around. My hands were full as I unbelted a tightly folded blanket and draped it over one of the wounded.
A surprising number of wounded, in the end. Twenty or so injured from an aircraft that had been partially obliterated, eighteen more people who’d had their legs sliced off. Nearly forty Dragon’s Teeth with mild injuries, their armor melted to their faces, chests, arms and legs. Scion had tried his usual assortment of attacks, and they’d evaded them. Enhanced strength from the costumes, predictive technology from the onboard artificial intelligences.
So he’d used a power they couldn’t dodge, a power they couldn’t block. A light that radiated outward and melted the materials of their costumes.
Cauldron hadn’t been there to reinforce the group. If they had been, it might have been a staging ground. Instead, the group had folded and Scion had come after the portal that was closest.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“When we were predicting what would happen with the Endbringers, we said that we’d be forced to regroup, consolidate our forces. Every fight would result in losses, so we’d have to abandon positions, move people from an abandoned post to keep numbers up.”
“I can see that,” I said.
An outpost abandoned. The world Defiant and Dragon had been looking after was being abandoned as a lost cause. There were countless people still alive, but they were spread out, and there was no way to mount a proper defense with our forces spread too thin.
“If there’s an upside,” Legend said, his tone changing as if he were forcing himself to be less grim. “Tattletale said we’re making headway. It doesn’t look like it, but we’re taking chunks out of him. The strongest of us survive, we regroup, see what works, we’re stronger when it comes to the next fight.”
Except he’s indiscriminate. He’s killing the ones who can actually affect him, because he’s being reactive. We’re not stronger by virtue of the strongest surviving and consolidating because the only difference between this fight and the next is that we’ll be less.
I kept my mouth shut.
“Defiant and Dragon will be joining you guys here, to make up for the ones you lost. You’ll have Leviathan, at the very least. Chevalier and I will be a matter of minutes away.”
A few minutes is too long, I thought. But I didn’t want to state the obvious, didn’t want to argue.
I was trying to be good, trying not to raise any problems with a guy who could well be sensitive over the fact that I’d murdered one of his closest companions a few years back.
Besides, I knew that this pep talk was most likely Legend trying to reassure the wounded. Maybe even him trying to reassure himself.
He took his time, putting fresh bandages on a wound.
“I’ve followed your career,” Legend said. “I’ve seen you on the battlefields, fighting the Endbringers, old and new. The bugs are noticeable.”
“I’m nothing special.”
“You rendered Alexandria brain dead,” Legend told me. “That warrants attention.”
“Fair enough,” I said. I managed to get another blanket unbelted from the arrangement of straps that kept it in a folded position and then draped it over someone. Legend moved the end of the blanket, where it rested on the patient’s wounded foot.
“I wanted to know who it was that had killed Rebecca. I kept an eye on everything you did in the Protectorate, looked for the details about your past. I understand if that seems creepy…”
“I think I get it. You were close to her.”
“I felt close to her. In the end, though, there was a gap between my feelings and the reality. Still is, I suppose. Go through enough with people, build something from the ground up, you form ties.”
“Yeah,” I said. I looked over my shoulder. Mai, one of the kids Charlotte and Forrest were looking after, was there, alongside one of Rachel’s henchmen and a puppy. Giving comfort to a child from the other settlement who’d been burned by the same effect that melted the costumes of the Dragon’s Teeth. The burns weren’t horrible, but it made it hard to tell the child’s ethnicity or gender.
But the child was scratching the puppy behind the ear. Rachel stood nearby, arms folded, stern and ominous. I felt a kind of fondness, tempered by a kind of hesitance, like I couldn’t let myself hold on too tight to the friendship and familiarity because she could be dead by the end of the day. Though it was sharper than it had been in the past, it wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling.
Legend was looking at me when I turned back to him. “Yeah.”
“It doesn’t always make for the most sound decisions.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. I had to scoot out of the way as some doctors hurried by with fresh tools and equipment. Removing the dissolved materials from burned flesh was something of a task, and there were a lot of people to help.
“I always knew there was something wrong, underneath it all, but there were bigger things to focus on. You finish dealing with one Endbringer attack or a potential war with parahuman attacks on both sides, it demands all of your focus. You’re left drained, dealing with the event or the aftermath, and then yo
u need to recuperate, you have an organization to manage. There’s never a moment where you can stop, take a deep breath, and then say, ‘now is the moment where I address that nagging doubt I had the other day’. Now is the moment I call so-and-so out on that less-than-complete truth they used while we were elbow-deep in Indonesian cyborg super-soldiers.”
“I think I know exactly what you mean.”
“I think it’s very possible you do,” he said.
“But you can’t dwell on it,” I said.
“If you don’t give it the necessary attention, then how do you prevent it from becoming a cycle?”
“You don’t. You look back at your reasons for making the choices when you made the choices, you recognize that you didn’t address or act on your suspicions and doubts because you had higher priorities at the time, and you make peace with it.”
“Have you? Made peace with it?”
“I’m on my way there, Legend.”
“I’m not sure I want to go there,” he said. “Give me a hand? Hold his leg up?”
I nodded.
Gore. A foot reduced to something unrecognizable. The man would probably lose it.
But Legend still tended to the limb with care. Almost gentle. I tried to be as graceful in keeping the leg in the air.
The soldier made a noise of pain as Legend cleaned the foot, using a laser to sever a tag of flesh that was holding a piece of boot on. I reached out and held the man’s hand.
“You came in here for a reason,” Legend said.
I looked up.
“It’s not about taking care of the wounded,” he said. “You’re not devoting a great deal of attention to keeping an eye on Hellhound, either. Yes, you could use your swarm to discreetly observe her, to discreetly observe anyone in your range, but I don’t think that’s why you came here.”
I started to respond, but the soldier’s leg started kicking, an almost involuntary nerve reaction. I had to pull my hand from his to hold his leg as still as possible.
We eased it down until he was lying flat, his leg on the bed. I pulled a blanket over him, as carefully as I could.
“You have a question, or questions,” Legend said, “But you’re not asking them because you’re worried about the response. Either it’s something touchy, or there’s another reason why you’re holding back.”
I sighed. “If you don’t have an answer for me, then I’m not sure I know what I’m going to do next.”
“So this is about something only I would know?”
“Basically,” I said. “We don’t have access to that broad a pool of people, right now.”
“Okay,” Legend said. “What do you need to know?”
“Cauldron’s portals.”
“Closed. They’re created by a parahuman called Doormaker. The Doctor told me he was blind and deaf to his surroundings, but I think it’s far more likely that it’s to do with another parahuman she partnered him with. Someone who grants sensory awareness. I think the Doctor gave Doormaker too much exposure to this parahuman and destroyed or atrophied his other senses. One of those nagging doubts I never acted on.”
We passed by Rachel, Rachel’s minion and Mai. I gave Rachel a little nod of acknowledgement as we stepped outside.
Then we stepped outside. There was a shattered sign over the boarded-up windows. Apparently Tattletale had made some business deals and tried to get things in place for this to become a city like any one in Earth Bet. The pieces were there, but the furniture had yet to be installed, the food yet to be supplied. An empty fast food place, now a makeshift hospital.
Eat fresh? I thought. Not likely.
I took in the scene. Capes were still reeling from the attack, and again, it was the monsters and the lunatics that seemed to be standing, while others sat, recovering, catching their breath, mustering their courage.
Nilbog, engaged in conversation with Glaistig Uaine.
Four of the Heartbroken, with Imp and Romp. A maskless Imp gave Bonesaw a glare as the girl hurried, in the company of Marquis and Panacea, to the fast food place Legend and I had just left.
Lung was alone, looking angry, frustrated, almost more agitated than he’d been before or during the fight. His eyes were on Leviathan, who was down by the water, but I didn’t get the impression Leviathan was the source of the frustration.
Parian and Foil were together, Foil with her mask off. They’d curled up in a space between two large bins of food, Foil resting her head on Parian’s shoulder, their hands and fingers entwined.
Tattletale was caught up in a conversation with Knave of Clubs, and fell under the Simurgh’s shadow. The Simurgh, for her part, seemed to be busy building other tinker devices, drawing on the abilities of tinkers in the immediate area.
Vista was sitting on a rooftop, two stories high. Her eyes were closed, her hands set behind her so she could lean back a bit. Her face turned towards the sky.
There were other capes in the area, looking a little more serious, focused on business. Chevalier was with Defiant and Dragon, Black Kaze, Saint, Masamune and Canary. Some of them drifted off, making their way towards us.
“If it helps,” Legend said, “I don’t think Doormaker is dead. There have been two interruptions in his power, to date. One followed an earthquake. He was unhurt, but his partner… well, it was a clue that a partner existed. His doors all went down simultaneously the moment the earthquake hit the facility. I don’t think his power is the type that would outlast him after death, if it was so easily interrupted while he was alive.”
“So he’s alive because the doors are still open in places.”
“Alive and unable or unwilling to use his power,” Legend said.
I nodded. “So is it Cauldron running or is it another agency?”
I could see Legend’s expression change. I’d heard him talk before, saying as much, but his face was what told me, above all else, that he was burdened by regrets. “I wish I could say it was the latter.”
“But you don’t know.”
“I remain in the dark when it comes to Cauldron.”
“What about Satyrical?” I asked. “He was investigating with his team, wasn’t he?”
“He was, but he tends towards radio silence, Pretender’s people have since well before the Vegas teams cut ties with the Protectorate. They claimed it was because there would inevitably be a parahuman who could uncover them if they left channels open. Now… well, isn’t that the way most things were? Secrets, lies, conspiracies.”
“It is, but-” I tried to find a way to politely say what I was trying to say.
“But?”
“With all due respect, and I really do mean that because I respect you, I respect that you’ve participated in the fights, I get where you’re coming from…”
“You’re spending too much time couching what you’re saying,” Legend said. “Rest assured, I can handle what you’re about to throw at me. I think worse things to myself all the time.”
“I’m impatient. That’s all. Scion’s going to attack again, and I don’t plan to be here,” I said.
“You want a portal to get out of here,” Legend said.
“No,” I said. “I don’t want an escape. I want to act.”
“We’re acting,” Legend said.
“We’re reacting.”
“If you have ideas for something pre-emptive, I think we could all stand to hear it.”
I shook my head. “Nothing definitive.”
“Even something that isn’t definitive.”
“I want to find Cauldron. They have contingency plans we know they haven’t put into effect yet, and they have answers they’ve yet to provide.”
“Cauldron is very good at leading people to believe that they have the answers and then disappointing,” Legend said. “Take it from someone who knows. Ah. I’m doing it again, aren’t I? Like an old man.”
He smiled, and I smiled a little too.
“You’re an old man?” Chevalier asked. His group had just joined us.
“Taylor here was just very politely trying to tell me I’m wasting her time on reminiscing and regrets.”
“You have something better to do?” Defiant asked me.
“Defiant,” Dragon said, admonishing him. She was in her armor, but had her helmet off. The face was real. Plain, but real.
She’s an A.I. A false person. What else had Saint said? She’s deceiving us? It’s all an act?
“…came out wrong,” Defiant was saying. Very deliberately, he said, “I am genuinely curious what you’re doing, Weaver.”
Dragon smiled a little, as if a private thought had crossed her mind.
The doubts Saint had seeded dissipated.
Ninety percent of them.
“I was telling Legend I want to go after Cauldron,” I said. “A member of the Chicago Wards was saying that sending Satyrical to go investigate is like sending a fox to guard the henhouse.”
“Satyrical has definite ties to Cauldron,” Dragon said. “If nothing else, Pretender maintains connections to the group. If Cauldron is running, or if they are pulling something covert, then it’s very possible Satyrical is on board or is going to be brought on board.”
Chevalier shifted the Cannonblade to his other hand, then stabbed the point into the ground. It looked different. His armor looked different. Gold and black, instead of gold and silver. “It also means he and the Las Vegas capes are well equipped to know how Cauldron operates, and identify clues others would miss. We sent them with others we could trust. They’ve been reporting in on schedule.”
I opened my mouth. Chevalier spoke before I could. “-With stranger and master precautions in place.”
I frowned.
“You’re strong when it comes to improvising,” Chevalier told me. “We’ve got a moment to breathe. We think he’s hitting another world, one we don’t have access to. We’re regrouping, figuring out who goes where, and we’re trying to set things up so we can mobilize faster. I can’t tell you what to do. I wouldn’t if I could. But we could use you here.”
“We’re losing, here,” I said. “Legend was being positive, but… I don’t think we can really delude ourselves that far. He’s tearing us apart while holding back. If we put up a fight or if we don’t hold back, he hits us harder, like he hit the Guild. He can always top us, and he can always say he’s had enough and then just nuke the continent. That’s not a recipe for an eventual win.”
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