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Yesterday, this was an ordinary twenty-first century city. Today it's a war zone, tomorrow it'll be walled off and abandoned.
A few collapsed buildings, shattered streets, and assorted craters. The place is mostly empty, with scattered groups of mostly humanoid monsters roaming and trying to escape the guarded fence around the city. The most instantly noticeable change is an ongoing wordless singing in the back of the mind of anyone present. By itself it's just a sound. An unpleasant sound, and almost but not quite predictable as if someone were trying to attack the listener's sanity without saying anything, but possible to ignore. But along with it, any time a listener closes their eyes they get flashes of memories. Not their worst memories, but whatever negative ones can stick with them unforgettably. It builds up associations between the feelings in those images and almost anything else. Sometimes there's a recognizable common thread and other times there isn't.
An angel fights off teams of opponents. She's fifteen feet tall, extremely winged, with more wings than is strictly necessary for an angel. Even some of her wings have wings. All of them are asymmetric and varyingly sized. A spherical halo of weaponry surrounds her, firing at her more distant enemies from across the battlefield. Her opponents cycle in and out: a golden man, a man surrounded by a bubble, a woman in a dark costume, all flying. Others make certain to stay away after taking their turn, on rare occasions spending too long hearing the angel's music. Those ones voluntarily self-destruct.
A small group of ordinary humans takes refuge in a house as far from the battle as they can reach. The song is quieter here, and, they hope, less potent. Some of them run away from and back to the house, occasionally calling for help. They haven't found any.
whole_new_can
wormcan
"That depends on which one. The biggest mistake people make when facing Leviathan is to underestimate him; he will have unexpected tactics and he will be faster than he looks. He fights as a Brute would, but is fast enough to avoid most counterattacks and will also weaponize any large water reserves nearby. Against him, you would most likely be holding back tidal waves. Those are his real weapon, and few capes can slow them down directly.
If it's Behemoth, the lightning and radiation are his main weapons as well as his most obvious ones. The more people you can protect the better. There exist capes who can let others go into his radius safely, but if you can give the defenders a sufficiently absolute defense, you'd be the only one who could do it in any numbers. And don't bother trying to blind him; the eye is a decoy.
There isn't very much that's known, of course. They usually have a goal, that's something we don't tell the public, and if anyone figures out what it is then we have an advantage. Last time we didn't guess it was Professor Haywire until too late."
If it's Behemoth, the lightning and radiation are his main weapons as well as his most obvious ones. The more people you can protect the better. There exist capes who can let others go into his radius safely, but if you can give the defenders a sufficiently absolute defense, you'd be the only one who could do it in any numbers. And don't bother trying to blind him; the eye is a decoy.
There isn't very much that's known, of course. They usually have a goal, that's something we don't tell the public, and if anyone figures out what it is then we have an advantage. Last time we didn't guess it was Professor Haywire until too late."
ertia
"Okay. I'm not at an information-gathering advantage, but I can help with the obvious combat and collateral damage."
wormcan
And back to normal.
Well, mostly normal. One night she does run into some capes engaged in in their preferred activity. In retrospect it was only a matter of time; would have been strange if that never happened. One is that plant-themed supervillain, surrounded by half-bear-half-tree monstrosities. They aren't very controlled, damaging anything less tough than a brick wall as often as they strike at their enemies. The only potential target who doesn't get attacked is their creator.
Their opponents are a pair of even more villainous-looking capes. One has a suit loaded with spikes and barbs, and doesn't appear to have any qualms about wielding deadlier weapons. On second glance, five fit that description, then fifteen. Some kind of a duplicator power. The duplicates fare poorly against the monsters. The third cape is both wearing and wielding chains, with some power not immediately obvious allowing him to make progress against the drop bears one at a time.
Well, mostly normal. One night she does run into some capes engaged in in their preferred activity. In retrospect it was only a matter of time; would have been strange if that never happened. One is that plant-themed supervillain, surrounded by half-bear-half-tree monstrosities. They aren't very controlled, damaging anything less tough than a brick wall as often as they strike at their enemies. The only potential target who doesn't get attacked is their creator.
Their opponents are a pair of even more villainous-looking capes. One has a suit loaded with spikes and barbs, and doesn't appear to have any qualms about wielding deadlier weapons. On second glance, five fit that description, then fifteen. Some kind of a duplicator power. The duplicates fare poorly against the monsters. The third cape is both wearing and wielding chains, with some power not immediately obvious allowing him to make progress against the drop bears one at a time.
ertia
Kithabel turns invisible on noticing that this is going on at all. She double-checks that these people are all villains on the Internet.
wormcan
The guy with the ambulatory whatevers is; Blasto singlehandedly took over East Allston last spring. The duplicator is Spree, one of the more visible and violent members of a local gang, but his ally is harder to find information on in any reasonable time.
wormcan
They oblige.
Of course this still leaves the non-people running rampant, as both bears and trees are harder to put to sleep than humans. They keep destroying whatever comes closest to hand until stopped, and for some of them this means their opponents.
Of course this still leaves the non-people running rampant, as both bears and trees are harder to put to sleep than humans. They keep destroying whatever comes closest to hand until stopped, and for some of them this means their opponents.
ertia
Those can... float in midair unable to move, then, she isn't sure if they're the sort of thing she wants to destroy. And then she fixes all the everything, including the injured capes, and then she beads the nearest PRT director who has a bead with the location and situation.
wormcan
Director Armstrong can't claim to have been expecting this, but it's a welcome surprise. He'll have a containment van there in minutes.
wormcan
Next would be creating a shiny new arc reactor, a duplicate of one she copied while working for the PRT, then another hospital run, she didn't get very far behind schedule.
wormcan
She does continue to run across cape fights every once in a while, but it stays rare. Well within what might be expected if Boston has more parahumans per capita than Brockton Bay did. Mostly she's just continuously improving things with very few interruptions.
And eventually she gets a call from multiple beads simultaneously. Endbringer. Athens.
And eventually she gets a call from multiple beads simultaneously. Endbringer. Athens.
ertia
She lets them all know she's on her way.
And then she flies very fast to where the teleporter is collecting passengers.
And then she flies very fast to where the teleporter is collecting passengers.
wormcan
Few Protectorate members go to every battle. But there are almost always some, outside of extreme cases where help gets refused, and this one is within the range of some allied teams.
She gets there to find Strider recovering from an intercontinental trip, and in time for another. Following which she arrives elsewhere. Rain pouring down, thick enough that it's hard to see outside the windows of the meeting point, and the ocean raging more violently than oceans generally do. A man with an ornate red costume and a (not particularly capitalized) halberd is in the middle of giving a pre-battle speech in Kithabel's native language; everyone else is listening to him.
Mostly it's information on Leviathan's capabilities: the speed, the durability, the fact that water appears behind him whenever he moves and is itself moving fast enough to be a weapon. That much Kithabel will know if she looked up background information on the Endbringers in any of her limited spare time.
The speaker also says that, as places to get attacked by Leviathan go, this one is relatively defensible. High elevation means they can expect less damage than usual from the tidal waves, and the fact that there's no other nearby source of water means that the city won't collapse into a crater or otherwise be weaponized against them. Each minute is still going to cost property and lives, but if they can hold the line and wear Leviathan down then this battle will probably end in victory, eventually.
Armbands get passed around, of a non-exploding variety this time.
She gets there to find Strider recovering from an intercontinental trip, and in time for another. Following which she arrives elsewhere. Rain pouring down, thick enough that it's hard to see outside the windows of the meeting point, and the ocean raging more violently than oceans generally do. A man with an ornate red costume and a (not particularly capitalized) halberd is in the middle of giving a pre-battle speech in Kithabel's native language; everyone else is listening to him.
Mostly it's information on Leviathan's capabilities: the speed, the durability, the fact that water appears behind him whenever he moves and is itself moving fast enough to be a weapon. That much Kithabel will know if she looked up background information on the Endbringers in any of her limited spare time.
The speaker also says that, as places to get attacked by Leviathan go, this one is relatively defensible. High elevation means they can expect less damage than usual from the tidal waves, and the fact that there's no other nearby source of water means that the city won't collapse into a crater or otherwise be weaponized against them. Each minute is still going to cost property and lives, but if they can hold the line and wear Leviathan down then this battle will probably end in victory, eventually.
Armbands get passed around, of a non-exploding variety this time.
ertia
Kithabel puts one on.
Can she make a dent in this rain? The normal weather bows to her will but this is not normal weather.
Can she make a dent in this rain? The normal weather bows to her will but this is not normal weather.
wormcan
Stopping it is one thing. Keeping it from resuming right away takes more effort more continuously.
The capes get split off into categories. People who can take a direct hit and keep fighting, people who can hit hard enough to help in the front line anyway, people with ranged attacks. Fliers are at a premium for rescuing downed capes. They don't mention anything about preventing tidal waves, but the green-caped cape from Madison has left to start doing that. As soon as the speaker gets through listing who's in charge here, a wave strikes and everyone gets teleported down to the battlefield.
The capes get split off into categories. People who can take a direct hit and keep fighting, people who can hit hard enough to help in the front line anyway, people with ranged attacks. Fliers are at a premium for rescuing downed capes. They don't mention anything about preventing tidal waves, but the green-caped cape from Madison has left to start doing that. As soon as the speaker gets through listing who's in charge here, a wave strikes and everyone gets teleported down to the battlefield.
ertia
Kithabel's going to rotate so that she can stay longer. She does not actually know if she can tolerate a direct hit because there's no good way to test that, but she can work on the rain and do rescue and get into fights with tidal waves as they come in. Like that one. Fuck off, tidal wave.
wormcan
The nascent wave stops before turning into a wall of water. It's moving faster and harder than a wave, but is ultimately just water.
The figure in the green robe glances over at her, and accelerates freezing as much water as possible. The growing glacier is dragged along with the water around it.
The Endbringer is getting to work. Before most of the defenders are oriented to their new surroundings, he appears out of seemingly nowhere and tears through the nearest row. Kithabel's armband starts listing names, some down and others deceased. Then the defenders get organized enough to score some blows, a woman in black slowing him down long enough that he gets pelted with ranged fire. Until his tail swipes her off and he lunges through a force field toward more combatants.
The figure in the green robe glances over at her, and accelerates freezing as much water as possible. The growing glacier is dragged along with the water around it.
The Endbringer is getting to work. Before most of the defenders are oriented to their new surroundings, he appears out of seemingly nowhere and tears through the nearest row. Kithabel's armband starts listing names, some down and others deceased. Then the defenders get organized enough to score some blows, a woman in black slowing him down long enough that he gets pelted with ranged fire. Until his tail swipes her off and he lunges through a force field toward more combatants.
ertia
Time to start trying things.
Kithabel looks pretty much like she's just floating there, not getting rained on - that, she can maintain as a static trait with no concentration - and she wants this thing dead as hard as she can.
She can want very hard.
When that doesn't work, she heals all allied capes in range for a breather and revises her ambitions. She wants him damaged. Be damaged.
Kithabel looks pretty much like she's just floating there, not getting rained on - that, she can maintain as a static trait with no concentration - and she wants this thing dead as hard as she can.
She can want very hard.
When that doesn't work, she heals all allied capes in range for a breather and revises her ambitions. She wants him damaged. Be damaged.
wormcan
Damage happens. It allows for a lot more of a gradient than deadness does. Leviathan's skin peels away at the point where she's looking, and a gaping wound opens underneath that. As she concentrates it gets gradually deeper, then stops once she's causing injury no faster than Leviathan regenerates. Some well-aimed projectiles bite in and slow his healing. A thick liquid drips from the wound. Then he flicks his tail and a whip of water launches toward some of the fliers, including Kithabel.
ertia
Well, freezing it seems to be standard procedure, and she hasn't done that yet. Freeze. Both in place and as a phase change.
wormcan
It freezes and freezes, and then gets propelled forward by the second wave from the tail's backslash. Meanwhile, the monster takes advantage of the distraction to dive underwater and reappear elsewhere, exchanging blows until knocked backward by an armored cape.