Out of Control 1 (Patreon)

Out Of Control
Chapter 1

-VB-

“A fourth Endbringer,” Mouse Protector muttered in horror as she stared up at the thrashing and screaming worm towering over the high rises and skyscrapers of Downtown. It screeched as Blasters fired upon it, but quickly dug back down into the ground.

There was a pause as the unexpected slapped the cheeks of all volunteer capes present. No one knew what this thing was capable of. This was no different from New York City when Behemoth first hit it, Swiss when Simurgh struck, and Oslo when Leviathan showed up.

This dumpster fire of a city her friend called home was going to be one of a nightmare scenario.

Her wristband crackled. “{It’s going to strike AC5! Get out of there!}”

MP felt her blood drain for a moment before she teleported out of there without thinking twice, and watched from the medical tents as the city block she’d been on just erupted upwards into concrete, earth, asphalt, and then the Endbringer.

Alexandria flew in and then slammed into it immediately at the peak of its burst. Her black costumed body looked tiny in comparison to the biggest Endbringer to date - MP knew the bulbous head of that thing alone had to be big as a cheese factory! - and this attack, her second body-to-body assault against the Endbringer, showed a noticeable lack of impact as the first.

To everyone’s surprise, the worm twisted and sent Alexandria flying.

Eidolon came flying in with Legend along with a few other fliers MP wasn’t familiar with, and blasted the worm.

The worm screeched, but there was something off.

Like… like they were making a mistake.

Why did her instinct scream to her that this was Switzerland all over again?

The worm screeched again with head-splitting screams before it dove back into the ground, causing another shockwave across the city and beyond. Buildings far away from the battlefield collapsed as the strain of the shockwaves snapped their cornerstone supports and fissures opened up in the earth where the earth itself was too weak.

And in the middle of the city, one of those fissures opened up as the worm burst forth again, and this time, it brought with it water.

“It’s the aquifer!” Armsmaster grunted through the comms as MP went back into the city to help with search and rescue. “It wants to sink the city!”

MP felt her teleports coming faster and faster as her own heart began to pound in her ears. She grabbed a little girl who’d been stuck inside rubble and teleported out, pulling her along. She went back, found an old man, and pulled him out, and again and again and again-.

Then when she popped back into the medical tents some twelve teleports later, the entire city shook violently, much more than any time it had before this point. People screamed all around her as they clung onto whatever they thought was sturdy and unyielding against the earthquake.

And then the earth underneath them opened up.

She screamed as she fell through, but before she could hit whatever was at the bottom, she grabbed the nearest person and teleported out.

But for just a moment before she did, she saw something ridiculous. Her eyes widened as the dark black hole changed into a green sky

She wasn’t falling into a hole in the ground; she’d been falling through a hole in the sky into a world of floating islands.

-VB-

“That one leads to a bloody hellworld that somehow has life based out of lava, so it’s dangerous,” Tattletale groaned as she sat along with six other Thinkers at the heart of the post-Endbringer battle conference. Surrounding them were the Triumvirate, Armsmaster (may the immaculately cared for beard fall off), Chief-Director Rebecca Costa-Brown (present in video conference), Director Piggot of the local PRT, Dragon, and two dozen other “important” people.

She was here because she was the only Thinker capable of figuring out exactly what was on the other side on a short notice without endangering everyone.

She’s already had to identify two dozen “holes,” portals made by the latest Endbringer. The PRT wanted to call them by some mythical name - PRT is pushing for designation “Abyzou” to stick with the Middle Eastern naming scheme - while PHO was just calling it “Earthworm.”

“That makes twenty-five out of twenty-eight portals that lead to dangerous worlds where dangerous fauna and flora contamination risks us,” Alexandria frowned.

Personally, Tattletale - known as Lisa Wilbourn in her somewhat secret civilian identity - thought that this might be how this Endbringer made life worse for everyone.

Endbringer attack pattern left too many portals in the city. Its “influence” will only grow stronger as denizens of the other side of the portals find their way into the city.

If serious enough threats exist, then Brockton Bay may be domed.

According to law, Brockton Bay should be domed but the Chief-Director of the PRT is holding off on actually doing so.

She shuddered.

Being domed was … it was one of the worst fates a city could face.

Slam! “Holy shit!”

Everyone in the meeting who was capable of turning turned towards the interloper.

It was Regent.

“Regent, what are you doing here…?” she asked exasperatedly. “He’s my teammate-”

“There’s bunny girls - like actually bunny eared women! - on the other side of the portal next to Medhall Tower!” he cackled.

He enjoys the chaos left by Earthworm.

That … was one of the ones she hadn’t seen yet, but that was because she was slowing down and her Thinker headache was threatening to crack her head in half.

“Diamonds!”

There was a pause, and half of the occupants of the room stormed out.

The shout of diamonds came from the north. There are a few portals there. There were no jewelry shops in that direction.

Portal led to a world and to a specific location where diamond could be found easily.

“Shit…” she muttered as her head threatened to crack again.

Diamonds are still valuable because they could be used for industrial purposes. Due to a lack of international shipping, prices of diamonds for aesthetic and industrial purposes have soared and made any use of diamond in Tinkertech hard.

The United States of America, with the world’s largest collection of Tinkers, will not let this go.

Brockton Bay may come under martial law.

Earthworm wanted this. Conflicts will break out and escalate as the USA will do all it could to keep its horde of new resources. Violence will escalate, and the USA will employ its non-listed assets to secure the city and the flow of goods it will generate as the resource hub.

Alexandria came back into the room and pointed at her. “You stay right there and if anyone comes in that wasn’t anyone who left here, then you run.” And then she left again.

Alexandria is worried about foreign agents moving in.

“Fuck.”

And then she fainted from overload.