Scrap Metal Philosophy 3 (Patreon)

Scrap Metal Philosophy

Chapter 3

-VB-

Taylor didn’t go to join the Simurgh battle when the Endbringer came down on Canberra.

But the first cape she ever talked to after becoming a cape herself, Techscav, did. A Tinker decided to go and join the fight against the Simurgh.

She felt ashamed about that, but she also knew that she was nowhere near ready. She didn’t even have a costume ready. She didn’t even know how to fight or … anything! Her power was bugs and nothing else. At least Techscav could make a gun or something, right?

-VB-

Velocity looked at the only other cape from Brockton Bay who volunteered to come.

Unlike most of the capes here, Techscav was a Tinker, and Tinkers were the most vulnerable kind of parahumans against the Simurgh while he, a high speed Mover, was the least vulnerable.

“So what kind of specialty?” he asked, trying to make conversation while they waited for Strider to move them to Canberra.

“No specialty, just a time range.”

“Time … range?”

“Any tech humans could potentially make within 200 years from now.”

Velocity - Robin in his civvie - blinked. “That’s … a lot?”

“Not really. Nothing I make will ever be ‘phenonemal,’ so to speak,” he shrugged. “But I have this,” he said and -.

He blinked as Techscav reached into his metallic “backpack” - a monstrous thing twice as big as the man with his power armor on - and pulled out a gun from the side. Actually, calling it a gun would be an understatement because it had taken up half of the “backpack” in volume but now that it was out and in Techscav’s hands, it had unfolded and become even bigger.

The gun… no, artillery glowed green along its side that looked like ribcages.

“And what would be this…?” he asked cautiously.

“This is Mini-BFG 9000. I hope to shoot Simurgh with it.”

Mini? Then he had something like that which was bigger? Did Techscav had a hard-on for artillery pieces or something?

“It is … let’s just say that this is beauty -” he cooed.

Oh God, Techscav really did have a hard-on for his tinkertech.

ZHoommm…

Velocity turned around at the sound and saw Strider standing at the center of the helipad on top of the PRT headquarters.

“You two the volunteers?” he asked.

“Yes,” Techscav replied as he stashed his big ass gun again and stepped up. “How is the battle going?”

“Rough,” the teleporter grimaced as he held both of his hands up for them to grab. Velocity walked slowly and grabbed at the same time as Techscav. “Alright, hold on tight!”

---

Alexandria didn’t roar, shout, yell, or make any other obscene sound. She didn’t need to.

Instead of wasting time and energy yelling, she flew in like a missile and punched as hard as she can with a form that would maximize her momentum’s impact through her fist.

Simurgh gave her a single glance and hovered out of the way.

She turned in her flight, even if it meant losing some of the momentum, and dove in. The Endbringer dodged it with ease, having already started dodging before she even turned, and Alexandria let herself fly away and outside the Endbringer’s sphere of telekinetically hovering debris.

As soon as she was outside, she flipped around and glared in vain at the Endbringer.

She watched as Eidolon shot lasers with targeting assitance (either power or tinkertech), and watched as he missed as well because Simurgh dodged before the shot was even fired.

Alexandria hated fighting Simurgh the most.

Then she watched as one of the larger debris lurch to a stop and fly off somewhere, probably to ruin some poor sap’s life.

Other capes tried to fight, but Brutes who jumped in got killed almost instantly and Blasters scored nothing against the precognitive Endbringer.

Grimacing, she jumped back into the fray-.

But then she noticed a crackling and luminescent ball of green energy shooting towards Simurgh. She flew out of the way -.

And watched with wide eyes as the energy ball burned away some of Simurgh’s debris and made the Endbringer snap to attention.

Who was that?

She whirled around and looked towards the direction that the energy ball came from in time to see another one flying.

Simurgh looked without seeing and jerked when the edge of the ball met the hole in her defense and dodged out of the way.

Simurgh was reacting instead of predicting.

Who?!

Alexandria spotted someone, a Tinker, among a few of the -. Ah, that’s where the debris from earlier had been thrown towards. The Tinker must have pulled out his … weapon … Giant weapon. Portable artillery?

Simurgh couldn’t see the man but she must have seen something because she threw a bunch more of her debris - ranging from crushed luxury sedans to chunks of buildings at the Tinker and those around him.

The shoddy armored Tinker ran towards Simurgh instead of away and charged soundlessly except for the stomping of his armored feet. Simurgh tried to track him down, but it was slow to react. It fired off the debris, smaller and faster, but kept missing and not even by a hair’s width but by a wide margin.

Then he came to a skidding stop and fired his portable artillery again. Another green ball of energy shot out towards Simurgh, and the Endbringer couldn’t dodge quickly enough this time and the energy ball clipped one of its wings.

Alexandria immediately dove in for Simurgh again, hoping to distract it or at least keep it locked to an action. She went for a diving punch and the Endbringer dodged her again.

The Tinker kept firing from just outside Simurgh’s Scream range and then backed away.

Alexandria grimaced. He must have ran out of ammunition or charges. She’ll have to track him down later and see who he was. He and his weapon were effective against Simurgh.

---

Velocity stared at Techscav as they were returned to Brockton Bay together.

“So did you actually get to shoot it at Simurgh?” he asked.

The Tinker nodded. “It was not good but I am optimistic about its future.”

After thinking about it, Velocity gave the man an encouraging pat on his armored shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll do good.” He also can’t be a bad guy if he wasn’t a villain (that Velocity knew of) and came out to help with an Endbringer battle.

“Yes. I will do better next time,” he grunted … optimistically.

Velocity filed that for later and went to report to the director as it was policy. Hopefully, it’ll be a quick debriefing before he could clock out for the day.

It wasn’t until the next day that he learned Techscav to have been the one who dealt the most damage to Simurgh in that battle. Unfortunately, he got a bit of flack for not trying to invite the probably-rogue into the Protectorate, especially considering that he was a Tinker.