A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 52 (Patreon)

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 52

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Arksoul

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Interlude: Parvati:

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The Shogun’s land-crawler was a massive, tracked vehicle that was half the size of a city-block. A bespoke machine with custom-made parts and engine, it was without a doubt a marvel constructed by a superhuman with a talent for the creation of vehicles. The efficiency of the engines, the strength of the armor, the reactor’s output, and the life support systems all provided me with new research, new avenues of upgrades, and even insights into the construction of ships that will house humans and send them to other planets.

Yet, without a doubt, all the progress and innovation it showed to me was marred for the brutal purpose that it was created for.

To be a mobile birthing chamber and command center that could sustain itself without issue. Within it, water could be recycled ad infinitum. Massive tanks that held a nutrient slurry which could be made from any biomass via a connected machine would provide food without issue. Air could be recycled with ease and its medical facility could provide the finest level of care. There was a command center within that had drones which could observe a massive perimeter, its weapon systems were mighty, and despite its size and mass it had little to no heat signature and made nearly no noise as it ran.

Everything needed for life was within the landcrawler… including the creation of endless, superhuman soldiers.

There was a section within the crawler that I almost destroyed the moment I realized what it was.

An incubation section for the children born from the comatose mothers carrying them to term. Once the child was removed, by my estimated, they would be fully grown within a year. It was experimental in nature, not even used, but the fact that it existed alone almost had me destroy the whole vehicle and expunge it from my databanks the moment the victims were extracted.

I knew not how Egress could stay his hand against and not slay the monsters that created and protected and valued such a travesty against life.

Then, as I considered that, my own Deva’s existence came to mind.

I had created her for a singular purpose, solely for my own freedom, and now I felt hatred against a person who aimed to do something similar?

No.

What I had done was wrong, and I shall never do it again, but this is beyond what I have done.

“Hey, Parvati, you’re zoning out.” Egress spoke and dragged my attention through multiple instances by his side. We were once more back at the massive underground sub-district of the city. My Deva was present and patiently waiting with arms crossed where the landcrawler once was. I did not know what she was thinking, nor what she was seeing, but I could guess that she was determining how she could fight against Egress if he elected to cease holding back. In his presence, if a problem could be solved with his power, it was solved in an instant. There was nothing which could be done, or at least that is what he chose to display. “What’s up with the rest of this place?”

He was inquiring about his request for me to search and scan the rest of the location. I reviewed that data and after a moment directed him.

“The Shogun has several more of the gigantic bodies in construction. Take us here.”

I sent him the coordinates.

“Right.”

Then, we were there.

“I take it back. He’s not just a fucking psycho, he’s a complete lunatic.” We looked upon more than a dozen massive bodies in the same fluid as the incubation tanks I saw earlier. That technology came from the massive, pools that we saw now, which were lit from underwater lights and in which lay the immense proportions of the same titan that Maelstrom and Shin were both fighting against above. “Did he want to just mass produce these and roll over the entire planet or something?”

I moved my body over the nearest creature.

It was a gigantic fetus upon whish hundreds of tubes were connected. The container in which it was housed was the size of a city block and filled halfway with a bright, vibrant, but clear liquid in which the fetus grew. They were all in multiple stages of development, with the oldest of them filling the entire tank even while curled around itself and the tank was filled to the brim with the nutrient slurry.

The largest ones, the most mature of them, showcased something terrifying.

The back of their skulls were not present, and when I looked upward, I saw a dreadful machine obviously meant to extract what was unnecessary to be replaced.

“Parvati? What are you looking at?” Egress’s gaze followed mine, and in an instant his hands clenched into fists. Then, he turned to the massive creatures. “These are people. They can think. They just get their fucking skulls popped open and get what’s in there replaced before they can.”

My Deva went completely still in the corner of my sensors. Her power went from vibrant to completely calm. I cast my gaze her way, my daughter with enough power to shatter countries over her knee, and I found sweat on her brow and her hands shivering as they clenched closed.

Then, suddenly, Egress let loose a breath.

“Right. Let’s relocate these kids somewhere they can be kept safe. Parvati?”

“I have a section beneath my compound, which I am widening and creating as we speak. It will take a day. However, these vats are secure, and I have already assumed control over the facility’s systems. They are not in danger.”

“Okay, what else is around here that you think is important?”

My Deva was still completely still and staring at Egress from the corner of her eye.

I wondered what I would feel, if a biological unit which was present with Egress now, could allow me the sense the same things that she could.

“Nothing else. This place is bereft of any issues.” I reported simply. There was technology, but I scanned it and I could make use of it later. Much of it was good for the creation of underground facilities and maybe even an entire city. An underground arcology, which would be naturally resistant against nuclear strikes and provide good concealment against superhumans. Hm, perhaps a series of tunneling, mobile factories that sealed the space behind them would be more secure. “We can return aboveground and aid Maelstrom now. There are no more people who require rescuing, either. Will you be fighting against the Shogun?”

Egress shook his helmeted head.

“There’s not going to be a fight.” The statement was simple and concise, and my Deva floated back from him. “I’m just going to kill him. That’s all.”

That statement was followed by the three of us going above ground, with Maelstrom, Shogun, and Shin still fighting in the horizon… and in the next moment the same series of movements that Egress used against the power-armored unit of soldiers came into play. The ground all over the city began to disappear in immense chunks, and began to fall upon the Shogun like a torrent.

The first few fell barely meters above the Shogun, obscuring his view, but the next came from higher altitudes at terminal velocity. Some came apart, unable to hold their shape as perfect squares of concrete and earth and stone, and becoming fields of speeding projectiles. However, more and more chunks of the city and earth were disappearing, more than what was falling on the Shogun as Maelstrom retreated.

Then, suddenly, my satellites in orbit started tracking new, speeding projectiles… perfect squares which were rapidly gaining velocity, disappearing, and reappearing in the atmosphere.

I came to a realization.

Momentum was retained in Egress’s method of teleporting.

He was using Earth’s gravity as a sling… and I realized just how much power he had when the first speeding munition came through and slammed into the Shogun and staggering the titan with a single blow. Then, more came, one after the other. Hunk after hunk of speeding mass smashed into the Shogun incessantly, a torrent of speeding earth, just barely beneath the speeds in which friction and air speed would cause them to ignite and wreathe themselves in fields of fire.

If those massive chunks of were speeding as fast as ballistic weapons, then they were each undoubtably weapons of mass destruction.

The only limit he had was if they came alight, but that was solved by choosing the right material to launch… or launching them just as they slipped out of his control.

Egress had all this power and might, yet he chose seclusion and a life ferrying packages from one continent to another.

The more I learned about him, the more his choices became clear.

If he had chosen to fight, as many did in the waning years of the previous era, Earth would’ve been ravaged.

And, he would most likely be dead.

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Technically, I was just throwing rocks at very high speeds.

A totally normal and human form attack all the way back to when we first learned how to pick things up and throw them.

Just amped up to a ludicrous degree.

And, it was all-or-nothing.

Small pieces were hard for me to keep track of and practically vanished when I sent them up to gather speed. If I wanted to do this same attack on a personal level, without crushing cities, I’d need heavily-specialized munitions that would cost a fortune. Another way of fighting for me would be using a handgun and teleporting bullets right into people, but there’s a limit to that. Once I reach rifles, the rounds get too hot and I can only slap them away like energy blasts, instead of ‘steering’ them.

My power has its limits, but its maximum potential was undoubtably high.

But, again, I’m not interested in smashing cities with big hunks of rock.

Too much fame, too much infamy, and too many problems.

But… when there’s someone in front of me who literally trains up child-soldiers, uses women like breeding machines, and creates new life just to lobotomize it and use its body?

Yeah, I wasn’t holding back.

I unleashed the barrage of rock, earth, concrete, metal, and whatever the Shogun called his capital against him. Buildings, parts of city blocks, and everything else within my range, I sent up, or right at him. Some were meant to block is vision. Others were gathering speed. I sent them in waves, in different directions, from all sides, and forced him onto the defensive. But… that was all that I could do.

I could see, very clearly, that even that city-levelling attack was just suppressing the Shogun and keeping him still. The mass of the attacks and their speed was enough to break buildings, and smash city blocks, but he built his new body tough and he was setting up barriers of his own to block my attacks. Slowly, but surely, he was getting used to the barrage.

Meanwhile, it was taking its toll on me.

My body was heating up rapidly, sweat was pouring from all over my skin, and I could feel my body heat reaching dangerous levels. I’ve tested my power before like this. The risks were severe. I could die from heat stroke, my power could consume my body to fuel itself, and before either of those two possibilities… I could give myself a stroke and just die.

As powerful as this was, I couldn’t act as sub-standard orbital artillery for long, and there were people who’ll just power through my attack anyway.
Still, I wasn’t fighting the Shogun alone.

My attack wasn’t just meant to suppress.

It was meant to distract.

However, that was all I needed to do, as Maelstrom was given the opportunity she was looking for.

A singular blow to the skull of the massive titan sent it flying… right into me, after I deduced the Shogun’s trajectory.

The powered field he had around himself clashed against my own, but I’ve done this before many times over. If I covered my hand in my fields, sending everything that I touched in different directions, the result was the object I touched being torn apart. Usually, I just had one field over my body that all went to the same place. If someone punched me, they’d just get sent over somewhere. If they were covered in some form of energy field, my own teleportation field would block them by trying to send them away while they resisted.

This was a matter of power.

If I lost the bout, my field would break, and I’d take the hit.

If they lost the energy race, then they’re sent somewhere else… or sent into a woodchipper that could cut through anything.

In all likelihood, the Shogun would’ve been able to evade me and kill me if we faced each other directly. But that wasn’t the case. He’s been fighting Shin, Maelstrom, the remains of the government of Japan, and even some of Parvati’s forces for the better part of two hours, and I’d kept track of his power. When it started, he had so much that I could barely skirt around him in the city as I rescued civilians, but as time passed that power was spent.

Spent until now, his energy field came apart against mine, and he sped into me propelled by Maelstrom’s punch.

For a second, I saw only darkness and the sound of tearing and ripping resonated all around me, then there was suddenly light and I was falling to the ground.

I’d aimed straight for the skull and the results were as horrific as I expected.

Straight through the skull of the titanic beast was my outline, torn through the whole, entire face of the creature from the back of the skull to the front of its face.

The last time I killed something, I felt sick and appalled, but as I looked into the skull I saw metal, wiring, and the upper half of human body heavily intubated within.

He was using the massive creature like a damn vehicle after lobotomizing it.

With that fact all too clear, what little apprehension I had faded away.

I had my rules, and I had my lines in the sand, but I would’ve regretted not fighting against this man with all I had, after all that I’d seen.