Trump Card Pt 32 (Patreon)

 Part Thirty-Two: All Cards on the Table

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

Alexandria

Even as Rebecca was reaching for her phone, it rang. She snatched it up and accepted the call in one quick movement. “Talk to me.”

“Ma'am, this is Peterson in Ops. We've just received word that the Simurgh is leaving orbit and descending toward the northeastern seaboard of the United States. Potential targets are Providence, Boston, Brockton Bay or Portland. New York might be the target, but that's unlikely. Right now, we're looking at Boston or Brockton Bay.”

“Understood.” She ended the call and hit the speed-dial for Roberts. This was no longer a leisurely game of cat and mouse. There was a double-headed choice to make here. Taylor Hebert had offered to step up if the Protectorate needed her help. While Endbringers had not been specifically mentioned during their brief conversation, she knew that the Hebert girl had understood the meaning from context, even if her father hadn't quite made that connection.

The problem was, had she known about the upcoming attack, and planned to use the forthcoming Endbringer truce to skate from any punishment arising from it? Or did she just trigger the Simurgh's attack? Was it coming down on Brockton Bay to pre-empt whatever she had in mind with the Endbringer material?

Lightning-fast, her mind sorted through the scraps of information and hints of body language gleaned from her sole encounter with the girl, and came down solidly in favour of the latter explanation. If that was the case, if Taylor Hebert was doing something the Simurgh wanted to stop her from doing, it was Rebecca's job to help her achieve it at all costs. She just needed to get there before the Endbringer did.

“Yes, ma'am?”

“Listen carefully,” she said crisply. “I’m going to be away from my desk. Hold all calls of a non-urgent nature until further notice.”

Barely waiting for Roberts’ assent, she sent a text to her body double—there’s irony for you—to alert the woman for action. Diverting her calls to the body double’s phone only took a moment, then she put the phone down and took a deep breath.

“Doorway.”

<><>

Taylor

It took me all of two seconds to come to the conclusion that the Endbringer sirens were directly connected to my special project. It was intended to kill Endbringers, after all. With an effort, I stopped myself from thinking any more deeply about the project; there was no sense in giving the opposition any more ammunition than they already had.

Which one’s coming after me? That was the next question, and I had the sinking feeling that I already knew. There were no ongoing earth tremors that I could feel through the concrete slab I was sitting on, and I couldn’t hear rain hitting the roof. Which left the scariest one of all, and the one I felt least adequate to take on, even encased in my armour. Notably, I wasn’t encased in my armour right at that second.

My situation was dire; I was vulnerable, bound, imprisoned. It wouldn’t have mattered if the capes around me had been inclined to rally to my defence. I very much doubted that they were capable of actually protecting me, even if I hadn’t just spent the last twenty minutes eroding their combat skills and critical perceptions.

On the upside, this offered a half-assed ray of hope; if the Simurgh had decided to come down and attack me, it meant my project was actually capable of producing a viable result. On the downside, it looked as though the Simurgh was en route to kill me because my project was about to bear fruit. Worse; she might sing me into insanity and leave me to create weapons to ravage mankind. At that last thought, everything I had that could clench … clenched.

Come on … come on …

But Alibi wasn’t online yet. Without her running the suit, I couldn’t get a location for where I was. Specifically, I couldn’t get a location on the other girl. I didn’t know who she was, but she needed rescuing perhaps a little more than I did.

“Uh, guys?” I raised my voice slightly. “Can we maybe put a pin in this and get back to it after the Endbringer thing’s over? Endbringer Truce and all?”

There was actually a general murmur of half-hearted agreement from most of the Empire capes; put into words, it would’ve gone something like uh, boss, she’s kinda got a point, maybe? Of course, given that they were saying this to Kaiser, it was somewhat more wishy-washy than a king-sized laundromat. As such, he had no difficulty ignoring it.

“We will do no such thing,” he declared. “To walk away now would alert Hax to our overall strategy, for no gain to ourselves. Once we’ve brought her down, we’ll join the fight. But until then, we have our own business to attend to.”

I was pretty sure this skirted the boundaries of the Truce kind of close. Like, tromped all over them. But Kaiser was the type who ignored any rules but those he set himself, and even then he could change them on a minute-by-minute basis. He also had a lot of business skills, which I ignored for the moment. For all I cared, he could be Nazi Accountant of the Year. Right at that moment, I was more concerned about (and responsible for) the fact that he had the tactical and strategic acumen of a stunned sloth. Which was why he hadn’t yet twigged to the fact that I was speaking when I really should have been gagged.

That was when Alibi stepped out through the portal into the apartment and reconnected with me. I felt her pseudo-consciousness merge into mine, and suddenly I was looking out of two sets of eyes. The plans I’d been mulling over in the back of my head crystallised and she/I started barking orders. Gratifyingly, Über and L33t didn’t even argue; they just jumped to it. Then I gave Alibi orders of my own, which I knew she could obey. Turning, she dashed back into the pocket dimension, cutting her off from my awareness once more.

I didn’t relax; the cavalry might be on the way, but they weren’t here yet.

<><>

Alexandria

Rebecca emerged from the Doorway above Brockton Bay and turned in midair, seeking her bearings. To the south and east, she saw one of the more horrifying sights it was possible to view in the modern world; a long cone of fire, arcing down into the atmosphere from over the horizon and tipped by a glowing white dot. Normally, the Simurgh re-entered atmosphere in an almost leisurely fashion, drawing out the terror to come. Now she was on a mission, pushing herself through the ever-thickening air so fast that the friction was turning the atmosphere around her to plasma. Rebecca estimated that she would be over her target in five minutes or less, despite having more than a thousand miles to go. That’s Mach 15, at a minimum. I didn’t know she could go that fast.

Legend and Eidolon emerged from identical Doorways, less than ten yards away. Turning, Legend spotted the incoming Simurgh. “Damn,” he whispered. “She’s out for blood.”

“I need you two to hold her off,” ordered Alexandria. “The cavalry’s on the way, but right now you’re it.”

“What are you going to be doing?” asked Eidolon, though he was already flickering through a series of power choices.

Alexandria’s voice was crisp. “You’ve heard of Hax? She’s down there somewhere. Five weeks ago, she hinted to me that she was working on something; my inference was that it was for combating Endbringers. Seventeen minutes ago, she stole forty-two pounds of Endbringer material from supermax storage, directly under the DC office. Two minutes ago, the Simurgh started a run toward Brockton Bay. Connect the dots.”

Legend’s eyebrows rose toward his hairline. “Holy shit. She finished it, and the Simurgh’s determined not to let her keep it.” Rebecca could see in his eyes that he wanted to ask about how a teenage girl had managed to pull off a robbery right under her nose, but he was restraining himself. Which was a good thing; questions like that could wait till afterward.

She nodded in response to the comment he had made. “That’s my estimation, too. Best case, I want to save it and the girl who built it. Worst case, I want to keep it and her out of the Simurgh’s hands, by any means necessary. We all know how good she is at weaponising tinkertech. Not to mention people.” She turned away, preparing to dive toward the city below.

“What the hell sort of weapon uses Endbringer material?” called out Eidolon from behind her.

“I’ll be sure to ask!” she shouted back, then accelerated downward.

Toward, as it turned out, entirely the wrong target. For a given definition of ‘wrong’.

<><>

Taylor

While Alibi was active, I always knew exactly where she was in relation to me. It was easy enough to reverse that, and locate myself in relation to her, but more in a ‘this distance at this angle’ situation than a ‘input these coordinates’ one. Thus, she could use the suit to teleport to me, but we couldn’t open portals from the base into the warehouse until we had a better source of targeting data. Conveniently enough, the suit itself would be a better source of targeting data. With that in mind, I’d given her the order to suit up and teleport to a specific point in relation to me.

In the meantime, with the material I’d just stolen, Über had activated my project for its first production run. Twelve units, loaded for Simurgh. I wished I could be there myself for the occasion, but I’d done enough dry runs that I knew the process itself was sound. And I really, really wanted the final product to be up and running by the time it came to face the incoming Endbringer.

At the same time, L33t was taking on a different task. The air mattress was already set up, so he was prepping a device we’d used before and I’d rebuilt; specifically, the Cortana spy-eye from the casino job. The prep job he was doing involved swapping out one holo-image for another. While normally we wouldn’t have risked that—the spy-eye had been patterned after the recording sphere everyone else called the Snitch—we didn’t have a real choice in the matter. Also, his powers had been behaving themselves recently, so we had to take a chance. When Alibi teleported through to where I was being kept, the spy-eye would provide a useful decoy.

Of the three tasks, Alibi had it the easiest. Using my voice, she was able to trigger the code phrase ‘Armsmaster is a dick’ and let the suit do the rest. The teleport function of the suit didn’t  work from within the pocket universe—something to do with a non-compatible frame of reference, as far as I could tell—but all she had to do was step out through the portal and home in on me.

But when I reconnected with her, the first thing she/I saw was … Alexandria. Also, a hole where a window had once been. The Triumvirate hero straightened up from examining the bundle of cords going into the open portal and turned to Alibi.

“Miss Hebert,” she said, taking hold of the suit by its upper arm. “You’re in great danger. The Simurgh is less than four minutes out. I need to take you to safety. Where’s your tinkertech project? In there?” She indicated the shimmering grey portal behind Alibi.

“I’m not the one you want,” I said through Alibi. You idiot, you’ve just captured the stunt double. “But I’ll take you where she is. Buckle your seatbelt.” Not giving Alexandria time to argue—because of course she was going to argue—she/I tossed the spy-eye back through the portal and triggered the teleport.

I would’ve given a great deal of money—after all, I had a great deal of money—to see the faces of the Empire capes when they realised who’d just teleported into their midst. But I was too busy grabbing the brand-new light-spot and making use of it. The zip-ties on my wrists popped free, even as Alibi smacked out Victor, Othala and Cricket in quick succession. Knowing that a punch is coming doesn’t help if the training to avoid it is mysteriously absent.

I grabbed hold of the cage bars and yanked; electricity popped, and I felt a faint tingle, but Alexandria could weather a lightning strike. This was nothing, compared to that. Stepping away from the ruins of my previous prison, I pulled the bag off my head.

Kaiser was down, and in my range. Alexandria was moving toward Fenja and Menja, who were growing to near their maximum heights—exactly what I didn’t want—while holding their weapons in a vaguely defensive stance. Alibi was facing off against Hookwolf, Alabaster and Stormtiger; even lacking most of their combat training, their powers made them tough opponents.

First, I tapped into Stormtiger’s abilities and sent an explosive air-bolt against Hookwolf, then I swapped to Kaiser and formed a flexible metal net attached to the ceiling. The bolt smashed into the metal-clad cape and he stared around wildly to see who’d attacked him. Stormtiger, with his awareness of the air, was already looking at me. “Holy shit!” he yelled, pointing. “She’s—!”

That was when I dropped the net over all three of Alibi’s opponents, using Stormtiger’s power to guide it down and mask it from the air-manipulator’s senses. They yelled and tore at the net, but that meant they were all standing still in the same place just for a few seconds, which was plenty long enough for me. By the time they got through the net, they were locked in a steel box. With air-holes; I wanted them to live to face trial. Given the respite, Alibi took out the remote and used it to drop the other hostage into the base with a well-placed portal. Kaiser and Victor followed, as soon as the box was complete.

Alexandria had the giantess twins on the back foot, but she had trouble landing a solid blow without bringing the whole building down on our heads. I helped her out by using Stormtiger’s air-manipulation to deprive her opponents of air. It turned out that being twenty feet tall required a lot more oxygen than being six feet tall. When they started to stagger, I switched to Cricket’s power and followed up with a blast of concentrated high-pitched sound to the inner ears; they both folded within seconds.

As they shrank in size, I borrowed Alexandria’s power to shove everyone into the same rough area. “How long?” I called to the Triumvirate cape.

She shook her head. “Legend and Eidolon are supposed to be holding her off—”

With a great rending sound, the roof of the warehouse came away. Still glowing with the heat of re-entry, looking a little ragged around the edges, the Simurgh hovered there.

It didn’t matter that she never showed expression; even without it, she looked pissed.

Alibi hit the remote; the area of floor under the defeated villains turned to shimmering grey and they fell through. I grabbed Alibi and dived toward it myself, while Alexandria rocketed upward at the oncoming threat. As we fell toward the portal, I could feel the Simurgh’s telekinesis trying to pull me back, but I had Alexandria’s strength and flight at my disposal.

There was a tremendous impact behind me. I literally felt the heat as the Simurgh pushed Alexandria backward, down toward me. Then Alibi and I hit the portal and went through, losing my link to Alexandria as I did so. I let Alibi go; she could take care of herself. But then, halfway to the floor, just as I was planning out my tumble-and-roll, I felt the hand close over my ankle.

The heat seared through my jeans in an instant, and I screamed at the sudden agony. Dangling by one leg, I looked up to see half the Simurgh’s face, along with three of her wings and one arm. I also smelled my flesh smoking and burning from the heat of her hand.

The texture of the ceiling changed back to normal; I fell to the ground, along with the bits of the Simurgh that had been protruding through the portal. There was too much agony coursing through my veins to even think about landing properly, but Alibi was there to catch me. She lowered me gently to the floor, then kicked the bit of the Simurgh that had been holding me off into the corner.

Things got a bit fuzzy there, as I tried not to pass out from the sheer blinding agony that consumed my leg. Through the haze, while things went on around me, I tried to recall the techniques I’d learned for pushing away pain, and applied them. Bit by bit, I got it under control.

When I opened my eyes, Über was applying a bandage to my leg. I could look at it now as if it wasn’t part of me, as if the torturous burning was happening to someone else. The pain wasn’t as bad as it had been, which suggested either impressive levels of painkillers or that she’d seared straight through the nerves, destroying them on the way.

“How bad is it?” I asked, surprised at the rawness of my throat. I hadn’t realised I’d been screaming that much.

“In here or out there?” he asked, carefully wrapping the last of the bandage around my ankle.

“Both. Either.” I knew there was bad news waiting in the wings, but there was no sense in ignoring it.

“Well, we’ve got the bad guys all secured.” He tied off the bandage and dusted his hands briskly. “Cricket and Victor woke up and got frisky, so L33t had to subdue them.” Which was a concept I never thought I’d have to try to imagine. “As soon as you landed, we did an emergency bug-out from the apartment, so we’re currently running on internal power.” He pointed at me. “As for you, your leg is severely burned. If you don’t get it to a good hospital, or to Panacea, in the next few days, you’ll probably lose everything below the calf.” He paused, thinking. “And that’s it for in here.”

“And out there?” I prompted. “How long’s it been?”

“Fifteen minutes.” His lips tightened. “She’s been singing. The capes are trickling in, but this attack happened at zero notice. Worse, every time we open a portal and stick a probe out, she tries to get in. I sent the spy-eye out for a look, and she obliterated it.”

Shit. Dad. I felt sick to my stomach. The longer we sat tight in our little bunker, the longer her scream had to be affecting everyone in Brockton Bay.

“What happens if we open two portals?” I knew they had to have tried this.

“She heads for the nearest one,” he reported. “If we shut that one off, she appears at the other one more or less instantly.”

“Teleporting,” I said.

“Teleporting,” he agreed. “And the worst bit? If she gets even a finger in through a portal, we start hearing her scream in here.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “On the upside, we now have three of her fingers in storage, as well as the arm and stuff. We’ve got ammunition for days.”

All that aside, this posed a definite problem. I had a teleport jammer, but it was the alternate mode for my suit’s teleport capability. Thanks to Lung, it was thoroughly integrated into the suit, to the point that I had no idea how long it would take to extract and rebuild. If it even could be rebuilt outside the suit now. And then there was the other problem.

“If L33t and I made another jammer, she’d just destroy it, wouldn’t she?” I was gloomily sure of the answer.

“It’s what I’d do,” he agreed. “Nullifying teleportation doesn’t do anything to make it immune to brute force.”

I took a deep breath and nodded as the plan came together in my head. “All right, then. We don’t use it to stop her. We use it to slow her down.”

He tilted his head. “I’ve seen that face before. That’s the face that says something terrifying’s about to happen.”

“Or something awesome,” L33t put in, leaning around the cubicle wall. “Please tell me you’ve got something in mind. Because I don’t want to spend my last hours sharing oxygen with the Empire Eighty-Eight.”

I sat up in bed and cracked my knuckles. “Yeah, I’ve got a plan. I’m gonna go out there and face that bitch down.”

L33t’s eyes widened, but Über held up his hand. “Not a great idea,” the big guy cautioned me. “You’re still weak from your injury. By the time you’re outside, she’ll be on you.”

I nodded. “That’s the plan.” Reaching out, I flicked my light-spot from one recipient to the next, until I reached Alabaster. Four seconds passed … eight and a half … thirteen … seventeen … finally, his power kicked in, and I let out a gasp of relief as the pain faded.

“What the hell was that?” asked Über. “You went really white there for a bit.”

“Turns out that Alabaster’s power can be coaxed into resetting to an earlier point,” I said absently as I started unwrapping the bandage. “I just had to push the reset point far enough back to do me any good.” As the bandage came away, my leg proved to be clean and undamaged.

“Hax.” L33t shook his head as I climbed off the inflatable mattress. “Pure hax. What’s your next trick gonna be?”

“Like I said, go out there and face that bitch down.” I rubbed my hands together. “But first … prep. All the prep.”

<><>

Ten Minutes Later

Alexandria

The only thing that ensured this fight was not a total debacle was the way the Simurgh kept breaking off to go after the shimmering grey portals hanging in midair. Rebecca knew what they were, but she wished Hax and her compatriots would either do something useful or stay out of the way. She’d never known the Simurgh to be so single-minded about killing one particular person before, which only underlined the importance of Taylor Hebert’s work.

As it was, New Wave was assisting as best they could (which amounted to holding back and sniping from a distance, after Glory Girl was carried off unconscious), while Faultline’s Crew did search and rescue below. The local Protectorate didn’t have any flyers; the Wards did, but they hadn’t yet been authorised to join in on the battle. Besides, one of them was a tinker, who was the very last person anyone wanted in close proximity to the Simurgh. From Rebecca’s personal recollection, the other one was a pseudo-Brute, nowhere near strong enough to do anything to an Endbringer.

She lanced in, jinked once around a blocking wing, and landed a punch on the Simurgh’s midsection. Many, many battles had taught her that trying for headshots or other normally-debilitating attacks just didn’t work with Endbringers. Overwhelming damage was the only way to drive them off. Her opponent tried to push her sideways into one of Legend’s lasers, but the blast merely dodged around her and struck the ghost-pale Endbringer all the same. Eidolon’s attack arrived a moment later; a series of blasts based on gravity, if she was any judge. They staggered the Simurgh but did no more than that.

And then the blank-eyed woman turned her head to stare at a spot on the street. Rebecca’s heart sank as she saw the group of people who had tumbled out of a portal. They were costumed and carried various weapons, but there was no way they would be able to stand up to an Endbringer. Her perfect memory brought up the images, matching them to the Empire Eighty-Eight, plus a teenage girl and a couple of mooks wearing crude cloth masks. These were the people she’d been fighting just before the Simurgh arrived. Why is she releasing them now? Endbringer Truce? If that was the case, why not let them off much farther away from the battle?

Even as this thought whipped fleetingly through her head, the Simurgh turned again. Attacks from both Legend and Eidolon smashed into the Endbringer during her moment of distraction, but barely seemed to faze her. Rebecca turned to see what had gotten the creature’s attention this time, and her heart sank all the way to her boots. There stood Taylor Hebert, carrying an odd-looking rifle. Beside her was the Hax armour, the external holocloak showing the image of Master Chief, hefting a much larger firearm. A thick cable led from the second weapon back through the portal behind them.

She’s dead. There’s nothing I can do about it. Already during this battle, she’d seen the Simurgh teleport to a new portal and attempt to tear it open with main strength. Each time, she’d lost fingers, but that hadn’t stopped her any more than losing one arm and half her head had stopped her. Once the Endbringer got her hand and wings on Taylor Hebert, it would all be over.

But the Endbringer didn’t teleport. She had every reason to do so, but … didn’t. After only half a second or so of hesitation, she brushed Rebecca aside and accelerated toward Taylor Hebert. But that gave the armoured figure time to raise the monstrous rifle and fire. With a deep BZORCH sound, an actinic violet beam leaped out and impacted the Simurgh.

For a weapon as impressively scaled as the energy rifle was, it didn’t seem to pack much of a punch, for all that the violet beam was so bright that it was painful for her to look at. The Simurgh kept coming, though it seemed that she slowed a little. And then, before Rebecca’s disbelieving eyes, she came to a complete halt in midair, just floating there. For one long painful moment, Rebecca allowed herself to hope. Then, with a sharp crack, the gun itself exploded, sending shrapnel flying in all directions.

With the cessation of the beam, Rebecca would’ve expected the Simurgh to capitalise on the opening. But instead, she seemed … dizzy, or even disoriented. Holy shit, that gun actually affected her? Unfortunately, it seemed to be a Pyrrhic victory; the gun was gone, and the Endbringer was recovering from its effects. But all was not done yet.

Seemingly untroubled by the fact that the equivalent of a hand-grenade had gone off in their faces, Taylor and the armoured figure were each raising one of the smaller odd-looking rifles. As were, as Rebecca belatedly realised, nearly all of the Empire Eighty-Eight. They hadn’t been running away. They’d been forming a firing line.

Rebecca couldn’t be sure who shot first, but it turned into a firestorm in less than a second. Next to the big gun, the zzkrak of the rifles sounded positively tinny, but the odd glittering white laser-like bursts passed through the rubble orbiting the Simurgh without leaving a mark. Not so the Simurgh; any of  the beams striking the Endbringer bored out an inch-wide hole, all the way through.

By the time the Endbringer began to recover from the effect of the violet beam, the impromptu firing squad was well underway. While the majority of the people doing the shooting were mediocre at best in their skill levels, at least three were world-class. These included one of the Empire mooks, Taylor Hebert, and whoever was piloting the armour. Rebecca was starting to get a suspicion about that, but shelved it for later.

In the second or so it took the Simurgh to shake off the effect of the beam, she demonstrated all too vividly the problem with being a sitting duck. Had she been moving, four out of five shots would’ve missed. As it was, all but a few hit her, putting more holes in the luckless Endbringer than the most cartoonish block of Swiss cheese.

Even with that, while they were still firing, she recovered enough to lunge forward once more, her sole remaining hand (and few remaining fingers) reaching out for Taylor Hebert. Darting forward, Rebecca braved the fire, gambling that it was tuned specifically for Endbringer matter. The shots tingled unpleasantly as they passed through her, but did nothing more. Grabbing the creature’s sole remaining arm and one wing, she tried to hold the Simurgh back. With a rending crack, both limbs broke free, and the Endbringer continued forward.

But the delay had been just long enough. The last volley of shots hit the Simurgh, none of them in what Rebecca would’ve called a vital area (given that all of those had already been thoroughly honeycombed, she wasn’t surprised) but one or more must have told, because the Endbringer just … stopped. A couple of seconds later, the winged woman crashed to the ground a few yards away from Taylor Hebert, shattering into several pieces as she did so. There was no twitching, no last firing of nerves. Endbringers, Rebecca was certain, had no nerves. Slowly, she descended toward where the remains of the Simurgh lay, dropping the wing and arm on top of the heap. The weird ichor that passed for blood was leaking out of the silvery flesh, while feathers ruffled in the breeze.

Landing, she walked toward Taylor Hebert, who came to meet her; still carrying the rifle. The armoured suit matched the girl pace for pace, the holocloak gone for the moment. Neither of them seemed to have been harmed by the explosion of the rifle, except for a little soot here and there.

“I have so many questions.” Rebecca pointed at the Simurgh. “But first: how?”

Taylor tossed her the rifle she was holding. “Endbringer rifle. You’re welcome.”

Reflexively, Rebecca caught it. “ … Endbringer rifle?” She blinked twice, assimilating the knowledge. This is what the Endbringer material was for. She looked the weapon over. Most of it seemed to be straightforward, except for a dull crystal built into the top. “Is that the power source?”

“That’s the storage device,” Taylor corrected her. “I’ve got a machine that makes these, and charges the crystal with the right sort of energy. Bits of Simurgh for bitch-features here, bits of Leviathan for Leviathan, and so forth. I can build one pre-charged rifle per pound of matter, each with a ten-shot crystal. Unrechargeable, though. You wouldn’t believe how much easier it made construction.” She looked up. “Oh, hey, guys. Nice shooting.”

Rebecca looked around as the two cloth-masked mooks trotted up, with a teenage girl trailing behind them. Each of the men carried five more of the rifles over their shoulders. “You weren’t kidding about the gun exploding,” said the skinnier one.

Rebecca frowned; she knew that voice.

“L33t?” she asked. “You two are Über and L33t?” Of all the people anywhere she was likely to encounter at the scene of the death of an Endbringer, those two were somewhere around the bottom of the list.

“No, we’re Simon and fucking Garfunkel.” The big guy with the resonant voice shook his head in disgust. “Of course we’re Über and L33t. Got any more stupid questions?”

Rebecca shook her head, then looked at the teenager behind them. “And you are?”

The girl was tall and skinny, rather like Taylor, but had short blonde hair rather than Taylor’s long black curly locks. She shuffled her feet on the ground, not wanting to meet the hero’s eyes. “The Empire, uh, offered me a lot of money to sit in a cage with a bag over my head. I didn’t know it was so they could hurt Hax. I’m really, really sorry. Can I go home now?”

Decoy. Right. Rebecca figured that she knew the Empire’s entire plan by now. Capture Taylor Hebert to draw Hax in, with a second girl so they can’t just teleport her out. “Where’s the Empire now?”

“We let ’em go,” Über said briskly. “Sure, they fucked up by kidnapping a teenage girl, but they also stepped up when we laid our cards on the table and told them they could go out with the rifles or without ’em. They chose ‘with’, and they stood fast when it came down to the wire. So we gave them a pass this time.”

Beside him L33t cracked his knuckles, or tried to. “Besides, if they’d tried to fuck us over, we would’ve kicked their asses and they knew it.”

Two months ago, Rebecca would’ve taken this as empty posturing. But the unlikely team-up of Pwnage and the Empire Eighty-Eight had just taken down an Endbringer. She wasn’t ruling anything out any more.

She looked down at the Endbringer rifle in her hands. “So I’m guessing that the energy this produces disrupts Endbringer flesh? Nullifies whatever holds it together?”

“That’s the general idea.” Taylor held out her hand, and the armoured figure put a complicated-looking remote into it. “The trouble was, she’d be likely to dodge anything she knew could kill her. So we had to hold her still for a second. Thus, the stun rifle.”

“Which we had to hook up to a nuclear reactor,” added Über.

“And the gun exploded anyway,” said L33t. “But hey, it worked.”

Rebecca restrained herself from asking about the nuclear reactor. It was probably something she didn’t want to know about. “Are you a Brute?” she asked the girl. “How did you avoid being hurt by the explosion?”

Taylor gave her a level stare. “I was in close proximity to Othala up until thirty seconds before we came out through the portal. You do the math.”

Othala. Right. Trump, can grant temporary invulnerability. “Why didn’t she teleport to you? That would’ve given you no time at all to fire the stun rifle.”

Taylor hooked her thumb at the armoured figure beside her. “There’s a teleport jammer built into the suit. So very handy.”

Rebecca shook her head. “You had it all planned out, didn’t you?”

At first, she thought the girl was ignoring the question as irrelevant, but then she realised Taylor was watching as Legend and Eidolon came in for a landing nearby. They walked over, watching the fragmented corpse of the Simurgh as warily as Rebecca had.

“We’ve done a complete search of the surrounding area,” Legend reported as he came up to the group. “There’s no sign that this is any kind of decoy.” He held out his hand to Taylor. “Congratulations. I’m sure Alexandria will explain to me how you did it in short order, but right now I’m just happy someone’s managed to kill an Endbringer.”

Taylor shook it; for a moment, laser lights seemed to dance around her head. “Thanks,” she said. “To be honest, I fully expected to have a little more lead time. Also, I didn’t expect to be kidnapped by the Empire Eighty-Eight. But I guess it all turned out okay.”

“Okay,” Eidolon broke in as he stepped up to them. “Legend might be happy with not knowing all the details straight up, but I do actually want to know how it was done.” If a virtual nobody like you can figure out how to kill an Endbringer, he didn’t say out loud, then I can surely improve on your technique.

Taylor’s eyes opened wide as she turned to face him, but it wasn’t her who spoke. “What the living crap?” Lunging forward, the armoured figure grabbed Eidolon by the front of his costume and shook him like a rag doll. “Are you stupid, or just fucking insane?”

“Wh-wh-wh-wh—” burbled Eidolon, obviously unused to being manhandled in this way.

“Miss Hebert!” snapped Rebecca, belatedly realising it had been Taylor in the suit all the time, and that she’d been talking to the body double. “Let Eidolon go right now!” She moved forward and took hold of the suit’s shoulder. In the next second, after a blur of action which included a smashing blow that she felt, she found herself face-down on the ground, her head spinning. Son of a bitch, where’d she learn how to fight like that?

“Hax!” shouted Legend. “Why are you doing this?” Deadly beams of energy began to play around his hands.

“Why am I doing this?” The suit was now ten feet in the air, still holding Eidolon by the front of his costume. “This fucking moron has been carrying around the command codes to the Endbringers and all he’s been doing with them is make them attack cities, that’s why I’m doing this!”

Rising into the air herself, Rebecca looked around. People were starting to filter back into the area but with any luck, none of them had heard those fateful words. It didn’t matter how true (or not) they were; just saying them could mar Eidolon’s reputation for a long time. The reputation of the entire Triumvirate, for that matter.

“Keep your voice down,” she snapped. “That’s not true. It can’t be.”

“Really.” Hax let Eidolon go and turned to face her. “Do you even know how my powers work?”

Rebecca shook her head. “Enlighten me.”

“When I copy someone’s powers, they come in two flavours. For most people, the powers are alive. Active. Telling me how they work. Explaining how their users have worked out tricks. Suggesting new tricks to use. Then there’s the other flavour. People like you three, and Triumph. Oh, and Coil.”

Rebecca felt a chill go down her back. Hax could tell Cauldron capes from others. “What about us?” she asked quietly.

“Your powers aren’t alive. They’re like manuals. In most cases, very short manuals. This is how to do this. Simple, straightforward and to the point. That one,” she pointed at Eidolon, “has a manual that’s basically a stack of encyclopedias. There’s an index, which he’s never opened. As far as I can tell, every time he looks for a power, he flips through randomly until he finds one that matches his needs. The trouble is, there’s one chapter that’s all about the Endbringers, and every time he accidentally opens that one, he pushes them to attack a city. Only not too hard. Just hard enough so they can be beaten.”

“She’s lying.” Eidolon’s voice was flat. “She has to be. I fight as hard as anyone to beat the Endbringers. I’ve been to every single battle.”

“Ever hear of firefighters who set fires so they can get accolades for putting them out?” That was Über, down below. “Yeah, me too. If Hax says you’re doing this shit, then you’re doing this shit.”

“Alexandria. Legend.” Eidolon’s voice was passionate. “Please tell me you’re not buying these lies. I’d never do that. You know I’d never do that.” A green glow began to build up around his hand.

“Attack my friends, and I will not rest until you are buried in an unmarked grave, with your name smeared in every newspaper in the world.” Hax’s voice was cold and deadly. “Power that shit down. Now.”

“Eidolon. Stand down.” Rebecca’s voice sounded foreign in her own ears. All too readily, she recalled her conclusion of some weeks previously, when she decided that she did not want to fight Hax. The girl had already shown an unnerving level of competence with Rebecca’s own capabilities, and now seemed to have access to Eidolon’s entire library of powers, including the index and—if she was to be believed about the other thing—the Endbringer command codes. She didn’t want to think about how good Hax would be with Legend’s lasers. And that wasn’t even considering whatever abilities the Trump had built into the suit she was wearing, via L33t’s power.

“What? No!” Eidolon’s helmet turned to face her; from the tone of his voice, she got the impression he was staring in astonishment. “It’s not true! It can’t be!”

“What possible reason could I have for lying?” Hax hovered in midair between the three heroes of the Triumvirate, but instead of appearing outmatched and surrounded, she dominated the gathering. “I copy powers. It’s what I do. You’re a bit different from most people; I can see what you’ve been using. And I can also see why you’ve been losing strength.”

Down below, the body double was speaking quietly to Über and L33t. The two men nodded and started toward the gathering crowd. “Okay,” Über called out in a commanding tone. “Just hold back there a ways, please. The heroes are just working out some personal differences. You can get autographs in a moment.”

Even with the obscuring helmet in the way, Rebecca could tell that Eidolon was staring at Hax so hard that she half-expected him to produce scorch-marks on the inside of his faceplate. “What did you just say?”

“You heard me. Seriously, I don’t know how the fuck you got your powers, but you’re not even bothering to read the user manual? What kind of idiot are you?”

“There. Is. No. User. Manual.” Each word was bitten off, to the sound of grinding teeth.

“Really? Flight.” Hax dipped a little in the air, then rose into place again. “Exploding light globes.” Balanced on the palm of her hand was a glowing ball of light, one foot across. “Miniature black holes.” The light-globe vanished, and a discontinuity appeared in the air above Hax’s hand; Rebecca could feel the air being drawn into it. “Force field, type one basic.” The discontinuity faded, while a spherical barrier snapped into place around all four of them. “I can do this all day. What else do I have to do to prove I have access to your user manual, dipshit?”

“Well, I’m definitely convinced.” Legend looked at Rebecca and Eidolon. “Guys, I really think we should listen to her.”

“Especially about the ‘regaining strength’ part.” Rebecca gave Eidolon a hard stare. “Enough with the denial. She’s proved her point.”

Eidolon shook his head stubbornly. “I refuse to accept that I’m responsible for … all of that.” He gestured at the remains of the Simurgh, and then out at the wider world. “I can’t be. Heroes don’t do that.”

“You know what my trigger event was? A hero locked me into my school locker, along with my body weight in used tampons.” Hax’s voice was implacable. “When I beat her up for it, other heroes came in to arrest me. Calling yourself a hero doesn’t put you above the law, or make you immune to mistakes in judgement. Just be glad I’m here to save you from this one.”

“You can do that?” Legend seemed to be wavering between hope and disbelief. “You can stop the Endbringers?”

“Already done. Told them to stand down.” She indicated Eidolon. “Can’t guarantee it’ll stay that way, given the way this idiot keeps picking up the remote and playing with it.”

Eidolon clenched his fists. “Will you stop saying things like that!”

“Stop reaching for the loaded gun and I’ll stop smacking you on the wrist.” Her tone was uncompromising. “You’ve set off three different semi-autonomous killing machines that have directly murdered millions, and been the proximate cause of death for millions more. What did you want, milk and fucking cookies?”

 “Enough.” It was Legend who’d spoken. “Eidolon, everything Hax has said so far has checked out. If you didn’t know what you were doing, then you didn’t know. Powers that come with unpleasant side effects aren’t exactly unheard of. On the upside, we’ve achieved a stupendous victory today. Hax, you’ve proven you can produce weapons that kill Endbringers. If you can make it so we don’t even have to fight them, so much the better.”

“Especially since there’s seventeen more.” Hax shrugged and looked around at the three heroes. “What, you didn’t know that bit either? Whoops.”

Rebecca felt her throat go dry. Fighting three Endbringers had been bad enough. Fighting nineteen of them … the world would not survive. “How do we … can we …”

“Oh, we can keep them in hibernation mode until the cows come home. Or rather, I can. I can’t guarantee that Eidolon’s issues won’t make him wake one or two of them up to take the Simurgh’s place, if I don’t have access to the control panel from time to time.”

“Uh … Hax?” Legend seemed to be struggling with the idea of so many Endbringers, just as Rebecca herself had. “I have a question. Could you … reprogram the Endbringers? All nineteen of them?”

“Hmm.” Hax’s voice was speculative. “It’ll be easier with the ones that haven’t already been set up with the ‘murder-death-kill’ impulse, but sure. What are you looking for? The world’s scariest conga line?”

“No. Soldiers.” Legend’s tone had firmed. As he said the second word, Rebecca realised his intent. “To fight a greater threat.”

Eidolon roused from his sullen silence. “You can’t be serious!”

Raising her hand to stop him, Rebecca spoke carefully. “I’m not so sure. Think about it. If Hax is exaggerating for whatever reason, we only have two Endbringers to contend with, and she can produce weapons to kill them. If she’s deadly serious, we have a theoretical maximum of nineteen weapons of war, under her complete control, that we can bring to bear against our other problem.”

“I’m tempted to make some sort of joke about reality TV not deserving Endbringers but yes, I’m serious and yes, I’m listening.”

Legend took a deep breath. “Can this force field be made soundproof?”

Immediately, all exterior noise cut out. At the same time, the barrier became translucent. “Still listening.”

The subsequent explanation took a few minutes. Hax seemed dubious at first, but rapidly accepted their explanation of why Scion needed to be destroyed. Her questions were incisive and intelligent, building a complete picture of the situation. Rebecca found herself wondering exactly what kind of information-gathering options the suit had at its disposal. Considering that a competent version of L33t’s power had been tapped to build it, there could be literally anything in there.

“Okay, then.” The explanation done, Hax shook her head slowly. “I’ve just got one thing to say. You’re a bunch of hammers.”

Silence fell inside the force field, as Rebecca turned to look at Legend and Eidolon. She felt vaguely insulted, but she couldn’t see the point of it. “And when you say ‘a bunch of hammers’, you mean …?”

“To a hammer, every problem is a nail. Über taught me that one. You look at Endbringers and you see massive power and force, so you want to attack Scion with massive power and force. Forgetting that massive power and force is his thing, too.”

Rebecca blinked as an unaccustomed idea formed in her mind. “You mean, use the Endbringers for something other than attacking Scion …?” It was like suggesting that Nilbog open a tea salon.

“Got it in one.” Hax dusted her metal-gauntleted hands off. “So here’s my plan.”

 Epilogue