A Darker Path pt 46 (Patreon)

The Great Duck Hunt

[A/N 1: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

[A/N 2: Double length chapter, woo!]

Protectorate Base, New York

8:17 PM, Thursday, 23 February, 2011

Flechette

Lily lay back on her bed, smirking at the pictures Emily had sent. They had shared secret identities a few days before—contingent on Emily e-signing an NDA that Lily had mailed to her, courtesy of Legend—and now she was receiving texts of Emily making funny faces. The one of her dragon mask with googly eyes and a big silly-looking tongue lolling out the side of its mouth had made Lily laugh out loud.

An email popped up in Lily's inbox, showing Emily's email address and the caption Have you ever watched this? It's the funniest. Below that was a YouTube clip, which Lily clicked on.

She vaguely remembered watching it, many years ago, but Emily had sent it so she viewed it through in full. Classic Warner Brothers, with Elmer as the clueless hunter, and Daffy trying to get him to shoot Bugs, yet always being the one shot at. The classics, she decided as Daffy captured his errant beak yet again, were called that for a reason.

It had been two weeks since the fundraiser. Emily had messaged her shortly after that, and she'd tentatively responded. While Parian was the girl Lily had noticed, Emily had been wearing a dragon costume, so the deck had been stacked against her. And Emily was the one who had reached out.

Screw it, Lily decided. Next time I get some time off, I'm going to Brockton Bay. I'll let her know I'm coming, and we'll make a day of it.

After all, Atropos herself had put the seal of approval on their relationship.

If she says it's okay, who's gonna say no?

<><>

Also in New York

Taylor

I leaned forward just as the teleport kicked in, so that I ended up with my hands on Director Wilkins' desk, looking at her from a range of three feet. She shrieked, flailed her arms so papers flew everywhere, and fell off her chair. As the papers fluttered to the ground, I considered going around the desk and helping her up, but decided that she would see any move I made as hostile.

"Hi," I said helpfully. "Not actually here to hurt you."

She didn't respond, staying down below the desk level. I knew she was reaching up under the footwell and activating the duress alarm. This wouldn't actually do much, because I'd remotely hacked the building before teleporting in. I didn't need alarms blaring and causing confusion; they were going to have enough of that in a relatively short time.

"I came here to give you two important pieces of information," I informed the desk. It continued to be a desk. "The first is that I'm taking Flechette and going on a brief trip to Australia. We won't be long."

Wilkins didn't show herself, but she couldn't let that fly. "I can't permit that."

"Sorry, let me rephrase that," I said patiently. "I wasn't asking for permission. I'm informing you as a courtesy."

She still hadn't shown herself. "If Flechette goes anywhere out of this building with you, that will be counted as kidnapping a Ward. In Legend's city."

I snorted. "If you tell Legend I've kidnapped Flechette, he will advise you that she's probably okay, which will be perfectly true. Because he knows me." I shook my head; we were getting off track. "Anyway, you never asked about the second piece of information."

Silence from behind the desk. She wasn't going to bite.

I was tempted to walk around behind the desk and ask her what she thought she was playing at, but by now she'd extracted her .22 pistol from its hidey-hole. If I did that, she would feel threatened enough to shoot and I'd have to take the weapon away from her, and she'd be needlessly traumatised all over again. Better to not even go there.

I made a bet with myself that Piggot would've stood up to me.

"The second piece of information, seeing as you're so eager to learn it, is that the Endbringer alarm is due to go off in about twenty minutes. The Simurgh, in Canberra." I said it as calmly and unemotionally as I could, to soften the shock. Professor Plum, in the library, with the candlestick.

It took her a few seconds to connect the dots. That was when she popped up from behind the desk like a jack-in-the-box, pistol held in both hands, aimed at centre mass. Her finger wasn't resting on the trigger, which was smart of her.

"Canberra is in Australia," she said quietly, as though it were a revelation of great importance.

"The capital city, even," I agreed. "Which is weird. Everyone seems to think it's Sydney."

"Where did you intend to take Flechette in Australia?"

I pretended to think for a moment. "… Canberra, actually. There's apparently a nice lake with an awesome name, and lots of cultural stuff. Young minds need expanding." The fact that Flechette was actually older than me was irrelevant, so I didn't bring it up.

Her grasp on the pistol became white-knuckled, and her hands began to shake from the tension. If she fired it now, she'd be just as likely to sign her name on the back wall as hit me. "I do not give permission for her to go into an Endbringer battle!"

"Point of fact," I said, holding up a finger. "First, as I said earlier, I'm not actually asking permission. I'm informing you of where she's going to be. Second, the word 'battle' presupposes that there's going to be a fight. I don't 'fight', unless I'm making a very specific point. I kill. There's no point I need to make with the Simurgh. She is going to die, though I will be having a few words with her first. Flechette's just coming along for moral support."

"You're not going anywhere." Her voice was as tense as the rest of her. "I'm the one holding the gun. Any minute now, troopers are going to burst through that door, and—"

"No, they aren't." This conversation promised to be tedious as fuck, so I short-circuited it. "I hacked your systems before I ever came here. Your security guys are watching looped footage. The duress signal got rerouted to one specific person, along with the actual security footage from this room."

"Who—" she began, just as her phone rang. Never taking her eyes off me, she scrabbled for it. "Hello?"

"Director Wilkins." Despite the fact that it wasn't on speaker, I could still hear Alexandria's voice on the other end. "Exactly what do you think you're doing?"

Wilkes drew herself to attention. "Chief Director—I—arresting Atropos—she's dangerous—"

"Yes, she's dangerous. Do you honestly think you're holding her at gunpoint against her will? The last person who pointed a gun at her, she shot his bullets out of the air. She's being nice. Now, put it on speaker. What has she said to you?"

Wilkins, starting to sweat, obediently put the phone on speaker. If I was of a mind to give a shit about such things, I might've actually felt sorry for her. But I wasn't, so I didn't. "I—uh—she wants to take Flechette to Australia, to fight the Simurgh—"

"End the Simurgh," I corrected firmly. "And her legacy. There's a difference."

Alexandria paused for all of two seconds, which for her was the equivalent of a jaw-drop for a solid five minutes. "The Simurgh? There's going to be an attack? Where? When?"

"Canberra," I said. "Fifteen minutes. Send the heroes if you want. It won't make a difference, but they won't be thrilled if they miss it."

"If I asked you how you know this, would I get an answer that made sense?" She wasn't even pretending to talk to Wilkins anymore.

I shrugged. "I know it because that's when and where it's going to happen?"

Alexandria's tone made it clear that she was currently rubbing the bridge of her nose with her finger and thumb. "I suppose that'll have to be good enough. Wilkins, I'm giving permission for Flechette to accompany Atropos to Canberra. Now, put down the pistol before Atropos makes you put it down. I need to make some calls." The phone beeped, indicating that the conversation was over.

"You heard the lady. Have a nice day." Raising my hand, I snapped my fingers, just as the teleport kicked in.

<><>

New York Protectorate Base

Flechette

Lily looked up from her phone as a knock sounded on the door to her room. "Who is it?" she called out.

"I am shocked and surprised," a familiar voice called from the other side of the door. "You don't recognise me from my knock? Now I feel rejected."

She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, not quite believing her ears. "Atropos?"

"Well, duh. Did you need me to go beat up March again to prove it?"

Lily glanced up at the rapier hanging in its sheath on the wall. "Ah … nope. Come on in."

The door opened and Atropos strolled into the room, then shut it behind her. "Hi," she said cheerfully. "You're going to need to suit up, because you know how I said we'd be going to Australia? We're going now."

"Wait, what?" Lily knew she should've been used to this sort of left-field shenanigans from Atropos by now. "You said you'd clear it first with the higher-ups."

"It's cleared. Chief Director Costa-Brown said it was okay." Atropos gestured at the dressmaker's dummy that Lily stored her costume on. "Or didn't you want to go to Australia?"

"Oh, I totally want to go." Dropping her phone on the bed, Lily went over and started pulling her costume off the dummy. "But my main question is: why? And why now? It's the middle of the night."

"Not over there, it isn't." Atropos described a semi-circle in the air with her finger. "Right now, in Canberra it's the middle of the day. As for why we're going, I've already done a wabbit hunt, so now I'm going on a duck hunt."

Lily stopped in the middle of donning her costume and stared at Atropos. "… wait. You sent me that email?"

"I did." Atropos admitted it easily enough.

"But why?"

Leaning against the wall with her arms folded, Atropos fairly oozed smugness. "You will absolutely find out."

Resuming her costuming up, Lily asked the next question on her mind. "If March was the wabbit, I mean rabbit, who's the duck? Is there a duck-themed Australian villain who's somehow gotten on your bad side?"

"Not Australian, and not duck-themed, but yes." Atropos paused for a moment. "Do you trust me?"

That one wasn't hard to answer. Atropos was many things, some bad, but untrustworthiness did not number among her traits. "Yes, I do."

"Good." Atropos may have smiled. "And do you believe in the power of friendship?"

For some reason, it sounded like a trick question. Either that, or it was an odd way of asking if Lily considered her to be a friend. But the answer was the same, no matter how she thought of it. "I think I do, yeah."

"Excellent. That's good to hear." She paused for a moment, which was when the Endbringer sirens started sounding. Audible through the base via the PA system, they were pitched for the Simurgh, with the warble that meant 'not here'. "One more question: do you believe I can End the Simurgh?"

Lily froze, then turned slowly to stare at Atropos. "Uh … why? Is that where we're going? To fight the Simurgh?"

"No." Atropos suddenly had her shears in her hand, spinning them one way and then the other. "I'm going to kill her, and End her legacy. You're needed for a vital role, but you will not be required to actually fight her." The shears vanished as fast as they'd appeared, and Atropos straightened up from her posture against the wall. "Ready?"

Again, the question seemed to have several levels. Lily was costumed up, so that was affirmative on one level, but then there was the deeper question. Am I ready to go up against an Endbringer?

There was only one possible answer. Atropos chose me for this. The knowledge put steel into her backbone.

"Yeah. I think I am."

<><>

Canberra, Australia

Local Time 12:37 PM AEST, 24 February, 2011

Taylor

Leet had assured me that the teleporter had a global range, but I'd never tested it as far as Australia before. It handled the portal-step just fine, though it was going to need a bit of time to recover before we could teleport back. That was fine. We had time.

As the shadows dispersed, the Endbringer sirens became audible here as well. Lily glanced up into the sky in case the Simurgh was already waiting for us (she wasn't) and then around at the scenery. "It is so weird to know that it's after eight at night, back home."

"And here, that's last night," I reminded her. I gestured at the weird building with grass growing up over the top of it, and the angular flagpole on top of that. "So, what do you think of Canberra so far?"

Lily shaded her eyes as she looked around at all the trees. I didn't blame her; we'd gone from late winter to late summer, and I was glad I'd doubled up on the antiperspirant before I'd left the house. "Um …" she said at last. "Where is it? Where are all the skyscrapers? Where's the, uh, whatever they use for a White House?"

"There," I said, pointing again at the building with the flagpole on top. "That's their Parliament House. And that one," I pointed in the other direction at a blocky white building about a quarter of a mile away, "is the old parliament building. They build outward rather than upward, here. The tallest building in Canberra is only twenty-six stories high." As I spoke, I took a can of white spray-paint from one of my long-coat pockets, shook it up, and began to draw a shape on the grass.

"Is it just me," she asked, "or can you just walk up on top of it? And what are you doing?"

"Showing off," I said briskly. "Or to put it another way, building my brand. And yeah, last I heard, you could. I guess letting the general public walk around over the top of politicians' heads was their way of showing that they're all equal in the end, or something."

I heard a clik as she took a photo of the parliament house. "Ah," she said in a low tone. "I think the cops are coming. They're kind of acting like cops, anyway."

I'd already pinged them in the back of my head, and registered their intent as official but non-lethal. "Thanks." Capping the spray-paint can, I slid it back into my pocket and turned to face the newcomers. "Good afternoon, officers. How can we help you?"

There were two officers, a large solidly built man and a shorter but no less formidable-looking woman. They wore dark blue vests loaded with equipment over pale blue shirts, which made for an interesting contrast. The male officer took the lead. "Well, for a start, miss, you can't be out here vandalising the place like that. Why aren't you heading for a shelter?"

"Because we're passing the time until the Simurgh gets here," I said, semi-honestly. "This is Flechette, from the New York Wards. I'm Atropos; maybe you've heard of me?"

The female cop certainly had, from the way her eyes widened. "What, the one who took out the Slaughterhouse Nine and all that?"

"Jeez!" her colleague exclaimed. "You're that bloody Atropos?"

"She certainly is," Lily confirmed. "She's killed more supervillains than anyone. And she's my friend, so leave her alone."

"Okay, okay," the female officer said. "If you're here to fight, we're not going to bother you. Thanks for showing up. You take care and stay safe, hey?"

I nodded. "That's the general intention, yeah."

"Just one thing," the guy added. "How'd you get here so fast? The alarms only started going off a few minutes ago."

I grinned under the mask. "We walked."

"Okay, fine," he muttered. "Be a smartarse." But he moved away anyway, urged by his partner.

I went back to finishing the shape I was drawing. If squinted at from a certain angle, it might have vaguely resembled a map of Australia. As a final touch, I pulled out another spray can and painted a red X at a particular spot.

"I think someone's—" began Lily, about one second before a cape blurred into sight in front of us. He was definitely a Mover, with orange and yellow speed lines on his costume. Stocky and short, he had bulky muscle rather than the runner's build that most dedicated Movers tended to develop.

"G'day," he said. "Name's Pocket Rocket. Cops said a couple of Yanks had already shown up. That'd be you two?"

"That's us." I held out my hand to shake. "I'm Atropos, and this is Flechette, from the New York Wards."

His handshake was firm without trying to crush mine. "Whoa," he said, eyes widening behind the mask. "The Atropos? Thought the outfit looked familiar."

"The one and only," I confirmed. "Are there many other heroes in Canberra?"

"Not a lot." He grimaced. "I put the word out to Wave Rock Surf Club, and they said they'd show up. As for the others, they'll get here when they get here." He shaded his eyes with his hand and peered skyward. "Any sign of the Bin Chicken of Doom yet?"

Lily spluttered with laughter. "What did you call her?"

"It's a type of ibis," he explained. "Ugly as fuck, and they'll spread your rubbish far and wide. Nobody likes 'em. They've got white feathers … and I tend to be a smartarse when I'm fuckin' terrified."

I didn't look upward. "She'll be overhead in about five minutes. See the way the clouds are spreading out? That's her. By the time she gets here, it'll be solid overcast, exactly three hundred feet above ground level. Zero visibility above that point."

He stopped and stared at me. "And how the fuck do you know that?"

I looked back at him; the difference being, I could see his eyes. "Because she considers herself a chessmaster, and I'm gonna show her what a fool's mate looks like." Which didn't answer his question at all, but it sounded good all the same.

"Okay, five minutes. Gotcha. I'll be back by then." He stomped the ground once with his heel, then blurred away.

Lily shook her head, still giggling. "Bin Chicken of Doom. I can't wait to tell Emily that one."

"It is kinda funny," I agreed. "Here, can you help me with something?" Drawing the shotgun I'd confiscated from Ravioli, with Amy's metallic coating rubbed into the engravings I'd done with the angle-grinder on the sides of the barrel, I broke it open and pulled a couple of shotgun shells out of my pocket. "Can you treat all but the brass on the shells, and treat the barrels as well, so the shot doesn't tear them to shreds? Then load the shotgun and hand it back to me, please?"

She took the weapon and ammunition carefully. "Okay, I can do that. You think my power will work against her?"

I grinned as I drew my shears, then got out the tiny tub of stuff Riley had made and dipped the tip in. "Oh, I've got a hunch it might just work." Screwing the top back on the tub, I dropped it into my pocket again. "Once you're done with that, could you please treat the blades of my shears as well? Thanks."

She paused halfway through applying her power to the barrels of the shotgun. "Hold on a second. If the shotgun's for the Simurgh … what are the shears for?"

My grin broadened. "The rest of the Endbringers."

"Wait … no … what?" She stared at me as though I'd just started declaiming the Necronomicon in ancient Sumerian. "You are going to have to explain that one to me."

"It's an Atropos thing," I said lightly. "Trust me, it'll get done."

"Lucky I do trust you," she grumbled, then blew a raspberry at me.

"Which I totally appreciate." I glanced over my artwork and nodded in satisfaction. "Oh, and by the way? Don't freak, but there will be a party crasher. I have it totally under control. Understood?"

She gave me a medium-dirty look. "You do understand that saying 'don't freak' is basically an invitation to freak, right?"

"I'm trusting you not to freak. Because you're the most kickass Ward in New York, and pretty soon you're gonna have photos that nobody back home is going to believe."

She loaded the shotgun, clicked it closed, and handed it back to me, accepting the shears in turn. "God, when you talk like that, I feel like I should be ten feet tall and saving the world or something, not struggling with my math homework."

"Math homework is universal," I agreed blandly.

"Wow, these are cool." She ran her finger along the blade, careful to avoid the edges. "Where did you get 'em from?"

I chuckled. "Stole them from Kaiser's personal collection, along with the sword I killed him with."

"Oooh, ouch. A metal spike guy, killed with a sharp metal weapon that he used to own."

"That was previously owned by an actual Kaiser," I appended.

She winced and grinned at the same time. "Day-yum, girl. That's irony, right there."

I nodded, accepting the shears back and letting them twirl casually around my finger. "Killing someone with irony is harder, but so goddamn satisfying when I can get all the ducks in a row."

"Your ducks march in step, wear combat boots, and carry sniper rifles, just saying."

"Never said they didn't." I looked around as a loud crack heralded Strider's arrival with the first bunch of heroes and villains. Taking a deep breath, I raised my voice. "If I can have your attention, please?"

All eyes turned my way, or close enough that it didn't matter. Legend stepped out of the pack and strode toward us. "Flechette, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said. "But I think Atropos has something to say."

"Thank you, I do." I raised my voice again. "All fliers! That overcast up there is artificial! The Simurgh is creating it, with Leviathan's assistance! She's going to be getting here in about two minutes, so stay below the cloud cover! If she catches you in there, she will tear you limb from limb!"

"Oh, come on!" I couldn't see who was protesting, but it wasn't Legend. "Two Endbringers never attack at the same time! Besides, we must be fifty miles inland! Where's he going to find water?"

"Seventy," I corrected him. "But there's a nice big lake, less than a mile away. It's got a billion cubic feet of water in it, and he's lurking in there right now."

"You're sure about this?" asked Legend quietly. I could see Alexandria and Eidolon approaching now, both glancing in the direction of the lake with the amazing name. I mean, how could anyone go wrong with a name like Burley Griffin?

"It's what I'd do," I told him. "I'd suggest you ask the people I've gone up against about how well I can anticipate their moves, but you'd only get answers out of Ravioli and March. Anyway, we'll find out for sure in about a minute and a half." I looked over at Alexandria. "Which gives us just enough time to discuss the next order of business."

There was a crack as Strider deposited another group of heroes in the chosen rendezvous area. This bunch included one of Dragon's suits; I had no doubt there were a bunch more going supersonic on their way across the Pacific. I nodded to Legend and gestured at the sky, and he took the hint. Heading toward the new group, he raised his voice. "No flying into the cloud cover! We're reasonably sure the Simurgh will be using it to trap people! And don't go near the lake, either!"

Nobody questioned him when he said stuff like that, I noticed. It might've irritated me if I'd let it. But I'd got the point across, so it didn't matter. Now I had something else to address; Alexandria was paying attention, and time was short.

I looked her in the eye. "If I End the Simurgh today, here and now, what sort of bounty can I expect?"

A shocked silence spread across the crowd, barely broken by the crack of another bunch of arrivals. Others were coming in now from elsewhere, flying low under the cloud cover. I ignored them all, focusing on Alexandria, whom I knew (and she knew I knew) was also Chief Director Costa-Brown, a woman who had the ear of the President.

The Endbringers had had bounties offered on them early on, when it was thought they might be power-mutated capes, but over the more than a decade since Behemoth's first attack, that had gone by the wayside. Nobody seriously expected a single cape to be able to one-shot an Endbringer. Even the Triumvirate were stretched to their limits when fighting the monsters.

To ask for a bounty, as I'd just done, was akin to asking for a reward for baling out the ocean, or for blowing out the sun. It wasn't just impossible; it was essentially unthinkable.

And yet … I'd asked the question.

And yet … I'd killed 'unkillable' capes before now.

And yet … I'd taken on the Brockton Bay drug trade and beaten it, broken its back then shot it in the head as it lay bleeding in the gutter. Not one of the heroes before me could claim that of their home city. Or villains, for that matter.

Alexandria knew all this, and she met my challenge head-on. "I'd have to make some calls, but if you kill the Simurgh today, I'm thinking two billion dollars is a fair bounty."

"Good." I cracked my neck, first one side and then the other. "Make the wire transfer out to the Brockton Bay Betterment Committee."

The rest of the crowd was silent, apart from the newcomers asking what was going on. But it wasn't the kind of silence that came from anger or fear. It was the kind of silence that arose from sheer, stunned disbelief.

"I'll pass that on," Alexandria said.

That seemed to break some kind of spell, and everyone started talking at once, apparently forgetting that we were waiting on the Simurgh. "Ten seconds!" I yelled. "Brace yourselves! She'll be coming in hot!"

There was just enough time for the assembled heroes to look at each other in apprehension before the Scream started. Hidden by the clouds, the Simurgh was cruising back and forth while trying to narrow down my position. I saw heroes and villains alike grabbing at their heads, while I felt it trying to claw at my brain, though my power shielded me from the worst of it.

At the same time, there was a rumble of large amounts of water in motion; over the trees to the north rose a massive standing wave, with Leviathan embedded within it. If he wanted to reach us, it would take only a few seconds; the wave would roll right over the top of us, as well as any unfortunate citizens still out and about.

"It's stronger than I've ever felt it before!" Legend yelled. "We have to withdraw to a safe distance!"

I shook my head. "There is no safe distance! She's out for blood! My blood!"

"Then what do you propose?" bellowed Eidolon.

I turned to Flechette. Her face was pinched from the effort of withstanding the Scream, but she was still standing strong beside me. The faith she held in me was inspiring.

It was time to reward that faith. "It's duck season!" I shouted.

I saw the understanding light up in her eyes. "Wabbit season!" she disagreed.

"Duck season!"

"Wabbit season!"

Alexandria and Eidolon, and about half the crowd, were staring at us as though we'd gone crazy. Legend and Dragon were trying to stop the rest of the crowd from breaking down into a panic.

"Duck season!"

"Wabbit season!"

The time was right. I nodded to Flechette. "Wabbit season!"

"Duck season!" she screamed. "Fire!"

I still had the shotgun in my hand, and I pointed it upward at an angle. Just as the Simurgh swooped past at the right point … I fired.

The Flechette-charged pellets blasted straight into the cloud cover; a split second later, the Scream cut out.

"And now," I said, my ears trying to ring in the mental silence that followed, "we all step back."

Obediently, Alexandria and Eidolon moved out of the white shape I'd drawn, as did Flechette and I. Not two seconds later, the Simurgh tumbled down out of the sky in a welter of flailing wings. She hit the ground once, bounced, demolished a couple of flagpoles, then landed precisely within the outline I'd drawn out. If the cessation of the mental assault hadn't snapped the assembled capes out of their incipient panic, the double impact certainly did the trick.

As part of the same move, I turned and aimed the shotgun at Leviathan, a mile distant. "Fuck off," I growled, allowing my power to add its emphasis to mine, "or you're next."

<><>

Leviathan

The Second hadn't seen the point of accompanying the Third to its regularly scheduled assault on a water-bag habitation. Worse, the location was far from the ocean. There was some water there, but barely a pittance. Hardly enough to hide under until the time was right, even if the Third had deigned to teleport it there.

It wasn't even expected to attack anything until the Third had located the anomalous shard-host, whatever that meant. The Third wanted it to hold back and be a menace until the anomaly had been located and disposed of. None of which actually sounded like what the Second wanted to do.

But the Third had insisted, and the Orders had backed it up, and so the Second was hovering on water, waiting to see what the Third accomplished.

What it accomplished, it seemed, was self-obliteration. A water-bag, outdoing even the Third's capability of anticipation, used some kind of weapon to bring the Third down. And then the weapon was pointed at the Second.

[Go away, or face equal destruction.]

The Second normally only communicated in the ripple and swell of water, but it heard that well enough.

It had never wanted to be there anyway. Allowing the water-hill to slump back into the basin, the Second called up a thunderstorm and started its run for the coast. If it didn't stop to attack anywhere, it could be there before more annoying water-bags caught up with it.

Especially the one with that weapon, and that Voice.

<><>

Taylor

As Leviathan bolted under the cover of rain, and Eidolon and Legend streaked off to shadow him to the coast, I turned my attention back toward the Simurgh. She twitched feebly as I stepped up, putting one foot on her chest. There was no heartbeat, no rise and fall of breath, but the damage to the core in her main wing had been just enough to disable her—just as I'd planned.

"Listen up, bitch," I said, pointing the shotgun at her core. "There's no way out of this for you. You are going to die. But I can give you a quick, painless End, or …" I raised the shears. "I stick these in the hole I just blew in your core, and find something that gives you the equivalent of agony, and I jab it as hard as I can, as often as I can. Long story short, you can die easy or you can die hard. Your choice."

She stared up at me with her sightless eyes. The twitch of her expression, interpreted by my power, asked me the question.

I nodded. "What do I want? It's simple. You fix everyone you ever fucked over with your Scream. Every last Simurgh bomb, healed. Nobody with little pitfalls in their heads." I leaned closer. "And trust me … I'll know."

For a long, frozen moment, I thought she was going to go with the 'hard' option, just to fuck with me. This had been my best chance to End her legacy as well as her rampage, but I couldn't make her undo her work. I could only make her want to.

And then, she sagged ever so slightly in surrender. I felt the infinitesimal unthreading of the scar tissue the brief exposure had left in my brain, and I knew she was putting her power toward unfucking everyone she'd ever damaged in this way. It was a strain on her, especially now, but I didn't really give a crap.

Once my power told me it was done—it took a surprisingly short time—I nodded to her. "Good choice." Then I administered the coup de grâce. The shotgun boomed, and her core shattered into a thousand unrepairable pieces.

As I took my foot off the body of the Simurgh, the now-destroyed core directly over the red X I'd painted on the ground, Pocket Rocket finally found his voice. Staring at me, he shook his head.

"What the fuck just happened?" he demanded. "Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm the one who just netted Brockton Bay another two billion dollars," I responded cheerfully, resting the shotgun against my shoulder. "And what do you know, it was duck season."

Alexandria eyed me carefully. "What would it take you—"

"Wait!" called out Dragon, standing tall and pointing at me. "What have you got written on that shotgun?"

I held it up so she could see it, and she let out a bark of laughter, which was definitely an odd thing for a twenty-foot-long robotic Dragon suit to do. "I don't believe it. You actually called it 'The Power of Friendship'?"

"Well, think about it," I said, turning the shotgun so the glowing red text on each side was visible to everyone. "I said I would kill the Simurgh with the Power of Friendship. It seemed the simplest way to achieve that."

Alexandria shook her head as Dragon started cackling in the background. "Your puns are almost as lethal as your fighting skills. So, as I was asking, what would it take to get you to commit to killing the other two Endbringers?"

I tilted my head back to look at the now-clearing sky; it was shaping up to be a really nice day in Canberra. Even the thunderstorm retreating to the east at airliner speeds would be out of sight in a moment. "Let's walk and talk. I'm pretty sure that you're not going to want this to get out."

"Alright, then." We headed away from the remains of the Simurgh. Flechette was getting her pictures from every possible angle; her street cred among the New York Wards would be insane.

Once we were a little way up on the Parliament House, with a good view all around, I stopped and leaned against the retaining wall. My shears spun idly on my left pinky as I spoke. "A few things. First, ten percent of the Federal budget that would've been otherwise put toward handling Endbringer damage, for the next ten years. You know where to send it."

"The Brockton Bay Betterment Committee," she confirmed. "You seem very assured of their integrity. The sums we're talking about would tempt anyone to dip into the till."

I smiled under the mask. "They've already been given a strong object lesson in keeping their hands to themselves."

"Yes, true." She would've been kept aware of that, of course. "And the other things?"

I held up one finger. "The Boat Graveyard. You need to show up with Legend and a few others and remove it, give Lord's Port a chance to recover." We both knew the actual recovery would be accomplished with the Betterment Committee money.

She nodded in agreement. "Easily achieved. And?"

"One more thing. And you are not going to like this one." My tone also managed to express the fact that I didn't give a damn what she liked or didn't like.

Her expression turned wary. "I'm listening."

"Eidolon needs to die." I didn't make it a dramatic statement, just one of simple fact. Water is wet, the sun is hot, Eidolon needs to die.

It was interesting to see her go to full poker face in that instant. "Why?"

Intriguingly enough, she hadn't refused outright, or even cited reasons why not. She was willing to negotiate and hear me out, even when it came to the life of her teammate and (I presumed) long-time friend.

That was how much the Ending of the Endbringers was worth to her. Or how little Eidolon meant to her; one of the two.

"Some time in the future, if he's left alive, Eidolon's going to cause a major problem for Brockton Bay. People are going to die. A lot of my work is going to be undone. I'm nipping that in the bud now. Either he dies, or you get to deal with the Endbringers your way." The way that doesn't work, I didn't have to add.

Her eyes flickered, glancing down at the Simurgh. I had deliberately showboated the kill and made it look easy. That had to be factoring into her thought processes right now. "He does a lot of good …" she prevaricated.

"Does he save more people than the Endbringers kill?" We both knew the answer to that one. "He dies, or the deal's off."

"Wait." She'd finally seen the loophole that I was dangling in front of her. "You can kill powers, correct? Could you kill his powers but leave him alive? Would that satisfy you?"

"Hmm …" I pretended reluctance. With my morph mask and total control of my tells, she had no way of reading me like she normally could with people. "I suppose so. You have to convince him, though. He's got to be willing. Villains, I'll just take their powers away. Heroes get the choice."

It was almost hilarious how eagerly she grasped at the lifeline for Eidolon. Apparently she did care for him, after all. "I'll talk to him."

"You do that. He should be back in a few minutes. I'm just going to make sure Flechette hasn't wandered off and gotten into trouble."

Still twirling the shears, I strolled back down off the slope and past the water feature (I would've had the Simurgh land there, but that would've ruined it for the real ducks) to where Flechette was standing at the periphery of the crowd. There were a whole bunch of heroes, and not a few villains, who'd come fully expecting to suffer mindfuckery and maybe even die, and they hadn't even had to use their powers. The general air was, 'Okay, what now?'

"Ladies, gentlemen, and others!" I called out. They paid attention to me, even more so than before the fight. Any would-be hecklers were notably silent. "Thank you for attending the very last Simurgh battle! Or, as I call it, the Great Duck Hunt!" I held the shotgun high to a general cheer. Dragon added a steam-train style whistle that echoed off the distant Old Parliament House.

"What about Leviathan?" Ah, there were the hecklers. "You let him get away!"

"Pull your head in!" That was Pocket Rocket. "She told him to fuck off—and he went!"

"I'll be dealing with him and Behemoth in due time," I confirmed. "I've just concluded an arrangement with Alexandria for Ending the Endbringer threat for all time! When I'm done, there'll be no more Endbringer attacks! They are finished!"

Stunned silence greeted my words. They'd seen me destroy the Simurgh and End her legacy, but the idea of doing the same to Leviathan and Behemoth was hard for them to get their heads around. Then, Lily and Pocket Rocket began clapping.

The applause spread through the crowd until they were all cheering again. I headed over to Lily, who had her phone in her hand. It looked like she'd just gotten a picture of me coming down off the Parliament House.

"You said you were going to use your shears to kill the other Endbringers," she reminded me. "How are you going to do that? They're a lot more dangerous than the Simurgh was."

I grinned. "She was the hard one. The other two? Won't even see it coming." I raised my hands for quiet, and the capes closest to me shut up. The silence spread through the crowd until they were all listening again. "Thank you all for coming! You can go home if you want! We got this!"

As the crowd began to disperse, some clustering around Strider, Lily looked up at me. "And that's it? We just kill an Endbringer then go home?"

"Not quite." I shook my head. "Still got one more bit of business to take care of."

"What?" She saw where I was looking to the east, and turned her gaze that way as well. Legend and Eidolon were tiny dots in the sky, but coming on fast. Of the disturbed weather Leviathan had left in his wake, there was little sign.

"Eidolon," I said, then shut up as Dragon headed over in our direction.

"Hey," she said cheerfully. "I kind of expected a show when you attended but damn, you've got a way of exceeding expectations."

I gave her a polite nod. "It is kind of my business model. How've you been, anyway?"

"Making progress, making progress." She looked around as Legend landed next to us, while Eidolon touched down near Alexandria. "I'll leave you alone now, but we can catch up later."

"Totally." 'Making progress' sounded hopeful. Once she got rid of those particular chains, I'd be able to remove the backdoor into her sensory network. "See you around."

Legend nodded politely to Dragon, then turned to me. "Leviathan was swimming for deep water, the last we saw him. Nobody's ever scared off an Endbringer before."

"That was the general idea." I twirled the shears again. "You're okay with getting Flechette back to New York? I've got a little business with Alexandria and Eidolon to deal with."

"Sure." He turned to Lily. "Ready to go?"

"Just one second." She took a quick picture of me standing next to her boss, with the wreckage of the Simurgh in the background, then came and gave me a hug. "Thanks for bringing me along. It was amazing. Scary as hell, but amazing."

"You're welcome." I patted her on the back. "See you when you visit Brockton Bay next."

"Absolutely." She turned to Legend. "Let's go. I've got so much to tell the others about."

I turned and strolled over to where Alexandria was explaining matters to Eidolon. He was radiating something between anger and disbelief, and the anger was winning. As I climbed the slope toward them, he turned toward me. "What the hell is this? Why are you bargaining my powers against the lives of millions? Billions?"

Neither of us had visible eyes, but I knew where his were anyway. "Why are you clinging to your powers when you could be saving billions by giving them up?"

"But why do I even have to give them up?" He didn't quite shout the question, but his voice wasn't quiet. Energy began to gather around his hands; more a sign of agitation than intent to attack me, I gauged.

"Because you will cause problems for Brockton Bay in the future if I don't act now." I injected a thoughtful tone into my voice. "Or would you secretly rather the Endbringers keep causing havoc so you can be the big hero and fight them? Is that why you don't want me to End them?"

"I don't want them to hurt anyone!" His fists were clenched so hard now, he had to be bruising his palms. Turning to Alexandria, he gestured at me. "Tell her! You know me better than that!"

She looked at me, then at him. "I know you'd never do anything deliberately to cause harm," she said quietly. "But all too often, powers come with unintended consequences. And Atropos has shown an unparalleled level of prescience in matters like this."

"But … what if she hates me for something I don't even remember doing?" he pleaded. "What if this has all been a ploy to make me give up my powers, for some kind of twisted revenge?"

"I'd give mine up," she said unexpectedly. "If it meant the Endbringers would never trouble the world again, I'd do it."

"But she's not asking you!" He lowered his voice slightly, even though I could still hear him perfectly well. "And what about … well, you know. Him."

This argument was threatening to start going around in circles, so I stepped in. "I'll be dealing with him in due course, too. But here and now, this is about you and your powers. Not Alexandria's, and not Legend's. Yours."

Alexandria stared at me. "Wait … you'll what?" From the way both she and Eidolon fixated on me, it was lucky she didn't have eye Blaster powers (and that he hadn't picked any for the day).

I sighed. "What part of 'Can actually kill anything' did you not understand? He can die, therefore I can kill him. But that's for later. Eidolon, right now you have the choice to become the most revered hero in history. By giving up your powers, you will pave the way for me to End the Endbringers. You will save literally billions from death, starvation and misery. But I'm not going to force you to do this. You have to decide for yourself."

Even with that incentive, with all the certitude I was able to pour into my voice, it was a hard-fought decision on his part. He paced back and forth, fists clenched, head bowed. The desire to be the greatest hero in the world battled with itself, and the contest swayed from one side to the other.

Finally, he stomped up to us. It didn't matter that he was wearing an opaque visor; I could still feel him glaring at me. Only with my power could I tell that he didn't intend to attack me.

"Fine," he grated. "Let's do this. What do I need to do?"

I stopped twirling the shears and stepped forward. "Are you willing to allow me to kill your powers?" I asked formally. "And are you aware you are doing this so that the Endbringers will no longer bring death, misery and suffering to the world?"

He took a deep breath, then let it out again. "Yes," he said, more quietly. "Yes, I am."

"Good," I said. I slashed across his armoured chest with the shears, Lily's treatment allowing it to carve through the ceramic and metal like particularly soft butter. The tip, bearing Riley's goop, barely scored his skin; in doing so, I carved his official emblem on his chest, through the armour. As the last of Lily's effect left the shears, I snipped the air once in front of his face, then sheathed them. "And … done."

"That's it?" asked Alexandria. "It's done? His powers are gone?"

I nodded, then turned to Eidolon. "Go ahead. Reach for a power."

From the very moment that the shears had first scored his skin, Riley's substance had been racing through his bloodstream. It had long since reached his brain and set about cutting off his Corona Pollentia from the rest of his body, starving it of blood and ending his connection to his powers. The time I took to say those final words were all it had needed.

"I don't feel any different." He flexed his hands, looking down at them expectantly. "What the hell? How did you do that?"

"With style and panache." I gave him a slight bow. "Thank you for your sacrifice. The Endbringers are as good as gone."

"Wait," she said, as I started to turn away. "What you said about Cauldron not being allowed into Brockton Bay …"

"Still stands." I looked back at her. "If Doctor Mother shows her face in my city, I will shoot her in the face. Just saying." Taking out my shears, I mimed snipping out a portal in midair. "Toodles."

The portal formed right on schedule, and I left Canberra behind me.

<><>

Cherish

Cherie looked up from the late TV show as the shadowy portal appeared in the living room, and Taylor stepped out of it. The moment the shadows dissipated, Taylor sagged. "Ugh, what a day."

Getting up from the sofa, Cherie helped Taylor take off the hat, mask and long-coat. "Come on, sit down. I'll get you a drink from the kitchen."

Slumping onto the sofa, Taylor let out a long sigh. "You are undoubtedly an angel in human form."

Cherie giggled as she headed through into the kitchen. "Well, that's a first. Rough one?"

"Little bit." Taylor had her eyes closed by the time Cherie came back with a glass of fruit juice, though she was still talking. "Saved Canberra, ganked the Simurgh, made Leviathan run like a little bitch, and depowered Eidolon. And I had to make sure I got every step just right. Whoof. Fun as hell, and it's a rush like no other, but damn it's good to be home."

Mr Hebert came downstairs at that point, and leaned into the living room. "Oh, hi, Taylor. You look like I feel after a long day at the Association."

Taylor chuckled, accepting the glass. "Trust me, I feel rougher than I look. But the PHO reactions are gonna go super-viral. Is that a thing? I suspect it's going to be a thing."

"Well, you'll have earned it." Cherie settled down beside her and gave her a hug. "Welcome back."

Taylor closed her eyes again, and leaned against her. "It's good to be home."

Part 47