Rose 4.2
She was no more than a dot in the sky. The start of a far away eclipse, in the silhouette of a winged angel. In a steady descent towards the city.People ran through the streets, abandoning cars and rushing out of the city. Few ran to the Endbringer shelters, but once word got out that it was the Simurgh then they quickly switched direction.Everybody had seen the tall walls that surrounded Madison, and nobody wanted to end up in the same situation.I stood over one of the tallest roofs of the city, analyzing the situation and beginning to prepare what I thought necessary for the upcoming fight.From the portal behind me - the same one that I had come through - Adriana and Alexandria stepped through. Adriana's hair was still wet. Alexandria spared a small nod towards me before flying off to meet with the local authorities. The portal closed immediately after."She's too far away to attack…" Adriana commented, shielding her eyes with her hand as she looked up."You should go to the briefing." I mentioned to her, pointing towards where Alexandria had flown to with my head. "There is not much you can do before the actual fighting."She nodded and took a step off the roof, free falling to the side before kicking at the building to gain horizontal momentum.In the air I felt invisible lines forming, high-speed tunnels created with Silk Road's power. From each, a Dragon-craft appeared, filled to the brim with heroes, rogues and villains ready to join in the fight.One of the Dragon-craft rapidly accelerated to my location, its hatch opening. Arsenal walked out of the Uther. Even as I could not see his face, I noticed the worry in his body language."She's not behaving as normal." He said, not only to me but to Dragon as well. He was connected to a private channel that only us three could hear, but Dragon and I were also managing communications with every parahuman available."We need to find her objective. Or to get close enough to force her to come closer. Paranoia is already brewing." Dragon explained."She wanted us to know, to prepare for her attack. That means that her objective is among the aid that is arriving in the city.""Or she wants us to think like that, while we ignore her true objective… And if what you have found out is true, Blackwall, then that means that we also are not aware of her true strength.""We don't know what the Simurgh can do at her full potential, but we should still expect it to fit her known abilities."Arsenal nodded. Down below, I could hear Legend start to explain the situation to the present parahumans. To the volunteers that were deemed to be able to help in the fight with the Simurgh.Legend explained the gist of her powers. The psychic scream was her main avenue of attack and surveillance. People were given explosive armbands instead of the normal Endbringer gear. Some, like Adriana and Alexandria, received a modified version of it that had no explosive inside, as they could not be compromised by the psionic assault.Aside from the scream, the Simurgh had access to perfect telekinesis - Manton limited, but still powerful enough to tear buildings off the ground with ease - and finally an unknown assortment of tinkertech. But, as it depended on which Tinker she had access to, preparations were already being made to limit that specific ability. Arsenal himself would soon leave the battlefield and control the Uther from a distance, focusing on monitoring the situation."It's not often that we have the chance to debrief and talk before an Endbringer attack. Last time I told you all that, on a good day, one in four of you will die. But the Simurgh is different. Do not underestimate her scream, if you reach code yellow you must evacuate. At code red you will become a danger to yourselves and everyone around you, and the armband will trigger and explode. I've seen good heroes, and villains too, die because they overestimated their abilities to fight against her influence."Arsenal turned towards me and tapped his arm. Where the armband would have been located. I nodded and shifted the crystalline surface of my body, creating a fake explosive armband. Just to keep up the pretense, so that others would know I was on their side if it came down to it."Have you found anything?" He asked.I shook my head, even as I continued to comb through all of the data I could find within the city. From video footage to receipts, I tried to form a picture of what the Simurgh was looking for. But the only thing I got was confirmation that her range was much greater than we had thought."She's already hidden the evidence, I believe. There are many, many broken servers all throughout the city, destroyed by surgical pressure. Her telekinesis at work.""That confirms that she will not hold back, at least.""Or that she has already found what she was looking for.""Mh," Arsenal put a hand under his chin, thinking, "should we try to find her coordinates in Shardspace? A strong enough attack should carve away enough of her body to get a signal."I shook my head. "The Endbringers don't work like that. They are closed systems, inaccessible from the outside. I already know the coordinates - the Blasphemies did tell me of them - but it's like trying to hack an offline terminal. Simply not possible."Arsenal frowned at my words. Deeply."What is it?" I asked."Nothing… It's just… I felt something strange. Déjà vu." He massaged the bridge of his nose.I glanced towards him. Given his numerous implants, Arsenal's memory was near perfect. And a déjà vu was a small memory glitch that happened in the human brain. It shouldn't have been possible for him.We were too far away from the Simurgh for her to be the cause, and Dragon always was with Arsenal. She'd have told me if there was something wrong.Unfortunately there was no time to bring up the issue."Colin." Dragon's voice came through, the signal for him to leave. Arsenal merely nodded and began boarding the Uther.But he stopped halfway through."Today marks the turning point, doesn't it?""If our preparations are enough to beat hers. Yes."He did not respond as he entered the Dragon-craft. The hatch closed behind him and the Uther flew away. I turned back towards the sky.Towards the Simurgh who was finally making her descent.Her blind eyes were gazing into mine. Down below, debris rose into the sky, forming into clumps of rock and concrete that began to spin around the descending angel.The city of Toronto slowly fell apart. Buildings began to rise into the sky, breaking and cracking, starting from the tallest structures.Already Legend and other capes began flying upwards, sending blasts of energy all around to damage the massive projectiles that the Simurgh was forming. Dragon was doing something similar through her Dragon suits. So close to her center of operations, she would be able to immediately send new suits to replace the broken ones.Some of the attacks were directed at the Simurgh herself, striking directly at her crystalline wings and sometimes cracking the shell of the inhuman construct. But even as damage began to appear over the surface of her body, it was clear that her attention was somewhere else.I could not hear her scream. She had no access to my mind. Eidolon had said as much, the fact that he could not hear her psionic pressure, so it was no surprise that I didn't as well.Five, four… I began counting down.The Simurgh let go of her first volley of attacks. Meteorites the size of buildings shot down and struck the city, falling at speed much greater than terminal velocity. Notifications rang out. Dead and downed capes.But her descent continued to be steady.I tapped my left thumb and index finger together, producing the slightest of vibrations. It resonated with my whole crystal body, and then spread outwards, reaching the glass of the building below me and then spreading even further.Three, two…Alexandria shot upwards at her maximum speed, leaving a sonic boom in her wake. She almost reached the Simurgh, before one of the Endbringer's wings snapped into position and struck Alexandria from the side, sending her flying away. I could hear panic spread through the comms as people realized that the Simurgh had just moved faster than she'd ever moved before. Alexandria was barely fazed by the attack, quickly recovering in the air.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.One…I took a step off the roof, beginning to fall. At that point the vibration had almost reached every single inch of the city, reverberating in every shard of glass that I could find. I was careful not to hit any computer system, because of the communications that were being kept up to organize the evacuation efforts and the fight.Eidolon finally made his appearance. From his hand a dart of green energy shot out and struck at one of the clumps of debris. It began to disintegrate from the point of impact, becoming finer than dust. He continued to fire repeatedly, significantly reducing the density of stone that was orbiting around the Simurgh.It was at that point that the Simurgh let go.Her slow descent became a maddening dash downward. Her wings angled backwards, allowing her to fly faster. Her telekinesis pushed her even further. She became a falling crystal meteorite, shooting towards the city.Towards me.My turn.I snapped my finger.A wave of sound exploded outwards from me. The previous vibration became a supreme telekinetic hold as my power surpassed the Simurgh's own. Glass did not explode outwards, no, my control was much finer than that. Each panel of glass cracked and floated upwards, as though carried by a wind.A whole city's worth of glass filled the sky. Extremely sharp shards reflected the sunlight above, colouring the skyline a dark red as my power fully spread and took root.I could feel the Simurgh attempt to contest my control over each piece, expending her full power to stop my attack. Still, it was not enough. The levitating concrete began being shredded by the hurricane of glass. Only a small sphere centered around the Simurgh remained untouched by my power, a zone where her own telekinesis was strong enough to contrast my control.I watched as she physically opened her mouth. Her scream remained silent to me, but Alexandria fell from the sky holding her head as she made a pained expression.At that moment I unsheathed my weapons. The black knife in my left hand. The nanothorn katana in my right.Red lightning crackled along my skin as I placed my foot against the building behind me, in a similar move that Adriana had done earlier. A shockwave spread through the building and shattered the concrete keeping it up as I leapt forward.I became a red streak of fire as I shot towards the Simurgh. Her wings met my attacks as I entered her range: crystalline feathers were reduced to atoms as the nanothorns made quick work of her external shell. I lunged with the black knife.I got close enough to her that her arm reached to attempt to strike me down, but I simply sliced through the crystal with the knife, meeting no resistance.Her wings unfolded, revealing two Tinker devices. Guns. One I did not recognize, while the other… Clearly resembled one of Dragon's own weapons, though a much older model.This close to the Simurgh, Shatterbird's power failed to dismantle the interiors of the guns before they could fire.The unknown gun shot a blast of purple energy, and even as I attempted to dodge in the air a chunk of debris struck me in the back and forced me back on the trajectory of the attack. The purple energy hit my skin and spread from that point, not directly damaging me. Before I could diagnose the damage, or even shift my crystalline body to adapt to the attack, Dragon's gun shot out.A blast of silent concussive force hit me dead on. The purple energy had made my body much more brittle as I watched my crystalline shell crack and break. There wasn't much damage, as I quickly repaired the cracks.Though the purpose of the attack had been to disrupt my control over the glass. Immediately all of the shards in the sky began falling down as the Simurgh reestablished control over the battlefield.Before I could recover I watched as Dragon's gun again charged up, threatening to keep me pinned and unable to fight the Simurgh for control over the sky. I could swear I saw a smile appear over the Simurgh's normally apathetic face.But then, I felt a tug. An odd sensation, like a pull. I recognized it, and I did not resist.The world shifted as I found myself teleported outside the Simurgh's direct reach, lying on the ground. I was by Eidolon's side, who had just accessed a new power to get me out of danger."Don't underestimate her." He said before flying off to continue shooting blasts of energy at the falling debris."That was my gun…" Dragon spoke in the comms. "But an older version. One I do not use anymore. It can't have been my tech, I'm still keeping all of my crafts outside of her range."Something felt… strange. A sensation I did not recognize. For a moment, I went silent as I scoured my Shardself to find the source of the oddity, but then I came back to my physical self."What about the other device?""A rogue Tinker. He evacuated but he left his lab within range. I've already destroyed it with artillery." Arsenal provided an answer.I reestablished control over the shards of glass all over the city and once again began contesting the Simurgh's telekinetic field. Two capes had died in the short interval where I was immobilized.A blast from Legend struck the Simurgh dead on, sending her flying back. The brief distraction disrupted her control over the devices that she hid in her wing, and I used that chance to reach with Shatterbird's power and destroy the internal wiring."They won't be a problem anymore."As my body recovered, I quickly got into position to leap again. Now I was sure that the Simurgh did not have anything more hiding in her wings.Now, I was sure that I could kill her.But in a match against a master schemer, one must never think to have the upper hand.All of the communications went down, all of a sudden. The Simurgh's own body released a sudden field of strange signals that messed with the comms. I quickly adapted and connected to Dragon once again, but all other capes on the scene were out of luck.The Simurgh's hold over the field of debris floating in the air weakened, as she physically reached out with her hand. Towards something at the edge of the city. An orange box, no larger than a toaster, flew upward at increasing speed, towards the Simurgh. I initially attempted to move my glass to intercept it, but the Simurgh simply allowed more of the debris around her to fall away to keep the object safe. She even began to ignore the barrage of attacks from below. One of her wings fully separated from her body, torn off by one of Legends' most powerful strikes.I saw as Eidolon let go of two of his powers - the disintegrating blast and the teleporting - to find something to stop the Simurgh from getting to that object. But his power wasn't fast enough. Everybody else was too far away, or did not know about what was happening.Except Dragon, who had a clear line of sight. It would be an easy thing for her to fill the air with fire to destroy whatever it was.Yet she didn't."What is happening?!" Dragon spoke to the comms, seemingly unaware of the situation.The box reached the Simurgh. She warmly embraced the object, enveloping it in her wings and storing it safely.Then, with a clearly visible smile on her face, she began to ascend. The capes below froze, as they saw the Endbringer retreat.Only I and Eidolon were aware that something was wrong, but the two of us would not be enough to stop the Simurgh from retreating. She simply focused all of her telekinetic might to slow us down, raining debris all around while protecting the orange box with her own body. More and more chunks of crystal fell away.She continued to accelerate upward until she was well outside of our range. At that altitude, Eidolon's and Shatterbird's power would begin to malfunction. The risk was not worth it.Ten minutes after the Simurgh had descended upon Toronto, the battle ended.