Crystalized Munchkinry - Act V - Chapter 54 (Patreon)

He watched the news about the Simurgh descending on Canberra and couldn't help but panic.

He changed things; he had altered the flow of events so much that he didn't even consider using his 'canon' knowledge, yet the Simurgh was following canon almost to perfection.

That made no sense unless it was a deliberate ploy by the Endbringer, because he was a hundred percent certain that the false angel couldn't have missed the big blind spot he had created.

So what was the purpose?

Draw him out? Draw his host out? See how the blind spot reacted to the attack?

Or was it just a distraction, and another Endbringer would attack the Bay while everybody was concentrating on Australia?

It was maddening…

His simulation and prediction routines also weren't much help, seeing as he had almost zero data on the Endbringers. Though, at least he could learn from the Network traffic that the attack generated.

It was, sadly, a small consolation prize compared to the utter confusion he felt.

It seemed he would need to sit back and wait, just like everybody else, to see what the Simurgh planned.

God, he hated precogs.

Assault was wary and slightly confused.

When the sirens sounded, he was of course scared and only calmed down somewhat when he realized it wasn't the Bay. Thanks to his promise to Sherry, he didn't go to the fights, but if one of the monsters attacked the Bay, he would suit up no question asked.

And now he was walking toward one of the bigger meeting rooms, with Sherry at his side, after an all-hands-on-deck message was sent out, with a specific request for all the parahumans not to volunteer for the fight.

Usually only Dauntless, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and sometimes Velocity volunteered, but not always. But the fact that the Director had requested them to stay was making him wary. What did she know that they didn't?

The meeting room filled up slowly, with Kid Win being the last to arrive (a few loose wires hanging from his hair). The only parahuman who was missing was Armsmaster, but that could be easily explained by him helping Dragon with something in his workshop.

They didn't have to wait long before Piggot came barreling into the room, followed by at least half a dozen assistants holding reams of paper and several tablets, with a few of them talking into their headsets.

She began without any preamble in a brusque voice. "Right, you are all wondering why I wanted you to stay."

Several people nodded in confusion or agreement. She glanced at the tablet one of the assistants held in front of her, nodded to them, and continued. "It's very simple. It stinks. The Simurgh attacking Canberra makes little sense. Usually the feathery bitch attacks targets that are trying to make the world a better place. And we have the 'honor' of housing Serenity, who you all have heard of."

Hearing that, Ethan's heart sank a little, and he felt Sherry grab his hand. He smiled at her, squeezed it reassuringly, then returned his attention to the Director.

"So I want to keep you here, in case the situation changes. According to Armsmaster, Dragon had some kind of breakthrough, so the manpower we could provide wouldn't really be noticeable, and I would feel better if you were here."

Several people nodded, and Ethan could see the Wards pale, though he had to hold back a chuckle at seeing Vista's adorably serious face.

"So as of now, we are all hands on deck and on alert until the official word comes down that this attack has ended." She paused briefly and swept her cold, hard eyes through the room, making eye contact with everybody. "The Truce is in effect, but if anybody tries anything: no quarter. Understand?"

"Yes, Director!"

"Ma'am!"

"Understood!"

As soon as everybody voiced their agreement, she turned toward the door to leave, her assistants orbiting her, also preparing to follow. "As for Armsmaster, he is helping Dragon, so don't bother him unless it's extremely important."

With those parting words, she left the room as fast as she came, leaving the assembled heroes to stare at each other.

"Well, this should be fun, eh guys?" he said, only to receive a glare from his wife.

Alexandria strode into the tent designated as the command center through the opening left in the shield that covered it, courtesy of Dragon. It seemed being unshackled really agreed with her.

"Talk to me," she said simply, watching as one of the people sprang from his seat, his entire body radiating nervousness and fear at the sight of her.

"Ma'am," he greeted her. "Simurgh is on a direct course for the exact geographical center of Canberra. ETA is 10 minutes."

"Good," she said, and was about to ask about the evacuation when she noticed the man's posture. It changed from nervousness to outright fear and confusion. "What is it?"

"The Simurgh, Ma'am. Her speed and behavior are anomalous."

Now that was something new. And worrying.

"How so?" she asked without changing her neutral tone.

"Her speed fluctuates between the usual and slowing down significantly. We also observed odd body movements."

She didn't wait for anything else, did an about-face, and strode out of the tent. Then she left the shielded area and soared into the air.

She turned toward the Endbringer and used her helmet's built-in zoom function to take a look. It took a few seconds to find the white monster against the backdrop of the blue sky. But when she did, she instantly understood what the man meant.

The Simurgh was approaching the city the same way she always had, but now and then her movement became odd. Every few seconds or so, she slowed down and moved an arm or one of her wings a little, but instead of moving continuously, the limb would stop mid-motion before, with blinding speed, snapping to its intended position. Then she sped up, only to repeat it a few seconds later.

It made the Endbringer's movement choppy, as if it was lagging. It was deeply disconcerting.

She was about to place a call to Contessa to see if she had any idea what it was about when she noticed something big and loud approaching from high above.

To a normal person, it may have looked like a giant black block of metal, but her eyes could see the details and the famous logo of Dragon.

She watched, a little stupefied, as the gigantic device arrived over the site, then slowly descended to the ground, stirring up massive quantities of dust.

Alexandria, along with everybody else, watched in awe as the dust settled and a gigantic dragon-themed mechanical construct unfolded before their eyes.

She was a little tempted to join the cheer that began as soon as people realized what it was they were seeing.

"HQ, how did the Simurgh react to the new arrival?" she asked into her communicator while wondering how Dragon managed to build something like that.

"It slowed down, and the anomalous movement increased, Ma'am. ETA still 10 minutes," came the reply.

"Confirm ETA."

There was a brief silence before the man on the other side replied. "ETA confirmed. It slowed again. ETA stable at 10 minutes."

"Fuck. Monitor it closely. I want a report every two minutes."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

Done with that for now, she changed her communicator over to Dragon's frequency, wanting to know what the gigantic construct was capable of.

"Dragon, what is that?"

The reply came immediately, crystal clear, with an undertone of smugness. "Alexandria, please meet my Titan-class armored suit, codenamed Nuri. Capable of standing up to the strikes of Leviathan, radiation-proof, and capable of diverting Behemoth's energy attacks, while fast and maneuverable enough to go toe to toe with the Simurgh. Hopefully."

"How sure are you?"

"Simulations say yes, but you never know with them."

"Good. I assume you have a game plan?"

"Indeed."

"Then let's call everyone to the command center and go over it." With that, she turned around and flew back to the tent she had just left. Only for her communicator to come alive.

"Alexandria, ETA is still stable at ten minutes."

Everybody stood at their positions, waiting for the Simurgh to make landfall. Evacuation on the arrival side was complete, and the other part of the city was also well on its way, thanks to Dragon showing up with a ludicrous amount of drones, carrier planes, and other miscellaneous vehicles.

They really needed to figure out what the AI was up to, because the fact that she managed to do this in a month was unbelievable.

And also thanks to the Simurgh slowing down to a speed that was uncharacteristic for her. She dreaded to think what fresh hell the precog had planned for them. And she could see the anticipation in the surrounding people, especially Eidolon. The man was fidgeting like a four-year-old in front of a birthday cake.

Their game plan was simple: allow Dragon to engage, hopefully baiting or dragging the Endbringer away from the city, and then go to town on it.

"Endbringer arrival in 180 seconds, east-south-east heading," came the calm and measured voice of Dragon from their wristbands. Funnily enough, every wristband came with a small Medi-gel spray.

She did a last check on her equipment, sent another message to Contessa because she still hadn't replied to her first three. Then she returned her attention to the approaching calamity.

With her speed so low, she could, even without her enhanced vision, see the choppy and lagging movement, and most importantly, for the first time ever, she could see the frustration on the monster's inhumanly beautiful face.

"ETA in 120 seconds."

The Simurgh's face changed again, from frustration to hatred for a brief second, and Alexandria was sure only she could see that the Endbringer threw a glare toward the giant mech standing in front of the army preparing to receive her. But as soon as the glare appeared, it vanished, the face returning to frustration.

She could hear the people chattering below her about the unusual behavior, but she ignored them all, her concentration fixed on the Simurgh.

"ETA in 90 seconds."

Still staring at Simurgh's face, she spotted the moment when a small smile appeared.

And then the Endbringer stopped dead in the air.

"ETA unknown. Simurgh stationary."

Alexandria watched, slightly horrified, as the Simurgh lowered all her wings into a resting position. The frustration on her face was no longer visible; instead, she wore a rather cheeky smile. She turned her head slightly and looked directly into Alexandria's eyes, then winked.

Before she could comprehend what had just happened, the Endbringer slapped her wings once and vanished into the sky.

She ignored the panicked cries around her, barking into her communicator. "Report! What the fuck just happened?"

There was a tense silence for a second before Dragon answered her question. "Simurgh left Australia. Her new target is currently unknown."

"Well, then figure it out!" she yelled at the AI, then changed the channel once again. "Teleporters, be ready to move. Everybody else: return to the command center. We move when we have the new target."

"What the hell happened, Alex?" came from her side, from a raging Eidolon. "Where the fuck did it go?"

"Calm down, Eidolon," said Legend, who had also returned from his assigned position. He was floating next to them, frowning. He then poked his communicator a few times before speaking. "Dragon, any idea where it is heading?"

"Yes, Legend. Simurgh is following a ballistic trajectory toward continental America. Calculations put the arrival site somewhere on the east side of the USA," came the reply from the AI.

However, before any of them could comment, she continued. "Correction: 89% chance that the arrival site will be the quarantine site of Madison, Wisconsin."

Well, that was bad.

The Simurgh had obviously used the attack to see how the blind spots would affect her. And now she was heading for a quarantine zone, famous for its dimensional portals. Nothing good would come from that.

Furthermore, the fact that the Simurgh had broken the mold and, after pretending to attack a city, chosen to attack another target meant that he couldn't go forward with his plan to 'second trigger' the parahumans in Brockton Bay. Because he knew that after this, they would attribute every weird or suspicious thing that happened to the Endbringer.

An entire city's worth of parahumans second-triggering when the Simurgh attacked?

The city would be quarantined so fast; it wouldn't even be funny.

The question was: did the Endbringer know he was going to do that? Or was it simply going for something that she could use to take care of the blind spot without approaching it?

What he knew was that he had to revamp his entire plan because of this.

So much work wasted…

A quick check on the Network showed that the other two Endbringers weren't active, so it wasn't that.

So why head for Madison?

He really hated precogs.

As soon as she heard where the Endbringer would be attacking, she spun around and headed for her room to change into her armor. Unfortunately, she was stopped by her dad, who grabbed her arm.

"Taylor, no!" he said, and she could see the fear in his eyes. "Please, don't go…"

"Dad, I…" she said before faltering. With every second, her father was collapsing further into himself. Finally, she whispered, "I have to help."

"You already helped! You helped Tess with her suits and created the Medi-gel!" he exclaimed, desperately clinging to her. She was keenly aware that with a simple movement, thanks to her super-strength, she could wrench her arm from his grip, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"But with my power, I could really help, Dad! I'm immune to Master powers!" she said, turning fully back toward Danny.

"And how do you know it would work against the Simurgh?" he asked, grabbing her shoulder with his other hand.

She was about to open her mouth when she realized that explaining to her dad how her power said it would work would not be the best choice. She closed her mouth and settled for glaring at her dad.

They stayed like that for a few seconds, Taylor glaring and Danny begging with his eyes, when she heard a call coming in.

"Accept!" she barked, turning her eyes toward the screen.

"Hello, Taylor, Danny," said Tess as her actual face appeared on the screen. "I assume you saw…"

"Yes! But Dad doesn't want me to go!" she burst out, hoping to find a sympathetic ear in her friend. Tess knew better than almost anyone how powerful she was.

"Good," said Tess with a serious face. "Something is fishy about this attack. PRT ENE is on high alert, as is every regional office. It would be a great help if you stayed and helped look for anomalies, or, if needed, reacted as fast as possible."

Both Heberts blinked in surprise at hearing that.

"What do you mean, fishy?" she asked, her anger forgotten.

"Based on her previous targets, there were far better ones around the world, including Brockton Bay," explained the AI.

"You mean Taylor, right?" interjected Danny.

"Correct," agreed Tess. "So we want to be prepared for anything the Simurgh might try. My new suits will be enough to evacuate Canberra and hold it off, but if something else crops up, maybe even another Endbringer attack, then we need a few powerful parahumans in reserve who can react quickly."

Taylor thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. "Fine, I will tap into your sensor net and see if I can find anything." With that, she turned around and marched up to her room, intent on utilizing her system and interrogating Admin for anything he might know.

Luckily, she missed that her father mouthed a thank you to Tess, who just gave him a quick smile and wink before cutting the call.

Danny spent a few minutes watching Taylor work in her room from the doorway, and when he was satisfied that she wasn't going anywhere, he returned to the living room with several beers and changed the projector to show only the news channel.