Crystalized Munchkinry - Act V - Chapter 57 (Patreon)

Sergeant Tarun was one of the PRT personnel responsible for monitoring the walled city of Ellisburg. For some, it was a punishment duty, but for the Sergeant, it was the perfect posting.

After all, nothing ever happened here. Nilbog was content sitting on his throne and playing pretend. Much better than being out there fighting villains who wouldn't think twice about killing him.

Plus, they were one of the few PRT postings that had no permanent parahuman detachment. For some reason, parahumans didn't like standing around and doing nothing, and after a few times when a parahuman decided to "take care" of Nilbog and got themselves killed, the brass decided that maybe they didn't need to station them there.

They were close enough to New York that Legend could be here within seconds, so the brass decided not to waste money on suicidal parahumans.

At least, that was how Tarun viewed the events. He didn't really care what the actual reasons were.

He just wanted to do the job until retirement, then move to Florida and fish while ignoring the world.

He was about to unwrap his sandwich, which he had made for a quick snack, when he was interrupted by the alarms going off.

Despite his general laziness, he was still a trained agent, so he immediately jumped up, sandwich forgotten, and ran toward the command center for further instructions. On the way, he met other people also running toward the center with hard looks on their faces.

After a minute or so of running (because he wanted to have lunch out in nature), he arrived at the command center, with several other people also just arriving. Though he knew that most people were still up on the ramparts or towers, keeping an eye on the city.

The Commander of the installation was standing in front of their work desk, a phone in their hand and an ashen face.

"Well, boys… remember how you guys joked that we would be here staring at the walls until we die?" he asked nervously, glancing around.

Several people nodded unconsciously, and Tarun swallowed heavily. Something about that question made him rather uneasy.

"It seems that day is today. The Simurgh is coming," continued the Commander, and the room immediately descended into chaos.

After getting the news, they immediately evacuated the walls and retreated to a distance from where they could observe the arrival before reinforcements arrived.

And they were coming, because Tarun, thanks to gossip, knew that Director Piggot was a survivor of the initial assault on the city, so he was pretty sure that at least she would send somebody.

And according to the Commander, the people who went to Madison were also coming. He hoped they would bring some big guns.

Tarun was relegated to one of the binoculars because he lost out on the chance to observe things on one of the computers.

He was terrible at rock-paper-scissor…

He raised his binoculars in the direction from where they expected the Endbringer to arrive, unknowingly imitating Tagg's movements, though with considerably less dignity.

"Can't they just shoot it down?" asked Thomson from over the gun he was pretending to be handling.

"Apparently, the white bitch is jamming everything around her, so they can't get a bead on her or even the Ball," answered one lieutenant who was sitting in front of a computer. "Plus, it's too fast for most of our weapons, and nobody wants to chance a Tinker-tech gun missing."

"Shame…"

Tarun listened with one ear while he frantically scanned the dark sky for the Endbringer.

Ultimately, he wasn't the first one to spot it, but by the time he or anyone else did, it was too late.

They watched with trepidation as the Simurgh, moving faster than should have been possible, zoomed toward the city. It stopped over it, and before anyone could even fire a gun, the Ball in front of her spun up, ominous green light shining from it.

Thanks to that, however, they could observe her movements easily, the light illuminating everything around it.

The Ball spun for a few seconds, then six parts detached with their own ominous glow and shot off toward the walls. In no time, they were positioned next to the walls, equidistant from each other, according to a drone flying overhead. Then they also began spinning, and in an instant, a transparent green energy shield enveloped the entire city.

"Well, that's not good…"

Sergeant Tarun didn't know who said it, but he absolutely agreed.

Assault watched as people gathered in the meeting room after the alarm was shut down and the message was sent out. Everyone was on edge because of the eerie Endbringer attack, and the alarm didn't really help.

He could see everyone in the room: the Protectorate (minus Armsmaster), the Wards, and even New Wave. Young Glory Girl was chatting animatedly with Gallant, while Vista adorably glared at the older girl.

Ah, young love…

The most impressive, however, was Panacea, who was clad in some kind of new armor made from a wooden material. It was formfitting, yet despite the material it seemed to be made of, it looked rather modern.

According to what he overheard, it was strong enough to stop the blast of Lady Photon. It seemed second triggering agreed with the girl.

"Hey, Miss Militia, who are we still waiting for?" he asked the masked heroine, getting antsy.

The woman responded while gracing him with her famous eye smile. "Armsmaster and the Director."

"I wonder what happened…"

Before anyone could join him in the discussion, the door to the room flew open, and the Director strode in. For some reason, she was decked out in PRT armor with a rather big gun slung over her back.

Armsmaster followed her, and he couldn't help but notice that the man had apparently upgraded his armor. It was a little beefier than the previous one, but Assault would bet everything he had that it was exponentially stronger. Though he didn't envy the man the PR nightmare that would follow this change. Those people were crazy…

"Sweet new threads, Bossman!" he exclaimed with a grin. "Did your girlfriend get it for you at Robot-R-Us?"

For some reason, the man totally ignored him, and his wife stuck her elbow into his side, though he could hear a few snickers around the room.

The armored Director walked to the middle of the meeting room, waited until everyone was looking at her, and cleared her throat.

"I will be short because time is actually short," she started. "Simurgh is heading for Ellisburg…"

The clamor that flooded the room interrupted her.

"Enough!" Piggot yelled, silencing the room. "You can ask questions when we are on our way. For now, I'm simply asking for volunteers. Obviously, Wards are not coming," she said.

The teenagers immediately began protesting, but with a glare, she spoke over them.

"But the rest of you can volunteer. I was also told to make sure that Panacea is coming with us."

"Absolutely not!" Brandish yelled immediately.

"Mom! I want to go…" said Panacea, while Glory Girl nodded next to her. "Vicky can protect me, but you need me to counter Nilbog!"

"You don't know that!" exclaimed Brandish, turning toward her daughter. He could already see it turning ugly and was about to intervene when the Director acted.

"Brandish, that's enough. I understand that you… worry, but this is important. Not just for America, but for me." He could see her swallow before continuing. "I would take it as a personal favor if Panacea came. And I don't do favors."

Now wasn't that impressive…

Brandish spent several seconds looking into the steely gaze of Piggot, then glanced at the other adults of New Wave, who all nodded with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Finally, she sighed.

"Fine. But Vicky, you are staying next to Amy the entire time, and if anything happens, you are taking her away as fast as you can! Understood?"

"Yes," replied Panacea.

"Thanks, Mom!" cheered Glory Girl.

Piggot nodded in thanks, and Ethan could see at least some minuscule amount of stress leaving her body.

"Now, the next question: Who is coming and who is staying? We need a few people to stay in case something happens."

People looked around, waiting for the first person to volunteer. After a few seconds, Triumph stepped forward.

"I will stay. I don't think my power will be useful for this…"

Lady Photon also spoke up. "Flashbang, Shielder, and Laserdream will also stay."

Surprising Assault, both young heroes nodded without complaining.

"Sure, Mom. We can hold the fort with Triumph, the Wards, and Uncle Mark," said Crystal with a serious look on her face. Lady Photon gave her a proud smile, then turned toward the Director.

"Will that be enough?"

Piggot thought about it for a few seconds before nodding.

"Yes, thank you. Now those who are coming, let's head to the roof. Transport is arriving shortly."

With that, she turned around and marched out of the room, followed by Armsmaster and everybody else, leaving a room full of teenage parahumans and two adults.

Taylor stepped through the portal and arrived high in the air. After a momentary panic, she activated her flying power and began to hover while trying to figure out where she was. Though she made a note to talk with Admin about such surprises.

Thankfully, her mask software was equipped with a map function, and because Dragon had access to it, she already had several markers. She found the one labeled Ellisburg and began flying at full speed.

Thanks to her impressive speed, she arrived within seconds, only to see the shield activating with her own eyes.

"Shit! Admin, can I overpower that?"

The slime avatar appeared next to her, a complicated look on his face.

"Yes, but nobody would thank you. Also, I won't be opening a portal in there…"

"Won't?"

"Yeah, Simmy is doing something weird with space in there. Best not to chance it."

She frowned upon hearing that, but she could understand the logic behind it.

"Any idea what she is doing?"

"Yeah, but nothing concrete. Sorry, Taylor, but here, you are on your own," said the slime with an apologetic look.

She cursed, then began flying toward the PRT personnel Dragon had marked on her map while sending the information about the spatial distortion inside the shield over to Tess.

She was greeted by several guns pointed at her face when she touched down next to the hastily erected tent.

"Who are you?" asked one agent while pointing his gun at her.

She toggled the voice changer, then introduced herself. "Lux Arcana. Dragon asked me to come."

"Dragon?" asked the man while glancing at his colleagues.

Taylor nodded, then took out a phone with an identification app that Tess had sent over. She ignored how the hands holding the weapons tightened when she did so.

"I was told you can use this to authenticate me," she said while offering the phone screen, which showed the activated app.

The man nodded and motioned to one of the others. The woman came over with some kind of scanner, scanned the app, and when the scanner chirped twice, she visibly relaxed.

"She is legit, guys!"

The agents collectively released a sigh of relief and lowered their guns. "Sorry, ma'am. But with the Simurgh… everybody is on edge."

"I understand," she replied while putting away the phone. "What's the situation?"

She hovered a little in the air to get a better view, while the surrounding people returned to their posts. Only the woman with the scanner remained, and she was the one who answered her query.

"Nothing. The shield is up, the Ball is spinning, and we haven't seen Nilbog yet. Reinforcements are coming from everywhere."

"Hmm. Make sure to warn people they can't teleport inside. Simurgh is doing something that prevents it. I've already told Dragon, but let's make sure everyone gets the information. I will go take a closer look."

The woman nodded and immediately began speaking into her headset.

While that was happening, Taylor flew a little higher, trying to see what the Endbringer was doing.

However, the moment she reached a height from where she could see the entire city, the formerly placid Simurgh began to move. There was no sound, the shield somehow absorbing it, but she could clearly see one of the buildings explode.

Though instead of the debris falling down as it should, every piece, from the biggest chunks of concrete to the smallest dust particles, hung in the air as if frozen.

The Simurgh, with a small smile on her face, reached inside the exploded building and retrieved a humanoid figure.

After zooming in, she identified the figure as Nilbog.

The Endbringer raised the Goblin King into the air right in front of her face and opened her mouth. Taylor couldn't hear anything, but she was pretty sure that Rinke was getting the full blast of a Scream.

"Dragon, this is Lux Arcana. Simurgh screamed at Nilbog," she said into her communicator while trying to make sure she missed nothing.

"Thank you, Lux," came the reply from Dragon. "We are minutes away. So are ENE, New York, and Boston."

"Good, because I've got a terrible feeling about this…"

While they were talking, the Simurgh placed the villain down, as if he were a doll, and the man let it happen without moving. Even after he was released, Nilbog didn't move, standing in one place and staring into the distance with an empty gaze.

The Simurgh turned away from the former Goblin King, the debris gently lowering to the ground around her, and opened her mouth again while dramatically raising her hands and unfurling most of her mismatched wings.

Looking for the effects of the second Scream, she instantly spotted the horrible creations of Nilbog coming forward, moving toward their creator in a daze. It was as if she was watching a horrible zombie movie.

The moment the first creature reached Nilbog, he finally moved by reaching out and touching it. The horrible caricature of a monster instantly liquefied, turning into some kind of reddish-brown material that fell to the ground, then somehow wriggled toward Rinke's feet.

One after another, the other creations joined the first, also transforming into the disgusting material, which began to pulse with a heartbeat. The material around his feet soon became large enough to cover the man, but the creatures kept coming and kept being absorbed.

Soon, only a giant globe of meaty, pulsing flesh sack could be seen.

When the size of the mass reached that of a house, the ball also began to pulse, and the Endbringer turned toward it.

The Ball pulsed for a few seconds, then stilled, the light coming out of every seam and hole.

The next second, both Taylor and the people below her were surprised when four giant green flat ovals appeared around the ball, boxing it in.

"Those are portals, Taylor…" spoke up Admin from next to her. "Luckily, they are leading to empty Earths."

The Simurgh once again opened her mouth to scream, but for a while, nothing happened. Then Taylor saw something black poking through one of the portals. The thing continued to wiggle while more and more of its "body" came through. The other portals soon did the same thing.

And as the cherry on top, it was heading directly toward the sack.

However, when she zoomed in to see what the hell the Endbringer had summoned, it became clear that it wasn't one being, but countless small animals coming through the portals in an unending tide.

"Biomaterial…" she whispered in horror.

She could hear the agents at the tent yelling as well, and she couldn't fault them.

She watched horrified as the meaty sack with Nilbog in the middle began absorbing the fauna of several other worlds, growing bigger and bigger. Soon, the top of the sack almost touched the shield, and Taylor could see it growing vertically, with several tentacles sprouting out of it and extending toward the barrier.

The Simurgh looked around, nodded to herself with satisfaction visible on her face, then looked toward them, gave a quick wave, and flapped her wings before flying out through a hole that momentarily appeared in the shield.

Soon, an announcement came from Dragon, probably sent over all channels.

"Attention everybody! The Simurgh has returned to her usual position in the Mesosphere!"

That was at least good news. Now they only had to take care of whatever the hell was growing where Ellisburg used to be.