PWP: 7.8 Rise (Patreon)

Rise 7.8

Sabah Azimi
2011, February 11: Brockton Bay, NH, USA

My heart pounded in my chest. I couldn’t breathe. Even the wailing of the sirens sounded faint from all the blood rushing through my ears.

The Simurgh. Ziz. Ulama. Israfel. Hopekiller. She was by far the most feared endbringer, and she was coming here.

I was scared. I’d never been more terrified in my life. But I moved anyway. I had to. Even more than being stuck in Brockton Bay with the Simurgh, the thought of leaving my family behind made me physically ill.

I followed SAINT’s coordinates to rescue my family. I’d been skeptical of the Mimic Network at first, way too stalker-y for me, but damn if I wasn’t thankful now. I appeared in the living room of my house with a loud pop.

I grabbed Rami, my youngest brother, by the scruff of his neck. “Hassan, Zayd, come here!”

“What? Who the hell are–” Hassan began. He was always the hotheaded one. He was the older twin, by twelve minutes, and felt like he needed to prove it by being the protective big brother.

I didn’t have time for this. My gun snapped to my hand. A ball of goo splattered against the twins before constricting like shrink-wrap, folding the two boys in place.

With suit-enhanced strength, I tossed Rami on top of them and picked them all up. The three boys squirmed like crazy so I took off my mask for a second.

“Knock it off!” I snapped.

“Ukhti? What’s going on?”

“You’re Maven?”

“Since when do you–”

I smacked them all upside the head. Big sister privileges. “Shut up. Hold still; moving makes the jumps feel worse. I’ll kill you if you barf on my suit.”

That was all the advice I gave them before I popped out of there. SAINT had chosen a nearby campground, a good forty miles away from the center of the city. 

Which was good, because the Simurgh wouldn’t be anywhere near them. I dumped them on the ground and grabbed Hassan by the collar.

“You’re in charge of your brothers. Don’t. Go. Anywhere.”

“Where are you going? The endbringer sirens–” he began.

“I know,” I cut him off. “I’m going to bring more people. Dad. Friends. People I need to protect.”

X

I popped over for dad, who was at work. Then mom. It hurt, ignoring everyone else, but needs must. I wasn’t a hero. Heroes were people like Bryce and Amy, people who leapt into danger and saved others without a thought for themselves.

I was just scared, little Sabah. The oldest, and still the most cautious. But I was starting to understand why Bryce said he needed me. Someone had to be selfish. Someone had to take care of our friends and family, put them before the random strangers. And today, that was going to be me while Amy went off to whatever healing station the PRT set up and Bryce…

SAINT pointed out my best friends in the crowd. Sierra and Michelle had been in a lecture hall and ran outside with the rest. I swooped down and snagged them by the backs of their shirts before lifting into the air and warping away.

Technically, I shouldn’t have brought Michelle. This was it; the secret was out of the bag. There was no way to hide it anymore. I was going to have to explain what exactly my power did, and why I never told Sisi about her baby brother.

But… But I couldn’t help it. Michelle was my best friend, too. She was the one person who’d known all along about my own trigger. I couldn’t leave her in Brockton Bay, not like this. I just considered it my good fortune that she came to BBU from out of state.

Then, finally, I went back one, final time for Bryce’s mom. Mrs. “call me Kate” Kiley looked around wild-eyed until she found her daughter. The two hugged as my dad put a hand on my shoulder.

“Sabah, you’re… you’re a cape,” he whispered in shock. He’d had no problems since Bryce fixed his heart, but I almost feared I’d put him back in the hospital.

“Y-Yeah…”

“You’re Maven,” Michelle said. She knew I was a cape, but I never told either of my friends just what I’d been doing with my power. “Holy shit, you’re Maven.”

“Uh… Yeah… Surprise…?”

“B-But, I thought your power was just controlling cloth you made, not super racecars or whatever.”

I let out a soft groan at that. Even now, some people still didn’t know I was a “diagnostic cape.” That got buried beneath the admittedly cool supercar.  “It is… kinda…”

“It’s supposed to be diagnostics. You know, health checks and stuff. But that doesn’t seem accura–” Sisi, our resident cape nerd, began, only to cut herself off. Her eyes widened in horror. “Sabah? Where is Bryce?”

“W-Well, it’s a little hard to explain…”

“Where is my little brother?”

I remained silent. Words died in my throat. What could I say? How did I tell his family that their heroic, brilliant, overpowered, bat-shit crazy baby boy just flew off to duke it out with an endbringer? How could I face them?

I was trembling. Sweat soaked my back as I tried to find the words. I’d always hated conflict. Awkward conversations were the worst and this was even worse than the time I had to tell my parents I was gay. 

SAINT appeared in my HUD. There was a popup that requested access, which I granted right away. 

A wave of relief filled me. If he was here, that must be because he’d completed his task. The Mimic Network was gone. APEP, along with the bulk of our tech, had been launched elsewhere. That was one, small way we could help Bryce against the bird bitch.

With the shimmer of rainbow light, he emerged onto the real world. I found myself holding him for comfort.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered as thick tears rolled down my face, only to pool in the chin of my mask. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Please, Sabah, just tell us,” Mrs. Kiley pleaded.

“He’s… He’s up there.”

“He’s Creed, isn’t he?” Sisi said with mounting dread. “He’s up there. He’s going to fight.”

“...”

“Go get him! Sabah, what the fuck!”

“I can’t… I’m so sorry.”

“I trusted you…”

I let out a broken laugh at that. “He did, too. He said I had to keep you safe. No matter what.”

She slumped to the ground at that. She gazed up at the sky as the Simurgh descended. We couldn’t even see her from so far away. The sky was blue and clear, but we both knew what was happening.

“Bryce is going to die… My baby bro is going to die…” she muttered with a hollow voice.

The red and blue duck slipped out of my arms. He nudged Sierra, gently lifting her head with his weird telekinesis. He pressed his head to her with a soft trill.

“Pory… Porygon pory.”

“I-I… What are you…?”

“Gon. Porygon.”

“SAINT. Bryce’s AI creation, best friend, and helper,” I said softly. To her, he was a strange, tinkertech construct. To him, she was his flock, even if she’d never met him before. “I’m sorry, SAINT. I should have fixed the Chameleonbot.”

“Porygon. Pory-porygon,” he trilled, in that not-quite-quack way that sounded so bizarre. I didn’t truly understand, but he gazed up at the sky and I knew. “Gon. Porygon.”

“You’re going up there, too. You won’t let him fight alone.”

“Gon.”

Sierra and Mrs. Kiley held him close. I heard them whisper, “Please-Please keep him safe. Please bring him back.”

We watched as SAINT vanished back into cyberspace. He… He was tinkertech, but he was also some weird, mystical thing that Bryce called a “pokemon.” If anyone could fight alongside Bryce against the Simurgh, it was him.

Slowly, I took a deep breath. I looked around at my family and friends. My parents were looking at me as if I was a stranger. The twins had some clue as to the gravity of the situation, but Rami only saw that his big sister was a cool cape now. Michelle was fine; she didn’t have any family in the city.

Compared to them, Sierra and Mrs. Kiley were a mess. They looked up with desperate eyes at the sky, as if they could see the endbringer from here. Wishes and prayers passed their lips, to a god Sisi confessed to me she wasn’t sure was real.

The mood was too heavy. It was like a thick blanket, pressing down on all our shoulders. I… I was no different. I needed to do something. Even if this was the end of Bryce’s instructions for me, even if I didn’t stand a chance against the Simurgh, I couldn’t just stay idle.

Maybe it was reckless and stupid, but I’d go crazy if I sat around waiting while Bryce and Amy were off being heroes. So would they. The wait was killing us.

“Mom, dad, I… I’ll be back,” I said softly, with a determination that surprised myself.

“Sabah, where are you going?” my mother asked. She reached for my hand but I pulled away.

“I’m going to teleport people back here. Don’t mention Creed. Never talk about Bryce. If anyone asks, this is The GOAT’s evac point. Take care of them. Maintain order. I… I have half an hour. I’m going to make it count.”

“Sabah…”

My father stopped her, with a firm hand. “We’re proud of you, our dawn.”

With a pop, I began the longest half hour of my life.

X

Bryce Kiley

I remained cloaked above the city. By rough estimates, we had one minute, maybe ninety seconds before the Simurgh made contact. It was the single most nerve-wracking minute of my life.

What I was about to do… It should work, in theory. But like everything else, there was no way to be fully sure, not against an endbringer. This was do or die, the part where I prayed I’d gotten it right.

I felt a wave of relief as SAINT rejoined me. He was here. That meant my family was safe. It was more than most others could say.

Off near the Boardwalk, I could see the heroes gathered. New Wave, Protectorate, and even Purity had shown up.

One of the troopers had a swaddled baby in his arms, ready to be teleported with the other non-essential staff. Aster, then. Purity’s participation in exchange for her daughter’s safety. Theo… was probably stuck in Immaculata’s shelter.

“SAINT, tap me into their comms,” I told him.

“Gon.”

“--Kid Win and Armsmaster will evacuate with the rest,” someone shouted. “Wards, you are not required to–”

“We’re staying, sir,” Dean, that brave dumbass, said. “We can at least help direct traffic and work with emergency personnel. We’ll leave before the half hour.”

“Y-Yeah! I can open roads and decongest traffic,” Vista added, though she sounded horribly unsure. It was an awful lot to put on a twelve year old girl’s shoulders, but Vista could save tens of thousands of lives. “I-I have to do this.”

“If they’re staying, so am I,” Aegis added. Next to him, Clockblocker and Browbeat nodded nervously.

I listened to the chatter as I went over final preparations. They were my friends. I didn’t think we were especially close, but that they were staying made me want to tear my hair out. Then again, the Simurgh’s sudden arrival didn’t give them many other options, not if they didn’t want to leave family behind.

The plan, if it could be called that, was simple: Dauntless, Lady Photon, Laserdream, and Purity would join Legend in the air, harrying the Simurgh at least until Strider returned with reinforcements. Meanwhile, grounded heroes would separate into smaller teams to facilitate evacuations. All would evacuate at twenty-five minutes regardless of anything else.

That left Shielder and Glory Girl. One was too slow. The other had no range. Both couldn’t realistically touch the Simurgh so they’d fly between the fight team and the ground team, protecting the city below and interrupting any obvious tinkertech projects.

I didn’t join them immediately. I couldn’t. As far as anyone knew, I was a tinker. They’d be within their rights to tell me to leave the city. Cooperating with the heroes wasn’t on the table, not unless I joined as the fight began and literally gave them no other options.

“Amy? Checking in,” I spoke into the mic. “Where are you?”

“Like halfway to Boston. The PRT set up a medic center here. Strider brought me here. Y-You?” she said breathlessly. “Vicky–”

“I’ll keep her safe.”

“You too… I can’t lose you either…”

“You won’t, I promise.”

“Creed doesn’t break promises.”

“No. Never.”

Time was up. The Simurgh was here. She descended from the clear, blue sky like an angel of the Lord here to announce the Rapture. The only thing she was missing was a trumpet in hand and a soul-trembling voice saying, “Be not afraid.”

She was… beautiful. Truly. She was a vision that danced the line between eldritch horror and divine majesty. For a moment, I understood just what the Mathers branch of Fallen saw in her. There was an almost primal need, to worship a being that soared so far above humanity. Hers was the power. Hers was the wisdom. Hers was the majesty.

Then, the song began and we had every reason to be afraid. It wasn’t a true song. I didn’t know which fuckwit thought he should get poetic with this shit, but the “song” was a shrill, overwhelming screech that seemed to reverberate in my skull. It was an unholy cross between the sound of nails on chalkboard, a mic screech from audio feedback, and the wailing of a woman being flayed alive.

That was the cue for us to engage.

Legend struck first. He was so fast that even to me, he became a streak of blue light. He rose into the air and fired off so many lasers that it looked like a Fourth of July firework display. Each “firework” circled around, striking at the endbringer with unerring accuracy.

Even then, the Simurgh held out her hand and exerted her telekinetic control over the air itself. Around her, the air hardened as all motion ceased. There was the briefest ripple, almost like water draining into the sink, before every laser detonated prematurely.

Curious, I emerged from stealth as SAINT materialized in the real world. Together, we grabbed hold of the Simurgh in a joint Psychic of our own. Neither of us were slouches, not after months of practice and SAINT’s evolution.

Still, it was like holding back a speeding train with a chain made of paperclips. She broke out within the second and danced out of the way of Legend’s next salvo.

“Creed?” Legend shouted in surprise. That moment almost cost him. A telekinetic slap sent him flying, only for him to instinctively absorb most of her force by phasing into light. “What are you doing here?”

I picked up both Walker pistols and took aim. Under her song, his voice was barely audible through the comms. “What does it look like? I live here too, you know.”

“You’re a tinker! You need to get out of here before–”

“It’s fine, my power’s an oddity to her. Her core is in the junction of her largest wing. Aim for that and ignore the body.”

“If The GOAT told you to be here–”

“She didn’t. The opposite, actually.”

“Then you should–”

I cut him off for the third time as SAINT stopped another telekinetic shove with Protect. “Sometimes, the promises we make to ourselves are the most binding of all.”

“The Simurgh can’t use your tech?”

“Not my best shit, anyway. You’ll just have to take my word for it because I’m not going anywhere.”

“Fine,” he gritted out. He didn’t like it, but there wasn’t much he could do in the moment. “Go get a bracelet, Creed. That’s non-negotiable.”

“Alright, give me a sec.”

With Legend’s reluctant permission, the dogfight began in earnest.

I launched myself like a meteor, holding nothing back. The fourth gear of Crown Chimera was one I reserved for specifically this purpose. The hammerspace in my regalia opened and dicyanoacetylene filled its chambers. A tail of azure flames roared behind me as the noise of the city below faded.

I gritted my teeth as the immense g-force threatened to press my organs into my spine. Even as a gravity child genetically engineered to do exactly this, there was nothing quite like it. The Twinkle Eyes sharpened my vision, hyper-fixating on the Simurgh.

She swerved out of the way, sonic cones forming behind her. Then, in defiance of all laws of physics, she turned at a sharp, right angle, just in time to dodge an arcing blast from Legend by the thinnest of margins.

I followed, because predictable trajectories were for people who weren’t psychics. I kicked the pyrobloin beneath me even as it instantly vaporized. At the same time, SAINT moved my body for me, straight for her.

“Mirage Road: Meteor Impact!” I shouted as Crown Chimera, clad in blue flames, crashed into the endbringer.

It was a strike that would have leveled any building below… and ultimately worthless. I meant to hit the joint of her largest wing, but she twisted with supernatural grace to take the attack on crossed arms.

Spiderwebs formed along her porcelain skin. I knew it to be a mockery. The Simurgh was hollow inside, not like the other endbringers, but she didn’t need to take that hit. She let me hit her, as if to offer me the slightest hope that we were peers in this sky dance.

Her response was immediate and varied. Before I could flip myself right side up again, I felt a vice-like grip on my foot. Like a child throwing a doll, she hurled me away, directly into the path of Legend’s concussive laser. He tried to curve the beam around me, but she did the same, making sure I took it on the chin.

Searing heat washed over me, hot enough that it would have immediately killed anyone else. The concussive blast from the explosion spiked me like a volleyball, sending me down to the city below. My head collided with a fire hydrant before I could recover.

Soaked and pissed, I rose into the air, only to just barely avoid a lightning bolt from Dauntless’ arclance. It was almost childish, video game-esque logic: soak the enemy before using electricity for more damage. She was playing with us, acting as if she was a raid boss going through different attack sequences and “phases.”

I wasn’t the only one having trouble like this. Flight being a mandatory requirement, the number of participants here was vanishingly small compared to other endbringer battles. Despite this, it became immediately obvious that we were going to get in each others’ way.

The Simurgh picked up a car and hurled it at Laserdream. Glory Girl smashed it aside, only for it to almost crush Purity against a skyscraper like a bug on a windshield.

Purity’s helix-shaped lasers always seemed to collide in the air with Dauntless’ lightning or Legend’s own barrage. At times, it was hard to believe that she was supposed to be fighting for our side.

Another vehicle lifted into the air. Legend blasted it apart, sending debris raining down below. Shielder skirted the ground, his barriers protecting a group of civilians that hadn’t yet managed to escape. The gas tank, still somehow whole, detonated with the ground, killing everyone he’d been trying to protect.

Legend shouted for Lady Photon, Laserdream, and Purity to fly in formation. That was the only way to keep track of everyone in the air, but it made them only as agile as their worst flyer. Lady Photon was forced to defend them all from incoming attacks while her daughter and Purity acted as a comparatively sluggish artillery platform.

Dauntless, who at least had his own shield, had been relegated to much the same function. More and more debris from the city rose into the air and he was forced to join Shielder in trying to protect the civilians. A halo of brickwork, manhole covers, fire hydrants, street lamps, and cars formed around the Simurgh, acting as both offense and defense.

Things went on this way for another minute. For a moment, a spark of hope flickered when the reinforcements arrived. Eidolon and Alexandria joined Legend. Behind them were Rime, Exalt, and Myrddin, all some of the greatest heroes in America. 

Yet, the problem persisted. Even when more capes arrived, they weren’t able to contribute meaningfully because of her incredible speed and precognition. If anything, she was proof that “more” wasn’t the answer.

I saw an entire city block destroyed because one of Rime’s mini-glaciers missed and shattered into a storm of razor-sharp knives. Shielder had to be evacuated by Glory Girl when Exalt created a low pressure zone that rapidly deprived him of oxygen.

In the end, we simply didn’t have the coordination to fight her. I suspected that even had she not been a precog-fuck you, she’d still have flown circles around us.

“SAINT, time,” I spat as I skated around one of Myrddin’s dimension bubbles.

He wordlessly brought up the timer. It’d been less than three minutes since she descended and things already seemed hopeless.

Author’s Note

Behold, the mighty cliffhanger.

Bryce didn’t want to get Sierra involved. Now, the Simurgh’s forcing the issue. He’s not perfect. His attempts to protect his family hurt them. That’s… fine.

Animal Fact: Leopard seals are the only variant of seal considered an apex predator in their ecosystem. No, not even elephant seals, despite being bigger, count as they are hunted regularly by both orcas and large sharks. Orcas also occasionally hunt leopard seals, they're their only natural predator, but this is rare and orcas tend to be transient in the ecosystem.

The distinction between a leopard and elephant seal's status as "apex" predator is that a leopard seal feeds on more or less everything else within its ecosystem, putting massive top-down pressure on the entire food web, while not even orcas will consistently hunt them.

They grow up to 11.5 feet long (females seem to be slightly bigger than males) and weigh up to 1,1000 pounds. Their teeth are about an inch long. Despite this size, they're highly agile and can swim at 25 miles per hour.

The only known leopard seal-related death was a biologist by the name of Kristy Brown of the British Antarctic Survey in 2003. She was dragged 230 feet underwater while snorkelling for six minutes. She died of drowning and 45 separate injuries (bites and scratches).

It was ruled as an accident by the coroner and is thought that the seal either mistook her as a furred seal (food), or was surprised and felt threatened by her proximity. Leopard seal attacks are extremely rare, but expected to rise due to increased human presence in the Antarctic.