Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Amelia, Ch 296- Sveta


Another tsunami rose up, this one larger than the last. It collided hard against the shields, and I watched a number of the silver panels shatter like glass. My eyes saw through the dark and the rain without difficulty. It had taken me an embarrassing amount of time to realize humans needed light in order to see, while I was comfortable reading in absolute blackness. Another Leviathan surged up on shore, only to be met by one of Khepri's giant monsters. For a moment they looked about evenly matched, but then the Endbringer started pushing the monster back. Another monster slammed into its side, slamming it to the ground where it splashed into water again.


More than a match for one of those things, not a match for two. That was a good baseline for strength. I'd seen what those weapons could do against Wendigo, I knew how they compared to my own abilities. I grabbed a cable on the bridge and tugged, using my strength to slingshot myself into the city and then onto the roof of one of the taller buildings near the coast. I was one of the most mobile capes, on par with Alexandria even though I couldn't fly. But more importantly, I was in my element here.


I'd learned a lot in the last month. What Passengers were. What Scion was. What was done to me and why we had to fight so damn hard just to survive. I also knew that somewhere, some assholes decided that it they'd rather watch the world burn than try to help. They built these incredible creatures, and instead of using them to help prepare and fight Scion, they used them to murder people by the millions. They were the only people in the multiverse that I hated more than Cauldron for turning me into a freak.


I felt the ground shudder beneath me. In the time I'd been in LA, I'd learned what an earthquake felt like using senses that no human had. This was a tiny one, not even a one on the scale. A quick aftershock followed. No, another quake, stronger than the first. Still not something a normal person would notice. The tremor carried through the water as well. Or the water carried the tremor. This is how he destroyed Newfoundland and Kyushu. He's using the water to carry a frequency that destabilizes the ground. Forces an artificial earthquake.


More copies appeared. The monsters were able to react to them faster than sight had any ability to achieve. Especially since I didn't think they could see in this kind of storm. I felt the noise a couple seconds later. They were using echolocation.


Khepri has the clones handled, I decided. She doesn't need my help. The city itself needs my help. As if to punctuate my thoughts, another tremor struck. This one a one and a half or so. Enough to be felt by normal people, but only barely. It was much worse than the last, however. And the effect wasn't changing. The next one would be a lot worse. Another step up on the Richter scale. At this rate, the city wouldn't last more than half an hour.


No one else can do this, I thought grimly. I dived into the ocean.


"Sveta? What are you doing?" Victoria asked. She'd still be above, doing whatever it was she could do to help.


"Finding Leviathan," I answered. I was glad for the armor covering my face. I didn't need it to breathe down here. In fact, I didn't need to breathe at all. The bit of theorizing we could do on my body, the bodies of many Case 53s, were samples of alien species collected by the Entities in their travels. I couldn't begin to imagine the kind of nightmare world that would evolve Garotte. But I could survive deep space as well as anything this planet had to offer. Except maybe swimming in lava, and I could probably handle that as well.


"Are you insane?" Vicky exclaimed. "Sveta, you can't fight him. Not down there. He can't be beaten in the water."


I'm not going to watch another city die because I wasn't good enough. "Funny," I responded. "Neither can I."


"I'm relaying our best estimates of his coordinates to your armor's GPS," Dragon spoke next. "It's not precise, but it'll narrow down your search radius to approximately a half mile. You'll also note there's a predictive software being installed. That will at least give you some idea what tactics he'll try. It's imperfect, but it's better than nothing. I'm sorry we can't do more for you."


"Dragon's patching me through to your coms," Alexandria relayed. "I'll be right above you, along with a few others. When you find him, either bring him up or bring me down. We need to get him out of the water if we want to kill him."


"Right," I answered. At least I have some kind of backup. I lashed out with a hand, slamming my fingers into the rock and pulling myself forward. I felt the water pulse around me as I surged forward. Victoria may have reworked my brain, tricked my body's instincts into treating people as part of the environment, no more a threat than the floor or the walls. But those desires still remained beneath the surface. The source of my waking nightmares.


Now things were different. Now I was embracing that killer instinct. I could react at these supersonic speeds, I could see with perfect clarity, and I was ready to become a monster in order to hunt a monster. The earth shuddered again, this time approaching a four.


"I'm going silent," I told them as I lashed out and found another purchase to pull forward. I wasn't certain how my instincts knew where to grab things strong enough to support my strength and acceleration, but I did it without fail. Meanwhile, my free hand pulled my mask up, exposing my nose and mouth. I inhaled deeply, or as deeply as my body would let me since I lacked an esophagus and lungs. I was hunting by scent now. Salt water blending with fresh water. Leviathan's been here recently.


I kept going, running by scent and hearing and sight. Echolocation. Strange, the animal life doesn't seem afraid. A little of me, but there's no response of instinctual fear to the Endbringer. I know he's around here somewhere, why are the animals unafraid? Is he hiding from them?


The earth shuddered again. Another quake, this one probably in the low six range, way higher than anything I ever experienced before for certain. They had to be seeing the damage, now. Not merely that caused by the quake itself, but the unnaturally constant and slowly increasing shudders. The memories of Kyushu and Newfoundland. It must be terrifying for them, those millions of innocent people who have no hope of defending themselves, facing this kind of nightmare. I had to help them.


I felt the movement first, twisting away as a claw came at me from nowhere. I dropped to the ground and kicked away. How did it get that close? I got a look at the Endbringer up close and personal. Leviathan surged again, and that predictive software Dragon told me about registered how he would move, warning me of the trap I was about to blunder into. I dived forward, instead. Garotte's instincts taking charge. For once, with my encouragement and permission. My arm shot forward, wrapping around his throat and pulling me forward toward the rival in my territory.


The software alerted me again. His water echo still worked underwater, and was coming right for me. I rolled back, kicking the fake Leviathan with my right foot, clearing the path so I could kick his actual body with my left.


I twisted as the software alerted me to his follow up attack, but he was far stronger and faster than I was down here. He caught my right leg and slammed me hard into the ground. There was nothing dignified about how my body behaved when hit hard enough to do damage. I had to look like a girl shaped stress toy being crushed by an angry body builder. He was still holding my leg as he gripped my shoulder, punctured it with his claws, and tried to rip me in half. I screamed in agony. I should have counted myself lucky that I stretched further than he could reach, but the pain was incredible.


I need help, please let them be where they promised. I didn't have time to think, I just reacted. My one good arm punched out of the water, several hundred meters above. I couldn't aim, but I didn't need to. Alexandria caught my hand, and let herself be pulled down.


Leviathan reacted with superhuman speed, stomping down on my waist to keep me pinned against the ground so he could have a hand to fight the most durable of the Triumvirate. My lower half started rebuilding itself. Tendrils, again. A dozen of them went into building my somewhat human legs, but the damage Leviathan did to me forced them to revert to their natural state. I'd probably cry over that, later. Right now they were too convenient. I wrapped around Leviathan's legs and arms, pulling hard against him. I couldn't overwhelm the monster, but I could slow him down.


Alexandria pressed the advantage, impaling the Endbriger with a vicious looking barbed spear. She kneed him in the face with the spiked plating that Pantheon gave her, and a new weapon appeared in her hand out of nowhere. A bladed chain far too long to be practical even if such a weapon could ever be practical. She wrapped around his arm, catching a couple of my tentacles in the process. They were severed almost immediately, but kept attempting to strangle the Endbringer. I knew from experience that they could live for several hours, vainly attempting the task I'd given them before they were removed.


Alexandria started pulling upward even as I felt the water shift around us. A pillar of air was forcing itself down into the sea floor.


Eidolon, I realized. We need time for Eidolon. I wrapped around Alexandria's spear and pulled it into Leviathan, trying to force the weapon deeper into his body. Through, if at all possible. I let go of Alexandria and grabbed the other end of her chain. It cut into my flesh with alarming ease, reminding me that I was still vulnerable, even if very little could hurt me.


The Endbringer was legitimately struggling, now. He was strong enought to beat one of us. Maybe even both of us. But Eidolon was a different subject. The water shuddered around us as Leviathan called his next trick, trying to crush us with sheer pressure. As far as my body was concerned, it was nothing more destructive than a water balloon. But the ground below us cracked and splintered under the weight.


He then used that water pressure to retreat, hitting speeds beyond what I was capable of reacting to. And then stopping a second later with enough force to actually hurt me with the shockwave. Three of Pantheon's Endbringer killing monsters had appeared from nowhere, blocking Leviathan's retreat with their own bodies. They looked the way a car did after being hit by a train, but they stopped his retreat. More started to appear around us. And then we were out of the water. Legend, Eidolon, Victoria and Atropos as well.


I let go. My body was shattered and exhausted, but it did the job I needed to it to do. Alexandria threw me clear before falling back herself. Leviathan took the chance to run, only for another monster to manifest out of nowhere, blocking him. He turned again, going for an opening between a pair of them, and a third manifested in front of him.


Its tusks caught one arm, and the pair it tried to pass between turned and caught his sides. Three more followed, slamming into Leviathan from behind. They struggled for minutes before forcing the Endbringer to the ground. A stream of cleansing light struck the pile, and when it dimmed only Leviathan remained. Clearly battered, but still functional, the Endbringer climbed to its feet.


Silver forcefields manifested, overlapping the monster. Hundreds of them bathing the area in light while containing the Endbringer. It wouldn't last forever, but it was a reprieve. I tried to force myself to stand, but my body didn't respond. Then Atropos moved, diving into the effect. The shields didn't shatter like they had when trying to hold back the ocean. This time they simple disipated like smoke where she passed. Moments later, black wingtips extended from the shielding, then dipped back in, then came out again. She rose out of the barricades, carrying a chunk of material roughly the size of a human head in her hands.


To say she crushed it would be wrong. There was no pressure, no struggle, no breaking. She simply brought her hands together, and everything between them ceased to be.


Leviathan was dead.


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A/N- Sveta gets her crowning moment of badass here.

Sure, she got her ass kicked, but damn if she didn't look good in the process.