Amelia, Ch 270
I put my hand on Taylor's shoulder. "So it's moral arithmetic, yet again, huh?" Taylor asked. FrustrationDisgustHate. "Fight it to win, lose our city and everyone in it. Fight it to, what? Throw the match? We do all that and what do we get to show for it?"
"Fewer heroes dying in the battle," Lisa answered. "More civilians evacuated. That's the best we can hope for."
"Fuck that noise," I hissed. "You're telling us we're going to lose the city no matter what we do? Then we're going to get something worthwhile from the trade. Play softball with it for now, if we have to. Buy time, get the city evacuated. Then we hit it with everything we've got. I would rather see this city turned to ash than to allow the sick fucks that make these monsters think Pantheon can be blackmailed."
AgreementCertaintySupport. "She's right," Taylor responded. "If we allow this to work, then it'll be the new reality of all future Endbringer battles. We'll be playing by the Endmakers' rules, and if that happens we've already lost."
"We can use Bolla," Dragon offered. "I'll have to focus most of my efforts on calculations for the next few minutes."
"That's anti-Scion artillery," I pointed out. It would destroy the whole city. UncertaintyLossDetermination.
"Use it," Taylor replied. GuiltPain.
"I was afraid you'd say that," Lisa sighed. She hit the com. "Fall back, we're adopting a new strategy. Allow our constructs to hold the battle on their own. Everyone else, you're all on search and rescue duty. Khepri will help you coordinate."
More zerg swarmed the Endbringer, pulling her under the mass of claws and power that was channeling through them. Each attacker had its own exotic energy generation channeled through the claws. Some used the nanothorns, others energy that I understood, like heat and light. And others had stuff I didn't even pretend to comprehend, like time distortions and weaponized folded space.
Wendigo traded as good as she got, however, killing them almost as fast as they could hit her. Blue mist poured from her hands, destroying the ground where it fell, and passing through the zerg with laughable ease. We're really costing ourselves a lot of units right now.
"Those are nanothorns," Lisa muttered. "The Endbringer's learned to use its power to copy the nanothorn weaponry we used against it earlier. ShockConcernDismissalFocus. She's right, it doesn't matter.
This was just a distraction, after all. We didn't expect the zerg to actually stand a chance. For the next half hour, it was just a practice of feeding them to Wendigo so she had something to do other than attack the heroes that were rescuing all the people they could. That's what the zerg are there for, to sacrifice their lives instead of human lives. I wrapped my arm around Taylor. I'm here for you. ComfortLoveCertainty.
"Scanners detect no human lifesigns within seven miles of epicenter," Dragon finally announced.
We returned to hammering the monster with our best attacks. Eidolon had switched powers to something I could only call a gravity hammer. He struck the Endbringer with the invisible pulse, and the ground splintered and sank, forming a small but deep crater. He hit it again, and again, every time the thing managed to climb out of the hole. A spear of glass lanced straight for him from the crater, fighting the energy blast. Eidolon evaded it, if narrowly. But that gave her time to get out of her hole, only to be blindsided by a combination of Alexandria and Sveta.
They'd gotten to opposite sides of the Endbringer, and when she appeared, Sveta pulled them both together, crashing into Wendigo from both sides simultaneously. Fragments broke off of her body, littering the ground and falling back into the pit she had just escaped from.
Some of the few remaining zerg piled onto her, keeping her from retaliating against the only two heroes strong enough to stay that close for that long. She pulled one of the ultralisks in half to reach Sveta, her fingers shimmering with that blue nanothorn mist she was generating.
Vicky came to the girl's rescue, throwing her into one of the half-eaten buildings that had been caught at the edge of Wendigo's power. I gasped as the Endbringer sheered off one of her arms. From this side of the barrier, she couldn't hear me shriek.
"Use the emergency shunt!" I ordered.
"We can't," Trevor replied. "The shunt drive requires a sealed system. it won't work with the armor breached like that. Not until it can mend itself, at least."
Fuck. Wendigo lunged at Vicky, who managed to drop down and roll under her. I could see the telltale glow of Vicky using her breaker state for the boosted abilities and healing factor. The spatter of light on the side of her suit was from her blood, still alive and reacting to her power. The Endbringer stomped down, crushing Vicky's leg and pinning her in place.
Alexandria rushed in, knocking Wendigo back, and a barrage of energy fire from Legend, Crystal and a few of the others, chipping a few more pieces off of it. Then Vicky was gone in a scattering of rubble.
"We're ready, everyone fall back," Dragon instructed.
They obeyed, of course. Those who couldn't retreat on their own were grabbed by the various cats and brought out, either riding or carried depending on what was needed. A dozen of the new raptors collided with Endbringer, covering her in our new variant of containment foam. A dozen times the durability, at the cost of it not being at all safe to use on humans. You couldn't breath through it, and it would melt through human skin in a minute or so. Pity those weren't things that Endbringers needed to worry about. Still, it would hopefully buy time.
Eidolon was one of the few that stayed in, alongside Alexandria and our team. I sighed in relief knowing that Aunt Sarah was retreating with the others.
"Two minutes until ETA," Dragon spoke. "Requesting permission to control shunt overrides."
"Permission granted," Trevor responded.
ApprehensionHopeFear. I looked at Taylor. If this doesn't work. Even if it does work. She looked at me. ConcernDoubtFailure.
I know it was just my imagination, but I could have sworn I heard the explosion. One of Dragon's newest weapons, functionally an orbital satellite set well above Avalon. It was the largest object ever put into space by man, enforced with cloned EB tissue, Khonsu forcefields, a bunch of other forcefields, and all kinds of other Tinker bullshit. It also had the most powerful weapon ever built. A super sized railgun, using hyperdense Endbringer tissue for the bullet. A bullet equipped with a shunt drive. At full power, it could knock the moon out of orbit. I didn't know how much power Dragon was using, but I was pretty sure it wasn't that much.
"Sensors confirm target was on location," Dragon responded. "Bolla has achieved a direct hit."
The message was sent. We would rather destroy our cities ourselves, than be manipulated into playing their games. Even if we lost this fight, then at least the fuckers who made these monsters would get that message. This is not a tactic that will work on us. PainGuiltDetermination. Taylor turned and wrapped her arms around me. I couldn't force myself to stop crying.
The tech compensated for the debris and dust kicked up by the collision. The rainbow shimmer started again, She was still there, in the ruins of the city. The amount of mass she absorbed, this time, was mostly irrelevant. There was nothing left for her to consume that was still alive. Let her have what remained of Brockton Bay, because there was nothing left for her to destroy after what we'd done.
"God, please let this be the right decision," I muttered under my breath.
"Numbers coming in," Dragon responded. Approximately four mile radius from the epicenter was destroyed entirely. Significant damage extending up to twenty miles from epicenter. Nothing left of value within projected range of Wendigo's fifth stage transformation."
The mass of rubble and ruins were consumed as we watched. It was slower than the ones before it, but then each of those were slower than the last as well. Wendigo stood there, now obese. The blue destructive mist hovered around her body like a cloud, destroying everything it touched, not that there was anything left for it to destroy but rubble.
"Do... do we go back and attack it?" Missy asked. Her voice was shaky and unstable.
"No... no," I wasn't sure she even heard me. "There's no point. Nothing left to save."
Even after all of that, nothing could have prepared us for what happened next.
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A/N- I'm an asshole!
Also: yup. Dragon totally built a world killing orbital cannon. Why wouldn't she?
