Inheritance - Interlude 5.Colin

Thursday May 12th, 2011

Rain beat down against his visor as composite boots cut through water.  Steam hissed from his halberd, the plasma edge overpowering even the might of the torrent beating down upon them.  Colin was no stranger to the horror of an Endbringer battle, but this one was proving to be the worst in his storied experience. 

Behind him, the crystalized tip of Leviathan’s tail and several digits of his back claw were left behind thanks to ordinance volunteered by the villain Bakuda.  While he had few hopes that they would defeat the Endbringer, the total benefit of their use was rather low compared to the potential for losses if a shot went too wide.  Once Colin might have considered villains acceptable collateral, but recent events had shifted once engrained opinions. 

In a corner of his HUD, live updates played out regarding the Teeth’s battle with the Trucebreaker designated Echidna.  Despite assumptions made by the majority of the heroes present, Colin was not surprised when Weaver volunteered the Teeth to combat the threat.  Given she could not reasonably engage with Leviathan, she would have been relegated to search and rescue work while her Teeth played bodyguard to Pandemic. 

Given an opportunity to unleash every horror the Teeth were capable of, it was simply inevitable that she would get involved.  That was what concerned him the most.  Someone wanted Weaver in the fight.  The placement of the staging ground was proof enough.  All it would take was a single push by Leviathan and it would be in peril. 

“Dragon, what is the Simurgh’s current status?” 

“The Simurgh is currently maintaining an orbit above northern Africa, though she remains angled towards Boston, just as she has been since the sirens sounded,” Dragon said.

That was what unnerved Colin the most, that the Hopekiller was so invested in the ongoing battle that she actually turned her gaze upon it.  Seldom were the events she paid attention to, and it didn’t escape Colin’s recollection of the times she had done so previously. 

Newfoundland being the most prominent. 

A loss of that scale would be devastating for the coast, with no less than twelve million people living within the projected impact zone.  The appearance of Echidna, and the reports of a cannibalistic cape that Dragon uncovered painted a picture that he did not like.  Madison Wisconsin; that was the first reported appearance of the Travelers, marking them as likely Simurgh influenced individuals. 

Yet, even with that knowledge, there was little that could be done differently with an Endbringer at the door.  He could only hope to mitigate the blow to come when it finally landed.  Knowing Weaver was in the crosshairs was a terrifying prospect, one he knew was unavoidable given Taylor Hebert’s base nature. 

The girl was a hero at heart, despite all the influences placed upon her. 

It had taken Taylor Hebert to show him where the path he was on might lead; how even the noblest of intentions could lead to disaster.  Colin had a plan that would see countless villains sacrificed to ensure he had a chance to end the Endbringer.  He tabled it shortly after Hannah was transferred.

What was the point of winning if it cost his humanity in the process?  He was a hero and needed to be better than the villains he fought.  Heroes were examples to be followed, even by the very villains they sought to defeat.

Spree deceased.

Colin nearly froze mid-stride before he forced himself to press onward.  He knew the Teeth were engaged with the trucebreaker, but to hear one of them fall with Weaver present…  He wasn’t looking forward to seeing an angry Butcher taking out her wrath on those she felt were deserving.  Another villain who gave their life fighting to protect others from the approaching end of the world.

In the distance, Alexandria was engaged with Leviathan using the Sword Weaver had given to her.  True to his own analysis of the weapon, it was able to withstand the truly titanic exchange of blows better than any other weapon he had observed in past Endbringer battles.

It still wasn’t enough to deal more than superficial damage to Leviathan despite the nature of the weapon.  His own nanothorn project was superior, but wouldn’t yield vastly different results when put in the hand of a cape that could truly use the Wolfslayer to full effect.  

That didn’t mean his work was pointless, but it certainly felt that way when he watched the blade bite deep into Leviathan, but not cleave limbs as he had hoped.  He rejoined the battle, letting his algorithm and connection to Dragon’s tracking systems keep him in the fight without getting in anyone’s way.  There was no worse feeling than watching one of your own weapons turned against those fighting. 

Just as Bakuda’s ordinance had nearly been.

He wouldn’t let those concerns stop him from engaging, or from using his most dangerous tools.  The Endbringers couldn’t be allowed to continue without resistance, no matter the risks involved. 

Dragon’s craft screamed through the storm, unleashing another round of missiles.  One of which was flagged as carrying a Bakuda made warhead.  He backed away, logging the planned effect.  It wasn’t dangerous to organics, but it could still result in unforeseen issues. 

The bomb detonated with the rest, taking all the water in a fifty meter radius with it.  His mouth was suddenly dry, but he wasn’t desiccated by the effect.  Leviathan didn’t so much as slow; the echo from its movements already filling the space cleared before the storm caught back up.  Such tricks rarely worked out, but each test was another set of data in the quest to take down the unbeatable.

Shots rained down on the monster from dozens of Blasters to little effect.  It was the rote pattern of these fights.  Parahumans by their very nature upended any attempts at tactics, and the Endbringers adapted quickly to any strategy implemented on a large scale.  As much as it galled him, this was the only method of combatting them that didn’t end in disaster.

Newfoundland was the last time they attempted proper strategy, and the results speak for themselves.  Since then, the plan was reverted to ‘group up and hit it till it flees’ much to his own chagrin.  It didn’t work, but the alternatives were always worse.  Colin had his theories about this, but he kept them to himself.

He moved in once the barrage was over, letting his algorithm map out the flow of Leviathan’s movement.  Alexandria beat him there, landing another titanic blow with Weaver’s sword.  Again the monster reacted, and Colin moved to fill the gap created by their exchange.

He ducked the tail and stabbed his halberd into one of the beast’s leg joints.  It recoiled as it hurt, but he could tell how shallow the strike truly was.  Legend’s own barrage followed, beams burrowing into the monster’s flesh as it recoiled, turning to send a blast of water that Legend easily avoided.  Leviathan was playing with him, and everyone else for that matter. 

To what ends he could only guess, but it didn’t bode well for humanity’s future.

“All points.  Echidna neutralized.” 

Eidolon’s voice.  He must have diverted to help the Teeth after Spree’s death.  He knew that things over there were dire.  The Teeth were powerful, but lacked a heavy hitter that could decisively end regenerating threats.  Those were rare enough, but Echidna proved that she was a true Class-S event in the making.  One villain was an easy price to pay, but only through the cold mathematics that events like this necessitated.

The fighting continued, with familiar Brutes such as Glory Girl dropping in to hammer home blows, only for Blasters to follow up the moment the melee cleared.  Blasts of negative energy staggered the beast, and he noted with some approval their source.  Damsel of Distress was one of Brockton’s newest headaches, and was nominally considered a Teeth affiliate, but she was there with Glory Girl instead of the Teeth.  An interesting development, and it gave him some hope that the woman might be reformed, even if he knew that the odds were greater for Glory Girl to join the Teeth like her sister. 

What Tagg had pulled with Amelia, now dubbed Pandemic, was truly reprehensible.  Dragon already had a full review flagged for after the battle, because there was no way he followed proper procedures to procure that Kill Order.  Everything about that screamed Thinker plot, and he would get to the bottom of it before the Teeth decided to wage war over it.

Colin blocked the claw strike, then shifted, using Leviathan’s own momentum to avoid the water echo that followed.  Dragon filled the gap, hammering the Endbringer before it could retaliate.  Their algorithm was proving to be impressive, and kept updating in real time thanks to the contributions Dragon made to the program.  She was running a variant in her own suit, each feeding the other new data in real time. 

“Colin, update from the Thinkers.  Leviathan isn’t biological, the blood is false.”

That fit his theory that this was all a performance.  If he had remained so insistent on challenging Leviathan directly, he might have missed that in the data and pushed for the plan anyway.  How many people would he have sacrificed needlessly if he had remained on that path?

Eidolon down.  Sundancer deceased.

What?

He backed away from the Endbringer as his eyes flicked through his UI, searching for the moment that things had gone wrong.  He found it easily enough, the scene was flagged by Dragon’s tracker for review and he paled just as the armband relayed what he feared. 

“Echidna’s recovered and just ate Eidolon!  Send some fucking help before the Butcher is next!” 

Hemorrhagia, sounding more desperate than he had ever heard her before.  Valid, given the horror show coming across the camera feed from the drone currently observing the battle.  Clones of Eidolon were entering the battle, though their speech was cut off by some strange effect that accompanied their words. 

The feed died at the same moment Leviathan froze in place.  Colin frowned, wondering if Clockblocker had managed to sneak into the battle.  The observation was quickly discarded as the Endbringer blurred, sending Alexandria reeling across the skyline.  The same motion sent an echo of water through a dozen capes that had been keeping their distance.

Leviathan didn’t stop there, disappearing in a streak of water only to slam into a Brute, who stopped him cold.  Glory Girl had tanked the blow, but he knew she couldn’t take the follow up.  Damsel of Distress blasted the incoming echo from over Glory Girl’s shoulder, dispersing it enough for her to escape, but that didn’t spare the others around them.  Leviathan’s tail chased the fleeing hero, clipping her shoulder with incalculable force. 

Because his instruments returned an error. 

Mass casualties, please stand by.

That was an understatement as Leviathan continued to move in ways his algorithm had never considered, scything through heroes and villains alike with no apparent effort.  People were dropping in droves as Leviathan worked through them, heading in a very telling direction as he cut down the last cape in his way and bounded on all fours at a speed Leviathan had never been recorded before.

Miss Militia down.  Meteor down.  Kintsugi deceased.  Herald deceased.  Luminescence down.  Sylvan deceased.  Damsel of Distress Down.  Cassiterite deceased.  Boilerplate deceased.  Thrillseeker deceased.  Prism down.  Phoenix down.  Sinkhole deceased.  Aerobat deceased.  Myrddin down.  Coruela deceased.  Ursa Aurora deceased.  Bunter deceased.  Vex down.

There was so much chaos at both battle sites that he almost missed the name at the end.  Dread filled him as he realized that Leviathan was heading straight towards the monster that had likely just absorbed Weaver’s girlfriend and shuddered to think what would happen if Leviathan killed someone so important to her. 

An inheritance would happen, likely several, assuming Leviathan didn’t just absorb all of her powers.  Figuring out how that would work had stymied enough Thinkers over the years, and not one theory was one he would like to live with.

“Hard override,” Colin said, sprinting with everything he had in the monster’s wake.  “Leviathan is ignoring all resistance.  Advancing towards Trucebreaker Echidna with undue haste.” 

He could only hope that Weaver heard the message and managed to either end the threat or get her people out of there before Leviathan answered the question of what happened when an Endbringer killed the Butcher.

Colin stumbled as something other ripped through the air, a headache dulling almost instantly.  Visions of…  Not important.  All his sensors were throwing warning alarms that something had gone horribly wrong.  At first he couldn’t pinpoint anything at all, but then he realized that Leviathan had once again increased his speed exponentially, closing in on the Butcher’s position at something approaching twice the speed of sound. 

Vex deceased.

Oh. 

Well, time to get out of the universe. 

Gallows humor aside, that did not bode well for the survivability of anyone that came between Weaver and whatever had killed her girlfriend.  He expanded his map, blinking when he watched as Vex and Weaver’s tag vanished just as Leviathan reached their location.  They reappeaered instantly at the triage center.

Alert.  Leviathan course altered.

The speed the monster moved at wasn’t the same impossible rate as before, but still higher than anything recorded at a previous battle involving the Endbringer.  The idea that they were sandbagging had always been treated as a PHO conspiracy theory, even if he had begun to entertain it himself in recent days, yet he was witnessing the truth of it right in front of him. 

“Hard override,” he said, already moving again.  “The triage center.  He’s after the wounded.” 

A lie.  He was chasing Weaver for some reason.  Yet, if he broadcast that fact, most would flee rather than be present for what came next.  No, he needed the support to keep that monster away from whatever it was he wanted.  Even with his algorithm, he didn’t have any hope of pulling off his once desired solo stand against the monster.  

Yet, that was what heroes did.

“Dragon.  I need a location to stall the bastard.  If Leviathan reaches Weaver, I fear something will happen and none of us will like it.”

“Colin,” Dragon said.  “You know as well as I do that you’ll die.” 

“Tell everyone to regroup,” Colin said, marking F-6 as his point to confront the monster.  “They can tag in once I’m downed.  Hopefully by then the evacuation will be complete.” 

“Strider is already working to move everyone,” Dragon said.  “Estimated time to completion is currently seven minutes.” 

He swallowed heavily.  “Then I’ll give him what I can.” 

A draconic ship roared across the darkened sky, jets screaming with heat that evaporated the falling rain long before it made contact with the plasma trailing.  The model wasn’t the one that had been fighting so far, that one had tagged out the moment Leviathan fled for the secondary unit she had flown in ahead of time.

“Then I can double that.” 

He couldn’t help the smile that came as he grabbed hold of the experimental Cawthorne.  It was almost poetic, the knight riding a dragon into battle.  Luckily Assault was injured, because he would never hear the end of it if Ethan ever learned of current events.  The Cawthorne rumbled as it rose back into the sky, and not for the first time Colin wished he had a cape to flutter heroically behind him.

“Attention.  All capes regroup at grid marker F-7 and assist with evacuation of the triage center.  Armsmaster will be delaying the Endbringer for as long as he is able.”

Colin’s hand gripped around the haft of his halberd, visor filtering out the rain from his vision as Dragon carried him into battle.  He couldn’t see anything beyond a hundred meters, the rain was too heavy, but his HUD still told the tale.  Leviathan was highlighted as it moved unerringly towards the triage center.  Legend was off to where the Teeth had engaged Echidna, no doubt to retrieve Eidolon. 

Alexandria, however… 

“I never took you for this much of a fool,” she said as she pulled up beside him. 

Her voice hadn’t carried over the wind and rain, but she was transmitting as well over the Protectorate band frequency.  Held in her off hand was the Wolf Slayer, looking as pristine as it had when Weaver first presented it to the woman.  Truly a marvel of engineering for how simplistic it was.  That was where the problem resided, such invulnerability of design could only be applied to classical weapons.  He had a halberd head made by the same Tinker, though without Damascian’s brand of sharpening to give it that same edge.

Colin stifled a laugh.  He really was slipping if puns were filtering into his internal dialog.  That or he needed to dial back his exposure to Ethan by at least fifteen percent.  Probably the latter, if he were being honest.  Besides, it wasn’t like he could get Weaver to upgrade the Halberd for him given the sharpening process had to be applied during production.

“You know as well as I do that Leviathan is after the Butcher,” he said, watching as Leviathan ignored Legend’s passing shots to push forward.  “We can’t let him accomplish his objective.” 

Something had set him off, and there wasn’t enough data to ascertain what that might have been.  The theory that Endbringers attacked specific places with a goal in mind was all but cemented as far as he was concerned.  Leviathan was after Weaver for some unknown motive. 

He could only hope it wasn’t a Simurgh plot in the end. 

“Your plan won’t work,” Alexandria said simply.

“I still have to try,” he said, bracing as Dragon set down in the clearing.  He disembarked, sparing a glance up the hill where the hospital stood.  This was their line in the sand, the point they had to hold.  They would fail, but they didn’t need to manage it forever.  He had little doubt that Weaver would join the fight once she had gathered herself.  A Butcher never took the death of a fuck buddy well, and she would be lashing out at anything acceptable in short order. 

The beast leapt through the air, clearing the remaining distance.  Leviathan landed with an impact that shook the ground, but Colin stood firm, planting his halberd as he stared at the walking calamity.  Alexandria hovered to his left, and to his right Dragon’s suit postured with them.  That Leviathan had paused in its attack meant something, but none of them had the time to calculate what it might be. 

“Dragon, it’s been an honor.” 

“Don’t speak as if you’re dying today,” his best friend commanded, flaring every fin on her suit.  “We will fight, and we will see the light of the next dawn.” 

“Optimistic,” Alexandria said; ever the pessimist.  “We could use more of that.” 

Or not. 

The Endbringer stood unwavering, the injuries inflicted over the course of the battle barely standing out.  Pockmarks no deeper than his fist littered the monster’s skin.  One of his four eyes was darkened, the remaining three cutting through the haze of the pouring rain.  Several deeper cuts lined his limbs, delivered by his own halberd and the Wolf Slayer.  

They didn’t stand a chance. 

He would still give it his all. 

“For Taylor,” he said, then charged the beast.  

If she ever heard of it, she would at least find some humor in the sentiment.

The Endbringer didn’t move as he closed the distance, his algorithm sending warnings about how it should have already reacted.  He dismissed them, falling back on honed instincts, and ducked.  A burst of wind passed over his head, then the crack of a sonic boom knocked him away.  A water echo followed, but was broken by Alexandria charging through.  Her blade connected with a second lashing of the monster’s tail, and the blade sheared off several inches of the length. 

He followed that up with a swift thrust of his halberd, impacting the base of the tail where it cut deep.  Unlike prior behavior where Leviathan would react as if in pain from such a blow, the Endbringer didn’t break stride.  Claws whipped back, primed to take his head clean off.  He brought his halberd up, the shaft taking the hit but he still had the problem of the force and momentum of the blow when factored against his own mass. 

The math checked out as he was launched.

His systems ran the calculations and gyros built into his suit helped him land upright.  Ceramic composite heels dug into the concrete beneath him, carving deep furrows despite the ankle deep water in the parking lot.  Colin grit his teeth as he stabbed the halberd down into the ground, arresting the last of his momentum. 

During his short airborne vacation, Alexandria and Dragon had reengaged Leviathan at melee range, with the Wolf Slayer leaving deep rents in the Endbringer’s flesh.  Dragon had adapted his nano-thorn tech to serve as the Cawthorne’s claws, and they too cut deep.  His sensors however told a different story.  Both blades stopped at the same depth no matter how they were employed, a hard termination point. 

“Leviathan’s density increases exponentially the deeper you cut,” he said, knowing Dragon could hear him.  “Measure depth of all strikes and confirm.” 

He didn’t wait for an answer, already charging back towards the Endbringer despite how his body protested.  Contrary to popular belief, his armor’s gel absorption layer wasn’t nearly as robust as it could be.  He made compromises to it to improve efficiency in other key areas that didn’t coddle his personal comfort.  A mixture of painkillers handled the rest.

The clash was titanic, the blows completely out of the scope of any projected estimates.  Never before had Armsmaster felt more alive than facing down these monsters, now especially, with their veils pulled back.  His software adjusted in real time with the new data, showing the coming strikes accurately once more. 

He ducked the first blow, deployed a pulse of energy to disrupt the afterimage, and struck.  His halberd struck true, but he knew it wasn’t nearly enough.  Worse than that, Leviathan ignored him to focus on Alexandria, wrapping his claws around her as she pulled the blade free.  The force with which she impacted the ground sent a geyser of rainwater thirty meters into the air, then he whipped her around, slamming her again. 

And again. 

She hung there, having lost the Wolf Slayer under the water at some point.  Colin began to move, but something dropped from the sky, hovering just above the Endbringer.  A man, nude as could be, with half his face melted to the bone. 

“Look at what your hubris has wrought, Rebecca Costa-Brown,” the clone of Eidolon said to the limp form of Alexandria.  “You always assumed the Endbringers were his weapons to drive us to the brink.  We made the Case 53s to create more soldiers to combat them for the day that Scion broke.  Then, I made the Endbringers, so that I would have something to test myself against.  We truly did create the tools of our undoing, didn’t we Lexi?”

Those words set off so many alarms in his mind that he struggled to figure out which damning secret hit harder.  Dragon’s craft hovered beside him, no doubt having heard all of it, just as the clone intended.  Those secrets were out in the open, with no way to contain them even if both he and Dragon were destroyed in this battle.  Dragon’s remote systems ensured she was hearing all of this remotely, no doubt already preparing a data package for the Guild. 

“Now, Unit two, kill Rebecca quickly so that we can continue on to avenge Mother.” 

Leviathan regarded the clone for a long moment, the false facade of Eidolon growing furious as the seconds ticked on.  Motion blurred, Leviathan’s tail flicked through the air—and the clone—leaving a spray of red mist in the air where it had once floated. 

While it saved them the trouble, it also meant that the Endbringer’s focus was once again upon them.  Or rather, his focus was on the Triumvirate member currently dangling by the ankles in his grasp.  He seemed to consider her for a moment, then water sprung up, wrapping around her head. 

Micro-kinesis. 

His echo always presented the possibility, but this was the first practical application observed.  He and Dragon both acted, attacking the limb with everything they had.  Dragon lunged for the heroine, but Leviathan’s tail cut through her suit’s neck like wet paper.  The Endbringer continued to ignore him, cold eyes staring down at the brack water where Alexandria was drowning.

Alexandria down.

The Endbringer was unfeeling in his reaction to his frankly pathetic attempts.  Any sign of pretending to be hurt for their own benefit was gone, and in its place was the implacable monster that was bringing humanity one step closer to the brink. 

Only it was no longer so unflappable as something rocked it off center, disturbing the mountain with strength nearly equal to the Endbringer.  Colin wasn’t sure what he expected, but Glory Girl wreathed in golden light certainly wasn’t it.  Her face was twisted in anger, and she followed up the initial impact with an uppercut that sent Leviathan airborne. 

The young woman floated there, her blonde hair matted down from the downpour, then moved, pulling Alexandria from the water.  Leviathan stirred, taking his time to get up as Glory Girl took the opportunity to flee with the limp Triumvirate member.  Colin readied himself for the coming clash, his software already preparing him for the expected counter assault when the clouds parted, bringing moonlight flooding down. 

Leviathan looked up, seemingly surprised that something had pierced his storm.  Colin was confused as well, until his equipment reported spatial distortions reaching all the way into the upper atmosphere.  The Ionosphere to be specific.  That jogged some long forgotten memory of potential threat ratings being bounced around for a then new Ward, before the idea was classified and he swore to never float the idea around the girl.  Some part of his mind knew he needed to look away, and thankfully his visor adjusted automatically when blinding plasma filled his vision.  The heat was suffocating, instantly evaporating the water all around them. 

His visor had dimmed to almost pitch black in the face of it, and he could smell burnt hair rising from his beard.  The strike had been monstrous, the calculations for the power involved were still running, but even now he could tell that the numbers were astronomical.

“You know,” Vista said, her hands unclenching, “I was saving that one for Hookwolf, because if anyone deserved my indignation, it was him.  I suppose you’ll do as a substitute.” 

Leviathan rose slowly, the entire surface of his flesh burned away to the point his visor could barely register the gashes their weapons had carved into the monster.  Despite the depth of damage that Vista had delivered, all four eyes burned brightly once more.  It sent an honest to god chill down his spine to see the eyes restored on the much reduced bulk of the Endbringer. 

Vista’s fist clenched again and another bolt crashed down into the rising figure.  This time, however, the monster did not bow to the force of the impact.  His algorithm told him what was coming, and the hero moved before the Endbringer could.  Leviathan lunged, and he managed to bring his halberd up to catch the blow meant for Vista. 

He managed it, for half a second. 

Claws sheared through the haft, and carved through his armor as easily as it had Dragon’s.  Fitting, given they used the same composite structure for Leviathan grade equipment.  He fell, dimly aware of Vista’s armband calling out his own name.  He fell onto his side, his nose barely out of the water.  Leviathan looked down upon him, as if it wanted him to know what had brought him down. 

A dull thump sounded, but he barely registered that someone now stood over him. 

“Missy, get him out of here,” Weaver said, staring up at the monster as it towered over her form.  She had no mask, allowing him to see the raw determination within her cold eyes.  She didn’t cower away, instead standing with defiance in the face of the monster before her.  

Her foot lifted, then came down with force.  Something kicked up from the water and the leader of the Teeth snatched it out of the air.  The Wolf Slayer came to rest on her shoulder, cutting a striking figure in the night even as he was pulled away. 

“Let’s dance mother fucker.”