A/N: Hehehe
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New Orleans, Louisiana
November 11th, 13:00
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Leviathan.
Mary didn't get to join the last Endbringer fight, Behemoth, on account of her still being injured from her fight with Lung, so this is the first time she'll be fighting the good fight.
She really wants to go home.
Alas, she has her role to play. People will hardly adore her if she doesn't show up in Endbringer fights, and she's going to have to figure some way of being a more prominent figure in said fights once she promotes to Protectorate proper.
What a pain in the ass.
...She couldn't even bring her Gameboy.
The meeting place for the defending capes wasn't quite what she, or Suzu, expected, being the only Brocktonite Heroes who are having their first time today.
She expected for them all to gather up in front of the PRT building for some teleporter to pick them up, likely Strider. He's probably the best teleportation cape on the planet right now, and she knows that he's the main transport people use for Endbringer fights.
So imagine her surprise when instead they all just hopped into some cars and made their way to an arcade of all places. Last Laugh, the place was called. Apparently, it's a front, which explains how an arcade is still running these days.
In truth, Last Laugh supposedly functions as a neutral ground for capes to meet and talk, as well as being a web of what basically amounts to fast travel locations. Every Last Laugh arcade has a door to any Last Laugh arcade.
Luckily, that includes New Orleans.
Her group was the first from Brockton to arrive, consisting of all the Protectorate members, alongside Mary, Suzu, Vista and Carlos.
The group quickly made it out of the crowded arcade, alongside what seemed to be a constant stream of other capes, and find themselves standing in a large, open area filled with even more capes. Mary has the distinct feeling that this area wasn't so open yesterday. It feels like someone just deleted a couple of buildings to make room for everyone.
The Endbringer is probably still a few minutes out, but it's obvious which one it is, considering the dark storm clouds blackening the sky as far as the eye can see and the torrential rain pouring down on them all.
Mary hasn't seen so much rain in her life. It's so loud that she can barely hear herself think. The only reason she isn't already soaked is because someone's put a barrier above them all like the world's biggest umbrella.
It's oppressive.
Mary is suddenly pulled forward by her arm, bringing her out of her thoughts. She looks up to see that it's Challenger dragging her, and quickly reaches back to grab Suzu and drag him with her.
"What do we do?" Mary asks, having to raise her voice somewhat just to be heard over the constant sound of rainfall.
"Just follow me," is all she says, and Mary lets herself get dragged along, turning around to observe the capes around her.
She recognises some of them; Alexandria, Eidolon, Legend, Chevalier, the main, big national Protectorate Heroes. Then others, The Guild, Dragon, Narwhal. But most of the faces are foreign to her, Heroes and Villains alike from all over the country. Hundreds of them, all gathered to face the same monster.
She even notices plenty of capes who are clearly foreigners, moving to help, no matter the nation under siege.
Her eyes are drawn back to the arcade as she sees more people she recognises exciting it. She sees New Wave, or at least the adults therein. She sees another group of Heroes that she's pretty sure are from Brockton.
They're a group of four, with each one wearing light blue suits and donning a stylised eight-pointed star, with the cardinal arms being twice as long as the diagonal ones, over their hearts and biceps like emblems.
From what she knows, they're Corporate Heroes, working for Estrella Corp.
The next group of Brocktonites to walk through the door cause Mary to have to look away, lest she start laughing.
The Empire Eighty-Eight have joined. Not all of them, granted, but they brought their new Trump, Othala.
It's not a surprise, really. The Empire does like to play the 'righteous' angle, so PR is important. And even if it wasn't, Othala is reportedly a healer. Healers are very rare, so I imagine there would be some... 'pressure', for Othala at least to make a showing.
Mary soon loses sight of the girl in question, her being taken over to what she assumes are the healer's tents. But it doesn't matter, as her attention is soon brought to something else.
Legend was making himself known, floating ahead of the throng and glowing subtly with power.
Legend clears his throat, the sound somehow audible over the literal buckets being rained down all around us. "We owe thanks to Last Laugh Inc. for the rapid transportation of so many capes. With such a rapid response, some good teamwork and proper effort, I hold out hope that today can be one of the 'good days'. We don't have much time left before Leviathan arrives, so I'll try to be brief."
Ah, Mary thinks. A speech from Legend? This aught to be good.
"First, you deserve to know your chances going in. Based on our previous encounters with this 'Beast', one in four of you will not see the day through."
Ah. Never mind then.
A murmur spreads through the crowd, understandably. A quarter death rate isn't very positive. Mary is starting to get the feeling that Legend isn't very good at speeches. Doesn't he know how important morale is? He should just lie and say only a few people will die.
Guess that's his 'heroic mindset' not letting him lie or something.
"The main message I wish to convey to you all here and now, more than anything else, is that you should not underestimate Leviathan. I have seen too many good heroes," he pauses for a fraction of a second, "And villains, too, die because they let their guard down."
Legend briefly glances at the sky above, oppressive storm clouds have already gathered over their location, pouring out enough rain to fill an Olympic swimming pool in seconds.
"We think of Leviathan as the middle child; he was the second of the three to arrive. People often claim he is the weakest of the three, the least dangerous. While this might be true in some senses, he's not as physically powerful as Behemoth, or as deviously manipulative as Simurgh, yet more deaths are attributed to Leviathan than both of his siblings combined. You've seen the videos on television and the internet. You know what he is physically capable of. I want to be clear that despite the image he might convey, he is not stupid, and he can display a level of cunning and tactics that can and will catch you off guard.
"I will tell you what you may not know from the videos. He feels pain, he does bleed, but few attacks seem to penetrate deep enough past the surface to seriously harm him. He is like the other two Endbringers in this respect.
"What sets him apart is his focus on water. You're likely aware of his afterimage, his water echo. This is no mere splash of water. At the speeds Leviathan can move, surface tension and compressibility make water harder than concrete. He also has a crude hydrokinesis, the ability to manipulate water, and there will be water on the battlefield, there already is. We believe that this is what lets him move as fast as he does when he is swimming. Faster than you will expect."
He went on, really laying it on a bit thick. "Were it just that, this fight would still warrant a show of force like what we've gathered here, but it is worse than that. I spoke of Leviathan as a hydrokinetic. I can't state this enough, Leviathan is primarily a hydrokinetic on a macro scale. There is no better illustration than the days where Leviathan won.
"Newfoundland," he spoke.
Mary, and probably anyone this side of the world, knew exactly what he meant. "May ninth, two thousand-five. Nearly half a million dead. The Canadian island simply gone, after the shelf of land holding it up cracked in the face of what we now understand were incredible pressures beneath the water level."
Bet the Canadians forgave him. Mary has to hold herself back from snickering at her own joke. Now would not be the time to laugh. That thought alone nearly makes her laugh all over again. She's not a very good person.
"Kyushu," Legend continues, dead set on bringing the mood as low as possible, "the night of November second and the morning of the third, nineteen ninety-nine. His sixth appearance. Nine and a half million killed when the region was swamped with tidal waves from every direction while Leviathan disrupted prearranged evacuation attempts. Nearly three million evacuees rendered homeless, a nation sundered."
Japan is a third world country thanks to that. It has a population something like twenty million, about a sixth what it could have been.
"These were errors, grave mistakes from defending heroes. We had but one strategy at the time, to hem him in, minimizing the effects of growing waves and casualties until Leviathan was beaten into a retreat or Scion arrived. These areas, however, were too vulnerable. Waiting let Leviathan build up the strength of his attacks, and we lost."
He paused, and Mary resists the urge to boo him. "We have since classified the locations the Endbringers target as either hard targets or soft targets. The hard battlefields are where we stand our ground, buy time, wear him down. The soft ones are locations where we cannot afford to do this."
A projection lights up the sky behind him, showing a picture of the city around them, coloured to show where each part of the city sits in relation to sea-level, and Mary can't help but boggle at the stupidity of settlers.
Seriously, what kind of retard settles a city in a crater by the coast? Almost the entire thing is below sea-level. Though, with the map, Mary can guess where they're going to be staging their defence.
At the point closest to the sea, the city splits into a 'V' shape, with nature laying claim to the centre of the 'V' and the city splitting either side, the ocean at the wider end. Both 'arms' of the 'V' are, predictably, below sea-level.
"New Orleans, this location, is a soft target. The city sits predominantly below sea-level, only protected by levees and pumps that can remove billions of gallons of water every day. That will not be enough. Already the city is flooding just from the rain, if Leviathan destroys these barriers," he points with some lasers at the levees," then this city will drown."
Joy, Mary thinks, already writing the city off as a lost cause.
He paused, "We have to end this fast. Each wave he brings on top of us is stronger than the last. This means we have two priorities. First, we cannot let him out of our sight. From the moment the battle is initiated, we hem him in, sustain an offensive onslaught. If we let him slip past our defensive lines, precious time will be wasted chasing him, getting him in another situation where we can contain his movements.
"Our second priority is that we need to find ways to hurt him. If you cannot, if your attacks are deflected or prove otherwise useless, work to support those who can. It is vain to hope to kill him, but he can be whittled down enough that he will flee back to the ocean, and if we hurt him enough, it may delay the time before he is capable of making another attack elsewhere."
Legend frowned. The world was a constant roar of sound, the constant pouring of supernatural rainfall masking the world around them like a thick fog.
"This is what the Endbringers are. As of yet, we've been unable to stop them, unable to get through even one confrontation without grievous losses, be it civilian casualties, the loss of a city, or the loss of the lives of some of the bravest and strongest of us. And they will keep coming, one after another, winning these small victories, and winning some major ones."
Inspiring. God, Mary wants to go home. She should have pretended to have caught the cold or something, maybe stab herself and blame it on Suzu... Damn, that's a great idea, she totally should have done that...fuck. Opportunity missed.
"You are doing a good thing. The greatest thing. This is why we are tolerated, why society allows and accounts for the capes that walk the streets and fight in its towns. Because we are needed for situations like this. With your assistance, we can forestall the inevitable. Your efforts and, if you choose to make them, your sacrifices, will be remembered."
Mary notices some people working their way through the crowd, and Legend speaks up again before anyone can question it.
He holds up a hand, showing off a cool watch. "These are armbands of Dragon's design, they are adjustable, so tighten them around your wrists. The screen on the band will show your position in a grid, as well as that of others and most importantly, Leviathan. There are two buttons, the one on the left is for sending messages to everyone else wearing an armband. For those of you who are not veterans of these fights, there will be a short delay. If you must skip this few seconds of delay, speak the words 'Hard Override'. Abuse of this feature will result in you losing the ability to send messages."
A guy reaches Mary and offers a band, which she puts on without complaint, once again holding herself back from using the hard override to say something stupid. A glance to her side shows her that Suzu is having a similar struggle, but is thankfully being held back by Challenger.
Mary doesn't think Suzuya has the same restraint to actually hold himself back.
"If you need assistance of any kind, use the other button to send out a ping. If you get injured, the band monitors your condition, and a ping will be sent out for your recovery."
Legend then goes on to start discussing strategies and stuff, but Mary starts to tune him out. The dude really drones on.
Besides, Challenger said to follow her, so that's what she's going to do. Realistically, her main goal here is to just be seen saving people to boost her reputation. Trying to actually fight Leviathan would be retarded, so she's not going to do that. Maybe she'll be able to turn some of his water to steam, but she hardly thinks that would be much of a big deal in the end.
As she is looking around, she notices Mimic speed walking through the crowd, and her eyes widen when she realises why. That guy can make phantoms of anyone he's touched in the last day, and phantoms of parahumans have lesser versions of their powers.
Even lesser, he can still practically double their number. That should be handy.
She's suddenly distracted by the sound of genuine, belly-clutching laughter, and spins on a dime to stare at Suzuya, only to see that he isn't the one laughing. Thank fuck.
Turning to face the sound, she sees another small group leaving the arcade, pushing and shoving each other without a care for those around them. The only people who seem to be enjoying themselves.
Who else could it be, if not The Clowns?
There are four of them, with the most eye catching being the giant fuck off dog monster thing. He's the size of a van and covered in tight, corded muscles and spikes of bone. He has six legs, each topped with fearsome claws. The back four legs have a number of spiked tentacles dancing around them, while the front two have a thin pair of clawed hands sticking out of the knees, kind of like the little hands T-rex's have, just more deadly looking.
His skin is an inky black, his maw filled with teeth that reek of death and his body is covered in constantly shifting eyes, making him look like some kind of eldritch abomination.
Not helping his image of a deadly monster, is the woman held in his maw. And not like a dog delivering something, his teeth are digging into her gut, spilling her blood down his chin.
Yet, she doesn't seem to mind. Dressed in black, full body motorcycle leathers, she is noticeably not wearing a mask, though that can be explained by her whole head being that of a black cat's. She has heterochromia, one eye being a cold blue and the other a cool silver.
Walking by their side is another pair. One of the men is wearing a formal, navy blue business suit, with only a pink, unicorn scarf and a simple domino to cover his face. Beside him, the other man is wearing all black, with a long coat covering most of his body, with buckles down it's centre, on it's arms and a collar that rises up to his mouth. His mask is a three by four blank set of segmented squares without decorations or eyeholes.
The guy in the suit seems to be messing around with some gizmo or other, while the guy without a face is holding up a pair of handheld flags that just have the word 'Humanity' printed on them as he waves them side by side, cheering.
The big monster dog she can recognise as Cerberus, formerly Crawler, and supposedly The First Clown's pet dog.
"C'mon," Mary hears, before she is being dragged away again. She reluctantly allows herself to be dragged, even if she really wanted to see what the Clowns would do.
Challenger already has Suzuya in her other hand this time.
Looking out, Mary sees everyone splitting up, and looking even further out, in the direction of the sea, she understands why.
An enormous tidal wave is approaching the city.
The fight has begun.
"Where are we going?" Mary asks, running under her own power now, alongside the other two and about half a dozen others.
"To the front lines," is Challenger's casual answer, and it nearly causes Mary to miss her next step.
"The fuck do you mean the front lines!?" She exclaims, uncaring if others hear her break character right now. Not that they will with the rain. "I'm like a Brute four! Leviathan is a Nine!"
"Stop being a pussy, you fought Lung didn't you? Well Lung fought Leviathan, so you should be fine."
Mary gapes at Challenger's awful logic. "This and that are not even slightly the same thing!"
"A bet, then. Whoever touches Leviathan the most gets to order the other to do anything that many times, eh? Eh?"
"Oh you're on bitch."
Fuck running away, she has a bet to win. She hears Suzu let out a childish cheer in the background as they cross into the woodland and sight the second tidal wave, the first having been diffused by Eidolon.
Her armband starts going off, listing names, locations and whether or not said names are merely downed or just dead, but she ignores it. Once again, Mary wonders if anyone in the higher ups of the PRT knows jack shit about morale.
She can see it around her, the people running with her getting more and more tense with every death that gets called out.
Finally though, Mary sights their great foe.
Riding a wave like a surfer, Leviathan comes crashing straight at them, looking as biblical as his name suggests and surrounded by fliers peppering it like mites.
The earth beneath them rises, bringing them out of the foot of water they were already walking through, and over the front of the wave.
One of the people she doesn't know suddenly lights up in a golden hue, with a thin golden light appearing from himself and through the Endbringer. The next instant, his body blurs forward, following the line.
Leviathan dodges to the side, ignoring the man entirely as it swings its tail in their direction, a whip of water leaving the appendage.
Mary jumps over the scythe of water, Suzu, Challenger and most others doing the same. Three men were too slow and get bisected, their intestines falling out of their bodies with a pained scream in a gruesome display.
Turning back to the beast, Mary gathers her power, shuts off all her senses and shoots forward the largest torrent of fire she can.
A veritable wall of flame leaves her body, smashing into the opposing wave and evaporating a portion of it on contact.
With Leviathan suddenly falling from the sky, trailing an echo of water in his wake, Challenger explodes.
Her body is launched faster than the eye can track, appearing by Leviathan, axe in hand, just in time for Mary to touch ground and launch herself after the older woman, not wanting to lose the bet.
Challenger's axe slams into Leviathan's shoulder with a thunderous boom and an explosion that near blinds anyone who was staring at it.
Mary expects to see Leviathan fly away, and to use her whip to bring herself closer to him, but when the dust clears, she sees that that is not what happened.
Leviathan's shoulder has a chunk torn out of it, but the monster itself remains unmoved. There's a scream and a spurt of blood before it gets cut off, and Mary's airborne form is left looking at Challenger held in Leviathan's hand, her body crushed and bent in unnatural angles, blood spilling down the limb and mixing with the rain.
...Que?
Leviathan blurs forward, far faster than she expected him to, Legend's words echo in her mind, and within moments, he is right in front of her.
Well fuck.
"Falcon deceased, ED-7."
///
Formerly New Orleans
November 11th, 15:15
///
They had lost.
That much is clear enough to anyone with eyes.
The levees were breached, the pumps destroyed. New Orleans is the latest Atlantis to be added to Leviathan's list.
The city is completely submerged, only floating bits of debris and the occasional corpse visible atop the calming waters.
For most of everyone, it's a tragedy to be mourned, but for a certain trio, that is not the case.
"Heeeey Vendor?" A nearly naked woman with the head of a housecat and a visibly toned body, including a garish 'X' shaped scar over her chest speaks up.
The three of them are standing on one of the few mounds of earth still above the sea, looking over the ruined city without any empathy at all.
"What is it, Carnie?" The suit wearing man responds, not really sounding like he cares what 'it' is.
"Where'd No Face go?" She asks, referring to the man who was wearing all black with the segmented blank white mask.
"Died," is the simple answer.
Carnie sticks her tongue out and blows a raspberry. "Laaame~," her tone doesn't suggest any sympathy for her fallen comrade.
They sit in silence for a moment longer. "Heeeeeeey, Vendor?"
Vendor pauses in his work, lets out a sigh, and gets back to it. "What."
"How much longer are we gonna just be standing around here?"
"Why? You got anywhere to be?"
"Sure do~. I have a super hot boss lady waiting for me to get back. I came here without her permission, y'know? She is gonna be pissed~."
"Typically, having one's boss pissed at them is not a good thing."
"Yeah, well typically a pissed of boss doesn't lead to steamy sexy fun times~."
"Fair enough," Vendor shrugs, before straightening up. "Alright, it's done now. Stay still for the next nine seconds, or you'll have to swim back."
Nine seconds later, there is a flash of light, and New Orleans falls silent.
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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
What a worthless chapter, didn't even wanna do this but then I did. Mostly just cuz I felt pressured about falling behind in my writing and wanted to pump out a chapter.
At least I had some fun, heh heh heh >:)
Endbringer fights always have high casualty counts after all, it's only natural that a lot of those who show up would die, right? >:D
Also, credit to my dad for helping me pick where the Endbringer would attack :)