Chapter 32:
– Missy –
Ow… Duh fuck happened?
Missy's ears were ringing so loud it felt like her whole skull was vibrating.
She tried to force herself up, only to be hit with a wave of dizziness that made her stomach twist. Everything was blurry—colors bleeding at the edges, the ceiling above her spinning slowly. Alarms were blaring in every direction, the sharp wail of klaxons mixing with the frantic crackle of gunfire and the distant, terrified screams of people too.
Suddenly, strong female hands grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her hard. Her head whipped forward and she groaned, blinking at the blurry shape in front of her.
"Wake the fuck up, Pipsqueak, or we're all gonna fucking die. The Rig is under attack by almost every villain in the fucking Bay!" Sophia—Shadow Stalker in full costume except for her face mask—snarled in her ear. She looked wild and pissed, her eyes darting around like she expected something to jump them at any second.
"Thuh Rig's under att— wh'n the h-h'll did thad happen?" Missy mumbled, her words slurring as she tried to focus. Her tongue felt thick, her lips numb.
Sophia shot a worried glance over her shoulder, then grunted, "Fuck, I think she's got a concussion!"
Missy blinked, trying to focus as the world tilted. Through the haze, she made out two other figures—Vicky and Amy Dallon, both looking tense and bruised, faces smeared with dirt.
Amy ran over, kneeling down beside her and pressing a cool, steady hand against Missy's forehead. "Hang on, Missy. I got you," Amy said, dropping to her knees and placing a cool palm firmly against Missy's forehead.
Sophia snorted at Amy. "Since when do you do brain injuries, Dallon? You always tell everyone you can't!"
Amy didn't even look up. "Yeah, well, I fucking lied! Or maybe I just changed my mind. Shut up and let me work!"
As Amy's power surged, Missy felt the pain and confusion slowly drain away, her vision sharpening, the ringing in her ears fading until the sounds of chaos around her were crisp and clear again.
For the first time since waking up, she could actually breathe.
A wave of power slammed back into Missy, clearing her head in an instant. It was the Force surging alongside her parahuman senses. Suddenly, she wasn't just in her small body—she was everywhere.
She gasped, the pain and fog draining from her mind. Amy's hand was still pressed to her forehead, warmth pulsing between them. "There you go, Missy. How's your head now?"
Missy blinked. Her vision had snapped back into perfect clarity, but what she saw and felt made her blood run cold.
"There's fighting everywhere," she croaked, staring through Amy and into the Rig itself. "I can feel them… dying. PRT agents, guards, techs—they're getting gunned down. The ABB and Empire are everywhere. They're—fuck—they're slaughtering people."
Sophia's jaw set in grim determination. "Then let's get moving before we're next! We're not just sitting around waiting for some ABB psycho to find us. A bunch of them have fucking Tinkertech bombs! That's what almost killed you pipsqueak! They somehow snuck bombs all over the Rig and waited til the fucking Endbringer showed up to set them off!"
"Can you stand?" Vicky asked softly, her voice cracking. "We need you, Missy. We need everyone we've got."
Missy gritted her teeth, pushing herself upright with Amy's steadying hand on her back. Her legs felt like jelly for a second, but she forced herself to stand, brushing the dust from her knees. She drew in a shuddering breath, forcing the horror and fear down deep.
"We need to regroup with the others," Missy said, her tone turning all business as the urgency of the situation took over. "Sophia, lead the way. Vicky, you're with Amy—shield her if you need to. I'll bend the halls as soon as we know where the worst fighting is. Let's move."
Missy hated the fact that she couldn't just crush all the villains with her powers like she did with the droids. That was the kind of shit that got capes birdcaged though...
"Finally. Let's go kill some bastards!" Sophia declared. Sophia suddenly cursed, her voice sharp with frustration as she dug through the gear slung across her back. "Fuck. My crossbow's broken—again! Piece of shit," she spat, yanking it free and glaring down at it as if sheer will could fix the shattered mechanism.
Vicky leaned in, brushing sweaty blonde hair off her forehead. "Hey, you can use my weapon," she offered as she unclipped something heavy from her belt. "Honestly, I haven't practiced with it much anyway."
Sophia's eyes narrowed suspiciously as she took the blaster from Vicky. She turned it over in her hands, her expression morphing from skepticism to outright shock. "Where the fuck did you get this?" Sophia demanded, her voice cracking as she recognized the weapon. "This is a fucking DL-44! Is this real?"
Ah, so Sophia was a Star Wars fan as well…
Vicky grinned, preening just a little despite the situation. "Silas gave it to me," she declared proudly. "He obviously likes me better than some edgelord hero dark knight knockoff like you."
Sophia bristled, her grip tightening dangerously on the blaster. For a split second, it looked like she might just swing it at Vicky instead of the enemy. "Keep talking, Barbie, and see how long you keep your teeth," she growled.
Missy's voice cutting sharp through the building tension. "Both of you, shut up. Save it for the assholes trying to kill us." The air vibrated around her as she glared at them.
Sophia blinked, surprised into silence. Vicky shot Missy a look, half impressed and half wary. "Damn, the Pipsqueak is scary when she gets mad," she muttered under her breath.
Amy rolled her eyes and stood up, dusting off her knees. "Let's go already. You want to fight Nazis, or argue like middle schoolers?"
Missy closed her eyes for a split second, letting her senses stretch out through the twisted halls of the Rig. The screams and gunshots weren't just noise—they were points of agony, each one tethered to someone she knew. She could feel the Ward team scattered and in danger, each of them fighting their own desperate battles.
Her heart lurched as she focused in on Kid Win. He was slumped behind an overturned table in one of the engineering labs, blood pooling under his shoulder. A stray bullet had torn straight through his arm, leaving his tinkertech weapon useless on the ground beside him. He was trying to patch himself up with trembling fingers, but every new burst of gunfire made him flinch and duck lower.
Not far away, Aegis was going toe-to-toe with some crazy ABB bomb lady. Missy felt the ripple of Aegis's powers as he threw himself in front of the woman's explosive, shielding a pair of panicked PRT techs as the blast rocked the hallway. He was up again in an instant, blood running down his face, but he kept fighting—slamming her into a wall, refusing to let her get to the labs.
"Kid Win's hurt!" Missy barked, opening her eyes. "He's in the lower labs—he got shot. And Aegis is fighting some ABB tinker, she's got bombs everywhere. They're both pinned down."
Sophia swore under her breath. "That fucking kid is gonna get himself killed…"
"And Gallant—he's with Assault and Battery, but Lung's down there too," Missy continued. She could sense as Lung toyed with the heroes—dodging their attacks, his body already growing taller and bulkier as his powers ramped up. Gallant was clutching his side, his armor dented and sparking. Missy's jaw clenched as she cast her senses deeper into the chaos of the Rig. Her gut twisted. "Kaiser and Krieg—they're heading for the cell block! They're going to try to free Iron Rain! Maybe Oni Lee too if they teamed up with Lung!"
Sophia's eyes narrowed, rage flaring in her expression. She gripped the blaster tight, her knuckles turning white. "Over my fucking dead body that Nazi cunt is getting out," she growled. "New plan. I'm gonna go shoot Iron Rain and Oni Lee in the head before they get free." Without waiting for permission, Sophia stalked toward the wall.
"Wait—Sophia, you can't just decide to execute prisoners!" Missy shouted, reaching out, but Shadow Stalker had already vanished, slipping through solid concrete like a bad idea.
"Fuck!" Missy cursed, balling her fists in frustration.
"Young girls shouldn't swear like that, Missy," Vicky teased despite the situation.
Missy didn't even look at her, just flipped her the bird without breaking stride.
A shout echoed down the hallway. Two gang members in Empire colors rounded the corner, guns up. Missy had been too distracted to sense them!
That's when Amy stepped in front of her, eyes blazing. She thrust out a hand and, to Missy's utter shock, a stream of fire erupted from her palm—jetting down the hall and engulfing the men in a wave of brutal, screaming agony. The stench of burned flesh filled the air as the thugs collapsed.
Missy stared, wide-eyed. "Since when the hell could you do that?"
Amy flashed a wicked, smug little smile. "Since I met Silas," she replied, voice dripping with pride.
Missy scowled, not bothering to hide her annoyance. She hated being only 12! All these older pretty girls were throwing themselves at Silas! Missy already knew she never had a shot with him due to the age gap, which was why she now decided he would be her big brother!
And as the little sister, she needed to put these thirsty bitches in their places!
But later, unfortunately...
Missy grumbled under her breath, but forced herself back to business. She swept her senses over the Rig again. Who the fuck was that she was seeing this time? Fuck there really were villains fucking everywhere!
"We need to get to Director Piggott! Someone's closing in on her office—someone…weirdly dressed. Is that Coil? I've never even seen him in person. Just heard the rumors." Missy held her hand up and her lightsaber immediately appeared in her palm. It snapped on with a hiss, the green blade glowing.
"So cool…" Vicky mumbled. The older blonde girl almost reached out to touch it before remembering it was a lightsaber. Do not touch.
"We have to hurry!" Missy took off down the hallways with Vicky and Amy Dallon chasing behind her. There were so many people to save and so little time! But she was a fucking hero and would pull it off. Just like Silas would if he was here instead of fighting an Endbringer!
– Silas –
The Simurgh was down, and the air exploded with wild shouts!
"Hell yeah!"
"Get rekt bitch!"
"Let's fucking get her!" someone yelled, and just like that, a couple of reckless heroes and villains lost their damn minds.
They surged past me and Alexandria, feet pounding over cracked pavement and shattered glass. The dust hadn't even settled yet from my shout—the one that ripped that winged bitch right out of the sky—but the crowd didn't care.
They were ready to dogpile the Endbringer like it was just another cape brawl.
Alexandria stuck out a gloved arm, trying to stop the mob. "Wait! Don't be idiots! A fall from that height isn't enough to put her down—not even with a power boost. You need to—"
But nobody listened. They rushed straight into the swirling smoke and debris, weapons drawn, powers crackling. I watched them vanish into the haze, feeling that icy knot of dread twist in my gut.
And then the screaming started.
Horrific, soul-tearing screams. "Oh fuck! Jesus! No—mommy!" one of them howled, voice shattering as the sound of wet meat and breaking bone echoed through the ruined street. I winced, every instinct screaming at me not to move forward, not to look—but I forced myself to stand firm beside Alexandria.
The dust cleared in a sudden gust of wind. The Simurgh stood there, wings flared wide, blood dripping from her hands in thick red rivulets. Shredded bodies were scattered around her, limbs twisted, faces frozen in terror. She didn't look angelic now. She looked like something from a nightmare—her eyes wild and savage, her lips pulled back from her teeth as she flared those massive wings.
Alexandria's voice trembled a bit. "I've… I've never seen the Simurgh fight with her bare hands before..."
It was a horrifying sight, but as I stared at the carnage, something clicked in my head. Maybe… that's all she has, I thought, my voice hoarse as I turned to Alexandria.
"Maybe that's it. All she can do now is fight with her hands. My shout—it took away her telekinesis."
Alexandria stiffened, her entire posture sharpening as she processed my words. I couldn't see her expression under the helmet, but the way her gloved fists flexed again and again told me she was thinking the same thing.
And then—damn, I could just feel it—she was smiling behind that mask. She let out a low, wild laugh. "HeheheheHAHAHAHA! Then what the fuck am I afraid of?!"
Before I could say anything else, Alexandria exploded forward—blitzing the Simurgh faster than my eyes could track. It was a blur of black and white as she crossed the distance in less than a heartbeat, the ground cracking beneath her boots. The Simurgh raised her blood-soaked hand, trying to summon debris or send a telekinetic wave—her usual trick for stopping any would-be challenger.
But nothing happened. She just stood there, bare and furious and suddenly… vulnerable.
Alexandria hit her like a freight train, slamming the Endbringer straight through a half-collapsed wall. The impact boomed through the city, sending up another cloud of dust and concrete. For the first time, the Simurgh was on the defensive—scrambling back, forced to meet Alexandria fist to fist.
I barely had a second to take in Alexandria smashing the Simurgh through a wall before two more titans joined the fray. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a burst of color and energy as Legend and Eidolon streaked across the square, closing in on the battle at insane speed.
Legend was already lighting up the sky, cutting loose with those fuck-off powerful lasers of his. Beams of blue and white energy scorched the air, slamming into the Simurgh with the kind of force that would have vaporized just about anything else.
Eidolon arrived half a heartbeat later. I couldn't even keep track of what powers he was using—they changed every second. One instant, a barrage of crackling lightning, the next, gravity waves so intense they made the street buckle and sag beneath the Endbringer's feet. Then he hurled some kind of invisible force, hammering the Simurgh back with a noise like a freight train hitting a mountain.
The Simurgh was forced to her knees, wings flaring wide as she screeched in rage, her hands lashing out blindly. She tried again and again to reach for her usual arsenal—flinging chunks of metal, uprooting cars, battering us with psychic howls—but nothing happened.
My shout had stripped her powers bare, and now she was fighting for her life.
I think…
Alexandria didn't let up for a second. She and Eidolon were a whirlwind of fists, energy, and fury. Legend's lasers seared any opening they found, keeping the Endbringer on the defensive.
More and more heroes and villains were joining the fighting by the second. Running, flying, even teleporting right past where I stood to throw themselves into the fray against the Simurgh.
Unlike that first group of dumbasses, these capes actually kept their distance, darting in for hit-and-run attacks and not taking unnecessary risks. Even stripped of her telekinesis, the Simurgh was still an Endbringer—a nightmare on two legs, and very angry.
I saw her unfortunately shred another hero with her wings who got too cocky.
Despite that, I could see it now. She was starting to take real damage. Each time a power slammed into her, or a laser from Legend scored a burning line across her beautiful but utterly fake body.
Miss Militia suddenly came running up to my side, clutching a monster of an anti-tank rifle. She had a wild grin in her eyes. "That is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, Silas," she said, almost reverently, as she dropped flat to the ground and leveled the weapon. "You actually ripped her from the sky! Now I have a clear shot!"
I had to smile. "Remind me never to piss you off."
She just grinned wider. "Cover your ears and open your mouth!"
I clamped my hands over my ears just as she squeezed the trigger. The rifle thundered—an earth-shaking roar that felt like it rattled my bones. The round smashed into the Simurgh's face. She reeled back, a chunk of her porcelain mask cracked and bleeding something that didn't look like any blood I'd ever seen.
My ears were ringing so loud I barely heard myself say, "Did she lose her damn future sight too?" It seemed like she was failing to dodge almost everything.
But then the Simurgh threw her head back and let out a scream that sounded like metal ripping and a hundred radios blaring static all at once!
The sound made my skin crawl and my stomach lurch.
Miss Militia swore under her breath, low and fierce. "Oh fuck... that's not good," she muttered, glancing up and around as heroes and villains alike hesitated at what we were seeing. "...What do we do against this..." Miss Militia stood up and started shaking slightly as she looked around.
THEY were everywhere…
I gulped before speaking. "Can I borrow a quarter?"
– Simurgh –
The Simurgh—conflict engine, orchestrator of her siblings and of despair—was furious!
Humiliated.
She was supposed to descend on the capital of Australia and crack it open, unleashing her song to shatter human minds and fill the world with panic and death. She would sow madness and chaos, as she had done so many times before. That was her purpose, her art.
But this time, she arrived to find only empty streets and hollow towers—her prey vanished, leaving behind only the so-called heroes, standing ready and waiting to face her.
How?
They should have been here—cowering, unprepared, ready to be drowned in insanity. Instead, they'd been warned. They had escaped her grasp. And now, all she could do was slaughter these few heroes—far more than usual, she promised herself, just for revenge.
She knew she couldn't kill every last one of them—unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to...
This must have been the work of the anomaly. But which of these heroes or villains was it!? Who had found a way around her precognition powers?
And then her focus sharpened as she glanced down from the sky. To a lone figure in a black costume stepping forward beside Alexandria. Her awareness flickered through countless hours of human surveillance, cataloging cape names and faces, and she recognized that silhouette instantly.
Dragonborn.
Silas Thorn!
The new Ward from Brockton Bay. Her advanced mind reeled. Was it him? Was this young upstart—the anomaly—truly the one she'd been searching for? The source of her discomfort, the reason her future sight had been tangled and blind?
He had to be the reason for her predicament.
The Simurgh's focus zeroed in on the hero in black—the so-called Dragonborn, Silas Thorn—and her hatred sharpened. She would relish driving him mad for revenge, ripping his mind apart note by note with her song.
That was always her favorite retribution, to turn her pathetic enemies' own thoughts against them.
But just as she was about to unleash her madness—her true voice—he SHOUTED.
"JOOR ZAH FRUL!"
The sound rolled over the city, so powerful that even her perception of reality seemed to twist.
And then the unthinkable—almost all her power was simply gone. She plummeted from the sky, crashing to the earth like a fallen angel. Suddenly, she was forced to fight on the same level as these human insects—reduced to flailing, to claws and teeth and battered wings.
And she was losing.
Every punch, every blast, every burning line of power and laser—they landed harder than they should. Her skin, which was supposed to be stronger than anything these mortals could damage, now gave way, splitting and tearing.
It was like she herself had become—mortal.
She could feel her core suffer a few close calls, it was currently darting through her fake body just ahead of their attacks, but she was running out of tricks to avoid fatal damage.
She refused to die to these insects!
Worse, she couldn't escape. Because she couldn't fly away! She could see victory glimmering in their eyes. For the first time in her existence, she faced the possibility of real, permanent defeat.
No... Never!
She would not die here, not to these humans. She decided to use a power she had never revealed before. Something that would make these humans realize she was far more powerful and dangerous than they ever believed her to be!
Reality shimmered and bent as she fractured herself—splitting one perfect form into a hundred. Clones, each identical, each moving with the same lethal grace and fury. They weren't as durable as her true self, but there were so many. Enough to overwhelm, enough to slaughter all of these fools that thought they could kill her!
Across the battlefield, a hundred Simurghs spread their wings and screamed—not a psychic scream unfortunately, because that power was still locked away. But she enjoyed the looks of terror on the heroes and villains faces all the same as they witnessed despair!
But then...
There were multiple sharp sonic booms—so many that even Simurgh's mind almost missed the source.
A projectile, almost too tiny to track, came screaming across the battlefield at terrifying speed. It struck the chest of one of her clones, tearing a gaping hole straight through its body before splitting the clone clean in half. The two pieces dropped to the ground, dead before they even knew what hit them.
The projectile continued on, as if the clone hadn't even existed, smashing through a row of buildings until it vanished in the distance.
Simurgh's eyes widened in genuine shock.
Was that…a quarter?
Had a piece of worthless human currency just killed one of her own?
She whipped her head to the anomaly—Dragonborn, Silas—who was lowering his arm, electricity arcing wildly around his hand. Did he just turn himself into a railgun?
The Simurgh watched with growing alarm as Miss Militia pressed another quarter into Silas's palm.
"Holy fucking shit! Do that again, Dragonborn!"
The Simurgh gaped.
The mood in the battlefield shifted instantly. Where there had been despair and terror only a second ago, now heroes and villains were whooping and cheering. Did they really not care they were still surrounded by ninety-nine of her? Or had that single act—turning pocket change into a weapon—shattered their fear?
Did they all go crazy without her even needing to sing?
"No more games," Simurgh hissed through every throat at once. "You are not supposed to believe. You are supposed to break!"
A voice rang out from the crowd of heroes and villains. "Holy shit, she can't talk!"
"The Endbringers are sentient after all!"
Before Simurgh could even react, there was another crack of thunder—another sonic boom—and a second quarter ripped through another one of her clones, annihilating it on the spot. The cheering grew louder, echoing off shattered buildings.
"Who cares if she can talk!" Alexandria bellowed. "Cover Dragonborn so he can keep killing these fucking clones one by one! And then this winged bitch dies too!"
Simurgh seethed with pure rage. Every single one of her clones locked their gaze on Silas Thorn—targeting him, focusing their hate, ready to tear him apart. She would kill him first.
But BOOM!
Another clone was instantly vaporized by a quarter before it could even take a step. The rest charged him, shrieking in fury!
Ninety-eight clones surged toward Silas Thorn as Miss Militia crouched at his side, pulling quarters from her pouch and slapping them into his hand one after another. She actually started laughing—"I don't usually use my powers for pocket change, but there's a first time for everything!"—and the sound was picked up by others. Heroes and villains started shouting, hooting, cheering, as if this was just a game.
The Simurgh's fury blazed—how dare they laugh at her, even now?
Her clones kept coming, determined to swarm the anomaly and tear him apart, but the other capes weren't just watching. Armsmaster swept through the battlefield and pushed back multiple clones at once with the help of Dragon.
Alexandria launched herself into their ranks, fists moving faster than sound.
Eidolon unleashed a storm of shifting powers, while Legend's lasers burned through many sets of white wings.
Narwhal sent crystal blades slicing through the air to stop even more clones from reaching that damn anomaly.
Dozens more capes—villain and hero alike—charged her clones, stalling them, breaking their lines, buying precious seconds for Silas and Miss Militia to keep dropping her numbers every second!
All around her, Simurgh's senses were assaulted by the growing sound of laughter and mockery. Heroes and villains who should have been cowering in fear or driven mad by her presence were openly jeering, calling out insults and taunts with glee.
"Hey Simurgh! Not so scary without your song, huh?"
"Come get us, bird-brain!"
"Maybe next time you'll pick on someone your own size!"
"For an Endbringer, you're awfully fragile today!"
"Quantity doesn't equal quality after all!"
The sound of their scorn boiled inside Simurgh, fueling her rage, making her want to tear them apart piece by piece. Her clones screamed in unison, but the heroes and villains only cheered louder. Simurgh raged and spoke in every one of her clone's throats. "You will all not laugh at me when you are dead!"
XXX
…She mad…
And yeah, the villains in the Bay broke the endbringer truce and are attacking while all the strongest heroes are away.