peterverse | pretoria, meet behemoth

mxglam posting in

Glam talks to Armsmaster about the possibility of maybe being given access to confidential files on the Slaughterhouse Nine and is, somewhat predictably, completely shut down, on grounds that the rules are there for a reason. They try sharing their strategies, Armsmaster thanks them for it and assures them he'll look into the raised matter, but they still need to wait until they're a full member of the Protectorate to take advantage of these resources.

And is that supposed to make them more likely to want to stick around? Ugh.

The three following weeks are fairly quiet and peaceful for a change. No major engagements, the Empire Eighty-Eight has been keeping quiet, the various Asian gangs reduced once more to fighting each other, the Teeth haven't yet rebuilt. Blasto, Lung, and Oni Lee are still awaiting trial, though it's likely the tinker will be given a lighter sentence in some parahuman containment center while the other two will be sent to the Birdcage.

And then, somewhat earlier than would normally be expected, telltale seismic activity is registered in Pretoria, South Africa. The capes wishing to help must make their way to New York, to depart in an hour - small aircraft is waiting at the PHQ for the trip there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

thinkering

The bot relays its prediction across the comms.

From:

acanofworms

The capes get ready to attack the appropriate place, most of them somewhat far from it to reduce the risk associated with being caught by Behemoth's kill aura. An earthquake happens, strong enough to topple a building, Behemoth emerges-

-five hundred feet from the predicted location, amidst the thickest cluster of people. Some twenty capes are incinerated from within, and another thirty are variously injured by this sudden appearance.

And the Triumvirate are on him.

From:

thinkering

And the bot with the Siberian goes to drop her on the monster and Lorica resumes narrating about what's going to happen.

From:

acanofworms

The Triumvirate cooperate with the Siberian. Well, actually, Eidolon and Alexandria do - Legend seems to be suspiciously absent whenever she's close to the Endbringer.

From:

thinkering

(In the background, bots operate the ray gun. Glam is totally here and doing the ray gun thing.)

From:

acanofworms

Behemoth's strategy when it comes to the Siberian seems to be "leap a lot." That may be causing much more damage than his usual strategy of standing around lobbing balls of stuff, incinerating things, and melting people within range.

From:

thinkering

The Siberian should aim to make leaping ineffective by being thoroughly attached to Behemoth. Maybe take his other arm off. Yes, do that and then try burrowing again.

From:

acanofworms

His other arm is regenerating very fast, and a skeleton of it is already visible, the black ichor leaking from his arm covering the full process of recovery from view. He uses that arm's half-formed claws to try to slice the piece of the other arm where the Siberian is standing off and throw her away, but she's already expecting it and merely digs through the claw and continues tearing at his other arm.

He manages to get rid of her again and burrows once more. This time his path is very easy to predict, as he starts causing explosions and small volcanic eruptions along his way across the city.

From:

thinkering

A bot carries the Siberian where he's heading again. Usually he leaves when he's been hit hard enough, the fuck's he doing. Lorica stays in the air.

From:

acanofworms

Escalating, is what he's apparently doing. If the bots are keeping track of casualties, they might notice capes are pushing a 60% mortality rate on this fight. His attacks seem more targeted and the main defenses are crumbling under his pressure.

And then he emerges again, and the Siberian's on him, and off with his arm, and off with one of his leg, and he falls much more heavily than a thing his size and mass ought to fall.

From:

thinkering

Well, you don't stop hitting an Endbringer just because people are dying. Go Siberian Go.

From:

acanofworms

Now that he's down, the Siberian can actually turn him into a paper weight, completely limbless (even if for less than thirty seconds given his regeneration rate near the core), and he starts demonstrating his ability to cause damage without limbs. He can create lightning out of anywhere, apparently, using his claw was only for show, and the hundred-feet limit to his kill aura was apparently an entirely self-inflicted limitation, as its radius starts expanding. The Siberian continues tearing through him, and he continues causing more damage than he ever has, demonstrating gravity-manipulating powers no one ever suspected him of having and dropping capes around him like flies.

From:

thinkering

The bot suggests over the comms that it might be expedient to have the Siberian solo him at this point unless people who are sure they're categorically immune to everything he can pull out want to close.

From:

acanofworms

Radio silence. The Endbringer fried all electronics around, much farther than he usually does, and has started glowing ominously while the Siberian continues clawing his flesh off, covered head to toe in his ichor, shrugging off the fire and radiation and everything he tries to throw at her.

From:

thinkering

Lorica murmurs and murmurs and murmurs about what the Siberian is going to do. She is going to disintegrate him faster. She's going to keep up and then some with his regen. She's going to kill him.

From:

acanofworms

He's glowing enough for it to hurt, now, even at this distance. The Siberian continues to hack and slash at his dwindling skeleton, and capes starts running for cover. Various forcefields appear, Eidolon creates one around the largest cluster of people-

-Scion appears-

-a second too late, as the Endbringer goes off in a mushroom cloud detonation, consuming everything in a rapidly expanding radius-

-not rapid enough for Scion to fail to contain it then, the blinding glow of the explosion being reduced to stillness, the sonic boom reduced to silence, the radiation quickly decaying.

And even with Scion's help, a crater centered where Behemoth was, a swath of emptiness and desolation, with smears where people who didn't get cover fast enough had been standing, and the Siberian right in the middle.

Scion looks at her, and she disappears. He flies away.

From:

thinkering

- Lorica decides that this is the right moment to wake Glam up. Up you get, Glam, ten nine eight seven six five four three two one.

From:

mxglam

Glam wakes up and blinks, slowly. They look around, and the first thing they see is the place where Pretoria used to be, in the distance. "What- what happened?"

From:

thinkering

"You killed Behemoth. He exploded really fucking dramatically."

From:

mxglam

"Oh."

...they don't look super thrilled about it, watching the cleared battleground where the surviving capes are celebrating.

From:

thinkering

" - he escalated a lot, first, this looks super bad for a given attacked city, but it's one city and not a dozen more he'll hit, he's, you know, exploded."

From:

mxglam

"Okay."

From:

thinkering

"Are - are you okay?" Hug.

From:

mxglam

"I- not really? I wasn't expecting to- I mean, the first thing I wake up to is- it doesn't look like victory, so maybe I'm a bit in shock. Because what I see is one of the worst days of fight against Behemoth and, what was even the casualty rate?"