A new chapter has come! Hopefully it won't be a year until the next chapter.

11.1 (The_One_Butcher)

Emma couldn't comprehend it. Only yesterday Taylor was bleeding, screaming, covered in filth and shaking uncontrollably. Today she jumped out of her family's Car with a huge smile, hugged her hard enough she felt something snap and whirled her around laughing and chanting "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Emma was dropped and immediately crumbled.

"Wha," she wheezed, in tremendous pain from that hug, "What for?"

"Well, stuffing me into that locker of course!" Taylor laughed.

"Hey, don't forget your bag!" Came a voice Emma thought she'd never hear again.

"Sure Mom, just needed to hug Emma first." Taylor laughed again and ran back to fetch it.

Just then a shadow fell on Emma's form. Looking up she saw none other than Eidolon looming over her. "Yes. I can easily identify all the perpetrators and my word will hold up in court. Now, if you would..."

"Sure," Taylor came back, closed her eyes, put her Hands into her pockets and went quiet for a minute, muttering softly. Everyone assembled, wanting to see the most famous of all capes and wondering why he stared at that one loner girl.

After two minutes she redrew her hands, which were now glowing with light, raised them into the air and intoned:"The hero named Hero, killed by the Villain named Siberian." And brought them together. Her whole body was bathed in a golden glow as slowly, surely a sliver of white formed between her hands.

A minute later it was a skull.

A spine grew.

Ribcage, arms and legs.

Flesh began to fill the form, skin growing over it...

And then Taylor shouted:"True Ressurrection."

With a mighty gasp the man began to draw Breath again. At a nod from Taylor Eidolon rushed forward and clothed him in a summoned rubber suit.

"Whaa... What happened."

"I'll leave him to you. Tomorrow I've got that Richter guy for Dragon, after that another Tinker, they have priority, because they'll need the prep time, but then I should be able to do Ramrod."

With that Taylor whistled a happy tune and strolled into the school. She had to Multiclass, starting out as a lvl 1 Rogue, but who cared about that?

11.2 (The_One_Butcher)

"Fighter Jets..."

"Yes," she answered, "Fighter Jets."

He opened his mouth, stopped before he could say anything, closed it, tilted his head to the right, then considered again. Then finally he said: "Definitely doable."

Taylor grinned and let Colin go to work.

"Oh yeah?" Jack Slash was so easy to goad into the right setups when you had the cooperation of your shard, "You and what Army?"

There was a series of booms and one of Bonesaw's Spiderbots began to smoke and lean, before twitching and sagging into itself. Immediately the Siberian put her hands on Jack and Bonesaw. Jack meanwhile looked bemusedly at the brigade of matchbox sized tanks.

"You think you're safe with your little pet tiger, don't you Jack?" There was series of bangs two streets over and the Siberian popped out of existence. Jack made a hand sign and Mannequin burst forward, only for a volley of tiny rockets to punch through his armor.

"Think again." Taylor stated, barely heard over a series of crackling sonic booms as tiny jetplanes swooped overhead and turned, returning to base for their next deadly payload.

Bonesaw pulled something from her apron, only to be pelted with countless Napalm bombs from equally many small Bombers.

Jack stared slack jawed at Skitter, even as several four inch gunships took position left and right of her head. "Come my pretties, today... The Ants go to war!"

"This," Taylor began gesturing to the twelve storey high mecha, "is an Aeon Illuminate Armored Command Unit, not just a Battlesuit, no, it's a War suit, it's Engineering Suite able to spawn a whole Army, Navy and Airforce, complete with bases, firebases, infrastructure, point defenses, missile and anti-missle bases, up to and including strategic Nuclear Missiles and defense systems."

"Wow," was all Colin could contribute while going over the data from the Engineering Suite, "This stuff is amazing. Several paradigm shifts over Tinker Tech, my baseline shard would have drawn a complete blank."

"I know, I showed some of it to Armsmaster, he was convinced it wasn't technology, but rather something like Dauntless."

"That would be a sound theory if we didn't know where it came from. The Entities would kill for this stuff." He frowned. "Figuratively. It's not like they don't kill for much less."

"But, you can miniaturize it?" Taylor asked coyly.

Colin looked into Taylor's eyes, tilted his head and pulled his pocket Dragon from his Pocket. "Tess, this is the "Just run." face, isn't it?" he asked her.

"Just run." Dragon confirmed.

He ran.

11.3 (The_One_Butcher)

The blade I gave Tess wasn't just a lightsaber, it was an Applebloom-grade foam-excitator that would turn anything approaching it's Tectonium blade into a cool plasma, without introducing energy. As soon as the stuff left the field around it, it would turn back into it's regular state and temperature, barring chemical energy released in the mean time, just scrambled at an atomic level.

Thus, in air, which would just collapse back into O2 and N2 with only trace amounts of NO and NO2 it looked like a completely ordinary sword. Also, after her suit was thrashed the T-1000 that climbed out of it and tossed it's mask down in front of the hesitating Endbringer looked like a completely normal woman.

"Hello," she said calmly, her voice carried across the armbands to the assembled heroes, whom I subtly arranged into a semicircle around the pair, "my name is Tess Theresa Richter. You killed my father, prepare to die."

11.4 (The_One_Butcher)

"EIIIIIIDOOOOOLOOOOOON!"

I should have known when the Endbringers all looked as human as the Simurgh.

"NO BAKAAAAA!" Leviathan slammed into the Hero, pushing him into his own gravity field, making him slam down next to Echidna with a mighty WHACK!

"Even though you have us you're running after this other hussy and pay attention to her instead of me, not that you should pay any attention to me, because you're JUST A STUPID JERK AND I HATE YOU!" the gravity field let up, but Eidolon was lifted in the pseudo-girl's webbed claws and held at face level with her, "Don't get any stupid ideas! I'm not jealous or anything, I don't like you at all! I just don't want you to embarrass yourself any further in front of this hussy, I mean, poor girl who has to stand your clumsy advances. Aren't I a good friend AND JUST A FRIEND THERE ISN'T ANYTHING MORE BETWEEN US! Al- al- although, i-i-if you re-re-really want to... I-I- I could b- b- b- there could be m- m- more if you re-really want to I mean, I don't like you at all, but as I'm such a good friend and no other eldritch horror would take you anyway I- I- I could find it in myself to take pity on the poor little Eido-"

Which was when a firy fist burst from the ground and impacted Leviathan. "GET AWAY FROM EIDOLON SEMPAI YOU TARTED UP SNAKE!"

The loli that jumped from a gout of lava grabbed the hapless superhero and pressed it to it's nonexistent chest... that was covered in Napalm. Why did Behemoth need Napalm? "I am going to be Eido-sempai's bride and nobody else!" she declared defiantly. For a forty five foot death machine she was dangerously cute. How the heck did anyone come up with the idea to call her Behemoth?

"You little breastless brat! You're no good match for Eido-kun! No-not that I want him myself or anything!" Leviathan countered. Wait, where was the water echo?

"Oh, now you've got it, you wet-behind the ears cow, I'll-"

"EXCUSE ME!" the Mother of Monsters interrupted, "We were kinda in the middle of something."

"Oh, shut up!" Behecchan rebuked her, "You're not even from beyond space and time. You're from Earth Aleph, that's basically next door, unless myself, who's a fathomless horror from the depths of space, more ancient than your star!" Biting Regent with a bullet ant confirmed that the Endbringers weren't under his control.

...

I'd have to apologize for that later.

Noelle was on a roll. "You don't look like you're an alien. You look like a badly designed Video game monster. From a very lonely designer with very illegal tastes." I don't know if it was fatalistic courage or suicidal tendencies. Probably both.

"YOUUUUU!" Behecchan threw Eidolon on the ground in a huff and puffed her cheeks and advanced upon Noelle immolating the frozen-in-shock clones... somehow, that wasn't what the Kill aura usually looked. In fact the smell of ANFO was in the air.

"Shut up, you're just a little bug who hasn't even killed a million people yet. You haven't even killed twenty, you sorry excuse for a fake Eldritch Horror!"

In the meantime Levicchan had finished her convoluted assurance that she was in no way in love with Eidolon and joined the fray, trading insults with the other two monster girls. Mayflies meanwhile found a thin seam made of plastic on the small of Leviathan's back. A quick check found a similar seam on Behecchan, like something cut a circular section out of her and glued it back in. The plot thickened.

My Bugs on Eidolon died as he used some kind of strange pyrokinesis to project purple flames around himself that seemed made to make him look very very angry and made ready to interrupt, demanding an explanation from the suddenly talkative Endbringers... Only for him to trip on a banana peel and vanish into an open sewer. Tattletale made a strangled gurgling noise.

He didn't reemerge.

He killed my bugs on him seconds before vanishing and I couldn't find him.

"WHERE'S EIDO-SEMPAI!"

"WHERE'S EIDOLON NO BAKA!"

In the face of two angry Endbringers Tattletale ground out "Simurgh took him." before collapsing back to the street.

The two Endbringers glanced at one another. Then at the banana peel where Eidolon was standing seconds ago. In synch they shouted: "SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!" and were off.

11.5 (Rex)

Jack snapped to awareness as the figure at the end of his bed shifted. The bug girl, Skittter. What was she doing so far from Brockton Bay?

"Where is Bonesaw?" Ah, so she was the same as him after all. How exquisite.

"She was being a naughty girl, so I gave her a bit of a spanking. I think her ashes might have hit Kansas by now." None of that clone nonsense, thank you.

"Then she wasn't the deviation. What a waste of a trip." Skitter turned to leave, not sparing him another thought. "Also, Bees." Well, just the one thought.

Still Jack thought as he was devoured, how rude.

"You're doing it again. Wandering off for no reason."

"Repetition and boredom are my bane."

Her eyes narrowed beneath her suit.
He struck before she could this time.

She'd still managed a mutual kill. How troublesome. Well this time he'd eliminate the problem before she became one.

"Who gave you the idea to kill me?"

Jack sighed. She had used a body double and managed to sneak up on him. How embarrassing.

"Well, a bit of payback seemed approptiate." He turned to face her, deliberately lounging. It's not like he would stay dead even if she managed to get the upper hand again.

"We've never met."

"We both know that's not true." It would be a fun game to play along, but he wasn't in the mood.

Shock, confusion, anger. She practically vibrated with these emotions. It was delicious.

"Tell me, Taylor, what's so special about us that we get to keep coming around?"

"Bees."

Jack died. But he did it with a smile on his face.

"So apparently you're going to keep looping." She's pouting, that's hilarious.

"Is that what they're calling it these days?" He can tell she wants to kill him, but the trouble of picking up this conversation on the next repeat is stopping her.

"Yes. You die, you wake up again in a later loop. I die, loop resets."

"How fascinating." She was at the center of this. Which made breaking her even more fun than it already would have been. "Have you considered joining the slaughterhouse nine?"

"Not in the last six centuries."

What? Just how much had he missed?

"Also, bees."

He was getting tired of dying like this.

"I do hope you enjoy my presents"

"Meh, it's been done."

"I've had Bonesaw sew all of your friends together into a still thinking Frankensteinesque supercape slave and your only response is a shrug?"

"Like I said, it's been done. Also, Bees."

Taylor walked into her house to see her Father splayed across the living room. Still alive and clearly in terrible pain. She politely took her shoes off and gingerly stepped over her Father's exposed nerves as she made her way to the kitchen.

"Nothing?"

"It's been done. By you and by me." Taylor bent over and began rummaging through her fridge, completely ignoring the four members of the most feared gang in the world that were sitting in her kitchen. Cherish looked at Jack, completely confused by the emotions she was getting off of him. And the girl he had been so insistent about. She mouthed 'mild annoyance' to her leader. Her father was a nightmare of flayed flesh, she was mildly annoyed, and Jack felt that was a noteworthy accomplishment.

"Hey Jack?"

"Yes?" He gave a sharp and oily grin in anticipation of her retribution for attacking her father.

"Did you guys take the beers out of the fridge?"

"The beer? I set Bonesaw on your father and you ask me about beer?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to go an entire loop maintaining a B.A.C. at less than one percent below the lethal limit without anyone noticing. And if you guys took the beer, than I have to run next door or I'm going to get too sober."

Bonesaw piped up "You couldn't possibly still be awake or mobile if you're B.A.C. was actually that high. And why would you even want to stay that intoxicated?"

"I" Taylor intoned with great dignity as she swayed in place "am really really good at making my body work through stuff it probably shouldn't be able to. Also magic." She wiggled her fingers to punctuate her last declaration. "As for your second question this is like the bitrillennial of some really bad loop. Or was it tribillennial? I don't know, I'm pretty drunk. And I'd like to stay that way. So where's my fucking BOOZE?!" The last was shouted at the top of her lungs as she pulled an entire shelf out of her fridge and flung it to the side. It splattered directly onto Siberian's face.

Jack sighed and face palmed as the Siberian lunged forward at thrust her hand through Taylor's head.

"How about… Helped Scion end the world?"
"Did it."

"Became Queen of the Birdcage, broke everyone out, and took over the world?"
"Did it. Also did the kill everyone, the convert to pacifism, the arrange for paradise, and the orgy versions."

"Joined the Slaughterhouse Nine?"
"All of the above. With King still in charge, with you in charge, with me replacing you from the start, and after taking control from you when you came to Brockton."

"Killed all your friends?"
"Every way I could think up. Then every way Bonesaw could come up with. Every way you could come up with. Etcetra etcetra."

"Hmmm…"

"You aren't going to come up with anything new. Also, bored now."
Jack ran. He'd tried killing her in plenty of different ways, and success had the same effect as failure. It was so annoying.

"I'm so bored. Like all the time. Do something interesting."

"Welcome to being a looper."

"That's not interesting. I'd kill you, but that wouldn't even matter."

"You could try torturing me. Maybe you'd be able to come up with something new."

"… Hmmm… nah. I think I'm just bored of hurting people."

"Huh. That's new. Oooh, I've got it!"

"What?"

"You should kill off the Nine-"

"How would that help? I do that all the time nowadays."

"I wasn't finished. You should kill off the Nine in a very public way while wearing a mask and slightly different outfit. And then join the Protectorate under that disguise."

"I think they'd be able to figure it out pretty easily."

"That's part of the joke. The trick would be to balance being just blatant enough that they keep you on due to your usefulness and popularity despite your real identity."

"That sounds difficult."

"And?"

"I love it!"

"Thought you might."

-

"Weaver, meet the head of the Chicago Protectorate. John Whittle, meet your newest ward."

"Thank you director, I'll be sure to give her a personal tour. Come along Weaver."

"Sure Mr. Whittle."

Silence as the two walked through the base.

"You really took that idea and ran with it, huh?"

"I had no idea how much fun I could milk from being inside their stupid little bureaucracy. This is amazing. And everyone just kind of tries to ignore any references I make to my previous career."

"Well, you did retire rather early on this loop. You only had what, two years of running with Siberian before you flipped?"

"We still killed Hero. Alexandria hates me soooo much, but I've got everybody else too wrapped around my finger for her to do much about it."

"And you wanted to just drive me crazy and keep running around as a murderhobo."

-
Grue looked to the left. Grue looked to the right. "Why am I here?" Grue wondered.

Tattletale cursed and grabbed her two most troublesome teammates by their arms as she noticed the four figures that had been waiting for them to emerge from the Travelers' lair.

Four of the most feared capes in America were standing in the entrance to the parking garage. The invincible Siberian took the lead, followed by a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Regent. That was Cherish, the Nine's newest member. And taking up the rear came two final figures holding hands. The younger was Bonesaw, and the other was the leader. The most deadly person alive. That person had a perversely amused glint in their eyes as they spoke.

"This is not an exit."

The Undersiders newest recruit yanked his arm out of Lisa's hold, jabbed his finger accusingly at the scariest person to ever live and peevishly declared "You stole my line!"

As Skitter's face widened into an amused smile, Tattletale's eyes met Cherish's. The two thinkers shared a moment of pure understanding as they silently asked the other what the fuck was going on with their teammate.

-

"So we're on a train, and apparently also British? And eleven years old?"

"Welcome to a Hogwarts loop, enjoy your stay, learn some magic."

"Magic?" Jack waggled his fingers as he recalled a conversation from so long ago.

"Yep it's an entire seven years of magical school."

"So we're going to be spending seven years surrounded by small children who are being given the ability to alter the fundamental rules of reality? Is it Christmas already?"

"Jack, no."

"Jack yes."

"No, Jack. Just-" Her hand drifted to her chin. "Actually…I don't think anybody else is awake, and I haven't seen what sort of things you could come up with given these sorts of resources…"

"I promise to do my best to make it interesting."

"And judging by the scar you're replacing Harry and that makes me Hermione. So you know what? Fuck it. Jack Yes."

"And you wanted me to start being all morally respectable and non-murderous."

"Oh, but no messing around with Time-Turners okay?"

"I make no promises."

-

"What the bloody hell is this nonsense?"

"This is why you don't fuck with Time-Turners you smug asshat."

"But that's not anatomically possible. That's not anatomically possible at all."

"Welcome to Eiken. And maybe, the next time I tell you not to mess with something, you'll actually listen."

"I would not give very good odds on that."

-

"And you said you didn't want to be a murderhobo."

"I said I didn't want to be bored. Indiscriminate massacres are a sometimes food."

-

"Jacob?"

"What?"

"You seem to be a respectable member of society that hasn't committed a single crime."

"Uh-huh."

"What're you doing?"

"So maybe I've gotten bored of being the bad guy for awhile."

"Kay." An awkward pause. "Whelp, see you around."

"Have a good day Ma'am."

Taylor walked off. Seeing Jack Slash working as an H. R. Rep for Medhall was just too weird even for her.

-

"Dammit Jack! What the hell?"

"It's my hundredth loop! Surprise!"

"The evisceration of all my teammates and family members is a bad surprise! I was in the middle of something with those!"

"Bah! It's not like you can't just do it next time. And besides, I've got lots of ideas for how to celebrate my centennial."

"Hmph. Fine, whatever, Let's party."

And so they did. It was horrific.

11.6 (The_One_Butcher)

"So... boys and... girl," Director Piggot bit out, "Remember that none of us are Nazis, no one will judge anyone by their appearance. Also, for many the Wards are a... second chance so be considerate to your teammates. Shadow Stalker is on probation, but she has handled herself admirably, and villains outnumber heroes, so we need any help we can get, especially with the city unfortunately flooded in a completely unrelated way. Think about that if you are intolerant you might force them to the other side and might have to face those who could have been your friends on the battlefield instead. I'm sure nobody here would want that. IS THAT CLEAR?" The last bit was directed at Vista, whose face was red and who had tears staining her cheeks.

"Sorry, it's just... Gallant did die just the other day. In a completely unrelated incident."

"Oh, that's so sad!" said the high-pitched voice of the, at seven years, new youngest Ward of Brockton Bay, "Right boys? Right?" she said and elbowed the middle one.

"Er, yes, really tragic. I'm sorry for your loss," gurgled her fifteen year old brother.

"Yes, yes." the third one rumbled from his place with the adults. "Grief and stuff, we feel that. We're humans after all."

"Yeah, brother, we know, they know, everyone knows, it's the default assumption so stop mentioning it."

"Oh, yes, sorry Sim..." a chair was telekinetically bounced off his skull, "Sam. Yes, Sam. You know, for Samantha, not Seer and..." a second chair down his throat shut him up. He grumbled and chewed, but stayed otherwise silent.

Not that anyone was fooled.

Alec had after all just glued domino masks over their eyes.

At least they were handmade to fit the number of eyes, Alec had a talent for artsy stuff like that.

11.7 (The_One_Butcher)

"Doesn't matter your aim," I clarified, "just shoot. You see one lying on the ground, shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?" There were nods all around.

Someone behind me said something about terrorists, when the fast paced techno music started. A light drumming, with distorted electronic horns.

A small waif, probably around seventeen, danced closer to us, pumping her arms vertically and stretching them out again, like a demented cross between a windshield wiper and a piston.

"Ta. Ta. Ta. Ta." She sang, and then, while my gang still hesitated to shoot her she was amidst us. The world turned dark, until the last thing visible was the girl, now looking fearlessly into my eyes...

And her voice dropped deeper than even a male teen had any business sounding: "And then do the Harlem Shake."

When the Darkness lifted I found myself stepping from one foot to the other, waving my arms as streams of fire flew into the night. My gang members were grinding their behinds at each other, while standing around the damned children. The smug little bitch was letting her arms hang like a gorilla and taking small swinging steps in a circle, the boy in the ridiculous helmet was dancing around me, waving his hands in graceful arcs, trailing his smoke in wavering patterns that rose and flowed around my flames, the gay one rode the shoulders of... something... anyway, he was dancing the astronaut in mid air.

It was like this that Armsmaster found us. I was glad when after five eternal minutes he finally poked me with his stick and darkness took me. "If anyone made a video," my last thought was, "this whole town is going to burn."

11.8 (The_One_Butcher)

I stood defiantly against the last enemy, claw and fang bigger and sharper than ever before, fire hotter than the sun. This was the true limit, the true edge of my powers. When I lunged at the golden fool once again he dodged, unwilling to stand up to my fire much longer.

Alexandria braced against me as Eidolon's force fields strengthened my foothold and let me turn on a dime and lunge once more.

Caught between a stream of projectiles from the combined blasters and my own fire Scion accelerated towards the projectiles, dodging half of them by barreling through the rest. He was choosing mankind's combined firepower over facing me head on. Then, sadly, he was amidst the other capes, keeping me from following him, when suddenly my power gave me, impossibly, another surge.

Something more dangerous than Scion was among the masses.

And then I heard it. The thing I dreaded, the thing that had been haunting me all these years, the one thing I never, EVER wanted to hear again:

"Con los terroristas!"

11.9 (The_One_Butcher)

Lisa was almost foaming at the Mouth. Pummeling Lung into submission with a giant shield was the Platonic ideal of a Parody of a Man. Seven feet high and at least half a ton heavy, Arms with a ninety inch circumference and the mightiest Mustache that ever walked the Earth. "Huh? I am not locked down? Mh... Not a world with a League I guess. So... now that I don't have a Level my Strength is limitless I guess."

She had a feeling that this was bad news. They bolted.

The new Hero that insisted on going out without a mask was classified as "The Manliest Case 53 ever." Extremely skilled in all things brawling and wielding a few tricks with Ice he cleaned up the city within weeks. Consensus was that he was completely bonkers, but a gentle soul nonetheless. When Leviathan attacked however, he showed how much they had been underestimating him. First he drew an evil looking, serrated Purple blade and charged Leviathan bravely, however he stopped within a few feet of him, shook the blade and then raised his shield and ran away again. "That is but Pet! Perfect, then I can use Manatee."

After that inane statement he pulled a manatee and a golden throne from nowhere, combined them and gave the animal what looked like a Golden Spatula. "Always have Manatee handy, when things get dicy. Now, to activate Magical items." Pulling forth giant golden rotary cannons and narwhals he brushed them with glowing hands and attached them to the throne. They began humming in a low threatening tone.

Finally he slapped the animal on it's rear. It raised it's spatula like a mighty Scepter and cried out "UUUUUURRF!" While a brilliant bolt of lightning Flashed from it's spatula into the Sky and the strange contraptions began coordinating their sounds into some kind of strange techno beat.

Legend meanwhile turned from a shining streak into an explosion of multicolored light. Not that anyone saw, because Purity simply became a new sun in their midst. Leviathan was blown up into the Air by Exalt blowing his whole charge. *What? Why now? We don't even know what that thing did!* But it didn't matter, because Exalt flew after him and hit him again. Purity followed after, punching their foe in midair with her biggest energy lance yet, without herself dimming in the slightest. Legend meanwhile raced past him and pelted it from above as if there were suddenly five of him.

"Ah, seems like Manaproblems plagued many Champions here. Might give away one of my Unholy Grails as gift." The Mountain of Muscle explained exactly nothing.

"It's back." She was buffeted by a strange wind coming from above and felt her stomach Tumble. No... It was gravity. She looked up, at an Eidolon that was laughing like mad. "IT'S ALL BACK! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" And with that he added his own projectiles into the mix, strange distortions and exotic space warping effects.

Leviathan fell, all thanks to an unexplainable oddball named Braum and a manatee named Urf.