Chapter 17:

It was strange, being back in Brockton Bay after so long. It was, in many ways, exactly as I remembered it. Memories of days spent with my parents, with Emma and her parents, all rushed through my mind.

Of course, it wasn't exactly the same. The huge crowd of people that were heading the opposite way that we were was new, more or less. Even the ABB in it's heyday couldn't cause this sort of response.

Endbringers could, though. Leviathan could.

For now...

Dragon's ship was quick. It had been before we had formed The Order. With Squealers help, they were even better. It took us only a few minutes to cross the city, and land atop the PRT building. A couple of soldiers tensed slightly as we docked. Even when the door opened and we stepped out, they didn't relax.

I smiled under my mask. That was good. That was the sort of reception we wanted. The sort of reception our group should get.

We hadn't done too much, at least as far as the public knew. But, with our sheer number of Tinkers, many were wary of us.

I took the lead, with Dragon and Blasto just behind me. My two partners in forming The Order.

"Names?" one of the guards asked.

"The Order." I responded.

The man paused. "All of you?"

I shrugged. "Well, not exactly. All of us who need to be here. Medic, Dragon, Blasto, Squealer, Bakuda, and Stinger."

The man nodded, making notes. After a moment, the door to the PRT building opened. I turned toward the ship and waved, and the three remaining members that we had brought exited the ship and were quick to follow us. Once we were gathered, we entered the building, finding a hallway leading to an elevator.

"The elevator will be set to bring us to the main floor, where the others are gathering." Dragon said.

"Anything happening so far?" I asked. It was beyond useful having Dragon around. Her eyes in the PRT had been invaluable to our cause.

She shook her head. "They're still waiting for others to arrive. It's getting close. We have maybe an hour before Leviathan attacks."

I nodded. "And the Azazel?" I asked.

"On it's way. It will be here in plenty of time." Dragon said.

I smiled again. "Fantastic."

We entered the elevator, and as Dragon had said, it automatically moved us toward the meeting place of all of the other capes.

I could feel some of my mods kicking in. Special implants to negate nervousness, to allow me to be in control at all times. Even still, the knowledge that I needed the implant at the moment was disheartening. I had hoped I had grown beyond my concerns.

After what felt like an eternity, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. Instantly, eyes fell on us. I scanned the room, picking out the capes I recognized. Capes from Brockton Bay.

Shadow Stalker approached me quickly. She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "Holy shit, you actually showed to an Endbringer fight." she said.

I rolled my eyes slightly. "Of course. We finally finished our preparations, and I couldn't very well ignore one of these monsters attacking my hometown." I said.

Shadow Stalker seemed to accept that, and nodded. "You and me? We need to talk when this is over." she said.

I nodded back. "Of course. We'll catch lunch downtown." I said. "I'm willing to bet the cleanup will be done by late afternoon."

I heard a sharp laugh from a few feet away, and turned to see a girl wearing a purple and black skintight suit. The matching domino mask hid enough of her face to keep her identity hidden. I also noted that it seemed to be pulling her face in various places, likely giving her a slightly different appearance than she would have without it.

"You find something funny?" I asked.

The girl grinned, and opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it. "You...you aren't joking." she said. "You actually think this is going to be over that quickly?"

"I do. We've been preparing for this." I said.

"I'm sure you have."

I froze as I heard the voice. Turning slowly, I saw the floating figure of Alexandria. Or, Rebecca Costa-Brown. The woman who had kickstarted my exile from my home.

"Are you doubting us, too?" I asked.

"This is not only your first Endbringer attack as a group, but many of your members' first one." Alexandria said. "You'll forgive me if I'm not brimming with confidence."

I shook my head. "Well, just wait and see." I said.

The girl in the purple and black suit gasped, causing me to glance at her. She looked shocked, and oddly giddy. "You guys have something big planned. Something really big." she said. Her eyes were darting between all of the members of our group. I had seen looks like that before. She was a Thinker of some sort.

I turned my attention back to Alexandria. "If you'll excuse us, we have to go and prepare a bit more." I said. I turned to leave, only to have the older heroine approach me.

"Might I ask why you even decided to come here yourself?" she asked.

"Might be some injuries today." I said. "I can help."

"Not afraid we'll take you in?" Alexandria asked.

I grinned, and from the slight reaction she had, I could tell she knew. "No...not for a while now. You were never going to take me in. I realized that some time ago." I watched her for any change in expression, but didn't see one. Had she known?

No matter. "I don't know why you wanted me out of the city, or what you hoped to gain, but I'm the one who came out on top. I've helped form one of the strongest groups in the world. And we're about to show it."

I turned away from Alexandria and led my group to one of the corners of the room that was least occupied. There we waited, discussing plans, until the Protectorate apparently decided to get things started.

Legend took a spot near the windows, with the approaching form of Leviathan clearly visible behind him. "I want to thank you all for coming today." he said. "It's never easy to face a threat, much less one of this scale. And even knowing the odds, you've all decided to come out and fight."

He looked around the room, solemnly. "I do want to make sure you all know exactly what you're getting into. On a good day, an Endbringer battle ends with about a 25% mortality rate..."

I took that as my cue. I stood up, and began to approach Legend. People took notice quickly, and Legend himself trailed off mid-sentence when he noticed me approaching.

"Did you...need something, Medic?" he asked.

"Not exactly." I said. "But, I do have an offer to make. How about we get through this fight with no casualties at all?"

A murmur went through the room, and Legend appeared to grow a bit irritated.

"Well, that would certainly be ideal, but how would you suggest we do that?" he asked.

"All I need is everyone to remain right where they are when Leviathan reaches the city. Just let us do our work." I said.

"You want us to sit by while this beast destroys the city?" Kaiser asked. "I know you've been gone for some time, but surely you don't want to see the city fall?"

"Of course I don't." I said. "And it won't. Trust me." I said.

"Why would we put our faith in a relative unknown?" Eidolon asked. "Moreover, why would we give the Endbringer a free pass to the city?"

I looked to Dragon, who had been speaking with Armsmaster up until I began speaking. She gave me the signal I needed.

"Fifteen minutes." I said.

"What?" Legend asked.

"That's how long we need. Fifteen minutes to try our plan. If it fails, then we won't be too far behind. When it works, though..."

I let the sentence trail off, allowing people to make their own connections.

Alexandria approached Legend and myself. "We'll give you ten." she said.

I smirked. "That'll work." I said. "We just won't have as much time to relax before starting the cleanup efforts. I was hoping for at least a ten minute break."

All three of the Triumvirate members looked shocked as I turned and walked back to my group.

"Maybe you shouldn't goad them." Blasto said. "Some of us do still have crimes hanging over us."

"And those will all be forgiven by the end of the day." I said. "Once they see what we can really do."

Tensions rose as we discussed our plan. People kept glancing from us to the approaching Leviathan, then back to us.

Finally, after about 20 minutes, Leviathan stopped. Everyone in the room, including me and my team, took note.

"Dragon..." I said, slowly. It made no sense. He couldn't hear, so speaking slowly didn't matter.

As soon as I spoke the words, Leviathan took off. He fell into the water and was gone. I ran to the windows and looked out, hoping to see some sign of him. "Dragon, anything from the drones?" I asked.

"He just appeared. Section 3-C." she said.

"Okay. That's the spot. Do it." I said.

There was no physical confirmation from Dragon. She didn't even move. She didn't need to. I heard the ship's thruster engage, even from within the building.

No one had questioned the huge orb on the bottom of Dragon's ship. No one really questioned anything that a Tinker included in their designs. There was no reason to. The devices worked, just use them.

When the orb was dropped right in front of Leviathan, though? That got a few confused murmurs.

And then the ship opened fire. Four huge missiles were launched, not at Leviathan, but around him. They landed in a square formation, around 8 blocks of the city. Once they were all in place, they 'detonated'.

The missiles were loaded with a special core, designed by Bakuda. They weren't meant to destroy things.

Just to contain them. The barriers shot up in strips around the area, appearing too quickly for even Leviathan to react. He rushed to one of the newly formed walls and slammed into it, causing a few of the thin barriers to falter. They were quickly replaced by new ones.

It wouldn't hold up forever. They would fail against his onslaught eventually.

My hope was that he would be dead before that became an issue. And, that hope was boosted by the fact that he missed the sixth and final payload that the ship had dropped. One bomb, about the size of a sedan. It detonated mere seconds after the area was fully enclosed. Another measure to keep Leviathan contained.

The barrier bombs had been inspired by Narwhal, leader of the guild. This one? It was inspired by a Protectorate cape named Sere. It activated, and all of the water was drained from the area. The hope was that it would continue to suck all of the water away as quickly as Leviathan produced it.

The reality was that he produced it far more quickly than we could have really considered. The ground still had a constant coat of water on it, and Leviathan still had his water echo, albeit a much thinner and weaker version. It wasn't a total win, but it was still a win.

"That's your big plan?" Eidolon asked. "Trap him and try to dry him up? It won't work. We've tried both of those things in the past."

"I'm aware." I said. "But don't disregard the big sphere we dropped in there with him. That's our real weapon."

I looked to Dragon. "And, we are on a timer here. Care to activate it?" Dragon nodded, and I turned my attention to one of the screens in the room. Thanks to the drones that we had set up all over the city, and Dragon's connection to the PRT building, we were able to broadcast our offensive.

Others turned to watch as the sphere began to open. Inside was the hulking form of the Azazel. A marvel of biology and technology. It was equal parts organic and mechanical. It was a culmination of the specialties of most of the Tinkers The Order possessed.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a real live dragon. One which was decked out with quite a heavy artillery.

It stretched as it was released from it's shell, before standing to it's full height. Even with it's considerable size, Leviathan had about ten feet on it. For now.

It's eyes turned red as it registered that it was in a combat situation, and it's systems kicked online. As did it's power.

"What is that thing?" Someone asked. I didn't have a chance to answer before the familiar voice of the girl in the purple and black suit spoke up.

"It's some sort of biological weapon." she said. "It's got Tinker-tech weapons, and it based on a number of animals, but there's something else."

She stopped speaking, taking the scene in for a moment. I heard her gasp a moment before a number of other people did. It was all Brockton Bay capes who reacted. Many of them had seen this before. After all, the Bay had had it's own dragon for quite some time.

The few parts of the Azazel that showed flesh were soon covered with it's naturally growing armor. As that occurred, it grew in size. It was a mere moment before it matched Leviathan in height.

"It's got Lung's power?" the girl asked.

"It does." I said. "It's a combat model. It made the most sense. It's codenamed Azazel ABB."

Azazel didn't need any prompting beyond seeing it's target. We had implanted it with knowledge that the Endbringers were enemies. Seeing one in front of it, it went on a full assault. It slashed with razor sharp claws, used fire that it was now more than capable of generating, and fired several missiles. All the while, it continued to grow.

Leviathan flailed in response to the assault. He tried to fight the Azazel off, but the creature was designed for this. We all watched with bated breath as the Azazel stripped away sections of the Endbringer's body, dealing damage on par with amounts that had been cumulative to entire battles in mere minutes. It was all going according to my plan.

Until Leviathan pushed Azazel onto the dehydration bomb, causing the latter to break.

Without the effect of the bomb, Leviathan's water production was back in full force, and the arena we had created was quickly filling with water.

"Looks like your monster isn't going to last too much longer." Eidolon said.

I shook my head. "Just watch." I said.

The arena was half full of water when the Azazel, now standing at about 40 feet tall, grabbed Leviathan and slammed him into one of the walls. A compartment on it's chest opened up and it fired a missile into Leviathan, which detonated on impact. When the smoke from the explosion cleared, both Azazel and Leviathan had layers of glass replacing sections of their bodies. Azazel looked worse off from it than Leviathan did.

"Not too impressed." Eidolon said, shaking his head as Leviathan scraped the sections of it's body that had been reduced to glass off.

"I agree." Alexandria said. "The creature showed promise, but..."

"We still have some time." I said, eyes glued to the screen. I watched as Leviathan destroyed the missiles that had been containing him with his hydrokinesis. Huge amounts of water spilled out as the barriers fell.

"No, you don't." Eidolon said. "Leviathan is free, and your creature is too damaged to fight. If we don't get out there..."

The man was cut off as someone gasped, and pointed to the screen. I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

Leviathan was on the ground with Azazel holding him down, breathing incredible amounts of fire onto him. It now stood at 45 feet tall, and it's armor was now covering every vulnerable spot. My eyes darted to the other Azazel just in time to see it turn to Ash, save for the sections that had been turned to glass.

"Oni Lee's power too?" the strange Thinker asked.

I nodded. "Among others." I said. I pulled out my phone and dialed the code that I had programmed in that would allow me to communicate with our creation.

"Alright, Azazel." I said. "This is Medic. Enough playing around. Finish this."

I ended the call and turned toward Eidolon. "By my count, we have a few minutes left. You might want to get some powers that will help you dry the city out."