Making a Point

Author: Prospero Hibiki

Disclaimer: Worm and its characters are the property of Wildbow. In no way are these aforementioned characters being used for my own personal profit, and this is not meant as an infringement of the copyright owned by any the above entity...who is freaking awesome

Timeline: Simurgh Battle At Canberra…so pre original series beginning?

Spoilers: Yes…You shouldn't be here otherwise

Classification: AU…of course

Rating: T…probably

Summary: Another snippet.

Author's Comments: Posted in a hurry this one is.

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"Making a Point – Chapter 6"

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She stepped into the area that was marked off for those capes that were responding to the Endbringer siren. There weren't as many as she thought there would be, but after a moments reflection that was to be expected. From what she had been able to find out they battles against the Simurgh were always the least attended by out of town capes. New Wave was of course present but having Panacea at an Endbringer battle was practically a given since her trigger.

She shrugged and approached a uniformed PRT agent with a clipboard who was busy checking things off and thus didn't notice her approach. "Is this the cape pickup area for Canberra?" He looked up and then did a quick double take upon seeing her. It wasn't exactly a surprise. She'd been so very careful to remain under the radar that the PRT had no idea she'd even existed. When he didn't say anything spoke again. "The Simurgh battle is still happening, yes?" she asked.

"Um, yes, it is," he says as if unsure. "And you are?"

"E," she said. "Like the letter."

She stood there waiting for him to say something before she just gave up and walked towards the other gathered heroes shifting the location of her rifle slightly to make it easier to carry. Not that it helped particularly because she was having to carry the six-foot rifle with one hand all the while balancing it on her shoulder. The other hand was carrying the mini-cooler sized ammunition case that she'd specially built for the purpose.

She knew how she looked. The otherwise perfectly designed sleek lines of her black and gray costume were marred by large white patches on her right shoulder and back. Her helmet was at least streamlined if featureless from the outside with only the straps for her mouth breaking the solid surface. It was the accessories that were drawing attention to her. Nothing made sense on first glance. She had a gauntlet on her left hand but not her right. her right leg had armor on her boot with an odd protrusion facing that same direction, but the left had a lift that was giving her an odd gait. Her shoulders were similarly different with the left built up with a massive pauldron while the right had a rough exoskeleton attachment arrangement.

"This isn't a place for new capes." The statement was as unexpected as it was insulting, and she turned her head to face the person who'd spoken. Brandish, one of the members of New Wave.

"If I see any new capes I'll be sure to pass your thoughts along then."

Taylor started to hyperventilate.

Anyone who saw her would think she were terrified at being at her first Endbringer battle and that she was having a panic attack.

They would be wrong.

Oh, she was scared. But not of the battle. She wasn't even scared of the Simurgh. She was scared that she'd fail, that all the effort that had been put into training for this moment in time would be wasted. That she'd use her one shot at this battle for no account. That was unacceptable.

Hyperventilating was actually over oxygenating her blood stream so that when she needed to react, she had the ability to do so.

She lifted the rifle and took aim, the reticule on her HUD aligning on the rapidly changing battlefield before erroring out. As she'd expected really. She blinked three times and it turned off and instead simply magnified her field of view.

It wasn't hard to find her. She was floating there in amongst the swirling debris she was shielding herself with. Taylor nodded to herself and let herself fall into the state of hyper-awareness that was the characteristic of her Thinker power.

First shot. A simple round to test for unusual conditions. She squeezed the trigger and watched the round leave the barrel discarding the sabot as it left the barrel. It tore across the distance at Mach 7 and tore into the empty building to the right of the immediate battle. She didn't stop to watch the building collapse so focused was she on the next shots. She did hear the comments through the armband she was wearing.

"Holy Fu-"

"Who did that?"

"How did they do-"

Second shot. Hyper penetrator to test just how durable the Simurgh really was.

Wait.

Wait.

Wai-Now.

The squeeze of the trigger happens and the second round shoots across the battlefield and passes inbetween two flying capes that are knocked off course due to the shockwave, incidentally causing them to drop out of the path of a spinning sheet of metal that would have decapitated one of them and cut off the other's arm. That wasn't the goal of the round of course, but it had influenced the timing. No, the round went straight and true on target through the massive rock that briefly obscured the Simurgh from site as if it weren't even there and struck one of the being's wings blowing it open at the first joint.

The comments coming from the armband were ecstatic, but Taylor new better. She could see how superficial the damage really was. Sure, there was penetration, to be expected from something that was loosely based on quantum tunneling, but the actual damage was limited.

Third shot. Taken immediately it was only superficially based on the second and was quite possibly the most ridiculous thing she'd ever made. The round passed straight through everything the Simurgh threw at it only to be dodged at the last possible moment. Which was completely ridiculous in and of itself because it meant that she'd started trying to block it and dodge it as it was being shot if not before. But that was okay. The round had done what it was meant to do.

"Hard Override. Montana hero Redirect: Hit the glowing area on the glass building with a bounce field and then get out of the area fastest. All fighters vacate fastest. Danger Close."

Taylor took the fourth shot simply to take the Simurgh's attention onto herself and not Redirect. Well because of that and to cycle through one of the last normal rounds that were in the magazine before the big guns came out. It wasn't a surprise that it was dodged.

"Hard Override. This is Redirect, field in place."

Taylor smiled and took aim at the Simurgh.

"Hard Override. Incoming round. Vacate area. Danger Close. Pair Annihilation."

She fractionally dropped the barrel immediately before she pulled the trigger even as she heard Dragon screaming through the armband for everyone to get out of the area. The Simurgh twitched to the right as if dodging a round that wasn't even there. The real round passed through the device she'd been building causing it to explode violently but nowhere near what would have been expected from her comment over the comms. "So, you can hear us you clever bitch."

"Hard Override. Comms compromised by Simurgh. See you at the finish."

She pulled the trigger again and this time it hit on her right side. The round contained only the tiniest fraction of a gram of antimatter, but it was enough. Taylor's helmet darkened to block the light from the explosion. It didn't completely work, and she was forced to spend several crucial seconds to blink her eyes back to usefulness. Only to be faced with a quick succession of flying rebars headed towards her.

She dodged the first five with almost no effort because they'd been thrown blind. Because that was the real trick that she had brought to this battle. She couldn't outfight the Simurgh. Or outfly her. She couldn't even really out Tinker the Endbringer. But she could out Think her. Because that was Taylor's real power.

She called her power "Blindspot."

The sixth through ninth rods were harder but she managed. The tenth and eleventh though came as she was sizing up the results of her previous attack and she only barely cleared them.

The Simurgh was hurt. Badly. Her right side was almost gone, and she had an expression that no one had ever seen on that normally expressionless face. Fear. And the reason was obvious. There was an exposed area that was partially visible and obviously important from how she was turning to put it on the side facing away from Taylor.

The twelfth bar came in with pieces of concrete still attached and traveling at speed and Taylor leapt into the air to clear it even as she took aim at the angelic figure with assistance from the exoskeletal muscles on her right arm. She was boosted by the single use jet under her left foot. The rock passed under her as she was still rising, and she took aim. Only to spot the thirteenth and fourteenth bars bracketing where she would end up. Grinning manically, she blinked five times and the mini rocket motor in her right boot kicked in and spun her around the axis that was her rifle. The two rebars shot past and her torso slotted in between them perfectly with only the slightest damage to her right side.

She pulled the trigger only to immediately activate the last-ditch dodge device that was her left gauntlet. Seven ten-gauge shotgun shells went off simultaneously and shoved her to the side in midair. Her arm broke but the flagpole that the Simurgh had thrown at her missed her.

Taylor barely even noticed the pain.

The seventh round was unique in that it was a combination of almost everything else she'd already fired at the Simurgh.

Like the second round it had been a penetrator round and had passed through the guardian debris that the Simurgh had thrown up in front of it. And so like that round the debris didn't do a damned thing.

Like the sixth round it was filled with that same fraction of antimatter that had proven so effective.

Like the fourth shot the Simurgh dodged it like it was in slow motion.

Like the fifth round the Simurgh fell for her trap hook line and sinker.

Like the first round it wasn't even aimed at her.

Like the third round it struck a now no longer glowing area on the glass building that Redirect had hit with the bounce field.

She'd heard about the hero from Montana when she'd been searching PHO for potentially useful powers that might interreact well with the payloads of her antimatter rounds. He called them bounce fields, but really, they were miniature wormholes that seemed to reflect the angle of anything thrown through them. Without impact.

The round struck the field and reflected at the precise angle Taylor had calculated when she'd shot it with the third round. Right into the exposed part the Simurgh had been trying to protect.

Her landing was awkward. The pain of her arm breaking that she'd not noticed before clearly made itself known when she landed on it.

It also wasn't the only pain she felt.

Her right boot rocket had heated up as much as she'd thought it would but the thermal insulation that she'd known would be insufficient had failed to live up to even her pessimistic estimates and she wondered if she was actually fused to her armor on that side or if it only felt like it.

Her vision still hadn't returned fully after that last blast because she'd needed to watch the strike. She'd needed to see it.

The rifle was being used as a crutch under her right arm as she slowly made her way towards where the Simurgh had fallen. Multiple flyers had approached to offer her a lift but she stubbornly ignored them as she continued hobbling. More and more capes approached her but there was always a path in front of her. Eventually she got there and saw the Triumvirate standing over the dead body of the angel. She ignored them too and continued to stare down at the creature that had taken so much from so many.

Slowly she reached up with her right hand and pulled at the strap holding her mouthpiece on and ripped it off to hang from the left side of her helmet.

Alexandria moved as if to speak but Taylor continued to ignore her.

She spit on the corpse of the Endbringer.

Reaching up with her right hand she awkwardly pulled off the patch on her back. As it came away, she heard the gasps from behind her as the short message that was part of her suit was revealed. "Even Angels Fall."

She released it and as it fluttered to the ground, she grabbed the patch on her right arm.

This time there was silence as what was under it was revealed.

Taylor spit on the Simurgh again and turned in place hobbling off to where the medical tents were set up. This time no one approached her, but their eyes were all on her. Or rather their eyes were all on her right arm.

Her right arm imprinted with a red square with a white cross. Under it written in German, French, and Italian was a single sentence. "We Are Avenged"

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End "Making a Point – Chapter 6"

Chapter Notes: Going to be edited severely when written up but…yeah. Here it is.