I'm gasping for breath and falling to my knees. I immediately disappear and reappear on a nearby building rooftop, seeing nearby that same girl who was shooting crossbow bolts that pierced straight through Leviathan. She's lying curled up in a fetal position and the water around her is stained red. Flechette - I remember her name. She's down but not dead, she needs medical attention... though I need medical attention too. Can I regenerate with such a hole in my chest? And what does a hole in the chest mean if I was hit from behind? It means my spine is shattered, my lungs and heart are torn, that's what it means. But how can I still move?
Suddenly I understand - how. I'm controlling my body like a blood marionette, my muscles aren't contracting, they're partially spasming, tendons tearing with movement... but strength is leaving me.
"Don't sleep!" comes a voice in my head: "Taylor! Don't you dare close your eyes!"
"Fifth..."
"Don't you dare fall asleep! Let regeneration work, we've had worse... if they don't take your head off immediately - you'll recover, just don't you dare close your eyes!"
"What's the difference..."
"A big one. Don't close your eyes. When you're conscious - regeneration works an order of magnitude better. Grit your teeth. Get yourself on your feet. Don't give up."
"It hurts..."
"That's not pain. I know what pain is, Taylor, I know how to cause pain, and this isn't pain. Don't you dare close your eyes, or I won't give you peace later."
"I..." - my eyes close on their own, I seem to drift somewhere into warm darkness, where it's so cozy and good...
"Don't you dare!" - like a slap. I open my eyes. A downpour rages around me, large drops hammering on the roof, the girl lying in a hunched position - shudders.
To distract myself from the desire to close my eyes - I summon my Swarm, remnants of former luxury. Not much left after the first attack... wait, I have other means.
"Get up!" someone shouts in my ear. Fifth? No, it's a shout in the helmet radio. Tattletale.
"No time to lie down! Get up! Get up! The wave is coming!" she shouts. I raise my head. And there's the wave. A murky, gray-green wall rising above us... if it crashes down... no, when it crashes down - it'll wash us and the girl away like bugs caught in a dishwasher.
I grab her under the arm, noting peripherally that the wound in my chest has almost healed, and disappear! I appear at the very edge of my insect perception, where the roar of battle hasn't reached yet. The girl in my arms - moans. I hesitate for a second. What the hell... I turn her head toward me and stick my tongue between her pale lips, trying to transfer as much saliva as possible. I pull away from her and see color returning to her, she starts breathing more evenly and... opens her eyes!
The Butcher's ability works fast, who would have thought... though he regenerates himself even faster - what a hole I had in my chest!
"What?!" - the girl blushes rapidly and for some reason tries to cover herself with her hands, as if she has no clothes on.
"Healthy? Great." - I disappear and appear at the edge of the roof. Unfortunately, I have no other means of movement than an explosion at the point where I appear. So I appear precisely at the edge of the roof, so as not to hit my operators with the blast wave.
"Boss?" - Jane Rodriguez turns to me and her eyes stop at my chest: "Your gadgets are here. Tough bastard, huh?"
"You bet." - I respond, relieved to realize that the wound in my chest has healed. Smooth skin, as if nothing happened. I take a few steps forward, open the box. There they are. "Little Boy" and "Fat Man."
"You should cover up, boss." - Rodriguez remarks, but I'm not concerned with her. I press the bracelet button. Emergency call.
"Within a minute, a powerful strike will be delivered against Leviathan. Explosive device, Bakuda's tinkertech. Please distribute this information over the general network." - I say: "The device is extremely powerful, there may be casualties."
"One moment." - comes a voice I've heard so often from the TV screen. Dragon!
"I suggest luring him to a relatively unpopulated area and activating Bakuda's bomb there." - she says after a split-second delay. I'm amazed at how quickly her mind works. And no panic, I gave in to emotions here and was ready to bring down Sodom and Gomorrah on the Endbringer, completely forgetting that he's currently in the Docks area.
"Accepted." - another voice I'd previously only heard from television shows. Alexandria: "I'll handle it now."
"Megawatt deceased, CD-6. Aegis deceased, CD-6, Armorer down, CD-6."
"He's heading northwest!" - someone shouts. The explosive devices - neatly arranged in something like an open backpack, convenient to carry on the back. Thoughtful... I throw the backpack on my back.
"What's your status on missiles?" - I ask Rodriguez. She shrugs.
"Fired everything, down to the last one. Doesn't even faze him." - she says: "We stayed to wait for you, the rest evacuated."
"Right. You leave too." - I disappear, appear closer to the fight. I manage to see Leviathan knock Alexandria away with a direct hit, and she crashes into a building like a cannonball. The building starts to tilt, large chunks falling off it.
"Alexandria down, CC-6." - the bracelet announces. I look at Leviathan and realize I can't activate the bombs now, there's too much residential development around.
"Administrator!" - Eidolon's voice sounds: "I'll lure him to the beach. As soon as I say - detonate the charges. Don't worry about me. Understood?"
"Roger wilco. Will be done." - I reply. Any other cape in his place, and I would have hesitated, does he really want to become a victim? But Eidolon is the strongest of the living capes (not counting Scion), he can choose abilities, which means he's taken care of his safety and invulnerability.
I see the hero's figure appear in the air in front of the Endbringer, he delivers a crushing blow to him and flies aside. Leviathan emits a low roar and follows him! I don't know exactly what ability Eidolon used, but it - works! I disappear, appear, dispersing the blast wave around me. I immediately take a hit of dirty water, withstand it, jump to another roof, already tilted from the raging elements around. Water everywhere, below, flowing along sidewalks, above - pouring as rain, water everywhere... most of my insects are washed into the sewers, it's hard for large Stings and Medics to fly in the downpour, they're knocked down by drops and washed away by water streams.
Eidolon continues pulling Leviathan along like a huge and vicious dog on a leash, the Endbringer follows him, leaving behind a solid strip of destruction, I follow them. Energy charges, arrows, beams and God knows what else fly at Leviathan from all sides.
I teleported explosively again, and again took a charge of dirty water right in the face, throwing me back.
"Need Mover!" - Dragon's voice sounds in the bracelet: "Need to move Administrator with charges not on the ground and without explosions! She's too noticeable."
"Lady Photon here. I'll handle it." - Lady Photon and eighteen-year-old Laser Show landed next to me with a light splash.
Their family resemblance was noticeable. They didn't have supermodel beauty, but were attractive even with rain-wet hair plastered to their heads and shoulders. Both wore costumes dominated by white, both had heart-shaped faces, full lips and light hair. On Lady Photon's chest was a star symbol with rays emanating from it, some of them spreading across the body and down the legs, changing color from indigo in the center to violet at the edges. Her straight shoulder-length hair was held by a tiara in the shape of the same star as on her chest.
On the daughter's costume was depicted a stylized arrow pointing from chest down and to the right, with half a dozen lines streaming behind it, above the left shoulder one line zigzagged across the others. The coloring gradually transitioned from ruby-red to crimson, much like her mother's. Similar rows of lines with a zigzag crossing them flowed along her legs and arms. She didn't dye her hair in her "colors" like her younger brother did - no, used to do - didn't wear tinted glasses, but tied her wavy hair with a ruby-red ribbon so it coquettishly covered one eye and to unite the red, purple and white colors in a single color scheme.
Most of all, however, they looked like people who had seen half their family cruelly and senselessly die, torn to pieces during one terrible hour. As if their hearts had been torn from their chests, but they somehow still remained alive. I hadn't seen people in such conditions before, of course, but now they looked exactly like that. It was painful to look at them.
"I'll carry you." - Laser Show tells me: "Mom will handle the wounded."
"Okay." - I didn't have a voice in the matter anyway. Laser Show grabbed me under the arms and soared into the air. The ground went far below.
"What did you do to Glory Girl?" - she asked me already in the air: "What did you do to her?"
"I didn't do anything to her." - I reply.
"Hmm. Fine. Where to?" - her voice didn't change.
"Drop me right on the bastard's head." - I take "Little Boy" from the backpack, pull out the yellow ribbon along with the safety pin.
"Okay. You asked for it." - the hands released me, and I flew down. Below, right under me, on a narrow strip of beach Leviathan was writhing, held in place by Eidolon. I throw the bomb right at his head and immediately teleport aside... but there are no insects nearby anymore, because of the torrential rain, and visibility is very limited and...
Flash! Roar! I'm flipped in the air, the world around freezes, snatched from the semi-darkness of the downpour by a blinding flash! Impact, I hear my bones crunch, my mouth fills with blood and...
"Don't you dare close your eyes Taylor!" - Fifth shouts at me, but I'm already going into saving darkness.
When I open my eyes - I feel raindrops flowing down my face. I raise my head. I have no arm above the forearm, and my leg is twisted at some incredible angle. I can't move, probably my spine is broken again. Good thing the Butcher has high pain tolerance, otherwise I'd be in shock.
Golden light pours from above and an angel descends to me. Her perfect facial features, slightly pursed lips, tiara in wet hair, perfect figure, her very sight relieves suffering and gives hope.
"Taylor!" - Glory Girl says, rushing to me: "Hold on a minute! I'll take you to Panacea!"
"Don't..." - I try to raise my hand, but she's already lifting me in her arms and soaring into the air. I feel my lips going numb, some very cold point in my chest - expanding, making it hard to breathe. She touched me! Damn, I completely forgot to tell her...
"Administrator deceased. CC-8"
Interlude
"Another critical one!" - new stretcher and a new broken body on it. Panacea opens her mouth to say the standard formula "Do you give permission for treatment," but notices that the man in a tight gray-blue jumpsuit with yellow lightning on his chest - is unconscious. She silently puts her hand on his neck, closes her eyes, restoring critical injuries first. Cosmetic issues or fractures with bruises - can wait. Battle with an Endbringer - it's always a lot of wounded, much more than she can afford to heal. And however the situation turns out on the field, even if it's the Best Day when the Endbringer can be driven off with relatively small losses - for her it's always the same day. Defeat. Annoyance. Bitterness that she still won't be able to heal everyone. And of course - hurt and anger in the eyes of relatives and friends of those she won't have time to heal before collapsing from exhaustion. No one will ever say it aloud, but she sees, she reads from their looks... they won't understand. And don't understand. Well... it's her duty - to heal everyone she can, everyone she's able to. She doesn't have much left, need to conserve strength, she no longer pays attention to moderate injuries, only to those patients who face death in the very near hours. She knows her limits. Bones are the hardest, all these spinal fractures, delicate work, takes a lot of energy.
She moves to the next patient. Somewhere out there Vicky is fighting and her heart is restless. Vicky, her angel, her secret love... no one truly knows her, no one truly loves her... only she does.
"Do you give permission for treatment?" - question, answer, hands on chest. Broken ribs, two sharp fragments pierced the skin, spinal fracture. She does her work, thinking that she won't let anyone hurt her sister. That damned Butcher already violated Glory once, but no more. Never. She didn't change anything, she didn't do anything. Well... she changed Victoria's sweat composition. Just a little, no one will understand anything, but a carrier of certain DNA - will immediately fall into a coma. Breathing, heartbeat - everything will remain, but brain functions will be suppressed to vegetable level. She's not going to kill, she just needs to keep that bitch away from Victoria. And - she's to blame herself. If she touches her sister again, even with a finger...
"Another critical! Priority level seven!" - new stretcher and a new broken body on it. Leviathan spares neither heroes nor villains, he doesn't care. Unconscious again and she conserves energy, not saying the standard formula, but immediately putting hands on chest. Priority seven, means someone significant from Protectorate heroes, agreements for treatment have long been signed with such, even if unable to confirm consent verbally.
Another broken spine, burst liver, torn spleen, internal bleeding, cracked skull... brain hemorrhage. She shakes her head, showing she can't help. She doesn't fix brains and everyone knows this. Hemorrhage... requires trepanation, but even so - it's too late. No one argues with her, they just lead to the next stretchers.
She needs to save some strength for herself. To heal Vicky if necessary. She needs to stumble now, pretend she fell, they'll immediately pick her up and take her to rest... need to save a little strength. Otherwise, if something happens to Vicky and she has no strength... she can't even think about it...
She stumbles and falls awkwardly, twisting her ankle and at that moment the world around her seems to flip, consciousness fills with dozens of voices and perception of millions of reality reflections.
"Aaaaaah!!" - she screams, grabbing her head, trying to drown out the screams, moans, curses and oaths, all this frenzied flow of information destroying her personality. She hastily closes herself off from the whole world, going into darkness and losing consciousness.
"Panacea! Panacea!" - they pick her up, hastily put her on the nearest stretcher, someone calls for a doctor.
End of Interlude
"So that's how it happens." - I say, raising my hand and looking at it. The hand is thin, the skin on it pale, blue vein streaks visible.
"I told you that you're unique." - sounds the mentor's voice in my head, proud of his student: "Some go insane even before we get to them."
"Who would have thought." - I say: "Who would have thought. Though I always considered her terrifying. And I wasn't wrong."
"Panacea! You've come to!" - the door to the ward opens and a nurse runs in with a worried look: "How do you feel?"
"Pretty shitty." - I say honestly: "How's the battle with Leviathan?"
"He left. You were unconscious for three hours, Leviathan left. Destruction and casualties, of course, considerable, but the Heroes say it was a Good Day."
"Well... depends on who you ask." - I reply.
"And... more good news. Practically all the villains of Brockton Bay died during the Endbringer's attack."
"What an incredible coincidence." - I say, trying to sit up. The body is very weak. I'll need to eat. I lack biological mass.
"That's right!" - says the nurse: "You still can't get up! And... there's someone here to see you..." - she rushed to the door, opened it... Glory Girl stood on the threshold.
"Amy!" - she rushed to my chest: "Are you all right?!"
"Couldn't be better." - I assured her: "Everything's just wonderful. Fucking amazing."