The End Bringer Chapter 16 (Patreon)

A/N: This is a 2000 word snippet of what is actually going to be a massive chapter. Probably well over the 10k mark and nearing the 20. It's been a while and I figured I'd give everyone a present for my wedding.

Expect voting to resume roughly the week before October! I'll be a husband by then!

Enjoy!

XVI – BOSS – XVI

It happened while we were driving home. Because of course it did. I’d felt… happy. So of course something had to ruin it. 

Something big. 

My fingers trembled in fear. Amy grabbed my arm comfortingly, but it did nothing to ease the palpable terror in my bones. I knew my face was white as a sheet. Amy’s matched my own. 

The rains were the first sign. Light at first, but they appeared almost out of nowhere. I’d come to the realization that something was wrong slowly. Rain clouds rolling in from the east. Then… Then the sirens. 

“Are you sure, Taylor?” Dad asked, tears staining his cheeks as he drove back towards the city. The opposite side of the road was packed bumper to bumper, but we had an almost open road, save for the few maniacs willing to drive on the wrong side in order to get out. 

“I’m not going to be a part of the fighting, Dad,” I said softly. “I’ll be far from the front lines. Right Amy?”

“We both will. I’ve… never actually been to one before. But they wouldn’t put us anywhere near the front. Might actually take us out of the city and then bring capes to us, rather than risk our lives. Really, Mr. Hebert. Taylor will be safer with me healing than anywhere else.” 

“And so I have to abandon you, yet again. Dammit Taylor just… just come with me. Okay? We’ll turn around; get out of Brockton! You don’t owe anything to the capes so just–!”

Dad cut himself off and smacked the driver’s wheel.

My resolve firmed a little as Dad sobbed in the driver’s seat. I put a trembling hand on his arm and he steadied himself a little. He dodged an SUV going well over ninety miles an hour as the rain began to pick up, making it difficult to see, even with the wipers going full bore. 

“Dad. I’m a healer. I’m… I’m going. I can save lives. Hundreds of them.”

“That doesn’t matter Taylor! What’s a hundred capes, even a thousand if I lose you?!” he pleaded, sparing half a second to look back at me in the backseat. Begging me not to go, but knowing that no matter what he said, he couldn’t hold on to me.

‘You lost me long ago.’ I thought, but didn’t say. “Dad, this is our home. Everything I’ve ever known! And I can help save it. Or at least, a small part of it. I can’t sit out of that. Plus with Eidolon now feeling better than ever, this is probably going to be the best Endbringer fight on record.” 

Something tapped on the window mid-flight.

Dad jumped, startled. He slammed on the breaks, and I was thankful for my seatbelt. Amy’s own seatbelt failed to catch, and her head clunked into the headrest at the sudden lurch. I grabbed onto her as we screeched to a halt.

“The fuck!” Amy hissed once we’d come to a stop rubbing her forehead, annoyed. “Did you have to–!”

She cut off as she saw outside the car. Through the dense rain, Glory Girl was visible, touching down in the middle of the mostly abandoned highway. 

“Dammit…” Amy murmured. “This can’t really be happening right now.”

Dad’s fingers were clenched tight on the wheel as he stared out at the superheroine. He glared at her, using her as a focus to vent his helpless frustration. Knowing she’d likely take me to the fight, leaving him alone.

Amy opened the door, rubbing her head. I took a moment to throw a cure spell at her, green novas flowing out from me and through the vehicle. She looked back, wishing me silent thanks as she became utterly soaked in moments. The water was freezing and we’d both been wearing warm weather clothes since it had been such a nice day. 

Amy didn’t seem to notice as she turned back to face her sister. 

“Get out of here, Dad. Please? I’ll be alright. Just, turn around and go, okay? I’ll feel better, knowing your safe!” I shouted at him over the pounding rain as it soaked into the open truck’s backseat. 

“You think I wouldn’t feel the same for you!?” He shouted helplessly, turning back to look at me in the backseat of the old truck. “Dammit Taylor. I can’t lose you; not you too!”

“I’ll be alright Dad. I promise. But… but I have to go!” I screamed over the howling rain as I barreled out after Amy. “Turn around and drive Dad! I won’t have anything if you die following me to Brockton!”

“Taylor! Taylor!” I heard dad shout as he too, got out of the car. 

We’d been so happy just ten minutes ago. I’d finally felt like things were looking up. 

How could everything change so fast? 

Glory Girl glared at me, already holding Amy as she floated outside the vehicle. Already influencing her with the damn charm again, most likely. 

“Will you take me too, Vicky? I want to help,” I said. 

Dad left the car, but didn’t make a move towards us, clenching and unclenching his fists. Impotent. Enraged at his own inability to make any sort of difference.

Glory Girl sniffed, but she flew over to me, and turned around. She was still mad, both at me and Amy. But apparently, the Endbringer made her anger unimportant. 

“Grab hold. We’ve got to move. They’ve already gathered. I’ll bring you both to the command base on Captain’s Hill. For what it's worth, thanks for coming, Taylor.” 

Amy squawked a little at being whipped around while Glory Girl spoke but didn’t complain. I threw my arms around her neck, trying to keep the shaking down. 

“Taylor… please. Don’t do this…!” Dad plead behind me. 

I spared him once glance back, and managed a smile. 

“I’ll see you in a few hours dad! D-don’t worry about me! I love you!” I screamed, realizing that I think that was the first time I’d told him so in months.

We blasted off. I heard Dad shouting my name as the rain swallowed his voice. Shouting that he loved me, and crying like I’d never seen him cry.

We moved too fast for me to see if he got back in the truck. I hoped he did.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

“I think we might’ve missed the start of the fight,” Glory Girl shouted over the rain. “They had forewarning but I didn’t hear the sirens until I was half way back to the city.”

“Any idea how long it’s been since it started?” Amy asked, leaning into her sister’s ear so she didn’t have to shout. I could only barely hear her.

“Not sure. Hey, hold your ears. About to breech the cloud cover!” She shouted.

I held on for dear fucking life as the girl blasted upwards at an angle. My ears rang and popped as we flew though the rain, then mist, then burst into a silent world of sunshine and glowing orange clouds.

The winds stopped and suddenly everything was quiet. Breathing became a little harder but Glory Girl made sure not to fly much higher than the sea of clouds, showing her experience with this sort of thing.

“W-wow…” I breathed. “It’s… it’s almost like I could believe nothing’s happening down below.”

The clouds lit every now and then with splashes of lightning and thunder.

“Recalculating,” came an automated voice. I blinked. Was that a…?

“Amy, can you see my watch?’ Victoria asked. “It should be directing us to Brockton.”

Amy craned her neck to see her sister’s smart watch before pointing in a direction that I could only tell was east because it was away from the late afternoon sun.

We blasted across the top of clouds, my feet and body actually leaving Vicky’s once or twice. I screamed in terror, and blinked as a new spell kind of just came to me. I didn’t cast it, but it was nice to know float was an option for me if I somehow let go of Glory Girl. Or if I choked her while we flew. She didn’t seem to notice but every polite bone in my body seemed to be urging me to ease up on her neck, while all the others urged me to choke her so tight she couldn’t possibly breathe.

The gps in the girl’s wrist watch, which was apparently hilariously water proof, kept trying to redirect her to roads. It repeated “Recalculating” at least ten more times as she moved as the crow flies, but it served well enough to direct us over the clouds.

She came to a stop shortly.

“O-okay. We’re, as far as I can tell, near the recovery area. Shouldn’t be even close to the frontline but we have no way to tell what’s happening down there. Ready?”

“N-No time like the present,” I breathed.

“Ye-yeah Vicky,” Amy breathed. I scowled as my resist effect alerted me that it had rebuffed charm again. Damn her stupid aura.

My mana pool was full, having recovered from its most recent uses. I couldn’t imagine being better prepared.

“R-Ready here,” I breathed, terrified.

“Okay. Here we go.”

We plunged into the clouds. It was a solid four seconds before we emerged into the downpour. Seeing was difficult and the sharp tang of saltwater filled my nostrils. Below I could see water frothing and burbling everywhere as it surged through streets just like cars used to. Bright costumes melded into a technicolor blur wherever the water wasn’t so high.

I tried to locate Leviathan himself but was distracted when Amy shouted, “Vicky! Up!” 

I turned and my eyes widened as I spotted the massive tidal wave that crested the top of most building hurtling towards us with fatal speed.

‘Holy god… Has the city already been hit with one of these?’ I thought as we rocketed back up into the air before the wave rolled underneath us. It filled the streets, swallowing buildings whole and ramming into the upward slope of the land. The recess wave seemed almost as devastating as the Tsunami seemed to break half a mile into the city, water carrying cars, bodies, debris, and even whole buildings back out into the bay as it went. The boat graveyard was roiling, the rusted carcasses of ships occasionally emerging and submerging back into the depths.

I saw a girl in a lime green costume appear as the receding wave exposed the beach for a few moments, only to be crushed by the bulkhead of a torn tanker as it followed the wave back out to sea. Somehow, the girl remained unharmed, water parting around her.

The sky was filled with capes, some tossed by the rain and the air the wave had generated. Vicky was sterner than most. I didn’t spot Leviathan anywhere. Further to the north, near the boardwalk, I saw beams of light echoing behind a few buildings.

“We’re going to the triage area! I need to get into the fight!” Glory Girl screamed, aiming at an area further inland where flashing lights were illuminating the rain covered world. Why the hell hadn’t we gone there first?

We made for it now, my grip slipping under the wet conditions, and landed soon after.

I would’ve gotten on my knees and cried with relief if my body hadn’t insisted I do so with nausea. I almost threw up but managed to steady my stomach before I needed to.

I stood and found that Amy had already sprinted down to the rows and rows of men and women laid on the grown in pain. The command center, or what passed for one.