OP: Benchmark - The End Bringer Chapter 20 (Patreon)

Same deal as garden! I said it would come out sooner but work got in the way. Here ya go!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

“Miraculously low number of casualties, only two hundred and nin–! CSSH” 

“–Leviathan, killed by a combination of capes, namely Legend, Atomic, and this unpowered girl shown here at my right whom most witnesses agree silenced Leviathan by throwing an arbalest bolt powered by the hero Foil into its core. It is believed this was the final nail in Leviathan’s coffin. Note, anyone who sees this girl, please report it immediately as she is due a debt of gratitude hardly any of us can repay. But, most of all, for being the one to expose that previously unknown weakpoint, credit goes to the healer Mana who–! CSSH”

“Leviathan is dead! As you can see here the country of South Korea is in an absolute uproar of joy. Celebrations are being held the world over but I can imagine no celebration more lively then here in Busan, the sight of Leviathan’s second attack back in 1997–! CSSH”

“We promise kids, we’ll get back to the cartoons soon, but it cannot be expressed enough how very important May 15th, 2011 will be to you in the years go come. Leviathan is dead and the seas are free, all thanks to Mana, the outed hero and healer known as Taylor Hebert. The people of Canada, the people of the world owe Brockton Bay and her both a debt that can never be repaid–! CSSH”

“Phoenix. A creature from myth apparently summoned by the previously benevolent cape Mana, who has been masquerading as a healer since her debut in Febuary. While what she did was unquestionably phenominal, I question her powers. Lets face it. She summoned her own Endbringer to fight Leviathan. Who is to say she won’t summon another one whenever she gets a parking ticket? Oh wait, she couldn’t because she’s freaking fifteen.How the hell can we feel safe when someone like Mana is–! CSSH”

“–the dead. We have it on video. Outed Cape Taylor Hebert, also known as Mana was identified as an independent whose powers could grow, like Dauntless from her own hometown. However, her powers had shown absolutely no fighting potential until her absolutely explosive debut against the Endbringer, simultaneously killing Leviathan and reviving every single cape who had died within the past twenty or so minutes of fighting. Sadly, two hundred and nineteen lives were not returned by Mana’s extraordinary abilities. These persons were those killed at the very beginning of Leviathan’s attack, likely in his initial tidal wave. If you’ll look to this video you can see–! CSSH”

I flicked the television channel by channel looking for anyone discussing anything but me. They were calling me a hero. And not like the PRT heroes. No. Like… like something different. It terrified me.

One day I had been a slightly abnormal healer. The next day I was a household name. Taylor or Mana, it didn’t seem to matter. My Phoenix hadn’t killed Leviathan, but it had apparently exposed a weakpoint that none had ever seen before. Not only that, it cracked it, allowing some

Oprah was on the TV wearing a shirt that said “Where were you when we took back the sea?” She thankfully wasn’t talking about Leviathan’s death but I suspected it was only a matter of time.

Not for the first time I wished I was the sort of person who could bask in all the attention something like what I’d done had caused. All I wanted to do was crawl under my bed and hide. Didn’t they know that I hadn’t meant to kill Leviathan? All I’d wanted to do was get revenge for my friend’s death.

I didn’t dare try to summon Phoenix again. Something told me that, vast as my manapool was, I wouldn’t be able to summon it again yet. I was still too weak, though only barely. The only reason I’d been able to reach deeper than my manapool was the raw emotion I’d felt at hearing about Amy’s death. Something triggered but had again been silenced awaiting my anger or despair to come once again.

But I was growing stronger. My manapool, despite not being large enough to summon Phoenix, was massive. It felt as if it had doubled in size. But there, hiding beneath that pool of mana was a feeling inside. A feeling of more. Phoenix was only one and the only reason I had reached out to it was how uniquely suited it was to my situation.

Phoenix had damaged Leviathan enough that it had been killed in the aftermath of my attack. Something previously thought impossible. If anything could scare me more than the attention the world was heaping onto me, it was the fact that within my heart of hearts I knew Phoenix was one of the weaker beings I could feel within me.

The monster of the depths. The dragon at the edge of creation. The light warden, holy machine of armor. The knife and the lantern who holds a grudge against all. The horseman who sunders the heavens with a single slice.

I shuddered and shook myself free of the thoughts of them. The monsters that would be at my beck and call if only I had the mana. And I would soon enough. Given enough time, I would be able to call them. Maybe even more than one of them at once. Given time…

I could already feel weaker ones that I could summon. Weaker… if city destroying ice storms and burning hell meteors could be called weaker. 

“Taylor.” Dad’s voice was accompanied by a small knock at the door. “How are you doing in here?”

I was buried under the blankets of our hotel’s second bed. I lay on my stomach with my head propped on my hands, and peeked out of my hood of blankets to peer at the tv screen. I probably looked terrified. I felt terrified.

“Hey dad.” I said, still unsure what to say to him.

He smiled a little. “I… always knew you’d do great things someday Taylor. This… wasn’t what I had in mind. Still. I couldn’t be more proud of you.”

“P-Proud?” I spluttered. “They’re calling me… they’re saying…” 

“I don’t give a damn. They can talk all they want about what you might do. What I know is that you would never use that phoenix, or whatever else you have inside you, to hurt people. You’re your mother’s daughter.”

I let my head lay down, the blanket shutting me away from the world.

“That’s very comforting. Thanks Dad,” I said sarcastically.

He grinned. I couldn’t see it but I could tell as he sat down on the bed next to me. “Well, look on the bright side, Taylor. Winslow was destroyed in the attack, and school is cancelled for weeks or even months while they get everything sorted out.

Dad was in an annoyingly good mood lately. I’d survived, and what I’d done had brought a deluge of work and income to the dockworkers union. No matter how much damage the city had taken, and that was comparatively not much next to most Leviathan attacks, no one was going to let the city that destroyed an Endbringer be abandoned. Money was flowing in.

The Mayor wanted me to appear with him on tv. Dad had nixed that immediately but the pressure was still there. My email was filled with death threats and heartfelt thanks. Hate mail demanding answers to why I hadn’t summoned phoenix sooner, why I hadn’t been at previous endbringer battles, why I had been controlling the endbringers all these years despite the fact that I was younger than the Simurgh, and a thousand other things that I couldn’t possibly have been responsible for.

I was getting truly scared. Of the expectations. Of the implications. Of the threats. Of… of everything.

I’d been the plucky healer girl! I was happy with that! Panacea and I had been… had been doing well together. Helping each other with our problems. Now, all of a sudden, I was vital to the survival of humanity and in way over my head.

“What am I doing today dad?” I asked pathetically.

He sighed, joviality fading. “It’s… like juggling people. The Chief Director wanted to meet you but decided that she might be too impersonal. She didn’t want her face to be the one you associated with the PRT or the Protectorate. So if you talk to them, you’ll be meeting director Galloway along with Legend. There’s a Japanese ambassador and a Canadian ambassador both waiting for an attempt to see you and likely attempt to get you to move to their countries. Same with a few European countries. I’m… kind of just using parental rights to keep all of them off you, but I doubt I can forever.”

“You… didn’t actually answer my question,” I said, muffled through the blanket.

“The director of the PRT. They want you. Badly. I… well I don’t want to make decisions for you, but I also don’t think anything I could do would stop you from trying to beat the other two. Even… even my own daughter, how can I say to all those people, “No. She won’t go,” when so many people could be saved if you do?”

I hated him for just a moment then. Hated him for just assuming that I was brave and like Mom and good in a way that I knew I wasn’t. Who was he to tell me what he was sure I would do? What did I owe the world that I should have to fight those monsters? I was a healer.

“Wh-what if I don’t want to? What if I never summon again? Never ever,” I breathed.

He put his hand on the outline of my shoulder. “Taylor. Do you really believe you could do that?”

“Yes!” I lied.

...

“…No. But it was… I was so scared Dad. He held me is his grip. Leviathan! I was a second away from being crushed into paste. If Eidolon hadn’t… and my phoenix… You don’t know how close… everyone dying. Everyone at risk. Only luck saving a few while others died for being in the wrong place or just a hair too slow or... I… I… I..”

I was crying, I realized suddenly.

Dad ignored blanket and scooped me up, holding me close despite the bundle I was wrapped in. I’d never felt so small.

I suddenly wished he would try to stop me. Wished he would fight and gnash his teeth and howl to keep me from ever fighting again. From even healing people. But now, thrice taken from him, perhaps he was resigned to the fact that he was only a paper shield. That he could do nothing that mattered when it came to my fate.

“What do you want, Taylor?” He asked when I’d calmed a little.

That was a good question. What did I want? I’d been happy as a healer. I hated how Emma had used what I’d accomplished as justification for what she had done to me, but if I could put her behind me then I thought that was enough. Now they were calling me Summoner and End Master and other stupid things that just made the pressure all the more real.

They thought I could do it again. In time… in time I thought I could. But god, what if I failed? What if I let them down? I hadn’t gone in expecting to fight an Endbringer. In truth I hadn’t gone in knowing what to expect at all. Seeing people torn apart. Seeing death. I’d never be the same again. I knew that now, no matter how much I could heal. How much I’d seen before.

A part of me wondered if what I’d already done, if losing my only friend for just that few moments and then exploding in anger was enough on its own. I’d done more than any other cape already. I’d facilitated the destruction of an Endbringer. Great! My reward is a shitload of accolades, unwanted fame, and the chance to be thrown at the next one!?

How was that fair?

“I want to… I want… I don’t know what I want. I was… happy as a healer. Just a healer,” I said softly.

“Well… I don’t think you can ever go back to being just a healer. Not after what you’ve accomplished Taylor,” Dad said softly. “What say we go meet the PRT Director and see what she has to say?”

“…okay,” I said, feeling small.

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“Taylor Hebert,” said the Director of the Protectorate North East. The woman presented a smile filled with just enough competence that I could believe she hadn’t been drunk yesterday. Her eyes were a little bloodshot but not as if she were tired. Instead she was exuberant. The type of over-the-top happy that would be offputting if it were anything less than one hundred percent genuine.

“Uhm. Director Galloway?”

“None of that. You can call me Molly. And this is Legend, though I’m sure he needs no introduction!” The woman beamed.

I already firmly believed that the woman might not know how to do anything but beam.

You have no idea how I’ve waited for this day, Taylor Hebert. Or rather, last Saturday,” she said with a gleam in her eyes. “I swear when I heard Leviathan had been killed I didn’t believe it. Not till Legend himself strolled in with tears in his eyes, I didn’t believe it. And now, here you are! The girl who killed an Endbringer! Summoner herself! It’s an honor!” Molly said coming up to me and grabbing my hand in both of hers.

“Molly. I think you’re scaring the girl,” Legend said with a slight chuckle.

The director startled at Legend’s voice before looking back at him. “Oh goodness. I’m sorry,” she said, letting go of my hand.

“I-It’s okay,” I said, uncomfortably. “But… please don’t call me that. I prefer Mana.”

“Mana it is then!”