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I'm not surprised by coincidence anymore, not after spending enough of my time with Michael. He had just helped me finish a job for a client whose son had been kidnapped by some red court thug in Chicago. We traced them all the way back to my client’s hometown in Morris. I should have known something more was going to happen when Michael was conveniently heading in the same direction. He was a big help chopping the head off a vamp who was 10 seconds away from having a wizard flavored Capri-Sun. And with that all over with we were heading back to Chicago. It was relaxing driving with the windows open on a hot night down suburban streets. And I should have known that nothing is ever that nice or easy.
I was woken up by the truck bouncing me up and down in the seat. Michael is usually a good driver, but you never know with Illinois potholes. Out the window instead of a sleepy Chicago suburb, I saw everything bouncing and shifting. Michael slowed the truck to a stop as we watched houses built to survive Chicago winters creak and collapse from an earthquake strong enough to feel in a moving car. That just doesn’t happen in Chicagoland. The worst quake I’d ever heard of was 10 years back and I think it knocked over my landlady’s trash can.
We sat there in the front seat stunned for a second, partially waiting if there were going to be aftershocks. Instead, a shrieking siren blared over the entire town. Since it's no longer the cold war that could mean only one thing. Endbringer. In my mind I recalled with dread the emergency information. Earthquakes and Behemoth go together like plague and rats.
Michael got out of the cab to strap Amoracchius to his belt. “Mike, You sure this fight is a good idea?” I’m not one to shy away from a fight that needs fighting. But I’d put the Endbringers only a step lower than Mab on the ‘things I can take in a fight’ list. I gave myself a pat down, my blasting rod was tied into my duster, my force rings were ok, but I’d used a few of them earlier in the day, and my mother’s pentacle hung heavy over my sweaty chest. Squaring my shoulders I leaned back into the truck to grab my staff.
“There’s people need help in any case” he said moving back to the rear and grabbing a crow bar.
“You gonna whack him in the shins with that thing?” I gave him a sideways look.
“I’m a carpenter, there’s more to help with here than fighting. And I don’t even see him yet.” He grinned a little bit.
“Don’t you go making jokes, I’m supposed to be the funny one.” I quipped back at him. A guy in chainmail armor cracking bad puns is just weird. He’s usually a lot more serious than this but I had to guess he was worried too.
He started walking towards the closest fallen house just a few driveways down from where we stopped. “Come on, not everyone is getting out of their houses.” Lots of houses were emptying, but not those that had their roof currently in the living room. Nowadays we’re taught to get yourself to a shelter first and worry about helping others in the aftermath, better one victim than two. Michael, of course, didn’t believe in that.We jogged over to the closest collapsed house.
There was a teenager standing in what used to be his living room trying to shift a snapped wooden beam off of his mother. When we got close we could hear her crying in pain and telling him to “Just head for the shelter, leave me here.” Sounded like this kid ignored the same pamphlets we did.
“Budge over kid, you could use an extra shoulder here.” Michael said as he and I took the kids place under a long beam. He moved quickly enough towards his mom. Most people tend to heed strong confident commands in an emergency, especially from a scary looking six and a half foot tall dude in leather and his chainmailed friend. The two of us managed to lever the beam and a good portion of the drywall off of the crying woman while her son pulled her out. She half crawled and was half dragged to the top of her ruined house. Crying and hugging her son.
“Son, your mom’s legs got crushed a little under that pile.” Michael said examining her ankles. “It’s probably more than a sprain. But it doesn’t look life threatening. Do you think you can carry her to the nearest shelter?” His smooth voice and confidence calmed them down somewhat.
“Its only a block. I think I can carry her that far.” The boy said lifting his mother up.
“Let me tie her leg up, just a sec.We’ll come with you.” Michael took a piece of wood off the ground and started tying up her leg around the ankle. I didn’t really think we had the time, but when Michael does something he does it right.
It was only a few minutes walk to the shelter. Looking around I saw smoke rising a mile or so away. That must be where Behemoth was surfacing. I saw a silhouette of a man swoop in from the direction of Chicago. Where he stopped above the rising plume of smoke he let loose with a torrent of something so large and bright I had to shield my eyes from more than a mile away. From the other direction, south I think, there was a flash of light and a glowing man-shaped star all but appeared above our heads and flew the rest of the way towards the other flying man. The Heroes had arrived.
Our jaunt to the nearest shelter was under the cover of flashing lights and cracks of capes joining the fray against Behemoth. The entrance was sunken in the thick concrete of an overpass’ sidewalls. Outside were 3 PRT troopers. They were in faceless matching uniforms with enough gear on them to for a whole police department
“Thanks for helping with the civies guys,” said one of them as the other two helped the mother and son into the shelter. “I don’t think I’ve heard of you capes before though. You from outta state?”
“Not really, just don’t make the news a lot. Most of the cape scene just kind of passses us by.” Michael said.
“If you haven’t checked in with the PRT they’ve got some new stuff, Dragon came up with it just for today.” The officer turned to his buddy, “Mark, do you have any of those armbands left?”
“Just three” Mark replied, and he handed them to his superior.
The armbands were little black boxes on a webbing band. It looked like that had a speaker over 2 buttons. He showed us one in his hand. “From what I’m told you just push both buttons and say your name, and they’ll recognize you. You’ll get updates on everything going on. The first button will let you send short messages. Hitting both buttons and saying override will let you get emergency messages out to everyone. Be very careful with that.” He handed us each one. Michael put his on. Mine just went kinda *phut* and started smoking out of the speaker holes. The PRT officers gave me a look through their visors.God I just love technology sometimes. “I’ll just follow the buddy system then.” I said.
When we were out of earshot I had to needle Michael. “So what’s your superhero name? Captain Faith? King Arthur? The Knight of Love?” I jabbed him in the ribs with my elbow.
He just smiled and pushed the buttons and said into the speaker “The Fist of God.” I was sure my elbow hurt more than his ribs probably did, damn armor.
A voice came out of the speaker, “Fist of God acknowledged. Notification Band A56 activated. What specialties do you have?”
“Search and rescue. Point us at anyone who needs help.” Michael talked into his wrist. I made sure to stand more than a few steps away.
We moved on to the next house in trouble. 3 people were trapped in an interior room where rubble blocked the door. Michael and I tried pressing our shoulders to the debris but it wouldn’t budge. A second quake hit while we were inside. What was left of the ceiling groaned and a crack formed in the heavy joist. “Everybody stand away from the door.” I yelled and pointed my closed fist at them. In my mind I called Forzare and the ring on my middle finger expended all of the kinetic energy I’d been saving up. With a crack the base of the ton of debris in front of the door collapsed sideways, freeing up enough space to squeeze a young family out. The father grabbed his little girl in his arms, holding her close we all walked out of the house and stopped. Staring at the unnatural disaster.
It couldn’t have been more than a mile off but we could all see the horned crown in Behemoth’s head poking above the short skyline of houses and trees. There were numerous little figures darting around him in a cloud. Some of them were glowing, some shot out lasers or smoke or strange fields of twinkling lights. He ignored all of them. It was like watching a tornado coming towards you. The only time I’d been more awed was seeing the Queens themselves readying for battle.
There was a flash of light in Behemoth’s horned face followed by a dull boom. Behemoth looked staggered, but recovered quickly. He moved in a different direction than before, obviously trying to avoid whatever power could stymie him for even a second. His lone red eye was terrifyingly pointed in our direction.
I grabbed the father on the shoulder, “Which way to the shelter?” He pointed directly behind us, the same direction Behemoth was now facing. “No good, Behemoth will wreck it if it’s not sealed. Head out that way,” I pointed perpendicular to the endbringers path now. You’ll probably be safer.” With the little girl in her father’s arms the three of them started running away parallel to the endbringer’s current path of ruin. Hopefully endbringers wouldn’t turn anymore.
Michael tapped the button on his armband, “We sent some civilians out away from Behemoth’s trail. He’s headed right for us.” Michael stopped for a second.
“Michael we gotta move. I don’t wanna stand around and become endbringer popcorn.”
Michael asked “Where’s the next one who needs us.” Into the armband.
The little robot voice told us where to find a downed cape. The first one we found was towards Behemoth. Putting us right under the gun to get him out quickly before the big guy arrived. We found him quickly. He looked like he left high school a week ago. What I imagine was normally a bright and jaggedly patterned jumpsuit was covered in dust and torn from the building he’d apparently fallen through. His legs were trapped, crushed by wood and 3 stories of debris.
Michael was the first to get to his side, “Hey son, what’s your name?” Years of being a family man in a house of rambunctious kids had left Michael with the uncanny ability to calm anyone down by talking to them. It worked especially well on anyone more than 10 years younger than him.
“Its Azure Dash.” He gasped out, grimacing against what had to be incredible pain. I could relate. My hand was still clumsy and twisted from burning it to hell against a nest of Black Court vampires. I could still use my hand thanks to Butters, my back alley doctor, and Lash, my former infernal head parasite. But that was a unique situation I wouldn’t expect anyone else to be so fortuitous, or unfortunate. I’d be more worried if I did. I didn’t think he’d be able to walk once we got him out either.
“I’m Michael,” he said bending down to get closer and inspect how Az was stuck. “And this is-, um.” He looked up at me, “Are we supposed to have secret identities here?”
“Michael, for pete sake I’m in the phone book. Sorry Az,” I said, “We’re a little new to this. Can I call you Az?” He nodded dumbly back at me. “See look, we’re not good at this cape thing. It’s just a weekend gig really. I’m Harry, this is Michael , were gonna rescue your ass, so just sit tight.”
It’s hard to take a moment with Behemoth breathing down your neck. But we had to be smart about this.The easiest way to get him out would be for Michael to lift the far end while I moved the debris off the beam. A precise “Ventas Servitas” moved a veritable ton of wood and drywall. There was also a nice *phut* and the band on Azure Dash’s arm said stopping “Azure Dash D-eas-.” Michael came and lifted Az’s legs out of the crush. They weren’t pretty.I’m no doctor, but there aren't supposed to be any extra bends between the knee and the ankle. And unfortunately he was one of those tall highschool kids.
“Az, do you know where a retreat point is? I’ll have to carry you” He nodded so I picked him up, laying his arm over my shoulder. It was tough trying to juggle him on one side, and my staff on the other. With the young man leaning heavily on my shoulder I started moving. Only to see another group of civilians struggling to clear their way out of the area. I knew what my friend was thinking before he did anything. “Michael, I’ll hook up with you later. Stay safe or Charity might eat me.” With a nod we parted ways.
Azure Dash directed me through down several streets, twisting mostly the same direction. Unfortunately the sounds of battle grew closer as we advanced. The fight travelling faster than we were with hobbling steps. We’d sadly just come to a larger open area, several streets meeting in a wide traffic circle when I saw how close we’d actually gotten. Behemoth stood not a quarter mile away, and still coming right at us.
“Ah, shit, shit, shit…” Az was repeating from my shoulder. He’d barely been able to help me get him this far, he wasn’t going to be much help.
His cape pursuers must have been taking a breather, because I couldn’t see any of them. The endbringer took several lumbering steps in our direction, ramping up my terror levels immeasurably. I all but dropped Az in my haste to grab my blasting rod from inside my coat. He moaned on the ground clutching his leg as I leveled my blasting rod on Behemoth’s glowing red eye. It felt literally like poking a dragon in the eye with a stick. It felt slightly less so when I yelled “Pyrofuego!” and a great gout of flame as wide as me shot out across the scant distance left between us.
I don’t know if I expected it to do anything, but Behemoth didn’t stop or even pause in its steps. The flames simply flowed over him. They did however attract the attention of the other heroes. Several of them converged on the crossroads from multiple directions. The closest to us being a flying man in a burlap costume that reminded me a little too much of the sort of frockery I had to wear for White Council meetings, I recognized him as Myrddin. With a swing of his staff a cloud of fire exploded out of a hole in the air. It affected Behemoth about as much as mine had. At least mine was bigger. I had to choke back a snigger that would have been in poor taste.
Instead Myrddin gestured once more with his gnarled wooden staff and a rip opened in the air between the three of us and Behemoth. Out of it spewed a foul black substance that crested in a wave and hardened into a wall blocking Behemoth from sight. “We didn’t think there was anyone left in the area, you gave us all quite a fright.” Myrddin said almost calmly. “Let’s see about getting somewhere a little safer than right in front of him.” The other self-professed wizard grabbed Azure Dash’s left side while I took his right. Two people moving a third was more than twice as fast as one. It was only slightly awkward since we both carried a staff in our outside hands. We managed to get around a corner before Behemoth pushed through and stomped right over where we’d been only a minute ago.
We were met by a young man wearing a garish display of spandex. “Holy shit boss, I didn’t know your power let you do clones!!”
“Shuffle, not the time. Take this young man to the triage center.” He looked annoyed, but deferred and told us where to lay Az down on the street. With a soft woosh both of them were gone leaving a circle of grassy field instead of asphalt where they had disappeared.
It was a strange moment getting saved by a posing wizard. I doubt any of the fuddy duddies would ever be so civic minded. If even tenth of the council made any impact like capes did, we'd probably cut the crime rate in half. Too bad that would kind of blow the lid off of the whole supernatural masquerade.
“Harry Dresden, “ I said reaching to shake his hand. He took it before he’d even processed what my name was. It was a good firm handshake before I felt the telltale spark of magical power even out across us. “Wizard PI” I finished. His handshake went slack in surprise.
Myrddin went to rub his temples. “Dammit, can you NOT tell anyone else in the white council, please.” Based on the fact that he appeared to be under 50 I had to assume that Myrddin was still an apprentice to someone. One of those precocious young whippersnappers like me.
“You wanna tell me how a wizard winds up working for the feds?” I ventured.
“Uh, this really isn’t the time for that kind of story. We have an endbringer to stop.” Myrddin started briskly down the street and I followed. If he didn’t want a tag along he should have flown.
“I more meant all the computers.”
“Oh!” Myrddin stopped for a second. “Not easily, I’ve got a mountain of actual pa-” He was cut off by a clap that cut through the air. A dark costumed cape had just flown right into Behemoth’s chest attempting to push it back. Several other flyers tried similar with various booms and flashes following along. Some of them lacked whatever kept the dark flyer safe and got too close. Their shocked, burnt, and crushed forms fell out of the air like paper ash. “Fill you in later,” Myrddin’ tone switched from embarrassed kid to confident commander I’d heard most often out of Captain Luccio.
“Where to then?” I asked eating up the distance between us with long-shanked strides.
“We try to delay or divert him. You don’t have an armband I take it?” I shook my head. “Right, well he’s headed for the Dresden nuclear plant and for some reason I like the Illinois river without 3 eyed fish.” I paused on the name. “Get too close and he’ll fry you in too many different ways. Even magic shields aren’t great against that many different forms of energy.” I hmm’d in agreement. My own shield bracelet was mostly good against physical force since most bad guys tended to try and shoot or stab me, but more energetic attacks required more concentration and I don’t feel like I’d fare well against a malevolent natural disaster.
“You got any parahuman powers on top of the magic?” He asked me not even turning around but continuing down the street to what I could now see as a quick set-up of men and women in costumes buzzing about all over computer and other fancy equipment I’d be sure to fry before I even got out a ‘hello’
“Nope,” I said, “Just some evocation, mostly fire.”
“That’s just a bad match-up to Behemoth.” His voice soured. “Are you going to be alright around the equipment?”
I shook my head, “Not without some prep time we don’t have.” I waved him on without me. “Just tell me what the deal is and I’ll help however I can.”
“Go see Revel, she can give you a better assignment,” he turned and did a strangle little hop-float over to collection of eggheads buzzing around all the computers. “And stay away from Dragon’s robots! She got mighty pissed off when I fried ‘em the first time” He shouted back. A couple eggheads gave him a strange look.
“Revel…” I muttered under my breath, “She’s the one with a... flashlight?” I took off towards the biggest knot of people by the front lines.
I found Revel on the edge of an open park space. Behemoth was plodding down the road directly towards it. It looked like the easiest place to coordinate the most number of people without all the short buildings getting in the way. She was pointing and yelling like a commander out of any World War II movie when I arrived. She pointed at me when I arrived, “You the great and powerful Oz Myrddin told me about?”
“Uh..,” I paused, “yes? I’m the wizard.” I was going to have a talk with Myrddin about his cape name ideas.
“He says you’re not much use directly,” I sighed, “but you can do some decent shaker effects.”
“Shaker?” I puzzled.
“Anything you can do to control the battlefield itself.” She quirked an eye at me. “You’ve got to be pretty new. Come see us at the Protectorate when this is over, you’re gonna get yourself killed by some upstart villain i you don’t even know your cape classifications.” She took another second and pointed with her hand holding a lantern out to a group gathering in the parking lot of a bank. “You’re with Shuffle’s group. Behemoth is gonna come right up to the square, and we’ll hit him with everything we’ve got. He’ll have more info.” And with a dismissive wave she was again surrounded by other capes commanding them to different places.
Shuffle arranged us out of sight of behemoth. His group did support and rescue, moving people and setting up barriers to give any capes even a few more seconds to escape Behemoth’s deadly presence.
The wait was interminable. I kept poking my head around the corner and all I could see was a tree and a statue in the square. But I could hear the slow pounding footsteps. Getting just a little bit louder with every dull thud. They must have pulled back to the position while I was pulling Az along. It was an incongruous image, Behemoth coming towards us, with what would be the toughest fight of many of our lives, and we were waiting in a strip mall parking lot.
It must have lasted only a few minutes but it felt much longer. We heard over Shuffle’s armband “1 minute to engagement.” In a cool female voice I assumed to be Dragon. Who I was supposed to avoid. I patted myself down; more than half my rings spent, pendant still safe, shield bracelet jangling softly, staff in my right hand, blasting rod in my left. I was loaded for supernatural bear and I really didn’t think it was enough. I tensed from my legs to my shoulders ready to run wherever was needed when I was startled by Dragon’s voice again from Shuffle’s arm. “Civilians in the area. Repeat. Civilians in the area.”
I peeked around the corner. And on the opposite side of the square stood a family of 5 being led by Michael. As he came into the square I looked up and must have finally seen Behemoth who was bearing down on them with not even a football field between them. He pointed and the family took off running towards Revel’s line of capes. Two children and an old man being hurried by what must have been the parents.
Michael drew his sword from his belt and squared up to Behemoth. Amoracchius shone brightly in the evening air.I could hear him shout clearly with a supernatural ring in his voice, “In nomine Dei! Sana quod saucium!” and he charged straight for Behemoth’s shins. All hell broke loose among the capes assembled on the square with Michael setting off the engagement just moments before they were all prepared.
Ten minutes later Behemoth was retreating underground. The intervening time was all a blur to me. Only a few moments stood out in my memory and I was going to cherish them more than my Star Wars posters. The greatest was just a glimpse of Michael carving into Behemoth’s whole leg, Amoracchius glowing brighter than a firework and horrible lightning coruscating over Michael’s armor leaving him untouched. I wanted that printed and hung up in a fine art gallery for how beautiful it was.
Thanks to Hyper over on the #cauldron discord for his beta work.
I've been sitting on this damn thing way too long and it feels to good to get it out of my in progress folder.