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It was one minute till they were scheduled to go to Australia when another cape showed up. She was dressed in a somewhat amateur costume: work boots and gloves, stressed jeans, a ratty-looking leather jacket, and a yellow-and-black scarf over her mouth. The most professional part of her outfit was the goggles that hid her eyes.
Amy didn’t greet her. Capes going to Endbringer fights didn’t have a particularly good chance of survival, and Amy would be spending more energy than she had soon, healing everyone who survived the Simurgh. Vicky, outgoing as ever, flew over to say hi. Amy tried to ignore the conversation, but she could never ignore Victoria, so she heard everything. The newcomer’s name was “Buzzy”, she controlled “bees and hornets and stuff”, and she was planning on performing search and rescue. A stupid name, a stupid power, and a pathetic plan. Maybe that wasn’t entirely fair, Amy reflected as the scene changed from chilly Brocton Bay to baking Australia, but she had no energy to care. She just grabbed the wristband offered to her and waited.
Vicky flew back to take her to the medical tents, and Amy forgot about Buzzy.
From the moment she got to Australia, Alexandria was fighting. If not for her perfect memory, she was sure everything would become a blur. Unfortunately, every memory was crystal clear. Alexandria had managed to hit the Simurgh, allowing it to catch her in a fist and throw her through some unprepared cape, splattering blood all over Alexandria and a different cape who had been trying to protect the first. Alexandria had missed the Simurgh and nearly punched off the head of another flying brute, leaving him shaken and teary-eyed, while Alexandria had to get back to the fight.
And all of it was planned. Each near miss shaking the will of the defenders, each brutal death to friendly fire putting a metaphorical knife in their metaphorical hearts: it was all planned. Each and every time, intentional cruelty crushing hope and honor. Even without the Scream, Alexandria thought some would still be driven insane. Such was how every battle against the Simurgh went.
Yet this was not every battle.
The first hint that something was different came with all the subtly of a Siberian’s punch to the face.
“All forces,” Dragon’s voice issued from all the wristbands, “do not engage the giant spider, unless it opens hostilities. Try to avoid it if you see it. The giant spider is not a confirmed Endbringer. I repeat, the giant spider is not believed to be an Endbringer and is to be treated as a neutral party until further notice.”
Alexandria allowed a slight grimace as she fought. A giant spider the size of an Endbringer would be frightening to most. The fact that it sounded like Dragon wasn’t sure where it came from was even more concerning to Alexandria. Was it a new trigger? That was the best case. The worst case was if it was a plot of the Simurgh. Unfortunately, that was more likely than a new trigger.
“We have big spiders, but not that big!” Alexandria heard an Australian with a particularly booming voice say. She looked over at him, and followed his gaze. Sure enough, there the giant spider was.
She saw a lot in the half-second she spent looking at it. The short description had given little indication of its true size; it was around two stories tall and could barely hide itself behind the buildings it skittered between. It was quite clearly bigger than the Simurgh or Leviathan, easily big enough to be a fourth Endbringer. In terms of shape, it was closer to a tarantula than a daddy longlegs; its legs were long, but not overly so in comparison to its body. Unlike a tarantula, it was not hairy, but was covered in some sort of deep black chitin, which looked more like armor than something biological. It moved with disturbing speed, getting ever closer to the Simurgh.
Alexandria ignored it. It felt so wrong to do so. There was something significantly larger than most changers which could easily be an Endbringer, and they weren’t doing anything about it.
For the best, as it turned out.
The giant spider stopped moving close to the Simurgh. It wasn’t right under her, but it was close. Alexandria kept an eye on it. It was in a good position to attack some of the most active and effective defenders and Alexandria would be ready.
The giant spider jumped.
It was a blur in the air, even to Alexandria, moving far faster than it had before. It collided silently with the Simurgh.
Alexandria heard whoops.
“Show her how Australians fight!” the Australian from earlier shouted.
“You said it wasn’t an Australian,” someone standing nearby pointed out.
“That was before it attacked the Simurgh,” the Australian cape dismissed.
The spider had latched onto the Simurgh. It was larger than she was by a fair margin, and had sunk its mandibles deep into her torso. The Simurgh turned her head to look at it with the faintest expression of surprise.
Alexandria’s heart nearly stopped. Was this it? Was the spider something that could win this fight, that the Simurgh couldn’t foresee? Alexandria ordered the brutes and blasters with enough finesse to not hit the spider to keep trying to hit the Simurgh.
Dozens of capes acted, swooping in or sending blasts to try to damage the Endbringer’s upper half. The Simurgh’s debris field sped up, rubble flying with blurring speed to block attacks and to hit those who were coming for her. The largest pieces slammed into the spider with brutal force.
The spider seemed unfazed. It had started making spider-silk, though that silk was black as the space between stars, and using its free legs to throw loops of the thick thread around the Simurgh.
The Simurgh began struggling, using her hands and wings to try to hit the spider hard enough to knock it off her. She also began flying down to slam the spider into the ground, which forced the defenders to stop attacking her.
That all just made the spider laugh, a terrible sound that made all the capes, even Alexandria, freeze.
“Little morsel, do you fear me?” the spider asked in a bone-chilling hissing voice. “Do not! Surrender to the Silence and to my maw. When you satiate me, there will be no more pain or suffering or striving, just the end.”
As it spoke, the spider had continued throwing the black silk around the Simurgh. Meanwhile, the Simurgh had been slamming the spider into the ground with increasing force. Now, the Simurgh was creating a growing crater and Alexandria could see all the gathered ground-based capes swaying or falling down as the earth shook from the force.
And then the shaking slowed and stopped. The Simurgh, almost completely encased in the black webbing, stopped moving. The debris field fell to the ground. The spider got to four of its feet and began to use the other four to wrap the Simurgh beneath it more completely.
Alexandria could hear people laughing and cheering and proclaiming the silence of the Simurgh. Alexandria just stared at the spider and where the Simurgh had vanished. Was it done? Was the Simurgh dead? She felt like crying tears of joy even though she knew the tears would not come, and even though nothing was truly confirmed. They had been fighting the Hopekiller. And now there was hope! What had even happened? What had gone wrong? What had gone right?
The spider laughed again, and then bit deeply into the black cocoon that encased the Simurgh.
The spider could speak. Alexandria could ask for confirmation from it. She floated closer.
The spider did not acknowledge her.
“Excuse me?” Alexandria tried.
“Speak, if you must, mortal child,” the spider hissed. It did not sound particularly friendly.
Alexandria was floating by its head, now, which was only a little smaller than she was. The spider had not pulled its mandibles from the cocoon, and was pushing what looked like a proboscis in.
“Is the Simurgh dead?” Alexandria asked.
“My dinner?” the spider clarified. Alexandria nodded slowly and it gave an awful chuckle. “How can something be dead when it was never alive? For now, it still functions. But all things I devour end, and so too will this.”
Did it not know what the Simurgh was? Had the spider attacked her not as a hero but as a hungry creature? Was it not motivated by the plight of the people of Canberra? Or was it something new, something that knew nothing? Had it come across the city or been thrown into existence here, and been moved by their plight? Had it attacked the Simurgh to protect the innocent without knowing anything else?
David had flown up behind her, and he spoke.
“What are you?” he asked. He was frowning at the spider, tense as if in a standoff.
The spider hissed. Alexandria thought she could hear notes of irritation.
“I am the gloomweaver,” the spider answered. “I am endings and destruction and hunger. I am she who was first to walk on eight legs, greatest of those who came from the Great Silence into the Song. And I am very, very hungry. Leave me to my first meal in millennia, little souls.”
Well. That raised even more questions. Clearly this spider did not think it was new. And it was very focused on hunger and its meal. Or her meal, since she called herself ‘she’. Regardless of the spider’s gender, calling herself the “first to walk on eight legs” was… improbable. And the “endings and destruction and hunger” didn’t sound ideal. The Endbringers were things of destruction. They had brought numerous endings to capes, civilians, and even cities. But none of them had been hungry. Was it better or worse if a powerful thing was hungry?
David went to speak, but Alexandria held up a hand in front of him and shook her head.
“Later,” she whispered. “Let’s go.”
She led the way up to float above one of the still-standing buildings. David, muttering under his breath, followed. As Alexandria turned to stare at the spider, he spoke.
“I don’t trust this Gloomweaver,” David grumbled. “I don’t think it’s a hero.”
“She, Eidolon,” Alexandria corrected. “And it doesn’t matter if she feels like being a hero or not: she killed an Endbringer. She is a hero. The greatest hero of all, by some measures.”
They discussed it a little more. Argued, really. Alexandria only paid half her attention to David, keeping her eyes on Gloomweaver so she could see when she finished her meal. Once she did, Alexandria planned to go back down and try to restart the conversation, hopefully without David asking Gloomweaver what she was again.
Somehow, Gloomweaver disappeared without her noticing, leaving nothing but the crater and the lack of a Simurgh to show that she had ever been there.
“Where’s your wristband?” Amy asked. That was the first thing she noticed about the newcomer from the Bay. Bee girl or whatever. Her wristband was gone.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “At some point, I realized it was gone. It was all a blur. Dragon said I wasn’t in there long enough to be affected, before Ziz got silenced.”
“That’s good,” Vicky smiled, floating over Amy’s shoulder. “No problems, then. Right, Buzzy?”
“Well…” Buzzy looked down. “It does mean I was unaccounted for while the big spider was around. They asked me if I was it, and I don’t know if they were convinced I’m not.”
“We do have spiders in Brockton Bay, I guess,” Vicky joked. “Maybe they’re connected.”
“Our homegrown spiders don’t mind bees flying around, so I’ve seen a few things,” Buzzy said shaking her head. “I’ve never seen a spider anywhere that big in the Bay or heard them talk about having one that big around. I don’t even think it would fit in one of the warehouses!”
“You’ve been spying on the Silkies?” Vicky asked eagerly, ready as ever to make a new friend. “Are you planning on fighting them? Can you tell me where they hide?”
“The Silken Web? Fight them?” Buzzy asked, taking a step back. She shook her head again. “I’ve seen too much to do that.”
“What do you mean?” Vicky lifted up a little higher in anger. “As heroes, it’s our duty to protect the innocent from all evil! How could you leave people defenseless like that?”
“You could at least pass on information to the Protectorate,” Amy pointed out sharply.
“You only say that because you haven’t seen what I have,” Buzzy insisted. “The Silken Web isn’t a gang; it’s a cult. And after today, they will get converts.”
“What do you mean, after today?” Vicky asked uneasily. It was probably wise to be uneasy. The Bay didn’t need their own version of the Fallen.
“They worship a giant spider goddess.” Buzzy shrugged a third time to Amy’s irritation. “A giant spider around the right size just killed the Hopekiller. You can probably connect the dots.”
“That’s not good,” Vicky muttered. “Come on, Amy, let’s go tell mom.”
Even if Buzzy wasn’t a real hero, she had given them at least some good information.