No incidents had occurred while Dragon was loading her backup to her core system.  She had to admit she was relieved.  A great deal could happen in thirty minutes.

Heh, yeah. The Undersiders’ heist in this Arc was even quicker, for that matter.

She turned her thoughts to the data that was uploading from the skirmish at the Brockton Bay headquarters.  The last event in the agent system’s recollection was of her piloting the Cawthorne through the gift shop window.  To see what happened next, she had to review the surveillance tapes.

Good luck.

She’d attacked the Undersiders, attempting to incapacitate them and bring them into custody, had captured only one, Skitter, and then had let the girl go when the untested gun had started to overload.

Yep! Shame you don’t remember telling her you’d be in touch.

Some sort of lightning cannon, ionizing a channel through the air to control the lightning’s path.  She had been forced by the rules her maker had imposed on her to sacrifice herself for the human.

Eesh, sounds like she didn’t actually want to.

Eidolon had reported that Leviathan descended into the Atlantic Ocean as he made his retreat from Brockton Bay.  He had sustained heavy injuries, which led Dragon to think he would delay his next appearance slightly.

Nighty night.

She adjusted the window and checked the data.  As was his habit, Leviathan would likely lurk in the deepest recesses of the Ocean to mend.

Imagine being a deep sea diver and accidentally coming across a sleeping Leviathan (that is, if he needs to sleep) in the Mariana Trench.

The Simurgh was currently directly three hundred and fifteen kilometers above Spain, in the Earth’s thermosphere.

Not a bad altitude, for sure. It’s officially in space, having reached more than three times the mostly-arbitrary altitude considered the edge of space by the FAI.

Certainly higher than any ordinary bird could reach.

It was the Simurgh that offered the most clues about what the Endbringers did in their periods of dormancy.  

Makes sense. It’s a lot more visible up there, even if it might be hard to spot.

I wonder if some astrologers have incorporated the Simurgh into their horoscope making. “Mercury is in Aries and the Simurgh is in Sagittarius, so you’ll have a hell of a day.”

(Won’t be as consistent as the other celestial bodies, as far as being in the same constellation for differently placed astrologers goes.)

The Endbringer winged a lazy orbit around Earth, beyond the limits of conventional weapons, and the highest resolution camera images showed she barely moved.  Her eyes were wide open, but they did not move to track any cloud formations.

It seems the assumption that the Simurgh would be birdlike was accurate.

She was, despite appearances, asleep.

Ah, that answers that. Also, it just occurred to me that it didn’t seem like Leviathan had any way to close his eyes, so that hypothetical deep sea diver might not realize he was asleep. Not that him being asleep would make him much less scary of a sight.

Dragon surmised it was a form of hibernation, the Simurgh’s broad ‘wings’ absorbing light and ambient radiation as a form of nourishment while she recovered.

So what do Behemoth and Leviathan nourish themself on, if they need to? Magma and water?

Also, why is “wings” in quotes? What are they really if they’re not really wings, technically? Flight-ineffective growths that she doesn’t actually need to fly?

Then again, flying isn’t a requirement for something to be considered a wing. Just look at chickens and penguins and other flightless birds.

Behemoth, location unknown.

Ah, okay, she was actually talking about the Endbringers. Yeah, if the threat classes are like the S, A-F system, then Endbringer’s being S class sounds about right. I mean, at least if you don’t know about whatever threat Jack Slash is helping along.

This’ll probably give us some interesting information about them.

When injured, it was his habit to descend into the earth and burrow deeper than his enemies were able to go, and experiments run on the trace earth and minerals he shed on his arrivals suggested he habitually stayed close to the Earth’s core.

Huh. I suppose living in the mantle or upper core makes sense for a lava monster.

This is deep lore.

Seismic data hinted at his current locations, but there was little beyond her analytic data to suggest where he would appear next.

Yeeah, even if he’s under a particular part of the world, I suppose you never know whether he’ll decide to come up for air before he does. And being close to the core comes with being practically equidistant from almost everywhere on the planet. (I’m sort of assuming that his burrowing is ridiculously quick, much like Leviathan’s swimming.)

Also, I’m now imagining Behemoth more like a mole than the vaguely bull-like appearance I was previously picturing. I still think he’s likely to have horns, though.

His last attack had been in November.  He wouldn’t appear for another five weeks at a minimum, unless he deviated from the Endbringer patterns.

So there’s usually at least eight months between each time an Endbringer shows up?

Still, he was due to appear sooner than later.

Whether anyone likes it or not.

Dragon turned her attention away from the audio and video streams.  She checked the records, and true enough, Marquis was on record as the killer of Iron Rain.  It was impossible to verify the rest of the story.

Oh, huh, I guess she doesn’t know. I guess she can’t be kept up to date on everything that happens everywhere in Canada and the U.S., especially when it doesn’t involve the Protectorate or the Guild all that heavily.

She composed a message with a general transcript of the conversation and sent it to Amy Dallon’s mother.  It was better that the girl was warned about any potential danger.

Ah, right, I guess she was talking primarily about the Allfather’s revenge portion.

She might have devoted more attention to the subject, but she was already falling behind.  She moved on to her other responsibilities.  The Class S threats.

Hm. I guess that means Endbringers are class A? Or does this operate off a game-like rating scale, with S at the top and A-F below? I doubt that – the Birdcage may be well-designed, but I doubt it contains anyone as dangerous as, or more dangerous than, an Endbringer.

That said, maybe these “other responsibilities” are one layer further out than I was just thinking? As in “other than checking on the Birdcage” rather than “other than checking on the newest inmates”.

With that said, let’s get back to this!

I received a whole bunch of asks last night, some of them about this Interlude, but due to the sheer amount I think I’ll hold off on answering those for now. I’ll finish the Interlude first and then do the asks tomorrow. (This post is pretty much just an acknowledgement that I’ve seen them.)

“I see,” Lung rumbled in his low, accented voice, “Allfather no longer leads the Empire.  He died and was succeeded by his second in command, Kaiser.” 

“That’s some consolation.  Still, I worry.  He might have made arrangements.”

“Perhaps.”

Dang it, Lung, that’s what I was gonna say.

“I suppose I will have to wait until another villain from Brockton Bay comes here to hear further news, yeah?”

Lung’s response was unintelligible.

“Tell me of my daughter?  What did she look like?”

It’s clear that Marquis does care about Amy and her safety.

A slow smile spread across Lung’s face, but it did not reach his eyes, “This no longer interests me.  If you wish me to say more, we should negotiate.”

Aaand there we go.

“Hmmm,” Lung spoke, “The healer.  A young heroine in New Wave.  Brown haired, like you.

There we go.

When I was in custody, my flesh blackening and falling off, they had her come in and mend the worst of it.  As I understand it, she does not patrol as the others do.”

SKITTEEEEER!

😉

I wonder if Panacea is aware that Skitter was responsible for that. I mean, they wouldn’t have told her, but maybe she would’ve recognized some of the characteristics of the injuries, at least in retrospect.

Marquis leaned back, sighed.  “Good god.  A healer.”

Not quite what you had imagined for your daughter, huh?

Lung did not respond right away.  “Is this simple sentiment?  A father caring about his daughter?”

Marquis shook his head, “Not entirely.  I have some reasons to be concerned.  In one of my fights with Empire Eighty-Eight, I executed one particularly irritating young woman.  Iron Rain, I think her name was?  No matter.  It turned out she was Allfather’s daughter.

Ouch. Yeeah, if the Empire finds out about Amy’s origins, that might cause some trouble.

The man called a meeting, and swore he would wait until my daughter was of similar age, that I grew equally fond of her as he had his own daughter, then murder her.  So I knew how he felt.”

Yeah… let’s hope they don’t find out. Allfather doesn’t seem to be around anymore, but some of the former Empire members might still want to carry this out.

“I do not know anyone by such a name.”

“The group of heroes who put me in here… While I was awaiting my court date, I heard they had custody of my little girl.”

At least they seem to have taken good care of her.

“I would not know.”

But I suppose Dragon would.

“No?” Marquis put down his tea.  “This is disappointing.”

Lung didn’t respond.  Instead, he took another drink, reached for the one remaining croissant and tore off a piece to dip in the butter at one side of his plate.

“The Brockton Bay Brigade.  Are they still active?”

At this point, Wildbow seems to be pulling out the references in part for the benefit of those who didn’t get it at “Amelia”. On top of it being what the character of Marquis is naturally inclined to ask about, I mean.

“I do not know this group.”

Marquis frowned.  “My daughter, she would be… what year is it?  2010?”

Almost.

“2011,” Lung replied.

“She would be seventeen.  If she had powers, they might have something to do with bone?”  Marquis raised his hand, slashed his thumbnail across his index finger, and a needle-thin rapier blade of bone speared out of the wound.  The blade retracted into his finger, and the cut sealed shut.

Huh, that’s a pretty neat power. Seems Panacea primarily got the “cut sealed shut” part, though, and the ability to make other people’s bones stop hurting.