A pre-battle speech from Legend.  It almost made the lousiest, most painful and dangerous situations I’d put up with since putting on my costume worth it.

Hah! What did I say? Absolutely a fangirl when presented with the right people.

“But you should know your chances going in.  Given the statistics from our previous encounters with this beast, a ‘good day’ still means that one in four of the people in this room will probably be dead before this day is done.”

Or not.

Yeeeah. Extermination, here we come.

Yet more were continuing to arrive when Armsmaster and Legend turned away from their conversation and walked up to the front of the room.  The din in the room quieted, and every set of eyes was on them.

Looks like we’re about to start the meeting.

Legend cleared his throat.  He had the kind of voice that you listened to, “We owe thanks to Dragon and Armsmaster for their early alert.  We’ve had time to gather, and that means we have just a few more minutes to prepare and brief for Leviathan’s arrival, instead of jumping straight into the fray as we arrive.

Leviathan. Good ol’ monstrous name. I guess we’re up against a particularly sea-based Endbringer?

With this advantage, some luck, teamwork and hard effort from everyone, I hold out hope that this could be one of the good days.”

Yes, hopefully.

Unfortunately hope is sometimes kinda hard to come by in this story.

Sundancer glanced at me, noted my presence, then she seemed to go out of her way to avoid looking at me again.

What? Why are you avoiding Taylor? Did you get in trouble with Trickster because of what you told Taylor back in Hive?

That caught me off guard, because I’d somehow let myself believe I’d left our cooperative battle against Lung with a good impression.  It seemed she wasn’t so willing to look past the fact that I’d carved out Lung’s eyes.

…I mean, it could be that, but I feel like Trickster taking action regarding what Taylor said when they were with Coil is more likely.

Feeling more and more like an outsider, more out of place, I watched as others filed into the room.  More of the Protectorate, and a small few members of the Guild.

Hah! Called it!

Man, I’m glad I remembered the Guild was a thing. I’m almost certain they haven’t been mentioned at all since 2.2.

Narwhal turned heads as she entered the lobby.  She stood seven feet tall, with a curtain of glossy, pale hair extending almost to the backs of her knees.

Did I know Narwhal was female? I don’t think I did. I guess that has an 85% chance of dashing my dreams of her having a secondary power of “extremely long nose”. (Please tell me she still has a long nose within normal human variation, though…)

She was unclothed, not even wearing a skintight costume on her long limbed body, but it somehow wasn’t obscene.

Ooh.

I’m sure some of the fanartists had some fun with that, though. *pathetically fails to waggle eyebrows*

Her skin was layered with fine crystal scales that caught the light and scintillated with faint rainbow hues.  A single horn stood out from the middle of her forehead, three feet long.

YES

I mean it’s not a nose, and it’s not a more biologically accurate extended tooth, but YES.

She ignored stares as she found a space to lean against a wall near the front of the room.

Yeah, I’d imagine her outfit might draw some attention. Maybe some “happy birthday” wishes.

She had her chin against her chest with her eyes closed, as though she were resting, or concentrating.  Or maybe it was a habit she’d picked up when standing straight meant stabbing the average ceiling with her horn.

Heh. Yeah, I suppose that’s a bit of an issue.

She’d done an interview in a magazine I’d read back before I had powers, and I knew she was a fashion student, though she wasn’t revealing just who she was until after she was more established.

A fashion student with the ability to make her mannequins come to life. Wherever she does her fashion work sounds like a lively place.

She looked as though she were trapped in a conversation with a curly haired, dimple-cheeked villainess that looked no older than eight, who wore a frock that was maybe from the same period as Parian’s.  The pseudo-child was Bambina, if I was remembering right.

So is it her power that makes her look so young, then?

Parian was rescued by one of the out-of-town Wards, a girl in a skintight costume with a visor covering her eyes, nose and ears, with a quiver of what looked like giant needles and a massive crossbow.

Sounds like the visor stands in for a blindfold, symbolically. Maybe this Ward is designed after some kind of personification of justice, luck or love.

The Ward said something to Bambina, who scowled and managed to look cute while doing it.

Good job.

Then the heroine ushered Parian over to where she’d been talking with Shadow Stalker.  What in the world could that group talk about?  I might not have been alone in thinking that – Shadow Stalker seemed unimpressed with the new addition to their group, judging by her body language.

Visor girl and Shadow Stalker do have the choice of weapon in common, at least.

It was only at the back corner of the room that I found the third member of the Protectorate’s triumvirate.

Eidolon stood behind one of the large television sets, staring out the window.

Hiii! I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. Your name intrigues me.

He wore a blue-green skintight suit that expanded into a voluminous hood, cape and sleeves that draped over his hands.  The interior of the hood and sleeves wasn’t shadowy, but illuminated with a soft green light.

Hm. Possibly coming off of him? It’d make sense for an apparition to glow softly green.

Debating the relative strengths of various capes was common enough, in the schoolyard and elsewhere.  If Alexandria and Legend fought, who would win?  Would Boston’s Protectorate win against Brockton Bay’s team?  What if you removed Boston’s weakest members until the sides were even in number?

Naturally. This kind of thing is a universal constant.

When the question inevitably got to who was the strongest, the ‘big five’ were generally ruled out, in the sense of ‘well, yeah, but besides them‘.  Scion got counted as a part of that group because the powers he did have were head and shoulders above just about everyone else’s.

Hm. It’s interesting how the first known parahuman is so definitely one of the most powerful ones. I wonder if there’s an actual correlation here.

Eidolon was almost the opposite, because he had every power, though he could only hold on to a handful at a time.

Oh man, that’s awesome. I wonder how often he gets to switch them out. Daily, maybe, or whenever he takes a long rest of at least eight hours?

Then there were the Endbringers, because they mandated situations like this, where even Scion or Eidolon plus multiple teams of capes weren’t necessarily enough.

Damn.

Knowing I’d seen two members of the leading three figures of the Protectorate, I looked for the third.  I glanced past Myrddin, from Chicago, with his brown burlap robe and wooden staff, Chevalier, in gleaming silver and gold armor, carrying his cannonblade, and Bastion, who had earned a great deal of bad press, lately.

Myrddin certainly dresses like his namesake. I’m very interested to see what he can do with that staff of his.

Chevalier is predictably knightly, and carries… a cannonblade? Sounds like a weapon out of RWBY, and RWBY weapons are awesome.

The name Bastion just makes me think of Overwatch, though of course that wasn’t out when this was written. A bastion is a kind of platform for artillery, so maybe Bastion should’ve been the one with a cannon.

Someone used a cell phone to catch Bastion using the word ‘spic’ several times as he yelled at a kid who only wanted to take his picture.

I’m not familiar with that word, but it sounds derogatory. And it’s not like the action of yelling at that kid wouldn’t create enough bad press to begin with.

Let’s see… (time to cross off “looks up a word” on your bingos, folks, if anyone’s still doing those)

Urban Dictionary says that it’s a highly offensive racial slur referring to people of Latino descent. I see.

He was studiously ignoring Kaiser, who was standing nearby, staring at him, taunting him without speaking or doing anything.

History?

The Protectorate was present, and it wasn’t just the locals, but the big guns.  Armsmaster, standing a little taller and looking more confident than I’d seen before, with not one but two Halberds connected to his back, was having a quiet conversation with Miss Militia and Legend.

Oh hey, that’s two out of three!

And Armsy is looking ready.

It took me a second to absorb that picture.  That was the head of the Protectorate, the leader of the largest team of capes in the world.  What’s more, he was right in front of me, having a conversation with someone I’d talked to.  Ridiculous as that sounded, it affected me.

Taylor may not be the type to get overly giddy about specific people (anymore), but she’s absolutely a fan of some of them.

Legend sported a skintight blue costume with a design in white that fell somewhere between flame and electricity in style.

Hm, interesting. Sounds… energetic.

He had a perfect physique – one I didn’t mind giving a second glance-over –

hehe

a strong jaw and wavy brown hair.  If Alexandria was the flying bruiser that just about every other flying bruiser strove to match up to, then Legend was at the head of the pack when it came to being flying artillery.  His firepower was on par with Purity’s, if not outright surpassing her, and he was far, far more versatile.

Sounds awesome. I’m guessing part of his repertoir is shooting fire and lightning, but there’s probably more if he’s that much more versatile.

The kids from New Wave were near the Wards -Glory Girl, Panacea, Laserdream and Shielder- but they weren’t really joining in with the conversation the Wards were having.

Bit of a schism there.

I could see Glory Girl and Gallant standing together; she was holding his hand.

Well – with an exception or two.

Panacea was sitting backwards on a chair just beside where Glory Girl stood, her arms folded over the chair back, chin resting on her wrists.

Probably going to be a lot of people who need healing today.

She glared at the two of us, though the look was mainly directed at Tattletale.

Haven’t forgotten Agitation, eh?

Oh

Oh man

I just realized we might get Clockblocker and Taylor interacting

Maybe she actually gets a chance to make good on that apology she said she’d give him…

Near Panacea, the adults of New Wave had pulled the folding chairs into a rough circle so they could sit while they talked in a bit of a huddle.

And then there’s a camera stuck into the huddle but you can’t hear what anyone is saying anyway and then the timeout is over and they all go out to kick a ball around again