An alarm sounded across the PRT systems, alerts spreading at the speed of thought. The Tachikoma had managed to piece together Armsmaster’s prediction software for the Endbringers and perfect it. Now, they had a two hour warning for an attack in Detroit, Michigan on Valentine’s day of all things. Taylor wasn’t sure she was ready for the responsibility, but someone had to take it. Especially since it was fucking with her plans for the evening with Lisa.

  “Status,” Motoko yelled, already gearing up.

  Taylor rolled her eyes, it wasn’t like she would be seeing any action if their plan worked. In a reverse of the Cerberus attack, the Tachikoma would be taking the field and Taylor would assume the mantle of coordinator, or rather, administrator. The Endbringer Armbands were heavily upgraded from what Dragon originally offered, allowing Taylor to use each cape as a 3D imaging source. Nevermind the drone swarms that had been developed.

  It would allow her to truly see the battlefield in a way no mortal ever could. She just had to hope it would be enough to save lives if the plan the Tachikoma came up with didn’t work. Worst case scenario, it would allow her to rapidly coordinate the evacuation before the city was reduced to a dead waste.

  Idly, she began to send orders to every PRT branch, telling them where to meet up for transport. It was unfortunate that Harry refused his portal tech for mass transport, but she could see the point about it making Toybox vulnerable to attack.

  That didn’t mean she couldn’t use it for her own operations, and she had a big one planned. Still, she had a few teleporters on call for Endbringer response thanks to her new contacts in the Guild and they were getting ready to start delivering capes to the battlefield.

  “Motoko, make sure the Tachikoma are prepped,” Taylor said. “They’re deploying.”

  Motoko paused as she stepped into the hanger. “Are you sure they’re up to it?”

  “Do you doubt us?” Henry asked.

  “I think she does,” Ada added. “So little faith.”

  “Stow it,” Motoko said, rolling her eyes. “We’ve got an Endbringer to repel.”

  A moment of silence followed and echoing laughter began to bubble up from the nine tanks in the room as they bobbed up and down.

  “Oh Major,” Amber said, her voice trying for dark and husky and utterly failing. “We don’t intend to repel it. We intend to murder it!”

  “Yay murder!” several cheered.

  Sophia stepped in behind Motoko, looking around at the chanting Tachikoma. “I don’t even want to know.”

  Taylor’s drones swarmed through the portal into the Detroit airspace, the high winds billowing forth from the flaming portal slowly carving its way into the heart of the city battered her drones. Each one was slaved to Taylor’s coordination, and would allow her to track all of the armbands in real time, directing them as Dragon once did.

  Technically that had been Ada’s job, but she would be working with her siblings in the field. The Tachikoma were going to be battling the Endbringer up close. Each of their frames held the same sort of uplink that Motoko’s shell now carried, allowing for instant control. Taylor didn’t share that level of control with them, or with the Dragon suits that would be deploying.

  More so, the kids really wanted to honor their mother’s memory by fighting the monsters that threatened their world. Leviathan hadn’t been an option when it hit Miami, things just weren’t ready. Taylor had sent the Dragon suits that were completed, but it was too few and too little to make a difference. Miami was decimated, written off by the second wave. Most capes were held back, the fight already seen as lost before it had a chance to truly begin. She used the recently completed Dragon suits loaded with Bakuda ordinance to drive the beast back, and had learned a few things for it. Like which effects the Endbringer actually feared.

  Things would be different this time, she’d had time to prepare.

  Cerberus was the most feared of the Endbringers, the fabled guardian of the underworld had lived up to its title. Any cape caught in its flame lost their mind, falling into an illusion so powerful that it broke their mind. Even breakers weren’t safe. Alexandria was the only cape known to be immune to the effect, and was often the only one that fought in close quarters as a result.

  The hellflame only came from the central mouth, while the two on the side breathed their own twisted flames. One only burned organics, the other only burned inorganic material. It made keeping it reined in simpler, but not perfect.

  Repelling Cerberus was simply a matter of keeping it from fully emerging from its hellgate, which as far as they could tell led to Venus in a different universe, not that the public was ever informed of that.

  Each cape needed a respirator to fight up close, the levels of toxic chemicals in the air making it unsafe for anyone that had lungs. Battling the creature was a delicate balancing act, and more capes were lost to the inorganic flames than any other as a result.

  “Taylor, we are in position!” Olivia chirped.

  She smiled, seeing them in real time on the battlefield. She could fly her virtual avatar through the entire space instantaneously, from as many perspectives as she needed. She was practically a goddess of the battlefield. Between the five arial support platforms based off of Dragon’s old designs, she would be able to provide the Tachikoma an unprecedented level of support.

  “Attention,” Taylor said. “We will be deploying experimental ordinance against Cerberus, all capes are advised to stay clear until we know the effects it has on the Endbringer.”

  “Under whose authority?” Alexandria demanded.

  Taylor swung an avatar across the city, sending it to stand next to her. “Mine. Just call me Administrator if you must, but I will be coordinating all activity on the battlefield today since Dragon is no longer with us.”

  Alexandria’s body language shifted ever so slightly. “And who’s fault is that?”

  Taylor’s avatar grinned, because she was all too willing to stir the pot. “Technically yours, chief. Do you really want to stir the pot by opening that can of worms, especially now?”

  Ah, facial twitches. Alexandria was beyond irritated it seemed. Good, she deserved it for all the shit that was allowed to transpire. With any luck, they would be stealing more of her thunder before the day was done.

  With that conversation done, Taylor shifted views again, frowning as she watched the portal stabilize. It was strange, really, the way it tunneled between dimensions didn’t match either Doormaker, or Harry. If anything, it was closer to Haywire’s tech. The Tachikoma would be going over all the expanded sensor readings after the fight to see what could be replicated regardless, something Dragon had never managed successfully.

  She blamed Armsbastard for that.

  “About thirty seconds until the portal is stable,” Lisa said, her own avatar visible in Taylor’s ‘command’ bubble. Lisa couldn’t be with her in person, as Taylor’s shell was currently in cold storage to avoid overheating due to prolonged time spent in what she was coming to consider as Tachikoma timeframe.

  Thirty seconds was an eternity to them, and it was moments like this, where Taylor stretched herself out across so much space, her mind working at a pace no one else could hope to match that she had to accept the truth.

  She wasn’t truly human anymore.

  Even knowing that, it didn’t stop her from living a human life, keeping to her roots. She wasn’t going to shy away from either portion of her life. Taylor would keep going to school and hanging out with her friends. She would continue to date Lisa, even had plans to propose once she was eighteen and graduated. She would embrace every aspect of being human.

  At the same time, in moments like this? She would become so much more. The cape name Administrator had come to her in a dream, whispered with words that were more abstract concept than true language, but she had understood it all the same.

  The Tachikoma continued to run calculations all around her, simulations narrowing the attack vectors by the second. Taylor knew the battle would be decided in seconds, from the moment the Tachikoma launched their attack to the point where it was either done, or out of their hands was under ten seconds.

  If they failed, it would be back to business as usual against the Endbringer.

  One of her instances stood in the medical tent. Riley and Amy were conversing with one another, along with the remainder of the medical staff on hand. She wasn’t sure how to feel about Othalla being present, not that she remembered being the Empire cape. Cranial had removed all memories dating back to her twelfth birthday when she had been offered to Victor. It was billed as amnesia and the Protectorate took her in, helped her recover.

  Taylor still wasn’t sure if Ethel deserved the redemption, but her power was too useful to just throw away. Sighing, Taylor returned her attention to the swirling dimensional distortion as the chaotic image came into focus, six glowing eyes looking back from within the hellscape.

  Cerberus.

  “Breach imminent,” Taylor called across all the distributed armbands. “Standby for initial salvos before engaging.”

  The Tachikoma arranged themselves in a predetermined pattern, their communication now reduced strictly to strings of code and command. They were focused, ready to combat one of the beasts bringing about the end times. It was only then that Taylor caught it, the timing and cadecense of their communication, and almost burst into laughter.

  It seemed the Tachikoma were fans of Queen.

  Administrator smiled, raising a hand as she did. “Alright, prepare salvo bravo twelve.”

  Instantly, nine shots fired off just as Cerberus burst through the portal, letting off three gouts of flame into the sky to announce its arrival. Then all four legs of the beast, as well as its central jaw were turned to crystal. That burst of flame was instantly cut off, the beast yowling as its legs shattered, reduced to thin twigs that shouldn’t have held it upright.

  “Ultradense material,” Lisa said. “Too dense for the crystalline bombs to affect properly.”

  Taylor acknowledged that with one avatar while the other was already sending the new orders to the Tachikoma. “Switch to B twenty three, alpha seven pattern.”

  The nine AI platforms all spread out, avoiding retaliatory flames as they did, and the second salvo burst forth only six seconds following the first explosion. The Tachikoma shifted again, not waiting for the effects before relocating to safety. The coordination was remarkable to behold, each AI interlinked to ensure that they had no blindspots, not that they would with Taylor providing her full battlefield awareness directly to their own systems.

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  A dull pop sounded, and the streets were flooded with sand, the Endbringer collapsing into a heap. She could just barely make out paper thin limbs still attached, but the rest of the dense flesh had turned into a literal avalanche of sand that covered the ground. The few buildings caught in the effect radiance were inconsequential in comparison.

  “Alpha eighty seven,” she announced.

  The Tachikoma launched thin lines of Tinkertech spidersilk, securing each limb of Cerberus at the shoulder and hip. Then, they spun, wrapping around each. An instant later, Flechette was stepping from a portal and touched the string. Physics broke, the Endbringer’s legs completely taken out from under it.

  Lily vanished back into the portal seconds after the Endbringer dropped.

  “Flechette’s power confirmed effective regardless of density,” Lisa announced. “Still recommend locating a potential core before slicing the bastard to bits.”

  “Bravo Epsilon,” Taylor directed, agreeing that caution was the better choice. The density readings on the limbs were high enough that a potential core could have entire solar systems worth of material, if not more. Those were not forces to be trifled with, though they did have a plan that should work.

  Another salvo rained down on the Endbringer, space contorting into a funhouse mirror and dragging the Endbringer’s flesh with it. A timer began counting down until space would return to normal, and as it lined up, the second salvo went off. Each grenade detonated, displacing a two meter sphere of space into the same dimension Alabaster had been shunted into.

  Then space snapped back to normal and the Endbringer glitched.

  There was no other word for it, the creature twisted in something worthy of an Aleph RPG as the thing twisted and contorted in hyperspeed, Taylor watching with sick fascination at the level of physics being broken. And just like that, Cerberus launched skyward, fired off like a coiled spring at almost eighty percent the speed of light.

  That no shockwave followed was the most distressing part of the whole thing.

  The portal collapsed in on itself twelve seconds later, leaving the city in sudden stillness.

  Watching the monitors back in the staging area, dead silence was the answer of almost every attending Parahuman. Even the Tachikoma were struck speechless, something that rarely happened, though Taylor could see the calculations into determining how physics had broken so severely that went beyond even her capacity to follow.

  “Fucking Bethesda,” Dennis said, shattering the moment.

  “Taylor, that was absolutely a glitch in the Matrix!” Kora exclaimed. “I knew it, reality is a simulation!”

  “That doesn’t prove anything,” Ada countered. “Just that an unknown physics interaction broke the local instance of our reality.”

  The Tachikoma descended into bickering and debate, throwing around terms that Taylor absolutely hadn’t studied enough to compare notes with the hyperactive AI.

  “So, is that it?” Motoko asked.

  “I think so,” Sophia said, blinking in almost disbelief at the screen. “Never thought I’d see the day an Endbringer was treated like a chew toy by physics itself.”

  “Maybe it will encourage you to pay more attention in class,” Motoko teased, poking Sophia between a gap in her armor. “I wouldn’t mind sharing more classes with you, but no, my little huntress doesn’t think school work is important.”

  “School is a waste of time,” Sophia said with a huff.

  “Says the girl barely passing her classes,” Vivian teased from where she was lounging on a couch, one of Amy’s blunts hanging from her lips. Sophia flipped her off, and Vivian immediately fired back a double fingered counter. “You’re just pissy that I just scienced an Endbringer out of existence!”

  “With the help of Taylor and nine AI coordinating themselves to make it happen,” Motoko interjected.

  “Whatever makes you feel better,” Vivian said, rolling her eyes. “I’m taking this as a win, and taking every chance I get to remind the delinquent over there to do better.”

  Sophia huffed, looking away. “We’re members of a black ops team, not children gossiping in the halls.”

  “Could have fooled me,” Vivian replied sweetly, taking a deep drag as she did.

  Taylor’s face appeared on a nearby screen, scowling. Almost immediately Sophia’s hands were up in a placating manner. Motoko didn’t like that Taylor still tended to jump at every little thing, but it wasn’t without merit, and if Taylor found solace in petty moments in lieu of proper punishment... Well, Sophia could just woman up and play the game. Besides, the school uniforms were a bit of a perk, rather than the punishment Taylor thought they were.

  “Ain’t trying to start shit, Taylor, just calling it as it is,” Sophia said, eyes shut.

  That was more than she had expected, which meant that Sophia knew she had crossed a line. That was actual progress being made. Probably best that Jacob wasn’t there to make a bigger deal of it. The man was good at managing Parahumans, but he wasn’t actually all that good at legitimate therapy methods. Melissa was far better in that respect.

  Motoko pinched her nose, recalling some of Jacob’s less successful attempts at reconciliation between the two. “Let’s just drop it for now. Taylor, do you know what happened to the Endbringer?”

  “Not a damn clue,” Taylor said, slumping. “The fucking thing cleared the atmosphere, then just... It fucking popped like a soap bubble. Lisa thinks it was a projection, but that implies some Parahuman summoned it.”

  “Which is all kinds of terrifying,” Motoko agreed. “Any suspects?”

  Taylor grimaced, looking away. “Two, and neither are especially appealing.”

  Lisa entered Toybox’s staging area at that time, bringing a crate of champagne with her along with her trademarked Tattletale grin. “We can stress over the thoughts of a Master capable of summoning an Endbringer later. For now, we had a zero casualty Endbringer encounter, that’s cause worth celebrating!”

  Motoko wasn’t having it. She stepped forward and looked Lisa dead in her eyes.

  “Lisa, out with it. No secrets.”

  “Can’t it wait?” she whined, Motoko only countered with a raised eyebrow. “Fine. Our leading candidates are Glaistig Uaine, or Eidolon. A third might have been Scion if we hadn’t figured out exactly what the bastard was thanks to Taylor and the Tachikoma cracking into Section One.”

  Sophia crossed her arms, face twisted in thought. “It could still be him, playing some fucked up game. It’s a bit too on the nose though, even if there are anti-Thinker effects around connecting the dots.”

  “And this is why I insisted this wait until after the party,” Lisa said, popping the cork on a bottle. “Come on, everyone, this is cause to celebrate!”

  It really was, Motoko could admit. Whatever happened with the Endbringer, the attack had been halted. Taylor and the Tachikoma would be working on site for a while longer, taking readings, as well as figuring out what the hell had happened, and the odds it would also work on Leviathan or Behemoth.

  She didn’t think the odds were all that in their favor, but there was still a chance.

  Lisa was all smiles, but she could see it was forced. For as jovial as the mood was, her girlfriend wasn’t physically there to enjoy it with her. Opening a com, Motoko poked at Taylor’s digital avatar.

  “Hey, you really should be here,” she said. “Lisa’s not saying it, but she wants to share the moment with you.”

  “Too much to analyze,” Taylor said, her voice without inflection. “Need to assist the Tachikoma.”

  “No, you need to be human,” Motoko said firmly. “Now, log out of all of that and go celebrate with your girlfriend.”

  Taylor’s eyes shut, her avatar taking a deep breath as humanity bled back into her features. It was a sign that Taylor was slowing herself down, returning to human norms. It was disconcerting each time it happened, their minds were still linked, but something had shifted that first time Taylor went full AI attempting to save Dragon.

  She didn’t talk about it with anyone besides Lisa and Melissa, and neither of them were sharing either.

  “Sorry about that,” Taylor said sheepishly. “I’ll be out in a minute or so.”

  Motoko nodded, bringing her focus back to her shell. It was strange, being the remote piloted person even after several months, but Taylor needed the human connection that having your mind in the body brought with it far more than Motoko did. She made sure to stay out of Lisa’s focus, pulling Sophia close as they both sipped on some of the alcohol being passed around. She very pointedly looked away when Taylor stepped in, her hair still dripping from the cooling pod.

  Somehow she managed to sneak up behind Lisa, or she simply allowed Taylor to have the moment, as Lisa jumped in surprise when Taylor wrapped her arms around her.

  “Cold!”

  Or she was still ice cold from the cooling pod. That worked too.

  “Hey Lise,” Taylor said, kissing her girlfriend’s cheek. “Did I miss much?”

  Lisa spun, her formerly vulpine smile turning into something genuine as she wrapped her arms around Taylor and pulled her close. “Not at all.”

  “Are we that sickening together?” Sophia asked, scowling at the sight.

  Motoko shrugged, a smile tugging at her lips. “Probably, but are you really complaining?”

  “Jury’s out,” Sophia answered, then her smile fell away. “You know, something’s been bothering me for a bit now.”

  “And what’s that,” Motoko asked.

  Sophia sighed, leaning back against the sofa. “I did a lot of shit to Taylor, and you share her memories. I get that you were trying to prove you were different than her at the time, but why have you stayed with me? I’ve not apologized and I sure as hell haven’t turned over a new leaf. I just got lucked into a job with someone who won’t look down on me for being who I am.”

  Motoko set her glass aside, not having expected such a heavy topic in the wake of an Endbringer’s death. “Do we need to have this conversation now?”

  Sophia looked at her, seemingly unimpressed. “If not now, then when? You’ve been putting this off for months Motoko. You should hate me, or feel something for Taylor, but you don’t, do you?”

  “You haven’t figured it out?” Motoko asked. Really, it was obvious to her, but then again, she wasn’t exactly normal. None of those who fell in with Section Nine could claim to be. Sophia raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, a clear invitation to explain. “I’m not sure which of us is the ‘core’ Taylor, and frankly, I don’t want to know. What I do know is that I don’t have a normal emotional response. Pretty sure I’m a sociopath, or something close to it.”

  “Preaching to the choir on that one,” Sophia muttered.

  A smile pulled at her lips, but she pressed on. “You’re right, I didn’t start dating you because of love. I started dating you to prove my individuality. Once I got there, I looked for reasons to stop, but you know what I found?”

  “A veritable mountain with a giant red flag on top?” Lisa snarked.

  “Not fucking helping,” Motoko snarled. “I didn’t invite you to this conversation.”

  Lisa rolled her eyes, glancing back at where Taylor was now talking with Jacob and Kurt. There were still a few stragglers, like Harry and Keith, but they had far more shit to deal with, nevermind the dreaded PR.

  “And no trying to give Motoko an out by sidetracking us, Tattletale,” Sophia said, her voice low in warning. “Seriously, I thought you liked spilling secrets.”

  “I’m reformed, haven’t you heard?” Lisa said, winking. “I’ll back off though before the shadow bitch decides I need a new arrow phased through something I like.”

  “I was thinking neck this time,” Sophia said sweetly. “Now, what did you find out?”

  Motoko looked off to the side, at Taylor in the distance. “I don’t want to stop. That’s it. Despite how much it hurt Taylor, it never bothered me. I think it had something to do with how I came to be, and my early interactions with you. She held her hatred of you so close, and I never experienced it. I remember it, but it’s so detached. I think that’s why I am the way I am. Taylor clutched some things close, others she pushed my way. In the end, it made me who I am, but I won’t deny that I’m a flawed individual. In the end, that’s all we ever are, a collection of flaws that make us whole and I happen to like the collection that is Sophia Hess.”

  Sophia was silent for several moments, staring at the side of Motoko’s face and she refused to look her girlfriend in the eye. She didn’t want to see what might be looking back at her after baring her soul like that.

  “That was somehow insulting, depressing, and sappy as fuck all at once,” Sophia said. “Worse, I want to kiss you for some gods be damned reason.”

  That did get Motoko to turn her head, her eyes wide at the declaration. She was at a loss for words, not quite sure how to answer that when one of Harry’s portals slammed open, somehow.

  “I can’t believe you fuckers started without me!” Amy shouted, storming through a portal. “Seriously, you couldn’t wait ten goddamn minutes?”

  “Sorry, not sorry,” Lisa yelled.

  Amy snarled, snatching the offered glass of champagne and downing it in one shot. “Seriously, Vivian I get, her shit worked like a charm, but the rest of you? Why I ought to…”

  It wasn’t perfect, but she really did care for her family, dysfunctional as they were. Taylor raised a glass across the way, and she returned the gesture. Section Nine was family, and Toybox was her home. No matter what came, she could hold to those truths.