May 4nd 2011, 7:22 AM
Suburbs of Brockton Bay, Brockton Bay, Solar Dominion of Brockton Bay
The sky above Brockton Bay split open with a thunderous crack.
Three streaks of power carved through the air, trailing vapor and light, their descent so fast the atmosphere screamed in protest. The Triumvirate had arrived.
Legend, Alexandria and Eidolon hurled themselves toward their target, leaving behind contrails of energy that shimmered against the crimson-tinged morning. The distant thunder of artillery and the cracking of guns echoed in the distance.
Below them, the city groaned under the weight of chaos.
Sirens keened in every direction, a chorus of dread echoing through cracked streets and crumbling neighborhoods. Emergency lights pulsed like a failing heartbeat, casting erratic strobes across the concerned masses below.
Smoke rose in thick, dark columns from a dozen locations, each plume marking another wound in the city's ravaged body.
The Dawnguard moved through the throngs of citizens with purposeful coordination. Their armor – sleek, obsidian plates articulated over dark grey bodysuits caught the early light and reflected it back. Each soldier wore a stylized sun emblem on their chest and helmet, the insignia of their new leader burnished to a golden shine. They carried rifles, but these remained holstered or slung across backs as they focused on evacuation operations, their hands free to assist those in need.
"Keep moving! Shelter access remains open! We'll ensure everyone gets to safety before the battle reaches this sector!"
Citizens responded with grateful nods, moving quickly but without panic. In the two months since Taylor Hebert, now known to all as Sol Invicta, had taken control of Brockton Bay… the Dawnguard had proven themselves not as jackbooted thugs, as many had feared, but as firm and fair protectors. Where the old PRT had been hamstrung by regulations and political considerations, the Dawnguard operated with decisive efficiency, and the people had noticed the difference.
Families moved together, children holding parents' hands. The Dawnguard shouted directions, their faces partially visible through the transparent front sections of their helmets, revealing expressions of determination and focus.
An elderly man stumbled, falling to one knee. Before his companion could help him rise, two Dawnguard soldiers appeared from the crowd, gently helping him to his feet. One offered a supportive shoulder while the other cleared a path ahead, ensuring the man wouldn't be jostled by the moving crowd.
Protection offered through competence, earning respect despite their controversial allegiance.
Buildings shuddered as artillery thundered in the distance, windows rattling from the shockwaves. Glass panes vibrated in their frames, some cracking under the strain, sending crystalline shards raining onto empty sidewalks. Laser fire sliced across the skyline, sharp and sudden, brief flashes of brutal light. Invicta's anti-air laser batteries had unleashed their full defensive might – laser turrets locked onto the heavens, their beams crisscrossing the sky like a protective net, cutting through clouds and mist with precision.
From defense installations constructed atop skyscrapers, automated targeting systems tracked the three approaching figures. Batteries of energy weapons pivoted in unison, seeking a lock on the Triumvirate.
The defensive grid, a testament to the engineering talent Invicta had managed to recruit in her short reign, had been prepared for this inevitable moment: the return of those who would challenge Sol Invicta's vision for the city.
But the Triumvirate did not slow.
They were unrelenting. They were unbreakable.
Legend banked sharply, his form blurring as he accelerated beyond human perception. Laser fire converged on his position, only to pass through empty air as he transmuted himself partially into his energy state, the beams refracted harmlessly through his transformed body. Where they struck, he absorbed their power, his own radiance growing with each attempted interception.
Alexandria didn't bother with evasion. She flew straight through the defensive barrage, energy weapons dissipating against her invulnerable form like water on stone.
Eidolon cast his hand forward, and a ripple distorted the air before him. The incoming fire bent around an invisible barrier, diverted by forces that defied conventional physics. His other hand gestured sharply downward, and three of the defensive turrets crumpled as if crushed by an immense, unseen weight, their metal frames shrieking in protest as they collapsed.
The wreckage of the USS Spruance loomed ahead, half-sunken and ablaze, its once-proud form broken and spilling black smoke into the gold-streaked morning. The destroyer now lay gutted like a sacrificial offering, its hull torn open from bow to stern. Twisted metal jutted from the water at unnatural angles, the ship's superstructure collapsed upon itself. The flames painted the ocean in vivid orange, waves churning with oil and ash.
And above it all…
She waited.
Sol Invicta.
Suspended in the air, she floated with the stillness of inevitability.
Her golden armor blazed in the early sunlight, a mirrored halo around her form, each plate engraved with intricate patterns. Her dark hair danced on the breeze like a war banner, unbound and defiant, obsidian strands catching the light. She watched them approach with a smirk carved from arrogance and certainty, the expression of someone who had discovered power beyond imagining and had embraced it without hesitation.
Her amethyst eyes locked onto theirs.
They gleamed – not just with power, but with scorn, with the silent laughter of someone who had been underestimated her entire life and was now watching those same people realize their mistake far too late.
The Triumvirate slowed their approach, forming a loose triangle in the air above the ruined warship. Legend's hands glowed with gathering energy. Alexandria's fists clenched at her sides. Eidolon's aura pulsed with shifting colors as he reached for the powers he would need.
"Sol Invicta," Legend called, his voice carrying across the water with unnatural clarity. "This ends now. Surrender, and-"
*CRACK*
She vanished.
"Damn it!" Alexandria bit out sharply. Her perfect composure, the mask of the invincible hero, fractured for an instant, revealing the raw frustration beneath. "Not again!"
Eidolon's reaction was immediate and visceral. His aura flared with unstable energy, crackling and spitting around his cloaked form, tendrils of power lashing outward like vipers striking at phantoms.
"She's toying with us," he snarled, his voice thick with frustration. His gloved hands trembled, not with fear, but with rage barely contained beneath the surface of his control. "It's a fucking game to her!"
"Focus, David," Legend warned, his eyes scanning the wreckage below. His voice held steady, though the light emanating from his body pulsed with suppressed tension. "This is exactly what she wants. To piss us off. To make us emotional, careless."
Eidolon took a sharp breath, his mask hiding all but the downward twist of his mouth, the clench of his jaw visible even beneath the fabric. The space around him wavered as he reached for something, anything, that could help them track her. Powers flowed through him, discarded in rapid succession as he sought the right combination.
And then-
"PRT HQ. Downtown." The words came through gritted teeth.
Alexandria moved closer, her cape settling around her shoulders as she hovered beside her teammate.
"Don't let her get to you," she said, her voice pitched low, meant only for her comrades. "Remember what happened last time. Her power… it has a Master component. She gets in your head, makes you doubt, makes you hesitate." Her tone hardened, becoming the voice that had commanded thousands of heroes, that had faced extinction-level threats without flinching. "It starts with frustration, then becomes rage, then despair. Do not let her get to you. Either of you. You both know what's at stake."
Legend nodded grimly, his luminous eyes narrowing. "We go in together. We finish this. No matter what she shows us, no matter what she says… we trust each other, not our individual perceptions. She may be new to her power, but she's learned to use it with frightening speed."
No one questioned it. They turned as one, leaving the burning wreckage behind, a symbol of conventional military might rendered obsolete by a young woman's will.
The city blurred beneath them, a complex tableau of destruction and renewal. From this height, the dichotomy became clear: neighborhoods once ruled by gangs now patrolled by Dawnguard units, streets damaged in the initial conflict now under repair by construction crews working around the clock. The closer they drew, the more they saw: the devastation of the old order and the emerging foundations of something new.
Beyond that lay the commercial district, its towers repurposed but not defaced. Office buildings had become administrative centers, their electronic billboards displaying practical information about shelter locations, resource distribution, and emergency procedures alongside occasional propaganda.
"STRENGTH THROUGH UNITY." "A NEW DAWN FOR BROCKTON BAY." "SECURITY, PROSPERITY, PEACE." The messages alternated with evacuation instructions, a blend of ideology and pragmatism that characterized Taylor's two-month reign.
And at the heart of it all, the PRT Headquarters, once a monument of law and heroism, was now the command center of Sol Invicta's nascent government, transformed but not unrecognizable.
Crimson banners hung from its facade, emblazoned with Sol Invicta's golden sigil: a burning sun, radiant and determined, its rays extending outward like the spokes of a wheel.
The building's original architecture remained largely intact, though reinforced with new defensive systems. The windows gleamed with a golden tint that reflected the morning light.
And there she stood.
Sol Invicta waited at the grand entrance like a monarch at court. She stood with hands clasped behind her back, her stance confident and utterly unafraid… a queen in the heart of her kingdom.
She looked at them not with fear, not with anger… but with determination and a touch of amusement. Like a chess player who had anticipated their moves long before they made them, prepared but not overconfident.
"Ah," she said, her voice carrying across the plaza with practiced projection, the voice of someone who had learned to command in months rather than years but had learned it well. She tilted her head slightly, her eyes displaying a complex mix of emotions – determination dominant, but with undercurrents of both wariness and satisfaction at seeing her predictions fulfilled. "The heroes return. Come to be humiliated again?"
Eidolon's jaw tensed visibly beneath his mask, his power fluctuating around him in response to his agitation, green energy spiking and receding like an erratic heartbeat. Alexandria placed a hand on his shoulder – a warning, a reminder of their earlier conversation. Her touch seemed to ground him, the wild fluctuations of his aura steadying, though the tension remained evident in every line of his body.
"You're going down for your crimes, Invicta," Eidolon managed, his voice tight with restrained fury. Each word emerged with deliberate control, as if he feared what might follow should he give his emotions free rein.
She blinked, not in theatrical surprise but in genuine bemusement. Her eyebrows lifted slightly, her head tilting as if considering his words from multiple angles.
Then she turned, her golden gauntlet gesturing toward the city skyline in a sweeping motion both graceful and purposeful.
"Crimes?" she repeated, her tone mocking and sardonic. "Look around you. The gangs are gone. The people eat. There is law. There is peace. I've given them more in two months than your endless committees and red tape did in two decades."
She faced them again, taking a single step forward, power radiating off of her form.
"You are the ones dropping bombs on schools and clinics," she continued, her voice gaining a sharp edge. "You are the ones tearing this city apart to punish it for refusing your rule. I merely showed them another way. A better way. A way without the compromises that left this city bleeding for decades while you looked the other way."
Alexandria floated forward, positioning herself slightly ahead of her colleagues. Her posture was rigid, unyielding, a bulwark against Invicta's words as much as her power.
Then, louder, in the voice that had addressed nations: "Sol Invicta, Taylor Hebert, you are guilty of treason, sedition, armed rebellion, multiple counts of murder, and terrorism. You have been sentenced to death in absentia by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Your reign ends today."
Invicta merely laughed in response to the declaration, a scornful and mocking cackle cutting through the tension that had set upon the plaza.
Then after a few seconds, she calmed down and replied with iron certainty, "Oh Alexandria… my reign has just begun!"
Legend stepped forward, light gathering around his hands. "Enough talk. It's time to finish this!" And then, silently, more to himself, "And save this city from your madness..."
Light built around her, a radiant corona of energy that intensified the gold of her armor and cast her shadow in sharp relief against the pavement. The air shimmered as heat and energy distorted it slightly, creating the impression of a mirage around her form.
In her hand, a blade of light formed – long, curved, its edge a searing arc of gold, humming with pure force. The sound it made was clean and precise, the whine of perfectly controlled energy. Where the blade passed, it left brief afterimages, golden traces that faded quickly, evidence of its energy.
She raised it-
And pointed it at them.
Her eyes narrowed. Her smile widened into a mocking smirk.
"Come then," she said, her voice clear and steady, "Try."
For one tense second, the world seemed to hold its breath.
And then, the battle began.
Legend moved first, a streak of blue-white radiance arcing high into the sky, positioning himself for an aerial advantage. Alexandria launched herself forward, a dark missile aimed at Sol Invicta's heart, her fist drawn back for a blow that could shatter mountains. Eidolon spread his arms wide, reality warping around him as he called upon three powers simultaneously, the air crackling with ozone and possibility.
Taylor stood her ground, her blade describing a quick, efficient circle in the air before her, leaving a trail of golden fire. Her smile faded into focused determination and the blade came up in a blinding arc just as Alexandria reached her, a collision of unstoppable force and immovable object that would determine the fate of Brockton Bay.
And perhaps, should Invicta prevail once again, the beginning of a transformation that would reach far beyond a single troubled city.
——————————————————————————————————————————
The heroine was deflected by a slash of her sun-blade, but she righted herself immediately and turned to face Invicta once more.
Sol Invicta stood ready, her blade of radiant light humming with power in her grip. The glow bathed her golden armor in ethereal luminescence, transforming her into the divine figure she had become. Each plate of her armor caught the light of her weapon, reflecting it outward in a corona that made her appear as if she were wrapped in the embrace of a newborn star. Her eyes, once human, now blazed with inner fire, windows to a power that no mortal was meant to possess.
Across from her, the Triumvirate needed no words. No speeches. No hesitation.
They were legends incarnate – Alexandria, the invulnerable tactician; Legend, the master of light; and Eidolon, the wielder of all powers. For years they had stood as Earth Bet's greatest defenders, the pinnacle of heroism, the unassailable fortress against which all threats broke themselves. They had faced monsters and gods alike.
But they never faced anyone like her.
The air between them crackled with tension, a stillness that seemed to stretch before shattering like glass as they launched forward at once. They moved like a single organism, their assault a coordinated execution designed to end her immediately.
No games. No mercy.
They came to kill me.
Sol Invicta surged forward to meet them, the golden light of her blade carving a brilliant arc through the air as she parried Alexandria's first strike. The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the atmosphere, rattling windows across most of Downtown. The collision of powers created a momentary flash, a miniature sun born of their conflict.
A mistake.
Sol Invicta barely had time to register the force behind Alexandria's blow before the sheer impact sent tremors radiating through her arms, vibrating down to her very bones.
Her strength is monstrous. Every one of her blows could turn a skyscraper to dust. She's not holding back this time…
Alexandria moved with terrifying speed, her dark costume a blur against the golden light. For all her enormous Brute power, the heroine had the precision of a surgeon and the grace of a dancer. Each movement was calculated, each strike engineered to kill. Her eyes, hidden beneath her visor, glinted with nothing but cold determination.
Sol twisted, ducked, let her body flow between the devastating force of Alexandria's fists. The air displaced by each missed punch created vacuum pockets that collapsed with thunderous cracks. The ground beneath them began to splinter and crack under the pressure of their exchanged blows.
Tch. Too slow, Alexandria. Invicta smirked.
Eidolon pressed in from the flank, his emerald aura flaring as his powers shifted constantly… telekinetic bursts that distorted the very air, kinetic barriers that materialized like crystalline walls, pressure waves that sought to crush Sol outright. With each heartbeat, he cycled through different powers, adapting, evolving, becoming whatever was needed to counter her movements.
Sol dodged one assault, her form leaving a trail of golden afterimages as she moved faster than the human eye could track. She slashed through another attack, her blade cleaving through Eidolon's energy construct, dissipating it into motes of light. A third hammered against her defenses, forcing her to brace her legs against the concrete, leaving twin furrows as she was pushed back.
I need to move, I need to-
A flash of blue light seared through