Dauntless described the fight with the Simurgh as best he could. It was clear that, despite this being the least bloody and quickest fight against the flying abomination to date, it was still an extraordinarily lethal and chaotic battle. Apparently, Velocity had been among the injured, having lost an arm during the first few minutes of the fight. Thankfully, the rapid response of another cape had gotten him to a medical tent quickly enough to stem the bleeding and stabilize him.

  Last Dauntless heard Panacea herself had further confirmed he was stable, with a promise to regrow his lost limb once they returned to Brockton Bay and she had a chance to recover from working through the aftermath. I made a note to at least consider making some gear for Velocity, maybe even the whole Protectorate and Wards, but Velocity in particular. From what little Dauntless described his powers and what I already knew about them, his powers were incredibly self-limiting. Super speed should be an extremely potent power, and yet he was basically a glorified scout.

  After confirming that Velocity would be fine, Dauntless continued to describe the fight, discussing how he first noticed something was wrong.

  "This was my first time fighting the Simurgh, but I had heard stories," He explained with a frown. "She is supposed to be nearly impossible to hit unless you can power through the debris field she creates. Even then, she always seems to have a way out of the worst of it, just barely dodging anything that makes it through..."

  "But…?" I said, nudging him to continue as he seemed to get mentally stuck on a memory or thought.

  "Well… That's what it started like. I was mostly playing defensively, protecting blasters from debris, while they tried to hit her," He explained with a frown. "Which meant I spent a lot of time watching her. When we first started, very little made it through. Just when you thought someone had managed to hit her, she would turn or flick a wing, and it would be blocked or blasted away. But the more time that went by…, the less effective that got."

  "How?" I asked quickly before elaborating when he looked confused. "How was it less effective?"

  "People's attacks started making it through," he explained as if it was obvious. "It started when someone destroyed what she was trying to build."

  "What was she trying to build?" Miss Militia asked, sounding genuinely curious.

  "I have no idea, I don't think anyone does," Dauntless responded. "She pulled some materials from one of the buildings she flew by, yanking out some sort of tinker tech from someone's lab."

  "And then someone destroyed it?"

  "She pulled it up into a much closer range, only a few feet away from herself. Then she started to assemble something," He explained, tracing a space out right in front of his chest. "But before she could get very far, someone managed to hit the pieces directly, causing them to explode. The effect was strange, but the fact that it made it through was what really caught people off guard."

  "How was the explosion strange?"

  "It was some sort of tinker generator, we think," Dauntless explained. "Some exotic energies got released. It's one of the secondary theories as to what happened to this fight, but we can't find the tinker who owned the lab. Sure seemed to surprise her, though."

  "How do you know?"

  "Cause she recoiled and looked surprised," Dauntless said, shaking his head. "That's not something we knew she could do. It was mildly terrifying, to be honest, even if it was in our favor.

  "Huh... good to know, I guess."

  "Right. Well, after that, it was like she just started to slow down… or maybe she was seconds off. Debris would move in front of an attack, only for the attack to just barely make it past, or maybe ricochet for a partial hit. I even saw a few attacks punch through windows to hit her," Dauntless explained. "It was subtle at first, but slowly got more and more obvious."

  "Like it happened more?"

  "And to a more significant degree," the hero added. "Attacks that looked like they would be blocked would somehow make it through unscathed. Rather than being split seconds behind, they would be full seconds, sometimes even more. She tried to build a few more things, but none of them lasted very long, even less than the first one. That's when the Triumvirate started to really push through, hitting her with some heavy attacks that did a lot of damage. Eidolon managed to cut off a wing, but she slapped him across the city for that."

  "All the way across?" I asked, looking back at Miss Militia with wide eyes. "He alright?"

  "Yeah, he was back before the end of the fight," Dauntless assured him. "Must have had a pretty strong brute power to go with whatever he was shooting at her. Either way, getting hit hard twice, first by Eidolon and then Legend, must have really thrown her off because once we opened up again, almost was getting through. That's when she started to run."

  I frowned, leaning back on a bed, scratching at my cheek, trying to work out just what was happening. The gradual decrease in the Simurgh's ability to defend herself painted a picture of an issue that slowly got worse and worse. The description of surprise on her face meant that she didn't see it coming, which also stood out for the Endbringer.

  "The way Piper's blessing should have worked, it's nothing like this," I explained, chewing the inside of my cheek. "If it her, then it must have been some sort of unique power interaction."

  "How certain of this are you?"

  I whirled around, lighting crackling between my fingers, to find someone had entered the building without me realizing it. It only took a split second for me to realize who she was, prompting me to quickly douse my spell and at least partially relax. She was dressed in a black and grey uniform, most of which hugged her body close, save her belt and a few bits of plating. Her cape was black and hung down her back to her calf. On the center of her chest was her symbol, looking like a chess rook with two windows.

  "Alexandria, hello," I said, eyes darting to Miss Militia, who seemed equally surprised by the Triumvirate members' presence. "Are you in need of healing?"

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "No. I came to discuss the fight and what it means for the future," She explained before looking past me to Dauntless and Miss Militia. "If you wouldn't mind giving us the room?"

  Miss Militia nodded immediately and turned to leave, Dauntless following just after her. For a few seconds, Alexandria was silent, giving them a moment to leave earshot. Then she looked back at me, and for a moment, I couldn't help but feel very alone. Something about her unnerved me, despite her reputation as a top-tier hero.

  "How sure are you about what you said?" She asked again.

  "About it being a power interaction, not a direct cause of Piper's blessing?" I asked, continuing when she nodded. "Near one hundred percent. I made her, after all, and I know for a fact she is not powerful enough to create an effect like this."

  "One of your other creations, Smokey, received power testing that revealed he grows stronger when directly protecting someone. Could Piper also have something like that?"

  I blinked, considering her point. On the one hand, yes, it was technically possible she had something like that, but on the other, I was relatively certain that Smokey's ability stemmed not from his nature as a spirit guardian but from an expression of his spirit power in connection with his growing personality. While it was possible Piper had a hidden power-up trigger, her personality was more in line with nurturing and guiding-

  "Huh… I'll admit, it is possible she got a power buff from the specific situation, though it didn't have to do with protection," I admitted, my brow furrowed as I questioned myself before shaking my head. "Even so, it wouldn't make that much of a difference. The energy needed is just too high, she doesn't have the capability to do this, even taking into account her scaling up. Besides, you're missing the obvious."

  After a moment of silence, while I gave them the chance to guess, I continued.

  "If this was due to Piper power alone, that would intimate an astronomical level of increased luck," I explained, shaking my head. "So unless you've had reports of bottles of favorite beverages, food, or stacks of cash just landing in people's hands, or equally unlikely things happening, then it couldn't be that. It's long since faded, probably about twenty or thirty minutes after, but while it was going, it would have been noticeable. Obvious even. Villains would be tripping over valuable jewelry, and heroes would be taking wrong turns into... Well, I don't know, but they would be good."

  Alexandria considered my words for a few moments before, seemingly satisfied, the dark-colored hero nodded.

  "For now, we will assume that it was a specific power interaction, not an effect Piper caused directly," She said, her words laid out as law. "However, the official word put out by the Protectorate and PRT will be that the Tinker Tech explosion must have affected her."

  "Why? Wouldn't you want people to know that you might have something to combat her?" I asked, not upset, simply curious what the cover-up was for.

  "To protect you and Piper," She explained simply. "There are quite a few people who would want to get their hands on being capable of negating even a fraction of the Simurgh's effectiveness. Not to mention the threat she would pose to the beliefs of the various Fallen clans that worship her."

  "Ah… so it's for our protection."

  "Very much so," She agreed. "It will not fool everyone, but it will help keep attention off of you."

  "And what is the cost of this help?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "Beyond ensuring that you both live long enough to fight the next time the Simurgh descends?" She asked, and I gestured in confirmation. "Duplicate this effect. As many times as you can, so that we can study it with various thinkers and tinkers. So that if you do manage to get yourself killed, we don't lose potentially the greatest advantage over her since she first descended."

  "Yeah, I can do that. I most likely won't be able to make a guardian who has that ability, as that isn't something I control," I explained. "But with the right materials, I can most likely make something with a similar effect. I don't know what it will look like quite yet, but I'll come up with something."

  "Give your material list to Director Piggot, and she will forward it to Director Costa-Brown," Alexandria instructed simply. "" she will personally administer the funding," Alexandria explained. "For now… Keep up the good work. And stay safe."

  "Sure thing," I said slowly, watching the greyscale-clad heroine as she left the space, the woosh of her taking flight almost immediately coming seconds later. "Damn… she sure has one hell of a presence…What do you two think?"

  Alya swirled around me, her presence pulling in from around the entire area. Originally, when we first arrived, she had helped the spirit guardians clear the surrounding area very quickly, but once it was clear, she focused on looking out for oncoming threats. As she took her humanoid form, Crow, who had been sitting in a purposely created little nook along the upper branches of the structure, dropped down easily.

  "She definitely does," Crow agreed. "Like every time she was looking at you, she was debating if it would be easier just to kill you than to deal with you. Real sociopath vibes."

  Crow had been hiding in the area around us since we first arrived, keeping watch as a silent backup in case we needed them. Around my first break, between me visiting the other aid stations and coming back here, I teleported to her side and brought her in, so she could really help in a split second.

  "Having contact with the greater PRT, beyond just the ENE branch, gives you a significant amount of legitimacy, even if we have to keep why hidden," Alya pointed out. "And even if they are supplying materials, they still owe you for time. Could be useful."

  "Not sure how I feel about holding onto an IOU for Endbringer aid, but it might come in handy, yeah," I agreed, gesturing back and forth. "Are guys good? Either of you need anything?"

  "Hit me with another wake me up," Crow answered, stretching her back out as she did. "Starting to get tired again."

  I nodded and quickly cast the wake-up spell on her before she jumped back into her hiding spot. Alya spread out around the area, her familiar distant presence settling in again.

  As memorable as meeting a member of this world's most powerful cape trio was, I was quickly forced to push it from my mind as another round of people were brought in. Their injuries were soon healed, even if I was more than a bit distracted by what had just happened. I was happy to provide the PRT with the tools to better fight one of the scariest members of the Endbringers, even if Alexandria explicitly said they were going to study the hell out of them.

  Normally, I didn't think for a second that there was any hope that anyone would be able to replicate anything I made, even something considerably more simple than a luck blessing. However, I knew from my own research that tinkers were frankly bullshit and were capable of doing a whole lot of crazy stuff, especially when given the opportunity to study other people's creations. Did I think that Dragon or Armsmaster would suddenly learn how to use magic to manipulate luck? No, not even for a second. There was a chance, however, that they could come up with something that a luck blessing. I had no idea how they could do that, but that's why I was a mage, not a tinker.

  Bottom line, I wasn't worried about people learning about magic. This world was too naturally magic-lite to really have someone stumble on it, even if they had a high-end magic item to work with.

  Eventually, Miss Militia returned to the interior of the tent, and she didn't ask any questions regarding my conversation with Alexandria.

  The healing continued into the night, slowing down continually until finally, it petered out just as the sun started to rise. While a good chunk of the city was still a broken mess, it had been thoroughly searched for anyone who could still be healed. Smokey played a large part in that process, using his Golden Retriever to declare entire collapsed buildings clear of living people at once, meaning that efforts could be focused on saving people who were still alive. During my break, I had spotted dozens of buildings with people all over them, digging out survivors quickly.

  Between Smokey, a few tinkers with scanning equipment, and a few other capes with thinker abilities, the search and rescue efforts were swift and effective. Plenty of collapsed buildings were left alone after they were determined to hold no survivors, leaving who knew how many corpses behind.

  It was grim, but the dead would have to wait to be buried again.