The Protagonist System

237 An Angel Descends

I stepped from where I was to right behind Eidolon and patted him on the shoulder as I whispered. “Thanks, David. You just won the day.”

“Huh? What?” Eidolon asked and turned to look, only I had already stepped right back to where I had been and he hadn't seen me.

“Everyone get ready! Flying capes, take up flanking positions.” Alexandria's voice cut through the air and nearly everyone gasped at her sudden appearance. “Blasters, get ready to thin out the debris she gathers and uses as a shield.”

All of the capes there scrambled to do as she commanded while she continued to bark out orders.

I ignored them and looked up at the slowly approaching figure in the sky. I knew she was intentionally going slow, to cause as much panic and terror as possible, because that was her purpose as a Conflict Engine. It forced capes to use their powers at their strongest and best to gather data.

That meant I had a little time to do a few errands before the fight and made myself invisible and stepped to Carol. She was in her living room with Sarah and I touched the both of them and gave them power boosts and telepathically gave them the information on how to use their upgrades.

I stepped to Amy next and gave her the same powers as Vicky and a quick vision about becoming like her. Despite how things turned out, I didn't hold anything against her. I stepped to Vicky next and gave her the same altered healing powers as Amy, so she could never do brains of make biological monstrosities. I gave her a mirror of Amy's vision to be like her, too.

My next stop was my mother and I gave her a boost to make sure she would never have any troubles, no matter what happened. I gave her regeneration as well and a phantom kiss on her cheek. Another step brought me to Paige and I gave her the same upgraded powers as my mother. A vision of becoming what I desired most let her accept them without question.

I stepped to Eric Pelham's classroom and gave him a better flight and regeneration, to fix the hole in his powers. I then stepped to Crystal Pelham's college class and gave her the inverse of her brother's powers to make her shields as strong as his.

Another step had me in the briefing room in New York and I touched Flechette and gave her my mother's powers and regeneration. She could become one of the best capes in the city with a bit of practice.

On a whim, I also visited the popular girls and Jensen, all gathered in the cafeteria at school, and gave them a quick vision of me and gave them the same powers as my mom. For some reason, I felt like the world was going to need them. The gym coach was there as well and I gave her the same vision and powers, just for the hell of it.

I couldn't really think of anyone else I could help, so I stepped back to Canberra and made myself visible again. When I saw a tall green amazon-like woman, I walked over to her and gave her a hug, updating her powers again and giving her flight, because why not. Hebert let out a growl at being startled by my touch and then she sighed and hugged me back.

I smirked at her when I let her go and telepathically gave all of the gathered capes there the thought to watch me with awe. I also knew a few people would be resistant to the suggestion, because of their own powers, like Hebert and Alexandria. I smiled at that and glowed a bright gold, letting everyone see me 'powering up', then I flew up into the air.

“Atlas!” Alexandria gasped when she noticed most of the other capes had stopped moving and were again looking up at the sky at me. “You can't attack her before she finishes descending!”

“She's right, Atlas.” Dragon said. “There's no telling what the Simurgh will do if you disrupt her pattern.”

I was keeping myself aware down there and assumed Dragon was talking to me over the armband I wasn't wearing. “I know exactly what she's going to do.” I said and flew ever higher to meet her. “She's going to stop and wait for me.”

“What?” “How?” Dragon and Alexandria said at the same time, because the Simurgh stopped her descent three miles up.

“Because we've both been waiting for this moment since we came to this world.” I said and flew that last mile up to her. I floated there in front of her and her sightless eyes stared at me.

Up close, she was eerily beautiful and quite terrifying. Her main body was 12 feet tall and she was one of the shortest Endbringers, only her mass of uncountable wings were anywhere from a foot long that covered her breasts to 50 feet wide. They seemed to flow in and out of each other and they were clearly not used as a means of propulsion, since they weren't flapping at all.

I CANNOT SEE YOU. A booming voice said into my mind.

“Oh, right. Sorry about that. Just a second.” I said and floated over to her and took her hand.

For the first time ever, the Simurgh sucked in a shocked breath and her perfect porcelain body changed slightly to a normal skin tone as her cloudy and sightless eyes reformed and became real eyes. Her wings didn't stop their constant shifting and morphing, however.

A large feminine hand reached up and touched her own throat. “What have you done?”

I heard all the capes down on the ground make shocked sounds, because no one had ever heard an Endbringer speak out loud before. “In layman's terms, I'm giving you the human experience.”

Her large head tilted to the side slightly and gave me an inquisitive look. “I do not understand.” PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU MEAN. She demanded mentally as her long white hair flowed around her head in the wind and she blinked her working eyes at me.

Instead of saying anything out loud, I paused the world and added her to my party as a temporary member, paid for a temporary and secured telepathic link to her, and initiated a data sharing transfer like I had with Clairvoyant and Doormaker. I also paid the points to remove her from the party without consequences and then unpaused the world.

Since I was already touching her, the conflict engine named ZIZ, common name the Simurgh, sucked in the data instantly instead of over a few minutes and gave me a splitting headache.

“Owww. I did not think that action through properly.” I said out loud and my free hand rubbed my temple. My regeneration started easing the pain after a moment and I didn't have to drink a headache potion, letting me keep that secret.

Ziz gripped my hand tightly as she started going through all of the information I had given her, which was all my time spent as a living and breathing person. I didn't mind letting her see it all, since she was well aware of multiple realities. Also, staying in contact with her was the best way for me to tell how her powers were reacting to having a 'real' body and it kept me safe from anyone else attacking us.

“Atlas! Get away from her! She's going to kill you!” Alexandria shouted.

I waved a hand down at the skirmish point where the capes were gathered and cast a barrier spell, Protego Maxima. “No, she won't.” I responded. “In fact, I'm not worried about her at all.”

Ziz tilted her head back up and gave me a bit of a glare.

“You know what I mean.” I said and tapped my temple.

Ziz gave me a very small nod and went back to 'living' my various lives. Her breathing was doing some nice things to her large breasts, too. Her new nipples were also being gently rubbed by her small wings and she looked like she really liked it.

Oh, she's probably going through some of my more private memories. I thought.

A crooked smile appeared on Ziz's normally statue-like face and I had to hold in my laugh at seeing it. She was definitely getting the entire experience of what it means to actually live and not just exist. I wasn't sure how her mind was going to parse the connection between her 'job' and her 'life'. They used to be the same thing and now they weren't.

A weird swirling portal opened up about twenty feet to the right of Ziz and Eidolon flew through it, as did Legend and Alexandria. All three capes seemed to freeze at seeing me holding the hand of a quite human-looking Simurgh, despite her main body still being 12 feet tall.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“What are you doing?” Legend asked.

“I'm waiting for how long it takes for him to show up, now that I'm teaching one of the most important Endbringers what it means to have a limited existence.” I said and saw Ziz blush slightly. “Before you protest, any of you, she really is the most important one. I also gave her the power to fully contact her brothers along the same command protocol signal they all receive.”

Ziz gasped, shocking the three capes, then she gave me a very sultry look.

“I'm sorry it won't work between us biologically, even if I reduced you in size.” I said, sadly.

Ziz smiled and almost all of her massive wings folded in on themselves and left her with only 12. She was clearly taking Gabriel's example from High School DxD as the way to go as her breasts increased in size and her body compressed down to half her height. She was now only 6 feet tall and matched my own size perfectly.

I opened my mouth to comment about how her body had changed and she pulled me into a hug and kissed me like Paige usually did, desperately and lovingly, as if she couldn't believe I was real and that I had accepted her into my life.

Needless to say, it was a great kiss and completely shocked Alexandria, Eidolon, and Legend.

A weird swirling portal opened up about twenty feet to the left of Ziz and a tall golden figure flew through it. Scion was finally here. The three capes floated backwards, ready to defend themselves if Scion attacked them. Unlike them, I knew he wouldn't. They were ants compared to him.

“You... are... interfering.” Scion said, his voice stilted from not being used for so long.

“I am and I'm doing it on purpose.” I admitted and Ziz didn't let me go. “Do you want to do this here or should we visit a particular place of your choosing?”

Scion looked at Ziz and she straightened her back and looked proud. Her grip on me didn't lessen, either. He gave her a blank look for several seconds before another weird swirling portal appeared behind him. The three of us were instantly pulled in and it closed behind us.

*

The live-streaming drone footage showed Scion kidnapping the reformed Simurgh and the famous cape named Atlas. It hadn't been close enough to be pulled in as well, so the drone turned to the three shocked heroes of the Triumvirate to film them. They looked at a complete loss of what to do, just like all of the people watching the footage.

“Nooooo!” A collective cry came from all of the people Greg knew.

*

We reappeared in a place that lacked proper lighting and it was near a large mass of flesh. Near it were piles of failed vial experiments, partially crystallized humanoid bodies, and machinery of unknown make and purpose.

I patted Ziz's back and she let me out of her embrace. I walked over to the mass of flesh that looked coated in crystal shards and I spent about fifteen minutes making my way around it to find a spot that wasn't covered in the natural armor. It was by what I assumed was a partially caved-in head and I placed my hand on it.

A sharp pain lanced right through my head as a bunch of quite alien thoughts were shoved through my brain.

Warning! Alien defense mechanisms detected. Mental assault deflected. Dimensional resonance of energy signature matches the dimensional barrier that disrupted The Protagonist System. Applying countermeasures.

It took several minutes before the assault stopped and I sighed with relief as my regeneration dealt with the throbbing pain. Now that I could concentrate again, I spent the next ten minutes trying to make my brain fit the partially biological mass of flesh into a category that would let me fix it. It wasn't until Ziz touched me and gave me her original information that I understood what I had to do.

“Zion, I need to touch your body.” I said to the tall golden man and he held a hand out to me. “Your real body, I mean. I need to know how to put your species back together and what's in front of me is not letting me do that.”

Scion frowned at me.

“You're protecting yourself with the same dimensional barrier your mate used to section off this part of the multiverse.” I said and he nodded. “I don't need to physically go there. I only need to touch you and The Thinker at the same time. My power can't overhaul her if I don't know what she's supposed to look like.”

Scion stayed quiet and didn't move for another ten minutes, then a very tiny portal opened up near my left hand. I nodded at the compromise and reached a hand through, fully prepared to lose the hand if he detected me doing anything bad.

I didn't even have to feel around as my hand rested on the nearly identical spot my right hand was on and another sharp pain lanced through my head. I knew how to handle it this time and paid the points to mitigate the wait time. I was getting dangerously low and I just hoped I could finish this up before I was completely out.

My mind was having a difficult time sorting through a fully functional alien species and Ziz stayed there at my back offering her own thoughts and insights. I appreciated the help and soon had a plan of attack ready. I started with a light regeneration power, to get rid of all the little damages that Cauldron had done to harvest the shards they wanted from what they thought was a dead body.

She was actually in a deep regenerative state, like hibernation, only they kept taking things from her and causing more and more damage, not letting her systems adjust and adapt to the original impact damage. I wasn't sure how much of herself she was going to retain after having half of her head caved in after crashing onto a planet.

Once I had a more or less intact outer shell, I left it to my powers to essentially copy Scion's alien biology, also known as The Warrior, onto The Thinker's. It was a risky move; but, it was the only one I could take. Both she and him had too many powers to fight against without wrecking the planets I was trying to save.

My danger sense went off when I had the thought to copy their powers while I was touching them and I pulled my hand out of the portal just as it snapped closed. I had almost lost my fingertips and sighed with relief that I hadn't given them my own biological sample to experiment with.

“Okay, here we go.” I said and used a short burst of lightning magic to shock The Thinker awake. It wasn't like restarting her heart and more like activating her defense mechanisms to reactivate her after her very long slumber. She had been out of it for about 30 years and that was a heavy mental burden to throw off. “She might be a bit lethargic for a while after everything she went through.”

Unlike what I thought, my danger sense went off all around me, because The Thinker was fully cognizant and had been the entire time she was being harvested.

WE ARE LEAVING. The Thinker thought. KILL THEM ALL.

“Yes, dear.” Scion said and started to glow.

“Fuck!” I exclaimed and tossed Ziz back to Earth Bet as I grabbed Scion's arm and activated my last resort, Black Hole. I didn't just use my fingers like Thirteen did in My Hero Academia and like I had to destroy the Birdcage, either. My whole body became the source of the power.

Since a black hole the size of a pencil eraser could eventually suck in the Earth, having a 6 foot wide one instantly absorbed Scion's avatar and the newly restored Thinker'd body, then the power started tearing apart the planet.

Since I had touched Scion's real body, my cognitive powers easily found him inside his dimensional hiding place and I somehow 'stepped' into it. He fought against the pull, of course. Or tried to. He was inside the black hole's massive gravity well already and there was no escaping it, especially since I didn't have a physical body anymore for him to attack.

I couldn't let up, because he was so powerful, and I fed my power as much energy as it needed. I was grateful that I had absorbed the Thinker first, because it gave me access to all of the shard's powers she had in their original forms. Unfortunately, it also consumed all of my Karma Points, so I was kind of stuck where I was as I fought to finish off the entity that was hell-bent on mankind's destruction.

The struggle seemed to go on forever as he used up all of his stored energy to escape and I used up my own energy to keep him contained. With one last blast of his remaining energy reserves, Scion, or Zion, breathed his last and was finally crushed in the center of my gravity well.

I felt a flood of more powers, also completely unrestricted, as they became a part of me. It was distracting, because he had been active for decades and had spread his shards far and wide. The number of capes and power he had given out was staggering and I had no points left to do anything about letting them keep those powers.

This also meant I couldn't spend them on myself as well. My current lack of a body and the massive gravity well I had created, that now didn't have a focus, quickly consumed the planet I was on. The other planets were soon gone and then the sun of the solar system was swallowed up.

The sheer power scared me as my out of control black hole didn't stop until the space around me was empty of all debris and I was left all alone. With nothing else to suck in, my power started to consume itself. It never occurred to me that a black hole could consume itself with nothing else to eat. I felt myself get smaller and smaller, at an exponential rate, then I was suddenly smaller than a piece of dust and disappeared.

My last thought was that my delayed texts were going to be sent and I had said goodbye to the people I loved and cared about.