The walls are breached. But it wasn't a hoard that did it, it was just one monster. A massive ye'iitsoh, a living mountain. It marched on the city, visible for a full day before arriving only because of its size and admittedly slow pace. With each step the ye'iitsoh took, the ground was cavitated under it. When it arrived at the walls, it raised its arms and started tearing the wall apart. Within an hour, a hole large enough for entire hordes to pour through in the skin of the city, like an open wound, and the monsters did not wait for their chance. Heroes from all around the city were dispatched in advance, and met the hoard in force. Even heroes who'd retired joined the fight. Heroes like the Three Cardinals took up support roles, too weak to fight directly anymore. Natile, Prophet, the woman who took Omar's role, worked as the director, organizing all team and groups as needed.
"Ye'iitsoh spotted moving toward district seven. Shepard's Court, that's your territory! Get down there and redirect back to district fifteen." Natile ordered over the loudspeaker.
Marcel slams his staff against the head of an anayi, a small rock-skinned monster that was attached to the ye'iitsoh when it arrived. They fell from its body as it moved, becoming the first monsters that attacked the city. The anayi's head explodes into pebbles, and it falls to the ground, lifeless. "Shepard's Court, let's move!" He says. The team of four jump into their transport and chase after the ye'iitsoh. HotJack swerves to avoid debris, tossing everyone inside around.
"How do we redirect something that big?" Crasher asks, looking out the window at the huge building sized monster.
"Attack its legs?" Melodie suggests.
"It'd fall, sure. But we need to make it move. Besides, those look tougher than the rest of it." Marcel says.
"What if we caught its attention? Made it chase the transport?" Crasher asks.
"It ain't that fast." HotJack points out. "The transport would outrun it easily."
"Then we try it." Marcel says. "Line." Marcel opens the window, and holds out his hand expectantly. Melodie hands him a safety harness, which he wraps around his waist and crawls out. He climbs onto the roof of the transport, his now long hair blows in the wind as he latches himself to the roof so he won't fall off. He pulls a ball bearing out of his pouch and loads his sling. He charges everything with aura, and fires off his shot. There's two thunderous cracks that follow. The first is the shot itself, the second it the shot breaking off some of the stone around the ye'iitsoh's eyes. But it does not fall. Instead, its gaze turns towards Marcel and Shepard's Court's transport. The transport makes a hard turn, and flings Marcel down. He's caught by the harness. Laying down, he loads another shot. He gets to one knee, and fires. The shot blinds one of the ye'iitsoh's eyes. With that, the ye'iitsoh turned its body and started to chase the transport.
"Great, now we just gotta get that thing back to the wall." Crasher says. Then, they get a call over their radio.
"Shepard's Court, this is Prophet. Come in."
"Prophet, we hear you." Melodie says, picking up the transmitter.
"Change of plans. We have another hoard coming in. If you bring that monster here, we'll be over run in an instant. Either immobilize it, or kill it, then get back here." Prophet says.
"How does she expect us to do that?" HotJack asks, avoiding obstacles in the road by driving off the road entirely.
"Copy, Prophet. We'll see what we can do." Melodie says. "HotJack, turn us around. Get us somewhere open."
"There's a park half a mile away." Crasher says. HotJack turns the wheel sharply, just as another crack of thunder from Marcel's sling echoes out. His shot misses, and Marcel lays down to stick his head through the window.
"Hey, we're going the wrong way." Marcel says, confused.
"Change of plans. We can't take this thing to the wall. We have to deal with it ourselves." Melodie says.
"Okay…" Marcel says, sounding unconvinced. He stands back up and loads another shot. They drive for another minute, staying just ahead of the ye'iitsoh so that it didn't lose interest. When they arrive at the park, HotJack opens the doors without stopping, allowing the team to jump out one by one. First is Crasher, then Melodie, then Marcel undoes his tether and jumps from the roof. Finally, HotJack slams the brakes and runs off the transport. Just in time too, as the ye'iitsoh's massive foot crushes the vehicle.
"HotJack, hotfoot!" Marcel orders. HotJack places his hands on the ground and uses his gift. His is the gift of control, which allows him to control the temperature of whatever he touches. The ground under the ye'iitsoh starts to melt into lava, tipping it off balance. It falls hard, sending shockwaves out and knocking the others off their feet. The ye'iitsoh falls into a building, collapsing it. Everyone stands back up and starts their attacks. "Hold it there!" HotJack, not lifting his hands, uses his gift again. This time, he freezes the ground, trapping the ye'iitsoh's foot under the lava.
Marcel looks to the side, and sees four more anayi drop from the ye'iitsoh's body. "I got them, go." Melodie says. She closes the distance between herself and the anayi, and lets out an enormously powerful, yet short, cry. The ground in front of her is torn up and one of the anayi shakes violently, and falls to the ground. Then draws her weapons and starts to tear the remaining three apart.
"HotJack, keep doing what you're doing. Secure this thing. Crasher and I will do what we can." Marcel orders. HotJack starts to move around the ye'iitsoh, melting and freezing the ground to keep trapping it.
"We got this." Crasher reassures himself. Marcel and he both draw their weapons, rushing at full speed for the monster's head. They are the fastest two on the team, and so it does not take long to reach their target. "What exactly is the plan?"
"Smash it!" Marcel answers.
"Good plan."
Marcel and Crasher start using their strongest attacks. Crasher slams his body into the ye'iitsoh, and Marcel fills his staff with aura, bringing it down on the beast's body as hard as he can. They work to crack the ye'iitsoh's hide, dodging its attacks as they do. Until Marcel doesn't. The ye'iitsoh swings its arm. Marcel tried to dodge, but it grazed him nonetheless. And a graze from a living mountain is still enough. Marcel is sent flying, a hole torn in his armor, and a deep gash in his side.
"Auhg!" Marcel grunts. The ye'iitsoh raises its hand again, and swings for the injured and immobile Marcel. But Crasher spots this, and slams himself at full speed into the ye'iitsoh's hand, knocking it away. But not just away, Crasher manages to knock the ye'iitsoh's hand off its body, sending the ye'iitsoh reeling. Crasher helps Marcel up, and the two run back in, Marcel a bit slower than before. But as the ye'iitsoh reels, Crasher and Marcel spot an opening; a gap in the stone opens in the beast's panic. They run for it, but Crasher isn't injured, and he gets there first. He slams through the crack, widening it, and pushes through… all the way. He explodes out of the other side, covered in a black, tar-like substance. The ye'iitsoh goes limp and collapses, sinking to the ground, dead. About that time, Melodie finishes off the last anayi, and sees the ye'iitsoh die.
"Nice job, team." Marcel says, holding his bleeding side. HotJack pulls out a medical kit from his belt, in which he keeps a variety of support items to use with his gift, and starts to tend to Marcel's wound.
Elsewhere, the heroes at the wall feel the quake from the ye'iitsoh's collapse into the building at the start of Shepard's Court's fight, but don't know what it is. They are too busy driving back the hoard that got past the first layers of defense for the breach in the wall.
In an oversight tower, Prophet talks to several others. Some wear suits, some military fatigues, and others wear hero armor. "This breach will take a while to fix." She says.
"Suggestions?" A man in fatigues asks.
"Step one, repair the wall. Our timeline on that is a month at least." A woman in a suit says.
"We also need to ensure this never happens again. It's time to focus all our efforts on killing the mastermind behind these attacks, Lahmi." Prophet says.
"Easier said than done." A hero says. "I was there with Oasis King that day. We walked into a slaughter. He knew we were coming."
"Indeed. We have preparations to make first. So far, Lahmi has taken advantage of our city's infighting to make his plans work. We need a single figurehead. Someone to take charge, and lead us." Prophet says.
"Are you… volunteering?" A woman in a suit asks. Prophet is quiet for a moment. She closes her eyes and listens to a small voice, one very familiar to Marcel.
"I am." She says, opening her eyes. Several people in the room breathe a sigh of relief. With Prophet at the helm again, they are confident that victory is assured.
A month passes, and the breach in the wall is closed. They poured concrete for days straight, using various gifts like HotJack's to speed everything up. But at the end of the day, a monster-sized hole is still too big to be closed quickly. HotJack himself worked shifts heating and freezing sections as needed, while the rest of Shepard's Court fought, alongside dozens of other hero groups, outside the wall day and night to keep the hordes out. This catches the attention of the media, who already started to take an interest in them with the rumors spreading about what happened between Marcel and Oasis King.
In the base used by the late Oasis King, Abner and Ziba sit in his old office. Abner took over the role of hero group leader and made Ziba his second, and they have been trying to stay afloat as the most powerful hero group, but are so far unsuccessful
"More of our backers pulled out today." Ziba says, looking over the financial documents.
"How many do we have left?" Abner asks.
"Three. Not including the public donations. But those have been thin."
"Ever since everything Saul did came out, the public support has nearly completely withdrawn." Abner says, leaning back in his chair.
"I still can't believe it."
"I know."
"I mean, I should have checked. I should have double checked." Ziba says frustrated.
"We trusted him. There was no reason not to. Sure, he seemed a bit obsessed, but…" Abner says, letting his words drift off.
"There were signs."
"Don't. You gotta stop."
"There were signs and I should have seen them. I was responsible for the records, the reports, but not once did I ever see anything about a leak on our end. I should have looked into it deeper." Ziba slams his financial reports down on Abner's desk. "We could have talked him out of it. Maybe he'd…. they'd both be…" Ziba's voice cracks as he places his head in his hands.
"… Please, Zi, don't. It wasn't our fault. At the end of the day, we jus have to accept what happened… and why."
"I just feel so bad for that kid. He had to hide… for years. Years! Our friend did that. What are we supposed to do with this?"
Later, Marcel is sitting in his office, signing after-action reports to turn in later. He hadn't realized how much paperwork was actually involved in being the leader of a hero group. Truthfully, it was starting to overwhelm him at times. He felt as if he spent more time filing forms than saving lives. There's a knock on his door, and Melodie sticks her head in.
"Marcel, you have some visitors." She says, warily.
"My brothers?" He asks. They stop by once or twice a week to drop off food their mom cooked, worried Marcel wasn't eating properly.
"No. It's Abner and Ziba. Should we… let them in?" She says, opening the door properly.
"Abner? Who?" Marcel asks. "Wait, Wasteland General? I forgot that was his name." Marcel says to himself quietly. "I'll go meet them. Where are they?"
"Outside. With Kevin and Jackson." She says. Marcel stands up and follows Sara to the men. He finds them in a tense situation. HotJack and Kevin are looking as stern as possible, and are clearly agitated.
"General, Ziba. What are you doing here?" Marcel asks, confused and almost expecting them to attack him on sight. But they don't.
"Marcel, you want us to toss these guy's out?" Jackson asks. Kevin, usually the more level headed of the two, cracks his knuckles while trying to look as intimidating as possible.
Marcel shakes his head, letting Abner and Ziba speak. "Marcel, we wanted to come apologize." Abner says.
"We didn't know." Ziba says.
"You were a good kid. We don't know why Saul did it, framed you… and everything else, but we… there's nothing we can do."
"We're sorry, Marcel." Ziba says.
"We made a decision. We're quitting. Dissolving the Oasis Hero Group." Abner adds.
"We want to donate it all, everything we have left, to you. Or, Shepard's Court, I guess. I already filled out all the paperwork." Ziba says, handing him a small stack of documents. Marcel takes it and looks it over. He gained plenty of experience with the legalese side of the job over the last few months, but these documents were still mostly over his head. He decided to have someone look at them later.
"We're sorry, again." Abner says.
"What will you do now?" Marcel asks.
Both men shrug. "Don't know. My gift is pretty useful. Maybe I could go work as a physical therapist? Or assist one. I think I'd need a license to actually be one." Abner says.
"Get an accounting job. It's pretty much what I do now, so…" Ziba says.
"You know, I always figured you two probably didn't know. King seemed like the kind of guy who would keep his plans to himself." Marcel says. The men scoff and nod their heads in agreement. "Look, as far as I'm concerned, you to have nothing to apologize for."
"No, we do." Abner denies.
"We didn't catch it." Ziba says.
"You two trusted you friend. Nothing wrong with that. Don't quit being heroes. Please." Marcel says, handing back the papers.
"Look, we get where you coming from. But, it's not just about the apology." Abner says.
"There's no one who trusts the Oasis Hero Group anymore. All the sidekicks left. It's just the two of us now." Ziba says.
"We had more, but that attack last month… we couldn't protect anyone. After it was over, the last of the teams resigned and joined new groups." Abner says.
"More funding, more pay, less individual work. Can't say we blame them." Ziba says.
"Then… come join us." Marcel says.
"What?" They both ask.
"Yeah, what?" Jackson asks. Sara puts her head in her hand like she has a headache, and Kevin makes a face like he saw this coming.
"We need new members. Ziba, you know the legal side of all this way more than I do. And General-"
"You can just call me Abner."
"Okay, Abner, you have a powerful gift. I believed you when you said you didn't know what was happening. I'm willing to look past everything. So, what do you say?" Marcel asks.
"… Well, why not?" Abner says.
"Alright." Ziba agrees. Marcel shakes the men's hands and welcomes the first two people to be recruited to Shepard's Court.
"Wait… I have one important question." Jackson says, interrupting.
"What is it?" Abner asks, expecting the worst.
"You have a transport, right? Ours got… broken."