The suit hanged limp off a heavy lift dolly, forced to lay on its side by the sword still impaled through it. The day had started for the rest of the city, the night's events now morning news. And the morning's events a final cap to the ordeal. The fog had been chased away by the morning sun, but cold rain was set to take its place before any warmth could be had. A dour setting in too poignantly.

The roadway was closed off, too broken and torn asunder to allow traffic, plus the military needed space to pack up their roadblock and clear out. Ancillary heroes and brave former trainees milled about in their stead, making sure that this was well and truly over. Maya, David, Jacob, and Zeleny had made their way here in steady step. With anger and with need to see Seth put down. With tears and fear that this would never be over till they knew it. Kabar had followed, and Ohm had followed him. Both to be there if the worst came to be, or to just be sure themselves. The rest hanging back or being treated. Too many wounded to just leave for their own goods, or too wounded to join in.

And yet… Aegis was here before all of them, hanging off the edge of that dolly and watching the suit lay completely motionless in its death. A vain hope that it would shift, that the chest would heave despite the obvious obstruction, that Seth was alive somehow. There were too many questions left unanswered, too much wasted potential, and too much hate expressed to just leave this all so suddenly. But that hope was kept low, deep beneath the air of duty and preparedness she gave off to her now fellow heroes. He was her student after all, she had to be here to take her part of the responsibility. To be sure it was over. So she kept a hand on the dolly, but raised her head to the slowly repairing battlefield.

Work crews were coming through the bollard walled side streets. Tarmac grinders and spreaders and steamrollers for the road, lineman for the powerlines and streetlights, sweepers for the debris and any ordinance left dud. Like trained choreography, they pulled in with set purpose, began repairing the damage they've undone countless times. So many supers among them setting about the heavy lifting. Putting street lights back up, righting collapsed facades strewn about, running high yield lines with bare hands, and cooking asphalt back to a baser state. Aegis watched them with little thought, another prepared dance she was in the way of yet again.

That they all felt in the way of. Her little teams of former trainees finding out the world moved without them. Scrambling to find anywhere to hunker down, anyway to help in the effort. Maya hurriedly falling in with the worst of the reconstruction. David left holding a fire hydrant from breaking open. Ohm obviously unwilling, but feeling the pressure to run wire as Kabar helped melt asphalt. Zeleny and Jacob just hovering off out of the way. Small pride finding Aegis in the good left over. Helping buoy before she could sink deeper.

But a vibration on her hand snapped her out of the small good, vain hope rising to the surface as she turned back to the suit. That same hope hanging off her face as it deflated into disappointment. At Buster as she struggled with the suit's helmet. Her fingers digging what purchase they could find from the jagged outline of the helmet's maw. Muscles tensing in strain, desperate to open it up. An awkward pause stopped her struggles as Aegis' disappointment became known. She pulled her hands away and shrugged.

"Well how else am I gonna get my sword back?"

Aegis put her other hand squarely in her face, wiping away her rising response to the indignity. She'd only really known Buster in passing, her place more outside the city than in. A bit too… no... way too over the top for the public spotlight. If anything, this she agreed with Erd on. But when shit hits the fan like it has, you call up who you can. At least Kineticlysm had taken the bow out. And she'd been trying for a spot. So…

"Just wait for Techno to get down here, he'll have-"

Buster practically rolled her whole head.

"You think he's going to have an answer for this? We still don't have anything on that stupid orb yall keep locked away up there. And besides, I'm not going to sit around unarmed while he wastes my time studying rather than doing something."

Aegis deflated further as Buster walked away toward one of the work trucks pulling in to offload equipment, coincidentally passing Technomancer's scowling face as he walked in from the offloading area down the street.

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too loud too much too many.

She shrugged as they passed, a clear message that the truth hurts. Techno just kept walking, his scowl deepening slightly by proximity.

Almost immediately he set about scanning the suit, no condolences given, no sympathies expressed. Never one to, but emotion was just something never simple with her team. Support arms came up and about, producing close quarters scanners and sample taking equipment. Laser bores, high intensity spectrograms, magnetic sensors, density radars. All the thing he wanted to know, and everything he could get a hold of while he had the chance. He missed doing a thorough material scan during the graduation and didn't want to let this slip by again. Before someone tried to take trophies.

Aegis watched his support arms tap, beam, and stare at the suit. Following every contour and edge of the plates. The beams doing little to the hardened and scorched surface, just splattering like a blowtorch against a steel wall. She could feel the density sensor tap away, trying to find a weak point or resonance that it could hear back. Techno's expression remained locked in study. He wasn't disappointed with the lack of result, but he had something keeping him at bay. A pass over the helmet did little for his demeanor, but a sudden stop signaled he had resolved to something. He pulled his visor up, the inner screens and readouts faded over his forehead as he looked up at Aegis.

"I still can't find the records Para was supposed to make on him, all I have is what the automated reporting system held on to. And the reports you and Medi made."

He seemed to glare knowingly, at the secret she had left out of her preliminary. How he shattered the laceroid sphere… and put it back together again. Aegis kept her reaction minimal, but felt like this wasn't an interrogation on official grounds.

"Those reports are lining up a little worryingly with what I'm seeing here."

He turned to the suit, a spiteful look on his face. Not so much at its wielder but at the implication that he was beaten to the metaphorical and literal punch.

Such inscrutable alloys and magnificent structures must be so easily discernible for one who has spent a decade locked in its study.

"You want to at least tell me what we've dealt with before I have to go to the trouble of breaking open another unbreakable object?"

Aegis wavered, her trust in Techno was good, better than the rest, but this felt like it was going to cause more of an uproar than anyone needed right now. Controversy brewing and just about boiling in the pot. But she shook that fear away, she had to say something at least.

What more was there even to say?

"I-"

But the sudden clang of metal on metal between them stopped her resolved admission. Buster had come back with little regard for the conversation at hand, and crowbar in hand to jam into the maw's edge.

"Why don't I just show you what I caught!?"

With a massive downward push, the crowbar bent with immense concern over its structural integrity. Her wild and determined smile showing no unease at the possibility she was about to get a new shrapnel headpiece. And it was too clear that something was about to snap, both heroes shielding back as the sound of cracking metal crescendoed into a shower of sparks. Aegis pulled the reflexive arm from her eyes as the quiet hum of road work continued without so much as a cry of pain or thud of an unconscious Buster hitting the ground. She was fine, better than fine, she was fucking ecstatic.

Yay you did it!!

"Ha!! Told you I could do it!"

Aegis tried to wipe away her reaction at Buster's indignation again, but realized she had pulled her arm away from the dolly and instead felt disappointment in herself. She looked at the other heroes moving to see what had become of the monster they had been fighting, what truths could be gleaned from beneath all that metal and power. Her disgust in herself leaving little reason to shy away from facing the reality that was before her. So she joined them in peering over the visor and into the dark void that had terrified everyone, that had been the death of one too many.

The dim light from the clouded sun requiring little adjustment. The void rendered shallow…

Way too shallow.

The heroes looked on, slowly coming to realize just what they were looking at. The gravity of it contorting their faces despite their best efforts to stay composed. Techno went wide eyed in shock, his scowl deepening at the implications. Buster's smile melted as her expression turned to bristling fury at the truth. And Aegis' sadness faded a little as she stared in, her vain hope finding a foothold in reality.

Because the suit was empty. No body, nor blood, nor some nightmare bred dust. A shed skin to delay the hunters, to fool their sense of pride or give them another trophy to showcase. Whatever its use cause, whatever its reasons, it had one clear and concise message.

Seth was still alive.

And so am I...

Buster rose up from her hunched peering, her feelings at the reality clear for everyone to see. All balled up fists, gritted teeth, and the only way left to let it all out. By slamming down on the already overweight dolly and breaking it half.

"SON OF A BITCH!!!!"

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