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Forging a Waifu Harem by BatRou-Dawg

Misc » Book X-overs Rated: M, English, Supernatural & Sci-Fi, Words: 238k+, Favs: 226, Follows: 230, Published: Dec 29, 2022 Updated: Oct 30, 2023

15Chapter 8

[Cincinnati city outskirts]

Dragon's largest warsuit stood in a grassy open field right in the predicted path of the Endbringer.

In the distance, the grassy green hills of the Ohio countryside sat under an orange and purple hues of a late afternoon sky. Heroes, Villains, Rogues… Capes of all alignments dotted the countryside without discrimination as the Endbringer Truce dictates. Some huddled together on the grass, making introductions and talking team tactics. Shakers erected cover and shelters like from dirt and stone- hoping that it would be enough to shield against the Endbringer's wrath. Others flew overhead in flocks like human-shaped birds to warm up. Some PRT officers were even handing out sandwiches and water and wine. A last meal of sorts.

However, out of all those in attendance, there was one cape that was missing from the gathering. And so, in an effort to keep it that way, Dragon opened her comms and connected to the one person she wanted to speak to before the battle began.

"Magos." She spoke his name- her video feed of his workshop showing his red-robed frame with its metallic limbs. "I must advise you not to attend the Endbringer fight against Behemoth."

If she was pressed to choose, Dragon would say that she loathed Behemoth the least out of the three Endbringers. Behemoth was straight-forward. Big, direct and predictable in its strategies. Not like Simurgh whose song twisted people's minds long after she had been fended off, and not like Leviathan who had killed her father and sunk her home of Newfoundland into the Atlantic. But the great beast was still something to be scorned as much as it should be feared.

The cape community gave Behemoth the title of 'The Herokiller' for a reason after all.

1-in-3 capes die battling the 45-foot-tall cyclopean Endbringer, and that was on the most favourable of days where there was good synergy among the capes in attendance, the terrain offered great cover against his attacks and when Scion arrived earlier than expected. But on the other hand, there were certainly more than one instance where 9-in-10 capes died, and the city they fought so bitterly to protect was still reduced to a radioactive ruin. And it only served to drive in the fact that at the end of the day… Endbringers weren't something you fought to win, they were forces of nature that you fought to survive. Like an erupting volcano whose crater parahumans threw themselves into- all out of the hope that their scorched bodies could clog and slow the magma enough for Scion to arrive and postpone the eruption for another day.

And that was why she was having this conversation with Magos.

"As much as I look down on the unenlightened…" he began- looking up from whatever he was working on as the sounds of heavy machinery and prayer droned in the background, "... I still would prefer that they do not all die off because I did not intervene."

"You're too valuable of a Tinker to risk losing." she reasoned to him. "The world has a need for a Tinker capable of the mass-production of mundane technology like you are."

And one willing to do it so cheaply too. As cities burned and lives were ruined, people needed the materials and the means to rebuild. And it would be best if those could be easily acquired legitimately rather than them being forced into a life of crime: robbing and cannibalising their more fortunate neighbours just to survive. She would have done such mass-production herself if she wasn't so shackled by the rules that her father had hard-coded into her.

"I could argue that you are just as valuable of a Tinker." Magos countered.

"I'll be fine. I control my Dragonflight from afar- I won't be anywhere near the battlefield." She lied, smiling bitterly to herself. He was still ignorant to the fact of her true nature as an AI. That even if she did die on the field, she could just recover from a backup copy. She can die as many times as was necessary.

But before she could continue, three specific people floated down from the sky to land right in front of her large Dragon warsuit.

"If you would, Dragon, we'd like to speak with him as well."

"Magos?" Dragon muttered into the comms, "The Triumvirate would like to speak with you."

And with that brief warning, she opened the comms to three other people- projecting his screen so that Magos came face-to-face with the three legendary heroes. Dragon could only hope that he made a good first impression on them…

"Alexandria." The red-robed Tinker immediately greeted the first of the Triumvirate. The preeminent heroine was dressed in her iconic black costume replete with armour, face-concealing helm and billowing black cape.

"Magos." Alexandria greeted him back with a curt tone. "Your steadily-increasing influence over the economy of the north-american continent has been the subject of many… discussion. I'm glad to finally be able to talk with you."

"What can I say?" Magos shrugged. "EA Games makes pretty enjoyable games that everyone just can't stop playing."

The second of the Triumvirate stepped in. Legend, the archetypical 'flying artillery' hero and the Triumvirate's unofficial spokesperson, smiled at both Alexandria and Magos.

"We'd like to thank you for your contribution to the Endbringer early warning system." Legend's smooth baritone calmed the conversation, "You, Dragon and Armsmaster should be proud of what you have accomplished with it. Now we have entire minutes to respond to Endbringer attacks. Time to begin evacuating the city and bring the brave cape volunteers up to speed rather than doing it after the Endbringer has started its assault."

"Most of the credit lies with Dragon." the red-robed Tinker humbly deflected- nodding to her, "I simply optimised the programming."

"Regardless-"

"-Will you be joining us here on the field?" Eidolon, the fifth most powerful being on the planet. Right after Scion and the three Endbringers, questioned Magos- sounding expectant that he would indeed join the fight. Dragon found his quiet voice intimidating. And she just kept quiet at how he was asking for something directly contrary to what she wished. Instead she took a visual measure of the man. Garbed in a green skintight suit with a heavy hood and cape and sleeves that drape over his hands like a wizard's robes. His eyes, visible from behind his opaque, glassy helm that glowed blue-green, settled on Magos- still awaiting that answer.

"I have already sent my contribution." Magos's modulated voice revealed, "An Archaeopter with advanced auspices and a broad-spectrum data-tether should be arriving shortly."

And before anyone can question what such terms meant, Dragon's radar detected an aerial contact appearing over the horizon- largely hidden by the glare of the late afternoon sun. A large helicopter-shaped aircraft painted in Magos' signature Mars-Red appeared in her display, but instead of rotors, it had wings like that of a bat. And with the arrival of the 'Archaeopter', a new contact promptly entered the call, invited by Magos.

"Good afternoon, Alexandria, Legend Eidolon and Dragon." A breath-takingly beautiful blonde woman smiled at them. "I'm Chloe. Master Magos has sent me to aid in the management of the endbringer armbands and the coordination of forces. It's a pleasure to meet you all!"

"Who is this?" Legend asked- the glowing blue ring on the temple of this Chloe betraying her synthetic nature.

"An advanced form of my servitors. Do not worry, she is no true AI." Magos calmly reassured them. "She is unable to formulate ideas that I have not already programmed into her."

"Yes, I have no soul." Chloe cheerily supported, and even Dragon was slightly disturbed by the declaration.

"However, her processors are still vastly superior to any of those biological thinking organs." Magos then gave the impression that he was smiling smugly at the Triumvirate as he further explained, "List your functions, ST200."

"Certainly." Chloe, or the ST200, smiled brightly- showing straight white teeth underneath perfect pink lips, "I am fluent in over 7,000 languages and dialects, and if I am authorised to talk through the armbands, I can hold a conversation with up to 300 people simultaneously. I can supply translations between capes, relay in-depth directions to people and locations, and even walk people through first aid instructions."

"That sounds very useful." Legend appraised, and the Chloe gynoid just smiled wider.

"Also, I don't like to brag, but my fellatio skills are top notch too!"

"Excuse me?" Legend choked- completely taken by surprise as Alexandria frowned deeply and Eidolon visibly leaned back.

"Magos…" Alexandria muttered- the triumvirate heroine's tone suspicious, "Did you just send your sex toy into an Endbringer battle?"

And for reasons she herself couldn't pinpoint, Dragon was suddenly feeling upset and angry at Magos for having one.

"I did not have time for a full reprogram, so I had to use something already programmed into her as an operating system for her 'Adjutant and Protocols' system." Magos readily admitted- completely without shame, "So, yes. On top of being a very capable adjutant, she's also a capable sex toy."

"Very capable." Chloe giggled with a flirtatious wink.

"Can it even fly that plane while performing all that you have advertised?" Alexandria probed- her lips drawn to a thin line.

"Chloe doesn't have to." Magos shrugged.

"Good afternoon!" a second Chloe entered the conversation- identical as the first one with her blonde ponytail and perfect smile, "My name is Chloe-2! I'm not good with words, but I sure know how to fly this Archaeopter. I'm very good at handling this flightstick among other things that are long and hard."

"How… how many sex toys did you bring?" Eidolon asked, completely stupefied at this point. Not that Dragon could blame the hero, she was stupefied too at Magos' brazenness.

"Good afternoon!" a third Chloe entered the conversation, "My name is Chloe-3! I operate the omniscope and auspex suite here on the Archaeopter. They let me accurately track everyone's locations through walls, construct an accurate map of the area to figure out paths and routes, and even identify radioactive hotspots for people to avoid. But I'm not good at talking either and I just relay all the information to Chloe-1. So please direct all your queries to her… Also, my anus is engineered to be perfect."

"Three is an agreeable number for sexy gynoid triplets are truly a blessing from the machine-god." Magos nodded, and Dragon visibly palmed her face in the call as the Triumvirate was rendered silent at Magos' sheer Magosness. At this point, Dragon didn't know whether he was making a good or bad impression to the Triumvirate. Showing off his sex toys on their first meeting… could be counted as a gesture of trust if one tilted their head enough, she supposed?

"Regardless, Magos..." Legend was the first to gather himself, "The Chloes sound very useful, if you could clarify some specific scenarios I have in mind so that we can make use of them to the fullest extent. Well for their aid in the Endbringer fight at least."

"Certainly, I can expound their abilities in detail." Magos cordially responded. And Dragon put herself on 'Half-Listen Mode' putting more processing power in sorting the information that she had already been given.

Still…

Dragon's optics subtly eyed the three Chloes, and the strange anger struck Dragon full force again. Why did Magos make such sex toys? Was she so replaceable that he would rath- oh, so that's why she was angry. Jealousy was such a strange and ugly emotion. But she couldn't help but consider her own computer-generated facial model. She had purposely gone with the most generic face that she could generate from compiling faces to avoid rousing any suspicions as to her inhuman nature. But comparing it now to the Chloes who Magos had clearly engineered to embody an level of facial symmetry and classical beauty unattainable to human women?

Dragon felt a twinge of hesitation… She wasn't particularly attached to her current computer-generated face, perhaps just about as much as a person would be attached to a particular shirt, she supposed. Would… would Magos notice if she changed her face, even slightly? It was devoid of logic behind the action, but Dragon just felt an urge to find out if he would.

And with her decision made, she considered her options.

Did he prefer blondes? It should be fine as long as it was not protein-based, right? No, no. She should distinguish herself from the Chloes, not attempt to mimic them. Red hair perhaps? The colour was very striking and attra-

"Behemoth is tunnelling towards the surface now." Chloe's serious voice suddenly cutting off the discussion Legend and Magos were having. Her voice came from all their endbringer armbands of everyone in the battlefield to form a chilling echo. "Endbringer arrival in T-minus 120 seconds and counting… 117… 116… 115…"

"It is time." Magos whispered before immediately ending the call.

"So, it is…" Eidolon murmured as the Triumvirate shared a look between the three of them before immediately took to the skies as Dragon watched them fly off.

And as she too, lifted off, she can only hope that Magos would decide to stay away from the battlefield.

[Magos' Manufactorum]

The manufactorum was the busiest that it had ever been.

A white fog of sacred incense hung in the air as prayers were murmured and hymns were sung from mechanical mouths. The din of metallic footsteps and the rumble of awakening machines echoed all throughout the building as I prepared to partake in my first ever combat operation since arriving here on Earth-Bet.

I knew this Endbringer fight in particular would come eventually.

Leviathan would have attacked Brockton Bay six months from now, and the Simurgh would have attacked the Australian city of Canberra in three. Simple pattern recognition would suggest that Behemoth was slated to attack this month- only the exact day and the exact location had eluded me. So, I had prepared over the days that I had. Strategised the tactica required for victory. Fabricated the many instruments of war that would be needed. Built the hands and the minds that will wield them…

…Now that the Behemoth is attacking however? I had mere minutes at most to prepare myself for battle.

" Commence the pre-battle communion of the Mechanicus " I whispered, and the chanting rose to new volumes as the servitors obeyed my command- reverently approaching my rode-robed mechanical frame.

The first pair of servitors approached- carrying in mechanical pincers the main weapons that I chose for this battle. Into my right hand, I gripped my Omnissian Power axe. Fully charged with the energies that allowed it to cut through solid armour like it would paper, and in my left mechadendrite they attached {Graviton Gun} to the end of my extra limb with just a brief prayer to the Omnissiah.

Declaring {Graviton Gun} as new Mechadendrite attachment.

The Graviton Gun fires a stream of particles which affects the local gravitational field of a target area, making the targeted object either far heavier or lighter depending on the weapon's setting. Some living targets will be affected more variably, but the power of the graviton gun's highest settings is sufficient to rupture organs and crack bones even inside armour. A very large creature may be killed under excessive weight, but most targets will either be slowed or completely immobilised.

Second pair of servitors approached and knelt before my side- offering up the metal-shape of the [Plecian Tome] as they secured the sacred text to my hip. Its knowledge has served me well, and perhaps it will again in the fight.

And finally, the last pair of servitors approached. Carrying the velvet Mars-red cushion on which the {S.T.I.C.C.}- the sacred toaster- sat on, and affixed it to my hip opposite of the Plecian Tome. More than just an instrument of breakfast and snacking, this toaster was a symbol of how the machine will triumph over weak flesh, and how we shall do so again today. As any artefact of the Mechanicus should.

"Manufactorum, chant combat readiness!"

I barked out my command, and immediately, my servitors and cogitators return the current status of their tasks.

Anointing of weapons with holy oils underway.

81% of Gun-Servitors congregated onto Thunderhawk Transport #1.

93% of Medicae Servitors congregated onto Thunderhawk Transport #2.

Blessings for Kataphron Battle-Servitors: 77.4% complete.

Appeasement of Cerastus Machine Spirit: 97% complete.

Performing Ordinations of Holy Flight

Estimated Time before Glorious Take-Off: 103.536 seconds.

I climbed into the cockpit, and joined in with the prayers to the machine-spirits being uttered. A prayer to the atomantic power core so that its fiery, inexhaustible energy would remain stable even under the duress of intense battle. A prayer for each weapon system so that their aim be true and vorpal to any target that I turn it towards, another prayer for the Repulsor Grid so that its invisible energy shell will turn away all harm, and one last prayer to the armoured chassis so that it may hold strong against the coming onslaught and ferry me to a decisive victory.

Estimated Time before Glorious Take-Off: 12.092 seconds

Unsealing air-access blast doors in the name of the Omnissiah.

This was it.

All the nights where I poured over the knowledge granted by my Celestial Forge and all the technology gleaned from the [Plecian Tome]. All days of endless manufacturing as pistons pounded and steel was forged. All the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of raw materials I've bought. All the forces that I had assembled. All the weapons that I had crafted. Everything I could muster… all amassed into this single strikeforce. I can think of no better battle to begin the Adeptus Mechanicus' campaign on Holy Terra than one that clashed might of the blessed machine against a monster of immense destructive power.

Heralding Glorious Take-Off

"By the Omnissiah, the Adeptus Mechanicus will win this day."

Hopefully, the fleshies will be able to hold on until I arrive.

(A few minutes later) [Cincinnati city outskirt]

Sophia Hess was no coward. Even if it was like the apocalypse was happening all around her.

Rainshower down, GD-5.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." She chanted under her breath. She had just watched a flying cape get swatted out of the sky by one of the Endbringers car-thick lightning bolts- the blonde cape's blue and white silhouette crashing somewhere nearby.

"AAAAUGGGHHHH! IT BURNS! MY EYES! MY EYES!" she heard the cape that she was tracking wail in agony. But in the midst of the bone-rattling thundercracks and the zooming lasers and tremoring shockwave and everyone else fucking screaming, Sophia didn't know where the fuck that particular screaming was coming from.

"Chloe, can you guide me to that Rainshower cape?!" Sophia barked into her armband to the 'Operator' that was in charge of tracking downed capes.

"Rainshower is currently in the second house south of you. Second floor, west side of the structure." Chloe's voice advised from her armband as she took on her shadow form- phasing through hedges and walls to her target.

Sophia Hess was no coward. After all, here she was- a Ward fresh out of the PRT's boot camp- and already attending her first fucking Endbringer fight.

Realitywiper down, FG-1. Ansgar down, HB-4. Takhmaspada deceased, HB-4.

Sure, she might have talked big in front of the other Brockton Bay Wards. Lorded it over the others about how she was a predator, and wasn't scared of anything and how she would have had no problem attending an Endbringer fight… just as Armsmaster had walked in to announce Behemoth's attack. In that situation, what else was she supposed to do? Back down and say that she was just full of hot air? She was pretty much forced to come, out of her own damn pride. Pride that she sure as shit knew wasn't worth dying for!

Sophia entered the house just in time to hear the Rainshower cape scream hoarsely.

"I DONT WANNA DIE! SOMEBODY HELP PLEASE!" the cape continued to scream.

"Search and rescue has arrived at your location, Rainshower." Sophia heard Chloe announce through Rainshower's armband just as she turned the corner, and Sophia almost stopped in her tracks as she saw the cape. The left side of her upper body was burnt incredibly bad- angry black and red burns spread up from her vapourized left breast, past the burnt stump of her left arm, and all the way to the top of her head. The left half of her face was made skeletal as the skin was burnt off to char the muscle underneath, and all the blonde hair on the left side of her head was gone. Her melted eyeballs streamed down her cheeks in still steaming rivers.

This was what Behemoth- the Herokiller endbringer- does. To the lucky ones.

Kiaskari deceased, HC-2. Turbokick deceased, HC-2. Ironlurker deceased, HC-2. Capoleox down, HB-3.

"I'm here! I got you, Rainshower!" Sophia shouted out to her.

"Thankyou! Thank you!" the burnt cape blubbered gratefully on the floor- blindly reaching out with her unburnt hand.

"I got you, I got you!" Sophia half-yelled as she kneeled down beside the fallen cape, "I got something for the burn, then we can get you to safety. But bite down on something, this will sting bad."

Rainshower assisted.

Sophia heard her armband announce, and she had to stop from spitting in contempt. 'Assisted.' What a fucking joke. She got sent here with nothing but a two big can of burn spray, a suture kit, some bandages, radiation pills and happy fucking thoughts. Not even some morphine to stop the blinding pain. Pulling out a can of burn spray, Sophia applied it liberally over Rainshower's wounded area- ignoring Rainshower's muffled scream of pain as she emptied the can. They can only hope that it was enough to prevent shock.

"Wait!" the burnt cape pleaded, "My leg, the left one, it's broken from the landing I think!"

"Fuck our shitty luck. Come on!" Sophia grunted out as she hefted the white-and-blue form of Rainshower up from the floor and supported her with her shoulder. "I don't got splints with me so I have to support you down the stairs."

"We're not going to make it, we're dead, I'm already dead!" the other girl sobbed- her blackened arm stump gesturing to herself.

Sophia slapped the girl hard on her uninjured cheek.

"1-in-3." She growled back.

"Whah?" the other girl gasped breathlessly in confusion, and Sophia gritted her teeth.

"Legend told everyone that every third cape going into a Behemoth fight was going to die on a good day. But I'm not going to be part of that third, and neither are you! So hold the fuck on, Rainshower!"

Ansgar assisted. Capoleox assisted.

Still, it was a fucking welcome change of pace to hear people getting assisted instead of getting downed or deceased. Down the stairs they climbed despite the momentary quakes, and through the side door of the house they stumbled onto the grassy lawn and into hell. Burning suburban houses all around them, raging forest fires in the distance, the orange afternoon sky filled with lasers and missiles and beams and lightning and flying capes. And just for icing on the shit cake that she's been served, Sophia's endbringer armband told her that they were about half a kilometre away from the nearest triage station.

"Behemoth's running South-west!"

Electronking deceased, GC-1. Eferhild deceased, GC-1. Hoplite deceased, GC-2…

With the odds stacked against her, Sophia was forced to do something she had never done before: Call for help.

"Shadowstalker requesting Medevac, low prior-

"Broadcasting to everyone in the GD sector, if you're hearing this, then Behemoth is running in your direction from the North-east!"

North-east? But that was…

RRROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGRRRRRRR!

…right in front of them.

50-feet-tall or around 15 meters as- Like a black-stoned volcano had stood up and marched- it towered over the suburban houses. The ground shook slightly with every step it made as lightning crackled from its stony fingers- its arms raised to chest-level as entire lightning storms raged out in every direction.

Redliner deceased, GC-2. Prabir deceased, GC-2. Hoodwastrel deceased, GC-3, Goron deceased, GC-3. Latticelady deceased, GC-3. Whiterook deceased, GD-1. Arjuna deceased, GD-1. Diamondtoad deceased, GD-2. Lakshman deceased, GD-3…

And it turned its head toward them both. A magma-orange maw snarling wide open with rows of sharp teeth of black stone. Horns of obsidian flared from the tops and sides of its head to form a fearsome black crown.

Legend down, GC-2.

This was Behemoth. The Herokiller.

A titanic arm of dark stone began to aim in their general direction and Sophia's utter instincts and fear kicked in.

"HIT THE DIRT!" she shrieked as she tossed both of them to the ground- a constant beam of lightning ravaging the ground they were just standing on as well as the house they had just left. And just as the beam passed them, searing pain shot up her leg, and slammed into her brain with the force of trainwreck.

"ARRRRGGGGHHHH!" Sophia grabbed at the stums of her cauterised right calf.

Shadowstalker down, GD-5. Rainshower down, GD-5.

"Don't leave me! PLEASE!" the injured cape that she had tried to rescue who was alternating between pulling herself along the ground with just her one good arm, and reaching out blindly for her. Sophia's gloved hand caught it- gripping it tight.

"We're not dead yet!" Sophia shouted out in defiance, "Not like this! Not in fucking Ohio of all places!"

Then she heard it. Strange music- like a church choir of oversized fax machines was singing gospel hymns to the thooming melody of a techno-pipe organ.

Sophia watched as they marched through the wreckage and ruin.

She would have said that they were half-man and half-machine. But that would be untrue: they were far more than just half machine. Their arms replaced by either too-long steel vices or cannons so large she could fit her arm into the barrel. Each massive gun belching fire and smoke and a boom that thumped against her bones. Steel censers swung on chains from their hips. The pungent scent of car oil and engine exhaust wafting in their passing as dozens of them fearlessly stomped towards the Endbringer on their digitigrade legs of powerful hydraulics and clawed feet of solid metal.

And one of those cyborgs loomed right over her and Rainshower.

The expressionless face of a normal man stared down at her even as the entire left-side his face looked like it was being eaten by metal plating, camera lenses and wiring. Narrow metallic tentacles tipped with syringes, pincers and tiny chainsaws sprouting from the metal plating of its chest and back.

"G-get the fuck away!" She panicked.

"You are being rescued, meatbag. Resistance is futile." The man-robot coldly replied just as two of its needled tentacles darted forward as quickly as snakes and lightly jabbed each of them on the jugular.

"W-whu?" Rainshower groaned lazily- making Sophia do a double take.

"Was that morphi- Wait, nevermind, I figured it out~" She murmured with a dopey smile as her eyes dilated- the pain floating away… along with her. She barely even felt it as the metal man reached down, picked the both of them up and began stomping away with them.

Shadowstalker assisted. Rainshower assisted.

And as the strange techno-gothic music reached its crescendo, a massive robot almost as tall as the Endbringer itself strode into view. Like a hunched back iron giant with long mechanical limbs, it stood there fearlessly with its sturdy metal armour casing painted in a distinct red. A fucking orange lightsaber in hand and the biggest scifi-looking raygun Sophia had ever seen in the other.

It stared down Behemoth as they stood about 80 metres apart from one another, and spoke in a voice- cold and metallic. Its booming declaration echoed by every armband and rolled over the landscape like a grand edict from a demigod.

"The Adeptus Mechanicus has arrived."

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