She took flight, and Titan Fortuna reacted to her movement, reorienting the Titans. The Titans under Titan Fortuna’s control mobilized to fight Dauntless, Fume Hood, and Titan Oberon.

On this trajectory, they would shake a building and an icicle would fall, startling a bird.

Titan Fortuna did not make any adjustments to counter.

Titan Auger was en route to Titan Fortuna, where he would join other Titans in excavating the sources of powers. He was wholly within Titan Fortuna’s network, now.

The Simurgh flew toward him, and he reacted.

The reaction was one part of her plan. She used telekinesis to destroy one segment of the city. It would alter Titan Auger’s route. He would encounter the heroine Thunderdome’s old team, Javelin, and annihilate them.

Again, Titan Fortuna did not make any adjustments to counter.

She accelerated, hurtling through the air, every wing pointed directly behind her, as though she were diving.

She flew to the Machine Army.

Heroes fought the Machine Army, and Legend had yet to arrive.

The Simurgh swooped down onto the defensive perimeter, one of her feet crushing a heroine into pulp that bubbled up between her toes.

The Machine Army turned its full force on her, tearing into her with lasers, missiles, and bullets.

Her telekinesis deflected the few attacks that could do appreciable damage, sending them into the heroes’ defensive line.

The heroine she had crushed underfoot would have accompanied Lady Photon of the flock to meet Riley Grace Davis. She knew Riley Grace Davis, and was recognizable as a member of the flock. In her company, Riley would not feel so isolated, and would not express the words that would allow Cryptid to sympathize with her.

Now an unpowered civilian would attend. The conversation would adjust.

Cryptid was handled.

By similar mechanism, a change in a transmission between two machines, Dragon was handled. She would pull back. Defiant would charge in. Both were handled.

By another mechanism she would employ in three minutes, accessing a computer in a house her signal told her was a quarter mile away, she would shut off communications at a critical time.

So it went. Machines tore into her and studied her. This would play a part in removing three more threats from play. Later, a subversion of this network in coordination with her integration with Titan Fortuna would let her spread her signal.

In two minutes, the Wardens would come to the near-unanimous conclusion that the Simurgh was their first priority, too dangerous to be left alone as they enacted dangerous plans. In twelve minutes, after everyone had gathered, they would announce this. In sixteen, they would leave the lobby and attack her.

She abandoned the Machine Army, having given them what they would need later, and flew to the battlefield. She was already prepared.

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