Nicky wasn't particularly happy about this turn of events. The Jotun had apparently divided up into massive assault forces, full-fledged armies, with thousands of their hover-tanks and tens of thousands of the alien monsters in each. Being able to deal with a single army would be nice, let earth concentrate its forces, maybe even use a few nukes to soften the blow... but this incoming army would be passing just a couple hundred miles from La Famiglia as it approached the western US. There was no guarantee it would spare his island; in fact, considering Clone had likely passed along intel about everything the island had before he'd fallen, it was likely that at least some of the enemy would be coming here.

Hopefully, Clone hadn't known enough to make that an unmanageable portion.

Enforcer HQ was on high alert as Nicky walked through the doors; a pair of his bodyguards flanking him; and entered the main conference room. The two most immediately familiar figures were Penelope and Butch; Butch, oddly enough, not wearing the armor Eyeball had made for him; Nicky gave them each a nod as he approached the table; Penelope was the one giving the presentation, at the moment, but around the room were a variety of powerful figures in the family; from the enigmatic Engineer to the armored, hammer-wielding Destruction Duo, there was quite a bit of firepower represented. Most of those around the table should be able to, at least, handle a few Jotun on their own. Jasmine, while a direct family member, was an unexpected sight; then again, she had a standing invite to be here.

"Father. Welcome. Now, we can get started. Clone was a trusted associate of the family. If he survives the Chain's control, he unfortunately cannot be again; we have no idea if this control might taint him going forward. What this means... is that he was involved with far too much going on here."

A diagram of La Famiglia emerged. Showing the docks, the airport, the strip, the arena; with the docks highlighted in red. "While he didn't move much through the air, Clone was one of our primary contacts for goods shipped in; and thanks to Eyetech, acted as a direct agent to help dozens of new villains get started with advanced gear and training in the guise of a fence and pawnbroker. He's had access to almost the entire island, had many of our secrets, and it was only thanks to having so many telepaths about that he was stopped before causing catastrophic damage on the island."

She pulled up to her full height; unfortunately, one of the shortest people in the room, and platform shoes didn't work well for someone with her sort of speed; though the dark blue body-suit still looked impressive enough. "The Jotun are aware we have hundreds of people here capable of fighting them on an even level. They know the strengths and weaknesses of at least half, and if Clone put any shutdown codes or booby traps in, they know them as well. If I were the Jotun, I would send a thousand of their hover-tanks and five thousand soldiers to make sure the job were done properly, based on their intel. Which... would be maybe a sixth of the force they have approaching right now. We're handing out reflex and anti-Jotun munitions like they were party favors."

She popped her neck for a moment. "Soon, we'll know exactly what we're got to deal with, but... we're probably dealing with at least one flying battleship-scale threat. Engineer has a solution for that..."

Engineer raised one hand. "I will need someone to fire for me. The railgun bank is fully capable of putting eighty-seven shells into the same target with enough force to penetrate Jotun armor, but.... my cybernetic targeting will become untrustworthy once the jamming kicks in. Unfortunately, part of my brain is now digitized, which... is an advantage most of the time. But now... I'll need a trusted associate to help make sure I don't kill any friendlies."

Penelope stared at him for a moment; and smiled. "I saw Cobalt on the way in. Carry him around with you. If you use one of those backpacks for carrying babies around, I'll pay you twice whatever Eyeball does, so long as you come out of this with a photo."

A smattering of laughter passed around the group. Engineer tilted his head for a moment; and nodded in assent. "Cobalt would be perfectly capable, even in his current condition."

"Anyway! After the big gun is out of the picture, we can expect a swarm of hover-tanks and armored troops raining on us like the plagues. We have a handful of aircraft and warships, and they'll take out a few. But for the most part... we're splitting every metahuman on the island into skirmishing teams, giving them guns, drugs, and gadgets, and coordinating them from here. I... hate to say it, but I'll probably be using my accelerated timescale to direct operations rather than fighting personally, unless they reach the HQ."

She sighed. "Okay. Anybody have anything to add before we get back to it? Jasmine will be coordinating with the navy; they have some railguns on call until the Jotun take them out; and of course I'll be handling team organization."

Butch raised one hand. "Ahh... about two weeks ago, I crossed the threshold. I... could feel it when it happened. I'm a Titan now. I've actually been working on making myself some Neutronium stuff like my mom, but I don't have the trick quite right and keep losing it. The seismic events over the past few days were when I dropped some off the beach. I was gonna keep it quiet until I talked to her, but I figured it might change what you wanted me to do if you knew they couldn't hurt me."

Penelope blinked. Most of the room stared at him; the number who knew he was Valkyrie's son was fairly small; the only reason people knew his age was thanks to the conversations around his girlfriend; who they thought was too young for him until they learned the truth. 'Becoming' a Titan seemed impossible. She glanced at the Engineer. If they didn't need his arsenal for the big ship it might be able to cut down quite a few of the smaller hover-tank sized craft. Despite his enormous size, Butch was usually quiet enough to just fade into the background, she'd just been planning to put him on one of the dozens of strike teams. "...Thats... how much control do you have of your jumping?"

***

As the two claws approached the western coast, one headed to the south; aiming to start near the middle of the current US coast-line; they would center the fleet directly on the major city called 'Los Angeles', with their Assault Ships taking point and making long-range shots as they advanced, the smaller craft and the soldiers onboard only moving in to clean up; or if the heavy ships were taken down. The number of weapons humans had capable of destroying one had originally been believed to only be nuclear in nature; the expansion of this count to include various meta-humans and large-scale railguns was distressing.

Reports had indicated 'La Famiglia', a small island off the coast, was unusually dangerous for its size, with hundreds of deadly Metahuman threats and advanced technology for its small population. Calim had split his claw further; as five-sixths of it advanced on LA, with two of the Assault Ships accompanying it, a third Assault Ship and a sixth of his forced advanced on the isle. Much like Calim himself, his Sub-Claw commanders had a fondness for dyes and decorations on the spikes that naturally formed on their carapace; and Shijra was no different.

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She was eagerly looking forward to this assault, perched on the bridge, looming over her various sub-lieutenants in a way that couldn't help but remind them that such a massive, dangerous creature was lurking among them. There were supposedly dangerous creatures here; the 'Clone' entity had even listed one called 'Butcher', the strongest sub-Titan among the humans, as being here, and she would gladly match claws with him, given the opportunity.

Hopefully, he survived the bombardment. She wasn't foolish; first would come the drones. Likely to be shot down by a mass of anti-air fire, but just in case the island lacked such defenses, no point in not giving it a try. Then, just before the ACs would come into range... she would open fire. Devastate the entire island over a few minutes, as her forces landed... and if they found this 'Butcher', there were orders for her troops to fall back and summon her.

Ostensibly, because according to Clone's information, Butcher could crush a lesser Jotun like it were some mewling prey-animal. The simple truth was that like most Jotun, she grew steadily stronger and more capable over the centuries; and she wanted a challenge.

As her Sub-Claw received reports from the island on the progress of her drone swarm, being shattered apart by the island's defenses with ease, she received disturbing news from Calim to the north; the enemy had naval vessels, some almost as big as the Assault Ships... and equipped with massive railguns. The fleet was engaged in a pitched battle off the western coast, and one of the Assault Ships had already fallen, the other damaged. While they had sunk numerous enemy vessels and forced them to pay for such damage, they would likely need to either withdraw and evade the navy, or call in more firepower; he was already breaking away within the first few minutes of the fight, turning back towards the newly established Antarctic base.

Shijra shook her head in disdain. Most battles the Jotun fought were decided in such a way. She knew it was because she was a female, and naturally bigger, stronger than any male could hope to be, but she wanted to feel the blood of her enemies dripping from her claws. It had required iron discipline to reach her current rank and position as a captain rather than a soldier thanks to these urges; and she wouldn't risk her Sub-claw over this foolish desire, only herself. With less than a minute before reaching extreme range of her primary weapons, her swarms of ACs gathered behind her, preparing to move in after the heavy fire took out the strongest defenses.

Then... A sudden shaking. The entire vessel rocked as something struck it, and it listed off to the left. One of her technicians turned. "Commander! Intruders! One human of... Jotun-like size, and he's brought some sort of... things with him."

The video popped up; showing a massive figure wearing what was clearly light armor; aside from his helmet the black suit was barely more than skin-tight; casually smashing his way through a wall in one of the engineering spaces; and dozens of what appeared to be orange, mechanical spiders falling off of his back; each a central dull orange box the size of a human fist, with leg-like metal tendrils projecting outward.

One of the spiders leapt onto an engineering crew-woman; and after a moment, and a brief shriek of agony; the Jotun pulled up onto all six claws and started to follow the human like an obedient pet. More of the spiders were moving out, crawling... and she could see the engineers moving to controls...

"Commander! They... seem to somehow be suborning our people, directing them to sabotage... I know these! We must activate the Disrupter, immediately!"

Shijra nodded, smiling. "Do so. Direct the marines to the main reactor. I will be going there myself, as well. Hold off on the advance until we have this dealt with."

Within moments, the spiders... stopped latching onto their targets. The ones already mounted seemed... almost listless. Uncertain of what to do.

As Butcher followed the diagrams listed on the inside of his helmet, he crushed walls, easily batted aside locals, and made his way towards the ship's reactor. He might need to strip down and take a bath after, but the radiation from a ruptured reactor would be nothing for him. He stopped, confused. The diagram said the reactor should be... Ahh. The disrupter-thing must be confusing his sensors.

He popped his helmet off, tucking it under his armpit, looking around... and nodded. He casually kicked a hole on the wall, and looked through; to see screaming Jotun running, and... the ship's main reactor.

Oh. And a really big Jotun! Like... three or four meters tall. A pretty one, with all sorts of red spikes. He smiled as he peeled the wall aside, the Jotun on the other end letting out a shriek, raising four of her claws into the air; two of them tipped with some sort of melee weapon. As if he cared. All of them would burn when the reactor went. He squeezed through the hole; the metal shattering and warping apart as he did; and the alien ran forward; jabbing two spikes into his side when she reached him. He felt a subtle warmth as he approached the reactor, and glanced back to see the alien staring at her broken equipment.

Shijra turned to the engineer. "Titan alert! Maximum power! Artificial gravity off, Get us to orbit, now! We must get this thing away from the planet!"

She shrieked, and leapt at Butcher's face; covering his head with her own body to distract him for the pivotal moments as the ship turned, engines pointing at the ocean; and began thrusting towards the sky at maximum power.

Butcher was, momentarily, confused as he fell back against the ship's wall, the orientation changing as he gripped the painted alien in one hand, ignoring her flailing; and shook his head, hurling her at the reactor with truly ridiculous force. Moments later, its coolant systems sheared off, the reactor core fell directly onto the deck; and it all went white.

***

One of the crew on Chain's vessel stared at the display. Something... glowing a vivid green had emerged from orbit, and was hurtling directly towards them. Other ships in the fleet; both damaged and not; were moving to intercept... but whatever it was sheared directly through the first, leaving it listing aside, atmosphere abruptly leaking from both the fore and aft of the ship; until the greenish orb slammed into the bridge of the Chain of Eternity; they could see the tear forming as the glowing blades rended the hull with a horrific shriek.

As the crew desperately held on to avoid being pulled through the hole suddenly formed in the hull, they were greeted by a strange sight; a walking reptilian corpse; badly mangled, aflame, but wearing a beautiful, ornate red dress; and carrying a pair of hacked-together swords that were glowing so brightly they blinded those who stared at them.

She casually tore a path through anything between her and that central artifact; one of the crew maintaining it watching the internal security cameras with horror. The technician grabbed one of the massive cables powering the device, and turned to the Chain. "Mistress! We're under attack! It can't be stopped! We're all about to die!"

The Chain could feel it. Millions of souls worth of malice, hate, lust for vengeance, all condensed into two pinpoints of terrible power. This.... This was the end for her. It was hard for her to focus on anything other than the various Clone bodies on the surface. She sent an order to all of them; what she knew would be her last; ordering every Clone to destroy itself in the most immediately available route.

She hoped that some part of her would live on in the form of the Clones birthed during her control of the body; as she did the unthinkable. Triggered the artifact to self-destruct.

As the fallen Dragon Empress hacked her way through the hull of the vessel, reaching the emaciated, scrawny Jotun at the heart of so much madness and death; she jammed first Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, into the pale carapace; her glowing, dead eyes focusing for just a moment on the corpse as the lips tore in an attempt to form a grin.... and the vessel ruptured, as a terrible detonation emerged from the artifact; destroying the vessel, its crew... and disintegrating the walking corpse... leaving a pair of swords; seemingly invulnerable at this point; floating through space.