Titanfall 1

The crappy PA system popped and hissed. Sophia looked up at the speaker in the ceiling with narrowed eyes as she backed against the wall. Guitar notes rang out. Everyone stopped and Emma backed away from where she was whispering maliciously into the louvers in Hebert's locker. "From one fight onto the next."

Sophia blinked "The fuck?"

"Two outlaws ride, their weapons flexed"

Sophia reached for her work phone. Emma looked around "What the hell? Some nerd got a hold of the PA."

"One is quick the others tall"

Greg Veder hissed "No fucking way!"

"Together they will kill them all."

Sophia pushed the panic hotkey combination on her work phone.

"Standby for Titanfall!"

Greg screamed "Run!" and took off down the hall.

Titanfall

"Colin! We have activity from the Simurgh."

Armsmaster's head snapped up from the microscope he was working under. His hands frozen by his armor, he frowned. Dragon continued "She is moving. Her projected track takes her to a geostationary orbit over Brockton Bay."

Colin blinked "She is out of sequence." His thoughts were interrupted by a red icon on his HUD. Shadow Stalker had hit her panic button. "Where is that music coming from?"

"Every speaker on every device in the city. Colin, something just appeared on NORADs radar. It's not the Simurgh. It's on a ballistic track for Brockton Bay. Refining. Colin, it's going to impact Winslow high school."

"ICBM" Colin was disengaging his hands form the delicate work he had been doing and texting all the other members of the ENE Protectorate and wards.

"No launch detected, it just appeared!"

Titanfall

Sophia looked at Madison who was pointing out the grimy window behind them. In the parking lot, some kind of finger thick blue beam of light extended from the principles car to, well, it went straight up.

Sophia hit the panic hotkeys again.

Just as she did a giant robot hit the ground, or rather principle Blackwell's leased car. A shockwave blossomed in the cold damp air. The car was a pancake. The whole building shook. The mecha stood up straight and looked around. Then it raised some kind of giant weapon and Sophia dove out of the way taking Emma and Madison to the floor. The window and wall exploded.

Titanfall

L33t, a tinker, and avid gamer, blinked at the warbling, blinking indicators and annunciators on the thing he had built to detect orbital bombardment for the Halo game they had run. His partner Uber looked at him "I thought that was dead? Why did you even build it, it was just a prop, we could have just spray painted a tool chest and put some lights on it."

L33t glared at his partner then tossed a ball out the window, oddly, instead of dropping to the ground, it took off. The pair watched a video monitor. L33t gasped "No fucking way! That game is in beta!"

Uber grunted "Fuck that, someone is stealing our gig man! Turn off the music and gear up!"

"I thought the music was you?"

Titanfall

Sophia watched, scrambling away in a crab crawl, as the mecha walked up to the building, reached in the hole it had blasted in the second story, after crouching, and ripped the front off of the whole row of lockers. It caught Hebert as she fell out of the locker and grimly announced "I will not lose another pilot!" Withdrawing its hand it strode off in the direction of downtown.

Sophia's phone rang.

Titanfall

The students of Arcadia high school stood around outside. They always did as Arcadia had a signal suppressor and no one got phone reception inside.

Idiots claimed it was a faraday cage, you can't turn a faraday cage off, like the signal suppressor was between classes or during lunch and sporting events, as it is a grounded copper mesh with holes a quarter inch or smaller in diameter built into a building to include covering the windows or any gap larger than a quarter inch.

One of the students had clued them in to something happening, as a second clue, the music from their cell phones, tablets and computers was the first, and they were all watching Uber and L33t's live feed once the first one announced it had something on it.

Amy Dallon looked up and in the distance saw the smoke rising over where she thought Winslow was. They could hear the sirens starting from the much closer Brockton Bay Memorial hospital. Amy was a, perhaps the, Healer. "Vicky, take me to the hospital. I'll call Carol."

Vicky looked around, but her boyfriend Dean was already running toward the gate of the school grounds. She lifted her sister and took off. The students who had seen Vicky Dallon, Glory Girl, do this before paid scant attention. Watching a giant mecha move through the streets of Brockton Bay was much more interesting.

One of the students realized something "Hey! It's heading this way!" A teacher appeared at that moment and ordered them inside and to their shelter in place locations.

Titanfall

Sophia hung up the phone and headed for her gym locker as the PA sang while drums came in on the music "Bang bang, they shot them down, bang bang, they hit the ground, bang bang, they torched the rest, bang bang, with lasers from their chest."

Sophia growled "Oh fucking hell no they don't!"

"Sophia, Veder knows something!" Emma declared, trotting beside her friend. Madison had taken off somewhere.

"Find him."

The PA kept singing "Bang bang, their kill counts rise, bang bang, their enemies die, bang bang, better hit the ground, bang bang, here's the rocket sound."

Sophia open her mouth then squatted at the hissing roar, and seconds later, tremendous, nearly subsonic, boom that shook the building. The PA sang on "Bang bang, two legends one legacy, bang bang, surrounded by enemies, bang bang, go ahead and cry, bang bang, you're all about to die." Sophia glared as a stupendously loud, stuttering, ripping, sound shook the building.

Sophia looked at her phone "Well fuck. Hebert's mecha is tearing the ass out of the Empires capes. Storm Tiger is down, Cricket as well. Hookwolf is getting shot to pieces."

Emma looked around to say something as Sophia yanked on her costume and stood, mouth open as the Endbringer sirens began to wail.

AN: OK this had some attention from the muse. By the way this prologue came out of my Vermicast plot bunny pen. So, the song belongs to EA, as does the game. Worm belongs to Wildbow of course.