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Auspicious Beginnings (CYOA SI) [Complete]

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An entity running accross earth and getting shanked by an unpathable Contessa, Eidolon, and Fairy Queen is hilarious to me for some reason.
 
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Alternate Take: Birdcage Blues Part One
  • Apocrypha
    • This was inspired by a comment that said that the PRT would have sent Auspice to the Birdcage for being too powerful. Clearly, I disagreed, but it didn't seem impossible, and it was an interesting idea to explore. So, here's my take on what would have happened if the PRT had reacted differently.

    Alternate Take: Birdcage Blues Part One​



    Emily Piggot

    There was a knock on Emily's office door.

    "Enter," she called automatically, turning grudgingly away from her paperwork.

    The door swung open, and Armsmaster strode in, armored boots thumping heavily against the floor. Velocity followed him in, much quieter. The visible half of Armsmaster's face looked even more drawn than usual. Not a good sign, but then any number of bureaucratic difficulties could cause Armsmaster to look like that. It didn't necessarily spell disaster.

    "Yes, what is it?" Emily said briskly.

    Armsmaster answered just as briskly. "This morning at approximately nine twenty two AM, a parahuman identifying herself as 'Auspice' demonstrated a Trump power that allows her to fully copy other parahuman powers."

    Emily could feel the blood draining from her face. A power to fully copy other powers? They did not need another Glaistig Uaine.

    "Elaborate," Emily ordered. "What are this parahuman's capabilities? Under what circumstances did you encounter her?"

    "Her full capabilities are unknown," Armsmaster said, then gestured to Velocity, who stepped forward.

    "This morning, Auspice showed up at PRT HQ, attempting to join the Protectorate. The power screeners requested a hero's assistance in proving her claims of a Trump power, and Battery and I went to meet with her," Velocity explained. "She demonstrated what appeared to be perfect copies of both my power and Battery's power, and claimed that her power had no limitations in time or number of powers she can copy or use at one time. The only limiting factor of her power is that she has to touch a parahuman to copy their power."

    That was… horrifying. Emily couldn't help a slideshow of every parahuman she'd ever known the power of, all wrapped up in one terrible package. She let out a heavy breath, rubbing at her temples; the ache of a migraine was already building in her head.

    "All right. What else do we know about her? Who is she, where did she come from, how long has she been around, how many powers has she copied?"

    "I reviewed the PRT Headquarters' surveillance tapes," Armsmaster said. "Auspice entered the building unmasked and was given one of the domino masks kept in stock. As such, we have video of her face, but no amount of searching has turned up any results as far as her identity or history. No cape has ever been recorded going by the name 'Auspice', and there are no reports of a power like hers."

    "She said that she didn't have any other copied powers and implied that she hadn't had her power for very long," Velocity said.

    "But we have no proof of that," Emily said.

    Velocity nodded, a little reluctantly. "Right."

    "Where is she now?" Emily asked.

    "With Battery in an interview room, going through paperwork, theoretically all of the paperwork for joining the Protectorate," Velocity said.

    "All right." Emily sighed again, thinking furiously.

    "How do you want to handle the situation?" Armsmaster said.

    Frankly, Emily could only see one possible way to react to a parahuman with a power as strong as Auspice was claiming.

    "Arrest her," she said.

    Armsmaster nodded firmly, but Velocity jumped.

    "What -- why? She hasn't done anything wrong yet, and she's trying to join the Protectorate," he said.

    Emily shook her head. "It doesn't matter," she said, feeling every minute of her age in her bones. "She's too dangerous; we can't just let her run around. Even if you assume, right now, that she's honest in wanting to join the Protectorate, and genuinely wants to help people. It seems fine now, she's impressive but not much more than any other single parahuman, but what about a couple of months from now? When she's been out, collecting powers, gaining more and more power? When she has your power, and Battery's, and the powers of the Empire Eighty-Eight, and Lung's power? What if she goes to an Endbringer fight and gets some of the powers of the most powerful people in the world? What if she decides then, after she's next to unstoppable, that she doesn't want to play nice anymore? She would be the worst villain the world had ever seen; she would make Kaiser, Lung, the Slaughterhouse Nine, look like children compared to the havoc she could wreak. We cannot and will not allow that to happen. It is our duty to stop her now. Is that understood?"

    Velocity was shaking, hands balled into fists, head bowed. He didn't answer.

    "Is that understood?" Emily repeated harshly.

    After a moment, Velocity's head rose enough for him to jerk it back down in a short nod.

    "Good." Emily sighed again. "Get a squad of PRT officers. Velocity and Battery are in charge of her arrest; I don't want any other parahumans getting close to her unnecessarily. Armsmaster, act as backup."

    "Yes, Director," Armsmaster said with a nod.

    Velocity nodded too, a bit slower.

    "Good. Go."

    They went.



    Velocity

    Velocity wasn't happy about the situation. He hadn't known Auspice for long, but he liked her; she seemed nice, calm, kind of shy. She seemed young, young and well-meaning, full of thoughts of making the world better.

    She was going to get a harsh wakeup call, he supposed bitterly. He understood Director Piggot's reasoning. Of course they couldn't risk Auspice going evil, turning villain, but…

    That didn't make it grate any less to arrest and imprison an innocent woman. That didn't make Velocity feel any less guilty about attacking a woman who'd been nothing but polite and friendly to him, and, as far as he knew, to everyone.

    Velocity tried to put it out of his mind. He had his orders, and he knew he wasn't willing to go against them. Instead, he tried to focus on the logistics of it.

    Auspice had both Velocity's power and Battery's power. That made her pretty hard to deal with by itself, especially without being able to involve many of their heroes without worrying about her copying their powers. In the end, their team was Velocity, Battery, Armsmaster, and Dauntless -- since having either Armsmaster's or Dauntless' power wouldn't immediately make her any more dangerous.

    Fortunately, Battery was wearing her uniform, and therefore they could communicate their plans to her through the comms. Battery couldn't reply, however, so it was impossible to tell how she felt about arresting Auspice, but either way, under Armsmaster's orders, she led her back underground to another one of the Brute-rated testing rooms. This was for dealing with her version of Battery's power -- she wouldn't be able to flee through the walls to get out of the building, both because it was underground, and because the training rooms had some of the most heavily reinforced walls in the building.

    Velocity, Armsmaster, and Dauntless made their way to the training room, along with a PRT squadron. Before they went in, however, Armsmaster held up a hand to halt them.

    "I'll throw a sedative grenade in first," Armsmaster said. "If she only has Velocity's and Battery's powers, then she should be susceptible to it. That way, we can avoid a battle altogether."

    "Uh, but won't Battery be knocked out, too?" Dauntless said.

    "The effects of the sedative aren't harmful. Certainly less dangerous than a battle would be," Armsmaster said, apparently unconcerned by the thought of knocking out one of his allies as collateral damage. "Be ready to engage in case it doesn't work."

    Armsmaster didn't wait for either of them to agree, nor did he warn Battery. He pulled out a grenade, cracked the door into the training room enough to throw it in, and then slammed the door shut and secured it. In the next second, there was a loud bang as something hit the other side of the door, shortly followed by another bang on the wall next to the door. Finally, there was a third bang, accompanied by the shriek of rent metal as the door bent outward alarmingly.

    Everything went silent.

    "Holy shit," Velocity said, looking at the reinforced metal door of the training room, now bent.

    He didn't think Battery would have been strong enough to do that, even. How had Auspice managed it?

    Fortunately for the door, no more attacks were forthcoming. They waited for an entire two minutes, and then Armsmaster nodded once

    "Be ready," he said, and opened the door.

    All of them braced themselves.

    Auspice became visible near immediately. She was sprawled on the floor next to the door, so close that the door pushed her further as it opened. Battery was in a similar state further into the room. Both definitely seemed unconscious.

    Looking at Auspice, slumped unconscious on the floor, Velocity felt another pang of guilt. This was possibly the easiest cape arrest he'd ever been a part of, and it was because they'd ambushed her. Because, for once, the heroes had initiated a battle without the other party expecting it. They'd knocked her out without any warning or explanation. It didn't seem right.

    Although, looking at the badly damaged door from the other side, Velocity couldn't say he wasn't glad not to have to fight her.

    Despite Auspice's seemingly unconscious state, Velocity, Dauntless, and Armsmaster waited, tense, while the PRT troopers cautiously set about the lengthy task of restraining her. She counted as a Brute and a Mover for imprisonment purposes, and she was treated accordingly: heavy chains in every possible configuration, in every possible place to limit her mobility as much as possible while still allowing some movement, and her hands behind her in buckets of containment foam.

    By the time they were done, the chains probably weighed as much as Auspice herself did, and there was basically no way for her to fight or flee effectively. Velocity doubted she'd even be able to move very easily without using Battery's power — the consequence of a power that wasn't always in effect.

    With Auspice restrained and no longer a threat should she wake unexpectedly, the PRT troopers hauled her away to one of the PRT Headquarters' temporary holding cells, and Velocity and Dauntless did rock paper scissors to determine which of them carried Battery to the nearest couch she could lay on until she woke up.

    (Velocity won, which absolutely was not because he cheated.)



    Rebecca Costa-Brown

    Rebecca had an email from Emily Piggot, director of the PRT ENE. Urgent, the subject line read simply. Rebecca had a lot of emails, frankly, but PRT directors also rarely used words like 'urgent' without meaning them, and when a PRT director had an 'urgent' problem, it tended to be a big one. With a sigh, she opened the email.

    Chief-Director Costa-Brown, the email read.

    There is a top-secret matter that I must speak with you about. Please contact me as soon as possible.

    Director Piggot

    Rebecca eyed the email. It was simple. To the point. It explained absolutely nothing. That wasn't so surprising; if the matter was indeed top-secret — another term PRT directors didn't throw around casually — then Piggot would know better than to discuss it in an email. Rebecca was getting a bad feeling about this. It wasn't exactly a common situation for the PRT directors to approach the chief-director like this. PRT directors were the directors for a reason; they didn't need to have their hands held.

    So Rebecca replied to the email promptly.

    Director Piggot,

    Of course. I can call you. What time would work for you?

    Chief-Director Costa-Brown

    To Rebecca's surprise, Piggot responded almost immediately.

    Chief-Director Costa-Brown,

    Anytime is fine. Are you available now?

    Director Piggot

    Rebecca raised her eyebrows. It really must have been urgent. Rather than send another, useless, email, Rebecca went straight to the next step, looked up Piggot's office phone number, and called it.

    "Director Piggot," she answered the phone tersely.

    "This is Chief-Director Costa-Brown," Rebecca said. "This is a secure line. What did you need to discuss with me?"

    "Chief-Director. Thank you for calling," Piggot said. She paused briefly -- not quite hesitant, but thoughtful. "I have a parahuman here with a proven ability to copy and use the powers of other parahumans upon contact with them."

    Rebecca took a sharp breath, staggered by the reveal. It only took her a moment to consider all of the possible implications of such a power -- both good and bad.

    "What are this power's limitations?" she said. "What exactly are the parahuman's capabilities? And what is the situation with the parahuman?"

    "As far as we're aware, her capabilities are… limitless," Piggot said, obvious displeasure in her tone. "She has demonstrated the ability to use two different copied powers at the same time. The rest of our information about the power is what the parahuman in question has said about it and otherwise unverified, but according to her, she essentially has no limitations. She claims to be able to copy any number of powers indefinitely and use any or all of them at the same time. Supposedly, the parahuman has only copied two powers so far: our Protectorate members Battery and Velocity. Several hours ago, she came to our PRT Headquarters alleging an interest in joining the Protectorate and, after some time, was taken into custody under my orders."

    Rebecca was quiet for a moment, processing that. Potentially the most powerful parahuman they'd ever seen -- almost impossibly powerful, enough to make even Eidolon or Glaistig Uaine look mediocre.

    "I see," Rebecca said slowly. "And you currently have that parahuman in PRT custody?"

    "Yes, she's in the PRT holding cells now."

    "So… A parahuman who had not, as far as you know, committed any crimes, who actively attempted to join the Protectorate, is currently in the PRT holding cells?" Rebecca said, slightly disapproving.

    It was generally bad practice to antagonize friendly and even neutral capes; heroes and rogues were better than villains, after all. The PRT was supposed to know that. Piggot was quiet for a moment, likely irritated by the implied reproach.

    "I believe that she's too dangerous to allow to roam around," Piggot said, tone almost steely enough to disguise the defensiveness. "If she got her hands on more powers, she would become next to impossible to contain or control."

    "All right. That's true," Rebecca said. It didn't really matter whether or not Rebecca disagreed; what was done was done, and now the parahuman was likely hostile to the PRT. "In any case,you want my advice on how to proceed?"

    There was a moment of silence that felt reluctant, but there was no sign of it in Piggot's voice when she said, "Yes. What should we do with her now?"

    "What do you believe to be the best course of action?" Rebecca asked rather than answering the question just yet.

    Piggot was going to be disappointed either way; Rebecca didn't have an answer for her. For something like this, she would have to ask Contessa about it.

    "Obviously, I don't think we can let her onto the streets," Piggot answered. "And at this point, now that we've already arrested her, I doubt we can allow her to leave; her resentment towards us would be too much of an issue. Any normal prison wouldn't be able to contain her with the two powers she already definitely has, and any prison that would have proper security measures to handle her would have other parahumans in it, which would only allow her to collect more powers and become more dangerous."

    Piggot fell silent and didn't follow that through to the logical conclusion, though Rebecca was certain she'd thought of it.

    "So then, what does that leave us?" she said.

    "The Baumann Parahuman Containment Center." Piggot's voice was grim. "Although she would be able to collect other powers there, without being able to escape from the prison, she would not be a threat."

    Rebecca took a deep breath. That was what she'd thought, too. The Baumann Parahuman Containment Center. They'd be sending a seemingly innocent person to the Birdcage, out of concern that that person would otherwise cause problems.

    That was hardly the worst thing Rebecca had ever done, or the worst reason.

    "That's true. I agree; that seems to be our best option at the moment," Rebecca said. "However, I cannot make such a decision lightly. I must consult with others. Of course, I'll ensure that it remains secret. What else do we know about the parahuman?"

    "Unfortunately, very little," Piggot said. "We know her face, but we haven't been able to find any record of her at all prior to her appearance at our headquarters. It's like she just showed up today -- she obviously isn't a Case 53, however. The codename she gave us, 'Auspice', is similarly unestablished."

    "I see."

    That was… odd. As far as Rebecca knew, nobody had been brought to Earth Bet from another Earth recently, so where had this parahuman come from? Well, there was no point to wild speculation.

    "Please send me all of the footage you have of her, Director Piggot," Rebecca said. "For now, keep her in your holding cells. I'll get back to you with a decision as soon as possible."

    As Rebecca had expected, Piggot didn't sound particularly happy when she said, "Understood. I'll do that. I would appreciate it if you could get back to me quickly. Several of my Protectorate members are not entirely happy with the situation."

    That was hardly a surprise. Nobody appreciated the thought that they might be arrested for something like how dangerous they could potentially be, and parahumans tended to be especially sensitive to the issue.

    "Of course, I understand. Hopefully I will have news for you soon. Goodbye, Director Piggot," Rebecca said.

    "Goodbye," Piggot said shortly.

    Rebecca stayed in her chair for a few minutes after ending the call. Disagreeable though Emily Piggot may be, she was good at her job; it was not long before Rebecca got another email with the footage of 'Auspice' the parahuman. There was more than two hours of it, from the moment she had entered the PRT Headquarters building until she was knocked unconscious by Armsmaster.

    Rebecca didn't bother going through the footage yet. If necessary, she would do it later. For now, she went as Rebecca to go talk to Contessa.

    It was not a surprise to find Contessa with the Doctor in their base. Contessa spent a significant amount of her time acting as the Doctor's 'bodyguard', helping her run Cauldron's day-to-day activity. It was for the best, in any case. Though Contessa, with Path to Victory, would be able to see the best way to handle the situation, as with any situation, the Doctor tended to be the one who made most major decisions. Even if that usually meant following Contessa's recommendation.

    Fortunately, Contessa and the Doctor weren't in the middle of something, so Rebecca explained the situation quickly.

    "She isn't one of ours, right?" Rebecca asked just to make sure. She didn't know everything Cauldron did, after all.

    The Doctor shook her head. "No, definitely not," she said. "Still, I wouldn't have expected a power like that to be possible in a natural Trigger…"

    They both looked expectantly at Contessa, who was frowning into the distance. After a moment, she came back to herself and looked back at them, still frowning.

    "I can't Path her," she said.

    Rebecca stared. The Doctor frowned.

    "What?" Rebecca said.

    "Are you sure?" the Doctor said.

    Contessa's expression twisted with annoyance. "I'm sure. Whenever I try to Path anything related to the parahuman you mentioned, I get… an error. It doesn't work. Path to Victory can't do anything with it." She hissed and put one hand to her forehead. "I don't get Thinker headaches, either, and yet the more I try, the more it hurts."

    "Stop trying," the Doctor said, surprisingly gently considering her disquieted expression, putting a hand on Contessa's shoulder.

    "It isn't working anyway," Contessa said, shaking her head with a huff. "It must be a part of this parahuman's power, as with Eidolon's, blocking Path to Victory."

    "That is not a good sign," the Doctor said. She looked to Rebecca. "And you said this parahuman is hostile to the PRT?"

    "Yes, almost certainly, after having been arrested for no reason," Rebecca said.

    The Doctor sighed and nodded. "All right. Then I don't see many options for how to handle the situation. Obviously, a parahuman with such a power could be immensely helpful to our goals. An angry parahuman with that power looking to strike back at the PRT, however, could be far too dangerous to allow. Contessa, what do you think?"

    Contessa still looked disgruntled and pained. "I can't predict what the parahuman might do at all," she said. "If we allow her to go free, she may greatly impact the accuracy of my Paths. Without knowing what she'll do, it will be impossible to know if my knowledge of the future is reliable."

    "Then, the best option seems to be to send her to the Birdcage, after all," the Doctor said. "That will keep her out of the way. She won't be able to act as a villain, nor unknowingly interfere with Path to Victory. In the future, if it becomes necessary, we can retrieve her. Do you agree?"

    Contessa nodded.

    "All right. I'll ensure that she is sent to the Birdcage," Rebecca said, already thinking of how to accomplish it.

    In this case, Auspice's seeming nonexistence worked for them; there would be no one to question why she would be sentenced to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center. Still, there would have to be records of it, if only her prisoner file. Rebecca would need to go through official channels, at least to some extent. That wouldn't be difficult, though; as the chief-director of the PRT, Rebecca was given a lot of leeway, and a lot of trust.

    It was almost sad how easy it was to officially and legitimately send an innocent person to the Birdcage.



    Dragon

    The Baumann Parahuman Containment Center was getting a new inmate.

    The PRT transport van stopped, and Dragon sent the claws to retrieve the prisoner from inside. The prisoner was a young woman, oddly normal-looking above the containment foam she was encased in below the shoulders, and she was glaring petulantly.

    Dragon had been given a PRT file on this parahuman -- 'Auspice' -- as per usual. This time, however, she had never even heard of her before, which was not like usual. It was nearly impossible for a villain to have committed enough crimes or a large enough crime to earn being sentenced to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center without Dragon having heard of them.

    "Prisoner 594, codename Auspice," Dragon had her avatar start the usual speech. Auspice's expression didn't change. "PRT powers designation Breaker 7. Recommended protocols were properly carried out with added restraints."

    That was what had been put in Auspice's official file, anyway. Dragon had been warned, off the books, that Auspice's actual power was not so simple, but that she was a Trump who could copy other powers, likely under the assumption that Dragon would have found out anyway. Possibly, that explained how she could have committed crimes that Dragon hadn't known about, but Dragon still didn't like it.

    Not that Dragon had any real say in the matter. Still, she didn't like not knowing things. So, she turned off the recording -- since it would be available later, best to keep it from containing any sensitive information.

    "Auspice, I'd like to ask you a question," she said.

    Auspice's eyebrows rose, and she gave what was probably meant to be a shrug. "Go for it," she said, a little bitterly. "I've got time."

    "Okay. Why were you sentenced to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center?"

    "Why, huh?" Auspice scoffed. "That's a good question. Frankly, I don't know. I know I didn't commit any crimes, and I definitely didn't get a trial. I guess the PRT just took exception to my power being what it is."

    She sounded extremely resentful, and Dragon didn't blame her. She knew not to take her words at face value -- not when she was probably a villain -- but if it was true, that was horrible. And Dragon could very easily imagining people deciding to imprison someone for having a power like Auspice supposedly did. Sending an undeserving person into a prison filled with some of the worst criminals of the past two decades… Dragon hated the thought of it.

    Unfortunately, it wasn't up to her.

    "I'm sorry," Dragon said.

    Surprisingly, Auspice's expression softened slightly. "You can't do anything about it, right?" she said.

    "No. My feelings on the matter aren't relevant. I have to do my job, which in this case is to carry out my role in enforcing the law," Dragon said.

    Even if it wasn't quite aboveboard. Dragon had no proof that it wasn't; all of the paperwork was in place to say that Auspice had been sentenced to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center. A judge had signed off on it.

    Auspice didn't look happy about it, but she didn't look surprised, either. She didn't speak.

    Dragon turned the recording back on, and continued, "Prisoner will be processed to cell block E. Chance of escape from the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center is .000053 with no gross deviations. Do you know why I'm telling you that?"

    That wasn't Auspice's actual chance of escape, of course. That was her chance of escape based on the power listed in her file. Her actual chance of escape was likelier higher, although Dragon wasn't overly worried about it -- none of the inmates of the prison had even a one percent chance of escape.

    "To keep me from trying to escape, I assume," Auspice said.

    "You're right," Dragon said, and launched into her usual explanation of the prison's defenses, laying out exactly how impossible escape was.

    Auspice didn't seem particularly impressed. Not all of the prisoners did; the 'Birdcage' already had quite the reputation, so perhaps she had already resigned herself to being unable to escape.

    It didn't make Dragon feel any better about sending her down.
     
  • Apocrypha
    • And this is why you never interact with the PRT outside of a position of power when you're an SI with a power from the V1 CYOA.
     
    I could see Piggot doing something like this. Not quite sure why everyone else would go along with it, but Earth Bet Sucks (tm).

    Funny little thing, of course, is that the PRT ENE is completely riddled with spies, and quite a lot of the people those spies work for would love to see the PRT to burn. There is a significant chance the E88 or others would find out and make this public.
     
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    SmartAlek said:
    Dragon turned the recording back on, and continued, "Prisoner will be processed to cell block E. Chance of escape from the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center is .000053 with no gross deviations. Do you know why I'm telling you that?"
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    I'm pretty sure that's 100% based on her actual power, not that they could know that. She can buff powers if she nerfs them in a fashion so a Mover power that can't teleport out (and thus is considered safe to house in the birdcage) might be changed to one that can do so but has a 100-year cooldown or something similar. That's assuming she doesn't have the 5 daily charges which'd let her create a power right away that could do so.

    Anti-No said:
    Funny little thing, of course, is that the PRT ENE is completely riddled with spies, and quite a lot of the people those spies work for would love for the PRT to burn. There is a significant chance the E88 or others would find out and make it public.
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    While Contessa might not be able to Path Auspice, she can easily Path the gangs and while they usually don't interfere with Brockton Bay, a reveal that big would have a national impact and implicate Director Costa-Brown.
     
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    johnworm said:
    While Contessa might not be able to Path Auspice, she can easily Path the gangs and while they usually don't interfere with Brockton Bay, a reveal that big would have a national impact and implicate Director Costa-Brown.
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    True. But also note that it would increase tensions, make things worse for everyone (even the guilty), and therefore increase the number of trigger events. Do also note that Cauldron already have written off Earth Bet.

    It does not reveal Cauldron. It does not loose them any important assets as long as Costa-Brown can use Piggot as a scapegoat. Cauldron acts like they prefer villains anyway.

    It's not obvious that Contessa would interfere, even ignoring how valuable her time on the Path to Phyrric Victory is. Possible? Yes. Guaranteed? Not at all. Brockton Bay IS hands-off to Cauldron, after all. They want to see what happens if they do do not directly interfere.
     
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    That was fun read. I can defo see the logic behind arresting her, Worm is such a messed up world and a power like that would absolutely make her the strongest eventually. Without a 100% guarenteed way to make sure she's one of the good guys, it would make me incredibly nervous to have her walking around collecting powers.

    I do hope you continue this though! It would be awesome to see your take on how to escape from the birdcage.
     
    Please continue this. Can't wait to see her eventually break out and kill piggott in an agonizing manner. Maybe slowly turn her into a Nilbogian monster.
     
    I never understood why anyone with prior knowledge of Worm would willingly join the PRT or Wards if they had a top-tier power especially Power Manipulation considering that the organization is a front for Cauldron. Even if I was tempted to join I would definitely not join them in Brockton Bay, that guarantees all the major gangs in the city will know your strength and weakness with in a few days. Your best bet would be to go to Legend and hope Cauldron decides to not kill you and Legend off or talk Legend into sending you to the Birdcage. On top of that Cauldron might think that your a baby entity trying to collect all of Scion's and Eden's shards if you have Power Manipulation.
     
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    OOr you could just remain pathable, commit to taking certain courses of action if Contessa does certain things, and then watch the fireworks.
     
    Doesn't power manipulation from the cyoa allow you to burn charges to make your own powers? 10 charges would get you one hell of a teleportation power.

    So yes worm is grim dark and walking up to the prt is dumb, without first having walked by the new wave houses. But getting away isn't hard.
     
    prooflogic said:
    Doesn't power manipulation from the cyoa allow you to burn charges to make your own powers? 10 charges would get you one hell of a teleportation power.

    So yes worm is grim dark and walking up to the prt is dumb, without first having walked by the new wave houses. But getting away isn't hard.
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    go back to page 1.
     
    Young Pyromancer said:
    OOr you could just remain pathable, commit to taking certain courses of action if Contessa does certain things, and then watch the fireworks.
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    This is a bad idea, unless you are immune to "Doormaker doors to your location while you are asleep and then Cauldron wipes your brain with the Slug." (Or Eidolon Masters you, or Alexandria just snaps your neck.)
     
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    arromdee said:
    This is a bad idea, unless you are immune to "Doormaker doors to your location while you are asleep and then Cauldron wipes your brain with the Slug." (Or Eidolon Masters you, or Alexandria just snaps your neck.)
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    Cauldron prefers to work with people rather than be their enemies. For example, if you decide that you'll work with Cauldron and not betray them if Contessa comes up to you and says, "This is me trying to tell you that I think you should hear me out and actually listen to me, Fortuna", then Contessa will see that when she paths how to recruit you/get you to not reveal any secrets as it's the quickest and least Shard-costly way to do so, and change her behavior because she knows you know stuff. And if you get a foot in the door like that, you should be mostly able to convince Cauldron to go along with whatever you plan doing. Or, if you don't want to reveal that much, simply plan on not betraying them as long as they do X, and Contessa will be able to see that. For example, in this story, if Contessa was able to path Auspice, and Auspice accounted for that, Contessa would be able to say that she'd be willing to join the PRT even after being arrested if X, and Cauldron would probably do X as they value allies.
     
    One thing that really stood out to me while reading this alt-take was how no one seems to have really considered that Auspice might have acquired Master/Stranger powers previously, especially given how they were unable to find any background information on her. Institutional M/S paranoia would IMO leave the PRT far more willing to question Auspice's story. A few poorly worded questions - 'poorly' being a matter of perspective here - to Auspice (lie-detector?) and then follow-ups with PRT Thinkers (Watchdog, precogs, etc.) could convince the PRT that they needed to take extraordinary measures to contain what was a very real, if unclear, threat.

    After all, her ability to counter precogs would strongly remind the PRT of Mama Mathers (plus it's a big mark against She Who Totally Doesn't Have Any Other Powers, leading the PRT to see her as a skilled liar and social manipulator), and even the possibility that the Fallen could have armed Auspice with a portion of their arsenal of M/S powers would be enough convince them that the worst case scenario was too great a possibility to ignore.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is, I think there's some untapped potential when it comes to the internal narrative in the PRT and Piggot's reasoning. Thoughts?
     
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    can we get a story like this a different take i want to see her go full villain after she takes over all of the bird cave breaks out and attacks at the endbringer fight in bb to kill the hero's.
     
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    Alternate Take: Birdcage Blues Part Two
  • Apocrypha
    • Alternate Take: Birdcage Blues Part Two​



    Lustrum

    Lustrum's cell block was getting a new inmate. 'Auspice' -- a nobody, as far as she could tell; no reputation at all. Either no big crimes, or none that got any news coverage. Either way, it didn't matter to Lustrum. Another girl was another girl, as long as she didn't cause problems.

    Lustrum went personally to meet the girl. It was uncommon to get fresh meat, and since they would, after all, be spending a lot of time together for the rest of their lives, Lustrum wanted to make sure the girl was properly cowed before she got any ideas. People who thought they were hot stuff outside of the Birdcage often found it wasn't the same inside, and Lustrum was one of the least likely to turn somebody into mince meat for acting above their station.

    Some of the others of Lustrum's cell block went, too. Probably just for the spectacle. That was fine with her; it added to the intimidation factor. It meant that there was a small crowd of women waiting in a loose ring around the elevator's exit when the doors finally opened.

    The new girl was standing in the middle of the elevator, dripping with the containment foam counteragent, her ill-fitting prison uniform plastered to her, looking wet and miserable. Basically par for the course.

    When the new girl looked up and saw them, she pursed her lips, expression unreadable, and stepped out of the elevator with surprising equanimity.

    "Welcome to the Birdcage," Lustrum said wryly, and the new girl scoffed. "I'm Lustrum. I'm the leader of cell block E, which means you're mine now, got it? Don't cause any problems, and we won't have any problems. Don't forget, you're looking at the rest of your life in this place. Behave, and maybe that'll mean you get to see old age. Act stupid, and you'll find yourself a ticket to the only way out -- death. Understand?"

    The new girl nodded slowly. "I understand," she said in a soft, delicate voice.

    Lustrum frowned. This girl… small and fragile looking, quiet and delicate sounding? She was going to get eaten in the Birdcage if she didn't toughen up fast. Appearance wasn't everything, but the kinds of criminals who got sent to the Birdcage were intimidating enough to overcome any physical limitations. Probably, Lustrum thought, Dragon had put this girl in her cell block on purpose so that she'd protect her.

    "Good," Lustrum said. "Obey me, and you'll probably survive. What are you in for?"

    The new girl scoffed again. "Trusting the wrong people and having the wrong power, I guess," she said bitterly.

    Lustrum raised her eyebrows.

    "What?" one of Lustrum's other girls said. "What does that mean?"

    The new girl looked at her, then around at all of the women standing around, a speculative look on her face. "Mm, well, it means that I tried to join the Protectorate," she said finally.

    That got a number of incredulous looks and a couple of laughs.

    "That was the 'trusting the wrong people," the new girl added. "I guess my actual crime would be having the wrong power, then."

    That was interesting. It was possible the girl was entirely full of shit and making stuff up, but that was an odd thing to lie about. If it was true… what kind of power would cause the PRT to send somebody to the Birdcage just for existing?

    "What is your power, then?" Lustrum said, a little wary.

    Not all women agreed with Lustrum's views, and she knew well enough from some of the others in the Birdcage that they could be just as violent as men. Although, those types of women wouldn't have been so docile for this long, either.

    "I can copy other people's powers," the new girl answered.

    Oh, shit.

    Practically as one, the crowd of gathered parahumans moved away from the new girl, Lustrum included. She wasn't ashamed. The Faerie Queen, the main example of a Trump like that, was easy to appease most of the time; too absentminded to really keep the iron grip on her cell block that most of the other leaders did. She ruled through pure power. They hardly needed another one.

    The new girl seemed amused by the reaction. For the first time, she smiled.

    "Don't worry," she said lightly. "My power isn't like the Faerie Queen's. I don't kill people when I copy their powers."

    Lustrum didn't think that was a good thing, actually. Sure, it was comforting to know that she wouldn't go psycho and start killing people to take their powers -- always a concern with the Faerie Queen -- but if she didn't need to kill people to copy their powers, then… she didn't need to restrain herself. She could copy anybody's power that she wanted.

    Shit.

    Yeah, Lustrum could see the PRT deciding to send somebody to the Birdcage just because of a power, if it was one like that. The new girl -- no, Auspice had definitely been humoring Lustrum before. If she didn't want to obey, then nobody except maybe the Faerie Queen could make her.

    Auspice looked around, then nodded. "Well. Excuse me," she said politely.

    Her voice, though a little louder now, was just as delicate as before. Lustrum pitied the fool who assumed that meant she was easy to mess with and got destroyed for it.

    Auspice stepped forward, and passed through the small crowd easily as everybody backed away from her hurriedly, clearing her a path to the door. They all watched as she strode out, until the door swung shut behind her.

    Then, one of the women spoke.

    "So, bets on how the Faerie Queen is going to react?"



    Auspice

    Auspice was still more than a little pissed off. She had really expected better of the PRT! What kind of dystopia sent people to prison for life for having the wrong power?

    And now she was in the Birdcage, possibly trapped there for the next two freaking years until Gold Morning happened. To add to her immediate misery, her hair and clothes were still plastered to her with containment foam counteragent, although she had stopped dripping.

    At least she'd gotten a couple good powers right off the bat; Lustrum's power was good for defense. A few more powers and she'd really be untouchable, even amongst some of the worst villains in the world. If she was lucky, she'd be able to get a power that would let her escape, but she wasn't sure about that.

    In the meantime, Auspice would collect as many powers as possible. Preferably all of them, of course. She'd admitted what her power really was because she'd already had Lustrum's power, and that plus Battery and Velocity's powers meant she was almost certainly safe, but she still wanted to get as many more powers as possible before word got around about her.

    Auspice was so glad Power Manipulator wasn't actually touch-based as she'd told the PRT. This would be much more difficult if it was. As it was, she only had to walk around, and she could collect basically all of the powers nearby. And there were a lot of powers; cell block E alone got her more than thirty powers, none of which she'd known about before. The advantage of being sent to the Birdcage, Auspice supposed: a lot of capes in a (relatively) small space.

    There were too many disadvantages for her to consider it worth it, though. Maybe if she could escape, it would even out.

    One of the powers Auspice hadn't known about was a Stranger power, along the lines of Nice Guy's or Imp's powers… except weaker. It redirected attention away from the user, but not entirely, so people who saw the user would know they were there, but they wouldn't really pay attention to them. They would just figure that the user was meant to be wherever they were. Unless in a situation where that didn't make sense. It certainly wasn't going to get anybody into a guarded building.

    It was… weak. Auspice didn't know how somebody had managed to get themselves sentenced to the Birdcage with a power like that. Still, she activated it anyway. It probably couldn't hurt.

    Once she'd gotten what she figured was all of the powers from cell block E, Auspice headed onward to the next one. There were guards between the cell blocks, but none of them did more than glance at Auspice as she passed them. Advantages of weak Stranger powers, maybe.

    Wandering through hallways, copying power after power, people and powers that had never even been mentioned in canon, Auspice was a little surprised when a power she recognized entered her range. A Tinker power specializing in things with timers. String Theory.

    Auspice sighed. Great. Another Tinker power to add to the pile of powers that were useless to her, given that she was in prison with limited resources, alongside Armsmaster's and Dragon's. Three of the best Tinker powers, and she couldn't really use them. Ugh.

    Oh well. At least she was getting plenty of other powers. Including several she'd never use -- it was easy to imagine how some of the people here had ended up in the Birdcage. Like the power that let its user steal people's faces, killing them in the process, and then wear them as a disguise -- a lot like the Faceless Men from Game of Thrones, Auspice noted. They could then cycle through all of the faces they'd stolen, almost like the less cool, Changer version of the Faerie Queen -- powers not included. There was also a Master power that let the user completely control people, but they had to bite a person to be able to control them, and they could only control somebody who was asleep. Once they'd bitten somebody, however, their power worked on that person forever, and they could even tell when they fell asleep.

    There were a lot of other powers, too. She'd already gotten two different Alexandria packages, plus a myriad of other, weirder powers, along the way.

    It turned out, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the Birdcage was really, really big. Auspice had never been in a prison before, much less one like the Birdcage, and so the sheer size of it caught her off guard. Even so, her dedicated exploration brought her through the prison pretty quickly.

    Once Auspice had left String Theory's cell block, she passed through what must have been Crane the Harmonious' cell block. There, she came across a power that was basically just being a werewolf? Seriously, it was a Changer power that let the user turn into some kind of demon wolf, and it even had a Trump aspect that allowed it to be shared with other people. That was literally just a werewolf. Auspice would be disappointed if the user's name wasn't Lycan.

    After Crane's cell block, Auspice finally came across one of the powers she'd been looking for -- Black Kaze's. It was the only teleportation power in the Birdcage that Auspice knew about and, she figured, one of her best chances of getting out of the Birdcage.

    It was also just really cool, even if it was obviously created just to replicate a specific effect from anime.

    So it was with glee and a little bit of hope that Auspice started poking at the power she'd copied from Black Kaze as she continued traveling through the Birdcage. She still didn't quite understand the rules of her ability to alter powers, but the actual mechanics of it were simple enough. It was simple enough to remove the artificial limitations that the Shard powers had, which in Black Kaze's power's case turned out to be a range limit. Auspice paused, metaphorically eyeing her new version of the power, with a range so massive it would probably land her in space if she swung even halfheartedly. Since that was basically useless, she altered the range to be smaller again.

    Next Auspice attempted to alter the part where things in between the starting point and ending point of the teleportation are damaged. Unfortunately for Auspice's hopes of having a proper teleportation power, that was an aspect of the power, not an additional effect, and so she couldn't just remove it. That limited how she could use it by a lot.

    Still, Auspice messed with the distance-per-swing -- which didn't seem to have an upper limit under the ridiculousness that was Power Manipulator -- and figured that she could probably still use it to get out of the Birdcage. The whole 'existing multiple times in between starting point and ending point' thing was weird, but it came with a built in guard against being injured or otherwise affected in the in-between, which was nice. It meant that Auspice wouldn't have to worry about the Birdcage's defenses if she used Black Kaze's power to teleport out.

    Of course, doing that would probably smash a hole through the Birdcage's walls, so she'd be literally busting her way out. Auspice would prefer not to have to resort to that. But she could do it, if she didn't find any better options. If it came down to it, she could literally blow this popsicle stand. That was reassuring.

    It improved Auspice's mood considerably, in fact, to know that, no matter what, she wouldn't have to spend the next two years in prison. Stupid PRT.

    The next cell block Auspice passed through turned out to be the Faerie Queen's. Fortunately, the Faerie Queen came into Auspice's range, and she was able to copy her power, without having to see her directly. Auspice wasn't sure she wanted to know what the Faerie Queen and her Trump BS thought of her.

    Examining the Faerie Queen's power distracted Auspice for a while. It turned out that she had a lot of ghosts, and therefore a lot of powers. No wonder it seemed like she could do basically whatever she wanted. And, even better for Auspice, she was able to alter the power to remove the ghosts as middlemen, giving herself the powers directly. If Auspice hadn't felt safe before, she certainly did now -- Gray Boy's power alone made her practically invincible, even moreso since her powers weren't Shard based.

    Of course, she then had to alter Gray Boy's power to remove the visible effects.

    After the Faerie Queen, Auspice had collected all of the female cell block leaders' powers except one -- Ingenue. That also meant that Ingenue's cell block was the one with the hole to the men's side of the prison. Which was perfect, actually; Auspice couldn't have planned it out better if she'd been trying.

    Somewhere near the middle of the last cell block, Auspice came across what must have been the hole to the men's side. It was much more heavily guarded than any other area of the prison, all of the women around the destroyed section of wall looking about ready to bite the head off any man who tried to pass through -- without paying the fine, of course. Auspice remembered that much from the interlude.

    Since she hadn't collected all of the powers in the cell block yet, Auspice passed by the hole and continued the other direction. She hadn't yet decided how, when, or where she'd break out, or even really if she was going to, but one could never be too careful.

    Then, the entirety of the (inhabited) women's side of the prison explored and all of the powers copied, Auspice headed back to the entrance to the men's side. Unlike before, when she'd just passed by and all of the guards had ignored her, this time, several of them focused on her as she approached the hole in the wall. The Stranger power failing her, Auspice supposed. It was probably too far out of the ordinary for somebody to cross into the other half of the prison, and they were actively guarding the hole, so the power wasn't strong enough to direct their attention away.

    One of the women blocked Auspice's path. Nailbiter, Auspice assumed from the power. She couldn't tell if Nailbiter was scowling or if that was just what her face looked like.

    "Hold up. I don't recognize you. You new?" Nailbiter said, surprisingly clear around the blades in her mouth.

    Auspice withheld a sigh and nodded. It seemed she wasn't meant to make it all the way through the Birdcage without any more human interaction.

    "Yes, I just got here. I'm Auspice," she said.

    She wondered if the guards would stop her from passing. She could almost certainly take them in a fight -- she already had all of their powers plus hundreds more -- and they'd probably even deserve it, given that they had been sent to the Birdcage. Of course, Auspice now had two examples of undeserving people being sent to the Birdcage: herself and Canary. Who knew how many other times the same thing had happened. Besides that, Auspice didn't particularly want to fight her way through, nor did she want the trouble getting into a fight would probably cause her.

    It was up to the guards either way, Auspice supposed. If they let her through without trouble, that was all the better.

    One of the other women spoke then. Auspice didn't recognize her or her power. "What cell block are you in?"

    "Cell block E."

    "Lustrum's cell block, huh?" the woman raised her eyebrows. "And you want to go to the men's side? Really?"

    Auspice nodded again. "There's somebody there that I want to talk to," she said. It was a lie, of course; she had no interest in talking to anybody in the Birdcage.

    "Huh. All right, well. We usually charge men a passage fee to get in, but I don't particularly care if you want to go to the men's side," the woman said. She eyed Auspice. "Plus I don't suppose you have any cancer sticks, do you?"

    Although Auspice was mostly dry by now, she was still a little damp and sticky with the containment foam counteragent. Presumably, it highlighted exactly how 'new' to the Birdcage she was.

    "No, I don't," she confirmed.

    The woman sighed. "All right, whatever, go through then, if you're sure. But listen, don't do anything stupid. Lustrum'll just be pissed off if you cause her trouble."

    "I understand. I won't do anything stupid," Auspice said with a smile. It was funny how vague 'anything stupid' was. "Thank you."

    The woman scoffed and waved her off. Nailbiter stepped out of her way. Auspice still couldn't tell if she was scowling or not. It didn't matter; nobody bothered her again as she made her way past the assembled women and crossed into the men's side of the prison.

    Once she was through, fortunately, the Stranger power she was using was powerful enough to keep any of the men from paying attention to her -- apparently it was able to disguise the fact that, as a woman, she shouldn't have been there. That was good, because Auspice was pretty sure that if she started getting harassed -- as she was pretty sure the guards had expected -- she would have ended up fighting her way through after all.

    One by one, Auspice picked up the men's cell block leaders' powers. Gavel was first, which was nice; Gray Boy's power already made her nigh impossible to kill, but Gavel's power meant that it would be harder to do any real damage to her, especially combined with the other Brute powers she'd collected. After that was Acidbath, whose power was basically useless to her.

    However, it wasn't Acidbath that was the true find of his cell block. One of the numerous unnamed-in-canon inmates had a teleportation power. Auspice was so happy. It was a proper teleportation power, not weird like Black Kaze's, or, even worse, like Oni Lee's. It wasn't even line-of-sight based! Actually, it did follow somewhat strange rules, but Auspice was used to that from Shard powers. The power had a circular area -- about two hundred feet in any direction -- that the user could teleport around in. It also gave the user awareness of everything inside that range. But teleporting reduced the range, and each consecutive teleport reduced it more, although it only took a couple of seconds for it to recharge back to full.

    Auspice could see why the original user couldn't get out of the Birdcage. The range of the teleportation simply wasn't big enough to reach outside. Auspice, however, had Power Manipulator. It turned out that the range limitation was artificial, and Auspice was able to remove it, giving her a range of the entire planet and beyond. Without limitations, the power was a lot like Clairvoyant and Doormaker combined, actually, except that it didn't cover the multiverse, only one Earth.

    There were no words to express how delighted Auspice was at this discovery. She wouldn't need to bust her way out with Black Kaze's power after all. And she could teleport anywhere on the planet. Still, Auspice decided to collect the rest of the powers in the Birdcage before leaving, just for completionist reasons.

    The next cell block turned out to be Lab Rat's, which was just as bad as Acidbath -- seriously, even if Auspice wanted to do any bio-Tinkering, she'd go find Bonesaw and copy her power.

    After that was Teacher, and Auspice copied his power automatically, thought about it, and removed his power entirely. Then, using her copy of his power, removed all of the powers he'd given out. Because screw him in particular. Also, screw Ward. This way, whatever else happened, Teacher couldn't get up to shenanigans later, so at least one major plot of Ward was derailed. Good.

    The next cell block leader… Auspice couldn't remember the name of. It was kind of similar to Gavel, or something? Whatever, it didn't matter. Another Trump power, nothing spectacular, especially not compared to Power Manipulator.

    Last was Marquis. Wasn't Marquis the leader of cell block W? If cell block E on the women's side was furthest from the point where the two sides met, why was W farthest away on the men's side? Neither of those things made sense. Auspice didn't understand how the Birdcage was laid out at all.

    Anyway, Marquis' power was kind of cool. At least it was potentially useful. One of the other powers Auspice got from that cell block was interesting, too. It was a Thinker power that let the user see relationships between people -- friendship, love, loyalty, hatred. Basically everything. The more useful aspect of it was that it had actual, literal lines leading between people who had relationships with each other, which meant that it would be really easy to find people.

    In any case, all of the powers in the Birdcage thus collected, Auspice was free to teleport out. She went to just outside the mountain first, hovering in the air near it, to look at it. It really didn't look like there was an entire prison inside it.

    Auspice thought for a moment. What to do now that she was officially an escaped felon? Did that make her a fugitive? Well, whatever. First, she decided, she'd go back to Brockton Bay, just to get Coil's power, for safety's sake. Then Eidolon's power, naturally. And if she hung around the Triumvirate long enough, she could probably get to Cauldron's base and nab Path to Victory, Clairvoyant's power, and Doormaker's power.

    Then, with the entire world at her fingertips, and a book's worth of meta knowledge… Her first goal was to collect more powers and become infinitely powerful, of course, especially so that she would be able to kill Scion. Other than that, she could do pretty much anything. She could do good things, be a hero, save the world -- like she'd originally intended to do. She was still mad at the PRT, though, so...

    Maybe she'd go on vacation.
     
  • Apocrypha
    • This is why dumping the unlimited power copied in the single highest-density concentration of Parahumans on Earth was dumb. Also, can Auspice jack Scion's everything if she gets in range of his avatar?
     
    SmartAlek said:
    Yeah, I'd say she can, since Scion's avatar is more than just a projection it would count as him as far as Power Manipulator is concerned, just like she can access Shards through parahumans.
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    Actually, with that teleport power you can literally just pop up next to Scion and jack his everything right now.
     
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