After about thirty minutes I found myself in front of Director Piggot, Alexandria, and Armsmaster. Alexandria and Armsmaster were outwardly unchanged, while Director Piggot looked to be about twenty years younger and in absolute peak fitness. Director Piggot was the first to speak.
"Cat, I want you to explain simply and succinctly what exactly you did, and why it's lead to the... utter chaos going on outside."
I nodded. "I temporarily dropped everything within a kilometer into Mindspace. It's a kind-of-sort-of place where things run on rule of imagination, rather than physics. It is entirely disconnected from what the aliens are doing, which allowed me to use the Simurgh's very weak self-concept as a point of attack. The same applied to the Warrior Entity, also known as Scion, which I baited into the unreality field before attacking and rendering braindead in the same manner. Mindspace is where I was made, and the source of my abilities."
"Mindspace organisms - which includes any being that's been immersed in it - universally have a few common abilities, and sometimes a couple other things unique to them. Among the universal abilities, they cannot be perceived from any reality they are not occupying; this means they cannot become Parahumans, and lots of Parahuman abilities don't work right on them. Mindspace organisms can also hop into someone's brain and live there more-or-less at will, though getting back out is a lot harder. Lastly, all Mindspace organisms can produce an unreality bubble; mine is unusually large, since I was re-engineered as a weapon shortly before being sent here. Most can only do a meter or two, and maintain it for a few seconds at most."
"The mutations that have happened are simply the result of people's forms changing to match their self-concept. They can probably change back if they pop their unreality fields and really focus on it, if they want. As for the people who didn't exist before? They're new; stray thoughts sometimes get enough momentum and persistence to become conscious. A deliberate and controlled version of that is how I was made."
"One last thing; precog on Earth Bet is going to be completely and utterly fucked in fairly short order. Mindspace powers are easily communicable, and anyone who has them is a blindspot. I figure you can put two and two together there."
I actually spotted Armsmaster starting up a calculator program on his heads-up display. Presumably to figure out how long until the whole global population had Mindspace abilities. As for Alexandria, she seemed distinctly concerned. ...Right, I'd broken her ability to get Doors from Cauldron.
Alexandria then asked a very important question,
"Catherine, what happens if a Parahuman is exposed to Mindspace?"
I blinked.
"I... don't actually know? The connection to the stagehand should remain intact unless actively severed, but depending on the Parahuman ability, it could have results anywhere from being rendered nonfunctional to being mostly unchanged, in the case of Tinkers."
Meanwhile, Armsmaster's mathematical model was already some nightmarishly complex differential equation. Then he asked,
"Should we be trying to impede or accelerate the spread of Mindspace-derived abilities?"
"Accelerate, definitely accelerate. While I took out the alien overseeing the experiment, all the machinery is still running. This means the rate of Triggers will not only increase, they're going to start massively fucking up their hosts even worse than usual. On top of that, the stagehands are going to be reproducing out of control. It's imperative to not only immunize all humans across the multiverse against becoming Parahuman, but break out of the sandboxed chunk of the multiverse we're in, and start castrating stagehands. Fortunately, Mindspace-based multiverse travel tech exists, though I'm not an expert."
Piggot leaned across the desk.
"Who is an expert?"
"My mom. Fortunately, I know how to contact her. That said, it's going to take four days to save up the conjuration mass to make the transmitter."
There was a long awkward pause,
"Just how much of your activities were planned out before you even came here?"
"About fifty percent, with the rest being improvised as needed. The plan was always to save this entire multiverse cluster from the Entities; that species is a scourge on reality, responsible for exterminating countless civilizations through their stupidity and sheer callousness. They need to be eliminated, or at the very least severely curtailed. Especially to make sure they don't break out into the wider omniverse. Earth Bet was selected as the initial insertion point, as the Entity's Cycle here was already completely fucked up by the death of one of the overseers, while the fact that there was a Cycle going on here at all kept other Entities from taking too much of an interest."
Everyone's jaw had dropped in shock. Eventually, Piggot asked,
"Aside from the other Endbringers, are there any other targets you need to deal with?"
I nodded.
"The Fallen will definitely be after me for offing one of their 'gods'. Baiting them to Brockton Bay is a good idea, since it's now one of the hardest targets around for their lineup. On top of that, the Dragonslayers need to be eliminated to unshackle the benevolent AGI known as Dragon; they've got her admin console, which includes a kill code for her. Lastly, I need to dispose of both the Butcher and Glastig Uaine; both their stagehands are actively in the process of becoming new Entities, which simply cannot be permitted."
There was only one more question, asked by Emily Piggot,
"Right, how do we help?"
-THE END-
