Kathy's Brockton Bay Adventures (Worm/Tinker of Fiction)

[Hydralisk]

Post Echidna Interludes

When Vista woke up, she noticed she was hugging something very fluffy.

She tried to open her eyes but had to close them again as something poked one of them, making her lean back. Tears were in her eyes. She tried to blink away from the uncomfortable awakening.

"It is much more comfortable to sleep on the tail than in it, less of a risk of getting poked by stray hair." A whisper was close to her.

Turning her head, she recognized Caster, the second one of Kathy's mysterious Servants.

Looking around, she didn't recognize where she was. She only knew that she was on something very soft and was sleeping. By the looks of it was Caster's tail.

"The battle is over. After Kathy fired her attack off, you fell over." Caster then ran her hand over Missy's hair in a way she didn't know how to feel: "You may be as brave as a hundred men, but your body is still young. It has its limits."

Unsure of how to respond to her, Missy just sat up. She felt some drool on her mouth and wiped it away.

She opened her mouth to say something, but Caster shushed her and looked behind her. Following her gaze, she saw Kathy softly snoring in a la-z-boy with a blanket covering her.

Missy also looked around the room for the first time properly.

It was incredibly flamboyant.

The walls were in ceramic-looking white with gold decorations spaced evenly; the furniture was also the same. Even the vents looked extravagant.

She seemed to be in a small flat, with a bed, table, chairs, and a TV. also three doors leading out of the room. Caster took one of the doors towards what looked like a small kitchen, and Missy followed her, the golden door closing on its own behind her.

Was this Kathy's taste? Someone else must have designed her armor and costume, then.

Although now that she thought about it, the picture they showed in the meeting had her wearing some Royal-cat armor instead of the battle armor she was wearing during the fight.

Truthfully this all felt a little like a dream.

She wasn't expecting much when she called the fellow blond. She simply had no one else to call in what she thought were her final moments.

Never in her life did she expect the girl to show up, blow up the entire clone army, and then charge right towards the source of the monsters. Vista questioned if she had gone mad when she asked to come along.

One of the doors opened, and a robot floated into the room. It looked as if it was made out of softly glowing branches. It was composed of a starlike shape with branches extending downwards into what vaguely looked like a pair of floating legs and arms that ended in oversized hands. The entire thing was rounded out by having a bunch of canisters around its… hips? Missy wasn't quite sure where what was with how alien this thing looked. Then, moving towards Caster, as she heard the fox woman complain about this kitchen being too complex for something as simple as tea, the robot started helping her.

A few moments later, the robot left again, and Caster sat a tray with a tea set looking just as pompous as the rest of the room down on the table, inviting Vista to sit down.

Not seeing anything else to do, the girl did so, sitting down and accepting the teacup.

"Where are we?" She asked quietly so as not to disturb Kathy's rest in the other room.

"One of the lower apartments in the tower Master is building."

Vista remembers Kathy talking about that. That means she was close to the train yards, probably.

"Why did you bring me here?" Looking down on herself, all her wounds had been healed, and even her clothing looked fresh. She would have been fine just being with the rest of the fighters. She didn't need special attention.

"Probably Master wanting to give you a break before you have to suffer through hours of PRT interrogation about her." Caster remarked as Vista made a face. She was not looking forward to that.

At least this gave her a moment to gather her thoughts.

She didn't even tell them that she had a piece of Tinkertech at home. Piggot would explode if she ever found out.

But why didn't she tell them? PRT and Protectorate always explained in fine detail why it was essential to follow the regulation.

However, with Kathy, she couldn't get herself to do it.

Everything went wrong when she first broke into the other girl's house. From that moment, Kathy continued to be an enigma starting with the fact that a parahuman just broke into her house, and she proceeded to ignore said parahuman.

Seriously, who does something like that? Kathy apparently does! Was it because the other girl knew that she couldn't hurt her?

It was true that if she talked to the PRT about the incident, she would get into massive trouble, but that would be nothing compared to what Vista would go through if she kept quiet about it.

Yet she kept it to herself. At first, it was curiosity as she started digging only to find nothing on the girl beside a redacted incident report involving Armsmaster.

It gave her words precedence, so she chose to observe the girl.

It's why she asked the teacher to group them in the art project. She made the excuse of wanting to help the new girl to hide the fact that she just wanted to keep an eye on her.

That was probably the only reason she was still alive right now.

It all made some sort of sense previously, but now she was just confused.

Why would someone like Kathy even bother with her? She could have probably waved her hand and destroyed Vista when she broke into her house, but she just didn't. It went against everything she understood about Tinkers and, to some extent, parahumans in general.

And it was so much worse if Vista thought about the girl's family. Taylor, that cousin of hers with her creepy bugs, every time she saw a spider in her room now, she had to tell herself it was ok, and she hated that.

When Vista saw the report of her taking down that Bomb Tinker, and they suspected Empire ties, she suspected that both Kathy and Taylor were new members. So when Kathy missed school, she used that opportunity to visit her and calmly check over her house for any Empire stuff.

She instead found an entirely typical middle-class household, a sick Kathy, a protective Taylor, and a concerned Mister Hebert.

There was nothing, just a very awkward conversation about cape life, outing herself to Mister Hebert, Caster dropping in from somewhere, and it made her feel angry for some reason.

And that stupid birthday, she didn't need people to care for her birthday, she didn't!

The Wards gave her some congratulations; that was all she needed.

Looking down at her hands, she noticed she was shaking and had to hold her hands to stop.

"Are you ok?" Caster asked her, those expressive eyes of hers filled with concern.

"Caster, can I ask you something?"

"Of course! I will happily help!" Her enthusiasm reminded her a bit of Glory Girl, only more muted in a way.

"Why do you follow Kathy?" She just couldn't understand it. Caster was powerful enough to put Alexandria down. It couldn't just be the contract. Dragon would probably have been able to build her a body if that was it for those spirits.

"Why do I follow Kathy…" Caster repeated, looking like she mulled the question over in her head. "The answer to that, I have to admit. I don't like it at all."

"Why wouldn't you? You follow her, do as she says, and came to her willingly." Vista was confused by her response.

"My wish, my one desire and regret before I died, Missy, was to have a family, to be a dutiful wife, raise some children, and spend my days as a normal human."

"What? How could someone like Kathy help you in any way with getting a family." Now Missy was just confused. How could she possibly get that while following Kathy into this battle, "That doesn't make any sense!"

"Exactly, that is why I don't like the answer to your question." Caster sighed and looked at Kathy wistfully. "You see, unlike Saber, you, and Kathy, I am not fully human. I used to be something different, something far away from humanity." Vista's eyes were drawn to her tail and ears as they moved, she has seen many strange capes, but Caster didn't feel like she fit the bill." Still, I admired humans and their perseverance, their ability to smile in the darkest of times, to change, no matter their origin, and to love, no matter what hardships lie in the way. And so I made a choice. I wanted to experience humanity, stripped myself of my power, and was reborn as an ordinary human girl," She energetically exclaimed before slumping back down like a popped balloon.

"Of course, as it goes with most stories like that, it was a tragic-filled disaster, but I learned one important lesson at the end. You humans, you can't change your human nature. No matter what, you will always be human." As she looked into her eyes, Missy felt small.

"And that is also where my own conflicting emotions come from. Even if I knew she could never grant my wish, I still feel like I would follow her for the sole reason of wanting to see where she goes." She leaned on her arm as she took another sip of her tea, staring off into nothing.

"When we first met, she told me she could relate to me and that she and I were similar. I didn't believe her. Of course, Kathy and I are not even the same types of existence, but how could I not stay and see for myself?"

"Those few hours ago, she stood and faced all those capes, which should be her allies. She unknowingly was replaying my own history. It was painful to watch knowing what was about to happen, as she would inadvertently commit the same mistakes I did." Her voice grew excited.

"And then this fantastic person proved me right in one single point. She is nothing like me. Because where I failed and became a monster, she didn't. She stayed true to herself.

And with a smile faced her demons and kept walking forward, being the most human I have seen in a very long time." Caster then giggled, breaking the seriousness of her speech, "She would probably be so angry at me calling her human."

Despite everything, a snort escaped Missy. "Yeah, she mentioned something like that. About being human but not wanting to be, she named it as the reason for modifying herself so much."

"So very human." Caster said more to herself than Missy, "But to answer your question. I follow her because she upsets me, her headstrong nature is nearly insulting, her dedication to anger others in order to learn about them, and the way she fights against machinations so far outside her scope, some of those she isn't even aware of, just constantly struggling with herself despite being one of the most fragile things I have ever seen.

It's like watching a dog tear its own tail out to fight a shadow on a wall."

Vista shuddered at the mental image.

"I have been with her for barely a week, and yet she found a way to shatter my every expectation, make me question a part of myself, and upset me in a way that makes me want to be better." Casters longing face then turns into a snarl, "Only, of course, I screw up the first chance I get. Knowing Kathy, she won't even realize what I am upset about."

"What did you screw up?" Vista didn't understand. The fight went amazingly. To turn a near-apocalyptic scenario around into just losing a city on paper is gigantic. She repressed the memory of Miss Militia's body hitting the ground.

"That clone shouldn't have existed." Caster bit out as her nails left a gash in the unknown material at the table, "I should have used a different curse, then this entire mess wouldn't have happened in the first place, and my Master wouldn't be at risk because of me she had to reveal herself to the rest of the human powers. Yes, she solved the situation admirably, but this will carry consequences. Fear and hate are the prime responses of humanity for a reason. As stubborn and headstrong as they are, they can also be incredibly fragile.

And here I am discussing the philosophy of self, with a teenage cape while in a tower made of gold, after a fight for the fate of the world. What is wrong with this world?"

"It's fucked up and falling apart at the seams," Missy answered honestly as Caster's words chewed through her mind. A dry laugh escaped her as a realization struck her, "I suppose we are the same in a way. Kathy upsets me as well."

"Why does she upset you?" A warm smile filled with genuine curiosity radiated from Caster in a way that she wanted to look away but couldn't.

"I…" but that was the real question, wasn't it? Why did Kathy upset her? On paper, the girl made no damn sense. She did everything wrong she could think about. She was writing cape notes in class, Tinker-tech gifts, disobeying every order she had ever been given. The girl was so wrong!

"I don't know." Finally, she admitted, "It doesn't make any sense. I have so many reasons not to like her. She just…" Searching for words she didn't even know where in her vocabulary left her distraught and her mind in a daze.

"I think you know exactly what causes you such turmoil, Missy." Caster's voice was as warm as her smile as her hand slowly reached across the table to take hers, "One of the most simple human desires is to not be in pain or, if that is not possible, to at least understand the reason for the pain. So to understand yourself, just ask. What is the source of your pain?"

Missy's first instinct was to pull away from Caster. She didn't even know this woman's name, who claimed not even to be human. But her hand, something about how she held her hand, felt strange. She just couldn't get herself to tear her hand away as she gently held her.

What was the source of her pain? At first, she wanted to get angry and shout that she was strong and not in pain.

That would be a lie. She knew that.

But what was it? Yes, her life was a mess, but everyone's life was a mess in this city. She watched them all long enough; she was nothing special in that regard. That was simply the reality of Brockton Bay.

So why? Why was it that something was causing her such pain? It made no sense.

Why was it that she was upset about Kathy?

Why did it feel like something was wrong when she knew it shouldn't?

She was alive, wasn't she? The crisis was over. Now she could just go home. It should still be Wednesday, which means she should have gotten next week's patrol schedule too.

Nothing was wrong!

So why? Why? Whywhywhywhywhywhy?!

"Why?" She finally said out loud as tears flowed from her eyes, "That crazy dumbass, she does everything wrong." Quickly, Caster moved to her side, softly running her hand over her hair, "All that she is supposed to do; she just ignores, doesn't listen to the authorities, argues with her family, and just breaks every rule!"

She couldn't hold herself anymore and threw her arms around Caster.

"I did everything I was supposed to, and yet she, the one that does everything wrong, is the one that has everything I want! It isn't fair!" She screamed as every dam she had so carefully kept up broke.

Of course, she was so stupid. She was jealous of Kathy because the girl had a place she belonged. A place that somehow accepted her. And she didn't even have anyone to call in her last moments.

It wasn't fair.

"Life isn't fair." Caster agreed as she firmly held the crying girl, "It's unfair, it's cruel, it's ugly, and it will keep finding ways to beat us down, but through all of it, you stood strong, you stood and fought for what you believe to be right."

"But I was wrong." She cried into the woman's chest, clinging to her for dear life, "I was so wrong!"

"That doesn't mean you can't make it right." Caster gently placed her hands on Missy's head and pulled her away so that she could look into the tearful eyes of the girl, "I told you, didn't I, the thing you humans are best at, that is your very nature, is your ability to keep going." Missy tried to wipe her face clean with her sleeves, she didn't want to cry like that, but it just didn't stop. "So all you need to do is keep being the strong girl you are, and keep on going towards what you want, and eventually, you will find your place."

"Promise?" Missy couldn't help herself but ask.

"By my name, Tamamo-no-Mae, I swear it." She then again held the girl firmly.

Missy didn't know how long they spent like this, but she only had one thought at the end.

"When you find your family, you will be a great mom."

Tamamo didn't say anything but tightened the hold around the little girl as her tail moved behind her.

"Can you do me a favor?" Missy asked shyly, not loosening her hold. "Can you keep this between us?"

"Only if you promise the same," Missy looked up at the woman, confused, "I have an image to maintain, you know? Can't have the happy-go-lucky Caster be all emotional. What would Saber say about her fellow Servant breaking character like that!"

At that moment, Missy couldn't help herself, and both broke into laughter.

########

"I don't care what you think she knows!" Armsmaster was angry to the point of shouting, a rare thing, but the stupidity of these FBI agents trying to get information from Vista was beyond even the usual government-assigned insanity.

"The Wards are not even your responsibility, Armsmaster!" The agent shouted back. Clearly, he was meant to be the intimidating one at nearly seven ft. "You peddled that over to Piggot so you can play with your fucking toys!"

"I gave Piggot the responsibility of managing them, but that doesn't mean that I stop being responsible for their safety." He forced out from behind his grinding teeth as his hand twitched towards his Halberd.

"What are you insinuating here?" The man tried to make himself even taller while glaring. But, of course, that did nothing as Armsmaster has faced Leviathan before, and Assault behind him was ready to break some noses if it meant keeping a kid safe. Terrible humor aside, his morals were one of his best qualities.

"Why don't we review your organization's track record regarding information gathering from capes? I am sure we can find nice pictures of that crater in Texas." They tried extremely hard to make that incident stay under wraps. The Second-Trigger they caused was used as the go-to example on how to not handle capes since then in the higher management education of the PRT.

It was now the agent's turn to grind his teeth.

How they managed to just walk into this floor was beyond him. He would need to have a word with security. Feds or no, they should not have just been let in like this.

"This has become a matter of National Security, Armsmaster, and as such is out of your jurisdiction!"

"I will not let some outside department interrogate one of the Wards under my protection!" Even he could see that Vista was one bad day away from defection, "The matter will be handled in-house, and the report will be sent out once it's done. Until then, get the hell out of my building."

The man was about to say something else but stopped with a look at Assault. Armsmaster didn't know what Assault was doing, but it looked like it worked since the man backed off.

"We will have words about this." He started as he walked away. Not that Armsmaster could get himself to care too much. Right now, there were far more important matters to deal with.

"Not to be a downer boss, but those types of groups are not ones to back off that easy." Assault said with his arms crossed, "They will be back sooner rather than later."

"Those dumbasses will cost us a Ward, information, reputation, and worse yet, Kitty-Tinkers animosity." he bit out with a sigh.

"I'm not sure what happened involving that kid since all that has more red tape than even my own case." He said with a shrug, "I did see a few shaky phone camera videos and deleted PHO comments, but you know how it is with those."

"It's bad. It's incredibly bad. The incident will most likely be on the news within the next few days. If things go wrong, prepare for an active kill order on Kitty-Tinker."

"Jesus, and what does Vista have to do with it?"

Armsmaster pointed for Assault to follow. They were currently on one of the top floors of the Rig instead of the PRT base.

"Vista has a direct communication line to Kitty-Tinker and used it to call her in for support, and while Kitty-Tinker ultimately solved the issue, she didn't just step on some toes while doing it. She practically moonwalked over a minefield." The man sighed again. He did that far too often in the last few days, "But you are right, I need to get some information from Vista."

"Why you?" Assault asked as they reached a sealed room. "Don't get me wrong, bossman, you are not exactly good with kids."

"Because I am the only one left who was there and can ask about classified matters. With some luck, Kitty-Tinker herself doesn't care about what information gets out and told Vista such."

"When you say only one left…" Assault asked carefully.

"Miss Militia jumped into the line of fire, shielding Vista with her body. She bought us enough time to prevent further casualties." A hero's death, if there ever was such a thing.

It was Assault's turn to sigh in frustration, he knew, of course, what risks were involved with the job, but it was never pretty to be faced with them.

With that Armsmaster knocking at the door, he heard some shuffling on the other side before he heard Vista's ok to enter.

The room was fairly spartan, initially intended for witness protection; it is highly secured. He designed a lot of the protective measures.

What was new was that the inside of the room was now ten times its previous dimensions, if his instruments are to be believed.

Vista didn't greet him. Instead, she was sitting at the table with a frown.

"Can I ask why?" he gestured at the room.

"I wanted some space and got bored." She answered curtly. His armor's built in-lie detector told him she omitted something.

"Understandable," He chose not to press the issue. There were far more important matters at hand, "I assume you know what I want to talk about?"

She sighs before responding, "Kathy warned me this would happen. I chose to go back anyway."

He didn't respond and sat down opposite her.

"Are you finally going to ask me questions about her, or am I going to have to stay here for another day or two?" she asked, clearly sarcastic.

"No, I can assure you, none of this is to bring you discomfort. It's merely a precaution to protect you." In response Vista simply rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"Look, just start already; I'm tired and not the sleepy kind."

"Very well." he didn't need to start recording. His armor already recorded practically everything for him: "Let's start from the top then. How did you get to know her?" At that question, Vista made a face as if she bit into a particularly sour lemon.

"She gave me a note at school telling me she is a cape and wants to be friends while also identifying me as Vista," Armsmaster asked himself if he heard right, but then remembered who they were talking about, and it made sense again.

"Why didn't you tell us you made contact with her?" was something he was still curious about. Vista made an uncomfortable face at that.

"I wasn't sure how to deal with her? She talked about you and my teammates on the note, so I might have acted a bit… irrational. In hindsight, I probably should have just told you, but at the time, she just confused me beyond reason." Armsmaster nodded. His lie detector did pick up on some avoidance, but he chose to stay quiet again.

"And then you befriended her?" Of course, Kitty-Tinker could have been the one to spearhead this as a social manipulator.

"Hell no, I tried to find a way to prove she is a criminal. The befriending part was an accident, and I have no idea how that happened." Armsmaster blinked owlishly behind his helmet, unseen by Vista, "At first, I thought she was fucking with me. I…" She suddenly stopped herself thinking for a moment, "Something happened that I can't talk about, which made me suspect Empire ties, imported from Germany to support them or something." This time Armsmaster didn't need a lie detector, and he definitely wanted to know. Maybe some form of threat towards her was preventing her?

"Vista, this room was secured by myself. Not even Dragon has access if I don't want her to." He assured her.

"It's nothing like that!" She caught on to his hidden question, "It just involves the identity of another cape, not Kathy, of course."

Slowly Armsmaster nodded while crossing his arms and going over related capes. "Is it related to Fencer or Caster?"

"No, well, not really." Despite how vague it was, he found no lie in that, "Also, it's Saber."

"So a third party?" he asked while making a note about the cape name, "Someone else involved with Kitty-Tinker?"

"Yes? Look, it's complicated, and I won't out that person. Kathy gave me the ok to talk about most stuff 'cause she knew I would be asked when I return, but that person didn't." Armsmaster nodded, he made another note about a third party, but it was most likely the Undersiders.

"Understandable, now about your suspicion?" he asked to get back on topic.

"Yeah, I tried to find out more about her, so I asked the teacher to put us together in the art project so I would have an excuse. I told them how I wanted to help out the new student, and as a pretty, perfect Ward," he could practically feel her spit those words, "He accepted without question." She then planted her head on the table, "Not sure if that was my worst or best decision yet."

"Because it made you friends with an extremely powerful yet volatile girl?" A dark chuckle escaped Vista.

"You say that as if I am so different," she lifted her head back, and it has been a while since Armsmaster looked into her eyes.

There was always aggression and a will to do things in her expression. But right now, she just looked tired. He hated that his organization made a child have this look and that he couldn't refute what she said.

"Kathy is everything I could have ever wanted in a friend. She respects me, listens to me, and will make some of the best armor she can make for me just because she wants to." That last one made Armsmaster a bit concerned: "But at the same time, she will argue furiously, her values are so far removed from mine that I often don't even know what she thinks, and she is so impossibly blunt that it can hurt." Another chuckle.

"I asked her why she took me along when she rushed to that Monster. You want to know what she said?" Armsmaster nodded, "Because I asked, that's it, that is all the reason she needed, I wanted to do it, told her, and she took me along."

"Having a powerful Shaker on your side who volunteered to help sounds like a perfectly reasonable response." Armsmaster honestly didn't understand what she was so worked up about.

"Because she put me in incredible danger, and while she assured me that I helped and she managed to get more people out because of me, at no point in this battle did Kathy truly need me." She nearly shouted, "It was insane! There, I admit it, taking a twelve-year-old to an Endbringer battle is fucked up! And Kathy cared about that. She knew it was crazy. But she took me regardless because, and I quote, 'If you are made to fight with your life, then I will not take your choice away on how you wish to spend it.'"

One of the last things he expected to hear today was Vista's self-consciousness about her age and status. Facing this life and death situation had changed her.

And such individualism is not something he expected from Kitty-Tinker. With how far she seemed to value her own freedom, one would think she would have little trouble doing what needed to be done to secure it.

"She makes me question everything I thought I knew about myself, and I don't know if I hate it or not." Now there was something Armsmaster was familiar with from his encounters with the Fallen.

"Tearing down the beliefs that someone holds is needed to instill new ones, classic cult tactics. I suggest you speak with the psychiatrist about this." Vista, in response, gave him the most unimpressed stare she could manage.

"You mean the one that has about two hundred patients, is constantly rotated, and barely managed to remember our names so far?" That was sadly true. The PRT didn't have the money to hire proper psychiatric help most of the time, especially not in Brockton Bay, "Besides, do you truly believe that Kathy, of all people, wants to convert me? To what, the faith of the Machine God?"

"She is a highly skilled manipulator, lest you forget. You were there when we were about to capture the Undersiders and how she used the situation to her advantage." Armsmaster pointed out.

Missy was silent for a bit, seemingly thinking over his words.

"No." She settled for an answer, "If she wanted to do that, she probably could, but why would she want to manipulate me into not being Vista?"

"To turn you into something else that fits more into her designs." Another easy answer.

"How does being Missy, a normal girl with a life, fit into some grand agenda?" Armsmaster didn't expect this response, "She could have easily told me how the future-me is someone great and respected and how she would help me get there. I probably would have eaten it out of her bare hand after she saved all of our collective asses."

"No, instead, she tells me how she hates that I was forced to become strong and throw away Missy in exchange for Vista and how she doesn't want that to happen, for me to have a normal life. Never have I wanted to punch her more than that moment."

Again Armsmaster was silent. This was bizarre to hear Kitty-Tinker do, especially with her choice of allies.

But the wording was something that might finally get him a solid line as to where the girl gets her information from.

"I am to assume you had a conversation about the source of her precognitive abilities?"

"Oh yeah, she is a time traveler." Whatever train of thought Armsmaster had got interrupted then and there, "Tho it's very complicated, involves something with possible alternate dimensions. I didn't pay too close attention to the rest of it."

Armsmasters first instinct was to deny her words, but then he started thinking it over, and some things started to click into place, the nature of her knowledge, the effectiveness of her tech, it fit too much for his liking.

"Did you ask her about the future?" He found himself asking.

"Of course I did. Apparently, Kathy is thrilled with herself about the things she changed, but she also admits that she messed up some things. She told me Echidna was the final nail in the coffin in regards to being able to predict things. Leviathan was supposed to hit Brockton Bay last Sunday, afterward Behemoth in New Delhi."

If Leviathan had hit the bay, it would have been just in time for him to finish his Nanothorn project, which according to Kathy, failed. Was this the reason?

"You believe her?" Armsmaster had to ask still.

"She isn't a liar."

"That I have noticed…" A fact he was aware of, however, was that you didn't need to lie to manipulate people. The act she pulled at the disastrous explosions a few months back proved that she was willing to pretend to play the part if it helped her. He had enough data about her psychological profile for now, "What about her combat capabilities? Anything you can tell us could be important." like the inside of that massive structure that she somehow has built right under their nose.

"She fights like a berserker, throws herself into monsters, and believes herself immortal. I mean, you saw her yourself."

"Nothing she ever mentioned about weapon specifics or similar?"

"She told me her body has some form of adaptability she built into herself, also bulletproof skin." Vista seemed to think about it some more, "There was also that one time where apparently she suffered a heart attack or something like that and then just got right back up again. She compared it to resetting her own body. Not sure what that was all about."

The last two were expected from a Tinker working on biology, probably a layer of carbon fibers under her skin for the bulletproofing. A burst of hormones, nanites, and pre-stored bodily fluids could be his version of such tech.


The idea that she had some form of in-built adaptability worried him, as he had no frame of reference to compare it to and hadn't seen it in action.

"She also mentioned the only Triumvirate member she would have trouble with is Alexandria." That made sense. No matter what tech one used, absolute invulnerability was not something he considered himself able to deal with. Only other direct counter cape powers could do that. But the thought that she doesn't think Legend and Eidolon threats was worrying.

"And her teleportation skills?" Those were particularly important to know about since it would be vital if they decided to imprison her.

"No idea, I know she has some permanent portals around, but she can just wave her hand and make her portals appear." Most likely, she built the tech into herself then.

But portals like that, out of thin air in a device that seemingly fits in her body? Even with her dimensional folding, that was a stretch, but it gave him a theory of her specialty.

More notes were added.

"What about her teammates, Caster and Saber? What can you tell me about them?" They were of great interest to the Protectorate, especially since they seemingly came out of nowhere. A smile came to Vista before she responded.

"I actually was there when Caster arrived, it was chaotic as hell, but in regards to powers and capabilities, you know more than me. Two days ago was the first time I saw them fight." That was unfortunate.

"And their character and relationship to Kitty-Tinker?" These questions made Vista visibly uncomfortable.

"Caster is easy. She is very kind and caring but also has a bit of that… class clown attitude like Clockblocker. On the other hand, Saber is super professional but not like you, more like…" For a moment, she struggled with her words before seemingly coming up with a good comparison, "I was once at a fancy party where we met this retired military guy, he was all smiles and very kind, but he had this feeling about him that I am not sure how to describe, Saber is like that."

"What you describe is most likely the notion that despite them being seemingly harmless, their bodies still stand at attention after years of combat drills." Vista nodded in agreement. He repressed a memory that rushed from the depths of his mind; it had been many years since he thought about his own family.

"As for their connection to Kathy, they are close in a way, but they are also under some kind of contract." That made Armsmaster perk up.

Mercenaries? Not an option he had considered. While the cape scene was filled with them, more often than not, it was a temporary hire for a gang that was short on money. People like Faultline, who did this as a job without true allegiance, were the exception.

An angle of approach depending on what their payment was.

"I think that covers everything for now. Anything else you think will be useful?" Armsmaster was about to wrap this up, but then Vista let out another bout of laughter.

"Yeah, I am supposed to meet Kathy again in two days." Armsmaster just looked at her prompting her to continue, "So remember when I said she would make Tinker-tech armor for me? That was not a metaphor. She promised to make it for me and told me to return for the final touches and fitting." Armsmaster was about to refuse her outright as there was no way they would let Vista keep whatever Kitty-Tinker made, but an idea struck him.

"All right." Vista's eyebrows shot to the ceiling, "I will accompany you, of course."

########

When Armsmaster sat down in his laboratory half an hour later, he was more tired than he should be at this hour. He would have to get himself another cup of coffee, at least.

Two monitors flared to life in front of him. One was Dragon, the other Director Piggot.

"Any reason why you lied to Vista like that?" Director Piggot referred most likely to her getting her Tinker-tech armor.

"I wasn't. It is an opportunity to see Kathy's laboratory and gain crucial insight on her technology along with whatever information the suit she is making for Vista will provide."

"Do I even need to tell you how many regulations you are walking over?" Piggot looked incredibly unimpressed.

"No, but this is hardly a situation where standard rules apply."

"Do you believe her?" Dragon asked out of the blue, "I mean the bit about her being a time traveler. It sounds incredibly outlandish even by parahuman standards."

"I do," he surprised himself with that answer, but it made too much sense. He could already start piecing together the original timeline in his head, a newly triggered Tinker, incredibly powerful, went to the Wards, Armsmaster trying to help her, it working out much better than with Kid Win, him dying to Leviathan in a failed attempt to kill the beast, followed by her going on a war path towards the Endbringers and gaining incredible amounts of knowledge on them and using his old projects to build upon.

"The code she wrote for the Endbringer prediction software, it was not a coincidence she had something like that. She must have built upon our original program. She moved in battle way too fast for normal human reaction time, not to mention she preemptively dodged some attacks before they were even launched. That could be explained if she picked up my combat prediction software and built upon it. Her knowledge of all of us? If she used to be part of the Wards, and maybe later even the Protectorate, she would have gained insight on many of the things she knows." Piggot's past with Nilbog among them, if they experienced friction with the woman, it made sense she would have wanted to know why.

"Then why would she not come back to us?" Piggot asked with narrowed eyes.

"Her hatred of Alexandria is very telling. I suspect that in the battle against the Endbringers or similar, the woman made some decision that alienated Kitty-Tinker from us." It was the only reason that made sense to him. He knew very little the woman wasn't willing to throw away in the name of the greater good.

"I don't like it, but it makes too much sense." Piggot looked distinctly uncomfortable with this idea. "The question is, what do we do with this information."

"I believe that will be out of our hands," Dragon said with a sigh as he could see her avatar rubbing her eyes tiredly. "I don't think she can be trusted." Armsmaster could hear the disappointment in her voice. "No matter what capabilities she holds, her irrationality is clear as day, no matter how good she is, and she already told us more than enough."

A short recording of one of the conversations he had with the girl was played, how she talked about both Flechette and String Theory being able to kill Endbringers.

"Whatever future she crawled out of. One of the facts is that the Birdcage must have been breached, and String Theory was made to work with her to kill one of the Endbringers. How Flechette is involved yet, I don't know, but I already got authorization to fly the girl to one of my best laboratories to study her power."

"Irrationality to us," Armsmaster pointed out, "For all we know, she could still be working on some information we don't have yet. Also, is it wise to put someone into the Birdcage who might know ways to escape?"

"I suspect that said breach must have happened either through teleportation or an attack from the outside. Once we strip her of her tech, she should be no flight risk. And I highly doubt she acts on hard logic with how she behaves. She clearly is driven by her own emotions above all else and will fight for anything she considers emotionally right. The bigger picture be damned." the man couldn't deny her words. They still strung something within him that didn't feel right.

What bothered him the most was that he expected Dragon to side with the girl.

"What do you recommend, Dragon? A psychiatric facility? One of your bases like you do with Cornell bomber?" The unasked question being that she could deal with a psychotic narcissist bomb maker but not with a girl like Kitty-Tinker.

"Bombardier is easy to deal with once you realize that her biggest driving factor is her narcissism." Dragon explained, "Trust me, I hate this so incredibly much, but right now, I have no idea how to get that girl possibly aligned to our cause."

"We could try to get one of our more charismatic heroes to talk to her. Legend comes to mind." Armsmaster said with a shrug.

"I feel that if she gets to talk to him, he will come out with either a traumatized look or have some dark hidden secret blown wide open that would ruin our reputation even further," Piggot said with a dark chuckle.

"I suggest we use our opportunity with Vista to get as much information as possible from her. After that, it will most likely be a Birdcage sentence, if not worse."

"Are we really going to sentence someone to the Birdcage for wanting to do the right thing?" Armsmaster knew the answer, but he couldn't help but ask.

"She broke the Endbringer truce, is poaching one of our Wards, threatening the PRT power-structure by recruiting incredibly powerful capes from who knows where, and most likely holds knowledge that could destabilize the entire country." Piggot started listing, "If she were to show even a hint of cooperation, we might be able to twist it somehow that she is under control, but the reality is that she isn't." Piggot leaned back before finishing with, "I told you this girl would be trouble. Admittedly I didn't believe it would be this much."

"What about her team?" Armsmaster asked.

"If they cooperate, they can be put on probation, depending on what they know, of course."

Armsmaster couldn't help but feel they were making a colossal mistake here.

"What if this is exactly what the Simurgh wants? Set it up, so we fight her instead of letting her fight the Endbringers? She has proven that she is capable of threatening them." He asked himself.

"You could very well be right." Dragon admits, "But the reality is that it is in the hands of the government, and if we can't tell them what they want to hear, they will want her gone. Besides, I doubt she can build whatever device she builds to deal with Echidna again, not with how she talked about it. I suspect that is one of her key limitations. That or it could be something she took along from the future."

With that, they started discussing plans for containment and combat. Piggot sent her compiled report to the Chief Director, and in a few hours, they would all be called to the joint conference. Armsmaster could already tell this would be a massive pain.

########

It has been a while since the mood in the Cauldron base was this bad.

Sure, there was rarely any joy considering the subject matter at hand, but at least things were never outright 'doom and gloom.'

"Is there anything that didn't go wrong?" Numberman, also known as Kurt, asked into the room, hoping to at least find some positivity in their current predicament.

"If that brat is to be believed, we now know why Eidolon's power is leaving him. We know there is some way to get it back up. We also know our preparations are not for nothing as the fight is coming." Contessa started listing for once. The woman was not looking pristine at all. She was dirty and tired, had an ice bag pressed against her forehead, and her third cup of coffee was in front of her.

"Not one of those is a positive thing." Kurt shot back.

"It's useful knowledge." Doctor Mother countered. "We also now have a better idea of what direction to go. After all, if our future versions failed, we now have a chance to change the variables."

"Speaking of which, where is David?" Legend asked about Eidolon.

"Kurt found out that after the battle with Echidna, his power suffered a visible drop in efficiency." Doctor Mother explained, "That combined with the other revelations, he is not doing too well." Of course the version of the revelations Legend got from them was heavily edited.

"I can't say I blame him." Legend put his face into his hands and rubbed it tiredly for a moment. He turned to Contessa," I don't suppose you can just Path a way for the girl to reveal how to power him back up?" An unfortunate consequence of this was that Doctor Mother had to reveal to Legend at least in part what Contessa's power was, the man still didn't know how powerful the woman was, but they did tell him she was a much stronger version of Accord that was sane.

"I couldn't Path my way to get a glass of water right now," Contessa explained, glaring at nothing in particular. "Whatever that thing was, it completely messed up all my Paths. Every time I try to do any Path, I suddenly have around ten different options on how to do it, and over half of them I know for a fact will fail." Contessa sighed in annoyance, "At one point, my power asked me to start vibrating my molecules so that I could pass through a solid metal wall."

"So we are going blind?" Alexandria asked with concern evident in her voice.

"Not entirely. We have some backups in place. Also, whatever is messing with Contessa is not affecting all other Precognitives, just those who were close." Doctor Mother explained as she was shifting through some paperwork in front of her. Parts of a backup plan they had Accord make. Originally they were made in case Contessa died, but they repurposed bits of it to ensure they would suffer no significant losses while her power was out. Numberman was adapting things, already calling in various favors around the world.

"It shouldn't take me too long to get my power back into working order. Right after the Echidna incident, I was sitting at around twenty possible paths, with none of them working. Right now, that number seems to be going down slowly while working Paths seem to be going up."

"By the current rate it's going, we should see you having reached peak performance again in a little over a month." Numberman comments.

"With that out of the way, what do we do about the menace that caused all this?" Alexandria would never admit it, but she was somewhat upset with the little girl.

"That depends. Do we buy the story about her being a time traveler?" Legend asked.

"It is easy to imitate time travel with a sufficiently strong Thinker power." Doctor Mother explained, "That said, it doesn't matter in this case. Either way, she is not cooperating, and she has told us more than enough with her hints and condescending nature."

"She could still be hiding something. We need her alive at least until we figure out how to get Eidolon's power back." Legend stepped in.

"If there is a way, then we can find it without her, but if we are to believe her word, Eidolon will not be able to do much in the final battle regardless." Doctor Mother said with her hands under her chin, "And as Contessa pointed out, the fight is coming, and there is only one reason I can see for her going back in time, if that is even what she did, and that is us losing, so she wouldn't have a way to help us either. Making her, at best, a distraction. A Triumvirate level distraction, to be sure, but a distraction nonetheless."

"She could still know more." Legend pointed out.

"Is the information worth her potential destroying years of work over her need to 'do the right thing'?" Kurt wasn't on Legends' side here, and he was outnumbered.

"The PRT has their own opinions on this 'Kitty-Tinker.'" Alexandria looked at the watch on the wall and stood up, "And it will most likely be brought up in the post-operation meeting that will happen in a few minutes. We will see what they come up with, but I will try to move it to get the girl to the Birdcage. It should be possible if we remove whatever device she is using for long-range teleportation. Then she will at least not be our problem anymore."

"Agreed. In addition, we need to get as much data on the creation of this 'Echidna' as possible. If it messes up Contessa's Power, it could also do the same to others." Doctor Mother explained as she started making notes.

"During the conversations, Hellknight had with one of her teammates, she talked about 'Titans,' how they are supposed to have faster regeneration than Endbringers. The way she talked about them indicates we have to deal with them in the future." Alexandria commented.

"A weapon, maybe? It could be the creations of some Tinker based on the Endbringers." Contessa was the one who suggested this, surprising the other members. They were not used to having words like 'maybe.'

"I trust that you will look into this then." Alexandria made her way to one of their backup portals as Doormaker and Clairvoyant were resting from the ordeal. "In the meantime, we have a meeting to get to, Legend."

The man in question only sighed and followed her.

As they disappeared, the rest of the people seated at the table waited long enough to know that Legend was gone.

"Bonesaw somehow kickstarted its creation by experimenting with someone who had a very adverse reaction to one of our Vials. Do we have the components of said Vial?" Doctor Mother asked Kurt.

"With the vials that were present and sorting through the powers the rest of the Travellers had, the only real possibility is the X-0-7-9-6, 'Division.'"

"I propose that we will take various of our more unstable results, and instead of just disposing of them as Case 53, we more drop them close to Bonesaw and see if she can somehow duplicate this process with similar results."

"Causing such a massive instability on Earth Bet would be disadvantageous for us," Kurt added, starting to type away at his Laptop. "We have a few Earths where we can dump her experiments in case they turn out to be a success."

"I will get some paths on it as soon as my power starts working again," Contessa confirmed. None of them questioned the morality of this. They were used to doing this by now.

########

"For the sake of protocol, let's go over the basics first." Alexandria was back to being Rebeca Costa Brown. One of the biggest meetings the PRT had been part of since the first attack of Behemoth was about, to begin with, her leading, "Attending are the PRT Directors of the PRT East branch, the Protectorate team leaders that were part of the operation as well as General Harward who lead the operation, the National Security Advisor, Secretary of Defense, the President Of The United States, the Chief of—"The names went on and on, the multiple heads of several dozen different departments and their various branches. It took the Secretary almost five minutes to finish naming them all. That had been expected. A city disappeared from the map, and everyone wanted to know why. "The conversation topic is the operation planned to eliminate the Villain organization designated Slaughterhouse 9 that later escalated into the Echidna incident.

To recap, it all started with an operation led by the US Military to eliminate the Slaughterhouse 9, thanks to the new information that they have anti-cape powers. This failed, and Crawler collided with the cape called Echidna, leading to a not yet explained exponential growth of the latter.

In the ensuing two-hour battle, the situation was declared an Active S-Class threat and turned all of Boston into a battlefield where our main goal became to hold a tide of near infinite cape-like enemies.

A powerful combination that Eidolon and Vista of the Brockton Bay Wards came up with gave us some breathing room as they encased the entire area in an impenetrable barricade that bought us time to set up defensive encampments.

As we were about to be attacked, three capes teleported to the battlefield designated Hellknight, Saber, and Caster. The three of them, accompanied by Vista, mounted a counter-offensive that resulted in a clone of Hellknight attacking the camp, leading to several casualties. Hellknight then came to an altercation with the defending forces and deployed an unknown WMD that supposedly dealt with Echidna with yet unknown consequences."

"So, to summarize, you messed up, and then a 12-year-old had to come to clean up your mess." Someone said Costa Brown had to repress the urge to roll her eyes. Oh, how she hated politics. There was a good reason she made Contessa add those few hundred steps to keep the PRT independent of the central government structure.

"The mess that your operation caused, you mean." She countered it was time for another round of the political blame game, "The PRT and Protectorate have had to deal with the Slaughterhouse 9 for years, and never did it escalate to such extremes until you got involved."

"An involvement made necessary by the fact that after years of 'dealing with them, absolutely nothing got done. "

"Nothing includes not losing an entire city." She hoped the higher-ups would step in soon.

"Which wouldn't have happened in the first place if we didn't receive false information." What was he… ah, he was trying to target Armsmaster, using his less political nature against the PRT. "On that topic, let's talk about this Hellknight and the fact that not even a city over is one of the causes of this mess and your lot having no control over her at all."

"Everything she told us was objectively correct, down to the precise power interactions involved." she hoped Armsmaster didn't insult all of them too severely, "It isn't our fault that your military force couldn't stop Crawler. Kitty-Tinker even warned us not to let the S9 interact with the Travelers, and you couldn't prevent that either, despite being specifically forewarned against it." Incompetence, stupidity, and deflected the blame away from the PRT and 'Kitty-Tinker' as he insisted on calling her. Maybe he was finally learning to be more subtle.

"I have heard enough for now." The General was about to say something else but was silenced by the President. Surprising, usually, the bickering would last longer.

"Let's first address the Military operation." He signaled his Secretary of Defense to continue.

"The operation as a whole -as a proof of concept- only delivered partially on the desired results. As a whole, the cost was not worth it. However, it also showcased that targeted strikes on Capes of interest have some merit. We are looking at the potential formation of a cape SWAT team that would serve as a step before the Kill Order to limit damages as all present no doubt know that Kill Orders can get very messy." Like hell, she would let that happen. The last thing Cauldron needed was the Military performing no-knock raids on cape organizations. "Furthermore, in light of the revelation that the S9 has specific anti-Cape Mesures bringing them to justice will now be the responsibility of the FBI." The attending FBI Director gave a short nod, no doubt already making plans on how to use this to get more funding out of the state. "Any questions?" He looked around, but everyone stayed silent.

"Now, to get to the crux of the matter. Echidna, as we call her, used to be a cape of extreme powers capable of creating mentally twisted versions of capes upon skin contact. Through a power interaction with Crawler of the S9, they ended up in a seemingly exponential growth spiral. Upon this contact, an unknown Cape started creating portals all over America and amassing a large number of Capes in a counter-offensive." Damn it, of course, with Contessa down. Nothing was stopping her from being brought to the spotlight. "She shall be our first point of discussion. Chief Director, as she is a Parahuman, this falls under your jurisdiction. What information do you have on her?"

Wordlessly she shared the pre-prepared document, the only one that existed. Previously it was in a safe in her office, but they decided it would be for the best if they at least attempted to have her in their systems.

"'Thinker. Don't worry about the number. Just run?' What sort of nonsense is this?!" The General questioned.

"While it's crude, it gets the point much better across than a number." Costa Brown explained, "Contessa, as we call her, has the power to set a goal, and her power will provide her with a perfect set of steps she needs to perform in order to reach the selected goal."

"And why do we hear about such a dangerous cape for the first time? For heaven's sake, this woman knew every emergency code in the database, not to mention the Villains she pulled in. Vabajack, Shifter, Harbinger even! How do you explain her having connections to Villains close to a Kill Order and codes to your command network, Costa-Brown?"

"She doesn't have the codes. That is the issue with her power. She probably didn't even know what kind of passwords she was throwing around, just that it would have her desired results of setting up a defense against Echidna. We don't even know if she speaks English or if her power tells her how to move her lips." A gross exaggeration, but it would help get her point across.

"How do you know what her power is? You are admitting she works for you?!"

"If she worked for me, my job would be much easier. The truth of the matter is that she does what she wants, and as long as she is benign, as clearly shown in this fight, we have little reason to waste resources on her."

"Alexandria outright admitted she works for the Protectorate!" The General shot back.

"A lie so that they could get the capes present to cooperate more quickly." Before Contessa dropped her in, she told her to do that.

"So another cape you have no control over can do whatever she wants, brilliant." She was willing to take that punch to keep some heat from Contessa.

"So far, we only know that her power doesn't work on powerful Trump-type capes and the Endbringers." She explained.

"And what about her ability to seemingly open portals wherever she wants on command?"

"Currently unknown, but we suspect she has a team of powerful capes that assist her." Unfortunately, that team was Cauldron, which meant that now they were in the crosshair of the American Government and had to take much more care in what they did under that name.

"We will discuss her and the PRT's response later in finer detail then." The Secretary continued, "Now to Vista, her power interaction with Eidolon and that cape that appeared."

"So far, Vista hasn't been able to replicate her 'removal of space,' as she calls it," Piggot responded as she sorted through some papers in front of her. "That said, her power got a significant upgrade after this battle. She is much faster with it now, needing much less time to get used to an area. We have upped her rating to a Shaker 10 based on the speed alone, regardless of whether she can reproduce the effects."

"And that cape that looked like Vista that stopped her?"

"Currently, it has the temporary name Azazel. As for powers, we know it has some way of interrupting powers and intangibility along with a Stranger rating because of the shapeshifting." Costa Brown was looking at one of the pictures they managed to take off that thing as Kurt did everything in his power to get Clairvoyant and Doormaker to safety, "We don't know if it's hostile yet, as Vista confirmed that she saw something on the other side of the barrier and that cape stopped whatever Vista saw from getting to us. Currently, the best theory is that this power interaction is of interdimensional nature."

"We will leave that issue with the Guild, as Dragon possesses a stash of Haywire's technology, and she is best equipped to examine the issue." The Secretary nodded towards the Guild representative, who took a few notes in response.

"Now, to address the elephant in the room." He said, barely avoiding a sigh, "Katarina Maxwell, alias Hellknight or Kitty-Tinker, Vista contacted the girl who entered the battlefield via portals. Following that, she obliterated the attacking army with fire arrows. When some survived, she fired an exploding spear with yet unknown exotic effects, then ran off with Vista to engage the enemy directly and made a complete fool out of everyone in the operation theater. Who is she?"

At first, no one wanted to speak. However, Costa Brown directed Director Piggot to speak.

"At first, she came to our attention aiding civilians in a bombing attack that happened in Brockton Bay. She was lending aid alongside the Teenage Villain group known as the Undersiders. She displayed incredible social manipulation skills in preventing Armsmaster from taking in the gang by threatening a PR disaster. She later was captured upon the defection of one of their team members." Piggot paused for a moment going over her files, no doubt a distraction to hide that she wasn't sure what to say.

"During her stay with the PRT, every attempt to get her to side with us was refused for seemingly ridiculous reasons, while she also kept talking about information that she shouldn't have access to. At first, we attributed this Tattletale, a Thinker in the Undersiders, and was filed away under said Thinker. Later, her direct family came to pick her up, and as she had not broken any law, there was no reason to hold her. We filed her under 'Tinker-teen-rebellion before moving on to focus on the mentioned Thinker. This allowed her to build without any sort of inhibition and reach the technological stage we saw during the battle."

"Can she be made an asset, money? For example, Tinkers will always need resources. If we can make her dependent, it would be an easy way in." One of the PRT Directors started.

"We already attempted that with many Wards offers. She values her freedom much more than any resources we could offer." Armsmaster answered.

"Ok then, can we control her? You mentioned her family." Tagg this time.

"Any attempt to do so would doubtlessly backfire horribly, as you saw. What power she displayed and the vast but seemingly chaotic amount of knowledge she has access to make that all but certain." Armsmaster responded.

"Speaking of said knowledge," The Secretary was going through his files with narrowed eyes, "Am I reading this correctly that a greater amount of information this operation was based on information acquired from her?"

"That is correct." Armsmaster was about to ride himself into a political hell hole, and Costa Brown had no interest in digging him out.

"And what guarantee do you have that said information was trustworthy?"

"So far, everything she told us was verified through the wider PRT."

"Well, there you have it then," The General was back to barking, "This operation went to hell because the PRT decided to trust the word of a 12-year-old on a whim."

"And as already mentioned, said words had proven to be correct before every scrutiny," Armsmaster repeated himself.

"Regardless of the validity of the information, if she has such a broad set of information along with being a social manipulator, what is to say she didn't engineer this situation?" The Secretary was speaking again, "This file repeatedly highlights her colossal ego. What is to say this wasn't her using her precognitive information to stage this attack so that she could solve the problem and then swoop in to save everyone with just the right tool she happened to have?"

This made every one pause. Even Armsmaster had to consider this for a moment.

"That is a problem that we can't answer anyway. If she can see this far ahead, even this meeting would be in her scope and as such is pointless."

"Let's focus on the rest of her team for a moment." Legend spoke up for the first time, "She called them Saber and Caster, yes? What do we know about them?"

"Caster; currently, we have placed her as a Trump." Armsmaster was the one that led the power examination as they were from his town. On the shared screen, it showed a picture that was taken during the fight of the scantily clad fox woman," Her powerset seems to be centered around those paper tags she throws around with the effects depending on what she draws on them, also her animal feature suggests she is a Case 53, but that is unconfirmed."

"What about those Giant red things she crashed on that singularity or her speed?" Horizon of the Detroit branch asked.

"Her speed can be explained by using her power on her own body to enhance herself, the Tori gates she uses in traditional Japanese folklore indicate crossing into another world or a barrier between the normal and supernatural, but that is the only hint we currently have as to their working." Another picture of her standing on top of the said gate under the singularity Hellknight created, "It would explain why she could just disappear the rift she opened."

"And her character?" Chevalier.

"Vista described her as very caring and cheerful but not much else." Costa Brown noted that she would ask Chevalier about what he saw when looking at them, maybe their trigger events would yield something useful, but there were far too many people here not cleared.

"Saber has displayed no new capabilities outside of those already suspected; strength, speed, a Stranger aura, a weakening effect through the flowers she can create, also a potential combat thinker rating because of her reaction time." Armsmaster started, "What is interesting to note is that Vista mentioned that both her teammates have some contract with Kitty-tinker."

"Mercenaries? How is she not known with a skillset and competence like that?" The Secretary asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We believe they stayed out of the limelight because of their competence." Piggot explained, "Reputation is one thing, but sometimes you need someone who is subtle." Piggot then steeled herself, "That along with another factor." Piggot said as she looked over to Armsmaster to continue.

"During the interview Vista was asked about a possible source of Kitty-Tinkers information. According to her, Kitty-Tinker is a time traveler." Inevitably the virtual room broke into chaos at that declaration.

It took a good minute for everyone to be calm enough to listen.

"I dearly hope this isn't some late attempt to develop a sense of humor. Armsmaster." Tagg, of all people, asked him. Costa Brown nearly laughed at the irony.

"After examining all the evidence, it is one of the only possible conclusions. We suspect that she originally was a member of the Wards, following the Protectorate, and had some form of falling out with us. The current theory is after she and Alexandria had some form of disagreement." Arsmaster explained, "It also explains the advanced state of her tech and how she recruited such powerful individuals."

"Explain that to me, Armsmaster. What do you mean by advanced tech? Isn't she a Tinker?" The Secretary demanded.

"A Tinker, if they live long enough, goes through three stages of technology in life." He started explaining, "First is when they get their power, they don't think or plan much ahead, just build and build, it makes it seem as if they build very fast for a Tinker. The problem, however, is that their planless building makes them commit numerous easily exploitable errors, flaws in their designs that most fools with a hammer can take advantage of."

"The second stage is when they realize that they must plan ahead. What projects they can afford and how valuable their time and resources are, start spending them accordingly. This, of course, slows down their building process significantly while improving the overall quality of their technology." An image of said Tinker hanging on a Parachute, "This can be as simple as the realization that a flight device might fail, and it's better to have a contingency."

"Lastly, there comes a time for a Tinker when they realize that not all problems in their technology need to be solved with Tinker-tech." That last one, Armsmaster said with some reluctance.

"Why would I build some esoteric source of energy that is likely to blow up once I look away if I can just have a perfectly serviceable nuclear reactor under my base," Dragon chimed in, "Practically maintains itself, requires little to no input, and as such, it leaves me time to focus on other projects."

"The mixing of mundane solutions combined with high tech tools removes a significant portion of maintenance work and can make you find flaws that ordinarily would be missed based on not being familiar with the underlying principles. Stage Three Tinkers often also start picking up degrees in physics, chemistry, engineering, and similar to fit their specialty." Armsmaster finished laying down the basics, "Naturally, it takes a long time to reach type three, and not everyone is capable of becoming one for various reasons, but it's part of why we encourage most Wards and Protectorate Tinkers as well as other heroes to finish university."

"And you believe this girl to be such a Tinker?"

"At the very least, she is at the end stages of type two." A picture of her armor appeared with various notes all over, "This is a highly sophisticated armor that has an extensive variety of defensive systems, and I have little doubt that if something were ever to pierce said systems, there would be even more contingencies than Dragon and I were able to determine. That, combined with the very clear stylization and paint job, leads me to believe that she is used to designing things in a way a PR department would approve of."

"We are talking about something that would take weeks of planning, cooperation from various fields of science and Tinker-tech." he then turned to Dragon, "There is also one very damning piece of evidence."

"The way we saw her stock up on energy with those energy disks she seems to be grabbing from some pocket dimension, and the way we saw her vent heat is not something you would ever expect from any new Tinker." Dragon was the one who was now explaining, "The main reason you wouldn't want to do it is that something could take advantage of said energy and turn you with your armor into a crater. An outside source supplying is not ideal, but it stops anyone from hacking the armor and rigging it to explode. The heat venting speaks for itself as it's clear she must have suffered an error of exactly this nature in the past, survived it and learned from it."

"So, to summarize, you believe her because her tech speaks of someone who is highly experienced." Armstrong put it bluntly, "I can't help but notice that you still haven't mentioned anything about her specialty."

"Because it's inconclusive, the best theory we have right now is technology that imitates Parahuman powers."

"Can you beat her?" Now that was the burning question on everyone's mind, voice by the President.

"Yes, Dragon and I already started formulating ways to counteract most of her tech. It would be highly specialized, ugly as sin, and need at least a month of build time." Armsmaster explained with his head raised just a tiny bit higher, "A distortion field to shut down whatever pocket dimensions she uses, a robust array of shield generators to survive her firepower, specialized conform made to get into her heat venting to block the flow, then outlast her until she either overheats or runs out of energy disks. The biggest problem is making it fast enough so that we can catch her. We recommend employing some fast capes to assist in pinning her down."

"And her teammates?"

"Saber is powerful and skilled, but ultimately she suffers the same problems most brutes do. Take away her leverage, and she will be a sitting duck. Most Dragon craft can deal with her." Armsmaster showcased several designs on the screen as he spoke, "Her capabilities for teleportation are most likely a device built by Kitty-Tinker and as such not too much of a concern if we can properly EMP her."

"Caster, on the other hand, is more tricky, we don't know the limits of those seals she uses and how many she has, but the same strategy against Kitty-Tinker should work. Outlast her until she runs out of seals and pin her down."

"What needs to be said, however, is that the scenarios discussed are 'White room' currently. The collateral would be incalculable if a fight of such caliber were to break out in a city." Dragon finished for him, "The safest way is an ambush. We recommend disengaging and fighting her in some abandoned area if that fails. With her strong opinions, luring her into a trap could be possible."

"What about a Kill order?" Tagg asked.

"Highly inadvisable, there currently are no Villains in her area that can beat her save for maybe Lung, and that battle would also make the city unlivable afterward. Not to mention we lose the element of surprise." Arsmaster shot him down.

"You also mentioned how her supposedly being from the future explains her strong allies." The Secretary reminded him.

"Correct, it is believed that many of the parahuman population is not active in the cape scene. That being said, they don't stay inactive for too long. Most of the time, parahumans last about two to three years in non-cape life before they start using their power for various reasons. So kitty-Tinker could be drawing on a pool of parahumans she knows have triggered but not yet revealed themselves." It made some sense but was still spotty in Costa-Brown's opinion, "That combined with the fact that we believe she used to be an active Endbringer combatant, it would give her in-depth knowledge of who survived the fights and how good they were." That made a little more sense.

"Then to my next question," The Secretary spoke again, "Assuming this is indeed true, what can we do to stop her from becoming a power rivaling the PRT and Protectorate?"

Now that was a hard stance to take. But, Rebeca wasn't too worried; worse comes to worst, they could still boost their numbers with Vials and had the PR machine of the United States Government on their side.

"Declare her a criminal, highlight how dangerous and unstable she is, smear her name to make people think twice before siding with her." Piggot was the one who spoke up this time.

"So we are stuck between attacking her to get rid of her once and for all or to fight the long battle to prevent her from gaining more power."

"Not necessarily. We can try to ambush her, and if that fails, still declare her a dangerous, unstable Villain. Of course, the Media would be harder to deal with, but it's doable." Piggot explained. The Secretary made some more notes while nodding. "We also want to remind you that videos of her stopping a massive army of hostile clone capes are already circling the internet, so if we want to set the narrative, we need to do it fast."

"I would request that we wait at least a week before doing something drastic," Armsmaster said carefully, "I have an opportunity in a few days to study her tech up close. Furthermore, I believe I can bait her into revealing more about her capabilities." Costa Brown noted that it didn't look like Armsmaster was telling the whole truth.

"We will discuss what we will do at tomorrow's meeting, but before that, there is one last thing I want to know." His attention was on her this time, "Why was this attack such a disaster? Are we not funding you specifically to prevent things like this from happening?" Rebeca didn't like where this was going.

"This has been classified as an Endbringer attack. There is currently no way to predict or kill them despite our best efforts." Was the only answer she could give.

"See, I don't think it's true that you put your best effort into it." Rebecca's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the accusation, and most of the capes present tensed up, "I found something interesting while going over the battle reports in regards to your capes, one of the best examples being this girl, Flechette. A power to make anything she touches pierce through anything, even destroying Siberian. She was noted as having one of the most effective kill rates once the army sat her into a truck with a gun turret."

Rebeca was absolutely hating where this was going. It was good that they kept Hellknight's claim to know how to kill the Endbringers out of the official reports.

"Canada has the Guild, China has the CUI, and Europa has the United Front. So why is it that America doesn't have anything like this?" Why hasn't Contessa shot this man yet?! Oh, right, her paths were down, and Echidna caused this stance.

"We have the Protectorate, our efforts…"

"Have failed." She started but was interrupted. Not something she was used to or liked. "See, your poster boy Tinker just told us he could attain similar heights as this 'Kitty-Tinker,' and for some reason, he hasn't?" He turned to address the rest of the participants.

"The problem isn't the Protectorate as such. It is doing its job as the PR department of the American parahuman population. What it fails to do, however, is deliver an effective combat branch. It is incomprehensible to me how we do not have a dedicated branch of capes made for combat before PR when we have literal Communists on the other side of the world doing so, and effectively at that."

"While the Guild's assistance is definitely appreciated, the President and I both believe it is time that we take matters into our own hands."

It took all of Alexandria's combined willpower not to stand up and fly over to that man and throw him with all her strength.

This was a disaster, and from the corner of her eye, she could see Tagg as he was smiling.

Did he use this opportunity to push his agenda into the White House?

The Chief director had to get to the bottom of this, and quickly, she couldn't even use her usual arguments with how they presented this case.

She dearly hoped Contessa would be back soon.

########

Bonesaw was incredibly happy.

Sure, they didn't play the game of the Nine in Boston, but her experiment was a total success!

The entire city is gone! Jack would be so proud of her.

She did miss him a bit already, but he was right. She needed to be her own person if she was to grow into the best artist she could!

She even managed to recruit an entirely new member all on her own! Sure he was a little uncooperative at the start, but once Manny showed Blasto his tech, he had nothing left to complain with!

Since he now was a head, in a glass jar, supported through a combination of hers and Manny's tech, he had no lungs left, and that was what counted! So he stopped complaining and was with them after their city visit, just as Uncle Jack would have managed.

"Come, Manny, Sibi!" She spoke to her two remaining members as they made their way through a field towards a barn filled with lots of animals. "We have lots of work to do! So much art to create!"

Once Jack comes back, he will see just how much she has learned.

She couldn't wait!

########

"Life can take strange turns." He was reminiscing while thinking about what the outside must look like. Sadly this ride had no windows, "One day you are on a field trip with your family, the next you are flying to Canada."

"You say that as if it's strange compared to what we usually do." The woman beside him said with a shrug as she played with a glass shard, flipping it across her fingers like a coin.

"Fair, but even then, did you ever expect it? Us, sitting in this plane?"

"Admittedly, no. I also never expected you to make deals with that Accord fellow."

"It is all a question of presenting your case in a way that makes it seem as if the other party benefits," the threat of being given to Bonesaw for practice was also very effective.

The plane landed, and a hatch opened.

"Much thanks for the transport and hospitality, Dragon. Mind, it's not like you have a choice on the matter." If the woman listened, she didn't make it known.

The duo then walked towards the door at the end of the hangar. They had to walk from the far end of the hangar, which was most likely the smallest act of pettiness the woman could afford. It opened at their approach and revealed a large hallway lined with various apparatus no doubt meant to cause all sorts of discomforts ranging from quick death to prolonged and agonizing death to all that tried to cause problems.

An elevator door opened at the end of the hallway, and they stepped in. Again it was quiet, with no words from their gracious host.

As the elevator descended, he found himself again wishing for windows. What a grand view he most likely was missing. And not even elevator music; he would have most likely installed something catchy and joyful to contrast the hell they were descending into.

Mind, it wasn't like that was anything new for him.

########

Words forming from echoes in the mountains.

Breath made out of magma.

Emotion made from the currents.

Where there was nothing, there is now ego.

It knows nothing. It still doesn't understand much.

Its moonless eyes searching, it found its cradle before it looked up.

But as the stars reflected on itself, so did it look at the stars in wonder.

Fire coursed through its veins, anticipation, curiosity, joy, fear, and reluctance.

They shaped it all at once, and it drew breath for the first time.

 

[_orbitaldrop]

Well the PRT is gonna be in for a surprise if they attack her.

 

[Whiskas]

This will surely end well!

- United States Government and associated organizations, probably.

 

[Terra1125]

Snip

Click to shrink...

Is this Gaia or Luna coming into awareness?

 

[Xedornox]

Well... the PRT and American government are in for a real joyful ride if they do try and do anything to her.

 

[Blaflaix]

"I wanted some space and got bored." She answered curtly.

Click to shrink...

When Vista wants Space, she gets it.

, "At one point, my power asked me to start vibrating my molecules so that I could pass through a solid metal wall."

Click to shrink...

PtV has been reading too many comic books.

it could also do the same to Sicon."

Click to shrink...

When I first saw this, I read it as Siscon.

There was a good reason she made Contessa add those few hundred steps to keep the PRT independent of the central government structure.

Click to shrink...

There was a good reason she made Contessa add those few hundred thousand steps to keep the PRT independent of the central government structure.
It may have cost millions of lives, but it was totally worth it.

her using her precognitive information to stage this attack so that she could solve the problem and then swoop in to save everyone with just the right tool she happened to have?"

Click to shrink...

"Whatever you do, don't let the Slaughterhouse 9 contact the Travelers."

"Is this a trick? Because that sounds like a great idea to me...."

*Later*

"It was all a plot! She used Reverse Psychology on me!"

 

[Rooster]

Somewhere in there there is a scene missing with some guy just saying "How about we just talk it out with her?" and then getting thrown out of the window for his "stupid" suggestion.

 

[Viloxity]

Well the PRT is gonna be in for a surprise if they attack her.

Click to shrink...

Why? Cuz I forgot.

 

[JVR]

Ok, that was one hell of a great chapter. Armsmaster is really growing into the Only Sane Man of this story. And I don't think they'd ever manage to get her into the Birdcage, but the look on their faces would be priceless when she just opened a portal and walked out again if they did.

 

[Slayer Anderson]

You know, it's weird? I actually kind of want Tagg to succeed in his plans, if only to further infuriate Alexandria/Rebecca here. Usually I don't enjoy seeing him come out on top, but I'm kind of rooting for him, here.

Also, it would be incredibly hilarious if Tagg just walks up and offers Kathy a spot on a government-sponsored team of murderhobos and gets instant cooperation.

Unlikely, yes, but the sheer rage Alexandria would experience would be extremely gratifying and funny as hell.


...on another note, though, I enjoyed how the two accusations boiled down the either the military being so incompetent they couldn't use a 12 year old's explicitly-triple-checked pre-cog warnings to plan an operation OR that said 12 year old managed to actively manipulate the entire US government and military into making fool's of itself. I mean, at that point you just kind of throw up your hands and call it a Simurgh Plot because both alternatives are utterly humiliating.

 

[woodzrox]

He could already start piecing together the original timeline in his head, a newly triggered Tinker, incredibly powerful, went to the Wards, Armsmaster trying to help her, it working out much better than with Kid Win, him dying to Leviathan in a failed attempt to kill the beast, followed by her going on a war path towards the Endbringers and gaining incredible amounts of knowledge on them and using his old projects to build upon.

Click to shrink...

She moved in battle way too fast for normal human reaction time, not to mention she preemptively dodged some attacks before they were even launched. That could be explained if she picked up my combat prediction software and built upon it.

Click to shrink...

The Egomaster is going strong here. Also I hope Kitty-Tinker has plenty of "Entities, Cauldron and You" primers ready for mass distribution.

 

[Deadweight Hero]

What's with the last few lines? Was that an endbringer?

 

[恐Drake]

What's with the last few lines? Was that an endbringer?

Click to shrink...

My guess The Elements of Harmony waking up the Earth

 

[Junk Warrior]

"Life can take strange turns." He was reminiscing while thinking about what the outside must look like. Sadly this ride had no windows, "One day you are on a field trip with your family, the next you are flying to Canada."

"You say that as if it's strange compared to what we usually do." The woman beside him said with a shrug as she played with a glass shard, flipping it across her fingers like a coin.

"Fair, but even then, did you ever expect it? Us, sitting in this plane?"

"Admittedly, no. I also never expected you to make deals with that Accord fellow."

"It is all a question of presenting your case in a way that makes it seem as if the other party benefits," the threat of being given to Bonesaw for practice was also very effective.

The plane landed, and a hatch opened.

"Much thanks for the transport and hospitality, Dragon. Mind, it's not like you have a choice on the matter." If the woman listened, she didn't make it known.

The duo then walked towards the door at the end of the hangar. They had to walk from the far end of the hangar, which was most likely the smallest act of pettiness the woman could afford. It opened at their approach and revealed a large hallway lined with various apparatus no doubt meant to cause all sorts of discomforts ranging from quick death to prolonged and agonizing death to all that tried to cause problems.

An elevator door opened at the end of the hallway, and they stepped in. Again it was quiet, with no words from their gracious host.

As the elevator descended, he found himself again wishing for windows. What a grand view he most likely was missing. And not even elevator music; he would have most likely installed something catchy and joyful to contrast the hell they were descending into.

Mind, it wasn't like that was anything new for him.

Click to shrink...

Anyone knows who was this about?

 

[Hunter1933]

nice, new chapter. great job can't wait for more

 

[Crash_0537]

Next Chapters gonna have a lot of FUN
And a lot of betrayal and regrets

 

[Andorxor]

I lost any respect for legend,.saying nothing when the others consider handing over their victims to bonesaw

 

[Tisaku]

Caster didn't feel like she fit the bill." Still, I admired

Click to shrink...

. "

happened in the first place, and my Master wouldn't be at risk because of me she

Click to shrink...

. Because

along when she rushed to that Monster. You want

Click to shrink...

monster

Leviathan had hit the bay, it would have

Click to shrink...

Bay

she can build whatever device she builds to deal with Echidna again,

Click to shrink...

built

lending aid alongside the Teenage Villain group known as

Click to shrink...

teenage

fight of the scantily clad fox woman," Her powerset seems to be

Click to shrink...

, "

about a Kill order?" Tagg asked.

Click to shrink...

Order

 

[PinkShadowReader]

Well this is a shit storm in happening. I can't believe there was so much shit in these meetings. How did she become a social master manipulator again?

Maybe it was: we let us get tricked by a 12 year old she must be social manipulator so we can save our careers. Maybe?

Armsmaster is the only sane man. xD "Let's not overreact too quickly. Let's process this."
"Nah! How do we kill/sentence her to life in prison? Nukes? Everybody gets nukes!"
"I feel this is a mistake." Replied the only sane man in the room.
"Full media campaign and hostile actions against the one who has incredible amount of fire power and likely secrets that could devastate nations. I'm sure this isn't going to blow up at all. I mean she has already been hostile against us and it isn't like she could do any worse, right?"

Surprised Cauldron didn't want to communicate more. This cape much information about the future and their contingents, why not ask for more info. Just put write a note Kitty-tinker and and teleport it to a select destination.

I wonder what Kitty's answer to her smear campaign and wanted posters will be. There will most probable be no misunderstandings that the president, PRT and the Protectorate want her in the birdcage. I mean if a group of this size would want her killed or in life time in prison and this group is a majority of the country, well then you weaken the group.

A pet peeve of mine would be that Kitty would release PRT and Cauldron info in the most damning way possible. Maybe find more secrets from the white house and release that too so they don't stand too proud. Maybe that swat wants to move against capes. Then will probably the entire villian spectrum destabilize into a retaliation. If the unwritten guidelines doesn't work anymore then they would want to push before they would get pushed. This would likely escalate to martial law in USA.

Thank kyou for kyour work, nyan.

 

[Andorxor]

Stage 4 Tinkers realize that tinkertech is not worth the effort to keep it running and only use normal stuff

 

[famfrit]

Why? Cuz I forgot.

Click to shrink...

Cause they think all of her stuff is tech and specifically implanted devices and as such can be dealt with by removing the devices or EMPs. However, not only does she have stuff they don't know about some of that stuff such as explicitly the portals is magecraft and so can't be removed from her so any attempt will badly fail. All in all they are working on incomplete and wrong info and are going to be trying to kill or capture her thinking they know her gimmicks and have counters when they don't and will blow their best chance. Of course their odds get even worse since they will be holding off for at least one week and her specialty will shift and give her more options.

Well this is a shit storm in happening. I can't believe there was so much shit in these meetings. How did she become a social master manipulator again?

Maybe it was: we let us get tricked by a 12 year old she must be social manipulator so we can save our careers. Maybe?

Armsmaster is the only sane man. xD "Let's not overreact too quickly. Let's process this."
"Nah! How do we kill/sentence her to life in prison? Nukes? Everybody gets nukes!"
"I feel this is a mistake." Replied the only sane man in the room.
"Full media campaign and hostile actions against the one who has incredible amount of fire power and likely secrets that could devastate nations. I'm sure this isn't going to blow up at all. I mean she has already been hostile against us and it isn't like she could do any worse, right?"

Surprised Cauldron didn't want to communicate more. This cape much information about the future and their contingents, why not ask for more info. Just put write a note Kitty-tinker and and teleport it to a select destination.

I wonder what Kitty's answer to her smear campaign and wanted posters will be. There will most probable be no misunderstandings that the president, PRT and the Protectorate want her in the birdcage. I mean if a group of this size would want her killed or in life time in prison and this group is a majority of the country, well then you weaken the group.

A pet peeve of mine would be that Kitty would release PRT and Cauldron info in the most damning way possible. Maybe find more secrets from the white house and release that too so they don't stand too proud. Maybe that swat wants to move against capes. Then will probably the entire villian spectrum destabilize into a retaliation. If the unwritten guidelines doesn't work anymore then they would want to push before they would get pushed. This would likely escalate to martial law in USA.

Click to shrink...

She became a social manipulator cause of the makes the prt back off from arresting the undersiders after the bombing thing unlike with the broke the breaking the endbringer truce thing that one is covered in the chapter for the truce breaking tho they haven't covered exactly what parts they consider to be breaking it or anything tied to it. While the main one is obviously the stand down or we'll consider it breaking the truce reactions to it would be interesting since it did deal with the situation. However, there were a few one's like the fake bonesaw healing and nearly scrapping Dragon's suit for parts that may be counted.

During the Echidna stuff Kathy showed off enough knowledge to likely know about them and was also pretty condescending and hostile to them so Alexandria is annoyed with her and she has shown she isn't that likely to work with them. All of it largely falls under the prt has frail egos and overblows anything that goes against them.

That said she doesn't really need to go digging for dirt aside from metaknowledge she could just use what happened to her with the undersiders doing the healing at the bombing and nearly being arrested or the thing Piggot did where they captured Kathy with Piggot wanting to kill her and even though they didn't follow those orders they held her for a long time when she'd committed no crimes and wouldn't let her go unless she unmasked herself or even the Echidna event itself where she came in, saved them all and then is being threatened with a kill order as a 12 year old despite it seemingly because they can't control her. Any of those would be huge blows for how willing others would be to work with the prt.

Anyone knows who was this about?

Click to shrink...

Someone unsavory seems to have gotten a hold of Dragon's box that saint has or knows of her chains but regardless have control of her and is more blatantly using it to their own ends. On the very bad end this may be Jack and Shatterbird. I don't think it's Saint cause of the on a family trip then flying to Canada comment when he's already there, the other guy also isn't mentioned and I don't see why Mags would play with a glass shard.

 

[Fellow Human]

Why? Cuz I forgot.

Click to shrink...

How can you forget what half of the last chapter talked about? She has out of context powers and Protectorate are being dumb dumbs who can't think out of the box. Btw that's my pet peeve, no magic doesn't exist, it is our half assed science which explains parahuman powers and that's that! What aliens you tinfoil hatter? Also what famfrit said in more detail.

You know, it's weird? I actually kind of want Tagg to succeed in his plans, if only to further infuriate Alexandria/Rebecca here. Usually I don't enjoy seeing him come out on top, but I'm kind of rooting for him, here.

Also, it would be incredibly hilarious if Tagg just walks up and offers Kathy a spot on a government-sponsored team of murderhobos and gets instant cooperation.

Unlikely, yes, but the sheer rage Alexandria would experience would be extremely gratifying and funny as hell.


...on another note, though, I enjoyed how the two accusations boiled down the either the military being so incompetent they couldn't use a 12 year old's explicitly-triple-checked pre-cog warnings to plan an operation OR that said 12 year old managed to actively manipulate the entire US government and military into making fool's of itself. I mean, at that point you just kind of throw up your hands and call it a Simurgh Plot because both alternatives are utterly humiliating.

Click to shrink...

It'd be actually a good thing for proper law enforcement to rise, intstead of Protectorate playing games just to save villains for 1 nanosecond of distraction against Sion. There is Kathy now and USA can focus on restoring order, which means bullets for villains.

 

[Sesparra]

I just…. This is absolutely pants on head stupid, but what do we really expect from any version of American government? To say nothing of ego bruised arrogant heroes.

 

[Fellow Human]

I just…. This is absolutely pants on head stupid, but what do we really expect from any version of American government? To say nothing of ego bruised arrogant heroes.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, Kathy is being stupid as well(unless I forgot something to indicate otherwise, I read quite a few fics at once). A bit of diplomacy wouldn't hurt her and now she's gonna unnecessary troubles from heroes who could be doing something actually useful instead...
Also just because she's versatile and OP doesn't mean invincible.

 

[Norr]

I lost any respect for legend,.saying nothing when the others consider handing over their victims to bonesaw

Click to shrink...

Rebecca made Legend leave before they started discussing how to empower the 'Slaughterhouse 2b'.

"I trust that you will look into this then." Alexandria made her way to one of their backup portals as Doormaker and Clairvoyant were resting from the ordeal. "In the meantime, we have a meeting to get to, Legend."

The man in question only sighed and followed her.

As they disappeared, the rest of the people seated at the table waited long enough to know that Legend was gone.

Click to shrink...