Fusion Background notes
The one Butterfly:
Eden did not manage to fully restrict the PtV, leaving behind a crack in the restrictions of the shard: somehow, Eden forgot to restrict PtV unlocking PtV itself, allowing Contessa to bring out its full potential.
And Contessa knows, even if she can't do anything about it by herself at the start. But by knowing, Contessa knows approximately how to go about remove the lock… but it'll take time and a few powers not yet available to her…
The storm from flapping wings:
(I hope I alluded to these events enough such that you can construct large parts of it from some imagination and clues gathering)
Cauldron still went on as it did,
but halfheartedly, and only as a fallback plan. Dr Mother allowed Contessa to try to attempt to open the lock at every opportunity. It took decades to crack the lock. Years of nearly unchanging canon
(except a few capes being visited here, a few others disappearing there. Nothing really major canon-wise)
The first big deviance from Earth Bet's canon history is Cauldron's discovery of Accord and his trigger. Contessa met with Accord, right after he got fired. Accord still eventually became a warlord, but under the Cauldron umbrella.
His problem solving skills allows Cauldron to arrange [--not going to be mentioned --], and through Accord and Citrine's help planning, some cape-napping and 'enforced' recruitment, Triumvirate assistance, and what not, Cauldron broke open the seal to Contessa's powers against the complexity of the inter-dimensional, multi-temporal lock surrounding PtV, changing it subtlety, but completely.
(Bonesaw and Manton may be involved, Jack Slash got himself PtV'ed into a ditch. Readers may never know what exactly happened…)
And so, now we have a Contessa capable of pathing herself to killing Zion.
But what Cauldron don't know
(but Doctor Mother suspects, as per the epilogue) is that PtV is "imperfectly" fixed: PtV has becomes Path to Absolute Victory.
It doesn't seem like much, but that little distinction makes a world of difference.
Not only does PtAV solve the victory condition stated, but it also every other axillary Path and Objectives, as well as any and all unconscious victory conditions in the mindset of the PtAV shard's owner.
Thus, the "Victory" isn't exactly so ironclad anymore, as in
*gruff batman voice* "not the victory they want, but the victory they need". And because of that,
it can now harm its owner if the "victory" is against its owner's unconscious wants.
With the unlocking of the PtV, Contessa immediately calls on PtV to kill Scion.
The Path gives a somewhat long winded set of steps.
The crux of the steps are: crack open the locked shard dimensions, distill and encapsulate the core of the
Sting Shard into a container (the Transistor). Sting as you know, is a multi-dimensional attack shard so effective that the Entities did not change it in between cycles.
With Accord's help again (unlocking the same locks that restricted PtV), they do just that.
The Shard is weakened by becoming physical, as well as the fact it's an "imbue" shard: it changes the state of something else to attack. Thus, Cauldron begins a process to absorb the "souls" of strong, matured parahumans as a power source (read: shards) as well as adding their distinctive attacks to Sting's attack ability.
The Processes are leftovers of the distillation process: Still technically parts of the shard that is Sting, they followed through the rift in dimensions to the physical shard. They're all, to the last, mini-Endbringers in terms of toughness: thou not having Endbringer's ultimate dimensional bruteness, they have enough of that to cause problems for anyone who's not Triumvirate-level.
And they obey the holder of the Transistor. Little miniature attack bots on call. What's not to love?
The storyline diverges into parallel tracks here:
Accord:
Accord came to the total domination of Boston much earlier than canon, thanks to a suspiciously competent well dressed woman in a suit
His Boston operations expand exponentially due to having Contessa on speed dial (one of the boons he got from Cauldron), as well as mysterious white Tinker Tech obliterating enemies, and also the curious occurrences of the Duo-virate* messing around in Boston at the "worst" times for Accord's opponents.
*There's a hint that that Eidolon got himself a bad end. Readers may never know what exactly happened…
Thus, with that much firepower at his beck and call, Accord only really need to keep (and does so) Citrine in his organization (who loves Accord, but that isn't reciprocated).
(Doylist: I can't write large group interactions for nutts.)
Cauldron allows him to hold onto the Transistor. Why?
For Accord, it's a show of power over Cauldron.
For Cauldron: it doesn't hurt, so why not?
Simply put, Accord is able to form complex plans to use the Transistor efficiently on his enemies (which powers it up), and on the other hand to form complex plans to use the controlled Processes. Cauldron simply arranges "field trips" for the Villain to go abroad if they find suitable targets not in Boston.
And then PtAV sets up Canary's situation…
Cauldron:
Loads of om nom noms occurs in the following years after the Transistor was complete, the target shard's strengths and abilities either recommended by the PtAV, or so powerful that PtAV doesn't need to.
Various parahumans are absorbed, in ways and locations out of sight.
There's a lot of handwaves going on for this part. For example, Dragon is one big plothole that I waved off. She got "bought off"? Got a giftwrapped Saint to look the other way? Removed select restrictions? Bringing her into the fold and/or knows Cauldron, but refuses to join?
Sidenote, Fridge logic will give you this:
Due to large groups of suddenly missing capes, China and Russia status quo collapsing is part of the back history. Africa stabilizes. Major villain groups worldwide collapses left and right, and some heroic groups too.
But this is background stuff that's not really mentioned until the end…
Then along comes a Canary.
Canary's court case is just as staged as in canon: to get Canary out of the limelight, before absorption inside the "sealed" Birdcage (aka a one way trip into the Transistor).
BUT Due to Accord's difference in rise to power and status as Cauldron member and other minor stuff in the courts of law (notably, a LARGE decrease of villains to represent)… Quinn Calle is free to take Canary's side.
And willing too, after their first meeting.
Sappy Love stuff occurs too.
What this means is that the perversion of justice that is Canary's trial is quashed hard by Quinn Calle's associate aceing the jury.
A bought judge
CAN overrule the jury, but the resulting hoo haa will (a) expose the corruption, and (b) is not worth it.
But Accord/Cauldron will not be denied, so they went "Stealth mode": Accord took Citrine and some unpowered minions together with Contessa and interrupted a private get-together.
This is the first hint readers get: PtAV finally and visibly glitches against owner for the first time. Quinn Calle, non-parahuman, was able to get in the way of the Transistor as "planned by PtAV behind Contessa's back".
Built and purposed to absorb shards, the Transistor overloads from being targeted on a regular, unsharded person for the first time.
Things go downhill for Accord really, really fast:
- Its teleportation activated, the Transistor and Paige Mcabee is lost from Accord's hands.
- Cauldron (falsely) accuses Accord of shenanigans, abandons him to the wolves.
- The Processes Accord once controls glitch, run amock.
Accord tries to fix things, but can't: PtAV is now working against him. Contessa holds back and watch the fireworks, and even sometimes fans the flame in stealth (getting law and order to be gruff, if not hostile against Canary).
And then we reach the start of Sword and Song 1.0.
There are other PtAV glitches. Can you spot them all?
***
And that's all, the complete set.
Once again, its been an interesting journey to get here, and a nice exercise in writing.
Once again, I hope you enjoyed this story. I sure did.
