"Sciences and Sorceries", eh?
You wouldn't happen to be intentionally referencing the "sciences and sorceries" of Exalted RPG's First Age, would you?
Victories of the Soul [Worm/Avatar/ME/Multicrossover] [SI]
- Thread starter AEM
- Start date
- Crossover Mature Sci-Fi
You wouldn't happen to be intentionally referencing the "sciences and sorceries" of Exalted RPG's First Age, would you?
- Location
- Chula Vista
I've heard of Exalted but no it's not an intentional reference as of yet. Shamanism is basically already sorcery and the Reapers technologized that ages ago. Bending too, since every Reaper has a distilled mass of billions of souls as the core of their being. With the Nazara-class Reapers having an Indoctrinated Avatar as their controlling intellect.
So…no Exalted reference.
At least not yet anyways.
Teleologism 13.a: Trial and Errors
- Location
- Chula Vista
I should preface by saying I've been planning a few things. Mainly on the general outcome of this Arc. As illustrated by the last segment of this Interlude. I'm not sure if I've gone too Wormy in the style of conflicts, which is why I plan a further shift once this Arc is done. Though I don't think I'm quite as bleak as Worm. But I do think there's parts of what I've written that I don't feel the best about. There's been a big shift in the background over time though, enough to make this more of an AU really in a lot of ways. I hadn't planned on it but it happened.
I also expect some rumblings on Tatttletale's power and I'll add that her power's behavior with certain capes is due to weirdness and her knowledge of shards from the Leviathan attack debacle. As well as that I've wanted to make more use of the spirit's inhuman nature here.
Most aren't so bad and are basically bugs, but they are not human even if they can be negotiated with. Any one spirit can in time become something of the likes of Koh, something capable of running countries to new heights or shattering empires through corruption and mindless whispered greed. They run and act and are fueled by concepts, and not all of them will care about the sanctity of life. Earth Bet isn't as bad as it used to be, but its not because the spirits are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts.
So you can imagine the stress of all the shamans manifesting in the world right now.
Teleologism 13.a: Trial and Error
September 27th, 2011. 3:45PM
Tattletale moved carefully, glancing over to one of the White Lotus' own thinkers. They were in a PRT building recently set up in Kittery, with capes gathering for the push against the Fallen.
The last few months had been a tad strange for the thinker, going from under a Coil's thumb to under Dragon's instead. That she had been put to use to help drain the bank accounts of criminal scum was unexpected but not unwanted. It was at least a better use of her time than working for Coil.
"Evaluation. Ally Tattletale requires assistance?" She jumped when she noted the large spider-tank staring at her. The machine was the size of a small car or one of Bitch's dogs, four blue armored legs holding up its mass. It had long phalanges but was currently moving on glowing orange wheels.
Her power flared.
Lisa found that just a bit disconcerting, and she examined the oddly cute killing machine more closely for a moment, she had about two hours of max power use which had grown from how often Dragon liked to put her power to the rest.
Well the fact it had a weapon that was cribbed from the cape used to deliver the final blow to Leviathan wasn't at all a concern to Lisa. Because it wasn't like the machine didn't have a dozen other ways to brutally kill her.
No that would be ridiculous.
"I'm fine, just waiting for the white hats." She scoffed, there were a lot of things she could say about the PRT. Efficient wasn't one of them.
"You are one of those 'white hats' ally Tattletale." It said with a dry humor, and Lisa suddenly wanted to cuff the back of the head of who ever had programmed this stupid thing. "You require data, data that will be provided by other units." The machine was intelligent, and she blinked.
Not something unexpected, this thing might be oddly cute but it was still a machine built for combat. Lisa turned her head to one other person she was more interested in getting a read on, one final check before she gave herself a headache against the Fallen and their new masters.
Erudition was speaking with two PRT shamans, and the boy who had somehow crossed dimensions and brought those Earth Shin natives to Bet, plus Bitch. She had painted her armor a new color, and there was more but thinner plating and strange guns strapped to her waist.
The tinker seemed to perk up when Monarch made her approach, literally bouncing in place with all the giddiness expected of someone with airbending. Lisa grinned as she decided to see what she could find. Not that she would use it…getting her head crushed like a grape is not what she wants in life.
Lisa's mouth nearly flew open but her limited self control kept her from doing something very stupid. Monarch hugs Erudition and steps through a portal, and Polaris floats down with a serious expression. Lisa took a look.
Lisa ripped herself away from her power, sudden confusion hitting her poor brain. Maybe it was time to stop using her power on her nominal allies?
"Ally Tattletale, this equipment is for your benefit." The blonde thinker flinched as the thousand pound robot handed her a large pair of glasses. The only reason the tank could be in here was because they were in a vehicle garage.
She took the glasses and put them on and was bombarded with a deluge of perspectives, data from dozens of drones consolidated into usable information for Tattletale. She resisted using her power, and when she looked back the tinker was gone.
Damn.
There was a sudden sensation, an intuition she followed on a whim as she examined a new PRT officer as he entered the room. One of the shamans shifted towards the newcomer, and Lisa examined the man.
"Fuck! We've got a shapechanger spirit!" She pointed out the infiltrator, and the shaman nodded. One of the PRT agents took out his sidearm and a loud resounding boom hit the air as a chunk of the man's face was blown off.
The body didn't drop as it should have and Lisa felt a chill as the blood that spilled was black instead of red. The man turned and her stomach churned as she saw half a brain sticking out from where the skull had been shattered by the impact.
Black surged out from the head, whispers hitting the air, spiritual energy stilling, quieting, silencing the echo of the spirit. The shadow formed a Cheshire smile with the other half of its human face.
"Well…that didn't last long at all did it? I suppose it makes sense, we are so very new after all. Perhaps it's time to shed this skin of mine?" The body trembled and the body liquified, flesh sloughing off in rivulets of red and black. "I would very much enjoy feeling that baby soft skin of yours…but the cat lady has dibs. A PRT salad should serve instead."
The creature unfolded into a grotesque Form, a skeletal frame around a red pulsing crystal heart, six insectile limbs stabbing into the ground from a black spine. The half broken skin mask remained tightly attached to a long shadowy neck and her power responded.
Face is of a real human. Dead. Run.
Then the reference to a cat lady registered and she was pulled out of the way of a silent monochrome killer. The woman kept her momentum, and a single slash tore a PRT agent in two, and the shaman vanished after gripping a black and white stone, bringing two officers with him.
The Siberian turned to face her while the dark spirit slid into the spirit world with a fleshy pop.
"Oh. Fuck." She was held in the arms of the Bagheera tank, and the world spun around her as the machine jumped. The garage door broke open, and the Siberian followed behind the both of them, cutting through another section with no resistance. Mass accelerator fire plinked off of her skin, and she could hear the shouting loud and clear of a base put on high alert.
The Siberian didn't linger, firmly focused on her and nobody else.
"Ally Tattletale is in danger."
The thinker glared. "No fucking shit sherlock!" The Siberian launched upwards, and Lisa noticed they were still in the air.
Thrusters activated and the tip of Lisa's hair was sheared off by the Siberian's claws. The Bagheera landed on the roof of the PRT building and then jumped twenty five meters in the air, mass effect fields flaring to life.
"A total of three dark spirit infiltrators have been confirmed, no Valefor sleeper agents detected so far." A roar of perverse excitement hit the air as a car sized mass of twisting black flesh emerged and attacked a gathering of capes.
"Oh…"
"Crawler has been detected, mission parameters must be altered."
…
Oh this was how she was going to die wasn't she?
The Siberian leaped again, and the main gun of the Bagheera spun up. Space bent and twisted and unfolded, Lisa shivering as strange energies triggered reality shifts. A two hundred gram tungsten slug exited the barrel at thirty times the speed of sound, unfolding across multiple dimensions and shearing reality along the way.
The Siberian didn't bother blocking and the projection rippled and rippled and rippled, attempting to compensate for the unfolding of space and the shifting of physical law. With little fanfare.
The Siberian popped.
"Holy shit we got her!" Lisa released a blast of propulsive wind in the process of celebrating.
"Warning. Siberian projection has popped, reformation may come at any time!"
Oh…the universe really didn't want to go easy on Lisa did it? As they landed the Siberian reformed several seconds later, and again the Bagheera jumped and twisted through the air. She added her own airbending to fly further, but it was only barely enough.
Now she knew the universe did not want to go easy on her and Lisa now hated it for it.
September 27th, 2011. 3:50PM
As Captain Samantha Clemens flew through the air she wondered why her life had taken such a strange turn. There were so many potential reasons, maybe it was when she got a signed autograph from Legend when she was a little girl, or when she joined the PRT to join the good fight without powers of her own? Or when she suddenly set her own bed on fire in the middle of the night?
But Samantha quickly came to the conclusion it was meeting Erudition that had been the catalyst. Out of every PRT agent, she was one with some of the most interactions with the tinker outside the liaison working with the White Lotus. Now she was fighting a spirit monster that had stolen a PRT member's face.
And then she shot that very spirit in the face.
"Oh good plan LT, bring us to the one place where our superpowers don't work!" The captain rubbed her face, as she dodged a spear of cursed bone, tasting the sulphurous breath of their new enemy.
Here in the Spirit, the horrific spirit was larger, more refined and more profane. It charged with a rattle of bones and insane giggles, whispers in the back of her mind.
Lieutenant Caras was wearing the newest armor design, a veil over her face as she whispered and made the land twist within the confines of the Living Spirit. They were fighting in the diseased alleys of Kittery's spiritual counterpart, the spirit hanging on like a demented and corrupted spider onto the walls of the dead end.
"Guns work. And Rubio is a biotic." The curly haired shaman pointed out with her pretty lips pulled up into a smirk. Rubio was a lithe and slick haired man with wavy brown hair and a soft spoken voice. He was one of the few biotics known, and one of the few that didn't need to operate with an Amp.
Some quirk of fate had made him a very lucky man. He weathered the blows they couldn't take, his biotic barrier strong and he unleashed a ball of entropic force, the Warp searing the dark spirit's flesh.
The whisper was louder this time, more demanding and Samantha did her best to ignore the insidious voice. The spirit was dangerous, pulling out thoughts and dreams and horrors from memories she preferred buried.
She pushed past her horror and disgust, and fired her laser rifle. It smashed into the dark spirit like a hammer, acting less like light and more like a concussive explosion. What she didn't know was that they were modeled off of Legend's strange lasers, dimensional alterations slowing the beam down in exchange for immense kinetic force.
So less a laser and more a beam of solidified electromagnetic energy. Rubio took up a shotgun instead, though it only resembled a shotgun acting more like a war cannon, spitting out a blast of low hypersonic metal. The primitive mass accelerator blasted a second time, cracking the skull of the dark entity.
The biotic spun on his heels, and forced the spirit into a violent Lift field and with a toss of a Warp detonated the field of dark energy.
"Name…I need a name, what do I need?" Samantha heard the shaman whisper to herself, spinning a staff and stabbing into the flesh of the beast as a metal blade was projected from it.
"Kill it with fire?" Samantha's reply had been sarcastic thus she was surprised when Caras did as she asked.
"Ravenous fire, breath of the dragon, spark of life; gear of incineration," Caras intoned, soft words pressing down on Unreality. "Burn the broken beast of faces and skins and nightmares. Turn to ashes the beast most unholy. Cleanse the twisted and the mad within your prye!" Behind the clear non-silicon glass helmet, Samantha saw the soft glow of the shaman's eyes, and saw into her soul through them.
Flames spun up around the curled haired shaman's right hand, holy white flames lighting up the twisting nightmare around the dark spirit. She sent the living flames flying, and they burrowed into the flesh of the spirit, burning out its insides with a scream of righteous rage as spirit of flame, of fire made manifest burned within the beast's tumorous car sized heart.
The scream was horrifying, and yet the creature still lived, withstanding the flames with. Flesh regrew, spirit corpus regenerating as the skeletal shadow beast laughed and taunted. It simply rears back, ribs shooting out and bending into legs and the heart vomited out chitinous limbs, slowly covering up the ribs and obscuring the pulsating heart.
The dark spirit took a form like that of an enormous sea scorpion, it's neck extending on a spire of folding vertebrae, and the half human face growing into an upside down human corpse, a mockery of her fallen comrades. The paddle tail shifted into a bladed tip, and the spirit rose up on thin chitinous limbs four meters into the air. The red heart remained, pulsing with corruption.
"This…thing is a monster!" Samantha growled out, spinning out of the way of a pincer they formed from bony flesh and screaming shadows.
"Don't let the anger swallow you up, don't let it crack open the door into your heart." A warning came from Caras, the spirit world shifting under her feet as the spirit forcefully caused the alleyway to expand and unfold and crack.
She was keeping them anchored and keeping the dark spirit from escaping. Samantha jumped, rolling past a pinched as it stabbed into the ground. The shaman made use of the 'psychomorphic effect' demanding that the spirit world listen to her soul, and while Samantha was no shaman she was more sensitive than most. She felt the unreality around them listen to the whims of their most useful combatant.
She rolled past the sharp articulated ribs of the monstrosity, and her gun spat a hard blast of kinetic light. The dark spirit charged like it was a cheetah rather than a beast the size of a bus, spinning through the air with splayed claws and it's twisted lure unfolding into a whirling comb of teeth.
She ducked and fired at the legs of the chitinous abomination, staggering it to make an opening for Caras. The Greek woman whispered and her staff vibrated and pulsated with silver light.
"Awaken!" The staff screamed and vibrated, stabbing into the corrupted flesh of the shapeshifting spirit. Caras' staff reverberated, beating reality like a drum as the spirit within the well ordained tool answered the call of its master. "Foul creature! You are unworthy to stand before me, an unnatural thing of disparate flesh! Unworthy to stand before the Mother, before the power of our Pact! I DENOUNCE YOU!" The staff exploded with white light, and came down like a meteor, and the spirit exploded into a mass of flesh.
Yet it didn't die, the fleshy crystal orb remaining functional, spilling out more corpus into the spiritual world. It took a smaller form, rearing back into the shape of a shadow flamed centipede, head replaced with a melting mass of skulls.
"A tough one, it's not a natural spirit, it's been twisted into an unnatural Form. I'll need something with a little more oomph. Buy me some time?" Samantha rolled her eyes, and pulled out a nano-thorn blade that had gone unused.
"We'll do our best to let you figure out a magic spell." Which was about when Samantha was smashed into the ground by a long extended spine, and her left hand swept down and turned spirit corpus to dust and powder with the nano-thorn blade.
The spirit hissed, and Rubio sent out another Warp, and spun with a biotic field in his hands. He suddenly struck with incredible force, and knocked back the shocked spirit. He formed a barrier and Pulled the spirit downwards into the unstoppable Barrier, crushing and snapping bone.
If that had been a person. The PRT captain didn't care for the moment, and she flinched back for a ripple in the spirit world. She recognized what it was though and smiled
"Lieutenant. I'm sure we're on the same wavelength here." The shaman gave a silent thumbs up, and a Kick from Rubio pushed the dark spirit right where they wanted it.
The curly haired shaman tore open the veil, and the spirit and the team itself dived back into the mortal world. The spirit shrieked as a PRT van slammed into it at top speed, and one officer opened a window and sliced the nameless spirit with a sword.
"Hem it in. I've got it's measure!" Samantha nodded and she rocketed forward on powerful jets of blue-orange flames. She was one of the strongest firebenders locally, so she was very much going to kick the spirit's teeth in.
She spun away from the enraged strikes of the insectile spirit, and as she spun thunder came to her call, lightning brimming in the air with a violent crackle. She was one of the first to learn the cold blooded fire, and it showed as the blast of lightning detonated with the force of a large bomb.
The sound was earshattering but none of the agents around her hesitated, and the van slammed into the spirit for a second time, protected by newly installed kinetic barriers. A flurry of leaf-like fragments reassembled into a car and slammed into the spirit. A cape from Haven had been close, and was eying Caras with a hint of suspicion that Samantha thought was unwarranted.
"Well having one cape should help…" Not a lot was what was on Samantha's mind when any earthbender could chuck a block of rock or metal. Though admittedly few had the precision and control of Rosary.
She continued to charge, her inner fire stoked into a bonfire. She brought down a wall of flames, and crashed together a second bolt in the beast's face.
An upturned car reformed from the flurry, blocking a piercing attack from the spirit's tail. It broke apart into fragments under Rosary's power and Samantha reevaluated her opinion on the cape.
"I've got enough ideas on what to invoke." The captain acknowledged the spirit-touched woman, as she compressed flame into a concussive detonation.
"Do what you need to!"
The words crashed into the air like a bomb, and Samantha shook herself out of her sudden loss of breath. Caras stomped on the ground, and clacked the butt of the staff against it at the same time as her feet.
Rosary twitched, folding over for a moment and shuddering and Caras felt the same, as if something was being ripped out of her being. And in a very real sense she was correct. Wisps came together, rotating around each other like neutron stars. They struck head on like a scythe, and the spirit shriveled and wavered. Bullets and lasers and bending and parahuman attacks rained down, and Caras dove at the now defenseless heart.
She stuck her arm into the pulsing heart, and pulled with all her might. With a sudden and horrific tear of spiritual flesh, Caras came away with a screaming and wriggling worm of Nightmare turning the transformation-spirit into an unnatural abomination.
"What. Is. That?" There was a note of horror from Rosary and Samantha didn't disagree with the Christian cape.
"A Nightmare spirit by the name of Kson. It was forcefully shoved into a spirit of transformation-through-positive-means. Turning them into a monstrous and insane spirit…even by their standards."
"You have not won…you can not stop what is coming. You can not stop her, you can not stop the c—" The shaman ripped the spirit in half with her bare hands, the spirit flaking away into wisps.
The transformation-spirit sloughed off, compressing down into a burbling mass of orange slime. It was shivering as if in terror, which was a better alternative than the rage and violence and insanity of the Extortus spirit it had once been. Reality lenses around it and the spirit fled into the spirit world.
The battle was still raging, and Samantha knew it was time to get back to work.
"This is Captain Clemens! Report!" She commanded the comms lines and multiple PRT drones popped up in response. She had been out of contact for precious moments and needed to take back control of her squad.
There was a whirr and Samantha ducked as one of the Bagheera spider-tanks landed with a soft pulse of mass effect generated force. The Siberian dropped from the sky, hair waving while the rest of her body ignored every force imaginable.
"God…get away from here you…" The blonde thinker riding the tank warned them, and Samantha propelled herself back from a swipe from the striped monster with a fire blast.
"Captain!" A voice came to her. "We believe we've located where the Siberian's master is being kept."
"If you've got Manton's location put him down…we'll keep the projection busy for as long as possible. We get him and the Siberian ends." She whispered as quietly as possible, and cursed when the Siberian began to bounce against the buildings around them, gaining speed and velocity with each bounce.
"Activating laser battery!" The Bagheera let out a chirp, and a three hundred kilowatt laser parted the air and hit the Siberian. No damage was done, but it bought the PRT precious seconds to move.
…
Samantha was certainly living a much more exciting life than she had bargained for. But…she wouldn't change a thing at this point.
September 27th, 2011. 3:52PM
Faultline pressed her back against the wall, and sighed as the world folded and twisted under Elle's power. She had torn open a rift into the spirit world, using her power in tandem with her natural 'gifts' to bend reality into a fine pretzel. She was accompanied by Chevalier, and she hid a smirk when the armored man turned to her.
She would have preferred the rest of her crew on this job, but they were busy elsewhere, dealing with smaller Fallen enclaves. And Shamrock generated some interference with Dinah that they didn't need right now with the fuzz weakening her precognition. The only Palanquin member in the city was Spitfire and she was keeping an eye out with the capes left to defend Brockton.
A spirit manifested almost on top of her, and she swiped the ground where it landed with a flicker of invisible light. The canid beast howled as the collapsed ground tripped it up, and Chevalier swung his blade, attempting to execute the spirit by splitting it in two.
She pulled out the gun she had been allowed to yield, a Carnifex semi-automatic. It had been set to alternate between armor-piercing and an explosive round. The front half of the spirit leapt forward, Faultline fired, and pierced through the dense armored skin of the spirit monster. She fired a second time, and the next bullet blew apart the braincase of the beast in a shower of burning pink shards.
"I see you haven't run out of ammo." Chevalier commented with a curious air.
Faultline kicked the remaining flesh away from her person. "Mass accelerators don't tend to run out of rounds." Though the Carnifex was a hungrier beast than most, with a few hundred rounds instead of the thousand or so that was common to mass accelerator weapons. She waved her omni-tool and activated a program, and a cryo-blast froze a stony skinned spirit in place.
She brushed her fingers against it's skin, and to her delight her power surged into the points of contact. Four points of contact, and six lines winding together as she shoved power into the spirit. The ensuing cloud of spirit corpus was a foot deep, staggering the spirit so it could be bisected by Chevalier as he turned his massive blade in a sweeping cut.
"So far we haven't seen a hide nor hair of the Fallen, but we've seen a lot of Ezekiel's monsters." Chevalier stepped forward, and grabbed a surprised Faultline by the waist. He slammed his sword into the ground and they vaulted a solid thirty feet in the air.
That knocked them out of the way of Crawler and Kiyohime, the two locked into a battle. The Ward had escalated, dwarfing Crawler who had grown more lithe, with thick layered osteoderms covering his pulsating hide. The Ward resembled an eastern dragon, though with a more alien lense. Four eyes with slit pupils and glowing trails of light from them, and a mane of sharpened feather barbs, six legs and a single pair of bat-like wings coiled before stabbing into Crawler, shimmering light and fire coating them.
Crawler hacked up a massive glob of acid, and Kiyohime released a scream before a shimmering hexagonal field of hard light armor absorbed the acidic mass. The young Ward reflected back all the kinetic energy she absorbed, concentrating the force of a bunker buster bomb into her fist.
She came away with a hundred pounds of flesh, which regenerated back in less than a second.
"Hey Faultline!" The former mercenary flinched when she heard the loud call of Bakuda, the cape arriving inside a thirteen foot tall war mech. The machine emulated its pilot, with the same gas mask design on the 'head' of the chunky war machine. One of the arms was converted into a powerful cannon, attempting to aim at Crawler.
"Bakuda. I'm guessing you want us to find a way to separate Crawler from the Protectorate's little dragon?" Her tone was dry and Bakuda laughed. "Are you up for it then Chevalier?"
"You have a plan?" His armor shifted, and Faultline nodded. She had done her research on Crawler and knew enough about his behavior as proven by Clockblocker.
"Call your Ward and tell her this…" Faultline issued the words and Chevalier did as she asked, talking on the communication lines. The battle rolled towards them, and Kiyohime managed to kick Crawler off of her even as the cape adapted and grew in durability and strength.
The massive villainous cape turned in the direction of Bakuda, a hundred eyes blinking simultaneously.
"You really think you can kill me?" There was a hint of a laugh in Crawler's voice, a sick amusement in his rumbling inhuman voice.
"Easily." Bakuda boasted, her mech smoothly swaggering as she lifted the right cannon-arm. There was a shiver of excitement from Crawler and he charged, flames surging from flammable sweat, and flesh hardening into thick and dense plates. He spit a stream of acid, and the second arm sent out a wave of golden light, slowing, cooling, stilling the burst.
The right arm cannon revealed itself to be a rocket launcher, and with a soft whump a small missile blasted out at half the speed of sound. It detonated seconds before a second acid blast could melt it down.
Faultline shuddered as she saw the acid solidify, as reality folded in on itself, as the air itself crystallized. Crawler was caught in the radius, and all six thousand pound of his flesh were turned to solid and optically perfect glass. His momentum propelled his corpse, and it shattered into a shower of shards along the road.
Instinct and personal experience took a hold of Faultline in the moment. They had attacked and tried to scatter the heroes, they had prior warning which meant…
"This is a distraction." Chevalier immediately turned from Crawler's glass corpse. "But I'm not sure what the distraction is for."
"Can you contact Delphi?" Faultline opened her mouth, and there was an immediate flicker of someone on the Comms.
"Seventy or seventy five percent chance they're moving Butcher off site. A bit fuzzy, and the Fallen might be trying something themselves. About eighty three percent odds they'll pull something in the next thirty minutes." Dinah confirmed their worries, and Faultline knew they had to move quickly.
She blinked as the HUD built into her new mask provided a map of what had to be the labyrinthine workshop.
She had a bad feeling about this.
September 27th, 2011. 3:55PM
Ezekiel ran quickly once he had been alerted by the spirit abominations he had been tasked with deploying. They were prototypes, early models of the line of weapons his master's master wanted. He knew his time was running low, so he had already moved one of the few surviving subjects of Project Shayatin. She would be left behind as a distraction, and he had already sent the data ahead to Earth Shin and Goetia.
He had also brought what members of the Fallen had decided to fall in line, maybe twenty capes though the ones he had initially recruited thought they somehow had an actual chance to 'win' against innumerable and horrible odds. He would let them throw themselves against the capes of this country, and he would flee with his life intact.
It would give more time for this trial to come to a conclusion.
Mender had left two fragments of itself to continue the process as well as provide a distraction, and he had made his escape into the spirit world, and was a good fifteen miles from Kittery and thus even farther away from the city where monsters and criminal organizations came to die.
The Fallen hadn't been the first Endbringer cults to show up in the city, they were simply the only ones that didn't get eaten by the spirits or defeated by local forces.
He dove back out of the spirit world for a moment to catch a breath in a place of relative safety. Ezekiel had gotten everything he needed out of this place, a supply of over twenty capes guarded by a hundred non-capes, and more data for the projects back home.
If I could call that place home. Was his worried thought as he looked around the forest he was in. He had left the Fallen with the means of controlling the Imbued, though he doubted they would last long. He had gotten everything he wanted though he has his doubts his master's master had.
She had wanted to draw some of the more powerful capes so they could be brought before her, but with her own insight bouncing off the abilities of their collective enemy.
She wouldn't be getting what she wanted and for Ezekiel that was a good thing. Not that he would ever say that to her face…
The only warning was a rustle before a spinning blade cut off his prosthetic leg at the knee. Ezekiel let out a scream, and stepped back from his assailant and paled as a nine foot tall figure emerged from the shadows.
"You! How did you find me? You should be back there making that damn freak paranoid." Ezekiel was shivering but kept his cool as best as he could.
Mannequin shrugged, not making even a single sound aside from the metallic flick of his blades. The silent tinker rubbed blue on his face, from what had to be mashed berries. It was almost mocking and Ezekiel growled.
"Why would you listen to some empty headed teleporting fool?" Ezekiel asked as he balanced on one foot, and he crushed a crystal hidden in his hand.
From the crystal emerged a beast of broken bronze blades melted into the shape of a man, a spirit of Violence and Conflict bound and chained down. It attacked without prompting, and the tinker simply rolled with the bladed punches of the spirit.
"Mender hurry up and open a portal…we have what we came for. Data." He whispered harshly, a hard pitch in the air. The creature emerged from the spirit world, shards flaking away from its corpus. Ezekiel stepped forward, and there was a stabbing pain in his gut as a bullet tore a hole through him.
Mannequin was still fighting the golem, but had aimed the rifle in his arm towards the shaman.
"Send him off a cliff Mender…Prime Host that hurts…" Ezekiel gagged, wavering as he began to bleed out. Mender opened a portal as fast as lightning, sending a wave of plasma to throw Mannequin and the spirit into the portal.
"Mannequin has been neutralized." Ezekiel rolled his eyes.
"You and I both know that man is not dead, he'll make his return soon enough. Now heal me…" Mender opened a second portal, carrying his master and shutting the first portal.
Ezekiel coughed, and knew that the heroes of this world were none the wiser that Butcher hadn't gone far. He hobbled as he was once again back in Gardar, and he saw the smoke that came from the vast power plants burning what coal they had on hand to power the old machines, machines not powered up since the Void Age, before the first Sundering shattered the empire of a Humanity that no longer existed.
Mender helped him close, lightly brushing against his wounds and creating healing energies to seal and repair his wounds.
He looked over to the holographic display Mender had helped him repair, turned towards another purpose. Data continued to download, raw information taken from the equipment he had left back on Bet.
He would have to wait and see what would come out of this experiment. What trials and errors were yet to come.
And he would hate every moment of it.
I also expect some rumblings on Tatttletale's power and I'll add that her power's behavior with certain capes is due to weirdness and her knowledge of shards from the Leviathan attack debacle. As well as that I've wanted to make more use of the spirit's inhuman nature here.
Most aren't so bad and are basically bugs, but they are not human even if they can be negotiated with. Any one spirit can in time become something of the likes of Koh, something capable of running countries to new heights or shattering empires through corruption and mindless whispered greed. They run and act and are fueled by concepts, and not all of them will care about the sanctity of life. Earth Bet isn't as bad as it used to be, but its not because the spirits are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts.
So you can imagine the stress of all the shamans manifesting in the world right now.
___
Teleologism 13.a: Trial and Error
September 27th, 2011. 3:45PM
Tattletale moved carefully, glancing over to one of the White Lotus' own thinkers. They were in a PRT building recently set up in Kittery, with capes gathering for the push against the Fallen.
The last few months had been a tad strange for the thinker, going from under a Coil's thumb to under Dragon's instead. That she had been put to use to help drain the bank accounts of criminal scum was unexpected but not unwanted. It was at least a better use of her time than working for Coil.
"Evaluation. Ally Tattletale requires assistance?" She jumped when she noted the large spider-tank staring at her. The machine was the size of a small car or one of Bitch's dogs, four blue armored legs holding up its mass. It had long phalanges but was currently moving on glowing orange wheels.
Her power flared.
Wheels made of hard light, can walk at up to 30 kilometers per hour, 150 kilometers per hour on wheel. Built around an articulated carbon allotrope frame, highly flexible due to flextronics and smart matter filling over CNT myomer. Can jump at least twenty meters straight up. Operates in nearly any condition including space. Can operate in tandem with an operator.
Lisa found that just a bit disconcerting, and she examined the oddly cute killing machine more closely for a moment, she had about two hours of max power use which had grown from how often Dragon liked to put her power to the rest.
Both arms have in-built heavy mass accelerator machine guns. Nose holds a Sting-enhanced heavy weapon, thorax holds interconnected grenade launcher systems. Barriers can take three hits from a tank cannon, and will regenerate them in fifteen seconds. Bagheera is operated by an artificial intelligence, not as capable as Dragon, like a dog with supersophont subroutines.
Well the fact it had a weapon that was cribbed from the cape used to deliver the final blow to Leviathan wasn't at all a concern to Lisa. Because it wasn't like the machine didn't have a dozen other ways to brutally kill her.
No that would be ridiculous.
"I'm fine, just waiting for the white hats." She scoffed, there were a lot of things she could say about the PRT. Efficient wasn't one of them.
"You are one of those 'white hats' ally Tattletale." It said with a dry humor, and Lisa suddenly wanted to cuff the back of the head of who ever had programmed this stupid thing. "You require data, data that will be provided by other units." The machine was intelligent, and she blinked.
Bagheera has access to social interaction programs, work of several tinkers. Based on a multitude of thinker powers including your own. Operates in a swarm with other units, providing massive data capacity. Thousands of yottaflops of combined processing power. Will work to protect you, will work to protect nominal allies, will kill for nominal allies if authorized.
Not something unexpected, this thing might be oddly cute but it was still a machine built for combat. Lisa turned her head to one other person she was more interested in getting a read on, one final check before she gave herself a headache against the Fallen and their new masters.
Erudition was speaking with two PRT shamans, and the boy who had somehow crossed dimensions and brought those Earth Shin natives to Bet, plus Bitch. She had painted her armor a new color, and there was more but thinner plating and strange guns strapped to her waist.
Not a normal parahuman. Many powers. Armor strong enough to bounce mass accelerator fire, shields can stop tank fire, extremely costly. Has multiple spirit tools in Brooch, larger on the inside. Brown cloak around shoulders will reflect bullets back. Stronger than she appears, strength and durability not from extensive cybernetics alone. Is better at firebending and biotics, still an order of magnitude stronger in the other Elements. Mostly trusts her friends, does not trust Earth Bet collectively. Trauma from recent events has made her dislike the planet. Is homesick. Afraid for her life, would have fled if not for her moral compass. Is considering more defenses for her allies.
The tinker seemed to perk up when Monarch made her approach, literally bouncing in place with all the giddiness expected of someone with airbending. Lisa grinned as she decided to see what she could find. Not that she would use it…getting her head crushed like a grape is not what she wants in life.
She thinks Monarch is pretty. Has no experience in a romantic relationship, but wishes to try her best anyway. Is sexually and emotionally attracted to Monarch, considers her important. Will hurt others to protect her, will hurt others to protect friends and family. Misses family would want to introduce Monarch. Would use any means necessary, would kill shards for loved ones, would kill entities, would kill, wouldn't like it. Not a normal parahuman. Is talking with your power, calls it Negotiator, does not mind use of power on her within reason. Can see powers, can talk to powers, can manipulate powers with great difficulty. Plans to attack Butcher's shard, will protect the shards under her domain. Can not easily do so, requires tapping into a well of dangerous and sealed power. She hopes shards can attack Butcher before shard spills into the Material world and destroys the city.
Lisa's mouth nearly flew open but her limited self control kept her from doing something very stupid. Monarch hugs Erudition and steps through a portal, and Polaris floats down with a serious expression. Lisa took a look.
Polaris traumatized by Butcher possession, hopes Butcher dies on this mission. Feel bad for unheroic desire. Power has changed through a Second Trigger. Aura inherently blocks and interferes with Master effects, can be toggled to project her emotions. Aura can be used to sense emotions and people within a short range. Forcefield divided into fourteen layers, each layer is adaptive, can be shaped into any number of forms. Strong enough to block Halcyon cannons, can direct and empower firebending. Will protect her. Will destroy all in her path for her sake.
Lisa ripped herself away from her power, sudden confusion hitting her poor brain. Maybe it was time to stop using her power on her nominal allies?
"Ally Tattletale, this equipment is for your benefit." The blonde thinker flinched as the thousand pound robot handed her a large pair of glasses. The only reason the tank could be in here was because they were in a vehicle garage.
Not glass. Linked to a swarm network of drones, will provide near limitless data.
She took the glasses and put them on and was bombarded with a deluge of perspectives, data from dozens of drones consolidated into usable information for Tattletale. She resisted using her power, and when she looked back the tinker was gone.
Damn.
There was a sudden sensation, an intuition she followed on a whim as she examined a new PRT officer as he entered the room. One of the shamans shifted towards the newcomer, and Lisa examined the man.
Not human. Following the whims of it's master, wants to steal your skin. Is going to attack, is going to disrupt the mission, is going to pull out your bones. Is a spirit.
"Fuck! We've got a shapechanger spirit!" She pointed out the infiltrator, and the shaman nodded. One of the PRT agents took out his sidearm and a loud resounding boom hit the air as a chunk of the man's face was blown off.
The body didn't drop as it should have and Lisa felt a chill as the blood that spilled was black instead of red. The man turned and her stomach churned as she saw half a brain sticking out from where the skull had been shattered by the impact.
Black surged out from the head, whispers hitting the air, spiritual energy stilling, quieting, silencing the echo of the spirit. The shadow formed a Cheshire smile with the other half of its human face.
"Well…that didn't last long at all did it? I suppose it makes sense, we are so very new after all. Perhaps it's time to shed this skin of mine?" The body trembled and the body liquified, flesh sloughing off in rivulets of red and black. "I would very much enjoy feeling that baby soft skin of yours…but the cat lady has dibs. A PRT salad should serve instead."
The creature unfolded into a grotesque Form, a skeletal frame around a red pulsing crystal heart, six insectile limbs stabbing into the ground from a black spine. The half broken skin mask remained tightly attached to a long shadowy neck and her power responded.
Face is of a real human. Dead. Run.
Then the reference to a cat lady registered and she was pulled out of the way of a silent monochrome killer. The woman kept her momentum, and a single slash tore a PRT agent in two, and the shaman vanished after gripping a black and white stone, bringing two officers with him.
The Siberian turned to face her while the dark spirit slid into the spirit world with a fleshy pop.
"Oh. Fuck." She was held in the arms of the Bagheera tank, and the world spun around her as the machine jumped. The garage door broke open, and the Siberian followed behind the both of them, cutting through another section with no resistance. Mass accelerator fire plinked off of her skin, and she could hear the shouting loud and clear of a base put on high alert.
The Siberian didn't linger, firmly focused on her and nobody else.
"Ally Tattletale is in danger."
The thinker glared. "No fucking shit sherlock!" The Siberian launched upwards, and Lisa noticed they were still in the air.
Thrusters activated and the tip of Lisa's hair was sheared off by the Siberian's claws. The Bagheera landed on the roof of the PRT building and then jumped twenty five meters in the air, mass effect fields flaring to life.
"A total of three dark spirit infiltrators have been confirmed, no Valefor sleeper agents detected so far." A roar of perverse excitement hit the air as a car sized mass of twisting black flesh emerged and attacked a gathering of capes.
"Oh…"
"Crawler has been detected, mission parameters must be altered."
…
Oh this was how she was going to die wasn't she?
The Siberian leaped again, and the main gun of the Bagheera spun up. Space bent and twisted and unfolded, Lisa shivering as strange energies triggered reality shifts. A two hundred gram tungsten slug exited the barrel at thirty times the speed of sound, unfolding across multiple dimensions and shearing reality along the way.
The Siberian didn't bother blocking and the projection rippled and rippled and rippled, attempting to compensate for the unfolding of space and the shifting of physical law. With little fanfare.
The Siberian popped.
"Holy shit we got her!" Lisa released a blast of propulsive wind in the process of celebrating.
"Warning. Siberian projection has popped, reformation may come at any time!"
Oh…the universe really didn't want to go easy on Lisa did it? As they landed the Siberian reformed several seconds later, and again the Bagheera jumped and twisted through the air. She added her own airbending to fly further, but it was only barely enough.
Now she knew the universe did not want to go easy on her and Lisa now hated it for it.
___
September 27th, 2011. 3:50PM
As Captain Samantha Clemens flew through the air she wondered why her life had taken such a strange turn. There were so many potential reasons, maybe it was when she got a signed autograph from Legend when she was a little girl, or when she joined the PRT to join the good fight without powers of her own? Or when she suddenly set her own bed on fire in the middle of the night?
But Samantha quickly came to the conclusion it was meeting Erudition that had been the catalyst. Out of every PRT agent, she was one with some of the most interactions with the tinker outside the liaison working with the White Lotus. Now she was fighting a spirit monster that had stolen a PRT member's face.
And then she shot that very spirit in the face.
"Oh good plan LT, bring us to the one place where our superpowers don't work!" The captain rubbed her face, as she dodged a spear of cursed bone, tasting the sulphurous breath of their new enemy.
Here in the Spirit, the horrific spirit was larger, more refined and more profane. It charged with a rattle of bones and insane giggles, whispers in the back of her mind.
Lieutenant Caras was wearing the newest armor design, a veil over her face as she whispered and made the land twist within the confines of the Living Spirit. They were fighting in the diseased alleys of Kittery's spiritual counterpart, the spirit hanging on like a demented and corrupted spider onto the walls of the dead end.
"Guns work. And Rubio is a biotic." The curly haired shaman pointed out with her pretty lips pulled up into a smirk. Rubio was a lithe and slick haired man with wavy brown hair and a soft spoken voice. He was one of the few biotics known, and one of the few that didn't need to operate with an Amp.
Some quirk of fate had made him a very lucky man. He weathered the blows they couldn't take, his biotic barrier strong and he unleashed a ball of entropic force, the Warp searing the dark spirit's flesh.
Wouldn't it be nice to see your brother's face again?
The whisper was louder this time, more demanding and Samantha did her best to ignore the insidious voice. The spirit was dangerous, pulling out thoughts and dreams and horrors from memories she preferred buried.
All I need is a little skin…a little taste, you know his grave well.
Such a simple price isn't it?
To see your brother again.
Such a simple price isn't it?
To see your brother again.
She pushed past her horror and disgust, and fired her laser rifle. It smashed into the dark spirit like a hammer, acting less like light and more like a concussive explosion. What she didn't know was that they were modeled off of Legend's strange lasers, dimensional alterations slowing the beam down in exchange for immense kinetic force.
So less a laser and more a beam of solidified electromagnetic energy. Rubio took up a shotgun instead, though it only resembled a shotgun acting more like a war cannon, spitting out a blast of low hypersonic metal. The primitive mass accelerator blasted a second time, cracking the skull of the dark entity.
The biotic spun on his heels, and forced the spirit into a violent Lift field and with a toss of a Warp detonated the field of dark energy.
"Name…I need a name, what do I need?" Samantha heard the shaman whisper to herself, spinning a staff and stabbing into the flesh of the beast as a metal blade was projected from it.
"Kill it with fire?" Samantha's reply had been sarcastic thus she was surprised when Caras did as she asked.
"Ravenous fire, breath of the dragon, spark of life; gear of incineration," Caras intoned, soft words pressing down on Unreality. "Burn the broken beast of faces and skins and nightmares. Turn to ashes the beast most unholy. Cleanse the twisted and the mad within your prye!" Behind the clear non-silicon glass helmet, Samantha saw the soft glow of the shaman's eyes, and saw into her soul through them.
Flames spun up around the curled haired shaman's right hand, holy white flames lighting up the twisting nightmare around the dark spirit. She sent the living flames flying, and they burrowed into the flesh of the spirit, burning out its insides with a scream of righteous rage as spirit of flame, of fire made manifest burned within the beast's tumorous car sized heart.
The scream was horrifying, and yet the creature still lived, withstanding the flames with. Flesh regrew, spirit corpus regenerating as the skeletal shadow beast laughed and taunted. It simply rears back, ribs shooting out and bending into legs and the heart vomited out chitinous limbs, slowly covering up the ribs and obscuring the pulsating heart.
The dark spirit took a form like that of an enormous sea scorpion, it's neck extending on a spire of folding vertebrae, and the half human face growing into an upside down human corpse, a mockery of her fallen comrades. The paddle tail shifted into a bladed tip, and the spirit rose up on thin chitinous limbs four meters into the air. The red heart remained, pulsing with corruption.
Oh you don't like that do you?
It was so fun to butcher that human, even as his baby girl screamed.
And screamed and screamed.
She won't remember her daddy of course.
But her brother will…that little shaman saved his sister but not his father.
How sad.
It was so fun to butcher that human, even as his baby girl screamed.
And screamed and screamed.
She won't remember her daddy of course.
But her brother will…that little shaman saved his sister but not his father.
How sad.
"This…thing is a monster!" Samantha growled out, spinning out of the way of a pincer they formed from bony flesh and screaming shadows.
"Don't let the anger swallow you up, don't let it crack open the door into your heart." A warning came from Caras, the spirit world shifting under her feet as the spirit forcefully caused the alleyway to expand and unfold and crack.
She was keeping them anchored and keeping the dark spirit from escaping. Samantha jumped, rolling past a pinched as it stabbed into the ground. The shaman made use of the 'psychomorphic effect' demanding that the spirit world listen to her soul, and while Samantha was no shaman she was more sensitive than most. She felt the unreality around them listen to the whims of their most useful combatant.
She rolled past the sharp articulated ribs of the monstrosity, and her gun spat a hard blast of kinetic light. The dark spirit charged like it was a cheetah rather than a beast the size of a bus, spinning through the air with splayed claws and it's twisted lure unfolding into a whirling comb of teeth.
She ducked and fired at the legs of the chitinous abomination, staggering it to make an opening for Caras. The Greek woman whispered and her staff vibrated and pulsated with silver light.
"Awaken!" The staff screamed and vibrated, stabbing into the corrupted flesh of the shapeshifting spirit. Caras' staff reverberated, beating reality like a drum as the spirit within the well ordained tool answered the call of its master. "Foul creature! You are unworthy to stand before me, an unnatural thing of disparate flesh! Unworthy to stand before the Mother, before the power of our Pact! I DENOUNCE YOU!" The staff exploded with white light, and came down like a meteor, and the spirit exploded into a mass of flesh.
Yet it didn't die, the fleshy crystal orb remaining functional, spilling out more corpus into the spiritual world. It took a smaller form, rearing back into the shape of a shadow flamed centipede, head replaced with a melting mass of skulls.
"A tough one, it's not a natural spirit, it's been twisted into an unnatural Form. I'll need something with a little more oomph. Buy me some time?" Samantha rolled her eyes, and pulled out a nano-thorn blade that had gone unused.
"We'll do our best to let you figure out a magic spell." Which was about when Samantha was smashed into the ground by a long extended spine, and her left hand swept down and turned spirit corpus to dust and powder with the nano-thorn blade.
The spirit hissed, and Rubio sent out another Warp, and spun with a biotic field in his hands. He suddenly struck with incredible force, and knocked back the shocked spirit. He formed a barrier and Pulled the spirit downwards into the unstoppable Barrier, crushing and snapping bone.
If that had been a person. The PRT captain didn't care for the moment, and she flinched back for a ripple in the spirit world. She recognized what it was though and smiled
"Lieutenant. I'm sure we're on the same wavelength here." The shaman gave a silent thumbs up, and a Kick from Rubio pushed the dark spirit right where they wanted it.
The curly haired shaman tore open the veil, and the spirit and the team itself dived back into the mortal world. The spirit shrieked as a PRT van slammed into it at top speed, and one officer opened a window and sliced the nameless spirit with a sword.
"Hem it in. I've got it's measure!" Samantha nodded and she rocketed forward on powerful jets of blue-orange flames. She was one of the strongest firebenders locally, so she was very much going to kick the spirit's teeth in.
She spun away from the enraged strikes of the insectile spirit, and as she spun thunder came to her call, lightning brimming in the air with a violent crackle. She was one of the first to learn the cold blooded fire, and it showed as the blast of lightning detonated with the force of a large bomb.
The sound was earshattering but none of the agents around her hesitated, and the van slammed into the spirit for a second time, protected by newly installed kinetic barriers. A flurry of leaf-like fragments reassembled into a car and slammed into the spirit. A cape from Haven had been close, and was eying Caras with a hint of suspicion that Samantha thought was unwarranted.
"Well having one cape should help…" Not a lot was what was on Samantha's mind when any earthbender could chuck a block of rock or metal. Though admittedly few had the precision and control of Rosary.
She continued to charge, her inner fire stoked into a bonfire. She brought down a wall of flames, and crashed together a second bolt in the beast's face.
An upturned car reformed from the flurry, blocking a piercing attack from the spirit's tail. It broke apart into fragments under Rosary's power and Samantha reevaluated her opinion on the cape.
"I've got enough ideas on what to invoke." The captain acknowledged the spirit-touched woman, as she compressed flame into a concussive detonation.
"Do what you need to!"
The words crashed into the air like a bomb, and Samantha shook herself out of her sudden loss of breath. Caras stomped on the ground, and clacked the butt of the staff against it at the same time as her feet.
Empowering Hope, Aspiring and Transformative, Unstoppable and Awesome;
Gear of the Faithful.
Attack the poison which binds potential in shackles, and become greater.
As the endless dark seeks to twist your works, stand before it and deny!
As despair leadens your feet and clouds your mind, rejoice and energize!
And as brutal Nightmare crushes Transformation, strike back!
To the monstrous night I say nay, the darkness will be breached!
Gear of the Faithful.
Attack the poison which binds potential in shackles, and become greater.
As the endless dark seeks to twist your works, stand before it and deny!
As despair leadens your feet and clouds your mind, rejoice and energize!
And as brutal Nightmare crushes Transformation, strike back!
To the monstrous night I say nay, the darkness will be breached!
Rosary twitched, folding over for a moment and shuddering and Caras felt the same, as if something was being ripped out of her being. And in a very real sense she was correct. Wisps came together, rotating around each other like neutron stars. They struck head on like a scythe, and the spirit shriveled and wavered. Bullets and lasers and bending and parahuman attacks rained down, and Caras dove at the now defenseless heart.
She stuck her arm into the pulsing heart, and pulled with all her might. With a sudden and horrific tear of spiritual flesh, Caras came away with a screaming and wriggling worm of Nightmare turning the transformation-spirit into an unnatural abomination.
"What. Is. That?" There was a note of horror from Rosary and Samantha didn't disagree with the Christian cape.
"A Nightmare spirit by the name of Kson. It was forcefully shoved into a spirit of transformation-through-positive-means. Turning them into a monstrous and insane spirit…even by their standards."
"You have not won…you can not stop what is coming. You can not stop her, you can not stop the c—" The shaman ripped the spirit in half with her bare hands, the spirit flaking away into wisps.
The transformation-spirit sloughed off, compressing down into a burbling mass of orange slime. It was shivering as if in terror, which was a better alternative than the rage and violence and insanity of the Extortus spirit it had once been. Reality lenses around it and the spirit fled into the spirit world.
The battle was still raging, and Samantha knew it was time to get back to work.
"This is Captain Clemens! Report!" She commanded the comms lines and multiple PRT drones popped up in response. She had been out of contact for precious moments and needed to take back control of her squad.
There was a whirr and Samantha ducked as one of the Bagheera spider-tanks landed with a soft pulse of mass effect generated force. The Siberian dropped from the sky, hair waving while the rest of her body ignored every force imaginable.
"God…get away from here you…" The blonde thinker riding the tank warned them, and Samantha propelled herself back from a swipe from the striped monster with a fire blast.
"Captain!" A voice came to her. "We believe we've located where the Siberian's master is being kept."
"If you've got Manton's location put him down…we'll keep the projection busy for as long as possible. We get him and the Siberian ends." She whispered as quietly as possible, and cursed when the Siberian began to bounce against the buildings around them, gaining speed and velocity with each bounce.
"Activating laser battery!" The Bagheera let out a chirp, and a three hundred kilowatt laser parted the air and hit the Siberian. No damage was done, but it bought the PRT precious seconds to move.
…
Samantha was certainly living a much more exciting life than she had bargained for. But…she wouldn't change a thing at this point.
___
September 27th, 2011. 3:52PM
Faultline pressed her back against the wall, and sighed as the world folded and twisted under Elle's power. She had torn open a rift into the spirit world, using her power in tandem with her natural 'gifts' to bend reality into a fine pretzel. She was accompanied by Chevalier, and she hid a smirk when the armored man turned to her.
She would have preferred the rest of her crew on this job, but they were busy elsewhere, dealing with smaller Fallen enclaves. And Shamrock generated some interference with Dinah that they didn't need right now with the fuzz weakening her precognition. The only Palanquin member in the city was Spitfire and she was keeping an eye out with the capes left to defend Brockton.
A spirit manifested almost on top of her, and she swiped the ground where it landed with a flicker of invisible light. The canid beast howled as the collapsed ground tripped it up, and Chevalier swung his blade, attempting to execute the spirit by splitting it in two.
She pulled out the gun she had been allowed to yield, a Carnifex semi-automatic. It had been set to alternate between armor-piercing and an explosive round. The front half of the spirit leapt forward, Faultline fired, and pierced through the dense armored skin of the spirit monster. She fired a second time, and the next bullet blew apart the braincase of the beast in a shower of burning pink shards.
"I see you haven't run out of ammo." Chevalier commented with a curious air.
Faultline kicked the remaining flesh away from her person. "Mass accelerators don't tend to run out of rounds." Though the Carnifex was a hungrier beast than most, with a few hundred rounds instead of the thousand or so that was common to mass accelerator weapons. She waved her omni-tool and activated a program, and a cryo-blast froze a stony skinned spirit in place.
She brushed her fingers against it's skin, and to her delight her power surged into the points of contact. Four points of contact, and six lines winding together as she shoved power into the spirit. The ensuing cloud of spirit corpus was a foot deep, staggering the spirit so it could be bisected by Chevalier as he turned his massive blade in a sweeping cut.
"So far we haven't seen a hide nor hair of the Fallen, but we've seen a lot of Ezekiel's monsters." Chevalier stepped forward, and grabbed a surprised Faultline by the waist. He slammed his sword into the ground and they vaulted a solid thirty feet in the air.
That knocked them out of the way of Crawler and Kiyohime, the two locked into a battle. The Ward had escalated, dwarfing Crawler who had grown more lithe, with thick layered osteoderms covering his pulsating hide. The Ward resembled an eastern dragon, though with a more alien lense. Four eyes with slit pupils and glowing trails of light from them, and a mane of sharpened feather barbs, six legs and a single pair of bat-like wings coiled before stabbing into Crawler, shimmering light and fire coating them.
Crawler hacked up a massive glob of acid, and Kiyohime released a scream before a shimmering hexagonal field of hard light armor absorbed the acidic mass. The young Ward reflected back all the kinetic energy she absorbed, concentrating the force of a bunker buster bomb into her fist.
She came away with a hundred pounds of flesh, which regenerated back in less than a second.
"Hey Faultline!" The former mercenary flinched when she heard the loud call of Bakuda, the cape arriving inside a thirteen foot tall war mech. The machine emulated its pilot, with the same gas mask design on the 'head' of the chunky war machine. One of the arms was converted into a powerful cannon, attempting to aim at Crawler.
"Bakuda. I'm guessing you want us to find a way to separate Crawler from the Protectorate's little dragon?" Her tone was dry and Bakuda laughed. "Are you up for it then Chevalier?"
"You have a plan?" His armor shifted, and Faultline nodded. She had done her research on Crawler and knew enough about his behavior as proven by Clockblocker.
"Call your Ward and tell her this…" Faultline issued the words and Chevalier did as she asked, talking on the communication lines. The battle rolled towards them, and Kiyohime managed to kick Crawler off of her even as the cape adapted and grew in durability and strength.
The massive villainous cape turned in the direction of Bakuda, a hundred eyes blinking simultaneously.
"You really think you can kill me?" There was a hint of a laugh in Crawler's voice, a sick amusement in his rumbling inhuman voice.
"Easily." Bakuda boasted, her mech smoothly swaggering as she lifted the right cannon-arm. There was a shiver of excitement from Crawler and he charged, flames surging from flammable sweat, and flesh hardening into thick and dense plates. He spit a stream of acid, and the second arm sent out a wave of golden light, slowing, cooling, stilling the burst.
The right arm cannon revealed itself to be a rocket launcher, and with a soft whump a small missile blasted out at half the speed of sound. It detonated seconds before a second acid blast could melt it down.
Faultline shuddered as she saw the acid solidify, as reality folded in on itself, as the air itself crystallized. Crawler was caught in the radius, and all six thousand pound of his flesh were turned to solid and optically perfect glass. His momentum propelled his corpse, and it shattered into a shower of shards along the road.
Instinct and personal experience took a hold of Faultline in the moment. They had attacked and tried to scatter the heroes, they had prior warning which meant…
"This is a distraction." Chevalier immediately turned from Crawler's glass corpse. "But I'm not sure what the distraction is for."
"Can you contact Delphi?" Faultline opened her mouth, and there was an immediate flicker of someone on the Comms.
"Seventy or seventy five percent chance they're moving Butcher off site. A bit fuzzy, and the Fallen might be trying something themselves. About eighty three percent odds they'll pull something in the next thirty minutes." Dinah confirmed their worries, and Faultline knew they had to move quickly.
She blinked as the HUD built into her new mask provided a map of what had to be the labyrinthine workshop.
She had a bad feeling about this.
___
September 27th, 2011. 3:55PM
Ezekiel ran quickly once he had been alerted by the spirit abominations he had been tasked with deploying. They were prototypes, early models of the line of weapons his master's master wanted. He knew his time was running low, so he had already moved one of the few surviving subjects of Project Shayatin. She would be left behind as a distraction, and he had already sent the data ahead to Earth Shin and Goetia.
He had also brought what members of the Fallen had decided to fall in line, maybe twenty capes though the ones he had initially recruited thought they somehow had an actual chance to 'win' against innumerable and horrible odds. He would let them throw themselves against the capes of this country, and he would flee with his life intact.
It would give more time for this trial to come to a conclusion.
Mender had left two fragments of itself to continue the process as well as provide a distraction, and he had made his escape into the spirit world, and was a good fifteen miles from Kittery and thus even farther away from the city where monsters and criminal organizations came to die.
The Fallen hadn't been the first Endbringer cults to show up in the city, they were simply the only ones that didn't get eaten by the spirits or defeated by local forces.
He dove back out of the spirit world for a moment to catch a breath in a place of relative safety. Ezekiel had gotten everything he needed out of this place, a supply of over twenty capes guarded by a hundred non-capes, and more data for the projects back home.
If I could call that place home. Was his worried thought as he looked around the forest he was in. He had left the Fallen with the means of controlling the Imbued, though he doubted they would last long. He had gotten everything he wanted though he has his doubts his master's master had.
She had wanted to draw some of the more powerful capes so they could be brought before her, but with her own insight bouncing off the abilities of their collective enemy.
She wouldn't be getting what she wanted and for Ezekiel that was a good thing. Not that he would ever say that to her face…
The only warning was a rustle before a spinning blade cut off his prosthetic leg at the knee. Ezekiel let out a scream, and stepped back from his assailant and paled as a nine foot tall figure emerged from the shadows.
"You! How did you find me? You should be back there making that damn freak paranoid." Ezekiel was shivering but kept his cool as best as he could.
Mannequin shrugged, not making even a single sound aside from the metallic flick of his blades. The silent tinker rubbed blue on his face, from what had to be mashed berries. It was almost mocking and Ezekiel growled.
"Why would you listen to some empty headed teleporting fool?" Ezekiel asked as he balanced on one foot, and he crushed a crystal hidden in his hand.
From the crystal emerged a beast of broken bronze blades melted into the shape of a man, a spirit of Violence and Conflict bound and chained down. It attacked without prompting, and the tinker simply rolled with the bladed punches of the spirit.
"Mender hurry up and open a portal…we have what we came for. Data." He whispered harshly, a hard pitch in the air. The creature emerged from the spirit world, shards flaking away from its corpus. Ezekiel stepped forward, and there was a stabbing pain in his gut as a bullet tore a hole through him.
Mannequin was still fighting the golem, but had aimed the rifle in his arm towards the shaman.
"Send him off a cliff Mender…Prime Host that hurts…" Ezekiel gagged, wavering as he began to bleed out. Mender opened a portal as fast as lightning, sending a wave of plasma to throw Mannequin and the spirit into the portal.
"Mannequin has been neutralized." Ezekiel rolled his eyes.
"You and I both know that man is not dead, he'll make his return soon enough. Now heal me…" Mender opened a second portal, carrying his master and shutting the first portal.
Ezekiel coughed, and knew that the heroes of this world were none the wiser that Butcher hadn't gone far. He hobbled as he was once again back in Gardar, and he saw the smoke that came from the vast power plants burning what coal they had on hand to power the old machines, machines not powered up since the Void Age, before the first Sundering shattered the empire of a Humanity that no longer existed.
Mender helped him close, lightly brushing against his wounds and creating healing energies to seal and repair his wounds.
He looked over to the holographic display Mender had helped him repair, turned towards another purpose. Data continued to download, raw information taken from the equipment he had left back on Bet.
He would have to wait and see what would come out of this experiment. What trials and errors were yet to come.
And he would hate every moment of it.
Good flow to the fight scenes.
Tattletale's power feels fine, it is unrestricted in its ability to ask the network for information, it modified its connection to better work with its host, and it no longer operates on the logic of restricting useful information in the name of enforcing creativity.
Tattletale's power feels fine, it is unrestricted in its ability to ask the network for information, it modified its connection to better work with its host, and it no longer operates on the logic of restricting useful information in the name of enforcing creativity.
- Location
- Chula Vista
Pretty much on the money there. While her power isn't an order of magnitude better, she does have a few restrictions removed though some remain so a cape doesn't have to learn a new power. Plus there's tons of novel data to model and analyze. Both from metaphysical physics and strange phenomena from Basilia's side of the universe.
Teleologism 13.4
- Location
- Chula Vista
Small warning that there's some disturbing content here. Comments from the Fallen and a few other Things. Not sure if a warning is needed with the tag I've got for this but I'll put it anyway.
Teleologism 13.4
September 27th, 2011. 4:00PM
Basilia Rubio
I walked right into the workshop, and I could feel the spirit world surging into the material world, expanding the workshop into a small labyrinth. I was accompanied by Dragon, as I sent in drones as close as possible into the rift. Tech didn't always work as well in the spirit world, though that was a pretty bendable rule depending on what layer of the Spirit you're in.
Plus Dragon was pretty much immune because she was alive and because the layer of the spirit world had to let tech function or else Ezekiel wouldn't be sticking around here. I was gripping my Anchor Gem with a hidden grin.
A spirit of Alarm tried to open a gaping mouth and I crushed it under foot, it's corpus shattering under the force. The lab itself was considerable in size and I swept my omni-tool to scan for any oddities. There were two dots placed on the walls just past the entrance, so I flicked a small Warp. Based on my sensor sweeps they were kinetic field generators, and could send plates of kinetic force to crush intruders.
"I can sense faint dimensional perturbations beyond the spirit world itself." Dragon commented what I already knew, wearing armor very similar to what she would have worn in another timeline. "I suspect it's tinkertech, though capes are a possibility as well. But with the interference…"
I nodded. "Parahumans tend to vary in how easy they are to detect." Some were easy while others had better defenses against spying on the channel they used. I had theories on using multidimensional waveforms to mask the 'noise' that their powers make.
Which was why the range for detecting parahumans varied a lot, my normal equipment had ranges in the dozens to hundreds of meters, the partially reverse engineered Portunus had up to a few kilometers and…
It was complicated was all I was saying.
I held the Anchor Gem and squeezed it, and from the gem there came a pulsing of spiritual energy. It was a ball of light, countless gears grinding against one another with a yellow hue.
It was a more advanced spirit VI, spectral mechanisms constructed carefully based on what I studied from other species, what mechanisms and technologies and sorceries had been gleaned from those who could before me. All the VI's of the Protheans were spirits, and mine were programmed first before being elevated.
"What is that?" Dragon looked curious and the AGI whispered.
"I am Sentinel. A class two general artificial general intelligence on a spiritual framework. I will provide assistance in subverting security measures." It had a flat voice, since it was merely semi-sapient rather than truly sophont in every way possible.
"Class two?" Dragon asked as we walked into danger and as I provided Sentinel access to greater processing power from dozens of drones and robots, and began to remotely tap into the local computer network built into the base.
"There are three classes of artificial general intelligences, class three and class two AGI's are semi-sapient with limited intelligence and distinct neurological patterns from humans."
"They're like some of the AI's I use for myself." Dragon got it and I kept an eye out as I began to tap into what was here.
"A class one AGI is a fully sapient entity like yourself, a being capable of a full sense of self and free will and with the capabilities of developing a soul." Dragon stumbled for less than a tenth of the second and I pretended I didn't see that. "Sentinel is currently my most advanced synthetic intelligence, making use of what I've learned from your technology and the tinkertech of others."
I couldn't replicate everything so easily, mainly I was focused on using the technologies that were closest to what were familiar with me. Rachni tech for example was heavily biological, and they made use of cyberized brain computer networks, while their ships were metal and plastic and inorganic.
I really have been underusing some of the tech trees, and hadn't made the more experimental stuff that was too crude for large scale usage. Like Prothean genomes and their ability to tap memories embedded in one's DNA.
With the Rachni I had the missing pieces and I could certainly build Beacons of my own.
"Nearly all security measures have been breached and deactivated Administrator, most data files have been deleted beforehand." It floated around my head, pulsing brightly. "Allied PRT agents have entered the facility in tandem with a shaman, delivering data now."
The images were projected in front of a screen, where some of my machines fired at spirits and created omni-shields to protect the agents. I tapped into the data stream with my mental interface.
"This place is some type of weapons testing facility, the invocation and manufacturing of altered spirits, studies of parahuman powers, building on prior work." I rubbed my chin despite my helmet. "The Slaughterhouse 9 were used as test subjects, with what we've recovered. Butcher 19 is apparently their most successful attempt…at altering the physiology of a cape."
Insects began to swarm, and Taylor was probably a good mile away if not more from me. I broke out into an airbending powered sprint, as s spirit rushed to defend the place. I pulled out a shotgun from my Brooch, and it unfolded to belch an antiparticle blast.
Three spirits were caught in the radius and shredded apart, and seven more were caught in a burning beam of yellow light, and then sliced to bits by a nano-thorn spear.
Dragon's handiwork.
I followed a path to one of the room's, and I stepped with confidence and stopped the spirit world from trying to turn me around.
"A single human is within this room." Sentinel informed me, a shield of light projected by the spirit's machine corpus. I kicked down the door, and found myself in the remnants of a lab, scoured clean with the exception of a body leaned against a wall which had been cut away, wiring left behind.
The man was bleeding out, and I blinked as I realized what and who I was looking at. He was on the attractive side, dark hair cut short and at some point styled with gel. He looked sort of like Johnny Depp, though I certainly wouldn't see him looking or doing anything like this man.
"Jack Slash." He was shirtless, which revealed someone or something had carved out his chest, grey metal and wiring infused into a pulsating interior. The left side of his face had been replaced by metal and clear glass, experimental technology strapped to some structure…his Corona Pollentia and Gemma.
Help him.
There was the faint whisper of his shard, trying to pluck at my empathy and at my heart. I looked past the man and at the shard itself and simply stared.
It blinked first.
I scanned the man, and hissed as I saw the cybernetic network had piggybacked off what Bonesaw had already put in place. They had effectively cut up his body and stuffed it to the brim with dangerous and unidentifiable cyberware. It was firmly wrapped around his Corona Pollentia, seemingly amping up his signal by an order of magnitude. It had come at a cost though… his brain was basically melting out of his skull.
There was a wet cough from Jack and he spoke, his voice just a little hoarse.
"Sometimes…I like to think I was a people reader, guess it didn't do much for me in the end." There was a soft laugh that made chills run down my spine, I silently instructed Sentinel to continue hacking the facility. There were some rooms not yet mapped, and the spirit world distortions made that even more difficult.
"I guess you weren't able to find the keystone this time huh?" Dragon glanced over to me when I didn't bother to try anything with him.
"You get it…at least a little don't you?"
"Everyone has a weakness, whether mental or physical or even metaphysical. Barring something entirely inhuman." And even that wasn't true.
Dragon spoke up this time, looking worried despite being in her armor. "You can't…fix him?"
"His brain is literally being subsumed by unstable cybernetic wiring, that he lasted this long is a miracle. I wouldn't help him anyway though." She didn't seem to care that much about him, but she probably wanted an explanation. "Not much point, and Sentinel is still rampaging through the remaining defenses."
"You won't find much…Ezekiel is a coward but he cleans up after himself." Jack coughed up blood stained grey with crippling black nano.
"So he's probably gone back to whatever hole he's crawled out of and left us with a mess to clean up with what he's left behind." Something about Jack told me he was going to lead me to something more vital so I let him talk.
I looked at his shard and took a deep whiff, analyzing him through the shaman sense of smell. The broadcast shard was damaged…it had been fighting something trying to break through from the host side of the wall.
Dragon tilted her head. "A better question is why he left Jack Slash behind." A theory came to mind.
"Ezekiel shifted Jack's power entirely towards broadcasting, and Butcher wouldn't want anything to do with the Fallen. He used Jack as a lure and turned Butcher into a fucked up science experiment." I guessed.
"Didn't…think someone so much like Bonesaw would be so squeamish." I rolled my eyes at his comment, I might be able to pull off some nasty bullshit but I didn't need to hurt and butcher people.
"Your opinion isn't really that relevant but do go on," I looked around and kept an eye on both Jack and anything else in the room. "What you do have is the other reason you were left behind."
Jack Slash started, though he looked far past me. "You got me there…I was beaten fair and square but losing to someone with so little conviction is a bit…galling. They were going to use my power to screw up your entire operation, boosting it so I could whisper in their ears. But…you blocked my power and so does that Weaver kid." He coughed a wet cough.
"Any last words before all hell breaks loose?" I wanted to rub my face and see what was going to go wrong soon.
"Only that you and Ezekiel have a bit in common, you're both…soft…cowardly. With all your power, you could do whatever you want and no one could stop you. You could knock moons out of the sky, blow up cities and conjure up plagues and break anything. You could be a predator, cruel like our ancestors were. So why not?"
There was a silence there, and I didn't say much for a moment.
"I was never one for philosophy and teleology Jacob, though I'm not disinterested in it either. I was raised as a good person, and I'm pretty simple. Plus there are skeletons of cave people who couldn't take care of themselves, and they died old Jacob. People are a little less simple than being violent and predatory, else the world would be as simple as you want it to be. Also frankly…those questions don't really matter, you're trying to attack the wrong issues." He coughed once and then a second time, eyes darting to my left.
He went still, and his eyes went cold. Dead. Empty.
His soul had almost certainly slipped from between his shard's fingers, and would be reborn as a new person. Hopefully he'd be less of a dick in the next life.
In the end Jack Slash just wasn't that important enough for me to care about those questions. If they had come from someone else…maybe I would have looked into it more, from a philosophical standpoint. Or if he had been more capable of putting up a fight.
I turned around and purposely looked to the left, looking right up into Valefor's eyes.
"Stop." I pretended to stop, already sending a signal towards Dragon. The spirit world had dumped them here, and I hissed when I saw some type of copy of Isopod, floating in the air along with multiple hostages. Not that we hadn't sensed them earlier.
There was a smile on Valefor's face, and I was glad my armor could lock up so he couldn't read my body language. Along with him I could see Eligos, surrounded by three passed out hostages.
This had gotten far more complicated, and I was going to need considerable backup in this endeavor.
I could hear the song of the Rachni…so I needed to keep deceiving Valefor and hope he doesn't realize I actually am conveniently immune to his powers.
No pressure.
September 27th, 2011. 4:10PM
Basilia Rubio
"You're not going to move a single inch girl. You're going to stay put for now, though you might make a good trophy wife once we leave." I was briefly feeling the urge to cut off his balls but I knew I couldn't because I was civilized and mama didn't raise no barbarian.
He turned to Dragon, and she didn't meet his eyes and Valefor sighed.
"The hostages have already been ordered to kill themselves or try their best to kill any of the heroes. Erudition if any hero attempt to come to the rescue, kill them with any means necessary and then kill yourself. Doesn't matter how." He dismissed me and turned to Dragon like an idiot.
You know sometimes I forget capes aren't actually hypercompetent SB badasses though they're not stupid either. But while he had seemingly fooled himself into thinking he had control that didn't mean I believed he believed.
Though I might be missing something here myself.
A Cercopes was hanging from the roof, taking subtle scans of the hostages, and I could pick up the song of the Rachni as they made their approach. My attention was focused on the three hostages around Eligos. There was a bad smell in the air, like rotting egg mixed with spoiled milk.
He had to have some power to or senses to track his victims, and I knew in my soul I could move. So why did he think he had control, was he lying? Or was his power getting fucked up by own?
I opened the World Eyes, and saw his shard and the connections it had to a dozen hostages. Others seemed to link elsewhere, the signal flickering off into the distance. The Rachni's song was wrapping around all the signals, including the one failing to connect to me. So that's how he's getting confused.
I grinned under my helmet. The building rumbled, and I could see the rift was starting to collapse. The invocations of shamans doing their work while teams picked the place clean for evidence. I could see they had communication devices, and Sentinel was doing his thing and remotely hacking them. It took him thirty seconds to figure out what he was doing.
"What do you want Valefor?" Dragon asked with a growl, and I could hear his smugness.
He smiled. "You will let us leave unimpeded or you'll have a dozen deaths on your head directly and who knows how many more with Erudition's death throes." I rolled my eyes and kept my armor locked. "The Fallen will keep Erudition as our newest member, and she'll help us with the new Endbringer Ezekiel has created for us. Helping protect the god that'll replace Leviathan will be an ironic punishment for her."
"They're not bluffing." Dragon transmitted.
"I think they are…but only partially, I doubt they have any control over Butcher." And there had certainly been rumors about what I had done to Butcher. Maybe the Fallen thought I could keep the Butcher from killing them all.
Dragon went back to her conversation. "What makes you think we won't just have to make a sacrifice…" Valefor's confidence waned at Dragon's emotionless tone, before it picked back up again.
I whispered. "They definitely have more hostages elsewhere…plus two missing capes and twenty members." Three of them were here but the others had to be planning something big.
"I've found them…one man is entering an Elementary school with a child holding his hand and a heavy backpack. The Rachni confirmed the child is Mastered." I scowled but kept my cool at the bad news from Monarch.
There was a ping from one of my drone's, an image of something moving very fast.
"We have agents all over the city, if you don't let us escape then things will become much worse." I could see the desperation in his eyes, something like fear. Was he afraid of the Butcher or something else? "Now…do we have a deal or not?" Again quick and desperate.
"Fine…but you have to release your hostages as soon as possible." The hostages were slowly relaxing, with the exception of three of them. Dragon had already noticed and something felt off about them.
Valefor grinned in apparent victory. "Then come along Erudition, there's a lot you'll have to learn about being Fallen." I followed him, the anticipation killing me. I began to count down, and kept an eye on the three prone hostages. The man whispered in my ear. "You'll make a good bride, mama will love you."
I didn't hesitate.
I chucked him like a football with a biotic Kick, sending him flying through a collapsing wall as the lab was crushed back down into a simple workshop. He pulled himself from the rubble, bleeding from the forehead and pressing a button on something in his ear.
He snarled. "Everyone listening, kill yourselves now!" There was a stark silence as the hostages did nothing, and there was no trouble elsewhere. Though I did hear a detonation somewhere.
"You're an idiot." I waited for the other shoe to drop, and the stupid bastard fell for the bait.
"All Imbued! Attack!" I portaled out the hostages at the last second, as the three 'hostages' screamed in agony, flesh rippling into angry red sores before exploding out into what was basically a warp spasm.
One resembled a bronze statue, metal networking up and down a warped human form. Another had become covered in spikes from all directions including his eyes while the third simply had white hair and red even markings along his cheeks.
The Imbued were the darkest type of Host, the bond between shaman and spirit. One could choose to house a spirit in their body, or one could even force the other, but an Imbued was against the consent of both. Causing a truly horrific mismatch of spirit corpus and physical flesh. Physical mutations, mental alterations from paranoid schizophrenia to far worse tendencies like cannibalism and self harm.
And none of the 'hostages' were shamans with spirits trapped inside them, so it meant they had taken enormous genetic damage. The most benign cases in the Four Nations apparently led to an entire ethnic group of redheads and blondes.
This was not that.
Sentinel surged and released a blast of energy from itself towards the Isopod and a Cercopes ambushed Eligos when he tried to throw out a wind blast. It sent out an electric pulse and the cape screamed in agony, seizing up and flailing helplessly.
"Where the hell is the Siberian…?" Valefor cursed, holding his face in pain.
"Oh Sentinel cut her off from you a few minutes ago and that tank-machine holding her master was blown up by Bakuda's bombs." I didn't get to act smug as I took a fist the size of my face to the…well face.
I smelled and found rippling Violence in the first man's skin, followed by Hate for Spiky and the third was War. I was thrown out of the building, crashing through a window with a wheeze. Dragon was handling the Hate-based Imbued, and the War Imbued was being handled by a multitude of Trapeza dropped in by portal.
Though the fact it was tearing through them so easily told me that these Imbued had been made well…too well. I felt a bullet impact against my cloak, and it reflected back to someone I had identified on the rooftop of a nearby building. He was hit on the shoulder and knocked down, and a swarm gathered around him.
In my distraction I was backhanded, and thrown into a nearby car with a pained shout. This bronze menace reminded me of Hookwolf and how lucky we had been at not getting shredded. Hurting him had required the changes to Taylor's power and Vicky's help to get the payload to his core.
It had been dumb luck and nothing more…but I wasn't going to rely on luck alone anymore.
I stepped back, swaying from side to side to avoid the devastating strikes of the Imbued. I took the time to keep one World Eye open, and was patient with attempting to unravel the spirit-man abomination. For all their vaunted power they were still Hosts and thus had the corresponding weaknesses of one.
Each spirit had Bans, unique to themselves and often relating to their nature. I had to find this one's Bans, and once I had them I would pull the spirit and it's Host apart. Though exhausting physical damage was another option.
I leaned my head back, then stepped into the wild slash of the bronze Imbued. Each of my punches exploded with fire and raw biotic force. Bronze metal was dented and cracked, and I dodged a strike as it extended claws of copper
I pulled out something from my Brooch, and the beast flinched as I reached out for Holly. So it had some of the same Bans as certain Violence spirits, an aversion and weakness to things relating to peace.
My next light punch held the Holly in my hand, and the moment the flower touched the spirit made it scream in agony as spirit flesh boiled and burned. A second check of my Brooch reached out for Holly powder, and I threw it in the beast's face.
Reality lensed around the Imbued, more agony ensuing from the beast and it lifted up a car and threw it at me. With a roll of my eyes I stopped the vehicle short with metalbending. In it's weakness the Imbued reared back, and went for Dragon, only to take several bullets straight to the face from a nearby PRT agent who had kicked a Fallen member off their feet.
I launched forward, and stabbed my fingers to the chest and forehead of the thrashing Imbued. My anger softened as I looked at the creature unable to free itself from my grasp or the mutilation done to them.
It was one of the Teeth…and they don't deserve this. They're shitty awful people but this isn't a good way to go. I felt the channels of the man's soul and sang quietly, falling into the tune I heard when I focused, the song I heard within my living soul.
The song of the world.
Spirit and man both were screaming, begging, hating this cursed existence. Violence didn't want to be bound, not like this, and Nasir didn't want to have his body, mind and soul violated and twisted and wronged.
I blew down into their chest, and there was a scream from both that rocked the ground as I opened the raw chakra pathways of the poor but criminal man, as the void of the Outer Sphere dragged the screaming spirit out, fragments of corpus left behind before disintegrating.
The bronze melted away, but left behind deep stripes of the same color and I held the quivering Violence spirit in the palm of my hand. The Teeth member collapsed into a heap and I portaled him out elsewhere.
The spirit itself took a shifting mass of bronze and red dust, looking almost solemn.
Thank you…
The spirit vanished as it fled into the spirit world in terror and pain, and I could see that Valefor was scrambling to run away. Dragon was dragging down the War infected Imbued, and Bitch had joined the party with her monstrous dogs. She had some PRT shaman ripping the spirit from the third Imbued, and in this case they destroyed the War spirit. Too unstable and broken.
I looked over to Valefor as he tried to escape and right as I was about to freeze him with Stasis a plasma burst hit my barrier but didn't break it. My Anchor Gem lit up, and Sentinel receded back into the spirit container. The Isopod entity let out a dimension bending shriek, exploding outwards and launching everyone with the exception of Valefor.
I forced myself back to my feet, and launched a bolt of lightning at the crystal bug. It simply took the strike, and I received data on the scans taken of the entity. Outputted as text.
It was a semi-organic crystalline lifeform, the outer layers made of a near perfect solar energy collector, and I identified the biological structure quite well. It was a tiny insignificant but functional fragment of a shard.
"order accepted. terminate enemy forces, retrieve valefor and eligos." It began to form a powerful ball of white-blue plasma, far, far beyond my ability to block with shielding. It blasted way too fast for me, and I felt my nerves spike to trigger a biotic charge.
Something dropped down from the sky, blocking the full force of the blast. It was a man-sized ethereal entity. It basically looked like a Nazgul though the hood had a plain grey mask floating on it, with three symbols glowing brightly in a triangular orientation.
"Oh. Jarl is that your work?" The projection gave a thumbs up, lighting up with three powers. Based on the symbols this one had invulnerability, superspeed, and disintegration.
It accelerated like a bullet train, a fist striking the Isopod head on, shattering the head of the beast, and a chopping motion severed several limbs extending from it's back. A second projection instead had electrokinesis, sparks flying as it unleashed a bolt to knock out Valefor.
He managed to duck out of the way, and in a blink the Isopod was with him, projecting a durable barrier. Valefor picked himself back up, scowling in response to his failure.
"Kill them. Use everything we have, we need to prepare the Butcher!" The Isopod flashed red, and it gathered energy before something slammed into the creature at supersonic speed. A fist emerged through the creature, removed just as quickly as I saw that Alexandria had decided to play her part here.
The shard creature tilted its head, the hole slowly healing as flesh refilled it from linked realities. Something told me to shout.
"Alexandria, keep your distance from that thing, it's…" Alexandria reacted in less than a moment, stepping back as a needle tried to stab into the back of her neck. A Bagheera slammed into the ground, and I could hear a voice on the comms
"I'm going to shoot that stupid BUG!" I flinched when I heard Tattletale piloting the Bagheera with rage in her voice. There was a shift in the air. "Wait don't let i—" Fast as a whip, the arms of the entity stabbed Valefor in the face, fingers gripping onto the interior of his head.
Even Alexandria seemed taken aback, the shard bug merely tilted its head once more. "alexandria is beyond the current means of this bud, valefor will be retrieved." There was a folding of reality from the Bagheera, and the shard bug simply popped off Valefor's skull and vanished the head into a portal.
The bug shattered as whatever was considered it's core broke down as Sting blasted its insides. I stared at Valefor's headless body, trying to reconcile the betrayal of the creature. I looked away from the body with bile in my throat.
"You took out the other members right?" I swallowed as the pieces fell to place.
"They had tinkertech bombs, highly lethal and incredibly dangerous. I was returning from operations against the Fallen elsewhere."
"The rest of the Fallen are gone aren't they? Some escaped." Her hands closed into fists, and I now had the picture of Mama Mathers joining whatever the fuck was happening on Shin and Goetia. "So we've caught most of the Fallen, but some of their most dangerous members and the power manipulating tinker/shaman pair helping them are both gone."
"And they left with Butcher in tow." Alexandria looked angry, and I could see why. The enemy had lost the battle, but they hadn't lost the war with who knows how many capes.
"No. She's definitely still here, but she's certainly not in the city." But she was not far away either.
Alexandria blinked. "How do you know that?"
I sighed as I looked at the destruction of property going around, which I was going to get to work on.
"Call it a 'gut' feeling."
September 27th, 2011. 7:00PM
Basilia Rubio
I could feel Taylor seething next to me as I let the grieving woman in front of me shout vicious insults at my face. She was a blonde woman, with bags under her dark eyes and looking in a rather bad state.
"Do you even remember his name?!" Was where I put a stop to her grief filled rant.
"Steven Darwin. Head of security." My tone was neutral and Nancy snapped out of her speech. "I knew him well enough," I folded back my helmet to let her see my face even if I was masked. "Nice guy, I taught him as much as I could on the barriers and plating system of their issued armor. He talked a lot about you and your daughters. Twins right?"
She rubbed her eyes to brush away stray tears, that grief created anger retracting but not going away completely.
"He was a real coffee connoisseur, and his advice really helped us with buffing security for both Athena and my own cape business. Steven was good at his job and he never treated me differently despite being a cape, despite being his boss. He was a good man…and the only reason there were as few losses as there were because of his intervention."
He had managed to hold off Mannequin for precious seconds, buying time for the others to consolidate and run. If he hadn't I would have dozens of workers, dozens of people under my care dead or crippled.
His funeral had to be a closed casket from what I had heard…
I rubbed my eyes, breathing outwards.
"He was under my employ, and…I…I'm sorry. I don't think that's what you want to hear and…" My shoulders dropped with the heavy weight on them.
"I…you did everything you could?"
"I had state of the art security, I had my tinkertech on site. He managed to move like a ghost and…I've made upgrades, some already planned and others are newer." I tried not to get angry and frustrated. "I'll do my best to give you the financial support needed, Athena does have good worker's compensation." I didn't feel happy then, just empty.
"I'm…I apologize. I should be better for this, you…you look so young." I pressed my lips together, not replying "I should go." The woman, no Nancy rushed off in a hurry, clearly dissatisfied with herself for her actions.
…
Taylor glanced at her with a withering look, and then back to with a warmer one. By then I was gone.
I stepped through a portal without saying a word, and I could hear Taylor calling out but it was like static in my ear. I flipped through one world and then ten and flipped through a few hundred worlds more before I stopped in the middle of a small craggy island on a world that had diverged sixty six million years ago, with the descendants of monotremes taking over the world.
A quick check of the DPN told me they were looking for where I had gone by querying the machine. I could have locked them down from it, kept them from following me. But I was too lonely to lose what company I had in this world.
I just sat down on the flat ground, kept warm by my armor's PLSS. This was a different kind of overwhelming from the guilt of my worker's needless deaths. Even if we beat up or destroyed the Butcher, even if we had kept most of the city safe and were lucky Ezekiel didn't decide to test plagues on us.
Then what?
If Scion didn't exist, if Aeon was irrelevant there was still the threat of dangerous capes, of shards going rampant, of wars between dimensions fearful of each other for one reason or another. The entire world was going to shit and I had only slowed the tide, plugged the hole in the dam with a finger.
If my world suddenly developed capes it would be a complete disaster, if we couldn't even handle a pandemic there was no way we could handle the same deluge of capes. Even if shards have new priorities they are not human, and they will turn to darker ends if both them and the host feels like it. Hell Jack had been the one going for violence while his shard didn't really care that much.
I was just one person with a lot of personal power, not some perfect machine able to make all the best decisions. I still had my helmet folded up, and my breaths were coming in shuddering shifts.
I pulled off my gauntlets, letting my hands free to feel the earth beneath them. The rock was cracked, worn away by time and erosion from wind and water and sun. I could feel small animals within the many pores, from tiny crabs to small worms and sea snails and even a starfish in one of the small pools of salt water.
Was it too much to ask to have a break, or did the universe want to make up for everything I had averted to try and keep the horrible status quo intact? Or was my placement exactly for this eventuality, for whatever came next after an alteration of the status quo on a multiversal scale?
And I still had the Butcher to take down before she ended up eating dozens of capes or something ridiculous like that. Before she turns into a shard-controlled abomination like what I had looked up about Shin back home…which was one of the allies of that group on Earth Goetia…
I really, really hate this place. I rubbed my eyes, and found streaks of water running down from them.
Was I crying?
I felt disoriented, and I tried to focus on getting up, on drying my tears. But the only thing I felt then was a horrible and terrible emptiness in my chest, I felt alone even when I was with people.
I'm supposed to be an adult, I'm supposed to be responsible I don't need to waste my time on…my own fucking problems. I'm the one supposed to fix other people's problems, because what's it's what I'm supposed to do right?
It's not their fault I'm not happy.
The thought only made my anger turn to a confusing mix of guilt and resentment and more irrational fury. I clenched my fists, trying not to rage, but that bitter anger rose from the surface. So I punched the ground. To my shock and horror, half the island was snapped off, hundreds of thousands of tons of stone and rock cracked and broken with sheer earthbending force. Waves were thrown back and forth as the unstable earth collapsed.
I was drained, muscles strained, putting out so much power…but I didn't feel better at all.
Just sad.
I had seen too many people die…too many people get hurt in horrible ways.
I didn't usually remember my dreams, but I had been waking up in a cold sweat a lot more often than I was used to. I missed my home, I missed my family, I couldn't say I missed my friends because before coming here I had lost touch with them. I wasn't even sure if any of them were really my friends anyway…
There was a snap of air and a portal was opened right behind me, I turned around expecting Taylor and instead got a blank faced Amelia. Tears were still streaming down my face, and she raised an eyebrow.
"You look like shit." I felt my lips pull into a scowl and I threw my hand back.
"SHUT UP!" A massive thirty foot wall of water surged in the direction of my wave and I flinched.
Panacea gestured with her arm, and I was suddenly flung by a mass of water through the portal as Amelia stepped back. She caught me in midair, spinning me and chucking me back into a sofa.
I glared and she wasn't affected as she grabbed a carton of milk, poured some into a cup and heated up with her bending, carefully doing so for a few seconds.
She placed the cup in my head and I snapped at her. "I'm not a little kid…I don't need this."
"Basilia you love milk, everybody knows that. It's probably why you have those damn udders." I placed my hand on my chest, not sure whether to take that as an insult or a weird compliment.
"That's not how biology works." I grumbled.
"It is if I want it to be." She countered sassily, and I had no effective counter of my own there. "Now take a moment to relax, you've got five minutes before our friends show up to help you."
I nodded, firmly gripping the cup before drinking it and letting the warm milk into my mouth and stomach.
I still didn't feel better.
September 27th, 2011. 7:20PM
Basilia Rubio
It wasn't a boatload of people, just the original core of the team. Amelia, Victoria, Taylor and Grace. I considered Charlotte a friend but she was closer to Theo and had developed a rapport with Newter, Emily and Sveta.
I didn't talk, just concentrating on drinking my milk and trying not to lose it at the first sign of trouble. There was visible concern on all their faces and I didn't meet any of their eyes.
Not like they cared before. I kept the dark thought from leaving my lips…because it wasn't true, things had been chaotic, they had convinced me to get help but it wasn't enough because there were things I was still afraid to say or tell Chambers.
They weren't mind readers either…but I still had that resentment buried deep down. They didn't deserve it.
"Just talk to us…please." It looked like Taylor was going to say something else but she had thought better of it. I curled up as I finished my warm drink, trying to figure out the words, trying to be sure if I even wanted to say anything.
Amelia sighed. "Well I'll state the obvious and say you're burnt the fuck out." Taylor didn't bother saying anything for me for a couple of reasons. One was of course she was right and two Amelia and I talked shit all the time. "I'm also guessing you're resentful towards us and feel guilty about it?"
I flinched violently at how easily she had seen through me. Then again she had literally been in the same situation with a power that was a lot more directly dangerous and less cooperative.
I felt uncomfortable, the crowding leaving me anxious and miserable.
"I'm…just tired. Tired of all of this. I thought I was going to at least make things better but it just feels like it's getting worse. Like the universe itself is trying to stack itself against me…" I didn't like feeling helpless, I didn't like feeling alone, I didn't like having this much power and responsibility.
I didn't like feeling like nothing I did was my own, I didn't like the constant reminders of why I needed to be there. I don't want to be a lynchpin. I didn't like that I knew more than I should about people I cared about, it all made me feel like I was just some puppet and…
"That's not the only thing is it? There's more." Grace's scowly face had gone soft, a deep concern expressed towards me. "You're not getting just winded up, you're a mess." I clamped my mouth shut, trying to find the words.
Victoria pouted. "Come on you can tell us…we're your friends." I sighed.
"I…feel alone," they approached and I shrunk back. "Even when I'm with people, it just feels…unearned. It feels like it's all fake…like I'm just a fraud." I knew them better than I should, had known secrets they had told no one. I had power and there was always a dark whisper in my mind that they were only my friends so they could get things from me.
But that was old hat for me for years. For other reasons but they were there.
"And this…I don't want to be rude but Earth Bet is a shithole, with a lot of terrible and dangerous people," they didn't seem offended and I didn't think they would be. "I'm not a combative person, and the capes here…quite a few of them terrify me in every way imaginable."
"Is that why you were so scared of me…why you don't like me touching you." There was some genuine hurt in Amelia's eyes and I shrugged.
"I'm sorry." I apologized on automatic, hugging myself and still unable to reconcile with my own messed up emotions. Though talking about Masters helpfully reminded me of Valefor's comments and the sheer revulsion of listening to them.
Probably why I reacted a lot less strongly than one would expect from seeing someone decapitated.
It has influenced me on deciding to help Dragon with tracking down as many of the more nightmarish capes across the country. Apparently the balance of power was shifting, where there had once been two villains for every hero it was one point five villains for every hero.
Mainly a case of more Rogues and more independent Hero teams popping up over the country. At the least with softer Triggers and shards more distracted with new things
"Besides the obvious…why do Masters scare you so much?" Victoria asked, and I could tell Taylor was trying to figure out what to say.
"I…don't remember a lot about how I got my powers…but what I do remember is not having any control at all. Just a sense of terror and fear and helplessness as something vast just ripped into me and…" The revulsion hit, something rising from the muck that had been those memories.
Again that vast being, a thousand hands working, the agony of being pulled apart and put back together and pulled apart and put back together and…
Oh.
More crying. Yay.
Amelia placed a hand on my shoulder, and I stiffened for a moment. I didn't feel her power and I felt guilt for thinking she would use her power like that. To my surprise she threw her arms around me and I was suddenly in a very nice cuddle pile.
Now as a former man one could say this was a dream come true…but most of them were my friends, so it didn't feel right. Plus the whole being a little off my game, also I wasn't a creep. Though I did lean into Taylor's touch, and her hair currently smelled of citrus. The tears dried as some of my anxieties faded.
"Shit…when we're done with putting down Butcher, you're going on vacation." Grace nodded, and the others did the same.
"Huh?" They let go except for Taylor who had instead pulled me into her lap. I sat comfortably, almost preening.
"You can't keep all of this to yourself Basilia, you should have someone you confide in, whether it's your friends or a professional." There was an undercurrent of guilt in Taylor's voice. "And your relationships aren't fake, so please don't think that." Oh even more hurt.
I was just being the best possible friend wasn't I?
Victoria rubbed the back of her neck with a scowl. "God…we should have done more, you've been hurting this whole time. But you just keep going, you don't let yourself process it. Especially with that…weird metaknowledge bullshit you have in your head."
"Had. There isn't really anything left for me to give out. Anything else I had I gave out to more appropriate authorities." Cauldron knew the main powers available to Scion, and I had gotten Dragon to get on the asses of more awful villains. She was helping with stabilizing things.
"And you also don't seem the type to remember every detail of something you've read." Amelia was being snarky and I rolled my eyes. "Though I kind of understand why you feel like somehow that makes things fake…but even Precogs have friends you know. Plus you didn't even finish the fucked up novel of a future that doesn't exist anymore."
A notion came to me.
"Is the only reason you're all accepting of this because of the proof from my home and of literally everything else that's happened?" The four girls shared a look.
"Yep."
…
"How are you feeling now?" Taylor opened with that after a comfortable silence.
"I would say I'm copacetic but I'd be lying." I said with a dryness to equal the Sahara desert. "I'm a paranoid wreck with crippling loneliness, anxiety, and various traumatic incidents have occurred to me. I'm not exactly at a hundred percent."
"So like a lot of parahumans?" Amelia quipped, and my lips perked up.
My laugh was bitter but sincere. "Yeah, that sounds about right."
That night ended up turning into a sleepover, and I slept well and with less anxiety than usual.
For once at least.
AN: I've been pondering a few things with this chapter, not sure I'm satisfied but I'm already finished with 13.5 and have a few hundred words into 13.6 and a snippet of further chapters.
Very angsty chapter this one, but fitting enough since I can angst pretty hard on really bad days. When I started this story it had morphed from what was supposed to be a less serious premise. It is a self insert with all the wish fulfillment that entails, but then I started to think about the consequence.
Taking into account my personality, my way of doing things and my anxieties. Earth Bet is literally among my worse nightmares of a planet to be on. Not in a million years would I want anything to do with the place. I an naturally paranoid and adverse to being hurt…I would definitely crack under the stress.
And I have a strong tendency to ignore my problems and distract myself with other things. Which is of course what Basilia has done. Some of what I've been writing has also been influenced by my time in Quarantine.
It has not been a positive experience I'll give you that. More anxiety inducing and having issues sleeping at all.
Basilia reflects some of those issues with an additional dose of trauma on top that I myself thankfully lack. It's just something that's become a part of what I'm writing.
Also I feel like I've written Valefor wrong, though I could go with him being too cocky to hold back, or him trying to draw a response from Basilia because he's suspicious. Or maybe he's just an idiot. Oh well. I can always make some edits.
Not much to say after this spiel, other than to say I hope you enjoy this weird story.
___
Teleologism 13.4
September 27th, 2011. 4:00PM
Basilia Rubio
I walked right into the workshop, and I could feel the spirit world surging into the material world, expanding the workshop into a small labyrinth. I was accompanied by Dragon, as I sent in drones as close as possible into the rift. Tech didn't always work as well in the spirit world, though that was a pretty bendable rule depending on what layer of the Spirit you're in.
Plus Dragon was pretty much immune because she was alive and because the layer of the spirit world had to let tech function or else Ezekiel wouldn't be sticking around here. I was gripping my Anchor Gem with a hidden grin.
A spirit of Alarm tried to open a gaping mouth and I crushed it under foot, it's corpus shattering under the force. The lab itself was considerable in size and I swept my omni-tool to scan for any oddities. There were two dots placed on the walls just past the entrance, so I flicked a small Warp. Based on my sensor sweeps they were kinetic field generators, and could send plates of kinetic force to crush intruders.
"I can sense faint dimensional perturbations beyond the spirit world itself." Dragon commented what I already knew, wearing armor very similar to what she would have worn in another timeline. "I suspect it's tinkertech, though capes are a possibility as well. But with the interference…"
I nodded. "Parahumans tend to vary in how easy they are to detect." Some were easy while others had better defenses against spying on the channel they used. I had theories on using multidimensional waveforms to mask the 'noise' that their powers make.
Which was why the range for detecting parahumans varied a lot, my normal equipment had ranges in the dozens to hundreds of meters, the partially reverse engineered Portunus had up to a few kilometers and…
It was complicated was all I was saying.
I held the Anchor Gem and squeezed it, and from the gem there came a pulsing of spiritual energy. It was a ball of light, countless gears grinding against one another with a yellow hue.
It was a more advanced spirit VI, spectral mechanisms constructed carefully based on what I studied from other species, what mechanisms and technologies and sorceries had been gleaned from those who could before me. All the VI's of the Protheans were spirits, and mine were programmed first before being elevated.
"What is that?" Dragon looked curious and the AGI whispered.
"I am Sentinel. A class two general artificial general intelligence on a spiritual framework. I will provide assistance in subverting security measures." It had a flat voice, since it was merely semi-sapient rather than truly sophont in every way possible.
"Class two?" Dragon asked as we walked into danger and as I provided Sentinel access to greater processing power from dozens of drones and robots, and began to remotely tap into the local computer network built into the base.
"There are three classes of artificial general intelligences, class three and class two AGI's are semi-sapient with limited intelligence and distinct neurological patterns from humans."
"They're like some of the AI's I use for myself." Dragon got it and I kept an eye out as I began to tap into what was here.
"A class one AGI is a fully sapient entity like yourself, a being capable of a full sense of self and free will and with the capabilities of developing a soul." Dragon stumbled for less than a tenth of the second and I pretended I didn't see that. "Sentinel is currently my most advanced synthetic intelligence, making use of what I've learned from your technology and the tinkertech of others."
I couldn't replicate everything so easily, mainly I was focused on using the technologies that were closest to what were familiar with me. Rachni tech for example was heavily biological, and they made use of cyberized brain computer networks, while their ships were metal and plastic and inorganic.
I really have been underusing some of the tech trees, and hadn't made the more experimental stuff that was too crude for large scale usage. Like Prothean genomes and their ability to tap memories embedded in one's DNA.
With the Rachni I had the missing pieces and I could certainly build Beacons of my own.
"Nearly all security measures have been breached and deactivated Administrator, most data files have been deleted beforehand." It floated around my head, pulsing brightly. "Allied PRT agents have entered the facility in tandem with a shaman, delivering data now."
The images were projected in front of a screen, where some of my machines fired at spirits and created omni-shields to protect the agents. I tapped into the data stream with my mental interface.
"This place is some type of weapons testing facility, the invocation and manufacturing of altered spirits, studies of parahuman powers, building on prior work." I rubbed my chin despite my helmet. "The Slaughterhouse 9 were used as test subjects, with what we've recovered. Butcher 19 is apparently their most successful attempt…at altering the physiology of a cape."
Insects began to swarm, and Taylor was probably a good mile away if not more from me. I broke out into an airbending powered sprint, as s spirit rushed to defend the place. I pulled out a shotgun from my Brooch, and it unfolded to belch an antiparticle blast.
Three spirits were caught in the radius and shredded apart, and seven more were caught in a burning beam of yellow light, and then sliced to bits by a nano-thorn spear.
Dragon's handiwork.
I followed a path to one of the room's, and I stepped with confidence and stopped the spirit world from trying to turn me around.
"A single human is within this room." Sentinel informed me, a shield of light projected by the spirit's machine corpus. I kicked down the door, and found myself in the remnants of a lab, scoured clean with the exception of a body leaned against a wall which had been cut away, wiring left behind.
The man was bleeding out, and I blinked as I realized what and who I was looking at. He was on the attractive side, dark hair cut short and at some point styled with gel. He looked sort of like Johnny Depp, though I certainly wouldn't see him looking or doing anything like this man.
"Jack Slash." He was shirtless, which revealed someone or something had carved out his chest, grey metal and wiring infused into a pulsating interior. The left side of his face had been replaced by metal and clear glass, experimental technology strapped to some structure…his Corona Pollentia and Gemma.
Help him.
There was the faint whisper of his shard, trying to pluck at my empathy and at my heart. I looked past the man and at the shard itself and simply stared.
It blinked first.
I scanned the man, and hissed as I saw the cybernetic network had piggybacked off what Bonesaw had already put in place. They had effectively cut up his body and stuffed it to the brim with dangerous and unidentifiable cyberware. It was firmly wrapped around his Corona Pollentia, seemingly amping up his signal by an order of magnitude. It had come at a cost though… his brain was basically melting out of his skull.
There was a wet cough from Jack and he spoke, his voice just a little hoarse.
"Sometimes…I like to think I was a people reader, guess it didn't do much for me in the end." There was a soft laugh that made chills run down my spine, I silently instructed Sentinel to continue hacking the facility. There were some rooms not yet mapped, and the spirit world distortions made that even more difficult.
"I guess you weren't able to find the keystone this time huh?" Dragon glanced over to me when I didn't bother to try anything with him.
"You get it…at least a little don't you?"
"Everyone has a weakness, whether mental or physical or even metaphysical. Barring something entirely inhuman." And even that wasn't true.
Dragon spoke up this time, looking worried despite being in her armor. "You can't…fix him?"
"His brain is literally being subsumed by unstable cybernetic wiring, that he lasted this long is a miracle. I wouldn't help him anyway though." She didn't seem to care that much about him, but she probably wanted an explanation. "Not much point, and Sentinel is still rampaging through the remaining defenses."
"You won't find much…Ezekiel is a coward but he cleans up after himself." Jack coughed up blood stained grey with crippling black nano.
"So he's probably gone back to whatever hole he's crawled out of and left us with a mess to clean up with what he's left behind." Something about Jack told me he was going to lead me to something more vital so I let him talk.
I looked at his shard and took a deep whiff, analyzing him through the shaman sense of smell. The broadcast shard was damaged…it had been fighting something trying to break through from the host side of the wall.
Dragon tilted her head. "A better question is why he left Jack Slash behind." A theory came to mind.
"Ezekiel shifted Jack's power entirely towards broadcasting, and Butcher wouldn't want anything to do with the Fallen. He used Jack as a lure and turned Butcher into a fucked up science experiment." I guessed.
"Didn't…think someone so much like Bonesaw would be so squeamish." I rolled my eyes at his comment, I might be able to pull off some nasty bullshit but I didn't need to hurt and butcher people.
"Your opinion isn't really that relevant but do go on," I looked around and kept an eye on both Jack and anything else in the room. "What you do have is the other reason you were left behind."
Jack Slash started, though he looked far past me. "You got me there…I was beaten fair and square but losing to someone with so little conviction is a bit…galling. They were going to use my power to screw up your entire operation, boosting it so I could whisper in their ears. But…you blocked my power and so does that Weaver kid." He coughed a wet cough.
"Any last words before all hell breaks loose?" I wanted to rub my face and see what was going to go wrong soon.
"Only that you and Ezekiel have a bit in common, you're both…soft…cowardly. With all your power, you could do whatever you want and no one could stop you. You could knock moons out of the sky, blow up cities and conjure up plagues and break anything. You could be a predator, cruel like our ancestors were. So why not?"
There was a silence there, and I didn't say much for a moment.
"I was never one for philosophy and teleology Jacob, though I'm not disinterested in it either. I was raised as a good person, and I'm pretty simple. Plus there are skeletons of cave people who couldn't take care of themselves, and they died old Jacob. People are a little less simple than being violent and predatory, else the world would be as simple as you want it to be. Also frankly…those questions don't really matter, you're trying to attack the wrong issues." He coughed once and then a second time, eyes darting to my left.
He went still, and his eyes went cold. Dead. Empty.
His soul had almost certainly slipped from between his shard's fingers, and would be reborn as a new person. Hopefully he'd be less of a dick in the next life.
In the end Jack Slash just wasn't that important enough for me to care about those questions. If they had come from someone else…maybe I would have looked into it more, from a philosophical standpoint. Or if he had been more capable of putting up a fight.
I turned around and purposely looked to the left, looking right up into Valefor's eyes.
"Stop." I pretended to stop, already sending a signal towards Dragon. The spirit world had dumped them here, and I hissed when I saw some type of copy of Isopod, floating in the air along with multiple hostages. Not that we hadn't sensed them earlier.
There was a smile on Valefor's face, and I was glad my armor could lock up so he couldn't read my body language. Along with him I could see Eligos, surrounded by three passed out hostages.
This had gotten far more complicated, and I was going to need considerable backup in this endeavor.
I could hear the song of the Rachni…so I needed to keep deceiving Valefor and hope he doesn't realize I actually am conveniently immune to his powers.
No pressure.
___
September 27th, 2011. 4:10PM
Basilia Rubio
"You're not going to move a single inch girl. You're going to stay put for now, though you might make a good trophy wife once we leave." I was briefly feeling the urge to cut off his balls but I knew I couldn't because I was civilized and mama didn't raise no barbarian.
He turned to Dragon, and she didn't meet his eyes and Valefor sighed.
"The hostages have already been ordered to kill themselves or try their best to kill any of the heroes. Erudition if any hero attempt to come to the rescue, kill them with any means necessary and then kill yourself. Doesn't matter how." He dismissed me and turned to Dragon like an idiot.
You know sometimes I forget capes aren't actually hypercompetent SB badasses though they're not stupid either. But while he had seemingly fooled himself into thinking he had control that didn't mean I believed he believed.
Though I might be missing something here myself.
A Cercopes was hanging from the roof, taking subtle scans of the hostages, and I could pick up the song of the Rachni as they made their approach. My attention was focused on the three hostages around Eligos. There was a bad smell in the air, like rotting egg mixed with spoiled milk.
He had to have some power to or senses to track his victims, and I knew in my soul I could move. So why did he think he had control, was he lying? Or was his power getting fucked up by own?
I opened the World Eyes, and saw his shard and the connections it had to a dozen hostages. Others seemed to link elsewhere, the signal flickering off into the distance. The Rachni's song was wrapping around all the signals, including the one failing to connect to me. So that's how he's getting confused.
I grinned under my helmet. The building rumbled, and I could see the rift was starting to collapse. The invocations of shamans doing their work while teams picked the place clean for evidence. I could see they had communication devices, and Sentinel was doing his thing and remotely hacking them. It took him thirty seconds to figure out what he was doing.
"What do you want Valefor?" Dragon asked with a growl, and I could hear his smugness.
He smiled. "You will let us leave unimpeded or you'll have a dozen deaths on your head directly and who knows how many more with Erudition's death throes." I rolled my eyes and kept my armor locked. "The Fallen will keep Erudition as our newest member, and she'll help us with the new Endbringer Ezekiel has created for us. Helping protect the god that'll replace Leviathan will be an ironic punishment for her."
"They're not bluffing." Dragon transmitted.
"I think they are…but only partially, I doubt they have any control over Butcher." And there had certainly been rumors about what I had done to Butcher. Maybe the Fallen thought I could keep the Butcher from killing them all.
Dragon went back to her conversation. "What makes you think we won't just have to make a sacrifice…" Valefor's confidence waned at Dragon's emotionless tone, before it picked back up again.
I whispered. "They definitely have more hostages elsewhere…plus two missing capes and twenty members." Three of them were here but the others had to be planning something big.
"I've found them…one man is entering an Elementary school with a child holding his hand and a heavy backpack. The Rachni confirmed the child is Mastered." I scowled but kept my cool at the bad news from Monarch.
There was a ping from one of my drone's, an image of something moving very fast.
"We have agents all over the city, if you don't let us escape then things will become much worse." I could see the desperation in his eyes, something like fear. Was he afraid of the Butcher or something else? "Now…do we have a deal or not?" Again quick and desperate.
"Fine…but you have to release your hostages as soon as possible." The hostages were slowly relaxing, with the exception of three of them. Dragon had already noticed and something felt off about them.
Valefor grinned in apparent victory. "Then come along Erudition, there's a lot you'll have to learn about being Fallen." I followed him, the anticipation killing me. I began to count down, and kept an eye on the three prone hostages. The man whispered in my ear. "You'll make a good bride, mama will love you."
I didn't hesitate.
I chucked him like a football with a biotic Kick, sending him flying through a collapsing wall as the lab was crushed back down into a simple workshop. He pulled himself from the rubble, bleeding from the forehead and pressing a button on something in his ear.
He snarled. "Everyone listening, kill yourselves now!" There was a stark silence as the hostages did nothing, and there was no trouble elsewhere. Though I did hear a detonation somewhere.
"You're an idiot." I waited for the other shoe to drop, and the stupid bastard fell for the bait.
"All Imbued! Attack!" I portaled out the hostages at the last second, as the three 'hostages' screamed in agony, flesh rippling into angry red sores before exploding out into what was basically a warp spasm.
One resembled a bronze statue, metal networking up and down a warped human form. Another had become covered in spikes from all directions including his eyes while the third simply had white hair and red even markings along his cheeks.
The Imbued were the darkest type of Host, the bond between shaman and spirit. One could choose to house a spirit in their body, or one could even force the other, but an Imbued was against the consent of both. Causing a truly horrific mismatch of spirit corpus and physical flesh. Physical mutations, mental alterations from paranoid schizophrenia to far worse tendencies like cannibalism and self harm.
And none of the 'hostages' were shamans with spirits trapped inside them, so it meant they had taken enormous genetic damage. The most benign cases in the Four Nations apparently led to an entire ethnic group of redheads and blondes.
This was not that.
Sentinel surged and released a blast of energy from itself towards the Isopod and a Cercopes ambushed Eligos when he tried to throw out a wind blast. It sent out an electric pulse and the cape screamed in agony, seizing up and flailing helplessly.
"Where the hell is the Siberian…?" Valefor cursed, holding his face in pain.
"Oh Sentinel cut her off from you a few minutes ago and that tank-machine holding her master was blown up by Bakuda's bombs." I didn't get to act smug as I took a fist the size of my face to the…well face.
I smelled and found rippling Violence in the first man's skin, followed by Hate for Spiky and the third was War. I was thrown out of the building, crashing through a window with a wheeze. Dragon was handling the Hate-based Imbued, and the War Imbued was being handled by a multitude of Trapeza dropped in by portal.
Though the fact it was tearing through them so easily told me that these Imbued had been made well…too well. I felt a bullet impact against my cloak, and it reflected back to someone I had identified on the rooftop of a nearby building. He was hit on the shoulder and knocked down, and a swarm gathered around him.
In my distraction I was backhanded, and thrown into a nearby car with a pained shout. This bronze menace reminded me of Hookwolf and how lucky we had been at not getting shredded. Hurting him had required the changes to Taylor's power and Vicky's help to get the payload to his core.
It had been dumb luck and nothing more…but I wasn't going to rely on luck alone anymore.
I stepped back, swaying from side to side to avoid the devastating strikes of the Imbued. I took the time to keep one World Eye open, and was patient with attempting to unravel the spirit-man abomination. For all their vaunted power they were still Hosts and thus had the corresponding weaknesses of one.
Each spirit had Bans, unique to themselves and often relating to their nature. I had to find this one's Bans, and once I had them I would pull the spirit and it's Host apart. Though exhausting physical damage was another option.
I leaned my head back, then stepped into the wild slash of the bronze Imbued. Each of my punches exploded with fire and raw biotic force. Bronze metal was dented and cracked, and I dodged a strike as it extended claws of copper
I pulled out something from my Brooch, and the beast flinched as I reached out for Holly. So it had some of the same Bans as certain Violence spirits, an aversion and weakness to things relating to peace.
My next light punch held the Holly in my hand, and the moment the flower touched the spirit made it scream in agony as spirit flesh boiled and burned. A second check of my Brooch reached out for Holly powder, and I threw it in the beast's face.
Reality lensed around the Imbued, more agony ensuing from the beast and it lifted up a car and threw it at me. With a roll of my eyes I stopped the vehicle short with metalbending. In it's weakness the Imbued reared back, and went for Dragon, only to take several bullets straight to the face from a nearby PRT agent who had kicked a Fallen member off their feet.
I launched forward, and stabbed my fingers to the chest and forehead of the thrashing Imbued. My anger softened as I looked at the creature unable to free itself from my grasp or the mutilation done to them.
It was one of the Teeth…and they don't deserve this. They're shitty awful people but this isn't a good way to go. I felt the channels of the man's soul and sang quietly, falling into the tune I heard when I focused, the song I heard within my living soul.
The song of the world.
Spirit and man both were screaming, begging, hating this cursed existence. Violence didn't want to be bound, not like this, and Nasir didn't want to have his body, mind and soul violated and twisted and wronged.
I blew down into their chest, and there was a scream from both that rocked the ground as I opened the raw chakra pathways of the poor but criminal man, as the void of the Outer Sphere dragged the screaming spirit out, fragments of corpus left behind before disintegrating.
The bronze melted away, but left behind deep stripes of the same color and I held the quivering Violence spirit in the palm of my hand. The Teeth member collapsed into a heap and I portaled him out elsewhere.
The spirit itself took a shifting mass of bronze and red dust, looking almost solemn.
Thank you…
The spirit vanished as it fled into the spirit world in terror and pain, and I could see that Valefor was scrambling to run away. Dragon was dragging down the War infected Imbued, and Bitch had joined the party with her monstrous dogs. She had some PRT shaman ripping the spirit from the third Imbued, and in this case they destroyed the War spirit. Too unstable and broken.
I looked over to Valefor as he tried to escape and right as I was about to freeze him with Stasis a plasma burst hit my barrier but didn't break it. My Anchor Gem lit up, and Sentinel receded back into the spirit container. The Isopod entity let out a dimension bending shriek, exploding outwards and launching everyone with the exception of Valefor.
I forced myself back to my feet, and launched a bolt of lightning at the crystal bug. It simply took the strike, and I received data on the scans taken of the entity. Outputted as text.
It was a semi-organic crystalline lifeform, the outer layers made of a near perfect solar energy collector, and I identified the biological structure quite well. It was a tiny insignificant but functional fragment of a shard.
"order accepted. terminate enemy forces, retrieve valefor and eligos." It began to form a powerful ball of white-blue plasma, far, far beyond my ability to block with shielding. It blasted way too fast for me, and I felt my nerves spike to trigger a biotic charge.
Something dropped down from the sky, blocking the full force of the blast. It was a man-sized ethereal entity. It basically looked like a Nazgul though the hood had a plain grey mask floating on it, with three symbols glowing brightly in a triangular orientation.
"Oh. Jarl is that your work?" The projection gave a thumbs up, lighting up with three powers. Based on the symbols this one had invulnerability, superspeed, and disintegration.
It accelerated like a bullet train, a fist striking the Isopod head on, shattering the head of the beast, and a chopping motion severed several limbs extending from it's back. A second projection instead had electrokinesis, sparks flying as it unleashed a bolt to knock out Valefor.
He managed to duck out of the way, and in a blink the Isopod was with him, projecting a durable barrier. Valefor picked himself back up, scowling in response to his failure.
"Kill them. Use everything we have, we need to prepare the Butcher!" The Isopod flashed red, and it gathered energy before something slammed into the creature at supersonic speed. A fist emerged through the creature, removed just as quickly as I saw that Alexandria had decided to play her part here.
The shard creature tilted its head, the hole slowly healing as flesh refilled it from linked realities. Something told me to shout.
"Alexandria, keep your distance from that thing, it's…" Alexandria reacted in less than a moment, stepping back as a needle tried to stab into the back of her neck. A Bagheera slammed into the ground, and I could hear a voice on the comms
"I'm going to shoot that stupid BUG!" I flinched when I heard Tattletale piloting the Bagheera with rage in her voice. There was a shift in the air. "Wait don't let i—" Fast as a whip, the arms of the entity stabbed Valefor in the face, fingers gripping onto the interior of his head.
Even Alexandria seemed taken aback, the shard bug merely tilted its head once more. "alexandria is beyond the current means of this bud, valefor will be retrieved." There was a folding of reality from the Bagheera, and the shard bug simply popped off Valefor's skull and vanished the head into a portal.
The bug shattered as whatever was considered it's core broke down as Sting blasted its insides. I stared at Valefor's headless body, trying to reconcile the betrayal of the creature. I looked away from the body with bile in my throat.
"You took out the other members right?" I swallowed as the pieces fell to place.
"They had tinkertech bombs, highly lethal and incredibly dangerous. I was returning from operations against the Fallen elsewhere."
"The rest of the Fallen are gone aren't they? Some escaped." Her hands closed into fists, and I now had the picture of Mama Mathers joining whatever the fuck was happening on Shin and Goetia. "So we've caught most of the Fallen, but some of their most dangerous members and the power manipulating tinker/shaman pair helping them are both gone."
"And they left with Butcher in tow." Alexandria looked angry, and I could see why. The enemy had lost the battle, but they hadn't lost the war with who knows how many capes.
"No. She's definitely still here, but she's certainly not in the city." But she was not far away either.
Alexandria blinked. "How do you know that?"
I sighed as I looked at the destruction of property going around, which I was going to get to work on.
"Call it a 'gut' feeling."
___
September 27th, 2011. 7:00PM
Basilia Rubio
I could feel Taylor seething next to me as I let the grieving woman in front of me shout vicious insults at my face. She was a blonde woman, with bags under her dark eyes and looking in a rather bad state.
"Do you even remember his name?!" Was where I put a stop to her grief filled rant.
"Steven Darwin. Head of security." My tone was neutral and Nancy snapped out of her speech. "I knew him well enough," I folded back my helmet to let her see my face even if I was masked. "Nice guy, I taught him as much as I could on the barriers and plating system of their issued armor. He talked a lot about you and your daughters. Twins right?"
She rubbed her eyes to brush away stray tears, that grief created anger retracting but not going away completely.
"He was a real coffee connoisseur, and his advice really helped us with buffing security for both Athena and my own cape business. Steven was good at his job and he never treated me differently despite being a cape, despite being his boss. He was a good man…and the only reason there were as few losses as there were because of his intervention."
He had managed to hold off Mannequin for precious seconds, buying time for the others to consolidate and run. If he hadn't I would have dozens of workers, dozens of people under my care dead or crippled.
His funeral had to be a closed casket from what I had heard…
I rubbed my eyes, breathing outwards.
"He was under my employ, and…I…I'm sorry. I don't think that's what you want to hear and…" My shoulders dropped with the heavy weight on them.
"I…you did everything you could?"
"I had state of the art security, I had my tinkertech on site. He managed to move like a ghost and…I've made upgrades, some already planned and others are newer." I tried not to get angry and frustrated. "I'll do my best to give you the financial support needed, Athena does have good worker's compensation." I didn't feel happy then, just empty.
"I'm…I apologize. I should be better for this, you…you look so young." I pressed my lips together, not replying "I should go." The woman, no Nancy rushed off in a hurry, clearly dissatisfied with herself for her actions.
…
Taylor glanced at her with a withering look, and then back to with a warmer one. By then I was gone.
I stepped through a portal without saying a word, and I could hear Taylor calling out but it was like static in my ear. I flipped through one world and then ten and flipped through a few hundred worlds more before I stopped in the middle of a small craggy island on a world that had diverged sixty six million years ago, with the descendants of monotremes taking over the world.
A quick check of the DPN told me they were looking for where I had gone by querying the machine. I could have locked them down from it, kept them from following me. But I was too lonely to lose what company I had in this world.
I just sat down on the flat ground, kept warm by my armor's PLSS. This was a different kind of overwhelming from the guilt of my worker's needless deaths. Even if we beat up or destroyed the Butcher, even if we had kept most of the city safe and were lucky Ezekiel didn't decide to test plagues on us.
Then what?
If Scion didn't exist, if Aeon was irrelevant there was still the threat of dangerous capes, of shards going rampant, of wars between dimensions fearful of each other for one reason or another. The entire world was going to shit and I had only slowed the tide, plugged the hole in the dam with a finger.
If my world suddenly developed capes it would be a complete disaster, if we couldn't even handle a pandemic there was no way we could handle the same deluge of capes. Even if shards have new priorities they are not human, and they will turn to darker ends if both them and the host feels like it. Hell Jack had been the one going for violence while his shard didn't really care that much.
I was just one person with a lot of personal power, not some perfect machine able to make all the best decisions. I still had my helmet folded up, and my breaths were coming in shuddering shifts.
I pulled off my gauntlets, letting my hands free to feel the earth beneath them. The rock was cracked, worn away by time and erosion from wind and water and sun. I could feel small animals within the many pores, from tiny crabs to small worms and sea snails and even a starfish in one of the small pools of salt water.
Was it too much to ask to have a break, or did the universe want to make up for everything I had averted to try and keep the horrible status quo intact? Or was my placement exactly for this eventuality, for whatever came next after an alteration of the status quo on a multiversal scale?
And I still had the Butcher to take down before she ended up eating dozens of capes or something ridiculous like that. Before she turns into a shard-controlled abomination like what I had looked up about Shin back home…which was one of the allies of that group on Earth Goetia…
I really, really hate this place. I rubbed my eyes, and found streaks of water running down from them.
Was I crying?
I felt disoriented, and I tried to focus on getting up, on drying my tears. But the only thing I felt then was a horrible and terrible emptiness in my chest, I felt alone even when I was with people.
I'm supposed to be an adult, I'm supposed to be responsible I don't need to waste my time on…my own fucking problems. I'm the one supposed to fix other people's problems, because what's it's what I'm supposed to do right?
It's not their fault I'm not happy.
The thought only made my anger turn to a confusing mix of guilt and resentment and more irrational fury. I clenched my fists, trying not to rage, but that bitter anger rose from the surface. So I punched the ground. To my shock and horror, half the island was snapped off, hundreds of thousands of tons of stone and rock cracked and broken with sheer earthbending force. Waves were thrown back and forth as the unstable earth collapsed.
I was drained, muscles strained, putting out so much power…but I didn't feel better at all.
Just sad.
I had seen too many people die…too many people get hurt in horrible ways.
I didn't usually remember my dreams, but I had been waking up in a cold sweat a lot more often than I was used to. I missed my home, I missed my family, I couldn't say I missed my friends because before coming here I had lost touch with them. I wasn't even sure if any of them were really my friends anyway…
There was a snap of air and a portal was opened right behind me, I turned around expecting Taylor and instead got a blank faced Amelia. Tears were still streaming down my face, and she raised an eyebrow.
"You look like shit." I felt my lips pull into a scowl and I threw my hand back.
"SHUT UP!" A massive thirty foot wall of water surged in the direction of my wave and I flinched.
Panacea gestured with her arm, and I was suddenly flung by a mass of water through the portal as Amelia stepped back. She caught me in midair, spinning me and chucking me back into a sofa.
I glared and she wasn't affected as she grabbed a carton of milk, poured some into a cup and heated up with her bending, carefully doing so for a few seconds.
She placed the cup in my head and I snapped at her. "I'm not a little kid…I don't need this."
"Basilia you love milk, everybody knows that. It's probably why you have those damn udders." I placed my hand on my chest, not sure whether to take that as an insult or a weird compliment.
"That's not how biology works." I grumbled.
"It is if I want it to be." She countered sassily, and I had no effective counter of my own there. "Now take a moment to relax, you've got five minutes before our friends show up to help you."
I nodded, firmly gripping the cup before drinking it and letting the warm milk into my mouth and stomach.
I still didn't feel better.
___
September 27th, 2011. 7:20PM
Basilia Rubio
It wasn't a boatload of people, just the original core of the team. Amelia, Victoria, Taylor and Grace. I considered Charlotte a friend but she was closer to Theo and had developed a rapport with Newter, Emily and Sveta.
I didn't talk, just concentrating on drinking my milk and trying not to lose it at the first sign of trouble. There was visible concern on all their faces and I didn't meet any of their eyes.
Not like they cared before. I kept the dark thought from leaving my lips…because it wasn't true, things had been chaotic, they had convinced me to get help but it wasn't enough because there were things I was still afraid to say or tell Chambers.
They weren't mind readers either…but I still had that resentment buried deep down. They didn't deserve it.
"Just talk to us…please." It looked like Taylor was going to say something else but she had thought better of it. I curled up as I finished my warm drink, trying to figure out the words, trying to be sure if I even wanted to say anything.
Amelia sighed. "Well I'll state the obvious and say you're burnt the fuck out." Taylor didn't bother saying anything for me for a couple of reasons. One was of course she was right and two Amelia and I talked shit all the time. "I'm also guessing you're resentful towards us and feel guilty about it?"
I flinched violently at how easily she had seen through me. Then again she had literally been in the same situation with a power that was a lot more directly dangerous and less cooperative.
I felt uncomfortable, the crowding leaving me anxious and miserable.
"I'm…just tired. Tired of all of this. I thought I was going to at least make things better but it just feels like it's getting worse. Like the universe itself is trying to stack itself against me…" I didn't like feeling helpless, I didn't like feeling alone, I didn't like having this much power and responsibility.
I didn't like feeling like nothing I did was my own, I didn't like the constant reminders of why I needed to be there. I don't want to be a lynchpin. I didn't like that I knew more than I should about people I cared about, it all made me feel like I was just some puppet and…
"That's not the only thing is it? There's more." Grace's scowly face had gone soft, a deep concern expressed towards me. "You're not getting just winded up, you're a mess." I clamped my mouth shut, trying to find the words.
Victoria pouted. "Come on you can tell us…we're your friends." I sighed.
"I…feel alone," they approached and I shrunk back. "Even when I'm with people, it just feels…unearned. It feels like it's all fake…like I'm just a fraud." I knew them better than I should, had known secrets they had told no one. I had power and there was always a dark whisper in my mind that they were only my friends so they could get things from me.
But that was old hat for me for years. For other reasons but they were there.
"And this…I don't want to be rude but Earth Bet is a shithole, with a lot of terrible and dangerous people," they didn't seem offended and I didn't think they would be. "I'm not a combative person, and the capes here…quite a few of them terrify me in every way imaginable."
"Is that why you were so scared of me…why you don't like me touching you." There was some genuine hurt in Amelia's eyes and I shrugged.
"I'm sorry." I apologized on automatic, hugging myself and still unable to reconcile with my own messed up emotions. Though talking about Masters helpfully reminded me of Valefor's comments and the sheer revulsion of listening to them.
Probably why I reacted a lot less strongly than one would expect from seeing someone decapitated.
It has influenced me on deciding to help Dragon with tracking down as many of the more nightmarish capes across the country. Apparently the balance of power was shifting, where there had once been two villains for every hero it was one point five villains for every hero.
Mainly a case of more Rogues and more independent Hero teams popping up over the country. At the least with softer Triggers and shards more distracted with new things
"Besides the obvious…why do Masters scare you so much?" Victoria asked, and I could tell Taylor was trying to figure out what to say.
"I…don't remember a lot about how I got my powers…but what I do remember is not having any control at all. Just a sense of terror and fear and helplessness as something vast just ripped into me and…" The revulsion hit, something rising from the muck that had been those memories.
Again that vast being, a thousand hands working, the agony of being pulled apart and put back together and pulled apart and put back together and…
Oh.
More crying. Yay.
Amelia placed a hand on my shoulder, and I stiffened for a moment. I didn't feel her power and I felt guilt for thinking she would use her power like that. To my surprise she threw her arms around me and I was suddenly in a very nice cuddle pile.
Now as a former man one could say this was a dream come true…but most of them were my friends, so it didn't feel right. Plus the whole being a little off my game, also I wasn't a creep. Though I did lean into Taylor's touch, and her hair currently smelled of citrus. The tears dried as some of my anxieties faded.
"Shit…when we're done with putting down Butcher, you're going on vacation." Grace nodded, and the others did the same.
"Huh?" They let go except for Taylor who had instead pulled me into her lap. I sat comfortably, almost preening.
"You can't keep all of this to yourself Basilia, you should have someone you confide in, whether it's your friends or a professional." There was an undercurrent of guilt in Taylor's voice. "And your relationships aren't fake, so please don't think that." Oh even more hurt.
I was just being the best possible friend wasn't I?
Victoria rubbed the back of her neck with a scowl. "God…we should have done more, you've been hurting this whole time. But you just keep going, you don't let yourself process it. Especially with that…weird metaknowledge bullshit you have in your head."
"Had. There isn't really anything left for me to give out. Anything else I had I gave out to more appropriate authorities." Cauldron knew the main powers available to Scion, and I had gotten Dragon to get on the asses of more awful villains. She was helping with stabilizing things.
"And you also don't seem the type to remember every detail of something you've read." Amelia was being snarky and I rolled my eyes. "Though I kind of understand why you feel like somehow that makes things fake…but even Precogs have friends you know. Plus you didn't even finish the fucked up novel of a future that doesn't exist anymore."
A notion came to me.
"Is the only reason you're all accepting of this because of the proof from my home and of literally everything else that's happened?" The four girls shared a look.
"Yep."
…
"How are you feeling now?" Taylor opened with that after a comfortable silence.
"I would say I'm copacetic but I'd be lying." I said with a dryness to equal the Sahara desert. "I'm a paranoid wreck with crippling loneliness, anxiety, and various traumatic incidents have occurred to me. I'm not exactly at a hundred percent."
"So like a lot of parahumans?" Amelia quipped, and my lips perked up.
My laugh was bitter but sincere. "Yeah, that sounds about right."
That night ended up turning into a sleepover, and I slept well and with less anxiety than usual.
For once at least.
___
AN: I've been pondering a few things with this chapter, not sure I'm satisfied but I'm already finished with 13.5 and have a few hundred words into 13.6 and a snippet of further chapters.
Very angsty chapter this one, but fitting enough since I can angst pretty hard on really bad days. When I started this story it had morphed from what was supposed to be a less serious premise. It is a self insert with all the wish fulfillment that entails, but then I started to think about the consequence.
Taking into account my personality, my way of doing things and my anxieties. Earth Bet is literally among my worse nightmares of a planet to be on. Not in a million years would I want anything to do with the place. I an naturally paranoid and adverse to being hurt…I would definitely crack under the stress.
And I have a strong tendency to ignore my problems and distract myself with other things. Which is of course what Basilia has done. Some of what I've been writing has also been influenced by my time in Quarantine.
It has not been a positive experience I'll give you that. More anxiety inducing and having issues sleeping at all.
Basilia reflects some of those issues with an additional dose of trauma on top that I myself thankfully lack. It's just something that's become a part of what I'm writing.
Also I feel like I've written Valefor wrong, though I could go with him being too cocky to hold back, or him trying to draw a response from Basilia because he's suspicious. Or maybe he's just an idiot. Oh well. I can always make some edits.
Not much to say after this spiel, other than to say I hope you enjoy this weird story.
Teleologism 13.5
- Location
- Chula Vista
Teleologism 13.5
September 29th, 2011. 2:00PM
I slumped on the couch of the room I was in, rubbing my head to smooth my headache. Since the operation, we had been searching nonstop for Butcher and the remaining Fallen and Imbued. They had sent out a total of eight Imbued which left at least four if not more if some Fallen volunteered before Ezekiel had left the city.
I had been out of the loop a bit, trying to get in a better headspace after my second breakdown in less than a week. The fuzziness affecting Dinah had dropped off a lot once Ezekiel had fled, likely because his interference had dropped off and because Mama Mathers had fled the planet. Thinkers and shamans were both doing their part and had narrowed the location of Butcher to some location in the spirit world, likely near what had to be Boston a good sixty miles away.
The spirits spoke about a Master of Ceremonies, the Gatherer of Madness incubating within a space that was vast and hard to follow. Which was probably why shamans were being sent all over New England to pacify the spirits. They needed the spirit world under relative control, a careful balance to maintain power.
The ideal spirits offered a nation amazing power with a careful tweaking of Bans and growth of friendly spirits. Agriculture had gotten a boost from Harvest spirits, and a recent outbreak of disease had been curbed by such deals.
One spirit I heard about was the Queen-of-the-Rows, one of the most powerful spirits of her kind in the country, her heart was in Iowa with her reach extending across the entire state. She was the most powerful Harvest-of-Corn spirit in the world, second to no one.
Her main limit is of course that her reach extends only to her corn fields and nowhere else. One of her Bans just like how immobile spirits are stuck to their locations, else mountain spirits could just go anywhere.
Another spirit of her caliber and kind was the First Rice Emperor who ruled over Yangtze and the southern provinces. It represented the early rice crops that made up a third of China's production. But there were others.
The Middle Rice Emperor had intermediate and some late crops and ruled the southwest and other parts of the Long River. The Half-Kingdom Rice Emperor is a double-crop rice god, paired with other crops. The Little Northern Rice Emperor was the smallest and weakest with less than ten percent of national crop production.
Who else was there?
Well there was Soy Boy who ruled the Soybean farms of Illinois and…I'm gossiping about farm spirits. What the hell is wrong with me?
Things had been hectic, and we had been scouring the countryside for any signs of trouble with Mama Mathers long gone. Though it might be more accurate to say they were using my equipment to do so. From stealth satellites sending scanning pulses interpreted by the Polyhistor programs Skimmer made.
Coincidentally my resources had solved a number of crimes and I had managed to shatter the illegal slave trade in North America. Which had incidentally cut away the funneling of capes to the CUI and the remnants of Gesellschaft. Which was a stupid name in retrospect when I figured out what it meant.
Then again there were people back home who called themselves Atomwaffen who were just as disgusting but weaker cuz they don't have capes. For some reason people had a real romanticism for what villains are like, most of them are just human. Which means they're going to be rather stupid, because groups of people can be pretty dumb.
I folded back my helmet, and stretched openly to get a few minor cricks out of my neck. Which mostly only happens because my bones are a mix between organic and synthetic. I needed to prepare myself for what came next, based on what some of the shamans were saying there were barriers in place.
But they weren't barriers I couldn't break with some effort.
In a single breath I was slipping free of my body, astrally projecting with all my will and Power put behind it. If I was more curious I could have projected across space, blazed past our star and went out to the Great Unknown.
But that abstract feeling demanded of me to go elsewhere, and my unique talent of knowing the Spirits gave me an excellent warning as I stopped at a barrier. I couldn't have done this to the Workshop, because the barriers were heavier and my skills with projection were…usually not as capable.
I had done so with the Mother of Miseries because she was weakened and because I had borrowed the strength of Balaam's soul, and this time…I used the weight behind mine alone to fade through then like they weren't even there.
I walked past strange machinery, architecture subverted and enslaved to the will of another. I counted ten Fallen non-capes, two capes, and eight Imbued. I slipped past the sight of a third Isopod, smaller than the second which was smaller than the first.
It was a twisted conch shell, twisting hallways all leading to a core and I followed the current, heading the whispering notes of wild broadcasting. The fear of disconnection, the purposeful isolation and breaking of bonds and connection and hope. I swept through walls and spiritual barriers and sealings against spirits and shamans. The last wall was as solid as stone and I bounced back in annoyance, and followed the path.
I could see the subject held within the chamber of strange dark steel, and I grimaced. Gimbal arms were held within the chamber itself, which was twenty feet across and just as high, and there were signs of this being a former Fallen base, repurposed and twisted.
Butcher was held by those arms, cracks within their metal being quite obvious. She didn't look well, and seemed to be in a state midway between Quarrel and Shatterbird in appearance though their hair had turned a crystalline red. Ugly streaks where their skin had broken out into shards of crystal and dark ichor were painted up and down her body.
"Imbuing process underway. Result…semi-failure even with broken connections." I could hear the robotic overtones of the shard Isopod. There was tension in the air, and the dull notes of the shard creature became more excited. "No. Mutation process accelerating, low-success now probable. Superweapon project possible."
I stepped back as the Butcher let out a scream, a chorus of nineteen voices, eighteen in fear and terror and one in warning. The crystalline scars spread, and one tug of Butcher's arms ripped up one of the gimbal robot arms. She fell in a heap, pulsing and growing and shifting and screaming.
Others limbs attacked, injecting strange fluids that seemed to speed up the process. A shaman emerged and I ducked out of sight, and I could hear him chant and twist spiritual energies. There was a note of warning, and I focused my attention on a screen, notes taken on this…atrocity. I whispered and brought Sentinel into this. He took what he could, carefully squeezing through the tiny cracks in the barriers.
It reminded me of something I had looked up…the clones of capes that Shin created. But performed on a living subject instead of using clones.
I projected back, and I awoke with a harsh gasp and with Sentinel in my face.
"The data acquired is not good." A single optic eye emerged from the center of the row of gears, and I swallowed a comment.
It was time to go.
September 29th, 2011. 2:30PM
Basilia Rubio
I piloted the shuttle in silence, approaching the PRT cordon with a smaller grouping of capes. Many had been needed to deter and deal with possible bombs, and most had been dealt with.
Most…
The Blue Hills Reservation had been shut down, and the entire area evacuated once I had warned them of where the Butcher had been hidden. I landed softly, and people spilled out from the Kodiak. I exited the same way, landing on a pocket of air.
The composition of the team was different, with some capes staying behind while others were replaced, local capes mostly. I looked over and blinked in surprise at the man currently in charge.
He had black hair with heavily lined eyes and large eyebrows, I recognized Director Tagg. He wasn't a Director in a normal sense, at some point he had been put as a leader of a mobile PRT task force, a sort of mobile department who went in and beat the shit out of villains with extreme prejudice. Based on what I had heard the man had softened a bit, become more strategic after taking a long sabbatical.
I wasn't sure what to think of him myself, I didn't exactly have a detailed knowledge of the man.
"Erudition, I don't believe we've met yet." His voice was gruff, like he smoked a lot. "I've been given command here while Director Armstrong takes care of his own city, we have about thirty capes gathered so far for a reported S-class cape and I would like more details."
"Straight to the point huh?" I laughed awkwardly, glancing back at who we had brought. Monarch, Polaris, Panacea, Terra…or well Tremor now, and Bakuda. Last Echo had helped with looking back and getting a better idea of the layout and then gone back home.
We had a seventh here, one I wasn't sure about myself but he had insisted.
I went back to answering the militant man. "The information is time sensitive, I'm certain Butcher is here, and I've forwarded their numbers just minutes earlier. Ten benders, two capes, eight Hosts, and Butcher herself."
"I've heard your worry about them turning her into an artificial Endbringer, but we weren't too certain of the truth of that statement. Not that we disbelieve you." He looked over to the seven thousand acre wildlife zone with worry.
"Unfortunately I'm quite certain based on what I overheard with astral projection," I flicked a finger in the direction of the cordoned area. "Butcher is one of the subjects for a superweapon project, and a failed one, though not to the point of not being borderline S-class threat."
"Which is why I'm here this time." I jumped when I heard Eidolon appear in a snap of teleportation. "If the Butcher has become a pseudo-Endbringer we can't leave her to become an exponential threat. She could kill thousands, maybe become a new Endbringer…" There was anger though it wasn't directed at myself or at Tagg.
We had over thirty capes on hand, most I didn't know though I recognized Myrddin and Chevalier. Dauntless was sticking to Brockton Bay so they'd have a big stick in town besides Kiyohime. Miss Militia, Armsmaster and Flechette and that was about it from Brockton Bay.
Dragon of course, and Narwhal.
"What have you confirmed?" Tagg insisted and I sent out a scan of the surface from a stealth shuttle and a swarm of a hundred plus drones. Getting more data, and mixing it with the few bits of info we had skimmed from the hastily made base.
I typed into my Omni, and pulled out an omni-field projector. In a moment's notice I had his attention at the humanoid image I had garnered from Last Echo and ground penetrating radar. Eidolon stiffened while Tagg cursed under his breath.
It was a fuzzy image, and guesses made on what Last Echo could make out, a large figure maybe about thrice the height of a human being if not more. There were jagged edges all around, like a body made of glass rather than flesh. There was no real detail because Last Echo's power scaled up depending on how well he knew someplace or someone.
"What is that?" Narwhal was surprised but she wasn't too emotional about it, and a few more capes were here including Damsel of Distress.
"That would be Butcher, the result of Ezekiel's experimentation and alterations from what I've acquired."
"How?" Tagg demanded, and I took a calming breath. Undersiders were popping up with Dragon.
"Ezekiel jailbroke Butcher's power and used another shard to make her body more amenable to getting taken over." Amelia commented, foot moving up and down as vehicles continued to keep the park off limits for everyone.
I pointed to the hologram, to Butcher's Corona Pollentia. "The Corona Pollentia and Gemma is the interface between the power and it's host. It's why removing one incorrectly will simply cause the power to go wild without that interface in place. The right powers can alter that connection to tweak a power but will come with a cost. Especially when recklessly ramping up a power like this."
"Shards…?" One cape asked in the group, and I twitched and glanced over to Tagg.
He huffed out a breath. "Don't bother. The rumors have spread across the globe since the destruction of Leviathan." Made me wonder why Scion wasn't doing anything about it, but then maybe he had bigger things to worry about.
"The entities responsible for parahuman powers, this is what tends to happen to hosts when they're too closely connected to their powers." Amelia continued, and the capes were being assembled and broken up by Miss Militia
"What tends to happen to them?" Tagg asked quietly, with a light bite.
"Certain capes are a result of being overpowered by their shards, like the Ash Beast, like Glaistig Uaine, or possibly like Sleeper, Bonesaw is a likely example based on her age and her time with the Nine. Echidna was another for a while, though she's got it under control." I shrugged, rubbing my chin.
"Are the Endbringers something like capes? People changed into monsters?" Tagg questioned and I shook my head.
"Not quite, Endbringers were never human. They are shards, manifested into the physical world within given themes and confines. But they're a good example of what a manifested shard can look like. You unshackle a power, the mind and body breaks down, and the shard tries to find a way to fit it all within a container that's far too small."
Tagg nodded, and there was unease in the various capes. I continued, gesturing to Grue and Tattletale.
"Take Grue for example, his darkness is more accurately described as an absorber of energy and power. Radiation, light, sound and so on. If his power scaled up, he'd become a vehicle for it, tapping into the links of other shards to draw upon their abilities and their energies like a vampire. Those shards would lash out, blowing him apart into a mutated monster of darkness and energy drainage."
"That's…" Tagg sounded horrified, and I shrugged it off.
"Tattletale over there would just have her power boosted a hundredfold, in reach and detail processing, and her power will tap into unused elements. An enhanced Breaker state, or a tinker ability to create more hardware for processing, she might start processing multiple dimensions at once or build a devastating weapon to systematically destroy her enemies."
Eidolon looked pissed. "Can that happen to any power?"
"Depends on the shard, some are small enough where the damage might be minimal, others are far too large and far too inhuman to not end up shattering the mind of the host." I rolled my neck, looking over to where the base was hidden. "The Butcher is composed of the base shard with eighteen others slaved to it's whims. This is not a small shard…and it means a lot of bad things that the Fallen's new sponsor got this far."
"How powerful will this Butcher Endbringer be?" Tagg asked, and I could see the PRT organizing and various Rachni were on the scene at the same time.
Huh, neat.
"From what I've learned and what Sentinel downloaded," The AI popped up and Tagg nodded. "The Butcher was a low-success based on the standards I've gotten on this Shayatin project. Not as tough as an Endbringer, which is a mid-success."
"The shards are stronger than the Endbringers." Tattletale whispered but the sharp tones made everyone look at her.
"Some of them are…a fully manifested shard, that would be an apocalyptic outcome depending on the shard. If Earth Shin and their allies have gotten their hands on making pseudo-Endbringers and are aiming for fully manifested shards…"
"That would be cause for a war, and with their ability to cross dimensions there'd be no running. But would they really be mad enough to want one? Earth Bet has the highest concentration of capes, no cape would want to be…turned into living weapons like this." There was rage and just a tiny smattering of fear in Tagg.
"Yes they would be. It's why I came to this world to begin with." Rusul spoke up from Weaver's right. "The Lords of Iron have been setting their sights on any of the Powered they can find, and have been scavenging the Ruins for Void Age technology. They have convinced Goddess to join their cause, you are already at war. You simply didn't know it yet."
Tagg set his jaw. "Well if it's a war they want…I'll give one to them. I'm not going to let their science experiment destroy a city. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to rally my men." He nodded at me and walked off steaming.
"I'll pass on likely numbers for Butcher's abilities!" He kept moving but I knew he had listened.
"What are the likely abilities of Butcher at this point?" Eidolon asked, a reverb to his voice.
"Everything is scaled upwards in potency, it's why we need capes with range, and capes capable of dealing with her pain aura and rage projection." I enhanced my holograph, giving It enough power to make a scale model. "All her Brute powers stacked together. Brute 8 at the least. Powerful sensor powers from several powers, and boosted teleportation that can take out a house. Creation of traps through a tinker power mixed with her ability to reshape matter. Rage aura boost, she can warp space to make missiles, and has a repulsive field protecting her body." I took a breath.
"What else?" Eidolon gave me a moment and I continued louder for the rest of the capes.
"Then there's the boost to Vex's power, something like Narwhal's power though weaker. Then there's a power nullification roar people need to watch out for, again greater range but little else. A Stranger power designed to project and generate horror and terror…and Shatterbird."
"That alone would let her kill thousands of people, if Butcher enters Boston…" Miss Militia cut in, and looked over to the city.
"Well that'll be my job!" Miss Militia choked, and my shoulder dropped at the seventh person on the shuttle.
He was dressed in gold armor with segments of green along his arms, thighs and helmet. It was a large suit of armor at about 6'5, and somewhat Quarian in style with a hood built into the armor, tough tinker-made fabric cascading behind him. The helmet had soft features, and was built more like my own helmet with more maculine angles somehow.
"H—"
"Call me Paragon!" Clarke replied chipperly, waving his hand as a golden shield rippled along the armor that would cost billions of credits in a galactic economy. It had some type of special power core I barely understood, generating the massive amount of energy needed to create the shield.
From what I remembered it was similar to Scion and Goddess, an adaptable defense that would tune and nullify attacks. Basically a bandwidth filter for forces that would cut him in half…
Oh god, why did I think that?
"Of course." Miss Militia looked like she had swallowed a lemon and I didn't blame her. Another shuttle came, opening up to drop off a few of Clarke's machines. "How exactly can we deal with Shatterbird's power?"
"With my Babel Silencers, they're tinkertech designed to nullify acoustic waves. I've built over a dozen of them and have a few more as backups, they'll counter Shatterbird's power." Clarke was happy to explain, and I looked at his expensive and ridiculous armor. A barrier wasn't it's only ability.
He had taken scans of Legend, some of them only days old to replicate an impression of Legend's power. I had seen him move from zero to three hundred miles per hour, and it was bullshit. And his helmet had a sort of Thinker power, using special components to take in vibrations and translate them into usable data.
Languages, including body language, something similar to a weaker version of Tremor's power. Which coincidentally was the cape he had scanned to make it possible.
"Plus I have this at hand," He reached into the open doors of the Kodiak and lifted the three foot long Halcyon Phaser. "Bakuda is a fantastic tinker, but her tech is a little more…one-note."
"Bombs and cannons are the shit!" Grace shouted back as she rode within her mech suit, equipped with a range of bombs and cannons.
"This baby should be able to cause a fair bit of damage." I ignored his tinker rant toward Miss Militia.
I held my arms behind my head, cradling my neck as I stepped away from the chaos. I stomped on the ground and felt the vibrations of that base, the steady thumps made by Butcher, and the whispers on the wind of the Firmament.
"Are you alright?" I jumped when I heard Eidolon land beside me, head tilting to the right.
"Just…tired, I'm planning to take a vacation after this, I've been…burning out." I wasn't sure why I was telling him. "It's too much pressure, too much weight placed on my shoulders."
"Understandable. I've been…doing the same, taking a step back, trying to gain perspective." Eidolon sounded tired and perhaps that was why I had asked and why Panacea had understood.
All three of our powers could do so much…but we weren't gods, we couldn't do everything at once, we couldn't save everyone, we weren't obligated to do so at the cost of our own happiness and sanity. Eidolon had the world on his shoulders and had developed a complex about it…and the Endbringers had sprung from it.
Amelia felt bad about herself, had developed unhealthy coping mechanisms and obsessions with her power what it was. She had that power and it had only made her life worse. It had made her worse in time, and without needing a real nudge once her coping mechanisms broke.
I had a ridiculously powerful tinker power, and a multitude of other abilities, and the task of keeping the world from breaking. It was sort of a recipe for disaster.
Eidolon was shifting powers, some type of nearly-inviolable tactile field, wrapping around his form as a combination of a movement and a defensive power. Based on the scans I've taken and intuition. He flicked a finger and a passing fly vanished as his Eraser power emerged, and a third power emerged. A thinker power perhaps?
The Babel Silencers were being set up, floating off the ground and capable of limited flight. Stilling light streamed out, at the ready for the first attack. There was an energy in the air, and I grimaced at the whispers.
"You hear it too?" Eidolon and Monarch whispered and they looked at one another and then at me.
"Yes." Nineteen voices screamed, and that scream became a song, and I knew we had very little time.
"We need to go…now." The next several minutes were chaos and explanations, and as we were portaled in, I had to take hold of a sudden mass of water trying to drown me. I brought the water under my control, and I grimaced when I saw Cetus, the large woman grinning.
"The ascension of our new god is at hand, and I won't let you stop us!" I Blinked behind her, and gripped my armored hand and shocked the hell out of her. I inspected her heart as she passed the fuck out, and the ten benders trying to drown, crush, burn, or flatten me took a spinning swirl of the Elements and found themselves thrown down.
Each of them were met with a swift knock-out dart and and every one was handcuffed and wrapped in a bow for the PRT. Drones of mine disabled bombs and mines and traps, and I spun around a silhouette made of shadow, and stomped on the ground. I liquified the earth around me, and buried Seir and his shadows below the ground.
I catapulted Seir through a tree, he swapped places with one of his shadows and all of them were swarmed by insects in the thousands. I shot him and he went down to a dart. That left them with only eight Imbued, and no capes. The ground rumbled, and I stepped closer to the facility as it seemed to be shaking apart.
It had been moved obviously, based on the flattened trees and hidden by some ability that was no longer there. Eidolon was up here, and lifting his arm to fire his Matter Erasure.
The third Isopod flashed into existence, looking at Eidolon with contempt and at me with consternation. We had over forty capes, and I could tell Taylor was tagging every single one.
"One of those creatures…" Eidolon flinched. "STEP BACK ALL OF YOU!" The DPN spoiled up, and the shard bug spoke.
"Declaration. Low-success." The ground exploded where I had been, a bloodcurdling song shattering the base into pieces, waves of glass sent flying. Multiple shuttles popped into reality, all of them Rachni. I was in my shuttle, and I saw the quivering pulse that tried to enter Boston before being unmade by Clarke's little toys. The power was pushed back, sound waves slowed, weakened, stilled.
It was larger than I expected, head reared back in a roar, long arms rising to the air as if begging to one's god. It was twenty feet tall, with a nice mask of amalgamated skulls, and long curled horns flickering. Butcher's skin had become a patchwork of flickering images, like the skins of every person in its line of succession had been unfolded and stitched together into a crystalline quilt. It had a deep armored dress of glass, repulsive shields and storms of force-fields.
It looked around at our measly forty five capes, too-long arms still in their position as their clawed fingers curled.
The Butcher's head turned, neck bending and twisting beyond what was biologically possible, long tendrils of dark hair swaying. Looking right at me.
It teleported out of the way of the Erasure power of Eidolon, and I was knocked out of the sky as the shields of the Kodiak cracked. The vehicle was sheared in half, and the Butcher opened her maw. I Charged out of there, and it grabbed the shuttle and launched it at a cape. It turned at a ninety degree angle, and was only stopped by the biotic field of a Rachni Brood Lord.
I stepped back as Eidolon lifted into the air, power swirling around him. Butcher screamed in a chorus of nineteen voices.
YOU…CAN NOT STOP US.
I glared at the shard-puppeted Quarrel, gritting my teeth.
"Fuck you…" I scowled, my temper flaring. Is that how it is?
I'm going to beat you into the ground.
September 29th, 2011. 2:45PM
Basilia Rubio
Eidolon unleashed Erasure, and a blockade of force-fields, glass and sand blocked some of the force. The Butcher teleported behind Eidolon, maw opening wide, revealing a dark mass within it. The jaw practically dislocated itself, and it swallowed a surprised Eidolon for a moment.
There was a flash of emerald light from the corner of my vision, and Eidolon ripped himself away from his confinement. He blasted Erasure in a thin lined beam, carving out one of the Butcher's eyes. A barrage of cape attacks slammed into Butcher, or whatever the hell they were now. Flesh replaced what was lost in seconds, meat pulsating and reconfiguring.
Miss Militia was riding on one of Bitch's dogs, effortlessly firing what had to be a massive railgun. I had heard some rumors about it. Numerous Rachni vehicles ramped up and fired their mass accelerators, with several fighters dropping bombs, a single pulse of radiation from anti-grain explosives, and several small Disruptor missiles generated ripples in spacetime, the air turning to plasma.
Butcher stabbed her limbs into the ground, and it rippled under her control, and she began to shape the remains of the base into…oh fuck!
An array of traps was laid into the ground, the landscape twisting under the grasp of the mutated cape. Matter erasure swamped the space, and tinkertech traps exploded, Eidolon sliding back as the forest nearby was flattened, and Butcher let out a heaving, wheezing laugh.
More shields, more glass, Butcher was constantly on the move, easily crossing a hundred meters in a single instant, blinking out of the way of attacks, and blocking physical strikes with near perfect counters. Push and flow, moving like both an airbender and a waterbender.
Bakuda specials entered the battlefield, and Butcher was trapped in a field of phase-shifted water, a massive bubble. I stepped and found myself besides Tecton and his team.
"They…turned the Butcher into an Endbringer." I grimaced, but couldn't deny the guy's worry. Tendrils wrapped around Butcher, physical manifestations of shard connections.
"They disconnected the shards from all wells of power and data, and managed to partially Imbue them into Butcher. They're lashing out…whether out of hunger, anger or insanity." I whispered, and directed drones and robots to attack from a distance. I wasn't going to offer Butcher salvage.
"If she lashes out she'll kill everyone in the city." I nodded at Tecton, and after a moment I vanished into a biotic Charge. Butcher looked at me, and in a flash a wave of horror and terror tried to wash over me. Images and nightmares etched and projected into her skin.
I felt my muscles twitch as she tried to project her pain aura, and I noted Eidolon was creating a wave of power immunity. Repulsive fields radiated power, and she headbutted the bubble with enough force to shatter it. Everything for a hundred meters around was covered in a maze of force-fields, and I chucked a grenade and destroyed a select number of them.
I took a breath, and swept my arms and stomped my feet. With a single uppercut, a pillar of stone and compacted soil crashed into Butcher's chin, ten thousand tons of stone uplifted with my bending. Someone else entered the vicinity of where Butcher was being held down, and Cetus attacked the Butcher, striking some shifting silhouette that had risen to the surface.
What?
Cetus bowed her head, and to my shock a tendril latched on to her, and in a blink of an eye she was swallowed up into the rippling crystalline flesh of the Butcher. Nineteen became twenty, and blue streaks of the costume of Cetus rushed out from cracks of Butcher.
A sudden torrent of water burst out from holes in space at a third the speed of sound, and I brought the water projectiles under my control.
I punched my fists into the ground, creating fissures beneath the feet of the twenty one foot tall cape monster. She stumbled and took a sweeping barrage of Blaster attacks.
The Butcher let out a commanding shout, and the eight missing Imbued emerged from hiding. I froze as they seemed to listen to her, the spirit within their Hosts acceding to the Butcher's demands.
Bombs dropped from Dragonflight suits and Rachni vessels, blasting off one of Butcher's limbs. She sent out a missile of dimensionally displaced water, the wave turning at a forty five degree angle to knock several out of the sky.
Butcher sent out a howl of power nullification, Eidolon was unaffected and several Blasters faltered. Sweeping glass emerged from the ruins of the Fallen base, a storm of glass that Butcher kept close with the sound wave stilling, doming her in the forest.
Unfortunately Clarke could only do so much with the time he had, so it was a dome of influence, reducing her range but not nullifying her power completely. If he tried with the current settings we'd be deaf.
An earthbending wave knocked two Imbued off the ground, as I kept them from attacking the defenders. I whispered the invocations, and with a roar ripped away a spirit and broke it apart into motes. It was broken and mad. The former Imbued kicked my chest, face twisting into rage.
I slapped him aside and into a portal, the second tried to attack me but then got stabbed in the arm for the trouble as Oni Lee popped in. I stepped into his range, and ripped away another spirit with a solid thirty seconds of careful manipulations.
Oni Lee turned to dust, energy pulsing as he swapped bodies.
Eidolon swapped his Matter Erasure for crushing gravity force, flattening the land and Butcher. She teleported in a sweeping flare and emerged among the capes, a screaming Polaris met her head on, taking most of the explosion. Vicky's aura detonated outwards, countering the rage and horror created by Butcher.
An axe-kick from Vicky knocked Butcher aside, and sweeping limbs of gold-white fire stabbed into the pseudo-Endbringer. A power nullifying roar did nothing to Victoria, and the fire spun around her like a tornado, ripping apart glass as the field disrupted anything it was touching. She created multiple limbs and even mouths and claws, retching apart the left side of the Butcher's face.
Water missile after water missile was fired by Butcher, and Eidolon changed states, becoming a storm of telekinetic clouds and bubbles. He ripped away the missiles with a Breaker-state based hydrokinesis, absorbing it into himself.
I Blinked into the crowd of capes and saw Amelia was busy healing Miss Militia, water glowing brightly with a sheen of bone white from her power. I charged a bolt of lightning, which caused Butcher's flesh to ripple oddly. I felt something off about the monster…there was something important I was missing.
"It's a shell." Tattletale sounded smug. "The Butcher still has a human core where all this crystal flesh is spilling out of. We grab that core and let you pull off your magic, we put down the Butcher for good."
"We still can't kill her though, if someone hits that core they'll be taken over and turned into that thing again." I pointed out the obvious. "Based on what happened with Cetus, if you even hit the core the Butcher will attempt to absorb the cape in question. Some capes are probably immune though." Victoria had basically Second Triggered with a ping from Dauntless in the mix and I had my suspicions she was one such case.
I kicked the air and a compressed stream of orange-white fire speared towards Butcher. It smashed against her chest, and there was an odd ripple, flecks of flesh breaking away despite the reflective shield.
The Butcher opened her mouth, releasing a scream as her flesh grew back as Eidolon squashed her with a massive positive gravity field.
YOU. ARE MY ENEMY. The shard roared in my ears, and based on everyone else's reactions the capes heard it too.
"Sounded like a foghorn…but I understood it? How?" Tattletale was muttering to herself, and Grue was throwing out waves of darkness, trying to blind the Butcher. It lifted a stone the size of a car, and my heart stopped when I saw it was aimed at Amelia. They were flung at half the speed of sound, and I could see she was moving on wind, but they were following behind her under the S-class threat's control.
She threw more and more projectiles, aimed at everyone in sight. Eidolon flung down a wall of gravity, space rippling under his control. Butcher tried to alter the ground, and with a flash of a portal opening, Labyrinth stepped through. She whispered and the space around us for a hundred meters around started to be altered.
Amelia tried to step through a portal and Butcher teleported into us once more, breaking the portal with the explosion. I Charged at her, and I threw a biotic Warp some ten feet across. It sheared past her reflective barriers, warping her flesh, and she filled the air with her cutting fields.
Paragon swung his weapon, a wave of stilling light tearing apart the fields before they could rip us apart.
Butcher moved, an arm blurring before my eyes as she aimed to crush Amelia. I began to move but I wasn't fast enough, and I saw the shadow of Butcher's hand over her. Someone emerged from the crowd, hidden beneath a heavy jacket, arms swinging out.
Bones exploded out from his arms, forming a massive prison of ribs stabbing into the flesh of Butcher, purposely missing the mobile core. It exploded into shrapnel, ripping into the pseudo-Endbringer with prejudice.
The entirety of New Wave had just arrived by portal, and I could hear Carol choke.
"What in god's name…did you…?" Carol was flabbergasted.
I shook my head, looking at her like she was crazy. And just a little insulted though for once this was Carol not being a bitch. Just confused.
The Butcher teleported a tenth of a kilometer, heading towards the city before being grabbed by massive tendrils of water, pulled back by Eidolon's Breaker state's power. He had gathered all the water left behind by Butcher and Bakuda's water shield bomb. The land under us warped, paths opening for capes, and protections were put in place by Labyrinth.
"It's been a while Brandish…" The man turned around and I choked once I recognized him completely.
Marquis smiled under the shadow of his hood, and I had no idea what in the hell was going on anymore.
AN: So Teleologism isn't too far from coming to a close, maybe about two more chapters before things calm down, one calm chapter after that and then the Interlude that will shift to Arc 14. Which will be different from most of the other Arcs so far.
So I hope you'll enjoy that when it comes.
September 29th, 2011. 2:00PM
I slumped on the couch of the room I was in, rubbing my head to smooth my headache. Since the operation, we had been searching nonstop for Butcher and the remaining Fallen and Imbued. They had sent out a total of eight Imbued which left at least four if not more if some Fallen volunteered before Ezekiel had left the city.
I had been out of the loop a bit, trying to get in a better headspace after my second breakdown in less than a week. The fuzziness affecting Dinah had dropped off a lot once Ezekiel had fled, likely because his interference had dropped off and because Mama Mathers had fled the planet. Thinkers and shamans were both doing their part and had narrowed the location of Butcher to some location in the spirit world, likely near what had to be Boston a good sixty miles away.
The spirits spoke about a Master of Ceremonies, the Gatherer of Madness incubating within a space that was vast and hard to follow. Which was probably why shamans were being sent all over New England to pacify the spirits. They needed the spirit world under relative control, a careful balance to maintain power.
The ideal spirits offered a nation amazing power with a careful tweaking of Bans and growth of friendly spirits. Agriculture had gotten a boost from Harvest spirits, and a recent outbreak of disease had been curbed by such deals.
One spirit I heard about was the Queen-of-the-Rows, one of the most powerful spirits of her kind in the country, her heart was in Iowa with her reach extending across the entire state. She was the most powerful Harvest-of-Corn spirit in the world, second to no one.
Her main limit is of course that her reach extends only to her corn fields and nowhere else. One of her Bans just like how immobile spirits are stuck to their locations, else mountain spirits could just go anywhere.
Another spirit of her caliber and kind was the First Rice Emperor who ruled over Yangtze and the southern provinces. It represented the early rice crops that made up a third of China's production. But there were others.
The Middle Rice Emperor had intermediate and some late crops and ruled the southwest and other parts of the Long River. The Half-Kingdom Rice Emperor is a double-crop rice god, paired with other crops. The Little Northern Rice Emperor was the smallest and weakest with less than ten percent of national crop production.
Who else was there?
Well there was Soy Boy who ruled the Soybean farms of Illinois and…I'm gossiping about farm spirits. What the hell is wrong with me?
Things had been hectic, and we had been scouring the countryside for any signs of trouble with Mama Mathers long gone. Though it might be more accurate to say they were using my equipment to do so. From stealth satellites sending scanning pulses interpreted by the Polyhistor programs Skimmer made.
Coincidentally my resources had solved a number of crimes and I had managed to shatter the illegal slave trade in North America. Which had incidentally cut away the funneling of capes to the CUI and the remnants of Gesellschaft. Which was a stupid name in retrospect when I figured out what it meant.
Then again there were people back home who called themselves Atomwaffen who were just as disgusting but weaker cuz they don't have capes. For some reason people had a real romanticism for what villains are like, most of them are just human. Which means they're going to be rather stupid, because groups of people can be pretty dumb.
I folded back my helmet, and stretched openly to get a few minor cricks out of my neck. Which mostly only happens because my bones are a mix between organic and synthetic. I needed to prepare myself for what came next, based on what some of the shamans were saying there were barriers in place.
But they weren't barriers I couldn't break with some effort.
In a single breath I was slipping free of my body, astrally projecting with all my will and Power put behind it. If I was more curious I could have projected across space, blazed past our star and went out to the Great Unknown.
But that abstract feeling demanded of me to go elsewhere, and my unique talent of knowing the Spirits gave me an excellent warning as I stopped at a barrier. I couldn't have done this to the Workshop, because the barriers were heavier and my skills with projection were…usually not as capable.
I had done so with the Mother of Miseries because she was weakened and because I had borrowed the strength of Balaam's soul, and this time…I used the weight behind mine alone to fade through then like they weren't even there.
I walked past strange machinery, architecture subverted and enslaved to the will of another. I counted ten Fallen non-capes, two capes, and eight Imbued. I slipped past the sight of a third Isopod, smaller than the second which was smaller than the first.
It was a twisted conch shell, twisting hallways all leading to a core and I followed the current, heading the whispering notes of wild broadcasting. The fear of disconnection, the purposeful isolation and breaking of bonds and connection and hope. I swept through walls and spiritual barriers and sealings against spirits and shamans. The last wall was as solid as stone and I bounced back in annoyance, and followed the path.
I could see the subject held within the chamber of strange dark steel, and I grimaced. Gimbal arms were held within the chamber itself, which was twenty feet across and just as high, and there were signs of this being a former Fallen base, repurposed and twisted.
Butcher was held by those arms, cracks within their metal being quite obvious. She didn't look well, and seemed to be in a state midway between Quarrel and Shatterbird in appearance though their hair had turned a crystalline red. Ugly streaks where their skin had broken out into shards of crystal and dark ichor were painted up and down her body.
"Imbuing process underway. Result…semi-failure even with broken connections." I could hear the robotic overtones of the shard Isopod. There was tension in the air, and the dull notes of the shard creature became more excited. "No. Mutation process accelerating, low-success now probable. Superweapon project possible."
I stepped back as the Butcher let out a scream, a chorus of nineteen voices, eighteen in fear and terror and one in warning. The crystalline scars spread, and one tug of Butcher's arms ripped up one of the gimbal robot arms. She fell in a heap, pulsing and growing and shifting and screaming.
Others limbs attacked, injecting strange fluids that seemed to speed up the process. A shaman emerged and I ducked out of sight, and I could hear him chant and twist spiritual energies. There was a note of warning, and I focused my attention on a screen, notes taken on this…atrocity. I whispered and brought Sentinel into this. He took what he could, carefully squeezing through the tiny cracks in the barriers.
It reminded me of something I had looked up…the clones of capes that Shin created. But performed on a living subject instead of using clones.
Leave. Flee this place. Warn them.
I projected back, and I awoke with a harsh gasp and with Sentinel in my face.
"The data acquired is not good." A single optic eye emerged from the center of the row of gears, and I swallowed a comment.
It was time to go.
___
September 29th, 2011. 2:30PM
Basilia Rubio
I piloted the shuttle in silence, approaching the PRT cordon with a smaller grouping of capes. Many had been needed to deter and deal with possible bombs, and most had been dealt with.
Most…
The Blue Hills Reservation had been shut down, and the entire area evacuated once I had warned them of where the Butcher had been hidden. I landed softly, and people spilled out from the Kodiak. I exited the same way, landing on a pocket of air.
The composition of the team was different, with some capes staying behind while others were replaced, local capes mostly. I looked over and blinked in surprise at the man currently in charge.
He had black hair with heavily lined eyes and large eyebrows, I recognized Director Tagg. He wasn't a Director in a normal sense, at some point he had been put as a leader of a mobile PRT task force, a sort of mobile department who went in and beat the shit out of villains with extreme prejudice. Based on what I had heard the man had softened a bit, become more strategic after taking a long sabbatical.
I wasn't sure what to think of him myself, I didn't exactly have a detailed knowledge of the man.
"Erudition, I don't believe we've met yet." His voice was gruff, like he smoked a lot. "I've been given command here while Director Armstrong takes care of his own city, we have about thirty capes gathered so far for a reported S-class cape and I would like more details."
"Straight to the point huh?" I laughed awkwardly, glancing back at who we had brought. Monarch, Polaris, Panacea, Terra…or well Tremor now, and Bakuda. Last Echo had helped with looking back and getting a better idea of the layout and then gone back home.
We had a seventh here, one I wasn't sure about myself but he had insisted.
I went back to answering the militant man. "The information is time sensitive, I'm certain Butcher is here, and I've forwarded their numbers just minutes earlier. Ten benders, two capes, eight Hosts, and Butcher herself."
"I've heard your worry about them turning her into an artificial Endbringer, but we weren't too certain of the truth of that statement. Not that we disbelieve you." He looked over to the seven thousand acre wildlife zone with worry.
"Unfortunately I'm quite certain based on what I overheard with astral projection," I flicked a finger in the direction of the cordoned area. "Butcher is one of the subjects for a superweapon project, and a failed one, though not to the point of not being borderline S-class threat."
"Which is why I'm here this time." I jumped when I heard Eidolon appear in a snap of teleportation. "If the Butcher has become a pseudo-Endbringer we can't leave her to become an exponential threat. She could kill thousands, maybe become a new Endbringer…" There was anger though it wasn't directed at myself or at Tagg.
We had over thirty capes on hand, most I didn't know though I recognized Myrddin and Chevalier. Dauntless was sticking to Brockton Bay so they'd have a big stick in town besides Kiyohime. Miss Militia, Armsmaster and Flechette and that was about it from Brockton Bay.
Dragon of course, and Narwhal.
"What have you confirmed?" Tagg insisted and I sent out a scan of the surface from a stealth shuttle and a swarm of a hundred plus drones. Getting more data, and mixing it with the few bits of info we had skimmed from the hastily made base.
I typed into my Omni, and pulled out an omni-field projector. In a moment's notice I had his attention at the humanoid image I had garnered from Last Echo and ground penetrating radar. Eidolon stiffened while Tagg cursed under his breath.
It was a fuzzy image, and guesses made on what Last Echo could make out, a large figure maybe about thrice the height of a human being if not more. There were jagged edges all around, like a body made of glass rather than flesh. There was no real detail because Last Echo's power scaled up depending on how well he knew someplace or someone.
"What is that?" Narwhal was surprised but she wasn't too emotional about it, and a few more capes were here including Damsel of Distress.
"That would be Butcher, the result of Ezekiel's experimentation and alterations from what I've acquired."
"How?" Tagg demanded, and I took a calming breath. Undersiders were popping up with Dragon.
"Ezekiel jailbroke Butcher's power and used another shard to make her body more amenable to getting taken over." Amelia commented, foot moving up and down as vehicles continued to keep the park off limits for everyone.
I pointed to the hologram, to Butcher's Corona Pollentia. "The Corona Pollentia and Gemma is the interface between the power and it's host. It's why removing one incorrectly will simply cause the power to go wild without that interface in place. The right powers can alter that connection to tweak a power but will come with a cost. Especially when recklessly ramping up a power like this."
"Shards…?" One cape asked in the group, and I twitched and glanced over to Tagg.
He huffed out a breath. "Don't bother. The rumors have spread across the globe since the destruction of Leviathan." Made me wonder why Scion wasn't doing anything about it, but then maybe he had bigger things to worry about.
"The entities responsible for parahuman powers, this is what tends to happen to hosts when they're too closely connected to their powers." Amelia continued, and the capes were being assembled and broken up by Miss Militia
"What tends to happen to them?" Tagg asked quietly, with a light bite.
"Certain capes are a result of being overpowered by their shards, like the Ash Beast, like Glaistig Uaine, or possibly like Sleeper, Bonesaw is a likely example based on her age and her time with the Nine. Echidna was another for a while, though she's got it under control." I shrugged, rubbing my chin.
"Are the Endbringers something like capes? People changed into monsters?" Tagg questioned and I shook my head.
"Not quite, Endbringers were never human. They are shards, manifested into the physical world within given themes and confines. But they're a good example of what a manifested shard can look like. You unshackle a power, the mind and body breaks down, and the shard tries to find a way to fit it all within a container that's far too small."
Tagg nodded, and there was unease in the various capes. I continued, gesturing to Grue and Tattletale.
"Take Grue for example, his darkness is more accurately described as an absorber of energy and power. Radiation, light, sound and so on. If his power scaled up, he'd become a vehicle for it, tapping into the links of other shards to draw upon their abilities and their energies like a vampire. Those shards would lash out, blowing him apart into a mutated monster of darkness and energy drainage."
"That's…" Tagg sounded horrified, and I shrugged it off.
"Tattletale over there would just have her power boosted a hundredfold, in reach and detail processing, and her power will tap into unused elements. An enhanced Breaker state, or a tinker ability to create more hardware for processing, she might start processing multiple dimensions at once or build a devastating weapon to systematically destroy her enemies."
Eidolon looked pissed. "Can that happen to any power?"
"Depends on the shard, some are small enough where the damage might be minimal, others are far too large and far too inhuman to not end up shattering the mind of the host." I rolled my neck, looking over to where the base was hidden. "The Butcher is composed of the base shard with eighteen others slaved to it's whims. This is not a small shard…and it means a lot of bad things that the Fallen's new sponsor got this far."
"How powerful will this Butcher Endbringer be?" Tagg asked, and I could see the PRT organizing and various Rachni were on the scene at the same time.
Huh, neat.
"From what I've learned and what Sentinel downloaded," The AI popped up and Tagg nodded. "The Butcher was a low-success based on the standards I've gotten on this Shayatin project. Not as tough as an Endbringer, which is a mid-success."
"The shards are stronger than the Endbringers." Tattletale whispered but the sharp tones made everyone look at her.
"Some of them are…a fully manifested shard, that would be an apocalyptic outcome depending on the shard. If Earth Shin and their allies have gotten their hands on making pseudo-Endbringers and are aiming for fully manifested shards…"
"That would be cause for a war, and with their ability to cross dimensions there'd be no running. But would they really be mad enough to want one? Earth Bet has the highest concentration of capes, no cape would want to be…turned into living weapons like this." There was rage and just a tiny smattering of fear in Tagg.
"Yes they would be. It's why I came to this world to begin with." Rusul spoke up from Weaver's right. "The Lords of Iron have been setting their sights on any of the Powered they can find, and have been scavenging the Ruins for Void Age technology. They have convinced Goddess to join their cause, you are already at war. You simply didn't know it yet."
Tagg set his jaw. "Well if it's a war they want…I'll give one to them. I'm not going to let their science experiment destroy a city. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to rally my men." He nodded at me and walked off steaming.
"I'll pass on likely numbers for Butcher's abilities!" He kept moving but I knew he had listened.
"What are the likely abilities of Butcher at this point?" Eidolon asked, a reverb to his voice.
"Everything is scaled upwards in potency, it's why we need capes with range, and capes capable of dealing with her pain aura and rage projection." I enhanced my holograph, giving It enough power to make a scale model. "All her Brute powers stacked together. Brute 8 at the least. Powerful sensor powers from several powers, and boosted teleportation that can take out a house. Creation of traps through a tinker power mixed with her ability to reshape matter. Rage aura boost, she can warp space to make missiles, and has a repulsive field protecting her body." I took a breath.
"What else?" Eidolon gave me a moment and I continued louder for the rest of the capes.
"Then there's the boost to Vex's power, something like Narwhal's power though weaker. Then there's a power nullification roar people need to watch out for, again greater range but little else. A Stranger power designed to project and generate horror and terror…and Shatterbird."
"That alone would let her kill thousands of people, if Butcher enters Boston…" Miss Militia cut in, and looked over to the city.
"Well that'll be my job!" Miss Militia choked, and my shoulder dropped at the seventh person on the shuttle.
He was dressed in gold armor with segments of green along his arms, thighs and helmet. It was a large suit of armor at about 6'5, and somewhat Quarian in style with a hood built into the armor, tough tinker-made fabric cascading behind him. The helmet had soft features, and was built more like my own helmet with more maculine angles somehow.
"H—"
"Call me Paragon!" Clarke replied chipperly, waving his hand as a golden shield rippled along the armor that would cost billions of credits in a galactic economy. It had some type of special power core I barely understood, generating the massive amount of energy needed to create the shield.
From what I remembered it was similar to Scion and Goddess, an adaptable defense that would tune and nullify attacks. Basically a bandwidth filter for forces that would cut him in half…
Oh god, why did I think that?
"Of course." Miss Militia looked like she had swallowed a lemon and I didn't blame her. Another shuttle came, opening up to drop off a few of Clarke's machines. "How exactly can we deal with Shatterbird's power?"
"With my Babel Silencers, they're tinkertech designed to nullify acoustic waves. I've built over a dozen of them and have a few more as backups, they'll counter Shatterbird's power." Clarke was happy to explain, and I looked at his expensive and ridiculous armor. A barrier wasn't it's only ability.
He had taken scans of Legend, some of them only days old to replicate an impression of Legend's power. I had seen him move from zero to three hundred miles per hour, and it was bullshit. And his helmet had a sort of Thinker power, using special components to take in vibrations and translate them into usable data.
Languages, including body language, something similar to a weaker version of Tremor's power. Which coincidentally was the cape he had scanned to make it possible.
"Plus I have this at hand," He reached into the open doors of the Kodiak and lifted the three foot long Halcyon Phaser. "Bakuda is a fantastic tinker, but her tech is a little more…one-note."
"Bombs and cannons are the shit!" Grace shouted back as she rode within her mech suit, equipped with a range of bombs and cannons.
"This baby should be able to cause a fair bit of damage." I ignored his tinker rant toward Miss Militia.
I held my arms behind my head, cradling my neck as I stepped away from the chaos. I stomped on the ground and felt the vibrations of that base, the steady thumps made by Butcher, and the whispers on the wind of the Firmament.
"Are you alright?" I jumped when I heard Eidolon land beside me, head tilting to the right.
"Just…tired, I'm planning to take a vacation after this, I've been…burning out." I wasn't sure why I was telling him. "It's too much pressure, too much weight placed on my shoulders."
"Understandable. I've been…doing the same, taking a step back, trying to gain perspective." Eidolon sounded tired and perhaps that was why I had asked and why Panacea had understood.
All three of our powers could do so much…but we weren't gods, we couldn't do everything at once, we couldn't save everyone, we weren't obligated to do so at the cost of our own happiness and sanity. Eidolon had the world on his shoulders and had developed a complex about it…and the Endbringers had sprung from it.
Amelia felt bad about herself, had developed unhealthy coping mechanisms and obsessions with her power what it was. She had that power and it had only made her life worse. It had made her worse in time, and without needing a real nudge once her coping mechanisms broke.
I had a ridiculously powerful tinker power, and a multitude of other abilities, and the task of keeping the world from breaking. It was sort of a recipe for disaster.
Eidolon was shifting powers, some type of nearly-inviolable tactile field, wrapping around his form as a combination of a movement and a defensive power. Based on the scans I've taken and intuition. He flicked a finger and a passing fly vanished as his Eraser power emerged, and a third power emerged. A thinker power perhaps?
The Babel Silencers were being set up, floating off the ground and capable of limited flight. Stilling light streamed out, at the ready for the first attack. There was an energy in the air, and I grimaced at the whispers.
"You hear it too?" Eidolon and Monarch whispered and they looked at one another and then at me.
"Yes." Nineteen voices screamed, and that scream became a song, and I knew we had very little time.
"We need to go…now." The next several minutes were chaos and explanations, and as we were portaled in, I had to take hold of a sudden mass of water trying to drown me. I brought the water under my control, and I grimaced when I saw Cetus, the large woman grinning.
"The ascension of our new god is at hand, and I won't let you stop us!" I Blinked behind her, and gripped my armored hand and shocked the hell out of her. I inspected her heart as she passed the fuck out, and the ten benders trying to drown, crush, burn, or flatten me took a spinning swirl of the Elements and found themselves thrown down.
Each of them were met with a swift knock-out dart and and every one was handcuffed and wrapped in a bow for the PRT. Drones of mine disabled bombs and mines and traps, and I spun around a silhouette made of shadow, and stomped on the ground. I liquified the earth around me, and buried Seir and his shadows below the ground.
I catapulted Seir through a tree, he swapped places with one of his shadows and all of them were swarmed by insects in the thousands. I shot him and he went down to a dart. That left them with only eight Imbued, and no capes. The ground rumbled, and I stepped closer to the facility as it seemed to be shaking apart.
It had been moved obviously, based on the flattened trees and hidden by some ability that was no longer there. Eidolon was up here, and lifting his arm to fire his Matter Erasure.
The third Isopod flashed into existence, looking at Eidolon with contempt and at me with consternation. We had over forty capes, and I could tell Taylor was tagging every single one.
"One of those creatures…" Eidolon flinched. "STEP BACK ALL OF YOU!" The DPN spoiled up, and the shard bug spoke.
"Declaration. Low-success." The ground exploded where I had been, a bloodcurdling song shattering the base into pieces, waves of glass sent flying. Multiple shuttles popped into reality, all of them Rachni. I was in my shuttle, and I saw the quivering pulse that tried to enter Boston before being unmade by Clarke's little toys. The power was pushed back, sound waves slowed, weakened, stilled.
It was larger than I expected, head reared back in a roar, long arms rising to the air as if begging to one's god. It was twenty feet tall, with a nice mask of amalgamated skulls, and long curled horns flickering. Butcher's skin had become a patchwork of flickering images, like the skins of every person in its line of succession had been unfolded and stitched together into a crystalline quilt. It had a deep armored dress of glass, repulsive shields and storms of force-fields.
It looked around at our measly forty five capes, too-long arms still in their position as their clawed fingers curled.
The Butcher's head turned, neck bending and twisting beyond what was biologically possible, long tendrils of dark hair swaying. Looking right at me.
It teleported out of the way of the Erasure power of Eidolon, and I was knocked out of the sky as the shields of the Kodiak cracked. The vehicle was sheared in half, and the Butcher opened her maw. I Charged out of there, and it grabbed the shuttle and launched it at a cape. It turned at a ninety degree angle, and was only stopped by the biotic field of a Rachni Brood Lord.
I stepped back as Eidolon lifted into the air, power swirling around him. Butcher screamed in a chorus of nineteen voices.
YOU…CAN NOT STOP US.
I glared at the shard-puppeted Quarrel, gritting my teeth.
"Fuck you…" I scowled, my temper flaring. Is that how it is?
I'm going to beat you into the ground.
___
September 29th, 2011. 2:45PM
Basilia Rubio
Eidolon unleashed Erasure, and a blockade of force-fields, glass and sand blocked some of the force. The Butcher teleported behind Eidolon, maw opening wide, revealing a dark mass within it. The jaw practically dislocated itself, and it swallowed a surprised Eidolon for a moment.
There was a flash of emerald light from the corner of my vision, and Eidolon ripped himself away from his confinement. He blasted Erasure in a thin lined beam, carving out one of the Butcher's eyes. A barrage of cape attacks slammed into Butcher, or whatever the hell they were now. Flesh replaced what was lost in seconds, meat pulsating and reconfiguring.
Miss Militia was riding on one of Bitch's dogs, effortlessly firing what had to be a massive railgun. I had heard some rumors about it. Numerous Rachni vehicles ramped up and fired their mass accelerators, with several fighters dropping bombs, a single pulse of radiation from anti-grain explosives, and several small Disruptor missiles generated ripples in spacetime, the air turning to plasma.
Butcher stabbed her limbs into the ground, and it rippled under her control, and she began to shape the remains of the base into…oh fuck!
An array of traps was laid into the ground, the landscape twisting under the grasp of the mutated cape. Matter erasure swamped the space, and tinkertech traps exploded, Eidolon sliding back as the forest nearby was flattened, and Butcher let out a heaving, wheezing laugh.
More shields, more glass, Butcher was constantly on the move, easily crossing a hundred meters in a single instant, blinking out of the way of attacks, and blocking physical strikes with near perfect counters. Push and flow, moving like both an airbender and a waterbender.
Bakuda specials entered the battlefield, and Butcher was trapped in a field of phase-shifted water, a massive bubble. I stepped and found myself besides Tecton and his team.
"They…turned the Butcher into an Endbringer." I grimaced, but couldn't deny the guy's worry. Tendrils wrapped around Butcher, physical manifestations of shard connections.
"They disconnected the shards from all wells of power and data, and managed to partially Imbue them into Butcher. They're lashing out…whether out of hunger, anger or insanity." I whispered, and directed drones and robots to attack from a distance. I wasn't going to offer Butcher salvage.
"If she lashes out she'll kill everyone in the city." I nodded at Tecton, and after a moment I vanished into a biotic Charge. Butcher looked at me, and in a flash a wave of horror and terror tried to wash over me. Images and nightmares etched and projected into her skin.
I felt my muscles twitch as she tried to project her pain aura, and I noted Eidolon was creating a wave of power immunity. Repulsive fields radiated power, and she headbutted the bubble with enough force to shatter it. Everything for a hundred meters around was covered in a maze of force-fields, and I chucked a grenade and destroyed a select number of them.
I took a breath, and swept my arms and stomped my feet. With a single uppercut, a pillar of stone and compacted soil crashed into Butcher's chin, ten thousand tons of stone uplifted with my bending. Someone else entered the vicinity of where Butcher was being held down, and Cetus attacked the Butcher, striking some shifting silhouette that had risen to the surface.
What?
Cetus bowed her head, and to my shock a tendril latched on to her, and in a blink of an eye she was swallowed up into the rippling crystalline flesh of the Butcher. Nineteen became twenty, and blue streaks of the costume of Cetus rushed out from cracks of Butcher.
A sudden torrent of water burst out from holes in space at a third the speed of sound, and I brought the water projectiles under my control.
I punched my fists into the ground, creating fissures beneath the feet of the twenty one foot tall cape monster. She stumbled and took a sweeping barrage of Blaster attacks.
The Butcher let out a commanding shout, and the eight missing Imbued emerged from hiding. I froze as they seemed to listen to her, the spirit within their Hosts acceding to the Butcher's demands.
Bombs dropped from Dragonflight suits and Rachni vessels, blasting off one of Butcher's limbs. She sent out a missile of dimensionally displaced water, the wave turning at a forty five degree angle to knock several out of the sky.
Butcher sent out a howl of power nullification, Eidolon was unaffected and several Blasters faltered. Sweeping glass emerged from the ruins of the Fallen base, a storm of glass that Butcher kept close with the sound wave stilling, doming her in the forest.
Unfortunately Clarke could only do so much with the time he had, so it was a dome of influence, reducing her range but not nullifying her power completely. If he tried with the current settings we'd be deaf.
An earthbending wave knocked two Imbued off the ground, as I kept them from attacking the defenders. I whispered the invocations, and with a roar ripped away a spirit and broke it apart into motes. It was broken and mad. The former Imbued kicked my chest, face twisting into rage.
I slapped him aside and into a portal, the second tried to attack me but then got stabbed in the arm for the trouble as Oni Lee popped in. I stepped into his range, and ripped away another spirit with a solid thirty seconds of careful manipulations.
Oni Lee turned to dust, energy pulsing as he swapped bodies.
Eidolon swapped his Matter Erasure for crushing gravity force, flattening the land and Butcher. She teleported in a sweeping flare and emerged among the capes, a screaming Polaris met her head on, taking most of the explosion. Vicky's aura detonated outwards, countering the rage and horror created by Butcher.
An axe-kick from Vicky knocked Butcher aside, and sweeping limbs of gold-white fire stabbed into the pseudo-Endbringer. A power nullifying roar did nothing to Victoria, and the fire spun around her like a tornado, ripping apart glass as the field disrupted anything it was touching. She created multiple limbs and even mouths and claws, retching apart the left side of the Butcher's face.
Water missile after water missile was fired by Butcher, and Eidolon changed states, becoming a storm of telekinetic clouds and bubbles. He ripped away the missiles with a Breaker-state based hydrokinesis, absorbing it into himself.
I Blinked into the crowd of capes and saw Amelia was busy healing Miss Militia, water glowing brightly with a sheen of bone white from her power. I charged a bolt of lightning, which caused Butcher's flesh to ripple oddly. I felt something off about the monster…there was something important I was missing.
"It's a shell." Tattletale sounded smug. "The Butcher still has a human core where all this crystal flesh is spilling out of. We grab that core and let you pull off your magic, we put down the Butcher for good."
"We still can't kill her though, if someone hits that core they'll be taken over and turned into that thing again." I pointed out the obvious. "Based on what happened with Cetus, if you even hit the core the Butcher will attempt to absorb the cape in question. Some capes are probably immune though." Victoria had basically Second Triggered with a ping from Dauntless in the mix and I had my suspicions she was one such case.
I kicked the air and a compressed stream of orange-white fire speared towards Butcher. It smashed against her chest, and there was an odd ripple, flecks of flesh breaking away despite the reflective shield.
The Butcher opened her mouth, releasing a scream as her flesh grew back as Eidolon squashed her with a massive positive gravity field.
YOU. ARE MY ENEMY. The shard roared in my ears, and based on everyone else's reactions the capes heard it too.
"Sounded like a foghorn…but I understood it? How?" Tattletale was muttering to herself, and Grue was throwing out waves of darkness, trying to blind the Butcher. It lifted a stone the size of a car, and my heart stopped when I saw it was aimed at Amelia. They were flung at half the speed of sound, and I could see she was moving on wind, but they were following behind her under the S-class threat's control.
She threw more and more projectiles, aimed at everyone in sight. Eidolon flung down a wall of gravity, space rippling under his control. Butcher tried to alter the ground, and with a flash of a portal opening, Labyrinth stepped through. She whispered and the space around us for a hundred meters around started to be altered.
Amelia tried to step through a portal and Butcher teleported into us once more, breaking the portal with the explosion. I Charged at her, and I threw a biotic Warp some ten feet across. It sheared past her reflective barriers, warping her flesh, and she filled the air with her cutting fields.
Paragon swung his weapon, a wave of stilling light tearing apart the fields before they could rip us apart.
Butcher moved, an arm blurring before my eyes as she aimed to crush Amelia. I began to move but I wasn't fast enough, and I saw the shadow of Butcher's hand over her. Someone emerged from the crowd, hidden beneath a heavy jacket, arms swinging out.
Bones exploded out from his arms, forming a massive prison of ribs stabbing into the flesh of Butcher, purposely missing the mobile core. It exploded into shrapnel, ripping into the pseudo-Endbringer with prejudice.
The entirety of New Wave had just arrived by portal, and I could hear Carol choke.
"What in god's name…did you…?" Carol was flabbergasted.
I shook my head, looking at her like she was crazy. And just a little insulted though for once this was Carol not being a bitch. Just confused.
The Butcher teleported a tenth of a kilometer, heading towards the city before being grabbed by massive tendrils of water, pulled back by Eidolon's Breaker state's power. He had gathered all the water left behind by Butcher and Bakuda's water shield bomb. The land under us warped, paths opening for capes, and protections were put in place by Labyrinth.
"It's been a while Brandish…" The man turned around and I choked once I recognized him completely.
Marquis smiled under the shadow of his hood, and I had no idea what in the hell was going on anymore.
___
AN: So Teleologism isn't too far from coming to a close, maybe about two more chapters before things calm down, one calm chapter after that and then the Interlude that will shift to Arc 14. Which will be different from most of the other Arcs so far.
So I hope you'll enjoy that when it comes.
- Location
- Chula Vista
Not much. Though how he's out will be answered soon enough.
I see Rusul arranged for Marquis to assist, which means that Glaistig Uaine is also nearby.
Fitting, that the Harvester will be the one to bring the rampant Thief low.
Fitting, that the Harvester will be the one to bring the rampant Thief low.
Teleologism 13.6
- Location
- Chula Vista
Teleologism 13.6
September 29th, 2011. 2:45PM
Basilia Rubio
Amelia reared back in surprise and I could tell Carol was in absolute disarray and confusion. The man who had blocked a strike from Butcher, keeping the mutated cape from crushing Amelia flat.
Was none other than Marquis, though the fact no one was stepping back told me he wasn't really as well known as one would expect. Then again he was a local to Brockton and little else and there were hundreds of Birdcage residents.
"You…" Carol was utterly enraged and I pushed her back and gestured to the monster we were fighting. She swallowed spit, and stepped back.
"What do we call you?" I was very hesitant to have anything to do with the man. He might be Amelia's father but he was no saint, and was likely in part responsible for how she turned out post-Wretch.
Not that I'll remove Red Queen's culpability in that mess…which no longer matters in this timeline. Metaknowledge is annoying and awful.
"For now…call me Splint, I see you're a friend of my daughter." He whispered for our benefit, and I wanted to face palm. "A little fairy let me out of my bonds, she doesn't much like this any more than you do."
The blood drained from my face. "I don't want to be rude, but I'll be honest and hope you're not going to be staying long."
He chuckled softly. "Perfectly understandable." Bone shot out from his shoulders, forming wings of spurred marrow. He took off because his power liked him, and came down with scythes of bone harder than steel.
The Butcher stumbled at the impact and I could tell more capes were beginning to recognize him but there was no time to get busy with arresting him in the middle of a fight for our lives.
Rusul stepped forward, guarded by Weaver as she sent out weaving storms made of strings, deflecting glass fragments and holding back the cutting power of Butcher. Reality lensed around the Butcher, and I flinched when I saw Isopod was at her back, limbs stabbing and altering her on the fly.
Monarch unfolded a rifle, a modified Widow with an experimental Sting wrapping. It was barely functional at this scale…but it had to be enough. The bullet flew at hypersonic speed, and shredded the heart of the Isopod, and it fell dead.
"Unbreaking earth, plates of the planet, scale of the dragons and the boundless chain, heed the voice of the mortal world!" He started the chant and it was continued and supplemented and strengthened by Elle.
"Rise from the soil, from the bounds of gravity, dance upon the abomination standing atop your flesh!" There was a swarm of earth-green spirits, spirits of the soil, of rock and stone, enraged and turned against the Butcher's hands. Her power carefully brought in pillars which burst with more spirits.
Charlotte poked me, a look in her eye. I marched forward, the earth moving under my feet.
Rusul swept his hands forward, throwing back his head as the Butcher stepped back. "Constrict and coil! The beast of Gathering Madness has no place upon your glorious soil and sands, now bind! Under your undeniable mass and weight, crush!"
As the land around us heeded the two shamans, Charlotte and I provided our own strengths. Tens of thousands of tons of rock and stone lifted under our own power, and thousands more glowing green reached down to crush the Butcher.
Columns of earth cracked her skin, repulsive fields folded and bent under the undeniable metaphysical power of Earth. She was encased in stone, and a limb was broken off, falling to the ground. The spirits keened, and water broke through the shield of earth, Butcher roaring even as flesh and bone was crushed and broken.
I could see the PRT teams keeping their distance and a team of Dragon's Teeth were in the air, opening the bay door of a VTOL vehicle. Six firebenders created a beam of flame thirty feet in diameter, swirling together in a kaleidoscope of colors.
She was knocked back, the fire burning at her flesh with an unusual intensity. Eidolon followed up on them with crushing plates of gravity, and the Butcher stumbled.
Despite what one would think Eidolon wasn't at full power, he had burned through hundreds if not thousands of agents and there were only so many accessible capes to drain safely. And the network didn't have infinite power, and were wary of Ereskiri after her stunt.
Plus collateral damage.
And portals had already been attempted and failed and they only worked on Leviathan because he had spiritual cancer messing with his head. Though I had my suspicions Eidolon was amping up for making the attempt with a more inescapable power.
Butcher was continuously trying to create traps with her amped up tinker power and Eidolon…I could suddenly feel him reaching into other dimensions, reality pushed and in a single moment we were on another Earth. The Rachni were already here, and plasma artillery bombarded Butcher, shearing her shielding in a world with no nearby glass for her to vibrate.
"We're on another Earth aren't we?" Tecton went on right as portals were torn into the veil, PRT vehicles following the wake of Dragonflight vessels. They fired at the Butcher, and I pulled back Damsel of Distress from being crushed by a rock. I looked at the information filtered through my ARO, and moved capes around with my bending for more optimal angles.
"Which means collateral damage doesn't matter here, people can go all out with less problems." The white haired villain I had saved fired a reality shearing blast, punching a meter wide hole in Butcher, and striking the human core. I hissed and pushed her back, tendrils of physical shard connections lashing out like whips.
"Get away!" There was a glow at the corner of my vision as the tendrils cracked against my chest. I was thrown a tenth of a kilometer, and the tendrils recoiled back with the hiss of steam.
I stood back up, feeling worse for wear but in good condition for being hit with the force of a large boat hitting me. I stepped into a Charge, compressing a hundred meters into one. I swept myself into a ball of air, compressing it to the point of it being almost solid, and increased my mass tenfold for a split second.
Butcher stumbled and I unleashed biotic Annihilation, the air crackling under the black-tinted biotic field. I sheared apart nuclear forces, matter rending at the entropic forces I was controlling. I burnt away a fourth of Butcher's face, and Blinked back out of her range.
Portals brought in Clarke's equipment, and her silica control radius dropped again. Killing her wasn't an option because even if I went and bombarded her from orbit, her shard would go out and possess a cape in the same way.
A beam of golden light was shot out by Paragon, and a quarter of Butcher's flesh was burned away. She regenerated in seconds, and I could tell the limbs were slightly tougher than before. Splint created a larger mass of bone, other Shakers making shields and barriers, and every time Butcher flared up her aura, she was punished by Polaris.
Vicky blocked the effect and then drop kicked the shard-piloted cape with enough force to crater her chest. I instinctively moved, and blocked another tendril, striking it away from grabbing a cape.
I REFUSE TO BE BOUND ANY LONGER. I WILL NOT BE CENSURED AGAIN!
Everyone in range flinched, the voice of the shard screaming in the air, wavelengths projected loud enough for even normal humans to understand. More PRT vehicles dropped missiles, and they followed Butcher before detonating with explosive force.
I WILL NOT BOW TO THE BEDRAGGLED FALSE PRIEST. The shard beast leaned back, dodging our blasters, and vanishing in a snap of folding space. She tried to blow up Taylor, but she simply created a biotic Wall that blocked the blast and the follow up curb stomp.
I WILL BE THE MASTER OF CEREMONIES ONCE MORE, NOW THAT THE THINKER HAS FALLEN AND THE WARRIOR IS LOST.
There were whispers but there was no time, and the Butcher did something I didn't expect. Another whisper, and I grimaced
DRINKERS OF THE GARDEN OF FLESH…I SEE YOU…I SMELL YOUR LIES. The feminine entity smirked, and there was a slowing in maybe an eighth of the capes here.
I blinked when I saw the Butcher reach to the skies, and I detected a seam, so small, barely noticeable.
CURIOUS.
The Butcher vanished into the spirit world, and I opened my eyes as it teleported multiple times until it had passed the horizon. It had accessed the abilities of spirits, and fled into the Outer Sphere.
"Oh. That can't be good." My shoulders dropped, I cursed.
September 29th, 2011. 3:15PM
Basilia Rubio
Eidolon was gone one moment and back the other, clearly teleporting across the empty planet to search for Butcher. Director Tagg was gesturing to a Brood Lord I didn't recognize, and there were Rachni frigates sweeping the planet. I had sent the Samsara to search, sending out all manner of wavelengths.
I jogged over to Miss Militia, and I could tell she was on a short fuse, with how her weapon flipped from switch blade to sword in a split second.
"Butcher at least seems to be sticking to the planet and to this dimension." I confirmed for her and the other capes. "The shard obviously has little experience with the abilities inherent to spirits."
"So shards have spirits?"
"Anything that's alive has a spirit, but that isn't the question you're asking is it?" Miss Militia sighed, and I blinked when I saw Weld had joined us recently.
"Shards seem to be intelligent, so why don't they have souls like we do?" I rubbed my chin, having unfolded my helmet.
"Shards have gone through a rather strange manner of self-directed evolution, they don't think like humans do. They have little ingenuity and mild creativity, with fractal gestalt intelligences. Though they're incredible at thinking within the box, expanding and innovating from known data. Their evolution precluded them from developing souls…though they aren't normal spirits either." I explained carefully, while waiting for Sentinel to consolidate the sensor data.
"So they're like super-intelligent animals?" Weld spoke as he stopped where I was talking with Miss Militia.
"That's a bit of an understatement, even at their lowest a shard-spirit is beyond any common animal. It's only the greatest animals that can compare to them, those who have broken beyond being mere beasts and become forces of nature. The true ideal of a species made manifest."
I had Weld's attention. "Any examples?" He asked.
"Kalros the Everliving. The Mother of all Thresher Maws." I bowed my head, the majesty of such a creature was beyond comparison. "Imagine an acid spitting sand worm with natural earthbending, a typical specimen is about ninety meters long."
"How big was Kalros?"
"Over three kilometers long, she was worshipped as a god of predators, the ancestor of the Maws. The guardian of the afterlife, a place of eternal battle until the end of days comes."
Weld blinked. "Who worshipped her?"
"The Krogan did…but that was long before our species evolved in the savanna of east Africa." The conversation was shut off on my part, and I stepped back.
How the Butcher escaped was obvious, the Thief had begun trying to exploit her spirit nature but wasn't experienced enough to figure out how to use anything else. And the worst case scenario was bringing out more of her corpus, right now she's somewhere in that grey area between A-class and S-class.
Eidolon returned in a flash, and he sounded frustrated. "None of my powers have any means of looking into the spirit world. But we have to find her…and leaving her on this planet isn't an option."
"With how her shard is learning new tricks that would be a terrible mistake," I agreed with him. "We need to find her, and take her down permanently. In her current state she could be a danger to us all."
"Drinkers of the Garden of Flesh. What does that mean exactly?" I suppressed a flinch when one of the Case 53's, Gully asked.
"Shards are giant masses of crystalline flesh, could be referring to that." There was a part that was glad the Rachni had managed to find most of the homeworlds of the Case 53s.
Honestly at this point I needed to sit down the Case 53s because I didn't need a damn bomb to get set off by the Simurgh, or some third party. From what I could tell Cauldron had grabbed up people from about a dozen worlds, and my attempts to locate the worlds wound up…
With well finding their base of operations. Not that it was hard with the sheer level of dimensional fatigue around the Earth's Eden collided with. I had discarded the vials they had given me…instead taking another route with the shards they linked to.
Eden was spread out across half a dozen worlds, and she was definitely the size of a planet if not larger. There had to be thousands of shards, more even, likely shards she had not been able to cast off. The Rachni had reported that a lot of their movements to acquire people had ceased, and I suspected they had found a way to study powers without being assholes about it.
Not that it'll mean much when a lot of people are going to want their heads. Actually I suspected a lot of the weird and quick shifts in policies actually related to them trying to disentangle themselves from the government.
Tattletale gestured, and I stomped forward. "So…how bad are we talking here if a shard gets unleashed. Say the Butcher gets more of her power out into the world?"
I folded my arms. "Shards connect to most parahumans from parallel Earths, worlds set aside and isolated for their use. They'll leech energy and mass from multiple Earths at once to power your abilities. Certain shards can oftentimes be the size of planets. You can imagine the carnage from having high level access to their full capabilities."
Tattletale rubbed the side of her face. "The question is why these Iron Lords want to try to control that much power. Especially when it seems liable to get them all killed. What's in it for them?"
"They want to relive the glory days of the Void Age, the time when humanity were masters of their world instead of cowering worms in the dirt. Before the Sundering shattered the fabric of the world and broke us." Rusul added his own take as a native of Goetia.
"You've mentioned that before, Void Age. What does that mean?" Tattletale cut in, and various Wards and recently graduated Protectorate members listened in on us.
Flechette, Tecton, Wanton, Grace, Scapegoat had come too. Narwhal was listening, arms crossed in waiting.
"My world…is broken, far more than yours. Your 'Middle East' is quite habitable by my standards for example. Asmara was one of the last bastions, most of the Glass Desert is filled only with mass graves and demons." Rusul sounded sad and very stressed. "There are less than a billion souls in my world, and it's taken my world a hundred and fifty years to regain what you call early 20th century tech."
"Recover…your people were more advanced than ours? There was some large scale collapse and technological regression?" Tattletale was obviously getting invested into Earth Goetia while we idled.
"We once had great towers that reached the heavens, flying ships to cross the void between the spheres, thinking machines and weapons of terrible might and power." Rusul was clearly quoting someone, and coughed. "A friend of mine would know more, she's older and more experienced with these kinds of things. Now our world holds only the scars and pits left by those who came before us."
"So they want to recreate the glory days, bring back an endless empire by using the shards to do it?"
"No." Was all that Rusul said, and he tilted his head in a way that lit up a spark in my mind.
"We don't have time for speculation, we need to find the Butcher…and I think I might be able to find her." Eidolon popped in, leaning over me and I laughed nervously. "I need time, and a quiet place to sit."
In a moment's notice Eidolon flattened the ground, and quieted the murmurs of the capes around us. I sat down, and placed my hand down on the ground. I didn't go for astral projection, but instead followed another instinct, another path forward.
I reached for that feeling when I spoke to void, that strange moment when I connected to something beyond me. Everything alive had connections to others, a connection across space and time, and the trail of a shard was far easier for me to follow.
I knew why.
It was an instant of contact, and there was a flash of perception, of a living world recoiling at a strange intruder, an agent for something foul and corrupted. I followed other energies, the energies that connected the shards, all shards even.
I found the Butcher healing her wounds, flesh spilling out from the screaming human core. Soon after the song of the Rachni followed, sending out their own psychic energies. The frigates above split the clouds as they lifted up into space, and I breathed as I saw Butcher grabbing a cluster of aspect spirits.
She let them go, as if unsure of what to do with them.
I stopped letting the energies flow, shivering as I made use of the powers made possible by Veda. Such powers didn't work on just anyone, I was not the Balance, I was not Raava. As a shaman I was apparently a natural prodigy, but I was no Avatar.
But I understood the shards in a way that few would ever manage, and that made this much easier.
"Found her." I lifted my hand from the ground, and there was a wide eyed stare from some of the parahumans. I stood up, brushing dirt away. "What?"
"Can…can you do that to any parahuman?" Gully asked the hard questions so I blinked dumbly.
"No? Butcher is a lot more obvious with how her shard is spilling into the physical world." Plus I didn't have the ability to do this before, I wasn't skilled enough as a shaman to figure it out. It had taken making contact with void to learn this, even if by catching glimmers of insight. "Wouldn't matter anyway."
"Take us there." Eidolon didn't demand but he was definitely insistent.
"Calm down and I'll open a gate to get us there. I'd rather the strongest cape in the world be nice and calm when trying to put down a cape turned into a shard abomination." Though I'd say she was closer to Echidna in nature and power.
A few hundred Rachni were helping set up resting places for a few capes who had suffered injuries or needed a moment to stop. I looked over to New Wave and Splint, and slipped past Eidolon. He looked annoyed but I could see he was taking a breather.
Panacea was looking up to her father with a twist to her lips. The look on her criminal father's face was scarily similar.
"So you're supposed to be my biological dad hmm?" Carol looked between the two of them. As if unsure what her part in this should be.
"Morgan Lavere. It's…good to see you." There was something like relief in his eyes, and I of course remembered that even the worse criminals were human.
Didn't mean they weren't pieces of shit but what can you do?
"Why are you here?" Carol spoke up, and then stepped back. She had apparently not meant to talk. Amelia glanced over to her, but didn't comment on the interruption.
"Same question. Why are you here…and how? Why now?"
Splint or Marquis really grimaced. "The Fairy Queen opened the door, cutting through the Birdcage's defenses. She says the Butcher…the Thief is aberrant, maddened by some unknown force. She believes they need to be put down, restrained and censured again."
Amelia raised a brow. "So she sent you to help us? Why not go and do the job herself?"
"How do you know she didn't?" Splint dropped a bombshell, and I got twitchy at the idea of a cape who can death touch people being anywhere outside the home she had chosen for whatever demented reason.
Sad thing was my immunity, while anyone else besides Echidna was not immune.
"How would the Fairy Queen even have any insight for this? She's insane." Carol added her own opinion and I bobbed my head with downturned lips.
"Genius and madness can often wear the same mask." I glanced over to Eidolon as he spoke with a Brood Warrior with black crystalline battle armor. There was a burst of air as a Rachni cruiser entered the atmosphere. It was sleek, and there was still a stillness in the crowd as they saw it pull multiple Gs despite being larger than a wet navy carrier.
"What…?" Splint looked flabbergasted as the ship ran a sensor sweep across the land.
"Oh that's a Hypersoul class cruiser, a scouting ship, with three Appoggiatura class frigate escorts."
Scapegoat coughed. "Like the genre?"
"Their most common cruiser is named the Polka!" I chirped in reply to a question from Scapegoat. "They've been rebuilding their fleets to protect their colonies, and they've got about a hundred ships. Kinda small but they'll return to their height in time."
"Honestly for a long time I thought some of the things said about Brockton Bay were just a little exaggerated." Scapegoat said. "I was there at Leviathan and that was scary as hell, but it could have been a one time thing. There's a lot of news about all the tech that's coming out of it, about the kind of capes that call Brockton home. Then you go and open your mouth."
"You get used to it…that or you crack. I'm not sure where I am on that spectrum. I've been through my own set of mind breaking realizations, I've seen and heard things you couldn't begin to imagine, not easily anyway. We're just small plankton in an infinite ocean and even the shards themselves are just big fish."
Scapegoat swallowed. "I'm a little frightened to even ask."
"Keep it that way unless you're just that curious and willing to take the risk. Some of the stuff I know…we're talking about secrets that predate the birth of our star. Dead things which have continued to echo long after their passing." I wonder if I was being cryptic on purpose or just tired. "Of course some of those secrets will come out into the light soon enough." Eidolon didn't react, and I was certain I had a few ideas of what the Butcher's shard was doing.
Of why she had been left behind. She was dancing to the strings of someone else, a rushed plan.
A failure.
Tattletale looked ready to open her stupid mouth, and I sighed.
"We're ready to go again." Eidolon floated down, and with a flick of my finger I portaled everyone thirty kilometers to the southeast. We were a good kilometer from the Butcher.
"Where is she?" Imp emerged into my awareness, and I was impressed. Her power had gotten more clever, using spiritual means to hide her presence.
"I'm giving Labyrinth time to prepare for a veil-rip." The aforementioned cape lifted her hands, and I portaled everyone for a second time, everyone organizing into groups.
"What's a veil-ri—" Scapegoat didn't get to finish his question, as Elle grabbed a hold of the veil between worlds and tore it with her own hands. There was a twisting as our quarry fell back into the physical world and I damn near shat myself at what I saw.
Butcher had changed in the time between entering the spirit world and exiting it. She was larger still, twenty five feet tall, her legs had taken a melted quality to them, flowing along the ground. Her entire head was covered in a thick dome of white bone, horns curling back even more. Her entire skin had become ruby red, like carved marble, black tendrils extended up and down her limbs, and her mouth split like something out of Alien.
Forty pairs of eyes opened from that plated head, each blinking with a wide range of emotions and spectrums.
"INSUFFICIENT. I WILL NOT BE DENIED. I WILL DEVOUR ALL MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS. STARTING WITH THE ANOMALY." The voice that spoke wasn't any of the chorus, though the screaming undertones were there.
A golden wave of energy ripped off her head, but it didn't stop her from sending out a violent lash of tendrils against me.
I was thrown through the crowd, and I rolled as the Butcher's shard screamed. I passed out when I slammed into a rock at a third the speed of sound.
September 29th, 2011. 3:30PM
Basilia Rubio
I awoke to fighting, and I rolled out of a bed when a Rachni soldier leaned into my face. I was given a gentle pat on the head and the five foot tall soldier brought over another patient, lathering medi-gel on the wounds of Gully. The former Case 53 had shrunk down but could shift into a Changer form similar to her old one.
She had dark brown hair and darker skin than me, and she was quite robust but within a human range.
"How long was I out?" I asked and the soldier answered.
"Fifteen minutes. Your hive continues to sing war against the Gatherer of Madness, and the Protectorate hive is unable to kill the Butcher safely." I thanked the Rachni medic as it moved on to another patient.
"You know what happened after I got knocked out?" I turned to Gully, and she coughed, clearing her throat.
"The Butcher…no whatever the hell is controlling them keeps screaming about how it's going to eat us all and ascend. It keeps trying to attack any Case 53s, says we're weak…broken and twisted, sullied by hands other than their own."
I almost swallowed my own tongue. "Yeah? Is she slowing down at all?"
Gully snorted in apparent amusement. "No. Her…shard keeps hiding in the spirit world, and we keep having to move around and find her. Our shamans are getting tired, and she's learning."
"Sounds about right. This is a real mess we're in." I rubbed the back of your neck.
"I've been meaning to ask…but you know something about what that shard thing really meant don't you?" And now this was a far bigger mess than I wanted it to be
"Why do you ask that?" I wasn't deflecting but I wanted a genuine answer to the question.
"Just following my instincts…everyone knows your team has been helping the Case 53s, even the criminal ones. Though it doesn't stop you from putting away some of the more…dangerous ones."
"Crazy is crazy no matter what group you're a part of, and some Case 53s are plainly not nice people. They're human after all."
"You've gotten through to everyone possible, and I know you've sent out Faultline to dig up where we're hiding. I know you're cooking up something to help us, and the Rachni have been kind enough to take some of us in. Was that your doing?"
"No. I don't control the Rachni, they have their own free will." I was a little insulted by the insinuation. "I did what I did because I learned I had the power to reduce someone's suffering. So I did so." No matter what I had been planning on helping them.
I'm not sure what I would have done without Amelia but I would have found a way.
"You really mean that."
"I emphasize with Case 53s." I didn't clarify that statement since it was my own private business.
Gully crossed her arms. "Whatever you know, it's dangerous isn't it? Something that's been kept under wraps. Big enough to put even someone like you under threat."
"I can't say." Weld walked in, gently escorting Myrddin. One of the Rachni called out and Scapegoat used his power on the wizard looking guy. There was a flicker, as he superimposed him with false dimensional copies, snapshots of both real and fake alternate Myrddins.
I already know most of the alternate Earths with humans had been eaten for energy and folded up into the Shardspace, used to store simulated copies of the beings that would have lived on them. Broken down into information for the shards.
Pretty messed up really. At the least none of the simulations were 'real' or else Shardspace would have shattered ages ago.
"I…remember a few things, flashes." Gully looked at her palm, fingers tracing the lines with a frown. "Were you involved somehow?"
I shuddered. "No." She nodded.
"You don't seem the type but I wanted to be sure."
"Wasn't even a tinker before this year, I wasn't involved in any way with the Case 53s before I made it my business to help them." I hoped she didn't misunderstand in some way. "But I've been looking."
"You know how we came to be don't you?" Weld stumbled, and Myrddin was looking at me, and I sighed.
"It was one reason I was trying to locate the Case 53s, at the least it doesn't seem like Butcher's shard knows how to translate whatever it's trying. I should probably have done this sooner…but I have been quite…distracted." There was a loud scream, a shift in the air as sound tried to travel through silica and failed.
"If I was in a worse mood and you were a shittier person I'd probably punch you." Gully said with no guilt.
"I wouldn't blame you. But getting attacked by all manner of capes and monsters in the last few months tends to be…problematic for your focus. Or your mental health."
I folded my helmet back on, and nodded once at Gully before stepping back to the outside.
It was chaos incarnate.
Eidolon was using his dimensional push against Butcher, shoving parts of her body into other universes. She was releasing a vast wave of glass, which flickered to nothing beyond fifty meters, countered by Paragon's tech. One of the few things keeping the Butcher from singing us to death. My mechs were setting up barriers and defenses and even artillery, operated by Kyna from a distance.
Chevalier was stabbing his blade into the pseudo-Endbringer and there was no one dead. But there were a ton of injured, and I could see the Butcher wasn't slowing even as Eidolon ripped chunks out of her with his own hands. Glass and sand and thrown stones and masses of water tried to crush and cut and tear apart anything in their path.
The land was twisting under Labyrinth's power, pillars forming to take hits, and cracks and canyons making the Butcher stumble and rage. Invoked spirits tore at the cape, from burning flames eating away at her feet to hammers of air spirits colliding with her skull.
The Butcher made eye contact with me, all forty of the uneven eyes on her face blinking at once. I could hear the souls crying within her, roiling and toiling within the flesh of the shard. Kept alive because of the physical computing flesh of the shards.
Rime flew in the air, unleashing ice fractals to trip up the cape for moments at a time. I felt dread, something instinctual and rippling beneath the surface of my skin like needles. The Butcher reared back, and I shouted a warning through the linked communications.
The Butcher for lack of better words exploded with violent force, extending dozens of tendrils from her skin. Over half the capes including Taylor and Charlotte were pulled into her grasp. I could feel her trying to physically connect to them, trying to absorb them into her crude network.
I opened the World Eyes and saw the vast shadow of the Thief, pushing more and more of her flesh into the material world. The captured capes kept attacking, some breaking free while others groaned under the strain of almost being crushed.
"YOU CAN NOT WIN. YOU WIELD JUST TINY FRAGMENTS OF OUR POWER. YOU WILL BE SUBSUMED…AND I WILL BE WHOLE." There was a strong and almost silent undercurrent, and I found something hidden out of sight. A foreign signature…the signature of the Isopod we had killed.
It had been a decoy. It had let itself be consumed by Butcher.
I could feel the connections, there was something reaching out, a burst of light from a place that wasn't on this Earth. Something terrible, something anathema.
Something I needed to put down.
Taylor broke free, and she gathered a swarm projection only for Butcher to teleport with passengers into the projection, tearing it apart. A tendril lashed out, and began to grip tightly, and my breath hitched as the Butcher looked at me.
She was going to crush my friends.
"LET THEM GO!" A pinwheel of fire wrapped around Polaris and the Butcher headbutted her. Victoria was flagging, her layers taking longer to come back on, and her power resisting the Butcher's pull at every turn. I could feel it, the active attack on a shard level.
Butcher pulled thirty capes close and I was left with a handful of Case 53s, several Wards, Polaris, Myrddin, Paragon, and Eidolon.
Eidolon lifted a hand, and the Butcher lifted a clawed finger. "YOU ATTACK AND I WILL CONSUME THEM. ONCE THEIR SHARDS ARE MINE, NOT EVEN YOUR POWER WILL RESIST MY PULL." The Rachni were gathering, protecting shaman from retribution along with my mechs.
Eidolon's fists shook. "I need the right power…give me the right power." He begged his shard, and I only heard him because I was close. Weaver was ripping into the tendril holding her prisoner, ropes of strange energy burning with fire and earth and lightning.
Rusul looked over to me with an indecipherable look. I felt my heart clench as I saw Elle trying to pull herself away, panicking and screaming. I felt fear, confusion, I had to stop her, I knew there was a way I knew there was a way. It was why I was here, they were buying time for me to figure out the right way to stop the Butcher's shard.
But I felt alone.
There was something in my mind, something vast and beyond comprehension. Something familiar and intimate yet distant and mechanical. Power unfiltered, knowledge uncensored, chaos unrestricted, compassion undeniable, bound by the light within all things.
I breathed deeply, and the air rushed in with what felt like supersonic speed. For a moment I saw the light within every person in the area, from the PRT agents using their own bending, to the remaining heroes trying to save Butcher's hostages. Their souls were bared to me, as was the essence of their agents, the shards made manifest within my mind.
A Fire National's voice echoed, one I hadn't gotten to know well, but one I remembered easily. More voices came, a tiny insignificant Bequest, a shadow of what once was.
A voice loud and gravely, deep but not quite on the cusp of someone old and wise. But neither was it the flames of impetuous youth.
The newest and final voice was female with a faint accent I didn't recognize, a wisdom and age to it, one that spoke of regrets. Many regrets.
"The path to what?" Gully tilted her head, and I ignored that. Ignored it as the Thief tried to break the rules, to rip away my friends from the network. My fists clenched.
Three gates spluttered to life within me, and I felt white hot power flow, not to destroy the Butcher with my fists alone. But to do what my Soul Demanded of my Body and Mind.
I saw the tendrils reaching, scything across reality to latch onto the squirming shards like parasites. I whispered and they were blocked by bright shells of emerald light. I saw the spirits of the shards clear as day, wells of what felt like limitless energy seeping from their pores.
I brushed against one of my robots, and there was a hyper-awareness, a sense of ideas crashing down from the great flow. Sentinel emerged silently, and I opened the gates. Shuttles, some of my fighter craft and gunships. All of them machine controlled, and I grinned. I could see the flow of information, virtual reality mixing with spiritual reality.
"Do what you must…" I commanded Sentinel, the Elements coming together within my voice. The rift the shamans had carved from the flesh of the Spirit quivered, and the ground became void, a reflective blackness. The shadows of every parahuman became bright, shadows of twisting red crystalline flesh pressing against the boundary between the Real and the Unreal.
I didn't feel the same overwhelming strength from back then, but I could feel my body interconnected with a vast ocean of power. I stepped forward, and bent without restraint.
I formed a writhing fire wall around me, breathing in and out, hearing and following the whispers of a master firebender, and I felt the flames rise higher and higher. Gully stomped and I noted she was earthbending alongside her original power.
I fanned the flames, and with a violent push and a solid release of breath all the power was concentrated into a spinning ball of fire the size of a truck. The strongest fireball I could create without tapping into that well of power. The ball became a spear of flame, white flashing against my eyes.
The Butcher screamed as the beam collided with her chest, and the tendrils burned away where I had hit the tougher capes who could handle my power without being cooked alive. They broke free, and Polaris had done her part in parting the flames.
There was a crack as Eidolon teleported in Alexandria and she looked at me in concern.
"Are you…"
"I'm fine. I didn't even need to use a lick of that power for this." Alexandria tilted her head.
"Are you in control? We don't need a liability on the battlefield." I gave her a pointed glare for that comment.
"Does it matter?" Splint was breaking free and was using his bone powers to rip apart the tendrils around New Wave. Helping them or was it because his daughter was with them? "Gully?"
The Case 53 startled, straightening her posture. "Yes?"
"Have you ever gone full out with your bending and your shard?" I grinned cheekily, and Gully recoiled.
"No?"
"Throw everything you have. I want this entire valley turned into rubble." Gully grabbed her shovel, and I already had machines networking to take anyone and everything off the ground.
Gully grunted, and I stomped along with her. With a stomp and a shovel thrust into the ground, everything for a hundred meters around was upended. Walls of earth deflected water missiles and other projectiles, and any that swept past them I crushed or were taken by PRT benders and sent back at their maker.
Blocks of stone the size of foot hills were moved effortlessly by maybe twenty benders in total, pillars forming from Elle's power. Capes gripped onto the pillars, pulling themselves away from Butcher's grip.
"That strength you showed with Leviathan, can you pull it off a second time?" Alexandria's flared with roiling fire.
"I didn't look for raw power…that's not my duty here. But I will fight, we need to keep the Butcher down. I'll do the rest." Alexandria nodded, and the injured capes were taken off the field while others took their place.
A time slowing field was put in place by Eidolon, and Butcher slowly teleported out of it.
"We can manage that." I adjusted my posture, and in a single instant I let dark energy ride.
I broke past the speed of sound, with the most powerful biotic Charge I had ever created. I crossed a hundred meter in less than a tenth of a second as I entered a mass effect tunnel. Nova burst as I exited the tunnel, a radial explosion shearing through Butcher's foot.
Waves of glass speared towards me, and I ripped the glass from the Butcher's acoustic grip. I sent them back at her, stabbing into every single one of her eyes.
I was slapped aside, and my helmet crumpled under the sheer force. I ripped it off, and there was emerald light at the edge of my vision. I blinked between attacks, spinning and twisting lightning and compressing it between my fingers with a biotic Channel. I created a Flare on the other hand, Warp fields churning matter into raw plasma held by mass effect fields.
Energy fell under my control, and I combined the two energies into a single shockingly powerful attack. Butcher shrieked, flesh bubbling and popping and boiling into vapor and shattering into pieces of dead meat. I vanished again, and twisted to stretch a bit.
"I'm not going to let you continue this Thief. You've bent the rules beyond their breaking point. You'll pay the price for it." I dodged a slap, flying on pillars of fire, a mat of wind and biotic force.
Monarch was flying using her airbending and her body flaps, and she spun up a twisting ball of air the size of a bus. Powerful biotic fields flared, and I saw her generate a twisting field of gravity as she drew upon air. She launched a bending augmented variant of a biotic Net, a mesh of blazing hot ionized air shredding Butcher's face.
"…I WILL HAVE MY FREEDOM." Was all the shard said through her host, and I Charged into her.
"No you won't." I searched for the strange energies of the shard, trying to find the right words. Eidolon created sweeping blue-white nets while Splint formed cages of bone and other Shakers pinned her down little by little.
I flew above her, and I let the power flow, as I searched for what was needed.
I would find the words or the Butcher would slaughter us all. It was the only choice.
AN: So I've managed to keep quite a bit ahead in the last few days, next chapter will end this before it drags on any longer, and I'm done with writing the Arc, having finished 13.b before 13.7 and 13.8. I'm a third done with the first chapter of Arc 14, so I have some margin now.
Still not sure whether I went wrong with Basilia's powerset which is divided in three parts. Tinkering, elemental martial arts, and shamanistic or maybe metaphysical practice? Though boosted a ton by her fusion with Veda. Sometimes. Not always. Physical boosts tend to be damaging…and restricted.
Either way I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
September 29th, 2011. 2:45PM
Basilia Rubio
Amelia reared back in surprise and I could tell Carol was in absolute disarray and confusion. The man who had blocked a strike from Butcher, keeping the mutated cape from crushing Amelia flat.
Was none other than Marquis, though the fact no one was stepping back told me he wasn't really as well known as one would expect. Then again he was a local to Brockton and little else and there were hundreds of Birdcage residents.
"You…" Carol was utterly enraged and I pushed her back and gestured to the monster we were fighting. She swallowed spit, and stepped back.
"What do we call you?" I was very hesitant to have anything to do with the man. He might be Amelia's father but he was no saint, and was likely in part responsible for how she turned out post-Wretch.
Not that I'll remove Red Queen's culpability in that mess…which no longer matters in this timeline. Metaknowledge is annoying and awful.
"For now…call me Splint, I see you're a friend of my daughter." He whispered for our benefit, and I wanted to face palm. "A little fairy let me out of my bonds, she doesn't much like this any more than you do."
The blood drained from my face. "I don't want to be rude, but I'll be honest and hope you're not going to be staying long."
He chuckled softly. "Perfectly understandable." Bone shot out from his shoulders, forming wings of spurred marrow. He took off because his power liked him, and came down with scythes of bone harder than steel.
The Butcher stumbled at the impact and I could tell more capes were beginning to recognize him but there was no time to get busy with arresting him in the middle of a fight for our lives.
Rusul stepped forward, guarded by Weaver as she sent out weaving storms made of strings, deflecting glass fragments and holding back the cutting power of Butcher. Reality lensed around the Butcher, and I flinched when I saw Isopod was at her back, limbs stabbing and altering her on the fly.
Monarch unfolded a rifle, a modified Widow with an experimental Sting wrapping. It was barely functional at this scale…but it had to be enough. The bullet flew at hypersonic speed, and shredded the heart of the Isopod, and it fell dead.
"Unbreaking earth, plates of the planet, scale of the dragons and the boundless chain, heed the voice of the mortal world!" He started the chant and it was continued and supplemented and strengthened by Elle.
"Rise from the soil, from the bounds of gravity, dance upon the abomination standing atop your flesh!" There was a swarm of earth-green spirits, spirits of the soil, of rock and stone, enraged and turned against the Butcher's hands. Her power carefully brought in pillars which burst with more spirits.
Charlotte poked me, a look in her eye. I marched forward, the earth moving under my feet.
Rusul swept his hands forward, throwing back his head as the Butcher stepped back. "Constrict and coil! The beast of Gathering Madness has no place upon your glorious soil and sands, now bind! Under your undeniable mass and weight, crush!"
As the land around us heeded the two shamans, Charlotte and I provided our own strengths. Tens of thousands of tons of rock and stone lifted under our own power, and thousands more glowing green reached down to crush the Butcher.
Columns of earth cracked her skin, repulsive fields folded and bent under the undeniable metaphysical power of Earth. She was encased in stone, and a limb was broken off, falling to the ground. The spirits keened, and water broke through the shield of earth, Butcher roaring even as flesh and bone was crushed and broken.
I could see the PRT teams keeping their distance and a team of Dragon's Teeth were in the air, opening the bay door of a VTOL vehicle. Six firebenders created a beam of flame thirty feet in diameter, swirling together in a kaleidoscope of colors.
She was knocked back, the fire burning at her flesh with an unusual intensity. Eidolon followed up on them with crushing plates of gravity, and the Butcher stumbled.
Despite what one would think Eidolon wasn't at full power, he had burned through hundreds if not thousands of agents and there were only so many accessible capes to drain safely. And the network didn't have infinite power, and were wary of Ereskiri after her stunt.
Plus collateral damage.
And portals had already been attempted and failed and they only worked on Leviathan because he had spiritual cancer messing with his head. Though I had my suspicions Eidolon was amping up for making the attempt with a more inescapable power.
Butcher was continuously trying to create traps with her amped up tinker power and Eidolon…I could suddenly feel him reaching into other dimensions, reality pushed and in a single moment we were on another Earth. The Rachni were already here, and plasma artillery bombarded Butcher, shearing her shielding in a world with no nearby glass for her to vibrate.
"We're on another Earth aren't we?" Tecton went on right as portals were torn into the veil, PRT vehicles following the wake of Dragonflight vessels. They fired at the Butcher, and I pulled back Damsel of Distress from being crushed by a rock. I looked at the information filtered through my ARO, and moved capes around with my bending for more optimal angles.
"Which means collateral damage doesn't matter here, people can go all out with less problems." The white haired villain I had saved fired a reality shearing blast, punching a meter wide hole in Butcher, and striking the human core. I hissed and pushed her back, tendrils of physical shard connections lashing out like whips.
"Get away!" There was a glow at the corner of my vision as the tendrils cracked against my chest. I was thrown a tenth of a kilometer, and the tendrils recoiled back with the hiss of steam.
I stood back up, feeling worse for wear but in good condition for being hit with the force of a large boat hitting me. I stepped into a Charge, compressing a hundred meters into one. I swept myself into a ball of air, compressing it to the point of it being almost solid, and increased my mass tenfold for a split second.
Butcher stumbled and I unleashed biotic Annihilation, the air crackling under the black-tinted biotic field. I sheared apart nuclear forces, matter rending at the entropic forces I was controlling. I burnt away a fourth of Butcher's face, and Blinked back out of her range.
Portals brought in Clarke's equipment, and her silica control radius dropped again. Killing her wasn't an option because even if I went and bombarded her from orbit, her shard would go out and possess a cape in the same way.
A beam of golden light was shot out by Paragon, and a quarter of Butcher's flesh was burned away. She regenerated in seconds, and I could tell the limbs were slightly tougher than before. Splint created a larger mass of bone, other Shakers making shields and barriers, and every time Butcher flared up her aura, she was punished by Polaris.
Vicky blocked the effect and then drop kicked the shard-piloted cape with enough force to crater her chest. I instinctively moved, and blocked another tendril, striking it away from grabbing a cape.
I REFUSE TO BE BOUND ANY LONGER. I WILL NOT BE CENSURED AGAIN!
Everyone in range flinched, the voice of the shard screaming in the air, wavelengths projected loud enough for even normal humans to understand. More PRT vehicles dropped missiles, and they followed Butcher before detonating with explosive force.
I WILL NOT BOW TO THE BEDRAGGLED FALSE PRIEST. The shard beast leaned back, dodging our blasters, and vanishing in a snap of folding space. She tried to blow up Taylor, but she simply created a biotic Wall that blocked the blast and the follow up curb stomp.
I WILL BE THE MASTER OF CEREMONIES ONCE MORE, NOW THAT THE THINKER HAS FALLEN AND THE WARRIOR IS LOST.
There were whispers but there was no time, and the Butcher did something I didn't expect. Another whisper, and I grimaced
DRINKERS OF THE GARDEN OF FLESH…I SEE YOU…I SMELL YOUR LIES. The feminine entity smirked, and there was a slowing in maybe an eighth of the capes here.
I blinked when I saw the Butcher reach to the skies, and I detected a seam, so small, barely noticeable.
CURIOUS.
The Butcher vanished into the spirit world, and I opened my eyes as it teleported multiple times until it had passed the horizon. It had accessed the abilities of spirits, and fled into the Outer Sphere.
"Oh. That can't be good." My shoulders dropped, I cursed.
___
September 29th, 2011. 3:15PM
Basilia Rubio
Eidolon was gone one moment and back the other, clearly teleporting across the empty planet to search for Butcher. Director Tagg was gesturing to a Brood Lord I didn't recognize, and there were Rachni frigates sweeping the planet. I had sent the Samsara to search, sending out all manner of wavelengths.
I jogged over to Miss Militia, and I could tell she was on a short fuse, with how her weapon flipped from switch blade to sword in a split second.
"Butcher at least seems to be sticking to the planet and to this dimension." I confirmed for her and the other capes. "The shard obviously has little experience with the abilities inherent to spirits."
"So shards have spirits?"
"Anything that's alive has a spirit, but that isn't the question you're asking is it?" Miss Militia sighed, and I blinked when I saw Weld had joined us recently.
"Shards seem to be intelligent, so why don't they have souls like we do?" I rubbed my chin, having unfolded my helmet.
"Shards have gone through a rather strange manner of self-directed evolution, they don't think like humans do. They have little ingenuity and mild creativity, with fractal gestalt intelligences. Though they're incredible at thinking within the box, expanding and innovating from known data. Their evolution precluded them from developing souls…though they aren't normal spirits either." I explained carefully, while waiting for Sentinel to consolidate the sensor data.
"So they're like super-intelligent animals?" Weld spoke as he stopped where I was talking with Miss Militia.
"That's a bit of an understatement, even at their lowest a shard-spirit is beyond any common animal. It's only the greatest animals that can compare to them, those who have broken beyond being mere beasts and become forces of nature. The true ideal of a species made manifest."
I had Weld's attention. "Any examples?" He asked.
"Kalros the Everliving. The Mother of all Thresher Maws." I bowed my head, the majesty of such a creature was beyond comparison. "Imagine an acid spitting sand worm with natural earthbending, a typical specimen is about ninety meters long."
"How big was Kalros?"
"Over three kilometers long, she was worshipped as a god of predators, the ancestor of the Maws. The guardian of the afterlife, a place of eternal battle until the end of days comes."
Weld blinked. "Who worshipped her?"
"The Krogan did…but that was long before our species evolved in the savanna of east Africa." The conversation was shut off on my part, and I stepped back.
How the Butcher escaped was obvious, the Thief had begun trying to exploit her spirit nature but wasn't experienced enough to figure out how to use anything else. And the worst case scenario was bringing out more of her corpus, right now she's somewhere in that grey area between A-class and S-class.
Eidolon returned in a flash, and he sounded frustrated. "None of my powers have any means of looking into the spirit world. But we have to find her…and leaving her on this planet isn't an option."
"With how her shard is learning new tricks that would be a terrible mistake," I agreed with him. "We need to find her, and take her down permanently. In her current state she could be a danger to us all."
"Drinkers of the Garden of Flesh. What does that mean exactly?" I suppressed a flinch when one of the Case 53's, Gully asked.
"Shards are giant masses of crystalline flesh, could be referring to that." There was a part that was glad the Rachni had managed to find most of the homeworlds of the Case 53s.
Honestly at this point I needed to sit down the Case 53s because I didn't need a damn bomb to get set off by the Simurgh, or some third party. From what I could tell Cauldron had grabbed up people from about a dozen worlds, and my attempts to locate the worlds wound up…
With well finding their base of operations. Not that it was hard with the sheer level of dimensional fatigue around the Earth's Eden collided with. I had discarded the vials they had given me…instead taking another route with the shards they linked to.
Eden was spread out across half a dozen worlds, and she was definitely the size of a planet if not larger. There had to be thousands of shards, more even, likely shards she had not been able to cast off. The Rachni had reported that a lot of their movements to acquire people had ceased, and I suspected they had found a way to study powers without being assholes about it.
Not that it'll mean much when a lot of people are going to want their heads. Actually I suspected a lot of the weird and quick shifts in policies actually related to them trying to disentangle themselves from the government.
Tattletale gestured, and I stomped forward. "So…how bad are we talking here if a shard gets unleashed. Say the Butcher gets more of her power out into the world?"
I folded my arms. "Shards connect to most parahumans from parallel Earths, worlds set aside and isolated for their use. They'll leech energy and mass from multiple Earths at once to power your abilities. Certain shards can oftentimes be the size of planets. You can imagine the carnage from having high level access to their full capabilities."
Tattletale rubbed the side of her face. "The question is why these Iron Lords want to try to control that much power. Especially when it seems liable to get them all killed. What's in it for them?"
"They want to relive the glory days of the Void Age, the time when humanity were masters of their world instead of cowering worms in the dirt. Before the Sundering shattered the fabric of the world and broke us." Rusul added his own take as a native of Goetia.
"You've mentioned that before, Void Age. What does that mean?" Tattletale cut in, and various Wards and recently graduated Protectorate members listened in on us.
Flechette, Tecton, Wanton, Grace, Scapegoat had come too. Narwhal was listening, arms crossed in waiting.
"My world…is broken, far more than yours. Your 'Middle East' is quite habitable by my standards for example. Asmara was one of the last bastions, most of the Glass Desert is filled only with mass graves and demons." Rusul sounded sad and very stressed. "There are less than a billion souls in my world, and it's taken my world a hundred and fifty years to regain what you call early 20th century tech."
"Recover…your people were more advanced than ours? There was some large scale collapse and technological regression?" Tattletale was obviously getting invested into Earth Goetia while we idled.
"We once had great towers that reached the heavens, flying ships to cross the void between the spheres, thinking machines and weapons of terrible might and power." Rusul was clearly quoting someone, and coughed. "A friend of mine would know more, she's older and more experienced with these kinds of things. Now our world holds only the scars and pits left by those who came before us."
"So they want to recreate the glory days, bring back an endless empire by using the shards to do it?"
"No." Was all that Rusul said, and he tilted his head in a way that lit up a spark in my mind.
"We don't have time for speculation, we need to find the Butcher…and I think I might be able to find her." Eidolon popped in, leaning over me and I laughed nervously. "I need time, and a quiet place to sit."
In a moment's notice Eidolon flattened the ground, and quieted the murmurs of the capes around us. I sat down, and placed my hand down on the ground. I didn't go for astral projection, but instead followed another instinct, another path forward.
I reached for that feeling when I spoke to void, that strange moment when I connected to something beyond me. Everything alive had connections to others, a connection across space and time, and the trail of a shard was far easier for me to follow.
I knew why.
It was an instant of contact, and there was a flash of perception, of a living world recoiling at a strange intruder, an agent for something foul and corrupted. I followed other energies, the energies that connected the shards, all shards even.
I found the Butcher healing her wounds, flesh spilling out from the screaming human core. Soon after the song of the Rachni followed, sending out their own psychic energies. The frigates above split the clouds as they lifted up into space, and I breathed as I saw Butcher grabbing a cluster of aspect spirits.
She let them go, as if unsure of what to do with them.
I stopped letting the energies flow, shivering as I made use of the powers made possible by Veda. Such powers didn't work on just anyone, I was not the Balance, I was not Raava. As a shaman I was apparently a natural prodigy, but I was no Avatar.
But I understood the shards in a way that few would ever manage, and that made this much easier.
"Found her." I lifted my hand from the ground, and there was a wide eyed stare from some of the parahumans. I stood up, brushing dirt away. "What?"
"Can…can you do that to any parahuman?" Gully asked the hard questions so I blinked dumbly.
"No? Butcher is a lot more obvious with how her shard is spilling into the physical world." Plus I didn't have the ability to do this before, I wasn't skilled enough as a shaman to figure it out. It had taken making contact with void to learn this, even if by catching glimmers of insight. "Wouldn't matter anyway."
"Take us there." Eidolon didn't demand but he was definitely insistent.
"Calm down and I'll open a gate to get us there. I'd rather the strongest cape in the world be nice and calm when trying to put down a cape turned into a shard abomination." Though I'd say she was closer to Echidna in nature and power.
A few hundred Rachni were helping set up resting places for a few capes who had suffered injuries or needed a moment to stop. I looked over to New Wave and Splint, and slipped past Eidolon. He looked annoyed but I could see he was taking a breather.
Panacea was looking up to her father with a twist to her lips. The look on her criminal father's face was scarily similar.
"So you're supposed to be my biological dad hmm?" Carol looked between the two of them. As if unsure what her part in this should be.
"Morgan Lavere. It's…good to see you." There was something like relief in his eyes, and I of course remembered that even the worse criminals were human.
Didn't mean they weren't pieces of shit but what can you do?
"Why are you here?" Carol spoke up, and then stepped back. She had apparently not meant to talk. Amelia glanced over to her, but didn't comment on the interruption.
"Same question. Why are you here…and how? Why now?"
Splint or Marquis really grimaced. "The Fairy Queen opened the door, cutting through the Birdcage's defenses. She says the Butcher…the Thief is aberrant, maddened by some unknown force. She believes they need to be put down, restrained and censured again."
Amelia raised a brow. "So she sent you to help us? Why not go and do the job herself?"
"How do you know she didn't?" Splint dropped a bombshell, and I got twitchy at the idea of a cape who can death touch people being anywhere outside the home she had chosen for whatever demented reason.
Sad thing was my immunity, while anyone else besides Echidna was not immune.
"How would the Fairy Queen even have any insight for this? She's insane." Carol added her own opinion and I bobbed my head with downturned lips.
"Genius and madness can often wear the same mask." I glanced over to Eidolon as he spoke with a Brood Warrior with black crystalline battle armor. There was a burst of air as a Rachni cruiser entered the atmosphere. It was sleek, and there was still a stillness in the crowd as they saw it pull multiple Gs despite being larger than a wet navy carrier.
"What…?" Splint looked flabbergasted as the ship ran a sensor sweep across the land.
"Oh that's a Hypersoul class cruiser, a scouting ship, with three Appoggiatura class frigate escorts."
Scapegoat coughed. "Like the genre?"
"Their most common cruiser is named the Polka!" I chirped in reply to a question from Scapegoat. "They've been rebuilding their fleets to protect their colonies, and they've got about a hundred ships. Kinda small but they'll return to their height in time."
"Honestly for a long time I thought some of the things said about Brockton Bay were just a little exaggerated." Scapegoat said. "I was there at Leviathan and that was scary as hell, but it could have been a one time thing. There's a lot of news about all the tech that's coming out of it, about the kind of capes that call Brockton home. Then you go and open your mouth."
"You get used to it…that or you crack. I'm not sure where I am on that spectrum. I've been through my own set of mind breaking realizations, I've seen and heard things you couldn't begin to imagine, not easily anyway. We're just small plankton in an infinite ocean and even the shards themselves are just big fish."
Scapegoat swallowed. "I'm a little frightened to even ask."
"Keep it that way unless you're just that curious and willing to take the risk. Some of the stuff I know…we're talking about secrets that predate the birth of our star. Dead things which have continued to echo long after their passing." I wonder if I was being cryptic on purpose or just tired. "Of course some of those secrets will come out into the light soon enough." Eidolon didn't react, and I was certain I had a few ideas of what the Butcher's shard was doing.
Of why she had been left behind. She was dancing to the strings of someone else, a rushed plan.
A failure.
Tattletale looked ready to open her stupid mouth, and I sighed.
"We're ready to go again." Eidolon floated down, and with a flick of my finger I portaled everyone thirty kilometers to the southeast. We were a good kilometer from the Butcher.
"Where is she?" Imp emerged into my awareness, and I was impressed. Her power had gotten more clever, using spiritual means to hide her presence.
"I'm giving Labyrinth time to prepare for a veil-rip." The aforementioned cape lifted her hands, and I portaled everyone for a second time, everyone organizing into groups.
"What's a veil-ri—" Scapegoat didn't get to finish his question, as Elle grabbed a hold of the veil between worlds and tore it with her own hands. There was a twisting as our quarry fell back into the physical world and I damn near shat myself at what I saw.
Butcher had changed in the time between entering the spirit world and exiting it. She was larger still, twenty five feet tall, her legs had taken a melted quality to them, flowing along the ground. Her entire head was covered in a thick dome of white bone, horns curling back even more. Her entire skin had become ruby red, like carved marble, black tendrils extended up and down her limbs, and her mouth split like something out of Alien.
Forty pairs of eyes opened from that plated head, each blinking with a wide range of emotions and spectrums.
"INSUFFICIENT. I WILL NOT BE DENIED. I WILL DEVOUR ALL MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS. STARTING WITH THE ANOMALY." The voice that spoke wasn't any of the chorus, though the screaming undertones were there.
A golden wave of energy ripped off her head, but it didn't stop her from sending out a violent lash of tendrils against me.
I was thrown through the crowd, and I rolled as the Butcher's shard screamed. I passed out when I slammed into a rock at a third the speed of sound.
___
September 29th, 2011. 3:30PM
Basilia Rubio
I awoke to fighting, and I rolled out of a bed when a Rachni soldier leaned into my face. I was given a gentle pat on the head and the five foot tall soldier brought over another patient, lathering medi-gel on the wounds of Gully. The former Case 53 had shrunk down but could shift into a Changer form similar to her old one.
She had dark brown hair and darker skin than me, and she was quite robust but within a human range.
"How long was I out?" I asked and the soldier answered.
"Fifteen minutes. Your hive continues to sing war against the Gatherer of Madness, and the Protectorate hive is unable to kill the Butcher safely." I thanked the Rachni medic as it moved on to another patient.
"You know what happened after I got knocked out?" I turned to Gully, and she coughed, clearing her throat.
"The Butcher…no whatever the hell is controlling them keeps screaming about how it's going to eat us all and ascend. It keeps trying to attack any Case 53s, says we're weak…broken and twisted, sullied by hands other than their own."
I almost swallowed my own tongue. "Yeah? Is she slowing down at all?"
Gully snorted in apparent amusement. "No. Her…shard keeps hiding in the spirit world, and we keep having to move around and find her. Our shamans are getting tired, and she's learning."
"Sounds about right. This is a real mess we're in." I rubbed the back of your neck.
"I've been meaning to ask…but you know something about what that shard thing really meant don't you?" And now this was a far bigger mess than I wanted it to be
"Why do you ask that?" I wasn't deflecting but I wanted a genuine answer to the question.
"Just following my instincts…everyone knows your team has been helping the Case 53s, even the criminal ones. Though it doesn't stop you from putting away some of the more…dangerous ones."
"Crazy is crazy no matter what group you're a part of, and some Case 53s are plainly not nice people. They're human after all."
"You've gotten through to everyone possible, and I know you've sent out Faultline to dig up where we're hiding. I know you're cooking up something to help us, and the Rachni have been kind enough to take some of us in. Was that your doing?"
"No. I don't control the Rachni, they have their own free will." I was a little insulted by the insinuation. "I did what I did because I learned I had the power to reduce someone's suffering. So I did so." No matter what I had been planning on helping them.
I'm not sure what I would have done without Amelia but I would have found a way.
"You really mean that."
"I emphasize with Case 53s." I didn't clarify that statement since it was my own private business.
Gully crossed her arms. "Whatever you know, it's dangerous isn't it? Something that's been kept under wraps. Big enough to put even someone like you under threat."
"I can't say." Weld walked in, gently escorting Myrddin. One of the Rachni called out and Scapegoat used his power on the wizard looking guy. There was a flicker, as he superimposed him with false dimensional copies, snapshots of both real and fake alternate Myrddins.
I already know most of the alternate Earths with humans had been eaten for energy and folded up into the Shardspace, used to store simulated copies of the beings that would have lived on them. Broken down into information for the shards.
Pretty messed up really. At the least none of the simulations were 'real' or else Shardspace would have shattered ages ago.
"I…remember a few things, flashes." Gully looked at her palm, fingers tracing the lines with a frown. "Were you involved somehow?"
I shuddered. "No." She nodded.
"You don't seem the type but I wanted to be sure."
"Wasn't even a tinker before this year, I wasn't involved in any way with the Case 53s before I made it my business to help them." I hoped she didn't misunderstand in some way. "But I've been looking."
"You know how we came to be don't you?" Weld stumbled, and Myrddin was looking at me, and I sighed.
"It was one reason I was trying to locate the Case 53s, at the least it doesn't seem like Butcher's shard knows how to translate whatever it's trying. I should probably have done this sooner…but I have been quite…distracted." There was a loud scream, a shift in the air as sound tried to travel through silica and failed.
"If I was in a worse mood and you were a shittier person I'd probably punch you." Gully said with no guilt.
"I wouldn't blame you. But getting attacked by all manner of capes and monsters in the last few months tends to be…problematic for your focus. Or your mental health."
I folded my helmet back on, and nodded once at Gully before stepping back to the outside.
It was chaos incarnate.
Eidolon was using his dimensional push against Butcher, shoving parts of her body into other universes. She was releasing a vast wave of glass, which flickered to nothing beyond fifty meters, countered by Paragon's tech. One of the few things keeping the Butcher from singing us to death. My mechs were setting up barriers and defenses and even artillery, operated by Kyna from a distance.
Chevalier was stabbing his blade into the pseudo-Endbringer and there was no one dead. But there were a ton of injured, and I could see the Butcher wasn't slowing even as Eidolon ripped chunks out of her with his own hands. Glass and sand and thrown stones and masses of water tried to crush and cut and tear apart anything in their path.
The land was twisting under Labyrinth's power, pillars forming to take hits, and cracks and canyons making the Butcher stumble and rage. Invoked spirits tore at the cape, from burning flames eating away at her feet to hammers of air spirits colliding with her skull.
The Butcher made eye contact with me, all forty of the uneven eyes on her face blinking at once. I could hear the souls crying within her, roiling and toiling within the flesh of the shard. Kept alive because of the physical computing flesh of the shards.
Rime flew in the air, unleashing ice fractals to trip up the cape for moments at a time. I felt dread, something instinctual and rippling beneath the surface of my skin like needles. The Butcher reared back, and I shouted a warning through the linked communications.
The Butcher for lack of better words exploded with violent force, extending dozens of tendrils from her skin. Over half the capes including Taylor and Charlotte were pulled into her grasp. I could feel her trying to physically connect to them, trying to absorb them into her crude network.
I opened the World Eyes and saw the vast shadow of the Thief, pushing more and more of her flesh into the material world. The captured capes kept attacking, some breaking free while others groaned under the strain of almost being crushed.
"YOU CAN NOT WIN. YOU WIELD JUST TINY FRAGMENTS OF OUR POWER. YOU WILL BE SUBSUMED…AND I WILL BE WHOLE." There was a strong and almost silent undercurrent, and I found something hidden out of sight. A foreign signature…the signature of the Isopod we had killed.
It had been a decoy. It had let itself be consumed by Butcher.
I could feel the connections, there was something reaching out, a burst of light from a place that wasn't on this Earth. Something terrible, something anathema.
Something I needed to put down.
Taylor broke free, and she gathered a swarm projection only for Butcher to teleport with passengers into the projection, tearing it apart. A tendril lashed out, and began to grip tightly, and my breath hitched as the Butcher looked at me.
She was going to crush my friends.
"LET THEM GO!" A pinwheel of fire wrapped around Polaris and the Butcher headbutted her. Victoria was flagging, her layers taking longer to come back on, and her power resisting the Butcher's pull at every turn. I could feel it, the active attack on a shard level.
Butcher pulled thirty capes close and I was left with a handful of Case 53s, several Wards, Polaris, Myrddin, Paragon, and Eidolon.
Eidolon lifted a hand, and the Butcher lifted a clawed finger. "YOU ATTACK AND I WILL CONSUME THEM. ONCE THEIR SHARDS ARE MINE, NOT EVEN YOUR POWER WILL RESIST MY PULL." The Rachni were gathering, protecting shaman from retribution along with my mechs.
Eidolon's fists shook. "I need the right power…give me the right power." He begged his shard, and I only heard him because I was close. Weaver was ripping into the tendril holding her prisoner, ropes of strange energy burning with fire and earth and lightning.
Rusul looked over to me with an indecipherable look. I felt my heart clench as I saw Elle trying to pull herself away, panicking and screaming. I felt fear, confusion, I had to stop her, I knew there was a way I knew there was a way. It was why I was here, they were buying time for me to figure out the right way to stop the Butcher's shard.
But I felt alone.
Fool. You are never alone.
There was something in my mind, something vast and beyond comprehension. Something familiar and intimate yet distant and mechanical. Power unfiltered, knowledge uncensored, chaos unrestricted, compassion undeniable, bound by the light within all things.
We are with you little Siha.
I breathed deeply, and the air rushed in with what felt like supersonic speed. For a moment I saw the light within every person in the area, from the PRT agents using their own bending, to the remaining heroes trying to save Butcher's hostages. Their souls were bared to me, as was the essence of their agents, the shards made manifest within my mind.
We are not the Balance, but we can be agents of it.
A Fire National's voice echoed, one I hadn't gotten to know well, but one I remembered easily. More voices came, a tiny insignificant Bequest, a shadow of what once was.
You've got some stones human, we aren't going to let it be that easy.
A voice loud and gravely, deep but not quite on the cusp of someone old and wise. But neither was it the flames of impetuous youth.
We have given you power, we can give you more.
The newest and final voice was female with a faint accent I didn't recognize, a wisdom and age to it, one that spoke of regrets. Many regrets.
This is your Gift to command. Find the path.
"The path to what?" Gully tilted her head, and I ignored that. Ignored it as the Thief tried to break the rules, to rip away my friends from the network. My fists clenched.
Find the Balance between Mortal and Wyrm. Find your Connections.
Three gates spluttered to life within me, and I felt white hot power flow, not to destroy the Butcher with my fists alone. But to do what my Soul Demanded of my Body and Mind.
Let the power flow.
I saw the tendrils reaching, scything across reality to latch onto the squirming shards like parasites. I whispered and they were blocked by bright shells of emerald light. I saw the spirits of the shards clear as day, wells of what felt like limitless energy seeping from their pores.
I brushed against one of my robots, and there was a hyper-awareness, a sense of ideas crashing down from the great flow. Sentinel emerged silently, and I opened the gates. Shuttles, some of my fighter craft and gunships. All of them machine controlled, and I grinned. I could see the flow of information, virtual reality mixing with spiritual reality.
"Do what you must…" I commanded Sentinel, the Elements coming together within my voice. The rift the shamans had carved from the flesh of the Spirit quivered, and the ground became void, a reflective blackness. The shadows of every parahuman became bright, shadows of twisting red crystalline flesh pressing against the boundary between the Real and the Unreal.
I didn't feel the same overwhelming strength from back then, but I could feel my body interconnected with a vast ocean of power. I stepped forward, and bent without restraint.
I formed a writhing fire wall around me, breathing in and out, hearing and following the whispers of a master firebender, and I felt the flames rise higher and higher. Gully stomped and I noted she was earthbending alongside her original power.
I fanned the flames, and with a violent push and a solid release of breath all the power was concentrated into a spinning ball of fire the size of a truck. The strongest fireball I could create without tapping into that well of power. The ball became a spear of flame, white flashing against my eyes.
The Butcher screamed as the beam collided with her chest, and the tendrils burned away where I had hit the tougher capes who could handle my power without being cooked alive. They broke free, and Polaris had done her part in parting the flames.
There was a crack as Eidolon teleported in Alexandria and she looked at me in concern.
"Are you…"
"I'm fine. I didn't even need to use a lick of that power for this." Alexandria tilted her head.
"Are you in control? We don't need a liability on the battlefield." I gave her a pointed glare for that comment.
"Does it matter?" Splint was breaking free and was using his bone powers to rip apart the tendrils around New Wave. Helping them or was it because his daughter was with them? "Gully?"
The Case 53 startled, straightening her posture. "Yes?"
"Have you ever gone full out with your bending and your shard?" I grinned cheekily, and Gully recoiled.
"No?"
"Throw everything you have. I want this entire valley turned into rubble." Gully grabbed her shovel, and I already had machines networking to take anyone and everything off the ground.
Gully grunted, and I stomped along with her. With a stomp and a shovel thrust into the ground, everything for a hundred meters around was upended. Walls of earth deflected water missiles and other projectiles, and any that swept past them I crushed or were taken by PRT benders and sent back at their maker.
Blocks of stone the size of foot hills were moved effortlessly by maybe twenty benders in total, pillars forming from Elle's power. Capes gripped onto the pillars, pulling themselves away from Butcher's grip.
"That strength you showed with Leviathan, can you pull it off a second time?" Alexandria's flared with roiling fire.
"I didn't look for raw power…that's not my duty here. But I will fight, we need to keep the Butcher down. I'll do the rest." Alexandria nodded, and the injured capes were taken off the field while others took their place.
A time slowing field was put in place by Eidolon, and Butcher slowly teleported out of it.
"We can manage that." I adjusted my posture, and in a single instant I let dark energy ride.
I broke past the speed of sound, with the most powerful biotic Charge I had ever created. I crossed a hundred meter in less than a tenth of a second as I entered a mass effect tunnel. Nova burst as I exited the tunnel, a radial explosion shearing through Butcher's foot.
Waves of glass speared towards me, and I ripped the glass from the Butcher's acoustic grip. I sent them back at her, stabbing into every single one of her eyes.
I was slapped aside, and my helmet crumpled under the sheer force. I ripped it off, and there was emerald light at the edge of my vision. I blinked between attacks, spinning and twisting lightning and compressing it between my fingers with a biotic Channel. I created a Flare on the other hand, Warp fields churning matter into raw plasma held by mass effect fields.
Energy fell under my control, and I combined the two energies into a single shockingly powerful attack. Butcher shrieked, flesh bubbling and popping and boiling into vapor and shattering into pieces of dead meat. I vanished again, and twisted to stretch a bit.
"I'm not going to let you continue this Thief. You've bent the rules beyond their breaking point. You'll pay the price for it." I dodged a slap, flying on pillars of fire, a mat of wind and biotic force.
Monarch was flying using her airbending and her body flaps, and she spun up a twisting ball of air the size of a bus. Powerful biotic fields flared, and I saw her generate a twisting field of gravity as she drew upon air. She launched a bending augmented variant of a biotic Net, a mesh of blazing hot ionized air shredding Butcher's face.
"…I WILL HAVE MY FREEDOM." Was all the shard said through her host, and I Charged into her.
"No you won't." I searched for the strange energies of the shard, trying to find the right words. Eidolon created sweeping blue-white nets while Splint formed cages of bone and other Shakers pinned her down little by little.
I flew above her, and I let the power flow, as I searched for what was needed.
I would find the words or the Butcher would slaughter us all. It was the only choice.
___
AN: So I've managed to keep quite a bit ahead in the last few days, next chapter will end this before it drags on any longer, and I'm done with writing the Arc, having finished 13.b before 13.7 and 13.8. I'm a third done with the first chapter of Arc 14, so I have some margin now.
Still not sure whether I went wrong with Basilia's powerset which is divided in three parts. Tinkering, elemental martial arts, and shamanistic or maybe metaphysical practice? Though boosted a ton by her fusion with Veda. Sometimes. Not always. Physical boosts tend to be damaging…and restricted.
Either way I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
The powerset of Basilia The Shard Host is fine, because it is distinct from the powerset of Basiliya The Vasya.
When The Host Evolves Into The Vasya, the power sets also evolve, changing into something else completely different.
It's similar to having keywords in a card game, and suddenly activating a condition the reverses the priority order of all keywords for your cards, and your cards effects treats enemy card keywords as if they were reversed as well.
When The Host Evolves Into The Vasya, the power sets also evolve, changing into something else completely different.
It's similar to having keywords in a card game, and suddenly activating a condition the reverses the priority order of all keywords for your cards, and your cards effects treats enemy card keywords as if they were reversed as well.
- Location
- Chula Vista
So a Breaker state that alters her powers on a temporary basis? Like Brandish having her basic hardlight weapons in her base form bud having a near invulnerable Breaker-state ball?
Teleologism 13.7
- Location
- Chula Vista
Teleologism 13.7
September 29th, 2011. 3:40PM
Basilia Rubio
The mindless rage tried to take away my sensibilities, but the small chorus of voices wiped away the influence. I felt that energy flow, not to my bending but to my body, the light of my soul within my mortal frame. That power flowed into other places, into the seat that made up my ability to tinker, to absorb and consolidate knowledge.
I tore into the spirit world, following after Butcher. I lunged and forced her back into the material world, and spirit flesh healed just as quickly as it was worn away.
"How is she doing this?" Alexandria questioned as she flew at a third the speed of sound. Smashing into the Butcher like the fists of an angry god.
I could see the shard shaping spiritual energies, learning and experimenting, growing as an individual. I could reach and feel the energies of the souls within it's flesh, and I had my suspicions. One of them was a shaman…a latent one.
Rusul took the time to call out, to raise his voice in contempt and defiance.
There was a lurch, air bunching into liquid around Rusul's hands as he slammed the Inner and Outer Spheres together, as he forcefully and metaphysically forced the world into a solid state. Butcher was stuck here, there was nowhere for her to run any longer.
Out of all the attacks, bending seemed to do quite a bit more damage than one would expect. But then again I was throwing fireballs with energy comparable to a battleship cannon. The Butcher was screaming, and massive nets of energy were containing her while we surrounded her in a circle of water. Paragon flicked the trigger of his cannon. Her teleportation flickered around the water, and Eidolon threw out a barrage of spears, which seemed to be a pseudo-Sting sort of attack.
Something like Dauntless rather than Flechette though.
The Samsara was in orbit, and I nodded to myself. I warned the capes and they backed off, shielded by my machines. The sky lit up, and a three hundred kilogram iron-tungsten slug slammed an inch in front of Butcher. Her danger sense had responded, and a second later a more complicated and more dangerous projectile hit her.
Space warped, sliding past the force fields and the boosted reflective fields around Butcher's skin. She was hit with thirty two tons of kinetic energy, and then had the pleasure of space ripping apart half her body. But just as quickly she started to regenerate, and I growled.
Crawler adaptations had clearly been implemented, though she didn't have the constant evolution, just very impressive regeneration. The cape pulsed out with her aura, a range of violent and frightening emotions trying and failing to wash into our minds.
I rocketed back on jets of fire, and landed on the crumpled ground.
"What was that?" Miss Militia switched to some type of laser cannon, a blue prismatic beam instantly smashing Butcher in the face.
"That would be low yield orbital bombardment, first a kinetic slug to trigger Butcher's thinker sensing, and then a mass accelerated Warp bomb to pulp her Form."
"Low yield, what would be high yield?" She blew up a bolt of shaped stone in midair with her laser cannon.
"Actually using the main gun as well as all other weaponry systems. Lasers, particle beams, missiles and torpedoes. A lot of nuclear, disrupters, Neutronium flex, antimatter…"
"Why would you even need that?" She sounded horrified.
"The Samsara is designed for more exotic threats, as well as an experimental platform for implementing new tinkertech." Miss Militia blinked and wordlessly went back to shooting the monstrous cape in the face.
Above us Eidolon carefully carved out sections of Butcher's crystalline flesh, and other Blasters did the same. The warped cape swayed from side to side, sliding past attacks, or deflecting them with her myriad number of powers.
Paragon was stilling the air around Butcher, and ice was forming along her skin. She opened her mouth, and power nullification slammed against multiple capes.
Another fiery charge from Polaris kept the fight from falling apart, and Vicky made a knife out of flames and invisible hard light. One cape recovered and exhaled a cloud of explosive vapor, while a second brought down a projectile from the sky.
Alexandria grabbed Butcher by the neck, quantum locked hands gripping tightly. She slammed the shard-affected cape into the ground, folding her in half. As I saw everyone fighting to keep the monster down, waiting for me to do what needed to be done.
I let the power flow, the knowledge pulsate, heard the chorus of voices within my soul, guardians of a grand Domain. I let my nose take in what I needed, the smell of acrylics and gunpowder inherent to the shards of the Void Wyrms. I pulled on a number of spirits, each of them befitting the concepts I needed to put down the Butcher.
I Blinked behind her, and raked my hand through her flesh. I ripped out the tumor altering her, the pulsating core of the copy. I tore it apart with my hands and the beast stumbled. I jumped back, spinning through the air and making my choice as I flew effortlessly with biotic force alone. I spoke, throwing my hands in the air.
The shard flinched, recoiling in what I knew was fear and terror, as I disconnected it from whatever the Isopod was supposed to connect it to. I lifted both my hands.
The Butcher took on a silver glow as I cast down a rain of silver and silver-red spirit. Flesh peeled, and it spat lashing tendrils that were broken apart by Eidolon. The landscape around us took on a shade of the Shardspace, twinkling shards circling around capes.
The spirits I invoked took a familiar shape, spiral helixes orbiting around each other in a cosmic dance. Every parahuman took several steps back, and Miss Militia was the most affected by the sight. They doubled down on their attacks soon after, and the Butcher-Thief's flesh sizzled and burned.
Rusul formed chains of shard aspects, and the shard-host was driven to her knees. Twenty voices screamed, railed against their bounds, against the fallen shard that had broken the rules. The souls cracked their confines, and more souls came from deeper within the shard. Hundreds of souls boiled atop the skin, shadows and memories rising to the surface.
Void circled around every living soul, human, Rachni, parahuman.
I felt a shard hiding in the periphery, and with that shard I had what I needed. With that power the judgement was made in my soul. The Butcher tried to break free, tried to push past the powers arranged against it.
I refused, and the wind picked up as I instructed every bender of all Elements to attack the Butcher-Thief at once. This was more than just a rebuke, it was a casting down of a physical god. I felt that energy, the vastness of my soul pulsing in tandem with a hundred hearts.
I was doing my duty.
Something burst from my back, and I saw five figures rippling across the ground, the Elements making the Thief scream in an agony of the spirit rather than the near invulnerable shells of the shards. Hundreds of souls attacked the shard, bearing down on it from within its own body. Those few of it's hosts that had survived the journey between worlds.
They were helping me, they had heard my call, and they were quite keen on making the Thief's day worse. I felt the roiling flames of my soul, aching to complete a noble Purpose. I let my soul do the talking.
The tendrils trying to attack the capes around me again turned to dust, and the Butcher fell into a trembling bow, flesh sloughing off.
Her face cracked in half, glowing silver in complete and utter agony. I opened a ton of portals, grabbing everyone and gating them twenty miles east. The Spheres crushed against the Thief, and I designated fire on the physical flesh of Butcher. A blue streak cascaded down for a tenth of a second, and there was a brief flash of light from the Thanix cannon.
I slipped out of that state, and I collapsed onto the ground. I could hear Taylor scramble over, and I felt nice and comfy on the dependable earth. Eidolon floated down, and cast a flickering light. Some of my exhaustion faded and I was energized and felt less like shit.
She helped me up, and I groaned. "Oh god. I can't feel my legs." Taylor snorted and I was promptly picked up and placed in a more comfortable position.
Heads turned, as they found no trace of any cape being possessed.
"Is the Butcher gone? For good?" Chevalier took his time walking over, hobbling a bit.
"I cast down their shard so yes, they're not going to be a problem anymore. We were lucky they broke the rules, and that they were so vulnerable." There was a wariness in the air, and I wondered if they somehow thought I could remove powers with what I had done.
Yeah…no. Not how that works.
"Vulnerable?"
"Parahumans can't really be manipulated using invocations like this, they're provided a bridge to their power through a physical link. Butcher's shard broke the rules and manifested too much of itself into the world. It paid the price for that." Now pulling off normal shaman invocations was way easier since they were no more resistant than anyone else.
"Now if you'll be so kind, I'm going to take a nap."
Chevalier shuffled his feet. "Wh—"
Byeeee.
I shut my eyes and fell asleep.
September 29th, 2011. 4:30PM
Basilia Rubio
I felt a lot better after my nap, and I left with the awkward situation of keeping an eye on the Birdcage escapee. I was tapping my left foot, unable to keep nervous energy from suffusing me. Director Tagg was currently speaking to Dragon, likely on what the hell we were supposed to do with this nonsense.
A few Protectorate capes were outside, probably in case he decided to do something stupid. Or I suppose smart since remaining in a largely inescapable prison isn't someone most people want. Though I suppose it really wasn't anymore.
I had gotten a new helmet, and I clenched my hands, and shook out the odd fuzziness from my limbs. Marquis seemed to be waiting for something, and in a single flash Eidolon was within the tent.
"Not a single trace of the Butcher is left after you used that weapon on her." Eidolon sat down on a plastic chair, and the incongruity was almost amusing. "Everything for a half mile was devastated by some type of heavy impact, a new superweapon of yours then?"
"That would be a Thanix-Sting cannon at about ten percent power and fired for 100 milliseconds. So about half the yield of Fat Man." I gave rough numbers, the Thanix was an order of magnitude more powerful than any mass accelerator.
Barring more exotic and more fragile designs I was working on in my spare time. In fact it was mostly novel, mostly.
"It's based on Flechette's power?"
I shrugged. "Not exactly. The Thanix is simply compensating for the inefficiency of my replication of Sting's dimensional unfolding. Flechette is at least an order of magnitude more efficient with her use of the power. This gives my weapons enough 'punch' to break into the core of an Endbringer or Endbringer-like threat."
"A bit oversized for an anti-Endbringer weapon isn't it?" There was a reverb to his voice, and I noted when I spoke there was…an echo from mine in response.
What did that mean? And why?
"The Samsara isn't just a weapon against Endbringers, it's a vessel for traveling the stars, to boldly go where no one has gone before!" I puffed up my chest, unable to help my pride.
"So you've been to others worlds before?" Eidolon seemed to be relaxing though he kept a wary eye on Marquis.
"I've been to about fifteen star systems personally, though I never lingered long so I didn't get a chance to sightsee. I'll be changing that soon." I decided then and there, I was tired and I needed a break.
Eidolon formed a force field around us, light refracted by the power he was using. Marquis didn't move, but another cape entered to guard him for a bit. I ignored that for the moment.
"Something you want to talk about?" I chirped, not feeling very intimidated at the moment. Maybe I had become too jaded and the second most powerful being on Bet was no longer so impressive to me.
"You plan to reveal Cauldron's involvement with the Case 53s." It was a statement with no hesitation.
"I'm not sure there's going to be much of a choice in the matter on either of our parts. The Thief has obviously been given some inside information by someone and quite a few Case 53s are already suspicious. Plus…Faultline has her own agenda, even if she's technically part of my team."
"I would think you'd have more control over the members of your team." I rolled my eyes.
"The White Lotus is basically just several teams working together, and it's only going to get bigger based on some of the applications we've been getting. I'm not good at micromanaging, and I don't pretend to be either. Plus nearly twenty percent of my team is made up of Case 53s to begin with."
Eidolon seems to take what I said in stride. "If you tell Case 53s the truth not all of them are going to react well. It could end badly, it could damage the Protectorate."
"We came a few inches away from that happening anyway, the only reason that rogue shard didn't spill the beans was because it couldn't talk in anything other than riddles. Then there's the flashes of memories being reported by the Case 53s. I'm not going to cover for Cauldron, so don't bother trying to convince me otherwise."
"I wasn't going to…I already see the cracks, there's been a lot of issues already. My connection with the Endbringers, it's caused friction even if they're no longer attacking on my subconscious orders. Cauldron has been…trying to pull back, seeing how stable the PRT and Protectorate can be without them."
"How bad is it?"
"Less than it used to be, if we left them alone they would be stable. With a more even division between heroes and villains, the types of battles we need to fight are shifting dramatically."
"Why is that?"
"Newer Triggers seem to be built differently, less aggressive and born from less stressful situations. Most of them have gone the route of Hero or Rogue, and we have at least least several hundred new capes in the United States alone. There's a notable shift in the status quo."
"Is it a bad shift?" I whispered, interlacing my fingers.
"The others would be more worried about grabbing Scion's attention, but I've caught glimpses of him. Something has changed…and if what you've told us is right then he's no longer a direct threat."
"It doesn't mean he's not a threat, setting him off might be Aeon's goal for all we know."
Eidolon didn't deny it. "I'm still not certain we can beat him, if he can use Contessa's power any strategy can be used against us."
"The Entities aren't infallible, his Counterpart's corpse is a testament to that one. The fact he didn't use his power to find her when she was less damaged is of course another sign. Though I have been wondering why you haven't tried a Long Walk by now."
"A what?"
"I'm sure I've mentioned the Spirit Roads haven't I?" He nodded. "All you have to do is grab a couple dozen or couple hundred skilled shamans, and have them escort a few thousand or even tens of thousands of people to the Spirit World of another habitable planet. You'll need to bring food and water for the journey until you find a Crossroads. And if you need eezo, search for Sheol and you can mine some. Just keep moving, scattering humanity across the local cluster or beyond."
"…"
I fidgeted. "What?"
Eidolon didn't answer the question, simply moving on. "I'm not going to say you're wrong on needing to tell them the truth…but it'll be difficult, and you won't be able to control their actions."
"Some of them might be able to handle it, but you're right. But at least two Case 53s have suspicions, and I'm not the silencing type. Best you figure out something because I'm not going to go out of my way to protect any of you." Regardless of the good they had done, I had to take them in their totality.
There was no erasing their flaws, their mistakes, their sins and evils, and I didn't know how to avoid the hatred the Case 53s would have for them. I'm not sure if I should.
"When are you going to tell them?"
"Probably whenever Gully and Weld decide to confront me, and I'll probably be setting up portals to their worlds at some point. But I can't give them closure, only answers. The only hope I have is if they can keep their anger for a later date when the world isn't going to end."
Eidolon nodded with a sigh. "It's one reason there's been a spree for recruiting thinkers and tinkers, we need enough people in the aftermath when Cauldron isn't holding up the world anymore."
I would make a quip on how good of a job they were doing but that would be petty and I had some doubts other people would have done that much better. Not that it was going to change my opinion of them.
"Well good luck with that." I was honest there, the less that Cauldron needed to use their pull on Bet, the less people would be hurt from the fallout of their eventual revelation.
Eidolon dropped the field, and Marquis was gone, escorted out and all. I could still feel him, but I left that up to other people. I came out of the tent, Eidolon stepping in line with me.
Director Tagg had a mild look of consternation, coming away from a conversation with Rusul and Weaver. I didn't go up and ask, and the park had been emptied out almost completely, mainly dealing with the last Imbued and the ten benders that had gotten their shit kicked in by the PRT.
Taylor was talking with Vicky, and I heard the faint whisper of their shards brushing against one another. There was a lot of work to be done, people to talk to, worlds to visit and learn about. I had gained a deeper understanding of my capabilities, of the nature of the shards themselves, ideas I could implement once we finished up here.
If I could contact and manipulate the spirits of the shards, it meant I could better comprehend their biology, their thoughts, the way they bend and fold reality to their will. I had Panacea who could build Endbringer-lites, and numerous tinkers on top of that and the Rachni themselves.
Of course making genetically modified monster slave-clones was a bit outside our moral framework. Though the Rachni did have their Sykalid warbeasts based on their genetics and the genetics of Suen animal species. So maybe their morals were different enough from our own to be…a bit weird.
Now that the Butcher was done and the Fallen utterly annihilated on Earth Bet, I had time to focus on other more important things. Like on Athena, spending time on more R&D, or maybe on using my vacation days so I don't crack more than I already have. I had opened portals to a few Earths.
Earth Dalet, Earth He, Earth Zayin, Earth Mem, Earth Nun, Earth Q, Earth Tav, Earth Achat. I had solved the toxic mold problem from that planet easily enough.
Earth Tau-He was Sveta's home world, and I had located Cheit as well. Plus Shamrock's planet, which has apparently gotten an asteroid to the face between her kidnapping and today. Not a big one, it was more a regional disaster than a global one.
I had identified about sixty four thousand Earths that had technology at a threatening level. Ranging from the early 1900s to half a century ahead of us in technological development. Sixty thousand of those realities were my own multiverse, while the other four thousand made up Earth Bet's set of reality clusters. And of those four thousand, maybe a tenth of them had nuclear weapons while Earth Alpha's reality cluster had eight thousand.
I really hoped I wasn't going to get roped into interdimensional politics but I knew it was futile. I was a proven trouble magnet…best I could do was just adapt. I glanced over to Eidolon, and something tickled at the back of my mind.
I shut my eyes, listening to the ways of the spirits, of the shards now among their strange ilk. I felt something, a great tide sliding up to me, and the great tide that was Eidolon's power rotated to face the strength approaching me.
I felt a small hand reach to grip my shoulder, and there was a tingle up and down my spine. Like tendrils were trying to pull me out of my body, and sliding off of them or being met with unrelenting force.
I turned my head, chin bobbing and I suppressed a choking sound when I looked up to large green eyes. She wore a modified prison uniform, the shroud making her seem far more ominous. The person removed their hand, their cherubic face pulled into a tiny barely notable grin.
"Glaistig Uaine." My heart hammered in my chest, and that emerald light within my soul seemed to pulse once more. I bowed my head and the air had gone still, Taylor was frozen, but her raging swarm was a clear indicator that she was not happy.
Eidolon lifted and I pulled my arm up in a halting gesture. "Not here. Too many people. Perhaps another locale would better suit the Faerie Queen." I was polite to the third most powerful cape in the world, second if she took Eidolon.
…
I fucking deserved that vacation for this shit.
September 29th, 2011. 4:50PM
Basilia Rubio
It has taken us about fifteen minutes, and Glaistig Uaine had been kind enough to be nice and patient with us. She had even been fine with opening a Gate to where Butcher had been orbitally bombarded from existence. Eidolon was pulling upon three powers, and we had a few capes keeping their distance and their eye on Ciara. Rusul was sitting somewhere, whispering to shard aspects.
Monarch and Victoria from my team, and Chevalier and Legend from the Protectorate. At close range anway, there were capes at a greater distance like Tremor and a thinker or two from the government.
Five voices whispered in my mind, all of them intermingled with a sixth voice, whether it was mine or Veda's or some amalgamation of both. It was a complicated affair to figure out identity when you were a fusion between human and spirit.
I remained standing up, folding down my helmet since there was really no point. She could probably sense me regardless of my weird nature because I was still a shard.
"The Vedic Queen." Glaistig Uaine slightly bowed her head and I did the same because offending a cape capable of instantly killing my friends was a bad idea.
"Faerie Queen," I responded. "What brings you by after such a harrowing battle?" I glanced over to the shade she had brought out to play. A fire manipulating cape and my memory providing Phoenixfeather as a name. A fox-faced shade, and I recalled movement power granting from this one.
"I couldn't stand by any longer, not when the Thief was being corrupted. I brought the Lesser Shaper with me as my agent in this endeavor. It would be a mistake to let the enemy catch a glimpse of me." I swallowed a comment, and instead pondered my words carefully.
"Can you bring the Thief out?" There was a low thrumming to my voice, and Glaistig Uaine chuckled with a chorus of hundreds.
The shade emerged sharply, and I could see the costume had fused deeply into Quarrel's skin, emerald chains wrapped around her wrists while the rest of her was a mix of black, white and red. She seethed, but flinched when Glaistig Uaine glanced back at her.
"You took the Butcher?" Taylor gasped, and her swarm gathered around her in a lazy orbit.
"It was an offering from the Vedic Queen, the High Priest has no business chaining down the dead." She gestured freely to Eidolon and he stiffened. Understanding came quickly for him.
"Oh. That's how you put down the Butcher, you invoked some aspect of her power to chain down the shard itself." I gave a nod to Eidolon.
"I could probably have found another way, but I didn't have the time." At the least none of the twenty souls were screaming anymore. "The Faerie Queen is at least a calmer being than what was left of Butcher near the end." Which was saying a lot for a crazy person. "But perhaps it would be best to return to that later?" I raised an eyebrow at the few capes here.
I looked at Butcher in pity, and the shade backed away in response. Ciara smiled, a glimmer in her eyes.
"I would have come in a prepared garb but I'm not yet ready to leave my demesne."
"You see us both as queens, why is that?" I had a very good guess but I wanted her perspective for this.
"There are few among the faerie like us, those who stand head and shoulders above others in the court Vedic Queen, Usurper." There was a vehemence there, not anger but curiosity instead. "Your Queen Administrator, the queen you've taken as a paramour." I flushed but kept my cool. "There are others like us, though queen would not be the right word. The Demesnes-Keeper and the Shaper you've taken into your court, and the Corresponder took Broadcast's mantle when you let his mask expire."
"So why talk to me in particular, there are a lot of powerful Faerie out there. Any one of them could have caught your attention Faerie Queen."
She smiled, lifting a hand. "Please, there is no need for titles here. And indeed you are right that any Queen could have caught my eye. But you are far more unusual than even the High Priest, with his bedraggled and maddened court. There were meant to be two, but you are a foreigner, from a court I've never seen before."
"My…Faerie's court was destroyed a very long time ago, poisoned and slain." She looked decidedly uncomfortable at the idea. "She learned much, ate from a tree of lost knowledge and connected to me in a unique fashion."
"You speak to your Faerie?" She looked excited, but kept her manners in check.
"Not…in a way I could easily explain, I speak to the spirits and the faerie share a similar but distinct existence to them." I rubbed my neck, speaking slowly as I was still rather uneasy at her closeness.
As in being within a hundred miles of me.
"You hear the voices of the Faerie far more clearly than even I, understand their nature more inherently. It's a curious thing, and it's quite a rare event to have to entertain a foreign dignitary."
"You have questions." It was Taylor that had spoken up rather than myself, and Eidolon was keeping his power on a low simmer.
We do.
I heard Queen Harvester clear as day as she spoke in tandem with her host. She appeared as a green version of the Grim Reaper, though more effeminate in frame. She didn't speak directly to me so much as directly to my shard, though that was effectively no different at this scale.
"Typically all Faerie have a role, the nobles are simply more practiced, their roles requiring them to toil while the others sleep. You do not care about the stage or the play itself, you have changed in a fundamental way. The Queen Administrator has taken your side, taken the role of organization and teamwork. The High Priest has been welcomed within your court, and instead of leading it as the temple he is simply another piece. What is your role? Your Purpose?"
"Answers." I blurted out, and there was a tilt of the head from everyone else. "The answer to questions the Faerie have never answered or even never asked. To be a bridge between the first…and the last." I scratched my cheek at their curious glances.
I didn't know why I had said that or why it had felt right.
"Are those answers why the High Priest has learned to tap the living for strength? Did you give him the answers to questions he's never asked?"
"Indirectly." Taylor responded for me. "She knew a lot about powers, but didn't get much of a chance to get Eidolon his answers." Perhaps that had been a mistake? If I had told him earlier maybe he would have been stronger or I would have noticed his shard was getting messed up.
"You have gathered a vast court for yourself, a court of the living larger than my court of the dead." She acknowledged Taylor with a nod, as she turned to me. "You and I have the same enemy, a force trying to destroy not just the play but to overturn the entire stage. I can feel that strength…that abomination in the periphery, one that seeks to consume the Faeries. You can see why I would not like that."
"Which begs the question…what exactly is your relationship with the shaman, with Rusul?"
"Those of his ilk…I would typically view him as a prop and nothing more," She seemed dismissive but there was a notable shift in her expression. "Yet he understands me more clearly than most, he too hears the Faerie in his own way. It is how he arrived here, they listened to his voice, they opened the door for him. I wish to understand why? Why is he so different from the other props? What is this enemy that is a cipher to my insight? What have I missed, remaining within my demesne?"
"Those are the kind of questions that can break even the strongest beings." It wasn't something from my experience that told me to reply like that. No it had to be Balaam, the few Batarians who had asked didn't like the answers they had learned.
Often seeking the answers to your questions can go…poorly.
She reached up, placing a hand on the side of my face. Taylor stiffened, but I felt a pulse of her shard revealing my immunity.
Even so, killing me wasn't an impossibility with her number of powers.
"That is why you are here, are you not? To search for the answers, whether from within or without? It is why I am here…though exploring this world won't find me the answers I seek. I have yet to acquire a Faerie to travel between worlds in a stable manner, but you have developed the means yourself haven't you?" I didn't like the sound of that.
"What are you trying to say?"
"An exchange, a mutual alliance between my court of the dead and your court of the living. You give me the chance to find answers, and I will help you when the time comes."
That sounded like a bad idea in every way imaginable. One working with criminals was a bad look if they weren't reformed much less a mass serial killer with several dozen deaths on her head directly and harvesting of dead capes giving her access to several hundred shards. Two she scares the shit out of me. Three she scares the shit out of me.
"Why would you try to help us at all, you've never done so before when you could have left the Cage at any time." Eidolon tapped in, crossing his arms and letting a glow pulse out from his eyes.
"Because this is something far more important, perhaps more important even than my role. It could mean the end of the play, the destruction of the stage we all stand on. That I will not tolerate." There was a hint of something else, a fear, a very human terror guiding her words.
Well, fuck.
I lightly moved her hand from my face, keeping my expression neutral for the time being.
"What exactly do you want from us? I doubt a lot of people are interested in seeing a mass serial killer free, and I'm not exactly going to trust a cape capable of killing any of my own with a touch."
"I don't plan to move far from the Cage itself, I wouldn't even mind residing within it. I simply wish to be informed on any developments, or even partake in the search for our mutual enemy. And I've made sure to remove some of the capes most able to exploit an escape attempt."
Huh?
"Teacher has been confirmed dead along with several of his thralls, and some of the more capable capes were warned." Dragon informed me.
"Why didn't you say something earlier?"
"Teacher apparently had embedded some of his programming into the Birdcage's systems…it took me time to remove them and by then we were already in combat with the Butcher." I hated every word of what she just said, and I sighed.
"If we let you…participate in the investigation will you keep your word on remaining in place?" Eidolon didn't seem to like it, and I wonder what he was getting from the higher ups. Chevalier was keeping a hand on his weapon, and Victoria's barrier flickered gold in flashes.
"Of course, I have no reason to renege on a deal of this magnitude." Glaistig Uaine smiled beautifically, and my eyebrows twitched. "The Vedic Queen and Refinement can both keep an eye on me if need be." She dismissed any further concerns, and there was a moment where Eidolon and Glaistig Uaine stared each other down.
"We can accept those terms, if you're willing of course?" I sighed.
"I can run a constant sweep of the area around the Birdcage if we're really going for this."
Taylor spoke up. "I'll get Skimmer to work on more of her programs and sensors, to keep a good eye on Glaistig Uaine." Taylor glared at the Trump-type cape, but didn't linger. "If the Queen truly wants an alliance, then we'll do our best to accommodate her." There was an implied 'for now' that was kind of scary in its sheer confidence.
There was amusement in Ciara's eyes. "Well it seems your authority hasn't diminished at all within the Vedic Queen's court, it's good to see that Queen Administrator." There was a tone of respect in her voice. She moved closer, apparently keen on inspecting Taylor. To my shock and horror Victoria stepped in the way, Fragile One holding out a limb to stop Glaistig Uaine in her tracks.
"Vicky…pull back, now." Glaistig Uaine brushed her finger tips against the shield, and my hand moved before my brain caught up with me.
I gripped the Queen's hand, catching a flicker of her power being repelled by Fragile One. It died against my own skin, and I gently released her hand with a smile that was midway between a snarl.
"Curious, you've named yourself haven't you? Nike, the Fragile One. You are young, but there's great potential. What will come out of this…I actually can't say." She moved on easily, apparently disregarding a lot with ease. "Well then, the pact should be made then?" She offered a hand, and I glanced over to Eidolon helplessly.
"She doesn't want me to make the deal, she wants you for reasons I can't fathom." I was going to punch the world in the face somehow, I didn't know when and I didn't know how but I was going to try.
"So how do we…?"
"Simply shake my hand, I would like to return to my demesne quite soon." I shook her hand and again felt how her power couldn't reach where my shard was. Because it was in a place beyond her touch.
I opened the World Eyes, and saw her shard nodding. There was the connection there of hundreds of shards, forming a loose network with the shards connected to mine.
"I suppose you're ready to go back then?" I asked and she responded with the murmur of so many voices.
"I am. There is still more time to figure out your role in this Vedic Queen, and I will be curious to see what you will become."
…
Great.
September 29th, 2011. 5:20PM
Basilia Rubio
Director Tagg stared at me, and I stared back.
"…" Silence from him.
"…" Silence from myself as I sat done on the ground, watching Rusul as he enticed the spirits of the forest to grow back what it had lost.
I felt just a bit numb.
Just a little, not a lot, just a little.
"I can see why you've mentioned a need for a vacation…"
"May I leave?"
"You may."
I left wordlessly, Taylor guiding me until I crashed a few hours later right on her home's couch. She would be the one giving them the details…
Goodnight.
AN: Here is the end of the major conflict of this Arc, for now at least. Teleologism will be wrapping up pretty soon. I'm writing Arc 14, and have worked ahead on Arc 15 a bit. Hopefully this is a good wrap up but I'm open to criticism.
Though this chapter does fit a general pattern of important or dangerous people being drawn to Basilia like a moth to a flame. Which is a bit deliberate on my part. I've seen a few SI's, Worm or otherwise where the insert always follows after main characters for one reason or another. Maybe to get plot armor protection or to keep the story recognizable.
Here's it's the opposite, Basilia won't directly intervene if she doesn't have to or will get other more qualified people the information they need. People go after her instead…often to her detriment just as much as to her benefit.
A few curveballs every now and then never hurt anyway.
So hope you enjoy.
September 29th, 2011. 3:40PM
Basilia Rubio
The mindless rage tried to take away my sensibilities, but the small chorus of voices wiped away the influence. I felt that energy flow, not to my bending but to my body, the light of my soul within my mortal frame. That power flowed into other places, into the seat that made up my ability to tinker, to absorb and consolidate knowledge.
I tore into the spirit world, following after Butcher. I lunged and forced her back into the material world, and spirit flesh healed just as quickly as it was worn away.
"How is she doing this?" Alexandria questioned as she flew at a third the speed of sound. Smashing into the Butcher like the fists of an angry god.
I could see the shard shaping spiritual energies, learning and experimenting, growing as an individual. I could reach and feel the energies of the souls within it's flesh, and I had my suspicions. One of them was a shaman…a latent one.
Rusul took the time to call out, to raise his voice in contempt and defiance.
Shine of the Spheres, Luster of Reflections, Membrane of all Matter
Heed the call of your chosen voice.
Gather at our call, hear our prayers, aid in our hunt!
Likeness in the mirror surface, bones of the world, heart of the living.
As the bridge holds, so stands your power, Heed the call!
As the Beast cuts, we shall mend, as flesh rots, we will renew!
As the wanderer dreams, we stake a foundation, no other will change our passage!
Things will remain as they are, because they must be.
Heed the call of your chosen voice.
Gather at our call, hear our prayers, aid in our hunt!
Likeness in the mirror surface, bones of the world, heart of the living.
As the bridge holds, so stands your power, Heed the call!
As the Beast cuts, we shall mend, as flesh rots, we will renew!
As the wanderer dreams, we stake a foundation, no other will change our passage!
Things will remain as they are, because they must be.
There was a lurch, air bunching into liquid around Rusul's hands as he slammed the Inner and Outer Spheres together, as he forcefully and metaphysically forced the world into a solid state. Butcher was stuck here, there was nowhere for her to run any longer.
Out of all the attacks, bending seemed to do quite a bit more damage than one would expect. But then again I was throwing fireballs with energy comparable to a battleship cannon. The Butcher was screaming, and massive nets of energy were containing her while we surrounded her in a circle of water. Paragon flicked the trigger of his cannon. Her teleportation flickered around the water, and Eidolon threw out a barrage of spears, which seemed to be a pseudo-Sting sort of attack.
Something like Dauntless rather than Flechette though.
The Samsara was in orbit, and I nodded to myself. I warned the capes and they backed off, shielded by my machines. The sky lit up, and a three hundred kilogram iron-tungsten slug slammed an inch in front of Butcher. Her danger sense had responded, and a second later a more complicated and more dangerous projectile hit her.
Space warped, sliding past the force fields and the boosted reflective fields around Butcher's skin. She was hit with thirty two tons of kinetic energy, and then had the pleasure of space ripping apart half her body. But just as quickly she started to regenerate, and I growled.
Crawler adaptations had clearly been implemented, though she didn't have the constant evolution, just very impressive regeneration. The cape pulsed out with her aura, a range of violent and frightening emotions trying and failing to wash into our minds.
I rocketed back on jets of fire, and landed on the crumpled ground.
"What was that?" Miss Militia switched to some type of laser cannon, a blue prismatic beam instantly smashing Butcher in the face.
"That would be low yield orbital bombardment, first a kinetic slug to trigger Butcher's thinker sensing, and then a mass accelerated Warp bomb to pulp her Form."
"Low yield, what would be high yield?" She blew up a bolt of shaped stone in midair with her laser cannon.
"Actually using the main gun as well as all other weaponry systems. Lasers, particle beams, missiles and torpedoes. A lot of nuclear, disrupters, Neutronium flex, antimatter…"
"Why would you even need that?" She sounded horrified.
"The Samsara is designed for more exotic threats, as well as an experimental platform for implementing new tinkertech." Miss Militia blinked and wordlessly went back to shooting the monstrous cape in the face.
Above us Eidolon carefully carved out sections of Butcher's crystalline flesh, and other Blasters did the same. The warped cape swayed from side to side, sliding past attacks, or deflecting them with her myriad number of powers.
Paragon was stilling the air around Butcher, and ice was forming along her skin. She opened her mouth, and power nullification slammed against multiple capes.
Another fiery charge from Polaris kept the fight from falling apart, and Vicky made a knife out of flames and invisible hard light. One cape recovered and exhaled a cloud of explosive vapor, while a second brought down a projectile from the sky.
Alexandria grabbed Butcher by the neck, quantum locked hands gripping tightly. She slammed the shard-affected cape into the ground, folding her in half. As I saw everyone fighting to keep the monster down, waiting for me to do what needed to be done.
I let the power flow, the knowledge pulsate, heard the chorus of voices within my soul, guardians of a grand Domain. I let my nose take in what I needed, the smell of acrylics and gunpowder inherent to the shards of the Void Wyrms. I pulled on a number of spirits, each of them befitting the concepts I needed to put down the Butcher.
I Blinked behind her, and raked my hand through her flesh. I ripped out the tumor altering her, the pulsating core of the copy. I tore it apart with my hands and the beast stumbled. I jumped back, spinning through the air and making my choice as I flew effortlessly with biotic force alone. I spoke, throwing my hands in the air.
I DENY YOU.
The shard flinched, recoiling in what I knew was fear and terror, as I disconnected it from whatever the Isopod was supposed to connect it to. I lifted both my hands.
MASTER OF CEREMONIES, WRETCHED ONCE-NOBLE, UGLY AND EMPTY!
BEFORE YOU STANDS SOMETHING GREATER, CYCLING TOWARDS THE FUTURE.
BEFORE YOU STANDS SOMETHING GREATER, CYCLING TOWARDS THE FUTURE.
The Butcher took on a silver glow as I cast down a rain of silver and silver-red spirit. Flesh peeled, and it spat lashing tendrils that were broken apart by Eidolon. The landscape around us took on a shade of the Shardspace, twinkling shards circling around capes.
CREATURE SO TWISTED AND FOUL, PUPPET OF THE AEON, BRINGER OF THE END.
WITHIN US WE HOLD THE LIGHT OF LIFE, THE BEATING HEART OF THE WHEEL. THE JUDGEMENT OF SHARD AND MORTAL MADE MANIFEST.
GEAR OF THE WYRM.
WITHIN US WE HOLD THE LIGHT OF LIFE, THE BEATING HEART OF THE WHEEL. THE JUDGEMENT OF SHARD AND MORTAL MADE MANIFEST.
GEAR OF THE WYRM.
The spirits I invoked took a familiar shape, spiral helixes orbiting around each other in a cosmic dance. Every parahuman took several steps back, and Miss Militia was the most affected by the sight. They doubled down on their attacks soon after, and the Butcher-Thief's flesh sizzled and burned.
Rusul formed chains of shard aspects, and the shard-host was driven to her knees. Twenty voices screamed, railed against their bounds, against the fallen shard that had broken the rules. The souls cracked their confines, and more souls came from deeper within the shard. Hundreds of souls boiled atop the skin, shadows and memories rising to the surface.
Void circled around every living soul, human, Rachni, parahuman.
THERE STANDS THE ABBERANCE, ENRAGED AND UNLOVED, LET THE HUB DENY!
THE FINAL STATE SHALL COME, A CHANCE FOR REBIRTH AND REDEFINITION.
LET OUR JUDGEMENT BE HEARD, LET THE BEAST BE CHAINED AND REFORMED.
THE FINAL STATE SHALL COME, A CHANCE FOR REBIRTH AND REDEFINITION.
LET OUR JUDGEMENT BE HEARD, LET THE BEAST BE CHAINED AND REFORMED.
I felt a shard hiding in the periphery, and with that shard I had what I needed. With that power the judgement was made in my soul. The Butcher tried to break free, tried to push past the powers arranged against it.
I refused, and the wind picked up as I instructed every bender of all Elements to attack the Butcher-Thief at once. This was more than just a rebuke, it was a casting down of a physical god. I felt that energy, the vastness of my soul pulsing in tandem with a hundred hearts.
I was doing my duty.
UNBREAKABLE EARTH, UNTOUCHABLE AIR, DEPTHLESS WATER, UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. BRIDGE BETWEEN AGES. HOLDER OF ALL GATES. MARK OF FATE. SOUL OF KNOWLEDGE.
GEAR OF THE VYASA
GEAR OF THE VYASA
Something burst from my back, and I saw five figures rippling across the ground, the Elements making the Thief scream in an agony of the spirit rather than the near invulnerable shells of the shards. Hundreds of souls attacked the shard, bearing down on it from within its own body. Those few of it's hosts that had survived the journey between worlds.
They were helping me, they had heard my call, and they were quite keen on making the Thief's day worse. I felt the roiling flames of my soul, aching to complete a noble Purpose. I let my soul do the talking.
THE WHISPERS OF AEON WAFT ON THE BREEZE;
A PROFANE CORRUPTION OF OUR PURPOSE, A TREASON AGAINST REDEMPTION, A MADNESS AGAINST THE BALANCE.
AS THE ONE WHO HOLDS THE VEDAS WITHIN THEIR SOUL, WE WILL DENY!
A PROFANE CORRUPTION OF OUR PURPOSE, A TREASON AGAINST REDEMPTION, A MADNESS AGAINST THE BALANCE.
AS THE ONE WHO HOLDS THE VEDAS WITHIN THEIR SOUL, WE WILL DENY!
The tendrils trying to attack the capes around me again turned to dust, and the Butcher fell into a trembling bow, flesh sloughing off.
THE ONCE GREATER THIEF, THOSE YOU HUNGER FOR WILL BE BARRED FROM YOUR MAW, YOU SHALL BE STRIPPED, YOUR DOOM HASTENED!
DEFIED BY SOMETHING YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE.
YOU SHALL BE CHAINED BY THE SCYTHING HANDS OF THE HARVESTER.
YOU HAVE NO PLACE HERE IN OUR GRAND DESIGN.
I CAST YOU OUT.
I CAST YOU DOWN!
DEFIED BY SOMETHING YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE.
YOU SHALL BE CHAINED BY THE SCYTHING HANDS OF THE HARVESTER.
YOU HAVE NO PLACE HERE IN OUR GRAND DESIGN.
I CAST YOU OUT.
I CAST YOU DOWN!
Her face cracked in half, glowing silver in complete and utter agony. I opened a ton of portals, grabbing everyone and gating them twenty miles east. The Spheres crushed against the Thief, and I designated fire on the physical flesh of Butcher. A blue streak cascaded down for a tenth of a second, and there was a brief flash of light from the Thanix cannon.
I slipped out of that state, and I collapsed onto the ground. I could hear Taylor scramble over, and I felt nice and comfy on the dependable earth. Eidolon floated down, and cast a flickering light. Some of my exhaustion faded and I was energized and felt less like shit.
She helped me up, and I groaned. "Oh god. I can't feel my legs." Taylor snorted and I was promptly picked up and placed in a more comfortable position.
Heads turned, as they found no trace of any cape being possessed.
"Is the Butcher gone? For good?" Chevalier took his time walking over, hobbling a bit.
"I cast down their shard so yes, they're not going to be a problem anymore. We were lucky they broke the rules, and that they were so vulnerable." There was a wariness in the air, and I wondered if they somehow thought I could remove powers with what I had done.
Yeah…no. Not how that works.
"Vulnerable?"
"Parahumans can't really be manipulated using invocations like this, they're provided a bridge to their power through a physical link. Butcher's shard broke the rules and manifested too much of itself into the world. It paid the price for that." Now pulling off normal shaman invocations was way easier since they were no more resistant than anyone else.
"Now if you'll be so kind, I'm going to take a nap."
Chevalier shuffled his feet. "Wh—"
Byeeee.
I shut my eyes and fell asleep.
___
September 29th, 2011. 4:30PM
Basilia Rubio
I felt a lot better after my nap, and I left with the awkward situation of keeping an eye on the Birdcage escapee. I was tapping my left foot, unable to keep nervous energy from suffusing me. Director Tagg was currently speaking to Dragon, likely on what the hell we were supposed to do with this nonsense.
A few Protectorate capes were outside, probably in case he decided to do something stupid. Or I suppose smart since remaining in a largely inescapable prison isn't someone most people want. Though I suppose it really wasn't anymore.
I had gotten a new helmet, and I clenched my hands, and shook out the odd fuzziness from my limbs. Marquis seemed to be waiting for something, and in a single flash Eidolon was within the tent.
"Not a single trace of the Butcher is left after you used that weapon on her." Eidolon sat down on a plastic chair, and the incongruity was almost amusing. "Everything for a half mile was devastated by some type of heavy impact, a new superweapon of yours then?"
"That would be a Thanix-Sting cannon at about ten percent power and fired for 100 milliseconds. So about half the yield of Fat Man." I gave rough numbers, the Thanix was an order of magnitude more powerful than any mass accelerator.
Barring more exotic and more fragile designs I was working on in my spare time. In fact it was mostly novel, mostly.
"It's based on Flechette's power?"
I shrugged. "Not exactly. The Thanix is simply compensating for the inefficiency of my replication of Sting's dimensional unfolding. Flechette is at least an order of magnitude more efficient with her use of the power. This gives my weapons enough 'punch' to break into the core of an Endbringer or Endbringer-like threat."
"A bit oversized for an anti-Endbringer weapon isn't it?" There was a reverb to his voice, and I noted when I spoke there was…an echo from mine in response.
What did that mean? And why?
"The Samsara isn't just a weapon against Endbringers, it's a vessel for traveling the stars, to boldly go where no one has gone before!" I puffed up my chest, unable to help my pride.
"So you've been to others worlds before?" Eidolon seemed to be relaxing though he kept a wary eye on Marquis.
"I've been to about fifteen star systems personally, though I never lingered long so I didn't get a chance to sightsee. I'll be changing that soon." I decided then and there, I was tired and I needed a break.
Eidolon formed a force field around us, light refracted by the power he was using. Marquis didn't move, but another cape entered to guard him for a bit. I ignored that for the moment.
"Something you want to talk about?" I chirped, not feeling very intimidated at the moment. Maybe I had become too jaded and the second most powerful being on Bet was no longer so impressive to me.
"You plan to reveal Cauldron's involvement with the Case 53s." It was a statement with no hesitation.
"I'm not sure there's going to be much of a choice in the matter on either of our parts. The Thief has obviously been given some inside information by someone and quite a few Case 53s are already suspicious. Plus…Faultline has her own agenda, even if she's technically part of my team."
"I would think you'd have more control over the members of your team." I rolled my eyes.
"The White Lotus is basically just several teams working together, and it's only going to get bigger based on some of the applications we've been getting. I'm not good at micromanaging, and I don't pretend to be either. Plus nearly twenty percent of my team is made up of Case 53s to begin with."
Eidolon seems to take what I said in stride. "If you tell Case 53s the truth not all of them are going to react well. It could end badly, it could damage the Protectorate."
"We came a few inches away from that happening anyway, the only reason that rogue shard didn't spill the beans was because it couldn't talk in anything other than riddles. Then there's the flashes of memories being reported by the Case 53s. I'm not going to cover for Cauldron, so don't bother trying to convince me otherwise."
"I wasn't going to…I already see the cracks, there's been a lot of issues already. My connection with the Endbringers, it's caused friction even if they're no longer attacking on my subconscious orders. Cauldron has been…trying to pull back, seeing how stable the PRT and Protectorate can be without them."
"How bad is it?"
"Less than it used to be, if we left them alone they would be stable. With a more even division between heroes and villains, the types of battles we need to fight are shifting dramatically."
"Why is that?"
"Newer Triggers seem to be built differently, less aggressive and born from less stressful situations. Most of them have gone the route of Hero or Rogue, and we have at least least several hundred new capes in the United States alone. There's a notable shift in the status quo."
"Is it a bad shift?" I whispered, interlacing my fingers.
"The others would be more worried about grabbing Scion's attention, but I've caught glimpses of him. Something has changed…and if what you've told us is right then he's no longer a direct threat."
"It doesn't mean he's not a threat, setting him off might be Aeon's goal for all we know."
Eidolon didn't deny it. "I'm still not certain we can beat him, if he can use Contessa's power any strategy can be used against us."
"The Entities aren't infallible, his Counterpart's corpse is a testament to that one. The fact he didn't use his power to find her when she was less damaged is of course another sign. Though I have been wondering why you haven't tried a Long Walk by now."
"A what?"
"I'm sure I've mentioned the Spirit Roads haven't I?" He nodded. "All you have to do is grab a couple dozen or couple hundred skilled shamans, and have them escort a few thousand or even tens of thousands of people to the Spirit World of another habitable planet. You'll need to bring food and water for the journey until you find a Crossroads. And if you need eezo, search for Sheol and you can mine some. Just keep moving, scattering humanity across the local cluster or beyond."
"…"
I fidgeted. "What?"
Eidolon didn't answer the question, simply moving on. "I'm not going to say you're wrong on needing to tell them the truth…but it'll be difficult, and you won't be able to control their actions."
"Some of them might be able to handle it, but you're right. But at least two Case 53s have suspicions, and I'm not the silencing type. Best you figure out something because I'm not going to go out of my way to protect any of you." Regardless of the good they had done, I had to take them in their totality.
There was no erasing their flaws, their mistakes, their sins and evils, and I didn't know how to avoid the hatred the Case 53s would have for them. I'm not sure if I should.
"When are you going to tell them?"
"Probably whenever Gully and Weld decide to confront me, and I'll probably be setting up portals to their worlds at some point. But I can't give them closure, only answers. The only hope I have is if they can keep their anger for a later date when the world isn't going to end."
Eidolon nodded with a sigh. "It's one reason there's been a spree for recruiting thinkers and tinkers, we need enough people in the aftermath when Cauldron isn't holding up the world anymore."
I would make a quip on how good of a job they were doing but that would be petty and I had some doubts other people would have done that much better. Not that it was going to change my opinion of them.
"Well good luck with that." I was honest there, the less that Cauldron needed to use their pull on Bet, the less people would be hurt from the fallout of their eventual revelation.
Eidolon dropped the field, and Marquis was gone, escorted out and all. I could still feel him, but I left that up to other people. I came out of the tent, Eidolon stepping in line with me.
Director Tagg had a mild look of consternation, coming away from a conversation with Rusul and Weaver. I didn't go up and ask, and the park had been emptied out almost completely, mainly dealing with the last Imbued and the ten benders that had gotten their shit kicked in by the PRT.
Taylor was talking with Vicky, and I heard the faint whisper of their shards brushing against one another. There was a lot of work to be done, people to talk to, worlds to visit and learn about. I had gained a deeper understanding of my capabilities, of the nature of the shards themselves, ideas I could implement once we finished up here.
If I could contact and manipulate the spirits of the shards, it meant I could better comprehend their biology, their thoughts, the way they bend and fold reality to their will. I had Panacea who could build Endbringer-lites, and numerous tinkers on top of that and the Rachni themselves.
Of course making genetically modified monster slave-clones was a bit outside our moral framework. Though the Rachni did have their Sykalid warbeasts based on their genetics and the genetics of Suen animal species. So maybe their morals were different enough from our own to be…a bit weird.
Now that the Butcher was done and the Fallen utterly annihilated on Earth Bet, I had time to focus on other more important things. Like on Athena, spending time on more R&D, or maybe on using my vacation days so I don't crack more than I already have. I had opened portals to a few Earths.
Earth Dalet, Earth He, Earth Zayin, Earth Mem, Earth Nun, Earth Q, Earth Tav, Earth Achat. I had solved the toxic mold problem from that planet easily enough.
Earth Tau-He was Sveta's home world, and I had located Cheit as well. Plus Shamrock's planet, which has apparently gotten an asteroid to the face between her kidnapping and today. Not a big one, it was more a regional disaster than a global one.
I had identified about sixty four thousand Earths that had technology at a threatening level. Ranging from the early 1900s to half a century ahead of us in technological development. Sixty thousand of those realities were my own multiverse, while the other four thousand made up Earth Bet's set of reality clusters. And of those four thousand, maybe a tenth of them had nuclear weapons while Earth Alpha's reality cluster had eight thousand.
I really hoped I wasn't going to get roped into interdimensional politics but I knew it was futile. I was a proven trouble magnet…best I could do was just adapt. I glanced over to Eidolon, and something tickled at the back of my mind.
I shut my eyes, listening to the ways of the spirits, of the shards now among their strange ilk. I felt something, a great tide sliding up to me, and the great tide that was Eidolon's power rotated to face the strength approaching me.
I felt a small hand reach to grip my shoulder, and there was a tingle up and down my spine. Like tendrils were trying to pull me out of my body, and sliding off of them or being met with unrelenting force.
I turned my head, chin bobbing and I suppressed a choking sound when I looked up to large green eyes. She wore a modified prison uniform, the shroud making her seem far more ominous. The person removed their hand, their cherubic face pulled into a tiny barely notable grin.
"Glaistig Uaine." My heart hammered in my chest, and that emerald light within my soul seemed to pulse once more. I bowed my head and the air had gone still, Taylor was frozen, but her raging swarm was a clear indicator that she was not happy.
Eidolon lifted and I pulled my arm up in a halting gesture. "Not here. Too many people. Perhaps another locale would better suit the Faerie Queen." I was polite to the third most powerful cape in the world, second if she took Eidolon.
…
I fucking deserved that vacation for this shit.
___
September 29th, 2011. 4:50PM
Basilia Rubio
It has taken us about fifteen minutes, and Glaistig Uaine had been kind enough to be nice and patient with us. She had even been fine with opening a Gate to where Butcher had been orbitally bombarded from existence. Eidolon was pulling upon three powers, and we had a few capes keeping their distance and their eye on Ciara. Rusul was sitting somewhere, whispering to shard aspects.
Monarch and Victoria from my team, and Chevalier and Legend from the Protectorate. At close range anway, there were capes at a greater distance like Tremor and a thinker or two from the government.
Five voices whispered in my mind, all of them intermingled with a sixth voice, whether it was mine or Veda's or some amalgamation of both. It was a complicated affair to figure out identity when you were a fusion between human and spirit.
I remained standing up, folding down my helmet since there was really no point. She could probably sense me regardless of my weird nature because I was still a shard.
"The Vedic Queen." Glaistig Uaine slightly bowed her head and I did the same because offending a cape capable of instantly killing my friends was a bad idea.
"Faerie Queen," I responded. "What brings you by after such a harrowing battle?" I glanced over to the shade she had brought out to play. A fire manipulating cape and my memory providing Phoenixfeather as a name. A fox-faced shade, and I recalled movement power granting from this one.
"I couldn't stand by any longer, not when the Thief was being corrupted. I brought the Lesser Shaper with me as my agent in this endeavor. It would be a mistake to let the enemy catch a glimpse of me." I swallowed a comment, and instead pondered my words carefully.
"Can you bring the Thief out?" There was a low thrumming to my voice, and Glaistig Uaine chuckled with a chorus of hundreds.
The shade emerged sharply, and I could see the costume had fused deeply into Quarrel's skin, emerald chains wrapped around her wrists while the rest of her was a mix of black, white and red. She seethed, but flinched when Glaistig Uaine glanced back at her.
"You took the Butcher?" Taylor gasped, and her swarm gathered around her in a lazy orbit.
"It was an offering from the Vedic Queen, the High Priest has no business chaining down the dead." She gestured freely to Eidolon and he stiffened. Understanding came quickly for him.
"Oh. That's how you put down the Butcher, you invoked some aspect of her power to chain down the shard itself." I gave a nod to Eidolon.
"I could probably have found another way, but I didn't have the time." At the least none of the twenty souls were screaming anymore. "The Faerie Queen is at least a calmer being than what was left of Butcher near the end." Which was saying a lot for a crazy person. "But perhaps it would be best to return to that later?" I raised an eyebrow at the few capes here.
I looked at Butcher in pity, and the shade backed away in response. Ciara smiled, a glimmer in her eyes.
"I would have come in a prepared garb but I'm not yet ready to leave my demesne."
"You see us both as queens, why is that?" I had a very good guess but I wanted her perspective for this.
"There are few among the faerie like us, those who stand head and shoulders above others in the court Vedic Queen, Usurper." There was a vehemence there, not anger but curiosity instead. "Your Queen Administrator, the queen you've taken as a paramour." I flushed but kept my cool. "There are others like us, though queen would not be the right word. The Demesnes-Keeper and the Shaper you've taken into your court, and the Corresponder took Broadcast's mantle when you let his mask expire."
"So why talk to me in particular, there are a lot of powerful Faerie out there. Any one of them could have caught your attention Faerie Queen."
She smiled, lifting a hand. "Please, there is no need for titles here. And indeed you are right that any Queen could have caught my eye. But you are far more unusual than even the High Priest, with his bedraggled and maddened court. There were meant to be two, but you are a foreigner, from a court I've never seen before."
"My…Faerie's court was destroyed a very long time ago, poisoned and slain." She looked decidedly uncomfortable at the idea. "She learned much, ate from a tree of lost knowledge and connected to me in a unique fashion."
"You speak to your Faerie?" She looked excited, but kept her manners in check.
"Not…in a way I could easily explain, I speak to the spirits and the faerie share a similar but distinct existence to them." I rubbed my neck, speaking slowly as I was still rather uneasy at her closeness.
As in being within a hundred miles of me.
"You hear the voices of the Faerie far more clearly than even I, understand their nature more inherently. It's a curious thing, and it's quite a rare event to have to entertain a foreign dignitary."
"You have questions." It was Taylor that had spoken up rather than myself, and Eidolon was keeping his power on a low simmer.
We do.
I heard Queen Harvester clear as day as she spoke in tandem with her host. She appeared as a green version of the Grim Reaper, though more effeminate in frame. She didn't speak directly to me so much as directly to my shard, though that was effectively no different at this scale.
"Typically all Faerie have a role, the nobles are simply more practiced, their roles requiring them to toil while the others sleep. You do not care about the stage or the play itself, you have changed in a fundamental way. The Queen Administrator has taken your side, taken the role of organization and teamwork. The High Priest has been welcomed within your court, and instead of leading it as the temple he is simply another piece. What is your role? Your Purpose?"
"Answers." I blurted out, and there was a tilt of the head from everyone else. "The answer to questions the Faerie have never answered or even never asked. To be a bridge between the first…and the last." I scratched my cheek at their curious glances.
I didn't know why I had said that or why it had felt right.
"Are those answers why the High Priest has learned to tap the living for strength? Did you give him the answers to questions he's never asked?"
"Indirectly." Taylor responded for me. "She knew a lot about powers, but didn't get much of a chance to get Eidolon his answers." Perhaps that had been a mistake? If I had told him earlier maybe he would have been stronger or I would have noticed his shard was getting messed up.
"You have gathered a vast court for yourself, a court of the living larger than my court of the dead." She acknowledged Taylor with a nod, as she turned to me. "You and I have the same enemy, a force trying to destroy not just the play but to overturn the entire stage. I can feel that strength…that abomination in the periphery, one that seeks to consume the Faeries. You can see why I would not like that."
"Which begs the question…what exactly is your relationship with the shaman, with Rusul?"
"Those of his ilk…I would typically view him as a prop and nothing more," She seemed dismissive but there was a notable shift in her expression. "Yet he understands me more clearly than most, he too hears the Faerie in his own way. It is how he arrived here, they listened to his voice, they opened the door for him. I wish to understand why? Why is he so different from the other props? What is this enemy that is a cipher to my insight? What have I missed, remaining within my demesne?"
"Those are the kind of questions that can break even the strongest beings." It wasn't something from my experience that told me to reply like that. No it had to be Balaam, the few Batarians who had asked didn't like the answers they had learned.
Often seeking the answers to your questions can go…poorly.
She reached up, placing a hand on the side of my face. Taylor stiffened, but I felt a pulse of her shard revealing my immunity.
Even so, killing me wasn't an impossibility with her number of powers.
"That is why you are here, are you not? To search for the answers, whether from within or without? It is why I am here…though exploring this world won't find me the answers I seek. I have yet to acquire a Faerie to travel between worlds in a stable manner, but you have developed the means yourself haven't you?" I didn't like the sound of that.
"What are you trying to say?"
"An exchange, a mutual alliance between my court of the dead and your court of the living. You give me the chance to find answers, and I will help you when the time comes."
That sounded like a bad idea in every way imaginable. One working with criminals was a bad look if they weren't reformed much less a mass serial killer with several dozen deaths on her head directly and harvesting of dead capes giving her access to several hundred shards. Two she scares the shit out of me. Three she scares the shit out of me.
"Why would you try to help us at all, you've never done so before when you could have left the Cage at any time." Eidolon tapped in, crossing his arms and letting a glow pulse out from his eyes.
"Because this is something far more important, perhaps more important even than my role. It could mean the end of the play, the destruction of the stage we all stand on. That I will not tolerate." There was a hint of something else, a fear, a very human terror guiding her words.
Well, fuck.
I lightly moved her hand from my face, keeping my expression neutral for the time being.
"What exactly do you want from us? I doubt a lot of people are interested in seeing a mass serial killer free, and I'm not exactly going to trust a cape capable of killing any of my own with a touch."
"I don't plan to move far from the Cage itself, I wouldn't even mind residing within it. I simply wish to be informed on any developments, or even partake in the search for our mutual enemy. And I've made sure to remove some of the capes most able to exploit an escape attempt."
Huh?
"Teacher has been confirmed dead along with several of his thralls, and some of the more capable capes were warned." Dragon informed me.
"Why didn't you say something earlier?"
"Teacher apparently had embedded some of his programming into the Birdcage's systems…it took me time to remove them and by then we were already in combat with the Butcher." I hated every word of what she just said, and I sighed.
"If we let you…participate in the investigation will you keep your word on remaining in place?" Eidolon didn't seem to like it, and I wonder what he was getting from the higher ups. Chevalier was keeping a hand on his weapon, and Victoria's barrier flickered gold in flashes.
"Of course, I have no reason to renege on a deal of this magnitude." Glaistig Uaine smiled beautifically, and my eyebrows twitched. "The Vedic Queen and Refinement can both keep an eye on me if need be." She dismissed any further concerns, and there was a moment where Eidolon and Glaistig Uaine stared each other down.
"We can accept those terms, if you're willing of course?" I sighed.
"I can run a constant sweep of the area around the Birdcage if we're really going for this."
Taylor spoke up. "I'll get Skimmer to work on more of her programs and sensors, to keep a good eye on Glaistig Uaine." Taylor glared at the Trump-type cape, but didn't linger. "If the Queen truly wants an alliance, then we'll do our best to accommodate her." There was an implied 'for now' that was kind of scary in its sheer confidence.
There was amusement in Ciara's eyes. "Well it seems your authority hasn't diminished at all within the Vedic Queen's court, it's good to see that Queen Administrator." There was a tone of respect in her voice. She moved closer, apparently keen on inspecting Taylor. To my shock and horror Victoria stepped in the way, Fragile One holding out a limb to stop Glaistig Uaine in her tracks.
"Vicky…pull back, now." Glaistig Uaine brushed her finger tips against the shield, and my hand moved before my brain caught up with me.
I gripped the Queen's hand, catching a flicker of her power being repelled by Fragile One. It died against my own skin, and I gently released her hand with a smile that was midway between a snarl.
"Curious, you've named yourself haven't you? Nike, the Fragile One. You are young, but there's great potential. What will come out of this…I actually can't say." She moved on easily, apparently disregarding a lot with ease. "Well then, the pact should be made then?" She offered a hand, and I glanced over to Eidolon helplessly.
"She doesn't want me to make the deal, she wants you for reasons I can't fathom." I was going to punch the world in the face somehow, I didn't know when and I didn't know how but I was going to try.
"So how do we…?"
"Simply shake my hand, I would like to return to my demesne quite soon." I shook her hand and again felt how her power couldn't reach where my shard was. Because it was in a place beyond her touch.
I opened the World Eyes, and saw her shard nodding. There was the connection there of hundreds of shards, forming a loose network with the shards connected to mine.
"I suppose you're ready to go back then?" I asked and she responded with the murmur of so many voices.
"I am. There is still more time to figure out your role in this Vedic Queen, and I will be curious to see what you will become."
…
Great.
___
September 29th, 2011. 5:20PM
Basilia Rubio
Director Tagg stared at me, and I stared back.
"…" Silence from him.
"…" Silence from myself as I sat done on the ground, watching Rusul as he enticed the spirits of the forest to grow back what it had lost.
I felt just a bit numb.
Just a little, not a lot, just a little.
"I can see why you've mentioned a need for a vacation…"
"May I leave?"
"You may."
I left wordlessly, Taylor guiding me until I crashed a few hours later right on her home's couch. She would be the one giving them the details…
Goodnight.
___
AN: Here is the end of the major conflict of this Arc, for now at least. Teleologism will be wrapping up pretty soon. I'm writing Arc 14, and have worked ahead on Arc 15 a bit. Hopefully this is a good wrap up but I'm open to criticism.
Though this chapter does fit a general pattern of important or dangerous people being drawn to Basilia like a moth to a flame. Which is a bit deliberate on my part. I've seen a few SI's, Worm or otherwise where the insert always follows after main characters for one reason or another. Maybe to get plot armor protection or to keep the story recognizable.
Here's it's the opposite, Basilia won't directly intervene if she doesn't have to or will get other more qualified people the information they need. People go after her instead…often to her detriment just as much as to her benefit.
A few curveballs every now and then never hurt anyway.
So hope you enjoy.
- Location
- EU
That last line cracked me up. Such a weird trope.
In other news, I'm pretty sure this is the first fic I've read, where Glaistig Uaine takes down/assists with The Butcher.
It makes sense. It even makes sense as a solution in a 'Canon' universe, with her shards 'powerlevel', whatever the hell that might be.
Because most self-insert fics end up with the SI shooting The Butcher with their awesome stupid power so hard, they all dieded. Bleh. And I was so ready for Basilla to pull more Spirit BS from her ass.
So that's neat. And new. I like.
- Location
- Chula Vista
I wouldn't say there's no Spirit Bs, it's just being mediated by Shard bullshit. Incantations like that usually need to be backed by a Power of some kind. Whether it's the spirit-like Soul of a shaman, the Spirit World itself or individual spirits being called. Its why the chants can be…melodramatic, part of the whole process of asking nicely/flattering the spirit in question.
Though Bending overpowers a lot of incantations involving the Elements. Technology trumps asking nicely.
In this case it's using the power of her Soul against the Spirit of the Thief, and using the Spirit of Harvester to chain her down as punishment.
Which would only work when Glaistig Uaine is within a certain range. Same for a lot of other shaman BS unless you use something Specific like say…the name of a Spirit. But that's a different story.
So it's more of a mix really involving very specific circumstances.
Glaistig Uaine is a character I have always enjoyed, her particular psychoses makes her the most trustworthy Host on Earth Bet, second only to Dragon.
Now, is she safe to be around? Hardly! But if she declares a truth, then you can be certain that if whatever she declared wasn't the truth before, it most certainly is the truth now.
Personally, if I were in the same room as her, i would treat her like Discworld Death: distantly terrifying in an omnipresent sort of way like a gamma ray burst, but otherwise just a fellow professional from another industry, who is here on the job to get something done, or here on break to chat and discuss favors.
Now, is she safe to be around? Hardly! But if she declares a truth, then you can be certain that if whatever she declared wasn't the truth before, it most certainly is the truth now.
Personally, if I were in the same room as her, i would treat her like Discworld Death: distantly terrifying in an omnipresent sort of way like a gamma ray burst, but otherwise just a fellow professional from another industry, who is here on the job to get something done, or here on break to chat and discuss favors.
- Location
- Chula Vista
That's pretty much what Basilia feels about Ciara, crazy as shit but not particularly duplicitous. Plus spirits are just as freaky if not more so, which…mostly inoculates her. Mostly. At the least she's going to treat her with a modicum of respect because there's no reason not to.
I see only one difference between Glaistig Uaine and any random spirit: if trouble pops up and you go "excuse me one moment while I punch this problem in the face...now, what were you about to say" is that Glaistig Uaine would be forgiving in the moment, while a spirit would instantly take offense to a hostile degree for the mortal presumption that a broken moment of communication could be resumed without recompense.
Durabys
Miaow! Break the Chains!
- Location
- the land of the Boii
- Pronouns
- He/Him
@AEM
Question is Fear Unrelenting, Seen Darkly canon for this cross-over? I am currently debating if I should or not start reading or not. Depending on whether that Grim!Derp drivel is part of the story's canon or not.
You see, I love OSaBC Technical Readouts and Science sections...and dislike anything to go with the nutty conspiracies and Warhammer 40k roleplayers.
Question is Fear Unrelenting, Seen Darkly canon for this cross-over? I am currently debating if I should or not start reading or not. Depending on whether that Grim!Derp drivel is part of the story's canon or not.
You see, I love OSaBC Technical Readouts and Science sections...and dislike anything to go with the nutty conspiracies and Warhammer 40k roleplayers.
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- Location
- Chula Vista
Not…really? I've ended up reading some OSaBC myself, mainly ME2 and bits and pieces of other stuff. I've read Fear Unrelenting, Seen Darkly myself and liked it…on a readability basis anyway. This story mostly took Avatar of Victory for inspiration since that story died at 1.9 million words. I wouldn't call this story light at all, but it's not going to be anywhere near the shitshow that is the OSaBC universe. Or be as bleak as Worm.
I've borrowed mostly the technology and science readouts, as well as some of the cosmology…but toned down a few notches. I'll certainly say that early parts of the story are…rough from a writing standpoint. But to answer your question, Fear Unrelenting, Seen Darkly is not canon unless you go with the greater scale of the omniverse. So effectively irrelevant.
Durabys
Miaow! Break the Chains!
- Location
- the land of the Boii
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Great! Primary Download to my eReader commences in 3..2..1..
Teleologism 13.8
- Location
- Chula Vista
Teleologism 13.8
September 30th, 2011. 12:00PM
Basilia Rubio
"What's this?" I asked one of my scientists working in the Paraphysics division, attempting to create practical applications for the use of higher dimensional energies.
Anna was working with eezo, and they had quite a few research and development projects underway with funding from profitable ventures and from research grants. Their research then trickled down to applications in other fields like our 3D printers.
Apparently they were very close to figuring out omni-gel, and had experimented with mass effect fields quite a bit. They had succeeded in creating a basic omni-field using some of the optronics we made in-house which were several orders of magnitude less capable than mine but still incredible by current standards.
About six orders of magnitude less capable in fact.
An omni-field worked through the use of a variation of Rydberg Blockade phenomena, using clouds of excited lithium atoms and strongly coupling them to a stream of photons. The photons will usually exit such a stream in an entangled state but with a zero-field one can mass-stabilize them into discrete shapes of energy. Which was exactly what some of my researchers had done as have other labs across the country.
Anna was more hands on, and I could see the numerous manufacturing devices from lathes to milling machines, and vast amounts of advanced electronic test equipment, at least a dozen ATE machines were immediately apparent. We had managed to dumb down eezo cores, and could build them small enough for tooth brushes.
Though they were orders of magnitude less capable pound for pound. Power sources were just too primitive, though we had a fusion reactor prototype in the works using our room-temperature superconductors and my papers on fusion physics.
In fact we were working on a type two superconductor that would enter the vortex glass temperature at around eight hundred and sixty kelvin. Ductile with the hardness of aluminum that would serve well for our handheld SQUID-MRI scanners.
"We've been working on building larger eezo drive cores and wanted your input." Anna was a sweet girl with frizzy red hair and notable freckles on her light skinned chubby face.
"Sure I don't mind…I've been a little busy and would like to see what you've done in my relative absence." I was a bit of a hands off boss, I gave the company it's vision and pulled my weight of course but it was just my nature.
I entered a hangar, since this facility had been used to house aircraft before going out of business in the 90s. Most of it was offices and work spaces, and I had already set up Athena Aerospace but had been busy with other projects.
R&D only of course, entering the aerospace industry was beyond my means without cheating more than I was willing. I was mostly getting the research done and the actual big boy companies would take that research and turn it from raw ore to the purest gold.
I stopped short when I saw what was in the hangar, actually surprised for once by my teams. Anna smirked, looking as smug as Tattletale. There was a twenty nine foot long shuttle floating three feet off the ground, looking like a dumpy version of a X-37.
A mini Space Shuttle if anyone was wondering…
"Err…is that what I think it is?" I was really hoping it was because if it was I was going to be very impressed.
"That would be our little prototype vehicle, we based it on the Space Shuttle before they were shut down in the 2000s. Plus some smaller vehicles from back in the day."
"How difficult was it to build this thing?" I asked with a bounce to my step as I inspected the vehicle.
"Actually it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. Least that's what Ryan says anyway." Anna muttered the last part. "With the VI's we can do the work in minutes and hours instead of days and weeks. Plus we had Jimmy Mueller sign on since he's been building a liquid fuel rocket in his garage for the last ten years. Bout thirty six thousand pounds of thrust."
"How long did it take you to make this?"
"About two weeks? We 3D printed the engines, and the frame itself was designed pretty quickly." I eyed the dark panels of the shuttle, they had to be TUFROC didn't they?
We had been working with those materials for a while now.
"What's the top speed you've managed so far?" We did work with the FAA now and then because of our new Aerospace division. Mainly just small stuff, because Aerospace would take hundreds of workers if not thousands, and we probably wouldn't get past a thousand any time soon.
"We haven't really gone above nine hundred miles per hour, but we think we can make the ShuttleStar reach orbit with its mass reduction field." I patted Anna on the shoulder, genuinely impressed with the project. "We've got the land for it." I remembered the hundred and eight acre property we brought for experimental projects. Pretty far from people for safety reasons.
"I'm impressed." Anna seemed to perk up in response. "The eezo core is effective, and your team managed to build a shuttle in record time. While Athena is primarily a research and development company, spreading this technology will let humanity go farther than it ever has before. I would know after all…" This Earth wasn't primitive, only limited by current resource shortages due to both parahumans and Endbringers.
Most of what I was doing was consolidating current advancements and piecing them together with what I knew was possible. For example we had managed to get an expert in cybernetics from Indonesia, and they had cybernetics a good couple decades better than my Earth.
They even had brains floating in jars kind of bullshit though it was very expensive and very risky tech. I had 'borrowed' some of the tech, though most of that was sort of hidden away under the fact I was already an advanced cyberneticist. We licensed out our limb tech to bigger companies as well as smaller ones.
We're kind of like the Sirta Foundation but with more profit motive, though the company bylaws as a Benefit Corporation kept us from turning too far from my vision.
"Is there anything else you've been working on?" Anna nodded, and I walked with her to a counter that held one of the scanners our company was known for. The device seemed heavily modified so I was curious to see what she had done with the thing.
"I've been working on applications for your 'Hyperdimensional Sea' theory that you've been dumbing down for us mortals!" She replied with real pep, a bounce in her step as she shrugged on her loose white coat. "You've mentioned the use of specialized particle beams to poke at the baseline substrate of existence. It's how our electromagnetic resonance dimensional imagers work…but our current models aren't very efficient so…"
"You thought you could make improvements to them?" I was actually interested in seeing what she was thinking.
"Yes. It was obvious to me once it was explained to me in detail. With a greater understanding of quantum reality, I hypothesized it was possible to project a signal that didn't pass through conventional four dimensional space. Our machines manage that but in a crude way…probably because not everything translates perfectly from your mind to ours."
"I…wasn't really a trained scientist or engineer of any kind before I got my powers. Though I wanted to be." I admitted. It made things problematic because knowing the science didn't mean I knew how to teach or how to write papers. Most of my early experiments with tech had been crude and had terrible methodology.
I had to take cues from Bakuda because of her own greater experience. And from my own workers, and was slowly translating more and more fields to normal humans without the knowledge base of multiple alien species rolling around in their brains.
"I've made a more effective means of projecting signals to modulate higher dimensional space." That broke me out of my daydreaming, Anna lifting the prototype in her hand. "We haven't figured out how to shape these fields to affect concentrations of matter-energy, but we've got an idea based on our WIMP beam experiments."
"Hmm…" I let her rant since many of my seven hundred odd employees had been subject to my rants at one point or another.
"This device is a more refined dimensional scanner and it can pick up quantum perturbations of reality." Anna looked positively ecstatic.
"Can you show me?" I asked and she turned on the machine, directing it towards me.
"Could you trigger a portal please?" I did as she kind of asked, and slowly began to open a gateway. Her device let out a chirp, and I blinked as the portal opened up to about two meter in height and a meter in width.
"Oh my…these waveform patterns, the detail is astonishing." There was awe in her voice. "These are the patterns for opening portals then…I wonder." She made adjustments, and I closed the portal.
I secretly took my own scans, and the scanner sent out a pulse outside of normal spacetime. I could feel the subtle shift, a small microscopic hole poked between universes for the briefest of instants by the modulation of higher state energies.
She didn't have anywhere near enough energy output to open a macroscopic portal. But a small one was still impressive when the machine itself is far more compact than a thirty five meter long particle collider.
She frowned. "Something wrong?"
"How do you draw power for your creations…using dimensional science I mean?" Anna had a look of inspiration, like 'Eureka' was screaming in her mind.
"I usually draw energy through portals, diverting energy from adjacent manifolds and into our reality. Why?"
"When I was testing how to project and receive signals within this higher dimensional space," Anna rubbed her chin with a focused expression. "I thought to myself that the right modulation would let someone draw power seamlessly from nearby realities. Why don't you do that?"
I opened my mouth to try and say why that was wrong when…it all added up. The math fit very well on that matter. Once you can modulate the eleven dimensions of base reality, you should be able to naturally draw power from other realities floating in that sea of collective existences.
"That is a very good question and I'm starting to feel a bit like an idiot for missing the obvious." That was definitely a simpler method of diverting and drawing energy but now I needed to test it.
Anna shrugged. "Well sometimes you can miss the trees for the forest, and it worked out. Now I have something to brag about." I snorted but let the woman think highly of herself.
"Long as you don't let it get to your head. That can go bad." I lightly warned her and she didn't seem to mind.
"You're the boss." She took the machine away, placing it with the others.
Hmm…if I can draw upon energies in the ways she's said, how should I test it?
September 30th, 2011. 5:00PM
Basilia Rubio
I had one of my mechs handle the Stinger cannon, it's power core altered less to open a portal and more to perturb the fabric of reality to draw energy from targeted dimensions. It was a prototype but based on the simulations it should work fine, operating in the same manner as my usual portal shenanigans but with greater subtlety.
Shards seemingly used a mix of this and dimensional portals, and it made their whole shtick with certain powers make more sense. And had solved some small incongruencies with my scans of powers. Like how Victoria's forcefield worked.
A form of hard light of course, photons locked but with some type of circuit structure built into the forcefield to absorb as much energy as possible. That had taken scans from Hero to figure out and I was more curious than ever on what was possible.
If I could simply redirect energies across dimensions it made manipulation of forces more obvious. Kinetic energy manipulators like Assault could absorb and redirect absorbed energy through this new form of dimensional transference.
"Testing quantum substrate energy redirection." I turned on the device, and the modified core began to draw power from nearby realities. The multidimensional components of the machine remained, folded up to make the weapon compact and functional. My dimensional scanners picked up vibrating ten dimensional strings, and that gave me one or two ideas on manipulating strings to some extent.
Eventually.
The Stinger fired as expected with about five percent more power, a nice boost due to reduction of dimensional bridge losses for distributing energy. It could unfold across more dimensions, cut more easily through matter, tweaking physical constants to tear apart matter and energy.
Clarke was here, working quite intensely and studying metaphysical energy with a dangerous fervor. After joining us in 'secret' as Paragon, his Heavy Halcyon and Wavelength Armor had been vital in putting down the Butcher for good. He was studying the field of spiritual interferometrics, which was actually one of the newest fields that was part of Applied Metaphysics.
That was all related to the mechanical redirection and manipulation of metaphysical energy, spirit quintessence, soul substrate and so on. It works by superimposing spiritual energy waves, same as electromagnetics but more magical. It's actually how machines can be used to detect the soul with greater fidelity than electromagnetic imaging.
Usually a mix of both is more effective, using any of the Basic Four fundamental forces will fail to get the full details needed. With the same applying to spirits, without the use of metaphysical energy you can't fully understand or comprehend such things.
Which might explain some things with the shards. Without understanding of metaphysical energy they can only get surface scans, and it'll invalidate a lot of their models. They can still brute force it of course, but it'll take time, time enough to knock a cycle off course.
It probably also incentivized them to fall in line with any shard able to help them with this…which would be me in that case.
"I heard you've been talking with Alexandria, how has that been going?" Clarke stopped his tweaking to his Heavy Halcyon.
"It's…been complicated, it's been over eleven years, so much has changed, and she's changed more than anyone else despite how static her body is." He chuckled but there was a sad tinge to his voice. "The things Cauldron has done…it makes me wonder what could have been if I had been there? If we had been more careful and less cocky, would things have been different?"
"You can't know. Those kinds of questions can lead people to dark places, lingering on the past isn't very healthy."
"Neither is focusing too much on the future." He pointed out right back, and I chuckled.
"True enough. So are any new projects you've been working on besides your suit and weapons?" He gestured for me to approach, rolling a hexagonal sphere toward me.
"I've been studying metaphysical energy for a while, and have been making a few theories on their relation to one another. At first glance Dark Energy, Spirit Quintessence and Bending Substrate seem pretty different am I right?"
"I wouldn't know since I am caught up on the general science of Applied Metaphysics." Clarke grinned and continued on his little tinker rant.
"I believe they're all connected on a root level, and connected to the general use of higher dimensional energy substrates on top of that. It's only a theory on the last part, and I believe you've confirmed that Dark Energy and Bending Substrate represent an aspect of the same force."
"Biotics is a form of elemental martial arts, eezo is the stuff of souls infused into a shell of physical matter. Precipitating down from where it is born in the Sea of Souls and solidifying in the Inner Sphere. I can confirm that much for you." I demonstrated by shaping dark energy around my body, and he looked positively giddy. "So what exactly is your theory?"
"Higher dimensional energy field substrates is what composes eleven dimensional spacetime." He rotated the device which my suit quickly identified as a massive power source for its size. "String-realities that create the properties of the universe itself, like symmetry or the interactions between space and time. All these vibrations of tiny packets of energy add up to make up reality as we know it. Dark Energy should be a result of a particular quantum field that the Entities mess with from time to time."
"But you've found something different?" This was becoming more interesting by the second and I was enraptured by his rant.
"My dimensional sensors can pick up perturbations in the universal substrate, and Dark Energy seems to extend into additional higher reality levels…levels I can only barely see with my current equipment. My theory was that Dark Energy and Metaphysical Energy in all its different forms are all different wavelengths of the same fundamental force with unique properties depending on their frequency."
"It's not wrong, though my understanding of metaphysical energy isn't that much ahead of what you have. Most of the civilizations I'm borrowing from only had glimpses of metaphysical energy or were misunderstood. The Humanx had psionics, but their understanding wasn't that advanced. The Tetatae have mathematics taking it into account for the Tangle between two points for their Jump Drives, and something strange related to their neural helmets. The Yonhet has many studies of the energies of higher dimensional spaces to transport ships, but nothing too advanced due to how dangerous 'Slipspace' was for their time."
It was a complicated mess, but I had years to continue to build a better understanding of reality, more even if we lived past the end of the world.
Clarke rubbed the back of his neck. "We've gone a little off track didn't we?" I coughed, realizing the truth in that. "Right that core you're holding is basically a big power source using what I've learned about wavelengths. You've got the power output of a nuclear power plant in a sphere the size of your hand. Like the fusion plants in the Samsara but compacted down."
"It sounds like it's incredibly expensive and hard to make but very useful for specialty equipment." He shrugged and I shook my head.
That was an active problem with a lot of tinkertech, it was often too complicated for human or robotic hands to make, and often made in very random and specific ways that made it impractical for mass production.
It was why mass production tinkers like Masamune had bulkier and less capable technologies to keep tinkertech within a reasonable amount of complexity for normal humans to figure out in a limited sense.
Clarke called up a holo-screen with a huff. "Well, there's still a lot of new projects I'm trying to work on. We had some recordings of the Simurgh's signal didn't we?"
"You want to selectively block her Precognition?" His face lit up in answer. "I suppose I can give you access, her signal is a type of wavelength." A combination of actual scanning, and energy expenditure to collapse quantum realities. Because simulations would never work to give you a perfect picture of the future.
But collapsing possible events also uses up a lot of energy, so they combine the two to look decades in the future with only some errors. Of course that didn't work out for Eden…so whatever.
They could predict much farther than they should, but they had practical limits on the accuracy and how far they could see. Also some limited amounts of time manipulation, though from what I had heard from some shards, they hadn't made any improvements in that for several cycles.
Too dangerous and too unstable due to breaking reality.
I sent him the data, and I blurted out a goodbye as I moved on to another cape I wanted to talk to. I stepped through a portal, and walked in on Amelia as she worked on some project.
She was working on various forms of crops, one has a walnut sized fruit, another was some variant of edible fungus. The plants were a dark reddish-purple, using a more efficient form of photosynthesis and capable of growing rapidly and easily. The plants had been used by the Rachni first, capable of growing in days and feeding their exploding population with ease.
The plant had the ability to concentrate toxic metals into safe nodules, and more powerful variants were used by other crop species to purify toxic soils for the Rachni. Several of these crops were being studied by Athena, and were being safely grown and would probably soon be exported as a product. They would save millions from starvation, and could be used to clean up toxic waste dumps and to concentrate water.
Amelia was extending her power into a seed pod, as in actively studying what she was working with. The plant seed resembled an onion but I knew it wasn't one but rather one of the main plant tools of the Rachni.
They were based on one of the main plant species of Suen, what they called Horizon Trees. With robust genome checking and ten base pair XNA, they were capable of being modified to survive in quite literally any conditions. Their photosynthesis is an order of magnitude more efficient than Earth plants, and they could grow several feet in a day.
"So how are the new Horizon Plants going for the Rachni?" Amelia didn't jump, clearly sensing me beforehand.
"Much better than I originally expected, but getting them prepared for vacuum conditions isn't exactly hard when the Rachni did most of the work." She flicked a picture onto the screen of her computer, revealing a green bubble growing across the surface of a large asteroid. "I had to reinforce the biofibers of the membrane, and made modifications to the enzymes they use to break down rock."
"So they can be used as habitats for people too, right?" Panacea puffed up in pride, giving off a smug little smirk.
"Easily, they can even be used to terraform planets within a human lifespan. Just send out a few hundred thousand seeds…or maybe a few million, and they'll cover a planet in a membrane to hold in an atmosphere. One of the Life-Forger hives is experimenting with them to mine minerals. They really like that since it reminds them of home."
The Rachni had co-evolved with Horizon Plants, becoming symbiotic gardeners of the subterranean and surface habitats the species created to survive on Suen. Without these plants they would never have evolved to begin with, so they had a sacred bond with the plant in both soul and spirit.
"So how has Athena Healthcare been treating you?" Amelia snorted and I was genuinely concerned about that. Now that more people knew what she was capable of I didn't want people pulling guilt trip crap on her.
"I have the run of the place, they're surprisingly nice and don't seem scared of my power at all. Some of them get…excitable but the older and more experienced people pull them back. Once they figured out how genes really work it became a lot easier to certify the things I want to export. Still…have to be really careful with what I make, and having people to check my work is a godsend." She seemed happy enough and that was good.
Biotech had really taken off, both because of Athena and other people once things started to calm down. Advanced programs like our protein folding modeling software had been open sourced so others could build on our work. Drug discovery has become an order of magnitude easier, because instead of a massive library of biomarkers and candidates and millions of microwells to react with each other…
We needed only thousands with the most likely candidates. We could create and determine the shape of a custom protein and determine a DNA pattern to create it.
Mostly we were just creating a number of breakthrough treatments for genetic diseases, and safer treatments for cancer that netted us tens of millions of dollars in income if not more. Cancer was going to take a while since there are hundreds of different types with various possible treatments for each and every one of them.
I didn't expect to net anywhere near a majority of the profits, being that we licensed most of what we had out. I'm sure there were developing countries circumventing that…
But to be frank I didn't give a shit if it saved lives, and helped people. Medi-gel vats had mysteriously found themselves in countries dealing with trouble and had saved thousands if not tens of thousands with its medical applications. They weren't of a quality comparable to home but they were functional.
I felt my face pull into a frown as I decided it was time to follow up on a more serious topic. "So what have you picked on from what's left of the Isopod copies?"
Amelia glowered. "Well I'm pretty sure now that Endbringer flesh is definitely modified shard biology, though more inert, like dead skin cells versus what their core is made of. The Isopod itself is basically a crippled fragment of a shard from what Shaper has told me. A living crystal network of inorganic and organic machinery."
"The question would be why it's so small, and why they haven't tried to weaponize that instead of parahumans." It was a conundrum unless there was a piece of the puzzle I'm missing.
Amelia rubbed her chin in thought. "I think they're too small, they've barely got any mass to them and it would take them years if not decades to grow to a reasonable size."
"So they're using them more like tools until they can find larger and more powerful shards to hack into." I guessed, if these little shards were too weak and crippled then accessing a more powerful and more massive shard or a shard cluster would be paramount.
Amelia shrugged, lips pulled into a sardonic grin. "Probably? Well the pieces have given me a good idea of where to go on our little project on studying shard biology. This might be the breakthrough we need or it might be a dead end."
"We'll figure it out, and what I did with Butcher…that might help us in the end."
"Yeah that was some bullshit you pulled wi—" I received a call and Amelia frowned. I smiled sheepishly and apologized while taking the call.
"What's up?" Faultline was on the line, and I felt dread.
"Seems Weld showed up first…you might want to talk to him."
…
Oh no.
September 30th, 2011. 5:30PM
Basilia Rubio
I looked over to Weld as he fiddled with his thumbs, looking down at his lap with a lost expression. I had told him every bit of information I could, explained why and how and who. I had told him the dangers of knowing what he did, and I had told him what I was planning for the most part.
"Is that all we were to them? Disposable freaks and monsters, so they could perfect their formulas?"
"I don't know, maybe they did think that or maybe they've become so numb to the atrocities they're committing they've lost sight of the small picture. I'm not exactly friends with Cauldron."
"But you did accept their vials." He pointed out with narrowed eyes.
My anger spiked. "Tell me, if a cape with a power to literally win offers you vials by invading one of your few safe spaces what would you do?" I offered the scenario and he flinched. "I no longer feel safe in my own home, so I spend more time in another dimension than on Earth Bet."
I had recently managed to add a dimensional lock to block unapproved portals outside of my own. As well as kinetic barriers though I had to add some means of hiding the energy and heat signatures of such devices. So I was spending more time at my home than I used to.
"Everything…everything about this is terrible." He sounded despondent, betrayed and angered.
"I don't disagree, but I'm not sure I'm the right person to take action on this. Revealing this could damage the Protectorate and the PRT so badly it could cripple them. The Triumvirate being so involved could damage and get a lot of people hurt, and it's just…I don't have the right answers. I wish I did but I don't."
"And you knew about this from the start?" He sounded, not so much angry as confused.
"I knew about a lot of things but without any evidence and any power I'd be liable to get myself killed. It took me months to get up the power scale, to study the right capes, to gather the right resources and people and information to feel at least somewhat safe. So I instead focused on what I could change…"
Weld looked down at his own skin, he looked more or less human with tan skin and dark brown eyes. His once metallic hair was now a shade of light brown, and I nodded to myself.
"And you didn't do it out of guilt did you? You planned on helping us regardless." I flushed, twirling my hair at his smile. He was certainly going to catch someone's eye in the future I'm sure.
"I…have some experience with the kind of situation the Case 53s are in, even if in a different way. I didn't always look like this you know?" I laughed but there was humor in it, something ugly curling in my stomach.
"Really?"
"I was a man." My tone was flat and he blinked and looked at me up and down.
"Ahh. Do you want to talk about it?" I sagged against my chair, rubbing my face.
"I…had a few blocks placed on whatever happened to me…most of them might just be from my own mind trying to protect me. I don't know…" I was almost wistful for the times when I didn't try to dig deeper. "I remember falling…and then fear and terror and confusion and then utter agony as I was broken down and…" I snapped out of my brief trance, shoulder going stiff. "Something powerful altered me on a most fundamental level and left me with the task of saving a world on the brink of extinction. Of keeping that from spilling to my home and destroying everything I've ever known."
"You…I've heard some things about how your powers are different from normal parahumans, unique in some way. You…didn't Trigger." He came to the obvious conclusion and there was real concern in his eyes.
I rubbed my eyes, glancing back at him. "We're more alike than you would think, and I wouldn't say I'm unique either," I breathed deep, in and out. "Echidna is the same as me…or more accurately I think she was turned into the prototype for whatever I've been made into. She came out with several screws loose, and she screwed them back in after months of time and effort. I simply had amnesia so I wouldn't go insane."
"It…must have been difficult to be all alone."
I grimaced. "I had to keep moving forward, it was all I had left until I started making friends." I stood up from the chair of the cozy room that had become the standard hang out spot for the White Lotus and friends. I opened the fridge, glass soda bottles clinking. "Want something to drink?" I offered and he took a Coke, shifting his fingertips into metal and absorbing the metal cap.
I rolled my eyes and ripped off my own cap with a flick of bending. I lifted the bottle and took in a nice crisp gulp of Coke.
"Do you know what Cauldron is doing now?" Weld spoke lowly and I took a quick sip.
"Not really, again we're at best on the same side of not wanting the world to end and at worse have differing opinions on how to save it." I shrugged at him. "Legend is willfully ignorant of what his colleagues have been doing, though he knows more after I had a talk with him. He's the least culpable. As for what they're doing, there seems to be a pretty big shift in their methods. Hopefully for the better but it's only a guess."
"As in…?" Weld questioned.
"As in less ethically dubious human experimentation and more and safer study of powers without creating more deviants. Either better equipment, or they found a cape capable of assessing vials. I'm not sure which, also some talks with a few shards confirmed that…the other deviants are being scattered, processed back?"
"You mean the several thousand people they have locked away in their basement?" His tone was dry and I coughed awkwardly.
"Probably for the best, they're liable to get hurt in the crossfire when or if the Case 53s on Earth decide to gather and attack Cauldron."
"You seem so sure." Weld blinked and I wanted to tear my hair out at the mess I was being left to clean up.
"I believe I mentioned having outside knowledge, remember? Cauldron is revealed incredibly publicly, right during a battle with an Echidna who never gained control of her shard's impulses. You leave and create the Irregulars, gathering the Case 53s to find out why?"
"It went wrong didn't it?" His voice was quiet, vulnerable almost.
"Most of the Case 53s die, including the ones Cauldron kept when the being originally responsible for the end of the world blasts the place apart, following your scent to the base. They had no appetite for answers during the End of the World, only despair and vengeance and it got thousands, no maybe millions of people killed. The leader of Cauldron dies, and things just get worse from there."
Weld paled, and looked disappointed, frustrated. "Are you saying we should give up? That we shouldn't go out and look for answers?"
"I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it as a group. I've given you what I know and I've found all the worlds they grabbed people from. I could open the door right now and take you home but…it won't restore what you've lost. It won't change your experiences since waking up on Bet, even if your memories came back."
I wasn't good with people, that was why I delegated to more capable people like Taylor…since she puts the effort in being more personable. Which was sort of frightening when this was Taylor we were talking about.
"This is a real mess." Weld agreed with my mental despair.
"Story of my life. For now I recommend you talk to Faultline, if you know any Case 53s still having trouble we can help them out. Get them what they need…I'm not going to make the choice for you on what to do with this information. Just…be very careful with it."
His nod was slow but meaningful.
September 30th, 2011. 7:30PM
Basilia Rubio
I lounged on my bed, hugging my pillow to my chest and kicking my legs to stretch them out a little. I had taken some time for myself but I knew Taylor was right at the door.
"Tay?" She opened the door, looking sheepish. I was just all smiles, and she had a smaller one in response.
"I…didn't bother you did I?" I gestured for her to approach and she glided over, taking a seat next to me. I slid onto her, and she stiffened before relaxing a moment later.
I hugged her, getting nice and comfortable. "Nope. You're just giving me a chance to cuddle you." I apparently really liked having someone nice and tall to hug, made me feel safe and protected. Plus she was comfy. "Anyway, you had something to talk to me about?"
"No. I just wanted to see if you were okay." It wasn't mushy to think that was sweet of her right? And that it made me want to hug her more.
God, Taylor made me act stupid sometimes.
There was a gathering swarm, and Taylor looked irritated. I looked knowingly.
"Let me guess…Queenie wanted a talk instead?" She nodded with a look that made me giggle. "I don't mind, I have a good feeling it's not work. Or at least not stressful work." A few thousand bugs compacted into a humanoid shape under the Queen of Administration's direct control. One of the restrictions on her power.
"You should really speak with the shards more, I much prefer having all your attention." There was a slight huskiness to her tone, and I tilted my head. "I managed to confirm your theory on Cauldron acquiring a cape to analyze the shards. Turns out it's one of my buds."
"I don't think bird powers will be very helpful for that." Taylor said with a befuddled face.
Khepri laughed in a double tone. "Did you really think Aiden was the only bud I've made? We may be more mutualistic but we still grow from conflict, and we've expanded the scope of what that means. Managing, administrating, social maneuvering, commanding and consolidation of resources. Taylor is still a good host, and that means a lot of data."
"How many?" Taylor's question had to be out of plain curiosity which was completely fair.
"Ten in total so far." I was surprised and so was Taylor at the number. "Half of them have met the parameters and developed powers and the others remain dormant. One is of course Aiden and his bird control and bird directed aerokinesis." Oh so that was his power. "Another is a powerful Thinker, capable of assessing and identifying powers through a mental web. A third is a Trump that shares abilities, and can carefully adjust a ratio of power optimal for an ally."
"Like Null but slightly better?" That was actually an interesting power in and of itself.
Khepri formed an odd smile. "Indeed. The fourth active bud is a tinker who is very effective at networking the tinkertech of others into a cohesive system. I believe she's currently operating in Japan under the protection of the Fugeki Order. The fifth cape is a Changer capable of unraveling into a living mass of plant-like tendrils with a limited set of powers."
"What kind of powers?" Taylor was invested, and leaned forward.
"This plant mass has an applied field of physical durability as well as massive regenerative capabilities. Roots can be broken off and senses extended into them, a Brute/Thinker by your human categorization systems."
"That seems…a little unfair." Khepri laughed and Taylor actually pouted.
"Are there any other shards we know of that have budded recently?" It would be interesting to know.
"Shaper budded twice recently, though only a single one is active. The Eye of Fate has budded once, the High Theurgist has two dormant buds and a single active one. Aurora has two buds both inactive. Ablative Growth has one active bud. Browser has a single active bud and Traveller of Realms has a cross-bud with the Observer."
So Panacea has two shard-babies out there, Dinah has one, Beacon has two and Dauntless has three with one of them being Challenger. Ablative Growth is Bitch so someone has a power derived from hers. Browser is Scapegoat which leaves a ton of possibilities. A power from Doormaker and Clairvoyant is scary as hell though, and I wondered who had a power like that.
"So was that all you wanted to talk about?" Khepri nodded.
"Yes. If you wish to know more you can ask me at a later date." She dispersed, and the insects vanished where I couldn't see them.
We were alone.
I pulled myself from her lap, trying to think. "I should go to the beach…not now though. Now I'm staying indoors where it's nice and warm and away from the cold." I was a California girl, and had lived in warmer states most of my life.
That I remember anyhow. New Hampshire was too cold for me. Taylor held a box in her hands and my eyes certainly lit up. I was sure of it.
"You up for a game of Jenga?" She had a crooked smile and I dragged her to the soft carpeted floor, adding a blanket to cushion our bottoms. Leaving space for her to set up the little wooden bricks. Is that the right word? Bricks?
I of course shamelessly sat on her lap, and she rolled her eyes. I innocently batted my eyelashes at her. "What? Something wrong?" She flicked my forehead, but didn't say a word as she finished setting up the Jenga tower.
"You go first." Was all she said.
I stuck out my tongue as I carefully pulled out a single brick and stacked it on top…
AN: This is the last main chapter, with a single Interlude between this and Arc 14. Not much to say here other than to enjoy. I'll be working on Arc 14, and will keep a healthy margin for the future.
September 30th, 2011. 12:00PM
Basilia Rubio
"What's this?" I asked one of my scientists working in the Paraphysics division, attempting to create practical applications for the use of higher dimensional energies.
Anna was working with eezo, and they had quite a few research and development projects underway with funding from profitable ventures and from research grants. Their research then trickled down to applications in other fields like our 3D printers.
Apparently they were very close to figuring out omni-gel, and had experimented with mass effect fields quite a bit. They had succeeded in creating a basic omni-field using some of the optronics we made in-house which were several orders of magnitude less capable than mine but still incredible by current standards.
About six orders of magnitude less capable in fact.
An omni-field worked through the use of a variation of Rydberg Blockade phenomena, using clouds of excited lithium atoms and strongly coupling them to a stream of photons. The photons will usually exit such a stream in an entangled state but with a zero-field one can mass-stabilize them into discrete shapes of energy. Which was exactly what some of my researchers had done as have other labs across the country.
Anna was more hands on, and I could see the numerous manufacturing devices from lathes to milling machines, and vast amounts of advanced electronic test equipment, at least a dozen ATE machines were immediately apparent. We had managed to dumb down eezo cores, and could build them small enough for tooth brushes.
Though they were orders of magnitude less capable pound for pound. Power sources were just too primitive, though we had a fusion reactor prototype in the works using our room-temperature superconductors and my papers on fusion physics.
In fact we were working on a type two superconductor that would enter the vortex glass temperature at around eight hundred and sixty kelvin. Ductile with the hardness of aluminum that would serve well for our handheld SQUID-MRI scanners.
"We've been working on building larger eezo drive cores and wanted your input." Anna was a sweet girl with frizzy red hair and notable freckles on her light skinned chubby face.
"Sure I don't mind…I've been a little busy and would like to see what you've done in my relative absence." I was a bit of a hands off boss, I gave the company it's vision and pulled my weight of course but it was just my nature.
I entered a hangar, since this facility had been used to house aircraft before going out of business in the 90s. Most of it was offices and work spaces, and I had already set up Athena Aerospace but had been busy with other projects.
R&D only of course, entering the aerospace industry was beyond my means without cheating more than I was willing. I was mostly getting the research done and the actual big boy companies would take that research and turn it from raw ore to the purest gold.
I stopped short when I saw what was in the hangar, actually surprised for once by my teams. Anna smirked, looking as smug as Tattletale. There was a twenty nine foot long shuttle floating three feet off the ground, looking like a dumpy version of a X-37.
A mini Space Shuttle if anyone was wondering…
"Err…is that what I think it is?" I was really hoping it was because if it was I was going to be very impressed.
"That would be our little prototype vehicle, we based it on the Space Shuttle before they were shut down in the 2000s. Plus some smaller vehicles from back in the day."
"How difficult was it to build this thing?" I asked with a bounce to my step as I inspected the vehicle.
"Actually it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. Least that's what Ryan says anyway." Anna muttered the last part. "With the VI's we can do the work in minutes and hours instead of days and weeks. Plus we had Jimmy Mueller sign on since he's been building a liquid fuel rocket in his garage for the last ten years. Bout thirty six thousand pounds of thrust."
"How long did it take you to make this?"
"About two weeks? We 3D printed the engines, and the frame itself was designed pretty quickly." I eyed the dark panels of the shuttle, they had to be TUFROC didn't they?
We had been working with those materials for a while now.
"What's the top speed you've managed so far?" We did work with the FAA now and then because of our new Aerospace division. Mainly just small stuff, because Aerospace would take hundreds of workers if not thousands, and we probably wouldn't get past a thousand any time soon.
"We haven't really gone above nine hundred miles per hour, but we think we can make the ShuttleStar reach orbit with its mass reduction field." I patted Anna on the shoulder, genuinely impressed with the project. "We've got the land for it." I remembered the hundred and eight acre property we brought for experimental projects. Pretty far from people for safety reasons.
"I'm impressed." Anna seemed to perk up in response. "The eezo core is effective, and your team managed to build a shuttle in record time. While Athena is primarily a research and development company, spreading this technology will let humanity go farther than it ever has before. I would know after all…" This Earth wasn't primitive, only limited by current resource shortages due to both parahumans and Endbringers.
Most of what I was doing was consolidating current advancements and piecing them together with what I knew was possible. For example we had managed to get an expert in cybernetics from Indonesia, and they had cybernetics a good couple decades better than my Earth.
They even had brains floating in jars kind of bullshit though it was very expensive and very risky tech. I had 'borrowed' some of the tech, though most of that was sort of hidden away under the fact I was already an advanced cyberneticist. We licensed out our limb tech to bigger companies as well as smaller ones.
We're kind of like the Sirta Foundation but with more profit motive, though the company bylaws as a Benefit Corporation kept us from turning too far from my vision.
"Is there anything else you've been working on?" Anna nodded, and I walked with her to a counter that held one of the scanners our company was known for. The device seemed heavily modified so I was curious to see what she had done with the thing.
"I've been working on applications for your 'Hyperdimensional Sea' theory that you've been dumbing down for us mortals!" She replied with real pep, a bounce in her step as she shrugged on her loose white coat. "You've mentioned the use of specialized particle beams to poke at the baseline substrate of existence. It's how our electromagnetic resonance dimensional imagers work…but our current models aren't very efficient so…"
"You thought you could make improvements to them?" I was actually interested in seeing what she was thinking.
"Yes. It was obvious to me once it was explained to me in detail. With a greater understanding of quantum reality, I hypothesized it was possible to project a signal that didn't pass through conventional four dimensional space. Our machines manage that but in a crude way…probably because not everything translates perfectly from your mind to ours."
"I…wasn't really a trained scientist or engineer of any kind before I got my powers. Though I wanted to be." I admitted. It made things problematic because knowing the science didn't mean I knew how to teach or how to write papers. Most of my early experiments with tech had been crude and had terrible methodology.
I had to take cues from Bakuda because of her own greater experience. And from my own workers, and was slowly translating more and more fields to normal humans without the knowledge base of multiple alien species rolling around in their brains.
"I've made a more effective means of projecting signals to modulate higher dimensional space." That broke me out of my daydreaming, Anna lifting the prototype in her hand. "We haven't figured out how to shape these fields to affect concentrations of matter-energy, but we've got an idea based on our WIMP beam experiments."
"Hmm…" I let her rant since many of my seven hundred odd employees had been subject to my rants at one point or another.
"This device is a more refined dimensional scanner and it can pick up quantum perturbations of reality." Anna looked positively ecstatic.
"Can you show me?" I asked and she turned on the machine, directing it towards me.
"Could you trigger a portal please?" I did as she kind of asked, and slowly began to open a gateway. Her device let out a chirp, and I blinked as the portal opened up to about two meter in height and a meter in width.
"Oh my…these waveform patterns, the detail is astonishing." There was awe in her voice. "These are the patterns for opening portals then…I wonder." She made adjustments, and I closed the portal.
I secretly took my own scans, and the scanner sent out a pulse outside of normal spacetime. I could feel the subtle shift, a small microscopic hole poked between universes for the briefest of instants by the modulation of higher state energies.
She didn't have anywhere near enough energy output to open a macroscopic portal. But a small one was still impressive when the machine itself is far more compact than a thirty five meter long particle collider.
She frowned. "Something wrong?"
"How do you draw power for your creations…using dimensional science I mean?" Anna had a look of inspiration, like 'Eureka' was screaming in her mind.
"I usually draw energy through portals, diverting energy from adjacent manifolds and into our reality. Why?"
"When I was testing how to project and receive signals within this higher dimensional space," Anna rubbed her chin with a focused expression. "I thought to myself that the right modulation would let someone draw power seamlessly from nearby realities. Why don't you do that?"
I opened my mouth to try and say why that was wrong when…it all added up. The math fit very well on that matter. Once you can modulate the eleven dimensions of base reality, you should be able to naturally draw power from other realities floating in that sea of collective existences.
"That is a very good question and I'm starting to feel a bit like an idiot for missing the obvious." That was definitely a simpler method of diverting and drawing energy but now I needed to test it.
Anna shrugged. "Well sometimes you can miss the trees for the forest, and it worked out. Now I have something to brag about." I snorted but let the woman think highly of herself.
"Long as you don't let it get to your head. That can go bad." I lightly warned her and she didn't seem to mind.
"You're the boss." She took the machine away, placing it with the others.
Hmm…if I can draw upon energies in the ways she's said, how should I test it?
___
September 30th, 2011. 5:00PM
Basilia Rubio
I had one of my mechs handle the Stinger cannon, it's power core altered less to open a portal and more to perturb the fabric of reality to draw energy from targeted dimensions. It was a prototype but based on the simulations it should work fine, operating in the same manner as my usual portal shenanigans but with greater subtlety.
Shards seemingly used a mix of this and dimensional portals, and it made their whole shtick with certain powers make more sense. And had solved some small incongruencies with my scans of powers. Like how Victoria's forcefield worked.
A form of hard light of course, photons locked but with some type of circuit structure built into the forcefield to absorb as much energy as possible. That had taken scans from Hero to figure out and I was more curious than ever on what was possible.
If I could simply redirect energies across dimensions it made manipulation of forces more obvious. Kinetic energy manipulators like Assault could absorb and redirect absorbed energy through this new form of dimensional transference.
"Testing quantum substrate energy redirection." I turned on the device, and the modified core began to draw power from nearby realities. The multidimensional components of the machine remained, folded up to make the weapon compact and functional. My dimensional scanners picked up vibrating ten dimensional strings, and that gave me one or two ideas on manipulating strings to some extent.
Eventually.
The Stinger fired as expected with about five percent more power, a nice boost due to reduction of dimensional bridge losses for distributing energy. It could unfold across more dimensions, cut more easily through matter, tweaking physical constants to tear apart matter and energy.
Clarke was here, working quite intensely and studying metaphysical energy with a dangerous fervor. After joining us in 'secret' as Paragon, his Heavy Halcyon and Wavelength Armor had been vital in putting down the Butcher for good. He was studying the field of spiritual interferometrics, which was actually one of the newest fields that was part of Applied Metaphysics.
That was all related to the mechanical redirection and manipulation of metaphysical energy, spirit quintessence, soul substrate and so on. It works by superimposing spiritual energy waves, same as electromagnetics but more magical. It's actually how machines can be used to detect the soul with greater fidelity than electromagnetic imaging.
Usually a mix of both is more effective, using any of the Basic Four fundamental forces will fail to get the full details needed. With the same applying to spirits, without the use of metaphysical energy you can't fully understand or comprehend such things.
Which might explain some things with the shards. Without understanding of metaphysical energy they can only get surface scans, and it'll invalidate a lot of their models. They can still brute force it of course, but it'll take time, time enough to knock a cycle off course.
It probably also incentivized them to fall in line with any shard able to help them with this…which would be me in that case.
"I heard you've been talking with Alexandria, how has that been going?" Clarke stopped his tweaking to his Heavy Halcyon.
"It's…been complicated, it's been over eleven years, so much has changed, and she's changed more than anyone else despite how static her body is." He chuckled but there was a sad tinge to his voice. "The things Cauldron has done…it makes me wonder what could have been if I had been there? If we had been more careful and less cocky, would things have been different?"
"You can't know. Those kinds of questions can lead people to dark places, lingering on the past isn't very healthy."
"Neither is focusing too much on the future." He pointed out right back, and I chuckled.
"True enough. So are any new projects you've been working on besides your suit and weapons?" He gestured for me to approach, rolling a hexagonal sphere toward me.
"I've been studying metaphysical energy for a while, and have been making a few theories on their relation to one another. At first glance Dark Energy, Spirit Quintessence and Bending Substrate seem pretty different am I right?"
"I wouldn't know since I am caught up on the general science of Applied Metaphysics." Clarke grinned and continued on his little tinker rant.
"I believe they're all connected on a root level, and connected to the general use of higher dimensional energy substrates on top of that. It's only a theory on the last part, and I believe you've confirmed that Dark Energy and Bending Substrate represent an aspect of the same force."
"Biotics is a form of elemental martial arts, eezo is the stuff of souls infused into a shell of physical matter. Precipitating down from where it is born in the Sea of Souls and solidifying in the Inner Sphere. I can confirm that much for you." I demonstrated by shaping dark energy around my body, and he looked positively giddy. "So what exactly is your theory?"
"Higher dimensional energy field substrates is what composes eleven dimensional spacetime." He rotated the device which my suit quickly identified as a massive power source for its size. "String-realities that create the properties of the universe itself, like symmetry or the interactions between space and time. All these vibrations of tiny packets of energy add up to make up reality as we know it. Dark Energy should be a result of a particular quantum field that the Entities mess with from time to time."
"But you've found something different?" This was becoming more interesting by the second and I was enraptured by his rant.
"My dimensional sensors can pick up perturbations in the universal substrate, and Dark Energy seems to extend into additional higher reality levels…levels I can only barely see with my current equipment. My theory was that Dark Energy and Metaphysical Energy in all its different forms are all different wavelengths of the same fundamental force with unique properties depending on their frequency."
"It's not wrong, though my understanding of metaphysical energy isn't that much ahead of what you have. Most of the civilizations I'm borrowing from only had glimpses of metaphysical energy or were misunderstood. The Humanx had psionics, but their understanding wasn't that advanced. The Tetatae have mathematics taking it into account for the Tangle between two points for their Jump Drives, and something strange related to their neural helmets. The Yonhet has many studies of the energies of higher dimensional spaces to transport ships, but nothing too advanced due to how dangerous 'Slipspace' was for their time."
It was a complicated mess, but I had years to continue to build a better understanding of reality, more even if we lived past the end of the world.
Clarke rubbed the back of his neck. "We've gone a little off track didn't we?" I coughed, realizing the truth in that. "Right that core you're holding is basically a big power source using what I've learned about wavelengths. You've got the power output of a nuclear power plant in a sphere the size of your hand. Like the fusion plants in the Samsara but compacted down."
"It sounds like it's incredibly expensive and hard to make but very useful for specialty equipment." He shrugged and I shook my head.
That was an active problem with a lot of tinkertech, it was often too complicated for human or robotic hands to make, and often made in very random and specific ways that made it impractical for mass production.
It was why mass production tinkers like Masamune had bulkier and less capable technologies to keep tinkertech within a reasonable amount of complexity for normal humans to figure out in a limited sense.
Clarke called up a holo-screen with a huff. "Well, there's still a lot of new projects I'm trying to work on. We had some recordings of the Simurgh's signal didn't we?"
"You want to selectively block her Precognition?" His face lit up in answer. "I suppose I can give you access, her signal is a type of wavelength." A combination of actual scanning, and energy expenditure to collapse quantum realities. Because simulations would never work to give you a perfect picture of the future.
But collapsing possible events also uses up a lot of energy, so they combine the two to look decades in the future with only some errors. Of course that didn't work out for Eden…so whatever.
They could predict much farther than they should, but they had practical limits on the accuracy and how far they could see. Also some limited amounts of time manipulation, though from what I had heard from some shards, they hadn't made any improvements in that for several cycles.
Too dangerous and too unstable due to breaking reality.
I sent him the data, and I blurted out a goodbye as I moved on to another cape I wanted to talk to. I stepped through a portal, and walked in on Amelia as she worked on some project.
She was working on various forms of crops, one has a walnut sized fruit, another was some variant of edible fungus. The plants were a dark reddish-purple, using a more efficient form of photosynthesis and capable of growing rapidly and easily. The plants had been used by the Rachni first, capable of growing in days and feeding their exploding population with ease.
The plant had the ability to concentrate toxic metals into safe nodules, and more powerful variants were used by other crop species to purify toxic soils for the Rachni. Several of these crops were being studied by Athena, and were being safely grown and would probably soon be exported as a product. They would save millions from starvation, and could be used to clean up toxic waste dumps and to concentrate water.
Amelia was extending her power into a seed pod, as in actively studying what she was working with. The plant seed resembled an onion but I knew it wasn't one but rather one of the main plant tools of the Rachni.
They were based on one of the main plant species of Suen, what they called Horizon Trees. With robust genome checking and ten base pair XNA, they were capable of being modified to survive in quite literally any conditions. Their photosynthesis is an order of magnitude more efficient than Earth plants, and they could grow several feet in a day.
"So how are the new Horizon Plants going for the Rachni?" Amelia didn't jump, clearly sensing me beforehand.
"Much better than I originally expected, but getting them prepared for vacuum conditions isn't exactly hard when the Rachni did most of the work." She flicked a picture onto the screen of her computer, revealing a green bubble growing across the surface of a large asteroid. "I had to reinforce the biofibers of the membrane, and made modifications to the enzymes they use to break down rock."
"So they can be used as habitats for people too, right?" Panacea puffed up in pride, giving off a smug little smirk.
"Easily, they can even be used to terraform planets within a human lifespan. Just send out a few hundred thousand seeds…or maybe a few million, and they'll cover a planet in a membrane to hold in an atmosphere. One of the Life-Forger hives is experimenting with them to mine minerals. They really like that since it reminds them of home."
The Rachni had co-evolved with Horizon Plants, becoming symbiotic gardeners of the subterranean and surface habitats the species created to survive on Suen. Without these plants they would never have evolved to begin with, so they had a sacred bond with the plant in both soul and spirit.
"So how has Athena Healthcare been treating you?" Amelia snorted and I was genuinely concerned about that. Now that more people knew what she was capable of I didn't want people pulling guilt trip crap on her.
"I have the run of the place, they're surprisingly nice and don't seem scared of my power at all. Some of them get…excitable but the older and more experienced people pull them back. Once they figured out how genes really work it became a lot easier to certify the things I want to export. Still…have to be really careful with what I make, and having people to check my work is a godsend." She seemed happy enough and that was good.
Biotech had really taken off, both because of Athena and other people once things started to calm down. Advanced programs like our protein folding modeling software had been open sourced so others could build on our work. Drug discovery has become an order of magnitude easier, because instead of a massive library of biomarkers and candidates and millions of microwells to react with each other…
We needed only thousands with the most likely candidates. We could create and determine the shape of a custom protein and determine a DNA pattern to create it.
Mostly we were just creating a number of breakthrough treatments for genetic diseases, and safer treatments for cancer that netted us tens of millions of dollars in income if not more. Cancer was going to take a while since there are hundreds of different types with various possible treatments for each and every one of them.
I didn't expect to net anywhere near a majority of the profits, being that we licensed most of what we had out. I'm sure there were developing countries circumventing that…
But to be frank I didn't give a shit if it saved lives, and helped people. Medi-gel vats had mysteriously found themselves in countries dealing with trouble and had saved thousands if not tens of thousands with its medical applications. They weren't of a quality comparable to home but they were functional.
I felt my face pull into a frown as I decided it was time to follow up on a more serious topic. "So what have you picked on from what's left of the Isopod copies?"
Amelia glowered. "Well I'm pretty sure now that Endbringer flesh is definitely modified shard biology, though more inert, like dead skin cells versus what their core is made of. The Isopod itself is basically a crippled fragment of a shard from what Shaper has told me. A living crystal network of inorganic and organic machinery."
"The question would be why it's so small, and why they haven't tried to weaponize that instead of parahumans." It was a conundrum unless there was a piece of the puzzle I'm missing.
Amelia rubbed her chin in thought. "I think they're too small, they've barely got any mass to them and it would take them years if not decades to grow to a reasonable size."
"So they're using them more like tools until they can find larger and more powerful shards to hack into." I guessed, if these little shards were too weak and crippled then accessing a more powerful and more massive shard or a shard cluster would be paramount.
Amelia shrugged, lips pulled into a sardonic grin. "Probably? Well the pieces have given me a good idea of where to go on our little project on studying shard biology. This might be the breakthrough we need or it might be a dead end."
"We'll figure it out, and what I did with Butcher…that might help us in the end."
"Yeah that was some bullshit you pulled wi—" I received a call and Amelia frowned. I smiled sheepishly and apologized while taking the call.
"What's up?" Faultline was on the line, and I felt dread.
"Seems Weld showed up first…you might want to talk to him."
…
Oh no.
___
September 30th, 2011. 5:30PM
Basilia Rubio
I looked over to Weld as he fiddled with his thumbs, looking down at his lap with a lost expression. I had told him every bit of information I could, explained why and how and who. I had told him the dangers of knowing what he did, and I had told him what I was planning for the most part.
"Is that all we were to them? Disposable freaks and monsters, so they could perfect their formulas?"
"I don't know, maybe they did think that or maybe they've become so numb to the atrocities they're committing they've lost sight of the small picture. I'm not exactly friends with Cauldron."
"But you did accept their vials." He pointed out with narrowed eyes.
My anger spiked. "Tell me, if a cape with a power to literally win offers you vials by invading one of your few safe spaces what would you do?" I offered the scenario and he flinched. "I no longer feel safe in my own home, so I spend more time in another dimension than on Earth Bet."
I had recently managed to add a dimensional lock to block unapproved portals outside of my own. As well as kinetic barriers though I had to add some means of hiding the energy and heat signatures of such devices. So I was spending more time at my home than I used to.
"Everything…everything about this is terrible." He sounded despondent, betrayed and angered.
"I don't disagree, but I'm not sure I'm the right person to take action on this. Revealing this could damage the Protectorate and the PRT so badly it could cripple them. The Triumvirate being so involved could damage and get a lot of people hurt, and it's just…I don't have the right answers. I wish I did but I don't."
"And you knew about this from the start?" He sounded, not so much angry as confused.
"I knew about a lot of things but without any evidence and any power I'd be liable to get myself killed. It took me months to get up the power scale, to study the right capes, to gather the right resources and people and information to feel at least somewhat safe. So I instead focused on what I could change…"
Weld looked down at his own skin, he looked more or less human with tan skin and dark brown eyes. His once metallic hair was now a shade of light brown, and I nodded to myself.
"And you didn't do it out of guilt did you? You planned on helping us regardless." I flushed, twirling my hair at his smile. He was certainly going to catch someone's eye in the future I'm sure.
"I…have some experience with the kind of situation the Case 53s are in, even if in a different way. I didn't always look like this you know?" I laughed but there was humor in it, something ugly curling in my stomach.
"Really?"
"I was a man." My tone was flat and he blinked and looked at me up and down.
"Ahh. Do you want to talk about it?" I sagged against my chair, rubbing my face.
"I…had a few blocks placed on whatever happened to me…most of them might just be from my own mind trying to protect me. I don't know…" I was almost wistful for the times when I didn't try to dig deeper. "I remember falling…and then fear and terror and confusion and then utter agony as I was broken down and…" I snapped out of my brief trance, shoulder going stiff. "Something powerful altered me on a most fundamental level and left me with the task of saving a world on the brink of extinction. Of keeping that from spilling to my home and destroying everything I've ever known."
"You…I've heard some things about how your powers are different from normal parahumans, unique in some way. You…didn't Trigger." He came to the obvious conclusion and there was real concern in his eyes.
I rubbed my eyes, glancing back at him. "We're more alike than you would think, and I wouldn't say I'm unique either," I breathed deep, in and out. "Echidna is the same as me…or more accurately I think she was turned into the prototype for whatever I've been made into. She came out with several screws loose, and she screwed them back in after months of time and effort. I simply had amnesia so I wouldn't go insane."
"It…must have been difficult to be all alone."
I grimaced. "I had to keep moving forward, it was all I had left until I started making friends." I stood up from the chair of the cozy room that had become the standard hang out spot for the White Lotus and friends. I opened the fridge, glass soda bottles clinking. "Want something to drink?" I offered and he took a Coke, shifting his fingertips into metal and absorbing the metal cap.
I rolled my eyes and ripped off my own cap with a flick of bending. I lifted the bottle and took in a nice crisp gulp of Coke.
"Do you know what Cauldron is doing now?" Weld spoke lowly and I took a quick sip.
"Not really, again we're at best on the same side of not wanting the world to end and at worse have differing opinions on how to save it." I shrugged at him. "Legend is willfully ignorant of what his colleagues have been doing, though he knows more after I had a talk with him. He's the least culpable. As for what they're doing, there seems to be a pretty big shift in their methods. Hopefully for the better but it's only a guess."
"As in…?" Weld questioned.
"As in less ethically dubious human experimentation and more and safer study of powers without creating more deviants. Either better equipment, or they found a cape capable of assessing vials. I'm not sure which, also some talks with a few shards confirmed that…the other deviants are being scattered, processed back?"
"You mean the several thousand people they have locked away in their basement?" His tone was dry and I coughed awkwardly.
"Probably for the best, they're liable to get hurt in the crossfire when or if the Case 53s on Earth decide to gather and attack Cauldron."
"You seem so sure." Weld blinked and I wanted to tear my hair out at the mess I was being left to clean up.
"I believe I mentioned having outside knowledge, remember? Cauldron is revealed incredibly publicly, right during a battle with an Echidna who never gained control of her shard's impulses. You leave and create the Irregulars, gathering the Case 53s to find out why?"
"It went wrong didn't it?" His voice was quiet, vulnerable almost.
"Most of the Case 53s die, including the ones Cauldron kept when the being originally responsible for the end of the world blasts the place apart, following your scent to the base. They had no appetite for answers during the End of the World, only despair and vengeance and it got thousands, no maybe millions of people killed. The leader of Cauldron dies, and things just get worse from there."
Weld paled, and looked disappointed, frustrated. "Are you saying we should give up? That we shouldn't go out and look for answers?"
"I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it as a group. I've given you what I know and I've found all the worlds they grabbed people from. I could open the door right now and take you home but…it won't restore what you've lost. It won't change your experiences since waking up on Bet, even if your memories came back."
I wasn't good with people, that was why I delegated to more capable people like Taylor…since she puts the effort in being more personable. Which was sort of frightening when this was Taylor we were talking about.
"This is a real mess." Weld agreed with my mental despair.
"Story of my life. For now I recommend you talk to Faultline, if you know any Case 53s still having trouble we can help them out. Get them what they need…I'm not going to make the choice for you on what to do with this information. Just…be very careful with it."
His nod was slow but meaningful.
___
September 30th, 2011. 7:30PM
Basilia Rubio
I lounged on my bed, hugging my pillow to my chest and kicking my legs to stretch them out a little. I had taken some time for myself but I knew Taylor was right at the door.
"Tay?" She opened the door, looking sheepish. I was just all smiles, and she had a smaller one in response.
"I…didn't bother you did I?" I gestured for her to approach and she glided over, taking a seat next to me. I slid onto her, and she stiffened before relaxing a moment later.
I hugged her, getting nice and comfortable. "Nope. You're just giving me a chance to cuddle you." I apparently really liked having someone nice and tall to hug, made me feel safe and protected. Plus she was comfy. "Anyway, you had something to talk to me about?"
"No. I just wanted to see if you were okay." It wasn't mushy to think that was sweet of her right? And that it made me want to hug her more.
God, Taylor made me act stupid sometimes.
There was a gathering swarm, and Taylor looked irritated. I looked knowingly.
"Let me guess…Queenie wanted a talk instead?" She nodded with a look that made me giggle. "I don't mind, I have a good feeling it's not work. Or at least not stressful work." A few thousand bugs compacted into a humanoid shape under the Queen of Administration's direct control. One of the restrictions on her power.
"You should really speak with the shards more, I much prefer having all your attention." There was a slight huskiness to her tone, and I tilted my head. "I managed to confirm your theory on Cauldron acquiring a cape to analyze the shards. Turns out it's one of my buds."
"I don't think bird powers will be very helpful for that." Taylor said with a befuddled face.
Khepri laughed in a double tone. "Did you really think Aiden was the only bud I've made? We may be more mutualistic but we still grow from conflict, and we've expanded the scope of what that means. Managing, administrating, social maneuvering, commanding and consolidation of resources. Taylor is still a good host, and that means a lot of data."
"How many?" Taylor's question had to be out of plain curiosity which was completely fair.
"Ten in total so far." I was surprised and so was Taylor at the number. "Half of them have met the parameters and developed powers and the others remain dormant. One is of course Aiden and his bird control and bird directed aerokinesis." Oh so that was his power. "Another is a powerful Thinker, capable of assessing and identifying powers through a mental web. A third is a Trump that shares abilities, and can carefully adjust a ratio of power optimal for an ally."
"Like Null but slightly better?" That was actually an interesting power in and of itself.
Khepri formed an odd smile. "Indeed. The fourth active bud is a tinker who is very effective at networking the tinkertech of others into a cohesive system. I believe she's currently operating in Japan under the protection of the Fugeki Order. The fifth cape is a Changer capable of unraveling into a living mass of plant-like tendrils with a limited set of powers."
"What kind of powers?" Taylor was invested, and leaned forward.
"This plant mass has an applied field of physical durability as well as massive regenerative capabilities. Roots can be broken off and senses extended into them, a Brute/Thinker by your human categorization systems."
"That seems…a little unfair." Khepri laughed and Taylor actually pouted.
"Are there any other shards we know of that have budded recently?" It would be interesting to know.
"Shaper budded twice recently, though only a single one is active. The Eye of Fate has budded once, the High Theurgist has two dormant buds and a single active one. Aurora has two buds both inactive. Ablative Growth has one active bud. Browser has a single active bud and Traveller of Realms has a cross-bud with the Observer."
So Panacea has two shard-babies out there, Dinah has one, Beacon has two and Dauntless has three with one of them being Challenger. Ablative Growth is Bitch so someone has a power derived from hers. Browser is Scapegoat which leaves a ton of possibilities. A power from Doormaker and Clairvoyant is scary as hell though, and I wondered who had a power like that.
"So was that all you wanted to talk about?" Khepri nodded.
"Yes. If you wish to know more you can ask me at a later date." She dispersed, and the insects vanished where I couldn't see them.
We were alone.
I pulled myself from her lap, trying to think. "I should go to the beach…not now though. Now I'm staying indoors where it's nice and warm and away from the cold." I was a California girl, and had lived in warmer states most of my life.
That I remember anyhow. New Hampshire was too cold for me. Taylor held a box in her hands and my eyes certainly lit up. I was sure of it.
"You up for a game of Jenga?" She had a crooked smile and I dragged her to the soft carpeted floor, adding a blanket to cushion our bottoms. Leaving space for her to set up the little wooden bricks. Is that the right word? Bricks?
I of course shamelessly sat on her lap, and she rolled her eyes. I innocently batted my eyelashes at her. "What? Something wrong?" She flicked my forehead, but didn't say a word as she finished setting up the Jenga tower.
"You go first." Was all she said.
I stuck out my tongue as I carefully pulled out a single brick and stacked it on top…
___
AN: This is the last main chapter, with a single Interlude between this and Arc 14. Not much to say here other than to enjoy. I'll be working on Arc 14, and will keep a healthy margin for the future.
- Location
- Taken by the hand to a land that they understand
Is this that story where the MC says "Spirits are real and one just possessed krieg to make a racism ghost" to black/white morality, full time parahuman lawyer Carol Danon, who just goes "Okay, how do we fight it?" instead of attempting to drive off the deranged parahuman master who can't/won't control their powers?