Coil had stayed up all night looking over reports and organizing events so that he could slowly guide events to his advantage. The chaotic state of the city was a difficult puzzle to crack, and the influx of independent heroes had shaken the power structure in the city.
Lung had been forced into a fraction of the area that he had once controlled, his defeat at Armsmaster's hands earlier this month had greatly damaged his reputation. He wasn't seen as an untouchable force of nature any longer. Without that primal fear the heroes risked smaller strikes at his holdings before pulling back, leaving Lung unable to retaliate. These tactics slowly but surely whittled away at his territory until all that he now controlled was a small core that he could personally protect. He was still extremely dangerous, but his ability to affect the city as a whole was almost non-existent.
The Merchants had always been the weakest gang in the city and they were fairing only marginally better than the ABB. Their territorial borders technically hadn't changed much since Leviathan's death, but their real power had been greatly diminished. With Skidmark and Squealer in hiding from the heroes, their major drug labs and crack-houses had been cleared out. They now only existed as a scattered conglomeration of dealers and gangsters supported by a house of cards made of desperate addicts.
E88 was proving to be a tough nut to crack. Kaiser wasn't a fool and he had spread his forces in a way that allowed him to hold his ground with minimal losses. The E88 were vigorously defending their territory and while their members often came out of some fights for the worse, Othala was able to put them back into fighting shape. Some of the independent capes had been scared off when Viktor stole the accumulated martial arts prowess of a brute; named Jotun, that had spent a week here after Leviathan.
Even his own operations had taken a hit. He preferred to stick to the high class illegal activities, weapon trade, money laundering, falsified identification, high-end drugs. The independents were targeting all the gangs in the city, his organization included, and he had already been forced to reduce some of his more noticeable illicit activities. With the additional attention focused on the bay he was slowly losing money, having to dip into his savings instead of gang activities covering the costs of his hired mercenaries. Regardless it was time to truly begin his day.
Reality A: Ending the time-line that he has spent the night looking over reports, Thomas Calvert awoke from a restful night of sleep ready for the new day. Splitting realities Calvert called in a personal day to work at the PRT and decided to not call Creep; his personal driver and mercenary. Walking into his triple car garage he jumped into his nondescript dark blue Honda Accord, before opening the garage door and driving into the city. He had taken to varying his means of getting to his secret base, he didn't want to risk anyone discovering any patterns in his activities.
The drive into his territory was boring as he took a non-direct route before he arrived at a multilevel parking garage that was owned by one of his various splinter companies. Parking near the elevator he cautiously looked around the bland concrete structure, and after determining the surroundings to be safe he stepped out; locking his car. The elevator was fortunately empty as he entered and inserted a key into the control panel. After pressing the buttons for both the top and bottom floors the elevator lowered, descending past the ground floor into a basement. The doors opened to a nonthreatening maintenance room, complete with cleaning supplies and tools. Walking over to a tool box Calvert opened the bottom drawer before feeling blindly along its underside, finding the familiar spaced buttons of a keypad. Absentmindedly entering the code, he was please that he didn't hear anything as he stood and pulled at the pegboard covered wall nearby. The wall swung open with out of a seam and he stepped into the unlit space inside, and closed himself in. Inside was a briefcase and a manhole cover, opening the briefcase he found a copy of his costume and took up his super-villain mantle. The manhole cover opened to a long ladder that was one of several secret entrances and exits to his base. As Coil descended on the ladder he mused that he was living up to many a boyhood fantasy, sure it was paranoid, but that didn't mean he couldn't also enjoy it.
Now that he was finally in his base he could get to business, heading toward his office he continued to the room right beside it. Opening the door he looked down to the sleeping form of his pet, she was pale and noticeably thinner since he had acquired her weeks ago. He would have to direct Mr. Pitter to ensure she was eating properly, it wouldn't do for his pet to suffer unnecessary complications due to malnutrition. Pausing for a moment he decided what questions to ask, he would have to be sparing because he wasn't dedicating both realities to his base.
"It's morning pet." Coil called to her.
"Mmm." She uttered as she stirred groggily "It's morning? I didn't sleep much. Candy?"
"No pet, you may go back to sleep after you answer some questions." Coil answered emotionlessly.
"What are the chances of any troubles arising here before lunchtime?"
"Seven point one nine eight." She muttered as she rubbed her eyes sleepily.
A faint frown tugged at Coil's lips as he heard the answer, the odds had been significantly worse ever since Leviathan's attack. Still he had to remind himself that they were still well within the acceptable risks. After all she was looking at all the possibilities, including the chance that he might choose to run screaming outside with the intent to turn himself into the nearest cape.
"What are the chances for the success of my grand plan, ignoring use of my power?" He asked, hopeful that there would be nothing negative since last he asked.
"Sixty eight point two six four." She answered with a wince. Coil didn't take note of her reaction of pain that shouldn't be bothering her after only two questions. He was more concerned that the numbers had jumped four percent since he had asked yesterday. The numbers were still less than they had been before Leviathan, but something must have happened that could change the odds in less than a day. He was tempted to ask more but he restrained himself, he would do a quick check of recent events before he chose what question would be best to ask without straining her.
"Good, my pet." Coil spoke soothingly. "Go back to bed, I will return soon enough with breakfast and perhaps some candy."
"Alright." the girl muttered before turning onto her side.
Leaving his pet Coil moved into his office to do a search of recent events.
Reality B: Thomas Calvert ate a breakfast of cereal before heading to work at the PRT. As he got into his Audi RS3 he lamented the problems with his double life. The PRT had been demanding more of his time as the independent capes stirred up trouble in the city. He was forced to strike a delicate balance as he secured his position at the PRT as well as used his power to further his operations as Coil. It was annoying that he couldn't dedicate his full power to his Coil persona full time, his clandestine operations suffered, even if he gained a higher degree of safety.
The drive was uneventful, and it wasn't long before he checked in and sat behind his desk. Absentmindedly looking though his messages he checked through the night's reports. An independent cape named Furrow had apprehended several Merchant gang-members and reported that he had a lead on Skidmark and Squealer's hideout. Fenja and Menja had attacked a PRT squad patrolling along the edges of E88 territory, no major injuries but their van had been destroyed. It was a show of force more than anything, the PRT would hardly suffer a hit to their PR if the event even made the news.
A message marked urgent pulled him out of his relaxed work pace, scanning through the message he pondered the news. A girl had appeared with a nearly perfect facial match to Saturn. With a twitch of his eyebrows he vaguely wondered how his counterpart would respond, but that wasn't his role as he leaned back and continued his work. Reaching to a nearby radio he affixed an ear-bud so that he could listen to the PRT chatter as the situation developed.
It was several minutes before something interesting came across the airways. "Armsmaster reporting from the boardwalk." The gruff voice of the Protectorate leader was heard clearly over the high-tech radios.
"This is Control, go ahead Armsmaster." Kid Win's voice responded.
"Gallant and I have eyes on the person of interest, moving to make peaceful contact."
"Understood, report anything of interest."
"Acknowledged."
Calvert almost rolled his eyes at the unflinching adherence to protocol that the man operated under. He didn't have to wait long before things became interesting.
"Control, I need a retrieval team at my location. Highest Priority." Armsmaster's voice sounded slightly gruffer as he ordered support.
"Understood Armsmaster, retrieval team on route. ETA four minutes."
Reality A: Coil wasted no time as he received a message from the highly encrypted connection that he had with the PRT servers. A doppelganger of Saturn promised to attract a lot of attention, and if he handled the situation correctly he could direct the resulting events to his advantage. He was tempted to drop the other time-line to focus his full power at the new opportunity. He grudgingly decided to keep his safe time-line, there were still too many unknowns for him to risk it.
Pulling out one of his many phones he dialed Trickster. The Travelers were currently his best resource that he could direct in a short time-frame, and if things were done correctly their involvement would create the least risk.
After a few rings his call was answered. "Yeah?" Trickster's voice asked.
"Gather your team, I've got a lead on something that could turn out to be very important. A girl matching Saturn's appearance has been seen in the city. She's on the blue line bus, most likely heading to the boardwalk. Apprehend her before the PRT, do so while attracting as little attention as possible." Coil commanded succinctly.
"Saturn? Uh- okay, what do you want us to do after we have her?" Trickster muttered.
"Take her to a secure location and contact me, then I will give you further instructions." Coil said, before hanging up. Already he was thinking of how to best use the situation to further his goals. An idea popped into his head that could drastically further his plans. Whoever this girl was had to be in the city for a reason. If he didn't handle this carefully he could easily run afoul of some other cape's plans.
Getting up from his desk he called for Mr. Pitter and exited his office moving to his pet's room. "Time to get up my pet. Just four questions, then you can have breakfast and some candy."
"Candy? Alright what are the questions?" The girl quickly roused and sat up. As Coil began explaining the basics of the situation, he lamented that his pet couldn't give simple yes or no answers. It would be rather simple to ask if this new girl was the real Saturn, a cape, or a clone, instead he would have to ascertain the truth as best he could by risk assessment.
After explaining the news so that her power could get a complete picture he asked his first question. "What are the chances that this girl that looks like Saturn would die if someone shot at her chest with a shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot from twenty yards away?" The question might seem to be somewhat odd but he found this was actually a very good question for determining if the person was a parahuman or not. Many parahumans would have some way to avoid death either by ignoring the wound or moving out of the way. This didn't work for every parahuman but from what he knew about Saturn this should suffice.
"Seventy-seven point eight five nine percent." She answered. The answer was enough for him to assume that whoever this was, she wasn't Saturn nor a parahuman. The numbers were slightly low but could easily be explained away by quick reflexes or moderate training.
"If this girl that looks like Saturn is killed, what are the chances of trouble arising here in the next day?"
"Fifty-two point five five one percent." She answered plainly.
"If the girl that looks like Saturn is killed, without any connection to me, what are the chances of trouble arising here in the next day?" Coil asked.
"Ten point one three two percent." She answered with a twitch.
Thinking carefully he asked his last question. "If the girl that looks like Saturn is killed, without any connection to me, what are the chances for the success of my grand plan, ignoring use of my power?"
"Eighty-one point nine five three." His pet answered with a groan. "Candy."
"Yes, pet" Coil nodded. "Mr. Pitter give her some candy, a small dose please."
As he left his employee to his task he strode back to his office thinking of what he now knew. The risk versus reward of this situation was dramatic, he was sorely tempted to end his other time-line to focus all his power on this opportunity; however the high risk held him back. His idea was for this fake Saturn to die in a public location, something that would to cause an absolute shitstorm at the PRT. Public outcry of their returned heroine's death would create such a blow to PR that he could easily see himself in the role of Director within the week.
The issue was that if her death had the opportunity of being connected toward his organization easily half of the public rage would be directed at him, something he was not confident he would survive. However if he could keep his hands clean, perhaps diverting the consequences between the PRT and someone else, he might get two birds with one stone.
Sitting down at his desk he reached for another of his many phones, one of his contacts inside E88 was about to get a tip. If a trigger happy neo-nazi happened to kill a revived Saturn then he could easily see the fallout removing both The Empire and Piggot.
Reality B: Thomas Calvert looked through agent patrol routes as he listened as the retrieval team picked up the person of interest. Everything considered, the PRT was working quite proficiently. The boy the doppelganger had been with was taken for questioning, the PR department was already obscuring details regarding the photos and video that had already been posted, and even Panacea was called in from the hospital.
It wasn't long before he was using his access codes to look into the camera feed for one of the PRT's most secure interrogation rooms. The most secure was surrounded in five feet of steel and reinforced concrete, and would mean he would have to use codes he shouldn't have in order to access the cameras. Luckily that wasn't the case as he watched Armsmaster question the young girl in the purple dress. It was amusing to watch the local leader struggle to question the girl who identified herself as Princess Saturn of Saturn. Armsmaster's tech determined that everything she said was true, however when questioned about simple things such as Taylor Hebert's former elementary school she couldn't answer.
Calvert tired his best to determine what the girl was as both occupants of the interrogation room became increasingly agitated. She herself admitted to being confused, and couldn't give an explanation about why she had come back from the dead. The boy that had been brought in with her hadn't been very helpful, claiming to have found her in a park. Was she a clone, or an altered and brainwashed girl? If so who had sent her, and for what purpose?
Leaning toward his screen with renewed interest, Calvert watched when Panacea was brought into the little room.
"Panacea good, as you can see, your expertise is needed." Armsmaster grunted gesturing at Saturn.
"Wow, uh what exactly do you need from me?" Panacea muttered as she stared at the Saturn doppelganger.
"Pardon me!" Saturn huffed. "Who is she and how would she help this situation?"
"My apologies- princess." The tinker forced the title out. "It seems you don't remember Panacea, she was involve during the fight with Leviathan. She tried to prevent- your death after you defeated the Endbringer. She is here to perhaps determine how you came back, as well as to confirm who you are."
A flush of red flared over the girl's face, clearly annoyed that she hadn't really been believed. "Very well, if it will help." She growled through her teeth.
"Uh, what do you need, remember I couldn't really use my power on Saturn." Panacea muttered.
"Hmm, but were you able to see her biology?" Armsmaster asked. "Perhaps get a idea if this girl is genetically identical? We could do some tests ourselves, however that would take time we didn't want to waste."
"Y-yes, I didn't really memorized everything, but I think I remember enough. It was a high stress situation, and Saturn's trump ability kinda threw me off."
"Whatever you can do would be helpful." The bearded man said, stepping into a corner to observe.
Panacea approached the girl slowly. "Do I have you permission to touch your hand to better identify you?
"If it will help, then yes. I grow tired of this useless questioning!" The girl huffed.
Touching the back of the other girl's hand Panacea's eyebrows furrowed. "Hmm that's interesting." She uttered.
"What can you determine?" Armsmaster asked.
"Uh- best I can remember she is a genetic match to Saturn, but that isn't the odd thing, or at least the only odd thing." Panacea declared, and continued as Armsmaster nodded. "She's nearly perfect physically; everyone, with the exception of some parahumans, have permanent marks from old injuries. Scars, or distinctive calcifications from bone injuries. She doesn't have anything like what I would expect, so um."
Panacea trailed off, and Armsmaster spoke with his own guesses. "So we can assume that either she has some healing powers of her own, was subject to healing powers, or her body came into existence recently."
"I don't have healing powers." Saturn stated evenly, seemly interested in Panacea's deductions.
"Yeah you don't." Panacea muttered sheepishly. "You don't have a Corona Pollentia nor a Gemma, they're special lobes in a brain and something that all parahumans have."
"But that's not how my magic works." Saturn countered.
"Did Saturn have a Coron Pollentia and Gemma before?" Armsmaster asked.
Panacea paused, taking a moment to think. "I remember her having a Pollentia, but everything was kinda muted, and the Gemma is a harder to detect even for me."
Leaning back Calvert toned out the resulting argument between Saturn and Armsmaster, it didn't look like the situation would be rectified anytime soon. While he didn't know who had sent the Saturn look alike, the girl at least wasn't going to be a threat.
Reality A: Coil was annoyed, the reports he was receiving were more chaotic than he had desired. Trickster had grabbed the Saturn double right in front of Armsmaster, and now the fool hadn't called. His agent inside the E88 had sent him a text that he and a group of other gang-members were readied to support Hookwolf, Rune, Crusader, and Cricket. The E88 capes had already been deployed by Kaiser and apparently had a good lead on The Traveler's location. Unless they were protected, something like Genesis' form would stick out like a sore thumb to Cricket's echo-location.
Coil didn't want to risk the Travelers but the there were too many things outside of his control and the temptation of the expected rewards was too much to call everything off. Sending a text back to his man in the E88 he ordered him to kill the girl that looked like Saturn if he got a good opportunity in a public place. He sweetened the order, promising, protection, a new identity, and a two million dollar retirement. Coil didn't plan to actually pay the man, he would need to disassociate himself from Saturn's death in every way, and dead men would tell no tales.
He was getting a bit anxious, and sent a text to Trickster right about the time when his connection to the PRT reported a cape fight between the E88 and the Travelers. Dauntless and Aegis had been patrolling the area looking for Saturn and were moving to respond. The villain began to ponder his other options, if the girl didn't die he could still give the PRT a major hit to their reputation. However, if the Travelers suffered any losses he might need to simply drop this time-line and see if he could make any major gains from his safe reality.
He was listening in on the PRT radios when suddenly his 'safe time-line' was suddenly cut. He spent several moments dumbfounded before he split time-lines, in both he immediately locked down his entire base. One of his selves ran off to his pet, the other continued to listen to the PRT as worrying reports filtered in. Something odd had happened, this had only occurred when he was dealing with trumps or a power precog was working against him. Now with this malfunction, he was stuck in a potentially disastrous time-line!
"Pet get up!" Coil snapped shaking the girl lucid from her drug hazed state. "What are the chances of trouble arising here in the next hour!?"
"Wha.." The girl grumbled.
"Answer the question!" He yelled shaking her some more.
"Twenty-one point seven seven eight percent." She grimaced.
"What are the chances the girl that looks like Saturn would die if someone shot at her chest with a shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot from twenty yards away!?" He demanded.
"Ten point four-" His pet cut off as she hissed through her teeth grasping at her forehead. "Fifty point zero ze- no!"
Coil was concerned, but not for her obvious pain as she curled in on herself. "Pet what's wrong?!"
"The numbers keep changing when I think of her! Sh-she, oh go-!" She sputtered before rolling to the side of the bed and heaving. She gave a pitiful pained groan as he stomach fought to expel less then a mouthful of bile. It took her several moments for her to recover, before coughing a few times and spitting away the residue.
"I need you to answer more-" Coil started before the girl cut him off.
"Seventy point nine- no." She stopped with a grimace, before rubbing her head and continuing. "Eighty-two point zero one one percent that the Earth is destroyed in less than a year."
Coil's breath hitched, and a cold bead of sweat ran down his spine.
-
As The ENE Wards approached the largest conference room they noticed that it was nearly filled to the brim with capes. It took them a few moments of searching for them to find enough empty seats to sit together.
"This is a bit crazy." Kid Win muttered. "I didn't think you saw this many capes outside of an A ranked threat or higher."
"Yeah, Alexandria and Legend are here, I wonder if Eidolon is going to show up?" Vista agreed with a whisper as she nodded toward the front where, the two members of the Triumvirate were talking with Armsmaster and Dragon in one of her smaller suits. Looking around the room, almost all the independents that had been in the bay had gathered. The majority of the Brockton Bay Protectorate were already there, and it looked like at least one member from every Protectorate branch was as well. The entirety of New Wave was present, and Gallant was with them whispering to Glory Girl.
"Dang it, come on!" Clockblocker hissed as he fiddled with his high-tech Wards smart phone.
"What's wrong?" Browbeat questioned.
"PHO is on fire, seriously, I think the servers are melting down as we speak." He growled as he quickly ran his fingers along the screen. "I'm having a hard time loading stuff, and I can't get the link showing a video of Saturn fighting to work."
"It may have been blocked." Aegis interjected, his ability to speak having recently been restored by Panacea.
"This is the internet, nothing is ever truly gone." Clockblocker countered.
"I agree with Clock." Kid Win nodded. "I doubt any PR department is a match against the army of internet trolls. If the video got out, it might have been slowed down but it will be back."
"The problem is that without the context of the video, I don't get why everyone is freaking out. They're calling Saturn a magical girl, sure her outfit is a bit frilly, but I doubt anybody that kills Endbringers would be called that." Clockblocker grouched.
"Have you seen the reaction from the cultists?" Kid Win asked. "The user Saturn Priest was going crazy. He got banned but that didn't stop him, he was up to Saturn Priest4 and then the trolls got involved. At least I hope it is mostly trolls. There is now Saturn Priest5 through 500 something, proclaiming the return of the death goddess. Some are even proclaiming Void Cowboy as a prophet, it's weird."
"PHO mods will handle it." Aegis sighed. "It might take them a while, but they've always been able to deal with the crazies."
As they were waiting another two capes entered. One was a giant of man that regardless of the weather looked to be wearing mostly shaggy black furs in a rugged wild man look. Following in his wake was a waif of a girl in a blue costume with a large blue mirrored visor covering her eyes.
"Look it's Papa Bear and Baby Bear, they helped bring in Ballistic earlier today." Aegis whispered, indicating with his head.
"No!" Vista hissed. "She's Electro Mistress, only her dad calls her that when she isn't around. She threatens to join the Wards if she hears him call her that."
Armsmaster cleared his throat, indicating that they were ready to begin. As conversation died down, Gallant pulled away from Glory Girl and moved to join the other Wards.
"First, I would like to thank everyone for coming." Armsmaster greeted. "Considering the potential weight of the situation, it was agreed that this should be handled with absolute care. Just so there are no misunderstandings we are going to start at the beginning, please keep any questions until later." Armsmaster stepped back and nodded to Dragon as she stepped forward and gestured to the large screen in the middle of the front wall. A fairly close-up view of what looked to be Saturn staring up at something above her appeared on screen.
"I'm sure everyone already knows, but this is Saturn." Dragon declared in a very matter of fact tone. "She is the only Parahuman to have successfully killed an Endbringer. Because of her death after defeating Leviathan a threat rating was seen as unnecessary, however recent events have change that. Accurate information on her powers has been very hard to find and much of her threat rating is educated guess work."
The still image began to play, Saturn's voice flowing from speakers along the sides of the room. "My power is a little terrifying, it's one of the reasons this is my first time out. Once activated I bring Death to my target. It doesn't matter what, it could be a person, a city, a planet or an entire solar system. I guess, I sorta become the personification of Death and nothing will stop me from destroying my target." The video paused, and several capes had shocked expressions as the looked around at the reactions of the others.
"I personally recorded this interaction with Saturn. Until now it has only been seen by a handful of people, as it was deemed unnecessary knowledge. As you just heard, in her own words, Saturn had a truly terrifying power." Dragon said in a grave tone. "It was a very good thing she was a hero."
"It is mostly from my interactions with her we are basing this threat assessment. In all honesty many analysts fear that the normal ratings fall short in Saturn's case, however I feel they will do for now."
The image changed to a looping video of Saturn speaking with a pair of police officers. She looked over a piece of paper before turning and leaping onto the roof of a two story building.
"This is one of the first recordings of Saturn, taken before Saturn arrived at the Parahuman rally point." Dragon spoke with a gesture. "We believe that this is an example of her normal powers before she activates her final power. With my interactions with her, we are able to guess at other details of her powers."
The video didn't change but Saturn's voice again came from the speakers. "Some sort of built in changer ability, these clothes are part of my powers; no mask. Which is another reason this is my first time out."
"She later clarified that she was unable to add a mask to her attire." Dragon clarified. "With what we can guess about her base powers we would rate Saturn a tentative Changer 6. Because of other observations, her changer powers would come with multiple sub-categories. Mover 2, and brute 3 are simple guesses of her enhanced strength and movement. Her costume has some interesting complications with a striker 1 for its hydrophobic properties, and a stranger -1 for the inability to wear a mask. Lastly would be the weapon her power gives her, something we do not know any details of and rate a cautious striker 4. Be aware that these are mostly guesses and our analysts agree, that with so little information these ratings are shaky at best."
The image changed again, silently playing a well known video of Saturn raising her weapon into the air as a purple beam of light surrounded her.
"This is where all of our standard rating calculations fall short." Dragon sighed. "We can only assume that this is Saturn's aforementioned final power. The hypothesis we have is that once activated Saturn enters a breaker state. From basic observations this breaker state come with sub-classifications that would rate her the most powerful Parahuman ever witnessed, and we do not know if what we observed is the limit of her powers. Guessing from her fight with Leviathan, and events afterwards her sub-ratings of her breaker state are Brute 10+, Striker 10+, Thinker 7, Trump 7, Mover 6, Shaker 5."
Dragon paused to let the capes in the room to understand numbers. "Details regarding these ratings will later be available to those that have the required clearance. If she was hostile the Earth might no longer exist, as such Saturn would rank as a S-class threat if not more so."
After her chilling statement Armsmaster stepped forward. "While these posthumous ratings seem superfluous, that might have been true until the events earlier today. At approximately 10:45 local time The PRT received several reports of a girl with an identical appearance to the deceased Saturn. Myself and Gallant responded and confirmed the reports."
He jerked his head as the screen changed again, showing a girl in a purple gown with an odd symbol on her forehead. "We confronted this individual, and asked for her identity. She claimed to be Saturn, professing confusion because she woke up in a park and knew she should be dead. My tech as well as Gallant's powers identified it as a true statement."
The screen changed showing a side-by-side picture of Saturn and the identical girl with a symbol on her forehead.
"As you can see, the similarity is obvious to both casual observation as well as facial recognition. The only major difference is the symbol on her forehead, which we have identified as the astrological symbol for the planet Saturn. It is unknown at this time how that correlates to the events that followed." Armsmaster stiffly directed at the images with his halberd. "Before we could take her to a secure location and question her more, a team of villains know as the Travelers swapped her with an air conditioner. Despite calling in additional resources to the area we were unable to locate her. It wasn't until later when we received reports of a cape fight between the Travelers and E88, that we were able track her location." Armsmaster nodded at the screen again as it changed to show what look security camera footage. "This is a collection of videos collected from a local shopping district. This footage is mostly why we are reacting with all due caution, instead of being treated as a relatively simple case of copied identity."
The screen played footage of the girl in the purple dress running into a department store, and hiding in a rack of clothing. The playback split into multiple videos showing E88 gang-members running into the store as scared customers ran towards the exits. After a few minutes of chaos one of the images showed Vector and Heat Sink arriving, and engaging a group of nazis at one of the entrances. The E88 gangers fired their weapons at Vector, bullets stopping and falling from an invisible shield less than an inch in front of the cape.
The fight was interesting, but most of those gathered were watching what was happening with the girl in purple. She didn't look to have any powers as she ran though the store in an almost satirical fashion. It wasn't until the girl became trapped between Crusader and the independent duo that things became really interesting.
The various split images showing multiple happenings in the store collapsed into two videos, one still looked to be the security footage. The other image appeared to be a helmet camera from Heat Sink. It was with a mix of reactions that the gathered capes witnessed the girl's sparkly transformation into Saturn. However it was Clockblocker that was the most vocal.
"Oh my god! She actually is a magical girl!" He gasped, but then immediately tried to hide, as he sank down in his seat.
"Clockblocker!" Armsmaster barked, glaring at the younger cape under his command. The image was frozen on a picture of Saturn standing with her ornate weapon, and an angry look on her face.
He gestured and the video continued showing Saturn fighting Crusader, and eventually showing her tussle with Rune. The security cameras were often pointed too low to properly record the fighting, but what they did catch showed Saturn's impressive fighting style that many in the room remembered. The video paused when the fighters moved into the food section that wasn't covered by a camera, and Armsmaster cleared his throat again.
"The rest of the incident was handled by PRT agents, mostly cleaning up E88 gang-members. The individual matching the description of Saturn went onto the building's roof where she had a minor interaction with Aegis before Legend arrived on scene." The skilled tinker, glanced over to Legend before summarizing. "This individual is obviously a cape, her odd changer power matches Saturn's costume exactly. It still may have been a fabrication, however, my combat analysis tech identified a match between fighting styles. The only distinction, was a vast difference between the speed and strength observed during fight with Leviathan, and today with the E88."
"As best as we can tell, this girl is Saturn." Legend stated as he stepped forward. "Unless proven otherwise, we are are acting under the assumption that this is Saturn. Resurrection is not unheard of regarding powers, and while there haven't been any cases of such after this long we can't rule it out this isn't a subset of her powers. There is also a possibility of a third party being involved in her return, but at this time we just don't know.
"Several things have happened that make this situation all the more complicated. From the little interaction we have had with her, Saturn seems to be confused and distrusting toward capes." Legend ran a hand through his hair, as he took a breath and continued. "Thanks to the efforts of several independent capes Crusader and Ballistic were taken into custody. Crusader was uncooperative, but Ballistic was non-combative and during questioning gave us information regarding his interaction with Saturn. She was calling herself Princess Saturn, which while odd, adds to what she said during her changer power, as well as what might be the most surreal event of today. During my encounter with Saturn she was visibly upset, and I was unable to calm her down. She suddenly activated her power and was surrounded by the iconic purple energy that is indicative of her power and called out Planetary Teleport. She disappeared, and all resources the Protectorate had available have been unable to find her location. Our think-tank Watchdog has been surprisingly unreliable, we aren't entirely sure why, but almost all information from our thinkers could be considered suspect. Magic 8 gets vague results like Concentrate and ask again, or Better not tell you now. Nutcracker keeps trying to unravel any details but says he doesn't have enough information, and Appraiser rates the situation as octarine; whatever that is."
Legend sighed and Dragon stepped up again.
"After I was made aware of the situation, I acted on a hunch and requested a change of viewing times from several telescopes in advantageous locations. Saturn has a particular theme that either her power or she operates from. I requested the telescopes direct their attention at Saturn, the sixth planet of our solar system. I expected nothing to be detected, and that I had simply made some donations to the study of astronomy, however that was not the case. S.A.L.T. the South African Large Telescope was able to catch something interesting. Titan, Saturn's largest moon was in prime viewing position, and they detected a slight increase in the moon's luminosity. The change was technically minuscule, but their instruments are extremely sensitive. Three instances of increased light were detected, with the last being the most energetic. They were even able to detect the frequency of the light and determined that it was a purple light as indicative of Saturn's power. It is of my opinion that Saturn is on Titan, and that the PRT might need to attach Mover 10+ to her threat rating. As of right now that is the known situation with Saturn, Legend thought it best that everyone here Brockton Bay be informed because it is likely she will return here, if she does return."
The capes peered around at each-other, some were astonished, other were clearly worried.
"Do we know what caused the bursts of light?" Lady Photon spoke up, being the first one to ask what many were thinking. "Or how she is surviving on Titan? I doubt a miniskirt is considered protective clothing for a moon near the outskirts of the solar-system."
"Titan is actually considered one of the solar-systems nicer locations. It has an atmosphere where you wouldn't need a pressure suit, the biggest problem would be the lack of oxygen and extreme cold. Despite the dangers, there are several known brutes that could handle the conditions on the moon. However, since we know so little of her powers we don't know how Saturn is surviving." Alexandria answered, speaking for the first time. "What she might be doing on a moon approximately 900 million miles from earth is unknown. The blast of light could be her trying to blow off steam, practicing, or she might even be trying to get our attention because she accidentally got herself stuck; we just don't know."
"So if she does return what do we do?" Papa Bear asked, his deep voice carrying easily through the room. "Best for a confused girl to have someone to talk to, doubly so for a girl with powers; or triple for an S-class interplanetary Princess."
"As for now, we honestly want to bring her in for everyone's safety." Legend sighed. "As you said, she's confused having somehow returned from what everyone thought was her death. We cannot have her influenced by hostile organizations like the E88, something they have already attempted. It is of the highest priority she is brought in for her safety as well as the safety of all life on planet Earth. Even if she can't destroy the planet anyone able to kill an Endbringer isn't someone you want scared, angry and confused."
"That is quite a sobering thought." Manpower grunted. "Has the girl's father been informed?"
"Yes." Legend informed. "He was vacationing on Okinawa, and was understandably confused and angry. We put him on a fast jet back to the states, after he threatened to start swimming back."
Another cape started to ask another question when Dragon cut in. "Excuse me, I have just received something that would interest everyone. I just picked up a systems error alert from Sphere's defunct moon base. There are actually several systems still up and running out there, it's that just most of the critical ones, such as life support were never built. An outer door failed, and I was able to connect to a camera inside the base."
The screen changed, showing what looked like the still image of a large circular door. Suddenly a familiar curved blade pushed through a seam in the middle. The video was laggy, seemingly taking one image every half second, but everyone could see the door slowly open. Saturn was seen through the gap, using her polearm to pry her way in. The girl stepped in and flicked her hair back with a hand, the locks fluttering slowly down in the lessened gravity before passing under the camera and out of view.
"That was a near vacuum she just came in from, and the inside isn't close to life sustaining either." Dragon sighed, seeing Saturn casually walk in wearing her somewhat revealing costume. "I'll let everyone ponder what changes need to be made to her power ratings while I try to see if I can find some means of communication with the old base."
As Dragon walked swiftly from the room, a buzz of mutters slowly filled the room. Most of the capes expressed a mix of worry, exasperation or amazement.
"She's the most hard core magical girl ever!" Vista exclaimed with a giggle, before she blushed and glared at her fellow Wards. "You heard nothing.."
"Heard what now?" Kid Win asked.
"Exactly." Vista growled.
Clockblocker glanced suspiciously at the other boys in the group. "What's the bro-code for calling dibs in a situation like this? Cause dibs."