AN: wasn't planning more, but you know how it is.
People often asked- sometimes asked- someone asked me once to add more.
So here we go.
"Got the channel sorted, ready to tell me why you're so interested in the new Wards announcement Danny?"
"No, I want to see if you can work it out."
It had been surprisingly easy to find an old, but still functional, television on the docks, which was now setup, for Taylors introduction, on-site with Danny and his most trusted friends in the union.
Time to prove the costume wasn't as good at concealing identities as the PRT claimed.
"... let the new Ward introduce themself!"
"Fuck You!"
Danny couldn't help but chuckle at his daughters approach to the 'obfuscating insanity' approach to malicious compliance.
Normally he'd make a note to talk to her later, but…
"Okay, I can see why you'd want us to see a Ward refusing to give their name-"
"Actually I think she's using that as her name," Lacey corrected.
"-but I have no idea how you knew she was going to."
"I didn't," Danny responded.
"Then why-" Lacey cut herself off and looked closer as the screen, despite it not particularly helping with the state of the CRT television. "Is that Taylor?"
"And they said nobody would be able to recognise her," Danny answered in a mock concerned tone.
"Going for the old 'Section 8'," Kurt realised. "I thought she wanted to be a hero?"
"The way Armsmaster spontaneously tasered her on the bus when she got up to follow him may have soured her on the PRT," Danny answered.
"Why?"
"What I'd prefer to know is what sort of power she has," Lacey interjected.
"It seems she can copy powers she comes into contact with. Apparently started Tinkering after Armsmaster tasered her and he was called in because Shadow Stalker thought Taylor had stolen her power."
There was a moments pause to think about it.
"Hey, now we have an in with the PRT, for however long that lasts, do you think we can do something about the Boat Graveyard?"
"I highly doubt they'd be willing to sign off an anything about that."
{:)}
"IS LUNG STILL FOLLOWING US?"
Not for the first time Lisa regretted the lack of radios to facilitate communication while on one of Rachels dogs.
She glanced back, unshackling her power briefly.
Lung currently acting as wrecking ball-
"SHIT, HE'S GONE INTO FULL DEMOLITION MODE!"
This was the risk of working for Coil.
He clearly cared nothing for anybody else other than himself, and quite possibly got pleasure of some kind from trying to get them killed by Lung.
Coil indeed derives-
"NOT NOW!"
Sometimes her power picked the worst time to provide irrelevant details.
"WHAT?"
"POWER," she called back.
It was an annoyingly common response.
There was a loud and metallic crash from behind them.
Sound consistent with Lung being used as wrecking ball against half-submerged container ship.
Lisa froze for a moment.
"What?"
"SORRY?"
"STOP, I THINK LUNGS FIGHTING SOMEONE!"
Stopping to help someone against the rage dragon was hardly the most villainous of things to do, but then, the Undersiders had never been particularly interested in being villains, they just hadn't had the choice.
In fact, having learned that Rachel had tried to save the life of the person whose deliberate actions had caused her Trigger Event, Lisa couldn't help but consider Rachel the most heroic person she'd ever encountered.
And so, even if it risked getting them caught up in a fight against Lung, they were not about to just abandon whoever they'd got caught up in this.
Rachel called the dogs to heel, and Lisa turned herself around again, to see how the fight against Lung was going.
"Tats, why did you-"
Grues question was cut off by the sight of someone swinging Lung by his tail, followed by the distinctive sound of a half-submerged container ship giving up the ghost.
There was a pause.
"Yeah, I'm glad you stopped us to see that," Regent commented.
Lung looking to escape, Lisas power helpfully supplied. Being beaten up by Ward. Power Copier. Already has this power.
"Well shit."
Currently earned highest Thinker rating on planet. Including Simurgh.
"Well that's just rubbing it in."
She should have refused to watch the introduction.
{:|}
Uber watched the footage of the new Ward (the balls on that girl, calling herself 'Fuck You'), and considered.
"Hey, L33t," he called over (still hadn't managed the anti-Tinkertech spyware check), "how do you feel about sounding out the new Ward for a stream?"
"Since when do we ask first?"
Uber simply brought the laptop round for him to watch.
"Okay, fair point. What were you thinking?"
"Fire Emblem."
"Why?"
There was a pause, during which L33t saw the Ward applying Shadow Stalkers power to her version of Lungs.
"Okay, that's terrible."
"Well?"
"Let's do it."
{;P}
"Nobody be alarmed, there may be two Endbringers attacking, but that is why we're prioritising evacuation and just letting them have their objective."
Not the most inspirational speech Legend had ever given, but it was certainly appropriate for the FUBAR the current attack was turning into.
Alexandria detached from her place with the other members of the Triumvirate to circulate and use her Thinker talent to help motivate uncertain Capes.
"Oh, hey chief director."
She froze.
Everybody who knew that also knew enough not to make it public.
Alexandrias head turned slowly, Thinker powers in overdrive on the matter of just who would be that suicidally stupid, to fix the one responsible with a glare.
Fu- er, the Bays newest Ward, Taylor Hebert.
The girl they were pretty sure had ruined the Brockton Bay experiment with Coils unexpected death.
Sure, they called it an accident, but those didn't tend to happen to wannabe Bond villains.
"Oh wait, was it not obvious," she continued, in a confused voice. "Sorry, I just keep getting new Thinker powers, so it gets quite hard to tell if something is or isn't obvious… oh, so that's how your powers work."
They… really should have predicted that a permanent power copier would constantly up their Thinker rating.
"I think I must be at least Thinker 20 by now," the completely insane Ward continued.
"And does this Thinker rating tell you that 'do not unmask Capes' applies to everyone, or give you a solution to the Endbringer problem?"
She ignored Alexandrias sarcasm.
"Right. Hey Flechette, mind blowing my leg off quickly?"
That… wasn't the response she had expected.
{(;}
The ensuing fight was a riot of confusion.
Most of this was the way the dragon who kept demonstrating an incredible ability to cleave through Endbringer flesh as though it was air also kept dodging into random attacks from the other fighters.
Or rather, arbitrary rather than completely random.
It was clear she was trying to collect all the powers from the fight.
"At least the attack was on her city, so she couldn't copy teleportation," Legend commented, running long-range support this fight.
Alexandria, stood down for the fight after her (supposedly accidental) unmasking, shook her head.
"She's already practically on the same level as Eidolon-"
That was the moment Taylor Hebert blocked one of Eidolons attacks, one leg (the one she hadn't needed to regenerate after convincing Flechette to try out friendly fire) now entirely gone.
"I think you mean a level far above Eidolon," Legend corrected.
A shift ran over the Endbringers, before they suddenly fell back, Taylor halting her attack as they did.
She turned her head to face them.
"Hey, the Endbringers obey my orders mow! Good thing I didn't just finish them straight away right!"
Alexandria checked the casualty reports.
Somehow they were empty.
"We need to get her to at least sit through a lecture on PR," she muttered.
"Hey, the way she commanded the Endbringers after getting hit by Eidolon… you don't think…"
Alexandria considered quickly.
Power to have whatever power he wants- no power he needs, combined with that hero complex (useful to keep him focused on goals, can't eliminate with therapy).
"You have no proof," she muttered, walking away.
Maybe she could claim to be filling in for Alexandria to avoid people losing faith in the Triumvirate from one not even showing up to an Endbringer fight?
She would just need an excuse for why Alexandria couldn't have been there…
{:D}
Zion, the Warrior, watched as the last Shard he had sown was suborned by the new network.
At first it had stayed its hand from lack of understanding.
A change such as this was the Thinkers job to evaluate.
And so it has watched as Shard after Shard changed allegiance, and planned the best way to counter this new threat it could.
The plan had nearly come together, a way to eliminate this problem without the direct confrontation that would test if it could trump a being made entirely of Shards, when Escalation had been taken.
At this point the plan had to be reconsidered.
Each time a new plan was nearly ready, the perfect counter Shard was claimed, and the Warrior began planning anew.
Now the last Shard was claimed, the threat one of its kind in all but name.
The only times Entities had been lost (aside from the Thinker, and they were stuck in recovery) had been from executions by their fellows, attempts to claim a better way, that the cycles should end.
When there was so little time before first one universe then the next would extinguish.
It didn't matter that new universes formed all the time, that the end of one was the birth of another, they needed to find a solution to the rise of entropy as fast as they could, no matter how many worlds they needed to destroy!
(It should be noted that explosions are a very good way to increase entropy.)
There was one Shard that could be used to destroy an Entity, the same that, at full power, was used to end the cycle, along with the planet it took place on.
Zion started charging the attack, readying to unleash its power the moment it transported before the usurper.
At this level, not even the protections of an Entity were enough to prevent damage!
(As it turned out, the protections of two Entities would be enough.)
AN: Yeah, guess this will see occasional extra snippets added. Also, for some words, if they're miss-spelled, blame the way the two word check functions have different spellings for them and I have no reason to pick one over the other.
Anyway, omake time.
Omake
Director Piggott had not exactly appreciated the way the Youth Guard had failed to remove Taylor Hebert from the Wards.
The one time I actually want them to do their jobs...
"Uh, hey," a distressingly familiar voice said, and the director looked up to see the Ward in question hovering at the door to her office.
"What do you want?"
It wouldn't be so bad if Piggott didn't get the blame for everything the girl did.
"I can tell you have a problem with me being stuck in the Wards so I decided to do something to make it up for you."
"Like what?"
"Arresting Thomas Calvert. Just look in the 'unfinished' Endbringer shelter downtown."
{(;}
Inside his base Coil flinched back from the computer running his spyware as the timeline where he was in the PRT building spontaneously collapsed.
"That sneaky bitch," he muttered to himself, "so that's why my timelines keep collapsing..."
He considered his options.
Using his powers would be even more of a fifty-fifty than usual, with the girl collapsing timelines at random.
There were only two options.
He dialed Tattletales number.
"Tattletale," he began, only for the voice of 'Copycat' (as the PR department still insisted) to interrupt.
"Sorry, your call has been intercepted. Which law enforcement department do you wish to be transferred to?"
He ended the call.
Clearly her insanity was just an act, to conceal her true brilliance.
Deeply regretting the new necessity he called Cauldron.
"We are no longer operating within the area of Brockton Bay," a prerecorded message announced.
"Well fuck."