"I don't know if that was a resounding success or an absolute disaster," Alexandria sighed as she sat with Legend and Eidolon. They had excused themselves and used Doormaker to get a few minutes to talk about what had happened. Alexandria herself was still reeling from Leviathan's little horror show. She wasn't sure how to tell them. If she wanted to tell them. They wouldn't take the news well, she sure as hell hadn't, but it was probably better to wait until things calmed down.
"Well, no one died," Legend said, and she was glad she had more control over her actions than to flinch. "That has to count for something, at least." Keith was always the optimistic one.
"Yeah, thanks to Sacrosanct," She sighed. "Piggot's report on the Espada was bare bones at best and doesn't even touch the surface of what they can do. They all have so many powers they might as well be classified as Trumps."
"Do you know what her powers are?" Eidolon asked.
"Not in particular. I haven't had the chance to bring her up to Contessa yet so we don't have much on her other than the PRT report from Piggot."
"What do we know about them?" Legend asked.
"We know they all seem to fall into the "Alexandria Package" for the most part." It was flattering that she had a whole subset of powers named after her. It wasn't something she ever had time to dwell on, being in the position she was in, but sometimes, it put a smile on her face. "They don't so much fly as they walk on air. They have extremely high durability, extremely powerful blasts, and their own subset of powers each."
"It's like someone rolled all of us into one power set and gave it to a bunch of teens," Eidolon scoffed. David was never the most confident, even after getting his powers. The fact a bunch of teens had a power set that seemed like it could rival his, if not all of them, on the surface definitely wasn't doing much to make him feel good about himself.
"Which is why we need them on our side," She said. Legend nodded and Eidolon gave a huff of approval. He'd get over it in a few hours as long as nothing went south. "The Espada took down Lung with relative ease, continued helping fix damage done by Bakuda's bombs, more than likely helped take out Bakuda herself, steamrolled the Merchants, the Empire, and are the reason we've come away from an Endbringer fight with nothing but property damage to show for it. Wraith even found Leviathan's weak spot. If all of them have a weak point she can find we can end fights far faster than before with fewer losses."
"You don't need to explain why we need them," Eidolon sighed. "It's more than apparent with how strong they are. The question is how we bring them in."
"As much as I'd like to, the PRT doesn't seem to be an option," Legend said. And that's rare for him. He usually prefers that Capes, especially young ones, join the PRT. "If they wanted to join, they would have. And we can't use the usual arguments to get them to join. No matter how we approach them the PRT isn't the way to do it. Not unless it's through affiliation like New Wave."
"I don't think they'd even want that. Didn't they break that Canary girl out of a Birdcage transport?" Eidolon asked.
"They did," Alexandria sighed. That made this tougher because at least one of them would likely see that some strings were pulled to get her sent there. Not many, but more than a few. Despite how deeply Capes had been ingrained into society, how normalized they were, it never failed to surprise her how easy it was for normals to harbor incredible amounts of scorn for them. Piggot and Tagg worked with Capes regularly and never made their dislike of them a secret. Getting a Master of Canary's caliber locked up was as easy as a few phone calls. Not even any favors.
"So do we approach them as Cauldron or…" Legend trailed off. There weren't any more options than that. PRT affiliation or Cauldron affiliation.
"They seem to prefer operating in the dark. Up until the thing with the Empire we thought they only had three members. Now they have more than six. Cauldron would be the way to go, if you can convince them it's for a good cause. Though they strike me as the… idealistic type. Unwilling to make compromised that are for the greater good." Eidolon wasn't disparaging them, Legend was the same way and they had to keep him out of the loop on certain things because of it, but he didn't sound happy about that either.
"What makes you say that?" Alexandria asked.
"Specifically the Canary situation."
"Well, we won't know until we talk to them. And we should be getting back anyway," Legend said.
"I guess we should get this out of the way as soon as possible," Alexandria sighed. "Am I doing this alone?"
"I'll come with you," Eidolon said. "You should probably go give one of your speeches, Keith," He pats the other man on the shoulder and his tone is joking. A rare thing from David, but nice to see every so often.
"I will," Legend said, his voice just as jovial.
"Door," Alexandria called, and they stepped back through to the hospital.
Legend split off and they have to ask a nurse how to get to the room the Espada are in. It's in some corner of the hospital, as secluded as they could make it despite everyone that was there.
She nearly knocked on the door when she caught a few words from inside. She can't tell who but it sounds like one of them is trying to console one of the others. She didn't bother waiting for them to finish and knocked. There was a moment of silence then the door clicked open. A boy with black hair opened the door and his mask reminds her vaguely of a jester. His name is Rhapsody, if she heard right through the fray of battle.
"Hello," She said politely.
He looked blankly at her for a moment before putting up a finger to tell her to wait and closed the door. David snorted quietly from her left and she can't decide if she's impressed or annoyed by the action. She actually heard the words from inside this time, one of them asking how he could be so stupid as to close the door on her, before it clicked open again.
"Alexandria, Eidolon," Sacrosanct greeted. She picked up a few things in the moment when she opened the door, but the most pressing as that the girl, who couldn't be more than fifteen, smelled of cigarettes. That bothered her, just for the moment, before she packed it away for later.
"We'd like to speak with you," She said.
"About…" She faltered, glancing back at her team. "All of us or just the ones in charge?"
"Those of you in charge. And somewhere private."
Sacrosanct nodded and called "Wraith, Nihilus, Samael, we've got business."
Alexandria couldn't help but notice the switch in her tone. From tired teen to commander. It was nearly enough to draw a smile from her. And the next moment she was glad for her emotional control when Wraith opened a gaping maw in the air with a drag of her finger. Reality split at the seems to show jagged teeth opening to a deep black abyss.
"It's safe," The girl said as she looked back at her. "It's just the only way to get to our base. There's no where in the universe more private."
Alexandria doubted the claim, but motioned for Eidolon to go with it. The portal snapped shut behind them, leaving them in the abyss, though the Espada don't seem to see anything wrong with the endless darkness.
"What happens if someone falls off?" Eidolon asked.
"Don't know," Sacrosanct shrugged. "I'm not sure you can fall off. But I wouldn't want to try." The casual way the words left her mouth would probably be disturbing to anyone else.
Another portal snapped open in front of them and they stepped through into a room with black stone floors and a dark sky full of stars with a purple tint. As she looked around, Alexandria was willing to say Wraith's assessment of their base may have been accurate.
"Welcome to Las Noches," Sacrosanct said, arms spread grandly even as the thrones shifted and a table formed in the middle of the room. Wraith grabbed two chairs that had been set aside with a few other and offers them on the opposite side of the table. They sat, because there wasn't really much they could do at that point.
Alexandria noticed, though it wasn't hard to, that only the seats two, four, and six were unoccupied. One and Seven were easy to see, though she couldn't quite tell which of the other two girls were numbered Three and Five. Whether the numbers were a measure of power or not had remained to be seen, but it wouldn't be a hard conclusion to draw, which was why she didn't jump on it.
"The night?" Eidolon asked.
"We already had a Spanish theme, so it fit," Wraith shrugged.
"I guess so."
"So, to what do we owe the pleasure?" Sacrosanct asked.
"Straight to the point. I'm glad we won't have to waste time. However, this information can't leave this room," Alexandria said. The four look at one another and nod. That's confirmation enough. "The world is in danger from a threat that humanity can't handle. Not unless every Cape bands together to fight it. And even then, the chances seem slim. And I'm not talking about the Endbringers."
"There's something worse than Endbringers out there?" Samael asked, disbelief in his voice.
"The things that made the Endbringers," Eidolon said.
"Holy shit," Nihilus whispered.
"Exactly."
"We're trying to create a situation in which humanity stands to survive this threat. Maybe not on this Earth, but on the others," Alexandria continued. "And we need more and stronger Capes for that. So, we think your group would be perfect to help. Not necessarily in the planning, but being in the know of the threat. So when the time comes we're all better prepared to fight it."
"And what's the threat?" Sacrosanct asked. Her voice isn't one of disbelief, but she's skeptical.
"Scion."
The four are quiet at that.
"Scion?" She asked.
"The greatest hero on Earth?" Nihilus asked.
"The Golden Man himself?" Samael asked.
"That's the threat to humanity?" Sacrosanct finished.
"Yes. It's difficult to explain but Scion is simply a projection made to look human. It's real body is a lot more grotesque. It's interdimensional but we estimate if it's mass was gathered in one universe it would be a few dozen times the mass of Earth itself. At least as large as the sun."
"You're not…" Wraith's breath hitched as she took it all in. "You're not joking. Scion is really going to kill humanity."
"Not just all life on Earth Bet, all life on every iteration of Earth. Aleph and Bet are just two small grains of sand by comparison to how big the threat really is."
"Jesus Christ," Sacrosanct sighed, her voice a dull drone even through the odd warble effect. She rubbed the side of her head in exasperation. "And, what, you want us to join your secret super Illuminati?"
"Not in so many words, but yes," Eidolon nodded.
"Of course, you'll be provided incentives to not only work with us but to keep this a secret," Alexandria cut in. "Your strength, the power of all of you, is too great to let slip by. We need you on our side when the time comes, no matter what. We've never had an Endbringer fight end so cleanly. Whatever it takes to get you on our side without having to fight. If we can provide it for you, we will. That's how serious we are about this."
"I think…" Sacrosanct sighed. "I think we're going to need a bit more proof than this. Not that I don't trust you but—,"
"What we say sounds insane. I under stand." She stood and called for a door, though nothing happened.
"We're going to have to leave before stuff like that works," Sacrosanct snapped and the same portal as before snapped open.
The portal let them out on the roof of the hospital this time and another portal opens, from Doormaker this time, and they step through.
"I think I might puke," Samael said calmly as they stepped into the Garden of Flesh.
The silver and blue limbs that form a trail up to Eden's body are overwhelming the first time, and it never really gets easier, but it's not as difficult to stomach. Hills and high grass made from malformed limbs and far-too-long-fingers, and faces and legs and body parts everywhere.
"This is absolutely horrifying," Wraith said quietly.
"It's like something out of Lovecraft," Sacrosanct whispered.
"What if I told you that's not a far off assessment?" Alexandria answered. "These things might as well be Elder Gods. They jump, planet to planet, infecting the natural species with powers before killing them all and moving on to the next. This one, The Thinker, is dead. Mostly. It's inactive and that's the best we can hope for at the moment. But Scion… he's a ticking time bomb. We don't know when exactly he'll go off, which is why we're trying to gather as much force as we can. Largely through the PRT."
That admission seemed to spark something in Sacrosanct if the way her head snapped up was anything to go by, and Alexandria learned a lot from that alone, largely that the girl already had some distrust in the PRT before this, and that probably didn't help.
"I think…" The girl trailed off, her eyes far away and looking directly at the knife lodged in the nearly complete body's throat. "I think we need time to think about this. We won't tell anyone but give us a few days to answer."
"That's reasonable," Alexandria sighed. "Door to Brockton Bay General."
The four step through without a word and the portal closed behind them.
"That could have gone better," Eidolon said from behind her.
"It could have gone a lot worse too."
"What do you think?"
"They're hard to read. Nihilus especially. We should get their info to Contessa as soon as we can. She should be able to help."
"And if they don't join after all this?"
"They will. Sacrosanct strikes me as the type of person who'd want to be involved in this sort of thing."
"I hope you're right."
"I am."
As they leave, Alexandria thinks over what she managed to gain from the meeting. The Espada are different. Their powers, at least some of them, don't seem tied to Agents. And that kind of asset can't be allowed to run free. Not with so much at stake. They don't have a choice but to join.