by Louis IX
Check first chapter for disclaimer and global warnings. Also, I don't own the Worm fanfic "Absolution", by quantumsheep (you can read it on SV or SB).
Author's Notes (at the beginning, for a change): At the time of writing this, Absolution isn't finished, its last chapter being Scrupulosity 3.11. This blurb can be seen as an omake for what happens afterwards. Or not, in which case you still ought to read it to understand how the situation came to a head – pun not intended.
Absolute DominionThe last we saw of Taylor and Amelia, the former was reduced to a misshapen head kept in stasis in a pod, while the latter was trying to expand her repertoire in order to heal her. And get her a new body, too. All this while being on the run from her family, with the Undersiders, as the blue-haired biotinker named Pandora.
Of course, making a viable body was one thing. Restoring Taylor's head to a semblance of humanity, including her brain, and then transplanting it into another body… was something else entirely.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Amelia and the NineAmelia Claire Lavere had had enough, she thought. Days had turned into weeks, and then months, and she had worked hard to improve her powers, especially those targeting humans. But even with Regent's help, chaotic as it may be, she still wasn't sure she could work safely on creating a new body for Taylor.
In addition, there were some unwanted guests in town, announced with their own siren tone: the wailing of Shatterbird. Any and all glass in the city broke suddenly, leaving many people quite disoriented. Many people were wounded from having glass panes falling on them, but it was only the beginning.
However, Panacea was no more, since she had decided on an alternate identity to explore her powers… and Pandora had her box of secret experimentations open wide.
Having started small, she knew how to make plagues, and launched one when she found herself attacked by Jack Slash. The man thought himself invincible, and played with her for a while – much like cats play with mice. She ended up with many cuts before he realized that he was attacked from the inside, his brain practically turning itself off due to the strange virus in the air. His last act was to cut her down, but he was suddenly so tired that he aimed too low and "only" cut her at the knees. Thankfully, Pandora now had the experience to create organic prosthetics, and she was soon upright again.
Outside of the warehouse, people still battled. Her "plague" was of the short-lived kind, and very selective, and she found Regent behind the door, still alive and fighting with someone who ended up being his sister. Upon his word, and Cherie's cackling, she released another plague. She also wanted to use her current hand prosthesis to throw poison darts, but her mood switched unexpectedly towards suicidal, and she raised the weapon against herself… only to miss thanks to a twitch of muscles in her arm. There would be no second attempt, as Cherie was succumbing to her home-made plague.
"Thanks." She told Alec, who nodded. Now was the moment she was glad not to have built a resistance against his power.
Further afield, Hatchet Face was kept in the dark in Grue's darkness, while searching for him blindly – of course, Grue kept as far away from the power nullifier as was possible: even if Hatchet Face was not immune to side effects of powers, if the member of the Nine came too close to him, his whole shadow would recede.
Outside, Bitch's dogs where barking at the quickly-disappearing Mannequin, who showed the unexpected mental fortitude of fleeing instead of fighting to the death against three lizard-dog monsters weighing several tons. Each.
Tattletale was still alive, thankfully, although she had quite the migraine – gotten through micromanaging her team so as to run rings around the Slaughterhouse members. And it didn't abate when Pandora approached, on the contrary. Still, her touch allowed her to appease the symptoms, and she directed the blue-haired miracle healer towards the shadows, while calling for Grue. A plague later, Hatchet Face was down for the count (his power-nullifying area was useless against ranged attacks, too, and only his Brute rating had allowed him to escape death from a bullet to the gut). And quite dead.
Three members dead with no casualty in the "good guys", that was quite a good deal, and Pandora was ready for more, especially while the enemy forces were still reeling. She suggested so, and Lisa agreed. With a prayer for Taylor to stay safe, the Undersiders plus one followed the fleeing Mannequin with the dogs, while keeping mostly discreet thanks to Grue's shadows covering the lower part of their bodies, including the mounts.
Regent's ability to detect nervous impulses proved invaluable for reconnaissance, and Tattletale's intuition allowed her to take what he said and give the appropriate indications.
Shatterbird was there, resting after her introductory screams. Bonesaw was, too, using her mechanical spiders to restore Mannequin's damaged body. Burnscar and Crawler were still in town, spreading their own form of chaos.
The Siberian didn't seem to be there, but there was an unknown man sleeping in the room the Nine seemed to have converted into a co-ed dormitory. "Fuck me, it's Manton!" Tattletale said, when the whole group relocated to have a better view. And the hyper-intuitive Thinker continued with a hushed "He mustn't awaken! He controls the Siberian!"
That meant that Pandora's plague was launched from the side of the building where the man's room was, keeping Bonesaw in the dark about what was happening. Grue also used his power to isolate the bedroom from the other rooms, keeping their entrance silent.
Because, yes, they entered. Mounted on giant lizard-like mutant dogs, they jumped from the nearest building directly into the dorm. Through Regent's power, they had made sure that the two sleeping gangsters were dead from the plague, first.
The little girl named Bonesaw was in the process of working the innards of the mannequin named Mannequin when she felt something strange. And then she sneezed.
"A plague?" she asked incredulously. "You want to get me with a plague? Who dares?"
Under her gaze, Mannequin's organs practically liquefied, the airborne infectious agents having their way with the unprotected cells. But not hers, as multiple parts of her body shut down to prevent the invisible virus to spread to her insides.
Still, she was Bonesaw, and plagues were her stuff before anyone else! Prevented from cackling, she nevertheless released her own stuff into the darkness encroaching upon her. And then she tripped and fell (courtesy of Regent) and didn't get up for a while – because Pandora's plague had two effects, and the one not seen immediately was a hardening of the epidermis. In clear, Bonesaw was now a living statue.
By now, Pandora had gotten enough experience with plagues to detect them and create cures using the same vector. Still, wanting help to speed up the cure, she had devised layers of bacteria that she could (and did) coat her skin with. As it covered all her orifices, including the pores, and changed colours in relation to the presence of bacteria, it looked like Rorschach's mask, from the Watchmen comic and movie.
The Undersiders faltered, besides her, but she was quick to cure them, and the cure followed the plague on its way out, cancelling it out as it went.
And then they brought the little girl into their warehouse. Between her and Pandora, the experience in manipulating brains was clearly on the villain's side. So, if she could help them with Taylor, they would use the help. If not, well… it would just take more time. And Bonesaw would die.
Apparently, she could see reason, and the Undersiders started by having her remove every add-on she had on herself, with Pandora and Regent keeping watch to check if she was honest with them, each step of the way.
The little girl was honest: having recognized the change in her status, she transferred her Stockholm Syndrome onto Pandora, obeying her to the best of her abilities. It took a while before Amelia was convinced that the villainous mentality had disappeared, and then she decided to officialise the change by changing her new little sister's appearance. With blue hair like her, and a different skin, face, and body, Riley was now to be called… Box – for Pandora's Box, of course.
Box helped Amelia, too, changing her body with her own use of powers: she gave her better prosthetics, first, and then the improvements she had devised for her group: better skin, bones, and muscles, as well as insulation for internal organs and nerves.
And, meanwhile, they worked on Taylor. And since they already looked like twins, they created her future body with the same appearance. Gone was the idea of creating the exact same girl. After all, the video of her shooting Bakuda had already outed her previous shape to the world.
With Panacea renamed Pandora, and Bonesaw as Box, they naturally worked out Taylor's future name: Hope.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Taylor and LeviathanTaylor awoke slowly, her sluggish mind having difficulties processing what had happened before, and what was happening now. She remembers Bakuda inserting something in her head, and the sheer terror at having an actual bomb there. And the flight to avoid Panacea because she knew that her shitty luck would have the thing explode while the miracle healer was in its range. It had, in a way.
The pain, as her body contorted, had been so intense that her mind tried to seek refuge in oblivion. The cruel bomb tinker had suspected that it could happen, though, and had laced these bombs with enough adrenalin to keep her fully awake during the process.
Unconsciousness being off the menu, the mind had sought another way out, and forced itself through the first opening it got. It was small, and not everything escaped unscathed, but what made Taylor herself was safe… in a way.
Now, instead of senses going haywire, of hearing colours and smelling thoughts of people and animals, and of quick insanity, she drifted in what felt like an oily black ocean. One which felt quite alien. In fact, she could feel a presence, there. Memories. Of power uses: hers, but also others much like hers; always controlling others, whether insects or animals or sentient species, not all of them humans. Of killing them.
But despite all this, there was no conscious mind in the gelatinous sea. Or if there was, it was way beyond the surface, in a place she didn't dare tread into. In fact, given that the opening into her mind was still open, she could perceive the kaleidoscopic colours bathing the ocean, and it helped her stay afloat.
And then it changed. The colours changed less frequently, before stopping, getting uniformly white. She eased herself towards the opening, trying to swim quickly. Both because she was curious, and also because she could feel something moving beneath her feet, as if the slumbering alien consciousness below could take hold of her body if she left it for too long.
And she woke up with a start, in a room that could belong to a hospital… or which had been made uniformly white. Lifting her hand, she frowned. She had five fingers, sure, but the shape was a bit…
In fact, she couldn't decide if she was misremembering, not remembering at all, or if her hand had changed shape slightly. Memories of her earlier life had disappeared completely. She remembered her parents, but distantly. Her appearance was fleeting, and only remembered through seeing pictures of herself, or looking in the mirror.
Now, a mirror had been propped up, next to her bed, and she looked at herself. Deep blue eyes complementing blue hair, with skin on the lightest end of the scale.
Next to the mirror were a table, a chair, and a plate with food. She headed there on unsteady legs and started to devour the offered meal. And paused mid-chew when she noticed that the table also had a small cage with a spider in it. A tarantula, to be precise.
Moving her head to the side, she inspected the insect… and noticed that she could perceive its presence as if she could take it as her own. As if she could establish communication with another mental part of herself, delegated to managing the big and hairy arachnid.
In fact, now that her power came online, she could feel it in the back of her mind: the opening between her and the oily sea was streaming feelings in one way, and instructions in the others, and she slowly got the surroundings mapped out as individual insects lit up in her mind.
And then she mapped the feelings with her position, and noticed two people behind the door. One was a boy, whom she knew as Regent. The other had blue hair and eyes, like her. In fact, they looked the same.
"Okay, she's awake." Regent said, looking around. "And I now remember why she freaked me out. I can feel the insects now."
"Better get in, now." The girl replied, doing it. "Hi, my name is Pandora, and I helped you heal."
"She did heal you." Regent added, following. "And we helped."
"Before we go too far, can you talk? What can you remember? Your name? We called you Hope, for a while, because we hoped to be able to revive you, despite… what happened."
"Besides the fact that your previous identity was shot and then killed." Regent added. His tone was light, but his eyes were searching.
"I'm… Hope?" the newly-awakened girl asked, testing her voice at the same time. "Alright. I remember another name, another body too. Taylor Hebert?"
"That's your previous identity, yes." Pandora said gently. "Do you-"
"I also remember another identity, before that one. Gunther Olivar, controlled fishes. And another, named Talek'nar'ealen, an elf who controlled treants. And another, named Sauron, who controlled rings. And another… so many worlds… so many destruction…"
During her diatribe, Hope's eyes had widened, and the black circle had grown, ending up encompassing the whole eyes. It was only Regent's slapping her (with her own hand), after a worried exchange of glances with Pandora, which brought her back into the current time and place.
It would take quite some time to explain all she had seen, especially as those memories were fleeting and had to be called up specifically. She noticed that the longer she held onto them, the faintest her control of bugs was. Instead, she found herself able to control fishes, when exploring the memories of the one called Gunther.
According to Tattletale, she had full access to her power, and the memories of the people who had had the same power. It had many implications, none of them good, but there were more pressing issues.
Such as the Endbringer sirens.
When the Undersiders presented themselves with three additional members, people thought that those three girls were a single person with the power of duplication, much like Prism. They weren't, even if two of them had very similar powers in healing.
The third, Hope, had come with her own means of flying: bringing to her every insect she could manage, she had guided Pandora into making one of them way bigger. It was a blue butterfly – which she had to pass through a special scanner to demonstrate that its capability of reproduction had been removed. Director Piggot was nothing if not exacting in her anti-Nilbog vehemence.
While Hope went with Tattletale to join the "overseers" (a platform of Thinkers made to coordinate the combat), the two others joined with the other healers… only to be stopped when Glory Girl reached them. The blonde girl had broken ranks with the Wards and had an animated discussion with them, the kind of which she had been used to, before calming down. Now, in the face of the approaching doom, she wanted to see if her missing sister was that new person, or persons, with the blue hair.
Pandora was not stupid, nor was she cruel. She knew that Victoria would take insane risks in the coming minutes, and preferred her to be reassured when doing so. She also knew that, with the people around her, she couldn't tell her the whole truth. So, to the question "Are you Panacea?", she replied that, no, she wasn't, but that the world-renown healer had taught everything she knew to her and her twin sister, and that she was alive and well. A transparent lie that wouldn't pass the first Thinker to hear it, but they had other fishes to fry… quite literally too, as the biggest one had set foot on the landmass.
In a corner of the coordination area, Hope sat immobile, eyes closed as she directed the heroes. A short sentence to Dragon had the Canadian tinker repeat the instruction of "aiming between the bugs" to each cape with Blaster ratings. Those got several insects each: one on the head, one on each hand, and a few flying ones to give them the best angle for a shot. Even through structures.
All this while avoiding allies: she had tagged every participant with bugs, even those on the ground, so that they could follow (or avoid) their common enemy. She had to renew those bugs quite often, too, as they tended to die en masse due to the hostile environment.
At the same time, other insects ran the "Search" part of the Search and Rescue missions, giving those heroes on the ground more success in finding wounded capes.
After Scion came to push the Endbringer away, it was time for everyone to lick their wounds, and the healers switched gears accordingly – while before, they healed the barest minimum to either keep people alive or send them back into the fray, now they could treat everyone for a full rehabilitation. Or try to.
Despite the Truce, some of the most outrageously self-righteous "heroes" had decided to take out those they perceived as the worst villains… despite those capes' participation to the fight (and the healing).
Carol Dallon was seen fighting against most of New Wave to reach the blue-haired healers, spittle flying around as she was persuaded that they were complicit to the removal of Panacea's asset from her group (and the main generator of goodwill towards New Wave). An equally polarized Director Piggot was heading the same way, a grim expression on her face, with only an agitated Glory Girl trying to run interference… only to be summarily dismissed with the threat of "court martial for high treason". And since she was a Ward and had completed power testing… they knew how to kill her.
Legend seemed surprised at this development, but Alexandria shook her head when he directed his questing glance at her. Apparently, and once again, Cauldron had a hidden agenda, there.
And that agenda soon had the Undersiders arrested for kidnapping Panacea… and killing her. Absent proof, it was a murder case, contrary to the most elementary judiciary process. Tattletale smirked at that, only for her smirk to be wiped when they casually unmasked everyone. Yes, in public.
While that was going on, the three blue-haired girls were being interrogated by Armsmaster, his lie detector ferreting out the truth. And "Panacea" was summarily sent to the Birdcage because of her use of plagues to kill the Slaughterhouse Nine, as well as leaving Crawler to be dealt with by other capes (apparently, they weren't even coherent in their accusations). That high-speed trial was followed by Bonesaw's, expedited because of past crimes. And then it was Skitter's turn, as she was simply accused of mastering vermin. Did I mention that Piggot was particularly anal about mass Masters?
Each time, Legend went to intervene, only for Alexandria to hold him down. She had her instructions from Contessa, and applied them to the letter. She did know, quite well at that, that the Path to Victory sometimes incurred collateral damage. However, she didn't know that the Path she was following had changed thanks to the recent developments… and that she could very well belong to that category, soon – the collateral damage, I mean.
She changed her mind when a literally biblical cloud of insects stormed the place, biting many of the PRT agents and those heroes who were currently flouting both the Unwritten Rules and the Endbringer Truce. And the law.
Armsmaster had been playing quite fast and loose to be able to summon the trials so soon, and the same was said when it was revealed that the convicted girls were sent away as soon as physically possible. One would think he had an in with the specialized Dragon transports. And a platonic lovers' spat with the pilot, now.
He had also tried to prevent the Undersiders from colluding, but Dragon was now thoroughly disgusted – after Canary's case, who wouldn't be? And since encaging little girls seemed on the side of the Law, nowadays, she had fail-safe cases in her code that led her to ignore the Law from now on.
First and foremost, she got rid of the Dragonslayers hanging out near her home base at Vancouver – she had known about their malicious presence for a long time, but the Guild or the Protectorate couldn't act, their hands tied by the Triumvirate.
And then she gave Tattletale weapons of mass destruction – that is to say, she showed the girl the various interactions between Legend and Alexandria during the trials, as well as past examples of the woman being as cold and unfeeling as the tower she exemplified.
When the time came for their own farcical trial, Tattletale fired her weapon: she told Hope about everything she had been able to deduce from the videos they had both seen. And Hope was properly incensed, causing the insect plague to converge upon the flying heroine.
Alexandria was soon encased in many insects, many of which did nothing to her. Still, she needed to breathe, and the flying menaces flew into her airways, blocking them… and almost killing her: at the last moment, Hope removed the block. By then, though, Alexandria had panicked and removed her helmet to try to pick at her airways, and had revealed her own identity.
It led to Alexandria being outed as the Chief Director of the PRT. The whole structure folded like a house of cards, and the policing of capes returned in the hands of the police. With law-abiding super-powered adjuncts and consultants. In the same way, the same kind of "law-abiding citizens who happened to have super-powers" found places for them in the government.
The Birdcage was disassembled. It led to several discoveries (for the general public), the most shocking of which being that there were communications between the sexes, and that there were kids there. Born there.
Also, most of the worst criminals (and not those sent there because of judges with grudges, like Canary) were actually dead, instead of dominating the place… a courtesy of another plague by the two blue-haired healers. From what was retold afterwards, when threatened by the likes of Acidbath, Pandora had repeated Rorschach's saying, from Watchmen: "I'm not locked in with you, guys. You are locked in with me!"
In doing so, they unknowingly sabotaged Cauldron's attempt at keeping the worst (but most powerful) capes still alive to fight Scion. Or so everyone (in Cauldron) thought. Actually, the "worst" criminals were very few. They didn't include those who could see reason and swear, without lying, that they would uphold the Golden Rule from now on. That included Marquis, of course.
The second point that made the point moot was that, with Box there, those downed capes saw their brain harvested and their powers put into enlarged spiders (courtesy of Pandora). Apparently, Bonesaw was nostalgic of her previous "pets". And besides, having enlarged insects made it easier for Hope to reach them.
Finally, instead of having Glory Girl facing the firing squad, it was Piggot who was sent to a proper martial court. Afterwards, she was sent to the new prison for parahumans, so as to "allow her to mellow in the face of capes" (which was a polite way of phrasing the increased anguish about her fate). And in order for her "lifetime in prison" to count, she was healed beforehand, too.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Rachel and her Teething problemAfter the butterfly and the powered spiders, Pandora collaborates fully with Hope, making bigger and sturdier bugs, relay bugs for increased control, and even a few flying mounts for the whole team.
At one point, Pandora had been enamoured by Glory Girl, and wanted to see if her single-mindedness about Taylor was a sort of emotional transfer. She wanted to check if she had (or could have) romantic entanglement with the insect controller.
But Hope was not completely Taylor anymore, having lost some memories and gained others. And even then, Pandora had had more fruitful exchanges with Regent, including sexual innuendo. On her side, Hope had physical training with Brian, including grapples and throws. The two found themselves getting closer together.
It left Tattletale, who was taking advantage of the repealing of most anti-rogue laws to play with the financial stock markets. And Bitch.
Rachel hadn't participated in the Endbringer fight itself, keeping herself next to Pandora in order to provide biomass through her power. Any other place, and she would have chafed under orders coming from people she didn't trust – that list of trusted ones was short, only containing two names: Grue, and Tattletale. And even yet, she thought of her dogs first.
Her dogs were everything to her, and she was mightily pissed off at the fact that the Undersiders now had flying mounts, and disposable ones at that. She didn't want her dogs to feel useless, or worst: obsolete.
To reassure herself, she left the relative safety of the group to pick fights with criminals in the street… as she did before, in fact. Only, this time, she stumbles across Hookwolf and a whole patrol of gun-toting Empire goons.
The metallic wolf Changer was not a particularly erudite guy, but he had a way with words, when facing other people like him – those driven by feral instincts. With his chosen words, he convinced Bitch that the people of the world were separated in two categories: predators like him, and prey like the others. And he asked her to choose.
Remind you of something, that does? Normal it is: he was the one who had told that to a younger Sophia Hess, years before. In the Empire so as to appease his bloodlust, he didn't care one whit about the race of the people he killed… and those he took in other ways. And as he had been abusing his current girlfriend, he had been attacked by her daughter, only to laugh at the feeble attempts and backhanding her into a wall (of plaster, but still, she was very young). That had led to both the trigger and the philosophy of Shadow Stalker.
Besides, Bitch didn't have much of a choice: alone, and surrounded by shooters, she didn't stand a chance if she rejected his offer. And once the bait had been taken, Hookwolf continued in the same vein, conflating dog behaviours with humans'. He convinced her that some dogs were too feeble to be seen as anything else than preys, and if they fought and showed themselves strong enough, they could become predator instead. Like her three "beauties".
Rachel finally internalized that she couldn't help all the dogs, contrarily to what she may have dreamed of doing. Her dreams shattered, and recognizing a fellow predator, Rachel ended up participating in the Empire fight rings to establish herself and her dogs as the best.
Other gangs participated, and there was even a visit from the Teeth. And while Hookwolf and Bitch liked a bit of chaos in their life, they weren't ready to let the Teeth's version of it overwhelm their lifestyle.
Bitch's power was not limited to three dogs, and her using it on the ones she currently had now (and had trained) allowed the fifteen ferocious canines to grow to inhuman sizes… and take care of the problem.
And it even took care of the Butcher problem, as the current incarnation was killed by the whole pack. And thus, each of the fifteen dogs received a parahuman power. With that many "capes" under their command, Bitch and Hookwolf were sure enough about their survival and split from the Empire.
They had their own kind of "happily ever after", somewhere far far away, and had plenty of little doggies.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Sarah and CoilBakuda had a deadman's switch, but she was far from being the only one. Anyone could think of things they wanted done should they die before their time. Normally, those were done through a will, but the world of capes was a violent one, and people like Tattletale knew that a simple written document would not be sufficient, especially after the betrayal visited upon them by the ex-PRT.
Speaking of which…
She knew that their earlier boss, Coil, was Thomas Calvert, a contractor for the PRT, and that he had intended to replace Piggot and remake the city into something more… productive. For him. He loathed Unions, for instance, and wanted to kill all the homeless people in or around the Merchants. She had known for a while, but also knew that he had not one deadman's switch but several. And that he only obeyed the rules when that suited him. Especially the Unwritten ones.
That's why he kidnapped her. Again. She had thought prudent to have Pandora modify her body after her unmasking as Lisa/Tattletale. She was now Sarah again, with a cape identity named Insight. Still, her previous boss knew of her ways to do things, and with enough feelers in the financial markets, and other computer mercenaries to track her down, he got her.
What he didn't know was that Sarah had her own feelers, and hackers, and deadman's switches. She knew when she was found out. She knew how he operated. It meant that she knew he would split time before ordering her imminent kidnapping. It meant that she had to act now, before he could do the split.
Several orders went out, for food companies first. Anything brought to Thomas Calvert's home and Coil's base would include poison. Vermin exterminators were next, and the two places would be fumigated at a given point in the near future, with poisonous fumes – she had paid for the unscrupulous workers to do so without checking for people beforehand.
Seeing his face pale and hearing his sudden stutter when he was interrogating her, she realized that his other timeline was fraught with death too, and she smiled despite her bloodied face and ruined limbs. "Suckers." she said as the same fumes entered the room, killing them both – as well as the parahuman known as Trickster.
Trickster had been the one to kidnap her, by switching with a mercenary already in chains, and he was also sadistic enough for Coil to have him deal the actual damage to her body. The remaining Travellers already knew about the sins of their "leader" and had left the base for a while, as soon as the first hits hit. That left them out of the damage zone, and since the secure door could only be opened from the inside (or with a key that they didn't have), they were left to hang.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Jess and the TravellersThankfully, Hope had her detection grid active in the various insects in town, and she noticed the group wandering around with one of them in a wheelchair. Soon, the Travellers met the Undersiders, and gratefully accepted to join them. Especially when Pandora healed Jess' legs.
In the meantime, Noelle was not eating. Her human part was dead due to the poisonous fumes, but her monstrous part refused to acknowledge it. It continuously alternated strikes and pulls at the reinforced door, which finally fell, taking the concrete down with it.
Soon, the monster pushed itself out of the ongoing wreckage, attracting the attention of the people around. Tentacle-like tongues shot out and pulled those inside the gaping maws, creating a panic that caused everyone to flee. And heroes to come.
Being the closest group, the Travelling Undersiders were the first to arrive in force, and started to hack at the monster before them – given that the upper part of the body was too damaged to even be considered alive, the ex-Travellers had no compunction to go at it with lethal means.
They had noticed that the monster could absorb capes, yes, especially as Oliver, the least limber among them, was caught and then duplicated into evil clones intent on protecting their "mother". That drove their tactics into flying out of reach, immobilizing the beast, and killing it from afar. Thankfully, for the first, they had the mounts. For the second, they had enlarged cockroaches, Grue's darkness, Regent's ability to make the monster trip, but also Jess' projection. For the third, their main options were Ballistic's projectiles and Sundancer's miniature star, but the fact that no one was around it allowed Pandora and Box to use short-lived plagues to dissolve its body.
Noelle's monstrous half ended up quite dead, after that.
Jess being up and about, she made good use of her improved mobility to try new ways to use her power, and succeeded in shaping her projection around her, making it though she was a Changer instead.
She also learned to drive. She had wanted to, before, especially when cars for disabled people started appearing. But those were very expensive. Now that she could, she didn't stop at cars and bikes: she learned to drive trucks and busses, and then other vehicles… including sea-faring ones and airplanes. And helicopters.
Given Genesis' rising position as a local hero, she was even provided with training on military versions of the same. That helped, when they decided to bring the fight to Scion.
A fight against Scion? Yes, because he was still less than responsive, but he was now hitting random things… and people. And with Cauldron being gutted, there were reactions in some countries, but not a coherent one.
By that time, Taylor's range had extended through her relay bugs, and she could practically control all the insects in the world. Especially the latest brand, created by Amelia: those can reproduce quickly, eating other insects as a source of mass, but only through Taylor's mental commands – thankfully, she could micro-manage her swarms to a ridiculously high level. Those bugs can also evolve spontaneously into one among several forms: explosive, digger, flyer. All inured to extreme conditions… including space travel.
Scion being mostly non-responsive, their first attack ate its body, exposing the space-time tear it had been built around. Outside was space, above a planet completely surrounded by an unmoving creature – although their attack had been registered, and a golden man was slowly created and started to fly towards the tear in space.
Meanwhile, Taylor sent her insects through the portals, towards the planet. Once in contact, they expressed the full range of their destructive options. And Scion, occupied as he was with a pest infestation, lost all interest in Earth. In fact, he pulled completely, his mental state making him unable to return.
The remaining people of Cauldron, such as Doctor Mother and Eidolon, breathed easier… for all of the next five minutes. And then a summons to a US court was delivered to them – because US judges have jurisdiction everywhere, including the parallel earths they thought they could hide on.
They had much to answer for.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
To be continued… or expanded