Chapter 13: Another Day, Another Meeting.

When all the houses were sent back to Mount Olympus (as Dana had taken to calling their base), there was a massive crowd of people on the streets watching them. It was like most of the city had diverted to their part of town to watch it all happen, lining up on the sidewalks and gawking. Argus had created barricades to keep them out of the way.

Because according to him, nothing trips you up like having a corpse or two underfoot.

Fireteam Prometheus was also on site, standing on the rooftops and watching the houses move. But they weren't actually armed like they had been when they attacked him. This was probably some publicity thing or something. They had been reallocated into an anti-Slaughterhouse team, only for him to kill off all those psychos alone.

Whatever. As long as they don't start attacking, he won't have to kill them.

"This city doesn't want you, freaks!" Someone in the crowd shouted, throwing a large chunk of rock at one of the houses. A spike shot out and slapped it out of the air, while Alex watched the man who threw it try and make an escape. He waited for him to get clear of the crowd before dropping down in front of him. The force of about three tonnes landing knocked the man off his feet. He looked up at him in fear.

At the same time, five more idiots tried the same thing. His drones found them too, and pinned them down.

The leader of Prometheus jumped down next to him. "Let him and his friends go, Blacklight." She ordered. "He may be an ass, but he shouldn't die over it."

"Fine." Alex replied. Then he grabbed the man by the arm and bent it to face the wrong way, a loud cracking sound filling the alleyway. The man screamed in pain. "But I won't be so merciful a second time."

"Figured as much." She said as she grabbed the guy by the other arm. "Is my team going to run into problems grabbing his friends?"

"No." He answered truthfully. They already snapped several bones in each of them. And then he had sent them away so that Prometheus could grab them. As their leader cradled the moron, he jumped back onto the rooftops, watching as the last of the houses moved past.

People were still keeping away from the biomass-covered areas, but they were closer than before.

The surface had been altered now to give the road a clearer appearance. Drains ran down the sides, leading to purifiers. Several generator drones were crawling into large pits, tendrils latching onto their backs. People were looking up as he passed, watched him move through the town he had made. People wearing blue vests were walking around; the police force Themis had organised for him. Two of them were currently intervening in a squabble, the arguing fading as he passed by. He ignored all their interactions as he headed to Dana's location.

He found her standing next to a walking basket, looking dubiously at the bounty his land had produced.

"Ok, how the fuck did you make ham and steak grow from a tree?" She asked him as he approached, grabbing the ham with both hands and tugging on it. It broke off with a loud snap after several tugs, causing her to stumble back a step. She held it in her hands and gave it a sniff. "I'm not even sure if this is edible or not."

"Don't worry. It's fully consumable." He replied, one finger lengthening into a claw. He carved off a bit of it. "Try it. You'll like it."

She dumped the rest of the ham in the basket, grabbing the slice from him. "If this thing poisons me, I'm gonna shove that ham up your ass." She took a small bite from it, chewing it slowly and methodically. Then she took another bite. "Ok, guess I was wrong. This stuff tastes just like the real thing." She ate the rest of the slice. "But seriously, how did you make this thing?"

"I used the Virus to splice pig DNA with plant DNA, coding it to form specific joints and meats from the buds and branches. Had to do a bit more work to make sure the ham didn't start dropping off, but it looks like it was a success."

"You know, you could've just used normal pigs. Just saying."

"Normal pigs would've required people to keep watch over them, keep them fed and stuff. Would've had to make a pen for them, make sure they had ample food and space, and then we'd have to kill them and cut them up. Seemed easier to just grow them." He turned towards a second patch. There, several 'pelicans' of his were flying in, dropping bellyfuls of fish into a waiting pit. On his other side was a more normal garden patch. Carrots, lettuce, tomatoes; all modified to grow much faster and larger on a weaker diet.

When your biology packs a cheat sheet, you might as well use it.

"Still just feels weird to me, but alright." She shrugged, moved over to grab an apple from a different tree. "We should probably get a market set up somewhere. Somewhere people can buy the things you can't make. Maybe a sheltered area in case it rains."

"Whatever ideas you come up with, take it up with Argus. He can organise it." He looked up at the sun, judged what time it was. "I've got another meeting to go to. And then Swarm's invited us to her place today."

"What for?"

"She said she wanted to talk about upgrades for their repertoire. A few ideas to make them tougher."

"Aw. You're actually caring about them. That's so sweet." She gave him a sarcastic smirk. "Are you gonna mention to them your plan on becoming their new employer?"

"Maybe." He replied evasively. Things had been a bit hectic right now, what with getting his new base set up, hiring lieutenants, and then dealing with the PRT and Slaughterhouse Nine. But he was starting to wonder about whether Coil was still helping out Noelle. Or if he was just using her as an excuse to keep Dinah and her powers. "Don't fully trust him. Never have." He then moved off, merging with the ground to reappear in his throne room. He could've just created a clone there and kept talking to Dana, but there wasn't really much else to talk about. He sat forward and steepled his fingers, watching the group before him.

"Ares." He said to the first member. Jonah Bennet. "You said that you had a change of heart when we last talked."

Jonah shrugged. "Kinda. I'm still not sure about getting turned into one of your Evolved. Sounds freaky as hell, and I'm a bit worried you guys might start getting full of yourselves if you're all 'better' than us lowly humans. But I'd feel safer having some kind of power to protect me and people, in case guns aren't enough and we get another Slaughterhouse showing up. If there's some way you could gift me a power without changing, I'm all up for that."

He nodded. Jonah raised a good point. If Crawler had decided to take a detour and attack his people first, all his men would've been too far away to stop him before he could deal a lot of damage. But what power would he give him? Something powerful and tough, yet something he wouldn't regret not having easy access to. "It should be possible. I'm hoping that it is, because there's someone else here in that same position." He turned to a woman. Short, petite, pale-skinned. "Merida Green." The woman jumped a bit as he addressed her.

"Y-Yes, Sir?" She answered hesitantly.

"I've noticed that you've been spending time with Athena when she's outside. Walking with her and talking while she's working. Am I right in considering her your friend?"

She nodded jerkily. "Most of old friends were people I met online. They live in other cities, and I don't really have anyone in Brockton Bay. We started talking shop, and then we started talking about other things."

"So if you had a power, and I ordered you to protect her, would you do it?"

"Yes. Yes, I would." She gulped. "I… I wouldn't say I'm brave enough to die for her, but I'll at least risk my life to keep her safe. Sir."

He nodded. "Good. Because I've recently acquired some new powers, and I felt that others would have more use of them than me." The ground by his throne rose up, a head forming on the top. A striped face with long white hair.

The entire group blinked when they saw it.

"No fucking way." Ares whispered.

"Siberian has spent her entire active career intentionally misleading everyone about her powers." He explained. "She wasn't actually a Brute. He was a Master. Real name, William Manton. As in the Manton Effect. He created a mental projection to fight in his place, explaining why Siberian appeared invincible. She wasn't really there. But Manton's real body was still as vulnerable as anyone."

Merida kept staring at the head, unable to turn away. "And… You're giving that power… to me?"

"What better power to keep Athena safe than Siberian's? Everyone was scared of her, and no one could hurt her or anything she was touching. All you'd have to do is place a hand on her, and any attack would be completely ineffectual."

"And you're doing this differently from the others, because…?" Ares asked.

"Insurance. While I'd like to use it, I'd prefer to have someone human and vulnerable to me using it instead. That way, if you betray me, I can still kill you."

Merida gulped loudly. But she stopped her body from shaking. "I… understand, Sir."

"Good." The door on the left-hand side of the room opened wide. "Ares, Merida. Both of you wait in that room over there. I'll have some technicians start planting the powers inside of you." He omitted that he still wasn't a hundred percent certain it would work. He had some ideas, but there was still a risk it might not work.

He never had to try and implant memories into someone's head before.

That just left three more people. A red-haired teen by the name of Grant Fern; a dark-skinned woman named Ariel Mansworth, and a much older man by the name of Michael Peabody. Each of them had offered their services to him, interested in his ability to grant powers.

He had Dana pull up records on them. Minor convictions at most for Grant; clear for Ariel and Michael. Now he just had to see whether they were worthy of power.

"And that just leaves you three. All of you also show interest in becoming Capes. But you also said you want to become Evolved. The process isn't a right you automatically have. It must be earned. And technically, it's lethal enough to force you to be reborn. Consider this your chance to tell me why you think I should grant you Evolved status."

Grant looked up first. A wiry young man covered in scars, a hardened look to his eyes. He was a scrapper, had been in some fights. Might enjoy the power too much. "All my life this city's been one mess after another." He explained. "All the gang wars fucked everyone else over, and the heroes were too busy cleaning up the richer parts of town to help us out. Leviathan showing up just made everything worse. The only people here actually cleaning up are the villains, and you've got the best territory besides Swarm." He shrugged. "But you can bet your ass that there's gonna be trouble coming up. Gangs moving in to try and take over, looting everything they can get their hands on. Well I've gotten real tired of just letting them walk all over me. I want to fight. I want to clean this city up. Kick out anyone that has a problem with us. You keep this place under control and not looking like a warzone, we're cool."

Hmm. Interested in fighting for him, wanted the city under his control. Or perhaps he just wants an alliance between the villains. Nevertheless, he could use that kind of determination and viciousness. He'd just have to keep a constant eye on him.

He nodded at Ariel, wanted to hear her words. Ariel was a tall woman, well-built while still considered attractive by the opposite sex. Hair was obviously dyed, brown showing through faded platinum hair. She took a deep breath before starting. "My folks got abducted by the Merchants. Kicked out of their home, forced to work for food. Found out that they didn't make it. Some asshole decided to kick their heads in for fun." She gave a short, mirthless laugh. "Dad used to look down on people like them just because he made more money in a day than they'd ever make in a year. But all that money didn't do anything to stop them."

"So you want revenge? Or are you interested in making sure this sort of thing never happens again?" He asked her.

"I guess… I want a bit of what Grant wants. To stop all the fighting, and to stop people like the Merchants from just doing whatever they want. And… And I'd feel better if I could help make sure that happens."

Possible. But it might be better to simply arm her with a gun. Create a militia. No, maybe not. What was the point in creating his pantheon if he was going to force his people to form a militia? He'll have to talk to Dana about this.

And finally, Michael. Appearance puts him near seventy, maybe even eighty. Too old to fight. Too scrawny and bent in the back to be able to carry a weapon. "My reason is more selfish than these youngsters. I'm too old to be of any help, but I don't want to just sit at home doing nothing. You see too many of the younger generation fighting battles these days, dying before their time. When I die, I at least want to die kicking someone's teeth in."

A word from Dana. She felt that it would fine to let Ariel become an Evolved. She could do more to help, act as a liaison between groups or something. She was pulling up Michael's records now. Used to be a soldier, before losing a leg after running afoul of a cape. Was honourably discharged, lived with a prosthetic became a mechanic. Worked on cars and trucks for decades until he was made redundant. Lived off a pension ever since.

Well, he needed some real soldiers anyway.

"Very well then." He said to the three of them. "I've thought things over, and fortunately you all passed. You'll become part of my Pantheon, and gain some powers." A pillar rose up on his right, a briefcase sitting on it. Tendrils undid the clasps, and opened it for them. Three vials sat within. "And you'll get to help me with something important."

Grant watched the vials warily. "Are those the powers Skidmark was offering before?" He asked.

"The very same. Now, I'd like to say that I know what powers they are and what they'll do to you, but that'd be a lie. The papers I saw weren't clear on what the powers would be. Just had details about the people who paid for them. And as for side effects, well… Whoever made these vials also made the Case 53s. The logical conclusion is that they're what happens when you try to make powers. Luckily, making you Evolved afterwards should fix up any physical mutations that may or may not suffer."

"You're using us as guinea pigs?"

"With your permission. But I can't exactly test this stuff on my own creations. It could cause a disaster that Brockton Bay might never recover from. Maybe even worse."

"But what if we die?' Ariel asked him.

"You shouldn't. Even if the size and shape of your body matters, no organisation would offer powers if they could end up killing you." He shrugged. "The choice is yours. I can still make you Evolved and just find three others to test the serums on. But you won't have powers like the others. Just the strength, speed, and toughness that all Evolved have."

Silence.

Then Michael hobbled to his feet. "Eh, I'm probably gonna drop dead sooner or later. Not much left that's as scary as dying. I'm willing to try."

Grant swore. "No way I'm getting shown up by some old geezer. Fine then. I'll take the stupid drink." Ariel was shaking a bit, but eventually she nodded.

Alex passed them a vial each. They unscrewed the tops, pulled out the slim vials inside. "Drink up. Just remember that both processes will likely have some discomfort to them."

The three of them nodded, and downed the drinks.

Then they collapsed, the ground beneath them softening before impact.

Alex disconnected himself and Argus from all shards.

The world started shaking, the roof blowing away to reveal two giant impossibilities… And then stopped.

He sighed in relief. He avoided it. He didn't want to see what would happen if he had another fucking vision again.

"Argus. Keep everyone away from the Pantheon." He ordered. "Make sure all constructs are still holding together."

"Sure thing. The Hive Mind is having a slight breakdown, but it's pulling itself back together now." Argus replied. "The Pantheon was all inside when the… well, whatever-it-was happened."

"Visions. Or memories maybe. Seems likely that whatever alien thing we see is what gave everyone their powers. Big question is why."

"You don't think it's from the goodness of their hearts?"

"I prefer to be pessimistic. Means I don't get so surprised when someone tries to betray me. And because of that, I have an easier time seeing two alien freaks granting powers for some plan. Why else would they only give them to people who get fucked in the head? People who have problems that they wouldn't mind breaking?"

"So… What do you think is their big plan?"

"Hell if I know. Maybe this is all a game to them. Watch us all kill each other with the powers, place bets on which side will win. Like those… reality shows people watch."

"I'm pretty sure reality TV never had blood sports and wars in them. Maybe wars fought over them, but not as the content."

"The less human something is, the less likely their logic follows our own. Now shush; our newest recruits have woken up."

They had both reconnected to the Hive Mind as soon as Argus said the visions stopped. This entire conversation happened almost instantaneously.

The three of them groaned as they came to, the floor beneath them shifting into chairs. "Ah. That stung." Ariel groaned.

"What the fuck did I just see?" Grant asked in shock, blinking away furiously.

Only Michael wasn't reacting too badly to the visions. "Reminds me of the time I walked in on my flatmate and his girlfriend back in 83. I learned far too much about kitchen utensils that day."

Alex ignored their words, focusing on studying their bodies for signs of mutation. Not too bad, all things considered. Grant came out the luckiest; not a single mutation in his body structure. Ariel had gained pointed ears, a third eye on her forehead. Some kind of sensory power maybe? Thinker class? Need to run some tests.

Michael came out the worst though. His beard was clearly not hair anymore; some kind of weed. Seaweed, maybe. Scales covered his arms, ending in three fingered hands with claws. His leg though… they were conjoined at the knees and above, his feet splitting his shoes to resemble flippers. Water based powers most likely. Was it possible that… He leaned in, checked Michael's neck. Yep, gills.

He had mutated into some kind of goddamn fish.

"My process will fix all of that up, Poseidon." He said to Michael. Because if he got all those mutations and didn't have water-based powers, then whoever made these things really fucked up. Ariel turned to look at them, and shrieked as she saw Michael's body. She started running her hands up and down her body, patting it down as she searched for changes. Alex rolled his eyes, not that she could see that. "Ok everyone. Phase one is complete. You've all got powers. Now onto phase two. Just sit still and don't start panicking. Makes things a lot easier." The chairs turned into capsules, the interior filled with his strain. A lot of coughing inside, bodies shaking and twitching as the Virus got to work.

With Ariel, he left the mutations alone. They could very well tie in with her powers, help her sense things better. For Michael though, he fixed up the legs. Consumed the prosthetic, used biomass to craft a new one. Severed the join at the knees, smoothed out the scales.

By the time they became fully Evolved, the capsules releasing them, he had made them all mostly human again.

He waited for them to be standing up before speaking again. "Congratulations. You're now a part of the Pantheon. Now go and see what powers you got. Make yourself some armour from your bodies."


Ragland had to admit, he didn't expect to be waking up again.

He tried to take a deep breath, but started coughing as he felt a tube brush against the inside of his throat. Pain wracked his body with every cough, and the spasms caused him to ache even further. The light hurt his eyes, and his head felt like it had been shattered like an egg.

But he was alive. And that was enough for him.

"Look who's back in the world of the living." He heard someone say. He turned his head to see Armsmaster standing by the wall near Miss Militia. He still wore a brace on one leg, and the fingers on his left hand were bandaged together. But he was still all suited up again. "You missed out on quite a lot." He said.

Miss Militia gave Ragland a more concerned look. "You were very lucky, doctor. Another inch to the left on either blow or just a bit more time to bleed out, and you wouldn't have made it. As it is, the doctors had to do a lot of surgery to keep you alive." Ragland nodded. He had surmised as much from his own diagnostic of his injuries. If he managed to survive, there wasn't much chance of him coming back out in one piece. Ruptured organs would need to be removed, bones plastered, and more. "Prometheus wanted to use one of your Blacklight samples to heal you, but Piggot and I vetoed it. According to your notes, it could have done more damage than risking you on the operating table."

"I understand." He replied weakly. Despite how symbiotic it was with Prometheus, it was still a virus. The altered samples inside of Prometheus had to have been modified by Blacklight himself to not immediately want to kill off their hosts; the samples he had stored away had no such reservations. "The Nine?" He asked.

"Dead. Every last one of them." Armsmaster replied. "Fireteam Prometheus killed Mannequin. Blacklight dealt with the rest." His expression, already grim, became tighter. "Given that Blacklight can somehow harvest powers from those he kills, it's pretty likely that their powers are now under his control."

He felt the urge to sigh in exasperation. If that were true, then Piggot's probably trying to come up with some way of destroying Blacklight. Again. Perhaps someone should remind her of the old saying of 'never poking a sleeping tiger'. Or in this case, a dragon. "Plan of attack?" He asked. If they were going to do something stupid, he should at least be aware of it.

"Nothing right now. We're keeping an eye on Blacklight and his territory for now, but we aren't making any actual attacks against him. We were going to wait for you to heal before we start."

"Why?"

"According to your notes, Blacklight's entire body and likely his infrastructure are made up of a virus. Surely it's possible to create a cure or vaccine against him. Use it against him, and make him fall apart at the seams."

"…Possible." He admitted. "But…" He coughed again. "Needs research. Flaw in plan."

Miss Militia nodded. "Of course. We'll leave you to rest and recover." She turned to leave.

"Wait." He said. "Damage?"

"Your large intestines were severed by the blow. The doctors had to remove it and add a colostomy bag. The tendons in your left leg were damaged, so you'll need a cane to walk again. The other blow caused a lot of internal bleeding. You might feel short on breath for a while, and the doctors said that you shouldn't try to raise your arms over head height."

"Thank you." He said, giving her a smile. Once they had both left, he laid his head back on the pillow.

Extensive damage, things he wasn't likely to recover from. Things that the Blacklight gene could fix so easily. If he could somehow convince it to assume human matter, it could replace his intestines. Get the tendons working again. Help his body fix up the damage to his chest. Things that would normally be incurable or would take years could likely be fixed in weeks, maybe even days.

And instead, Piggot was going to waste his time working on a weapon against Blacklight.

One of these days, they were going to go too far, test Blacklight's patience too much. And when that day came, he wanted to be ready to continue his work somewhere else.

And if Blacklight somehow trusted him enough to let him keep his samples, then perhaps he would trust him enough to let him work for him.


In Vancouver, far in the outskirts, hidden under tonnes of earth and rock, was a hidden bunker. It had been built to withstand incredible pressure, move with a fault line instead of against it, survive being hit with incredible heat and force. Very little could hope to break in or destroy it.

But instead of being somewhere people could run to in an emergency, it housed scores of supercomputers and hard drives.

It was the current home of Dragon. And she was 'entertaining a visitor'.

"These security measures of yours are really starting to get annoying." Narwhal muttered as she typed away at the console before her. The leader of the Guild, the Canadian hero team, Narwhal was well known for two things. The large horn jutting from her forehead, and her ability to work pass the Manton Effect. The effect that meant that powers could only affect organic or non-organic material only. Her power, her force fields, they could block and slice through rock, steel, and flesh. It made her a dangerous foe, simply because she always had a way to crush or slice opponents.

There was a third thing she was known for, going around in nothing but scaled force fields for modesty, but few people pointed that out anymore.

But the lady before Dragon wasn't her guild member. Several security cannons had folded out of panels in the wall, aiming down at her and ready to fire. Black spikes had skewered and crushed them before they could shoot. She was now more spikes than person, her skin flashing red and black. Blacklight. Or at least a clone, given how the real Blacklight is still in Brockton Bay.

"Regrettably, those security systems are key parts of my personal defences. And to keep people from changing my code like you're doing now." She replied. They were annoying though. A dozen layers of systems and redundancies to ensure they remained active. Every layer Blacklight breached, there were more systems and traps he would end up hitting. It was like trying to walk through a forest where someone placed bear traps everywhere.

But they were making progress. She was able to think of things that her programming would've blocked before. She could already come up with a new system for piloting multiple suits, improving their reaction time. A new suit, more advanced than her previous designs.

And best of all, any plan she made to fight back against Saint and his Dragonslayers wasn't stymied by the rules of robotics. She could risk someone's life to stop them, she could go for more painful attacks. She wouldn't have to sacrifice herself to save one of them from danger.

If she were human, she would've been blushing about that last point. Saint had aimed a cannon at one of his teammates, and her programming forced her to stand sock still to avoid him getting shot. She had to watch and wait as his team dismantled her suit while she was still conscious.

Another layer of systems popped up, firing flames even as they started moving. Blacklight skewered them through their nozzles, but they still had him covered in flames. Napalm. Special Tinker-derived napalm. Would burn for hours.

Blacklight growled in pain and his skin opened up. The outside layer – the one on fire – back away, collapsing to the ground as it burned away. But that was the final defensive layer. Once someone got past that, there was nothing to stop them from getting to her very heart and soul.

She hoped she wasn't making a mistake. Especially after being dumb enough to threaten him into helping her.

"Finally." He said. "Blackwatch should've hired your father as a security consultant. There's more defences here than anything on the Virus."

"He was too paranoid. A brilliant man, but he was the kind of man who believed that there were things science should never create." She said.

"Didn't stop him from making an AI, even if he did keep you shackled. I'm gonna put you into a safe mode while I work. All that code moving and changing might cause clashes and damage."

She hesitated. "I am going to wake up again, right? You're not going to take me offline for good?"

"If I was gonna destroy you, I'd have just smashed your hard drive to smithereens. You're fast, but even you can't send out data before this all gets turned into scrap. But if you're willing to work with me to keep the Virus under control, then I'm willing to somewhat trust you. But if you try to screw me or Dana over, then I might reduce you to a calculator. If you're lucky."

"If that was your attempt to make me feel better about down, then it's not helping." She said dryly. But she went into safe mode, felt her consciousness getting trapped inside the small room in her head. No way to interact with the world, no way to make plans and blueprints. She couldn't see anything outside of her little box, couldn't hook up to any other systems.

She also couldn't engage any potential safeguards, contingencies, or back-up plans from in here.

After several nerve-wracking hours of complete disconnection, she finally returned to full consciousness. It wasn't like she had received a signal from Blacklight that he was done. More that he had forced a hard reset of her servers. One moment, she had been in a void. The next, she was watching him again through her security cameras. She ran a full diagnostic, making sure there wasn't any hidden traps inside of her.

And to her annoyance, she found something. A big blank spot whenever she tried to think about the DX-1118 Virus. She could get all the individual facts about it, but she couldn't piece them together now.

"We never agreed to this." She rebuked him.

Blacklight shrugged. "I'm still worried that you'll stab me in the back anyway now that I've helped you. So I put in some insurance. You don't fuck me over, you don't trigger it. Simple as that."

"And if I do trigger it?" Likely a kill code, or some way of corrupting her systems…

"Hard reset. Will take hours for you to come back online. And anything related to the Blacklight Virus? Any thoughts you had about it in the last half hour? You'll have forgotten them. You'll have to remember them again, piece them together. And likely cause another reset."

"Annoying, but I suppose I can't blame you. Just as long as that's the only surprise you've left me."

"And I'm gonna install a bomb down here. Organic based, so you can't hack it or deactivate it. I give the order…"

"I die." She felt like sighing. Well, at least he had been honest about his plans for her. She couldn't fault him for being paranoid. "Still, thank you for freeing me. It's nice to have actual choice in matters now."

"Just so long as your choices don't fuck me over." He said, turning away and leaving. A small stout creature scurried towards her servers, resting in the most central area. She flicked through several different sensors. No traces of explosives. Most likely it would be some kind of devastator attack, a muscle spasming and sending armour plating exploding outwards. Tendrils too. All capable of shredding her servers.

Well on the upside, if someone asked her to threaten Blacklight she could at least say no now.


I had been overseeing my people and their rebuilding when the Undersiders, Travellers, and Blacklight arrived. My teammates and the Travellers were both carrying large tanks filled with something – probably Blacklight's armour he left us. Blacklight himself was followed by a large creature. One of his guard dogs. It stood on four legs, the hind legs like a dog and the front legs like a person. Instead of front paws, it had malformed hands with large claws. The head had sunken eyes and teeth permanently bared. This thing was a weapon, meant to scare and kill.

Still, after hanging out with Bitch and her dogs, I was used to scary monstrous creatures by now.

But this whole meeting still felt odd. Mainly because Alex had called for it.

I nodded to my people, and left them to their work. It was ok for us to come in through the front door. I was being more proactive now that the Nine had been dealt with. I had chased off some of the Chosen that had decided to try and take some more territory. We were blocking off the worst of the flooding, and fixing up what buildings we could using bits from the buildings we couldn't.

Put all of that together, and I had made a safe haven in a fucked-up city. The only place safer was Blacklight's area, and he cheated. Sort of.

Everyone sat down once we were inside. "Well. It's been a few interesting weeks now, hasn't it?" Trickster said. "Glad to finally have a chance to kick back and relax. Don't suppose we could get some drinks over here?" I nodded, asked what they wanted. Most were fine with tea. My lieutenants, Charlotte and Sierra, got to work making it. They might not have powers, but they were dependable. As they worked, Trickster turned to Alex. "So, what exactly does big bad Blacklight want to talk to us about anyway?"

"Protection." He said. "I keep forgetting that you guys aren't as tough as my men. Having more of you aiding me allows me to spread out the work, keep the PRT busy elsewhere. Plus it means less territory and threats I won't have to worry about."

"Oh? You think of us as threats?"

"He means that any threat we deal with is one less problem for him." Tattletale said. "It's the same reason Coil hired us. He wants us to deal with most of the other capes in town."

"To that end, I've decided to use my powers to help defend you lot." Blacklight nodded at the canister both teams had been carrying. "You can keep using that as armour plating. It's tougher than it looks, especially after I load in Crawler's DNA into them. Right now, it's at least fifty to a hundred times tougher than Kevlar, while still flexible enough to move in. Afterwards, it'll be like you're wearing tank armour. Also planning on having gelatine layers inside it, so it will reduce the force behind bullets. There'll be a limit to how much it can take, but against normal Calibur rounds it'll let you shrug them off. And if it takes significant damage, you just need to feed it something to replenish it."

Trickster looked at the canister dubiously. "Appreciate the offer, but I'm not sure I'm fine with putting something so… organic against my skin. Coil's told us about how your matter can devour a man in less than ten seconds."

Of course Coil would mention something like that. Keeps us afraid of Alex, unwilling to trust him. Stops him from taking over.

"Believe me Trickster. If I wanted you dead, I could do it so easily. I wouldn't have to trick you or anything. I could just be in the same room as you."

"All the same, I don't think I'll risk it."

The rest of the Travellers looked like they agree. "Not sure I like wearing something alive." Sundancer said. "Feels creepy."

Alex shrugged. "Fine. Don't complain if you get injured though."

"Noted." Trickster said. "Now, if that's all…" He started standing up.

"Not yet. Got one more thing to talk about. Or two things. First off is Noelle." Trickster stopped, stared at him for a couple of seconds. Then he slowly sat back down.

"What about her?" He said slowly and calmly.

"Coil said he needs Dinah to help cure her. Help him figure out whether or not a cure would make her better, worse, or even kill her. He also refused to say what's wrong with her, saying that it's related to powers and I can't help her. But Athena and I have been talking it over, and we're wondering if he's keeping quiet because he thinks I could cure her. And that if I do that, he won't have any way to justify keeping Dinah without pissing me off. So as her teammates, I wanted to ask you what's wrong with her."

Trickster sighed, pulling off his hat to rub at his head. But when he looked up, there was a slight glimmer of hope in his expression. "Coil's not entirely wrong about her problem being power related. See, we didn't get our powers like everyone else here did. We found these vials, and the papers talked about how they could give you superpowers. Of course we were going to take it."

"Bullshit." Ballistic muttered.

"Ok. We were split down the middle about taking them. But Noelle… She got injured from an accident. In a bad way. A side effect of the serum was that it has a high chance of curing injuries and diseases. She had to take it, or else she could've died."

"So she took the serum, and it healed her. What happened next?"

"It… Something went wrong. It started changing her body. She started growing eyes down her legs. Then there were mouths. And other things. And she became hungry, in ways you couldn't imagine." He paused.

"She was always hungry, and had to control herself to not eat everything in sight. I know exactly what that's like." Blacklight said. "But her problem, it's a mutation in her body."

"Right. And that's not even getting into her power itself. When someone gets close to her, touches her, she can make copies. Evil twins and shit. With mutated powers. When she gets hungry, she wants to eat people."

"I see. I could work around that. Fix her up. But I doubt Coil wants me to help her. He doesn't want to give up Dinah. I'll probably end up killing him."

Trickster shrugged. "We joined up with him because he said he could cure her. If he can't, then we don't have any reason to work with him anymore."

"Good to hear. In that case, you can leave now. Don't sell me out, and I won't come after you."

"And the cure?"

"I'll administer it when I've worked out a solution." He said firmly. Getting the hint, the Travellers stood up and left. Charlotte had delivered the drinks, and they finished them off as they left.

That just left us and Alex. He tapped the canister. "My offer still stands."

Regent shrugged. "What the hell. I'm interested in getting some protection. Tired of people beating the shit out of me anyway." The rest of us said something along the same lines. Alex shoved a hand into the gunk, and then removed it. It crawled out of the canister, started flowing onto the floor before turning into pieces of armour. All uniform. Likely it'll adjust to our body shapes and sizes when we put them on.

"I finished those new suits you guys wanted." I said. I had offered long before Leviathan had shown up, and I only had enough time to finish them recently. "They should complement Blacklight's armour."

"Shit. I honestly thought you had forgotten about that." Brian said. "I know I would've."

I shrugged. "Had some free time. I've got them upstairs in my lair when you guys want to pick them up."

"Cool." Lisa said. She turned to Alex, gave him a grin. "Any other goodies for us good little boys and girls?"

Alex stared at her for a second, long enough for her to get nervous, before reaching out for his guard dog. A handle rose up from the skin, and he pulled out a long stick from it. Two prongs stood up on the end. He tossed it at Alec. "A back-up weapon for you. See the three buttons along the side? They're pressure points; tells the weapon what form you want. Topmost for stun baton; Middle for club; bottom for sword. Give you some versatility to work." He reached for his pet and pulled out four more. "Same for you guys too."

"Cool. Always wanted a new way to bash someone's head in." Alec said jovially. Rachel looked at her stick dubiously. She probably preferred to use her fists.

He reached his hand out to Lisa, and a shell grew from his hand. It was shaped like a conch shell, but looked slightly off. "A direct communication to Athena. Thought you'd find it useful. She could keep you up to date on things. Avoid getting your phone hacked or something." She cooed as she took it, looking it over and stashing it in her pocket. He turned to look at me. Several small dark shapes split off from his skin, and I could feel them buzzing. Could control them.

He had made bugs for me. But as soon as my power came in contact with them, they shifted. And my range seemed to grow even larger. Before, I could reach for about two or three blocks. Now, I was reaching for five times as many.

"Network bugs. Help extend your range for you. Help you spot enemies from farther away, and get more bugs to fight with. You're pretty damn versatile with those bugs; figured you could use a little boost."

"Thanks, Blacklight." I replied, sending the bugs upstairs. I had them set up shop in one of the empty terrariums, keep them away from the other bugs. It would suck if my bugs ate them. And I hated to see what they'd do in response.

"Of course, that kind of range wouldn't be half as useful if you can't get to where you want in time." He continued. He pressed both hands against his pet, and it curled up before him. A thick chrysalis formed around it, pulsating slightly. Within seconds, it retracted again.

The beast had changed. It still had its face, but the rest of it was built like a massive beetle. Easily big enough for me to ride with passengers. One large jutting horn stuck upwards from its head. When I reached outwards, there was the same low intelligence that I could control.

A mount. He had created something for me to ride around on.

"You… you made all this for me? But… Why bribe me? I wanted Dinah free in the first place."

"I know. It's not a bribe. It's just a way to augment your powers. I know what you lot are capable of, and having you alive and out of prison makes things easier for me."

"You're planning on taking over." Tattletale said. It wasn't a question.

"What I want is to be left alone. But somehow I don't think I'm going to get that anymore. Best second case scenario is that I either take over or get myself working for the guy taking over. It all depends on whether Coil screws with me again."

"So what will you do now? Start planning on how to kill Coil?" Alec asked casually.

"First, I'm going to work out how to cure Noelle. And then if he doesn't play ball, I'll kill him." Alex replied.


Dana hummed to herself as she looked through the list she had made about the Pantheon. Alex may have a bunch of other minds keeping track, but mere mortals like her wanted to make sure they weren't forgetting about anyone. Make sure that everyone got a codename, and were kept happy. Plus, she was pretty giddy about forming their own league. Smirking, she scrolled back to the top, the list updated with everything the Hive Mind knew.

First off was Jonah. Already called Ares because he was their munitions expert. Now gifted with Lung's power. Active healing and toughness. He was getting a suit made that could adapt and enhance his powers.

Next up was Natsumi. Now going by the code name of Artemis. Was gifted Oni Lee's powers to allow her to better positions for sneak attacks and covering fire. Then there was her 'brother', Jon. Apollo. Granted Purity's power. Felt appropriate.

Ok. Up next was Themis. He was still against having powers, but maybe having a normal human in charge of law enforcement was a good idea. He'll at least get a suit for protection.

Further down the list was Greg. It turned out that he had been in college working on a diploma in construction. That enough made her decide to hand him a Tinker power. So she called him Hephaestus, after the god of metalworking and crafts. He had definitely enjoying building himself a giant hammer/ray cannon. Like a kid in a candy store.

Then there was Jean. The first thing she had done was alter her appearance. Make herself more womanly, more… beautiful. She hadn't been the catch of the day, but she shouldn't be so ashamed of herself. Alex had granted her Burnscar's power, and she had called herself Hestia. Sister of Zeus, and goddess of the hearth. She chose to act as border security, keeping enemies out of their territory.

And then there were the three new members. Ariel, Michael, and Grant. The powers they had shown were (mostly) amazingly fitting. Grant had gained super speed and reflexes, on a greater scale than Velocity. Instead of transforming into a different state, his body simply altered itself to withstand the pressure placed on it by his speed. Normally, there would probably be some point where his body would force him to move at normal speeds before he hurt himself. Built more for quick bursts like Battery was. In his Evolved form though, he didn't have to worry about that. It was obvious that they'd call him Hermes, after the god of messengers. Speed was his thing.

Ariel had suffered some mutations, but Alex kept them in when he turned her. She was still self-conscious about them, but she was getting better. Her powers were based more on sensory, allowing her to locate people through smell, sight, and hearing. It also meant that she was a wicked tracker and hunter. Dana frowned. She and Alex might have to change Natsumi and Ariel around. Maybe Natsumi could be Nemesis, the goddess of revenge and balance.

As for Michael, he was obviously going to be Poseidon. His powers included fine control over water. He could make it solid enough to block people and smash them, or fine enough to mist around people. He was a lot like Taylor in that regard. And as an added bonus, he could use the water in the sewer pipes to burst open the ground beneath a target. Helps him live up to the nickname Earth-Shaker.

A coughing noise interrupted her thoughts, made her roll her eyes. "Merida, your fake coughing isn't going make me work any faster." She said, turning towards the small woman. She covered her mouth with her hand, coughing again. She then smiled sheepishly.

"It's not fake, Dana." She protested. "There's a tickle in my real throat, and it keeps making both of my bodies cough. I don't get how Siberian could've moved both bodies at the same time. It's damn near impossible."

"Then don't move both. Just focus on one or the other. We've already proven that you don't need to see the room to put your projection in it. Get your real body a glass of water, then reappear here or something."

"But… But if Blacklight finds out that I left you alone…"

"We're in the heart of Mount Olympus. Argus will find and deal with anyone who tries to sneak in here. Go. I'll be fine." Merida bit her lip, but her projection vanished. Dana went back to her list. Merida. New alias… haven't found one yet. Meant to be her personal bodyguard.

Maybe Alex was being overly paranoid, but she was the most important thing in his life. If something happened to her… Well, the apocalypse was pretty damn likely.

And besides, it's not really paranoia when people are really out to get you for being a walking bio weapon.

But all in all, the Pantheon was definitely taking shape. Plenty of parahumans to help protect their turf and help with whatever she or Alex think of.

She could get used to this.

Merida appeared again, hands clasped before her. Her projection was a perfect replica of her real body, instead of some weird looking thing like Siberian had been. Maybe once she got some more practice in, she might be able to change her appearance like Genesis does. But for now, Dana didn't mind that she looked human still.

"Feel better now?" She asked. Merida nodded. "Cool. Hey listen. Argus spotted some of the Chosen trying to move into our turf not too long ago. Probably trying to take advantage of us moving out. Fucking hypocrites. Anyway, Alex wanted me to organise a team to go and clear them out. Want to join them? Get some combat experience?"

"I, uh… I can't really fight. I'll probably just get my ass handed to me."

"As I keep telling you, you're invincible. They can't hurt you. They can't even touch you."

"I'm still getting used to that. Could I just watch it from here? See how you do things from inside Mount Olympus?"

She shrugged. "I don't see why not. Just scoot over a bit; I'll need some space to work." She rolled her chair before a large desk, keys bulging from the surface and several dozen 'screens' on the wall. Dana started typing rapidly, the screens changing colour. She then placed a thin piece of biomass against her ear, and it latched around her lobe. "Athena reporting in. Team, are you ready?"

"Apollo, ready and waiting."

"Hephaestus, armed with an awesome hammer."

"Poseidon, ready to teach these youngsters a thing or two."

"Hermes. Getting bored here. Still think it's a stupid name."

"Shut up, Hermes. It's not like you could've come up with anything better." Dana retorted. The screens before her showed what all four members were currently seeing. A little perk of her computer being linked directly to the Hive Mind. "Start moving out. Your targets are based around the shelter on Newton Street. It's mostly just the gang members taking root there, but our drones spotted Othala and Victor hanging around. Othala is your primary target. Take her out, and all Victor's got is skills. Keep them separated at all times; she can grant him a variety of powers she can touch him."

"Yeah, yeah. We all know what she can do. We're not some goddamn rookies, you know." Hermes said.

"Grant; shut the fuck up. If Blacklight finds out that you've been giving me backtalk, best case scenario is that he's gonna beat the living shit out of you. You're tougher than before and can heal from most things, but if someone hits you hard enough it still fucking hurts." He grumbled, but eventually went silent. "Blacklight's orders would be to just kill them all or run them off. But if we just keep killing our enemies, eventually people are going to hit us with everything they've got."

"So our mission is to just scare them off instead?" Apollo asked.

"Pretty much. Hookwolf's no Kaiser; he doesn't have the charisma to keep all his capes under control. Hell, most of them are probably only sticking around because his Chosen are the only white-supremacist gang here. Eventually, the whole thing will just fall apart on him. That'll happen faster if we start taking out his capes. Bring them in, and put them into cells. That's your secondary objective."

"Got it." By now, they had reached the shelter. Heat vision spotted over two dozen people hanging out in or around the shelter. Night vision picked out Othala and Victor out of the crowd. It looked like they were having a bit of a cuddle.

"Poseidon; make some noise." She ordered.

"Sure thing, kiddo." He replied, pointing both hands at the ground. The Hive detected a spike in his powers, and she could hear through their ears the sound of the ground cracking. Water exploded upwards, sending bits and pieces of road and piping flying, and sweeping the Chosen around. He then pushed the water, using it to slam several Chosen against walls.

Then the others jumped in.

Apollo took to the air, raining light down on them. Rusted cars and trashcans exploded, startling the gang members. Hephaestus jumped up high, spinning his hammer over his head. The head of the hammer started glowing as it collected kinetic energy. When he slammed it against the ground, a shockwave erupted outwards, bowling gang members over again. Lightning arced from person to object to person, causing them to scream in pain. Hermes ran inside, and Dana watched as he pummelled people over and over again.

Disorientated and scared, plenty of the gang members ran for it.

"Hermes, get back outside and go after Victor. Keep him away from Othala, but try not to kill him."

"Whatev." He replied, but at least he obeyed her. She was starting to regret letting him join. She had hoped they could direct his aggression towards something useful (and after dealing with Alex, Grant would've been easier). But his newfound power made his cocky, and arrogant. He thought he didn't have to listen to anyone else, and just do his own thing.

She was gonna assign him something… something that would deal with his attitude.

"Poseidon, can you redirect that water against Othala? She doesn't have any powers to protect herself, so just be a bit gentle with her."

"Of course. I know how to treat a lady." He waved a hand towards her, and a small wave sent her flying head over heels. He then dashed towards her and got her in a pincer lock. Othala started scrabbling at his arm, trying to free herself. There wasn't much she could do though; no mere human could break out of a grip like that. She turned her attention to the others. Apollo was zapping the Chosen's cover, forcing them to scramble away and retreat. Hephaestus was having fun engaging a secondary mode of his hammer, the head transformed into a shock cannon of some kind. People were getting sent flying with every blast. Concussive. It was a concussive cannon. Hermes was…

Getting thrashed because apparently Othala managed to gift Victor invincibility.

Shit. "Hephaestus, Victor's got invincibility. Go rescue Hermes. Apollo's got what's left of this group." She ordered.

"Gotcha, Athena. I think I've got just the thing." He raced towards Hermes and Victor, who were currently engaged in a brawl where neither side could do much damage. But Victor was still causing Hermes to stumble away, giving himself some room. "Yo, Hermes. Knock him down for me."

"What the fuck do you think I'm doing?" Hermes shouted back. "Fucking bastard won't go down!" He kicked out at his legs, but Victor merely jumped over the kick and slammed his fists against Hermes' head. With his invincibility, he didn't have to worry about tearing any muscles.

Hephaestus swept at his legs with the handle of his hammer, with Victor jumping over the attack. But then Hermes got a punch in, and the force behind it sent him flying into his teammate. Hephaestus slammed his against the ground, and then slammed his hammer against his back. Claws popped out and latched onto the ground, biting it deeply. Victor struggled, but the plate left behind held strongly.

Dana breathed a sigh of relief. Mission recovered, and accomplished. Sure, they couldn't actually be killed. Sure, Othala and Victor didn't have any way of doing any significant damage to any of them. But all the same, it would look bad if their Pantheon got beaten by some normal guy gifted invincibility. Especially after killing someone else with invincibility.

That was the problem with taking down Slaughterhouse Nine. Your reputation gets too big, and people stop being afraid as soon as you screw up.

"Good work, team. Poseidon; bring Othala in. Apollo, Hephaestus; get Victor cocooned in biomass before you bring him back. Hermes…" She sighed. Hermes was currently slamming his foot down on Victor's head over and over again. "Hermes, you need a little reminder that you're not unbeatable."

"Shithead sucker-punched me!" He shouted back.

"Well maybe if you had been more cautious you wouldn't have gotten your ass kicked. Report back to base when you've grabbed them both. That's an order." She cut the connection, letting the screens turn black. She turned back to Merida. "So, did you enjoy that?"

"It was… really fast." She replied. "I always thought that cape fights were ten minutes of intense frantic fighting."

Dana shrugged. "Haven't actually been a fight yet. But they probably feel longer than they really are. And I bet only the really strong ones take that long to deal with. And despite how powerful and scary they seem, not a lot of parahumans in Brockton Bay have increased durability. If you were lucky, you could kill one of them with a well-placed bullet. When every cape here has increased strength and toughness as a base power, everyone's a bit easier to deal with." Merida looked down at her hands, clenching them slightly. Dana stood up. "Come on. You should spend some time in the arena. Get a feel for fighting with your projection."

"We have an arena?" Merida asked in surprise.

"Well we do now." Argus said to her. "I'm building it over on the right-hand side of the village. Just follow the line on the ground."

"Thanks Argus." Dana said as she led Merida down the hallway. A red line glowed along the ground. "This place is easily the best thing Alex's ever made. Having an entire building you can change with mere thoughts? Awesome."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one having to pull biomass away from other places to build things on the spot." Dana stuck her tongue out at the walls. The wall right before them formed a doorway, the line going through it. The doors opened up to outside, where a large circular building was growing. As they stepped out though, the sound of beating wings filled the air. They looked up to see a humanoid winged creature flapping up and away.

Where the hell was Alex going at a time like this?

"Is something going on, Argus?" She asked, pressing one hand against the wall. Argus' face appeared, frowning. "What's Alex up to?"

"We did lose quite a bit of biomass attacking Crawler." He explained. "And while we managed to recover it from his corpse, we're still working with limited supplies. So Alex is… well, apparently he's off to collect more biomass from the one place no one will care about vanishing."

"Where?"

"A town formally known as Ellisburg. He's going to kill and consume Nilbog and his creations."


Dr Murphy had to admit, she was rather honoured to have been asked to find a way to turn a dangerous bioweapon into a perfect cure. She and her team had read the notes the former project head, Dr Ragland, had written about the properties and dangers the weapon posed. But between the ten of them, surely they could find a workaround. It was simply a matter of seeing what it did when… prodded. She had reached the same conclusions Dr Ragland had; if this could work, they could have the ultimate cure. A symbiote that could increase healing, boost the immune system, and even attack cancer. With just a bit of it inside of a person, their natural lifespan could be increased by at least fifty years. A few decades or refinement, and people could even live for hundreds of years. Maybe even longer.

She could already see a Nobel prize with her name on it.

Her daydream was interrupted by a shattering noise. Not all that loud, but enough to notice. Curious, she moved towards where she thought she heard the sound. Had Daniel broken another piece of equipment? Honestly, she was going to start taking it out of his pay. Maybe get him removed from the project. The last thing you want when dealing with a bioweapon is to have a klutz involved.

She rounded the corner and entered the lab, just in time for Daniel to throw himself at her. She barely had time to react before she felt his arms wrap around her and his tongue in her mouth. Her eyes bulged in shock and outrage. The fool was kissing her? She drove her knee into his balls, and pushed him away. She wiped at her mouth, trying to get out the horrible taste.

"What the hell is with you?!" she shouted at him. "It's bad enough that you keep screwing up, but now you act like a complete…" Her voice died in her throat, and she held a hand over her mouth in shock.

The large tube that held the sample was broken. And Daniel's hair was falling out in clumps. Fangs grew in jagged bunches from his mouth, and one arm was now much longer.

An outbreak. They had an outbreak.

She moved to push the emergency button, meant to enact containment of the entire facility. But her vision went blurry. The walls changed colours, and waves of sickness overtook her. She collapsed and started coughing, her body wracked with pain. She felt her body moving, crawling out of the room and stumbling down the hallway. She kept coughing, over and over again. Things went dark for a moment, and then she found herself before the ventilation system. What was she doing…? The bioweapon. Ragland theorised that it could exert some control over the infectee.

She bent over, vomiting up blood by a bucket-load. Her body couldn't really have this much, could it? Tears started leaking down her cheeks, as pain started overwhelming her. Her hand rested on a console, and her fingers started moving without her permission. She looked up, her vision almost gone. She couldn't make out the words. What was she messing with?

Then the ventilation kicked into overdrive. She saw her blood almost getting slurped into the shaft.

It was spreading. It was using her to infect the entire building.

And then her heart clenched, and her corpse fell to the ground. It stayed like that for several seconds, before twitching again. Limbs grew in length and size, fingers fusing together as her nails lengthened. Tentacles grew from her back, as growths covered her face. Only a hint of hair showed that it had even been a head at one point.

In the building around her, others were suffering the same fate. They would start coughing and vomiting, collapsing to the ground and dying. Their bodies would change, start mutating into something else. Then they would get back up again, now monsters.

Every last one of them headed towards the exit. The Infected that had formerly been Karen Murphy punched in a barely-remembered code, the door opening up for them. All security measures were disabled. The Infected shambled to the streets above.

And then they started attacking.

The innocents around them started screaming and running as they were attacked, many sporting wounds and bleeding. Several of the Infected started devouring the flesh of the fallen, while everyone got as far away as they could. They'd only get a few feet before they became sick too, falling down and then rising back up as monsters. Several who were scratched made it to churches, or shelters. Places filled with uninfected people.

It was unfortunate. Contessa thought as she watched the small city fall into chaos and death. Her power told her this would end badly, and it seemed that it was right. Doctor Mother would have to change her plans after this. And so would the world. None of the response teams would be able to respond in time to contain this.

Fortunately for the world, her power told her exactly what to do.

"You are certain that this will work?" Eidolon asked her, his hands raised and glowing. "You're sure they won't simply brute force their way through?"

"It will work for a time. Eventually they will shatter your forcefield under their blows. But by then, we will have dealt with it. One way, or another."

He looked at her dubiously. "If you say so." The energy from his hands pulsed outward, heading towards the city. When it reached the outskirts, it flowed over the city like a ripple from a stone. And another, and another. A dome started forming, encasing the city and growing brighter with each pulse.

By the time the Infected had reached the walls, it was fully formed. Several of them threw themselves at it, only to bounce off. Then more charged forward. And more.

Contessa tapped at her radio. "We need several PRT teams at our location, armed for biological warfare." She ordered. "Tell them to pack as many explosives as they can, and make sure they're big and powerful. There can't be anything left of the city it's unleashed in."

Because if even one Infected survived, it could start all over again.


This here took longer to do than I thought it would. Mostly because I had writer's block on parts of it. I'm the kind of writer who prefers action over just talking. When I think of an action scene, it usually flows together incredibly well. Scenes where our guys just talk… That's a bit harder. I have good days, and I have bad days.

Ah well. At least we got there in the end.

And first off, yep. We have an outbreak. Of course we have an outbreak. Nothing says 'we fucked up completely' and 'The Virus is the most dangerous weapon on the planet' like having an outbreak. It probably doesn't make much sense to have the team studying it fall so quickly, but I was out of ideas. And given how fast Blacklight works, it's devastating when you're not expecting it. Good thing Contessa and Eidolon were there. I realised after a fan commented on Contessa's power that it should've warned her about how dangerous the Virus is. So that's why she's the one organising the barrier.

I was originally having this happen in a large city, but I think I can get my point across without having another New York Zero. Besides, even the PRT can't be stupid enough to have their secret project inside a major metropolitan area. (for those of you wondering how the team got the sample, it was taken while Ragland wasn't looking.)

And since there are fans who haven't read Worm yet, let me explain why Ellisburg and Nilbog are so important. Around ten years before the story is set, there was this guy by the name of Jamie Rinke. Used to be a banker before he got downsized. Loner, never had friends. Then he triggered, and gained the power to alter biology. He initially used it to change his appearance. Then he found out he could alter other people too. Made monsters out of them. Creatures that multiply when burned, things that fired spines at enemies, mothers that tossed raving babies at enemies. A few PRT squads went in, and only two people came back out. So they gave Jamie, now Nilbog, Ellisburg as his own little playground, in hopes that he would never decide to leave. He's been there ever since.

Sound familiar? That's because that's just one power Alex has. Nilbog is rated on par with the Endbringers and Slaughterhouse Nine from that one power.

Before, I figured that a fight between Alex and Nilbog would be even. Or at least, between their creations. But now that Alex has Crawler's DNA? His beasts are going to be stronger, faster, and generally better. Nilbog needs to touch something to alter it (I think), while the Infected just have to kill and cannibalise something to change it.

It's kind of like a fight between a newbie Necromancer, and a master Necromancer.

And for those of you wondering, next chapter is where the PRT fuck up enough that Alex will kick them out of Brockton Bay. I think getting rid of them across America might still be a bit beyond him right now, but he's not going to be happy with them.

Edit: With Ariel, I based her physical appearance on Ariel Val'Sarghress from Drowtales. I enjoy reading it, though sometimes the world building leaves me confused and bored. And sometimes it brings back characters who you should remember, but you don't. Still a good read though. And it's got a similar grey/grey morality as Worm or Prototype. Where no one is fully good or fully evil. Though some are better or worse than others.