David Mcbride

I've been thinking.

So far, I've been in Earth Bet for five years now. Five years was a lot of time to think for someone who knew the future of this world. I didn't quite have access to internet or anything that useful. Libraries were good up to a certain point when it came to data collection; not all data in the local libraries were up to date.

What I have been thinking about was how I was going to defeat Scion.

The thing is, I'm a coward. I'd rather run than fight. I wouldn't watch people get hurt in front of me, but if it was out of sight, then it was out of my mind. I wouldn't go after people for hurting others either.

Oh, I'm sure that my mindset was going to change. Earth Bet had that kind of effect on all Self-Inserts.

The problem then was this: how?

How was the hell was I going to defeat a literalgod? From what I remember, Scion had to resort topsychological attackson Eidolon because Eidolon posed that much of a threat to him, and this was after said golden boy used his own life force to fuel his own Path to Victory to make that attack.

Sure, I took Regeneration: Second Trigger and Blindspot, which made me hard to predict and even harder to kill. Sure, I've been attending a lot of Endbringer fights, going about and making copies from everyone who bothered to show up (thankyou,Allfather! Thanks to you, I make a living just selling pure iron bars) but there was no way I was going to have enough power to solo Scion. No way in hell.

So what could I do?

Obviously because of both stated and unstated reasons, soloing Scion was unfeasible. Not impossible, but definitely not in my reach.

Thanks to what my Abaddon shard did for my Unlimited Shard Works, I can bud off degraded copies of shard copies I made and force a trigger, and that was the limit. I couldn't mass-trigger people either; each shard had 5 day cooldown, and in the next budding process, the degraded powerchanged.

For example, I gave this hobo bum a degraded copy of Allfather's [Spontaneous Ferropariokinesis]. Said hobo now runs around in Los Angelos making melee weapons and melee weapons only. Then a week later, I gave this lovely little girl another degraded copy, only for it to be changed again. I mean, the girl gained a Changer power that gave her literal iron body.

I didn't want to test with the already degraded copy of Eidolon's "Keter." I'm calling that shard Keter because I remember fondly reading a fanfiction that called Eidolon's shard Keter. Iron something.

So no, the plan I've made three years ago was not going to cut it. I just didn't meet enough new capes alternating my living between Boston, Brockton Bay, and New York City, the three most heavily parahuman populated cities in North American East Coast. Without going to Endbringer fights, I'd get maybe four more copies. In all of my five years of constant nomadic life, I gained exactlytwouseful copies.

Right, my first plan was to join Cauldron. Sufficed to say, I was considered a "Trump-Stranger" and thus not useful to their "goals." They even tried to kill me to prevent myself from interfering in Contessa's Path to Victory.

Fucking jerks. Good thing I had a physical clone, another part I napped, do the actual talking. As far as Cauldron was concerned, the Trump-Stranger who countered Contessa was dead.

My second plan was to mass seed shards after gaining a Master power like Heartbreaker's and throw a literal parahuman army at Scion. Due to a lack of finding a Master or even a Tinker power that let me do Heartbreaking, the plan sat uselessly in my head. Also because of the fact that I was incapable of both ensuring the Scion didn't see me coming and keeping that big of a parahuman army a secret.

The current plan, which I now knew to be futile, was to gain powers in Endbringer fights and solo Scion. That got scrapped after I realized just how weak I was compared to an Endbringer. I wasn't strong enough, yet. And if I wasn't strong enough, then how would I even touch Scion?

It's beenthree fucking yearssince I've come up with that plan. I'm barely stronger than any two members of the Triumvirate (plus Hero) combined. Sure, by cape standards, I was pretty up there.

That said, Endbringers are still stronger than me. Until Flechette triggers (or I force the girl to trigger byany means necessary) and I make a copy of her "Sting," it would remain that way.

So where did that leave me?

I haven't tried mixing all of those plans together.

… It … had potential. The three Thinkers powers I managed to copy -because they had a physical expression of their power that I could copy- told me that of the combinations of plans I've made before, the combination of them all was the best way to achieve victory.

Well, first plan was to join Cauldron, but Cauldron won't let me join.

…

So I'll have to be my own Cauldron?

Hmm, I'll have to think on that.

Second plan was to Heartbreak an entire parahuman army. I cannot make enough parahumans nor do I wish to make the world my enemy by Heartbreaking the participants of the Endbringer battles. Oh, and I don't have a power like that yet.

Third plan was to fight Scion solo.

… But if I combined second and third, I would get "lead a parahuman army against Scion with me at the vanguard." If I combine that with the first plan, then I get "secretly produce parahumans who owe you favors and then when the time is right – or forced upon me – lead them to battle with me at the vanguard."

Well.

I mean. It's what Cauldron was doing, but it's such a slow process between making useful parahumans and ensuring I had a hold over them. I didn't even have co-conspirators for me to bounce off ideas off of!

Argh.

... I really need that Master power to get a third of the job done.

Ah, whatever. Fuck it. I'll think more when I'm on the road.

So. New York City or Brockton Bay next week?