Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower Interlude 7 Cauldron
"What happened at the end there, Alexandria?" Doctor Mother questioned.
"Leviathan, with its tail newly freed, managed to pry me off of it using its tail as a lever." Alexandria responded. "It can get pretty damn quick about things, I'll say."
Eidolon and Legend walked in.
"An Endbringer attack with no fatalities... it's like a dream." Legend absentmindedly muttered.
"Yeah, well, remember what Coil said. We could easily wind up making up for every fatality we missed here." Eidolon spoke up in response.
That deflated Legend slightly. "I know." He replied. "But, she seemed like such a nice girl..."
"While that may be true, we still don't know by what process Endbringers are made. We could be looking at the creation of one in progress." Doctor Mother added.
"I doubt that." Eidolon replied. "You do remember the reason we are concerned about her at all? The story Coil told us? Where she fought off all three Endbringers? And was making good progress against Scion?"
Doctor Mother frowned. "That does put a bit of a hole in that theory."
Contessa continued to be silent in a corner.
"So, what are our plans?" Legend questioned.
"I'm moving to Brockton Bay." Alexandria spoke.
"Really?" Doctor Mother raised an eyebrow. "As Alexandria or Rebecca?"
"Considering how tempted I was to answer 'yes' there, I've probably been spending too much time around Nowhere." Alexandria commented. "But as Alexandria, the official story will be that I'll be there to 'mentor' Buster. I've done it a few times before."
"But before, they always came to you." Doctor Mother spoke.
Legend frowned. "Will this mean I'll have to move out of New York? If I must, but I'd hate to leave it behind..."
"No." Alexandria replied. "It's for the best that you don't."
"Two Triumvirate members on the East Coast? That's going to get some people suspicious." Eidolon commented.
"It's a necessary sacrifice; we must have the entire Triumvirate ready to respond. Eidolon, you might want to be near as well just in case you can't get a sufficiently powerful teleport active in time." Alexandria continued.
Mask in his hands, Eidolon raised an eyebrow. "That'll really get people asking questions."
"David-" Alexandria began.
"No, I understand. But we better be prepared to answer some... interesting questions soon." Eidolon interrupted.
Legend let out a sigh. "All of this plotting... It makes me uncomfortable. And we still aren't sure what set her off in Calvert's time line. Whatever happened to him?"
"We moved him to another city. And, as one of the extremely small number of people who can effectively use their power on Buster, we are keeping him on call." Doctor Mother answered.
"Doesn't that ruin our plans for him? I thought we were going to leave him as uninfluenced as possible." Alexandria questioned.
"A necessary sacrifice." Doctor Mother simply responded.
Alexandria nodded. A silence fell across Cauldron's meeting room.
Legend stood up. "We'll, I need to get home. Arthur is expecting me, and unless you have anything else..."
"No, I believe you're free to go." Doctor Mother responded.
Legend nodded and left the room.
"So am I the only one that has seen an interesting pattern to Buster's powers?" Eidolon asked.
"Oh? Please, go on." Doctor Mother queried.
"Let's note the powers she has shown as of yet. Lasers, invulnerability on Siberian levels, effective omniscience within an area, and some sort of ability to interface with computers from range." Eidolon spoke. "And in Coil's other reality, she demonstrated decent levels of flight. And there is whatever happened with Bakuda that implies some sort of dimensional cross ability."
"A varied list of powers." Spoke Alexandria. "Where are you going with this, David."
Eidolon took in a breath. "Lasers, Legend. Invulnerability, Siberian. Omniscience, Clairvoyant. Flight, yourself or Legend. Dimensional crossing, Doormaker. And the ability to interface with computers from range reminds you of some of the things Hero did, doesn't it? Tell me, what is the connection between all of these powers?"
"You believe that she is drawing upon the powers of capes we have made from formulas." Doctor Mother stated.
"Yes." Eidolon replied. "What I believe, is that her Agent is some sort of retrieval one."
"Isn't that our current theory for Glaistig Uaine?" Doctor Mother questioned.
"There are two of them, aren't there?" Eidolon responded. "Glaistig could have whatever Scion uses to reclaim them, while Buster could have the other's. And since we're taking them from it, it's trying to take them back."
"That would be... devastating." Alexandria spoke up. "Especially if we start to lose those powers."
"Why is she immune to Contessa's abilities, then?" Doctor Mother questioned. "And in such a different way, too?
"The immunity is an artificial limitation on the Agent by the other entity? Maybe it added a more powerful limitation for this specific Agent." Alexandria commented.
Doctor Mother frowned. "That... could be."
"It makes too much sense to be false." Eidolon spoke up. "It even explains why she was fighting Scion on equal grounds, because she basically was his equal."
"We'll have to wait for the Number Man to get back to make any serious decision on this topic, but, for now, we'll work under the assumption that it is the truth." Doctor Mother spoke up.