Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower Interlude 13 Cauldron 3
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"I'm going to resign as leader of the Protectorate." Legend looked old, sitting in his wheelchair, face pale as a ghost. "I've clearly gotten too old-"
"You can't do that." Doctor Mother interrupted. "We need to-"
"Forty six people are dead because of me!" Legend shouted. "Forty six, several of them good friends, all of them very important, dead because I made the call." If Legend could have stood up to throw something he would have. He instead clenched his fists in anger. "I'm so goddamn stupid. Charging all gung-ho into the middle of three Endbringers. I can't- I can't do this anymore. Please don't make me do this." He pleaded.
"And I'm saying that's the worst possible choice." Doctor Mother responded. "In the face of such destruction the Triumvirate must display a united front."
"A united front for what?" Legend cried. "We're already getting reports of attacks in Africa. The Endbringers move too fast and-" He began coughing.
"Legend, you need to get some rest. Who knows what else besides the nerve damage Panacea was unable to repair." Alexandria cut in. "Besides, Doctor Mother's right, we need to be united. Are you just going to give up here? Give up on everyone who looks up to the Triumvirate? Go to bed, get some rest, and think on that."
A bitter look crossed Legend's face. "You're an asshole sometimes, Rebbecca." He still wheeled himself out of the room.
"He didn't take that very well." Doctor Mother noted.
"Not at all." Alexandria agreed. "David isn't doing much better. His complete failure to accomplish much of anything isn't doing wonders for his self-confidence-especially right after he was reminded of Hero's death." She rubbed at her temples. "At least Legend survived, I don't know what David would have done if he had died-probably nothing good."
"Mhm. Tomorrows headline being 'Eidolon has committed suicide' would have turned this already bad situation worse." Doctor Mother commented.
A thought came to Alexandria. "Do you think we should have brought Legend in? If he had known the full extent of the Endbringer's power-"
"Alexandria, if we spent every moment worrying about what-ifs, we'd never get anything done." Doctor Mother scolded. "What's done is done."
Alexandria nodded after a moment. "Still-"
Contessa stumbled into the room, shakily checking every step before she made it.
Doctor Mother looked over in confusion. "Contessa? Is something the matter?"
Contessa opened her mouth a few times, searching for something to say. "My powers... they're gone. Vanished for..." She seemed to grow slightly more confident within what she could still see of the Path. "...Two months, twelve days." She eventually managed.
Doctor Mother sucked in air. "That's... not good. This is rapidly approaching an almost worst case scenario. Are you're sure there is no way to restore your power earlier."
Contessa shook her head. "If there is, I cannot see it."
"And so we mark another thing off the list of 'ways this could get worse'." Alexandria sighed. "All we need now is Scion and Buster to go berserk at each other and, for all intents and purposes, everything that could have possibly gone wrong will have."
"More importantly, what could have possibly caused this?" Doctor Mother questioned. "We'll have to check to see if any other precogs were affected-"
"No need." The Number Man cut in, having just entered the room. "Precog's down worldwide, most agreeing on a similar time frame for recovery. Based upon what I can tell, Buster did it."
Doctor Mother didn't even look surprised. "What did she do?"
"I only have hearsay right now, but apparently Buster attempted to draw on a power of some sort that wasn't ready, and something really odd happened." The Number Man answered. "Dragon has a video, but she hasn't released it anywhere as far as I can tell."
"I'll see if I can't get it out of her later." Alexandria spoke. "But what's our immediate response?"
"I'm not sure." Doctor Mother admitted. "With Contessa out of the action, you and the Number Man are our best Thinkers."
"Right." Alexandria sighed. "We've made plans for instances were any of us, even Contessa, lose our powers. But the idea of actually implementing them without the, even sometimes shaky, assurances Contessa offers is rather daunting." She took a deep breath. "We already know Buster can take all three Endbringers according to Coil's alternate time line, which we have never been given reason to doubt. In fact, aside of Scion, she is probably the only one who can do so. So... we bring everyone to Brockton Bay."
"Everyone?" Doctor Mother raised an eyebrow.
"Everyone." Alexandria confirmed. "Every Tinker under Protectorate control, every hero we can convince, start coercing local unaffiliated Tinkers, bring them from across the sea too."
"That's quite the task you're proposing." The Number Man interjected. "Mobius survived. Would it not be easier to have her get Buster to the next Endbringer attack? And even if we did so, how would you propose we feed the tens of thousands of people you're bringing there? And in Coil's time line there was a great deal of collateral damage after that fight, what about dealing with that?"
"That does seem rather more complicated than it really needs to be, Alexandria." Doctor Mother commented. "I would like to hear you're reasoning."
"The primary reason? Mobius lost her entire lab in the Toybox incident." Alexandria answered. "By the time Mobius is done rebuilding enough to reconstruct something on the same level as her not-ICBM, there might not be much left to defend. So, we create a target too tempting for the Endbringers to pass up, fortify it as much as we can, and hope Buster can fight them. For the logistics problems, we hire Accord and give him what he always wanted; full access to the resources of the United States. The likely economic effects will be frightful, but we can worry about those when we're alive."
"Hmm." The Number Man scratched his chin. "You've satisfied most of my objections, but why Brockton Bay? Why not somewhere more centrally located?"
"Primarily because we want to have Buster at the location as much as possible, and we want this done quickly. We still have a few high power Movers left after the Toybox disaster, but none of them are likely to work on Buster either. If we bring Buster to a new location, then there is a period of time where Tinkers are gathered yet there's no one to stop them. If we wait for Buster to get there, that's just more time for the Endbringers to pick off random Tinkers. And every Tinker lost is another step the Endbringers take down whatever path they've chosen; even one could make a difference."
The Number Man nodded. "You've convinced me. Doctor Mother, if you could inform Legend and Eidolon of the plans, I'll take care of Accord."
"And I need to now find some way to convince the United States government to effectively cede control to a supervillain. Joy." Alexandria dryly commented. "You know." She began. "It's kind of funny how we never talk about Scion anymore."
"Cauldron was formed to save humanity. We adapt to the changing circumstances." Was all Doctor Mother had to say.