Sorry for the long wait, I'm back!

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March 17, 2011 (10:00 AM) \ Overcast with Moderate Rain

Brockton Bay, PHQ

Tinker Lab 1

"So…" Ada looked between Dragon's hologram and Armsmaster. "You want me to help with your…Endbringer Warning System?"

She was currently in the PRT floating base, having been invited by the two Tinkers for a project. Apparently, the two were trying to create a predictive system against the Endbringers. They hoped that with it, they'll be able to give the targeted places time to evacuate and allow parahumans to plan ahead.

Armsmaster nodded, gesturing at their computer program. "Dragon has a couple of programs running an analysis over every single Endbringer Attack. We also have post-After Action Thinker Reports to supplement them." he explained, bringing up a global map of all attacks. "From what we could tell, each Endbringer Attack has a series of targets or objectives that won't be known until months or years later."

"For example," Dragon then took over. "The sinking of Kyushu happened just as the Sentai Force-"

"Japan's version of the Protectorate." Armsmaster injected.

"-was on the verge of developing a Ziz Bomb detection system." she continued. "Protectorate and the surviving Sentai Force only found out a year prior, when the latter's old HQ was excavated."

"Another example would be the Simurgh attack on Madison, America." Armsmaster said, looking grim. "This one was more direct, as ThinkTank discovered it heightened religious discriminations compared to the last five years. We suspect that the recent uprising by the Fallen in Hudson was related to this attack."

Dragon's hologram nodded. "It's why we wanted your help in this project." she pointed out. "Given you have some experience with your world's own predictive system, we thought you might be able to help us solve our own issues."

Ada could now see why they wanted her help. There was just one problem… "You do realize that Terra's predictive system analyzes weather patterns, not socio-political ones, right?"

To her surprise, the two nodded. "The mere fact Terra has a predictive system for a semi-unpredictable force of nature proves it managed to overcome the problems Earth Bet is facing." Armsmaster explained. "If we can patch the system to work for our predictive system…"

"...we might be able to predict future Endbringer attacks!" Dragon finished, sounding excited. "We'll get faster response time as well as potentially reduce casualties!"

Having read on the statistics of Endbringer Battles, Ada could see the appeal. "Okay, I'll help you." She made her mind up - at the very least, it will increase the goodwill PRT has for RI. "So, when do we start?"

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March 18, 2011 (10:00 AM) \ Heavy Rain

Brockton Bay, PHQ

Prison Transport Bay

Emily Piggot stood near the prison buses, watching the troopers preparing it for their cargo. "I'm glad you're taking them off my hands, Legend." she said, turning towards the Triumvirate cape. "This will be one thing off my to-do list."

"It's the least we can do." Legend replied, shrugging. "We're heading the same way. Besides, I want to get a measure of the Ward who caused all this."

Emily sighed. "You're just going to be disappointed, Legend." she insisted, giving the cape a look. "Shadow - Sophia Hess isn't worth your time. She's an unrepentant bitch with an ego a mile wide."

Before Legend could respond, the doors of the Holding Cells opened up. "Oh good," Emily said dryly. "They're here."

The first to come out was the leader of the Dragonslayers, cuffed up in minor brute shackles. He was pretty much subdued until Geoff spotted them. "Legend!" he shouted as he neared them. "Legend, listen to me!"

The two shared a look. Emily motioned the guards to stop before them. "What do you want?" Legend asked, bewildered.

"Before careful with Dragon, Legend." Geoff began, looking at him seriously. "I won't be there to protect humanity when it inevitably rises up against us!"

Emily blinked, surprised. "With Ascalon gone," the criminal continued. "And those damn Terrans working with it, who's going to keep Dragon in check? Be wary, Legend, it's only a matter of time before IT decides we are no longer needed!"

Legend gave Geoff a horrified look. "First, Dragon is a hero and she-"

"IT!" Geoff insisted, eyes now turning deranged in anger. "DRAGON'S AN IT!"

"-she would never 'rise up' against humanity." Legend continued, ignoring Geoff's outburst. "And second, why are so insistent on labeling Dragon as an it when she identifies herself as a woman?"

Geoff then looked at him weirdly. "Because Dragon's an AI? It's just using 'pronouns' as a way to mislead you."

Legend stared at him in disbelief. "Are you…are you arguing about gender identification with me, an LGBTQ+ cape advocate?"

Geoff scoffed. "Dragon's an AI - it doesn't need a gender."

Legend and Emily just stared at the deranged man before the former gave a weary sigh. "Put him in the cape transport," he ordered. "His companions are unpowered, so put them in the normal one."

"Be wary of the AI, Legend!" Geoff called out as he was forced into the bus. "Be wary!"

"Are we really treating him as a cape?" Emily asked, pursing her lips. "Seems a bit too excessive for me."

"He's been empowered by the Teacher, director." Legend replied, sounding grim. "And we're not sure if it was done before or after he was Birdcaged. So for now, we're playing it safe."

Accepting the explanation, the two watched as the other, non-powered Dragonslayers were placed into the other bus. As they were secured, Emily looked at the prisoner manifest. "Hess is next," she said, giving the Triumvirate member a look. "You sure you want to talk to her?"

Legend gave a curt nod, making Emily shrug. "Bring her out!"

The doors opened and a bored-looking Sophia Hess walked out. She was cuffed in special shackles designed to prevent her from using her breaker state to escape. Stopping before them, Hess gave Emily a grin. "Looks like I'm going to be out of your hair soon, Miss Piggy." Then, she checked her from head to toe. "Or is it Miss Piglet now?"

Hess then turned to Legend. "Am I being shipped to your Wards this time around?"

Instead of answering, Legend just stared at her. "Why do it?" he asked instead. "Why use your powers and position to torment Vaire?"

Hess gave a scoff of disgust. "Why are you all so hung up with that weakling? Yeah, she got some cool powers but she wasn't using it properly. She could have been the strongest cape out there!" she exclaimed, sounding angered. "Instead, all she does is talk like this, talk about that, and talk more! She wasn't doing anything against those that deserve it!"

Legend crossed his arms. "And who exactly 'deserve' it?"

"Criminals!" She growled in anger. "Anyone who is below us capes, Legend! Hebert thinks that we're all equal, deserve the same respect - I say screw that! Her dying was her own damn fault! If she used her powers-"

Hess never got to finish. Legend suddenly thrust his hand forward, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her up. Hess' eyes bugged wide open, surprised by the move. Emily quickly reacted, pulling out her service firearm and pointed it at him. Around then, other troopers raised their weapons at him as well. "Legend…" Emily growled, wondering what the hell was happening. "Put her down."

"By your logic," Legend began, ignoring Emily's order. Instead, he began tightening his grip on Hess' throat. "You also 'deserve' what I'm about to do to you, since you're a criminal."

Hess' eyes widened, making choking sounds as the light around her throat began to make a mark. "Legend!" Emily shouted, cocking her pistol. "LET HER GO!"

Thankfully, that got to the hero. He immediately let go, dropping Hess like a sack of potatoes. Everyone was silent, watching the most powerful blaster like a hawk. Then, Legend said a series of words and numbers that Emily realized were this week's Master/Stranger code. "Everyone, stand down!" she ordered after saying the countersign. "M/S Code confirmed!"

Emily could feel the relief of everyone present. Turning to Hess, she was not surprised to see a puddle of liquid forming under her. The villain (for she was, indeed, a villain) was scared shitless. Feeling petty, she turned to her guards. "Put her on the bus." she ordered. "She can change her clothes once she's in Boston."

Hess didn't even try to fight back, still in shock as she was dragged into the transport. Afterwards, the two let the silence fill the air, watching as the rest of the prisoners were loaded up into the buses"...I met Vaire, you know?" Legend then spoke up, surprising Emily. "A few months back, through Contessa."

That was news to Emily. She knew that Phoenix Movement had dealings with the enigmatic Thinker, but they were mostly tightlipped about what they were. "For some reason, she wanted us to meet," he continued, chuckling. "So there we were outside our costumes, in some hole-in-the-wall coffee shop in downtown New York, confused and wondering what this meeting was supposed to be."

"What did you talk about?"

Legend was silent for a few moments. "She asked how I knew I was gay."

Emily blinked back. "I was surprised too!" Legend laughed. "Apparently, she started having these feelings about her friend, Bakuda. It was confusing since she knew she was straight."

Bewildered, Emily frowned. "And that's all you've talked about?"

Legend nodded. "You can read the rest in my report of the encounter," he explained. "And no, we slowly moved to cape politics, NEPA-5, and 'hypothetical' PRT responses to, I quote, 'certains situations she and her friends may cause.'"

Emily gave him a look of disbelief. "She asked you how we'd respond to her plans? The same plans the Antares revealed recently?"

Legend nodded, chuckling. "I've met a lot of capes that had grand goals and dreams. It always pains me when I have to burst their naivety, because I know full well how that turned out for others. Yet, Vaire gave me hope that she could do it - that hope will blossom once more in her care."

Legend then wiped his eyes, making her realize that he was tearing up. "Even without their founder, the Phoenix Movement is still upholding her ideas." he stated, sounding bittersweet. "Vaire may be dead, director, but for the first time in a long while, I'm finally feeling hope for our future."

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March 20, 2011 (11:30 AM) \ Torrential Rain

Brockton Bay, PHQ

Tinker Lab 1

Colin, Closure, and Tess watched with his computer screen with anticipation. The Terran was looking over from his right shoulder. Tess was on the left, only in her HD holographic form. Colin always liked that form, since it made his friend look human. "...ready?" Closure asked, her voice tight.

Tess nodded, inputting the command script mentally. The screen changed, a pop-up window appearing for final confirmation. "Password inserted. Colin?"

Colin took a deep breath. 'This better work.' he thought, moving the mouse to the approval button. "Activating script…now!"

With a click, the program began running. The room was filled in tense silence, the trio watching as the program activated. A loading screen appeared, the progress slow but steady. "And now we wait."

Colin wasn't religious, but today, he was willing to pray. The project to modify the Terran Catastrophe Prediction system and make it work for their system. On paper, it sounded easy since they just had to patch it up to make it work.

In practice, it was a nightmare.

The first time they tried it, one of Tess's server farms in Canada exploded. After checking the crash logs, Closure realized some of the Terran scripts and plugins weren't viable for Earth programs, necessitating some rewriting. After translating the scripts and activating it, only half of a server farm exploded. On their third attempt, only one server burst into flames. In the end, it took them two days and three nights to actually make it work.

Along with half of Tess's server farms in Canada.

"Shame, that's where I stored my plans to take over humanity." she joked last night. "Oh well, I'll bill the Protectorate later."

'It would have been longer,' Colin realized, as the loading bar was finally half way through. 'If it wasn't for Tess's processing speed.'

Closure suddenly hitched her breath. "Seven Hells, did it stall?"

Alarmed, Colin narrowed his eyes at the screen. "Tess?"

"It hasn't moved for 3.0567 sec-oh thank God!" Tess announced before sounding relieved. "Nevermind, it's moving now."

Colin and Closure gave a sigh of relief. Soon afterwards, the program finished loading. The loading bar closed, replaced with their predictive system. It had a tactical map and their programmed features. "Looks like it's ready." Closure announced. She turned to face Colin. "Ready to see if it works?"

Full of determination, Colin nodded. "Let's do it." Hovering his mouse on the Test Analyze button, he took a deep breath. It was a new feature they had to insert last night, as he made the mistake of linking the analyze button to the actual Endbringer Warning Sirens. "Hold onto your butts!"

Click!

The trio watched with anticipation as their predictive system did a mock run. After a few minutes, the results were in. "Okay…according to the test report," Colin read the report, giving an amused huff. "Leviathan will be attacking Brockton Bay, Behemoth for Canberra, and Simurgh for DC."

Closure chuckled. "Welp, looks like we'll still need to work on it. Maybe a script indicating only choosing one city and one EB?"

And then the Endbringer Sirens blared.

Startled, they turned to Tess. "Uh…Tess?" Closure asked, confused. "You do realize this is a test, right?"

"I know," Tess replied, looking pale. "Except my monitoring system just picked up EB movement."

Colin's eyes widened in shock. "Which one?"

"...all of them."

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And so ends the Rest and Relaxation Arc. We are now at the Endbringer Arc, where things will escalate to a great degree.

Who will survive? Who will live?

Find out more in the next chapter.