"So what are you going to do about Brockton?" Keagan asked. Nina had taken them from the sweltering Gobi desert to a nice hotel in Hawaii. Now the two of them were sitting in sunbathing chairs next to a huge pool, watching dozens of kids shriek in joy as they jumped into the cold water, whilst their parents either swam in the deep end or reclined on chairs as well.
"I should probably go back to make sure that my clones managed to actually get the city domed," she mused. She was back in her preferred form, and she smirked at the guys across the pool who were checking her out. Shapeshifting was just another really neat package that she'd gotten along with her powers, and the attention was well worth it.
Obviously, she wouldn't know what to do if a guy actually wanted to flirt with her, but she liked the fact that they were looking in the first place.
"About that," Keagan said uncomfortably. "I really do think it's a bad idea."
"Why's that?" she asked, genuinely wanting to know. Keagan had shown himself to be way smarter than she expected of his age, and so far the little advice that he had given out was already incredibly useful.
"Do you remember what Danny's friend Kurt said to Skitter after the Slaughterhouse Nine were driven out of town?"
'Not really, no."
"Well, it basically boiled down to 'We'd rather die on our feet than live on our knees.' Nina, Brockton has been under the control of the gangs since Parahumans rose up, but that doesn't mean that they were happy about it. Even if you're benevolent, they're still gonna look at you as a dictator. They'll keep thinking that you want something with them, and they'll keep fighting. Besides, a city being domed is probably everyone's worst nightmare. If you're lucky, then a lot of people just get traumatized. If you're not, you're gonna be fighting some new Triggers soon. With powers you know nothing about," he pointed out.
"Plus, the Protectorate is always gonna be against you, and when the time comes to fight Scion, all anyone has to say is, 'she took over a city,' to invalidate your argument. I mean, think about it. If a Dictator from South America called up the president and told him, 'Hey, there's a superpowered psychopath out to destroy the world, we should join forces and stop them,' do you really think that the President is gonna believe the Dictator?"
Nina bit her lip as she considered this. She hadn't really thought about it. To her surprise, Keagan had raised a lot of points that made her realize just how short-sighted she'd been. She let out a frustrated sigh as she massaged her temples.
"I just wanted to help make Brockton a better place. I mean, you saw the crazy shit that was happening there. I just thought that I could fix everything, make it better for everyone there."
"You have to admit, you kind of went about it the wrong way. I mean, if you look at what you did objectively, it does kinda look like you got drunk on the power you got from Coil's Shard and instantly decided to kidnap every parahuman in the Bay for more."
"...yeah, I get it," she sulked. "But what do we do now? I pretty much blew whatever heroic reputation I have to pieces after yesterday. Man, if only we could go back in time…"
"If that is supposed to be you stealthily asking me to use a Time-Turner or the Time Stone, you're gonna have to do better than that. Plus, we should really save the crazy powerful artifacts and powers for the Final Battle."
"...if only everyone could forget what happened yesterday..."
"I am not helping you brainwash North America."
"Oh, come on! What else are we supposed to do then?"
Keagan gave her a look that practically screamed, 'Are you serious?'
"I mean this in the nicest way possible: You're an idiot."
"Ouch."
"Nina, there is literally a secret organization running the world that we can easily blackmail or bribe to make what you did yesterday legal."
"Oh, you mean Cauldron! But we don't really have anything to trade them."
"Alright, be honest, how did you survive this long here without ever getting kidnapped or killed?"
"Well, I can't deny that there've been some close calls."
"Of course there were…"
"Stop being so mean and help me!" she pouted. Just because the answer was obvious to him didn't mean it was to her! She wasn't really good at
planning for long-term events. Her own plan to kill Scion had basically boiled down to throwing clones at him until she hit something critical. She was way better in an actual fight.
This time Keagan gave a frustrated sigh as he sat up in his chair.
"Nina. Cauldron wants a superpowered army. You are a superpowered army. We literally just have to find Alexandria, Eidolon, or Contessa, and tell them in exchange for fighting in the Final Battle, they just need to make you look like a hero. In fact, we can probably squeeze a lot out of them on that promise alone. Like actually fixing Brockton Bay's economy and job problems, the thing that neither of us really know how to fix. And offering you up isn't even our only option! We can tell them about how Sting affects the Entities, or tell them about the Endbringer weak spots, or how to recharge Eidolon. We can literally hold them by the balls to make them dance."
"Holy shit, that's a great plan! I never really wanted to talk to Cauldron because I always figured that Contessa would either kill me or enslave me, but with how much power I have now, I can just threaten to nuke her if she tries anything funny."
The pure joy on her face actually cracked a smile from Keagan. But there was something important that he had to address first if he was going to trus-work with his new ally.
"Nina?"
"Hmm?"
"When I was in the Astral Plane, you did something to me, to get me to talk. What was it?"
"Oh, that? It's called Charmspeak. When I was a kid, I read Rick Riordian Camp Halfblood books, and one of the powers that I really liked was Charmspeak. It's a power that was given to the children of Aphrodite. It's basically a really powerful vocal hypnotism-"
"Please, never use that on me again. Or any kind of mind control power on me."Or I'll have to kill you.
She paused at that, then nodded.
"I understand," she said slowly. "I'm still gonna use it against villains, though. If everything goes to hell and diplomacy is our last resort, I can't get hung up on it. Heck, it might work against Scion. Probably not, but no reason to throw away a perfectly good power."
He agreed. He may have found it distasteful, the ability to invade someone's mind, but as long as she didn't use it on him, it should be fine. Of course, he was still going to start carrying psychic inhibitors on him from now on.
For a minute, the two of them merely sat in their chairs, admiring the rare moment of peace in their hectic lives.
"What if we lose?" Keagan asked suddenly. "I've got some plans to fight the Endbringers and Scion, but you know what they say; no plan survives contact with the Enemy. I think separately, we're world busters, but Universe-busting together, with maybe one or two dimensional attacks between us. But Scion? He's multiversal. And if we kill the Endbringer's we end up bringing new Endbringers that are immune to what killed the first one. I just-I don't know. I'm not giving up, but you have to admit, our task is daunting."
"...I hate the idea of destiny. I hate the idea that you were set on one path for the rest of your life. The idea that I was destined to be a loser, or alone? That used to scare the crap out of me," she revealed. "So I refuse to say it's our destiny to winorlose. But what I want to believe in is the fact that we were the right people for the job. There were seven billion people on our planet. Millions of them were soldiers, or fighters, tough people who could make tough decisions. There were also millions of super nerds, people who could probably quote Worm, Ward, Pact, and Twig word for word and recite WOG like it was the alphabet. But we got picked to save the world. So, maybe there's a reason why we're different from the other seven billion people back home."
"Could be because we're more expendable," Keagan said darkly.
"Don't think like that," she chastised him. "We'll get stronger and better. We can beat them all. We just have to keep moving forward."
"...okay. We should probably go back to the Bay."
"C'mon, my clones will be able to win. I know we're gonna talk to Cauldron, but for now, they can hold down the fort so things don't too wild. I also sent them a message to make sure that they don't let the city get domed."
"Alright, I guess. But why do you want to stay here so much?"
"I haven't had a single break from super-heroing since I got to Brockton. I think I can afford to have an afternoon off. And you definitely need to unwind after our fight."
"Hmph. Fine then. But we really should make sure that your clones don't start an uprising or something," he half-joked
"Hey, my girls are smarter than that," she shot back. "If they're gonna plan an uprising, no one's gonna know what's happening."
Max tried once again to summon blades from the ground or from his armor. Once again, he felt nothing.
He gave a small growl of frustration.
His power, the reward for suffering at the hands of his imbecile of a father and wretched witch of a sister was still absent.
All because of that demonic girl.
The fight hadn't even been a fight. They had found her on the streets, recognized as her as the one plunging the city into chaos, and attacked. But she had been vicious as well: Ripping Hookwolf in half, breaking Victor's arms, somehow managing to give Kreig a concussion.
But the worst affront had been how cavalier she'd acted to his attacks when he had decided to face her.
His blades shattered against her skin.
His pillars of steel merely been dented against her body. His needles, thin and sharp, merely left white scratch lines on her skin, unable to pierce even the thinnest layer of her skin.
Then, with a simple backhand, she had broken his jaw and launched him through a concrete wall. His last sight before the darkness claimed him was his Empire scattering like dogs in the wind.
When he'd woken up, he'd been in a small room with a small bed, a toilet, an adjoined shower, and a change of clothes. A clone of the girl brought him food three times a day, and a small snack in between meals as well.
If anything, this was slightly worse than the torture that he had been prepared for. He knew the reason why she provided him with Japanese comic books was to stave off boredom whilst denying him any information of current events as well as digging into the nazism, probably.
The room was big enough that he could walk around it comfortably, the food was surprisingly good, and the books were nothing he had ever read before.
(Secretly, he was rooting for Naruto to make it. Filthy villagers. If it had been him, the entire village would've run red with blood after the firstweek.)
He had no idea what had happened after he got knocked out of the fight. He knew the girl was incredibly powerful, and that she had been fighting every parahuman group in the Bay, and had actually been succeeding. He had thought that she would eventually run afoul of his rivals, but the explosions had stopped about a day ago, his powers still hadn't come back, and judging from his breakfast this morning, the girl was doing just fine.
"Knock, knock, King Nazi! I have your yummy lunch! If you're naked or try punching me again, I'm gonna kick your ass!" said a cheerful voice from his door.
Speak of the devil and she will appear. That was, of course, why max was currently decked out in his armor. She probably knew his identity anyway, but as long as she pretended to adhere to that part of the rules, he would be happy to pretend that she probably didn't know everything about him from his name to his Social Security Number.
The girl strode in, a large tray balanced in her hands, an almost comical amount of food piled on it. He idly wondered if she was planning to fatten him up on foreign cuisine, which was undoubtedly another not-so-subtle barb at his 'beliefs.' For dinner last night, he had been served a large bowl of Korean hot pot barbeque, and this morning he'd been served a large tray of what seemed like vegetable pancakes which were surprisingly tasty.
"Alright Triple-K, you should be glad because I hooked you up with some bomb-ass food. We got omurice, we gotkatsudon, we got chicken and beef dumplings, we gotudon, and for a snack, I got you some mochi! Man, if I wasn't a clone…"
"You do realize that I won't be able to finish it all, right?" he asked drily.
"Stop whining," she mocked him. "Look at you; you're shaking underneath all that armor because you can barely stand when you wear it. You need to put some meat on your bones and stop relying on your powers so much. Trust me, you'll need that soon. You shouldn't be so ungrateful; you should've seen the Merchants. They haven't had a homecooked meal in years! Trainwreck looked like he had freaking stars in his eyes-"
"The Merchants?" he asked, confused. Was that a group of parahumans he had never heard of before?
"The Archer's Bridge Merchants? Skidmark and Squealer's gang?"
"Those two have a gang?"
"Wow. They've got about five parahumans, Captain Reich. Did you really not know?"
No, he had not, and that was a grave thing to realize. His operational security obviously needed work if an entire gang had been allowed to form without his knowledge. First the Blur, then this she-devil, and now Skidmark? This was just embarrassing.
"So, I see you've started on Naruto," she said with a shit-eating grin as she set down the tray. "How is it?"
"Uninspired, cliche, juvenile and idiotic," he said, wiping the grin off of her face. Just because he couldn't fight her didn't mean he couldn't needle her.
"I've read better tax reports than this."
"Youjust don't appreciate good literature," she retorted, poking the chest of his armor and leaving a tiny dent. "Doesn't surprise me to be honest, though. All that Aryan bullshit you've been spewing probably fucked up your ability to actually enjoy the finer things in life."
However, Max was only half listening to her rant about the book. He had been observing her ever since she'd come into the room, and he'd noticed something interesting: she had a limp. It was a slight thing, barely noticeable to a civilian, but for someone who'd bandaged his wounds and walked into a Board meeting the next day, he could see that she was clearly favoring her right leg.
That meant she'd been hurt.
He felt a smirk grow underneath his helmet as he crossed his arms cutting off her unceasing stream of babble.
"So, who's the one who managed to finally wound you?" he asked coyly. "Must've been a very powerful cape."
"Oh, you noticed?" she asked, surprised. "A kid from my hometown pulled up and wanted to run the ones. I won, so you don't have to worry about that. And then the Triumvirate dropped in and started wrecking shit. I will be honest, Alexandria is alotstronger than I thought. If she wasn't a piece of shit, I'd ask her to a spar."
The Triumvirate. The smirk underneath his helmet morphed into a full-on grin. If the Triumvirate were here, that meant that it was basically over for her.
Even he, with all his resources and tools, wouldn't dare to grab the attention of the three greatest Parahumans in America.
The girl had practically signed her own kill order.
"So, how long until I can go home?" he asked smugly. With the Triumvirate in town, he would be rescued soon enough, and when that happened, he could make an escape attempt as soon as they left. The Triumvirate didn't usually stick around for the clean-up, and this time, it would be to his advantage.
What surprised him, however, was the snort of derisiveness she gave. "When we say so, dumbass."
That…made him uneasy. "The Protectorate would never let you keep us," he replied. "No matter how badly we hurt them, they know they need us, if only for Endbringers and other S-class threats."
She gave him a puzzled look. "What's the Protectorate got to do with it?"
"I-I thought you said they were here. That Alexandria beat you."
"Oh, I never said that," she said with a laugh. "I said she was stronger than I thought. I actually thought I'd have to get serious there for a second. But, Nah, we beat them. Wasn't easy, but we did it.They're down here in the base too. I'm not really sure who you send after the Triumvirate fail, though. Do you think that's when they write off the city, or they start throwing nukes?"
No. No, no, no, no. The Brockton Bay Protectorate, he could understand.
His Empire, he could swallow that too. Even the entire criminal population of Brockton Bay, he could stomach the fact that the girl could beat them all.
But theTriumvirate?
Those gods trapped in human shells? He had seen one of the rare videos taken during an Endbringer fight, the footage made all the more valuable because it had been taken by a cape who'd had a clear view and a steady hand.
He had watched as those three demigods fought Behemoth head-on, physically grappling with the beast and ripping pieces of its hide out.
He had sworn to himself that he would never do anything foolish enough to call them to the Bay.
But to hear that this girl had beaten them on herlonesome, the true pinnacles of Parahuman Evolution…
"What are you?" he whispered in fear.
The girl merely coked her head to the side, staring at him as her eyes began to…change. From red and black, to purple and black, to pure white, to blood-red slits, and ending on orange toad-like pupils.
"I'm the closest thing to a Devil that you will face," she said quietly, an uncomfortable pressure filling the room. "Know this, Max Anders. When you leave this room, it will not be because anyone saved you from me.It will be because I allowed you to walk out of here.I don't intend to keep you here forever. The things I need from you can be retrieved with you being halfway across the world. When I hand you over the PRT, you will go to jail. You will serve your sentence. And should you be released before you die, I advise you to find some small corner of the world and hide from me there. Because I hear even a hint of an Empire rising, if even a whisper reaches my ears of a man who can produce metal blades appears,I will come for you, and you will wish for the Birdcage."
When she left, Max fell onto his bed, his legs like jelly.
'Is this what a divine punishment is like?' he wondered. 'Is this what a civilian feels in the presence of a Cape? A man in the presence…of a god?'
"I need you to save the Triumvirate."
Contessa blinked. Once in surprise, and the second in confusion.
"Pardon me, Doctor Mother. You'll have to excuse me, I could've sworn that you just told me to go and rescue our three strongest assets. As in, the man who is able to move at light speed and unleash lasers on par with that, the woman who can regularly go toe-to-toe with the Endbringers, and the man we intend to lead our army against the golden eldritch being that pretends to be a hero."
"Yes."
"Those three."
"Yes, Contessa, those three."
"Are you sure we don't have another Triumvirate? Like our three greatest football players? Or maybe our three greatest basketball players?"
Sigh.'Contessa, please stop playing games, you've been insufferable since you started using the Path less and less."
"And for a good reason. A year ago, I would've taken this order without complaint. However, as I now possess more than a five-year-old's cognitive
ability to understand the danger, I politely decline."
"Why?"
"Because those three can kill me. Quite easily in fact. I don't know why whenever we meet with them, you have only me at your side like I'm some kind of deterrent. If they truly want you dead, you're going to die. And now, you're telling me that they need rescuing forms something that isn't an Endbringer and has somehow managed to hold onto them for more than five minutes. And yet you expect me to come back from this alive?"
"The Path will guide you."
"The Path is also telling me that if I go after them, I am going to die. Then guess what? No more Path."
"Contessa, there is no one else we can send for this."
"Yeah, running the world using only five people is coming back to bite you in the ass, huh, Mom?"
"Contessa."
"...I want a mother-daughter trip."
"...pardon?"
"You raised me-horribly, I might add-but you still fed me, clothed me, bathed me and sent me out on deadly missions from the age of six. And yet I don't really knowyou."
"...okay? And?"
"If I do this for you, and I come back alive, tomorrow, you and I are going to spend quality time together. No path, no Cauldron, no Earth Bet, period.
Capiche?"
"I am going to say yes because I have no idea what else to say and we really need those three back."
"Awesome! Love you, Mom! Bye! Oh, Door to Coil's base!"
Doctor Mother turned to look at the Numberman, who was trying and failing to keep the amusement off his face.
"What just happened?" she half-demanded, half-begged.
"Strangely enough, all calculations point to her actually loving you."
"That…is hard to believe."
"I know. You're a horrible person. And this is coming from a willing mass murderer, which should tell you something."
"Just-shut up and help me pack for tomorrow."
A portal opened in front of Alexandria, and she let out a sigh of relief as she saw Contessa walk out of it, a knife in one hand and a gun in the other. Was it embarrassing to have to be rescued like this? Of course. Did she want to die? Not particularly.
The fight had been incredibly one-sided, and not on the side, she had hoped for. She had barely thrown a punch before a sphere of wind had formed around her head and started stealing the breath in her lungs. She had tried to fly out of the clone's range, only for another clone to pin her down with a strength that rivaled her own and hadn't let go until she passed out.
When she'd woken up, she'd been tied down to a recliner with purple chains and was unable to feel her power, with Eidolon and Legend situated next to her in recliners of their own, the two of them unconscious.
Strangely enough, it seemed like the girl had also healed her because she now had two eyes and depth perception, which was a god send and could no longer feel any of the constant aches and pains that had been present during her cancer.
Then, less than two minutes ago, the girl that they had been fighting appeared along with the boy that had been trying to kill her by her side.
The girl had summoned three chintz armchairs, and the boy had summoned the golden ax that he had used earlier, the two of them sitting and waiting.
She had tried to speak, but the girl had shot a beam of red light at her, and she had no longer been able to speak.
Fast forward to now, when Contessa walked out of the Door.
"Make a move, Contessa, and this place goes up in flames before you have the time to say a word. So take a seat, and we'll talk," the boy said coldly. 'Trust us, you can't win this."
Contessa hesitated for a moment, then sat down, crossing her legs elegantly as she did so.
"State your terms," she said blankly.
"We know about Cauldron," the girl said, causing Alexandria to freeze. "We know about the Case 53's the sick project you have going on in Brockton and a bunch of other heinous shit that you guys have done ever since Contessa killed Scion's girlfriend."
If the information blew Contessa's mind the same way it blew hers, then she didn't show it.How the hell did she know this much? About Contessa, the Entity, and Cauldron?!
"You wish to blackmail us?"
"Yes," said the boy plainly, his thick, black goggles shining in the dim light of the room light. 'But we also have information that's important to you as well. The two of us can help each other."
"What information do you have would be worth our attention?"
"Legend has a Ward named Flethclette. Her power is named Sting, and it's what the Entities use to kill each other. If aimed correctly, it can kill the Endbringers, and you can use it to expose Sciosn's real body before landing a lethal blow," the girl said breezily.
"Holy shit."
It was when the three of them turned to face her when she realized thatshehad been the one to say that out loud and that the girl's Blaster power must've worn off. But could they blame her? This was a huge boon for Cauldron! To know such a resource had been underneath their noses the entire time, almost made Alexandria shiver in fear at how it could've been lost.
"That seems to be adequate. What do you want?"
"You know that thing I did yesterday, when I took over the city, imprisoned every hero and villain, then fought and beat you guys?" the girl asked nervously. "Can you make that…go away? Like, twist it to make things look legal or something?"
"It will be difficult. Another piece of information would go a long way in motivating me to do it properly."
It was possible? Alexandria frankly thought the opposite; the girl had taken over a city. People associated that with Nilbog.It would take a damned PR miracle to turn that around.
"The Endbringers can be driven off by a blast strong enough to crack a planet. String theories G-Driver has this capability. As do the two of us," the boy said, his hand caressing the golden ax. Alexandria was well aware of the power hidden inside the weapon. "We are half as strong as Scion, and the two of us can handle an Endbringer easily. However, killing one will summon two more that are immune to whatever killed its predecessors. Considering that there are twenty-one Endrbingers, I would assume that you'd be just fine with the three we have now."
Twenty-One-!!!!
"Quite," Contessa said drily. "You have given us more than enough information. I can see that you will be useful allies. I would like to offer you to join Cauldron-"
"Hell no," said the girl flatly. "Take that offer and shove it up to your ass."
"Very well then, " Contessa said, easily moving past the insult. "I would like to offer you ten vials, Door privileges, access to Cauldron resources, and the favor that you have asked for."
"Wait seriously?" the girl asked, shocked. The boy jabbed her in the side with his elbow. "That's it?"
"Yes. Please release the Triumvirate, and by tomorrow morning, your name will be cleared. I will send you a text with instructions on what to do tomorrow. Please release the Triumvirate, and I will start immediately."
Dumbfounded, the girl made a hand sign, and Alexandria saw the chains disappear as her strength and invulnerability returned, the same happening to Eidolon and Legend, who were still knocked out. Warily, not wanting to startle either of her captors, she strode over to them and carried each of them over her shoulder in a fireman carry.
"Thank you," she said, turning to the two teenagers. "You're doing a great thing, helping us."
"We're not friends," spat the girl. "This is just mutually beneficial. That's it."
"I understand. Nevertheless, the information that you have given us will save hundreds of worlds."
"Wait," said the boy. "Eidolon… has the ability to stop the Endbringer's. Permanently. But there's a…mental block of sorts, in his mind that prevents him from doing so. The thought that he needs a worthy opponent. Get him therapy, make sure he goes to it, and the chances of us beating Scion go up exponentially."
And just like that, another gold mine of information had been given, this one for free. Who were these children?
"I'm telling you this because we need a solid plan to kill Scion."
"We call him the Enemy, " piped up Contessa. "We suspect that he can hear and recognize his name."
The boy nodded. "Very well then. The Enemy. I look forward to our partnership, Cauldron."
"As do we."
And with that, They walked through the Door.
"So, just out of curiosity, how did each of you get caught?"
"She choked me out by removing the air from my lungs."
"Okay, reasonable. Legend?"
"She turned me into a sheep."
"...A sheep?"
'Yes."
"With wool?"
"Yes. It was very disorienting."
"Okay then. Eidolon."
"I surrendered."
"...why?"
Shrug.
"She looked like she was going to hurt you, and I was too far to save you. So I offered to come quietly if she pared you two."
"Wow. David, that was…awfully sweet of you. Outright stupid, but very sweet."
"Yeah. I kinda thought you didn't like us."
Squirm.
"You guys are my best friends. I didn't want to lose you, not after Hero. You're all I have besides being Eidolon. I-I thought if I lost you, it'd be very hard to keep going."
"...David."
"Bring it in, buddy. I'm sorry I thought you didn't care."
"It's okay. I forgive you."
"You know, this is a very wholesome moment for us."
"Mhm."
"Yeah."
"I agree."
"...do you think this means we've been Mastered?"
"..."
"..."
"...Shit."
