Okay. Leviathan was only about a week or so from now. That meant that he needed to get ready. He had a list of options that he had in mind, so now all he had to do was pick from them. For Leviathan, the speedster and hydrokinetic, he was thinking about pulling things from the DC Universe. They had some decently powerful weapons.

Starting off with durability, he'd go with the HellBat Armor, with the black Superman Suit underneath it. That way, if he lost the armor which didn't have the life force draining component, thank god, he'd still be able to tank a hit, despite both of them being half as strong as their originals.

For range, he'd use a Green Lantern ring, which would enable him to create shields. For battlefield control…he'd use Neptune's trident, try and wrestle some control back from the scaly bastard.

But all of that was for him and his safety. He needed opponents that could wrestle Leviathan to the ground, or, at best, distract him enough that he'd forget about the other capes on the battlefield.

He had a bunch of Jaegers that he could set on auto-pilot from both Pacific Rim and Pacific Rim: Uprising and they balanced each other nicely: one set of robots was slow but sturdy and strong, whilst the second set was fast and agile, but fragile, and both had a decent amount of ammunition.

Of course, he'd have to set them in the water, as he was pretty sure that Nina would try and kill him if he broke Brockton Bay.

Speaking of Nina, this would actually be where she'd be able to shine. Even if she wasn't in direct combat, she'd be invaluable; a huge amount of bodies to throw at the Endbringers, mass teleportation that could be used to evacuate the city in minutes, healing abilities for any downed capes, tracking senses and runes for search and rescue, and the ability to power up other capes.

Naturally, it was the last ability that led him to another problem: Eidolon. Nina had confessed that when she'd held him captive, she'd topped him up with some Shard energy. Not enough to bring back some of his old abilities, but his current powers were filled to the brim.

So, now he had to wonder; did he advise Nina to bring Eidolon back to his prime, or did he tell her to drain his Shard dry?

On one hand, not only was Eidolon crazily powerful, he was tough enough to scare Scion into using his PTV, and was one of the few effective capes versus the Endbringers. On the other hand, Eidolon was responsible for the Endbringers, and they already had written confirmation that his death seemed to leave the Endbringers listless.

Draining his shard would keep him aliveandstop the Endbringers, but would also remove a useful power from the board.

There was also the option of powering up Alexandria and Legend to see if their dying shards would give them more power if they got topped up. Those two were already beasts with what they had, more power might mean that they'd be on Eidolon's level, in a way. He did not want to see what would happen if they gave Contessa a boost, so that was only an option if Scion was knocking right on their door.

Then there were the Cauldron facilities that they now had access to. They had ten vials to their name, and that meant ten potential powers on their side, depending on who they picked. He already had some unpowered candidates from Canon in mind, but he'd have to interview them in person as well. He wasn't thinking of making some kind of hero team; maybe a group of superpowered emergency responders. No fighting, only rescuing. He and Nina could handle that part of the business.

Privately, he would admit this much to himself; he likedthispart of the superhero life: planning which resources would be best used here, which power would be most useful here, how to fight certain villains, etc. He loved challenging himself to find an answer to a question.

One example of this would be the upcoming Leviathan fight, and how he would use it to make Nina look good in the public eye. One of his ideas was to present Nina as the Legend/Eidolon of their group; an incredibly powerful, extremely empathetic hero who would be ready to take on the world.

He would be the Alexandria of the team, cold and quiet, but the one they sent on to squash any threats.

He also had plans for Nina's clones themselves: with their ability to use the owner's abilities, they could disguise themselves in each town and city in the United States, striking down threats before they started, letting them create a spy network on par with Jiraiya's, maybe even surpassing it.

Before he could spare a train of thought to that plan, a 'pop' sounded throughout the penthouse, and Nina appeared on the couch of the living room, looking utterly wiped out.

Right now, they were inside Nina's suitcase penthouse, and yes, those words still didn't make any more sense than they had the day before. He couldn't go back to his apartment; his roommate wasn't stupid, and once he'd seen that both he and Crystal disappeared, then seen Crystal and another unknown cape appear, he'd connect the dots, and next thing he knew, Accord or the Butcher was there in his bedroom, a knife held to his throat and an unavoidable offer whispered into his ears.

So now he was bunking with Nina.

Obviously, he wasn't going to stay here, no matter how decked out with creature comforts that this place was decked out with(a game room, a home theatre, a bowling alley, a heated Olympic-sized swimming pool, kitchen fully stocked with knockoffs of snacks from their own dimension, etc.

He had already emailed his Dean to talk about transferring all his classes to an online setting, and he had found a decent apartment here in the Bay. Yay, he got to live with the crazy people again. But right now, he needed to know how Nina's appointment with Contessa went.

"So, how'd it go?" he asked, looking up from the notebook he had scribbled ideas in. "You home free?"

"...yeah. And note to self, even if we can kill Contessa, she can ruin us," Nina said faintly, staring at the ceiling. "Like, I really think we shouldn't cross her."

"What did she do?"

"Check the news. It's only the biggest story in America right now."

With a snap of her fingers, the eighty-six-inch TV mounted on the wall burst to life, showing Keagan just how good the Path to Victory was.

"And onto our lead story today, it seems that the S-class Parahuman known as 'Anubis' who tried to take over the coastal city of Brockton Bay is actually one of the two students of the Triumvirate!"

Keagan blue screened at that. One of thetwostudents of the Triumvirate? What was Contessa playing at?

The camera switched over to Alexandria, who was giving off an aura of weary strength and determination.

"Anubis, or Glyph, as she is called, is one of our recent students,' she said softly, her helmet pointed downward, seemingly drowning in shame. "She and Takedown are in training to take our places in the Triumvirate should anything happen to us. We've been teaching them for two years now, and I have been acting as her personal mentor, whilst Eidolon has been mentoring Takedown, whom you saw fight against her yesterday. A year ago, Anubis had noticed one of the villains in Brockton Bay was subtly making big moves in the underworld. She wanted this to be her debut, a massive takedown of a villain that no one even knew was working behind the scenes."

Alexandria raised her head, and the camera closed in on the faint tear tracks on her cheeks.

"I should've taught her more than combat. More than fighting. She did well, very well for a rookie, but this incident will forever mar her heroic record. I know I can't ask you to forget what happened in Brockton Bay, but I ask that you forgive her once you know the details of what happened."

The camera turned back to the newswoman.

"In a shocking twist of events, it seems that the local supervillain Coil, aka, Thomas Calvert of the PRT, was planning to enact what Glyph did two days ago-take over Brockton Bay. The results of Glyph's sting operation show that Calvert had his pockets deep into the parahuman underworld-evidence shows that he was in regular contact with several Fallen cells, the Yangban, the CUI, and the German parahuman organization Gesellschaft. But that's just the start of Coil's twisted web. From what we've been told, Calvert was collecting the secret identities of both heroes and villains worldwide, as well as supplying villain organizations with insider information of the PRT's movements. Investigators haven't said much, but it looks like the deaths of almost one hundred heroes are a result of Calvert's actions, with twice the amount of casualties on the villain side.

"Holy shit," he said under his breath, finally realizing what the endgame was. "She's making him into the devil."

How do you distract the world from looking at one embarrassing incident? You point out the ones that were far worse. Even if Coil hadn't done half of this, Keagan was pretty sure that Contessa had scattered documents to make him look like the worst thing that had ever happened to the United States. And even as he watched Calvert become America's boogeyman, the news lady wasn't done yet.

"Calvert wanted power, power over the lives of millions, but he knew that what he needed was power and infamy, and to do that, he needed to make himself seem like the better option.

He created a small team of villains, the Undersiders, to embarrass the local Protectorate. He gave the local villains tips that lead to the deaths of hundreds of PRT troopers.

He sponsored dozens of small villain teams in North America to do the same. The Blue Flu Gang, The Dockyard Dogs, The Kill Dozers, The Backstreet Boiz, The Owl Tribe, and the Gator Congregation were just a few of the independent villain groups that had Calvert as their shadowy backer, killing civilians, retrieving blackmail on several high tech companies, injuring heroes and killing troopers on a weekly basis.

"The purpose of all this? To make Brockton Bay seem like a paradise. Once he had incited enough gang wars to kill his rivals, he would've hired several, 'hero' groups to come in and keep the peace. Coil even purchased plans from Accord to kill, incapacitate and even enslave any other villain groups that would dare walk into his territory. He planned to rule Brockton with an iron fist, and have an unseen stranglehold over America itself. This was the villain that Glyph had discovered, and the one she had planned to take down. But then it all went wrong."

The camera switched again, but this time over to Eidolon, who seemed to be in some kind of interview room.

"Everything was fine at first. We were getting regular updates from Glyph, and we started preparing a case against Calvert, once we saw just how dangerous he was to America as a whole. The case facts kept piling up, we kept getting more evidence, and the three of us were just waiting for the signal to come in. Then, she missed a call in, and then another. And a few hours later, Brockton Bay went dark. The only thing we knew was that clones ofsomebodywere running around and fighting the gangs. We believed that she'd either been compromised and had resolved to fight her way out, or that someone with a similar cloning power was running amok. Takedown, who was stationed in Boston for his assignment, was sent in to see what exactly was happening. When he met up with Glyph, he said that she'd given him the right code-words, but that she still wasn't backing down. Once he noticed that something was off, he immediately sent us a signal and engaged her in battle. It wasn't until we came personally to the Bay that we realized what was wrong."

The camera panned back to the newswoman. Idly, he wondered just how many careers would soar just from covering this event.

"We now know that Thomas Calvert was willing to go to serious lengths to gain power in the dark underbelly of America, but none of us knew exactly what these lengths would entail. Coil's newest acquisitions, a group of nomadic capes called The Travelers, who were suspected to have been working with Accord and the Yangban, were sent to retrieve a particularly dangerous Cape. But it's not the Cape itself that will surprise you, but rather, where they were taken from."

The camera went dark for a second, then switched over to a man with white hair in a suit. However, Keagan was able to instantly recognize him. After all, he had searched up every canon cape and character that he could remember once he got to Earth Bet.

James Tagg, this world's version of Thunderbolt Ross.

"Simurgh Quarantine zones are called 'quarantine zones' for a reason. Many people have called us inhumane for containing them, but to those people, I call you fools," he growled. "You weren't there with us in Switzerland. You didn't see how the Ziz bombs would just walk up to one of our men, stab him in the neck, and walk back to their house for dinner. Those poor souls didn't even know what was wrong. They'd cry and scream and beg for mercy whilst trying to gouge out our eyes. They weren't human beings anymore. They just belonged to her, disposable soldiers that she could use against us to further our demise. And now we have a good look at exactly what that means."

The camera switched back to the woman, but now there was a picture on the screen next to her, a picture that he surprisingly recognized from a fan drawing online back home.

"This is Echidna, one of the Case fifty-three's that resided in Madison, Wisconsin, one of the cities just recently attacked by the Endbringer known as the Simurgh. The Travelers, under Coil's orders, took her from there and brought her to New York for a test run of her powers, resulting in several dozen missing person's cases. What was this devastating power, you ask? The power to create evil clones."

Once again, the camera went dark, but this time, rather than switch to someone else, it began to play a video.

Nina was in the giant vault with Noelle, neatly dodging the mass of tentacles and limbs that reached out and lashed at her, leaving craters whenever they missed. In the video, you could see that Nina was sweating, shaking, bruised, and bleeding from various places.

It looked like the fight between them had been going on for a while, and that Nina was on the losing end. Suddenly, two limbs came at her at the same time.

She dodged the first one, but the second one caught her by the scruff of the neck, eliciting a cry from her. The limb shot back to the body, where it deposited her into one of the gigantic mouths.

As soon as she was in, Echidna's body swelled and bulged, and another mouth opened to deposit three naked clones of Nina, covered in slime as they slid onto the floor.

Weakly, they got to their feet, quickly learning how to walk.

As soon as they did so, Echidna gave out an angry shriek, causing them to fall to their knees as they bowed to her.

"That's not Noelle, by the way,' Nina said. "That's a bunch of clones using a really solid henge to make it look like her."

"The video shown was a demonstration of Echidna's insidious powers," the newslady said as the camera panned back to her.

"Glyph's clones could use her own powers, albeit slightly weaker, and each of them had a twisted set of morals and goals.

One wanted to destroy everything that Glyph loved, and as such, tried to kill her mentors in the Triumvirate.

This clone was named Regicide. One wanted to rule the Bay and thus created enough chaos and temporary clones to consider walling off the coastal city.

This clone was named Ruler. The final Clone, named Anubis, had a strange fascination with other Parahumans, and as such, began keeping them as pets and surprisingly enough, batteries. As it turns out, the clones have a limited lifetime, but can extend this by stealing energy from Parahumans.

The Triumvirate confirmed that Glyph does indeed possess all of these powers, but most of them were not to be used outside of an S-class incident, and even then, only on Alexandria's orders."

The camera turned back to Alexandria, and it zoomed in just in time to catch her sneakily trying to wipe away a tear. Keagan began to realize just how outmatched they might be if Cauldron really decided to go after them.

Everyone always made Cauldron seem dumb, due to their experimentation and other unsavory ideals, but this level of national manipulation was staggering.

Coil was slowly being turned into the Cape Boogeyman before his eyes and had he not known about what was happening behind the scenes, he doubted that he would've seen through it.

"When the clone-Anubis-captured us, Eidolon was able to free us and fight our way out before we could be fully depowered. Unfortunately, the clone escaped.

Legend went after Ruler and Eidolon went after Regicide, whilst I went to go find Glyph. In my search for her, I came across Echidna.

We fought for a bit until I saw her release another clone of Glyph.

At that point, I realized what must've happened, and I…lost control of myself. I killed the newest clone and…ripped the Echidna apart," she said with a deep sigh.

"I apologize for my lack of control. I ask that you allow me to shoulder the responsibility for the events of the Brockton Bay takeover. It is my fault for sending out my apprentice when she had limited experience in a situation like this.

My department will personally handle the costs of any destroyed or missing property, and I will bear any complaints from this incident.

All I ask is that you do not hold this against her and that you give her a second chance to prove to all of you that she is both capable and willing to protect you."

And one final time, the camera turned back to the newswoman.

"Regardless of Glyph's capture and subsequent cloning, viewers should remember that this is the greatest and most successful one-man sting operation in American History.

Glyph's work in bringing Coil to justice ended in the arrests of more than several dozen minor villain gangs and groups, and hundreds of solo villains have since gone to the ground to escape capture.

That's without mentioning the new evidence and insights into some of America's greatest Parahuman threats in the modern world.

And while it is unfortunate that Anubis managed to escape, top Protectorate thinkers believe that she will mostly be going after villains to supply herself with energy, after being overwhelmed by the Triumvirate's presence. Regardless, our viewers should remember that Anubis is an S-rank parahuman for a reason, and as such, should not be approached under any circumstances.

"However considering all that we've seen and heard today, I personally say that we give Glyph a second chance," the newswoman said bravely, greatly surprising the two of them.

"These were unnatural circumstances, and she handled them as best as she could, leading to an investigation that has crippled an uncountable number of villains nationwide.

Alexandria herself has vouched for her student, and the situation was contained before it could truly get out of hand.

I, for one, am glad to see that we have two more powerful heroes ready to stand in the Triumvirate's place should the truly unfortunate happen, and I am eager to see what the two of them do as they follow in their mentor's footsteps. Back to you, Clark."

Keagan didn't know what to say. It was one thing to read about Contessa's powers, but he'd just watched her machinations soothe the entire nation, all the whilst putting the two of them under the direct control of the Triumvirate, all in one morning.

Of course, there would be some naysayers, but they would be drowned under the mounds of support coming in from all over the world.

He might be able to beat her in direct combat, but she could easily destroy his life the same way Scion had destroyed Eidolon.

"Crazy, right?" Nina said, her eyes closed as she lay on the couch. "She had me shoot a bunch of fighting scenes, stuff that'll be shown only to the Protectorate and PRT to sell the image of my evil clone. This way, I can still steal Shard Energy from villains without arousing suspicion. The two of us are gonna have to be seen in public with those two every now and then so that people think that we're actually their heirs or whatever, but aside from that, we're home free."

"What happened to Noelle?" he found himself asking.

"I cured her, I think. Drained her Shard completely. I couldn't hold that amount of energy all at once though, so I transferred it to the seal matrix that has all over Brockton so that it can supply the city self-cleaning and automatic defense seals. She looks normal now, at least, and she was super happy about that. Numberman looked kinda pissed though. Probably wanted an actual clone army at his beck and call. Fucking weirdo. Anyway, the sloughed-off biomass was deposited into the vault where they kept her, to make it seem like Alexandria actually tore her to shreds."

"And the rest of the Travelers? What did you do about them being Simurgh bombs?"

"You remember that spiritual purification Healy thingy that Korra learned to do when she was fighting Unalaq?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"I used that to get rid of the Simurgh's influence, and then I weakened their abilities by putting a drainage seal on them. My reserves are beginning to look a bit bloated, so we better get into a fight soon. So yeah, they can use their powers, but they're super weak now. Like, Sundancer just summons fireballs now, and Trickster can only switch objects that are super light, like clothes. So, they're gone now, and no more Echidna arc. Farewell, Chitter. You shall forever remain in fiction, dearest mouse waifu."

"Stop that," he said automatically. "Stop talking like a weeb, or I'll just steal your voice or something."

"Would you really do that to me, Onii-chan?"

"I am fully capable of kicking you out of your own house, I hope you know that."

That made her burst into giggles, and the tension that had slowly been building in the room began to evaporate. He needed to have a plan of attack for Contessa, but that could wait until later. Right now, they had an Endbrnger to beat down.

"Listen, I have a plan for the Leviathan fight. I want you to tell me what you think of it."

He outlined the plan, the essential things that she needed to do, the openings that he would try and create, which attacks he felt would be most effective against it. Nina was actually paying attention, her purple eyes laser-focused on his when she raised a point that he hadn't thought of.

"Hey, Keagan?"

"Yeah?"

"The gear you're talking about, it all sounds super powerful and stuff, but have you ever used it?"

He blinked at that. "Well, no. But most of them basically give me a basic mastery of how to use them."

"That's…Keagan, we're going to fight an Endbringer. Like, the guys that destroy cities, and that's when they're jobbing. Do you really want to go into a fight with one of them when you only have a basic mastery behind you?"

He opened his mouth to shoot something back…only to realize that she was right. He hadn't actually used a majority of his gear in any battle, and the one where he had, he'd easily been beaten by Nina. Even if she was an experienced fighter and was just as strong as he was, she'd still managed to beat him without much effort. He should've at least been able to make her struggle.

"Okay, what's your plan for that then?"

Her lazy smile suddenly morphed into a devilish grin.

"I built a hyperbolic time chamber in one of the old ships in the Boat Graveyard."

"That's…cheating. Everything."

"Eh, not really," she shrugged. "It's not perfect. The best I could do is one day out here equals one week in there, then layer it with density and durability seals so that it could withstand the kind of power I output. But that's basically how I trained myself to be a badass in a month. Anyway, we can abuse that and get you acquainted with your Leviathan fighting gear, as well as some of your other weapons too."

Keagan sighed. It seemed like he was actually going to learn how to fight, and that meant he needed to put things like college and job searching on hold. Joy.

"Alright, let's go. We might as well start now."

"Um, actually, we can start tomorrow if you like. I, ah, I actually really need your help with something."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh yeah? What've you done now?"

She actually cringed at that. "Um, the clone thing…I want to tell my mom the truth. Not just about me wanting to dome the city on purpose, but also about us, where we come from, and probably about why we're here. I just don't know how to say it all without sounding crazy."

"Wait, your mom is here with you?"

"Yeah, my mom…but not my mother."

"How did we let things get this bad?" asked Piggot quietly. The assembled heroes didn't or couldn't say anything to answer her question. "And where do we go from here?"

Because there would be hell to pay. Calvert-Coil-had been inches away from destabilizing the United States, and his foothold had started here, in her city. Someone was definitely getting fired for this. And the most embarrassing part of it all was that if it weren't for a newbie cape that made her operation go tits-up anyways, no one would've known until it was too late.

And the worst part was that she'd known that Calvert was no good, had known since he bragged about shooting his captain in the back.

But she'd still allowed him to consult for them, believing that she could keep him in line.

And now it had been revealed that he had been the one pulling the strings the entire time, like some kind of damned puppet master.

"To be fair Ma'am, none of us could have known or guessed about Calvert," interjected Miss Militia softly. "He was unpleasant to be around, but he did his work well, and he never gave us a reason to complain about anything. He was never caught in restricted areas, never seen talking to troopers, always kept his head down. I believe that if we present all of this evidence to the Chief Director, we should be fine. Naturally, there'll be an inquiry, and possibly a few personnel changes between us in the Protectorate, but overall, we should be fine."

Militia was acting a bit strange; calmer, somewhat happy, even relaxed. She'd heard that it was because she had been close to Glyph in her off-time and that she'd suspected the girl of betraying her once the clones had taken over the city, and was now relieved that she was actually innocent of her crimes.

Idly, Piggot wondered if Glyph had merely used Militia's motherly concern as an in to investigate Clavert, before discarding the thought.

Whether it was true or not, Militia was now a link to one of the most powerful parahumans in the United States, and Piggot couldn't neglect that fact.

"Something has to change, Militia, and it's most likely going to be from my end as the PRT director. Heads are going to roll for the Anubis incident, and it's probably going to be mine and that of a few departmental heads. I advise you get ready to meet your new bosses."

"Um, about Anubis?" asked Velocity somewhat nervously. "Does anyone actually know where she is now? I mean, we really should keep an eye on a wandering S-class."

"Dragon has added her to the monitoring list of S-rank threats," said Armsmaster instantly. "She was last seen headed in the direction of the Slaughterhouse Nine. We believe that she will intercept them in about two weeks from now."

At least the clone was going after other freaks. Probably didn't want to end up facing the Triumvirate again, so it was choosing acceptable targets so as not to attract their attention or Glyphs. God knows that if she had some creature out there wearing her face, she'd do her best to put a bullet in their skull.

"Any news about Glyph herself?" she asked. "I'd like to ask her some questions, to be honest. Like how she didn't bother to reach out to us, or how she managed to stay in my city so long without me noticing."

"We actually did notice her," piped up Militia. "Glyph possesses several high-speed powers that she prefers to stack, and as such, was known as the parahuman 'Blur,' for her duration in Brockton Bay. As for her not contacting us, if she truly believed that we were being infiltrated by Coil, then she was right to avoid us. She had no way of knowing who was compromised and who wasn't."

"And yet she went to you," said Armsmaster under his breath. Unfortunately for him, Miss Militia heard him.

"What was that?" she asked sharply.

"Hannah, you were in contact with an unknown parahuman for several months. For all we know, you could've been Mastered by her," he pointed out.

"If Glyph hadn't been an undercover hero, this could've gone sideways very fast. You should've reported her presence to us immediately."

Miss Militia stiffened. "First of all, Armsmaster, I met Glyph during my off-hours when I was unfortunately accosted by several gang members. She saved me, thinking I was a civilian, and not once did she ever insinuate that she had ever interacted with me with the purpose of gaining info on either the Protectorate or the PRT.

"But she did know your secret identity," shot back Armsmaster. "The clones of Anubis were wary around you. They always avoided you, never spoke to you, and they would rather release one of us to give you your meals than serve you themselves."

"Probably because I revealed my identity to her, of my own volition."

The atmosphere in the office became almost frigid.

"That is against regulations."

"No, it is against regulations to reveal my identity to a civilian or a villain without proper clearance. Independent heroes or Parahumans do not count."

Assault cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable with the energy that was coursing through the air.

"Hey guys, it's been a stressful few days for us, I really think that we should go home and cool off before we start talking about heavy stuff like this."

Battery, who agreed with her husband, also chimed in.

"He is right, of course. This kind of conversation should really be done after we've had some rest and therapy sessions."

"This conversation wouldn't be necessary if Militia had told us that she was speaking to an unregistered parahuman. And if she had, we could've spoken to Glyph, coordinated with her on her investigation. Now we all look like absolute fools!"

"Once again, I met Glyph in my personallife. I had no obligation to inform you or anyone about my association with her as she was not a threat. I spoke with her, I gave her some advice on fighting the gangs more efficiently, and I taught her some protocols in analyzing dangerous situations and comforting civilains in a time of need, something, by the way, Alexandria should've taught her personal Ward. Our relationship was purely that of a student and teacher, not an undercover agent and her contact."

"Oh, are you sure it was just that of a mentor and her student? Because if I recall correctly, you said you brought her into your home. That sounds a bit closer than an average student-teacher relationship."

"Alright you two, that's enough," said Piggot sternly. She had allowed the argument to go on this long because she was actually hoping to find out just how much Militia had told Glyph about the PRT, but this was heading into personal areas quickly. However, to her surprise, her two most disciplined capes absolutely ignored her.

"No, we need to talk about this! She keeps doing this to all the Wards, trying to act as if she's their parent when she's not even in charge of them! And now we find out that she's been playing Mother to a dangerous Cape? Did it ever occur to you that she was playing you, that you were inadvertently giving her all the info she needed while she played out the part of the little daughter in your fantasy?"

Militia's power, which had slowly been cycling through bigger and bigger weapons, materialized itself into a handheldGatling Gun, which dented the

floor as it landed. Were it not for that and her sharp tone, you wouldn't even have been able to tell that she was furious.

"Oh, is that the reason why you're angry?" she asked frostily. "So it's not because she easily defeated you, proving thatonce againyour tech was ineffectual against a superior enemy? It's not because you wanted to be involved in her sting operation, so you could salvage what's left of your reputation? It's not becauseyouwanted a hand in mentoring her so that you could use her reputation as a springboard to make it to the top again?"

"How dare you-!"

"Oh please, for a man whose power is efficiency, you don't seem to embody it at all! You were always jealous about Dauntless rather than being glad we had another cape on our side! You always obsess over thosestupidtop ten hero ratings that the news talks about, and you keep on trying to do solo patrols in the hopes that you'll be able to take down Kaiser or Lung singlehandedly, constantly thinking thatwe'rethe ones getting in your way of a flawless victory! Isn't that the real reason why you keep chasing after the Undersiders? Because you want to catch an entire group of villains so slippery that not even Velocity can catch sight of them? Or the reason why you almost killed Lung with your untested Tinkertech poison not too long ago?"

"You-!"

"Enough!" shouted Piggot, slamming her fist onto the desk.That finally got the two of them to shut up. "Get a hold of yourselves! You two are adults, not children! If you two cannot even stand in the same room together, then perhaps Assualt and Battery are right, and everyone here needs to take some time off before we get back to work."

"But the villains-!"

"Are all depowered," finished Piggot. When the clones had been driven off, and members of other PRT and Protectorate branches had stormed Coil's base to rescue those who were captured, it was discovered that whilst the heroes were slowly recovering their powers, the villains were unable to recover theirs. Hopefully, it stayed that way, even if it meant that Anubis was wandering around with the ability to depower parahumans whenever she wanted.

"As of now, Brockton Bay is villain-free, and there are still dozens of heroes who have decided to rest here whilst they recover their powers. Even weakened, we're still a formidable force. We do not need to have you all on the streets immediately. This meeting was a mistake on my part. I shouldn't have called you all here when you've just gotten out of M/S containment. All of you, go home right now. And Armsmaster, I am locking down your lab for the nextweek. I don't want to see any of you here for the next seven days. Is that understood?"

It wasn't a question.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Dismissed."

Hannah cursed Armsmaster under her breath. What right did he have to demand details on her personal life? Where did he get off lecturing her about what she did on her off time? She knew that sometimes she could get a bit…smothering with the Wards. But if any of them actually knew her circumstances, how she had gotten her powers, they'd understand why she preferred for children to lead regular lives. And anyway, whenever a Ward showed that they were uncomfortable with it, she immediately stopped and went back to being the courteous, professional Miss Militia.

It was just…she'd always wanted a child. A little one to take care of, to nurture. To give them a childhood that she had never experienced. America had presented many opportunities for her, and family was one of them. But things had never really panned out for her. Her relationship with Chevalier had gone sour. Due to an unfortunate fight early in her career with a radiation tinker, she no longer possessed the ability to give birth, and she didn't think it was fair to adopt a child when she wouldn't be able to give them the attention that they needed. None of the Wards actually showed interest in her as more than a mentor(Vista had flat-out told her that she didn't really need another mother, considering what her current one was doing. That had hurt, a lot, but she had respected it). So she'd…given up. Decided that she might as well focus on her career.

And then she met Glyph.Nina Summers.

She had suspected that it was a false name because the few Nina Summer's that she had managed to search up were either dead, babies or in another country. She hadn't cared about that though; Nina had needed someone to guide her, someone to cook her homemade meals, to make sure she got more than five hours of sleep risking her neck, or even making sure that her laundry was cleaned.

In the six months that Nina had entered her life, a lot of things had changed. She'd switched to a bigger apartment with another bedroom and bathroom(honestly, Nina could spend hours in there and waste all the hot water). Her grocery bill had gone up by several hundreds of dollars because Nina ate like a damn horse. Pictures of her and the little hellion adorned the walls, all of them ranging from a day at the beach in Hawaii or an authentic Italian dinner in Rome. (Nina loved to abuse her powers as much as possible, and Militia had to put her foot down at using what she was thirty percent sure wasmagic)and Miltia's fridge was covered in little notes like, 'going to India for lunch, am bringing home chicken shawarma,or, 'feeling pretty cute today, might beat up Lung later.'

Raising what was essentially a twelve year old in the body of an adult with superpowers was a frustrating experience, and more than once, she and Nina had gotten into a fair amount of yelling matches about things like responsibilities, chores, curfews, and whether or not using miniature black holes to vacuum the living room was a dumb idea. (it was, and she needed to get a new carpet because of it)

But she loved it. She loved it when Nina woke her up with a smile on her face and breakfast in bed, no matter how runny the eggs were. She loved it when the girl would crawl into bed next to her and mumble something about nightmares, and Hannah would whisper sensationalized stories about how the original Kurds had fled the evil king Zahhak, or about Shahmaran, the human-snake goddess of secrets whose spirit passed down to her daughter.

She loved it whenever Nina would burst into the door and start chatting a mile a minute, and she'd tell her that dinner would be ready in thirty, and how Nina would fake gag and say she wanted Chinese, but would eat every scrap ofbiryaniand ask for seconds. She loved it when Nina would wake her up at seven in the morning to watch Saturday Morning Cartoons she would grudgingly admit this to Mouse Protector; whatever writer she had writing the episodes was afucking genius.

She genuinely wanted to know how MP was supposed to escape a brainwashed evil Triumvirate with only touch-based teleportation.

It took her a few months to realize that Nina was the child she'd always wanted, and Hannah loved her more than she'd loved anything, possibly even more than the country she'd pledged her life to.

That's why it had felt like her heart had been torn out of her chest when she saw her clones causing chaos.

She hadn't even fought back. Nina had knocked her out with a tap of her fingers, and when she'd woken up, Nina, herkeç, had acted like she didn't exist, studiously ignoring her as she informed them of her plan to dome the city. It had ripped her apart on the inside, and she'd wondered if this was because of something that she'd done. Had Nina thought that she wasn't doing enough? That the Protectorate was ultimately useless? Thatshehad been useless? She had been listless and quiet the entire time, and she'd barely forced herself to choke down the food that tasted like ashes in her mouth.

Until Chevalier had cut down the thick steel door that separated them from freedom. Until she'd started hearing rumors about artificial clones and the students of the Triumvirate. Until Battery had dragged her to a TV set and made her watch how her child was exonerated nationwide.

The relief that had flooded her had been immense. Her girl was innocent! Of course, an equal amount of guilt had flooded her. How could she have ever thought that her ditz of a daughter could ever think of doing something like that? Nina would rather die than hurt another person, let alone condemn an entire city. She should've known that something was wrong! She shouldn't have assumed that Nina would do a face heel turn for no reason.

So she'd been glad, so very glad to know that Nina was innocent.

She sighed as she slid the key in the lock and turned. Her neck was sore, and she was eager to bust out the handheld massage gun Assualt had gotten her last Christmas. She opened the door-

And got an armful of young adult.

"What the-Nina?!"

"Mom," Nina whispered as she burrowed her face into her neck. Instantly, Hannah's arms went around her, one hand combing through her hair as the other rubbed little circles into her back. "I'm so sorry."

"Oh, my little xezîne," she whispered back. "You have nothing to apologize for. I saw everything on the news. I admit, knowing that you were actually Alexandria's Ward as a heads up would've been appreciated, but I understand why you did what you had to do. I'm proud of you."

"No, Mom, I-I"

"Shh, you don't have to say anything. Let's go in, and we'll order in, okay? What are you in the mood for? Chinese, Italian, Pizza? I'm in the mood to splurge, so we can even order from that horribly overpriced bakery on the Boardwalk that you love so much."

"Mom-what I mean is-"

"Hey, I said it's okay, didn't I?" she said softly, trying to reassure her pseudo daughter. "If you're not in the mood for takeout, then let me start up the oven and I can-"

"Ok, Fine I'm sorry."

Hannah simply smiled and hugged Nina, only to be interrupted by a cough.

Looking up, she cane face to face with a boy about Nina's age. And with a guess she knew that he must of been the other boy under Eidolon.

"Hello Mrs Washington, My name is Keagan Pentecost it is a pleasure to meet you." He said in a respectful tone of voice while doing his best to hide a smile at her daughter's reaction.

Hannah for her part, could keep the smile off her face even if she wanted to. The way Nina was glaring at Keagan told her that he would use this to tease her relentlessly, it was very reminiscent of Mouse Protector and Chevalier back in their ward days.

"Hello Keagan, it is also a pleasure to meet you as well." she said with wide and genuine smile.

"Hey mom." Nina's voice sounded sickly sweet, the kind that told her that whatever was going to coming out of it would be used to try and embarrass Keagan.

"Yeees." Even though she knew it was coming, She couldn't resist to fan it.

"Did you know that Keagan had a crush on you growing up?" She said with a shit eating grin, all the while keeping her eyes firmly on Keagan

And for his part, Keagan didn't even flinch or look away at her daughters attempt of embarrassing him.

He simply turned his eyes back to her, slowly looked her up and down before nodding in appreciation before turning back to Nina and lifting an eyebrow at her and spoke.

"You goddarn right I had and still do, your mom is drop dead gorgeous. Plus I like a woman in uniform and Unlike a certain someone, she is a very smart cookie."

"..."

"..."

"I'm going to kill you." Her daughter responded in an eerie tone of voice.

But despite that, Hannah didn't know whether she should be flattered, worried, amused, or flabbergasted.

But seeing her daughter's face, she settked on both flattered and amused.