Greg Cries At Missed Opportunity

Greg awoke to what he could charitably describe as a migraine, though that perhaps undersold it by a few orders of a magnitude. Forcing his eyes open, he blinked a few times, in an attempt to bring his surroundings into focus, and a dull, white ceiling is the first thing he can make out, reminiscent of a hospital out of a TV show.

Shifting around, he manages to leverage himself up, something that was more of a struggle than it should have been. Greg honestly couldn't tell whether it was the lethargy infusing every inch of his body or his sluggish mind that barely seemed able to hold onto a single thought that was causing him more issues right now. Looking around, you notice that you are what seems to be an infirmary of some sort. Bland, white walls and the scent of sterilized air brought that point home, and you had to cast your mind back to try and figure out what had happened–

Something, some sort of self-preservation instinct, forces your mind away from your last coherent thoughts, and you force yourself to stop trembling at the faded memories of the gaping maw, and countless hours of unending horror that had followed.

Taking a deep breath, you focus on the here and now. You had to figure out where, exactly, you were, and what had happened to the others. How could you meet up with–

...

"Hey, Alec." You sigh, as your eyes catch the young man leaning back in the chair, intent on watching the TV in the corner of the room.

"Hey." He greets you back with a casual wave of the hand, seemingly unconcerned with your awakening. "You know, this Walking Dead show is actually pretty funny." You give Alec the most deadpan stare you can muster, as your brain finally, finally processes the background noise you'd been hearing and ignoring since you first woke up as that of Zombies.

Only Alec. Only Alec would do this to you.

A small smile plays at your lips as you finally give in, shaking your head, before you grow more serious.

"Alec, what happened? I'm having a bit of trouble remembering what happened," Roiling flesh as your eyes snap open, your screams muffled by the ever-shifting mountains of flesh before you are lost again "Other than whatever it was not being good. Where are we? What's going on?"

Alec mutes the screen and turns to face you, "Well," He drawls, "You may have managed to piss off the Triumvirate, Nexus, and New Wave, all at the same time."

Oh god, what?!

"That's what Tatts said at least." He shrugs, "I don't think outting Alexandria is really that big of a deal though." WHAT?!

"WHAT?!" You nearly scream, as you try to figure out what the fuck is actually happening.

Alec nods sanguinely, "Yeah, so, turns out you got kidnapped by a cape that can clone evil versions of you, and a dozen evil yous then all decided to copy Alexandria to get her powers."

Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.

"Did I mention they were all naked?" Alec said far too innocently for his own good.

The door opens, an exasperated Lisa chiming in, "Alec, shut up. Greg, it's not that bad. Nobody is blaming you for this, and all the big boys are too busy playing clean up to care about us right now." A noticeably tired Lisa enters, carrying a pair of food trays, Brian following up with another pair behind her, nodding at you in greeting.

"Still!" Your voice is shrill, but you don't care now, "If there were a dozen Alexandrias running around, a lot of people would have been hurt! And you can't hurt Alexandria, so how did–?"

Lisa puts one tray in front of you, her voice soothing as she says, "Calm down, it's all handled. It wasn't a dozen Alexandrias, it was a dozen yous with Alexandria's power, and no experience."

Lisa was right, you realize, you were panicking, and not thinking this through. If Alexandria was here, Eidolon was probably here also, and he was the one cape who might be able to take her down.

...Though you wanted to object to the idea that you would be bad at using Alexandria's powers. You'd thought long and hard on how to best use it, and had done a lot of research on her. You might not have been as good as she was, but still, you were pretty confident you could do pretty well!

"And no, you couldn't handle her powers pretty well." Lisa says dryly. Stupid thinker powers...

"Still," You fret, "That's a lot of firepower there."

"More than that." Brian's notes quietly, "Echidna, the cape who captured you, had been building an army with other captured capes as well. She'd made an army large enough to take on an Endbringer by the time we found her."

"It's just that Nexus is apparently a 'You must be this strong to matter' type cape." Alec chipped in, "She just murdered the army, and let Eidolon handle Echidna." He pauses, before adding, "Also she murdered you a dozen times, so there's that. Scary enough that the last one dropped dead just looking at her too, apparently."

You blinked at that. You didn't think Taylor had the powers to hurt Alexandria, of all people, but apparently, she did. One part of you wanted to sprint over the PHO and start a versus debate on the subject to try and figure out how, while the other, probably wiser part, kept your mind focused on the important points.

Namely that you had just missed a battle against an army of capes against Taylor and the Triumvirate!

...Going by Lisa's flat look, you suspect you may be on the wrong track there too.

"Ignoring that," Brian thankfully intervenes, "We need to start preparing for our next step. Where do we go from here?"

"About that." Lisa says, a small smile on her face, "I do have a little tidbit to share with everyone..."