"I just talked to Scion and either doomed us all or saved us all, help."
The worlds strongest pre-cog blinked.
"Wat?"
"I'm gonna be completely honest, I fucking hate your little conspiracy and wanted to try to gather info for myself to make an informed decision but then I got drunk so I Doored to Scion somewhere near Thailand and started talking to him and he talked back and we talked about loss and how to deal with it and then I explained the concept of [FAMILY] to him and then he flew away and I am now scared out of my mind."
"Give me a minute to make a new model to account for that new information," Contessa replied.
"Before that, how fast can he fly?"
"The highest speed recorded has been mach ten." Contessa replied. "Though it would not be surprising he could utilize his own version of Legend's power."
"Then please think fast, Thinker, I'm going to pace a hole in your floor now… wait, do you need more info?"
"I've gotten what I need," She replied.
Verity let her think as she worriedly went over the exact words they'd exchanged. Had she fucked up? She'd been trying to empathize with him, and it seemed like he'd at least briefly reciprocated, so why did he suddenly leave? Should she have said more to him when he'd been staring off? Had he just gone off to deal with some disaster in progress? Was he heading to the Bay because of her?
Was her family in danger?
"Well it seems that an end of the world scenario is not going to occur for a few decades, and not at the hand of Scion."
"...What the fuck does that mean?"
"That far in the future predicting becomes unreliable, so it could either mean giant meteor, solar flare frying all electronics, Yellowstone erupting, Nuclear War."
"So… what is happening right now then? Is it normal for him to just drop what he's doing and go flying off in the distance?"
"Yes, though going by the new model based on what you have said and the topic of your conversation, Scion seems to want to deal with his loss by a means of family, what that means I have no clue." Contessa answered. "The path just ends at Family."
"...You guys are tracking his general location right? Via satellite imaging or whatever?"
"As best we can." She said as she broke the castle and took out a laptop which she immediately turned on and motioned for Verity to get to the other side of the desk.
It soon showed a yellow blip moving fast across the globe, towards…
"...He's heading to the US isn't he…"
"It seems that way," Contessa said as the dot vanished. "And now he has hidden himself."
"...Over the ocean, right?"
"Yes, it seems he no longer wishes to be observed."
"Contessa, what's the closest thing he has to family in this world, that would be in the ocean, near the United States?" Verity asked slowly.
"...Leviathan…" She started to type on the keyboard. "The Simurgh has now vanished from Orbit."
"Oh god." Verity said. "Oh god… tell me if anything happens we can act on, I think I'm going to go make peace with my remaining loved ones."
"That is not what is happening, I am not seeing the end of my own life, I do not know what is happening but… I think it's best we just let this be."
"...I think I'm still gonna go home now… maybe grab some ice cream on the way… and maybe some more alchohol… actually, no, it was alchohol that got me into this, I think I'm going sober for life now."
"I recommend ice cream, it helps me." Contessa replied. "And question: do you wish to deal with Jack Slash and the Slaughterhouse Nine?"
"Ah, knowing my next line before I even say it, of course." Verity confirmed.
"They are currently hiding out in a warehouse in Portland." Contessa said. "Their plan is to attack you in the first week of June."
"Ah. And uh… any chance your friends in higher places would jump at an opportunity to bust them?"
"If it turns out that you did save the world, then they are no longer needed to create Trigger Events, and make people join the Protectorate."
"...Everything I learn about your stupid conspiracy makes me more and more mad, I want you to know that from my own mouth and not just through your future sight thing that is no doubt indicating what I want to do in response to that sentence."
"I know." Contessa replied, highlighting the sheer tiredness in her words. "Hero was my friend, and somehow any path that gave me a satisfying revenge would lead to everything getting worse… but that is not happening right now. I am… so tired."
Verity put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, honestly, I think I get it, I'm pretty sure my life is a microcosm of a good deal of the shit this world is going through, compressed into… fuck, not even three months, what the hell."
"Perhaps you have been chosen as god's favorite little stress toy?" She asked sarcastically.
"At this point I'd believe it."
—
"...and that's pretty much everything you've missed." Verity finished explaining, a half eaten gallon of ice cream in her grasp.
Even after the previous night's ice cream party, or perhaps especially after the events immediately preceding it, she felt that more ice cream would be necessary for this conversation.
"Explains the ice cream," Bellatrix said. "So you might have doomed or saved the world."
"Yes." Verity said before eating another spoonful. "Halp."
"What do you want me to do?" She asked.
"Help talk me through this, you're the one person in this world I've known for more than three months and I would trust you implicitly regardless."
"Thanks," She replied. "So you have seemingly made Scion the all powerful alien whose original plan was to destroy the world with his partner after doing science experiments with humanity because they seemingly have no form of creativity in those big brains of theirs. But that partner died via combined effort of Contessa and Alice, and so he got dressed and tried heroing to cope with the loss, but going by the doomsday clock wasn't going to work indefinitely, but now thanks to your conversation wants to try and start a… family? Am I correct so far?"
"As far as I'm understanding it, yeah, and going off the whole concept conversation we were having I… might have conveyed the idea of parenthood to him, so he might be trying to treat the endbringers as kids? Or maybe he's gonna do something weirder like merge them into a one being close enough to his old partner… no, if he's going off my concept it'd probably be kids or siblings, right?"
"With how the Endbringers vanished and what I know about you definitely the kids route as the conflict engines are the closest thing to that."
"The 'conflict engines'?" Verity asked. "Wait, no, going off the name, they exist to cause more people to Trigger, right?"
"Basically, and also serves as a warning signal that if a species manages to defeat one permanently they could be a threat to them, but I don't think Scion knows that as going by all the Shards I've talked to they belonged to the Thinker, she was quite literally the brains of the operation."
"Ohh… so where do you think they went? Where could they even go? The moon? Another planet? An alt earth?"
"Or just trying the family life, like the monster forms are basically a giant illusion, who is to say they can't form more… human forms around that core of theirs?" Bellatrix suggested.
"...Are you suggesting that…" Verity suppressed a horrified laugh. "You think they're going to do the 'aliens trying to blend in with human society family comedy' act?"
"I don't know," She admitted. "But it is the best idea I've got."
The very idea of that filled her with such a cocktail of emotions… Verity soon found herself laugh-crying at the concept, for its absurdity, likelihood, and simplicity.
A few minutes later, when that had passed, Verity was once again staring into her ice cream. "What now, Bell?"
"Wait and hope?" She responded. "Regarding that I mean, for you…Well you are basically the big damn hero, and I am willing to act as support by basically Shard snitching."
"...You know I'm not a very good waiter…"
"Well you still have a bunch of Murder Hobos."
"I suppose so…" Verity said. "Which brings me to… a moral quandary of sorts? Moral quandary is probably the right one."
"And what quandary is that?" She asked as she popped open a soda can.
"I'm contemplating the scummiest -aka smartest- of wizard tactics and pulling a Scry-and-Die on the Slaughterhouse Nine."
"Sounds like probably the smartest way to deal with each of them," Bellatrix responded, her tone one of 'no duh'.
"I can't take them on alone though, which means I need help, which means I need to explain Doormaker's abilities to people who aren't clued in on the (hopefully) soon to be defunct conspiracy and I can't think of a good way to do so that won't make people go 'wait, why didn't the Triumvirate try that before?' or something."
"I think there is no way to avoid that, their whole thing is soon going to come crashing down on them now that both the Endbringers and Scion have become… a non-issue hopefully," Bellatrix said.
"Yeah… that and the fact that our best bet for it would be for me to just unleash an absolute indiscriminate beam barrage through that door means I'm highly likely to hit Bonesaw, who could thus get broken if any of them dodge or are immune." Verity further elaborated. "And Bonesaw is, to reiterate, the absolute biggest issue with any sneak attack on these guys, she's a little kid who's been mindbroken into this, she does not deserve this."
"Hmm, I think Alice might be able to fix that, inject her and basically hard reset her back."
"...Wait, I can heal brain damage?" She paused. "Also, I think that might be more 'trauma' there and I definitely can't heal that." Every single example so far proved that.
"I think it is just closer to just erasing the last six years worth of memories." Bellatrix said. "Because I don't think you can actually fix what has been done to her the normal way."
"So… we're going to… give her brain damage… to help her recover?"
"It's either killing both Bonesaw and the person she used to be or just killing Bonesaw and letting who she was finally live and grow up." Bellatrix said. "That is just my opinion though."
Verity put her head in her hands. "Thanks, you just made this more complicated…"
"I think how to deal with Bonesaw is the only moral part of taking out the Nine, the rest would be like door to back of head, fist."
"In case I wasn't clear earlier, the main moral quandary of using scry and die is 'why aren't we doing this more often' which could lead to the slippery slope of using it more often and potentially escalating the world's geopolitical cape situation if we do or don't use it on specific individuals like Nilbog or somesuch."
"Would only have access to it for so long, Doormaker like many other Eden Shards are running out of Power, Mr. I have all the powers, being a prime example of that."
"...Wat."
"Yeah they basically didn't get turned on properly so they can't harvest solar energy to basically keep going in perpetuity. For most of them the battery will run out sooner or later, though the more power intensive the sooner."
"...Wait, so all of Cauldron's superpower 'successes' are going to lose their powers?"
"At some point… yeah."
"And 53's?"
"High chance they will die, but if you inject, Alice can turn them on fully, like she did with mine."
"...Okay, phrased like that… with everything else…" Verity said, getting up as she was suddenly struck with a great deal of determination and motivation. "I think I'm gonna come clean to Armsmaster, and start planning the end of an Era."
"That is probably a good idea, he seems to be a really good friend."
"Yeah, he's one of the few people I pretty much trust implicitly from this Earth." Verity said. "Speaking of friends," She leaned down and gave Bellatrix a hug. "Thank you for talking me through this, you're the best as always."
"Of course," She answered, though the words were a little muffled. "Though first let's finish this ice cream."
"You can finish yours, I think I've had enough ice cream for now." Verity said, putting the lid on the mostly empty gallon tub that had been full when she started explaining.
—
"..."
Colin's face was hard to read most of the time, but this? This had seemingly finally broken the man, as after Verity had finished explaining and revealing everything the man had walked over to what had apparently been a hidden wine cabinet, pulled out a bottle, took out a glass, poured it full and drank it in one go.
"Yeah, the only reason I didn't do that was because I felt being inebriated would make me more of a mess than I already am." Verity said sympathetically.
"Yes, that was the smart thing to do, your drunk person was heavily documented when it happened the last time." He responded.
"So, now that we're on level ground: do you want to talk about the short term stuff or long term stuff first?" Verity asked, trying to let him guide the conversation a bit to feel like he had a bit of control.
God knows she wanted to feel the same in wake of all this.
"Short term, let's talk short term first," Colin said, sounding downright desperate for something tangible.
"Alright, so, we know the approximate location of the S9, we have a teleporter who can portal directly to them with ease, and I have my lasers. Do you think Alpha Striking them is a good idea here?"
"Yes, with that at our disposal 'jump them' is an actual viable tactic."
"So it's viable, is it something we can do in the manpower sense? I know I can just blast with all the snake beams I've got, but Crawler is undoubtedly going to pull a Lung, and we still don't know if my lasers would work on the Siberian, and I'm going be out of stoning juice after that kind of barrage." Her eyes still hadn't fully recovered from Leviathan.
"For Crawler there is actually an option at our disposal, do you remember Bakuda?"
Verity felt the phantom pain of tasting the sun. "Hard to forget."
"Well after that, we did find her lab and some bombs that had not gone off with her deadman's trigger, one of them being a transmuter bomb that converts any living material caught within into glass in an instant."
"Ooh, okay, yeah if he follows the Manton Limit that should probably work… what about the Siberian?" Verity asked. "We'll probably need like… at least three backup plans for that bitch."
"Yeah that is… do your 'friends'," The sarcasm was actually audible. "Have any ways to deal with it? Seeing as one of them is apparently the strongest pre-cog not the Simurgh, who might at this point be pretending to be a little…I need more..." Colin said as he drank another full glass.
"...You know, I hadn't checked, I kinda figured the more volatile components would start freaking out, you want me to check?"
At that Verity got an email.
On her work phone.
She glanced at the preview to see who it was from.
From: PathToVictory gmailcom.
Subject: Siberian
"Well, there's the precog." Verity said, opening it up as Colin watched in fascination and horror.
The Siberian is not an actual person, it is a projection conjured by William Manton in the image of his deceased daughter.
"I thought he was dead?" Colin asked in shock after Verity had exposited the contents of the email.
"Is he? I didn't actually see that come up in the info packets you guys gave me."
"Must have slipped as one of those 'common knowledge' things people don't write down, because obviously everybody knows it," Colin answered. "But even if it is not him, the Siberian being a Projection answers so many questions."
"So it's just a hologram."
"The strongest hologram in existence but yes."
"So then…" She went to respond with a question, namely 'where is he', but before she could even hit 'w' she got another email.
He travels with the group in a white van. Only Jack and Bonesaw know the truth.
"...I am going to personally stab him through the back," Colin said.
"Wow!"
"Hero was just not an inspiration to me, he was my mentor and an actual father figure," Colin answered.
"I ain't gonna stop you, it was just unexpected." Verity said. "...Speaking of stopping, now that we know more about it, do I have your permission to Venom you if you ever get severely injured in the field to save your life or would you prefer to not do that even now?"
"If it is between life and death and it seems I won't make it, then yes," Colin said. "Though I would probably do it myself first as I did not actually destroy the sample given to me."
"Wha?" Verity asked in shock and no small amount of betrayal. "Wait, what? You didn't destroy it?"
"I found it foolish and idiotic, too valuable to throw out," He admitted.
"If you wanted some you could always have just asked!"
"That was my own issues cropping up, I… am not the best with the people as you would probably know by now." Colin said. "I am sorry."
Verity stared at him, words failing her.
"I thought at the time I needed it. My performance was getting worse, my body weaker, slower, reaction time all of it, I was getting too old for this job, but yet I felt like I hadn't done anything of note, that my career would end up being one of nothing," Colin spoke with clear disappointment in himself. "But over the last two months, talking with you Verity, I realized that… being a glory hound was a fool's errand- what truly made a hero was not having the greatest deed or slaying the beast, but all the little things, helping the people not just saving them and that is something I have not done in many years."
He looked straight at her. "So thank you for reminding me what being a hero is actually about, and I am sorry for going behind your back like that, I just didn't know how to admit it until just now."
"...If you're sorry, destroy it."
Colin nodded as he walked over to the workbench and pressed a button, and a second later a familiar looking vial popped out of a cooling unit, Colin took it and walked over to the clearly marked Waste Disposal, and poured it down it before pressing a bottom, and Verity heard some form of machinery activate.
"It is done."
"Good." Verity said, her emotions having settled on 'upset'. "If you want more, you'll have to ask."
"Nah, I am not seeking that path anymore."
"Good." Verity repeated. "By the way, I want you to know. You are the one person from this Earth I've trusted completely. Don't pull something like this again if you want to keep any of that trust."
"I won't, and again I am sorry."
"I'm too mad at you right now to accept that apology."
"That is understandable."
…
They stood in awkward silence for a long, long moment, before Verity sighed and broke the silence.
"Let's just figure out how to best take out the Nine for now. I need to do something productive or I might explode from the absolute overload of a roller coaster I've been on emotionally."
"Let's do that, and we can figure out who else we should bring into this," Colin answered.
—
"Alright Undersiders, good news/bad news, what do you want first?" Verity started as she entered the lounge that the teens in question had effectively claimed as their own while staying in the Snake's Den.
"I think it goes bad then good," Brian said.
"Bad news, you're getting evicted." Verity said with a smile.
"What?" Aisha asked. "You invite us in then throw us to the curb?"
"Aisha I am 21 years old, a professional superhero, and am barely holding myself together, I cannot be responsible for so many teenage supers." Verity admitted. "I literally, literally cannot do this long term, not the me of right now. Maybe in the future, once I've finally stabilized emotionally and financially, but frankly y'all I cannot do this."
"Honestly that makes sense," Lisa said. "But I don't need my powers to tell me that you've set up something else."
"Yeah, good news: the PRT exists and knows how to handle superpowered teenagers and have already accepted taking you all in if need be, and from experience they have this fun thing called therapists that literally every Parahuman really needs to talk to and I'm willing to bet none of you have talked to on your own terms."
"Couldn't even if I wanted to," Rachel said. "But what about my dogs?"
"They are also arranging accommodations for your doggos." Verity assured. "To be clear, I'm not throwing you guys to the lions here, and I'm not gonna suddenly disappear, I just want the best living conditions for all of you and I know I can't provide that for you right now."
"And in exchange we have to join the Wards right?" Lisa asked.
"Not have to, but are highly encouraged to. Since that way you all can have some new friends that understand the whole 'parahuman' thing, still get to use said powers in a way that's a bit more constructive than destructive- if you want to be Rogue's like Parian by the way you absolutely can, I will fight them if need be- and it would get the government to stop breathing down your necks as much since they'll be satisfied with the same basic surveillance they put all PRT Capes under."
"I think… We should take up this offer guys," Lisa said. "We basically have a clean slate now, we can negotiate as much as we want since we were small time criminals and they need replacement so we actually have a strong hand, and it would only be a few years as a Ward for me and Rachel, Brian would probably just be trained for Protectorate membership, which would allow them to show you are good guardian for Aisha." Lisa fully explained.
"I hate it when you talk smart." Rachel responded.
"And if they try to fuck us we have an angry Mama Snek on our side." Lisa said with a smile.
"You need to spend less time on the internet, stop calling me that." Verity said but did not deny the actual statement. "Also, language."
Lisa just smiled like a smug fox.
"Why are you here?" Verity heard Taylor ask as she carried in the boxes that contained the stuff that the new occupants owned.
"Because I am going to live here." Sophia responded. "Why are you here?"
"Because my house is flooded and we were allowed to stay until it is fixed."
"At least you have a house."
"Sophia, where's your sister?" Verity called up the stairs as she ascended (stairs had never been her friend but especially not with a tail).
"Cynthia is with Sabah."
"Okay good, just making…" Verity trailed off as she saw the confrontational stances the two teens were in. "Oh hey, Tay, uh, big thing that might have slipped my mind, Sophia and her little sister are going to be staying here for the foreseeable future."
"Don't you have other family members?" Taylor asked.
"I do, but that is up for bureaucracy stuff, it might be temporary or long term depending if they actually want us… mom burnt a lot of bridges…"
"...Sorry." Taylor said as she fully remembered what had happened.
"You don't have to apologize, not like Emma and I didn't use the memory of your mom against you multiple times." Sophia said regretfully.
"Excuse me, you did what?" Verity asked as she put the boxes down to the side so she could see the two better.
Sophia just started looking ashamed. Well, moreso.
"Wow you really have started to grow a conscience, and… again sorry for your loss- no one should go through that." Taylor simply said as she walked past Verity. And then smiled as one of the snakes nuzzled into her as she passed.
"...So." Verity said after a moment. "That went better than expected."
"It probably did, and… yeah we are never going to get along."
"You don't have to. And I'm never gonna encourage her to fully forgive you or anything. You just… have to do what we talked about and strive to be better."
"Be better," Sophia repeated. "I know and I am going to try to, even if just for Cynthia's sake."
"Good. That's exactly what I want to hear." Verity said with a smile. "Now then, did you pick out a room?"
"I did."
"Alright, let's get you unpacked a bit then." Verity said as she picked up the boxes again. And one of her snakes nuzzled into Sophia.
"These things do whatever they want don't they?" She asked as she tried pushing the hair snake away.
"We've figured out they actually act on my subconscious. They do that when I want to hug people."
"Then I guess you want to hug a lot," She responded.
"Everyone is so sad and I just want to comfort them."
Xxx
A/N: If you like this or any other of my stories, you can donate to my SubscribeStar. Adult /StreamingViking or my Pa Tre on at pa tre on. com (slash)StreamingViking776 and read commissioned stories and chapters before they are released publicly and where you can participate in polls, that determine which story is written next or determine things in them for only 3$ a month or for 10 and up see character at work for the stories. Pa tre on money goes towards more artwork