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Brockton Bay General Hospital, Wednesday 5 January, 6:03 PM EST…
One could easily set one's watch to the times either Daniel or Annette Hebert came to see their comatose daughter.
As the night shift doctors, nurses and assistants all gave the virtual "king" of the dockyards sympathetic smiles while he walked down the all-too-familiar hallway to Room 3A11, the balding ex-Coast Guard chief machinist's mate — who had, so the rumours put it in the very early days of the Parahumans Online message boards, been "manly" enough to seduce one of Lustrum's most feared lieutenants away from the cause — tried to look at least hopeful concerning his daughter's ultimate recovery. It was a painful mask, though; learning of what had befallen Taylor thanks to some nutjob from the local group of transplanted Korean gangsters nearly destroyed her parents. While both continued to work hard at their jobs for the International Longshoremen's Association and the University of Massachusetts Brockton Bay, friends and co-workers had been quick to sense a growing level of physical and mental deterioration in them. It was tragically understandable, of course; had Taylor died in that attack on the evening of Thanksgiving Day in 2010, they would have spent time mourning, then turned to rebuilding their lives.
To have their only child linger in a virtual "living death", however…?!
As one Amelia Lavere sarcastically noted to coworkers when she swept through the hospital to look in on Taylor one day prior to Christmas, one had to be a SPECIAL type of psychopath to inject such high levels of ebony mesonium into a target. Such an act would virtually freeze them in a coma that could lead to two outcomes: Total shutdown of the body's systems once the brain was consumed by the deadliest form of the Atom of True Life…or, if Taylor had enough mental strength, she could recover…
…but THEN stood a ninety-nine-percentile-PLUS chance of going TOTALLY INSANE!
For THAT was the true danger of ebony-powered mesonium: The level of energy that this highest-density format of the Atom of True Life was SO OVERWHELMING to a person's soul that one had to have god-like skills in mental arts like telepathy or clairvoyance — or even the magical version of protecting one's mind from mental intrusion, occlumency — to prevent such a tidal wave of power from overcoming the brain's multiple synapses. This state would then allow ALL the soul's very thoughts — even the darkest, most hidden dreams buried deep within the conscious mind — infinite chances to express themselves.
While Taylor Hebert had quite the normal upbringing with a balanced family…
…there were FAR TOO MANY cases where victims of "ebony mesonium radiation poisoning" — as this was termed by medical science — would just fly off the handle, unleashing murderous rampages which could devastate whole square miles of territory.
There was some hope, though. While the healer known as Panacea wouldn't try to attempt a purge of Taylor's mind — given how dangerous affecting one's very brain could be to the patient's very sense of self, Danny and Annette understood why Amelia Lavere forbade herself from going down THAT route — she was currently in contact with a metahuman who inherited such a mastery of ebony mesonium that purging such from their daughter's body would be child's play. While the woman known on Earth as Doctor Death (neither of Taylor's parents knew her real name and didn't think it their place to ask) was said to be a metahuman agent of the Secret Service answerable to President Josiah Bartlet himself, she was good friends with the still-pre-Gifted would-be reality warper who turned the Age of Capes into the Second Age of Metahumans shortly before 9/11 plunged America into the Global War on Terrorism: A lady named Tariko Katabarbe, soon to become the Trickster of the Great Show of Life, Tuyuki ("Coyote"), Yiziba's reality-warping version of Bugs Bunny with all his personal quirks and mortal standards.
A girl who, after being pre-Gifted by her late adopted mother Ayone Katabarbe in the spring of 2001, felt it only right to "share the wealth" with as many people as possible, travelling to and from Earth to find other women to persuade them to be Gifted.
Of course, every metahuman on PHO who had received such an invite and went through with Gifting declared their friendship with Tariko with the tag "(In The Book)", referring to a personal log the Japanese girl — no one knew exactly where Tariko came from in the Land of the Rising Sun and didn't feel it polite to ask — kept about her ongoing "casting drive".
So, the chances were there that SOMEONE from Yiziba might come along to help Taylor.
Neither Danny nor Annette was giving up hope even if it had been over a month since the attack…
"Ah, Hebert-kachō. You look well this evening."
Perking on hearing that accented voice right after he opened the door to his child's room, Danny smiled. "Hey, Haruto."
Seated beside the bed was a thirty-something Japanese man in the casual business attire worn by bloodied members of the Akatatsu-kai, the Red Dragon Society which had established themselves in the southern part of the Bay five years ago, after a veteran of the so-called "Ten Billion Yen Incident" of 2005 elected to seek out more fertile grounds for his interests and moved to the most cape-filled area of America. The man now visiting Danny's comatose daughter, Norinaga Haruto, had been one of many lieutenants from various wings of the Tōjō-kai, the second-largest Yakuza clan in the Land of the Rising Sun, who shifted across the Pacific to work under now-oyabun Tatsuhito Kenta. That person — known to cape geeks in the Bay now by his other identity Lung; the Chinese name had been deliberately chosen to throw people off as to where he came from exactly…though of course, in the eyes of the Empire Eighty-eight and their allies across the nation, the specific origins of such "subhumans" didn't matter — was someone who got on the radar of the local PRT immediately. When Lung made his first appearance in the bay in the summer of 2007 dealing with idiots from the Empire trying to press for fertile ground south of downtown, the WHOLE of the active Protectorate team went to arrest him…only to require at least a MONTH in some cases to recover from the wounds the combined high-level Brute/Blaster/Charger/Mover unleashed. Of course, while the presence of such a fearsome fighter brought a weird sense of stability to the cape scene in the Bay, Kenta's actions in the civilian realm — his identity as Lung was kept quite secret from the common man even if his identity was known to some local leaders, Danny among them — merited him much respect from even the most law-abiding local. It was through him and underlings like Haruto that true east Asian culture — regardless of it being Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese — was introduced wholesale into the old port town, giving Brockton Bay a quite exotic aura to tourists who got bored with the basic traps such as the Boardwalk and the Lord's Port Market.
Of course, Danny knew about Kenta's — and by extension, Haruto's — stories thanks to informers who benefitted from an active dockyard scene which allowed all sorts of goods (even illegal stuff) to get to customers. The retired Coast Guardsman learned over the years that Kenta's trigger event had been provoked all the way back in 1995 when his then-sempai Kiryū Kazuma took the fall for the murder of the patriarch of their part of the Tōjō-kai, Dōjima Sōhei; he had been killed by Kazuma's friend Nishikiyama Akira, when he moved to save their shared friend Sawamura Yumi from being raped by the Yakuza kumichō. Such an act almost saw Sōhei's entire family wiped out by the now-metamorphic fire user that Kenta triggered into; like many who knew the so-called "dragon of Dōjima", Kenta knew there was no way under Heaven that Kiryū Kazuma would pull the trigger like that without damn good cause. On learning that story, Danny — who often wondered why the story behind Sōhei's death hadn't been revealed to all the Tōjō-kai once Kazuma was imprisoned — had to respect both Kazuma and Kenta for their morals. Yes, they were bloodied gangsters who would impress the heck out of a man like the Marquis (the effective gold standard for a crime overlord in the eyes of natives of the Bay, cape or not), they had limits they never crossed unless things went totally south.
Of course, even if he was quick to protect his chosen territory with violent force whenever the neo-Nazi morons in town or some other group of fools decided to push their luck, Kenta was a fellow many could TRUST in ways few would ever trust known gangsters. And he ensured that his top lieutenants behaved in the very same way; the odd time that some fresh-faced fool stepped out of line too much, said idiot was publicly put down by the "dragon of Kyūshū" — Kenta was a native of Fukuoka, having moved to Tōkyō after making his mark, but choosing not to ally with the country's largest Yakuza clan, the Ōmi-rengō from Ōsaka — and left hanging for the police to deal with. In fact, Danny darkly knew of ONE such incident where Haruto reported to his oyabun concerning a kyodai who allowed his own base desires to overcome common sense; that incident went down on the evening of Columbus Day just past near Winslow High School, which involved the vigilante-turned-Ward Shadow Stalker saving some high school age bystanders from the fool's underlings who wanted to "press" them into becoming soapland girls.
Taylor Hebert had been one of those Shadow Stalker — yes, Danny had a good idea who she was under the mask but felt it only right and proper to keep that information to himself — had saved from such a horrible fate.
When news got to Kenta, he had personally interrogated the idiot, then executed him, having his severed head delivered by his right-hand man Tōrugawa Momotaru AKA Oni Lee with a hand-written note from the Dragon of Kyūshū explaining that the fellow was an agent of the Gold Moon Society who had infiltrated the Red Dragons in hope of shearing away the latter's Korean-American supporters into their own gang. Given what the local gang of kkangp'ae involved themselves with…
Even if the Red Dragons did have their own private brothels, the workers there were treated with the greatest of respect. That was something Annette — who had fought to see such things shut down while working under Ellen Firestone AKA Lustrum — always kept a weather eye out for even from her place among the staff of the University of Massachusetts Brockton Bay.
The Gold Moon Society clearly did NOT have such standards.
Which made the attack on Taylor on Thanksgiving evening a little more suspect.
If only there were parahumans — or better, metahumans — who could come help in that regard.
Despite all that Emily Piggot could bring to bear, it just wouldn't be enough with the presence of the Empire Eighty-eight — who had no care at all for anyone living in "their" city who gladly accepted people who were NOT WASP-pure white American — lurking like some stealthy lion ready to strike should any of their opponents in the Bay slipped up badly.
"Again, Kachō-san, I'm so sorry…!"
"Hey," Danny said as he reached over to squeeze the other man's shoulder in thanks. It had been explained to him by Kenta himself, who visited the Hebert household shortly after the attack. While coming home from the library — for Taylor, Arcadia High School's excellent facilities still didn't have the right texts for her to reference when doing certain essays — she had stumbled onto a fight between what looked like members of the Red Dragon Society with some group whose colours she didn't recognize. Noting that Haruto — whom she saw as a friend of the family despite his Yakuza background; besides, who the hell wouldn't admire a man who knew both the Dragon of Dōjima and the Dragon of Kyūshū themselves? — was moving to corral things before bystanders got hurt, the daughter of the dockyards moved to slip through a side alley to get clear of the scene. One of the strange gang's members was in the alley, obviously waiting for her; before Taylor could try to duck clear, she was shot in the upper chest above her heart with a specially-prepared onyx black crystal bullet. By the time things had calmed down and Haruto sent out scouts to locate potential casualties to get to treatment, it was too late; Taylor's attacker — who had been spotted by a security camera nearby even if it was too dark to get details of the person's face — had vanished and the poor girl was showing VERY ominous signs of being hit in a manner that could have easily provoked a trigger event.
"You've apologized enough. Kenta's apologized enough," the king of the dockyards whispered as he moved to replace the flowers beside Taylor's bed — always done twice a week by either him or Annette; given his personal belief that delivering flowers to a sick person would prolong the sickness, Haruto didn't participate in such a ritual — before he shifted another chair to relax as close as he could to his little girl. Gently grasping her gloved hand — given the nature of her wounds and what caused them, Taylor's whole body was encompassed in a protective plastic suit lined in ruby mesonium strings of crystals; that reddish middle form of the Atom of True Life provided the only means outside depleted neutronium to shield anyone from active ebony mesonium — he gave her a loving squeeze before taking a deep breath. "What did Jennifer find out?"
Haruto scowled. Tanaka Yumi — Jennifer Tanaka to her American friends — was a would-be computer programmer who had been attending Cornell University in upstate New York when pressure from her parents grew to the point where she triggered into a high-scale Tinker (with minor Thinker aspects) who immediately specialized in crafting things that could go "boom" in many interesting and lethal ways. Once she was helped through the post-trigger trauma by sympathetic PRT agents from the long-decommissioned Seneca Army Depot nearby, Jennifer cut ties to her parents — who clearly didn't care for their only girl to become some "cape freak" later code-named Bakuda; how the hell the girl hadn't decided to get some revenge for such cold treatment was something Danny would NEVER understand! — and made her way to the Bay, being welcomed into the Akatatsu-kai with open arms. Since her being inducted into the Red Dragons a year ago — her being given her personal irezumi by the Society's resident master artist was supervised by a sympathetic Annette, who volunteered to recommend Jennifer to complete her education at UMBB — she had proven to be also quite the gifted investigator as much as she was a witch with explosives; her insights into things thanks to her part-American ancestry had come to help the Red Dragons in many ways.
"It was the Kage Hakairyū, Kachō-san," Haruto said with a grimace, his fists clenching. "From what Yumi-san could get out of the one idiot from the Gold Moon who infiltrated that group my people fought the night your daughter was shot, he's been sending probes from wherever he's based now to try to undermine multiple groups, including the Merchants and the Empire. Almost akin to what Coil is said to prefer doing even if there's never been actual proof of his actions."
That made Danny laugh. "Those idiots under Skidmark could be flushed right into the sea for all I care for them," he mused as he stared at Taylor's still face. "I doubt this clown would make any sort of headway with the likes of Kaiser, though."
"No, but anything that puts those maniac shirakami-nushi on the backfoot would be more than welcome to almost all in town," the veteran Yakuza street fighter muttered, rubbing his head. "Such a pity that Piggot-chūsa had to cut in and force Shadow Stalker into the Wards. She was quite the menace against the Empire's junior forces when she was a free agent."
"Yeah, that she was," Danny breathed out.
Hearing the pain in his voice, Haruto winced as his own guilt surged up from his heart. "If I wasn't distracted…" he hissed, making the veteran dockworker gaze his way. "If Kiryū-sempai had been in my shoes…"
A hand grasped his shoulder. "Hey, cut that out! I know you love to compare yourself to that guy; even if a lot of stuff is still low key on PHO and elsewhere, what he's pulled off since he got out of jail is nothing short of amazing." Danny then turned to point directly at the other man. "But YOU are not either the Dōjima no Ryū nor the Kyūshū no Ryū! You're Norinaga Haruto! You're your own man, with your own destiny to grasp with both hands. Both Kenta and his friend snared their destinies with both hands even if Kenta got a hand up by triggering of all things." Even if the room was effectively shielded from outside eavesdropping thanks to the presence of so much energized mesonium in the room, he still lowered his voice on mentioning what many parahumans saw as the worst day of their lives. "Keep agonizing over things you can't control, you'll wind up just like Jennifer did. Do you want to go through the pain she suffered when she triggered? Or Kenta's or Momotaru's?"
Haruto blinked before painfully nodding. "Hai, that's true. Still, I've been worried. Kiryū-sempai came to town a year ago to speak to the Oyabun about events here, just after the Millennium Tower incident." As Danny shook his head — He calls that whole clusterfuck an 'incident'?! the senior dockworker immediately mused — the other man seemed to glow with pride. "While he was here, Sempai tested all the non-parahuman group leaders like me. After that, he told the Oyabun that I reminded Sempai of himself when he first jointed the Tōjō-kai back in the 1990s. I had a lot of potential." He then glanced at Taylor's still face. "After what happened, KNOWING that the Kage Hakairyū is out there seeking to become the true ruler of the Bay's underworld, I…" Tears then brimmed in his eyes as he gave the other man a helpless shrug. "I feel like I've let Sempai down."
"Then get stronger, Haruto," Danny ordered. "Don't let it happen again. I know Taylor would understand why you couldn't have been there for her when she needed it. You're not General Raeburn OR Superman! You're you. That's what matters!"
A faint nod answered him. "Arigatō," the Yakuza underboss whispered. "Still, I've been thinking. By the looks of what Yumi-san and others have discovered, the Kage Hakairyū has gained allies in the local underworld. If something isn't done — or Kami forbid, he undergoes a trigger event or gets powerful parahumans on his side — he could easily defeat the Oyabun, then move to strive to become the Burokkuton-wan no Ryū, the Dragon of Brockton Bay. That would spell all-out war against the Empire, with groups from across the country like the Elite and the Teeth moving to stake their own claims once more to the city once they saw openings. Down that path lies levels of destruction which would parallel what Jack Slash and his maniacs unleashed before Shihan-sama and her friends put them down like they did. Who would desire that?" Shaking his head, he rose, then turned to bow apologetically once more to the still teenager on the bed. "Again, please convey my apologies to Sensei for this situation."
Danny slowly nodded. He had hoped he could get through the kid's skull and straighten him around before the ugly possibility of a trigger event totally ruined Haruto's life. "Do what you can, Haruto. And I'll pass on your words to Annette."
"Hai. Oyasumi nasai, Kachō-san."
With another bow to the elder dockworker, the Yakuza underboss stepped quietly out of the room. Heading to the nearest elevator to get down to street level, he shook his head. What can I do? he mentally asked himself as he stepped into the opaque-glass-lined car; the hospital was quite modern in design, paid for by a grant by the financiers behind Medhall Pharmaceuticals based in the northern blocks of downtown overlooking the Essex River. I failed to protect Taylor-chan. I know I'm not strong enough to face the likes of the Kage Hakairyū if what Tōrugawa-sempai has warned about the man is true. Looking out into the evening sky through the clearer glass in the car roof, Haruto sighed. What kind of legacy do I want to leave?
Headquarters of the Brockton Bay Department, Massachusetts Parahuman Response Team, 6:42 PM EST (Austin time: 5:42 PM CST; Sweet Valley time: 3:42 PM PST; Nishinomiya time: Thursday, 6 January, 8:42 AM JST)…
"Mr. Calaway, I don't care to have THAT sort of issue dumped on my command like that."
"You going to try to complain to Lord Rjazán' of all people, Colonel?"
Hearing that sarcastic comment from the Master of the Dark Gaol even if he was giving her a sympathetic look, the overweight, aging ex-fighter pilot-turned-parahuman defence operative — even if effectively invalided thanks to the events at Ellisburg on the shores of Lake Ontario in upstate New York over a decade before — blinked before she shook her head. "A good point, Mr. Calaway," Emily Piggot breathed out as she turned in her chair to gaze out the armoured picture windows of her top floor office overlooking the calm waters of the Essex River flowing through downtown a few hundred yards short of the Bay. "Much that I know — and deep down, understand — why is it people like you loathe the existence of those things, why would this version of Danny's and Annette's daughter going off and provoking one of them to commit SUICIDE interest HIM of all people?!"
Mark Calaway exchanged looks with his wife Michelle, then the former sighed. "Ever since the Dawn of Power, many of those things — including the one Taylor helped kill and his mate — have increased their efforts to penetrate fully into our multiverse to find some way to tap into the Great Show of Life. It's potential Gift thievery; you know how we feel about that."
Piggot — a native of the Bay who had been a classmate of Danny Hebert's in much more innocent days well before the turn of the Millennium — nodded, as did the other man in the director's office attending this effectively secret meeting between the head of the local PRT and one of Yiziba's most powerful adopted citizens. He was Assistant Director Mike Renick, a retired veteran Air Force logistics readiness officer from Worcester who topped out at a major before pulling the pin; while not having experience in the field with any of the PRT formations nationwide before the government of Massachusetts hired him, his prior experience in planning the movement of entire WINGS made from multiple types of aircraft made him perfect when it came to juggling the needs of Piggot's command even with scant cape support and not enough boots on the ground to be a bold deterrent to the city's criminal elements. The two senior PRT officers were meeting alone with the Calaways, with none of the local Protectorate attending this meeting even if sooner or later, they would have to be clued into the situation; given what the subject of their conversation had done earlier in the day, people on both sides of the house were understandably VERY curious.
"Don't these things understand at all about how much their actions affect other species?" Renick then wondered. "I mean, with an event like what you two described and learned from Ms. Hebert, I'm sure that's got to register somewhere among their kind."
Mark hummed before her perked as something tweaked his personal clairvoyant field. "Oh, great…!"
"Who?" Piggot wondered…
…before a polite knock heralded the door to the office opening, revealing a smiling secretary, one of the many Terran-form Avalonian "assistant observers" who had been effectively freed of Niphentaxian control once they began to live in the Bay. "Please excuse me, Colonel, Major, Thoughtmaster-prime, Thoughtmistress-prime: Thoughtmistresses-prime Annie Whitman and Suzumiya Haruhi are here. With Thoughtmistress-prime Suzumiya are Thoughtmistress Nagato Yuki and Master Kyon."
"Send them in," Piggot bade.
The secretary ducked out for a moment before the door opened wide, allowing two teenage girls in the modern-pattern sleeveless Yizibajohei battlesuit — such composed of a form-fitting halter-top over very snug trousers bloused into buccaneer-style low heel boots; a utility belt with carrying pouches over either hip completing the ensemble — to step inside, they accompanied by a normal-looking girl in a proper white-and-blue sailor suit uniform for Nishinomiya-Kita High School topped with a comfortable knit sweater, plus a normal-looking man in the green blazer, button shirt and brown pants combination worn by boys of said school located ten kilometres northwest from downtown Kōbe. "Sorry we're late, Colonel," the lone American of the group, a girl with short-cropped, curly brown hair and blue eyes, called out with an apologetic wave of her hand.
"I'm glad you're here, Ms. Whitman. Both of you," Piggot greeted in return as the Show-Stopper, Yoenu'u ("Oblivion"), came over to gently grasp her hand before taking a seat beside Renick. The retired pilot then gazed in confusion at the once-natural-born reality warper now known on Yiziba as the Mistress of Time and Space, R'buttuo (the "Weaver"). "Much that I can understand why you brought Ms. Nagato here, Ms. Suzumiya, but is there some reason for Mr. Kyon to be here?"
"Kyon's insights into parahuman and metahuman affairs makes him valuable as we analyze this incident concerning the other-dimensional version of Taylor Hebert and the effects of her forcing the Zion entity to self-terminate," Nagato Yuki stated as she took her own chair to Piggot's right, with Kyon — only Suzumiya Haruhi herself knew his real name — sitting next to her.
"Besides, he's always been the right sort of distraction when I came close to losing control of my powers," the second-most-powerful reality warper to live on the World of the Forge said as she took her chair between Kyon and Michelle Calaway. Looking quite normal with her dark brown hair done in a stylish bob cut to her collarbones with part of said mass held back by a trendy golden headband, the native of Nishinomiya who was that rarest form of metahuman — one who was BORN with her powers! — then gazed with fond delight at her classmate, making Kyon blush in embarrassment. "Okay, so…recapping scripts time," the woman who also led Japan's only private paranormal investigations group (in her civilian identity) then announced with a dramatic flourish of her hand. "We have our wonderful Praetorian Guardian, Lord Rjazán' — who's worked like the devil himself at times to keep all the nasty creepy crawlies from invading our lovely home planet for the past twenty-five sagas since humanity began to develop civilization — well, he decided to cut in when Taylor-chan…" — even if she was speaking Japanese, the omniversal translators built into Yizibajohei fighting suits ensured the English speakers could interpret the words in their native tongue — "…was so kind as to practically sacrifice herself to put one of the kimfombeke down, one that was in the midst of slaughtering potentially TRILLIONS of defenceless norms in her home multiversal cluster. She gets dropped into the Dark Gaol where Mark-kun here and Hinako-chan find her, she's brought here to Brockton Bay — the counterpart of her own hometown on this 'Earth-Bet' as she calls it — and is given a new body to use since she lost an arm, went through loads of fight scenes without proper healer support, then nearly got her brains blown out at the climax of the last fight scene. Once in her new body, her powers reawaken and get used to the new wetware, she gets in contact with Vicky-chan and Amy-sensei, then decides to butt in when Lily-chan's would-be prime heel decides to try and kill Ṣabāḥ-sensei because she has the audacity to 'steal' Lily-chan for a lifetime of wonderful pillow scenes!" she then finished off with a haughty, disapproving tone; given Yizibajohei — not to mention normal Terran teenager — respect and curiosity about affairs of the bedchamber, that Haruhi would consider THAT about the recent attack on Parian being the most important issue was expected. As Piggot tried not to smirk on reflecting that, the Mistress of Time and Space glanced around. "Did I miss anything in that recap, by the way?" she inquired with honest concern.
"Perfect recap, Haruhi," Mark affirmed with a nod as Michelle sipped her coffee, both also smothering their grins.
"Good," Annie then cut in. "Now, thanks in part to our 'cape culture' being a lot more open than what she's used to, once she gets logged into PHO, this version of Taylor gets loads of fans, loads of kudos for a job well done, then is offered help by Ṣabāḥ to get her new uniform made up so she can hit the streets in real time instead of fighting remotely." Here, the daughter of a divorced couple who was forced to help care for her addled mother when she wasn't attending school or dealing with fight scenes reached into her belt pouch to pull out her PAA. "According to Sharon Blake, the elder mother of the group of Avalonians who welcomed Taylor in as a new sister to their overall family, she's wanting to source some interesting insects to help in producing her new battle suit. Darwin's bark spiders are her main goal, though she'll resort to normal black widows if necessary."
"Why those type of spiders, Anne-san?" Kyon asked.
"The tensile strength of dragline silk from those specific species of arachnids would provide ample additional protection from most forms of normal attack, Kyon," Yuki explained in her normal deadpan voice. "Her original uniform which she produced for herself prior to her debut in the Brockton Bay of Earth-Bet was well-designed; she faced her universe's version of Tatsuhito Kenta on her first evening out in costume…" — that comment made Piggot and Renick gape in shock — "…and she easily survived several close-range blasts of bio-organic flame from him before she was able to overwhelm him with multiple forms of wasp and hornet strikes, allowing him to be taken into custody." She then slightly shook her head. "Taylor then had the ill luck to encounter Colin Wallis, who was dispatched to the scene by local PRT control. Her version of that man, I should note, was not as emotionally developed as ours has become ever since Theresa Richter was allowed to become an Avalonian."
Seeing her hosts visibly wince as they imagined how that encounter went, the forward scout of an ancient sentience known as the Data Integration Thought Entity — a being as artificial as the Entities who empowered parahumans throughout many sectors of the Multiverse, but was far more advanced in sentience — added, "With Taylor's many personal issues — she had lost her mother to an automobile accident, was effectively abandoned by her father, had lost her oldest friend to the manipulations of a peer, endured a bullying campaign while in high school which ended in a near-murder attempt using fermented biological waste and entrapment in her own school locker…" — that made Annie gape in horror as Piggot shook her head and Renick looked ill — "…she was totally isolated and desperate for any sign of approval concerning her actions. Given that Colin's lack of emotional empathy — added onto a near-fanatical drive to find success and acclaim for his actions — immediately made him judge Taylor as a 'villain' (all on the excuse that her uniform was too dark), she would eventually side with a local group of thieves (whom Kenta had wanted to kill that evening) called the Undersiders as a group. And it was THEY who gave Taylor the first positive forms of emotional support in three years. Without any support elsewhere, she decided that being a villain was emotionally more stable for her. It was just the culture of that universe and the underlying factors concerning the rogue entities' influence on affairs there which would eventually see Taylor drive herself into becoming as powerful as possible to overcome any sort of foe."
"Yet she clearly has heroic leanings," Renick advised.
"She strikes me as a pretty decent person," Michelle added.
"That, Michelle-san, resulted in most part from the positive support given by your husband and the All-Cleansing One…" — for some odd reason, Yuki NEVER addressed Saeru Hinako by name — "…when they encountered her in the Dark Gaol. This was right after she was forced to witness the near-total destruction of her home planet, the slaughter of countless billions of people, the near-complete abandonment of those people by the majority of parahumans who had been empowered by the Zion entity — which forced Taylor to resort to VERY drastic solutions to stop such a slaughter from happening — and was 'thanked' for that effort with two bullets to the skull in hopes of cutting her links to the Queen Administrator shard unit which empowered her."
"Wait!" Piggot cut in. "This thing was going crazy! Billions were being killed! And most capes in that whole cluster just threw up their hands and did NOTHING?!" At Yuki's affirming nod, she demanded, "What did Taylor have to do?"
"She got her shard jail-broken by Amelia Lavere to allow her to access ALL of the potential that Queen Administrator could give her," Annie answered. "This removed the 'Manton limit' that some parahumans experience unless they push themselves all the way to experiencing a second or subsequent trigger event." As people in the room winced on hearing that, the Show-Stopper added, "It allowed her Mastering abilities to go beyond just insects to ALL forms of sentient life, including humans."
"Once so empowered — even if she nearly lost her sense of self and what it meant to be human — Taylor was able to force all surviving parahumans to teleport to where the corpse of the Zion entity's late mate lay," Yuki added. "Forcing him to gaze upon his dead mate through the eyes of THOUSANDS of those he had empowered, the depression he felt at her loss drove him to suicide, saving multiple millions of lives. By that time, whatever shred of Taylor's humanity was completely subsumed by the sheer sensory input her enhanced abilities gave her. An ally allowed her to escape to a remote dimension where she could have gained the chance to recover. There, she was found by an agent of a group named Cauldron, who had been secretly preparing for a battle with the Zion entity for decades. To ensure she could never be a 'threat' again, said agent shot Taylor in the head to shatter the links with the Queen Administrator shard unit and render her 'normal'. It was there that Lord Rjazán' intervened."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then…
"Jesus Christ…!" Renick hissed as Piggot shook her head in disbelief. "What type of HELLHOLE does that kid come from?!"
"One that was ultimately of the making of the Cauldron group in essence, Renick-shōsa," the observer of one of the oldest-known artificial intelligences in the whole of the multiverse answered. "When the Eden entity was killed by accident, her corpse empowered a young girl named Fortuna with the shard unit designated 'the Eye'. Such gave her the precognitive ability to seek out the most successful path in life, both for herself and when dealing with other parahumans. This ability, which she termed 'the Path to Victory', was taken advantage of by a witness to the Eden unit's destruction, Doctor Aminata Laplène de Sénoufo, who — with Fortuna's assistance — learned of the entities plans' concerning that entire multiverse. Both — with Fortuna only being ELEVEN YEARS OLD at the time! — then formed Cauldron and based it on Earth-Bet to prepare for a final confrontation with the Zion entity." As people around the table shook their heads as they were pulled even deeper into THIS ugly rabbit hole, Yuki continued, "With that, Doctor Laplène began experiments using shards from the corpse of the Eden entity to seek to empower people into becoming warriors against her still-living mate. Such was necessitated when two years after Fortuna's trigger in 1980, on Earth-Bet, a 'golden man' first appeared over the Atlantic Ocean, saving the crew of a cargo ship which was foundering off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. He became known as 'Scion', the first 'superhero' to arise on that planet."
"Scion. Zion. That thing was using some sort of humanoid avatar?" Piggot asked.
"Indeed so, Piggot-chūsa. Within two years of the Zion entity appearing as 'Scion', parahumans began appearing en masse on Earth Bet. It was during this time that Doctor Laplène recruited four potential parahumans to assist her, seeing them empowered successfully as four of the most powerful of their kind to rise even to the day Taylor triggered.
"You know them as the Quadrumvirate…"
In geosynchronous orbit at the meridian of New York City (location on Earth: Twenty kilometres east of the village of Muriba, Caquetá Department, Colombia), 7:03 PM EST/COT...
To the average passers-by on spaceships travelling close to the Sol system from neighbouring worlds — the system was at the outspin end of a neutral corridor connecting the effective "wings" of a trading and quasi-defence alliance of several multi-planetary governments within the local cluster, the Galactic Federation of Planet-States — travelling close to the third world of the system was forbidden due to the lack of native space-flight capabilities; such was effectively guaranteed with the presence of thousands of cultural observers from Phentax Two who had been watching over Terran society for almost three centuries. While the sectors of space outspin from Sol were controlled the Ipraedies Empire, a power antagonistic to the Federation as a whole, the close presence of colony planets controlled by two of the local cluster's effective superpowers, the Imperial Dominion of Noukiios (coreward of Sol) and the Imperial Houses of the Seifukusu Dominion (inspin from Sol), ensured that any overt moves towards Earth itself would be instantly blocked by other governments who'd seek to guarantee their own spheres of influence. Maintaining this balance was a special group of Terran field agents who had been equipped for the most part by the Imperial Dominion and their long-term allies, the Six Holy Churches of Zephyrus. This group was the top-secret "Men in Black" known officially as the United Nations Special Committee on Alien Activities; based out of New York City itself, said group saw to it that those non-Terrans who wanted to quietly live on Earth were allowed to do so without causing any public alarm.
Of course, with the growing numbers of metahumans and parahumans having appeared all over Earth in the previous half-century and more from the virtual Götterdämmerung that befell most of the first known generation of such beings at the end of the Second World War, neighbouring powers were wary of the idea of approaching said planet in any overt manner. Long-entrenched fears of the third world of Sigma Sagittarii and its chaos-ruled culture — never mind its ability to resist attempts at "civilization" by foreign powers, usually with catastrophic results to those self-same foreign powers in events often termed "mothers of all fight scenes" on Yiziba — made even the most self-serving warlord on planets such as Ipraedos, Dominos or Uru (one of the most powerful of the Federation powers, who controlled space at the inspin end of the travel corridor terminating at Sol) take pause before advancing such plans to the point where an invasion fleet could be deployed. Fortunately, with the presence of an advanced civilization on the largest moon orbiting the outermost planet of Sol — never mind the considerable Niphentaxian observer presence on Earth itself — any sort of developments on the cape front would be discovered quickly enough for analysts elsewhere to investigate before strategic and tactical plans concerning the third world of Sol would be adjusted.
What those analysts didn't know was that due to the Niphentaxian ability to seamlessly blend in culturally with a host society — this came part-and-parcel with their long-engrained habit of replicating the behaviours of other cultures, grown through the ages from a self-defence capability when dealing with hostile predators — many of those observers whose discoveries were digested eagerly by those selfsame analysts too often "went native", becoming more Terran (and whatever specific nationality or tribal group said observer lived amongst) than Niphentaxian. This resulted in, among other things, skewered or scant reports concerning the affairs of capes worldwide, even with ready access to data such as what could be found on Parahumans Online and other like Internet websites. While it was well within the capabilities of the social/technological savants from Phentax Two to probe deep and ascertain vital information such as capes' birth names, capabilities, weaknesses and the like, the standard attitude among most native Terrans concerning their metahumans and parahumans — stemming from the feelings generated by those who appeared during the "First Age of Metahumans" prior to the Second World War — became contagious among their alien-born "neighbours". While it wasn't the relatively tight information-masking regime that existed on Earth-Bet under the concept of "the Unwritten Rules", trying to probe into the personal lives of any metahuman/parahuman — unless such was ordered by competent legal authority such as a nation state's specialized warfare forces or law enforcement — was verboten.
Case in point: The Wise Lone Sage, Raer'buo Erba ("Doctor Renaissance"), native of Queens in the Big Apple.
The basic PHO facts about the man were quite easy to comprehend. He was empowered to become a high-end hyper-genius polymath by finding a Gift crystal one evening, becoming the twenty-seventh of his "battle line" to live since the Dawn of Power on Yiziba two millennia before. He had confirmed publicly that he was an orphan, having lost his parents to a car accident three years prior to his empowerment. He was a self-professed otaku, a man who took inspiration from all forms of science fiction no matter how unknown to create his many inventions, which he had shared with many elements of the United States government and various allied and friendly nations across Earth. During the period the man underwent what was known as "post-Gifting shock" — the time just immediately after the empowerment when the energy preserving the memories of his many past-selves overwhelmed both his conscious and subconscious mind — he travelled to the infamous Thai pirate port city of Roanapur to duel with the various gangs and other low-lives haunting the town; thanks to his practical real-time inexperience, he came out of that trip having suffered many defeats…even if several of the local crime lords actually found challenging such a man quite amusing. After that, he underwent an intensive multi-dimensional "training trip" to gather knowledge and gain more inspiration for his work; as to exactly WHERE the Wise Lone Sage travelled, such was only known to the highest legal authorities in Washington and allied capitals like Ottawa and London. Once having returned from said trip, he began helping a group of just-Gifted metahumans based out of Santa Clara near San Francisco, the Wondercolts; while said group didn't have the high target-rich environment Brockton Bay could present, they had made a noticeable effect on the local cape scene in central California. What rumours about the man on PHO were as many: He was believed to create lifelike androids and gynoids to assist him in his research, was rumoured to have created a warp-capable STARSHIP and was said to have created a great SPACE STATION hidden in the skies over Earth, from which he watched over his native planet to shield same from any potential threat.
Those last three factoids were quite correct…
…even if the average PHO nerd couldn't hope to comprehend the SCALE of what the man born Isaac Thomas built…
KK-KBOOM!
Relaxing in one of his personal laboratories, the blond, blue-eyed and slender eighteen-year-old hyper-genius polymath — that said person had been trusted with SO MUCH by the federal government and many state governments in America when he was not even old enough to drink would astound both his fans and critics alike on Parahumans Online — tried not to wince too much as that ear-splitting noise echoed through the bulkheads and decks of Station Robert, his home-away-from-Yiziba. Standing up as he absently tapped a control to create a sterile preservation field around the minute electronics and mesonium crystal shards he had been manipulating, Isaac Thomas reached up to adjust his multi-function protective goggles — he was nearsighted, normally wearing reading bifocals when in civilian clothing — then tapped the control to unlock the door and step outside…
Isn't that the Popeye theme song? he then absently wondered on hearing familiar music echo from nearby…
KK-KLONG!
…then the New Yorker found himself yet AGAIN thanking his own foresight to make the various exercise areas located in the four main habitation spheres of Station Robert large enough for highly-intensive, energy expending battles by large groups of duelling metahumans or parahumans. The whole design resembled two Regula One space stations from the second Star Trek movie, both fused as the "bottom" ends to the hub of a twin-ring space station based on designs by the famous German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun which influenced the Space Station V in the 2001: A Space Odyssey movie; due to the need for LOTS of workspace, the whole thing was constructed to a five-to-one scale from what was seen in those movies…
He then sympathetically winced as a clearly trashed armoured exoskeleton based on the Robot Master concept from Rockman slammed into the deck about two metres ahead of him, the helmet unit falling off to reveal a balding middle-aged man with long silver-grey hair to his shoulders, a matching handlebar mustache and blue eyes sparkling with amusement; one had to get VERY close to this android replica of the man antagonist from that particular video game/animation series, Doctor Albert Wily, to see the near-microscopic data fields projected from a heads-up display function inserted into the irises. Shaking his head as his mind quickly took in said damage — if such wrecked armour, weapons emplacements and other elements of the suit said anything, his students had decided to gang up on Albert to gain a quick victory in this latest bout on the main holodeck before calling it a day and heading back to Santa Clara for things like homework — Isaac then crossed his arms. "They got you again, Albert?"
An amused cackle responded. "Yes, they did, they did! They're getting better on the team tactics since I started sparring with them!" Albert answered as he mentally triggered the escape controls to allow the chest plate to flop open, revealing he was dressed in a Camelot High School track suit minus the jacket; even if he was one of Isaac's "replicants" (as the Wise Lone Sage termed his humanoid AI creations as a whole), he sweated like a normal person when doing intensive exercise. "Still, the data collected will definitely allow me to perfect my designs before we could give them to the various PRT branches for use."
Isaac nodded as he helped the older-looking man to his feet while two of the station's small army of cleaning machines swept in to carry the wrecked combat suit off to another laboratory for analysis and repair. "What about your new design?"
"The Metal Gear REX?" Albert wondered as he brushed his arms off. "I was going to use that today, but Ms. Silva warned me that they needed to concentrate more on homework this evening, so I'll save it for the weekend."
"Ah, yes, finishing up their Christmas vacation essays for history," Isaac trilled. "Good point. Overall skills?"
Albert hummed. "Call it a 42.7 percent improvement from when Thomas fought them before the holidays. No doubt, they snuck in weekend trips to the Battlezone on Yiziba…" — such was a large wasteland on the planet's central equatorial continent, at least double the size of the Sahara on Earth, where metahumans gathered to test each other out away from innocent bystanders, much less to simply blow off steam — "…to burn off all the candy and sweets they had," he finished with a wink.
A snort escaped Isaac. "Yeah, they did vanish from their family homes on a couple of times…"
"Which should make them look all the better when Ladies Luna and Celestia come by to test them two weeks from now."
The younger man nodded. Celestia Oliver was the principal of Camelot High School; her sister Luna worked for the Santa Clara Unified School District in adult education, often seen at Camelot High helping migrants better understand what living in America was about. Both were psychics, though not empowered by the Forge of the Seekers as Isaac and his current run of students; like Suzumiya Haruhi had been, the Oliver sisters were the one thing that most Yizibajohei wished to see arise: True natural-born metahumans. Like so many had done since the days of the Liberty Legion, Celestia and Luna had joined the armed forces after getting their degrees from the University of California San Francisco; their being high-end telepaths quickly saw their military occupational specialty rated as "18A-SW" and sent off to Fort Bragg to train as members of the Special Forces. After winning the coveted green berets, they then went to the Canadian Forces School of Specialized Warfare in northeast British Columbia, earning their "phoenix wings" which saw them as field deployable. For the next decade, the Oliver sisters worked with groups like Delta Force and the 75th Ranger Regiment as special interrogation officers before pulling the pin on becoming majors and allowing themselves to shift into the Army National Guard for their home state, marked as reserve officers for the local element of the California Parahuman Response Team under the overall command of retired Navy SEAL captain James Tagg.
Because of their levels of field experience — and noting the similarities between the Santa Clara area's new team of teenage metahumans heroes and certain members of the student body — it hadn't taken either Celesia or Luna more than a week to figure out who the Wondercolts were under their new fancy costumes. That would see the group under the field command of Rebecca Skylark and Tara Silva tested quite thoroughly by the veteran "capes" in a heavy bout at the National Training Centre at Fort Irwin one hectic weekend after fall term exams. Despite every dirty trick the Oliver sisters pulled out of their boonie hats from their times in rather hectic places like Afghanistan and Iraq, the Wondercolts — who, despite the knowledge they had inherited from their past-selves, had never worked together in previous incarnations — were able to eek out an acceptable win.
But as far as the elder educators were concerned, the testing wasn't over yet…
A chime echoed over the scene. "Isaac?"
"Yes, Robyn?" the Wise Lone Sage called back.
"Colonel Emmerson is calling in now from Wright-Patterson," Robyn Ross — a gynoid who had been modelled on the character of Roll from the Rockman series; she had taken her human name from the voice actress who portrayed her in the American animated series from the 1990s — then reported from the station's main operations centre.
"Thanks, Robyn. I'll take it in Lab 28."
With a nod to Albert, Isaac turned and headed back into the laboratory where he had been busying himself until now. As the android scientist moved to head back to his own research area, the New Yorker sealed the laboratory chamber, then headed to a nearby desk, tapping the omniversal control mechanism there to bring up a holographic screen, that soon projecting the image of a smiling Charles Emmerson; the world's premier Tinker — as many fans saw him as — was in his own office at the Air Force Institute of Technology. "Good evening, Colonel," Isaac greeted him. "Lucky you caught me here instead of school."
"Well, a certain Army major who shocked the devil out of me when she told me that YOU of all people had started attending HIGH SCHOOL at her particular institution was able to advise me of your class schedule, so I wouldn't accidentally unmask you," the man also known as Hero answered as he sat back in his chair. "Speaking of which, how are your students doing? I've seen the after-action report Major Oliver and her sister passed on to Captain Tagg about that nice bout they had at Fort Irwin."
"Well, just before classes on Monday, Tara returned from a quick interdimensional trip to a parallel dimension where their Earth is called Grymoire," Isaac answered, making the older man gape. "I believe you might be familiar with the name?"
Emmerson whistled. "A Final Fantasy universe?! How different from the type of magic people in the DOM use?"
"Practically day and night in some places. She's writing up an after-action report for the attention of the local DMLE in case someone from that planet tries to come visit our dimension." As Emmerson nodded, a knowing sparkle then appeared in Isaac's eye as his lips curled into a slight smile, he then sitting back in his own chair. "So, your next line is…"
"'I need to know more about the situation involving Skitter,'" both then said in virtual lock-step.
Silence fell as Emmerson seemed nonplussed, then he blinked a couple of times before a groan escaped him, such making the younger inventor laugh. "Damn! I HATE it when you pull that stunt on me, Isaac!" he snapped.
A casual shrug answered him. "You're that obvious in places, Colonel. Besides, given what I briefed you and your friends on after my own training trip to other dimensions, the chances were pretty good that a version of some parahuman from that specific multiversal cluster could be heading our way," the New Yorker warned. "Especially given what happened to the counterparts of Colonel Costa-Brown, Captain Richardson and Colonel Mercy in the wake of your other-self's death because of that universe's version of Doctor Manton and what the Simurgh creature literally made him create once he triggered."
The Ohioan shook his head. "Thank GOD that we don't have to deal with those Endbringer things in this dimension. Dealing with the normal run of supernatural monster is bad enough, especially if some officious fool on the other side of the Hudson decides the incident is under their purview in lieu of ours." The phrase "other side of the Hudson" was the metronym used by all in the know to refer obliquely to the headquarters of the United States Department of Magic — and its legislative arm, the Magical Congress of the United States —located in dimensionally-displaced sub-basement levels of the Woolworth Building in downtown Manhattan. As Isaac grimly nodded in understanding — fortunately for Tara Silva, who was now the Great Witch of the West, Gabuor'be ("Archmage"), the San Francisco office of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was crewed by "no-mag-borns" who understood the TRUE legal relationship between America's magicals and the non-magical government, never mind non-magical metahumans — Emmerson reached out of screen for a cup of welcome coffee. "Still, you're right about how obvious this call is about. Even if she was out of physical sight when she helped put down March and Homer to save Parian, she's earned herself a tonne of fans in the Bay. Given what her experiences on Earth-Bet must have been like…"
"Murphy's Law dialed to the extreme in places," Isaac affirmed with a grim nod. "Everything she tried to do using legal means to better either her life or the lives of those she cared for always backfired in her face. The whole situation was gamed against her from the start, it seems. She didn't have a media-savvy power, so the local Protectorate would keep her at arms' length or so hobble her that she'd be less than useless in the field. Never mind the whole issue of that universe's Sophia Hess. Unlike ours, she never had as an inspiration a man like the late Sergeant O'Keefe to inspire her to show mercy to 'weak animals'. In her eyes — which she burned easily into the very fragile mind of Taylor's then-best friend, Emma Barnes, when she saved her from the local version of the Gold Moon Society in that universe — there are two types of beings, prey and predators. Taylor was seen as prey…and since the school they attended was getting quite the government stipend for a Ward attending, the staff were more than willing to look the other way no matter how much she complained. Even her trigger event was brushed aside as a mere 'prank'."
"When she read THAT part of Ms. Hebert's bio, Becca actually threw up," Emmerson muttered. "Much that I've heard how cruel teenagers can be to each other, that sort of thing could have been seen as a bioterrorism attack."
A shake of the head answered that comment. "Wouldn't have been prosecuted even if that universe's version of Carol Dallon got involved. Your counterparts in Cauldron had the end goal to get as many people triggered as possible to fight Zion when the time came to put him down. Even if they didn't realize that so much had been set up against them by Zion, what Taylor pulled off at the end in Gold Morning showed that Cauldron's leaders had the right idea all along." Isaac then sighed. "And if newly-triggered capes became villains — as Taylor was effectively forced to be — it didn't matter with THAT end game on the minds of people like Doctor Mother and Contessa. Like I said already, the whole system was gamed against people like Taylor."
"Which is cause for concern once certain parties learn of this."
"There is always THAT risk. Still, there was always a deep desire to do good inside Taylor that shone through right to the end. No matter what happened to her, if others survived and were able to have better lives, it was worth the sacrifices." Here, Isaac pointed to the deckhead of the laboratory to indicate his adopted home planet. "Thank the Forge for Hinako-chan and Mark for getting there right away and complimenting her for helping put Zion down. It's the level of justification she needs to help her crawl out of the emotional pit she's been forced into since her mother's death five years ago in her timeline. All the sacrifices were worth it." A grimace then crossed his face. "Given what happened to our universe's version of Taylor — from what Margo passed onto me when Amelia got her to examine the poor girl — I think part of the reason Master Résav'l brought that Taylor into this dimension was that there's an 'open place' for her to seamlessly slip into once her local self's parents are read into this."
Emmerson's eyes closed. "Terrible…"
"True, but I doubt even General Raeburn can save her in the state she's in now, never mind hoping to restore her back to something resembling 'normal'. It's been too long and local authorities didn't react fast enough for the poor girl."
The older man grimaced. "Well, hopefully, if what she's done so far is a sign of things, maybe Professor Hebert and her husband can welcome this more mature version of their child into their lives. And if it doesn't work…" Here, he threw up his hands. "Ah, that's a bridge we'll have to cross if it comes up on us. Still, it's best to ask the questions now."
"If you want to get more information from a prime source, ask her yourself," Isaac then bade. "You have an idea of how much she's been through. It's a miracle she didn't become fight scene happy because of all the things smashed down on her head over the years." As Emmerson grimaced on hearing one of the phrases for going insane on Yiziba escape the younger hyper-genius, the Wise Lone Sage added, "Most normal people would have gone crazy in the end, but she stayed sane all along. No doubt, her multitasking abilities helped her out there. She'll be fine if she's given the right sort of support, which she's getting thanks in part to Amelia and her sister, not to mention Margo, Mark and Hinako-chan. Annie and Haruhi are read into this as well, so in case there might be some further issues coming from that multiverse — say from Contessa — we'll be well forewarned."
"Given how easy it was for her to escalate things to get the win in fights, that will be a nasty thing to see."
"If it comes, it comes. But right now, I doubt anything will happen. Contessa was briefly exposed to the Dark Gaol. Given the kimfombeke's and their shards' prior experiences with the power of that thing, I doubt she survived that exposure without some serious injury. If people might want to seek justice against 'Khepri' for mastering them into fighting Zion like she did, they must find WHICH multiverse she was shifted to, then determine WHICH dimension of that multiverse she's in, then — if they wish to pull off an attack and get back home safe — smartly SCOUT around to check up the local situation before making that attack. No doubt, Taylor's friends in the Undersiders team have gone to ground to wait for whatever backlash from Gold Morning is hitting capes altogether to drain away before they start living their lives on whatever world they've chosen for themselves."
"In case it does happen, though…?"
Isaac smirked. "The Wondercolts and I'll be ready to hit the Bay hard. You can pass that on to Colonel Piggot."
Emmerson laughed. "That would relieve Emily a lot!" he stated before a knowing look crossed his face. "Still, that's not surprising coming from you, Isaac. You may not have got into The Book of Pretty Girls because you weren't Gifted with Tariko's direct help, but you got her 'share the wealth' concept down pat. If it wasn't Professor Rhetor and his friends in Manhattan, it's General Hammond and his people at Stargate Command, never mind your helping all the state PRT forces as well." He pointed at the younger hyper-genius. "You've earned all the respect you've gained from all quarters. I heard about those incidents in Japan after you got some sense smacked into you in Roanapur. Saving some idol singer and solving a murder…?"
"Hoshino Ai," Isaac answered. "Idol singer at the time I met her after Rebecca Lee and Okajima Rokurō invited me to visit Tōkyō after I finished my lessons with Captain Pávlova's and Inspector Zhāng's people. Four years before, she was pregnant with a child and was going to see a doctor, Amamiya Gorō-sensei. He was willing to help deliver her child in secret to prevent scandal, then was killed by one of Ai's all-too-many rabid fans. Somehow, someway, Amamiya was literally reborn as Ms. Hoshino's son Aqua." As Emmerson gaped, the Wise Lone Sage shrugged. "In one way, it was a good thing that Aqua-kun did retain his past-self's memories; when I was there, he got in contact with me to alert me to the threat to Ms. Hoshino's life. Turns out that before he died, he had met Tariko when she was in country doing her casting drive." Seeing the other man nod, the young genius added, "The same man who killed Amamiya-sensei moved to kill Ms. Hoshino when I was in Japan with Revy and Rock; they were moving to meet with Kiryū Kazuma at Captain Pávlova's behest to form ties between the Tōjō-kai and Otél' Moskvá. Since Aqua-kun knew of Yizibajohei and heard of me, he contacted me just before Ms. Hoshino would be attacked."
"And you saved her," Emmerson finished before a thoughtful hum escaped him. "A lot of Mr. Kiryū's friends form the Red Dragon Society in Brockton Bay these days, including his old kōhai, Tatsuhito Kenta."
"I'm sure they'll be happy to help out if asked," Isaac noted. "I doubt Kazuma himself could come…"
Emmerson blinked. "Didn't you help him get Gifted?"
"I helped him there, yes. Not to mention those incidents last year and the year beforehand AND that whole stupid thing in Saga as well!" Here, the Wise Lone Sage rolled his eyes. "If he can come, he's more than welcome, I'm sure. But he's too busy these days getting settled down and helping people get their names cleared as a way of clearing up his own karma from that whole mess concerning his old underboss and what happened to him. You ever hear of a man named Kasuga Ichiban?"
"Member of one of the Tōjō-kai's minor families according to a Navy friend of mine out of Fleet Activities Yokosuka," the older Tinker affirmed. "Was accused of murder of a rival but got cleared with Kiryū's help last year. He runs Ichiban Holdings in Yokohama these days." At Isaac's surprised look, Emmerson chuckled. "Even if he's 'respectable' now, Kasuga's still the rabid video game fan. My friend's subordinates always duel with him in Dragon Quest all the time, though he's gained some interest in Kingdom Hearts these days. My friend has even noted that on the odd occasion that he hits the streets himself, Kasuga fights people as if he's in a damned RPG of all things! That's a dangerous attitude to have on the streets."
Isaac hummed. "I'll mention it to Kazuma when I speak to him next. Speaking of duels, how's Colonel Mercy doing?"
"He actually ran into Kiryū in the Battlezone before the New Year; got a good couple bouts with the man there." Here, the Ohioan grimaced. "Good thing that David gets chance to duel with people like that in a safe place. Much as General Raeburn and her friends at Clayhurst tried to knock that out of him, it didn't get erased all the way. With Yiziba now available…"
"There are loads of people there who'd love to help the man get over his urge to challenge himself," the New Yorker noted. "Which is a damned sight better than what the version of him from Taylor's universe was like from what I saw of him during my initial scans of Earth-Bet. He was very supportive of Cauldron going out to create as many 'vial capes' as possible; the successful ones could easily have become new opponents for him to face on the field." As Emmerson scowled on hearing that, Isaac shook his head, wryly smirking. "Of course, those 'failed' vial capes — the so-called 'Case 53s' who wound up deformed and lost their memories — were just necessary 'collateral damage' in the terminal end goal for that group."
"Stupid! David — OUR David! — would have torn such a monster apart with his bare hands!" the older man spat. "Please tell me Ms. Hebert managed to dress those lunatics down when she began to prepare to fight Zion."
"She did it after she joined the Chicago wing of the PRT and rebranded as 'Weaver'." The younger man shrugged. "Personally, it would have been better for Taylor to have publicly addressed that either during or right after the Echidna incident, when the whole truth of Cauldron got vented into public after Noelle Meinhardt's powers were able to make replicas of that universe's version of the Triumvirate. By then, Taylor was practically the overlady of all of Brockton Bay, which put her in the best position to help people living there recover from both the Leviathan attack and the subsequent attack by the Slaughterhouse Nine."
"And that version of David was the one who triggered the Endbringers to attack cities?"
"Same."
"Good God…!"
Isaac shook his head. "Still, despite all the pain they caused, their goals were of the good in the long term: Stop Zion's rampage when it was triggered. It's a pity they allowed their version of the Slaughterhouse to keep going crazy like they did; Jack Slash was the one who finally set Zion off to start Gold Morning. But their hopes of locating the right 'kryptonite' in the end to bring Zion down — or even try to help him recover from Eden's loss — just hurt far too many in the long term…"
A grumble escaped Emmerson. "Agreed. I can understand why my counterpart and his allies would join up with Cauldron since they were all disabled before being empowered, but there had to be a better way. Still, what's done is done, though."
Isaac sighed. "Indeed. Anyhow, I need to get back to some experiments and get the training room cleaned up after the Wondercolts went crazy there. Keep me posted on the situation. If things get crazy, I'll be there to help."
"Appreciated. Have a good night, Isaac."
"You as well, Colonel."
The link with Wright-Patterson AFB was then cut. Sitting back again in his chair, Isaac sighed. Hopefully, something can be done about this universe's version of Taylor, he mused to himself. Haruto's still sad that he couldn't have saved her on Thanksgiving. He needs to get a pep talk from someone, that's for damn sure! Closing his eyes, he pulled off his goggles to massage the bridge of his nose. Maybe get Skitter herself to speak to him on PHO? That might entail her revealing who she is under the mask. That MIGHT make things a little sketchy once Chief Hebert and his wife are read into the situation…
Standing up, he walked over to the viewport windows to gaze out at the Earth, more than half of it already under shadow given the planet's rotation; sunset had fallen over the Big Apple — and Brockton Bay — over two hours before. Haruto needs to find his potential. Kazuma said it himself when he passed through the Bay sometime ago. The man is like a dragon already, so he can still evolve to become Kenta's successor in case the worst happens. He just hasn't realized it yet…
«Isaák Fomích.»
Jolting on hearing the mental voice of the oldest living human on Earth, Isaac's eyes went wide. "Sir…?"
«Don't you Forge Children believe in the concept of NOT allowing 'fight scenes' to remain unresolved?»
Hearing that comment from Vladímir Taychéshko, the Wise Lone Sage blinked before he scowled. "A prudent point, sir."
«Something someone from Yiziba should impress on young Téjlor Daniílovna, then.»
As that telepathic link with Stáraja Rjazán' faded, Isaac nodded as the images of many young people from the Bay filled his mind.
Victoria Dallon.
Amelia Lavere.
Lisa Wilborne.
Brian Laborn.
And possibly Sophia Hess as well…
All people a certain permanently dimensionally-displaced insect controller would target first to getting Gifted once she was empowered in the same way; THAT was now clearly obvious concerning what Lord Rjazán' did the previous night.
But if I showed up in the Bay, much less Tariko…?
He then smirked. There was ONE other person who could help here.
Shaking his head, he turned back to finish his experiment. Things in the Bay should get VERY interesting very soon…
He then paused before snorting. And I thought Kamuro-chō could be crazy at times?!
To Be Continued…
WRITER'S NOTES
Note that the first and last scenes in this chapter were written in part by Dr. Tempo. He is the creator of both Norinaga Haruto and Isaac Thomas (Doctor Renaissance), not to mention the concept of Replicants as noted on in the last scene.
Translations and source language: Kachō — Section manager; Akatatsu-kai — Red Dragon Society; Tōjō-kai — East Castle Society; Ōmi-rengō — Lake Biwa Alliance (all four Japanese); Kkangp'ae — Gangster (Korean); Kage Hakairyū — Shadow of the Dragon of Destruction; Shirakami-nushi — Shortform (using alternate kanji readings) of Hakujin-shijō Shugi (written of in kanji as 白人至上主義, translating to "white supremacy"; Shihan — Martial arts school master instructor/grandmaster (note that Norinaga Haruto refers to Dean Raeburn by this title in the first scene); Chūsa — Mid-rank field officer, equal to a Navy commander/Army lieutenant colonel/Air Force wing commander (NATO rank code OF-4); Shōsa — Low-rank field officer, equal to a Navy lieutenant commander/Army major/Air Force squadron leader (NATO rank code OF-3) (all five Japanese); Götterdämmerung — Twilight of the gods/catastrophe (German); Otél' Moskvá — Hotel Moscow; Isaák Fomích — Isaac, son of Thomas; Téjlor Daniílovna — Taylor, daughter of Daniel; Stáraja Rjazán' — Old Rjazán' (all four Russian).
For fans of the Ryū ga Gotoku AKA Yakuza series of video games, the events depicted in said games happen in the background of this series, with the dates of such events corresponding to the years the games were released. Certain changes do happen, especially with the series' lead character, Kiryū Kazuma; such is revealed further in Boy Meets Girl Meets Metahuman.
Different time zones referenced in this story to this point: JST — Japan Standard Time (in Japanese, Nihon Hyōjunji), measured at UTC+09:00; MSK — Moscow Time (in Russian, Moskóvskoe Vrémja), measured at UTC+03:00; COT — Colombia Time, measured at UTC-05:00 year-round (no daylight savings time as in the North American Eastern Time zone).
Galactic directions in my stories are like the Star Trek concept, though using these terms: Coreward (course 000 off the galactic core), Spinward (course 180 off the galactic core), Inspin (course 270 off the galactic core) and Outspin (course 090 off the galactic core). The races mentioned in the third scene narrative all made their initial appearance in The Senior Year.
The Wondercolts of Santa Clara are based on interpretations of characters from My Little Pony, specifically on the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls fashion dolls and media franchise first introduced in 2013. Note that those characters are given normal names for this series; the character names from EQG serve as nicknames for said characters. They are brought into this series also thanks to Dr. Tempo; their origin story is covered in the side story Friendship is Yizibajohei (Fanfiction story #129726686).
The code 18A-SW mentioned in the last scene is based on the United States Army's Area of Concentration (AOC), the actual employment specialty classification for commissioned officers in that service. The base code 18A indicates a Special Forces officer, who would be trained at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS) at Fort Bragg (after 2023, known as Fort Liberty) in North Carolina. The "-SW" sub-code implies "specialized warfare", indicating the officer in question is a metahuman/parahuman. The AOC doesn't normally change when officers shift to the Army National Guard.