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Brockton Bay, the Rig, Friday 7 January 2011, 7:45 AM EST (Nagoya time: 9:45 PM JST)…
"Ohayō gozaimasu desu no, Missy-chan! Time to get up!"
Moaning on hearing that cheerful voice, the Living Wormhole grunted as her eyes fluttered open, then she blinked before her vision cleared up, revealing the smiling face of a girl her age with mauve-pink hair in a shoulder-length bob cut with inward curls at the end, a cat ear-shaped bowtie at the back of her crown. "Shirayuki…!" Missy Byron groaned.
The Great Chef of the West chuckled as she placed a cup of warm coffee on the nightstand beside the bed as the space-warper slowly got herself up. "Hime's glad to hear that Missy-chan is now Gifted so she can get away from her silly parents," the would-be master chef — she had won in the junior division of the Iron Chef contest in Japan before receiving her trofikinetic powers the summer just past; how she would be evaluated should she enter that contest this coming spring was still up in the air — declared as she gazed around the room, nodding in understanding on seeing all of the other girl's belongings neatly piled up on the floor and on every bit of desk space she could get. "Hime hopes Missy-chan's silly parents didn't get in the way!"
Sipping the coffee — made the way Missy liked it: Double-double with a pinch of cinnamon — the blonde smirked. "Neither of them has been at home for the whole of the Christmas holidays. They're dating their future pillow scene mates since they know I'd spend all my time here," Missy explained before she reached over to where her uniform belt buckle lay on the nightstand. Placing that over her navel, she tapped it, thus allowing her pyjamas to morph into her battle suit. Such was in the modern sleeveless cut, coloured a very deep aqua shade with a southern hemisphere stellar pattern as seen from her first-self's home territory of Tuoaer'besu at the very south end of the central equatorial continent; silver belt and boots finished the ensemble. Of course, given she wore a mask when she was a Ward — until she arranged for a permanent place to stay in the Bay, the Living Wormhole would remain in her quarters on the Rig — Isaac Thomas promised to make her a special set of goggles like he made for Lisa Wilbourn and Taylor Hebert; the Wise Lone Sage hadn't anticipated that Missy would be Gifted so swiftly.
Osamu Shirayuki shook her head as she walked out of the room, Missy rising to follow her. Passing through the common area, they soon arrived at the kitchen. "Hime can't understand why is it that parents get to be so silly and stupid at times when it comes to their children," the Aichi-jin muttered as she moved to check on the slow-cooker she had brought with her from her home to ensure the Wards and the Protectorate got some healthy food into them. Even if the local PRT culinary staff were good, it was simply a matter of pride for the Great Chef to ensure that those she sought to use her powers for would be properly well-nourished according to their personal tastes. "Did Taylor-san say anything about modifying your uniform?" she asked.
"Spider silk, you mean?" Missy mused before nodding. "Now that she's Gifted, she can easily get enough of our equivalent of spider silk sourced up in Kabe-koli to make new uniforms for everyone. Need to get special ruby meson shears made by one of the crystal smiths there so she can make the proper cuts to style each piece. Since the silk from Yiziba is already infused with meson, there's no need to source anything local, keeping the rimrae umale clueless over what their 'slaves' are doing."
The other woman frowned. Like practically any adopted Yizibajohei on Earth, Shirayuki loathed what many Niphentaxians did to their Avalonian servants. It wasn't bad when it came to descendants from Phentax Two's many colony worlds; those planets were rough places to raise a family or create a village, so a more equal socio-cultural footing between "master/mistress" and "slaves" had long developed. However, there were enough "homeworlders" among the thousands of cultural observers based in almost every nation on Earth who saw their assistants as nothing more than "robots", not worthy of any respect whatsoever. THOSE people — like a vast majority of those who came to Brockton Bay in the last few decades — usually wound up on the bad side of some parahuman or metahuman, thus seeing their charges effectively freed; it was Niphentaxian policy to literally abandon a post seen as "lost" when the chief observer died or disappeared. "Hime's glad that Tariko-san told everyone she helped get Gifted to keep an eye out for silly rimrae umale who hurt their girls for no reason," the Great Chef muttered…
…before the door to the kitchen opened anew, revealing a grumbling Chris Cullen. "Ah, Chris-san! Ohayō gozaimasu desu no!"
"Hey, Chris," Missy hailed. "Get over that tinker fugue you went into yesterday?"
Shaking his head, the young Tinker — who had finally discovered his specialization with the help of his girlfriend, a Terran-form Avalonian named Joel Simmons; she was known to people on Parahumans Online as "SpecificProtagonist", an infamous member of the chat boards and would-be fanfic writer who often delved into the weird when she composed her work — smiled as the Aichi-jin moved to make coffee. "Yeah, but still can't figure out what the hell I created, Missy," the redhead said as he sat down while he waited for Shirayuki to make his morning brew. "Isaac's busy making yours and Aisha's field goggles, so since they don't start school until Monday, he got Liz Wakefield to take a look at that whatever-I-made yesterday." He grinned as their visitor from Japan handed him a mug; he had a sweet tooth, so it was double-double with sweetener, plus a touch of vanilla. "Dōmo, Shirayuki-chan. Can't believe I made something so volatile, it nearly cut my head off when it blew up in the beaker."
"Probably your shard wanting to bust loose now that it's not anchored to your other-self," Missy quietly mused.
He gazed her way. "Any of your past-selves run into those things?"
Missy smirked as she held up a hand, allowing space to warp into a mini-wormhole for a moment. "I'm as close to a bona-fide reality warper as one gets on Yiziba, Chris. Trust me, I know about the kimfombeke." She then perked. "Hey, there's an idea! Let's get Agent V to persuade Chief Zed to officially call them that as a species. I mean, 'entities' is pretty generic."
All three people laughed at that suggestion from the Living Wormhole…
Headquarters of the Massachusetts PRT in downtown Brockton Bay, 8:50 AM EST…
"The director's meeting with Mr. McGarry will begin in ten minutes, Colonel."
"Thank you, Tammy," Emily Piggot said with a tired sigh as she picked up her own coffee before walking into her office, she accompanied by Mike Renick. "So, any news from the zoo while we were busy with the Undersiders?"
The deputy director chuckled. "Wouldn't surprise me if Ms. Hebert calls her planned battle team that," he noted before taking his seat in one of the guest chairs across from her normal position while she moved to activate several large television screens now deploying from slots in the ceiling. This would allow her to see the projected images of her counterparts across the nation as well as the Chief of Staff to the President of the United States himself; currently, the Illinoisan ex-fighter pilot who had served as Secretary of Labour under President Owen Lassiter a decade before was in effective supervisory charge over the slowly-growing National Protectorate Coordination Centre. While these meetings could draw in all fifty-six state/territory-level senior directors and their chief parahuman subordinates, the nature of this specific gathering would keep the crowd down to a minimum since the soon-to-form battle team of metahumans under the Mistress of the Mindless Legions would operate out of Brockton Bay.
Piggot knew that her own immediate superior, Senior Director Kamil Armstrong over in downtown Boston, would be involved, as would his counterparts in the other New England states. All four members of the Quadrumvirate would be in on this meeting, as would their own senior directors: James Tagg from Sacramento with Rebecca "Alexandria" Costa-Brown, Judy Wilkins with Kevin "Legend" Richardson from New York, Philip Knox with David "Eidolon" Mercy from Houston, and Cyrus Klinger with Christopher "Hero" Emmerson from Columbus. Atop that, either Chief Zed or Agent V would be involved from the Special Committee on Alien Activities; various PRT groups nationwide enjoyed very close working relationships with the Men in Black, they often helping each other clean up potentially "lost" Niphentaxian observation posts, helping the effectively-freed Avalonian assistant observers relocate to safer territories to allow them to get on with their lives under their own control. And, thanks to Dinah Alcott being also Gifted as the Augur of the Probability Abacus yesterday, Stargate Command would be involved as well.
"You think General Raeburn might get involved in this?" Renick wondered as Piggot finished keying in the systems to get all the communication links set up before tapping a control to shift the turntable under the desk around so she could be seen as sitting behind it when the video systems were keyed in. "Given that we have potentially more Haywire events on the way…"
"Probably. Either her, Admiral Thompkins or Commissioner Larsden," the former fighter pilot affirmed. Currently, the representatives of the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to the War Hawks, Rear Admiral Heather Thompkins and Assistant Commissioner Martin Larsden, were based in Canada; the former worked now as the Chief of the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve out of Québec City, while the latter was the commanding officer of "J" Division of the Force in Fredericton. Given their experiences in No. 1 Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit during the Second World War, either of them could draw on the same levels of operational and personal knowledge as their former commanding officer.
A knock echoed from the doorway, then the portal opened to reveal Colin Wallis and Hannah Washington, both in their fighting uniforms as Armsmaster and Miss Milita. "Anything I might have missed from the nightly AAR, Colin?" Piggot asked.
The armoured Tinker shook his head. "Nothing more than petty crimes by normal gang members from across the board, Director. As you'll know, Doctor Renaissance was asked by Skitter to prepare combat goggles for Vista and Imp — as well as Omen, of course — atop the ones he already created for her and Tattletale. He deferred the issue with Kid Win's latest chemical creation to the Academician given she doesn't have to worry about classes until Monday in Sweet Valley."
"Oh, good…"
A half-hour later…
"…and that is my preliminary report concerning Tuesday's effective Haywire event concerning our new insect mistress."
Whistles of disbelief and mutters of shock echoed from across the board on the various screens. Thanks in no small part to both the Wise Lone Sage and his friend from southern California — she was Elizabeth Wakefield, elder of twin sisters from a former fish canning town near the infamous Sunnydale who was the current incarnation of the Wise Genius of the Circle of Thought, Daturie (the "Academician"); such made her Yiziba's smartest resident bar none — the links between the various PRT groups nationwide were totally secure from eavesdropping as well as crystal clear when it came to image projection, making viewers believe they were in the same room as the ones they were speaking with thousands of miles away. "Good Christ!" James Tagg hissed out as Rebecca Costa-Brown shook her head. "Even after all that CRAP she's gone through, Skitter is still of a heroic slant of mind?! After reading the abridged version of what Doctor Renaissance discovered, with the system on this Earth Bet of hers rigged so many ways against her by this Cauldron group, it's a wonder to me that they had any heroes at all!"
Grim nods all around. "Miles, what's your conclusion about these kids?" Leo McGarry asked from his office in the West Wing.
Miles Verret — who had joined this meeting with John Wick from their base in downtown Boston — sat back in his chair. "Put simply, Colonel McGarry, we got VERY lucky here. Tattletale's clairvoyance as she possesses now presently matches what she was when she was just a parahuman linked to the 'Negotiator' shard. She has much better control over how she verbalizes her findings than she did before; according to both her girlfriend Ms. Paek and the Avalonians they share an apartment block with, she could get quite verbally abusive to people when the mood struck her…and it struck her a lot, though she did tone it down once Coil set his sights on her." As people shook their heads, the former Marine rifleman-turned-beat cop added, "Vista has much greater control over her own spacial warping abilities than she had as a parahuman; her field experience with the Wards dovetailed nicely with her past-selves' experiences, especially given her first-self fought for the government of Tuoaer'besu — the analogue to apartheid South Africa here in Earth — against the Unending League in the latter years of the Dawn of Power." As both Tagg and Costa-Brown nodded in appreciation at such a pedigree, Verret added, "According to Skitter, Imp gained much more than what her other-self on Earth Bet possessed once she triggered. Atop being able to visibly and mentally make herself disappear from people's perception when she needs to, she can ALSO force people to concentrate solely on her as a form of diversion for teammates to take advantage of. Omen — whom I'm sure Colonel O'Neill has already briefed you on, General Hammond…" — here, people focused on the flag officer in charge of Stargate Command, he now at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station near Colorado Springs — "…gained far finer control over her precognition than she had as a parahuman. Since mesonium is VERY good at healing mental wounds and the Gifting would inject quite a lot of that material into her body, she won't have to endure any sort of serious Thinker headaches anymore if she really exercises her abilities."
"What about Calvin?" McGarry then asked. "I don't care for someone who has access to PRT and Protectorate secrets at his level also moonlighting as a cape gang leader, especially at the potential level Skitter believes he can reach."
"With the help of Dragon and the Specialized Warfare Regiment on Ellesmere Island, Colonel, I'm moving now to do a total sweep of PRT and Protectorate systems here in the Bay," Colin Wallis answered. "It'll take a while since there's a mixture of MANY types of operating systems active under our overall control; such is the unfortunate aftermath of having many Tinkers with different specialties coming together to make things work here. I've wanted to streamline things with the help of people such as Doctor Renaissance and the Academician, plus any available technokinetic we could access here in America…but given they all have lives outside the battlesuits and we must keep in mind other security issues, it will take a while."
"Be subtle about it, but get it done, Armsmaster."
"Yes, Colonel."
"So, what about the big killer whale in the room?" Tagg then wondered. "Skitter herself."
Eyes focused on the man known on the streets as Agent V of the Men in Black. "She is a miracle in places, Captain."
"How so?" Costa-Brown asked.
"Her current powers give her the ability to command all forms of non-sapient and non-sentient life, Colonel. She also possesses some telekinetic abilities, but her past-selves tended to rely more on their telepathic powers in fight scenes," Verret explained. "When she first started out two years ago in her personal timeline, all she could control were various forms of arthropods as well as other species from various classes and clades, including certain types of sea life, mollusks and different types of worms. Her range at the start was several hundred yards in all directions; this forced a level of multitasking that would make even the best hyper-genius on Yiziba green with envy. She does confirm as having endured an initial double-trigger when it happened."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then…
"A DOUBLE-TRIGGER?!" Keith Richardson exclaimed as Judy Wilkins squeezed her eyes closed in mute horror. "God! I know her trigger event was bad — Isaac briefed us all on this — but she experienced THAT?!"
"She did, Captain Richardson," Wick cut in, a bit of his native Belarussian accent appearing in his voice. "It's a miracle to both Miles and I that Taylor is sane even AFTER the events where she was forced to jail-break her powers with Amelia Lavere's help to make her Master practically every parahuman on Earth Bet alive to fight the Zion creature."
"Both John and I had a chance to converse with Queen Administrator, her shard," Verret added. "This entity waited for YEARS to bond with Taylor, thinking her as 'best host'. As people from Yiziba familiar with these things know, many shards that bond with potential parahumans have many restrictions put on them — the 'Manton limit', you'll know it as — to prevent them from evolving enough sentience to break away from their creators. Administrator was badly constricted by Zion before it bonded with Taylor, so this shard was quite happy to help her push herself to limits that not many parahumans would achieve under normal circumstances in that dimension. As Isaac learned, she earned her nickname 'queen of escalation' many times there."
"Helped her hometown effectively recover from a holocaust-like event thanks to the creature called 'Leviathan' not six months after her trigger event, strove to keep things safe in the face of a Slaughterhouse Nine raid, encountered one S-class parahuman running rampant in that town…" Charles Emmerson read out from his PADD before shaking his head.
"Shows that the Joker's idea of 'one bad day can make anyone go insane' doesn't always happen," David Mercy breathed out. "She's been through one bad day after another…and it took a team of petty thieves of all things to give her a real emotional support base after all she lost. Dead mother, absent father, her best friend betraying and trying to destroy her…"
"What about what this other version of Emma Barnes is doing on Earth Gimel?" Wilkins asked. A former Air Force security specialist, she topped off as a lieutenant colonel before switching to the Empire State's air national guard and began working for the local PRT offices in downtown Manhattan. "Given she was reported to have died in Gold Morning…"
"We all know what Yizibajohei do to death cheaters, Judy," Piggot dryly warned.
Amused chuckles echoed from the others…
Earth Bet, the site of Brockton Bay, Wednesday 29 January 2014, 11:12 AM EST…
"Thanks for coming to help Taylor-chan out, Ojii-chan."
An amused chuckle escaped the thirty-something man now accompanying the teenage Japanese girl in the slate grey-and-white jumpsuit along what used to be the corridor of Interstate 595 out of the destroyed port city towards nearby Salem and its environs. Given that Scion had targeted the American and Canadian eastern seaboard when he began his rampage to start off what survivors later came to call "Gold Morning", there was virtually nothing alive within visual range. Everything both natural and man-made had been effectively devastated down to the bedrock, leaving behind a hilly, hellish moonscape that was now only starting to redevelop some topsoil brought in by westerly winds from more intact areas of New England. Fortunately for both Kasuga Ayumu and the man now known today as Rittmeister Josef Wilhelm, Freiherr von Taserich of the isle of Rügen off the Baltic coast of Germany, they could levitate/fly over the obstacles that lay between their ingress point to this multiverse and the current target of their interest. "Given how young Fraulein Hebert suffered in part because of my late students, Ayumu, I'm more than happy to assist her in mastering ebony mesonium. Since she could have become a paramensch and since she was immediately entombed within a ruby mesonium bodysuit while Fraulein Levere sought Margo's assistance to help save the poor woman, that she was cognisant enough to bring herself here to see vengeance for her other-self's sufferings…"
"Yeah, it's all some of these jerks deserve," the Goddess Who Walks Among Men dryly lamented.
Gazing both with physical eyesight as well as metahuman senses honed over TWENTY-FIVE MILLENNIA by the man born as simply Tash Ri in the last stages of the Weichselian glaciation period — when the interdimensional beings known these days to certain parts of society as the "Old Ones" were moving to gain what little advantage they had and claim the planet for their own personal version of "Hell", a quest that Taserich had helped successfully stop, thus clearing the way for the development of modern humanity — the former Prussian cavalry captain could only smirk. Despite the Japanese girl's naturally laid-back attitudes and normally sunny disposition — showing signs of the influence of one Saeru Hinako in recent times, Taserich had long realized — she had the memories of people who had seen the utter WORST that sentient beings both on and off Yiziba could unleash whenever something dark struck their fancy. It was in THOSE situations that one did NOT seek to provoke the Infinite One, even a person like Taserich with all his centuries and beyond of battle experience against all sorts of foes…
"Ah! There she is! Taylor-chan!"
Taserich perked, then looked over…
…before nodding in approval on seeing what looked like a normal house on a normal lawn — complete with living trees and growing grass — located on what used to be a normal city street about two kilometres from the old shoreline; thanks to the shifting of underlying tectonic plates and the complete venting of the aquifer that Brockton Bay had been built over into the Gulf of Maine beyond, said house was now on something of a peninsula jutting south from where the northern districts of the city once stood. Reaching the intact street beyond the front gate, both lowered themselves to the ground, then Taserich opened the gate, waving Ayumu up with him towards the door. Before they ascended to the front porch, a voice telepathically called out…
«Careful. The second step is broken.»
Chuckling, Taserich concentrated, seeing the ruined step restored — no doubt, the house had been assembled by their host allowing her new powers to exercise themselves, having locked in on what was left of her counterpart's residence to rebuild from that — then both walked through the now-open door to the living room, where the object of their search now sat on a restored couch, sitting in a Padmāsana posture, her eyes closed, her breathing controlled but present. "You have studied yoga?"
Taylor's eyes opened, revealing a pair of dark orbs with cores of burning crimson. "Mother introduced me to it when I was a child. I find it's a nice way of allowing my mind to absorb all the information I can access now," she said, her voice tinged with the tremendous levels of energy burning within each of her body's cells, though said echo didn't seem ostentatious to either the Goddess Who Walks Among Men or the Undying Lord of Rügen. "Especially the echoes of all that's befallen this version of Earth since that monster Scion showed up in the 1980s." She sighed as she gazed to her left, then her right; both Ayumu and Taserich could sense that she was Seeing things much beyond the walls of the living room. "So…this is what the Dawn of Power was like on Yiziba, huh? Much less how the First Metahuman War could have resulted in if your 'granddaughter' and her friends — much less you thanks to President Lincoln at the end, sir — hadn't cut in to stop it."
"Yeah, it is kinda that way, isn't it?" Ayumu noted as she extended her own Sight about to see the sheer extent of the damage. "Wow!" she then whistled. "Miracle that anyone could have survived this, eh, Ojii-chan."
Taserich Looked himself. "Ja, you are right, Ayumu. How unfortunate that most of that specific species of halbkörperliche Wesen didn't get the necessary hints from Vladímir and his peers, much less the past-selves of your own battle line and those others who directly confronted them when they wished to extend their 'experiments' into other multiverses."
"Well, some did. Like Abandon-kun, for example. He wouldn't do something like most of his type do all the time."
"Pity he allowed the shard that was absorbed by Fortuna to be accessible to both Eden and Zion." Here, the oldest living human being alive — save for his friend in old Rjazán' — snorted. "Such halbkörperliche Wesen cannot seem to learn."
Taylor perked. "'Fortuna'?! You mean Contessa? The one who shot the other me in the back of the head?"
"Yeah, that's her, Taylor-chan."
An icy smile answered the Infinite One. "Good! I've got something to say to her…"
Ayumu smirked in turn as she pointed to her right and up…
Earth Gimel, the hideout of the Taught and the Fallen overlooking the Hudson River outside the City, moments later…
«Well, well, well…look at how the mighty have fallen…»
Gargling as she felt SOMETHING probe into her head, Fortuna jolted before looking around. "Wh-wh-who…?"
«It reminds me of an old poem my mother taught me about arrogance, Fortuna…»
Her eyes widened in horrified recognition. "Khepri…!"
«I AM NOT YOUR CREATION, CONTESSA!»
Jerking as if she herself had been shot in the head as she had done months ago to Taylor Hebert, the now-badly injured "cape bogeyman" collapsed once more onto the bed, her eyes straining while deep inside her brain, her shard tried hard to help her Path some way to get to whoever was now attacking her so ruthlessly to end it. «That's better,» that voice then trilled with a waterfall of scorn. «Your creation, Fortuna. Yours and Doctor de Sénoufo's alike! You got rightfully scared after you triggered and realized what Eden and Zion wanted to do but didn't ONCE consider the fact that the Eye had been altered by Eden to ensure BOTH SHE AND ZION would get information from same to press their sick 'cycle' on.»
"Sh-sh-she was d-d-DEAD…!"
«That THING was a MACHINE, you blind idiot! Even LESS sentient than the average Shōzoki AI I've had the pleasure to encounter! And when you triggered, you BECAME as much a MACHINE as that THING you had the luck of the Fates to DEACTIVATE! You should have sat back, allowed yourself to better control the Eye for your purposes, then realized that by PROVOKING more trigger events, you were FEEDING INTO THOSE THINGS' VERY 'CYCLE'!»
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then…
"N-no…y-y-you…you're not Taylor…!"
«I AM Taylor Hebert, Fortuna. I'm just not YOUR CREATION! You know about alternate realities; you're in one far different than your birth-world right now!» came the amused reply before continuing…
«In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:
"I am great Ozymandias," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
The wonders of my hand." — The City's gone,
Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon…
«And now…now look at YOUR BABYLON, Fortuna…»
"No…! No…! No! NO! WE SAVED HUMANITY!"
«YOU GUARANTEED THAT HUMANITY WILL PERISH, YOU BLIND MORON!»
"No…!"
Fortuna froze as images began flashing before her mind's eyes…
«Realized it, huh?! The increase of NATURAL trigger events, ever since Gold Morning?! 'How's that possible', you ask?! Simple! By killing Zion and banishing Queen Administrator, you caused ALL his and Eden's surviving shards to scatter across this multiverse, free to bond with anyone that reaches those things' chosen threshold! And given how much MISERY YOU and ALL YOUR FRIENDS in Cauldron allowed to befall NORMAL PEOPLE, you're going to have a CAPE WAR the likes of which would even stagger all the metahumans and parahumans of MY home multiverse!»
"N-no…!"
«And there's one other thing you better worry about, Contessa…»
Silence.
«Your shard doesn't come from either Eden or Zion. It came from a THIRD entity.»
Dramatic pause.
«If there are THREE of them…couldn't there be MORE?»
Fortuna froze, all the blood draining from her face.
«If you expect YOUR CREATION to return to save you ungrateful fools, don't count on it…»
A devilish cackle then echoed through the imprisoned Thinker's mind.
«…or if she DOES deign to bestow her favour to you selfish fucks, she'll do it on HER OWN TERMS!»
Another snicker, this one even more cold.
«And she'll have FRIENDS! Friends the entities FEAR! Friends who have DESTROYED entities in the past!»
Fortuna's eyes went even wider as the image of a smirking Taylor Hebert, her eyes glowing with an otherworldly fire, in a yoga position on the couch of HER OWN HOME in Brockton Bay, appeared before her mind's eye.
«And I'll make DAMN sure that NO CAPE will survive what's to come…for the NORMAL PEOPLE, of course!»
The laughter then turned to a howling scream of mirth.
«Tootles…!»
The "cape bogeyman" groaned out as merciful unconsciousness claimed her once more…
Brockton Bay General Hospital, Friday 7 January 2011, 2:10 PM EST…
"Honestly! I can walk out of here…!"
"Ah! Ah! Ah!" Amelia Laverne cut Taylor Hebert off as she wheeled the latter — the Mistress of the Mindless Legions now on a wheelchair — down the corridor towards the main entrance to the Bay's primary medical facility. "It's a miracle that Doctor Death was able to purge your body clean of that gunk, so you're taking it easy as your body recovers, Miss Hebert!"
"Yes, Doctor!" Taylor trolled even as she reached up to gently grasp the healer's hand, making Amelia shudder as she felt the former's telepathy gently probe into her body. «Sooner this weekend's over, the better!» she mentally added.
Don't blame you…ah! There they are!
"Yo, Curly!"
Taylor waved. "Hey, Trip! Ems! Mads! Skipping school?!" she asked as her "friends" from Winslow High joined them; she had been warned to use her other-self's nickname for Sophia Hess — "Trip" being short for "Triple S", that meaning "Sophia the Shadow Stalker" — when in public to help make her "return from a coma" more believable to passers-by.
"Nah!" Sophia Hess affirmed as she patted the other girl's shoulder. "Jerks in the Hitler Youth caused shit in the chemistry lab, which forced the whole damned school to evacuate while the fire department looks things over."
"Which Blackwell hates with a passion," Emma Barnes snidely added as she gripped Taylor's other hand as this version of the "bitch trio" formed an escort pattern around the daughter of the docklands while they headed outside.
«Oh, crap! You mean she's stealing off the till the PRT gives her because of Sophia?!» Taylor demanded.
Not too sure about that, Curly, Sophia thought back; save for Madison Clements for understandable reasons, all three organic girls were able to "listen" in via Taylor's touch-telepathy. Don't want to ask too much! Here, she winked at the insect mistress. Before I got caught and shoved into the Wards last summer, I was a BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD girl…!
"And you're STILL bad, not that I mind," Amelia quietly snarked.
"No healing Nazis?" Taylor whispered.
"After what happened to Aunt Jess? Bet on it…oh!"
All five girls turned to look…
…then they smirked on seeing the beautiful black limousine waiting for them outside the main doors. Awaiting them were two smiling Oriental women in relaxed business dress, the looping red dragon badge of the Akatatsu-kai on their jacket lapels. As they got closer, Taylor was quick to sense the empathic aura around these two. "Ladies," she greeted with a polite nod.
Both women — they both extremely beautiful and youthful as every Terran-form and Terran-turned-Avalonian that Taylor had met so far since she came here appeared to be — bowed respectfully. "Taylor-san," the one to the right of the insect mistress greeted. "The Oyabun instructed us to see you properly returned to your family home as safely as possible. If you may…?"
"Thank you," Taylor affirmed with a nod as Emma and Sophia helped her to her feet. With Madison moving to board the limousine first — the gynoid automatically scanning the passenger cabin with her on-board sensory suites to ensure that there was nothing that could threaten her friend here; even if the Shōzoki and Avalonians in the city were allied with the Red Dragons, they were still a Yakuza group — Amelia folded the wheelchair and stowed it aside before she moved to board the limousine ahead of Taylor, then the insect mistress herself stepped aboard, she followed by the other two girls, with the other Red Dragon moll boarding last to close and secure the doors while the first one headed over to the driver's seat.
"Please extend our thanks to the Oyabun for his thoughtfulness, Marissa," Amelia then declared.
Marissa Ngô Hoàng Châu beamed in return. "Please, Healer Amelia, it's our pleasure. Thoughtmistress-prime Taylor's father has done much to allow migrants from Asia to feel more comfortable in the Bay. Given what happened to her other self…"
"Do you know what's happened to her, Thoughtmistress-prime?" Stella Xiào Lìhuáng asked from behind the wheel.
Taylor shook her head; she was holding both Emma's and Amelia's hands as her mind probed them for information concerning her current hosts. "She's gone to my home dimension of Earth Bet, Stella. Haven't sensed much from her since I got back from Yiziba. Something very powerful — actually, TWO somethings — seem to have penetrated there."
Marissa hummed. "Check your PAA, Thoughtmistress-prime," she proposed. "If it's anyone from Yiziba, the networks that alert anyone involved in the Great Show of Life would report their location."
Blinking before she bumped her head on the seat — even if the memories of her past-selves' lives had settled in quite nicely within her subconscious mind, it was going to take her a little time to allow normal Yizibajohei habits to become second-nature to her; naturally, her shard was VERY happy at getting the chance to probe through such rich [DATA] — she then let go of Emma's hand, reaching into her jacket pocket to pull out her PAA. With one tap on the crystal control unit, the insect mistress sensed something probe her mind in the proverbial blink of the eye before said device projected a holographic screen over the unit. With a quick thought to turn the looping Yizibajohei script into standard Roman letters, she then hummed.
"Infinity went to Earth Bet?" she then asked, earning her a chorus of gasps from the others in the limousine.
"What the holy fuck is THAT airhead doing there?!" Sophia demanded.
Taylor's eyebrow arched. While the reputation of the God/Goddess Who Walks Among Men was known to ALL Yizibajohei both Named and Nameless, each incarnation of such a being turned out to be quite unique. "Bad?"
The shadow shifter shook her head. "She was Tariko's first recruit on her big casting drive, Curly; happened just a month after Tariko was taken off Earth by her adopted mom. Girl from Wakayama named Kasuga Ayumu; she's a priest's kid. She was already a space-case before Tariko got to her. Some people say it's a good thing, others aren't too sure…"
Madison chuckled. "Mover: Yes. Blaster: Yes. Thinker: One. Trump: Four. Shaker: Damn it all, 'Yes'!"
Emma and Amelia both shrieked with mirth at that declaration by the gynoid. "In other words, 'DON'T FUCKING PISS OFF'," Sophia finished, even if her own lips were twitching in amusement at that statement from her friend.
Taylor hummed. "Wonder if a past-self of hers ever did any sort of terraforming," she trilled aloud.
Emma blinked. "Doesn't the Infinite Wave do something like that?"
The insect mistress hummed. "Potential's there…"
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Topic: Skitter and Vista Are Gifted/Announcing New Battle Team For Brockton Bay
In: Boards ► USA ► Massachusetts ► Brockton Bay
Raer'buo_Erba (Original Poster) (Verified Metahuman) (Verified Hyper-Genius) (Verified Researcher) (Verified Dimensional Traveller)
Posted on January 7, 2011; 1:10 PM PST:
It's rare for me to start up a chat line like this, but given the ins I have with the mods…
Anyhow, it's my honour and pleasure to announce to one and all in the "hive of scum and villainy" that is Brockton Bay that your new insect "overlady" (Sorry, Skitter, I HAD to write that!) is now one of the Children of the Forge.
Such was done with the wonderful help of Reverend Leno Lu'umlo (Millennium) and Tariko Katabarbe (Tuyuki-to-be) late yesterday Earth-time at the latter's cabin outside Kabe-koli.
Joining her this day are four other wonderful ladies who were also Gifted, one of which is none other than the best of the Brockton Bay Wards, Vista herself! Two others will introduce themselves soon enough (Right, Tattletale?).
As it was the Reverend who instigated the Gifting, Tariko had these four listed as "annex" entries in The Book of Pretty Girls.
As we say it on Yiziba, ladies: May the fight scene go your way for as long as you star in the Great Show of Life!
► Miss Muppet (Verified Cape) (Verified Puppet Artist) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:11 PM EST:
EEK!
That's so wonderful, Skitter! You, too, Vista!
► Goldline
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:11 PM EST:
Trying not to be scared! Trying not to be scared…!
► MA-PRT Brockton Bay (Official Department Account)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 1611 hrs EST:
We join all those adopted of Yiziba in welcoming Skitter, Vista, Tattletale, Imp and Omen as members of the Great Show of Life.
Given Vista's former status as one of the Brockton Bay Wards, she will remain on the Rig as she seeks out new accommodation.
A reminder to everyone: Gifted Yizibajohei metahumans who are underage are legally considered emancipated minors!
► HotterLass
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:12 PM EST:
Okay, we know Skitter and DEFINITELY know about Vista. Who the heck are Tattletale, Imp and Omen?
►All Seeing Eye (Tuonekror'be) (Verified Metahuman) (Collapsar of Knowledge) (Undersiders)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:12 PM EST:
"Tattletale" would be myself, HotterLass. My Yizibajohei battle name (in brackets above) directly translates as that in English.
Until now, I've had reasons — mostly security concerning loved ones — to avoid getting the "(Verified Cape)" tag.
I'm not a Brockton Bay native; I moved here last fall from the other end of the country due to child abuse issues.
I won't be an open cape at this time due to the security issues I noted on above. I have loved ones I have to protect.
Introducing myself, I'm a clairvoyant; when I triggered, I bonded to a kimfombeke shard calling itself "Negotiator".
In essence, I became Sherlock Holmes on crack. All I had to do was LOOK and I could find out next to ANYTHING about any person or object. Such a power had both its good and bad sides. Good side is that I can easily sense out trouble unless I was caught off guard as what happened a couple of times before new friends in town helped me out. Bad side is that even with people my age, I instantly got TMI moments concerning people's…well, shall we say PERSONAL preferences.
Fortunately, my Gifting allows me to moderate my shard's power; right now, Negotiator is having a tonne of fun analyzing all the [DATA] my past-selves' experiences can teach me…and he doesn't have to worry about some stupid kimfombeke stealing that knowledge. Atop that, I can now make my shard rest so I can avoid Thinker-type headaches from overuse.
Skitter has asked me to announce the new team we will form with Imp and Vista; Omen will not be joining us officially as she'll be moving to a different part of the country under the cadet wing of the US JSWC but will be considered an affiliate.
We now call ourselves the "Brockton Bay Undersiders" (in Yizibajohei: Brockton-pam Tar'betemem) in tribute to Skitter's original team back on Earth Bet. This is also in tribute to my other-self, whom I sensed be KILLED at the hands of one of Skitter's mortal enemies when I was Gifted thanks to the Gift crystal the Reverend found for me.
► Volan
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:13 PM EST:
Holy Jesus, Tattletale! You sensed ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU DIE?!
► Grapejoint (Brockton Bay Docks)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:13 PM EST:
A belated "Welcome to Brockton Bay", Ms. Tattletale.
At least you should be safe now that you're Gifted. It's a wonder that Ms. Katabarbe didn't seek you out directly. Given the good work she's done with abused people in the past…
Well, you're still Gifted. You have friends and loved ones supporting you now. Hopefully, if your asshole parents see this, they'll get the hint to leave you alone. Can't imagine what Skitter will do if you get targeted.
► Space Is Putty (Umtyuo) (Verified Metahuman) (Living Wormhole) (Undersiders) (ex-MA Protectorate Ward)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:13 PM EST:
Can we say, "ALL THE BEES", Grapejoint?!
Or better, "ALL THE SPIDERS"?!
Or even, "ALL THE SPIDERBEES"?!
Hey, everyone, Vista here!
Yes, I'm free of the Wards, free of my own idiot issues and on my way to being what I've always wanted to be!
Big thanks to everyone at the Brockton Bay PRT and Protectorate for supporting me since my trigger event. Even if I didn't get out as much as I wanted to, it was still a good learning experience. It sure made my Gifting a lot easier.
And confirming what Tattletale just wrote above: Yes, our parahuman shards from the kimfombeke (Or "entities" as they were known on Earth Bet! Ugh! What a dopey term! "Worm leech" works WAY better!) are bonded to our dimensional counterparts from the multiverse where Skitter hails. My counterpart is alive, though she did sense it when I got Gifted.
Quick reassurance, though: Authorities across America and our allies are on the alert for potential future Haywire events, especially from the monsters that just threw Skitter OUT of that multiverse like so much GARBAGE!
► MA-PRT Brockton Bay (Official Department Account)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 1614 hrs EST:
Confirming Vista's statement, all state/territorial PRT forces and Protectorate teams have been alerted to potential Haywire events from the multiverse of Earth Bet, Skitter's birth dimension. While potential direct interference from the "entities" (kimfombeke in Yizibajohei) is suspected, it may just be local players who want to take a shot at Skitter or her new friends.
If anyone sees ANYTHING that looks like a dimensional breech, report it IMMEDIATELY to the local PRT office.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 - 5
Topic: Skitter and Vista Are Gifted/Announcing New Battle Team For Brockton Bay
In: Boards ► USA ► Massachusetts ► Brockton Bay
Specialized Warfare Regiment of Canada/Régiment de Guerre Spécialisé du Canada (Official Regimental Account/Compte Régimentaire Officiel)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 1615 hrs EST/Réponse le 7 Janvier 2011; 16h15 HNE:
(English text/Texte en anglais)
First, from all of us in the Regiment to the Brockton Bay Undersiders: Congratulations on your Giftings and forming your team. Once you establish your bona-fides with the United States Joint Specialized Warfare Command, we'll be happy to host any team-building exercises you might desire to carry out to expand your knowledge database. As Doctor Renaissance quickly discovered with the Camelot Wondercolts, just because you gained the knowledge of your past-selves doesn't give you the experience and understanding necessary to work with each other.
Concerning the warning from the Brockton Bay PRT concerning future Haywire events from the multiverse of "Earth Bet": All regimental forces and allied forces worldwide are on the alert concerning potential intruders from that multiverse.
Again, echoing the request from the Brockton Bay PRT:
If you see anything suspicious, REPORT IT IMMEDIATELY!
(Texte français/French text)
Tout d'abord, de la part de nous tous du Régiment jusqu'aux «Brockton Bay Undersiders»: Félicitations pour vos Cadeaux et la formation de votre équipe. Une fois que vous aurez établi votre bonne foi auprès du «United States Joint Specialized Warfare Command», nous serons heureux d'organiser tous les exercices de consolidation d'équipe que vous pourriez souhaiter réaliser pour élargir votre base de données de connaissances. Comme le Docteur Renaissance l'a rapidement découvert avec les «Camelot Wondercolts», ce n'est pas parce que vous avez acquis la connaissance de votre passé que vous avez l'expérience et la compréhension nécessaires pour travailler les uns avec les autres.
Concernant l'avertissement du PRT de Brockton Bay concernant de futurs événements d'Haywire venant du multivers de «Earth Bet»: Toutes les forces régimentaires et forces alliées du monde entier sont en alerte concernant les intrus potentiels de ce multivers.
Encore une fois, faisant écho à la demande du PRT de Brockton Bay:
Si vous voyez quelque chose de suspect, SIGNALEZ-LE IMMÉDIATEMENT!
► Palshife
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:16 PM EST:
Okay, this part, I don't get! If Skitter was responsible for helping to KILL one of those things that give capes their powers, why the FUCK did they toss her out of their multiverse like so much garbage?!
► Hero Official (Verified Cape) (Quadrumvirate of America) (Ohio Protectorate)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:17 PM EST:
I'll answer that, people.
Information about this can be confirmed by Doctor Renaissance, BTW.
In that multiverse Skitter hails from, a secret cabal — far WORSE than any Illuminati conspiracy that people here could dream of — learned the truth of the kimfombeke (Yes, Vista! I like that term, too!) very early in the game. One of the pair of entities that people such as myself have seen mentally when we trigger was killed/deactivated by an agent of this group OUT OF SHEER LUCK, which sent its partner into a severe depression.
Their goal in that multiverse was simple: Send out parts of themselves (shards) into potential hosts to generate data in a combat-like environment to help the kimfombeke try to learn how to manipulate energy to avoid the "heat-death" of existence.
Which, as we all know from those adopted Yizibajohei living here in Earth, is something that CAN'T happen!
What's worse, when the "cycle" these things launched was "finished", they would HARVEST their shards — which would kill their hosts — and wipe out ALL OF HUMANITY in that multiverse before moving on to their next "experimental zone".
Due to scientific experiments in boosting the numbers of parahumans from the corpse of the dead kimfombeke — which the living one couldn't sense due to multiple reasons — resulting in levels of tragedy I don't WANT to think about, when this group was revealed to the public at large thanks in part to Skitter, faith in heroes on Earth Bet plummeted to the basement.
Thus, when the living kimfombeke was set off by their version of Jack Slash — who hadn't been killed by then like what happened to him on the Cold Lake AWR here thanks to the War Hawks — Skitter was confronted with an ugly choice due to the potential of her shard, Queen Administrator. Since parahumans in that multiverse had been made to fight each other constantly in the three decades or so since this "experiment" was started, there was NO TRUST AT ALL between groups that could have them work together against this thing. Faced with this issue, Skitter allowed the Panacea of that universe to "jail-break" her shard, removing all Manton limits from her powers to let her go through an effective Third Trigger Event — yes, her initial trigger event was a DOUBLE TRIGGER due to how awful it was — giving her the power to Master all the parahumans within her immediate range. While that is fundamentally wrong, given the kimfombeke's actions against humanity as a whole — never mind that many capes just threw up their hands and decided to let themselves DIE after all the hell they've gone through — Skitter felt she had no choice but to MAKE people work together to save defenceless normal people.
She did it…by forcing the kimfombeke to destroy the corpse of its mate, driving it to eventual suicide.
While the survivors of this event — "Gold Morning", they call it — were understandably upset at her for Mastering them like that, all they had to do was isolate Skitter in a dimension uninhabited by humans, then send her allies in the original Undersiders team — Tattletale's other-self, being one — to help her control her powers and regain her humanity.
What happened?
An agent of that conspiracy group SHOT HER IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD to break her links to her shard!
Fortunately for Skitter, Lord Rjazán' intervened to get her to the Dark Gaol on Yiziba, where the Undertaker and Suiki found her.
It…
I'm sorry, people. I can't write anything more.
It's just THAT horrible.
► XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:20 PM EST:
Holy damn…!
That…!
God! What Skitter needs are ALL THE HUGS!
To the PRT and Protectorate, not to mention the SWR and everyone else:
SEND THOSE UNGRATEFUL BASTARDS BACK WHERE THEY BELONG!
I'd say a lot worse, but I don't want to get banned!
► The Real Panacea (Verified Cape)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:20 PM EST:
She's getting every hug she can from all her friends, Void.
► Point_Me_at_the_Sky (Verified Cape) (New Wave)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:20 PM EST:
Believe me, Void, we're ALL thinking that, too!
Like Saitama-sensei says it in One-Punch Man!
"Now I know who to PUNCH!"
► Photon_Mom (Verified Cape) (New Wave)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:20 PM EST:
My God! I don't even know what to say to THAT!
Skitter, you've got friends in New Wave despite Carol's issues because of Amy and her father.
Amy, Vicky, get in contact with Doctor Death NOW!
Sooner you're both Gifted, the better.
I'll deal with Carol.
► Litronie_Erba (Verified Metahuman) (Quadrumvirate of Yiziba) (Not a Heel This Time Around) (In The Book)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:21 PM EST:
I'll make sure they get to Tariko ASAP, Mrs. Pelham.
If you're seeing this, Counsellor Dalon, DON'T GET IN THE FUCKING WAY!
► Morning_Wisdom (Verified Red Dragon)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:21 PM EST:
I've no WORDS to describe how I feel after reading your statement, Hero.
That Madame Skitter was forced to such extremes to save who knows how many of lives…and then BETRAYED like that!
And even after that, she had the mental fortitude to press on and be a true heroine.
You have my respect, Madame Skitter.
► You Can't See Me (Lanuto) (Verified Metahuman) (Northern Singularity of Attention) (Undersiders)
Replied on January 7, 2011; 4:21 PM EST:
Fucking A about that, Void!
Yo, all you cool folk! Imp here! I'm one of the folks who also got Gifted yesterday thanks to some dorks who couldn't get a clue to leave a little girl alone.
Yeah, that's right: I'm one of the three who got attacked in that diner in the Boardwalk by those dorks who got their asses stomped down on by Padre Leno and the Skitter-gal herself yesterday afternoon!
As for the dork who sent them our way: We know who you are, bozo! Omen's out of your reach.
You wanna be stupid? We'll stomp your ass all the way to the Birdcage!
End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Private messages from Skitter (Verified Metahuman):
January 7, 2011; 4:26 PM EST
Skitter:
I've been told by some of your Avalonian co-workers that you're still feeling guilty about a certain event last Thanksgiving evening. Want to talk about it?
Morning Wisdom:
I would welcome such a talk. By what Hero revealed concerning your circumstances, you sound like you'd need a talk or to as well. Where should we meet?
Skitter:
As you'll probably realize by now, I'm an adopted Avalonian. I'm currently based with Sharon Blake's team. The café across the street from the apartment, run by Helena Đặng Hoàng Liên?
Morning Wisdom:
I love visiting Helena-chan's place. What time?
Skitter:
Does seven o'clock sounds alright to you?
Morning Wisdom:
I will be there, Madame Skitter.
To Be Continued…
WRITER'S NOTES
Translation list and source language: Tuoaer'besu — Literally "across the pale", analogue of the Transvaal in South Africa (Yizibajohei); AAR — After-Action Report (English acronym); Rittmeister — Ride Master, the German cavalry rank title for an Army captain; Freiherr — Free Lord, the German equivalent of a baron in European nobility; Paramensch — Parahuman (German); Padmāsana — Literally "lotus pose", the seating āsana (posture) taken by practitioners of yoga for meditation, with legs crossed and feet resting on the opposite thigh (Sanskrit); Halbkörperliche Wesen — Semi-corporeal beings (German); Akatatsu-kai — Red Dragon Society; Oyabun — Foster father, the senior leader of a Yakuza group (both Japanese); AWR — Air Weapons Range (English abbreviation).
A quick lesson about Vietnamese names: As with most eastern Asian cultures, the family name comes first, with a "middle" name following and a "given" name coming last. The middle name is traditionally used as a gender identifier, though these days can be used as an adjective add-on to the given name to give it a more poetic meaning. However, in the case of Ngô Hoàng Châu (English name: Marissa Ngô), it's slightly different. The middle name Hoàng in this case corresponds to the Chinese character 凰 ("female phoenix"), which marks her spiritually as an Avalonian. Her given name Châu means "pearls", so the combined term can mean "pearl phoenix", implying both her origins and indicating great treasure. As I've done with Chinese and Korean characters who have a Western name, I put that before the family name in the traditional Western order.
Being an official military formation, the Specialized Warfare Regiment of Canada (SWR of C) would always release official statements in English and French as seen above.
For those who might question Victoria Dallon (Glory Girl) speaking of the popular superhero manga One-Punch Man by ONE (AKA Tomohiro) in the PHO chat ending this part, note that this series first came out in a web comic version in early 2009. The more well-known digital manga remake of same illustrated by Murata Yūsuke would begin production in mid-2012.