112 Dispatch

I traced the familiar route from the gym to my apartment as I mulled over the situation with Aisha and Brian. Before I left I had done a quick circuit of the gym to close things out for my visit, but it really wasn't necessary. Between the staff and volunteers they were more than able to manage the current blitz of work. Most of that was from their own enthusiasm, apparently born out of a chance to actually make a difference. Garment's show had brought in real, significant resources, not the piecemeal donations I'd been drip feeding to various groups, and there was a drive to make use of it.

Of course, there were other factors in play. The systems of coordination I'd nudged into place with the help of Hera's blessing were still going strong, and seemingly without anyone noticing. Or at least not noticing on the level where it was raising any concerns. No one seemed inclined to question a good thing, but even if there was some level of awareness that things were going better than they should be, it was probably being attributed to the people in charge, rather than some supernatural outside influence.

Not that they really needed it, but it was amusing to think that the use of that power may have further inflated the reputations of Doug, Mrs. Gartenberg, and Mr. Laborn. Mr. Laborn, who was Brian's father.

That situation… well, it had been managed, at least to a degree. I still didn't like being blindsided like that, but it was hard to get mad at Aisha over it, particularly when I knew with absolute certainty how bad she felt about letting things reach this point. Call it a side benefit of being able to detect manipulation. Specifically, I could detect the lack of manipulation and tell when people were actually as earnest and sincere as most people tried to present themselves. Of course, Aisha was fully aware that I had the ability to sense that kind of thing, as well as a half dozen other supporting senses that worked towards the same effect, so she hadn't even tried anything but the unvarnished truth, despite how difficult it was for her.

I mean, she'd had this hanging over her for years. Figurative years, or simulated years but, still, it must have been difficult. And yeah, the idea that a mistake from when you were younger was following you, waiting to explode when there was nothing you could do but try to put that off even further despite knowing it would only make things worse, yeah, I could understand why she hadn't been keen to come forward.

The fact that I'd had a connection with Brian prior to meeting him for the first time seemed convoluted, but in a weird way Brockton Bay was both bigger and smaller than it seemed. In some ways it was a monolith, a massive city half the size of Boston with hundreds of years of history, massive civic buildup, dying industry, and all the problems any major city would contend with. But unlike Boston, Brockton Bay didn't have an associated urban area. It was a dot of a major city that was effectively isolated. All those factors served to create a false impression of size and complexity. There was considerably more overlap between people's lives than anyone really imagined, it just wasn't readily apparent. At least not until it was.

So yeah, having a prior connection to someone else who also lived in the Docks wasn't that unusual. The unusual thing was actually realizing it, rather than each of us staying entirely focused on our own lives and our own problems. Hell, in my own case I'd never even met the people from the other apartments in my building. There could be any number of connections that I'd been completely blind to because I'd never bothered to look.

Mostly because people didn't bother to look. Because they couldn't afford to, or knew that they wouldn't find anything good if they did. The sense of community that had bloomed around the gym was exceptional, but it seemed like it was only possible because of the inertia inherent to that place. The building, organization, and membership had existed since before the general downturn of the city. While it hadn't made it through unscathed, there were connections people could fall back on from before the point when everyone basically gave up on things turning around.

It explained why the first hint that things were getting better, that they were actually making a difference, was enough to bring the old membership out of the woodwork, along with all the old connections they still had. Early on there had definitely still been a sense that people had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. That they appreciated having a bit of a reprieve from the chaos of the attacks, but were fully expecting things to fall apart.

Honestly, they were probably right to feel that way. If I hadn't stopped by after the first set of attacks, the old generator they were using would have died and left the gym without light or power. Some people might have tried to push through, but it wouldn't have ended up as the beacon of safety and shelter that people seemed to associate it with. It wouldn't have become a rallying point for people with nowhere else to go. It probably wouldn't have been able to host Garment's debut, and that event would have been a lot more difficult without the nudges I'd been able to apply to keep things functioning and streamlined. And without that event and the following donations, both from me and a few other groups, people wouldn't have had the time or energy to spare to help with Garment's show, which meant you wouldn't have had the current flow of resources into the gym to help with the next stages of the recovery.

I wasn't being cynical about it. People there clearly wanted to help, to make a difference, but circumstances in Brockton Bay usually conspired to make that borderline impossible. I hadn't been able to magically fix the city's problems, but I'd at least been able to ensure that the efforts of the people who were doing their best weren't completely wasted.

It was a nice thought, and a positive one in the face of the complexity that Brian's situation had created. I might understand why Aisha had kept that from me, but that didn't make the situation any less disruptive. Getting things to a manageable point had been an accomplishment, one that was probably only possible with the impossibility of my own powers, but there were still a lot of aspects of the situation that needed to be dealt with.

That meant more talks with Aisha, and with her brother. From the start had been readily apparent that Brian had wanted to keep his team's relationship with me at arm's reach. A lot of that had been posturing and image. At Somer's Rock he had wanted to make it clear that the Undersiders were their own group, not a subsidiary of Apeiron. Or the Celestial Forge, though no one had really known about my team prior to that.

I imagine that, after spending so much effort to ensure that there was at least a separation between our groups, finding out his sister was a core member of my team must have been quite a shock. Well, I imagine pretty much everything about this afternoon had been quite a shock for Brian. Probably more of a shock than was strictly healthy, but there were critical details that needed to be covered. Revealing that amount of our operation to a member of the Undersiders was a big step, but Brian's situation was unique and more than warranted it.

Of course, we'd need to figure out the next steps. I'd been planning on helping the Undersiders, at least as much as I could. There were some unquestionably stupid decisions behind that team, but given the age and histories of the individual members, it was understandable. Not completely excusable, at least not in every case, but enough for me to step in and moderate things to the extent I could, at least depending on the situation we were left with once Coil was dealt with.

Well, now we'd be doing a lot more than moderating things, at least in Brian's case. He was a very clear case of bad decisions with good intentions. Bad decisions born of bad circumstances and limited options, but still bad decisions. Well within my power to address, and honestly even within Aisha's, but it was a question of how exactly we were going to handle that.

Brian had been able to come to terms with what was happening, at least to a limited degree, but that might change when the full scope of the situation and all the changes it brought caught up with him. Aisha's insistence in helping bring down the Nine wasn't going to do much for his peace of mind, but I wasn't going to stop her from joining the effort just for Brian's sake. This situation wasn't going to be resolved by artificially downplaying Aisha's role in the team. No, it was going to require the much more difficult task of open and honest communication. Communication between two teenagers. Between two teenage siblings.

Somehow that seemed like a bigger challenge than the actual takedown of the Slaughterhouse Nine.

Well, at least the actual defeat of the team itself. Dealing with Jack's influence was still going to be a challenge, largely because of the question of how you even addressed something like that. An ideal situation would involve setting up the kind of protections and shielding that Aisha received, both blocking the influence and allowing her to recognize how she had been affected up to that point. But Aisha was particularly skilled at recognizing mental influence thanks to the nature of her power and her own experiences with her passenger. Even if I could recreate the shield world system for every parahuman, they wouldn't all recognize the influence in the same way she did.

And that was not an option. Not that an assembly line of planets was particularly difficult, but the higher-level protections had been specific to Aisha and her powerset, as well as requiring the use of spiritual energy from my own reserves. It wasn't something I could recreate thousands of times over, even without accounting for the need for personalization of the effect.

There were other options, but they were all extreme to one degree or another. Which was understandable. When you were talking about removing influence on this level, 'extreme' was pretty much the only option. Just the fact that it was actually an option for me said a lot about my power and the kinds of things it was capable of when you really got down to it.

But beyond clearing the effect, there was the aftermath to consider. Weirdly, this was probably going to be helped by the fact that it would be mixed in with the defeat of the Nine and my team addressing as much of the damage they had caused as we could. Killing the Slaughterhouse Nine, healing their victims, repairing the damage of their attacks, and removing Jack's influence in whatever way we could. Hopefully that would throw enough disrupting events at the public to keep them from overly focusing on any one of them. Or more specifically, while everyone in the cape community would be trying to freak out about the implications of Jack's influence, my team would be focused on fixing the damage of the Nine and healing their victims. It was still going to be chaos, but it was chaos that we'd be able to steer, at least to a limited degree.

I shook my head as I climbed the stairs to my apartment. As crazy as things had been in the city, they were nothing compared to the absolute insanity that would come from taking down the Nine and reversing as much of their impact on the world as possible. Until now the Celestial Forge had been effectively contained to local concerns. While that was still going to be technically true, at least for the purposes of thinker models, the world was going to find out what happened when an external group decided to intrude on those local concerns.

This was a big step. A really, really big step. One that had been in the making for a long time, but that didn't change the fact that it was a fundamental shift. The moment we moved from the illusion of being a local problem to fully embracing the impact we would have on the world everything would change. And as much as we were holding to the letter of the law in terms of thinker models and precognitive powers, the practical effects were going to be very different.

At least I had my team to fall back on. Multiple strong A.I.s did have a tendency of trivializing what would otherwise be impossibly complex problems. I'm sure that Survey was actively looking forward to the point when she'd need to personally track matters on a national and international level, and had probably already gotten a start on things. As for logistics and coordination, Fleet and the Matrix were more than up to the task.

But just because we could handle it didn't mean it wasn't an intimidating prospect. I mean, even with just my own powers I had enough knowledge of cultural dynamics and societal management to be able to make a decent go of handling global influence, but that didn't change the magnitude of what that power represented.

I didn't want to rule the world, but I couldn't deny the impact I was having on it. And given the scale of that impact, the difference between command and influence was going to be nebulous at best. Trying to downplay that wouldn't do anyone any favors. All I could do was be aware of it and try to make the best decisions I could. People probably would hope for more confidence from someone about to embark on world altering actions, but I felt it was better to have a more realistic viewpoint, rather than a grandiose one.

And if my experience with the hostages had been any indication, there would be more than enough grandiose gestures from other parties once I stopped holding back, both towards my group and against them. Ironically, the people trying to oppose us would probably be easier to deal with than the kind of fanatical support we were likely to encounter. Managing that kind of thing would be an entirely different problem.

I let out a breath as I closed and locked my door, having successfully created the impression that I was still using my apartment. It was basically a decoy space for me, but a completely functional one. Honestly, it was probably overkill with the curse protecting my identity, but at least by maintaining it there was never a question of any of the practical details of my personal life.

With the illusion secure, I focused for a moment and apparated into the back rooms of Garment's studio. She was currently wrapping things up with Weld and Flechette, though I was intentionally avoiding checking in on them.

I had gotten a borderline intrusive look at Flechette's feelings when I met with her earlier. I was still slightly uncomfortable with dealing with the love life of a Ward, even from a position three steps removed. I could fully admit that a lot of that came from my own issues with romance. General concerns about the topic weren't helped when you were dealing with teenage superheroes, not to mention the less than favorable impression given off by people who got way too into cape shipping, even when you weren't talking about Wards.

At the very least I could tell that she was sincere, which was a decent place to start. I was fine staying out of things, though I doubted that Garment would be quite as candid as me when it came to the topic. A theory that was confirmed by the newly designed selection of capes, literal capes, not the term for active parahumans, that Garment happily uploaded to the Workshop network the second Flechette was out the door.

Well, that was one way to find a workaround. Obviously there were limits to what Flechette could do in terms of fashion decisions for her cape identity, but given the Protectorate's willingness to accept the addition of a cape to her costume, Garment had seized upon that for all it was worth. Normally, having to work around Flechette's pseudo futuristic purple costume and visor would have been a crippling limitation, but Garment had taken it as a challenge to see how many styles and tones she could create with just the addition of something that would count as a 'cape' under Protectorate costume regulations.

"I like the pink one!" Tetra said, suddenly appearing next to me. Or, more specifically, suddenly expressing her presence in a place where she already technically existed thanks to her inherent connection power.

I smiled and called up a holographic screen with a picture of the cape in question. "It's certainly a change from her usual look." I said, nodding towards the image. That particular shade of pink actually worked quite well with the purples of the rest of Flechette's costume. It definitely created a daintier look than was traditionally associated with her cape persona. The specific cut and the way the fabric sat was almost cute, though a lot of that was the expression on Flechette's face.

She seemed split between joy and embarrassment. Not actively opposed to the new look, but utterly at a loss for how to handle it. That was the case for most of the designs that Garment had happily uploaded from the fitting or flirting session that the visit seemed to have turned into.

At the very least Flechette seemed to recognize that this was more of a point of common ground for Garment in terms of conveying intentions, but she was clearly at a loss for how to go about it. I guess you could say they were at least speaking the same language, even if Garment had to effectively give Flechette a clothing-based phrase book to work from. Still, she was at least able to convey more than strict adherence to Protectorate image guidelines, which was a start. I still didn't know if this would go anywhere, either on Garment's side or Flechette's, but it was a start.

"It looks like Garment had a good time with this project." I said, skimming through the numerous capes and equally numerous range of reactions from Flechette. It was probably good that Garment hadn't decided to turn this into a video or a feature on her website. I'm not sure Flechette could have taken that kind of exposure, not when she was clearly struggling to deal with the new implications of fashion based subtext.

"Yeah, Garment really wanted to try out some of the cape options she had." Tetra explained. "Since you never bought any of them."

I blinked and turned towards Tetra. "Sorry, what?" I asked.

"Your dueling cape?" She continued. "The one that came with the soul power?"

"That Undefinable Thing." I said. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with…." I paused as I remembered the exact details of the cape in question.

"You never bought any of the new versions of it." Tetra explained. "Garment had a whole bunch of them ready, but she never got to use them."

The 'Questionably Practical Weapon' I'd received along with that power was a dueling cape. In terms of its questionable practicality, it was actually usable as a mid range weapon, able to strike out and disorient people, though dealing minimal damage.

At least it had in its base form. I'd handled the upgrades myself, the way I had with most of the weapons provided by my power. However, unlike the Bright Spear or my Insect Glaive, the cape wasn't something that was intended to be personally upgraded. Instead there was a specific point about merchants selling more deadly versions of the weapon in question.

Because that power almost certainly came from a universe based on some kind of RPG video game, one with stores that would always sell whatever oddball weapon your party members happened to use, and would carry that equipment well beyond the bounds of common sense. You might start the game with something like a 'rough linen cloak', but the shop behind the final dungeon would end up carrying something like a Plus Seventy Dread Shadow Cape of Demonic Force, something that inflicted six status conditions and recovered health every time you landed a critical hit.

"Um, what kind of capes did Garment give her?" I asked in mild concern. Honestly, it wasn't going to be any worse than that paper flower I had made, and nowhere near the level of the nanites, but I really didn't expect a fashion exchange to turn into an arms deal. Though given that this was Garment, I probably should have.

"Nothing from the top level." Tetra explained. "But I think that was because the magic and 'particle effects' didn't work with the look she was going for."

Well, that was a relief. Apparently, aesthetic concerns had stopped Garment from handing out bonus-dungeon or new game plus grade equipment to Flechette. Though once again, I really couldn't say anything considering my own actions. Which might well have opened the door for this kind of thing on Garment's part.

"I don't think she knows there's anything special about them." Tetra continued. "Flechette was kind of distracted by everything else."

"Right." I said, shaking my head. Weld seemed to have mostly stayed out of the way to give Garment and Flechette time to themselves, but he had still ended up gifted a long coat, one that was significantly less necessary now that he had better control of his metal absorption, but one that went well with the texture of his mithril exterior. And only carried the properties of the mid-tier dueling cape that had been worked into its lining.

That kind of handout was something that could be an absolute nightmare, but honestly, once Weld and Flechette got back to the PRT headquarters and finally reported on our talk I doubt anyone was going to be focused on Garment's latest fashion gifts.

Of course, the situation at the PRT wasn't exactly calm to begin with. Gully's treatment had been exactly as disruptive as expected, though thankfully she hadn't been put into containment or subjected to any invasive tests. It was a situation that the PRT was scrambling to manage, and I could only imagine how they would react when they found out about Flechette and Weld. Though if the two of them did report that to the head office, in accordance with official policy, then the local PRT would be finding out about that particular detail as the mandates came down from the Chief Director.

It was going to be a mess, and probably take several days to get anything more than emergency measures and rushed public statements in place. Cynically, it would keep them off balance until the Nine were dealt with, at which point that would shift their priorities once again. I mean, the strategy of keeping them from overreacting by overwhelming their ability to respond wasn't a terrible one, but it was hardly ideal.

Of course, ideal solutions were for situations less volatile than Brockton Bay. Fortunately, Fleet's display from the previous night seemed to have spooked the gangs, at least for the moment. It seemed no one wanted to be responsible for the third intervention from the Celestial Forge, given that could be the threshold where a member of my team decided to take a more active role in conflict resolution.

Really, I was just hoping this would hold until the Nine were dealt with. If Fleet had sent them running scared from a single appearance, then the public destruction of the most feared team of parahumans in the country would probably cause all but the most hardline members of the gangs to reconsider their career decisions. And as long as that caused enough of a delay to let me address the damage from the Nine and leverage further, then so much the better. Yes, it was a delaying tactic, but that was all I needed. Just making it clear that the first person to step out of line would get stomped down would ensure that no one would try to make the opening move.

Well, under ideal circumstances. That was assuming that things were operating openly and directly. That the objective was resolving the gang conflict, dealing with the Teeth, and reaching a new equilibrium. While that was probably the case for most of the villains in the city, with the understanding that they would try to secure as much as they could in the process, Coil was definitely operating under a different set of goals. I doubted he was interested in the other gangs coming to a peaceful compromise, the kind they at least believed I would tolerate. No, he was definitely going to try something. Hopefully not tonight, and hopefully not in the wake of the Slaughterhouse Nine's defeat.

Well, if he did try something in the wake of the Slaughterhouse Nine's defeat, if anyone tried anything in the wake of the Slaughterhouse Nine's defeat, I was more than prepared to leverage the most extreme interpretation of the Unwritten Rules and the S-Class truce. It was basically free license for me to annihilate the offending group without anyone being able to say anything about it, and if anyone thought dealing with issues across the country would keep me from addressing problems in Brockton Bay, I'd be happy to correct their assumption.

I checked on the main studio as Aisha entered, dropped off by her father and brother. Aisha's brother. That was still something I was adjusting to. Mostly because you think of people in certain categories and get used to that image of them. Sudden shifts and recontextualizations take time to adjust to.

"Gully's on her way to the studio." Tetra said. "Fleet just picked her up."

I nodded. There had been practical concerns to getting Gully to her appointment with Garment. The massive crowd that had built up around the PRT HQ hadn't helped, but the idea that she would be able to walk across the city again, like she had after her treatment, was beyond optimistic. Rather than leaving her to figure things out on top of everything else she was dealing with, we had taken care of things.

Well, officially Garment had taken care of things through the services of her lawyer. A large SUV had been rented by 'Jake Clark', Fleet's civilian identity, who had overseen the removal of the middle row of seats. It was big enough to accommodate Gully's cape form relatively comfortably, at least compared to other options we could have gone with.

I checked online for the reaction I knew was coming. The footage of her leaving the PRT headquarters and climbing into the vehicle was already circulating through social media. It was a lot of activity for a seemingly minor act, but really everything about Gully was circulating online with a lot of activity, because fundamentally there was nothing minor about what had happened.

I had publicly cured a Case 53, something that had never been done before. There wasn't an official statement of my involvement yet, but that was more of a technicality at this point. People who had been largely unaware of the Case 53 situation or their presence in the city were suddenly being informed on a national level as details that the PRT had probably worked very hard to keep out of the public eye were suddenly featured on all major networks, with even more details and rumors being spread online.

Despite successfully treating Gully, there was still a lot about Case 53s that I still wasn't sure of. I had solid evidence that their condition was driven by issues with their passengers, but I didn't know if that particular arrangement was specific to Gully or shared across the entire population.

I did know that the Case 53s were, if not artificially created, then at least being actively managed. Aisha had confirmed that the memory loss was the result of a specific power, and it wasn't the only one in play. The method that had been used to create the symbol that branded Case 53s was power-enforced, which explained how it had persisted on Weld even when he could shapeshift. There was also a number hidden in the right arm of the symbol. It was made to look like a series of gaps where the 'tattoo' hadn't taken, but if you understood the mechanics and could read intent it was obvious.

I also had a sense of the group that was behind this, that was responsible for branding people, numbering them, wiping their memory, and abandoning them in the world. My passenger helped with that, which made sense since it was connected with one of the people specifically highlighted by my Outside Context Problem power. Which, given the scale of the other two on that list, the concerns I'd expressed the first time I met Weld seemed very warranted.

That was going to be a problem. A problem that I'd need to deal with independently of the more general problem of the Case 53s. While Gully's treatment was probably going to be taken as a good sign, it wasn't the kind of thing that would encourage a calm and reasonable approach by Case 53s who had been suffering with their condition for their entire lives. Unless we took some kind of proactive action, there was a decent chance that the otherwise positive situation could turn ugly.

"We're going to have to address this, at least to some level." I said. "Probably through Gregor."

Gregor had agreed to act as a partial intermediary between the Celestial Forge and the Case 53 community, but I doubted he had enough influence to keep things calm in the wake of this kind of display. Not without some additional level of assurances or resources, which we would be able to provide.

Tetra nodded. "The Matrix wanted to visit Palanquin. If they're going I'd like to come as well."

I raised an eyebrow. I could understand why Tetra would want to meet Faultline's Crew. Fundamentally she wanted to meet everyone. "Why does the Matrix want to see them?" I asked while I also extended a connection to them through the Workshop network.

"They said it was about a supply contract." Tetra said as I linked with the Matrix and received the full explanation.

Supply contract. Specifically Tybalt and Fleet had discussed the auction of the whiskey I had given to the Dewitt family after Somer's Rock. They had offhandedly mentioned that I couldn't recreate the bottle, given the comparatively low quality compared to even the most half-assed work at my current level. Something that had only gotten more true as time went on.

However, they had suggested that the Matrix might be able to create an approximation. Not on the same level, but at least a major step above anything currently on the market. After the previous night's enhancement with the Glove of the East and their ability to use aspects of Elven Enchantment, the Matrix could produce something that was at least in the same league as that bottle.

'You want to sell whiskey to Faultline?' I asked them, reviewing the production they had already completed. Given it was inside the Workshop I was already innately aware of everything they had made, but I had figured it was more of a personal project, rather than some commercial endeavor.

'It would be more accurate to say I wish to sell whiskey through Faultline.' They explained, transferring the plans and proposals, which had already been checked over by Survey. 'Commercial scale production would require excessive leadup and would unfavorably compare to the results of the auction, while the serving of individual drinks is a process I have some interest in.'

Which very likely traced back to that first drink order at Somer's Rock. So not interested in becoming an established brewery so much as what would happen to an establishment's drink service if they had access to extremely high-quality liquor that was only sold by the glass.

Not something I expected, but also not something I had any specific objection to. There were details in the proposed agreement that prohibited Faultline from bottling and selling the Matrix's whiskey on her own, but I don't think there was much risk of her violating that agreement, given the reputation my team had for holding to contracts. Likewise, the Matrix's commission on the whiskey was based on the sales, rather than any upfront investment or purchase from Faultline, making it almost impossibly appealing.

Which was really the point. The commission only existed to ensure this was a business deal with some level of credibility behind it. The Matrix's interest was on the impact of the quality of their work, not the profit it could bring. The fact that they would be paid by the drink sold ensured they'd have a detailed picture of exactly how their work was being used.

Though given the quality of what they were providing, I doubted it would find its way into any kind of cocktail or mixed drink. The question was mostly going to be if it was served neat, on the rocks, or with water. Still, that was exactly the kind of response the Matrix was interested in.

"I'm fine with this." I said to both Tetra and the Matrix. "You can probably set something up for tonight with Fleet and Tybalt."

"Are you coming as well?" Tetra asked hopefully.

"Probably not a good idea." I shook my head. "I can work with the Matrix to put something in place, some stop gap or partial measure for the Case 53s they can contact, but showing up in person would probably do more harm than good."

I'd been able to dance around that with Armstrong and Flechette, but both had been very controlled encounters, not an unprompted visit to an entire team. I could put similar measures in place to deal with Faultline, but technically she was part of the alliance between gangs. Making direct contact with the leader of one of the active groups was a very different matter compared to social calls from members of my team.

And that wasn't even getting into the practical scheduling. Between my upcoming talk with Taylor, my therapy appointment, and the final details of the Slaughterhouse Nine plan, I didn't have much time to spare. Tybalt and Fleet weren't overly involved in the plan against Jack. Well, Fleet was, but the actions of his physical body didn't impact his ability to coordinate in Passenger Space.

Tetra nodded. "It will be nice after the Nine, when we won't have to be so careful."

I smiled. "Careful in a different way." I said. I was confident that defeating the Nine would be able to cut through the local PRT bullshit around dealing with me, if only because of the mechanics of the bounty system and the S-Class truce. Leveraging those procedures wasn't exactly less contentious, but it would cover me on an official level, at least long enough for me to address some of the major problems I'd been leaving on the backburner.

Then again, dealing with something like Dragon's situation was likely to be about as messy as taking out the Nine, just in a different way.

"Right." Tetra said. "I'll check with Tybalt about when he wants to go." And then she was gone.

"I just miss Tetra?" Aisha asked as she walked into the section of the backrooms I had been working out of.

"No, I'm still here." Tetra said, suddenly back.

"I know." Aisha said, rolling her eyes. "You're always here."

There was a single nod from Tetra, and then she was 'gone' again.

"Don't know if I'm ever going to get used to that." Aisha said, then turned slightly and spoke to the air. "And I know you aren't doing it on purpose. You don't have to clarify that for me."

I smiled at Aisha. "It will probably settle down once she gets used to it. Or maybe when she makes enough connections."

"Maybe." Aisha said, letting out a breath. "Only you could create something that fundamentally terrifying without actually knowing how it would work and still be completely confident that it will be fine."

"Well, it's Tetra." I said in my defense.

"I know it's Tetra. The fact that it's Tetra is the only reason this whole situation isn't terrifying beyond belief. If it was anyone but Tetra it would be a living nightmare."

"If it was anyone but Tetra, I wouldn't have done it." I explained.

"Yeah." She said, "Can't argue with that."

I nodded. "So, things alright with your brother?"

"For a given value of alright." She said with a slight smile. "I don't think it's completely hit him yet, but he's probably in a state where he can handle it when it does." She paused. "Probably."

"At least until tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah." She said with a sigh. "That will be fun to explain to him." She looked up at me. "Though at least we weren't doing this after that had gone down."

"Might have been easier in some ways." I said. "There would have been less we'd need to talk around."

"Yeah, and harder in a lot of others." She said, shaking her head. "After everything, all that build up about Brian, it's hard to believe that this is it. I mean, this is really it?"

"You're still worried." I said.

"I've been worried for weeks. Or years, whatever." She said, shaking her head. "The whole time with this hanging over me. That's not something I can just switch off."

"And you're worried there's going to be more. Other consequences." I said, looking at her.

"Well, yeah. That's how these things go. You don't just talk it out, explain yourself, say you're sorry and move on." She looked up at me. "I'm not saying that shouldn't be how it is, it's just not my experience."

"This was really eating away at you, huh?" I asked.

She let out a long breath. "You have no idea. Every way this could have blown up in my face, or ended up causing some major disaster, every nightmare way this could have played out and it would be all my fault."

I nodded. "I get it, but it's fine. We talked about it, we dealt with it. There's nothing else you need to worry about."

She gave a shadow of a nod, then looked up at me with an expression that mixed concern and relief. "So you're not going to take away my unicorn?" She asked in a quiet voice.

I blinked in surprise. "Wait, that's what you were worried about?" I asked. She gave me another small nod. "The unicorn. Not the armor, or the call beads, or the entire planet?"

"I didn't ask for any of that stuff." She explained. Meaning that losing it wouldn't hurt her. Wouldn't be a punishment.

"I see." I said, but I could tell she was still worried.

"But you're not going to take away Orudios, right?" Aisha asked in a quiet voice.

I smiled at her. "Aisha, Orudios is his own unicorn. I don't make decisions for him."

Aisha let out a slow breath and I could see the last vestiges of tension leave her body. "Right. Right." She said, her hand going to her wrist where the plastic unicorn figure hung from her charm bracelet. "It's… I know it was probably stupid to be worried about that, it's just…"

"I get it." I said. We didn't need to get into why Aisha would be worried about disproportionate punishments designed to be particularly hurtful rather than corrective.

"I really am sorry about letting this go on so long." She said, taking another breath. "Is being pissed off at your younger self part of that 'growing up' thing?"

"Probably a core part." I said with a smile. "And if you're lucky you get to learn from your mistakes, rather than just constantly dealing with the consequences of them."

"Ha. Sounds like a riot." She said, "Why does anyone want this? The whole growing up thing?"

"Mostly inaccurate perception of what's involved." I joked.

Aisha smiled. "On both sides." I raised an eyebrow. "Kids want to grow up and don't believe parents when they say it sucks. Parents think being a kid was all wonderful and forget how much it actually sucked. Everyone's thinking things were better, or are going to be better, rather than dealing with what's actually going on."

"Human nature, I guess." I said with a shrug.

"Yeah." Aisha said, slumping slightly.

"So, you back in the Workshop, or are you helping Garment with Gully?" I asked.

Aisha glanced back towards the main studio. "I'll probably help out for a bit. At least say hello when she gets here, then split off so Garment can have some time with mini-Gully." She paused. "Or human-Gully?"

"Depowered-Gully would probably be the most accurate." I said.

"Right." Aisha said. "Anyway, seeing as we're not letting that detail out, I'm going to bounce before the main fitting, or whatever. Go to the 'back' and give them privacy unless they need something." She smiled. "Hopefully she'll be okay dealing with Garment directly, but I'll be on call if anything comes up."

I knew from experience how that could be a bit much, particularly when Garment was pushing for a new wardrobe, or several new wardrobes. It should be manageable, but I knew how much Gully was currently dealing with. Like with Brian, she was probably being helped along by the blessing from my workshop without consciously realizing it. That should help for the next day, by which point hopefully she'd have enough time to process things before everything hit her.

At the very least, Aisha could be called in if they needed something. She had been good with Garment even before she'd spent the equivalent of several years with her. It wasn't quite the level of communication possible from my fashion powers, but it was better than most people could manage.

"That's good." I said with a nod.

"Yeah." Aisha said. "So, you're off to talk to Taylor?" She asked.

I felt my eyes widen. "What?"

"Khepri or whatever." She said, noting my reaction. "And yeah, I know you've been super careful about identities and confidentiality, but I heard my brother talk about her while my power was up. It's not that hard to figure out."

"Right." I said. Technically I hadn't violated Taylor's trust on this, but I doubted that Brian being the weak point was much better. "And you know about the rest of it?"

"You meant the mess with Parian's model and the stuff that's going around online?" She asked. "Yeah, and Survey let me know the parts you're avoiding, so I guess good luck with that?"

I let out a breath. "Is it really that bad?" Aisha gave me a concerned look. "I mean, Tattletale made me promise not to burn down the city when I find out what happened."

"Um, yeah." Aisha said. "Give the details, that's probably a reasonable concern." She quickly looked up at me. "Like, not for the entire city, but in terms of reaction level, yeah, I can see that.

"Wonderful." I said with a huff. Aisha just gave me an encouraging look as I resigned myself to the upcoming conversation.

Though not before I felt a shift in the Forge. My power had cleared the gap from the Pleician Tome and seen two failed connections while I was dealing with the whole Brian situation. Now the slow rotation of my power had led to a connection to a familiar cluster of motes from the Quality constellation. Once again, I received a copy of Unnatural Skill and Minor Blessing.

This time the Minor Blessing was from Hermes. Specifically, it was the blessing of Invention. Not the most common concept for a blessing, but from someone who invented the lyre, the alphabet, dice, and numerous other things that were less well recorded, it made perfect sense. Invention as a concept was a bit abstract, so a blessing that enhanced that was similarly indistinct, but that didn't mean it was less powerful than the abilities I'd received from the other gods.

Strangely, 'invention' wasn't something that I had specifically focused on, at least not in the conventional sense. I had powers that granted me the knowledge of entire civilizations worth of technology and other powers that allowed me to combine, augment, and refine that technology to an extreme degree. It wasn't that I never made anything new, but it was an iterative process. Steps taken to advance from one design to the next, or to introduce new features or aspects that I wanted to include.

The invention of Hermes was a much more fundamental form of the concept. Not refinement or improvement, but the creation of entirely new devices almost ex nihilo. The lyre wasn't based on earlier string instruments and refined or upgraded, it was created out of base components, bringing something completely new into existence.

That was what the blessing of invention was about. Creation, in an almost primal sense. The genesis of technology or innovation. The starting point from which all the work of refinement and improvement could begin. Not looking at a problem and adapting existing technology to address it, but creating something completely original.

It was a big deal. It was also more than a little unstable. Creating something new didn't necessarily mean creating something better, or something free from issues. It was an original approach, not an optimal one. But the fact that it was original, that it was a new and novel way of approaching an issue, that was something that gave it a serious advantage.

I mean, ideally you'd combine approaches. Come up with new inventions, then use technical knowledge to refine and improve them. Providing you had time to address the problem in question, it was a near ideal way of dealing with any obstacle. And fortunately I had time.

Well, my duplicates had time, and the ability to douse Hermes with libations until we could effectively max out the Blessing of Invention. There weren't many problems that were beyond the capabilities of my existing technology, but the ones that remained were serious enough to warrant extreme measures, even if that involved unstable divine fueled inventing sessions.

The prospect of what might come out of that work was a bit scary, especially considering the scale of the problems we were trying to address, but for issues of Jack's influence, the passenger network, and that ultimate threat to all humanity, I could deal with a bit of unstable and untested technology. At the very least I could confidently say it wouldn't be significantly worse than the other options we had been considering.

The Unnatural Skill I'd received was probably going to help in those projects. Actually, all my unnatural skills would help when it came to innovation and invention, but it was the aspects of my latest power that I was focusing on. I had received Unnatural Skill Weaving, which wasn't something I had ever expected to come out of the monster based mythological power set.

That was probably shortsighted on my part. I mean, I had Athena's blessing of craftsmanship, which did include weaving, but this was specifically the other side of weaving. Or at least the other side of the weaving contest. At its lowest level it matched the weaving of Arachne. At its highest levels you were dealing with the threads of fate, which was a frightening enough concept on its own.

Yeah, leave it to my power to take something that started at 'make nice cloth' and scale it up to a level where you were questioning the nature of free will and self-determination. I mean, I wasn't going to be recreating the feats of the Norns without leaning heavily into Monstrous Strength to boost the power of the skill, but even without that kind of enhancement, the combination of my other powers and equipment was more than enough to make an impact.

With a thought my watch band expanded into the gauntlet of my lantern shield. A lantern shield that was also a Teigu, made from the body of a Danger Beast known as a Void Fisher. A gigantic extradimensional arachnid that both moved and hunted through manipulation of the aether threads that made up the fabric of reality. The same thread that I could grasp or ride to effectively fly using my Teigu.

But now I could do more. Much more. I reached out and felt one of the normally imperceivable threads of aether. I gently tugged on the cosmic string, feeling the way it interacted with all of its points of connection in the background fabric of spacetime. With a slight pull a bend appeared in the air, effectible a slight hitch in that fabric visible as a spatial distortion.

"Okay." Aisha said. "I'm guessing that's a new power?"

"Two new powers." I said, gently easing the thread back into place and smoothing out the distortion. "Minor Blessing of Invention from Hermes and Unnatural Skill with weaving."

Aisha blinked and looked back to where the warped section of air was fading back to normal. "And weaving lets you do that?" She asked.

"With my Teigu I can." I said.

"Oh, right. The thing with the aether threads?" She asked. I nodded. "Huh." A slight smile appeared on her face. "And you got that after everything with Tetra?"

"I don't mind." Tetra said, suddenly standing between us. "I mean, the duplicates are really excited about what we might be able to do with this, but I'm glad we handled everything when we did."

"Yeah, you would have missed your big debut." Aisha joked, but Tetra just nodded sincerely. Meanwhile I was just looking at the fiber structure of Tetra's body with fresh eyes, identifying every point where I could have improved things, or still could.

"Hey, Józef, you alright?" Aisha asked.

I blinked and shook my head. "Yeah." I said. "Weaving skill plus upgrade powers means I'm pretty sure I can roll out some improvements for Tetra."

Tetra smiled widely. "I'd really like that."

Aisha snorted. "Yeah, there are so many areas where you REALLY need to improve. I mean, you can only be in one place at a time."

Tetra nodded. "Unless I use decaying fiber shells to create copies, but that's not really the same thing even if it looks like it."

"Right." Aisha said with a sigh. "You doing that now? Dropping everything for the upgrade cycle?"

"No." I shook my head as a significant amount of enthusiasm drained away from Tetra. "Schedule's too tight and it might introduce unknown factors we'd need to account for. Probably slot it in for after the Nine, along with the Glove of the East upgrades for Fleet and Survey."

"You okay with that?" Aisha asked Tetra.

"It's fine." She said happily. "It's more time to plan out the upgrade, and there might be more powers that would help as well."

"Well, that's one thing dealt with." Aisha said. "Now, how long until Garment finds out about this?"

"She's already on her way." Tetra explained as the sound or running heels on tile reached our ears.

The backrooms of Garment's studio were practically a country unto themselves, but apparently a highly motivated Garment was more than capable of traversing it at lightning speed for the sake of fashion advancements. We turned as a green evening dress framed by white gloves burst through the door. Garment was manipulating the dress to create the impression of exhausted panting breaths, but that was entirely for the purpose of emphasizing the seriousness of the situation in her eyes.

"Hi Garment." I said, but was quickly cut off by frantic gestures as Garment closed the distance between us. "Yes weaving, and mythological. Um, some clothing, but mostly cloth, thread, and tapestries. No. Also no. Sort of. Yes, but I'd need help from both duplicates. Um, maybe, but I'd need to go full shadow robot werewolf for something like that."

I paused and turned from Garment who was positively vibrating with excitement to a nearly as excited Tetra and a visibly concerned Aisha.

"Do I even want to know what that was about?" Aisha asked in a flat voice.

I took a breath. "Highest level of divine weaving can get into fate manipulation."

"Well, that's terrifying. And I'm guessing it's even more terrifying when you factor in all your bullshit crafting powers?" She asked before turning to Garment. "So what, you looking to incorporate the woven fate of an uncertain future into your summer line?"

Garment reacted with shock and made a series of very sharp gestures at Aisha.

"Sorry, sorry." She said, "So the fall line?" Garment made a more contemplative gesture. "Of course." Aisha said, rolling her eyes. "Materialized fate is much more fitting for a transitional season." She turned to me. "What would clothing made out of fate even do?"

"I'm not really sure, and I don't know if we want to find out." I said. Well, Garment definitely wanted to find out, and Tetra looked interested as well, but fortunately we all had commitments keeping us from immediately exploring how the fundamental structure of the universe could be undermined in the service of the textile industry.

"This is really interesting, but Gully will be here in five minutes." Tetra said, calling up a holographic map with Fleet's route plotted on it. Conveniently, a lucky series of road works and sudden changes of traffic lights had shed the various news vehicles that had decided to follow him, giving him a free shot to Garment's studio.

They would catch up eventually, but it was best to give Gully as little stress as possible for the time being, and fighting her way through a crowd of reporters wouldn't help matters. There were other safeguards built into the studio by me and my duplicates, but they were generally keyed to more serious threats than annoying reporters.

Garment made a gesture of understanding, though was clearly disappointed to not be able to immediately explore the potential of supernatural weaving powers, but Gully's visit was time sensitive. I was fairly certain that the range of sins against nature that this monstrous power could accomplish would be thoroughly documented before long.

"Right. And I've got another meeting to get to." I explained, though I had to smile at that.

I'm not sure if it was directly related to the time acceleration requiring me to stay out of the Workshop or just a number of matters coming to a head at the same time, but it was definitely nice to be able to get out into the city and actually deal with some of the problems that had built up over the past few weeks. Even problems I hadn't known about, like in the case of Aisha and Brian.

And problems that I only sort of knew about. I didn't know what had happened to Taylor back in January, and at this point I was employing Survey's assistance to keep me from learning the details prematurely. I knew that it was bad enough to warrant a police response and an open case file. I was no stranger to bullying in high school and knew that kind of thing could get out of hand, especially when the faculty turned a blind eye to it. Winslow was significantly worse than my old school back in Captain's Hill, so I could only imagine what they had let build up.

Though at this point I was hoping that the theories I was coming up with were worse than what had actually happened. I knew Taylor had problems with Emma and other girls, and had them for a long time. It had probably built up to some major incident similar to what had happened yesterday, though with less oversight and no real consequences.

I mean, that's what I thought, but that wasn't the kind of thing you needed to be cautioned off of fiery vengeance for. So it was probably a couple of degrees beyond what I was thinking. Bad enough that Taylor wanted to be able to tell me herself.

"Right, good luck with that." Aisha said sincerely before trailing after Garment to go meet Gully.

"I'm sure it will be alright." Tetra said.

"Thanks." I said to her. "Any luck with Tybalt?"

"He's working things out with Fleet, and the Matrix so that none of them miss movie night." She explained.

"Right, it's the Matrix's pick tonight." I said.

"Or your pick." Tetra said.

I shook my head. "I'll take my turn after everyone else has had a chance." I said. "And I wouldn't want to get in the way of the Matrix's first turn to pick a movie."

Though I had no idea what the Matrix was going to pick for their choice of movie. Prior to their upgrade from the Glove of the East I would have expected some documentary or historical film focused on a major industrial project of some kind, but their relationship with their original directive had become significantly more complex. Really, just the fact that they were going to have the chance to choose and to express their interest for the rest of the group felt like a big step.

At the very least it was something to look forward to. A bright point after whatever I'd have to deal with regarding Taylor and at therapy, and a bit of a break before we threw ourselves into the final preparations for taking down the Nine.

I left Tetra to work out the details of the bar visit/business deal/Case 53 negotiation session with Fleet and the Matrix. At least as much as anyone ever 'leaves' Tetra, but that was an aspect of her existence I had pretty much adjusted to. Then again, our level of connection was a lot more substantial compared to most other people.

I headed to the office I was using in the backrooms and got ready to call Taylor. Really, the entire mess with her situation with school was secondary to the real purpose of the meeting. I had the second of the nanite arrays ready for her, and given the risk profile of Taylor compared to Flechette, I was much keener on getting the nanites to Taylor as soon as possible. The fact that we also had to address the situation with Emma and the incident from January was a complication to that, though one that by all accounts needed to be properly addressed.

I had another concern for the coming meeting. The recent set of powers I had received only chipped away at a small portion of the reach I had built up since the Pleician Tome. By the time my next connection came I would have enough reach to secure all but the largest of motes remaining in the Forge. Given how disruptive those powers could be, that wasn't something I wanted to have to deal with while working through a delicate situation with Taylor.

Unfortunately there wasn't anything I could do about it. Nothing except hope and pray for either a manageable ability or another connection to some kind of ridiculous set of additions for my Workshop. Given the choice between having half a lifetime forced into my head while dealing with Taylor's situation or seeing a chunk of reach expended on novelty water features or whatever, I'd take the water features.

I shook my head. No sense putting it off any longer. I drew up the office's link to Taylor's watch and placed the video call. There were a few beats before the call connected, then a screen popped up showing Taylor in what looked like her living room. Based on her expression she was looking forward to this meeting about as much as I was.

"Joe?" She asked. "Um, time for us to meet?"

"Yeah." I said, leaning back. "I've put it off as long as I could, but…"

"No, I get it." She said, "And I appreciate it." She let out a sigh and adjusted her glasses. "It's just, things have been crazy since Emma, and with that video leaking." She looked up at me. "Um, have you seen any of that?"

I shook my head. "I've been avoiding details. Managed to avoid them, but it's getting harder, so unless you want me to find out from the reports…"

Taylor swallowed and shook her head. "No. Definitely not. It's just, this got big. Like, bigger than I ever thought it could. It's on the news and people are talking about it, trying to contact me and my dad."

"Any problems?" I asked. Taylor shook her head.

"No, my dad made a statement. Well, basically a statement that he wasn't making a statement until the legal stuff is sorted." She let out a breath. "I know he's done that kind of thing for work, but I didn't think he'd need to do that for me." She looked up. "He's out right now, so it's probably the best time to talk."

I nodded. Survey had been keeping an eye on things, though in a way that was moderately unintrusive, at least by her standards. Enough to recognize what Mr. Hebert was working on through the day and get a rough idea of his schedule from publicly available information.

"Where do you want to meet?" I asked. "I could come over, or we could speak somewhere else."

Taylor wrapped her arms around herself. "I think I'd rather stay home for this." She said while dropping her head. "I know we have to deal with this, but it's a lot to take on."

I nodded. "We don't have to jump right in to that." I said. Taylor gave me a confused look. "There's some other stuff I need to go over. We can deal with that first if you want."

"Um, probably?" She said, "But what kind of stuff? Is it about your team, or the city? Is something happening?" She asked in increasing concern.

"Actually it's about what we discussed last time." I explained.

"Last time?" She asked blankly.

"In the library?" I said. Recognition slowly dawned, though it was like I'd brought up something from ancient history rather than the previous week.

"Right, but what…" She creased her forehead. "What about what we discussed?"

"The healing technology? The one that I used to help with workouts." I said. Taylor slowly nodded. "I said I could work on something similar for you?"

"That's…" She blinked. "I mean, thank you, but with everything that's been going on… I'm surprised you remembered."

I nodded. "Things got a bit delayed, and the project changed from the original parameters. I can explain things to you before we deal with the other stuff."

"Yeah." She said, sagging back in her seat. "That sounds good. When can you come over?"

I smiled. "Right away, if you're ready to meet."

Taylor swallowed nervously. "Yeah. Or I guess as ready as I'm going to be?"

I nodded. That was probably true for both of us. Well, if I could handle PRT directors, hostages, filling in Flechette on the possible end of the world, dealing with Aisha's family issues and the closest thing I've had to a date in years, or possibly ever depending on how you defined a 'date', then I could definitely make it through a discussion with Taylor.

Maybe. Probably. Hopefully. After all, what were that chances that things would go unexpectedly wrong just because Taylor was involved?

Yeah, maybe Tattletale was right to be concerned about things.

Jumpchain abilities this chapter:

Minor Blessing Hermes - Invention (Percy Jackson) 100:
For one reason or another you've got a god who cares slightly about you and has seen fit to grant you some minor boon within their domains. Choose one god from any pantheon and gain a minor boon from them. The god will care slightly about you but unless you go on to further distinguish yourself it will be more of a minor interest in your affairs than someone they feel the need to help (Effectively think a diminished version of one ability a demigod might have, think minor ones are stuff along the lines of breathing water, lucid dreaming, or appropriate vague extra senses, useful but nothing especially major). This can be taken multiple times.

Unnatural Skill:Weaving (Percy Jackson) 200:
Whether from your heritage or just being that good you've got one particular mundane skill that your feats with border on supernatural. Whether you're a smith on the level of the Cyclopses, a near prescient tactician or a swordsman who is ny unstoppable with a blade your feats will be legendary. You are on a level within your skill such that only other beings of legend can hope to match you. This may be taken multiple times. You may not choose magic but you may choose a particular application of magic if you have it already (so curses, enchanting might work, more specific gets a bigger boost).