Aishaa Laborn – Thinking of a fitting cape name in the Undersider's hideout.
"I say we do it," Regent, or Alec as she now knew, said, voice full of irony as he searched for the last piece of cold Pizza, only to realize there was none. "I mean, we're obviously gonna die, but I'm running out of money and life's not worth living if I have to work for it."
The guy was a little too pretty, with blonde hair and thin limbs of someone who avoided work like the plague… Aisha could appreciate the feeling.
"Not helping," Brian sighed, and she could see the way his hand started to rise, but her brother resisted the urge to slap his teammate. "And no, we're not going to try and rescue Susanoo's newest kidnap victim, or try to free Tattletale."
Aisha ate her stolen pizza, wondering just how much longer she could keep everyone inside by continuing to make them forget there was a door. Would they try to use the windows next?
Then she pulled out her phone and started browsing it, only half paying attention to the conversation.
"I'm not saying we fight him," Taylor said, a beanpole of a girl with curly black hair, her brother's newest gang member. "But he's experimenting on her, doing something with her head… If we had Tattletale, she could help us disable his security, then it would only take a minute to rescue Sundancer, we can escape before he ever notices."
What kind of villain's name was Skitter anyway? So lame, she should have called herself The Swarm or Black Widow, since she liked to use the spiders so much.
"I said no," Brian shook his head. "We can't risk doing anything right now, Coil is still aiming to kill us, and without support, we're in no position to even try freeing Tattletale, she knew the risks."
Wow, Aisha loved him, but her brother was kind of an asshole.
As far as she could figure out, this Tattletale had risked her life to warn the rest of the Undersiders about Coil and almost got killed because of it, but her Brother refused to even talk about her rescue.
Well, she didn't really expect him to act, Brian was boring that way, but at least pretend to think about it!
"Fuck you," Bitch said, Aisha still didn't know her real name, but the girl looked tough, and moved more like an angry animal than a human. "It's irritating enough when you want to give me orders during jobs, I'm not putting up with you making my decisions too. I don't give a shit about Sundancer, but Tattletale is ours, we're getting her back."
Done with everything, Bitch turned around to leave, only to hesitate in brief confusion, turn towards a window and start to seriously consider leaving through it… Aisha resisted the urge to smirk.
When she had first triggered after getting attacked by those Empire thugs, she had thought her power was to become invisible. Not the most exciting thing, even if it was still neat, but it was oh so much better.
Instead, she could make an area around herself unnoticeable, people's eyes would just slide right off wherever she was, almost as if they'd forget the area, and everything inside the area ever existed. This range could vary from only a few centimeters around herself, to an entire block, depending on her focus.
If she leaned against a parked car, the owner would forget he ever had one, and people would ignore its existence, but, strangely enough, nobody would try to park in its place. It was like they knew the car was still there, it was just impossible to acknowledge it.
Unfortunately, her power's default setting seemed to be 'on', Aisha had panicked for an hour or two as everyone ignored everything she did, at least until she learned how to pull it back.
It was just... Controlling her power, letting herself be noticed took effort, concentration, and focus had never really been her strong point, even during conversations, her power just kept slipping.
At least her Mother could no longer get mad at her, not for long enough to matter anyway.
She wondered what would happen if she let her power fill the room, would everyone forget where they were? Would they stumble around like blind or just leave the place as fast as they could, not even realizing what they were doing until they were out of the area?
Note to self, test that as soon as possible, maybe against her mother's drug dealer the next time she sees him.
"Regent?" Taylor asked again, trying to force him to be serious.
"I don't think I care?" Regent said after some thought. Putting his remote aside, he looked at them. "Why are we voting anyway? I mean, without the boss, do we even have reason to stay a team?"
That just caused Bitch to frown harder and start pacing restlessly, but both Brian and Skitter were caught by surprise, not seeming to have considered his question before.
Aisha finished her slice of pizza before licking her fingers. And she had just started to think her brother was cool, creating a team of villainous thieves and everything, but turns out he just worked as a minion for someone better.
Pity, she kinda wanted to be part of a Parahuman gang.
Could she rescue this Tattletale and help keep her brother's team together? The PRT were a bunch of incompetents who were probably still reeling from getting smashed by Susanoo, how hard could it be?
"I thought we…" Skitter hesitated, the swarm of insects around the house starting to get restless, their buzzing increasing in volume by the second, then she swallowed and refocused. "We have to stick together, I don't know if Coil is still trying to kill us, but we're safer if we stay together."
Regent shrugged. "I was just going to skip town as soon as possible, pity I couldn't get a plane ticket on the internet. Apparently, they're having server problems, and I'm too lazy to go in person."
"That's stupid," Bitch nearly growled, glaring straight at Regent as her hands closed into fists. "You don't get to just walk off."
Her brother seemed at a loss as he started to lose control, but Skitter seemed calmer, although her swarm was starting to get annoying.
The insect master looked down for a moment, then sighed. "I'll pay you one thousand to help rescue Tattletale."
"Wow, I'm offended you think I'm that cheap," Regent dramatically put a hand in front of his mouth in mock indignation. "Still… what the hell, I do need a new console, had to ditch the last one in our hideout, I guess I can go take a look, but the second things look difficult I'm ditching you guys, you're not paying me enough to risk my freedom."
Aisha snorted, what a reassuring teammate. Yeah, the team was so gonna fracture without Tattletale, she could already see her brother start to consider ditching the rest of the villains.
She was also pretty sure Bitch was gonna try and attack her brother for ditching the team and, despite his skill, she didn't think he'd win against giant dogs… Then she'd be forced to maim the woman, because nobody messed with her family, and she didn't want that trouble.
Pushing away from the door, Aisha slipped out of the house. She did need to thank Vista for the save, she had already triggered and was pretty safe, but her dad would probably die from the beating if it wasn't for the Ward.
Maybe she'd kill two birds with one stone and see if she could get this Tattletale out of the lock too, she was the blonde teenage one, right?
_____________
Rebecca Costa-Brown / Alexandria
Rebecca continued to read the documentation on her notebook even as the others filtered into the meeting room, her eyes going over every piece of new data she could get on Susanoo.
"Rebecca," David said with an annoyed voice. Taking off his Eidolon's mask, he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down. Quite possibly the strongest parahuman in the world, he could be quite petty when he wanted to. "This better be good, I was in the middle of something."
Rebecca managed to keep herself from glaring, she had only pushed their meeting forward by an hour, she knew for a fact David wasn't in the middle of a fight, and she could see the telltale signs he was just complaining for the sake of it.
Those last few days, he had been unusually irritated, reacting with less control than she knew he was capable of. Although she knew this wasn't the case, he had started to remind her of a parahuman who was forbidden from using his powers for too long.
She waited until everyone was in Cauldron's base of operations on their own private Earth, Doctor Mother came from inside the facility, the non-parahuman woman continuing to read a stack of documents while adjusting her glasses.
Kurt, widely known as The Number Man, was also already here, she had been discussing with him for some time and the Thinker agreed his calculations, while not conclusive, matched the information she had received.
Last, Contessa arrived through a door, an opening in space connecting to whatever location she had been in on Earth Bet, the strongest Thinker in the world, constantly at work following the directions of her power.
Rebecca had debated inviting Keith, the last member of the Triumvirate that acted as a cornerstone of the Protectorate, but they chose to keep Legend out of some of Cauldron's more… dubious efforts, including this one.
"Very well," Doctor Mother said, putting her papers aside and taking a seat at the table. "Why have you moved this meeting up?"
Lowering the screen of her notebook, she pushed it aside and spoke. "We may need to interfere in the Terminus Project."
She hated to even say those words. The Terminus Project was important, almost critically so, a way to see if a Parahuman could take control and establish a stable society without their direct interference.
"What level of interference?" Doctor Mother asked. "Coil's failure is already a setback, but he could always return, and it was decided Susanoo would be a fitting substitute even if he didn't."
"The Director for the PRT in the city just gave me an emergency call. It seems like Susanoo opened a line of communication with the local authorities, using a lawyer to warn them Leviathan may be attacking this week."
David almost spilled his coffee, then put his mug down and looked at her. "Are we sure he's not just trying to play mind games?"
Kurt shook his head. "Although I can't say with absolute certainty, once I used Brockton Bay as a variable in my calculations, there's a high chance of an attack happening in the city."
"I don't think there were any indications he was such a powerful Thinker," Doctor Mother said, turning to Rebecca. "Have you received any new information about his capabilities?"
"I've gone over the rest of his appearances, even the minor ones," she said, handing everyone the relevant recordings.
"Any new insights?" Doctor Mother asked, crossing her arms on top of the table and considering her.
Rebecca had to balance her job as head of the PRT in her civilian identity, with her role as a member of the Triumvirate in her cape identity, and, despite her power giving her perfect memory and faster thinking ability, she was still always pressed for time.
It meant that she hadn't watched every single appearance of Susanoo, just his latest confrontation against the Protectorate after it was clear he would become the new candidate for the Terminus Project.
But now she had taken the time to watch every single appearance, her mind allowing her to catch every detail possible. "Some of his reactions are almost exactly like the Simurgh, I'm near certain he can see the future. Considering he was able to react to the rescue attempt of Dinah Alcott, we can't be sure of his range or how far ahead he can look."
"Then why leave her alone at all?" David wondered out loud, trying to consider the extent of Susanoo's power.
"Arrogance, that or simple human fallibility," Kurt said, adjusting his glasses. "Just because he can see the future doesn't mean he can see everything. Despite all her power, our own Thinker can be surprised by things she wasn't aware of."
Contessa's power, Path to Victory, acted as the ultimate Thinker ability, she could ask for a path to anything and her power would not only give, but guide her with perfection into taking a series of steps to make it happen, from winning the lottery, to killing an invulnerable target on the other side of the world.
Very few things interfered with her power, things like the Endbringers, the source of all powers and Eidolon himself. But, theoretically, even she needed to activate her power, she could be caught by surprise if she wasn't running a path or didn't word her goal properly.
"Ignoring the consequences to the Terminus Project, could we convince him to join us?" Doctor Mother asked.
"I don't know," Contessa said, acting uncertain for the first time since Rebecca had met her. "Susanoo isn't a blank spot like Eidolon, but… any path including him isn't stable; it can change without notice."
"You can't path him?" David asked.
"I can, and I don't need to model him, but… the changes I had to the paths were too great," Contessa looked away in thought, her face seeming to struggle to find the right words. "I'm not sure the path is correct. Also, any path where we remain in control is long and complicated."
"I could capture him?" David offered. "Once Susanoo is gone, we could prop up Coil; his power is good enough that he could recover with only a little help."
Rebecca frowned, having the ability to choose any three powers at the same time, and to change those powers at will, Eidolon was understandably confident in winning that battle, but it was uncharacteristic of him to focus so much on facing Susanoo.
Worse, she had also felt an urge to meet the cape after watching the rest of his appearances. She made a note to check if any other capes reported a similar reaction.
"That would invalidate the goal of the Project," Rebecca said, shaking her head.
The Protectorate system was still working, Cauldron was using it to prop up governments in the entire planet, but it was fraying at the edges, and places like Africa had already collapsed.
The Terminus Project was meant to see if a Parahuman government could be established with no interference from them, if a city could become effective and self-sustaining under a suitable Parahuman candidate without Cauldron's help, and they had chosen Brockton Bay as the test city.
It wasn't just about creating an alternative government for now, but for later, once the end of the world arrived and things like countries no longer existed. Without a strong government or Cauldron, Parahumans would inevitably rise to power. If they won, could society survive and be rebuilt under Parahuman government?
A parahuman's power increased their aggression, it made them seek conflict and take actions that, much of the time, lead to more confrontations. It was important to know if, despite the influence, they could lead a stable society.
And... If they lost… could pockets of humanity survive hidden away with a parahuman warlord keeping order? It was a small hope, but they had to try.
If the Terminus Project failed, they'd have to find an alternative solution, and they only had limited time.
"Even if he can predict an Endbringer, do we want to interfere in the Terminus Project?" Kurt asked. "Susanoo's ability may be limited, it could be related to his danger sense, or he may need to look into the future of a city individually, which would make him only marginally useful.
"With Dragon and Armsmaster prediction algorithm, we're already able to get a few hours of warning for any attack, anything further and the numbers indicate we risk the Endbringer changing targets. It's also not as useful when we can't defeat the creatures."
"We're getting ahead of ourselves," Doctor Mother interrupted. "Let's first verify if he's telling the truth."
"I already forwarded the information to the rest of the PRT directors," Rebecca said, "And I started preparing everything they need for an evacuation, but it's about time, so everyone was already expecting an Endbringer attack soon, and there's not much else we can do."
"Even if he is telling the truth, I say we leave him in place," Kurt said. "Restarting the Terminus Project would cost us two years, and if it fails we'll need another four to six years to test new alternatives. In any case, he already seems willing to share without our interference.."
"The path to make Susanoo assist us requires a significant amount of effort, even if we don't require his cooperation," Contessa said, using the time to type something on her own computer, and Rebecca knew it was probably something required by another path. "He also has the possibility of interfering in several other paths, his influence being contained to Brockton Bay is an acceptable outcome."
"And if he leaves the Bay?" David asked.
"We'll not interfere if he just attempts to branch out, local resources should be enough to deal with that," Doctor Mother said, then considered the options and made a decision. "But if he leaves the Bay, we'll have to intercept him, anything else won't be enough and we can't risk someone of his power further destabilizing the government, not now."
"Good," David said. "I look forward to it."
"I'll make sure to keep an eye on the situation," Rebecca said. If there really was an attack, she could meet Susanoo in person; he'd also be forced to interact with several other Parahumans, so she could verify their reactions.
"Good, I trust you judgement in this regard," Doctor Mother nodded. "Now for the rest of the meeting. The new vial is a…"
----------------------
Marissa / Sundancer
Marissa hated her power, she hated the way she had gained it, drinking that accursed vial in a desperate situation, hoping against hope that it would help them survive the horror that was a Simurgh attack.
She hated the power it gave her, the ability to create a sun, so easily misused and capable of accidentally killing someone with even the shortest manifestation. She hated what capes represented, the way those with real power didn't care about normal people, they weren't like comic books, didn't save anyone, just fought and fought, destroying everything around them.
She hated what power had done to her best friend, Noelle didn't deserve to become a monster. She hated what it had done to her, forcing her to become a villain, traveling this alternative Earth in search of a solution.
Marissa hated everything about being a parahuman, from the silly costume, to the constant fear, to her inability to use her power for anything but wide scale destruction.
And yet, she was considering helping out if Leviathan attacked, to face another of those impossible Endbringers, the same type of creature that destroyed Madison, tore a hole in reality and dumped her here, in this twisted version of Earth where supervillains were a thing.
In truth, she didn't want to do it, she wanted nothing to do with parahumans anymore, and she had half hoped Anakin's experimentation would destroy her power, it was one of the reasons she agreed to let him do it.
That and the fear, because she saw what he did to the rest of the Travelers and, despite everything, she didn't want to die.
But Marissa knew she couldn't live with herself if she just ran away, not anymore, the guilty from allowing that… thing to keep killing, to keep eating people while using her best friend's face.
Because, at some point, that thing had no longer been Noelle, her childhood friend had been a kind, charismatic woman, someone capable of uniting a group of friends like the Travelers, that helped her when she left her mother's home, fleeing her oppressive personality. Noelle would have wanted to be a hero.
Her best friend would never have eaten her.
How many people had she helped that thing kill? Not personally, but she had helped hide, and protected the thing as it killed Fifty people? A hundred? More? She had lost count, mostly because she refused to even think about it.
Anakin was one of those capes she hated, someone too powerful to care about average people, but he had allowed her to help, not to run the gang, although she knew it was contributing, but to help those girls.
Prostitutes, slaves in all but name, they had been forced, mostly by debt and circumstance, to become whores for the ABB, and she was helping them get back on their feet, finding new jobs and regaining their independence.
It didn't make up for what she did in the Travelers, but it was a start.
Once Anakin was done with her, Marissa was going to leave, to get as far away from here as she could and abandon cape life, avoiding her power as much as possible, but she had decided, she'd continue helping, she'd find a way.
And if she could at least be useful in this fight, she'd continue attending Endbringer attacks, because it was the least she could do to atone, and even if it killed her, she wouldn't die ashamed.
"Come on, girl," the old woman said, getting out of Anakin's kitchen. "You've been going over those papers the entire afternoon, have a cookie."
Marissa sighed, Lilian Aikawa, Anakin's neighbor, was an odd woman, she reminded her of Noelle's grandmother, only far less sane.
"Thank you, Ms. Aikawa, but I want to finish it before he arrives."
"What?" Ms. Aikawa asked, putting the plate of cookies on the table. "Don't mumble, girl."
"I said thank you, but I don't use drugs."
"Kids those days," the Japanese American woman shook her head. "You really should learn how to have some fun. No matter, the cookies are normal, damn PRT got most of my plants and I'm trying to let the new buds grow a little before harvesting some leaves."
Under the table, one of the woman's cats started weaving between her legs, demanding some attention, so Marissa breathed through her nose, put Kieu Chinh, a Vietnamese immigrant's file aside and scratched Kumo's head, taking a cookie with her other hand.
"Thank god I still got my mushroom tea," the woman nodded, pouring herself another mug. "Are you sure you don't want to experiment a little? I mostly use it to help with the pain, growing old isn't easy, but it could help you relax a little."
"I'm sure, I really do need to finish those files, the ABB was keeping the documents for some of the girls and I want to help them get it back as soon as possible."
"Humph, sweetie, you're far too stiff, no wonder you haven't jumped into his bed yet," Ms. Aikawa snorted, and Marissa almost spit her cookie out. "What, have you seen the man? And he even killed that damn gecko. I tell you, youth is wasted on you kids, if only I were fifteen years younger…"
"Weren't you married by then?"
"Yes?" Ms. Aikawa said with a confused voice, as if she couldn't understand why that would change things. "I think we shared enough girls in our youth that he wouldn't begrudge me one man. If not, a little rope and lube were great ways of asking forgiveness."
That was when Anakin chose to return to the house, his presence seeming to fill the space like a terrifying blanket, temporarily pushing all her thoughts away. Marissa watched him march into the room and swallowed… She really didn't know what to think about the man.
He had slain most of the Travelers, but killing the creature Noelle had become had been a kindness, and the others… what they did to survive and try to cure Noelle had long since ruined any real friendship between them.
They still acted like friends, but it was mostly a lie, and one of the reasons they had been able to so easily vote Cody out, to hand their fromer friend over to Accord when he had let Noelle consume a dozen people in a night.
Maybe they could have rebuilt that friendship if they succeeded in saving Noelle, it was what Marissa had so desperately tried to believe in, but that was always a long shot, and now it was never going to be answered.
At least Jesse had survived, Marissa hadn't been that close to the woman, particularly after she was the one to propose giving up on Noelle when she started...
It had made her angry, that Jesse was willing to abandon her best friend, but the woman had been right in the end, hadn't she?
Marissa was still afraid of Anakin, terrified of how easily he could kill, or how he'd change his mind about her. She was also pretty sure he was insane, she had caught him talking with himself in his workshop, having an actual discussion with the air, it almost made her have a panic attack and certainly didn't help things.
But, after he had gotten rid of the Simurgh's influence on her mind, and after he had helped heal her from the wounds received inside that monster, she was also incredibly thankful.
Anakin stared at the old woman for a moment too long, his face without emotions, then he spoke. "I believe I told you to leave this city."
"Don't be daft," Ms. Aikawa waved a hand in the air. "Where would I even go? No, you said the bastard may not come, and even if he does, I saw the way people who fled from Kyushu lived, better to stay home, I'm too old to move anyway. Now come, I've heard you've been skipping meals, so I cooked dinner."
Marissa swore she could feel his annoyance in the air, the feeling temporarily overcoming his usual aura of fear, but Anakin just continued to stare at the old woman for a minute, as if he couldn't figure out how to react.
Yes, she got a feeling he never had to deal with a busybody grandma, the well meaning ones were always the worst, you just couldn't say no to them.
Two hours later, the old woman finally left, carrying one of her cats in her arms and having left two bags of mushrooms in Anakin's kitchen, clearly meaning to have them ready for tomorrow morning.
Anakin followed after her, the second cat floating by his side as he offered her an arm and helped the old woman back to her house.
"She really shouldn't be here," Marissa said as he came back.
"I ordered one of the men to watch over her, they will leave the city as soon as the attack commences. Now, come, I believe I've made a breakthrough in my efforts."
Waving a hand, Anakin used his power to put everything back in place, plates, chairs and tablecloth moving with precision in a way that Marissa couldn't help envying, if only her power was as convenient.
Swallowing hard, Marissa sat down on the chair in her usual place, doing her best to calm her nerves as Anakin took a position behind her. She honestly didn't know if what he was doing was working, but she always felt something happening.
It wasn't something conscious or physical, but there was always a sense of wrongness when he tried to look into her power, an urge to move, to run, to escape by any means possible that she had to struggle against.
But she had given her word, agreed to let him study his power, and she was tired of running away, of going with the flow because she was a coward.
Although she had to confess, it helped that she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, running would be useless, she could never escape him, it was easier to be courageous when there were no other options.
"Can I ask," she said, taking another deep breath while gripping the arm of her chair. She knew it wouldn't hurt, at least it hadn't the other times he had done this, but she still couldn't help bracing for the worse. "What are you trying to do?"
Anakin didn't immediately answer, putting both hands beside her head. "Dodge's technology, it is not the same, but I recognized the principles used to create pocket dimensions."
"You think my power comes from another dimension?"
"I know it does, however, I lacked the knowledge to pry open this connection. That is no longer the case."
Pushing herself against the chair, Marissa squeezed harder, forcing herself to remain in place as Anakin did… whatever it was he did with his power, he had so many that she honestly didn't know.
After almost twenty minutes, she felt something give, like a barrier inside her power that was broken and she lost control, a small ball of plasma starting to form in front of her face. She tried to stop it, but her power didn't answer.
A wave of terror hit her, fear filling her every cell until she couldn't move, frozen in place as she imagined becoming like Noelle, slowly losing herself as whatever… thing granted her powers slowly took control.
With almost contemptuous ease, Anakin moved one hand off the side of her head, squashing the forming star into his fist before it could grow larger than a tennis ball, and she felt her power cutting off, completely contained by his power.
Marissa's heart started beating again, every single muscle in her body relaxing as she collapsed against the chair, the overdose of adrenaline leaving her body numb.
Then she heard a raindrop hitting the window, the droplet unusually large, then another, and another, the rain hammering the window with surprising strength, what should have been a quick rain turning into a downpour.
Outside in the Bay, the Endbringer sirens started blasting.
_________________________________________________________
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