Amelia, Ch 239-Becky
These halls are far too impersonal, I decide as I walked through the corridors of Cauldron. Contessa was, of course, already aware I was here, and waiting alongside Doctor Mother.
"Good morning," the elder of Cauldron's leadership spoke. It was late afternoon by my personal clock, but Cauldron's base was located in Europe, and that's where both Contessa and Doctor Mother were from, so they went by that schedule despite a mostly American focus of effort and resources. Despite the fact that both of them kept to an American sleep pattern, for that matter. I'd suspect them of being snobbish, except I knew these two, and neither had it in them. The answer was likely part of Contessa's path.
"Good morning," I agreed. "I have the latest report on Chevalier's new armor design. It shows a great deal of promise. Possibly of the anti-Scion variety."
"You're kidding me," Doctor Mother exclaimed. Even Contessa showed signs of surprise, which managed to surprise me. She's not infallible, that much I already knew. Her power has shown some critical flaws lately.
"Pantheon believes it's the best defensive design ever built, at least," I informed them. "Functionally as durable as Khonsu. Plus a few other features. Legend and I gave it a stress test and we were unable to cause detectable damage. The jury's still out on whether it's a legitimate defense against Scion, but it's certainly a powerful weapon to use against him. More than that, they hope his power and the data they got off of Khonsu's teleportation will let us find our way into Scion's personal dimension."
"I must admit, the plan to set Pantheon on the goal of killing Scion has proven more fruitful than I expected," Doctor Mother praised. "If nothing else, halting the collapse of civilization into anarchy is a remarkable achievement unto itself."
One which we hadn't believed was possible, I added silently. We followed Contessa's path. We accepted the inevitability of defeat, placing our priority on saving the world. More saving every other world than Bet. We treated that world as the battlefield. I had to wonder about everything that I'd done in the last decade. All the choices I'd made. What would I have done differently, knowing what we now know?
"Yes," I agreed, and the word didn't carry my thoughts or accusations. The next question did, if subtly. "Why did we never harness Endbringer tissue?"
It was Number Man that answered the question. Another parallel between us and Pantheon, recruiting Slaughterhouse Nine members. "We didn't see the benefits," he answered simply. "We know that the Endbringers, for all their power, are strictly inferior to Scion in every appreciable way. Even if we had an army of them, they wouldn't be able to defeat Scion. It was, and in many ways still is, a better use of our time to devote our efforts to the formula. Discovering a power without limits is still our best hope."
Right, Scion, the crux of the problem.
"The more I view recent results, the more I come to believe power interactions and synergies are the tool that will let us beat Scion," I spoke. It wasn't really a debate, Cauldron and the Protectorate were already dedicating resources in that direction. So were most of the foreign cape groups. The Entities had, understandably, created blocks on powers to keep any given parahuman from having too much power. But the synergies were, somehow, exempt from those blocks. Far stronger than any individual power could hope to be.
Contessa, of all people, spoke next. "My power can't see them," she finally admitted. "They're part of the Taboo. It makes finding paths difficult." She's scared, I realized. Or she wants me to believe she's scared. Possibly both. It made sense, Pantheon was surrounded by so many power interactions, precog blocks, and Taboo research subjects that every time they did something new, it completely altered our models. Only the Alcott girl seemed able to provide useful predictions around them. As their currect activities had nationwide impacts on an almost daily basis, it made Contessa unreliable.
"It might also be the reason Endbringers and Eidolon are immune to precognition," Doctor Mother spoke. "Pantheon's theories about the Endbringers as a complex power interaction would explain a great many things."
And David's power, if looked at as hundreds of powers interacting simultaneously, would be similarly protected. The theory made sense. "I see," I agreed. "While we're on the subject, I've been invited to Pantheon's base for a Christmas party."
"I trust you accepted," Doctor Mother replied. She sees it as an opportunity, of course. Learning more about Pantheon, its plans, and its inner workings, would only be beneficial to Cauldron in the long run.
"Naturally," I agreed. I left out that my reasons were as much personal as business. "I don't imagine I'll learn much, however. I don't intend to try. Their primary Thinker is the one who discovered power interactions in the first place. If I go in with espionage as an intention, I'll almost certainly be discovered." If I would, she never would have invited me in the first place, I knew. She's trusting me.
Doctor Mother simply nodded. "Wise precaution. Is there any other business?" she asked.
"None of import," I answered.
....
I came to their home by flight, in full costume, only to be moderately surprised by photographers taking pictures and video footage. It's five in the afternoon on Christmas day, significantly below zero, and there they were out in force. I certainly had to respect their work ethic. Enough to even stop and give them a sound bite or two. I landed more or less equidistant to all of them and waited. A few started asking questions immediately, I simply rose my hand up. "Wait for the others," I instructed. They listened well enough. The secret to dealing with reporters was a lot like dealing with politicians. And, for that matter, men. As long as they knew you'd give them what they wanted, they'd do almost anything you asked.
I was impressed, however, at how easily they took it in stride. No one attempted to pester me into talking 'early', and usually there'd be at least one who didn't accept waiting as an option. Pantheon has them well trained.
Eventually everyone got into position. "Alright," I pointed at the crew that had arrived first. "Your question."
"Allen Shin, Channel eleven," he introduced himself. "Why are you here at Pantheon's headquarters? Is there an emergency?"
"Not at all," I answered calmly. "This is a personal visit."
"Personal? Care to elaborate?" another reporter asked.
"They invited me to their Christmas dinner," I answered. They didn't seem particularly convinced, so I continued. "As you might imagine, I've gotten to know a few members of Pantheon fairly well during the Endbringer conflicts and other events. It's no secret that they built the weapons you've seen me use. I consider them to be colleagues, and some of them to be friends, so I accepted their invite. Even if that ruins my reputation as an incurable workaholic."
"Which ones do you consider friends?" another prompted. "Any that might be more than friends?"
Damn gossip rags. "I think it'd be more fun to say nothing and let you speculate," I answered. You will no matter what I say or do. This way I'm in on the joke. "Now if you'll pardon me, I have some friends to visit. Have a Merry Christmas."
I turned and went inside, ignoring further questions. There was nothing more of value to talk about anyway. Either it'd be more gossip questions that I wouldn't dignify with an answer, or they'd start to ask business related questions. If those were going to be answered at all, it would be in a controlled environment with the national organizations, not a cute little photo op with the local press. They know I am here, let them speculate about everything else.
The entrance to their building was practically a living maze, and the biological lighting created the otherworldly feel that I'd grown to enjoy in my rare visits. Almost the opposite of Cauldon's sterile corridors and labs. The building even smelled alive. My senses weren't truly any better than human, but my ability to process what those senses told me was significantly better, and I trained myself to exploit that. The earthy nature of the scent was much like that of a forest, but lacking in the decaying leaf scent that most people came to associate with the woods. Either way, it was relaxing.
By the time I got through the passage, I found a handful of Pantheon's members waiting to greet me. Victoria, Atropos and one other. Janus, their transgendered member. My power would have had an easy time recognizing that, even if it wasn't obvious from other information. I read the hostility in their positioning. Right, they're annoyed about the events in Indianapolis.
"Good evening," I spoke. "I owe you an apology."
"Your power tell you that?" Victoria asked. "Good. It means we can beat your Thinker power. Don't worry, we get what you did and why. Social positioning. Manipulation. Cloak and dagger bullshit. Sorta one of those facts of life around here. I just want you to know that if you do anything that hurts my family. Well, look at us, tell me what your power's telling you."
She stood with complete confidence, there was no hesitation or fear in her language, or Atropos'. The new member was still faking it, though not bluffing so much as afraid of doing what he knew he could do. "You can kill me," I stated. "With Atropos, that comes as no surprise, but your combat precognition is showing other methods. Any one of the three of you has at least one weapon I probably won't survive."
"Pretty much," Victoria agreed. "We're on the same page, then."
"You don't have to worry," I offered. "I never intended to try anything like that at this party." I read her language even as she read mine. Her power wasn't like Minerva's, it was inferior in most ways. Such as divining motivations. Emotion detection had its advantages, certainly, but without years of training it wouldn't reveal the causes or reasoning behind an emotion. She'd just know I wasn't lying, which was enough for this.
"Alright," she finally replied, going from slightly menacing to carefree teenager in a heartbeat. "Dinner's at six, there was suppose to be an open bar but then Amy had to ruin it by inviting our parents. Have fun, try not to roll your eyes at all the old people trying to get your autograph without asking for it. I'm trying to talk Lisa and Rapture into a game of super poker later tonight. You're invited."
She walked back into the hall where the talking was coming from. I opted to follow. I spotted Minerva quickly enough. The short blond was talking with a younger girl with brown hair. She glanced up at me, and the other girl turned her head to look. Dinah Alcott, I recognized now. But I was already having a conversation with Minerva.
Her eyes flickered for a half second toward Victoria and the other two. They gave you a hard time? Sorry about that.
I relaxed my body language slightly. It's okay, no harm done.
Her face tensed slightly. I'll talk to them later.
I let the briefest sign of concern cross my face. No, I'd rather you didn't. It's unnecessary.
Her head tilted just a fraction. If you're certain.
I smiled, and strode into the room like I owned it. I'm certain.
Most of Pantheon itself had met me enough times that there wasn't any celebrity worship amongst them, but there were others. Khepri's father I was quite certain had never seen me in person, though I memorized his profile as I did all the other people directly connected to the group. I'd met Gaea's family during the Leviathan attack on Brockton Bay, but only briefly. I had long ago gotten used to the reactions others had of me, but here it amused me. Your daughters have achieved more in six months than I have in a decade, it's not me you should be in awe of.
Minerva's grin widened.
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A/N- This chapter was fun for me to write.
