Panacea Quest

[Xicree]

So... about the clone wars continuing...


Looks like Cauldron got desperate... and made use of that particular Amy clone which was on Ice if I'm not wrong...

 

[WyldCard4]

I've been thinking a lot about the last couple updates.

I'm really unsure about them.

Not putting it to a vote, exactly, but I'm curious if people think rolling back to the Butcher fight would be a bad idea or not.

Roll back pros

-The fight wasn't really that satisfying or well done.
-Victoria's making a mistake when you went with what she wanted, an unambigously bad result, counters a lot of PQ themes.
-Mason's such a minor character that his dying really only feeds Victoria's emotions, and I hate that kind of death.
-Victoria's hip dislocation is so weird and creepy. Maybe plausible, but really ugly.

Cons

-It hurts the decision structure of voting.
-Bad things happen in Panacea Quest. Choices do matter, and all the consequences fit well with the decisions.
-Everything that happens is perfectly plausible.

Going to update in a few hours, either way, just thought I'd leave this out there.

 

[Acaila]

The recent updates have felt like a swing back into earlier grimdark parts of PQ. That's not necessarily bad, but they were my least favourite parts of this quest.

I agree with the pros. I disagree with the 'It hurts the decision structure of voting', it really depends on how you do it.
If you just make it so the last two posts never happened, I could see that hurting the voting mechanism. If you rewrote them, it wouldn't. It depends how you do it.

Honestly I feel like the last few votes have a sort of 'GM interprets every vote in the worst possible way' feel to them, which just sucks in a quest; while stupid votes sometimes happen, if a GM really wants to find loopholes and things to throw at you they always can.

We voted for the Shepherds to fight Butcher, but we weren't really given any input in how they would fight. That isn't necessarily bad, but I can't remember any other combat scenes in PQ that had no input from us, especially with such a negative result.
We voted for 'I can do something for you, but not turn myself into a doll for a week', so Victoria ended up breaking our limbs for the lulz. While that fits the wording of our vote, I highly doubt any voters expected that to happen, so this feels again like a very strange result from a vote.

 

[hyzmarca]

The recent updates have felt like a swing back into earlier grimdark parts of PQ. That's not necessarily bad, but they were my least favourite parts of this quest.

I agree with the pros. I disagree with the 'It hurts the decision structure of voting', it really depends on how you do it.
If you just make it so the last two posts never happened, I could see that hurting the voting mechanism. If you rewrote them, it wouldn't. It depends how you do it.

Honestly I feel like the last few votes have a sort of 'GM interprets every vote in the worst possible way' feel to them, which just sucks in a quest; while stupid votes sometimes happen, if a GM really wants to find loopholes and things to throw at you they always can.

We voted for the Shepherds to fight Butcher, but we weren't really given any input in how they would fight. That isn't necessarily bad, but I can't remember any other combat scenes in PQ that had no input from us, especially with such a negative result.
We voted for 'I can do something for you, but not turn myself into a doll for a week', so Victoria ended up breaking our limbs for the lulz. While that fits the wording of our vote, I highly doubt any voters expected that to happen, so this feels again like a very strange result from a vote.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, the plot seems to be going nowhere at the moment.

It isn't just that bad things are happening. It's that there is no structure to what's happening.
Right now, the plot is just meandering. Continued complications aren't just dark, they're pointless and don't serve the plot.

At this point, the plot needs to move on. That's one of the reasons why I voted for a one year timeskip originally. Because the entire thing needs to regear. There isn't anything interesting left to do in the current plot. A big timeskip and shift to something else would be a good idea.

 

[WyldCard4]

Honestly, the plot seems to be going nowhere at the moment.

It isn't just that bad things are happening. It's that there is no structure to what's happening.
Right now, the plot is just meandering. Continued complications aren't just dark, they're pointless and don't serve the plot.

At this point, the plot needs to move on. That's one of the reasons why I voted for a one year timeskip originally. Because the entire thing needs to regear. There isn't anything interesting left to do in the current plot. A big timeskip and shift to something else would be a good idea.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, semi-spoiler but I think it's obvious, the plagues are the early stirrings of the end of the world, so I think the big change is happening right about now.

 

[WyldCard4]

[X] "We're heading to the hospital now. Call Cranial, tell her to meet us there. We need to make a countermeasure, now."

Click to shrink...

You move to the hospital as quickly as you can, cursing, well, being stupid and stupidly romantic and thinking that dislocating your hip could possibly ever be a good idea.

And so, Victoria carries you to the hospital while Sophie calls Cranial. She meets you there. You're unsure if you just anthropomorphize her, but she looks worried.

"Hello, Amy. I am not sick, but most people are."

"The whole country?" You ask, shuddering.

"The whole world, Amy." You just stare at her, jaw dropped.

"Seriously?" Victoria asks, holding you firmly, a hand supporting your injured leg. "Like, China, Argentina, world?"

"No one is lethally sick. It hit all at once. The issue is enormous. Doctors, emergency services, food suppliers. Within a few days things could get apocalyptic if we don't manage a cure for everyone." You think.

"How bad is it for capes?"

"I'm looking it up now. Those who heard about it early and fled to containment areas are not proving healthy, though Scapegoat was able to cure himself and others within a clean zone. Healers, capes with regeneration, capes with biology that means they don't count as human, are all perfectly healthy. As far as anyone can tell, it's just a cold, but a cold everyone has." I considered for a moment just how bad this could be.

"Eidolon." You say after a moment. "The light he used, after your scream. Can he do something like that? Mass, low end healing for everyone?"

"He is keeping his healing powers in reserve. I believe he does, but he's worried that the source will hit us with another one, something worse and more lethal. Healing powers were some of the first he used up, once."

"Fuck me with a glass coke bottle." You shake your head. "Abigale, tell me what to do."

"Counter plague seems best, but if we're fighting someone who can escalate, well, it might be best to..."

"If these are a bunch of similar colds, than I'd need a bunch of similar counter plagues. It would work, but if they keep producing new ones, it'd be a race. We'd be constantly coming down with new colds. Fuck. Bring out Agnes Court and dose everyone? Find Noelle and mass produce us if we can? Change us all into being immune to conventional disease? Wrap us in self reproducing insect bio-tech Lady Bug manages to let us function while sick? Evacuate the planet? Kill everything that's not human and use Nilbog, Agnes Court, and Lady Bug, plus their clones, to make a new, better ecosystem that won't have anything to carry it? How's Nilbog for that matter? Fuck, threaten to destroy the world, so whoever wants to clear us out can't-" Victoria spins you around and kisses you to shut you up, waiting patiently until you fall into it.

"You're getting hysterical, Amy." Cranial says gently.

"Fuck, this is literally the end of the world. If we don't cure this, we won't have the capes to beat the Endbringers back, no one to do work, no one to feed people. Fuck, even with Lady Bug managing everything she can. Okay, maybe we won't starve, at least in warm areas, if she directs all the edible bugs to us, but what about heat, medicine, nuclear reactors..." You shudder at just how bad this is.

"Everyone is finally working together." Cranial assures you. "Villains all over the world, and heroes, are working, anyone who can help, will help, if they don't want the world to end. Accord of Boston recently emailed a plan to the President detailing how to manage the situation, and Dinah Alcott approved it with a free question. Every Thinker and Tinker in the world is investigating. We're not the only ones who will try to solve this."

"Breathe, Amy." Victoria asks, urgently. "Breathe in, breathe out. Follow my breathing." You do, matching your rhythm to the best thing in the world. "You don't have to save everyone." You stop breathing, staring at her.

"What?" You ask.

"I love that you'll try, but the world is ending. We might not be able to save everyone. You've done so much. 100,000 people in the course of two years. If the world dies, it's no more your fault than Leviathan or an earthquake. If the world is ending, then anything you can do is enough. If we just run, with everyone we love and everyone we can carry, that's enough. I want you to know that, remember that. I have an order for you." You nod, processing everything. "Don't kill yourself over this. If it's a choice between you and the world, I want you."

Your tears fall to the ground. Maybe, if you heard that two years ago, well, a lot of people might be dead. You might be dead, if you'd started everything earlier. Victoria had a very good chance of dying, according to the prophecies of Dinah Alcott.

"She's right." Cranial moves her strange, soft branch over your face. "Only God could save everyone. If we fail, we fall back. Absolute worst case, we take the Sphere clone or a portal to another dimension and save a small piece of ourselves. That being said, we are going to try." Victoria carries you still, safely, only harmed by your own request, to follow Cranial. On the screen is Dragon, looking grim.

"Do we have a global plan?" Victoria asks. "Anything from the highest levels?"

"We have several. Dinah Alcott is providing answers to questions formulated by Accord, Alexandria and Kitsune." You frown.

"When did she show up?" Victoria asks, looking annoyed.

"Shortly before the plagues hit. She is working with a group we don't yet understand. We hope it is a group, given what we've seen. A single parahuman would be far more worrying. Either way, she is helping, and helping well. In fact, we have determined a lot already." You sigh with relief. "The source of the plagues is not immune to precognition, so it is probably not an Endbringer. It is not any known parahuman, and did not have a trigger event." You frown. "The source does not wish to kill anyone, and may be extremely young. It knows what it is doing, but may not realize the implications of the damage. Opening the Birdcage would lower the chances of apocalypse, but not ensure it does not happen. If we find and talk to the source the odds of the problem going away go down significantly, but seemingly only if Alexandria, Black Knight, Hero or Eidolon find the source. Kitsune does not know what the source is, according to lie detectors and other Thinkers. The source does not know what the Three Blasphemies are, but does know about the Endbringers. Amy Dallon working on the problem helps significantly."

"Okay." You nod. "What does that tell us?"

"It's one of your clones." Victoria says matter of factly. "Duh."

"You seem to have come to that conclusion quickly." Cranial says.

"It. Is. Amy's. Clone." Victoria says. "This isn't some big mystery. Someone's using plagues that Amy practically doodled in her notebooks after she first got her powers and we were getting silly about ending the world. Amy has been cloned several times that we know of and God knows how many times we don't by idiots trying for a clone war. The source is not an Endbringer and didn't have a trigger event, so it's not a real parahuman, either. The thing's either young, stupid, or nuts, and that fits, like, half of all possible clones. Amy's bio dad's in the Birdcage, so letting him out might help, or it could just be one of those idiots can help in another way. Alexandria, Black Knight, Hero, and Eidolon are the people who actually know Amy who might find the clone. Not knowing what the Three Blasphemies are, sounds like weird memory stuff." Victoria explains.

"Possibly false pattern recognition, but it's sound." Cranial says thoughtfully.

"Honestly, yeah, that's what Alexandria and I thought, too." Dragon admits. "So, what does that suggest?"

"Put Victoria's face on TV. Victoria, tell her you forgive her, and you want her to come home and help." You say. "It is me."

"Honestly, that would be best." Cranial says. A moment later Dragon answers.

"No meaningful change in Dinah's numbers if we use Victoria in this manner." Victoria looks stunned, shaken. You feel dirty. "Dinah can't actually figure out if it is your clone, though Kitsune implies it might be." Dragon continues.

"They probably wiped her memory." You tell Victoria. "Otherwise, well..."

"Marquis being released from the Birdcage alone and doing what you suggested Victoria would do had dramatically better odds." Dragon announces.

"Um, wiped you from my memory." I muttered. It rings weirdly hollow, and Victoria is holding you very tightly.

"Wait." You say suddenly. "Victoria talking to the source, odds."

"That seems like a waste of a question." Cranial says quietly.

"Just do it!" You snap at Dragon.

"Um, it helps. A lot." Dragon admits.

"Yes!" You pump your fist into the air.

"So, it seems your abiding, eternal love does actually have a chance of saving the world." Cranial says thoughtfully. "That is existentially wonderful, and practically disturbing." Victoria feels happy, holding you there. You love how her arms never tire when holding you. It's the most comforting thing in the world.

"How are we finding her again?" Victoria asks.

"Eidolon is scanning the globe." Dragon answers. "He has clairvoyance, intuition, and luck all working together at the moment." Interesting combination in your opinion. "Also, he knows what you look like, and what you have looked like in the past, and what you could look like in the future, thanks to computer software."

"So, um." You mutter. "What next? If I'm not going to make counters, and we're waiting..."

"I have an idea." Victoria smiles, and you remember that you're physically very close to your beloved girlfriend, and both of you are quite comfortable like this.

"The world is ending." You grin.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Interlude:

[X] Cranial

[X] Eidolon

[X] Kevin Norton

 

[mc2rpg]

[X] Kevin Norton

 

[DeAnno]

[X] Cranial

Meanwhile, at the Thinker conference:

Dinah: "I have a headache, and you're making it WORSE."
Kitsune: "Does that mean I don't get any sex tonight, honey?"
Accord: "Alexandria, my plan for getting any sleep tonight requires that you kill both of them."
Alexandria: "Sure, fine, whatever."

 

[Biigoh]

[X]Kevin Norton

 

[Xicree]

[X] Kevin Norton

 

[serra2]

[X] Cranial

 

[Acaila]

[X] Eidolon

We've voted for the oddball like every time this entire quest, so I don't want to vote for Kevin, just to be different. Also I want to see more PQ Eidolon.

 

[hyzmarca]

[X] Eidolon

 

[WyldCard4]

Voting closed. Kevin Norton won. Off to write the interlude.

 

[WyldCard4]

The most powerful man in the world sat dying, alone, in a hospital bed.

In the hospital's computers, new and powerful programs worked to save his life, and the life of every patient in the hospital. The programming worked painfully slowly, and people died every day, but you're hopeful. The world is changing fast.

And now everyone has a cold. Every single person, except for the truly lucky. Little kids in the jungle who had never heard of civilization, babies and old folks, everyone is sick, though they aren't getting any sicker.

"Scion, Zion, Golden Man, come and listen to me." You say, to the announce of the middle aged woman who is your roommate. "Please, come. We need to talk. You need to fix this, save us." The idea that the world ends because of a cold, not just that, because you never told the golden man to cure colds, is terrifying. Why didn't you ever think to tell him to heal the sick?

"Shut up!" Your roommate snarls. "I'm trying to suffer in peace!"

"There will be a great deal of suffering if he doesn't come. No one else can solve this, can they? Or if they can, it's best to explore every possible angle." You assure her. She groans and moves over in her bed, pointing away from you. "Golden man, come, please."

The hospital is barely functioning. Mistakes are being made. People have died here. Even if only ten people die here, there are 300,000 hospitals in the world. Three million people would die today if it wasn't solved, and how many the day after that? That is assuming only ten die at each hospital, and no one else dies who wouldn't have done so already. The longer this goes on, the worse it will be.

It is all your fault. The responsibilities of being the most powerful man in the world are crushing ones. In some ways, you aren't sad to be so close to free of them, though you have to admit that you think you'd be much happier in a world where Lady Bug manages things. It all seems rather more cheerful, safer, and better fed. Efficient, bug harvested food for the homeless is on the agenda, as she doesn't hate the poor and has so much.

Then, Scion floats in through the window.

"What the fuck!" Your roommate screams.

"Now you come." You shake your head and smile. "Confused about what to do? You killed Simurgh, and that was wonderful. Thank you so much." Scion stares at you, he is curious.

"But..." Your roommate seems truly shocked.

"Now, what you need to understand, is that this cold is bad." You explain. People are dying because of it. You need to cure it, all of it. Cure the sick, cure all disease. Got it? The more disease you cure, the better. Human, animal, plant, insect, fungus, cure it if it's sick, now. If things keep getting sick, if there's one big source of it, if it's like an Endbringer, find it. Destroy the source, kill it, fight to kill, throw it into the sun." You aren't healthy enough to give your best speech, but you try your hardest. "People are dying. Help them." Scion nods slowly, and traces his hand over you. "You'll feel better if you do it." You mutter. "Just kill it, and we'll all feel so much better."

Scion touches you, and you sigh with relief as the cold is gone. Then you realize something. "Do it fast! Not one at a time. Mass curing. Cure everyone as quickly as possible. That will save a lot more lives, make everyone feel a lot better, help a lot more people. Cure big crowds, cities and forests. Do it now!"

Scion releases a flash, and your roommate is healed. She seems terrified, for some reason. It's not like the Golden Man ever hurt anyone.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

You feel good.

Is it possible all you had to do was ask and he'd cure you of everything?

Currently you're in custody. A pair of capes are guarding you. You were always afraid of this, but it's not the worst way this could happen. Scion is doing a massive light show trick, healing huge areas, curing them.

Curing them of everything, not just the colds. It's a miracle.

Of course, doing it before would have been wonderful, but how were you to know he was that good at this? You are truly living in an age of miracles.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

End Interlude
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Eidolon has suddenly gotten another priority." Dragon announces.

"Huh?" You ask.

"He has stopped looking for the source, and teleported away, looking excited and leaving before he articulated what he discovered." Dragon explains. "Luck, intuition, and clairvoyance make me suspect he actually did find something more important."

"Huh." You frown. "So..."

"Still nothing for us." Victoria sighs. "Is your suit done yet?"

"Let's see." Victoria puts you down and you try your weight on the ground. "Close enough."

"I'm..."

"Nothing to be sorry about." You assure her.

The two of you wait around, though things seem at least somewhat less urgent when you hear Scion is helping.

Then, suddenly, Alexandria walks through the door.

"The apocalypse will be starting shortly." She announces.

"We're in it." You point out.

"No, the big one." She says. You freeze.

"What the fuck?"

"We're going to start it." Alexandria explains smoothly. "If we don't do it now, when Scion goes bad we could have nothing left due to the plagues and Endbringers. We will continue working on the plagues, but we found something that he can listen to. His human contact."

"You're..."

"We're ending the world early, because otherwise Scion is much more likely to end everything. Gather your troops. You have forty five minutes." Alexandria then disappears.

"That cunt." Victoria announces.

"Gather everyone we even remotely care about." You tell Victoria. "Now."

"What is going on?" Cranial asks urgently.

"It's a long story." You whisper.

"I apparently have forty five minutes to listen." Cranial is starting to sound angry.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You released the counter-cold agent to fill the large area. It's only courteous. These are the people statically most likely to be immune anyway, for many reasons.

The area is dark, but there is ambient light from a series of panels. Large panels, floor to ceiling, eighteen by five feet, are erected in a general circle. Two accompanying panels, only two or three feet wide, are set up on either side of each larger panel, to cast light at a slightly different angle. A bar sits at just below waist height, a semicircle, simultaneously a hand rest and a way of indicating a boundary the designated parties weren't to cross.

A different person or group of people are at each station, lit from behind rather than the front. The light from the other stations barely reaches them, which makes sure their features aren't well illuminated. Distinct silhouettes, with only a few more reflective materials catching the light.

Cauldron's game. Perhaps their Contessa had told them this was the proper design, or maybe Alexandria, Eidolon, or the Number Man, assuming this is not re-purposed from some other project.

You look out over the meeting room. You stand next to Victoria, who stands next to Cranial. She needs that, to be the leader, if not the power, of the Shepherds. Sophia Hess, it's hard to think of her as Sophie at a time like this, stands at attention right behind you, scanning the crowd for threats. The rest of the surviving Shepherds and Toybox stand behind you, an exceptionally powerful group of capes, under normal circumstances.

These are not normal circumstances.

Doctor Mother, The Number Man, and a strange, blank faced man stand together, the official membership of Cauldron. To your surprise the man you saw in Chicago, the creator of Siberian, stands with them, as do two extraordinarily beautiful blonde girls. One of them looks nervous, the other, younger one is beaming, which disturbs you in more ways than you can count. The last member of the little family is typing notes, and is by far the most recognizable, given you made the face. Best Girl.

You could have stood with them, in another life. Did they truly replace you with Bonesaw, even Cranial's interpretation?

The station to your right holds the Protectorate. Dragon is centered, with the team leaders fanned out about her. Eidolon, Alexandria, Hero, and Myrddin form the core of the battle group, the truly major players. Treat is there, not a leader, but too strong to deny, a hand on Chief Director Costa-Brown's sholder. To your surprise, your suit tells you Florida Man is not in the crowd of the team leaders, what is he doing? You notice Narwhal is there too. Did the Guild and Protectorate merge, or was it just more efficient with Dragon's new job? Only one Narwhal, too. Perhaps the Protectorate is sending people out on other missions and priorities, the people who might not be missed, while showing force? Too many possibilities, and you're not a thinker.

Saint you recognize to your left. Next to him is, of all people, Noelle, the girl who left you in Coil's cellar. Trickster and other Dragonslayers fan back from the pair. Now that is a worrisome combination. They must have teamed up very recently, since she hadn't been in Brockton Bay for the Dragonslayer attack. This can't be good.

You recognize Moord Nag farther away. Scavenger is unmistakeable, a thing of nightmares. Why invite her? Would they have invited the Slaughterhouse Nine if they were still alive? Then you eye Cauldron's new membership. They might.

Three men in robes, foreign capes you don't know enough about to recognize, stand together, next to Moord Nag's station. On their other side is a young man you vaguely recognize as the emperor of China, with two strange, serpentine things lying near him, most likely bodyguards, and if the Yangban is responsible for them, that would be worrisome.

A group of twelve capes stands together. Suddenly, Victoria puts your hand on your shoulder.

"Please, don't look at them." A voice whispers, suit to suit, and it sounds like Victoria's heart might be breaking to give that request. You focus your eyes on Cauldron. You can't imagine the Birdcage holds anything better than what you have.

Suddenly, there's a tear in the world, and another group enters into an empty station. You don't recognize the girl by sight, but it could only be Kitsune. A man with no arms or legs is levitated next to her, and of all people Shatterbird stands next to them. A small stream of capes, several monstrous, most normal looking, fill the station. Where did she find this team?

Another station lights up. Seventeen capes, a wide variety of clashing thematic looks. You wait for a minute, the tension building, and then the Suits and the King's Men arrive together, completing the lineup, you hope.

"I am Doctor Mother, and I am the founder of Cauldron." The Doctor announces. You hadn't hear the second part of the name before. "The world is clearly ending. Everyone who wants a world to be left is here."

"So this is the mighty Cauldron." Kitsune says. She laughs out loud. "Where do I even begin?"

"Your only way out is through our assistance, Kitsune. This realm is far less hospitable than the one you came from. Please only speak when you have something to say." The Doctor instructs.

"Well..." Kitsune holds up two fingers, and Doctor Mother looks suddenly a bit worried to your suit's senses. "There is the obvious thing I could say. Seven at your table..."

"Cut with the conflict, Sarah." Cranial says. "I believe the two of us are two of the people who have the most personal complaints against Cauldron, but unless you want to be personally murdered, quite possibly painfully, by Scion, please do not disrupt one of our most knowledgeable allies."

"How cute, you think we're friends." Sarah laughs. "Is drugging a girl and losing her to supervillains how you usually make friends?" She pauses, and looks weirded out. "Wait, you met your husband that way. And..." She trails off.

"It's a complicated relationship." Cranial answers smoothly.

"Alright, sorry. Let's get down to business." Kitsune says. "Magical Girl Amy Dallon can't fix this, Cauldron didn't fix this by juicing 3418 people and hoping for a savior, though it was a good idea." Your suit disguises your gasp at the number. How many people had they killed? "Most of the really good shit Cauldron had is gone now. The Yangban lost more than they've told the Child Emperor over there. I think the Thanda and Dragon are the best bets, and they're not good bets."

"What about the Birdcage?" Doctor Mother asks curiously.

"Glaistig Uaine can help, but she can't win this. Eidolon won't win this, but he could. Please don't ask more about that. Right now, we need to throw all the shit against the wall to see if anything sticks. The odds aren't good, but they never were."

"Will the Yangban increase Scion's power?" The Emperor asks suddenly. Everyone turns his head to him. "If he gets in the range of our soldiers, will he gain further power from it?" Everyone is quiet for a moment.

"Your little slaves won't make Scion any stronger, no." Kitsune admits. She sounds surprised. You like that. "Is your Secret Master offering his help this time? Eidolon and the Triumvirate fighting with the Yangban?" You think for a moment. That would be big.

"It is the end of the world." The Emperor says softly and clearly. "What do we have to lose?"

"Our souls." Dragon announces, suddenly. "We could push ourselves too far, and do something worse than the end of the world."

"I agree with Dragon." Saint says. He gives an odd smile to her, which creeps you out. "There are lines we shouldn't cross, things we shouldn't consider."

"Excuse me, but how on Earth is an ethical tangent going to help anything at a time like this!" Sarah shouts. Everyone quiets down for a moment.

"Some of us have already lost our souls." A man from the group you refuse to look at says. Is it just your imagination or is the voice familiar? "We have lost everything except our lives. We have nowhere to go but up."

"You still have one other thing we can take from you, Marquis." Kitsune reminds him. You can practically here the gloat in her voice. "You're not the only one with something I can hurt. In fact, there's exactly two people here I wouldn't threaten under any circumstances."

"Would it be distracting to ask who?" A very weary Cranial says.

"Gavel and Glaistig Uaine, the really crazy ones." The former Tattletale says. There's general nods. That sounds fair.

"Alright, I have a plan." Dragon announces. "Looking over the capabilities, motivations, and requests of everyone here. Birdcage capes, 39 of them, will be released to fight and assist. The more combat oriented capes of all factions willing to assist will organize into five groups, each group attached to the Yangban army that they will work best with. Lady Bug, you are to speak with Cauldron, they have several uses for you. The non-combat thinkers and tinkers will be moving into alternate dimensions and pocket dimensions to prepare backup plans and countermeasures. Several of you, those who receive the message, are going to stay when the meeting is over, assuming you are willing. We are going to attempt a mass cloning of the strongest." You see a set of words appear near you. "Panacea is requested for the emergency cloning session." Not unexpected, honestly.

"I love you." Victoria says. "And I'm proud of you." You pause.

"Are you..."

"I'm, like, ten times stronger if I support the Yangban." Victoria says.

"You don't have to go at all." You whisper.

"No, but I want to." Victoria kisses your forehead. "It is the apocalypse."

"You're so fragile..."

"My force field will be up so fast if they're boosting me nothing will be getting through." Victoria smiles. "Also, I'm hardly the kind of person you want punching the golden idiot in the face. I'll be grabbing injured capes, injecting medical supplies, acting as a mover. I'm not a front line fighter for this. I wouldn't have been for Leviathan if not for Grue's sister making it so much safer. I will be smart, I will be careful."

Sophie suddenly slams into you, almost as hard as your Glory Girl does when she flies into a hug. You hold her while people move out. You and Sophie and Victoria enter into a confused three way kiss before they leave you alone. even Cranial slides away, leaving just you out of the Toybox and the Shepherds. Cranial doesn't touch you as she leaves, or say a word. You can't imagine why. Other portals open after others have cleared out, and other men and women enter. Perhaps they refused to come earlier, or would have disrupted the meeting. None of them look confused. You shudder when you see Crawler arrive. You try to figure out the new arrivals.

Doctor Mother reads from a list. "Thank you, Noelle Meinhardt, Glaistig Uaine, Eidolon, Alexandria, Kurokaze, Gavel, Treat, Califa de Perro, Myrddin, Adalid, Queen of Diamonds, Phir Se, Crawler, Kazikli Bey, Lord Walston, Goddess, Moord Nag, and Panacea." You don't like that she saved you for last, it makes you uncomfortable.

18 capes.

18 of the best capes, and Doctor Mother.

You can't help but feel sorry for her. Then you notice two returning through a portal. Fodder and Dispatch. Why them?

"What is the plan?" You speak first, directing your attention at the Doctor.

"Noelle can clone people. She can do it quickly, she can do it easily. With you, she can do it well." Doctor Mother answers. "With Dispatch, Fodder, and Panacea, we can produce a force we estimate could have consistently fought the Endbringers."

"And you didn't do this before?" Gavel asks, sounding furious.

"Noelle was extremely difficult to work with, and many of you are honestly too dangerous outside of an immediate apocalypse. This is an immediate apocalypse. I believe you would understand that several clones of Gavel, while incredible for fighting Endbringers, would have caused a civil war with the villain population."

"Aren't Ms. Meinhardt's clones unstable?" A woman in blue asks. You do not recognize her. "Both for powers and personality?"

"The last time I worked with her, I got two who weren't evil, the second two." You say. "Could be luck, could be a cure."

"They're bad, but they're not sadistic serial killers anymore." Noelle answers. "They're like the original, but with changes. It varies. I haven't experimented much. It's the end of the world, guys. So what if they become a Slaughterhouse 90? That's much better than all of us dying, right?"

No one disagrees, though Moord Nag looks a bit confused.

Doctor Mother looks out at the capes. Maybe the strongest capes.

Time to begin.

[X] "Wait!" You say. "I could work with it, see if I can make it more precise, less likely to backfire, first." Or you could screw it up further, of course. Phantasos is good, if you make them worse, but still, if you could offer more control...

[X] "I am ready." You nod. Time to do it.

[X] "Just one thing. Let me work with Noelle for a moment, okay?" This will end badly. It will end much worse than Scion killing the world, the evil(er) clones of the heroes. You need to stop this insanity right now.

 

[DeAnno]

[X] "Wait!" You say. "I could work with it, see if I can make it more precise, less likely to backfire, first." Or you could screw it up further, of course. Phantasos is good, if you make them worse, but still, if you could offer more control...

Panacea is way more experienced than she was last time she touched Noelle. I think it's unlikely she will make things worse, and she might improve the situation.

 

[Lement]

HAHAHAHAHA. Oh you golden fool, Kevin. Oh you fool, Cauldron. Is the Scioncalypse so big of a threat that you're not going to even take care of the innocent Horseman first?

This sounds incredibly stupid. Probem was decline in years, not days. I'm tempted to have a write-in to jailbreak things with Bonesaw, but that woud probably be Very Bad Idea, causing Everyone in Area to Die.

[O] "Wait!" You say. "I could work with it, see if I can make it more precise, less likely to backfire, first." Or you could screw it up further, of course. Phantasos is good, if you make them worse, but still, if you could offer more control...

 

[WyldCard4]

HAHAHAHAHA. Oh you golden fool, Kevin. Oh you fool, Cauldron. Is the Scioncalypse so big of a threat that you're not going to even take care of the innocent Horseman first?

This sounds incredibly stupid. Probem was decline in years, not days.

Click to shrink...

They would have waited more if not for the plagues.

They actually don't know whether or not Pandemic will decide to change to smallpox tomorrow. This is a really serious possibility now. With so little information, they made the call to do this.

Is it the right call? Uncertain, but they just couldn't find what was causing it, and they had no reason to think they would solve it without serious casualties. Admittedly, the precogs involved were seriously fucked up on their plague lethality assessments thanks to Scion, so self fulfilling prophecy was a big thing in this.

 

[Xicree]

[X] "Wait!" You say. "I could work with it, see if I can make it more precise, less likely to backfire, first." Or you could screw it up further, of course. Phantasos is good, if you make them worse, but still, if you could offer more control...

 

[Acaila]

I don't really get why we're fighting Scion now. I would have thought a bigger priority would be to find whoever's causing the plagues and make them stop first. Is it because now Scion will try and heal everyone as they attack him? That could be funny.

[X] "Wait!" You say. "I could work with it, see if I can make it more precise, less likely to backfire, first." Or you could screw it up further, of course. Phantasos is good, if you make them worse, but still, if you could offer more control...

 

[Xicree]

Quick flash of insperation...

We probably shouldn't try to KILL Scion right now...

We need to suggest getting together all the thinkers we can, and have them look for patterns of why Scion is carrying out the mass healing. Give them all the pieces to the puzzle and try to figure out a way to communicate with him.

Have them go though a list of Every known parahuman who has ever been recorded and try to figure out together who has the appropriate powers for COMMUNICATING with him directly. Grab Gastig and listen to what she has to say (She'll work against any hostile moves which Scion makes... but might be persuaded to work towards a mutually beneficial goal for both him and humanity.)

Right now Scion is about to go though what AMY went though. Healing everyone expecting it to make HIM feel better... and yet not feeling a thing more than regret and maybe even resentment that his mate can't be brought back the same way... or worse... giving him the IDEA to try and bring her back... or make her anew without human involvement.

At this point I think we can save the world by the use of 2 specific parahumans along with tinker and Thinker backing...

Amy.

And Jack Slash.

 

[hyzmarca]

The unfortunate fact remains that Scion is a sadist. And his mate is worse.

 

[Lement]

The unfortunate fact is that we will most likely lose, unless Scion can be given suicidal depression. Withdrawing my vote.

So yeah, cooperation sounds nice.

 

[mc2rpg]

[X] "Wait!" You say. "I could work with it, see if I can make it more precise, less likely to backfire, first." Or you could screw it up further, of course. Phantasos is good, if you make them worse, but still, if you could offer more control...

 

[WyldCard4]

[X] "Wait!" You say. "I could work with it, see if I can make it more precise, less likely to backfire, first." Or you could screw it up further, of course. Phantasos is good, if you make them worse, but still, if you could offer more control...

Click to shrink...

Sixteen of the world's strongest capes watch you work. The world is dark except for a few electric lights as you huddle inside the time bubble of Dispatch. Your Dispatch, the one sent to Brockton Bay, you realize.

"Surely there's a way to enhance her." Lord Walston remarks. "The Yangban, Teacher, or Ingenue?"

"Dinah was consulted." Alexandria says. "No power enhancer attached to Panacea would improve the odds in any significant capacity." That is curious.

"Of course not. She is already as strong as she could be. Her fetters and rules broke long ago in the best possible way. The Liar's work was nonpareil." A chorus of voices from Glaistig Uaine announces.

"Could you explain further?" The Doctor asks. She sounds oddly excited, or not so oddly. She is in the business of making the strongest parahumans.

"She could have gained power over inanimate objects, the power to draw mass from other worlds, power over herself, or range, but the Liar was wise, and told her none of those options. Instead her powers went deep, as deep as any could go, for all she touched. It was the best way she could possibly have ascended." The Fairy Queen explains.

"Does that mean we should not clone her?" Alexandria asks. "Her chances of deviation into a more powerful cape are non-existent?"

"She could, perhaps, gain such strengths in addition to her own, but her sisters would have no further power in controlling biology. She is the Shaper, a being of raw finesse and mother of multitudes. She has risen as high as she ever could as a weapon against him." You continue working on Noelle's brain, looking at the copies of every parahuman brain you have ever encountered. You pay close attention to Taylor's, for the multitasking, the control.

"I feel we need some answers." Gavel says. "Why us?"

"You are the strongest we can clone, and who we can afford to lose consciousness." The Doctor says. "Eidolon, Alexandria, Kurokaze and Treat are the creations of Cauldron, and so is Noelle. The rest of you are the strongest natural capes we have encountered who can be mobilized to do battle with Scion, with the exception of Crawler, who we believe can be enhanced to that level."

"So, you want me to hurt him?" Gavel asks. "Make him stronger, lead to a monster scouring the land, an unending cavalcade of murder?" He sounds angry.

"We would appreciate it. Also, once all of us have unleashed everything we can on Crawler, further battle with us would not benefit him." The Doctor says. You're barely paying attention.

"Why us, though?" Myrddin asks suddenly. "Why are we so strong, compared to the rest of our allies? On average, perhaps, we are crazier, but there are far more insane capes who do not compare to us."

"I believe, first of all, you have all had second trigger events." The Doctor explains. "Some of you, such as Myrddin and Crawler had two extremely close together. Also, you all had second trigger events against nearly impossible odds. That is excepting our own work. Each of you dealt with a force so dangerous that in order to overcome it you needed power far outside the normal bounds of parahumans. Someone like Panacea's adopted mother had an absolutely terrible experience, yet her agent only identified a set of kidnappers as threats, and adjusted appropriately. Gavel, who had a team of supervillains attack him, slaughter everyone near him, and resisted heavy weaponry, needed far more strength to win."

"What about Panacea?" Gavel asks with a shrug. "What was so special about her trigger?"

"She dealt with sorrows unimagined and listened to the Liar. She dealt with far greater pain and fear than you, Lamia." Gavel scowls at her.

"What is this Liar bullshit, anyway?" Gavel asks.

"A lesser priest, and a villain of our story. As the High Priest is the greatest advocate of the power and truth of the Fae, the Liar tells falsehoods so that our lessers may tremble. She knows us better than we know ourselves, though she does not join in the noble work or claim a greater role in the cycle." You blink.

"You're talking about Victoria?" You ask. "She's not a liar."

"She lies with her soul." The Fairy Queen explains. "She tells stories of heroism that never happened so people may become heroes, she tells stories of invincibility so none may dare attack, claims an impossible love so we may grow beyond ourselves to win it. She is a storyteller and a rogue, lying to herself most of all."

"I must wonder why that tabloid freak show seems to be all anyone can talk about, anywhere." Noelle growls. "Isn't every other single thing she does matter more than her creepy sex life?"

"According to our magnificent ally, it is the romance that enables all else she does." Myrddin says thoughtfully. "I imagine very few people can truly be filled with existential despair over the state of the world to the point of a tinker trigger event against such insurmountable odds. Trigger events must be put into emotional, human terms. An impossible love, the need to literally offer someone the world, seems like it would inspire the power to truly change the world as the Panacea can."

"The Imprisoner puts is succinctly." She sounds thoughtful. You'll file that title away for later.

You begin to experiment with another Corona Pollentia, your own. If you are the best biological controller, than your own structures might be the best.

"I think you're doing something right." Noelle says. "Keep doing what you're doing." You do so. This is slower work, as you never have felt your own.

"It seems we never actually mentioned an explicit goal." The woman in blue says. "Are we going for quantity, variety, or the single most powerful cape possible?" You get a feeling that she is not thinking that highly of the group from her tone.

"I have been going for control. Choice." You answer. "I wish to make whatever result as easy for Noelle to accomplish as possible."

"And you simply decided this? I was under the impression Cauldron was in charge of this world." She says. "Was this impression mistaken?"

"I believe a better term would be responsible for Earth Bet." Alexandria says. "Cauldron does not rule and does not lead, but they established many of the major players, moved behind the scenes, and worked to improve things as best they could in preparation for this apocalypse. The people who contacted you had a particularly biased perspective, as they were imprisoned by Cauldron. No one is truly in charge, though we all hope to work together."

"I see." The woman in blue says. "Why are we trusting this Panacea and Ms. Meinhardt?"

One of the capes in robes you didn't recognize laughs out loud. Everyone stares at him.

"The Panacea is good." He explains. "Perhaps not right word. She put in twelve hours to try and help everyone. She Make world much better place. She say 'sunlight disinfect.' Of all capes here, she most good."

"I believe Phir Se is saying that of all the people here, Panacea has perhaps the best track record for being open, honest, and ethical." Alexandria says. Gavel snorts.

"Shows the kind of assholes we get." He jabs his thumb at you. "The shit with Skitter, all the mind rape, the lesbian incest. Jesus, is she the best of us?"

"You kill children so parents may cry." Phir Se says. Then he points to Adalid and Califa de Perro. "Maybe they better?"

"We try." The Dog King smiles. "We try, but she has the lowest body count by far if I am not mistaken. One murderous slaver, and helped fight serial killers? No one I recognize here has such a reasonable kill list." You get the strong feeling Eidolon is jealous.

"Done." You announce. "She is as good as I can make her."

"Thank you." Noelle says. She sounds uncomfortable with that.

"Fodder, please?" Alexandria asks.

Noelle touches a corpse, and she begins to grow. "Panacea, can you speed this process?"

"Yes." You answer. "Yes I can."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

198 clones.

You weren't cloned again. You have been cloned enough.

"Why isn't it working anymore?" Alexandria asks, observing the latest of Moord Nag's struggling to manifest a power. Noelle looks scared.

"Her well has run dry." Eidolon whispers. "That is how she works. Each new agent must take some from her well, she we take a lot. So much, so fast..."

"I'm sorry." You tell Noelle.

"Fuck you." She snarls.

"You helped save the world." You point out.

"No one told me this could happen. Did you know?" She asks.

"It was a possibility." The Doctor admits. "Eidolon's own powers were declining until today. It is the reason we refused to clone him normally, concerns we would accelerate the process."

"Wait, today?" You ask.

"I took some of your advice." Eidolon smiles. "And manifesting both intuition and favorable probability manipulation helped me realize I should, told me how to open my eyes. I can refill it."

"Can you refill mine?" Noelle asks, hopefully.

"I will try, if I survive this." Eidolon says.

The 198 new capes radiate out as a wheel with sixteen spokes. Each of the heaviest hitters has a set of clones. Space is warped using a power that reminds you of Vista. They move, experimenting with their powers, training.

You look out over the Eidolon clones. All of them are fully dressed, fully equipped, fully modified. One, the strongest, stands near you. She could take on the powers of any three capes. It took hours for each addition. She had gone with Eidolon, Myrrdin, and Glaistig Uaine. Another, a male, flicks between powers rapidly, any one of Eidolon's powers, at full strength, at a time. Others experimented farther out into the space warp.

Alexandria's clones had shown fairly extreme power deviation, reminding you of your own. An immense time warping speedster and flier, one of the fastest ever, without the invulnerability and with far less strength. One with zones of incredibly enhanced or slowed time and time related force fields, two who had copied her exactly.

Glaistig Uaine's refuse to use their powers. They say they are preparing. They are worrying. All of the blue woman, the Goddess's, clones are exactly like her in their powers, another mystery. None of Crawler's seem to have worked out well, though the original has been, well, you'd never quite seen so much power thrown at one small target. Myrddin's coven, 11 new capes, showed high deviation within bounds of a great deal of utility, and seem to be working together extremely well off in their zone. Four new Gavels identical to the first, with the rest having far worse powers. The Queen of Diamonds proved curiously resistant. The list went on.

So many of the capes are weaker, or haven't figured out their powers as well as their ancestor did. So many of the strongest were lucky, so lucky, in how their powers manifested. So few of the new capes seemed better.

"Not as good as I hoped." The Doctor remarks sadly. "Not as good as your work, and Cranial's. Quick and dirty, but it is the apocalypse."

"It is." You agree. "I guess it's time to go out and fight."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Dispatch dropped the time bubble.

It took roughly four seconds for Scion to arrive. If you had to guess, some kind of Thinker power. A moment later, you're gone, standing in a field you don't recognize, courtesy of someone using a power you didn't notice earlier deciding to protect you.

"Fuck." You say out loud into the field.

[X] You need to get back to the fighting. They will need the best healer. You will work towards that.

[X] You're safest here. You were probably sent here to keep you out of the way. Time to lay low and wait for them to pick you up.

[X] You're going to prepare here. You will work on weapons, a fortress, something to fight Scion independently, if other areas fail. Write in: What do you work on?

 

[Lement]

"She had gone with Eidolon, Myrrdin, and Glaistig Uaine"
..And shall thereby be known as Candle of Invocation.

Now, I have hard time imaging our powers doing much against Scion. So, until there is a write in that does anything effective, I'm going to stick with

[o] You're safest here. You were probably sent here to keep you out of the way. Time to lay low and wait for them to pick you up.

Remember how the Scion fight went in canon? He does not kill instantly once he gives in to sadism. However, by staying in the field we're ready to heal the injured as I doubt the teleporting is single use only.

 

[DeAnno]

[X] You're safest here. You were probably sent here to keep you out of the way. Time to lay low and wait for them to pick you up.

I was tempted to write in a Flesh Garden to piss off Scion but I think that would end poorly.

 

[Lement]

Honestly, I think our best bet is

o Get Humans off Earth, maybe via Orion Project from dead ones.
o Surrender, and ask Scion to follow you to Eden.
o Ask if there is anything we can do to help him revive her/what is wrong and needs fixing.

It doesn't need Khepri to kill Scion. It doesn't need emotional damage to force Scion to surrender. But either one or the other is necessary. Khepri to dodge everything with Doormaker - with enough damage, Scion could be whittled down, but that cannot be done if we take too much damage. Maybe with Noelle to spit out bodies at high rate after Eidolon refills her, over and over, but battle is already on the way.

Emotional damage because it makes Scion not dodge. Though there are options like Mantellum + Foil which could possibly work as well, would work better if caught unaware. Coil would help massively.

Anyone else has some brillant ideas? The capes sent in are pretty decent for "whittle" plan, but not enough without Noelle sending in waves of them.

Edit: Wonder if Scapegoat can heal Eden?

 

[Acaila]

[X] You're going to prepare here. You will work on weapons, a fortress, something to fight Scion independently, if other areas fail. Write in: What do you work on?
-[X] This is probably going to be where wounded end up teleported - make a biological hospital, prioritising a shelter for triage first and then adding more detailed and complicated sections that can do your work for you if no wounded capes have arrived.

I agree with Xicree and Lement that this does not have to be solved now or with violence, but we're Panacea. We're not Cauldron. Cauldron has already decided to fight for whatever reason, so let's do our best to support them in that effort. There isn't much else we can do in the middle of an empty field anyway.

 

[Lement]

Changing vote to [X] Acaila