[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...
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?