Chapter 98: End of Round 1.....
With the Endbringers dead, I heaved a sigh of relief, and began to examine the crystals the lion had grown. They were still spreading, if a bit slower than before.
At this rate they will contaminate the city within the week. The world, within the month.
Something needs to be done about this. I still have things to do here.
The crystals need clearing and I do have a theory.
I guess now is as good a time to test as any.
I pulled out a corrosive potion from my labcoat and emtpied it onto the crystals, retreating out of the AOE.
The volatile liquid bubbled and sublimated into a vapor cloud of red hissing smoke, slowly eating away at the crystals.
Hmm....so this works.
I need to take stock of how many of these potions I have on hand.
Checking with my contacts I took a look at the records.
Enough of them, apparently.
Okay then.
"Computer. Prep drones for delivery of Corrosive Potion No. 3. Target crystallized sites for clearance. Set the Concept Magnet for delivery too. And activate anti-entity protocols henceforth." I said, as I began to make my way back to the warehouse. I could still see the shimmer of the barrier faintly buzzing against the overcast sky.
Time to level the playing field for round two.
I landed on the docks with the jetpack and saw the capes from earlier lying around, thrashed, dead or injured.
Their pleading eyes looked up to as they got up to their feet, stumbling forward.
"GameBreaker?" Gully asked, bleeding from her eyes.
Blind. My mind supplied.
Thank you very much captain obvious!
I can see that myself!
I swear my subconscious conscious can be such a-
"Help us! Please! The-there are injured. Dead. GameBreaker...." Gully grabbed me by the hand and begged.
I sighed.
It won't do for me to let such nice, plump witnesses die for no reason too. They need to be there to corroborate my words and exposit on my greatness and magnanimity.
Besides I still had to dangle the carrot of curing the Case 53s to build up the trust of the world's public.
After all, once they believe me, trust me, rely on me, it will easy to manipulate them into willingly surrendering their 'brain parasites' to me, saving me the effort of hunting down every single parahuman on the planet individually and personally ripping out their brains.
That would be such a chore. I have no doubts that even if I used droids and drones to hasten the process, they'd get wise and form up a resistance effort.
It wouldn't have been a problem. I could have crushed any resistance they came up with.
But then I'd have the problem of fighting them, capturing them alive, or cloning them and re-triggering them if they died in the fight before I could extract their shards.
Ugh....no.
So much work.
As much as I hate it, I guess I'll play the hero if it means I get to do this the easy way.
"Computer, get some first aid down here too. And get me another flask of mega seed juice while you're at it. I can't do this sober." I groaned, rubbing my eyes as I felt the effects of the juice begin to wane and the mild high of the concoction drop.
"GameBreaker! GameBreaker! GameBreaker!"
Victorious chants broke out all across the street as I walked in, and somewhere deep inside, it felt good. Glorious.
That was the word.
And it did not spell anything good for the upcoming fight.
My emotions were returning to me, however slow.
And I wasn't a big fan.
I need to be on the top of my game if I want to do this.
Or maybe that's just the logical side of me wanting to keep it's dominion on me.
Either way, I don't think I have much time left before the golden bastard shows up. He wouldn't miss this sort of a thing for the world. Especially not when his goody two shoes hobo of an advisor was likely watching the live broadcast too.
He would probably instruct Scion to go help with the Endbringer situation in the Bay.
I still don't get why an alien space whale would go to a homeless man in god's damp butthole of a nation for advice but hey, stranger things have happened.
Maybe I'll visit London too. Get rid of that loose end. No one will complain if another hobo is found dead in a backalley after all.
A portal opemed up before me, as medical droids walked out, handing me another flask, before they got to treating the injuries of the parahumams lining the street.
I stood outside the forcefield, considering a bit.
Perhaps it would be better if I kept my droid's involvement to the minimum. It wouldn't do too well for publicity if they found out exactly how advanced the surgical abilities of these droids were.
Especially after what Jack had turned Riley into, and of course the classic bio-manipulator that destroyed a whole city, Nilbog, spreading unwarranted fear of people with advanced medical powers.
Maybe someone else should do the tough work. I thought as I felt Panacea, accompanying the other reinforcements, arrive on the scene.
Either way, I will get to take the entire credit for the situation so why bother with making my droids work hard?
I silently instructed the droids to only offer basic first aid and not operate on anyone before I tapped back into the nano swarm I had left, checking up on the city.
Marquis was dead as I soon found out. He got caught in a time bubble and died of starvation.
That rules out my earlier plan to manipulate Panacea into helping revive Offee but I can always just pay her to do it. A little bit of a disguise work and viola, she won't even know what hit her. Or used her in this case. Then once she's revived Offee and I don't need her experience in using the powers, I can buy out or steal her shard all the same.
And if she refuses to do it, I can still rip it out of her head anyways.
It's a win-win scenario for me.
Speaking of dead, so was Armsmaster.
Well, I suppose he wasn't technically dead.
Trapped in his suit, he couldn't dodge the wave and was twisted by the Surfer into a metallic bonsai tree.
At that point even if he was alive, it might just be better to kill him. Which I did.
It was a mercy for him. I'm sure he must have been in great pain. Humans after all are not meant to be turned into bonsais no matter how much of a weeb they may be.
Then there was Fairy Queen, with her head ripped off, presumably consumed by Eidolon in his rampage.
And Gavel was a crystal statue now, some three blocks north of me.
So there goes my original plan of pinning down Scion.
But maybe the newcomers would be more help there.
"A bit late to the party, guys." I said as they walked up to me.
"Yes. We know. Thanks for killing the Endbringers. And....for the other thing." The man leading them, a guy in a wizard robe said, coughing awkwardly.
I can understand how awkward it must be to find out that your whole organization, your life's purpose was built on a lie, made to prop up an absolute evil.
Honestly, these people are taking that knowledge a bit too well.
Or maybe they're just stunned at the magnitude of the revelations and haven't processed it yet.
Either way, I don't care.
This guy had the ride idea though. He wore the brown robe.
I think his name was Myrridin or something.
His power had something to do with pocket dimensions of different matter.
Pulling stuff in and ejecting it out.
"Myrridin?" I guessed.
"Myrrdin. But close enough. And for you, Endbringer Slayer, you can call me whatever you want." He praised.
"Alright then Mr. Poopybutthole." I smiled, watching him flinch at his new nickname.
"Anything but that." He groaned, rubbing his thick brown beard.
"Pibblykibbles?" I asked.
Myrrdin laughed and too it in stride.
"I'll take it."
"Alright then. Mr. Pibblykibbles. Let's get ready for round two." I said.
"Round two?"
"Yes. Didn't you hear my broadcast?" I asked.
"You're serious?" He asked, shocked.
"Yes, of course. I would never joke about something as serious as this.
I will kill Scion today, by hook or crook.
That space whale is getting his shiny golden ass pounded into the dirt." I replied, taking a sip of mega seed juice.
"How can we help?" Myrrdin asked.
"You can clear out that building down to the basement turn it into a parking lot.
As for you." I said, turning to the girl beside him.
"You must be Panacea, right?"
"Yes. Should you really be drinking right now?" She asked, eyeing the flask, as she extended me a handshake.
I obliged, warning her.
"Just FYI, if my biology so much as twitches the wrong way, my ship is set to turn the surface of the planet into Satan's toilet bowl on Taco Tuesdays. Burning hot, barren wasteland.
I'm talking dimension shifters, tectonic displacers, antimatter bombs and matter annihilation cannons."
"I won't use my powers on you without permission!" She said, frowning.
"I know you won't. But in the multiverse, it pays to be cautious. There's great evil out there. Naive idealists don't last long." I said and she nodded awkwardly, still eyeing the flask.
"Oh and this? It's mega seed juice. Cognitive enhancer. Gives temporary superintelligence upon ingestion.
And a mild high but still. Very useful." I explained.
"Oh sorry." She said.
"No worries. Now if you could get to healing that'd be peachy. Scion will be here any minute and I'll need as many bodies to throw at him as possible. So chop chop." I said turning around and walking away.
"You don't mean that literally do you? He doesn't mean that literally right?" Panacea asked as I walked into the forcefield, ignoring her.
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GoldFinger
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