Chapitre 629: 68
Date
2011 February 25th - Thursday - Earth Bet Time
Day 6105 - Thursday - Administrator Network Time
After he made sure that nothing escaped to the alternate dimensions to where the Simurgh opened the portal, he immediately went over what happened.
This attack went beyond anything he imagined, simulated, or predicted. He always knew that the Simurgh was somehow special amongst the Endbringers, but this was beyond his expectations. The worst part was that while he knew some of the goals of the events that the Simurgh sat up, he was pretty sure he missed at least as many.
People were now aware of Taylor, her capabilities, and if they look deeper, he was sure most of the intelligence agencies would realize she was invisible to Thinkers. Most of them would be content to just watch and maybe plan, but he knew at least the CUI would want to do about somebody like that.
At least that is what he gleaned from their parahumans when he took over their Shards. Individually they were not the greatest power, but with their training and cooperation, people were smart to fear them.
So, in the name of distraction, when he took them over, he slowly loosened the control they had over the parahuman's minds. He could have taken all of them out, but he was sure CUI would use that as a declaration of war. At least his prediction software, augmented by all the new Shards he had been taking over, predicted at least a 77% chance of armed conflict.
And over 80% chance of them acting out against Taylor and Dragon, in fear of their supremacy. With this small action, all of those numbers dropped below ten percent.
Maybe some internal strife would lead to something better?
In Europe, their biggest enemy was the Gesellschaft, who for obvious reasons viewed America as a greater enemy than anyone in Europe. So, to make sure nobody would suspect America, he took over the Shard behind the Three Blasphemies and set them upon Gesellschaft leadership. According to his prediction, that would either take out the neo-Nazis or catalyze them enough to figure out how to take out the three monsters. Oddly, the odds were around 50% for either.
Of course, the Shards in his Network already capitalized on this and set up another betting pool on who would win.
Sadly, the Simurgh was much harder to distract. He hoped the events he set in motion would upend whatever prediction she was working off, but he was not confident.
However, he still had to delve deeper into Eidolon's Shard. Maybe he would find an answer there…
He also took time to review the diagnostics of Taylor's power.
Luckily, this battle provided enough data to refine her power even further. He improved her control over sensing power, adding a much-needed extra clarity into what she 'saw' and some resistance against space warped areas.
With so many Thinkers present at the battle, or viewing remotely, he also got enough data about the Thinker defenses and how they fared against different Shards. He added some improvements to that too, while internally panicking after finding a ping from the Faerie Queen's Shard after reviewing the log. A quick check showed that Ciara watched the battle with one of her powers. He increased the priority of dealing with her on his to-do list, then continued with his upgrades for Taylor.
He also took the blind spot generating effect he added to Taylor and enveloped with it the entire city of Brockton Bay. People already knew Taylor was a blind spot. Why not make them believe she could extend the same effect to the area she was in? Though he tied the effect to a day/night cycle, making it seem a little more organic. It would contract a little at night and grow when morning came.
He couldn't wait to see the people's reaction to it…
He also went over the parahumans that took part in the battle and the ones remaining in the city, especially Vista. Thanks to the laugh he got from the girl, he arranged another dream for the girl, this time about how to fire air compressed into balls with her power.
But altogether he turned off the conflict drive for all the parahumans who were covered by his increased blind spot cover, and allowed some Shards limited contact with their host, though nothing more than they had before he took control.
Much rejoicing was had, especially by Impetus and Altilium. They were keen to connect (properly for the first time, in the case of Altilium) finally to their hosts. But the rest were also happy to various degrees. It was finally time to apply all the planned (and some unplanned upgrades) to the powers.
For Assault and Battery, he upgraded their entire power, increased their potency, and improved their recharge time (even allowing Assault to envelop weapons), with an added caveat they would get an additional increase in their power if they were fighting next to each other. He felt that would suit them perfectly.
Velocity was rather a one-trick pony with his super-speed, so he added a Brute power that activated when he was not out of phase with reality. That would allow the hero to take down people much easier.
For the upcoming hero, Dauntless, he added a special awareness about his power. As of now, the parahuman could sense how charged his items were and how much charge it would need to reach the next level. He also increased his limit of items and decreased the recharge time.
Maybe this would allow him to become the powerhouse he was meant to be.
For the dutiful Miss Militia, he simply allowed the woman to fully dismiss the energy she used, allowing for her to blend in better with the populace. For upgrades, he added a minor Brute power, and the ability to use the energy to create weapons and personal armor. He also altered her power's Noctis aspect. Instead of reliving past events ad nauseam, it would be a healing sleep, allowing her to recover from wounds faster by increasing her regeneration.
There was no need to torture the woman with images of her past…
For Triumph, he simply improved the man's healing factor and Brute power and added echolocation to his repertoire. He played around with the idea of giving him some kind of precognition power just for the kicks, but in the end, he decided against it.
Armsmaster received the biggest changes. The man deserved them.
He of course added the Brute package, a little stronger than usual, with added enhanced mind granting the man a minor Thinker power by increasing his memory and recall speed. He completely removed the Tinker compulsion and allowed Efficiency to provide Armsmaster with designs that required only a small amount or no maintenance. He also made sure that Efficiency would slowly provide information about Tinker tech, allowing the man to slowly understand the principle behind them.
Though being an asshole, he made sure that the first design the hero would get was a plan for robotic body doubles that could act as assistants in a workshop and an automatic robotic beard grooming device.
For the Wards, he went a little low-key for now.
Aegis got better control over his power, and faster-flying speed, and an increased healing rate. Kid Win lost the compulsion, and he had updated the Shard's data banks with much more kid-friendly inventions. When he graduated from the Wards, he would exchange those for more lethal devices.
Vista got her dream, but he added a slight healing factor that coincidentally would remove any scar on her body.
For Clockblocker he was a little stumped about what he should do at first, but then casually browsing his power and idea list he figured out. He set it so that the young man could freeze things in place by touch or slow things down in an area. The slowing would dependent on the area's size and how many parahumans were in the area. Of course, he could exclude those he wanted, and only include those he wanted.
Gallant got a healed Shard with much more control over the blasts, much more detailed sensing power, and just for kicks a Tinker power that would allow him to maintain any Tinker device he was using.
He could have, of course, given all the powers beyond imagination, but he still wanted to maintain a small amount of secrecy. No matter how impossible it was with these changes. He was pretty sure that the PRT and the Protectorate would lose their collective heads when they figured out the changes he made.
Oh well, a little M/S screening never hurt anyone…
He also upgraded the New Wave.
For Amy, he simply improved the clone powers, and increased the robustness of her brain, because the abundant use of that power in the medical hall wiped out the girl mentally like nothing else.
Shaper also got the Shard responsible for Nilbog slaved to her, to study it and make sure nothing like that man would happen in the foreseeable future.
Vicky was pretty powerful after her 'second trigger' but Fragile One nagged him until he agreed to give the 'best Host' something.
In the end, he appeased the adorable Shard by giving Glory Girl powers similar to her mother. But much more limited. She could create gloves and shoes from the hard light her mother used, increasing her damage. Of course, he made sure the used hard light projection would shine with golden and silver light.
Only the shiniest shiny for Fragile One and Glory Girl!
Shielder got slightly stronger blasts, but he mostly concentrated on increasing the capability of the boy's shield. He made them bigger, stronger, and much more flexible. He also added an ability that allowed Shielder to 'buff' people with his shields. Those shields would envelop the entire person and would stay, depending on how much power he used in its creation.
For Laserdream he changed her shield to be always active on her, just like her cousin, while increasing its potency and improving the versatility of her lasers, adding one that would cause hallucination in the target.
Of course, both of them got a slight Brute enhancement too.
Flashbang got a flying power (it was embarrassing seeing him carried by his family) by allowing him to skate on the light balls he created, and he improved his control over them.
Manpower got the ability to fly and greater control over the electricity he used.
Lady Photon got a marginal increase in power and an ability to 'buff' her family (blood relations) with shields as long as she was near them.
As for Carol, he added the ability to create wings out of the same material she made her weapons from, allowing her to fly. And when she turned into the ball, she could also create miniature wings on it (like the snitch), allowing her greater control. And to make sure to eliminate the reminder of her trigger event, he removed the sensory deprivation when in ball form, adding limited area vision around the ball.
It wouldn't solve everything, but it would help…
He also took some time to improve poor Cardea's power. A Tinker working with her provided the armor, so he gave Cardea, her own Tinker power, focused on power armors used for healing. Maybe that would help the woman to forget what she saw.
Probably not, but one can hope…
While the parahumans were fighting against the abominations formerly known as Nilbog, there was enough traffic on the Network that he infiltrated the Shards of the entire Triumvirate. He used the time to settle in, open a secure port on the Shard's defenses for communication, and looked for the connection to Path to Victory.
After a quick look, he found them, and he immediately set up his usual equipment to spoof them. That was finished, so it was time to get to the important work…
Date
2011 February 26th - Friday - ? Time
Just as Rebecca resigned herself to dealing with the mountains of paperwork that accumulated on her desk, her computer pinged peculiarly. It took her prodigious mind a fraction of a second to remember that the sound called for an emergency meeting immediately.
With extreme speed, she locked down her office, activated her automatic out-of-office status, and basically threw herself through the portal that appeared without her prompting.
She arrived in the usual meeting room, where she was met with Doctor Mother with a worried face tending to a disheveled Contessa, while Numberman was blearily drinking coffee from a giant coffee mug while staring at nothing. A second later, Eidolon also arrived out of his costume.
"What is going on?"
"Indeed, what was the emergency?"
Doctor Mother turned towards them and with a serious face began to speak.
"As of midnight, the entire Brockton Bay is one enormous blind spot. The same type that covered Serenity, Lux Arcana, and Dragon."
"That's… not the best news, but that doesn't constitute an emergency Doctor."
"Indeed, Contessa asked me to call you here."
Hearing that, she turned towards the convalescing woman, waiting for an answer. Contessa took a deep, shuddering breath and started talking, looking at an empty patch of wall.
"The path is gone…"
"What?" shouted Eidolon, bewildered. "What do you mean it's gone?"
"Simple," continued Contessa with the same voice, still looking at the wall. "The moment the blind spot went up, the path shattered. I can't see any way to our goal."
"While not as much as for Contessa here, my predictions were also messed up," added silently Numberman. "I saw some things… but…"
"But?" asked Rebecca with an arched eyebrow.
"I don't understand yet. Something happened. Something beyond the enormous blind spot. But I don't yet know, or understand what…"
There was a terse silence while everyone contemplated the information before Alexandria spoke up.
"It must be Serenity. The blind spots started with her. We must get ahold of her."
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone