章 1245: 6
Initialization 1.6
I gathered myself for a moment before deciding on what and how to explain. I had to keep Cauldron secret for now lest Contessa's Path comes down on me, but I was pretty sure the truth behind the Entities themselves was safe.
"Alright, there is a reason that powers started to appear after Scion arrived. This is going to sound crazy, but I assure you it is true. I can't give you much in the way of proof right now, but just try to keep open mind, okay?" I said in warning.
Amelia scrunched her eyes in irritation. "Fine. Just get on with it."
"The Corona Pollentia isn't the source of powers. It's connection to the real source of powers, which are extremely powerful lifeforms, we can call them 'shards', 'passengers', or 'agents', that reside in other dimensions. They are not really sentient like humans are, but they are capable of thinking and communicating. Each shard is a piece that split off from a greater whole, something we can call an 'Entity'. Scion is just a projection made by one such Entity after it arrived and settled on an alternate dimension analog of Earth-Bet, like Earth Aleph except that one is devoid of life and was sealed off by Scion from outside access," I paused to let her digest this information.
"You're saying that our powers come from aliens? And Scion is one of them? The first and most dedicated superhero?" She asked incredulously.
"Yes. When capes first trigger, they get a vision which most forget afterwards due to the Entities' power. That vision is of the two Entities that came to Earth and a shard splitting off from one to form the connection and express a parahuman power. Certain capes like Miss Militia remember the vision because her power doesn't let her forget things. When a person has a second trigger event, the expression of the power changes as the connection between the shard and the host is adjusted based on what the second trigger involved. A shard can split and is capable of expressing in many different ways, giving rise to completely different powers. Your own shard for example, is the Shaper shard, which budded off of Marquis's. Under different circumstances, the Shaper might have expressed itself as shaping inorganic matter instead. What people commonly call second-generation capes possess shards that budded off another shard, and it doesn't necessary have to be family, just someone that has spent enough time for the shard to analyze and choose as a host for a bud," I continued.
She sat quietly thinking for a while before asking, "Okay…so why don't you have a connection to a shard?"
"I can't explain fully why I know so much. Not yet, anyways. The full answer simply wouldn't make any sense to you without being able to show you certain things. But the short version is that I once had access to a source of information about important things in the future and past of this world that I obtained from a different plane of existence entirely. Not the parallel dimensions like the Entities can access, somewhere that even they couldn't reach." I said. "That's the same reason I can access abilities without being a parahuman. Other than information about the future and past, I also obtained something that lets me use those abilities. Since I came here, the Entities have put up a barrier over reality that's preventing me from moving out of this plane of existence. As such, I won't be able to give you any proof for a while," I said.
This was a risk for me but I couldn't keep too many secrets. For one thing, Agate's abilities were extremely useful, and they would continue developing. I had to be able to use some of those abilities in front of her.
"Let's say I believe you. Why are you helping me, of all people? What makes me important in the future you saw? And I remember you saying there were some things you wanted my help with?" She asked.
This was going to be tough. But fortunately she seemed to trust me enough not to use her power on me to detect lies anymore.
"This has to do with why the Entities came to Earth in the first place. They aren't just giving out powers for free. The truth is, they are following a 'Cycle' whereby they find sentient species suitable to be hosts, giving out shards and have the hosts use them creatively to generate data, and eventually take them all back once their experiment is over with the data they collected so that they learn how to use their powers better," I said. "Of course, this process doesn't end well for the hosts…"
I trailed off ominously.
"Well? What happens to them?" She looked exasperated with me as she asked.
"When the experiment is over, the Entities destroy all trace of their presence. Every world in every parallel dimension that has the host species is destroyed, and all hosts are killed, leaving nothing behind," I declared.
Her eyes widened and her mouth ran agape.
"A-are you serious? They'll kill us all?"
I held my gaze even with her eyes and touched her hand. "Yes. The Entities will completely wipe out humanity on every parallel Earth they can access at the end of the cycle. What's more, this is not a regular cycle. One of the Entities that came died, and the other one, Zion, is grieving and has no purpose left. He is just doing hero work out of boredom because some homeless guy said it would make him feel good, but he could tire of it and strike at any time. It could be anywhere from 2 years to twenty years from now."
"This is insane! You want me to help fight against Scion? The Entities? How are we supposed to fight against that? No other parahuman can even touch Scion," she exclaimed.
"Look, things are bad, but in one future I saw, humanity did survive. I know how Scion was killed, he's not invincible, and you were a key part of that. Having said that, it was a catastrophic victory, with the destruction and evacuation of Earth-Bet and almost the entire population dead. My foreknowledge might change things for the better. Right now I'm stuck here with everyone else waiting for the end of days, and I don't plan to roll over and die. If you aren't up for joining the fight, we can escape together to another plane of existence once I figure out how to get past their barrier," I offered.
No really, I didn't actually want to fight Scion myself. If I could leave, then I'd get out ASAP and only come back if I was confident that I could survive.
"I need to think about this. I just want…I don't really know what I want at this point, but you're talking about saving the world from the apocalypse. That's the stuff that belongs in a book…not—"
"You mean like superheroes and villains belong in comics?" The irony of it. She didn't know she actually was a character in a book.
"That's different! We're just two people. What could we possibly do?" She protested.
"Panacea, you are the most powerful biokinetic on the planet. I know how the world can be saved. We are not helpless, and we're also not alone by the way. I told you there are immensely powerful people who know about these secrets about the Entities. Unfortunately their desperation has made them do some terrible things, and if I say any more they might come after us. I don't feel like getting enslaved or becoming an experiment, so just trust me when I say that we have a lot of firepower that could help for the final fight," I reassured.
"But why don't you go to the PRT with this? They could organize capes everywhere, maybe even get villains on board with a truce—"
I interrupted her again. "If this went public, Scion might just decide to get rid of us now. And it won't work because the Simurgh would stop us. Besides, those people I mentioned earlier? They're the secret masters of the PRT and Protectorate. There's a shadow organization out there pulling the strings and gathering forces for the fight, so there's no need to inform the PRT."
"Now you're saying there's a conspiracy too? This is ridiculous. You're just crazy!" She stood up as she shouted.
"Why do you think there are so many villains when the Triumvirate could probably take out every gang in Brocton Bay in a day? Why does the birdcage exist at all? There's no such thing as a death penalty for capes, only kill orders for major threats, but there are plenty of villain murderers like Hookwolf and Oni Lee who would have been put on death row if they were tried as a normal. It's almost like special rules and laws apply to cape criminals designed to keep as many of them alive as possible," I pressed on.
She went quiet again at that. Almost there, just a little more…
"What about the Endbringers? Everybody knows that the unwritten rules are there partly because of the Endbringer truce. Villains can and do contribute in Endbringer fights," she noted.
"You're right. The Endbringers are another threat. Who do you think came up with special rules for a privileged segment of the population that had to be unwritten? Three strikes rule? Obviously not by a democratic vote in Congress, why, that would be discrimination in the law and highly unconstitutional. The founders said there had to be due process, not three chances to commit crime before taking you seriously. And Endbringers don't explain the birdcage. They don't get let out to fight Endbringers," the words came out of my mouth smoothly as if I'd done this a hundred times. Which made sense, because I'd mapped out and practiced having this conversation a hundred times in the mirror already over the past few days when I wasn't busy plotting and spying. I'd have to do this again several times with other recruits in the future.
Amelia's eyes glazed over as if she was deep in thought. She stood there without moving for almost two minutes before blinking awake.
"I still need to think about this," she finally said, and left for her room, which had been my room until she took it over.
I had given a lot of information. So much, in fact, that there was a chance the Simurgh with its precognition could come after me. My solution to that was simple. I just needed to have goals which aligned with the Simurgh's. There was no problem if I introduced more chaos and parahuman conflict with my actions right? I didn't need a stable and unified world to fight Scion. That guy could only be killed by bullying and a specific set of powers/technologies. I just needed muddled waters to fish in, and hopefully get out before the end. I couldn't let the Simurgh and precognition paralyze me. The Simurgh let plenty of Cauldron plots go off without a hitch, and I was betting that it was because those plots net more chaos.
Plus if I had my way, Amelia would become a better challenge for Eidolon than the Endbringers. Maybe the Simurgh would even help me…well a man could dream, right?
'If this fake angel comes for you, I'll drag her into Kaleidospace! See how her precognition works for her there!' Agate boasted.
'Wait, you can do that?' That would be crazy powerful.
Her tone deflated. 'Eh…I can try to take her with me when I phase out, but it might be hard if she resists it…I can't really take things that have minds of their own if they don't want to come along.'
It's never that easy, is it?
In the afternoon, she came to me with a decision.
"I'm not sure I fully believe everything you said, but I have no choice but to stick with you for now even if you might be crazy. I'll consider helping if we get more concrete proof about this supposed alien threat," she declared.
Excellent.
"Good, the first thing you need to know is that you need to use your powers for more than just healing," I immediately replied.
"What? But that's one of my rules!" She crossed her arms and glared. "I'm not going to turn villain."
"I never said anything about turning villain. Your rules are completely arbitrary and don't help anyone. You need to come up with better ones based in legitimate moral and philosophical reflection. You've already broken the only-healing rule several times last night, and if you keep trying to follow them, it will only end in a tragedy when you're forced to abandon them," I warned.
Her expression softened and she pursed her lips. "Did you see that happen in the future?"
I hesitated to tell her. Her story was just so sad. I needed her functional after this. With a sigh, I answered, "Yes. In a possible future, the Slaughterhouse 9 would force you to choose between your rules and the life of one close to you. It ended…very, very badly. You must learn to accept that your powers can be used responsibly outside of just healing, and even your blanket ban on not doing brains is not healthy."
"I need my rules though. I can't control myself without them," she continued to protest.
"You do need rules, just not the arbitrary ones you had. Your shard will make you go crazy if you don't change. All shards influence their hosts to seek conflict and use their powers to fight. The Entities can't have useless hosts giving them no data. That's why there are hardly any capes using their powers for anything other than fighting. Leet's shard, for example, is insanely powerful and is actively sabotaging him because he doesn't make anything truly daring or risky so it punishes him by making it harder to build the same thing more than once," I clarified.
Her eyes widened and she dropped her arm. "You should have started with that!"
"It's not a secret, you know? There are studies on parahuman powers and seeking conflict. This is also why powers don't go to happy, well-adjusted people, instead requiring a trigger event. It's not a karmic reward for suffering or an attempt to save people. They just go to people the shards think will use the powers most and are more vulnerable to their influence."
She stood there unblinking, and pursed her lips.
"That sculpture you suddenly decided to make? It was probably your shard going crazy after you got grounded for several days and couldn't even heal. It needed an outlet badly, and look what happened." I stabbed the final knife in. "Do I need to go on?"
She replied with a weak and quivering voice. "No…"
Then she slowly sat down on the sofa staring off into space. "Then…how do I come up with better rules?"
"You can start with something that has more of an ethical foundation. Don't hurt innocent people if you can help it. Don't hurt people for fun even if they're evil. Don't make anything that will independently do any of the above. See where I'm going with this? These are actually actions with clear moral consequences. Not using your power on the brain and only healing is just arbitrary," I said. These were the rules I myself followed as well. Naturally it didn't make sense to hurt innocent people if there were more efficient ways to get what I needed, unless the benefit massively outweighed the cost of getting "good guys" after me. Hurting people for fun and no gain was just plain stupid.
Now she was looking at her palm like it held the world's secrets.
Was I going too fast? I couldn't help it. Even if I was pushing my luck, I needed her tonight. With New Wave out patrolling in the open, the Lung fight was almost certainly going to be butterflied in some way. I had to get in the thick of things or else my plans for Skitter would fall apart.
I needed every piece I could salvage now that New Wave's forces wouldn't be obtainable in the near-future.
"When you're done contemplating, come over here. Because you ran away from home, the future has changed and we have an important mission tonight."
She looked over at me in interest. "A mission? You mean we're going out as heroes in costume?"
"That's right. We're joining the fight against Lung to save an aspiring hero. We've got less than 10 hours to prepare, so we'd better start soon."
"You want to fight Lung? You are crazy! I knew it!"
"Just listen to the plan, it's not as crazy as it sounds. It'll be easy, in fact."
She just looked at me like I grew a second head.
With her help, it really would be much easier, depending on what we could develop between now and the fight. She was literally a game-changing piece, and this fight would give her the confidence to take on a new mantle.
By myself, I was just a king that could barely do anything. But now, I had a queen to use. With this one gambit, I would seize control of the entire centre and chain into a massive play. By the time anyone realized what was really going on, they'd be too busy fighting each other to stop me.
New Wave stopped searching once it got dark outside. Rumors were already on PHO speculating over what they were doing. Normally heroes didn't patrol much in the day time, and that was true for New Wave as well. None of the theories had gotten close to the truth, however.
At midnight, we moved out into the Docks area in our new costumes ready for action. Due to time constraints, I was simply outfitted in black motorcycle outfit, plus a full face helmet, minus the leather jacket. Instead, I had Kevlar inside and a loose black jacket full of pockets. On my back I had a backpack which contained inside a fire extinguisher and some assorted useful tools.
I replaced my flame thrower with sprayers filled with an extremely potent knockout drug Panacea had made, and carried a bunch of unprimed homemade jam tin grenades and a couple of stun batons on my utility belt. Finally I had my compound bow slung over my back right next to my backpack My quiver was attached to my left hips, filled with 20 custom tranquilizer arrows, made with Panacea's knockout drug again.
I had made some of these things before back on my Earth as fun experiments but recently I'd been making use of that knowledge of cheap DIY weapons to enhance my arsenal. The bow I simply bought from a local store. I had a hard time deciding to use a crossbow vs. a compound bow but in the end I decided that faster shooting speed was more important for a single combatant rather than a formation of troops with volley fire. The crossbow's higher base velocity would give me much better accuracy at longer ranges because I wasn't very skilled with a bow, but I couldn't afford to spend half a minute cranking to reload in the middle of a fight. I wish I had guns but alas I hadn't found where to buy them discreetly. Ordering via dark net and dead drops was possible but it would take weeks to do it, especially because this world didn't have cryptocurrency so the dark markets online weren't as developed.
Finally, to go with my costume persona I needed a hero name, which I had chosen to be Polychromic. Many-colored like a Kaleidoscope, or related to chromic acids.
Panacea had been renamed Araliac, a truncated Araliaceae, to which the Panax family of plants belonged. I wanted to name her Gaia but she refused. My bad naming sense strikes again. Sadly Panacea didn't have any better ideas. Ginseng and Ambrosia were suggested but the connections to Panacea were far too conspicuous in those, the former's latin name being Panax, and the latter curing the only thing that a panacea wouldn't.
She was outfitted in a similar manner to myself. We neither had the time to experiment on making exotic biological defenses nor did we want to draw too much attention to her powers, so her costume was kept simple. Our equipment, however, was substantially different. Hiding underneath her sleeves were specialized organisms that could shoot acid or incapacitating vapour made of the same stuff my arrows had. Her hands had open tipped gloves and she was carrying a long range pressure sprayer attached to a tank full of the powerful incapacitating agent mixed with short-lived microorganisms. These microorganisms would eat the incapacitating agent, and common clothing materials, then permeate through skin, before entering the bloodstream. A rapid bioconversion process then generates psilocybin and LSD precursors, before resulting in the microorganism's death.
With Agate on overwatch in the skies, we snuck around the Docks. Still, the area was quite large and spotting our targets in the darkness wasn't going to be easy. I wanted to find Skitter, but going to Lung wasn't a bad choice either. The Undersiders and Oni Lee would be less useful.
About an hour after midnight, Agate found something.
'Unusual swarms of bugs moving over rooftops detected,' Agate said in my mind. The image Agate sent me was almost impossible to see the bugs. It was far too dark, but Agate's sensor suite was better than my eyes. I instructed Agate to keep looking for Skitter in her costume, and try to triangulate her position from how the bugs were moving and the range of control.
It wasn't long before the entire swarm started to gather tightly in one specific spot, where Agate found the ABB group with Lung.
"It's starting! Three blocks south! Let's go!" I whispered to my new accomplice, and we moved towards the upcoming fight.
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