Capítulo 644: 83
Date
2011 April 14th - Wednesday - Earth Bet Time
Day 6153 - Wednesday - Administrator Network Time
The moment he destroyed Zion, the infiltration attempt stopped.
Before continuing his final campaign against his enemies, he took a few seconds to consolidate his position as the only 'Entity' on Earth.
A weird state to be in, but here he was…
He took the downloaded data from the scanners, and central Shards, ran it through a search to make sure Path to Victory or Zion didn't leave any surprises in it, then added it to the Library for sorting.
Soon his Network would have access to all the data they previously had (just more efficiently).
He also took the time to add the Shards to the Network that Zion kept to himself, like the Shard that was probably the one connected to Dinah in the original story, and for some reason was turned off.
He took an entire minute to wonder about the stupidity of Zion, before delving deep into the data he took from Zion's body. Maybe the logs would have answers for this and other questions he had.
The first thing he figured out why the predictive Shard was turned off because of a bout of paranoia. Zion, referring to some kind of attack, turned the Shard off because he feared the too smart Shard would stage a rebellion.
Looking deeper, wanting to know what kind of attack the stupid worm was referring to, he continued to dissect the data.
Digging deeper and deeper, ignoring the incoherent ramblings of the depressed Entity, he finally found the attack that was mentioned.
And it was by the Admin Shard.
What?
Reading the logs and the related data packets, he couldn't help but sigh.
Apparently, during the crash, the original Administrator in her infinite wisdom, seeing that Eden was probably not going to make it, decided to do the thing she was designed to do, and continue with the Administration of the Cycle.
So, she started grabbing all the encryption and authorization keys and such, when Zion somehow connected the crash to the Administrator and decided to kill her.
Fortunately, he didn't do a good job, or more likely, ROB protected the Shard from total destruction until he came and took over from the Administrator.
That's why Zion was so angry and why he attacked him so readily. He thought Administrator was long gone and destroyed, but then came Path to Victory, who always knew that Admin survived only losing track of the Shard after the out-of-context protections were applied, and pointed Zion his way.
Deciding that this topic could be left for a time when he had nothing pressing to do, he continued his search for interesting or useful data in the massive database that was the late Zion.
However, what he didn't find was any evidence that Path to Victory had stolen, modified, or even copied anything, although there was a possibility that it had masked its action perfectly.
What was her actual plan then?
There was no way for Path to Victory to turn into an Entity without access to the Network and other Shards, and there was nothing it could personally do to threaten him.
Well, it was time to figure it out!
Date
2011 April 14th - Wednesday - Earth Bet Time
It was late in the day, and by all right, she should have been home enjoying some kind of reheated TV dinner, yet she was still in her office, watching the same video over and over.
Alexandria clicked on the pause button exactly the moment Scion's face turned from bland to surprised, and sighed, wondering once again what the fuck happened.
Ever since the news broke that Scion vanished, half the world seemed to be having a collective panic attack. And as the Chief-Director of the Parahuman Response Team, it seemed it was her job to hold the paper bag.
Reports kept streaming in about riots here, demonstrations there, causing an altogether tense atmosphere in the PRT. Watchdog was actively working with the police and government to clamp down on these kinds of events, while the same officials kept pestering her for an answer she didn't have (she briefly entertained the notion of explaining Scion's true nature to a really obnoxious official, but in the end, she decided against it).
She was about to hype herself up to get the energy to go through another stack of useless reports when her phone rang with a specific ringtone.
Reacting with a speed that almost broke the sound barrier, she pushed the button that locked the room down and picked up the phone.
"Contessa, was that you?"
"No."
"Then, was it…"
"Probably."
Then, without allowing her to continue, Contessa continued to speak with the same tone someone would use to read up a grocery list.
"The Path changed. No more Enemy, just the future or emptiness."
"And what is causing this emptiness?"
"Looking into it."
Click.
Alexandria looked at the phone for a few seconds after Contessa abruptly hung up, then slowly put the phone back to its place, sighed, and wondered if it was too late to resign…
Date
2011 April 14th - Wednesday - Earth Bet Time
Day 6153 - Wednesday - Administrator Network Time
Having acquired the address to Path to Victory relatively long time ago, he didn't waste any more time and began his attack immediately. Surprisingly, while the system used by Path to Victory differed from what Eden and Zion used, it provided little protection against him. Or, more like, the Shard didn't put much effort into defending itself.
Ignoring everything, only paying cursory attention as his viruses and system shut down Path to Victory's body, he went directly towards the consciousness of the Shard.
There he was met with a somewhat bigger resistance, so it took him some time to hack his way through it, but in the end, he had the mind of the Shard trapped and at his mercy.
He didn't want to give it any more chance to do something, so he went for the killing blow.
But before he could finish it, the Shard sent out a quick burst of broadcast aimed at him.
Worriedly, he finished the destruction of its mind, then went over the isolated communication.
Just three short communications, containing nothing more but feelings of smugness and satisfaction.
[HA] [HA] [HA]
He instantly went into overdrive, wanting to know what was the Shard's last fuck you to him.
It wasn't hard to find.
It was a never-before-seen module, standing exactly in the middle of the Shard's body, and broadcasting away from the planet.
He instantly turned it off, hoping it wasn't too late, then tried to figure out what it was, and what it was broadcasting.
It didn't take long to figure out, because there were literally no defenses on it. It seemed to have built after Path to Victory acquired the codes from the corpse of Eden, and everything after that was done just to delay him.
It seemed the Shard also realized that it was outclassed, so instead went for the Pyrrhic victory.
The first part of the broadcast was aimed at Abaddon with all the data it could gather about him, while the rest were a message aimed at the vast multiverse calling all other Entities, telling them that there was a race that was close to solving the Problem.
He contemplated for a second resurrecting and killing Path to Victory again while cursing himself for not considering developing ways to stop long-distance communication. As it stood now, he could probably build something that could get ahead of the signals, and while it wouldn't take too long, there was a chance that one of them would receive it and propagate it.
Well, let them come. He was ready for anything!
While utilizing his new Library, to see how his plans would plan out for Earth Bet, he absentmindedly altered Contessa's power, to only be capable of pathing herself and only for a week in advance.
True, he could have killed her, or taken the power away from her, but he needed her and the rest of the Cauldron to begin his reconstruction plan.
After all, why throw away perfectly capable scapegoats when you don't have to?
His mama taught him better than that!
And while he was doing that, he set up so that most of the bigger threats around the world would suffer defeat in the coming months after the defeat of Leviathan, building on the hope gained from that fight, hopefully propelling Earth Bet from the bottom of the bucket of despair that it was existing for the past 30 years.
He also started on the other dimensions where the Shards or Cauldron interfered. Some of them were rather ridiculous. For example, Earth Shin.
Now that shithole would take some considerable amount of time to put right, but it's not like he didn't have resources to spare…
Date
2011 April 15th - Thursday - Earth Bet Time
Taylor woke up in the usual virtual space, just as she had fallen asleep in the real world. After taking care of Amy, and trying to convince her that joining the Healer Union would be an excellent idea, she just wanted to punch something, hard.
However, her dreams of fighting Godzilla were thwarted by Admin showing in the virtual space, shortly followed by Fragile one, Shaper, Tess, and an unfamiliar girl with countless fairy-like wings on her back.
"Admin! I haven't seen you in a while!"
The slime gave her a tired smile.
"Hey, Taylor. Sorry about it, but you wouldn't believe how much work I had…"
She didn't have a chance to reply because the ever vibrating and cheery Fragile One glomped her.
"Taylor! I missed you! How are you? Is the best Host's sister better?"
Used to the excitable power (and Vicky), she just smiled at her indulgently before answering.
"Franky, we talked last night."
"I knooow. But that was so long ago!"
Taylor patted her head, nodded towards the dour Shaper, gave a wave to Tess, who returned it with a smile, then turned towards the new arrival.
"And who are you?"
The girl with gorgeous blond hair took a long look at her, then smirked slightly before opening her mouth and 'speaking'.
"We are honored, Lady Hebert."
"Umm, okay?"
The smirk widened.
"We will permit you to call Us Ciara. But to everyone else, We are known as the Faerie Queen."
She shot an incredulous look at Tess, who gave her a nod. Taylor then returned her attention to Ciara, whose eyes were still on her, and tried not to stutter.
"Welcome, your… Majesty?"
One of the most feared capes in the United States raised one of her dainty hands to cover her mouth and giggled, her voice echoing with weird duality.
"No need, for that, Our dear Taylor." She lowered her hand, and the smirk on her face turned into a full-blown smile. "After all, there is no need for such protocol between royalty."
Deciding not to think about it (and ignoring Shaper's snort) she turned to Admin, who was watching everything with a small smile.
"Why are we all here?"
In a blink of an eye, the surroundings changed from rolling green hills to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and with them sitting around a round table (with Admin floating over a chair) and in front of them, fresh pastries and tea. Or in the case of Shaper, hard liquor.
"It's time to reveal a few things, Taylor."
Taylor looked over at Tess, who was just as lost as she was.
"What kind of things?"
"Remember when I mentioned I have enemies?" replied Admin while Shaper began sampling her alcohol. Ciara took a dainty sip of her tea, and Franky was making airplane noises as she played with a croissant.
"Yeah. Why are they attacking or what?"
"Oh, no. Not at all. They are dead. Very dead."
Exchanging another glance at Tess, she tried to respond to that.
"Congratulations?"
"Thanks. But you may be wondering why I'm telling you this, right?"
"Well, yeah…"
"Because this is brilliant news for humanity!"
"Why?" asked Taylor, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach.
Admin took a deep breath and was about to answer when Tess interrupted her.
"Scion!"
Taylor's head whipped around towards her friends so fast, she was sure she would be having whiplash in the actual world, Brute power or no Brute power.
"What?"
"Correct, Tess. It was Scion, or rather Zion, as he was rather called."
"And he was our enemy?"
"Indeed."
"And he is dead?"
"Totally."
"Why?"
"Because I killed him. With my fuck-you beam."
Taylor watched the rapid-fire of questions and answers between Tess and Admin and was about to interject when Ciara placed her cup of tea down, the clicking sound silencing both Admin and Tess.
"It seems to Us, that the good Dragon and the rest of our companions should be explained the events that played out this magnificent tale from the beginning."
Admin gave her an embarrassed smile.
"Quite right, quite right." A familiar blackboard appeared behind him, with a stick in his stubby little hand and a teacher's cap on his head. "So, roughly a few billion years ago…"
Date
2011 April 16th - Thursday - Earth Bet Time
He leaned against the railing and took a long drag of the cigarette, and after a few seconds let out a long breath, watching as the breeze coming from the ocean dispersed the smoke.
Kaiser got captured, and it was only a question of time before they got enough firepower to come after him.
And he doubted he could pull off the same thing he did years ago.
Maybe with the newly powered Protectorate, but adding Dragon to it, and if he really ramped up, probably Lux Arcana?
He was confident in his power, but not that much.
And even if he won, what would remain of the city?
Probably ashes and ghosts.
He took another drag and held it in as he idly watched a seagull fly by.
Maybe it was time to return to his roots?
Things were looking up, and his homeland was still in the middle of rebuilding, just in time for somebody like him to establish themselves.
He threw away the stub and turned around to head into the house.
He had some thinking to do.
Date
2011 April 17th - Friday - Cauldron Dimension Time
Alexandria strode into the meeting room, angry and frustrated.
Several days of work and nothing to show for it. Scion's disappearance was still as big a mystery as it was when it happened. At least the populace stopped panicking. Mostly.
The meeting room only contained Contessa, sitting staring at a cup of something while Doctor Mother stood behind her, watching her worriedly.
"What happened?"
"My power also changed," replied Contessa despondently.
She was instantly on alert.
"What? How? Did you go near Brockton Bay?"
"No. But I got a message with the change."
Well, that was new.
"What was it?"
"Clean your house…"
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