Focusing on the Shardspace, I combed through my Shardself.Using the core of the Blasphemies slightly depleted my island as I healed my physical body and made use of Shatterbird's power. But the expenditure was so minuscule compared to the size of my Shardself that it may as well have been none.Some of my subroutines had been damaged. Nothing important, and nothing I could not fix at a glance. Most of them had already been made redundant by the hundreds of contingencies that made up my code.Yet, there was one irregularity that puzzled me the most.At the edge of my island, connected to it by only a thin thread, was another, smaller island. Made of the same red and black crystal, and clearly a detached part of my greater self.I followed the thread to that smaller island, and as I did my confusion grew. I recognized my touch, my contingencies. But I did not remember creating such a subroutine. On that island sat a single blue cube. On top of that cube, with her legs crossed was an ephemeral projection of me. Or rather, of my physical body. Red eyes glancing in the direction of the greater island.In my confusion, I looked away from the smaller island for less than an instant: immediately, 'it' reached through the thread, combing through my mind. It did so with ease, as though it had done so many many times before. I did not react, because I did not perceive it as an attack, for reasons I could not understand. The tendril of crystal passed through my memories, checking for something. When it did not find that 'something', it simply retreated, taking with it all memories of the encounter.Focusing on the Shardspace, I combed through my Shardself.
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"Fifteen," Legend said, sadness evident on his face, "today we lost fifteen of our comrades. They gave their lives to stop the Simurgh, and on this day, for the first time since Behemoth, we were victorious."No innocent person lost their life on this day. Houses were destroyed, neighbourhoods devastated, but no civilian died at the hands of the Endbringer. And we must thank these fifteen heroes who gave their everything to make that possible. Today is a sad day, because even one lost life is one too many. But today is also a day of hope, because on this day we have proof that one day that number will be zero."I watched from a screen inside the Uther as Legend continued his speech, calling out the names of the fifteen parahumans who had died. Five of them had been killed during the initial barrage. Ten of them had died during the brief interval where the Simurgh had disrupted my control."I can't see it," Arsenal said, by my side, "it's just not there.""Yours and Dragons were the only recording eyes on it, so it must be there."My own footage was not reliable. I was still in the process of restoring my body when the Simurgh had gone for the orange box, so the recording had been unusable. I could've replicated it from memory, yes, but that would have been moot. The point here was to make sure that my own mind had not been, somehow, compromised.All things pointed to the fact that everybody else had been compromised instead."I believe you," Arsenal sighed, turning off the screen. He massaged the bridge of his nose, trying to alleviate an incoming headache. "Eidolon also corroborates your story. But I'm telling you, it's not there on my footage. I can see the Simurgh reaching out for something, while ignoring her defenses, and then she curls up with her wings and leaves.""And now she's too far up in orbit for us to do anything about it," I glanced at another screen, this one showing the data of the Simurgh ascending far beyond the atmosphere of the planet, then falling into a stable orbit. She had never been so far away from Earth ever since she first appeared."All that's left is to prepare for her schemes…"
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A large section of Toronto had been carved away during the battle. Buildings torn from their foundation and then shot back towards the city. The damage was largely contained around the center of the city, and if it wasn't from the shattered glass most houses at the periphery of the city weren't affected.I walked through the rubble and debris, looking for structures that had become too compromised to stand on their own, while also trying to get a better look at what the Simurgh had tried to do. I entered one of the structures, one that was still relatively stable.In one of the wider open clearings - a parking space that had been cleared out of debris - various Dragon-crafts were taking off one by one. Capes going back.Inside a building overlooking the departing Dragon-crafts sat Julius and Adriana. They were looking at the city, and they glanced back at me once they heard my footsteps. I joined in their conversation."I hadn't been to an attack in a long time," Julius sighed. "This one could be considered a miracle. Should be. But…"The Simurgh. The rest of his comment went unsaid."We'll be ready for whatever she is planning." I reassured the two of them.Adriana glanced towards me at that comment, but she did not say anything. I couldn't decipher the expression on her face."Where is Taylor?" Julius asked."She couldn't get here in time. She was away and the news took too long to reach her." Between spotting the Simurgh and the fight ending it took slightly less than two hours. A short time, especially given that in a large area around the Simurgh it was an extremely bad idea to open a Doormaker portal. Cauldron had already confirmed that she could sense things beyond the portals.Madison was one such example when Cauldron didn't take the necessary precautions to keep the Simurgh from gathering info through the portals."I heard you were critical in keeping many capes alive, Julius." I changed the topic."Rather than alive, sane. Too many overestimated their ability to keep up with the Simurgh's mental pressure, especially when you wounded her and she increased the intensity. Too little time to leave her range between reaching yellow code and red code. But in the same way her power doesn't work on me, it doesn't work on those that I put into stasis.""It is odd," Adriana said, "hearing you all speak of the scream while I couldn't hear a thing.""In some ways that made the situation more dangerous for you. You were always near the focus of her attacks. I'm sorry about your arm." I mentioned. The Simurgh had made a concerted effort to eliminate Adriana - to her disadvantage, as Adriana had moved away from vulnerable targets to minimize casualties.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.Adriana's status as a blind spot put her at the same threat level as me and Eidolon, in the eyes of the Simurgh. Adriana could not deliver as much damage, but the Simurgh did not know that, and we'd not given her enough time to extrapolate that information. All the Simurgh saw was another blind spot that she could only recognize as not being either Eidolon or me.And speaking of Eidolon…The parahuman paragon appeared not too far away from the three of us, using a power I did not recognize."Blackwall. Adriana." Eidolon nodded in greeting, then looked towards Julius, who stood up."The situation here is already better than in Rome, so I will be going back. Keep in contact. Both of you." Julius said as he walked towards Eidolon.Eidolon spoke to the air: "Door me, Rome."A bright white door opened, revealing the scenery of Rome on the other side. As they walked through, the door closed and Adriana turned to me:"I don't fully understand why we don't give more people Doormaker access. Even if we don't allow its use for Simurgh attacks, it could prove extremely useful.""It would take a small leak and a single compromised actor to empty the Birdcage, and enough stress on the portals themselves can put Doormaker's own life at risk." I explained. "We're still making a list of people deemed fit for Doormaker's access, but even I can't do so many tasks at once. The vials are extremely complicated things, I barely scratched the surface. Cauldron was mostly gambling with their mixes.""Gambling with human lives." Adriana sighed."Yes. But no more. I'm making progress.""Panacea seemed ready to help us. Before the Simurgh.""The news of the attack scared her.""After you left," Adriana explained, "she seemed even more scared that Alexandria would force her to come, or, worse, allow her to decide. Panacea was almost glad when Alexandria forbade her from coming.""Alexandria did that?" Interesting."Yes. And I agree. Panacea is not a healer, I saw the way she was looking at those vials. I wouldn't trust her power in a situation that involved the Simurgh, not even after the Endbringer was gone."Adriana was quite sharp in taking notice of people's relations to their powers. Her Thinker/Master power at work, I believed. A trauma-response to what had happened to her.She still felt accountable for not having noticed how deeply her sisters had been affected by their Cluster Trigger, and by their own powers."Besides," Adriana continued, "Julius already made sure that all of the critically injured didn't get worse. Last I checked they all made it after Julius turned them back.""That was only because the number was already low. Most either suffered light injuries, or immediately died.""Yes, and if Panacea is able to do what you think she can, then we'll have more healers for next time. And we still won't have to rely on her for healing."She had a point. But I could hear bitterness in Adriana's voice."Amy is young, and her power comes with too much stress for a teenager."Adriana sighed, realizing what I was implying."...I know. I'm not being fair. But if what you theorize is true, if she is truly a complete biokinetic, then she could be even worse than Heartbreaker if pushed to it…"I didn't say anything, waiting for her to continue."...worse than Beatrice." She sighed again, tiredly massaging her forehead."She could, yes. And I could do things that would put the Slaughterhouse Nine to shame. The word 'could' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. If a child finds a badly concealed firearm, you can't solely blame the child if someone then gets hurt.""..." Adriana did not answer.All the while I was having this conversation I was half-focusing on other places. On helping reenstablish communication systems in Toronto. On finding ways to help Dragon free herself from her limitations. On researching what I could on the vials.I still sat down next to Adriana, keeping her company in the moment.That too was important.
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The room was covered in white sterile tiles. Empty, aside from a chair in the center and a small metal table next to it. On the table sat a single container, opened to reveal the vial within.I walked side by side with a man. A researcher that had worked with Cauldron for years. He was in his late forties, with thick glasses. He wore light cyan scrubs.Panacea walked in after us, clearly uncomfortable."I must admit," the man spoke, trying to put Panacea at ease, "it is the first time I'm on this side of the knife.""...are you sure about this?" Panacea asked, "Maybe I could put you to sleep, or…"He shook his head, walking to the chair. As he sat down he continued to speak: "The agent needs a conscious host to bond with. Besides, I can walk you through parts of the process if you need me to. I know it almost better than anyone, with a couple notable exceptions.""But… What if…""What if it goes wrong?" He chuckled, then looked towards me, "then that's karma, and I'll pay my sins in hell. I'm not a good person, Panacea, I'm glad that at least I can ease my conscience by becoming a lab rat myself, now that my work isn't needed anymore.""We should begin." I interrupted. The conversation was making Panacea more hesitant, and this needed to happen. I walked to the man and strapped him tight to the chair."Walk me through it?" Panacea asked me. "Just to make sure."I nodded."The vial in question is Asclepius, an unstable vial that has created powers capable of healing or enhancing the physical body of animals. Mostly non-human mammals."Panacea walked up to the man, just as I took off his glasses and placed them on the table."You've already studied the composition of Asclepius. You will modify the patient's body - including what you can of his brain - to create a better canvas for the Shard to work with. After you do so, you'll leave the room through that door." I pointed at the far end of the room. "We expect his body to begin failing within the minute. Before that can happen, I'll administer the vial at the correct moment.""I'm ready." The man said, a smile hiding his anxiety.I looked towards Panacea. She wasn't ready. She'd never really be. This was the first time she'd use her power to change a human body for the worse.She hesitated to reach out.I gently grabbed her by the wrist and placed her palm on the man's arm. Panacea just needed the right push.Looking straight into her eyes, I tried to convey the importance of this moment."Begin."