"Really? Fugly Bob's?" Tattletale stared dumbfoundedly at the bag Regent placed on the table."Everybody is a critic." Regent merely shrugged as he took out one of the burgers. The grease had already bled through. He offered it to me, but shrugged again when I shook my head. "More for me."Despite grumbling, Tattletale too reached out and grabbed a couple of burgers. "We have a private chef…""Gave him the day off," Regent answered. "I wanted to welcome Blackwall with the true local delicacies of Brockton Bay."Faultline seemed to have no problem with the burgers, also reaching over and grabbing a couple.I watched this scene play out in silence. I sat on a chair in the corner of the room, waiting. Most of my focus was somewhere else, talking with Dragon and Arsenal and working.As Regent and Tattletale continued to bicker, a figure teleported inside the room and handed me a small device, though nobody in the room was startled. He wore a neon green costume, a long uniform with armoured padding to the side. The colour was clearly made to resemble Eidolon's own costume. He nodded towards me, then teleported away, making no sound."So that's the new Mover team. Are they all as fast and quiet?" Faultline asked."No. Most are a bit louder, but can carry other people. The speed is roughly the same for them all, that is… Instant. Or close to it."Regent chuckled, speaking with his mouth half-full, "The doors guy is soon going to be out of a job.""Regent, for fuck's sake, at least shut your mouth when eating?""She doesn't mind.""I don't," I confirmed, to Regent's glee."Yes, but we do…" Faultline sighed, then turned to me: "What are we talking about in terms of numbers? I know you're mostly done making healers.""One hundred and twenty healers. Twenty-six of whom are able to make the power vial process much safer, like Panacea. Though, even as I say healer, think less of Panacea and more like Othala. Most are slower, but have secondary powers to compensate. Brute ratings, mostly, which was the best combination with the Striker vials.""You've amassed an army the size of the whole CUI Yàngbǎn in a matter of months, with no signs of stopping." Tattletale seemed impressed."It's not from nothing. We required Cauldron's resources, which they amassed over the decades, and we're still pushing it. We fully exhausted their reserves in terms of 'healer' vials, and it will take months to make new ones.""Cauldron… I'm still not sure it is wise to trust them, even as you act like a sword of Damocles over their head, Blackwall."Faultline had never forgiven them, having spent most of her parahuman career rescuing the Case 53s she could, while looking for the hidden masterminds behind their origin."We have not forgotten what they did. And they will pay.""Will they? When this is all over? I'm not sure I believe that. Sure, maybe Contessa told you what you wanted to hear, but even you won't be able to hunt all of them down. All of the people that performed human experimentation with impunity. You even gave them the power to move more easily now, as if Doormaker wasn't enough."The atmosphere in the room got visibly tenser as Faultline spoke. She continued:"I don't see it happening, not unless you plan to become a sort of super-dictator, looming over every Earth and beyond. And that… I suppose that could happen."Silence filled the control room. Even Regent stopped chewing as he glanced towards me. Tattletale eyed me with suspicion. I sighed, letting go of some of the control over my body. Allowing Tattletale's power to read me."That's… idiotic," she mumbled, eyes wide. "Even with him gone, there's too much fucked up stuff out here for us to deal on our own. We won't make it.""You will manage." I shook my head."Mind filling us in?" Faultline asked.Tattletale began massaging the bridge of her nose, trying to get ahead of the Thinker-headache that was no doubt building up:"Blackwall's not planning much for after we deal with 'you-know-who'. She's not staying."Regent glanced between me and Tattletale, back and forth, then asked me, "What, are you going to the moon?""No, you dimwit, she's not staying in this solar system.""What?!" Regent also stood up, "it feels to me like that's a bit too fast. Aren't there like a thousand world-ending threats to deal with? The golden guy is just the first one.""There are," I nodded.Regent gestured for me to continue."It's not my place to stay. It's not my Earth. Not my home.""So you're really going to let them go. Cauldron will own the world once you're not here anymore." I could hear the anger in Faultline's voice. She barely restrained herself from shouting."Dragon and Arsenal will still be here. Legend and Eidolon will leave Cauldron, as will most people working for them.""But not Contessa. So that doesn't mean shit.""I won't leave immediately. I'll make sure that the Endbringers are dealt with, as is Cauldron. But after that… I've long decided that it's not my role to stay here.""Ash Beast? Nilbog?" Faultline continued listing out names, "Sleeper? The CUI? The Elite? The Gesellschaft? Whatever is going on in Earth Shin?""I won't become what Cauldron has been so far. I won't be the mastermind behind the scenes, controlling everywhere humanity has reached.""I'd be fine with that, you don't seem so bad." Regent shrugged."Humans have fucked up in the past. And you will fuck up again. But then you'll fix things. You'll get better. And life will go on.""That seems shortsighted," Faultline grumbled."The alternative is worse, and I won't stomach it. I will deal with Scion, with the Endbringers, creatures that don't belong here. But I, too, don't belong here.""Besides," Regent interrupted again, "it's a bit early to celebrate?"He pointed at the main screen on the other side of the room. The one displaying a ticking down number.
001:21:31
The Endbringer countdown. Based on the average length between attacks.Any day now, Behemoth or Leviathan would appear and attack. If they followed their pattern, that is.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings."Yeah… I agree with some things Faultline said, but honestly? I kind of fucking agree with Blackwall." Tattletale spoke up.Faultline glared at her."Like, I'm only taking care of the city, and yeah... Fuck this. I'd quit now if I could. But I can't. Maybe next week?""You should do that. So that I can take my rightful position as the Regent that I am!" Regent joked, earning a glare from both of the other girls in the room.I appreciated him making himself a scapegoat.Tattletale fully put her hands on her face, massaging her temples: "I hate this... But he is right, Faultline. Let's worry about what the super murder lady wants to do, after she's killed the super murder monsters.""I feel like I shouldn't be put in the same category as the Endbringers," I calmly protested."You're speaking as though I don't know about your little plan. What did you call it? Operation Scylla? That shit's scary, lady.""Very well." I sighed, then stood up. I reached over and grabbed the last remaining burger.…it was greasier than I could've expected."That's a new expression!" Tattletale cackled from her chair, earning a chuckle from Regent and Faultline as well.As we kept talking, Faultline finally calmed down.It became a pleasant evening, even as my mind wandered somewhere else.
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Within my Shardself I once again watched as an ephemeral copy of my body sat on a blue cube, isolated to a small island separated from my main body.Neither of us said anything. The copy's eyes always wandered to where my attention was focused on, as though to match my gaze. I had since learnt that looking away from it caused something to happen, something that took away my memories of the event and set me back days.Likely the same something that told me that attacking the copy was a bad idea."Not yet." The copy spoke. Again. In the same tone as last time. There was no cognition in her eyes, merely an automated response.Could the Simurgh have done this? Unlikely. Shards were powerful and often surprised me, but they also had rules. The Endbringers, too, were bound by those rules.This… this was important. But it was also something that only I could have done. A cognitohazard? Again, unlikely. But not impossible.I could only trust my future and past selves.As I looked away once again, the memories of this brief moment were stripped from me.
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Messages filled my interface before I turned them off.The notifications were drowned out by the sound of whirring machinery, echoing across my lab. Immense heat and the smell of steel filled the room. The only light source was the blinding white-gold of the core in front of me reaching criticality. Without radiation, the characteristic 'blue' was not present.As the energy output skyrocketed, I walked in and made the final adjustment to the device. The heat alone was enough to damage my crystal exterior, burning away at it and fighting against Cariddi's power, which kept me whole.I shaped the metal into a sweeping blade. From hilt to tip, it would be half as long as I was tall. Then, using the energy and the heat, I bound together the immensely resilient black glass with the red steel, creating an overlapping pattern over the edge. The energy was funneled into the glass, causing it to vibrate at the frequency necessary to weaken dimensional bonds. The two parts of the sword overlapped, in a procedure that was similar to Chevalier's power but also much more complex. The mechanisms inside only remained intact thanks to Toybox's dimensional tech and Arsenal's expertise in miniaturization.The light around me began to peter out as the reactor cooled down. The energy required by the process had outpaced the reactor's output, fighting against the criticality.Until the last particle within the reactor slowed too much for the chain reaction to continue.I was done.My hands cracked and fell to the ground. Most of the mechanisms around me gave out as sparks flew all around. Malfunctions stacked on top of each other, causing small explosions along the circuitry and the walls. Fires broke out within my lab, but were quickly snuffed out by a sudden vacuum sucking all of the air from within the room.In front of me stood the long black and red blade of my latest creation. And likely my last. My hands took a while to reform, but when they did I connected the sword to my palm, creating a crystalline hilt that was linked to my internals. Nanothorns immediately swarmed through the connections and filled the 'red' part of the sword, forming into a thin mist before I instructed them to deactivate.Another set of instructions activated the 'black' sections of the sword, causing a specific frequency of vibration that seemed to warp the air around it. The blade got significantly heavier as it began to carve away at the thin dimensional layers around it, moments away from slicing into reality and opening portals to other dimensions. Once I finished testing it out, I deactivated that part of the weapon as well.Walking out, I watched as the ceiling in my lab cracked and fell. The floor, too, was damaged and gave out, collapsing onto itself.Outside stood Arsenal. In full combat gear. His body language was tense, anxious, but also hopeful."Who?" I asked."Are you done?" Arsenal asked back, ignoring my question."Yes. The weapon is done. Dragon called it Habakiri. Who?""Leviathan. He's coming to-""Brockton Bay," I guessed, and was immediately proven right as Arsenal did not correct me. "It's the only place that makes sense.""Jack will likely intervene during the attack. We need to be prepared. I'm not sure we have the resources for Scylla.""No, we can't wait anymore. If Jack decides to attack us at that time, then we'll deal with it. Operation Scylla must be completed today. We can't risk the Simurgh attacking again before we've confirmed our theory.""Very well. Then come, Legend has already started his rousing speech. The turnout is the largest we've ever had, even as the Movers Panacea made are still getting people from all around the world."I nodded."Today, an Endbringer dies."