Chapter 8 Cutscene

While Dodge was going to be useful against Scion, Cranial turned out to be vital for pretty much everything else. His specialty of neurology meant I could now build entire personalities. At long last I can just make my own intelligent minions!

While a few recruits have proven themselves and I promoted them, the vast majority were just average. Besides none of them have powers of their own and giving them one wasn't worth it. Instead I'm now going to use them for something much more subtle.

Just cloning someone isn't enough to give them the same power. Implanting similar memories strengthens the bond between shard and host. Confirming Bonesaw's experiments in the future that will never be, the shard really is parasitic. It has a tendency to spread throughout the mind if left unchecked, resulting in little more than a rabid animal.

It makes sense. I already knew that powers tend to alter behavior. The urge for conflict if nothing else. Younger, more vulnerable hosts also tend to be stronger. Now, thanks to Cranial's abilities I can control just how much influence a shard exerts over it's host. I can make the equivalent of a Cauldron cape, with only a mild violent streak or I can make someone like Black Kaze. Insane, but still just barely functional. And so very powerful, able to draw upon the full might her her shard.

With real assets I spent some time building some actual intelligent subordinates. It's all thanks to Cranial that I don't even need to restrict myself. Rather than only using powers from capes I've publicly killed I can use any power I have. I just need to adjust it enough to not be recognizable.

The sudden flood of new parahumans joining my organization is accepted surprisingly easily. People had panicked initially over the Daughters of the Oni, talking about cloning and other theories. Only after analysis revealed there were all different people with very similar powers did it die down. The current theory was some kind of second generation group trigger.

I take the opportunity to reveal as least part of my tinker network. No need to hide it now. Just like my new lieutenants everyone just seems to assume that they were all capes who moved here. Just like the rest of the people who want to live where an Endbringer had died. What I'm most surprised by is the fact the government isn't making an issue of it.

Cauldron really does seem to mean to keep their hands off Brockton Bay. Whether that's because of their experiment or my presence doesn't matter. Either way the Protectorate is slowly pulling out, downsizing their presence, citing the lack of parahuman crime as their reason.

Their reasons aren't wrong. Parahuman crime is at an all time low. Of course that's because my gang is the only one that exists in Brockton Bay and all their crime is much more subtle. I spent a week taking over a number of assets. Including Fortress Constructions.

It turns out Tattletale was now running it. She didn't join the Protectorate, instead she disappeared into the civilian sector. She had managed to gain control of most of Coil's assets and hired her team to join her. Publicly several of them had joined the Wards, but they were treated more like New Wave then Shadow Stalker.

It wasn't hard to convince her to work with me. I was even gracious about it. I wanted resources. I don't care if I'm in charge of the method used, just that it works. So I placed her in charge of most of my civilian projects, including my tinker network.

The last was something which had her rolling on the floor laughing. Considering the sheer terror Tattletale exhibited when I first appeared in front of her I wonder if she was experiencing emotional whiplash.

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I'd prefer to avoid the hassle of dealing with a Kill Order so I need a disguise for my clones. Since my stupid flaw means I still can't look like anything but a child I decide on a set of power armor. Well, more like a small mech that looks like power armor.

I base it off terminator armor from Warhammer 40k, although it changes out the face mask for the one the Big Daddy's use in Bioshock. Neither game exists in this world, although they might in Aleph. Who can't exactly sue me so I don't care.

I call them Reapers. I'd like to call them Terminators, but unfortunately that movie did come out and I'd like the avoid any panic attacks. I also limit their numbers. I send out no more than five at a time.

Well not publicly at least. Truthfully I send out several squads, but the rest are all disguised. Only one squad at a time is allowed to wearing the armor and attacking people. With maxed stealth and several powers active to aid them it wasn't like anyone was going to discover them.

As for the Reapers I try to make them seem like a tinker's wet dream. Exotic sensors, jetpack, cloaking systems and more. For weapons I used rail gun and laser cannon, both mounted on supports extending from the back and hanging over the shoulders. Each one five feet long they were overkill. Which is why they also have a half dozen smaller weapons incorporated into the suit.

My clones ended up spreading out like a plague. Without a range limit I had them infiltrate all the largest cities. Between how fast they could travel with Mover powers and my scan, finding parahumans was a breeze.

It took less than a week to prepare. The wave of assassinations was enough to terrify the world. Entire gangs were eliminated as a seemingly impossibly fast squad of tinker constructs started teleporting across the nation.

They'd appear, spraying out thousands of rounds from several weapons and effortlessly cutting down every criminal in range. Even pickpockets were killed. Then, less than a minute later, they'd vanish. Anyone checking timestamps would find that there was less than a minute between each appearance.

Capes are powerful, but they're limited to a single strong power of a number of lesser powers. My clones weren't. I had amazing physical stats, more than enough to qualify as a Brute and Mover on their own. The mech each wore also boosted them as well as provided several support systems.

I also had numerous skills, many of which could be powers in their own right. Especially after using Trainer to max them. Add in the often total surprise and lack of banter and my targets usually died in the first few seconds. Knowledge really is power.

I gained a number of grand soul gems and split them between Mana Regeneration, Improved Mana Regeneration and Memory Partition. After all the more clones out I had hunting the more gems I can gather. If there were more capes in the world, and I was willing to go all out, I might even have achieved true exponential growth. At it is I still have a decent linear progression.

I do buy a few other perks. Explorer for an automapping feature. Because why not end up with a map of the world? Flash Step because more teleporting is always good. And enough points in Easy as Breathing to make Iaido free for me.

Killing so many capes also meant I also leveled quickly and constantly. The reduced experience as I became higher level replaced by more sources of it. I'm like Walmart but with murder. Which sounded a lot better in my head.

One thing that Gamer's Mind can't help me with is mental fatigue. My boosted intelligence and some other abilities can greatly mitigate it, but running dozens of clones simultaneously across the country is a strain. It was probably one of the main contributing factors into why I stopped caring about hiding.

I had over a hundred instances of myself running by that point. While I still only deliberately went after villains, but if any heroes interfered I just killed them and moved on. Sure I had most of their powers already but it was another chance for a soul gem.

Abathur was ecstatic over the flood of samples and was rapidly designing ever more terrifying combinations of powers. He particularly enjoyed Nilbog's power as it greatly sped up his experiments. None of his models were being produced though since I was going to have to reset my power again to be able to harvest them.

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Cauldron approached me twice. At the same time.

I'm not sure if they really are just that awkward without Contessa's guidance or they're splitting into factions, but both Alexandria and Legend approached me. Either way neither group had Contessa with them.

I talked to Legend first. He was passionate and reasonable. His arguments were all good. He explained about the threat of Scion. I could even agree with him. Too bad he doesn't know what Cauldron really does.

Telling him broke him. To know everything he had worked for was a lie. To discover the boogeyman was Cauldron and he was part of it. I honestly felt bad for him. It was like kicking a puppy. Or Captain America.

So I left him alone when he stopped talking. I didn't promise him anything though. I wasn't feeling that bad.

Alexandria was next. She was accompanied by the Number Man. Instead of passionate appeals they laid out their position in cold hard logic. Again I could see how they got where they were. I just didn't agree with them.

It was just so wasteful.

Sure maybe at the beginning it was necessary, although I doubt it. But after a decade or two of research? They could have started mass cloning and experimentation. Bonesaw's Slaughterhouse 9000 could have easily been a million. A billion. An endless sea of capes.

Worse, why had they never tried so many of the things Bonesaw or other villains had? Sure she was an insane monster, but they were already acting the part of monsters. Combining powers, breeding capes and a dozen other methods of creating living weapons against Scion.

They just acted too much like Bond villains for me. Secret bases, elaborate plans, ignoring any evidence they disagree with. Willfully blind idiots.

I didn't even let them finish their argument. I loaded Gilgamesh, teleported through the portal and cut down everything within reach. It turns out it's really hard to kill something you can't physically target so the Custodian escaped my grasp. Not even Flechette's power can harm her. A flaw in my offense I should probably fix later.

One survivor isn't too bad.

Honestly going down to the cells and wiping out all the test subjects was probably a mercy for most of them. The few that didn't seem insane I took a small sample from before letting go. I could afford to be merciful. I already had all the members of Cauldron save Legend. I doubt any of them could compare.

Besides deep within the base I found the mother lode.

I found the corpse of Eden.

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Well if Abathur wasn't loyal to me before he sure is now. I doubt I could offer him anything greater than Eden's body. Well, maybe Scion or Abaddon. Of course it wasn't like I wasn't going to turn Scion's corpse once I killed him.

Still, he is happy and his research is making me happy, so all is well.

Well, everything would be well if Endbringers hadn't shown up. Part of it was my fault. I had forgotten that I now possessed a copy of Eidolons power. As such my assumption that the endbringers would stay on schedule meant that they did. Of course they didn't just appear though. My desire for more capable minions had them presenting themselves to me.

Clearly preconceptions play a large part into what they are. Or else why would I be able to recognize so many of them. Not just from the story, but from fanfiction as well. There's Khonsu, but also Khepri and several others I only vaguely recall.

I can feel them too. Like a direct link to each of them, similar to my clones, but not nearly as intimate. It also lets me know they're much more powerful than the Endbringers in the stories. Bohu didn't create traps. She was a full scale macro-fabricator and tinker. The inorganic counterpart to the shaper power from the CYOA.

Then there is the one with the actual shaper power. Which of course looks like Kerrigan. I blame the pictures from the CYOA for that one. And I'm pretty sure Behemoth wasn't an absolute psychokinetic before.

As for the rest I blame my subconscious. Why else would something that looks pretty much like Cthulhu have Vista's space warping powers amped up to eleven? And without a Manton limit to boot. The addition of Labyrinth's power as well also sounded like something I'd come up with.

Some I was just surprised by. After all I don't ever remember reading about a reptilian version of Echidna, well Noelle since I killed her before she rampaged. Maybe it was based off something I wanted? I do like the concept of minions.

However the prismatic glass person with the head of a lion didn't make much sense at all. It had the ability to convert all matter in a small area into glass, like one of Bakuda's bombs. Why would I want something like that when I had a biosculpter and inorganic sculptor pair of Endbringers?

At least I could influence them actively to some degree. So Leviathan, even without the Simurgh's aid, gained nanothorn fins and even raptor-like talons. Tohu's necks extended and gained the ability to grow two heads for each one that's cut off. And the lion guy no longer virally converted matter, but consumed it to spawn copies of itself. After all, what use are mountains of glass?

Then the Endbringer sirens went off.

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Lisa wasn't ashamed to admit that when the sirens first went off her first reaction was to panic. It was instinctive. Too many years of conditioning to react any other way.

Thankfully the repeated shocks from being exposed to Wild Hunt actually came in useful and it didn't last. And there's the fact that Wild Hunt also lives here. And with what her power fed her on just what he had used against the Simurgh, Lisa seriously doubted Behemoth or Leviathan would take any longer to be put down.

Her new boss really was pure bullshit. The combination of flight, precognition blocking, and shooting magical homing swords that can cut through everything was simply ridiculous. And that didn't even cover how many other powers he currently possessed. Him having a better version of Glaistig Uaine's power was not comforting.

Well, at least not when you're in his presence. Wild Hunt's strength was very comforting when you find yourself working for him and live inside a city he's protecting. But only when not sharing a room with him.

Which is why after a very brief and aborted lunge towards her emergency bag, Lisa picked herself back up and sat down on the couch. After all the last time she had talked to her boss he had indicated he had something spectacular planned for the other Endbringers.

Getting a call from Wild Hunt with the order to turn off the Endbringer sirens was not what she expected. Not that she could anyway. After the Simurgh had been revealed to be a tinker the sirens had been made heavily redundant and incredibly easy to trigger. No one liked the possibility of her sneaking and screaming without any warning.

Lisa did her best though. The Geek Squad, which is what she had named the tinker network, had provided her with massively upgraded capabilities. She had access to every security camera in the city, along with a fleet of sensor drones.

Cameras weren't the only thing her drones carried. Several of the larger ones carried bolters. Named and inspired by some gun from a game they were basically small spinning rocket bullets. A small plastic explosive starts it moving and sets off the rocket. Then it drills into the target. And it was literally drill.

Lisa gives a shiver thinking about the bolters. The wounds they inflicted were horrifying to see. So horrific that she had hired a team of people to take over piloting the armed drones. Knowing what they did she had trouble targeting people, even if she lost the drone. She wasn't surprised that Alec had no problem leading the team.

For him it was a dream job. Work was just to be on call until deployed. And when he was called up, it was only to get on the computer and play a real life FPS.

It wasn't just him either. Her entire team was being taken care of. Brian had job using his powers to provide radiation shielding for the Geek Squad and Rachel was running a dog training facility. Even Brian's sister was employed. She wasn't a cape, but it didn't matter since she worked with Alec.

Both of them are currently busy hunting down sirens under her directions. It's slow going though. At this rate, it'll take hours. Espeically since dragon keeps hacking the drones and the PRT is trying sending out squads to protect the sirens.

The massive EMP catches her by surprise. Lisa can't help but scream in protest as she sees her laptop fry. Her multi-million dollar laptop she had custom made. Then her power kicks in.

EMP wave massive in scope. Most likely source Behemoth. Hero killer never attempted stealth. Stealth pointless right now. Not attempting stealth.

Lisa's train of thought crashes when the lights come back on. Then her laptop slowly starts repairing itself. The cracked screen smooths out. The warped plastic flattens out. A quick glance around shows everything repairing itself. Even things like the stain on the couch from last week.

The only conclusion her power comes to is that the Simurgh is here and going around fixing things. Which is impossible. And ridiculous. And scary enough that Lisa decides she needs to go to bed.

Hopefully when she wakes up the world will make sense.