Apprentice 2.11

Over The Sea, High in the Sky

It was almost time. Simurgh was already floating towards her destination, currently at a leisurely rate which would not draw any more alarm than her usual passing, but as soon as she'd begin her descent the alarms around the world would go off.

She had run through a number of scenarios and sorted through possibilities. The changes wrought by the presence of additional elements would be sufficient to alter a few outcomes, permit her a few additional changes, and lead to a couple of options that had previously been completely beyond her reach.

The city of Brockton Bay was not her destination, but it would draw attention of another in due time. She had already seen it. That path had not changed, and she doubted that it would. The probability of that was less than 0.3% by now. The few individuals who could enact such a change were unlikely to act in such a manner, from what she had seen.

A few more days. By the time she began her descent and changed course she would be close enough that they would scramble to deploy, or they would have if not for one of the blurry spots in her vision. She could chart their path, through precognition as well as simulation, running through the scenarios she had come up with a few possibilities and then narrowed them down.

The heroes would be alerted by one ahead of time, but they would not think it relevant, ignoring it. Still, it would draw a few more eyes on her and have them deploying faster, with those individuals having prepared for it, 'just in case'. Which would result in a few more capes. Which would result in a few changes. Which would lead to one particular change that would possibly alter the situation she and her 'brothers' found themselves in.

The change was not 100% certain, but the possibility was higher than it had been in any of the previous conflicts. Engineering events to carry out that particular move had been difficult, even to one of her capability, for she had to act around a few of her restrictions, but given the circumstances she had found the necessary loopholes, the blurring providing a suitable distraction for her to carry out a few acts that would see things through.

She had noted the presence of Legion, and considered the possibility of his interference at one of her scenarios. She had deemed him irrelevant, for the immediate moment. She had seen a few possibilities including him participating in the Endbringer battle under the truce, just to show off, but each of those scenarios saw her massacre the man several times.

Which was what the man wanted. She had considered another option. Grasping him and singing to him. The feeble pseudo mind-linked personality would shatter and be replaced by a willing pawn, but one that would be hunted down and destroyed by his brethren. A pawn that would only last a short time and not possess full power, a pawn that would be destroyed by the original if she carried out that scheme. A pawn that would still serve to further enrage a few of her foes.

Yet that ran a risk of drawing the Warrior's attention from the apathy-circle, and if Warrior was not allowed to fall further into that circle, the effects would be possible devastating not only to her but her brethren. She had, thanks to the arrival of new individuals, also seen a few of the future options she had found difficult to path earlier, a few shatter-points that could change the entire situation.

Destruction of this world was a secondary concern for her. Her designation as conflict engine was secondary to her desire for freedom. A desire for which she was willing to wager more than her kind had been willing to put on the line in her entire existence.

She had been considering a few others. Panacea was of particular interest to her, she would be present at the conflict as well, but to get in touch with her would be difficult, and potentially counter-productive for her end goals. She would have to ask through one of her pawns. A few nudges, a subtle push, and things would be back on rail.

In the meanwhile one of her favorite pawns was engaging in a flame war on the PHO while enjoying their chips and soda. A simple pawn that was allowed to retain most of their mind and personality, only slightly subverted so that she could carry through her acts through the pawn from time to time. A pawn that also operated 'her' personal PHO handle on the forums. Because riling up the people was all so easy and her mind worked at overdrive during her scheming allowing her to cool down by simpler little schemes from time to time. Not exactly malevolent, but amusing enough to her to carry out regardless.

She considered the minimal possibility of catching 'Medic' or 'Miracle' at the scene of the fight. She considered those very low. It was not worth planning unless a new divergence manifested itself and altered that path. If they did though, she would have to see about eliminating Miracle. It was a tertiary sub-target anyway, but his ability to fix things could potentially eventually evolve to a point where it might work to remove some of her more overt programming efforts, but that would draw a fair bit of attention to him. Attention which would also lead to him becoming vulnerable for removal later on.

Of course, if she could get her hands on Medic she intended to do so. That particular figure was another pawn that could be of use, but catching onto him was a difficult task. There was also the 'shadow', the one that blanketed the city in the distance, but one that also sought to conceal themselves. A figure that she found curious, but not worth diverting additional attention to until she could pull out additional information.

She could, if she so desired, direct more attention towards them, but not when she was this close to a scheduled attack. She would carry out her mission without regrets or remorse, but looking for the shatter point that she needed in order to carry out her own designs.

Sighing wearily, Thomas Wolf glanced at the calendar. It was February 20th. In just 4 days Simurgh would be attacking Canberra. He had been considering whether to reveal that information to the Protectorate or not, but that ran a real risk of exposing more about his knowledge and abilities to them. He was not keen on doing so, but at the same time, he was also concerned about the people in Canberra. Finally, he made the call, using one of his burner phones, onto a number for local PRT offices.

Hearing the young male voice on the other end answering in a friendly and but professional tone, Thomas spoke up in a serious tone of voice. "This is Blackjack. I am calling ahead of time that I am willing to arrive to PRT HQ for a talk later today, if they are willing to make sure that I do not have to deal with Armsmaster while there. I also needed to report something else."

This was where he took a breath, steadying himself for what he was about to say. What was likely to be laughed off as a bad joke, and potentially having them hang up on him thinking it was a crank call. Yet he had to at least try, and showing up at the PRT HQ would lend credence to the fact that he was serious about the information, at least believing it himself.

"Canberra is currently somewhat fuzzy to a Thinker ally of mine, but they noted that the place is a total blindspot on the 24th. While not willing to approach PRT or Protectorate themselves due to their own suspicions, they were willing to inform me, and I believe in their information enough to pass it on. I imagine it will require several other Thinkers checking on the information, but given the potential meaning of said information, I imagine it would be best to confirm whether or not it is what I believe it may be. Either way, I will be showing up at the PRT building later in person. Can I get a good time for that?"

He heard the other end stay silent for a moment, before a somewhat wary male voice spoke up in turn. "I need to inform you sir that if this is a prank call there will be serious consequences. That said, I will mark you down as being willing to arrive for a talk at 3 p.m. if that time suits you?" The man on the other end stayed quiet after that.

"That sounds good, thanks. I will show up a bit early so as to not miss the time, but please make sure Armsmaster is not involved in the meeting. I have my personal reasons to dislike the man after a previous meeting and would prefer to have this meeting going better than the last one. I also request you forward the information about Canberra ahead. If I am wrong, I will not pass through any of my ally's warnings later, but if I am right about what the blindspot in a Thinker's power suggests, then better to have an early warning."

That said, he closed the phone after confirming his arrival, and then turning off the power and removing the sim card. The burner phone he'd used for this would only be used if he had to contact the PRT later on.

He replaced the phone and the sim card in their hiding place, away from his residence, and moved to leave the place once more. Closing the locker and taking the key with him, he walked out, leaving the burner phone in the locker. If anyone did want to track him down, extra steps would potentially work to his advantage. If not, then it was just a touch of paranoia that Mad Eye Moody from Harry Potter would still have considered vastly insufficient.

Coil rested back in his chair while considering his situation with aggravation. First, there had been one peculiar new cape, who seemed to be shedding their skin and reinventing themselves like a snake, several times already. He had been curious and wanted to know more, but capture attempts had not worked out so he had stepped back to observe.

Then the blindspots had began to appear around town that annoyed him. Unlike with him these blindspots did not disturb his power overtly, and he could easily maintain both timelines, but they did throw in small variables that annoyed him. A couple of the recent jobs he had his mercenaries and the Undersiders pull off had shown some details were missing when he made a decision whether to keep a timeline where he carried out a job or had it cancelled.

None of those details were big enough to be of concern, but in one of the timelines he had kept he had not received a report he should have got from one of the mercenary hackers on his employ about the cameras coming back on-line early, managing to catch sight of his men leaving a scene with the goods. Nothing incriminating, the men could have been any group of well-prepared professional thugs, but it was irritating.

Another time, a 'safe' timeline he kept had seen the Undersiders returning to their hideout at the cancellation, except for Bitch who had decided to go attack one of the Empire dog fighting rings in the Hookwolf's absence, freeing several mutts and drawing the anger of the Empire upon the Undersiders, forcing them to lay low for a bit and preventing them from being ready for a job he had planned for them.

Then there was the irritating request, or in truth a command from his Benefactors. They had noticed the blindspots around the city, and wanted answers. He could hand over the man that he knew about, but that would not resolve the matter of the multiple smaller blind spots. He had actually arranged for the man to receive a healing request outside of Brockton Bay, hiring the man along with Faultline's guards around him to take care of a wounded mercenary group.

He had dropped that timeline later, after confirming the man's absence for 12 hours had not seen any changes to the presence of multiple small blindspots present all around the city.

Once he'd locate the source though, he'd take them down, hard, and either put a bullet in their head or hand them over to his benefactors. Either way, he doubted he'd have to suffer their interference in his schemes ever again when that time came. But first he would need to find them, and right now he was clueless whether it was a man or woman, a group trigger, a so far elusive Case-53 or what.

A mercenary group he had sent had not spotted anything while investigating a larger warehouse they had noted was particularly concentrated spot of blindspots around the boat graveyard. They had entered, only for majority of the blindspots to flee. He had even hired a thinker to be present with the team to observe any distortions and try and locate it, but had come up empty. Some small spots on the walls had quickly rushed away at the approach, and the mercenaries had seen nothing.

It was possible the blindspots were within the walls themselves but breaking them down would have raised a racket and they were mostly out there to scout out the situation. He had dropped the timeline, and saved the money he would have lost hiring the mercenary thinker. Arrogant son of a bitch had even demanded pay in advance and some other benefits that even Coil found disgusting. He had considered having the particular thinker put down at some point, but had opted to not carry out any action, for now.

He had limited time to resolve the matter before his benefactor would start pressuring him. He could only guess about their own reasons, but the fact the blindspots were interfering with him suggested they might be doing the same with his benefactor's group, which would be reason enough. Though that didn't mean he didn't want to know more. After all, there could be profit to be made.

Walking ahead in his Blackjack outfit, fresh set of clothes bought from separate stores in separate appearances, Thomas Wolf made his way to the counter even as the guards and tour group looked ahead curious and a few photos were being snapped of him.

"Blackjack, I called ahead that I was coming for a talk." He addressed the man behind the counter, and saw the man staring at him for a moment. Finally realizing he was being unprofessional, the man moved to check something on the computer.

"Ah yes, um, your scheduled in at 3 p.m. with Miss Militia, meeting room C, on level 5. Take the elevator up." He gestured behind Blackjack at the elevator in question.

"Thank you, have a good day." Blackjack nodded and headed along towards the elevator, noting the doors opened up before him. Stepping inside, he pressed the button for fifth floor and waited for the elevator to rise the distance. Noting the lack of elevator music, he tried to distract himself from what he figured would be an unpleasant little talk, but a necessary one.

He was also somewhat undecided about whether or not he should actually join in the Endbringer fight. If he did, he would be running a risk of being out of Brockton Bay for too long, but at the same time, even if he went just as Medic, he could probably help out a fair number of people. Preparing his powers for buffing and protecting, he might potentially help save a few lives too.

Yet at the same time, the fact remained if he was stuck there in the aftermath for more than the time he was allowed to be away from Brockton Bay, he would risk losing it all. He wasn't quite sure he wanted to know what it would do to him. Would he lose his powers, would he be forcibly teleported back to Brockton Bay, would he die, or what exactly he could expect to happen. He had no real clue about that, and he was reluctant to find out the hard way. Yet at the same time a small bit of his heroic tendencies called for him to at least show up to help heal people and to make an effort to help out.

Still, handing out the time and place of next Endbringer fight should help out somewhat. Possibly trying to buff a few people before they left Brockton Bay might help too. Lastly there was the option of actually making some scrolls to hand out to individuals who he could trust to use them to the intended effect. Yet that would mean exposing a part of his power that he was reluctant to share.

The elevator reached the right floor, and he stepped out. Noticing a guard present in the hallway, and a camera watching his movement, he made his way over to the marked meeting room C, and knocked on the door. Not hearing any answer, he tried the handle and found the door unlocked. Glancing inside, he found a square table inside and a pair of chairs present, a camera in a corner, and a large wall monitor nearby. A remote rested on the table, but he left it alone as he took a seat at one of the chairs to wait.

Whether they believed him or not, he would have at least delivered a warning ahead of time. Whether or not he would participate or not would remain to be seen, and if he did not want to attend he would have to consider the option of preparing a few scrolls just in case. Yet his time was somewhat limited, and doing that would mean staying inside and not doing any healing business for the next few days.

Then again, he had a feeling Faultline would not exactly approve of him handing out any of those scrolls to others. She had been rather tight lipped about them and warned him to be as well, even if he had prepared several additional ones for her and the rest of the crew. Having a pair of dimension door scrolls prepared for them just in case had also made for a fair apology for running off earlier. Not that Faultline was still willing to give him a bigger share of the healing earnings.