Journeyman 3.1

The Battle for Canberra had been a tiresome one, and a battle in which Scion did not show up at all. Yet its end result was better than most had expected, seeing as Simurgh had actually retreated before the entire city would have needed to be quarantined. She had not lingered long enough to spread her song onto the populace there, indeed, her attack had been surprisingly swift and even brutal compared to some of the previous ones.

From the number of heroes that went to the fight the majority were coming back bruised, but able to recover fully given time. A few had been isolated for observation for a while, but should recover. Yet there had been a few casualties, most noteworthy among them being Eidolon himself.

Legend and Eidolon had lead the attack, with Alexandria lending her own power to strikes against the mind twisting figure in the angelic form, striking one after another before Simurgh had surprised them unleashing a level of power that was previously unseen. It was apparent either Simurgh had been sandbagging, or had deemed the situation bad enough to use some previously unheard of boost on its own abilities, but regardless the end results had shocked people.

Eidolon had been slashed and torn by things that danced to Simurgh's will, and her attacks had also been joined by a barrage of blasters that she had actually managed to fool into launching an all out attack when she pretended to be momentarily stunned or disoriented, only to slip to the side just in time and even pushing Eidolon right in the path of those blasts.

Legend had even blamed himself for it, but the end results were the same. Eidolon had been badly beaten, rendered to a comatose state, and practically hurled away with breakneck speed by Simurgh before she began her retreat. The fact Legend had managed to accelerate in time to catch Eidolon had spared his life, but the beating and the quick stop, even if Legend was able to cushion it somewhat, was still sufficient to leave Eidolon in a vegetative state, potentially permanently.

The people were happy they had won, and that the city had been saved a grim fate, yet at the same time some people were wondering if this victory came at a high price, for if Eidolon had been one of their few trump cards against Endbringers and now unable to participate in these fights anymore, what would that mean for future conflicts?

Cauldron may have been panicking and horrified of their potential loss in this fight, but in the meanwhile in Brockton Bay a lone figure was letting out a relieved sigh while closing the television. Stretching out he smiled slightly and considered the present circumstances.

Eidolon was down, potentially permanently. The Endbringers had not all immediately fallen into slumber, but the fact remained that Simurgh had not really cared to stay behind in Canberra once Eidolon was out of action spoke in favor of them being less inclined to carry out previously given commands.

That did not necessarily mean that it was over, but it did offer a possibility of at least slower cycle and he had some hope it might even spell the end of Endbringer attacks, eventually. It would remain to be seen if Eidolon being knocked out would affect things or if it would take killing the man to render the Endbringers to a deep slumber.

The problem in that case was the fact that Scion would potentially still destroy the world if given a convincing enough reason to do so. Which meant Jack Slash and his communication shard would have to go. Yet the Slaughterhouse 9 were no joke, and even if some people might think they could be taken down and rendered into pieces with sufficient force and surprise, they seemed to underestimate the danger that roaming band of murderhobos posed to the world and the individual capes in their path.

Still, Thomas Wolf had other matters to consider as well. Chief among them the game he had been pulled into, the game that granted him access to his powers but also set him up as prey to a bunch of dangerous individuals who would be looking for any chance to render him into bloody pieces to secure their own powers and more.

As if that wasn't bad enough, he had met with Calvert, or Coil, and had been actually tempted to kill the man on the spot. Yet he had stayed his hand, wanting to know what Calvert was after. He had, after all, taken the chance to step up and approach Thomas in person, or at least he thought so. It was entirely possible he was dealing with a body double of some sort, though he had a feeling Coil tended to use that trick more with actual villain costume on rather than in his civilian identity.

"I am here as a messenger, someone who was asked to deliver something to you in person, by a person with a particular interest in you and your abilities. I considered entrusting this task to another, delegating it, but ultimately decided to carry it out in person so to be certain it was delivered. Here. Take this, and you will have both answers, and more questions on your mind, after that, it is your decision whether or not you will call the number that has been included in the message."

He had a feeling that Calvert may have tried alternative means to bring him in and failed, resulting in a more careful approach, but that changed when he noted the stylish letter C on the letter. Without his gamer abilities he would have likely shown more surprise than he had, but even with it he had tensed up, a reaction that did not go unnoticed. Calvert had chosen not to comment on it, and had soon departed again, though not before leaving him with a phone number of his own, asking him to call if he was willing to do some mercenary work.

What the letter had contained was another fine bit of headache. It seemed he had set off some small ripples with his man of mystery advantage, though relatively minor and easily enough ignored by Cauldron unless they were focusing on Brockton Bay itself, yet at the same time, there was another more wide-spread veil of blindspots over Brockton, a veil that was hindering Cauldron's efforts.

Contained within was an offer of $2,500,000.00 USD for locating and either capturing or eliminating its source, as well as an offer for continued employment. They were also offering assistance in relocating elsewhere afterwards, if he so desired. All in all a seemingly fair, though criminal offer.

The problem was he wasn't going to be able to go anywhere, nor was he too keen on attacking someone who wasn't a hunter. Criminals taken down were one thing, but this was an offer to commit murder in exchange for money. An offer to make him an assassin.

Which frankly worried him, because Cauldron had its own spooky woman in a dress with capabilities that should far exceed his own when it came to precision strikes like assassination. That was before he considered the possibility that they had avoided using that option precisely because of the number of blindspots now present in Brockton Bay.

Regardless, he had confirmation that both Cauldron and Coil were aware of him, and though he didn't know for sure he could only assume Coil had tried to have him kidnapped before, with poor results. Otherwise he would probably be living a timeline of being a caged captive being converted to coil's schemes already.

Thomas Calvert was sitting quietly in his base while silently evaluating his options. Taking down Blackjack had proven to be more expensive than he would have wanted to make it, and didn't solve the issue of blindspots caused by another, and he had not made any progress in trying to locate that alternative source.

His benefactors had dropped a message that he could make use of the known one if he so desired, and even included some additional information to try and aid in convincing the individual in question to side with them. Unfortunately that was about as much as Calvert had been privy about the contents of said letter, as a timeline where he had opened the letter himself had abruptly ended with a gunshot from behind.

It irritated him to be reduced to an errand boy like that, but trying to establish a peaceful, friendly front and win the man over might pay off in the long run. He didn't like gambling with the odds when he could not rig the game in his favor with his power, but at the present time there were few options, as trying to take the man down by force wasn't an efficient plan, not when he could take down Coil's mercenaries and seemed to be getting better and better at it.

Sending Circus in to dig for information had resulted in surprisingly empty background check, to a point the absence of information spoke for itself, before a whole persona had been crafted and inserted in place in various governmental agencies as well, a forgery so good it required an inside job. A job that would have cost a fortune to pull off, but given his apparent powers it was not unthinkable he might have had the money or the favors owed to him to do so, if only Coil had a definite path to follow.

The events at Canberra were raising a lot of different discussions, and even at Winslow the latest lecture about the capes and their effect on recent history saw the event brought up and an attempt at engaging the class in a debate had been poorly pulled off by Mr. Gladly as he set people up in small groups to discuss what the implications of this recent situation might be in the long term.

Taylor Hebert wasn't pleased to be stuck at the same table with Greg and one of Emma's lackeys, Marie. She was a hanger on but an annoyance regardless, and Taylor really didn't want to deal with any additional drama that day.

At least it seemed that Emma and Madison had been left to resort to assaulting her with words since Sophia had been busy recently with her own practice, a rumor going on even suggested she might have plans to bring some medals to Winslow for sports achievements.

Taylor doubted that though. While Sophia was indeed in good shape and athletic, she was too violent for any team-sports and her competitive nature might make her a very sore loser if that came to be. Practicing like crazy recently made little sense with how she had been practically blowing off practice before to help plan and play those cruel, ruthless pranks on her alongside Emma and Madison, serving as the muscle of their little group of harpies.

Tuning out Greg's eager talk she winced slightly at a particularly harsh 'shut up' snapped by Marie after a moment, after which the pouting boy had turned his eyes on her. Taylor really didn't want to deal with his clingy behavior either. The boy might talk about wanting to help, but he had never done anything to really help Taylor nor had he been willing to speak up when police had asked about the incident at school.

The fact that they had actually tried to blame her for the mess had not sat right with the police, not after Taylor's own interview with them, and while they had not caught the ones responsible they had managed to pressure the school into paying for her hospital stay and a modest sum in addition, though it was grudgingly and she had a feeling the principal wanted her head mounted on a wall in revenge.

The fact she'd also set up transfer requests and then witnessed them being shoved into a shredder without as much as a proper look had only further cemented her decision to try and ignore the trouble going on to the best of her ability, defend herself if necessary, and harden her resolve against Emma.

Legion's attacks in the city had come close to killing Emma but rather than take it as a scare to think about how she had behaved and how she would want to be remembered she had instead focused on the fact she'd survived and how Legion had been shot, well one of the times he had been shot, on practically her own doorstep, making her a sort of celebrity, for about five minutes, and school-wide if that.

Watching the shell of what was once her former friend reacting in such a manner had helped convince Taylor that alongside all the cruelty already displayed Emma was just not worth giving any though about anymore. That friendship was not only dead, but its corpse mutilated and tossed overboard to feed sharks by Sophia's actions.

The locker had changed things for her, and Taylor Hebert was looking to change herself. She wasn't showing too much of it on the surface yet, but she cared far less than she used to, and old insults still hurt but not nearly as much as they once did.

The fact she had actually told Emma face to face she was sorry to hear she had lived through the experience, with a particular focus on the word lived had seemed to shake up the now stuck-up bitch though, enough to grant her some reprieve for the rest of the day, only to make it worse the next day.

"So Taylor, what about I take you out after school? I know this movie theater that is running some cool old films and-" Greg's comment caught her out of her thoughts and made her wince before she held up a hand in front of his face.

"Stop. Just stop. I am not interested in you, nor am I going to go out with you. Not even as a friend."

He saw the shocked look on Greg's face even as the bell rang, heading off to the hallway and hurrying off as fast as she could. The school was irritating, her powers were waiting to be used, and yet she had to wait. She was not ready.

The added pressure of Legion's attacks, and now the radical change of having Eidolon who was a regular, powerful participant in Endbringer fights being taken down was getting to her. The world was in a sad shape, and she wasn't sure how long it really had. With people like Slaughterhouse 9 and the Legion running wild, it really did not seem like they had much of a future, and the Blasphemies and Ashbeast made life difficult elsewhere.

Yet under all that crap, the more immediate issue of seeing Emma and Madison heading towards her with another verbal assault in mind no doubt just made her want to snap back at Emma's face, and really tell her where to shove whatever taunts she now had in mind. Unfortunately she knew that despite the pressure she was under the school's principal would be just aching for an excuse to jump on her and punish her.

The first warning the members of Burning Legion's cultists had that their newly acquired compound was under attack was the fiery explosion that rocked the structures around it, the mess hall collapsing alongside the armory as the artillery strikes hit home. The people were getting up and those who had kept their weapons with them were quick to check they were ready to be used, and sliding safeties off.

The nearby wall shattered with a tank pushing through, and even as the first line of flaming hands and magic missiles pinged on its hull alongside rifle fire, the gun blasted into the biggest grouping of men, even as soldiers began to enter through the hole in the wall and unload upon the cultists with automatic weapons.

The gates in turn were shattered by an explosion mere seconds later, heralding the arrival of more vehicles, with mounted machineguns starting to spray and cut down cult members with merciless intent.

Legion's cultists had struck in five little towns, and killed anyone that got in their way, while Legion clones served as field commanders, and simultaneous attempt to free the captive brethren was under way.

The fact the cultists had shown unnatural abilities so similar to Legion's own had sent a lot of Thinkers theorizing and debating, before a rather frightening parallel had been drawn with Teacher. One 'deathless psychopath with powers' was bad enough, the people in charge were not willing to allow more of such individuals to grow in power and numbers. The fact the man had gathered such a force so quickly also made them wonder if Legion's powers included a potential master power of some sort, given his intrusion in Brockton Bay and the way he had gathered people around him like that. In short, that made Legion a high priority target, with little restraints in use if found away from innocents.

Cauldron's little push behind the move only served to refine the plans further and time it right.

The first explosion in itself had torn apart two of Legion's clones, murdering them before they could organize these bastards. They might be back later, but by then, their weeks of work would be rendered ash, and the cultists stomped down in a way that would be a win that the PRT and the military could wave on the banners. It might be an overkill, but against Legion, there was little the government wasn't willing to do by now.

The fact they'd gathered together like that was a mistake that the armed forces were certainly happy to take full advantage of. The cultists that had been hiding before had got bolder and wilder, and after their triumph they had gathered to be taught more, with Legion's grasp on their hearts and minds secured they wanted power and practically worshipped the monster willing to give it to them, so the military and the PRT had acted.

Unlike in cultist assaults, the blood soaking the ground was not that of innocents but of blood-soaked maniacs and murderers. People drawn to power and corrupted, the PRT and the military had little reason to even attempt to take any alive, but orders were orders, and a few of the 'casters' were subdued swiftly with both stunguns and containment foam, even as the others were put down as rabid dogs.

After all, both the PRT and the military wanted to know how those individuals had gained power, so similar power in fact, and if the effect could be reproduced without the insanity that seemed to have befallen all of them.

Contessa waited patiently even as Legion's clone reformed in the wilds close to the compound, putting a bullet in his head. Again, and again. She had resorted to carrying a rifle with her when she went out to do this, because pistol caliber was no longer reliable with all of those clones, and even at close range it would have been a hard move if he had those shields of his in effect.

But with her power, and away from Brockton, she knew exactly where each one came out. Repeating the pattern, killing Legion's clones over and over a few more times, till it had taken long enough. The two appeared together in close proximity the next time, only to be met with the sight of a tall blue man, if they could call it a man, standing almost twice as tall as them at a clearing. Grinning.

It grasped them both, one in each hand, and raised the first one intent on chomping on its head when a pillar of fire emerged from the captive man's hand, scorching the man's mouth and throat with flames that poured out with force.

Dropping the two Legion clones and grimacing, the blue man roared and reached out to grasp them again while both made gestures and suddenly a pair of large hounds appeared along with glowing ritual circles, each one jumping ahead immediately to bite on the giant man.

Contessa frowned while watching from distance. There was no evidence whatsoever of the two clones having lost their powers, despite their close proximity to what was 'politely' referred to as 'Cannibal Nullifier', a monster of E-Class.

"Test results show E-38 is a failure, the trump ability of power nullification has failed to have any effect on Legion, no notable decrease in powers and definitely no flat out loss of power despite what other thinkers have suggested. Source of this 'resistance' is uncertain, but that confirms that we cannot simply attempt to nullify his powers to take him down." Her words were met with a short reply in her earpiece a moment later.

"Retreat, we'll try our luck with E-51 and E-116 later. I trust E-38 won't be a problem?" The Doctor Mother's question was already answered, as one of the Legion's buried his hand into the figure's mouth, only for a fiery explosion to erupt shattering the blue man's skull, even as the giant chomped said hand off in exchange.

"No, E-38 has already failed and been terminated by the target." Turning around, she had already switched off the microphone and the earpiece, speaking normally. "Door me."

By the time one of the Legion clones had broken the neck of the other to let it return to life in a full repaired body once again there was no signs of her having been present to witness the experiment. Her shard had already claimed it would not work but others had wanted confirmation and the fact her path had not provided a definite answer why it would not work had lead them to wanting to at least try it.