Chapter 15

"What is the issue?" Rebecca Costa Brown, the Chief Director of PRT and the heroine Alexandria of Triumvirate, asked as she took her seat besides Doctor Mother. Curious about the reason why she was called here along with the rest of the Cauldron.

"It's about Contessa." And any kind of relaxation in her muscles went away and got replaced by tension as she heard what Doctor Mother said, no news about Contessa could ever be good news.

"What is it?" Eidolon asked from behind his mask, sometimes Rebecca wondered if he ever took that thing off.

"Yeah, and it better be actually important. Unlike you lot, I have better things to do than just sit in this dumb bunker and conspire like a group of middle school students." A rather short woman with green hair said with a snort. Not surprising as Tornado has always been rather unruly compared to their other members.

"Her powers have crashed." Doctor Mother said with a sigh and then there was silence. None of them spoke, none of them could spoke. And then they could and there was chaos.

Every member in the meeting was screaming at each other, trying to make sense of what the Doctor Mother had said or trying to find something to declare her a liar before Rebecca finally had enough and silenced the room by slamming her fist on the table.

"Enough!" She yelled with the same tone of voice she used on the dumber employees she had who thought that daddy's or mommy's influence could get a them a cozy position where they could make money without lifting a finger.

"If there are anyone who wishes to simply bicker like children, they are free to leave at any moment. But those who wish to do anything in order to help in a situation like this, calm down." Rebecca said, not willing to let them act like children.

"Alexandria is right." Amanda Waller, the co founder of the Cauldron, agreed as she glared at the other occupants of the room.

"If what Doctor Mother says is true, we need every capable member at their best mental capacity." The overweight black woman said before nodding at Doctor Mother, who nodded back and continued.

"First of all, this is a unique situation. There had been times when Contessa's paths had certain... incorrect factors, all of which were connected to second or third generation capes. But this isn't like that. Contessa can no longer properly activate her Path to Victory and when she manages to actually activate it, it only gives gibberish." She explained the situation.

"Do you think that it might be because of... one of them?" Amanda asked and everyone in the room flinched at the possibility. They were the reason Cauldron existed in the first place.

"I don't think so, if they could have done something like this then they would have done it before or never. I might be wrong but this likely has to do something else."

"Something else? That's the best you have?!" Tornado asked with a glare, not liking the lack of information they had for the first time since the creation of their organization. An organization that controlled even the PSC.

"Yes, and until we actually do have something solid; I want everyone to be alert." Doctor Mother said with a glare.

"What about Contessa?" One of their other members asked.

"Unfortunately, she is not exactly fit for society without her powers; she has gotten too dependent on them. We will keep her isolated until we can actually find a way to help her." She said with a sigh.

She didn't know what caused Contessa's power to short circuit, but she wished that they were suffering right now.

<><><><><><><><><><><>

"Hahahahahahaha!" I continued to laugh in pain as the ritual finally ended, the corpses of the magical beasts were gone so it had probably worked.

"Umm, you okay?" Monica asked me as she looked down with a troubled expression. I really should start my life of crime so that I could start paying her for dealing with my shit.

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm okay now. Hehe." I started to get up while still giggling a little bit.

Before Monica could ask anything else, I clapped my hands together and a marble statue of a large gorilla appeared from the thin air.

"What the..." Monica started to say just as my fist flew at the newly created statue with a speed that it had never reached before and then the statue flew away in two parts, shattering into many more parts when it impacted the wall.

"Ok, I'm strong." I said as clenched and unclenched my fist a few times while Monica looked at the wall with wide eyes.

"Guess your ritual worked." She said with a small chuckle but to me it felt like rather than sound, the last remaining pieces of her sanity was leaving from her mouth.

"Well of course, I said it would work after all." I said with a cocky smirk.

"Then, what's the plan now?" She asked with a smile that was quite delicate compared to the maniac grin on my face.

<><><><><><><><><><>

"Work harder you fucking slobs!" Whirlygig of the Merchants yelled as she had her men carry crates of drugs to their truck.

The kidnapping of Squealer had hit them hard, there wasn't exactly any signs that one could notice from outside but she knew that they would be screwed if the other gangs tried to gang up on them without the big titted bimbo and her monster trucks. So the boss had decided that they needed to make a show of force. A rampage in the territory that would make anyone think dozens of times before trying to get into their territory.

And who could do that better than the Snowflame after inhaling a truck load of cocaine.

It would be glorious.

"That's a lot of drugs." A voice said from her right and she whirled around with panic, her powers already active to create a protective cyclone of trash around her.

Which did nothing to protect her men and their shipment from a torrent of orange flames. Before she could even realize what was happening, her men were all screaming in agony and the smoke of the burning drugs were flying off in the air.

And the masked bastard who did that was looking at her with his arms spread wide.

"Hello there."