Mending broken hearts.

We exited the portal to a farm on the outskirts of Montreal, with a broken heart carved onto the gate stump.

"We're here. The Heartbroken!" I announced, putting on my glitched face mask.

The Heartbroken were a group of people under the thrall of the Master rated parahuman Heartbreaker.

Heartbreaker's power was long term emotion control. Once he got you in his range, his power would seep into you, allowing him to control your emotions giving you a high of love for as long as he wanted, addicting you to it, like drug.

And when he withdrew it, the victim would feel the same withdrawal symptoms as a regular druggie and beg to be put under his control again.

Basically, he made people fall in love with via mind control.

Anyone in love with him was willing to do anything for him.

Steal, kill, rape, be raped or even die.

Doesn't seem like a strong power, given it only worked by touch or line of sight and only so within a short range.

But that's where his genius came into play.

He knew he wasn't strong. He knew he couldn't fight against the heroes of they ever came for him.

So he used mob tactics and the Joestar family technique of tactical retreat whenever anyone came after him, throwing wave after wave of suicidal followers at the heroes while he and his retinue escaped.

Over the years he had slowly accumulated power in Canada, turning officials and people in power, or rather, their attractive wives and daughters to his cause.

With his followers and the children they bore him, after solidifying his power base, he finally create a cult for himself. The Heartbroken.

From what I remember, he had like seven or so children with powers, all master powers of course sonce their shards budded off of his own.

Two of them, Alec and Cherish escaped his cult eventually, so he sent two more of his children after them.

That means there are probably only 4 or 5 actual parahumans in the farm.

Which is great because it means less work for me.

After all, today is just a photo op that is there to set up what comes tomorrow.

To ensure the credibility of my newest invention for when I stamp out the shadow idiots of Cauldron and the Triumvirate.

"I still think this is a bad idea!" Paige said, nervous and pale.

"Oh pish posh. Everything will be fine. Besides, what are you scared of? You are a master cape too. His powers won't work on you anyways. And even if they did, I gave you the earpiece didn't I? That will take care of any power you can't resist. Now remember the plan. We go in, you use your power to master the civilians in there while I deal with the parahumans." I said, spreading out my nanobots across the farm, infecting the entire population, figuring out which ones were the parahumans and which ones were civilians.

Marking the parahumans, I gave Paige the signal, and opened the gate, stepping through the motion sensors. I could feel the silent alarms start to ring as people shuffled in the large farmhouse some ways from us.

Now for the piece du resistance.

I took a deep breath, filling my lungs to capacity and readied myself.

"HEARTBREAKER! YOU CHICKEN SHIT PIECE OF HUMAN GARBAGE! COME OUT AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN IF YOU DARE!" I shouted at the top of my voice, my words echoing across the farm, setting birds aflutter in the distance.

The door to the farmhouse opened as people began to exit en masse, like clowns out of one of those tiny clown cars, too many to fit comfortably in the house, even one that big.

"How are their so many of them?!" I could hear Paige mutter beside me.

And she was right.

Like honest to god, I could count at least a hundred or two at a glance.

I knew it was a sex cult and stuff but seriously, how much fucking has to go on in there for them to tolerate being lacked in there like sardines in a can?

Or maybe that's just an effect of mind control?

Well whatever. It won't matter soon enough.

Finally, as they completed their naked version of a phalanx, guns in hand, a small group of people, 3 teenagers and one man in his 40s came out, snickering amongst themselves.

The man strode forward, as his followers at the back bent down forming human steps for him as he climbed up on top of them, till he reached the human podium.

Lazily, he began to put on his clothes, shirt first, like a psychopath, letting his dick hang free in the wind.

"Don't you know you're supposed to put on your pants first you numbnut! No one wants to see your dick hanging free at noon." I shouted at him, shaking my fist.

He looked dismissively at me, with a smug grin before he snapped his fingers.

"I assure you, whoever you are..." He said, waving at me, ".... They very much do."

A girl, no older than 13, climbed up the human podium, stripped naked, and knelt down at his feet while he popped a viagra.

And then, well..... let's just say she began to service him.

"Ew....gross! You're a pedo too? Sheesh. Well, it's not like being a rapist was making you any more redeemable, but still dude, have some shame!" I said.

".....And where did that get you? You lost what, ah...uhm....your wife? Sister? Isn't that why you are here?" He asked, moaning.

"Well no. Not really." I smiled, " Wait, do people really come here for their loved ones? Don't they know they'll get mind controlled by you?" I asked curious.

"You'd be surprised how many hotheaded idiots I have to deal with every week." He said, resting his head on his hand, as he pointed out some people in the crowd.

"See that redhead. Yeah. The guy beside her is her brother. He came to free her last week. I made her peg him with a 14 incher all week since then, in front of a mirror." He laughed.

"Oof. Sucks to suck." I said, looking at him.

"Though you are certainly easygoing about the whole thing. You're even on a podium up there. Not afraid I might kill you?" I asked.

"If you were going to kill me, you would have come in guns blazing.

Not that you would have made it that way either but...." He shrugged, as he came.

"Swallow it." He said to the girl, as she gulped down his seed, and sat down at his feet waiting for round two.

"Besides, you'll be joining us soon enough. Maybe tonight I'll fuck your girlfriend over there in front of you."

"Oh I don't think so." I said, grinning, as I pointed behind him.

He turned to see his powered children fall to the floor, spasming like epileptics.

Finally, fear spiked in his eyes as he turned to look at me, and opened his mouth.

"Kill the-"

Only, Paige was faster.

"STOP. DROP YOUR GUNS." She commanded, her voice booming across the field.

The cultists who were raising their guns almost instinctively reacting to their master's feeling suddenly dropped their arms to their sides, letting go of their guns.

"Wh-what? This can't be happening!" He cried out, stepping forward, focusing his power as nerves expsed on his neck.

"Kill them! What are you waiting for?" He shouted.

Nobody moved though.

They all stood still as statues, even as they struggled against Paige's powers, twitching ever so slightly.

"First time fighting a Master stronger than you? I thought you were smarter than this, honestly." I said, walking forward, throwing the stasis beacons all across the field, causing gray watery power to pool together, forming bubbles that held the Heartbroken down in place.

"N-no.nonnonono!" He broke down and tried to run.

"Where do you think you are going?" I asked, chuckling as my nano swarm severed his tendons.

"Ah!" He cried.

Heartbreaker fell down, rolling off the human stairs, and hit his porch like a sack of potatoes, screaming in pain.

Ignoring him though, I gestured at Paige.

"Hand me the suitcase will you?" I said, taking the suitcase from her and placed it on the ground.

I opened it up to reveal an injector gun, and a whole line of clear vials with a translucent yellowish liquid in them.

Attaching a vial to the injector, I tapped the bubbles out, squirting a small bit of liquid.

"Canary. Let them go now." I ordered, as I pulled out a camera from my coat, and handed it to her.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yup. It's showtime. You know how to handled the camera, right?"

"Yeah. I filmed my first few songs myself." She replied, before turning to the mob.

"YOU MAY MOVE AS YOU WISH!"

"Good." I said, putting on my game face, and positioned myself outside the farm, against the stone wall.

Using my technokinesis, I connected the camera to the channel into the world's media that the Simurgh had opened up on day one, broadcasting the images to every television, computer screen, and mobile phone in the world.

And without Dragon online, there was no one capable of stopping me.

"On three." I said, putting the injector in my pocket to free my hands.

I shook with nervousness as I held back the chills from stage fright.

No time to waste!

"Three.....two....one! Action!"

.

Emily Piggot, chief director of the Brockton Bay PRT sat nervously in her office watching the laptop screen.

The entire chapter of wards sat around her.

Only moments prior she had been in the middle of a mission briefing about the sudden absence of Dragon and the security measures that were going to be necessary for the coming days.

Then suddenly her laptop began to malfunction in a familiar manner, one she had seen happen just weeks before across the world.

And she had a bad feeling about this.

"What's with the laptop? You break it with your video games?" Clockblocker took hold of the opportunity to tease her.

"Ward..." She growled, shutting him up with a glare.

"...sorry." He mewed, and shrunk into his chair.

" Any idea wha-" she had begun speaking when the door swung open and Armsmaster walked in, confirming her worst fears.

"I'm truly sorry about this director but this is an emergency. All media devices have been taken over. Again."

"Is it the device Simurgh made? I thought Dragon had disassembled the thing." Piggot asked.

"Yes. And no. She had disconnected it from the world's networks but it was too useful to destroy. She ...and I...We were studying it. Before she ...."

Piggot felt like shooting the man right then and there as veins twitched on her forehead.

Instead she grabbed the water bottle by her side and poured herself a glass of vodka she had hidden in it.

She wasn't one for day drinking but in light of recent events....she had reconsidered.

"Capes, I presume?" She said, taking a sip.

"So we think. But we don't have any concr-"

The screen suddenly blinked again as a video feed began to play on it.

A man in what she could only assume was a tinker tech mask projecting some sort of computer glitch over his face, or a genuinely odd case 53 cape, though she favored the former given his attire, walked onto the screen, wearing a labcoat and dark pants.

He leaned against a stone wall, as wind blew his dark hair gently.

He turned to the camera, and opened his mouth to speak.

"Have you ever pftt!"

He burst out laughing, raising a hand at the camera.

"Okay. Okay. Once more." He said.

"Haven't you evr buntehr-" he bit his tongue amd stuttered.

"Dangit!" He cried, "Alright once more."

But before he could say anything else he once again began to laugh.

"Okay Paige stop making that face. I need to ....hahahha..I need to film this."

"I'm not doing anything!" Came a faint voice of a woman from behind the camera.

"You're just suffering from stage fright!"

"What? Pshh Noooo!" He excused, waving his hand at her.

"I just nee- I just need to focus." He said, taking a deep breath.

"Foooo!" He let it out, leveling his hands at his stomach.

"Okay. Let's do this." He said, steeling his resolve.

"Aheheem!" He cleared his throat.

"Seems amateurish. Like some high school drama club." Aegis, the leader of the wards interjected.

"Shut up and watch." Armsmaster ordered.

The man on the screen began again.

"1 in 8000 people get powers everyday.

That means that in an average city, there could be as many as 300 parahumans running around, hiding in plain sight. How many of them become heroes?

If you have been seeing the news or even just have had your eyes open for the past few years, you'll know the answer to that.

Almost none!

A good majority of them end up becoming villains!

And the heroes are doing a damn shameful job of keeping them in line!

With the ever increasing number of parahumans popping out of the woodwork every week, haven't you ever wondered what would happen if one of the people you know became one?

Now imagine if they had master powers? Mind control! Body possession! Puppeteering!

What if this person with master powers was a friend? A classmate? That creepy guy at the office? A neighbour who has a secret crush on you? Or god forbid, even a stalker? Whatever will you do to protect yourself against them?

Can you even protect yourself?

I'm sure a lot of you are worried about that right about now.

Well fear no more!

Presenting!"

The man reached into his pocket, and pulled out an injector gun.

"Clearhead Plus!

A revolutionary new tinkertech serum guaranteed to wipe away any and all master effects. The world's first tried an tested cure for mind control! Just one hit of the serum and you'll be feeling like a monk in samadhi!

A master of your own mind, impenetrable to all outside!

Now I know what you're asking yourself.

Where did this come from? And who did I test it on? And the answer to that is... honestly? No one yet. Because unlike SOME people in the protectorate, I believe that human experimentation is wrong, both morally and ethically.

But, there are ways around this!

As I like to say, where there's a will, there's always a way!" He rhymed, wagging his finger.

"So, to prove to you that I'm not just selling snake oil and unicorn horn, let me provide you with a live demonstration. Follow me!" He said, as he walked past the stone wall, and a plank with a broken heart on it, to reveal a large crowd in front of a farmhouse, stuck in a grey forcefield.

"Here we have the perfect test subjects for our wonder drug!

The Heartbroken. Fresh off the farm!" He said, bucking his arm as he made the pun.

Clockblocker let out an amused snort.

"Man after my own heart!" He muttered to dirty looks from the rest of the room.

"Okay. Okay." He raised his hands in exasperation, as they turned back to the screen.

"Find out the current location of the Heartbroken." She ordered.

"Already on it." Armsmaster replied.

"Let's pick out our first volunteer!" The man on the screen said, as he walked past the crowd.

"Eenie meeny miny you!" He said, grabbing a naked ginger teenager, pulling him out of the forcefield.

"I'll kill you! For master!" He shouted lunging at the man, only to be kicked off his feet and into the man's arms.

The man in labcoat bent the teen over his knee and smacked the his butt hard, leaving a red palm mark.

"What a naughty boy! Let's cure you first!" He said, plunging the injector into the struggling man's neck, as he went limp for a moment before jerking back to conciousness.

"Wha-what was I ...ugh.." The teen grabbed his head, as he recalled the past week.

"What do you remember?" The man in the labcoat asked, kneeling beside the teen.

"I...I was...I came here to free my sister from Heartbreaker, and ..and then...he ...he .." the boy began to cry in shame.

"He ....violated... me!" The teen answered amidst choked sobs as the man in the labcoat consoled him, patting his back.

"Shhh....shhh.. it's fine now. You're safe. You're free from Heartbreaker's control."

The teen grabbed onto the man's labcoat and sniffled.

"Thank you....thank you so much....it ...it was hell! I ...felt like a puppet.... like a meatbag to be used and abused and ...he made me like it! He..he.."

"Yes..yes.. I know." The man comforted the teen, before turning to the camera.

"As you can see, it works pretty darn well. Almost instantly. And while it can't help you deal with the trauma of being mastered, it can at least set you free from someone else's control. This boy here, and countless other victims like him will need years of therapy to deal with this, but at least it will be a start. At least they will be free.....

With the help of my one and only, Clearhead Plus!

Order yours today!"

The feed shook as small snorts and giggles could be heard behind it as the girl holding the camera held back her laughter.

"Paige! Don't... don't haahehehe.. don't laugh at them."

"I'm not laughing at them I'm laughing at you ...hehehe stupid!" She replied.

"Hey! I invented this serum. I'm anything but stupid!" He huffed, hands on his hips, acting offended.

"Of course. You're the smartest man in the world~" She replied sarcastically.

The man's mask shifted around his eyes in what could only be interpreted as an eye roll, before he continued.

"Now then, as you can see. This is a one hundred percent effective anti master serum with a variety of uses.

Think a loved one is being mastered?

Jab them with a dose!

That stalker giving you a weird side eye?

Jab yourself, just in case.

Prevention is better than a cure, but when you can't prevent shit, a cure is as good as anything else. On second thought, no it's not. A cure is better!

And for the millions of people out there who are stuck in Simurgh quarantines, like the ones in Canberra or Madison, this serum is a ticket to freedom, to return to their lives as they used to be, or at least as well as they can salvage them.

I doubt there will be any more need for quarantines, and not just because I killed the Simurgh." He added, letting the bomb drop.

Piggot felt her jaw drop, as she stared at the screen in disbelief.

"Did he just say that he killed Simurgh? An endbringer? It was him?" Missy gasped.

"I....This is big news. This is going to be big news. We need a cover up ASAP." Piggot barked.

"I think it's a bit too late for a cover up. This is being simulcast across the world as we speak. There is no containing it."

"Then we're fucked." Piggot replied.

"We need to find this man. Find him and ...recruit him to our side. He is too valuable to be allowed to fall into anyone else's hands."

"Now usually, I'd advise doing proper blood work before you do this, buuuut if they have any diseases, it's probably spread to all of them by now, so I wouldn't worry too much about using the same needle."

She turned her attention back to the screen as he spoke and watched the man begin to inject all the others in the cult, letting them go free with tears of gratitude and blessing from them as he made his way to the farmhouse that had littered the background until now.

The camera followed behind him, slowly panning up to the steps of the farmhouse revealing a pantsless middle-aged man in a pool of his own blood.

"That's Heartbreaker!" Dauntless pointed out.

"No shit sherlock." Clockblocker replied.

"He's not going to execute him on live television... is..he?" Aegis asked.

"He better! I've been waiting for this." Shadow Stalker interjected from the back of the room.

"I'm having a meeting with your new parole officer. First that trigger case at your school and now this?

Stalker, you're grounded, indefinitely." Piggot said, leveling a glare at the black teen.

"You can't do that! You need me on the streets. Things are getting mean ou-" Shadow Stalker cried.

"My word is final. Unless you would prefer a trip to the Birdcage today?"

That shut her up fast.

Just in time too as the man on the screen continued.

"Well, Heartbreaker, if I had any faith in the Protectorate doing it's job, I would have left you tranquilized at their doorstep. But clearly, if the authorities cared enough to take you down, they could have done it at any time. No. They let you run amok, free to ruin lives when all it took for me to find and capture you was a internet search and a tinkertech stun gun.

If the mighty PRT with their millions of dollars of equipment can't be bothered to put you down like the dog you are. I'll just have to do it myself."

The man pulled out an injection from his pocket, now in purple, and jabbed it into heartbreaker's arm.

Purple lines formed around his veins as he began to writhe in pain, helpless, and paralyzed.

"You see Heartbreaker, this toxin, it's meant to give you a slow and silent, but incredibly painful death, paralyzed, a prisoner in your own body, like the people you mastered and abused.

A taste of your own medicine. Truly, poetic justice, not that I care much for crap like justice or heroism. But you do love to see it sometimes, like a rare treat on cheat day. Unfortunately, I don't have time to waste on you. So you'll die here, alone. Good bye."

The man turned once again to the camera and adjusted his lab coat, before facing into it.

"I'll be in Brockton Bay next week for those who want to buy the serum. Set prices, no negitiations. See you then. Ciao!"

"And the good news keeps coming!" Piggot finally broke, and let out a snort.

Armsmaster though kept his composure.

"He just painted a mssive target on the Bay. Everyone from around the world will be here within days. We can't handle this on our own. We need a full response here. Before the city becomes an active battlefield. The situation cannot be allowed to get any worse." He recommended.

"It won't, came a voice from behind them as Eidolon and Alexandria portaled in.

"We will be here. And so will the rest of the Protectorate. As many members as we can spare.

We have been after him for a while. He won't escape us this time." Alexandria assured.

Piggot on the other hand just sighed.

She should have taken an early retirement as planned. At least she would have been spared this clownery.