70

Date

2011 February 27th - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

Day 6107 - Saturday - Administrator Network Time

His first self-appointed task was dealing with some of the major threats in North America. Now that Ellisburg was gone, replaced by a slowly filling up lake, he could arrange things so that certain people could take care of other threats. After all, if the so-far unconquerable Ellisburg was taken out, then what stops people from taking out other dangers?

While not a high priority, the Fallen were still an annoying bunch and based on what he was planning, they could become a rather irritating thorn in his and Taylor's side. So he would do something about them.

Taking them out directly was once again not an option, unfortunately. If a group like the Fallen were to vanish or simply die as one at the same time, people would ask questions. And he knew humans. They would not rest until they figured out the mystery.

Of course, he could have arranged a series of random events that would result in the villainous capes' death, but he felt that was going too far. Not that he couldn't do it, but he felt instead he could just give the humans a small push and have them take care of them.

He would get rid of the Fallen, and the humans would get a nice win. In the end, everybody would be happy…

So, he collated the information about the capes and from them and the Shards connected to them, about their organization.

He was glad he didn't have a stomach anymore because he knew if he had, he would be vomiting as soon as he read the collected data. As he was now, it just simply confirmed his wish to get rid of that incestuous bunch.

The idea was that he would introduce a glitch in their system. Every parahuman who was working for the Fallen, willingly or not, would experience their powers glitching. This would manifest in different ways for different people.

For mind controllers, it would show up as their power ceasing to work on the target randomly. Or the target misinterpreting the orders. For those who had more physical powers, like elemental manipulators, they would misfire, or simply not being able to summon or control for a brief amount of time.

At first, this duration would be for a split second, but as time went on, the glitches would grow more numerous and would start lasting more and more time.

And most importantly, he would add this glitch to Mama Mathers' anti-thinker field, finally allowing the government-sponsored Thinkers (and Contessa) to hunt the villains.

While he was doing this, he took all the data from the powers that included some kind of mind control and had his simulators analyze it, then develop defenses against them. He would then add the results to Taylor's defenses. He also made these defenses available to his Network, in case some Shard wanted to make use of it during a new trigger.

While not a major villain in the grand scheme of things, Accord was still important. He simply took over his overachieving Shard (once again obsessive to the point of forgetting about basic security) and integrated the very competent prediction algorithms into his software. He still couldn't make full use of them, but soon, he would be.

And while he was there, he removed the man's murderous impulses and enormous compulsion. He also curtailed the power's parameters a little. No more world-spanning plans for the mastermind…

Among the Shards belonging to the Ambassadors, the only one with really interesting effects was Citrine. Her power was capable of disrupting parahuman powers, which resulted from the Shard disrupting them on a dimensional level. Altogether, the Shard seemed to be like a Sting off-shoot. It wasn't really impressive compared to his improved and enhanced Sting, but what it lacked in power, it more than made up in subtlety. The algorithms governing the distributions were so sophisticated, that his shields against that kind of attack would have only stopped around seventy percent of it.

After all, he planned to fight against another Sting, not something low-level. It was a really sobering realization, that even with his planning there were things he missed.

He had gotten used to being right.

He needed to more careful because they were getting close to the endgame, and he couldn't afford even a tiny mistake.

So, he set to develop his defenses based on the data gained from Citrine's Shard and began to scrutinize his plans with a renewed sense of vigor and cautiousness.

When he took over Accord's Shard, he also took a moment to observe the Travelers. They were a mess, so instead of mucking about, he swiftly took over their Shards and knocked them out.

He meticulously disconnected all the Shards from them, healed their bodies, or in the case of Noelle created a new one for her. Then he simply opened a portal under their luggage and bodies and dumped them on Aleph, with a note saying not to come back.

He had no need for Echidna…

As he worked on the threats facing humanity and on his own abilities, he took some time to check upon the parahumans whose power he had changed.

Predictably, the PRT and Protectorate immediately panicked and quarantined all the affected parahumans, while slowly and methodically testing them.

However, they couldn't find anything that could explain the widespread changes, while the affected parahumans just played with their new powers.

Though he had to admit, Vista's maniacal laughter as she demolished the practice dummies was a little disconcerting…

He also went over the Shards he took control of when he infiltrated Eidolon's Shard. First, he made sure that those that needed repair due to Eden's death, Cauldron's rough handling, or the Shard's action were repaired.

Then he simply took inventory.

There was of course the Matter Destruction power that Eidolon really favored, then several clairvoyant Shards, and at least a dozen healing, flying, and teleporting shards.

He simply copied all the data, making it available to his Network, while applying some improvements to the powers he granted to Taylor and to his own abilities.

The Matter Destruction improved his matter collection and handling capability, while the anti-gravity flying powers improved Taylor's power (and his understanding of gravity). For the healing Shards, he simply connected them to Shaper, allowing her to manage them.

The rest were topped up and connected to the Network, allowing them to look for a trigger event where they could properly connect to a human host.

The next one on his list was the Butcher's Shard. He already had its dimensional address, so he simply sent his usual infiltration virus, while busying himself with other tasks, like reviewing new power configurations from other Shards or answering questions from the less intelligent Shards.

However, he was broken out from his comfortable work when his system reported that the infiltration attempt was shredded automatically on coming to contact with the Shard's defenses.

Thankfully, the event itself provided enough information that allowed him to figure out what happened. It seemed the Shard's defenses were diametrically different from the Shards from Eden or Zion.

It was beyond the security he saw anywhere.

The only explanation he could come up with was that the origin of the Shard wasn't Zion or Eden, but Abaddon. Sadly, he couldn't confirm it without going inside and looking.

As for what its goal was? He had many theories, but nothing concrete.

Maybe it got damaged during transfer, maybe it was a Trojan designed to make Abaddon's eventual return easier…

For now, he quarantined the area in all dimensions around the address and created several observation posts to make sure he didn't miss any movement from the Shard.

Another trouble spot was the Nine.

He was sure that getting rid of Jack Slash was a high priority, but once again he couldn't act thoughtlessly. A lot of the Nine's power stemmed from their reputation as merciless psychopaths, the rest were well-deservedly, based on their parahuman powers.

So, if he were to eliminate them using the Shard connections leaving bodies, based on the experience of the Nine's theatrics and the presence of Bonesaw, the investigators would immediately suspect some kind of trick.

If he were to leave no body behind? They would obviously conclude that the Nine had sequestered themselves somewhere, planning something truly horrifying.

Naturally not everyone was that paranoid, but his simulators (now enhanced with Accord's Shard data) gave it a rather high chance of the people in charge panicking and making things worse.

So, he simply took over the Shards, for now, paying special attention to Jack's Shard.

It seemed as if during Eden's death two Shards collided. One obviously allowed the Host to extend the cutting edges, while the other was the Broadcast Shard. Unfortunately, or fortunately, seeing as the Shard was connected to Jack Slash, the collision damaged the Shard enough that it couldn't directly communicate with the Entities.

He simply separated the two Shards, leaving the first with Jack, and leaving his connection to Broadcast for now.

At the same time, he began using the Broadcast Shard to whisper paranoid delusions in his ears, making it seem as if parahumans were closing on him, prompting him to seek refuge away from people.

That would give him enough time to prepare somebody to take them out spectacularly…

He also took time to prepare a few things for Taylor to publish as Serenity. The reputation that Serenity gathered thanks to the Medi-Gel was a good start, but he really wanted to fix this Earth and several others where the Entities or Cauldron meddled. He and Taylor needed more.

Though, it was a little funny that barely a month after the publication of Medi-Gel Taylor as Serenity was touted as the savior of tens of thousands of people. There were also several declarations from several villainous groups that if somebody were to hurt her, they would go after them. Effectively creating a mini Truce centered on Serenity.

It was probably only luck that more people haven't figured out that she was living in Brockton Bay. As it was now, he already had to censor that information from the Shards that he had access to, preventing them from giving the answer to the Hosts. Because while his Anti-Thinker defenses obscured her, he couldn't really defend against using simple logic…

His newest additions were a water filter and water collector system (of course with different sizes, just as with the medi-gel production) and an environmentally friendly generator that used simple water to produce energy that was compatible with everything on Earth Bet.

The last was a little smaller, but he felt it was equally important.

With his knowledge of all the languages of the planet and his massive amount of processing power, he created a very simple translation program. It could translate written words from any language to any other, with an impressive level of context-awareness.

Basically, it would leave any online translator in the dust. He would give it to Taylor, then have her improve on it, and design a nice website where people could use it freely.

All in the name of global cooperation.

The biggest problem he had was definitely the Endbringers. While he personally could take care of them, the chance of Zion taking notice, because of his or the Simurgh's action was too high. He still had some things to do before he felt comfortable tackling the depressed Entity.

So, his plan was simple, he would use his connection to the Overseer Shard, to alter the message that originated from Eidolon. Knowing that the Simurgh was familiar with the man, he simply had the message directing the Leviathan towards Brockton Bay where it would need to cause chaos until Eidolon arrived and took care of it.

The message would suggest that Eidolon felt upstaged by Lux Arcana, and knowing that the woman was living in Brockton Bay, if Leviathan attacked there, he could show up and show her how a 'real' hero dealt with things, restoring the perceived loss of his reputation.

Of course, the man wasn't that despicable, he would have never given that order consciously, but well, his subconsciousness was rather different.

Maybe he would dream about defeating an Endbringer with his restored power, and showing Lux Arcana and Serenity and all those 'flavor of the month' parahumans, how powerful he really was. Or maybe he would daydream about getting his powers back and once again earning the adoration of thousands.

But the point was, that from an outside perspective (and he hoped from Simurgh's perspective) it was in character for the man. Maybe a little on the extreme side, but in character.

Then, using Dragon and Amy, he would plan out a defense that would prevent life loss while allowing Taylor to go to town on the Endbringer and kill it with the Sting. And while that was happening, he would use the confusion in the Entity Network and infiltrate the active Endbringer Shards directly.

If the Simurgh was smart, she would get the message, if not, well he could take her out simply. With the evidence that a sufficiently powerful parahuman could kill an Endbringer, it wouldn't really surprise people anymore.

Though it was rather ironic that his actions sent the 'canon' story (was it really a story if he was living it?) so off the rails just for him to steer the events so that it would return to it.

Life was ironic like that…

Just to make sure he wasn't blindly placing his faith into somebody, he also took time to review Dragon's action. He trusted the woman, but one never knew.

Apparently, the AI was using her drones, and the material acquired all over the world and from Brockton Bay, to rebuild and improve his facilities, then using these new facilities she would produce better tools and machines, drones. Then she would repeat the entire process. Thanks to the recycling technology he provided to Taylor, and thus to Dragon, and all the extra designs he added to the woman's Shard, there was little to no material loss during the process, allowing the woman incredible productivity.

She was already working on an improved body for herself, while also enhancing her battle mechs and creating all sorts of products that were used by the Guild or the PRT or sold all over the world. People on the internet were already calling her one of the greatest Tinkers on Earth, but as soon as they noticed her increase in productivity and strength they went crazy.

When he observed her, she was preparing for raiding the location of Heartbreaker. Thanks to Regent, and her advances in drone technology and computing, it was rather easy for the AI to find the rapist. But the solution came not from her, but from the ever exuberant and explosion happy Tinker, Nero.

He simply added some data from Mannequin's Shard, then returned to his research, content with Dragon's progress.