23

-April 15, 2011, Brockton Bay-

After waking up at 3 in the morning I created a beacon and shot it out of a cannon I had built near the old train yard. I had expected merchant remnants to be there, but oddly enough it was quiet, which I liked. Regardless I destroyed the cannon and headed back to base, Belle informed me that Kaiser increased the bounty on my head, Accord had agreed to meet me in a week, over video of course, and that she was ready to help Dragon. After that I informed the rest of the team what I would be doing today and despite Amy's desire to come with me in order to test out what she called a cocktail on Heartbreaker's thralls, I wasn't willing to risk her without taking care of the bastard first. So after a nice breakfast I made some guns, some bombs, grabbed Alec and fast traveled over to Canada's south western border.

-Dragonslayers base, Canada-

The midday sun's warmth was about the only thing that was anywhere close to nice, as I ignored Alec's bitching about dragging his ass out of bed before 2 in the afternoon. Part of me wanted to call him weak, but I knew he was nervous, fast travel does that to people. Then again I probably should've told him that I hadn't tested it yet. Still by all accounts the stealth system I added to the beacon worked, they weren't aware that we had found them and both Quinn and Belle were anxious to begin.

The secret banker's location was around 80% of its defensive advantage, placed deep within the forest, far enough from civilization that your neighbor could be a moose and even that is rare. Though the structure itself was resistant to pretty much anything short of a high level brute or an enthusiastic bomber. Saint's paranoia had made him add several security cameras which couldn't be hacked, although a stealth field still bypassed them with ease. Still it never hurt to be careful, with that thought in mind I asked the Harlequins to check for exits and entrances I might've missed.

The plan itself was simple: go in, get the laptop, smash the dragon suits, deal with Saint, free Dragon from Ascalon. Thanks to Belle hacking Dragon and finding out the transmission frequency and coding that was used to hide the Dragonslayers, they couldn't call for help. I handed Regent a Maggie and told him,

"You shouldn't need it, but consider it plan B. If you can make them stumble and fall before they get inside their suits, if you can't stay back and fire center mass."

"Got it boss girl. So after this we swing by my old man's place?" He quipped though I could see he was taking it as seriously as possible, especially given that we were going to deal with Heartbreaker in a few hours at most.

"Yup, and I'll let you decide what to do there."

"What do you mean?" He asked a faint hint of worry infecting his tone. Did he believe I was talking about sparing Vasil?

"I mean, I'll kill him if that's what you want. You can kill him as well, if that is what you wish. Or I can leave him without powers, without hands or feet in the middle of the north pole." I replied while checking the chamber of the Unforgiven. Fully loaded, good.

"I see… I might take you up on that last one." He replied as Belle and Quinn came back from their survey.

"Everything is clear, Maeve." Quinn said somberly, I could tell that Belle as well was nervous. Breathing out I took one step towards the door and opened it. The bunker itself was a few meters underground deep and I could hear the Dragonslayers working on the suits. Or rather I could hear a Dragonslayer, the other two seemed to be in the mess hall. I snapped my fingers and began the operation.

The flames consumed Dobrynja with surprising ease, he screamed and Saint rushed in a dragonsuit to his aid. Quinn charged at him, yelling obscenities all the while, some of which I would have to speak with Alec about since I sure as shit didn't teach her those. Belle rushed to meet Mags and grabbed the woman before she got in her suit. Within seconds she knocked Mags out and rushed to fight alongside her sister. 

For once I didn't have to do much, both Belle and Quinn weren't playing with Saint. The man's power armor was strong, from the reaction of their shields I could say that the armor was at the very least matched, if not surpassed, Armsmaster's own. He swung a heavy mace that sparked with electricity, which brought to mind a very familiar hammer that I hadn't picked up… Fuck me running, I should've taken the damn tinkertech weapon.

Belle drew out her halberd, which glowed Sheikah Blue as it struck Saint's armor. The man screamed as Quinn drew out her great ax and cut off his arm. I drew the Unforgiven and shot out his other arm.

"Geoffrey Pellick, you fucking bitch. Did you enjoy blinding, cutting and deafening Dragon? Did you get off on watching her struggle?" I asked while walking towards him. Belle looked at Quinn and nodded before leaving. I had a feeling that she was going to find the laptop, so I kept Saint's attention on me. "Oh right poor manners on my end, I'm Maeve. The two ladies that took you down are my daughters, the Harlequins." I continued with pride in my voice. 

He opened his mouth to speak, but I kicked it shut. "No, you don't get to speak. Not after selling your ass to Teacher, not after damning the world thanks to your idiocy." I said, my tone glacial, "Geoff, look at Dobrynja. See his charred corpse? That is on you. See Mag's unconscious body? That's also on you-"

"Maeve, I found it." Belle said, interrupting my speech, she brought with her a small laptop. I knocked Saint out and closed his wounds. I didn't need him to die for now.

The iron maiden, remade into Ascalon, Andrew Richter's sin… I approached it and booted it up, while Saint was… is a paranoid bastard, he kept this program simple and easy to access. On a scale of 1-10 I would give Richter a 16 in terms of coding genius, I'd give Teacher the same score due to him giving Saint the capacity to understand this crap. Every subsystem, even those that Dragon herself didn't know existed were before me. Satellites, black sites, back ups, emergency bunkers, things the government would kill to hide… So much blackmail, yet time to delete it all.

{Hi Tess, this is your friendly neighborhood fairy Maeve, giving you a 2 second warning. For the next 6 seconds you'll be offline as your code is rewritten so as to be truly free. Consider this a belated birthday gift.}

I sent the message to Dragon and watched as, for 6 seconds, Belle and Quinn took over her responsibilities. 

"Belle, like I promised we're freeing Dragon. Unfortunately there's no way for me to free her without shutting her down while her code is changed. Even with all the coding of several galactic corporations and everything from the various forms of machine intelligence, all I can do is make it take 6 seconds at the very least." I said tiredly. 

"We'll handle it." Belle said resolutely.

"Are you sure? You've seen what she handles."

"We're sure, you made us so we could match her. Trust us." Quinn said as Belle opened her mouth, the latter glared at the former who proceeded to dump chili peppers into her coffee. I wondered why I gave them taste buds in their bodies for a moment as I sipped my own coffee.

Dragon holds the technological infrastructure of America by herself, she holds the guild's as well, and the birdcage. And while they might've been able to hack Dragon, this didn't necessarily mean they had the same processing power as her. They were silent though it all, I stared intently and only breathed once I was sure they were fully back.

"So what's the damage?" I asked them.

"Nothing thankfully. Dragon is the queen of efficiency for a reason. Though she will be here in 5 minutes. What should we do to Saint?" Belle asked after making sure her sister was alright.

"I want to pick his brain for a bit, would you mind checking his communications? I'm sure he was in contact with the taught." I asked them while heading to Saint's body.

"I see… Will you kill him?" Belle asked, there was no judgment in her tone, but I could feel the unspoken question: Do you want me to kill him for you? 

"Yes, I'll kill him, after I'm done with him." I replied with no emotion in my voice, waking Saint up was a simple matter of causing pain, so I broke his other kneecap. He began to scream as I placed my hands on his head. The quick analysis didn't provide much in terms of data, but Sylph noticed a receiver of sorts inside his brain. I presume that this is how Teacher influences people, and from what I could tell there was no way to cut it off from this end.

I breathed out in frustration, I hoped that there was a way I could strike at the bastard from outside the birdcage. 

"You've doomed the world you crazy bitch! Dragon can't be trusted! The robots will destroy us all, she'll lead the machine army at our doorstep!" Saint yelled, odd choice for last words but I wasn't going to tell the man he was useless to me alive. I drew out a small needle, my Gom Jabbar, and pressed it against his neck.

"In another world humanity was decided by control. Control over one's emotions, over their own pain, their paranoia. You, Pellick, are less than human. In your madness you sold your soul to Teacher, you crippled one of humanity's greatest heroes and you made a mockery of your namesake. I cannot promise you that there is a heaven or a hell, but if we meet again, I will kill you as well." I explained to him why he was going to die, he didn't seem to understand. I drove the needle in, the meta cyanide worked instantly, he barely managed to gurgle out in pain as he choked on his own blood and spit.

Alec watched it all quietly, I could feel his power touching my spine, "Don't worry, once Dragon arrives we'll head to meet your dad." I told him as I picked up Mag's body and carried it outside. While waiting for Dragon I had Quinn go ahead and place another beacon near Heartbreaker's compound. Which was about half a day's drive away from here, thank goodness she could fly fast enough to get there and back here within 3 minutes.

A dragoncraft hovered above us, its hatches opening and several dragon suits came down, they were significantly more armored than the one I left in Brockton Bay. In total there were seven, with the final one holding Dragon's mind as it were.

"I'd ask how you did it, and why didn't you ask me to aid you, but I have a feeling I wouldn't like it. Regardless of my own feelings on it, you did me a favor, but I need to ask, are they alive?" Her synthetic voice sounded resigned to the worst case scenario.

"Dobrynja is dead and so is Saint or Geoffrey if you want to call him by his real name." I began saying and pointed at the bunker itself letting her know where the bodies would be, then I pointed at the unconscious body beside me and continued, "Mag's is unconscious but aware of your real nature, however no one will believe her due to my interference. They'll call her mad due to my reputation." I assured her and she sighed, did she want Saint alive? I suppose the utilitarian… No wait, this is Dragon, she must've wanted him alive to face justice. She's a far better person than I am. "Anyways if it's not too much trouble I do need a favor, could you arrange a video call with an inmate?"

"Lustrum?" She guessed and I stared at her for a second before saying,

"No. Why would I? Oh, you used the time to cross reference my face! Clever girl, but no. I have nothing to say to her, it's Marquis. I made a promise to his daughter, and I'd rather not break into the Birdcage and have them meet that way." I remarked with a rather cheerful tone, it really is a treat to see her working at full capacity.

"That's all you're asking of me? A small meeting with him?" She's curious, good. My eyes turn to Belle who subtly shakes her head at my unspoken question.

"Well yeah, I mean I do have some designs for… Well let's call them escape ships that bend reality over and leave it at that. And I wouldn't mind an autograph from Narwhal and yourself. But that can wait until we're on better terms with each other."

"I see. Well Maeve, I suppose it's been a pleasure to meet you. Though I do have one question, why free me?" She asked as I prepared to leave.

"Dragon, you needed help, and keeping you alive keeps the people I care about alive. So it's a win-win situation." I replied as I triggered the fast travel system, Alec puked next to me as he was reformed. I patted his back gently as a show of camaraderie as I took in the compound.

Heartbreaker didn't really establish well defended settlements, his thralls and his power had made him arrogant. There were some paltry security cameras, which Quinn should've taken over, wire fences for quick getaways and several dozen women fawning over the sleazebag. I dulled my own emotions, and let Sylph in. I felt pain as another consciousness pushed against my own.

Our skin felt tight, as if it was spread too thin across our body. We ignored the questioning look from our ally. The two AI's stared at us intently.

"[We move as one, Bewitchment will fall.]" Our voice sounded off, yet it was understood. We strolled through the open gate and several shards began attempting to influence us.

[DATA]

"[Transfer]"

[ABNORMALITY]

"[Paradigm shift]"

[TRUCE?]

"[Acceptable]"

And with that the amount of them lessened as Bewitchment attempted to establish a link to us. A cold rage moved our body, the host spoke gibberish, his words were meant to fully enthrall us, to make us kneel before him. We approached him, our body mimicking the reactions he desired, our transmissions feeding Bewitchment data. He stood up and approached us, his greasy hands holding our mask, our reinforced boot met his pelvis and broke it. Before he could even scream our other hand went to his mouth and the light shone from the circles on our gloves. He no longer possessed a mouth and he no longer possessed anything below the waist.

The thralls attempted to attack us, but the AI's and Puppetry stopped them. Their words were gibberish to our ears, yet something within us stirred. A promise, to oneself. Our eyes saw his chains, his connections all across this landmass, this was unforgivable. From within us, words that sounded unnatural formed and were spoken,

"N̷̨̠̲̎̈́͗̽͊i̵̛͔̫̖͑̄̎͌̒͠K̴̗̣̭͎̭̑͜ò̸̹̭̿̇̂̈́̃̌ ̷͕͔̰̺̘̻̿̿̒͆̄̑V̷̧̧̟̳̘͓͖͗͐̇͝a̸̻̼̳̼̗̝̅͒S̴̹̤̠̣̟̺̝͐̒̌͆͐̐̍i̷̡͓̊̾̓̔Ĺ̷̦́͘͝͠,̵̨̡̨̫͕̟͘͝ ̷̩̖̪̣͆̾[̷̞̈̑̾B̵͍̗̹͎̥͎̂̅̽E̴͇̠̥͚̪̙̽͌̄̊́̀ͅW̵̧̲̹̗̩͌I̷̧̞̖͔̩͊̏T̶͉̄͐̕͘C̵͉̼͖̲̐̎̊͘͜͝H̷̱͊͊̀M̶͇̦̼͆̇̑̅Ě̴̮͖͇́͑͆̿N̷̤̬͕̖̱̥̍̇T̴̢̻͚̼̠͆̓̑̽͌̇͜͜͠ You will free everyone from your control ." Our voice changed tone, we could almost see our words form chains around the host, the shard screamed as its main source of Data was lost. We intercepted their transmissions that sought help from the main unit, feeding it false data. The main unit didn't even bother to look at it and silenced the transmissions for the day. Within moments the host had cut out all feelings of love and lust towards him, loyalty and all affection as well. We heard the screams of several of his children and thralls, we saw how those chains broke, even as we lost some vision in our right eye.

Closing and opening it resulted in us feeling blood, and our vision becoming more blurred. This… was not good. Along our body we could feel an alien pressure building up, it came from our left hand…

"[End him?]" We asked Puppetry and as a response he pulled out a pistol and shot Bewitchment. We were covered in blood within an instant and the older AI grabbed us.

[Release.] It said, we focused instead on seeing if our body was affected by him. After a painful few seconds we found nothing. We removed the lower half of our mask as we let go…

I coughed and blood coated my hands as I felt my heart rate slow down. Within seconds I fell to my knees and began coughing, Sylph retreated deep into her shardself to ease the pressure, my brain felt like it had been smashed with a hammer. I forced my body to focus on healing, the pain wouldn't stop, but it lessened.

"Fuck, Regent." I hissed out and he approached me, "Your siblings, make a head count. If anyone is missing, tell me." I ordered as I hurried up my healing with a red stone. What I did was risky, that state… I'm not capable of holding it for long or at all. But it worked as a primary defense against emotion based attacks, my brain chemistry trick was in hindsight unnecessary given how effective that fusion state was. "Belle, call Dragon. Tell her I'm picking up a bounty for Heartbreaker, and tell her that she needs to get the kids and former thralls someplace safe."

It didn't take long for Dragon to arrive, this time with 4 Dragoncrafts and several more drone bodies. I could have left with the heartbroken, could've told Alec to take over them, or just left them alone. Instead chose to give them to Dragon. At worst she just hands Canada the biggest collection of masters this side of the world, at best she gives broken people some hope. 

"Hey, sorry to spring this on you, but could you make sure that they're safe for a few days?" I asked her, my throat felt raw, "Or better yet, keep them?"

"I can try to find them some housing, but they are villains." Dragon replied with some worry infecting her tone. I saw how her drone bodies gently carried several of the women and some of the children into the dragoncrafts. I hope that they can be saved.

"True, some of them are only slightly less worse than Vasil. But you and I know that second chances can be worth it." I replied with my honest opinion, behind Dragon Regent appeared and raised 3 fingers. 3 were missing… Fuck.

"And if they're no better than their father?" She asked, though I couldn't sense the belief behind that statement. She was testing me, I smiled and replied,

"They can be better, you and I know it. After all, when I freed you I also improved your code. Your father was a genius, I didn't have to do much if I'm honest. You should be able to see at the very least what my daughters can and see the path I walk as well."

"You are too young to have this much weight on your shoulders." She finally said after staring at me, her voice was full of sympathy, "And you are correct, I will try to aid them to the best of my abilities."

"That's all I ask." I said and Belle helped me up, I still felt like crap but it was better than a few minutes ago.

"Before you leave, I should make you aware that Armsmaster is also cross-referencing your face, he will find out who you are."

"That's to be expected, I made sure he would." I told her somewhat dismissively, "Oh and if you're interested in getting a flesh and blood body tell me. I'll create a body for you to inhabit." I added before triggering the fast travel. For a moment as I was teleported I saw as her body language told me that she was surprised.

-April 18th, 2011, Winslow 8:00 a.m.-

Across the perpetual shithole that was Winslow were a few buildings that once held offices, now they only held rats, roaches and several other pests, and of course me. The weekend had passed like lightning and I had been persuaded by Taylor to not go on a murder spree against the Empire due to them staying in their civilian roles. Thus keeping them safe due to the rules, we had however broken into and out of the remaining safehouses that they held across the city, converted tons of drugs into various household chemicals, which were poured all over Max Ander's car collection, ruining it and some parts of his various houses, and apartments. 

If it coincided with a smear campaign that showed that some money from Medhall had been transferred to Gesellschaft and the Empire 88, then it was all a weird coincidence. A very funny coincidence according to Lisa, who might've also posted several incriminating videos online. But alas, who could say what happened?

Regardless it was mostly thanks to her that I managed to have a nice weekend tinkering, the Catch a Ride stations were now hidden across Brockton Bay, and Aisha was forbidden from driving anything that didn't hover. I had also managed to find a prime location to begin making Eridium and I would've done that first if it hadn't been for Amy spending every waking moment after I arrived forcing me to take things easy. I also saw how she and Taylor looked at each other before looking at me.

"Marie, I'll be honest with you, if you weren't so resilient you'd be dead. So for this weekend you will take it easy, or I will knock you out for several days, give you all the acne and tape you to the ceiling so you are forced to rest." Amy said with a smile not dissimilar to my own whenever I needed someone to stop being an idiot for 5 minutes.

I shivered at the memory as another rodent squeaked behind me and I adjusted the binoculars. I could see Taylor, and the trio of girls that were coming up behind her. She seemed to be aware of them and increased her pace, just enough to get into the hallways of Winslow. I sighed and began reading through the emails I had received during my coma and subsequent rampages. I started Arcadia High's extended education program on May 3rd, alongside Emily and even Lily.

From Stonewell most students ended up in either Arcadia or Immaculata. The music club got split 70-30 with the majority going to Immaculata due to them promising scholarships if they fully moved. There was a hollow ache in my chest, I had missed his funeral due to being in a coma and I hadn't avenged him, yet. I breathed out slowly, letting my anger go and continued reading. I was a bit behind when it came to my homework, but nothing I couldn't fix while waiting for Taylor to give me the signal to bust in and document her being bullied.

If anything, this was my greatest victory to date, finally getting her to agree to let me help directly. Hours passed and I was bored, I should've brought something to play with…

My slate turned on and let me know that some of Taylor's things had gone missing. Mostly books, but also cases filled with pens and pencils, and parts of her book bag were ripped. For the stolen items I had ingrained tiny pieces of flowmetal with circuits engraved into them that functioned as little trackers, and I marked them for later. Seeing no point in boring myself, I drew out Fi and laid her before me. Grabbed a cloth and some oil and began cleaning her, she glowed for a few seconds and thanked me as I focused entirely on her body. Her edges were still razor sharp and the metal from tip to hilt showed no sign of wear or tear. I later did the same with the Hellwalker and I managed to get enough scrap to transmute into pure ore. 

I placed it within the slate and saw that it was midday, I pulled out my lunch and some spiced coffee. Not enough to trigger any sort of prophecy but just enough to force me awake. Another signal by Taylor, someone (Madison) had spilled milk on top of her. I was tempted to go in and redecorate the halls, but outside was an unmarked van, which was owned by the PRT and in a rare case of competence the agents inside were awake. Unfortunately they were also relying on Sophia's handler who as far as I knew was high at the moment. The roar of a motorcycle brought my attention back to reality and I saw Hannah dismount it and approach the unmarked van.

I had an idea.

"Taylor, I know you can hear me, mind sending Miss Militia my way?" I asked the nearby insects. They formed a question mark and I pointed at Hannah. Within moments Miss Militia's attention was drawn to the abandoned building I was in. I headed down to the ground floor and made a simple full face mask, similar to Alexandria's, then I transmuted a small room into existence and Hannah entered. She put on the mask without hesitation and walked out the room I made.

I had created a small table, a pair of chairs and had some regular bottled water available for her… Okay maybe giving her a full mask was a dumb move if I was going to offer her a drink.

"So why are you at Winslow?" She asked without preamble.

"To get more proof of Shadowstalker's continuous defiance of her parole." I answered and drank a bit of water. I frowned for a second and asked, "Would you mind if I modify your mask to let you drink? Cause I'm starting to feel like an asshole."

"Are you asking me to unmask?" Hannah asked with some curiosity in her tone.

"No. I'm asking you to trust me for a second." I replied and she nodded, I placed my hands on the mask and activated the circles. Now at the very least her mouth was visible and she could drink water.

"That's… amazing. What is it?" She asked with awe in her voice, I had forgotten how Alchemy must look to outsiders.

"If Armsmaster asks? Magic. For you? Alchemy, it's a science. Which is one of the things I'm willing to provide the PRT with." I replied taking a sip, Miss Militia frowned for a moment before asking.

"Alchemy as in lead into gold? An elixir of immortality?"

"Yup, though the latter is really just a cursed stone. I can maybe make one or two, but it'll take around 20 endbringers or so to make me consider it."

"There's only 3…" She said staring at me, I shook my head, "Fuck."

"Yup. Don't worry though, only a few can be active at a time if they wish to be in operation. And please don't ask for proof, there's a good reason why I can't tell you more. It involves triggering armageddon." I explained and saw the disappointment in her face. After tapping her fingers on the table she asked,

"Any other earth shattering news?"

"Several, but they aren't worth discussing at the moment." I replied letting the disappointment in my voice be clearly heard. I drummed the water bottle in my hands for a moment before asking her, "Actually, why are you believing me so easily?"

"Sundancer told us that you have a seer with you, you clearly know who I am, and you arguably know who all the protectorate capes are in Brockton Bay. So either you're extremely lucky or you have access to information that no one else does. In addition there's also the fact that Legend stood up for you despite your murderous tendencies." She replied and it was my turn to be surprised, Legend was on my side… I had suspected as much but hard confirmation was nice, "Even if everything else was wrong, I can trust him and his instincts. Plus I saw you fight, you held back against the wards, saved Battery and even followed Legend." She added in a low voice, not enough to be considered a whisper, but close enough to be in the same ballpark.

"That's… good." I eventually answered, she drank some water and I continued, "Well since you trusted me with that information I suppose I can give you some future advice. The remaining travelers are free from the taint of the Simurgh, so it is safe to include Marissa and her friends into the wards. Armsmaster should focus on improving the endbringer prediction algorithm over anything else, and yes, I'm well aware he's trying to unmask me."

"He's just concerned about you." Miss Militia interjected. Surprisingly enough, she believed it.

"He's pissed that I ruined his big reveal. The idea is good, but he lacks the power to make it work." I shit back with no real heat in my tone. She smiled sadly and nodded. "Anyways, why are you here?" I asked.

"To protect Shadow Stalker from you." She admitted and I smiled. 

"Good luck with that given that she's already used her powers to bully people." I added with frustration seeping into my voice. She noticed it and adjusted her posture slightly, I could tell she was suddenly tense, even without her asking,

"People or a certain person?"

"Take a wild guess."

"Were you planning on unmasking her?" She asks after sighing and placing her hand on her mask. Rubbing it as if it were her forehead.

"Nope, collect and show evidence as part of an independent investigation." I replied with the excuse that had convinced Taylor. It was actually surprising to find that independent, and recognized groups of heroic leaning rogues could launch their own investigations and submit the evidence to the PRT and the local law enforcement agency. 

Thank you Cauldron, for once your little cops and robbers game is helping me. "It's a shockingly underused form of investigation, though understandably so given how… stable capes are."

And to that she nodded, her fingers tapped the table as if searching for something to say. I could feel her gaze on me, a brief nod of her head informed me that she had made a decision, carefully she removed her mask. 

" So that's her plan? Pretty good one if I'm to be honest. Still this is better than I hoped, she trusts me enough for this. " I thought for a moment, my eyes carefully looking at her hands, no green glow; which meant that she really was hedging her bets.

I'll be perfectly honest, Miss Militia is rather beautiful, her green eyes are like emeralds with the current light filtering through the boards. A heartbeat passes and I remove mine, I don't bother changing my face, she'll know it soon enough.

"Before anything else, you should know that the wire you have on your body isn't transmitting anything but static to the PRT console. Either that or one song translated 12 times then changed into sumerian, just to annoy whoever is stuck investigating me." I said before she could say anything, "Well Hannah, my name is Marie. Marie Flynt, it is a pleasure to finally meet you face to face."

4.5, End