92

Date

2011 May 18th - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

Narwhal hated meetings like this.

Not really illegal, but clandestine on some level, because there were some colossal idiots out there who would take the fact the meeting happened as some kind of crime against humanity or something like that.

Not that they were actually planning something against humanity, but based on how the American government and the PRT behaved concerning the Nine, they might as well.

How they could justify continuously denying the Guild to take care of the Nine, when it was clearly in their remit, she would never understand.

But here they were, in a small meeting room, with Tess and some kind of bureaucrat from the Canadian government who 'accidentally' forgot to mention who he worked for.

She was listening to Tess as she went through her plan for taking care of those monsters while the man sat in his chair with a straight back and listened quietly, his entire demeanor serious.

Finally, after Tess finished, a brief silence enveloped the room before the probable spook spoke up.

"That all seems workable, Miss Richter."

Tess gave him a small but serious smile.

"Then does that mean we will get the support to…"

However, she was interrupted by the man.

"I think, in this case, it would be better to ask for forgiveness…"

Now that was much more interesting. Nora sat up straighter and began eyeing the government employee with a much more interested look, now that the meeting seemed to go in a more interesting direction than she expected.

Tess just raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow.

"Is that so?"

"Oh, yes. There are some people, who are keen for forgiveness…" replied the man.

The answer he received was two bloodthirsty grins from two of the most dangerous women in the world.

Date

2011 May 20th - Thursday - Earth Bet Time

It took them a day or so to come up with a viable plan, as even Jack wasn't crazy enough to challenge Lux Arcana to a one-on-one. No, for this they would need to set the stage to curtail the woman's more destructive tendencies.

A few hostages here and there, and all those mighty heroes would simply dance to his tune.

He couldn't wait!

So, they emptied the campground of anything usable, left behind a few surprises made by good old Alan and young Riley for the owners, and filed into the bus they would be using. Manton would follow them in his own van, while Crawler traveled in style in a modified horse trailer, courtesy of Alan and Riley.

The bus was also upgraded, making it run without the need for regular fuel, while also much more resistant to attacks than a bus should be. Also, the chairs were ultra-comfortable.

They were on the road for a few hours when something in his gut told Jack that something changed. Without saying anything he stood up from the desk where he was reading a novel, and walked to the driver seat where Alan was driving (he didn't get tired, so he got the driving duty), his tall lanky body looking exceedingly odd in the modified seat.

"Stop the bus."

Expecting no reply, and indeed getting none, Jack peered out of the front window as Alan slowly stopped the bus, and for some reason pulled over the side of the road. The rest of the group on the bus also got up, curious for the reason they had stopped. Except for Hatchet Face as he was back in the bus, at a certain distance from them.

"What is it, Jack?" asked Mimi as she joined him peering out of the window.

"Just a funny feeling…"

Alan turned his blank face towards him, tilted it to the side as if asking if they should continue.

"No. Wait a minute."

The other man nodded and returned motionlessly gripping the wheel.

As the seconds ticked by, he was almost convinced that he just imagined things, but in the past such feelings always helped him, so he wasn't so quick to discount it. The minute was almost up, when looking up in the sky he noticed something approaching them.

He smiled as the thing impacted the ground in front of the bus, kicking up dust and debris.

"Well, well, it seems we have a guest to entertain!"

"Yay! A new friend!"

The rest joined in by laughing or stayed silent, but everybody readied themselves for a fight. Jack leisurely left the bus, his colleagues following him, as they watched the dust disperse around the poor fool who probably decided to commit suicide by them. Or wanted to join…

Either way, Jack was going to have fun!

As the dust dispersed, they finally saw what came down from the sky. It was a sleek, matte black robot, twice the size of a regular human (Jack suspected it was designed to be stealthy), its hand ending in claws, and with odd, yet still aerodynamic, horns on its head. Its eyes glowed a dull blue as it beheld them.

Before he could greet their new playmate, the robot spoke as expected robotically, yet with a feminine voice.

"Jack Slash, allow me to introduce myself: I'm Dragon. And I would like to ask you to surrender, please."

That declaration had almost all of them laughing, while Alan began to act a little restlessly. Apparently, he was eager to face the word's eminent Tinker. Jack just smiled at the naïve little Tinker.

"Oh, and if we don't?"

He was a little shocked, and the laugh petered out really fast, when another two-dozen robots fell from the sky around the bus, all of them armed with futuristic weapons.

The first robot's eyes glowed brighter, and in front of it, a projection of a woman with a severe expression on her face appeared.

"Well, then Jack be nimble, Jack be quick because I don't miss!" answered the Tinker with a sing-song voice.

Jack didn't answer, just gave the woman a cruel smile. Brockton Bay could wait, Canada was awaiting them. He made a motion, and Siberian, holding little Riley on her shoulder, placed the child on the ground and took a step forward.

He was looking forward to the carnage that would ensue, but instead, he was met by a quiet puff of noise as Siberian vanished into thin air.

The smile on the blue projection's face turned bloodthirsty.

"Tick Tock, Goes the Clock, one is gone, how many more to go?"

Shelving the feeling of surprise for later, he turned towards with a serious look on his face.

"Well, it seems someone wants to really play!"

He raised his hand, and at the signal, Crawler, who had extracted himself from the trailer, roared and charged at the closest robot. The robot, not missing a beat, raised its arm and from its palm shot something at the roaring monster approaching it.

For a second nothing happened, then Crawler stopped in surprise with all of his eyes blinking asynchronously. Then there was a horrible tearing sound, and an eye-searing blackness enveloped the area where the gigantic monster stood. It was a globe of darkness, yet Jack could have sworn it was flat from where he looked at it.

Then, just as fast as it happened, it vanished, leaving nothing but a shallow crater and no Crawler.

He didn't even wait for the Tinker to say anything, but raised his hand holding one of his knives, ready to strike, the rest of the group also readying their attacks. But when he tried to bring down his hand, all he felt was a slight emptiness.

Turning towards it, he saw that his entire hand, including the knife, was missing, and something really hot cauterized his arm.

Jack had a moment to feel some kind of pain before everything went black.

Date

2011 May 20th - Thursday - Earth Bet Time

Dragon, using the eyes of her new stealth robots, looked around at the carnage. All members of the Slaughterhouse Nine were accounted for and, except for Bonesaw, were dead as one can be. Even Bonesaw was enveloped in a stasis field created by one of Nero's bombs after she had knocked her out. And the only reason she did that, because, one: she didn't want to kill a kid; two: there were some concerns over the young biotinker's dead man's switches.

So, instead of a face full of plasma, she got knockout gas, electric shock after the gas proved ineffective, and a stasis bomb.

Tess knew without a doubt that Alice would be over the moon after she was told that several of her inventions helped to take down another S-class threat. It seemed recruiting the bomb tinker was a great boon to the Guild, despite the fact that Nero decided to hang all of her fan-mails, drawings, and awards on a wall and surround it with a Tinker-tech minefield, threatening everyone with bodily harm, if they so much sneezed at the wall's direction.

Taking another look around, she sighed as the robots stood around the scene, projecting a shield that would quarantine the area just in case.

That was so much easier than the next part would be.

Politics…

Date

2011 May 24th - Monday - Earth Bet Time

Amy looked around in the guest room and down at her packed-up bag.

After a lengthy discussion with the therapist, they had decided (more like the therapist convinced her) that she would be moving back to her own room.

Though the therapist reassured her that was just a test, and if it doesn't work out, she wouldn't be asked to do it again.

Despite knowing what was awaiting her upon returning, she couldn't help but want to do it. Although Carol was a horrible mother, she was still Amy's mother, and Mark was her father, while obviously, Vicky was her sister. She kinda missed her family.

At least, at the appointments, she could see that her mother, probably thanks to the therapy, has calmed down somewhat. The celebration after Leviathan's death also helped, according to the disgusting face Vicky made when she had mentioned it.

Plus, it helped that thanks to the Union she had enough money (while Dragon was investing a portion of it for her) to move out any time, and had a good enough friend who understood the situation and had a guest room.

Amy was going to miss the Heberts.

The entire house was so quiet, nobody hassled her for anything except Taylor to join her in her stupid and impossible exercises, and not to mention the entire house was equipped with cutting-edge technology that she already missed.

Thinking about how to convince her friend to upgrade her room with the same amenities, she slowly picked up her bag and began her partly reluctant trek downstairs.

Date

2011 May 24th - Monday - Earth Bet Time

Day 6193 - Monday - Administrator Network Time

The Nine was dead; the politicians were arguing, and Alexandria was clearly grasping at the last straws, with the entirety of Cauldron following her.

He let them flounder around, under supervision of course, until the opportune moment when he could have someone reveal them. Though based on how Dragon's research was going, he expected that to happen within months without his interference.

The rest of the world was also hanging on, with China suffering from a silent rebellion, some African communities uniting around the newly triggered parahumans while the same thing was beginning in South America in the cartel-controlled lands.

It would not be easy to heal Earth and Humanity, but he was up for the task.

The Shards, at least those who had the capacity to feel, were happy with their new status. They enjoyed the new resources, the hassle-free data collection, and were looking forward to what humanity will accomplish with their help.

Of course, some old ones felt that this new thing would fail, and the old ways were much better, but they were silenced by the majority.

Ciara and her Shard friend were still hanging around the Birdcage, though he knew occasionally they teleported out for a few luxury items, and left him to his devices.

He still had no idea what the Shard-Human hybrid wanted, so for now he left it at observation, and continued with his tasks.

His current biggest task was dealing with the future invasion of Entities that received Path to Victory's message.

As a first response, he built another broadcast tower and broadcasted several messages. A few contained gibberish, and a few viruses that would disable an Entity and a few were simple messages about how everything is all good; no need to visit.

He didn't know if anybody would buy it, but one can hope.

The entire solar system, in a lot of dimensions, were already decked out in defenses, while he was observing the area from the between-space, while also experimenting about how to observe the rest of the between-space, in case one of the other Entities also figured out how to utilize it.

Several Shards were also churning out Anti-Entity weapons by the truckloads, so he wasn't that worried.

But better prepared than getting caught by surprise.