Crystalized Munchkinry - Act IV - Chapter 53 (Patreon)

"So what can you tell me about the ABB?" Piggot asked the man standing in front of her.

The man, one of the officers responsible for collating incoming street reports and confidential information, looked down at his notes before looking into her eyes again. She could feel the confusion radiating off him.

"Well, Director, it's weird. Very weird," he explained while nervously playing with the documents in his hand. "The analysts, and even Watchdog, expected Lung to begin an aggressive expansion now that the Merchants are gone. But he is doing almost the exact opposite. He defends when the Empire gets too close but otherwise ignores everyone. We even received information about some of his lieutenants leaving and trying to set up on their own."

She looked down at the desk, where the same information was laid out, only this version contained her own notes. "Any idea for the reason?"

He shook his head but answered with a small grin. "No. But we know he doesn't care for those who left him. One of them has already run afoul of the BBPD. Apparently, he expected Lung's reputation to cover his own ineptness."

She snorted at that, but the brief moment of humor vanished instantly into the gaping chasm of uncertainty. "Can we get to someone who is in contact with Lung? I don't like this."

"No, Director. He only talks to people he trusts. Well, as much as he is capable of trusting anyone."

"Pity," she said, then thought about it for a moment.

The officer stood silently in front of her desk, waiting for his boss to make a decision.

"Okay. We can make use of this. Keep watch on Lung, but deprioritize him. However, increase surveillance on those who are leaving his service. Work together with BBPD to get them off the streets. Also, ask Dragon for help."

The man nodded in understanding. "Yes, Director." Then he wrote it down, just to make sure he didn't forget.

Piggot collected the papers on her desk related to ABB, put them in a file, and placed it to the side before reaching for another packet.

She spent a minute semi-organizing the papers on her desk, then looked back at the officer in front of her. "Let's talk about Nazis."

The man began to talk without preamble.

"They are the exact opposite. They have been aggressively expanding, taking over almost everywhere. No deaths yet, aside from the criminal element, only some injuries. The only places they avoided are the Docks and a few locations where Dragon stopped them. We have her notes on those events, and the people captured are already in BBPD custody. Sadly, no parahumans were captured by her."

"I see. What about yesterday?" she asked curiously.

The officer grimaced. "Word on the street is that they lost something important. But we couldn't figure out what."

She was about to answer when her phone rang with a ringtone indicating that it was important. She signaled for the man to stay silent and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Director Piggot. This is Dragon," said the woman on the other side. "I was notified that you are having a briefing about gang activity, and I have a few recent pieces of information that could be useful to you."

Piggot sighed, wondering what in the nine hells she would learn now. "Very well. Are you joining us on the screen?"

"Yes, Director. If you turn it on, I'm ready," replied Dragon.

She simply turned on the screen on the wall and motioned for the officer reporting to her to sit. The screen came alive, and after some booting up, Dragon's face appeared.

She nodded towards her. "Director," then towards the man. "Officer Montesson."

They both returned the greeting, and Dragon immediately began speaking. "I understand the PRT noticed the Empire is looking for something."

"Yes, but we can't figure out what it is, and Watchdog refused to take a look at something so 'frivolous'," replied Montesson.

Piggot just grimaced. "So I assume you know what it is?"

"Yes. But it's not what, but who," the Tinker answered smugly.

"Oh?" Now that sounded interesting to Piggot. "Who?"

"Purity, Director. She approached me recently, giving herself up in exchange for a few things."

Both people sitting in the room looked surprised.

"I hope you haven't given her a free pass?" asked Piggot, arching an eyebrow.

"Not at all. She is currently in an undisclosed location, under house arrest. Placing her into prison or even the Birdcage is currently not feasible. But we will make sure she pays for her crimes."

Another eyebrow joined the first. "Not feasible? I'm pretty sure she is responsible for several murders."

Dragon grimaced, perfectly understanding the Director's disbelief. "I'm sorry, Director, but ethically, I'm not comfortable placing the woman into a prison environment. At least for now."

"And let me guess, you can't tell me why?" asked Piggot, almost growling, while Montesson wisely stayed silent, letting the two women talk.

"I'm sorry, Director, but yes. But to cheer you up, Purity shared several actionable pieces of information about the Empire. Though I don't yet know how much of it is still usable…"

"Hmm, anything interesting?"

"Well, how about the identity of Kaiser?" asked Dragon, once again smiling smugly. "Sadly, due to the Unwritten Rules, we can't act on it, but it would allow us to focus our efforts on catching the man with his pants down."

The two people in the room perked up at that, but Piggot scowled after hearing the phrase Unwritten Rules. Once again, for no reason whatsoever, parahumans were protected from prosecution.

"So who is it?" she asked.

"Max Anders."

There was a brief silence before she spoke again. "Well… that is not as surprising as I expected. But yeah, I can see it. Thank you, Dragon. Anything else?"

"Nothing as important as that. I will send over the data I've collected, but currently, I'm busy preparing for the next Endbringer attack."

"Anything concrete?"

"If they hold to the pattern, then it will be the Simurgh, and within two weeks. I have been analyzing previous attacks, trying to find some commonality, but I have yet to pinpoint where it is going to happen."

"Very well. Good luck with that," Piggot said, a little annoyed. "But now we have to redo our analysis of the Empire…"

"Understood, Director. Have a nice day," said Dragon, and the screen went black.

Piggot sighed once again, cursing the city, and turned toward the officer. "Well, Montesson, let's start once again…"

She reviewed the logs of the latest factory line that came online and emulated a smile. Being an AI was sometimes really useful.

She had already produced several thousand basic drones capable of stealth and projecting the shields that Taylor created, multiplying her ability to protect people. Alongside those, she had also managed to create some updated troop transports, which, once again thanks to Taylor, were equipped with inertia cancellers that allowed them to reach supersonic speeds without the passengers feeling anything.

Several hundred small-sized, dragon-shaped armored suits bolstered her own fighting force, all of them connected to a central control system where one of her forks was continuously improving her ability to command them. Though she called them small, they were almost three meters tall and two meters wide.

She designed them for fighting earthbound enemies as well as search and rescue operations.

Next were the medium-sized suits, which ranged from five to eight meters, depending on their purpose. One was designed for flying enemies, with increased speed and maneuverability, while another was earthbound but equipped with a shield projector capable of generating massive barriers, strong enough to withstand even the strikes she had recorded from Leviathan.

Using four of these, she could create an area protected by overlapping shields. She planned to use these for field command stations and medical areas.

And the final model was the Titans.

Gigantic, twenty-meter-tall constructs that were hopefully capable of going against the Endbringers. Sadly, she had only produced three of them so far, but hopefully, that would be enough.

If she could get into space and reach the asteroid belt, her mining and manufacturing capabilities would increase enough that she could drown the world in dragon-shaped armored suits.

Not that she would…

Unfortunately, the presence of Simurgh stopped her before she could even begin designing something capable of taking her there.

Best not to risk it.

Of course, aside from her personal army, she had expanded her production of other equipment supplied to the Guild and PRT. She had also updated the containment foam, making it more stable, more durable, and cheaper to manufacture.

She also built another Medi-Gel factory that would supply the Guild and certain units of the Canadian government, while making sure that the facility she was building in Brockton Bay in Taylor's name was well underway.

Thankfully, the local workforce was rather competent, and the addition of her new drones had sped up the process considerably. Even after construction was complete, she could keep several Union workers employed because, while the facility was mostly automated, she couldn't fully automate it without revealing her nature. Thus, the need for a few people to remain on-site.

As for her other project, the recycling facility, she was already taking in metal from all around the docks. After a conversation with Danny, instead of attacking the Boat Graveyard, they started with the warehouses surrounding her facility.

Seeing as she owned most of them, with Danny and Taylor owning the rest except for a few belonging to savvy investors, it was relatively easy to go through them, strip them for metal, and collect the trash for recycling.

They even found several antiquated cars in various states of disrepair hidden beneath tons of debris. While they didn't yield as much usable material, they were a nice test for the facility, allowing her to streamline the processes and train the workers without placing undue strain on them.

And it was something that would need to be done eventually, so why not now?

They were around halfway finished with the buildings they owned, and she was already training people for the eventual harvesting of the Boat Graveyard. They would leave the large ship blocking the bay for last, as its size would be too much for the facility to handle currently.

According to Danny, thanks to her plans, they would soon need to start hiring more people.

Hopefully, that would help the local economy a little.

The debate about Medi-Gel was also almost finished. Even America's usual schizophrenic self had managed to come to an agreement, and Medi-Gel would be accepted wholesale, with the usual regulations.

The rest of Serenity's patents were much easier to accept, as they didn't really change the world to the same extent as the medicine her friend had created.

She was already manufacturing the equipment and shipping it to different parts of the world in case it was needed.

She also had to dedicate an entire fork solely to negotiations with the companies that wanted to buy licenses for the technologies she had patented. She was looking forward to shocking Taylor with how much money her inventions would make.

Of course, she wasn't just handling Taylor's inventions. She was using the virtual space and her nature to the fullest extent to experiment and innovate.

Her own innovations, however, were mostly focused on software technologies and scientific research. She had, of course, updated her own programming as much as possible, created new algorithms for detecting various events and anomalies, revamped the entire Endbringer monitoring system to make it much more efficient and effective, and created several consumer-grade security solutions that would allow ordinary people to better protect their computers.

The income from those alone was a respectable sum.

She was also in the middle of negotiations with several medical equipment manufacturers for the opportunity to review their software and improve it, for a nominal fee, of course.

One of her other, lesser responsibilities was keeping an eye on Alice (who had chosen the codename Nero) and reviewing her creations. Sadly, around eighty percent of what she designed was almost too horrific to ever put into production. However, she knew that stopping a Tinker from designing such things could have a negative effect on them, so she allowed Alice to continue as long as she completed the tasks assigned to her.

Her upgraded ConFoam grenades were already good enough that Dragon barely needed to improve them before they went into production. The fact that Alice had managed to open the time bubbles with explosives earned her enough goodwill that she was no longer under house arrest. To Alice's delight, it had even managed to generate a small but persistent fan base.

Dragon had even observed the woman attaching several letters and drawings to the wall of her workshop, sent by the relatives of the victims.

Her current project was almost finished, and Dragon knew Alice and her new friends in the Guild were already planning a viewing party.

Maybe, if the timing was right, she could invite Colin?

Before Vicky and Amy left the following Saturday after a hearty breakfast, they decided they would make it a weekly thing. At first, she suggested that she could sleep over at the Dallon house, but the sisters immediately shot the idea down.

There were many reasons given, but it ultimately boiled down to one simple fact: her entertainment system was much better than theirs.

After having some time to think about it, she wasn't as angry about the fact that they had figured out she was a parahuman. Well, she was still a little angry, but she knew most of that came from her own insecurities.

She spent the rest of the weekend with her dad, with him assisting her in installing a few more devices around the house. Now they had a fully functioning shield covering the house and garden, capable of isolating them from the outside world.

They also had their own water and air supplies, along with an underground hydroponics farm that Taylor designed. They still kept emergency supplies stored away, enough to last for a week or so, just in case.

They also had their own personal Medi-Gel dispenser, and Taylor made a taser for Danny that, with the flick of a switch, could be turned into a gun.

According to Danny, it was unnecessary, but she wasn't taking any chances. She only had one parent left, and by the gods, she would make sure he survived.

In the virtual space, she only spent two nights with the girls, preferring to focus on her training or experimenting with Tess.

Besides, the knowledge from both Tess and Admin that the next Endbringer attack was so close made her a little jittery, and only the fact that she could retreat into the virtual space helped calm her down.

Fortunately, after the recent bouts against Leviathan, Behemoth, and Simurgh, she was confident that she would be able to survive. Winning, or even killing the constructs, was an entirely different question.

She even tried to devise a device that would protect people from the Scream. Sadly, if she wanted something that could be manufactured by everyone, she could only create devices that would be useful against Masters.

According to Admin, Simurgh operated on a level where conventional devices were practically useless. That did not stop Taylor from refining and sending her anti-Master device to Tess, however.

Aside from that, she finally managed to figure out what her real codename would be. Though Amy and Vicky, along with the avatars of their powers, had helped her decide. At first, she wanted to go with Current, after convincing Vicky that Lightning Girl was a terrible name and that no, she would not be using Magnet Girl.

However, in the end, she chose the name Lux Arcana, based on both the secrecy surrounding her and the countless secrets she carried, as well as her desire to bring light into a dark world.

Of course, Amy immediately called her dramatic and edgy, but Taylor didn't really care.

Much.

She liked the name, and that was all that mattered.

Lisa loved and hated her new arrangement.

She loved it because she was free from the thumb of that asshole Coil. She hated it because, even on a Sunday, she was sitting in her new office, working.

Usually, she wouldn't be here. She would be enjoying a glass of wine and watching a stupid romantic movie, using her rather cooperative power to figure out things about the actors, then anonymously posting the information online and watching the resulting fan meltdown.

But no, Dragon was worried about the upcoming Endbringer attack and wanted another set of eyes to look over the data.

Though what the AI (because there was no way Lisa hadn't figured that out) thought she would find was beyond her. Still, because she quite enjoyed living, she buckled down and went through everything.

She highlighted a few events that could attract the Simurgh's attention.

Unfortunately, Dragon herself setting up shop in the Bay was one of them. Serenity and her Medi-Gel were also potential targets, and Lisa suspected the mysterious Tinker was probably living somewhere nearby as well.

Thankfully, several other events around the world could attract the monster's attention too. For example, there was some kind of technological deal going down in Australia, while several warlords in Africa were apparently discussing uniting their territories to better protect their people.

Even her power was at a loss when it came to determining which one the youngest Endbringer would choose.

So she spent Sunday night combing through even more data, sending everything she found to Dragon when she finally found something.

Taylor came back from her morning run and exercise in high spirits. She had seen a cute guy who was also running, and he had smiled at her. She couldn't remember if that had ever happened before. So, after a luxurious shower, she joined her father at the breakfast table.

"Morning, Dad!" she said with a smile on her face.

"Morning, honey," replied her dad from behind the newspaper. She had already set up a soft-light projector that could display any news he wanted, but he insisted on keeping the paper, claiming that it just wasn't the same.

"What's the plan for today?" she asked while once again pouring herself a bowl of solidified sugar.

Danny gave her a disapproving glare, but she merely shrugged unapologetically. "We're finishing one of the bigger warehouses today. And I have a few interviews with some people we are planning to hire."

"Wow, that's great!"

"Yeah…" he said with a smile. "I almost can't believe it." He paused, sighing slightly. "And what's got you so chipper this morning?"

"Well, there was a..." she started with an impish smile on her face, but a familiar sound interrupted her.

The wailing of sirens.

Her expression immediately turned serious as she tried to remember what the sirens meant. Her father froze in his seat, and she could see that he was terrified for some reason.

Ignoring that for the moment, she stood up and, with a few quick steps, reached the living room. "TV, Endbringer attack!" she barked.

The projection immediately came alive, displaying one of the major news channels along with several screens showing data from the servers Dragon was using to track the Endbringers.

"Where is it?" Danny asked worriedly from behind her, almost in a whisper.

"Hmm, it looks like it's heading for Australia."

At the same moment she said that, the sirens fell silent. She turned her attention back to the news channel and unmuted it.

"...For those who are just tuning in, the Endbringer known as Simurgh is heading for the Australian continent. Experts say that, based on its trajectory, the Endbringer is targeting the southern part of the continent. The PRT, the Guild, and various other organizations are already en route. According to some sources, Dragon is even planning on debuting new countermeasures."

The newscaster looked to the side as someone handed them a fresh sheet of paper.

"This just in. Dragon has announced that the target is Canberra!"