Crystalized Munchkinry - Act VI - Chapter 78 (Patreon)

Grumbling about annoying Entities and Shards, he returned to the corpse of Eden and penciled in some aggressive diplomacy with Path to Victory in his timetable. He started with a broad review of the contents of the corpse's databanks.

It was a mess.

And then he stopped.

There was a hole in the database.

A giant, gaping hole, physically located in the part which was separated from the rest and regularly accessed by Cauldron.

Perusing the logs yielded little, as someone had almost scrubbed them clean. The only information left behind was the exact time the process began.

Exactly the same time the Butcher attacked him.

He did nothing for a long minute.

He just stared at where the missing data should have been.

Then he spent the next several minutes silently cursing Path to Victory while, with all haste, he downloaded all the data in the corpse and slowly shut down the entire thing. He abstained from recycling the entire thing because he knew he could use the corpse against Zion.

Listlessly, knowing he had just lost a battle he didn't even know had happened, he went over the massive data package he had gained from Eden.

At first glance, he was sure he could spend years going over just the cultural and historical data of past species, but he had no need for that for now. Some of the data was somewhat useful, mostly information about experiments for developing even more powerful weapons against other Entities, along with a lot of data about space navigation and travel.

He set a few Simulators and processors to work through the information while he looked for the important information that he actually needed. Security keys, codes, encryption keys…

But there was nothing.

Angrily checking the logs, at least what remained of them after the crash, showed that directly afterward, Zion ripped them out using some kind of emergency procedure. Though the logs showed that there had been some data he was looking for.

Exactly in the same place which was missing.

He wished he had hands and a head so he could hit his head against a wall or massage his temples in frustration.

Path to Victory was probably rather annoyed by the restriction Eden had given it before she died, but it couldn't do anything without the security measures taking it out. But he had gone and taken care of those security measures, then gotten distracted.

Like a fool.

His Network was inaccessible using those codes, seeing as he had updated its defenses and it was entirely different from the old system. The only things left for Path to Victory to use those authorization codes on were some core Shards that were connected to Zion and that he hadn't dared to take over, the Endbringers (seeing as he only had access to an observational Shard), or, in a worst-case scenario, Zion.

Of course, this guessing was made harder by not knowing what the hell Path to Victory's objective was.

He cursed once again and began preparing for a final battle.

Eden was dead and conquered. That was one Entity down. He had overtaken the Network except for a few Shards.

The only thing left was Zion, and whatever the fuck Path to Victory was going to do with the codes.

Taylor hummed lightly as she continued to prepare her and her father's dinner while she casually listened to the news talking about some trouble down in Boston. Apparently, the Butcher had done something, but the PRT was being their usual tight-lipped selves.

She just shrugged and resolved to ask Tess later. From what they weren't saying, it sounded important to know about it. Taylor didn't want to wake up to some monster created by the Butcher in her city. Nazis and rage Dragons were enough for her.

She was about to grill the chicken when she sensed Amy coming into her range at a rather high speed. Taylor wiped off her hand, turned off the TV, walked toward the door, and opened it.

Amy touched down in front of the porch, walked up the stairs (she had recreated them last weekend after Danny offhandedly mentioned he really should take care of them), ignored Taylor standing in the doorway, walked to the couch, threw herself onto it, buried her face in a throw pillow, and screamed.

Taylor, ignoring the muffled screaming, closed the door, then walked to the living room while creating a few clones to finish the dinner. She sat down on her favorite sofa and listened to Amy's screaming.

"The house is soundproofed, you know. You don't need to use the pillow…"

Amy stopped, slowly sat up, hugging the pillow to herself while pulling up her knees and becoming a small ball of anger. At least to Taylor's senses, it seemed that Amy was furious.

They sat there for a minute or so in silence, while Taylor returned to her humming and waited for Amy to speak.

After the fifth minute of silence, and having run out of things to hum, Taylor finally had enough and spoke up. "Carol?"

Over the weeks she had known the sisters, she had listened to many rants about their mother, so she felt it was a rather good guess.

The only sound that left Amy was an angry grumble as she spoke into the throw pillow she was hugging.

"I will warn Vicky…"

Amy said nothing, but Taylor felt she was calming down. She spent a few seconds writing a message to Vicky, warning her and telling her where Amy was, then returned her attention to the healer in front of her.

"So… what happened this time?"

Amy stayed silent for a second, but before Taylor could prompt her again, she began speaking slowly in a low voice.

"I was out in the garden, taking care of my plants when the old lady next door came out to her garden."

Taylor said nothing, simply listening to the other girl. Amy would rarely talk about Carol, so she didn't want to ruin it by interrupting her.

"When she saw me doing my stuff with my powers, she asked if I could do her garden too because she had a bum leg and the doctors forbade her from doing anything strenuous. I don't think she even recognized me as Panacea. So, I just went over, did her garden, then healed her."

"And…"

Amy continued without looking at her. "She was so thankful she baked a bunch of awesome chocolate chip ginger snaps and brought them over. Then she bragged to Carol about how useful and nice and respectful I was."

"And Carol got angry over that?" Taylor asked incredulously.

"Yeah… She waited until the old lady left and then began yelling about New Wave's image and how I have to be careful how I use my powers. And how I can't just willy-nilly use my power. How I had to be careful, and so on…"

"And what did you do?"

"I encased her in a wood cocoon and left."

Taylor winced at hearing that. She had only met Carol Dallon once, but even that was enough for her to know that doing that wasn't the best idea.

Amy saw Taylor wince and snorted. "Better than my first instinct."

Taylor didn't even want to know. She just sighed and leaned back on the sofa.

"I will prepare the guest room for you. Tomorrow we can figure out what to do about this…" She didn't finish the sentence, just made an all-encompassing gesture with her hand.

Amy, still hugging the pillow, only answered with a mumbled thank you.

"Are you hungry?"

Danny nowadays tried to stop working on Saturdays. The therapist told him he was just using it to avoid being home, so he tried to stop. Being there with Taylor, just spending time with her again, was balm to his soul, but sometimes he couldn't help it.

The work they were doing wasn't the cast-off jobs he got for the Union in the past, but really important work that would change the fate of the city. So, sometimes he had to spend time supervising it. Especially now that they had started hiring more people. Some of the new hires had to be taught a few things about the Union and the Docks, but he had high hopes.

Dragon, or rather Tess, told him that nearby cities were preparing to pack up their metal trash and transport it to Brockton Bay for recycling. So even if they finished with the Graveyard, they would have work.

Not that there was a chance of that. They started by breaking down and transporting specific ships that she had marked for the special metal she wanted, then they just started going through the derelict ships one by one.

According to the latest reports, they were around twenty-five percent done. And the big ship was still being set up for transportation. Apparently, Tess could have picked up the whole thing with her giant robots, but the government, as usual, was dragging its heels about them.

The Dockworkers were also hard at work demolishing old warehouses and abandoned houses in the Docks, clearing the area for new construction. Seeing as Dragon seemed to be staying, people started investing.

He really didn't care about those people or what they planned; all Danny knew was that he couldn't remember a time when the Dockworkers had this much work.

It filled him with hope for the future of the city.

He stopped looking over the site when his watch chimed. On it was a short message from Taylor about Amy.

He sighed and turned around. He still had work to do, but Taylor and her friend needed him more.

Ethan took a seat next to his beautiful wife while the other parahumans of the Protectorate filed into the meeting room, where the much slimmer and healthier-looking Piggot was waiting for them, while a nervous-looking Renick stood behind her.

It took a few minutes for everybody to get settled, collect their water and paper for note-taking, and find a new chair after Armsmaster forgot that some chairs couldn't take the weight of his suit.

Piggot cleared her throat and turned on the projector while dimming the lights.

"Now that everyone is here, let's start." She looked around, meeting everyone's eyes, and continued. "As most of you recall, on April 5th, all directors on the East Coast received a warning from Watchdog. We then executed a detailed search but found nothing."

Here, Renick piped up in a tired voice. "Unless we count the few dozen drug operations in the bush, and several hidey-holes around the city. And a weapons depot for somebody."

Ethan snorted at that. He found one of the drug operations. It was set up in a shack in the middle of a forest north of the Bay and was 'staffed' with several Merchants who didn't even know that the gang was gone. They just made the stuff, and somebody picked it up and paid for it.

"Yes, except those," said Piggot with a frown. "But we didn't find the target. It was Department 24 in Boston who found the target of the prediction on the 7th. You were all told it was a Butcher and was taken care of. But I'm here to give you a more detailed description of it because I fear it is just a prelude to something…"

The projected screen changed to a map, which, when Ethan took a closer look, showed an abandoned golf course with the 18th hole highlighted.

"At the 18th hole of the Dawn Star Golf Course, the investigation team found tracks of seven people and a lot of blood. And I mean a lot." The screen changed to a dilapidated shack. "Which led to this shack. And this was found in it."

The screen changed, and everybody exclaimed in horror, including him. The picture was horrible. Aside from the monstrous humanoid body, the entire building was full of body parts, blood, and he could clearly see several animal parts, too.

"The PRT managed to identify all the bodies. The middle one is the altered body of Valefor, the last of the Fallen. Around him are the remains of the Teeth, including the body of the old Butcher. They also found the body of Blasto."

"So, what happened?" asked Ethan, and he was sure he wasn't the only one wondering. Though, based on how Triumph was looking, he suspected the young man was wondering if he could run fast enough to reach the toilet or just take a chance with a wastebasket.

Piggot nodded at him, then continued to talk. "Watchdog and the investigators suspect Valefor tried to control the Teeth and use the Butcher to take revenge. But it backfired. They suspect the new Butcher, wherever they are, now has the powers of the Teeth, Valefor, and Blasto."

Ethan couldn't help but whistle in morbid appreciation. "So, who is the new Butcher? And which number is it now? Twenty?"

"Twenty-one. And that's why you are all here," answered Piggot, her face set in stone. "I'm sure all of you are familiar with the history of our city, which means I don't have to explain why the Butcher and the Teeth have a very strong connection to this city. While Watchdog can't say it conclusively, I firmly believe that with five more voices added to the crazy chorus, there is an enormous chance they would head back here."

Armsmaster frowned, then nodded. "I agree, Director. That seems likely. What do you want us to do about it?"

"For now? Nothing. This is just a warning, to keep an eye out. I don't want to give an order to hunt either of you down after you accidentally erased the Butcher with your new fancy powers."

"I understand," replied Armsmaster, while the others glanced at each other. "With your permission, I would like to inform Dragon. I heard the Guild now has some Tinker devices that could be useful for detaining the Butcher without killing it."

"Granted." Piggot then returned her attention to the rest of them. "Now, let's go over the details. Maybe one of you would notice something that 'geniuses' in Boston didn't…"

Ethan laughed out loud at the sarcasm in the Director's voice, then took the file from Renick, who was handing them out, and began reading it.