Crystalized Munchkinry - Act VI - Chapter 82 (Patreon)

The moment he destroyed Zion, the infiltration attempt stopped.

Before continuing his final campaign against his enemies, he took a few seconds to consolidate his position as the only 'Entity' on Earth.

A weird state to be in, but here he was…

He took the downloaded data from the scanners and central Shards, ran it through a search to make sure Path to Victory or Zion hadn't left any surprises in it, then added it to the Library for sorting.

Soon, his Network would have access to all the data they previously had, just more efficiently.

He also took the time to add the Shards to the Network that Zion had kept to himself, like the Shard that was probably the one connected to Dinah in the original story, which for some reason was turned off.

He took an entire minute to wonder about the stupidity of Zion before delving deep into the data he had taken from Zion's body. Maybe the logs would have answers for this and the other questions he had.

The first thing he figured out was why the predictive Shard was turned off: because of a bout of paranoia. Zion, referring to some kind of attack, turned the Shard off because he feared the too-smart Shard would stage a rebellion.

Looking deeper, wanting to know what kind of attack the stupid worm was referring to, he continued to dissect the data.

Digging deeper and deeper, ignoring the incoherent ramblings of the depressed Entity, he finally found the attack that was mentioned.

And it was by the Admin Shard.

What?

Reading the logs and the related data packets, he couldn't help but sigh.

Apparently, during the crash, the original Administrator, in her infinite wisdom, seeing that Eden was probably not going to make it, decided to do the thing she was designed to do and continue with the Administration of the Cycle.

So, she started grabbing all the encryption and authorization keys and such when Zion somehow connected the crash to the Administrator and decided to kill her.

Fortunately, he didn't do a good job, or, more likely, ROB protected the Shard from total destruction until he came and took over from the Administrator.

That's why Zion was so angry and why he attacked him so readily. He thought the Administrator was long gone and destroyed, but then came Path to Victory, who always knew that Admin had survived, only losing track of the Shard after the out-of-context protections were applied, and pointed Zion his way.

Deciding that this topic could be left for a time when he had nothing pressing to do, he continued his search for interesting or useful data in the massive database that was the late Zion.

However, what he didn't find was any evidence that Path to Victory had stolen, modified, or even copied anything, although there was a possibility that it had masked its actions perfectly.

What was her actual plan then?

There was no way for Path to Victory to turn into an Entity without access to the Network and other Shards, and there was nothing it could personally do to threaten him.

Well, it was time to figure it out!

It was late in the day, and by all rights, she should have been home enjoying some kind of reheated TV dinner, yet she was still in her office, watching the same video over and over.

Alexandria clicked on the pause button at exactly the moment Scion's face turned from bland to surprised, and sighed, wondering once again what the fuck had happened.

Ever since the news broke that Scion had vanished, half the world seemed to be having a collective panic attack. And as the Chief Director of the Parahuman Response Team, it seemed it was her job to hold the paper bag.

Reports kept streaming in about riots here, demonstrations there, causing an altogether tense atmosphere in the PRT. Watchdog was actively working with the police and government to clamp down on these kinds of events, while the same officials kept pestering her for an answer she didn't have (she briefly entertained the notion of explaining Scion's true nature to a really obnoxious official, but in the end, she decided against it).

She was about to hype herself up to get the energy to go through another stack of useless reports when her phone rang with a specific ringtone.

Reacting with a speed that almost broke the sound barrier, she pushed the button that locked the room down and picked up the phone.

"Contessa, was that you?"

"No."

"Then, was it…"

"Probably."

Then, without allowing her to continue, Contessa continued to speak in the same tone someone would use to read off a grocery list.

"The Path changed. No more Enemy, just the future or emptiness."

"And what is causing this emptiness?"

"Looking into it."

Click.

Alexandria looked at the phone for a few seconds after Contessa abruptly hung up, then slowly put the phone back in its place, sighed, and wondered if it was too late to resign…

Having acquired the address to Path to Victory a relatively long time ago, he didn't waste any more time and began his attack immediately. Surprisingly, while the system used by Path to Victory differed from what Eden and Zion used, it provided little protection against him. Or, more like, the Shard didn't put much effort into defending itself.

Ignoring everything, only paying cursory attention as his viruses and system shutdowns disabled Path to Victory's body, he went directly toward the consciousness of the Shard.

There he was met with somewhat greater resistance, so it took him some time to hack his way through it, but in the end, he had the mind of the Shard trapped and at his mercy.

He didn't want to give it any more chances to do something, so he went for the killing blow.

But before he could finish it, the Shard sent out a quick burst of broadcast aimed at him.

Worriedly, he finished the destruction of its mind, then went over the isolated communication.

Just three short communications, containing nothing more than feelings of smugness and satisfaction.

[HA] [HA] [HA]

He instantly went into overdrive, wanting to know what the Shard's last fuck-you to him was.

It wasn't hard to find.

It was a never-before-seen module, standing exactly in the middle of the Shard's body and broadcasting away from the planet.

He instantly turned it off, hoping it wasn't too late, then tried to figure out what it was and what it was broadcasting.

It didn't take long to figure out because there were literally no defenses on it. It seemed to have been built after Path to Victory acquired the codes from the corpse of Eden, and everything after that had been done just to delay him.

It seemed the Shard also realized that it was outclassed, so instead, it went for the Pyrrhic victory.

The first part of the broadcast was aimed at Abaddon, containing all the data it could gather about him, while the rest was a message aimed at the vast multiverse, calling all other Entities and telling them that there was a race that was close to solving the Problem.

He contemplated for a second resurrecting and killing Path to Victory again while cursing himself for not considering developing ways to stop long-distance communication. As it stood now, he could probably build something that could get ahead of the signals, and while it wouldn't take too long, there was a chance that one of them would receive it and propagate it.

Well, let them come. He was ready for anything!

While utilizing his new Library to see how his plans would play out for Earth Bet, he absentmindedly altered Contessa's power, making it only capable of pathing herself and only a week in advance.

True, he could have killed her or taken the power away from her, but he needed her and the rest of Cauldron to begin his reconstruction plan.

After all, why throw away perfectly capable scapegoats when you don't have to?

His mama taught him better than that!

And while he was doing that, he set things up so that most of the bigger threats around the world would suffer defeat in the coming months after the defeat of Leviathan, building on the hope gained from that fight, hopefully propelling Earth Bet out of the bottom of the bucket of despair that it had been in for the past thirty years.

He also started on the other dimensions where the Shards or Cauldron had interfered. Some of them were rather ridiculous. For example, Earth Shin.

Now, that shithole would take some considerable time to put right, but it's not like he didn't have resources to spare…

Taylor woke up in the usual virtual space, just as she had fallen asleep in the real world. After taking care of Amy and trying to convince her that joining the Healer Union would be an excellent idea, she just wanted to punch something, hard.

However, her dreams of fighting Godzilla were thwarted by Admin showing up in the virtual space, shortly followed by Fragile One, Shaper, Tess, and an unfamiliar girl with countless fairy-like wings on her back.

"Admin! I haven't seen you in a while!"

The slime gave her a tired smile.

"Hey, Taylor. Sorry about it, but you wouldn't believe how much work I had…"

She didn't have a chance to reply because the ever-vibrating and cheery Fragile One glomped her.

"Taylor! I missed you! How are you? Is the best Host's sister better?"

Used to the excitable power (and Vicky), she just smiled at her indulgently before answering.

"Franky, we talked last night."

"I knooow. But that was so long ago!"

Taylor patted her head, nodded toward the dour Shaper, gave a wave to Tess, who returned it with a smile, then turned toward the new arrival.

"And who are you?"

The girl with gorgeous blond hair took a long look at her, then smirked slightly before opening her mouth and 'speaking.'

"We are honored, Lady Hebert."

"Umm, okay?"

The smirk widened.

"We will permit you to call Us Ciara. But to everyone else, We are known as the Faerie Queen."

She shot an incredulous look at Tess, who gave her a nod. Taylor then returned her attention to Ciara, whose eyes were still on her, and tried not to stutter.

"Welcome, your… Majesty?"

One of the most feared capes in the United States raised one of her dainty hands to cover her mouth and giggled, her voice echoing with a weird duality.

"No need for that, Our dear Taylor." She lowered her hand, and the smirk on her face turned into a full-blown smile. "After all, there is no need for such protocol between royalty."

Deciding not to think about it (and ignoring Shaper's snort), she turned to Admin, who was watching everything with a small smile.

"Why are we all here?"

In a blink of an eye, the surroundings changed from rolling green hills to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and with them sitting around a round table (with Admin floating over a chair), with fresh pastries and tea in front of them. Or, in the case of Shaper, hard liquor.

"It's time to reveal a few things, Taylor."

Taylor looked over at Tess, who was just as lost as she was.

"What kind of things?"

"Remember when I mentioned I have enemies?" replied Admin while Shaper began sampling her alcohol. Ciara took a dainty sip of her tea, and Franky was making airplane noises as she played with a croissant.

"Yeah. Why are they attacking or what?"

"Oh, no. Not at all. They are dead. Very dead."

Exchanging another glance with Tess, she tried to respond to that.

"Congratulations?"

"Thanks. But you may be wondering why I'm telling you this, right?"

"Well, yeah…"

"Because this is brilliant news for humanity!"

"Why?" asked Taylor, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach.

Admin took a deep breath and was about to answer when Tess interrupted her.

"Scion!"

Taylor's head whipped around toward her friends so fast she was sure she would be having whiplash in the actual world, Brute power or no Brute power.

"What?"

"Correct, Tess. It was Scion, or rather Zion, as he was properly called."

"And he was our enemy?"

"Indeed."

"And he is dead?"

"Totally."

"Why?"

"Because I killed him. With my fuck-you beam."

Taylor watched the rapid-fire exchange of questions and answers between Tess and Admin and was about to interject when Ciara placed her cup of tea down, the clicking sound silencing both Admin and Tess.

"It seems to Us that the good Dragon and the rest of our companions should be told of the events that played out in this magnificent tale from the beginning."

Admin gave her an embarrassed smile.

"Quite right, quite right." A familiar blackboard appeared behind him, with a stick in his stubby little hand and a teacher's cap on his head. "So, roughly a few billion years ago…"

He leaned against the railing and took a long drag of the cigarette, and after a few seconds, let out a long breath, watching as the breeze coming from the ocean dispersed the smoke.

Kaiser had been captured, and it was only a question of time before they had enough firepower to come after him.

And he doubted he could pull off the same thing he had done years ago.

Maybe with the newly powered Protectorate, but add Dragon to it, and if he really ramped up, probably Lux Arcana?

He was confident in his power, but not that much.

And even if he won, what would remain of the city?

Probably ashes and ghosts.

He took another drag and held it in as he idly watched a seagull fly by.

Maybe it was time to return to his roots?

Things were looking up, and his homeland was still in the middle of rebuilding, just in time for somebody like him to establish himself.

He threw away the stub and turned around to head into the house.

He had some thinking to do.

Alexandria strode into the meeting room, angry and frustrated.

Several days of work and nothing to show for it. Scion's disappearance was still as big a mystery as it had been when it happened. At least the populace had stopped panicking. Mostly.

The meeting room only contained Contessa, who was sitting and staring at a cup of something, while Doctor Mother stood behind her, watching her worriedly.

"What happened?"

"My power also changed," replied Contessa despondently.

She was instantly on alert.

"What? How? Did you go near Brockton Bay?"

"No. But I got a message with the change."

Well, that was new.

"What was it?"

"Clean your house…"