Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter 124 - Cauldron and PRT Director Meeting

Cauldron

Alexandria stepped through the floating portal into the clean, almost sterile meeting room inside the Cauldron Compound. It was a familiar room, one where she met with her peers at least once a week, usually more, as they desperately put out fires that sprouted up across the Earth-Bet and beyond.

Air flowed steadily through the Doormaker portal, pushing from the positive pressure of the compound to the negative pressure of twenty thousand feet in the air. Once she was through, the portal sealed behind her, the draft cutting off instantly.

As she stepped further into the room, she noted that Doctor Mother, Contessa, Number Man, and Eidolon were already seated. Legend's seat, between Doctor Mother and Eidolon, was empty, which limited the number of subjects the meeting might have been called about. They kept their less morally flexible member in the dark about specific projects, since Contessa assured them he would not be able to handle them, but the list was relatively short.

As she sat, she could also see that Eidolon was already agitated, tapping his fingers on the table and leaning on his hand. This wasn't surprising as she had been a few minutes late, and agitated seemed to be Eidolon's natural state these days.

"Finally, we can start," Eidolon said, as if Alexandria had been hours late. "What is so important that we needed this meeting?"

"I believe we need to discuss our options with the remnants of the Terminus project," Doctor Mother explained. "We-"

"What's the point?" Eidolon asked, roughly voicing what Alexandria was thinking. "It was obviously a failure."

"I wouldn't call it a failure," Number Man said, not looking up from the notepad of graph paper he was writing on. "The results were quite conclusive. Despite being given the drive and opportunity, parahumans cannot be expected to control and stabilize large groups as they inevitably invite conflict. No matter how much they attempt to prepare, it's only a matter of time before they stumble into a match they cannot win. With the draw to conflict, it is a cyclical inevitability, with each cycle ruining whatever holdings they have more and more."

"There are capes with lower draws to conflict," Doctor Mother pointed out. "They may be viable."

"Parahumans with less conflict drive tend to lack the killer instinct required to seize power," Number Man fired back. "They also tend to have less directly powerful abilities, making them easy targets." 

"Contessa, is there any way we could convince Arcanum to take control of the area?" Alexandria asked. "He would have the strongest claim. He could be considered a continuation of the experiment."

"Not without destroying the city's entire infrastructure, including the ENE PRT," Contessa responded, shaking her head. "That may change on his next refresh, but I do not think it is likely."

Monitoring Arcanum, as well as the equipment he created, was an ongoing struggle for Contessa and Cauldron. The man was a blank spot, which itself was rare enough, but had also managed to somehow slip by their standard sweeps for such issues. Like some blank spots he could be pathed around, meaning that with Number Man's help, they could still partially predict his actions. However, according to the rather stoic man, the hero's numerical values consistently changed around each of his creations as well as the updates to his powers, necessitating a new entire calculation and for Contessa to path around him, again. 

These value changes occurred predictably every two weeks, or whenever he created new gear for himself or for his immediate vicinity. Even worse, when he handed out his creations, whoever received them, if there was a path about them, that also needed to be re-run. Altogether, this required a considerable amount of time to stay on top of.

Usually, that would be enough to get him off the board, since keeping the path stable was extremely important. But by the time they realized what was going on, he was too critical to the region's stability. Removing him caused a total collapse of Brockton Bay, something that would spread to neighboring cities with alarming speed.

The equipment he created alone was responsible for a considerable shift in power. How a tinker of any sort, especially one so exotic, could produce stable equipment, needing no repairs or adjustments, even months after they handed over their creations, was unknown. So far, no one had even come close to understanding how the luck bracelets that he created for testing worked, even after several destructive analyses.

Despite that, it was obvious that they did work, as anyone wearing them did, in fact, have increases in luck, or at least an observable shift in probability. They had even taken to putting them on everyone involved with selecting Agent vials, resulting in a noticeable downtick in Case 53 creation. Small, but noticeable. 

"Are we going to do anything about him?" Eidolon asked, voicing an opinion he had been repeating for almost a month at this point. "He is unpredictable and getting more powerful by the day. Every thinker we ask says he would never let us steer him for the greater good, or follow orders, and we can't trust him to toe the line. He needs to be stopped or isolated."

"He cannot be removed. Even beyond his status as a lynchpin, his equipment has shown to have noticeable effects on the steps for dozens of paths," Contessa said, shaking her head. "Giving the parahuman Velocity a healing ability shortened a dozen paths alone, all of them about helping certain capes and civilians stay alive."

"I'm telling you, he is going to be trouble," Eidolon repeated. "We-" 

"Perhaps we can get back on topic?" Doctor Mother asked, giving Eidolon a hard look as she cut him off. "Alexandria, any thoughts on the results of the Terminus project?"  

"Not beyond what Number Man already stated," Alexandria responded, shaking her head. "The experiment is over, and while we did not get the results we wanted, we cannot deny that we did get results."

"Should we attempt it in another area?" Doctor Mother asked. "We have Coil after all, we could release him somewhere else. Perhaps with a tighter leash to ensure the test at least reaches its final steps."

Once Coil was captured, Cauldron cashed in several favors to make him disappear, though they waited until after he was out of Brockton Bay. They pulled him back to their facility to work with him directly, as his power was too useful to squander in a cell.

"Coil has already proven a valuable asset in dealing with difficult paths," Contessa said, shaking her head. "Leveraging his powers has proven more useful than the experiment itself. If you must restart the experiment, then I suggest you pick a different cape."

"It doesn't matter," Number Man stated, finally looking up from his equations. "Brockton Bay is not likely to ever return to the state it was before Arcanum, and it was uniquely suited for the project. Besides, it's clear we've waited too long to do anything but declare total war against Arcanum. He is too entrenched, too heavily connected to the area. I believe that attempting the experiment again, at least on Earth-Bet, would be pointless, if you could even find a location suitable for it."

The group continued to discuss the effects of the experiment and how the ENE Protecterate would be slowly refunded, without drawing attention to the process. Eventually, either out of frustration from his issues with Arcanum being ignored, or from boredom, Eidolon left, leaving the meeting room through a familiar Doormaker portal. The meeting closed not long after that. 

PRT Director Meeting

Director Piggot double checked her papers, her desk, and her uniform, all while watching the time slowly blink down in the corner of her computer screen. She had called this meeting, and she would be damned if she was caught unprepared for it.

Chief Director Costa-Brown would likely use it as another excuse to withhold further funding. 

Piggot let out a long breath, ignoring the painful pull that ran up and along her side. Getting upset wasn't going to help here, and in all honesty, it hardly mattered. At this point, between New Wave becoming more active than ever and Arcanum's golems and "Guardians,"  Brockton Bay was quickly becoming one of the safest cities in the US.

She wasn't sure if she actually needed more funding at this point. 

At precisely two in the afternoon, Director Piggot clicked on the program that activated the secure connection between her and all other PRT directors, as well as the Chief Director. She knew the system was run and reinforced by Dragon, but having a truly secure connection was worth relying on the reclusive tinker.

A moment after she activated the program, the large TV screen across the room turned on, showing over several dozen different faces, with the Chief Director taking up four squares in the corner. Most of them were Directors like her, but a few others were included as well.

"Director Piggot, welcome," Costa-Brown greeted with a cold nod, her face locked in her usual light scowl. "I believe you have something that requires our attention?"

"I do," she said simply, before sending a data packet to all of her peers, as well as her superior.  "Several days ago, the Cape known as Arcanum, a powerful hero with a wide array of abilities, stepped forward with something he described as an Anti-Endbringer proposal."

"A bit full of himself," Director Tagg said with a furrowed brow, apparently reading Arcanum's file. "His ratings are impressive, but what could he have that we don't already? You are wasting ou-"

"... Arcanum is directly connected to our previous success against the Simurgh," the Chief Director revealed, cutting off the annoyed man. "This was downplayed to protect him. That he has been focusing on countering them directly is a surprise, but is not unprecedented. Continue, Director Piggot." 

Piggot nodded, very carefully stamping out the smirk at having the sanctimonious bastard silenced.  She paused for a moment before continuing.  

"Arcanum approached us with an opportunity. He recently gained the ability to mass-produce the exotic tinker tech he is known for, and -" 

"Hold on, his report says his 'tech' doesn't require frequent maintenance," the director from Chicago stated. "Are you saying he now isn't limited by scale either? He can mass-produce equipment that doesn't need maintenance?" 

"According to his own words, which we have no reason not to trust, that is correct," Piggot answered, adding a simple nod for emphasis. "We are under the impression that Arcanum is some sort of variation on a free tinker, meaning that he is capable of building essentially anything. It appears his only limitation is time and the uniqueness that some of his creations require."

"Uniqueness?" The Chief Director asked, "Clarify, please." 

"He is an exotic tinker, his creations do not follow normal scientific logic, even more so than normal tinkers," Piggot explained, folding her hands in her lap. "For example, the Guardians he is famous for require objects with enough 'history, position and weight behind them.' The one we interviewed used a retired police badge that is nearly fifty years old. Items like these can be hard to find, hence the limitation."  

"Not a very useful limitation, given just how much time he has gotten to settle in," Director Armstrong pointed out. "But thankfully, his heroic nature makes that concern unnecessary." 

"Indeed," the Chief Director said with a nod. "Continue, Director Piggot." 

"Arcanum came to us with an offer, a potential way to combat the Endbringers," she explained, pausing for a moment for dramatic effect. "If we collected an army, a large group of specifically selected individuals, he would arm them, essentially turn them into tinker capes."

"That… is an interesting offer," the Chief Director said. "Why come to us with it? He has proven he is more than capable of creating his own soldiers."

"He recognizes that creating an army of super soldier tinker capes was a good way to get on everyone's bad side," Piggot explained. "He is hoping that by letting us pick, train, and house the group, we would be more likely to accept the idea and less likely to put him under a kill order for trying to help." 

"That… is a remarkable amount of restraint and intelligence," Chief Director admitted. "Most tinkers of his scale would have immediately started to build their army, not wonder what our response would be."

"Does it really matter?" Director Tagg asked, shaking his head. "Arming a few dozen soldiers might be useful, but I hardly see how this requires such a meeting."

"That's because his offer was not just a few dozen soldiers, Director Tagg," Piggot responded, focusing intently on the chief director. "He seemed prepared to arm hundreds, if not thousands, of specially selected soldiers and officers."

"Thousands?" the Chief Director asked, a crack forming in her usual stony face. "That is… do you think he is capable of that level of mass production?"

"I learned quite a few weeks ago to stop questioning what was possible for him, Chief Director," she responded. "He seemed confident in his assurances, and I do not see any reason not to believe him."

"How potent is this equipment, exactly?" Director Armstrong asked. "What sort of ratings are we looking at?" 

"His process of increasing his strength and durability, which he has shared with all of New Wave, as well as a few others, creates a brute level of around five, as well as mover one," Piggot explained. "He presented a few pieces of equipment, some simple, some more complicated, but together, combined with the brute rating, he is offering to create what equates to an army of extremely flexible mid B-ranked capes. Armsmaster and I both believe that with some slight modifications and advice, we could bring that up to high B-ranked, perhaps even low A-ranked."

That got a lot of talking, with the Chief Director actually having to raise her voice to silence the call. When it was finally quiet, Piggot continued. 

"Perhaps even more incredible is what he plans on arming them with," She said. "If you direct your attention to the footage being presented… to… you…"

Director Piggot trailed off, a vibration catching her attention. She turned, her chair swiveling until she was looking out the window of her office. Immediately, she spotted the source of the noise, as the multipanel window was vibrating. It was vibrating so much that she could see the glass wobble. It reverberated through the wall, the vibrations rising rapidly in frequency.

Suddenly, the frequency spiked, and the glass exploded, sending a wave of glass shrapnel through the room. Director Piggot barely had enough time to see past it, that all the glass on the street was exploding as well, before the wave slammed into her.