Chapter 70: Analysis

-Alexander POV-

So, complications.

What the hell was I supposed to do with half a dozen unconscious parahumans?

Well, first of all, keep them sedated. Don’t want them breaking out to go cause a mess somewhere else. Plus it prevents any of them undergoing any further trauma.

Take notes Taizong!

The six were currently in stasis tubes, lined in a row in a section of the underground chamber that would soon be my workshop. The place where I would peel back the secrets of the entities, where I would derive methods of slaying those cosmic worms.

Now, if you’re thinking to yourself: ‘Alexander, this whole setup sounds incredibly unethical!”

You would be right.

Counterpoint: I’m going to need other methods of observing the shards than just the breach in Jinzhou. Shardspace, for all its brilliance, didn’t allow me to observe a shard in its fullness, merely small extrusions – like the fingernail of some massive being poking through the firmament of space.

They wouldn’t be the first test subjects, however. They simply weren’t suitable.

Ideally I would want to observe a vial cape first, infiltrating the defences of a dead shard would likely be many times easier than a living one. After that I would work my way up, first observing a newborn, before moving on to a fully mature and living shard.

That being said, these people had already been away from their families and loved ones for about a month now, so ideally I want to either work my way through those first two examples quickly, or find replacements for these six.

I decided to give myself a month.

If I hadn’t found, and captured, a suitable vial cape and host of a newborn in that span of time I would release the six of them – their memories of the past month erased.

If I had then I could move on to non-invasive studies of the six of them, so it might take a little longer to return them.

Still morally iffy, but acceptably so by my standards.

And if I wanted to find my needed subjects there was one area I knew like the back of my hand, where both resided.

I was speaking, of course, about Brockton Bay. There were lots of vial capes present in the city, probably because it was the place where that ‘Terminus’ project was going on.

Which, y’know, still dumb, but it’s currently beneficial to me.

One of them was even a justifiable target.

As for the newborn shard, I had one confirmed and two that I was unsure about.

Victoria Dallon, host of the Fragile One. It was both an extremely weak shard, and one which aligned itself much more closely with human values than the vast majority of its kind.

I suspected that Laserdream and…Fuck, what was her brother’s name again?

Shield Guy?

Well, whatever, I was pretty sure they also had newborn shards.

If Vicky becomes unavailable, for whatever reason, they would do.

I nodded to myself, the basics of a plan down, now it was time to start planning an entirely different operation – one far more dicey than merely kidnapping a few people to study.

I frown, a flicker of unease running through me as I consider the situation with Mary – or Thanatos in her new form. I had gone over the intelligence provided by Taizong, and then promptly fact checked the hell out of that.

Mary was in the winds.

She had skipped right across the ocean, blew past Brockton Bay and promptly pulled a disappearing act with Boston. To say America is shitting the bed right now would be an understatement, and I couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit responsible.

Of course, that alone wouldn’t be enough to get me to alter my plans, considering there were plenty other things I was responsible for which I’m leaving be. Japan, Germany, Korea and many others were impacted far more directly by my efforts.

America, meanwhile, ran dick first into a woodchipper. They chose to get involved.

Perhaps that wasn’t fair, but I wasn’t inclined to be fair to the country that funded the PRT and Protectorate.

Still, the reason I was choosing to do so was because allowing a Titan free roam wasn’t going to end well for anyone. This was a creature of Endbringer levels of power while lacking nearly none of their chains.

To make matters worse, I had absolutely no idea what it would do next. Unlike in Ward, Scion wasn’t dead yet, so it can’t be plotting to usurp control over the Shard Network. So what would it want?

Unfortunately, beyond the usual of: conflict and data, I had zilch.

That alone was reason enough to get rid of it.

…If I could revert the changes that would be an added bonus, everything I knew about the process of transforming into a Titan tells me that it isn’t a pleasant process. Not to mention that it could be a good case study for retrieving the minds trapped in Shardspace. Because, yikes, not enough people really consider how awful of an afterlife that is.

Having only your Shard for company for years on end with nothing to do? I could only imagine that the vast majority of the dead Parahumans were batshit insane at this point.

Weird to think about, but the Butcher might actually be one of the luckiest in what happens after death.

I eventually push aside the distracting thoughts, instead choosing to focus on what I will require to do battle with Thanatos. Some manner of dimensional weaponry will be required to kill the avatar, that’s for sure. I’ll also need to miniaturise the anti-divination ward for personal use, as I doubt the Titan will allow me enough time to ward wherever we’ll fight.

But, most importantly, I’ll need to find it first.

“So, the question is…If I were a massive conflict driven abomination, where would I go?” I pointedly ignore the irony as I speak aloud.

Well, the obvious answer would be: wherever the conflict is, but there had yet to be a sighting of Thanatos since their visit to Boston. Which means they’re either laying low or they’re not on Earth Bet.

Which presents its own problems, because the number of places it could be were massive. Forget ‘needle in a haystack’ this was more like asking me to find a needle in a solar system!

Ugh.

Okay, the most logical place to check first would be Boston. I’d set up sensors to try to find a trace that I could follow. If not…

Well, mapping out the local multiverse was already something I had planned to do. My scheme to outwit Scion required it, after all.

Without further ado, I got to work.

This was the third time I had built a dedicated surveillance drone, and which was most definitely the start of a trend. Noticing this, I also began creating a means to automate the creation of the devices in question.

I was nothing if not lazy, after all.

The final product was a machine about five meters across and 2 meters high, which was actually a lot bigger than it could be. With my many specialisations I could shrink the device to be less than half the size, yet there was a reason I didn’t.

This was a device that could benefit more than just me, The uses Jinzhou could have for it were staggering. Rescue, scouting, research, weather prediction and more could be done through the use of these upgraded drones, so a factory purpose built to print them like paper would certainly be useful.

Yet, if I made it too small I risked making it too complicated to use, the use of dimensional engineering and meta-materials alone would only confuse the engineers assigned to it. Sure, they’d be able to work it, but understand it?

Nah, besides it’s not like this version of the factory was any less effective.

So, after using my creation to create thirty or so drones -you know, just in case- I teleported it up to the surface, quickly sending an email to Taizong with instructions on what it was, where to find it and how it works.

Which left me with twenty nine spare drones to use, after sending one of them to scout out Boston.

Eh, they’d come in handy someday.

I turn to my friend, who had been hovering in the doorway for the past ten minutes. Not sure what was up with that, and I chalked it up to a ‘Renji thing’.

“Yo, Renji! Want to begin your upgrades?” The holler was met with an eager nod, the man almost skipping into the room from how happy he appeared. I took in the joyous mood with a small smile of my own, quickly fabricating a surgical bed for him lay down on.

Feeling my smile turn a bit impish, I wait until Renji lies down upon the bed before transmuting an array of equipment, part surgical and part industrial, onto a newly crafted table besides me.

Renji’s smile is quickly snuffed out, as he watches the tools in the same way one would a snake. I pretend not to notice as I wheel the table closer.

“You alright there, Renji?” I sunnily smile at the slightly pale face of my friend, now much more uncertain about his choice.

“Uh, my friend, is all of this…” He glances towards the table and back to me, “Is this truly necessary, you don’t require any of those to properly work.”

“Nonsense, Renji! Proper procedure should be followed at all times!” I make a show of dipping my hands into newly created boiling water, which is quickly evaporated back into gas as I slap on a pair of surgeon’s gloves.

“Don’t worry Renji, I’m totally a doctor! I know what I’m doing!” I lie as naturally as I breathe.

Obviously this doesn’t reassure him, as well acquainted with my odd moods as he is. I supress the urge to laugh, reminded of my childhood days of fearing injections and visits to the doctor.

With a thought, Renji’s processes shut down, causing the man’s head to slump back into the pillow.

I couldn’t supress the low giggle that reverberated through the chamber, the props I had made for that silly diversion reverting back to the matter they had once been. As Renji had said, I didn’t need them to operate on him.

With a chant, and a quick ritual circle, the effort to improve my friend began in earnest.

-Strider POV-

With a flash of light, the scenic views of Venice dissipated into the frozen hellscape of the South Pole. He shivered, despite having the forethought of bringing a thick coat with him, it was still freezing, so cold that it almost burned.

He wrapped his arms against himself, attempting to shield himself from the cold, and cursing the PRT for asking him to come here.

Thankfully he wasn’t suffering for nothing. A quick look at his phone was enough to soothe the pain, the recent transaction of ten million dollars. Subject to further payment should things go south.

It was a fairly short notice request, apparently Watch Dog’s Thinkers caught wind of a missing Protectorate member. They had said he needed immediate extraction, and seeing where they were? He could see that.

He looked around, his target should be somewhere close to the coordinates he had been given.

His fingers danced upon the screen of his DragonTech phone, navigating to the photos section with ease of well-practiced remembrance. The man he was supposed to retrieve was certainly big, if the size comparisons could be believed. The man was one of the few Non-Tinkers to actually wear armour, with a navy blue bodysuit beneath that white armour.

Of course it had to be white armour.

Fuck.

He scanned the snowy plains intently, searching for any signs of movement. He must have stood, stock still and eyes watching, for almost five whole minutes.

Just as he was about to call it quits, seriously it was way too cold, he spotted something.

His head turned, eyes narrowing, and sure enough, there it was: a splotch of blue in an otherwise pure white landscape.

Strider sighed in relief, grateful at the sign he’d be done with this assignment soon.

He began moving forwards, already plotting out his next destination in his head.

Somewhere warm, preferably with a beach.

AN: Shorter chapter than usual, had some trouble putting words to digital paper. Still, you got a glimpse of Alexander’s short-term plans, and a tiny hint at his overall scheme. Renji is getting his upgrades and the showdown with Alexander and Thanatos is foreshadowed. Is foreshadowed the right word to use when Alexander literally says he’s going to do it? Hmm, there’s probably a better word I’m missing.

Also, Chubster escapes! Which means the PRT will be getting some juicy info, look forward to that! If you’re wondering how the Thinkers picked up on him, the man simply walked far enough that the wards against divination no longer covered him.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment!