Hebert Disassembly Services Chapter 11: Pathways///

<<<Contessa>>>

The Path to Victory allowed her to visualize the steps needed along the Path to whatever goal she wanted. The Path wasn’t perfect, however, and it required much from her. While it could guide her motions, if she wasn’t physically capable, then the Pathing would be suboptimal. So, the Boogiewoman of Parahumans had a private gym where she kept in shape, using a path to ensure she was always training perfectly.

The Path itself served as a direct guide to any action she could take; it gave her what she needed and nothing more. However, it was up to her to refine the skills it gave her, as she was still human and skill deterioration was a thing. This, in turn, led her to be well educated and well read. The Path could give her an instant refresher, but that wouldn’t help when it came to Blindspots.

Between Paths, she enjoyed listening to audiobooks while going through her exercise routines, or simply using a minor Path to experience things she never had the chance to experience. But outside of those moments, she tried not to use the Path during her free time. Aside from when her Paths to prevent parahuman rampages changed thanks to blindspots and she needed to execute someone, of course.

It was during these periods of downtime that she usually got blindsided. And normally in unpleasant ways, however, she had given so much of her life to the Path, she felt entitled to being selfish with her free time despite how Doctor Mother (who was neither a Doctor or a Mother) complained about it.

Becky, Keith, and David understood. Though they admitted sometimes it was annoying, they never tried to convince her to give up her free time.

So, sitting in a conference room, she considered using her Path to figure out what was going on before discarding the idea. Not all surprises were terrible, and neither Becky nor David looked overly upset while Keith looked rather pleased. And if she wasn’t mistaken, it was the Simurgh’s turn on the attack run, so obviously the Simurgh was driven away quickly enough so the city wouldn’t be walled off.

It’d certainly explain why Keith looked so pleased.

She was also well aware that checking using the Path wouldn’t work anyway. Cyn was already something that couldn’t be Pathed, but she knew Dragon (and wasn’t it a surprise that she wasn’t human?) had been requested to direct them there.

Cyn and, by proxy, Taylor had interested the Boogiewoman. Unlike traditional parahuman blindspots, Cyn seemed like a… Void whenever she attempted to Path her. And while pathing, Taylor herself had better results, they were… erratic and difficult to accurately predict. If anything, the two seemed to be in a symbiotic relationship of sorts… though she did wonder what Cyn was getting out of this partnership.

Cyn was an Endbringer to her; Taylor was closer to David. She needed more information on Taylor to start Pathing her, but as soon as Cyn did anything, that Path would need to be remade with that new information. Puzzling as it was annoying.

“Oh, the meeting is starting. Better pay attention.” Becky still teased her about the one time she used the Path to Sleeping While Not Looking Like It. In her defense, she’d been run ragged the week before that thanks to a string of S-Class threats she, personally, needed to deal with.

That had been before they’d recruited Kurt, Numberman, and her workload had significantly reduced thanks to him. Doctor Mother had been the one to suggest it, but that was why she personally was not the leader.

It helped that Doctor Mother had been the one to kill Eden after she’d hesitated. Doctor Mother would do what was necessary; she couldn’t trust herself not to hesitate even with the Path sometimes.

“Another city walled off?” Doctor Mother asked.

Surprisingly, or not, David just scoffed at the pragmatic older woman, “Hardly. The Simurgh was run off in record time. And the civilians were evacuated while Absolute decided to…” He just shook his head, “I’m honestly still trying to understand what she even did.

Contessa frowned minutely, the Path To Getting More Information (creative, she knew) guiding the action.

She looked to Becky. “What did she do, exactly?” She asked, tilting her head inquisitively.

And that was it, apparently they were already going to share, but the Path cut down the postulating from Doctor Mother and David struggling how to explain it. She liked it when Paths were simple like that.

“She and Cyn… combined, somehow, and transformed into a biomechanical centipede from Hell,” She said bluntly, “And she… tried to eat the Simurgh with some degree of success.”

“But failed,” Doctor Mother noted, “It reminds me of when Behemoth first appeared, you did well against it then, David, but it quickly adapted to the tactics you used. Is there any risk of that this time?”

“I’m not sure,” Becky admitted as she absentmindedly rubbed the scar the Sibarian left her, “It seemed like the Simurgh was just playing at first. But when Absolute tore off a wing, exposing what I think was its core, the Simurgh stopped playing. Grasping everyone and everything in the area she made landfall in and slammed us all down. Killing every cape in her grasp aside from myself and David while damaging Absolute severely…” She trailed off, looking vaguely disturbed.

“So, we’ve confirmed that they aren’t Parahumans and are likely holding back,” Doctor Mother replied, frowning, “We still don’t know the cause, but since they only started showing up after our experiments got into full swing, we may have to assume it’s something left behind by Eden we accidentally woke up.”

Becky just nodded absentmindedly.

“You said Absolute was only damaged?” Kurt asked, “From your expression, that wasn’t the end of it?” 

“Thank you, Kurt,” Contessa thought. It always annoyed her slightly how Doctor Mother hyperfocused at times. Normally, it kept them on task, but it did prevent information from being fully shared at times.

“She… ‘assimilated’ the ruined buildings, the dead, and even tore out chunks of the street,” Becky said, “And I have a feeling that she was limiting herself, she could’ve assimilated the entire city if she didn’t…”

“It’s unlikely it would have helped her, though,” David picked up, “Past a certain point, she just stopped growing. She didn’t need to do it again afterwards, even when she took a further beating from Endbringer made tinkertech weapons, so she must have some form of internal storage.”

“What do you think, Keith?” David asked, “You probably noticed things we missed.”

He frowned, visibly thinking about things. “I think you or I could have killed her if we’d had the right presence of mind,” He said after a moment, drawing every eye in the room. “The primary problem with killing them has always been getting deep enough to hit something vital. The area around the… core nullifies a lot of our abilities and a lot of powers we’ve seen tried against them. But without the mass around it…”

Kurt nodded. “The numbers add up,” He said curtly. 

“Since Absolute exposed the core, should she be brought in?” Doctor Mother asked before looking to Contessa, “Can they be controlled?” Which translated to ‘can you deal with them if they turn out to be more trouble than they’re worth’ to Contessa.

“Right now?” She started, “Yes. If her strength increases further, something likely if her questions before the battle are an indication? No. I don’t think anyone short of Eidolon would pose a threat.” She didn’t need to use a Path to know that anyone who could fight an Endbringer on their own like she had would be something easily killed by her.

Doctor Mother frowned faintly, “This is troubling…” While she was pragmatic enough to simply accept it, she didn’t enjoy knowing they couldn’t fully control her actions.

“But,” Contessa continued, “she may also be what we’re looking for. It’s not like the Entities to allow such a potent power out, but I was a natural Eden trigger; what if Taylor is another? A power that hadn’t been tuned and weakened? The body changes are in line with what we’d expect of that.”

“That’s possible…” Becky said thoughtfully, “Though looking at her transformation…” She just trailed off.

“From my talks with the surviving parahumans, Absolute’s transformation provoked either intense curiosity or the fight or flight reflex,” Keith commented, “I’m fairly sure when she initially changed, a few parahumans fled entirely.”

Doctor Mother looked thoughtful, “That’s strange, not a normal reaction seen in Agents.” She said, “Maybe she possesses an Agent that was never meant to be given out? But that doesn’t explain, Cyn…”

“That was my thinking,” ‘Contessa’ agreed, “it’s also possible that this agent was not fully assimilated?” That was her genuine thought on it, this time. “Aside from Richter and the Machine Army, AI powers are non-existent even though most tinkers should be able to make them.”

“I actually always wondered about that,” David said thoughtfully, “With the sort of bullshit Tinkers can make, you’d think AIs would pop up more often.”

Even Hero hadn’t mentioned being able to do it, and his power was as close to an Unlimited Tinker they’d ever found. Even Eidolon’s tinker repertoire couldn’t mimic everything he could. Which brought her to…

“What if Cyn is actually a manifestation of her Agent?” Keith threw out there, “From my understanding, Agents possess an unfathomable degree of processing power, so it stands to reason that an Agent could develop sentience and eventually sapience.”

David frowned for a moment as Becca spoke up, “From what we’ve seen, it’s more likely that Agents would get their personality from the host. But, judging by other powers and parahumans, they likely have some form of rudimentary intelligence to make the conflict drive work more efficiently.” Ah, yes, the other reason they needed Doctor Mother.

“Still, it’s a theory, and personally, having listened to Cyn’s music? I like it,” Keith said, “I also checked on Taylor’s personality, and while she is a lively if formerly depressed young lady. She has never shown any aptitude towards music. So if Cyn is based on Taylor, well, it begs the question, doesn’t it?”

“Which brings us to Tessa,” Doctor Mother started, “According to the reports Rebecca has gotten, she’s effectively a revived person. As no one fitting her description has ever been found in any Earth we have contact with,” Contessa had checked personally, “it stands to reason she’s either made from whole cloth or evidence of an Earth that wasn’t included in the Entity’s experiment.”

“It also suggests that the Agent had been deployed once, possibly by accident or because Eden wanted to understand the Agent’s purpose in general,” Becca speculated, “And after some sort of catastrophe, Eden realized the Agent was too powerful to deploy again?” It was pure speculation, but it made sense.

“Or it’s from a different Entity, one that works differently from Eden and Scion do,” Rebecca noted with a frown, “Or it is an Entity.”

Contessa shook her head. “No, I can still Path Taylor like I can David, and any Entity would likely be able to kill the Simurgh, given how much she’d been weakened if David and Keith could.”

“I can’t think of a reason for it to lie about its origins to this extent if it was one,” Kurt agreed with a nod, “Anything she can accomplish from the Wards would be outstripped by what it would be able to accomplish from a position within the Protectorate if nothing else.”

Doctor Mother just hummed, “Honestly, all this speculation isn’t getting us anywhere,” She said, “So I put forward that we should have Absolute closely monitored. Becca, is it possible to relocate them so you can watch them?”

“No,” She replied, shaking her head, “She wouldn’t react well to being moved away from her father and the friends she's made there already.”

“And Armsmaster went on record to state that Cyn would react with violence if any attempts were made,” Keith added, “At least her… partner is protective.”

“It goes without saying that the Brockton Bay experiment is dead then,” Doctor Mother noted, “No great loss, but we may need to tap Battery for one of those favors. Watching Taylor wouldn’t be a large ask.”

“I could spare them a Ward or Protectorate member from another region,” Rebecca started, “But it would mean weakening those areas at a potentially critical time. If she’d killed the Simurgh, that would change things; we’d need more parahumans in the region to deal with the Fallen in that case, but she didn’t, and a single good showing won’t be enough to rattle them enough to go after Taylor or Cyn.”

Contessa decided this was a good time to speak up, “I can’t Path them accurately, as I said before,” She said, “But I can tell this much, they grew stronger during that conflict. It’s possible that as they synchronize, Taylor will gain more and more access to the Agent’s power, whatever it truly is.”

A thought visibly came over Doctor Mother as she looked at Contessa. “How possible would you to join the Protectorate in the area? Or someone who could feed you the information you needed, joining the Wards?”

Contessa blinked in surprise as that had thoroughly blindsided her, “I… let me run a Path…” She said, genuinely curious herself. 

Running a Path to Influencing Absolute was… surprisingly straightforward. It would involve some effort on her part, undoing some deadman traps, executing a few people, and catching her patsy before she disappeared completely. Then, after making her initial offer, she’d have to do some more work, arranging some legitimate work, deal with a custody issue, make sure someone got a proper trial, and relocate another, even further south.

All in all, perfectly doable, simpler than most Paths were because she could rely on her existing support network for most of it.

“I could do it,” Contessa said simply, “Though a favor would be rendered invalid.”

“Coil?” Doctor Mother asked, working out who it was by process of elimination.

She nodded, “He has a Thinker under his employ that would prove very suitable.” Not to mention amusing, but Contessa wouldn’t mention that.

“We can relocate him to another city. He doesn’t know of the experiment anyway, and he’d be appreciative of our assistance in getting away from someone that could so trivially kill him,” Alexandria noted, “He might need to be threatened about the Thinker, but he values his life over any random asset.”

Contessa thought some more, “Actually, we could bring him in. Using his power and mine will give us more flexibility,” She said, “Though he would have to be kept under close observation for reasons I’m sure you know.”

“Can you manage that, Kurt?” Doctor Mother asked, already knowing the answer.

Kurt snorted faintly, “It wouldn’t be the first time I kept a megalomaniac on a tight leash,” He said dryly, “If anything, it might make me feel nostalgic…” He added with a faint chuckle.

That was a lie, Contessa knew. Kurt was as emotionless as it was possible to be, but he was also pragmatic enough to know that if Scion snapped early, he’d die too. He was useful, friendly even, but most of it was simply a very good act.

Becca obviously shared Contessa’s thoughts, but didn’t comment. Whereas David simply didn’t care, and Keith looked vaguely uncomfortable. But then again, he never approved of the recruitment of the sociopath and former serial killer.

“I’ll start my illustrious adventure now, then,” Contessa started, already on the Path she wanted to be on, “The sooner it is completed, the fewer outside factors will be able to interfere.

“Good hunting, Fortuna,” Keith said, making Contessa smile faintly. It’d been decades since she’d been Fortuna; it was… nice to be reminded of her. She hoped to live long enough to be her again.

She nodded, “Door Brockton Bay.” She said as a Door snapped open that she stepped through.

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