Doctor Mother nods, as though she expected that answer. She doesn't have anyone to perform that for, here, it's just habit. Inside she's disturbed. Contessa's powers don't work partway; either she sees the path to her chosen goal, or she doesn't. It suggests another possibility: that Samora's gods are real, but unpathable, like the Endbringers are.

"That naturally leads to the second question I wanted to address tonight: should we kill her? If we believe her story in broad strokes, then we're facing an incursion of powerful forces with unknown goals. Right now we may be able to shut them out, but if that chance exists at all the window is certainly closing."

Alexandria stirs uneasily. "Samora believed, very strongly, in the things she told me. Goodness and Law, as she believed her goddess defined them, really mattered to her."

Doctor Mother nods. "And Scion is the world's greatest hero. Ask anyone."

She sighs. "I don't like it either. This woman has, so far, done only good. But our charge is all humanity. We can work with other powers, we can try to get their help if the price is not too high, but we cannot give up our ability to steer. That's what it is to take responsibility, instead of giving it away."

Yeah, point taken. This isn't about Samora, particularly. If she's just a powerful, delusional healer then there's no issue.

"Kurt, what's your opinion?"

"In the modal scenario most of us die. We have to get out of distribution. Safety is risk." Most of the Number Man's attention is still on his models.

"Yes, of course. But this is a bigger, riskier bet than anything else we've attempted. The vials are dangerous, yes, but we can contain the bad outcomes and sometimes even turn them to our advantage. Here we could wind up like the man in the story who solved a plauge of rats with a plague of snakes. And if Evil clerics who can kill in an area just by deciding to start showing up in numbers..."

Path to meet an Evil cleric

None found

"So far I can't find any."

"Check once per day from now on, please, even if we decide to take drastic action."

The Number Man leans back in his chair. "I've finished what look like the primary scenarios. Samora herself, with only the powers we've seen so far, adds between two and six years to the central collapse timelines, mostly through Endbringer relief. The rise of Good clerics asymmetrically, assuming Contessa can suppress the Evil ones the way she does cape assassinations, add between minus one and nine years, turning on how we model the societal propensity for violence in a world where severe injuries are easily healed. Neither factor changes the sign of the collapse curve. The impact of Good clerics in the dispersed-survival scenario is likely high, but can't be assessed without more data."

That feels right. Earth Bet can have nice things, sometimes, but never quite enough of them to be safe.

"I'd like to meet her, but the risks are substantial. Rebecca, did she hint at all about whether her Evil-detecting ability would work over a video call?"

Right. Alexandria still read as non-Evil despite the things she's done for Cauldron; the Number Man, who was known as Harbinger back when he was helping found the Slaughterhouse Nine, definitely won't.

She shakes her head. "We'll have to find out both what sorts of people Samora reads as Evil, and how she deals with them. I'll have Armsmaster's team study it. The pretext will be that we want to use Samora's vision to try and refine our understanding of her goddess' morality. Based on everything we've seen so far, she'll go along."

"We can arrange some uncontrolled-looking Evil encounters, in contexts where lethal violence isn't necessary. Contessa, do you see a path to that?"

Path to a safe encounter between Samora and a villain.

Fifty-three steps. It takes a lot of work to set everything up tonight!

Hmm. Path to a safe encounter between Samora and a villain tomorrow.

Fourteen steps. She didn't use any of her flashier powers in the fight, strangely enough, just some Brute speed and toughness.

Path to a safe encounter between Samora and a villain tomorrow where she defeats them with Holy Smite.

None found

...where she uses that whirling blades power.

None found

...where she heals them afterwards?

None found

"I can set that up for today or tomorrow, but she doesn't use any of her powers except the Brute ones."

"But you can see her tomorrow? She's not leaving?"

Path to feed Samora a delicious muffin tomorrow.

Seven steps

Path to watch Samora leave this dimension.

None found

Path to get Samora to heal someone injured tomorrow, in any context at all.

None found

"I can. Just, nothing to do with her powers, even the ones we've seen her use."

Doctor Mother pulls herself back on topic, with an effort. "Samora's powers come from her goddess, she says. Whatever she's wrong about she's likely right about that. And her goddess appears to be unpathable. Should we kill her tonight?"

"No. Sacrificing innocents for a good cause is one thing; here we'd be sacrificing them to our own fears. We don't know enough to justify it."

"Also no. This is a good gamble."

It's in Contessa's employment contract that no one will make her answer questions like that.

It's a relief, on the whole. "All right. We'll leave her alive and continue to monitor, both directly at Brockton Bay and for worldwide influence. Alexandria will be the point of contact in the rare case that we can't work through the BB Protectorate. How did she come to be there, by the way?"

"It was Dragon's idea originally, for closeness to Panacea."

"Well, it's convenient; they have a rich rogue and villain scene, to study Good and Evil in the wild. We'll do so through Contessa where we can, and in live action otherwise."

Everyone nods. There's a little more discussion of practical details, and then the meeting breaks up.

And here's Brockton Bay, Samora! It's full of tall shiny buildings, like Denver was, but there are far more people out on the streets. And it smells a little better than Denver did: similar, but sprinkled with sea salt instead of ash and charred rock.

The Protectorate HQ turns out to be offshore, built on top of an enormous metal platform that's only reachable by a shining road of force. That's where most people are heading; it's been a punishingly long day, and they want to unwind in a quiet place and then sleep. There's an unstated assumption that you're going to want the same thing.