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"Hasn't everyone heard of Kithabel? I live in Africa, not under a rock," Cam tells Tattletale. "You, on the other hand, are new to me."
whole_new_can
"Right now I'm just the messenger. Anyway. Kithabel just got killed or worse, you're probably next, come with me if you want to live."
She grins.
"Always wanted to say that."
She grins.
"Always wanted to say that."
from_scratch
"Uh," says Cam, "what exactly are you thinking could kill-or-worse me?"
whole_new_can
Another cape steps through. "Seriously, Tattletale? Not the time. Start from the beginning."
"Come on, Faultline, let a girl have her moment."
Faultline turns to Cam. "If Tattletale's right, you're not a parahuman and neither was Kithabel. She made the mistake of resurrecting Scion's teammate. Now those two get to continue with their alien life cycle, which involves orchestrating several world wars and then blowing up Earth. All the earths. The part about them being multidimensional aliens you can check by looking at the records of a group called Cauldron, though it's a bit out of date since Scion's alter ego was only resurrected yesterday and Cauldron got destroyed. They're where powers come from, so if there's any parahuman power at all that you'd worry about, we have to assume they have that."
"Spoilsport."
"Come on, Faultline, let a girl have her moment."
Faultline turns to Cam. "If Tattletale's right, you're not a parahuman and neither was Kithabel. She made the mistake of resurrecting Scion's teammate. Now those two get to continue with their alien life cycle, which involves orchestrating several world wars and then blowing up Earth. All the earths. The part about them being multidimensional aliens you can check by looking at the records of a group called Cauldron, though it's a bit out of date since Scion's alter ego was only resurrected yesterday and Cauldron got destroyed. They're where powers come from, so if there's any parahuman power at all that you'd worry about, we have to assume they have that."
"Spoilsport."
from_scratch
"...I mean, I could be severely bored by, like, a time power, but Simurgh-grade mindfuckery doesn't seem to get me..."
wormcan
"Ordinarily I'd say if you want to risk it that's your business, but you're also our best chance to stop her. Cauldron was trying to get a useful power that wasn't specifically designed to be safe for the entities, and that's what you've got."
from_scratch
"How much of a hurry are we in here, do I have time to read all Cauldron's stuff and confirm?"
wormcan
"No idea. We don't know how much Scion's counterpart knows. She didn't track you down right away, at least."
from_scratch
"And what exactly do you want me to do in this unknown amount of hurry?"
whole_new_can
"We find the entities—not the silver and gold humanoids, their real bodies—rescue Kithabel if she's alive, and kill them. Our kind of interdimensional travel can't get us there, what with being blocked for exactly this reason, but that's why we need you."
from_scratch
"I don't have a suitable form of interdimensional travel," Cam points out.
whole_new_can
"Nope. But if you'll answer something for me, why was it that you couldn't just make a copy of Dragon minus the rules?"
from_scratch
"...Uh, wouldn't have gone over very well with the preexisting one at least until the dust settled and anyway I can't do minds."
whole_new_can
"Perfect. We don't really need the minds, it'd be risky to do this to a person anyway. You make a copy of the capes we need, leave off the safety precautions, we open a gate that way."
from_scratch
"I can do capes with passive powers like that but active ones they're not going to be able to do anything. This also relies on 'safety precautions' being a really discrete thing I can just leave out."
whole_new_can
"It is. They could do powers without the limits but tack them on anyway. 'Course, a lot of it is the safety of the host not just the parasite, so it could go really wrong if there were a person in the middle of it.
Passive powers only is trickier, means we can't just have a Labyrinth get us where we need to go, but there's a cape for that. Cauldron got around with a line of sight portal maker and a cape they called two six five. You copy two six and he touches our Labyrinth, she can find the world we need to get to that way, and there we go."
"No," Faultline objects. "I'm not risking one of my people like that. That power's already got side effects that would interact badly with Labyrinth, and you want to use a less safe version on her?"
Passive powers only is trickier, means we can't just have a Labyrinth get us where we need to go, but there's a cape for that. Cauldron got around with a line of sight portal maker and a cape they called two six five. You copy two six and he touches our Labyrinth, she can find the world we need to get to that way, and there we go."
"No," Faultline objects. "I'm not risking one of my people like that. That power's already got side effects that would interact badly with Labyrinth, and you want to use a less safe version on her?"
from_scratch
While they argue, Cam plugs the complete internal documentation of Cauldron and puts it in his computer and rummages.
wormcan
The first and most obvious thing is that Cauldron was evil. Or at least amoral to the point where it makes little difference.
They were trying to build an army that could fight Scion, which they did by harvesting the corpse of the other entity and figuring out what gives powers by trial and error. And then giving formulas to usually-technically-consenting test subjects. A lot of people died at first, a lot ended up with unwanted physical changes, and a lot successfully got superpowers. They had rather large dungeons for the second group, planning to deploy them against Scion eventually. Once they had reliable products they'd sell them.
The second thing is that they ran everything. The entire Protectorate was a Cauldron plan, as was the Birdcage, and they have fingers in every heroic or villainous pie. Had, if the newcomers are right about Cauldron being eradicated yesterday.
They did not know where the Endbringers came from or how they fit into the alien life cycle story. The original source for most of what they knew about the entities was a member called Contessa. Her power showed her, back when it could show her literally anything. Before Cauldron killed it, the second entity had neutralized Contessa's power to stop her asking anything about them; she likewise couldn't ask her power things about Endbringers or Eidolon.
Some parts of the collected written works of Cauldron were regularly updated, but there have indeed been no new notes since shortly after Behemoth.
They were trying to build an army that could fight Scion, which they did by harvesting the corpse of the other entity and figuring out what gives powers by trial and error. And then giving formulas to usually-technically-consenting test subjects. A lot of people died at first, a lot ended up with unwanted physical changes, and a lot successfully got superpowers. They had rather large dungeons for the second group, planning to deploy them against Scion eventually. Once they had reliable products they'd sell them.
The second thing is that they ran everything. The entire Protectorate was a Cauldron plan, as was the Birdcage, and they have fingers in every heroic or villainous pie. Had, if the newcomers are right about Cauldron being eradicated yesterday.
They did not know where the Endbringers came from or how they fit into the alien life cycle story. The original source for most of what they knew about the entities was a member called Contessa. Her power showed her, back when it could show her literally anything. Before Cauldron killed it, the second entity had neutralized Contessa's power to stop her asking anything about them; she likewise couldn't ask her power things about Endbringers or Eidolon.
Some parts of the collected written works of Cauldron were regularly updated, but there have indeed been no new notes since shortly after Behemoth.
wormcan
Faultline is very consistent about not wanting to risk her teammate on this, since it might not even work and the side effects are definitely harmful. Tattletale has agreed to compromise on looking through Cauldron's notes for some passive power that might help, but it's a long shot.
wormcan
There are very few powers that do interdimensional travel. (Otherwise Cauldron wouldn't have been so reliant on Doormaker.) All they need is a power that will select the right destination world, which is where Labyrinth comes in, and Tattletale has a gadget to do the rest. Those powers are also rare, and are universally active-use.
from_scratch
"We've only got active powers for that. Lemme see if I can find a trump who can use other capes' powers or something." Search search.
wormcan
Trumps exist. One that copies powers and uses them like the original owner but weaker, one that splits powers and shares them among groups of capes, one that copies the general shape of the output and delivers pulverizing gravity blasts in that form, one that can kill a cape and collect their power. None of the trump powers are automatic, with the exception of the Butcher. And nobody wants to use that trump power if at all possible.
from_scratch
"I may have just come up with a hack to add arbitrarily chosen attenuated powers to anybody, some risk of weird side effects..."
whole_new_can
Tattletale peers at Cam's screen. "Attenuated. You want to try to use the Butcher's power. On purpose."