Mass Craft 4.2

Editor: AssemblerManiac, pids
Beta Reader: j0nsta, Impish Oni, BigTofu
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_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Mass Craft _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

...Kayden Anders…

September 4th, 2007
Medhall’s warehouse E88 base

Max was spitting mad and burned with hatred when they all entered the room they had prepared and soundproofed. The concrete walls were completely white and red flags with the emblem of the E88 was displayed on them. This was a warehouse privately owned by Medhall. There was a big rectangular grey table and folded chairs around it. Fenja and Menja sat at Kaiser’s side, a position that Kayden had never been afforded before, a sign of how controlling he was; he didn’t want to share power with anyone.

Kayden sat on the left side of the table near Night, Fog, Crusader, Victor and Othala. Usually she was near Kaiser and the twins, but due to recent revelations, she was leery to even look at them. She stopped focusing on everyone and her problems and concentrated on the fuming Kaiser; she wanted to claw his face so badly. *Patience.*

The venue was heavily guarded as well., more than usual. Around the warehouse there were armed workers who feigned to be busy but patrolled around. The meeting started with some small talks, and greetings, then Kaiser went straight to the point.

“Did any of you see them?” The leader of the E88 asked as he looked placidly at Krieg.

Krieg was an older man, wearing a black SS uniform as a costume, his black leather mask with a Swastika on the forehead covered his face completely, only showing his blue eyes and had openings for his nose and ears. Everyone knew about who Kaiser spoke about. After the first battle with Team Battletech, they went into hiding, but still continued to take out E88 assets everyday. If it wasn’t the police busting houses, their supply chains and weapon depots and their drug labs, they systematically stopped any harassment the gang members were practicing on the minorities in Brockton, then they vanished like ghosts.

Krieg sighed, as he put his hands flat on the table’s surface he answered, “No, mein Fuhrer.”

Before their leader could shout at his lieutenant, he continued, “Just like the Operator said on PHO, they said that we won’t see them coming. Our troops are being taken down little by little. Our money for this side of our activities is slowly drying…”

“Krieg, what is the news from the police and the PRT?” Kaiser asked, hoping that he could receive good news for once.

Krieg looked at everyone around the table first. The parahumans seemed somewhat down and skittish because they couldn’t take out their frustration on Team Battletech, they always disappeared when the capes of the E88 looked for them, when they sent reinforcement the vigilantes also took them out without trouble and the police bagged them fast. It was actually getting expensive to pay their minions’ bail.

“M-mein Fuhrer. They found our moles.” Krieg informed Kaiser.

Eyes bigger than saucer, the E88 Leader rose from his seat. “They what?!”

The meeting exploded in uproar, everyone knew how vital their moles in the PRT were. They were bound to lose their eyes and ears in the Parahuman Response Team. Kayden laughed inwardly, it seemed that the Battletech and her team had lit up a fire under the PRT’s collective asses. Someone finally pointed out their deficiencies.

“Silence! Let him speak!” Kaiser yelled as a wall of blades sprung behind him.

Most of the capes were silenced by the display. But not the strongest members who were used to Kaiser blowing his top when they met. The man thought himself to be inscrutable, but most people in the room could read him. As an example, Night and Fog were not impressed by the man’s temper at all. Those two didn’t react much to anything at all. Night dresses entirely in black complete with a cowl, mask, hood, high-heeled boots, and a heavy cloak; Fog wore a grey version of his wife’s costume, it was completely unimaginative…

Krieg looked into Kaiser’s eyes, he was furious as well, but he was old enough to channel his rage in combat rather than taking it out on his fellow brothers and sisters in arms. “Our moles were exposed, all of them. Since their last messages on PHO, the PRT has decided to clean house. I had to burn some of the men inside... Kaiser, they are slowly whittling down our resources.”

Krieg’s voice began to become more panicked and full of conspiracies as he continued to say, “They are always hitting us, whether it’s day or night, they take our goons from us and I think torture them or dose them with some kind of truth serum to learn about our operations.”

When it was clear that Krieg was done, Crusader who had been silent till now raised a fist and slammed it on the table. “What are you going to do about it, Kaiser? This cannot go on!”

Kayden turned her attention to the man, Crusader or… Justin was a friend, or she thought of him as one; however, she was now putting in doubt everything she knew about the people she had known for the last ten years. Many others acquiesced at Crusader’s outburst.

Stormtiger slapped his hand on the table as well. “Those bitches must die!”

“Murder? Didn’t you read what they said?” Alabaster, a man with unnaturally smooth and literally white skin and hair asked. The man was a fanatic and a brute, but he wasn’t stupid as he just demonstrated.

Battletech had proved themselves a match for anything the E88 had sent at them so far; the vigilantes used urban tactics and tinkertech to take them on and it worked effectively. Kayden was now aware that her friends wouldn’t be able to win, even with their number; the vigilantes were ready for them, she had explained it to Kayden in excruciatingly accurate detail the powers of everyone in this meeting room and their weaknesses.

Kayden was just waiting for this meeting to be done with so she could tell Kaiser that she was leaving, she was getting quite impatient.

Victor addressed everyone, voice clear, continuing Alabaster’s sentence for him. Kayden felt that this meeting was staged. “The video of Battletech against Skidmark makes it clear that the vigilante isn’t someone to take on lightly, and Purity’s defeat at her hands tells us that she can take us.”

Everyone turned their attention on Kayden, she still nodded at Victor’s accusing tone. Everyone should know that in the cape business power compatibility was a huge factor. She still didn’t know how Battletech remained unscathed to her attacks.

It was without shame and with her head held high that Kayden answered to Victor. “My power is somehow nullified by her own, true. For the first time, it was I who had to flee.”

Kayden no longer felt anything when she looked at those people around her anymore. She could already see cracks in the relationship between subordinates and lieutenant because of how ineffective Kaiser‘s leadership was, Crusader and Victor were already vying for power.

Victor chewed on his lips as he didn’t receive the normal angry remarks or threats that Kayden used to make on his person. The tension rose in the room until Kaiser coughed and said in a reasonable tone, “I don’t know how, but we must find a way to make this Battletech team come to us and kill them or make them disappear.”

*Fat chance about that, Kaiser.* Kayden spat in her thoughts.

Everyone’s mood subsided, no one had any idea of how to proceed to smoke out Battletech. Othala looked down at her hands and did not speak at all. She had always been a strangely submissive woman who didn’t mingle; if she remembered well, she was part of those families of ‘believers’ who married their daughter to men like Victor or Crusader. Believers who couldn’t face reality and espoused the doctrines and the vision of a cowardly dying man who killed himself when he lost everything.

“What else is new?” Kaiser leaned on his throne; the man always brought the ostentatious thing in meetings for whatever reasons.

For once Krieg sounded rather enthused to share news with everyone since the start of this conference. “There’s a new person in town, a woman called Jane Shepard, she’s really rich… with her money and resources we could-”

As Krieg spoke Kaiser’s eyes closed when he heard the name of the woman, the older lieutenant wanted to force to sponsor the gang. He was interrupted by Kaiser when said decisively, “No, we won’t be moving in on her.”

Krieg looked at his leader with disbelief in his eyes. “Why?”

Kaiser looked at Krieg as if he was addled. “She’s Jane Shepard. If you had done more research you would know that the Shepard family has contacts within the government and has been a weapon maker for the US since the first World War. They made money on killing people with our vision. They can’t be bribed or threatened. Shepard would categorically refuse to help, no… she would bury us. You don’t mess with a Shepard, my father beat that into me when he met her father twenty years ago.”

“But she’s just a woman.” Krieg mouthed off as he laughed.

Kaiser and the rest of the men here all looked at him as if he made the biggest mistake of his life.

Night, Kayden, Othala and Cricket all focused their gaze on Krieg who shouldn’t have let slip his real opinion. Women, parahuman or normal could always put men in their place as they were always underestimated and belittled. It seemed that Krieg was too old school to live with the current times.

Kayden asked as she was shining like a million suns, “Oh, is being a woman somehow making us weak, Krieg?”

“I apologize.” Krieg quickly said with a whine as Kayden blinded him. He put his hands before his eyes to shield them.

“Good dog.” Kayden said with a satisfied expression, then the light show stopped.

Kaiser said nothing to his wife, he didn’t like the way she looked at him suddenly. Krieg’s expression was somewhat stormy as he was humiliated and shown his place. Othala, Cricket and Night nodded at Kayden in acknowledgement that was swiftly dismissed by a hand wave. Everyone found the atmosphere around Kayden somewhat strange, she still had the same brown hair and eyes, and despite her mousy appearance, seemed to be more dangerous than usual.

Kaiser, to get back on track, asked, “Krieg, did you learn what she’s doing here in Brockton?”

The man took the suitcase before him and opened it, took a folder out of it and read some of his notes. “Miss Shepard recently bought land in the city, the totality of Captain’s Hill; and from what my source in City Hall informed me of, her personal assistant has organized a meeting with the Mayor for this week. The rumor is that Cerberus corp is here to stay and will open a factory in town.”

Most of the people in the city wanted safety and stability; Kayden was aware that what Kaiser and the E88 offered was only servitude.  He promised to give order, peace, and all he wanted in return was those peoples silent, obedient consent for whatever he thought was best. Kayden had her eyes open now, if she stayed in this gang, contact with those people would corrupt her reason and rob her of her common sense. Ten years, it took her this much time to realize how foolish she had been to believe in the shit coming out of Kaiser’s garbage bin of a mouth.

No one was aware of what was going on inside Kayden’s mind, it was like her blinders had just come off on their own.

Kaiser tapped his fingers on the armrest of his throne as he thought for a moment. “That could be bad or good for us.” He said aloud.

“Please keep me apprised of the situation with Shepard, Krieg.”

“Yes, mein Fuhrer.” Krieg bowed his head. Then the masked Nazis continued to inform Kaiser of what was happening in the city. “Next, we have this new villain, called Coil. He has recently come into town and claimed territory near docks south...”

The meeting between the executives finished one hour later when Kaiser gave direction about what should be done while everyone stayed on guard against the Battletech team. The only remaining people in the room were Kaiser, Kaiden, Krieg, Fenja and Menja. The brunette walked up to Kaiser and spoke, “Max, we need to talk.”

Kaiser looked at Krieg who nodded and left, but the two bimbos, Fenja and Menja stayed, this made Kayden angry, if she could kill with a look, the twins would probably be already six feet under.

“Alone.” Kayden insisted when she saw the two objects of her hate were still there. The dumb blondes even smirked at her in ridicule.

Kaiser shook his head and put a hand on Menja’s shoulder  and said, “They can stay.”

Kayden decided to calm herself down, she wanted to burn her husband’s face off, but she wasn’t a barbarian. She will have a civilized conversation first, then can break his face when she’s done. Kayden shrugged, acting nonchalant. “Fair enough. It won't take long anyway.”

Kaiser sat on his throne. “What do you want to tell me? Is this about Battletech, do you know where she is?”

The brunette went to the heart of the matter directly by bluntly saying, “No Max, I am here because I want to tell you that I am divorcing you.”

Turning his head violently toward her, Kaiser couldn’t believe what he heard. “Huh, what?!”

Fenja and Menja stood frozen there, surprised by what Kayden just said. The short woman turned her toward the two blonde women costumed as valkyries. “You’ve been fucking those two sluts behind my back, Max. You betrayed me and I no longer want you at my side.”

Menja seemed to realize the situation they were suddenly pushed into was really dangerous; and it was all their fault. “Kayden we are-”

Kayden’s body started glowing white, her ire rising. “Shut up, Nessa, I’m so over all this circus that I don’t care much for anyone right now.”

“I’ve given ten years of my life to this cause of yours Kaiser, a cause you don’t even believe in. You’ve been treating me like a trophy and a weapon for so long, you don’t even think of me as human anymore. People around you are just tools that can serve you, you don’t love anyone but yourself. So, I’m leaving.”

Rising from his seat, Kaiser said with fake sincerity, “Kayden, please! I love you, we can resolve this, you…”

He was a good actor, but Kayden who has lived with him for a long while could see beneath his actions. “Drop the act Max. I’m tired of your manipulations.”

If she left now, the E88 would be finished; They had no mole in the PRT and the Police anymore and their gang members were slowly losing faith in them. Kaiser’s body went slack, she couldn’t see his eyes because of the helmet covering his face, but you didn’t need to be a thinker to see his body language showing panic and desperation.

“What can I offer you to stay? Please, this is a delicate time for our people…” Kaiser advanced toward her.

Only to be stopped when her hands began to shine with a menacing white glow.

Kayden chuckled mirthlessly. “The thing is I don’t care anymore about your make believe kingdom building game, didn’t you hear me earlier?”

Kaiser slammed his fist on the right armrest of his throne at Kayden’s answer. He wasn’t used to being refused like this, and certainly not by someone he had considered under his thumb. “I am a powerful man, Kayden and a man of my station needs to have multiple partners for my legacy to be eternal!! Why should I settle only for one woman?! I won’t let you leave!”

“You disgust me, Max.” Kayden said as she looked at the twins trying to change size and about to charge.

“Fenja, Menja! Get her!!” Kaiser shouted at his sluts with anger in his voice.

Unfortunately for him, Kayden had prepared for this eventuality, she had been channeling her power subtly into her hands for a while when she had started to glow softly at first, now she unleashed three kinetic photon beam with enough power to kill brutes and fired them at Menja and Fenja. Fenja was the first to be hit on her right knee, the ball shattering on impact; Menja got it worse, Kayden simply severed her right arm.

They fell on the ground screaming and whining.Kayden said coldly, “Stay down or the next holes I make in your body will where the sun doesn’t shine, bimbos.”

Kaiser attacked, creating a wall of blade to separate Kayden from the twins, next he launched a hail of swords and spears at her from the white wall behind him that the brunette avoided by flying low, channeled enough power through her hand and threw a beam directly at Kaiser’s right hand that was holding on a spear and shot it with a powerful blast. Everything stopped as Kaiser looked down at his hand.

She fired weaker beams at Kaiser and slammed him into his throne. “I already knew it would end up like this, but you are such a stupid man...”

The armored man held onto his handless forearm and started to shout, “Aaaaahhh!! My HAND!!”

Kayden made sure to destroy the remains of the severed hands, you never know; Othala might be able to do something about it. She walked to Kaiser, one hand shining with white with her power, ready at any moment to unleash it.

Looming over Kaiser who seemed to glare at her through his helmet, Kayden placed her glowing hand against the side of his head. “You'll get to see my lawyers soon, asshole; and if you don't sign the papers they give you... I will bring your little club and that house of cards you call a company down and maybe I will take your other hand as well. Do you understand?”

Kaiser said nothing, just held onto the stump with its remaining hand. Kayden fired at his throne and melted a part of its back. “I said, do you understand?”

“Y-yes.” Kaiser said pitifully.

“Good.” Kayden turned and was about to leave when she remembered something.

She turned to see the twins looking with hateful expression, they had ceased mewling like babies. Kayden had done nothing that Othala wouldn’t be able to fix, the gal could reattach limbs. “You can have him, sluts.”

Kayden took off her wedding ring and threw it at Kaiser. It landed on his plastron and fell on his leg.

“Have fun, being bred like sows by this degenerate.” She added to Fenja and Menja.

The brunette left, when she opened the door of the meeting room; only to see that outside there were a lot of people waiting for her. She blasted them all by shooting at the concrete ground and using it as shrapnel to take out all the goons and parahumans. She must have killed at least fifty people, but she couldn’t make herself care. She floated up to the exit of the warehouse, flew up in the sunny sky and began to slowly hover.

She looked down at the warehouse and thought about destroying it, but she shrugged and left in the direction of the mansion where she, Max and his son had been living in for so long.

Betrayed by Max for the last time, a new journey begins for Kayden. With something worth fighting for, someone worth dying for. She put a hand on her belly, smiling at the only good thing that had come from her association with Max Anders.

“And I will not stop, and I will not rest, Max can't stop me now” Kayden made a detour to spoof any cape watcher or the PRT to see where she landed.

The Anders’ house was a large white mansion with grey tiled roof of 8,030 square feet with five bedrooms, six bathrooms; the interior was well lit with all the windows the house possessed  as Max had taken into account how her power needed to recharge, at the time she had thought that it was because he cared for her, but no it was because he liked to have a loaded weapon at home.

She landed in the back garden of the mansion, when she looked at the garden that she had taken ten long years to make perfect, her heart began aching. But this was just a place, she will build another home for the life growing within her womb. Kayden walked inside the house through the backdoor.

The brunette took the stairs and went directly to the shared bedroom that she had with Max and began to take everything she owned. Jewelry, clothes, her administrative papers, everything. It took her two hours to get a decent bug out suitcase. Kayden said with more power in her voice. “Max can't stop me now. Nothing can.”

She put on functional clothes, a push up bra and a white top with blue jeans and boots. Kayden completed the outfit with a black leather jacket and belt with an eagle shaped belt buckle. This was good for a practical outfit, she needed to leave ASAP. As she continued loading her suitcases, Kayden worried that Kaiser would send someone to stop her, she needed to move fast. She heard noises coming from the ground floor; Kayden looked at the time, and realized that this was the time Theo returned home. She thought long and hard about this, should she take the kid with her? She had tried her best to stop Kaiser from almost killing the child, trying to make him trigger.

“I can’t leave him. The baby will need its big brother.” Kayden found herself saying.

Kayden descended the stairs only to find that Theo was sitting on the sofa in the living room. She strode toward him and then put a hand on his head of blonde hair, patting it delicately.

“Kayden?” Theo looked up at her with his sapphire blue eyes and saw her haunted expression.

Without even hesitating she asked the young child, “I am leaving your father. Theo? Do you want to come with me? Do you want to be my son and stop being Max's?”

Theo took a long moment to answer, he has been searching into the brown eyes of his stepmother for any deception. “Really? Y-you’d take me with you?”

Kayden kissed the kid’s forehead. “Yes, of course. You are my son and I don’t want him to hurt you anymore.”

When she looked at him again when she stood back, there were tears in the young boy’s eyes. “Please! I hate it here, I hate him. Take me with you.”

The brunette hugged Theo and took her phone from her pocket and punched the number she had been told to memorize. The phone rang for a while until someone on the overside took the call.

“Hello.” A woman with a New York accent answered.

“Operator? I’m ready to be extracted.”

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Mass Craft _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

...Thomas Calvert...

September 5th, 2007
Cerberus Industries, temporary office
01:45 PM

Thomas was happy, he felt on top of the world; after paying a really big penny for his power and a favor, he had been chosen by Cauldron to lead an experiment.  A stupid one. Parahuman Feudalism? Didn't they see what has been happening in Africa or South America? If Cauldron wanted to lose resources and time on something so obvious already they were welcome to it.

They gave him powers and had promised to stop the PRT to get any sort of serious reinforcements as he took over the city. Though plans to take it over had to been discarded, the Merchants had been gutted and splintered into multiple gangs since Skidmark had been carted off to a Megamax in the Midwest; the police now cracked down on those splinters a lot, they were too hot to make a bid to take control of them.

It didn't help that the new lady billionaire in town had made a seriously huge donation to the Brockton Bay Police Department, the new squad cars, and equipment and renovations made to the Police HQ showed that it had been revitalized. To Thomas this showed that Shepard was here to stay, first she injected money in critical components of the city such as hospital, goods and service, law enforcement, next should be the revitalization of the economy and to stop desperate people from resorting to crime, creating jobs and then the gangs would suffer from a drought in recruitment.

By making herself indispensable, Jane Shepard would literally own the city and become untouchable. As the Empire was dying due to the onslaught of the Battletech team on them and the fact that Daniel Richardson, the current Director of the PRT ENE was on his way out, Thomas had no choice but to change tack and make a new plan as he could no longer establish himself as a viable replacement for the director position; he had no achievements of note on his tab, even with Cauldron’s help he wouldn’t be able to get the position he desired the most.

Battletech had made everything difficult for him. But if there was something good about Thomas Calvert, it was that he was stubborn. That was how he came up with the idea to ride on the coattail of Jane Shepard, the new business woman in town who planned to “make this city better.” Thomas had been spying on the woman and her people since they bought Captain’s Hill and had looked for a company to build a special bunker, unfortunately, his own company, Fortress Construction, couldn’t build anything that she asked for on the grounds of not being big or sufficiently equipped enough. Rising S Company from Texas had obtained the contract, they even entered in a partnership with Cerberus Industries that gave them access to a newly discovered wonder material.

Thomas had been quite mad about that and broke everything in his house in another timeline. He had a new plan, sell part of his company to Shepard and make her help build the Endbringers shelters that he promised the mayor, of course he will divert some of the fund to build the underground lair he has been dreaming of.

That’s how he found himself before the temporary office building that Cerberus Industries were now inhabiting while they built a more permanent headquarters in the Bay. Thomas smoothed out the lapels of his black business and tightened his red tie. He closed the door of his car and crossed the sidewalk, avoiding the bystanders walking before the door. Thomas was stopped by the strange and yet solid front glass door. It didn’t look like glass… but, *Is this metal? Transparent metal? Do they have a tinker on the payroll?*

Thomas pushed the button that acted as a doorbell and saw an armed security guard, a giant of a man that was all muscle who wore some sort of armored vest, but it clearly wasn’t a normal kevlar vest. It looked more like a hightech gunmetal colored gambeson. The pistol in his holster was peculiar as well, it didn’t look like a normal issue that rent-a-cops are lent.

The security guard took a tablet from a pouch at his belt and then swiped left on the screen, and used the camera through a facial recognition program. There was a match when the device beeped, the guard addressed Thomas, “Mister Calvert?”

Thomas was surprised by such high tech security for a simple office, but he remembered that Jane Shepard was from out of town and things were different in bigger cities than in Brockton Bay. “Yes?”

The guard smiled and opened the door further and said, “You are cleared to enter, please be careful on your way, the workers are updating the offices.”

“Thank you.” Thomas nodded and walked out from the entrance. Just like the security agent had said, the building was under renovations, workers were repainting or placing new furniture and decoration everywhere, from the corridors to the waiting room. Fortunately, there was a pristine passage that was demarcated with tape and arrow signs.

Thomas followed the instructions that he could see were annotated, he was forced to take the stairs as the elevator was being worked on.  After going up six flights of stairs, Thomas arrived in a more complete and luxurious lobby room with grey, white and green colors. It was a big room with a statement wall for separate sitting. Sofas and cushioned chairs were gathered at the center of the room against the dividing wall. A special chandelier with gold and crystalline sculpture lit the room. At the other end of it, a woman sat at a desk, she was typing on a computer. To Thomas it looked top of the line.

It seemed that Jane Shepard wasn’t a penny pincher, she went to great lengths to show off her wealth and was a woman who liked to play on appearances. The blonde woman at the desk looked up from her screen to Thomas, stood up and came to meet him.

She held her hands before her and Thomas immediately shook it. “Welcome, Mister Calvert. We’ve been waiting for you.”

The woman was really attractive. She was of medium height and ample curves, had golden blonde hair with sea green blue eyes, her blue business suit was of high quality as well. Thomas was led near one of the sofas as the secretary said, “Please wait for a bit, Mister Calvert, Miss Shepard will receive you in five minutes.”

He appreciated the services and how he was received. “Thank you, I will be patient and take a seat.”

“Is there anything that I can offer you? Coffee, tea?” The secretary offered.

Thomas waved at her and said, “I’m good, thanks.”

He slowly sat and took the room around him; there was a low table loaded with magazines; Forbes, Business Matters, Inc, Success… There were a lot of them. Thomas liked what he saw, maybe coming to find and ingratiate himself to Shepard to help her take the city was a good idea; of course, he would help himself to her fortune to fund his criminal activities and use her as a scapegoat if things went pear shaped.

To know how everything would go, he decided to use his power, he couldn’t miss such an opportunity.

***
Timeline A
***

The phone on the secretaries’ desk rang, she answered and listened. Her gaze fixed on Thomas, who understood that the call concerned him. The blonde hung up and stood up. “Miss Shepard will receive you now, Mister Calvert.”

She opened the door five meters away from her desk.

“Thank you, miss…?” He wanted to know her name, Thomas wanted to know if he would be able to bribe her to get an in in the company. She didn’t look like a temporary secretary at all.

“Kayla Chambers.” The woman introduced herself, showed the plaque on the top of the desk. “Please go, Miss Shepard is waiting for you.”

Thomas just did that and entered through the corridor, he looked at the paintings decorating the two walls… no, it was better to call those frescos, depicting a scene. Humans with fantastic creatures fighting some kind of gigantic crustacean entity. It was strange and he smelled the fresco and discovered that it was recently made.

Arriving before an ornate wooden door, Thomas was surprised to see it woosh open like in those star trek shows from his youth. When he entered it was to gaze upon a room filled with light white marble, and a lot of transparent and reflective surfaces. Again, to Thomas nothing looked like glass to him; it seemed that the woman took the threat of Shatterbird really seriously. A tall woman, at least 5”10 in a black business suit and heels was talking on her cellphone.  “Yes, dear… I promise, I won’t work tonight and we will go to that sushi place you found.”

Just by being here, Thomas learned that she had a significant other, someone he might be able to kidnap for information by using his timeline control. He slowly walked toward the desk, he looked up as he did so. There was a skylight in the ceiling, but as the weather was cloudy, a bank of grey clouds didn’t let the sun light through.

When Thomas stopped before her, he scanned her desk that was somewhat modern looking, it was all curves, metal and wood. A computer and a lot of different folders were on the top of the desk.

“I love you too, bye.” Shepard concluded the call and turned to Thomas. Her eyes sparkled when they fell on him. “Ah, Mister Calvert, nice to meet you.”

Thomas crossed the distance between them and held his hand to her, she shook it firmly. She gestured to him to sit on the padded chair facing her desk between him and her.

“Thank you for receiving and to offer me this opportunity, Miss Shepard. I didn’t expect that you would accept meeting me, you are a... busy woman.”

Shepard sat gracefully on her desk chair and smiled. “You don’t know the half of it, moving here was a spur of the moment decision. And as you surely saw, we are barely getting there with our infrastructure…”

Shepard looked at him expectantly, with her fingers intertwined and resting over her mouth. It was strange. “Now I need to patiently insinuate myself in the economic landscape.” She continued to say.

And suddenly, everything went black in this timeline and he could see some sort of code before his eyes.

[error error error][data loss/junk data/incomplete data][restarting predictive engine]...

***

Thomas jolted into awareness. *What the hell was that?*

It was like seeing a computer blue screen with an error code. Then he was back in the waiting room, looking somewhat dazed and out of breath. The secretary looked at him with a worried glance as she saw Thomas start to massages his temples. He felt like head was about to explode.

He wasn’t deterred by this set back and went right back to generate another timeline.

***
Timeline B
***

The phone on the secretaries’ desk rang, she answered and listened. Her gaze fixed on Thomas, who understood that the call concerned him. The blonde hung up and stood up. “Miss Shepard will receive you now, Mister Calvert.”

She opened the door five meters away from her desk.

“Thank you, Miss Chambers.” Thomas entered through the corridor, quickly crossed it and ignored the decorations.

Arriving before an ornate wooden door, Thomas waited for the door to woosh open. But… it didn’t happen. A discrepancy from what happened in the previous timeline. He was forced to knock on the door this time to make himself known.

Woosh. The door opened. The office looked exactly like the last time, the difference was that there was no view on the bay, the panoramic windows were completely opaque.

“Ah, Mister Calvert, nice to meet you.” The short haired redhead welcomed him, already seated at her desk.

“Hello, Miss Shepard.” Thomas pulled a loaded plastic gun from the special holster down his back and pointed it at her. “Now you are going to tell me everything about you and your company.”

She looked at him in disbelief and mumbled something before looking him in the eyes and saying coldly. “How… disappointing.”

Again, everything went black, the timeline simply shutting down.

Unknown devices connected to dimensional port

Forceful termination of simulation

adsf78w2kka&*#ER/ADF*:

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***

Thomas returned to his body, his nose began to bleed profusely. He took a handkerchief from his hidden pocket in his jacket and dabbed his nose. The secretary stood up and walked toward him. She asked him, “Mister Calvert is everything alright?”

“Ye-es I am alr-ight.”

He didn’t know what was happening, but this was the first time his power reacted like this. Thomas needed to know if it was anything that Shepard did, it was two timelines destroyed by just being in her presence. He focused and opened another timeline.

***
Timeline C
***

&éç”èé_è&éçè(‘“àè’(_ç”’##{[#{{#[#[Failed to start Simulation due to Quantum calculation error.]

Run Error Check to find problems.

***

“Mister Calvert!!!” Was all Thomas heard before he felt as if someone had stabbed him in the brain. He heard when the secretary in the waiting room checked him and called 911. Blood flowed from his nose, mouth and ears. Then everything went dark as he lost consciousness.

***

Thomas woke up to  loud beeping sounds, the smell of antiseptic and a bright white ceiling. He felt sore, but before sitting up he checked himself. Despite feeling numb in his extremities, Thomas could feel his legs; same with his arms. Actually he felt that had been fitted with a catheter. Thomas felt something in his left hand, he looked at it open palm and saw a piece of paper.

You've been a bad boy when you used your puny precog power on me. AS YOU made it personal, Tommy boy, I decided to teach you a lesson your Mother should have. Never mess with a bigger fish when you're a much smaller fish and taste good with Tartar sauce. I am afraid that your businesses will fall on Hard times since you, their owner, decided to be an unrepentant asshole.

P.S: Try to mess with me again and I will show you why they called me the Leviathan at college. Ah yeah, don't try to send mercs after me and mine because you are a very small fish in a Large Pond and Tartar sauce is always ready.

Thomas was scared. This simple little message told him that Jane Shepard had somehow detected his uses of his power and lived through them. It definitely explained why the first two timelines were different, she could somehow affect the use of thinker abilities as well. Thomas laid in his bed and understood that he was fucked right now, but he couldn't give up!

He had been given a task by Cauldron and reneging on it would be folly. If he can't attack Shepard directly, then he can sabotage her. He needed more assets and people to work for him as well… this fear in his heart… he will make her taste the same.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Mass Craft _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

...Nova Terra…

September 6th, 2007
Texas airspace
02:30 AM

It was time. Jane and Miranda were with her in the cloaked dropship, they were currently en route toward a certain David Gallager’s house. Nova had found Eidolon’s secret identity rather easily, he hung out with Legend and Rebecca Costa-Brown all the time, it was just a matter of being patient and using astral projection to spy on them and take information from their head via telepathy.

Eidolon… the man is generally considered to be the strongest parahuman and the fifth-strongest being on the planet, and is one of the founding members of the Protectorate and the leader of the Houston Protectorate. He sounded like a big hero out of a comic book, but reality wasn't that simple… Miranda had done a lot of research and sought out the patterns concerning Eidolon. From what Miranda had told Nova, she had found it odd that the Endbringers would just attack on a set schedule like it was a fucking clockwork or that he was one of the humans that couldn’t be pathed by the Miss Contessa “I win” of Cauldron.

To Miranda, the clues were there, but people were too blinded by all the pain, lies and death around them to clearly see. Miranda’s theory was that the reason the endbringers attack is because when a cape was far too helpful and shine too brightly and that as people spoke about how powerful they were and could join the Triumvirate that they were targeted by the subconscious of Eidolon and that the Simurgh and other Endbringers targeted them in priority.

Eidolon seemed to kill his competition, literally…

A lot of little details like those added up and a pattern formed. The reason space travel was closed off? Sphere promised to give the stars to humanity, Eidolon must have felt so powerless and jealous… result? Sphere was attacked by the Simurgh and turned into an inhuman thing for the S9. It wasn’t hard to look up for this pattern, all the biggest and powerful cape stars have died because the endbringers targeted them.

Because Nova and the others knew about the Shards and who control the Endbringers, it was easy to see; follow the Endbringers attacks, look at the casualties names that are made public and you’ll find the info. It’s easy to make the connection.

Jane had decided to speed up the operation and to take out Mister Gallager to see if his death affected the Endbringers. The mission was to kill him for his actions, unconscious or not; there was going to be no redemption for him, after all, the world needed a respite and Eidolon’s death will give this to the people.

Nova was piloting the prototype cloaked dropship that Jane had built for their operation -after begging her and fucking her- was a good enough bribe.

The Ghost remembered all the questions Jane had asked her about dropships from her universe and decided that her own model wouldn’t suffer from its weaknesses. Nova had shown her via telepathy the shortcomings of Terran Dropships. They are difficult to maneuver and are prone to mechanical failures and aren't exactly the most comfortable transport craft, the interior's temperatures usually uncomfortably hot, even more so during re-entry. Nova remembered that cooling units were installed to offset this along with air scrubbers. There was a problem with space for the passengers and their effects, restraints to secure everything were subpar as well.

Jane had listened, oh boy did she listen. She made the transport bigger, fifty meter in length, thirty in width and a height of fifteen meters. She had completely changed the propulsion system. The dropship was now using a twin anti-gravity engine. The transport was now sufficiently armored without sacrificing its mobility, Jane didn’t use Neosteel for it. After playing with material science for a week she came up with Titanium A, a lightweight and extremely durable material that rivaled the Neosteel from Nova’s home universe.

By studying available Terran and theoretical Protoss cloaking devices, Jane made a more efficient cloaking generator capable of masking the ship to both the naked eye and sensors. While they were testing its effect Nova had noticed how the cloak conceals the full interior of the vessel and its occupants even if the hatch is open. There was a climate control system to make the ride through reentry comfortable as well for the passengers.

What Nova liked a bit more was that they now had enough space to store things and that the seats were retractable and possessed an advanced inertial damping system. The Dropship was built in the Shepard family compound in Westchester County. Nova remembered the wry smile Jane had sported when she saw the address. 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, located in Westchester County, New York.

Nova had been shocked to see how big the place was, it was basically a castle and had asked why they didn’t live there and the answer had been “Because the true action starts in Brockton Bay” and it was the end of that. Nova had flashbacks from living in a similar environment, the Terra Skyscraper, where she had grown up. Jane had tested the dropship at low altitude, in atmosphere they could go hypersonic but had noticed some problems with the metal when they tried to reach orbital altitudes; Jane had declared that everything was fine for atmospheric flight but going to space will require some refinement of the Titanium A to make sure it didn't become brittle in reentry.

Piloting this transport that was so unlike the dropship from her universe was like a dream, it's maneuverability was akin to a fighter because of the propulsion system. Jane had carefully shrunk down the fusion reactor she had developed to the size of a car and there was going to be no problem with fuel, unlike the dropship from her home universe.

Thirty minutes was all it took to go from Westchester County in New York to Texas, Houston. And they were flying at the lowest speed, Nova couldn't wait to fly this baby some more; coming with Jane in this world was the best, she had a lover who didn't judge her and let her do whatever she wanted, she felt blessed.

As Nova looked at the onboard computer screen she decelerated the Dropship and used the comm speakers to announce, "We arrived at Houston."

Eidolon lived in a house on the posh side of Houston five kilometers from the Protectorate HQ. The airspace was monitored, and Eidolon was using obvious thinker powers to detect intrusion, it was why Jane didn’t just use super speed and broke the man’s neck.

Nova activated the autopilot and exited the cockpit. To the passenger side she was met with Miranda working on her camera drones and Jane who was waiting for her with her Nyx stealth suit. Nova smiled at Jane, she always gave her the best gifts ever. It contains a psi-augmenter dedicated to maintaining cloak! Allowing the user to maintain their cloaking field indefinitely and free up psionic energy for other uses.

She sent up a promise of a hot sexcapade when she is done with her current mission to Jane with their telepathic link. Jane, who wore her new N7 armor, was looking as Nova took off her flight suit and asked, "So Nova, are you ready? Do you remember the mission parameters?"

The blonde closed up the suit but didn't put the helmet on yet. "You are flying me down and I need to enter the house by hacking the security with my Omni-tool, I must kill the target with the content in that anti-brute syringe." She answered from memory.

Jane took a black case from a hidden compartment near her passenger chair, this was how she had solved the dropship's cargo space problem by storing things in the space between the hull and the modules inside the transport. She opened the case and with a hiss it opened with a bit of a cryogenic vapor escaping.

With a serious expression, Jane looked into Nova’s eyes. "This is the most potent poison known to man, Botulinum toxin, 1 nanogram per kilogram can kill a human. Be very careful."

Nova rolled her eyes. "I am a ghost. Now stop talking and fly me, Jane."

The two looked at each other, Nova had a smug smile on her face, while Jane looked annoyed at her but also aroused from what Nova could feel from their bond. The woman liked strong women who knew what they wanted.

"Go get a room, you two." Miranda’s melodious voice interrupted the two.

Nova turned to the woman who was still working on her drones and harrumphed. "I certainly intend to, Lawson."

Jane looked between Miranda and Nova and sighed, the girls had accepted that they were both in a relationship with her, but there were still moments like this when their egos got the better of them. Miranda said without even looking at her, "Time is money, and Jane and I have a date tomorrow, Terra. But I guess that I can let you borrow Jane after taking care of the mass murderer for a while, I am a magnanimous person."

Nova couldn’t help but call her a "Bitch."

This time, Miranda looked up and slotted a card with a processor chip into her bird-like drone; she gazed smolderingly at Jane. "Jane’s bitch maybe."

Jane sighed again. "You girls are going to kill me eventually…"

***

The hatch opened, and the wind billowed under them. Jane held onto Nova and they went completely invisible thanks to each of their cloaking modules. Miranda placed two bird-like drones on the ramp of the dropship’s hatch, manifested her omni-tool and used the app to control the two disguised devices that started to hover and fly by beating their wings.

Jane tightened her hold Nova’s waist and then threw herself into the air, she flew down slowly, letting the bird drones follow her. Nova looked down, the metropolis was still full of light even though it was so dark. The Ghost guessed that this city was safer than Brockton Bay where everything felt bleak, it was akin to the gutter she lived in before Ghost Training.

The two of them touched down before the so-called hero’s mansion in River oaks. Nova’s HUD on her helmet displayed their location.

3842 Chevy Chase Dr Houston, TX, 77019

Eidolon had a swanky french colonial mansion with five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and 8,624 square feet of space, it must have cost a pretty penny. The driveway was well maintained as well as the front garden; there was a black SUV car parked before the left front windows, a sure sign that Eidolon was home. Jane took the case from her belt pouch and passed it to Nova, who opened it and took the vial of Botulinum and loaded it into the solid looking syringe.

Nova looked up and watched the house. <Wish me luck?> She asked telepathically to Jane.

The Ghost felt herself being hugged mentally and Jane simply said, <You don’t need it, I believe in you.>

<Thanks.> Nova felt warm in her core. But it wasn’t the moment for warm and fuzzy feelings, she slipped into that cold and calculating state that she was trained to fall into thanks to her training.

The bird drones arrived and one of them landed on Nova’s shoulder, the psionic cloaking enveloped it. Nova lifted herself from the ground with her TK and floated toward the black tiled roof and landed near the dark back window of the house. She manifested her omni-tool, a special prototype whose holograms were invisible to the naked eye and needed the special holographic lensing that Jane had developed.

Nova wasn’t surprised that the alarm system was completely Tinkertech, the coding of the security system was shoddy and clearly the guy who came up with it didn’t know what he was doing. There were silent alarms, cameras and some… lethal defenses. Nova hacked them, creating a feedback loop that told the scanners and detectors that everything was normal.

<Security disabled.> Nova announced over their link.

In that professional and commanding voice that she’s used to when Jane is serious, her lover said, <Check again, don’t underestimate Cauldron.>

Nova was wounded that Jane thought that she missed something but she acquiesced that everything has been too easy so far. <Okay.>

She used her Omni-tool again and this time went deeper, she was shocked to see that yes, there was not just one system, but three. They were all interlinked as well. Cauldron wasn’t so incompetent it seemed, they really liked to protect their prize winning horse. She didn’t deactivate the system, simply made herself invisible to them. <Thanks Jane, I would be in trouble if you hadn’t told me to check deeper.>

<You’re welcome.>

Nova used her telepathy to feel the minds inside the house, there was only one person, a man. She used her power to connect to his mind and… put him into an even deeper sleep. The Ghost felt that she wasn’t alone in Eidolon’s mind, someone… no, something was there as well. But it was weak, however, Nova didn’t touch it or alert it of her presence. This was just another thing that she will have to share with Jane. She used her telekinesis to pick the window’s lock, then opened it slowly.

Floating inside, Nova engaged her night vision mode. The bedroom was empty and spartan, and Nova decided to not bother with it. She didn’t put a foot on the floor, not wanting to leave any prints, she hovered one inch from the ground. She quickly found the way to Eidolon’s bedroom, the place wasn’t as big as the Shepard compound but it was decent. The place had a great floor plan, extensive amenities, and was made of quality materials such as the flooring made of precious wood.

Nova opened the door of the luxurious primary bedroom suite; inside there was a sitting room, two doors leading to some kind of spacious closets and a bathroom. On the king sized bed, there lay a man covered in by a bed sheet. His ass was hanging out in the air, and… the fact that Eidolon slept in the buff wasn’t surprising. Nova took great care of disconnecting the man’s mind from his body, a trick that every Ghost knew. Useful when you wanted someone to not struggle when you killed them.

The Ghost took the syringe from her emergency health kit with her telekinesis and floated it into the air, it flew languidly toward Eidolon’s ass cheek and Nova struck and injected the toxin into the man's body. She retrieved the syringe and decided that it was time to leave when the man’s body started to go into seizure. Nova opened the window, went through it and closed it back.

Jane floated at her side and held Nova by her waist. <Is it done?>

Using her telepathic tendrils, Nova sought out Eidolon’s mind. There was nothing there, just the last engrams of a mind. <Yes, I don’t feel his mind anymore.>

<Let’s go home.> Jane said as she looked up and flew up and up toward the Dropship.

Nova was happy that they had done something good, she couldn’t wait for phase two of their plans to kick in.