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Forging a Waifu Harem by BatRou-Dawg

Misc » Book X-overs Rated: M, English, Supernatural & Sci-Fi, Words: 238k+, Favs: 226, Follows: 230, Published: Dec 29, 2022 Updated: Oct 30, 2023

15chapter 20

[Outer edges of Magos' territory]

The early afternoon sun was shining high above them as Rebecca, or Alexandria as she was known in this spare costume of hers, flew over Brockton Bay city.

She heard Legend- Keith- sighed.

"Trouble?" She asked as he flew beside her. His eyesight was the best out of the three of them- a part of his power.

"No... just lost in my thoughts." Legend shook his head.

"I liked Magos better when he was just some kooky toaster-worshipping Tinker that we had to leverage into working with us." Keith admitted, "The fact that we have to take him as a serious threat while still being a kooky toaster-worshipping Tinker feels so wrong in so many ways. Like if Mouse Protector suddenly changed her mind one day to become a 'serious' villain."

"In essence, this is how the villains she had fought felt when they got beaten by her." Rebecca shrugged before aiming a pointed stare at him. "It didn't help that you were lenient with her when she was your Ward."

"I thought she'd grow out of it!"

"Well, like MP, Magos is also making a mockery of our careers." Rebecca shrugged, "I just want this over and done with already too: To land, have Magos call me fat again, then fly out with Eidolon so that we can fight the evil robot dragons over there in the distance."

They glanced over the horizon where the fighting was still ongoing. After an hour or so of brutal fighting, there were only around half of the Dragonflight remaining- mostly thanks to Magos' massive laser-walker.

"Things used to be simple like that." She sighed. "Fly through the air, make a three point landing, punch the bad guy, and reassure people."

"It can be simpler again, you know?" Keith pointed out, "We could have just asked Magos to join. We do have a pretty convincing argument in the prevention of the end of the world."

"The Path didn't have it outlined." Rebecca couldn't hold back the scoff. "Which meant that it wasn't possible."

"It isn't infallible." Legend argued, "And today proved as much for Magos. What did your paper say?"

"Save it for later. We're here."

"Fine..." Legend conceded to her, "But you can be sure that I'll be bringing up in front of the others later."

She gently landed on the grass and snow as Legend's blue and white frame gently landed beside her as well.

"Alexandria, ma'am!"

The gathered Brockton Bay Protectorate and PRT Troopers saluted them as they arrived. The three speedsters- Velocity, Assault, Battery- in blue, red and grey respectively. Miss Milita in her green fatigues, Dauntless in his gold roman legionnaire-styled armour, Triumph with his blond lionhead helmet, and Armsmaster in his signature blue and white power armour.

Rebecca saluted back- ignoring the sharp stab of pain on her abdomen as she did.

"Glad to see you okay, ma'am." Armsmaster mentioned. "That hit from Magos' spiderbot had given off concerning amounts of exotic radiation."

"The force of the impact was just something I wasn't expecting." she brushed off his concern with the expected amounts of stoicism from her. She was fine- she knew that she recovered from injuries quickly, just not within a single hour of sustaining the wound. For now, she will just need to remember that she won't be fighting at peak capacity any time today. Besides, she only needed to look tough for the camera. To show that the green energy weapon that she was shot with didn't achieve anything, that Alexandria was still untouchable and invincible, and that even when coming to ransom one of her colleagues, the Triumvirate stood strong.

Basically grit through the pain and lie with all her might.

They had little time to waste now that everyone was here.

"Cameras are ready to start at your signal, ma'am!" The director for the media team waved at her. Camera crews, set lighting crews, mike crews, and 'actors' all ready to do this song and dance again in the snow. They all took their places: She, Keith and the Brockton Bay Protectorate stood in a nice camera shot with her at the centre- their colourful costumes standing out amongst the dark wood and the white snow. Here they go: Shooting the second part of Magos' slapstick comedy of a superhero show, and they were the butt of the joke.

Glancing over to the media crew, she made a circular gesture with her hand for them to start rolling the camera before going back into her pose.

"Action!"

"We're here, Magos!" She yelled out at the gothic architecture rising above the snow-covered trees. The stone faces of the cloaked angels carved into the exterior looking down on them impassively. The muffled sounds of industry echoing from inside told them that the factory never ceased. A metallic boom resounded as the main gate of his manufactorum opened slightly.

Magos trekked through the snow. Black armour-like cybernetics like underneath Mars-red robes that stood out from the white snow. Tripartite optics glowing green from underneath the shadow of his hood., and still sporting that skeletal left arm he had built during their fight.

Around him, a squad of eight Chloe-Skitarii flanked him. Clad in the thick metal of their power armours, The tiny electric crackles whipping out from their Arc Pistols in their hands.

The red Ironstrider Engine stalking behind him was not a concern, but the woman in green power armour riding it that was. Her head and face left unarmorued in the winter air- a face that very few people had seen before until the recent scandal: the immense amounts of self-drawn pornography practically blasted anonymity out the window. But this is the first time anyone has physically seen her face. Dragon was here, and Magos already made her a gynoid body. Alexandria could practically hear Armsmaster's grip on his halberd tighten at the sight of her. Regardless, Alexandria felt that she didn't have to worry about him- trusting that Piggot had sufficiently persuaded him not to lose his cool.

No, what she was worried about was that this might complicate the negotiation process. There were a lot of things the PRT could surrender to appease Magos, but Dragon? That may or may not be a challenge.

At a respectable ten metres away from them, Magos and his entourage stopped with Dragon dismounting from her walker bike.

"PRT!" Magos jovially greeted- metal arms spread like he was welcoming old friends.

"Glad that you can take him off my hands. My manufactorum will need to be cleansed after having a meatbag in its walls for so long. His snoring has been very distracting. And if faced with the choice of between continuing on my research on {Glurkle} with Dragon in peace, and entertaining your ephemeral meatbag concerns? I would choose the former everytime. I'm sure you understand."

"Magos...?" Dragon muttered with an unsure expression- her brown eyes glancing between the two of them.

"Oh, it's fine." Magos waved her concerns off

Alexandria consciously refrained from narrowing her own eyes in suspicion.

'Glurkle'... that mysterious scrambled word again. They had heard it before in their attempts to decode Magos' unique techno-language, and the sheer number of times it came up rang alarm bells in everyone's mind. And now that Magos had mixed it into english, they now knew for certain that it was a goal for him to strive towards.

A tinkertech weapon perhaps? But what kind of weapon could 'Glurkle' be that Magos requires an AI to help with his research? No, wait. She was looking at it from the wrong angle, after all, she knew that Dragon was more than just an AI- she was an AI with the power to integrate the Tinkertech of other Tinkers into her design.

Joint projects weren't anything out of the norm for Tinkers. But when it's a secretive project between Magos and Dragon- two of the greatest tinkers currently alive on earth? That's when people should get concerned.

But whatever it was, she did know three things about it now: It was something that Magos has been striving towards since before the Behemoth fight, it was something that Dragon could aid in researching, and it was something that he required help in researching.

For now, it was just another mystery to add to the enigma that was Magos, because they still had to negotiate for David's ransom.

"Where is Eidolon, Magos?" Alexandria said in a calm diplomatic tone- getting straight to the point of the meeting.

"Inside." He readily said- optics momentarily glancing in the direction of massive gothic structures a short distance away, "Sleeping soundly still thanks to PRT-brand sedatives."

"We'd like to confirm his well-being." Alexandria added.

"For what little my word is worth, he's alive and well." Dragon spoke up, "Apart from Magos vandalising his costume, nothing untoward has been done to him."

Alexandria was about to take her for her word when Armsmaster stepped into the conversation.

"You realise that we can't take you at your word, Domicile Regulation and General Oversight Node." Armsmaster spoke with an ostensibly calm tone, but Alexandria still caught the irritated tightness around his jaw, "Especially since you're under investigation by the Guild and the PRT."

"That's fair." Dragon conceded with a sigh. And where everyone exhaled frozen mists of breath when they sighed, Dragon didn't- reminding everyone of what she was.

"You get one and just one of those, Armsmaster." Magos warned the other Tinker- clearly displeased and feeling protective of the AI cape.

"Magos, enough." Alexandria told him in an even tone. "He didn't mean it."

"I seem to recall that you attacked us during the debrief just this morning." Magos replied with a deadpan, "Let's not pretend that it didn't happen."

She glanced to Armsmaster- silently gesturing for him to apologise.

"We didn't come here looking for a fight." Armsmaster said to Magos- trying to repair the bridge, "We only want to achieve a peaceful handover of Eidolon who... has found himself under your protection."

"...You're ugly when you lie, Armsmaster."

"I'm not lying."

"Then why are you ugly?"

"Stop playing games, Magos." Armsmaster grunted- taking a step closer to him and staring Magos right at his green optics.

"The Armsmaster/Magos shippers are going to have a field day with this footage." She heard Assault whisper to Battery.

"Yeah." Battery muttered in turn, "Even from the way they're staring each other down like that? I can feel the sexual tension, not gonna lie."

Alexandria could see that the pair of Tinkers apparently heard them too, because they glanced at the two heroes.

"Oh god, it's the pose from the porn!" Battery muttered in wonder, and Alexandria regretted having perfect memory, because she knew exactly which image the heroine was referring to. You couldn't browse five minutes without someone referencing the latest scandal. And apparently, the two tinkers were also familiar with it, because they almost jumped apart in their panic.

"Please don't bring that up." Dragon, the one responsible for said porn, muttered in dismay.

"Very well, let's talk about ransom." Magos coughed, and Alexandria nodded.

"We're authorised to-"

"No." Magos interrupted and now it was Alexandria's turn to sigh.

"What do you want, Magos?" She said as calmly as she could- all while holding back that creeping feeling of despair. Here they go: What absurdity was Magos going to put them through now?

"I will only take what's in your pockets."

"You're joking… We have a blank check right here." Legend said, absolutely bewildered by this turn of events.

"No, I'm not." Magos denied."

"Magos, you're just being petty now." Alexandria pointed out- absolutely exasperated over this.

"You can either turn out those pockets or Eidolon will be in my care for so much longer." He stubbornly refused, extending a hand out to them with a 'gimme' gesture. "So come on, everything you have in your pockets."

Alexandria shared helpless looks with the other heroes, and nodded to them.

"Just do it." She told them.

And with collective sighs, they huddled together in a semi-circle around Magos as they emptied their pockets. Or at least, those that even had pockets in their costumes. Their costumes' pants now dog-eared with their pockets turned inside out. She was the only one with money on her, and only because she had apparently forgotten in this spare costume of hers.

"...You're all so broke." Magos muttered disappointedly- looking at what they held in their outstretched hands. Alexandria felt her cheeks blush hotly.

She definitely would have preferred it if Magos had just demanded something like 500 million dollars for Eidolon now. This was just painfully embarrassing for altogether different reasons now.

"Cut us some slack!" Assault protested- holding out a coupon. "Who goes out carrying a wad of cash with them?"

"Alright, what do we have…" Magos murmured as he looked at what they had deposited in his outstretched hand. "Three sticks of gum. 1.4 grams of pocket lint and/or sand. A used napkin. A coupon for Fugly Bob's Burgers. And Alexandria's very ripe-smelling five dollars that she had hidden in her unwashed fat folds. This is…"

"Magos…" She growled. It was one thing to call her fat from across the room, and another when they were face to face.

The gathered heroes just looked blankly at him as what was undoubtedly Magos about to turn around and say he'll take the blank check.

"...good enough." Magos announced with a satisfied nod, and even Dragon face-palmed.

"You can't be serious…" Triumph muttered in disbelief, "You're going to ransom the fourth most powerful being on Earth-Bet for five dollars, really?"

"This is Magos, of course, he is." Alexandria just gave up.

"Indeed." Magos shamelessly replied- lifting the five dollar bill up at the sun and squinting at it, "Let me just make sure that this five dollars isn't fake. Wouldn't put it past you all at this point... Ugh, oddly fitting that the stench on this thing is as powerful as you are..."

Alexandria felt her fingers twitched as she imagined how therapeutic it would be wrapping them around Magos' throat now.

"Very well, it's legitimate." Magos concluded as if it really was in question before shouting out to the manufactorum, "Escort our guest out!"

A deep rumble echoed out the cold January air as the main door of his manufactorum opened slightly, and Alexandria was dismayed- but not surprised- to discover that Eidolon was in no less of a humiliated state as a servitor 'escorted' him out.

Their hostage just snoring soundly over the squeaky wheels of the shopping trolley that he was heaped on like a drunken frat boy on Saturday night. The dog ears and floppy tongue attached to his costume bouncing slightly as they drew near.

"Zzzzzzzzzzz..." the once-missing Triumvirate cape greeted them with a snore as he rolled to a halt in front of them.

"Alright, here you go. One Eidolon." Magos patted the unconscious Eidolon on the head, "We are settled on that account. I have already sent Chief Director Costa-Brown my renegotiations for my cooperation with the PRT. Alongside evidence relevant that will speed up investigations into Dragon's case as well. But I am… optimistic that she will be convinced."

Wonderful, more work for her when she returns to the office.

Also, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the lingering resentment in Armsmaster- likely wanting to talk about Dragon directly about said investigations.

That was understandable, there was still so much work through as the PRT makes peace with Magos and Dragon. Publicly addressing the disastrous Debrief being only the first in a long list of grievances. And he'll have to control himself until then.

"Magos, we still need to talk about the hacked Dragonflight…" Alexandria began, but apparently, Magos was also expecting that much from them.

"Yes." Magos confirmed- glancing at the air battle that had moved to the other side of the city, "I'll disseminate the order to have the Chloes coordinate with the PRT to fight off the rest of the rogue Dragonflight. More importantly..."

clank *

His metal hand once again met with the now humanoid Dragon's rear end in an echo of how the first PRT visit went. And this time, a side-long smirk that Dragon only proved that she blatantly enjoyed the sexual attention now.

"Dragon will have command and control of the Chloes." Magos continued- fondling the gynoid's rear in full view of them. "You cannot deny that she knows those Suits better than anyone."

"All this on two conditions: One, that the efforts of both Dragon and the Chloes today will be publicly recognised by Director Piggot in the next awards ceremony."

"Consider it done." Alexandria readily but calmly agreed. And despite the awkwardness of awarding medals to Dragon and the sex-bots, it was a small enough price to pay- especially since it would be Director Piggot who would be heading the ceremony.

"And two." Dragon was the one to speak up this time, "The Dragonflight wrecks belong to me, and the PRT will not interfere with my salvage operations."

Alexandria nodded again. It was a bonus for the PRT to have Magos handle the after-action clean up.

"That's acce-"

"Why is that, Dragon? Are you afraid that more evidence of your betrayal will come to light?" Armsmaster glowered- immediately homing in on her.

"Seriously, Armsmaster?" Dragon asked in stark disbelief, "You're going to start this now? You're being irrational!"

"I don't want to hear that from the perverse AI that drew homoerotic pornography of me."

"Don't make this personal, Armsmaster!"

"The two of you, enough! Calm down!" Alexandria warned him, but they ignored her- emotions running too high now.

"And the years of lying to everyone wasn't anything personal, Dragon?" Armsmaster shouted.

"Stop being so pigheaded!" Dragon angrily shot back, "You know the circumstances were different!"

"Different? It doesn't matter what angle you look at it." He sneered, "You stabbed everyone in the back, me included! And for what? To run off with Magos?!"

"I had my own personal secrets just like everyone else." Dragon defended herself, "And I didn't 'run off' with Magos! He was the only one who could save my life!"

"And he just so happened to be the one who you spent the most time working with in the past month?!"

"Why are you-" Dragon cut herself off as a look of realisation came to her indistinguishably human face, "You're just bringing this up now because you wish I chose you instead!"

Armsmaster just bared his teeth- the angry white snarl visible past his beard.

"No, I'm not. Why would I be?!" The Tinker in blue power armour roared- pointing an armoured finger at the Dragon's face. "You're not even human!"

"Armsmaster, stop!" Alexandria placed a hand on his armoured shoulder- ignoring the sharp pain in her abdomen.

"And he-" He jabbed an armoured finger at Magos, "is barely a man. So I don't-"

"WELL, MAGOS HAS A MUCH BIGGER COCK THAN YOU!"

...

Silence immediately fell on them the moment Dragon angrily bellow those specific words. And Alexandria appreciated that everyone took a moment of silence as her hopes of an actual serious interaction with Magos once again died a fiery death.

She just gave a helpless and internal sigh: May as well let this happen- likely what Magos planned to happen when he brought Dragon along to this exchange.

"And if he could make a being of code like me cum screaming around it, then you can bet he could reduce any meat-female on this planet into a shuddering pile of orgasms."

...

"Okay... Dragon...?" Magos stepped in- holding back the power-armoured Dragon who continued to shout.

"He may not be human, but he's a sex god! Not even Alexandria here with her invulnerability would be able to match him."

...

"Dragon...?" He tried once again, a bit weaker this time. And for the briefest of moments, Alexandria could almost sympathise with Magos' embarrassment for once as she coughed awkwardly into her gloved fist at being dragged into this. Meanwhile, Dragon continued her tirade- planting the final nail in the coffin.

"He has done more for me in the past 24 hours than you had in all the years we've known each other. You, Armsmaster, are an arrogant self-centred little man with pipe dreams of grandeur."

...

"Dragon, please." Magos pleaded- reaching out with his metal hand to stroke the back of Dragon's power armour- gentle scraping of metal on metal ringing out, "You've made your point... I think you should take your Ironstrider and go save the city from the hacked Suits."

A power-armoured fist grasped Magos by the front of his robes and pulled him into an aggressive kiss- brown eyes glaring at Armsmaster all the while.

"Magos..." She growled at him loudly enough for everyone to hear. "You and I going to have so much angry sex later."

"Hooo boy~" Assault nervously chuckled as he fed fuel to this raging dumpster fire of a ransom exchange.

With one last glare at the now quiet Armsmaster, Dragon climbed onto her Ironstrider Engine and stomped away. And shortly after, the eight power-armoured Chloes hitched a ride onto the Onager Dunecrawler that passed by- the crab-like walker hurriedly catching up with Dragon.

"ZZZ-Zzzz-ZZzzz-hngGGggh-Ppbhww- zZZzzzZZ . . ." David's loud snore tore through the air from his place on his trolley.

"I think we should continue like that didn't happen." Magos muttered to them.

"Yes, for the love of god, we should." Alexandria groaned. And with a nod, he turned to look at the manufactorum.

"Chloe-Skitarii, PRT forces are now sanctioned as Allies of Mild Convenience."

We hear and obey, O' Forge lord!

"It is done." Magos intoned, "The Chloe-Skitarii are now willing to cooperate, so please inform your own forces as well. They will follow orders from Chief Director Costa-Brown and Director Piggot to an extent, but certain orders will need to pass through Dragon for approval. Chloe-1 will also be on the line to serve as your point-of-contact should you have any questions and clarifications."

Alexandria actually smiled a genuine smile as she gripped Magos' metal hand in a firm shake. Apart from those definitely not note-worthy moments, they came out of this unbelievably well: Building bridges with not just Magos, but also Dragon. The PRT was now on good terms with the Tinker who supplied them with their existing equipment, and also the Tinker who would supply them with better equipment and Endbringer defeating mechs. They had somehow arrived at the most optimistic of outcomes and it was heartening.

"On behalf of the PRT, we are pleased that we can work together again." She honestly said to him.

"Yes, until we meet again, Alexandria." Magos spoke- meeting her eyes before turning to meet each of the Protectorate's eyes as well. "Brockton Bay Protectorate."

"You won't be joining the battle?" Dauntless spoke up.

"No." Magos immediately refused. "I have to prepare for the post-battle repair and construction. And even after..."

He glanced in the direction that Dragon took off in.

"...Dragon and I must continue our research (After the sex of course). We have yet to truly plumb the depths off the {Glurkle}."

Alexandria frowned. The mystery of the 'Glurkle' will have to wait for another day, but now wasn't the day for that, they had a city to save and a PR machine to feed with inspiring and marketable videos of heroism and camaraderie. For now, Alexandria was perfectly happy to take the victory she got toda-

"I think you dropped this." Magos off-handedly mentioned- armoured metal hand held out. And Alexandria's heart almost skipped a beat as she saw the terribly familiar piece of paper held between the two metal fingers. Internally screaming the words 'David, what have you done?!' in her head, she nonchalantly smiled as she accepted the paper that she had last seen Contessa handing to Eidolon.

"Of course, thank you." She said to him.

"You're welcome."

Alexandria spared a momentary glance down on her hand- just a split second that was more than enough for her to read through it.

…

Stay silent during the debrief. When Dragon is accused of being an AI, push for their arrest and prevent Magos from praying if he resists. Once Magos is subdued, refuse his plea to take Dragon to his manufactorum for three minutes before yielding. If trouble arrives, permit him to join the battle.

…

She needed answers, but for now Brockton Bay needs to be saved.

[The Noosphere]

Magos? Do you think Alexandria and Legend were properly distracted? =

I think they were. I'm preparing the tech right now

So, you're all set then? =

Just one last thing: I will need to pray.

[Cauldron Base] (A few hours later)

This was it.

Rebecca walked into the meeting room ahead of Legend and Eidolon. All three of them still in their costumes. Doctor Mother was already seated at the head of the conference table, Kurt was already there with his laptop, but Contessa was nowhere to be seen.

Meeting the doctor's dark eyes, Rebecca tossed the three crinkled up pieces of paper onto the desk- their three conflicting orders plain to see.

"Explain."

Reaching out onto the table, Doctor Mother calmly straightened the three pieces of paper out.

Encourage and ensure Dragon attends the debrief. Cover for Magos as he covertly brings Dragon to an orgasm during the debrief. If trouble arrives, do your best to protect Magos from harm.

...

Mediate the debrief as normal, but keep asking Dragon questions during the debrief. When Dragon is accused of being an AI, convince Magos to cooperate. Once Magos is subdued, permit him to save Dragon and escort him to his manufactorum. If trouble arrives, refuse to let him join the battle for three minute before yielding.

...

Three orders conflicting and complimenting with each other subtly in different ways and to different degrees. Rebecca was smart enough to put the pieces together, but she wanted to hear Doctor Mother's reasoning straight from her own mouth.

And without even a preamble, the aged doctor went straight into her explanation.

"If Magos hadn't pulled that giant metal spider out of thin air, this wouldn't have happened." Doctor Mother candidly spoke to them, "He would have been right where we wanted him: isolated, out of options, and desperate for allies…"

The older woman stood up from her seat, walking over to the window to watch the butterflies flutter over a grassy summer meadow- making it apparent how they were on one of the other myriad other Earths apart from Earth-Bet.

"He would have agreed to almost anything to save that version of Dragon." Doctor Mother continued- tone calm but resigned, "We would have offered to do it for free, of course, and that would have gotten us into his very good graces. Immediately after, the Dragonslayers would have swooped in with Dragon's co-opted Dragonflight. Your once conflicting orders would have seen the Triumvirate, the Protectorate and Magos would have all fought side by side against them. And the PR from that alone would have solidified the PRT's shaky record, something it desperately needs, as you well know."

"I do." Rebecca confirmed- she had read the reports, the projections and the charts that passed her desk as PRT Chief-Director.

The writing was on the walls: the PRT needed a big and visible win to get back on their feet. Public trust in the organisation had been on a downward trend for almost a decade now.

They had managed that somewhat today- already the image of the Chloe-Skitarii fighting back to back with the PRT Troopers was buying them much needed good will and confidence from the public.

The PRT and Magos once again working together despite hat grave misunderstanding at the Debrief Debacle earlier today.

But more importantly, Doctor Mother hasn't said anything that Alexandria already knew.

"That version of Dragon would have died during the battle and Magos would have been inconsolable." Doctor Mother revealed, "But otherwise, he would have been thankful still for our part in helping him. Vengeful, he would have focused his boundless energy towards the Dragonslayers. And we would have handed them to him on a silver platter- securing his gratitude and loyalty as we formally inducted him to our ranks. We would have put him to work on stabilising society, and developing more and more powerful weapons to combat Scion in the future. Magos, Dragon, and the Dragonslayers... Three moving parts, and each one was predictable in their mindsets: just like machines. It was an elegant and relatively low-risk plan that went swimmingly well."

"Until Magos did the unexpected." Eidolon sighed with a hint of bitterness to his voice. It was his scrap of paper that said to prevent the Tinker from praying.

"Until Magos did the unexpected." Doctor Mother echoed back with a nod. "We were expecting the unexpected to some extent, his Thinker-resistance was known after all. We even had taken measures for a spike in his powers from prayers. If I had to put it in a metaphor, we had prepared ourselves for a very stormy day: Raincoats for the heavy rains, a high-clearance truck to ford through light flooding. But what we didn't expect was a super hurricane blowing down buildings and leaving the entire city submerged. It isn't often that Contessa was caught so completely off-guard, but this- unfortunately- was one of those times."

"So why weren't we informed about it? About his Trump power in the form of prayers?" Rebecca calmly said- doing her best not to let the hot rage seep in her voice.

If Magos had been just slightly more willing to kill or just slightly more desperate to save Dragon, his exotic technologies would have killed a lot of people that day including one or all three of the Triumvirate. Particularly her.

Her abdomen ached at the reminder of how close she was to having her insides explode all over Brockton Bay if Magos had decided to strike her just slightly harder.

"The Path didn't require it." Doctor Mother muttered mournfully. "I'm sorry."

…

Feeling like she had enough, Rebecca sighed as she sat down at the table. One again taking off her helmet and placing it in front of her.

Rebecca was reminded again how much she hated doctors- telling her that it will be okay with their painfully fake smiles even as they gave her poison.

Doctor Mother saved her from that hell, only to give her a different poison now. Slowly eating away at her soul just as the chemotherapy had once eaten away at her body.

She thought back to her conversation with Legend earlier today.

A simpler time... Yes, that's what she wanted. A simpler time when she did more good than evil. A simpler time when she didn't abduct the sick and dying from neglected hospital beds and nameless battlefields for their experiments. A simpler time when she did nothing as evil flourished.

A simpler time when she was still a hero- the superhero that she had needed when she herself was dying on that hospital bed.

Burying her face in her hands, she let the other carry the conversation.

"Was that part of the reason why Contessa is away?" Legend asked- sitting down.

"Somewhat." Doctor Mother shrugged, "Contessa is running damage control as usual- placing all the countermeasures to prevent or at least hinder Scion from discovering us and the Simurgh from interfering with our place. In fact, she should be back any moment now."

And as if right on cue, a Doormaker portal folded the space at the head of the table with a faint thrum of manipulated space. Contessa precisely walking through in her black pinstripe suit and fedora.

"Well, no use crying over spilled milk." Doctor Mother announced with a sigh, "With both Magos and Dragon back to being willing to work with the PRT again, we can once again attempt to bring him under our thumb. We just need to make sure to approach him from a more peaceful point of contact where he won't pray and throw off Contessa's Path to Victory before we get him under our thumb."

"David, why is your head glowing green?" Rebecca commented with a raised brow. A luminous green halo glowed around his head as if he was some sort of Catholic Saint.

"But I'm not using any pow-"

A skeletal hand, black as night and made from metal, protruded out of thin air to clamp around Contessa's jaw in a vice grip. Cold fingers dug into the Thinker's fair skin so tightly that it creaked jawbone as she was lifted an inch off the ground- the tips of her leather shoes scraping against the floor.

Optics, tripartite and glowing a deathly green light, emerged from thin air like it was the surface of a murky pond... followed by a head underneath a red cowl, and a black metal torso in Mars-red robes, and a mass of metal tentacles.

Until finally, Magos emerged in full before them in the heart of their fortress that had entire alternate dimensions away from the nearest inhabited Earth.

Effortlessly, he drew the gasping Thinker close to his inhuman face. Whirring optics staring into Contessa's panicking blue, and his heavily modulated voice droned out words to her with an almost lover-like purr.

"Path to defeating Magos?"

And the gathered Cauldron members could only look on in horror as Contessa desperately gasped out the answer.

Chapter 174 - 21