Rebecca stared down at the corpse of a monster, and the young girl who slayed it. There was not a hint of fear, of stress, of weariness or wariness on the girl's face. There was no pride or elation, no confused jumble of emotions that accompanied a rush of adrenaline. The girl killed an Endbringer, and all Rebecca could see on her face was satisfaction. Like she'd just checked another box off her to-do list.
This changed things. She didn't yet know how, but it did. An Endbringer was dead, killed almost effortlessly. There was no cooperation between heroes and villains, there was no great death toll, there was no grave threat.
And the power, that sheer, impossible power. If the girl turned into an enemy, she would make Ellisburg look like a traffic accident. Enough power to throw around ships like toys, enough power to shred right through an Endbringer... it made the efforts of the Triumvirate look childish. All of those years spent trying desperately to kill an Endbringer, and one cape made it look easy.
No, Rebecca could not feel relief quite yet, not when she felt so much caution.
The Endbringer was, if anything, a minor act in today's clusterfuck. The lives lost here could not be attributed to city destroying monsters, but instead, terminal stupidity. Rebecca felt a certain visceral satisfaction knowing that she'd reduced half of the individuals at fault to a bloody mist.
The remaining enemies were still frozen, in fear or simple caution she knew not. Rebecca could see lucidity returning to the eyes of the monstrous girl that had caused so much devastation. What a troublesome Case-53. How did Cauldron miss this one?
Still, her danger paled in comparison to the true threat. Amy Dallon, or rather some twisted version of her. There were... twenty-three of them still standing. Judging by the armbands, at least a dozen of those used to be capes. The rest were former PRT, consumed and modified and-
And...
And she gave them powers.
They were baseline humans, and she somehow connected her agent to them.
In seconds.
And just like that, Rebecca's caution vanished, her righteous fury drained away, her desire for justice was crushed underneath logic's cold heel.
The girl, Catalyst, she introduced herself as, was saying something, speaking to the monstrous cape, but Alexandria was no longer listening. Her mind was instead whirling with possibilities. If they could just control Panacea's clone, if they harnessed that unbelievable power...
Contessa could do it. Contessa would do it. This, this was the answer to their prayers. This was the hope they had been searching for so desperately.
The new cape was strong, no doubt the girl would be brought in eventually as well, but she was only one person. Cauldron needed an army to withstand Scion.
Her focus was set. She needed a way, an excuse, to claim Panacea's clone. She needed to seize this moment before it could slip away. Everything else was secondary, all other concerns could wait. All thoughts of Catalyst's abnormalities had faded from Rebecca's mind. Her worries about the future, about the Truce itself had vanished before ever really appearing.
She would come to regret it.
---
David stared down at his fallen Enemy. Leviathan's corpse was damaged well beyond anything David had ever managed. Melted and amputated limbs, great chunks of flesh gouged away.
Oh, and the massive hole in its chest. Couldn't forget that even if he tried.
David chuckled to himself. Was this what it was like to feel irrelevant? For so long Cauldron had searched for the next Eidolon. They experimented constantly, fruitlessly, desperately, searching for just the right combination of alien brain goo that could save the world. David never held much hope for such a thing. There would never be another hero with the kind of power he was once able to wield.
They simply weren't that lucky.
But life, it seemed, existed to prove him wrong. Though, maybe not entirely. Even at his best, David was never as casually powerful as this girl seemed to be. This... child. Far too young to bear the burden of The Strongest.
He pitied her, in a way. She would be the new star, the one humanity would pin its hopes on. He hoped, dearly, honestly, that she would be more successful than he was. It was a relief, really. David was just... so tired. He was tired of the fear, the desperation, that burning need to get stronger, because the world was depending on him, because the world would end without him.
The girl killed an Endbringer. She did it without help, and almost without effort.
Yeah.
Yeah, he could leave the world in her hands.
He would ask Cauldron to bring her in fully, let her know just what they faced. He would train her if she wished, advise her if she needed, help her in any way that he could.
He was getting too old to play The Hero anyways, but he could still make one hell of a Mentor.