Chapter 8

This was a joyous day for the Mather branch. They raided a city this morning and gained a few powerful tools to produce new generations for the Mather branch. Now, they were in a meeting and planning the next course of action. The capes they captured were part of Wards, and they had to lie low for a while. However, with Mama, even if Triumvirates came knocking on their door, they would have nothing to worry about.

As Mama Mather was giving out instructions, space behind her began to swirl and an imposing red figure stepped out. Upon exiting into the real world, Incarnate was greeted with a resounding punch to the helmet. It was powerful enough to destroy half the room just from air pressure alone. A thin hairline crack appeared on the place that was punched, but it was restored in an instant. Then, they began to rain punches upon her. However, it mattered not, as much as the attacking cape can punch, she can restore even faster.

She took out her sword and cut off the offending hands, punching her. Poor creature shouted in agony.

"Evacuate! He is a trump!" the woman she recognized as Mama Mather i.e. her target shouted out.

"Useless," she let out.

She activated all the runes on her armour and with a speed faster than eyes can see, she moved. When she reappeared, Mama Mather's decapitated head was in her hand. Suddenly, a big humanoid creature punched her. Unfortunately, his hand shattered from the impact. Incarnate didn't care about the creature, as she got what she wanted and disappeared the same way she came.

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One week ago,

Alice was in her base, studying the art of runes. She had underestimated the complexity of these symbols before and almost paid for it. As she was immersing herself in her work, a black portal opened and a familiar shape came out.

"Deus? What are you doing here?" Alice might still have a bit of wariness toward this mysterious being, however, she also trusted that it wouldn't harm her. After all, it had helped her a lot and deserved some benefit of the doubt.

"It's nice to meet you, too. I come bearing a gift," it said with tentacles swaying in an upbeat mood. One of its tentacles went through the portal and dragged out a roulette without any marks.

"This is the roulette of possibilities ad Infinitum. We can't have you become too predictable. Predictable means people will try to predict you, and we can't allow such a thing, at least at this state. So, spin this thing once a day. This thing's results are practically uncountable and whoever tries isn't valuing their brain," it said its things and left, leaving behind a confused Alice.

"Hmm," Alice pondered as she studied the gifted roulette in front of her. Gingerly, she extended a hand and spun it. It speeded up, and a gentle breeze started to blow. Seeing that it won't slow down anytime soon, Alice continued to study how to make a working array. After 10 minutes, with a *ding, the wheel slowed down.

[Steal Armsmaster underwear from Dragon's hoard]

Three black lines ran across her face.

That evening, Alice could be seen burning something. It could be said that she had literally escaped her previous life, yet this embarrassment still haunted her.

A week later,

[Kill Mama Mather of Mather branch of Fallen]

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It was a slow day for PRT ENE Brockton Bay. There were only two cape-related incidents today and a skirmish between E88 and ABB until Brockton's Bay's latest addition to the cape scene, walked in carrying a head. All sorts of alarms rang throughout the building as multiple containment foams and PRT troopers quickly filled into the room.

The armoured cape didn't seem to mind much as he slowly walked through the containment foams.

"What a terrible reception," an echoey voice that set off all goosebumps on their body came out from deep within the armour.

"State your purpose," Captain Smith, bless his heart, questioned the cape.

"Relax, I am just here to get my bounty," the cape answered.

"Bounty?"

"Yes," the cape gestured to the head of an unidentified woman in his hand, "this here is the head of Mama Mather of Mather Branch. I heard that all the leaders of Fallen branches have kill orders on their heads. So, I am here to get my money," the cape answered.

Instantly, murmurs broke out amongst the gathering troopers. Even the name of Mama Mather was like the Boogeyman, eliciting fear and reactions as they ogled at the head.

"What is going on here?" a firm and tense voice came. With a glance, Incarnate almost thought this person was a light bulb. Clad in golden armour and helmet reminiscent of Greek style, with shining electrical spear and shield, the whole getup was enough to capture attention wherever one was.

One of the troopers skittered toward the cape and whispered something in his ear. The cape took a double check toward the head in her hand.

"I understand what is happening now, however, it would take a while to verify and issue the bounty money. Meanwhile, can I ask you to come with me for a chat?" the cape asked.

"First of all, please introduce yourself," Incarnate said to the twitchy cape.

"Uh- I am Dauntless, a member of the Protectorate ENE," Dauntless answered in confusion. Incarnate nodded. It had been a while since she had updated herself on the cape scene, so she only remembered some big names.

"I see. Take it," the Draconian armour lifted its hand and tossed the head in its hand. Dauntless let out a yelp and scrambled to catch it.

"I will come back in three days and I would strongly advise against cheating off of me. It would be very unwise to do so," after saying that, the armour in red faded as if an illusion.

*Sigh

Dauntless let out a long-suffering sigh.

"Everyone, into M/S Protocols now!" he barked out an order and went away, presumably to go into M/S containment himself.

"What a mess, a cape brazenly walked into a PRT office and no one could stop it! What are you guys and Wards doing?" Director Piggot, PRT ENE, asked. It was times like this that made her wish that she could still dream. Empire 88 was having a field day with this information, dragging the name of PRT and Protectorate into the mud, ignoring that said cape actually came to take out a bounty of one of the most dangerous capes on Earth Bet. Bastards, lots of them. What gave her a headache more was the cape, Incarnate, himself. From the moment the cape debuted himself to this day, no one could guess his motive or goal. The only thing they could gather was that he had a heroic tendency. That's it. That's all they had. Now, though, a piece of new information could be added. He seemed to be hostile toward PRT. Very reassuring.

"I am sorry, ma'am. I was chasing Circus at that time, and Miss Military was preoccupied with Leet and Uber. Assault and Battery were stationed at Protectorate. While they rushed as soon as they could, it was too late. Triumph was off duty. It was an official policy to keep the Wards from engaging potential S-Class threats," Armsmaster eloquently replied. He meant that it wasn't our fault, don't shift the blame on us. We did our best.

Piggot sighed. Days by day, asking for parahuman healing from Panacea seemed almost worth it.

"Fine. What are we gonna do about this? We can't let him get away with this," Piggot asked.

"What do you mean? He didn't do anything wrong? He just wanted to cash out his bounty," Assault asked.

"His actions have negatively impacted us, and he is openly hostile to us. With his threat rating, which is currently being upgraded as we speak, he is a liability and this city is volatile enough as it is. Either we reign him in or drive him away," Armsmaster said, cold and concise.

"Let's not rush things. We can try persuasion first," Dauntless suggested.

"I agree with Dauntless, we have to be cautious," Director Piggot said.