Chapter 70: Solutions?

Redburndragon - An apt comparison.

ArashiNoKitsune - Yeah, Amy could be fucking terrifying if she really pushed her Power. Cauldron has much to fear now that she will. As for the Ults I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to use them all, but I want too to show their upgrades.

MasterDarkElf - I fixed the names. As for giving Scylla a bigger but younger brother I'm safe to say I'm highly tempted to do that, just get her to make a Dalamadur and have Scylla ride on its head, but I'm not sure when I'll do that. But yeah, there'll be more 'Abominations' in the future.

AshOfTheBurningWorld - Yeah, the Ultimatrix is really busted. It's easy to forget that when only a handful of forms are used, which is on me to be fair.

BiazarKaiser - This is my headcanon now.

[Phoenix's 3rd person POV]

After that whole thing was over we took time to Relax. I'd been sore for a while, but the feeling eventually went away before we ended up sleeping.

Before it did though we just talked, went over how Amy did, what she could've done better, and how we would train going forward.

The first thing we all Agreed on was that she did great. Amy wasn't a brawler or anything, though she'd make a godlike grappler considering a touch was all she'd need to disable someone, so the fact she didn't go headfirst into a fight was a big positive...

And we weren't just saying that to say it.

We'd both fully believed her Shard would froth at the mouth to go get its hands on a person to use... Which we were both pretty fine with considering these were Cauldron clones.

We got a dozen or so plant dinosaurs instead though, and neither of us were complaining.

It also doubled as proof that Amy was on board to really test her Power, something that we were all Relieved to hear. If her Shard was placated then there were not only less chances for things to spontaneously go wrong, but would go a good way for when we eventually got rid of the parasite and got her to keep the Power itself.

She could've shot people, but we Understood that she had gone into a small fugue because of the Predaplants. Not that any of us blamed her, it was the reason I'd designated the Archetype as Amy's most likely main. Traptrix and Invoked were in the running though, because both of them felt like Amy to me. Sure, the Aromages liked her, but I couldn't see her using them when we were going into a fight. (The day Amy unironically summons a Jasmine is the day Taylor wears a frilly pink dress.)

Anyway, we eventually decided to start jogging around the mountain, while Amy told us she would work on dedicated 'Exercise food', which was a massive win in our books. Just a few days with the new foods had shown small, but noticeable effects. The idea of getting in peak condition with help from food like I was a Digimon was hilarious though, so I might've cackled a little when the thought had crossed my mind.

We were also going to work on her hand to hand/CQC because her not knowing how to throw hands was a tragedy to both Taylor and I, for mostly the same reasons. Though it was also to make her claws more effective. Having claws for tearing through clothing/armor so she could get some skin for her Power was a good idea, but if she just flailed around like a cat outta water then she wouldn't get too many results.

There was also the thing about making sure she didn't end up in another fugue like that, especially now that she was going to be an active member of the team... An active member who needed some more training, a proper loadout, a bike, a Suit upgrade so hers could be on par with ours, and a whole host of shit on top of us giving her Shard the boot.

Grey Matter had given me the perfect idea on the front, one that we'd been assured by our Future Selves would work. It would need to come later, we had so much shit to deal with that it was a miracle we were getting anything done, especially after getting ambushed by Cauldron.

And Cauldron was another fucking thing! We didn't talk about them the rest of the day, but the next one was another day of conversations, mostly centered about what happened, what we were going to do about it, and when we were going to test the Case 53's we'd had captive...

Which we were just going to ignore for now, because fuck were we busy.

The rest of the day went on, we talked with our Mom and Aunts, learning about what the former lost and how the latter dealt with modifying the Vita Chamber. The latter did fine, and we learned Taylor's Dad was bomb free and was expected to wake up sometime tomorrow. That was all good, but eventually it was time for us to sleep. I ended up as Taylor's big spoon, while my girlfriend was Amy's big spoon. We were all Pleased with this, especially Scylla, who had curled herself into Amy's arms and fallen asleep with the rest of us.

Though,while we slept. someone else was doing something real important.

[Melody's POV]

Sinking into the soft mattress of my bed, kneading my brow as I did, I again cursed everything that I was susceptible to a headache. Today had been going so well, and then Cauldron had decided to make a move against us and fuck it all up. The moves themselves were pointless, they didn't hurt or damage anything important, hadn't led to the death of Taylor's Father, or even disabled the shield around The Roost.

The only negatives were the destruction of some of my drones, as well as one of my Assault Crafts. My Lab was still being worked on, though its development had slowed down since Amy's arrival, and the subsequent Digital World Initiative. I didn't blame either of those things, because the former needed it, while the latter was proving to be the greatest undertaking we'd ever undergone, but this little setback was an annoyance.

In return for their annoyance, and my unfortunate loss of resources, we captured 9 Capes, 5 Case 53's, 2 of the golems, a Sundancer, and a ghost girl. At the moment they were all being kept in the Danger Room, the room itself being configured into a maximum security prison in order to contain them all.

The rest of them were being eating by raptors... Which was not something I'd ever thought I'd unironically think. (Though I really should've dinosaurs to come up at some point. Earth Bet just keeps throwing crazy shit at us... Doesn't help we're almost done creating an entirely new world.) When I thought of it like that any surprise I did/would've felt immediately dissipated.

Annoyances aside, the fact that our go too 'Fuck off or die' cannons, as well as my Workshop, had taken a hit didn't sit well with me. My Workshop was only 72% complete, and the defenses I'd been creating were cut down by a 1/4th. Hell, one of my Assault Crafts was fucking one shot by supercharged lightning! Damn thing had to be deconstructed with a Builder for me to get anything usable from it...

Which kinda pissed me off.

The shield was my own spin on the ones my kids used for their Suits, so the fact some random bitch could've flash fried my kids both scared the shit out of me, and made me real fucking mad. I had to spend a few real world minutes to figure out how the hell that happened, eventually figuring out that the amount of energy in the lightning bolt fried everything too quickly to be diverted to the converters... Which wouldn't have helped because there was too much energy to be safely converted, which would've just led the thing to explode.

I was going to speed up the development of my Workshop, and ask my Son to help me build more then just the tools so I could do it myself. It'd need to wait until after the Digital World Initiative was done, most likely when they were done with the Case 53's, but it'd be done nonetheless.

While I was thinking that, a ping went through my server, a message coming along from Erin. "! Sister meeting, get your assess in the shared server. !" I paused at that, noting how serious she sounded.

During the fight, and before it too, Tess and Illiyana had been in charge of Tinkering with a Vita Chamber, making sure it was surgery capable, while Erin had been doing her best to find anything we could use to retaliate against Cauldron. They'd crossed the very last line, and we were all eager to extract our pound of flesh from the dead men and women who dared to attack us in our home.

The fact she was calling for a meeting meant she either found something we could use, or had hit a wall she couldn't break through. (Either way, it's important.)

I mentally hummed to myself as I sat up, connecting to the server. In a fraction of a second my surroundings changed, my room disappearing in favor of the scenery of the shared server.

Looking around led me to notice the rest of my sisters were here, all looking towards Erin... Who had a small scowl on her face. (Well that's not good news.)

That was the only thing I was able to think before Erin spoke up. "! I'm just gonna cut to the chase. !" Oh dear, it was one of those situations. "! There's not a single thing I can find to implicate Cauldron, or any of their members. !" It was only due to my nature that I held back a disappointed sigh. It wasn't a surprise to me, but I would've like something to justify bombing or fucking with Cauldron. Then Erin grinned, and I started to rethink that thought. "! But, !" Oh? "! I've recently managed to access Numberman's servers. !" We all gaped at that, making Erin preen like a bird. "! Yes! Praise me you lowly clumps of data! !"

"* Temptation to commit sisterly acts of violence, rising. *" I mentally snorted at that, as well as the deadpan tone she said that in.

Tess' lip twitched, while Erin just rolled her eyes. "! Anyway, with access to Numberman's servers we'll be able to hit em where it hurts! The only thing left to do is agree on how we hit them. !"

And that was a good idea... But there was a question that immediately sprung to my mind as she said that. "We'll also need to make sure they can't trace this back to us." That was sort of my question, but phrased as a statement instead of a question. "We have the element of surprise, we can't lose it."

The rest of us nodded, she was right after all.

But we had a way to strike back directly against Cauldron, and by the end of this session they would be one step closer to paying for all they've done.

[Phoenix's 3rd person POV]

The next morning Amy woke up with a feather in her mouth and I laughed at her. I was pretty sure Scylla wasn't doing it on purpose, but one could never be too sure when it came to their kids.

Positive thing about that was her next feathers were going to grow fuller and stronger, so that was good.

From there we shared a quick few pecks on each others lips, which made Amy go a nice little shade of red, took a shower, Amy went to her own room for that since she wasn't at that level of Comfort with us yet, but that was fine, and moved on. After the shower we did the rest of our morning routine, with one interruption. It came later, Mom hadn't interrupted us for a reason after all. Taylor and I both cooked this morning while Amy, Scylla, and Mom watched as Taylor made some sandwiches from Amy's greens, and I made a few sausage, egg and cheese biscuits with some sliced bread and butter because I was feeling extra fat that morning.

Though, our Daughter stopped paying attention when a bunch of wasps showed up and lined up for her to eat. It was Amusing to watch Amy just stare at Scylla as she ate, a clear of 'How did I get here?' On her face.

It was after we were done eating that we were told about the conversation that happened last night...

But before we were told, Mom looked at us, a far more Serious look on her face then we'd really seen from her, then turned to Amy. It didn't take a Galvan to know what she wanted, and after some back and forth between Taylor and I, we came to same conclusion.

We had to tell Amy about Cauldron. She'd more then earned it now that we were not only together, but she'd actively joined us... And she had a Suit now so she should be Thinker immune, we were pretty sure that's how it worked, and her Shard wouldn't be an issue in another week's time... So we did.

... Her response was... Something.

[Amy's POV]

If anyone else had told me the shit I'd just heard I would've been obligated to check them for mental disorders... But they weren't just anyone. Taylor and Phoenix were pretty much the moon and sun of my life. I trusted them, they'd made my life so much better that'd I'd need to be some kinda bitch not too, and I trusted Melody...

So... This had to be real.

It had to be...

Letting out a breath I didn't even know I was holding, I looked into their eyes, twin emeralds and jades looking back at me, both way too serious for this to be some kind of joke. (God, I wish this was a joke.) And I really did. Trailing a hand down my Daughter's scales was a calming thing, and with my boyfriend and girlfriend here I could keep the earthshaking revelation from making me freak the fuck out. "Let me get this straight." I already knew and somewhat processed what they'd told me, but saying it with my own mouth would make it more real. "The Triumvirate is involved in an honest to God shadow organization that's not only controlling The Protectorate, but also responsible for the Case 53's, who are people from alternate Earths for some reason? I got that right?"

Phoenix and Taylor didn't even hesitate to answer. ""Yeah/Yes.""

"And they're doing this because Scion's some alien responsible for Powers, and Endbringer's by proxy, and will eventually destroy the world." Another pair of nods, making me twitch. "And Powers are some alien worm thing that're connected to our brain?" For some reason they both blinked in a way that seemed like they were surprised... And given what we were talking about, I didn't like that. "What? What now?"

Phoenix and Taylor shared another look at that, but it was the former that spoke up. "Whenever we told Mom," We all noticed but ignored Melody's subtle preen. "And the rest of our Aunts, they needed to be reminded about the whole thing. Shards don't like their hosts knowing they're aliens and usually make their hosts forget being told in the first place."

My mind processed that, lips turning down into a scowl as I thought on it. "So why didn't that happen?" I wasn't going to ask the other obvious question, I didn't want to jump down any other rabbit holes right now.

They both shrugged in sync, as they were won't to do, then Taylor spoke up. "We're not sure, but we can probably find out later if you want."

I didn't even need to think about it. "I think I want to know what's wrong with the alien connected to my brain." Not something I ever thought I'd say, but I meant it.

Phoenix snorted though, making Taylor and I narrow our eyes at him. When he just grinned we shared a quick look before we simultaneously kicked him. When he just rolled his eyes I had to resist the urge to kick him again. "Anywaaay, that'll be for later. For now, questions? Concerns? Thoughts?"

I took in a breath at that, fighting the urge to close my eyes and rub my head, then nodded. "I think I need a drink."

While my boyfriend and girlfriend snorted at that, the only responsible adult in the entire mountain spoke up. "# On your 18th. #" Everything paused at that, everyone in the kitchen, minus Scylla, turning to look at Melody. The purple haired woman just raised a brow at us, acting like that was a perfectly normal res...- "# You think I'm going to deprive you all of the option of getting blackout drunk earlier then 21? On Earth Bet? Especially with all the shit you've all already been through? #"

...

...

...

"""Understandable/Sounds about right.""" The three of us shared a look at that, but none of us said anything about it.

It wasn't like anyone was wrong in this situation after all...

Because holy shit was all of this just making me consider alcoholism.

What was the worst that would happen? Liver failure?

I'd rather have that then a fucking alien in my brain.

[Phoenix's 3rd person POV]

After that whole thing ended we dropped by the Lab, grabbing the original Memory Translator, which we kept somewhere nearby considering its possible use in fixing the memory issues for Case 53's, and putting it on Amy. The thing not only scanned the brain, which is how I managed to get my music/anime/game/show/movie related memories uploaded for use, despite the fact this wasn't my original brain, but could also show images of the brain like an MRI... Which I'd copied, but refined so the magnetic field wouldn't fuck with anything in my Lab.

It was also the only mobile one we had since the ones built into the Vita Chambers were permanently part of them, and taking them out would fuck with the chambers.

Sudden fact aside, we scanned Amy's brain. The results were... Weird, to be honest. She still had both Coronas in her noggin, but they were weren't registering as growths or anything like that, despite the fact they clearly were. Brainstorm was of the belief that they 'Were most likely in the early stages of proper integration to Amelia's brain', but even after I spent another minute as the smartest crab in existence I had no idea what made him pull that outta his ass.

I mean, I didn't disagree, but I just didn't get where that came from.

My opinion didn't matter, but we were going to monitor Amy's brain for a bit, see what happened and all that.

But if it looked like something bad was going to happen then we were going to chuck her into a Vita Chamber and pump her full of Lazarus Serum.

Amy was ours, death would fuck off if it looked like it might come knocking.

That bit of drama over, we went on with our day... After I fixed the forest. I didn't notice it yesterday because of everything that happened, but our forest was missing a fuckton of trees, snow, and had a few potholes here and there. Those were all expected, but seeing the damage was a little Annoying.

Thankfully Sylvanus existed, making the repairs and improvements a simple thing... I may have also become a living God to the packs of raptor golems in the forest, which had ended up growing to the sizes of a school bus by the time I was done with fixing the forest, but that was neither here nor there.

It was after our run that another interruption took our attention.

Taylor's Dad woke up.

[Taylor's POV]

'Your Father's awake.'

That was all I needed to hear to start sprinting back home as fast as my legs could carry me. There weren't any bugs in my room, I didn't want my Dad to freak out by seeing a Killer Hornet or something, so I left the monitoring to Melody. I idly registered the faint traces of Amusement from my boyfriend, but didn't pay them much mind. I'd been doing my best to ignore how Weak I'd felt ever since he was taken, Shunting away my emotions and forcibly shutting off trains of thought that centered around my Dad and his disappearance. Running damage control with Uncle Kurt and Aunts Zoe and Lacey didn't help either.

But he was HERE now!

He was SAFE and away from anyone that could or would hurt him!

I barely registered the feeling of rug beneath my feet as I ran, bolting through the livingroom and making my way towards my room. I didn't trust for him to be anywhere else, even though I knew he was safe here. The Roost had the best shielding we could make at the moment, ignoring the Star Forge, and was basically a Thinker blackout zone.

Eventually I reached my room, nearly slamming into the door as I did. Thankfully for me the door opened before that happened, letting me into my room.

My eyes immediately honed in on my Dad, who turned to look at me since the door suddenly opened. Seeing him up made me so Happy that I had to physically stop my legs from shooting me forwards like some kind of missile.

Mentally bringing my body under control I smiled at him... And noticed that he was still staring at me. There was no smile, no spread arms or softening of the eyes... If anything he was guarded, eyes looking at me but... But not seeing me. (No.)

I could feel the sudden Alarm from my Other Half's side of the Bond, feel him dashing towards The Roost, but didn't focus on either of those sensations. My thoughts kicked into overdrive as time seemed to slow down as I started to process what was going on. My steadily growing intelligence and Power granted Multitasking working in tandem and bringing up trains of thought that were best labeled as 'Worst Case Scenario.' (Please no.)

I didn't get much more time to think before the silence, and somewhat awkward stare down, was broken by my Dad, who was still looking at me like he didn't know me. "Um, excuse me miss," My thoughts screeched to a halt at that, heart beating like a drum as a building Fear seeped into my mind as he spoke.

(Please don't say it. Please, I can't...) But of course, why would the world listen to me?

"But, where am I? And who are you?"

I didn't register when I staggered back as if I was hit.

Didn't notice when I practically collapsed onto the ground.

All I knew was my heart felt like someone was squeezing it, and the familiar presence of my Other Half as his arms wrapped around me.

[Phoenix's 3rd person POV]

As soon as I felt a sudden spike in Fear from my Other Half I put anime cracks in the ground and booked it. Realistically speaking there should've been no reason for Taylor to be Scared in our fucking mountain fortress, so the fact that she was had rung a bad bell in my mind. (I say bell, but in reality it's more like a fucking siren.)

I reached the mountain faster then she did since I was both closer to it then she had been before she ran, and because I had more bleed over then she did, so a quick 10m dash was nothing to me... Though I did have to apologize to Amy for leaving her behind. She got why after we told her, but it still happened.

That aside, I reached Taylor just in time to see her collapse, a sound like cracking glass echoing over the Bond being followed by a sense of Heartbreak. I didn't like any of this, but unfortunately I couldn't murder the source of all this, so I did the normal thing and brought my Other Half away from her room, and amnesiac Father. Though, that was something I found out after my Mother had talked to the guy, who was Confused about why Taylor had reacted that way to his question.

The conversation they had was a long one, though that was to be expected when a relative ends up bot recognizing their Daughter or anything else in their life. At some point it involved Amy, who'd chosen to take a look at him to see if there was anything she could do.

There wasn't, but the attempt was noted and Appreciated.

Well, I Appreciated it. Taylor on the other hand wasn't taking this well, which was expected. I was doing what I could to Comfort her, which involved stopping her from Shunting away too many emotions, she needed to process that it happened instead of going from Depression to Insurmountable Wrath at the sheer thought of Cauldron.

There would be a reckoning, no doubt about that, but until it was time for us to go beat their faces in I would do my best to distract her from the literal Illuminati. (Which is not something I'd ever thought I'd have to do before, but oh well.)

I didn't stop her from Shunting away some of her Pain, I wouldn't say no to that, but she needed to go through the motions so her mental health didn't take a dive or she became dependent on Shunting things away.

It was while I was working with her on that when Aunt Illiyana reminded us that the Memory Translator existed...

Which was fair considering I forgot about it, it really was a minor thing in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it was our 1st option to help Case 53's remember their pasts, and we'd used it earlier, but it wasn't a weapon or defensive piece of tech, so it slipped my mind. (God, Mom and Aunt Erin are never going to let me live that down.) I was thankful that Aunt Tess would be too nice bring that up, while Aunt Illiyana wasn't the teasing type,

Still, the mental whiplash I got when Taylor realized there might be a way to fix her Dad was fucking insane. And don't even get me started on the sheer amount of Hatred that burned through her side of the Bond when Cauldron had been mentioned later on in the day. Taylor may have been riding a high thanks to the chance of her Dad being okay, but if it didn't work I was 100000% sure she would be marching on DC to beat the shit out of Alexandria.

Thankfully for my mind the results of that particular endeavor turned out for the best...

Well, sort of the best.

As it turned out his memories were still there... Kinda. His memories were still stored in his brain, the translator could read them so that was a fact, but it was like his memories and consciousness worked on two different servers. With some work we'd be able to bring that 'Server' back up to where it was before he got wiped, especially because the current 'Server' didn't have much in the way of 'Data' at the moment, but it'd take a few days to safely bring his memories back to the fore.

So until that was done we were going to keep him in a Vita Chamber, the Sisters taking it up on themselves to keep track of how the whole thing went.

Her Father having a viable shot at recovery had Taylor feeling so fucking Hopeful that I was actually affected.

We ended up putting the schedule on hold, taking the day to just fuck around and Relax. Spending the time with my Daughter and girlfriends was great, especially when we ended up holing ourselves in my room, TV and anime being the name of the game for a good part of the day.

Though, I wasn't sure when exactly we ended up in a weird pile, Criminal Minds playing in the background as we laid with each other in bed.

But one point that I did know, we ended up pampering each other by having a little fun. We didn't go far, not even taking any of our clothes off, but by the end of it our brunette girlfriend had matching hickies on both sides of her neck, and looking like she'd seen God. Taylor was still all smiles, Proudly showing off the hickie I left at the the base of her throat, and the minor one Amy left on her collar. Mine were both on my collarbone, which was fine with me.

After that we just went back to chilling, eventually going to have lunch when the time came. Taylor had apparently decided today was going to be a cheat day and yoinked the double layered chocolate/red velvet cake I made, getting some of the Takoyaki I'd made as a side dish. That left me having to carry the drinks, but that was fine.

We gorged ourselves on good food, spent time with each other, which included Mom and Aunts Erin and Tess, the latter trio obviously wanted to make sure the three of us were fine after recent events, and just had a good time. Apparently Aunt Illiyana was keeping an eye on us too, but the woman was keeping to her Lab back at The Guild instead of coming over... Which was eh. I'd already labeled her as the 'Cares but doesn't want to show it' type, so that just made sense.

Family aside, Amy had gone to work in her garden for a bit, Taylor and I following along just because we could, and just watched as she did her thing. Garden time was the most Calming part of the day, the garden, as well as Amy, just had that effect on us. We listened to some chill music, mostly Beneath The Mask and other vibe worthy songs, and just Relaxed...

The fact that Scylla got to play with Black Rose Dragon and some of the Aromages was just a plus.

And that was how we spent the rest of the day, spending quality time with each other and just generally chilling.

Thankfully for my status as a somewhat adjusted sociopath, Taylor's Enthusiasm faded, my Other Half practically Exhausting herself like a child after a long day of playing. It made sense to me, she'd gone from two different extremes way too quickly to be healthy, so her crashing was expected.

Her crash signaled us ending the day early, the 4 of us heading to bed and calling it a day...

Then the next day came, and with it was Aunt Tess asking us to head to The Guild for something. She didn't tell us why she wanted us there, just gave us an Unohana smile... Which may or may not have made me twitch at how perfectly she'd done it.

Anyway, after the morning portion of our schedule was done, we eventually went off to The Guild...

Where we were introduced to prospective teammates?

[Omake - God? Phoenix's POV]

The forest always sang to me whenever I was Swampfire, but that was expected. They practically started an AOT level choir when I was Sylvanus, which was also expected considering I was basically plant Jesus in this form and was about to give them more then an insurmountable amount of fish and bread.

What was not expected was for me to get a dozen or so 'Barks' of 'Life giver/Green mountain/King nature' when I went ultimate. Naturally, I was real fucking Confused at the sudden calls, knowing that this shouldn't have happened.

Trees and other plants usually needed to be a certain age for them to speak in proper words, but these sources sounded young... Well, as young as a plant can get without basically being a seed or a sapling.

I was Curious though, having some idea at what these young things were, and looked towards their sources... Which was how I saw a pack of horse sized plant raptors running towards me. (... They really are dinosaurs.) I was pretty stocked at that, because dinosaurs, and watched them run towards me, eventually reaching me... Only to simultaneously sit down and stare up at me like puppies?

I stared at the dinos, who stared back at me, eyes big and filled with Awe. 'Life mountain/Green nature/King giver/Almighty!' That last one threw me for a fuckin loop, because what the fuck did that little shit just call me?!

...

...

...

(Is this a cult? Do I have a cult?) That... Those were VERY good questions.

When I later told my family/girlfriends about this they laughed... I wasn't entirely sure if it was solely at the premise of me having a cult or not.

I think I might start doing Omakes again. I miss them, and they give me an excuse to add random shit or more fluff at the end of my , that's all for now. Resume your waiting pleabians.