Interlude: Cauldron
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"So, 'DM'. Is that what you actually want to be called?"
"No. You may call me Doctor Mother."
"I'd ask questions about your education, but Tinkers in general have a bad habit of misusing academic titles."
"I am not a parahuman; I am simply the leading expert in the field of parahuman abilities."
"So, why exactly did you want to talk to us?"
"I lead the organization known as Cauldron. We are attempting to avert the extinction of humanity."
"Endbringers?"
"Worse. Scion."
"Doctor mother, we cannot work with you. Leave immediately."
"But-"
"Leave immediately, or we'll have security forcibly remove you from the premises. Get out."
As the audio recording came to an end, the present members of Cauldron's inner circle sat in thought for a moment. As it turned out, Alexandria was the first to speak.
"Their affect went flat once they started telling Doctor Mother to leave. They were deliberately suppressing any hint of emotion in their voice, but why?"
Doctor Mother shrugged,
"Fear, maybe? Though whether they're more scared of Scion or Cauldron, I couldn't say. The idea of it being fear is also just an educated guess, of course."
Then the Number Man spoke up,
"There was a pause of four hundred milliseconds after the mention of Scion, before the beginning of the dismissal. We already know that Reliabuilt uploads think considerably faster than baseline humans, so they were thinking something during that time. There was a chain of logic they followed that lead to this conclusion."
Doctor mother thought for a moment at that.
"Perhaps it has to do with Scion's public reputation? But someone who truly believed in Scion's heroism would be more likely to ask for proof."
Alexandria thought for a moment.
"Is there anything concrete in our informant's reports? Perhaps he's noticed something that would give us a hint as to what is going on."
Kurt dug out the pile of papers, and shuffled through them for a bit.
"All of the business Byung-Ho has been involved in fits the projected image Reliabuilt wants to send: a for-profit Tinkertech company with several charitable initiatives associated with it. However, he has logged two noteworthy anomalies. First, despite his hard work and loyalty, he is evidently not part of Reliabuilt's inner circle. There are parts of the factory complex he's not allowed to go in, even aside from Ruggedizer's living quarters. He has also been informed in no uncertain terms that the security measures on those areas are extremely lethal, and that he cannot expect to survive any attempt at unauthorized entry."
There was a brief pause, before Kurt continued.
"Second, Trainwreck was allowed into that extreme-security area exactly once, immediately after he uploaded. Trainwreck absolutely refuses to discuss what happened back there, and Byung-Ho has stopped prying to avoid attracting attention. He has also sighted Dragon and Armsmaster entering and exiting those extreme-security areas, though again, only after both of them revealed themselves as uploads. Though we know that's a lie in Dragon's case."
Alexandria blinked, as if suddenly understanding had dawned.
"That's it. We know that Reliabuilt-brained uploads are precog blindspots, as is Dragon after she learned their brainmaking techniques. We also know that Clairvoyant can't see what's going on in Reliabuilt's extreme-security areas. Their concern isn't about us specifically; they're just trying to kill the Simurgh, and can't risk anyone who's not a blindspot knowing what they're up to. It would also perfectly explain why Armsmaster requisitioned that specific piece of Endbringer tissue; they need it for weapons testing. In fact, I do believe that was the explicitly listed reason he wanted it, on the paperwork."
Doctor Mother thought for a moment,
"Should we have Byung-Ho get himself uploaded, to be allowed access to the extreme-security areas?"
Alexandria and Kurt shared a glance, before Kurt shook his head,
"No. Going by what happened with Trainwreck, Reliabuilt's inner circle are extremely cautious about letting people in on their secrets, and likely dug through Trainwreck's mind to make sure he couldn't leak anything. Byung-Ho doing that would either achieve nothing at best, or lose us our informant, at worst."
As for Alexandria, she had another objection.
"I for one think we shouldn't know what they're doing back there, at least not the specifics. It's plainly obvious that Reliabuilt's goal is to kill the Simurgh. They are blindspots, we are not. So the more we know about their plans, the more the Simurgh can read from us, and the better she can prepare against whatever attack they have planned."
"We can revisit the topic of Reliabuilt's secrecy if by some miracle they actually do kill the Simurgh, and then still insist on the extreme level of information security."
"No. You may call me Doctor Mother."
"I'd ask questions about your education, but Tinkers in general have a bad habit of misusing academic titles."
"I am not a parahuman; I am simply the leading expert in the field of parahuman abilities."
"So, why exactly did you want to talk to us?"
"I lead the organization known as Cauldron. We are attempting to avert the extinction of humanity."
"Endbringers?"
"Worse. Scion."
"Doctor mother, we cannot work with you. Leave immediately."
"But-"
"Leave immediately, or we'll have security forcibly remove you from the premises. Get out."
As the audio recording came to an end, the present members of Cauldron's inner circle sat in thought for a moment. As it turned out, Alexandria was the first to speak.
"Their affect went flat once they started telling Doctor Mother to leave. They were deliberately suppressing any hint of emotion in their voice, but why?"
Doctor Mother shrugged,
"Fear, maybe? Though whether they're more scared of Scion or Cauldron, I couldn't say. The idea of it being fear is also just an educated guess, of course."
Then the Number Man spoke up,
"There was a pause of four hundred milliseconds after the mention of Scion, before the beginning of the dismissal. We already know that Reliabuilt uploads think considerably faster than baseline humans, so they were thinking something during that time. There was a chain of logic they followed that lead to this conclusion."
Doctor mother thought for a moment at that.
"Perhaps it has to do with Scion's public reputation? But someone who truly believed in Scion's heroism would be more likely to ask for proof."
Alexandria thought for a moment.
"Is there anything concrete in our informant's reports? Perhaps he's noticed something that would give us a hint as to what is going on."
Kurt dug out the pile of papers, and shuffled through them for a bit.
"All of the business Byung-Ho has been involved in fits the projected image Reliabuilt wants to send: a for-profit Tinkertech company with several charitable initiatives associated with it. However, he has logged two noteworthy anomalies. First, despite his hard work and loyalty, he is evidently not part of Reliabuilt's inner circle. There are parts of the factory complex he's not allowed to go in, even aside from Ruggedizer's living quarters. He has also been informed in no uncertain terms that the security measures on those areas are extremely lethal, and that he cannot expect to survive any attempt at unauthorized entry."
There was a brief pause, before Kurt continued.
"Second, Trainwreck was allowed into that extreme-security area exactly once, immediately after he uploaded. Trainwreck absolutely refuses to discuss what happened back there, and Byung-Ho has stopped prying to avoid attracting attention. He has also sighted Dragon and Armsmaster entering and exiting those extreme-security areas, though again, only after both of them revealed themselves as uploads. Though we know that's a lie in Dragon's case."
Alexandria blinked, as if suddenly understanding had dawned.
"That's it. We know that Reliabuilt-brained uploads are precog blindspots, as is Dragon after she learned their brainmaking techniques. We also know that Clairvoyant can't see what's going on in Reliabuilt's extreme-security areas. Their concern isn't about us specifically; they're just trying to kill the Simurgh, and can't risk anyone who's not a blindspot knowing what they're up to. It would also perfectly explain why Armsmaster requisitioned that specific piece of Endbringer tissue; they need it for weapons testing. In fact, I do believe that was the explicitly listed reason he wanted it, on the paperwork."
Doctor Mother thought for a moment,
"Should we have Byung-Ho get himself uploaded, to be allowed access to the extreme-security areas?"
Alexandria and Kurt shared a glance, before Kurt shook his head,
"No. Going by what happened with Trainwreck, Reliabuilt's inner circle are extremely cautious about letting people in on their secrets, and likely dug through Trainwreck's mind to make sure he couldn't leak anything. Byung-Ho doing that would either achieve nothing at best, or lose us our informant, at worst."
As for Alexandria, she had another objection.
"I for one think we shouldn't know what they're doing back there, at least not the specifics. It's plainly obvious that Reliabuilt's goal is to kill the Simurgh. They are blindspots, we are not. So the more we know about their plans, the more the Simurgh can read from us, and the better she can prepare against whatever attack they have planned."
"We can revisit the topic of Reliabuilt's secrecy if by some miracle they actually do kill the Simurgh, and then still insist on the extreme level of information security."
Ziz boiled his brains good if THIS is his solution. Ruggerdizer should pretend that all is good and upload his tophat ass into dildo or something.