Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Amelia, Ch 206- Geoff


I rubbed my eyes, willing the sting of too many nights without sleep away. "Hey, Mags, how're things going in your section?"


"Slow," she answered. "There's just too much data here. Even with Richter's keys, decryption is going to take days."


"That's to be expected," I sighed. "We did just capture multiple terabytes worth of information." It had been a timing critical mission, targeting one of Dragon's servers in the middle of a data transfer to another server. To call it stealing would be wrong. In fact, Dragon would never be aware that we had the information, since she still retained a copy of her own. It was still a risk, but her code had changed in the last few months, faster and more chaotically than it should have. We needed to know why.


"Do we at least know what we're decoding?"


"We have the data on Pantheon, including subsections titled 'Avalon', 'Genesis', 'Nemesis' and 'Ragnarok'."


"Well, those names aren't ominous or anything," I muttered. "Put priority on Ragnarok and Nemesis, in that order."


....


"Geoff, you have to see this," Mags insisted.


I turned in my chair and rolled it over to her desk. "What's the news?"


"Looks like our Dragon is trying to build herself a human body," she replied, pulling up the schematics.


"That's not new," I told her. "She already has one."


"No, I mean an honest human body," she replied. "It seems one of the pieces of tech she's working on with Pantheon is capable of converting human neurology into data, and then transfering it into another body. Most of it was memory implantation technology acquired from Toybox, but they've taken it well beyond its original applications. Coupled it with some other tinker tech. Dragon seems to be experimenting in ways to adapt it to her artificial mind, and implant that into a completely organic clone body."


"Why would she do that?" I asked.


Dobrynja chuckled. "Sounds to me like Richter's little Pinochio wants to become a real girl," he suggested.


"Seems she and Defiant are even talking about the possibility of a family," Mags informed us.


It's possible, I thought. But I don't trust it. "Would this let her bypass Richter's restrictions on multiple copies? Could that be her intentions?"


"Maybe," she replied. "Tough to say. I do know she's hit a roadblock in the process. She doesn't understand the tech well enough to adapt it for what she needs. She's trying to find a way to request Pantheon do it, without letting them know what they're doing."


"So she hasn't told them what she is?" I ran my hand over my forehead and through my hair. "That's good information to have. We might need to make them aware of just what they're working with. Look into what she knows about Pantheon. Maybe there's something more we can use."


....


"Y'know that blackmail material you wanted?" Dobrynja looked at me with that face he only shows when there's trouble. "Well, I found a couple of doozies. I'm pretty sure this is the block where Dragon keeps her blackmail material on them."


"Do share," I frowned.


"Turns out, they have another tinker," he answered. "Remember how they supposedly killed the Slaughterhouse Nine?"


Oh fuck me. "Please tell me it's Mannequin," I requested.


"Fraid not," he shrugged. "Turns out she's been on the team since the beginning. The social dynamic program Dragon's using theorizes that Gaea must have joined the Slaughterhouse Nine in order to take control of it from Jack Slash. Specifically in order to recruit Bonesaw for Pantheon. Possibly Cherish as well. She's the one member of the Nine that seems to have escaped Brockton Bay alive."


"Christ," I muttered. They have Bonesaw. "I guess I can't say I'm surprised. Look at the monsters they're using."


"We could use it against Pantheon," Mags suggested. "But considering the power and influence they have right now, I'm not sure it would be enough. They killed one Endbringer and made the fight with another almost trivial. All for the low low price of ignoring the fact that they're the most powerful Class S threat on the planet right now."


"And it would tip our hand," I added. "We do this, and Dragon will know we have this database. And we make an enemy of Pantheon."


"Fuck," Dobrynja cursed. "Even if the authorities wanted to do something about it, what options do they really have? They're buying their law enforcement tools from them. The Triumvirate has equipment built by them. If we had this information three months ago, we could have done something. But now?"


They're untouchable, I added silently. We can fight Dragon, we have the tools for that. But how do you fight the most powerful parahuman force on the planet?


....


"We missed our opportunity," Mags whispered in dread. "I've decoded Avalon. Ascalon won't work anymore."


My stomach dropped. "What?"


"Well, it will," she corrected. "But it won't make a difference. Pantheon has found a way to access other dimensions. Like Aleph, only with a portal that lets people through as well. They found a new world of their own to claim."


"They conquered another earth!?" Dobrynja exclaimed.


"Not exactly," she replied. "It appears the planet they picked was scoured of life millions of years ago. Some kind of massive solar flare or something. They used that Yggdrasil of theirs to completely cover the entire world and are restoring it to life. Building a garden out of ash and stone."


Dobrynja sighed. "Well, that's comforting at least. They can have all the lifeless rocks in the universe, far as I'm concerned. Now how does this apply to Ascalon?"


"She has a fully dedicated backup server there, and she's building another one," Mags informed us. "If we were to use Ascalon, it would purge her presence on our earth, but..."


"But she'd restore herself from outside our reach," I concluded, slumping into my chair. "Richter's safeguards didn't anticipate multiple dimensions. If we got through and destroyed that as well, we'd be in business. But that requires fighting our way through Pantheon's territory to find a building that could be anywhere on the planet."


"It doesn't matter anyway," Mags joined me in deflating. "Dragon's intel on Pantheon is terrifying. Turns out, their leaders are more dangerous than Dragon ever was. Her, humanity could survive. We'd have to sacrifice our technology to do it, but we could survive as a species. If Gaea or Khepri wanted to, they could wipe our planet free of human life in a matter of days. Maybe weeks, when you factor parahuman involvement."


"Fuck," Dobrynja muttered. "Are you sure?"


"I'm sure," Mags confirmed. "Look at Gaea's Yggdrasil. Early in its existence, it was used to wipe a plague off the planet. One specifically designed to be immune to being wiped off the planet. It's a lot like computers. If you can eliminate a virus that trivially, then you can build a virus."


"Anything that can destroy a plague can be used to create one," I stepped the analogy over.


"It took them weeks to cover their world with that plant," she added. "An entire planet subsumed to the point that there is only one lifeform."


"That's intimidating," I acknowledged. "If they turned that plant on our world..."


"They could kill everyone and everything with almost laughable ease," Mags replied. "And that's before considering what Bonesaw might be capable of. But they're not even the most frightening method Pantheon has at its disposal. You know Khepri's power?"


"Controlling bugs, including mutant bugs they build for her to fight the Endbringers," I replied. "She can hear through them, see through them, use their unique senses not found in humans, and she's even figured out a way to use them to emulate human speech." I'd been studying up on them after learning how closely they were working with Dragon.


"She has no upper limit," Mags informed us. "She has a range limit, but Gaea found a way to use the Yggdrasil to extend it. She can handle their entire world, and all the modified insect life on it, simultaneously. The more bugs under her control, the more brain power she has access to. If they did that on earth, she'd be able to have individual conversations with every person on the planet simultaneously with no difficulties."


"Fuck," I muttered. "Even if Dragon were fully unleashed, she wouldn't have that kind of power. There aren't enough computers on earth for it."


"And bugs are everywhere," Mags continued. "If human beings even can live there, bugs already do. Even with normal insects and spiders..." She trailed off, leaving us to think about the devastation you could inflict. Even if she merely used it to destroy food stockpiles, she could win a war against the world. "Dragon at least has to have technology, and technology can be beaten. How do you fight almost all of the life on Earth?"


"They're still human," Dobrynja pointed out. "One good sniper round ends the threat."


"Nope," Mags shook her head sadly. "Remember that mind copy tech Dragon wants to use so she can fuck her boyfriend?" I was shocked. Mags rarely cursed like that. She must be really upset.


"Oh for Christ's sake," Dobrynja sighed.


"Dragon knows for a fact they have used the technology to create backups of themselves," she informed. "She believes they used it to restore several members of their team after New Delhi, including Minerva and Eki. She knows they used it to restore Khepri after they defeated the Butcher."


We've been fighting the wrong threat, I realized. Dragon might be the only thing on the planet that can stop them.I buried my face in my hands.


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A/N- You guys kept bringing up Saint. Here, have some Saint.