-trajectory. agreement.-

[from_scratch]

"Hasn't everyone heard of Kithabel? I live in Africa, not under a rock," Cam tells Tattletale. "You, on the other hand, are new to me."

Comments

[from_scratch]

"Because my insects behave pretty normally."

[whole_new_can]

"Oh, that's interesting. If that works at all, it might be able to make the versions of capes without the limits safer."

[from_scratch]

"I mean, homemade passengers would be necessary to remove the restrictions anyway unless they're located in the cape. Lemme see if I can make one that isn't connected, to see if I'm the one doing that, or not... do you object to testing a Hatchet Face?"

[wormcan]

For once, Tattletale and Faultline agree. "Can you try something less inconvenient? A Crawler or a Nice Guy or something?"

[from_scratch]

"Crawlers are inconvenient to test. What's a Nice Guy?"

[whole_new_can]

"A stranger power. He'd always look unremarkable and harmless, and it couldn't occur to you to kill him. One of the Nine."

"And he had to turn his power on. Try again." To Cam, Tattletale says "just use an early stage Crawler, right after his trigger. He'll be immune to maybe one thing."

[from_scratch]

"And then if he does have his power? Do we just leave it lying in the rainforest forever becoming immune to starvation and ants and so on?"

[whole_new_can]

"Or get rid of it with something he's not immune to yet. Just has to be quick enough that there's no chance to adapt."

[from_scratch]

"Fine." Here's an early Crawler, disconnected.

[wormcan]

It looks like a perfectly ordinary guy named Ned, maybe a bit distorted where he recently regenerated from a mortal wound.

[from_scratch]

And if he receives a nonfatal amount of acid burn?

[wormcan]

The acid burns a normal amount. It's a bit of a macabre test.

[from_scratch]

Well, yes, but Cam wouldn't be doing this at all if he cared about the welfare of basement dwellers. "Looks like he's sans powers. So I can make four-dimensional objects, or - something."

[whole_new_can]

"Four would be understating it.
We still don't know if your creepy cape copies are connected to the original's passenger or if you've been making extra passengers left right and center. Can you try one of each, see if the powers come through?"

[from_scratch]

"Yeah." More Crawlers. More acid tests.

[wormcan]

Both Crawlers get burned, then regenerate. Further acid has no effect on either.

[from_scratch]

"So I don't know for sure how I've been doing it so far but it looks like I can do it either way."

[whole_new_can]

"Good to know. Shouldn't make much difference usually, but do it the second way when you copy anyone minus the power limits. One of the ways it can go wrong involves the passenger forcing its way through and taking over until the host dies. Maybe it needs to be smarter than a bug to do that and we don't have to take the risk."

[from_scratch]

"Forcing its way through? What does that do? Why does it do it?"

[whole_new_can]

"Well the host gradually loses their mind, but that's not a concern here. If the power involves physical changes those might get exaggerated. The end result is someone with a more dangerous than usual power attacking everyone, presumably with what's left of the person along for the ride. I couldn't tell you why, just that Cauldron stopped testing it because none of the subjects looked likely to last long enough to be useful against the Big Bad."

[from_scratch]

"Cauldron's records are consistent with what you've said, but you are random people who walked out of a portal in the middle of a rainforest to talk to me and know stuff that I certainly didn't tell you, so do you have any further reason for me to think that Kithabel wasn't a parahuman either or that she needs rescuing or that the entities are bad news in spite of how repulsive their principal opponent appears to have been? I assume if I go talk to ex-Cauldron people they'll be wiped of relevant memories. Which it looks like they had the technology for in-house, if not that precisely."

[whole_new_can]

"Being well informed is literally my superpower, give me some credit. Proof's easy. Make a scale model of the last planet they visited, then one of what it was like when they left."

[from_scratch]

"Huh, that's a really good idea." Little desktop size planet before and after picture...

[wormcan]

It's a planet. Rocky instead of gas, smaller oceans than Earth has. Nothing visible at this scale to mark it as obviously populated. But the after picture can't be created.

[from_scratch]

Cam tries the planet before that.