The strategy is to keep moving, stay active. Easier when working towards a goal. Sort out the tools, buy time, put distance between Scion. Increase the tempo, distract Scion. Access to Ash Beast, a force of nature in Matruh, Egypt. A roaming explosion of fire and smoke with a person at its center. Difficult to control, chaos trumps order with such power. A forcefield cape for connection, a portal within. A healthy young man at the center, a breaker-class adaptation, energy to matter. An expendable asset, to be discarded if he survives. * Trickster swaps Ash Beast through a portal. Shaping fire and flesh into wings and catlike legs. Ash Beast lunges, a comet towards Scion. Moving Alexandria, Legend, Moord Nag, and others out of Gimel. Breaking up groups, assigning roles. Decentralizing, a guerrilla army against Scion’s established force. Missing Contessa, Blasphemies, Sleeper. Difficulty in reaching certain names, the ones in the cabin. Boundaries set to protect others. Glaistig Uaine, Othala for flight. A distraction, a strike at Scion, driving him into the water. * The group in the settlement, Tattletale, Rachel, Imp, Panacea, left behind. Scion emerges, hit him, backing capes through the portal. Scion sidesteps, lashes out, a fraction of a beam strikes Scion. Doormaker staggers, the portal wiped out. Shapeshifter, an expendable asset, strides through with a tinker device. A fighting retreat, buying time. Defaulting to ideas over words. Simultaneous portals across a foreign Earth’s sky. Glaistig Uaine ducks back, the shapeshifter hits the button. Scion disappears from the mind’s eye, the shapeshifter locked in. * A speed bump, sacrificing lives, buying time. Bombs from two hundred Earths rain on Scion. Breaking up the Yàngbǎn, assigning Zero to a group. A Vietnamese cape, a simpler Lab Rat, dosing Lung and Menja. Legend and Number Man with ranged capes. Scion loses the scent, then finds it, targeting Glaistig Uaine. Ranged capes open fire, coordinated by Number Man. Scion screams, a human weakness. Decoys, heavy hitters, mixing it up. Scion’s rage, broad attacks, grazing capes. * Retaliation, light sears flesh, pain, stoicism. Scion’s clap, a stillness, capes drop. A jolt of electricity, nothing. Revoking control over Bonesaw. Scion tears into Alexandria, anger not fitting the attack. A feint, a critical blow. Telekinetics, munitions, raining explosives. Consolidating strength, capes gathering materials. Sifara, ‘Orbit’, for spatial relationships. Labyrinth and Scrub make paths, baiting Scion. Scion emerges, obliterating continents. Sifara rotates, capes pulled back, then forward. * Tinkers in one place, autopilot, building something. A pressure forming in every world. Moord Nag has a stroke, Scavenger dissipates. Stress, mental strain on capes. Masters, shakers, breakers struggle the most. Canary sings a lullaby. Panacea backs away from Moord Nag, shaking her head. Scion moves to clap, a shift, he flies into another world. Targeting her, no escape if he used his power to find and kill. Running, the tinker’s machine fails. Best guess, Scion’s well, unavailable. * Moving capes, masking the ‘scent’, case fifty-threes to mess with Scion’s senses. Glaistig Uaine, Eidolon shadow-puppet, a distraction. Scion closes in. Foil, Cuff, a razor blade in Scion’s path. Precogs, Dinah, a chill, banishing her. Sentiment? Succumbing to emotion? Losing balance. Scion appears, hand glowing. Imp speaks, Rachel drops to her knees, Tattletale gestures. Scion’s hand around her throat, oxygen deprivation. * A three-point plan: unite, trick Scion’s sight, target the weak point. The weak point unavailable. Tattletale speaks, Panacea responds. Foil raises her arbalest, bugs form a barrier. Scion’s expression changes, contempt, anger. He turns, hand glowing, towards the Undersiders. Close the portal. Scion steps between worlds, darkness sweeps over. Foil’s weapon blasted, she drops. Tattletale speaks, flippant. Panacea shakes her head. Dinah in a corner. * Scion targets Rachel. A barrage, every shot lined up, hits Scion. Rachel untouched, the others fine. Grip on the clairvoyant, pain. The barrage worked, something taken away. Foil, a rock, Ballistic, Scion evades. Future sight, a contingency. Retreat to an empty city, a bubble of empty space. Losing it, almost out of time. Tinkers, a weapon. Pairing up capes, making stuff. Vista, making it bigger. Chevalier shoots, Scion consumed by the sun. * The Endbringers arrive. The Simurgh, Leviathan, Bohu, Tohu. Humans win this, with their own strength. An army, Sifara for safety. Scion’s partner comes to life, a growth, a garden of body parts. A soft, familiar voice. A third entity? Scion’s rage gone, shock, bewilderment. Bastard, the wolf cub, grown, altered. Scion’s sorrow, shattering the land. Ziggurat creates a fissure, stopping the cracks. * Scion rampages, homing in on the weak point. Portals winking out, a blackout. Losing members of the swarm. Doormaker’s well, run dry.