"I don't know." I told them, truthfully.

A mutter went around the room, and everyone stared at my remote. For the briefest moment I was annoyed. They expect me to know and do so much. A brief instant of contemplation, and I forgave them for annoying me. They expect me to know and do so much because I actually can do almost as much as what they expect of me.

While the humans around me took their time being confused, I checked on the birdcage, verified the Simurgh's location, and updated my Endbringer emergence calculations.

Almost two seconds had passed since the muttering had started before Director Piggot spoke. "Dragon, please show the activities at normal speed. I'd like to see that at the rate it actually happened."

A brief hiccup of broken logic threatened my thought processes for a fraction of a second, and then I realized that Director Piggot probably hadn't noticed the 1:1 ratio timestamp at the top right of the screen. I examined my sensory data and verified that her eyes had not ticked up and to the right during the thirty-minute satellite video that I had enhanced with data from the S9 YouTube video and other imagery taken from the public video data of the deceased.

Half a second later, I responded. "Director Piggot, that satellite imagery was in real-time."

She stared at me, for a moment, as if she were trying to intimidate me into telling the truth, then shook her head, muttering to herself. I heard what she was muttering, but chose not to take offense, based on her obvious fear and personal history with a similar Master.

"How accurate is the data?" Another voice. Director Costa-Brown this time.

I was pleased to receive a meaningful question. "As requested by the PRT, I enhanced the satellite imagery with the S9 YouTube video and other data in order to allow clarity sufficient for reasonably accurate risk assessment. Three smartphones belonging to deceased victims had been recording and uploading to the cloud at the time of the attack, and for up to twenty minutes afterward before they dropped offline. That data was also provided to me by the PRT. I can provide the raw data and processes I used for the enhancement, if you like, but I assure you that it is sufficiently accurate for basic risk assessment."

Director Piggot spoke again. "But you say you don't know how dangerous she is, even after you spoke to her."

"I don't know how dangerous she is. I don't know the limits of her power. I don't know how sane she is. If I told you otherwise, I would be lying. I will play the video again in slow motion, one quarter speed if you like."

"Please do." Director Piggot replied.

I directed almost all of my processing power towards useful activities as I began playing back the enhanced recording again.

"Pause, please." Director Costa-Brown requested.

I paused, and the director requested a reverse of two seconds.

"Crawler said he ripped the arm off one of the constructs, and it started using the arm as a weapon. It matches the imagery, but is there real data other than his statement to verify it?"

"Yes, Director. One of the smartphones of the deceased was at an angle that allowed it to see a one-armed construct running towards Crawler, waving its arm over its head with the other arm, like a club." I showed the relevant video snippet on screen.

There was a mutter from the participants of the meeting. I heard a lot of different comments that seemed to indicate people were equating her with Nilbog. That was expected, but unfounded. Not entirely out of the question, but not certain either.

I needed to defuse the fear a bit, redirect the emotions. "I would like to point out the extreme mental stress Overseer was under at the time of her trigger. You can see here that Bonesaw and Jack Slash were taunting her with the corpse of her sister. She had already, apparently, mentally collapsed once before that, and Jack Slash brought her a little out of that fugue state just to prod at her again."

An angry mutter of agreement went around the room, anger at the S9, which was what I had been trying to generate. I wanted to give Overseer at least the benefit of the doubt.

Director Armstrong spoke up. "She threatened to kill the response team if you brought her parents to her though, wouldn't a person so badly broken by what the S9 did to her want comfort desperately enough to take a risk to get it?"

"No. Not necessarily." This time it was Legend speaking. "Think about it. The PRT were telling her that they were bringing her parents to her, and we heard Jack Slash say he was coming back. She's clearly unstable and obviously in great mental pain, but she was situationally aware enough to recognize that the PRT were indirectly threatening the lives of her parents. I can't say that my reaction would have been a great deal different. I would like to think I wouldn't have threatened to kill people if I had been in her situation, but I'm not so sure I wouldn't. Threaten someone's loved ones, even indirectly, and you can start to see the animal come out. Especially after severe mental trauma."

Unwilling to give up, Director Armstrong tried again. "She refused help though. We could have sent people in to help her. Not just mentally, but maybe even people and equipment. An opportunity to help defeat the S9? I think we could make a good case for helping her. But not after those threats. Not with the displays of irrationality."

"People she could trust? People who had just indirectly threatened her parents? Masters usually trigger in situations where they have no control, and their powers provide a way to let them have control. You expect her to just give it away again?" Legend replied, archly.

Director Armstrong didn't respond. There was more thoughtful murmuring.

Director Piggot spoke up next. "I would like to make sure that people note that Crawler didn't manage to kill any of the constructs. Crawler. Several of the constructs were struck by him hard enough to fly fifty feet or more through the air and literally dig trenches in the ground, but they got back up and kept fighting. One of them attacked Siberian. Head on, and survived. Siberian kicked the axe out of that one's hand and the axe did not break. I have never seen video of Siberian hitting anything and it not breaking." She was sweating. "I'm sorry. I must excuse myself."

Director Costa-Brown reached up and touched her temple with one hand, frowning.

I could easily tell that Director Piggot was fully in control of what she was doing. She was highly stressed, but her actions were calculated. They always were. Few humans had the sheer willpower of Emily Piggot. Commendable at times, maddening more often. Everyone in the room knew about what had happened to her during the Nilbog fiasco, and she was playing it for all it was worth. She wanted to quarantine Overseer like Nilbog had been quarantined.

As Director Piggot left the room, she was watched closely, silently by almost everyone. I was glad to note that most of them had signs of cynicism mixed in with signs of concerns. Her ploy had been recognized by most present. The people in this room played 'the game' at high levels of wordplay and meaning. Still, she had still made a very potent comment. Individually, Overseer's constructs were far tougher and more capable than a lot of low tier capes.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Piggot had brought an expert on bunker fortifications with her as a consultant, Thomas Calvert. He wasn't the only consultant in the room, but his company specialized in Endbringer bunker systems. Nothing would keep an Endbringer out of a bunker, but bunkers could save people from side-effects. Sometimes. His company's bunkers had saved millions of lives. He stood and spoke after the door closed. "I normally would not speak, but I was one of the two PRT survivors of the Nilbog incident." He nodded at the door, as if anyone would forget that the other had just walked out. "Despite that, I would like to point out something else. Forty-three coffins were carried from underground, and the remains from every victim were put in those coffins. Extremely realistic images of what each victim would have looked like when alive and resting peacefully in sleep were carved into the top of each coffin, as shown in the images collected by the response team. We didn't retrieve the coffins or remains, yet, but every image matched someone who was there, based on Dragon's analysis of records. Whatever else, Overseer respects the dead. That says a lot to me."

After several seconds in which a lot of people looked long and hard at Calvert, there was more muttering and then sounds of agreement. I was confident that Director Piggot would certainly need her blood pressure medicine when she reviewed the meeting minutes. I set an alarm on the meeting files to alert me when she viewed them, so I could monitor her health.

After the muttering reduced in volume slightly, Calvert started speaking again. "Overseer has huge potential. She hasn't done anything yet to make her an enemy, only made threats which I could imagine coming from anyone who had been pushed that hard." He looked around before seating himself, judging the reactions of others, and seemed satisfied.

Director Costa-Brown seemed to be in agreement with Calvert, nodding before she stood. "Also note how quickly the work was performed. At one point there were eighty constructs on the surface. The coffins were brought out, the corpses sorted, the images carved, in eleven minutes." She paused, and looked at the others. "While the victims were being provided with personalized coffins, and for the next nine minutes after that, thirty acres of mixed pine and hardwood forest were cut, leaving only immature trees. Twenty-seven vehicles were carried underground, including a park services water truck. That water truck would have weighed roughly twelve thousand pounds without water in it. The construct that retrieved that truck did not drag it. It picked up the truck and carried it. Slowly, but it carried it. All of the cut trees were hauled underground within minutes. Overseer and her constructs not only have great potential for ground troops, but they work very, very fast. I'd like to get that on our side if possible."

Legend nodded. "Cleaning up after Endbringer attacks with a Master cape like Overseer would be incredible, even if all they are good for is demolition."

He had provided a perfect time for me to bring out my strongest argument. "I have five pieces of evidence that I have been waiting to display, for an appropriate time." I began.

That got everyone's attention on me again, so I continued, first displaying a close-up image of the one-handed construct in light blue armor, pointing at the axe with my laser pointer. "This is Urist, apparently a bodyguard of sorts. Urist is the construct that attacked Siberian. The axe he is carrying is undamaged. The blade is made of a material I do not recognize."

There was muttering around the world as it sunk in what it meant that Dragon did not recognize a material.

"Now, next," I continued, "is this strange series of kiosks and booths. It looks in many ways to be much like a series of stalls at a flea market. However, it is made entirely of obsidian, cut to tolerances that are frankly incredible. Obsidian is not a material I use frequently, but I know I would need some study time to duplicate this simple structure."

More muttering. Time to set the hook, as a human fisherman might say. "Lastly, because it certainly crossed my mind that she might have a shaker power like Labyrinth, to allow her to create physical items that were not strictly 'real', I analyzed these when they were handed to me, and asked Armsmaster to do the same to verify behind me. They are real." I opened the carrying case on the table beside me and beckoned for an assistant, directing them to take them to each participant for viewing.

"If you choose to remove the instruments from their padding, please do so carefully. They are appraised at between one point six and four point three million dollars each. They are in perfect tune. I would have difficulty matching this construction without a great deal of study. They are not tinker tech, they are three of the finest, most richly decorated flutes on the planet. If you can play the flute, feel free to do so, if you like. There are disinfectant swabs inside the case as well."

As the flutes made the rounds, only Legend picked one up reverently, and played it, a quick little jig, only a few notes. He used the disinfectant and placed instrument back into its padding carefully.

After the flutes were presented for viewing to all the directors and the triumvirate, I concluded my statements. "I said before that I did not know if Overseer was dangerous enough to try to quarantine or kill. I stand behind that statement. She is clearly unstable at the moment. I am also strongly of the opinion that she is too potentially valuable to risk making an enemy of her." I paused. "I am fairly certain that the S9 will end up killing her, or she will kill herself trying to kill them. That is highly unfortunate, however, it is conceivable that she might drive them off; you have all seen what her constructs can do, and the S9 have rarely ever engaged in underground operations. Overseer seems quite at home there."

Director Costa-Brown requested a vote, and it was decided that no actions would take place until after satellite data showed that the S9 had entered and left Overseer's facility, or two days had passed. There was talk of sending help whether Overseer wanted it or not, because an opportunity to take the fight to the S9 was a rare thing, but it was decided that in her state of mind, Overseer couldn't properly recognize allies, and might turn on anyone.

After the vote, Eidolon, who had said nothing during the entire meeting, came up to me and quietly asked. "How deep will they have to dig to reach magma under the park?"