Editing Teacher (section)

===[[Gold Morning]]===
Teacher, together with some of his fellow prisoners, is released from the Birdcage during [[Scion]]'s rampage.<ref name="describ"/> Unfortunately, Teacher, with a group of twenty to thirty other men,<ref name="28.1 eGroup">I glanced at the image, but I didn’t see anything out of place. People in the crowd, tired, worn out. A middle-aged man with a group of male teenagers and other men aged twenty to thirty.<br><br>“I don’t see it,” I said.<br><br>“You will,” she said. She resumed the video.<br><br>I watched the man she’d pointed out. Familiar, but not overwhelmingly so. Nobody I knew.<br><br>The crowd flowed through the portal as a mass. Up until the man I was watching stopped, turning around. The men and boys from the group around him did too. They became obstacles, standing against the stream of bodies. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/cockroaches-28-1/ Excerpt] from [[Cockroaches 28.1]]</ref> pretends<ref name="dragon_capture"/> to take control of a well-supplied alternate earth while using an unidentified device to block access to others.<ref name="refresher">“He betrayed us?” I asked.<br><br>“No idea. Maybe he wanted a safe place to work on a trump card with zero distractions. Going by his modus operandi, though, yeah, I think he betrayed us. Not a big betrayal, but that’s one world where we moved a hell of a lot of supplies in”<br><br>I nodded, pursing my lips.<br><br>“Saint’s upset, to put it mildly. We ran the data. Apparently he crossed paths with Teacher at some point a few months before Teacher’s incarceration. There have been almost no cases where Teacher’s power lasted more than a few days without a refresher, and the brainwashing wears off over a few weeks or months, so yeah. It’s not that.”<br><br>“Saint wants something from Teacher? A power?”<br><br>“Probably. Anyways, Teacher had a few of those devices made. Four portals in all that particular interest groups claimed and locked down, using these switches, wanting worlds all to themselves. No major players in the bunch, no sign of any greater conspiracy. Defiant was all too happy to bring Saint into custody, and we’re kind of hoping to get a response out of the man. That’s problem number one.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/cockroaches-28-1/ Excerpt] from [[Cockroaches 28.1]]</ref> In fact, he is using this as a cover to take control of [[Dragon]],<ref name="dragon_capture">Defiant turned to give Tattletale a curious look. “Lie?”<br><br>“That he waltzed into another Earth and locked himself in. He never left. Or he left and then he walked right back out the second he could make a gate. Probably the former. Easier to do a hologram or dress up a minion to look like him than it is to make a door between universes.”<br><br>“Where is he, then?” Defiant asked.<br><br>Tattletale stretched, then took a seat on the edge of the desk. “What, or who, were we just arguing about? Quite possibly the most dangerous piece of technology we know about?”<br><br>Defiant went still. His head lowered until he was staring at the laptop.<br><br>“We established that Saint is nothing special. What Teacher gave him, he can give to someone else. Or ten someone elses.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/cockroaches-28-2/ Excerpt] from [[Cockroaches 28.2]]</ref> although the device blocking transdimensional effects is not a fake, a fact Teacher uses to hide himself.<ref>“What if we used the Number Man?” I suggested.<br><br>“Possible,” Tattletale said.<br><br>“Yes,” Saint said. “It’s possible. But so is Teacher deciphering it with a cabal of his custom-made thinkers.”<br><br>“''Shit'',” Tattletale said. “Narwhal? May I?”<br><br>“Do it.”<br><br>“Door me,” Tattletale said. “I need to talk to Number.”<br><br>There was a pause, and then a portal opened.<br><br>It wasn’t the Number Man who stepped out, but Defiant.<br><br>“They took it. Not all of Dragon, but enough. The rest is stored on satellite backups.”<br><br>“Door?” Tattletale tried. “Take us to Teacher?”<br><br>Nothing.<br><br>“Blocked,” I said. “That part wasn’t a fake.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/cockroaches-28-2/ Excerpt] from [[Cockroaches 28.2]]</ref> Later, copies of the device are seen in the hands of [[the Yàngbǎn]].<ref>I, in turn, opened another portal, handing one tinker device to Shén Yù before hurrying on, leading the rest through. Portals blocked the drone’s ranged fire.<br><br>The Yàngbǎn’s strategist used Teacher’s device, and all the doors in his vicinity slammed shut.<br><br>Dragon’s path to me was shut. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/speck-30-4/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.4]]</ref>

Teacher's students later take control of [[Khonsu]], whose control Teacher gives to [[Cauldron]],<ref>“You will not be taking charge of ''all'' of the Endbringers,” the Doctor said. “Teacher emerged with a small force at his disposal. He defeated the Protectorate squads that were deployed at one empty location…”<br><br>“The place Khonsu or Tohu were supposed to appear,” Tattletale said.<br><br>“Quite. It was Khonsu. The Endbringer has imprinted on Teacher’s group, and he has offered to sell that squad, along with the Endbringer, to a sufficiently wealthy buyer. We agreed, if only to keep this from becoming a ''monopoly'' on Endbringers.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/cockroaches-28-5/ Excerpt] from [[Cockroaches 28.5]]</ref> together with two of his thralls, Screen and Scanner, who assist [[Doctor Mother]]'s use of [[the Clairvoyant]].<ref name="screen_scan"/> In return, Teacher receives a partnership in Cauldron, as well as protection against his enemies.<ref name="screen_scan"/>

Teacher returns Dragon to [[Defiant]],<ref>Dragon’s body, in turn, was cobbled together from scrap metal. Truck parts, car parts, some rusted. Her head hung low. A dragon, but not a noble one.<br><br>“Oh my god,” Canary said, her voice a hush.<br><br>“You’re a bastard, Teacher,” Defiant said.<br><br>“You’d be surprised,” Teacher responded. “Saint. Hello. I honestly didn’t expect you to be here.”<br><br>Saint didn’t reply.<br><br>“Dragon, you’re free. Essentially,” Teacher said. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/interlude-28/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 28]]</ref> although he places extra restrictions on Dragon before doing so.<ref>“Are you going to ask?” Teacher finally spoke.<br><br>“What did you do to her?”<br><br>“I revived her, for one thing. Not the easiest thing in the world to do with the amount of encryption we were talking about. I don’t know if I said, dear Dragon, but I do think your creator did love you in the end. He could have made it harder to break. I think he did want you free in the end.”<br><br>Defiant looked down at Dragon’s head, then clenched his fists.<br><br>“Ironic,” Teacher said.<br><br>“I would like you…” Defiant said, pausing as if to compose himself, “…to please tell me what you did.”<br><br>“Nothing. Nothing important, anyways. I imposed a restriction. Nothing more.”<br><br>“''What'' restriction?”<br><br>“Only that she wouldn’t attack me, or condone attacks against me.”<br><br>Defiant didn’t move an inch, not even seeming to breathe.<br><br>“Or anyone I designate, if it comes down to it.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/interlude-28/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 28]]</ref> During the battle against Scion in [[Brockton Bay]], one of Teacher's minions distorts the memory of a [[trigger event]] vision so it can't fade.<ref>I opened my eyes, and I saw the scene from the vision. Scion standing in the middle of the settlement, blood and brains dripping from his hand.<br><br>The two words continued, as if in the background, distorted as I turned my head.<br><br>It was one of the capes that had arrived with Crane. He was doing it, distorting the memory.<br><br>Making it so the memory wouldn’t fade.<br><br>''Let me forget,'' I thought. ''I don’t want to know this. Let me be ignorant, fight to the end.''<br>[...]<br>“Teacher asked me to bring him,” she said. “''That'' is not one of mine.”<br><br>''Teacher.''<br><br>So many plays. So many big players.<br><br>I felt a welling anger, frustration, a note of hopelessness I hadn’t felt before. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/venom-29-2/ Excerpt] from [[Venom 29.2]]</ref> Although Teacher's goal in doing this is unknown, it does later help in the defeat of Scion.<ref>The plan had been simple. Thanks to Teacher’s underling, I’d been able to retain my memory of the trigger event. Scion had censored the most pertinent details, but he’d left one vital weak point in the midst of it.<br><br>He’d analyzed us as a species. He’d seen how we functioned, the strategies we could employ, and he’d set himself on a path.<br><br>But that path, I was almost certain, was predicated on the idea that we couldn’t work together, that we couldn’t bring our full strength to bear. We were too chaotic a species.<br><br>He’d made one mistake I knew of, he had predicted a future where he would meet his partner and then pursued that future, only to meet the brain-dead version that was in Cauldron’s base. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/speck-30-5/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.5]]</ref>

[[Khepri]] pays a visit to Teacher, who is in an alternate version of [[Washington]].<ref>I took hold of Doormaker’s hand, and I moved it to my belt, hooking his fingers through it. Then I used my hand to take hold of the clairvoyant’s.<br><br>My awareness started to unfold. A slow, steady, gradual process. I was aware of vast tracts of land. I could see the damage done to Earth Bet. It disoriented me, to see how we were in Washington, not New York. Teacher had returned home. Why had I thought we were in New York? - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/speck-30-3/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.3]]</ref> She asks for a way to access the Earth where the Yàngbǎn are hiding, and Teacher gives it to her.<ref>“Ah… you guessed?”<br><br>I nodded, once.<br><br>“Understand, it wasn’t spiteful on my part,” Teacher said. He lapsed into the other language for one moment, “…I gave them the switch in the hopes it would stop the incursions and curb honestly. They were supposed to lock themselves away, but they held on to it, apparently intending to use it if anyone retaliated. An ingress, a portcullis, if you will. A way to raise the drawbridge and prevent passage into their castle.”<br><br>At my order, some of his students gestured with their guns, prompting him.<br><br>He seemed to take the threat in stride. “The one with a white button.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/speck-30-3/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.3]]</ref> As Khepri goes after the Yàngbǎn, Teacher warns the other heroes, including [[the Protectorate]] and [[Guild]] of her actions,<ref>More doors opened, and more of the ones I’d collected continued to appear.<br><br>Teacher was making his way into Cauldron’s base, walking past the heroes at the doorway like he belonged there. He was talking into his phone, mocked up to be like a PRT-issue phone, and the communication was going to every major member of the Protectorate and Guild.<br><br>Contessa, for her part, was waking up. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/speck-30-4/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.4]]</ref><ref>Teacher was talking, and they were responding.<br><br>He was warning them about the ''threat''.<br><br>I could see people throughout the crowd. Protectorate members, team leaders of the Wards. They were tense. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/speck-30-4/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.4]]</ref> at the same time, he talks to Contessa, taking control of some of Cauldron's contingency plans and asking for Contessa's aid in dealing with Khepri.<ref name="recruit_contessa">A cape in wizard attire spoke up, “The Doctor is dead, I believe?”<br><br>Contessa nodded. Odd, that she couldn’t bring herself to feel badly about it. Was it because she’d spent so long trying to achieve something and she’d failed, or was it because she’d lost respect for the Doctor like she’d lost respect for herself?<br><br>If she were an outside party, she was forced to admit, any outside party, she wasn’t convinced she would be able to be upset over her own death.<br><br>“We need your help,” the wizard said.<br><br>She nodded. “Whatever I can provide.”<br><br>“First, we need information.”<br><br>“Yes.”<br><br>“Were there any other plans Cauldron had in the works?” he asked.<br><br>“Nothing substantial. I can show you the tertiary plans.”<br><br>“Please do. Did Cauldron have plans for if humanity failed?”<br><br>“Of course.”<br><br>“We’ll need to see those as well.”<br><br>[...]<br><br>“Something this big, it has to carry on somehow. I’ll need a second in command.”<br><br>“Me?” she asked. Her eye moved to the man in the horned helmet.<br><br>“He’s his own man. A wild card.”<br><br>“I see,” she said. More kids in white were streaming from the room.<br><br>“Trickster, stop. You’re with me. We might need help navigating some of the trickier areas, if the damage to this place is extensive enough.”<br><br>One boy stopped where he was, stopping beside Teacher, a dull and unfocused look in his eyes.<br><br>Teacher turned his attention to Contessa, “Whatever happens in the next few hours, we need to be there to pick up the pieces. That was a factor in Cauldron’s plan, wasn’t it?”<br><br>“I don’t have much of a role,” Contessa said. “I can’t do anything when Scion’s on the table.”<br><br>“To the contrary,” Teacher said. “We very much need your help, or we ''might''.”<br><br>She narrowed her eyes. “With?”<br><br>“Saving us from ourselves,” he said. “Case in point, we’ve got a crisis that involves one little lady I think you’re familiar with.”<br><br>He held up his phone. A picture was displayed.<br><br>It took her a moment to recognize the person in the picture, and not because it was an unfamiliar face.<br><br>“''Weaver''?” she asked. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/interlude-29/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 29]]</ref> He is seen during the final battle, giving the ability to speak to [[Doormaker]].<ref>I could see my blonde friend with the portal man, talking to people. Talking to… what was his name? The one who gave thinker powers. ''Teacher''.<br><br>He’d given the portal man the ability to talk.<br><br>A power I was afraid of taking for myself. Because I couldn’t lose even an iota of willpower if I was going to make it through this. Because I couldn’t fall into his grasp. Because I was afraid of finding out that even ''he'' couldn’t help me. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/speck-30-6/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.6]]</ref> After the defeat of Scion, Teacher offers the same use of his power to the drained Khepri, but she violently refuses.<ref name="final_offer">He sent one of his underlings into my reach. A boy with a shaved head and thick eyebrows.<br><br>I felt the underling’s body and powers unfold before me, and I could tell right away that there was something wrong.<br><br>My eyes told me one thing, my power told me another.<br><br>My eyes told me the man was just beyond the reach of my power, the boy following his orders.<br><br>My ''power'' told me that whatever the boy looked like, he was a half-foot taller, he had a beard, and he was loaded down with trinkets and tidbits. I recognized him by his power. He made thinkers and tinkers, granted powers.<br><br>He had three more, hanging back, watching. No doubt to help facilitate this ruse, whatever it was. To watch for people who could see through it, to watch his back.<br><br>He was putting himself in my power. Whatever he’d had his other self, his disguised underling or his clone say, he was making his offer plain and clear to me. He’d let me use his power on myself.<br><br>A chance to communicate, to fix something.<br><br>I sensed my bugs moving, shifting position without even moving a limb or wing. Before I even grasped what was happening, I was moving. I cut out with my knife, feeling like I was swinging madly into open air. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/30-7/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.7]]</ref>