章節 98: 10
Amelia, Ch 7
"What?" Yeah, there's my patented wit in all its glory. Although, in my defense, I was violating life as the planet earth knew it right now. It was distracting.
"The so-called fucking 'heroes'. We had to go after the Nine by ourselves. We captured two of their members and the Protectorate still wouldn't help us! We found their hideout. Rescued people that they would have left to fucking die. And even after all of that..."
I just listened. I was impressed by her multitasking. The next line of insects had started their chewing while she was speaking.
"Their trap for Crawler... they were happy to just let us come in and fight. Didn't warn us about the bombs. Didn't try to help us even though we risked our lives by fighting to help them. Time and time again. While they did fucking nothing."
I finally spoke up. "They lost people, too, in that fight."
"I know. I saw the statues. The second bomb. That's their little 'fuck you' to themselves. If they hadn't firebombed us... they'd have had Bitch's dogs to keep Crawler from attacking people. And Trickster's teleportation to get the wounded to safety. The fuckers couldn't even betray us intelligently. They had to do it at the time they needed our help the absolute most."
In my cocoon, I dug my fingernails into my palms. It... they... no. I calmed myself by breathing slowly and adding the next layer of relays. Skitter's range was well over a two mile wide circle at this point.
"You'll forgive me if I take that with a grain of salt," my dummy responded. It couldn't inflect emotion of any sort, of course. It was flat, a tool meant to emulate speech. Not something that could actually speak.
"Fine," Skitter agreed. "But it's still the fucking truth. They betrayed us during a Class S truce. And they'll betray you, too, if they think you're doing their job better than they can."
She... I didn't necessarily believe her. But I didn't not believe her. As cynical as I'd become, I'd like to think my experiences have taught me to recognize the very few who were being sincere. Besides, she didn't need to convince me that the Protectorate would be coming after me. I had crossed far too many lines to turn back now. At best, they'd put me in a cell somewhere after installing a bomb in my brain like Bakuda. They'd already shown how much they loved her ideas, after all.
That or they'd toss me in the Birdcage. I ran down what I'd already revealed. Striker? Probably go up a couple levels, now that they knew how completely I could rewrite organics. Master? Oh, at least a four for my dopplegangers... and if they ever realized what I'd done to Victoria... fuck, what did they rank Heartbreaker as? Or Nilbog for that matter? I could do everything they did, but better. Probably get a Trump rating from this thing I was doing with Skitter.
"Let's say I believe you..." I said, pulling my thoughts into something coherent. "What are you planning to do about it? Your evidence?" Huh. Maybe living with Carol DID teach me one thing of value. Maybe.
"We have footage. Tattletale was setting up to become a sort of 'mission control' and stay off the front lines of the battlefield. Squishy Thinker kept safely away from the actual fighting."
I smiled. Or smirked, more likely. Either way, it wouldn't transfer to the dummy. "Yeah... I can see why she'd want to stay as far as humanly possible away from anyone she might be talking to."
"I... I know I've said this before, but I'm sorry. For everything I put you and Glory Girl through," the girl said. It struck me how... vulnerable... she was.
"I believe you," I replied. "But it's not you who should be sorry. I do have a question for you, however. You said you wanted to be a hero. But how can you be a hero when you work with people like her? And how the hell are you still with them AFTER your secret came out?"
"At first, I wanted to find their boss. Turns out he's the supervillain known as Coil. The Undersiders were a project of his, not the only one either. He owns the Travelers and has spies in the Merchants and the Protectorate and probably E88 as well. They were basically just thieves, y'know. I'm not saying that's okay, but... they helped me. A lot. First by saving me from Lung. I had wanted to break up their team by taking down Coil. But... now... Dinah Alcott."
"The mayor's niece?" I'd heard of that kidnapping of course. How could I not have? Same day as the bank... oh. Oh fuck. "You were a distraction."
"We didn't know that at the time!" She insisted defensively. "We found out later. She's a precog. Scary powerful. He's keeping her drugged and forces her to use her powers to help him. He'll never let her go. And coupled with his own power... he's probably unstoppable. And it's all my fucking fault."
That gave me pause. Dinah was young- I wasn't sure if she was even a teenager, yet. If she was, it was just barely. And he was drugging her and keeping her like that? I couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of a sick bastard would do that.
I hadn't stopped working during the conversation. Neither had Skitter, actually. She was adapting more quickly to the new relays than I could add them, all while holding an emotional conversation. Her range was well over five miles, now. Well, except where we hit the ocean of course. I was beginning to wonder where her limits ended.
For that matter, where do mine end? Everything I was doing right now was less difficult than dealing with a single gunshot wound. And I could do stuff like that all day. Maybe that's why I feel invigorated instead of tired, using my power like this... because it was just less difficult? No... I felt it when I fought Siberian, too. And my Amy puppet was a hundred times more difficult to build than a merely human body. Part of why I needed the pod- it was the only way I could build a system that allowed her to act without me controlling her directly. I had that 'program' stored within the roots. The next puppet would be so much easier.
Speaking of... the heroes were starting to get a little too close for comfort. Even without factoring what Skitter just told me. The tendril that was feeding my control pod extended itself toward my armor. God, I needed to get actual names for these things. And myself.
During all this, I was still listening to Skitter- really, thinking about how our powers worked was taking more of my concentration than using it. I'd expanded the relays another layer. Hell, I'd begun to see the pattern, and was growing artificial relays out of the roots. They took way longer than the bug versions, but didn't need to wait for a bug to start working. Also, they seemed to have a little less range. Definitely better to stick with the first form, right now.
"So you're saying you don't have a choice?" I asked. "What exactly can he do?"
"He... passes it off as a kind of luck control. Altering fate. But it's something both more and less than that," she explained. "He can create alternate realities. The only thing that changes is him. He can give one order to attack and another to retreat. And choose the result he likes best. We can't attack him, because if we do, he'll end that reality and take the one where he's somewhere else entirely. And he'll know everything we did and we will have no memory of it."
I hesitated... did I dare do this? Yes. Yes I did. "Your team is pretty much finished, right?"
She snorted. "We lost Regent. Thankfully we lost Shatterbird at the same time. He was keeping her controlled. If she'd gotten free..."
I didn't really want to think about how badly that could have gone. That was one of the Nine I didn't think I had a counter for. Not without a LOT of prep time.
"I don't see Grue coming back from this. He was doing all this to help his sister. She was caught in the bombing. Bitch, too, and she was our only real source of muscle. It's basically just me and Tattletale. The Travelers lost Ballistic, too.
I sighed. My impromptu com device did nothing but wait until I spoke. "So... I'm not making any promises. But your power has a synergy with mine in ways that make it stupid not to ask. If I help you save Dinah. And I make a team of my own. Will you be on it?"
She looked a little uncertain. So I took the opportunity to continue. "I can do a lot with my power. What I lack is your instantaneous control. Even the things I'm touching respond with a bit of a delay. Not much, less than the delay in trying to drive a car. But that's slow compared to what you're capable of. I'm proposing a partnership. I won't lie. What I'm planning will get us a lot of enemies. Not the least of which: the Protectorate. But, if you're willing to be my general, I will give you an army."
Amelia, Ch 8- Jack Slash
It had been a bad day for me, I had to admit it. Skitter, that delightfully terrifying bug girl. She promised me that Brockton Bay "had its share of badasses". They did not disappoint.
Ah, if I'd known then what I know now, I would have nominated her. My candidate turned out to be such a disappointment. Skitter, on the other hand, was fascinating. Such a ball of deceptive viciousness, and clearly the leader of the Undersiders. Even more interesting, they didn't know it. She turned a group of second rate thieves into the terrors of a city that had reduced the Slaughterhouse Nine to two people hiding in an Endbringer shelter.
It would have been fascinating to see what she could have done with my team. I might even have given her the leadership. Not even forcing her to take it from me. A few years of mentoring her, and she would be even more feared than the Endbringers. A true protégé. Perhaps then I would challenge her to reclaim my throne. If I couldn't find a worthy foe, then I might be able to build one.
Speaking of protégées. "Bonesaw, dear, how long until you're ready?"
The girl was arms deep in bodies. "Still working on it. I can't just change these on the fly, you know. Or I could, but she'd just counter it again. I need something that adapts faster than she can. Or kills before she has a chance to stop it."
"Panacea turned out to be rather more impressive than we thought, too, didn't she?" I agreed. Internally, I blamed Cherish. The girl was nothing but a series of disasters, and not the fun kind, from the beginning. When we got out of this, I'd have to go visit her father and have a nice, long discussion about parental responsibility.
"She's amazing, isn't she," Bonesaw said, while forcing open the ribcage of a still very much alive woman. "She really is the perfect Big Sister. Beating my best work so easily, and showing me a dozen new ideas all at the same time. Promise me we'll come back for her, please?"
"What about your new weapon?" I frowned. If she used anything less than her best work for this because she was scared of killing the girl...
"Oh, that won't matter for her," Bonesaw answered with a happy sigh. "Her power is always protecting her. I could inject every plague in the world, including all the ones of my own design, right into her spine and her power would convert it all to something completely harmless. Probably some kind of easily metabolized nutrient mix, but I'd have to observe it in action to know for certain."
"I see..." I had learned to recognize her tinker-ramblings as they got started. There was nothing I could do to stop them, but I could harness them. It was a challenge, of course, that's what made her so fun. "So... this new plague you're devising, how will it get around her counters?"
"Same way every cold virus in history gets around the immune system," she replied, going happily back to task. "It's impossible to win the war, so you don't even try. You simply adapt and move on. Only dialed up to the greatest extreme. The retrovirus is designed to collect genetic material from everything it infects, and randomly shuffles its own genetic pattern. It'll mutate so quickly that by the time it spreads to three people, it'll be like twelve completely different diseases. My big sister can beat any one of them, easy. But can she beat them faster than they're born?"
And that's when I heard the tapping sound. Someone else was here.
"Oh, I think could find a way," came a voice. Female, but it sounded wrong. It was... hollow... devoid of emotion in a way that made it sound more like a script being read by the world's worst actress.
"Amelia Claire Lavere," I said with a smile as she stepped into the dim lights running on the shelter's emergency batteries. "I am truly impressed."
That was not a lie. Her power was incredible. So versatile. This body-double of hers... it was beautiful on every level. A sleek black armor encased her, shimmering a metallic purple where it caught the light. It moved with a fluid grace I had only ever seen from the Siberian. The finest features of both woman and great cat. It was a perfect machine.
I opted to let her know she hadn't fooled me, however. "Pity you're not actually here in the flesh."
"She's not?" Bonesaw asked, taking a more appraising eye of the construct. "You're not! Oh my god! It's so beautiful! The armor, it's chitin, isn't it? You put it together using insects and I can't see a single flaw anywhere in the design and how are you controlling it so well? And the face..."
"Please, Bonesaw," I interrupted. "Let her have a chance to speak." Yes. Let her talk. That body of hers was dangerous, probably meant to be immune to my knife- and even if I did destroy it, that meant nothing. She built this in a couple hours at most. And judging from the insects moving around on the ground, she had Skitter as backup. They couldn't be that far away... so the trick would be keeping her from attacking before I figured out where their real bodies were.
"Insects bodies, mostly," Amelia replied. There was a flaw, in the voice. But was it even a flaw? Its eyes were sharp and alert. It responded with feedback that was clearly two way and interactive on a level that even Siberian didn't quite match. If she'd wanted it to copy her vocal tones, there was no doubt it could have. Either she felt it was too much effort... or it was a design feature. If it didn't show emotion, then she wouldn't have to worry about hiding her emotions. So... design flaw... or intentional feature... the part that interested me most is that I couldn't tell.
"Skitter helped with the raw materials. And, no, Bonesaw, the insecticides you're using won't work."
"Oh... don't worry, I know!" she agreed far, far too eagerly. I'd have to have a talk with the girl about showing her emotions to the enemy so readily. "Great minds do think alike. I've done something very similar with myself and Jack. We're a lot alike!"
She paused. Okay, so the construct didn't have emotion. But the girl behind it did... and that could still be an angle to attack from...
"Not really," she responded.
"We could be! Haven't you ever wanted to start over? I could make you younger! We'd be the same age! And wear matching outfits! Oh! I could make us into twins!"
"I think about it," Somehow the emotionless construct managed to sound sarcastic. "Did you do that to yourself? Make yourself young?"
"No." I replied "Rest assured, Bonesaw's immaturity is genuine. Both an asset in how it makes her that much more creative, free in her ways. A detriment in other ways."
"Interesting how you need to belittle your own people in front of them like that, Jack."
"Well, that brings back memories," I laughed. Genuinely. This is exciting. Trapped here in this shelter with a woman who was anything but predictable, being observed by someone else who was an equal amount of surprise. "Your father said much the same thing to me, once upon a time."
"Yeah, I know the score. Marquis."
"Imagine my surprise when I found out. I met the man. I must tell you, Amelia, he was a very interesting character. Marquis was a man of honor. He decided on the rules he would play by and he stuck to them. He put his life at risk to try to keep me from killing women and children, and I decided to see if I could use that to break him. I admit I failed."
"What about Allfather's daughter?" Good. I have her attention. She wanted to know about her father... I could use that.
"Marquis would not have killed her. That was one of his rules. If it were possible to make him break it, I'd have made him do it."
"Allfather put a contract on my head before he died, because of what Marquis did."
"I doubt it. What gave you that idea?"
"A letter Dragon sent to Carol... my... adoptive... mother."
"Ah, Brandish? I wonder. I suspect Marquis was lying. Making up a story that Dragon felt was credible enough to contact you and offer a warning."
"Why?"
"Oh, that's easy," Jack replied. "Marquis was old fashioned. Predictable. He would want you to know he was still thinking about you. He'd want you thinking about him. His own dream of immortality."
Bonesaw piped up. "That's stupid. Why do something like that when someone like me could make you immortal for real?"
"Shush, now. Let your big sister and I talk."
"Okay," Bonesaw said.
Amelia didn't bother to correct my presumption. It was frustrating how little I could read her like this.
"You are much like your father. Both of you are chained by the rules you've imposed on yourselves. His rules defined his demeanor, the boundaries he worked within, the goals he sought to achieve and how he achieved them. They were his armor as much as his power was." I continued. I had to play to that. Let her imagine she could be like her father- a name that was STILL both feared and respected in this town.
"Your rules did the opposite. Rather than give you strength, they leave you trapped and alone," I offered. It was pop psychology at best, but what works, works. "That's because you did it the wrong way. Marquis accepted himself, who and what he was, and made his rules to be a frame on which he could grow. Just as I accept myself. Your rules are the opposite. They're made to deny your true nature and be what they tell you to be, instead of who you really are."
She paused. Not her normal 'not acting' pause. The construct wasn't moving at all. No feedback. The interaction required concentration. THAT was a weakness I could exploit! I couldn't touch her body. But her mind- her soul, if you believed such tripe- was ripe for the taking.
"I can give that to you. Help you find your true nature, the way I've found mine, and helped so many other damage people find theirs."
Amelia looked toward me. "You're right. I've fought against my nature time and time again, and it's done nothing but make me miserable. I've lost my family. My sister. Everything I ever loved. In a span of mere days. And yet, somehow, I'm happier than I've ever been. And it's because I've been ignoring everything I've been raised to believe. I'll join the Nine."
I couldn't believe it. Actually, I didn't believe it. "There is still a matter of your tests," I reminded her.
"I've passed them," she responded. "There is nothing you can demand of me that is worse than what I've already been through. I not only escaped Siberian, I distracted her in combat long enough for my allies to kill her. Mannequin demands you give up something precious and personal? How about my sister, my life, even my name? And I shut Bonesaw's little stunt down in minutes. I will flense anyone who dares to claim I haven't earned my position in the Nine."
I stepped back. "I stand corrected," I agreed. "You've earned your place."
"Really!?!" Bonesaw shouted, running toward the construct and embracing it. "Congratulations, Amelia, I knew you could do it!"
I could see where the skin on Bonesaw cheek parted in thin lines, where she'd brushed up against the armor. She put her hand on the little girl's blood soaked curls. "Go pack up your things. You won't need your plague today.
"Okay," she agreed far too readily, not even looking toward me for confirmation.
Amelia, on the other hand, never stopped looking at me. "Jack Slash. I am challenging you for leadership of the Nine."
She was moving at me before I even had time to register her words. Damn she is fast. My blade launched forward, colliding with her face. The knife did penetrate the eye socket, but the body didn't slow down. My blade caught against the back of the skull and was wrenched out of my hand. It reverted to standard size instantly.
I tried to pull one of my backups while dodging a swipe from Amelia's claws. She was fast. A match, maybe more, for Siberian. But she was so much less human than Siberian. I couldn't figure read her, couldn't predict her steps. She kicked outward and I leapt back, but several bits of green goo hit my chest and started burning. It ate my armor, then skin, then started working on Bonesaw's reinforced mesh.
And it burned. I knew what pain was like because I had never let Bonesaw disable mine. Without the risk of pain and even death, combat was without challenge or thrill.
"Like that, Jack?" Came another voice. The insects. There were a lot more than I'd realized. And they spoke in a gravelly, buzzing manner. They carried a thousand times more emotions than Amelia's automoton. I could guess what would come next from them, as they swirled around. They wanted to attack- their controller wanted nothing more to destroy me in the most horrific ways she could imagine. But she was being held back by someone else. Amelia? Had to be.
"I was asked to let you know... it's the same acid that Crawler uses. Amy-" They paused a half second. "Amelia says it's the most horrible poison she's ever seen. Wants you to know that you'll die how her sister died. And because of Bonesaw's improvements, it'll be even slower and more painful for you than it was for her. Keep struggling, that just makes it spread faster."
Meanwhile, I was still dodging. I had lashed out with another knife, to trip my attacker. Only to have my arm pulled back. How? Spider silk?
Amelia caught my arm and squeezed, twisting and bending it. Broken at the elbow. More acid left behind. Her foot slammed into my knee. More of the same. I dropped, and she stepped on my remaining good hand. No acid, she simply ground down. Sharp. Heavy. Micro thin razors lined her armor, and this thing had to weigh three hundred pounds.
"Bonesaw! Help..." I managed to gasp out. It was hard to breath, as the acid had already destroyed most of my abdominal muscles.
"Sorry, Jack," she said with her usual cheerfulness. "I'm a good girl, and good girls don't break the rules."
So she held a grudge, I realized. How did I not see that before?
Amelia's other leg came into my vision, as she moved between me and Bonesaw. The bugs started covering me, but didn't attack. A peculiar kind of sensory deprivation. I was blinded.
I heard Amelia speak. "So, little sister, what am I going to do with you?"
Then the insect mass was too thick, and I was denied the ability to hear anything except my own screams.
La
Amelia, Ch 9
I, or the body I was using at the moment, marched straight up to the Protectorate's visitor reception area. I was wearing my 'Dryad' model. It was, for the most part, the least human looking armor I had constructed at that point. A superior version of the "tree gorilla" outfit I had used before. It stood approximately seven and a half feet tall and was covered in bark.
Next to me was Skitter- or, again, her double. Hers was the much smaller 'Changeling' model. A perfect emulation of a human being, with exactly zero mammalian features other than mere cosmetics.
Much like I had made for the fight against Siberian. Only less utilitarian. Barely better than human... not even that, really. Capable of competing on the level of an olympic athlete... but probably wouldn't take home a medal. But it could compete in every sport at that level.
Skitter... Taylor's... version of the suit was different than mine. My remote control system was modeled after her power. I was, frankly, playing copycat. She just had a model tuned to her frequency. No control cocoon for her. Her suit was pretty close to her actual features, though modified. It was still obviously 'Skitter'- but there was brighter coloration to it. Gone were the dull grays, replaced by shimmering metallic blues and greens. Reminiscent of many colorful species of beetle. Only her eye lenses were true to their old yellow color. Which was fine.
It was far tougher than it looked. As durable as her real costume, and most of it was still the silk. Just from more common spiders that were easier to manipulate to produce the colorful patterns. A rush job. Fake armor for a fake body. The worst anyone could do to us is kill our dolls.
We both carried some sealed bags- hers smaller than mine. But both quite large.
And basically everyone was staring. It had been two days since the Nine were annihilated. Took that long for us to get all our plans in order. We knew what we wanted to achieve, Skitter and I. Or at least the basics. And that started here.
The receptionist was probably used to seeing people like Armsmaster and whoever. Compared to that, we weren't all that impressive. She eyed Taylor for a moment. No doubt figuring out who she was.
"We're here to apply as an independent hero team," Taylor stated after a moment. Lisa was giving us cues. Watching through the cameras we'd set up. Another piggyback off Taylor's power, I could access the eyes of any of my constructs, and put them on the nice little screen I built for those on the team who didn't have unfair sensory powers. It still wasn't good. We'd managed to get it to show color, at least.
The woman, whose nametag identified her as 'Michelle', slowly reached down and opened a drawer, pulling out a small set of forms. She was an attractive woman. Large in the amazonian sense. Blonde, angular face. Probably a stunner once upon a time, and still very attractive in her late thirties. "Is it going to be just the two of you?"
Lisa's voice came over the perfectly ordinary headset I was wearing inside my functionally soundproof cocoon. "She hit a silent alarm. Is now stalling and fishing for information, as we predicted. Keep them speculating. Any clear answers"
I shrugged inside the suit. "We'll want an extra copy. We can print more of our own if we need to." I replied. Oh god, if they only knew. They would scour this city from the planet to stop us. Right now, we were playing the most delicate game. We needed them to believe we were going to play ball. That the asinine 'cops and robbers' thing that Tattletale had described was still how it worked.
We were relying pretty heavy on my reputation. On Panacea. On them being shellshocked from the Nine. Mourning their losses. We also timed this for Legend being temporarily out of the building.
"We'll also need information on your disaster relief efforts. Our main efforts will be there instead of on the field." True. And so very, very, misleading.
"I'll see what I can get for you," the woman agreed.
"Miss Militia, to your right," Taylor spoke up through the headset. I was again in envy of her multitasking. Miles of control area. It's said there's more bugs in a square mile than there are people on the planet. Taylor was currently managing that... almost a hundred times over. If we measured it just on pure mass alone, there was more of 'her' in the city than there was 'everyone else combined'. Well, except for me. Turns out, there's a lot of sewer/stormdrain in a city. And basically everything that was flushed into it had been consumed and converted by now. My Yggdrasil had just about completed its growth through the system. Everything else would need to be done above ground.
I turned to look at the dark skinned woman and her very 'patriotic' outfit. The cynic in me sometimes wondered if they put her in this city solely to annoy Empire Eighty Eight. Not that they'd be a problem in... oh... a few days. "Greetings, ma'am," I said.
Her weapon was currently in "shapeshifter" mode, as if trying to figure out the best way to hurt us. Which would have been something along the lines of 'be approximately seven and a half miles away from here', not that she knew that. "You're new?" she asked.
"Already knows better," Lisa informed us. "Wants to see if you'll lie to her. Threat assessment."
"She's one of the good ones," Taylor added in. "Patriotic to a fault, though."
"Makes her the worst we'll ever have to deal with," Lisa concluded. "We might have been able to get her to turn if she wasn't so insistent on protecting a corrupt system. And if she were corrupt, we could at use her or hurt her without much problem. Instead she's an idealist who hasn't recognized her own cause betrayed her."
"Not new," I replied. "But a new chapter in our lives. The look and name changes are part of that. Think we can get a room to handle to sit down and fill out the paperwork?" There. Absolutely true. Even volunteering more information than necessary and invited her to stick around. We were being upfront and open as a means of hiding just how incredibly frightening we were.
"Then you're aware of how dangerous it is to be independent heroes, instead of joining the Protectorate," she said, even as leading us to one of the nearby conference rooms. A small one, but nicely decorated. A flag in the corner. Hanging pictures of a handful of national landmarks. A sturdy table, probably oak though I wasn't exactly an expert on that. It suggested wealth without suggesting opulence or waste. Patriotism without looking like propaganda. Even if, of course, it was both things. I could see them bringing aspiring heroes here.
"Not a problem," I answered. "Our powers are better oriented for indirect use. We'll mostly be handling infrastructure and support tasks."
"Such as..."
"I control insects and arachnids," Taylor told them. That wasn't anything we could pretend was a different power. Sure, I could give her monsters and she could claim those as her own. But 'bugs' was comparatively less threatening. "I can go through the refugee camps. The hospitals. Clear out cockroaches. Rodents. Lice. Dangerous spiders. Bedbugs and ticks and numerous other disease carriers in both people and pets. We'd be here all day if I had to list every last creepy crawly and everywhere we might want to remove them from."
That was our sell on her, at least.
"And your power?" She asked me.
"Botanical control," I answered. Again, not a lie. Just not even the barest fraction of the truth. "I'll be helping with cleanup on a number of levels. Possibly rebuilding. It's basically a shaker power. I can clear out rubble. Set up support beams for unstable buildings. Provide fruit trees set to overproduce."
"Team name?" she asked. We'd filled out that part of the paperwork, already.
"Pantheon," I replied. I saw her eyes narrow. Pretentious? Yes. Begging for trouble? Oh, absolutely. Could we live up to it? Not a doubt in my mind.
"Are you sure about this? There are a lot of dangerous villains. You won't be able to back down from this. Especially with a moniker like that." She was was warning us. Warning me. And not just about the indie-hero thing.
I laughed. It transfered to the puppet. And I pulled one of the bags out of the sack. A body bag. Then another, much smaller, bag. Then a small package. Taylor had one of her own. "Oh, I think we can take care of ourselves."
Miss Militia managed to keep her poker face reasonably well. I had to wonder if maybe they had a tinker scanner that identified that we had brought a total of three full human corpses in with us.
"These are the bodies of the Siberian's controller, Bonesaw, and Burnscar," I informed her. "Alongside the head of Jack Slash. I apologize for the condition of his and Bonesaw's remains... had to improvise to get past the modifications made to their physiology. Using Crawler's venom."
"We'll have to get those verified," She stated. "In case someone might attempt to... construct a forgery."
That was expected. And not even unfair, really. I probably could build fakes. Of Manton, at least. All the weird mechanical bullshit that Bonesaw inserted into their bodies was entirely beyond my power, and they knew it. I simply nodded. "Of course. Just so it's made clear, we have a detailed incident report of the deaths of all four individuals, with some details removed to protect identities. Pantheon is claiming full credit for Jack and Bonesaw. Partial credit for Siberian, with the other half going to individuals who wish to remain uncredited. And Burnscar goes to a party that also wishes to remain anonymous. There's account information for all of us included."
She buzzed for someone- several, in fact- to collect the bodies and the paperwork. She left with them.
We didn't speak. Not in front of them at least. As we finished all the details.
"Still can't believe you're going with this theme," Lisa goaded.
"Oh, whatever," I responded. "You were so happy with yours that you're probably going to start using it as your civilian name."
"Not while you're in earshot," she all but sang back. "But while we're on the subject of names. Ohhh, Taaaaayloooor... is this gonna be one of those things where you let the heroes name you instead of picking one of your own, again?"
"No," she responded back. "I thought of one. I'm not sure I like it, though..."
Amelia, Ch 10
"No, nope, never, not happening, ALL the no," Tattletale insisted. "Every fucking 'nope' in the world!"
"Hey! Don't swear!" Came the little girl voice in the corner. I could hear the tapping noises as the spider-like robotic limbs were moving around the 'operating table'... or, as I liked to think of it, 'that nice coffee table we will now have to throw away'. The fact that she could detach her own head from her body was both disturbing, and incredibly useful. How the living hell does someone perform a surgery like that on themselves? Tinkers were bullshit.
She was currently surgically attaching herself to the new body I had made for her. A copy of her own DNA. A bunch of work with the plants. I'd complete the process of making it a living animal AFTER she had properly "linked up". Even with her tools and skills, keeping a headless corpse... would it count as a corpse? Anyway, keeping it alive would be a lot harder if it were animal.
Tattletale glared at the disembodied girl. "Every FUCKING nope. In fact, I mean that literally. The Nopes have all gotten together in one giant fuckball, and are currently reproducing so fast that they've been registered as a Class S threat!"
I had to admit. It was worth the price of admission for this scene. I had my first genuine laugh since before Leviathan. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
"And YOU!" She pointed at Skitter. "How could you, knowing everything she's capable of, possibly be okay with this!?!"
She looked at Tattletale with a kind of quiet desperation. We were all, more or less, out of costume. Or, at least, not wearing our masks. Tattletale still wore hers, but that was to be expected. "I... I know what she's done. But."
"But," she kept glaring at Bonesaw. "Fucking. NOTHING. She tortured Grue. Doesn't that mean ANYTHING to you?"
I... I must have seen something of myself in Skitter, and something of Victoria in Tattletale, at that moment. Being dominated by a stronger personality like that. Even if that personality is trying to help. I believed Tattletale meant well- in this one, specific, isolated instance, at least. But I wasn't going to watch this happen in front of me.
I stood. "You're free to leave at any time, you know. I won't even pretend I want to keep you here."
She turned on me and started to open her mouth. I didn't let her.
"Skitter and I have an agreement. A partnership. This is why you are here, speaking your mind. Instead of trying to find a way out of this dimension simply on the chance that I might, maybe, want to 'thank' you for the bank. Or did you forget that? Because I haven't. You are my compromise for her. She wants you to be part of this. Bonesaw is her compromise for me. I NEED her abilities. More importantly, I need her research."
Tattletale paused. I could see her lips moving as she talked through her power silently. I simply waited. It'd be easier to let her power do its thing than explain it with words. Also. It would sound insane if I said it. "Powers. You know something about where powers come from, don't you?"
I nodded grimly. "I was afraid to touch brains before. I... I even suspect I know why now. Sure, part of it was my own hangups. But there's more to it. A lot more."
"You're not going to tell me." It wasn't a question.
"Not yet, at least. Too new. Not sure. Far too many other things to deal with, first. But yes, I'm pretty sure I know where they come from. I got some idea when I examined Riley's brain."
"Bonesaw," Tattletale stated. "Riley is a person's name."
"Whatever. Her. Skitter, too. Even got a look at Ja-"
"You let her touch you?!" Tattletale said in shock, looking over at Taylor.
"Uh... yeah... why wouldn't I?" She responded. "She fixed up a few things, and even fixed my vision."
I had to smile a little at that. My new partner was a creature of dualities. Skitter was a nightmare. Even now that I was getting a feel for what my power truly was... she frightened me. I knew she couldn't win against me in a straight fight. But something about her just made me nervous. Like she could find a way to win against anything, no matter how powerful. It was disquieting, really. It was also thrilling to know she was on my side.
Taylor, on the other hand. Taylor was too nice. She seemed smaller than Skitter by a foot. Frail. Afraid, even. It bordered on split personalities, how utterly she could compartmentalize. Was this... was this her 'passenger' at work? Riley had told me some of what she believed. I'd have called it crazy, but I could see them, now. Or see the imprint they left in their wake, at least.
The one I could not see? Was my own. What did my power do to me? The sheer pleasure I got from flexing my powers... I could recognize response conditioning when I saw it. The exhaustion I got working as a healer... in spite of using nowhere near the same amount of power as I'd used in the last day or so. Was that its doing? And if so... where did it end, and where did I begin?
While I contemplated this, Taylor and Tattletale continued their argument. It seemed to be coming to a close.
"There is nothing I can do to talk you out of this, is there?" Tattletale said with a defeated look on her face.
"Unless you know another way for me to save this city," Taylor insisted. "And not just the city! With this power, we could save the whole world. I could enter the next Endbringer fight with thousands of monsters that make Bitch's dogs look harmless. They could rescue the wounded. Draw fire. Maybe even kill these fuckers."
"Taylor," she replied tiredly. "Listen to me. There's a fine line between 'too scary to fuck with', 'too scary to live'. This... this crosses that line, comes out the other side, goes all the way back around, and then STILL has enough momentum left to lap Nilbog. You'll be lucky if all they do is put burn this city to the ground."
"I have to," Taylor responded, pleading. "Please, Lisa. This is how we can beat Coil. How we can save Dinah. I am everywhere in the city right now. Our power, working together like this... we can beat him no matter what his plans might be. If he has the power to change fate. Then we just have to be so overwhelming that there can be no doubt. Absolute, total, control. I can't give this up. I won't. Not even for you."
"Fuck," Tattletale- Lisa, apparently, sighed. "Fine. I'm in. I assume you have some conditions."
I nodded. "A few. First, the same thing I told Bonesaw. If I catch you, even once, using your power in a way I find unacceptable. I will end you. There will be no warning. There will be no second chance. I'll break you. And then I'll do things to you that are horrific beyond imagination. And I know just how good your imagination can be."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Second. If you want out, at any time. You're free to go. I'll help alter your appearance. Whatever you need. I will not conscript people against their will."
"What about her," Tattletale asked.
"Same thing. She's free to go if she wants. Although in her case, I'll strip her of her powers first. I want to be fair, but that would be insane."
"You can do that?" She asked.
"Sure... all I have to do is kill two relatively tiny parts of the brain that aren't even found in normal people. They're right there at the top, too. Easiest part to work with, really. You could probably do the surgery with a handgun, if your aim was good enough."
"And the third rule? There's always three, in situations like this."
"The third is that we are a community. I won't be settling for just a small team. Every parahuman that wants, and can agree to peaceful coexistence, is welcome. Normal people, too. We'll worry about details later... create our own legal system... one without the corruption and abuse."
She looked at me. Then looked back at Taylor. "This was your idea, wasn't it?"
"Some of it."
"Alright," she sighed. "Someone's gotta keep you deranged idealists from getting yourselves dead-by-Eidolon. As long as you promise you'll listen to me. Actually take what I'm saying into account before you jump into the deep end."
I smiled as I held out my hand. "I'm Amelia Claire Lavere. Gaea, when on the job. Welcome to Pantheon."
She regarded me for a second, then reached out to shake my hand.
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