Seed (A Worm AU)

[TheAnt]

An alternate universe where the Endbringers attack in a few different places and order that leads to Taylor gaining Blasto’s shard. Desperate to be a hero, Taylor takes a dangerous gamble to give herself the power to save the city and chooses to become a Heroic Warlord to save the city from itself. Will Taylor become the hero the world needs or the monster that brings it all crashing to the ground?

Part 1 Research and Development (Starts slow then amps up in ch.3)
1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5

Part 2 Warlord
2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5
3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6, 3-7, 3-8
4-1, 4-2 (1), 4-2 (2), PHO, 4-3, 4-4, 4-5, 4-6

Character List (Work in progress)
Cloning Methods
Tropes Page

Spoiler

Seed Lore

 

[TheAnt]

Part 1

Research and Development​

Seed 1-1

My watch alarm rang, and I sighed. An hour was barely enough time to do anything useful during lunch.

I logged off of the website, and set my watch alarm for an hour. I stretched my legs to rub some feeling back into them. I had been sitting in that chair for too long.

I pushed play on the CD player, and the audio book started up on again where I had left off. Having more free time to read made up a little for the lack of social interaction now that I wasn’t going to Winslow. The postings on PHO did help to meet my some of biological social needs. Research showed that healthy social interactions could help decrease my depressive feelings in addition to my self-medication.

I yawned as I walked to the kitchen and pulled out the bread. I could make and eat a sandwich in an average time of five minutes and twenty-three seconds. Looking in the fridge made me realize that I had forgotten to buy more mayonnaise. I made a note for myself on the fridge-writing pad to buy it, as I poured the last of the coffee in a mug.

The SX-1 tightened a bit around my waist as I chugged down the coffee. Too much caffeine was bad for a growing body, but I needed a stimulant since I had been staying up alot lately. I checked my watch again as I cleaned up my mess. I had fifty five minutes to look over my preparations for the SX-2 and finish creating the venom they would develop.

Then I had to get back and upload the rest of today’s school assignments. After today I will have finished all the reports and projects that will be due for the rest of the year. Then my schedule allowed a three-hour power nap before I made dinner for Dad and me. I would go to the basement after he was asleep and start growing the SX-2 until I found a form that met my needs.

Next year could not come fast enough when I could finally test out of school and focus on my real work. I knew I shouldn’t be complaining. School was a breeze now that I didn’t have to worry about Emma and the others stealing all my assignments. Just being able to focus on my lessons and reading had caused my grades to soar without the side benefits of being a Tinker.

Biology and Science were so easy now that having to do the assignments seemed like pointless busywork. I had already checked out and read most of the biology and animal science books in the library anyway. I could teach the class better than the teachers had at Winslow.

Now that I think about it that was a good idea for earning some extra money. I pulled out my ideas notebook, volume 2 and wrote Tutor by the hour next to moneymaking ideas. I needed some extra money for future projects, but I felt guilty asking dad for more after he gave me so much already with a large allowance.

After the settlement money from the lawsuits had come in, I thought we would have enough to meet all my needs for equipment and materials. But that had very quickly been proven false as I used all of my allowance, including an advance, just buying the basic materials for making the most basic seed.

I sighed again as I finished cleaning up and started to disinfect my hands, thinking of all the lab equipment I wanted. I hadn’t realized how expensive and hard to get basic lab equipment was. Everything that was sold was carefully tracked because others could use the equipment to cook drugs and worse.

I had an idea of taking on a job at the hospital that would let me watch patients and doctors do their work. But I would have to convince dad first. He wouldn’t like the idea of me working late at night. But that was when the hospital needed people to watch patients in their rooms, and paid the most. He might be more open to the idea when I showed him that I had finished all the years school work already, and reminded him of my stated plan to be a neurologist.

Glancing at my watch, I unlocked the door to the basement and turned on the light. I remembered to step over the broken step as I put on my gloves. I had cleaned up the basement a bit, but it was still filled with old boxes of mom’s stuff that dad couldn’t bring himself to get rid of. We really should buy a storage space, but dad didn’t want to waste money when the basement was big enough for our needs.

I moved a few boxes, and crawled under through a little tunnel to the hidden alcove where I stored my first generation lab equipment. It wasn’t much, just the terrarium, my chemistry kit, the glass box made from an old aquarium, and my custom made computer. I still kept it around mostly for convenience sake so I could tinker a bit without having to go to the lab.

I picked up the pheromone bottle that attracted the SX-1 and sprayed the terrarium. It immediately began uncurling from around my waist and went down my arm to rest under the sun lamp while slowly coming out of my sleeve.

I couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride looking at it, despite it looking rather ugly. I had spent a whole day growing it from the second seed I had ever made. I had never grown a Lusus before, and my impatience was the cause for how weird it looked.

It was a darkish green color, about 3 and half feet long, and looked like an unusual snake. Though the differences became rather more obvious after a second look. Its eyes were way too small for one thing. It looked blind at first glance, but it did have tiny eyes that were both on the left side of its face. The body proportions were a little off compared to other snakes. The most obvious difference was the rattle, which was a bit too over sized compared to a regular rattlesnake.

It rarely used the rattle when threatened, even when I sprayed the attack pheromone. I wasn’t sure yet why it never rattled it as a warning like I intended. I didn't yet know if most of its instinct came from the base form of a garden snake, or the rattlesnake DNA I added to the seed it was grown from.

I wouldn’t find out until I examined its brain after it died and compared it to the brain of a normal garden and rattle snake. That might be a few weeks off based on how healthy it was at the moment. It had lasted much longer than I had predicted based off the crappy quality of the materials and the seed I used to make it.

The poor quality did have an effect on its behavior though. It still bumped into things, and would lunge suddenly at the air for no reason. The first time it did that had caused me to flail and fall on my butt. While I knew it was friendly, I had removed its fangs and venom sacks almost immediately after that little episode.

While the pheromones kept it docile, I didn’t want to dad to freak out if he found it.

Trying to explain that I had another new hobby besides the vegetable and flower garden in the backyard would be unusual. It involving taking care of weird snakes would be a big red flag besides it having huge fangs.

I walked over to the cage nearby and pulled out a mouse to feed it. The SX-1 was enough of a plant that it got part of its energy needs from my upgraded UV lamp, but it still needed to eat regular mice to supplement its diet. The mice were self-replicating, and the clones would breed fast once I activated that sequence in them. I could save money by not having to buy more mice to feed the future SX models I would grow.

I really needed to grow a Lusus to a sufficient size before I could use it as a base form for even larger creations. I couldn’t just bulk buy monkeys, farm animals, and bears from the pet store after all. Besides while my power seems to have given me a strong stomach against blood and guts, I don’t think I could bring myself to kill a monkey or dog. That was a bit hypocritical since I was killing snakes, but no one kept snakes for cuddly pets.

My plan was to grow young or adolescent versions of base forms and manipulate them to grow quickly. If I made it a certain size while having it mature, I was positive I could cause it to grow to a much more useful size. But that could take weeks of trimming seed forms, and I didn’t have the time yet in my schedule until all my schoolwork was finally finished.

I had to be very concise in my schedule to do all of the schoolwork ahead of time, eat, and tinker while moving things around to sleep and work when dad was not at work or asleep himself. For once I was glad that he was so busy that he had to work late all the time. Things had been so busy and hard for him ever since the economy had started tanking.

Brockton Bay had benefited greatly when Boston had been sealed after the Simurgh attacked it when I was little. But things were still pretty bad despite the extra benefits from the ships at the dock coming in. There were talks of a strike if the governor made good on his threat to pass something to stop the Unions bargaining power.

Dad usually ate dinner and talked with me when he got home, spent an hour relaxing or watching TV, than went straight to sleep. The lawsuit money had improved our finances dramatically but he still pushed himself to work hard to try and help the dockworkers, as work got harder to find. Though at least part of it was probably also to keep out of the house that had so many memories of mom.

I walked to the small clear aquarium where my next batch of first generation seeds was being grown. I almost had enough seeds to grow what I wanted. Being a Tinker was a little weird in that I could visualize exactly what I wanted and could make already without experimentation. The problem was figuring out how to backtrack and make the idea work with what I had.

I envisioned having a half dozen SX models wrapped around my body that I could hide under my clothes. I would give the pheromone to attack, and they would move away from me to deal with whomever I sprayed. Though I would put the pheromone into a breakable paper ball instead of a sprayer for long range. They could also rattle and make noise to scare off anyone who tried to mess with me. Hopefully they would think I could grow snakes out of my body. That way everyone would guess I was a master rather than a Tinker.

Of course I had no intention of going out as a hero yet. The snakes were just for self-defense when I went out at night to gather materials, and build at my lab. Brockton Bay was dangerous at night, and I wanted something to defend myself before I started sneaking out more. All my other ideas of Lusus with night vision, and something I could ride to escape trouble had to wait. I just didn’t have the equipment or materials yet to even begin something like that. I had to go slowly and stay under the radar for as long as possible.

I had done the research on Tinkers and it was pretty depressing. Most didn’t last long by themselves. They were forcibly recruited by gangs, killed to keep someone else from recruiting them, or affiliated in some way with the PRT though they had a lot of restrictions. Only a very few actually seemed to join Toybox, and it was a much smaller organization than I had first pictured.

I really didn’t want to work under the PRT, at least not yet. I would have been required to join the wards, and I had enough teen drama when I was at Winslow. This wasn’t getting into the fact that my specialty would scare people with how similar it was to what Nilbog could do. They would be suspicious of and restrict anything I made if I joined them, and I knew that I could make a difference in the city.

I had been both excited and filled with apprehension when I figured out my specialty. I had just uploaded all of the hidden video footage to a DVD to show a lawyer, and had a stray thought of using a bird to fly around with my camera for some cool footage. I remember the shock and excitement when I realized that I had several ideas on exactly how to make a bird.

My specialty lets me literally create life from raw materials. I can fashion homunculus from stuff you buy at the garden and drug store. I decided to call my creations Lusus Naturae, or Lusus for short, which was latin for whim of nature. I had a million ideas for Lusus to protect people walking the streets at night, and specially made farm animals that required little to take care of them and would help feed people.

I knew how the PRT felt about self-producing creations, but they would surely be okay with helping to feed the world. I’d take numerous precautions and I wouldn’t mention the self-replication until I was a trusted hero. I would hide that I was a Tinker until I had enough power to defend myself, and create something useful to sell to the PRT.

Researching capes had made me very cautious about not going out until I was ready. There were a grand total of two independent Tinkers that had lasted longer than three years in the United States right now. Though both were villains, and I was going to be a hero.

Void was a tinker in New Orleans whose specialty was a variety of short ranged teleporters. He had lasted so long by being hard to catch, and rumor on PHO was that even his lab moved around. His MO was a high tech thief, teleporting into rich people’s houses and various tech places to steal what he wanted. Though it was reported that he had quickly became used to the finer things in life based off the fact that not everything he stole was fenced. He seemed to become more versatile the more familiar he was with an area. He wasn’t as effective outside his territory, and a local group of hero shifters had been his main rivals for years. He was seen as strictly small time until recently when he gained a very high blaster rating. It seemed he had devised a way to teleport a portion of a person away and had killed a powerful local Brute. He had started charging protection for parahumans who entered his territory and tried to assassinate anyone who didn’t pay.

Overmind on the other hand was some type of hive mind tinker in Seattle, with drones and implanted henchman. There was a lot more information on her. She had started as a prostitute called Leshawna Wilson before triggering and being forced to join a local street gang called the Ballers almost immediately. The gang had very quickly risen in power with its members becoming similar to commandos, and acting amazingly coordinated against rivals and cops. It seemed they could share skills, communicate information between each other, and had improved reaction times with drones acting as spies and mobile defense platforms. They had quickly taken over the local projects and gangs, swelling in membership and being led by a low level Thinker called Three C. Many local teens had started piercing once side of their forehead with gold jewelry to copy the old implants that weren’t internal like the higher-level members. Despite their power they didn’t really try to expand their territories or operations because of other powerful villains in the city.

No one knows if it was because they weren’t expanding anymore, or she just didn’t like not being in charge but Leshawna, now calling herself Overmind, had simply notified every member of the network that she was now calling the shots. When people tried to fight her, she simply lobotomized or fried the brain of anyone who didn’t follow her orders. Scarily enough there were also rumors that she had limited control of the motor abilities of those she killed. Under her control, the gang had started to aggressively expand and she was fond of siege tactics that were hard to root out. She had become such a nuisance that the PRT had moved team members around to create a custom team to deal specifically with her, which was starting to prove effective at ousting her forces.

Luckily I didn’t require as much mechanical equipment as other Tinkers since I worked with biological material. Clumps of earth, distilled water, some drugs from the drug stores, and a custom computer that I bought parts for and managed to put together myself. My main issue had been lab equipment, and a machine shop to build stuff. It had taken me two weeks of carefully mixing a few things with some samples to make my first seeds. While the seeds were amazing they had a lot of flaws since they were only first generation and all my Lusus simply would not last longer than a few weeks. I didn’t have the tools yet to create the next generation of seed, and it would take money and time to build the basic equipment I wanted to really get started.

I had stolen my basic lab stuff from Winslow, after the principal had refused to take action against Emma and Sophia. It was weird but I felt horribly guilty not at the fact that I stole from the school, but that I didn’t feel guilty at stealing from them. The school had completely failed in its duty to protect me, but it wasn’t like that excused stealing. Dad had raised me better than that, and mom would have lectured me but I just couldn’t feel bad about it. I promised myself that once I was a trusted hero with plenty of sponsors I would pay them back with interest.

And things were finally starting to come together on the state of my equipment to build what I needed to be a hero. It was almost torture to not immediately grab the equipment and materials I needed and start making what I wanted. I had a million ideas for Lusus, but I learned my lessons from studying Overmind and Void. I took my time gathering materials to not arouse suspicion, trusted no one, and would try to hide what I was capable of whenever possible. I promised myself that I would not go out until my equipment was ready.

Once my snakes were grown, I already knew what my first stop would be. I had spent the first week after had confirmed that I had a power just wandering around and taking notes of my tech tree, and what it would take to build up to it. I had carefully made a note of things I could use, and I remembered an old hospital that had closed down on the north end of town a few years ago.

I had read about it in a local haunted places of Brockton Bay book, and based on my research they had to have some neuro imaging equipment that I needed to help build something to help “program” my Lusus.

The information I could give them right now was very limited, and was sort of like teaching rats how to run a maze but done in a few seconds after creating them. I couldn’t reprogram minds already “programmed”, so I had to create brand new SX Lusus to program them to curl around me, and come when I gave a signal. I couldn’t be a good hero if I couldn’t control my creations, and there was no way I was going create intelligent ones.

I was also hoping to find some copper wire to salvage in the walls, and I could teach the Lusus to move into and gather it without making holes. I really needed the money for materials before I could build my first human sized model. I had an idea for getting around not having a human sized base for it after watching a documentary on the future of food and scientists efforts to grow meat in a lab.

I figured I could grow a living, and expanding organism that I could grow as big as needed for a base for my Lusus. While I needed something living for my current seeds to work, my “meat moss” should qualify.

I carefully poured the distilled water into the tank, and spent the rest of the hour organizing my samples and materials. I had the seed carefully suspended in the large former fish tank, and checked on the portable generator I had made from a car battery.

I looked at a slide of the venom I had extracted from the SX-1, and compared it to other genetic samples of snake venom and drugs on my computer. I got most of my research from a few medical databases that didn’t have good security. I needed venom that would stop a person, but there was no such thing as a perfect tranquilizer for every person. Too little and it did nothing, but too much could be deadly. I had spent almost a week but I had finally thought I had something that would paralyze the nerves without causing pain, but wouldn’t have another other side affects. It still wasn’t completely perfect, but I would have some anti-venom in case someone had a bad reaction.

Now I just had to create the template for the venom, and copy it in the right place of the DNA of the seed and a copy of the SX-1. Unfortunately I couldn’t directly create or modify something from the start yet. That wasn’t until the very end of the tech tree, and could take years to build up to. Right now I would be stuck using trial and error, while carefully trimming the biological growths of the seed as they developed until I had a form that used that venom. I had a pair of very sharp knives I had turned into scalpels to remove the growths I didn’t want. I would then bury them into the garden in the backyard. Luckily the Lusus were enough of a plant that there wouldn’t be unusual dead animal smells to rouse suspicion from the neighbors.

Since the SX-1 forms were not that big, it would not take long to grow and trim forms, but it could still take many hours before I had a form that had the right makeup of venom and shape that would meet my purposes. I could slow the seeds growth but couldn’t stop it from splitting and growing once I started. I would start it tomorrow after dad left in the morning. Now that I didn’t have to worry about schoolwork I had more than enough time to grow the right form. Then I could simply clone some more seeds and clone at least half a dozen more SX-2s to defend myself with when I started to go to my lab at night. I had spent time doing nothing but making sure it was hidden. I was so excited to finally being able to make what I imagined. I’m going to change this city for the better. I know it.

Dad arrived at 7:32 and I gave him a hug as he came in. Research showed that strong family relationships could help people with depressive symptoms cope better, so I made it a point to try and spend time with dad.

“Its not that I don’t appreciate it, but you don’t have to hug me every time Taylor,” he said with a laugh.

I ignored him but released my hold. “Dinner is ready. I made a marinated, grilled fish, and a salad from the garden.”

He put his bag next to the door, and immediately started to eat.

“Wash your hands, you animal.” I joked. “How was your day dad?”

“Busy and I had to deal with a lot of angry and frustrated people. If the governor makes good on passing his bill, then a strike is a sure thing.”

“How long do you think it could last?”

“I’m not sure Taylor. But people are underestimating how angry everyone is. I know that it won’t be too hard to shut down the dock and they can’t force us out. But don’t worry about work Taylor, how was your day?”

“I’m a week ahead in my assignments. I know I would pass if I took that test today.”, I said with confidence.

“That’s great Taylor, but you are on the waiting list for arcadia. A new school will be a fresh start. You don’t have to graduate so early. You should be out making friends.”

“It could be awhile before I get in, and it just feels so pointless at this point. My grades have never been higher, and I intend to test out when I turn 16.”

“Well if it really doesn’t work, I promise you can just take the test and get your GED.” he said as he put his hand on my shoulder. “But I would still like for you to try and make some friends. Not everyone is like Emma. Regardless, once all this labor trouble is over, why don’t we take a vacation? Just the two of us.”

“I’d love that dad.”

I felt a new flash of guilt at Dad as he smiled at me. I returned the smile in turn, and we made small talk while we ate.

Should I just tell him everything? I gave it a lot of thought as dad ate. He’d probably insist I join the wards or tell the PRT. Especially because I’m a Tinker, and he would get scared at how dangerous is was for new Tinkers. If I imagined myself in the PRT shoes, I would be the last hero they would want. A Tinker with abilities similar to Nilbog, who can’t control her creations? Yeah the PRT would just love to support me.

No, I wouldn’t tell dad until I was trusted hero. Then I would tell him everything.

We ate in relative silence while we watched the news. There was a small piece on the governors proposed bill. Some Dutch aristocrat had been assassinated by the Blasphemies, and there was some kind of scandal with the hero Bastion, who had shouted a racial slur on camera.

It was around 8:00 when I kissed dad good night, and went to my room. Dad usually fell asleep around 8:30 since he had started to get up earlier. I would wait until 9 before I left. The buses ran until 10:00 on Fridays and started at 6:30 on Saturday.

I figured I could ride the bus to the lab, get off and spend a few hours growing the Lusus. Then take the first bus back home. Dad usually slept in until noon on Saturday, so I would have plenty of time to sneak back in and clean up.

Then I would tell Dad I was going to the library and sleep in the lab. Then head home and do the whole thing over again while collecting what I needed at the hospital. I quickly set my watch alarm and went to sleep.

==============================================

I really, really need to get a car.

Dad had taken me driving twice already, and there had been strong hints that he would buy a car for me when I turned sixteen. He already said that I was a natural. I was confident that I could purchase a cheap clunker for a few hundred in disguise and fix it up. I had already read a few books detailing car repair and maintenance and my Tinker abilities seemed to give me a gift for basic mechanical knowledge. But I just didn’t have the money for that right now. I was reminded of a quote by Salinger, “Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.”

I was always a night owl, and staying out late tinkering had become second nature at this point, but I had never walked the streets of the docks at night. This was the real docks not the relatively safe area where my house was. I had gone to Winslow, so it wasn’t as if I wasn’t used to the gangs. You had to learn how to spot things and not draw attention to yourself. It was just a very different experience walking the streets at night. Despite the presence of the Lusus, I felt a little afraid.

Fear is an important survival trait of course. There are usually very good reasons to be afraid of something, and your chance of survival goes up by avoiding it. So intellectually I know why it’s a normal and useful thing for people to be apprehensive in the dark. But that doesn’t change the fact that being out in the open like this was very distressing. I felt like I was back at Winslow, unable to relax for a moment and being wary of everything.

The SX-2’s squeezed in response and I felt a touch of reassurance at their presence. I had ended up bringing all six of them out with me. They curled around my waist and arms hidden under my oversized coat. I also had two of them hidden in my backpack and gym bag. I knew that I probably wouldn’t be bothered too much. I was tall enough, and “sigh” flat enough that with my hood over my head I could be mistaken for a boy so I wouldn’t seem like an easy victim.

The fact that I currently had an older male face also made it easy to hide who I was. One of my very first inventions had been a fungus with a human skin like quality. It had taken some practice, but growing and shaping it into a face hadn’t been too hard. If I ever failed as a hero I could probably make a killing as a plastic surgeon.

I had ended up copying my regular face, but changed things around enough to seem like an older male. I could pass for close relative pretty easily. It wasn’t completely perfect though. There was a little bit of an uncanny valley effect despite my best efforts. Though as long as no one looked too closely, it would pass inspection.

It was a little chilly tonight, which may have been why the streets were mostly empty with hardly any ABB members around. During the day there were large groups of them swaggering around wearing their colors proudly. But right now the sidewalks were almost empty which made everything seem so much more ominous.

This part of the docks showed that the Brockton was going through some tough times with the large amount of abandoned and boarded up buildings.

I sighed as I walked up to the bust stop. Someone was peeing in it. Lovely. I glanced at my watch. The bus should be here another five minutes. I wisely decided to wait well away from the bus stop while the man who looked like a junkie with his shaky hands was sitting down.

I imagined Emma laughing at a superhero waiting for the bus. I’d make a joke about a bus themed superhero called The Bus Driver. Then we’d laugh and start talking about something stupid.

It still comes so easily to me thinking that we are still friends. Imagining me joking and laughing with her. I can so easily picture sharing with her that I’m a parahuman and my plans to be a hero. I imagine her excitement, her showing of support and insistence on helping to make me a costume, and scheduling brainstorming sessions together at her house. Just the two of us, like always.

I forcibly push those thoughts aside. That was a far different Taylor, and a far different life. My friend is gone, and I need to stop living in the past.

Where the hell is the stupid bus?

The Lusus tighten suddenly when I hear a gunshot. Thankfully it’s far away, and they relax as my breathing slows down. It’s been too long since I have been out of the house and I have to get used to gunshots again. Things aren’t too bad right now with the Butcher trying to expand in Saint Louis. The Teeth tend to just defend their borders when the Butcher is gone. Skidmark and Spree cared more about selling product than expanding territory.

PHO liked to say that Brockton Bay had seasonal hot and cold periods. During cold seasons the gangs tended to avoid fighting and trying to expand borders. There were occasional border skirmishes but very little open fighting. They usually entered a cold period when an Endbringer was due to arrive, or when the gangs were recovering from a nasty fight.

Then something would happen and set off a hot season. The Butcher would arrive and try to expand, the Empire would go out and do something nasty, someone major would go down like the Marquis, or Accord would try to force the Teeth out of Brockton again.

The bus is late, and I feel self-conscious standing alone here. Having nothing better to do, I started to picture what I would need to move my Lusus around. They’d bring too much attention just wandering the streets at night. The ability to move my Lusus where they were needed would be big issue in my effectiveness as a hero. I imagined having a series of non-nondescript trucks that I could hide them in as I moved them where needed.

I couldn’t think of a way to make one that was big enough to transport others and also fly. There were limits to what I could grow, and making a tank big enough to grow something that size would be a giant waste of resources.

I turn and can’t help but think finally when the bus rolls up. The SX-2 were a bit startled when the bus stopped suddenly in front of me. Thankfully I had programmed them to not rattle their tails without the little whistle sound I could make with my lips. I made a mental note to work on how skittish they were for future versions. I didn’t want them freaking out at every loud noise. The older female driver stared at me a little as my coat moved, but didn’t say anything as I climbed aboard.

In Brockton you learn to not say anything and not bring attention to yourself. Knowing this city, I honestly would not be surprised if she had seen weirder things at night. There were always rumors going around about weird stuff at night. The latest rumor on PHO was some kind of time holes that pushed you a few seconds forward and backward in time.

There was a large group of young looking ABB members in the back laughing and smoking despite the no smoking sign. I sat in the front, and looked at my watch again. The bus being late had put me behind schedule and I only had few hours before the buses closed, so I would have to be quick. I planned to take this bus to the last stop at the north part of town, then move through the patches of undeveloped land to the back of the hospital.

At my current walking speed, I should have roughly an hour to grab what I could find and be back in time. I had already scouted during the day, and knew there was a tree I could use to climb over the fence.

I sat and felt a little flustered that I had nothing to do. I hadn’t brought my cell or ID, so I had nothing to distract me about my nervousness. There were of course so many things that could go wrong. The areas above and below the docks was Teeth territory, and I had heard all the stories about how the teeth liked to abduct people and make them fight with prospective members in big groups hoping for one of them to trigger. I could get caught and arrested for trespassing and any number of other nasty scenarios.

No, I said to myself. Stop and take ten deep breaths. I had already taken my medication, and I had practiced organizing my thoughts. The book I read on depression said to try and stop accentuating the negative. No one knew who I was, and I would be fine. I was going to find the equipment I needed to build a better way to program the Lusus and be back in time.

Despite trying to relax my muscles, I couldn’t help but tense up as the bus moved. It really was like I was back in school.

I jumped despite myself as the ABB members started catcalling and for a second I thought it was at me. But they were focused on a pretty Asian woman who was obviously very uncomfortable. She and the other passengers didn’t react despite the rather lewd remarks, continuing to stare straight ahead. It was well known that the ABB liked to force new immigrants to work off their debt they owed to the ABB in brothels. She decided to get off at the next stop and it looked like she was crying.

I feel this rage building up inside me. I carefully stared straight ahead to not show it despite the fact that I am nearly grinding my teeth. This is why I wanted to be a hero. It wasn’t right that bastards like them made people afraid and I find myself thinking of Emma and Sophia.

When the bullying had started, I had tried to be a pacifist by not fighting back. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, and at least a part of me thought Emma might go back to being my friend. I didn’t fight or react, I just tried to run away and read. But of course it didn’t work. They escalated and started destroying my stuff, making me feel miserable, and wouldn’t leave me alone.

Things didn’t really change until mom had her accident and was in the hospital. I still didn’t realize how bullies really worked until Emma had cornered me one day and started to make fun of my mother. She blamed me for causing her accident and said horrible things about her. And I snapped.

I finally realized that Bullies don’t pick social outcasts to send a message, or even make it harder for them to make friends although Emma had Sophia had done that to me. They did it because social outcasts like me are more vulnerable. Bullies are weak and pathetic. They’re just taking out their own issues on the weakest target around. I didn’t know what caused Emma to change, or why Sophia was a psycho, but I officially stopped caring. I couldn’t care less what they did to me, but you don’t fuck with my mother.

So I tried to fight back. I kept a journal detailing everything they did to me. I went to teachers and asked them to step in and asked them why they did nothing. I made appointments with the principal, and tried to insult Emma back. I had been her best friend at one point too, so I also had info that I knew would hurt. But nothing worked.

The teachers did nothing, Emma and Sophia escalated their behavior, and mom died. I’m not sure but I was fairly sure that was when I triggered as I struggled to figure out a way to stop them. I refused to let those bitches win. I found a small camera, installed it in my glasses, and recorded everything I did. From my attempts to seek help, and everything they did to me. I got a lawyer and I gave the school an out. I wouldn’t sue them if they expelled Emma and Sophia or made them attend counseling, and they had to bring in a bullying specialist to change their ways.

I had won, but I knew that there people all over the world that couldn’t defend themselves. People who are weaker than their bullies, and need help. These gang banger motherfuckers deserved to be afraid to ride the bus, and to be scared to walk the streets at night. It wouldn’t even be hard. I already had designs for the humanoid models that could blend in and harass the gangs. The ABB would be easy to fight because they always wore their colors. It should be relatively easy to get the Lusus to only attack those colors. I silently thanked the assholes in the back of the bus. They had caused all my doubts and fear to melt away.

We continued to ride for a few minutes, when the gang members pointed and yelled out the window. I turned and saw Slake streaking down the street clad in her signature motorcycle helmet and leathers.

Slake was one of the many rogues the city. She was dressed in dark motorcycle leathers, with a custom blue motorcycle helmet depicting water droplets. Her legs were moving like she was ice skating, surrounded by her breaker field that looked like suspended rain. She was a mover and long-range teleporter that ran a personal delivery company. She charged a thousand dollars just for a meeting, and it was rumored on PHO that she ran deliveries for Toybox and other tinkers.

I felt a brief pang of jealousy as she skated up the side of a building. It would be nice to have such a straightforward power. She got to speed through the city, while I had to go and steal copper for money.

Though once I had my equipment going I did have a few plans to make some money. I’m sure plenty of people would like custom built pets. A miniature elephant, or a panda dog had to sell very well. Still that was the future and it was time to focus on the present I thought to myself as the bus finally reached my stop. I walked slowly out of the bus and pointedly ignored the driver giving me a weird look.

I checked my watch again as I started to walk at a brisk pace. I was thankful I had continued my running routine to build up my stamina and distract my thoughts. Though walking through old lots was different than my treadmill.

I found myself relaxing as the buildings gave way to woods and there were less potential eyes on me. Though I could feel my legs starting to get tired. Perhaps I should increase my workout, but I was still worried about my schedule. Most of my free time was spent tinkering, and wasting another hour to exercise didn’t seem worth it. I wondered how a Tinker like Armsmaster had time to work out while working on his equipment and being a hero. I’d buy any book he had on time management.

I slowed down to a crawl as I neared the back of the old hospital. I peered at it with my binoculars I had borrowed from dad. There was just enough moonlight to illuminate the whole building. No one was sure why this building had been abandoned, as it was still relatively new when it closed.

The whole area was supposed to start seeing major development, but that had completely stalled. There were rumors of the 9 and the Marquis fighting here, but that was probably just the same old PHO rumors.

I moved slowly toward the nearby tree by the fence. I had snuck a little stool I had found in a dumpster nearby on my previous scouting visit, and used it climb up on a branch. I awkwardly shimmied over the fence and jumped down with a thud. I glanced around, but nothing made a sound.

The building had a small maintenance door on the side that I was able to pick without too much trouble. The building was much cooler inside, though it was pitch black. I turned on my flashlight that I had put fresh batteries in preparation for this trip.

I walked slowly down the hall, carefully scanning the walls as I neared what had to have been a lobby. I finally found a map and spent a few minutes memorizing where I needed to go and how to get back.

I was headed for the Acute Assessment Unit, which should have most of the hospitals old medical machinery. I needed the parts to work on my brain scanner and re-programmer. I also made a note to myself to think of a better name for it then that.

The hospital was a little stuffy, but I enjoyed the solitude. It reminded me of my lab. Nothing but silence and muted light.

I walked for about five minutes before I found the right department. The door was locked, put didn’t take too long to pick. I swept my flashlight over and smiled.

“Jackpot”.

There were numerous old scanning machines, and plenty of old computer equipment I could salvage for parts. I unpacked my tools and got to work. I only took the most useful of stuff since I didn’t have a lot of room, and I would have to carry it all back on a bus. I thought of punching a hole and sending the Lusus through the wall, but I was already running out of room, and I could always come back for the copper later.

I check my watch again. I was actually ahead of schedule for once, and I should be done early.

After some time unscrewing quite a few tiny screws, my gym bag was full, and I was having some trouble zipping up my backpack. That’s when I heard the voices and froze.

It sounded like at least two people and they didn’t sound that far away. I turned off my flashlight, and crawled to the door. I knew I should just take my stuff and run but sounds carried weird in the building. I’d have trouble moving quickly or quietly with all of my loot. It would be better to get a good idea of how many of them there are and where they were before I made a decision.

I crept silently through the door and tried to breathe as quietly as I could.

As I got closer I could hear voices arguing and laughing. They sounded like they had been drinking. As I heard a crash, I upgraded my assessment to drinking heavily. I crawled on my belly and stuck my head around the corner and immediately pulled it back in.

There were three of them facing away from me. They were drinking and passing around a bag of something. I wasn’t sure but it looked like they were wearing colored tags, which meant the Teeth. They liked to display trophies.

I cursed my rotten luck. What the hell were they doing here? Whatever the reason, things were too dangerous to stay. The Teeth might not be very active with the Butcher gone, but I knew plenty of nasty scenarios that could play out if they found out I was here.

I ran the odds in my head as I walked quickly away. There were only three of them, and they were not in the best mental state. I should have enough time to gather my stuff and get away as long as I was quiet and quick. I can salvage this.

Of course that was when I turned the corner and ran right into another one. I couldn’t see too much of his face in the dark, but he stepped back in surprise.

“There’s somebody here”, he shouted as he rushed toward me. I tried to move but he was too fast as he pushed me against the wall. He looked like he was about to say something, but I didn’t give him the chance as I let out a loud whistle. The Lusus stirred and came alive.

He didn’t have a flashlight, which was probably why he didn’t react immediately as the Lusus put their heads out my coat. The ones on my arms were quick enough to bite him a few times, but the ones around my waist couldn’t get out in time.

He fell back and screamed clutching at his arms where they had bit him and I kicked him as hard as I could between his legs, which caused him to fall on his back. He cried out and started to rise but his head was the perfect height to kick again.

He jolted back to the floor and didn’t get up. Based off his size and seeming weight, the venom should already be having an effect paralyzing him. I could already hear his buddies coming. Should I try to run or confront them?

I quickly weighed my options and decided to try and scare them.

Most people when confronted with a cape would run away especially with someone whose power was unknown. I could run, but they knew I was here and there was no way I could lug my stuff and remain hidden with them looking for me. If I could scare them, they might just run away and let me take what I needed

I unzipped my jacket and gently placed a Lusus around my head. Then had the others crawl around me as I whistled a different note and the Lusus began to rattle.

The flashlight was a little blinding so I couldn’t get a good look at them, but I must have made quite a sight as they backed away. I imagined what I looked like. An eerily perfect male face, with six oversized green snakes rattling at them as they coiled around me.

“LEAVE” I said as loudly as I could to be heard over the rattling. Note to self, if I get away make sure to work on my cape voice.

“Cape,” one of them shouted. One of them turned and ran immediately, but the other two advanced as I saw one of them start to pull something out his pocket.

Shit, I threw one of the Lusus at him, and ran as fast as I could.

I could hear the guy with the gun jump back panicked, and started firing at the Lusus. I wasn’t prepared for how loud the gun was, but I didn’t look back.

Shit, shit, shit. I frantically pulled out my sprayer and sprayed the ground as I ran. Then I dropped off two of the Lusus around the corner and kept running.

I made it around another corner when I heard cursing and the gun firing again. I wasn’t’ sure if the gunman could hit a small, fast Lusus like the SX-2 while inebriated, but considering my luck so far I didn’t want to bet on it.

I stopped to take a breath and tried to think of plan. I could hear yelling and it sounded like one of them was throwing chairs at the other two Lusus. Hopefully they might decide to leave, but I needed a plan.

I quickly went through a nearby double door, propped one open, and gently wrapped a Lusus around the handle on the other side of the closed door. I also placed another on top of the door that was open. I quickly sprayed the area, and walked at a brisk pace.

I figured I should double back, and be quiet. The hospital was a maze in the dark, and the Lusus could attack in the dark. I was breathing hard, but I tried to slow down and listen.

Several minutes went by before I heard slow walking. Sounded like it was just one person, but I couldn’t be sure from where I was. I stayed still and wrapped the Lusus around my hand.

I heard the door open and a scream, as the door was wretched back closed. I could hear the footsteps running away before there was curse and horrible screaming. Whoever it was screamed for almost a minute before he finally shut up.

I waited two more minutes before I decided to go and investigate from the back. I sprayed myself so that the Lusus would follow me, and pulled out the little paper balls I had filled with the attack pheromone.

I glanced down the hallway, and saw a body lying next to a dropped flashlight. I walked cautiously as the Lusus followed at my feet. I gently prodded the big guy with the my foot but he didn’t move.

I hope he wasn’t dead. I needed both hands to turn the body over, and reveal an older, shirtless, man with a weird face tattoo. He wasn’t moving and the venom had worked as intended, and I could hear his weak breathing. His pulse was a little weak though. I saw his eyes track me in fear while I searched his pockets. A gun, one extra magazine, a bag of I what I assume is meth, and a wallet with two hundred dollars in cash.

“Blink twice if you have any known allergies and once for no”.

The man, who smelled like he hadn’t shower in a year, quickly blinked once. Okay he should be fine. I made another mental note to work on a version of venom that will incapacitate someone and still let them talk.

That leaves two more to check, and a third possibly still around. I examined the gun, and was careful to point it away from me. I didn’t know a lot about guns, but I think the safety was off. I didn’t turn on my flashlight as I walked slowly down the hall. I could hear the guy on the ground rapidly have hushed breathing as the Lusus crawled over him after me.

Strange I thought. Why am I so calm? I was nervous all night about taking the bus, but not when guns are going off? Note to self-Study research on parahuman resilience and mental states.

I was cautious as I peered around another corner but I saw another unmoving body and several hastily thrown chairs. This guy had actually managed to hit one of the Lusus with a bullet, but the other one had gotten close enough to bite him. Though it seems like he had stomped it to death before the paralysis took effect. I quickly picked up the dead Lusus, and went over the dropped man.

Breathing and pulse was okay, though he was out cold. Seems he fainted. I was wary as I went to man I had kicked, but no one else showed up.

The other two members netted me some empty wallets and some keys, which I quickly took. I weighed my options and hurried back to my bags. There was no sign of the fourth guy, but he could be on his way with help. I didn’t have a phone to call the cops, so I decided to leave the Teeth members there. Someone might have heard the gunshots and the screaming.

Hopefully the cops or the heroes were on their way. The paralysis should wear off and they would be all right in few hours. I quickly ran back and starting taking all of my salvage and made my way back.

I carefully looked out through the door, and didn’t see anyone. But I did discover a truck that the teeth had apparently come in. It looked old but useable. I glanced quickly around, and decided to take it. I wouldn’t get any weird looks on the bus, and I could use it in the future. I hauled my stuff to the bed of the truck, and put the Lusus under my coat again. I sighed in relief as the truck started.

I was very gentle with the accelerator as I drove to the open front gate, and drove slowly back to town trying to remember Dad’s few lessons. I kept to the side streets and made sure to stop at every stop sign.

I felt a little safer as I neared my lab. Though I was still shocked at how calm I was. I should never have investigated the noise, and instead should have left immediately. Still I did get a car out of it.

I decided to drive and park the truck near the house so I could take it back to the lab later. It would save me from having to take the bus. The teeth might be looking for it, but I would only drive late at night, and I would work on making it unrecognizable.

So I was down three SX Lusus, but I had gained the parts I needed and got a car. But things had been too dangerous. I promised myself that I wouldn’t take any more stupid risks. I need to be careful and build things up. When I’m done, the ABB and the Teeth will be the ones feeling wary in the dark.

 

[TheAnt]

Seed 1-2

Well so much for that job. I crossed it off of my list and kept walking down the boardwalk. How could I get experience if every entry-level position required experience? Just as well, I don’t think that uniform would have been very flattering on my figure. Still I was feeling a bit dejected. Another place turned me down because I was only fifteen. I had applied to several places and none of them had panned out for one reason or another.

If I was being honest, it didn’t really matter anyway. Not a single one of the jobs I had applied to paid anywhere near enough to meet my needs. I needed substantially more than minimum wage to buy what I needed to expand and experiment. The hospital had paid a decent wage, but Dad had put his foot down about me staying out so late, and that was the time they really needed someone to watch patients. Dad had pressured me to quit, and I reluctantly agreed since I really wasn’t learning much anyway. Tutoring was nice, but it didn’t give me that many hours. I had thought of a scheme of trying to clone and give out blood, but I had given up after realizing that hospitals would pick up some weird observations on it. I could forget about using my own blood after my recent upgrades.

My idea for collecting scrap and copper had some unfortunate complications. Dad had laughed himself silly at all the newspapers with the headlines of monkey sightings. The monkey Lusus had seemed like a good idea at the time. I had made them nocturnal and given them instincts to hide and avoid people. I programmed them to gather old bottles and cans to turn in for change. I’d be cleaning up the streets and making some extra cash on the side. But they had worked a little too well.

They had started stealing bottles and cans from people’s homes and stores causing people to think something weird was going on. My attempts to tweak their behavior had backfired. They had started overturning trashcans to get cans, and they had started taking more chances causing people to catch glimpses of them. Fuzzy photographs and reports of them snatching bottles out of peoples hands pushed the rumors of escaped monkeys in Brockton Bay into accepted fact.

I had reluctantly recycled them, as they were bringing in too much attention. I remembered the PHO thread for advice for new Tinkers, and its number one suggestion of being as paranoid as possible about people tracing your activities to you. While the chances of someone putting together the sighting of a snake master attacking some Teeth and weird monkeys showing up were very small, it was better to be safe than sorry. Just as well since I couldn’t really afford to feed them anymore anyway. I had already spent almost all of the profits from that little idea.

I stopped for a bit and admired the sun reflecting off the ocean. I felt my skin tingle as I basked in the rays and felt energized. At least my new skin was working. I would need to stop by the lab to run a few tests, but my internal sensors didn’t show any abnormalities in my body when I looked them up on my phone.

With nothing better to do I mostly wandered the Lords Market. I enjoyed looking at all the stuff people had to sell since I had come across some great deals before. I ended up buying a great white tooth necklace since it was so cheap. I could drill it open and get a great DNA sample. After wandering out for an hour, I decided to call it a day and go back to the lab. I had a few things to check, and I might as well finish replacing the rest of the skin on my legs. Being in the pool was also pretty relaxing and I was a little stressed at the moment.

I walked with a brisk pace to the parking lot and found my truck. I had spent quite a bit of time fixing it up, and it was almost unrecognizable to when I had taken it from the Teeth. The single Lusus I had on me stirred as I put my seatbelt on, and I patted it affectionately through my shirt. I made sure to check my mirrors as I backed up and drove out of the parking lot. I was very careful to be the safest driver possible so I didn’t bring attention to myself. I had quickly discovered that you didn’t actually need a license to drive in the United States. All you had to do was stay off the main roads, drive carefully, and no one looked twice. It made the commute to the lab much easier with a car.

My lab was in the dead part of town, north of the docks. There wasn’t much if any construction here, and a lot of crumbling infrastructure compared to the nicer part of town in the south part of the city. Quite a few buildings were abandoned, and I didn’t have to worry too much about people. I was technically in Teeth territory, but they were never active this early in the morning, and I felt safe enough. Especially since there was a large PHO thread about them attacking Accord. They’d pull all their forces to wait for the inevitable counterattack to reclaim territory from the Ambassadors.

I had discovered the building when I had been hunting for some mechanical parts for some robotic arms in a nearby factory. I had discovered an old basement that seemed to predate the building that connected to the sewers and it had been the perfect size for my lab. With a little work I had made the door hidden, and placed the two cameras I had made dealing with Emma in the factory itself and at the door. I carefully got out and parked the car into a nearby ally and pulled the camouflaged tarp over it.

I checked the camera fee with my phone to make sure no one was nearby and then whistled. Nothing happened for a while before I heard a scraping, and the wall started to open up toward me. I still felt a small thrill every time the wall opened. Who didn’t want a secret door to your own hidden lab?

I waited patiently for the SX-18 to crawl back into his hidey-hole, and then moved through the open passage at a light job. I had spent time supplanting it’s programming, but the SX-18 was still prone to releasing the pulley and closing the wall almost immediately after it was opened. I could have wiped the mind and started over again, but I wanted to study its brain since there was a possibility of managing to grow it even bigger.

The SX-18 had been the culmination of all my research on the SX model and my artificial growth experiments. It was more of a worm than a snake, about sixteen feet long and as high as my waist. It was a dark brown color, looking almost like a tree root when its mouth wasn’t open. It had taken weeks of careful managing of its body but I managed to grow it far larger than its base forms had started. I wanted to see how much further I could get it too grow, but the research wasn’t vital enough to justify spending my limited budge on it.

The walk into my lab was always a little claustrophobic and I had to duck a bit when I walked down the tunnel. I walked carefully in the dark with my hand on the wall, as I traced the path into my lab. I had memorized the route and a few obstacles I had placed to make it more treacherous. Though I was a little annoyed that there wasn’t any rattling. I whistled as loud as I could and I was reward with several previous SX models starting to rattle. They were supposed to rattle if they heard anyone move, but I hadn’t quite got the programming right. The next version of the small model should be able to function properly but it wasn’t enough of an issue to recycle them and create an entire new line.

I hugged the left wall to avoid the pit, and held my arm out until I finally felt the door. I braced myself and pushed it open with a shove. I could feel the empty space and clapped my hands twice and the lab lights turned on.

My lab was about as big as the school gym at Winslow had been. It wasn’t much too look at it, but it was mine. I had arranged my equipment in a circle around the main tank in the center of the room. I had tried my best to keep things organized but there was a hodgepodge of old equipment and experiments scattered around. There was uneven lighting since I had scavenged whatever I could find. Old Christmas lights, old searchlights, my custom built UV lamps, and desk lamps all connected to my battery bank showed floor and walls made of muted stone. The lab was filled with the satisfying smell of pine needles everywhere. That meant the newest composition of biofuel was mixing like it should. The last batch hadn’t mixed right and the smell had been so putrid, I had thrown it out instead of using it.

I took off my coat as it was a little warm and started to make my rounds. I carefully checked the generator, and made sure the gas tank was full before I turned it on. The generator had been my very first purchase for the lab, and I had gotten a great deal from the market since it had been broken when I bought it. It hadn’t taken too long to fix up, and easily recharged my battery bank that was made up of upgraded car batteries. While it was a bit of fuel hog, that had stopped being a problem now I that I could make my own gas.

I picked up a nearby canister and slowly started spraying another dose of pheromones, while occasionally stepping over a few stray SX Lusus. I wanted them free to protect the lab, but I didn’t want them running around everywhere and leading people to it. After I was satisfied, I moved to the DNA extractor and viewed my latest acquisition under the microscope. I took a nearby hammer and unceremoniously smashed it. Then I sprayed a special solution and wiped the inside with a q-tip. I rubbed it on a slide, and was rewarded with some useable Great White DNA. I scanned it to the computer, and put the sample in my fridge with the others. The market had been a gold mine for useable samples. I had bought old bear claws, a wolf skull, and an actual monkey’s paw.

I sat down and pulled out a coke from my mini fridge while I waited for my computer to boot up. I admired Panacea’s autograph hanging on the front as I drank. Panacea had been the one spot of good luck from working at the hospital. I should really write her a letter of thanks or bake her a pie or something. She had given me so many great ideas just from witnessing her work with her power. I hoped we could work together once I was a hero. She could make my work infinitely easier, and ours powers had great synergy.

Her ability to be able to tell with a touch every single thing about a living organism from its history to its projected future, had given me some ideas for biological sensors pre-built into my Lusus. The sensors would be connected to a computer program that built a sophisticated model of them that I could use to carefully scan, track, and predict changes to the Lusus as I made adjustments to their genes. It saved me an incredible amount of time in pruning the seed growths, and helped to streamline my design work. They had proven so useful I had installed a few for myself to continually monitor my health and brain activity.

But the real inspiration had been when I saw her use a pig for biological material to grow extra mass for a patient. That had been eye opening, and I practically shook from envy. The things I could do with that power. Seeing her breaking apart a pig had given me a great idea for programmable biological matter. The possibilities for the medical field and my own work were huge. I envisioned putting a solution into a cut or wound, and watch it scan and grow into what was missing. Or being able to instantly create a custom built Lusus. I envisioned making a solution made from breaking down seeds and a few other ingredients into biological ooze, and teaching it how to become whatever I wanted.

Of course I had very quickly run into problems with resources. To make even the smallest amount of such a solution would take a truly ridiculous number of seeds. To achieve the quality necessary would also require a far more pure and advanced seed than what I had now. I didn’t have anywhere near the tools to even try and make it. Even if I made them though, I still needed a way to mass-produce them. Cloning such a seed would degrade it too much for my purposes. That meant that it would require very large amounts of expensive materials.

Despite that I had started experimenting and the research had been very fruitful when I decided to combine it with my growth and artificial meat projects by creating what I called project G. It’s tank took up a entire corner of lab, and I pulled up its internal sensors to make sure there wasn’t anything requiring my attention. Project G was essentially a giant, living, growing, blob of meat. I had modeled it after simple cells and used a fungal base crossed with the simplest organisms I could find.

Project G had been my greatest work so far, and a solution to several of my problems. It acted as my garbage disposal, was the main ingredient in my bio fuel, and I could even use it as a living base for the creation of my Lusus. No more wondering if I could bring myself to capture, caring for, and then murder animals to make my Lusus. Portions of project G were alive enough to use as a base for my Lusus, and it regrew as I fed it my failures. Despite my happiness at Project G, the euphoria had proven short lived, as I hadn’t made anything that great since then. My most recent crowning achievement had been making an injector that didn’t require needles by virtue of going right through the skin.

The bug research had proven to be a dead end. To save money and try a few things on a smaller scale I had started experimenting with creating bug hybrids. There were a huge variety of bugs, with a vast amount of different abilities that could prove useful in larger Lusus models. But I couldn’t get them to grow big enough to be useful. They just weren’t built for it thanks to their exoskeletons and lack of lungs. I had tried to make a model that could theoretically survive if was much bigger but had failure after failure. While it opened up a few new interesting lines of research, the project hadn’t produced any real useable results.

Then there was the brain programming failures. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t ignore the fact that my control of the Lusus wasn’t that great. I could use pheromones to instruct them to be attracted or repelled and thus herd them toward something. I could also cause them to go wild and attack, but that’s when I ran into trouble. Their brains just weren’t able to take that much information and there was a limit to what I could teach them. While I had some success in figuring out a way to reprogram them with new instructions, I hadn’t been able to improve their cognitive abilities to carry out even simple instructions.

Well that wasn’t technically true. I could theoretically make them sapiant, but the ethical issues were too great. Besides, I was way too young to be a mother. As it was, the Lusus were really only good for guarding something. Having them out in the open was too dangerous for civilians as they would be unable to differentiate from friend or foe. So I wouldn’t be using them to be a hero anytime soon. I needed something I could more definitely control and that would not hurt civilians under any circumstances.

That was where the exoskeleton idea had come in. I had seen some of the richer senior citizens use custom built exoskeletons to make moving around easier at the hospital. I could make a humanoid Lusus, connect it to a very advanced exoskeleton, and program the exoskeleton to follow more complicated directions. At least that was the theory. Connecting my Lusus was a little outside my tinker specialization, and I wasn’t sure if I could do it or not. I’d need to experiment and take if from there.

But of course the main issue, as always, was money. To build an exoskeleton from scratch would cost a pretty penny, and I was already at a breaking point with funds. Even finding two jobs, in addition to my allowance would only give me just enough to maintain the bare minimum of upkeep and repair on my equipment. Saving to build new equipment and start building a exoskeleton prototype was unbearably slow. I was at my wits end trying to figure out a way to make more money. Maybe I will think of something in the tank I thought as I stripped down to my underwear.

There had been one benefit to running into a roadblock in my Lusus research. In my quest to find something to do without wasting too much of my funds on growing Lusus, I had stumbled on a great new line of research and experimentation. Namely studying my own body and brain. I had started by getting a full diagnostic of my entire body, scanning anything and everything. I gave myself the works getting a full genetic makeup, brain scans, and complete computer model on my body. Then I had spent weeks working on ways to improve myself and had come up with a few ideas.

First I had made some custom gene therapies to improve my health based off a few extraordinary but completely human research subjects from other medical studies. My white and red blood count was now much higher after seeing a few studies on gold winning Olympic athletes. I had seen studies of children regrowing fingertips and did some great work on improving my body’s natural regenerative abilities. By far the best idea had been changing my genes so I only required few hours of sleep a night. That had been a godsend since I had started to stay out all the time, since my first human sized Lusus was a perfect replica of me and took my place every night in my bed.

I greatly enjoyed improving my own body, and I hadn’t had so much fun in a long time. Trying to figure out ways to push things farther and given me an idea on trying to copy some of the abilities of my Lusus. All of my Lusus models required far less food and rest since they were able to intake some of their energy requirement from UV radiation. I made a few clones and tried different methods of making it work in regular human body. The gene work took awhile, but I managed to find something that worked without side effects. I used my first generation and most easily made seeds to make a custom skin that allow me to take some energy from being out in the sun. It took a little while to make it my natural skin color instead of green, but I was largely ready to replace my skin.

Modern medical science already had biological 3d printers and a method to regrow skin for burn victims. My skin gun hadn’t taken too long to create and was as good or better than what others had. I had built two robotic arms with parts from the nearby factory to do the surgery more safely than my own hands could. The finished version of my skin was ready to graft on and replace my old one. I already had an effective painkiller without side effects, and my new skin was easily able to repair any damage so no one would be able to tell. Once the full process was complete, I would require less food, even less sleep, and skin blemishes would be a thing of the past. I had already completed the procedure with one of my clones and no issues had arisen.

I had come to enjoy lying down in the tank while the arms did the surgery. It was relaxing feeling my body go numb, reading up on PHO, and knowing my work was helping me. I carefully lay down on my back, gave myself an injection, pulled over the computer, and activated the arms. They would be finishing up my legs today. They made a nice little whirring sound as they got to work.

I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of the machines.

Just relax.

Try to think Taylor. What can you do that is worth money? Well my upgrades work, and I’m sure people will pay for it. But it is very intensive, and takes while. Not to mention keeping myself a secret is supposed to be priority until I can properly defend myself. A tinker is too juicy a target for the gangs to not to chances. But no matter how much I wrack my brain, I can’t think of anything. Wish I could swap my brain for a better one.

That’s when it comes to me. I actually can replace a brain.

I can grow replacement organs! People should still pay good money for replacement organs. With a little work, I can make even better versions. I pull my computer over and start to research all that I can.

While 3d printing of organs greatly saved a large number of lives, it was very expensive. Not too many hospitals or places had access to such tech, and usually only the people on the top of the waiting list got to use it. Then there is the large tax break the government gave for organ donors in response to the Endbringer attacks. While not as many people became organ donors as I pictured, there was still a much larger pool of organ donors.

Despite all of that, there was still a waiting list. While is was much shorter than it used to be, there were still plenty of people that died waiting for one to show up. Mostly the people at the bottom of the list who were older, had other conditions that complicated things, or didn’t take care of their bodies. So there was a ready-made market for my work.

I do the figures in my head. Resources are stretched, but with some minimal investment I can build a simple organ farm. While I have to grow a full clone to get a decent organ, eventually I might be able to just grow the organ itself after some more research into the next generation of seeds. Surely the people on the list would donate if meant they were at the top of my waiting list, right?

I’d do things properly. A sliding pay scale so people could pay what they could afford. Still there was something like ten thousand people on the list right now. Just using the bottom third added up to few thousand organs. With the right equipment I could grow lets say three clones at once, then harvest the organs, and have project G recycle everything else. With the right resources I could grow three to six clones in a day. Though even that was pushing it, as I had to carefully monitor things by myself.

Setting up a business might be difficult. I wasn’t sure how things worked, and even a cursory search on rogues showed that they got a bad deal. I really didn’t want to reveal my identity. I loved having the freedom to do what I wanted and not having to worry about PRT regulations. Not to mention I had read the Tinker horror stories on PHO. Be paranoid and trust no one. Plenty of rogues were killed, ended up working for the Elite, or were forced to join a gang. I would wait to contact the PRT until I knew more and I hired a lawyer for his time. I knew my specialty would not be liked by the PRT, but it could save a lot of lives after all.

But first I will need results, and proof that what I can do is safe. If I contact the people on the waiting list, tell them what I can do, ask for a sample, and give them an organ perfectly suited to their body, I can make some money to set up a true operation. Performing the surgery shouldn’t be too difficult but I wanted to keep interaction between us to the minimum. I’m sure they could find someone to perform the surgery without me. There were plenty of doctors in the world after all.

Okay, I have a plan. The next step will be finding who is actually on the waiting list and that could be an issue. I already know from trying to get access to medical studies that medical records have a crazy amount of security. You can use them to identify parahumans so a lot of stuff had encryption made by Dragon. But there should still be plenty of people who have access to that list.

Physical records should also still exist and be in filing cabinets somewhere. I just have to find out how to access them. I had heard of information brokers on PHO who bought and sold information, maybe I could buy the waiting list off of them.

I quickly went back to PHO and started looking up people who bought or sold information. There was plenty of stuff on Thinkers who acted that way, but nothing much for how to contact them. I spent a few hours looking over PHO, while soaking my legs in a solution, until I found something that looked promising.

There was a thread buried deep that described people who buy and sell information. Most of the people involved seemed fake, or part of some type of scam. But reading through it showed one name that most accepted as being genuine. A user with a handle of TrueAristotle would hear a question, then ignore it or private message the person who asked it. Those who had been private messaged swore he was the real deal and made some money or gotten information from him.

He seemed useful, but I had my doubts. Weighting the pros and cons in my mind I decided to message him. What could it hurt? I made a new username with a new email, and used it to send him a message.

GreenHands- Hello, I am not sure if you are real or not but there are plenty of people who state you really can get them information. So I thought I would check and see if you can give me some information.

While I waited for a reply, I got up and started drying myself off with a towel. My legs were itchy as the nerves started regrowing, and I wanted to scan them to make sure there were no abnormalities. After about twenty minutes, I check back and there was a private message.

TrueAristotle- I have decided your question will be worth my time. I say the same thing to you that I tell everyone. Use this email service with a throwaway account and email me at this email. They do not keep records, and it is much more private that PHO. Email me your question, and I will give you a figure for that information. What do you want to know?

This seemed a little too easy, but there was no way for them to know who I was or track me. I had made the computer personally with the individual parts bought with cash, and I was using the Brockton Bay free Internet. It could save me a considerable amount of time and effort to find it on my own, but I would be suspicious of someone trying to find out that information. Still nothing ventured nothing gained. I set up an account and asked.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]
Subject: Question

Hello, can you get me the complete and current organ donor waiting list?

I noticed right away that these emails didn’t show a time and date when the message was sent. He responded almost immediately.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]
Subject: Answer and question

The cost for that information is 3, 168 dollars and 23 cents. Or you can sell me why you want this information and I will buy it for 12,422 dollars while giving you the information for free. To show you I am genuine I will pay you a portion right now. Send me an address and I will mail it in cash, or I can write a check. I have also used credit gift cards that you can use online and are transferred by email. If you do not have an email or address you trust, name a time and place in a city of your choice, and I will have a package waiting for you at the location. If you do not have a bank account, I can make arrangements for you to join a discrete bank service.

That was far quicker and more thorough than I was expecting. He just offered me twelve thousand dollars just for an answer? I was both excited and even more suspicious. He certainly gave the impression of being a thinker. Did he actually know what questions were worth his attention ahead of time? I could really use that money and I already had a plan to pick it up safely.

One of my previous moneymaking ideas had involved copying Slake and making a delivery company with messenger hawks that could pick up and drop off packages. I had never done it mostly because I didn’t want people to guess my specialty and there was a limit to how many locations I could program into a hawk’s brain and not lose the ability to fly. But I should easily be able to create a few, and program them to pick up a package from a certain spot. Then have them drop off the organs the same way. I wouldn’t be anywhere near whoever dropped it off. I could even make it so they looked exactly like regular hawks. But how to answer in a way to protect what I can do? In case he was a thinker I decided to say a half-truth.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

I am a parahuman who can grow parts of the body out of myself to strengthen my natural abilities. I wish to make some money by selling grown organs as rogue to people at the bottom of the donor list. But before I go into business, I need a large amount of start up money. I plan to message a few people on the list, and offer to sell them a compatible organ.

He or she didn’t respond right away. I refreshed over and over, but there was nothing. I was just about to go distract myself when I got another email.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Here is the updated list. It will change as time goes on. I have also made you a list of both the most desperate and wealthy on this list. If you wish for this to be the end of our dealings, just list a place to drop off the money and in what form.

If you wish, I can make contact with the people you choose on the list and arrange the transaction with whatever instructions you give for a fee of 10%.
Here is some more information that I have found very useful for new parahumans in case you want to continue to do business down the line. If you are interested, send me another email, and I will offer a price.

The unwritten rules about being a parahuman.

Parahuman law explanations.

Advice and information on useful people to know for parahumans.

Information on specific parahumans and people that isn’t well known.

If you ask a question and I don’t know it, I can point you to somebody who might be able to help.

For just a moment I am stunned. It had barely taken them ten minutes to give me what I wanted to know. He had given me a huge list of names and addresses. As well as three specific people who were especially wealthy and sick. A simple search on their names showed that. They were waiting for a new heart, liver, and kidney. My money troubles could be over.

It would make things easier, and I could ask for half of the money up front to make sure he didn’t try to cheat me. But this all seemed too easy and good to be true. Few thing usually were. But I should be safe and I can use the Lusus to pick up the money and drop off the organs. But how to ensure it is safe? Maybe I can use Slake as the courier. Her power is distinctive and she wouldn’t have any reason to try something. She had made a big show on her website of purchasing a lie detector from kid win and asking clients if what she delivered was a weapon, or illegal. I made my decision.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

I will take you up on your service. Contact the three you have picked and offer it for what they would be worth to anyone else. I require a sample of their blood to grow what I need. I want the blood and half of the money to be dropped off by Slake in a plain brown package. Have her drop off the blood and money here at noon and inform her to not be alarmed when a hawk picks it up. I will drop off the organs in the same way in two days at the same spot. What is the estimated worth of a new heart, liver, and kidney?

He again sent me a reply almost immediately, and didn’t ask further questions.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Depends on if you are talking black market or legal prices. Legal is worth more. Current black market prices, and what I will quote to the three chosen are as follows.

60,000 for the heart.

80,000 for the liver.

200,000 for the kidney.

Combined it totals 340,000. Those three can afford it, and I can sell them some information on a doctor who can do the surgeries discreetly.

Give me two days to make the arrangements with the three I mentioned. The blood and money will be dropped off by Slake there in one week, and I will have her pick up the organs in two days. I have a suggestion for a bank that will handle your money with no questions asked and is very profitable with your money. The man who runs it is called the Number Man, and he can set up an easy to use account for you. You can contact him here. It was a pleasure doing business with you.

Feel free to email this account in the future if you have some information you wish to buy or sell.


======================================

I’m a little excited as I wait for the Lusus to come back. Aristotle sent me an email in two days confirming the deal and I had a hidden camera that saw Slake arrive and wait. I sent out all three new hawk Lusus to make sure they can carry the package safely. All the materials were ready to make the clones and harvest the organs.

I still couldn’t believe it. Three hundred and forty thousand dollars made in less than a week! I practically drooled at the possibilities this could open up. A new lab with all the equipment and materials I wanted. It might take a while but I now had all the time in the world to make a Lusus that could more easily be controlled. I’d pay a lawyer for their time, and see how I could set things up for my business. Even if it didn’t work out, with the list and Aristotle’s help I could make plenty of money without the PRT knowing what I could do and still help people.

That’s when I hear the strained flapping and see all three Lusus lugging a large package through the roof of the building. They set it down gently on the cart and I whistle for the 18 to drag it to the lab. I feel a thrill at the sight of so much cash, but I force myself to check every inch for bugs or tracking devices. I want to make sure no one is trying to double cross or kidnap me. Then I do the same with the blood vials that are wrapped carefully in bubble tape. Everything checks out, and I immediately take the blood and head to the tubes. For once things are looking up.

 

[TheAnt]

Seed 1-3

Things had been going so well. I had started taking on more clients with Aristotle’s help and I had several million in the Number Man’s account. I could use him or Slake to deliver parts I needed discreetly, and my lab had improved dramatically. I had multiple glass cases for Lusus, could afford to build tools I never would have dared, and had numerous interesting animal samples. I had it all planned out. I would devote all my time until I could create a Lusus that would let be a hero, earn a trustworthy reputation from the heroes, and fully set up a business with dad in on it.

But it had all gone wrong.

The Exoskeleton project had been a complete dead end. I thought that my power would let me fill in the blanks, but it was just too far out of my specialization. I could grow the bodies just fine, but I just couldn’t connect them to the machine right. Even worse was the programming that had ended up being required was simply beyond my understanding. My prototypes were full of glitches and could barely move. They were far from a perfect police force capable of working with civilians in the city.

Then my depression had started to act up. I had thought I was doing fine, but then I started to get moments where I just become full of panic and anxiety while doing nothing. I was so forgetful, and it was just impossible to concentrate on my work. It reminded me back Sophia and Emma and all my old doubts had started to come back. What if I can never be a hero? I had so many plans and ideas for Lusus, but I couldn’t use them. They were just too unsafe to use. I couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t attack an innocent, kill someone, or destroy property.

Things had gotten even worse when I saw a mugging on one of the new cameras I had installed around the building. Three men had cornered another and beaten him very badly. He had literally been on the floor for hours before I saw him gradually get up and stagger away. I couldn’t even give the footage to the police because it had been too dark to get a good look at their faces. What kind of hero couldn’t save someone in trouble right outside her own door?

The gangs had started fighting again. We were entering another hot period according to PHO. The Empire had led a massive attack against Coil and Lung to take territory. Lung had taken them head on and the fighting had been really bad the last week. Quire a few deaths and casualties among gang members, and a large fire that had spread to a few buildings before they managed to put it out. Civilian casualties were mercifully light, except for a poor driver who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Coil had led a counterattack yesterday with Accord targeting several of the Empire’s parahumans and manage to retake most of downtown. Accord had a few new parahumans involved. It seemed he was starting to rebuild his ranks before the Butcher came back. Lung pretty much owned the docks at this point, and Accord had made great gains against the Teeth with the Butcher gone. But The Elite had kicked her out of Saint Louis and she usually went back to cities that the Teeth had lost territory in to take it back and get revenge. While she wasn’t as bad as the last Butcher, the Teeth always got much more nasty when she was back in town.

The PRT was doing what it could. They had made a statement about sending two new heroes and a new wards member in response to the fighting. Though the response on PHO had been very muted. There were rumors going around that we were getting two heroes who no one else wanted due to controversy, and most were pessimistic that it was going to change anything. Unless Alexandria herself moved here, I don’t really see anything changing too much. The people in the docks aren’t going to notice that we have a few more heroes.

To make matters worse, Dad was going through a rough time at work. I barely saw him anymore. The governor was making good on his threat to pass a bill to strip some of the Union’s bargaining power. There was talk of a strike and closing down the docks. Dad was out almost all day, and he told me that he had to make a trip to the capitol soon. But he was waiting until things cooled down at home first since he wasn’t comfortable leaving me alone for a week.

I tried to avoid sleeping at all now since I was starting to have nightmares all the time. Despite my modifications, my body still required at least some rest. I was really starting to feel the effects of my lack of sleep. I imagined myself back at school being tormented by Emma, or seeing my mom wasting away as dad struggled with deciding to pull the plug before all our savings were gone.

It had been almost a week, but I hadn’t done a single bit of Tinkering. I just had no idea what to do anymore. All I had done today was clean up my Lusus’s waste for recycling. I was just sitting at my workbench feeling stiff and awkward.

I couldn’t help but think that this was it. In the end I couldn’t be a hero. The extra money I got with my organ farm could be used to help people by donating to good causes, but I couldn’t do a thing about the gangs.

I cursed my power. Why couldn’t I have gotten something more straightforward? Something like Glory Girl who just had to put on a costume and go help people? Instead I got a power that let me create amazing creatures that were simply too dangerous to use.

I wish I had another power.

Keep dreaming Taylor I thought to myself. Its not like you can just give yourself another power.

That’s when I got the idea. It just sort of came to me as I put my head down on the workbench. I suddenly shot up with my eye wide. There were moments of inspiration, hope, fear, and panic at all once. My mind raced with possibilities.

It couldn’t be that simple could it? I ran to my computer startling a few Lusus on the ground. I sat down, opened up PHO, and started researching known capes.

It isn’t like I hadn’t thought of cloning parahumans before. I thought of doing it roughly an hour after figuring out my specialty, but I quickly discarded the idea. It was obvious that any clones I made of parahumans wouldn’t be able to use their powers without being sentient. That was the main reason people believed that humans triggered and nothing else did. I thought of it like a computer with parahumans being made up of hardware and software. Without an operating system or software, a computer was just a hunk of junk.

I had still tried to figure out a way to get parahuman DNA though. There were numerous potential applications just from cloning parahuman bodies. A brute’s skin grafted to a Lusus, Aegis redundant biology could give me clues on making my creations harder to put down, or Panacea’s inability to get sick helping me to figure out a way to cure a disease.

The problem was that there was no easy source of parahuman DNA. Finding or buying old equipment or costumes might net me a lucky find of a stray hair or something similar. But those were important collector items, and most weren’t for sale. I couldn’t exactly go to a parahuman’s home and root thought their stuff since everyone’s identities were kept secret. Then I thought of wearing a sharp glove and accidently cutting a hero’s skin when I shook hands with them at a public appearance. But that didn’t exactly scream hero behavior, and I wanted the PRT to trust me since my power was so scary.

The only idea I could see worth looking into was taking DNA from dead parahumans, but that had its own issues beyond the obvious ethical ones. Many dead parahuman’s identities were kept secret, villains were often cremated if no one claimed their bodies, and relatives of infamous villains with known identities often had secret funeral arrangements to keep things private.

I’m sure I could have found the graves of some parahumans without too much trouble. Not everyone chose to go around with mask. Then there were those whose identities were found out after they died or they had stupidly let others find out. Many of the fallen during Endbringer fights made arrangements to let everyone know who they really were after they died. But I just didn’t have a good enough reason to go grave robbing. The negatives outweighed any potential positives.

Until now that it is as I thought with a mix of excitement and dread as I confirmed that the parahuman I wanted was indeed buried at a cemetery in the city.

Then I spent an hour researching other parahumans with known identities and checked where they were buried. If I was going to go through with my idea, I needed to run some experiments first. There were so many ways for things to go wrong. I had to find out certain things first and for that I needed at least two or three more parahumans for my experiments.

I found three other names at the same cemetery. Fluer from New Wave, a old Empire cape called Wulf, and a parahuman who had gone nuts at their business a day after triggering. The cemetery was thankfully nowhere near mom’s. I don’t think I could go through with it if it was in the same graveyard. But I was going to need some new Lusus.

I went to the tanks and started to fill it out with the mixture, selected some old SX samples, pulled out a seed, and started up the sequence. The mechanical arm came to life and started placing the samples together. Growing a Lusus had never seemed so slow. I selected for a hardened mouth. I wanted to them to have a sort of beak that was as strong as possible, and selected for a physiology more for a worm than a snake. Despite going as fast as I could, it still took several hours to grow four of them. I connected the electrodes to my temple and gave them instructions.

They were built to dig down through the dirt as quickly as possible without leaving too much of trace. Then break open the wooden coffins just enough to squeeze in and take a piece of bone. I carefully and liberally sprayed myself before I whistled and they wrapped themselves around me. I pulled on a heavy coat, and took my umbrella as it had been raining off and on all day.

Despite the urgency I felt, I forced myself to take my time. I drove slowly as I weighed my options.

Should I do this?

There is absolutely no question I am committing a crime. Desecrating and robbing a grave, especially a hero’s is a shitty thing to do. If the heroes saw me they would try to stop me. Especially if they knew what I intended to do. I could think of several worst-case scenarios that could happen.

But the possibilities! If it works, this could change everything. It could give me the power to make a real difference in the city. To make it so people felt safe to go out at night.

I made my decision. I am going to go through with it but I am going to run some experiments first. If it turns out to be too dangerous I will stop. But I have to know.

The cemetery is in the south side of town. It is big and fancy compared to where my mother is buried. Covered with beautiful mausoleums and statues. The big iron gates are open and there is a funeral procession going in right now that I follow behind. It suddenly starts to rain heavily so I drive at a crawl, looking at the map and memorizing where I need to go and search. I park and wait as everyone in the funeral procession is getting out. I check up on the Lusus one more time, and open my umbrella before I get out.

The rain is pouring as I walk around. It is raining so hard that the water seems to be coming from the ground as it bounces on me. I can barely see so I have to go slowly and carefully check each grave. My shoes are covered in mud before too long. I look at the mourners crowded in a little atrium for a blessing and final viewing. At least the weather is perfect for a funeral.

It doesn’t take long to find Fleur’s grave. Her grave was the most famous and visited. She has a large gravestone with a statue depicting her in costume. Her first name was the same as her hero name. I hold the umbrella over the dirt, and gently put one of the Lusus on the ground. I whistle and it gets to work burrowing down below.

My family was never very religious. I had even more trouble believing after mom, but for Fleur I say a prayer. I apologize for disturbing her rest, and promise that I will make sure her sacrifice means something. I had always admired New Wave. They had tried to make a meaningful change so things would get better. I put the bouquet of flowers I had specially grown for her. They are white and violet roses, the same colors as her costume. I swear to her that I will make it up to New Wave somehow.

It doesn’t take too long for the Lusus to come back up. I push some mud over the small hole with my foot, and make a note to change where I put them so no one notices and connects the dots.

No one else is walking around in the rain and the mud. I am all alone as far a I can see. Despite the umbrella, I’m getting soaked as I search for the next two names on my list.

Wulf, real name Gilbert Sieghard, was an Empire Brute with a very short career. He was during All Father’s time leading the 88. He had been arrogant, and drunk with his own power. There hadn’t been as many parahumans during his life, and it made him very overconfident. He had been a brute that got tougher the more people were near him. It hadn’t helped him much when a large group of unidentified men overpowered him and drowned him in a small pool of water.

Remigio Zusman, didn’t live long enough to gain a cape name. He had worked as a salesman before his wife divorced him and he lost his job in the same week. The day after he triggerered, he had gone back to his old work and killed three people including his boss before taking his own life. Reports by witnesses said he connected to people with some type of beam that made him stronger as the other got weaker. He had made his boss so frail that he had managed to kill him with a regular old file folder.

I repeat the procedure and have the Lusus burrow down. I feel dirty and gross with the Lusus under my coat covered in mud. But considering what I’m doing, I find it appropriate.

It takes a long time to find the cape I had come for. I spent over an hour looking at every grave and moving on until I finally found it. I look down at the grave of the person I have come for. Whose power is going to change everything.

Rupert Alexander. The First Butcher.

---------------------

Far away, a winged figure slowly turns.

 

[TheAnt]

Seed 1-4

I was going to take as many precautions as I could think of. I had researched everything I could find on The Butcher, and I think I have a way to kill the clones without their power transferring over to me. I was going to design the clones so that they would not live for very long, and I would not include a digestive system to ensure that wouldn’t live long enough to be killed by someone. Of course there was still the possibility that its power would transfer to me since I had made it so that it didn’t live for too long.

So my excitement was mixed with a healthy sense of palpable danger. The worst-case scenario was that I became a minor brute with a limited ability to cause intense pain in people. For mental changes, I wasn’t sure how much would change if my efforts caused the clone’s power to transfer. The previous Butchers had experienced a sharp increase in aggressive behavior, and the Third Butcher had a psychotic breakdown that forced him to run at the Teeth. On the bright side I might be conscious in the mind of whoever killed me if this works so I have a better idea about what would happen if I died.

Based off of previous info on the butcher from other capes, at least part of the previous Butcher’s memories and personality also made the transfer. That was probably the only way that the newer Butcher could use the previous version’s powers so well. But my clones would have no memories and would not be sentient. So there shouldn’t be much to transfer and affect my mental processes. So it was a tossup just what would happen to me if my plan succeeded. The plan was to find a cape whose power would greatly expand my own power or knowledge, clone it, have the clone kill a Butcher clone, and personally kill it in turn with a premade kill switch. In theory, I would gain a portion of both previous powers.

Of course I first had to find out just how the process worked, and I would not go through with it until I found out more. I wasn’t sure if a clone had to be at least partially sentient to transfer its power. I was going to give some of the later versions similar intellectual ability to an animal so that they decided they were threatened and chose to attack the Butcher on its own. I would not in any way force or compel one of the clones to kill the butcher clone. If my first few experiments went well and I didn’t accidentally create a new Butcher, I would continue to experiment. If it didn’t work, well I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

Before I started, I would scan every inch of the clones, and fill them up with as many sensors as I could to fit in them to record data. That way I could see what changed after the Butcher power or collective transferred. I would measure changes by carefully recording how strong and tough the clones were both before and after killing the Butcher. I would only make a Fleur clone if I needed more data. Her power was going to be hard to measure changes with, as it wasn’t as straightforward to use like Brute abilities.

Fleur’s power was being able to create tiny floating spheres of light the started the size of a tennis ball and grew as they were hit. She could eventually choose to have them explode with the force of the explosion going up as the sphere grew. She had a weakness in that her power wasn’t too useful until she or a teammate hit her spheres to make them bigger and easier to block attacks. They had been too small to block the gunman who ultimately killed her when he surprised her in her home. I doubted I would be able to create a clone able to use her power instinctively.

No matter how much I wanted to, I did not start the experiments right away. I knew how comparatively little I actually knew about parahumans and I did nothing for but study up on current research. I read anything and everything I could get my hands on. I paid Aristotle for every medical study, textbook, or private notes on parahumans he could get me. I read every theory from Glastig’s fairies explanation, to Bonesaw’s passengers that she had been nice enough to “share”. When I finally felt like I knew as much as any regular researcher, I decided it was time to get to work. I found researching parahumans fascinating, and I had my own theories now. Though I was going to wait until after my experiments were done before I finalized my thoughts.

I created a new lab for my Butcher experiments out in the woods north of town. I didn’t want to be in the middle of the city in case things went wrong. Having money had made things so much easier to discreetly buy and set up equipment hidden underground. The Lusus had spent weeks doing nothing but digging and building a hidden bunker to run my experiments. My newest creation was a special plant that was cross between a fast moving weed and a tree. I used it to help build the structure and walls of my new temporary lab in record time. I covered the inside with plastic wrap and made cells of concrete to hold any clones I made. I also made a small area to sleep and live in while I experimented.

Dad was going to be leaving soon to the capital due to the anti-union legislation looking like it would pass soon. He was helping to lead demonstrations and trying to calm the dockworkers down. I had one bar but I able to get cell coverage outside of the bunker and I could talk with him whenever he called. With he finally left, I could spend over a week doing nothing but experimenting and sleeping at the lab.

I was sure that no one would actually stumble onto me since there was only one small dirt road into the area, and nothing for miles except what looked like an old deserted barn. I had created a few humanoid Lusus to pack equipment in a rented truck and I made several trips bringing equipment for them to upload. Despite all the equipment and preparation, the lab was very sparten compared to my regular lab. It was filled only with a single tank and the bare minimum equipment to do my experiments.

After all the preparation, and all the trouble I went through, it was finally time to start. I carefully selected the sample of the Butcher and the robotic arm came to life and combined it with a seed. Watching it slowly grow was the single scariest and most thrilling moment of my life. I felt like I was working on a powerful bomb that could explode at any minute.

To start things off, I was making a single clone of the Butcher that was designed to die in a few hours. I couldn’t do any more experiments until I was sure I had a method for them to die and not transfer their power to me.

After it was fully-grown I was surprised that the first Butcher had been a surprisingly short but good-looking man. He reminded me of a cross between Danny Devito and the new guy they had picked to play James Bond. His hair was a dirty blond, and he had actual dimples. By all accounts the original Butcher had been characterized as a sadistic bully who got off on causing others pain. He hadn’t looked anything like I had pictured him. But his blank eyes staring through the tube were a bit disturbing to see. I pushed a button and the robotic arm gently placed a mask over his face.

I had a large pile of masks nearby for the next set of clones. I had originally been planning to remove the first clone from the tank, but I decided to leave it where it was. This clone was not sapient nor did it even have an animal intelligence. It was nothing more than a vegetable. But future clones would have to be similar to an animal with enough instinct to choose to attack one another without any input or direction from me. For them I intended to put masks on their faces as soon they came out of the tank.

The masks were for my own benefit. While the clones were more like biological machines than people, it still seemed wrong somehow to create something that looked like a human being and experiment on it. The masks helped to distance myself from what I was doing. They might be clones, but they had bodies of real people who had lived their own lives. I had purposely made sure the clones for harvesting organs were never fully formed, and still mixed them with other DNA. They were never alive in the first place.

But these clones would be moving, walking, and killing each other. The masks had been prototypes for my own hero costume. They looked like they had been carved from a green wood, and were featureless, with nothing but small slits for the eyes. They were all covered in geometric patterns that looked like they had been carved into the material. I had been going for something ethereal and mysterious when I worked on them.

My first experiment involved nothing but observing the Butcher clone until it expired. I confirmed that it was alive and that it was a parahuman. It had a Corona Pollentia in its brain, and was significantly stronger than a normal human male around the same developmental age. I started the clock and waited for it to die.

As the hours went on, I got more and more anxious. I eventually took a mild sedative to calm myself down. It ultimately took four hours and twenty-three minutes for the clone to expire due to a heart attack. I thought I could feel something as it died, but that might have been paranoia and stress talking. I hooked myself up to my scanners and waited for several hours doing nothing. It had taken several days for the third butcher to show mental symptoms, while all other Butchers changed much faster in less than a day.

For two days, I checked my body periodically. I looked for signs of increased strength or toughness, changes in brain scans, and unusual thoughts or feelings. This was the hardest part of the experiment, not knowing what could happen.

After another day I breathed a sigh of relief, and decided that the experiment had been a success. Designing Butcher clones to quickly expire would not transfer its power to me. Which meant that I could now truly being my experiments on how the Butcher’s power worked. I pushed down my feelings of excitement I felt and continued.

The second experiment was designed to see if I could transfer the Butcher’s power to another clone that killed it. I again made a new Butcher clone and put it in a cell with a connecting see through door. I chose to make a clone of Mr. Zusman to see if I could get the Butcher’s power to transfer.

The real Zusman had been a middle aged balding man who had looked like the boring accountant he was. But his clone was much younger and I took steps to improve it’s body as I needed a clone capable of killing the Butcher. The Zusman clone in contrast to the Butcher did not show evidence of a brute body. The body was normal despite the presence of a Corona Pollentia. I was curious why the Zusman clone did not show evidence of having active powers in its brain. The Butcher had been a parahuman with a brute body from conception, but no the Zusman clone. Did it require a trigger event?

I had the SX-19 wrap itself around the unconscious Zusman clone and drag it to a holding cell. I sent one of the monkey Lusus to go and give it an injection to wake it up. It slowly lifted its masked head and looked around. It got up slowly and took a few tentative steps around. For the next hour it paced pack and forth occasionally running into walls. Interestingly the Zusman clone had a far different size and shape of the Corona Pollentia in its brain.

For the purposes of the experiment, I had given the Zusman some limited instincts to attack and it was designed to be extremely aggressive. I had considered training it to push a button that would kill the Butcher clone, but I had a feeling that would cause the power to transfer to me.

This experiment was a day of firsts. The first time I made something that was intended to lose control, the first time I turned on the video camera to record everything during the experiment, and the very first time I wore my costume to hide my identity. I wore a strong belt and harness under a coat that looked like a mix of a lab and trench coat. The whole thing was colored a reasonably bright green, and had numerous pockets to carry items, and had a open flap on my lower back so that my Lusus could hide around me and leave without anyone being the wiser. I wore dark green pants, and wore black two toed shoes that I had bought for my jogging routine.

My mask had been my masterwork and left my hair flowing free. Made from a combination of a fungus and quick growing plant, the mask would shift around by growing and jutting out, then fading and dying before it grew too far, and then started the whole process over again. It had taken forever but I had eventually got it to repeat the same geometric patterns as the masks I used for the clones, but it was constantly changing to different versions and colors that plants went through in nature. Bright greens, autumn reds, a strange white that looked like petrified wood, and even black as if my mask was decomposing. It was little more intimidating and scary then I had intended but I had to admit that it looked cool.

I did not intend to talk while the video was recording. But I wanted to make sure that I had a record in case something went wrong. I learned that lesson after Winslow had done nothing to stop Sophia and Emma. In case someone found this video later, I didn’t want him or her to know my real identity.

The new Butcher clone was standing and not moving a muscle, while the Zusman stared riveted at it through a glass door. With some trepidation, I lowered the door.

At first nothing happened. The Zusman clone continued to stare at the Butcher for almost ten minutes doing nothing. Eventually it started to walk slowly until it was almost touching nose to nose with the Butcher clone. Then without warning it starts to pummel the Butcher with wild swings while not making a single sound. Beyond a spiking in its heart rate, the Butcher clone does nothing.

The fact that the Butcher clone does nothing is odd since I had designed to be territorial and defend itself when threatened. Yet it does not move as its body is pummeled and broken. Eventually I use pheromones to lure the Zusman clone back to its cell and away from the Butcher when I determine that the Butcher clone won’t survive its wounds. The Zusman clone is in a bit of a bad shape itself, as it had broken both its hands and arms punching the Butcher. There are actual bones poking outside of its arms.

I carefully study the Butcher clone as its heart rate slowly stops. I brace myself as it finally dies.

Nothing happens and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. The expected strange hallucinations and behavior that other parahumans experience during trigger events hasn’t occurred. I carefully examine the Zusman clone, but it does not show signs of increased strength or toughness. But the shape of its Corona Pollentia has changed and it had done so in less than two minutes. Its brain is much more active with neurons firing in the Corona. Did killing the Butcher count as a trigger event when it got the power that was transferred? It was fascinating to watch a sensor record of its brain as it literally morphed and changed.

I pour myself a cup of tea, and sit watching. I am going to keep it under close observation for the rest of the night.

By the second day there have been obvious physical changes. The arms have not been healed, but it somehow seems to be in a better condition then yesterday. It has noticeably more muscle mass, and its skin is tougher. It has also become more aggressive with its eyes constantly tracking movement and its heart rate constantly spiking when something enters its field of vision. It once again begins to aggressively pace around at the cell.

For another test I spray one of the monkey Lusus with the pheromone to make other Lusus friendly toward it. I give it instructions to simply walk around it once and then leave in small hole that the Zusman clone cannot fit into.

Almost immediately it rushes at the monkey and flings it around as it shrieks trying to bite it. Again without makes a single sound, it methodically traps and stomps it to death. It continues to stomp over and over until there is almost nothing left of the monkey and only then does it stop.

There was an unanticipated and unwelcome side effect. The Zusman clone had also been designed to expire very quickly. But the weakness in its body has been decreased after the transferring of the Butcher power. While it should still die relatively soon without medical attention, I’m curious about the rules its power follows. Would not feeding or healing it despite my ability to do so count as murder?

I decide to minimize my interaction with it. I place food and water into its cell, and am again intrigued that it does not eat or drink. It should have the instincts to eat or drink but it makes absolutely no move toward the food or water. It takes almost a full day before it eventually dies.

The autopsy reveals interesting changes that the sensors didn’t fully pick up. The heart has become noticeably more rubbery and seems designed to move at a pressure that would be deadly to normal humans. Its canines are also more pronounced, and I’m curious how the Butcher’s power caused such physical changes so rapidly. It gives me great ideas for future upgrades toward organs though.

Just to be on the safe side, I again wait for several days to make sure there is no transfer of the Butchers power. When nothing happens, I continue on undaunted.

For the third experiment I wish to see if I can transfer the power from a Zusman clone to a Fleur clone. I intentionally make the Fleur clone much tougher than normal, with transplanted muscle, hardened bones, and poisonous claws instead of fingernails. This way it can beat the Butcher empowered Zusman clone.

I make a few design changes so that the clones waste water extremely quickly, and hope that they continue to lack the instinct to drink. If it doesn’t work, then I will simply wait until it starves to death and hope that doesn’t count as murdering it.

Growing the Fleur clone is depressing. Despite the mask it still seems like she is accusing me with her eyes. I ignore the feeling that it is watching me as I grow a new Butcher.

I repeat the previous experiment and wait until the Butcher Zusman is at its weakest before opening the door between it and the Fleur clone.

Just like before the Zusman clone rushes at her, but she was designed to resist blunt force trauma and her claws inject it over and over again. Within seconds it starts slowing down before she sticks her claws through its throat. Unlike the previous clones it does not show nearly as much aggression after the transfer.

She does show even more pronounced evidence of a Brute physiology one she becomes the Butcher. The increase in strength and toughness is exactly the same percentage as the Zusman clone when it was empowered by the Butcher. It also shows similar but unique changes to its brain.

She does nothing but stand perfectly still, not reacting to many stimuli. Thankfully, my modifications work perfectly and the Fleur clone dies of thirst in a few hours. For all future experiments I will let them die of thirst while providing water.

For the fourth experiment I repeat the third but use a Wulf clone in place of a Zusman clone. The Wulf clone is surprisingly skinny considering Wulf’s reputation. He is almost rail thin, with what my dad liked to call chicken legs, and a very hawkish nose.

I expected the Butcher to keep the same behavior as the previous experiment but am surprised when it charges forward and tries to bit open the neck of the Wulf clone despite the masks. The fight is short and brutal and the butcher wins with disturbing ease. I look over the data but the Butcher clone is exactly the same as the last one. Why did the Butcher’s behavior change so drastically? Its behavior raises an interesting theory on the Butcher. Does the Butcher’s power want to transfer only to strong opponents? The first clone practically put itself on the Zusman’s clone’s fists to die, but against a weaker opponent it went for the kill. Could the Butcher naturally have suicidal behavior in front of stronger opponents?

For the second Wulf clone I design it with muscles as big as I can make naturally and give it poisonous claws similar to what I did with the Fleur clone in the last experiment. To ensure the Fleur clone wins, I make it immune to the Wulf Clones toxins and weak to the Fleur clone’s personal poison.

There is a far more dramatic result in the Fleur clone when it kills the Wulf. It’s strength and toughness is noticeably superior to when it killed the empowered Zusman clone. Interestingly she has shared features of Wulf’s power that he himself had not shown until after he killed the Butcher. Her body becomes noticeably tougher the closer that other clones or I get to it. More questions are raised but I continue my experiments.

For the fifth experiment, I decide to use a hybrid clone combing both Zusman and Wulf traits that will kill a Butcher. This experiment takes a while since I have never made a hybrid before and I am distracted by the novelty of the work. All of the viable clones show huge changes from each other in physiology and the shape of the Corona Pollentia. Several do not are completely missing that component in their brain all together. Why do only some of the hybrids seem to not be parahumans? It is getting increasingly hard to not be distracted but I only have a few days and resources left so despite my fascination, I continue.

I ultimately decide to use two different hybrid clones with different but similar scans. After they kill the Butcher, they show similar but different powers. One of them grows in strength in proximity to people, and the other gains greater enhanced reflexes. Both powers are again transferred to the Fleur clones, but there is a huge change in behavior compared to killing non-hybrid clones. The Fleur clones show significant cognitive and motor difficulties. One of the Fleur clone starts running everywhere and smashing into anything. It eventually crushes its own skull against the wall and I am a little disturbed that I did not so much as gag. The other clone can’t seem to figure out how to stand anymore and starts to have several severe seizures. That one eventually dies after choking on its own tongue. Again I am left with questions.

Why did the hybrid cause such debilitating behavior to the Fleur clones when killed? It is completely different from using a Butcher hybrid at the start. Could a hybrid Butcher be natural somehow?

For the Sixth experiment, I design three different trials where Zusman and Wulf clones attack each other after having the Butcher’s power transferred to both of them and giving them what I assume is an artificial trigger event. The purpose of this experiment is to observe what happens when one Butcher collective kills another.

Despite my expectations, none of the victors show any sign of increased strength or toughness. In fact there is no change in the brain at all after killing each other. It seems that the Butcher’s power will not transfer to a clone that already has it. Could this be a way to permanently get rid of the Butcher?

For the seventh experiment I create a hybrid clone of the Butcher and Wulf. It takes several tries but eventually it is killed by a regular Zusman clone. The empowered Zusman clones for the first time shows much stronger traces of both the Butcher and the Wulf’s powers in its physical body. This has huge implications and I repeat the experiment with different hybrids. Could I gain portions of two powers from killing a single hybrid Butcher? I have the Fleur clone with two new powers killed by a nonparahuman Zusman clone and both powers do seem to transfer.

For the eighth experiment I create a new hybrid clone of Wulf and Zusman. It again kills a Butcher, and shows signs of both of their parent’s powers, but now I have it killed by a regular Zusman clone. I’m curious what happens when a portion of a Zusman clone’s power transfers to another Zusman with the same ability. I am not expecting much based off how the Butcher powers acted when they killed each other. I release the combatants and check to make sure….

I groggily open my eyes and stare up the ceiling. What I am doing on the floor? I carefully stand and check my vitals and confirm no changes. Based off the time stamp I have short-term memory loss of almost a minute and I start to panic. I immediately begin to check myself for the Butcher transferring to me, but I again show no symptoms, but that could change in the future.

I rewind the recording and watch the recording. There I am moving to check my screen as the clone kills the hybrid and then I pause. I stare transfixed as I see myself start to babble and shake my head. What am I saying? I increase the volume and I can barely make out three words. I say the words, “shard, seeds, and growth.”. I am saying something else under my breath but I keep repeating those words. I seem to be in a trance and I start to walk toward the clone, but trip and fall back on the floor.

This is unprecedented. I share the same characteristics of other parahumans in the presence of a trigger. But why did I only experience this now when a Zusman clone gained a portion of a Butcher that already had part of the same power? Did I just witness a second trigger? I carefully examine the Zusman clone, and stare in surprise at its brain scans.

The Zusman clone’s brain is eerily similar to several Butcher empowered Wulf/Zusman hybrids brains already on file. But it differs in that its Corona Pollentia is huge, going all the way through to the back of the brain. The clone is also completely wild in its behavior. It isn’t able to sit still for longer than three seconds and I had to sedate it so it wouldn’t crush its own head against the wall. Most impressively it has a brand new power that I have never recorded in any of the clones, hybrid or otherwise. It has the ability to weaken any living thing that it is near it. I can feel myself grow sluggish and tired the closer I get to it.

Its body has also incredibly healed. It no longer has the weakness I designed into it that causes it to waste water quickly. How did it know to fix its genes so precisely? This type of healing is much more complicated than simple regeneration.

I carefully record every bit of data I have and think about my reaction to its triggering. I am struck with indecision. Should I repeat the experiment to see if I can say anything else? No one remembers their trigger events and this could be a huge chance to truly learn something about where powers come from. But I can’t help but think about my actions while I was in a trance. I was walking toward the clone that almost certainly would have killed me if I opened its door. I remember my mantra of being paranoid and decide to not do it again. Not having control of my actions was too dangerous when I had no one else that could make sure I didn’t do something stupid. But this gives me new ideas for something to try. Instead of making a hybrid of powers to transfer, could I give myself a 2nd trigger by making a Butcher hybrid with my own DNA and kill it?

For my ninth and final experiment, I create almost a dozen Fleur clones. Their purpose will be to continuously attack all at once until they manage to kill the Zusman clone from my last experiment. It kills all but two of the Fleurs before it dies, and I stare at the Fleur who killed it but nothing happens. To my surprise there is absolutely no transferring of abilities or changes in the Fleur clones brain. Why doesn’t the new hybrid power transfer like the other Butchers?

While I have plenty of new ideas for future experiments, I have no choice but to stop. I am running out of resources, and I am exhausted mentally and physically. For the next few days I do nothing but look over my data, and reread previous research on parahumans and weigh my options.

I think I have a theory now about how powers work, and it is a little scary. Based off of my own experiments and common traits of parahumans, I think we are just an experiment for something else. We are essentially lab rats and the earth is essentially a giant Petri dish for powers. This intelligence wants powers to spread to gain more data about them. But the question remains why?

I imagine that I am an alien intelligence with the same goals as I did with the Butcher experiment. See what powers transfer, how things change, and why. This could explain why all parahuman powers are combat related in some way. Well if I was running an experiment I would want my specimens to only kill each other in controlled conditions, and to keep them from being destroyed, as I would lose valuable data. So Scion is almost certainly involved somehow.

Powers did not start to spread until after he arrived, he is the biggest difference between our realities and other ones where powers exist but are few. My guess is that he acts as a safety feature to keep the experiment running smoothly. He destroyed nuclear weapons, stops volcanoes from erupting, and fights the Endbringers so that not too many of us are killed off and the experiment is ruined.

Its possible he isn’t even sapient and is a projection or platform for this alien intelligence to ensure the experiment isn’t ruined. But there are a few things that still don’t make sense.

What is the Endbringers purpose in this experiment? Their behavior has never made sense to anyone else. Despite the destruction and death it is obvious that they are holding back. If I were Leviathan I would simply stay away from the mainland and constantly cause huge Tsunamis. But he comes onto land where we can drive him off and force him to stop while he heals. It is a very similar situation to how Behemoth acts when he does not come up right under its target. Instead he appears well away and gives us a chance to stop him. But despite the fact that they are essentially jobbing fights, the damage is still too huge for it to be good for the experiment. If I was running it I would like to keep us isolated, stable, and have constant border skirmishes for the right amount of data without sacrificing too many of my specimens. Is it possible the Endbringers are from another rival different from those that back Scion?

It could explain why they are so different but similar in power to Scion. Perhaps Scion, and the Endbringers are the end goals of powers with the purpose to gain new data to build more? Perhaps powers are similar to seeds. They plant them in humans and like plants they grow depending on what you cross them with and where. They watch them grow over time, then make a cut and plant it anew in a person nearby, and collect the data when it dies. That could explain why children of parahumans and others near them are more likely to trigger. They already have data that they are similar enough for a good harvest.

Considering my plant analogy perhaps they gather the material when we die to build something else. In the end I had more questions than answers, and it was still only a theory. Quite a crazy one at that, and it didn’t change too much for me. The Endbringers still need to be stopped, villains need to be defeated, and Scion is still going to protect us for whatever purpose he has. But the question now was what to do with my data.

I am reminded of a game that Emma and pretty much every school child has liked to play at some point where you are asked what power you would like to have. Besides the obvious answer of Eidolon who has every power. Emma had always wanted to be like Alexandria. Being able to fly and there being nothing capable of hurting her. I had always wanted a power that let me makes stuff. I had always loved art, and despite my grumbling I really did love my power. Having the power to be able to picture impossible designs and make them a reality was very fulfilling.

I had not yet created my flying pony, or panda dog mostly because I knew a pet was a big responsibility and I would not be around enough to give it the attention such a being would deserve. But now I had a choice to make. I could right now give myself a portion of one or two powers, or possibly give myself another trigger event.

Based off of what happened in the experiments I think it would be safer to give myself a portion of other powers via Butcher transfer. Based off of my research those that had 2nd triggers tended to not last that long, and the resulting changes in the clones were more extreme. But the issue was safety.

I was no fool. I am well aware that some people are really screwed by their power and there are numerous examples of negative effects that powers can give you. There are several side effects that worry me. All of the clones showed increased aggression, and I am reminded of what the Third Butcher went through. If there is no consciousness to transfer over, I don’t think I will have to worry about other voices in my head driving me mad. But I do need to plan for suddenly gaining a nastier temperament.

There are drugs I can take for mood, but I can’t be on them twenty-four hours a day without certain side effects. There are some brain modifications I could try. I could use some of my seeds to increase the growth or ability of parts of my brain responsible for managing emotion and logic. That might be enough to compensate for any increased aggression from the new powers.

I already had planned to operate on my own brain via remote. But I never went through with it because there were quite a few things that could go wrong. Panacea might be able to help me, but she doesn’t know who I am and she famously can’t work on brains. She would never go near me if she finds out what I am doing. I doubt I would find a volunteer to practice and observe.

I have to decide if I can risk the increased aggression or other side effects from killing a Butcher clone. There are ways to control having a short temper. Despite everyone telling me that dad has a nasty temper, he never showed it to mom or me. I think that I can be coherent enough to recognize that my mind is suffering from too many side effects and risk taking actions to try and fix myself. I did make it this far.

Perhaps I can try to figure out how to weaken the Butcher’s power, or the seed as I had come to think of powers, from having too much influence. The power connects through the brain after all. Perhaps there is someway I can weaken or modify that connection to fit my purposes. Though that requires more experimentation and I am tired of waiting. If I don’t try to be a hero now, too many things will distract me.

Though now that I think of it, how much of those thoughts are mine? I had made the Butcher clones more aggressive to suit my experiment, was it possible that the source of my power had done the same so I would use and experiment with it? That is a nasty thought but again, it doesn’t really change anything. The gangs have too much power and I know that I can change that with the right abilities.

The plan is to create two clones. One clone will be a completely unaltered Butcher and the other will be a hybrid of two capes. I will have the hybrid kill the Butcher clone, and then I will kill the hybrid with a pre-installed kill switch. Based off my experiments that should transfer a portion of three powers to me. It should give me a portion of a brute ability, and the ability to affect the nervous system of others to cause pleasure or pain from the Butcher. The main question now is whom do I use to make up the hybrid?

It is easy to just say that giving myself a portion of Alexandria, or Eidolon’s power would be best but it would never work. I require DNA and I will never be able to get a sample of theirs. My best bet is to again try for dead parahumans or capes with open identities like criminals. I can gain samples from cemeteries, and known criminals usually have their DNA on file somewhere for law enforcement to compare to.

Thinking about it, I feel that the best way to improve myself would be powers that naturally enhance or support my own Tinkering. So what would make my own power better?

Well a way to more easily control or program my Lusus would be great. Making it so I could use them in the field would give me the numbers to compete with the gangs, and I could modify them based on what I face. Another Tinkering power would also work. I am already used to being a Tinker, and I have not noticed any mental side effects from it. So another Tinker power wouldn’t be too hard to get used to. The question is again, what powers are out there that I can use?

After some research I make a list of names. Biological or wetware Tinkers are my top choices. Bonesaw would let me push the abilities of my Lusus to further heights, would greatly improve my power, and there is plenty of disgusting evidence that she can control the bodies of others. Labrat’s ability to create powerful transformations could also enhance my Lusus, and I could use clones for experimentation. I can’t pronounce her name, but Japan has a famous Hero who is some kind of Tinker Herbalist with plants. That could have interesting synergy with what my Lusus could do.

For programming or controlling my Lusus there were far fewer names. Teacher or Overmind would let me control and direct my Lusus. Teacher would let me give abilities to my Lusus and greatly improve my ability to program what they could do. Overmind would let me monitor and direct every Lusus implanted in real time from a connected network and was a powerful Tinker. Hijack could allow me to directly control the bodies of one of them, and I could make a huge variety of parahuman clones that I could directly control.

But the issue is finding DNA for them. I had already paid Aristotle for all the information he could find on several of these names. I was a little worried he might be suspicious of why I wanted it, but he didn’t ask any questions. There was no sample of Teacher or Hijack around. Knowing Teacher he probably took steps to erase every trace of himself. But after researching every possible choice, there were two names that fit my needs in that they were useful, and I had a good chance of getting access to their DNA.

At first glance Bonesaw’s DNA seemed like it would be the hardest to get a hold of. She changed and transplanted other parts into herself all the time and was fond of leaving traps of disease for people to find. But she did have a birth certificate and a record of which hospital she was born in. It wasn’t well known but every baby had a sample of blood taken at birth to screen for disease. They often kept this sample for quite awhile and Bonesaw’s blood was in storage in a clinic only four hours away.

Security shouldn’t be that tight. I can create a clone of a doctor or put a new face on to steal it. I could also bribe a worker or a janitor with a large amount of money to steal or take it for me. At most I would encounter two locked doors and a camera. I would have to commit a burglary but I am reasonably sure I can get hold of Bonesaw’s DNA.

The other name on my list was Overmind. She had a prior arrest record that I had looked up. The law said that the government could keep a sample of you DNA forever once you entered the criminal justice system. I found her arrest record, and again found where these samples are stored. That lab was quite a bit farther but the building is very small with hardly any employees. It shouldn’t be too hard for me to break in and take a sample and I would just have to worry about the long drive

Maybe I could pay someone else to break in? Faultline is famous for being a competent mercenary and she is in the city at a well-known club. I have money to afford her now, and it shouldn’t actually be too hard for them. She might be suspicious about why I am stealing it but I can just say I am researching the DNA of powerful Tinkers looking for common markers if asked. Which is technically the truth.

Considering how useful Aristotle has been, it can’t hurt to see how much it would cost. I look up the Palanquin website online and send them an email as a customer interested in renting their services. If they want to talk I will send a messenger bird describing what I want them to do and asking for a price that they can send back.

I use the same email I use with Aristotle and send them the details of wanting to meet and include a money order just to buy a few moments of their time.

While waiting, I spend the rest of the day cleaning up my previous experiments. The Lusus are pretty busy burying the clones in deep mass graves. I plant a few trees that should be able to have a slightly accelerated growth to hide them. I do not intend to keep working here. The lab is far too small and isolated for my needs. But having a back up lab could be useful. Don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket after all.

After a few hours and covered in sweat I check up on my email and am pleasantly surprised that she has responded with interest. I send another email and make a quick Lusus of a crow to deliver a message by waiting outside a window. It is colored green but I think it looks rather cool. I leave all the information of what I want, where the samples are located, and ask them to give me a figure. My savings have taken a hit from all these experiments but I am willing to go as high as one or two million. I send the bird on its way, and just take nap on the ground for a few hours.

When I wake up, I decide to lay there enjoying the sky for a while. Its just relaxing to just soak up the suns rays and think. It’s a perfect day with a gentle breeze, and just the right amount of clouds. I have already decided to go through with this. If it works I will have a portion of Bonesaw and Overmind’s ability, but there could be side effects. Would I lose my empathy like Bonesaw? Would I become obsessed with defending my territory like Overmind? But then I think of what I can do with their powers. An army of modified Lusus directly controlled by me. That would make a difference in this city.

I don’t have my watch, so I am not sure how long I was thinking, but I am interrupted out of my thoughts by the arrival of my bird. I gently sit up and take the message from its leg. Faultline wrote it by hand as a contract, and did it with impeccable penmanship. Faultline has agreed to do it for 250,000 dollars. Which is chump change for me now. I carefully write a message where she can pick up her money and where she can drop off the samples when she has them. Then I write to make sure she is not alarmed when large hawks come to pick up the sample. Then I decide to finally go home and clean the place up. Dad should be home tomorrow.

I make a big dinner for dad welcoming him home. I ask him to play a board game with me, and we have a good time. I thank him for being so patient with me and tell him I love him. He says the same. I am too well energized from my small nap and the sun to sleep. I think of mom and stare at the ceiling.

---------------------------

Today is the day.

I have everything ready to perform the procedure. Another Butcher clone is sedated in a cell while I grow the hybrid from the samples provided by Faultline. I take my time growing two dead clones of both of them. Bonesaw is surprisingly young looking and even cute. She wouldn’t look out of place in a kid’s magazine. Hard to believe what she is now.

Overmind is a tall and beautiful black woman. She looks nothing like the police photos of her. Her two faces are like a before and after drug ad. I carefully study their brains, and start to grow the hybrid. I choose the most stable looking one, and cut extra growths for hours before I am satisfied.

I carefully sedate the clone, and open its chest to install the devices that will kill it quickly and instantly. Then I place her opposite the Bucher and wake it up. The Butcher has been given a weak body so there is no question who is going to win the fight. I open the door and for once do not look as I hear fighting. It doesn’t take long before I hear the sound of struggling stop. A glance at my screen confirms the Butcher clone is dead.

I put off killing it for a little while. I know I am stalling but I am still nervous. I gather all the mechanical parts I could find or buy. I place them together with a great set of tools that should handle the basics of what a normal Tinker should need for their first builds. I leave a message to Dad in case something goes wrong telling him my story and giving him my love. Then I carefully sit down at my desk, and trigger the switch. Despite myself I flinch as I hear the flat lining of the heart.

I don’t do anything but wait for the rest of the day. I have no physical changes, but based off my experiments they can happen in a few minutes. As the hours go buy, I decide to try and relax by looking at my newest attempt to create a Bug Lusus that can survive at a greater size. I am not having much luck, but I still love trying to figure things out and growing new attempts.

I don’t notice for almost ten minutes that I am having a much easier time performing the autopsy of my latest failure. Before I always had trouble with navigating in bodies of new clones that I had never used before. But now I am going through without any thought and with startling speed. Realizing what this means, I carefully look at the corpse of the dead bug and start to get ideas. I think of ways to build some machines to handle its energy intake, maybe some type of artificial lungs to breathe despite the exoskeleton. I look at my old exoskeleton failures and again I get ideas. I think of ways to better program and control it, which leads to how to make a transmitter and implant so I can observe the data whenever I need to. It isn’t until I look at all my research and have a moment of inspiration that I start to laugh.

I am not sure why I am laughing. I try to stop but I can’t help myself. It sounds embarrassing to my ears, full of snorts and I have tears in my eyes.

I think about everything that brought me to this point. I think of Emma and Sophia and all they did to me. I think of the woman on the bus who felt unsafe around the ABB proudly wearing their colors. I turn on the police scanner and hear a report of a body found at the docks.

I start laughing harder. I sound like a lunatic at this point.

I start forming a plan as I laugh. Thinking of it, I start laughing so hard I can’t even take the air in to make the sound of laughter anymore. But I can’t help it. It’s just so damn funny.

The gangs have no idea what is coming.

I am going to hurt them.

I am going to hurt them so badly.

 

[TheAnt]

Seed1-5

“Just set a trap”, I said, “We give them a target and ambush them when they show up.” I answered while helping myself to seconds. The silverware was a little fancy for my tastes, but Kayden did make a good living. Though her house was like something out of a designer magazine. Weird sofas, paintings, and tiny pillows as far as the eye could see.

“We already did set several traps that worked perfectly,” Victor snorted. “We have destroyed almost a dozen of the things at this point, but until we find the source of them, it doesn’t matter how many we destroy. After a few days the things show up again and continue attacking."

“So then we just need to find the parahuman who is making them and teach the stupid bastard what happens when they mess with the Empire.” I said as I helped myself to a generous helping of syrup for the pancakes." Victor was a arrogant bastard at times, but he was a good cook. Even better he and Mary were on some health kick, which meant more for me.

“You make it sound so easy”, Mary, said with a laugh as she put her hand on Victors. “How exactly are you planning on doing that Justin? Whoever this master is, they can control their minions while being far away.”

“Does it really matter?,” Kayden asked with a yawn. She carefully poured some more coffee before looking annoyed at me for using all the cream earlier. “The most this guy is doing is just annoying Max. A few stolen cars, some smashed windows, and a few assaults on people that probably should have been more discrete with their beliefs. It’s hardly a threat to the Empire.”

“Its the principal of the thing Kayden. People should not be afraid to show their respect to the cause. It makes us look weak that we have allowed this to go unpunished for so long. “ Victor said with that annoyingly good speaking voice he had going on. Mary actually looked impressed and beamed at him.

“Well than what exactly does Max want from me now?” Kayden asked. “Its not like I am any better at catching this guy. Despite my better judgment I helped him when Lung started to grow too big so his people could get away.”

“Our people Kayden”, I said. “ Even if you don’t want to work with Max I know you still believe in the cause and like to get things done on a more personal level. You remind me of a old time detective on the block. It’s why I like to work with you. Besides we don’t want anything. We just wanted to eat and keep you in the loop. If you hadn’t held off Lung, things could have gotten worse”.

“He’s right,” Mary said. “ Despite any differences you have with Kaiser, we are still your friends.”

Kayden looked like she wanted to say something, but thought better of it. She really looks like a completely different person compared Purity. It’s hard to believe that the mousy and plain looking woman, was the same person who held off Lung single handily. But I see the same fierceness in her eyes, and I can see that she wants to say something to me without the other two there.

“Mary, Victor, do you mind if I speak to Kayden privately?”

Victor, of course, took the hint pretty quickly. “Of course, we have to go see if we can help a few of the victim of the last attack anyway.” He puts his arm out and Mary took it with a smile. More of their sickening love dovey act. I feel a touch of pity for Mary. Its obvious that she loves Victor more than Victor loves her. They walk out and I wait until I hear their car start up before I relax. Considering how many skills Victor has and his power, I can never relax around him.

“So why are you really here,” Kayden asked. “What haven’t I been told? Max has been trying to keep me out of the loop ever since I stopped working with him. “

“Well the attacks have been a bit more frequent and serious than anyone knows. Max has been paying people to help them with repairs and to keep them quiet. He always was a big picture kind of guy who liked to help our people.”

“More likely he just doesn’t want to look weaker after the last debacle with Coil. He barely gained any territory despite all those speeches and preparation. What do we have to show for the attack and all our losses? A few new blocks of territory that we probably won’t be able to hold for very long, a few of Lung’s dealers off the streets, and Tony being shot by Coil’s new Tinker toys."

“Well a few weeks ago we started to get reports of people getting attacked in our territory. Just a few people who weren’t afraid to show their pride. A guy sweeping at a flower shop was pulled into an alley and had both of his legs broken. One of our recruiters was trying to hand out flyers to some students at the park when he got tackled and they broke his arms in three places.”

“It was always the same mo. Three guys in big coats and hats who weren’t afraid to attack in broad daylight. As time went on the attacks started to increase and they started to steal cars. We figured it was just some thug who wanted to make a quick buck. We couldn’t get any info until we got a lucky break.”

“The owner of a mechanic shop loyal to our cause was attacked at work and managed to get a shot off with a pistol he kept at his desk.” I take a sip of my coffee before it got cold. “He said that he was sure his attackers weren’t human. They went after him with no hesitation and no fear. He put several bullets in at least one chest but it just kept coming. They broke his hands and forced some kind of liquid down his throat. He called us instead of the cops and we found some green shit at the scene. We got some people to take it to a lab and they said it was filled with some kind of chlorophyll. Definite parahuman minion.”

“I was just messing with Victor, but he was telling the truth about how traps aren’t working. We managed to set a trap the next week and had Hookwolf waiting for them. They completely ignored him and went after the bait instead. Managed to break several ribs before Hookwolf tore them apart. They were green, and made of some type of material tougher than skin. Almost like tree bark. We didn’t get too much of a good look since they melted after they died.”

“They melted?”

“Yeah they just started to decompose really fast. Reminded me of fighting Spree. His dead clones decompose in a few hours. Anyway, Stormtiger said they smelled like plants when they decomposed, so our best guess is that our unknown master is making humanoid and walking plants. Victor is probably right. Until we figure out where they are coming from, we can’t really stop them. They aren’t very strong, but that kind of continuous damage can hurt us in the long run. Othala can’t be everywhere.”

“So what is Max’s plan? He never was the type to ask for help.”

“We are doing the same thing as before and setting up several obvious targets to attack, but this time we have inserted a hidden transmitter in a few cars the targets will be seen driving. We’re going to let it get stolen and see where it goes. Then show the stupid bastards what happens to those who cross us.”

“Max doesn’t want me there does he?”

“No he doesn’t. You took a bit of the spotlight away from him when you fought off Lung and he wants to be seen handling this personally. “

“Fine. But be careful.”

“I’m always careful. Besides it’s just a weak master who can make three minions who aren’t that strong. We’re going in force mostly to make him an example. The bastard isn’t going to know what hit him.”

=================================================


I swear I am going to kill whoever this is just for making me hike through these damn woods at night. I had already tripped over two tree roots, and I was far from alone. Though we were far enough away from the city so that the woods were scary dark, it was still a little too bright out for me to fly and not be noticed. Kaiser had vetoed the idea so we didn’t tip the guy off and have him try to run away. Victor had scouted the place out beforehand, and there was only one dirt road in, but he hadn’t found the stolen cars so it was possible he had a getaway vehicle hidden under a tarp. He had carefully crawled along the clearing checking with a small metal detector and made sure there weren’t any mines or traps.

I had kindly asked why Victor didn’t just go in and capture the guy, but it seemed his minions were up and stripping a car while he slept in a back room. He wasn’t sure what else they could do and there were at least six of them, so he suggested caution. Kaiser of course wanted his theater for everyone so we were going to gather in the clearing in front of his house and give him a hell of wake up call.

So here we were walking down a shitty dirt road in the fucking woods without flashlights. While it was only a short walk to the clearing from where we ditched the cars, at least that was Victor claimed, I was still wary. Anyone walking in the dark would be. Though it was comforting being surrounded by people dedicated to the cause. We had gone in force. A dozen of the Empire’s parahumans, and the hand picked of the Empire’s finest armed with guns. Kaiser was at least here with us, leading from the front walking with his hands behind his back. It looked like he didn’t have a care in the world.

The plan had gone off without a hitch. One of our marked cars got stolen and we tracked it to the woods north of the city. Victor had scouted it out beforehand and found a large building at the edge of clearing with just a single dirt road. Kaiser had placed out the call and we gathered ready for some righteous fury. We didn’t bring everyone of course. We needed someone back in case Lung or Coil tried something, and Rune had a test tomorrow. Or today technically since it was past midnight.

The clearing was surprisingly big, being as wide as two football fields, with a large building that looked like it could have been a barn at some point nestled at the far end. There was evidence the guy had his minions cutting down trees and fixing it up. The construction looked brand new, and there was recent wooden garage on the side where we could see lights through the windows at the top.

Kaiser raised his hand, and we slowly spread out along the tree line. Then with a wave we spread out. It was quite a dramatic sight with everyone out in full costume almost like we were on parade. The twins sauntered out and slowly grew taller. They took up positions in the center, scanning for threats. I stood still and other ghostly me’s began to step out and take to the air. When I had them all out they surrounded me and slowly lifted me into the sky. Our new recruit Andrew, or Gischt, had started to set patches of the ground on fire that didn’t spread to give us light. Kaiser without moving his arms started to grow thin spears for my ghosts to use, and started to surround the building with huge slabs of metal to cut off any escape. Then he created a throne with a wave of his hand, and calmly too a seat. When everyone was spread out beside him, he made his move. Huge slabs of metal rose with a bang, and took off the front the house before they slowly retreated back beneath the ground.

Almost immediately a half a dozen of the minions that been annoying us the last few weeks came after us at a sort of jog. Getting a clear look at them made it obvious how inhuman they were. They were muscled like weightlifters, and looked like they were made of a plant that looked almost like celery. They didn’t have mouth or noses making me curious if they could eat, but their eyes were huge and reminded me of a owl’s. They had no hair or eyebrows, and their arms were weirdly long with two joints. They didn’t make a sound or move with any sort of emotion.

“Gischt, if you would be so kind,” Kaiser said.

Andrew moved forward eagerly and a huge wave of fire shot out from his body toward the slow moving freaks. It covered the ground for an instant lighting up the night, before it died down, replaced by a huge column of steam and smoke. "Well if he didn’t know we were here yet, he sure does now" I said with a laugh looking down.

Then without missing a beat Kaiser calmly started to talk. “You who have dared to raise your hand against the Empire, it is time for your judgment. Come out now, or I will take your knees and make you crawl to your judgment.”

For a second nothing happens, and all we here is silence. That’s when we hear laughter. It starts as weird cackling, and the voice sounds like it is constantly changing to different people with every syllable. Then it starts to rise in volume and we start to hear a rattling sound that grows louder as it gets nearer and a figure comes into the light.

She is wearing what looks like a cross between a lab coat and robe colored bright green. Considering the long, feminine black hair, and the large chest it is almost certainly female. Below her waist is the reason she laughed at Kaiser. She has the body of what looks like a dark colored rattlesnake and is covered with rough looking scales ending in a huge rattle covered in spikes. A case 53? Her face is disturbing. It just shows a plant that makes a weird pattern as it constantly grows and dies. She has to be at least twenty feet long and she raises herself to her full height to look down on Kaiser while still laughing.

“Hello my little lab rats,” she says with a sneer. “If you get down on your knees, and swear to leave my city and never come back, I promise I will not chase you down like the dogs you are in the future.”

Kaiser seems taken aback for a few second and then composes himself. “Men of the Empire. Show her what happens to those that dare to attack us.” He motions to Hookwolf who starts running at her at full speed.

“Very well, you’ve made your choice," she said as she started to laugh hysterically.

Hookwolf’s skin is churning like a chainsaw and he is just about to reach her when she promptly explodes and the ground follows her. Huge giant pimple things start sprouting out of the field and exploding into huge geysers of blood and gore. Kaisers’ throne is bowled over and he flips head over heels several times before tumbling onto the ground. People are thrown violently into the air and Menja actually slips and falls. The blood reaches so high that even I am splashed and I gag at the smell.

A skunk has sprayed me in the past when I was kid and this was worse. It was like fresh dog shit mixed with rotten eggs. As far away as I was it still burned my throat and I started coughing. If this affected me this badly when I’m so high up, I couldn’t’ imagine what the others were feeling.

I was trying to breathe when one of my ghosts spotted movements in the trees and I moved it closer for a better look and reacted in alarm. I quickly shouted a warning and moved my ghosts down to the ground and at the trees that surrounded the clearing.

The tree line was alive with movement. Huge green wolves with their backs covered in grass were running full tilt at us, what look like huge apes covered in branches started loping forward, and the ground is alive with what look like dozens of snakes all moving as fast as they can at everyone else. But it’s what looks like four armed monkeys in the trees that I try to stop. The damn things are carrying and loading small things objects into long tubes.

Menja and Fenja's heads were up high, so they managed to escape the worse of it and they quickly order the gunmen to fire. But nobody was in any condition to follow it right away except Alabaster who picks up a gun and starts firing. Everyone else is either retching on the ground or slipping in the blood. Menja moves to pick up Kaiser and Fenja holds her shield at an angle to try and shield whoever is near her. Krieg manages to knock several of them away but they’re too hard too see and they start to hit the ground in explosions of light and sound. Definitely Flash bangs and what smelled like tear gas started to block my view.

Hookwolf rushes toward a group of wolves, and Andrew makes a line of fire and pushes it up high to block off a side. A few people start to fire into the rushing line of monsters. Victor managed to score several headshots with his rifle. My ghosts try to stab at the monkey things with their spears, but they are too agile to hit. I start to move myself lower to the ground when I spot movement in the air.

A flock of what looks like eagles are moving toward me in formation and I pull a few ghosts into formation around me. I pull out my gun and start to fire at them as they duck and weave trying to get past my ghosts. I manage to hit one of them and it falls to the ground but there are too many of them and they’re more maneuverable than my ghosts. I start lowering myself to the ground when one of them crashes into me and starts to peck at my arm.

My costume is tough enough to take the worst of it but my face gets badly cut before I manage to fire at it point blank. It rocks back and falls to the ground. There is no time to think as three more get near me and I keep firing. I don't even have to curse, as I run out of ammo and the three of them crash into me causing me to fall.

I land on my legs and scream as I feel my left one break and I painfully roll upright. My ghosts manage to skewer one of the wolves as it jumps at me and I feel its blood spray my face. Despite being stuck with four spears it still tries to get at me before it dies.

The things are fighting among us now and the monkeys do not seem to care that they are now starting to hit the rest of the monsters. It hurts to move but I manage to reload and shoot another wolf as it goes after Krieg who is keeping most of the mortar’s rounds from hitting us. It’s chaos with all the noise, and smoke. My ghosts spot Menja swinging her spear and taking out three of the apes before two of the eagles hit her in the face causing her to fall back on her butt. She waves her arms in panic in front of her face as they go for her eyes. Kaiser is held up high by Fenja and is busy making a wall of metal to protect our flanks.

But they come at us without fear, impaling themselves on my spears, through gunfire, and running through the flames to get to us. Andrew is unprepared for them to go through the fire and turns to run when he is dog piled. His costume was made to protect himself from fire so he can probably hold out for a little while, but he still has burning wolves mauling him. Cricket manages to take out two of them with her kama, and kicks a third away. They go after her but most are too injured to move and she is too agile. Stormtiger is pushing the smoke away and moving to the edge to try and hit the small snakes before the reach us on one side. Hookwolf is trying to help, but the things are actively avoiding him and moving closer to everyone else. The gunmen are firing in small groups and we are holding our own now. Which is when the snakes hit us.

Kaiser’s wall keeps out most of them, but enough of them manage to get in before it closes the clearing off. Despite the pain I raise myself up in the air in time but the snakes go straight for everyone else’s legs. They snakes are hard to hit with rifles and pistols and several gunmen start screaming as they go down. The others start to stomp and wield their guns like clubs trying to hit them. Cricket is hopping back and forth moving like she is some elaborate dance with her sickles taking off heads.

Fenja is hit in the face by a flash bang and manages to put Kaiser down without falling in pain. The light, and noise still affect her no matter how big she is. Menja screams her sister names and takes a running jump over the wall and rolls over and over. She uses her bulk to crush the things trying to get in, and keeps rolling while ignoring the motor fire. She hits the trees like a battering ram, knocking them down. The monkeys seem to be thankfully running out of ammo as their fire rate starts to wind down. The tide seems to have turned now. The clearing is blocked off and most of the things are dead.

I curse that I only brought two clips as I run out of ammo and move my ghosts among the main group, spearing anything that looks green. As the smoke clears it’s easier to see, but the snakes are hard to hit while moving through the blood. Move and stab, move and stab. I don’t really remember too much beyond screaming and smoke.

After what seems like hours, but what is really only a few minutes the fighting stops. I push my ghosts through Kaisers wall and start to finish off the few snakes on the other side. While there I lower myself closer to the ground and wince when I accidentally move my leg.

We got hit pretty hard. Bodies of the things litter the ground, and those that are standing move to keep the casualties face up so they don’t drown in the blood that has pooled in the box made by Kaiser’s power. Kaiser is sitting on the ground and panting with his helmet off as he examines the head of one of the apes. The twins are towering above him nearby, with Menja examining Fenja’s face. Cricket is helping Andrew sit up, as it seems his legs got bit pretty badly where his costume was thinnest. The only one who looks no worse for wear is Alabaster in his spotless suit.

Krieg is using his power to clear away the blood and bodies of the things away from us. His costume is covered in blood and it seems some of Andrew’s fire hit him at some point. Even Victor seems out of it, looking like he just ran a marathon. Othala for once isn’t near him, and is standing over a guy with broken glasses who got bitten in his neck by one of the snakes. I think his name is Brad? Hookwolf is pacing back and forth full of energy, and looking like he is ready for round two.

Despite the pain I breathe a sigh of relief. We got hurt but whomever that bitch was she didn’t kill anybody. Though considering what we just faced, she probably could have killed at least a few of us with ease. Was that freak a hero?

We probably need to get to the cars and go soon. People heard that in the next county and the heroes will be on their way soon. My leg is fucked up. At least one broken bone, but once its set Othala can fix me up in a few minutes. She is going to be busy tonight. As I scan the battlefield, Othala suddenly stands up and starts walking toward Kaiser. He waves her off, but she keeps walking straight toward him with confidence through the blood and stepping on several of those thing’s corpses. Then she suddenly stops near him as everyone stares at her. I feel myself tense wondering what’s wrong.

“I am Faust”, she says quietly.

Then several things happened at once. Menja lunges her body down and tries to block Kaiser, while Kaiser starts to scramble away, and Alabaster starts to fire at it. The fake Othala vomits out a huge stream of clear liquid with such force it takes off its mask revealing another one of the things that first came out of the damned house. It splashes all over Kaiser’s face and armor despite jerking as bullets hit it. Menja’s spear skewers it to the ground and almost cuts it in half as Kaiser starts to scream.

Even as Fenja is shrinking, she is trying to get the armor off of him as he is thrashing around trying to muffle his screams. Everyone is standing apart in groups, looking shocked. It hits me that everyone’s hearing is probably gone considering how loud the flash bangs had been. Most probably didn’t hear what that thing said. From their perspective Othala suddenly started vomiting on Kaiser. But it’s obvious now that it wasn’t Othala. The thing wearing Othala’s costume is bleeding green from the lower half of its torn body.

Victor is running around screaming Mary’s name. He desperately looks over the ground, kicking over bodies on the ground before Cricket calls him over. I float over and spot them staring at a large hole in the ground.

“There’s a tunnel” Cricket says in the robotic tone of her electrolarynx. She starts to run looking at the ground. Victor follows after her looking he wants to hit her to go faster. They start to run well into the trees with Hookwolf and Stormtiger right behind them. I move one of nearby ghosts from above to see if I can spot something when I hear Victor call up at it.

“There’s another hole and signs of what looks like Othala being dragged to some kind of vehicle. It has to be something small to maneuver, and having to move through all the trees will slow them down. My invincibility should let me go without tiring for at least another twenty minutes. I am going after it.” I have the ghost give him thumbs up before I relay the information to everyone else.

Hookwolf, Cricket, and Stormtiger come running back. “We need to get out of here”, Hookwolf says with authority. “We need to get our wounded and Kaiser to a doctor. The cops and the heroes will be on their way soon”.

We start to pack up and go. I use my ghosts to pick up a few people that have been paralyzed by snakebites and I keep low to the ground in case there are more flying birds under that bitch’s control. We make our way back to the cars down the road when I hear someone yell they slashed the tires.

“Call for people to come and pick us up” Krieg shouts, “We had cell coverage earlier, look up how far we are too another road.” I pull out my work cell and struggle to stop the growing panic when I see I don’t have any bars. I have a ghost take my phone up high but I still can’t get a signal. Very soon everyone else realizes the same thing. We’re sitting ducks out here. We can’t call for help and we are miles away from the nearest road. The heroes should be on their way, and Faust can hit us the entire time. With Othala gone we are weak and slow with our casualties. But we have no choice but to try.

The twins and I can cover more ground so we go ahead with my ghosts barely keeping pace with their strides toward the nearest road that a map we had brought said was closest. Kaiser was in bad shape. He actually blacked out from the pain and was being carefully cradled by worried looking Fenja. We haven’t been moving for very long when my phone starts to ring and we stop in our tracks. Menja and Fenja look at me expectantly as I look at my phone. It’s the emergency line. I quickly open it and put it to my ear.

“Hello”

“You need to call Kaiser, we're under attack.” The man is panicked and I can gunfire in the background. Then a sudden scream causes whoever it is to curse and I can hear more gunfire.

“Who is under attack? Who is this?”

“This is Gerry at the storehouse on the 16th street.” He’s practically screaming at me now. “Someone cut the power and they crashed a car through the wall. There are these fucking monsters trying to get at us! They managed to go straight for the gun stash, and we are running out of ammo to hold them off. We need help right now!”

That’s when I hear something in the background growing louder. It sounds like a crowd chanting. I put my ear closer and I can hear chants of Faust over and over.

“Oh God”, Gerry says. I hear gunfire and then the line goes dead. Menja and Fenja look like they heard it too.

I am about to make another call when I hear the same strange voice come in through the line.

“Hello Crusader. I want you to pass a message to Kaiser when he wakes up. I used a variant of Platupus venom that is going to give him a heightened sense of pain for a few weeks. It should hopefully wear off by then, but he will be in constant pain for awhile. Tell Kaiser and the rest of your fucking cowards that this is my city. I am the rats in the walls, the birds in the sky, and the stranger on your corner. I am always watching you. I will be seeing all of you very, very, soon.” Then the line goes dead.

All I can think is, “Shit”.

===========================================

Tarou Jirou or Tar to his friends was having a bad day. He had been woken up really early and yelled at by his boss that his quota was low this month. He got to hear all kinds of ill thought out verbal abuse for ten minutes about how inadequate he was and how he needed to make sure his dealers shaped up.

Tar really hated his boss. The only reason he had been promoted was because he had triggered. The fact that he was a young uneducated idiot, who knew absolutely nothing about management or money made things worse. He had gone to college for business and had seen the potential for money to be made working for the Asian Bad Boys or the ABB. Thanks to his expertise he had been promoted and made his group of dealers the most profitable in the docks. Considering the Brockton was considered by many to be the heroin capital of the United States that said a lot.

But things had gotten a little harder recently. There was more competition from the Teeth who had started to bring in extremely cheap meth and heroin, which was cutting into their profits despite the fact that they now owned the docks. There were two new heroes who had shown up and started to go after his dealers. Though he had managed to fend them off without too much trouble, it was eating into his profit margins. Some asshole that could time travel, and a cunt that kept coming back no matter how many times they killed her.

Did his boss understand or care? Nope, all the high asshole knew was that there was less money than last month, and that he looked bad for it. It galled Tar that he had to listen to some uneducated 20-year-old asshole whose only ability was weakening whatever he looked at. Of course the lazy fuck would get a power that let me just have to look at someone for it too work, and then bitch about it to whoever wanted to listen.

The news that the Butcher might be heading back to Brockton had made his day worse. That meant he had to deal with all his soldiers asking for more money in compensation since there was almost certain to be a fight from the Teeth when she showed up. So he could expect dozens of phone calls in his immediate future. He also had to deal with arranging for a few hard to find mechanical parts for Bakuda, which meant he had to talk to her.

She scared Tar with the look in her eyes. She was very much like the bombs she made. Strange, intimidating, and you didn’t know what set her off. She found any excuse to hurt people, and as long as she didn’t kill them, Lung didn’t care what she did. She had used some kind of pain tech on him just so he would know what it felt like if he didn’t do exactly what she said. The fact that he was always polite, never looked her in the eye, and did a good job getting what she needed meant she often preferred to work with him to his detriment.

It wasn’t all bad though. No matter what his boss said, he was a rising star in the gang. Lung himself had asked him to look at their finances since he was one of the few educated members of the gang. He had always been good at calculation and he was almost certainly going to move up the next time things were reorganized. He was also making ridiculously good money. It was a lot more money that he ever would have made legally. Despite his girlfriend giving him a hard time, he really didn’t need her. It was easy to get cheap pussy from girls who knew who he was, or for free from a few of the brothels where a few of prettier immigrants had to pay back what they owed.

Tar took his time getting dressed. The clouds looked ugly and there was a high chance of rain. He dressed in a regular coat and carefully checked to make sure his gun was in good working order. He didn’t dress in red and green since he tried to keep a low profile. While the chances were weak that someone would look twice at him, it was better to have insurance just in case. The Teeth were the Teeth, and Accord was more active when he got new parahumans to test them out. Tar’s operations were close to his border, but Accord usually did not care too much about territory.

Tar disliked walking down the docks during the day. He had always been a night owl, and it was easier to see the desperation during the day. With the exception of the pier for tourists, the docks had seen better days. Dilapidated buildings, homeless, and decay everywhere you looked. Most of the people were worried about the upcoming strike to close the docks in response to the governor’s bill. Tar had lived through Leviathan’s attack, and he knew what riots looked like. He planned to be holding up in one of their safe houses if things got too heated. He never forgot the woman who was beaten by police in Japan during a nasty nationalist riot. She had triggered and somehow flayed them alive before she was quickly shot. That had been the incident that had finally convinced him to leave Japan for greener pastures.

Tar slowly started to make his rounds. While he usually called, he found it useful to do visual inspections and talk to his dealers face to face. None of them were stupid enough to try and steal from the ABB, Lung and Bakuda had made it quite clear what happened to those that did. He had personally got rid of any dealers that touched their own product. There were plenty of people who wanted to take their place after all. He also gave an occasional nod to a few of their lookouts hanging out on steps or street corners. He always paid them well, since they were the gang’s early warning system in case of a raid. They had an important duty to call and warn us, and fire on anyone who showed up. The ABB currently lacked the heavy weaponry to deal with Spree if he showed up, but Bakuda was currently working on a simple to use grenade to use if they or the Empire tried to raid again.

Tar sighed as it started to rain. He opened up his umbrella and kept walking. He could have taken a car, but he was trying to lose weight and put on some muscle. The ABB didn’t like weaklings, no matter how smart they were. He was making progress, but it was slow. Bakuda had seen his step counter on his belt and offered to help him. He had politely declined, and silently prayed that Bakuda was not interested in him. Knowing her, she would try to light his fat on fire or something.

Tar hated the rain. It meant fewer people would go to buy, and that meant they would be short today. Nearing the second stop, he carefully called out to his men in Chinese, and English to ask them how they were doing. Ping was still living with his mother, and he was just about ready to become a dealer. Tar had bought him the books he needed to read, and he intended to test him on them later. He had made it clear that he wouldn’t be a dealer if he didn’t pass.

Walking along the rain suddenly started to really start come down hard. Despite his umbrella he was starting to get wet and he took refuge under an alcove in an alley until the rain let up a little. He was checking his phone to make sure it wasn’t wet when he first saw him.

He was hard to see hiding in the shadow of the alley. It was too dark to see his face, but the man was standing in the middle of the alley and looking straight at Tar. He was disgustingly skinny, and wearing some type of trench coat. He did not look that tough, but something about him set Tar on edge. He carefully put his hand on the gun and stared him down. The man did nothing but stand there. After a minute or so, Tar decided to find somewhere else to take shelter.

You could never be too careful in this city. There were always rumors of weird shit happening. He had heard the rumors of a homeless woman who could turn into snakes and had supposedly attacked a few of the Teeth. There were also rumors about a gang of organ thieves operating in the city. You’d be having a drink that was spiked and later wake up in a bathtub full of ice, missing your liver. Tar was sure it was all bullshit, but it was better safe than sorry.

Tar quickly decided that this would be his last stop for the day. He’d borrow a car and head back home. No one was going to be doing much business in this weather, and it would take too long to walk back. He called ahead and made arrangements with Lao to borrow the company car. It was a little too ostentatious for his tastes, but beggars can’t be choosers. Lao said he’d be waiting with it in front of the pawnshop he owned.

It took him almost five minutes before he realized he was being followed. He had just had a feeling of being watched, turned around, and there he was. The guy from the alley was back. He was walking at a calm pace in the heavy rain until he saw that Tar had stopped moving and stood still looking straight at him.

Tar felt his adrenaline and fear start to rise as he put his hand on his gun and pullet out his phone. He never took his eyes off the man in the rain. He opened it up and quick dialed Lao’s number, unsure if he should run or not. He was only two blocks away, but it might be better for Lao to get the men stationed nearby and drive to him. He reacted with shock when he realized the phone wasn’t dialing and quickly glanced down at his screen. He didn’t have any bars. But that was impossible; he had just called Lao less than a minute ago.

The man in the rain suddenly started to walk again at a slow pace. Tar pulled out his gun and started to walk quickly in the other direction, while taking occasional glances behind him. The man was too far away for Tar to hit, and he wasn’t the best shot. No, Tar thought, it would be better to just get to Lao’s. There were men on lookout right across from the pawnshop and they would have guns.

Tar was trying to stay focused and kept walking as a brisk pace. The man behind him would speed up or slow down depending on how fast he went. He never tried to close the distance, and then started to make a loud clicking noise. It reminded Tar of a street musician he had seen once who made noises with spoons on his shoe. He could now hear a constant click, click, click that could barely be heard over the rain.

Tar was just about to ditch his umbrella and run when the clicking stopped. He turned around and the man was gone. Tar raised his gun and carefully scanned around but he was nowhere to be seen. Tar kept his hand on his gun despite putting it back in his holster. He took deep breaths for a few minutes while waiting to see if the man came back. He was still on edge, but slowly felt himself relax, as it seemed the man was gone. Lao’s should be just around the corner after one more block.

He pushed the button for the crosswalk and debated what he should do. Should he tell someone that he had been followed? Thinking about it now made it seem so stupid. A thin man in a trench coat walked behind you while clicking scared you? He’d embellish just a little so that two men were following him and report it to his boss. They’d probably make sure he had guards and that he used a car. Both of which seemed like great ideas. He was working on a good lie when he heard the clicking again right in front of him.

Right across the street was the same skinny man in the coat. But he could get a closer look now and it looked like he was bald and wearing a detailed mask that had a bust of someone’s face. Tar started to panic when he recognized that it was his own face. The man then twisted his head around in a complete circle, and started to make a weird wheezing noise. It took Tar a few seconds to realize he was laughing.

Tar turned and ran as fast as he could. He threw the umbrella to the side and tried to get his gun out. Behind him he could the clicking getting closer, and he didn’t dare look. He hadn’t noticed before but there wasn’t anyone else on the street. He wasn’t sure how long he ran, but he managed to get his gun out and turn around. He pointed it at the man and saw him stop.

“That’s right”, Tar shouted. “You fuck with me, you die.”

“You fuck with me you die”. Tar was momentarily confused. That was his voice but he hadn’t said it. He turned around and saw another man no less than twenty feet away. He was the exact same as the first, all the way down the bust of his face. But he was swaying back and forth.

“You fuck with me you die. You fuck with me you die. You fuck with me you die.” He just kept repeating it like a parrot but it was in his own voice. Then the first man started to say it and when Tar looked back he started to scream.

The man had split his face open and fallen to the ground with the halves of his face ending in new legs. His coat had opened up and turned into wings, and new sharp looking arms appeared. A bug’s head had come out of the chest, and it had a long and sharp looking stinger in its face. It looked like a cross between a cockroach and those green insects they had in one of the Chinese martial arts places. It started to make a rapid faced clicking noise before it started to scream exactly as he just had.

Tar lost it. He screamed and fired over and over again with the pistol sounding shockingly loud. The bullets hit it and it started to go into a frenzy of movement, twisting back and forth as it moved forward and screamed in Tar’s voice. Tar turned to the second monster, but it just stayed still where it was and kept repeating his scream. Tar fired the rest of his magazine into it as he ran for the nearby alley.

Tar didn’t dare to look back but he was breathing hard as he managed to reload a fresh clip and pointed his gun at the entrance to the alley. He could hear them start to click but they didn’t appear. Why weren’t they going after him? Could they be scared of the gun? Tar slowly backed up into the alley, before he recognized it as being the very first one he had sought shelter in no more than a few minutes ago. He kept his gun trained on the entrance. They’d have no room to dodge if they came after him in here.

Tar suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg and screamed as he fell to the floor. He turned and saw some type of snake had bitten him. It was dark green and had oversized fangs. It bit him again as Tar pointed his gun and managed to hit it when he fired. With growing horror, Tar realized he could barely move. He struggled to push himself up when he felt another bit on his other leg and Tar felt back down paralyzed. His eyes darted back and forth as he heard movement behind him. He felt something grab his legs and start to drag him.

No, No, No, NO, NO, NO. Tar tried to scream as he was dragged down the alley by something strong, but he couldn’t move. The last sight he saw before the darkness took him was the bug thing in the light of the tunnel looking at him.

================================================

Tar groggily opened his eyes. His body hurt and he couldn’t move his arms. It took him a few minutes to realize he was strapped down to some kind of upright table. He tried to see but there was a powerful light shining down on his face. He couldn’t see anything but he could hear movement.

Tar tried desperately to keep it together. Whoever had taken him, obviously didn’t want to kill him. But he was so scared and struggling not to have a panic attack. Despite himself he started to scream as he heard what sounded like something was eating meat, his mind filled with horrible possibilities.

“I see you are awake Mr. Jirou”. Tar twisted his head around. The voice sounded like it had come from all around him. It was like there were a dozen people speaking at once, with everything from old men to young girls speaking in perfect unison.

Tar tried to speak but found he couldn’t. He started to cry in fear when he realized his voice was gone.

“Now, now Mr. Jirou, there is no point to that.” the voice said. “You will speak only when I allow it. Now I am going to ask you some questions Mr. Jirou. If you answer me honestly and to the best of your abilities, we won’t have any problems. I have a new procedure that should keep your short-term memories from going into long-term storage. So if you answer all my questions, and don’t lie to me, then you are going to wake up safe and sound in your bed. With everything seeming like a bad dream.”

“But if you lie to me Mr. Jirou, we are going to have problems. I can look directly into your brain, and I will know if you try to lie. I promise you that if you do lie to me, you are going to remember the next hour every waking moment for the rest of your natural life. Do we have an understanding?”

Tar quickly nodded his head.

“Good. Now Mr. Jirou, I want you tell me everything you know about the ABB. Dealers, schedules, addresses, faces, personalities, everything. I also advise you that you speak quickly when I give your voice back. Now don’t worry Mr. Jirou, this won’t hurt a bit.”

Tar awoke with start. He quickly started to feel around his head but didn’t feel a scar. He sighed in relief.

It had just been a bad dream.

==============================================

Dinah Alcott was having another restless sleep. She had been having nightmares every night and her parents were getting worried. It had gotten to the point that they were considering taking her to a therapist because of how strange her behavior had been lately. She didn’t want to do anything but stay in her room.

Dinah dreamt of a strange white snake that squeezed around her and whispered sweet nothings into her ear. She pictured a giant covered in screaming mouths, and a vast ocean that threatened to drown her. No matter what she did, she couldn’t get away.

But for the first time, something new had started to show up. She saw a strange tree on a hill. It was huge, so high that she could barely see the top. Closer inspection revealed a figure connected to it. She was carved from wood and was growing beautiful flowers that on closer inspection were filled with teeth and flesh. She wasn’t sure why but she found herself at peace beneath the shade.

For the first time in weeks, Dinah Alcott slept soundly.

================================================

Far away, a figure sat engrossed at a map of the docks. She had a strange mask. Her mind reached far and wide touching various strange looking animals connected to machines. The construction of her lab, and her network was almost complete. Her drones were built to be small and hidden to spy from the sky. Her mapping of the docks would be finished by the end of the week. She would wait until she knew how foot traffic moved better before she started building the hidden maintenance and feeding stations for her Lusus.

She was distracted from her thoughts by an alert from one of her birds. A group of men wearing red and green were following close behind one of her mimic models. She assumed direct control of it and gave instructions for two other mimics hidden on nearby rooftops to move behind them. The gang members were armed with knives and a pipe but had no visible guns. They strutted and puffed up their chests. They felt so confident here in the middle of their territory. They were completely unaware of what was about to happen.

Taylor Hebert smiled.

End Part 1

Upcoming

Part 2- Warlord​

 

[TheAnt]

So that is part 1, or the prologue. Critiques and constructive criticism is welcome since I am still a beginner. I will try to fix any mistakes I missed and will rewrite rough parts as needed. I tried to do 3rd person for the second half of the 5th chapter as an experiment, and hopefully it wasn’t too bad. I am going to try and aim for one chapter every week or two with writing 7 to 10k words as my goal. I finally decided to make a thread for some of my stuff after reading that the number one tip for new writers is just to write on a schedule and keep it for practice. Hopefully it is at least partly entertaining.

Taylor is going to be powerful, but she is far from invincible. Though the ABB is going to be afraid of going at night before too long.

 

[Puzzle]

I like all the little divergences from sealing Boston. One kind of jumped out at me though, Accord and Coil are friends, would they really be in the same city? It could all have been butterflied of course but it struck me. I do like the whole cloning with powers thing as well as the Butcher usage. Too often Taylor is described as being clever with her powers without actually showing it, yours is a great example of how a smarter person might solve Blasto's canonical control problems.

 

[aguy]

Holy shit. This was amazing. Very well thought out, including the subtle divergences meaning something more than "Taylor has a different power". You did a great job with the ambiance, and really caught the mood both of Taylor (including her shard-driven depression at not progressing towards power growth), and of the city suddenly subjected to a stealthy invasion of plant-people.

 

[TheAnt]

One kind of jumped out at me though, Accord and Coil are friends, would they really be in the same city?

Click to shrink...

How they are together will be explored in future chapters, but this Brockton Bay is a bit nastier in canon mostly thanks to the Butcher.

The Simurgh hit Boston and she pushed Accord and the Teeth toward Brockton Bay. The Butcher two cycles ago was caught in her song for a brief moment and subsequently the next version of the Butcher did a TON of damage before the current Butcher Quarrel killed him. I theorized that the Butcher has a very important function in the cycle.

The Butcher's job is too instigate conflict by being crazy aggressive and being impossible to stop. Killing it just makes the next one worse, and the Butcher's presence has caused the number of parahumans in the gangs to shoot up. The ABB has 7 parahumans with Lung having a sort of bodyguard to protect him while he bulks up after nearly dying twice to the Butcher and Accord/Coil alliance. The Empire has few more parahumans, Accord has 14 at the moment, and the Teeth currently have 13. The PRT is bigger than canon since Brockton is much more important as a city with Boston sealed, and subsequently has a few more heroes. Lily and Weld will be seen much earlier.

I will explore more of the backstory in future chapters, but things were not good for Accord when he showed up in Brockton badly damaged and with few resources. Coil was having a hard time fighting a bigger Empire, ABB, Marquis, and the Teeth had just absorbed the merchants greatly increasing their numbers/power. They decided to team up for survival and their powers have very good synergy. Their alliance managed to stop the last Butcher when he showed up and caused a city wide riot with his power. Of course Coil is still Coil, and he has a few schemes in place. Both of them know it is inevitable they will betray each other at some point, and both are confident they can easily beat the other when the time comes. We will see a bit of how their alliance works in a future Coil interlude.

 

[hance1986]

The obvious first step is to spam plant Zerg at fucking everything. Maybe go the Swamp Thing route and kind of imply Blasto is some kind of plant lady based Case 53? Don't ever reveal that Blasto is a Tinker. Some kind of plant matter Shaker or Master to get people looking in the wrong direction.

Use plant proxies. Always. Always. Always. There should always be at least 10-15-20 degrees of seperation between Taylor and her minions. Maybe create if she hasn't already relay plant units to boost her signal? Taylor should really look at a RTS setup to get an idea of hos she wants to operate long term. She is the Commander. She should have an Eagle Eye on the battlefield, but be at least 5-10 miles away at the best of times.

 

[TheAnt]

hance1986
Well the main issue is that Nilbog is still a thing and it was canon that they gave canon Blasto a ready to go kill order if made self replicating creations. So she is wary of trying it, but that might change depending on what certain parahumans do in response to her escalation. She has it so her creations melt when they die and the mechanical parts self destruct, but Armsmaster might be able to figure out her creations are cyborgs and realize she is a Tinker instead of the next Nilbog.

Her creations are more like biological machines than animals at this point, and she has to spend alot more time and resources with Overmind/Bonesaw tech to program/control them. So there won't be a zerg rush, but she will have pretty good numbers. Right now she has:

25 to 30 various humanoid models.
12 or so small spy models-monkeys to build network towers on roof tops, birds/rats to spy
15 larger models that would have used a grizzly bear for a base if she didn't have project G. Mostly various large bugs

But thanks to her expanding network, that no one knows exist, she can control/multitask a few bodies at the same time. So she won't go zerg crazy, but she will have the ability to create many more Lusus if needed with her current tech/resources. Right now she is holding off on building more until she actually fights the ABB. Then she can modify future Lusus custom built to fight them.

 

[hance1986]

While I have plenty of new ideas for future experiments, I have no choice but to stop. I am running out of resources, and I am exhausted mentally and physically. For the next few days I do nothing but look over my data, and reread previous research on parahumans and weigh my options.

I think I have a theory now about how powers work, and it is a little scary. Based off of my own experiments and common traits of parahumans, I think we are just an experiment for something else. We are essentially lab rats and the earth is essentially a giant Petri dish for powers. This intelligence wants powers to spread to gain more data about them. But the question remains why?

I imagine that I am an alien intelligence with the same goals as I did with the Butcher experiment. See what powers transfer, how things change, and why. This could explain why all parahuman powers are combat related in some way. Well if I was running an experiment I would want my specimens to only kill each other in controlled conditions, and to keep them from being destroyed, as I would lose valuable data. So Scion is almost certainly involved somehow.

Powers did not start to spread until after he arrived, he is the biggest difference between our realities and other ones where powers exist but are few. My guess is that he acts as a safety feature to keep the experiment running smoothly. He destroyed nuclear weapons, stops volcanoes from erupting, and fights the Endbringers so that not too many of us are killed off and the experiment is ruined.

Its possible he isn’t even sentient and is a projection or platform for this alien intelligence to ensure the experiment isn’t ruined. But there are a few things that still don’t make sense.

What is the Endbringers purpose in this experiment? Their behavior has never made sense to anyone else. Despite the destruction and death it is obvious that they are holding back. If I were Leviathan I would simply stay away from the mainland and constantly cause huge Tsunamis. But he comes onto land where we can drive him off and force him to stop while he heals. It is a very similar situation to how Behemoth acts when he does not come up right under its target. Instead he appears well away and gives us a chance to stop him. But despite the fact that they are essentially jobbing fights, the damage is still too huge for it to be good for the experiment. If I was running it I would like to keep us isolated, stable, and have constant border skirmishes for the right amount of data without sacrificing too many of my specimens. Is it possible the Endbringers are from another rival different from those that back Scion?

It could explain why they are so different but similar in power to Scion. Perhaps Scion, and the Endbringers are the end goals of powers with the purpose to gain new data to build more? Perhaps powers are similar to seeds. They plant them in humans and like plants they grow depending on what you cross them with and where. They watch them grow over time, then make a cut and plant it anew in a person nearby, and collect the data when it dies. That could explain why children of parahumans and others near them are more likely to trigger. They already have data that they are similar enough for a good harvest.

Considering my plant analogy perhaps they gather the material when we die to build something else. In the end I had more questions than answers, and it was still only a theory. Quite a crazy one at that, and it didn’t change too much for me. The Endbringers still need to be stopped, villains need to be defeated, and Scion is still going to protect us for whatever purpose he has. But the question now was what to do with my data.

Click to shrink...

I have an image of Taylor posting this entire theory in EXACTING detail on PHO under an identity not connected to Taylor Hebert in any way, shape, or form. 98 percent of the community calls bullshit or calls Scion the next Endbringer in true troll fashion.

1 percent including some PRT elements and Dragon say it makes some kind of sense but there's no hard proof beyond a maybe well-written essay that connects dots in a certain way.

and the last 1 percent is Cauldron.

As in an independent posting of what they know to be the truth with a very high degree of accuracy, and not posted by one of them.

Don't know why, just want some kind of concrete Cauldron/Blasto!Taylor interaction. Is this in any way feasible?

 

[Impstar]

... Calm down Taylor, you're getting Overmind level aggression here.

That aside, those powers together? Amazing synergy.

Edit: Definitely Bonesaw influences as well.

 

[TheAnt]

hance1986

Taylor is unsure of her theory, since her only evidence is an experiment that she very much wants to be kept secret. But she will be a long time enemy to the other gangs in the city for quite some time, and the PRT will be paying VERY close attention to the appearance of most in the city will consider a sort of heroic Nilbog. She will be interesting to Cauldron considering their ideas of Nilbog's powers importance to the cycle, but not enough to really care too much.

That said, things will change much farther down the line when she tries another experiment that will have BIG implications for their anti-Scion plan. What exactly happens will catch their attention.

 

[hance1986]

That said, things will change much farther down the line when she tries another experiment that will have BIG implications for their anti-Scion plan. What exactly happens will catch their attention.

Click to shrink...

Some sort of power/Shard disruption effect due to Taylor cloning parahumans? Because if you have some kind of Shard-EMP, you might actually have something or the start of something to hunt the Golden Whale.

 

[TheAnt]

That is spoilers, but not quite. Echidna was doing the same thing when she cloned parahumans and I think cauldron just wanted to kill her.

 

[Apathetic Khorne]

Tinker!Altered plant life that can grow easily in deserts!

 

[TheAnt]

Tinker!Altered plant life that can grow easily in deserts!

Click to shrink...

She'd be scared of trying that after what happened to Sphere. But considering her father is a union leader, and the city is having economic pains, she probably is thinking of how to help people in other ways.

 

[Kaizuki]

God dammit Taylor, you got one of those powers you always called out as being overpowered compared to how they were being used.

Piggot's gonna have a fucking aneurysm when she figures out what's going on.

 

[apothis]

well shes ether some how creating new shards or shes leaching of other shard so therefore i propose if she were to clone say lung a total of ten times long would have only 1/10 regeneration and take 9/10 more battle to ramp up

 

[TheAnt]

clone say lung a total of ten times

Click to shrink...

Well Taylor doesn't have Lung's DNA, and even if she did she wouldn't try it. She mentions it during the chapter where she is a essentially a grave robber. You have to have hardware and software to use parahuman shards going off of Bonesaw's interlude and Taylor can't make memories. So non sentience, and no memories means they can't use the shard too well. She was able to sort of artificially trigger some of her clones when the Butcher shard transferred over, and the Butcher shard has unique properties in how it affects nearby shards since its job in the cycle is to spread conflict/trigger events. She could maybe try and do what Blasto did in canon. Make them just sentient enough to badly use their powers, but Taylor mentions in the story how she would never make a sentient clone since she would do her best to raise it like a mother if it happened by accident.

If Taylor cloned a few parahumans, put overmind/bonesaw tech in them, and managed to figure out how to get them to trigger, then she might be able to control them and learn to use their powers in a very limited way compared to say Regent. She doesn't have the right software to control the power and she has limited processing power than she did in canon. Overmind tech can push her processing speed and multitasking abilities to a small point, but it would be very much trial and error and at most she could sort of badly control one or two parahumans. She'd have to learn to walk, talk, and slowly learn to use the power of the clone badly while she tries to make it work. Plus we already saw what happened to Taylor in canon when she connected to other shards. It isn't impossible and Taylor herself is going to be trying her damnedest to make it work, but there won't be a small army of parahumans under her mental control.

 

[Wawv]

I can see how she would interest Cauldron since she effectively discovered a way to safely duplicate and give powers. You really did a great job with all the background changes caused by the different locations of the Endbringer's attacks. Also I was really awed with what you did with Blasto's power, I really can't wait to see how events will unfold from this point.

 

[theTwitMachine]

Taylor basically has the tech already implemented to give herself any powers she wants. She's a heroes Sylar who doesn't require actually killing the original person to take their power - just clones and butcher clones, which she can do.

Great story so far.

 

[Insomnius]

Oh God.

This is amazing.

All these ideas are amazing and you implemented them so well.

Seed!Taylor may be one of the biggest threats in Brockton Bay. Initially she was just a pretty good Biotinker. Then she got the powers of some of the most powerful Tinkers on the planet. And went off the deep end.

I am eagerly awaiting more.