Phylum 1.2

"You understand that I can't just trust a random person on the phone because they say so." Danny said warily.

"I understand. Don't worry, Mr. Hebert, you'll get your proof." He could almost hear the voice on the other end smile sinisterly. "And with it, an opportunity for revenge."

"...What do you mean by that?" Danny said, even more cautious now.

"Why, Mr. Hebert, surely you don't mean to say you'll just let a supposed 'hero' get away with the murder of your daughter." Danny tensed, but the voice continued. "Besides, with that laboratory you have in your basement, you have the means to wreak vengeance."

Danny slowly pulled the phone away from his ear and, hand shaking, placed it on the receiver.

On the other end of the line, a smile slid onto Coil's visage.

The pieces were falling into place.

"Danny!" Kurt called, as he spotted me walking down the corridor. "Danny, I... you're back at work, huh?"

I nodded, and gave him a tired smile. "Yeah. I figured I needed to get out and get my mind off of things, y'know?"

Kurt nodded sympathetically. "Well, just remember that you've got people to talk to if ou need them, okay?"

"Will do, Kurt, will do." I turned and walked into my office, taking a seat at the desk. I should have been drawing up another proposal for the re-vitalisation of the Docks, but... my mind was on other things.

Ever since the incident at Fugly Bob's, my mind had been spinning with ideas. Organ modifications, combat enhancements, organic weaponry – so many blueprints, ideas, plans. I'd barely been able to focus on work, ever since I'd come back. Together with the bombshell that the voice had dropped on me...

Not that I necessarily believed it. I had no way of knowing if Sophia truly was Shadow Stalker, but I'd done some digging. Supposedly, the family had been able to hash out some kind of deal and have her transferred to a private facility. That kind of influence could only have been had with backing. Backing like from the PRT.

I didn't pretend to know why, or even if, the PRT were protecting her. If I had to guess, it would be for the same reason that corporations covered up their scandals – it would ruin them as an organisation. Still, I didn't have any proof, either. I didn't even know if I could get proof. Accusing the PRT of covering up the crimes of one of their employees would just bring into light that Sophia Hess was Shadow Stalker – if she was – and that could lead to some serious problems.

I still had no way of figuring out the truth. If I joined the Protectorate, would they reveal it to me? Or just keep it from me even more? I didn't want to join a gang, even if that would give me the resources to find out. And there was no record of the location Hess was being kept at, so there was no way to ask her myself. Besides, she wouldn't tell me, even if I did.

And if I found her what would I do? I had been trying to keep a lid on my anger, ever since I had found out about... Taylor, but... if I came face to face with the killers... I'd do something I would regret.

Even now, thinking about what she had done-

The edge of the desk broke off in my hands, leaving me holding a chunk of wood. "Fuck," I muttered to myself, and stood up to brush the fragments of my lap. The chunk of wood was still in my hand, so I tucked it under the desk and tried to forget about it.

I stewed at my desk for the rest of the day, trying to ignore the dark thoughts.

When I returned home, it was to find a slim file resting on the kitchen table, labelled 'CLASSIFIED INFORMATION.' I tensed, and whipped my head around, seeking the point of entry and wondering how in the hell this file had gotten into my house – and if the perpetrator was still here.

Slowly, I approached the file. I had no way of knowing what was inside it, but if this was from that man on the phone... I pulled my shirt over my nose, in case there was a gas inside designed to knock me out. I'd learnt that Tinkers were in high demand, so it was definitely a possible tactic.

I flipped the front of the file open and backed away a couple of the steps, tensed for the hiss of escaping air. None came, so I approached the file again, and picked it up.

The first few pages were side by side comparisons of Sophia Hess and Shadow Stalker in similar poses, demonstrating just how similar they appeared. Then there were a few transcripts from the arrests she had made, along with conversations she'd had at school and at home. I had no idea how he'd gotten any of this, but it implied that he was a man of great power – and that he wanted me to know, or at least believe that.

If any of it was real.

I flipped through a few more pages of 'evidence,' along with a comparison of fingerprints found on her crossbows and Sophia Hess's prints. Then, at the back, was a disc. It was unlabelled, so I was wary of putting it into the computer, but at this point... I had to know.

I already half-believed it. I needed confirmation.

I could already feel the familiar heat of anger approaching. I was already so infuriated at Barnes and Clement – but I had staved it off because they were stupid kids who were truly regretful, and they were getting what they deserved. I'd already divined that Sophia Hess had had a part in Taylor's... murder, but to find out she was also a government agent – a hero and a Ward, no less – would push me over the edge of barely-contained rage into fury.

I stood up, booted up the ageing laptop, and slid the disc into the drive. I clicked my way through several menus, barely restraining myself from mashing the keys, and pressed play.

It was security footage, was my first thought. A camera from just behind a desk, in some kind of office. As I watched, a large woman waddled in and took a seat, an expression of annoyance visible before she turned to take a seat. For a while she just did paperwork, made calls, and drank coffee. Skipped ahead slightly, to when she picked up a phone and said, "bring up Hess."

I stiffened. This was proof. Cold, hard, no way of doubting it, proof. If the girl that came into that room was Sophia Hess, I would know that a hero had killed my little girl.

The door opened on the video, and a dark-skinned girl stepped inside, a hockey mask pushed up on top of her head. She was escorted by a PRT officer. It was Sophia Hess.

She didn't even look regretful. She looked annoyed.

My anger nearly boiled over right then and there. Seeing this murderer free, able to do whatever she wanted, and she was just fucking annoyed?!

I took a calming breath and set my jaw, eyes narrowed. I decided to keep watching, keep listening, to see what reason they could possibly have for allowing her to walk free. There was a short conversation which I didn't quite catch, before I hurried to turn up the volume.

"...Extremely lucky that Director Costa-Brown took a hand in your case. Were it up to me you'd already be in jail right now for a long time. But apparently the Director wants to keep things quiet, so you've been given a transfer to Boston were you'll be punished there, in the interest of protecting your identity and the PRT's credibility." The woman's words only brought a frown further on to my face. My glare deepened. "We anticipate you should be back in the Protectorate once you turn eighteen, under very strict guidelines."

Through it all, Hess's look of annoyance had lightened slightly, morphing into the tiniest hint of a smirk, before collapsing back into annoyance. I barely noticed. As soon as I heard the final words of Piggot's speech, I let out an indistinguishable snarl and put my fist through the screen. There was a shower of sparks and crunch as shards of metal and plastic were flung across the room.

I panted heavily, my face twisted in rage, and slowly pulled the laptop off of my arm, ignoring the blood from the scratches it had caused. I went back to the file – the man had mentioned a way to take vengeance on Hess. Before I had been wary, but now?

Now I was pissed.

I flipped through it again and found a sheaf of paper, detailing when the transfer would occur, a month or so from now. Hess would be escorted in a PRT van, to prevent her from escaping. She'd be escorted by Miss Militia, apparently armed with an electrical Tinkertech weapon to disable her if she did escape. Theere would also be two decoy vans in case a gang caught wind of what had happened – but the course of the true van was laid out here. I glared at it, and carefully placed it back on the table.

I had work to do.

I had to confess, I'd had no idea of how to go about being a cape, especially a Tinker. How did I start, what did I need first? I'd been able to set up the bio-ventilator easily enough, as well as the growth hormone producer. The durability hormone was just something quick that I had worked on when I had wanted to join the Protectorate-

I had placed band-aids on the moderately serious wounds, and I'd had to stitch one of the longer gashes myself – fortunately, my power let me know just how to do it to allow it to heal best – and I'd washed my hands.

I had done some research, and the most common denominator between active Tinkers was their use of 'power armour,' based around their specialty. There were obvious exceptions, but when I considered how to make power armour for myself, my mind went to the most obvious real-world option – an exoskeleton.

Growing one was... easy enough. I was already part way through creating a chrysalis for growing my more exotic materials that I wouldn't be able to obtain from regular stores. Really, I was quite lucky – a lot of biology was chemistry, and a lot of the chemicals I needed could either be extracted from household animals or myself, or found in household items.

The chrysalis was for growing products I couldn't get from those sources – and I could also use it to grow parts of my cape persona. Such as an exoskeleton. I would need to begin growing them on a human-scale level immediately with copious amounts of growth hormone. I would need to provide a sample of my own DNA for an example of what to build it to the scale of, and with use of the durability hormone, it would be incredibly tough.

It would also be very difficult to lift by a baseline human – fortunately, my own use of the durablity hormone had granted me enough strength to lift it. Some more might be needed, but I should be able to handle it capably.

Muscle fibres would connect each part of the skeleton, so I would need a way of quickly regrowing it to fit it on each time. Luckily, I could use some solvent hormones to bind them together, and dissolve it with another hormone. That would allow me to bind each part together – although I would need to allow time for the muscle fibres to regrow each time I used it. I would be able to place it back in the chrysalis after each night, so that should be fine.

Generally however, there were other features integrated into Tinkertech suits. Fortunately, I had a few ideas. It wouldn't be too difficult to build in some organisms to increase it's combat capability and other utilities. Taking inspiration from animals such as the bombardier beetle – which used a combination of hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide to create a hot, noxious chemical spray. I could build that into an arm with relative ease, encasing the organ in the skeleton to hide it's vulnerable flesh.

I could also take from the venom produced by bees and wasps for stingers, perhaps in the fingertips themselves. If I used a combination of muscles and bones working in tandem, they could become retractable – similar to a cat's claws. The method of delivery would most likely be quite similar to how a wasp's sting works, but the venom itself could be variable. Bees used melittin, a peptide that breaks up cell membranes – but their venom was mixed with a lot of water.

If I upped the concentration of the melittin, it could cause an extremely painful gash when injected. But bees also used phospholipase as the most painful component of their sting – which breaks down the membranes of the blood vessels themselves, and causes the release of pain-inducing agents. Combined, they caused the incredible pain of the bee sting, along with hyaluronidase to increase penetration.

There was also an interesting thermite concoction I could use, such that I would be able to combine the bombardier method of delivery with an inert group of chemicals that, when combined, would create a chemical similar to thermite – a focused flamethrower or merely a burning effect, and could be layered to melt through objects like metal. It would provide great utility, and allow me to break through any metallic armours.

Non-lethal options were also necessary – knockout gas and injections were a must, and would allow me to down the responders easily.

Ultimately, I decided to use a variable, switching method to allow my stingers to switch between the pain-inducing bee-sting and the knockout injection method.

The final component of my exoskeleton was inspired by the mantis shrimp. Their raptorial appendages could be deployed at blinding speeds, equivalent to the velocity of a gunshot from a twenty two calibre rifle. With some modification, they could be fired as well, at the expense of some speed. If the ends were slightly blunted, they would serve well as ranged weaponry.

The method of deployment could not be replicated with my own limbs, as it would tear apart the muscles, but I could integrate it into the arms of my suit, letting bones snap forward at strength sufficient to pulp normal humans. Fortunately, I would be able to reduce the power of the blow if I wanted to – ligaments could be manipulated to varying degrees of force to deliver powerful blows, or merely some blunt force.

A smaller-scale version of the bio-ventilatory system would be fitted into the mask, to allow me to breath both underwater and in hostile gas environments. Other than that, I would be unable to modify my own senses without a much more in-depth series of modifications, but all of these adaptations could be squeezed relatively easily into a bulky, roughly human sized exoskeleton, if made right.

I opened up my chrysalis and set to work.

It took nearly two full days of exhausting work to set up the exoskeleton. Designing, creating, and arranging the nucleopeptides, manipulating the amino acid production, and ensuring that the production of protein and enzymes goes smoothly. When I had finally finished the design and used some of my own genetic material to create the structure, I set it to begin gestation and production of growth hormone. It would take nearly a month to grow – I'd barely be done in time for Shadow Stalker's transfer. That would give me a scant few days to test the skeleton and make any adjustments.

If I missed the deadline... didn't know what I would do. Relocation to Boston wasn't an option – but I couldn't let that murderer go unpunished.

I had to have the exoskeleton ready.

Work was... uneventful, during the time I waited. When I wasn't doing various work at the Union, I was researching the various capes, and compiling list of those I wanted to avoid at all costs. If possible, I'd prefer to not engage any parahumans, but new capes were – apparently – snapped up quickly by the gangs. As I'd mentioned, Tinkers especially so.

I jotted down various ideas for future projects. Possible creations, additions to my exoskeleton for the future, and so on. Direct injections of axons to create a neuro-immune response and cause regeneration was his main idea so far. It would need to be configured for each person's biology, so it wasn't great for use by the general public, but it would be perfect for my own use.

I jotted down a few more ideas, and I remained in silent, indignant fury. In the back of my mind, I ran through what I would do when I caught Shadow Stalker, when I caught Sophia Hess...

But I didn't really know.

When the exoskeleton was finally fully grown, I pulled it out of the chrysalis pod and laid it out on the table. I examined it for obvious weakpoints, but from the outside, it appeared fine. The muscle fibres flexed well, and use of the solvent chemical detached the pieces. Application of the counter-chemical and growth hormone regrew them, although they'd need to rest before they could be better affixed.

I donned the exoskeleton and tested out the various uses. The stingers seemed to work fine – some flexing of the wrist and they slid out easily, and a certain twist motion caused the composition to change – I used a microscope to examine the different venoms, and they did change. I was wary of testing the thermite spray, so I layered a small part of the chemical on a piece of paper. It went up in flames.

The bombardier spray also worked fine. And when I fired the mantis claw, it left a noticeable crack in the brick wall. Activating the arm-mounted springs also caused a blunt chunk of bone to lash out and slam into the wall at lightning speed, leaving a sizeable dent and causing brick dust to cascade everywhere.

The systems seemed to be working fine – I could breathe through the ventilator, at least, so that worked for now. And I could move about relatively easily – the bone of the exoskeleton was quite flexible.

The final product was a dirty grey with various whorls and patterns across it, along with small outcroppings of bone jutting out by happenstance. Looking at it objectively... it was quite intimidating.

It was perfect.

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