Amy Dallon / Panacea
Despite being rather young, Panacea managed to see such things that even white-haired veterans talk with trembling voice. She saw an Endbringer in his prime, and survived after that. Only for that she could be called a veteran cape.
Amy has been treating people for almost a year and a half, and during that time she had seen enough to consider herself to be a experienced doctor.
But this time was different. Everything was different.
It was a completely normal Saturday that Amy wanted to spend with her sister before it went completely wrong.
She was still in bed when overexcited Vicky crashed in her room. She forced Amy to dress up and escorted to the rest of the family who were already in their full gear. Twenty minutes later, whole New Wave team was standing on the roof of one of the office buildings, from where a great view of the St. Brutus hospice opened.
When they arrived the building was already cordoned off by Protectorate response teams, and the Wards in full force roamed around the perimeter.
As Brandish said during the flight to the rendezvous point, the alarm was raised after the hospital staff abruptly stopped responding to outer world. Repeated calls to reception and numerous attempts to call at least someone did not succeed and people were anxied. Some concerned civilian rushed to see a relative and found only corpses in the reception hall. After that, he immediately called the police. Arriving at the scene cops called PRT
As a result, the whole Wards team and most of the adult heroes are now gathered here.
The vivid imagination of Panacea easily painted a picture of the event, which made her feel very uncomfortable. The young heroine firmly associated herself with hospitals.
Waiting dragged on. The first half hour passed in the painfully tense waiting for reports from the heroes who were inside. There was even more fear in the loud, inhuman sounds which were caught by the microphones even outside the building.
Then Velocity and Assault managed to find the cause. Amy stayed away from the content of the negotiations, since she did not have direct access to Protectorate frequencies,only adult members were able to maintain that access permanently, but fo Vicky and her - they were given access only in cases of joint operations.
As it became clear from the sharp remarks of Brandish, the heroes of the Protectorate needed Amy's help in order to somehow solve the problem with the parahuman who arranged all this situation. But her mother categorically refused to let her go inside until she had full guarantees of her, Panacea, security.
Amy had to stay on the roof for almost two hours before guarantees were received and certified by a personal request from Director Piggot. Then Brandish gritting her teeth agreed.
Panacea was walking along the empty corridors of the hospice, accompanied by an investigator from PRT and her insides were slowly freezing from the sticky feeling of the utter lifelessness filled this place.
Silence.
Thick, oppressive eerie and impossible silence owned this place. Only rare voices of PRT members were heard in those now empty corridors.
Plants. It was the first thing that caught her pots were now filled only with dust mixed with gray earth. It looked like every plant here have rotten into nothing.
And bodies. Wrapped in black cellophane, they lay in straight rows in the main hall. Forty-eight bags. Forty eight people. Forty-eight new graves.
And they want her to heal the one who did it?
She tried to pull herself together, to recall the Hippocratic Oath and that oath that she gave to herself. Panacea was not holy, she only followed the rules. But after all, every rule has an exception?
Finally they reached the chamber. Nothing remarkable, except that she was in the wing for patients on life support. Approaching the ward, Panacea nodded slightly to the guardians which were Assault and Velocity, who also nodded grimly at her, letting the girl inside.
... And all the words and thoughts that swelled in the head of Panacea instantly disappeared, dissolving inside a much stronger feeling that flooded the mind. All her nature was filled by it in a single moment.
Horror.
A creature soaring under the ceiling was the embodiment of something antagonistic to her. Unnatural. Something that by a mere existence denied the concept of life.
Her power, the one that could easily tell her how many cells rot in a human body at that very second, seemed to stop before being hung up in the endless loop which consisted from two words: "Not life"
She froze as if she were rooted to the spot and would have stood in this stupor if the hand of Miss Militia, which was also inside the chamber, did not lay on her shoulder.
"Believe me, we also had this kind of reaction with the Armsmaster. This Projection ... whatever it is - is a rather horrifying thing" - an experienced heroine told her.
"B-but you? How are you not afraid?" - Panacea asked in a trembling voice, looking at the serious and collected, but not giving and a hint of fear, woman.
Miss Militia raised head and met eyes with Panacea. Panacea trembled. Her eyes were completely lifeless. No fear, no joy, no emotion, nothing.
"Believe, Fear of death was the thing which I had to learn to live with."
Panacea recoiled from the woman, then squeezed her hands into fists and shook her head decisively, chasing away the obsession. The fear has not gone away - just like nowhere has the creature that now soars under the ceiling has not disappeared, stretching out its inhumanly long hands towards the bed on which her patient apparently rested. With both hands, it touched the head of an unknown girl, barely touching her with the tips of his fingers dressed in white gloves.
After taking three steps, Amy found herself by the bed of the patient and taking a deep breath, touched her arm. Second - and knowledge filled her head. Knowledge that immediately astonished her.
"She is still alive ..." the heroine gasped in shock, widened eyes looking at the medical miracle that now lay before her.
"What do you mean?" - Miss Militia came to her voice.
"Multiple infectious diseases in terminal stages, hepatitis of all three groups, not functioning lung, liver, which theoretically must already be dead, destructed kidneys, numerous blood clots, missing eyeball, damage to the spinal cord. This is only part of a very long list of reasons why she must be dead by now. And she's just in coma."
"Then why is she still alive?"
"It seems to me ... this thing" - with her free hand she showed at the projection floating in the air, - "somehow it keeps her alive. Her heart beats, blood runs through the arteries, and the cells divide, while leaving the telomeres safe and sound. And in terms of biology - this is impossible."
" Powers are bullshit " Militia said thoughtfully, looking at the projection soaring in the air, and continued after a few seconds, "can you help her?"
Panacea thought for a while before asking:
"What happened to her?"
Miss Militia hesitated for a moment before answering.
"This is confidential information, so I'll get by general information. It was a trigger. And very unflattering one."
Amy nodded.
"I think I understand. As for help ... my power is not working out of nothing, you know, at least in its normal state. So if she were in standard conditions, even I would be powerless here. Too much damage, too many injuries. But while this, "- the girl again showed at the projection, "keeps her alive, I think I can at least stabilize her, removing most of the deadly factors. It will take time, but I have to cope. But on complete recovery? No less than a month. And this is the best prediction that I can give by now."
"Clear. Get down to it" - the Militia nodded, tossing the Ka-Bar created by her power into the air.
"It will take time," Amy warned again, before she sat down in the chair next to the bed and began the treatment.
She had to remove thirty-seven different fatal diagnosis,
Sophia Hess/Shadow Stalker
The fact that something went wrong was understood by Stalker at the very moment when they were all alarmed at eight o'clock on Saturday morning and taken to St. Brutus. Not that this place was somehow noteworthy and interesting for her, yet it was located in the zone of responsibility of New Wave, and there were practically no criminals, and even more so members of gangs, therefore she was not interested in the hunting grounds.
But like any decent predator, Hess had an animal instinct for danger. And this very instinct made her blood run cold, warning of danger. Sophia trusted her instincts.
But she could not understand where and what danger could threaten her. Hess was a Hunter and knew how to cover her tracks. And in her humble glance, she did it skillfully. What was even more stranger she had a feeling that she knew from whom danger would emanate. But the thought, like a nimble rabbit all the time slipped from her head, as she tried to grab it by tail.
Patrolling the grounds were extremely boring. Wards wandered around the perimeter of the building, strictly forbidden to go inside, trying to prevent possible penetrations. The remaining heroes examined the building from the inside.
Usually, the Wards served as some kind of entertainment for her. It seemed to her extremely funny to treat these lambs in wolfskins, provoking them to reactions and actions that amused Sofia to some degree. But today, Wards were even duller than usual. Vista didn't even try to respond to her caustic comments about how she compensated for her height with space manipulations, and Kid Win didn't react to her words about the uselessness of his unknown specialization. Hess loved to play on the verge of a foul, but apparently the action taking place inside the building completely killed a spark of fun inside these kids.
Hess straightened crossbows on her belt. She still could not get used to the PRT-made crafts, which were so very different from her previous toys. However, they differed for the better, but Hess was not so stupid as to not understand the number of "surprises" intended primarily for herself, which were inside these tools.
Three and a half hours spent on her feet made Hess forget about morning runnning exercise.. As if she was not infuriated by the need to be in the "club" in order to hide her heroic activities while studying in Winslow, Hess did not like to laze with workouts.
Winslow. At that very moment, Sofia smirked under the mask. This school was one of the most successful decisions in her life. Place where she really could be what she deserved to be. Dangerous predator, the queen of the stone jungle.
The school too valued the preferences that the city gave to institutions where current members of the Wards were schooled in order not to obey the rules that she established. No, no blackmailing or something like that. She just did whatever she wanted, staying within the limits of propriety ... for the most part, and the school ... pretended that everything was going as it ought to be. No more, no less.
However, sometimes Sophia could not restrain herself and allowed herself a little more than usual. Like in the situation with Hebert girl.
Oh yes, Hebert.
If an ideal predator existed in her personal world, represented by herself, then Hebert was an ideal victim. Meek, silent, emotional, weak. As if she was specially created so that others could take the upper hand over her.
She had absolutely everything to turn Hebert's life into hell, thereby satisfying her thirst for playing with prey. She knew everything about poor Taylor, thanks to her faithful snake Emma. Hess really liked to watch when Barnes strike Hebert into the most painful points with surgical precision, thrusting a poisoned dagger in her back.
The beauty of betrayal. This is what Stalker admired in Emma. She could not stop being surprised by that endless malice and gloating that Emma could generate when it comes to Hebert.
Madison was also in her "pride"... but she was only a secondary element,which if necessary, could be... replaceable. But yes, Clements was ... interesting. And if Barnes were a snake, beautiful in her treacherous deadliness, then Madison was a chameleon. Changing the color, merging with the environment, this girl was able to pick up and strike at the moment of maximum weakness, often falling at a critical point.
Hess, Barns, Clements.
Ebert called them "Trio". When she thought that no one hears her. One of the few statements in which Sophia agreed with this girl.
They drove Hebert into a corner, in the sweet anticipation of the moment when she would fight back to break her completely. Like animals circling over a dying muskrat.
And yet, when the muskrat began to fight back, they were not ready. However, everything went completely wrong from mere beginning
Strictly speaking, it was Clements idea, once again surprising Sophia with Madison's perverse ingenuity. Idea to shove Hebert into her own locker was quite old straght from the good 1950's. But fill her locker with carefully collected biological waste and then lock Hebert in there... that was really something new.
Something... if Sophia could have described the idea with the taste, it would be something sweet, with a slight bitterness.
But the plans remained plans. Reality... reality turned out to be much more arousing. Making her blood boil fro mere memory of that day.
For the best effect, they decided that it would be worthwhile to quiet down for a short while, to lie low, to hit Hebert at the moment when she would be completely relaxed. They all agreed with this plan.
But the prey was too alluring.
Emma could not resist and decided to bite off a piece of wounded flesh that was Hebert's fortitude. She somewhere dug up old photos of Hebert's mother, where she was dressed in the colors of Lustrum's followers, when she was still at large.
Strike turned out unexpectedly strong. Hebert had a natural hysteria and then she made an unforgivable mistake - the victim attacked the hunter. Barnes was never very sporty, and therefore she cannot seriously withstand Hebert's attack. Nothing too serious, more catfight, than an actual fight, but bruises and abrasions, as well as the general spoiled look, touched Barnes hard enough to teach Hebert a lesson once and for all. Seeing those bright eyes that Barnes was looking at her, Sophia simply could not resist.
Madison asked one of her many girl friends to fill Hebert's place with sticky, spoiled juice. When she went to the toilet, they began to act.
The original plan was to stun Hebert, beat her couple of times, before throwing her into the closet for a couple of hours, but in the process of execution, idea captured them srtongly that they expected. At some time Emma spotted some household items which later were misused. Or maybe not. In the eyes of Sophia Hebert was not much better than garbage. Yes, Hebert girl was already unconscious when they got to the most delicious part, but ...
Memories of Hebert's lifeless and indifferent to reality look will warm her soul for a long time. It was like an orgasm. Someone else's blood was once again on her hands, adrenaline from the realization that she was doing all of this under the nose of the PRT, a feeling of belonging. All this is in earnest agitated her blood.
Later, when it turned out that Hebert had fallen into a coma, Hess belatedly felt fear that the PRT could launch an investigation, but quickly calmed down and began to act. Forcing Barnes' father to defend school in court was easier than before, and when Hebert Sr. sued Emma, Stalker could not believe her luck at all. Everything worked out, Hebert disappeared, defeated and crushed, leaving real predators to feast on the bones.
This pleasant stream of memories, which Stalker indulged in the last few tens of minutes, was interrupted by the voice of the Armsmaster in the earpiece.
- All Wards - immediately return at the HQ. The cry of this creature may have something in common with that of Simurgh. We must be sure that it won't affect you. On arriving follow the M/S protocol instructions
Sophia gasped displeasure. The protocols were pain in the ass. Now she had to spend half a day in a cramped room under supervision, proving to everyone that no cape or power has affected her. Truly hemorrhoids.
The earpiece in the ear of the Stalker came to life once more, having pre-whined before that, showing that the transmission was only for her.
- Hess, on returning proceed straightly to me and then we go in a straight line to the Director.
A chill swept over Stalker's back. The sense of danger has intensified many times.
"May I know the reason, sir?"
"This is related to Miss Hebert case. She was you schoolmate."
The world around Hess froze.
She literally saw in reality how it would seem that separate events stand in one line, forming into the current situation.
Hebert were in a coma.
is a hospice.
Hebert could be here.
Hebert was here.
Hebert could trigger.
Hebert actually triggered
PRT identified her. Found a case. Raised archives. They found out about Barnes.
Almost torn thread turned into a steel line that pulls the whole truth to the surface. And if it really comes up ...
She can not return
She understood it clearly. Crystal clear. There was no plan, no strategy, just instinct. An instinct that even the most powerful of predators must sometimes follow.
Run
An hour after Shadow Stalker escape
Consciousness returned to her as abruptly as it had disappeared. The pain that had so slowly killed her was asleep.
When she opened her eyes, she faced a triangular, grinning skull, which seemed to opened in a silent scream.
She should have been frightened.
But there was no fear.
Just ... recognition?
Warmness.
Adoption
[Persona]
He took away his hands, before touching her temples and shook with his pale-white skull, making a strange sound like a gurgling. But for some reason she knew that he was glad that she was awake.
"Miss Hebert, since you have come to your senses, could you remove your ... Projection?"
