I was considering my next words carefully.
As irritated as I was with their obvious good cop bad cop act, I was more concerned with the subtle hints of wrongness I was getting from Chief Director Costa Brown. I hadn't been able to put my finger on it at first; she was just oddly strange.
It had taken almost ten minutes of a meeting that had grown progressively more boring before I realized what it was. She was too still.
Ordinary people moved slightly all the time, correcting themselves as their bodies moved in part because their muscles had a lower threshold of detecting deviations. They would shift out of position and their muscles would contract to correct that.
Costa Brown had none of that. She sat as still as a statue, her only movement being that of her chest rising up and down. She hadn't shifted positions once during the entire meeting. Was her chair that comfortable? Mine wasn't, and I had a shell of metal covering my butt under my skin.
I had a sudden realization. I'd never be able to go through airport security again, not and keep my secret identity. There were probably workarounds; maybe I could get a power to create a normal clone body.
The door burst open suddenly and we all tensed, even Costa Brown.
"Sylar and the Siberian are fighting by the docks," Vista said. She was breathless as though she'd been running. "Jack Slash looked injured according to witness accounts. Specs went off base, and the tracker in his suit has him in the same place the fighting was last seen."
Greg Vedar had been the fourth bane of my life, although in a different way than the trio. He'd made his attraction to me blatantly obvious, but he'd never done anything to protect me, not even tell a teacher about the locker. Despite that I didn't want him dead.
Other than Sophia and the Nine there wasn't anyone I wanted dead.
"It's been a good meeting people," I said. "But I have a tiger to tame and a serial killer to bring to heel."
"What makes you think you'll do any better than last time?" Armsmaster asked.
"I won't have a room full of heroes to protect," I said. The last time I'd been afraid of using the mirror universe because leaving for even a short period would have let him get to the rest of them. This time I wouldn't have that kind of limitation.
"Wait," Costa brown said, but I was already switching over to the mirror universe.
I switched quickly to my Vengeance outfit. I was long past the time when being underestimated was viable, so my best option was to be terrifying.
The prospect of facing the Siberian again was daunting. Facing Sylar again was also daunting. Facing the both of them at the same time was impossible except that they weren't working together...hopefully.
This could be a ruse to draw me out. If Sylar had joined the Nine they very well might be planning to ambush me the moment I stuck my head out.
Of course, if I started thinking like that I'd never bother leaving my bedroom. I'd be gathering powers forever, assuming I didn't become so paranoid that I thought every opportunity was a trap.
I punched my way through the plastic window of the room and a moment afterward I was airborne. I'd infused this costume with glass as well and this made flying easy.
A moment later I shifted into the regular world, once I was outside the range of the Protectorate force field.
I needed to pick up a cape with enhanced vision at some point, but for the moment hearing was enough. I could hear the sound of someone crashing through the wall of a building even though it was blocks away.
Getting there took me almost a minute. By the time I crested the top of a warehouse to see Sylar and the Siberian, it looked like Sylar wasn't doing very well. One of Sylar's arms had been ripped off, and the Siberian was beating him with it.
It was growing back with a startling speed, but it didn't look like Sylar was winning the fight.
The Siberian threw the arm away.
"Decapitate him!" I heard Jack's voice scream from somewhere in the warehouse.
A force field appeared over him, but it popped as it was struck by the Siberian. Sylar suddenly exploded outward, a hot wind blowing over me. The moment it hit me I felt my cells start to die. It was radioactive!
The warehouse didn't fare nearly as well. The walls collapsed and there was a scream from inside.
The Siberian flickered in and out of existence before reappearing.
My mind raced. Did she have a variation of my mirror universe ability, or was she a teleporter.
Was she a projection? If she was that meant that her controller was inside the warehouse and he'd been injured by the explosion.
The Siberian lunged forward, stabbing Sylar in the eye and ripping it out.
I jumped to the mirror universe and headed for the warehouse. If I could get the jump on them maybe I could get Bonesaw and Jack Slash and maybe even the controller of the Siberian before she could get to me. If I was lucky she'd decapitate Sylar and I'd be a double winner.
Flashing inside the warehouse, I saw Bonesaw working feverishly on a Jack slash who looked as though his brains were falling out of his head.
A middle aged man who looked like he hadn't been taking care of himself was throwing up, leaning heavily against the side of a van.
I could feel my own cells dying, although between Lungs regeneration and my own biokinesis I was going to be fine. They'd been five times closer than I had been to the source of the explosion; that meant that I'd gotten less than a hundredth of the initial radiation they'd been exposed to. The inverse square law was a lifesaver.
Furthermore I had a layer of metal under my skin. Most of the damage was done to my skin; my internal organs had been protected. They didn't have any protection other than whatever modifications Bonesaw had already made to them, and I suspected that she hadn't planned for radiation exposure.
They were dead people walking if Bonesaw didn't come up with a cure quickly.
It looked as though she was still moving even though the man was visibly dying. Maybe she'd done something to herself that protected her better than the others. It's what I would have done had I been her.
It didn't matter. I appeared next to Jack and grabbed his leg.
I tried to take his power but it was too late; he was already dead. Bonesaw was still working on his for some reason, so I grabbed her by the arm and I pulled.
Her power was suddenly mine. I could understand things about the body that I had never understood, and the path to doing amazing things with my biokinesis was laid out before me.
She stared at her hands and she screamed.
This alerted the dying man by the van. If he really was the Siberian's projector then I needed to hurry. He didn't look like he was doing well.
I raced toward him only to feel a tremendous impact as something hit me with more force than a freight train. I flew across the room, smashing all the way through the wall on the other side of the warehouse.
The Siberian bounded after me, but she wasn't up to her usual standards. She would stop sometimes, looking as though she wanted to throw up.
I switched to the mirror universe and I raced inside.
Bonesaw was sitting on the floor, looking as though she didn't know what to do. The man had crawled under the van, not that that was going to make a difference at all.
I flashed forward, and as the Siberian tried to grab me from behind I shadowed through her fingertips.
There was nothing she could do to me if I didn't want to be harmed, and right now I had no one I had to protect. It would take the PRT time to organize themselves and get here, assuming that they bothered to come at all, considering that the Siberian was out of their league.
I became solid again, this time grabbing the bottom edge of the van and heaving. The Siberian's claws pierced me in the side, shredding my internal organs.
It stared at me, its expression unreadable, almost as though it was waiting for my expression of fear or pain before it ended me forever. It'd claws were around my heart.
I knew, however that Lung's powers would let me survive even without my heart for a time; long enough to survive, especially if I managed to stay conscious long enough for Bonesaw's knowledge to amplify my biokinesis.
Its eyes widened as it looked down at my hand, which was resting on it's creator's leg. A moment later it popped out of existence.
Hearing the sound of Armsmaster's motorcycle approaching, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed quickly. I'd have to replace it after this; metal absorbed radiation and became radioactive itself. I'd have to eliminate the metal under my skin and replace it with new metal, which was now a trivial matter with my new knowledge.
"Yes?" Armsmaster's voice said.
"Stay away," I said. "Sylar triggered a small nuclear explosion and the area is covered in lethal amounts of radiation. The Nine are dead. I haven't checked on Sylar yet."
"Even the Siberian?" he asked, sounding surprised.
"She was a projection," I said. "Her master is dead."
He cursed under his breath, probably at the number of Capes who would now be alive if they'd only known the Siberian was a projection.
"Will you be all right?" he asked.
"I was further from the blast," I said, "And a combination of regeneration and other abilities are helping to deal with the damage."
"Find Sylar and deal with him," he said. "Do that and we can call today a huge success."
I nodded.
I could hear him moving feebly outside. He wasn't dead.
Rising to me feet I crushed my phone in my hand. Irradiated now it'd be a danger to anyone I got close to. I would probably need a decontamination bath; I knew exactly how to do it now for some reason.
A glance at the little girl showed her slumped against Jack's body. Whatever protections she'd had against radiation had finally failed, or maybe she'd just been keeping herself going through willpower.
Stepping out into the sunlight, I saw that Sylar was struggling to his feet. He was missing an arm and a leg, and while they were growing back it looked like it wasn't happening fast enough. He looked as though he was struggling to hold onto consciousness.
I thought about taking his power, but the risk of his Hunger was too much for someone with my power. Besides, if my experience with Victor was any guide I'd only get his base power, not any of the many powers he'd copied.
The risk wasn't worth the reward.
A massive vice seemed to grab me as his telekinisis took hold once again. Even though I was a little ramped up from my interaction with the Siberian I still couldn't move.
I switched into the mirror universe and the pressure went away. I ducked back inside the warehouse and I moved to the wall on which Sylar was leaning.
Returning to the real world, I formed a massive spike with Hookwolf's power. I could hear his heartbeat on the other side of the wall; undoubtedly he could hear mine as well. However unlike me he didn't have enhanced speed; by the time he reacted it was too late.
Shoving the spike through the wall I felt it impact something fleshy.
Cautiously I moved around to the door. Sylar's regenerative abilities were phenomenal and if I'd only hit him in the shoulder I had no doubt he could attack me.
He was stuck to the wall, the spike going straight through his head. It was horrifying seeing a spike emerge from his eye, but it had had to be done. Fighting Sylar on an equal basis was stupid. He'd been highly successful by attacking from the shadows; if he could do it I could do it as well.
Besides, attacking after someone was injured from another fight was a classic technique of many predators in the animal world. The fact that I was a little disappointed about not getting to really unleash my full powers and see what I could really do was overshadowed by the fact that I was massively relieved to have the problem he represented gone.
He'd killed Crystal and now I'd killed him. Justice was served.
I waited for almost two minutes, but his previous rate of regeneration had completely stopped. I reached forward and snapped the spike off the wall, then winced. His body was still radioactive and the rate at which my body's cells started dying increased at a massive rate as I approached his body.
I stepped quickly away, aware that I was going to have to do some serious work on my body or I would have problems from radiation poisoning. Fortunately Bonesaw's powers had all sorts of knowledge about how to deal with radiation.
In the meantime...I needed a way to move the bodies. Making the PRT come for them in the middle of a hot zone wasn't going to make anyone happy.
Experimentally I summoned the Siberian. I froze as she appeared.
She shared superficial similarities to the woman I had just vanquished forever. She still had black and white stripes all over her body and she was still completely naked. That was where the similarities ended, however.
She was taller than the old Siberian had been, and more willowy. The sadistic look that had been on the Siberian's face wasn't on hers, replaced with something that was far more upsetting for me.
This Siberian looked like my mother.
I stared at her in horror. Completely nude she would be a declaration to the world of my identity, assuming that everyone knew she was a projection. Even if they didn't, my father would never forgive me for parading a nude version of my mother around for the entire world to gawk at.
The look of sympathy on her face was the worst of all. It was exactly the kind of look Mom had given me when I was hurting.
I dismissed her with a gesture. There was no way I could use her unless it was absolutely necessary.
Crusader's ghosts appeared. Apparently they could handle once living flesh as easily as currently living flesh because they bundled up the bodies of Jack Slash, Bonesaw, Siberian's controller and Sylar and placed them in the van. I put the van in neutral and I used Rune's power to push the van several blocks to the edge of the territory.
I saw Armsmaster's motorcycle in the distance. I used Stormtiger's powers to carry my voice to him.
"This van has the bodies of the Nine and Sylar. Sylar's in particular is highly radioactive, so special care will have to be taken while autopsying them. This entire area needs to be cordoned off for a block in all directions. I'm radioactive myself, so I need to take measures. I will see you all when I can."
Feeling the cells of my skin dying I realized that I needed to get away. Radiation damage was cumulative, and while the metal under my skin had initially protected me it was now radioactive. With time it might even overwhelm Lung's regenerative abilities.
I switched over to the mirror universe and I returned to the sight of the original blast. This area was already contaminated, so dropping more contaminated materials in the area wouldn't make much of a difference.
I flashed fire, burning my clothing completely off. I could choose whether my clothing was protected or not, and this time I chose not. My clothes would be a danger to myself and everyone around me.
The particles of my clothes would be dangerous as well, but this entire area was going to be off limits for a while, at least until a tinker did something to reverse the effects.
I forced the metal under my skin to the surface, where I allowed it to drop to the ground, replaced piece by piece with new metal. I considered simply peeling my flesh and skin off and letting it regenerate on its own. That would solve my decontamination problems although I would need to do the same with my hair.
I wondered if my sudden lack of concern for ripping my own face off had something to do with Bonesaw's powers. I briefly considered adding cybernetic implants, but I couldn't conceive of any that I couldn't do better for myself with biokinesis.
Finally deciding that tearing my skin off wasn't all that much worse than pulling the metal out I did just that, leaving a pile of radioactive flesh that should have been disgusting but that instead I found vaguely interesting. I had some ideas about what I could have done with that flesh, assuming it hadn't been radioactive.
I'd need to build some mechanical spider assistants of course; more hands meant faster surgery after all. Maybe I could grow myself extra arms; I could always hide them under a jacket until I needed to use them.
The possibilities were endless!
I could even use it on my allies; Armsmaster seemed like a practical sort of fellow who wouldn't mind a few enhancements. I wouldn't mind getting a look at whatever enhancements Bonesaw had done to the bodies of the Nine. I'd have to ask the PRT for copies of the autopsies they'd already done.
I could probably make Armsmaster faster and stronger even without his armor. I could reduce his need for sleep and even retard the aging process a little.
There might be others in the Protectorate who shared a similar practical mindset. I'd decided once that I couldn't take their powers, but no one said that I couldn't improve them.
I might even be able to take a cue from the Travelers and create clones of the heroes who had powers I wanted. I could take the powers from the clones guilt free, especially if I made the clones without minds.
Of course, the only way I knew how to make clones took time to mature. There was a cape in Boston, Blasto who I'd heard knew of a faster way.
Surely the PRT wouldn't mind me asking members of the Protectorate for a cheek swab in return for my assistance.
When I was done and my skin grew back, everything felt clean and new. I carefully stepped back from the radioactive pile of refuse. I made sure to move a couple of blocks away before I summoned my nice clean Gamble outfit from the pocket dimension.
I reappeared in the real universe.
It was a relief that Sylar was dead. No one came back from a three foot spike projecting through their brain. It would be smooth sailing from now until Leviathan.
