Chester Chapter 1 (OR: Tuxedo Passed Down Once More)
Monday, 3rd of January 2011
Hidden Base, Massachusetts State
Lights that had long-since been dormant flickered on inside a single room, one with a large screen on the wall. As the screen came to life, text started to scroll up the screen.
Booting up...complete!
Running scan on all systems...complete!
Defragmenting...complete!
Running scan on all linked subjects...complete!
{WARNING!}
Subject: [Little Owl] in danger!
Detecting life-signs of Master...nonexistent.
Searching emergency protocols for appropriate response...complete!
Determining most suitable agent for this situation...complete!
Booting up [Original Seven] System!
With that last sentence, the rest of the base came online. Light and power returned to the place which hadn't been touched by either in just under two years. One room in particular, with seven sarcophagus-shaped boxes, each about eight feet long and with various weapons emblazoned on them, started flickering with power more-so than the others.
A small terminal at the base of the room flickered into life.
-Original Seven-
*Dann of Thursday*
Boot up: A-OK
LZ-C: A-OK
Chester Vitals: HURT
A long arm connected to the sarcophagus marked with the symbol of the longsword and pulled it up and out of the room before lining it up to a docking bay in another room. Once connected, the sarcophagus opened vertically down the middle, revealing a large sword-shaped device made of white metal and and unknown blue substance, held in place by two grips on the center of the 'hilt' section. Two prongs descended from the ceiling of the room and settles to either side of the sword-like device, even as the wall where the sword blade was pointing at opened to reveal a long tunnel with a distant hint of daylight at the end.
Electricity crackled between the prongs and the machine between them as the grips disengaged and withdrew. Back at the small terminal, a single word appeared.
EXECUTION
With a roar, the sword-machine blasted down the tunnel, accelerating faster every second until, by the time it emerged from the mouth of the tunnel, it was almost enough to create a sonic boom, something which happened seconds later, as it was hurtled in a parabolic arc that ended in a single destination.
Minutes Later
Winslow High School
The impact in the car park shattered every window in the school, not to mention causing several dozen car alarms to go off. Those students and teachers who weren't screaming from being pelted with shards of glass or broken eardrums were gawping out the windows at the sword-like thing embedded in the tarmac outside.
Then it started to move.
The Sword floated up and out of the crater that it had formed in the middle of the car park and started to transform. It spun vertically and horizontally and suddenly, a humanoid figure landed on the tarmac. The large sword blade was now attached to its back, with the majority of its body being white armor, and the blue substance which otherwise made it up. On its shins and under-forearms, a red tube was present. Sitting at the base of its throat, just above the center of its chest, was what looked like a red and blue eye. Red eyes flashed as blue energy surged beneath the blue sections of its body. Clenched in its right hand was a long double-edged longsword, albeit a futuristic-styled one.
"Wake up, Dann!" a prerecorded female voice said from hidden speakers in the sword-bot as it touched down on the ground, one which one onlooker recognized. Emma Barnes' eyes widened in shock as she heard Annette Rose Hebert's voice for the first time since she had died just under two years ago.
Then the robot (that's what it had to be) was in motion, charging towards the school and destroyed the doors with a single diagonal slash of its weapon, disappearing inside. By this time, several people within the school were acting. Principal Blackwell had smashed the emergency panic button that the Protectorate had given her, and Sophia Hess was grabbing her emergency costume so she could engage the 'villain attacking the school', regardless of the fact that she wasn't supposed to costume up in school.
Taylor Hebert
I don't know how long had passed since those bitches had locked me in the locker, but all I wanted right now was to be let out! NOW!
I battered the locker door with my elbows, which was quite sore, but not as bad as one might think. I had always been stronger and more resilient than most people my age, even the boys. I just didn't flaunt it like a lot of people would have. Unfortunately, my strength had been a moot point when I had been thrown in here, mostly because I had just vomited my breakfast into my locker after seeing the filth that it was full of.
Sophia Hess...oh, I was going to break her when I got out of here! No more miss nice girl! Charlotte and Madison were gonna get it too! And if any of them had hurt Emma...!
In the next seconds, the locker door, which was surprisingly resilient for a school-issue piece of crap, was torn off and I was frantically stumbling out of the locker at long last, to be caught by a strong, unyielding hand.
I looked up to see an angular, blocky face, made of white armor and blue...stuff, a set of red eyes looking down at me expressionlessly. Embedded into the forehead was the symbol of a sword, with seven symbols in a circle around it.
"Wha...?" I croaked out, my voice hoarse from the screaming I'd been doing.
"Target located. Subject: [Little Owl] located." a voice I'd not heard in too damn long came from the obvious robot. Mom's voice. "Enacting retrieval subroutines and preparing to return to base."
I found myself in a bridal carry as the unknown robot flew (literally) down the corridors, through double doors which had been cut and smashed into splinters. I had no clue what was going on here, but I was exhausted after my adrenaline had run out, plus...it was using my mom's voice. I don't think she would have helped a villain, Lustrum to one side, so I was content on waiting to see what was going on as I recovered.
As the robot and I reached an intersection of corridors, an arrow shot at the robot from the direction I was facing...and was stopped by a shield of crackling energy that appeared.
"Attacker detected. Threat level: Negligible." Mom's voice noted idly. "Continuing with operations."
A roar of anger came from the source of the attack, Shadow Stalker, who started pursuing the robot while loading another bolt into her crossbow.
I was pretty confused by all this. Why was Shadow Stalker in my school? Didn't the Wards all go to Arcadia? More than that, the mindless bellow of aggression that she'd just let out sounded very familiar...
Just then, the robot brought me outside and I had to blink at the large crater in the middle of the car park. What the hell had caused that?!
Then I yelped as the robot transformed into a goddamn flying sword and kept me in place with a hardened harness of blue gel. I screamed for a moment before blacking out from the acceleration.
Later
Director Piggot's Office
"So, what you are telling me is that some kind of transforming robot or android attacked Winslow Highschool out of nowhere, kidnapped a student and then fled with her?" Emily Piggot asked, feeling a pain in her liver.
"Yes, a sophomore." Armsmaster replied, reviewing the report from the first-responder, Velocity, on his visor. "The circumstances from which the robot removed her from are...suspicious, to say the least, however. She was locked inside of her own locker, which was filled with...biological waste."
"Furthermore, Shadow Stalker broke regulations by hiding her costume on school grounds." Miss Militia added. "Technically, it isn't her Wards costume, but the one she used as a Vigilante, but the rules still apply."
"There do seem to be a lot of regulations being broken at Winslow." Emily noted unhappily. "The money that was supposed to be put towards improving the school has 'mysteriously' gone missing. Questions are being asked of several members of the staff there, and especially of Carrie Blackwell. Anyway, let's leave Shadow Stalker until later. Who was the kidnapped girl? Any connections to crime that might explain her kidnapping?"
"Her name is Taylor Hebert, a sophomore as I said earlier." Armsmaster stated. "Her father is the Union Representative of the Brockton Bay Dockworker's Association, while her mother is deceased as of two years ago, in an RTA. Of her parents, the only one with a direct, albeit small, connection to any villain is her deceased mother, Annette Rose Hebert. She was an unpowered member of Lustrum's movement, but left before the Castration Spree occurred. Daniel 'Danny' Hebert regularly fends of the local gangs from poaching members of the Dockworker's Association, but that's about it."
"Hmm..." Piggot frowned. "Lustrum didn't have any Tinkers in her group aside from Double-X, and she's dead. So we're left with no clue as to who built that robot. What were its capabilities and how would you rate them on the PRT Threat Scale?"
"It is able to transform between a humanoid form and a Sword form." Miss Militia noted. "Changer 4 for that. It can also fly in either form via jets, so Mover 4 as well."
"It wields a longsword or machete in humanoid form, so Striker 3 for that." Armsmaster noted. "As for Brute ratings...I'd like at least a three here, possibly a four. It also has some kind of energy field for defensive measures against ranged fire, so it gets a Shaker 4 rating for that."
"Noted." the Director said. "Now, I want Winslow Highschool turned upside down until we get to the bottom of whatever the hell has been going on there. The robot is obviously Tinkertech in nature, so we have jurisdiction. Find out everything you can. I want this situation in hand and resolved as quickly as possible."
"Yes, Ma'am." Armsmaster nodded and left immediately, Miss Militia following suit.
"Argh...damn." Piggot hissed as she felt more pain wracking her body. "More dialysis...is needed here, I think."
Elsewhere...
"Urgh..."
My head was pounding as consciousness slowly returned. Dang it, what the heck just happened to me?!
Memory returned and I scowled. The Bitch Trio of Sophie, Madison and Charlotte had locked me in my locker, which had been full of stuff I really didn't want to remember. I wasn't looking forward to washing my clothes of the stuff...I'd maybe have to burn them.
Wait...why is it I can't smell the filth on my clothes?
Opening my eyes, I looked around. I was in a room of plain metal, laid out on a bed...and wearing a tuxedo?! Seriously, a black pair of pants, a white shirt and a thin black tie around my neck...the only thing I was missing was the tuxedo jacket.
OK, I might not have the most feminine figure, but I was definitely a girl! Grrr...!
Getting up, I found socks and shoes next to my bed. Again, they were fancy shoes, the kind you'd ordinarily see someone keeping for special occasions. Not having any choice (unless I wanted to go barefoot), I put them both on.
Once I did, the door slid open with a hiss and arrows lit up on the floor. So whoever had rescued-slash-kidnapped me wanted me to play the follow-the-arrows game? Considering the alternative was to go wandering around in a potentially hostile base who-knows-how-large, there was little choice but to do so.
I didn't have to walk far, just a minute or so, when I arrived at my destination, a large room with a large screen and computer console, with a high-backed swivel chair in front of it, which is where the arrows were leading me.
Sitting down in the chair (after checking to see if it had any hidden restraints), I blinked as the screen lit up...and an image of my mother appeared on the screen. She was dressed in the same smart clothes she wore when she had worked as a Professor of English Literature at Brockton Bay University, and it made my heart ache.
"Little Owl...Taylor...if you are seeing this recording, then I am no longer alive." my mother said gravely. "I made this recording in the event that, should I die and something happen to you, one of my creations would rescue you and bring you here, to my base."
"Mom...?" I said in disbelief. "You were a Cape?"
"Knowing you Taylor, you just asked me if I was a Cape." the recording of my mother said, a small smile on her face. "Yes and no is the answer to that. I am a Parahuman, a Tinker to be precise, but I never went out and acted as a Cape. All Tinkers have a specialty, something which defines how and what their technology does. Mine is roughly defined as 'building machines and reconstructing humans to be able to use them'."
"Eh?" I blinked.
"Put even more simply, I'm primarily a cybernetics Tinker, and I can't very well reconstruct myself, now can I?" Mom said with a small laugh. Then she looked..uneasy? "Taylor, I should confess something. I Triggered as a Parahuman back in college, while I ran with Lustrum. My friend was stabbed, and I couldn't leave without letting her die, or stay without letting her die. My research calls the type of Tinker that I am as 'Multi-threaded', as I have two specialties, cybernetic enhancement and robotics. I Triggered again when you were four, and a thug stabbed you with a replica katana."
"I...I don't remember..." I choked out.
"A Second Trigger, as it is called, is usually a more traumatic version of a Cape's original Trigger. Seeing your little body covered in blood...I was literally the worst day of my life." Mom said, eyes shining with unshed tears at the memory. "I took you away to this base, under the excuse of going to a top hospital out of the State, once I recovered from the effects of my Second Trigger, and I...Reconstructed you."
Eh? What? Mom had...what?
"You recall that lightly-scarred area just below your diaphragm? That's the only physical evidence of the surgery you underwent to survive the sword wound." Mom's recording continued. "Unfortunately, receiving the wound and the accompanying surgery was so traumatic that you Triggered yourself. I was forced to implant a mental block in your brain to prevent you from accessing your powers, in order to hide you from the gangs and the government. The younger a Parahuman Triggers, the stronger their resulting power becomes. Even as a child, you would have been a prime target for the gangs, and I trust the government and its parahuman branch as far as I can throw a bus without using one of my robots."
I remembered the scar she was talking about; it was a circle with a lightning bolt of some kind through it. I always wondered how I got it. Geez, I was stabbed when I was four?! What the hell?! More than that, I've been a Cape since I was four, and Mom somehow BLOCKED my powers. What next?!
"From what I gathered, your powers 'pinged' off of mine while you Triggered, Taylor, meaning you have a Tinker power as well as whatever other powers you possess." Mom informed me. "Now that you have been placed in danger and I am not around to help protect you, I have no right to keep what is yours by right barred from you. On the console in front of you is a large red button. Should you wish to access your powers, press it. The block I placed on your powers will dissolve harmlessly and you'll be able to access them. Once that happens, this base is yours to do with as you please. It's not exactly something that could be placed in a will, but once the block in your brain is dissolved, you will become the new master of this base."
Mom looked into the camera, and it was like she was looking right at me. "I am so, so sorry that I'm not there with you and your father. I can't image how I died, but I would have never left either of you willingly. I can promise you that thoughts of you both were what my last thoughts were. I love you, Little Owl. There are similar recordings on this console describing everything I built here, including this base, Original Point. Live well, my beautiful, brilliant daughter. Bring your father here and show him the recording I made for him. That's my last request of you."
The screen blanked out, leaving me slumped down on the seat, suffering from information overload. My Mom had been a Parahuman. I'd almost been murdered as a kid and my Mom had operated on me herself, 'reconstructing me' to save my life. I was a Parahuman, albeit blocked off from my powers thanks to something my Mom had done.
And now I'd discovered that she'd left me her old base-slash-lab. When had she had the time to build it in between being a housewife, mother and an English Lit Professor?!
Pushing that aside for the moment, I stared down at the very obvious red button in the middle of the console, the one that would unlock my powers and make me the default homeowner of Original Point, which also applied to the robots (plural!) that were likely inside the place.
After thinking things over for a moment, I hit the button with one firm finger.
Then I fainted.
Later
Living Room, Hebert Residence
"Danny, how are you coping?" Alan Barnes asked as he shook his friend's hand sympathetically.
"I'm...not good, Alan." Danny admitted hoarsely. The tall, lanky man looked as if he hadn't washed or eaten since he'd been told of Taylor's disappearance.
Alan didn't blame him. If one of his children had been kidnapped out of nowhere like that, he'd scarcely be better.
"Emma's upset as well." the lawyer told Danny. "She's told me all about everything Taylor's been through at school since they started highschool, and I'm shocked. I swear, I'll have them begging for mercy by the time I'm through with them."
Taylor was like a third daughter to him and his wife, almost like a twin sister to Emma; she slept over at the Barnes' home, and vice versa, so often that the girls had to clarify which house they meant when they said 'home'. And Emma was just as important to Danny. It was because of Emma and the rest of the Barnes family that Danny hadn't collapsed into his grief after Annette died.
"Why...why didn't they tell me?" Danny said after Alan outlined the gist of what Taylor had been going through for a year.
"I think they were trying to protect you, Danny." Alan said gently. "You were falling to pieces after Annette died, and they didn't want you to worry. That's also why neither of them told me either. They didn't want to worry me or have me tell you about it."
Danny let out a laugh that could easily be mistaken for a sigh. "Some parents we are; our children trying to protect us when it should be the other way around..."
"I know..." the other man said with feeling. "Now, you are going to get washed up, changed and come over to my place. Zoe and Emma won't hear of you being alone at a time like this, and neither will I."
Despite Danny's feeble protests, he allowed Alan to push him into the bathroom to get washed up. Once he was properly dressed and no longer looking like someone who'd stayed up for a week straight, he left the house for Alan's home. He did leave a note in the kitchen for Taylor if by some miracle she returned home.
The house sat cold and empty for the rest of the night.